Panic Stations

Doh! Staring to realise I don't have all the time in the world to get my stuff together.

Had a poxy time in the city yesterday buying "clothes which are not black" to combat hot weather and nasty insects. I got a pair of walking boots as well for climbing up Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. I legged it accross town for a train home and just missed it. Poxy.

Said a few more goodbyes and I think that's what's started the creeping realisation that I'm leaving for quite a while and won't see people for a long time.

Anyhoo, list to finish, etc.

Can't think of anything else, so here's a live action version of the Simpsons opening scene:

Tiddeley Woppalouie Jnr.

Heh Heh.

After setting this blog up earlier, my mind wandered back to the last time (and the first time) I set up a web page. . . . .

It was way back. I think I had a brand new 56K modem. It was the business.

I read some tutorials on setting up a web page and once I had learned the absolute minimum to get the site up I made a grand total of 3 pages, uploaded and never changed them again.

The content is a couple of really bad quality recordings we made just after we bought a 4-track.

I cleverly decided to reduce the quality even further by converting them into the Real Media format and uploaded them to the site.

If you want to listen to the files I'd recommend installing the Real Alternative player (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm) rather than the bloated Scumware that is Real Player.

The first couple of files were made by me ("ForiDor" and "GomPoPo" have Col on guitar and Antoin on bass, I think) and my SW60XG soundcard(http://www.yamaha.co.uk/xg/html/products/p_sw60.htm) This was the first proper soundcard I bought (I think it cost me IRE£150). It was pretty tricky to use at times, but it sounded a million times better than the cruddy sounds I had been getting out of the standard PC cards. They are absolutely shit, but amusing to hear after all this time.

Anyhoo, the other songs are much better:

LaLaLOPL is Antoin's laidback tune, which kicks in at the end with a great riff from Col.

ColFinn is an all-too-short piece of classic Colin and his effortless, meandering guitar playing.

4Trackso (supposed to be "4 Tracks of Fun" I think) has Antoin on rythmn and another great riff from Col.

My biggest regret is that WQt1000 doesn't have Antoin shouting "OooooohhhhhYeeesshhh!" at the end. I remember us recording it, but I must have never updated the site. It was very funny.

I found the site by checking the Eircom homepage format and trying a few accountname combinations. It's great to see that this site is still up!

http://homepage.eircom.net/~mcdermottn/index.htm

Testing, testing . . .

Hello, This is my blog. This is my first post. I'm still not sold on the whole blog thing, but here goes . . .

I'm off to Oz in a few days. This will be somewhere to write stuff and post pictures. Hopefully the stuff I write later will be more interesting than the stuff I write now!

For example: I passed a Microsoft exam today (Supporting XP in some way or another) and I passed. . . despite studying for the wrong exam for a few hours yesterday. Luckily the subject matter was similar. I'm hoping that this exam will make it easier to get a jobaroo Down Under. We shall see.

Exciting so far, isn't it?

Met up with a load of friends on Saturday to say goodbye. It was great to see everyone. Didn't seem like a goodbye though. It'll probably take a while to sink in. Drank beer shandy all night in an attempt to reduce my hangover so I could study (the wrong exam) on Sunday. It was tough, but probably worth it (if I'd failed the exam, I'd be cursing myself now).

Well, not the greatest of first posts, but it can only get better, eh?

(That's a picture I took in Howth Junction a while ago by the way. Classic graffiti.)