Terry Pratchett in Trinity College Dublin

Terry Pratchett visited Trinity last December to receive an honorary doctorate, the Saturday of his visit he spoke in the exam hall. The reason I am remembering this is on Sunday I found out a friend of mine reads Discworld books to his girlfriend, over the phone, this particular little bit of news caused much laughter and slagging at the time. But back to Pratchett, news had come out a few weeks previous of his diagnosis with a form of alzheimer's disease so the chance to see him speak was an opportunity not to be missed. The hall itself was packed and the talk itself was interesting, excluding the extreme fan questions, which exposed more nerdiness than should be exposed in a public setting.

What stuck with me was something Pratchett said about religion and the power of humanity. He, as a devout atheist, broke from the question and answer format of the interview/audience for the longest time when he spoke on this issue. He remarked that we should have more fascination with streetlights then with stars. Stars, are simply huge formations of gas revolving millions of kilometers away fusing helium. They are a natural phenomenon that have been around longer than the human species and probably will be around far after we wipe ourselves out. Streetlights, however, are the culmination of many many fortunate and wonderful coincidences. Streetlights mean that a few billion generations ago one cell became two, and a few million generations later something slipperry and gooey crawled out of the primordial ooze and onto dry land. Millions of generations later an earlier version of us came out of the trees and walked on two legs. A few thousand generations hence humans really came into being. Fast forward a few thousand more generations and someone though to light the dark streets. A tall metal pole, ornate or functional, is built; the magic of human ingenuity then facilitated the lighting of a wick, or nowadays an electric element. Then there was light and the streets were dark no more. Putting faith in human achievement and the potential brilliance of us as a species seems so simple and yet night after night people the world over gaze at stars. Pratchett's point is that all the genius of the world is right there in front of our eyes, yet we keep looking to things very very unimaginably far away.

Pros and Cons

Tomorrow, well really later today, I have to decide whether to take my initial job placement in the UK (no it doesn't get any more specific than UK until Tuesday) or stay and take the placement in Dublin.

3 months ago, there wouldn't have been a split second worth of thinking to be done, I would have given anything to be able to stay. If I knew where I was to be placed in the UK I could do a proper side by side comparison, but I cant.

Essentially I am choosing Dublin or an envelope marked UK which could have a magical prize or a boobie prize.

I have huge, huge lists of pros and cons. No decision has been made yet. I don't know what will swing my decision.

Had the offer never been made I would have been all set for the UK. Now I am not so sure.

I am getting quite lost, in confused ramblings that HAVE to lead to a decision, by later on today.

As usual I leave this with a photo, this is of my rented room 3 years ago,

Poladroid

Playing with Poladroid.

Another day, another dollar.

So after some incredible boredom and being asked to do some things that were downright illegal I quit my job last Tuesday,and I panicked as I re-entered the world of the the funemployed, albeit without much of the fun.

It was 1.59 when I quit officially and after the adrenalin and enjoyment of the experience of telling a thoroughly mediocre little person that they and their job can go jump a quick dose of reality set in,after a weird conversation with an old friend about their job at the moment. Luckily for me and my bank balance, less than 5 hours later I had me a new job. Granted it is back in the grand old world of market research again, but it is only temporary. It is odd to think that in about two months I am emigrating, possibly forever. Bittersweet thoughts really. But back to the real temporal existence that is now, Wednesday dawned with my first day of work, and apparently my birthday. I tend to forget about my birthday but an absolute avalanche of facebook messages forced the aging reality upon me. Yes, I know facebook reminds people, but it was the most birthday greetings I have had wished to me in , well ever. Despite the fact I dont really believe in celebrating my own birthday it was pleasant in the extreme to hear it from so many people.

As usual I am rambling, as I tend to do, but this is for my benefit not yours so I'm okay with it.

In other news an old employer of mine Venture Photography seems to be on the ropes and looking at losing their Franchise, that place was hard work but hell it was fun, but it was always going to be amongst the first kind of companies to lose out in this recession of ours.

Rambling done, I have finally cleaned my room. 6 weeks after moving home, I finally have reclaimed my space.

In technology, I found a wonderful little program that turns your average photos into a polaroid effect. Simple but attractive.

So, for an old memory this was shot out the window of a van we were travelling in between New York and Virginia in the Autumn of 2007.

It has been quite a while since I updated this. Quite a few things have changed in the interim period.

College is over, which is an odd feeling. Many of my friends are sticking around the fine walls of Trinity, either going into Masters courses or finishing their degrees. At times I envy the security that offers them and wish I was doing the same, at other times I'm glad to be leaving and removing myself from that very same security. I'll miss it though.

My job with P&G is starting October 5th, and I'm excited as hell about that. My location is yet to be finalised but I have fingers and toes crossed for the North London placement. Amongst the newstarters it seems to be the most popular but I think its the place that would suit me best so hopefully it'll work out. To be frank after the last while I need the lucky break.

The last few weeks have been annoying mainly because of my outlook. I am incredibly bored, be it at work or at home. Coupled with a bit of a kerfuffle over my degree and some personal things I haven't focused properly in work or while having fun, and as such end up half-doing anything I try to do. At times it has been pretty demoralising. I feel I have marginalised myself from the things I was supposed to keep myself involved in.

So, in my usual fashion, I am looking for an epiphany moment. Trying to find the "first day of...." phenomenon I seem to keep needing. The stagnation that comes from living in Gstones and the absolute mediocrity of my job (and the fact that a new job doesn't look to close to the horizon) doesn't seem to be pointing towards progress. I've been told this is not exactly an ideal way of dealing with things and it certainly doesn't appeal to everybody's sensibilities, so its not something I'm trying to consciously foster. In writing this it helps put structure to an odd mental world-view that doesn't sort itself out on its own. In some ways its therapeutic.

For old times.
I took the original photo some stage last summer and the editing work I did in December.




Anyway, onwards.