ArchivesBy Author: Phil
Talentless mug who ends up writing most of the articles on diaTribe. You can read about Phil in his about page in the Bandanna Club website.
Reflections
Yesterday, I was telling a couple of my work colleagues about what follows, which I received in an e-mail some time ago.
By some weird serendipity, my Dad e-mailed me a copy last night and it struck me as too much of a coincidence to ignore. So here it is…
Dante’s Hell (updated)

I really love some of the things that StumbleUpon throws up every now and again.
Last night, I stumbled upon quite a cool little web form, which allows you to design your own hell. You simply select categories of the condemned (or a few notorious individuals), organize them accordingly into the various circles of your hell and push the button.
St Patricks Day
As St Paddy’s day rolled around, I found myself working out the London office for a change.
This worked out to be very handy, because there was a half-decent Irish pub just round the corner. As always on St Paddy’s day, they were handing out the silly hats and glow sticks whenever large quantities of Guinness were purchased.
As it was the 250th anniversary of Guinness, the lads and I of course obliged and by the time we finished up some 6 hours later, we had amassed a pretty fair collection of both hats and glowsticks as you can see from the Photos. Eventually, I staggered off into the darkness, wearing a hat covered in glow sticks. I had wisely elected to leave the car at home and I slept comfortably on the train all the way back to Basingstoke.
As I stumbled over the doorstep and carefully swayed into the kitchen, I was asked “How many pints?”. All I could say was “Count the glowsticks. I’m off to bed” … *Hic*
Ryanair safety card
I recently read that Ryanair is considering the idea of charging passengers to use the toilet, on Ryanair flights.
What I want to know is…what exactly are they going to do if someone needs to use the bog and can’t or won’t pay? I don’t imagine that passengers will be very pleased when some hapless victim of this ludicrous policy is forced to relieve themselves on their own seat.
And I bet they don’t mention THAT in their ads.
)
Hope and Unity defeat Despair
The recent news of the murder of a policeman and two soldiers in Northern Ireland in quick succession by rogue elements of the IRA was a worrying story, reminding us all of the bad old days of the troubles which we all thought had finally been resolved with the truce a little over 10 years ago.
But those responsible for these unprovoked attacks must have been a bit surprised with the results.
First off was the universal condemnation of their actions from all parts of the political spectrum, including Sinn Fein who went as far as urging anyone with information to contact the police; a previously unprecedented move, in view of the history of collusion between elements of the now defunct RUC and Loyalist Paramilitaries.
Time to cheer up

After a long bout of illness and general malaise, thanks to a particularly persistent bug.
Combined with a general case of the blues bought on by all the crap news and weather…
… I thought it was about time I lightened up a bit.
So armed with pen and paper, I decided to start this momentous undertaking by making a list of some of the things that make me smile (in no particular order).
30 things that make me smile
News Flash: National symbol now a condom
Not much more to add to this, except that as the current economic crisis is global, this probably applies just about anywhere.







![Wreaths laid in memory of the murders, Dromore War Memorial. Photo: P Flannagan [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons Wreaths laid in memory of the murders, Dromore War Memorial](/images/Blog/dromorememorial.jpg)
