More Irish slang

After my last blog about Irish expressions, I realized I was missing a lot. Here are a few more common ones (but still no where near a full list).

Toilet: They don't say washroom, restroom, or anything like that. You can be in a very fancy restaurant, and you will still hear Irish people say "Excuse me, where is the toilet?". It seems pretty crude to me, but that's just how they say it here.

Go on: The Irish say this all the time, sometimes over and over.
Person 1: I shouldn't eat this chocolate.
person 2: ahh, go on.... go on, go on.

Breaky, wellies, brelly: The Irish have lots of cutesy kind of words. "Breaky" is breakfast; "Wellies" are rubber boots; "Brelly" is an umbrella.

Bird: A girl or a girlfriend

Slagging: means insulting or making fun of someone (usually pronounced without the "G").

Twisted: Very drunk

Fag: Cigarette (I'm surprised they still use this, but they do).

Not much is new these days. We are keeping our heads down and working hard. Still trying to pay off left over Canadian debt.

Dublin is quite nice at xmas time. People on the streets are using phrases like "very cold" for temperatures about -4... haha wimps! A fall jacket and a toque is pretty much all you need for winter here in Ireland. The streets are often decorated with very nice lights. It feels very christmas-y.

Julie & I are trying to make new veg. recepies. So far we have tried two new recepies. One worked out awesome, the other so-so. I am looking forward to bringing home the good one to show everyone in Canada that we can cook great veggie recepies!

Nick & I are trying to rack our brains for revolutionary new ideas in almost any industry. Software is our specialty so, our ideas are mostly focused on software. If anyone has any computer problems that they need solutions for (that don't already exist) please let me know. It's harder than I thought to come up with ideas that haven't been done before. Currently we have an ideas board which we post to frequently. I'm hoping this blog post will send a message to the universe that we need a brilliant idea to pop into our heads. I don't care how it gets into our heads, it just needs to get there :)

I am looking forward to coming home for xmas. We are counting down the days now (26 days left). We are so excited to see the new baby!

We both miss having a dog. Our lease forbids us from having one. If that clause wasn't in our lease, we would have a dog so fast it would make your head spin! I found a great opportunity to foster dogs temporarily which would be absolutely perfect for us.

I am looking forward to all of the Canadian foods that I cant get here. The ones I miss most are: PC shrimp sauce, Havarti cheese, mac & cheese, maple syrup, potine, and Canadian beers. However, there are lots of great foods that are unique to Ireland.

ok, off to bed, don't forget to send me your ground breaking new (never existed before) software ideas.

Cya soon
Ben

More powerful Obama pics

Irish slang

The Irish have some great words or phrases that really aren't said much anywhere else in the world. Here are a few:

Craic: This is the irish word for fun... you might say "I had great craic at the bar last night". Its pronounced just like "Crack" which is pretty funny. You might also say "What's the craic?".

Thanks a million: We say this on occasion in Canada, but in Ireland I hear it 10 times a day. Its rare to hear just thanks, its always thanks a million.

Your man and your one: Your man means "that guy" and your one means "that girl". So you might hear something like "you know your man from batman" or "your one from accounting was giving me the look today".

Grand: means great. Every day when I pay for lunch and the transaction gets completed, the lunch lady says "That's grand, thanks a million".

Deadly: means really cool or awesome. You might say "that party was deadly last night".

Bollocks: just a swear word. It actually means testicles. It can be interpreted in hundreds of different ways depending on the context.

Knackered: means tired. you might say "I was knackered after my workout yesterday".

Your real age

This site is great. It takes in all your stats and gives you an estimate of your "real age".

I am 6 years younger than my calendar age because of my diet and exercise.

I need to do the following though:

• Strength training (for upper body)
• floss
• eat more omega 3
• get a dog :) (I am not kidding, it's on there)
• know my numbers (heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc)

Next time you see me, be sure to ask how I am tackeling each of these.

Enjoy

Obama!

I am so excited my man Obama won!

Here is what really happened in America last night (click to make the image bigger).

This one is priceless too:

I'm on a big longevity kick right now, and (as usual) when I think about things, somehow articles about them just fall across my lap.

Here is a great article about lifestyle changes you can make to live to be 114!

I have loads of goals for my life. One way to accomplish more goals is to just have more time.

"The most important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals." --Brian Tracy

More veg news

My veg. diet is going very well. I am taking a multivitamin to supplement my missing B12 and metals like Iron. So far my energy has still been the same as when I was a omnivore.

Here is an interesting lecture on the a veg or near-veg diet. This lecture pretty much gives you everything you need to know in 20 minutes.

It's weird that I seem to have stumbled across lots of interesting articles about the veg diet lately. It's interesting how what you think about seems to just grow and how information about it just happens to fall across your path.

I don't plan on being super strict about it... the other day I had gravy on my potatoes at work... not sure if it was meat gravy but I don't plan on taking it to that level. I don't plan to stop eating jello either (although I haven't eaten jello in years).

Another benefit to being vegetarian that I didn't mention in my last post is that longevity factor. Vegetarians live anywhere from 2 to 9 years longer. Some studies say only 2 years, others say 4 years, but others estimate it closer to 7-9 years. I think the studies vary so much because its tough to define vegetarian. Maybe someone who had a heart attack 2 years ago, then their doctor told them they will die unless they go veg. Those people may be lumped into the study bringing the longevity study down. still pretty amazing stuff. I would love an extra few years on my life. Its important to think long term.

The people at work have been very interested in all the facts about the veg diet. Most people like to think of themselves as environmentalists and they are shocked when I tell them the very best thing they can do is stop eating meat. Much better than buying a hybrid car or installing solar panels or something.

Larry Brilliant

Wow, when you read about a guy like Larry Brilliant, you wonder what the hell you are doing with your life.

"If Larry Brilliant's life were a film, critics would pan the plot as implausible."

WIRED


Check out his Bio:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/larry_brilliant.html

More statistics

An interesting side note to my last post, after September 11 is factored in, your chances of dying from terrorism are 1 in 80,000 which is about the same as getting killed by lightning and even less then being killed by a bee or wasp sting. Why does the U.S.A spend $600 Billion on fighting terrorism? It seems to me that it would be a 10,000 times better investment to spend that money on fighting cancer.

Health statistics

I have learned some interesting statistics in the past few days that have made a huge impression on me. Your chances of death by cancer are 1 in 7! That is huge!

I am very happy with my life and I am really looking forward to the next 60 or so years of it. I really don’t want to die. The good news is your chances of death from cancer can be reduced more than 40% by a vegetarian diet. That’s a huge reduction. If I am serious about my life, I have to take these statistics seriously. Anyhow, as of reading those statistics I vow to cut my meat consumption down to 90% of what it was a week ago (maybe even 100%).

Also, your chances of dying from heart disease are 1 in 5. A vegetarian diet reduces those chances 28%.

If you are serious about your life, I encourage you to cut out meat from your diet. There are a whole host of other advantages to becoming vegetarian. They are:

· Massively reducing your carbon footprint

· Killing animals is not nice – you wouldn’t kill a dog/cat so why would you kill a pig? Even Mac Danzig from UFC (a man who earns his pay cheque by kneeing people in the face) thinks killing animals is cruel.

· A vegetarian diet is the solution to the worlds current food crisis. It's also half the solution to the current water crisis

getting settled

We finally have permanent Internet at our house in Dublin. I have just been using the Internet at work. It took over 40 days to get the Internet going... so don't complain about bell or rogers until you have tried Smart telecom. Anyhow, now that we are setup it seems good.

Things are going well for me. Microsoft is an awesome company to work for. My days are quite happy there. I especially enjoy the games we play when we are not working. I've started playing Foosball with my coworkers and its very fun. It's such a strange working environment because there are games everywhere - pool tables, Foosball tables, ping pong, Nintendo wii, xbox, etc.

It's funny at work to walk by someones desk and see them playing a video game... but they are actually working. They may be testing that game or writing new levels for it, etc.

Julie is not enjoying her job and is looking to move into a different career. She has aspirations of becoming a university professor and wants a job that will give her relevant experience that will count towards that goal.

Nick, I, and some others have formed an idea board. We are writing down all the best business ideas we can and then commenting on each others ideas. Most of our ideas are for new software that we should develop but lots of other non software ideas in there too. It's actually going very very well. We are coming up with some TOP notch ideas. I look forward to the day when we pick the best one and then implement it.

A Hollywood actress named Charlize Theron is moving very close to us in Dublin. Hopefully we run into her at the supermarket.

Julie & I are planning our 1 year anniversary in Paris, France in early October. The plane tickets return were only sixty euros.

that's all for now
--Ben

Goals

So, I’ve been working at Microsoft for 4 weeks now. I am still in the training phase, but this week I may start doing real work! Yay! I can only handle so much training before it gets boring and I want to start applying it.

Dublin is feeling more and more like home. Despite the fact that we can’t get all the same foods as we could in Canada, we are starting to adapt to what is available here. For example, in Canada, brewed coffee (the kind where you put coffee grind through a paper strainer and let the water slowly pass through) is everywhere. But in Ireland you can’t find brewed coffee anywhere. Everyone makes espresso style coffee then mix it with water or milk to make Americanos, Cappuccinos, Lattes, etc. But, I found a simple contraption that makes brewed coffee that tastes like home. It doesn’t use a paper strainer though, you simply pour boiling water in with the grinds, let it sit, then use a steel strainer to strain out the grinds. All of that is built into one small contraption.

Although, that being said, I have also started to appreciate a good Americano or Latte.

While I am on that subject, you can’t find waffles anywhere in the whole city. I miss waffles with fruit sauce on top. I haven’t found pancakes either, but I hear they are available somewhere.

But, we have come up with some great new meals. We eat a lot more bread here. We usually dip the bread in a bit of oil and balsamic vinegar, but there are tons of dipping sauces we are learning about… each one more tasty and exotic than the other.

Another neat thing I have seen in a few houses in Europe is something called an Electric shower. Most people only turn their hot water heaters on for 1 hour intervals at a time in Ireland. They have very small hot water heaters but they heat up fairly quickly. However, we don’t turn our hot water heater on at all. The Electric shower heats the water up instantly just before you use it to shower. I think we are likely saving good money by not turning our water heater on at all and using this electric shower. We just wash our clothes in cold water – it works perfectly fine.

I am really enjoying public transportation. It’s cheap, good for the environment, and I can read while I ride to work. I am now plowing through books by just reading for an hour a day on the train. I hope to also learn Spanish by listening to an audio program (and some classes) on my ride to and from work.

Since writing down my goals proved so effective in my last blog entry, I have come up with my goals for the next year. I may make small adjustments but these seem pretty solid. Please feel free to hold me accountable to these. Here they are:




Goals to be completed by September 2009. (Written Aug 24, 2008)



1. Get maximum performance bonus from Microsoft for doing outstanding work. Work towards a management position.
· Ask your way to the top – talk to top execs
· Work hard and smart – develop tools and systems to speed up work
· Learn everything you can about how MS works
· Learn how to best manage the vendors

2. Learn Spanish
· Understand more than 80% of all Spanish on the 8 CD MP3 set
· Take and pass level 1 & 2 Spanish in a classroom course.

3. Have no retail debt (Canadian or Euros) and have 10,000 Euros in the bank or in stocks.

4. Take a 3 week, action packed, trip to Thailand
· Take time to plan every detail that you want

5. (sorry, #5 is private)

6. Play soccer and/or Gaelic football twice or more per week

7. Visit Family (including Ted & Aba) for 2 weeks around Christmas

8. Reward yourself with an awesome smart phone and service when Goal #3 is completed

9. Work from home at least 2 days per week.

10. Read at least 3 books per month

11. Create & maintain friendships while doing all of the above.

Writing down your goals

About 6 or 7 years ago, I was unhappy with the direction my life was headed in and I wrote down a few things that would really be amazing if I could accomplish. I wrote this list on my bed on the back of a receipt. Here is a picture of the list I wrote:





There are 8 goals there. In case you cant read my handwriting they are:

1. Be a computer scientist (even if for just a short while)
2. Travel
3. Be ripped or strong (even if just for a short while)
4. Learn Guitar
5. Run my own business
6. Own a house on a local campus
7. Be a professional day trader
8. Live outside of Ontario or North America

I wrote this list then put it in my wallet where it sat for 6 or 7 years. The amazing thing is, I have accomplished most of those goals.

Before coming to Ireland, my major definite purpose was the following:

"I work in high tech in Dublin, Ireland. I earn 40,000 Euros per year."

I wrote this goal down every day for several weeks on a lined notepad. I now have a job in high tech that pays even more than my initial goal.

This stuff is pretty amazing and I am sure it will work for you. I will post soon what my next major definite purpose is. Please hold me accountable over the next few years to it.

Feel free to send me your goals and I can hold you accountable to the ones that are important to you.

Exciting stuff eh?
--Ben

First day at Microsoft

Sorry for not writing in awhile.

Julie & I went on a relaxing trip to Bulgaria last week. It was very nice. Great weather & beaches. The food left much to be desired. We are glad to be back on a Dublin Diet.

So, Microsoft. Yesterday I had a boring full day orientation of procedures and policies. But Today, I got to work. I arrived this morning with 4 Computers (all in boxes) on my desk and 1 more computer already setup. I have a total of 5 computers now on under my desk. However, they are all connected to the same monitor, keyboard and mouse so its very easy to switch between them. I spent half my day just getting all of the computers out of the boxes and up and running.

4 of the 5 computers are all Macintosh. Today was my first real experience with the mac platform and it was a pleasant experience. Very easy to use even for doing complicated tasks like partitioning the hard drive. I feel that I can already use a mac fairly quickly and efficiently, which is awesome news!

The very last part of my day I spent on learning a new programming language called Applescript. This will be the language I will be writing most of my automated tests with. It seems like an easy but powerful language and I am looking forward to using it.

Lunch at Microsoft was awesome too. I had salmon, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, and potato wedges. It was very tasty. I sat with my boss and colleague and we talked about traveling, youtube, sports, and Microsoft. The cafeteria is subsidesed by Microsoft. I am told meals are usually around 3.50 to 4.00 euros which is pratically cheaper than me bringing in my own lunch. They also have free soda and coffee which is nice.

It takes me about 60 minutes to get to work which kinda sucks, but its all just walking and taking the train. I plan on listening to Spanish lessons or Brian Tracy on my mp3 player during the time, so it will not be wasted.

Microsoft is a surprisingly ethical company. They talk about ethics alot and they are very much a part of the green movement.

All in all, it was a great day and Microsoft seems like an awesome company to work for.
--Ben

A lesson in perseverance

Sometimes you may have something that you know is gold but everyone else thinks it's not. If you believe in what you have strongly enough, it is your duty to bring it into the world.

The Harry Potter series has sold over 400 million copies. If you count the series as 1 book, it is the third most popular book of all time (#1 is the bible - and #2 is required reading for every Chinese citizen).

Despite that, guess how many publishers turned the book down?
The answer is 12, and even then, the publisher told the author "Don't quit your day job".

How can the most popular series of all time be turned down by 12 publishers?
Think about that next time you are feeling down on yourself.

Keep on keeping on!
--Ben

Building momentum

The wheels of motion are starting to really turn now. The Microsoft job seems to be all wrapped up. I have a signed contract from them now. I will likely be starting to work August 5th. I am really looking forward to the job mostly because I want to meet new people and hopefully make some friends over here. I will likely sign up for the soccer league on my first day there.

In this downtime before my job starts, Julie & I have booked a trip to Bulgaria for some sun bathing and lots of eating and drinking. Sounds like food and drink are very good and very cheap over there. I can't wait! We have a place very close to the beach. Hopefully the weather will be warmer then Dublin :)

We are so pumped to move out of this place now into our new awesome apartment. Our new place is downtown with everything you could possibly want at your doorstep. And, it has a rooftop patio! I've posted a few pictures I took earlier of the place. Sorry no pics of the master bedroom yet. Notice how the washer and dryer are in the kitchen, that seems to be the style over here. Here is the link to the pics.

We are starting to accumulate some Canadian debt now. The Euro is so strong withdrawing any money from Canada is painful because it's multiplied by about 1.6 in Canadian. Fortunately once we start getting some Euros coming in, we should be able to pay off Canadian debt fairly quickly because the my 1 Euro will then equal 1.6 Canadian dollars. Also, hopefully we will be able to get some credit in Ireland so that we can stop converting money if we need to borrow some.

That's all for now, I will post some more pics of our place and our trip to Bulgaria soon.
--Ben

I love this picture... its a store called "knobs and knockers" that sells door knobs and door knockers. They even sell their own tshirt.

I got the Job!

On Tuesday Microsoft invited me in for a 6th interview (yes you read that right, #6) to read and write some code. I read the code very well, but I thought I wrote some very bad code. As I was walking home from that interview, I thought I blew it... I thought there was only a small chance I would get the job because the code I wrote wasnt very good.

but somehow, I got the job!

Yipee... Microsoft has offered me a software test position in the mac group! It should be lots of fun and I will get some great experience out of this role. Mac, windows and Unix experience as well as more automated scripting experience. The salary is good too. I start with 25 vacation days! that's 5 solid weeks of vacation plus stat. holidays.

Microsoft has lots of other perks too... they have all the standard stuff like health care, pension, etc... but also stuff like subsidized cafeteria, discounts on bus & rail transportation, and I think they even have free sodas!

I am looking forward to playing some soccer (football) and Foosball with the company... sounds like they have games going on almost every day.

They are letting me choose my start date. Julie & I will likely take advantage of this gap to travel a bit. Not sure exactly where yet. I will likely start in 2 weeks from today.

On the 24th we move out of this tiny apartment we have into an awesome place downtown. I can't wait to get out of here. Our house right now is basically 1 big room... A house should have more than 1 room... its just not right to have anything less.

Julie is doing a test right now for a temping agency. Its testing her fluency with MS office. Don't tell anyone, but I've helped her on a few questions :)

I will post more pics soon.

--Ben

Tim Hortons in Ireland.

Check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28327&l=5bee5&id=502577840

crazy eh?

Leap and a net will appear

We have our own Internet!

When I was talking to people about the first steps to take when arriving in Ireland, they all said to get a cell phone right away then get a place to live. Those were both good steps, but they stopped there. Having Internet should have been on that list! The Internet it soooo important in today's society... we have had so many questions that could be very easily answered on the Internet. anyhow, the good news is, that crisis is over. If you move to Ireland, get the Internet first, then a cell, then a home :)

Ireland is a very interesting place. We are having a lot of fun here. Dublin is a very busy city. The sidewalks and the streets are always packed with people. I think European people tend to live less in Bubbles then North Americans. They seem to spend more time "out and about" rather than sitting in front of the TV or PC. This could be because their houses/apartments are so tiny :)

Our first few days we stayed in hostels. On the third night here, we stayed in a hostel that had 10 people sleeping in 1 room. It was not fun! 3 of those people were snoring like you wouldn't believe. We didn't get much sleep that night. The next day we realized we had to get our own place, even if just temporary. We found a nice temporary place a bit outside of Dublin city center. Our temporary place is TINY. The whole apartment is about the same size as our master bedroom in our house in Kanata (and that includes a kitchen, bathroom, and utility room) - crazy!

Anyhow, we are moving out of here on July 24th. We found an amazing apartment downtown. Its on the top 2 floors of a 4 story building. The top floor has 2 outdoor patios. Of course its fairly expensive. Everything in Dublin is expensive. Luckily both Julie & I will likely be working. Julie is leaning towards getting a job, but she has been accepted to a masters in history degree at University College Dublin.

The job front is going pretty well. I have interviewed 5 times for 1 role at Microsoft. The role is localization testing for the Mac group. I will be involved in testing language conversion of the Microsoft Office Suite on the Mac platform. My former managers Gelu & Blaine have been great references for this position, so fingers crossed.

I also have a second interview coming up for a company called Pocket Kings. They make the back end software for online poker games. Their main customer is Full Tilt poker. I would be testing their software.

Both jobs seem interesting and it may be a tough call if I get both. If I don't get either, I have been assured by my recruiter that there are jobs-a-plenty for QA people in Dublin... its mostly about salary and prestige at this point.

Here are a few "first impression" pictures of Dublin:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27085&l=4720f&id=502577840

Last weekend we took a guided bus trip around Ireland. Its really not that big. We drove to the other side in about 4 hours. The trip was a 2 day trip to Galway, the Cliffs of Moher, Limerick, and a few random stops in between. We also visited a massive park just outside of Dublin. The leader of Ireland lives in the park. The American Embassy is also inside the park. Lots of deer in the park, we saw a huge herd of them. Here are a few pictures of the bus trip:


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28049&l=a25e0&id=502577840

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28047&l=b0e29&id=502577840


This trip has been very much about "leap and a net will appear". We came to Ireland not knowing anyone here. We came with no jobs, no house, and little savings. We have just signed a lease for an apartment without jobs. All of these things are a bit scary, but we are both confident that it will all work out. Julie and I are both smart people. The job market is strong here and we have both been getting interviews. The universe will provide what we need. If others have done it, so can we.

Please reply to this blog. Its nice to know if people are actually reading it. I will keep you posted on further adventures and updates.