Blog o' Ryan

2005-05-31T01:35:00.000-07:00

1. Its been a while, i know.
2. I think i should start blogging again because i'm in a foreign country again(germany this time)

So lets review whats happened in the last 6 months....lets see, I finished my career at Wesleyan(all 5 semesters) I never thought I would say it, but I think I will really miss Wes. I have some great memories from there...lacrosse, jazz band(s), playing frat gigs, beirut, the bag game, the nocturnal marching band, intramural sports, breaking my nose in softball, breaking Rob's nose boxing, breaking lots of things in the lab...Cesium!

So, on to the neyt chapter of my life...you know its strange, it really does seem like my life is going by in chapters, or for you math people you would say my life is a discontinous function, undefined in some regions.
Nexte haltestelle: Columbia University, starting fall 05, 2 years of engineering in Manhatten. Quite a change from Middletown, CT where campus wide emails are sent out warning the school of a 'suspicious person' seen on Lawn Ave. Well, I think it will be a nice change of pace, however drastic.

For now I am in Dortmund, Germany studying Solid state physics for the summer. Ya, i know, i'm such a nerd. but the real reason for coming to germany was to see Lara, the only constant in my life right now. My birthday present this year was a Eurail pass(for germany france spain and benelux) so i plan to do some more traveling in europe.
Ive discovered that traveling by traing with a big suitcase is not a good idea. If youve taken an overnight train in a 'couchette' then you know what im talking about.
Before coming to Germany I spent a week in Salamanca, Spain with Lara. she came with me back to madrid to say goodbye, and we had time to see the Prada museum. And by that, i mean we had 1 hour, hehe. I actually reccomend going to a museum for 1 hour, even better if you have a train to catch. Of course, I missed my train, mostly due to El Greco and Francisco de Goya, but also because of an incredibly slow taxi-driver.

I have a few more days of German class, and then I start the real classes next Monday.
Bis Spater!

2004-09-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

"Hi Everybaady!"
"Hi, Dr.Nick!"

some highlights from the weekend:
Friday:
Bob, Smith, and I had 40 buffalo wings for dinner...oh, and some celery too! lots and lots of moist towelletes were used.
Saturday:
did a recording session for a senior film thesis early in the morning...i was sick and actually threw up in between recording track 1 and 2...but we got free lunch for our efforts. Ushered at a fancy Indian dinner that afternoon and got free Indian food! The dessert looked like moldy milk that had worms in it, but actually it tasted excellent. Then I ushered at a dance concert. this was some pretty weird stuff. the group, called Streb, would do weird things like fall off of high places, run around tied to eachother, and one of them even got harnessed into a "flying machine" ...i guess I just don't get modern dance. I mean falling off stuff is really fun, but watching other people do it isnt that entertaining.
Sunday:
Bob actually came to church with me later that afternoon to go to a going away party for a friend of mine, Eliza, who is moving to Virginia on Wednsesday. This sucks because her parents were the bassist and pianist for the worship band...now we need to find some new players.
oh, and we watched "the spanish apartment" , a really good foreign film about college students studying abroad...i had already seen it in Ireland, but it was worth seeing twice.

It seems like the lab group i'm working with spends more time planning on what we are going to do, what we need to do, and the advantages and disadvantages of any sort of plan of action, than actually doing anything. Like today, we discussed the possibility of contaminants in the oil for the diff pump for most of our meeting, while we could have changed the oil in that amount of time. well, we did get something done today: replaced some O-rings! woo hoo! sorry guys if I'm boring you with this stuff but, I couldn't afford any more noteboooks so i'm maybe this my lab notebook as well as my blog...hehe, just kidding..I figure, if naomi can talk about working in a LIBRARY, than I can talk about my job too.

oh, and today in the lab i got to replace some copper O-rings

some good news: #1 i heard there is a fencing club forming this year...hopefully I can get them to come out to the club.
#2 pastor says to me on sunday "so Ryan, I gave my cadillac to Marcel, and he's getting a new mini-van, so I bet he'll give you the cadillac"
so hopefully that works out...

2004-09-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

nicht viele macht diese tagen...
well, i just got a big packet of stuff from Columbia today and I have to say, it looks pretty impressive...I mean they have the 3rd largest earthquake simulator in the world! Would it not be the coolest thing in the world to have a dance party on that thing?
It looks like I have a choice of any engineering major there, but the ones i'm looking at are either Computer engineering, or Applied Physics. Computer Engineering is where the money is at, but the A.P. dept has a tokamak fusion reactor. Plasma fusion, which is like the holy grail of energy physics, is something I have been interested in since high school.
Let me know what you guys think, Applied physics or computer engineering.
Since i'm on the subject of physics and school, this summer i'm hoping to get accepted to a summer internship at CERN labaoratory in Geneva. A summer in Switzerland doing high energy physics, and getting paid to do it!...it just doesn't get any better than that. I've got to be insanely well qualified to get accepted, so this year has to be big, as far as grades.

I picked up another mini-job for the president(of the university). I am now one of a few student drivers who get to drive the pres and his wife all around, but mostly to and from the airport...i'm kind of nervous, partly becuase of their expensive car, but mostly becuase i've never driven in CT. But don't worry, the car is 100% insured!

RIght now I am embarrased whenever someone comes over to our place because we have nothing on our walls except a poster of Hillary Duff's face...is that lame or what?

wo shou ni men ting!!

2004-09-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

so many things to say, it's too bad i'm so bad at writing. Let's just say that I haven't posted in 2000 hours or so.
Quick update:
went to Ireland - fell in love, did physics, met some really cool people
came back - PA dynamic very awkward, finds refuge at home, the Y, and the golf course
back to school - falling back into the groove, hard classes, church going well, promoted to head bartender at Pres House, Three Amigos back at it, guitar player in mental institute - no band yet...west african drumming, intramural soccer, first fencing lesson at new club, learnin olympic lifting from Bob, busy life - actually bought a 'weekly planner' (are you proud naomi?)
oh, and still in love with a girl in another country - very inconvenient...but going to visit in October.

Funny story - the democrats came knocking at my door tonight...they wanted me to register to vote, and I said I was from WA and they said that it would be a tight race there. They had obsiously had never met a republican before, so they do the natural thing and assume that I'm am a democrat. So, they suggest I do the absentee ballot thing, and I wholeheardatly agree. So after a nice little conversation, I finally couldn't stand it anymore, so I told them that I was conservative, and they gave me the most surprised, hurt, look I have seen in a while. So that much ended the convseration and the story. I bet Emma has a similar story.

well, I bet i'm leaving out a ton of things about Ireland, this summer, and school here, so I may as well quit while i'm behind.
i hope everyone is enjoying themselves!

2004-06-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

The original plan was or me just to have a blog for my Ireland trip, but somehow I have been convinced to keep posting. I've been back for about 2 weeks, and I haven't really done much. I have: visited Naomi in Seattle and did some fencing while I was there, played with the 4 kittens at my house, gone golfing, gone to the Y, spent 4 days in LA for my brother Tim's wedding, and that's about it.
The wedding was great, we ate lots of chinese food, REAL chinese food, like the stuff I had IN China, like Jellyfish, sharkfin soup, sanddollar innards, yummy...
I'm trying to get a job, but that probably won't happen, as I'll be in Seattle a lot fencing and i'm teaching drums again, and I want to golf a lot.
Apparently there is a cool new jazz club downtown that I'm going to check out tonight, maybe try to play...i hear Tom goes there.
cya

2004-06-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

Don't worry people, i'm still alive.
I'm still in Dublin, trying to stay out of trouble until I head to London on Sunday morning. Things have been crazy lately, especially when they kicked us out of the DCU apartments and we had no where to stay...thank goodness Maurice was there to drive us around and look for places to stay...we ended up staying at a B&B for a night until finding a place to stay at an old ladies house, in a village south of Dublin, Templeaugue. I had a headache for all of last week, i'm not sure why, but i'm better now...
last weekend Sophie(french girl) rented a car and we(Jane, Alvaro, Lara, and I) headed up to Belfast and the northern coast for a few days...the trip was pretty amazing, especially the protestant/catholic issues, that we got to see first hand...we spent two days driving around the coast, stayed in hostels, got some wet socks hiking, climbed walls, fences, and had a fun time doing it...I've have discovered you really have to be pro-active and fearless in order to be a succesful tourist...it takes a lot of practice, but I think I almost have it mastered..
the only bad part of the trip was when the rental car was towed to the Dublin City Impound, when we parked it in a bus lane...hehe, i'm glad it's not on my credit card :)
I'm helping Lara find an apartment in the city center because she and Alvaro are staying in Dublin and working at the Hard Rock Cafe. so if anyone is going to Dublin, stop by the Hard Rock Cafe and say HOLA GUAPA CHICA to Lara for me :)

2004-05-19T03:14:00.000-07:00

I just avoided a major disaster...I thought my Solid state final was on friday. Luckily I lost two sections of notes so I had to ask the teacher for another copy, so I went to her office, she gave me the notes, I said 'thanks' and then she said 'good luck tomorrow' ...then I thought, 'wait! the test is on friday, and tomorrow is Thursday. agggh!
It's a good thing I am disorganized, eh?

So I had my first final on Monday. It was for Nanotech/Surface Physics, and I actually made notecards for the first time since elementary school...The spanish girls helped me out by quizzing me over the weekend, so I think I did pretty well. The testing procedures here are very different than at home. The entire gym was filled with about 1,000 chairs, of which I was supposed to locate, by some stroke of luck, chair 303...I'm lucky that I showed up 10 minutes early.
I had quite a scare at first because they handed me the wrong test at first, I think it was for an advanced philisophy class...although it might have been fun to try. The one thing that really annoyed me is the fact that I wasn't allowed to use my Ti-86. Apparently they are afriad that you will program some equations into it, when actually it would be much easier to just write them on your hand. So I had to use a stupid scientific calculator, which made keeping order of operations almost impossible on some of the calculations. Get with the times people! EVERYONE has a graphing calculator; back me up here people...
If anyone wants to learn to fence this summer, let me know, because I need someone to practice with.
Arantza, Veronica, and Lucia, 3 of my best freinds here, are all leaving in 9 days so we are all in denial about that and try not to think about it.
I've been playing a lot of pool lately, mostly just to fill the time between studying and eating. The pool balls and pockets are much smaller, so when I come back to the states, I might actaully be good at pool. But, probably not..I never liked geometry. Ms. Sanderson! I wonder if she's still kickin it...and by 'it' I mean the garbage can.

I have Solid State exam on THURSDAY(edit), then Plasma physics next wednesday, and complex analysis on thursday. woo hoo!
I'm going to a greyhound race tonight...(edit)actually I should probably study.

2004-05-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

I just love those spontaneous nights where you decide to do something interesting and everything works out as if you had been planning it for days...Monday night we went bowling out by the airport, and Francesco gave us a ride in his tiny rental car ( we had to make two trips )...this was the chance for the Americans in the group (Ish and I) to really shine; to finally demonstrate some authentic American culture... So we did our best to imitate The Big Lebowski, and we threw back a few MGD's and actually I bowled unusaully well (141)...of course, everyone thought that I was an expert and was asking me what the correct technique is...so of course, being an actor, I made some stuff up and tried to sound like I knew what I was doing...it was great fun. Afterwards we decided to drive into town and hang out at Maria Grazia's( Italian girl) apartment in Temple Bar. She made some pasta; it was amazing, we shared a round of Amaro ( after dinner drink) and went and saw the last 30 minutes of an open mic night at pub. All in all, it was quite an eclectic night, going from American, to Italian, and back to Irish cultures in the span of 5 hours...
Tuesday night was the last fencing team practice, so we all went out to the pub afterwards, and Fionbarr and Micheal (the coaches) told stories about life and fencing, and I found out that Micheal actually got his degree in math and theoretical physics, so we had an interesting discussion about computers in the 50's...it made me realize just how much we all take our computers for granted...

2004-05-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Important News: June 15 i'm back in PA!
that means i'll miss dinner show, and probably graduation...
My mom is afraid that I'll take a plane to Spain and visit my girlfriend as soon as school is out. I probably would, except that I don't have money for that, and I think she's staying in Dublin for the next few months. I have to get out of the campus apt on May28th, and after that I'll be staying in South Dublin...Maurice's parents rent apts out to college students for the summer, and one of the apts is empty until June 11th...My flight leaves from London, so I'll get to hang out in there for a few days before leaving.
I've been researching Columbia University for the 3-2 Engineering program, and it turns out that they have one of the best fencing teams in the country; 4 of the 13 Olympic fencers this year went to, or are going to Columbia...In fact, as far as fencing goes, things have been falling into place quite nicely. Back at Wesleyan, one of the top fencing clubs in New England moved to Middletown, only 10 minutes walking from where I will be living, and it opened last month...I've also been getting some free lessons from an actual fencing master...

Not much new going on here; classes ended last week, now I have a 4 finals spread over the next 3 weeks.

2004-05-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

* Today's Date:
01-05-04

* Name:
Ryan Winslow Weed
* Age:
20

* Birthday:
04-14-84

* Eyes:
Blue

* Hair:
light brown or blonde, i dont know

* Height:
~6'

* Shoe Size:
11.5

* Who lives with you:
NObody

* Do you have any siblings?
Tim Todd and Kelli.

---------------HAVE YOU EVER--------------

* Flown on a plane:
Yep.

* Ever been so drunk you blacked out:
No.

* Missed school because it was raining:
does that happen?

* Told a guy/girl that you liked them?:
Yes.

* Had a crush on a friend's girlfriend/boyfriend:
sure

* Been hurt emotionally:
sure

* Kept a secret from everyone:
yep

* Had an imaginary friend:
nope

* Wanted to hook up with a friend:
sure

* Cried during a Movie?:
The Last Samurai in CT at the end with the machine guns

* Ever thought an animated character was hot?:
Lara Croft of course, and the robot chick in the DBZ robot saga.

* Been on stage:
yep

* Cut your hair:
not recently

* Had a crush on a teacher?:
just Naomi's math teacher last year

-----------------FAVORITES------------------

* Shampoo:
Wash and Go! only in Ireland i think

* Fav Color:
Blue

* Day/Night:
.7 if we are going by the ratio of how much i like each

* Lace or Satin:
never really explored either of those possbilities

* Fave Cartoon Character:
Piccolo

* Fave Food:
I like Thai soups

* Fave Cereal:
Crunchy Nut!

* Fave Song:
Polonaise in A flat major Op 53 by Chopin... you gotta love A flat major

* Fave Advertisement:
the Nike one with Brazil playing Portugal

* Fave Movies:
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

* Fave Drink:
Guinness, although it's more of a meal than a drink.

* Fave Animal:
the Laiden African Swallow

* Fave People to talk to online:
My close friends.

* Fave Ice Cream:
Belgium Chocolate

* Fave sport:
Let's see, Baseball is bodacious for a hot summer afternoon, Basketball is bangin right before a test or final or in China in front of the whole school, Soccer will suit your needs in a dark park, after a night out... Football is freezing but fun on a cold, wet, muddy day in November, Squash is super if you have lots of energy to burn, and good knees and ankles, Golf is great on a Sunday morning after Church with 3 of your good friends, Lacrosse is ludicrous in Florida on Spring break, ping pong and badminton are perfect in China...but Fencing is awesome anytime, anyplace

* Fave Car:
Maserati

-----------------RIGHT NOW------------------

* Wearing:
nothing.....especial

* Eating:
Nothing.

* Drinking:
nothin

* Listening to:
Dune Buggy, Presidents of the United States of America
"little blue dune buggy in the sand, little blue dune buggy, in my hand"

* Talking to someone Online:
No.

-------------IN THE LAST 24 HRS------------

* Cried: nope.
* Worn jeans: nope
* Met someone new online: nope
* Done laundry: Nope, but soon
* Driven a car: Nope
* Talked on the phone?: nope

-----------DO YOU BELIEVE IN--------------

* Yourself: sure
* Your friends:ya
* Santa Claus: nope
* Tooth Fairy: nope
* Destiny/Fate: not really
* Angels: sure
* Ghosts: nope
* UFO's: nope
* God: yep

-----------FRIENDS AND LIFE---------------

* Do you ever wish you had another name?
I wish my name was Inego Montoya Apdar

* Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend?
Her name is Lara Lorbada Riom, she is here studying translation and she's from Cantabria in Northern Spain

* Do you like anyone?
I like lots of people!

* Which one of your friends acts the most like you:
not sure, any suggestions?

* Who have you known the longest of your friends:
probably all the folks from Franklin

* Who's the loudest:
Jamie, probably.
Or Mark, here in Ireland

* WHOS THE MOST ANNOYING?!?? :
Arantzazu Idoate Azcarate...she once said "vocabulary" 48 times consecutively

* Who's the shyest:
Lara

* Who's the quietest:
I used to be the quietest, but i'm not sure now

* Are you close to any family members?:
of course

* Who's the weirdest:
i'm not sure what qualifies as wierd, but Tim had dread-locks and an eyebrow piercing, and lived in California, which automatically makes people wierd.

* Who's the funniest:
Everyone has their unique sense of humor.

* Who do you go to for stuff?:
My parents

* Who do you hang around the most?:
In Ireland...Lara and my spanish flatemates and Maurice.

* Who did you go to when you cried the most:
N/A

* What's the best feeling in the world:
not sure

* Worst Feeling:
the first .003 seconds after you hit your funny bone, but after that its alright...

* Do you want all your friends to do this:
Of course.

* What time is it now? 1:36 pm

------------Finish each sentence:-------------

* Let's walk on the: sunny side of the street
* Let's run through: strawberry fields
* Let's look at the: updated figures on capital value depreciation in the manufacturing sector.
* Who are those: monkey butlers that just cleaned my room?
* What a nice: day to sit inside and update my blog
* Where did all these: monkey butlers come from?
* How are they: so smart?
* Why can't you: have them train more?
* So where did you find: them?
* Sing the: national anthem of Bhutan
* Easier than: intergalactic space travel
* Closer than: the farthest distance that you will never travel in the opposite direction in order to get there.
* Look at my: way of seeing things
* I'll stay if: you say the alphabet backwards in French
* Silly, little: irrational numbers
* Show me some:thing
* The sky is:n't as big as you think
* Tell me: you didn't forget to lock the monkey butlers in their cage.
* Hide me: under your coffee table
* Love me: when i'm gone
* Grab the: mic
* I hate your stupid: hats
* He's not: here
* Are you that: freaked out about the monkeys?
* I missed: the way you sip your tea
* Can't you: stop
* Lovely little: man-eating tigers
* Comments: sorry about the monkey butlers, i just watched the Lorf of the Flies Simpsons episode

Five Bands/Artists/Groups You've been listening Lately:

* 1. The Darkness
* 2. Jurassic 5
* 3. Chopin
* 4. Rossini
* 5. Bob Marley

Top Five Locations I'd Like To Run Away To:

* 1. Greece
* 2. Venice
* 3. Tangshen
* 4. Home to PA
* 5. Salamanca or Barcelona or Seville

2004-04-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

I really need to update more often...
Last week takes the prize for most hectic week of the year. Arantza(flatmate)'s sister,Niara, was visiting the whole week...there was the Salsa show at the bar on Tuesday night...my birthday on Wednesday, birthday party on Thursday, two of Veronica's friends studying in England visited, so we went out Friday to a really cool place called Zanzibar, it had a Babylonian theme goin on that I really enjoyed, Saturday I had a fencing tournament (again on minimal sleep) and Saturday was Eduourd's birthday party...
The Epee tournament-
I did a lot better than I thought I would...It was a one hit tournament so you don't really have a chance to 'feel' your opponent out....I started out a bit shaky with 4 consecutive losses, but I calmed down and I eventually won 13 bouts and lost 10 and placed in the top 10...
Salsa class on Monday was especially spicy, the teacher had Veronica and I demonstrate a very 'sexy' move, because we apparently did it well...I don't know.
Last night there was a karaoke band playing at the bar and I asked to play drums for a song, and they just let me play for the rest of their set. It felt so good playing the drums again, after only being able to tap my fingers restlessly for the last 3 months. I can’t wait to play for Todd’s wedding this summer.
Everything else is going well, classes are almost over, and we now have a few weeks to just study and relax, which I can’t really say was much needed, but welcome, nonetheless.

2004-04-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Buenos Ding Dong Diddly Dias!!
Some news from Ryan's life:
its my birthday!
20 years old, not a teenager anymore, etc, etc... I had a nice dinner out with Lara at TGIF...it was so nice to see all those American things on the walls, and hanging from the cieling, and also the waitresses with their 25 buttons (Office Space anyone?) I forgot I was Ireland for a few seconds...except when I got the bill (it's about twice as expensive in Ireland)...
we are having a party tommorow night, and i think they have something tricky planned but i dont know what...
Thanks everyone for giving shouts out in their blogs, livejournals, and for the emails...
Today at the lab, Karin and I solved a problem that we had been struggling with for 2 weeks, and of course the solution was something really simple that we should have thought of, but we felt like celebrating anyway...luckily there was a post-grad poster fair nextdoor with free wine :) so we crashed that party, and by crash I mean walked around looking at posters, with a plastic cup of wine, trying to act like you're actually interested in "Thermo-Coupled Sol-Gel Optical Switch Dynamics"...
Played a great game of soccer with the international crowd over in the park this afternoon...the wierd thing about playing on a team with italians, japanese, irish, and french, is that the field is totally quiet because no one understands eachother anyway...but it's a blast nonetheless...

bad news: my digital camera was stolen last week out of my coat pocket, so I have slightly more untrusting feelings towards humanity in general, kind of like when my bike was stolen a few weeks after I bought it in CT... ahh, I'm way too trusting of people... I think it's from growing up in a town like Port Angeles, where everyone is Ned Flanders...or in some cases, Ralphy...

I'm doing an epee tournament this weekend, my first one!!...It's a one-hit competition which is supposed to simulate a duel...I just hope we get to slap our opponents with our gloves before every bout.
I'm reading a really good book by Arturo Perez-Reverte called the Fencing Master, and the guy actually knows what he is talking about as far as sword-fights and fencing.
Last weekend we went to the Botanic Gardens and Kimainham Gaol(where scenes from Michael Collins were shot), so I've now seen pretty much everything there is to see in Dublin.
There were really any highlights from those trips, I mean it's a Garden and a Jail... definately not the two most excting places to be...sorry, I'm just bitter about the roses not being in bloom... I also saw Passion, and the people who I saw it with were crying, shocked, mesmerized, etc..the movie didn't really have that effect on me, I guess it is because I've read the bible and, for all of my life I have known about the suffering of Jesus, and often imagine what he went through, and to see it on film, is just to see one man's vision of an event that has been an integral part of my life... so it wasn't really shocking at all, for me...the Aramaic language is beautiful though.
On a different note, I have discovered another thing that I'm just really bad at: Soul caliber, the video game...I just got beaten by 5 girls who were just mashing the buttons as fast as possible..ugh

and on that note, I bid everyone a fond farewell.....

2004-04-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Got this from Naermi

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
"solutions and some applications that can be studied using those methods. For each"

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
closet

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
director's commentary on 'Amelie'

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is
6:09 PM

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
6:12 PM

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
birds chirping outside

7: When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
grocery shopping a few minutes ago.

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
email and ericas updated site

9: What are you wearing?
New York University shirt, some jeans, and my trusty Steve Maddens

10: Did you dream last night? What about?
i'm not sure what exactly I dreamed about, but something really great happened...

11. When did you last laugh?
when my plasma proff , who's from australia told us "i dont care what you think" ...it was funny in the context , trust me

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
absolutely nothing...and I'm not joking
we had room inspections yesterday and we aren't allowed to put anything up.

13: Seen anything weird lately?
really big hail...while playing soccer today

14(a): What book are you currently reading?
DAncing Wu Li Masters (Zukav)

14(b): What is the last book you finished?
The Art and Science of Fencing for the 3rd time i think

15: What is the last film you saw?
Theatre: Starsky and Hutch
NonTheatre: Amelie

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
Orange Juice.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know.
I'm a warder for an Aes Sedai of the Purple Ajah

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
i wish we could 'see' all dimensions. Kind of like when the sphere took the triangle into the 3rd dimension in 'Flatland'

19: Do you like to dance?
yes all kinds of dancing, i've learned Meregue and am learning Salsa and Samba.

20: What is the last thing you ate or drank?
Toast and cereal.

21(a): Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
no idea

21(b): Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
no idea

22: Would you esver consider living abroad?
yes, i'm studying abroad...why not

23. What's on your mind?
i'm hungry

2004-04-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

I passed the room inspections!

2004-04-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

Big news of the Week:
I got somewhere between 5th and 8th in the DIT Novice Cup. I was hoping to do better, but I think I did pretty well, considering there were 45 other fencers there and I got 4 hours of sleep the night before. I won all 6 of my pool bouts with only 8 points total against me. So I went in to the single elimination ranked 5th, and with most of my energy conserved (In fencing tournaments it's very easy to completely spend all your energy in one bout, especially with all the adrenalin pumping)
I won my 1st and 2nd round bouts 15-3, and was feeling good going into the quarter-finals. It was a very heated battle, but in the end I lost 15-12 (the guy eventually won the tournament, so I don't feel too bad). Our club captain, Peter, also lost to him, but in the next round, so Peter got 3rd place.
Other than that, I did some more Salsa dancing(more tonight!), and actually had some homework this week.

Other highlights:
Naomi analyzing my dream ( for some reason, I'm starting to remember more and more of my dreams since coming to Ireland)
Talking to my sister Kelli about her novel and the soon to be released GRRM book 'A Feast for Crows'

Things I'd rather forget:
Finding the eigenvector submatrices from a nuclear reaction rate differential equation coefficient matrix using pirated and volatile Mathcad...And finding out today that no one else did the homework, so its not due until Wednesday.

2004-03-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

After the last few week's craziness I did my best to lay low this week...

I saw 'Fight Club' again last night...so I'm feeling voilent. Well, I am a warder, what can I say. (Only Naomi will get that)

School:
The only thing exciting about school is that we are starting the nanotechnology part of Nano/Surface physics, and my fourth year modules switched teachers, so no more crazy American Bert with all of his homework, hehe..

I made another spontaneous decision (well actually I just wanted to dance with Lara) last night and decided to go to the Salsa class at the gym with the spanish girls. The class had been running for a few weeks already so I was a little behind. I was sure that I would be tripping over myself; Salsa is a lot more complex than Merengue, but I actually had some fun and the teacher told me I learned quickly.
Despite my success in dancing, however, I reaffirmed my belief that I suck at card games that require either,speed or concentration. Lara destroyed me 4 times.
Ryan: you're really good Lara
Lara: no no no you are just bad

Somehow we got free tickets to 'The Spirit' last Thursday, which is the best club I have been to in Dublin so far. It had 3 floors, two dance floors and a 'holistic center' that did massages.

They say racism is still a problem over here in Ireland, although, up until Thursday night, I hadn't really noticed anything. But on our way to the Spirit, there was a chinese guy and his girlfriend standing outside of Mcdonald's and suddenly an Irish guy runs up and punches him for no reason at all. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised, because in the last 200 years there haven't been many people immagrating into Ireland, just leaving...but with the EU gaining strength, Dublin has turned into a sort of European college town , like Boston in the States, and the people are having a hard time getting used to the changes. Speaking of changes, the indoors smoking ban is now in effect...It's going to be so nice not having to breathe toxic gases. ahhhh

Saturday is the fencing tournament that was postponed from March, and our club is sending some people; it'll be nice to compete again. Although, last week, a fencer in Hungary died from a broken sword through the chest, so everyone is reluctant to do a fleche.

till next post, cheers

2004-03-23T04:27:00.000-08:00

An Irish Road Trip

Friday, or ‘Where do we sleep?’
So we started off on Friday morning, one french guy,one french girl, two Czek guys, and me, the American.
First stop was at an old monastary right in the middle of Ireland called Clonmacnoise. A few hours later we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. We stayed until dinner time, then went to a really small pub in a town where there were only 3 houses. After that we drove back to the cliffs and set up the tent. I slept in the car with the frenchguy, and frenchgirl. After a few hours of peaceful sleep we were awakened by loud Czek curses, because the wind got so bad, the main pole on the tent snapped. OK, so we decide to drive back to the pub(my first experience driving on the left) and ask if we can stay in his garage, but he tells us there are sheep sleeping there. Doh! So what do we do now? By some stroke of luck, we find an abandoned house on the side of the road so the Czek guys sleep there, and finally we get to sleep at 1 AM.

Saturday, or ‘I thought we were going to die’
So we decided to make one more trip to the cliffs in the morning, which was a bad idea, of course, due to the gale force winds that were forecasted the night before. we climb the fence that says “DANGER”. What ensued was possibly one of the scariest moments in my life. As we made our way down to a large flat rock, maybe 50ft by 70ft, with the cliff on one edge of it, a huge gust of wind slammed into our backs pushing us uncontrollably toward the cliff edge. I could see the Czek guys were yelling, but I couldn’t hear them; the wind was deafening. We were helpless against the incredible power of the wind.
All this happened in a few seconds, and at this point, my physics studies kicked in and I realized that if I decreased my surface area the force would be lessened, so instead of trying to fight it, I just fell over and laid flat, until their was a break in the wind. Luckily the other guys figured this out as well.
After we got organized, and Honza found his glasses that were blown off his head, we headed back to the car bound for Galway, with a little mud on our pants, and perhaps a little greater respect for nature’s power. The rest of the day went by quickly…we saw a 5,800 year old megalithic tomb,took an overpriced tour of the Ailwee cave in the Burren, weathered a few hailstorms, made our way up to Galway, had dinner and a pint, and continued on up the coast to the Connemara National Park, where we set up camp for the night.

Sunday, or ‘Let’s climb THAT mountain’

The majority of this day was spent climbing a mountain that I think was called ‘The Devilsmother’. Despite its name, however it was quite nice. At least until we got to the top, at 1,500 feet; the wind was at least 50mph constant, and when you walked, you had to lean sideways about 30 degrees toward the wind, in order to walk straight. But the view was worth it. You could see all the way to Galway Bay, and the Bens mountains to the south. But a storm was coming in fast. So we headed back down, slipping and falling, running towards any sort of shelter when the wind and hail got too bad. After a change of pants down at the car, we packed up and headed back to Dublin, blasting Czek rock-and-roll music all the way home.

2004-03-19T01:32:00.000-08:00

Renting a car and going on a road trip to the west coast this weekend. Will post when I get back. Gotta go!

2004-03-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(i'll do a real post tommorow)

2004-03-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

I better get this post in before the craziness of St. Patrick's day begins this week.
Last night was the big fireworks show downtown..lots of tourists wearing stupid hats.

The Plasma Lab director told Karin and I that the University of Cork wants us to install our Microwave system on one of their macines. So at some point this semester, we will be taking the train down to Cork for a weekend.

Everyone in the States is on Spring break, Drew is in Hawaii, Emma in Cali, Bob is in Florida with the rest of the Wes Lax team getting into all sorts of trouble I'm sure...last year, I was surpised no one was arrested or ended up in the hospital...sometimes I miss college athletics, other times... I'm glad I took a break from it. Also, Bob is my housing agent while I am in Ireland, and it looks like the 3 amigos(Smith, Bob, and I) will be living together again next year. hurray

I got a chance to play football with an actual DCU team on Tuesday. I only played for 10 minutes because they had a full team that day, and I screwed up 2 of my 4 touches...DOH!

Fencing is going well as usual..Tuesday's foil practice was fun because I got to be in a bout and won 5-2. Today I did epee again with the old guys.

This summer is going to be busy-
Both my brothers are getting married, my sister is graduating, SEER Productions might be doing something(depending on what Emma finds out this week in Cali) , I'm teaching a fencing course at the YMCA, and I still don't know when I will be coming back from Ireland...I really want to hang out in Spain for a while and then see the Olympics later in August, but I just checked the ticket prices and one event is 200 bucks, so that might not happen...

On friday, I went to a demonstration for the Madrid bombing. I took some pictures, and learned some Spanish chants. I have a good picture of the crowd blocking O'Connell street and the Garda trying to get them to move.

I really have to sit down and write some post cards, I have been putting it off for too long. cyas

2004-03-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

I'm about due for a long post. here ya go.
So school much the same as it has been, I guess the highlight of this week was when I actually woke up and went to both my 9 am classes on Thursday and Friday...the park across the road beautiful in the early morning, with the rising sun casting long shadows across the mist carpeted dark green grass. As I butter my morning toast, I watch as the shadows grow shorter, and then I remember a calculus problem from Ms Hanscoms class where we had to calculate that rate, and then I remember the people in that class that I haven't talked to in so long and wonder what they are doing at that exact moment...and then I realize im late for class.
I think something I have gotten really good at in the last few years is making new friends...It all started with the trip to China because the chinese are so easy to become friends with, and then going to school out in CT without knowing anybody, and now over here in Ireland...but at the same time that also means that I am good at saying goodbye to friends...now I'm remembering the bus that took us away from Tangshan High School, and the girl, I told her 'Wo Ai Ni", and the letter I gave her..I wonder where she is, what she is doing... Everyone on the bus was crying. I can remember sitting next to Matt Schreck, who recently died in a car accident. Strange memories, as if from a different life in a different world.

Anyway, I was supposed to have a fencing tounament this weekend but it was postponed until April...I started Epee today using a Pistol grip, which I have never used, so it was very awkward, but I managed to get in a few decent hits...Epee is supposed to be modeled after dueling, there is no right of way, it's just whoever hits first wins, whole body target area, no rules, mayhem...well not quite, there is quite a but of style involved actually.

The Weekend-
Thursday- The Big Tree, birthday party for a friend of a friend of a friend sort of thing...highlight- Maurice using a coaster as a map of Ireland to show me where he's from.
Friday - rest up for Birthday bash on Sat
Sat - worked on the bandpass filter for the microwave phase analyser... birthday dinner, Dancing till 3 at the Hub

I've had some interesting bus trip encounters in the last few days...on Thursday, on the way into town, a 6-8 year old was sitting with his sister and I sat down with Alvarro behind them, and then the kid just starts going off about how we stole his seat...Alvarro is really confused because he can't understand the little kids irish accent. So he tries to head but me for a while but I do a parry tierce and he is forced to retreat.. After about five minutes of this, I decide I have had enough so I pick him up out of his seat and put him next to me , but apparently that wasnt good enough for him so he throws his pacifier at me....by this time, it was out stop so we escaped, just in time...

And since everyone else is doing it:

Last Cigarette:: Never really smoked an entire cigarrete
Last Alcoholic Drink:: Last night at the Hub(a club in Temple Bar) It was a Guinness of course.
Last Car Ride:: My fencing coach gave me a ride to University College Dublin last week.
Last Good Cry:: can't remember
Last Library Book checked out:: "Glow Discharge Processes" very exciting
Last Movie Seen in Theatres:: The Last Samurai in PA
Last Book Read:: "Fencing to Win" ( and i thought you were supposed to lose ..hmm)
Last Movie Watched:: Fast and Furious
Last Cuss Word Uttered:: Joder (its spanish, and i probably didnt spell it right)
Last Beverage Drank:: milk
Last Food Consumed:: toast
Last Crush:: Lara from downstairs
Last Phone Call:: Paolo, italian friend
Last TV Show Watched:: Who wants to be a Millionare , English version!
Last Shoes Worn:: My new running/fencing shoes!
Last CD Played:: Cyprus Hill
Last Item Bought:: Taxi ride last night
Last Download:: Serial key to Mathcad 2001 professional
Last Annoyance:: not knowing any Spanish
Last Disappointment:: paying 5 euros for a pint
Last Soda Drank:: not really drinking soda
Last Thing Written:: the capicitance/resistance values for a bandpass filter, that i cant get to work...
Last Key Used:: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Last Word Spoken:: really?
Last Sleep:: From 4:30 AM to 10:15 AM this morning. ( we had a hard time getting a taxi last night )
Last IM:: with my mum on yahoo, it's much cheaper than calling from Ireland
Last Weird Encounter:: with an irish child on the bus, he said I took his seat..
Last Ice Cream Eaten:: last summer
Last Time Amused:: talking to Lara in english
Last Time Wanting To Die:: I never want to die.
Last Time Hugged:: Last night
Last Time Scolded:: can't remember
Last Time Resentful:: the Campus residence people, they make room checks to make sure you are cleaning your room...isnt that ridiculous?
Last Chair Sat In:: computer chair
Last Lipstick Used:: uhh nope...
Last Shirt Worn:: my brother's air force shirt
Last Site Visited:: Naomi's blog where i got this

2004-02-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

Another brilliant day in Dublin.

Fencing practice today went well. Eric gave me a lesson, which I always enjoy, because he isn't afraid to tell me the truth, for example , Fionnarr might say, "now, you want to make sure when you straight parry to quarte you riposte in the same line because it controls your opponents blade while attacking" while Eric might say, "that was shite, and you know why...try it again"
After fencing, Fionbarr and the other guys invited Peter(DCU fencing captain) and I to have coffee. It was great listening to all their old fencing stories from their days in competition, plane trips to France in a single prop plane, meeting the Grand Chancellor of Straussberg, drinking competitions with the English team, etc..
So then Fionbarr gives me a ride to UCD to check out the East of Ireland tournament, and I got to see Dublin Bay, and the towers they constructed to defend against Napoleans invasion which never really happened.
OH and i had another dancing lesson with Veronica today...she is teaching us all how to dance Merengue, Salsa, and other latin dances, its great fun...

2004-02-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

Book of Kells - Trinity College.
I'm not sure if anyone has heard of this book, but today we went there and paid the Euro6.50 to see this thing. Also included was admission to the Old Library at Trinity, and I actually enjoyed that more than the Book of Kells. It just reminded me too much of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, where there are 50 people crowded around one display and once you push and shuv your way up to see it... it's Anti-climactic ( like that sentence) anyway, when I walked into the Old LIbrary, I got that feeling, where you know you are in a place where a lot of important moments were played out; the smell of the old books, the echo from hard heeled shoes from down the long main hall, the sun shining through the stained glass windows, I felt as though I was inside one of the 17th century books on the shelves...it made me want to be a librarian...well, almost.
Coolest thing- Ireland's oldest harp, supposedly from the 11th century and owned bt the fames King Brian Boru, who defeated the Vikings.

St Patricks Cathedral - Southside
Pretty standard medeival cathedral; I can't stand it when they put a gift shop inside a cathedral, it's just wrong.
Coolest thing - signing the guestbook?

National Gallery of Ireland-
very nice, free ( on Sat) , not crowded, some great paintings by the Yeats family.. Lara got lost and it was closing and almost they turned out that lights, and we thought we had lost her to the art..but she finally showed up.
Coolest Thing - Calveggio - the taking of Christ

Last night I went out with three Americans to the Big Tree, it was nice to hang out with some Americans, they actually understand what you say.

work at the plasma lab is going great, and the girl from Sweden I'm working under is very cool.

sliante!

Legolas

Witch Lord of the Rings character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

2004-02-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

Yet another brilliant weekend, friday night at Turk's Head dancing, Saturday night played cards and tried some Calimotcho, which is a spanish drink that college students tend to drink. It is half coke, half wine. The more cheap and disgusting the wine is, the better Calimotcho it makes. Anyway, it doesn't have much alcohol in it and it tastes pretty good, so they use it for drinking games.
Sunday, I had fencing in the morning, and also I found out later that day that my fencing teacher is a former olympian, Played some soccer with the Italian guys ( they were very good) and then homework for 6 hours...mostly plasma. Our plasma proff is American, so he gives out 2 assigments per week, which of course the Irish students think is ridiculous, as they are used to one assignment every few weeks. But for me it's pretty standard Sunday night catching up.
This afternoon I spent an hour in Bert(physics prof)'s office with the safety coordinator going over what I can and cannot do...most of it was a waste of time; I told them I wouldn't be handling any highly concentrated HydroFlouric Acid, but they insisted on going over the safety procedures. I am also not supposed to build any power supplies. wow...
Cooking all my own meals has been interesting, on one side, cooking is sort of enjoyable, but on the other side, going to the grocery store is shite.
I'm hoping to get out to Galway, on the WEst coast next weekend and go see the Atlantic hurling 14 MegaJoules of energy against the rocks per second per square meter, man im a nerd...
Yo fresh, where you at, get at me, ya herre?
peace

2004-02-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

Today has been a busy day, and it isn't over yet.
Most exciting news of the day: I got my personal entry code into the plasma lab! yay! party in the Plasma Lab on Sat night!
Played soccer today with some lads from class, and yesterday played squash and had fencing club practice so I don't think I will work out today, my body is thanking me.
It turns out the Swedish grad student that did the intitial work on my project is coming back so I will be working under her supervision
on the microwave system.
Ireland is playing Brazil tonight, so i'm goin out to the Spinner so catch some football, and its Stephens(from Plasma class) birthday.
Hi Naomi! who! iny! wo shi ni de laoshi!
Bollocks!

2004-02-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I think I have settled into life in Ireland...and it's pretty darn good.
This week is RAG week, something like the equivelent of homecoming week, so there will be parties every night, concerts, bungee jumping, and not much studying. In fact, today in my Complex Analysis class, only 5 or 6 people managed to make it to class.
Homework is not very prevalent here, and I think I have learned quite a bit more Fencing than physics, which isn't neccassarily a bad thing...
Speaking of fencing, Sunday morning I went to practice to find that I was the only one their under 50...luckily they were all very nice guys ( and excellent fencers) so I got 4 free lessons which probably would have cost me 100 bucks at a Salle in the US. And the great thing is, they invited me back for next Sunday.
So fencing is going well.
Friday night, the Arantza, Veronica, Alvarro, Lucia, Alex, Lara and I went out to a club called the 'Turk's Head' in Temple Bar.
Temple bar is a world famous section of Dublin where there are pubs and clubs everywhere you look. The Turks Head is supposedly one of the best clubs in Dublin, and it was certainly extravegent, but just a little too trendy for me. So after a night of dancing, we took a taxi home, and I was the interpretor for the taxi driver and the Spanish girls... A bit ironic because, after all, they are the ones studying translation :)
Saturday I went to a fencing tournament at Trinity College, downtown, but only arrived in time to see the Sabre comp, and I got to see two fencers break their swords...it was intense competition.
That night we had a small party that turned into a gigantic party with more than 30 people and two electric guitars, but I left early cause I had fencing the next morning. Turns out, security showed up at 4 am and there were still people there so they fined Lucia and her flatmates...Apparently you cant have anyone in your flat after midnight. Each person gets an 80 Euro fine...too bad for security, but good for Lucia, that they didn't show up at 12:30 am , they could have bagged (~35people*80 Euro)+(100 party fine)=2,900 Euros=$3,700 in fines.
All in all, it was a good weekend, and if next weekend is as good, I will be happy.
see yas,
RRa ( as Lara calls me)

2004-02-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

School has started!
I'm taking:
Plasma Technologies
Nanotech/Surface Physics
Solid State Physics
Complex Analysis
Circuit Theory

They didn't have quantum mechanics which I was hoping to take, which might screw up my sequence of courses back at Wesleyan, so I'm sort of pissed off about that because they told me that it was offered this semester.

The other flatmates have arrived, they are both Irish, Barbara and Maurice....not very Irish names, i know
They sort of have their own group of friends so I still hang out with my Spanish, Italian, Czech, French, and American friends.
Don't worry though, I am getting a full dose of Irish culture. On Monday I met Caroline and Airon in Plasma tech ( Caroline and Airon were exchange students to Wesleyan last Spring, and I became friends with them, but mostly just partied with them ) so we went out to the bar on Monday and I met Caroline's boyfriend (DOH!) and we played pool and had a few pints, and I met some guys on a soccer team, and so I might be playing soccer as well.
Irish students are great because they have a crack(a 'crack' is something fun) every night, whether it be going to the pub, to the cinema, to a gaelic football match, or whatever. No one really works on homework after 7 unless they have tons of it; it's grand.

I went to the fencing club last night, and found out to my dissapointment that they aren't sending a team to the Irish intervarsities this weekend. This might be a good thing because, judging by the clubmembers I fenced last night, which was all of them; they would probably get crushed. Our coach seems like the real deal, however, so I will probably stick with the club. He said he will teach me epee, which is another reason I won't go to a Salle in the city. THere is another tournament coming up in about three weeks, which we will probably go to.

Tonight, i'm going into town with the 4th year physics crew, to see a movie and check out a club.

Heres an interesting fact from the current book I'm reading "By the Sword" by Richard Cohen,

In France and Germany in 1879, "Out of any 100 duelists, 30 would be military men, 29 journalists, 12 barristers, 4 students, 3 professors, 3 engineers, 3 parliamentary deputies"

journalists??

2004-02-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

Interesting developments:

-2 of my flatmates have arrived, Spanish girls, studying translation. Needless to say, my spanish skills are now improving dramtically. They are pretty cool, although they really don't speak very good english, which isn't terrible.

-I talked to the head of the Plasma Research Lab here and it looks like I will be building a Microwave Interferometer used for measuring the electron density in plasmas. Should be a great learning experience, as I don't have very much knowledge of complex circuitry...I hope it goes better than my railgun project.

- I will probably be joining the Rugby team starting Monday.

-The fencing team starts training again on Tuesday, and maybe if I'm on top of my game I can get a spot on the team they are sending to the Inter-varsity tournament at Trinity College on the 14th..

thats it for now...Slan agát!

2004-02-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

Nothing too exciting going on these days. None of my 4 flatmates have arrived yet so life in the apartment is boring. Yesterday I spent most of the day in the city walking around listening to street musicians. There was a 7-10 year old kid singing traditional Irish songs, a trio of guitar players/singers that were quite good that were playing 80s-90s rock, and an old fisherman looking guy playing the harmonica, just to name a few. I tried to find the James Joyce statue but I went too far south and ended up at Trinity College. Later in the afternoon, I found myself at a mall inside what looked like an old church, quite strange.
Well, once school starts, things should start picking up.

2004-01-29T03:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took the Bus for the first time into the city which was quite an adventure. The real reason I went was to try and find an adaptor for my computer, but I mostly just walked around and listened to people. This time of year is nice because there are like 3 tourists in Dublin, so pretty much everyone you meet is Irish, even in the touristy parts. So after i got my 20 Euro adaptor that ended up not working , I decided to take a stroll through a local mall and see whats the buzz in current pop culture...and it was....japanese clothing...ya, kind of strange, every 13 year old girl in sight, I swear, was wearing a pink jump suit, or something equally wierd..I also witnessed a suedo-cat fight between some Irish teenagers, which was confusing because I couldn't understand what they were saying...man,i better work on my irish...Grand...grand is like cool in america...you can say it about pretty much anything...anyway, and now for something completely different:

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile.
Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away
I let mine out, and chatter all the while.

I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day
Is any day that's spent without a friend,
With nothing much to do or hear or say.

I like to be with people, and depend
On company for being entertained;
Which seems a good solution, in the end.

What Poetry Form Are You?

2004-01-27T06:36:00.000-08:00

I'm in Ireland! the plane trips were long and boring and sleepless as usual. I'm now finding it very hard not to fall asleep for large chunks of the day.. I beleive the technical term is 'jetlag' , but it really sucks.
My room is large and I have my own bathroom which is very nice, and everything is brand new ( the oven still has the warranty inside ). I had a really fun discussion with the taxi driver about politics , gaelic, police (which reminds me I have to go register with them soon), and fishing. My only regret now is that I wasn't paying attention at all because I was too busy marvelling at the fact that we were driving on the wrong side of the road and I was sitting in the driver's seat with no steering wheel.....ahhhh Europe.

2004-01-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

My first blog ever! How exciting..however I'm still in the US of A so I'll make it a short one. My flight is tommorow morning and I get to stop in beautiful Georgia.. anyway, I've now been in Port Angeles for 35 days so I thinks I've been here quite long enough. Hopefully my next post will be from Dublin..And now I leave you with some Gaelic,

i dtirr na ndall is ri fear na leathshuile
in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

slan agat!