Happy Halloween or New Year's Eve! I am off to a soggy hike at Glendalough today and there is a possiblity that I will be going to see a psychobilly band tonight. Possibly.
Update: Glendalough = amazing. Mountain/Cliff trail (Orange trail) = Evil. Too exhausted to do anything but make a sandwich for dinner, take a shower and be in bed by 9:58pm with the lights off. Yikes!
Thurs. 10.27.05 - A huddle on the Trinity College rugby field with the 19th cent. engineering building in the background.
Any family reading this: the one story brick bbuilding in the background is where (Great) Grandpa G.F.K. went to classes when he attended Trinity in the 1890s. I found out today that I can go to the Records office and get a copy of his attendance record. This should be *interesting*, I will bring it back at Christmas.
Sat. 10.29.05 - At lunch given by Christine for our Bible Study. ;o)
Sat. 10.29.05 - A blooming succulent in the front window at Christine's house.
The other day I was babbling along when my conversational partner asked, "What do you mean by the 'boondocks'?"
"Oh, the boondocks are out near BFE. A place that is quite far away and has a lot less people, like where my mom lives. Bishop is 5 hours from LA and it only has 3,000 people, it is a really cool town out in the middle of the boondocks."
Yesterday, I was in a lecture on Intellectual Property when the very smartly dressed Dr. said in the course of her talk, "Ballybebackwards..."
Something tells me that in her Irish use of the word that Ballybebackwarks is about the inhabitants state of mind and could be next suburb over rather than unpopulated, little town a day's drive a way.
Fellow(ess) americans help me with the word in common usage, when you say 'boondocks' or 'BFE' do you mean a distant sparsely inhabitated place or a rural place with backwards inhabitants?
Tues. 10.25.05 - Walking from my course to Georges Street, I spy yet another crane on Pearse Street, juxtaposed with two signs and a billboard...
Sat 10.22.05 - The sky walking back from Rathmines center.
Ok, lest anyone fool you, the weather here in Ireland is not that bad. There have been more dry days than wet and a good 50/50 of sun to cloud. Now, mind you, the sun to cloud ratio will flipflop at least four times in one day, but there is sunshine. The last week has been in the upper 60s (F degrees) and I have not really needed my coat. I have worn short sleeves several days now and you can pick out the rest of the American crowd by who is wearing shorts and flipflops. The Irish remain optimistic that real winter will show up any day now, as they are wearing full coats and scarves, even as the temp is nearing 70 degress F (21 C).
But the best part of the weather here in Ireland has been the sky. Moment by moment it is to be watched as it is an ever changing light, cloud and color show.
Fri. 10.21.05 - At Maffey's with my classmates.
Web Standard gurus with hot thighs. Drunk Designers. And fellow documenters... Well, what more can one ask for in 5 days in Austin, Texas? Geek Kickball! Heartburn from too much BBQ!
Add one more year to my previous seven years of Music and four years of Interactive, except this upcoming SXSW season, I do believe I will just be attending 5th Interactive and not my eighth Music (JuWa isn't going this year. Lucky? Heidi? Darlin? Alex? Convince me otherwise? Really, I just have a 40+ page Master's thesis due the next week...). I registered for SXSW Interactive 2006 yesterday and registered for the Hampton Inn. Lauren will be joining me at SXSWi this upcoming year.
Tues. 10.25.05 - I came home on Tuesday night to find a lovely yellow and red DHL package containing the newly cleaned, exfoliated Black Phoebe the Laptop with her shiny, lovely new motherboard freshly returned from Dell's Computer Spa in Shropshire. Wahoo!
Now all I need is a mobile phone contract with unlimited GPRS/3G. Ah... fantasy time....
Everywhere I turn around Dublin, I see a construction crane. Dublin's biggest industry seems to be growing cranes.
Photos above, left to right: Sun. 10.23.05 Dublin Castle, Sun. 10.23.05 Stairs at St. Patrick's Park, and Thurs. 10.20.05 looking west down Pearse St.
Ha
Sun. 10.16.05 - My new Pfefferhase, a fabulously silly bit of German product design, because everyone needs a pepper grinder in the shape of a rabbit.
Tomorrow, Fri. 10.21.05, I will fly to Germany for the weekend to attend Erika & Thomas' German wedding reception.
UPDATE: Thurs. 10.20.05 at 8:44pm GMT.
I suck. I called Aer Lingus late this afternoon to get my itinerary and I got my plane reservation wrong and it was for last weekend. When it is very late at night, you are moving and you have given your printer to the Goodwill, don't try and book a non-refundable, non-transferable plane ticket. And then when your computer goes into a coma with your reservations on it... well... I am not going to Germany, after all.
Mon. 10.10.05 - Photo of my newly organized closet by Ms. Jen's Nokia 7610.
Sometimes is it the smallest things that make a big difference to make one at home in a new place, or on the contrary, the lack of the smallest things that make life difficult. And sometimes you make a judgement thinking, "Oh, I don't need to bring these, I can buy more for cheap when I get there."
It took me over a week and a half to find hangers for my closet clothes. I left a whole closet of good hangers back in Orange, as I didn't want to try to stuff them into my overly stuffed, heavy bags.
When I arrived in Ireland, I found all kinds of things but it took me time to find where to buy hangers. And then it was 4 (about $5) euros for 5 cheap plastic hangers. 28 euros later, I had enough to hang my clothes and then fold others and stack them at the bottom of the closet. Yikes, $35 for 35 plastic hangers.
There are quite a few things where the prices are equal to what they would be in the States, mostly big ticket electronic goods and textbooks, but for the average product the prices here in Ireland are anywhere from 20% more all the way up to 2 to 3 times as expensive as the same product in California. I knew it would be expensive, but I am having sticker shock on a daily basis.
All my friends who bargain basement shop at Target and Walmart would DIE here. My Irish friends call it the Ripoff Republic.
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Sun. 10.09.05 - Autumn leaves & trees as seen whilst dillydallying/shillyshallying/dinking/looking around on my way to church.
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Wed. 09.28.05 - Sunrise dawning while flying over the north Atlantic to Ireland and then view of Ireland from 30,000 feet.
Tues. 10.18.05 - Previous to BlackPhoebe the laptop's electrical issues last Wed., I saved some photos to my thumb drive that I am now posting. I have more that I will post later. Also, last night, I was able to back up my photos from Sept & Oct, Thank God, and BP goes off to Dell Computer Spa (repair) tomorrow or Thursday, depending on DHL's arrival.
Apparently one can't use one's email client on one's cell phone as a Vodafone Ready to Go customer. Apparently one must have the monthly contract to be able to send and receive email from the phone. Although one can have GPRS web browsing on the pay as you go plan. So, I have no email, no moblogging, but I can read boingboing. Be frightened. I am.
Only hitch in this scenario, is that they won't give me a contract without a utility bill or bank statement. I live in housing, so no utility bill and the bank is taking forever to send any official documentation that Vodafone would accept as proof of address.
I now have another letter from the Bank of Ireland with my address on it and will go to Vodafone this afternoon and see if I can convince them to sign me up. No computer and no moblogging has me more depressed than the weather.
Speaking of the weather, can I say how lovely it is? Cold and Cloudy. ;o)
After an hour and a half phone call last night with Dell's tech call center in India last night, Black Phoebe the laptop will be going off on Tuesday via DHL to Dell's Irish Computer Spa for a week of treatments.
If it is a fried motherboard, Dell covers it. If it is from the fall my laptop took 5 weeks ago, I pay for it. Regardless, in about two weeks all will be well.
Now I am off to Vodafone to find out why after I have configured all the GPRS stuff correctly, why my phone will not send or receive any emails. Hopefully, within the hour or so, I will be able to moblog to this space. Cross your fingers... otherwise, I have a few photos on my Sixapart thumb drive that I can post here...
Not this website, but my laptop has gone into arrest. It will not start. Nope. No go. I tried everyway. Hopefully it is not dead, but only in a coma. I need help.
Ever since SXSW 2005, my laptop has had a new quirk that even when it is plugged into the wall electrical socket it will not start unless the battery is charged. I have two batteries and both are 2.5 years old with more recharges than their life expectancy. I ordered a new Dell battery, but it has not arrived yet. I *hope* that will solve the problem.
If not... then cry. After crying, I will need to find someone in Dublin who can help me backup the contents of my hard drive to my external hard drive before I send it off to Dell for repairs. I did my last full back up right before Erika's wedding and what I want to really retrieve are the wedding photos, new client work, and a few emails. I brought all of my program cds with me in anticpation of needing them in the event of a crash but it is my photos and other files that I want most.
Any referrals would be lovely.
Erika calls dreams the "toxic dump" of the brain. Ever since I have arrived in Ireland, I have been having very vivid and odd dreams that when I wake up I think "Wow, the dump trucks really are hauling away the dross of the last few years..."
A few examples:
Two or three nights ago, Aaron (aka Boston Bucky) converted to Orthodox Christianity and Barbie wanted to stay Roman Catholic...
The next night I dreamed that someone gave me a bull and that I had to keep him here in Dublin. He was very large and he followed me everywhere.
etc etc etc.
Sat. 10.08.05 - I made a cheerful breakfast... ;o)
I continue to apologize to all of the readers of this blog and the surfers who trot on as I still do not have internet connection in my housing nor have I been able to make my Vodafone Ready to be Really Lame SIM chip work with Data on my Nokia 7610. Thus, I have TONS of photos to blog here and they are all stopped up on my laptop or phone. Grrr.. grrr... grrr...
I will *supposedly* have a broadband connection in my room within the next week and hopefully I will have a 3G/GPRS unlimited data plan with some mobile carrier within the week as well. Due to Fun With Bureauracy™, I can't get any type of cell / mobile contract without an Irish bank statement (all raise their eyebrows with me), and the bank statement is days late, even though Bank of Ireland promises it is in the mail.
My big accomplishment in Fun With Bureauracy™ is that at 5:57pm on Thursday, I walked out of the Immigration Garda station on Burgh Quay with my cute little one year "Certificate of Registration" card in my hand. I was 644 in the queue, it took 4.57 hours to get it, and the bathrooms were beyond disgusting...
When all is said and done, I am settling in, I love my little hermitage room with a view of trees. The birdsong in the suburb I am in is loud and lovely. I even saw my first tree squirrel today. Classes start on Monday and I am excited to get going.
Walking up to the St. Stephen’s Green Luas stop on Sunday afternoon:
A scruffy older gentlemen walked up to me and said, “A ticket for the Lord.”
Being Sunday, I thought he was an evangelist passing out tracks, so I looked at what he was offering and said, “Thank you, but I already have one.”
“No, Have it.”
“No, thank you, I have one.”
He walked off. The ticket was for the Luas and I really do already have one.
My hearing + Dublin accent = amusing interpretations!
Relief!
All of my fears of being placed in a freshman apartment have been allayed. Thankfully, I have been placed in the Post Grad (graduate student) House. Starting this last Friday night at 7:30pm, the Post Grad House folk, about 80 of us, have been organized by our “Assistant Warden” (RA) and I have met a lot of really nice and very intelligent post grad students from all over the world, including two others in the Multimedia Systems course. Basically, we have spent a lot of time at pubs and in each other’s living rooms.
