Remembering the Piercing Starvation...

Challenge Numero Uno: To fast for 5 days with only water, tea and coffee.

Challenge Numero Dos: To try memorize 100 peoples birthdays.

Challenge Numero... uh... three: Get my nipple pierced and keep it for a week

Difficulty: Medium rare followed by... can't remember.... then ouch time...

Overview / Rant: I've read some awful books in my life... but probably ranked there at the top of that list is none other than the Way of the Peaceful Warrior... it's diabolical... it's a first person story about a young man who mets a 'life-sensei' at a petrol station and this sensei teaches him the way of the Peaceful Warrior. There's also a love interest but *SPOILER ALERT* halfway through the novel his memory is wiped and he forgets he ever met her... in a story told from the first person... in the past tense... how could the author/character tell us about this lady if his memory was wiped of ever meeting her? Also- his life ends up being shit with failed marriages and whatnot... so yeah... stupid stupid book...

One good thing came from that book- apart from being good to keep a fire going, was the notion of fasting for 5 days... so I decided to try that s**t out...

Day 1 - Went to bed at 3am after a night of heavy drinking and Warcraft III with my bro and cousin. Yes ladies- I am single. So anyway... woke up at 11am and felt the urge for breakfast. Managed to ignore that urge by gulping down a pint of water. Next temptation came at lunch time when we went out to Stoop Your Head in Skerries. They do the most delicious plate of prawns in garlic butter... I salivate just thinking about it.... so I resisted temptation by taking a brisk walk around the harbour while everyone finished their meal. I drank water... with a piece of cut lemon... since I didn't eat the lemon I don't see it as cheating... By 9pm that night I had no more cravings for food... although I may or may not have played more Warcraft III... seriously ladies- form an orderly queue...

Day 2 - Feel great! Had a slump around 5pm but watched a movie and drank water. Had to sit through dinner because I had a friend over... when I saw the food (fish, chips and beans.... drool) I was so tempted to break the fast... but as the food was eaten I realised that I actually wasn't hungry! Leading me to believe that I will eat food if you put it in front of me. Which holds true as I always feel compelled to clear my plate even if I'm full- seriously- it takes a lot of self control for me NOT to eat what's left on a plate... Also today I realised that when I want to 'think' I have food... like: "What'll I do now?" will also be thought over a piece of toast or a poached egg...

Day 3 - Grand.... zero hunger problems.

Day 4 - Woke up today wishing it was Friday. I was in a foul mood all day. I tried to keep myself occupied with activities but I just kept getting annoyed really easily. I ended up having a hot chocolate (made with water) to try cheer me up... dunno if that was cheating but I honestly couldn't have cared at that point...

Day 5 - Feel really good! I had no hungry all day but I decided to reintroduce myself to food around 4pm as I was heading to a gig later and needed to drive. I had toast... mmmmmm.... butter.... toast.... yum....

Conclusion/Recommendation: Surprisingly easy to do... granted there were tons of times where I wanted to break it but once I removed myself from the food I felt much better. For really serious hunger I just drank a pint of water which really took the edge off. I drove most days without any hassle but I felt a little weak on the Friday (hence the toast)... I lost half a stone over the week but I would definitely NOT recommend this as a weight loss solution- I'm fairly confident that my metabolism has slowed so much that the next food I eat over the coming week will go straight to FAT reserves... 

What I would consider is fasting for 48 hours once a month. It would definetly remind you that a.) you will not die if you go without food for a day or two and b.) it's a good way to 'reset' your system and reintroduce healthy foods etc... but that's just my opinion... I'm not a doctor... 

Challenge Numero Dos: To memorize 100 friends birthdays.

Rant/Overview: Since my birthday was fast approaching I felt the urge to learn my friends birthdays and not be solely relying on social mediums such as facebook. I used a combination of memory techniques, in particular the Peg System and Memory Palaces. A Memory Palace is a specific place you imagine in your mind, it can be anywhere you must be able to imagine it vividly; e.g. your house, your school, the beach. I designed twelve memory places for each month of the year...

January - a cinema (new beginnings/beginning of a film)

February - a valentines house designed in red and gold (valentine's Day)

March - an army barracks (army people march)

April - a kitchen (April and apron share the same first three letters)

May - a barn (May rhymes with hay which is in a barn)

June - the moon (June rhymes with lune. Lunacy is associated with the moon)

July - my house  (my birthday is in July)

August  - the beach (summer holidays)

September - entrance of my school (school starts back up in September)

October - graveyard (Halloween in October)

November - bank (banks have members and member rhymes with November)

December - winter wonderland

So then I had to associate numbers with words... I used the following from Derren Browns Book Tricks of the Mind. I seriously recommend this book to everyone. It's an amazing read- I've read it myself about 6 times and I still find new and interesting things every time. Anyway...

 1 - bun           6 - sticks

    2 - shoe           7 - heaven

3 - tree            8 - gate 

4 - door          9 - line

5 - hive           10 - hen

The next step was to walk through the Memory Palace for January and insert people and their birthdays. I would picture the person in my mind and look at their birthday. So if someones birthday was the 13th of January then I'd imagine them sitting in the cinema eating a bun, but the bun has a small tree growing out of it. The image should be entertaining or strange but it needs to be weird enough that you'll remember it. If someone's birthday was the 24th of April I would imagine them in a kitchen cooking- they get annoyed and stamp their massive clown shoe on the floor- but it's not a floor it's a trap door.... kitchen represents April... the massive clown shoe represents 2 and the trap door represents 4... and so on...

Difficulty: It's really hard to remember the people you don't associate with as much. The hardest birthdays to remember were of the people I rarely see or can't picture in my head. I found the best way to remember someone was to get them to interact with me as I walked through the Memory Palace- that way it'd be more vivid and real. 

Conclusion/Recommendation: Well I managed to learn 100 birthdays and (2 weeks later- yes I am useless at posting on time) I still know about 60 of them. The ones I don't know are where I designed a poor Memory Palace (November and August) and are the people I see less of. 

I totally recommend Derren Brown's book- it's a really good read. I also recommend you try this to help remember your nearest and dearest birthdays. I've an awful memory but it's nice to know that techniques like this can be used to improve it.

Also- people on facebook have no fear of identity theft... 

Challenge Numero THREE: Nipple piercing...

Overview/Rant/Conclusion/Recommendation: Em... I'm still undecided... it's sore if people hit it... it's kinda annoying cus I keep hitting it be accident... I don't know if I like it... I don't know if I dislike it... there's a piece of metal going through my nipple... how is one supposed to feel about that?

Anyway... here it is... 

I'll keep it. At least until I head to Kuwait... 

Final thoughts: Late with posting (as usual) but I was away last week hiking from Dublin to Galway! I'll but that one up later. Cheers for reading. 

Mohawk, Chess, Jigsaw and Polyphasic Sleeping...

Challenge(s): Have a Mohawk for a week, challenge people randomly to a game of chess and build a 2,000 piece jigsaw in a week. Polyphasic Sleep Project.

Skills Developed: Love of Mohawks. Appreciation to not underestimate people named Grace. The ability to formulate 2D thoughts into 3D... lack of sleep... 

Overview/Rant: To make up for lost time I decided to undertake 3 different challenges in one week. Challenge numbero uno was that of donning (from the verb 'donner' - to don) a mohawk for a week. Suffice to say my 'mohawk' received various compliments and insults... Firstly- it wasn't truly a mohawk, more a Mr. T haircut... that said I did receive various expected responses from friends and family... BUT there was the occasional person who really liked it... so 'mixed' response would be the best answer to the question that you did not ask...

In terms of a challenge- it was actually quite difficult... You're be surprised how quickly someone will judge you based on your hair style- it wasn't anything major but I found that people were a little shorter with me than usual... shop assistants and bus drivers were less eager to meet me eye-to-eye than what I would usually encounter... of course all this is subjective... it's like when you have a spot on your face and you're ABSOLUTELY certain that everybody can see it... and not only that... they're judging you for the spotty geek that you are...

Actually... I was a bit spotty this week... dammit...

Okay- the 2nd challenge: be a chess master... right so... someone (I can't remember who- I was probably drinking) suggested that I challenge people to a game of chess everyday for a week... while this seems like an interesting concept... I didn't really get what I was trying to achieve... was I supposed to win? Wouldn't I just play people who really suck? 

Well I didn't... except Fiona... she didn't know how to play chess... pffth... blondes...

I played 5 games total- 2 via facebook games application... you will be astonished the number of people who reject to play you in a game of chess... it's hurtful... the other three were at a dear friend of mines house warming party... do not ask me why there was a chess board at the party... there just was... so I played 3 games there...

First was against the sexiest half of Team Rocket - James... 

I played Pikachu to James's Meowth... need more detail? Find it here...

Second was the Cavan Chess Champion Dallan... me and Dallan have a history with chess... basically the first time we played each other (many moons ago) Dallan LIED to me and told me he didn't play much... then when he beat me he decided to disclose that he was in fact some sort of Cavan Chess Champion... pathological lying? Sign of a serial killer? I don't know... but that look in his eye tells me to watch it... 

By the end of this match it was Dublin 1... Cavan 0... Boo yeah...

Last... but not least... Grace...

I was playing a blinder... winning left right and centre... but thanks to 'amazing' Grace... that was destroyed in what can be described as the epic-est of chess games in drinking-chess history. The look of glee on her face almost makes me forgive her for destroying my winning spree...

Almost... 

Another challenge was to complete a 2,000 piece jigsaw... I'm going to go out on a limb and admit that I didn't have time (well I did- but I forgot) to do this challenge- so I completed a 3D jigsaw instead... it only had 416 pieces BUT it was 3-D... that's like at least 1.5 times harder than 2D... (that's what she said)

The masterpiece...

Finally- I spent the next week undergoing Polyphasic Sleep... you can read all about it here and I seriously recommend that you do... but simply put- polyphasic sleep means you go to sleep at 6 times periods during the day and nap for 20-30 minutes during those periods. So my day went like this for example

Midnight: 20/30 minute nap

4am: 20/30 minute nap

8am: 20-30 minute nap 

Noon: 20-30 minute nap

4pm: 20-30 minute nap

8pm: 20-30 minute nap

People typically take around 90 minutes to enter REM sleep (read more about that here) but with polyphasic sleeping you end up tricking/training your brain into entering REM sleep much sooner. Now- this experiment needs to be conducted over weeks, if not months, to have an effect... BUT I will divulge the experience that I had.

Day 1 - a little tired... the 4am nap was hardest and I ended up sleeping till 5am... but otherwise the rest of the day was grand. I definitely had more time on my hands- but fighting the urge to sleep was my main aim and this time was spent watching TV to keep awake.

Day 2 - more energy than yesterday... managed to sleep all the naps fine and didn't oversleep. Occasionally I didn't actually sleep for a nap, just rested... but I didn't feel like I was lacking sleep in any way! It was really good! 

Day 3 - this day was perfect until I went out for drinks in town... a lot of drinks... and suffice to say I couldn't nap in town so I ended up sleeping in the next morning... dammit..

Day 4 - Tried to re-embrace the pattern but couldn't nap due to having a full nights sleep. Went out for dinner and a few glasses of wine that night... back by 1am so I figured I'd stay up till 4am and try recontinue the pattern... this brings us to Day 5...

Day 5 - Woke up at 10am... but managed to get back on schedule by 4pm and kept it up till Saturday... until I had to work at a gig... and was given free drink...

Basically- having read up on this polyphasic sleep and having tried to do it I can conclude a few things...

1.) It seems really interesting and I do think that there are benefits behind it. I was already dreaming when I went for naps by the last day and I did feel that a lot of time had passed even though I'd only been asleep for about 20 minutes.

2.) It is only possible if you choose not to have a social life... you cannot nap in town... you cannot drink heavily and then expect to not sleep... this sleep pattern does not allow for flexibility... 

I obviously can't really make a judgement on this because I've barely begun to experience it BUT I am going to keep this sleep pattern up for the rest of the summer with a few minor adjustments...

1.) I will be a polyphasic sleeper on the days where I have not planned a social event/gathering/piss up... 

That's the only adjustment really.

But this is an eye-opener to a whole different way of living, especially highlighted in this guys blog (who is also called Steve) who undertook the polyphasic sleeping for a year... and apparently found it really good... except for his social life....

Recommendations/Conclusions: Try a mohawk... although make sure it's a proper one and not the Mr.T mohawk I attempted. Play Chess... it's awesome and beating people from Cavan will make you more of a man. Polyphasic sleep is definitely worth considering if you have 1.) a flexible boss or 2.) no job.

Other stuff: The idea of polyphasic sleep came from Pauric Carroll (another Cavan man) who stole it (as Cavan men are wont to do) from a book called the GAME... 

The GAME could be the most important book you ever read. I recommend it to men and women everywhere. Read more about it here. 

Future Challenge: 5 different continents (Australia/ Africa/ America/ Europe/ Asia) and 5 different cuisines. So I try cook a meal from a different continent everyday... inject a bit of culture into my life.. other future challenges include getting my blogs done on time...

Random stuff: Let's gangbang this thing and go home...

Angel of the Night

So- way back when- I said I'd record a song.

Here it is, recorded by Keith Burke.

It's just a rough version- I know it's got errors (piano and vocals in particular)- but the main idea of the song should be clear enough I hope.

Hope you enjoy it! Also next weeks 'Gleek' challenge is looking good- several volunteers to date and I'm even thinking of shaving my head into a Mohawk to give proper credit to this monumental event!

Being A Reflective Practitioner...

Right so- it's been a while... My sincerest apologies for the delay- this annoying 'Postgraduate Diploma' was a bit of a hindrance over the last few weeks... but now... I'm.... FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!! And what helped my through it? 





And I would be remiss in not thanking all my family and friends too- thanks xxx


But enough of that... here's the last 5 weeks condensed into ONE post- it's like your getting more bang for your buck.


Week 12 - Learn Spanish for a week


Difficulty: 3/5 
Overview/Rant: Spanish is awesome. I had a lot of fun learning it at this brilliant website found here. It a teaching website that is completely free and has really helpful tutorials. I spent about 15 hours learning the language, which over a week is considerable I think. Completed 5 online lessons and feel I got a good understanding of creating day-to-day verbs and sentences. In terms of getting in touch with my Spanish speaking friend(s), I totally screwed that up with the whole 'life' getting in the way. So yeah- you can give this challenge the olde 'Epic Fail' stamp if you like- personally- I think Senor Juevo more than made up for the lack of success.


Oh- Senor Juevo died after he tried to make a run for it... yeah.. sorry about that... he did survive another 2 weeks though...




Week 14 - Record a song in a week


Okay- originally I was supposed to WRITE and record a song in a week... but yeah- life was busy. I DID write a chorus and verse which were both quite good- but totally didn't relate to each other... so that was scrapped. Instead I recorded a song I wrote about two years ago. Anything which sounds remotely good is all thanks to a certain Mr. Keith Burke with his awesome recording skills and even awesomer hair.


Here's the song- feel free to abuse it to no end. I know it's not perfect- but anything that sounds remotely good is down to Keith's editing skills. 


Special Thanks: Keith Burke for giving up his time to edit the track. Check out his own stuff here. (check out the hair while you're there) Also thanks to Laura for attempting to help me write lyrics. 


*** Note: For some reason youtube is being douche- I'll repost the link once it's working. Apologies for delay.




Week 15 - Buy the Lotto for a Week

I spent a total of €24 on the lotto this week (€4 quick picks in every store I walked into that week). Zero winners. My personal hatred of the lotto comes from the fact that it gives you this false belief that you're holding on to the winning ticket. You're sitting on the bus and you're looking around at strangers thinking "Sh*t, that dude knows I'm holding the winning ticket... okay... just be cool, get off at the next stop and wait for another bus..." 



In future I'm going to spend the €24 on pints, get drunk and imagine how awesome it would be to win the lottery... I might also buy myself a panini with the remaining euros... 


It could be me? It IS me... living the dream...




Week 16 - No Caffenine for a week

Difficulty: 4/5
Overview/Rant: Anyone who knows me knows 3 things... 1.) I can be grumpy, 2.) I can be tired and 3.) points 1.)and 2.) are dictated purely by what degree of caffeine is present in my system. No amount of loving family or friends can replace the caffeine fix I so need. I found this out the hard way... 


Monday - Wake up at 6:00am... "Feeling okay- wouldn't 'mind' a cuppa tea, but sure- I'll drink some hot water." 11:00am... "Man, is it me or have the students got more annoying..." 2:34pm... "Wow, what do non-tea drinkers do with themselves?" 


Tuesday - "No feelings of wanting tea... ha... maybe it's easy to give up tea. I CAN DO THIS! Maybe I should give up tea and coffee for good, I mean- who needs em?"


Wednesday - "Oh my god... what is this feeling in my brain? It feels like someone is cracking open my skull with a jackhammer... I feel ants behind my eyeballs and there's definitely a leprechaun making an appearance in my peripheral vision..."


Thursday - "MUST RESIST URGE TO KILL EVERYBODY!"


Friday -  (Steve sits huddled in a corner) "I'm a little tea-pot short and stout..."


Suffice to say- no caffeine had two major noticeable effects...
1.) I got incredibly bad headaches...
2.) I slept like a baby... (that's to say "I slept well" as opposed to "I cried all night and wet myself")


But... *dilemma*... is a good night sleep worth giving up caffeine... science would say "Oh god yes..." but what do I say... (Steve downs his tea, some of it dribbles onto his chin) ... the short answer is 'no.' The long answer is best said by... 







Week 15 & 16 - Finishe PGDE and get Blog up to date...


DONE... quite challenging. I finished my Postgraduate Dimploma in Education- I'm going to be a fully qualified teacher in a month or so.... uh... god help the children... well guess that's another 2 weeks challenges done... *cough cough*


"But wait one second!!!" (I hear you say with anger and confusion) "We were promised 52 challenges?! Surely finishing your course doesn't count? And updating your blog is a bit of a cop-out?!" 


Well my angry and confused friend.... 52 challenges you shall GET... although I'm gonna have to double them up during the summer (heck- maybe even triple those bad boys) because I'm finding it incredibly difficult to balance them with the rest of my life at the moment- so I'm EAGER to do them- but I want to do them justice! Worry not though- challenges will be undertaken down the line... with gusto (and possibly pesto... dunno why)... and 52 challenges will be COMPLETED... or so help me god- I'll kill somebody...


That's my cue to get some caffeine...


Cheers for reading. Thanks to people who've read so far and please keep sending me on challenges! Mucho gracious! 


Oh- this weeks challenge is to learn tai-chi... 


Steve out.

Lost in translation...

Right- so I succeeding in spending 10 whole minutes trying to learn Spanish last week... in my defense- I was working on my assignment... which I finished... although I've a second one to do... *sigh*  

BUT REGARDLESS - I'm going to do a double whammy of tasks this week to make up for a lack of epicness last week... so my TWO challenges to do this week are...

* Learn Spanish in a week ... and actually attempt it this time...

* Keep an egg alive

The task of keeping an egg alive requires the following... 

1.) An UNCOOKED/UNBOILED egg.

2.) Placed in a plastic zip-lock bag to protect my clothing should it crack.

3.) Must be on my person or next to me at all times.

May the challenge - actually -commence...

Legend... but no dairy...

Firstly a massive thank you to everybody who has given me suggestions. There's some very interesting challenges that I look forward to trying further down the line but please keep sending me on different challenges because more variety means more interesting, albeit stupid, things for me to do! To leave a challenge or comment- just click the 'comments' button below and leave a message (you'll be surprised at the number of times I've been asked that!) 

Currently I'm learning how to make this site more interesting and interactive. Right now I've embedded a new sexy 'calendar' of future events with potential challenge dates. Obviously nothing can be strictly set in stone at the moment, and part of this whole escapade is 'not' to bind myself to a strict regiment. So expect date changes etc etc blah blah.


I'm also trying to incorporate a sexy 'list' of challenges given, accepted and completed so that you can view what has been suggested by other people... I'll let you know when I figure out how it works.

I decided to start myself off with a interesting challenge: being a vegan for a week or better phrased as becoming a follower of "veganism." The vegan society define this as: "a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

This long winded definition can be summarized to say the following...


1.) No food that is, or came from, an animal.
2.) No clothing that involved causing harm to an animal.
3.) No products tested on animals.


My first sexy challenge will be to do the following starting on Jan 4th and running till Jan 8th


* Obey points 1-3 above.
* Cook a vegan dinner for somebody else at least one night in the week.

Basically I haven't exactly decided the format of this whole fiasco, realistically it's not possible for me to blog daily so I'll probably just blog upon completion, or epic fail, of the challenge. 


How hard do I think this challenge will be? Well, Homer tackles a similar issue head-on with Lisa...


LISA: “I’m going to become a vegetarian”
HOMER: “Does that mean you’re not going to eat any pork?” 
LISE: “Yes” 
HOMER: “Bacon?” 
LISA: “Yes Dad"
HOMER: "Ham?”
LISA: “Dad all those meats come from the same animal”
HOMER: “Right Lisa, some wonderful, magical animal!”"
                             - Season 7 - Lisa the vegetarian



The Simpsons - 705 Lisa the Vegetarian