Blog Blog Blog Blogging on Heaven's Door

So, Christmas has passed, and now we have the New Year to look forward to. This Christmas holiday is going to be a strange one for me, in that I'll be spending a lot of it alone. Heading back to Dublin soon for rehearsals, which means until the start of the next semester I'll have my flat, and most of the surrounding accommodations more than likely, to myself. So, fun times! I will have lines to learn, songs to master, and a whole new instrument to distract my attentions for some time, but the fact of the matter is, that I will probably be spending the most time with myself than I have for quite a while now, which, I'll be honest, scares me a little bit.

New Year: What will it hold in store for me? Speaking honestly, New Year is one of my favourite times of the year. Everyone is still on a high from the Christmas celebrations, the year that's coming hasn't been spoiled by realities, and still lives in the realm of possibility and it's a great excuse to purge anything you don't like by way of New Year's Resolutions. I've never been one to make NYR's though, believing instead that change can come at any time, think I might try and do it this year though.


NYR #1 Blog More

More to come, in fact, I may dedicate an entire post to a list of my NYR's. I also think I should make more lists.  

NYR #2 Make More Lists

That is all for now faithful followers. Talk to you before the new year, if not, then stay safe, stay classy and stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment of my life in writing.

P.S. For those of you who are fans of musical excellence, comedy and superpowered sagas, check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the first episode of which I leave below, as an offering to you. Enjoy!

All Blogged Up

Semester one of college is now behind me, and, apart from physics, has been what I would call a success. In fact, i'm looking forward to the second term in some ways. But yeah, college, after all my fretting and initial doubts has been a blast. Truly coming to learn the true meaning of college. Finished a presentation with about two hours to go, showed up ferociously hungover, after approximately two and a half hours of admittedly fitful and alcohol induced sleep, managed to, not to blow my own horn or anything, knocked that sucker out of the park with a stream of bullshit that would make a politician proud. Ten percent of Professional Engineering module, you didn't stand a chance.

Speaking of drunken/hungover triumphs, unfortunately for those of you out there who know what a great drinking buddy I can be when I'm not lost, passed out or befriending homeless people, will be saddened to learn that as of today I am curbing my drinking in the interests of my throat. Getting up in front of about 200 people and making an arse of myself for three nights in a row just for the sake of a few bottles doesn't seem like a good idea to me... I also know that I will be eating these words and washing them down with a pint of something or other in not too long a time, but still, it's good to have ideals isn't it?

Well, it seems I have run out of verbal tripe to cram into your cranial cavities so it is time I depart. Farewell, and good tidings. (Or something a little less gay than that, I'm sure you can come up with something.)

Book My Face

So there's this thing called Facebook, you may have heard of it, all the kids are talking about it these days, well, anyway, turns out a while ago I was not so skilled at it. Of late though, I have blossomed into a regular facebook user, even going so far as to take a Facebook quiz today. Turns out I have 100% common sense. Who knew such things could be judged by a series of retarded riddles? If only everything in life were this easy...

Glee!
So, I managed to get my hands on some episode of the "smash hit" new US comedy, Glee. Turns out that it is as good as the hype makes it out to be. It could just be that the subject matter is quite close to my heart, homosexual though it may be, but the cast works so well, and the jokes are delivered with a punchy wryness that leaves me just wanting more. I'll keep you updated the more I see, but until then, keep an eye out for it, and catch it if you can.

On a similar topic, even though people keep complaining about the downturn in entertainment, and how the golden ages of comedy died when Friends jumped the shark, so much so that every comedy that has come since with even a hint of genius or originality has been compared to unfavourably. But with Glee, How I Met Your Mother, 30 Rock and although I haven't yet seen it, Modern Family sounds like a gem aswell. With all these, and the host of others that I forgot, the talk of comedic entertainment dying, or even turning stale, is absolute crap. Long live comedy, long live originality, long live the sitcom.

As a great man once said, "mmmmm, sooomething".

Goodnight fellow bloghounds, and good blogging.

Blogfessions

Bless me Blogger, for I have sinned. It has been aeons since my last post.

Apologies loyal readers, I've been a bit lazy in my updates of late, but this is due to a sudden upturn in events and a sudden downturn in interest of writing about these events. I promise though, that now I will make a pledge to keep you, faithful follower of this diary of diatribes, to update this blog more faithfully than ever... possibly...

Anywho, the deal of late is that I am no longer the mild-mannered engineering college student you once knew. It seems that at my core I am in fact a guy with a leather jacket, greased back hair, an inferiority complex, and no concept of how to treat a woman right, but still manages to get the girl anyway. Yes, Matthew, tonight I'm going to be James Bond! Wait, no, Danny Zuko in Grease... Anywho, goes on stage 8th, 9th and 10th of March in the Sports Hall of Trinity Halls, all are welcome =)

Before I leave, I will drop this golden egg laid from the goose in Kurt Kuenne's head straight into your lap. This is the short film "Validation". It's a terribly charming tale of true love, loss, and parking. A winning combination I'm sure you'll agree. Enjoy!

Depressing, Slightly Existential Ramble

College, you foul mistress, tempting me with freedom while instead trapping me in a glass cage...

So yeah, engineering = a metric fuckton of work (sorry, I just can't use imperial measurements). I wouldn't even mind if it wasn't for the fact that I forget half of the stuff we're currently doing. It's in my head but I just don't know where, like the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Niggling doubts that I may have chosen the wrong course... Sympathies anyone? Advice maybe? I dunno, shtick it out for now, it's interesting, and that is the pinprick of light at what is now looking to be a long and arduous, and work filled tunnel.

Positivities please! Saturday should be fun. Need to get better time management skills, completely made a fuck of my weekend just past by way of thinking there were more hours in the day than was actually possible. That one hour was worth it though, even if it was over in a second...

I wish I had more to say; I assumed that once I got to college my life would be packed to the rafters of new and exciting things to blog about, and would make for a more pleasant reading for all involved, but alas it seems it was not destined to be, for it seems life still the same bland, boring, monochrome mess it was before I jetted off to the Pale... This blog has taken a turn down a wrong road for the moment but I feel i can get it back on track. Next post will be full of fun, but right now I'm tired, scared and missing the woman I love. There are things to be happy about, but it feels like they're being washed away by the tides of monotony that will soon become my life. 9-5 job? No thanks. €30,000 in fees once I leave college? Also a big negative. I know I have the power to make life my own, I just wish I knew how. Helplessness, thy name is Aidan Connolly.

Normal service will resume as soon as possible.

Ain't Nuthin But a Hound Blog

I will be leaving for college in roughly five and a half hours. I'm not going to try and sleep because I know I can't. I haven't felt this way about anything in a looooong time. I'm excited because of the sheer number of possibilities awaiting me in what I'll have to call my home for the next four years, and frankly, the fact that I have to have a new place to call home kindof scares me, but in the most satisfying way. I am dangerous, I know. I've often wished for something new to come along and shake up this existence until all that's left is the bare bones from which I can rebuild, and I think I'm being given that chance now, and I am glad for that.

What's not so easy to do however, is to be happy about what I'm leaving behind. Friends, family, a wonderful girlfriend, my home, my old life, my habits, my comforts, my sense of me? I hope not. I'd like to think I won't change, but I know this experience will change me. Whether it'll change me in the way that noone wants me to change is a question that remains to be answered, but I think we can all rest assured that the day I say "roysh" without even the slightest hint of sarcasm or irony, will be the day run naked through Waterford singing every verse of "I am the Walrus". Ladies and Beatles fans, keep checking my updates for further information...

I don't know what to write about. I don't want to write just now, but I feel I have to. Damn you Blogger you vivacious seductress you, tempting me with your voluptuous binary curves and sensuous digital invitations tempting me to sell my soul to you for that one more fleeting high of a successful blog post. I seriously need to get out more and spend less time with my word a day calendar...

Dan Brown: Who gives a fuck? Not me.

Blog Standard Stuff

Life is good. Like, really good... I still feel like i have nothing to write about, or rather to say, nothing to write about that I would like to broadcast to the world (of seven people who read this blog, thanks you guys, make this all worthwhile:P), but I do feel like i have to blog. So, I think I'll do what I did last time, and randomly spew forth farcical follies from the toxic waste container that is my noggin. Enjoy!

(viewer discretion is advised, some sentiments may contain strong language and/or frequent uses of the word "umbrage")

I like that word, umbrage... I wish I could use ot more often, or even at all, but then I often wonder if I were to use it so frequently, would I be as fond of it? Or would it become a heroin-like addiction where each use of the word wouldst deliver unto me untold ecstasy as though from the halls of Valhalla itself, and I would be forced to create situations whereby the use of the word would not only be considered not unusual, but in fact necessary? I'd become a mad man, ringing up Liveline to tell Joe Duffy the exact quantities of umbrage I had taken when I heard about the fact that "Nice" biscuits aren't really all that nice, and the Consumer Rights Commitee won't do a goddamn thing. I seriously love the word though...

UMBRAGE

Say it, you know you want to...

MICHEAL MOORE! I mean, really, where does he get off eh? He's now releasing a film about how capitalism is the world's greatest evil, and that he is the voice of reason in a sea of batshit insane voices. Look, Micheal Moore is a good filmaker, but that's the problem. I enjoyed Bowling for Columbine, it made me think, but his guerilla filming style is not a substitute for hard facts. It's sensationalist, and everything that I really don't like in a serious political issue; it clouds facts, sullies arguments, and according to some reports just plain makes some shit up. It was entertaining, and if Micheal Moore were to turn his hand to directing mockumentaries in the style of say, Spinal Tap or The Office (UK version, US is good, but less of a mockumentary, more of a sitcom), then i would probably like the guy, but as it stands, by sensationalising his points, doing wild stunts, and then standing brazen faced and saying they have real political merit, he becomes, in my eyes, a bigger joke than the ones that were no doubt hurled at him during gym class as a kid. (Come on, it's Micheal Moore, I couldn't sidestep a fat joke... or him, without breaking a sweat. ZING!)

I like big cups of tea, for some reason they taste better. I know that doesn't really make much scientific sense, but really, I prefer the taste of tea when I know I'll be drinking it for an hour, and slowly turning my insides brown in the process. A tea swimming pool would be a sort of heaven for me... In theory. In practice I'd be horrified at the thought of all the hidden plasters, urine, and copious amounts of sweat that would be lacing my beverage. Icky...

Facebook: How? I mean, I've finally joined the new networking craze (I say new, I mean new to me, sorry about all you technophiles out there who prefer to be in contact with three billion people in seventeen different ways, when one or two seem perfectly ok to me, but whatever), and I just cannot use it. I initially joined to see some photos, with the intention of purging myself from the bittersweet embrace of its binary prison after viewing. I reneged on this however, as I felt it would no doubt be necessary for future viewings of visual delectation, but was found out not so long ago, and now have people joining me and invitations to stuff I don't understand, sort of like going out in Waterford.
     It's hard to say I don't like facebook, because really, I dunno, it presents itself with all the fervour of a little child with a new trick that it's eager to show you. You know you may not be entertained by the trick, but you'll watch and clap, and play along, as you don't want its feelings to get hurt. Again, it isn't that I don't like facebook, it's that IT doesn't like ME. I sign in and am bombarded with stuff I don't want to do, and then when I try to do the stuff I actually want to do, it becomes a coy little bitch, thows a coquettish smile, winks and asks me to try harder. I'm going to stick with facebook, if only out of sheer spite, but I feel I won't like it...
     Coincidentally, if you're ever online, leave a comment/message/stone tablet/whatever you leave on facebook, and once I can get it to stop playing hard to get I will get back to you... Maybe...

Well dear friends, we have reached the end of this once seemingly endless path, and what have we learned? Absolutely bugger all I assume, but I hope you've enjoyed my wasting of your precious time, I know I sure did. 'Til next time kids, just remember that when the pupil is ready, the teacher will come.

(That is also true of altar boys and priests, but for legal reasons, cannot be mentioned on this blog.)

This Is A Test; Do Not Adjust Your Blog-o-vision

College is consuming my mind. I'm sorry my posts aren't more varied, but really, there's nothing else in my mind but college. Well, maybe one thing =)

I can't think of aaaaaanything to write so I shall fill this with random thoughts I am currently having. Enjoy.

I own one pair of shoes presently and they are white. I live in a backwater rural area where roads are mostly covered in shit instead of tar. Worst impulse buy ever.

Chilli con carne is a sort of wonder food. It makes my insides smile, and my mouth jump for joy. If I started a country it would have a plate of chilli con carne on the flag, and there would be a chilli con carne memorial day instead of easter. Or maybe instead of pancake tuesday. I mean, pancakes are great and all, but because they have a day to themselves, it sometimes doesn't feel right to have them just because you want to. With my regime, there will be no stigma attached to pancakes.

There are several beeping noises around me right now. One of them is particularly ominous. I think a crazed bomber has infiltrated my living space. I'll keep you posted.

Schadenfreude: what a word...

The metric system for time... I'm just saying, we should give it a try... Although I dunno would I ever cope with people saying it's 94 past 76 or whatever, but it'd probably make things easier. Right? Guys?

The semicolon is like the forgotten child of punctuation. Not that it's terribly useful, but I bet 90% of people couldn't tell where or when to use a semicolon. This one's for you buddy

Well, I've run out of cerebral sewage to pillage for the purposes of my blog so I'd better wrap this up by saying that life is like a box of chocolates; it's good at first, but you feel kinda shit when you reach the end...

Jagerman? Aidanmeister? We'll work on the PR side of things later.

2 facts about Jagermeister: 

1) It is an evil drink that captures the souls of those who drink it.
2) It grants me superpowers.

There is a story behind factoid number two, but not one I shall recount here. Went to Al's last night and had a freakin' great time. I love sessioning with my friends, it's actually the best thing ever. Getting slightly concerned about my visits from the amnesia fairy though. The slow drip of memory gain in the morning after is never fun. You know you've had a great night when in your mind you went from ripping a shirt off of yourself Hulk style and collapsing with laughter, to being outside on decking in just your underwear, unsure as to whether or not you want to get sick.It's moments like that make me want to believe in some sort of God, just so I have someone to blame all my faults, failures and misgivings on.

I would regail you, dear reader, with tales of excitement and fantasy from that most wonderful of parties, if I could remember any of the fucking night. Ah well.

You know what's great, when you talk to someone for the first time and you feel like you just click. You know who you are... I mean, staying up until it's bright out, talking absolute bollocks with someone who you've never met before in your life? That's something special right there, wouldn't you agree?

I dunno, perhaps I just try to see the extraordinary in the mundane too often, but I think I might be right in saying I'm a little bit richer after tonight's events.

Also, starting from tomorrow this blog is going back to how it was in the first post. I'm starting to head down a road into a town called "Faggotsville" the way I'm going with all these sentimental posts, and I think I'll just keep lighthearted and trivial from now on, unless the mood strikes me...

Time May Change Me, But I Can't Change Time

So, college starts in a few weeks, and to be honest, I am terrified, but in a wonderful way. For too long I've been thinking that things around me are stagnating, that I'm beginning to become a creature of habit, doomed to repeat the same thing over and over ad infinitum, but now this is a chance to break free and have new experiences and meet new people.

This year has been a real eye opener for me. I took it off to get some time to do things I wanted to do, but fell into a work/sleep routine that was so crippling socially and mentally that when I broke free it was as though I was reborn. When I was working I used to feel guilty for calling in sick just so I could see my best friends. Think about that for a second, my job which had no real bearing on my life whatsoever, had subverted my thoughts so much as to make me feel guilty for actually spending time with people I like. It scares me to think of that now. While it may seem to most like this year was wasted upon me, I did in fact learn one thing that I will never, ever forget. Time is golden, and is worth more than any person can give, time with friends on the other hand, is priceless...






(Yes, my new vagina is settling in quite nicely thanks for asking...)

This week I am mostly liking...

As I can't really think of anything really meaningful or interesting to write about after being skullfucked by the awesomeness of inglourious basterds (pardon the crudeness, but honestly there is no other way to put it, pure and simply the film had me transfixed from start to glourious epic conclusion) I am instead going to offer up some delights I have found for myself in the hopes that you too may go and enjoy them yourselves.

Webnet Wonders: If you are a gamer, or are interested in gaming as a storytelling medium, you'd be hard pressed to find something not likable about The Escapist Magazine. It updates daily, and features wide topics including the future of video gaming, the "casual gamer phenomena" and other such gaming topics. It also hosts some stellar videos, notably ZeroPunctuation, and The Unforgotten Realms. If that all gets too much for you why not chill out in the forums Now I know what you're thinking, "A gaming forum, why that'll be chock full of uberWoWers who will do nothing but 'LOLFAG' the whole the whole time and compare the size of their virtual phalluses", but nay, these boards are host to a range of topics, some of them quite specific, like the obvious gaming threads and the like, others being a little less so, like one I was reading about a 15 year old terminally ill boy whose dying wish of losing his virginity was granted to him by hospital staff. It often throws up some interesting stuff and is worth checking out, if only to pass some time.

Celluloidal Pleasures: Well, as you can tell from the opening paragraph I will obviously be writing about Inglourious Basterds. In fact, I would be screaming its praises from the highest mount were my lips not so securely glued to its arse at this very moment. Yes, QT is back and with style. I can't really talk about it in depth without giving too much away, but suffice to say it had me at the edge of my seat for the full 150 minutes. The setting is beautifully realised, Nazi occupied France seeming downtrodden, slightly seemy and for all intents and purposes defeated except for the small crew of guerilla fighters, the eponymous "Basterds". The characters are what really bring this film to life though of course, as with any Tarantino flick, and i have a feeling that Aldo Raine, Donny Donowitz, Hugo Stiglitz and Hans Landa will reside among Mr. White, Vincent Vega and Beatrix Kiddo as some of Tarantino's most memorable characters.I really wish I could give this film higher praise, but words really cannot do it justice, my advice would be to go watch it as soon as possible, and then possibly watch it again, as I plan to.

Audio Treats: Although not new by any means, I have recently taken a renewed liking to Friendly Fires, after having seen them at Oxegen. They have a single due to be released this week I think, called "Kiss of Life", and is executed in their trademark style of samba/african based rhythms and percussions coupled with modern keyboard and basslines. An odd mixture, but one that proves itself to be a teriffic one, enjoy!

Blog The First...

And the lord said let there be light, and there was, and it was good... fast forward 6,000 years (or several billion if you believe those "scientists") and here I am. Lucky you.

Now on to the actual blogging...

Today I had microwave popcorn. When I took it out of the microwave one of the kernels inside popped and I imagined that this must be the feeling mothers get when they feel their baby kick for the first time. Although I doubt babies taste half as good, or are as convenient for watching a movie with...