Trust Tommy

Released in 1985, Take On Me is a synth-pop number from the band’s first album Hunting High and Low.

The song reached poll position on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985, thanks in no small part to the wide exposure its music video got (see YouTube video above).

The video features the band in a pencil-sketch/live-action combination called retrospecting.

Great song really — much better than some of the stuff out today.

There’s nothing like a Friday evening to get you in a really good mood. It was a reasonably good day down in Limerick here — not quite tshirt-and-shorts weather but it wasn’t pelting down. We even saw the sun for a while during the day! Mum’s right — Spring is here.

People talk about how their life dream is to achieve happiness.

They’re trying too hard.

Happiness isn’t some tiny dot on the horizon – it’s an every day thing attainable by all. Seriously, don’t be afraid to be happy. Or rather, recognize the fact that it’s possible to actually be happy in every day circumstances.

Photo owned by Daquella manera (cc)

I’ve been given a wheelchair for the period I’m in a cast for maneuvering through the school, which even I must admit makes some sense. There are 1,200 students at my school and the corridors at lunch breaks are quite hectic – I don’t know how anyone manages, actually.

I took it for a spin in school earlier today to get a feel for the ‘chair around the corridors. Whatever about my legs getting weak, my upper arms will be like rocks by the end of the 6 weeks. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a wheelchair so I’m relearning some old tricks I used to know.

I’m not talking about anything so drastic as wheelies but I totally had developed some knacks for turning corridors without stopping, turning 180 degrees and going through narrow doors (backwards, and then you use your hands to push yourself through). I’ve also dug up some gloves from the utility room which should stop my hands getting ripped to shreds.

I kind of mind having to use the wheelchair because it’s so annoying and intrusive. Then again, you know what else is annoying and intrusive?

Slipping somewhere, breaking your leg and winding up in hospital for a few weeks.

I think the wheelchair, therefore, is a good idea and I’ll definitely be using it.

Especially if it does what it’s supposed to — allow me to sleep the whole night through without waking up in pain. I miss sleeping well. The cast’s been on a week today and so far I’ve had one night of not-bad sleep. That night, I went to bed at 4am – not something I can really continue doing when I’ve school at 08.30 the next morning, is it?

Photo owned by Rev Stan (cc)

One of my earliest memories is John teaching me how a rook moves. I think that I’ve known how to play Chess for maybe 8-odd years. I measured how much I was improving by how easily (if at all) I could beat family members. After a couple of years, late one night into one of our chess marathons; I managed to beat John. After that I started playing Dad until I could beat him. I couldn’t (and still can’t) beat Patrick. Mum didn’t play chess.

Then again, just because you beat someone doesn’t make you better them. Ssshhh, 8-year-old me didn’t know that.

I was on the chess team in my primary school, playing board #4 and sometimes 3. We got to the finals at least one of my two years of playing, if my memory is right. I also played in Limerick mini-competitions throughout the years, even into secondary school.

The main flaw in my playing style was (and still is) the fact that I move too quickly, without looking at other options, often missing opportunities or dangers which would cost me dearly. I’ve tried to fix that as I’ve grown older. Patience in all avenues of life was always an issue, but I survive :)

So many people ask what the appeal of chess is. I think it’s quite simple actually. It’s actually kinda relaxing. Maybe it’s the atmosphere of quietness and being reserved during matches. You settle down and focus on your pieces. You become a general in charge of your forces as you lead them into an epic war against the other player.

Yeah, totally relaxing!

Anyone else got any chess-related anecdotes?

Last weekend, I went to Wexford to see some friends. It’s not somewhere I go very often but it’s a lovely place when the weather’s right (isn’t everywhere?) and I thoroughly enjoyed my short time there.

I was there to see Orla and Áine, and while we were all together we decided to see County Wexford Youth Theatre’s production of rock opera RENT.

How was it?

Simply put, phenomenal.

After seeing it in America back in November, one would think that the original cast would trump all. Like a friend put it, why go see a Rolling Stones cover band after seeing Jagger live?

Because sometimes Alan McHale (Mark in this production) can better Mick Jagger… or Anthony Rapp (original Mark on Broadway) as the case may be.

Everything about this production oozed perfection. The leads brought freshness to their roles without neglecting core aspects of their characters while the ensemble were a mighty engine roaring behind them and supporting the entire show from Tune Up #1 right through to Finale B.

The crew must also be commended for their part in the awesomeness too. The stage was magnificent — the metal structure-cum-christmas-tree-cum-church-steeple was an excellently put together piece of scenery that jumped out at everyone the moment they walked into the theatre.

The band also get major kudos. The drummer in Providence had a screwup caused by either overeagerness or simple sound problems which caused him to be louder than everything else, leading to the vocals in songs like Out Tonight and What You Own to not so much be drowned out as obliterated in a cataclysmic explosion. Guitarists and keyboardists in the Wexford production were fantastic too, as well as the little mentioned operator of the sleigh bells during Christmas Bells. :)

Finally, special brownie points go to whoever controlled the lights during the show. Truly spectacular things were done with those lights, including during Seasons of Love as you can see in the picture.

The show’s going to be in the Cork Opera House from 3-6 March, and I wholeheartedly recommend going to see it. Tickets available here from €21.

Last week, Adobe Photoshop celebrated its 20th birthday. Its huge status in the computer world can be measured in numerous ways; the fact that it’s the second most pirated piece of computer software in the world (Microsoft Windows XP comes first, if you’re interested), the fact that the verb ‘to photoshop something’ is now used in popular culture. I think, though, the biggest effect that it’s had is the simple fact that we can no longer believe what we see.

This photo flew between people’s email inboxes around 2002, when Photoshop was as out-of-the-mainstream as it’s possible to be. It was used by advertisers and hardcore computer geeks, in a time when home computers were still relatively new.

It sent the (at that time quite small) internet into a flurry — ‘you think you’re having a bad day at work?’ was the caption attached in the subject line of emails. Then, someone pointed out that great white sharks (like that in the picture) hadn’t been seen around the San Francisco Bay area (see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background?) since the 1960s. It soon transpired that the photo that was doing the rounds was actually two photos, one on top of the other. The helicopter had indeed been in California, but the shark had been in (ironically named) False Bay, South Africa.. but what’s 10,265 miles (16,519.9162 kilometers) between friends?

Photo manipulation is as old as photography itself and it’s not just used for sensationalism. It was popular with political figures for removing characters unpopular after the photo had been taken.

In the photo on the left, Stalin is accompanied by Nikolai Yezhov — he worked in the political system rising in 1934 to the Central Committee of the Communist Party; in the next year he became a secretary of the Central Committee.

He became an enemy of the State and was erased from Soviet history after leading the failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing bureaucratization of the Soviet Union.

After he fell from power, he was arrested, shot and his image removed by censors.

The rise of photo manipulation means that it’s very difficult to tell whether the photo is, for the want of a better phrase: ‘being truthful’. Was that person always there? Were there others? Was that crowd enlarged? We can no longer be certain of any of this.

For clarity, photo editing isn’t removing people or showing a shark attacking a helicopter — removing red-eye and other small actions would still come under the umbrella term of ‘edits’.

Is it right?

I can’t say for definite. I think that it largely depends on your motive. Cutting out a person because he’s fallen out of some dictator’s good books isn’t as bad as removing creepy red-eyes from your holiday snaps. Then again, it’s a slippery slope. From red eye it’s not a big jump to removing a stray mole or hair. There are only baby steps between them.

Quoting from a recent magazine article:

A guy I know was a journalist back in the 80s. He once interviewed Margaret Thatcher and afterwards, he asked if he could get a quick picture with her. She consented and it now hangs in my friend’s kitchen. He told me how people who come to the house and see the picture often commend his Photoshop skills — ‘how’d ya get a picture like that?’ they ask. The idea that the picture is actually genuine seems to be far from a lot of people’s minds.

Is this the future?

This week’s song is Some Devil by Dave Matthews. Simple guitaring and haunting vocals are epic.

Spent the weekend with friends in Wexford. Saw RENT and generally had an absolutely fantastic weekend. Review of the show shall follow in the next few days.

Despite agreeing with some of the points he makes about religion, I’ve never liked Richard Dawkins. Not only does he force his beliefs on others, he does in such an annoyingly smug manner that I don’t see why or how anyone stands him.

Why am I blogging this interview? Well it seems to be an exception — to me, he seems a lot calmer in this interview than others. More ‘these are my beliefs’ instead of ‘these are my beliefs, they’re right and you’re all fools for thinking anything different’.

Do you remember I explained how Foursquare worked earlier this month?

It’s come under fire from a new website for the (supposed) burgling opportunities it provides — PleaseRobMe searches Twitter for tweets containing containing FourSquare checkin information (you can give FourSquare to automatically publish a tweet when you log in somewhere) and it takes it that since you’re out and about, burglars can take advantage of that fact and rob you.

Two assumptions are made here:

#1 – That where you live is in the public domain. I blog a lot but my house location isn’t online. I haven’t added it as a FourSquare location (I’m not that insecure that I need to be mayor of my own abode) either. So just because someone might know I’m not at home when I tweet “En route to Dublin” or someone sees I checked into Cappagh Hospital.

#2 – That when I’m not at home, the house is empty, which is not always true.

The whole debate of ‘will FourSquare get my house robbed?’ is more a bigger question on the pros and cons of location sharing in general. Your location is sensitive information and people should be careful with who and when they share it.

Don’t forget that FourSquare is different to Twitter in that you need to be friends with someone to see their checkins — and for that they need to be approved. Also, if I wanted to go to La Cucina for some rocky road goodness in secret, I could choose ‘no’ when it asks me if I want to share the location of the place I’m checking into with my friends. That way, I still get the points and whatnot but all my friends see is “Tommy C checked in @ [off the grid]” instead of “Tommy C checked in @ La Cucina” and the Rocky Roads stay secret :)

6am starts have never been, are not and never will be welcomed in TommyLand. If I could pay money to never have to be woken early, I would.

I was awake that early because I was due in Cappagh Hospital at 9am for surgery. The car journey up passed in a haze of trying to sync videos to my iPhone and listening to music.

We arrived into the hospital around 08:45 and were shown to the day ward where we waited for the surgeon to call me. I changed into their hospital gown and passed the time watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (about halfway through now — very good movie) At about 11:20, I was called by the nurse. In true House style, I was brought down to the OR on a gurney. Not at speed though and not while Foreman, Chase, Cameron, Thirteen, Kutner or Taub briefed me about my condition. Hrrmph.

I waited outside the OR for a moment and slipped off my shoes and socks. Then it was time to go in. I was due to get cortisone injections into the patella tendon to relieve pain. I’d also have that leg put in a cast to prevent me from using it too much in the weeks following the injections.

The injections themselves made me really nauseous for a few minutes until one of the nurses brought me a glass of water, then it subsided. Apart from that, I’d no ill effects. I was wheeled back to the ward where I had some bread and jam and got dressed. After that it was learning what was the most effective hobbling method on the two crutches.

I slept a bit on the way down from Dublin (am home now) which was nice and should reset my body clock somewhat. I have all of tomorrow to get used to the cast and then it’s Wexford for the weekend! Seriously looking forward to that.

The cast is for 6 week and extends from mid-thigh to ankle. I can still wear the same clothes and shoes while it’s on, which is handy.

I’m going to miss drumming for 6 weeks. :( Although I do have a solution in mind it’s a bit of a pipe dream. It involves double bass pedals and bricks.

Shall also miss swimming, but that’s harder to work around.