‘Life in General’ Archives
Scumbag Culture – Part 2
"When integration is actually exclusion despite what the letter of the law says." Towards the end of 2009 I published the first of a planned series of articles on the tide of scumbag culture that is sweeping over the country. Detailing the attitude of many who are branded as "disadvantaged" and "minorities" but whom through my, and many others, personal experience do not constitute a minority of their own, self-imposed distinction from the rest of the populous. We are all equal in this world - it is only those who seek special treatment because of perceived circumstance or wrongful use of [...]
Scumbag Culture – Part 1
"Question my attitude? I'll show you f**kin' attitude!" I was very fortunate to grow up in Ireland's oldest city, Waterford, while even at times of recession and underdeveloped localities, kids had the resource of culture, a sense of pride in what was theirs, and a healthy respect for right and wrong. Now I'm not saying that kids didn't fall off the tracks, of course they did but it was isolated incidents not a daily routine that turned into a reign of terror. Today is a very different story. In ever-increasing numbers, young kids, young adults, and alarmingly their parents, are laying [...]
When jbwan met…
Yes for the last week or so, I've been conducting my own Louis Theroux style documentary, hence the title chosen for this blog posting. They say that you should never meet your heroes; you'll always be disappointed. Well, I've been living with my Hero for the last seven days and disappointed, I am not. Last Thursday I ventured to the Meteor store in Waterford City and threw caution to the wind. Readers whom I may have lost over recent months due to a lack of posts will remember my regular criticism of mobile madness, the iPhone culture, and something that I termed the Phone-omenon that was [...]
Thoughts for the day…
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 [...]
Lisbon: A Final Word
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 [...]
Gobs-Mac’ed!
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 [...]
I predicted it!
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 [...]
Recurring digit dates
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 [...]
“Dire-land” – FT.com
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 [...]
They said it would never…
...well actually I said it would never happen again. About 18 months ago I managed to complete one of my life goals and crossed the finish line in the Dublin City Marathon taking with me a few thousand Euro for a local charity in Waterford City. It was a thrilling experience and one, having felt the toll on my energy resources, thought that I might never do again. It never put me off running though and since then I've run half-marathon runs and several 10 mile races too. However, last December, during an indoor soccer match I badly hurt my foot and damaged some ligaments that stopped me [...]
