rv's techblog: some kind of blog

I'm close to wrapping up six months in Dublin, so I thought I should post a follow up to About Dublin. Kinda amazing how fast these months passed by, but somewhat expected. It's been an interesting experience - which is euphemistic and detached, but nonetheless a good description - so far.

I don't remember having any bad experiences with Irish people, so I guess this confirms the rumors I heard before coming here, that the Irish are friendly and like BRs in a lot of ways. For instance

Even when some old fella stops you to ask directions but you tell him you don't know where it is and he starts mumbling to himself, you gotta love the attitude. Sometimes there's nothing funnier than someone talking and complaining by himself down the street.

And yes, I'm in a good mood today.

A few weeks ago I received a little book from the Irish government entitled "Preparing for Major Emergencies, an Introduction". It describes the basic actions you should take on the event of an emergency. Which includes flooding, chemical spills, accidents at sea, explosions and suspicious packages, nuclear incidents, influenza, animal diseases and fire. I was positively impressed by this, it's a great idea by itself. And even more when there's a large number of foreigners in your country.

Most impressively is that, on one of the introductory pages, the gov't mentions climate changes and global warming. I had never seen/heard of a gov't actually preparing its citizens (and residing foreigners) for that. Looks like global warming is finally leaving the closet and our governments are openly talking about it - and with actions to go along with the talk.

I decided to check on my carbon count over at change.ie and was pleasantly surprised with a comprehensive website about climate changes. Highly recommended.

I went through the carbon calculator, which seemed very thorough, and got the following count:

Seems fair enough. I hope the calculator took in consideration the fact that there hasn't been the need for heating in Dublin since late March. Over 90% of my count was attributed to heating.

It didn't ask about what plants you might have in your place as well, and it didn't have a test for consumable goods - which IMO is where the regular Joe can have the most impact on. For instance, does the brand of milk/juice that you buy come in plastic bottles or in a carton box?

As always, the small things do make a difference.

Quick update on the pubs I've been to since I moved to Dublin. If this doesn't serve as a reference to others, at least it helps me remember them. There's something about the pubs in Dublin that affect memory, can't remember what it is tho..

The Stag's Head is a little hard to find, you gotta go through this alley halfway through Dame St, on the north side of it. The pub's logo is on the sidewalk, so keep watching your step. Very cool vibe, both on the ground floor and in the lounge upstairs.

I went to the The Brazen Head with my managers and a friend from the office. The oldest pub around these parts, on Lower Bridge St. Has graffiti on the walls for longer than my country's been a republic - and tourists to go with it. Nice traditional pub, smallish and very friendly.

The Sine is a cool pub with kind of a night club vibe - but too small to be a full night club IMO. Younger, trendy crowd. Impressively good tunes on all the times I've been there. A couple of Thursday's ago I left the place around midnight after about one hour of great reggae blasting through the speakers.

The Porter House is a fairly decent place, has a huge variety of beers from all over the world, including the ones made by their own brewery. Nice setting where you can see the band playing right above your head on the first floor. The bands, however, are usually bad.

Devitt's is a more traditional, family place on Camden St. The lounge upstairs is particularly good, with people bringing their instruments and joining in for loads of Irish tunes. Highly recommended for a good Irish experience.

The Cobblestone is right on the North side of the Smithfield Market. Well known for very good gigs, which happen on a daily basis. Very cool place.

This Saturday I started a one-man pub crawl here in Dublin. One-man not as a rule, anyone is welcome to join in, but in the absence/unavailability of friends, one stands alone. With a pint.

I started at the Foggy Dew, a place just outside Dame St. next to the Irish National Bank. I had been there before a couple of times with friends, so it seemed like a good place to start. Very good music, not packed beyond motion, but crowded with people in their mid twenties, thirties. Had a pint while watching the different kinds of people walking around, finished it while watching a rugby match on the tv. Overall a pretty good place.

Next I went down to Temple Bar St., walked around a bit checking out pubs and turned out at the end of Fleet St., on Westmoreland. Was turning around when I heard a lot of folks singing from a pub a few meters from where I was. Didn't think twice, walked towards it.

The place is called O'Sullivan's pub. Smaller than the Foggy, about 6x15m, I couldn't resist to everyone singing along to a guy and his acoustic on stage, playing old Irish songs. Very funny and welcoming, unlike anything I'd seen on the other side of the pond. I walked over to the bar and ordered a pint of Guinness, all of the sudden, the whole pub (I kid you not) starts singing along. The crowd was a bit older than me, consistently 30ish, but the fact that I looked like a kid didn't stop a couple of people from chatting with me. Very cool.

I walked out of the pub a bit buzzed and decided to call it a night. Far from a proper Irish crawl, but then again I'm a light weight drinker.

Looking forward to the next one.

Wrapping up my second week here in Dublin, a lot of new things going on - too many to remember them all, really.
But I've been having a great time working next to the Performance QA team, helluva nice guys (and girl).

I've created an account over at Flickr to upload pictures of the city and wherever else I might end up at. Check it out if you're interested, but don't expect to find me on any of those photos - not after all these online privacy articles rolling around, anyway..

A few things about Dublin:

The funniest thing is that people judge a neighborhood according to its pubs. I've lost count of how many times someone said "That's a good place, there are some decent pubs there.."