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!