Mike Rogers, the VP of the desktop group stuff, is over in Ireland for 2 days. I had a pretty bad impression of him before he came over but I was completely wrong - he's a genuinely cool guy.

Found out that I get to go to the GNOME Boston Summit in July. I think I'll take a couple of days either side of it and try and hook up with some climbers I know over there. This rocks.

I have an incredible respect for the job that John is trying to do now with the GNOME 2 release within Sun. Sun managers are cool.

Saw 'No Mans Land' last night. It was just an incredibly excellent film. Even though war is an incredibly depressing thing, there was something very fresh about this film that I can't explain.

Wow, what a scorcher of a day. Climbed some awesome routes - even leading Spailpin E1 5c again. Found it rather easy, which is kinda bizarre because I haven't been climbing all that much recently. Indian and beers later. A really wonderful day.

Went for a picnic in the mountains with some friends. Mark is heading off to London tommorrow. Although the thought of a picnic seems rather old fashioned, it was kinda fun. Went back and watched 'Shooting Fish', a really hilarious film. Watched some other crap film and then the Eurovision Song Contest [shudder].

Getting a real urge to go climbing again. Work is bad in that respect, it really interferes with climbing.

Macintosh heaven. It *does* exist!

Found out that it wasn't a terribly good bank holiday weekend. Managed to pick up a speeding ticket just coming back to Dublin from an almost perfect time in Donegal. Clocked at 60mph on the dual carriageway just outside Lucan with a speed limit of 50mph. Sigh. Still pissed about getting my wing mirror knocked off on the Friday too.

Made some pretty yummy vegetable stir fry. It was good to have that smell linger in the fridge for a while.

I decided that it was about time to throw my trainers into the wash. There was too much of a health risk in their current state.

Patrick took us out to dinner in the Gotham Cafe, as a thank you for borrowing my room while I was in Australia. His brother and wife came along too. They have the most wonderful child - so full of innocence behind that beaming smile.

And sometimes, it's just straight bizarre...

Sometimes, even normality returns...if just for a brief second.

Not everything is black and white.

Where's Wally?

We need a new ARC classification...Notary Public.

World cup fever has Ireland...*big* time.

Campus board carnage. I wish I had one of these at home.

I don't need any political spam please. This kind of stuff makes me so upset.

Missed out on the Trinity Ball...the European Party of the year by all accounts. I've been a couple of times while I was at college and the band lineup has got progressively worse...yet the tickets get more and more expensive.

Sun Microsystems celebrated their 20th anniversary. Celebrate with an off-site all hands. Celebrate with a 4 hour meeting. They decided to have a 'name the manager' competition, with baby photos. I couldn't even name them when they were grown up. Free beer and food afterwards which made up for the embarrassing act my brother did. The things you will do to win a holiday away. [sigh]

Fianna Fail, the Republican Party. Sinn Fein *the* Republican Party. Ain't politics funny.

Until you come back to the monotony of everyday life.

We even took in some of Mallin Beag and some queer crags that hardly a sole had touched. This is really what life is all about.

Most of the climbing community headed down for something special. And there we were, 15 tents on the head, clipping up, springing, pumping, thrilling.

I just love being beside the sea...the smell of that salt air and the feel of that windlashed rock. This was going to be amazing..with perfect skies and chalked up hands there was no stopping us.

It was bank holiday weekend...well almost and just enough time to pick up the car for a road trip up to Co Donegal for some Muckross Head climbing. Shame that there was all that traffic.

I'm really curious as to what the diamond means.

Things at the 'No Wall, No Way' front have got ugly and I can finally sympathize with the residents.