The Untouchable le John Banville. Agallamh spéisiúl anseo faoin leabhar.. Is spéisiúil an fhreagairt a fhaigheann tú nuair a deireann tú go bhfuil leabhar le Banville idir láimhe agat. Cheapaim féin go bhfuil sé an-soléite ach ní bhraitheann gach éinne mar sin.
Money by Martin Amis and after this I really will have to read something cheerful and romantic.
The Dudley Smith Trio by James Ellroy. I will never be able to watch Babe again and I found George even creepier in the last few episodes of Six Feet Under and it's all because James Cromwell played Dudley Smith in LA Confidential. Creepy.
What a great idea! Borrowbooks.ie allows you to search all libraries in Ireland and if you are a member of the library, you can borrow those books.
A Latvian mathematician called Daina Taimina is using her crochet skills to "create a model of hyperbolic space":
When she picked up her crochet hook a decade ago, Taimina had a more ambitious goal than making a scarf or hat: her aim was to create a model of hyperbolic space, a strange world where parallel lines do not stay the same distance apart but curve away from each other. It is so conceptually challenging that for a century mathematicians were unable to visualise what this type of space might actually look like. In fact, there is no formula that accurately describes hyperbolic space, so computers cannot model it either.
I would love to undertake a project like this but I must complete the infamous infinity blanket which I have been working on since May 2005. I started it when I was recuperating after my appendicitis.
Her most ambitious crochet model weighs 4.5kg (10lb) and uses 5.5km (3.5 miles) of yarn. “It is probably the largest hyperbolic crochet ever,” she says. “[Making] it was a long and painful time - it is very heavy, and so it took a lot of energy to turn it.”
Sounds just like mine! I also think that you have to be quite mathematically minded to do set-dancing because it's all about patterns and triads and eights. I wonder is there any research about the link between dance and maths?
Bhí mé an-chuffed go deo go bhfuair mé r-phost ó cheann de na feidhmeannaigh i nGaelscoileanna chun chur in iúl dom go raibh Gaelscoil nua le bunú i gCromghlinn. Cé go raibh fhios aige go raibh ár leadanna cláraithe le scoil cheana cheap sé go mbeadh spéis agam agus tá cé nach féidir liom freastal ar a gcruinniú an tseachtain seo. Má tá spéis ag éinne ann déan teagmháil le Gaelscoileanna - sonraí ar a suíomh.
As JUNGLE GYM (say in a big loud deep voice). I would love to purchase a Play Centres from GardenersLife.ie but somehow I don't think it would arrive in time for S's birthday today. I met the owner of this company last week, Simon Garvey: what a great guy. I've met a lot of inspirational people like him since I started my job with the IIA who just said, "Y'know, actually this doesn't matter to me - I'm off to do something that does matter to me." and they do. And like Simon they do a great job. I really like his branding.
Speaking of gardening, I mentioned in a previous post that Himself should be proud. He's doing great stuff with our strip of land here. Lovely window boxes as mentioned. We also bought a sandpit for the lads. We bought three of these lovely sandpits: one is being used as a pit and the other two are raised beds and they look great. Having a garden is so lovely, especially when there are kids around. Ooh I'm off to watch House!
As you know I have recently moved jobs. Himself was slagging me when I told him that I would be writing and managing the IIA's newsletter as this was something I did in An Chomhdháil as well. In fact I worked on An Chomhdháil's two newsletters and digest service from inception, during that time moving one of them from one platform to another. I love writing newsletters, I love to get them and I still think a well written and presented newsletter is the digital communication most likely to see results. I've seen the results. To many the cost of setting them up may seem prohibitive, but the return on investment, once you have a good writer/ editor is immeasurable. If you are thinking about starting a newsletter, a good place for advice that I go back to again and again is E-mail Universe. Now while there was some virtual guffawing among the Irish Twitteratilast week in relation to email marketing, I still try to have time for ezines that matter.
However sometimes I don't have enough time. I love RSS for this reason* and my Google Reader in particular which, although it's currently groaning from overzealous subscribing, allows me to zip through lots of content especially on my phone. This I love because no matter where I am (in Ireland) I always have something to read.
But what I would really love and maybe it already exists is a similar thang for managing all my ezine subscriptions. I hate unsubbing because having been at the receiving end I know a little bit of one dies inside when a subscriber is lost. I used to email them and ask them every so nicely why they were choosing to unsub and thankfully it was never because of something I did. They were moving jobs, going on ma leave or had changed accounts. What conscientious people! Unlike those reams of Hotmailers (I am also guilty although I retain mine for IM purposes) whose newsletters are probably still bouncing around the ether. So dear Lazyweb, as Conor O'Neill of LouderVoice would say, is there a web service out there that will help me manage all my newsletters to all my various accounts? Wouldn't that be great? I might even be able to go back and correct my past transgressions and unsub all those I used my hotmail account for. The other thing I would love to be able to do and, I would, as a newsletter producer, love people to be able to do, is to suspend newsletters while on leave by entering the exact dates of that leave. Or just a better way of recognising newsletters from real people. But sure therein lies the holy grail of email.
* Yes I am painfully aware of the fact that my own RSS is not working. I've tried to fix it. I'm too dim obviously. This is what happens when you are a self-hosted blog pioneer. I've been at this lark since 2003 folks when you all thought RSS was a snake with a lisp.
Ooh the excitement. Damien Mulley who I see Darklight refer to in their programme as an Irish Blogging Guru has accepted my application for his Training the Trainers Day which will get me a day out in Cork with like-minded souls if nothing else. Oh la I better whip this site into shape so!
I read about his offering on Twitter and it's one of many leads/ideas/inspiration I have found from using Twitter. Himself has stopped describing himself as a web widower: he's now a Twitter widower!
Ah well at least the kids are always up for annoying him. Happy Father's Day!
Speaking of inattentivness my Hack Cuz pointed out in the comments I haven't been reading her blog or telling you all about it. While I think you should read both of our blogs regularly I have to admit she is a far better writer. She is a professional, I am not. She is also getting some attention from another (ahem) "reknowned blogger" Conor Pope. The Hack Cuz and I have another grand plan that may come to fruition for your delectation once she has completed all her college work. We will both keep you posted...
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