without fanfare... Hello.

Finally got teh internets hooked up in the apartment.

Only took four and a half months. (Ireland.)

's nice to be back.

To start with, I mock some terrible 'writing' from Ranelagh's very own Podunk Shitrag Weekly,Southside People, since it glorifies that knee-jerk not-my-fault Irishness that sets my teeth on edge:

While many pensioners engage in some form of leisure activity to remain healthy, there can be few who can match Paddy Craddock's efforts to remain spry.

[snip]

However, it all could have been so different had Ireland's social welfare system benefited the working man. Before taking up athletics, Paddy had been a talented footballer but was forced to abandon it.

'I gave the whole lot up as you got nothing if you got injured,' he explains.

[snip]

'In those days I was working hard [at flooring] and you were working early mornings. You could be anywhere from Wexford to Drogheda. That's how I didn't achieve what I could have and then I ended up with seven children,' he says.

I'm sorry, what? First of all, 'had Ireland's social welfare system benefited the working man'? ?! Where do I start with this? Is he complaining that Ireland's social welfare system doesn't benefit the working class? Because that's just wrong. Does he gripe because Ireland's social welfare system doesn't benefit the working man? Cupcake, that's what jobs are for.

The one that really irks me is 'and then I ended up with seven children.' Whose fault is that, exactly? Did that just happen?

Another fun Irishism I saw today:

* A sign in Trinity Library advising people to be quiet, because "people are trying to study." They're not ACTUALLY studying, they're just trying. Displeased Yoda would be.

And today's prepared excuse for the charity muggers:

"No, I'm sick." (To be pronounced, "Doe, I'b sig." Which is emphatically not a lie!)  ¶ 8:36 PM