Category Archives: v70

Where’s clown number three

What in the name of all things XML have I been up to. Well as y’all have probably gathered, I’ve been relatively offline, what with my new job. Trying to get settled in Ireland, trying to sell my house in Wales and generally trying to get my shit together.

I’ve been going to the gym alot and playing football twice a week (when we get the players) resulting in a loss of just short of a stone. I’ve had a super quick trip back to Wales (booked at 12 o’clock while still in bed – waiting at gate at 2 o’clock) and back at 8 o’clock the next evening. I’ve started the process of importing my car. I went to the Oxegen music festival which was awesome and muddy and awesomely muddy. I’ve also booked my holidays, I’ll be spening 10 days at the family’s summer house on an island in the Helgeland area of middle/north Norway.

I checked the other day and was shocked to see that I have been in Ireland (with all my posessions) for three months and three days. My house has been up for sale for nearly four months and I’ve been in my new job for nearly two months. Time seemed to drag during that time but looking back – it’s just flown.
Onwards and upwards folks – onwards and upwards.

Congrats to my brother who passed (with merits) his Carpentry exams and only has a year left and he’ll be earning more than me.

The clown reference in the title is from the fact that our house is now referred to the “Clown College” where myself Ronan and Colm live.

Geek resolutions

As it’s new year and my motivation is at an all time low, I think a list of TODOs (or new years resultions) is needed. Some of those listed are techy and some are not but all of them are aimed at improving my life.

I will

  • Finish the new design of this site – as you can see, it’s still a work in progress
  • Comment my code
  • Finish projects I have started
  • Document my code properly
  • Use UML – even if it’s just in my head
  • Move to Ubuntu on my home machine
  • Caption all my photos – all 8500 of them
  • Read all the books I bought
  • Read non-techy books too
  • Cook more
  • Eat less
  • Eat healthier
  • Find some way of feeling healthier that I can actually stick to (Gym is a bit too much commitment)
  • Start to budget my outgoings properly
  • Stop calling my dog “the rodent”
  • Learn that Friday does not have to equal “getpissedday”
  • Stop watching soap operas – comedy series like King of Queens and Scrubs will remain on my Sky+ planner though
  • Contribute to an open source project
  • Help fellow developers more
  • Always keep in mind that I know only a fraction of what I think I know
  • Be in a good mood
  • Write another useful Firefox extension that uses a custom XPCOM component
  • Use Patterns in code more
  • Stop driving like an idiot just so I can get home quicker
  • Go to Ireland to see my friends and family more
  • Go to the summer house in Norway
  • Save money
  • And finally – keep this blog up to date

There’s quite a few there so I think it’s more of a two year plan. I have been working on an eight year plan with Gill too, but it’s still a bit up in the air but very exciting – as along as all goes well –

I will also (I thought of some more)

  • Move to IMAP instead of POP email
  • Backup more
  • Learn how to use SVN properly
  • Go to LinuxWorld in London (as long as it’s not on Gill’s birthday like last year)
  • Get a whiteboard at home
  • ……..I’ll add some more as I think of them

Lake District

Myself, Gill, and Bobby went on a spur of the moment camping trip to the Lake district this weekend. THe start of the weekend did not go well, with the Volvo overheating 4 times to and from work on friday, eventually resulting in the boiling over of all my coolant and a trip to the local Volvo garage on a tow truck. This led to us leaving an hour and a half later than expected and in the wrong car (we had planned to go in the Volvo [one of the main reasons for getting it]). Because we were late, by the time we got to the national-trust site we wanted to stay on —– it was full, As were all the other campsites near Lake Windermere. There was one last site that we had been given directions to – If that was full we were going home. It wasn’t full so we pitched our tent and had a lantern lit bbq for dinner (at 10pm.).

The rest of the weekend went very well, with plenty of relaxing, sun bathing, swimming, eating and generally running around sniffing the bitches asses. Bobby also had fun.

I would definitely recommend the Lake District as a camping destination but booking a site would be advised.

Vivacious Volvo

Well, it’s done. After many weekends deliberating over whether to buy a second car, I’ve finally taken the plunge and purchased a long time dream of a car (note I didn’t buy this car with economy in mind ;)) – Volvo v70 2,5 litre 20v Turbo. Even saying it gets me excited. It’s a 1997 model with a cool 160,000 miles. I paid £1900 (2,752.18 EUR) with a new cam belt fitted which after much research is a good price. The mileage does not bother me as I have read of v70s doing more than 700,000 miles. I pick it up next saturday and I cannot wait.

Volvo v70 exterior 1
Volvo v70 interior
Volvo v70 exterior 2

I predict that this car will feature heavily in my future posts.