A language dies every 14-days!

Nearly 80 percent of the world's population speaks only one percent of its languages.

These are two statistics that we don't hear quoted so often. I've heard about nature hotspots, locations where flora and fauna are threatened, but this is the first time that I came across language hotspots.

National Geographic and Living Tongues started a project called the Enduring Voices Project that aims to preserve endangered languages, first by identifying them and then by documenting the languages and cultures within.

Via World Hum

I served the king of England by Bohumil Hrabal narrates the life of Dittie who starts his working career as a busboy living in Czechoslovakia around 1935. Dittie’s career evolves from being a busboy, to a waiter serving some of the most exclusive hotels in his country. Along the road he starts losing his innocence and experiencing the real world, money, important people, corruption, sex and eventually love. The main ambition of his life is to gain recognition and acceptance, something he thinks can be achieved by becoming a millionaire.

This is my second book by Hrabal and I doubt it's going to be the last. The way Hrabal weaves the story and narrates as if the boy is telling a story enthusiastically to some of his friends, is something I’ve started associating with the author. Sometimes humourous, sometimes sensuous, sometimes sad, but always pleasant, this is a great book which I recommend to anybody. 4.5/5

Check out the cats that look like Hitler site for a good cat laugh.

Seems that some cats do really look like Hitler.

There were some interesting replies to the guess the pictionary picture. The last suggestion was probably the best one ... an egg - even though it's not very close but one can understand why. Well if you stretch it a bit further you might get there.

How many times have you seen flights advertised for €1 on the Ryanair site and you ended spending the whole morning look for a flight that doesn't exist? Wouldn't you just love to have a website that finds you the cheapest fare without having to enter a date. I've just found a site that does just that. Skyscanner.

Skyscanner doesn't even need you to specify a city, you can specify a whole country. Say for example, I want to travel from Ireland to Poland in November. Here's what I get.

Say now I decide to fly to Krakow from Dublin. Voila! I get a bar graph of the whole month with all the prices of all airlines flying from Dublin to Krakow.

Perfect!

Another site that offers similar functionality is Momondo. Momondo can help you find:-

• WHEN to go WHERE you want
• WHERE to go WHEN you want

Momondo is similar to Skyscanner however I preferred the latter site for ease of use. Having said that, when looking for the cheapest flight from Finland to Malta Momondo was the one to find it because Skyscanner didn't provide the search option. Trabber did find alternative flights but they weren't as competitive. The positive thing of Trabber is that it offers the option to change days more easily than Momondo.

If you're interested to know who flies where, then FlightMapping.Com will give you all the flight maps from the UK and Ireland. Airfare watchdog also has a list of links to route maps in airline websites. Again Momondo and Skyscanner offer this functionality.

You immediately know that somebody is very influential when he's got a trophy named after him. Vince Lombardi has the NFL Super bowl named after him, so he must be a pretty influencial person. This is a short video with some of his most famous quotes. Don't need to be a football fan to get something out of this.

A quick run through for reference:

Commitment - Winning is not a some time thing, it is an all time thing. You don't do things right once in a while ... you do them right all the time.

Truth - Truth is knowing that your character is shaped by your every day choices.

Results - Winning is not everything - but mkaing the effort to win is.

Passion - there's only one way to succeed in anything, and that is it to give it everything.

Habit - The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

Metal toughness - if you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of hart, he's never going to come off the field second.

Most of the inbox messages this week weren't fit for republication in the blog. Example:-

and it told her, "listen ta' (bit-ta' added for emphasis) I am not an Arab, I wipe my ass after I shit".

Everythings is ok when you do as you're told. However when you fight for your rights and challenge decisions, the bitches start to float. That's when you learn the real nature of people.

these are some quotes from the Jimmy Carr's comedy show last Thursday:-

You're never alone with schizophrenia.

If you're 9 months premature you're a stain

What's the best cure for depression? Suicide

50. Act naturally
49. Found missing
48. Resident alien
47. Advanced BASIC
46. Genuine imitation
45. Airline Food
44. Good grief
43. Same difference
42. Almost exactly
41. Government organization
40. Sanitary landfill
39. Alone together
38. Legally drunk
37. Silent scream
36. British fashion
35. Living dead
34. Small crowd
33. Business ethics
32. Soft rock
31. Butt Head
30. Military Intelligence
29. Software documentation
28. New York culture
27. New classic
26. Sweet sorrow
25. Childproof
24. "Now, then ..."
23. Synthetic natural gas
22. Christian Scientists
21. Passive aggression
20. Taped live
19. Clearly misunderstood
18. Peace force
17. Extinct Life
16. Temporary tax increase
15. Computer jock
14. Plastic glasses
13. Terribly pleased
12. Computer security
11. Political science
10. Tight slacks
9. Definite maybe
8. Pretty ugly
7. Twelve-ounce pound cake
6. Diet ice cream
5. Rap music
4. Working vacation
3. Exact estimate
2. Jumbo Shrimp
And the Number one top OXY-Moron
1. Microsoft Works

I heard about The Lies of Locke Lamora from Joe Sherry's blog Adventures in Reading (which is becoming one of my favourite blogs btw). Since then I read several positive reviews about the book, so I thought I should check it out. One day I saw it in the bookshop, read the jacket and wasn't convinced by it, so I didn't buy the book. I was afraid that it was going to be a complex fantasy book, full of descriptions of a magical world difficult to understand, written in a style of English as old as the world itself. This is probably one of the reasons I don't usually read fantasy books, even though the titles and cover art are very alluring. Finally, I borrowed the book from the library, and started reading it half heartedly. Boy was I sucked in the story.

A couple of people on Shelfari described the book as an Oceans 11 / Robin Hood type of book, and I tend to agree. The book is about a group of thieves who call themselves the Gentleman Bastards. Unlike Robin Hood though, they keep the money they steal. The gang leader (garrista) of the Gentleman Bastards is Locke Lamora. Locke isn't endowed with supernatural powers or an imposing physique, however he's the best at what he does, and what he does is stealing.

The book starts with the story of Locke as a child living in the streets of Camorr, a city not unlike Venice. After a teaser of Locke's early life, the story suddenly jumps to the present day, where Locke is already the garrista of his gang. After setting up a complex con job against the wealthy Don Salvara family, the peace of the city is disturbed by an uprising boss who calls himself the Grey king. With the help of his bondsmage (wizard) henchmen, the Grey King wants to overtake Brasavi, the old boss, to start ruling the Camorr underworld. This part of the story is reminiscent of Mafia stories. At the end of each chapter Lynch adds interludes that describe the formation of the Gentleman Bastards. I really liked this way Lynch pauses from the main storyline to describe something as interesting as the main story itself.

The dialog and language of the book are quite modern, not something I was expecting in a fantasy novel. The title "Gentleman Bastards" itself suggests that the language is indeed modern. Lynch doesn't hold back on using foul language in his dialog. I think this modern language use made the book much more accessible for me.

I'm glad that I started this series from the very beginning. At least now I can read each book as it's published, not having to play catch-up with a long list of thick books. In fact today I ordered the next book in the series, Red Seas Under Red Skies, which was just released this summer. I recommend Lies of Locke Lamora, to anybody looking for a good story or anybody who wants to get into fantasy fiction. 4.5/5

Some Links
Scott Lynch's personal blog on Live Journal
32 page extract from the book
Wikipedia Entry for Lies of Locke Lamora
Strange Horizons Review
Forum for the book / series

The highlight of this weekend was the Therion concert. Therion came to Dublin with a 7 man stage (2 female sopranos Katarina Lilja and Lori Lewis, 2 vocalists, drummer, bassist, guitar player), which was probably the densest stage I’ve ever seen so far. All the members are great showmen/women, and each one has his/her own act, either inciting the crowd, being funny or being just a treat to eye and ears. The funniest member was the blond gothic freak Snowy Shaw (Notre Dame) who had his own subshow during the gig.

They started the show with Mitternacht Lowe the first song on Gothic Kabbalah. Most of the songs were from this album, since this was the album tour that’s more than understandable. There were some problems with the sound at a certain point, especially during one of my favourite songs Perennial Sophia. My favourite songs of the concert were “Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah” and “To Mega Therion”, which was the last song they played. After a lot of shouting for an encore, they came back and played a Manowar cover version. I didn’t recognise the song but since all Manowar songs are pretty much the same sing along structure it was easy to lalala and jump to it.

After the concert we stayed over drinking some beer, and all of a sudden I spotted the girls from the band buying beer. We met the rest of the band who were welcoming photos freely, and we even attempted to get some snaps with the phone. The results weren’t spectacular but at least I’ve got proof that I was there. I made the amateur mistake of not taking a pen with me so I didn’t get an autograph. Piihhhhhhh.

I vegetated for the rest of the weekend. I watched almost all the Rugby World Cup matches and wasn’t impressed in the least by Ireland playing Georgia. Ireland barely managed to win and had a bad time trying to overcome the strong determination of the ex Soviet nation. Meanwhile both New Zealand and France made a complete mess of their opponents Portugal and Namibia respectively. Probably the most balanced game of the weekend was Tonga against Samoa, the Pacific Islands derby. (Interesting note: Samoa > Tonga in size and population. Both Islands are bigger than the dot but have less population). Yesterday evening we went to the shopping centre and I couldn’t resist the lure of the sushi belt. Delicious sushi dinner, even though the sushi belt isn’t the cheapest way to eat sushi.

Sandro at Geek Baazar was innocently watching this CNN clip and he noticed some very strange news-unrelated sounds in the background. Somebody was getting an orgasm and in the CNN studio was transmitted on news channel.

Digg this if you find it funny.

Two of my friends are coming over to Ireland next week, so now is the perfect time to rehash an old bookmark for their sake.

See The original article at IrelandLogue.

In summary:-

1. Look to see if anyone else is drinking it
2. Look for old men
3. Look for a branded service van out front
4. Sticky stout head
5. The right glass
6. Empty pub in the morning

This is my contribution to blog trash for the day. If anybody wants to use this post in one of those articles about how bad blog content can be, and the damage blogging is doing to respectable (thanks Geek Baazar) journalists, please help yourself. Use me. I need some promotion.

In these last 2 days I found two uncommon references to testicles on the web:-

Cajones - a vulgar Spanish word for testicles. Can't remember where I saw it. It was mispelt in the post so I couldn't find it again.

Gonads - Found in the post Testicle punching is the way forward by Twenty Major.

Other more common synonyms:-
   - balls
   - bollocks
   - nuts

Dottian variants:-
   eggs - il-bajd
   chandeliers - il-fanali
   marbles - il-bubbuni

This work of art was drawn during a game of Pictionary with my pals back at home. It's too good not to share especially when you know what it's supposed to be.

Be bold and try to guess. If you manage to guess I'll promise to send you a present whoever and wherever you are. You're allowed 3 tries, and it's either a person, place or animal. Obviously people who know the answer (i.e. where present that night) aren't allowed to play.

Update from the comments:
It's 1 word. But it's not a bat and definitely NOT my country ... LOL! It's closer to a bat than it is to my country, if that maybe of any help to anybody :)

My new baby is here!! Wooohooo!! It arrived 10 days ahead of the estimated time. This morning I knew it was going to be a great day. I was a bit surprised at the size of my little beast but then again it's still a cute little black laptop. Ok, maybe cute is not exactly the word for it.

Anybody venturing a guess on what madot means? Maybe a small hint, it's a title of a brand new song from Ajattara. How that may help you is still a bit devious.

I'm under rugby world cup fever. While I'm waiting for my new laptop to arrive (had a wait time of 4-6 weeks), I found a BBC online rugby game. Considering it's just a flash game it's quite sophisticated. You get to pass, kick and win scrums and there's even a tutorial which at was way more difficult than beating Italy. The game was designed for the 6 nations rather than the world cup, but it's good fun anyways.

I'm not a rugby guru but I still can say that Ireland were a total disaster last Sunday. They played Namibia, a bunch of white African farmers, and even risked losing the match. They’re reminding me of when Italy failed to qualify in the European cup. I'm seriously considering forsaking the green team for the black team. After all I identify more with black than with green.

I'm back from my second more-than-a-weekend holiday of the year. Lately these types of holidays have been to exotic foreign lands but this time I spent the holiday in the dot. It was much better than expected considering the destination. Today my lack of enthusiasm for life, lethargy and discombobulation (I just felt like using the word) are the proof that it had a good holiday.

This week I haven't updated the blog at all. When I loaded the stats for the last week and compared them to the previous week I noticed a drastic decrease when there weren't any uploads. I guess this is a good enough proof that the best way to attract visitors to the blog is to write in it.

My only current interest is reading "The lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. This book really sucked me in, even though I was a bit skeptic of reading a new fantasy book.