Life's simple, why change it?

Thoughts for the day…

jbwan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:10:18 +0000

Just a few of the things on my mind today:

1) People who walk into warzones with the ambition of refusing to let people fend for themselves and get into trouble, only to arrive home and brag about enjoying “Eggs Benedict” should never be received with open arms nor great applause for their false altruism and complete lack of a grasp on reality.

2) Mary Coughlan threatening the Irish consumers that shopping North of the border will cost jobs in the South. A few weeks back she and her cabinet were begging us to share everything with the EU now we can’t even drive a few miles North for massive cost savings without being held accountable for the way the country is run? Never mind the complete hypocrisy of the situation when the equivalent case is people in Waterford going on a shopping trip to Dublin, thereby costing jobs in Waterford, but somehow that’s ok? Get a f**king life Mary!

3) Wondering how we got to the situation whereby nobody has accountability when things are deliberately f**ked up in this country but yet the compensation culture always finds somebody accountable and punishable for trying to help or for doing their job.

4) Thinking that it’s entirely fitting and says a lot about the Irish future when the RTE correspondent on financial matters is called Rob Shortt.

5) Liking that Muse’s new song Uprising is making me think of a crossover between the original Dr. Who theme tune and Blondie’s “Call Me” and that’s exactly why I’ll buy it on iTunes.

6) I know David Byrne from Talking Heads had a solo career but why can’t I think of a single song title?

7) Thinking that evolution of communcations technology is a mostly useless activity that only causes more disruption and wasted finances that it creates benefit. We should be focussed on laying fibre to every door in Ireland and let the bandwidth provide the benefit instead of trying to lay shyte on top of it that nobody really cares about but only uses because the traditional channels are no longer open.

8 ) Wondering how much longer I can stand the constant irritation of reinvention.

9) Wondering how some people live life in a Scott free way, without any recourse for illegal activity and knowing fraud; protected by organisations that never find in favour of complainants nor admit failure despite being 100% wrong.

10) Thinking I’m going to need a bigger hard drive for the movie footage, 1h 20mins of HD is coming in at 40GB and there’s many, many more hours to be captured.

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Lisbon: A Final Word

jbwan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:32:45 +0000

This Friday the people of Ireland will go to the polls and at this moment in time I have no doubt that the Lisbon Treaty will be approved by a majority YES vote.

Yes, I advocate the NO vote but so too am I realistic with respect to the current state of play. Without offence to any individual, the YES side is made up of people whose jobs would not exist if they were not needlessly paid by somebody to be there and die hard Euro fanatics who would question their own mother before questioning the European Parliament, e.g. die hard trade unionists, politicians, minority businessmen whose business depends on EU subsidies, etc. The NO side is made up of people who are independent, self-starters who didn’t inherit a business to run, and minority political forces who will never become career politicians of any magnitude.

So why am I so convinced that the treaty will be carried? Well it’s simple really. The Irish are easily scared, rarely exhibit backbone, and are too ignorant to actually read anything they ever vote on. In addition to this, so-called independent bodies have done nothing but publish guides on how to vote YES, debates on national TV have always portrayed a majority leaning towards YES, the only credible NO campaigner is the victim of a slur campaign by our government and also was brought onto the main evening news to be ripped apart while no YES campaigner has ever received a similar treatment nor stern questioning of the value in voting YES. Finally, effecting the Lisbon Treaty will have consequence as simply put, consequence is the result of implementing any change, and no act of sublime lunacy is without consequence.

So a provisional congratulations to the self-interest groups and career politicians who successfully ran a campaign of, well actually it debases all my beliefs to call it a campaign given that not a single fact was used by the pro-YES vote side. Equally annoyed I am at the pro-NO side for using equal amounts of scaremongering and fallacious rubbish before anyone says anything about them. Anyway, congratulations on making it an iron clad fact that the voice of the Irish people will never be listened to within their own country nor within the EU. Congratulations on securing an opinion poll majority from people who believe that Lisbon will effect economic recovery. Congratulations on reaffirming your unquestionable stance in society whereby democracy is always wrong unless it’s the answer you want. Well done – you should be very proud of yourselves.

For anyone as of yet undecided, for those who have not bought the claptrap that a YES will bring economic recovery, keep us in Europe, send out waves of positivity to foreign investors, and pave the streets with gold – fair play to you for not yet being sucked in. For those who are die hard that the EU has treated us so well, that being part of the EU is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that life can’t exist without the EU as it stands, I have the following question: Why on earth are you voting in a treaty that guarantees changes to the EU and doesn’t preserve it in the way that it currently exists and has been good to us? The only consequence as a result of Friday’s vote will be if the treaty is passed – any other outcome changes nothing about the operation of the EU nor Ireland’s role within.

I’m not a Euro sceptic nor do I have any paranoid delusions of the EU being out to get us. I simply don’t ever accept YES as a default action and I despise change for the sake of change; change that serves little other purpose than justifying huge amounts of expenditure by some group of bureaucratic pen pushers. Let’s put it this way, if the Public Service in Ireland was campaigning for the opportunity to give itself more power and waste extraordinary amounts of public money on rejigging documents that have little to no effect on the running of the country, would you vote YES to their campaign?

Anyway, “que sera, sera”. Frankly I am both ashamed to be an Irish citizen and also ashamed to be a European who is currently frowned upon for not letting petulant, power-hungry, politicians get their way. Post-Lisbon Ireland will bear little difference to pre-Lisbon Ireland – only the passage of time will have any effect on the landscape. Twice in recent history we stuck our heads out and said something to the EU and twice we were slapped on the wrists – I wonder will Lisbon change the respect that Ireland gets for talking? Will effectively becoming a spineless jellyfish who swallows pride and forgets beliefs, win us the respect that we clearly do not yet have from Europe? Only time will tell…

Lisbon II – What’s Changed? Last October the Irish people went to the polling booth...
I predicted it! A couple of weeks back I was talking to Siân...
“Dire-land” – FT.com A clever and appropriate nomenclature coined by John Murray Brown...

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Gobs-Mac’ed!

jbwan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:43:13 +0000

Today I turned a day older; I’ve decided to celebrate each day of life from now on rather than waiting 365 days in between birthday celebrations but yes, they do happen to be one of the same on this occasion.

Anyhow, Siân is always surprising me with some thoughtful present that I don’t know how she manages to figure out but always gets it bang on. Today upon returning home for lunch was certainly the biggest surprise of all. I had no idea what to expect but I was knocked for six – a brand new iMac 24″ with a copy of Final Cut Express to indulge my movie editing hobby. While words have preceded this point in the text I can assure you that I was and still am, mostly speechless.

Thanks honey, it’s absolutely fabulous! I’ll have to put my thinking hat on now for her birthday in December – I might just have to tie a bow around the car and handover the keys.

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I predicted it!

jbwan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:23:08 +0000

A couple of weeks back I was talking to Siân about what I perceived as the shameless pro-YES campaign being run for the Lisbon Treaty. I’ve been taking notes of the kind of voices that are being given air time from the NO side and the amount of YES side commentary and blatant lies that are being thrown around, coupled with ridiculous amounts of auld buddies from business lobby groups backing up their political friends. Anyhow, I made the remark that it would only be a matter of time before we saw an advert on RTE from Aer Lingus that told people that their deal for a trip Lisbon was just too good to ignore.

Gobsmacked, I sit here with a cup of tea watching ads on RTE and behold, Aer Lingus’ new advert for city breaks, hypnotic music, oodles of enticing and pleasant sounding words, mentioning of a great deal, and finally in big, bold letters, in the middle of the screen, “LISBON” – I kid you not. I’m not big on conspiracy theories as I like cold hard facts but I said that this would happen and now, 2 weeks before the treaty vote we have the advert that asks people how they could say NO to Lisbon. I don’t believe in that kind of coincidence – not in a million years.

Lisbon: A Final Word This Friday the people of Ireland will go to the...
Lisbon II – What’s Changed? Last October the Irish people went to the polling booth...
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links for 2009-09-15

jbwan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:04:33 +0000

Stack Overflow

Useful resource of quick and snappy tech questions and answers with a focus on programmers' needs.

(tags: programmer programming resource answers questions faq)

links for 2009-09-08 Making Movies: More about music, copyright, and fair use...
links for 2009-08-11 Communication and Conflict (tags: alan sharland mediator mediation conflict...

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Recurring digit dates

jbwan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:15:34 +0000

Yes, today is 09/09/09 and for many it will be remembered as the day that The Beatles’ catalogue was re-released with remastered tracks for all to enjoy. Not me however. I will remember it as the day that I read Bernard Goldbach’s post about how he trawls through recurring digit dates such as 08/08/08 and 07/07/07, etc, for content he blogged about on those days and realising that in the 7 or so years of my blogging life, I have never posted content on one of those numerologist’s dream dates. Where have I been? While I will remember this day for noting the absence of these dates from my recorded life, I will also enjoy the irony that I now break that trend by noting it. Sweet irony…

Israel – A summary 60 years ago (1948 to be exact) a large body...

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links for 2009-09-08

jbwan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:02:46 +0000

Making Movies: More about music, copyright, and fair use

Making movies and adding music, copyright issues and buyout alternatives

(tags: music movie film production buyout song royalties copyright options)

links for 2009-09-15 Stack Overflow Useful resource of quick and snappy tech...
links for 2009-08-11 Communication and Conflict (tags: alan sharland mediator mediation conflict...
Old Sci-Fi makes me smile Sitting down earlier today I was idly flicking channels when...

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“Dire-land” – FT.com

jbwan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:08:29 +0000

A clever and appropriate nomenclature coined by John Murray Brown of FT.com to summarise Ireland at the moment. Our Emerald Isle is looking more like a junk shop, jade dragon – cheap, useless, outdated, and fragile. On one hand our country is fighting the evil of wreckless developers and their associated debts while on the other the government and courts appear to be doing everything possible to stop these people from going bankrupt and giving them all the chances necessary to welcome them into the ba-nama republic that we have created. It’s fair to say that some great strokes were pulled over the years by unscrupulous Irish politicians but what we are currently witnessing is the equivalent of the first admiral on the Titanic persuading people to get back out of the lifeboats! Amidst all of this iceberg hugging behaviour is the persistent belief that somehow getting the public to vote YES on the Lisbon Treaty’s second time referendum will save the country, as if Christ the Financier were due a second coming. Rather than awaiting the return of our money messiah however, we should probably be more focused on crucifying the current radicals that have brought us to the water’s edge but neglected to admit that they were drowning while supposedly they were walking on the surface. Here’s a link to the FT.com article.

Lisbon II – What’s Changed? Last October the Irish people went to the polling booth...
Lisbon: A Final Word This Friday the people of Ireland will go to the...
I predicted it! A couple of weeks back I was talking to Siân...

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links for 2009-08-11

jbwan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:02:55 +0000

Communication and Conflict

(tags: alan sharland mediator mediation conflict resolution communication)

links for 2009-09-15 Stack Overflow Useful resource of quick and snappy tech...

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Adventures in Feedback

jbwan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:44:12 +0000

Messing around with a digicam, a laptop, and some video capture software, produces some interesting results. No after effects added, just simple feedback on the audio and the video to create a dynamic, recursive effect, he unashamedly says could be confused with 2001 A Space Odyssey. Seriously though, it’s amazing what you get for free with no software.

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