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This is another short update about what is going on. I just recored it on my laptop while I was on the move, so the quality is a bit iffy.

Links mentioned in the show are as follows

The Weird Gadgets can be found at http://thehottestgadgets.com/2009/01/19-weird-and-wacky-gadgets-001985, and as for that LIVE Tee Morris interview I told you about, catch all the details at www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=20621

Talk to you laters!

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VFTQ 121 – Fantastic Face Funk! if free for your downloading pleasures at www.ViewFromTheQuad.com

Today on the show we talk about some utterly insane man who hooks electrodes up unto his face. And then uses it as a music visualiser. Madness, I say!

Next, I rant for a bit about shitty music shops and the staff in them.

Then, we have some crazy cops who allegedly ATTACKED AND SODOMIZED some man who was alledegly smoking pot.

Then… VFTQ brings you a NEVER BEFORE HEARD trailer for the upcoming Saw 19! Yay!

Links

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxdlYFCp5Ic – Weird face visualizer guy

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10242008/news/regionalnews/horror_abuse_by_cops_135071.htm – Horror Abuse by Cops

Some sounds used in this episode are from the Free Sound Project at www.FreeSound.org

I’m heading down to Podcamp Ireland on Saturday 27th of September. It’s a free event in Kilkenny city, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting there. Shoot me an email if you are coming and we can chat! Cian@viewfromthequad.com

Tags: con, podcamp

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.

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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!
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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!

Tags: george hrab, interview, skeptic

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Check out the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund at www.joemurphymemorialfund.org

Click Read More for the entire shownotes

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Today the prize is a signed copy of the documentary Flock of Dodos (http://tinyurl.com/24yc73) and you can enter by emailing contest@viewfromthequad.com using the special code-word given in the episode as the subject line.

The secret code is important. I wont get the entry unless you use it.

Tomorrow is the big big day, kids! A copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone signed by Katie Leung – Cho Chang, Devon Murray – Seamus Finnigan, Evanna Lynch – Luna Lovegood and Tom Felton – Draco Malfoy, who also put three big kisses next to his signature.

Visit www.viewfromthequad.com for information on how to buy any of the prizes mentioned here which are available to buy, donate to the podcast (I love when people do that) and to subscribe to the podcast.

Cian, Out.

Tags: 12 days of christmas

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Today the prize is a signed T-Shirt for Mur Laferties Playing for Keeps, and you can enter by emailing contest@viewfromthequad.com using the special code-word given in the episode as the subject line.

The secret code is important. I wont get the entry unless you use it.

Stay tuned for tomorrows prize, signed limited edition, pre-release copy of Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood!

Visit www.viewfromthequad.com for information on how to buy any of the prizes mentioned here which are available to buy.

Cian, Out.

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VFTQ 74 – The 12 Days of Christmas
Intro Items

Win a part in Harry Potter (Not from me though)

12 days of Christmas

Main show items

What IS the 12 days of christmas? (Viewfromthequad.com for more)

My trip to Google

Win a part in the next Harry Potter movie

Contact details

Email me at Cian@Viewfromthequad.com

Comment on this show and others at http://www.viewfromthequad.com
(You can also go there to learn more about the 12 Days of Christmas)

Ring the VFTQvoicemail line at (001) 206-203-4610 (Yes, it has changed. Sorry about that)

That is all for now kids! Dont forget to subscribe to this feed in order to be the first when the 12 Days of Christmas start! You dont want to be left out, do you?

Tags: christmas, competition, prize, scott sigle, signed

Hi there. Here are two recordings unedited which I made at the Dublin Can’t Stop The Serenity screenings. They are quite long, and very VERY loud, and there is a good chance that you will not be able to work out a direct line of conversation, but good luck anyhoo!

These will not be on the feed.