VFTQ 110 - Back from CTYI
VFTQ 110 - Back From CTYI. Download at www.viewfromthequad.com
Hey there! It feels so great to be back in front of a microphone, preaching to you lot. Although I don’t preach.
I could do with a peach though… Om nom nom nom…
Anyway, In this episode I give “The State of the reUnion”, talk about Why Geeks make Better Lovers and read an article I wrote on my last days in CTYI. Tear. (Or Pi, depending on how B.E.N.T you are. Yes, Injoke.)
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Vote for me in the European Podcast Awards!
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Starting WoW and View From the Quad have both been entered into the European Podcast Awards, and now they need YOUR help to get through! Please vote for Starting WoW by clicking http://tinyurl.com/67hqzo, clicking “Vote” and then by giving 5 stars for each catagory. Then, if you have the time, vote for VFTQ by going to http://tinyurl.com/63n3zd and voting in the same way. If you only vote for one of my podcasts, vote for SWoW please. Thanks!
CTYI 2008 Review
Warning: If you do not wish to read an article which MAY feature in episode 110 of VFTQ, please do not read on.
I sit at my desk, drinking my first cup of good tea in three weeks. And I don’t want to be.
I want to be sitting in an overcrowded canteen at 8 AM, drinking overbrewed orange-twinged rubbish which I got from a huge vat. I want to be sitting at the very same over-crowded canteen eating undercooked chips, sloppy oily pizza and drinking water from a plastic cup. I want to be lying in the grass at ten to ten, holding somebody’s hand and laughing about something silly.
In short, I want to be in CTYI again. But I never shall.
For the past nine years, I have spent a portion of my summer at Dublin City University. Here, I have done college level courses over a short period of time. For the past four years, I have spent three weeks residential in the campus and done what amounts to the entire first year of a college course.
In 2005, I did 21st Century Science. 2006, Game Theory. 2007 brought Speculative Fiction Writing, and this year, I did an intensive course in Journalism.
During this course, I learnt about the many aspects of being a journalist. We watched films, documentaries and a writer for the Irish Independent explain the ins and outs of daily journalistic life. We created a 26 page newspaper entitled The American Pie. For this paper, I interviewed Paul Howard (Ross O’Carroll Kelly), made jelly in a bucket and even went to Dublin Zoo. The course was fantastic, Andrew Payne was an awesome instructor and it broke the really high standards usually set for CTYI courses.
However, it was not all about the course. Imagine this:
You are locked into a bubble with almost everything you need in it, along with around 249 other people. Here, hardly any news of the outside world gets in, and hardly any news of inside the bubble gets out.
The people in the bubble with you are all in the top 95th percentile in literature comprehension and maths. They wander around in bathrobes, argue about the validity of the Large Hadron Collider as a weapon and spend the entire three weeks pretending to be pirates. Crazy people. Fun people.
These are MY people. Geeks, Geniuses, whatever you decide to call them, they are fun to be around.
During Passionfruit, a little spoken of event for people who are too old to return to CTYI the following year, me and about 30 other guys and girls spoke, one at a time, about how CTYI has changed our lives. It was done in confidence, so I can’t share what others said. I can say what I told though.
I would not be this Cian Mac Mahon without CTYI. View From The Quad, Starting WoW, StuffSlasherSaw, my MINE submissions: All of these would not exist was it not for CTYI. 5 years ago, if you were to shove a microphone in my face, I would probably lash out at you. I hated being on camera, never mind editing my mistakes later. CTYI has brought out the loud-mouth in me, given me inspiration for short stories, projects, comedy pieces and articles. You would not be reading this right now were it not for the Computer Programming teacher who introduced me to Q-basic six years ago.
I would not have had the chance to meet all these amazing people were it not for CTYI. You all know who you are, and had I not met you, I would be a very different person. Some of you made me think about the bigger picture, what I want to be in the future years, some of you made me feel amazing and some of you are the best friends I could ever ask for.
This is all done now though. Never again will I be able to call myself a student of the Irish Center for Talented Youth. Never again will I drink the tea, eat the pizza and lie under the sky, next to the four walls we call The Quad, sharing the feeling with a friend. Maybe in three years I will go back and sit, nervous, in front of Colm O’Reilly as he decides if I am good enough to become a Residential Assistant and join the legion of the strange once again.
VFTQ 109 - The Music Show
Welcome to this episode of View From The Quad! Download it at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com. This being a music episode, there is not much chat to be had in the shownotes. Instead, there are links to the bands played.
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=97007092b961d7e9a7d77c2614ee0086 - Jonathon Coulton
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=9bb4f20840a1b5c8e815ccd1498031c6 - Like So
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=525b2b07eafd32a10271be48451f5c18 - George Hrab
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=317f375e7b6f56ae6dde9e6b4d6674a9 - Parachute Musical
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Starting WoW and View From the Quad have both been entered into the European Podcast Awards, and now they need YOUR help to get through! Please vote for Starting WoW by clicking http://tinyurl.com/67hqzo, clicking “Vote” and then by giving 5 stars for each catagory. Then, if you have the time, vote for VFTQ by going to http://tinyurl.com/63n3zd and voting in the same way. If you only vote for one of my podcasts, vote for SWoW please. Thanks!
VFTQ 108 - Interview with George Hrab
View From The Quad episode 108 - George Hrab
Today on VFTQ I talk to the wonderful George Hrab about all kinds of things, although the conversation keeps seeming to swerve over to the side of embarrassing incidents. Ms. Information also makes an appearance!
George Hrab is a wonderful fellow, musician and entertainer. His podcast is at www.geologicrecords.com, and his music is at CDbaby.com and on iTunes. I recomend his songs Think For Yourself, BrainsBodyBoth, The Assumption and The More I Dispise it Less. If you have watched the CTYIfilm, you will already be familiar with quite a bit of his work, as all the music in the film is George’s. Also buy his AMAZING Non Coloring Book at http://www.lulu.com/content/1153616 in either Hard Copy or on the REAL cheaps on download. It’s great. I have one. This conversation gets a bit… Hairy. Don’t listen around the kiddykoos, OK? Or the Scientologists. Always with the Scientologists, here on VFTQ.
Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit “http://www.gotomeeting.com/podcast”
Vote for me in the European Podcast Awards!
—–
Starting WoW and View From the Quad have both been entered into the European Podcast Awards, and now they need YOUR help to get through! Please vote for Starting WoW by clicking http://tinyurl.com/67hqzo, clicking “Vote” and then by giving 5 stars for each catagory. Then, if you have the time, vote for VFTQ by going to http://tinyurl.com/63n3zd and voting in the same way. If you only vote for one of my podcasts, vote for SWoW please. Thanks!
VFTQ episode 107 - The MANYth show to be recorded this week
In this episode of View from The Quad, I talk about why my voice is dead, new Heroes news, (Thats why they call it News, you know) and the new 3G iphone being launched to one big damp “Meh’ from me.
Other then that, I have been recording all week, and I must say chaps, I have been feeling better.
Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit “http://www.gotomeeting.com/podcast”
Vote for me in the European Podcast Awards!
—–
Starting WoW and View From the Quad have both been entered into the European Podcast Awards, and now they need YOUR help to get through! Please vote for Starting WoW by clicking http://tinyurl.com/67hqzo, clicking “Vote” and then by giving 5 stars for each catagory. Then, if you have the time, vote for VFTQ by going to http://tinyurl.com/63n3zd and voting in the same way. If you only vote for one of my podcasts, vote for SWoW please. Thanks!
VFTQ episode 106 - Screw Viacom
View From the Quad episode 106 - Download at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com
Today we talk about how some VFTQ podcasts need your votes to win an European Podcast Award. See below for more info!
We also cover Fedex shipping dope to the wrong guy, and he Large Hadron Collider NOT killing us all.
I then play Brother Love’s “Summertime”.
Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit “http://www.gotomeeting.com/podcast”
Links
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http://next-thing.net/?p=3801 - Fedex delivers drugs to the wrong guy
http://whatsnextintech.com/2008/07/06/what-is-the-large-hadron-collider.aspx - What is the Large Hadron Collider?
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/04/hitachi_5tb_hdd_2010/ 5TB 3.5inch HDD
Vote for me in the European Podcast Awards!
—–
Starting WoW and View From the Quad have both been entered into the European Podcast Awards, and now they need YOUR help to get through! Please vote for Starting WoW by clicking http://tinyurl.com/67hqzo, clicking “Vote” and then by giving 5 stars for each catagory. Then, if you have the time, vote for VFTQ by going to http://tinyurl.com/63n3zd and voting in the same way. If you only vote for one of my podcasts, vote for SWoW please. Thanks!
VFTQ 105 - Phonecall from a D-Bag (It’s explicit, kids!)
Download at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com
Hey there kids! In this episode, I have a broken throat, so it isin’t normal. First, I sound a bit weird, and second, although it works out quite long for VFTQ these days, I don’t do all that much talking. More ranting then normal though.
We talk about why Vista might not suck quite as much as everybody says it does, and I play a voicemail from a douchbag. And interrupt him every few minutes.
Links
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http://gizmodo.com/5019908/ten-reasons-why-vista-isnt-that-bad - Gizmodo.com - 10 reasons why Vista isin’t that bad
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141343.asp - Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer
http://www.lurkertech.com/bill-the-borg/boardwatch_borg.jpg - BillGatus of Borg
VFTQ episode 104 - PUSHHHHHH
VFTQ 104 - Download at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com
Again, we have the DAMN audio glitches. Curses.
Also, this episode is explicit.
Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts
This week we talk about how the Large Hardon… I mean Hadron colider will NOT end he world as we know it, How Robot lovers may become the Norm in about 40 years, a crazy insane teacher who refused to stop teaching creationisim and then BRANDED a kid with the image of the cross, and I bring down the hammer on unfit geeks, and issue the One Hundred Pressup challange to all my listeners. Please join in and don’t feel alone!
Links
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http://lsag.web.cern.ch/lsag/LSAG-Report.pdf - Large Hadron Collider report
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/In_2050_your_lover_may_be_a_robot/rssarticleshow/3148524.cms - Robot Lovers
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/06/20/teacher.cross/index.html Teacher brands students with a cross
http://www.hundredpushups.com - One Hundred Pushup challenge.
Email the podcast at cian@viewfromthequad.com and let me know if you are going to take part in the challange!
Thanks for listening,
Cian.
