Good Times/Bad Times ?

I got some good, and some bad news this week. I found out that a proposal for a presentation I put in for a conference in Hawaii has been accepted. This means that I get to go to Hawaii towards the end of October for a week! Good times! How often does anybody get presented with an opportunity like this? I received confirmation when the organiser of the conference rang me to ask me some clarification questions about the presentation. He seemed really interested and enthusiastic about the presentation, so much so that he invited me to be a keynote speaker. Good times? No, bad times!


Now, don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic opportunity - especially for my company - in terms of raising the company profile - and to be invited as a keynote speaker is very prestigious. It's generally offered to people who have a lot of experience in research and in their field, and are generally considered experts in their respective areas. This is what makes me nervous. No, not nervous, terrified!

I get nervous at the best of times, when I give presentations. Generally, the nerves pass as soon as I start to talk and I ease into it. But this is a whole other kettle of fish than a simple presentation. It is an address to all the attendees at the conference, setting the theme for the particular session I'm speaking at, so if it goes badly, it's not as if I can slink off into the lei-filled night unnoticed. I know, as everybody has been saying to me, it will probably go fine, but it really is challenging my self-confidence and pushing it to the limit, so much so that after the aforementioned phone call I was on the verge of some sort of panic-attack. I literally felt weak at the knees and weirdly upset. As I've said I do get nervous and anxious occasionally, but nothing like this, and on the occasions that I have become extremely nervous I'm completely aware of the fact that it is nerves that are affecting me. It took me a while to realise that the prospect of being a keynote speaker simply terrifies me. In the past, if a talk didn't go particularly well, it only reflected on me poorly. However, this time around I'm not only speaking about my own work and findings, but I'm also speaking on behalf on my company, so I have an even greater responsibility to do well. This is the first time the company will have been represented on an international scale and as they say, first impressions are often everything.

To say I am shitting myself slightly, is a complete understatement.

Drink Your Sun-Fizz!

I completely forgot about this advetisment. Absolutely hilarious!



In other news, to stem my lack of productivity I've picked up a copy of David Allen's Getting Things Done. With my already existing obsession with stationary, it looks like I may soon be a convert to the GTD cult...

Je Parle Pas Francais

As if Girls Aloud couldn't get any better...
they've recorded their new single Can't Speak French, in French! How post-modern and fabulously ironic of them!

Here's the original video set to the french version of the song:

Step One, Check!

Yay!

I passed my driver theory test today! I got full marks, so I'm well chuffed. I realise its only one small step of many towards getting my license, but still, it's a step!

Look out bitches, I'll be on the road in no time. All I have to sort out now is trying to find someone who is going to insure me for less that €1,200. Not an easy task.

Busking 101

Check this out: Roisín Murphy doing a performance of You Know Me Better, the next single from her album Overpowered, on the streets of London.



In the words of PopJustic...amazing.

The album itself is pretty amazing too. Check out couple of reviews.

Cyanide & Happiness on Gayness

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Stumbling Forth

The arch supports, they do nothing!

My feet are still killing me. I'm going to give these arch supports (which incidentally seem to make my shoes fit less well which can't be a good thing) one more day. If my feet have not been completely managled by the end of today I'm guessing they're doing their job.

I know this is a pointless update, but I figured that seeing as I've started blogging again I should really keep the ball rolling, or stumbling forward at least.

Baby Steps

As some of you may know, I was the lucky recipient of a car for Christmas - and no, I'm not from one of those familys that get ponies and such for Christmas. It's a '97 Fiat Punto. I took it as a subtle yet obvious hint that my parents think I, being 26, should really get off my arse and learn to drive.

I've been getting a few lessons of my younger (yes I know it is embarassing that she can drive and I can't) sister, and today I took the first of many steps to make my way onto the roads by applying for my theory test. I've been arsing around for ages reading the book and doing the CD-rom test, so I figured I should really set myself a deadline. I'm doing the test in two weeks, so hopefully all will go well.

Genetics

I've been having really bad foot pain in my left foot for the past few weeks, so I decided to go and visit a chiropodist to get it checked out (by the way did you know that chiropodist pronounced k-iropodist? I obviously didn't from the look of puzzlement when I said the word to the...erm...foot doctor person).

Anywho, she informed me that I have extra high arches in my feet. Yes, some may say that this means my feet would look fantastic in heels, but unfortunately, and contrary to my occasional druken antics, a drag queen in the making I am not. It seems that I have the opposite to flat feet and am putting tons of pressure on the balls of my feet, hence damaging the soft tissue and giving me the pain I've been experiencing together with frequent shin splints with excessive walking/running.

She also informed me that it is genetic, and in keeping with the general trent in the family, any genetic problems seem to always get passed down to me. Why couldn't my family carry some kind of laser-beam-emmiting genetic trait or super-human strength? Is that too much to ask? Instead I got lumped with an immune-system that likes to eat up pancreatic cells and gammy feet. That's great. Just fucking great. With my ability to absorb/inherit genetic traits so well, it seems that I had all the opportunity to become a super X-Man like figure. Pity my gene pool has me more akin to Beak rather than, say, Nightcrawler.

Ah well, at least I can remedy the situation with discreetly placed insoles rather than my initial horror of thinking I'd have to wear those chunky orthopedic shoes that we used to slag the Jehovah Witness kid in school for wearing.

Renovatations

As you may be aware, I'm in the midst of renovating this old blog. The next step is to actually start posting again. I should really start anew and clean up all of the ancient posts on here, but to be honest, I couldn't be arsed.

Currently I'm bolloxed tired and completely unmotivated. Thank God it's Friday at least! Plans for the weekend...well I've got a friends birthday party on tomorrow night and as for the rest, I plan on just taking it easy. We'll see how that one works out.