26 Years Ago

That's when I was born. Since then, I have been witness to a lot of things in this world. I was alive for and remember, in no particular order whatsoever:
The Challenger Shuttle exploding after launch.
The Columbia Shuttle exploding during reentry.
When a great Pope died.
Two wars in the Gulf.
When Superman got a costume and powers change- this made the RTE 9:00 news!
The day Zig and Zag first appeared on TV.
When Bosco left TV.
The morning the Twin Towers in New York were destoryed in an act of terrorism.
When the Russian space-station, MIR was brought down.
When the Berlin Wall was broken down.
When Dermot Morgan, the voice of Scrap Saturday and face of Father Ted died on a Sunday morning. The news was broke to me by a visibly shaken Dave Fanning on The Beat-Box.
When Princess Diana was also killed on a (different) Sunday morning, or possibly late Saturday night.
When Wolverines real name was revealed to be James Howlett.
The first time Ireland got into the soccer World Cup, for Italy 1990.
When Taytos cost 10p.
When the smoking ban was brought into Irish law.
When Toybiz Marvel Legends appeared on the market.
When my little brother Stephen and my even littler (I know) sister Margaret-Ann were born. I was only three when Philip was born, so though I was alive, I don't really remember it. I've been told I was more proud to be an older brother than my parents were to be parents of another beautiful, healthy boy.

I know I've been around for tonnes more, but these are what spring to mind in just ten minutes. The order is unimportant. One thing inspired another, or stray thoughts just wandered through. I wrote them as I thought of them, so although becoming a brother was one of the best things that ever happened to me, it stays at the end of the list, because it came to me last. So order does not represent importance! As soon as I press the "Publish Post" button, I'll think of a dozen more anyway.

Today was a good day. Breakfast with friends was amazing. All you can eat, great food cooked just right. For what we got, €10 was good, but I think a bit expensive for a regular thing. Maybe on special occasions.

Headed into town and bought some shopping. I cracked and bought Trauma Centre for myself. Hey, it's my birthday! Who's gonna stop me?!?

Back home, hung out, played computer games for a bit then had a great barbeque. Really nice. And it was the first of the summer too. Here's to many more!

Now, I'm exhausted. Time for bed.

Happy Birthday to Me

Well, according to the little clock on the monitor here, it is officially the 28th of May, making me officially 26 years and roughly 9 months old.

I should be happy, but as the clock ticked over, I found myself slumped in a chair silently watching the final episode of season 1 of Boston Legal. I'm not upset I'm older. I don't feel 26. I don't feel 20! I'm not upset at how my life is at this moment. In fact, I love it. As I've said here before, I have the best friends ever, the best partner ever and life is pretty much complete for the time being... next big step is kids I guess, and Claire won't let me yet! That's ok though. I don't want kids until I have a job and all the other stuff I need to afford the little parasites.

We're going for breakfast tomorrow to a local hotel, and for €10 it's pretty much an all you can eat! That's certainly not upsetting. I'm most definately going to get stuff (even if I don't really want anything). How bad is that! I love opening wrapping. People say kids get more fun out of the packaging than the product. I still do. I love cutting open a new action figure box, or ripping the paper off a present. I'm going to get do all those tomorrow, most likely, and regardless of what I find inside, I know I'll love it, because it came from people that are special to me.

So why am I upset. Honestly, I think it's because I haven't eaten properly, or my blood-sugar levels are low. Seriously. Just writing all this has cheered me up already. My "upsettedness" can't be because something happened to me. It can't be because something is going to happen to me. I guess it must just be under-the-skin biological stuff. Sounds right, and my grumbling tummy agrees.

I'm really getting the hang of this "secret-readable-by-the-world-diary-thing". Sometimes, all you need to do is write to get to understand what you can't express. Ghaa! That sounds awful. How do I say it properly? If I hadn't started this thing a month ago, I would have gone to bed, still feeling upset and knowing that I shouldn't be. Now, I get to write about it and learn why I feel this way.

So. After all that, I get to go to bed older, wiser and happier.

Tomorrow's going to be awesome. Er... that is, technically, later today...

From Pizza Boy to President

Nintendo of America has a new President, in the rather stricking figure of Reggie Fils-Aime. According to the article on Joystiq Reggies past jobs have included time with Pizza Hut and Procter & Gamble! Um... I guess there's some connection there...

Anyway, though I seriously doubt Reggie reads my humble blog, let me just wish him the best of luck in his new position, and congratulations on the well deserved promotion.

I've seen this guy in action, doing his marketing magic on stage at the Nintendo E3 keynote speech this year. He is awesome to watch and listen to, and seems to genuinely enjoy his job and the company he is working for. WARNING: That link is to a Google Video of the entire hour long keynote speech. Worth watching if you have the time.

Under his leadership, Nintendo is guaranteed to go from strength to strength.

Superman! We Need You

Well Lois might think you're a chump, but you're our only hope for this summer now.

X-Men kinda failed to hit home for me. I was disappointed by it as a movie. Sure, it had some great moments, some excellant fanboy dialogue and events, but it just wasn't good enough.

I'm not going to be so arrogant as to point out moments I didn't like right here. There are people reading this that haven't seen it yet.

However, I hate people who don't back up their arguements with facts, or simply post statements like "That was gay". As such I will say I enjoyed the movie. The camera work and directing was ok. There were some scenes that played too heavily for me, in a "look how evil he really is" sorta way. The music never bothered me. It didn't stand out like some of the pieces in the earlier movies, but it was never bad. The make-up and effects were awesome. Beast was really well done, Mystique was great as always and Storm actually got to show off cool powers.

For now, that is all. I really wanted to love this movie, but I just can't. It's enjoyable, but ultimately disappointing.

Bring on Superman! The more I see of this, the more I'm looking forward to it. And now that I've seen X-Men, the Man of Steel may be the hit of the summer. Brian Singer wins again! The newest, and so far best, trailer is available here. Right click on the link and pick "save target as", or "save link as" for you FireFox users to download this trailer and watch it over and over again at home!

GhostRider Trailer

Nic Cage's GhostRider isn't due out until February next year, but there's a trailer up already. Gotta admit, this looks very interesting! The CGI needs some work still. The bones are too clean, and the flames look... well... CG.

I'm happy to see that ego did not hinder style. I expected that the majority of the time as GhostRider himself would just be done as Nics head on fire to allow the audience to always see Nic. I figured the only time we'd see the skull effect was during the final battle, when GhostRider really cuts loose, as always happens. Thankfully, the trailer proves me wrong. Yay!

Oh, and if you download the iPod version and watch it in VLC, you can watch the bit where he falls off the bike in slow motion. Yeouch, that looks like it hurt!

RoboCop Versus Neo

This wins the internet for me tonight!

The guys that put this together are incredible. The lighting is perfectly matched in all shots and that compositing is amazing! Enjoy the show!

Also, check out some more of AMDS work. Some very nice stuff. A re-edited Qui-Jon versus Darth Maul fight, a funnier version of how things could have gone, Yoda sings "What A Wonderful World" and Scrat from Ice Age causes even more trouble!

Slightly different from all those, AMDS also has the history of the world, and how it might all end summed up in about six and a half minutes. It's beautifully done.

And finally, while I'm on a YouTube binge, this is just hilarious. What an evil ladybug!!

Some Additions

I've put in "Currently Reading" and "Currently Watching" sections on the sidebar. That's about it really.

Might have more later. Work now though.

Oh, and Boston Legal rocks. I've started watching the last few episodes of season 1 after I got distracted by other stuff previously. William Shatner is hilarious, though I think James Spader as Alan Shore is the highlight of the show for me.