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Dear Self,
I know that you are a lazy, lazy person, but please try to do something with your life. I'm politely asking you to actually do some work and hand it in. This constant fear of running into your tutor is extremely bad for your health and must be stopped.
Also, please stop spending money on things you do not need. 17.50 for HP2 on DVD may seem like a bargain, but as you already have it on video, was it really necessary to buy it? Spending on alcohol must also be curbed. Yes it is fun to go out drinking with your friends, and yes, alcohol does help when Ireland loose in the rugby again, but you're going to end up with no money and no liver. Plus, your kidneys don't seem to like it too much.
However, do continue to use the word 'sozzled' when referring to drunkeness, as it seems to have been a hit.
Sincerely - Lorraine

Dear George W. Bush,
Fuck off.
Sincerely - Lorraine

Listening: Snow Patrol Final Straw
Reading: Terry Pratchett A Hat Full of Sky

Well, I'm finally back to let you all know what happened in the Referendum... First, thanks everyone for your interesting comments! It's nice to know that there are other people out there who are interested in politics =) Second, we gave the government parties a right beating, just like Labour were given in England & Wales. Fianna Fail (one of the two parties in the coalition government) had their worst results since the 1920s and the fecking deserved it. Idiots are claiming that we'll vote them back in at the national elections, but they haven't got a snowball's chance in hell! And now, on to the main point.

As I predicted, the yes vote won which was very depressing. 60% of those entitled to vote turned out and of that number, 79% voted yes. That's clearly an overwhelming majority. I was fairly upset about the result, but that's the whole thing about democracy isn't it? You don't always get your own way! To answer Kris's question, pretty much every age group voted yes, not just old people. We're turning into a very narrow-minded society here and the government just seem to be encouraging it. Racism and racist-related violence are on the up, and referendum's like this one aren't helping matters any... The thing that annoyed me the most was the exit polls clearly showed that the majority of the people who voted yes, didn't really know why they were doing it. Only something like 10% gave reasons that were the actual official ones. It just showed how completely uniformed we all were and how dodgy the current government is.

So, after the disappointing results I went to the pub on Saturday to watch the Ireland - South Africa game, which was equally disappointing! Ireland were completely trashed, and deservedly so. I'm pinning all my hopes on the rematch this Saturday =) Did manage to get completely and utterly sozzled for free though, which was excellent *g*

I am now a fully functional member of this democratic society *beaming smile* Oh yes, I have voted for the first time in my life. Oh yes. *L* Seriously though, yesterday was the first time I've voted in any elections, besides student ones, so I'm very pleased with myself. Most people find my excitement puzzling, but I've been waiting to vote for ages. I was out of the country for the last votes, so at the age of 21, I've finally done it. I don't know how much everyone knows about what's going on in Ireland at the moment, but there were three separate voting forms yesterday - one for local elections, one for the European elections and one for a referendum we were having. The main reason why I wanted to vote so badly was the referendum...

I know that Ireland isn't the most perfect country in the world, but I've always believed we were a fairly tolerant nation. After all, we've been emigrating to other countries for centuries, so why wouldn't we welcome people who are now choosing to move here? It's not like overcrowding is an issue. Turns out, we hate foreigners. Turns out that the government think people are coming here from outside the EU just to screw the system. Turns out that the government are getting pretty racist. According to the government asylum seekers come to Ireland and get pregnant on purpose so that they can stay here. As it stands now (12.40pm) any child born in Ireland is entitled to Irish citizenship, simply for being born on the island of Ireland. Our lovely government are trying to change it so that you have to have at least one Irish parent to claim citizenship. They proposed a constitutional amendment so that they can discourage people from living in Ireland. Xenophobic bastards. The worst thing? It's quite clear that the majority of the population support their stance. I'm sure that some people come here and do get pregnant deliberately, but it's such a cynical view point to say that they all do. The government have been saying that the maternity hospitals can't cope with the influx of non-EU births as part of their argument. The doctors who run the hospitals in question have come out and denied that that's the case. The yes campaign (ie the government) completely failed to have any sort of public discussion about the referendum. They failed to present a conclusive case for voting yes. They just snuck it in quickly under the table, while everyone was distracted by the other votes. Screw them. I've been pissed at the Irish government since they allowed Americans to land in Shannon on their way to blow up Iraq (did we offer the same to Iraq? No. Are we neutral? Debatable at this point), but this has completely destroyed any confidence I may have had in them. In the other two votes, I refused to vote for any candidate who was in either Fianna Fail or the Progressive Democrats (the two parties in power at the moment). Perhaps not the best way to vote, but I felt it was something I needed to do. You may have guessed at this point that I voted no to the citizenship referendum. I should probably have mentioned that earlier! 55% of votes turned out yesterday, and it seems most of them came for the citizenship referendum, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, it seems that the government are going to win this one. I'll let you know what happens.

At this point I want to say well done to everyone in England and Wales who voted labour out of power in the local elections. It's nice to see that people haven't forgotten about the war. It's the same here. So far, the parties currently in power are loosing seats all over the place.

I'm off to watch the rugby, and hopefully stop rants on politics =D

I spent three freaking days with a contact lense stuck in my eye, only for an optician to tell me that he very much doubted that doing an MA in landscape archaeology would get me a job or earn me any money. Fuck. You. I paid you 25 Euro to look at my eyes, not give me life advice. Smug bastard.

*ahem* I've been trying to get some work done on my dissertation this week, but it's not really going well. I've done lots of reading, much of which I don't understand - why do academics have to be so verbose? - but I'm having problems pulling it all together. Plus, I'm starting to freak out about how little time I have left. I know it's only 15,000-20,000 words, but I have to do a shit load of research, both primary and secondary *whine* I can do this. Positive mental attitude... Yeah, right 0_0

I honestly have things to say, but I'm too annoyed. I shall post a lovely long rant tomorrow. Definitely expect a rant seeing as how tomorrow I have to vote in the local and European elections as well as in a referendum. Hurrah!

Edited to add - Mwhahahahahaha Troy in 15 Minutes & Harry Potter & the POA in 15 Minutes. Read. I insist. Especially the Harry Potter one *ROTFLMAO*

Listening: Lost Prophets The Fake Sound of Progress
Reading:

Having discovered that the Lost Prophets are supporting Metallica at the end of the month, I've decided to listen and celebrate =) Not much going on at the moment. As usual I'm not doing much work. I have managed, however, to catch up with all my e-mails and update all of my fanlistings, so that's something. I'm also working on new looks for Sacrifice (there's a semi-finished version up there at the moment) and Psychic Vampire.

Oh, and there's a new fanlisting - Dark Magic - dedicated to Enchantress, the third book in LJS' Night World series. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Listening: Free Glastonbury CD from Q Magazine
Reading:

Just to warn you all - I am about to engage in some extreme fangirliness, so beware. Also, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN SPOILERS ABOUND, so stop reading if you don't want to know anything about the film!

Yes, I went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban last night, and yes I was excited, and yes I am still excited =) I know the reviews have been mixed, but let me assure you it was an excellent film. There were some changes that I wasn't too happy about - like the moving of the Whomping Willow and Hagrid's Hut, the fact that the kids wore normal clothes for most of the movie, and the exclusion of Oliver Wood *wail* - but these are things that I can deal with and move past. The new additions to the cast were excellent, with Oldman and Thewlis playing their parts brilliantly. I think Gary Oldman was especially convincing and probably my favourite new character. It did amuse me to see that the slash relationship beloved by so many fans seemed very clear at certain moments during the movie ^^

I enjoyed Michael Gambon's Dumbledore, but the accent pissed me off. I read an article about the movie in the recent edition of the RTE Guide in which Daniel Radcliffe mentioned that Gambon was doing an Irish accent to pay homage to Richard Harris. Lovely thought and all but Richard Harris didn't have a noticeably Irish accent. Not to Irish people anyway. He was one of those great theatre actors who had an accent to match. Thus, I found Gambon's accent jarring. However, I did like his more light-hearted approach to Dumbledore.

Staying on the topic of Daniel Radcliffe. That boy is growing up well! I'm ashamed to say this, but he's getting really cute! Letching on a 14 year old boy is wrong, right? *L* His acting also seems to be improving which is a very good thing, IMO. In the first two movies, he wasn't great, but he was a kid, so it was forgiveable. I'm glad to see that his talent is increasing and developing. Someone who doesn't seem to be getting much better in the acting department is Seamus Finnigan (Devon Murray). I completely forgive him though seeing as he's Irish and plays a clearly insane character =D It's so strange to see all these kids growing up on the screen. What have the Weasley twins done to their hair? And what's happened to Neville Longbottom???? He's gotten really tall! Still love him though =)

Where was Goyle for most of the movie? He was in the first half an hour or so and then he seemed to be replaced by some nameless lacky. What's going on there? Other characters... great to see Parvati. Shame they didn't name Cedric Diggory, as it would have made a nice tie-in to the next movie. Dawn French was fabulous as The Fat Lady.

Effects-wise the film was pretty good. The Dementors weren't as scary as I'd been expecting, but they managed to be pretty creepy. There were some great Whomping-Willow effects (my favourite being the one of the tree killing a little bird). Erm... glad they finally made Harry's hair messy. And yes, it was darker and funnier than the first two. GO SEE IT! GO SEE IT NOW!

I realise this has been more of a character run-down rather than a review, but that's all you're getting so be happy with it!

Listening: Guns 'n' Roses Best of - Live
Reading:

As you can see I've updated the layout. This one looks much better than the last. Kept my beautiful Druids though =) Thanks for all your comments on the new look. Looks like I can always rely on humourous archaeology pictures to get comments ;) Gill, we must have some kind of psychic connection or something. I instinctively knew about your plotline and changed the site accordingly *g* JellyBean, thanks *LOL*

Also, thanks to everyone who answered the 'could you have emotion-free sex' question. I was intrigued by all of your answers. Turns out, that it wasn't completely emotion-free anyway as the experience seems to have reminded me about how nice it was to be in a relationship... oh well!

Just to skip around topic-wise some more. I went to see Troy last night (Harry Potter was booked out). Oh my god. We need more films with lots of attractive men who take their clothes off regularly and skip around half-naked. Everytime Brad Pitt appeared with little on, the entire female portion of the audience sighed *L* Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana didn't get quite the same reception, but their nudity was enjoyed almost as much. On a serious note, the acting was amazing. Orlando Bloom has finally convinced me that he might be able to act after all. Peter O'Toole was amazing, as was Eric Bana. And apart from his 'thoughtful' moments aka staring into the mid-distance in an interested way, Brad Pitt showed he hasn't lost any of his magic. As for Sean Bean... he actually made Odysseus likeable, which upset me to no end as Odysseus is top of my hated characters in literature list (Austen's Emma comes a close second). The mix of accents was so funny! Sean Bean always adds the wonder of a northern accent, but we also had a mix of Irish and plan strange accents in there. Great stuff! Yes, it varied from the book (hence it saying 'inspired by Homer's The Iliad'), but if you can suspend your more scholarly tendancies, it's a good watch with plenty of male nudity, and some great battle scenes (some dodgy special effects though).

Tonight, I get to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban *does her special Harry Potter dance* I'm so excited! We bought the tickets last night in case it sold out again, so I'm raring to go. Bring on the HP goodness, baby!