See, every time I hear that Canadians enjoy poutine I think of poitin.
Music , Youtube
Canyon – music brings us together
Thank you James for sharing this lovely short video. I remember reading somewhere that the music that defines us, or that we "really get" is the music we hear in our twenties. This leads to disenchantment in later years because everything's changed, and it's not the same "as the good ol' days". The thing is, you're not the only one who loves that music, and that's a wonderful bonding experience. A recent episode of First Dates Ireland (yes, yes, I'll watch it sometimes) featured a couple who bonded over music, only as friends but they now had someone to go […]
Photography , Photos
Dealing with Lightroom Lens Profiles
Lightroom Classic CC supports a wide range of lenses but if you're not shooting in RAW you'll probably be out of luck if you want to apply a lens profile. All the built-in lens profiles were made with RAW files in mind. If you're shooting Jpeg then you're out of luck. I usually shoot RAW but a few weeks ago I used Jpeg to do some street photography. All was well until I tried to correct the lens distortion. Lightroom couldn't find any lens profile! I thought my Lightroom install had been corrupted somehow. The list of lenses only included […]
Photos
St. Patrick’s Day 2018
The 17th of March this year was a very cold day. It was overcast and dreary. A bitterly cold wind blew. Ireland were playing England in rugby at the same time most parades were taking place, which makes it all the more extraordinary that people turned out at all to watch and cheer on the parades around the country. The Blarney parade was smaller than previous years, and the crowd was definitely smaller too but they made up for it in sheer enthusiasm and good cheer. I have to salute those of the parade who walked the route dressed in […]
Science
Stephen Hawking on Star Trek
Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton played poker with Data on Star Trek TNG. This BBC documentary on the life of Professor Stephen Hawking is well worth a listen. RIP.
Games
When Bob Started a Syndicate
The other day I was reading through the very last issue of Ace Magazine when I came across an "In the Works" preview of a game called Bob. It was the temporary name given to a work-in-progress game by developers Bullfrog. It meant nothing to me until I saw the screenshots. That looks very familiar! It was the classic Bullfrog game, Syndicate! Bob looked like a much more complex game than Syndicate turned out to be so I'm glad the game was tweaked and tuned before release. It's one of the few games I've actually finished, except for the American […]
Ireland
Remember Ann Lovett
The death of Ann Lovett, a 15 year old Irish school girl in 1984 should be remembered today, International Women's Day. She died following the birth of her son in front of a grotto on a cold January afternoon. It was here, on the bitterly-cold, wet afternoon of Tuesday, 31 January, 1984, that Ann Lovett, a warm, clever and artistically-gifted 15-year-old girl, left Cnoc Mhuire (The Hill of Mary) Secondary School. She walked the length of Granard, past her Main Street home, to the grotto of the Blessed Virgin to give birth to her son. He died at birth. Around […]
Ireland
Snowpocalypse Day 3
More fun in the snow today of course. Storm Emma wasn't quite as strong as we were all led to believe (voluntary curfew from 4pm yesterday to noon today for example), but it still dumped more snow on us that I've ever seen in Ireland. All that snow made it easy to build another snowman or two, and provided plenty of ammo for a snowball fight later in the day. Snowballs to the side of the head can hurt … One of our cats, Hoppy, disappeared for several hours today making us very worried because of the cold temperatures and […]
Ireland
Snowpocalypse Day 2
The second day of snow and Storm Emma will make landfall around 9pm tonight apparently. Schools were closed, hardly anyone driving but kids were out playing in the snow. I'm glad we're watching Peanuts the Movie tonight! The local Mill Pond was frozen over, temperatures didn't rise above 0C all day but it was nice to see blue skies. There's one thing you have to do when it snows and that's building a snowman. My son got a bucket and added castles all around it to protect him from the maddening hoards of invaders that befall every snowman! Fingers crossed […]