Wednesday, December 5, 2007

10 things..

Here, we are going to celebrate the number 10.
This post is number 10.
After number 10 I am finished.


So here's ten things people know about me:

  1. I am a first year student in DkIT
  2. I am 19 years old
  3. I live in Drogheda
  4. I have (debateably) blue hair
  5. I love all things Disney
  6. Garth Brook is my hero
  7. I work in a newspaper every so often
  8. I love Dr. Pepper
  9. I wear glasses
  10. I'm not very punctual

And I don't want to scare you off, but here's 10 things people probably don't know about me:

  1. I try very hard to not match up my socks
  2. I like ham and chocolate spread sandwiches
  3. I have never seen any Godfather films
  4. I'm secretely obsessed with Lizzie Maguire and Hannah Montana
  5. I have three teddys- Bear (a polar bear), Patch (A teddy bear) and Biscuit (A Penguin)
  6. I watch Beauty and the beast at least once a week- and cry every time.
  7. I am terribly afraid of feet
  8. I can't sleep in the silence. It creeps me out
  9. I cannot live without orange juice. I've tried. It doesn't work.
  10. I have been listenming to Christmas songs secretley since August.

This isn't finished, but if I don't go now, I'll be late for work!

Virgo..



Do you believe in starsigns and horoscopes? Do you think it will bring you luck if you read them each day?
Or are you the type of person that thinks that it's all a load of nonsense, that it's a waste of time, and anybody who has been taken in by it is a complete fool?

Well, you guessed it. I disagree. I really do think that there's some truth within these horoscopes, from the direct word of a fortune teller, to the 4 lines on page 65 in the Daily Star.

So curious, I looked up the personality traits of a Virgo (That's me, September born!)

According to the website I found, a Virgo woman is a perfectionist, but that doesn't mean that she herself is perfect. She has her negative traits, and they can be very trying. To begin with, Virgo females have this dogged belief that no one can do things as orderly and as efficiently as they can. EnglishWiz

Didn't I just admit to that in class a few weeks ago? I think I did.




Admit you're wrong and don't argue. It won't do you a bit of good, you can't win with a Virgo. The earth is her element, so she appreciates the creations of nature, and the posies will soften her irritation. As for the apologies, keep them brief and accurate. The Virginian is nobody's fool. Her clarity of vision will spot an elaborate lie by the smoothest talker, and the faintest smear of lipstick on the edge of a collar. She may be pure-minded, but she's certainly not naive.




A Virgo woman loves the theatre. Parades, too. The pomp and pag­eantry, the dramatic emotion, give her an outlet for her own tightly controlled emotions. Besides, she's one great critic. Her highly developed intellect and artistic taste com­bine to give her a keen perception. If you could make Broadway producers understand this, you'd be showered with free passes to out-of-town openings. A Virgo woman will call the critics' reviews in advance almost every time. Discrimination is one of her keywords. She loves plays, concerts and books, but she's severely critical of the con­tent.




This really made sense to me. Granted, some of the article was nowhere near my personality (it said Virgos are punctual and hate chocolate! Oh, no!), but overall, it was kind of creepy how accurate some of it was. I am those things. I do those things. I think like that.




It is strange, I admit. How can the entire worlds population be divided into 12 different categories? And it be almost completely right?




But it is. At least I think so.




She had never quite forgotten that
if you drink much from a bottle marked "poison,"
it is almost certain to disagree with you,
soon or later.
Sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes.

VIVA ESPANA!!!



I'm so excited!

Everybody needs a holiday, right? Everybody needs to see their friends on a regular basis, yeah?

One of my friends, Glenn, is currently living in Valencia, Spain. He's over there with the Erasmus Programme that DkIT offers to its students who are studying a language.

And he's over there for five months. Grr.

So.... Me and two other of my friends have taken this upon us to abolish this ridiculous 'absentee friend' state, and go over to visit him!! YAY!

I'm going over to Valencia next Thursday (I'm missing an exam in college, but that's a different story altogether)and I can't wait!!

You can't really go wrong with Ryanair, where I got the flight for €26 return, including all charges. So I'm going on Thursday morning and I'll be back on Saturday Night. Flying visit..




And just before christmas...


Click here to find out where smileys came from!

He's Behind You!!!!

Ok, so anyone who knows me knows that I'm an absolute Pantomime fanatic. And it's definitely the time of year to be thinking about it! Once the Christmas lights go up around the town and the 'Coca-cola' ad arrives on the telly, you know that people will finally start listening to your strange ramblings about this post-holiday show.

I've been dancing in the Drogheda pantomime for over 5 consecutive years now, a few here and there when I was growing up. I'm the kind of person that always needs something to look forward to, and seeing as this show takes place at the end of January, it's a very beneficial method of making it from the last days of Christmas to the Easter break.

Panto practice, though some people do not realise, usually starts sometime in September. Too early? Not at all, as it's now November and we've been resorted to holding two classes a week (3 1/2 hours in total) to keep up with our dancing agenda. It can be tiring, and my God it can be bitchy, but there's nobody there who'd actually leave.

Last year, Drogheda Pantomime Society put on a production of 'Mother Goose'. I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable pantomimes that I have been connected with.
The producer finally got around to employing Jenny Fagan as the choreographer, and it's true that the dancing has NEVER been better!



Jenny's doing the dancing this year, and is jumping hurdles to make it as good as last year!

This year's production is 'Sinbad the Sailor', and we're doing some great routines like Canyman and Yankee Doodle Dandy from Lord of the Dance!

Even the pantomime hoodies have been ordered (thanks to yours truly, who everyone just EXPECTED to do it!) They are pretty cool, though. The Pantomime dancer logo (which I designed) stitched onto a jumper with your name on the back. Whoop!

Either way? it's gonna be good! Check out our PANTO BEBO PAGE around January for dates and times!! Show some support!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

That that don't kill me...


I was so excited last week. Not only was I going up to my friends in Belfast fot the first time in over a year, I was goin up to see Kanye West!

It was kind of an excuse, in a way. I could have gone to the Marquee in Phoenix Park.
But that would have been outside. I wanted to stay indoors.

Turns out that didn't matter.

So the concert was on Saturday evening. Doors opened 6.30pm, show started at 8pm.

So it was a wee bit of a surprise to me when I found myself standing outside the Oddessy Arena at 1.30pm! It was cold, it was windy, and it was threatening to rain. I thought I was bad.. there was a group of girls there that had been waiting outside the venue since half past 6 that morning! Not a chance..

The girls were so eager to remain at the top of the queue, they devised a system to give all other arrivals a suitable place. I was quickly approached and asked if I would adhere. Sure. Why Not?

I was given the number '24'. Written on my hand in eyeliner. Right.

The barriers were put in place about 3 O' Clock. People queued up in a strangely orderly fashion. Everything was running smothly until.. yup- the heavens opened. It rained. And rained. And rained.

Soaked.

Three full hours of 'umbrella up', 'umbrella down' action. To make it worse, there was a group of girls huddled together at the very top of the queue, singing Spice Girls songs. They didn't know the words. Oh. My. God.

FINALLY, they opened the doors. It was like a stampede, everyone was running like their life depended on it. Running up the hall, through the bag check, through the barriers and up the hall to the very top. Somehow, despite the number '24' on my hand, I found myself in the front row. In the centre. WOW!

The concert was mayhem.
People trying to push their way to the front. Ouch.
People collapsing due to the excess of alcohol their little bodies consumed. Yuck.
A girl screaming "I'm only 12! I'm pregnant! Let me up the front!" Whatever. THIS IS HOW CLOSE I WAS! I TOOK THIS!!

14 people were pulled over the barriers and taken away by the medical team. 14!! Why, oh why would you spend GBP£35 on a KANYE WEST ticket, just to drink too much and be sent home before he even sets foot on stage!??!?!?

And how they missed out.

The concert was amazing. The band looked like ghostbusters! Kanye was backed up by


  • TLC- a member of Three6Mafia

  • Consequence, and

  • Common


The show wasn't as spectacular as some of his other performances, but was still unbelievable.
His latest rendition of 'Hey Mama', dedicated to his recently deceased mother, had an extra verse which sang

'Last Night You Were In My Dreams, Now I Can't Wait To Go To Sleep'

Heartbreaking. Beautiful, though.

I did find it kind of strange that one of the back up singers had the stage to herself while she sang the popular 1988 Journey hit, 'Don't Stop Believin'. Still can't get my head around that- it's cool to like Journey!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Synes-what???





OK, so i has uncovered that I have a neurological condition. A harmless handicap, if that doesn't cause offence.

What is it?

Why, I'm glad you asked... Synesthesia, according to my well founded Internet research, is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

Basically, from what I'm after getting out of that, it's when one sense overlaps another and causes you to think in a way that isn't what other people would find normal.

There are many different forms of synesthesia, the most common being:









  • Grapheme- where letters and numbers are perceived as colours.




  • Ordinal Linguistic Personification- where numbers, days of the week and/or months of the year evoke personalities.




  • In-Spatial Sequence, or Number form Synesthesia- where numbers, days of the week, months of the year, even time and years elect precise locations in space.





That's the one I have. In-Spatial Sequence. Don't believe me? Think I'm just being crazy??






Fine.






But I'm not. I swear, I only recently found out about this, and before then, I thought that it was normal to think like this. It's logical.

Number Form Pattern


So when I'm thinking about days of the week, I see a circular diagram, with the days going left to right.



When I'm thinking of the months of the year, it's a circle again, but it moves from right to left.


I also see years in a diagram. The 1900's start at the bottom of a line, and it moves all the way up to 1989. Then, after that, The seem to turn a corner and carry on. The break of the millennium even made it into my mental diagram in the form of a red line. Hmm.


OK, it does seem quite difficult to grasp.


Other people with Synesthesia:



  • Pharrell Williams (Hip Hop Artist and producer)

  • Rollo Armstrong (Member of Faithless)

And here's some facts about Synesthesia:



  • Synesthesia is not a disease. If anything, it is a gift, for synesthetes tend to have higher IQs, better memories, and other positive effects.

  • Synesthesia is more common among females with a 6:1 ration when compared to males.

  • The majority of synesthetes may have subtle mathematical deficiencies, such as lexical-to-digit trans coding or right-left confusion. (I should tell my old maths teacher this- I wasn' t just stupid!)

  • Synesthesia is not the result of intense drug use. While those who take psychotropic drugs such as LSD or MDMA may experience synesthetic-like experiences, these experiences are extinguished by the discontinuation of the high and do not persist during sober periods.

Imagine!



Monday, November 19, 2007

Proud to be involved with 'The Mighty Drogs'?

Ok, so here are the basics:





  • I'm from Drogheda



  • Nearly 3/4 of the population of the town are absolute fanatics about the local football team



  • Drogheda United FC have recently won the title of Eircom League champions of Ireland



  • We won a great big cup



  • My dad is the club's P.R.O


Drogheda United Crest
Nobody really seems to notice the link. But yes, my dad is mainly the P.R.O to The Mighty Drogs, but has other jobs, such as marketing, advertising and event management. And recently, all the events that the club is involved with, this newest trophy is likely to make an appearance. So.... yeah. This €80,000 pure silver cup is in fact sitting in the corner of my kitchen. Every day. There's no point in trying to rob it, all you kleptomaniacs reading this, it's too well known!

But the hype about the arrival of the cup in the town has been enormous. And eventually, word got out that the new trophy was in fact sitting in my house. I'm used to it. Before this it was the Setanta cup. Before that it was the FAI cup. I just can't seem to get used to the fans.

I was sitting watching 'That 70's show' a few days ago, when there was a knock on the door. Ugh. Ignore it. I'm too comfortable (I do that a lot). The knocking persisted. Reluctantly, I got up off the sofa to answer the door. A man, and a child who I presumed to be his son, were standing on my doorstep. The man was clutching a camera.

"Eh, hello. Is, um.. your, say, dad here?"
He wasn't. I told him this. But the man did not move.
"Oh, right", he continued, "Well is, eh, the um, cup here?"

He obviously knew he was being somewhat rude. All I could do was stare at him. Not because of his audacity to come to my house to see the cup, but as I was straining my ears so I could still follow the conversations on the television.

Without a word, I stood aside and gestured him in. He and his son followed me into my kitchen, where the cup stood on the kitchen table, where other people would usually place an arrangement of flowers. Both the man and his son got very excited, and started snapping photos instantly. When the initial excitement wore off, the child turned to me.
"You not excited it's in your house?"

Well no, actually. I'm not. The things a nuisance. Sure, it's great for the town that the team won this, and it was a great feat to become overall Ireland champions, but I'm used to it. Football's not really my thing.
Two children from St. John's NS, Drogheda with the Eircom League of Ireland Cup
This is not the first time that this has happened. Streams of people always arrive at my house to view the various trophies that have been here in the past three years. I'm sick of this. I'm watching 'That 70's show'. I'm watching 'The Panel'. Granted, some are invited, and my friends are all very grateful that they, and their siblings, and their parents, and their parents siblings, can come to see the cups.

And I suppose I do like that I can fulfill the desires of my friends..

Drogheda United's website provides many photos of the 'Drogs on Tour', the sensibly named 'Drog Shop' stands in the middle of the town selling an assortment of hats, scarves, tracksuits, t-shirts, winter jackets- you name it, they sell it!

If you spent ten minutes walking through one of Drogheda's busy shopping centres, 20 quid says more than half of the locals will be wearing some sort of D.U.F.C attire! It's not some sort of money making scheme- people actually want, and love this merchandise.

So, I suppose I should be thankful to have these trophies in my house. It's something to tell the kids! But for now, nah, go away!