We had a pretty amazing halloween party on saturday night, which was also my be-lated birthday party. I don't have pictures of my costume uploaed yet, but I will post one as soon as I can get it off someone's camera. I was dressed as a vampire, and I must say it was a pretty good costume. I had wanted to dress as a vampire for years, and I think the only reason I never did was because my parents were never big on the idea of halloween, so I've had a handful of costumes my entire life.

The Red Sox won the world series last night, which is vastly disappointing considering they are suppose to a snake bitten franchise. I liked it alot better when Red Sox fans were miserable, and suicidal. It gave me great joy to know that Mets fans weren't alone in our misery. Now I can no longer class the Red Sox and Mets together as rivals of the New York Yankees. The Red Sox are now a step and half above the Mets. This world series title brings there total to 7 in the history of the franchise, and something tells me they will get alot closer to that 26, that the Yankees have in the near future.  ¶ 1:02 PM

  Have you ever had a bad day for no particular reason at all? I'm having one of those days today. I woke up in a bad mood and it has followed me to work, where I just don't have the motivation to do anything meaningful.
While we are on the subject of work, I guess I should tell you all the latest news. A few weeks ago the director of the company I work for proposed an idea to me in a one on one meeting we had. Her company has been really successful so far in Cork City, but she is thinking about franchising the name as a brand. Having people emulate exactly what she has done here in various cities all over Europe. This is largely the way that McDonald's became such a popular chain all over the world. It worked for them because they had a product that was always going to get people to come back. I'm not so certain that in the other case we have a product that is totally necessary.
In any case she has asked me to be a part of the first one in Limerick, where I would be stationed alone and asked to do everything that they do in the Cork office on a smaller scale.
I thought about it for 2 weeks, and then we had another meeting where I was suppose to give her my answer. I said yes that I would be willing to embark on this adventure, as long as she realized that I would much rather be going to Dublin to do the samething. She has taken that into consideration and we worked out a deal where if I go to Limerick and within a 6 month period things are working reasonably well, I will be able to do the samething in Dublin. By saying yes I realized that I was rolling the dice on alot of things, because the cons of this whole thing out-weigh the pros by alot.
We had our first meeting regarding operation Limerick a few days ago and I am having serious second thoughts about the whole thing. I don't want to back out of it now, because if I turn down this offer now I might remain stagnant in my job for a long time, whereas if I am successful my bartering power increases 10 fold. I have alot more thinking to do, but I'm going to take the optomistic view of things for a change.  ¶ 7:46 AM

 
It might seem like I am always talking about sports these days, and thats probably because there is so much crazy things happening. The Boston Red Sox are back in the World Series. I'm not exactly thrilled about this, but I figure the team I cheer for usually loses, so I'm giving them 100 percent of my praise.
The Rugby World Cup is over and South Africa beat England in the final. I was a bit sad that England didn't repeat, but when it comes to winning a World Cup you only really need to win one to prove yourself, where as in baseball and basketball it seems as if it doesn't become relevant until you pull off multiple championships within a few years time. For that I am happy that England won the 2003 RWC, and I'm sad that the New England Patriots have to dominate teams the way they are in order to finally get their respect.
Enough about sports, last friday was my 24th birthday. I feel like 24 can't possibly be better to me than 23 was, so it will be a bit of a down year unless I somehow win the lottery and become a multi-millionaire. Having said that, friday night was an excellent night, I went to a party in Clancy's Pub, and for the first time since I've been in Cork, I heard some of the music that I like when I'm in a club. There was alot of reggae, hip-hop, and r & b, generally when clubs play any of those here they ruin it by playing a house or techno beat. There is nothing wrong with house music, and I happen to like techno every once in a while, but it was just nice that for one night I could have one without the other.  ¶ 12:27 PM

 
Baseball has turned out to be the most unpredictable sport of all year after year. I remember when the Yankees were winning the World Series just about every year when I was in high school, and I thought it would never end. I felt as if they would have won maybe 12 or 13 in a row, because they seemed that unstoppable of a dynasty.
Since 2001 a different team has won the world series every year and not only that but the same team hasn't made it back twice in a row yet. This year the Colorado Rockies are playing there first world series and the Cleveland Indians are 1 win away from joining them. No one and I mean no one would have picked these two teams back in April to be playing this late in October, and I have been able to say that about every team that has won this decade except for the Boston Red Sox who just by the number of chances they've had were bound to win one eventually.

This past weekend was the semi-fianls in the Rugby World Cup, and England v. France was a really good match. France suffered a disappointing lost, which I think was more about pride than it was the actual match. The fact that they lost is an after thought, but the fact that they lost to England will probably linger for a while. The final is this Saturday and it will be England against South Africa. After seeing the way that England took apart France my money is with them to win there second World Cup in a row.  ¶ 4:31 AM

 
This past weekend I went to Dublin for my friend Christina's party, because her parents were out of town. They were actually in Cardiff watching the France and New Zealand match. Her parents are from New Zealand so it was a bit of a heart-breaking weekend for them.
Everytime I go to Dublin I find something that makes me love it more and more. This time I went to Phoenix Park, which is almost a third bigger than Central Park in New York and is filled with free roaming deer. The park was pretty spectacular and so was my night out on Saturday. It was a vodka night for me, and that usually means I will only remmeber bits and pieces of the night, and of course that held true. I think the picture above says it all.
This coming Saturday is an epic semi-final match between France and England. All the French people that I work with are all 100 percent confident that they will win this match and then the final no matter who it is against. Rugby can be an unpredictable sport however and if I had to put money on any team it would be England who are playing with alot of motivation.  ¶ 5:42 AM

 
I just have to say how disappointed I am in the New York Mets. When I was at home last week I watched them lost to the Nationals, the Cardinals and the Marlins. Before I left I said if they miss the playoffs I'll never watch another Mets game again.
THEY MISSED THE PLAYOFFS!

This one was one of those unforgivable things however, because all they had to do was win one more game over the course of the week and there would have been a one game playoff with the Phillies. If I were David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Pedro Martinez I would watch and see what happens this off season and if the Mets don't make some serious advances at aquiring better pitchers both relievers and starters I would ask to be traded. Believe me when I say I am the biggest Mets fan there is, but there is no way they will ever recover from losing a 7 game lead that late in the season. The effects will be traumatizing and long lasting.

On to some good news in sports, the Rugby World Cup is entering the knockout stages this coming weekend and the team I picked to win is still in it. I watched New Zealand play last year, honestly it was the first time I payed any attention to rugby, and they impressed me. The World Cup is being held in France and France has started to play well lately, it would be top off an amazing decade in International sports for France if they were able to win this one.
1998 FIFA World Cup Champions

1999 Rugby World Cup Runners-up

2000 UEFA European Champions

2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers

2003 Rugby World Cup 4th place

2006 FIFA World Cup Runners-up


Thats a pretty impressive resume in two sports that everyone in the world is crazy about except Americans.
Good Luck Les Blues  ¶ 11:24 AM

 

I'm currently back in Ireland, and back at work today after 2 weeks in the states. I had a really good time, but at the sametime I am really happy to be back here. I think the 2 weeks was just enough time for me over there. Boston has changed alot in the year that I have been away and not just all the new buildings.
When my plane landed at Logan Airport, I had the biggest smile on my face the second I saw Boston's skyline sitting on the landing strip. I was so happy to be back there, it was a beautiful day and everything seemed to be perfect. About 7 hours later sitting on a train from Boston to New York the smile was long gone as I was brought back to reality by a nearly 2 hour delay somewhere between Providence and New London.
I took alot of pictures mostly of my mom, and my friends, and when I got to Boston I took a few pictures of some friends there, and one of them accidently deleted all of the pictures I had taken on the entire trip while trying to delete one of him. I didn't realize that this happened until the next morning, when I went to look over all my pics from the whole trip, and there was absolutely nothing there.
Another thing that I realized was that the college lifestyle is the most exhausting thing in world. Days filled with books and projects and nights filled with drinking and other activities. I'm glad that I'm a year removed from that pace. I guess I got old (23) and settled into my job and boring ways pretty quickly because I'm much happier making euros.
It was really good to see my mother, my sister and my brother. Especially my mother who seems to be aging like a fine wine. Whenever she tells people that she has a 23 year old son, they never believe her because honestly she only looks like she is about 30 years old herself. I wish I could have spent more time with her, but I had so much stuff to do. Next time I go to visit her in the states it will most likely be in Florida, and I will be miles away from all my friends in the northeast, so I'll spend time exclusively with the family.  ¶ 11:08 AM