On Thursday the citizens of Ireland are set to vote on a stability treaty. It has dominated the news here for the last couple months and just yesterday I noticed the signs saying vote no or vote yes are absolutely everywhere. I did some research on the so called stability treaty and it seems to be misleading the public into thinking that if they don't vote yes the current economic crisis will get worse. Based on what I've read it seems like by voting yes the Irish people and government will be giving up a small part of there sovereignty to the European Union commission. There is one part that is particularly interesting to me where it mentions that the stability treaty will stop countries from spending more than they raise. I thought to myself isn't this how the entire world economy has been run for the last 50 years where countries spend more than they make and are constantly in debt anyway? Small countries like Ireland would be screwed in a truly "stable" EU, because the giant economies of Germany, France, and UK which generate most of the money would be able to dictate and dominate the entire continent. On the reverse side it sounds like voting no will thrust Ireland out on its own in the case of another emergency fund being needed. I am not allowed to vote but with two days left to go if I had a vote I'd be leaning towards no.
In other news I was at work a few nights ago and I was standing by the magazine rack and all I could hear was a guy standing over by the postcards in an American south accent yelling " What the fuck,  you have got to be kidding me." When I looked over he had the postcard of Barack Obama in his hand yelling profanities as loud as he could obviously trying to get attention. The postcard commemorates the visit by Obama to Ireland last year which was a huge deal as about 200,000 people came out to see him speak. The guy came inside holding the postcard and asked the girl behind the register " How could you sell this, what right do you have selling this postcard?" She looked puzzled for a second and then started explaining why we had it there. The guy continued to say "You guys only like him because he's black, he's the worst president America has ever had, he's a socialist." Then she tried to explain that she thought he had brilliant ideas and was trying to do some good things in America but he was clearly ahead of his time cause the people aren't ready for it yet. The guy was so infuriated he decided to tear up the postcard and continued swearing. I didn't say anything, I just observed the situation because had I said anything at all I probably would have ended up in jail for the night. His ignorance was so apparently especially when he had nothing to say to anything a girl who has never even visited America was throwing back at him. All I kept thinking was its people like him who make me so sad that I was born in America, when George Bush was thrusting the country into wars and spending every penny of the surplus that same guy probably wasn't shouting at the top of his lungs about how bad of a president he was.  ¶ 10:22 AM

  Yesterday I was asked to stay at work for an extra 3 hours to cover for someone who didn't show up. It turned a day that at 9 hours was already long into an even longer day. It wasn't the first time in my life I worked 12 hours. I had done a 13 hour day once while working at Ashford University, but there I was sitting at a desk all day and probably worked for 4 out of that 13 hour day in all honesty. Here I was on my feet for 12 hours and by the end of it I could feel it all over my body. I knew I had a very comfortable job in California and in fact I always said give me this job in New York and theres a good chance I'd stay there forever, but give me that job here in Dublin and I'd be without a doubt the happiest man in the world.
I recently went back and looked at my list of favorite films I posted on here a few years ago to show my Brazilian flatmate that "City of God" was and still is my favorite film. When looking over the list I see a few that have fallen down the ranks since then, I may put together a new list soon.
The Premier League is over and there's a new champion this year with Manchester City winning on the last day. As a Manchester United fan it was extremely difficult to watch the last day of matches, I knew going in we had a very slim chance of coming out on top. I hope losing the title shows United its time to start spending on some big named players once again.
The Mets are doing much better than most people expected this year, I didn't really know what to expect from them this year, when you look at there roster they only have two superstars ones a pitcher and the other a hitter. I wasn't going to get my hopes up for a .500 season even but after a month and a half they seem to be doing okay with a 20-15 record.  ¶ 7:33 AM

  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Ben Folds Five have gotten back together again and are currently recording a new album. Ben Folds as a solo artist is one of my favorite musicians, his talent is incredible and when he is with Ben Folds Five I like him even more! Very excited by this news, I will definitely be purchasing this one and not downloading it for a change.
The London Olympics are coming up and as far back as 2008 I was saying I wanted to go, now it's almost here and its looking like I won't be able to go. I've always wanted to go to the olympics and combine that with London I don't know if I would be able to handle all the excitement. Cadbury the chocolate company has wrapped 1000 golden tickets in there chocolate and the people who find them get to go to the London games, I've bought one so far hoping that it was my golden ticket and of course I didn't win. I think I'll try again some day soon and hopefully there is a ticket out there with my name on it.

  ¶ 8:37 AM

  Happy May day! This month marks the 9th anniversary of my blog and well, I wish I knew it was going to last this long I would have tried to be a much better writer in the beginning. Today everyone at work kept referring to today as the first day of Summer. I was a bit surprised by this because to me summer has always started in the middle of June whenever the solstice takes place. I'm still a bit confused as to whether the Irish go by different seasonal dates or everyone was just wrong about today being the first day of summer.
In other news I was sickened when I saw a list on ESPN today about the top payrolls in Sports and Manchester United is no longer in the top ten. The American owners have really ruined that club, there is evidence the Glazers have borrowed over $750 million against the club to pay for the struggling Tampa Bay Bucaneers. It's really time to start the chants at Old Trafford again to get rid of them. I'm watching the once richest football club in the world turn into the Kansas City Royals right before my eyes. It's been 3 or 4 years now since Manchester United has done anything significant in the transfer markets and I don't see that changing until the penny pinching Glazers are gone. The lost to Manchester City last night only makes things worst to me, cause clearly money can win championships in the Premier League. I've been saying it for years now about how United is getting left in the dust of the other teams when it comes to spending now the proof is right here staring me in the face. Check out the link below when you get a chance.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7850531/espn-magazine-sportingintelligence-global-salary-survey-espn-magazine

  ¶ 6:32 PM