Yay Iowa!

Well, I've got to say that I'm quite happy with the way the political landscape is shaping up for Barack Obama back in the U.S. of A. I'm really excited that he's got the lead in the Democratic Party for now anyway, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, the political landscape in Pakistan is uncertain, as I'm sure you are all aware by now of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and the ongoing investigation surrounding her death.

A much larger concern to me personally, though, and Cara, is the unstable political situation in Kenya. She is still, as far as we know, scheduled to travel to Nairobi, Kenya on a zoological trip for her masters degree program with Trinity College here in Dublin, in April or May. No word on whether the trip is still on has been received, but I'm worried a bit for her safety, unless the situation calms down considerably by that point, and neither of us is sure whether the tickets for said trip have been booked yet or not, etc. At any rate, I'm sure it will all work out in the end, but naturally, we're keeping an eye on the situation anyway.

I think tomorrow though, we'll be checking out the exhibit on the northwestern European bog bodies at the National History Museum in Dublin, as an interesting learning opportunity, and a hopefully cheap touristy thing for us to do.

Everyone Should

Everyone should hate cPanel as much as I do. Of course I am kidding. cPanel is not so bad, but configuring it to work with the outside world, exim, and of course, my custom server configuration is proving to be more of a pain than I thought it would be. At any rate, I hope life is treating you all as well as it is me.

I'm really enjoying it here with Cara, and today, even though she's been suffering through a cold the last day or two, we are finally getting into the swing of the new year. I'm working, she's studying, and we've moved the breakfast table near the front window of our place, so that we have a nice, well-lighted place to set up our work and laptops near the electrical sockets that we can access easily. Also, it's a good spot for our wireless broadband, as the window is much more transparent to radio waves than the wall! :)

I've been trying to learn more about Ireland's history and politics as well. Watched the tail of an interesting documentary about Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, the DUP, and Sinn Fein last night right before bed. It was interesting to see how seemingly humble these men have become since The Troubles (Irish popular reference to the terrorist war between loyalists to the British Crown, and Republican fighters on the Irish Nationalist side) have mostly gone by the wayside.

As a side note, while I do appreciate the lack of commercials in TV shows here as compared to the U.S., it is a little harder to get a bathroom break, and of course if you start watching something in the middle, it's a little more difficult to see what show you're watching, as it's sometimes not really mentioned unless there's a break, or it's the end of the show.

At any rate, got a couple pieces of mail from the States today-- Chris & Leslie's Christmas letter was a much appreciated bit of Christmas cheer, as was Kenna and Bryan's nice card, with a very Snowy-like dog on the front... :D

Back to work, I suppose, but stay tuned for more posts...

Well, I'm swell!

So, I'm living in Ireland! This is pretty great, I must say. I am so thankful for everything that has happened in recent past, as I have an ideal situation employment-wise for transitioning myself to a new country, a really supportive family (thanks much to all my family for your help, love, and support through the last year and a half, especially considering the rough patches I've been through), a really supportive, beautiful, sweet, and cool girlfriend, and lots of new things to see and experience. Christmas was wonderful, and I have had the pleasure of seeing commonalities between my own past Christmases and childhood, life in general, and the subtle, interesting, and ultimately, insofar as human relationships are concerned, unimportant cultural differences between Cara's and my life to this point. I welcome the challenges involved in my visa acquisition, job hunt, etc. as simply waves to be ridden and learned from.


At any rate, I'm really excited to show images of my experience to people, and I'm excited by the artistic inspiration that I'll get from being in a new place. I'm also excited by the prospect of getting a computer and/or film/TV related job in Dublin, my new home.


So far, I've been here for just over a week, and have gotten try riding in cars driven on the left side of the road, eaten Irish sausages, white puddings, plum pudding (and in lieu of flaming brandy, flaming whiskey on top), Irish bacon, and had hot port to drink, among other things. And I love all of it! I feel very at home here. Cara has done loads to make me feel welcome, as has her family, all of whom are very nice and interesting people. As a result of all of this, and as a natural byproduct of it being the Christmas season as well, I have a number of pictures that I'll be putting up on Flickr, for all to see, and I'll be adding posts here, hopefully on at least a semi-regular basis, as I think about culture, art, programming, life, and politics (American, Irish, and international).


At any rate, I hope anyone reading this finds my posts interesting, but at the least, they will be a creative outlet for me, which will be healthy for me, and I hope for anyone else reading as well!


Last but not least, for now, here's a pic of Bono that I took at the races at Leopardstown racetrack on St. Stephen's Day (day after Christmas, though most Irish people so far refer to it simply as "Stephen's Day") for any U2 fans reading this. More photos will be on Flickr, but I thought I'd throw this one in for fun on the blog, as I'll be doing the Flickr thing later.

Hmmm...

What should I write, I wonder? I will need to come up with some things to write fairly soon...