.. and I want to have them answered immediately. Yes, it’s another survey for 15 year olds I got tagged in on facebook, but I haven’t got anything else to write about. Do it yourself if you want. You know you want to.

1. What time did you get up this morning?
9 AM. Lucky me, eh?

2. How do you like your steak?
Rare-ish.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Terminator Salvation, and it was RUBBISH

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Probably Doctor Who, but I really like Futurama too

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Monaco. It’s awesome. Dodging taxes and having a major international sporting event at your door, who wouldn’t want that?

6. What did you have for breakfast?
I had some Honey Nut Cheerios which probably makes me a terrible person.

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
German sausages, mmm

8. What foods do you dislike?
Cauliflower, Lamb and Marrow. I feel sick just thinking about it actually.

9. Favorite Place to Eat?

There’s a place in Belfast that I can’t remember the name of for the life of me. It’s really good though.
10. Favorite dressing?
Blue cheese maybe.

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
I don’t have one. I’d love to though if anyone wants to give me a free car. If I had enough money and a free choice, I’d probably get a Zonda, or, more realistically, a Honda Civic.

12. What are your favorite clothes?
I don’t have any. Favourites, I mean. Not clothes.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
I’d go to a football match in the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. Apparently it’s an awesome experience.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
This question irritates me because THEY MEAN THE SAME DAMN THING. Obviously that’s not the spirit of it, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d probably say empty.

15. Where would you want to retire?
Monaco, but more realistically probably County Donegal.

16. Favorite time of day?
around 9PM

17. Where were you born?
County Donegal, Eire

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Football or F1, tennis when it isn’t Wimbledon.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
I’m not doing this on facebook, so it’s not relevant. Pretty sure Henry VIII won’t.

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
William of Orange

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
The Alliance Party

22. Bird watcher?
No. Random question?
23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Depends what the day has in store. Usually, night.

24. Do you have any pets?
Non. We had a cat years ago that ran off (or it might just have died), perhaps in fear that in future I might take amusing photos of it and put them up on the internet.

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?
I completed the Times crossword today (with the help of two professors… but still, I had completed most of it before their input)

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
You know what, I never had an idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up.

27. What is your best childhood memory?
I remember my first day at Primary School, when I asked the same guy what his name was about five times. That was quite funny. I don’t really have a “best” memory though.

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
Cats all the way. Dogs are stupid and bite you. Cats hate you, but at least they generally leave you alone unless they want something to eat.

29. Are you married?
No. You offering? Gosh, this is awkward. Sorry, you’re not my type.

30. Always wear your seat belt?
Always always always

31. Been in a car accident?
I have been in the car when an accident was had, but I don’t really like to talk about that.

32. Any pet peeves?
How much time have you got? Wimbledon, the British sports media (please note that says British and not english), having to use Ulsterbus, being opinionated, the sex addict who lives below me, lame excuses, moths invading my personal space, drag queens, I could go on…

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings?
Anchovies, pineapple and chicken. Mmmmm

34. Favorite Flower?
Umm… you know, it’s something I’ve never considered. Why don’t you ask my favourite car or footballer or computer game or film or something?

35. Favorite ice cream?
They used to sell this thing called Romantica which was AMAZING but I can’t find it anywhere any more. Probably Phish Food.

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?

As friends and identity theft fans will know, I recently turned 25, and I’ve discovered that getting older means that you start forgetting things.

My memory is, shall we say, not terribly selective with what it remembers. I remember things. Just the other night I was able to recount a story my flatmate’s fiancée told us that she (and the rest of us) had completely forgotten. If I know you (and if you’ve told me the approriate information!), I could probably tell you when your birthday was, if you have a driving licence, the names of at least four cities or football clubs in your country, the result of every football World Cup match since 1998 (Costa Rica 2 China 0 in 2002 wasn’t a great game), when we met, what we talked about and the eye colour of pretty much every girl I’ve had a crush on. I can even remember phone numbers of old friends I had in primary school! (To give you an indication of how old I’m talking about, the area code was 01247 and not 02891!)

It should be noted that I don’t try to remember these things. I just do, and sometimes people react negatively when I remember something about them (not necessarily a bad thing), but I promise you that it’s just because I’ve remembered and not for any nefarious purpose or because I somehow have some weird stalkerism about you!

But time takes its toll. I’ll probably remember these things my whole life, but now I’m struggling to remember more important things like getting milk and how much money I owe or am owed by my flatmates, or what I actually went in for when I went into the kitchen, or even if I meant to go into the kitchen in the first place!

Being able to remember stuff is, however, not especially useful unless you can somehow apply it, and I don’t just mean in pub quizzes. I got 100% in my driving theory test, so I obviously knew how to drive a car. But I failed my practical test seven times because I wasn’t able to apply properly what I knew to the rigorous testing in the driving test. Similarly, I know a lot about the Bible. But that’s absolutely no use unless I can apply what I read there to my own life. So it’s a gift, certainly, but it needs to be used well, and I guess the parable of the talents fits in here.

It’s late, so I’ll leave you with an extract from possibly my favourite Bible book, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 good advice here for the young, and the young at heart:

¹ Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,

“ I have no pleasure in them”:
² While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;
³ In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;
⁴ When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all the daughters of music are brought low.
⁵ Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.
⁶ Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,^[a]
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
⁷ Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Remember what is important, while you still can!

This has been doing the rounds on facebook (and has been sitting in my drafts for a while!), so I thought I’d do my own.

1. I won’t use abbreviations like “ur” “l8″ or “nite” in a text message or twitter unless I’m running short on space or trying to be ironic.

2. I used to fancy Baby Spice.

3. I was baptised in a place in Donegal called Ballylennon.

4. In my Uni building, I wonder if I should keep a crowbar handy… just in case.

5. My roast dinner order of preference is (best first): Chicken, beef, turkey, nut roast, lamb, pork

6. I probably don’t go home often enough

7. I can’t stand the thought of wearing odd socks. If I don’t have a matching pair (rare) I’ll go without

8.  I won’t leave the flat without my keys, phone and wallet (and now my glasses)

9. I can’t stand Merseyside Red (my mother always told me not to swear), though I have relented and started picking their players in fantasy football

10. I live with four other boys. They are mostly harmless and not at all racist

11. I have a cousin who’s an international football referee. He sent an Estonian player off for taking his shirt off

12. My favourite Bible book is Ecclesiastes

13. I’m a middle child, which probably explains a lot

14. A student in one of my tutorials recently complained that my English wasn’t very good. Good to see my grammar school education came in handy

15. Sometimes, I wonder if anyone really knows me

16. I didn’t learn to drive when I was 17 because I didn’t really feel the need to and I had no money. Every time I thought about booking lessons while at uni, one of the guys I went to school with died in a car accident. I finally started not so long ago

17. I wish I could write more thought-provoking stuff than trivialities like this

18. I believe certain people read far too much into twitter conversations. Certainly, there are more than six, and none of them are women. (#DiscountSushi isn’t involved, sorry Dave)

19. I wish I could speak Irish, but I was raised in the wrong community for that

20. I don’t understand how old episodes of Friends or the Simpsons i’ve seen a million times already can still be hilarious while episodes of the Mighty Boosh i haven’t seen before barely raise a smile

21. I’m listening to Radio 5 live

22. I really hate it when you buy food and it turns out to be really spicy. I should probably read the labels

23. I deliberately (yes, it was deliberate!) failed my English Literature GCSE mock (or prelim, if you prefer) so I wouldn’t have to do the exam (a subject which I hated and never chose to do anyway)

24.  I love the 10p late night bakery in Scotmid

25. Often, I use humour because I’m nervous and don’t know how else to react.

That’s yer lot!

Someone tagged me in this on facebook, thought I’d do it myself, since I haven’t done so for about 8 years…

100 Truths

1. Last beverage: tea with milk. Alas it was too weak…
2. Last phone call→ Tom rang me to find out who the randomer who texted him was. ha.
3. Last text message→ Adrian informing me of din dins
4. Last song you listened to→ One Day Like This by Elbow
5. Last time you cried→  When I was really ill 6 years ago. Haven’t cried properly since, maybe I should see someone about that…
SIX HAVE YOU EVER:
6. Dated someone twice → As in dated, broke up and started dating again? No.
7. Been cheated on?→ No
8. Kissed someone & regretted it? Yes
9. Lost someone special?→ No
10. Been depressed?→ You don’t know the half of it
11. Been drunk and threw up? No

LIST FOUR FAVORITE COLORS:

12. blue
13. red
14. yellow
15. cyan

HAVE YOU:
16. Made new friends → Er.. yeah
17. Fallen out of love → No
18. Laughed until you cried → Can’t recall ever doing so, though it’s good to make someone else do it!
19. Met someone who changed you → Very much so
20. Found out who your true friends were → Define “true” and get back to me
21. Found out someone was talking about you→ yes
22. Kissed anyone on your friend’s list→ No
23. How many people on your friends list do you know in real life → All of them, though perhaps contact isn’t as good as it could be in some cases
24. How many kids do you want to have→ 2?
25. Do you have any pets → Not now no
26. Do you want to change your name→ Not really, though if it stops people referring to me by my surname (something I hate) then I would consider it
27. What did you do for your last birthday→ Dinner and drinks with friends. I like low-key.
28. What time did you wake up today – 7:25 AM
29. What were you doing at midnight last night → Playing Street Fighter IV
30. Name something you CANNOT wait for → Submitting my thesis? In the near future, looking forward to London

More shameless Koala-based plagiarism. The idea is for you to just describe what you were doing or hope to be doing at the given time.

5yrs ago – I was in second year in my Maths degree and had started drinking (in moderation!) after I somehow managed to avoid drinking in my first year. I was getting just about scraping through the exams and struggling to settle into any particular church, and going through one of the longest crushes I’ve ever had. It was still good times though!

10yrs ago – I was in fourth year at school in Belfast and living in Newtownards, which was by no means a vintage year. I had not yet discovered my love of  Maths, and I was kind of disillusioned at life (perhaps this is where my famous cynicism started to kick in). My dad’s ministry in Newtownards was nearing an end, and I was kind of looking forward to the new start in life that comes with moving which sadly turned out to be a false dawn. I had very few friends in school because of some of the things I had done (which I am deeply ashamed of), so I didn’t really have much of a life at all. My favourite subject at school was French, and I deliberately failed my English Literature mock exam so I didn’t have to sit the GCSE (which I never wanted to do in the first place).

15yrs ago -I was in P6 where the teacher often made fun of me for various reasons. I didn’t really have any ambitions at this point, as I was completely focussed on the present time. I remember that I really enjoyed the raft of 11+ practice tests (it wasn’t scrapped in NI) because I always got good marks in them (except for the English bits- I think I got an A solely because of Maths and Science!).

20yrs ago – I was still living in Eire, and you know things are tragic when you thought going to Strabane was exciting. Nevertheless, I had started school and was, curiously, in the same class as my (2-years older!) brother, but perhaps that’s not unusual in the country (by the way my brother’s not thick, he wasn’t kept back two years, I think this was because of staffing issues or something).

In the future

5 years from now – I’ll be 29, and by then I would have to have something resembling a job (and will hence have gotten over my chronic confidence issues) and I will finally have passed my flippin’ driving test and got my PhD! Where will I be? No idea! Hopefully still in Scotland.

10 years from now -We’ll all be laughing at Back to the Future’s description of the year 2015. I might or might not have a family (with a wife who understands Formula 1, preferably), and I might, finally, have finished reading Catch 22.

15 years from now – I’ll have turned into my Dad, probably, telling terrible jokes and having a receding hairline.

20 years from now – Your guess is as good as mine.

Narcissism ahoy!

I dislike those “round robin” letters you get at Christmas. They are written by people who assume you care about what they’ve acheived and what they haven’t (the worst thing I ever read in one of these was “Susannah has finally got herself a boyfriend!”) even though you haven’t really conversed with them the rest of the year.

So with that in mind, I’m going to assume you care about what I’ve acheived and what I haven’t even though I haven’t really conversed with you (possibly) the rest of this year, in this, my review of 2008.

Without further ado, I start in typical style with 2 lists:

List I: ten good things that happened this year ( in no particular order)

I Susannah finally got herself a boyfriend I (possibly) got enough material to write a thesis

II Little Jonny passed his grade 8 piano and got 8 A*s in his A- Levels I moved into a new flat which has worked well, so far

III Tottenham won the League Cup

IV I discovered that Marmite is actually quite good (put it on your toast with beans!)

V St Catherine’s is getting a brilliant new minister

VI Going to visit my friend in Amsterdam

VII Successfully gave up facebook for lent (and then some, it was four months in total!)

VIII Dodged taxes for another year

IX  Beat keepfishing at PES (though we didn’t really play often enough )

X  Watched Scotland win the Calcutta Cup

10 not-so-good things that happened (some more light-hearted than others)

I My Grandad passing away

II A friend getting divorced

III Failing my driving test a further three times, one of which affected me really badly

IV The sky fell in on my world, semi-literally, when the ceiling collapsed above my desk in uni, causing me to lose a LOT of work.

V I got extremely upset by something that happened in May, but I’m not really at liberty to say what that was

VI I escaped death (?) when a lot of tiles fell off the bathroom wall while I was having a shower in my old flat.

VII I watched NI and Scotland play one of the worst games of football I’ve ever seen

VIII Four Christmases

IX  Seeing friends lose jobs because of the economic woes

X Finishing well down the fantasy football table

And now categories:

High point of 2008:
In a year when morale was low, and the world ran out of money, it’s hard to think of an outstanding high point. I’ll go for two friends of mine getting engaged, and I’m very much looking forward to the wedding!
Low point of 2008:
Failing driving test #4. It was a complete disaster and it distressed me to the level that I couldn’t eat for a few days after it  for fear of throwing it back up again.

Person of 2008:
My Mum for being so strong after everything that happened.
Best film you saw this year:
The Dark Knight. Enjoyed every minute. Worst film: Four Christmases.

Best book you read:
In traditional style I didn’t get through many books. I did, however, enjoy Of Mice and Men, although that was a re-read. I thoroughly recommend reading all the books they made you read at school, they ARE better than your english teachers would have you think!
Best sporting moment:
Lewis Hamilton going past Timo Glock on the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season. I don’t even really like him, but that was something else!
What you are looking forward to most in 2009
Is it cheeky to suggest “submitting my thesis”?
Thing you will miss least about 2008
Probably Northern Ireland’s poor attempts at football, although I will miss the first six months when certain commentators were forced to accept that England were not going to win the next tournament they were in.
And that’s yer lot. Have a brilliant Christmas and a fantastic 2009! I would be interested in how your year went, so if you’ve done a similar thing please let me know. Cheerio!

New format this time, instead of 100 arbitrary facts (I’m not that interesting) I present to you my top ten top ten lists. You can find other such posts here and here. This is a list of my favourites and may not be an indication of what is actually “best”. Booya.

List I: Top ten Bible books

I Ecclesiastes

II Gospel of John

III Revelation

IV Proverbs

V Genesis

VI Acts

VII Romans

VIII Ezekiel

IX Gospel of Luke

X Hebrews

List II: Top ten Non-religious books

XI L’étranger by Albert Camus

XII Lord of the Flies by William Golding

XIII La Peste by Albert Camus

XIV The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

XV Eureka! The Birth of Science by Andrew Gregory

XVI Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Snigh

XVII The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinnis

XVIII The Story of the World Cup by Brian Glanville

XIX Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

XX La Symphonie Pastorale by André Gide

List III: Top ten Movies

XXI Terminator 2: Judgement Day

XXII The Terminator

XXIII Serial Lover

XXIV Return of the Jedi

XXV A Beautiful Mind

XXVI Juno

XXVII The Dark Knight

XXVIII Batman Begins

XXIX Spiderman 2

XXX Casino Royale

List IV: Top ten TV shows

XXXI Doctor Who

XXXII Peep Show

XXXIII Torchwood

XXXIV Mock the Week

XXXV Have I Got News for You

XXXVI QI

XXXVII Match of the Day

XXXVIII Give My Head Peace (RIP)

XXXIX Futurama

XL Gavin and Stacey

List V: Top Ten Radio Shows

XLI I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue (RIP Humph)

XLII The Now Show

XLIII The News Quiz

XLIV The Chris Moyles Show

XLV Sport on Five

XLVI The Scott Mills Show

XLVII Mark and Lard (I know it’s not on anymore, but still)

XLVIII Fighting Talk

XLIX Stephen Nolan

L Richard Bacon

List VI: Top ten Pet Hates

LI People standing at pedestrian crossings and waiting, having not pressed the button

LII Cyclists going through red lights & riding on Jawbone Walk

LIII Smug Mac users & Apple fanboyism generally

LIV People saying “3AM in the morning” or “5PM in the afternoon”

LV “Apostrophe’s” or, worse, “comma,s” where they aren’t supposed to be

LVI Windows Vista

LVII James Allen on ITV F1 coverage

LVIII People who shout “Come on [insert British player here]” at Wimbledon

LIX The general attitude towards Mathematics these days

LX The obsession with celebrities

List VII: Top ten music artists

LXI Muse

LXII Green Day

LXIII REM

LXIV Ting Tings

LXV Manu Chao

LXVI Arctic Monkeys

LXVII Amy MacDonald

LXVIII Snow Patrol

LXIX Blink 182

LXX Bloc Party

List VIII: Top ten countries other than the UK & Ireland I might want to live in

LXXI Canada

LXXII Monaco

LXXIII Germany

LXXIV New Zealand

LXXV Australia

LXXVI France

LXXVII Denmark

LXXVIII South Korea

LXXIX Luxembourg

LXXX Switzerland

List IX: Top ten on my iTunes most played

LXXXI Still Alive by GlaDos (from the Portal soundtrack)

LXXXII Machines by Biffy Clyro

LXXXIII Pork and Beans by Weezer

LXXXIV Folding Stars by Biffy Clyro

LXXXV Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day

LXXXVI Great DJ by Ting Tings

LXXXVII Imitation of Life by REM

LXXXVIII Supernatural Superserious by REM

LXXXIX Mr Rock & Roll by Amy MacDonald

XC From Despair to Where by Manic Street Preachers

List X: Random Facts

XCI I once played a former Romanian Olympic Table Tennis player. Surprisingly, I lost

XCII I’m currently watching “This Morning” in KB House

XCIII I like Roman Numerals

XCIV I couldn’t tell you exactly how long I’ve been a Christian for

XCV I don’t like it when it’s hot

XCVI My favourite Ice cream flavour is Mint Choc Chip

XCVII I don’t take as many photos as I used to

XCVIII The best thing to put on toast is peanut butter

XCIX Maps are great and I could look at one for hours

… and finally…

C Writing lots of things like this is really hard!

Thanks for reading, I don’t think I’ll be doing another one of these again somehow, but you never know! Cheerio!

So this is my 50th post and to celebrate I am going to steal an idea from a man known only as “Keep Fishing” and do 50 facts about myself that you may not know. Enjoy…

1. I was born in the Republic of Ireland

2. My first holiday was to the Isle of Man in ‘85 (probably)

3. I don’t think that the Mighty Boosh is funny

4. Breakfast is the best meal of the day

5. I tend to live with people who like to wear nothing under their dressing gowns and it displeases me

6. The last album I bought was the Wombats’ album

7. I am a Cat person

8. I have a dislike for Liverpool FC and tend to avoid picking their players in fantasy football

9. I suck at fantasy football

10. I would never go to a hairdressers over a barber

11. My favourite drink is Guinness

12. Futurama is pretty much the best programme ever

13. Doctor Who isn’t far behind

14. To date I don’t believe I have watched a movie rated “18″ in the cinema

15. I don’t believe tapping the side of a coke can actually makes a difference

16. My favourite sporting event is the Monaco Grand Prix

17. I don’t understand why people in Scotland call coke “juice”

18. I once asked a girl out by letter. She said no

19. I often use humour as an affront to how I am actually feeling

20. I tend to play as AS Roma in PES

21. Nothing is more annoying than cyclists going through red lights

22. I used to work for the NI department of Agriculture

23. I have been on Radio Five phone-ins three times

24. I find spam amusing more than annoying

25. I get embarrassed when people use long words when they aren’t really necessary

26. I get really self-conscious when I talk to people

27. I am a middle child and exhibit classic symptoms of middle child syndrome

28. My birthday is a local holiday

29. My favourite country is (currently) Germany (but it changes)

30. My favourite place I have been is Monaco

31. My favourite band is Muse

32. I actually quite like the smell of cigarette smoke, but I wouldn’t ever start smoking

33. Often I don’t take life as seriously as I should

34. I originally supported the Iraq war and now oppose it

35. The worst thing you can do is steal my cereal

36. I am currently listening to “Up in the Sky” by Oasis

37. I like spreadsheets, probably too much

38. I dislike horse racing

39. The worst film I ever saw was “Doom” starring the Rock (which might have been an 18 come to think of it)

40. I don’t like when mates start going out with somebody and you never see them again

41. I am quite lucky when it comes to pool

42. I don’t know where to stand in the creation/evolution debate, but don’t believe that it really matters

43. I enjoy the smell of sun cream in the summer (in winter it’s just plain weird)

44. I remember too many things, to the extent that people believe I am somehow stalking them, when I just remember little details

45. Despite this, my short-term memory is not so great

46. I have a poor record in PES tournaments (although I have won one)

47. The title of this blog is taken from an REM song

48. My dream car is the Pagani Zonda. The chances of my owning it are precisely nil

49. My favourite game is Half Life 2

50. I don’t get what’s so “sexy” about Paris Hilton

So there you go. I was struggling towards the end as you may have guessed. I strongly doubt I will be doing a similar thing for my 100th post but that’s a long way away.