found two signed books by local authors in charity shop in recent days. total spent: €3 if you're in a charity/thrift shop and you see a book by a local author, just glance inside you never know!

me, wondering how to pronounce "Routledge"...

It certainly appears the United States murdered an innocent fisherman who was a husband and father to four children, claimed he was a "narco-terrorist," posted a video of the execution, and then made jokes about it

some photos I took today at Hollywood Lake, Monaghan. 1. contemplating the horizon. White wagtail? 2. blep! Snow goose? 3. I will end you. same snow goose. 4. Canada goose far from home

when someone says "that bullet had my name on it", they mean the bullet was aimed at them. so if a bullet says "anti-ICE", then it is to be shot at soneone that is anti-ICE, right? and if the only people that got shot were ICE detainees, it seems to me that this is on purpose...

I do like finding mad books. was almost certain I already had Chariots Of The Gods, but when I went looking for it recently, it wasn't on my "crazy shelf". unfortunately it's a late edition, but beggars can't be choosers! I'll find a better one eventually. only 1eu to buy!

bought a new camera (Canon EOS R7) to upgrade from my 2000D. wanted new lenses, and quieter body (squirrels and birds spook easy!) quick test from my kitchen window, showing 4 photos - my phone, phone zoomed, 2000D, R7. no processing other than cropping and resizing so all are the same height.

watched The Running Man yesterday fir the first time, and it's amazing how many dystopian 70s/80s films got it right... morern politics involves blatantly lying about what is happening, while cherrypicking moments to paint a good person bad. in a way it even predicted AI video fakes.

in programming there is a thing called Rubber Ducky Programming. get a rubber duck and place it on your desk. when you're stuck, talk the problem out with the duck, and Lo, the Duck Provides! ... my co-workers don't like it when I call them my little duckies

The United States has had senators outright say free education/Healthcare would drop their military enlistment numbers. That is why. Keeping people poor and desperate keeps their ranks full. The rot is at the top.

replacing the cloth binding of a 130-year old half-bound book using a 130-year old William Morris design fabric. works much better than I expected!

me: mute and "show less of these" every time I see a post from accounts that only ever post hand-drawn furries and never actually say anything interesting. bluesky: I see you have interacted with that. I guess that means you want to see more furries! here; have some photos of naked men as well.

sticking a victorian chair onto an office chair base didn't work. it kept swiveling and touching the base legs. over time that would weaken the chair. so... took the wheels from that base and stuck them on a little pentangle. now I just need to add the sigils and the fire and the spooky smoke.

had to go to Newry to pick up a laptop for the youngest, who is heading off to college next week. so... I bought some books

bought a first edition Necroscope by Brian Lumley on Amazon. first image. note the cover, and the date. what turned up in the post today? not a first edition... see second image refunded immediately when I complained. so now I have two copies of the standard mass-printed edition. meh.

About this Florida vaccine story: When they were little - 1 yr and 3 1/2 - my two older boys, who’d had all their shots, got whooping cough. We asked their pediatrician what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been vaccinated. “Oh, they’d have died.”

We just heard multiple women speak publicly about being RAPED starting at the age of FOURTEEN and our President was brought up multiple times. Women then said they were scared to name people as FIGHTER JETS flew directly over them Same President then called it a hoax just minutes later 🚩 🚩 🚩

ran out of non-dairy spread for my soup's breadrolls so I used this stuff instead. note to self: don't do that again. my fingers are tingling and I was seeing stars for a while.

Here's a reminder of how Mary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein REALLY ended... ⚡️ #frankenstein

achievement unlocked: chair upholstery replaced the worn out green leather with some William Morris fabric, and the spring cushioning with some fluffy stuff instead. successfully reglued a totally shattered crossbeam as well. ...yes, that is a yoga mat on top of the webbing.

today's project started out as me wanting to simply replace the springs in a chair with some new cushioning. but I notice some cracks in the woodwork etc and got itchy so now I'm in Dundalk buying William Morris fabric to completely reupholster it. d'oh!

my youngest just got college offers. since all the choices were remote (Galway, Belfast, AnywhereButHere), that means I get to pay rent again for the next 3-4 years. yay? but that's okay. better that I pay the rent myself so more time can be put into studying. they can pay their own way later.

need a new chair for my work desk, so I bought a nice old one to restore. but I need to raise it up a bit because I accidentally made my work desk too high so... I think I'll cannibalise the lifting mechanism (and wheeler base) from this other chair that my eldest has utterly destroyed somehow.

F*ck‼️ Fort Bliss Army base used for a WWII Japanese internment is now the nation's largest ICE detention center.

went out to watch The Neverending Story in the cinema so ...uh... I bought some books?

went to gym after work. but then I started taking the remaining paint and varnish off this thing and *really* sweated. have to go feed cats now. will continue tomorrow maybe!

July 4th 2026 will be the 250th birthday of the USA. I wonder if it will survive long enough to celebrate it? California has the 4th largest economy in the world and its name itself sounds like a good country name...

bought a chair from someone and they asked me if I also wanted a coffee table for free? so... now restoring a walnut burl coffee table with simple marquetry

"tell them Wednesday Addams is here. that's two D's. like Padded Room" looks like Wednesday Addams can't count...

Ash playing Whiskey In The Jar with Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy, and Dan Hawkins of The Darkness youtu.be/mQLxhEhXE8c

made a bigger desk so I can handle bigger projects images: old desk, new desk, current project before, current project after a little bit of cleaning

hopefully this will eventually be how it's done... if someone *wants* power, they should not be allowed near it. only qualified people that *don't want the job* should be allowed to have power. from Imperial Earth by Arthur C Clarke

trying to write some code to integrate with Sage 50. the latest documentation that I can find is dated 2017. all the developer forums are closed to visitors, and they appear to be ignoring requests from new registrants. I wonder why I'm paying them for "access" to this stuff?

working on Sage 50 integration with PHP on a Windows machine, and OMG it's so very tedious to do the smallest things...

The subtitles on the movie actually tried to transcribe Cocteau Twins lyrics and I am dying this is amazing (shaky cam work because @avantdumb.bsky.social and I kept full-body laughing)

every year I fill in an R&D grant application for inventions I created over the previous years for my work, putting "30 years of experience" in the "Highest Qualification" field. this year I get to use "MSc Advanced Software Engineering". it's not an upgrade, but it definitely feels more solid.

today's finds. almost-complete set of Charles Dickens (and some others). missing Martin Chuzzlewit and Nicholas Nickelby. it was also missing Hard Times and Sketches By Boz but it turns out I already had those in that same edition!

got 2nd-hand praise for my software last week, and as a programmer and CTO who spends all day solving problems to the point that it's sometimes a bit depressing, it's a great reminder that what I work on are EXTREMELY RARE issues, and most people don't see any issues at all!

ebay now asks for proof of age when you buy something with a blade, which I found out while buying some antique scissors. two problems: 1. it does not actually provide a *way* to prove the age. just demands proof in some mysterious unstated wat. 2. my ebay account was created in the 90s...

"Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared." ~ Anne Frank's diary

just spotted that I have two copies of this book, but also realised I haven't read it. let's get that fixed! the hardback is a 1st edition. paperback is also 1st edition but 2nd printing. let's call it the "stunt double".

What form of sociopathy required them to need a court order to stop doing this?

what a nice day. bought 6 books for €4 in a local Vincents (charity shop) this one is a signed 1st edition, hardback, of Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. unfortunately a 3rd printing, but can't have everything!

ran out of angle iron. I'm about 70% done on the vertical pieces. still need to do the corners near the doorframe, and a few of the bars still need to be doubled up (to hold windows on both sides). I suppose it's time to talk to a glazier

where there's a will, there's a way. managed to raise the roof of my shed myself using just 4 pieces of wood and some rope. tomorrow I'll finish adding the rest of the frame pieces that I've precut. end corners riveted in place temporarily and tied square. will weld tomorrow.

roof welded. I just need to lift it into place and then weld the wall frame in. why didn't I do the walls first and then build the roof on top? because I have neighbours that value their eyesight, so welding the roof in-place was not an option. next step: figure a way to lift it up...