christmas

Finish work for the Christmas holidays, delighted. The last two weeks have been very tiring on the body and mind. Christmas is great, i really enjoy it. check out my tree! I can't wait for Christmas this year, although it hasn't felt like Christmas yet, probably will in the morning or something. I still have to get one of my sisters something and get stuff from work then I am done.
I have been invited to go to the Leopardstown Races by a very good friend of mine on St.Stephens day which is going to be a) great, b) messy or c) all of the above. Then some well earned relaxing at home is on the cards.

Roll on the new year. Going to be working New years eve and day, doesn't bother me as i will be able to watch Jools Holland's Hootenanny!
Love it. This has been my tradition for the last five years and every year has been better and better. I really recommend staying in with a few friends and relaxing in front of the tv instead of paying silly amounts of money to get to places, to get into places, to get drinks and to get home.

Last night I was at the Have Heart show last night. Best local show i have ever been to. Best show i have been to in a while. Well done to all the guys that put it on, it was unreal.

On that note i hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and an enjoyable New year.

looking/lurking

I love just watching stuff. I was just outside having a smoke, usually in my house we smoke outside at the back but sometimes we might go to the front. Lately I have been going to the front. So just there a car drove past, I was watching it cause it was similar to a car i used to drive, it pulled into the drive across the road then reversed and pulled up to the opposite path. The driver gets out and lets this kid out. He was in karate gear and legs it to the house two doors up. rings the bell and waits for the door to open. While he's waiting the driver of said car opens and closes the same door he let the kid out of 3 times, he's just waiting for the kid to get into the house, nice of him. Door opens and the kid goes running in saying "I'm came second!" That's cool. finished my smoke and went in.

I have been going out the front lately for two reasons. The ashtray is full at the back and i have no one to smoke with most of the time. With my girlfriend back in Sweden and our other housemate living with her boyfriend in their new apartment, it's myself and my other other housemate. We both work for the same company but in different stores, which also means different schedules. From when the two other girls moved out it was three days before i saw my current housemate for any longer than 5 minutes. The house is quieter. That said i haven't been home for any real length of time. I wake up and go to work, then come home and go to bed. Late shifts suck but they don't make that much difference to me. I only really don't like it when i am on a late shift and then on an early shift the next day.

I have had the laugh for the last week. Had a solid practice on Saturday followed by Prevomania, (which was the most interested i have ever been in my life in sport!) went to see Ceremony on Sunday night, best gig i have ever seen in Dublin. Had a reasonably amount of fun in work with things like walkie talkies!! and staff appreciation starting. It's good. Have to wait a few days before i can spend my hard earned cash. Play the credit card system!

Google and Apple are making my life easier. Got a new phone, nokia 6300. That's a big pic for a phone. Thanks to my last phone i have most of my contacts saved on my computer and because of iSync the all are on the phone with little hassel. I did have to get some code and paste it into the iSync file because this phone is one of the few that dosen't automatically sync with iSync. Thank you Google for this site. I have been using Google Calender for a while now, nice to have my hours written down somewhere and to sort out practice time between four people and 6 to 8 bands. Then with my phone being synced with Address Book, iCal can be synced as well. So my Google calender is now syncing to my iCal which syncs with my phone. Sorted. I'm a nerd, i know.

Then Google Reader is another Google product i would recommend. It has everything posted by the blogs i follow there for me to read. Which is also the reason I am trying to use capitals where nessessary. It does make it more pleasing on the eyes.

.

today is not a good day.

it's too early

Santa was at Dundrum town centre this evening and now the Christmas lights are on! the guys in the coffee shop i go to had to make at least 1000 hot chocolates to give out to the crowd. as did TGI Fridays (got me some chicken salad and a pizza) 6 days after halloween is a bit early.
definitly was a good 1000/1500 people there. bit strange.
i was at work only for a bit, head honchos were over to discuss the christmas prototype and stuff. was a hard to hear what they were saying with the arrival of Santa at the same time!

i think ages ago i was talking about guitar hero, i'm shit but i finally finished it, on easy! i wanted to work my way through the game as training for myself since i have very little control over my little finger. it's on the Wii which has been push to the wayside because of the Xbox. haven't had a computer game week this week, been working late shifts or practicing after early shifts. the prestige is coming on well. third song done. has taking much shorter time than the previous songs which is good. i think its a sign of us understanding what we are trying to say quicker. now to write a bit more and do some shows!

my girlfriend is gone to sweden for the weekend to go job hunting. she's going to move back there which is really shit. so anyone looking to rent a double room in dundrum, hit me up!? it's an awesome house with a great garden for summertime and it'd be me and my housemate from scotland who runs the other Urban Outfitters in temple bar.

with all the lads talking about this game, really makes me want to get it. i have Gears 1 which i have only played for a bit but it's really good. GTA took over from everything. was very tempted to get a pre order today. going to have see if i actually have any money before i do though.

was in ikea in belfast yesterday and the wouldn't take my laser card because i don't have the back signed. i had to sign for my stuff because they don't take pin codes for laser cards there for some reason. so went to take out cash and the atm said "you have no funds" so i don't know if i have money because none of the transaction i made yesterday have gone through online yet. i'm in money limbo!!! back to ikea, it's class!!! i want to get so much stuff there, before furniture would not have interested me in the slightist but ikea has made me want lots of stuff!

i'm pretty easily influence by the sound of the post! i want a new external hard drive as my 500gb is full. hook me up!


go to this: (i am going)

to a good home

i was dog walking yesterday. it was so much fun. my girlfriend found out about this pound that need volunteers so we went to find it and to see if she could volunteer. its in Ashtown, in between Cabra and Finglas. it is a dog pound but the guy said that they keep the dogs longer than the five that other pounds keep dogs. i thought that was really bad about the other pounds.

i haven't had a dog in years, we used to have one at my house at home until he started biting people. it really good to take a dog out and run/walk around this field but it was really sad having to bring the dogs back into the kennels.

i want a dog but it would just be cruel to have him at this house even with our big lawn, nobody is here during the day.

productive

i hate being non productive. i like to make use of my time. today was not one of those days. slept in till 1, watch tv till 6, played guitar hero till half 7 and have been reading blogs for the last hour and a half.
I'm going to have a cigarette after typing this. it's playing on my mind that they are now €8 (John Player Blue) i bought a pack the other day and a coffee and that was €10. now i buy about 6 to 7 packs a week and at least 8 to 10 coffees a week. along with my daily panini, that's roughly €140 a week on consumables (necessities), that's more than my monthly rent!!!

It's going to be a long week.

good reading

so the last two days in work i had to help sort out the network as it wasn't connecting properly. this was sweet as i was able to go and mess around on the internet in work. that was great. on the other hand i feel like i haven't really done anything this week in work to do with work. but it has been quite so nothing major.
playing loads of GTA this week, which has probably taking me away from other things, like fucking up my sleeping pattern (again) playing drums, using reason and ableton and playing my Wii.
oh well.

i hope my girlfriend finds a new job soon. i think she's going stir crazy in the house or walking around town to interviews and talking to recruiters.

currently watching: season 4 entourage.
get into that show, it is amazing.

remember to write this down

so as always i haven't wrote in this in ages! so what's going on?
recently my girlfriend quit her job. has been searching for a new one for a good month now. not good. the prestige is going well, new guitarist, some recorded material and a new practice space. (prestige debut in it tomorrow!) work is ... work. basically could be better but christmas is on its way and should improve and if not it'll get worse!!!

i got a XBOX (cheers GOC). i have a Wii which is great but i really wanted GTA IV. here's the set up! my gamertag is : dumbsticks
i haven't really mentioned gaming here before so here's the run down. first console Atari 2600, bring on centipede, what a game!! myself and my dad just played it all the time. next SEGA Master System II with Alex the kidd built in!! that with most Sonic games, Tecmo World cup soccer 93 (didn't make any sence) indiana jones and a few other games. this was followed with the SEGA Mega Drive II, again with most Sonic Games, Sensible Soccer, Mortal Kombat I, II, 3 and and a few others. also at this time we had an Atari 1040 st, an excuse of a PC. i made the mistake of selling the Mega Drive. i really shouldn't have as it was a class console, but i was fortunate one day while working with my dad. we were at this guys house and he was throwing out loads of stuff including his son's Mega Drive with a Mega CD AND a 32X cartrigde plus a whole heap of games!!! best find and got it for nothing!!! at that stage i did have a PlayStation but i wanted to go back to my roots! had Virtual Fighter on Mega CD and on the PlayStation i had virtual fighter 4 and they were the same speed, ridculous. the addition of the Mega drive was kind of like i step forward, 2 steps back. i had (in order of purchase) a PlayStation, a N64, a PlayStation 2 and then a Mega Drive with Mega CD and 32x. N64 was amazing for MarioKart and Golden Eye. Pretty much the last three years of school were those games. i have left all these consoles bar the Ps2 and the N64 at my home. the Ps2 at the moment is working as a better dvd player than my girlfriends dvd player in the other room and the N64 is gathering dust but is still connected up behind the Wii and Xbox! last Christmas i got the Wii. hardest year ever to get a Wii and ends up having three of them in my house! i got one for my dad, my dad got one for me and my mom got one for my little sister. fun times!! and now added to the collection is the XBOX 360. (it may be a while before i write anything here!)

so back to whats new, we were selling this giant bean bag in work. really expensive like €200 for it. we had four in stock. didn't sell one. sale price, €119.99 sold none. €99.99 sold one. €49.99 sold one. €24.99 sold two! we got one. it's ridiculously big!!!! we have two couches in the living room and we had some space between them and the tv. now we don't. it's class tho. it's my housemates, she bought it because she wants to be able to have stuff to bring with her when we leave this house.

so far she has this bean bag, a barbeque and a set of three plates (i broke one the other day). we just renewed our lease for the house last month, can't believe it has been a year since we moved into here. and it's now over a year since i moved to the dundrum store.

shortest year ever.

mini adventures and slaying dragons!

when you live in Ireland you automatically become a tour guide. that is probably true everywhere else but it comes across that most of the time we know our tourist stuff ourselves. given, i have done more tourist stuff (mostly as a guide)in Ireland than anywhere else across 20 odd years.

anyway two friends over from Sweden.

Tourist thing number one: go out to an Irish pub. so Brogans on Dame street, proper old man bar.
Tourist thing number two: drive to Galway. went to Galway, had a hotel booked which was really nice and at a great price and pretty much stayed there. drove out to Salthill and looked at the sea, and walked around town the day after. nice but not an effective way to experience Galway.

Tourist thing number three: find a castle. Signs and Gps said castle 7 mins away, not a castle, was a big house and not really that big. then decided that "King Johns Castle" in Limerick sounded good. Its not a bad castle but its more so a centre for a castle, weird little films and voice overs all over the castle and you can't walk around on the walls but you attempt to hang yourself. we had decided that we were going to try and see Charleville Castle on our way to Galway but i hadn't been told that and drove straight past the exit for Tullamore. it had then been decided that we'd go there on the way back.
left Limerick and went to Tullamore, drove through the forest and went to the castle. i had been there before and all we did was look at the outside, so we proceeded to do the same again, except the main door was open. there isn't really any tours of this place as they are still restoring it, but we look in and heard some one coming down towards the door to close it. we asked if there was a tour or anything and he kinda laughed and said no, he then brought inside and gave us a tour. it was class. it was strange but real nice seeing the old rooms with all the old furniture and paintings and a TV. also he brought us into a library, after showing us the stairs which are meant to be haunted, and left us in there. loads of real old books, ghost hunting books and skulls. he came back and then showed the secret passage way through the bookcase. overall class guy and amazing castle.
CastlePalooza helps this place be restored along with a few other events and charitys. there is no government funding for this which is strange.

i had to go to work after this adventure, which is where i was slaying dragons.

new term

i always feel in September that it's time to go back to school/college or that it's a new year. like new years day just doesn't have any resonance with me cause in my head my year goes from September to August. even though i left college 4 years ago. weird.

work is still "open all hours". every time i say that i kinda wish Ronnie Corbett or David Jason would just show up and say something. at the start of august we got a memo from the centre telling us the Christmas opening times!!! CHRISTMAS OPENING TIMES IN AUGUST!!! i hate retail for that reason, back to school 29 seconds after leaving cert results come out, christmas is getting earlier and earlier! anytime between august and Halloween, then from Halloween onwards it's christmas and then summer time middle of February!

i'm getting used to being paid monthly (after a year!) spend about four weeks looking forward to pay day and then start the same cycle the day after. pretty much have my wages gone in about 20 minutes(rent, bills, credit card!) i want to save some money so i have given myself a subconcious limit on my credit card. this is month one. see how i get on.

the prestige has gotten two songs done, delighted. good to be playing in a band again. just have to get over the 3rd song block. seem to always have a problem with 3rd songs, probably stems back to deadletteroffice. after three of our own songs, we gigged and then lost a band member and kept the three songs to a point and the process repeated. it was like an unwritten benchmark. which was pushed to five in born a ghost and then there never was a solid 3rd song in a name to kill for. i think we had 5 third songs!

as i was saying about being open all hours, i'm waiting to start my shift, 1 - 10. it's a bit annoying waiting to start. but i do try to use the time, i have had breakfast, coffee, cigarettes, mowed the lawn, watched smallville and typed this. so i'll walk down to work, get another coffee and have another cigarette.

i have been real bad at updating this. partly because i don't think anything interesting enough really happens to write down and anything that is interesting, i get lazy and don't write it down. so it's a new year, lets try harder!!!

long time gone

it's been a very long time since i updated this. i was reading my last post and i can't believe that i was talking about being back from sweden. i'm heading again at the end of the month!! can't wait. roskilde festival!!! though thats in denmark! so can't wait for that. other than that i've been working quite a lot. also been very out and about in the garden!! we have a patio table, 4 chairs, a parasol, 2 barbecues and a hammock! also i got a power washer and cleaned all the concrete out the back and we've a little flower bed going. it's nice. i'm loving just chilling out in the back enjoying the good evenings.

would also recommend getting into the tv show the 4400my housemate had season 1 and then got hooked into it and went and got season 2 and 3 then after i got hooked i got season 4. get it its good.

also check these guys out, they just put tracks and they are amazing!

quick update,

was in Sweden, it was amazing as always. everyone over there is so good to me. they praise the very little Swedish i have and speak English. it snowed on paddy's day as we were leaving. it is such a beautiful country. i am having a good month, work is good fun at the mo as we are changing the whole store layout and i am a manager (proper now) instead of in training, which is awesome!!! I'm going to Glasgow in the first week of April! can't wait. and it's all good times.

thats the gist at the moment, more to come soon.

happy chocolate holiday! :)

finally did it.
anyone that has ever mention denim to me probably know i have these jeans.
so first you should check out nudie jeans. they are awesome. i think i have 6 pairs now. i got my Regular Ralf's (now called Alf) about two years ago. dry denim, selvage seam , regular fit with small kick of a bootcut. now the thing about dry denim, for those of you that don't know is, that you get to make them your own. nobody will have the same pair of Regular Ralf's as me. they are indigo denim , which is the living denim. so it will change with wear and washing.
what i finally did was i washed my jeans. now first off, i have not been wearing them for the last two years everyday! you are meant to wear them for six months before the first wash. basically the longer you wear them the more characteristics you get on your pair.
so i keep my wallet in my back pocket and i always have my cigarettes in my left front pocket and my phone, keys and change in my right front pocket.
have a look for yourself;







so the first ones are before i put them in the wash, front and back and then front and back pockets (there is nothing in them) then after the wash front and back and i have put in photos of what they looked like when they were new, these are new jeans, slightly different fit called Average Joe, pretty much the same fit except without the bootcut. i have worn them once.

motivation


so i have been doing noting these days except working and coming home and watching tv and being on the internet.

example 1; got up at 11 today, been online since 11.01, reading through treads and blogs, downloading some music. its now 3.50, i had my first smoke of the day 2 minutes ago. generally i have at least 2 in the first hour of being awake. now I'm typing this.
my housemates went earlier on to the cinema for like kid price film, they are just back now, they hate kids, lesson learned!

i need to do something, anything.

to myself i think this is productive. but...

i have to try and get some sort of music thing going, i haven't got spare time but i can make time for it, just my schedule is all over the place. i have to still sort out the program i got with my midi controller and actually use it to do something. meant to get together with two guys to do something but i end up leaving it to the last minute to see if they can jam which ends up that they can't.

doesn't help that i have been paid since January and that pay check finished of paying for christmas and my short time addiction to eBay! i get really down when it comes to money. i want to save, i want to get my arm finished, i want to go out, go to shows, i have to pay rent, bills, eat!

myself and my girlfriend got a sweet price on flights to Sweden for her birthday and is just before paddy's day (a holiday i don't enjoy as much as i used to) but i can't wait, i really like being in Sweden, it's a good buzz. want to get my Roskilde Tickets soon, it's going to be great.

roskilde

i still haven't played my Wii in ages, but now the chair in front of the tv is cleared of laundry so thats no excuse now.
i need to mow the lawn at our house soon, hasn't been mowed since before the winter and probably could have been done before the winter as well, going to be a bitch. need to do laundry, dishes, tidy the garage. might happen today, might not. was thinking about doing the lawn as it looks dry from inside my house, when i went for a smoke rain started to fall, i'll take that as a sign.

i think i just need a big change or for February that has felt like a really long January to end. i want it to be march so i can go away and then April will come and might have a mini adventure then some summer feeling in May (i hope) and so on.

going to make coffee have a smoke and maybe just maybe cut the lawn!

routine;

my routine is not very stable. i do shifts in work that are 7.30 to 4.30 or 1 to 10 and at the weekends it'll be 11 to 8 as well as the early shift. i do like that if i am on an early i can go and do stuff or if i get up early enough i can go and do something before work. generally, i only get out of bed maybe 10 mins before i should be in work, whichever shift, and when i come home i don't really do anything. i may have something planned but if when i sit down, i have that searing pain running through my legs from being on my feet all day and running up down stairs, i will stay sitting down.

i need to make more time or make me use my time to do stuff. i want to take more photos with my new camera. i have been using it on a work project but i want to get back into taking photos for myself like this one.
i want to play my drums more. i have that new keyboard/midi controller, start making stuff with it (thats not all me tho, program i want to use it with won't unlock) i am definitely going to play my Wii tonight. having played it in about 2 weeks. i have since the new year made it a point to go to shows and head out on the weekends a bit more than last year. definitely have the time for all that, generally it boils down to monetary issues but i am happy to say that it is the latter that will only lose out due to monetary issues


i was at dillinger escape plan the other night. intense show. stolen babies are probably the strangest band i have ever heard and i think they like that. between the buried and me were amazing but due to the village having a weird set up and the sound sucking their show could have be much better. dillinger were unreal, they just plowed through any issues may have been there.

anyway got to go to work.

i need to learn how to play piano again! i did piano/keyboard classes for a while in college as part of my course, so i understand a little of what i can barely remember. i just got this keyboard/midi controller the other day. thankfully it works with the programs i have on my computer so it will just take me a bit of time to get the full use out of it, thankfully!






was at a really good show last week, it was put on by the local crew of demented promotions and half shell records. this was quality. i was only at the show on Friday but i heard that the Saturday show was also amazing. the local bands definitely played to raise the bar! i really love seeing talented bands come from guys i know. All or Nothing and Save your Breath were both amazing, CHECK THEM OUT! i preferred all or nothing but save your breath are a great band as well and i love the welsh accent!







the show i am looking forward to is probably the To Kill show next month. it should be really good since the line is pretty solid.

well weird, just lost my connection to my wireless keyboard and then it came back. anyway when something more comes up i'll be back.

so i just finished watching season 2 of heroes thanks to this site.
only 11 episodes but amazing. it is one of the few tv shows i have ever gotten addicted to. during season 1 i was making sure that i was at home for every episode. i think because of the writers strike in the states heroes is on hiatus. in ireland, season 2 is showing on channel 6 on monday nights and repeats on sunday. CHECK IT OUT! if you haven't already.

staying still, going somewhere

i want to go away somewhere. holiday time that i have gained over the last year has come around to the time where i have to take it. to fit in with other schedules it'll be around paddy's day. because of paddy's day flights are expensive to and from this beautiful emerald isle! i have been trying to find somewhere that would be amazing to go to but doesn't cost a fucking fortune, looks like it'll be galway or something!!

also been thinking about leaving and setting up shop somewhere else. don't know where and when but know the thought is there and the plan will follow.
<= might head there, thats toronto.
being just on the outside of most stuff these days, i think i am finding it harder to connect. in theory it shouldn't make that much difference not being in this country to connect with everyone as i do these days. i have been thinking about how it should be hard, all the people you leave behind, what do you bring, would you sell all your stuff, what would you do there, how can you relocate easily. then i think of my a good friend who is chilling over there having the buzz. probably missing everyone loads but somehow seems like he is still here because he is using amazing technology to keep in touch. i'm still trying to understand how he could do it but at the same time its all i want to do these days. maybe it just that January was actually shit but with some highlights. and i hate people.

girl i work with is going to head over to toronto later this year. i was asking did she know anyone, she said no, but it's only a nine hour drive to chicago. how amazing is that, she's going over by herself, she doesn't know anyone there and can't wait. i would be shitting it. i like knowing people around me, i understand that i can meet new people but to go somewhere and not know anyone and not just be a holiday!

i have worked hard for my position in work and to think that i'd come in one day and go "see ya, i'm off!" that'd be strange. i hope that i could get a sweet job with my experience but at the moment i don't want to leave it. i don't want to start from scratch again but i don't want to be here either. (basically i'm fucked!!) all of this doesn't help the fact that i can spend any money i get instantaneously. no money, no travel. no music, no life.

sure we'll see what happens, hopefully febuary is much better!!!

i don't like safes and cheese slicers

so about 2 weeks ago i cut half my thumb nail off with a cheese. that was not fun. it only went through 2/3's of the nail so i had to rip off the rest. its all good now and is working its way to being a full nail now.
about 4 days later i caught my finger in the door of the safe in work. thankfully there was music playing through the pa system, so no one heard my screams from the office. i went to the doctor the next day and he got a needle and made a hole in the nail to release the blood that was caught underneath as it was creating a whole world of pain with the pressure. my finger was holding out pretty good after that except that two days later it was looking like my finger was trying to kick my nail off itself. big lump between my nail and my knuckle, not pretty. 4 days ago my nail separated a little bit from my finger, some more blood came out and then later on that big lump disappeared. so over the last four days i have been able to look underneath my fingernail! i have been finding that real interesting, bit disgusting but interesting. if you have seen the ad for yakult "the healthy bacteria" where it goes "welcome to planet you, this is your intestine" that kind of what it was looking like under my nail!! so i got it caught on something the other day and there was more give and more that i could see. this evening it was just at the stage where it was about to fall off but still really connected but i got it. i helped it, so now it is gone and i have a zombie finger. it's well strange not having a nail but it'll grow back and look like it never happened. regeneration, thats my superpower!!! i want to keep it as a trophy but thats not good, it'd be worse than finding toenail clippings on the floor if you found a full nail!!!
just thought i'd share that with you.

here's a photo!!

shows

so i was at this show last night. the headline band , Coheed and Cambria were the only reason i was there.

on the way up i was wondering how long of a set they would play as it was a tour organized by someone that doesn't have anything to do with the bands, they just got the bands to play. it was alright as the played for just under an hour. they put on a good show, played from their new album and some older stuff. but after seeing that show i would say that a show that they are putting on themselves would be amazing. i think the Kerrang tour for them is a good idea so they can jump onto a bill and not have the worry that bands would have on tour, instead all the worry is on Kerrang!

back to the show. just got in before the end of circa survive. thankfully. not into it.
Fightstar were up next, i would not be a fan of Fightstar but i think i have seen them more than some of my favourite bands! they support everyone! they came across at this gig as heavy music by numbers. still lots of Deftones influence and our lad Charlie! wants to be a frontman and lose the guitar (to their Hugh Grant!! lookalike.) not so good, poor lad, he kept losing the mic and missing lines. this was the second show of the tour, and he's out of breath by the third song! they played their first single and messed it up! better luck next time guys!







madina lake. i had only heard the name, never check the music, didn't know what they were like or anything. they reminded me of saved by the bell. like as if the cast of saved by the bell had a band together and were trying to be a metal band they couldn't actually be that heavy. in fairness to madina lake they did put a good show on, wouldn't be into to them at all but they do give it socks. lead singer jumped off the speakers and back flipped into the crowd, the band figured that he'd be back before they end of the song and kept playing. until they came to the end of the song. guitarist asks for the crowd to push him up! after a couple of minutes he appears with less of a hoody than what he went into the crowd with! i would say it'll be a while before he jumps that far into a crowd again.

Coheed and Cambria, amazing. Claudio is huge!! he looks like he has the biggest hands ever! and so much hair. which have probably helped him in playing the guitar style he does. very talented musicians in the whole band, and every one of them giving so much energy to the set and the backing singers, haunting the songs along with Claudio.

but as i said earlier i think they would have to be a band that you need to see in their own set up, not in a support slot or as part of a tour/festival.







i know a good few people who said they wouldn't get out of bed for that line up and i think they were right. i wanted to see Coheed and Cambria. i really didn't want to be there for the wait for Coheed to hit the stage. but i was there and i watched all the bands with most of my attention. one thing that was taking my full attention away from the stage was the amount of people not watching the stage , running around the place just chatting away over the 120db of music to their mates.
it was €28.50 i think for tickets, i like to get my moneys worth for most stuff. i love going to gigs but when a band is on stage no matter how much i have paid, if i like them already or not, i will always give my full attention. thats the passion for music that the crowd screamed for when madina lake said that we are all here because of one thing, the passion for music. but not that crowd. Kerrang tour had projectors on either side of the screen and in between bands they would have "make some noise for..." and the bands name. this did only work before fightstar and before madina lake. it was strange hearing these really high pitched screams for madina lake and then pretty low screams for coheed directly after. while seeing the crowd around me i was thinking about all the gigs that i have been at in the ambassador and was i ever one of those kids! there is probably one maybe two gigs that i remember running around the place but i do remember that was IN BETWEEN the bands. the other thing is that it was an all ager so i can understand that its the first maybe second time some of the kids got out and there was just too much going on to keep them focused, thats fine but the rest of them, ugh!

basically strange gig, but enjoyable.



also this week seems to be gig week (dosen't help that i am super broke!!) was at this!! good show. unfortunately i got in before soul control so i missed first death and crowd control. but well enjoyed seeing soulcontrol, shipwreck and blacklisted. some strange people at the show but they were enjoying it so thats fine.

really good show and i hope the bands had a good time while they were here.














i going to see New Found Glory on Sunday. that is going to be great!. anyway.

history

history 101.
this is going to be my account of how so many bands have come from so few people.

deadletteroffice is where i am going to start but i'll just mention a couple of bands before that.
all my fault (AMF) is what i would say is the root of many things. members; Steven Arkins, Laurence Coleman, Philp Kos. I came across AMF at shows in Navan, where i used to engineer the gigs. they played many shows with No Big Thing and the two bands are the start of great things.

after AMF broke up, Steven A joined No Big Thing. there himself, Steve C, Barry and Antony began to make some of the best pop punk tracks ever. but unfortunately it did not last. Steve A left and joined "15 minutes" which changed there name to "wait for the day" after his arrival. today we know them as "Homestar Runner."

Laurence Coleman joined his brother Mark and good friends Jay and Gareth in the search for a drummer for something new. there they had thought of me, and then deadletteroffice was born. before the first gig for deadletteroffice Jay left and rejoined his old band 15 minutes which lead into Homestar Runner. deadletteroffice needed a guitarist for this gig and were graced with Ciaran Smyth.
After the first gig, deadletteroffice decided that Gareth was not strong enough on bass to carry on with the band, then it was the arrival of Chris Mahon. after that Ciaran decided that deadletteroffice was not the place for him.
deadletteroffice carried on as a four piece for a while until faced with the dilemma of Laurence leaving. in the search for a new guitarist they found Daragh McSherry. After Laurence had played what were to be his last 2 gigs, he decided that he didn't want to leave so deadletteroffice decided to have two guitarists again.
Unfortunately Chris was let go, which in turn he joined the Upgrades as their bassist. after playing with them for a while, he left and was replaced in the Upgrades by Barry from No Big Thing, Chris then played bass for Dear Catastrophe. up to the end of dear catastrophe Chris had joined/formed First Death in Nova Scotia.
Replacing Chris in deadletteroffice on bass was Neil Keating. deadletteroffice went onto to many gigs with this line up and then came the day when Laurence decided to leave, again. deadletteroffice went again on the search for another guitarist. they found Jay Donahey and played one gig with him but saw that it wasn't going to last. they played one final gig in the music centre. after that gig they had gotten in contact with Steve C from No Big Thing. Barry from No Big Thing was playing with the Upgrades on bass and Antony was playing drums for Little Nightmare with Ciaran Smyth. after deciding that Steve C was perfect for deadletteroffice, deadletteroffice decided that it was the end of the year and a half long journey with all the line up changes and 162 gigs.
this was when Born A Ghost was born.
during the time of Born A Ghost, Neil had started singing with Barntown Water Tastes Like Blood. after that Born A Ghost's time with me as the drummer had ended and they got Paul to play drums for them. this did not last very long as Born A Ghost was on hiatus since Neil and Daragh went to the states for the summer. upon their return Born A Ghost was no more. except for a couple of reunion shows.
Neil carried on with Barntown Water Tastes Like Blood and also joined many many other projects, notably Another Day in Hell.
Mark joined the Black Martyr until he got all that heavy out of him. he is now singing with 30 Nights of Violence with Steve C on guitar. I played with A Name to Kill For till its demise last October.

i hope that helps you in playing 6 degrees of separation

so it looks like my computer is loading up the video this time,
spent hours trying to do it the other day and it all failed.

2mb out of 9!!

5mb out of 9!!

9mb out of 9!!

( of )
I'm a little worried!
just in case here the youtube version.


so I've decided that I'll do a little more and give you the treat of seeing into my day.

so i work in urban outfitters, Dundrum. it's one of the newest urban outfitters in europe. it opened last august (2007) Antwerp opened end of November. Belfast will be opening in February. i am the menswear manager. its fun. so basically i'm pretty much there most of the time, we're open for more than most peoples waking hours! but its probably one of the most interesting shops to work for. for instance we have this guy that works there and his job is to build stuff! he has his own workshop in the store. what this also means is that i can go and get a power drill or something and change something within the store myself. i think its that thing that makes the company that little bit different than everywhere else. the same idea is carried on in everyone of the stores and there is a guideline to go by but each store has their own creative control over what they have to do.

so i have a team of people who are amazing, we have a laugh and its good times. I'm not that much of a tyrant! my floor has 72% menswear and 33% housewares on it. myself and the housewares managers both started working in the other Dublin store, Temple Bar around the same time and have worked up from sales assistants to managers, so we know our shit! she has a bit of a hard time because her department is everywhere in the shop! while i have all my menswear on one floor.

another key thing about urban outfitters is that although you may be assigned as a certain department manager, you also need to be knowing whats going on in the rest of the place. because at any stage you could be asked if you had any more chiffon sleeve cardigans in stock and do you know what the number of it is. (this happened today!) keeps you on your toes and busy. i like that, i like being busy.

so our store is at Dundrum town centre, this is a very strange place. its slowly growing on me though. there could be a very interesting sociology study to be made from it. after moving out to there i was faced with a predicament of where i was going to get coffee. any one who knows me from town would know that i generally was either in work in temple bar or having coffee at heavenly in temple bar. so it took a good month or so to find somewhere in the centre that did nice hot food for my lunch and coffee. there is some good coffee places there but i need the food as well. i like one stop shops! i had found a place and as a bonus they did amazing muffins but the thing is i wasn't getting a deal. 2 out 10 coffee were free after you got the stamps and there was a meal deal but it wasn't working out as well for me. as i was saying earlier about the guy who builds stuff in the store he is also a gent and does a coffee run in the morning for us as were in long before anywhere is open and probably open an hour before them!

so he was going to the cafe across from us. good coffee. i had a bad experience during my month reconnaissance there but i decided i give it another shot. now when it comes to coffee i am straight up a best customer, very loyal! i drink a different coffee than most and because of that the guy there knew straight away where i worked because of my coffee. now i like that. great customer service. I'm in there at least twice a day if not three. and it has kind of giving me a liking towards the town centre. i can sit out there, have my coffee and some cigarettes (chain smoke on lunch!!) and watch all the people go by in and out of the centre.

my floor is really nice. i have a waterfall behind those windows! the store looks out onto the mill pond (Santa's grotto is been taking from it now, yeah Santa's grotto on a pond!!) its got this clean industrial buzz going on with all the concrete and wood and air conditioning ducting everywhere.
i get to talk to random people everyday, sometimes they tell me stories about stuff like their family or where there have been, anything really.

well that enough of that.

i've put the youtube version of the video up cause bloggers video uploader hates me!

from way back when

was reminded about me having taped a gig from ages ago, yesterday. i will have it up today! can't believe i had forgotten about it. it was one of the best shows (tours) i have ever been too. it was also good to come back to dublin after playing around the the country to what like, 20 to 50 people across two shows, to this gig having that many there. just good to see the support from that early stage!

anyway the vid is the ruiner set of the dublin gig at boh's bar from october 28th 2006!










just a note on the tour.
met some of the best dudes on this tour, got to hang out with guys that i hadn't either had the chance ever to before or just needed to catch up with.

also got to see how scenes where coming together around the country, which is always great to see outside of dublin, like you see with loads of stuff, dublin is the centre of everything in ireland!!

eh intro i guess

So after seeing what friends had to say, it gave me some inspiration to use this account that i've had for some reason.

I'm a creative person so i might just use this for random thoughts, ideas, mini projects that i may do for my amusement. I have been meaning to get some videos edited and uploaded and my girlfriend got me a wicked camera for christmas. I'm slowly but surely building my gadget collection.

I've recently gotten reason for my mac and now I'm looking to get a midi controller to mac everything easier so i can make random samples, songs, and stuff.

i think also this blog could be another good place to keep people in contact with me, i guess. i want to make more effort this year. i got very much into my job last year but because i was living in town, i'd see people fairly often but now since i'm not living in town, i don't get to see anyone unless by extreme circumstances. i really miss walking around town and just seeing people around.
when you work in the epicenter that is Dundrum Town Center, you get a weird surreal feeling.
it is going to be Dundrum village! it goes from one main street to the other. and strange people are there, its just wierd!

anyway that was a little rant for an intro.
fuck it,

happy new year!!
hope christmas was amazing for you.

casey.