Posted by: GeekHiker | May 22, 2013

Modern Trekking

[I have no idea how something that started as a silly post turned out to be such a lengthy beast, but it was fun to write.  A coupl’a warnings: 1) if you don’t give two tribbles about Star Trek, best to just skip this post entirely and 2) there be spoilers ahead!]

I gave myself a little treat Saturday and went out to see the latest Star Trek flick, Into Darkness.  (Hey, I figure I won’t be looking for work forever, right?  Right?  I’m going to assume the sound of crickets I’m hearing is the sound of support.  Yep.  ‘Movin on.)

It was good, at least as far as a) Star Trek films and b) silly summer popcorn films are concerned.  It was fun, and I didn’t feel like I’d mis-spent my money or gotten ripped-off: I was entertained for two hours, which is what I expect for my (bargain matinee) dollars.

But, I wondered, was it Star Trek?

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19 Comments

Posted in General Geekery, Movies, Stuff I Like, Television | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | May 16, 2013

Rambling To Excess

When it comes to time-frames and expectations, television and movies have ruined me.

Maybe they’ve ruined you, too.

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15 Comments

Posted in Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | May 3, 2013

Technology Foul

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from having worked for many years in the IT business, it’s that a lot of people are convinced that us IT folk have magical powers.  That, unlike them, whenever we need to get something done on the computer, all we have to do is sit down facing the screen and the computer will magically recognize our authoritah and do our bidding unimpeded.

I’m here to tell ya all, it just ain’t true.

For example, check out this picture:

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17 Comments

Posted in Computers, Rants, Travel | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 30, 2013

Geek Quotations

One of the things that was on my mind as my trip was winding down was the first half of my online nickname: the “Geek” of GeekHiker.  Although I’d done a lot of traveling and a bit of hiking on my trip, there really wasn’t a lot of geeky stuff along the way.

Well, at not least apart from a few in-depth conversations in New Zealand about how the new “Battlestar Galactica” might have very well been the best dramatic television series ever, sci-fi or no.  But I digress.

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10 Comments

Posted in General Geekery

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 28, 2013

Allergies

Saturday I decided to go for a bike ride.  In so doing, I was also risking my sanity.

Not because the bike trails around here are particularly dangerous.  No, my sanity was on the line because I suffer from spring allergies and hayfever.  Having lived near the coast for 20 years, I’d forgotten just how bad it could be.

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11 Comments

Posted in Exercise, Random Thoughts, Rants | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 25, 2013

Dublin, Ireland – Aftermath

[Continued from this post.]

Like the assault, the next couple of days that followed are kind of a blur of memories.

The start of the day after mostly involved going back to the Garda station to give my statement, a long process where the officer hand-wrote everything down during a long question-and-answer session.  After I finished rehashing the previous day’s events, I headed out with Irish A and Irish K, walking around a few places in Temple Bar.

It was nice to have the company

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13 Comments

Posted in Grand Trip, Ireland, Random Thoughts, Travel | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 22, 2013

Earth Day Tree

I’ll get back to all the Dublin stuff in a day or two, but today I’m going to do a brief Earth Day post.

First, can I say how much I wish Earth Day was an actual federal holiday?  I’m not trying to get really political here, but imagine if that were the case.  One day off, mandated for the whole country (or, even better, a holiday shared amongst multiple countries), to celebrate and think about the planet we all live on and share.  Even if most people just used it as an excuse to lounge by the pool and barbeque, and only think about the planet in passing, one day out of 365 still seems like a decent idea.

Especially since, last time I checked, we don’t have any spare ones.

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Posted in Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 18, 2013

Dublin, Ireland – The Incident

[Continued from this post.]

I first saw them on the other side of the field, three men walking directly towards us with a decidedly less-than-steady gait.

I felt uneasy about them the moment I saw them, but pushed the thoughts from my mind.  If there was one thing I’d learned from my travels, it was that while a certain sense of street-smarts was necessary, my own gut had proved too often to err a bit too much on the side of paranoid.  Besides, I had a couple of locals that I’d just befriended right next to me, and they didn’t appear (on the surface, at least) to be overly concerned.

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27 Comments

Posted in Grand Trip, Ireland, Travel | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 16, 2013

Dublin, Ireland – Arriving

I didn’t realize how hard it would be to write about Dublin.

For some reason, I find this strange.  I mean, it was over six months ago.  There was no permanent physical damage.  There are bloggers out there who’ve had far worse things happen to them and show a strength and resolve that makes me tend to categorize Dublin as a minor incident, about which I should have no difficulty writing at all.

Yet here I am, struggling to figure out where to begin.  Or how.

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15 Comments

Posted in Grand Trip, Ireland, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: GeekHiker | April 11, 2013

The Cork In The Bottle

I should have gone into more detail about 1Cent’s visit, but it seems I’ve been hit with another bout of writers block lately.  I keep trying to put my finger on exactly why, but to no avail.

Maybe it’s just stress, but I used to write as a way to relieve stress.  Maybe it’s because more people in real life know who I am, particularly after my travels, but then I remind myself that they were people I came to know because of the writing I did.  Maybe it’s because, while I’m unemployed, writing seems like a luxury and triviality which, given that one can’t realistically search for work during every waking minute, seems downright silly.

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6 Comments

Posted in Random Thoughts, Writing | Tags: , , , ,

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