A Knight's Tale

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

2:27 PM

I just added a link to Hattrick, basically an online football manager game that has pretty much taken over my spare time from actual work and job-hunting during the working day. Its a sign that you've been sucked in when the only morning you actually get up in time for work is because a transfer you've been bidding on is going through.

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2:10 PM

So I'm moving to London. Booked my flights and started packing. It has suddenly changed from 'something I am thinking about doing' to 'something I am doing' and while that may seem as simple as dropping two words, it brings with it a whole mixed bag of emotions that I've faced before, but I'm not quite sure if I dealt with...

Fear. That things won't work out and I'll be home by Christmas. My grand plans never worked out when I 'moved' to Australia - a combination of lack of work (leading to no money) and my inability to let go of home and all the people I cared about (hence the multiple, if slightly drunken calls on Christmas day and New Year's) meant I was home within four months, essentially having had a great holiday, but definitely not worthy of the moving and generous farewell I received.

Dread. The simple hassle of finding a place to live, moving my stuff over, and getting a job all lie heavy on my waking mind. Probably an exaggeration, but you all know what that feels like.

Excitement. The other side of that coin is the odd daydream about where I'll move to, and what I'll get up to. The opportunities to experience new things must be vast in a place like London, and hopefully I'll find time to at least sample some of them. I settled in pretty well when I first arrived in Cork, despite not knowing a single person in the city under 70 (my grand-uncle was still around at the time) so I'm looking forward to meeting new people too.

Ambition. I really want to try and make this work, try and actually get somewhere on the whole grand 'life' journey. Many of the other bloggers linked from here have rambled on this subject in the past week, and rather than get into it in great detail, I'd say that it doesn't really matter a damn what your parents or others think, or where they are in their lives, what matter is whether you feel you are happy where you are. I know that I'm not and making a change now is a big step towards dragging myself out of the safe and easy rut I'm in (god knows I could probably stay in Dublin indefinitely and keep working on 3-6 month deals). I'm in no rush to buy a house, but I'd like to financially be able to consider it, even if it's far more likely that I would take the money needed and travel with it instead. I'd like to have the foundation of a career in place - a solid two years in one company would be a good start and much better than the crumbling basis that 13 different jobs in 6 years provides (amazingly, never sacked (ok, once, but that was three days before I was due to leave)). Again, I'm in no rush to become a faceless number in a multinational, or a 17-hour a day slave holding a small company together, but you can't make plans for anything when you're not sure if you'll have a job in three months (sure, no job is strictly safe anymore, but you get the picture). So, even though I may be pushing the metaphor a bit here, I'm changing the wheel with the puncture that's been slowing me down, and trying to get a bit further down the road before it gets worse and I end up going in circles.

So I'll be trying to get to see you all over the next few weeks. I finish work here in a week, Sept. 30th, and my flight is Thursday October 16th. Of course I'll be spending a few days at home too, but most of the rest of my time will be spent catching up with people before I go. Guess I'll see you soon...

G.

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3:23 PM

Last night, I dragged my burned-out self into town as far as the newly refurbished and impressively shiny UGC cinema complex. I was physically tired, but also mentally and emotionally drained after another day trawling through job searches on a variety of web sites that seem to have failed to notice that I just want to be able to click a button marked 'Give me a job' and that the only further question they will ask is 'Where would you like to work?' World-weary would be a good way of describing my general lethargy, I suppose. Yet a mere two and a half hours later (allowing for trailers, sweet buying and the like) all of that indifference had lifted, quite literally Spirited Away*.

If you haven't had the chance to take in this most exquisitely animated feature, then I recommend that you get to it as soon as you can. I admit, I was quite happy to let myself be carried away by the story (in essence, a simple Japanese faerie tale) and the more stony-hearted of you may take longer to become absorbed by it. There are countless magical moments dotted throughout that pretty much proved the perfect antidote to the real world, and I found there are a number of occasions that I found my settled (probably western-oriented) expectations challenged by amusing twists in the story.

Wonderful may seem a bit ostentatious as a description, but I couldn't simply describe this movie as good or great. Go see it, you'll be better for it.

*Yes, I know, it felt a little silly writing that too, but in all honesty it only came to me as I was writing it.

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11:07 AM

So. Its been a while. In the past month or so I've been at stages tremendously busy, tired, entertained and excited. By a variety of things. Right now, I'm in the slow process of recovering from a weekend in Cork where I think we spent enough to keep the Long Island in business for the year. In a way, I'm extraordinarily glad I'm heading home next weekend (which is a first for a long, long time) because I'm pretty sure it will give me time to get my system back in shape.

If you haven't been to see it yet, go see Pirates of the Caribbean - it is easily the best movie of the year so far ;)

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12:57 PM

Charlie's Angels II - Full Throttle

Encouraged by Gar's review, I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy this movie, and I wasn't disappointed. I think they should create a new Oscar category for Most Outrageous Picture, purely for movies like this one. It is fast, gratuitous fun from start to finish, with some of the most ridiculous action sequences you're ever likely to see in one place. 2 hours of pure entertainment. Go see it.

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10:03 AM

What would I do at work without following Link's from Sadhbh's blog?


So which fairy tale archetype are you? Hmm??
made by Michelle at EmptySpace.

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10:58 AM

Like I needed a test to uncover my inner geek....

Your Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Score
Category	Your Score	Average
Hacklust	58.49% Will kill for XP	52.3%
Sensitive Roleplaying	44.3% "But what's my motivation for this scene?"	48.5%
GM Experience	67.39% Ran a module once or twice	65.7%
Systems Knowledge	85.88% Played in a couple of campaigns	88.4%
Livin' La Vida Dorka	51.72% Has interesting conversations in public	58.2%
You are 64.46% pure Average Score: 65.4%
Take The Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Test and see how you match up!

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1:21 PM

Continuing in the quiz vein....


GAMBIT!!


Which X-Men Character Are You??
brought to you by Quizilla


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