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

Date: April 2018

Bumped into a friend in town whose birthday is today and of course I forgot to wish him a happy birthday #aside

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Important thread here. Are you reading this on Facebook? Please don’t fall for ads casting doubt on voting Yes; you are being manipulated https://t.co/OcShFr31cP #aside

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My fantasy baseball team (Dublin Corps) are second in the MeFi league as April ends, within spitting distance of the top spot. Crikey… #aside

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Here’s a kitchen hack for you: if you can’t find any pappardelle at the shops, get some fresh lasagne sheets and cut them to size #aside

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Joe Carducci and Mugger talk SST and things at a bookstore in Brooklyn. So curmudgeonly on Carducci’s part, but he’s an avowed romanticist for the (or rather, an) American working class mythos, so adjust your filters for his insight. #video

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I’ve done my Gerard Butler one so how about Michael Wincott? His CC needed verification (most foreign cards did); he was very nice about it https://t.co/6m1l6aKNXS #aside

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Happy Tabletop Day! I didn’t play any games but I did add the Legend of Korra pro bending game to my shopping list #aside

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Wrestling Twitter just discovered geopolitics but the discourse is indistinguishable from whataboutery #aside

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It’s ironic that the hashtag for this show is #WWEGRR because that’s how most non cishet male wrestling fans feel about it #aside

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This Duolingo Japanese lesson is driving me up the wall; I can’t type in kanji ffs #aside

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Not seeing enough in my timeline about Bill Cosby being Guilty As Fuck #aside

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What Is WWE Doing In Saudi Arabia?

Here's a good breakdown of tomorrow’s Greatest Royal Rumble (a glorified house show, no matter what people will try to tell me) and what it means, politically speaking. It’s no apologia for ‘cultural differences’, as if that’s some organic social contract and oppression of women and minority groups isn’t a top-down strategy for control. #link

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‘Feels like 3C.’ That’s even worse than yesterday! Summer starts on Tuesday, like #aside

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How the hell is it 6pm? Could’ve sworn it was only 4 a minute ago #aside

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Why Pop Culture Links Women and Killer Plants

“The use of poisonous mushrooms isn’t about women playing some zero-sum game with controlling men. What the trope really does is prompt viewers to consider what female agency can look like in situations that are overwhelmingly shaped by sexism—and it’s not a pretty sight. The women mimic the language of violence articulated by the men in their lives, in one of the only ways available to them. Unable to emancipate themselves fully from the trappings of their gender roles, their only recourse is to do harm before they suffer further. In one of the last scenes of Lady Macbeth, when Katherine implicates her lover and maid in the murder of a child, her face is eerily impassive, mirroring the expression of her husband early in the film when he regards her with cruel indifference. In that moment, they are one and the same.” I did not like Lady Macbeth, but that quote gets at what the story really is. #link

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Thunderstorm just materialised out of nowhere. Rain and hail lashing so hard I thought the house’d sprung a hole #aside

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‘Feels like 4C.’ It’s 25 April ffs #aside

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Wired: The Nintendo King and the Midlife Crisis

Not as sad a tale as you might expect, though it does raise questions as to what creative people in the digital realm will do when time goes on. What will we all do, in fact, as the notion of work changes from security to mere sustainability? #link

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Anyone who follows me here should be aware of my position already but I am one of the #men4yes and we will help make Ireland a better place #aside

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I would humblebrag about seeing the Infinity War press show this morning, but I won't be there as I've got other work on http://bit.ly/2Fcuc3t #aside

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Why wouldn’t you vote Yes?

This article really bothers me, and I think it’s mostly to do with couching the movement to repeal the 8th Amendment in terms of ‘debate’ as suits the No side, which in the case of this campaign should be taken in the competitive sense: an art of persuasion, irrespective of facts.

The author, Colleen Brady, writes: “At the minute I feel as though there is no unbiased information readily available for the public. From where I am looking, the information available to people is either swayed one way or another.”

The thing is, this isn’t the Lisbon Treaty. It’s a healthcare issue, it’s a social issue, an awkward negotiation of complex needs. Looking for some kind of elusive, singular ‘objectivity’ is a fool’s errand. There are facts about particular aspects, and there are lies and untruths about same, and that’s all we can deal with. More…

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Spoiler alert: People don’t hate spoilers … or do they?

Key quote here: “…minimising the window between the premiere and the global release date is a way of controlling and minimising discourse. If critics are not allowed to reveal even the most trivial details, they cannot engage with the material in any meaningful way.” #link

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Fantasy baseball is going well: Sean Manaea just got me a no-hitter to put me fifth in the MeFi league #aside

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I adore Killing Joke’s Fire Dances, even though all the lyrics are about fire, dancing, basic men, and walking towards things #aside

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My personality profile, according to IBM Watson

Jason Kottke let IBM’s Watson AI system profile his personality via his Twitter feed; the results were mixed, to say the least. I gave it a go with my own tweets (you can try it too, with tweets or a body of text) and here’s what Watson had to say about me, with my own comments appended.

You are skeptical, inner-directed and unconventional.

Generally speaking, yes. But the degrees of each vary, I’d say.

You are authority-challenging: you prefer to challenge authority and traditional values to help bring about positive changes. You are solemn: you are generally serious and do not joke much. And you are self-conscious: you are sensitive about what others might be thinking about you.

Yes, no, and yes. I might seem sour and grumpy on social media sometimes but I’m not so bad in person. I’m just an introvert is all. More…

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The motor just burnt out! -100 Health #aside

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I’ve fixed the lawnmower! +20 XP #aside

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Sure let's stoke that nationalistic fervour, eh? Not at all a distraction from more pressing contemporary matters, nosiree https://t.co/mlGrICPhuI #aside

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Oops, I just outed myself as a film critic who doesn’t actually enjoy going to the cinema all that much #aside

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