19 Nov 2024
TV election debates are useless
I watched a televised debate last night featuring the leaders of all political parties and groupings in Ireland. I kind of knew what I was getting myself into but I watched nonetheless. What I witnessed was a chaotic circus of sloganeering, glorified NPC dialogue and I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I. Each leader was more interested in sniping their opponents with sick burns than laying out their policy so the electorate would actually have some idea of who they’re going to vote for and why.
[Politics]
17 Nov 2024
Talk to the shopkeeper
I work remotely and spend a lot of time at home. This only came about due to COVID as thankfully I don’t work for a company that forced us back into the office once the dust had settled. It was surprising for me to discover that I am actually not a total introvert and turns out that I actually kinda like making small talk with random people. One small joy I’ve discovered recently is going down to the local shop on my lunch break and chatting with whoever is behind the counter for a few minutes.
[Society]
15 Nov 2024
Pen and paper is as open source as it gets
I currently use Obsidian for my note taking. In fact I’m writing this very blog post in Obsidian. However, does it really get more open source and private than good old fashioned pen and paper? After all, the fundamentals of computer science were committed to paper. It can’t be hacked or easily reproduced. It’s not endangered by bit rot or hard drive failure. In our little world of open source, independence-at-all-costs hackery it’s refreshing to know that the old traditions die hard.
[Technology]
14 Nov 2024
My (Irish) election predictions
With the three ring circus of the US election wrapped up it’s now time for us to turn our attention to the rather less icky but far more pedestrian Irish general election. I don’t know why but I follow politics in the same way as some people would follow sport. It’s a one day public spectacle with a sense of anticipation or anxiety where there are winners and losers. It can be predicted to some extent but you never quite know what’s going to happen on the day.
[Politics]
13 Nov 2024
A scrappier digital life
People are often surprised to hear that I haven’t bought a single thing from Amazon in over 5 years. Even the most hardened of socially-minded progressives will talk openly about shopping on Amazon. It’s essentially just the worlds supermarket at this point and many don’t see the point in boycotting it. People usually ask me why I do it then. After all they’re so big that one less customer won’t change anything.
[Society Technology]
12 Nov 2024
Blogging every day for 30 days
For about 5 years I have felt increasingly less able to focus and come up with original thoughts. Whenever I have an idea for any kind of creative or technical project I think about it intensely for days, consult Wikipedia, watch a dozen YouTube videos about the subject, maybe give it a try for days or weeks intermittently but ultimately it goes nowhere. I go back to my usual routine of having an idea, going full hyper-focus for a short time and then abandoning it leaving me feeling unfulfilled and full of self-doubt.
[misc]
15 Aug 2024
A fresh look
The old blog wasn’t exactly inspiring me so I decided to go with a more stripped down template and minimal style. I tend to hilariously overcomplicate things so I’m getting the bare minimum done and then leaving the rest up to Future Shane.
[misc]