Archive for General

I’ve heard that NCPS have lost a few clamps in a few housing estates in Castletroy – long may this continue and may the parasites keep losing money and fail as a business. What a pity if there aren’t any witnesses to consaws being used, or suspensions being disassembled and wheelclamps being made to “disappear”. I also hear that the scrapyards pay a premium for the hardened chain ;)

Hopefully the upcoming legislation will make it difficult for a non-county-council clamper to have any comeback if a clamp is removed by any means..Give us the freedom to remobilise our illegally-immobilised cars!

FOAD NCPS, basically.

Exams finished, and sanity slowly returns to my life! I hadn’t realised just how badly I was exhausting myself until I had my first full weekend off and to myself in ~9 months. The desire for sleep is quite high, and the difficulty in getting moving is dissipating as time goes on and I start to return to normal. I’ve found that my health was collapsing a little bit as a result of keeping myself wound up as much as I have been over the past few months. Rest and recuperation is the name of the game at the moment. I’ve been a good gauge of my capabilities for how far I can burn a candle at both ends, but it was close enough.

So the summertime beckons, with Thesis work continuing and Lit Review to look over and re-complete, as well as a restart on a few personal projects. I’m planning on getting astrophotography autoguiding working with the CG3-2 mount and a possible QHY5 camera with dual mounting. Also on the list is getting the MR2 back into daily use and enjoying any good weather with it. There’s an old telescope mirror that I have to get working as a scope such that I can test it and see if I want to resurrect it with a recoat, scrap it or to get it refigured for use in a possible briefcase scope configuration. There’s also the little matter of getting my fitness back during the summer (gym and bike).

Going to be a busy summer – got to keep myself busy while Sarah’s abroad..

I’m now finally in possession of the bike-to-work bike:

2nd hand 2011 Trek Madone 4.5 frame in 54 size (black/red), 105 compact chainset, 105 grips/shifters, 105 front brake, tiagra rear brake, Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels, Bontrager Node 2 bike computer, Vittoria 700*20 wheels.

First impressions? Light. Comfortable enough, but I’ll swap out the brakes and the tyres for ones that will better suit my weight. I’ll also have to get a pump that will work with the tubes…

So, It’s January again. Lots of people making and breaking resolutions and getting 1-month gym memberships and the like. However I’m not in that group – I’ve made no resolutions so I can’t break any resolution! I’ve got some things that I do need to get done for sure, such as progress the Thesis work and to make sure that I’m getting fitter in spite of the lack of time to do that. I’ve started to use the new camera to take some astrophotos and to take planetary videos through my scopes with various amounts of success at the moment. Just waiting for a period of good seeing to get some steady images. I’ll be trying some unguided short-sub deep sky work if I get any time on a night when I’m not working and it’s clear.

The new road bike should be ready to go now – that’ll mean a good chance to get road fit to prepare for the upcoming French episode! I’m so looking forwards to having that bike available for use..

While I’m not in college I have my midweek 3-day weekends available again – giving me a chance to properly wind down and relax before the next semester of college, and the summer of Thesis. Another 2 weekends left in the month..

http://torrentfreak.com/us-threatened-to-blacklist-spain-for-not-implementing-site-blocking-law-120105/

So, the US doesn’t even have it own SOPA law passed, and there are already people strongarming Spain into putting something similar. Notwithstanding the fact that Spain’s copyright law is not compatible with SOPA..

Corroberation: http://boingboing.net/2010/12/03/wikileaks-cables-rev.html

US – please get your attempts to corrupt our laws off the table for good, and tend to your own corruption and bribery issues please.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/18/1027775/-TSA-Arrests-Me-for-Using-the-Fourth-Amendment-as-a-Weapon-%28Tales-from-the-Edge-of-a-Revolution-2%29

Wow. Just wow.

Looks like anytime I’ll be flying to Canada I’ll happily pay more not to be a criminal or to be inappropriately groped or otherwise interfered with and fly via locations that do not operate TSA “checkpoints”…

Are you really one of the 99%?

Or do you see the Occupy* actions as something bad as you wish you were one of the 1% with everything that that entails? Personally I fully support the Occupy* and I have hope that something useful comes of them, not just a heavy handed blackout and riot police action (see Oakland – disgusting from the so-called Land of the Free, but not unexpected given the route taken from Sep 11 to 1984..)