Ryan’s Ramblin’

This is absolutely astounding. Somebody actually managed to beat Mario 64 in 22 minutes. The sound is quite possibly the most irritating thing in the world (”Yahoo! Yahoo! Yahoo! Yahoo!”) but other than that? PURE, UNADULTERATED AWESOME. (Inline video in the more inside if you want to see) (via MeFi)

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I absolutely MUST try this method on how to cook an $8 steak and have it taste like a $30 restaurant steak. Yum yum yummy!

(via AccordionGuy)

So, I’ve picked up a cold somewhere. Dammit. Over the last few years, I’ve found that I have the most predictable colds EVER:

1. Starts with a sudden runny nose that comes out of nowhere. My nose will be runny (and I’m talking SERIOUS, like suddenly grabbing the tissue because if I don’t it’ll run down the front of my face, runny) completely out of the blue. Usually lasts for a day or so. Seriously a huge pain in the ass when trying to sleep.
2. The sneezes arrive about an hour or two after this. Fairly consistent sneezing for hours.
3. After the runny nose stops, I then have a sore throat and coughing for anywhere from 3-4 days to 2 weeks.

That’s about the average run. Often when the cough ends up running long, it ends up lasting FOREVER because I get so used to coughing, that it becomes habit. It’s really irritating. So, that’s what I get to look forward to for the next bunch of days. And we’re supposed to go see the baby this weekend! GRRRR! Well, I’ll just have to be careful about not getting snot all over the cute little thing.

(Baby Ciara having a bit of a lay down)

Tuesday afternoon, Liz’s sister Frances finally had her baby. It feels like she’s been pregnant forever! At 7 pounds, 13 ounces, little Ciara is definitely a healthy weight - but what gets us most is how LONG she is! She’s an absolutely gorgeous baby, and incredibly good thus far… so quiet! I can’t wait till we get to take care of her this weekend! And rest assured, there will be PLENTY more pictures. The baby was less than 12 hours old and I had already taken a big whack of pictures of her!

Any way… congrats to Frances and Mick. The baby is gorgeous, and healthy, and from the looks of things, she’s going to provide a hell of a lot of joy in the coming years.

Ahhh October. It’s really getting much cooler these days, after one of the hottest Irish summers on record (apparently… and by hottest ever, we’re not talking anywhere close to Toronto’s 35-40 temps… more like high 20’s). I shouldn’t really complain, as I’m still able to wear a t-shirt to work (almost) every day without a jacket. We’re still hitting highs in the mid-teens (celsius) every day, and it’s still been mostly sunny every day (except for the torrential rain on Sunday afternoon… but I was sitting at home catching up on Season 2 of Numb3rs… I love that show! Up to episode 10 or so now!). I’ll be looking back on these days with envy come January, when it’s 2-3 degree highs and rainy all day. At least the leaves are still (mostly) around and (mostly) green. The thing is, with the return of autumn, I really expect to be watching me some NFL football, and since I haven’t gotten any, it’s driving me CRAZY! I think I might have to order the Sky Sports package on NTL… yeah, it’s like 23 extra euro a month, but I saw a commercial yesterday for some NFLUK.com production, and I was salivating over the football clips. So, Sky Sports, here I come! And maybe I’ll tack on the Sky Movies pack while I’m at it. Liz and I are always looking for more movies to watch at home, and this makes it a bit easier than downloading them off the net buying dvds.

It’s true. I’ve realized over the last couple weeks that I just like writing code (for those of you who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, I’m not talking Da Vinci Code style codes here… I’m talking computer programming code). Any time there’s been a task that I needed to do on my computer that required any kind of repetition, I’ve found myself zipping into Visual Studio to write up a little application that does what I need. In the past, I would have hunted for hours trying to find a freeware application that would do what I wanted… but suddenly I seem to be a do-it-yourselfer. I guess it’s because every time I go looking for a freeware program (whether it be a file renamer, or an image cropper, or whatever) they always tend to be missing just that one crucial feature that I need! So I finally just started breaking down and writing whatever it was I wanted from scratch. It might not be as time efficient, but at least it does exactly what I want it to, and on top of that it also gives me a sense of accomplishment, albeit a nerdy one.

Liz is off having dinner with her friends tonight, so here’s what I did with a night on my own:

- Drop Liz at the bus
- Go to the gym. Ouch.
- Come home, have giant plate of pasta with cheese. Yum!
- Shave off the 3 week beard that I had let grow up. Yes, I am that lazy. I was supposed to cut my hair tonight too, but couldn’t be arsed.
- Watch 2 episodes from season 2 of Numb3rs. Very good show, wish I had kept up with season 2 so I could watch season 3. Oh well, soon enough.
- Eat 2 peanut butter and honey sandwiches with a glass of milk. I was starving!
- Call my mom to wish her a happy birthday. Happy Birthday, mom!
- Write my daily blog entry. So far so good! I remember back in the day when I would write 5-10 of these posts a day. I’m slackin! I still have to get around to finishing writing up about my trip to Prague and Venice back in August! Ugh!
- Watch another episode of Numb3rs while I wait for Liz to get home. Exciting!

Yeah… so tonight I had my first class of the Photography Course I’m taking (it’s actually pretty basic, perhaps a bit below my skill level but it’ll still be worthwhile I’m sure). It’s down in Dun Laoghaire, which is very pretty at night but apparently kinda rough. I showed up at 6 for my 6:45 course, and popped into McDonald’s for some food. I decided to munch on my food in the car reading my book while I waited for class to start, and sure enough, lost track of time. I grabbed my camera and my phone, jumped out of the car, locked and slammed the door. It wasn’t until I was about 10 steps away that I thought to check that I had my key in my pocket…. d’oh! That’s right. Locked the keys in the car. LUCKILY Liz had her key, and my class is on an accessible bus route… so it meant not too much hassle getting back into the car after class, but god DAMN did I ever feel like an idiot! This is why I like power locks

Oh, and Liz thought it would be SO FUNNY to pretend like she had forgotten the key after coming all the way down to let me into the car. HA HA HA! Grrrr.

Also - last night’s Veronica Mars? SO AWESOME! I love that damn show. Although we were a bit lost for some of it (the Keith/Kendall thing had me a bit confuzzled)

I have to say, I’m absolutely *thrilled* with the start of the TV season. It’s awesome! The summer was a long one, without our regular shows to watch! And this season has started with a TON of great new shows, to boot! Here’s the shows that Liz and I are watching right now, both new and old:

How I Met Your Mother (new to us) - I am LOVING this show! Absolutely fantastic comedy… Liz and I caught up on season 1 last week, and then got started on season 2. Hilarious. Neil Patrick Harris as Barney is a great character, and Jason Segel as Marshall is so funny. Easily one of my favourite shows on TV right now

Grey’s Anatomy - Season 3 has started off pretty good. Although I’m not sure what I think of this whole Meredith/McDreamy/Finn thing. Just pick one of them, dammit!

Desperate Housewives - the season premiere was pretty weak, IMO, but episode 2 of the new season was a bit better. Not really sure what I’m thinking of this one right now

The Class (new) - the latest sitcom from David Crane, one of the creators of Friends. Started off with a dude inviting (only) his third grade class to his fiancee’s surprise birthday party (he first met her in third grade… awww) and she subsequently dumps him. An interesting cast of characters, but I just can’t see how they could keep us interested for more than half a season or so.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (new) - fantastic new show. Lots of promise. From the creator of The West Wing (which I never watched). If you haven’t watched this one, seriously give it a look. Absolutely fantastic show. I’m glad Matthew Perry (always one of my favourites on Friends) ended up in what looks to be a real winner.

Veronica Mars - hasn’t officially started its new season yet (it starts tonight). I am SO excited for this one! Seasons 1 and 2 were brilliant!

Criminal Minds - season 2 started off with a great ending to the cliffhanger season finale from the first season. This is a great little crime show, with great characters and interesting plots (if a bit silly… they catch all these serial killer/insanely hard to catch people in like a day or two? Come on!). Like all the shows that started after I left Canada, I have no idea if this is popular or not at home, so I always worry if it’s going to be cancelled.

Three Moons Over Milford (new, cancelled after 8 episodes) - the moon has been hit by a meteor, and broken into 3 parts that are now orbiting the earth in a decaying orbit. When will they strike? Nobody seems to know! Which leads to lots of crazy behaviour on the part of the citizens from small town Milford. This was a great little show, but it was on ABC Family (???) and started mid-summer, so it never really had a chance. Too bad, too.

America’s Next Top Model - Cycle 6 just started here yesterday. Missed it, but it’s on again tonight. I love me some *NTM (Britain’s Next Top Model just ended here… and the one that won didn’t deserve it, IMO, but whatever; it kicked the crap out of the first season)

The Biggest Loser - I absolutely love this show. I dunno why, but it just has me HOOKED. But it’s hard to find episodes of this for download, unsurprisingly enough.

My Name Is Earl - the second season has been just as good as the first. I’ve always liked Jason Lee, and the rest of the cast is just hilarious as well.

Six Degrees (new) - a great new little drama about the intersecting lives of a bunch of people in New York. Great cast, great scripts (thus far), this show could go far.

CSI (Vegas and Miami) - I really need to catch up on the first bunch of seasons of CSI Miami. The show is fantastic, but for the season premiere I had *no* idea what was going on! CSI Vegas started off with a great two-part premiere… I’ve always loved this show, so nothing new to report on that front

Shows that I plan to catch up on previous seasons of before I watch the new seasons - Boston Legal (caught a couple episodes of season 2 here, this show is actually quite good!), The Office US, Numb3rs (just have to catch up on Season 2, I already saw Season 1 but never got around to watching those S2 eps I downloaded), Las Vegas. That’s a whole lotta TV!

So, what’s everybody else watching?

Listen to Mr T. He’s smart. And a heck of a singer.

(Yes, I’m still alive. I’m aiming to start posting every day from now on. Even if I have nothing interesting to say. Even if it’s just to share a Mr T music video from YouTube).