Don't KNOCK it until you've tried it.

Got this email today from a friend (who shall remain nameless).
From a logical perspective it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time


"Never underestimate people’s preparedness to believe any oul shite. Massive coverage was given in the national press today to the Supreme Grand Wizard Sean Brady or whatever the fukk he calls himself who had a go at the Tarot card readers and Astrologers of the Country. And where did he do this? Knock of all places, Knock - where a group of hallucinating peasants said they saw the mother of god on the gable end of a church. You couldn’t make it up"


American papers please copy.

Change your mind!

Saw the news yesterday (an unusual enough event at this time of year) and they were doing a vox pop about the continuing American involvement in Iraq.

The reporter stopped this woman on the street and asked her if she supported the war in Iraq.

she said she did.

He asked why.

She said cos she voted Bush.

He asked why she voted Bush.

She said cos he supported the war on Iraq.

This is not a post about the war in Iraq, it's a post about how we think and how we rationalise decisions, we get caught in a loop, not always as obvious as this one... but we just do.

"So Michael will we sack John?
No
Why?
Cos I appointed him"

"So Phillip will you close your business?
No
Why?
Cos I started it"

I know i'm not getting this across very well and that my thinking is still fuzzy, but it appears to me that logic has less and less a role to play in our society.

By the way I really hope the Madeline McCann thing is not going in the direction the Portugese press thinks it should be going, I don't think our psyches would be able to handle the fact that people invested real sympathy and real tears in a lie.

If it turns out they did it, nobody will ever look beyond the parents in anything similar ever again, lets wait and see.

Bloody Football!

Why do I put myself through this?

Saturday, senior championship, was a sub, 1 point defeat after leading by 5 with 15 mins left

Sunday, intermediate championship, playing, 1 point defeat after leading by 5 with 15 mins left,

Monday, minor championship, manager, 4 point defeat after leading at half time and playing the 2nd half with the wind.

Tonight... training again

Insania.

We really do need to talk about kevin!

I don't normally read much fiction, but it being August and the weather being complete shite, I've robbed the shelves of a few novels lately, in fact I've read four in the last two weeks.

This is the stand out by a mile.

It's a great read which reminds me of the only time in my life I rang a radio show, it was Gerry Ryan about ten years ago and he was doing a piece on this English guy who was waiting to be executed on death row, and Gerry was doing his populist bit about what he'd like to see done to your man if it was Gerry's daughter he murdered.

He's all death penalty the bould Gerry, so i rang him up and asked him what he'd think if it was his son who did the killing, how would he feel then?

He gave me all this rubbish about how no son of his could ever do something like that. Funny enough I bet most parents of murderers would have felt the same

Anyway, that's what the book is about, it's from the mother of the perpetrator's perspective, and it's a damn good read, enjoy it (although enjoy is really the wrong word)

Rage, Rage, Rage.

I love my Apple powerbook, it's quick, easy to use and most of all looks drop dead gorgeous.... but sometimes even the things we love most have little faults that drive us round the feckin bend... and my G4 is no exception.

We've been together about 20 months and early in our relationship it could do no wrong, i was just thrilled to be seen along with it, and when someone was using one just like it in a movie or a tv show i would exclaim "what a smart person, look at the beautiful laptop they have"

It seemed our relationship put me right up there with Hollywood and I would never miss an opportunity to show her off.

And then one day she let me down...bad.

As often is the case it was only a little thing... her powercable broke, just when i was about to use her for an important presentation, and for a week i fumed at her, but i got a replacement cable, not a replacement laptop and things returned to normal, well not normal exactly, i noticed a difference in our relationship, i did not trust her so much anymore... and i was often found checking her cable and wondering would she let me down again.

Well she did... last week in fact... it's cost me a lot of grief and no little money, and i still don't have one..so she sits there, useless.

The guys in the computer store look at me now with a little sympathy, where once just to have her with me drew envious looks and great appreciation... this morning when i went (in vain) to collect her cable, they just looked a little sorry for me... did she let you down again they said...and i had to admit that yes..she had.

It's the same fault as before they said... she's flawed... and although we can patch her up for now... there's no guarantee she won't let you down again in future.

They never said it outloud... but i knew what they were thinking..

We have a beautiful one... a hollywood one... sans flaw... one you can take out with you and all you will draw are admiring glances... the old one will never do that again.. let her go... we'll take care of you.

But i can't... i still love her and want to give her every chance.. despite knowing that her cable may still let her down again... i'm going to give it one more chance.

There is a moral in this story... and it's this.

APPLE.... GET YOU'RE BLOODY FINGER OUT AND STOP MAKING BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTS WITH FATAL FLAWS..

I have macs... ipods.... and in the autumn i fully intend to have an iphone when they come out... but christ almighty why do you have to make it so hard to love you?

It's a bloody cable.... the most important part of beautiful design is that it does the shaggin job in the first place...

Rant over!

Some Days!

It's August, this month has frustrated me every year since I started the business, difficult to get work, difficult to get paid, difficult to contact people.

After my first August in this business I swore that I would create a situation where I could take the entire month off and enjoy myself, but it has not happened yet!

The problem is stuck in the middle, i'm neither at work or not at work right now, I have a lot of work lined up for September, but no one wants to see me for the next few weeks.

That sums me up right now.. stuck in the middle.

The only thing that gets me going when I feel like this is deliberately focussing on the good things, the things in my life that make it wonderful, family, friends, sport, fun, and the knowledge that this vacant somewhat gloomy phase will drift by, like it's always drifted by before... there's so much to appreciate and so much to look forward to.

Self awareness (self obsession)

It's mad really, that Socrates lad (or was it Aristotle) reckoned the unexamined life is not worth living, and yet these days the whole world is unhappy because everyone spends massive amounts of time staring at their navels and concluding that yes indeed they are too fat, poor, busy, neurotic, lazy, unhealthy, old, useless or some other bloody thing that can only be corrected by weightwatchers, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Garnier or Dr. Bobs mental agility training.

Maybe people should live a bit more and have a bit more craic instead of constantly looking for artificial holes that can only be filled by (expensive) miracle cures.

Them lads Aristotle and Socrates might have been better off having a few pints rather than starting off this obsession lark.