The PlayStation Meeting 2013 was held tonight in New York to reveal the eagerly anticipated PlayStation 4. The Daily Shift's Jack Squibb tells us more on the announcement…
My article on Sony's announcement on the Playstation 4
Six changes in Ireland team to face Greece
The Daily Shift's Darragh McGhee gives us the latest team news ahead of Ireland's clash with Greece...
Add your thoughts here... (optional)
Formula 1: FIA issue letters to all F1 teams after Vettel and Raikkonen swear during live interview
Kimi Raikkonen and co were very naughty boys on the podium after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix causing a backlash from the FIA. The Daily Shift's Jack Squibb has more...
My article on the FIA issuing letters to all F1 teams after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when Vettel and Raikkonen swore on live TV
Missing flights and having fights
So the last time I posted a blog I had just arrived in Liverpool which was a little over a week ago. It was a great week, went to the Merseyside derby which you’d see I reblogged my report of from The Daily Shift. Met some family who I haven’t seen in a very long time which meant quite a bit if I’m being honest for this time of year. Again a small reference to my last blog. And of course a trip home wouldn’t be the same without going out to Liverpool for a few pints with my Dad which was nice and watching a singer in one of the pubs. His name was John O’Connell and he immediately won me over by covering various Snow Patrol songs, I know it’s sad but if it’s a good cover you’ve done enough in my eyes.
Anyway all was going well and too soon did the last day arrive. That was Sunday. Since Liverpool were playing at Anfield against Newcastle that day my Dad wanted to go to it since he has a season ticket. That meant I had to get the bus to the airport which I didn’t mind. So we said our goodbyes and I got on the bus to the airport and arrived with plenty of time to spare before the flight. I then proceeded to the security and I handed the man my boarding card to scan. I noticed a puzzled look on his face when he looked at the screen so I took my headphones off. I asked him was everything ok and he then looked at my boarding card again. He then looked up at me and said “this boarding card was for yesterday, you’ve missed your flight.” When he said that I felt my stomach churn. So I ran back to the entrance hoping my Dad hadn’t got to the ground yet and tried to ring him, no luck. I turned around and saw on the TV Liverpool just kicking off and I knew then I wasn’t going to get in touch with him for the next hour and a half. Luckily I had a very kind sister at the end of the phone to help me and booked a new flight for the next morning. Eventually my Dad came and picked me up and took me back to the flat for one more night.
Now that wouldn’t have been a problem but I’m the kind of guy that once I’ve a routine in motion I don’t want it to be messed with. So missing my flight fucked me over completely and made me go a little demented on the inside. On the bright side I did get back in time for college, on the dark side because I felt so crap about it I got no sleep at all that night.
That brings me to the second part of the title above, the “having fights” bit. Now I haven’t actually gotten into a physical fight with someone it’s more me and my immune system going toe to toe for a few rounds and it’s now gone to the judges to decide who wins. For the last 2-3 weeks I’ve been feeling pretty rough. Not getting enough sleep, headaches, feeling nauseous and a kidney infection thrown in the mix too. So it hasn’t been an easy few weeks for myself. But like a typical man I ignore them and try to power through it which I know now is a stupid idea, doctors are there for a reason, go see them! *Facepalm*. So now I still feel crap and I’m on tablets to try and win the fight against my immune system. The loser has to man up and stop getting run down so it’s a fight I can’t lose really.
Now I have remembered about that mixtape I posted last week with all the track details deleted and as promised here are the details. P.S. I checked the stats, only one person has downloaded it, so whoever you are good for you, hope you enjoyed it! 
*Track 7 is There will always be at least a thousand things you don’t know. By All shall be well (and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well)
**Track 10 from Lola Perrin is called Music from Fragile Light Spaces Piano Suite IV: Newark Airport 1 and the album title is Fragile Light – Works for Solo Piano and for Six Pianos.
***Track 21 Hey Snow White is by The New Pornographers from the album Dark Was The Night: A Red Hot Compilation [Disc 2]
One last thing before I pick my tracks of the last seven days. I was on Stumble Upon the other day and came across this game. This game is fun, simple and artistically it’s pretty snazzy too. The main thing though is that when I got to the end I found I was able to relate to it cos I’m an idiot with little courage. Anyway, check it out, it’s a fun game and kills a few minutes for you at the same time. http://www.newcave.com/game/pretentious-game/
This weeks Jack’s Tracks are:
Spanish Sahara – Foals
Sticking with Foals again, their new single Inhaler is epic
Inhaler – Foals
PDA – Interpol
Break – Son Lux
End Comes Too Soon – Wild Beasts
That’s it for this week anyway, thinking for the next blog entry I’ll mention about my dreams of late. They’ve been so wacky for the last few weeks that it’s like myself in my dreams is so high he’s hallucinating from beginning to end or something. Some funny ones worth mentioning, I’ll leave a little teaser with keywords: Death Star, Pokémon, Parties, Drama and a lovable dog. It’ll be worth reading so look out for it!
Adios folks!
EPL: Liverpool denied victory as Everton and Liverpool go head to head again
Sunday's thrilling Merseyside derby ended up all square. The Daily Shift's Jack Squibb reports...
My report on Sundays Merseyside Derby between Everton and Liverpool
The week of travelling and reminiscing
The last seven days have been rather hectic. On Saturday last week I had to go up to Dublin by train just to get my sister on the train for free and bring her back to Cork. Aren’t companion travel passes the best? So for my Saturday I spent it on a train staring out at what Ireland had to offer in between the two cities. It was actually relaxing and not bad, I got to chill out and clear my head and think about the kind of things you think of before you go to sleep. Then when arriving at Dublin I had just enough time to get the tickets to go back and my dinner courtesy of my sister as a thank you for going up for her.
En route to Dublin
The trip back down was the same except I got to watch the sun fade away as the night took over and let the stars come out. By the time I got back home I was exhausted and slept like a baby, who’d have thought sitting on a train doing nothing would be so tiring?
On Wednesday I went out with classmates and got completely smashed, it was a fun night (word of advice: Don’t do mystery shots unless you want to suffer horribly the next day). Since I turn 21 in March I’m starting to think of where to go for it and what to do, so every night out is now part fun, part scouting for a venue.
When I woke up on Thursday I thought, “great, I’ve avoided a hangover!” Then I sat up and felt like The Hulk had punched my stomach. To make matters worse when I stood up I felt a piercing pain shooting up my left foot. Now it had felt a bit tender for the last few days but when I stood up on Thursday morning the pain had increased dramatically. Since then I’ve been hobbling everywhere putting up with the pain.
Friday was a fun day. Our course and the media production class went into town to do some voxpopping. For those that don’t know what that is, it’s when someone goes around asking people the same question to get multiple answers recorded. If I had the recording I’d share it with you but I don’t. My question was “What’s your favourite horror movie and why?” I was surprised by how many people said they didn’t watch them, I don’t either but I thought I was just one of a few who didn’t. One film that was mentioned was a film called Classified from 1941. I think that was the name she said. It intrigued me so I intend to look it up and check it out if I can. After finishing the voxpops we then went to a radio museum on Strawberry Hill on Sunday’s Well. It was an interesting place, seeing how radio had developed over the years in Ireland.
To end the day some of us went to The Pavillion for some tea and a bit of banter, everyone was in high spirits as we broke up for a week for the mid term.
Today as I type this is still October 27th, although it’ll be either the 28th or 29thwhen this published. For me this day will always be significant. The reason being is that 4 years ago on this day I underwent my last surgery on my leg in Alder Hey Hospital. I had got the Illizarov technique, which was put on to change the position of my left foot. This wasn’t the first time I had this surgery. The first time was in 1996 when it was put on both my legs when I was 4. It was an astounding success although my left foot was still deformed looking. So in 2008 it was suppose to improve my walking and the shape of the foot but unfortunately it only improved the shape.
X-ray of the Illizarov on my left foot in 2008
Since the frame came off in April ’09 my walking hasn’t been the same as what it was before the op. Now I’ve had hundreds of operations in my 20 years of life but for some reason I’ve struggled to let go of this one. Not just the times I was in hospital but the events that happened at the time, the people, even down to the TV shows. It’s extremely weird and it does bug me that I feel this way yet when October 27th comes around I can’t help but reminisce about it when really I should be doing my best to forget. Now I’m back in Liverpool on the day of it for the first time since the op and everything I look at reminds me of that time. It brings me to the conclusion of two things.
- I need to get a grip
- My Dad really needs to do a clear-out
Now that I’ve got that off my chest I now go to this weeks edition of Jack’s Tracks. Instead of embedding Youtube videos I’m going to treat you all to a mixtape I made for someone on a fansite. There is a catch though… I’ve deleted all the track information so unless you know the singer or song you’ll have to wait to get the track list. You can download the mixtape here. Don’t worry though, you’ll get the track info in next week’s blog.
Enjoy the mix and until then adios folks.
The hunt, the sudden realisation of frustration and the tracks of the week
It’s been a tough few months since about the start of July. The reason being is because I have joined in the hunt for one of those rare things people call a job. I’ve had very little luck with the search, wether places weren’t hiring or others just didn’t get back to me, until last week I had no success at all.
But last week I finally managed to get an interview at a kids play area near Wilton, Cork. I felt that the interview went great and had a good feeling when leaving after. The next day though I got an email saying I hadn’t enough experience and the hours I would be available for wouldn’t be enough for them. Have to admit I was a little disappointed but I’m not letting it slow me down. It’s straight back into the hunt and hoping for the best. It’s a pain in the bum but I’m sure others have been at this longer than me and haven’t scored a single interview so I’ll consider myself lucky. In the meantime if anyone comes across a job in the Cork area, give me a shout and in return I’ll give you a mental high five if I get said job.
Back at the start of September something went wrong with my laptop (a macbook for those who want to know) and it slowly got to the point where it wouldn’t start up anymore. I got a clean install from the kind people at CompuB for free meaning everything would be erased of it. This didn’t bother me at the time because I knew I had an external hard drive with everything backed up on it, so it sounded like a win – win situation.
A week later I got my Mac back and it was running like it was brand new again. I went to transfer my stuff back onto it when disaster struck.… My external hard drive wouldn’t appear, after awhile this message appeared on the screen. 
I was sickened, not because I had lost my pictures because they were backed up on Facebook. Not because I had lost my music either since I’m one of those rare people who still buy cd’s and can just put them back on. The reason I was sickened is because when I was in 5th year (3 academic years ago) in secondary school I wrote an essay. In my opinion it was one of the best things I had ever written, it got an A of the teacher and led on to her telling me I should write a book. I took her advice and I used that essay as the foundations for the story. I hadn’t set a deadline to complete it, I considered it to be a long term project and add bits to it every now and again. My aim was to get between 50,000 to 60,000 words and hope one day it’d get published. You can see where this is going……
Before my laptop needed repairing I can remember having roughly 15,000 to 20,000 written. I lost roughly three quarters or more of what was written. I now have 3,608 words and have to start again almost from the beginning.
Now I wasn’t aware of what I had lost straight away, it only dawned on me a few days ago that I had lost the story. It’s incredibly frustrating and I’ve been pretty pissed off about it since I realised it, could you blame me?
On to brighter things now, mid term is almost here and the week off couldn’t arrive fast enough. I’m going back home for a week to Liverpool and I reckon it’s going to be a fun and eventful week. I’m also looking forward to a change of scenery too.
Now onto my favourite part of doing this blog, my favourite tracks over the last seven days! Like last time I’m giving no reasons as to why these tracks stand out this week except for two cos they deserve it.
Athlete – Wires
Sigur Rós – Untitled #1 (Vaka)
Snow Patrol – Open Your Eyes. Reason: This song is my favourite song of all time, no other song comes close to it for me and it holds a lot of personal meaning to me (cheesy I know but I don’t care). On an obsessive scale, before my laptop broke it had over 100,000 plays on iTunes with only one skip and that skip was an accident.
Friendly Fires – Paris
Biffy Clyro – Many Of Horror
Editors – Open Your Arms
And last but not least is this mash-up/reworked version of Coldplay’s 2008 album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends and the EP that followed it Prospekt’s March. It was only put on the internet in the last few days but it really impressed me. It’s 20 minutes long and it’s the two records mixed and edited in a differently good way, making songs like Viva La Vida better and Prospekt’s March/Poppyfields too.
Give them a listen and enjoy or hate them.
Until the next time, adios folks.
