Saw this in the Herald twice this week; Liam Dann reporting its answer as worthy of note re whether an AI bubble will burst and Shayne Currie 'interviewing' it about the role of AI in media in the year ahead. It's really bizarre.

For progressives, centre-left and democratic socialists in Aotearoa who follow me and are enjoying Mandami, please go back and read that speech closely. Beneath the tone and symbolism is something very unfashionable but essential: executive and managerial governance.

Reading When There Are Wolves Again & seeing the Mamdani swearing in at basically the same time leads me to recall this really good future history. Odd piece of speculative fiction that takes a swing at something hard and is in most respects very successful.

Clair Obscur is very good but it's also to a large extent "what if a good modern JPRG was also French"? Which is a great mode. But I feel like it goes beyond very good to revelatory only if you haven't played some of the top tier JRPGs of the past decade which are not also French.

Why did I wait so long to watch Reacher? Large man is large and charismatic.

ALSO everyone go read Caskey’s The Door on the Sea. I enjoyed it SO MUCH (that I blurbed it!) 🚪🌊

Dropping reasonable amount of money on a mid tier gaming desktop in the new years sales because it looks quite good lot like things will be getting substantially *more* expensive with ram and gpus over the next year & I do need a replacement at some point over the next few months.

Maybe it is just a coincidence that in the last few years, the consumption of transphobic media has often been a precursor to someone's views shifting towards previously unacceptable hard fascism, but I've seen it happen often enough that I wouldn't be so sure. Maybe NYT readers will buck the trend.

One of the best experiences in reading - fiction or nonfiction - is having your expectations challenged. Just read 2 novels in close proximity which dealt in clomping didacticism, which I'd have sworn I categorically dislike. Turns out it works for me when done with delicate prose & character work.

Gratified that this hit with some people! (& flattered by the company)

It's New Year's Eve, I'm off out for a pub quiz and some ill-advised karaoke in just over 3 hours, so I'm not finishing another book this year. Figure like last year I'd take the opportunity to run through the books I gave 5 stars to this year, from the 71 I managed to read over the course of 2025.

The Manage My Health security breach is going to go down as one of the worst privacy breaches in NZ history. There are failures at so many levels, starting with lack of decent comms. The directors and executives of this company need to front up, fix this mess, and then resign.

Happy new year from GMT +13, Folks.

Yesss more people should read and appreciate Pip Adam. Excellent review @casella.bsky.social.

Having caught up with The Mighty Nein, it's a significant better adaptation of a D & D campaign than at least seasons 1 & 2 of Vox Machina. I enjoyed VM, but the pacing was shot & you could spot the failed saving throws. A slightly looser adaptation, slower pacing & longer ep lengths really work.

And with half of one novella and the whole of another finished this morning, here we are. 6th year in a row averaging 2 new reads a week. (got a couple of 2025 releases to read over the next week for 'best of' consideration, but this is where I'll end for the calendar year 2025)

Having caught up with The Mighty Nein, it's a significant better adaptation of a D & D campaign than at least seasons 1 & 2 of Vox Machina. I enjoyed VM, but the pacing was shot & you could spot the failed saving throws. A slightly looser adaptation, slower pacing & longer ep lengths really work.

a) I'm really not sure these rates are accurate. b) The reason NZ's rate is so high is so we can as all get on planes and fly over where we are our country used to be. Marvel at the Act of God which moved us off the coast of Perth.

Look, this person doesn't understand what process is and how keeping it writer-based supports style and narrative, period. Thus, several things she suggests harmless if AI-driven are actually harmful. Also, the fallacy that AI is inevitable belies evidence of a bubble 1/2 file770.com/erin-underwo...

I like how the replies to this post cover every single conceivable use for a computer

This. The main point of the essay isn’t about Heated Rivalry, but rather what it means when we as a community recognize each other, the windows and mirrors that such moments afford. Breathtaking.

Pokémon #46, Paras! It was challenging getting the mushrooms right. #paras #pokemon #pokémon #amigurumi #doll #crochet #yarn #handmade #anime #manga

"post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains." Can't go past the perfect, singular Laughing Stock by Talk Talk (1991). (I had quite a lot to choose from; never been a grunge fan.)

I also love books and often buy books that I don’t read right away. I always end up feeling a bit guilty. Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had this to say about home libraries:

Share a great female villain.

Wow there really is no one in town between Xmas and New Years. My usual bus to Zealandia is half full; 1 other person got on before I gotta off today.

Y'all, Ball x Pit is the real deal for fun time sink indie games this year. Arkanoid meets Vampire Survivors meets Loop Hero. It completely shouldn't work and it completely does. (Currently 20% off on steam). store.steampowered.com/app/2062430/...

Going to make itttt.

What is going *on* at the MCG?! Some good bowling, two reasonably shaking batting line-ups, but this is surely not a test-quality pitch.

One secondary assumption in this ~anecdotal evidence~ I want to spool out is this: it assumes (wrongly) that being a minority writing about minorities is a shortcut to publication. But that only makes sense if you *also* assume that quality is irrelevant if you're a minority. Which is *very* wrong.

Scattered thoughts in re heated rivalry. 1) Really well done, deserves the applause. Well written, well acted, great design, great sondtrack. 2) Ridiculous chemistry between the two leads (and their setting appropriate hockey butts) crucial the success. ...

Most surprising thing about Heated Rivalry is wolf parade's best song finding an audience beyond 00s hipsters (ie me). Spencer Krug in for the Kate Bush treatment?

Anyway. They spent the last decade telling us STEM degrees were the future and the Humanities were worthless then they spent hundreds of billions of dollars to build a glitchy Humanities robot.

Et voila.

Buy REAL books by REAL authors and illustrators. Here's a couple of mine huia.co.nz/search?q=rox...

Harry Brook is an outrageously talented player who I should love watching bat but he mostly makes me angry. Little respect for his teammates or the occasion; he does it his way & if it comes off, good for him. If not, sucks to be everyone else.

They don't really make them like this any more (for the function of "they" which is '99% of fantasy novels published by big pubs'). Really does strike me returning to this a decade later *how* impressive it is for such long, luxuriant books to be so well written on a sentence level.

This is a double whammy story... Multiple entirely fake entries on this list published in multiple papers. But the list itself is taken whole from a press release. So it's a warning story about AI slop, but also a warning about unquestioning reproduction of press releases.

This is a great example of how genAI steals from us all on multiple levels. It's stolen a promotional spot for real books and authors, it's stolen a job from an actual journalist who could have compiled this, it's stolen an opportunity for parents to be recommended good NZ books for their kids

A bunch of NZ MPs were asked about their holiday reading recs by the Herald today. Turns out it's the Greens who are the nerds with good taste.

Not available down in NZ but if you're in the US do take advantage of this. Excellent stuff.

And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.

Must say I’ve been really enjoying all these adorable, straight hockey-bro podcasters enthusing about HEATED RIVALRIES. Quite heartwarming. “Wow, those yams on him!” “He is a beautiful man.” “I didn’t know you could have gay missionary sex!”

This NHL ad making fun of AI is extremely funny, and I'm surprised I'm saying any of those words together youtu.be/vjz9JxAsZSg?...

Oh they added a copyright violation button

A happy Christmas to all from pretty stunning Christmas morning in Wellington.

And all caught up; got the camera on Christmas last year, so have cleared the back long just in time for my photoversary.

I also wrote a narrative history of Tangiwai a couple of years ago, if that is more your speed: andrebrett.com/2023/12/24/t...

Vance consistently proves my two views of her approach to political journalism correct. 1) She is breathtakingly cynical; does not believe a single person in politics is motivated by the public good. 2) This sometimes leads to great reporting & also to consistently, truly awful opinion writing.

On track!