andcurve.weblog - The weblog of Kevin Teljeur. Somewhere within all the noise, there is a note you need to hear.

Well, it’s been a good Christmas. Uneventful, too much tv, a lot of sleeping and some time with family. what more could I ask of a Christmas? Conor (my ‘little’ brother) picked me up on Christmas morning and brought me back to his and Deirdre’s house, and just after we arrived our mother arrived too. So it was a slow easy day. I got a phone message from Tee (she obviously wasn’t able to get through because of the shit reception), so I was a little sad that I’d missed that, but basically I had little contact with anyone. I’m pretty particular about keeping Christmas day for family.

I’m not big into the presents (I’d prefer a gift-free Christmas, personally), but I got some nice books. I got some books for them too.

Our father didn’t make it out; when my mother stopped in on her way from her new home in County Wexford to collect him from Bray it seemed that his legs didn’t work so he couldn’t come (he’s an alcoholic, and every now and again it causes malnutrition, because he doesn’t eat which makes him lame. That, and because he’s too drunk to eat.). By the end of the day, I’d decided that he was actually putting it on. Every Christmas it’s a bit of a tradition that he makes a play for getting everyone’s attention by whatever means neccessary, so this year he put on the ‘failing health’ routine so we’d still be thinking of him, in spite of him not being arsed to make it out. I’ve really had enough of it at this stage, so I have no sympathy. He needs a good hiding, not a doctor.

I went to hospital for a medical issue of my own last Friday, a colonoscopy or somesuch proceedure. I had previously been pretty cagey about it, and here and there in previous postings you might have found some references to some vague, undefined medical worry. I’ve been to the doctor a few months ago and then to the hospital for a preliminary examination a few weeks ago, and this was the final part: I’ll be blunt about it, they knocked me out and took a guided tour of my colon with a camera. It wasn’t much fun, I can tell you. Actually, I woke up somewhere in the middle of it all and was able to watch it happen on the screen they used, but I could have imagined it and either way they knocked me out again and I woke up a couple of hours later off my head and oddly enough with a pretty hefty erection (Normally welcome, but not under those circumstances. Must have been the tranquilisers.). I think the biscuits and water they gave me put paid to that. It usually does. And that was that. They gave me tea and toast too (I didn’t want it but they gave it too me anyway, probably because my refusal came out as something along the lines of “Mmwehhh hrrr vvvwuhg”) and then Garret and Nora collected me, for a day of Kev-sitting and adventure. Jesus, I really was out of it earlier that day, and I’m glad I had someone keep an eye on me, there’s no knowing what I might have gotten up to without someone keeping an eye on me.

Christmas Eve was… Well, here’s the thing. Every year up until now, without fail, and Christmas in Australia excepted because I was in the middle of nowhere with no money to spend, and no-one to spend it on (aww), I’ve left my Christmas shopping until the last possible minute and then done it all generally on Christmas Eve or the day before that. Bedlam. However, this year I did it last week which is new. I had nothing to worry about this weekend apart from some grocery shopping, and maybe wrapping the presents (which I abandoned anyway as being pointless). Is it because I’ve finally grown up? I’ve finally gotten laid and had an adult relationship? Or is it the influence of living out in Los Blancheles as a Yuppie, and sharing with the hyperkinetic organised Annette? Time will tell, but it was very nice to have nothing to worry about the day before Christmas.

That was good because the week before was pretty hectic, what with the hospital visit on Friday, having flown to England and back on Tuesday (which took it out of Ciaran and myself, it’s lot to fit into a day), and a generally hard week in the office. Was there other stuff? Oh yes, some socialising too, I met up with Caroline, Michelle, Clare, Liam and Michael on Monday night for our annual Kris Kindle, which was great, not least because it sometimes seems like I haven’t seen them in many, many long months. Too many, and I can’t believe I’m too busy to see them more often.

The weekend before is something I’ll cover in a separate post, because it includes the big Company Christmas Party, and a visit to Garret and Nora, all big adventurous events with photos attached.

Here’s something I’ve noticed; Paramount Comedy 1, on NTL Cable here in Dublin, is basically showing cheap lousey porn after a certain hour and dressing it up as comedy. It’s pretty weird, actually. They show porn with a ‘comedy’ soundtrack and it’s not too hardcore, but still… To offset it, RTE showed ‘Evelyn’, where Pierce ’007′ Brosnan tries to play a Dublin man,trying to rescue his kids from adoption. It’s really a waste of space.

‘Minority Report’ is still a beautiful-looking piece of film-making, by the way. Even if he’s inclined to making feel-good pap every once in a while, Spielberg is still a damn fine director. And indeed, maker of movies generally. It’s a good time of the year for movies on the tellybox.

Either of my regulars notice the style changes on the site? No? I’ll have to wrap a lot of posting loose ends this week (I have heaps of leftovers, unfinished posts, etc), do my yearly round-up and maybe do something clever with photos, like I did at the end of 2002… Anyone remember that?

Photos to follow.

It’s not exactly earth-shattering, but I got an email from a company doing work for a client company (bear with me) of Parallel (where I work) about the site I mentioned previously in a post – http://www.andcurve.com/wordpress/2005/09/09/this-isnt-fun-should-it-be/ – which is http://www.combatclimatechange.ie. Now, they asked me to blog about it again, and although since this is my personal blog I’m not going to start mentioning stuff as a favour to a large commercial organisation (because they have the money, they can buy advertising and a slot on Google), I will mention it simply because I found it interesting; I mention their site and suddenly I’m showing up on the web, and I have people noticing this and emailing me. Anto (http://www.anthonymcg.com/) put a link on his site to me and now suddenly if you search for me on the web, you get… Anto’s site. Linking has become a form of real currency, a sort of web real estate. A good link is worth a lot, and suddenly I’m in the game. Tadhg, your link to my site is no longer the most valuable one on google! You’re out!

So, I will actually write up the Climate Change site very soon, my thoughts on it, etc, although mostly on the results of the project since it is after all an internal, commercial project for my company, but I do have some strong thoughts about the whole subject and I’m keen to have a go at commiting them to my site. Doubtless, they’ll be controversial with the Climate Change people, but it’s all a matter of opinion. Are we in trouble? Yes. Should we do something about it? Maybe…

Actually, on that subject I read something in yesterday’s Guardian about Bio-fuel; apparently diesel engines will run on anything for fuel short of a cup of jiz, so now there’s a growing market for fuel from biological sources which seems to be a hell of a lot cheaper than petrol. And there’s this: Inventor fuels car with dead cats which is on some levels hilarious, other levels sinister and of course has cat-lovers up in arms. Did anyone actually know that many tonnes of sacred mummified cats were removed from the Egyptian tombs by the British and sold as cheap fertiliser? It’s true. Well, the next time the kids go nuts after eating cabbage, you know what to do; stake through the heart.

Also, I saw on skynews.com (no more links now, especially to them) that Jeremy Clarkson got into some trouble after saying that we should feel free to rampage across the environment with 4×4 tanks, since after all it’s there for us to have fun with… Controversial indeed. There was some debate years ago (and doubtless there still is) about how much damage is caused by walkers, mountain-bikers, pony-trekkers, scrambler-bikes and quad-bikes up in the hills. One suggestion was that with the sheer volume of walkers in the hills that it is probably them who do the most damage. The other groups are all minorities, so by definition the damage they do is limited.

I’m on a roll here. A blogroll! Ha ha, I kill me. As you can tell, I’m less keyed-up today, and knowing that T2 is coming back from Germany this evening is good too. Tomorrow night, I will entertain her, most likely by curling up in a foetal position and whining incessantly about how awful me week was… I’m sure she’ll find that very romantic.

Anyway, I better get back to it. This really has the weird sensation of writing emails to nobody in particular, not knowing who is reading this or why. Well, I know some complete strangers associated with my company’s customers do, and I know my boss does (occasionally, as far as I know).

Hm.

Blogging is great when you have time for it. I’m finding this the hard part…

Another good weekend, though admittedly not a very productive one. I watch too much tv. I mean, generally I don’t, but even a small amount of tv is too much; it’s time spent watching someone else’s view of the world without learning an awful lot. I watched ‘Bremner, Bird and Fortune’ because it’s always interesting. Rory Bremner (who initially started out without the other two, and as far as I know you never see the three of them on-screen at the same time) is an impressionist, probably one of the best British ones on the scene for the past few years, his act is always topical and seems to be fuelled by a genuine anger at what he sees happening in the world. The other two are out and out satire, and it’s very sharp material. But I followed it up by watching some programme about ‘The Death of Celebrity’ and it was… It was amusing, but really, a waste of time. I do this a bit, I sit in front of the tellybox and watch utter shite. It’s a very bad habit.

I’m bashing away at building another blog, for my wumon for when she goes travelling (and her girleens as well) so they can document their adventures in words and pictures online. Something that’s surprised me is that with the popularity of blogging, and with the popularity of WordPress, that no-one has done a better job of creating a good solid PhotoBlog tool for WordPress. They are there, but… They don’t seem to be that good. What I want is pretty simple but I might have to make it myself.

I’ve also thrown myself back into hunting for a room; I was at this before but eventually I gave up because it was draining my precious life away, what with viewing places that were unsuitable or places that were great but I just didn’t get them. I’m starting to learn, slowly but surely (and I got a good, brief, terse motivativonal spiel from Kenny last week, which got me all fired up GodDamn it!). Actually I got one from Garret too on Friday night, though it was less helpful and basically centred on my desire to live somewhere that isn’t Rathmines, which he felt was unacceptable by any measure and that I was stupid for living anywhere that didn’t have a ’6′ in it’s postal code (Ireland has a curious anomaly in that it only has postal codes in some areas of Dublin, and none anywhere else in the country – but they are incredibly important in deciding factors such as social status, life expectancy and insurance premiums). Garret was, in fact, being very contrary about everything in general.

Work is busting my nuts, as they say, but I think the results will be good when it’s all up. I hope so.