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…

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..

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.

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”…

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..)

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Masters: Week 10 has just ended. Loads of assignments to complete for the next fortnight, then study for the exams that will complete the 5 modules that will constitute the first semester of the Masters of Engineering in “Information and Network Security” that I am currently pursuing in UL. It’s been good so far to get back to UL as a student but this time with an appetite for success that wasn’t really there in the past (for whatever reasons..). There’s a desire now to get through this with good results. I like the subjects, I’ve got a good crew of classmates and the craic is good enough. It’s tough for sure with time management being the hardest part so far. I have no spare time to relax this year. At all. It’s fun learning how to use Maple, MSProject and things like that. Weird having to buy textbooks again, but good to have them to refer to anyway.

Work: I’ve completed probation, and am now a fully fledged employee. The shift is not the easiest to manage but it’s not that bad – I still get to sleep at a somewhat sane time and it’s consistent at least. Some shifts of course I’m up the walls and I mightn’t get back to the house till gone half 2 or 3 o’clock with lectures at 9 or 10 in the morning and another night’s work the following night. Learning a lot, still got so much to learn. Trying not to forget what I learned at the start – that’s kinda hard.

Car: The Audi is paid off. Finally. It’s now just a car, with no intention from me of making it any better. It’s got too much mileage to consider tarting it up any bit, and it’s a useful tool to use instead of a pursuit in its own right. I don’t have the time to do anything really useful to it other than put diesel in every month or so. At least my driving mileage has severely decreased now that I’m back in Limerick full time. Due another tyre change soon, may but top-tier all-season tyres on it to safeguard me through the winter.

Sport: Very little time to get out on the Reign for a cycle. :( No time in a boat in quite a while – no free weekend gets in the way of that, but that is what I’ve signed up for! Put a deposit down for a good road bike for the Bike-to-Work scheme – a 2011 Trek Madone 4.5, secondhand, with uprated lighter Mavic wheels with the blade spokes. I’ll upgrade a few bits and pieces on that bike, including as good tyres as I can get. I will cycle to work on it at least once ;) and I’ll have to cycle home for lunch to get the car to drive home when the shift is over. It’s not good to be physically pumped at 2am trying to get to sleep. It’ll be useful to have that bike for the cycle around northwest France next summer just before Dave’s french wedding.

Other stuff: 5 years since fun and games, so that’s an interesting milestone passed. Nothing else of note there that I’ll put down here ;)

Astro: been out maybe 3 times since the start of the summer. Been pretty crap for astronomers in Ireland recently – and pretty crap for someone that works evenings and has college during the day! Starting to see the utility of a good quality grab and go setup that will give good views without needing to cooldown – maybe a 100mm short refractor on an alt-az mount?

Sarah: She passed her Viva with flying colours, a very positive impression from the examiners and a trivially small number of corrections before final submission of the thesis document. Her hard work and perseverance (and slight craziness) paid off big time. She’ll get the hood in January.