I know I said the blog would be suspended for the time being, but I was in a bad place last week, and I now wish to retract my statement. I simply can’t not write! (please forgive the double negative). Last week I attended a lecture along with my dad at the F. E. McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. F. E. McWilliam was a famous surrealist sculptor hailing from Banbridge, and the gallery opened a bit over 3 years ago. The subject of the lecture was the history of the National Museums in Ireland, and the title of the lecture and hence title of this post is Cabinets of Curiosities. Though it was fairly long, it was interesting learning about the history of the museums, and their evolution from collections in stately homes to the modern museums we know today. On to the cabinets! Well, they weren’t cabinets in the sense of pieces of furniture, but rather rooms where people would keep art or curiosities collected from around the world (and may stretch to represent a microcosm of the world).

After the lecture we came to the conclusion that I have my own cabinet of curiosities – my room. My bedroom is cluttered to the ceiling, but everything there has a story. Everything has a history. Every object has meaning to me. This may sound materialistic, but it’s not necessarily the object I treasure, but the sentimental value attached to it. This got me thinking even more, and now I’ve decided to catalogue my room and record the history while it’s still fresh in my mind. In essence, I’ll be curator of my own room. Till Saturday night I’m down in Belfast, so there won’t be much going on here, but it should be a fun project. Thanks to my massively varied interests I’ve accrued a lot of stuff…

University, and back to normality this week. Work is becoming an active priority, and more time is being set aside to try and make up for time misspent earlier in the year. I’m also varying my writing style more from the usual tech stuff. Or am I? Occasionally I’ll throw in a Rewind article if I manage to resurrect the old stuff, and I’ll be writing about things that catch my eye.

Speaking of tech, a new iPad case has piqued my interest in the device. Why the iPad? Because this is just so awesome. It goes by the name Brydge, and literally bridges the space between iPad and MacBook. It’s a case with an integrated Bluetooth keyboard, optional speakers, and a dock/hinge the tablet fits into. Unlike other cases it’s made from anodised aluminium and has a black chiclet keyboard to match other Apple products. And as far as cases go, it looks fantastic. The engineering is fantastic, and the new hinge design seems to work really well. I love when people take an existing product, and through simple and effective design improve the whole function an aesthetic of the device. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the iPad and MacBook shouldn’t be combined…I’m not so sure about that.