
Took this picture while we were down in Cork last weekend just because I thought it’s such a great little bit of art. I’ll upload the rest of the pictures to Flickr over this weekend.

My recent posts have been showing off the scenery we find around us in our new home. The downside of all those fantastic hills turned out to be a lack of line-of-sight for Airwire.ie service. So I’m going to use O2′s 3G internet service as I’m unwilling to pay €25 per month for line rental [...]

One of the things that really attracted us to move to Moycullen was the fantastic scenery in the area. Not only are there beautiful lakes (as you can see in the previous post) but there is also a lot of woods/forestry in the area. Makes for a tranquil Sunday wander. Have a look at the [...]

Just a short post on the Irish Blog Awards 2010 – my first time to attend and Liv came along too (which was great, she got an insight into my online life). As ever, it’s great to catch up with the people you know and finally say hello in person to a number of people [...]
So everyone is tablet obsessed at the moment, in the sense that they’re either loving or hating all the hype on the topic at the moment. Sitting on the plane waiting the other day I got to thinking about what I’d like in a tablet. I will admit that I’m an Apple fanboy but this [...]
DSC_2272 Originally uploaded by JamesGallagher (ciotog) I don’t know why I really like this photo (not a technically good photo) , I just do.
Borne out of trying to get a meaningful view of Galway City Council meeting minutes (see Council Meetings) is a pet project of mine to parse those minutes. The idea being to extract contextual information like the councillors and officials present, the agenda items, the chronology & outcome of motions and similar information. I haven’t [...]
This was my big cycling project of the year and truly was fun. I’m debating putting an internal gear hub on it in 2010 but currently being advised against it. Well worth reading the set of posts I did recently on it: Part 1: http://www.jamesgallagher.ie/new-bicycle-fun-part-1/ Part 2: http://www.jamesgallagher.ie/new-bicycle-fun-part-2/ Part 3: http://www.jamesgallagher.ie/new-bicycle-fun-part-3/
So, this is the final part of the three-parted on my new Xtracycle setup and covers out-and-about with the bike. I’ve been cycling it for about three weeks now I guess and so far the only problems I’ve had are two punctures and the chain coming off the front cog a couple of times. The [...]
In a follow up to my first post; this one talks about assembling the bike. Now, I said it before, I’ve never assembled a bike before so this is going to be a laugh to read. Lots of mistakes and I’m still fine-tuning. First thing was to take the Electra Townie frame (I’d love to [...]

I was home in Roscommon over the weekend and was reminded about just how great it is to visit my parents. I grew up in Roscommon but feel no affinity to the county. Except for this place that my parents have made a fantastic home and place of safe contentment. My parents are big fans [...]

Always looking at gadgetry, I sometimes manage to find something non-tech related that I want. The Xtracycle kit is something that held appeal for quite sometime and I finally decided to go for it. I’ve used a pannier in the past (excellent but not roomy enough while being easily transportable off bike) and I’ve recently [...]
This is probably ignorance on my part more than anything. I’m finding my RSS stream a little overloaded from tech news which is interesting but not necessarily impacting me in the context of being Ireland based and focussed. For this post ‘tech news’ should be treated as shorthand for Irish tech news. At the moment [...]
I’m somewhat reluctant to write this post as I’m not much of a fan of calling people out in blog posts. However this is something which seems stuck in my craw and so I have to get it off my chest. Last Friday SimplyZesty published a post exhorting us (Twitter folk, that is) to stop [...]

I’m not even sure what to call it so perhaps that gives a sense of where I am with this. I’m pretty sure I’ve brought it up before so it might be a somewhat tired subject but the meetforeal.com event at the weekend prompted me to think about the whole area of my creativity. I [...]
I really didn’t need any persuading to pay the extra €15 at Vision Express for a digital retina photo. Loved how quick they became available online.
Surely must be the last of the food posts I manage for the next while, no more on the agenda for the next while anyway. Following the Look and Taste recipe this is my second attempt at risotto which turned out much better than the first one. I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms but [...]
Continuing the trend of talking about food, I’m still enjoying the fruits of my trip last week to Olio&Farina and Sheridans here in Galway. Finishing up the bread (pan with olive oil and thyme) and then going with the old melted ham & cheese with a dob of fig jam, serious nom nom for me [...]
It’s interesting to see the amount of buzz food is generating within Ireland again, in particular people taking an interest in cooking again. I’ve always found cooking to be something very relaxing and as it turns out it’s a great way to get a sense of being home again after travel (I’m over and [...]
Had a good laugh this morning (via Redmum): http://redmum.blogspot.com/2009/03/tax-dodging-365.html
I guess a food post every now and again doesn’t hurt. Lebanese food is extremely tasty and an excellent social occasion, one of the most well know and celebrated dishes is the shwarma. The popular choice for the best in Beirut and possibly Lebanon as a whole is the expansive Barbar on Rue Spears in Hamra. [...]
In what was a decision probably not recommended by our travel safety advisors/risk consultants, us hard working souls ventured into downtown Beirut. Specifically, for a look at the February 14th commemeration of the assasination of Rafik Hariri which ultimately led to the so-called Cedar Revolution. It was mainly curiosity on our part to see what [...]