DjMagra’s stuff ‘n’ stuff

There’s been a bit of talk on #linux today about spam stats etc, so, I thought I’d post the stats from one of my busier (for both spam and valid mail) accounts:

Who can believe that latest estimates put the death toll in Asia at 112,000 people. That number of people is just hard to quantify. Sattelite images of the waves and the destruction they caused are also now available

I have a fairly regular problem with a few of the guys here, deciding where to eat when we go out for lunch. This time of the year we tend to skip the work canteen in favour of something nice, but every now and then I prefer to try somewhere different from the regular Smiths / Seabank House / Bay / Yacht haunts!

UPDATE:

We decided to eat in Il Corvo in Drumcondra (thanks pron!) and it was lovely. Much bigger than I had expected for an Italian Restaurant in that part of the world and very quiet (empty) when we arrived. I had crostini with mozzarella to start, which wasn’t very crostini like, more toasted french bread with garlic butter and topped with mozzarella, however, still nice, followed by Pizza Corvo, which was a bacon, mozzarella and french brie topped pizza…yum! I am now as stuffed as the turkey on Christmas day!

Karlin recently wrote about the breakdown of browsers that were visiting her site, and reckoned that the high amounts of Firefox hits were due to the fact that she writes a predominantly techie blog, so, I decided to check out my site stats, to see if I were able to call my blog a techie blog!

The graph looks like this:

I have to say, I’m struggline to comprehend both the numbers, area and devestation caused by the Asia Quake Disaster. When news broke of this on Stephen’s Day, there was talk of maybe two or three thousand people being killed (massive numbers in themselves, similar to the numbers that lost their lives on 9/11). But, as time has gone by, hour on hour, the numbers are climbing, staggeringly so, to current talk of sixty to seventy thousand people dead. This is just hard to image, 70,000 people being killed in a matter of minutes for the majority, that’s the entire contents of Croke Park, nearly twice Landsdowne road being wiped out in an instant!!

Well, there we are, it’s all been and gone, and we’re back at work feeling rather tired and bloated!!

I had an amazing Christmas, all kicking off weeks before the big day itself, but, culminating in a great Christmas eve, which despite it’s greatness, began with an early start and heading into Dublin with the kid brother Barry, to see Ryan Tubridy and co present the Full Irish from the MAC window in Brown Thomas. a good laugh was had here, he really is a crazy and very talented man, followed by a wee wander through town, with the customary Bewleys Coffee in hand.

Once said wandering was done, we headed back toward my car, stopping off for a few minutes to watch Joe Duffy and Brendan O Carroll present the usual RTE Christmas Eve show from outside the Bailey on Duke Street.

Barry and I then headed into the office, where we were having a ‘bring your kids day’ and a bit of a party. Now, he doesn’t quite pass as being my child, given he’s almost as big as me and just a few years younger than me, but, I decided to bring him and show him around, and all in all it was a bit of fun.

From there, we headed out to Skerries to meet up with my folks, the Riordans’s, Conor and Claire and had a feast as usual and a great laugh also. After lunch was the typical mayhem of dashing around trying to get all the last bits and pieces finished off and Maggie and Flash collected for the traditional Christmas Eve fair.

Christmas day could not have been much better. As usual, we weren’t too early up, and unlike most houses in the country, our parents had to wake the kids, rather than the other way around. And waking up to a white christmas was a real treat. Santa was more than generous, bringing an amazing HP 8150 photo printer for Barry and I, as well as numerous other goodies, including private tutoring of one of my favourite courses at the Gallery of Photography. Hopefully I will learn loads out of this.

Christmas dinner was as always, excellent, and very relaxed, with plenty of good wine to wash it all down. The washup was easy and we were relaxing in front of the fire in no time.

Stephens day was as relaxed, if not more so, I didn’t even bother with the hassle of a shower, and just lazed about the house for the day as I wanted. I was invited out with the gang on Stephens night, but, declined, as I really just wasn’t in the mood.

Monday, myself, the oul man, big Ciaran and Flash headed into Donnybrook for the Leinster v Ulster rugby match, which, despite not being a great game, was a good oul day out, with lots of food and even more drink consumed, and plenty of laughs had.

Back at work today, which is a bit of a bummer, though, there’s not much going on, so, hopefully I’ll get finished up early enough. In every day this week too, but, nothing too hectic on, with just one install to do either tomorrow or Friday.

Now….to go book hotels for Paris in just over 4 weeks!

….it’s getting oooh soo close!!!

Whilst watching the news tonight, I couldn’t help but notice that the new British Home Secretary, Charles Clarke appears to have two completely differently sized hands, with the left being much smaller than the right. Perhaps it was a slight of camera, but I noticed it on more than one occasion.

As an aside to this, above, I linked to Charles Clarke’s ministerial page on homeoffice.gov.uk, however, if you change the link address slightly, you will end up at David Blunkett’s ministerial page which still hasn’t been updated, or removed to reflect his resignation. Perhaps the Home Office are expecting him back sooner rather than later as many people feel.

So many places seen, so much driving (1200km in 2 days!), so much happening, so much eaten for lunch today, so much to say, so little I can say, so exciting, so terrifying, so looking forward to what’s coming…..