To Be Frank …

Some serious driving later, we arrived back in Dublin last night … after driving from Dublin to Sligo, staying a few nights with Sinéad’s sister … driving from Sligo to Lahinch (west Clare !) and staying a few nights in a nice B&B there … then in one day, driving from Lahinch to Camp in Kerry (just outside Tralee) to visit a friend, and from there to Cork that evening to stay with Sinéad’s brother !

Madness I tell ya !

Some great pictures to post later though … a really cute one of Michael in Ballyryan in the Burren ….

Decided to see if others (by now) had managed to get those cheap wifi cards working …

This site on getting the rtl8180 working in Linux (Slakware) seems to be a reasonable place to start again ….

Maybe later !

Over a month since I’ve blogged anything … heh … and it’s been a long ‘un as well …
Not really much I can say on here though, a certain project in work I was rushing to finish when Michael was born in March is due to go live, and suddenly (quelle suprise ?) the pressure is on …. given they’ve had five months to supply and test the data, you’d think we’d have finished it by now … instead I’m working all the hours I can get to try and get this thing out the door !

In other news … Wibble is wobbling his way toward the purchase of a geological sample for TOP – it seems there’ll be a bit of a shindig some time in the middle of next year !

Sinead has taken Michael away, down to her Uncles in east Galway … so I have the place to myself for the few hours I’ll be home tonight … might comiserate with one of the neighbours who’s habitually alone, as his other half works in England during the week … (it’s a hard life !)

Looks like there’s a local Motorbike race this coming weekend … Skerries is just up the road from us, and the annual Skerries 100 is on the weekend of the 2nd July. It ought to be an interesting time …

If only I had a good camera to capture some of the action … the photos in the archive look like it could be good !

His support in the Euro elections plummeted from guaranteed poll-topper to 8% of the vote …

Then again – The Sunday Business Post reports on his antics in TodayFM …
And for your enjoyment Royston Brady – The Album

Gene Kerrigan had an interesting take on the upcoming citizenship referrendum in last weekends’ Sunday Independent.
The article is titled : “We’re choosy about which constitutional loophole we plug” and really does justice to a lot of the questions that are doing the rounds !

You might vote No because . . .

Citizenship is denied no one on the basis of disloyalty, not even politicians and others whose tax-evasion closed hospital wards and seriously damaged this country. Should we whip citizenship away from the child, born in Ireland, of a Filipino nurse whose loyal hard work is keeping that hospital from collapsing?

…..

For some, the final compelling reason for voting for the proposal is, of course, that Michael McDowell wants us to vote for it.

And for some, the final compelling reason for voting against the proposal is, of course, that Michael McDowell wants us to vote for it.

Well done Gene !

Sinéad became my wife on this day a year ago …

There’s been a lot of change in that year, a new house, mortgage, new ways of living, and Michael !
All in all it’s been a good year, here’s to many more years of happiness

Thank you Sinéad !

His latest post proves it.
Check out those JPEGs !!

Init String: at+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”isp.vodafone.ie”
Number: *99#
Username: vodafone
Password: vodafone

Should work on the 6310i anyway

Niall Murphy has kindly allowed me to post this poem he wrote … He’s rapidly approaching fatherhood, and if the sentiments mentioned in here are anything to go by, he’ll be fine. Congrats Niall

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Dreams of the Unborn

No symbols you know, no flags or grandmothers,
no nectar, no teat, no moon or stars,
no night or day even! No concept of sandwiches,
no cause and effect – no love yet, nor reason;

How then dream? What problems to solve?
If “to the womb we return”, why leave?
Time there will be to wake from sleeping,
discover the why of gravity, the where of biscuits,

the smile from the centre, and the cry from the core:
that is the world, and you are not there.
You no more dream of womb than fish of water.
Those that do, dream of all-pervading mother.

No – you must dream – can only dream – of rhythm,
the special pleasure of the heartbeat and the snore,
the lapping waves of voices, and music, and rhyme.

First and last is rhythm: before breathing, before time.

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Been a while since I blogged anything … too busy really …

Things are hectic both in work and at home … mad really !

Looks like this questionaire thinks I’m closer in line with Aristotle than the others … I wonder …

1. Aristotle (100%)
2. David Hume (91%)
3. Jean-Paul Sartre (90%)
4. Stoics (87%)
5. Aquinas (86%)
6. Ayn Rand (85%)
7. Plato (81%)
8. Kant (79%)
9. Spinoza (74%)
10. Jeremy Bentham (73%)
11. John Stuart Mill (73%)
12. Nietzsche (69%)
13. Nel Noddings (61%)
14. Prescriptivism (51%)
15. St. Augustine (50%)
16. Thomas Hobbes (47%)
17. Ockham (44%)
18. Cynics (35%)
19. Epicureans (34%)

A consumer checks the washing instructions from an American-manufactured bag …

Thought I’d post the lyrics that inspired the title of the previous post …

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Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There’s nothing Nietzche couldn’t teach ya ‘Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away–
Half a crate of whisky every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And René Descartes was a drunken fart.
‘I drink, therefore I am.’

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he’s pissed.

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Composer: Eric Idle
Author: Eric Idle

First heard on Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The Second Series (aired from Sep. 15, 1970 to Dec. 22, 1970)
Episode 22: How To Recognize Different Parts Of The Body.

What a weekend ! We’re all three thankful that that’s done with.
It started on Wednesday when Michael had a routine check-up … it seemed he wasn’t gaining weight (which is bad !) … So, off to Holles St. hospital with him for a complete check-up, and they decided he wasn’t getting enough feeding (seems it happens frequently with breast-fed babies).
To make a long story short, he was admitted on Wednesday evening for ‘fattening-up’, which is where they double-feed the babies to help them gain weight … he did well, and was making great progress, so on Saturday we got to take him home again. (Not before we’d both had some much-needed rest!)

The downside to this ‘fattening-up’ process is that he’s now supplementing his draught supply with a full 4oz feed of formula every 3 hours or so … he’s gaining weight alright … but in the process he’s making his daddy’s hair a little grayer

Well, it’s gotta be better than that cheesy Tom Hanks film !

Sleeplessness is catching up with me alright … Michael has been doing great until the hour changed … he’d sleep until about 0630 or so, when I’d be getting up anyway! But the hour-change into summer-time has upset his rhythm a little, and he’s now waking up at about 5am … meaning I get less sleep, cos I end up burping him after Sinéad feeds him, leaving me with a half-hour of snooze-time before the alarm goes off …

Oh well …

In other news, he’s regained his birth-weight, and is generally doing well … (especially in the lungs department !!)

You will be !

How to land a 747.
OK, so you’re a frequent flier like me. You need to be prepared for that occasional instance when there’s an accident and you need to land the plane. Simply commit the following to memory and fly with confidence!

Main checklist

1. Get on the radio, and tell whoever’s listening that you have a problem and don’t know exactly what to do.

2. Engage a single channel of the autopilot — light one of the buttons labeled “CMD.” Point the heading indicator in the direction indicated to keep the plane straight and level.

3. Find the checklists in the side pocket of the pilot’s and copilot’s seat. If the plane turns out to be a 747-400, you’re in luck: just engage the Automatic Landing System (ALS). If it isn’t a 747-400, see below under “No ALS.”

4. If you can’t find the checklists, use these:

   1. Before descent.

      1. EO’s system check completed.
      2. Pressurization set.
      3. All a/c packs on. Set the airfield altitude so the plane is depressurized on landing.
      4. Humidifier off.
      5. HSIs: Radio. Switch horizontal situation indicators to radio navigation mode.
      6. Approach briefing: understood. This is where you get a full briefing by the landing pilot, but since that’s you, you might as well skip this step.
      7. Auto brakes: set. Hopefully the brakes start working when you touch down.

   2. call: “Cabin crew 15 minutes to landing.”
   3. Cabin signs and exit lights: on.
   4. Ignition: on. This sets the engine igniters for landing.
   5. Fuel system: set for landing.
   6. Fuel heat: check/off
   7. QNH: Set. So the altimeters read the airfield altitude on touchdown.

5. : handle down, handle in, light green.
6. Speedbrake: armed. So you don’t bounce.
7. Hydraulics: checked.
8. Landing flap: set at 25 degrees.
9. SCCM’s report: received. The cabins are secure for landing.
10. Find the Jeppeson charts. A big notebook of maps and landing approaches for every airport in the world. Locate the radio frequency.
11. Find the flight management system. Buttons on the glareshield marked LNAV and VNAV.
12. Put the Jeppeson map on a 100 mile scale using the EFIS control panel on the front panel. You’ll get a yellow FMC message on the middle screen when it’s time to land.
13. On the control display unit between the pilots’ seats, twist the knob until the little numbers go down to 100 ft. above field elevation in the Jeppeson notebook.
14. Get the aircraft set to land: press the LOC and G/S buttons on the glareshield. All three CMD lights will go on, and the system will automatically tune to the right ILS frequency.
15. Turn on the autobrakes when the plane starts descending. You’re done.

No ALS?
You probably won’t make it, but hey — might as well try.

1. Retard the throttle. Four levers for four engines.
2. Keep the nose up, and descend to 20,000 feet. When you get there, bring the throttles back up. You’ll still be going 300 knots or so.
3. You have to drop below 250 knots when you descend to 9,000 feet. Keep the nose up and throttle down.
4. When the tower brings you down to 5,000 feet.You need those flaps out so you can fly slow.
5. Drop airspeed by setting flaps to 5, then 15, when you’re down to 4,000 feet.
6. As you start descending to the runway, you want flaps 20, then 30. Keep them there.
7. When you reach 50 feet or so, the radar altimeter will start talking.
8. When it says, “30,” bring the throttle back to idle.
9. At 10 feet, raise the nose to slow down.
10. Lower the nose, reverse throttles, and apply the brakes. Cake.
    

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