Opened my email to a rejection letter which not in and of itself unusual. But, it was a standard rejection to a piece I sent only a few weeks ago. And from a journal that I love that sent a lovely rejection last time, complimenting my work, and inviting me to submit again. This one stung a bit.

One of the tensions I'm dealing with as I think about my new website is that I want to prioritise readability but I don't necessarily want minimalism. I want good typography but I don't want something "Swiss." I want something light but also colourful.

A little update today. Sometimes we have to let things go.

I didn't anticipate This American Life would bring some of the best inside reporting on immigration issues in the US. But they got judges to speak about how the courts, rules, and processes are being changed.

"Billionaires and Millionaires" is such a meaningless phrase.

I hate to ask, but why is everyone talking about the rapture?

Going through old notes and I found a note that listed the best row and seat numbers for different cinema houses in Tokyo. I miss the way I lived in that city.

My first dentist appointment since before the pandemic. Technician was lovely. But, deep teeth cleaning was harrowing. I will spend the rest of the afternoon in a corner with a towel over my head.

Today's Japanese lesson was fun. Breezed a grammar point I struggled with a few weeks back. And was fluidly making sentences with some other points I learnt recently. A good night's sleep and no interruptions helped a lot!

This past week has been a hard one for me. I am thankful for the friends I can chat with via messages and video calls. But, I do miss the way socials, especially Twitter, used to help me feel less alone in times like this.

I'm not reading your thread. If what you've got to say is more than 100 words then get a blog. This isn't Twitter. Bluesky doesn't punish links. So you can do us all a favour and format your words in a readable way. I'm not even going to apologise at this point. It's 2025.

Bad Bunny live was every bit as amazing as I expected. So glad this show was broadcast live. A real cultural moment.

Nearly had a crash today. Driving along Port Road a car doing a U-turn suddenly pulled out and crossed two lanes. I was in the slow lane and had to brake hard, veer through the bicycle lane, and further into the area where cars are normally parked. They were totally out of control and then sped off.

The thing I don't get about the "Bluesky should be more like Reddit" argument is that Reddit is there. Why not use it instead? Reddit is less problematic than many of the alternatives. And what we don't have is a short form word-forward social option to replace what Twitter was.

Nearly two and a half years later. Most of the promise is still just that, a promise. And nothing has replaced what Twitter was. But, I'd prefer to be here than anywhere else.

I think it’s time to bring back This Week I Quit.

My mother passed away 3 years ago today. This is what I wrote on Twitter that day. "You taught me to love beauty, craft, literature, nature, and music. You reminded me to live simply even if I didn’t always listen. You gave me life and boundless love till the end. Gracias Mami."

I saw Downhill Racer for the first time a few weeks ago. It's a very good action film for the time it was made. And a fascinating story to this day. But the fact it won't be anywhere near the lists of films people compile to honour Robert Redford's passing says a lot about his outstanding career.

Among the dumb and outdated ideas that somehow still persist switching clocks twice a year is one of the dumbest and most outdated. The only real question, when we get rid of this ridiculousness, which time do we choose?

This camera is wild. Full frame Nikon Z mount. It weighs just over 500 grams. It looks like a simple point and shoot. But, it's also a RED 6K cinema camera at the same time. It can record 32-bit float audio. AND, it's only just over U$2k in price. www.nikonusa.com/p/zr/2006/ov...

In one way today's Japanese lesson went well. I was reading some longer texts and picking out some subtle nuances. But, I was also interrupted by two separate deliveries, and three phone calls related to my father's health and care issues. Ended the lesson 10 minutes early because I was fried.

The most racist people I've encountered, the ones who's racism actually hurt people by limiting their opportunities, denying them jobs, withholding support and funding, and generally undermining them socially, were always terribly polite and civil. Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.

Amanda Shires has a new album coming out. Talk about transforming your pain into something magical. I love when an artist can weave a world around their art.

I wrote this late last year and this feels like a good moment to reflect again the moment we are living through

Something I wrote in 2020 about the dangers of either/or thinking. Feels pertinent today.

More than two things can be true at the same time.

My PhD research was into wether people had a coherent worldview and ethic. I never managed to finish the PhD. But my years researching did lead me to conclude that people typically don't ever come close to a coherent worldview and the grid through which they interpret reality is a messy pastiche.

Ordering emergency supplies of Baudrillard and Foucault for the weekend.

Spent some time this afternoon listening to a 16th generation potter from Japan discuss their craft. They articulated 3 great pillars for creativity. 1. The characteristics of the craft must be present 2. Be mindful of the times we are living in 3. How does this current work speak to me physically?

The news that Fawn Hall married Oliver North makes me wonder – how big a news story would Iran-Contra be today? It was the biggest story of the year back when it happened. But would it just be something else that happened this week in our current news cycle?

I never wrote about Expats the TV show or the book it was based on. Mostly because the book rang hollow for me and the TV show, apart from one episode, felt off, and weird, and kind of wrong. But then I wonder if I'm just editing myself (and my experiences) out of the discourse?

How was my day? Well it's after 9.30pm and I'm just getting to tell about my Japanese lesson this morning! It was fun. The highlight of my day. I'm feeling motivated and enjoying the level of challenge. The mix of revision and new kanji and vocab feels right. Feeling more confident right now.

Spent a few minutes this morning thinking about what makes a city feel stressful. Charted out most of the cities I've lived in and three where I've spent a considerable amount of time in the past decade or so.

Historians will get the significance of the moment when Twitter subverted the verification system even if most internet users didn't see it at the time or worse still just laughed it off.

I used the word abundance a lot about 10-12 years ago and now I kind of regret it. Although in my defence I used it to signal the abundance of ways to learn, the abundance of available information, not in whatever weird authoritarian way it's being used today.

Losing Meanjin means a lot more than one literary journal closing down. It massively narrows the space for criticism, memoir, personal essay, and non-mainstream viewpoints within Australian culture. And it leaves us wondering whether hollowed out Australian universities can still support the arts.

I wrote this piece four years ago. It's a love letter to Ted Lasso. But also a manifesto for earnestness in popular culture. It's been a rough few years. But, I still believe in the liberating power of earnestness and sincerity. And I believe the culture of cynicism needs to end.

"they are part of a sophisticated and growing AI slop content ecosystem that is flooding YouTube, is drowning out human-made content created by real anthropologists and historians who spend weeks or months researching, fact-checking, scripting, recording, and editing their videos"

Google's AI Overview is so relentlessly bad. I did a search for the "the flip out rule" and it replied by saying The term "flip out rule" isn't a specific official rule but likely refers to the safety and conduct rules at a trampoline park called Flip Out Australia." And the links were all garbage.

Another one bites the dust. Nestlé follows BP, McDonalds, Intel, and various other companies in firing a CEO or senior executive for relationships that go against company policies and fiduciary responsibilities.

"Contemporary culture is largely empty, no longer producing works of value or merit." Yawn.

“if we reach old age, how do we continue to thrive?”

Australia has macroeconomic problems, a housing crisis, stagnant wages, and high levels of immigration. But none of this is new. What has changed is the mix of immigrants in recent years. A racist reflex in response to that pulled people onto the streets. It's happened before.

Attended my monthly writer's group meetup. My latest personal essay was up for discussion. Along with a couple of wonderful chapters from another writer. I'm finding critique, both giving and receiving it, hard at the moment. But it was wonderful session and great start to the day.

You know what I miss? Ping. It was like the social media equivalent of that Netflix show you and all your friends fall in love with only for it to get cancelled after one season.

An easy way to upgrade your diet is using better ingredients. Buy better vegetables and you’ll make a tastier and more nutritious salad. It’s the same with information. For example instead of reading the Wikipedia entry for Nationalism read the one from the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

New writing on how to approach growing old.

I’m always fascinated by people who spend a huge amount of money to buy a house with a beautiful garden and the first thing they do is rip out all the plants. All of them.

Crowd: It's finally over Narrator: It wasn't over

Halsey is going on tour to mark the ten year anniversary of Badlands. And my first thought it wow, has it really been ten years already since that album came out?!? Such a good moment. Can't we get in a time machine and travel back to 2015?