The Weekend

Had another very busy weekend. I'll be a little happier when Christmas is done. Hopefully things will calm down a bit.

Saturday afternoon we took Tasha's little cousin, Shannan, to Christmas on Ice in the RDS. She had a good run around and went to see Santa.

Then we had dinner in the evening with a few of Tasha's friends. It was in a very nice Italian restaurant in Stillorgan. Had a good few glasses of wine to start the night off :P

Tasha's friends headed off to a "normal" club, Tasha got a taxi home and I went to Dominion. Thought I'd be ready to fall asleep at that stage but I still managed to get even more inebriated and carried on like fool with Marita and Orla. Sorry ladies, will be good from now on.

Whitby Nov 2005

Tasha's already booked our accommodation for Whitby next year. Anyone who goes there will agree, you have to book well in advance.

The past two times we've stayed at Ashford Guest House on the Crescent. They were great; courteous, friendly and appreciative of our cleanliness.

However, this year we'll be heading over with at least one other person, ickle_tayto. This'll be more fun and we will rent a car for day trips, shopping, etc.

As a result, we've booked the Jet Apartment. It looks like a very nice place to stay and the owners were quick to reply.

If anyone has any feedback on the Jet Apartment, let me know.

TTFN

Weekend

Had a great weekend. The New Model Army gig was great if a little short. Lots of unrelenting moshing and a bit of Bush bashing. Only got a few photos on 35mm so they'll take a while to surface until the roll is finished.

Dominion seemed better that usual too. Good music and some new people.

Still playing through Half-Life 2 again. Came across a in-depth look at the history/story of Half-Life at http://hlstory.fragfiles.org/. Well worth a read for any keen HL fan.

New Book

Got a great book over the weekend based on the art and concepts of Half Life 2.

It's called Raising The Bar and explores the characters, creatures, level design, etc.

The stills really put across the level of detail in the game which you miss when you're playing

I think I'll be playing HL2 again soon. This time on a harder setting.

Good Things...

For the techie minded amoung you out there, I found out some good news today.

I use a plugin called NewsGator to download my friends' LiveJournals and other RSS feeds straight into Microsoft Outlook. It works well because it's so seamless.

Another good feature of the plugin was that it allowed you to download USENET newsgroups. Unfortunately, this was blocked in work because it requires a server.

BUT...

The good news I found out is that the new Google Groups 2 offers it's newsgroups as an Atom XML feed. So now I can relay them straight into Outlook.

Yay!

Whitby Photos

Ta daaaa

Weeks later, lazy John has finally uploaded his Whitby photos.

Some diligent people had there's online the day after but I'm not that sort of guy.

These are the direct likes to each gallery

Zodiac Mindwarp http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060656
Torsohorse http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060656
Claytown Troupe http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060639
Beautiful Deadly Children http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060632
Corrosion http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060612
The Last Dance http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060608
Manuskript http://www.photobox.ie/album/1060565

Still have to upload the Alien Sex Fiend photos (100 of them)

Whitby Photos

I've edited all my Whitby band photos and will be uploading them tonight.

About time

Yawn!!!

Another Monday morning.

Quiet weekend. Headed into town while Tasha was at college, in an attempt to get her some stuff for Xmas. Unfortunately, she was finished and in town quiet early.

Bought some more CDs/DVDs in Tower and HMV:

Marilyn Manson - Lest We Forget
A Perfect Circle - Emotive
Sex Gang Children - Execution and Elegance
Rammstein - Reise, Reise
Siouxsie And The Banshees - The Best Of (with DVD)

Just after spotting on Amazon there's a special edition of Lest We Forget with a DVD of the videos. Doh!

Looks like I'm in the same boat as the Siouxsie Best Of with a spare copy laying about.

Also bought Placebo's Once More With Feeling DVD for Tasha for our anniversary. Great to see some of the old videos again.

Photos :(

So much for good intentions. I never got around to doing the photos from Whitby.

What with my new flat panel monitor and Half Life 2, I kind of got distracted. Oh well!

On another note, Tasha got me the Little Apple Dolls for our anniversary. She spends so much on presents for me.

I feel so bad because I always leave things to the last moment and don't get a chance to go through town. Anyway, I bought her Placebo's new DVD which has all their videos. She seems very happy with that. Might try to get her something else on Saturday in town while she's at college.

Our Anniversary

Joy, Joy, Happy, Joy

Today is our Anniversary.

We've been going out 4 years.

I love my Tasha-boo.

:)

Monitor

Good and bad news. The 19" Dell flat panel monitor arrived and looks great but the sound bar attachment I also ordered is incompatible with it.

My own fault for not thoroughly checking model numbers, etc.

Anyway...

Whitby Photos

Okay, here's the deal. Tasha's off o a work do tonight so I could just arse about playing Half Life 2. But, instead I will try to get all my Whitby photos done and dusted.

I'll have to do some colour/level correction, resize and upload. I'll be uploading to PhotoBox because I can access it in work.

So fingers crossed, I'll have them posted tonight.

New Monitor

For my birthday, my mum and dad gave me some money so I decided to buy a flat panel monitor. I went for a Dell 19" and also ordered an attachable sound bar to free up the clutter of speaker cables.

Fingers crossed, it should arrive within the next week.

Weekend

Had a good weekend. I got to laze about on Saturday while lady_bastet was off at college. Watched some of the extras on Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban and read my Half Life 2 players guide.

Then we started getting ready to head out. Had another great time at Dominion. I was very lucky to be joined by some very beautiful ladies, my lady_bastet of course, ickle_tayto and Marita. Bernard and ickle_tayto's friend from the UK, Matt, also joined us.

Drank copious amounts of secreted Absinthe (yay, big hip flask) and danced my dizzy ass off.

Sunday was spent shopping in some strange (watch your wallet) markets as well as some nice shops.

My Birthday

It's my birthday today. 26 years young.

And it's at times like these, some special words come to mind:

"Don't get strung out by the way I look
Don't judge a book by the cover

I'm not much of a man by the light of day
But by night I'm one hell of a lover"

Hee hee

:P

Now I'm Feeling Zombiefied...

Forgot to mention, when I was at Whitby I managed to grab one of Nik Fiend's
plastic skulls which he was kicking/throwing/ talking to.

It's not much but I'm happy :)

Half Life 2

Grrrr!!! I'd rather be singing the praises of Half Life 2 right now but
that's unfortunately not the case.

lady_bastet bought it for me on her way home from work. I've
been waiting on this game, like many fans, for months (if not a year or so).

What has me angry is the amount of internet registering you have to do. You
can't actually play this game if you don't have an internet connection (at
least to register).

I installed the game (3.5GB), went online, updated the game engine
automatically, had to create an account (kept dropping out due to number of
users on servers), registered CD Key to activate game (kept dropping out
again) and finally activate the local game files.

After that I was under the impression I could play the game without the
internet but it just doesn't seem to want to work.

I'll try again tonight after work :(

ME WANT GAME NOW

Ear Pierced

I know it's probably not a big deal to many, but it is to me. Last Saturday
I got the top of my ear pierced. Yay!

Didn't hurt getting it done and so far there's been no adverse occurrences.
However, 10 minutes after the piercing, I was walking around a shop and felt
a bit wobbly and things started getting dark. Oooh, tis the end!!!

I asked ickle_tayto and her friend, Hannah, could we head
outside, which we did. Sat down for a minute and I was fine. Never come
close to fainting before but it's pretty weird.

Anyway, I'm happy now with it and as already stated, hopefully it'll
continue to stay healthy.

On another note, I bought the Hellraiser Lament Configuration boxed set. It
has the same DVDs as the normal collection (Hellraiser, Hellbound:
Hellraiser 2, Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth and a Bonus Disc) and features
some nice featurettes and other material.

HALF-LIFE 2 TOMORROW!!!!!

TTFN

New Magazines

While we were away, the last 2 issues (4 & 5) of Newgrave magazine arrived.
Newgrave is an American Goth magazine which has the usual mix of music,
fashion, culture, etc. Unfortunately, it's finished up now but you can still
order some back issues.

They feature the Japanese J-Rock and Visual Rock quite a bit too. Love that
look but it's scary that most of them are blokes but they look so beautiful.
EEP!

The layout and presentation started out a bit shaky (fanzine-esque) but it
finished off as a very polished and visually appealing piece of work.

You can check out some more info on past issues at Newgrave

Whitby CDs

As I mentioned previously, my main purchase this Whitby was CDs. Here's what
music tempted the notes from my pockets.

And One - Aggressor
Covenant - Northern Lights
Covenant - Dreams Of Cryotank
Covenant - Europa
Clan Of Symox - Best Of
Das Ich - Antichrist
Faces Of Sarah - Twentyfour
Helium Vola - Special Edition
Manuskript - Devil's Advocate
Manuskript - The Cyprus Recordings
Manuskript - Natural High
Scary Bitches - Creepy Crawlies
Synthetic - A.D.S.R.

Grabbed the Manuskript CDs after the gig and the Covenant Dreams Of Cryotank
& Europa were 2 for £13. Nice!

I likes CDs :)

Back from Whitby

I'll keep this brief...

We had a great time. Got to meet up with our friends from last year, catamite and littlepinkfaery. Met some of their friends.
Hung around with alan_ie too.

The bands were half and half. Some good (Alien Sex Fiend, Last Dance,
Manuskript, Beautiful Deadly Children (funny band!!!)) and some a bit boring
(Corrosion, Torsohorse) and missed some others.

Lots of band photos, some from the Whitby area, and some of the people we
met.

Much money spent on CDs, pictures and a bit on clothes.

I'll probably post my photos to a hosting site from now on rather than using
my own site.

Weekend In

lady_bastet and I invited some friends over last weekend for a
night in. We had a pretty chilled out evening listening to music, drinking,
chatting and, in an homage to cheesy dad's projector slideshows, I showed
some of my digital photos on my notebook.

Some people stayed the night and I had a go at cooking breakfast in the
morning. As far as I know casualties have been minimal :P

I ordered a book about geisha's for lady_bastet, which arrived yesterday. It's produced in a
photo-documentary style and the photography is excellent, bit sparse on
words but it's not that type of book.

Yay Vodafone

I'm sure it's been active for a while but Vodafone have finally opened their
webtext service to other networks.

In the past you could only webtext people with 087 prefixes, then when the
market opened to 086/085, you could still only webtext Vodafone customers.

Now finally you can webtext anyone and with 300 a month, it's pretty good.

Just wish there was an address book feature. Maybe tied in with your email
contacts.

Movies & Camera Oddness

Went to see The Punisher last
night with Tasha, ickle_tayto & Breifne. It was ok but it took a
while to get going and because the character is human, it's not as
fantastical as Spiderman or the Xmen.

On another note, my camera is gone a bit bonkers. A while back my 256MB
Compact Flash card stopped responding. Was lucky enough to get it replaced
for free but that one doesn't work either. The odd things is my 128MB and
less cards work fine. Can't find any answers on the net and I can't return
it cause I bought it from Germany.

What to do...

LJ Commands

Showing my ignorance here, but I'm impressed at the level of customisation
possible in LJ posts.

Almost full HTML support and the additional LJ specific tags give you a lot
more options when posting.

Site Feedback

Feedback seems to be good on the recent additions to my site. Most people in
Dominion checked it out. I should really take pictures of other people to
give a broader interest to visitors.

There's very little photographic promotion of Dominion. When Sindrome was
running, there were photos nearly every week. Any of the big English clubs
have huge photo sections. So I'll try to do my bit assuming people don't
strangle me.

I'll be adding more photos from further back as I get time.

Not too sure about the slideshow control through, runs slow over dialup. I
might try to build plain thumbnail pages instead.

Site Update

I'm nearly done updating my site. I haven't made any visual or architectural
changes but I've added in a lot of photos and a listing of my music.

Might do some visual changes later on. Need some side or navigation
graphics.

Getting Stuff Done

I've finally managed to get some things out of the way. A week back I was
bogged down with a PC repair and a database project to do. Thankfully
they're out of the way now.

Still not too sure how much to charge for the database project. Don't want
to be greedy but I'd like a tidy fee :)

Formatted my PC in preparation for The Sims 2 for Tasha. It's good to wipe
the PC every once in a while. Just have to iron out the backing up process.

Went to see The Village, wasn't a scary as they made out but good twist at
the end. Atypical of M. Night Shyamalan.

Hellboy

Went to see Hellboy with Tasha and Fiona on Monday. I thought it was rather
cool. I like most comic book inspired movies such as Spiderman and the Xmen.
They on the otherhand thought it was plotless and boring.

I also like the fact that it had a cool N@zi assassin with flick swords and
no lips and eye lids!!!

Been a while

It's been some time since my last post. Few bits and bobs have gone on.

I went to see Swarf and Inertia play in the Voodoo Lounge 2 weeks ago. They
were very good, lots of dancing and photos taken. I WILL post some to my
site. I've been very lax of late regarding photos.

Otherwise, I went to Wexford last week. Didn't do much just went swimming
and into town a few times. I did get some good DVDs in the town though.

Beauty In Darkness 7
In Goth Daze
Rammstein - Lichtspielhaus

All very cool and must try to successfully rip them.

More Catalogues

Based on the success of ordering the XtraX catalogue, I'm going to order a
Laughing Vampire and Drac-in-a-Box catalogue too. Laughing Vampire are trade
only for catalogues but I mailed them and they said they'd send me one (must
pass it around to get some custom).

Have to fill out a money order for the Drac-in-a-Box one though. I'd like to
get the latest Lip Service one too but can't seem to find a link/info on the
site.

Sore throat

I've been stricken with an annoying sore throat over the last few days. I
can barely speak at some points (much to the relief of some :)). Still, I
don't get sick much and it's a chance in work to fob people off a little.

Otherwise, all's quite in Johnsville. Done with Anita's wedding, took about
150 photos. They can be viewed at http://www.photobox.ie/album/780894. They
had a beautiful little girl called Ivana as flower girl, the bridesmades
looked fantastic and Anita was beautiful.

Our savings are going well for our house. It'll take some time but fingers
crossed we'll sort something out.

IBM Job Interview

Went for a job interview with IBM yesterday. Kind of got the impression they were looking for people straight out of college. There was an aptitude test, a test on C++ and Java and an oral test on various computing concepts. The interviewer focused more on my college work than on my business work.

Oh well, I still have the ESB for another year and it was an education nonetheless.

apres Paris

Back from Paris since Monday, only getting a chance to post now. Had a great time, with no major hassles. We went to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, etc. but we also visited the Catacombs and the Montmartre Cemetery.

On the Saturday night, we made our way down to the local goth bar, the Kata Bar. It was a cool bar with nice prints on the wall, spooky decorations and good music but we asked if there was a club section and unfortunately there wasn't. So we asked where the nearest club was, got directions and grabbed a taxi.

The club was called Les Caves and it was excellent. Les Caves is a very applicable name as it was tunnels and passages linking moderately sized rooms. Apparently the Cruxshadows played earlier but we missed them, damn. Bought 2 CDs though.

Again, fantastic trip but would've liked to stay longer.

WitchFest

Busy day on Saturday. Went to WitchFest 2004 in Dun Laoghaire. I went to a workshop about crystals and tarot and attended a talk on tarot. The stalls were good with a good selection of clothing, crystals, paintings and tarot readers. Tasha and Finn had a reading and were well impressed.

Headed back to Finn's after that before heading out to Dominion. Had some new faces with us in Dominion, a bloke from America and another Australia. The usual mix of familiar and varied music was played. The music always seems better at the end of the night :)

Came across one of the old Dominion newsletters in Tasha's on Sunday. Shame it's not still going, it was a good read and put together well. I could suggest it on iegoth but I can only guess how that'd go down.

Brother Attacked

Well what can I say. I always knew the world is full of repugnant, bottom-feeding puke but at least most of them have kept their distance from my family. That was until my brother was attacked on his way home. He was only 1 minute from our house where he was blocked and attacked from behind for no aparent reason. Only when he offered his phone and wallet did they seem to leave. What makes it worse is that his attackers were only 14-16 but there was 5 of them. I hope each one of them gets hit by a car/bus/truck.

Whitby Nov 2004 Tickets

Yay, our tickets for Whitby in November finally arrived. Apparently Jo Hampshire was moving house.. Fair enough.

Not all that impressed with the lineup but it'll still be good fun to meet up with people, buy some nice things and take some photos. I'm sure some of the bands are cool just don't know of them.

Epson Stylus Photo RX600

New gadget wish...

I've planned to get an all-in-one scanner/printer for some time. I was going to ask my mum and dad to get me one by HP, the PSC 2175. Coincedentally, they went out and bought one for themselves a few weeks back.

Anyway, long story short, I've put that model behind me cause the one I want now is the Epson Stylus Photo RX600. It has all-in-one:

- Flatbed Scanner
- Transparency Scanner
- Printer
- Copier
- Card Reader
- Front USB port (not sure if it connects through to the PC)
- LCD Display

I might have to chip in on the cost though, it's about 430 euro.

Paris Trip

Finally got a chance to tell Tasha about our trip to Paris. We'll be heading over at the start of July for 3 nights. Should be great fun and I'm glad I was able to do something nice for her. I do love her quite a bit :)

Now I just have to study up on my French...

Dodgy Zen NX Again

Unfortunately, my Zen NX broke again. Tasha got on to them and got it sorted and they sent out a whole new kit with battery, cables, the lot.

I'll keep a close eye on this one. Fingers crossed it won't crash out on me this time. Quite like it, ya know :)

Nearly done converting my MP3s over to WMA, so I'll finish them off then do a transfer.

XtraX Catalogue Arrived

Just got our XtraX catalogue in the post and it has sooo much clothes and stuff it's unfair. Over 300 pages including Raven, SDL, Alchemy Gothic, Gothics Germany, New Rocks, Scary Miss Mary, Ruby Gloom, Rachael Huntington, Black Arts...

And the list goes on. I'm sure a lot of friends will be interested to have a look :P-

XtraX

Even though Tasha and myself have known of the German goth clothing site, XtraX, we haven't really checked it out much. This was because up until recently the site was only in German and difficult to follow.

Thankfully, it's in English too now and it's soooo cool. They have tons of gorgeous clothes and very good prices. They also stock a wide range of sizes. We've order a catalogue and will, no doubt, be ordering copious amounts of stuff in time.

Camping In Cairn

Went camping for the weekend in Wexford. Even though it was mostly Tasha's friends, a good time was had by all. We even had a little BBQ. Could've been a bit warmer but I shouldn't really complain.

I would like if we could get a bunch of our friends together and book a house like we did in Tramore. That was a laugh.

Windows Media Player 10

The new version of Windows Media Player was revealed today in the form of a technical beta. Version 10 boasts a modified design and new features such as synchronising with portable devices. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like mine will work with it because it doesn't show up as a Mass Storage Device i.e. requires custom drivers :(

There was rumours of a new firmware for the Zen series to allow driverless connection so there might be a chance. That is unless Creative decide not to work on the Zen NX.

Barry Chat

Got a chance to meet up with Barry last night. Tasha joined us and we chatted about this and that. Must organise a BBQ for all our friends in the not too distant future...

Absinthe!!!

Tasha's mum brought me back 2 bottles of Absinthe from Fuerteventura. It's so cheap abroad, only 15 euro per bottle compared to near 65 euro over here.

The first bottle is a Black Absinthe by Jacques Senaux and clocking in at 85% vol. I think the black is a colorant and you can taste it within the usual flavour. It's nice though and has a strong burn and dried my throat a little :)

Haven't tried the other one yet. It's called Absenta Tunel and clocks in at 70% vol. and 140 proof. It smells like Hills or Le Fey so it should taste similar.

I'll have everyone on missions to buy me Absinthe from abroad.

Decorating

Bit of a break cause LJ was blocked in work. Seems to be back now.

Spent weekend decorating Tasha's mum's bedroom. Utterly knackered now, but it was worth it.

She brought me back 2 bottles of Absinthe to add to my collection

Whitby Tickets

Ordered out tickets for Whitby in November and the payment's gone through. Can't wait to go again.

Just wish I knew what bands were playing?

Quiet Saturday

Had a quiet enough weekend. Stayed in on Saturday with Tasha. Fiona and Finn came over and we watched the new Peter Pan...

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do :)

The new notebook to TV cable I got works perfect except for of Tasha's TV. Otherwise, had pizza and drank wine. Good combo.

Went to see Van Helsing on Sunday. Not exactly brain surgery but good fun anyway.

Repaired Zen NX

Got my Jukebox Zen NX back but they cheaped out on me and only returned the base unit. Some people on the Net said they got a whole new kit, battery, earphones, etc.

Suppose I shouldn't be greedy :(

Broken Zen NX

My Creative Zen NX went belly up over week ago and I sent it off for repair. Unfortunately, the dingbats at Creative have misplaced the order and claim we need proof of payment again. Even though we did that already.

We wouldn't have sent if off if weren't told it was good to go???

Dominion 24th April

Headed out to Dominion last weekend. Had a great time with Tasha and Finn. Seb did a VJ set which is always cool and was well received by everyone.

A few muppets from upstairs wandered down and were hassling Anita but fortunately, her boyfriend/friends came over and they fecked off.

In music news, I've been trying to buy up more CDs, preferably cheap ones, of different bands. I got All About Eve - Scarlet And Other Stories, Field Of The Nephilim - Earth Inferno and Xmal Deutschland - Tocsin last weekend. All are great and in total cost only 25 euros.

All About Eve gig

Just back from my sister's wedding and during the week beforehand, we got a chance to go see All About Eve in Bury near Manchester.

They were supported by, a late arriving, The Last Dance. They did a great performance despite their rushed setup and sounded quite like The Cruxshadows (in fact they thank them in their CD inlay). I got one of their albums, Whispers In Rage, which I've seen before in a few magazines. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to listen to it properly.

Again, the delay held up All About Eve who had been at the venue since before The Last Dance arrived. They did an excellent set which was very similar to their set list at Whitby (think this gig was a continuation of a tour) including Our Summer, What Kind Of Fool, etc. but no Martha's Harbour even though someone in the audience called for it :-) Julianne and Andy joked about between songs and kept the mood enjoyable despite running late and having to axe some tracks. Got their Iceland CD for the lovely track Melting and their DVD which, so far, looks very polished and has plenty of content.

All in all a great time and look forward to listening to their material.

Back to work now I suppose

Medal of Honor

Lots going on in work today, nothing interesting, just reports and meetings.

On a lighter note, I'm really enjoying playing Medal of Honor at home. Can't believe I didn't get the game until now. Got a great bundle which includes the original game and the 2 expansion packs in one package.

Also looking forward to Half-Life 2. Damn delays!!!

NewsGator

I can't recommend enough a great plugin for Microsoft Outlook called NewsGator. It integrates flawlessly with Outlook and allows you to download news feeds (RSS, RDF, etc.), USENET newsgroups and weblogs such as LiveJournal. And with another small plugin you can post directly to your weblog from Outlook.

http://www.newsgator.com

First Post

Historic first post to my new LiveJournal :) Wahoo! Here I shall rant and rave about interests, revelations and other stuff.

I'll try to post the odd photo too, if possible.