Drew Shiel

Friendly reminder that you don't always need to bring quiet people "out of themselves" or try to get them to "loosen up" at social gatherings, some of us are just naturally a bit more reserved and introverted and silently plotting the downfall of our enemies and that's okay 💖

Sorry I'm not more open-minded about LLMs, it's just some fucking maniacs shoveled out a bunch of useless bloatware featuring that technology, did not give me any chance to opt out, reorganized the entire economy around it, zeroed out gains made by green energy, and made it impossible to buy RAM

Oh, my pals. It's been six year after the pandemic kicked off and we all learned to meet and present online. For the sake of your hearing impaired, auditory processing impaired, and your neurospicy audience, PLEASE PLEASE wear headsets including good quality mics to avoid the awful tinnyness.

"What do you want to accomplish with that?"

We got necessary shopping done early, and I am resolved not to set foot outside the house for the rest of the day. Not for any danger here in sheltered Maynooth, but because it's just plain NASTY out there.

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Commonplace Vol. 7 Issue 1 Recent adventures in food, and how there's always more to look into.

The year's first issue of Commonplace is now out. Read about smoking meat and baking scones. commonplacebook.beehiiv.com/p/commonplac...

Gentle Decline 2/43: Progress & Persistence Small things you can do to prepare for a changing world, and places you should get away from.

The first issue of 2026 is out in the wild.

gentledecline.beehiiv.com/p/gentle-dec...

drewshiel.ie

and

www.linkedin.com/in/drewshiel/

I'm chasing for work. What I do: Technical Marketing. Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn ads; from setup to making the things WORK. Search Engine Optimisation. Email marketing. Social media. Website traffic analysis and optimisation. And fixing things that aren't going right. Drop me a line!

Let's talk about generative AI, contaminated information, and rhubarb.

Once upon a time, Europe was at war.

Food was scarce, and the government of the quote-unquote United Kingdom looked for alternatives. 1/

Things stepping up.

ICCL and Digital Rights Ireland have written to the Garda Commissioner calling for an urgent investigation of X.

Artist Has Been Drawing a Dense, Evolving Architectural World for Eight Years “References to the work of Giger and the films Interstellar and The Fifth Element have nourished the construction of these labyrinthine works.”

This is magnificent: mymodernmet.com/margritt-fut...

A Christmas Playlist, Of A Kind Appropriate For These Times.

open.qobuz.com/playlist/502...

(I got what was basically an autoreply acknowledging receipt.)

An image of an email addressed to jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie, with the subject line "Comments on High Asylum Seeker Numbers and Social Cohesion". It reads: "Dear Minister O'Callaghan; I'd like to think that I can trust the ministers of this state to not spout racist rhetoric. Your comments on "social cohesion" have crossed this line, and so I'm writing to let you know that this is not representative of me, of the Irish people, or indeed of anyone with any decency. Please, get a grip on the reality the rest of us live in, retract these harmful and offensive statements, and generally do better. Le meas, Drew"

I don't really expect this eejit to listen to me, but maybe if enough people shout at him, he might think better and slink back into the doghouse he should be occupying.

We will have about 13,000 in 2025. About half will be allowed stay. I don't think 6,500 extra people in a population of 5 million is a threat to "social cohesion". Not being able to afford a home or to see a doctor or not having to wait 3 years for my kid's needs to be assessed is.

I genuinely thought fox hunting was illegal here already. It isn't, and it REALLY should be. Petition here: my.uplift.ie/petitions/pe...

I've used Shopify before, but it won't suit for this, because it has a relatively hefty monthly subscription cost (~$40) before you sell anything, and it does something funky whereby some purchases (not all) need the seller to pay for the Printify costs before the payment comes through.

I'm looking for an ecommerce platform. I have two requirements.

1 - it should integrate with Printify.

2 - it should not have a monthly subscription, and should be able to take the platform fees direct from the purchase.

If you know of one, shout, and please repost this so I get wider reach. :)

Today brings Novel WIP #1 to 31560 words, and it looks like the current chapter is flowing fairly cleanly. I have a whole chunk in mind that would serve as character development, setting description, and other good stuff, but not advance the plot any, so need to decide whether to write it or not.

Entirely reasonable. How are you finding Plausible? As someone who does analytics for a living, I'm interested in other options, because GA4 really ain't what it used to be.

If you have Google Analytics installed, it should be a little better able to tell you where real people visiting the site are located. It's not perfect - and GA4 is a definite downgrade from the previous version - but it does a lot to filter bot traffic out from the stats you see.

Autumn has arrived, and with it my ability to actually get some fiction writing done. Novel WIP #1 now stands at 31245 words, and I'm pretty glad I got that bit unblocked in the spring, because it'd be a hell of a thing to come back to.

It takes a strange sort of worldview to watch the Irish public elect a socialist, with the largest mandate in the history of the state, and conclude that what they really want is a tougher line on immigration.

Bad enough the Gardaí gave free run to the far right for years.

Bad enough arson against immigrant centres became standard practice for racists.

Bad enough we've already had race riots.

The Taoiseach & Táinaiste poured petrol on all the above during the week, & we shouldn't be shy in saying it.

I do try to keep my anarchist urges in check. But Simon fucking Harris getting up on his hind legs to say migration numbers are too high is the kind of thing that makes me go digging for the handbook.

Fucking gowl.

State called on to 'immediately cease all plans' to buy hill land The INHFA has called on the state to 'immediately cease all plans associated with the purchase of hill lands'.

I would love for the agriculture industry in this country to write or even opine something that was not transparent bullshit.

"the absence of farming activity from our national parks "has undermined habitat conservation leading to biodiversity loss"."

www.agriland.ie/farming-news...

Gibberish.

The Crime of Human Virtue Sometimes it really is as simple as good vs. evil. This is one of those times. Human virtue is our great crime against the fascist project; it's also our great weapon against it.

"To be a Republican in 2025 represents a clear public confession that you either don't know the difference between good and evil and you're so morally empty that you can't be bothered to begin to try, or that you do know the difference, and you prefer evil." Great essay from @juliusgoat.bsky.social

The rate at which the Irish Times and the Irish Independent are publishing smear material on Catherine Connolly is having two effects: I trust both papers EVEN LESS than I already did, and I'm very definitely voting for her.