Lately I have been spending more and more time gambling, I know its a horrible habit to have picked up. But it can provide hours of entertainment. There are two casino's here in Cork and I spend roughly 2 hours a week in this one called the Victoria Gaming Room. I play with about 10 Euro at a time, and altogether so far I think I have only lost about 5 Euro in 3 weeks. I generally play roulette and walk out up 5 more euro than I came in with. This past Sunday was the exception, I put in a 20 and I lost it all in about and hour.
I was tempted to play roulette in Las Vegas when I was there last January, but something about the atmosphere around those tables there scared me. It's probably a good thing that I didn't play there however, because I might have gotten addicted alot sooner.
Gambling actually teaches some really important lessons about everyday life, well atleast I think so anyway.
For example when you are you up you never think about being down, and when you are down all you think about are the times when you were up.  ¶ 7:24 AM

 
Surprisingly I have been able to practice alot of my French while living here in Ireland. It seems like everyday now I am meeting more French citizens who have made the move over to Ireland. It seems that word of the Irish economic boom which they refer to as the Celtic Tiger, has spread everywhere. Eastern Europeans are the largest minority group in Ireland at the moment, mainly Polish and Lithuanians, and behind them are the French. I think I could become conversational in French if I stayed here long enough.
In two weeks my Irish work visa is up, and I think I'll be taking a trip to Blackpool to visit my cousins for a few days. Last time I was in Blackpool was about 6 years ago and I went on the fastest and tallest roller coaster in Europe the Pepsi Max Big One. Poland is out by the way!!!  ¶ 9:36 AM

  In the past week, there have been a couple of new developments which may involve me making a trip to Poland in the next month. The interesting part is that I might be coming back to Ireland with a wife. I don't really want to go into detail about it, because I believe all of it is highly illegal, so on that note I'm ending the topic.  ¶ 9:01 AM

 

Happy New Year! 2006 has come and gone. I have to say that it was the best year of my life. Never did I imagine I would do so much traveling in the same calendar year. This time last year I was in sunny Las Vegas with Jeff B. and Andy, and sulking over how all my money was lost, then later that same day University of Texas helped me earn a big chunk of money by beating USC. I actually only bet on Texas because Brad talked about them on the phone with me earlier in the week.
From that point early in the year, I find myself nowin Cork city in the Republic of Ireland having been on about 8 plane trips in between that time. Minnesota in February, San Diego, California in May, Austin, Texas in June, Chicago in July, and England twice this year as well. Bloody hell some people don't even get to do that in there entire lifetimes.
The best thing about 2006 however has to be the aquisition of love in my life. I highly doubt 2007 can top 2006, but we have 12 months to find out, stay tuned...  ¶ 10:22 AM