Well I’ve been getting the finger out and getting some practice for my upcoming driving test. Although as far as I’ve gotten, I’m making steady progress - after all it’s been a while since I last drove on a road. I had a pre-test today, and just barely passed with some work required on general controls and progress - I’ve another 6 lessons so I should get it covered in time for the test (11th November).
Time for a plug me thinks? My instructor Larry from Howth-Sutton School of Motoring is the best instructor I’ve had to date - and I’ve had four! Basically he doesn’t humour me or tell me what I want to hear, if I’m going wrong he tells me so, if I’m going straight and narrow he praises me, he lets you do what you think you should do in a situation (providing it’s not a hazard, or obstruction to anyone), then shows you and keeps you at it until your 100% capable of doing it yourself.
I was thrilled when I mastered the reverse around the corner first time and I’m nearly there with 3-point turn, and I need some work on Hill Start, but it’s getting there. He’s using a copy of the test sheet which the examiner will use to judge my progress and get an idea on what we’ve to focus on.
Sorry for the lack of any correspondence recently, had a few minor problems, such as transferring hosts, a new home network which caused some problems and being swamped with loads of other work, as well as the time spent getting the car sorted for NCT. Anyway, lets get the show on the road:
Purchases: The other occupants of the asylum have been spending money as if it were going out of fashion. In the past week, the living room has been redecorated, a new laptop has been purchased and I scammed got a new printer and router for my efforts. I’ve also boosted ‘Frankenstein’ (my laptop) with an extra 1GB of RAM, had it lying around so decided to throw it in…wonder how long it will take before it chews it up, spits it out and demands more. I know it would be cheaper to scrap it, but having only replaced all the innards I will keep it until it dies…again.
Networking: Remind me again why I hate computers? Oh yes, as nothing ever works properly, and it then blames you on it. I’ve recently built a new home network to make the entire house and garden internet friendly. I’ve been inundated with errors and the new Laptop doesn’t want to comply. Well it didn’t until I shouted at it and told it to fuck off. So after 4 hours of hitting things, and just taking out cables and putting them back in…I fixed the problem. Turned out I was the problem, but I’m blaming the makers of the router, they never made the instructions compatible with a stubborn & egotistical Dubliner.
Hosting: Transferred to Spiral Hosting recently, mainly as they were offering good student deals and free domain transfer which kind of sealed the deal. Decided to move the blog permanently over there so if there is a problem with my current server the blog won’t be affected, and likewise if there is any downtime on SH server there is a live account on my other server to take over. There’s method in the madness!
Baxtard School: My school, as a community school offers courses for Adult Education, it helps to recoup some of the expenses for ongoing renovations and upgrading of computers etc… Anyway, myself and a few others require use of the computer labs for a double period first thing on a Monday morning - no problem as we are scheduled for the room. But there last Monday, mid-way through the class another teacher barges in and kicks us all out - including our supervising teacher as the Adult Education was going to be using the room from then on. WTF? We’re doing projects, need computers, and internet access. All other labs are full so now we’ve nowhere to go!
I think it’s disgraceful that students studying for their Leaving Cert don’t get priority in our own school for the use of the computers, which we’re scheduled for, and which we are entitled to use as the DOE&S provides the grants don’t they? The response from one of the higher up teachers was “find somewhere else to go”, they really thought that one through didn’t they.
Motoring: I’ve rescheduled my driving test once more, I did this as firstly I haven’t driven in a while so I need to get some more practise in before I’m confident in my ability to pass a driving test. Secondly, my car is still not yet on the road, we’re having some issues as regards NCT, still getting it ready to go through the NCT - should pass, it’s sturdy car, I’d be slightly wary of the emissions, but a thrashing up the motorway with some injector cleaner prior to the NCT should sort it out and get it through.
Bare Blog: As you can see, the blog has temporarily returned back to its roots - to make it easier to transfer to the new server. I’m working on getting the plugins back up and running then it will be time to find a suitable theme. Excuse the bare look!
TTV: Got loads of CD’s courtesy of RTÉ’s TTV, well actually my Mam entered the competition and won, but I’m the one who got the benefits. But to be honest, I never heard of any of the artists whom they sent us their albums, except for the Chemical Brothers which the album is really good!
Joke of the Week:
You ever notice how much women hate the word “cunt”?
I think it’s cos it reminds them of who they married.
Video of the Week:
The Specials - Ghost Town
(got the idea from the ‘Spin Master’ on Father Ted!)
Today was my first day back after a week or so off dying with a chest infection, and man flu. Had to go in today to pay off the first installment for Debs tickets (not for another year though!), and I thought I had missed way too much, plus I’m nearly recovered - I’m rarely coughing up my lungs now!
Anyway, morning was okayish. Had an early lunch due to last class before lunch being a free and the year head turning a blind eye to going home. Returned well fueled in the afternoon, which was when things started to really piss me off.
English, as I was absent and out of contact due to being bedridden I couldn’t get the previous nights homework. I usually would in other circumstances, but in this case I hadn’t. The teacher also kept badgering on, trying to make a show of me and others. By the end of the class I went from being quite happy and jolly to wanting to stick a screwdriver into the side of the old bags head.
Rest of classes weren’t great, but weren’t too bad - I would have settled with just jumping on the bonnet of their cars as revenge. Accounting was poxy though, it was last class, a free as teacher was away with the GAA team and just as we were to leave BIFF* walks in forces us to do work we had done previous. He fucks off after five minutes…we leave anyway.
Wasn’t the first day back I imagined. I was irritable, still sick, and had a throbbing headache. But tomorrow I’ve a day off to spend at the FÁS Higher Opportunities thingy in the RDS. Dunno why they gave us the day off, but who’s to complain?
Also, I’ll be changing the theme once more, the present one was uploaded by mistake so the intended one will go online whenever.
*BIFF - Vice Principal, stands for Big Ignorant Fat Fuck.
The great thing about being the Senior, is the Juniors in some way idolise you. Now I’m not talking about worship, I’m talking about respect - something which is lacking between peers in Dublin Secondary Schools to be frank. Although this years batch of First years seem to be more tame then last years, whom I had the misfortune of having to take charge of on more than one occasion - lets just say it turned me to drink!
One thing is though, they are lippy little fucks! When I was a first year, I used to be quiet, reserved, and didn’t give any lip. These, as soon as you try to restore some order they give you a mouthful of abuse! Of course it’s usually resolved with lifting one off the ground and putting him into a bin ‘carefully placing him elsewhere’. Not that I condone bullying, or violence!
But it’s good to be back I must admit. It’s nice to restore some order and routine back into my life, which during the summer involved lots of staying up until the wee hours, sleeping late, and just being a waste of space in town, or at a friends house (I tried to get a summer job - to no avail).
Going back felt like nothing changed, there was some surrealism as when we goto class we sit in the same places we always sit, the teachers continue from exactly the point from where we left off, but there has been some changes such as classes starting and finishing 5 minutes early, some new teachers (new English, religion, careers & French teachers for my subjects).
Also, to my surprise, the teachers haven’t been badgering on constantly about the Leaving Cert - Study Study Study - your life ends here and so on. They’ve been acknowledging it, saying what we’ve to expect on the paper but nothing yet about study structure or anything. But I suppose we haven’t yet started anything. The first week is more to orientate and to get yourself sorted out.
I’ve also learned that some teachers read this blog on a regular basis - so I’ll have to be on my best behaviour and keep my tongue in my cheek
Yes the rat race has begun - officially! Today was my first day back as a 6th year, the final rum in my publically funded education - following this we’re released into the real world to fend for ourselves - be it in work, college or being on of those free loaders who want to go travelling for a year! Despite the occasion it was a normal day - albeit a half one!
The first official day back was last Tuesday, although it was just to get timetables and the ’speech’ - basically it’s the most predictable talk about how important this year is and so on…like everyone hasn’t been saying that to us already!
Anyway, it’s good to be back - into some routine! The only downside is having to get up early in the morning…
It’s the Irish Syndrome to complain about a holiday when you get back to head straight for the nearest bar for ‘proper’ pint of Guinness - no more of that limp wristed fairy juice they pump you with over in Spain! But I will deviate slightly from expectations! So why am I showboating so much about the holiday well - forseeable this will be my last holiday away with the family and my last abroad holiday for atleast a year! So I’m savouring it!
Anyway, had a great flight over - Airline food was actually edible, got in on time and got bags nice and early before catching a coach to the appartment. Checked in and by that time it was 10 o’clock so went for Italian meal at a nearby restaurant.
The next few days were a blur of monotonus relaxation poolside of trapsing through the array of shops - all selling the same cheap tat. Although the only places where you could get quality goods was on the Spanish equivilant of Grafton Street. The only splurges which I had were on my obligatory Hugo Boss and a fancy Casio watch which set me back €130 - but as the sales woman said ‘you pay for quality’, to my response was I don’t want to pay that much! But she twisted my arm and I endulged!
Another source of tat is the numerous illegitimate stalls, which if you show any sign of interest will not let up until they part you with your money - I learned that hard way with a stall owner, when returning to the apartment I glanced at a stall with fake-poorly imitated watches and handbags. I displayed a morsel of interest in a watch to which the guy wanted €45, to which I responded I wasn’t interested. A mini-arguement ensued when I wanted to leave and he kept throwing prices at me for this watch. Eventually I gave him €20 for the watch - just to get him out of my face! And don’t just think this is an isolated business tactic, it’s plagued all around Spain - just bear in mind none of them are there to serve you, they’re there to rip you off!
Another thing which ripped me off was the amusement machines, such as grabbers, and various other point and shoot thingys. There was one which was a 3 pixel ’snake’ going across a line of 7 pixels. You initially stopped it and then another ’snake’ started above the one you just stopped and you had to match them. This went on until before the marker for ‘minimum prize’ when the snake reduced to 2 pixels and speeds increased. When you reached the mimimum prize mark you had the option of taking it or continueing for a maximum prize which was a Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, or iPod Touch. So I treid this 5 times and got to just before the maximum marker where just after the mimimum marker the snake reduced to 1 pixel. On the last line on many attempts when I hit the stop button the snake would stop momentarilty on the point (where I would have won a DS, PSP or iPod) but would suddenly skip so I would leave empty handed. I noticed this on the first attempt and four more later backed this up!
But aside from the local ‘Del Boy’ ripping you off, Spain is a great country - which I really enjoyed. The locals are warm and welcoming - it’s just a little intimidating when you’ve a guy screaming at you and you haven’t a fiddlers about what he’s talking about! We even met a few Irish & English people who we got on exceptionally well with. We even had a pet in the apartment - a Gecko I named Eddy!
All in all it was a fantastic holiday, it’s nice to get away, but it’s even better to be back home - with proper food, drink, a proper bed and more imporantly a propwer QWERTY keyboard!
The only downside was the fact I had to go in for a meeting in school on Tuesday morning, but I didn’t get back until 1am this morning which made me a day late! So I’m taking today to relax, recouperate and get some supplies before heading back to the grind on Thursday morning!
Well after thousands of leaving cert students have been gnawing in anticipation at the bit in anticipation over getting their results all come to end this morning when the results were handed out. Some were ecstatic with their overly joyous outcome and I’m sure some slipped away quietly having not achieved what they wanted.
Although luckily everyone I know who patiently awaiting their results did exceptionally well. Some got way better results then they thought, especially Mark Walsh who got an astounding 510 points out of a maximum 600! Congrats Mark!
So I’ll expect to be invited into town this evening to share in the celebratory occasion - and rightly so, they should get absolutely ‘Gee-Eyed‘ (excuse the expression) as the stress in the run upto the exams as well as during them I’m sure is immense.
Unfortunately, I won’t be celebrating this year. I’ve to wait for another year before I can truly celebrate. Come September my epic journey to ‘The Leaving’ will begin - I’m not nervous, more eager. I kind of do and don’t want to leave school - I do want to get into college/work to start my life as I want, doing something I enjoy, I don’t want to leave so many friends (although remaining in contact and going for the obligatory pint in Doyles will suffice!), I like the childish, immature craic we have in class and I’ll really miss the teachers and tutors who have been great craic over the years - so come August 28th I’ll be savouring everything and anything!
In the past I had a Twitter account, but I never seen the usefulness of it and thought that it was one of those fly-by-night setups, like most of the blog addons these days! Although, with myself planning to be away alot during the coming summer I would like to keep you updated on what I’m doing and when.
So the thought arose of Twitter as a quick update system, with mobile blogging in the process - although I wouldn’t really fancy seeing my phone bill afterwards… Email blogging perhaps? This may be the only solution, as I don’t want to log into my ACP on a strange computer - I’ve had a forum hacked from some dodgy fecker getting into the ACP from a strange computer which I was using.
Anyways, feel free to join me on Twitter - add me, respond, do whatever. I’m new to it, so I haven’t picked up anything more than posting using a Firefox plugin and from SMS message on my phone… :ponder:
On a final note, I’m nearly finished my exams. All has gone fairly well until today, had Irish and Accounting on Tuesday - both fairly easy exams, although the higher level Trading, Profit and Loss account tripped me up a bit. Irish went okay, I have some Irish anyway so it made it that bit easier. And then the dreaded higher level French - Did ‘okay’ in the verbs (all tenses), crap in Diary Entry, not great in Letter, and ‘okay’ on two Reading comprehensions.
But I’m putting all that behind me for History and Business tomorrow - my final two exams, and probably my two best subjects. All that’s on the History is two essays out of seven choices and Business is mainly communication and trade disputes/laws :thumbsup:
The next few days I anticipate my online activities to be pretty quiet, as like every other secondary level student I’ve exams all this week. So I’m forwarding my focus onto them for the next couple of days, once they’re over I’m a free man for three whole months - who knows what I’ll do with myself!
I may throw the odd progress report online, after all there are quite a few students from my school and other schools that read the blog - so I’m sure they’d be interested to know how I’m getting on in comparison to them.
Anyway, today was Maths (morning) and English (afternoon), both didn’t go perfectly unfortunatly. Maths was going okay, I thought I had two and half hours - the teacher said so, and so did the exam paper. But after two hours they collected them, so I didn’t finish the entire paper although I got what I did know and could do done at the beginning. I suppose I was clutching at straws for invisible numbers…
And English in the afternoon was okay. 2 hours, three essays so wasn’t too bad. First was a personal writing question, I had to write a prose composition on Ambition - although I did it to more of a speech context, as there was no real formula to the style in which we had to write it. Next was Macbeth - I honestly haven’t a clue in fairness. It was about Macbeth’s fatal flaw of Ambition, which I haven’t a clue about. I did study, but for some reason I just cannot get my head around this lark of Ye Olde Englishe! And finally then there was an essay on Comparative texts - I chose “The Plough and the Stars” by O’Casey and “The Third Man” by Carol Reed, with the theme of humanity within war.
Other than that, I think I got a good start on the exams, I’ve Irish (morning) and Accounting(afternoon) tomorrow, both subjects I’m fairly good at. For Irish we expect to get two, maybe three stories, a comhrá, and poetry.
I finish up on Thursday, so normal services will resume then!
Well as of tomorrow, I will officially be a senior, as the school year draws to a close this evening with the 6th Year graduation, we will officially be the seniors of the school - somewhat daunting, as I now know that this time next year it will be me pulling my hair out cramming, and studying.
This week has been fairly handy, Monday and Tuesday were normal days. With Wednesday being more of a doss day, today being a halfday with no classes (except French!), and tomorrow will be the same, as it will mark the school year to a close.
I’ve only a few days of exams starting Monday with Maths and English, and I finish up on Thursday - they want us to come in on Friday for an LCVP exam, but there’s no teacher at the moment as the previous one until last week had a baby. So there’s no one to set an exam, and they’re damned if they think I’m getting out of my bed for no reason!
The theme for this years graduation is aptly - “Don’t Stop Believing”, which I think was inspired from the rejuvenated Journey hit - Don’t Stop Believing it…hazard a guess to what the graduation song is? No, it’s not Lady in Red by Chris De Burgh!
And best of luck to Mark Walsh, Kevin Holler, and anyone else who will be sitting the Leaving Cert this coming June. If you’re reading this, you should be studying!
Well I’ve been getting the finger out and getting some practice for my upcoming driving test. Although as far as I’ve gotten, I’m making steady progress - after all it’s been a while since I last drove on a road. I had a pre-test today, and just barely passed with some work required on general controls and progress - I’ve another 6 lessons so I should get it covered in time for the test (11th November).
