cftopper.com

I see a lot of complaining over the soaring prices of gas in the States.

But check this out.

According to http://www.bostongasprices.com/, the average price for a gallon is $3.14.

In Ireland, according to http://www.aaireland.ie/petrolprices/ we pay €1.20 per litre.

1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liters

So for 1 Gallon of unleaded (Gas), we pay €1.20 * 3.78 = €4.536.

1 Euro = 1.5688 U.S. dollars

so €4.536 = $7.11.

It doesn't take a calculator to see that $7.11 is more that twice as expensive as $3.14. Roll on Rip off Ireland.

My nickname is Topper; so I found it amusing when my sister emailed me today's word of the day:

toper \TOH-puhr\, noun:

One who drinks frequently or to excess.

Although he was no toper, God forbid, he took a glass of aquavit . . . .
-- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Reaches of Heaven

But there remains a core of bottom-line voters to whom the promise of tax cuts is as seductive as gin to a toper.
-- David Nyhan, "Tax cuts for all - wheee!", Boston Globe, January 21, 2000

You may walk around a bar with a big mug of beer . . . , but if you sloshed it all over a fellow toper, you'd pay the cleaning bill.
-- Randy Cohen, "At Random: Everyday Ethics", Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2003

Toper is formed from the verb tope, "to drink," originally an interjection used in proposing a toast, from French tope!, "agreed!" from toper, "to cover a stake in playing at dice, to accept an offer, to agree."

What are you trying to say sis?

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don't believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof). Agnosticism is a philosophy that God's existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe. agnosticism 79% Buddhism 67% Islam 67% atheism 63% Satanism 63% Paganism 63% Hinduism 58% Judaism 46% Christianity 42%

I came across this picture of John Travolta's house.



What's that flying on the fly in front of the house? Why, it looks like an Irish flag to me. Is John Travolta claiming irish descendancy?

A quick google later confirms it. Old Johnny boy is half Irish. Begorra!!

We had spend the evening celebrating Irelands devastating win over England in the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament. Later that night I find myself on the dancefloor having consumed a vast amount of alcoholic beverages. I'm tearing it up when this hot Eastern European girl starts flirting and dirty dancing with me. All good.

After a few minutes we are kissing. All very good.

Another few minutes of dancing and kissing go by when a guy politely taps her on the shoulder. She smiles and she says she'll be back in just a second (this was our first verbal communication). All good.

They move to the side of the dancefloor and put their hands around each other. WTF! I wasn't too far away so I interrupted "Is this your boyfriend?". "Oh no!" she says... (Phew! I'm thinking) ... "he's my husband!" and she raises her hand to show the ring.

I just walked away muttering "I need a drink".

Maybe i'm just drunk. Maybe it's just that I had a good night out, maybe it's the 3 way shift I had with 2 sexual lesbos earlier... maybe it's that I've just watched am awesome movie (Crack) but i'm in a great mood. Goodnight world.

Not being a slave to famous quotes and biblical passages normally, when I came across this quote the other day, I was suprisingly intrigued.

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all."

Maybe I'm getting old but when the new weird guy whom we call "The Shadow" arrived home with 1 bottle of Vodka, 1 bottle of Fat Frog and 22(!) cans of Scrumpy Jack at 2pm today, I politely declined his invitation to get mashed.

22 fucking cans! There isn't room in the fridge for milk.

Needless to say, the anti-social proceeds to drink himself stupid(er).

Sam sent a few of us this newspaper clip theived from the fantastic www.pressdisplay.com website:

Interesting reading - so flying Ryanair will become even more irritating.

Aer Lingus should say nothing, wait until this takes off, then advertise
how their same low cost flights don't irritate, "way better".

Surely Michael O'Leary means that this will increase their revenue rather than "decrease [their] costs". 

Ever have one of those days where you just wake up and your automatically in a bad mood - everything seems to annoy you, every person seems to annoy, the universe is conspiring against you?

Well I am. :( Don't misunderstand - i'm not depressed as such, just having one of those days.

A few of us went to the Curraheen dog track last night - it's good craic. Highly recommended. I had a good night and got lucky on the last race winng €55. It's not about the amount of money, just the satsfaction of winning; hey - I feel better already.

More good news - the long awaited BattleField 2142 demo is here. That might cheer me up even more. I've asked Sam to install this at AREA51 - I'll submit my initial impressions later.

Wow. I stumbled across this interesting video. Nod to John Handelaar.

Back in Ireland and back to reality. Throwing myself into my work with wild abandon.

I have to get the new Digital Crew website up and running, the existing one is embarrassing - its five years old and is never updated. I added a.. um, nice!.. sneaky!.. interesting.. hidden feature to the new website over the last 2 hours - it rocks my boat - look for it when we launch the new site in a few days. I'll say no more.

It seems the rare good weather in Ireland ended the moment I touched down. I miss being too hot in Boston already. The new airport at Cork is pretty fancy by the way - I like it. I kept thinking that it'd make a great Digital Crew headquarters in a few years. Nice wood panelling and glass.

Sam was showing me a new game Dark Messiah earlier - it looks amazing. I tried the demo on my laptop - it works but chugs along and was therefore promptly removed. The game is definitely one I'd be interested in getting my claws into if I could find the time.

Which reminds me of two things: 1 - my laptop badly needs to be reinstalled... or maybe its time for an upgrade (although I'd like a laptop with a web-cam built-in) and  2 - I still haven't found the time to complete the amazing game Oblivion - I might have a bash off it now - who needs the pub and alcohol! (I do! - tomorrow night!)

I came across Traineo and registered an account yesterday - it's a very well designed website that helps people attain their fitness or weight loss goals and is completely free. I've been getting back into 7AM jogging about the lough over the last few days, accompanied by 30 reps of heavy dumbbells morning and evening.

And that also reminds me - Myself and Edward went snorkeling in Nohoval Cove again. I'm getting better at diving and staying under but Ed is a master; near the end of our 2 hour adventure, he dived down some 8/9 feet and rummaged about for an eternity before resurfacing with a terrifying and terrified-looking monstrosity of a spider crab upside down in his out-stretched hand. Snorkeling is outstanding - the views in and around Nohoval Cove are majestic, especially from the sea. Ireland is beautiful; we need to get off our collective asses and appreciate it more.

Which reminds me, I must buy diving gloves and a diving hood - it's bloody cold in that there Atlantic. So enough rambling - I just felt I had to post something here, it's been a while.

Update

I finished Oblivion. Well, the main quest anyway. Girls should play these games more, whats wrong with them?

One website led to another and I find myself reading about a grotesque creature known to the world as Paris Hilton. Seriously I can't see the attraction.

Anyhow, what I want you share with you is the fact that I read Conrad Hilton's autobiography and he was an impressive character with high moral values. Conrad, Paris's grandfather built the Hilton empire through hard work and self-belief. I have massive respect for Connie.

But I'm sure poor Connie is turning in his grave. I guess money and fame inevitably corrupt:

• EXHIBIT 1: Paris Hilton is NOT a Slut