Stunning design for a rotating building in Dubai.

DMV in the US offers to replace 10,000 license plates. I’d love a WTF license plate What’s the bet someone is going to start selling replica WTF number plates on the back of this story?

Apes have rights too - Spanish parliament plans to write it into law. Doubt if the apes would do the same if the situation was reversed.

Reason #<infinity> why America needs to do something about citizens right to bear arms. Sickened.

13 people in a Volvo? Yeah, throw the book at him.

Looks like you might be a new visitor to le craic. If you like what you see here and fancy some daily diversions delivered to your favourite feed reader, why not click to join Club le craic. Go raibh maith agat! Thanks a thousand!

No matter how many times I see it, the .com just looks wrong. It’s lower case and looks to be a different typeface as well. Actually, why bother with the .com at all? Why not just do like the London Times and call it: IRISHTIMESONLINE

The introduction of the site is very welcome though

Just updated the header image. Press refresh on your browser if you can’t see it.

It was a nice capture by my nephew Darren a few weeks ago. I took both him and my niece Karina on a photo walk around the town. It was a nice Sunday afternoon and they enjoyed it.

I put a quote in it from Randy Pausch’s book, ‘The Last Lecture’ which I’ve read now a couple of times. There are just so many wonderful quotes from the book, but I particularly liked the one in the header image. I don’t have kids myself, but if I did I’m pretty sure I’d allow them stay up late!

Another story Randy tells is that a big part of his identity was “bachelor uncle”. He often took his sister’s two children, Chris and Laura on days out. One particular time when Chris was 7 and Laura was 9, he picked them up in his brand new VW Cabrio convertible.

“Be careful in Uncle Randy’s new car”, my sister told them. “Wipe your feet before you get in it. Don’t mess anything up. Don’t get it dirty”. I listened to her, and thought, as only a bachelor uncle can : “That’s the sort of admonition that sets kids up for failure. Of course they’d eventually get my car dirty. Kid’s can’t help it.” So I made things easy. While my sister was outlining the rules, I slowly and deliberately opened a can of soda, turned it over, and poured it in the back of the convertible. My message : People are more important than things. A car, even a pristine gem like my new convertible, was just a thing.

As I poured out that Coke, I watched Chris and Laura, mouths open, eyes widening…. A week later Chris got the flu and threw up all over the backseat. He didn’t feel guilty. He was relieved; he had already watched me christen the car. He knew it would be OK”.

I identify with the bachelor uncle thing. I’m the only one of my siblings who doesn’t have any children. I don’t want to be the bachelor uncle forever. I often see guys I went to school with around town with their kids. It leaves me feeling like I’ve a lot of catching up to do. I sponsored another of my nephews at his confirmation 2 years ago. I have to admit that I struggled to hold back tears during the ceremony at one point as I thought about whether or not I would ever see a milestone like that with a child of my own.

Ah feck it, I’m just feeling a little sentimental today. What will be will be and if it doesn’t, so be it – I’ll get on and make the most of what I have.

I’ve been a member of my local Xtravision branch since 1993. Recently it has struck me that the company spends a lot on advertising. They have repositioned themselves from being a rental operation to being “Ireland’s leading entertainment company”. This isn’t a new development. It’s been ongoing for a few years now. They are adapting to the changing landscape. The penetration of Sky in Ireland and online movie rental operations has brought this change about.

And yet, through all of this change, they have not engaged with me, a customer of 15 years. I think they are missing out on something. Let me explain.

Up to about a year ago I would have been a regular renter of titles - maybe one or two over the course of week. Since then, my rental pattern has been very sporadic. Rental is probably not their focus right now, but I’m not going through the door as often as I did.

That’s one less set of eyeballs that isn’t seeing what other offers they have going on. All the press and TV advertising hasn’t got me back in to the Xtravision habit.

So why has their computer system not picked up on the fact that my rental pattern has changed? I wouldn’t mind if someone from the local branch gave me a call to say “Hey, we noticed you’ve not been here in a while - there’s a credit applied to your account for any rental in the next 10 days”. Anyone in business should know that your most valuable asset is your customer database. So why is a big company like Xtravision so piss poor at utilising it?

How about encouraging me to get alerts via text of when new titles are available to rent in the local store. Maybe a loyalty card - rent x number of titles in a month and get some sort of discount for a dvd purchase.

I just don’t understand why they spend so much on blanket advertising campaigns when an investment in a better computer system might pay off more in the long run.

So Xtravision, whatcha gonna do to get me back to you?

Yesterday I decided to keep a food diary. I want to try and get an idea why I’m getting so tired. It’s not every day but maybe 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes by the end of the day I am literally hardly able to walk.

I thought I might use my mobile’s note feature. I created the first diary entry but it was too awkward. Then I thought maybe my internet tablet. No good – battery time isn’t great. Create a document on the PC – maybe, but others use the same machine so it was a no to that.

Of course, the last thing I thought of was pen and paper which was exactly what I ended up using.

I couldn’t just use any old bit of paper though. I headed on over to pocketmod.com which allows you to create little disposable notebooks. Every pocketmod you create has customised pages – to do lists, food diary, contacts and shopping lists. It’s been updated since I last visited it and now allows you to include pages from your favourite website. The pocketmod is printed on a single sheet of A4 paper which is then folded to create a booklet. It’s a little tricky getting the folding right the first time but the video showing how it’s done helps.

Just passing it along in case you hadn’t heard of it.

Twitter week. I joined twitter this week. It’s been good so far and very useful. It has exceeded my expectations even though it is frightfully slow. I imagine there is a point at which it could become a distraction though.

For me it makes me feel connected. My typical day starts at 7.25 when I leave the house to catch the bus. From that point on until 12 or 1 in the afternoon, I might not have any interaction with another soul beyond various exchanged hellos or good mornings.

I miss the camraderie of the office working environment which I spent many years in. There was always someone to share your news and thoughts with. Always someone to discuss something from the previous nights tv. Innane chatter really but that’s the stuff of life isn’t it? I do have someone that works with me on a few afternoons a week so it’s not all bad. Still, 4 or 5 hours until the afternoon is a long time to spend on your own if it’s not busy.

Anyway, if you want to join my virtual office and keep me sane, do feel free to follow me I’d be glad of the company.

Ok, so this is a bit like all those kit kat ads, but the animation is gorgeous and you know I only bring you quality videos on a Friday don’t you?

I twittered about buying a book on Bookhabit this week. The book I bought was the Secret of Rapid Learning. The title drew me like a moth to a flame, so I put down my hard earned $2.50 and downloaded it.

I’ve read maybe a third and will probably write a summary post about it later. The site is worth a visit in the meantime.

What is Bookhabit all about. Well, I think they say it themselves very well.

Bookhabit gives discovered and undiscovered writers a conduit to the reading world, and gives readers a place to explore.

Readers can look for books about niche or specialist subjects that a mainstream publisher couldn’t promote profitably.

As if I don’t read enough already, I’m a subscriber to Business Book Summaries. I find them very handy to get the salient points of a book without having to invest in it or read it! They have a special offer right now. A years subscription for $39.95 – that’s a bargain as you can download all the previous summaries as well.