The little things that keep you entertained

Well today was quite an eventful day. It started with me going into college and logging in to Facebook on my laptop to discover that on the college group, that I'd set up for the class so people could post notes or other college related things, that there was a photo of a personal ad posted in the local free newspaper concerning a certain lecturer in the college (see above). Now I've not heard any gushing reports from my female peers in the course so I take it he doesn't register much on their PHWAH-ometer, so I suspect it was one of the guys winding him up for the laughs. Now we did have him today but not till the afternoon.

When the lecture did come around and we were sitting around during the usual 5-10 minute lull at the start of lectures we were chuckling away and passing the paper around to those who hadn't seen it. One guy even left the paper open to the relevant page up on the lecture table where the PC is. Anyway in walks the lecturer to a chorus of chuckles and he spots the paper and said “ Alright, yis have all had your fun” while semi chuckling himself. That was it pretty much, he got on with his programming lecture.

Procrastination and love life

In college lately I've been floundering of late, doing the bare minimum (and sometimes not even that) watching the weeks wash over me and not doing very much about it . It's entirely my fault and I have disillusioned myself into thinking I was doing ok or that this approach would cause me to succeed. While the continuous assessment aspect of it isn't the main chunk of the marks (the end of semester exams are) they are certainly handy marks to have in the bag that I've been neglecting. My attendance has also semi suffered, or sometimes I'll attend just for the signing in and then spend the class doing nothing more productive than chatting on facebook or browsing sites like Reddit, Engadget and Gizmodo.

Is this the approach that I wanted? Well no but it's sort of just happened and I think both my parents and my friends in college have started to notice. I'll really have to turn this around or risk repeating half my exams in August. I guess I've been disillusioning myself that I had more of a safety net than I thought or more time than I thought to turn this train to the bottom around.

On a more positive note, I've come across a pretty cute and cool girl who's over here on a working visa for a year. Is she partly responsible for the above? I suppose you could argue subconsciously she may have had an influence. Do I hold her responsible in any shape or form? Certainly not! She's one of the few positive things in my life at the moment. We've been going on "dates" on Tuesdays these past few weeks and have been chatting on facebook and texting in-between. I guess you could say she's been a distraction from my studies and if she somehow ends up reading this, it's my fault for not finding a balance between the two aspects of my life and I'll turn the academic side around if solely for my self development. I've just let it catch up on me a bit. I've really come to look forward to these "dates", she has stated that she doesn't want anything serious as she's only here for the year and mightn't even be in Dublin for the entire year. I've felt a connection between us that's more than just friends, it might be presumptuous to assume this, but I feel she's felt it too. It might end up as a "friends with benefits" arrangement or friends who don't mind fooling around with each other if they so desire.

I guess this has been a bit of a distraction from my studies if I'm perfectly honest and to continue being honest, I sort of let it be. But now that I know about it I can hopefully put measures in place to turn it around. Hopefully not to the detriment of either.

Also as a passing thought, it'd probably be best if she doesn't read this till at least much later.... haha.

Secularism/Skepticism what are they and what they mean to me

I noticed that I throw around the terms Secularism and Skepticism around without really explaining their meaning (both in the general sense and also what they mean to me). I'm sure this must be annoying for some of you who are reading this blog.

Secularism is the view that a government should not be swayed by religious arguments, use personal beliefs of the members when writing laws, nor should they show any favouritism towards any denomination whether by directly funding a state religion, by mentioning a state religion in laws or the constitution of the country or mentioning personal beliefs of the individuals when representing the state in public speeches or press conferences.

The most common knee-jerk reaction by the very religious upon hearing this is that it means "banning religion or religious expression" which isn't true, it means that the state must be neutral in matters of religion and mustn't show favouritism towards one or the other. Private citizens still have to right to religious beliefs and public gatherings expressing such beliefs , such as going to church, or a mosque etc. as are the members of the government in their private time as private citizens, it just means the government cannot hold a public prayer meeting because then they would have to invite representatives from every religion in the state to conduct prayers for their respective religions. This would be fair but a logistics nightmare so the only other 100% fair option is to simply stay out of the religious argument and if church X want to do a public prayer or fundraiser they are perfectly entitled to do so but won't be getting state funding or a state endorsement.

Skepticism is a movement that mostly (but not always) leads to Atheism but they aren't interchangeable terms or necessarily directly related (but tend to be). Skeptics tend to put quite a lot of weighting, on whether something is demonstrably true or not, on scientific evidence or the general consensus of the scientific community. The burden of proof lies with the individual or individuals who make an assertion and then the cogs of the scientific method and peer review are then set in motion. Some examples of things that have, and continue to fail the burden of proof are Homeopathy, Astrology, Psychics and any claims of a supernatural deity.

To me my Atheism is a natural progression of my scepticism as all Atheism means is "not-theism" or the rejection of the theistic claims. You might ask why would I go to these Atheist Ireland or Skeptics in the pub meetings? Do all we discuss is how we don't believe in god? no not at all, because that would be a bit stupid and awkward. We all have something in common just like if you were to join a book club or a photo club or a travel club, except these are social meetups and a chance to make friends with regular attendees, in fact I'd say it's better than these other clubs because there is simply no restrictions on what people discuss. You could wander from one conversation about what's in the cinema at the moment to whether cloud computing is a viable future to US politics (or even Irish politics) and that is the reason why I try to make events when I can.

Back in Dublin, Thoughts on Kerry

I'm back in Dublin after my week away in Kerry. I set a goal for myself of trying to blog more often when I was over there but that didn't work out because I'd either be doing something else or be too tired when I got home. I'll try and summarise my experiences and the events in hindsight.

The typical day involved myself and my Dad getting up at 10am and driving down to the beach (about a half mile away as I described before so quite a short journey). We'd typically be the furthest house who participate so we call along the various other houses (about 3) to see who we can rouse from their slumbers and who's too hungover to open their eyes let alone move. Once we've rounded up what we can we go down to the beach in car convoy, granted the beach is close enough for you to walk down but we tend to use the cars for security of items like watches or phones and also they make a handy changing area. The sea would usually be cold to the unclimatised body, but the change in body temperature and the saltiness of the water is a perfect wake up call and it also sharpens a groggy head if we did manage to raise the hungover zombies.

After we dried and changed back into our dry clothes we'd return home for breakfast. The plan of the day is usually discussed at some stage during or immediately after the swim, If it's a walk it's usually not honed down as to which one out of the range that we've done in the past, so we typically say "meet back at X's house at 1 and we'll decide what we feel like". Sometimes golfing is the order of the day with all the uncles or some of them being tied up. In which case sometimes the cousins would decide on a plan for the day including possibly driving to another beach if it's a nice day or a trip into Dingle to  grab a few things/ potter around.

Dinner in my house was usually 7pm (6pm when in Dublin) and we'd either be left to our own devices in our individual houses or we've been invited to an uncles house/inviting them over or eating in the golf club if it's a special occasion or none of us feel like cooking. The evening/ after dinner events again range on what's going on. Of late I suppose as my parents and the others are getting older they tend not to go out to the pub as much but every week/ odd week there might be a presentation of prizes and then a sing song in the Golf Club. Naturally if we're over at an Aunt's/Uncle's house then the evenings entertainment is there (or if they're over with us), or sometimes we've dined separately but we get an invite for after dinner shenanigans (cheese and crackers and wine/beer and maybe a sing song or a board game) at one of their houses. Other times we have our quite evenings in just watching the 4 channels we have or reading a book (or browsing the net in my case).

I was thinking what do I get out of this annual Kerry trip besides meeting up with family (which is nearly worth it it by itself) while on the train back. I don't mean that in a negative way, I mean I do get a benefit but I was trying to categorise it and quantify it. After much thought I concluded that I enjoy the zen like quietness and the fresh air as well as the breath taking views that are seen on the walks and drives around. Also I get fresh top up of what it is to be Irish, there's such a sense of homeliness and welcome down there. Everyone seems to leave their work life busy personas behind and you can walk up to and chat to other people who likewise make the annual trip down.

Yesterday after arriving into Heuston station at about 5 I rushed home to dump my stuff, shower change and then head back out as there was an Atheist's in the pub meeting at half 7. I ended up being an hour late as it turns out but that was fine as these events tend to be casual about your arrival time. I had a blast but I also approached everything with more patience and a kind of settled serenity thanks to the  battery recharge I received while in Kerry. It was a good evening and I met quite a few personalities that I wouldn't mind meeting again (both male and female). Dunno what It was but maybe as my attitude was slightly less reserved and more comfortable with myself I suppose then that must've conveyed itself and I seemed to get along with people better. Whether this is a lasting change or will I soon retreat back into the persona of before I don't know. I hope it's the former because I found myself getting along with a few of the girls that were there like I've not been able to get along with girls in a while which is a good potential for recurring meetings.

History of Moi, The Atheist

Well I guess it started off with my Parents. My parents didn't baptise me and decided that it would be wrong of them to impose any religion on me at such a young age. Sound thinking since you can join any religion at any time and religions indoctrinate children out of fear that their "souls" would be lost if they were to die and they weren't made a member of the cult/religion. They enrolled me into a non-denominational primary school that wasn't local to us but was on the commute to my mom's work (or at least not too inconvenient from it). Catholic instruction was possible in this school but it was outside of class time and was an opt in rather then the non religious opting out.

I'll fast forward a bit to around the 10-12 age. At this stage I was an early bloomer in terms of intelligence. I was no means "gifted", I would struggle at things like Irish and some aspects of Maths but myself and another kid, would've been above our age in scientific interest and comprehension. I would've been a regular watcher of BBC Horizon and Wildlife on One at this stage and would've understood most of it. This I feel was key to laying the foundations of evolution and the relationship between similar animal species in my head. I could see the similarity of Humans and the other great apes and of dogs and wolves and other examples. I was only just hearing of Darwin and his body of work at this stage as my first, and still one of my greatest, hero of Biology and natural world was David Attenborough. It just made sense to me and the evidence has only gotten stronger since then.

My transfer to second level wasn't an easy one, I went to the local one whereas my primary school friends naturally went to the nearest one to the primary school. I retreated quite a bit into my shell for the first 3 years and in some areas I haven't fully gotten over those self esteem issues. I was convinced I was the sole atheist but funnily enough that didn't make me feel down as I had built up a mental brick wall and a facade towards my fellow students. I was only myself around my immediate and extended family. It was 4th year or transition year where I came out of my shell quite a bit and made lifelong close friends. I saw no need to keep up the facade and saw transition year as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start afresh. The fact that there were several bonding trips such as cycling for a week or paris or skiing (5th year) only catalysed my intent.

During 6th year, religion class was a study period with occasional guest speakers from various religious groups we had an ex Jahovah's Witness (he gave us the inside scoop that a practicing one would never give us), group of Hare Krishnas and maybe a few others I forget. I wasn't an outspoken atheist at the time but wouldn't have hesitated to let people know if they asked. The same as I feel now. I found out a few of my friends were also atheists at this stage. But my closest friend funnily enough I don't think I ever asked him. He either is or a very lax catholic otherwise he would have put up with me all these years. This pretty much bings me up to speed as my views haven't changed since then. I subscribe to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, The Atheist Experience and The Non Prophets podcasts (among others). I am a loose member of Atheist Ireland, by that I mean I subscribe to their newsletters and Facebook page/group (whichever it is, Facebook blurred the lines between them) and occasionally fall in for their social meetups but am not as of this moment a fully paid up member but I certainly would be if I had the disposable income (it's not much but I'm THAT poor).


Well I'm off back to my incessant browsing, Until next time!