iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 10/07/2026

Last Orders - Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren and Ray Winstone, and not a single one of them is a gangster, a spy, or an assassin.

Film poster for the 2001 movie “Last Orders”, showing Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine, Helen Mirren & Ray Winstone mid-singsong in a pub.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 23/05/2026

It’s that time of the year, where we’re supposed to grow out the old sunscreen, which means it’s _also_ time for our regular shrinkflation reminder. Same product, same price, just separated by time.

A photo showing two sunscreen sprays, side by side in the sun, in front of a brick background. The one on the left, from 2026, is 150ml. The one on the right is 200ml.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 24/04/2026

Whitehall is being forced into Artane as it's pressed from the West and South by Glasnevin and Drumcondra...

A map view of 3 Dublin neighbourhoods taken from https://neighbourhoods.civictech.ie/explore
A massive yellow block on the left of the image represents Glasnevin. It overlaps a magenta block on the bottom of the image, representing Drumcondra. Both the yellow and magenta blocks are overlapping a blue area towards the top of the image, which is much smaller and represents Whitehall.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 16/04/2026

...and I dub this feed "forbidden"

Image of the Bluesky Following feed, with a red banner saying "Forbidden". The feed is empty, which is just an all round bad vibe.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 07/02/2026

Now I’ve got a mental image of this, with the caption “Gaze into the files of Jeff”. I may be a little bit broken.

A panel featuring Judge Dredd slamming his fist through the helmet of Judge Fear, from the British SF anthology comic 2000AD. The main caption reads “Faze into the fist of Dredd!”. It’s a pretty iconic image, honestly.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 24/01/2026

Oh man, it's a fun rabbit hole - because it's been going so long, it follows the trends in UK culture in a weird, slightly delayed way. This is the UK Dennis, and he wore that jumper way before Cobain did 😀

A cartoon image showing a boy with spiky black hair, wearing a red and black striped jumper, with his arm around a dog who also has black spiky hair. Both parties have big grins. They are Dennis The Menace and Gnasher, who appeared in the UK comic The Beano.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 11/12/2025

Tell you what, though, the colours were great this morning.

Picture of clouds through a thorn bush.

The clouds are all pink, against some patches of (pinkish) blue. The thorn bush, at the bottom third of the image, is mostly in silhouette, with individual branches reaching up to and standing out against the sky.

Taken in Dublin, Ireland, at around 8am on the 11th of December 2025.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 25/10/2025

Here’s what the 1994 reprint looks like - not sure if that counts as old, because it’s basically last … oh no.

Photo of a page from an old paperback version of Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood Volunes 1-3”. Black text on a cream-coloured page, reading:

“After a day, birds came, foxes came, flies, butterflies, wasps came. Judd moved, Judd shifted, Judd gave birth. In his belly maggots warmed themselves, in a vixen’s den the good flesh of his thigh was fought over. After that, it was quick. The bones yellowing, the bones crumbling: soon, an empty space which he had once filled with thoughts and opinions.

Darkness, light, darkness, light. He interrupted neither with his name.”

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 23/10/2025

My real worry is this bit. Probably because I was burned by the citizenship referendum.

Snippet from https://medium.com/@ben_fraser/a-presidential-show-72780b10fb9c, which reads "It may be that this strategy will pay off. Maybe their efforts to make us ignore what we know and deny what we see will succeed. Maybe I’m the one in the bubble and the real Ireland is loving the show."

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 28/09/2025

I had an - even then - old hardback of “Tell Me Why”. It was awesome, but got lost somewhere along the way. One book that survived is this Children’s World Atlas, which doubles as a history book now 😛

Picture of A First Puffin Children’s World Atlas, by Jacqueline Tivers and Michael Day. It’s from 1980, and includes sections on Western & Eastern Europe. Many countries described no longer exist.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 16/09/2025

I feel like the small print should be a bit bigger in www.climatecouncil.ie/councilpubli...

Text snippet from the Climate Change Advisory Council's "Transport Sectoral Review: Annual Review 2024" which reads "a Emissions for the Transport sector do not include international aviation or navigation."

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 04/09/2025

Daniel Craig, best known for starring in the mid-90s comedy ‘Drop The Dead Donkey’.

Picture of a disheveled man (George, played by Jeff Rawle) menacing a younger, rougher man (Fixx, played by Daniel Craig), with a toasting fork.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 02/09/2025

Blondshell was a great reason to go back to The Button Factory after I don’t know how long. Epic show, and finishing with Salad was 😍

Picture of a band playing in front of an audience. The band is Blondshell, and consists of 2 guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a singer. Their name is projected on the back of the stage. The singer is a blond woman, and she is the main focus of the shot. The bottom third of the shot is the audience: trust me when I say they’re having a great time.

The picture was taken in The Button Factory in Dublin, Ireland, on Sep 2nd 2025.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 29/08/2025

George Orwell said this in 1937, in The Road To Wigan Pier. (en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Roa...)

An extract from "The road To Wigan Pier" by George Orwell, from 1937:

"I found — one might expect it, perhaps — that the small landlords are usually the worst. It goes against the grain to say this, but one can see why it should be so. Ideally, the worst type of slum landlord is a fat wicked man, preferably a bishop, who is drawing an immense income from extortionate rents. Actually, it is a poor old woman who has invested her life's savings in three slum houses, inhabits one of them and tries to live on the rent of the other two — never, in consequence, having any money for repairs."

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 07/08/2025

Coincidental, yet mutually reinforcing, juxtaposition in my timeline.

Screen shot of two BlueSky posts that appeared together in a feed. The top one says (summarised) "Stop using generative AI for anything that might kill you". The second one makes the point that ganAI would totally trigger a nuclear war, unlike Stanislav Petrov in 1983, above a quoted post that says (paraphrased) "Nuclear war experts are certain AI will be in the loop soon, but no-one knows what that means"

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 03/07/2025

If you see this, quote with a robot that isn’t from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Dr. Who,” or “Transformers.”

A picture of MekQuake, a robot tank, from 2000AD. They're crushing an unidentified humanoid under a tank tread, while saying "Big jobs! Big jobs!"

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 11/06/2025

I'm constantly reminded of the description of computer programming by Douglas Adam, but these days, the bit about short supply rings especially prophetic. The key difference is, people can learn.

An extract from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, which details a conversation between a bunch of mainly academics, and a visiting computer programmer. It reads:
---
“Well, what we called a computer in 1977 was really a kind of electric abacus, but . . .”
“Oh, now, don’t underestimate the abacus,” said Reg. “In skilled hands it’s a very sophisticated calculating device. Furthermore it requires no power, can be made with any materials you have to hand, and never goes bing in the middle of an important piece of work.”
“So an electric one would be particularly pointless,” said Richard.
“True enough,” conceded Reg.
“There really wasn’t a lot this machine could do that you couldn’t do yourself in half the time with a lot less trouble,” said Richard, “but it was, on the other hand, very good at being a slow and dim-witted pupil.”
Reg looked at him quizzically.
“I had no idea they were supposed to be in short supply,” he said. “I could hit a dozen with a bread roll from where I’m sitting.”
“I’m sure. But look at it this way. What really is the point of trying to teach anything to anybody?”
This question seemed to provoke a murmur of sympathetic approval from up and down the table.
Richard continued, “What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your own mind. And that’s really the essence of programming. By the time you’ve sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you’ve certainly learned something about it yourself. The teacher usually learns more than the pupil. Isn’t that true?”
“It would be hard to learn much less than my pupils,” came a low growl from somewhere on the table, “without undergoing a prefrontal lobotomy.”

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 18/05/2025

Seems like a bit of a gap to not mention why they're called wrench attacks, specifically: xkcd.com/538/

Screenshot from WSJ article from May 17th 2025, which shows the text "The assaults are often called “wrench attacks” because they rely on simple tools for inflicting pain to coerce victims, rather than sophisticated tools for hacking them."

The article title was "Severed Fingers and ‘Wrench Attacks’ Rattle the Crypto Elite"

Wrench attacks were made famous by XKCD, in a comic called "Security" from Feb 2nd 2009.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 10/05/2025

Getdown Services are coming back to Dublin in November, and based on last night’s show, you’ll really want to be there. What a blast!

Josh Law (left) and Ben Sadler (right) who make up the band Getdown Services, in full flight at The Workman’s in Dublin on May 9th 2025. Josh is topless, moustachioed, and playing a guitar. Ben also has a moustache, and slightly longer hair, a black short-sleeved shirt, and is pushing a mic stand forward. The stage lighting in red and blue.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 05/04/2025

@jonrosenberg.bsky.social And so the torch, I mean tee, is passed to a new generation 😉

Picture of a teenage boy wearing a tee shirt that must be over 20 years old. It is maroon, with a lemon on the front saying “my universe is pain and emptiness”. This is a Goats tee.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 18/03/2025

Over on RTE, the mean streets of Cork are about to find out there are only two ways things can go: the easy way, or his way. BOOLE

Colourised illustration of George Boole, taken from the The Illustrated London News of 21 January 1865 (if Wikipedia can be believed). Is shows a white man with a high forehead, stern features, and magnificent sideburns.His expression is a cross between a 1000 yard stare and disbelief that he has to deal with this shit again, whatever shit it is that is in front of him.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 12/03/2025

Posting this without comment, mainly because what can you say?

Photo of a Georgian door in Dublin, Ireland. The door says it’s number 30. The fanlight has 30 on it. A modern sign beside the door says Number 31. They can’t all be right, right? I think they’re just messing with the postal service (which never works out well for the messer).

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 27/02/2025

Walking into the sunrise on a crisp spring morning, with Papa Was A Rodeo playing - even if this is as good as the day gets, it’s pretty great.

An urban shot of a tree that has grown up and split around some overhead power lines. The sun is visible on the right of the shot, and house roofs are silhouetted on the bottom.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 20/02/2025

This isn't specifically car friendly (as it's public transport only), but it's definitely pedestrian 𝘶𝘯friendly.

A picture of the pedestrian crossing at the bottom of Dawson St, Dublin, Ireland - a country that, you know, gets a lot of rain - taken just after a rain shower. The road is completely flooded, meaning that pedestrian who wanted to cross would need to wade through water. A red pedestrian light is visible, and there are about 17 people visible in shot, none of whom are the focus of the picture. Unsurprisingly, none are trying to ford the road either.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 24/01/2025

If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery. #Bikesky

A view of Niagara Falls, looking north to the Rainbow Bridge. There is an actual rainbow in the centre of the picture, looking like it ends on a tourist boat in the river below.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 19/12/2024

On seeing this sculpture of a severed head, our eldest asked if it was Alfredo Garcia. We may have fallen down a bit on their classical education.

Sculpture of a severed head on a plate - more than likely John The Baptist.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 22/11/2024

I’m slightly worried that I’ve found a Prophetic Vending Machine, and it’s talking about the Irish general election 😬

Photo of a handwritten sign on a vending machine that says “no change administered”.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 22/11/2024

I’ve definitely leaned on his definition of programming from the same book quite a lot 🙂 It’s a great book, but I wouldn’t read it for the plot.

Quote from Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, that reads: “What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your own mind. And the more slow and dim-witted your pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that’s really the essence of programming. By the time you’ve sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you’ve certainly learned something about it yourself.”

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 10/11/2024

If you see this, post a concert photo you took. TMBG, just last night.

On the left of the picture, John Linnell of They Might Be Giants plays keyboards. Centered in the shot, the lighting makes it look like a shadow man with a light for a head is also playing keyboards. Taken at Vicar Street in Dublin on Nov 9th 2024.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 08/11/2024

I was quite probably the oldest person in the room, but what a great room to be in: Upsahl gave an excellent show!

A woman standing in front of a neon sign of a blue ice cube with red flames on it. She is wearing a shiny red top, and has her right arm reaching up as her left hand holds a microphone to her face. She is mid-song, with her eyes closed. She is the American artist Upsahl, on her Melt Me Down tour.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 28/10/2024

If you see this, post a picture featuring a lake #photography (inspired by @kithrup.bsky.social)

View of the Toronto skyline on a cloudless day in September 2017, as seen from Lake Ontario. The nose of a yellow kayak is visible in the bottom of the shot, and there's a duck floating in front of it. The CN Tower is centred in the top of the shot.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 27/10/2024

@aptshadow.bsky.social Thought you might appreciate this: managed to luck into a loop where I could spend 1 health to do 6 damage. Playing The Silent like an Ironclad felt pretty odd 😛

Screenshot of Slay The Spire, showing The Silent character facing off against The Champ. An unremovable curse is in hand, and a Blue Candle relic is in play. The Champ is afflicted with two Choke effects. Taken together, this means that the curse can be removed at the cost of 1 health, doing 6 damage to The Champ, and then it returns to hand. The character has 28 health remaining, and the boss has 121.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 26/10/2024

Feels like The Cranberries' debut album is the unofficial motto of most places 😉

Cover of the 1993 debut album from The Cranberries, titled "Everyone Else Is Doing Is, So Why Can't We?". It shows 4 white people - 3 men and a woman - sitting on a sofa or on the ground in front of it, while moodily lit.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 17/10/2024

Butter & Baileys sounds like a spin off 🙂

Title card from the cartoon Apple & Onion, showing anthropomorphised versions of an apple and an onion touching fingers together.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 12/10/2024

Well, the cobwebs are most definitely gone, after a windy walk at The Giant’s Causeway.

A picture of a churning white-foamed sea, above hexagonal rocks at The Giant’s Causeway, all below a cloudy blue sky.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 11/09/2024

It was my birthday today, and I got a most excellent present. Thanks @tomgauld.bsky.social, and thanks to the most excellent present giver!

A picture of a Tom Gauld drawing. It has 3 panels, the first panel showing a dad coming into their child’s bedroom, saying to them “Ok, buddy. Time to stop reading.”, and getting the reply “Why?” from under the covers. The next panel is a house exterior, with speech bubbles from the dad saying “We all like spending time in a fantasy world, but we need to go to sleep so that tomorrow we can go out and confront all the challenges that the real world will throw at us.” and their child’s response saying “Tomorrow sounds a lot less fun than staying up late and reading a book.” The final panel shows the dad joining their child under the covers, both reading their own books by torchlight.

And if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to go to bed and read too.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 11/09/2024

On the one hand, yes it was leaking and now it’s not. On the other hand, I’m not sure if “smother it in tarmac” qualifies as a repair 😑

A picture of a footpath in Dublin. It’s a sunny day, but at the top of the picture you can see a patch of mud, which came from a persistent leak. The source of that leak is at the bottom to the picture, where a small inspection hatch has been surrounded by tarmac, to the extent that it probably can’t be opened again. Also, the footpath is brick, not tarmac.

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Mike McHugh @jymian.eurosky.social · 26/08/2024

I watched Atomic Blonde on Prime last night, and at the very start, they had an FBI anti-piracy warning. Hadn't seen one in years, and it really helped the late-80s vibe the movie was going for.