I woke up the second day of the trip feeling fine, which surprised me. I had expected it to take at least a day, and probably two or three, to get over the jet lag and get my internal clock reset. We slept in a bit more than we planned to (just until around 9 though), but then we got on the road fairly quickly and headed to Newgrange. We had time to kill before we caught a bus to the tomb for our tour, so we got food and wandered around the visitor's center. Also got a good many pictures on the way over to the bus. Again, Ireland wowed me with it's schizophrenic weather. It was sunny and warm when we first got there, then got cooler by the time we'd eaten, started pouring rain on the bus, stopped at the beginning of our tour, rained some more while we were inside...you get the picture.
The inside of the tomb was really cool. We walked up a narrow passageway into the main part of the tomb. Then the tour guide, after telling us some of the history of the site, shut off the lig
hts and demonstrated with a light bulb how light comes into the tomb - the entrance of the tomb is perfectly aligned so that during the winter solstice, when the sun rises the rays pass through the roofbox (a special hole just above the door). The light goes up the passageway, which slopes upward (again, perfectly) so that the light directly hits the inner chamber and completely illuminates it. Pretty cool how accurately that was set up, especially considering the tomb was built over 5,000 years ago! Apparently you can enter a lottery to have the chance to go into the tomb at sunrise during the winter solstice to see it firsthand instead of with an electric light. If I ever live in Ireland (or at least closer so a trip would be more feasible) I'd definitely try for that. With my luck though it would be cloudy that day and I wouldn't get to see anything.
After we were done at Newgrange we caught the bus back to the car, and went to our next stop - Malahide Ca
stle. We took a guided tour through the entire castle, but again we weren't allowed any photography or video. It's a shame - there were a lot of interesting rooms and art, antique furniture, etc., and the Great Hall was amazing. So was the library.... We were able to wander around outside and get pictures though, of the castle and the cemetery and parts of the grounds.
Once we left Malahide, we headed back to Jade's house. Not far from her house is a park that has the remains of Rossmore Castle. Unfortunately the castle was completely demolished, so there's not much left of it asi
de from parts of the foundation and the dungeon. There are a lot of paths through the woods in that area though, and we spent a couple of hours there while Jade showed me some of the gardens, the Pet Cemetery (lol), a waterfall (a frog scared Jade to death while we were looking for it, and we caught it on video...) and some great scenery. We also went to the mausoleum (I'm not positive that's what it was but something along those lines), and I randomly climbed over a gap in the wall around it to get pictures of the graves in the area behind it. And of course then I had issues climbing back out again, because the wall was much higher from the other side as I had nothing to stand on. All in all the park was a lot of fun, it was cool having something nearby to do and it reminded me a bit of some of the parks around here that I love going to. Minus the castle, of course.
He
re's the video with the frog! Please ignore the stupid watermark in the middle of the picture - I had to find a way to convert my mp4 to something I could edit. I'm just using the trial version so I'm stuck with the watermark, as I don't do enough video editing to justify paying for the full version of the program. And of course between the watermark, the size of the video, and the downgrade in quality when I changed the file format, you can't even see the damn frog...figures.
The sad thing is that I have probably 40 videos from the trip and Jade and I are that ridiculous in nearly ALL of them. ^_^
At any rate, after Rossmore we went back to Jade's house for dinner, and then we went for a drive. There's a mountain with some really nice views quite close to her house so we headed there for pictures at sunset. We kind of missed sunset, but we were close enough that I still got some nice pictures.
Will post the next day of the trip soon, though I might have to start splitting it up and doing two posts for each day, considering the number of pictures I have! We'll see though.
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1. Newgrange, view from the front (believe it or not it was pouring down rain 10 minutes before this picture was taken)
2. Entrance to Newgrange, the entrance stone with megalithic art, and the roofbox
3. Malahide Castle
4. Me sitting on the random wall I was climbing
5. A great and terrifying frog! (I love you Jade, don't hurt me)
6. One of the pictures I took near Jade's house
I know I've been back for a while already, but I'd still like to do a few entries covering my trip to Ireland. It's taken me a while to get all of my pictures organized, and to sort through some of the good and bad ones. I still haven't edited the majority of them to the point where I'm completely satisfied, but they're perfectly good to put on here.
I'm not sure how I'm going to do this - I might do one blog entry for each day that I was in Ireland, since we went to a few places every day and of course I have a lot of pictures of each. That way I can include everything and still hopefully keep the posts to a reasonable length. And it won't take me as long to write in smaller chunks, so I'll finally be able to get these published instead of taking forever trying to write about an entire week's trip at once. So here goes...
The night before I left I got some sleep, but not much between being excited, and being paranoid that I would sleep in and forget something in the morning. I went to work for three hours, which surprisingly flew by as I tried to frantically clear everything out before I left. Then my mom picked me up and drove me to the airport. My flight to Boston was uneventful, though I had to rush to figure out where I was going and get through security and everything again. But I made it without too many problems. I wanted to sleep on the flight to Dublin, but I was way too excited, and there was someone two rows in front of me who was snoring - at least I think that's what it was, as it kind of sounded like a dying duck.
We came into Dublin just at sunrise - I would have killed for my camera at that
point, it was spectacular. Stupid rules about not having electronics turned on while landing a plane! Customs were so easy it was a joke that I'd been worried about getting through. Then I had to wait forever for my suitcase. I think I was one of the last three people to get my bag; was definitely starting to worry that it hadn't made the switch in Boston! Finally it got there though, and I went to meet Jade (who also probably wondered wtf I was doing in baggage claim for an hour, lol). I changed into fresh clothes, we dragged my stuff out to her car, and then caught a bus into downtown Dublin.
We got into the city early, probably around 7:30am. We wandered around the city all day, seeing as much as possible. I was jet lagged and probably half delirious (with multiple videos to prove it!) but still had a blast, and we still got to see a lot of things. We went to breakfast and then over to Saint Stephen's Green. After some adventures in trying to change my money to Euros, we went to Trinity College, and saw the Book of Kells. Sadly the staff were quite strict on their no photos or videos policy, so while it was amazing, I couldn't actually get any pictures inside.
We wandered around a bit after that. We did some shopping, hit Forbidden Planet (a comic type store) and some bookstores, though I didn't buy anything. Books are a lot more expensive over there! Then we also took a bus tour, where you paid one price and got to ride the buses all day, and they went around to about 25 different city landmarks. We went to (in no particular order): Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Molly Malone statue (which Jade groped...apparently this brings you good luck?), and probably others that I'm just not thinking of right now.
We also went through the Guinness storehouse, and
did the full tour. It was really cool - they had some of the history of the company and described the process they use to make the beer. They also have a waterfall inside the storehouse, and a bar on the top floor (the Gravity Bar) which has all glass walls so you're able to see spectacular views of the entire city. And of course we got our free beers at the end, which may not have been the best idea after work, 12 hours of traveling, jumping 5 time zones, and then running around Dublin all day. I very nearly fell asleep on the bus back into the town for a late lunch. Actually I'm pretty sure I did doze a few times!
We met up with Jade's friend Galen (who was awesome) at Captain America's to eat. At that point I was completely
wrecked, though it was probably only 4pm. And my feet were KILLING me. So we headed back to the airport to get Jade's car and drive back to her house. I probably fell asleep four or five times while talking, but woke up more once we got to the house (and I downed some Red Bull). Met Jade's parents and younger brother Sean, and just took it easy the rest of the evening. Went to bed fairly early to try and get over the jet lag, and so we could get an early start the next day.
That's about it for my first day. It was a fantastic start to the trip - of course, Ireland welcomed me with cold, windy, rainy, miserable weather, but it was still a great day. I got to see so many amazing things even though we were only there for the better part of one day.
Wow, and I wanted to do one entry per day in an attempt to keep the posts small? Looks like I'm going to have trouble with that one! I'll stick with it for now - I'll post the second day soon. The last couple days of the trip may need a couple of entries, just because of the number of gorgeous pictures I took, but we'll see when I get there!
Also, for the life of me I can't figure out how to caption photos using Blogger. So for now I'm just going to list what they all are at the end of every entry. If I ever figure it out I'll come back and edit captions in later, but for now at least you will all know what the pictures are actually of.
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1. Random sculpture on a corner in Dublin
2. Trinity College
3. Saint Patrick's Cathedral
4. Jade groping Molly Malone
5. Me, drinking my free Guinness in the Gravity Bar - Dublin behind me
6. Waterfall in the Guinness Storehouse
Whee!
This cheered me up after a spectacularly shitty day. I cannot wait for this book!
Okay, going to bed now, really.
Two entries in two days...I think that's some sort of record for this year. At any rate, I had planned to write about one thing, but after the day I had at work I feel the need to rant instead...
Now don't get me wrong, for the most part I really like my job. I enjoy the work, and I love the people I work with. I'm also grateful to even have a fairly well-paying job considering the state of the job market nowadays. I don't think this is something I will do for the rest of my life, but for the next couple of years at least it's great, and pretty much where I want to be. Just wanted to lay that out there before I let out some frustration over the next several paragraphs.
Our company, despite the economy and the difficulties some are facing, is doing quite well. We're constantly adding new merchandise and websites. We're expanding - we've hired new people in every department. Every department that is, except for mine. Literally. Every single department in the company except for mine has hired at least two more people. Some have hired half a dozen. And I'm not talking about the warehouse hiring seasonal help for the holidays, I'm talking about permanent office employees, to keep up with the demands of the new websites and additional work.
When I started in the purchasing department I bought for three stores. They were the three biggest stores our company had, and they kept me pretty busy. After a few months we were also given the responsibility of drop ship orders, so in addition to regular purchasing for three stores, I had drop ship orders for I think five, maybe six. Plus of course other job duties like keeping pricing for every single vendor for all of those stores up to date. It was pretty hectic for the first few weeks, but as I got to know what I was doing I worked out a system that worked for me. I was busier than I was before but for the most part I would get everything done most days. Or close enough.
However, since then it's just gotten worse and worse. As I said, we're expanding. We're adding new websites all the time, but our department remains with only two people. The other person essentially takes care of only one store, because it deals with a lot of shoes and clothes...between new styles/colors/sizes coming out or being discontinued constantly, that store is literally a full-time job in and of itself. She used to have a couple other smaller stores, but my manager and I have pretty much taken them over in an attempt to actually get everything done. Which means at this point I purchase for ten stores and do drop ship orders for about fifteen. Again, plus other work and keeping the pricing for all of our vendors current. Granted, a lot of the stores are smaller without a lot of sales, but there's still work to be done. Plus add everything up, and the stores I handle make up approximately 90% of our company's business. NINETY.
We've been asking for more help for months, to no avail. Christmas season will pick up very shortly, and I'm already in a panic. I remember how stressed and busy I was last Christmas, and back then I only had three stores and no drop ships. Of course, I'd just started in the department last year and I'm much quicker and more efficient now...but still. So I try and keep track of everything I do and quantify my time, in hopes the upper management will agree to hire another person for us.
My supervisor put in a formal request last week, and all that's happened there is we might hire an inventory specialist. Not really sure what that's supposed to be. Technically they're going to be in my department I believe, but reading the job description they're going to be more help to some of the other departments. And they will take over the China ordering, which we never did. So essentially we may now be hiring someone new who will take absolutely no work away from the other people in the department, but they will help out everyone else! Awesome.
I'm just tired that no one seems to see how much work we're doing or to think that we could use more help. We only have 8 hours a day. We place over a thousand orders per week between all the stores, and we need to have ETAs or tracking or something for every one of them within three days. We have over 800 vendors and there are always at least a dozen that need their pricing updated. We need to contact vendors whenever there are items that don't come in, are sent incorrectly, are damaged in shipment, etc, and we have to have complete resolution on all of those issues within 24 hours. Never mind the fact that some people take a day to even respond to emails and don't answer their phones either. That is no excuse, and if I don't have a concrete answer after 24 hours it is my fault. Period.
I'm sick of being told that I need to get all of these things done in the allocated time frames or I am going to lose my job. I'm fed up with everything being my top fucking priority. Every single one of my many responsibilities are apparently vital and need done immediately. Never mind the complete impossibility of that. And never mind the fact that with hundreds of orders I just don't have the time to spend a couple of hours on ONE trying to do something small like get a $3 credit for a broken jar of goddamned jam.
I have my yearly review coming up later this month, and I'm terrified. I know that I will probably be told that I need to work faster. That's what the other person in my department was told at her review - that the amount of work she had was reasonable and if she couldn't get it done she needed to learn to be faster and more efficient. What's funny, is that they said our workloads were tough but reasonable back in March (which I agreed with), and I have twice as many stores now. How can the workload be so much heavier now and still be considered reasonable? I'm just really hoping I don't get slammed during my review, or even written up because I'm not getting all of my work done daily.
Through all of this though I am so grateful for my manager. She helps us out with as much as she can, and sticks up for us and takes the heat when something is done a bit behind schedule, because she knows we're working our asses off. I know she'll keep trying to get us more help...and I'm just hoping that she'll pull it off before I end up going completely insane!
Wow...that was much longer than I actually expected it to be, but I feel much better now. Should be back to my normal entries and what I was planning to blog about within the next day or two. But for now it's bedtime - Wednesday is one of my catch up days and I need to get enough sleep so that I can take full advantage of that!
I'm back after a bit of a hiatus. To be honest, I just didn't feel like blogging for a while there - I was trying to spend more time writing and getting other things done, instead of updating a blog that only one person was even reading (HI CHRIS!). But lately I've actually felt like updating regularly again, and I've had quite a few things I wanted to blog about, so I'll see how that goes. I'll probably post a few entries in the near future, and then try and keep to a once a week update at least.
But for now I'll start with a goal update. I'm sticking with what I had from last time, though I may add a few more to the list within the next couple of weeks. Here goes...
1. Watch all of the movies I own and have never watched. I have very few of these left. Still spending a lot more time on shows than movies, but I usually get one or two in on the weekends. I'd like to finish this one by the end of the month.
2. Play through some of my video games - 5+ hours a week. I've kept to this one every week, I think. I don't play much more than that, as I'm trying to spend time on some other projects, but I'm making my way through Arkham Asylum and Dissidia: Final Fantasy.
3. Travel. Philly was fantastic, as usual. We went out drinking one night (I got to shoot Christian up with vodka! :D) and also hit the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair. Pics of that to come. We never did make it to Ohiopyle unfortunately. Oh well. I'm hoping for nice weather either this weekend or next weekend - I'm itching to take a random road trip to get pictures of the mountains and such with all of the leaves turned for fall. And I'm going back to Philly next month to see Kevin Smith. Also planning a trip to NYC and maybe Washington DC, though there's a good possibility they'll actually be next year. We'll see!
4. Continue to learn Japanese. Still saving for the Rosetta Stone. I'm going to stop updating this goal for now - I'm still reviewing everything I know regularly and trying to immerse myself in the language whenever I have the opportunity, but I can't make much more forward progress until I get something new to work off of.
5. Write every day. I've been doing well with this, though I've been having some issues with writer's block lately and everything I've written has been pretty much shit. I keep plugging away. Some of it probably isn't as bad as I think it is (and some of it is). And even if I don't go anywhere with the stories I've written lately, at least I'm spending the time writing. I'll never improve unless I keep at it - even when it's seemingly impossible for me to string a coherent sentence together.
6. Exercise 5 hours per week. I backslid a bit on this one, again. Still fitting a few hours in but I've been pretty sporadic with it. For the next update I'm going to try and make up some sort of schedule I can follow. I'm getting busier and it's harder to exercise mostly spur of the moment like I did the past six months.
7. Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. Ugh. This is such a horrible time of the year for bills. So far I've done well though, I think. Ireland is entirely paid off and I only took $100 out of my savings for that. I have yet to put that back in...but I'm dealing with my car registration/inspection/6 month insurance payment/Christmas so it might take a while. So far I've managed to leave my savings alone though, and I'm hoping not to have to dip into it over the holidays. I'm starting my Christmas lists and shopping now so that I can spread the spending out over a longer period of time and not completely drain myself come December.
8. Eat healthy. I said last time I'd probably take this off within a month or so, and I think I'm going to do so. I may bring it back over the holidays, as it's extremely hard to eat well at all at that time of the year, and I don't want to lose too much ground there. But for now I'm good!
9. Photography. Pretty sure I'm going to get Adobe Lightroom 2, though I don't have the money at the moment. I may ask for it for Christmas. For now though I'm playing a bit with the software that came with my camera. It's not my favorite but I'm at least learning some of the tools. I've also gotten back into the photography books I bought, and I feel I'm finally starting to grasp some of the manual controls and slightly more advanced techniques.
10. Make more time for myself - one hour per day. I've done wonderfully with this one. I'm making time for reading, gaming, writing, etc. Work is quite stressful right now and I think that down time really helps calm me down after a shitty day. I'm going to leave this one on the list though. Work is going to get insanely busy, and I might be picking up a class, and I want to make sure I continue to make time to just relax.
11. Finished all of the borrowed things I have. This one's coming off the list. I really just wanted to clear out the clutter of borrowed things, and I did quite well at that. I'm down to just a couple of books and DVD sets. Still making my way through those, and I've been really good at not borrowing any new stuff until I return something I already have.
Even without really paying attention to this blog or the goals for the last month, I've done fairly well. This is definitely a good thing - it shows I'm actually making these things a part of my life instead of only doing them because I have to post about them on here!
Again, it's past time for a goals update, and I forgot about it entirely. Lately my memory is shit - I'm lucky I remember to do these, much less blog about anything else!
1. Watch all of the movies I own and have never watched. Still working through these. I should get through a few more this weekend.
2. I've decided to change this goal. Instead of setting a number of games that I have to finish, I'm going to go with playing through some of my games for 5 or more hours a week. It seems silly to fail a goal because I'm playing regularly - but just feel like playing games that take 50+ hours to actually complete. I'd rather enjoy what I'm playing instead of trying to blow through as many of my shortest games that I can.
3. Travel. Yes, I may still blog about Ireland. I started to, but it was taking forever and I wasn't sure if anyone was that interested in reading it! I went to a wine festival the weekend of my birthday. Hitting Philly over Labor Day, and Ohiopyle the following weekend. There's a couple more ideas I'm trying to work out, but if I don't manage to fit those in it's no big deal. I got a hell of a lot done already this year!
4. Continue to learn Japanese. I'm considering the Rosetta Stone software more seriously - I'm thinking I may be able to buy the full set within a couple of months. I already have some money set aside for it.
5. Finish one of my Nano novels. I'm taking this goal off the list. For one, it's pretty much tied in with my writing every day goal. And for another, I don't want to try and force myself to finish something. I will continue to work on all three of my Nano novels, but I'm not going to set a deadline for when I have to be done with any one of them. Forcing myself like that is a surefire way to either write a lot of utter shit, or get burnt out on them. Writing is fun for me - I don't want to turn it into a chore.
6. Write every day. I've been doing well with this. I'm going to try and devote more time and effort to this goal. I have a workshop I'm interested in applying for, so I need to put more time into writing and get some of my stories finished and polished so I can send them with the application.
7. Clean out my stuff, and get organized. Closets are done, and I've been working on my bookshelves for a couple of days. I should be able to take this goal off the list by the time the next update rolls around.
8. New wardrobe. I've figured out everything I really need, now it's a matter of buying everything. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave this on to update every two weeks. I may just take it off the list and then revisit it at the end of the year.
9. Exercise 5 hours per week. I've done much better on this one, though I need to make more time during the week. I've had people coming over multiple times a week to hang out, and my exercise time has suffered because of it. School is back in session now though, so it shouldn't continue to be an issue.
10. Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. I budgeted a lot for Ireland, but the credit card bill came and I spent maybe a third of that, and far less than I thought I had. I'm quite happy with that. I should be able to keep my savings mostly intact even after paying off the trip, and I'm going to try and start putting more money into that account with every paycheck. It's getting to be a bad time of year for presents (birthdays and Christmas) but I should be able to set aside at least something every couple of weeks.
11. Eat healthy. I've also made improvements here. I cut back on caffeine as well, though I'd like to cut back even more. I'll probably cut this goal from the list within the next month. I can tell that for the most part this has become habit. I naturally eat more healthy meals and snacks and easily pass up most snacks, or if I really have to have some kind of junk food I'll go with a much smaller amount than I used to.
12. Photography. I've played around with a few editing programs, but I'm still working through them. I have to try the stuff that came with my camera, but right now I'm leaning toward buying Adobe Lightroom 2.
13. Make more time for myself - one hour per day. I've done better with this goal than any of the others. It hasn't been any particular time of night, but for the past couple of weeks I've made time for watching Buffy/Angel or just reading for an hour. I think it's really helped considering my busy stressful work days, and I'm definitely going to keep it up.
14. Finished all of the borrowed things I have. I finished a few of the books I had, and returned a few others that I decided I didn't really want to read very much. I also got through some BSG, though I've been too sucked into Buffy and Angel lately (and when I'm not watching those I'm watching Doctor Who or Firefly with Danielle...) to get through much else. I'm going to return a few more books and DVDs that I don't have the time for right now, and hopefully get back into BSG soon. This is already much more manageable than it was though.
Okay, that's all for now. I know I have a couple of goals I was considering adding on...but I don't remember what they were. Not that I need to add yet more goals to the list when I've finally managed to get rid of a few!
I'll try and post some Ireland stuff and pics later this week or weekend. ^_^
Wow, I haven't updated my blog in a month. Time for a goals update, and then I'll try and get something up about my vacation soon!
1. Read 75 of my own books that I've never read before. I'm taking this goal off the list. All of the stuff I've borrowed from people has built up again, so I want to work on getting through those things. I would probably be able to either complete this goal or get all of the borrowed stuff done, but there's probably no way I'll get through both. I'll still keep track and see how far I get on my own books though.
2. Watch all of the movies I own and have never watched. I watched two this weekend, so I'm making a bit of progress. I don't see any problems completing this goal - I have plenty of time yet and I'm steadily getting through them.
3. Complete 12 video games. Actually playing games on my flights didn't happen. Damn Aer Lingus and their awesome in flight entertainment! I really need to pick up the pace on this one. I have half a dozen games that I'm a few hours from completing so I want to just finish them. I'm going to start playing an hour or so a day until I've made some real progress on this goal. I can hopefully finish 2-3 games for the next update.
4. Travel. Ireland was amazing - expect a blog about that sometime this week. Philly is coming up again soon as well, provided I can actually afford going. Not sure if Ohiopyle is going to happen but maybe over my birthday weekend I can get some people to go. Also, not sure that this really counts as "traveling" but the Renaissance Fair is back in Pittsburgh this year so we're going to hit that the weekend before Philly.
5. Continue to learn Japanese. Still keeping up with the progress I've made, but that's about it. I'm going to rework my budget a bit and see if it would be possible to pick up the Rosetta Stone software in the next few months.
6. Finish one of my Nano novels. I've made next to no progress on these, as I haven't even been writing much. I'm going to get back to them this week.
7. Write every day. I took probably two weeks off around the time of my vacation. I've written a few times since I got back, and I think I'm going to start writing for a bit as soon as I get home everyday, just to get used to it again.
8. Let other people read my writing. Still no progress here.
9. Clean out my stuff, and get organized. I'm pretty much finished on this. My closets need organized somehow so I can find everything, and I want to re-organize my bookshelves. The only other thing I need to get organized would be my filing cabinet, and then I'm done.
10. New wardrobe. My closets are cleaned out, if not organized, and I have a much better idea of what I really need. I picked up some capris and shirts before I left for vacation, and I have a list of a few other things I want to get. For the next update I'm just going to work on filling out that list. I won't have the money to buy anything as my next paycheck is going to be short and I have to pay off my trip!
11. Exercise 5 hours per week. I failed on this the past week since I've been home, and I definitely need to get back to it this week. Before Ireland I did alright though, and I certainly got plenty of exercise in Ireland with all of the hiking and climbing cliffs.
12. Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. I spent a lot in Ireland, but at the same time I think I only spent half of what I'd budgeted for it. I'll have to wait for the credit card bill to be sure, since I'm not sure with the conversion from Euro plus the international charge fees. I should be able to pay that off immediately without being totally broke, and then I can work on adding to savings again...just in time to start thinking about Philly, birthday presents, and Christmas. I'm also looking to rent a house fairly soon so I want to start putting a lot of money away for that.
13. Eat healthy. I need to get back into this - I backslid a lot during my vacation and since I got back. I have been doing better the last two or three days but I need to get back to consistently eating less food and healthier snacks. I also need to cut out the caffeine again, as I got back into drinking a lot of that on vacation and my first exhausting week back at work.
14. Photography. I have nearly 2,000 photos to organize from my trip. I played around a lot with different camera settings and angles, and also experimented a bit with the filters I had. I think I got some great shots, and others will be great once I fix a couple of little issues. So the next step with this goal is to work on the editing aspect. For the next update I'm going to try out different types of software - what came with my camera as well as a few others. I'm going to decide which I want to really learn to use so that I can get started.
15. Make more time for myself - one hour per day. This has gone well, but I need to actually shut off my phone so I don't keep getting interrupted. I'm going to try leaving it off after work for the next copule of weeks. I'll get home, do whatever I need to (exercise, eat, etc) and then spend an hour just relaxing. THEN I will turn my phone and computer back on. Not sure whether that will work - it might be easier to take time for myself later in the evening, like the hour before I go to sleep - but I'll give it a shot. Eventually I'll figure out what system works best for me and then I can stick with it.
16. Finished all of the borrowed things I have. I think this was a goal of mine last year for a while, and I got through a lot of stuff, but it's built up again. Jen keeps giving me books, Christian keeps giving me DVDs, and they pile up because I've been worried about getting through my own stuff for the last 7 months. So for a few months I'm going to concentrate on the borrowed stuff again. I have probably 20 books to read and a LOT of shows to watch. For the next update I'm going to go try and watch 1-2 shows a night and read 2-3 of the borrowed books I have, in addition to hopefully getting through some of my own things. I really need to find a balance between the two...or else stop borrowing stuff (I'm looking at you Chris - not taking anything from your house this trip!!!!)
I had an incredibly busy July but I didn't do too badly on my goals. I'll hopefully be able to cut a couple off the list soon, and I have one or two more that I may add in the next few updates, but we'll see how it goes. I may start posting on here more regularly as well - definitely will post at least once about my trip, and I have a few other ideas I'm kicking around. But now it's time for bed, work in the morning. Shame I have to actually go to work to get the paycheck part....
I woke up the second day of the trip feeling fine, which surprised me. I had expected it to take at least a day, and probably two or three, to get over the jet lag and get my internal clock reset. We slept in a bit more than we planned to (just until around 9 though), but then we got on the road fairly quickly and headed to Newgrange. We had time to kill before we caught a bus to the tomb for our tour, so we got food and wandered around the visitor's center. Also got a good many pictures on the way over to the bus. Again, Ireland wowed me with it's schizophrenic weather. It was sunny and warm when we first got there, then got cooler by the time we'd eaten, started pouring rain on the bus, stopped at the beginning of our tour, rained some more while we were inside...you get the picture.
hts and demonstrated with a light bulb how light comes into the tomb - the entrance of the tomb is perfectly aligned so that during the winter solstice, when the sun rises the rays pass through the roofbox (a special hole just above the door). The light goes up the passageway, which slopes upward (again, perfectly) so that the light directly hits the inner chamber and completely illuminates it. Pretty cool how accurately that was set up, especially considering the tomb was built over 5,000 years ago! Apparently you can enter a lottery to have the chance to go into the tomb at sunrise during the winter solstice to see it firsthand instead of with an electric light. If I ever live in Ireland (or at least closer so a trip would be more feasible) I'd definitely try for that. With my luck though it would be cloudy that day and I wouldn't get to see anything.
stle. We took a guided tour through the entire castle, but again we weren't allowed any photography or video. It's a shame - there were a lot of interesting rooms and art, antique furniture, etc., and the Great Hall was amazing. So was the library.... We were able to wander around outside and get pictures though, of the castle and the cemetery and parts of the grounds.
de from parts of the foundation and the dungeon. There are a lot of paths through the woods in that area though, and we spent a couple of hours there while Jade showed me some of the gardens, the Pet Cemetery (lol), a waterfall (a frog scared Jade to death while we were looking for it, and we caught it on video...) and some great scenery. We also went to the mausoleum (I'm not positive that's what it was but something along those lines), and I randomly climbed over a gap in the wall around it to get pictures of the graves in the area behind it. And of course then I had issues climbing back out again, because the wall was much higher from the other side as I had nothing to stand on. All in all the park was a lot of fun, it was cool having something nearby to do and it reminded me a bit of some of the parks around here that I love going to. Minus the castle, of course.
re's the video with the frog! Please ignore the stupid watermark in the middle of the picture - I had to find a way to convert my mp4 to something I could edit. I'm just using the trial version so I'm stuck with the watermark, as I don't do enough video editing to justify paying for the full version of the program. And of course between the watermark, the size of the video, and the downgrade in quality when I changed the file format, you can't even see the damn frog...figures.
