Avatar

 After all the hype about it I was setting myself up for a disappointment but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a film where I felt like I was watching a piece of history. It was absolutely amazing. If this is the future of cinema then I can’t wait. 

Even though it’s a long enough film (coming in at 2hrs 40mins) you don’t notice the time at all. Avatar is so riveting that you wish it could continue for longer. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Avatar 2. I could go on and on about this film but it’s really something that I suggest you experience for yourself. Don’t wait until it comes out on DVD, this is definately a film to see in the cinema.

Exams

Not good. Exams started today. I was awash in a sea of words which I couldn’t understand. I didn’t provide answers, I provided waffle. Tomorrow will be worse. This is not a pessimistic outlook. At least I studied for today’s exam. I just wish I even knew what topics we “covered”. I’m finding it very hard to like the Constitution at the minute even though it is a pretty little book. Interesting thoguh it is I don’t believe a copy of it is going to help me. I’ll still cross my fingers and hope though!

Francach!

Whilst looking over my last post as it sat neatly and quite long on my blog with its new theme I saw a gaping hole. That’s right I had not mentioned anything about the France V Ireland match.

Let me start off by congratulating the ~Irish team on a great game. So many people wrote you off prior to kick off and i’m glad that you showed them that we can compete with what they would class as one of the best teams in the world.

I’m disgusted at Henry’s handball and what it meant to the Irish team and people. If things were reversed however I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t be delighted that Ireland had qualified for the World Cup. While I don’t like what Henry did, I understand that in the heat of the moment we all do things that we shouldn’t. Neither can I blame the referee who I thought overall had a good match. It saddens me to think that cheating and deceitful behaviour (because lets remember that Henry didn’t own up at the time) can decide such an important match. Put aside all the money the FAI lose out on, put aside that the fans are disappointed and think of the players. I’m not talking about all of them although it must hurt them all. I’m talking about the likes of Kevin Kilbane, Shay Given Damien Duff, and possibly Robbie Keane. For these players it is most likely their last chance to play in a World Cup. The fans can watch again in four years time and cheer on the boys in green with the same passion and gusto we’ve always had. I’m sure the FAI will survive without the few bob. . . . . they’ve done so before.  For these players though it was their last chance and to think that cheating has robbed them of this is sickening.

While I’m not a fan of FIFA or UEFA I think on this occasion them may have done us a favour by not allowing a replay. Regardless of anything else we cannot guarantee that w would have outplayed France again. That time if we lost it would be on our heads. This way France go to the World Cup with a dark cloud over their heads. Their whole World Cup will be tainted and stained to the degree that even winning the World Cup couldn’t salvage it.

What this incident highlights is the need for video-replay technology. I understand that in every match there are hundreds of contentious decisions. I know that it would be impossible to play football properly if every decision were allowed to be challenged. We’ve the introduction of this technology in other sports, Rugby and Tennis being the main ones that come to mind. In Rugby as far as I know, it is up to the official to call for a replay. In Tennis they are allowed to go to Hawkeye for set amount of challenges. In tennis the introduction has far from detracted from the sport. Most tennis fans would go so far as to say that it can add to a match. I believe that it should be used in only the most serious situations, penalty claims where the referee or his officials cannot say for certain whether or not there should be one given, goal claims and even for some situations bad tackles. The amount that can be used should be pre-determined. I’m not saying that what I’ve proposed is ideal but it can be debated and refined before implementation. Maybe the introduction of this technology will signal the return of honesty back into the beautiful game?

P.S For those of you wondering about the title it’s an Irish word which means French person. Another translation however is Rat. I felt that in these circumstances it was appropriate because even though I wasn’t going totally ape about what happened I’m still Irish!

X Factor Rant!

What is wrong with people? Olly was rubbish last night, completely out of tune. Don’t get me wrong I like the guy – good voice, good image, great moves, he’s got it all and he also appears to be a really nice genuine guy but I’ll still say he’s rubbish if he is. Over the past two weeks he has been totally disappointing vocally and tonight he deserved to be in the bottom two. I’m hoping that this will have shocked him and Simon and he’ll get better. He seems to have gotten carried away with giving a performance and then having a laissez-faire attitude to the actual singing.

Lloyd has been AMAZING over the past two weeks. The song choices have been perfect and he’s really maturing. Based on those performances he deserves to be still in the competition. Add to that the fact that he’s a nice bit of eye candy and you should have a winning combination but for some reason he doesn’t appear to be pulling enough of the vote. What’s up with the public?

Fingers crossed that Danyl goes next week. His voice just isn’t up to it. For some reason he feels that he can do a better version of every song than the people who wrote and sang it. However I did like his version of Careless Whisper. Vocally I felt that it was his best performance but the arrangement butchered the song. I’d like to see him take a song and just sing it but since there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of that I think it’s time to say goodbye.

Stacey is great. I feel sorry for her though. I felt for the first half of the competition that Dannii wasn’t mentoring her correctly. Week after week she was given a bad song choice because it appears that Dannii favoured Rachel and Lucie. Now that they’re gone she’s getting great songs. She is able to sing everything that’s been thrown at her. She really needs to have a lot more self-belief though.

Jedward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They mightn’t have been able to sing but boy could they put on a show. I didn’t like them at the start but they converted me completely by the time they came out “singing” She Bangs! They were complete professionals throughout the show. They way they dealt with all the negative comments from the judges and the booing from the audience, they were a credit to themselves. Big things will be heading their way and their conduct will have done them a great favour.

Last but certainly not least – JOE! He’s my favourite. I love his voice. He’s amazing, brilliant, fabulous, fantastic, phenomenal, superb, wonderful, and the list is never-ending. Each week he comes out and blows me away with his performance. Every time he sings you can see in Simon’s face that he’s gutted that he’s not mentoring him. I just hope that the public agree with me. He’s most certainly been the most consistent performer. Joe for the win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bored. . . .

I arrived at Uni at 11 even though I didn’t start til 1 because I had to register. Low and behold it merely took two seconds to register leaving me with loads of time before my first class of the day. Then disaster struck my tutorials were all changed and I don’t start til 4. So I spend hours setting up my internet here which is how you now have the joy of reading this blog even though I should be learning something.

 

Yay! Lloyd stayed in on X Factor. I believe that this joy is shared by myself and all other females of the species. Still my favourite boys would be Olly and Joe. Both of whom were absolutely fantastic this weekend. I can’t wait til next week where not only will Westlife be on but also making a guest appearance will be Michael Bublé! Speaking of the latter, he has a new album out called “Crazy Love”. I have yet to purchase it but going by all of his other work it should be excellent.

 

That’s all for now,

Trepzi

Ooops. . . .

I seem to have neglected this here blog for quite some time. Fingers crossed that it will never happen again. Loads has happened in the intervening period (eg. the Leaving Cert, the 18th, the start of Uni, and much more. . . . .).

 

This year I’ve decided to watch the X Factor. Usually I just catch the auditions so that I can have a bit of a giggle and then maybe one or two of the later shows. However this year I said I’d give it a go for the whole series. I am now addicted to it. (In the procees I have also managed to get my father addicted which I find quite funny as he’s usually quite cynical about shows like this). At the moment my favourites are Joe, Stacey, Olly, Lucie and Lloyd. I don’t know how they all did last night as I was at a friend’s birthday so I must go and watch the recording soon.

 

Recently I’ve been introduced to a whole different vocabulary. These words however only relate to a certain secret place. Here are just a few of them:

Cake ~ Man-made lake

Aquabird/True Duck ~ Duck

Submarine birds ~ There is no direct English translation. It’s along the lines of a duck that submerges itself underwater in the cake.

 

That’s all for now

Trepzi

Rafael and Fabio Da Silva!

Here’s my little tribute to the Da Silva twins. Rafael is a fantastic player who reminds me of the Duracell Bunny he just keeps going and going:

His brother Fabio has so far been unfortunate with injuries but the word is that he’s even better and more attacking than his brother! How can that be?

 

Please note that the quality of the videos may not be 100%

Til another time,

Trepzi

Aussie Open!

It’s not great that the first grand slam of the year takes place during the wee hours of the morning over here and that it’s just before the mocks aswell as it means I can’t stay up ’til 7am to watch it. However I’ve been doing my best to follow it online.
Yay Nando! Congrats for beating Murray to get into the last 8.
Vamos Rafa! Keep up the good work!

Til another time,

Trepzi

Yay!

Woo! We’ve gone through as top of our group in the debates with a crushing defeat of the only team who could have prevented us going through.
The fixtures aren’t out for the next debate aren’t out but here’s hoping that it won’t be during the mocks.

Til another time,

Trepzi

Debate

You probably don’t know this but I’m a member of my school’s Concern Debate team. There’s loads of pressure heading into the final debate of the league phase.
The motion is: “The Western Media has a red top attitude to the developing world”. We’re opposing this motion. If you’ve got anything you’d like to say on this issue or any stuff that you came across that could be helpful either to our side of the motion or in trying to preempt the proposition please leave a comment.

Til another time,
Trepzi