Fin

Well I just moved out of Goldsmith, and I'm sitting in LG12 for probably the last time, my accounts will have expired by the time we get back. That's it, the last bridge has been lit!

I'm too tired to care at the moment. Last night myself and the inestimable Ian pre-booked our interrail accomodation up until the 7th of July. It was really very difficult, and we made some choices on behalf of everyone in the group which may not be popular - like cutting out Krakow: we found out about 30 minutes later that Annie was really looking forward to there (sorry Annie...). Then I ended up staying at his place: there were raucious drunks maurauding outside the windows at 3am, then the girls stumbled up and down the stairs repeatedly, slamming doors at about 4.

This morning I shuffled back to my place, cleaned up my room, and took on the gaurgantuan task of cleaning up our kitchen. The floor turned out to be sky-blue rather than navy - who knew! Then after all that John organised a possie, and together we moved the fussball table, "liberated" from outside of Kennedys one night, down 4 flights of stairs, down the treacherous back stairs, and down the corridor, resting it proudly in its new home: the JCR. May it bring truimphal joy, and agonising defeat to many.

In other news, thanks to Annie I got gmail, and it rocks! (Guess I didn't repay her so well, with the whole skipping Krakow thing... or the breaking of her bowl...) I've also lost my ticket for the trip to and from Munich, which is irritating (no, it's not karmic, this happened before!).

Idleness

It's almost no fun being idle when there's nothing to shirk! Books lose their ability to devour time, MUD becomes a collection of pathetic people, and flash games are suddenly very crap.

I say almost: yesterday was excellent. A very relaxed dinner with Seamas, Niamh, Sean, Annie and Paul led to frisbee on the green, led to cinema, led to myself, Sean and Paul enjoying at post-midnight game of frisbee on the rugby pitch! My lack of specs, and the general lack of light conspired to make it a bit of an adventure sport while it lasted :) In the end we were moved along by four friendly security guards, but only so far as the computer labs, where we deathmatched with thanks to the excellent open source Cube available from sourceforge. Played some chess, surfed aimlessly, until finally I left at about 5am I think... That was fun :)

Today however, suitably sleep deprived, I became pretty bummed plucking along to 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' by Led Zeppelin for obvious reasons. I thought if I roused myself and tried to finish my graphics project I'd cheer up; on the way to the lab I noticed some people studying on the rugby pitch. For the first time in about four years, I categorized them as 'they', 'other'. For a split second I experienced a disaffiliation with college, and I think it was jarring because of the exclusion - I wasn't part.

Dinner was a wild concoction of tuna, chilli, noodles, and cheese. Written down that looks like a big mistake. I should have written it down then, instead of proving it by experiment. So, head, brain, and later bowels in turmoil, I headed in to town to try and find the source of some music that was bouncing around front square and new square [you can almost see detectives tracing back the source of my psychopathic insanity to this event... "Ah, the old music-in-the-head" :)]

The walk did my good, especially coming back in through front arch, I have never tired of that, or taken it for granted - it's an occasion every time :) I will miss that.

Oh, nearly forgot - the description... Right. "So empathetic it's almost sycophantic" needs to be attributed to Sean "skier" Kiernan. It's a gem, wish it were mine :)

Currently nostalgic (ah those late night conversations, ah the late nights in the labs etc ad nauseum)

Listening to traffic on Pearse St (won't miss that)

Moi, Suomi

Well that phone interview turned out to be pretty momentous. I was offered a job in Finland that I really can't refuse. The pay is great, the project is absolutely incredible (to the point of being down-right daunting), the company is excellent... the only bad point is it's not in Dublin.

Despite the fact that I've all but formally accepted the position, it and it's consequences are still popping up in my thoughts quite a lot. The people I'm going to miss, the places I won't be able to go to, the things I won't get to do (like eventually form that band that gets to gig in Whelans for one night only...). Ah well, I guess that's what keeps life interesting - as soon as you have some vague plan, the landscape alters - I'd rather adapt with it than sit sadly wishing it hadn't.

I guess I'll just have to get broadband and start an online ex-pat community with Annie and Stephen :)

Apart from my imminent immigrant status, I met some of my older cousins in Cafe en Seinne on the 2nd, went home for two nights, which was relaxing except for being unable to sleep because it was too quiet, and came back up here yesterday.

I've to sort out some of those projects yet... I don't get to demo until Wednesday which is really annoying, and we've to look into accomodation in Italy (and elsewhere probably for the interrail trip!).

Listening to the Smashing Pumpkins on Phantom FM
Still jealous of Annie's gmail account :)

Relax...

That's it - I'm not longer an undergrad! I still can't quite completely relax - I've a few very overdue projects to, erm, complete. But it still feels over.

With ten minutes to go I looked up around the spectacular exam hall, with the sun streaming in through the windows at the top, and started to get a great sense of achievement, mixed with nostalgia. Then I slapped myself on the face, and finished looking over the paper.

It feels a bit anti-climatic, probably because everyone isn't finished yet, and myself and Aoife ended up celebrating alone - in Cafe en Seinne via Doyles, with cocktails, to give it a sense of occasion :)

Anyway, I'm going to go find someone to speak to, to get rid of octave-lower morning voice, before taking a phone interview