Monday 17 October 2011

Glencullen Musical & Dramatic Society news Oct 2011 40th Anniversary Gala Celebrations


Glencullen Musical & Dramatic Society news Oct 2011 40th Anniversary Gala Celebrations

The 40th Anniversary of the Glencullen Musical and Dramatic Society is being celebrated this year with a Gala Show * * The Magic of Musicals * *.

One of the founding members, Seamus Keane, has written an interesting history piece for us describing how the Society started up.

It started in 1971, a group of people came together to discuss an idea mooted by Billy Canon from Glencullen . A meeting was called and on Good Friday night they met in Glencullen Library, that time you could use the Library without all the hassle that followed in later years. At the meeting were Billy Canon, Devin Donnelly, Seamus Keane and Ann Keane. We did not know what exactly we were getting into, some wanted drama (which came later) but we eventually agreed on forming a choral society.

Billy had a friend who lived in Balally his name was Eamonn Keeley, he was an amazing man with four and six part harmony and musical direction. Eamonn agreed to direct us in coral singing and harmony. At this stage we had about 30 members. Kevin Donnelly being the original Arthur Daly managed to source an upright piano and also managed to get a girl from Cornelscourt called Maria Smith to play keyboard for practice.

Our first few years consisted of harmony singing and we went on the road to sing at all the popular venues at the time, The Hitching Post in Leixlip, The Embankment in Tallaght, The Golden Ball in   Kilternan and Foxes Pub in Glencullen to name but a few. We sang a mixture of Irish, American and English songs. After a couple of years on the tour we decided to try a Musical and of course the rest is history.

Our first Musical was put on in 1974 and it was The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe was next in 1975, The Mikado in 1976 all by Gilbert & Sullivan these were produced by Frank Porter. We then changed direction and put on The Desert Song which was produced by Frank Gormley, South Pacific, My Fair Lady and many more followed that. In between musicals it was decided to put on some drama to offset the soaring cost of musical production. Our first play was Sive by J.B.Keane and it was put on in the back lounge of Foxes pub. Then followed more plays which were put on in St.Olafs and St. Tiernans. These plays were Many Young Men of Twenty, Juno and the Paycock and many more.

At some stage after South Pacific the society split and some of the members formed the Dundrum Musical Society, they wanted to take the name of the society (Glencullen) with them but we held on to it because there was a grant associated with the name. We managed to get the show back on the road and I stayed on until 1980-81.

Margaret Byrne came on the scene and she was a great asset to the society, a marvellous actress, singer and producer. Who can ever forget her performance in Oaklahoma. We, due to starting families and work commitments had to let others take the reigns and the society has never looked back.

Seamus Keane


The show will run at the Mill Theatre in Dundrum from Wed Nov 30 to Sat Dec 3. Please see our posters for details.  Director: Tom Ronayne, Musical Director: Gerry Connolly Choreographer: Helen McCann.


GMDS cast photo 1972


Photos:
IMGP8641xx.jpg       - Tom, Helen and Gerry with the kids in rehersals
P1020824.JPG         - Kids in action: Oliver meeting Fagin's gang.



Sunday 16 October 2011

hard sudoku is sometimes hard

I like the scribbles.
Irish times sudoku.
Kate did the easy one.

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success human vs printer

error code 127 googled, it is a fan error. poke at fan and toggle power and fan runs but with a bad noise.
later on screwdriver open to look at fan. vaguely realise it was put backwards. it works after I out it on right way. then a different error. a mysterious clunky plastic thing reseated fixes that.
the printer prints.
others print things.
I print things.
I am happy.
I am super genius.
my battles with printers usually end in my defeat.

at home last week cartridge refilled, printed one page but leaky. being kept out of printer.

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Friday 7 October 2011

puts "# 20 != [expr pow($e,$pi)-$pi] http://xkcd.com/217/"

set pi [expr acos(-1)]
puts "# pi=$pi = acos(-1) == [expr atan(1)*4] = atan(1)*4"
# pi=3.141592653589793 = acos(-1) == 3.141592653589793 = atan(1)*4
set e [expr exp(1)]
puts "# e=$e"
# e=2.718281828459045
puts "# 20 != [expr pow($e,$pi)-$pi] http://xkcd.com/217/"
# 20 != 19.99909997918947 http://xkcd.com/217/

Add a delete equivalent of kill-region and kill-line keys C-w and C-k in emacs.

A very frequent editing operation I find myself doing is, for multiple files, find something, delete it and replace it with something else. Usually the replacement is done using paste. Pretty simple. Duhrrr. Today again I am fixing up multiple files repeatedly with same or similar changes.

This can be sped up using macros. Start from emacs dir browse a macro can visit each file, jump to start of buffer, do the needful replace, save the file and go back to previous buffer (browse directory) and advance to next file ready for macro to run again.
e.g.
 start macro: "C-x ("
 select file: "Enter"
 jump to start of buffer: "C-Home"
 replace "M-x replace-regexp xxxx yyyy"      (or "M-x my-custom-repacement-func" see below)
 save: "C-x C-s"
 back to previous buffer "C-x b Enter"
 advance to next file "DownArrow"
 finish macro: "C-x )"

In emacs the behaviour of kill-ring makes pasting in the same copied line awkward.
C-w or C-k copy the killed text to kill-ring moving what you want to paste down in the ring.
Using command delete-region to CUT text without copying it into the kill-region solves the difficulty, but the lack of a key binding to delete-region makes it easy to overlook or forget about!
 C-space go to end of text M-x delete-region
is harder than
 C-space go to end of text C-w
or
 C-k



Add a delete equivalent of kill-region and kill-line keys C-w and C-k as follows.
Bound to keys C-v and C-z.


;; A keybinding to delete-region gives a good "Windows CUT Ctrl-x equivalent".
;; What keybinding to use is awkward to choose.
;; using C-v "Windows PASTE Ctrl-v" is quite a subversive option.
;;  C-v = scroll up in emacs which I have no use for.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-v") 'delete-region)

;; To have also a "Windows CUT" alternative to C-k (kill-line) this can be done:
(defun delete-line () "delete line, take it out of kill ring. bind this func to C-z"
 (interactive)
 (setq last-command 'delete-line)
 (kill-line)
 (setq kill-ring (cdr kill-ring))
 (setq kill-ring-yank-pointer kill-ring)
 (setq last-command 'delete-line)
)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-z") 'delete-line)
;; without setting of last-command 2+ C-zs mess up kill-ring
============================================================
other recently used quick replace elisp funcs:
(defun replace-ucolc () "replace old olc suc and ssuc ids with valid ones"
 (interactive)
 (replace-regexp "OLC.UC.29.?\\b" "SYS.UC.29")
 (replace-regexp "SYS.UC.151\\b" "SUB.UC.DP.1") 
)
(defun replace-olctest-timeouts2 () "replace hardcoded numbers in func calls in about 20 olc tests with variable"
 (interactive)
 (replace-regexp "\\(olc::checkForOLCState .*\"WAIT.*COMPLETED\" +\\)240" "\\1 $olc::icWaitForDCGAReady")
 (replace-regexp "\\(olc::checkForOLCState .*\"COMPLETED\" +\\)240" "\\1 $olc::icWaitForOLCCompletedAfterNodesReady")
 (replace-regexp "\\(olc::checkOLCControlState .*->completed} +\\)60" "\\1 $olc::icWaitForOLCCompletedAfterNodesReady")
 (replace-regexp "\\(olc::checkOLCControlState .*->completed} +\\)6" "\\1 $olc::icWaitForOLCCompletedAfterCompleted")
 (replace-regexp "\\(olc::checkDSSEState .* +\\)420" "\\1 $olc::icWaitForDatapathReadyAfterOLCCompleted")
 (replace-regexp "\\(olc::checkForNodeState .*\"OLC.*DC_GA.*READY\" +\\)180" "\\1 $olc::icWaitForDCGAReady")
)

Sunday 2 October 2011

diary weekend 1-2 Oct 2011 Dublin

This week on my bike to work Wed! 1st time in more than a year I think! And local trips to rehersals. Kate rollerblades to school Wed+Thur+Fri. Very warm weather. Gets a bit wet Fri+Sat+Sun morn.

Thur. Rehersal Fugue for Tinhorns. Facebook Glencullen fundraiser event.

Fri eve
Presidential debate half compelling on late late show. Fionn falls asleep for it though.

Sat
Up 9:30. We all go collect G&G from train. Motorway is wet. Big puddles on streets of Dublin. Then on to Raheny. Arrive with plenty of time to spare at 10:30. We go to church when rain abates a little after cleaning some of the inside windows of car with tissue. Grubby.

In church we light some candles. Kids explore a bit. Family collects. 5 or 6 babies being baptised. Maeve follows the words in the prayer leaflet. Pretty much. Except for the bits that are pluralised. And the lots the priest adds in. And the odd changes "Do you reject Satan and all " .. that stuff. "I do."  "Do you believe" .. "Humm. No". Small kids are a bit active in church during ceremony and after. I take photos with various other people's cameras. After church we go to restaurant "Ten Fourteen" opposite South bridge out to Dollymount. Passing a BIG puddle. Parking tricky. Nice food. After visit Hugh's place then home.

Fionn & I go out and visit Martin in evening. Home 1/2ish? Tired!

Sun

Up 9:30, bring Daire down to Benildus and round to pitch for soccer. Then home. Fionn brings Kate to GAA. Rugby. In 2nd half Ireland get a good few scores and win comfortable enough in the enf over Italy. Housework tidy kitchen and hang/put on wash. Later I cycle down to meet Kate after GAA. Daire's match gone into extra time. 2-2 draw evewntually after they being 2-0 up at one point. Kate & I cycle around to the soccer. At home Fionn cooks potato and veg to go with beef slow cooked stew. Nice.

Kids in the rest of the day despite it being pretty fine outside and lots of other kids playing outside enjoying what might be the last few outside playable hours of the year. Clothes hanging outside a bit iffy all day. Very wet whole day underfoot. Though it drizzles just a couple of times in morn. Kids inside busy though. Snap circuits and jigsaws come down. Electricity fun. Baloon egg minding/rugby game. When cooking/working I sing very loud Fugue for tinhorns (pretty much learned) and Hiring Man song.

Daire finally gets down to project for school. Last request of "can I go out" blocked by Fionn as 2 week project not started due tomorrow. Since Fri I have been aware of it starting to loom in status of not even started yet. Now it's 11pm and he's spent since ~2pm in his room ostensibly and actually on it. In fairness, he mostly never needs to be chased and does work autonomously mostly before playstation or heading out with friends happens. Working printer was reported to GPs as part of reason it wasn't started. Resulting in investigation. Black cartridge not in at all. That refilled. Need to wait 24 hours though. Scanner tutorial for all family after 8:15pm pasta + tuna&sweetcorn tea.

Vasco seems interesting though nasty enough on his later expeditions!.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja52T1hn3kYOxoPaLw8Dm1yIMPeS2pHMgBsBO1dfgNdptzu4PGz4hkgtcrPXFNnyB4WvguCxuML-Il5B19iOb0aDmIuA_o3d31mkbv3Y2lflg4004R9PMhi65D9hbj06wO-P02b6Jund3P/s1600/1573_Teixeira+-+low.jpg

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ostensible

ostensible Look up ostensible at Dictionary.com

1762, from Fr. ostensible, from L. ostensus, pp. of ostendere "to show," from ob "in front of" + tendere "to stretch" (see tenet).




At the moment am reading:
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
Roughing It - Mark Twain.  ***** very good. 
 (on phone)


Have recently read: lots of various things on phone:
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad.
Among Malay Pirates: A tale of Adventure and Peril - G. A. Henty.
Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling ******* fantastic
Deathworld - Harry Harrison
The Gun - Philip K. Dick
The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

And real books:
Some of Kate and Maeve's books.
We got an inline skating book for Kate in library. She hadn't really known books outside the fiction/story section. Some of Daire's books.
Rashomon.
Too many others.