Devolution passed!
It’s over. Devolution passed. Now Stormont has control over all of it’s own affairs, and the terrorists can go home.
For those of you out there that don’t know, ever since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, they have been trying to transfer power from London to Belfast in a process know as devolution.
The main issues have been:
1. The dismantling of the paramilitary (terrorist) groups in Northern Ireland.
2. The removal of the British Army and it’s bases.
3. Establishment of Power Sharing between the main political parties.
4. The devolution of policing and other services.
There are more issues than that, but those are the main ones.
The paramilitaries have disarmed (mostly).
And as linked above, the police are devolving.
There’s no point fighting any more on the part of the terrorists. All you’ll be doing is killing other Northerners. You can plant bombs, shoot cops, whatever it is you want to do… but there’s no point.
You’re not fighting for Britain or Ireland any more.
All you’re doing is blowing up your own people. Which is fairness, is what you’ve been doing this whole time.
It’s over. There are years of healing to go yet. I give it two generations before no one gives a shit any more.
It’s over lads. It’s over.
Today I became…
The Mad Welder!
This here’s my booth. After the jump the first pictures of my first welds.
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All right; enough is enough
It’s never going to be perfect, and I’m not going to be properly ready to blog for another few weeks, but nuts to it, let’s get this damn show on the road.
Today I went into town to do something that I always look forward to. Every time it rolls around I’m more than happy to get it done, even if it’s difficult to pay for.
I’m talking of course, about an eye test. I love getting my eyes test, and sleep deprivation not withstanding, I had a blast. I know this all sounds really dorky, but I genuinely enjoy it. I didn’t go to my usual guy, which is kind of annoying because my usual guy has an unusually soothing voice, but I digress…
As is par for the course these days the hardest part was trying to get what I wanted for a price I could afford. With some finagling, a gentle nudge of a 25% discount [supposedly only for the over 60's], and a mid sized thwack from my medical card I was able to get a very nice pair of glasses, with decent lenses for 80 euros. Not bad at all.
They’ll be available for collection on the 18th of this month, so I’ll try and get a picture up around then.
Other than that I paid the rent and got a haircut. The before and after pictures for the haircut I will post somewhere in the next few days if I can manage it.
Tomorrow is the second day of my welding course, and the first day we actually start welding. I’ll try to remember to bring the camera.
I am working on getting character bios for some of the characters of the fictional Irish city: Castlefinn City.
The first [and hopefully more] of these will be posted soon along with an illustration of each character drawn by Frank.
Nonsense to waiting, and enough hanging about. Let’s blog this shit.
Wednesday
I flew home today… Hardest thing I ever had to do. I love you Kimberlee.
Click through for trip pictures.
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Little Moments in America #10
Under the pier at Huntington Beach. The Pacific is cold.
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Little Moments in America #7
An airship, above a doughnut shop. On 7th by Pacific Coast Highway. A very American moment indeed.
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Little Moments in America #5
Little Moments in America #4
Some days, the little moments are a lot like the little moments at home, just a little bit different.
What would you do for a klondike bar?
Little Moments in America #2
All the stars in the sky are airplanes.
Follow me past the jump…
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I’m in California
Before…
After…
I got the number one.
Travel Thursday
And there is a picture of me at the gate in Schiphol. That’s the plane that took me to America. One of the most uncomfortable 11 hour periods of my life. Next time, I’m making my transfer in Chicago or New York. Or London. Not that there’s anything wrong with Schiphol but I’ll do anything to shorten that flight.
You know, I got stopped for an hour at passport control. After having my bags searched and having what I can only describe as a nice chat with an immigration officer I got my I-94w for and my stamp and I’m good to stay in America until I fly back.
The name of the Immigration Officer’s badge was “Carpenter”.
The Mad Carpenter is going to America
Ahh. America. Such a grand word…
I’m flying out to Orange, California at 6am on Thursday the 12th. I’ve wanted to visit America for years and now after a year or being in love with an amazing woman I’m finally doing it.
I fly from Dublin to Amsterdam for a near 2 hour stopover, then I get on the plane and fly to LAX airport in Los Angeles from whence I shall be collected by Kimberlee.
I’ll see Kimberlee at around 1pm local time. I don’t know when I’ll see all of you, but I’ll be taking lots of pictures and posting when I can.
If I don’t update between now and when I get to America, I’ll see you all on the other side. California… Holy Hell.
Wish me luck in the comments everyone.
Friday
Watching Scary movies. It’s what Frank wanted for his birthday. Happy Birthday Frank.
Sunday
Still sitting around with the buddies. Becky might be moving in. Which I think is fantastic news. She’s a stilt walker, circus performer and prop maker. She alters her own clothes, and all that sort of stuff.
Frank’s an animator, Mary plays music, Sin writes, and I work with wood. We could start a little commune. If you want to see a picture of Becky, look after the jump.
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Extra Monday
My brother Eamon was hired to be an extra in a TG4 production known as Ealu II, a series of recreations of famous prison breakouts from Irish prisons, mostly during the early 20th century (That’s 1900’s) It features stories from both male and female prisoners, and from what I’ve seen today, it looks really good.
Pictures and more info after the jump.
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Audition Wednesday
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the mad carpenter.
There’s big plans in the works for the near future, including branded clothing, custom coffins and even an advertising campaign BUT…
Today we talk about something else. And the thing we talk about today is the media career of The Mad Carpenter. I went out for an audition today, to play the role of an extra in a TG4 production called Ealu II. The information I got about the gig, both from Mema who found the announcement in the paper (Thanks again Mema) and from the staff at the audition, Including the director, is that it’s about famous Irish prison breaks.
We went in in groups, chatted a bit about our experience in media/acting filled out the usual forms. Now answer me honestly here people – Do I look like the sort of guy that would be in prison in the 20’s or the 40’s in Ireland?
Thought you’d say that.
Is it Sunday again? It always sneaks up on you
Word on the vine was there was a second night out planned for tonight, however the main catalyst for our going out didn’t materialize and I ended up spending the night watching TG4 documentaries about the Irish in America.
Frank finished Bioshock, then we watched two movies Silent Running and the first part of 300.
Bioshock is a masterpiece, and I think that sitting watching Frank play it for hours has locked my neck. Hope it gets better before too long. As a game it has an incredibly fulfilling ending (If you follow the correct path) and there are so many hints towards where the story is going throughout the game, that it makes you feel a little bit stupid for not realizing them earlier. It’s beautiful, it’s a masterpiece, I can’t praise it enough. But damn it, I’m never playing it. I nearly had a heart attack just watching it.
Silent Running (1972) is an environmental film set in space. I say watch it, because it’s very possible that it could become a forgotten gem, and that would be a shame.
And 300 is just hilarious. Ridiculously hilarious. And massively violent. So it ticks several boxes.
Money Wednesday
So what’s the usual run down of money Wednesday I hear no one ask.
Well, I usually go down to the post office to get my money, however since Sin got on the dole (finally) so we went down, she signed on, and we went for a pint. Which became 8 pints by the end of the day. However Mary hit us with a nice bombshell of the electricity bill of €278.34 (Oh….so it’s ctrl ALT 4 for the euro symbol…) which may put a large damper on the fun of this weekend. I’m thinking, very inexpensive beer and drinking water in the bar. We’ll see how it goes.
There’s only one electric company in the country, so short of setting up expensive solar panels, or trying to build my own windmill (and we all know what happened last time) we have to pay it.
Anyone for a minor revolution? No? Dang.
Friday at 8.20am
People get up this early in the morning? Earlier you say? That’s barbaric. I had a very odd dream about lost and lil’ wayne last night, and while trying to piece together the disparate flashes of phantom memory at 7.40am I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep again for some reason. It wasn’t from a lack of being tired…
A cold panic took hold of me: I hadn’t put out the bins. (That trash cans to my American followers) Now, this may not seem such a bad thing, however we have an alternating bin system, which a lot of my readers may have. Week 1, we put out the blue recycling bin, and week 2 we put out the black, or green household waste bin.
It’s a good system, it encourages recycling, and it means you have less waste over all. However! If you happen to miss a week, then you have to wait a further 2 weeks to get the blue or black bin picked up.
With our black bin already packed, I legged it downstairs, dragged the remarkably heavy bin around to the front of the house and heaved it up to the kerb. The truck hadn’t arrived at that time, so it was a victory for doing things at the very last minute.
This real life sort of stuff is harder than it looks.
Oh yeah, I’m going back to mema’s place for the weekend. Everybody needs a little chill out time, and mine chill out place is mema’s. See you in a few hours ma.
EDIT: Hey check it out, 150 posts.
Frank Friday
Sin’s fiancé Frank has come up for the weekend, and it’s always a lot of fun when he’s around, because he plays Bioshock when he’s up. I’m not really a gamer, and besides, I’m not a fan of first person shooters anyway. It’s amazingly immersive, and it’s incredibly stressful, even when you’re not playing it yourself.
I didn’t get a picture of Frank today (Edit: or the rest of the weekend sorry) but when he’s back up next time, which will be in a few weeks time, he’ll be moving in with us. Which will give me plenty of time to take a snapshot and introduce him.
Keep moving forward.
Oh yeah, watched that animated Robinsons movie… you know the one. The Dinosaur has a big head, and little arms.
