Ikea prices

Has IKEA jumped on the rip off republic train and jacked up their prices to exploit the poor Irish consumer? Possibly not. This post by Barry Smyth tries to answer that question by looking at all the prices across several countries. We might not be the cheapest but we are not the most expensive and when tax differences are taken into account the rip off seems to fade.

[via Sliabh]

U2 in Croker

I went to see U2 play in Croke Park on Friday night. I'll try to write a proper blog post later if I get a chance but for those who are wondering what the concert was like have a look at this video I found on YouTube.

I imagine it wont stay up too long but it's certainly worth a look for those who missed the concert :-)

The Last Tommy

Harry Patch one of the last Tommies who fought in World War I died today at the age of 111. He follows Henry Allingham who died last week. The last British survivor of the War is now Claude Choules who served in the Royal Navy. Harry on the other hand was the last British survivor of the trenches.

Ruby Card Photo Competition

I've decided that I must start to enter some more photo competitions. As they say if you're not in you cant win. I was contacted about one on pix.ie for the Ruby Card so I thought I'd have a look and give both them and pix.ie a mention. They are looking for a photo from Ireland to put on the next release of their prepaid credit card and the winner will get €2500.

Even if you don't want to enter the competition, pix.ie is well worth looking at. The quality of the photographs already entered is stunning. Some of the top photos might look a little photoshopped for some peoples taste but there is also a nice number of street photos and ordinary landscapes. Photography in Ireland is booming with some wonderful and very talented photographers. I don't know what photo I'll enter but it's certainly an interesting challenge.

Rick Roll

If Kurt was still alive he'd shoot himself again. :-)

via Damien Mulley

Scrubs the Finale

I just watched Scrubs My Finale. Apparently it's the end of the series as we have known it but it might continue in another form. Either way the main character J.D. leaves the hospital and the show is all about his goodbye to the other doctors. I used to love Scrubs it was an imaginative piece of TV comedy that at the start was far better than anything else on TV at the time. As the years went by I lost interest. The joke just got a little old and the story seemed stuck in a will they wont they relationship for J.D. and Elliot.

By chance I happened to turn stations at the start of the finale and I watched it for old times sake. Glad I did, some of the originality was still there at the very end with J.D. watching an imagined home video not of his past but of his future. The rest of the show was still a little dull but it was certainly interesting way to end the show.

Canada Day, Ireland Day

I'm in Canada again and today is Canada Day. The country is 142 years old. At first I thought that was weird after all there are people alive who are almost that old. Then as I thought about it I realised that if the 26 counties of Ireland had an independence day we would only be 87. If we had an independence day based on the foundation of the Republic we would only be 60, my parents were born in the British commonwealth, now that is weird.