macwilmore

Test post

2011-09-08T13:12:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from my iPhone

my neglected blog feels like the green lagoon

2009-03-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

man who writes

2008-10-10T01:27:00.001-07:00

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time. - George Bernard Shaw

reciprocity

2008-07-25T09:16:00.001-07:00

There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters. - Alice Thomas Ellis

neglected.

2008-07-20T06:06:00.001-07:00

this poor blog feels so neglected.

intellectual

2008-06-25T04:04:00.000-07:00

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex. - Aldous Huxley

wise man

2008-05-09T04:04:00.000-07:00

No wise man ever wished to be younger. - Jonathan Swift

best-seller

2008-05-05T14:24:00.001-07:00

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a

2008-04-21T04:43:00.001-07:00

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own

escalator

2008-04-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily

Despair is the armchair (2)

2008-03-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Despair is the armchair

2008-03-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

As you read travel books, you should be able to see the people and places, to hear them, to smell them. Some of it is painful, but travel - its very motion - ought to suggest hope.

old idea

2008-03-19T06:46:00.001-07:00

Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own. - Sidney J. Harris

The greatest challenge

2008-03-15T10:12:00.001-07:00

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. - Bertrand Russell

serious matters

2008-03-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night. - Philip K. Dick

very funny

2008-02-12T02:09:00.000-08:00

2 do.

2008-02-06T03:07:00.000-08:00

Dance like it hurts,/ Love like you need money,/ Work when people are watching.Dance like it hurts,/ Love like you need money,/ Work when people are watching. - Scott Adams

Freezing in New York

2008-02-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

control

2008-01-14T04:41:00.000-08:00

If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough - Mario Andretti

secret of life

2008-01-02T03:47:00.000-08:00

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. - Horace Walpole

from 1936

2007-12-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

funny

2007-12-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

sad song

2007-11-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

came across this on you tube. Reminds me of my youth and misinformed passions. A song for a dark November Dublin evening. Tempted to wallow in simplicity and easy answers. Don't believe in the message any more but still love the voices of Jaon Baez and Steve Earle.

memory

2007-11-03T05:04:00.001-07:00

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person? -

ipod touch day

2007-10-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

thebbbbbtjjjthe ipod is six years old today. and today was the day I gave in and bought an ipod touch which I didn't need. Couldn't resist finding out what the touch screen and new

only the shallow.......

2007-10-21T03:06:00.000-07:00

Only the shallow know themselves.Only the shallow know themselves.- Oscar Wilde

From Here To Eternity

2007-10-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Deborah Kerr died today aged 86. I thought she was older and had died many years ago.

Road to Nowhere

2007-10-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

let the trees grow apples

2007-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

saSaSaw a link to this photo on the FAKE STEVE site. Apart entirely from the fact that this must be a worrying picture for Microsoft, it's even more amazing to me that I can spot only

mind

2007-09-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is

big words

2007-09-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule. - Stephen King I liked this picture in the New York Times this morning. Steve Jobs holding one of the new ipods introduced yesterday. In profile he looks old, like an old man discovering

goodbye Mr Calculator

2007-08-25T12:25:00.001-07:00

In town today I was sad to see a for sale sign on the “Mr Calculator” electronic shop. Once upon a time it was one of the few places to go in Dublin to look at new tech toys. Never cheap, it must have found it impossible to compete with the internet – ironic since it was one of the first places in town you could buy wireless and web devices. The Indian guy who owned it was passionate about

data center

2007-08-24T08:20:00.001-07:00

PC PC world site was down today, had this picture on site down notice. So old and futuristic all at the same time.

maoning ireland

2007-08-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

A phone in show on RTE at the moment with the Joe Duffy stand in talking to people who have decided to leave Ireland. The presenter doing his level best to get the new wild geese talk about how the “quality of life” in Ireland is making them leave but the callers keep talking about wanting to leave because of the bad Summer weather. The show was clearly intended to be another RTE moan about

Seriousness

2007-08-02T07:47:00.001-07:00

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. - Oscar Wilde

beige bath towels

2007-07-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

Nothing says, 'I have no idea what to get you,' quite like giant beige bath towels.Nothing says, 'I have no idea what to get you,' quite like giant beige bath towels. - Missbhavens

Hanif Kureishi on Italy

2007-07-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

aaA fine piece of travel writing in today's Guardian Travel section by Hanif Kureishi. He's writing about being on holiday in the The Grand Hotel Gardone on Lake Garda in Italy.

i think so?

2007-06-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised.Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised. - Marilyn Manson

maybe

2007-06-25T03:38:00.001-07:00

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not

wonder if this is true?

2007-06-17T05:57:00.000-07:00

Gore Vidal talking about Howard Austen, his companion, but not lover, for 53 years. 'It is very easy to sustain a relationship when sex plays no part and impossible when it does.' This satisfies no one of course but there, as Henry James would say, it is.'Another great quote from AA Gill in today's Sunday Times : "It’s only in a city that God really understands how to organise nature." He's talking about cycling by the river in

the who?

2007-04-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

reminds me of 1970s. Still love it.

2007-04-17T06:27:00.001-07:00

the Sopranos in 7.5 minutes!

2007-04-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

LA Stories

2007-04-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

a very good piece by Steve Gillmor about friendship, the 1970s and LA :"LA is somehow feeling more like the 70’s now than in decades. I hated the 70’s at the time; a rough mix of post-Beatle depression and chalky outlines around the body that was the revolution. Thank god the revolution was over, but thirty years to wait for the wisdom that comes from enough mistakes to convince you of your own

a poem for spring

2007-03-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

Talking Sense?

2007-03-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

Prospect magazine asks people what will replace the left/right agenda. I liked this reply by Rudi Bogni:"Left vs right was and is purely a nominal distinction between two strands of the same totalitarian posture. The real problem of the 20th century was that the demographic and economic pressures that fractured the empires gave rise to national states with leaderships ill equipped to face the

favourite clip from a favourite film

2007-03-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

12 good things about 2007 #10

2007-03-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

just finished watching the movie THE LIVES OF OTHERS. I know its early in the year, but I'll be surprised if I see a better movie this year.

12 Good things about 2007, # 11

2007-02-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

AA Gill's food column in the Sunday Times Style magazine. Today he is writing about bores. Here's an excerpt , you can read the whole thing here:"There was a time when numberless bores strode the earth. They were famous, fascinating and feared. Hostesses would use them to punish rivals. They were pitted against one another in great buttoned-leather, port-fuelled, fireside bore-offs,

Alice Munro

2007-02-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

Just finished listening to “The View from Castle Rock” by Alice Munro. A very satisfying book, its Southern Ontario Gothic perfect for a foggy Februaury Dublin Sunday!. Something beautiful and “woven” about the writing and the feelings it evokes of place ,time and memory.

hotel california

2007-01-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

I’ve watched more TV this past Christmas than I have in a long time. All thanks to BBC 4. Already a long time BBC Radio 4 junkie, it now seems that the TV version has me hooked as well. Well, maybe just for those nights when there’s nothing good on the internet. I’ve just finished watching a good documentary on California and the way folk/rock music based itself in LA in the mid 1960s.

12 Good Things about 2007 , # 12

2007-01-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

Leo Enright, as stand in presenter on RTE Radio's Drivetime programme. He's become one of those floating broadcasters, slotted in when the regular presenter is on holiday. I always thought he had a great radio voice, the right mixture of excitement and authority. He is of course forever associated in my mind with his commentaries on space travel on RTE going back to the days of the Apollo

I'm Spiderman (and 75% catwoman

2006-12-30T06:01:00.000-08:00

Just took an online test to find out which superhero I must resemble! Here’s the result: You are Spider-Man Spider-Man 85% Catwoman 75% Robin

Christmas Day

2006-12-25T04:05:00.000-08:00

The day is overcast, misty, very Irish Christmas day feel to it. Everywhere round here as quiet as a bell, apart from the actual Christchurch bells that rang out for mass a few hours ago. Listened to a few tracks from an album by a young singer songwriter called Fionn Regan. He has a great way with words. Full of that honest intensity that comes with youth. It can sometimes be misguided but it’s

moving hearts

2006-12-21T13:08:00.000-08:00

Putting old records onto my ipod. Strange to listen to them again. Wasn’t sure I wanted “Moving Hearts”, as my own heart (or mind) would be far removed from it now. But as I listen to it , I’m transported back to the 1980s in Dublin. To youth, naivety and all of the longings of one’s twenties and thirties. (Though I never did agree with any of that "irish ways and irish laws" stuff even when I

Dublin Fog

2006-12-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

A cold foggy day in Dublin. Took this picture with my phone. Didn’t really capture what I saw. The 2mp camera of my Sony 990 phone didn’t really capture enough low light detail. Still, it reminds me of those smoggy Dublin 1950s photos. Very Christmassy day in town, fog a good second best to snow.

Radio Times

2006-12-14T03:51:00.000-08:00

I bought the Christmas edition of the Radio Times yesterday. I’ve been buying it for years along with the RTE Guide , though in recent years I’ve dropped the Guide realizing at last that I now make little use of either magazine. So I have an important question for you this dark wet morning. What’s the future for “bumper TV guides to your holiday viewing” in the age of utube? They sell in great

what came out of the fallout shelter

2006-12-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

A very good piece by Bruce Sterling on Wired site about the Web, and the future. I've always been an optimist, and the older I get the more optimistic I get. Which is why I like pieces like this. I especially liked this sentence:"The Internet, for instance, crawled out of a dank atomic fallout shelter to become the Mardi Gras parade of my generation. It was not a bolt of destructive lightning;

Alone this Christmas?

2006-12-12T04:51:00.000-08:00

So here's an interesting news item from All HeadlineNewsDutch Company To Bring Guests To Your Christmas Dinner With DVDJoanna Wypior - All Headline News Staff London, England (AHN) - For those that worry they might eat their Christmas dinner alone this year, they now have reason to fear no more. Courtesy of a Dutch art company, a new DVD will allow a lonesome dinner to become one full of holiday

a book is not just for Christmas....

2006-12-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

AA Gill’s ramblings and musings are usually the best bits of his Sunday Times restaurant reviews. Yesterday he was writing about the real reason we like to give books as Christmas presents.“This is the time of year when, traditionally, we indulge in things bookly and literish. We fret the bookmonger’s groaning board like word-starved waifs confronted by a logoscrumptious buffet. And we give

Moon Base

2006-12-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, it was reported that “The space agency Nasa unveiled plans to build a permanent base on the moon within 20 years that will allow humans to live there. The base will be used as a launching site for missions to Mars, as well as for analysis of the Earth from space.” That’s the most positive public statement I have heard so far this century. Make it so. On more mundane technological

New Phone

2006-12-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

Not much got done today. Got my new phone, the Sony Ericsson P990i. Bleary eyed reading reviews about it for the past week, a lot of them negative. But it’s the only phone that has everything I need at the moment and doesn’t look like a brick. The problems people are having with it seem to be almost all to do with the software. SE are supposed to be releasing a new software upgrade soon – so I’m

that was then

2006-10-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

As part of its ten year on air celebrations, TG4 is running a poll to get people to nominate favourite ads from the past decade. This one gets my vote. Strange to look at it now from this perspective knowing what happened to our Eircom shares. Still, for those of us still hanging in there, Vodafone might come through one of the days – if they ever come up with some forward looking 21st

a plea from afar.......

2006-09-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

Most junk e-mail doesn’t linger in the mind. Cheap Viagra, magical penis enlargement and surprise lotto winnings are trashy hard sell that most spam filters pick up easily. Letters from distraught relatives of a former African princes or presidents is also pretty common but far more colourful. In broken English full of promises and desperation, some of them are like a snippet from some unknown

Golf

2006-09-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

Never in my wildest dreams thought I’d write a single word about golf. The Ryder Cup was held in the K club in County Kildare over the past weekend and the hype made me look in. And I stayed to look a lot longer than I thought I would. I was struck by the artificial beauty of the K Club golf course. It kept reminding me of the set for the toddler TV show “Tellytubbies” that was popular some

end of story?

2006-08-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

A thoughtful, if depressing, interview with Michael Tolkin in today's New York Times. He thinks the best days of Hollywood (and American screen stories) are behind us. I hope he's wrong."I don’t think America’s had a good movie made since Abu Ghraib,” Mr. Tolkin said, before clarifying that he’s talking about big movies, not the minuscule ones that have met the industry’s quotas for

the new Bewleys?

2006-08-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

Upstairs in Easons O Connell Street Dublin is now a very comfortable place to have a cup of something and a read of the paper. Reminds me a bit of what we used Bewleys for all those years ago. On a corner wall there is a large LCD screen showing a silent SKY NEWS with the text button on. It’s strangely calming despite the alarming images it often shows.

Phones

2006-08-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

I’ve been waiting patiently for Vodaphone Ireland to release the Nokia e70. It was due last June but was delayed because of problems “testing the software” Now, they finally say it will be released on contract by the end of August – or maybe September. I check out the Vodaphone UK site and see that the E70 is up there for a good while, you can even get it free with some of the higher tariffs.

Page 69

2006-08-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

In the “Guardian” today, John Sutherland gives advice on “how to read a novel” His most interesting tip is borrowed from Marshall McLuhan who recommended “ that the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book.” According to Sutherland, this works. Must try it.

restlessness

2006-08-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else feel a sense of restlessness in the air? I feel this in Dublin at the moment. People in transit. I wonder how many of the people who have arrived here in the past few years will settle and stay? So many of them talk about “home”, and that home isn’t here. Then again, we were the same in Britain and America, always talking and singing about home but staying where we sailed to.

JPod

2006-07-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

midsummer eve

2006-06-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

John Caple b.1966Dancing in Moonlight, Midsummer's Eve Somersetdark and gloomy midsummer eve here in Dublin, more like November at the moment. Please don't say we've had our Summer and that from now on the days start getting shorter!

moonrise

2006-06-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

Still bright at 10 clock. A few evenings ago I took a picture of the moon rising over Dublin. It remained me of the Ansel Adams photo “Moonrise Over Hernandez, New Mexico 1941. Years ago, I bought a copy of it when I lived for a time in New Mexico. I had it on my wall for a very long time. Then I began to realize that it was a bit of a cliché to have it on your wall. So when I moved house

United 93

2006-06-08T15:16:00.001-07:00

It’s the end of a fine hot day in Dublin. I went to see “United 93”, the Paul Greengrass movie about 9/11. It was very hard to watch, although it was extremely well done. I kept looking at the people sitting around me. There we were, a coincidental group gathered together by chance and by the fact that we all decided independently to go see this movie on a hot June evening. I’ve always

Surprise

2006-05-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

Listening a lot at the moment to the new CD from Paul Simon. It's very good. Something great about the fact that someone older than me can still come up with the goods! Makes me feel things are still possible. Brings me back and forward too.

mistakes

2006-05-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

macho greens

2006-05-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

There was something a little bit creepy about Green Party TD John Gormley’s jeering about Bertie’s Ahern’s make up in the Dail today. His “queen of Drumcondra” jibe wasn’t one bit funny. He sounded like some sort of green macho boot boy, especially when he started on about DeValera turning in his grave at the thought of all this. For all their talk about equality there always was this ugly

Good Advice

2006-05-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

came across this list on Hugh Mcleod's site:So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years: 1. Ignore everybody. 2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world. 3. Put the hours in. 4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. 5.

Better dead than............?

2006-05-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

the arresting Damien Hirst designed front page of today's London Independent newspaper. Edited by Bono.

the minister for snow

2006-05-13T02:38:00.000-07:00

Michael O Leary, former Irish government minister is dead at 70. “drowned in a swimming pool yesterday evening, and is to be buried in France” says the reports. Its strange , or maybe it isn’t, how certain politicians bring to mind stages in our lives. For me, Micheal O Leary is the early 1980s when I was a young man just about to move to Dublin. He is the “minister for snow” in the first months

Cybersexual Losers ?

2006-05-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

a good piece in WIRED about The Myth of Cybersexual Losers

to blog or not to blog

2006-04-29T03:34:00.000-07:00

in my continuing search for a reason for blogging I have come across another "anti" piece in the FT today. Not sure if I agree with a lot of it but I do love the images created in this last paragraph:"And that, in the end, is the dismal fate of blogging: it renders the word even more evanescent than journalism; yoked, as bloggers are, to the unending cycle of news and the need to post four or

After the fall

2006-04-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Bulldozers rumbled into a giant pit on Thursday to begin building a new skyscraper to replace the World Trade Center in an act New York's governor said symbolized the city's comeback from the September 11 attacks."

and another one bites the dust!

2006-04-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

And here’s another person who is giving up blogging! Sarah Helpola writing in Salon says : One morning last month, I woke early, finished a book I'd been reading, and shut down my blog. I had kept the blog for nearly five years, using it as a repository for personal anecdotes, travelogues, and the occasional flight of fiction—all of which I hoped, eventually, might lead to a novel. And then,

end of a blog

2006-04-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Russell Beattie whose blog I used to read, posted this today : Well, I think it's time to put this weblog to bed.Yep, after four years and almost 3,000 posts I've decided to close up the Notebook. There's lots of reasons, but generally this is a continuation of the full-reset I started back in January. At first I was actually thinking about just transitioning to a more of a weekly blog where I

don't bring the boys into town....

2006-04-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

I took this picture on the LUAS on my way to Easter Sunday dinner at my sister's house yesterday. A poster of the 1916 proclamation advertising an exhibition in the national museum. I watched part of the 1916 commemoration ceremony on the TV in the kitchen while the dinner was cooking. And here’s the weird thing, I found something moving about the lines of tanks and soldiers walking up O

food for thought

2006-04-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

I found this piece in today's New York Times strange, mildly disturbing and I have to admit full of wonder in the way that a good sci-fi plot fills me with wonder : The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order By MATT RICHTEL SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Like many American teenagers, Julissa Vargas, 17, has a minimum-wage job in the fast-food industry — but hers has an unusual geographic

interesting thought....

2006-04-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

interesting line on Dave's Wordpress Blog:"You need a village to raise a child, and you need an Internet to fully develop an idea."not sure if either idea is fully true?

New York Times

2006-04-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Great redesign job on the New York Times web site

John McGahern

2006-03-30T09:02:00.001-08:00

Sad to hear that the Irish writer John McGahern has just died.

Transamerica

2006-03-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

Went to see the film “Transamerica” yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. A lot more than I thought I would to be honest. Listened a bit too much to the people who talked about the movie in terms of its calculated storyline. This film had humor and heart - and yes it has to be said a good dollop of Hollywood story archery. But it did its job and told its story well, made you feel it. Interesting too

life on earth

2006-03-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

just read this item, which puts us , our worries and our short little time spans in perspective: KOLKATA, India -- A giant aldabra tortoise thought to be around 250 years old has died in the Kolkata zoo of liver failure, authorities said on Thursday. The tortoise had been the pet of Robert Clive, the famous British military officer in colonial India around the middle of the 18th century, a