Lurdle-lurdle-lurdle-lurdle-Situation-lurdle-lurdle

I was up in Derry last week with my class. We did a module this semester on Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Conflict and we were meeting a few groups to see what was being tried up North. Bar a tourist trip to the Giant's Causeway and a Pavarotti concert in Belfast it was my first time spending an extended amount of time in Northern Ireland and the first time actually talking to local people. Over the 3 days we met up with representatives from both sides, Apprentice Boys, The Pat Finucan Group, former UVF, INLA, IRA and British army forces, as well as getting a tour of the city walls, the Bog-Side murals and Bloody Sunday site and a British Army base.

I have to admit I was pretty nervous at first; I will be the first to admit that I know very little about the situation in Northern Ireland but I think everyone got something of the trip. There were people like me who just had a Secondary School understanding, foreign students who knew nothing, and then people who had done PhDs and thesis' on the subject. One of the most disconcerting moments was when one of the former-UVF guys, who after 15 years in prison is now a peace-activist, just explained to us in a complete dead-pan voice how when he was 16 he went to a Catholic man's house and shot him dead in his sitting room. I have never met a murderer before. He was very interesting for other reasons though. For the first time I heard about how Unionist see themselves. He considers himself British, he is not fanatical about it, apparently he is a fan of Irish music these days and even taking Irish classes but the fact remains he was born in the UK, has a British passport and considered himself a fully British person. He said it in such a matter-of-fact way that you can sort-of see their point. There has never been a united nation of Ireland, it has always been a collection of different kingdoms and he just happened to be born into one of the more recent ones.

Another interesting point was raised during a Questions & Answers session we had with a panel of ex-paramilitaries from both sides and British Army officers when we asked about the issue of a United Ireland. One thing they were kind-of all in agreement was that it will not be just a demographic decision, i.e. a Catholics majority will mean it will become a reality. The former INLA guy made the point that a lot of catholics in the North are not nationalist and that economically it would be bad for them to join the Republic. Apparently 25% of the North's GDP comes from the British government, through civil service jobs and the like. If it was to become part of Ireland, then there would be huge amounts of jobs lost and we would become responsible for it. It seems like a good idea in principle but after talking to them, I just don't see it happening anytime in the near future.

College and Tech Ramblings

So it has been a good long time since I blogged last and in the mean time Liam has written several posts and even Conal and Steve had written one. Today is the last day of my holidays as tomorrow I am starting a job in the University as camera-man for the graduation ceremonies. I did it at the end of the summer and it is a grand job and is pretty well paid even if it is only for a few days. I wont get the money until the end of February but it will be helpful. In other news I have also gotten a part-time job for next semester, in addition to my security one. I am going to be a humanities writing tutor for the UL Centre for Writing (Link: Centre for Writing) which means I will be sitting down with undergrads and trying to teach them how to structure and write properly. Thankfully we will be getting a bit of training as to be honest I don't think I will have a clue. I know I am a pretty good writer but don't know how much of that is down to technique and how much is just bull-shittery. So I am trying to make sure that all my writing from here on is better, hopefully the training will help me with my essays as well. Plus the money is excellent and its less than 6 hours a week.

As a side-note, after talking to Conal yesterday I am trying out my touch-typing. I can actually do it but I am not sure how, its like my fingers know where to go and are just bypassing my brain. The biggest advantage is that I see my mistakes straight away instead of at the end of a sentence so hopefully that will make up for the slower typing speed.

I have not actually done that much over the Christmas break to be honest. Had a class New Years in Fanore, I will try and get some photos off the people who had camera and perhaps put a few up. Other than that I have really just been bumming around at home. My room is finally clean and organised and even decorated a bit. My computer is running tip-top condition mostly because I spend most of my time on it. I was looking through my Stumbleupon settings there a few days ago and saw that since June 2008 i have stumbled through 19,456 pages, which is nice. I also installed this little programme called Digsby which brings together the chat programmes of MSN, Facebook, ICQ as well as my Facebook, Gmail and Hotmail inboxes. Why am I boring ye with all this stuff I hear you ask. Well one of the pages that I came across was from the New York Times and it actually dealt with a phenomena that, because of all the time I spend on the net, I was was just beginning to notice.

The article, found here, basically talks about how people are becoming more and more connected, they call it Ambient Awareness. I first kind of realised it when I was away. I would be able to tell when people were last online from their Bebo profile and manage to find out what was going on my having a look at the comments on their wall. Plus all the chat functions meant that I could be talking to people all around the world whenever I was online, or talking to them through Skype. Since I came back now I am always signed onto the chat things through this Digsby programme but it also gives me updates about when people sign on, if they change their status, add pictures, get wall comments. Sounds a bit stalkerish but it just runs away int he background and keeps me updated on what is happening. There is also this Twitter thing that thankfully, I have not been sucked into yet. Its like the Facebook status-update thing where you have, I think, a 70 word maximum limit to say what you are doing and you can update it from a computer or phone. Apparently it was used to great effect during the Mumbai attacks and when that plane landed in the Hudson River, people around the world were able to get minute by minute updates by real people who were actually involved.

So between this Digsby and Stumbleupon i am kept constantly up to date with what people are doing, who is online and also the general Internet zeitgeist. Thing is though, other people are not. I find myself getting pissed off when people do not answer me back straight away, or who don't spend every minute on a chat programme. Not being able to instantly be in contact with someone gets me frustrated, even text-messages take too long. It will probably be a bit different in second semester though, between the two jobs and college work I see myself spending an awful lot more time in the university and less at home bumming around.

Links of the Day
The Atheist bus Campaign
(I thought the rule was I before E except after C, why is this different?)
The First Male/Female Vice-Presidential Debate
Turns out Palin/Biden was not the first one

Stupid Feminists

So the topic this week in my Research Methodologies class is Feminist Epistemology's and standpoint epistemologies. Now I was as clueless as ever started to do my reading but pretty soon I remembered why I get so irritated at feminism. Now I have realised that the fact that i get irrationally hostile to the whole thing maybe be some musculine self-defense method but something about it just really bugs me. I keep thinking that an entire branch of anything being devoted to why 50% of the population is better than the other is not very fair. And thats the vibe I pick up from it, not 'we are women, we are different' which I fully agree with and think should be investigated but instead 'we are women, our way is better'. For instant the piece I am reading at the minute is talking about several theorist views on the Scientific Method and why is is so masculine-based. Now the scientific method is, in my opinion, as neutral as possible, it strives to have no values whatsoever and deal only with hypothesis, antithesis, stc. Now what these feminist theorists were saying that all this would be rendered obsolete once the........to be honest I am not sure about what she was saying but the general just was that women can have periods and abortions and that in the face of this the way we think about biology today should be changed. I can get ye the quote later. Or another was talking about how women have to deny being women in order to survive in a lab.

I have actually stopped readinto be honest. Now I have to be fair and say that the editor of the Chapter, a feminist herself did point out that a weakness in these theorists was that while they talked about how the need for for a change in the way we see science is necessary they could not give any concrete examples, which is in itself a pretty damning indictment for how they think of science.

Its not just these particular things that annoy me, its the idea that I feel that I cant be irritated by them because i am just a man and 'I would not understand'. Perhaps that is true but in that case dont expect me to want to or even try to.

Winter is a comin'

Ye Gods its cold out. Just back from work there, you will be glad to hear the cycle is getting better. Its trés cold out though, there was hailstones this afternoon and apparently we have had the coldest September in years. I am still sweating like a nun in a sack though.

So i have decided to bite the bullet, get a bit organised and buy me a computer. Thanks to the wonder that is a loan I have gotten my resident techie so do some research and find me a nice desktop PC. Thing is though, peripherals like a mouse, keyboard or monitor is included. I had the great idea though of getting these off Ebay. Very excited I am, never used it before. Managed to find a monitor on it that is around a third of the price of the shops, and that's including delivery so hopefully I will win that particular auction.

College is going alright, got a bit back into the studying. I have a presentation on Monday and although keeping at it is slow going once I do get going the old bull-shit is just flowing out of me. I really have to get cracking on my thesis though, if even just to get an idea in my head. Was in a lecture on Tuesday about the Politics and Political Economy of Development, going through the liberalisation of trade during the 80's and how the World Bank, WTO and IMF have perhaps been doing more harm than good. Now the thing about the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank in particular is that they were set up for the express purpose of helping less developed countries get more like our great white countries but somewhere along the lines they fucked up. SO I was thinking that perhaps I will maybe look at where they are at the minute and how in the future they can get back to basics. An incredibly broad kind of idea but i will just work from there and hopefully meander into something related that i will find interesting. If ye have any ideas or suggestions let me know.

Random Web-site of the Day: Interesting Graph: Us Europeans Are Not as Clever as We Think

On Physical Exertion

Argghh, if there is one thing I am shit at is its studying at home. I did not have any classes today, not did I have work tonight so I had a plan to study at home. It did not go as planned though. I am still the same as always, I find it nearly impossible to study back home. Every second I am sitting there is an effort, my mind is constantly thinking of things i should be doing; cleaning my room, having a shower, reading a book, surfing the net. That's why the job is pure handy, I am forced to sit there with my books and no distraction.

On the other hand I did go to Capoeira tonight, which was great fun. I have not been in over a year but it was a good laugh. Its in the Dance studio down in the old sports building and this year it does be free, which is nice. I know I am going to be sore tomorrow though, my legs are like jelly and the cycle home was pure hard. I do have a plan though, on the weeks I am working Mon, Wed, and Fri I will try and go to the Climbing Wall on Tue and Thurs and then when I am working Tues and Thur I will go to capoeira on Mon and Wed. Lets see if I can stick to it.


Site of the day: Why would you volunteer for this?

I am a monkey me

Went down to the climbing wall this evening. Turns out you can call down casually and pay €4 a pop or else sign up to the Outdoor Pursuits Club for a €5 and get free access for the year. Once i realised that it was a no-brainer and you are now looking at the newest member of the OPC. The climbing was a good laugh, I went years ago with my dad and brother but that was at least 10/15 years ago. I am pretty sore after it but being honest i think it is my fingers that are going to be sorest tomorrow, most of the time you are relying on them to pull you up or keep you steady, I remember Niall had a little squeeze thing that might help me build them up. The membership is good for other OPC stuff as well so maybe I will go for a few hikes and what-not, see can I get back some of the fitness that I got from all the trekking a while back.

So in other news I have been invited over to Germany for OktoberFest. One of the girls is organisiing a reunion of all of us that worked together in New Zealand and has asked myself and the other Irish guy who worked there to come. Its times like this that being poor sux because to be perfectly honest I don't think I can afford to go. There is always next year I suppose.

Link of the Day: Even more stalkerish than Google-Earth?

Some news and an interesting Fact

I am writing this from Clonlara computers. There was hardly a soul around for the weekend so I decided to get some brownie-points and come out home to help with the gardening. It has been such a miserable summer the place has not been touched since June I would say. All the garden furniture is in exactly the same position as they were for my coming-home barbecue. We barely made a scratch on it but every little helps.

I purposefully did not bring any books home with me today though, and not just cuz I wanted an empty bag so I could steal food and clothes. During Friday's class the lecturer was trying to figure out when would be a good time to have the essay deadlines; us Master's students are very mature like that. Anyway, i had my calender thing open to see what weeks we don't have anything due in so we could fit in another essay, and I realised that I have a whole lot of work to do. I worked it out before and I calculated that I have 25,500 words to do before Christmas. The first thing is not due in for a month but I am going to start getting cracking on one this week. Not everything is 3000+, there are several 1,200-1,500 word assignments so I will try and start getting them done.

While planning all this I came to realise that I am pretty happy that I left it 2 years before going back to college. I dont think that I am particularly more grown-up or anything, but I'm more prepared for the course, and feel much more enthuiastic that I would have if I had gone straight in. The thought of learning, or sometimes re-learning, all the socio-political terms does not depress me like it would have. Like what Liam talked about in his post last week, I was feeling a bit brain-dead and its good to be studying again. Saying that though my teeth have been very sore this week, I have to make a conscious effort to stop clenching them the whole time. The same thing happened me when I was working in Dolans, the situation may not be inherently stressful but in the back of my mind something is going on.

Interesting Fact For the Day. In 1938 the Nobel Peace Prize committeee had two candidates and they could not chose between them. In the end they gave the award to a 3rd party, a Swiss organisation that helped international refugees. Neither of the two other candidates ever won the award. Their names? Mahatma Gandhi & Adolf Hitler

Old People All-Round

I am having a problem in class these days with asking questions, not only that i don't ask them but also with the fact that other people do. Like i mentioned before, we all get on in the class but there is a bit of a competitive element. I can go a whole class however, and not feel the need to ask any question or make any contribution, and in my class that makes me the odd-one-out. I just don't feel the need. The whole making contribution thing is over-rated as well. There are one or two guys, and one girl, who are constantly talking away; in fact last friday we only got half-way through the lecturers power-point show as we started having a huge big discussion. The thing was though that I did not feel that the discussion really added anything, it was interesting but really just opinion and blathering from the class. Was talking to one of the girls afterwards and she felt the same, perhaps its what we have to live with being in a class that is completely full of mature Students.

Gorram interweb

Today i realised just how dependent i am on the internet these days. So i spent the summer bumming around at home Stumbling around the old interweb and i was doing the same when I moved up here to Dave's house. So in the new job I have several hours to burn guarding my desk, the thing is that I don't have a computer or anything to distract me. Thats mostly a good thing as it means that I spend all the time reading and whatnot. Starting studying again though means that I have met all those stupid socio-political terms that i had forgotten about. Its when i am stuck in the middle of some dense chapter that I wish I had the internet. its weird how second nature it is to be able to immediately check up the spelling or meaning of any word, or to wikipedia some incident or theory. The building also has really crap phone coverage and so very often texts don't get through or received so i am completely isolated from all the technology that has kept me entertained me all summer.

I am going to have to get a lap-top at some stage this year though and to be honest i am not sure if I want to get it set up for internet at work. Today for instance i spent a full 4 hours reading and writing notes for a lecture next week and even then I only got half of what I wanted done. If I have internet access my productivity levels will probably plummet, even now I am writing this instead of going to bed even though I know that i am going to be exhausted tomorrow and also that I have a 9 o'clock lecture.

Olde Schoole, Literally

So, as of Monday I am officially a post-graduate student back in UL. I am doing a Masters in Peace & Development Studies. What & What & What I hear you say, well in short its a Masters that studies conflicts around the world, what causes them and how can they be resolved. Hopefully by the end of it I will be better qualified for a job, probably in the UN, Foreign Affairs or maybe some NGO.

My class is pretty small, only 12 of us, and so far we have gotten on pretty well. I feel a bit under-experienced to be honest. f the twelve there are around 5 who have come straight from college and the rest are in their late twenties early thirties, with one guy in his fifties. They have all been working in real world jobs, in places like Peru, Washington, Chad, Darfur and Iraq. I am not sure what i can bring to the table. While we get on well, I do feel that there is, or at least will be, a bit of competition between us, there are only a certain amount of books and the lecturers only have a certain amount of time. I think I will have to get a bit Machiavellian on their ass.

So I have also gotten me a part-time job on campus. I have actually been a busy little bee for the last two weeks, making out lists every day and actually sticking to them. So after looking in lots of different places I chased down a job as Monitor in the new Jim Kemmy Building on campus. Basically what the job entails is me sitting behind a desk from 6 until 11 making sure noone steals the building. Its a handy number, mostly because i don't have internet access so I am forced to actually do some reading. I have actually read, and written notes on the required reading for 2 of next weeks classes. I am well nerdy I am. If there was one problem with the job however is that i get home pretty late. Since I only have 2 morning starts I don't see Steve in the morning and he is in bed by the time i get home at night, I usually only see dave for a bit before he heads to bed as well. That might change in a few weeks though as there may be someone else doign the job with me and we will work consecutive days, giving me a few evenings off.

All in all I am pretty excited about it, will see how it goes.

I have an L.E.D. in my ear

okay, i said i was going to be more regular so i said a small one is in order. At the moment i am pretty much living out in the Library. I have slept at home twice this week and spent the rest of time sleeping on floors or couches (both very comfortable mind you). My exams are uber close and i still have an awful lot to do. I was supposed to be going to a gig tonight but i think i will instead just go to a barbeque and maybe come home early and do more, hurrah.

On the plus point i am finished on Wednesday and then free as a bird. I think i will just be studying like a prole but at least i will have the money. Ammm, this is actually really rushed cuz i feel guilty about being away from my beautiful books so i will have to actually start working. perhaps i shall put up an amusing anecdote in the near future