Photos from Sat!!

Earthquakes and trucks hitting walls?!?!

We were looking at earthquakes and how they are measured today in global geophysics. Generally, the methods were pretty boring but there was something that made me smile in the modified Mercalli scale.I. People do not feel any Earth movement. II. A few people might notice movement if they are at rest and/or on the upper floors of tall buildings. III. Many people indoors feel movement. Hanging objects swing back and forth. People outdoors might not realize that an earthquake is occurring. IV. Most people indoors feel movement. Hanging objects swing. Dishes, windows, and doors rattle. The earthquake feels like a heavy truck hitting the walls. A few people outdoors may feel movement. Parked cars rock. V. Almost everyone feels movement. Sleeping people are awakened. Doors swing open or close. Dishes are broken. Pictures on the wall move. Small objects move or are turned over. Trees might shake. Liquids might spill out of open containers. VI. Everyone feels movement. People have trouble walking. Objects fall from shelves. Pictures fall off walls. Furniture moves. Plaster in walls might crack. Trees and bushes shake. Damage is slight in poorly built buildings. No structural damage. VII. People have difficulty standing. Drivers feel their cars shaking. Some furniture breaks. Loose bricks fall from buildings. Damage is slight to moderate in well-built buildings; considerable in poorly built buildings. VIII. Drivers have trouble steering. Houses that are not bolted down might shift on their foundations. Tall structures such as towers and chimneys might twist and fall. Well-built buildings suffer slight damage. Poorly built structures suffer severe damage. Tree branches break. Hillsides might crack if the ground is wet. Water levels in wells might change. IX. Well-built buildings suffer considerable damage. Houses that are not bolted down move off their foundations. Some underground pipes are broken. The ground cracks. Reservoirs suffer serious damage. X. Most buildings and their foundations are destroyed. Some bridges are destroyed. Dams are seriously damaged. Large landslides occur. Water is thrown on the banks of canals, rivers, lakes. The ground cracks in large areas. Railroad tracks are bent slightly. XI. Most buildings collapse. Some bridges are destroyed. Large cracks appear in the ground. Underground pipelines are destroyed. Railroad tracks are badly bent. XII. Almost everything is destroyed. Objects are thrown into the air. The ground moves in waves or ripples. Large amounts of rock may move. Earthquake feels like a heavy truck hitting the walls ... well we all have that happening to us regularly!!

Looks like I am in trouble when I die!!

Stolen from neonuts .

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!Here is how you matched up against all the levels:LevelScorePurgatory (Repenting Believers)Very LowLevel 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)HighLevel 2 (Lustful)ModerateLevel 3 (Gluttonous)ModerateLevel 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)Very LowLevel 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)LowLevel 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very HighLevel 7 (Violent)HighLevel 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)ModerateLevel 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)ModerateTake the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Pics at last!!

Finally worked out how to get pics up on journal. Not much to put up tho so think I will start off with a couple from back home.Right ... back to revision for tomorrow's exam!!

We are all little ants serving those in power!!

Ian sent me a dvd earlier on this week called 'Waking Life'. It is a series of lectures/dialogues about consciousness, dreams, life, meaning and so on. I will be watching it again before I make a proper judgment on the film but here is a snippet of one of the discussions in the film.
Wiley (the main character) is walking down the steps of a subway entrance, when he accidently bumps into this girl (Tiana).
Tiana: Excuse meWiley: Excuse me. Wiley continues walking down the stairs, but Tania chases him back down.
Tiana: Hey.......could we do that again? I know we haven't met, but, I don't wanna be an ant, ya know? I mean, it's like we go through life with our antennas bouncing off one another continuously on "ant" autopilot with nothing really human required of us. "Stop," "Go," "Walk here," "Drive there." All action basically for survival. All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along in an efficient, polite manner. "Here's your change," "Paper or plastic?", "Credit or debit?", "Do you want ketchup with that?" I don't want a straw. I want real human moments. I want to see you. I want you to see me. I don't want to give that up. I don't want to be an ant. Ya know?Wiley: Yeah...yeah I know. I don't want to be an ant either. Thanks for kinda, like, josteling me there...I've been kinda on zombie autopilot lately. I don't feel like an ant in my head, but I guess I probably look like one.
It's kinda like D.H. Lawrence had this idea of two people meeting on a road, and instead of just passing and glancing away, they decide to accept what he calls the confrontation between their souls. It's like freeing the brave, reckless gods within us all.Tiana: Then it's like we have met! [Tania shakes Wiley's hand]
How often do we just exchange pleasantries with people in our jobs, or people we have bumped into and so on. We never really communicate with these people. It is like we are on auto-pilot and just move on as if it never had happened. Or think of the times when you go into a cafe and you don't notice all the people that are there but only those who are not (ie the people who you are meant to be meeting). The society we live in has grown immensely over a very short period of time. In order to accommodate everyone and keep things running smoothly, we've had to adopt methods of keeping human interaction to a minimum. Real human interaction became extinct because the emergence of our societies called for it. Yes it would be impossible to interact with everyone on a bus or to make eye contact or say hello to everyone in the street as we would never get anything done. This haste to make sure that everything is done on time, this urbanization has turned us into 'ants'. We run arounddoing our work to satisfy the Queen (those whom are in power). Wouldn't it be nice if we could share are experiences and thoughtswith the world and the people in it. Wouldn't it be nice if we could put aside the lust, greed, hate, envy and so on that exists inside us. Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where we were not all strangers!!
"We seem to think we're so limited by the world, and the confines....but, we're really just creating them."

Learn to speak Norn Iron!!

Following on from my post about people making fun of my accent I found this site Learn how to speak Norn Iron (northern ireland) , which neonuts suggested.
Here are a few of the little sayings or pronounciations of words that are said back home (just in case you visit someday)
"What about ye big mawn, what are ye at the day?" Translates as: How are you? Are you doing anything interesting this fine day?"Fancy a wee pint down the bar, or do ya wanna go till the Offies for a carry out?" Translates as: Would you like to join me in some merriment at our local hostelry or would you rather purchasing some alchohol from the local Off License?
"Getawaydafug ya wee gat. Who'd ya fink y'are? Wee Slabber......"Translates as: You'd better leave my vicinity in a hurry. I don't like you. Go away and don't come back. Who do you think you are? Go away."Fer fuhsake catch yerself on ya fuggen goat ye..."Translates as: Look, you better review the situation. You look rather silly
"Man, he's a fuggen dickbax, no bones about it. I'd knack the ballbegs ballix in...."Translates as: I'm not particularly fond of said person in question, but by jove, I'd hit him if I saw him.
Afeard: scared: Amptinat? -I most definitely am: Balleex -"bollocks: Bake -someones face: Banjaxed - drunk: Bate -beat, I bate her up so ah did: Beef -male sexual organ ie "Ah slipped her the beef lawst nite": Boulin' -messing about: Buggered -broken: Creamed -tired: Dander -a walk, ie I'm goin fer a dander: Earlee-er -before the present: Eff Aaf - Fuck Off: FaakAaf - Excuse me my good man, kindly vacate the premises: Faaler -father: Fally - follow: Frig -polite word for "Fuck", also used: Flip: Gat -slang, You're a wee gat or get: Geg -fun, "Ats a geg": Getawaydafuck -go away now: Goes -replaces the word "Said" ie And I goes: What? Are you slabberin'?" And then she goes, "Yip.": Happy Days - that's good: Houl On -please wait: Lairdindeyit -please do start eating (or drinking): Lifted - arrested: Mairshen - Emersion Heater: Meat Wagon -RUC Landrovers: Melt -no actual meaning, used as: "I'll knock your melt in": Messages - weekly shopping: Milly -name given to teenage females. See also: Steek: Moufycunt - rather outspoken person: Norman -bullying term for someone with no friends: Norwegain - Another Gin please: Now Yer Sucken Deezel -that's a good way of going about that: Oxters -Armpits: Prably -maybe, its likely: Parfil - strong: Pssskety -common misprounciation of "Spaghetti": Ragin' -angry, Ahm bloody ragin' so ah am: Samitch -mispronunciation of "Sandwhich": Scundered - embarrassed: Skinned Ye! - Haha my good friend, I do believe I won that particular game by a significant margin: Slabber -someone who makes bad comments about you behind your back or to your face: Spoofen - lying: Spide - see Steek: Spoon -someone with a low IQ: Steek -male with bad dress and hair sense: Stroked - stolen / ripped off: Tarl - a towel: Undurstawnd -understand ie Do ye undurstawnd me?; Vaka -Vodka: Weaker -yet another word for "brilliant": Wee -put in front of words such as "drink", "dander", and basically anything: Willik - nose: Wiredintillit -"Got wiredintillit earlee-er": Wooden One -not a clever person: X-Acktlee -exactly.

It is starting to get a little irritating, so it is!!!

For those of you who don't know I am a Belfast boy now living in England. One of the traits that us Belfast people has is that we tend to put a little extra few words on the end of sentences such as:
She is pregnant, so she is.
I am 20, so I am.
Liverpool just qualified for the champions league, so they did.
Now this comes naturally to me and I can't help say it but over recent weeks, people have been constantly picking up on it (well more than normal). It is starting to get a little irritating because I am talking and people just go 'Oh he did it again, say I am 20, so I am again'. It has got to the point where I now here myself say it, which was never the case. I am even beginning to hear my friends and family say it when I am on the phone to them.
I shouldn't complain too much as I know may blokes would die to have my accent as it is always a big hit with the ladies (not that it much use to me). When I was in Australia, I got nicknamed the irish silver tongued cavalier because I only had to speak and the ladies would like me (I managed to share a 4-bed dorm with 3 attractive ladies, and then a 6-dorm with 5 ladies) which really annoyed the other blokes. But even this is beginning to annoy me now. I have girls who just want me to speak ... what's all this about?!?! What to fuck am I supposed to say?!?
Finally, people have also started to make fun the way I say some words: dannyboy1982 and Matt were trying to get me to say certain words just for their enjoyment. It is getting rather tedious!!!
Words I seem to say funny are: eight, bottle, battered, dozen, maths plus many others ... think I may start a list.
PS: Note that three is not on the list ... it may come as a major shock to some people but peeps from Northern Ireland are perfectly capable of pronouncing three correctly (in other words, we don't say tirty tree and a terd!!)