Awesome Humans The 5th

So, I just took a look at the last time I updated my blog and realised it has been nearly a month o_O Where has all that time gone. It feels like only a week since I posted. I guess I'm still adjusting to my new and crazy schedule, but I will get it sorted. I have basically spent the last month working, sleeping and cooking. I am really enjoying it, especially the cooking part. I have turned into a total foodie :)

But since this is a post about awesome humans and not my horrible time keeping ability I would like to talk about an amazing 9 year old girl who is writing a book to help feed African children. It is called never seconds: The Incredible Story of Martha Payne. Every copy of this wonderful book sold will buy 25 school meals for kids in Milawi through Mary's Meals charity.You can visit her blog called never seconds here and I highly reccommend you do, it is amazing. It is about the state of the school lunches in her school. I have only read a few of her posts as I only discovered her today, but it only takes a little bit of investigating to realise that this girl is a major reason why humans are awesome. You'd swear when reading that she was much older than 9, just by the way she writes, it's fantastic. The book hits the shelves on the 15th of November but you can pre-order it here. This is definitely going on my list of things to buy when I get my visa debit card. Should arrive any day now. Oh, and she goes by the name Veg which stands for Veritas Ex Gustu, which when translated from Latin means truth from tasting, which is awesome.

I know it is rather short, but I think I get the point across that this little person is an awesome human being and we can definitely all learn something from her. I think she is going to do great things as she grows up and I hope she never gives up and does what she believes in. What do you guys think, am I right in saying this is a valid reason for Awesome Humans? Let me know what you think in the comments below :)

If anyone has any stories that show some truely awesome humans I would really like to hear about them. Every time I read another story about an awesome human event that is being run it makes me want to change who I am and do more for my fellow humans and pay it forward :)

Stardansheill o7

Awesome humans part 2

Just realised that I completely forgot to publish this when I finished it. Ooops. So now this is part 2 of reasons why humanity is awesome. But it was written 2 months ago. 

This week I worked with Civil Defence, the voluntary organisation I volunteer with. We were providing first aid cover for a filipino family fun day on in a local area near where I live. I didn't sleep very well the night before hand so I wasn't in the best mood the next morning when I got up at 7. But once I got to the duty and saw all the people up at 8 in the morning to come and enjoy a day out amongst friends and family with big smiles on their faces really brightened my day. It was actually such an awesome thing to see, because no matter what was going on in the rest of the world or their own lives, for that day having fun and meeting up with people was the only thing that mattered.

Everyone was in such high spirits all day (even though it rained for most of the day and everyone had to stay inside) and they were so lovely. They had never met me or anyone else that was volunteering with me that day but they still made sure that we got some food and that everything was ok. Everyone was on the go from 9 am until nearly 8 pm partaking in a loads of different events, from table tennis, to basketball, to dancing. The whole building was just buzzing with energy all day long. It was quite contagious. It was even harder to not want to smile all day long just watching all these people together as if there wasn't a care in the world. In my opinion it is very rare to see that level of community involvement year after year which is why I have chosen to make that event another reason humanity is awesome.

I guess what I am really getting at in this long winded story of mine is that the sense of community is still alive and kicking in the world and it just takes a bit of organising and the right people for the job and things will get done. So I dub this story reason 2 as to why humanity is awesome and there is hope yet.

Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments below :)

Stardansheill o7

Web design/new project

A couple of Months back my Uncle asked me to design him a website for his carpentry business and I said I would. But he didn't have all the information for me at the time so it was put on the back burner until yesterday during my day off coming up to the end of my work period. I decided that since I have a bit more free time on my hands now that I am entering what I like to call "limbo". This is the time between my work periods. It usually lasts up to about 2 weeks and I tend to get very restless for things to do so this project is exactly what I need. I thought it would only take me a few hours maybe a day to whip up the basic design template for all the pages as I had done a year of some basic web design in the course I was in before I dropped out of college. But that was over two years ago now and it is amazing how much of it I have forgotten. I guess it's like everything, you forget how to do it over time if you don't use the skills. I guess the saying "practice makes perfect" is true.

So I think what I am going to do is buy myself a couple of books about web design and learn from them and find a couple of decent tutorial sites online to help as well. Because at the moment I feel a little like the picture below. I really enjoyed designing websites during college and when I am in front of the computer typing code for sites the time seems to fly. I'll sit down after lunch we'll say and then before I know it, it's dinner time and I haven't done much because I keep changing my mind about how exactly I want it.

College and the future and finding a job

So this entry is going to all about my college fiasco and the future. I hope that some of what I say in this entry can help people with decisions in their lives. Early during my last year in college (which was the second year of my degree course in Electronic Engineering) I realised I wasn't enjoying the course and I couldn't really imagine myself doing this for the rest of my life. But I didn't say anything to anyone because I wasn't entirely sure. I thought that maybe it was just other things happening in my life at the time were getting me down. I suffer from depression and can become very down all of a sudden and have to figure out why or I am useless to anyone. I usually am able to figure it out by talking to someone that I trust about all the things going on, but that is a story for another time perhaps. I kept with the course for the rest of the year, but as the year progressed I started attending less and less classes and didn't really mind that I was falling behind, but I still went to most of my labs and did the projects to get some marks. It was about march when I really realised that I definitely did not want to do this for the rest of my life. But I thought about the fact that my parents had spent a lot of money on me and this course, the way the economy is at the moment and that it was an in an area that had an awful lot of job opportunities once I got my degree. So I decided that I would work hard with my study and do my best to pass my exams in May. I actually felt like I had done ok in the exams and may have actually passed. There were a few that I was worried I had failed, but I thought it would be ok...

Sleep deprived Saturday

So I have currently been awake for 31 hours and I don't like it. I miss my bed and my awesomely random dreams. I decided that it would be a great idea to write this entry in my sleep deprived state and see what happens sure. I had to get up at 3 am to go to work today and I actually went to bed early last night but I just could not sleep at all. My brain kept telling me that I was going to sleep through my alarms and I would miss work, so I just lay there staring at the ceiling for what seemed like days.

I eventually decided that there was no way I was going to get any sleep so I put on my headphones and started to listen to some music and paroose some random blogs. I came upon THIS one that was truely random indeed. I highly recommend this blog to anyone looking for a blog that is compossed of literally some of the most random things I have ever read. I can honestly say I would love to be as random as this person. I for some reason love being pure random and saying things that make my friends wonder what is going on inside my head. I also found some amazing songs that I am now going to stick a few up here for all to see and enjoy as I know ye will :-)

The first one here is Breezeblocks by Alt-j. It is definitely my favourite of all the ones I have found recently. Don't really know why, I'll get back yo you on that when I figure it out. I think it's because of the lyrics. They are amazing.

Ironman 70.3 Galway 2012. Awesome Humans 3

So here we are with part 3 of why humanity is awesome. I am actually really enjoying this segment of the blog. I know I haven't written much for it, but I am loving finding ideas to write about and all the amazing people that are out there. I think I will just spend a week solid writing about them and see what happens. This one is a couple of weeks old and I am a bit late but sure it still counts. The internet in my house has the most temper mental connection so I haven't really been on it lately. I had it on my phone but we all know it isn't the same thing at all. It's so difficult to write a post on the phone and I needed to write something, so I decided to put up with it so I could write and because I was missing the internet.

A couple of weeks ago I was volunteering with Civil Defence at the Iron man 70.3 which was being held in Galway. For those like me who would have/had no idea what the Iron man 70.3 is you can go here and read all about it. That link will bring you to the ironman website and give you all the information you need to know about a full Ironman event and the 70.3 event. But for those other people that are like me and tell themselves that they are going to click that link after reading and totally forget, an Ironman 70.3 is a triathlon event consisting of a 1.9km swim, a 90km cycle and a 21.1km run. That's a 1.18 mile swim, a 55.9 mile cycle and a 13.11 mile run. 2500 people took part in this years event. I don't know about the you guys but I would never be able to do this in my wildest dreams. In my opinion the people who do these events are superhuman and they are another reason why humanity is awesome.

The start of the cycle

How do we achieve peace?

Today I had a pretty uneventful day but while I was making my lunch there was a movie on in the background which sounded pretty good so I went into the sitting room and paused it so I could watch it when I was finished with lunch. The movie was called "That's what I am". It is based in 1965 and is about a student (Andy) who like most students will do anything to avoid conflict and ridicule from his classmates. But then a teacher (Mr. Simon) pairs him off with the schools biggest outcast (Stanley) on an important term project. Over the course of the movie Andy discovers that the teacher had a reason for pairing him with Stanley. Andy learns that Stanley is a brilliant, kind, tolerant and decent human being who has more dignity that anyone he had ever encountered. It's a heart warming tale about overcoming bullies and being who you are rather than trying to adhere to the social norm. 

But the one thing that will stand out for me is this wonderful quote. Mr Simon entered a competition to win a car. Each participant had to write in 50 words or less how to achieve peace, Mr Simon did it in 5. "Human Dignity + compassion = peace" I don't know why, but that quote really stuck with me more than anything else that happened in the movie. I am usually quite attentive to movies that are about overcoming adversity and standing up for what you believe in because it is tough to do those things. But after this quote came up I couldn't really focus on the rest of the movie. I was just thinking about how amazing that quote is and how easy it would be for people to be more compassionate and have more dignity. If everyone learned from this quote I think we would be taking a massive step towards peace. I highly recommend this movie. It really makes you think about everything that is happening in the world and your own life. Has anyone else seen this movie? If so what did ye think of it? I would really love to hear peoples opinions on the movie, on how we can achieve peace or even just what they thought of my ramblings. 

Stardansheill o7

Reasons why humanity is awesome

So I haven't really being very good at posting on here lately so I have decided to create a new segment where I post about things that make me so happy to be alive and why humanity is awesome. Lately whenever I watch the news or read a paper it is usually full of sad news stories but every so often there is that one story that you read or see that makes you smile and see why people never give up on things. So I am going to post some of the stories and videos that put a smile on my face. These are only my opinions of the reasons why I think humanity is awesome I would love to hear from you guys as to why you think humanity is awesome or even the opposite. Just leave a comment below.

 I decided that the first post I do on this segment will be about a few videos I found by the Piano guys while stumbling around the internet and literally spent a good 2 hours listening to and perusing the rest of their videos. They have written a lot of their own music but they also cover a lot of classical music. But in my opinion this doesn't make them any less awesome because it still takes a ridiculous amount of talent to cover some classical songs.

I decided to include them in the reasons why humanity is awesome segment because they are so passionate about their music and they play because they love doing it. They have spent countless hours of their lives honing their talents as musicians and have probably thought about giving up many many times while learning, but they never did and they are now amazing and have made a career from something they love. Every time I watch their videos I can't stop smiling. I couldn't even in my wildest dreams even imagine being able to do something like that. The skill involved is immense. People like these guys are truly awesome. And there are plenty of them out there. The internet is full of them. All we have to do is look :)  

Expect to see a few more posts in this segment as I am often stumbling upon amazing stories or even just seeing things in my own personal life that restore my faith in humanity and show that humanity really is awesome. I like to remember that no matter how depressing things can get there is always something out there that will put a smile on your face.

Stardansheill o7

New idea

So I have been working a lot lately to try and save money for college, a new laptop and other stuff. In the last week I bought a new phone because I decided to treat myself and I have not had a good phone in about 5 years. So I bought the Sony Xperia U which runs on Android. Personally I prefer the Android operating system because it is open source and anyone can create applications on it without having to pay for a license like on Apple. I have had 3 or 4 android phones since they started coming out but they have always been lower end models so they don't work with all the applications and that annoyed me lol.

But anyway back to the reason I am writing this post. The phone does almost everything I want it to do so I am in love with it. I amn't one of these people who pretends to know a lot about technology, because that would be far from the truth. But I try and learn when I can about stuff like this. I love technology and am kind of a nerd. I was thinking about doing an app review section on the blog where I would download a new app I haven't used and let the people of the internet what it's like and what I think. Or people could ask me to test out an app and review it so they can find out what it's like with no effort on their part lol. What do people think about this? I would really appreciate any criticism people can give me about this. There are some many free apps out there to try and I have been trying a new one nearly everyday just to see if they are any good and a lot of them are but you get a few that are not so great. 

Stardansheill o7

Progress report

So it has been two months since I posted something, oops. I did not realise it had been that long. I fell behind when it came time to study for my end of year exams and then I was working after that and other stuff came up and I just stopped writing. I have failed my new years resolution to do something new ever week for the year, but I still have other ones to do and I will think of other things to write about. I just thought I should post something on here to get myself back into the swing of things. Thank you to all the people that have contacted me to make sure i was ok since I have been gone for so long. I will catch up on what I have missed and get back to writing ASAP. But for now I am just going to post a song that I recently discovered that I think is excellent. It is about not letting people push you around and always standing up for yourself. Really made me think about my past and how I used to be and how I have changed since then. Still some changes to make but I am getting there :)

Stardansheill o7

New things week 18

Ok so I am like a week late with this because of exams and stress and just blah, but trust me when I say that I did this on time. I am still doing one new thing every week and for week 18 I decided to work on some self improvement. I started a swear jar to help me stop swearing because I felt the amount I swore was getting out of hand. I don't want to stop swearing totally, but I want to get a grasp on how often I swear because there are things I do in my life where I am in situations that it is totally inappropriate to swear. So every time I caught myself swear I would put 10c in my swear jar that I am going to donate to charity. Over the week I ended up putting nearly €10 in the jar. I found that the idea of having to put money in the jar helped me swear less.

I decided to be less critical of things around me. I tend to judge to quickly sometimes and don't like that about myself. You never know what something or someone is like until you give it/them a chance. I also decided to just do things instead of arguing with my mother. It saves on so much time and it makes life in general a lot easier. I used to argue with her a lot because I am the eldest and my brother always manages to weasel his way out of jobs and I end up having to do them. But now I realise that I am better off because of all the things I learned to do growing up because of my Mother asking me to do them and my brother wont be as able to fend for himself when he moves out. I know that is a small thing, but it can make a big difference in overall household mood.

I decided to start reading more and watching less television because I used to read a lot and miss doing it. It is also better for my brain. Your brain is a muscle as well and if you don't use it, it will become weak. I always say that I never have the time to do it anymore, but if I watched less tv I would have loads of time. I love to read because it teaches you about loads of things and it expands your imagination, vocabulary and writing ability.


I have an awful habit of not getting up early. I could stay in my bed forever if it were possible. I really love it. So I decided to get up at 8 every morning for the next week at least, and we will see how I get on. I actually got a lot done. All be it I didn't become functional until about 9 when I had breakfast and tea in me. But after that I got a lot of things done. I got all lot more reading done and I also got a lot of the things I needed to do that day done.

Stardansheill o7

Thursday's for Nostalgia

Since it's exam time I decided to procrastinate by listening to some music on Youtube. I decided that since I was studying I would listen to some good auld 90's music. It all started with a bit of Blur Song 2. I decided to take a look at the suggestions to decide what to listen to next and they were all pretty much awesome so I stuck with Blur for the next song and went with Parklife. I moved on to Bohemian Like you by the Dandy Warhols, Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus and Creep by Radiohead. There was a lot more after that, but too long to list. Basically more Blur, some Feeder, The clash and Linkin Park. All these songs bring back such fun memories from growing up. I would often listen to them and more on long journeys or outside during the summer when we were messing outside. Put's me in a nostalgic mood every time.

After a very long procrastination song, I decided I should probably actually do some study so I put one last song on and got down to the books. I decided on Just a Day by Feeder, because it is definitely one of my favourite songs from growing up.

The video says it all. I'll be honest and say I have jumped around and sang along to this song in my room more than once. It's just one of those songs that puts me in a good mood every time I hear it. Anybody else have one of those songs? Needless to say I had a very productive day of procrastination. Not a lot of study done, lol. I don't think I will ever stop listening to the 90's and earlier eras music. In my opinion it's a lot better than a lot of the stuff nowadays, but that's a rant for another day.

Anywho, I still have exams so I am going to wrap this up by saying, anybody got any classic songs they would like to recommend to me. I love finding new songs to listen to. Much appreciated :)

Stardansheill o7

My Song of the Week

So I was thinking I might start posting one or two songs a week that are kind of the theme song for that week or day. What do people think? I been thinking about this idea for awhile and I have seen that a lot of other bloggers do this, so I was hesitant incase people thought I was copying their style and didn't like it.

But anyway, I am currently doing end of year exams in college so I am posting my "exam" song. This is a song that I have listened to before every exam I have sat since my Leaving Cert and I class it as my happy relax song. It's the song Somewhere over the Rainbow by Israel "IZ Kamakawiwo'ole. A few years ago my grandfather suddenly died and I found that this song always reminds me of him and makes me smile. I am in no way religious, but this song always makes me feel like he is looking over me and keeping me safe. I have this ritual that must be done before every exam and it hasn't let me down yet so I am going to keep it up for the rest of my life. Don't fix what ain't broke. I hope people enjoy the song and it makes them think about happier times in their lives. And for anyone doing exams or going through anything hectic in their lives at the minute, I hope this song can help you like it helps me :) Aloha nui loa

Stardansheill o7

Travel the World

Todays post is just going to be a short one :) So today I was checking my emails and deleting all the crappy junk mail that often piles up when I notice one from twitter informing me of a new follower whom I did not know. Intrigued by this mysterious new follower I opened it and followed the link to this persons page. Upon investigation (total stalking) of their page it became clear to me that I without a doubt did not know this person. It was more than likely just them spam following, not that I mind. But I did discover something cool about them. They are taking part in this competition called See the World With Spar.

Basically it's a competition where a person enters to become a reporter for spar and the winner gets a round the world trip to report about all the interesting things to be seen in the world. This guys name is Eoin Mulvihill and he wants to win the trip. All we have to do to help him, is do any or all of the following: view, like, comment, share, tweet his video from Youtube. I wrote this post to help share the video because he seems like a nice guy and a bit of craic. He definitely seems legitimately interested in the competition. I also wrote it to let any other people who may be interested in this kind of thing about the competition and give them the opportunity to enter :) Give the video a view and a like, it only takes 3 minutes :) Thanks Stardansheill o7

This is his video. 

New Thing Week 17

New things week 17: Visit new places in Ireland.

So for week 17 of my new things to do I got stuck for ideas and time. I was working nights and in college during the day. I barely got time to see my bed, but then a friend gave me a great idea for a new thing to do. Since I was going to be traveling around the country for work I could write about all the new places in Ireland I got to visit. Some people I mentioned this to said it could be counted as cheating. I see where they are coming from since I didn't really go out of my way to visit these places, I was going to be going there anyway. But I also think that work was a great opportunity for me to get to see places in Ireland that I have never seen before. I have lived here 21 years and there is so much of the Country that I haven't seen yet. But with my job I get to travel to places I would never have thought of going before. So I don't think it's cheating.

I would have loved to have done something more exciting, but I literally went to work after college, got home and went to bed for a couple of hours and did it all again the next day. So anyway I am going to tell you all about the lovely scenery you will notice on the way to these remote locations. I will break it down day by day. I new about all the towns I visited, but I had never been near them until I traveled there with work.

Never Let Anyone Tell You What To DO

New things week 16: Cinnamon Challenge. 

Last week while in college someone was talking about the Cinnamon Challenge. For those who do not know what the cinnamon challenge is, here is a short video to show you what it is. Basically you have to put a tablespoon of cinnamon powder in your mouth and try and swallow it. Much harder than you would think.

Hard work

Week 15 Day 7

I know it's been a few days since I posted and this is the last story of my new thing week 15. But I have decided that I will probably start posting more than once a week. If I have something to talk about. What do people think? I'm late with this post because I have been going to college all day and then to work straight after. Then practically straight to bed after work. I may get a few minutes on the internet before I fall asleep. So apologies for my absence.

Today I am going to talk to you about hard work and money. As we all know and are told on a regular basis the world is in a horrible state of affairs economically and we all need to tighten our belts. I am from Ireland where it seems that the only people who are having their belts tightened are the regular joes like me, my family, and my friends. I say having out belts tightened because we don't have much of a choice. A lot of people in our Government are earning huge salaries that they don't need, or deserve. Anyway I am going to veer miles away from this because I will only start to rant and nobody wants that, trust me. Since I turned 16 I have been working to earn money when I can. I learned from an early age that money is earned through a hard days work. That's how we earn an honest living.

Earth Day

Week 15 Day 6:

So yesterday (22nd of April) was Earth day. For those who do not know what Earth Day is, it is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment. It is organised globally by the Earth Day Network and more than 175 Countries celebrate it every year. There were events organised all over the world, but unfortunately I have no idea if there was one organised in Ireland anywhere. I for one am very fond of our Earth and its Environment and want to see it continue forever, so I am totally in favour of Earth Day and think everyone should make an effort to be more green in their lives. We all get so used to taking things for granted in our lives that we forget it could be causing catastrophic damage to the Earth. It is really easy to make small changes that can make a big difference.

Change

Day 5 of Week 15.

Note: Officially hit 1000 views on this post :) Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and is reading this now :) Hope you enjoy this post.  


Change.

I apologise in advance if this blog seems very sporadic to anyone. I am just going to write it down and don't want to read over it because I know I will make changes to it and I don't want to do that, because I know my first draft will be exactly what I wanted to say from me.

Change happens around us everyday, not always in ways we can see or feel though. We can see the weather change and feel the wind direction change, but we can't see the change that is happening inside a person. These changes can affect a persons mood or what they decide to like. People believe they cannot control the things that are changing around them. This is partly correct, we cannot change what other people think or how things happen around us. But we can change how we react to them and what we do to make changes in ourselves. To quote the famous ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100 percent of shots you never take." This can be used in all walks of life, not just sports. If we do not take risks we will never know what could have happened and we wont move forward in life. If you think you deserve a raise, but are afraid to talk to your boss about it, you may never get one unless you work up the nerve to ask for one.

Random Things I Have Learned Recently

Day 4 of a week I have been enjoying.

So I learned something very interesting today. Not to sure anyone really want to hear it, but oh well. Apparently if you drink blue food colouring and get sick you will puke blue, but if you digest it and pee it will be green. When I was told this I was intrigued and disgusted at the same time. Also the person was just sitting there and suddenly this was the random thought that came out of their mouths. It's one of those things you could have done without hearing, but after you have heard it you are kind of interested.

Anybody got any weird or strange fears? I was talking to someone about my fear of heights and they told me about a few weird fears that they learned about recently. These are just a couple that I can remember:

• Anatidaephobia: The fear, that some time, somewhere, some how, a duck is watching you.

I don't even know what to say about this. Why is this a fear? Are ducks really scary? This is just one of those things that does not make any sense at all in my mind. 

• Paraskavedekatriaphobia: The fear of Friday the 13th.

In one sense I can actually understand this fear. I personally believe in a lot of supernatural things and don't care if people ridicule me for this. But I honestly do not believe that anything extra weird happens on Friday the 13th. It is simply another Friday in the year. 

I also learned a new fact about the Titanic that I never new. I have always been interested in everything about the Titanic. But the one thing I never knew in all my years about the Titanic was that it made 3 stops instead of only the 2 I thought it made. I always thought it went from Southampton to Cobh and left for New York. But today I learned that it left Southampton, went to Cherbourg in France next and then on to it's stop in Cobh before finally departing on its voyage. My mother and I always shared the knowledge we gathered on the Titanic and neither of us knew this fact until she told me after hearing it at a table quiz.

Well that's all the random I have to share today. I realise it is short, but sometimes short is good. Hope this is interesting to someone out there. Oh and always remember to be on the look out for ducks.

Stardansheill o7

One Mans Angry Rant

Week 15. Day 3.

So I am a bit behind on my stories. So I may or not upload two today. This one is going to be a rant. Not about anything specific and it may ramble after awhile so please forgive me. I just feel like ranting lol. 

Just look at his face. Enough said. What kind of emotion
is that?

This rant was brought on by the cinema last night. I went to see the Cold light of day. It was supposed to be a dramatic movie that kept your attention the whole time. It was supposed to build tension so the watcher couldn't actually stop watching. But unfortunately this movie was pretty terrible from the very beginning. The camera work was full of off angle shots, unnecessary over the shoulder work and really annoying rotate around the scene shots. The script seemed to be lacking something and the lead actor acted as if he was on shot poorly written half arsed soap. Me and the people I saw it with spent most of the time laughing at the whole thing. They made the trailer look amazing, but that is the only good part about the whole movie. I hate when they do that, they put all the best parts in the trailer and then the movie sucks.

This got me thinking about the future generations on the way home. When I was growing up reading was one of my favourite things to do and I nearly always had a book in my hands. But when my brother got to the age where I started reading technology had become better and he preferred his gameboy to a good book. There is only four years between us.

Firefly Review. Week 15 Day 2.

Ok so in my last post I said that for this week I was going to a new story everyday for the week and upload them. I know that technically a review of a show isn't a story, but in all honesty I couldn't come up with a new story for yesterday. I had a few ideas, but couldn't flesh them out and kind of gave up. It was also my brothers 18th birthday so when I got home from college all the family were over for dinner so I had to mingle lol. So instead I wrote a review of the tv series firefly. I am sci-fi nerd and will watch anything no matter how bad people say it is.

For those of you who have not watched firefly it is a show based in 2517 when humans have reached and inhabited a new star system. It is basically a futuristic western movie where you have the outlaws on the run from the law, taking jobs where ever they can get them. I really liked that about the show, because to me it showed that no matter how advanced we get there will always be the cowboy element of human life.

Week 15 Day 1

So for week 15 I have decided to do something I have always enjoyed doing, which is write. So I am going to write a new story everyday for the week. I will be uploading them all individually and will probably do a summary post at the end of the week with all the links.

Todays story is going to be about a man by the name of Liam and his hearts desire. Lets begin when Liam was 8 and his teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Liam replied that he wanted to be a time agent. All the students in his class laughed at him and he saw the teacher give a little snicker and a grin before telling him that he had a very vivid imagination, but that time travel isn't real. Little Liam did his best to hold back the tears. Liam loved to read and he had read about time agents loads of times. But what he didn't understand at that age was these books were fiction.

When he got home from school he went to his room and was throwing his books around because he hated them and didn't want to read about time agents or time traveling anymore. While throwing his books around, one of them hit his wall and he looked over and saw a poster he had gotten from his parents for Christmas. He stared at it for what seemed like hours, but was only a matter of seconds.

He decided then and there to never give up on his dream of becoming a time agent, even if he had to invent time travel himself. He placed all his books back on his shelf neatly and started reading a new one. From then on whenever a new teacher or any person asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up he would just tell them he wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor or something. He new though that he always would want to be a time agent, no matter what he had to do.

Weeks 13 & 14

I really have to stop falling behind on these blogs. Had a few assignments over the last couple of weeks and my Aunt got married in Donegal and there is no such thing as the internet where my Aunt lives lol.

For weeks 13 and 14 we were on Easter break from College, but I had study, assignments and work to do around the house. So for week 13 my father and I painted the inside of the house. This is the first time I have ever done this and I really don't recommend working with your parents lol. It can get frustrating and you will always get stuck with the horrible jobs. At times I felt like Mr Bean the time he painted. I got stuck with all the trimmings which was a pain in the ass and very time consuming. We eventually got a good bit of the house painted in the week. There was so much more to be done that we thought. I also had a project due this week that I spent a lot of time on and my usb managed to change the file type to an unreadable type just as I was going to upload it. Totally frustrating and have no way to get it back. GONE forever. It was a total WTF! moment. All in all, a very productive or unproductive week depending on how you look at it.

New Things Week 11 & 12

So my weeks have started overlapping and it's getting confusing for me. I feel like I am missing a week, but since I put them up here every week I clearly amn't lol. But I have gotten the overlapping under control and all will return to normal with this entry. To get it back to normal I am doing a blog with two weeks in it rather than one.

So for this week I decided to become a vegetarian for the week. I have absolutely no idea why I decided to do this. I swore that I would never give up meat. It's not very often I would have a meal that doesn't include some form of meat. Mainly just breakfast, pizzas and the odd pasta dish. But since this is all about doing things I said I would never do I decided to try it and see how I got on. It was definitely one of the hardest weeks so far, if not the hardest one. I started on Tuesday and I found the first few days handy enough and the food was pretty good. But then I started to notice that I needed to eat more during the day because my appetite had increased. By Friday whenever I smelled meat it made me miss it. I also noticed that every time I was making my dinner I was thinking about what meat I could add to the dish to make it complete. It was a really interesting week and I enjoyed all the meals I made.

Tuesday: I made vegetable stir fry with noodles in Chinese Hoisin and Garlic sauce. I used baby corn, carrots, onions, courgette, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, mangetout, and cashew nuts. It was lovely and all the vegetables in the pan created a lovely smell before I even added the sauce. The sauce was a nice, but I wouldn't buy it again. It wasn't exactly a taste that would appeal to me too much. I thought it smelt like ginger and had a strange after taste. I just couldn't put my finger on what exactly it tasted like, but it was still really nice. I'd never really had courgette and never really new what it tasted like and was wary to eating it because I didn't know whether I would like it or not. But after trying it, it was nice, when stir-fried anyway.

Wednesday: I made Pasta Provencial. I made the sauce on Sunday though, as it can be frozen and heated up straight out of the freezer and added to pasta. The sauce takes a couple of hours to make, so it is easier to make it in multiple batches. 1 batch can be used in one spaghetti bolognase to feed four and it's delicious. I much prefer it to jars of sauce and actually don't eat the jars anymore.

Lent

Well since we are a fair bit into the lenten season I thought I would write something about it. I for one am not a religious person in any way at all. I haven't been for a long time. I have no problem with other peoples beliefs though. But I also do not believe in giving up something for 40 days just because Jesus Christ went into the desert for 40 days with nothing. But I do give something up every year because I was raised a God fearing Catholic and took part in Lent every year until I gave up religion. 

I give something up every year to see if I can do it. I do it for myself and no one else. This year I gave up all sweets, chocolate and crisps. I was going really well and hadn't broken it, that was until Paddy's weekend came along. Not only did I break it, I destroyed it. Since Mothers day was the day after Paddy's day, there was cake and chocolate everywhere. Since I didn't manage to last 40 days, I have decided to see how ling exactly I can go without eating any sweets, crisps or chocolate. I have set myself 20 day intervals to make it shorter and hopefully easier to manage. I wonder how long I can last? Anybody care to hazard a guess. I think this will be rather interesting. Do you guys think Easter Sunday counts when i get an Easter egg, or would that be breaking it?

I may put a post up here from time to time to say how I am getting on and how difficult, or easy it is. I know it will be hard at the start, but hopefully it will get easier as time goes on.

More than likely I will be posting updates on my Facebook and Twitter. Go like and follow me on those if you want to. 

Stardansheill o7

New Things Week 10

So I have completed 10 new things to do each week this year. Only 42 to go, woo. Man, that's a lot of weeks left. I don't think I'll be able to think of 42 more things to do.

To be honest, I made this resolution and didn't think I would last this long, thought I would do one or two weeks and give up. I can't remember any year where I have managed to stick to a new years resolution. I usually last until the end of January and give up. I always used to make the same resolutions and end up putting them off until the following year. That picture is just one I found on the internet, not actually my resolutions. Just a bit of emphasis. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words. I firmly believe that having a set deadline for my resolution idea has really helped me stick to doing it. Also writing these entries and having my friends help me really has helped.

So, my advice to anyone having difficulty keeping their New years resolutions is:

• Have a friend doing the same kind of resolution do it with you and encourage each other to keep it up. 
• Break it up into easily managed goals and set yourself a reasonable deadline for these goals. It really helps and I hope it helps someone who reads this. 

Anywho, for week 10 I completed a Golden Week in College. Nearly 2 years in college and I have never managed this :/ For those people out there who are unaware as to what exactly a golden week is. It's basically a term used by Irish students. Refers to a week where you manage to make it to every lecture, on time. No skiving off. Seems simple enough ya? Would expect that to be what happens anyway. Well, it doesn't... There is usually one or two lectures one might find that attendance isn't mandatory and the lecturer puts the notes up online and therefore takes it upon oneself to not bother attending. Especially 9am lectures. In second year of my course there aren't really all that many mandatory lectures, so a lot of people skip a lot of them.

New Things Week 8

Sorry for the long delay on this entry, there were a few technical hiccups over the last couple of weeks. So for week 8 I managed to combine two of my New Years Resolutions by doing something new and raising money for charity. I hope to do this a lot more during the year.  I took part in Shave or Dye in the college. It was an interesting one to do.

New Things for Week 9

So this week was a tough week to come up with something to do. I decided that since I have never made it in for a nine o'clock morning class after a night out that I would go out and now matter how tired/hungover I was the next morning, I would get out of bed and be in at nine am lol. I realise that this is kind of crapy, but it is something new that I have never done before and I learned from it :)

So on Monday I went down to Bodkins Library Bar as they were having IT factor and raising money for the make a wish foundation. The IT factor is basically like xfactor. A few people I knew were participating so I was also supporting them. It was a brilliant night and all the acts were fantastic. It was a really close contest and the acts that got through to the National Final on Tuesday really deserved it. I was home by 1 am, but was exhausted and new it was going to be a tough morning ahead.

I woke up when my alarm went off at 8 o'clock and the only thing I wanted to do was go back to sleep, because I felt like I wasn't even going to be able to move if I tried. But I persisted and dragged myself out of bed and got the bus at 8.45 and was sitting in my lecture at 9 am. Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened in the lecture as my brain was still at home in my bed. But after that class I started to wake up and by the afternoon I actually didn't even feel that hungover. So maybe I have figured out how to cure my hangovers and don't have to worry about them anymore.


Stardansheill o7

New Things week 7

This week I was supposed to try Japanese cuisine at an event a friend organised in the NUIG anime society, but unfortunately I arrived late due to bus timetabling issues. God damn Irish transport system. But that's an issue for another day. Unfortunately all of the Sushi was gone, but there was rice balls left and I had never tried them either and they are technically Japanese.

New Things Week 6

So for my 6th week on my new things to do every week resolution I went to footpool located in the Eyre Square Shopping Centre. Only 46 weeks to go. The rest of this year shall be fun. It's basically a place where you stick your feet in a pool of water full of fish that eat all the dead skin off your feet and make it smooth. I was always hesitant about having this done because I never fully understood it, also I was a bit sceptical about it actually working and was worried about the hygiene side of things. But then I heard from loads of people that it worked wonders on their feet and felt awesome after it was done. So I was in town with my brother and we decided to get it done for the laugh. I asked the man about the hygiene side of things and he said that the fish couldn't transfer diseases and you were required to pre rinse your feet before using your own dedicated water pod with the fish in it. 

New Things Week 5

As part of my new years resolutions I decided to do something new every week that I would never have done before. 5 weeks down and 47 weeks to go and it's going well. A couple of weeks got off to a shaky start because of difficulty coming up with something, but all weeks ended successfully :) 

Attempting to get the needle through

So for the 5th week I decided to see how I look with my ear pierced. Since it may only be temporary I didn't want to pay to have it done so I got my brother to do it for me lol. He has done it to a few people before and never messed it up before. But when he went to do mine he couldn't get the needle to go out the back of my ear so he ended up pushing it through hard and it went in at a weird angle. So when he went to put in the earring itself it wouldn't go through the other side. Between himself, myself and my Mother we spent about twenty minutes trying to get the earring in with absolutely no success and a lot of pain.

New Things Week 4

I know it is only week 4 but it is getting hard to think of new things to do :/ All suggestions are welcome :) I will always come up with something to do, but they may not be great some weeks lol.

So for the 4th week of my new things to do resolution, I did things for me and didn't really think about a lot of the possible consequences.

New Things Week 3

So this is week 3 of my new things to do each week as part of my new years resolutions. To read the previous to click here for week 2 and here for week 1.
This week started on Saturday the 21st as I started all my previous weeks on a Saturday. So technically I kind of skipped the week from the 1st to the 7th. But I will do all 52 weeks. This week I was having difficulty in coming up with something to do and then on Monday I got a text about a blood drive that was happening in the College on Tuesday. I had never given blood before and it was the perfect opportunity to do something to help someone else and do something new this week :) I did attempt to give blood once before last year, but I don't like needles so I freaked myself out while I was queueing and left. I never really forgot about that day and since then I have always kept my open for blood drives in my area since, but always missed them somehow. I went out to the clinic which was in the sports hall in GMIT with a few friends who were also donating. Them being there and us chatting together while we waited really kept my nerves down and I actually forgot about the needle until I was lying on the table and saw it.  The people from the Irish Blood Transfusion Service were lovely people and took great care of me and everyone else on the day.

New things week 2

This week for my something new, I decided to accompany a friend to an anime movie. It was called cowboy bebop and it was really good.

People judge anime too harshly. It's not just for nerds. It's kind of like cartoons for adults. After the showing a gang of us went to Kellys bar for a few pints and the banter, as you do. Hung out there until it closed, just chatting away and having the craic. Then we moved onto the Roisin Dubh for a few more pints and the banter there was mighty. All in all it was a fantastic night out and a great second weeks adventure.

Stardansheill o7

Project 365

This is the second installment of my project 365 project. 9 days down and it's getting easier to remember to take a picture and to think of something to do. One thing I do find difficult about the project is finding one picture that can be taken to sum up my day. But that's just because I am picky and awkward lol. Sorry this is a bit late being put up, I just got very backlogged with things to do. I have been staying on top of it though :)

So on Saturday (Day 4 7/1/12) the picture I decided I would use to sum up my day was a picture of me after my back had been waxed. A little bit of back story is that a friend invited me to a charity waxathon in aid of The Irish Wheelchair Foundation and I decided I would get my back waxed lol.The see the whole story you can read about it here!

Sunday was another day of study (for Monday) after I got home from the waxathon in Tuam. Thankfully the study for Mondays exam was a lot easier to study for than the other ones. I got home about 5 and did 4-5 hours study before hitting the bed lol. 

New things (week 1)

So as part of my new years resolutions I am going to be doing something new every week that I probably wouldn't have done before. So for Week 1 I decided to go to a waxathon in aid of the Irish Wheelchair foundation that a friend invited me to. I decided with Ciaran that if he got his chest done I would get my back done. I'm a total genius, I know. It was on in Cortoon in Tuam so one of the main things that was going to prevent me from taking part in the event was somewhere to stay on the night. I live way too far away from Tuam to get a taxi back home lol. Luckily my awesome friend Kitty came to the rescue and her parents graciously let Ciaran and I stay in their house on the night of the event.

So we arrived down at the Cortoon Inn fed, watered and ready for the event. The waxing started at around 10 o'clock and the guys were quite hesitant to volunteer. As the event was for charity, there was a swear jar for the people being waxed. If you swore, you had to pay a euro per swear. One brave soul "volunteered" in the end and got his leg done. He didn't shout much or swear so he made it look easy, but he did flinch quite a lot towards the top of the shin. If anyone out there has been waxed before then you know how painful it can be. He weathered it well now in fairness to him. So anyway, the next lad up decided to get his chest done, for the craic sure. His reactions were brilliant. You could see the pain on his face and how hard he was trying to not swear cause he could hear the swear jar being rattled at him. He spent a couple of euro by the end of his chest. They waxed a couple more lads legs and then took a break to heat the wax up again.

The start of project 365 :)

So as part of my new years resolutions I decided to take part in Project 365. This is a project where you take a picture everyday for a year and upload them to a blog or website. So I am going to upload them on here 2 to 3 times a week and include the story behind each of them. I started this project on Wednesday the 4th of January. 

Study for First Exam

Unfortunately this week is when I started my second year first semester college exams. So this picture is me studying (on Wednesday) for my analog devices exam. (Thursday) I started studying at 4 o'clock after making my delicious french toast and rasher lunch :) Except for dinner and bathroom breaks I spent 8 hours studying :( It was one of the most boring days of my life. I did however learn so much for my exams. I did the exam papers for the last 3 years over and over and over again until I knew as much as I was going to learn. Thankfully the exam the next day went pretty well and a lot of the stuff I studied came up on the paper.

2012

So it is the first week (day 2 infact) of 2012 and apparently the world is going to end at the end of this year :-! I'm not exactly so sure that is going to happen, are we really supposed to believe that the world will end because of something the Mayans calender ended in 2012 and apparently predicted the end of the world?

However, that isn't going to stop me living everyday as if it is my last. As part of my new years resolutions, I am going to do one thing every week that I would not have done before. And everyday I am going to do my best to put a smile on the face of someone that I care about. Even if all that takes is just texting them something funny.