It's time to choose a yearly theme for 2026. Here's what yearly themes are, how to choose one, and why they are a better commitment than making resolutions.

Everyone kept telling me to watch Wake Up Dead Man, the new Knives out thriller, because of its religious motifs. Two things stood out. First, the film takes vocation seriously. Most films try to explain the priestly calling by analogy to some other career. This film doesn't. Which is refreshing.

The point of giving and receiving presents isn't the stuff or its monetary value. It's about seeing and being seeing. It's a reminder that the people who love you have been thinking about you. Understanding what you connect with. And wanting to give you a moment in the spotlight.

My Apple Music Replay for 2025 Top Artist - Leon Bridges Top Song - BAILE INoLVIDABLE by Bad Bunny Top Album heyrist í mér? by Elín Hall Top Genre - Jazz

Here's an idea for creatives to explore in 2026. Build a scene. Take the time you spend promoting your work and devote 80% of that to creating a scene. Connect with other creatives. Create a buzz around your location. Your unique culture, vibe, and history. Don't be an atom. Be a universe.

Does anyone have a good contact for silk screening in Tokyo?

Why do people bring their racism on holiday? There's a kind of white Australian that expects me to move aside because immigrants are 2nd class citizens. And a certain kind of wealthy SE Asian who expects me to move aside because white people represent colonisation. But we're in Japan folks.

The "top 1 percent" needs to be retired as a phrase. It's meaningless now. For the same reason saying "millionaires and billionaires" is also meaningless. The gap between the wealthiest few and the rest of the wealthy is staggering. And their political influence is almost unprecedented.

I must be getting old. It’s -1C and I was tempted to zip up my parka while walking from the supermarket to the car.

Apple Music has two song transition options. Crossfade and Automix. And I have to turn them off at least once a year. On every device.

Arrival in Narita was insanely slow and busy. Felt dizzy and a bit exhausted hauling my suitcases to hotel checkin. But I’m now in a local Tokyo burger joint with a cold drink and Superstar by The Carpenters is playing in the background.

Forgot to note my Japanese lesson on Monday. Not sure how much raw progress I made this year. Maybe I should jump on the exam bandwagon. But I am enjoying Japanese more recently. And less stressed about what I know and when I forget things.

Australia will need to have a couple of serious public conversations. One will be around gun regulation. There's good reason to think this might go well. The other is around antisemitism, religious identity, and related issues. The local media and political class aren't good at these topics.

A father and son went on a shooting rampage in Sydney attacking a local Jewish community event. 15 dead. Nearly 40 in hospital, 5 of them in critical condition. Mass shootings on this scale are rare in Australia. We have historical precedent for this leading gun reform and national soul-searching.

Horrible news from Bondi. Will wait for more news. But this seems bad.

Remember when Bluesky told us domain names would be the tool for verification? That everyone would do it? That companies would confer domain level verification for their employees? I did it because verification matters to me. But I was always skeptical it would be popular in practice.

Whenever I find myself with too many tabs open in my browser I like to re-arrange them by website and that helps me tidy things up. Also, I am tabs-zero at the end of each day. Was recently surprised to find out this might be unusual.

Two tasks for 2026 1. Buy Andor season 1 & 2 on Blue-ray 2. Cancel DisneyPlus subscription

This year is ending with massive "when one door closes another one opens" energy.

Attended an online writing workshop yesterday with Steve Almond on openings to stories. Lessons from his careful reading of openings. My biggest lessons this year involved seeing how writers I've workshopped with, like Eula Bliss, Margo Steines, and Sabrina Orah Mark, learn from other writers.

Anyone commenting on the age ban for social media should be forced to write a 2000 word essay on Club Penguin.

Second visit to a podiatrist today. Treatment is going well. Wish I'd done this years ago. Human bodies are amazing. And amazingly asymmetrical. The multidimensional health intervention continues.

What needs to be pointed out about the Netflix and Paramount bids for Warner is the geopolitics of it all. Netflix is the most global streaming service. Netflix commissions and produces a lot of international shows and films. Paramount is very US-centric. With close ties to the current government.

Bluesky now requires you to confirm your birthday in Australia. And you can't type your answer in. You have to scroll through a calendar wheel one month at a time. So it's also a test of patience as well.

About that meme asking for films you've watched more than six times not including Star Wars, Marvel, or LOTR. There's many films I've watched more than six times. But only two Star Wars films come close. Haven't watched any Marvel films more than thrice. And I didn't even watch all the LOTR films.

Today's Japanese lesson was fun. I was a little rushed earlier in the morning with life admin stuff. But it was nice to slow down and focus on learning for an hour. And also good to be reminded that however bad this year felt like I still made progress on important things like learning Japanese.

Whatever 2026 brings please let it be different.

I've been thinking a lot this year about the importance of friendships. Especially long term friendships. I'm inclined to believe that it's a red flag when people have no long term friends. Is that a commonplace belief? Do you feel similarly?

The NYT gave best album of the year to Effie's ‘Pullup to Busan 4 More Hyper Summer It’s Gonna Be a Fuckin Movie. The amazing thing I'm not even sure that's Effie's best album of the year. E was pretty amazing as well - maybe baby was one of my fav songs of the year.

Confidentiality, privacy, and secrecy are the not same thing.

Hakuba 47 is skiable top to bottom on opening day. Can't help but wonder if this will be another huge season.

Spotify giving people a "listening age" is the most entertaining thing of the week.

Surprised that Australia is my most frequently used word on Bluesky. But, I guess given how often I post about reverse culture shock, and how un-localised Bluesky is, it's not that unexpected. It's nice seeing words like thinking, reading, book, film, music, and essay featuring here.

Have you ever heard someone say Xmas out loud? I heard it for the first time a few weeks ago and it was weird. And this isn't an anti-Xmas statement. The word feels like a quaint 90s throwback and if people want to use it in their writing that's their choice.

I still don’t have a word for my 2026 yearly theme. But the ideas are there, pruning my contacts list, deleting someday/maybe lists of projects, emptying watch later lists, returning to a well planned calendar, and making time to upskill on the tools I use regularly.

Cabin, rain, writing, peace.

Went to see Before Sunrise at the lovely Semaphore Odeon Cinema. Nice to see a crowd on a Friday night enjoying a modern cinematic classic.

Time to mute Thanksgiving

Tech boosters always respond to criticism by saying some folks said the internet would never take off, ecommerce would fail, and social media would fizzle. Sure. But what about all the criticisms and negative predictions early indications of harm that turned out to be true?

Today's Japanese Lesson was fun. My recent week and a half in Japan didn't do anything to improve reading or comprehension. But it did kick my pronunciation back into shape.

I won't have seen enough films this year to have an opinion on the best films. But I will have opinions about albums and books and maybe even TV shows.

The shoehorn in this men’s wear store is carved from solid bone.

Apparently facial recognition tech is going to be used to predict people's career success. Or something. Whenever we see claims like this it's worth remembering facial expressions as predictors of human traits are a deeply researched topic. Studies with big claims always turn out to be problematic.

Me: I'd like to find people in my city who are into art, literature, and music. Bluesky: Now you can find people from your contacts list by typing in their phone number.

Another lap around the sun. It doesn’t get any easier. But the path is a little clearer.

A "review" poppped up on Instagram where a dude was saying Frankenstien looked terrible and that it's apparently an example of everything that's wrong with movies today. Also, he watched it on a notebook computer. I saw Frankenstein in the cinema and it looked wonderful. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Text With Jesus chatbot has In-App Purchases. Our age really is beyond satire.

“…a space for fierce disagreement” ??? If I were to list the top 100 things I want from social media “a space for fierce disagreement” wouldn’t be one of them.

Twitter is obviously terrible now. But Twitter still has this and Bluesky never will. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Universirty students read at 300-350 words per minute. Average reading speeds for adults are a little slower, towards 250 wpm. But speaking is much slower. Public speaking is around 100-120 wpm. It's worth doing the math for that if you rely on podcasts as a way to be informed.