Sir Clive Sinclair R.I.P. - My Hero
The creator of the ZX Spectrum changed my life forever
Sir Clive Sinclair died on September 16th 2021 after a long illness. I knew this had been coming for quite a while based on internet rumblings but it’s still a shock to know that the man, whose brilliant mind changed the life of a small kid from rural Ireland, is gone.
I’ve written many many many times over the years on this blog and on my tech blog about the ZX Spectrum and Sinclair in general.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Friday, September 17, 2021
Review of Inov-8 TrailFly Ultra G 300 Max
My new favourite trail running shoes. But please give us a GTX version.
After the heel-destroying catastrophe of the Saucony Peregrine 10 and my bad fall in the Hoka Challenger ATR 5 GTX, I needed a new pair of trail running shoes that could handle both long distance and typical slippy, mucky, wet Irish terrain.
The hype around the Inov-8 TrailFly Ultra G 300 Max has almost been as big as its crazy long name. But the reviews were very good and I still love and use my old Inov-8 X-CLAW 275 on the shorter boggier stuff.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Monday, June 7, 2021
Review of Saucony Peregrine 10 / 11
Horrendous heel pain means I had to stop using these after three runs
This won’t be a long review. Whilst I was enjoying running in the Hoka Challenger ATR 5 GTX, I knew the grip wasn’t great on the rougher stuff. After googling around a bit, the Saucony Peregrine had lots of solid reviews as a reliable decent everyday trail running shoe. Version 10 was on discount due to the recent release of version 11, so I grabbed a pair from Alltricks in France.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Monday, June 7, 2021
The Sheep's Head Way Fastest Known Time (FKT)
Completing the main loop of The Sheep's Head Way on my second attempt
If at first On April 12th 2021 I attempted to do the entire main loop of The Sheep’s Head Way. I didn’t quite make it but had an amazing day in a wonderful part of the world. Five weeks later on May 17th, I gave it another go. Whilst it didn’t go to plan, the outcome left me with a big old grin on my face for a week.
No you don’t need a gas cooker The two main problems I had the first time were my ridiculous pack full of everything from a gas cooker to a sleeping bag, along with the horrendous blisters on the soles of my feet.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Monday, June 7, 2021
The Sheep's Head (Way) - Ambling 51 miles in 21 hours
Celebrating the loosening of lockdown with a loop of the glorious Sheep's Head peninsula.
The Unlockdowning As we approached the partial lifting of pandemic lockdown in Ireland in late March 2021, I wanted to celebrate in some way that involved trails, hills and running. Luckily for me, the brilliant Tough Soles published a new summary video on YouTube of their Sheep’s Head Way hiking trip from 2018. I was immediately sold.
The route The official Way web-site has a ton of useful info including a trace of the whole route.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Sunday, April 18, 2021
Using smashed phones as extra computers at home during the pandemic
Many four year old Android phones are supercomputers you can use as a desktop computer.
I’ve always been interested in maximising the lifetime of electronics. I detest built-in obsolescence and I hate the way computers are becoming impossible to upgrade or repair yourself. Apple is the absolute worst culprit in this area and their actions result in others following their terrible example.
Apple’s logic is that phones and computers should be like TVs and no-one ever upgrades or repairs their TV. Except, we used to. I still remember the RTV Rentals man coming to our house to replace the tuner in our TV as the existing one couldn’t handle the signal of my new ZX Spectrum.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Friday, March 12, 2021
Irish Lockdown Vegan Brown Soda Bread recipe
This is better than any store-bought brown soda bread. Not as good as my mother's tho.
In January 2020, I went 99.9% plant-based as a way of kick-starting serious weight loss after 20 years of being either overweight or obese. The only initial exception was cow milk in my tea. I did similar back in 2016 but that was my silly “6 Day Vegan” plan where I ate chicken curry on a Friday. Both times I’ve used Veganuary as the starting point.
After two months at 99.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Friday, June 19, 2020
Thinking in Public
Has it really been 13 months since I did a personal blogpost? So many things I’ve been meaning to share over the past year but never got around to. I’ll make sure to do my annual race/run wrap-up post over Christmas and I really want to get back into the regular blogging saddle since I’ve left Twitter and Facebook long behind.
And speaking of the two hellsites, this post by Sabrina Little on iRunFar is a perfect summary of how I have been feeling about online (and real-world) discourse over the past few years.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Monday, November 25, 2019
Final words and stats on Flight EI123 and the death of the Aer Lingus brand
The response to my rage-post about our treatment by Aer Lingus really resonated with a lot of people. Here's a few interesting tid-bits.
I’ve been calling Twitter the Hate Machine and LinkedIn a Roach Motel for a long time. But they both really came up trumps with my EI123 blogpost.
Unsurprisingly it turns out that IAG airlines have been treating passengers like garbage all over Europe and they are getting worse by the day. I received a large number of stories both publicly and privately that show a company which seems to detest the people who keep them in business.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Conor manages to get lost in the Galtees and only realises it later
I really shouldn't be allowed up the mountains on my own. The Galtee Horseshoe took a little longer than expected!
One of my favourite sights in Ireland is when I’m driving south on the M8 motorway and the Galtee Mountains appear on the horizon. At certain times of the year and day, it’s breathtaking.
The 16yo and I had a fine time out there earlier in the year with Bandon Hillwalking Club on their Open Day but I wanted to find out how much of it was runnable by someone like me.
Posted by Conor O'Neill on Monday, October 22, 2018