Deciduous Ponderings

musical shells

2008-07-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have never seen a piano been hit so hard by a pianist, but it did create some great music. I attended the UCH last night for one of the Shannon International Music concerts, Joanna MacGregor & the Irish Chamber Orchestra. It was a really enjoyable concert with a varied mix of music that caressed and invigorated the senses.

I admit I know very little about music, and even less about classical music. Yet I could see the intensity and passion that Miss MacGregor puts into her performance. Often, she would lean forward hunching over the piano and you could see her smiling with glee like a mischievous school child hunched over a desk. Then she would recompose herself, proud and erect, concentrating and listening, like a teacher critically examining every note. She would conduct the orchestra at times when she was waiting for her next piece, always in control.

Some pieces resulted in a wall of sound being created, in particular the Libertango which was amazing. The pedal was to the floor as continuous notes reigned in on existing notes radiating a calvery of sound from the piano. I am sure there are names for such effects. Then there were other times when she pounded the piano with clenched fists and possibly even an elbow with such ferocity, amazing, I think even some members of the ICO were surprised.

After that I was peckish, so I went home to use the eggs that my mum's hens gave me, indirectly and probably involuntary, but I appreciate them all the more for that. I decided to make an omelette, which should be relatively easy but I am not getting it as nice as I would like, not sure what I am doing wrong. Oh well, I think I'll just have to get more eggs and practice :)

Sweet tomato music

2008-07-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

The succulent sweetness of tomatoes invigorated with a warm chilli sensation makes Penne All'Arrabbiata a deliciously divine dish. I initially read the recipe in the Silver Spoon, albeit a friend's copy of it and I didn't have the wherewithall to write it down. I was surprised by how simple it seemed. Fortunately, the Italian Foodies were the saviour for my taste buds.

A reminder for the MBNA Shannon International Music Festival, a brochure can be downloaded here. I am looking forward to the Salsa Celtica and also Joanna MacGregor & the Irish Chamber Orchestra looks good.

Stony Gold Soil and well done MGB

2008-07-01T10:47:00.001-07:00

I always knew people from Monaghan had hearts of gold, but now it seems they have fields of it also.

I am going to have to manage my time better. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to cook anything recently. And especially when I look at various food blogs and their delicious looking photos, makes me so jealous ;-)

Well done to Mr MGB for handing in his thesis. Great stuff!

elderflowery goodness, sherbert, and music

2008-06-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

We completed the making of our Elderflower Cordial last night. There was very little to do, just strain the infusion mixture and then bottle it. I wanted to lick the bowls clean with the flavour of the thick sweet syrup, hmm delicious. It's a lemony taste enhanced with the flavour and smell of the elderflower. I must try making some Ice Lollies with it, or as there are lots of Elderflower sorbet recipes on the web, I might try some Elderflower sorbet.

When I searched for sorbet, for some reason, I searched for sherbert instead. This resulted in the perusal of this page after which I wouldn't mind making some sherbert. Its parent page has a number of interesting articles about various confectionaries, and its grandparent page has lots more articles about food and drink. It also explains how those rock sticks with words in them are made...

In other news, the Irish Chamber Orchestra have a brochure (PDF) for the MBNA Shannon International Music Festival. There seems to be some great acts on. Thursday night and Friday nights have tango and salsa music respectively, and the salsa gig is free. Hope the weather is good.

Respect our Elders

2008-06-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

There was a fresh creaminess to the scent, which surprised me. I didn't notice it when I smelled an individual flower, but after bringing home a bag it was not long before the scent fragrented the kitchen. I had brought home a bag of elderflowers to make some elderflower cordial.

I was a bit reluctant to shake the flowers as per instructions because I could see the pollen clouding the air, and I didn't want to lose any flavour (whether pollen contributes to the flavour or not I didn't know, but waste not want not). After a spider tried to bungy jump down into my bowl of flowers, I decided to continue with the shaking. I was also unsure about how much of the stem to cut off, would this give a woodier flavour? (My waste not want not strategy disappeared in a puff of smoke, as I trimmed off much of the stem.)

Pouring the sugar syrup into the bowl wilted the flours into a soggy mess. So now it was a matter of waiting and letting the flowers emit their flavour into the sugar syrup. Some of the recipes I found suggested waiting five days but I am going to stick with the 24 hours.

blaming exercise and food

2008-06-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

The blame games have started already, sigh!

I made a nice simple lil salad the other night. Brocolli, feta cheers, tomatoes and a balasamic vinegar dressing. It is from the first Avoca cook book. It should include roasted hazelnuts but I didn't have any to use. Apparently, I should be eating more fish, so I am going to try some Mackerel with some Citrus dressing next, although the Italian Foodie's branzino e patate al forno recipe looked really good and simple also.

I was in the Limerick Sports store today investigating tackies. They had asked me to bring in my old ones, to establish their inclination. So I brought in my current pair and my old pair. They reckoned that my old pair may have contributed to my various foot/heel problems as they had no support nor cushion, although I thought they were great. They thought my current pair of runners were great but told me they were neutrally inclined and that they only had a couple of months left in them. So now all I have to do is get back exercising, though will probably avoid the steps for a while.

Ryan Tubridy had an Italian chef on this morning. They really shouldn't be allowed to talk about food that hour of the morning. He described a very simple dessert he liked - a caapuchino cup of ice cream with an espresso and a shot of amaretto, sounded delicious.

Buongiorno Bella!

2008-06-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

A lovely break away, which involved two lovely people getting married, with lots of other lovely people attending. The location was Formia in Italy, a coastal town in between Rome and Naples. Fortunately, there were no rubbish strikes :-)

The weather was lovely and the food was delicious. Some people informed us that they had English soup, which disappointed me as I think I would have loved it. We were in one restaurant, Ristorante Da Veneziano (I think that's the name) where the Chef (who worked with Richard Corrigan) came out and asked us what we would like, really really nice. I had spaghetti with a with seafood which was delicious and then a Mille-feuille for dessert, which was so simple and so tasty.

We went to Pompeii on a day trip. I was not expecting the ruins to be so large, I don't know why but I wasn't. Its a strange place, you get to appreciate a lot of the ingenuity of the builders, from using clay pots in the floors for extra amplication in the amphitheatres, to the planning of shops and houses. Then there is the brothel which had some paintings of couples in different poses. There was a very simple sign carved into the street pointing to the brothel for sailors coming up from the port, no marks for anyone guessing what it was.

We flew with Ryanair. There were lots of people checking baggage weights and sharing stuff to balance the weight limits, one forgets how little 15kg is. Then there was the constant sales pitch, relentless, from fecking ringtones or phone cards to scratch cards. As for the landings, how they get away with it I don't know. They must be wrecking the planes with the heaviness of the landing. The landing in Rome was bad, but the landing back in Dublin was the worst I was ever on. I was expecting it also, because the plane was delayed in Italy, so I knew they'd be rushing to get us in. Everyone's heart stopped I think with apprehension at the landing. Then to add insult to injury, they played some idiotic tune, like a trumpet blow, to say how good their time keeping was.

Get new keys, Politics of Security and lack of intention

2008-05-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

Can you trust your keys? In case you missed the whole OpenSSL shabackle with Debian, have a read of this and/or this. It describes how some developers made a change to the OpenSSL package in Debian. This change reduced the randomness of generated keys, which wouldn't be a good thing. Here are some links where an OpenSSL developer initates the blame game.

Something that I pops into my mind a lot but I don't allow the thoughts to progress, is the nature of the intention of source code. Something that I see, often, is source code that does not specify its intention, either directly or indirectly. This makes it more difficult for people to make changes to the software later on, as they have to investigate what the software was supposed to do, as opposed to what it does, which takes a lot of time. So please be explicit and communicate your intention.

random chatter

2008-05-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I had lots to write about last week but when the blank text window appeared on my screen, my motivation wilted almost immediately to a lethargic state. I am sure I was going to rant about stuff but obviously it wasn't important enough to remember, then again I do remember wondering how insects's eyes manage with bright lights when they cannot blink. Perhaps my importance priority mechanism is messed up.

Technical Revenue has an interesting article on why he works at Google and also a couple of articles about business and start ups. I somehow found the blog via another Google blogger's article on Java performance. Some more Google bloggers can be found here.

I should at some stage try some of the recipes from the Limerick Italian Foodies. I hear some good things about them. Hopefully, I will get a chance to enjoy lots of Italian food next week in Italy, looking forward to it already.

Well done to the Munster team for a near perfect professional performance on Saturday. And a major acknowledgement must go to the fans, it is amazing the passion that most Limerick people have for the Munster team and for the game of rugby, very impressive.

ping

2008-05-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

ping

a morning baptism

2008-03-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I just heard about a very interesting Polish tradition called Wet Monday or Dyngus Day. Do traditions migrate as people migrate?

bloggers

2008-03-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

I was just glancing through some "popular" Irish blogs; I have the word popular in quotes because I don't what value of popular they are. They seem so self-indulgent and so self-important, my blog probably suffers similar ostentatiousness, which leads me to wonder about the quality of blogging and our rationale for doing it.

ramble ramble

2008-03-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

An old colleague of mine has a company blog, where I saw a novel use of gaming. Downloading a game over bluetooth in a shop, allows the person to get discounts based on their score in the game. The blog also has a picture of a rollable display which looks cool.

How to link parenthood with software development.

A free book I think..

Wireless Pacemaking

2008-03-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just don't think about what things contain a wireless device. Then again, I am fortunate enough that I have not had to think about something like a pacemaker. When you do think about something like a pacemaker, you can see the benefits of wireless technology. One could obtain diagnostic information or even, if necessary, fine tune the pace maker without requiring physical access to it.

Of course it is only a matter of time before you start to wonder about the safety of wireless technology in such a device. Technews brought the whole subject to my attention. In their news round up, they listed an article from a research group who found that they could hack into a pacemaker and get it to perform various actions.

And today, Technews reports that some electronic equipment such as digital frames, ipods, and sat-nav devices, come with viruses preinstalled. They suspect that these incidents are accidental and occur when a test PC is accidentally infected by an employee, but if you were a conspiracy theorist...

I wonder can you get a virus checker for a pacemaker?

no publicity is bad publicity

2008-03-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

I hadn't seen the list of modern evils until I saw Skitz's post.

Genetic manipulation, does that mean conceiving a baby is a sin?

Environmental pollution, does that include belching or flatulence?

Inflicting poverty, does that include inflicting poverty on yourself? To give a beggar money or not to give, that is the question?

Violation of fundamental rights of human nature, which rights are these?

Drug trafficking and consumption, is the sacrifical wine included in this?

still wondering

2008-03-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

An article on the BBC website instigated the thinking about cultural rights in a global context in my wee mind.

The article portrays the perspective of a Japanese whaler on whale hunting which is banned by the International Whaling Commission. Japan still hunts whales for scientific purposes.

Initially, I compared the hunting of whales in Japan to bull fighting in Spain and fox hunting in Ireland. These are activities that invoke much passion amongst the pro and anti groups. Then I started wondering about activities that deeply affect people, such as forced marriages, genital mutilation, and the caste system. I am still wondering...

randomness

2008-03-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

Should you wash your hair or not?

More potato news from Peru, where they have more varieties of potato than any other country.

I wouldn't be surprised if current politicians were using opposite members' horoscopes for political gain.

But I don't feel like dancin'
When the old Joanna plays
My heart could take a chance
But my two feet can't find a way
You think that I could muster up a little soft, shoop devil sway
But I don't feel like dancin'
No sir, no dancin' today.

On that note, am giving up dancing for a while, need more time to get other things done.

A blue Work Life Balance

2008-02-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

Is there a subliminal message in having a Work Life Balance day and then having it on the 29th of February? Is this a corporate conspiracy?

For some reason a blue potato seems wrong. Why I do not know, but it does...

Fine Stuff?

2008-02-28T02:17:00.000-08:00

Initially, I thought EUR1.68 billion was a nice bit of money until I realised that the same people make that much profit in a single quarter. I wonder what the EU will do with the money?

scary

2008-02-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

It is interesting and possible a little worrying how certain items can attract news coverage around the world. From New York to India to New Zealand, there is much interest in the Irish entry for the Eurovision this year. I can't imagine what Dustin will be like with all this coverage.

Planets of the sexes!

2008-02-26T01:28:00.000-08:00

I heard rumours recently that a certain book was being read late at night in the shadowy darkness of the Storm cinema near a wooden haven. This surprised me as reading and shadowy darkness do not generally work well together. The Gardai at Henry street were unable to comment on the matter. Apparently, their GPS navigator was broken and they could not find the area in question.

Initially, I dismissed the rumour as nonsense. However, after some investigating I was able to discover that a certain individual was stalking the stars in the area. Locals were shocked and appalled. "I am shocked and appalled" said one local. And so were the stars, it has emerged the individual was more interested in the planets than the stars, and in particular Mars and Venus than anything else.

After communications with NASA, I was able to get the individual to disclose some of his results. A detailed analysis is still in progress but already we can see a lot about the planets. We can see that Venus is wider around the waste than Mars, that Mars is able to withstand the cold a lot more than Venus, and while Mars is prone to eccentricity, Venus is much more prone to go ecliptic.

sporty weekend ahead.

2008-02-22T06:28:00.000-08:00

The Irish Womens Rugby team are playing this evening against Scotland. Hopefully they will do well. Unfortunately, the game is on at 6pm which gives people very little chance to get to the game after work. It is a pity the game is not on a Sunday or even a precursor to the big game on Saturday, as might encourage more interest. It is also a pity that there is such poor coverage about the Womens' games, trying to get the result is very difficult.

There should be a good hurling game on Sunday in Limerick at 2.00pm. Port Omna (Gaillimh) are playing Luachna – Caislean Laighnigh (Tiobraid Árann) in the semi finals of the club championship, while Biorra (Uíbh Fhailí) are playing Cu Chullian (Aontroim) in Clones at same time.

What does the word Irish mean?

2008-02-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

Is it just a synonym for a job poorly done? Recently, I have heard a number of people expressing frustration with the way something is done by using the expression "that's a bit Irish isn't it?". Generally, this reference occurs in relation to something done by the Irish government or by Irish companies. For example, when the NRA proposed the Nenagh bypass, people cried out for it to be made a dual carriage way. However, in their wisdom the NRA made it a single carriage way and now not long after been built they are ripping up parts of it to make it a dual carriage way.

One could argue that there are lots of good things that happen in the country, such as the achieving peace in the north, getting the smoking ban through, and putting in place plastic bag levy. Some Irish businesses have even redefined how Irish people live such as Ryanair in how they have transformed air travel in Europe. Is is possible that there are more bad things than good things, and has this resulted in the sad connotation that people have added to being Irish? Or are we a nation of begrudgers who do not recognise good things?

random comments on battle in a heavy weight.

2008-02-15T05:58:00.000-08:00

It is strange when you are alerted to a place where a killing occurred. Especially, when you are just after arriving to a place. You would think that taxi drivers would not want to scare off potential future passengers.

However, I would recommend the Cottage restaurant in Warrington for its delicious Indian food. I had a Chicken Tikka Pathia which was scrumptuous. The service initially was excellent and then collapsed into non-existency which was a pity. I'd still go back for the food, and also to give the waiters a second chance.

It is strange that the English towns, that I have visited that they, seem deserted on certain nights mid week. While Tuesday night was student night, that is all I saw around students. Wednesday night was vaccuous, so strange. Even the McDonalds was closed at 10 oclock in the town centre.

Infoworld discuss some of the uses of GPS in mobile phones that are on display in the mobile world congress in Barcelona (previously known as the 3gsm congress). They mention Yahoo's idea of getting alerts when your friends come into town, which sounds a little big brother like. However, it does make me wonder how soon will a GPS dating service occur, if one does not already exist? People text a number in a pub and get alerted to possible dates in that pub.

Congrats and non rants.

2008-02-14T05:10:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Ronan on his photography site for Travel, Landscape and Event Photography. Some excellent pictures in it.

Also congrats to the latest Doc.

Haven't written in ages, just been very busy. I had so many things that I wanted to give out about, hypocracy of politicians and ineptness of politicians, GAA and the situation with the Cork players, Sport and Feminism and excellence, and the silliness of fluid restrictions on flights.

bank internet security ramblings

2007-12-21T04:32:00.000-08:00

Bank of Ireland has introduced what seems like a very silly (in)security measure. Instead of typing in digits of a personal pin, the user must select each one from a drop down box. Personally, I think it is easier to look over one's shoulders and see what option is selected rather than see what someone typed in. Instead of covering the keyboard when I type it, I now have to cover the screen. Ok, I know the vast majority of customers will be accessing it from home or maybe work, but if you are on holidays in an internet cafe then maybe you want to be sure noone can see your details, so this is a bit worrying.

However, maybe they are concerned with a miscreant keyboard-logger logging the users details during login and then emailing them back to the evil hacker who created the logger in the first place, who would then run off and transfer all our money to his or her own account.

Birthday Greetings! and stores about ducks

2007-12-14T11:06:00.000-08:00

Birthday Greetings to MGB! Wishing him well.

I remember a friend of mine told me a story about a duck attack they encountered. They were in a park in a city centre, walking around a pond. Suddenly, they heard this loud quacking and fluttering. They saw a couple of large ducks flying towards and then attacking a slightly smaller duck in the pond. They were biting and ravaging the smaller duck. My friends were puzzled by this behaviour, and subsequently heard ducks are known to rape female ducks. According to the Economist, Drakes are apparently notorious rapists (this document raises some other possible observations about research funding, but thats a different story). A blogger witnessed something similar and has a video showing it (I couldn't see video, due to restrictions on our proxy).

The above story has of course nothing to do with what I started thinking about, which is what would you do if you encountered a duck that had an injured leg beside a pond or a river? Would you ring someone? Would you get a Vet? Would you kill it "sympathetically"? or would you try and find out more about the duck and decide if it deserved to live or not and play God with it? What would you do if you found out the duck was a leader of a country and wanted lots of money, but got his leg broke because his mates were to fashion conscious?

Birthday greetings.

2007-12-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

Birthday greetings to Braz

Had lots to write about but not enough time.

I need recommendations!

2007-12-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

I am considering moving into Limerick and would like any suggestions as to where would be a good place to live.

Weekend goodness

2007-12-03T10:00:00.001-08:00

A wedding on Friday and postwedding bevies on Saturday ensured a tired puppy on Sunday. Too tired even to see Loughmore-Castleiney win the munster club championship, which was a pity. I did attend a craft fair in Nenagh, which was a bit disappointing. There were one or two interesting pieces but there was nothing really outstanding or novel, and the prices were a bit steep for some of the things that were on offer. €20 for a bottle of fruit infused alcohol that could be purchased in the shops for €18.

Like Michael I have purchased a tree for christmas. It is alledgedly a live tree, with roots and a pot of soil, purchased from Superquinn. Hopefully, I will be able to plant it somewhere in the new year. Politicians like planting trees and stuff, don't they? I often see one with a shovel in hand, showing it to the soil before hurriedly handing it off to someone else in a relieved fashion. Hmm, I wonder who I could persuade to come down and plant it for me.

birthday reviews and interesting times?

2007-11-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Interesting doesn't seem to capture the times that we are living in at the moment. It doesn't reflect the terrible sadness and heartbreack experienced by families involved in the misdiagnoses of cancer. It doesn't reflect the farcical increases in salary given to public servants in the midst of belt tightening. It doesn't reflect the anxiety and turmoil experienced by those facing job losses in Thurles, Limerick and elsewhere. It doesn't reflect the comical management of the Aer Lingus departure from Shannon. It doesn't reflect the joy and tiredness experienced by parents of this years baby boom. It doesn't reflect the frustration and tribulations of sports fans of the various national teams. Interesting times, I am not sure.

Birthday greetings to Skitz who will be doing a granny smith version of James and the giant peach this weekend. Hope they have fun. A party was held in his honour last Saturday night, which was good fun. Lots of people I had not seen in a while, but sadly didn't get to chat to them all. And I got to take three gorgeous girls home also, to their home that is, but still, I can live in hope.