Last post, from me, on the riots.

I am not embarrassed by them. I am not shamed by them.
I did not take part. I did not toss bottles of urine at gardaí. I did not taunt gardaí. I did not loot shoe shops. I did not burn cars. I will never cheer on the IRA, be they Real, Provisional or “I can’t believe its not the buttery goodness that is the IRA”

I will never take anyone seriously who uses spin to try and condone such acts

Instead I’m content to be angry at those rioters. The majority of whom were nothing but bored kids acting out. But don’t think that this was unorganised disenfranchised youth acting on their own. What about the organisers telling the riots where to go. Instructing people to leave O’Connell St and head for Leinster House?

(Sub’s req’d)
The rioters engage in a stand- off with gardaí in Temple Bar. One puts his finger to his head as though it’s a gun and shouts

“Bang bang, Jerry McCabe, bang bang, Jerry McCabe”.

Also, in the campaign that the every day items have launched against me; today I scraped my knuckles on the rhyco book covers. Never fear. I shall keep you all up to date with this catalogue of minor annoyances.

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• John Simm - Sam
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I’m not really sure why I started watching this show. The trailers made it look very poor. Some crap cop police show, only with time travel thrown in. I was half thinking it’d be The Bill meets Time Cop. Yet for some reason I tuned in. Probably because there was nothing else on on a Monday night.

And I am so glad I did. This has to be my favourite British show, in a long time, maybe ever. Though Cracker was fantastic in its day.

Read the rest of this entry »

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I have come to the conclusion that something, out there , somewhere, is conspiring to get me. Every day objects have been turned into weapons. Perhaps not of the mass destruction variety. Not even of minor destruction, but weapons of minor annoyance.

And we all know how damaging minor annoyances can be. After all, annoyance leads to irritation. Irritation to anger, and anger to… yes that’s right; The Dark Side.

You already know about the tinfoil incident. But that was not the last such occurrence. Today the photocopier tried to chop my finger off. Luckily I escaped with merely a teeny tiny cut, but I know its game. Oh yes. It cannot fool me.

But it isn’t only physical damage these appliances are determined to inflict. On Sat as I attempted to cook some food, not one, not two, but four sausages escaped the grill and landed on the floor. The oven was trying to starve me into submission. Luckily the rashers fared better, so we did not give in.

They won’t defeat me. I shall fight on. I shall not be overcome. I shall fight on as though I have so much heart that it’d explode all over the television^[1]

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ISBN: 1841492736
Book 6 of Crown of Swords
Author: Kate Elliott
DDC: 813.54

First line:
Feather Cloak was fertile, the only pregnant woman left among her people

The first time I read King’s Dragon, the first book of this series I wasn’t all that impressed. But for some reason I reread it.
And on my second reading I enjoyed it a lot more. But that was more than a few years, and as seems to happen, the Crown of Stars series has ended up a much longer series than it started out. This is book six, the penultimate in the series.

I probably should have reread the others before reading this one, but I remembered most of what had gone on, if not the exact details. In the Ruins begins with the world in the aftermath of destruction, as the lost lands of the Cursed Ones have returned to earth. There have been great destructive waves, and volcanoes. And now the ash is blotting out the sunlight. Not only is the natural world in upheaval but the various political factions are still plotting against one another. And in the midst of all this Hugh is still after Liath.

This is a fairly solid read. Nothing overly special to recommend it, but nothing to really complain about, apart from the amount of characters and having to keep track of them all. Not enough Sanglant, you’ll say, or maybe not enough Alain, depending on who your favourite character may be.

Readable. But, perhaps because this is really one half of a very, very long book, there is not a lot of action. I’ll read on in the series before I make my mind up totally.

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So the third rugby weekend of the 2006 Six Nations is over. Scotland, France and Ireland the winners, England, Italy and Wales the losers. But with what 4 teams (?) on the same amount of points it is amazing how open this years competition is. I’ve a feeling the France might sneak it.

Our match against Wales was quite odd. We started slowly, or did Wales start out fantastically? They did have something to prove after the recent disturbances in their set-up. In the end though it was a fairly easy win for us. Gavin Henson didn’t get much of a reception when he came on. I wonder why Plenty of wolf whistles and boos for the Welsh rugby player. Is it just me, or did he look like a old style Italian gangster?

Anyways, a final score of 31-5 was grand. And nice to see Peter Stringer score a try.

Anyone who has been visiting the quote site may like to know that I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a wordpress version. Means you can register yourself, as well as rate the comments. It can be found at http://quote.prettycunning.net

Luna Nina says:
1. Baby step::
2. Wasted::
3. Reggie::
4. Pitiful::
5. Acting out::
6. Tomato::
7. Bad night::
8. Trip::
9. Finance charges::
10. Sport::

so I say

Read the rest of this entry »

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EDIT: Doh! Have only just realised now why the Jervis Centre was closed as I walked by it after leaving NM to catch her Luas. And Dossing Times has a good entry on the progress of the riots.

Went to see I, Keano in the Olympia today. Was very enjoyable.

Back in 2002 a civil war erupted in Ireland. On one side those who believed Roy Keane was right to insist on perfection. On the other, those who though Mick McCarthy and the team should stick together. Out of the drama came I, Keano a comedy musical play by men responsible for Gift Grub^[1] and Father Ted. The writers; Arthur Matthews, Mario Rosenstock and Michael Nugent have transplanted the action back to Ancient Rome, with General Macarticus as he prepares his team for upcoming battle. Among the soldiers are Quinnus^[2] and of course, the greatest warrior of them all, Keano. This run is, I think, its third in the Olympia, and today was the last showing before it heads off to the UK^[3]

It was really good. Myself and NM were laughing the whole way through. The actor^[4] playing Keano was fantastic, barely contained rage simmering all the time. And his scenes with the “great hair-dryer god” Fergie were fantastic. He did almost break character and piss himself laughing at one stage, but that just made it better.

I’m not sure if some of the jokes will work outside Ireland. Quinnus’ wife Surfia gets her name from the Surf adverts she has made. Still, I’m sure that most will work fine.

If you get the chance I’d say go along.

And then I got home to find out that I’d missed the riots. Yes, riots. There was supposed to have been a Love Ulster parade down O’Connell St. today. They are a loyalist/unionist group^[5] who want to promote unionism blah blah NI politics. Anyways, certain individuals decided to cause a bit of trouble. Republicans^[6] thought they’d stop the parade and, according to RTE, began attacking the gardaí, photgraphers and journalists. Poor old Charlie Bird was even hospitalised^[7]

Businesses along the route were forced to shut as gardaí and members of the Garda Riot Squad forced the protesters down O’Connell Street.

Further skirmishes broke out at O’Connell Bridge, Aston Quay, Fleet Street and Temple Bar.

The most serious violence was in the Nassau Street area. Three cars were burnt out, windscreens were smashed and businesses had their windows broken

Glad I didn’t pop along for a gawk amn’t I?
But if one good thing comes from this, hopefully it’ll help persuade people that Sinn Féin and their supporters aren’t really interested in peace and democracy. The Community at Large has a collection of links in this post

Oh, and congrats to Scotland who defeated England in the rugby. Now no one can win the Grand Slam, but the Six Nations is now wide open. Hopefully it’ll be a good match tomorrow and we’ll defeat Wales.

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