Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.

Date: June 2017

Pitch accepted! Next week the work begins #aside

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It’s been out a few weeks now but the new Gravetemple is great stuff. SOM and Oren Ambarchi make an unbeatable tag team when they’re on it #aside

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Bonus to my insomnia is that I've already done my work and admin for the day, so the weekend starts here #aside

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I've been awake since a quarter to three. This is gonna be a fun day #aside

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Bayley on the Stone Cold podcast is 👌🏼 #aside

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Started watching Okja there earlier and Tilda Swinton’s ‘performance’ at the start made me want to switch it right off #aside

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I have sent the pitch #aside

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I am writing a pitch. I am not good at pitching. Help? #aside

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So… what kind of tech bullshit in Gmail/Chrome is telling Facebook what ads to serve me? #aside

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Bee and I invented Trader Joe’s ‘puff dog’ years ago, except we called it a pig in a parka #aside

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Day four and I still want to rip out half my jaw #aside

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Is June ‘tone deaf month’ at Titan Tower or something? #aside

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Tried to download the new Melvins promo from Haulix but it failed twice, and now it’s streaming only? Sigh… #aside

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I’m sure @atomic_elbow will be pleased to know issue 22 has just popped through my letterbox. That’s not a euphemism for anything #aside

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New takeaway place near us sells cans of lychee Rubicon so when I’m feeling better we are SO ordering from there #aside

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Sleepless night from wanting to pull out half my teeth with this sinus infection #aside

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How much money has been wasted on this ridiculous Jobstown Trial? And for what? To grow enmity b/w public and Garda? To kill Irish Labour? #aside

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Don't know how I feel about Okada/Omega III in a G1 block match. It's way too soon; I would've booked them in separate blocks to tease it #aside

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If you’ve been wondering what happened to Enlarged Heart Radio, it’s just on another break. Back soon with new sounds if you’re interested #aside

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Trying to write but my brain is failing, ugh #aside

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Three eps of Glow prompted a rewatch of the Glow documentary, then I dug out my DVD of Gaea Girls #aside

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Didn't realise that was Awesome Kong in Glow till I googled the cast #aside

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So, what exactly is WWE’s stance regarding footage of Mel Phillips on the Network these days? #aside

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Frankly I’m amazed Mr Pogo survived that infamous barbed wire fire match in 1993, let alone live to his 60s #aside

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#NowPlaying Guerilla Toss - GT ULTRA #aside

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Now that Ireland has full test cricket status, when do we get to take a picnic to a test match? #aside

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What would happen if the US working class went on a general strike? #aside

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Hottest day of the year yesterday, they say. But our broadband didn’t cut out, since little direct sunlight on the box up the road #aside

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Lotta wrestling merch at the Melt-Banana gig tonight #aside

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Who's got their think pieces lined up for the 30th anniversary of Napalm Death's Scum? (Also, anyone wanna commission me for one?) #aside

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Order in for the new Atomic Elbow. Here’s hoping this one doesn’t get lost in the post for two-and-a-half months #aside

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Maciej Cegłowski on how to ‘build a better monster’

“This year especially there’s an uncomfortable feeling in the tech industry that we did something wrong, that in following our credo of ‘move fast and break things’, some of what we knocked down were the load-bearing walls of our democracy.” The collateral damage of building for the reality we hope to create, rather than the one we live in, to paraphrase my previous link. But Cegłowski goes a lot deeper that that in this tech conference talk from earlier in the year. And it doesn’t get more damning, more cyberpunk dystopian than this: “The algorithms have learned that users interested in politics respond more if they’re provoked more, so they provoke.” #link

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Mat Honan for Buzzfeed on Facebook’s ‘reality hole’

“The problem with connecting everyone on the planet is that a lot of people are assholes.” That’s it right there. I don’t subscribe to the notion that people in general are fundamentally decent; there’s too much evidence to the contrary. Social media — in ushering in an era where everyone is online, not just a self-selecting proportion — reveals that much. Does Facebook care about that? It’s a different kind of caring, to be charitable; rooted in head-in-the-sand techno-utopianism that strives for solutions to problems no one really has, while ignoring the actual problems people have right now. As Mat Honan writes: “You have to build for the reality we live in, not the one we hope to create.” #link

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I’ve felt a day ahead of myself for the past week. Never has a Tuesday felt more like a Wednesday etc #aside

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Here's an interview with Kassie Carlson of Guerilla Toss ahead of (or after?) the release of new album GT Ultra: https://t.co/NJ5plPZ0OM #aside

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Baron Corbin’s promo on Talking Smack was long on substance, short on delivery. Needs work if they want him to be more than Just A Guy #aside

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One can appreciate the finish of the women’s MITB from a storyline perspective and still think it was a massive F-you to WWE’s women #aside

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Epic Wrestling Twitter feud going on in my timeline. I like both sides, and they're both in the wrong, so this can only end well #aside

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Real talk, though: what bright spark thought forest green telecoms boxes was a good idea? #aside

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Another sunny day, another crappy broadband connection #aside

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So I might have mildly sunburnt my nose and hairline #aside

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