Concierge.com has a list of the world's creepiest places to visit. Some of the places in the list:-

Bran Castle, Romania - Been there. Nothing very creepy though, apart from the connotation with Dracula. Very nice and highly recommended.

Paris Catacombs, France - Not the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Paris. A good reason to visit Paris someday.

Mutter Museum, Philadelphia - This is the first time I read about this museum. I must say that the picture on the site really looks creepy.

Chernobyl, Ukraine - Was thinking of going there to visit the Christmas market and get a self-luminous radioactive Christmas tree.

Check out this list of open source (Free) windows software for a wide list of applications. From the obvious Firefox to Freemind note taking, VLC media player, media coder for ripping CDs and DVDs, some games and developer tools.

I've just went on a bit of a shopping spree and planned some new destinations till the end of the year. I lined up a Christmas Market trip to Brussels in December and a side trip to Slovakia for the New Year.

The grand total for all trips by the end of the year is going to be 12! An average of a trip a month. Cool!

I know I've been saying this for the last month, but today we'll do some work.

Right middle fusiform gyrus

She's so annoying, arrogant and bitchy. God knows what he's doing not giving her any children.

He sounds exactly like a guy whose balls are permanently squeezed.

Dressing nicely and being well off isn't a sure way of getting to chicks, but if you don't have them it'll put them off. It's like salary. A high salary isn't going to motivate you, but a low salary will demoralize you.

I'm a firm believer in the power of the throne - the toilet. All the best ideas come there. It's a place for meditation and self seeking. You can imagine how amused I was when I saw that some people in the mighty GOOGLE started posting 1-page stories about testing in the bathrooms. I should start mingling with these like minded people.

Via Matt Cutts

I had the weirdest dream today.

I dreamed that I went to the dot and was driving my dad’s car and went to the comma with it. I lent the car to my friends and on the day I was coming back to Ireland I went to collect the car back from them. They were in our usual meeting place, except that it was in a slightly different location with a different setup. Actually it was an old room in my grand-uncles garden. I went there and there was no car. They told me that the car burnt down and they made it invisible. I started panicking a bit cause it was my father’s car, and the car vanished. Then one of them hit something on the wall and the car appeared in the room, all burnt down, but then it turned invisible again. Time was passing quickly and I still had to pack to come back to Ireland. So I left and went back home to tell my dad that there was an accident with the car and it vanished. I was walking up the stairs at home toward my room where my father was and as soon as I opened my mouth to tell him what happened, I woke up.

I dare you analyse it!

Picture taken from AllPosters.com

There's no need to spend a fortune if you want to go to Norway. Norwegian.no are offering fares starting from 199 euros between Oslo and Malta.

I just compared some flights between the Norwegian site and Air Malta's website. One cost 1156kr and the other one cost 7906kr, guess who had which prices?

When you start living alone all the things that you took foregranted when you were still living with your parents suddenly dawn upon you. How am I going to iron my shirt, how do I use the washing machine, and how am I supposed to store goods in the fridge? Well now with video jug you don't need to embarrass yourself and ask your mum to hear her classic "I told you so".

VideoJug: How To Iron A Shirt

There are all sorts of videos in Video Jug from, how to eat sushi, to how to read wine labels, to how to care for your new ferret, lizard, snake or whatever. The next time you're unsure how to tie your tie to look posh, or how to setup that DIY shelf, take a look at video jug the solution might be a few minutes away, clearly explained and demonstrated on video.

What a proud father I am. No, no, don't run away with your thoughts, no babies in sight ... but but a proud father of Hiisi a Honduran Milk Snake. I was feeling a bit lonely and bored recently which is a very bad combination in my case because I always end up doing something I've meant to do for a long time.

The cute little hadinko is all fun and games, just like his daddy. He was exploring and investigating my room yesterday flicking his beautiful forked tongue and sensing everything around. He even managed to get into my jacket pocket and made himself comfortable there.

I've been wanting to get a pet since I came over to Ireland. After spending all my life with dozens of cats, and all other sorts of animals it was a bit difficult adapting to a petless life. Well now at last I found the animal I was looking for. It's clean, low maintenance, has splendid colours and well behaved. The best part of it is that I can go on holiday without having to worry about it because I only need to feed it once a week. This is the thing that tipped the balance towards the snake otherwise it would have been a bearded dragon or some sort of lizard. I like snakes anyways and I've always wanted a milk snake since that time I decided to get Suede (may he rest in peace) the ball python.

I got Hiisi from Reptile Haven in Fishamble street and I must say that the service there is brilliant. I really recommend anybody looking for a reptile to pay a visit to the place. Ben is very knowledgeable, helpful and he knows what he's doing. He takes into consideration the well being of the animal being sold, not only the money he's making from it.

It’s sunny again here for I don’t know how many consecutive times the weather is great. We didn’t have a summer but boy the autumn in great. It’s a bit nippy (chilly said in a Dublin way) but otherwise it’s great. I had to walk to work this morning since I left the bicycle at work yesterday, but it was a pleasant walk. I even said hi to the swan in the lake on my way to work. That swan is a character, last week she was on the pavement walking perilously close to the main road. Knowing about their aggressive reputation though I didn’t dare scold her or do anything to her, just in case she pecks me. Since then you could say that we became sort of friends, at least we nod to each other every morning.

Yesterday went out for a dinner with the Ukrainian clients. They felt like trying out Indian food so we hosted them in an Indian restaurant which was great. I had chicken Masala as a started then some sort of jumbo prawn dish cooked in a creamy smooth sauce as a main dish, with a side of egg fried rice. I think that egg fried rice is a bit wasted with Indian food as the sauce usually kills any taste of egg flavouring in the rice. Normal fried rice maybe with a bit of Indian seasoning would be better. We had some bottles of wine, aperitifs and digestifs later so you can imagine that by the end of the dinner I was a bit louder than usual. I woke up at 5am this morning because of some strange rumbling in my stomach. I probably ate too much naan bread which didn't do any good to my digestive system.

This week the best line wasn't received in an e-mail but heard on the bus. There was a girl talking to her friend, but she was actually giving a lecture to the whole bus. It stared off like this:-
I'm so like mega smart. This is the proof:-

In Finland most of the people speak Danish
At least the people on the Finnish Danish coast do.

You know that in the United States Spanish is spoken more than English. After Spanish then there's English, then maybe, probably Italian.

The couple sitting behind me decided to give the trivia game a go too, and they started asking each other capital cities:
Lady: What is the capital city of Iceland
Man: Reykjavik
Lady: Oh really, I thought it was Warsaw

One from the e-mails now

... and when his friends see him do something silly they send him in the box (making an actual sign of a box in the air). When he's in the box he has to be quiet and behave properly. Anyway, on that day they let him out of the box and told him that if he'll manage to hookup with that chick he'll have a lifetime pass to get out of the box.

After waiting all through the summer for some weather, yesterday we capitalised on the stretch of nice weather there's in Dublin (by nice I mean, not raining) and went for a BBQ. I tried out some new stuff on the bbq. Garlic bread wrapped in foil, jacket potatoes stuffed with bacon and cheddar cheese, chicken coated with olive oil, Worcester sauce, garlic, some thyme and mustard seeds, a healthy piece of steak marinated with bbq sauce , onions, garlic, meat spices, loads of pepper and olive oil. The highlight for the folks at the table were the jacket potatoes stuffed with bacon. They were up to Slovak and Polish standards – a friend of ours got two new friends with her.

I was in one of those boisterous very explicit moods. Was good fun. At least we’re making getting our return for investment on the bbq set after not being able to use it throughout all the summer.

On a slightly different note, I got a (return) ticket for Luxembourg for November.

The noble prizes so far:-

Physics - Your ipod and new laptop's hard disks. This is the first real application in the field of nanotechnology. Albert Fert (French) and Peter Grunberg (German) Read more here

Chemistry - Chemical processes on solid surfaces. This can help explain why iron rusts, the destruction of the ozone layer, how fuel cells function and how the catalysts in our cars work to clean exhaust emissions. Gerhard Ertl (German) Read more here

Medicine - Gene targetting. A method to inactivate single genes which helps scientists establish the roles of individual genes in diseases and study them. Mario Capecchi (Italy), Sir Martin Evans (GB), Oliver Smithies (GB) Read more here

Ok ok, I got so many comments about the Dundrum post that I have to concede an explanation. I haven't got such a response for a post for quite some time. I think I should start gossiping a bit more about myself to get more comments.

First of all Dundrum is a suburb of Dublin, not a vein in the pancreas, like somebody thought. Secondly, I'm not the one leaving Ireland, but, but, my Slovak miss (gossip gossip) did. We met on a trip to Kerry in Easter, the one where I managed to self inflict a black eye, and we’ve been going out since. The only hitch was that she was planning, and eventually moved to Luxembourg. Just my luck, but what can you do? It was a move for the best so that's good at least. Dundrum is the place where she used to live, which happens to be the furthest suburb away from where I live in Dublin. Still that’s closer than Luxembourg.

For those of you who thought that my Dundrum post was sad, I’d recommend you read the In the inbox of last week. It’s heart wrecking (It’s got nothing to do with me at all).

As for the original post being cryptic Seth, that was done very much on purpose :) Btw, say the pics and video of Lauren. Cute little girly she is.

Drink water, loads of water - No don't stop reading I'm going to tell you why and how. If you're dehydrated you're more likely to get tired and lose concentration. My trick to drink more water is to keep a big pint glass (nick one from a pub if you don't have one) on the table. If you see it in front of you during the day you're likely to drink it. On your next trip to the toilet, and believe me there will be many, fill it up again.

Don't overeat - Don't you get that siesta feeling after a good filling meal? That's great, but not if you've got things to do after. After a good meal, the body goes into pause mode to digest the food leaving your feel lethargic and sleepy. Eat short regular meals every 2 - 3hrs instead of a huge filling meal.

Relax your eyes - If you work on a computer you can relax your eyes by focusing at a distance. Look out of the window or warm the palms of your hands and cover your eyes with your warm hands.

Take a shot - (my tip ... highly unscientific but works sometimes) If you're feeling hyperactive and cannot concentrate because you've got too much energy, a shot of whisky, wine, beer, martini etc. can help you calm down a bit. Otherwise make use of this energy rush to thrash the little things that have been sitting on your todo list, and you never got around to do them. A run in the park is probably healthier than drinking alcohol, but not always practical especially in the rain. I find that exercise energizes me when I'm feeling tired and exhausted.

Have breakfast and eat a balanced diet - A breakfast helps you avoid hunger bursts when you're half way through your day. I was a coffee only breakfast person until I realised that there's a direct relationship between my breakfast intake, and around mid-day productivity and hunger. I tend to eat less during lunch if I have breakfast.

Extra Tip: Avoid exciting activities just before you start to study.

For a wealth of tips about Concentration (not only diet tips) check out the University of Kent Concentration Tips page

Foods for better concentration from web Md

Check out this video preview of Dominic Gill who's cycling from Alaska to Ushuaia in the southern tip of South America (20,000 miles) by a two person bicycle. The plan is to find people along the way to help him cycle all the way through. He's in Cuenca Ecuador at the moment. Dominic keeps a journal and some travel stats at his site, take a seat

Via Vagabonding

Hi mike I appreciate yr sms.2nite i particularly feel dwn.mayb reality is sinking in.my risk was in vain.a mirage in daily life.at d end of day m stil walkin alone in d desert. Tc pray 4me.thanks.

Dundrum is a place in ireland?? I thought it was the name of a vein in the pancreas ....

What was her opinion on flikks and the rest of the inbreed group you've got?

Michael showed me where you spent a year studying to become a priest, tell us more about it.

need to pee, will be back in 3 minutes

Where is Burma?
Burma (or Myanmar) is bordered by China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh and India. Read more on Burma on Wikipedia's page.

What is happening there?
Monks are marching and demonstrating peacefully, for democracy against the ruling generals. In turn the military government has repeatedly used massive force to suppress peaceful demonstrations of unarmed civilians

The rulers of Burma are being prosecuted for Crimes against humanity over continuous forced labour of the citizens by the military.

What is Free burma?
International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons. These Bloggers are planning to refrain from posting to their blogs on October 4 and just put up one Banner then, underlined with the words „Free Burma!“.

I'm just a bit late, but that doesn't really mean anything.

So I think it's about time that I give you the answer of the pictionary question. Remember the picture?

Your guesses where ...
   a bat
   my county
   an egg

But no, the correct answer was ... it was an ostrich

I probably didn't get my gossip fix for the week so tonight I was checking out some profiles on facebook. My facebook profile browsing soon turned into picking out some ridicioulous profiles.

First of all, please, please try to be different. If your friend put up a picture of him drinking alcohol of some sort (something rather lame in the first place), you don't have to follow. All these profile photos where friends of the same person.

So you're looking for a relationship. Fair enough, nothing wrong with that. You've discovered facebook and think it's yet another means to get to your goal. You go through all the pain of setting up a profile, add some friends and then get to the real purpose of your facebook profile. Finding a date. (Don't deny that you use social networking sites to find dates if you're single. I know you do, better admit directly)

In facebook there's a field that helps you proclaim your aim, the looking for field. So you start with setting it to Dating. Then you try to mild it down a bit and add Friendship. Then you try not to be so fickle as aim only for dating, and add A relationship. Maybe stopping her is a good idea, but some people think they can stretch it a bit further. So they add Random Play, kinky. But the cherry on the cake is Whatever I can get. Now I know you're really desperate, and what you really deserve is a dirty midget infested camel.

The best relationship status list though was of this girl. The relationship status was In a relationship and at the same time, she was looking for: A relationship. Man, she sure was relying on the fact that her boyfriend is a total computer illiterate, and has no way to know what was happening behind his back. The cheeky bitch.

You've set your relationship status, and now want to give a sneak peek of what your potential conquest will get. You browse through your never-ending picture library, and painfully select the 3 photos that make you look like Jennifer Lopez better looking cousin. You laid your bait and now you're waiting for somebody to bite.

But hold on, your most considerate friends want to lend their hand in helping you find your prince. So what do they do. They add some pictures from their collection of you, and tag them so that people who browse your profile can see them. Problem is that these pictures aren't what you really call flattering. More likely they're the most embarrassing pictures of you getting drunk, looking horribly wasted, and weighing and extra 20 pound which you have lost by now.

Hint. It's time to change those bastard friends of yours.

Enough about relationship seeking. I actually managed to find a cool application for a change. It's catbook. A facebook for your cats. Think this will be better than my personal facebook page. It's more interesting that's for sure.

And, and, I found a nice picture on Karen's wall. It's called Six Degrees of Separation (Wiki article for explanation)

Last Sunday at precisely 10.35am the Dundrum chapter was closed. Bye bye nice apartment, evening chats and TV shows, gossip with a rather distinct male viewpoint in girly conversations, modern shopping centre, pizza and beer evenings, long bus rides, rows with tram conductors, lazy snugly weekends, the odd Japanese lunch and movies, long breakfasts with something more than the quick cup of coffee. Like all good things, it's over.

Flight LG4984 destination LUX now boarding.

Declan, bang me like you bang your drums

so you're from [the dot], ok so your tan is justified

don't want to work in finance anymore, its BORING and SOULLESS

rain - if you are not made of marzipan you will not melt

because of her developers came up with the 'developer peace' concept - they cannot be disturbed by testers

I need more Ajattara translations for day to day use