Tommy Collison

Today saw me getting up quite early (there’s an 8am? On a Saturday?) because I wanted to head down to Cork to meet everyone who was going to the third Bar Camp. It’s basically a meetup of geeks and tech folks, some of whom are giving talks. I never actually got to any of the talks, but I happily socialized with different people.

The event was starting in and around 10am, so I aimed to be getting up about 8:20, which meant I’d have a leisurely perusal of RSS over breakfast. I had it all planned out in my head, like some scene from a movie, and it was going to be perfect. However, as happens all too often, I screwed up and the actual morning was nothing like what I wanted it to be like. To add insult to injury, it was such a stupid reason too. I kinda might’ve forgot to set an alarm… *sheepish expression*

So what actually happened this morning was a haphazard getting ready, having been woken by Dad at 8:40. We arrived into Cork around 10:15, where Mom and Dad dropped me off at the Cork International Airport Hotel. There, I met Enda and James, which was awesome.

At 14:30, after spending my time moseying around, talking with different people, being annoyed by how cold it was and taking advantage of the free sandwiches, Dad collected me and dropped me at City Hall so I could check out the Discovery Exhibition taking place.

It was a very cool exhibition, crucially with not too much stuff in it. Enough stuff to get around, like. The coolest thing I found was the mind power display. You sat down with someone opposite you, and put on a headband with some funky electronic gizmos that control the ball on the table. The main of the game is to relax, because this causes the electrodes to pick up whatever it is they’re looking for, and this moves the ball away from you toward you’re opposition’s goal line. I was the master of calm and the ball flew down the field. It’s a very cool game because you can’t do anything to win – the opposite in fact.

Highlights of the day include using an army bomb disposal unit to pick up a balloon and also, this: