While walking down the street with my wife, a random old guy on a bench yelled out "YOU GALS TOOK YOUR PRETTY PILLS TODAY, DIDN'T YA? YEEAH YOU TOOK ALL OF 'EM!" And that's why we call my HRT "pretty pills" to this day.

This has felt like a long, hard year. I have some hope for 2026. That feels like a very dangerous approach.

Worth noting that passing on your extended family's private details without their consent is also not ok. So people will need to ask their relatives permission to share their phone numbers and emails with the US government... who is going to do that?

📢We are calling for a cross-party inquiry into the student loan repayment scheme for overseas-based New Zealanders. Please sign our petition to the Education and Workforce Committee. There HAS to be a better way. It is in the government’s interest to find one. action.greens.org.nz/student_loan...

💚Aotearoa Greens Global surveyed over 400 New Zealanders in 23 countries - 78% did not think they were making meaningful progress on repaying their student loan and 82% percent were worried or extremely worried about their student loan. Read their stories here: drive.google.com/file/d/1ULdq...

📈In April 2025, the government raised the interest rate on student loan balances for overseas-based New Zealanders to 4.9%. Originally this was scheduled to rise to 3.9% in line with inflation, but the government arbitrarily added an additional 1% on top.

🧵 In 2011, student loan debt overdue from overseas-based borrowers was $289 million. In 2025 it is $2.193 *billion*. In 2011, the number of overseas-based student loan borrowers with overdue payments was 52 percent. In 2025 it is 71 percent. The system is not working for anyone and needs reform.

Me: I'm going to put something dumb and mindless on the TV. *puts on Only Connect*

Spotify has laid off thousands in recent years, while reportedly paying artists $0.003 per stream. Spotify profits rose 28% in Q3. Its CEO is worth $9.8 billion. It's making money off ICE recruitment ads. Don't you think it's time put a wrap on corporate greed and exploitation?

Not mad about this. A little surprised about the Billy Bragg/Wilco of it all, but I did do a Mermaid Avenue deep dive at one point. V happy that my @selfesteem.music-social.com rep is on point. (1.9k unique artists is a point of pride too)

I loved theatre before I knew Stoppard's work, and the only piece I ever acted in or produced was the 15 min Hamlet from Dogg's Hamlet, but he still affected me profoundly, deeply, and gave me a true love for and understanding of what theatre can be.

Made it home safe and sound. Thank you to all the friends and colleagues, old and new, who made #AANZCA2025 both enjoyable and enriching.

My Italian football team are 0-6-6, and you have to wonder why we bother doing sport at all.

Ok, now a quote that is making me think. Wikstrom talking about TikTok data: "The culture that we share is advertising". Now I'm thinking about the nostalgia that many of us Gen X/Yers have for TV advertisements from our youth. Almost more than the content that surrounded them, we saw the ads more.

Favourite quote from #AANZCA2025 so far: "We're all imperfect people... well, except for @jeanburgess.bsky.social".

The progression of this weather report...

Great to see CAUL have struck a new, better deal w Taylor & Francis kicking off in 2026. For Australian and ANZ authors, this, amongst other things, will mean gold open access journals (like @socialmedia-soc.bsky.social) will now be included in the #openaccess deals, when they weren't this year!

Who, pray tell, is worshipping the liberal arts? Where is the mythical university alluded to here where STEM and business courses are criticized and somehow disincentivized by those in power?

I just heard that Graeme Turner has passed. Such a loss to our academic community. I was lucky to have had the conversations with him that I did.

@siantomkinson.bsky.social I'll try to catch you after the session, but awesome paper, and can't wait to read the book. I need to cite it in some upcoming work I'm doing.

8.30am, 27°C, feels like 31°C. Expected to get to 36°C, so feels like of something in the 40s... I'm getting too old for this shit...

@ladyhorrors.bsky.social hey hey, your name has come up in casual conversations at AANZCA today, just about how you're a cool person who does cool work, so just thought I'd say hey and hope life is going well :)

@cornflakerabbit.bsky.social Awesome presentation. Really inspiring use of intersectional approaches to media history.

Heading in to the first official day of #AANZCA2025. ECR day yesterday was a great, inclusive day, making me feel like this could be a big tent org. It's amazing how the more senior academics, even just chatting on the bus, can already feel more gatekeepy, disparaging of other approaches...

Sunday morning ponderings: for me - Early morning = pre 9.00am Mid morning = 10am-11am Late morning = 11am-12pm Early afternoon = 12pm-2pm Mid afternoon = 2pm-4pm Late afternoon =4pm-6pm Early evening = 6pm-8pm Mid evening =8pm - 9.30pm Late evening = 9.30pm - midnight

Finally got around to framing the Banksy print I bought a while back... Debating whether I take it to work...

I hate that Winston Peters has made me agree with him. I hate that some parties will disagree with him on principle.

fuck this shit www.worldofreel.com/blog/2025/11...

Occasional moments like this remind me of the days on Twitter when things didn't seem quite as bleak, and people could make harmless jokes, commiserate and celebrate, and just commune. I miss the communing part of community.

Can think of few others as deserving as Siouxsie - who helped protect so many lives, & was NZ'er of the Year in 2021 - of our support now. She won legal case on truly awful online harassment/hate but remains 400k+ out of pocket. Absurd. Time to help her move forward www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PB...

As someone who doesn't watch sports but does love human suffering, I'm having a great night

dude I can't become a sports account. not like this.

Having been a Leafs fan for years, I feel like this is an important learning experience for any new fans of Toronto teams...

twitter hiding replies from me is how my stalker was able to reply to me for months talking about raping me and cutting me into pieces without my knowledge. he was violating my protection order and i didn’t even know it. it kept him out of jail.

The government won't tell you that they are fascists, but they will tell you that anti-fascists are their enemies.

Bichette, you lovely man!

Ah, the Toronto sports team tradition of giving the opposition a false sense of security by letting them go ahead early #MapleLeafs #BlueJays #Raptors

Does anyone know if this is England's full strength ODI side, or if some of the test players would be in if they weren't prepping for the Ashes?

Blue Jays edging us for one more day. I do love a TO team, always have.

no one has ever been more relatable answering a question about AI

We're looking for a new colleague in Media and Creative Technologies at the University of Waikato (L or SL level). Feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and circulate to anyone relevant! elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Oh look, another “All fans of (insert franchise) are dudes” clickbait article has dropped, which means it’s time to give away a couple of copies of my book “Fake Geek Girls: Fandom, Gender, and the Convergence Culture Industry.” Comment below if you would like to be entered into this raffle!

Regulation of AI is essential. Prohibition is not an effective solution, nor is unregulated capitalist approaches

Auckland

"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.

I missed Brown Sugar being the seminal album it was for so many, but Black Messiah hit me harder than just about any other album of that period. D'Angelo was a singular, important voice. Much love to his people ❤️ R.I.P.

#nzpol As ever, Anne Salmond is on point "When Act mounted its despicable Victim of the Day campaign, delivered by Act’s parliamentary staffers at the taxpayers’ expense and attacking individual scholars as ‘deranged,’ that was another attack on institutional autonomy and academic freedom."

In a meeting to advocate for my grad program, and I was asked to wrap up my "emotional" argument. No thank you. Would you say that to a man? I got an apology, but still. Luckily this was striking because people don't normally say this shit - & other people spoke up to thank me for my advocacy.