“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.” — John Keating, Dead [...]
Last Saturday I went along the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition and was once again impressed by the scope and individuality of all the projects at the exhibition. One that particularly caught my eye was this one by James Eggers, measuring the mood of Twitter: My name is James Eggers, Iʼm an Irish student [...]
It’s funny — when I was in America for 3 months, and away from Limerick, the city seems to have upped itself on the cool scale in my absence. Two recent additions to its streets are an old-fashioned sweet shop (which reminded me of Honeydukes from the Harry Potter series) and a milkshake place with [...]
Part of loving writing is loving words, I think. I love finding new words and mentally pledging to use them more often. While Patrick was home, I discovered what are called Garden Path sentences. The name stems from the phrase “to be led down the garden path”, which means “to be misled”. They’re called these [...]
3,000 Americans were surveyed recently about their favourite song for a road trip. The winner was… “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson Interestingly, neither this song nor any of the other contenders are from this decade. Or the last, for that matter, which makes one think whether the survey is representative. It’s a shame [...]
Peavey Plaza is an open square outside the Minnesota Orchestra Hall, just beside where we’re staying in Minneapolis. At this time of year, it’s covered in snow and I even think that they put water in one part of it so people can skate on the ice that forms there. Myself and Dad decided to [...]
I recently started using a book review website called GoodReads. The premise is simple: your profile has 3 shelves — to read, currently reading and read. You add books to the three shelves using their search feature and then people can follow your friends to see the books that they’ve read (and, by extension, rated) [...]
Alternatively titled: “1,100 words on why the Amazon Kindle is freaking amazing” I’ve had my Amazon Kindle a couple of days now and I can honestly say that the move from book to eBook is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The Screen The first that I noticed about the Kindle as I [...]
I was lucky enough to spend a traditional Thanksgiving with a lovely group of people last Thursday. A friend of ours invited us to spend it with some of her family in -wait for it- an 1890s farmhouse! It was nestled near Lake Elmo, a 25 minute drive outside Minneapolis/St. Paul. It was away from [...]
I really enjoyed seeing Idina Menzel with the Minnesota Orchestra last Friday. The veteran Broadway star is known for roles in RENT, Chess and Wicked as well the zany musical comedy Glee: I got the script to join the show and there I am reading it on page 34 and it says, well, first of [...]