Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in arathain's LiveJournal:

Thursday, November 13th, 2008
12:05 am	My grandfather My mother's father, Kenneth Foott, served in the 2nd World War leading a tank platoon of the North Irish Horse. For his service he was awarded the Military Cross. Until today, neither my mother or I knew anything about the action for which he was awarded the medal. Today I saw an scanned image of the citation. It's the story of a skilled soldier and a leader in the finest tradition of the British armed forces. My grandfather's platoon supported an assault on a rail crossing of the Santerno River, Italy. His platoon provided able support to an Italian infantry battalion, but when it came time to cross, all the Italian officers were casualties except for one 2nd Lieutenant. Despite not speaking Italian, my grandfather dismounted, persuaded the line to hold, and personally led the assault. At this time of year when we remember those who gave everything, I am proud to remember my grandfather in a new light. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 19th, 2006
5:13 pm	On Sunday afternoon wavestar and I were travelling back from Connecticut, where we were looking at houses, as detailed in earlier posts. Some way into the journey we became hungry and decided to find somewhere that would feed us. Upon taking a likely looking exit and travelling a little way we found ourselves in Bristol, CT. This is a town that seems to consist entirely of a vast wasteland of light industry. It was frightening (and didn't contain much in the way of food, so we retreated, but not before coming over a small hill and encountering this. This is the Otis Elevator Research Tower. It's 376 feet tall, and made mostly of steel. It would be an impressive sight anywhere, but when you see it standing pretty much on it's own, surrounded by car-parks and scrubby grass, with no other buildings near it, it's quite a sight. More than a little strange. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 10th, 2006
6:15 pm	The evil futureless waiting limbo time has finally come to an end. This afternoon I was offered a chemistry position with Watson Pharmaceuticals, a company primarily specialising in generic drugs, at their plant in Carmel, New York state, near the Connecticut border. To this end, Jessica and I shall be looking for somewhere to live down there. I am really pleased to not have to do the job hunting thing anymore, and I think the job will work out well. Particularly nice is the feeling of being back on track with what I want to be doing. Temping fills the time and sustains the bank balance (barely), but it's not good for the soul! I do, however, feel bad about leaving the Upper Valley, and particularly Jessica's parents. This place has been good to me, and there are a lot of very kind people that I will miss having around. Wish us luck in the doing the fresh start thing! (20 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 17th, 2006
3:59 pm	Webjunk: An Amusing Webcomic I Just Found http://www.briansguide.net/ No plot. No controversy. Just a rabbit. And some funny. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
9:09 pm	It's been a strange and eventful couple of weeks, and worthy of one of my infrequent updates. Not last Thursday, but the Thursday before that my maternal grandmother passed away at a fine old age. I got on an Aer Lingus flight out of Boston on Friday evening and got into Dublin early Saturday morning, meeting my sister and my father at a train station later that morning, and catching the train to Cork, where my mother picked us up and took us to Schull, a village situated at the end of a harbour, and for as long as I've lived the home of my grandparents. I spent a good deal of time here when I was growing up, and I'm very familiar with the long concrete pier, with it's fishing boats and fishy smell, and the many rocky beaches where every stone is perfect for skimming. It was strange to go back, but not unexpectedly so. All the places I knew as a child are different now, and besides, the feeling was similar to my grandfather's funeral. The town was much the same- a little smaller, and maybe a little dingier, but I do like the place. The funeral itself was good and fitting. Perhaps a little too somber, but it is a funeral. I did a reading, and bore the coffin, which are good things to do. The various events before and after the service were full of people I've never met, and will never meet again, complete with the usual slightly wearing round of handshakes and polite conversation. Spending time with my family is always a welcome thing, though, rare as it is these days with the ocean separating us. Particularly good was Jennie and I spending time with our first cousins, who we've met only a few times growing up. We got to go out for a drink together, and there was an unexpectedly strong felling of kinship, given how little we've seen of each other. Also, there is simply no comparison to the Guinness one gets in Ireland and the stuff served anywhere else. I knew that, but now I understand how great the gulf truly is. I arrived back in town at about 11.30 Tuesday night, having gotten up at 4.30AM or so Irish time. Long day. It is tiredness I blame for my weak-willed purchase of a lovely Nintendo DS, with Meteos and Advance Wars DS. But they truly are lovely things. Ahem. So, back to work Wednesday afternoon. After lunch on Thursday, Dr. Madden, whose lab I work in, asks me into his office for a chat. It turns out the lab didn't get the grants we were hoping for, and that the budget will no longer allow him to keep me on, and that I would have to leave at the end of February. Arse. He was very decent about the whole thing, but since I wasn't aware this was a possibility, it came as a bit of a shock. My research, which had been frustratingly static for ages, was really starting to warm up as well, but my projects will have to be put on the shelf until someone else has time. So I am once more into my favourite activity: job hunting. Woo! If I can get another job in Dartmouth my benefits and vacation time and all that will simply transfer with me, which would be ideal, but I don't fancy being out of work too long, so I'm being broad minded about the positions I'm looking for. With Jessica in a good place job-wise, moving is not really an option at the moment. This is a rough thing to have to soak up, but it's not as bad as it could have been, by any means. We're not going to starve in the street for a while, I've picked up some employable skills, so hopefully there are options available. It's a useful time to rethink what I'm doing and where I'm going, and to cast about a bit to see what sort of opportunities there are (whistles whistely bit from 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life'). This weekend Jessica and I went south, to make the long-delayed trip to Long Island, and visit Jessica's grandmother there. We took the opportuntiy along the way to visit friends in the Amherst area and also in Mystic. Thanks for the excellent company and lodgings, folks. Good to catch up with you. The couple of days we spent in Long Island weren't so bad. We got in a trip to Ikea to pick up a couple of pieces of much needed furniture and some assorted useful items, picked up some books, and got to watch some of the Winter Olympics. The drives weren't as awful as expected, as we took a ferry to avoid the New York traffic going down, and went through during the fairly peaceful midday traffic going back up. Tomorrow it's back to work for me. Should be pretty odd, having to wind down what I'm doing, and I do dislike job hunting (as opposed to all those people who really love it). (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
2:05 pm	I saw Steamboy on DVD last night, which is an Anime film by the chap who did Akira. Not that I've seen Akira. It was really rather good. Particularly of note were the endlessly detailed huge elaborate steam machinery and the air of authenticity of setting (Victorian Manchester and London). Pleasingly, this included the accents. The main character and his family were from Manchester, and actually had the right accents, which is pretty much unheard of for a foreign production. One of the few foreign films for which I will not hesitate to recommend the dubbing over the subtitles. There was a trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. This is a movie sequel to the best selling Playstation title. It looks utterly gorgeous. I recommend everyone looking up the trailer, even if you've never played (or even heard of) the game. For those who have, it looks like a very faithful recreation of the world onto the screen. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 6th, 2005
4:10 pm	Some of my colleagues discovered Google Earth today. I have to say, it's the best thing ever for today. More detail in the US than anywhere else, but as a work-in-progress that's to be expected. Try it, it's fun just to play with. Watch out, though- it's not very stable, on these computers at least. Got to see Serenity last night. It's very very good. Not just to someone who enjoyed the series, it's a remarkable piece of cinema all told. Anyone who hasn't seen any Firefly will miss some of the nuances in the character relationships, but it won't matter, as the story pulls along with a degree of intensity rarely found in sci-fi. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 22nd, 2005
4:23 pm	Motherboard replacement assistance Much to my distress, my computer has recently run into serious problems, and no longer does anything. I am 95% certain that the problem lies with the motherboard, given the symptoms. I think I can save myself some money and replace the motherboard myself, but I don't know how to go shopping for the right part. What do I need to know, and how can I find it out? My processor is an Athlon 2100+ XP. Help me, technically inclined folk. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 12th, 2005
11:55 pm	My brain hurts. Oh, my poor brain. I just watched Brazil. I've seen some pretty odd films, but that was... guh. I think it was really quite good, possibly excellent, but only the strongest and most flexible minds will keep their sanity long enough to really find out. According to the very brief bit of commentary I watched, the film is called Brazil because of an opening sequence that Gilliam and Tom Stoppard wanted to do that involved a rainforest, but were prevented by budgetary constraints. I'm going to have very odd dreams, I'm sure. Current Mood: confused (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 28th, 2005
9:52 am	IRA declares armed campaign at an end http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4720863.stm Saw this just now, and was blown away. I've been very out of touch with home recently, but I never thought this would ever happen. I mean, it's a brilliant political move, but still... I have to say, I think it's wonderful. I'm disappointed with Unionists unbridled scepticism, although it's no surprise in Paisley's case. While a hefty dose of caution is only sensible, you've got to be optimistic about this. It's just enormous. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 11th, 2005
12:24 pm	I'm sure you've all been pretty much spammed with assorted opinions about the London bombings, but I do want to suggest an article that covers how I feel about how we ought to respond pretty well. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4671577.stm (51 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 20th, 2005
12:27 pm	Hello, Livejournal. I finally got round to getting one of these account thingies that you all seem so keen on using to keep in touch with each other. Who knows, I may even occasionally post news and thoughts of my own. You shouldn't hold your breath, though. I would like to take a couple of paragraphs to talk about the wedding, however. Now that I have both eloped and done the full marriage thing (with the same person), I have decided, firstly, that eloping rocks. It's the easiest thing you've ever done. You get a form, you get a JP, you say some stuff, and you're legally bound. It has none of the bewildering hassle even a small wedding inevitably garners. It doesn't take up a good six months, and the vast majority of your time, energy and mental space for the latter half of that period. It costs next to nothing. The second thing I have decided is that the full wedding thing was worth all of it and more. I never thought a day could be as great as that one was. Put it this way: we had an outdoor reception, during which we had a thunder storm that dumped 4 inches of water in 20 minutes, a real once in generation storm. It only made things better. We danced under the tent while the storm raged, which is one of my favourite things ever to happen to me, and the day was full of memories that cool. A million thanks to the people who made it happen: particularly the people we hired were total professionals and most of all my beloved wavestar, whose awesome talent for organisation and Making Cool Things Happen seems to have no bounds. To everyone who came, thank you so much. The day was all about you being there for us. To everyone who couldn't make it, we were thinking of you. (14 Comments |Comment on this)