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

Wow, it’s been a while. Since the twelth of October, no less, with apparently little for me to write much. This is true, more or less; I haven’t had too much to say about anything, but I haven’t had enough time to really make myself sit down and organise some writing, and to do what I need to do to get photos up on the site with my posts. Here’s the problem; I need to find a better way to organise my images, which works better than the way I’m doing it at the moment.
A view into the city, from the quays. The tall building is the soon-to-be-demolished Trade Union building; it may be ugly, but’s a landmark. Taken a couple of weeks ago. Click image to view larger version
In order to put up photos on this site, as part of my posts, I took an existing WordPress plug-in (WordPress being the piece of software that I use to run this site, which uses additional bits of code – plug-ins – to add extra functionality) and rewrote big chunks of it, as well as adding some image-enhancement routines pilfered from elsewhere. It’s crude but it works (just about). It’s also in use on www.ideasforcheapstuff.com, where Tee and the girls eventually got the hang of it’s arcane ways and started regularly putting up photos while writing about their adventures. Part of the problem (or problems, for there are many) with this plug-in is that the code is, quite simply, very, very bad. I fixed what I could, but… No, it’s not worth resuscitating. I actually set out (possibly on paper, I know I have it somewhere) the design for a newer, better image manager but that’ll take some doing. A lot of doing, in fact. And also, it solves one problem very well, which is the interface for how I select and manage images for putting into my posts, but doesn’t really deal with the bigger problem of how to deal with images generally. Should I manage the images myself, or should they be on a photo site somewhere?

So here are my options, and I’m curious to get some feedback (if anyone is actually still reading this site, fantastic!) on what people think I should do. It’s the number one issue holding me back on posting about my Romania story and other stuff besides, so let’s hear it!

• Go ahead and keep using the same, inefficient crap software.
  Not a great option, to be honest. This is using a lot of disk space, takes too much time and is going to cause me a lot of pain in the future. It’s just too much work, in so many ways, for dealing with photos.
• Write new software.
  Better. But, this will take time and again this is a problem. Also, it’s just a much better designed way of dealing with what is essentially the same problem as with the current problem; the photos are just getting dumped into my posts with no real life of their own. They’re not connected to anything. Just files.
• Use an image-management service
  Something like Flickr, or Zooomr. These are the hot new services/toys on the web for this kind of thing, the photos get shared with everyone, and if you pay money then you can put huge amounts of stuff up there. There are as many pros as cons to using a service like these, and if you are someone who uses these, then please tell me your opinion on those.
• Something else
  Is there another option? There must be, right? Or maybe you can think of one.

Anyway, share your opinions with me, I’m not sure what is the best way to deal with the avalanche of photos I see coming this way.

Boats at Howth Harbour. Real, actual fishing boats, which will no doubt be seeing a lot less action now that they can’t go and decimate the salmon population with drift-nets. Oh yes, I was there as part of getting out for a drive. With Tee. Taken on 29th October 2006. Click image to view larger version

Yeah, I’m too busy with stuff. It’s sort of true. I mean, it’s not untrue, but I’m a terrible time manager, and I’m also easily distracted thanks to the inherent limitations of my walnut-sized, mono-tasking brain, which hasn’t quite evolved to the exacting standards defined by mammalian evolution and can get quickly waylaid by, for example, trying to help some occasionally dubious Romanian girl install a webcam. Actually, if you managed to make your way through the convolutions of that opening sentence you’ll probably come to the conclusion that I need very much to write, and you would be right. About that. I do. Need to write. More.
Something more to write about: Celebrating the return of Tee of LTD fame with Lids, Dee, Kenny, Tee, myself and some sleeping people. And a ridiculous amount of drink. Face licking did in fact happen, much to everyone’s embarrassment. 6th October 2006. Click image to view larger version
There’s a big post on the way about Romania, of course, and about my new camera, and how both relate to each other – a juxtaposing of technology, purpose, result and criminal icompetence – in The Great Hard Drive Failure Which Resulted In The Loss Of My Photos story. It’s not a great story, it’s not even a good story, but I’ve been telling everytone anyway, because I broadcast practically every thought that crosses my mind, and a lot of those thoughts are about whatever happened to me last.
My mother attempting to hide from the all-seeing camera. I drove the car, too, which as we now know wasn’t as big a drama as I thought it would be. Almost. 7th October 2006. Click image to view larger version
I’m getting the hang of driving in what is for all intents and purposes (and certainly legally) my car, a Mazda 121 five door, previously owned by my mother. The whole car thing is very stressful for me, though oddly enough it’s not the driving that bothers me, it’s owning a car part of the deal. Still, driving is fun, and with it I can realise my dream of visiting Borris on Ossory quite soon.

There’s a few other nuggets too, and time will tell if I’ll get to write about them.

Hm. I said it was dead, didn’t I? The Kaoss Pad Mod story. In fact, I went so far as to say something like: “www.make-phil-and-his-fucking-contraption-history.com”. Well, I was wrong to do that, partly because it was a negative and abusive thing to say (Particularly of someone who hides from society, seeking solace in vandalising his musical equipment; the guy needs a therapist. Or a slap.), but mostly because not long after posting that story, I found that someone close to where I live is using the Kaoss Pad Mod in a very interesting and creative way.

One Jack Freeney, Painter and Decorator, has installed the Kaoss Pad on the front gate of his house over on Roselawn Road, whch I pass every day to and from the train station. And what a gate it is too. Granted, even mobility-impaired dwarves (And there are more than ever now, since the EU started handing out grants for them.) could hop over it, and it’s probably there to discourage people from getting to close to the house and being disorientated by all the tasteless ‘decoration’ on and in the house, but it has a set of controls just outside of it that would put a Boeing 747 cockpit to shame. I can only assume that he’s an extremely busy man or has attention deficit disorder or perhaps even is just remarkably thick, and that is why it takes so much hardware to get him to temporarily stop transforming his house into a grotesque, gold-veneered plasterwork nightmare and come out to open the door. Including having installed the Kaoss Pad beside everything else; presumably if he’s being particularly intransigent, or perhaps working on an entirely turgid and completely unoriginal home decoration concept, then you can lure him out by playing tunes on the keypad and use the Kaoss Pad to fuck with his sense of reality. Or maybe, as a light relief from his efforts, he comes out some evenings as the light is fading and gently plays a few tunes which he thought up that afternoon, poetic ruminations of the nature of silicone sealant, gently touching the keys and stroking with the lightest of passes, the Kaoss Pad. In reality I have no idea what goes on in the mind of Jack Freeney, Painter and Decorator.

I got as far as playing two thirds of the guitar noodling sequence from ‘I am The Resurrection’ on it the other night before he came out to shout at me for using the wrong chords. I was disappointed, but also secretly pleased in a way. He’s my hero.

The old coot.

I’m back from Romania. Here’s a sneak preview.
The Timisoara tram service – not the most modern, but efficient and useful. 19th September 2006. Click image to view larger versionA typical Timisoara street. Almost everyone here drives a Dacia, which is a primitive but reasonably reliable home-grown car. 21st September 2006. Click image to view larger versionSomewhere, deep in the Romanian countryside, a bit of post-communist industry. They are trying to clean up though. 23rd September 2006. Click image to view larger versionAn occasionally dubious Romanian, Oana, trying to look innocent in Sibiu, central Romania. I know better, though. 23rd September 2006. Click image to view larger versionSome really incredibly old buildings in the medieval heart of Sibiu, in central Romania. There are Germans nearby. Many Germans. 24th September 2006. Click image to view larger versionA busy boulevard in Timisoara, facing towards the main train station. 26th September 2006. Click image to view larger versionThe main town square in Timisoara. See if you’ve seen a photo very like this on this site before… 26th September 2006. Click image to view larger version
More shortly, with plenty of pictures and a few stories. I recommend a reread of my earlier adventures in Romania.

Right, that ‘Phil’ business was entertaining – and so was Garret, from time to time – but it’s dying a death. www.make-phil-and-his-fucking-contraption-history.com. I’m in Romania right now, having a ball, relaxing, enjoying myself, having an actual holiday (I was told they were good, and I thought I’d take the plunge, so to speak) and taking about four thousand photos, you’ll have to sit through some choice cuts before long. I’d put up a photo now except for the fact that this damn Internet cafe doesn’t actually have USB on this computer (This USB business is important because it means I can attach the memory card from my spanking new Canon Digital SLR to the computer and… Well, you’re clever people, you’ll get it.) and it’s pretty slow. I know you’re all going to say something like “Hey you, like what is the fuck this, you know?”; to which I’ll probably reply “Well whatever fuckarse, because, hey, you know.”.

Special shout out to the beautiful, clever and occasionally dubious Oana, who is chaperoning me, owning me, taking care of me and showing me around Romania. Shouts also out to Roxana, who has suggested many clever things to get up to, and the girls of ExamPlus for keeping Oana on her toes and being a generally great bunch of people. I’ll be curious to hear what they thought of ‘Intermission‘ featuring Colin Fucking Farrell which I thought was a reasonable Irish film with contemporary Irish culture, and ‘The General‘ which is a pretty good representation of Ireland in the nineteen eighties.

Anyway, better go. Oana’s getting bored and we have a train to catch from (as she would say, and probably will) a dubious train station, else we’ll be trapped in Sighisoara tonight. I’ll try and post again, but I’ll be back on Wednesday night, and by Saturday you’ll all be wishing I’d stayed here; by then Garret may actually seem like a less painful option after all.

Oh, and one more thing; I finally met Ovideo! It was sheer coincidence, but it was icing on the cake for a great week. It really was.