Completely Off Topic

I fell in love again; all things go, all things go

2010-06-02T02:59:00.007+01:00

I'm not sure why I'm committing this to blog, but it seems right, so let's run with it and ignore the fact that it's been well over a year since my last post.

This is a song which I have forgotten for 5 years and accidentally remembered tonight. I was youtubing (surely this is a genuine verb at this point?) the equally brilliant Chicago (the band), and I noticed this song underneath the first few entries. Memories came flooding back.

2005, possibly the best year of my life so far, the first half spent in TY with friends which I still hang out with and insult to pass the days and weeks; the second half spent taking the lessons learned from TY into a year of 4th year students who decided not to do TY (idiots), and actually fitting in.

The summer between these two periods was also fantastic in my mind, although I have no doubt the fuzzy glasses of my memory tint it in a much better light than it deserves. It was a summer spent playing pool and using a broken Nokia 3310 as the cue deposit. It may have been a dank, horrible upstairs pool hall, but it was our dank, horrible upstairs pool hall. But not even the rosy tint of yesterday could enhance my playing ability, because I was, as my friend Neil used to elegantly and regularly describe me, "shit".

That summer, my older brother had taken to lending me CDs he thought I would like (or more likely, CDs he wanted me to like). Among those CDs were "Funeral" by some band named "Arcade Fire" (I don't think they ever made it), "King's of Leon"- Aha Shake Heartbreak (saaaaalty leave), and a little album called "Illinois" by one Sufjan Stevens which I remember listening to, maybe twice. Except for one song which for some reason resonated with me: Chicago. I must have listened to that song maybe 50 times in the first week alone.

Some of you may remember it was used in an RTE GAA promotional , in which a list of TV and sports personalities were telling us why they loved GAA so much. To this date, I think it's probably one of the best things RTE have ever made. The line

"A kaleidoscope of colour, a cacophony of sound"

uttered by someone long faded from my memory, still rings in my ear with an odd clarity after all these years...

A line, an advert, an album, a pool hall, a summer, a year, long since banished to the annals of my mind, all brought back by one song I accidentally stumbled upon on youtube. My tangled web of memories brought me a smile tonight, and with it, an album I need to listen to again

Paul (random numbers)

Getting Crumlin's Children's Hospital on "Child's Play"

2009-03-30T00:51:00.003+01:00

Ever since I discovered it, I’ve been hoping that Crumlin’s Children’s hospital would join “Child’s Play” a charity which donates toys and video games and books and all sorts to children’s hospitals around the world in the run up to Christmas. And every year I’ve been disappointed. Well no more I say! I’m sick of waiting for someone else to do it for me, so one way or another I am going to get Crumlin’s Children Hospital on that list! You can help too by emailing them and telling them all about it! You can find more info here http://www.childsplaycharity.org/about.php

I’ve emailed the hospital so now I wait with fingers crossed twice over for a response… Please help everyone!

In other news I joined 43 things and I'm currently trying to compose a list of things to do for the summer. Suggestions? Leave a comment!

http://www.43things.com/person/Paul_OShea

A quickie

2009-03-19T02:04:00.003Z

Just dropping in to say I'm still alive! Just drifting along really. Things that have happened include got the nokia 5800, which is sexy and I may write more about, finished the FDF party video, which can be found here I think and if not, maybe this will work...

Did it work? I do hope so! I've also eaten more pizza than I can handle, picked up DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), become involved in the GH (Guitar Hero) forum on boards.ie and so on. I'm not sure what else to talk about... I'm sure there's something. Meh, I'll get back to it... Signing off again so, talk tcha.

May Battle Commence!

2009-02-18T02:47:00.006Z

WARNING: This may not be interesting to you!

Lot's of stuff happened during the holidays. One thing which I particularly enjoyed was my first game of Warhammer 40k in a long old time. Two years I'd venture. So getting back behind the rulebooks was good fun. Before I begin, for those of you unfamiliar with warhammer, it's a tabletop game, where you collect,assemble and paint miniature figures and battle whoever else is insane/loaded enough to play. I play with longtime buddy, Neil, who tends to be the only person I ever play Warhammer with.

The problem with playing with Neil is, I'm a terrible painter and he is not. It's not that I don't try it's more it's more that I don't try enough. Put simply my models are atrociously painted and maintained. Neil's on the other hand, tend to be simply amazing. It's terribly embarrassing, especially since Neil enjoys nothing more than pointing out my shitness. But I got over the taunting and we got stuck into the battle! Neil plays Imperial Guard; Cadian. He has 3 tanks with ordinance, a squad of shock troopers (his elite troops), a command squad, a Sentinel and some troops. I play Space Marines; Black Templar. I have two squads with heavy weapons, 2 squads with assault weapons for close combat, an emperor's champion, a tooled up Chaplain, Assault Marines and 3 bikes. The points limit is 1200, there is no scenery because we couldn't find any.

Now, the first problem we faced was a complete lack of rulebooks. I had my Black Templars Codex. Neil however, did not have his codex or the rulebook. Thanks to the internet and it's amazing ability to plagiarise. we got around the lack of codex, but the lack of a rulebook posed issues at many stages in the battle. Mainly because we couldn't remember some of them. Anyway once we were all set up, we rolled for first move.

I got a one. Neil got a five... Typical. So Neil's three tanks, each with one ordinance blast, capable of mulching several of my marines each, took their shots. However, the three tanks were pretty unlucky with their shots and all of them scattered. Even so, I lost two assault marines and a member of my lascannon tactical squad to their fire. My assault marines pushed onwards to avenge their fallen comrades, but my tactical squad fled backwards, which brought them to the table edge. After a big argument between myself and Neil, they stayed and regrouped.

My turn went no better, with my troops running forward to try and reach the front lines of Neil's Imperial Guards. My bikes boosted 24" to Neil's front lines. This was a bad idea. So here's what we were looking at the end of turn one.

Turns 2 and 3 saw Neil destroy all 3 of my bikes, most of a squad of Templars, my entire squad of assault marines and wounding my chaplain. I missed 3 times with my missile launcher and lascannon, and the tanks continued to pound away. The situation wasn't looking good.

That is of course, until I reached Neil's front lines circa round 4. What remained of my templars crashed into Neil's storm troopers, slaughtering several of them. My Chaplain accompanied them, making them an even more deadly target. Funnier still, was when my Emperor's champion arrived at Neil's commanders' door. My champion has this funny knack of not dying, but Neil's command unit seemed equally determined to not go away.

Turn 4 also say one of Neil's tanks finally biting the dust, which was nice.

Turn 5 and 6 became less of a battle and more of a "How many can I kill before the game ends to try and save some face." The answer was quite a lot. Neil lost a good proportion of his troops, and one of his tanks were immobilised So many in fact that in the end I managed to scrape a points victory! However it wasn't enough to be official, so it ended a draw. Yay!

I love Warhammer. It's just fun. Plain, unadulterated fun. There's a great element of strategy, but then, you can roll that 1 at exactly the time you DO NOT need to and it can turn your plans on their head! What a game. Thanks to Neil for putting up with the constant photo taking!

Til next time...

APPENDIX: People rolling their eyes and refusing to try Warhamer is just a bit snobbish. Most people enjoy Warhammer when they do finally give it a go. If you know a place near by you that sells it, you should go in and ask for a demo, they'll probably be only too happy to show you the ropes!

Blogin' from Molly's or, how getting out more doesn't help.

2009-02-03T22:21:00.002Z

I write this from Molly's and I have to wonder why I wandered here in the first place. Well the original plan was poker. But that failed. So walked and watched the snow fall and before I knew it I was posting on the boards in molly's. This feels like a new low even for me. Ugh. They're playing trust me I'm a doctor again... I don't understand the obsession with going out... Or the blizzards for that manner.

But the walk... The walk was amazing. Snow in Ireland is such a rare thing, so walking across a relatively quiet city, covered in snow, the odd street lamp adding a layer of colour to the sea of floating white was a great experience. One can really think in such situations.

Now they're playing Mr. Jones. Which is grand but they've done it already, which raises questions about the length of they're playlist.

Oh yes, now I know remember where i was going with this. So I arrived outside molly's, a late night bar, disco- thing... and it was empty. So I sat down and after a while, I got bored and went on the boards. I love technology. It's really just crazy that I can even do this. Anyway, so these girls walked in and basically took pity on me in their drunkenness and one sat in my lap, the other took a picture. I assume that'll be on bebo soon.

Everyone who walks in just stares at me, like, look at that loner. A bit harsh perhaps... ah well

THE NEW FAKE DOG!!!

2009-01-27T01:58:00.002Z

A year on, and fake dog films' website has changed completely. It's now sporting a lovely new look which you can find at

FAKE DOG FILMS

As well as the new makeover there's also the new Fake Dog sitcom, "A Dog's Life" which, if for some reason you're reading this and you've not been sent here from Fake Dog, you should definitely check out.

In other random news, I'm back in college, which looks like it's busy, I'm worrying about whether it is going to feasible for me to attend the Fake Dog Party, I'm hoping to finish and post the Warhammer blog, I intend to begin painting my army next week, I slept in for my first lecture of the semester, oh, and R.A.G. week is going to be for the most part shit, and I intend to boycott it. There are other things, but I promised I wont be divulging the ins and outs of my personal life for all to see, and I intend to hold true to that promise. Til next time!

A Grand Re-opening

2009-01-09T02:22:00.002Z

Hello, and welcome to the grand re-opening of this blog. It'd been unused here for years, so I've given it a bit of a makeover, and got rid of the awful blogs which had been posted here originially. It's a brand new, clean slate for this blog if you will.

Just as a quick statement of intent, I don't really intend to post my inner most fears and feelings here. I think they're better kept private not published for the whole world to see, but I'll certainly post about the everyday happenings of Paul (random numbers), which will probably consist of me complaining about things and then going completely off topic... Because that's generally what happens when I talk in real life.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading, and venison will be served at reception.