Paddy, what have you done?

Tomorrow is Paddy day, the booziest day in Ireland, when people get deadly drunk in the streets, in pubs, at home... everywhere! Name the place and there will be people drinking to death!

Some people say they drink to death on Paddy's day to forget St. Patrick was born in Britain. Others say it's because the Pota Phadraig or Patrick's Pot, as it was St. Patrick himself who said that "everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day." Then, not to contradict St. Patrick and make him even more satisfied, people drink not a drop, but a whole lot!

Now we're talking...

The Politburo of Little Green Island is proposing a ban on all alcohol sponsorship of sporting and large outdoor events. Finally something sensible on the nonsense battle of trying to reduce the number of death-drunken people in Ireland! A ban on all outdoor advertising of alcohol and an increase in the excise duties on some alcohol products are also in the list of actions.

They are also considering the introduction of a "social responsibility" levy on the drinks industry which could be used to help fund sporting events and a reduction in the weekly "safe" number of units of alcohol for women from 18 to 11, and for men from 21 units to 17.

These are all welcomed but the introduction of a minimum price per gram of alcohol, which is a totally mislead thinking which will ban only those who have no money to buy expensive drinks...

We are still missing some educational approach though...

Don't look back...

So, the government of the "Little Green Island" just announced that the inner city centre will be mainly for those on foot (also called pedestrians), cyclists and public transportation - no private vehicles anymore!

At first it sounds very "green" - and surely is if it was not nonsense! Not allowing cars into inner city centre of Dublin would demand a much - far, far, far much - better public transportation infrastructure than we have today! Areas like the north-west of Dublin are totally abandoned at their own fate, either in terms of buses or trains.

Dublin Bus is very well-known by the disservices they offer from long time, where buses have a no-show policy which Dublin Bus seems to not care at all! Drivers who skip stops at their wish, leaving people at the mercy of the weather! The Nitelink service which, in some routes, runs every 30 minutes Friday and Saturday, from 00:00 to 04:00 and costs ONLY €5!!! No services Monday to Thursday, so you have to get your bus by 11:30PM!

Trains towards the city HAVE to go through a unique hub - Connolly Station. They get there easy and quick... then they have to "wait their turn" (!) to serve the platform - yes, I know... it's hilarious!!! The timetable? For the west link, for instance, in the middle of the day you have to wait one hour to get into a train, not to mention they finish serving at 11PM and the first train on Sundays and bank holidays is 10AM! Buses as well!!!

"Oh, but it might be good for bikers", one may say. Not so fast, buddy! There are not enough corridors for bikes, and they are not that safe at all! Drivers don't really respect bikers, you'll quick learn that!

The government should care about the infrastructure first, and then come with this preposterous ideas...

Children's day!

Today's is children's day in the office. Almost everybody brings their children and they play around with each other, they freely run among the desks, happy, shouting, singing...

I love children! Everybody can tell just looking at me interacting with then, but having them running around your desk, shouting and screaming and playing their toys is not an ideal work environment!

Mainly when they play with your toys!

What will be?

Believe it or not, some people just don't clearly see the "interjunction" of their lives! Call it 3-way junction, Y-intersection, T-junction, it doesn't matter... you will clearly face this dilemma at some stage... the sooner the better!

Some people are so skeptic that they can't see the big steps in every little decisions they make... in other hand, some of them just think every little decision, no matter how little, is part of a bigger plan!

How to achieve the right balance?

Easy as it seems to be, this can get really complicated if we start with a simple question: are you a believer? This question probably triggers another one: in what? From there, we had open a whole world of possibilities... pretty predictable, isn't it?

Talking about predictability, isn't it the most extraordinary thing about the universe? To write down equations to describe the unseen from the seen? Yes, and I have to concur with my determinist friends: mathematics is simply beautiful!

But... what else? As my determinist friends believe, is maths the new God (if any)? Is determinism just an excuse to exempt one-self from any responsibility from their acts? Perhaps... but perhaps it's just uncertainty! Or even worse, the new faith! An irrational desire of ending up with an explanation for the unexplained!

I still sustain the free-will approach, and will, eventually, take the memorable way to my life, while the determinists, sadly don't know yet, as the way they will take is already determined, but they will only know after they've take it!