Paul Campbell

Memories of Glen Hansard paulca.com/blog/memorie...

Just in case you still use any Basecamp products, DHH is crashing out about his AI product gently pointing out that it’s bad for him to have extermination fantasies about the Roma people.

Deliciously, Anthropic’s AI was the off-ramp I needed for me to delete this fuckbag and any indirect association with him from my life. The moral obligation to suck the air of his blowhard moral-saviour soapbox theatre is now.

Ruby on Rails IS omakase, but YOU are the fish.

Like it did with the internet, Google is slowly enshittifying Dublin.

Rails is a self-help cult, created by a fascist who has engaged in 20 years of propaganda to control a bunch of smart people to work for him for free in order to enrich himself and his friends. Then I would start chanting: “if you can’t see the fish, you are the fish”.

Other thing I bought that I took a chance on as maybe frivolous: 100w power bank. Damn, it's come in to its own the last two days: yesterday out and about with the boys, and today in a café without access to power. Amazing to fast charge a MBP without needing a power socket.

The charger came with a high-watt capability cable, and I ordered 6 more. Fast charging here I come!

Got a bedside charger from Anker that has a little screen that shows the wattage draw. Well, it turns out I've been using cables that can't handle more than 12w to try to power a laptop from a 65w charger. What a mess!

It’s the summer holidays. For us that means 13 weeks of boys off school. They’re always relieved when it comes, but they’re always ready to go back… after three months off!

Tito as Gaeilge: blog.tito.io/posts/tito-a...

The most beautiful thing to me about e-biking is the weight:load ratio. A 30kg bike carries 3 humans totalling 150kg. 5 times its own weight. We'll routinely whizz by 1600kg Range Rovers, typically carrying one adult, 0.05 times their own weight. And it's not even like… https://paulca.com/posts/109

My e-biking plan today: - 3km with 2 boys - 12km with 1 boy - 8km with 1 boy - 10km with 2 boys - 4km solo - 5km with wife and 1 boy I packed the spare battery!

Got to see Madra Salach in a tiny venue in Dublin with about 70 others, and had the proud pleasure to be the ticket provider for the gig. I'll write a post on the Tito blog, but damn that was something special.

It just occurred to me that US and UK folks probably can't tell when an Irish actor is doing an American or British accent. Almost always, that _definitely_ doesn't work the other way. If you want an Irish accent in your production, the safest choice will always be an I… https://paulca.com/posts/106

The one thing I couldn't believe about "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" was that after casting an Irish actor and encouraging him to use his (real) Irish accent, they cast two kids for a flashback scene and had them do Oirish accents. There needs to be a forever rule in… https://paulca.com/posts/105

Finished "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" last night. I really enjoyed the book, and the graphic novel. I feel like people who make Game of Thrones stuff should simply never diverge from the books. The TV representations are at their best when they follow the books.

10yo took himself off for (decaf) coffee and pastry this morning. Sent me a picture of the table when he got there. Definitely my son.

Best thing about “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” so far: Irish actor speaking in Irish accent and it’s grand. No bother. I guess Liam Cunningham sort of did that in the original series?

If you want to support a more equitable society and believe better is possible, Kim Crayton is a great educator for white people who want to understand oppression and learn from it. You should subscribe: https://www.lifebeyondthesupremacymyth.com/welcome/

Went to pick up a part for my e-bike today in the shop I bought it in last year. They’ve clearly been selling a lot lately. There was a dad leaving with his brand new long-tail. It was a delight to see the energy and excitement.

I only made it to one day of Haggis Ruby: back today for a school play. Again excited to meet folks and chat. I had a moment on the plane on the way over where Ryanair double-booked my seat and put me in a middle seat. I was fully prepared to get off rather than middle-seat it!

Good to see the Irish Times promoting cargo bikes as car alternatives. I'm somewhat down on the "economic" motivation, because fuck that: there's so much else going on, but these things need all the promotion they can get. For sure people need cars, but I can believe tha… https://paulca.com/posts/98

I really enjoyed Smashing Conf in Amsterdam and had some particularly lovely conversations: mostly about neurodivergence, language-learning, and music. Very little tech! I guess that's a clue into the things I care more about lately.

One thing that repeatedly boggles my mind about travelling in European cities is that they're often strong examples of "we could never do that". People of all representations bike in Amsterdam (and the Netherlands) with no helmets, all shapes and sizes of people, totall… https://paulca.com/posts/96

Watched "I Swear" last week. We were going to only watch 20–30 minutes as we were tired, but the 2 hours went by with my heart exploding from my chest. It works so well as a gut-wrenching story, but also as an allegory for how prejudice can cause so much harm. If you're… https://paulca.com/posts/95

Often when I walk around Amsterdam, I get this feeling that I came here when I was 18 but never actually left.

Well, Hungary.

I have been very happily whizzing to-and-fro to Dublin city centre on my eBike every day this week, avoiding any issues with fuel prices or protests. Presumably if only a small percentage of drivers switched to cycling rather than driving, it would have as much of an eff… https://paulca.com/posts/92

An app's descent into shitness always seems to be accompanied by loading animations that trick the mind into thinking something is happening other than "app is getting shitter".

Apple Music promoted "Haydn" to me and I thought it was a new indie band to check out. 😬

It’s fascinating to me how Apple “Intelligence” somehow made Siri slower and worse at doing the only thing I consistently use it for: stating a timer. (I had it off before. Turned it on to try Live Translation, which I guess didn’t work the way I thought it would)

This cuts deep even now: https://youtu.be/n14lwdpYkAA?is=mK3IQKH2dn3zDdTM See also Madra Salach’s incredible cover in this live session: https://youtu.be/WzdsYgj8P04?is=zIKTqi7uTMKx6xp2

Who would be interested in an Irish-language tech meetup in Dublin? Talks in Irish or English, live-translated, and everyone making an effort to use a cupla focail?

I've had this thought rolling around my mind for a while: I'd rather 100,000 small companies with 6 employees than 6 companies with 100,000 employees. But it feels a bit pithy when I interrogate it internally, but it also presents in my mind as self-evidently _better_. … https://paulca.com/posts/86

I don't understand how most Dublin folks don't read this and immediately just replace most of their driving with a bike. https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2026/0324/1564952-dublin-commute/

Reflecting that I've done some of my best work while sitting somewhere random and always out-of-doors in London, either sipping or having sipped some wine.

My brother in the national news. Cool! https://www.rte.ie/news/health/2026/0318/1564017-brain-injuries-athletes-tcd-research/

Went into the rugby clubhouse and asked for "cupán tae, le do thoil", just to see what would happen. No blink, no question, I got a cup of tea. We don't use Irish because we don't use Irish. That's all. For many day to day thing, we could just as well, we just don't. I actually do believe that will…

I’m definitely getting some of the weird Nike brain shoes.

My bigger question is now: if I know this is getting cross-posted and people will see the posts, will I write more on here or will I feel disinclined to post more? Not sure it matters much. I just like that I can now do [posse](https://indieweb.org/POSSE) for the first time.

If I'm right about this, then from now on if I post on paulca.com, then it should also show up on @paulca.com on BlueSky, without my ever having to post on BlueSky. I'm hitting the "Post" button in 5,4,3,2,1...

Ah, fuck. www.breakfastandtravelupdates.com/blog/day-13-...