Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Bebo as it stands

Published
by
Adam
on March 31, 2006
in Bebo
. 79 Comments

In recent weeks Bebo has continued to grow from strength to strength. The downside of this new found popularity is that colleges have started to take notice to the hundreds of gigabytes of bandwidth being used by students browsing bebo everyday and as a result they have had to resort to blocking access to it much to the dismay of the thousands of students who depend on it to provide a break from the monotony of lectures!

Not wanting to risk the chance of experiencing a withdrawal symptom of some sort (maybe even experiencing a real life), some rather smart people decided to find out some workarounds in the local college. Unfortunately they failed to realise at the time that when it comes to technology, guys are just as bad as girls for gossiping and inevitabley the fat, balding men in Computer Services caught on to what was happening and blocked that. Spirits were once again shattered and those who wish to access Bebo must now put on their thinking cap. I decided to join in on the act and for the afternoon I had my invisible thinking cap on, racking my brain trying to think of ways of how to access Bebo and after some initial dissapointments I think I’ve finally struck gold. But enough of that! The fact that people are willing to go to such lengths to access one site just goes to show how popular and addictive Bebo can be!

Bebo has also made significant steps forward in terms of safety and they have implemented changes similar to those that I suggested a few weeks back which makes me feel rather good about myself that I helped bring about these changes to a site which is as influential and as popular as Bebo! In fact, Bebo’s co-creator left me a comment Here. If Bebo continues to add new and fresh features then Bebo looks set to keep the masses entertained for the foreseeable future!

bebo, college, wit, Michael Birch

What if?

Published
by
Adam
on March 26, 2006
in Ramblings and Thinking
. 3 Comments

The other day (while drunk) I had a fairly deep conversation with my mother about “What If?”. In this conversation I was talking about several things such as all my potential as a soccer player having played with Hibs for 3 years and being tipped as a “player of the future” (to quote Waterford Soccer Monthly”). If I was indeed a player of the future and I had stuck with the soccer then maybe I’d be in England today under contract with a top tier team as a goalkeeper or as a midfielder and therefore wouldn’t have met anyone who I know today!

Once I grew bored of soccer I went through a senile period where I did absolutely nothing. If I hadn’t become so obsessed with the computer during this time then I would have never been forced into a new pastime - rowing! I must admit that I took the rowing very seriously and as a result I was extremely fit and was able to run for miles and lift anything that was given to me. Which brings me onto the tower. It was the sole reason that I quit rowing, because at the the end of the day I was getting paid to serve and clear a few plates and I wasn’t being paid a penny to dedicate 6 days a week to try and remain competitive as a rower.

Sometimes I look at my body and ask myself what I’d be like if I kept on rowing. I think noone can doubt that I would be extremely fit with vein’s bulging out left, right and centre but I would have never worked in the Tower and met some of the soundest people imaginable and I can sure as hell guarentee that I wouldn’t be coming in at 3 in the morning totally pissed and with an urge to post to my blog which wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t got into webdesign back when I was in 5th class in Primary School!

It’s times like this which make me wonder if it’s worth thinking of things like this. There’s a Limp Bizkit song with a name that eludes me at the moment but it goes “What’s done is done, just leave it alone, and don’t regret it” and while I don’t usually respect anything that comes out of Fred Durst’s mouth, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to believe him in this case.

Life could very well have turned out a lot different to what it has done but I don’t think I should be wasting time thinking of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda’s” of life and instead spend my time thinking of how to deal with my present life, the life which has been dealt to me!

life, philosophy, drunk, job, rowing

To Sell Or Not To Sell?

Published
by
Adam
on March 11, 2006
in Life, News and Thinking
. 8 Comments

At 8:21 on Friday 8 March, a single Oxegen ticket was purchased by myself for the respectable price of €160. A mere 11 hours and 39 minutes later, that same ticket suddenly soared in value - Oxegen 2006 had sold out!

In the days prior to tickets going on sale, grand plans were being drawn up that would see me travelling up to Punchestown in mid-July inside a bus packed full of friends, drink and tents. Some may say (or maybe just me) that they were the finest plans ever made and that Oxegen’s record breaking sell out is a terrible crime against great plans because all of a sudden those great plans had to be scrapped and now I find myself with quite the dillema on my hands - To Sell Or Not To Sell?

The most obvious reason for me to sell the ticket would be to make some quick money and not have to worry about finding ways to get up to Punchestown until next year. eBay currently tells me that tickets are selling for around the €250 mark with “100% Feedback” sellers (sellers who have a track record of being reliable) being able to make up to €300 for one ticket! €90 is still a nice amount of profit to make on a ticket within a week however the obvious downside is that I wouldn’t have a ticket anymore for the most eagerly anticipated concert of 2006!

The most obvious reason for me to go is because I nearly paint the walls white whenever someone mentions the confirmed lineup to me! While some of the bands don’t appeal to me in the slightest (I call these the “tent bands”), I look at them as a chance to recouperate for the big guns such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Placebo and of course the EELS with more being destined to be announced in the coming months! The only real downside to all this is that I would have to spend a lot money on things such as food, drink, tent and bus which would probably be in the guts of around €200 which is €200 that could go towards my Oktoberfest fund!

I clearly have more thinking to do on the matter, at the moment I’m actually 50-50. Things that could sway me into going would be the release of another batch that would result in my friends gettings tickets and the announcement of more good bands which would result in me going no matter what with no matter who! Things that could make me sell my ticket would be a quiet month or two in work that would mean I’d be forced to sell up in order to continue living as I do (like a drunk!). I can’t really think of anything else that would make me sell though, maybe if I found it difficult to find a group willing to take me up to Dublin that I might sell. I just don’t know, only time will tell!

oxegen, oxegen ticket, ebay

The Past Few Weeks

Published
by
Adam
on March 10, 2006
in Life
. 0 Comments

Some of the more observant visitors to Adams Rants may have realised that there hasn’t been much going on with the site as of late apart from my recent post about the Evening Herald that is but thankfully reading the Evening Herald isn’t the only thing that’s been going on in my life over the past few weeks! As a matter of fact, the past few weeks have actually been quite eventful!

If so much has been going on in my life then why haven’t I been posting about it? Well quite simply it’s all down to an ongoing argument with my mother regarding my PC and my total lack of studying. So after many arguments my mother just decided to take away the PC until books were opened and pages turned. I don’t play ball that way though and instead of going a long with this unjust punishment I vowed not to study until I got my PC back! Unfortunately there’s been absolutely no headway been made regarding the matter and my PC is still resting out in my grandmothers house where I feel it will stay for the forseeable future! However, while my PC gathers dust, I can assure you that so too will my books! I swear I’m my own worst enemy at times!

At this point I should inform you that apparently I’m no longer going to be a psychologist. Oh no! From here on in I’m going to be a Religious Leader of all denominations according to an aptitude test that I completed a few weeks a go. Let it be known that this wasn’t some Mickey Mouse test either and it’s apparently meant to be very accurate (it would want to be after some 400 questions!). Also scoring high on my results sheet were civil service careers, social work related careers, managerial careers, teaching related careers and some other totally random careers (bi-lingual european diplomat anyone?). The seemingly bizarre career choices were down to my wide range of interests which were spread across many career paths. On the off chance that there is some degree of truth to the test then it means I’ll have to start researching many courses. Hmmm coming to think of it, isn’t that a perfectly valid reason for me to get my PC back?

Talking about my career is all very well but the second the word “Oxegen” is uttered, my world almost comes to a complete stand still! While I still think that last years lineup was slightly better, that didn’t stop me from rushing down to Sinnots at 5 to 8 on an absolutely freezing Friday morning in nothing more than a shirt and jeans. Needless to say I was like an ice cube standing there for the twenty minutes it took to reach the doors and the only thing that kept the blood circulating was me constantly thinking about the Chili’s, Placebo etc. Soon enough I got my ticket and that was that. However, while I was in work later that day I kept hearing rumours that the tickets were sold out. It turns out they were which meant that all of a sudden my attempts at organising a bus up were going to be severly hampered!

The next morning I realised that queuing with no jacket on was probably a bad idea and that all the fans who didn’t get a ticket were going to get the last laugh. I felt like shit! I had an excruciating pain in my stomach, a piercing headache and a horribly unstable temperature that combined to deliver one hell of an attack on my senses! Turning up to work that night probably wasn’t a good idea but I did take some precautions by running to the toilets every 10 minutes to get 5 minutes sleep! By the end of the night I was walking around like a drone, a shadow of my usual self and soon I succumbed to the demands of my body, signed out, went home and had a 15 hour sleep only to wake up the morning in pain - again!

Monday came and still pain followed me around, no matter what way I moved to try and shake it off! A trip to the doctor’s was my only hope! After poking and prodding for a few minutes he finally ruled out meningitis which might sound as if it should have been a great relief but whenever I’m sick I always display the same symptoms which are generally associated with Meningitis and I never have it so I just assume that I can’t possibly get it for no logical reason whatsoever! The Doctor still couldn’t quite put his finger on my afflication so he just prescribed some antibiotics and painkillers and recommended that I drink plenty and to stay in bed which is exactly where I stayed until this morning!

This morning my most serious symptom seemed to have dissapeared with that being photophobia. With that gone I was able to open my eyes without nearly passing out with the pain with was a great relief. There’s been no stopping me since then and today I even went to the shop! However I have had to miss work this weekend which will hurt me next week when I realise that I have missed out on €80 but on the plus side I have missed a week of school and haven’t ate fast food in over a week!

oxegen, aptitude test, job test, test, concert, argument, PC, doctor, meningitis