Tag Archives: ireland

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 7:21 pm on 09/04/2014
Tags: , ireland, Irish, meanings, phrases, words   

Irish Words

Hello friends. I’ve been living in Ireland a few months now, and since I’ve been here, I’ve learned a few strange words or phrases that might have some weird meaning that English people aren’t used to. So I’m going to list the ones i can think of right now and add any that occur to me later. Here we go:

That’s gas: That’s funny
Deadly: Awesome or cool
Your man/woman: A man or woman that is the subject of a conversation
Runners: Trainers (Sneakers in America)

Press: Cupboard 
Hot press: Airing cupboard. This:

Black: Busy. Example “it’s black on the beach during the summer”
Skanger: Chav
Roar: shout
Giving out: having a go
Lashing: raining
Chipper: chippie (chip shop)
Scarlet: red faced, usually with embarrassment
Lashing: raining
Now in a sec/,ow in a minute: neither now, in a second, or in a minute. Usually in a few minutes, if you’re lucky
Wrecking my head: annoying me
Kip: mess 
That’s all I can think of for now. I’ll add more at a later date as they come to me. I’ll try not to leave it as long between blog posts. It’s just a quick one to show you all I’m not dead.
Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 5:22 pm on 23/10/2013
Tags: 50, ferry, house, , ireland, , , , , , , slum, , ,   

Slum Life

Hello friends.

So as I mentioned in my last post, I am now living with my mom. But fortunately, i got paid on Saturday, so I’ve booked the ferry tickets to see +Tracey Ryan. And I damn well can’t wait to get out of here. It’s been horrible.

  • There’s no working vacuums
  • The hot water takes ages to warm up
  • Most parts of the house don’t have a carpet
  • You have to put money in the TV to watch it. Luckily i have my TV
  • Nail clippers are very hard to find
  • My bedroom (which used to be my sister’s, so is pink and has glow in the dark fairies on the wall) is full of my sister’s stuff. When i first got here, it had loads of junk, most of which was moved into the attic or thrown out. There’s still some junk in there now
  • No-one opens the curtains. I have to do it
  • No-one closes doors behind them. I have to do it
  • No-one does the washing up. It’s always “someone else’s turn”. I usually end up doing it
  • There’s junk everywhere. Even before i brought my stuff here
  • Pretty much everything is dirty. I’m literally scared to walk around in bare feet. I’m always in my slippers
  • My sister is a lazy, stupid, uncaring git who only gives a damn about herself and whatever boyfriend she happens to be with at the time
  • There’s always stuff left around the floor for people to trip over. Mostly left by my sister
  • When people finish off a toilet paper roll, no-one changes it. I have to
  • There’s no space for my few toiletries (razors and the like). They have LOADS of it
  • They’re both female smokers. They are constantly coughing. Especially mom with her “chest infection”

That’s all I can think of right now, but I’m sure there’s more i haven’t thought of. I might add more later.

For a while there was no internet, but being the genius I am, i used a SIM that my mom uses in a “broadband” dongle, and put it in my phone and used it as a wi-fi hotspot, so now we all have internet instead of just one computer. Although obviously it’s slow. And signal is usually quite bad, and sometimes didn’t work at all. Another problem with the T-mobile/EE SIM is that they block content which they deem “adult”, and when you go over the unfair fair usage policy (which isn’t much), they also stop you watching YouTube, even when the videos are embedded on a website or something. Chances are, if you use YouTube a lot, you’re going to get through that fair use policy very quickly.

I also didn’t have any internet on my phone because I’ve used it all and it doesn’t get renewed until 4th November. So for several days

Because of the lack of internet, I wasn’t able to do much for job searching. I told them that at the job centre and they seemed to let me off. Especially since it’s their fault. But eventually they paid me, and now i have a decent amount of money (for now). I’m going to try not to spend too much of it. I might buy a PlayStation Vita when the knobcentre pays me again on Monday, but other than that, not much else.

On an unrelated note, this my my 50th post. I think I’ve done pretty well. I’ve got over 13,700 views. To other people, that may not seem a lot, but it is to me. I’m sure there’s more popular blogs out there by normal people like me, but ah well. I do seem to be getting several views every day. It’s pretty consistent actually. Just today I’ve had 8, and yesterday I had 7. Last month i had 354!

Here’s my latest stats for the past month:

Stats from the past month

And stats from all time:
Stats from all time

Anyway, that’s all for now. Next time i blog, I’ll be living in Ireland with my girlfriend. Until then, chums. Toodles

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 6:20 pm on 26/07/2013
Tags: boxes, , fan, , , gumtree, , hot, , ireland, , , , , simpsons, summer, sun, tapped out, ,   

Hot and Fast

Hello again comrades.

As anyone in the UK (and in the USA so i hear) will know, it has been hot a lot recently. I know it’s summer, but here in the UK, we don’t usually get sun in summer. But this year, mother nature has made up for all the cold or mild summers we’ve had and has given us sun. Lots of sun. Seriously, we’ve had it for weeks now. My fan has been pretty much constantly on the whole time, even when i’m out. Problem is, i kind of prefer it to be cold. It’s a lot easier to warm yourself up when it’s cold, than it is to cool yourself down when it’s warm. I’ve actually started drinking water instead of juice. And that’s unusual for me.

Anyway, i can’t remember what i previously blogged, but i had an alright graphics card in my now complete computer, but i wanted to upgrade it. So i did, i got a pretty decent graphics card for a pretty low price. Let me see what it was… It was a PowerColor Radeon AX4870. It looks like this:

My PowerColor Radeon AX4870 Graphics Card
Isn’t it beautiful? It takes two PCI-E power cables, i only had one so i had to order a molex to PCI-E converter off eBay. No big deal, didn’t cost much. But anyway, it’s a pretty powerful beast. It can handle my games on almost the highest settings. Beautiful. My computer is how i want it now. Damn, i should have took a screenshot of my Windows performance rating. I might add it in later.

Edit: I screenshot my Windows performance thing. Here you go:

My Windows Performance Index

As you can see, the main thing restricting the base score is my slow ass hard drive. I should have installed Winblows to my SSD instead, then it’d be a hell of a lot higher. I’ve installed Ubuntu to the SSD and from the bootloader (where you select which OS to boot) and the login prompt, it takes less than 10 seconds. Pretty speedy, eh?

I’ve also been dong some Let’s Play videos on YouTube. Mostly different games every time but I’ll continue some. For those that don’t know, my YouTube is here

Also, plans are in motion for moving to Ireland. I’ve got a rough estimate how much it’ll cost, i just need to pack the stuff I’m taking, and for that i need boxes. It’s going to be hard to find a box to fit my 32 inch TV. I don’t have the one it came in anymore. But everything else should fit in boxes. Even my desktop should fit in one.

I’ve been thinking about selling my Galaxy Note and Nexus S. I do love both phones but the Note is too big and the Nexus is too slow. If i sell both phones i could get a Nexus 4, which I’ve been wanting for a while. I’ve been selling some old computer parts on Gumtree (unsuccessfully mostly), and my old HTC Hero. The little cute thing. I’ve actually been thinking of switch to my Nexus S for a while, just because it’s better sized and it’s more beautiful than my Note. I still might.

If you want to see my ads on Gumtree, click here. It’ll open in a new tab.

Oh yeah, I’ve been playing The Simpsons: Tapped out on my Asus tablet, so if you have it, add micol25.

That’s all for now I think. I’m going to watch Silent Running on Film4, then get some food. Toodles

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 3:04 pm on 28/04/2013
Tags: communicator, deep space 9, , , galaxy s4, ireland, , , mini, , next generation, , ,   

Jobcentre, Star Trek, Moving, and Phones

Hello my children.

This is just a little update to what’s happened. So I’m still unemployed. I went to the jobcentre the other day and signed up for jobseekers allowance. It all seemed to go well. Except they forgot to give me my passport back and i had to go back for it. Luckily i wasn’t too far away. I have to go again on the 8th May. Woo

I got my redundancy pay and lieu of notice pay. It came to just over £2000. Not including my work pay. After deductions (tax and National Insurance), it totalled £2,504.48p. Not bad but not quite as much as I’d hoped.

Anyways, one of the first things i did with it, except pay rent and stuff, was buy a Star Trek Communicator badge off eBay  Actually 2. With the rank pips that go on the collar. That must be the geekiest thing I’ve ever bought. This is it:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390528832938?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

It’s beautiful. I can be Captain Picard and Tracey can be Captain Janeway. Good price as well considering how shiny they are. Ooh maybe i should buy a couple of phasers and give one to Tracey and we can have a phaser battle. Oh god, what am i saying? I’m 28.

I think the fact I’ve been playing a lot of Star Trek Online and watching a lot of Star Trek has got me in the mood for it. I never really got into Deep Space 9 before but it’s actually pretty good. Next Generation was always my favourite though.

Hmm what else has happened? Well I’ve decided I’m going to move to Ireland. Probably this year, within the next few months. I should start looking for jobs in Ireland as well. That reminds me, i need to do some research into international movers. It’s not like I’m moving my whole house, just a few things from my room. And it wouldn’t need to be quick, I’m not in a rush to get my stuff.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that my Galaxy Note is too big. I think I’d be better suited to something about 4 inches. I want something fairly compact and powerful, like a Galaxy S4, but smaller. That’s 5 inches as well. The S4 mini is supposed to be 4.3, maybe that’d be better but it’s “only” quad core instead of octa core, like the big S4. But quad core should be enough. I’ll do some research anyway. But i definitely want one about 4 inches.

I think that’s all for now. I’ll make another post when i have something else to say. So bye for now.

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 2:08 pm on 15/10/2012
Tags: , , ireland, , , pain,   

My Girlfriend’s Fibromyalgia

Hello friends. There’s something serious I’d like to talk to you about today. Most of you read my blogs because you’re a geek, because you have an interest in technology, gadgets, games or Linux, geeky things like that. But today i might attract a slightly different type of person.

As you may know, my girlfriend (her blog can be found here) has something called Fibromyalgia. In short, it’s a disorder that mostly causes pain throughout most of the body, and it can also cause sleep problems, stiff joints, numbness and tingling as well as some others. But they are mostly what Tracey gets. Here is a picture of the symptoms:

An illustration of Fibromyalgia symptoms

The problem is that, because there no external symptoms, i.e. symptoms that can be seen, people tend to think that it’s all in the head. It isn’t. It’s there. I know i can’t imagine what it feels like because it hasn’t happened to me. There is also no known cure for it yet.

And that means i can’t do anything about it. Medicines don’t do very much, they get rid of the pain a bit, but it obviously doesn’t cure it. And I am totally helpless. Not just because she’s in Dublin and I’m in Birmingham. Even if I’m there with her, there’s nothing i can do. I just have to sit there, knowing she’s in pain. At best I can cuddle her and do things for her. But that isn’t enough. I don’t want her to be going through this pain. But we have no choice. There’s nothing anyone can do except try to relieve the pain when it appears.

If you want to read more about it, the Wikipedia page is here.

On another note, I have recently came back from seeing Tracey in Ireland. As usual, it was amazing and we had loads of sex. We always have an amazing time. I love spending time with her. I love just cuddling with her. I try and touch her, hold her hand as much as i can. I love every moment with her.

And oh yeah, my Galaxy Note is a bit broken. It doesn’t charge properly anymore. So i’m going to leave for work early and take it back to the 3 shop. I miss my Note. I’ve been using my Nexus S.

Anyway I have to get ready for work. Toodle pip

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 10:09 pm on 26/11/2011
Tags: £1, brag, dirty, game, , , ireland, , playpack, , service, stream, , value   

New Kind of Gaming. And Ireland

Hello children. in today’s lesson, i would like to teach you about an interesting gaming service you may or may not have heard of. Probably not. It is called OnLive. I’ll explain why it’s different

This is a gaming service that, instead of having physical disks or other media, or downloading a digital copy, you get games STREAMED to you over the interwebs. Kind of like a YouTube video. Only you control it. Naturally you’ll need a relatively decent internet connection. 5meg is recommended. I have 10 (apparently). As long as you have a decent connection, it’s suprisingly fast. Although when it does have speed problems, it really can fuck up your game quite bad. It got me killed once in Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Which leads me on to another subject: Games. The games that are available. There’s quite a few. Although they don’t seem to get released on there the same time as the same game on other systems, you usually have to wait a few weeks. Although there are quite a few games of varying quality. Here’s the list for the UK: http://www.onlive.co.uk/games/featuredgames#&tab=all_games

You can get games in full for a set price, like £30 or thereabouts, or you can get the playpack bundle, which gives you the ability to play lots of games for just under £7 a month. Oh, and you get the first game for £1. Great value isn’t it! You can get it for Winblows and Mac(unfortunately not Linux. Yet), or you can get the onlive console (like i have), for i think £70 or £80 (i got mine for £50 off ebay). It’s a well made piece of kit. It’s well built, has HDMI, 2 USB ports, optical digital out, and it comes with a wireless controller, which also feels well built. Even the USB cable does. Which is a lot like an xbox controller. Which confuses me because i’m used to the PS3 controller. Some xbox compatible controllers also work.

Anyways, all in all, it’s a good value service as long as you get the playpack bundle and there’s a few games in there you are interested in. I recommend you try it out. And if you do, add me, micolps3. Oh and you can also save what they call brag clips, which let you save the last 10 seconds on gameplay and post it to facebook or send it as a message to someone on onlive.

You can also view other people playing games live, and they can watch you. They can also cheer and jeer you if you do good or bad. It’s like facebook likes. Only with dislikes as well (still waiting for facebook to give us that).

And finally. On the 2nd December, i am going to Ireland to see my sexy perfect girlfriend, Tracey Ryan. I shall be returning on the 8th, with the infamous RyanAir (no relation to Tracey). Naturally we’ll be doing something very dirty. Mud wrestling. Yeah right. I’m sure you can imagine. Yeah, that,

Anyway, i haven’t been sleeping much the past couple of nights. I need sleeping pills. And i’ve also written quite a lot in a short amount of time (for me). I think i use brackets too much (or do i). Dammit

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 10:31 pm on 21/10/2011
Tags: album, ash, , , burn, , charlotte hatherley, gig, , hmv, hoodie, ireland, mark hamilton, rick mcmurray, rock, sd card, signing, tim wheeler   

Ash

So let me tell you what happened last night.

I have a favourite band. I think we all do. But my favourite band isn’t all that popular. You may not have heard of them, which is understandable. They are called Ash. They are from northern Ireland and have been around a while, about 15 years (I think ’96) was their first release).

I discovered them in 2001 when I saw their song called Burn Baby Burn on I think a music channel called Q. I immediately fell in love with them and they’ve been my favourite band ever since

Anyways, they were doing a gig in Birmingham last night, which I knew about for a while, but didn’t want to spend much more money this month so didn’t get tickets. But what I didn’t knew about was they were also doing a signing there, in HMV, like they did a few years ago the last time I saw then and got an album signed.

But I found out early that day, a few hours before the gig. Tidied my self up for my man, Tim Wheeler (lead singer and guitarist) and set off to see then.

Last time I saw them, they also played some songs and I was hopeful to see then do more this time. They didn’t, even though I’d brought my Asus transformer to record it. I was going to take my usual HD camera, but the SD card keeps popping out. I’m currently looking for a cheap decent HD camcorder.

Anyways, I bought their new album, which is a lot like they old one, Intergalactic Sonic 7s, but not as good, waited in line to see them (after looking at cameras in Currys), and went in when it was time.

I hand the cover of the CD to Rick McMurray (drummer), he said “Alright?”, I said it back. He signed it, passed it along to Charlotte Hatherley (ex backing singer, pianist, backing guitar), she signed it, passed it along, smiled at me, i smiled back (she clearly wanted to ravage me). Tim, signed it. Then he notices what I was wearing. I’d specifically put on my Ash hoodie, just in case someone noticed it. Tim did and said “Nice jacket, there”. I smiled like an idiot. He then passed it to Mark Hamilton (bassist). He didn’t do say or do anything.

So they handed it back. i left with a big smile, feeling very happy. I had just met my favourite band for a second time. I really should go to more of their gigs

Unknown's avatar Michael Collins 11:44 pm on 12/10/2011
Tags: , dreamcast, , , hotel, ireland, movie, , , , tablet,   

Girlfriend

So for the past couple of months, I’ve had a girlfriend. I’ve mentioned her before. The past few days she’s been in England (from Ireland) staying with me. She left yesterday. It was the best few days i’ve had in a long time. I know she’s my soul mate. We’re just similar in so many ways. We’re perfect for each other.

So she got here from Dublin on Friday (it’s Wednesday as I write this), we stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights, then went to mine and stayed there for a couple of night. I know what you’re thinking. I did want her to stay at mine the whole time, but my dad wouldn’t like that. Yeah i live with my dad unfortunately.

The hotel was average. Nothing special. There was no hot water and the clock had stopped. But we managed. She bought a relatively cheap but decent 10 inch Android tablet. See, perfect. She also hates Microsoft and Apple, just like me. Oh, on a side note, I’m sitting here in a snuggie. That is all.

I did take my PS3 to the hotel with me, but i forgot to bring a video cable, so i bought a HDMI cable from i think Argos for £5, and that didn’t work, so we had no PS3 games while we was there. Although we played a bit when we got to mine. We also watched Wall-E, Tron and Tron Legacy. And played Tony Hawk 2 and Fur Fighters on Dreamcast. And Black Ops on PS3 with my best friend Andrea and her daughter Sharon. With Tracey of course (Tracey was on the winning team).

When we went to buy Tracey’s tablet (and my HDMI cable), we went into Currys and there was an alarm going off. Turns out there was a guy trying to steal something and they’d caught him and were holding him down. Welcome to Birmingham Tracey 😀

We also watched a weird movie online. It was really weird. I won’t tell you about it. Just find an hour and a half and watch it.

Autopsy: A Love Story

Oh yeah we also had a lot of amazing sex. Especially the first night. Damn she’s one horny chick. anyway I’m hoping to go over to Dublin next month or the month after. I just want to make sure i have enough money to pay for everything i need. I don’t want her paying for anything i want. I hate when people buy things for me. I like to buy my own things.