Just a short entry to let ye know that I haven’t fallen off the planet. I’ve had such a crazy few weeks that the entries have slipped further and further behind. I hope to post a good few over the weekend including entries on Oxegen 2005, the London bombings, and my trip to Prague. I know you’ll be waiting with baited breath. 
Category: General
General postings about whats going on in my life.
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Live 8
Well the Live 8 gig has just finished in Hyde Park. I watched most of it from the start at 2pm and have to say it was a fantastic event. My favourite performers were (in no particular order):
- Robbie Williams: really gets the crowd going and needs to start touring again. Fantastic.
- Snow Patrol: was nice to see the lad forget the lyrics. Showed what a huge event it really is and these people are human.
- The Killers: appropriate song for the occasion and a good performance.
- The Who: I’m not a big fan but they were fantastic for their age.
- Pink Floyd: Back together after 21 years and a tribute to the sound of their generation. Legend.
- U2: Really kicked things off well with Paul McCartney and Beautiful Day really suited the occasion.
- Sting: always liked his stuff.
- Coldplay: Love their song ‘What If?’ from the new album and it was a kicking rendition.
I think Snoop Dogg was a bit of a bleeding eejit. He keep wanting the crowd to chant his name but they’re not there to see him. They’re there to add their voice to millions around the world calling for increased aid, fair trade and debt cancellation. Muppet.
Hopefully the gigs will make a difference on Wednesday but it doesn’t look like there’ll be much movement on fair trade and bringing down the barriers. I hope to God I’m wrong and that the world leaders will step up and listen to their people.
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Jackson Verdict
Well the Jackson verdict came in last night and I have to say that I’m glad he wasn’t convicted. I haven’t talked about the trial at all on the blog so I’ll explain my views as best I can below. Note that I haven’t been following the trial closely so some of my views may be based on less than solid facts.
First of all I think MJ is crazy. Not crazy as in insane but crazy as in really out there. The man simply does not conform to most adult behavioural patterns at all. Anyone who saw the Martin Bashir documentary knows this. The whole thing of kids sleeping in his bed does not make sense to 99% of normal people. Then again it’s not against the law to let kids sleep in your bed, or want to for that matter. I’ve been suprised at the amount of armchair judges over the past few months prescribing the theory that if he wants kids to sleep in his bed then he’s immediately guilty and thrown in jail. Guilty of what? Yes it’s sick and I don’t think I’ll ever understand it but I’m also aware of the law.
Secondly when you have a family as questionable as the Arvizo’s then your looking at a very difficult case to persue. The mother has lied under oath before. If I was on the jury that would effectively rule out her testimony for me. How can you trust a person like that? There’s a history of dodgy behaviour there and it doesn’t add up. So down to brass tax, why am I glad he wasn’t convicted? The weight of evidence there was no enough to convict anyone. Yes he has paid off other kids in the past but that may have been to avoid the lengthy court procedure we’ve all witnessed and he may have been completely innocent. He was open to allegations of this sort with the behaviour he has exhibited and I sincerely hope he learns from this.
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FridayQ: News
A news story from your past that had a big influence on your life is… Even though it is the obvious answer I feel that I have to say the 9/11 attacks in America. The reason being that I, literally, watched the thing from its shocking beginning to horrible end. I had just made lunch for myself and was flicking through the Irish stations when Anthony Murnane (an Irish newscaster) came on screen with a hastily put together news bulletin. It was like he had literally been thrown in front of the camera and broke the news of how a plane had crashed into the WTC. As I sat and watched the tower burning I got to feeling that it couldn’t have been an accident considering how clear a day it was. Then my mum joined me and we saw a second plane go across the screen from the left and hit the other tower. I’ve never seen something that shocking that I had such a sense of seperation from. Could this really be happening? People will be trapped and dying in those buildings. 🙁 I couldn’t get over it. We sat and watched the news coverage for about 3 hours afterwards in abject shock.
A news story that you wish would go away so you never have to hear about it again is… I get depressed when I see the coverage on the news of Iraq. People are dying there everyday and the vast majority of Americans are still convinced that waging the war was the right thing to do. They’ve completely destabalised the country and the region. Even if you have elections, it doesn’t magically solve the countries problems and the fact that the US has no idea of how to deal with a Muslim country and culture. The whole thing is a disaster area and I wish the US would learn from such actions although I’m 90% sure they’ll make the same mistake again somewhere else.
A news story that you feel deserves much more attention than it has been getting lately is… I have to echo Dave’s thoughts on this. The news story which does not get enough attention is that of Africa. As a continent they have some major problems. The G8 countries are meeting next month but even Bob Geldof is expecting a “glorious failure”. What does that say about the world’s leaders? That they won’t listen to the starving millions in Africa and the ordinary citizens attempting to weigh up lives against gold reserves? They won’t listen to the starving millions cos they’re far enough away not to hear them and “ordinary citizens” mean nothing to politicians.
FQ REPORTER: Look into the future and create a headline for an interesting news story that hasn’t happened yet… TONY SCORES SCORCHER IN WORLD CUP FINAL TO GIVE IRELAND 2-1 VICTORY….SHOCKER 🙂
Seen as it’s the bank holiday weekend I thought I’d do a general update on what’s been going on in my life. 🙂 I’ve been shifting lots of stuff out of my room over the past two days in a vain attempt to sort the good from the bad. I’ve currently got a black sack full of old clothes which will be going to a charity shop soon. There’s still tons of old board games and bits of PCs that I need to sort and ship out as I’m sick of holding onto stuff when I have such a small space to live in.
Last night I went down to the local pub, Kenny’s, to watch the Ireland versus Israel match. I’ve never been so disappointed and frustrated in my life. We scored twice within 10 minutes and were cruising before Brian Kerr decided to introduce Kavanagh, a midfield player, for Robbie Keane who’s a striker. The change put the team off balance and they conceded two goals in the space of 7 minutes just before half-time. We then had to contend with their goalkeeper play acting all through the second half. 👿 Fair enough, he got a bash on the nose at one point but the guy was rolling around like someone had chopped his nads off. I’ve never seen such a display in my life and the guy should have been sent off after going for Andy O’Brien’s neck when they fell togetheron the goal line. Instead, O’Brien got sent off!! 🙁 A dodgy ref didn’t help us either by turning away a rake of valid penalty appeals. We have another game against the Faroe Islands on Wednesday but it’s gonna be tough to qualify from where we’re sitting now.
It’s less than 3 weeks before I travel off to Prague for a week with a few of the lads I used to work with. One of the guys, Pavel, is from Czech and invited us over for his 30th party. We all travel out on the Wednesday and come back the following Tuesday. Our accomodation arrangements are fairly loose as we’ll be staying with family friends etc but it sounds like it will be a great few days. 🙂 I also got word from my uncle that I can have his holiday home for ten days in August. Myself, Mark and maybe Hugh will be going so the arrangements will be solidified over the coming week and then I’ll book the Aer Lingus flights.