5,000 :)

Still cray-cray with the whole studying for repeat exams and whatnot so no real time to write a proper post yet. I promise there’ll be one coming soon, probably next week all going well ]

I just wanted to take (my one millionth) break from studying to say THANK YOU FOR COMING TO VIEW MY BLOG I see that it’s reached 5,000 views, I hope each after each one of those views the reader has left feeling a bit better about life, because that was my aim from the very beginning.

So, back to study I go, the origins and insertions of the various muscles blah blah blah blahhhh won’t learn itself!

Here, sing this five thousand times and hopefully by then I’ll have posted something new!

All Filler, no Killer

Apologies for not having updated the past few weeks, I’ve been away on holidays and working ( for the holidays and for the working ).

To tide you all over until I have a chance to post a proper entry about the last few weeks, I’ll leave you with these, erm, corrections that I’ve made to some well known proverbs. Enjoy

• When life gives you lemons, eat them. Don’t be a little baby just because you got lemons. Lemons are nice.

• If at first you don’t succeed, stop trying. You’re clearly not very good at whatever it is you’re trying to do, so stop it.

• Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will hurt me emotionally.

• When things get bad, just remember they can only get better. Or worse. For example, you could break both of your legs.

• Dog is a man’s best friend. Unless it has rabies.

• A watched pot always boils. To assume otherwise is stupid.

• All publicity is good publicity. Unless it’s bad publicity. Then it’s quite obviously bad publicity.

• All work and no play makes Jack more likely to succumb to depression in later life.

• Better late than never. Unless it’s a murderer late for killing somebody, and by being late thus misses his or her target, but kills somebody else anyway. In this instance, it’s clearly better if the murderer never shows up.

• Do put all your eggs into one basket. If you have two eggs, many people would consider you an idiot for putting them in two baskets.

• Do judge a book by its cover. I mean, that’s where the blurb is, how else are you supposed to judge the book apart from reading the thing?

Obviously, the break from blogging and the excessive heat from my holidays has resulted in this post. Please don’t use this as the benchmark for any future posts.

Tooth-Hurty

****KIND-OF-PHILOSOPHICAL POST, BE WARNED! ****

So I was up really late last night trying to sleep. I had (and still have) a major ache in my jaw because my wisdom teeth have decided to make their appearance. This bothers me greatly because they’ve had twenty-one years to show, and while they’ve made the odd peep here and there over my teenage years, I’ve never really had any trouble from them.

Until now.

My bottom left wisdom tooth is definitely the source of my anguish. It must’ve witnessed me writing all my positive stuff on this blog and thought to itself inside its demonic non-existent little mind: “Nope, too much fun and goodness; time to make some bad”. It’s not going to stop me though. Armed with lovely painkillers and a plan to eat only on the right side of my mouth, I aim to continue on my quest for ultimate summer happiness relatively undeterred! (Go me! )

Anyway, enough ranting about my vengeful choppers. As I said, I was up very late last night, thinking about all sorts of things. Money, friends, family, work, etc.; things that everybody thinks about. I was thinking about all the things that worried me, things that I have to do that I’ve been putting off doing (that’s definitely one of my biggest faults, I shirk any sort of responsibility until it’s absolutely unavoidable). These thoughts really do weigh down your mind, don’t they?

This is clearly not me. I sleep in less clothes than this man, so I decided it was best I didn’t put a photo of myself up.                                source

 

I realised though, that spending time being worried about these various things, while extremely annoying, is kind of something that you have to do. To be able to deal with stuff that I’m worried about, things that I know I need to get done, I have to tell myself what they are and see for myself how much they’re bothering me so I can put together a plan to actually get them DONE. I’m going on holidays next week for a glorious, sun, sea and sand-filled fortnight, and I know that I’ll feel a thousand percent better once I’ve put together my plan.

So here’s the part, dear readers, where I pass on my craziness to you in some sort of lesson form, in the hopes that it’ll take you a lot less time to learn the lessons I seem to spend ages learning. Think of me not only as the guy that writes silly blog entries, full of neurotic ramblings, but also as your own weird mixture of a life coach and a timesaver (Does that make any sense?).

Think of the time you spend worrying about the things you need to sort out in your life as step one.  So while it is really annoying to have to spend time fretting, think of it as just one little part of your big plan to get stuff done. To sort things out. To get on top of your life. I’m not one for old sayings, but one does come to mind: A good start is half the battle. By making your worrying the part of your plan to set about your tasks, you’re already halfway towards completing them.

Well that’s it from me once again. I do apologise if this post has left you feeling dazed, but like I said before, I’m a big fan of writing without planning. Deal with it.

Summer Cleaning pt.2

Ok, I’m suffering from a small bout of writer’s block at the moment (don’t cry, I’m thinking it’s temporary, I know how all of your worlds would come tumbling down if I were to stop writing altogether! ) so I said that I’d write a short post on how cleaning my room and walk-in wardrobe went.

Well, first of all, you remember how it looked in the beginning, right? If you don’t, take a look here. As bad as my walk-in wardrobe was, my room was worse, because I actually had to spend time in there! Well I’ve sorted all that out and now I’m extremely proud to present to you my new room, revamped and revitalised.

All clean!

I can actually walk into the walk-in wardrobe now!

I have to admit, after writing the post mentioned earlier, I doubted whether I’d actually commit to going the whole hog and sorting everything out. But I did, and I couldn’t be happier for it! Everything’s been sorted into black bags, with each one labelled either for giving away to a local charity shop or for just throwing out/recycling. Here’s the evidence of all my hard work.

100 million bags and boxes later and it’s all gone!

I feel free at last, free from all the crap that was taking up so much space in the place where I’m supposed to feel most at home over everywhere else in the world! The whole thing ended up being a really cathartic experience! The notes and papers I’d accumulated over the years have disappeared; they no longer resemble a very-close-to-real-size model of Mount Everest. The clothes I’d looked at countless times before (ones that don’t even fit, and some that I had never even worn before, I’m a disgrace!) are packed away and have gone to a charity shop, hopefully to be found by someone who needs them. Doesn’t that give you a warm feeling inside your little ol’ heart?

Long story short, I did what I was supposed to do. Writing the post about cleaning up was my way of giving myself an ultimatum for actually doing it. I mean, how long until I’d be getting threatening messages from you oh-so-loyal followers along the lines of “Post Summer Cleaning pt.2 or I’LL TRACK YOU DOWN” etc.? If you’ve given yourself any tasks to do this summer my advice is to dive straight into it and get it done. Like I’ve said a hundred times before, summer is for FUN THINGS, so get the non-fun things out of the way as soon as you can!

Well, I guess that’s it for now, my only other news is that I passed all my summer exams, which I am over the moon about.

Hopefully next time I’ll actually have something worthwhile to say!

Life in Motion

I have decided to take up a new hobby (and when I say ‘hobby’, I mean something that I try once and probably won’t do again ). It’s called Jogging photography.

Now, those of you who have seen the movie “Yes Man” will be familiar with this hobby. It involves running (and then jogging after I get tired, usually about two minutes after I begin my run) and while running, taking photos of things that I find interesting or eye-catching, or really just anything at all.

For those of you who haven’t seen “Yes Man”, I must stress that YOU DO NOT STOP to take these photos. If you do that, then your photos will turn out normal and in all honesty, haven’t we got enough ‘normal’ in the world as it is? No, instead, let’s be different and blurry and rushed and FUN :)

Here are some of my photos from my first EVER jogging photography venture*:

My dog Moya. She’s crazy, and she wanted to come along.

My Dad’s motorbike. It’s better blurry because it doesn’t actually work yet.

I kind of impressed myself with this one. :)

I’ve named this photo “GOOD GOD SHE’S FREE!! RUN!!!!”

Taking in the bin. Keepin’ it real, blurry style. :)

Spooky…

This wins the best blurry photo award for me.

This……

plus these….

plus these…… equals mountains of coolness in my village :)

You might be wondering why I’m doing this. You may think that I’ve lost my mind (and you could be right). But to be perfectly honest, this is something that I have wanted to do ever since I saw “Yes Man” and developed an unhealthy obsession with Zooey Deschanel’s magnetic, offbeat personality. It looked like so much fun, not to mention being different too (different and fun, it’s no surprise that I would be interested in it )

Until now, I have been lacking two things necessary for Jogging photography. The first was a camera, which, thanks to my dear sister, I now have. The second thing was balls. Yep, it takes balls to run around the place where you live, looking like a madman in what can only be described as questionable exercise gear (shorts just don’t look good on me, I don’t think I’ll ever feel otherwise, and my red shoes I bought before Christmas that are partially made from hemp would hardly be considered as appropriate running attire, not to mention my Spongebob t-shirt ) and pointing your camera at anything and everything in a frenzied fashion, passing your neighbours by in a sweaty, flashing, camera-sound-making blur. I can only imagine what I must’ve looked like!

The other reason I wanted to do this is more of a philosophical one. I have a bit of a habit of reading into things a lot more than most other people do. I like to find the meaning behind things, so while others may see or hear something and it will go in one side of their head and out the other, I will ponder on that one detail, and try my hardest to find what the true message behind it was. (I’m funny like that )

And that’s exactly what I’ve done with my new hobby. I’ve gone all philosophical and turned it into a life lesson. After looking through all of the blurry-but-still-cool-in-my-opinion photographs I had taken on my sister’s borrowed camera, I got the feeling that I should be learning something from it; that it wasn’t just another opportunity for me to do something new and fun and look like an escaped lunatic in the process.

I guess the first thing that I thought about while looking at the photos was how much we rush and rush through life, so focused on our next target, that next thing we simply HAVE to do or achieve. And while that’s all well and good, there comes a time when we need to slow down and take in our surroundings. It can’t be good to race through life at a million miles per hour, can it? I can’t help but feel that if every once in a while we stopped to smell the roses (or silage, depending on what time of year you go running), we might appreciate life a bit better.

I also saw that there was another side to the coin. Sometimes we NEED to rush through life. Sometimes we can’t stop and smell the roses, because there are things here in the real world that have to be done. We can’t simply take a day off work, the bills wouldn’t be paid. If we took too many days off from studying, we’d fail all of our exams (sometimes that happens regardless, but shhh, let’s imagine we’re perfect here, even if only for a moment ). We can’t raise our heads and look around or stop for too long, or we’ll fall off the planet!

I think what I’m trying to say here is that although we might feel that life is passing us by at an alarming rate and that we’re not getting anything worthwhile out of it, maybe all we need to do is adopt a better attitude, adjust our figurative lenses and try take in as much as we can along the way (Aaaand maybe go shopping for slightly less silly clothes to go running in ).

*I live in quite a remote part of the west of Ireland, so please forgive the fact this set of photographs is distinctly country-themed. Hopefully I’ll be going on other jogs, and they’ll be in different places, you’ll just have to keep coming back to see when I post them (how’s that for a shrewd plot to retain readers? ).

Sunny Day Playlist

Hey there!

Just a quick post, thought I’d share my favourite sunny day songs; ones I love to listen to on perfect summer days like this. It’s my list of classics (in no particular order) that never fail to get me in the best summer mood EVER, and seeing as these sunny days are happening more and more frequently lately (do NOT say it’s because of the world ending, because that’ll ruin my buzz), I figured now is the best time to spread the chilled out, sunshine-filled love to you all!

Now if I could only find A) a way to leave work early and B) somewhere to drive to while listening to these songs…..

California Dreaming – The Mamas and the Papas
Coolest song to ever exist in my book. So what if it’s about a winter’s day, the title makes it clear what’s on their minds.

Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
Very close second for the coolest song ever award, best enjoyed with an ice-cold beer, like the one mentioned in the song itself. 

Island In The Sun – Weezer
Every time I hear this, I genuinely believe the “We’ll never feel bad anymore” part.

We Are The People – Empire of the Sun
If ever there was a song for wearing sunglasses and rolling down the window in your car to, this is it. 

Giving Up The Gun – Vampire Weekend
Laidback summery goodness. 

Do Wah Doo – Kate Nash
Short but sweet, the best pop song ever made in my opinion. Turn it up at the “ba bada bada bada bam” part. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. 

Kiss Of Life – Friendly Fires
Glorious, tribal, running-on-the-beach-in-your-grass-skirt style mayhem (What do you mean you don’t have a grass skirt?)

Quelqu’un M’a Dit – Carla Bruni
A night-time one, for sure. Play while sitting in your back garden with close friends, just as the sun is going down. The perfect opportunity to catch the eye of your desired summer lover. 

Now that’s what I call an ideal setting for some summer tunage

The Passenger – Iggy Pop
Another car classic, perfect for a road trip with friends (preferably ones that love to roll down the window and sing the “LA LA LA LA LALALA LA” part at the top of their
voices  ).

Summer In The City – The Lovin’ Spoonful
Summer time, old-school style.

I Want You To Want Me – Cheap Trick
Classic sunny day song. ‘Nuff said.

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) – Florence and the Machine
How can I leave Florence out? A dramatic summer anthem, the perfect time to grab your best friend and dance around the garden like mad yokes, waiting for the burgers to be finished on the BBQ. :) 

Us – Regina Spektor
For the loved up ones; it just makes me feel all sunny and happy inside.  :)

Feel free to let me know your favourites, I’d be mad to refuse any of your summery suggestions!

Grow Up? Never!

Ok, I had a post all lined up for you guys to read. I had it all typed up; every last ‘i’ had been dotted and ‘t’ crossed. All that was left to add were the accompanying photos that elevate my blog posts from just words to, well, words with pictures attached.

I had only to hit the “Publish” button and send my post into the blogosphere, which I was planning to do today, when I came across something WAAAAAY more urgent to tell you about (I know, how exciting, right?!).

Today I saw something. Something that I feel so, so strongly about that I just couldn’t keep my feelings about it under wraps. I just HAD to spread the word and let you in on what it was that instilled such a rush of inspiration within me! Are you on the edge of your seat reading this? I know I will be when I come back to check how many views I’ve gotten in the last 24 hours! (I’m sad, I already know this, there is no need to tell me. )

So without any further delay, because I know all thirty-something of my followers are dying to know what I’m talking about, I will tell you.

I’m. Talking. About. These.

God’s gift to humankind. If you don’t know what they are, keep reading. Oh, and SHAME ON YOU!

These little beauties, readers, are sweets. But hold on, before you go back to whatever it was you were doing before reading this post, let me describe to you the sheer awesomeness of these sweets. They are called Eat-a-yolks; turtle shell-shaped, with that kind of easter egg design on the back of them, and made of chocolate. But not that type of chocolate you find in just any old bar, the type that all the old sweets used to have (The good type). Then, when you bite into the shell, you’re hit with what is possibly the best surprise EVER. You see, inside lies a yellow fondant. A gooey, sugary, wondrous substance that only God himself could have dreamed up (don’t tell me otherwise, I WILL run screaming away from you). Eating these sweets is an experience that fills me with nothing other than sheer joy. 

Every now and then the shop in the town near where I live gets them in stock, and when they do, I am overtaken by madness. I buy as much as the few coins in my pockets will allow, desperately hoping that when I get the chance to come back again they’ll still be there to make my heart jump for joy. But whenever I do return, they’re gone.

You’d wonder why I get so crazy for these things, wouldn’t you? Believe me, I ask myself the same thing. I guess it’s because along with the awesome taste, they give me a sense of nostalgia with every bite. I associate Eat-a-yolks with being young, and can’t it be great to reminisce on those days, days that you remember only as the sunny, fun-filled days when you hadn’t a care in the world (except who would get a turn on the Gameboy next to play Pokemon )? I firmly believe that although every now and again I show random little signs of maturity, I’ll never grow up fully. It’s little things like these sweets that make me happy that I’ll never grow up. I mean, if Peter Pan can do it, so can I, right?

As we get older it can be harder to remember those days, because we’re busy thinking grown-up thoughts and doing grown-up things. That’s why anytime I come across little reminders like the eat-a-yolks, I’m so happy to stop and think about the good old days! Maybe one day, along with the shirt and the tie and the big doctor job, will come a responsible, adult-like Conor, but I’ll always have these little links back to my childhood.

If you can’t find your old favourites, I found here to be really useful for tracking them down (click on ‘here’ for all you non techno-whizzes. Don’t mock, it took me a few tries to realise the blue writing sends you somewhere else!)

Happy reminiscing!

*I want to add that I’ll probably be posting once a week from now on. A good friend of mine told me to post regularly and at consistent times, so y’all know when to come back looking for my latest nonsense.