Sinéad

I was fortunate enough to get Sufjan Stevens tickets this week, right before it sold out (he’s playing in the Olympia in November). I’m lucky I remembered that the tickets were going on sale, as the heat this week has really melted my brain.

Thankfully though the “heat wave” has finally begun to subside. Waking up on Tuesday at 8am to find it’s already 22′c is not pleasant, apparently it was the hottest day of the century (so far), with temperatures reaching 30′c here in Dublin. The horror. This kind of freakish weather always make me ponder global warming, I was so worried in fact that I actually rejoiced when it started to rain yesterday.

Since I’m having a rant about Ireland I might as well mention the CIA World Factbook. Which contains various facts about every country in the world, the most interesting fact on Ireland that I found was: as of 2003 the annual electricity generated in Ireland was 23.41 billion kWh. That figure is the lowest when compared to other European countries.

It’s no wonder that we import so much gas, and why the state agency Forfas is promoting Nuclear Power – which is actually insane considering how radioactive the Irish Sea already is because of 1 Nuclear Power plant, that isn’t even IN Ireland.

Nuclear Power is like a “get rich quick scheme”, it seems like an obvious and easy solution to a country’s energy crisis, but all get rich quick schemes involve some kind of illicit activities. If only someone could wake up and realise that we are sitting on a gold mine of electrical power, and it comes from the 4 elements that nature provides for us: wind, water, earth and sun. We’ve plenty of those, so why not use them? Yes, the initial setup costs would be expensive, but the after-care costs of Nuclear Power are far greater.

Another interesting fact that I read in the CIA World Factbook: the ethic groups residing in Ireland are; Celtic and English. I think this needs a dramatic overhaul, from personal experience working in Dublin, almost 80% of my customers are neither Celtic OR English.

Oxegen was good fun. It rained from the moment we got there until late Sunday afternoon, but it didn’t stop us enjoying ourselves. I spent a considerable amount of time inside my tent on Saturday because of the rain, but as usual, Jen kept my spirits high. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be stuck in a tent with. We caught the Strokes (who I think were better the first time I saw them play) and the Who (I was surprised by how many of their songs I actually know) on Saturday, and a few bands on Sunday – the highlight being Placebo and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I didn’t enjoy camping this year, because of the rain and high winds. Next year I’m just going to get a taxi home, seeing as my house is only 20 minutes away. Camping is definitely going on my hate list. Camping in Ireland is just too unpredictable. On Sunday morning I was horrifed to find many tents (and rain covers) had blown away in the wind, I was just thankful that I was paranoid enough to really pin ours down. Most of the pegs broke and the tent was (sadly) unsalvagable, and I left it there. It’s probably a pile of ash somewhere in Punchestown.

So… I learnt something at the weekend – I’m getting old.

I really missed my home comforts – like dry clothes! We bought new jumpers there, surprisingly cheap too. Another thing that made me realise I’m getting old – an argument I had with some “men” selling Meteor Ponchos – which are actually given out free at the beginning of the festival, they were selling them for €5. I pointed it out to one of these “men” and got verbally abused, by a grown “man”. Now that I think of it, I also had a gripe with a stall there that sold me a pint of milk for €4. I always had the understanding that selling milk at a premium is actually illegal.

GOD! I really am getting old.

I didn’t get the job in O2 Retail. I was “shortlisted” but based on my references I wasn’t the person they chose to fill the position. I’m disappointed, but I have started working more hours in work, with some extra hours in the Ilac Shopping Centre (which is disgusting!) Ohwell… at least I’ve something to look forward to…

Jen and I are heading off to Oxegen this weekend.

The line-up last year was actually amazing – Green Day, Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Queens of the Stone Age, Keane etc., I had an amazing time. This year the line-up isn’t half as good, only because I’ve seen most of the headline bands already – James Brown, The Strokes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and Placebo. It shall be fun and frolics in the campsite though, and there are a few bands I’m really looking forward to seeing for the first time – The Feeling, We Are Scientists and Artic Monkeys for instance.

Right now I’m trying to figure out how to fit camping gear for 4 people into a 2 door sports car. How very annoying. But driving there is far better than having to break your back carrying camping gear to a bus stop. Horray! for Christine who shall be our chauffeur for the weekend, she has even promised a trip into Naas for breakfast on Sunday morning. How delightful!

I ordered a gigantic 20inch pizza last night, as my house was full of drunken people that were in need of nourishment. It was supposed to be delivered in 30 minutes, after 40 minutes the delivery man rang me for directions to my house, he sounded like he was close, so I went outside to have a look out for him.

While outside I noticed this rather expensive looking car, driving backwards around the corner, driving backwards towards me, driving… BANG! right into my neighbour’s car. It was only when the guy driving the car jumped out and said “Pizza! I’ve got your pizza!” that I realised it was the pizza delivery man. He said he would “Leave a note” and I gave him far too much money and just ran away, into my house.

Last night was… well… interesting.

This morning I took a look at the car, not much damage was done, and the guy was true to his word, he left his name and number. But I’m still annoyed at myself for accidentally giving him a HUGE tip… he didn’t just crash his car into my neighbour’s car… the pizza was late!

Happy July, by the way. I’ll miss you June.
Below is the poster I made for an upcoming showcase gig for a friend of mine, Stacey Kavanagh. Check out the gig, she’s a great singer, piano player and songwriter.

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This term “World Cup Widows” really annoys me. It’s being used as a marketing ploy to advertise an arangment of alternatives to watching football, and is obviously directed towards hetrosexual women who have partners that will be enjoying the World Cup. It reinforces the male-female stereotypes with regards to sports, and encourages partners to spend time apart, rather than attempt to share in eachothers past-times.
How depressing.

Yesterday, I turned 22. And I felt as though I’d come to a dramatic junction in my life, where things could either go downhill very quickly, or slowly continue upwards.

Within the last year, a major change occured in my life. I met the woman of my dreams, which encouraged me to finally wake-up and realise that I really wanted to progress academically, in order to fullfill my desire to be successful professionally, to move out, settle down and eventually start a family of my own.

Love is a powerful thing.

Over the last year, I worked harder than I have ever before. When I look back upon my Leaving Certificate, I realise how foolish I was. In the end I was very lucky to gain a place in a college course that has given me the opportunity to combine my two favourite subjects: humanity and technology. In 1st year I was enthusiastic and did very well in my exams, but circumstances led me to neglect my stuides, and take my place in college for granted. During 2nd and 3rd year I did not push myself hard enough, which in the end has made my final year a difficult one. I had to work harder this year, to make sure my overall degree mark was sufficient enough to allow me to one day continue my studies and eventually get my Ph.D.

Today, I recieved my college exam results. I was so shocked by them that I had to call my course co-ordinator to confirm the words sitting in Firefox. I got a GPA of 3.19 for my final year, and added with my 3rd year marks, I have been awarded a Second Class Honours Grade 1 (2.1). I am now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Psychology Applied To Information Technology.

A 2.1 was important for me to achieve, as it gives me the ability to persue a masters degree course in almost any area of Psychology that I desire. Currently, I have my eye on a sweet little number that is actually more Computer Science based: A Master of Science in Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing at Trinity.

Now all I have to do is save or borrow €4000. I’m planning on using this year to save, so far it’s not exactly going to plan, but once I get myself a new job I should be well on my way to getting myself into a nice masters course, and then someday perhaps I will lecture… or maybe, get a lovely job at somewhere like Google.

So, in conclusion… the “dramatic junction” I’m standing at right now is steep, but I’m very much looking forward to the climb ahead of me. Knowing I’ll have a woman like Jen by my side, and such wonderful friends and family, gives me confidence that I can succeed in this weird and wonderful life.

Yes, I know that IS a long subject line… it’s the title of my research which has been printed and hard-bound, and handed into the college, and I’ve presented it at the PSI Student Congress. It’s all finally over and done with. So, if anyone is interested in what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months…. read on.

The Memory Recall Of Pop-Up Advertisements Amongst Experienced Internet Users:

The aim of my study was to examine the relationship between Internet experience and memory retention of pop-up advertisements. Participants completed an online survey about their Internet experience, during which a pop-up advertisement appeared. Participants then completed a paper-pencil test examining their recall of the pop-up. This study found no relationship between experience and memory retention, online. However, low memory recall rates of the pop-up advertisement were found. This study also found that the more experienced a user becomes online the more likely they are to use pop-up blocking software. Implications of this research suggest Internet users learn to actively attempt to remove pop-ups from their surfing experience, that pop-ups are ineffective forms of advertising online, and that online advertisers should focus on alternative forms of advertising.

For the completed dissertation you can download a PDF version here or view the online version here.

There’s a couple of things I wish I could have done this year: use the eye-tracker on my participants, test the stress levels of participants using the net with pop-up blocking software and then without. But alas, doing either of those things would have required twice as much work by myself, and I just didn’t have the time or equipment. Maybe for post-grad.

Mozilla Firefox has a number of features that make it far superior to it’s Microsoft counterpart Internet Explorer (IE). The important ones for the geeks amongst us are the added security features and excellent pop-up blocking, however, it’s stand out feature for me has always been tabbed browsing.

Tabbed browsing allows you to open multiple webpages in a single browser window, instead of your taskbar being cluttered by multiple IE windows. Tabs allow you to quickly flip back and forth between webpages, and drag and drop open tabs to keep related pages together. It doesn’t just un-clutter your taskbar, it uses less memory and is actually faster than IE at opening webpages. Tabbed browsing is not unique to Firefox, it features in other browsers that are not IE, yet, out of all the alternatives to IE, Firefox is a clear winner due to it’s intuitive interface, customisability and accessibility features.

Today, I discovered a preference in Firefox that I had overlooked and yes, this might sound inconsequential, but if like myself you’re getting to grips with the latest Internet craze, RSS Feeds, you might benefit from reading this.

Clicking links within my RSS Reader (I’m currently trying out the Beta version of the Yahoo! RSS Reader that has been embedded in the Yahoo! Mail interface… but that’s a whole other story…) kept opening new Firefox windows, rather than tabs, unless I right-clicked and chose open in new tab. My error was forgetting to right-click, and yet, I continued to make this error. Upon visiting the Mozilla Help: Tips and Tricks webpage I discovered a lovely feature to Firefox that allows you to open external links (opening new webpages, that usually open in a new window no matter what browser you use) in a tab.

Open external links in new windows or tabs:

If another program wants to display a web page in the default browser, Firefox will reuse an existing window by default, which means that it will navigate from a page you might be reading. To stop this, Go to Tools > Options… > Tabs, and under Force links that open new windows to open in: choose a new tab.

Simple, right? Excellent? Yes. I am now happily reading RSS Feeds without annoying myself… too much.

I just started investigating the features of the new version of Winamp. Version 5.21. Available to download for free from www.winamp.com

I’ve always been a huge fan of Winamp, but more recently I had managed to convince myself that I would have to use Windows Media Player 10 in order to update my Zen. That is until Winamp 5.21.

If you own a Zen – download this new version. It gives you the ability to create playlists in Winamp and then move them to your Zen. It’s faster at transfering files then WMP 10. It will tell you when a file in incompatible with your Zen (like .ogg), so you can go do some conversions… for those of you familiar with downloading torrents, occasionally your files turn out to be .ogg rather than .mp3, which can be annoying with WMP 10, as it doesn’t recognise .ogg, at all! wont even play .ogg… and I digress… but above all the features of Winamp, THIS has always been my favourite the “Remove missing files from media library” option, hallelujah for that! there is nothing more annoying that re-organising your music library only to find that WMP has decided there is 2 of everything on your computer and you must manually rectify this.

For those of you reluctant to switch from WMP – let me tell you this – it’s faster than WMP, it will run in the background while you have 10 other pieces of software running, and it will not crash and burn on you. It looks cooler too, has lovely colour schemes and skins, skins that you can create yourself. It’s free, so try it. What’s the worst that could happen? Oh, and did I mention that the free version will Rip and Burn CDs? and play all your lovely videos too.

Winamp. It’s just cool.