August 2010
3 posts
November 2009
1 post
September 2009
2 posts
Here's one I wish I'd made earlier:
wastedprotoplasm:
There are a lot of things you can miss when you’re not in Ireland. The craic, the banter, the Guinness, the stereotypes. And even things I despised before before I left don’t seem all that bad. I mean, maybe the racist taxi drivers are OK after all, maybe you can’t trust the wogs or the nips, who am I to say they’re not all a bit shifty.
But there are some things that just...
June 2009
1 post
U is for UPC
I have no idea what UPC stands for. If I were to hazard a guess though I’d say it stands for ‘Ultimate Pack of C*nts’. In our household we have been subscribers of NTL since the good old days of analogue TV and until fairly recently there had been little to complain about—leaving me at a loose end. But ever since Chorus NTL became “a UPC company” our telly has fallen...
May 2009
2 posts
U is for UCD
Having been rowing for Trinity now for roughly 7 months I am programmed to hate UCD and what little they stand for. It’s beaten into you from the first day you show up at training: “You must beat UCD. UCD are the enemy. If you don’t beat UCD they’ll beat you, your family and all those you hold dear.” Never mind that both my parents went to UCD, or that some of my best...
March 2009
1 post
February 2009
2 posts
Q is for Quotas
Quotas are a bad idea. Period. They increase the price of imports, hurt exports and, ultimately, hurt economic growth.
The common arguments in favour of quotas, and protectionism in general, are fundamentally flawed. In some cases they are just plain wrong! For instance, the argument that quotas helps protect jobs simply doesn’t hold water. By introducing a programme of quotas you limit...
January 2009
5 posts
M is for Marxism
I know, controversial, but Karl Marx has got a lot to answer for. His work inspired Lenin and the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Russian capitalist establishment. He drew attention to the class division and class conflict that existed between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, in turn inciting a revolution. He was a man of good intentions but history has proven that his radical ideas fail in the...
L is for Lists
I’m not talking here about the type of lists you find in the Guinness Book of Records. Nor, indeed, am I taking a swipe at my own A-Z list (now why would I want to do that?). No, the bone I have to pick is with those lists that require subjectivity and partiality.
In particular, I’m thinking of those Top 100 lists on Channel 4 as presented by the king of the one-liner, Jimmy Carr,...
December 2008
2 posts
K is for Katy Perry
I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I like it
I liked it
“Hi I’m Katy Perry. I don’t have the voice or the songwriting talent to get myself noticed so instead I’m just...
J is for Juno
Taken from my website, Film Focus:
Women say there’s nothing more painful than giving birth. They say us men will never know what it feels like to experience such excruciating and prolonged pain. If what they say is true, that means giving birth is not only more painful than getting a stiletto in the cojones, it’s also more painful than sitting through every agonizing minute of “Juno”. In that...
November 2008
2 posts
I is for Indie Music Fans
Is there a more fickle bunch of people than indie music fans? The Indie genre is the equivalent of fashion, with seemingly a new “fad” coming and going every year. In the early noughties The Strokes were the hottest band on the block, only to be supplanted a year or so later by Franz Ferdinand. Now you mention Franz Ferdinand to someone au fait with the indie music scene and...
H is for Hype
Hype is a dangerous thing. Get swept up in it and you’re letting yourself in for a crushing fall. Because no matter how wonderful the finished article is, the hype storm will have whipped up such an air of frenzied anticipation that nothing short of a miracle will leave you sated.
I admit I’ve been sucked into a hype vortex — a swirl of media hoopla and speculation that grows exponentially as the...
October 2008
3 posts
G is for George Bush and Gerrymandering
You would think such a travesty of justice as election tampering would be the preserve of corrupt Sub-Saharan regimes. You wouldn’t think America of all places, the great champion of Western democracy, could stand to see an election, the cornerstone of democracy, surreptitiously manipulated for political gain. But it happened.
November 2000 — that’s when it happened. Florida...
F is for Funderland
I don’t have to go to Funderland to know that I hate it. Maybe there was a time in my life when Funderland would have been heaven on earth, but now, as I approach the ripe old age of 20, I can’t think of many things worse than spinning around in a Waltzer to the sound of pumping techno music and belligerent youths.
I’m sure at one stage or another I would have jumped at the...
E is for Ewoks
Admittedly there can be no denying that the award for ‘Most Annoying Star Wars Character’ goes to Jar Jar Binks — but at least there was only one of him! Return of the Jedi is blighted by literally swarms of Ewoks, little bear-like critters who join Luke and co. in the fight against The Dark Side. If you ask me, the Star Wars saga didn’t jump the shark when The Phantom Menace was...
September 2008
7 posts
D is for Deal Or No Deal
Deal Or No Deal is a show only Homer Simpson could find remotely fascinating… or so I thought. Depressingly, it seems there are a lot of people out there who find watching ordinary people open boxes thrilling. And it’s not just the Yanks and the Brits who have a soft spot for boxes: Lebanon, among many other countries around the world, even has its own version of the show.
At...
B is for Boxer's Fracture...
… or ‘B is for Bloody Annoying Break’. Just as I’m mulling over what my entry beginning with ‘B’ will be I go and get what’s called a ‘boxer’s fracture’ in my right hand. God has some twisted sense of humour, I’ll tell you that.
According to my good friend “Mr. Wikipedia”, “A boxer’s fracture, also known as...
WatchA brazen indictment of the sorry state of American politics this, if ever I’ve seen one. Sure, Obama has been a source of inspiration for the young and disillusioned, but it’s political pundits and shock jocks like this guy who hold sway over the US political landscape.
Most people know of Rush Limbaugh and his ill-founded vitriol towards leftists, but there are numerous others just...
Film Focus →
My film review website. A bit like this blog only I moan and groan about movies — well certain movies at least
“Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives”
– Jonathan Swift. You know what they say about great minds…
