Yeah yeah. That Waider.

Richard suggested that people turn up wearing tuxes and hawaiian shirts, as a tribute to our office manager who's headed back stateside. Then he backed down to "a nice suit and a hawaiian shirt". In the end, ( Collapse )

Buzzing around in my head this morning: Aztec Camera's Somewhere In My Heart. Normally there's a reason for a particular song being in my head, usually that I'd just stumbled across it on Youtube, or jwz's mixtapes, or just random iTunes shuffling, but every so often I wind up with an earworm for no reason I can determine. Oh well.

...a vision of love wearing boxin' gloves and singin' hearts and flowers...

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!"

- Dean Karnazes

I'm still not sure I'm sold on this line, but I do know that as I walked away from the finish line today, with burning lungs and sore feet, and a good ten to fifteen minutes to get to where I'd parked my car, I couldn't stop myself from grinning at what I'd just done. Even now, thinking about it, I find myself involuntarily grinning again.

Feb 25 22:55:20 <waider> not thinking gets me in trouble
Feb 25 22:55:28 <waider> thinking gets me in different trouble

Going over old chat logs is actually kinda fun, although I'm sure I could be doing something better with the time, like, say, SLEEPING.

(I should stress, this isn't related to any current or recent events, it's just one of those "hey, I said something funny" moments that tend to feed the quotes file.)

Jingle Bells 5k run: raised over €250, ran the race in under 19:30. Personal time ~19:21, race clock 19:26, no idea what my official time will be.

I totally ran the crap out of the last few hundred metres: this is the first time I've come to the end of a race with my lungs hurting. Worth it to take a whole minute off last year's time, though.

edited to add approximate splits: 1k @ 3:40, 2k @ 7:30, 3k @ 11:30, 4k @ 15:30, 5k @ 19:21. I'm a little hazy on the splits, to be honest - I think the 7:30 might have been a 7:34, but then again maybe it was the 15:30 that was a 15:34.

When I take my last breath and they publish my obituary, the first line will say that I presided over the intelligent design trial. I can't top this, I don't think, and I'm fine with that, if this is what I'm remembered for. I'm proud of what I did. I thought I discharged my obligations and my duties well.

A fascinating interview with the judge who presided over Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2004), a case on the teaching of Intelligent Design. The interview is, I think, as interesting for his explanation of how he did (and still does) his job, as well as the specifics of the case itself.

When I arrived home this evening, somewhat later than usual thanks to a conference call, I discovered an Amazon package leaning against my front door, made slightly damp by the inclement weather and not carried off by thieves and brigands only because my front door is down a flight of steps (although a similar basement next door was broken into a few years back). This is what we laughingly refer to as postal "service" in Ireland. Bizarrely, there was also a "we were unable to deliver..." notice for something I'll have to collect from the local sorting office; why they didn't just bundle them both together I have no idea.

No, I have not opened the package. I am presuming it to be a Christmas gift from one of my siblings and thus off-limits for another two weeks.

update: Apparently the notice was for the package which had been "delivered" against my front door. Go figure.

Diageo (that'd be the guys who own Guinness) announce a €24m "global centre of excellence for beer research". I think you'll find that's usually referred to as "a pub".

BCI announces a new TV channel catering to Eastern Europeans in Dublin just as 1/3 of the largest Eastern European group are planning on going home.

(I may be bending the facts a little here, since it's not obvious which parts of Eastern Europe the TV channel is catering to.)

I wonder how many people read about the recall of ALL Irish pork products produced since September over their traditional morning fry of sausage, rashers and pudding?