The Singing Stranger

Well, it’s only 1290 days (give or take a month) until we have to elect them, so why not start now?

When I arrived home earlier, Mum was already in full swing. “Did you see the Late Late last night?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Did you see Liz O’Donnell on it? Very good about that stuff in Liberia.”

“Yeah, was quite impressed, I must say.”

“I reckon she’ll run for President.” She said it almost as if we were having a long-running row and she was trying to be vindictive.

“Eh… maybe. Though she’d need the PD nomination and Adrian Hardiman from the Supreme Court bench will probably get it.”

“Oh, really?” And that was pretty much it.

Then cut to my mum’s parents visiting us earlier this evening. It turns out my Grandad is a little more dyed-in-the-wool as an FFer than I would have thought. He went off on an (admittedly logical) rant about how if Bertie had lodged £15k into his account, the statements would have showed up that he’d lodged £15k, and not the IR£16,500-odd that that probably would have converted into. He’s right - if you lodge $100 in the bank, your statement will say you lodged $100 USD, and then give the conversion rate before putting the credit in the right column. According to Grandad the statements only list the IR£ lodgements - begging the question as to why you would convert it just to lodge it, or whether he maybe got it converted in Manchester before returning. Either way, despite the tangent about how “the tribunal was set up to cover planning; how is Bertie’s back accounts anything to do with planning?!”, we eventually hit the same subject again.

“Sure if there’s nothing in Europe before then, he’ll end up as President anyway, sure.”

Enter Mum: “I dunno about that, I think if his bib is dirtied at all he won’t get it.”

And then me. “Nah. To be honest there’s too many people in Fianna Fáil who’ve been biding their time, getting everything ready for ages, and waiting in the background, for Bertie to just decide he wants a better job once he’s not in the Dáil any more.”

Which I thought was a fair point. Then Mum pipes in with her Liz O’Donnell again, and then I recall how when Ciara came back from Brussels she was convinced Brian Crowley MEP would be a great choice and was almost being groomed for the job.

Then I recalled Mary Davis, who was involved in Special Olympics and who addressed us at USI Congress last year as a keynote speaker. Easily flaggable as an option - and then there’s Senator Mary White (at least I think that’s her name - not a great sign if she’s not known by everyone) who’s already declared her interest.

There was Bob Geldof! Maybe even Gerry Adams! And who, pray tell, would get the FG nomination?!

It’s a weird one. But who needs Obama or Clinton when you’ve got a whole three-and-a-half years left of the McAleeses and the world is getting electoral itchy feet?!

Right, it’s been a damn long time since I wrote something of real substance on this - I’ve been putting off a real update on this for a couple of weeks but I guess the time has presented itself and there’s just a bit to catch up on.

It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks.

Where to start? Let’s start four weeks ago with USI National Congress in Bettystown (the first national conference of any body that I can remember happening in Meath for quite a while). It was a busy week - much busier than the last two Congresses, although this time is probably because I was shouldering most of UCD’s organisational burden doing it, but all in all I really enjoyed it; UCDSU had a successful week, all of our motions (the ones that ended up being discussed anyway; some were deferred to a National Council) were passed and nothing that we had a mandate to vote on went against us - although we came close where our mandate to block-vote against over-the-counter availability of the Morning After Pill ended up leading the floor to a tie at 71-71, meaning the motion fell. Great social scene, a few memorable moments, and I also got the chance to address Congress for ten or fifteen minutes presenting the new website I’m building for USI (for free) at which nobody was able to offer any constructive criticism, so happy days in that regard!

We also elected some of next year’s Officer Board - Shane Kelly (Waterford IT) as President, the amazingly fantastic Bartley Rock (Trinity) as Education Officer, and Anthony Muldoon (IADT, Dun Laoghaire) as Welfare Officer. For the first time in three years too, the Deputy Presidency won’t be vacant - Dave Curran, twice Deputy in UCD (Ciara’s direct successor, actually) got in with a steady mandate. Most said there was only one person who could run for the job - I reckon there’s two, but anyway… - and not be RONned based on other colleges opposition to the position still being there, and Dave duly stepped up with a healthy victory. The other part-time jobs are slowly being filled for next year too and UCD are doing their bit in trying to ensure a strong future for USI after the crap it’s had going for it in the last couple of years.

I also had a couple of internship interviews with Company X (who I’ll reveal in time but I’d rather keep it quiet for the moment) which have gone very well, and here’s hoping that it all comes together, because the company in question are excellent employers whose employees have pretty great lifestyles, and I’ve already started envisaging my summer working around it - it seems great.

I’m actually really looking forward to this Summer - call me juvenile but I can’t wait for the Olympics (whatever about all the rest… anyone who hasn’t seen the Curry Chips animated gif of Gormley should really have a look), whether that’s because I’m a child who still believes in the magic of the 100m or the concept of even-handed international competition, and also to Euro 2008. I remember a time when I used to think that having finished a Commerce & German degree in May 2008, I’d be treating myself by going to see Ireland in the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, using my German degree along the way. I think I’ll equally split the blame with Steve Staunton on that one.

Summers though - long evenings, long sweaty nights out, drinking outdoors, and hopefully having a good job to fund a nice lifestyle the way through. Here’s hoping.

Another thing that was a pretty great thing to hear had to do with our Aisling Scheme, part of the Union’s Access Week. Basically the scheme involves Union officers and volunteers giving tours of the University to primary and secondary pupils from disadvantaged areas, doing different excusions and giving them different tasks to complete - all in all, a nice day out to try and inspire them to consider breaking with whatever traditions they’re bound by and aspire to third level education.

On a whim myself and Ronan, the Union’s Education Officer, decided to throw in a nomination for the AIB Better Ireland awards. Lo and behold, we got a phone call from someone at the UCD branch of AIB letting us know, before anything went public, that we were going to be nationally shortlisted for an award, and a €10,000 prize to be put towards the development of the Aisling Scheme. I’ll be back at you trying to nag you all into voting for us later on but for now we’ll just bask in the minor glory of getting some national respect for jobs we hope are well done.

Oh, and we also won something this week! I can’t recall how extensively (if at all) I blogged about it while we were putting it together, but myself and Brennan spent most of July and August putting together the Student Survival Guide (’Freshers Guide’ to most of you) - many long nights and sleepless weekends of blood, sweat and toil putting together a guide of 26,000 words and 264 full-colour pages, with an endless ream of contributors and blurbs from each of UCD’s dozens of clubs or societies.

Once it was done - and we managed to divorce ourselves from it long enough to truly appreciate how well the whole thing was put together - we realised that we’d done ourselves very proud in its quality and design. On the back of that, when nominations for the National Student Media Awards (or ‘Smedias’) were opened in early March we decided we’d fling in the Guide and see how well it would be appraised. We ended up being shortlisted in three categories - Society Publication of the Year, Magazine of the Year, and for the public vote People’s Choice award.

We did some minor publicising of the People’s Choice award, but enough to realistically be in with a shout. Nor did we realistically expect to be awarded Magazine of the Year when our publication, though strong, was only a once-off and didn’t earn the reputation of being consistent throughout the year like so many other college magazines are (a problem that also limited our success with the public vote, as we had no solid reader base). We were hopeful, though, of getting an award in the Society Publication category - and would have been more than thrilled with getting any recognition at all for it.

Well, as luck had it, Society Publication of the Year was the first award at the 3 Smedias Presentation on Tuesday night in Tripod on Harcourt St, and happily we walked away with the award for Society Publication of the Year! Huzzah! Our mates at the University Observer also won two awards, as did the College Tribune, leaving UCD with the most prizes for print publications - despite having no journalism or media courses to speak of.

So all in all, a nice stretch for awards and recognition, and here’s hoping it continues.

It would be amiss of me not to mention GAA Congress last weekend in Sligo too - the usual great craic, and thanks to the miscellaneous Brennans (and Duffys!) for making it the weekend it was. I have to say it was a tad emotional being with the family when seeing Nickey’s successor being elected; it was a window into their lives three years ago when they went to Croke Park with their hopes down and expecting the pain of public rejection, only to be thrown joyfully in the spotlight when he grabbed victory. I’m only glad I could be there for the later bit of it - it could well have been him only acceeding to the top seat on the day.

A reminder, as if I needed it, to enjoy the crazy hubbub and surreal scenarios that ife throws at you, because you’ll undoubtedly miss them all the more afterwards.

So that’s my last month or so in a nutshell; I can’t promise many more updates this week, as we’ve got USI Eastern Area Conference on Wednesday evening - the last night of “the dream Lynam/Reilly ticket” as the current EA Officer describes our chair/secretary partnership, the UCD Sports Awards on Thursday night, the UCD Ball (featuring East 17, the girls from B*Witched, Bodyrox, The Blizzards, The Wolfe Tones, and Christ knows who else!…) on Friday, and two birthday parties on Saturday.

And that’s after I fly to Ljubljana tomorrow as part of a group of six USI reps at a two-day European Students’ Union conference on standardising academic accreditation across Europe, having only been recruited for it last Monday…

Some life, eh? Well, like I said, enjoy the hubbub…

First he was in the Science block, then he was outside a theatre in Arts, then he was in the Student Centre, and then back on the concourse outside Arts again. And it’s not even 6:30pm.

Except it wasn’t him at all.

I often find that no matter how topsy-turvy a day in my life might be, there’s always a single theme that binds around the day - the fact that I see people who look like someone else in my life, everywhere, throughout the day.

Today I saw someone who looks like a girl I used to work on Belfield FM with, five times. Yesterday I “saw” a former President of UCDSU four times. And it happens to me every day - people with their image just floating about, everywhere, on any one day.

I don’t know what to make of this unusual phenomenon; nor do I even know what to call it, but “Persistent lookalike-bumping-into” will probably be staying persistent enough in my life for a little while yet.

…uploading old press releases from 2001-2004 onto a new Press blog I’m doing for the new USI website.

Tedious is not the word.

Meet Johnny and Sally - the average couple, just like you.

We grew up in your average neighborhoods doing the usual things that all people do: swimming, golf, horseback riding, arts and crafts, gardening, building treehouses, mowing the lawn, selling lemonade, etc.

Except there’s one rather exceptional thing about Johnny and Sally - and that is the simple, gobsmacking truth.

Apparently, black people love them. Like, bigtime. And this is a fact, so amazing, that:

We thought it’d be cool to honor our exceptional status with a ROCKIN’ domain name and a killer website!!

Just read the testimonials!

Sally loves to touch my hair! She always asks me how I got my hair to do this. That makes me feel special. Like I have magical powers!

Or…

Sally and Johnny are always going on and on about how Tiger Woods changed the face of golf, and the Williams Sisters changed the face of tennis! On and on…like, almost for too long!

And…

Sally always says things that make me feel special, like: “You’re so cool, you’re different, you’re not like other Black people!”

I mean, Good God.

Hey, you! Reader! You might be black! Are you feeling particularly lonely and isolated by a Caucasian-dominated society? Weep no more! Visit www.blackpeopleloveus.com and they might even include you!

It’s only just struck me that the last post before this on the blog was entitled “today, Feb 1st”. Which clearly needs addressing so call me tokenistic but here’s what I’ve been at.

Feb 2nd: Ireland vs Italy in Croke Park. What a dire, drab game with a dire, drab atmosphere. The weather was murky, the game was sloppy, and midway through the first half the power cut in the stadium and only made the place darker and more annoyed. Afterwards was my friend Shelley’s 21st though, which was far more fun. Being in Copper’s is much more fun when you’re in a group with five women and some of them are quite shameless about their chests, and I mean that in a nice way.
Feb 3rd: the Superbowl. Can’t say I stayed up to watch it - telling myself I was saving it for Super Tuesday - but wow, that’s what happens when you register 19-0 as a trademark, isn’t it?

Feb 6th: Ireland vs Brazil (soccer), again in Croke Park. A much better occasion this time - there’s something about Croker in floodlights - with a better atmosphere all round, and much better entertainment. A tidy Robinho ends Ireland’s unbeaten record in Croker but Ireland play much better and make you wonder whether Don Givens is worthy of consideration for the full-time job.

Feb 7th-10th: Off to Wales for a weekend to see Chris, Kirsty and Haleh with Carla, Clem, Sandy and Neil. A messy, wonderful weekend. Too many memories (albeit hazy ones) but have a look at the Bebo photos here.

I honestly don’t know what I’ve been doing for a few days after that. There was quite a lot of work on our new Union Constitution which ended up with many consistent late nights arguing over the wording of particular phrases and what have you, and then there was a mammoth slog to get the signatures collected so that the referendum could be held in time. That rush finished on Monday the 18th, culminating with about ten of us collecting 919 signatures in one day. Damn hard work.

Last weekend was the Ógra Fianna Fáil National Youth Conference, which was interesting to attend if only to put faces to names and to try out the ‘Vote Early Vote Often’ principle rife in FF elections. (Sadly I only got to vote once - and the desired candidates didn’t get through for various reasons. They know who they are, and I feel for them.)

This week it’ll be the UCDSU Sabbatical Elections trail as we try and explain the merits of an 10,995-word document that nobody wants to understand to an electorate who for the most part couldn’t care why the name of the Deputy President needs to be changed.

It’s a dogs life, eh?

From: gav AT gavreilly DOT com
To: m—-@s——-.ie
Date: 1/2/08, 10.33
What weight did you say Dad was again when you got married?

From: m—-@s——-.ie
To: gav AT gavreilly DOT com
Date: 1/2/08, 10.47
11.2 …so what have you hit now?

From: gav AT gavreilly DOT com
To: m—-@s——-.ie
Date: 1/2/08, 10.52
11.2 ?

Oh no.

From: m—-@s——-.ie
To: gav AT gavreilly DOT com
Date: 1/2/08, 11.06
Well,,,,,,unless you end up being on the lucky/ thin Reilly side like [my uncle]….you will have to start walking, eat proper meals and stop nibbling!!!!!

From: gav AT gavreilly DOT com
To: m—-@s——-.ie
Date: 1/2/08, 11.08
12 7.

From: m—-@s——-.ie
To: gav AT gavreilly DOT com
Date: 1/2/08, 11.12
As little Tom would say.”Oh god”…your father was only a little ore that that before Christmas…of course now it is 13.7 and I am threatening to send him to the Motivation clinic!!

…and Google invites everyone she knows around for a shindig.

Warning: you must have a geek rating of about π out of 5 to enjoy this.

Only heard this for the first time today - it’s mad to think that this…

…can become this…

Pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve often thought that the Bloodhound Gang’s The Bad Touch and Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six would make a good mashup. Any takers?

PS - Sorry about the sparsity of posting this week, I did 64 hours at work between different things, not helped by the fact our corridor staff was halved for the week. Nonetheless well done to the lads who came second in the JP Morgan Good Venture competition.

Enjoy.

**EDIT - I should outline that this, in fact, was an error message I actually got myself on the afternoon in question.