Archive for the 'Opinion' Category

Poor Sportmanship all round!

Published at May 29, 2006 in Irish and Opinion. 1 Comment

Back when I was liberated, I felt as if a great weight had been lifted. Then, some currently website-less supposedly multi-national crowd come in and swipe my domain name! Shocking stuff indeed. Whipped it right out from underneath the very hairs on my very nose. Shocking lack of sportsmanship there Brian old bean. Theft? From a supposedly reputable web development company too.

GoDaddy weren’t much help either. Passed from one department to another and never emailing the same customer service rep twice. Again, shocking stuff. So unlike my new friend Brian in Screendragon (whom I will no doubt visit in the near future to discuss some business with), I choose to be graceful and dignified in defeat. No resorting to mud-slinging or other displays of similarly ungentlemanly shenanigans. Away to you vile domain name, and never darken my door again!

But alas, all is not well. No longer than 48 hours after it was pinched from my own GoDaddy account, some vile internet prankster has well and truly hacked the ex-website. This must be a shockingly poor tasted display of those “internet hackers” Liam had always referred to. I never once believed until now. I imagined that hackers, as depicted in many Hollywood films, were consigned to folklore in the 1990’s. Not so it would seem.

The vile sleeze-merchants have only gone and re-directed the once reputable domain name lynchauctioneers.com to some aged lady brandishing her breasts for the viewing delights of all and sundry. Truly dispicable! Yet another show of bawdy sportsmanship and true lack of proper upbringing if ever I saw it. I can only imagine that the parents of the scoundrel are crying into their cornflakes.

Before I resort to some truly poor language and a show of utter tomfoolishness, I can only register my utter disappointment at the treatment that www.lynchauctioneers.com has suffered. Truly, Lynch & Co did not deserve such ill-mannered treatment. I feel I have to retire to my bed as I have taken ill and a queer shade of green with the sight of that site.

Once again, curse you, internet hacker…. Wherever you are…

Why I Buy Online

Published at February 14, 2006 in Opinion and Photography. 1 Comment

Is it to save money? Because practically everything camera related one could ever wish to buy in Ireland costs double what it would elsewhere? Is it out of convenience? Easier to shop from your armchair, instead of visiting shops and hashing out prices. Well, yes and yes. There is a far more potent reason however. With a reputable seller on ebay, you’ll know exactly how much you’re paying and exactly when it’ll be in your hands. I’ve gotten lenses from Hong Kong in 3 days and saved hundreds of euros!

On Monday morning I ordered a Canon 50mm f1.8 MKII from a Cork photo shop. “No problem, it’ll be in this evening or tomorrow morning.” Rang that evening, no sign of it. “Might have missed that shipment, try again tomorrow around noon”. Rang at 1pm, no sign. “Few more deliveries scheduled for this evening, it’s in one of those”. Rang at 5pm and y’know what? Yep, no sign of it. So the lens I wanted to take with me to Amsterdam tomorrow morning will sit in the back of some delivery van until I get back. It boggles the mind.

Had I bought the lens online from a UK or Irish ebay seller, I’d have it mounted on my camera right now. Hell, had I bought the damn thing late last week from Kea-Photo in Hong Kong I’d have it mounted on my camera by now! I blame my optimism in local suppliers. My fault. €150 locally with a 2/3 day wait or around €100 from the other side of the world with a guaranteed 3 day delivery. This place is way too laid back. Why did I buy the bloody lens from that shop in the first place? I won vouchers for the damn place!

As always, I shall remain a great believer in “why give vouchers that can be used in one shop when you can give cash that can be used anywhere?!?”

150 million reasons to do a quick pick on the way home…

Published at January 27, 2006 in Irish and Opinion. 1 Comment

Ahh one hundred and fifty million euro’s. Enough to completely ruin one persons life, enough to change 150 peoples lives forever, still enough to set 300 people up comfortably for a long time. Enough even to allow 600 people to get onto the property ladder almost debt free. Enough to allow 1200 people to be debt free and put Eddie Hobbs (almost) out of work.

Alot of money, too much for one person… With that in mind, I’ll have to remember to pick my lucky numbers on the way home!

Get your own Muff

Published at September 1, 2005 in Diary of a Madman and Opinion. 0 Comments

Recently came the news that a list of the most naughty place names in Britian had been compiled; among them a town named Muff. The huge problem I have with that is as follows…

Anyone that knows their geography will know that the town of Muff is in Co. Donegal, part of the Irish Republic. That is to say, not under the rule of the crown. The Republic of Ireland, not in the list of countries collectively referred to as Britian.

I could go on about 800 years and mention some less than subtle rebel songs but I won’t. Instead I’ll simply advise the creator of these utterly pointless, waste of space compilations that he or she invest in a book of maps. Political maps at that. We do not use sterling. We do not have proper fish & chips. We do however have Muff, Co. Donegal. I’m sure the residents of the town would agree with me in my sentiment and I’m very sure that anyone listening to the radio yesterday when this was announced feels the same.

Back in the land o’ forty shades

Published at August 10, 2005 in Foreign and Opinion. 5 Comments

8:10am, touched down in Cork airport and waited to clear off the cramped easyjet airbus A319 in a hurried yet orderly fashion. Sandy gave the smarmy air ‘hostess’ named Howard a disapproving sneer as we went. Stood around a stationary baggage carousel(sp?) for 15 minutes or so until it sprang into life and my bag appeared. Home & sleep for a few hours before travelling to Gort to pick up & bring home Trilo, the faithful mutt (that only snaps/growls at me a few times a week nowadays).

Ahh England. Or at least the England I know. The land of freshly baked pies in the morning, a pint of cool vimto over lunch and perhaps, if you’re feeling saucy, fish & chips for dinner. Real fish with real batter. Not that cardboard, stamped out crap we get over here. Also, it would seem, the land of hideously ugly inbreeds (or maybe that’s just down south). Obviously that hateful remark doesn’t stand for everyone, but it would seem that the chronically ratfaced among the community seem to like their multiplication. Despite this alarming statistic, we continued to walk our feet off during the course of our stay.

We visited a ‘historic dockyard’ and although it may sound frighteningly boring, we spent the best part of 6 hours there, walking around it’s 80 acres, climbing aboard different ships, a submarine and even getting to grips with a wartime experience in a bona-fide bomb shelter. Down to Brighton and a stroll along the peer, dodging suspicious looking cross-dressers that seemed as if they were straight out of a “Little Britain” sketch. A bit of a seedy location to be sure.

Next to a Zoo of sorts. It was more like a maximum security version of Fota Wildlife Park, a big field with a few more fences than Fota itself. We were suitably impressed with the Meerkats, Ring tailed lemurs and other such hairy beasts. Note; that doesn’t include the punters who were equally as hairy.

Now I find myself having to sort through some 1600 photos, hopefully from which I’ll derive at least 300 which are anyway decent to look at. I’ll probably end up posting most of them anyway, simply because they’re cool. Like the submarine ones, that was bitchin’. Anywho, I’m back and indeed, back at work. Time to put on the coffee and load up picassa.

Born Gay?

Published at July 20, 2005 in Life in General and Opinion. 1 Comment

Tonight’s “Last Word with Matt Cooper” on TodayFM featured the author of a book named “Born Gay“. Qazi Rahman explores the somewhat controversial idea that everyone is born gay and one does not ‘choose’ to be gay by ones life experiences or the way you are brought up. The interview raised some interesting points, I’d imagine the book would be a good read.

To keep a healthy level of insanity to evening radio, a born again Christian was invited onto the show to spout quotes from the bible in a moronic fashion. The jist of it is “Sodomites be damned!” as stated in Leviticus blah blah. I was very surprised at the attitude of the David Cahoon, the Christian in question. Being a man of both science and religion, I guess he chose which path to follow. Apparently people are born in sin, not gay. I think the argument for science weighs heavier than that of religion in this and most cases.

I have mirrored the portion of the show in question and you can listen to it here. So, born gay? Even if it’s not entirely true it’s an interesting slant on the heterosexual/homosexual divide.

Home of the brave?

Published at May 28, 2004 in Opinion. 0 Comments

In today’s Irish Examiner letters, Denis Hurley writes;

AMERICA — the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I’m sure the inmates at Abu Ghraib prison would agree.

Denis Hurley,
Kilbrittain,
Co Cork.

Well put Denis.