Facebook and Twitter

This evening I deactived my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Facebook I never got in to - I stopped using it because I never posted on it and I got fed up with request to be "friends" with people I had never heard of. Most of these were "friends" of my daughters and I have realized that at 49 years of age I am about 25 years too old. I won't miss this.

As for Twitter - you know I actually took out my iPhone in the pub last Thursday evening to record that I was in the pub on Twitter! How sad is that? I enjoyed it for the EdTech conference last week, but this fad is over for me.

Marc Prensky famously wrote about the Digital Immigrants (me) vs the Digital Natives (my kids) - though I pride myself in keeping up-to-date with all the latest technologies. I have been using computers since about 1986 and consider myself to have the "digital wisdom" that Prensky now writes about. However, Facebook and Twitter are too much for me. I love the freedom of expression that Blogger allows me and I hope to keep this web page going until I can no longer type (hopefully 30+ years from now). So whatever the next big thing is, I will probably just stick to Blogger.

Many of us have too much of an on-line presence, and sign up to the NBT - time to consolidate.

"Sawing Sticks"

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the O'Loughlin family home at Ballingate with my Mum and Dad. I was there to "saw sticks" - a peculiar Ballingate expression to denote cutting timber or logs. My Dad Joe, brother Joe, and his sons David and Niall were all on hand to help out in this task. The victim (ie the tree which we cut up) is in the front lawn of "our" house - Dad wanted to clear the undergrowth and to free up the view north towards the Wicklow mountains. Naturally we choose the hottest day of the year so far for this task - but we got through he work, creating two loads of logs, plus a few for myself that I put into the back of the VW Golf.

We had a delicious lunch prepared by Mum - Quiche and red current pie, washed down with a glass of cider and lots of tea. Mum even chided me for putting too much butter on my bread - some things never change!

In the afternoon we stopped for a cool beer - 330ml of Coors Light. Joe and I talked about the tree. We agreed that it was probably over 30 years ago since we last climbed it. I remembered falling out of this tree and being brought to the doctor - I had an almost perverse pleasure in cutting down the offending part of the tree. However, we had so much fun climbing this tree and the many others (now gone) when we were kids.

The first picture above is of Dad and Joe at the tree facing North - Joe is standing at the top of a loader connected to the Zetor tractor, in order to cut away the low hanging branches. Earlier in the day the entire area where Dad is standing was covered by undergrowth. We reminisced about the tractor which Dad bought new in 1978. Joe and I had a collision in Bob Murphy's field in 1979 - I maintain that Joe reversed into me in the tractor with the combine harvester he was driving, while he thinks I crashed into the back him! All this happened at about 2 mph!

Before we finished up I had to show off my iPhone to Joe. We took a few pictures of ourselves and I am struck how similar we look. He is wearing my hat in the photo to the right. There is only 11 months between us (me - October 1959, Joe - Sept 1960) and we have been lifelong friends and buddies. Hopefully we can meet up next week for a game of golf - Joe has me in his sights since I boasted in a previous post that I had beaten him last time out.

The Ryan Report on Child Abuse

Lots of news this week on TV, radio, and in the papers about the Ryan Report on Child Abuse in religious institutions. I have not read the report - nor do I intend to. The media have adequately conveyed the horror of what went on - I can hardly believe that all this was taking place in my time. I have chosen my words carefully here - this is a difficult subject to talk about, but it is impossible to be silent. These are my own thoughts - you the reader can make up your own mind.

Thankfully, I was reared in a safe and loving home - I was lucky. I was an altar boy in Tomacork Church where nothing untoward happened. In school I can safely say that I do not know of a single incidence of sexual abuse that occured during my time in the four schools I attended:

• Carnew National School (1964-1971)
• Scoil na nÓg, Trabolgan (1971-1972)
• Cistercian College Roscrea (1972-1977)
• FCJ Bunclody (1977-1978)

Yes - we were subject to corporal punishment, a form of physical abuse. I learned early on that a good way to avoid punishment was to learn my lessons and behave - I was a quiet lad. In Carnew NS I think I was only slapped a few times in the first couple of years. There was no corporal punishment in Trabolgan or in FCJ (that I can remember). In CCR there was the dreaded leather strap that was only used on rare occasions - I never "received" the leather. In CCR I did get a few "clips-on-the-ear" for trivial issues - failing to pick up litter that was not my own when ordered to, borrowing a pencil sharpener from the desk of the boy behind me, cursing, and being caught giving "nix". But that was the extent of "physical abuse" - I have no hang-ups or mental scars about this. My experience was that CCR was a safe school where the majority of the teachers and staff were inspiring people who had the education and well-being of the boys at heart. When I got to Trinity I did hear from fellow students that I was lucky that I did not go to a Christian Brothers school.

But I often wondered what might have been. Within weeks of first arriving in CCR in 1972 as a 12 year old I was asked to come to the bedroom of one of the priests after lights out - which I did in my pyjamas. He never laid a hand on me, nor did anything that could in any way be regarded as sexual or physical abuse. In fact all he did was talk and there wasn't even the suspicion of abusive activity that night as far as I can tell 37 years later. I thought nothing of it at the time, though never forgot it - it never happened again. Today of course this would be regarded as highly inappropriate - what was he thinking of? I'll not name him here, though I'm sure if any CCR boys from the 1970s ever read this they will figure out who it was very quickly.

I was as innocent a boy that you could get in 1972 and I'm sure I would have been an easy target for any of the monsters that the Ryan Report pulls no punches in exposing - fuck them all.

I feel very sorry for the many wonderful brothers, priests, and nuns who were kind and gentle with children in their care - what must they be feeling? Many of course are guilty of standing idly by while their peers abused children, and must surely feel that they could have done more to prevent what went on. With the exception of yer man above - all that I had any dealings with were wonderful teachers and carers who helped mould me into the person I am today. I am very grateful to them all.

As part of my job I have to be Garda vetted and have had to attend a compulsory course on Child Protection as a few of NCI's students may be under the age of 18. I feel dirty that I have to go through this - guilty until proven innocent. Of course it is right that all involved in education and the care of children should be vetted - though I'm certain that evil monsters (eg Ian Huntley in Soham, UK) will find ways to get into the education system and evade restrictions that are implemented to protect children.

There is only one place for the Ryan Report monsters and that is in jail - fuck them all, no mercy.

Rev Ian Paisley at NCI

I'm just out of the Legends in your Lunchtime interview of Rev Ian Paisley by George Hook of Newstalk radio held here in NCI. The Kelly Theatre was packed (300+ people) and we were very well entertained by Big Ian and Hookie. I took the picture to the right of the two of them with my iPhone in the Atrium of the College just before the event.

Dr Paisley is now 83 years old and it is the first time I have ever seen him "in the flesh". While he looks like an old man, he carries himself well. He had his King James Bible with him at all times and referred to it a lot during the interview. In fact the interview was more about religion than politics. There is no doubt that Dr Paisley has an unshakeable faith in God and that He is the source of all things to Man. Dr Paisley comes across as a humble and modest man. He is also very funny and Hookie and he exchanged several bits of banter - notably about the "cannyness" of Ballymena people. He even offered to meet Hookie at the Pearly Gates whenever his time is up!

Overall - a very enjoyable event and I am glad I went along to see this true legend. You may not always have agreed with everything he said, but he is an inspiring figure and surely one of the most respected leaders in our time.

Sunday breakfast at "herbstreet"

On Sunday morning, Roma and I decided that we would have breakfast out and to then go for a walk. We drove into Hannover Quay and stopped at the herbstreet restaurant as they had tables outside in the glorious sunshine. I had to put on sun protection cream for the first time this year. I had delicious Eggs Benedict, as well as some of Roma's pancakes - a great treat. herbstreet is definitely recommended, and Recession-permitting we'll be back. We almost got hit by a shopping bag dropped from one of the apartments above the restaurant that landed on the ground right beside our table! And no apology from the culprit!

Afterwards we walked down to Sir John Rogerson's Quay to have a look at the Logos Hope ship which was tied up at the quayside. It is supposedly the world's largest floating bookshop, but it was not open on Sunday morning. After this we drove down to the Great South Wall and walked the length of the wall. We saw fishermen catching mackerel at the end, and the car ferries coming into Dublin Port. As you can see in the photo (from my iPhone) we still had glorious sunshine.

Inside NCI - The Magazine for Friends of National College of Ireland

I am featured in the current edition of Inside NCI - The Magazine for Friends of National College of Ireland. I was interviewed (by email) for the 2 Minute interview slot, and had some fun coming up with the answers. The full magazine is published on-line at ISSUU, and the short article is on page 15. I previously posted about a new photo taken for this article which I have now set as my Blogger Profile photo. The photo is quite small in the printed version of the magazine and you really need a magnifying glass to see how cool I look on my bike.

Below is a scan of the article. Also featured in the full magazine are the winners from NCI of the Newstalk Student Enterprise Competition, an interview with Norma Smurfit (after whow our library is named), and a look at the Legends in your Lunchtime series which is hosted at NCI and run by Newstalk radio. Rev Ian Paisley is due to be interviewed on Wednesday for the next part of the series - I'll be sure to post about this afterwards.

EdTech 2009

EdTech 2009 - the 10th Annual Conference of the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) was held this year at the National College of Ireland, and I was the local organizer for the Conference. We had over 150 delegates and 50 presentations, plus 14 exhibitors - quiet a lot of planning and work had to go in to get this show going. While I co-ordinated much of the local activities there has been an ILTA committee working on this for the past year which I was part of. The College did a good job of hosting the Conference.

I attended many of the presentations. The first keynote address was from Niall Sclater from the Open University in the UK - I was particularly interested in his thoughts on "Does location matter?" where he shared some ideas about the traditional approach to learning and whether students actually need to be in a classroom. The other keynote address was from Richard Katz of EDUCAUSE who had some interesting comments about the future of education and made excellent use of a tower and clouds as metaphors for reaching for new goals. We also had some break-out sessions. I gave a presentation called "Lipstick on a Pig? Lecture notes as video podcasts on the iPhone" and I was delighted to have about 20 people attending. I was also impressed by some other sessions:

• Markus Hofmann of Blanchardstown IT who spoke about compatability challenges for file types in use on the iPhone - really interesting for me
• Michael Barrett of Sligo IT who spoke about managing module descriptors - something we all could do better in Colleges
• Oliver Joyce, also of Sligo IT, spoke about using clickers in class and we all had a chance to use them as part of his presentation
• Dr Aidan O'Dwyer of DIT talked about using on-line resources with mixed success for engineering students
• Sean Connell of Athlone IT spoke about using Google Docs for teaching spreadsheets
• Terry Smith of Pepperdine University in California gave a most interesting talk on project based learning and he entertained us with great video examples of his work
• Imogen Bertin of NAIRTL showed us some interesting uses of video, though unfortunately sound was a problem

I missed loads of other sessions that I would have liked to have gone to - I seemed to be spending most of my time running round the place trying to appear calm.

One of the interesting features of the Conference was the use of Twitter - especially during the closing panel discussion. the tweets were even posted on the screen for all to see. I tried to get it going on my iPhone - I have a Twitter account, but have not used it before. Interesting use of technology at a technology conference.

I was relieved when it was all over - back to normal, and a lazy weekend coming up!

Embedding Innovative Technology Enhanced Learning: Podcasting to E-moderating

Today I attended the 8th Annual Conference of the Centre for Learning Technology, CAPSL, in Trinity College Dublin. The title of the Conference was Embedding Innovative Technology Enhanced Learning: Podcasting to E-moderating. The main attraction was Professor Gilly Salmon of the University of Leicester who spoke about technology and learning. I have read some of her work and have cited it quite a bit in some recent writings. She gave an excellent presentation and I had plenty of ideas to take away. There were several other presentations though well presented, were not as inspiring. I felt as if the intended audience was for people who knew very little about podcasting and the use of technology in education.

The good thing about this conference was that there were at least two presentations on how things didn't quite go according to plan. You rarely get talks on projects that failed or didn't work - we got this, which was refreshing as well as interesting.

Highlights for me - Dr Kevin O'Rourke of DIT gave an interesting summary of some work he and the major Dublin Colleges (excludes NCI) are doing in the area of e-Learning. Support is the big issue here. Catherine Bruen of the National Digital Learning Repository (NDLR) gave a good summary of the potential of Communities of Practice, and the availability of content on-line. She even mentioned my YouTube Channel! I also found the last speaker, Dr Tom Hayes, who spoke on "The Potential of Podcasting in Higher Education" to be interesting, though I was familiar with much of the work he talked about.

Overall, a good day. The usual Learning Technology suspects were there, and it was good to catch up with people I hadn't seen for a while.

Dragon's Den - The Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

Yesterday I was a Dragon!

The first ever Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning will be made at next week's Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) annual conference which is being held at the National College of Ireland this year. The award recognizes and rewards innovative practice in teaching and learning in Ireland. It is made in honour of the late Jennifer Burke who was one on the leading lights in ILTA when I first became involved with this association. I only met her a couple of times before she became ill, and I found her to be extraordinarly kind, helpful, and supportive of any learning technology initiative. The picture to the right is of Jennifer as many people remember her, and is a link to a photo on the award website.

I was delighted to be invited to be part of a Dragon's Den type panel that reviewed the final seven nominations - this was held in The Helix in DCU. Also on the panel was a real RTÉ Dragon's Den icon - Bobby Kerr. Bobby was a super panelist and it was a pleasure to meet him. Jennifer's partner Adam of DCU was also on the panel as was Kate from the Regional Support Centre of Northern Ireland. We were more pussy cats than dragons, but the nominees all did their best to impress us. I can't go in to details here, but deciding a winner was not easy - eventually we agreed on an entry from Trinity called B2C - Bring to College. It was a long afternoon, but fascinating to see all the innovations in learning. Well done to all.

As for my new career as a Dragon? Not sure if this is something I would be good at. There was no money at stake, so it was difficult to be critical. Bobby told us that in the real program every entrant gets an hour - even though we might only see 30 seconds of this on TV.

Dún Laoghaire Lions Club Charter Night

Last night I put on my tuxedo and Roma and I went to the Dún Laoghaire Lions Club Charter Night dinner in the Kingston Hotel. Roma attended with her Killiney Lions Club colleagues and we had a table almost to ourselves. Local Councillor Larry Lohan was at our table and the was plenty of banter about politics and elections. Minister Mary Hanafin was also at the dinner (looking great) though we didn't get to speak to her.

There was the usual amount of speeches after dinner - very boring as I had no clue who all the people were that they were talking about and giving awards to. There was also a raffle, with a rugby jersey signed by the Ireland Grand Slam winning team, as the top prize. Between us Roma and I bought €40 worth of tickets (all part of fund raising), but had no luck with any prizes. We didn't stay too late and were home before 1.30am.

What was my go-to "broke meal?"

Since I signed up for Plinky prompts, I have never actually answered or written about any of their questions, even though I do read them every time they come into my Inbox. This one caught my attention...

What was your go-to "broke meal?" Do you still eat it, regardless of financial status?

It reminded me of my time in Trinity College in the early 1980s when I lived at 9 Upper Sherrard Street near Mountjoy Square. This was during my time as a post-graduate student as I was by now supporting myself, so money was tight. My "broke meal" was sausages, beans, and potatoes. I used to buy a half-pound of Denny's sausages (8 in a pack), a tin of beans (always the cheapest brand), and used potatoes from the communal four-stone bag that I and my house-mates shared. A meal was four sausages, half a tin of beans, and about four boiled spuds - always washed down with tea. As I had used only half of what I bought, I had the same meal again the next day - very cheap, but tasty to eat. No - I don't have this as a meal today, it's more likely to be gourmet sausages and mash with green vegetables instead of beans. Have I become a food snob? I might try my old "broke meal" again, but I don't fancy the idea of having the same meal again the next day to use up the other half!

New Photo

I recently had my photo taken on my Harley-Davidson for an upcoming issue of "Inside NCI". I brought the bike around to the front of the College, but had to keep it as quiet as possible as the Summer Exams were taking place in the College - not easy on a Harley! The photographer (BC) had me very much at ease, and the bike attracted a little bit of attention. Many colleagues have never seen it as I keep it in the underground car park during the day.

I was offered the photo for this blog and I am changing my old profile photo to this. The old photo was taken with my old Canon EOS 35mm film camera for the article "My Bike and I" which appeared in The Irish Times on 11th June, 2003. Same bike, same jacket, but the hair is a bit more grey. BC also used a wide angle lens, which I think makes me look like a rock star! Excellent photo BC!

May Bank Holiday Weekend Sport

The May Bank Holiday is a big weekend in sport and I enjoyed some great sporting moments:

Preston North End in the Championship Play-offs

Top of my list is PNE's surprise achievement of making the Championship play-offs. I went to England to see them twice this year: in August vs Charlton Athletic (2-1), and in February vs Reading, and saw them quite a bit on TV. Yesterday was the last day in the regular season and PNE had to beat QPR and hope that either Burnley (they won 4-0) or Cardiff City would lose (they did 0-1). PNE won 2-1. PNE had the same final number of points as Cardiff but had scored one more goal. That 6-0 win two weeks ago against Cardiff meant the difference between the two sides. PNE face a very tough play-off semi-final against Sheffield United - first leg next Friday at Deepdale. I'd love to go over for this, but will watch on TV instead. I also laid a 10 euro bet at 4/1 last August that PNE would make the play-offs - so my Paddy Power account is now topped up by 50 euro - Go PNE!!!

Leinster 25 - Munster 6

This was a bigger surprise than PNE making the play-offs. I like watching Munster play and have watched them particularly in the Heineken Cup over the past few years and have marveled at their success and the way they do their business. Despite being born and reared in the province of Leinster I don't feel that I have any attachment to them and have never seen them play - not even on TV, before yesterday. Like everyone else I was surprised at how much better in every aspect Leinster were - fully deserving their win. Frankly, Munster were shite and never got their passionate play going. Leinster now play Leicester in the final - cue confusion for the commentators!

Cardiff Blues 26 - Leicester Tigers 26

I watched the extra time for this game which was very boring - just to see what would happen if the game ended in a draw. A rugby-style penalty shoot-out was promised and when the game ended in a draw, this is what we got. I really thought that kicking penalties from 22 metres straight in front of the goal (with no 'keeper) would mean that we would be in for a long shoot-out. However, while the regular kickers scored no problem, the pressure was on the guys who rarely kick for goal. It was one of the game's top players, the fantastic Martyn Williams, who missed the crucial penalty for Cardiff kicking it wide. I remember when in school in Roscrea we used to practice kicking penalty goals in front of the posts. I was rubbish at this. Add the pressure of a Heineken Cup Final place on offer, the crowd, and of course the money - it must not have been easy to do. A very boring way to end a rugby game - a replay, or some sort of count-back for tries scored or penalties conceded would be better.

Reading 1 - Birmingham City 2

Normally not a game I'd watch, but I had an interest in this as the loser might end up playing PNE in the Play-offs. There were also quite a lot of Irish players on view. Reading were woeful - worse that when I saw them vs PNE last February, and will be handy opponents in the play-offs. Brian kept me up-to-date with text messages on PNE's progress, but towards the end of the game I switched over to Sky Sports News for live updates on all the games. Prediction - Birmingham City will be relegated next year, I wasn't that impressed with them. I also had a 10 euro place bet on Birmingham for the championship - despite the fact that they came second, I only won 21 euro.

Happy 18th Birthday Kate!!!

Yesterday, 1st May, was Kate's 18th birthday.

We had a house party for her to which she invited 2,000 of her closest friends. It was hard work all evening keeping the crowd fed and watered. I had to go out for ice as our freezer failed to produce enough. Being a warm evening the crowd went outside a lot - I had warned the neighbours to expect noise, but apart from some boisterous behaviour from some of the lads everyone was well behaved. We sang "Happy Birthday" - the photo to the right was taken just after this. Johnny (S/O) was also there - it was the first time I saw Kate kissing a boy. I need to remember that she is now officially an adult and that she's not a kid anymore. However, there is always a place in my heart for her as Daddy's Little Girl. The party was slow to wind down, but I stayed up to keep an eye on things. I spent the last part of the evening sipping red wine and reading a paper about an Importance-Performance Matrix - party animal!!!

Big clean up this morning, the place wasn't looking too bad - but you could tell there had been a party. Lots of half empty and nearly full cans and bottles, not too much food lying around. The only damage was to a plastic bucket. Feet up this evening to watch Munster vs Leinster I think for me.

Happy birthday Kate, Love Dad.

Golf in Coollattin - 32 pts!

I finished work early yesterday and headed off to play a round of golf at Coollattin Golf Club with my brother Joe. The club was very quiet and we had the course almost to ourselves and were not held up until near the end when a four-ball cut in front of us. The course was very wet in places after much rain, but it was playable.

I played very well throughout scoring 17 points on front nine and 15 on the back nine for a total of 32 points (handicap 18) - this is one of my best scores in Coollattin. The highlight was a rare birdie on the par-four 9th, I also had pars on 3rd, 8th, and 18th for a total round of a very respectable 93 gross (75 net). I also had the pleasure of a very rare win over Joe, whuppin' his ass by 3 points, and of holding the honour at most of the tee boxes.

We just about managed to finish before dark and had a quick pint in the Club House before heading back to Blackrock. A very pleasant day, with a nice golf score to boot!

Sunday Lunch with the Tramore Gospel Choir

Roma, Kate, Vicki, and I went down to "The Pub" in Monkstown Crescent for Sunday Lunch today (Claire's exams start tomorrow, so she decided to study instead). We had a very pleasant lunch but got a nice surprise to find that the Tramore Gospel Choir were going to perform in the restaurant while we were there. We had just finished our main course when they started up singing songs about Mary weeping and Pharoah's army being "drownded". Our table was right beside where they set up, so we had the best seats in the house. There were some great harmonies and plenty of hallelujahs. The choir was lead by the finest grey hair and beard I have seen in a long time (the guy at the back in the photo). He had plenty of tattoos, and I couldn't help wondering if he also had a Harley-Davidson, as there is a very active group of Harley riders in the Waterford/Tramore area. Praise be!

Response to my Letter in The Irish Times

Daniel K. Sullivan of Limerick replied to my letter of April 13th last about the emergency budget in The Irish Times on 15th April. Here is the text of his letter (copied from The Irish Times Letters page without permission):

Madam,

In reply to Eugene FM O’Loughlin, (April 13th), I suspect that looking at the recent Budget, the spirit of John F Kennedy might more plausibly have put it to the Government: “Ask not what your country did to you – ask what you did to your country”. –

Yours, etc,

DANIEL K SULLIVAN,
Abbeyvale,
Corbally,
Limerick.

Walk on Carrickgolligan Hill

Yesterday Roma an I set out for a walk on Carrickgolligan Hill - this is is the hill where Ballycorus Chimney is located that I posted on before. It was a glorious week end here in Dublin with bright sunshine all day long. It was a bit hazy though and we did not get too much of a view. On a clear day you can see a long way from here - but not for us. Despite this we enjoyed the walk - it is not too long and not difficult. In the Google Map below we started out at the Carrickgolligan car park which is located at the bottom left of the map, and went anti-clockwise around the hill.

View Larger Map

Of course we went to see the chimney - Roma had not been up to see it before. I took the picture above with my iPhone on the path just down from the chimney. Afterwards we went up to Johnny Fox's Pub where I had a very nice pint of Guinness among the throngs of tourists in a very busy bar. A very nice day out.

Seamus Heaney at 70

All this week there have been celebrations of Ireland's only living Nobel Laureate - poet Seamus Heaney who was 70 last Monday. I have to confess I know nothing about his poetry, and have never to my knowledge read any of it. I don't recall if his poetry was on the English syllabus while I was in school - but that was the 1970's which was early in Heaney's career. Even though he is the most famous living Irish literary figure I have no plans to read any - such is my disinterest in poetry.

I do have something in common with Seamus Heaney - he was conferred with an honory doctorate (D. Litt.) in Trinity on the same day as I was conferred with my PhD on 8th July 1988. This was before he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995 - I had no idea then that I was in the presence of greatness. I have kept all the ceremony documents to this day - also receiving honory doctorates on that day were scientist John Stewart Bell and Bishop Donald Caird. The citations were read out in latin - in fact the whole ceremony was in latin. Thankfully, translations in English were provided for the citations. For interest, here is what Trinity said about Seamus Justin Heaney:

My Letter in The Irish Times - 13th April 2009

I recently wrote another letter to the Editor of The Irish Times about our recent emergency budget, and though I did not buy the paper yesterday it was published on the Letters page on Monday 13th April. I found it on-line today. The image shows the text of the letter that was published.

I sound a bit pontifical?

This is the third time I have had a letter published by The Irish Times, and as before it was edited from my original letter - this time quite heavily with a reference to Monty Python completely removed.

Here is my original:

Madam,

It seems to me that media coverage of Budget 2009 is mostly about the impact on each of our own pockets, as we are all asked to pay a heavy price for our economic woes. Now more than ever we need to believe in the spirit of John F. Kennedy - "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country", rather than in the Monty Python spirit of "what has the Government ever done for us?".

Yours etc,

Eugene F.M. O'Loughlin,

Richmond,

Blackrock,

Co. Dublin.

Easter weekend

I went down to Wexford for the weekend leaving on Good Friday. I was on my own and enjoyed the easy drive down. I stopped off at our house in Skuna Bay to empty my very full car before heading over to Ballingate to see Mum and Dad. After a nice cup of tea and a few of my Mum's delicious homemade biscuits we went to Good Friday Prayers in Askamore Church where Dad sings in the choir. Religion is thriving in the country-side as the church was full. I enjoyed the ceremony as it has been many years since I went to Prayers on Good Friday.

On Saturday I decided to start a new passageway from our garden down to the beach. The steps Dad and I built three years ago are sadly deteriorating and a new set of steps was needed. I cut them out of the sand - hard work. I also went on a long walk down to Glasscarrig Point before doing some more work on a book chapter I am working on (more about this later if it gets published). By evening time I was preparing dinner for Roma, Vicki, and her friend Joanna - barbecued chicken, a Eugene special.

Sunday was meant to be an O'Loughlin family lunch, but both Joe and Kathleen's families couldn't come. Claire and Kate didn't make it either from Dublin as Claire's car was broken in to with her (my old) iPod being stolen. We went to Easter Sunday mass in Ballygarrett where there is a wonderful choir. Roma prepared a brilliant lunch for Mum and Dad - a lovely day overall. In the afternoon I got a message from a guy who found the iPod (my number was on the back) - so Claire's iPod was restored later that evening to her. Honesty is still out there.

Today we cleaned up the house before heading back to Dublin - the traffic was wicked. The trip back was 2.5 hours - usually it is about 1.25 hours. I am exhausted as today I finished up the new passageway by hammering some wooden stakes into the ground to support the new passageway - this was very hard work. Anyway - I hope the new passageway is worth it for the summer.

How To...Embed a YouTube Video into PowerPoint

To celebrate 10,000+ YouTube views for my "How To..." channel, I have uploaded a new video entitled "How To...Embed a YouTube Video into PowerPoint". This is one of the quickest videos that I have made - I recorded this in one go without too much messing with settings. I now use CamStudio for recording both my screen movements and audio. This creates a video in AVI format that can easily be uploaded to YouTube. Here's the video embedded below:

This video shows the user how to embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint presentation. This looks better than a hyperlink to click on and to launch your browser separately. It also makes your presentation looks a bit more professional, and makes you look a bit "cooler"!

YouTube - 10,000 views!

A couple of years ago I started a YouTube channel with a "How To..." series of videos showing how to do simple things with (mostly) Microsoft Office tools. Today I am pleased to report that views of my videos have reached a landmark figure of 10,000 views (10,043 as I write this) and I am averaging over 100 views per day. Yesterday I uploaded my ninth video about embedding YouTube videos into PowerPoint.

The viewing figures for all nine videos are as follows:

How To...Embed a YouTube Video into PowerPoint	3
How To...Create a Project Network Diagram in PowerPoint	155
How To...Create a Basic Gantt Chart in Excel 2003	801
How To...Embed a YouTube Video into a Moodle Course Page	117
How To...Create a Windows Media Video Using PowerPoint and Windows Movie Maker	324
How To...Draw a Polar Diagram in Excel	186
How To...Calculate Net Present Value (NPV) in Excel	1608
How To...Create a Pareto Chart in Excel	4815
How To...Convert PowerPoint to iPod Movie	2034

Some are more popular than others - the video on drawing a Pareto chart is the most popular - accounting for almost half my total views. While 10,000 views is a modest figure compared to viewing figures for other similar videos, I am happy that some people find them useful. I have had a few, but very positive comments on these videos.

All this proves that people want to learn using tools like YouTube. My videos are amateur, with no studio or special equipment in use. I simply record using a standard microphone and software such as Windows Movie Maker and CamStudio. It's easy to do once you get to grips with the technology, and could be a useful add-on for tutorials and revision for students.

Quidam - Cirque du Soleil

Last evening Roma and I were invited to Quidam - Cirque du Soleil at the The O2 as guests of Cahill-May Roberts (CMR). What a fantastic show!!! I was not really bothered about going and had suggested that Vicki or Claire go instead, but both were otherwise engaged. I walked up from NCI to The O2 and met Roma there. We were greeted by CMR organizers, but went into the wrong Reception room. We met Gemma and Michael Maughan (Bryan Bourke's in-laws) and had dinner with them. Bank of Ireland Private Banking were hosting this reception and I got the chance to talk to some rich folks. We hadn't really noticed that there were no other pharmacists around. As we were in the wrong Reception we had not been given our tickets and it took us a long time to find the right reception where CMR folks were frantically trying to find us.

Our seats were right in the middle of the mid-tier - perfect for viewing the aerial acrobatics. The whole show was a blast of energy and acrobatics, with everything timed to almost perfection. It had everything - German wheel, banquine, hand-balancing, aerial contortion, skipping, diabolos, and of course a clown. We both thoroughly enjoyed the show. We had drinks afterwards - this time at the right Reception, and chatted to the CEO of CMR (Gary) and some pharmacists. A good night out!

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad, Joe O'Loughlin, is 78 years young today - Happy Birthday to him!!!

He was born on 31st March, 1931 and has always loved to sing - here's a picture taken of him at our family get together last January when he was probably singing "The Mountains of Mourne". I'm hoping we'll all meet up again on Easter Sunday in Wexford - we might even sing "Happy Birthday" to him!

150 Years of The Irish Times

Today is the 150th anniversary of the first edition of The Irish Times. To celebrate, the IT included a free copy of the first edition of the IT in Saturday's edition. While it made for interesting reading, not a lot seemed to be happening in Ireland in 1859. The ads on the front page were the best part.

As part of their 150th celebrations, the IT has made their digital archive available free for a limited time. I had never kept a copy of the paper from the day that my engagement to Roma was announced on Saturday 7th September, 1985. A quick ego search using my name found the notice which of course was sent to the IT by my late parents-in-law - Billy and Mary Rose. We had actually got engaged on 15th June earlier in 1985.

The notice after ours was for the writer Fergus Hanna Bell - a son of novelist, short story writer, and playwright Sam Hanna Bell (1909-1990). I read one of Sam Hanna Bell's books - December Bride which was also a film starring the gorgeous Saskia Reeves and my distant cousin Donal McCann.

28th March, 1989

Today, 28th March 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of my first day at work with CBT Systems (which became SmartForce in 1997, and SkillSoft in 2002). I was dressed in a suit with shirt and tie and I took the bus from Llewellyn Park in Rathfarnham where we lived at that time. I still remember the walk down Mount Street to No 39/40 and a very nervous ring of the bell. The receptionist (Olive Bolger) let me in and I was introduced to Ronan Fitzpatrick who would be looking after us for training. He showed us some CBT content and it was the first time I had ever seen some. In my interview for the job I did not know what the letters CBT stood for (Computer Based Training). There were two others starting the same day, including Kate McCarthy who is still with the company. I had a great 13 and a half years leaving with the company, made some money, traveled quite a lot, and took voluntary redundancy in 2002. I still have some of my business cards from my time there - perhaps the best job I did was as Production Manager (as in card above) responsible for getting courses completed on a monthly basis from four production centres. It seems like a lifetime ago when I started - a lot has happened to me in the intervening 20 years.

Queue Jumper

This morning I needed to get petrol for the Harley on the way to work and I stopped off at Esso in Stillorgan. I had a 9 o'clock class and was in a bit of a hurry. Typical... the woman in front of me at the check-out wanted to pay in coins. She had several bags which had to be counted out by the guy behind the counter - this was taking quite a bit of time. Another woman came in behind me and became impatient. She had the correct amount of money and decided to jump ahead of me to get the attendant to take her money - I was annoyed at this. Rightly, the attendant told her that he was dealing with another customer (the coin woman), and to wait. In the end she left the money on the counter and walked out. Bitch! To make matters worse, when the coin woman left the attendant refused to deal with me when I asked him until he had put the bitch's money in to the till and to record the sale!

I got a minor amount of satisfaction when I passed the bitch out in traffic a few minutes later. Was I right to be annoyed at this queue jumper? I said nothing to her, but wanted to say "Hey - there's a queue here!". I took the easy way out, avoided confrontation. and let the bitch jump ahead of me.

Paying Parking Fine On-line

Kate and Roma managed to get a parking ticket for my car in the car park at Blackrock DART Station yesterday - they had overstayed their Pay-and-Display ticket by 30 minutes. The fine is €40 if paid within 28 days and of course these days you can pay a fine on-line at APCOA. The parking ticket man took six photos of the car, including the one shown here. I'm impressed with Kate's parking abilities to get the car into such a tight spot! 30 minutes is not much of an over-stay, but these days there is no mercy shown.

PS

Since Google have been in the news a lot this week about privacy concerns over their Street View mapping tool with a lot of people wanting their details blotted out - I have blotted out the Ambulance drivers face in the photo above. (Just in case he ever stumbles upon this blog post!)

Failed Seminar - Lessons Learned

Yesterday I "delivered" the lunch time seminar as part of NCI's Professional Development Series - the topic of my talk was "Getting the most out of Moodle". However, it was one of the most depressing experiences I have had doing this type of thing.

At 0908 in the morning I logged a call on the IT Helpdesk that there was something wrong with Moodle - I was preparing for the seminar, but nothing seemed to work. Little did I know it, but it would take until the middle of the afternoon to sort out the problem. I had access to a second Moodle server, so I decided to go ahead with the seminar. Big mistake - I should have cancelled.

I was about to give a seminar on Moodle which was to feature how I use this system - without it being available!!! Nevertheless, I persisted in the hope that it would be available on time and I checked my setup in the minutes before the seminar. Next problem was that the projector I needed was in a locked office - I had to get Security to let me in to get it with a master key. The projector too was to be problematical throughout my presentation. The seminar was poorly attended (about 10 people) - it was an unusually fine day. Right at the start I almost had a bottle of orange juice spilled onto my laptop - the omens were not good! Moodle was still not working. With the second Moodle server I was able to do a few things - but one of the first, adding in a RSS News Feed, didn't work. I had practised this, but could not get it to work in the seminar. Next thing to go wrong was that my wireless connection to the Web started to slow down and then dropped all together. I could only get it back with "limited (ie useless) connectivity" - now I couldn't do anything. (No exaggeration - nine times out ten when I try to use the wireless network there is always something wrong.) Some people left, and I was reduced to describing about what I do rather than showing it. Even though it was almost 2 o'clock when we finished - I felt like a right eejit after this fiasco.

I shoulda...

• transferred everything I wanted to show onto the backup Moodle server
• not used a portable projector
• sorted out the RSS feed in advance
• not relied on the wireless network
• cancelled the seminar before it started
• not done a seminar on a fine day
• had a plan B, C, and D!

The Maulin Trail, Co Wicklow

Today Roma and I decided take a hike over the Maulin Trail in Co Wicklow. Starting point was Crone Wood carpark close to Enniskerry. The trail is seven kilometres long and neither of us had done it before. We had a free guide from The Irish Times to help us on our way - the IT told us the walk was "Suitable for all grades of walker". The first part towards Powerscourt Waterfall was easy enough - we had an excellent view of the Waterfall from the top. After this we headed into the woods along a narrower trail which was quite steep in places. We stopped a few times to catch our breath, but it was not too difficult. I had hoped to get to the top of Maulin Mountain (570m) - the guide told us the view was excellent. However, the trail does not go over the mountain, and while the guide describes how to get back on the trail - it does not tell how to get off it. The way down and back was easy and we made the round trip in 1 hour and 50 minutes.

We went to the Powerscourt Arms Hotel afterwards for lunch and a well deserved pint. We got home in mid afternoon and did a spot of gardening. Overall an excellent and energetic day!

Breaking a link

Today I ended my last connection with CBT Systems/SmartForce/Skillsoft by selling 1,195 shares that I owned in the company. These shares were purchased between May 2000 and May 2002 for just over twice the price that I sold them for. Skillsoft stock rose over 25% today and I decided that this was a sign to sell - I have held on to these shares for nearly nine years and they have never been worth more than what I paid for them.

I joined CBT Systems almost 20 years ago to the day (28th March, 1989), when it was a small company - my employee number was 36. It went public on the NASDAQ in April 1995 - between then and 2002 when I left I had a lot of stock options and for a short period made some good money. At its height, it was worth over 6 billion dollars and employed over 1,500 people. It was great to be part of the dot com boom, not so great to be part of the dot com bust. I took voluntary redundancy in September 2002 and have never been sorry that I had left the company.

How To...Create a Project Network Diagram in PowerPoint

One of my favourite topics in my Project Management and Business Systems Analysis classes at NCI is Project Network Diagrams (PND). They are used to show graphically the sequence of activities in a project, to show the critical path, and to calculate the duration of the project. They are relatively straight-forward to do, but not the first time you try one. I almost always set an exam question on this topic.

Today I created a short video for my YouTube How To... Channel. This shows first of all how to draw a PND based on some data I have provided, and then shows how to put it together for display on a PowerPoint slide. Here's the video:

This video was created using CamStudio, but I still have not mastered the art of creating quality videos under 1GB in size (YouTube upload limit). The quality is not great, but is good enough to view. After a while in the video you will notice that the video starts to lag behind the audio - this is OK for a while, but by the end of the video it is very noticeable. 

I recorded this video several times to try and get the quality right within the file size limitations. This version is about 0.4GB, so I could have increased the data rate to improve the video a bit more. I always use 8-bit mono (instead of 16-bit stereo) for audio to keep file size down. I also recorded a very good quality version using Adobe Captivate - but this only generates Flash SWF files that are not recognised by YouTube. It was my first time time using Captivate and it is an excellent and easy to use tool.

Plinky

Plinky is a service for Bloggers who are having difficulty coming up with ideas to blog about. The idea is simple - Plinky provides "Prompts" to get you thinking and you post your response. 

Some recent prompts:

• Animal face-off! Who would win in a fight between a bear and a shark?
• You've been invited on a talk show to explain your job to the hosts. What would you say you do on a daily basis?
• What's the last place you visited that made you wish you were back home?
• What’s the most awkward movie you’ve watched with your family?

Plinky sends you a weekly list of prompts every week. I might find this useful as sometimes it is hard to think of something to write about. 

Book Review - Battles for the Three Kingdoms: The Campaigns for England, Scotland and Ireland - 1689-92

The title of this book - Battles for the Three Kingdoms: The Campaigns for England, Scotland and Ireland - 1689-92, was an attractive one as I always enjoy reading about the War between James II and William III. The book was slightly disappointing - here is the review I wrote at Amazon:

 Interesting read about Williamite Wars, 1 Mar 2009

By	EFMOL "eugeneol" (Dublin) - See all my reviews

In secondary school history class, the period 1689-1692 was one of my favourites - it had: brave Irish soldiers such as Patrick Sarsfield, gallant French allies, a single cannon ball depriving the Irish victory at the Battle of Aughrim (and General St Ruth his head!), and of course the dastardly anti-Catholic English desperate to put the Irish in their place. All of this is described by John Barratt in this interesting book. 

A measure of how good a book is for me is often how long it takes me to read it. I bought this last November and it has taken three months to read. While the book is interesting, it tells us little more than what students of secondary school Irish history will already know about what we in Ireland called "Cogadh an Da Ri" (War of the two Kings). Most of this war was fought in Ireland with the two largest land battles taking place at the Boyne and Aughrim. However, John Barratt does a good job in adding in other events in Scotland and at sea - this gives a more complete picture of what happened during this period. 

Overall - the book is a worthwhile read, particularly for those not familiar with the War in Ireland. Barratt's thoughts on the indecision that racked both sides at crucial times, the influence of the French, and the likely outcome of the war in Britain's favour regardless who won the Battle of Aughrim, make for an interesting angle that just about makes the book worth buying.

Legends in your Lunchtime

National College of Ireland, Metro Newspaper, and Newstalk Radio have been hosting a series of lunch time conversations with "Leaders" over the past few months - these are then played on Newstalk Radio. Last week I went to the Danuta Gray talk - she is CEO of O2 in Ireland. This week I attended the talk with Maria Mahon, who set up the IrishJobs.ie website. Despite being persuaded to attend by some of my NCI colleagues at the numbers were expected to be low, there were about 80 people there for an interesting talk between Ger Gilroy of Newstalk and Maria. She is certainly a very energetic lady and had some interesting things to say - especially about using the IrishJobs.ie model in other countries such as China. The full converstion can be downloaded from the Newstalk Podcast page or from iTunes.

At the end of the talk there was an opportunity for people in the audience to ask questions and I was first up to ask Maria which leader did she admire most - her answer? Barack Obama. You can hear my question and (part of) her answer by clicking on the play button below:

Irish Motorcycle Show

I went to the Irish Motorcycle Show in the RDS today to see the latest in bikes and accessories. After the dissappointing Boat Show last week, this was more my kind of thing!

I rode in to the RDS on my Harley (of course) and arrived at the opening time of 10.00am. A lot of other people had the same idea for an early arrival - there was a big queue and quite a crowd inside. There were lots of shiny custom bikes just inside the main door - everything from choppers, to Indians, to kids bike. All the main manufacturers were there - including Harley-Davidson. I met Jeff Murphy of H-D Ireland and thanked him for the great reduction in price on my new seat last summer. I decided not to tell him about the major trouble I had with the bike in France just after it was serviced in his shop.

I bought new boots which were reduced from €150 to €79 - a lot of items had huge reductions (including bikes). These are real motorcyle boots, but look like a casual boot as well - they should be better than my worn out hiking boots. No more wet feet for me. I looked at a lot of other gear as well, but only bought a tub of wax for leather (€15). I did buy a ticket for Crumlin Children's Hospital - the prize, a new motor bike of course!

There were some stunts and Wall-of-Death - a variety of stuff for everyone. On the way out I chatted to a guy from Enniscorthy who had a trike on his trailer - he had arrived too late to have the bike included in the show. The engine is an old Volkswagen air-cooled one and looked great.

It was a well organized event and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

A Vision of Students Today

This YouTube video tells us educators a lot about how students are working today - I have shown this video to many students in class. Students are much more digitally tuned in than their teachers/lecturers - which is a major challenge for us all. Take a look and see for  yourself:

The Boat Show (RDS)

Today I went to The Boat Show in the RDS - I'm not sure why!

I don't own a boat, but did take some sailing lessons last year. I fancy sailing (but not the yacht club scene) - so I decided to check out what was available. The Boat Show today was a strange event. It show-cased huge expensive motor boats that I'm certain very few people in the crowd could afford. Good on the organisers to get this going!

I was looking for info on sailing, but there was very little. Apart from a few dinghies, not much. I left none the wiser.  I did see some nice small boats. I also bought a ticket for a draw for a Morris Minor (€25), and picked up a handy magetized pen shaped tool for picking up iron based metal objects (I'm getting old!). 

The highlight was a presentation on deep sea diving on three wrecks - Audacious, Lusitania, and Curacao. I bumped into an old Trinity colleague, Dr. Ian Lawler, on the way into the Show. He mentioned that he was doing the presentation, so I stayed around for it. It was worth the wait - Ian and I chatted briefly afterwards - good to catch up.

Killiney Lions Charter Night

Last evening Roma and I went to the Killiney Lions Charter Night in Killiney Golf Club. As Roma is current President of the Killiney Lions it was a big night for her. There was the usual pomp-and-ceremony (slow hand clap for guests), but over all an enjoyable evening for me, but an especially good one for Roma. She made anexcellent speech, and looked great - every bit the Lions President. Lions members tend to be "older", and they all loved Roma (as of course I do!).

It was a long evening, but enjoyable none-the-less. At this stage I know quite a lot of the Killiney Lions. At dinner I sat beside two Lions from Sutton - good company (I did my bit!). I'm not a member of the Lions and have no plans ever to do so - nevertheless, the people involved are genuine. In the current climate, this is a good cause, but it is not for me.

We got a taxi home, but accidentally spilled a small amount of water (from a bouquet of flowers that Roma got) during the trip. Our taxi driver (who got €20, including €3 tip, for the very short trip) was not impressed, and told us so. I offered to bring out a towel and dry his cab, but he declined. F**k him.