I love being back in Tokyo. Even if it’s only fir a few precious days.

There should be a limit for how much a hotel can charge for a room that doesn’t include notepads and a shoehorn.

A few weeks ago I wrote my goodbye to podcasts. I wasn't successful. But I kept the door open to trying again for a long time. Now this essay puts it in a sharper and more revealing focus. It's very America-centric of course. As if podcasts don't exist anywhere else. But still well worth reading.

At the start of the year one of my writer friends suggested putting 5 dollars in a jar for every essay rejection. I guess it encourages celebrating the act of putting your work out there. Or something. I joked it would be a good savings plan for a new guitar. Well it's November. Shopping soon...

Saw a meme about Gen X dads and their young kids being obnoxious while celebrating Halloween. But I'm wonder if the dads with young kids are more likely to be Millennials these days?

The older I get the more important it is to draw timelines and interrogate memory. It's so easy get messed up about the dates and sequence of events. We can draw false conclusions. Imagine causation and blame when it isn't there. Even wholly misunderstand seasons of our life.

It's been a long time since a Mac OS has felt as frustrating and productivity destroying as Tahoe. There's added friction to in every aspect of writing in every application. Nothing that involves any kind of autocorrect or autofill seems to work. The OS just constantly gets in the way.

I've pretty much dropped the idea of monthly as a cadence in my life. Daily always makes sense. Weekly as well. Quarterly matches the seasons and the routines of home maintenance. But monthly just feels too often for some things or not often enough for others.

Today's Japanese lesson was OK. Still feeling exhausted and kind of emotionally numb after the Saturday event. But I managed to stay focused during the lesson. Only made a few more mistakes than normal. Remembered some kanji I had forgot to practice. Overall a fun experience.

Attended a publishing pitch event yesterday organised by Writers SA. Pitched my memoir to four times to different commissioning editors. Also heard 26 pitches by other writers. Was a great experience. But my goodness I feel weary today. Justing sipping coffee and listening to the thunder and rain.

Bluesky users - here's a bunch of features we miss from Twitter Bluesky developers - here's all the ways we're making Bluesky more like Reddit

First attempt at making sourdough crumpets. The texture wasn't quite right. I had some bubbles. The crumb was halfway between a crumpet and a muffin. But oh my goodness they tasted good. So good.

I forgot that if you buy a house in Australia you don't get the washing machine or refrigerator included.

Why are Australian universities cutting so many courses and firing academics when education is one of Australia's most successful exports? And also at a time when Australian universities have a competitive advantage as a destination for international students?

This is such a great year for new music. The new song from Rosalía is just another example of the creativity in popular music right now.

Did you ever have a teacher at school who said something intentionally hurtful to you? My grade 10 English teacher saw me checking out a book of poetry from the library and said "don't bother, you'll never be able to understand it." I always assumed experiences like that were normal. Are they?

Australia has decided to keep its copyright protections in place and politely tell AI companies they are free to go out of business if their plans require ongoing theft of intellectual property for their survival. But this battle is far from over. We will end up having to fight this again.

I almost like that you can play YouTube videos inside Bluesky posts. But unfortunately they play with ads. So I still end up hitting the link to open them in YouTube.

I'm basically done with 2025. My entire focus is on wrapping up the year. Sending out the work I've done. Archiving the things that aren't finished. Greeting January 1st with inbox zero, empty watchlists, and less than half as many names in my contacts list.

Mid-morning I pivoted to my Japanese lesson and it was fun again. I was slow at first. I love my tutor's patience with my reading on days like this. But I was able to apply new grammar points correctly and remembered new kanji from last week.

My dad started with a zoom call joining the group of writers I've met with every month for more than a year now. Being part of this group has been a rich and generative experience for me. I've been doing creative stuff since my teens. But I've never had a supportive group like this.

It feels like everyone I know is levelling up right now. Taking courses, adding skills, addressing their health, getting ready for the future.

RIP Phyllis Trible. As a young theological student my mind was opened by encountering Trible's books and the feminist theologians she inspired. Trible was hugely influential in the world of modern theology although little known in churches and mainstream coverage of religion.

My life got instantly better and more fun the day I decided to stop listening to life advice from men who can't cook their own meals from scratch and don't door indoor daily chores around the house.

I always say every year is the best year for music. But, my goodness 2025 has been an amazing year. So very many great albums. I don't mean good. I mean great. Listening to tracks from the new album by Portugal. The Man and I love what I'm hearing. Another one to add to the list.

Today's Japanese lesson (postponed from Monday) was very different to any recent lessons. I was problem solving grammar in real time. Relaxed while reading. Trusting my guesses, which were more often right or very close to right. And incorporating recently learnt grammar with ease.

"In high school, we had creative writing assignments. Ms Caldwell, my Grade 8 English teacher, encouraged us to explore other formats for our ideas. For the first big assignment, I hand-bound a little sci-fi novella... ...For the second assignment, I handed in a cassette with a radio play."

Second session of Acupuncture. I'm still not sure what to make of the experience. But it definitely does something for me.

New blogpost today, about podcasting, creating with audio, and the problem of holding onto dreams for too long.

Which would you welcome less - talking to an ex-friend, or an ex-romatic partner. I saw this question a while ago. It's been bouncing around my head. I feel like talking to an ex-friend is harder. Romances sometimes end with no betrayal. But friendships that end often involve some breach of faith.

I tried to type in scratched and autocorrect changed it to abuse-cars.

No Japanese lesson today. My tutor sent a message yesterday saying she was sick. So I got a bonus morning to write. Finished a blogpost. And did some rewriting for two short creative pieces I hope to send out soon for consideration.

Starting to think about my yearly theme for 2026. My theme for 2025 was "Golden." It was a useful guide for the first half of the year. To help appreciate special moments. But gold, like so many things, acquired weird political associations during the year.

There’s a dog fight in the skies above my garden. A minor bird is chasing a butterfly. Both animals sport yellow colours in their display. But they are clearly are not on the same side. I cheer for the surprisingly agile butterfly. Until its demise.

There are three crows on my roof inspecting the cooling system. One is looking very closely. Another is following the chief inspector. The third is hanging off to the side. Bored or scanning the horizon? I can’t tell. The chief inspector flies off. The other two follow.

Had an odd moment in a zoom-based writing workshop today. There was a speaker and a moderator. And all questions were posted in the chat and the moderator read them out. In the Q&A my question was skipped. Twice the moderator asked for more Qs. There was time left so they finally asked my question.

This idea came to me in a dream. I woke up one night with my head full of the image of being in the writing cabin translating my words from Spanish to English and being surprised by the results.

I updated my now page

This has been such a fragmented year for me. Going through drafts in Scrivener I found a document called "The Future Is Here," and inside there are only five words, Eltro Petro Resist the future

I don’t want to make my phone dumb. I want to make it fun.

As expected I am still thinking about this film the morning after.

Frankenstein. My goodness what a film. Acting, adaptation, cinematography, colour, design, score, brilliant. All brilliant. Would watch it again tomorrow if I could.

Seated for my first ever Adelaide Film Festival screening. Bring on Frankenstein.

So when the dudes all became obsessed with the Roman Empire it was really the protein powders doing the talking.

My latest blogpost is an ode to books and albums and being a physical creature.

I framed this as a task for parents because that's how I've been thinking about it. But maybe it's a task for everyone? Maybe it's how we should be approaching civics and the job of thinking about culture?

As I get older I feel like the work of mid-life, as a parent, is understanding the shadow cast by the decisions of your own parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Along with the pain they suffered through. And not casting that onto your children, and the generations that will follow.

My sourdough starter has come back to life. When things got overwhelming in April I put it to sleep in the fridge. I took it out yesterday and it smelt like New York in July. But a single 1:1:1 feed last night and it bloomed back into life and now smells like life.

The memoir I've been writing has five sections. And for a long time I struggled with the middle section. It relates to my mother's life before I was born. Something was missing. So I completely rewrote it. In Spanish. Then translated that back into English. It works so much better now.

Today's Japanese lesson was a delight. Nice to feel progress in building sentences and understanding grammar points. I feel like I am progressing with the work rather than just struggling to keep up. Which is true in a lot of areas of life at the moment. It was a rough middle of the year for me.