Oh goodness I was just looking at his book the other day, interviewed him this year. Nice man.

Didn’t want to stare at the waitperson’s mouth, but are pearly teeth a thing now? Like almost iridescent?

aargh when you spend hours trying to figure out where the hell some numbers quoted in Parliament actually came from and the ministry ends up saying oops did our sums wrong, or off the wrong row on the spreadsheet, or something. :(

Oh my god Lenny Kravitz. The IVF clinics should hire him, b/c if that show doesn’t make you ovulate, no amount of hormone shots will.

I know my barista is here somewhere…

In the fifth highest row for Lenny Kravitz. Still chuffed to be here.

Why didn’t they just go ahead and call Carol “Karen”? #pluribus

The Doja Cat crowd intersecting with the Lenny Kravitz crowd outside Rod Laver/John Cain is like a fresh river meeting salt ocean.

Inevitably academic conference devolves into argument about what is truth anyway…

Why then your brown bastard is your only drink!

Since discovering David Byrne is a cyclist, I’ve decided I need to take him on a bike tour of Melbourne when he’s out in Jan., & write about it. It’s not impossible, he would enjoy it & I am a Proper Journalist w. tour guide & Melbourne-writing experience. Send editorial commissions & his #, pls.

Sean Turnell and Peter Greste on academic freedom, no charge for admittance, up next: why is this session not packed solid?

There is a guide dog sitting behind me and I didn’t even notice it until shook itself gently just now. *That’s* a good dog.

In the tea break really wanting to hear what Yves Rees is saying to Peter Greste, but leaving them alone.

If you’re a hungry student you could do worse than wandering into Arts West and accessing the catering for all these conferences…

At the uni for a conference and had to try 4 registration desks before I found the right one.

I went looking for the Friends of SLV but it appears to be an arm of the SLV itself. Anyone organizing?

SLV is a beautiful, useful and very busy research space, and I use it regularly. I hope that they rethink these cuts & recognise that the library is so much more than a tourist destination.

Just me definitely not glaring at all these people who have suddenly manifested at my private pool on the second warm day of the season.

Ye Olde Palais Theatre seems a well run venue atm. Even a staff member directing people to empty toilet cubit in the interval, which I’ve never seen before and is an excellent idea when the queue is 30 people long.

the irony of taking time away from your kid to write about parenting.

In New Zealand they call it... (deep voice): Waka-jumping. #auspol #barnaby #lidia #fatima #cheryl en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_ju...

Spending the morning virtually in Darwin via ABC radio, listening everyone being told to stay home, and to extensive discussions of chainsaws.

Love that in Australia we measure our eskies in cans. And that it’s only November and Bunnings is sold out of the 30-cans….

I am pretty sure I know who this well known businessman is.

I know that sometimes there’s an emergency like an international flight or an unscheduled meeting, but 99% of the time your baby does not need an iPhone. Or an Android. It needs to look at trees and make eye contact with strangers.

Moss is cool.

Things there should be a word for: when someone you interact with regularly, say a barista, is short with you because busy or just grumpy, then they make a point of giving you special attention five minutes later, without actually apologizing.

It’s true I hadn’t realized that the SLV no longer opened in the evenings. It’s also true that I spent many evening hours there researching a book that turned into my PhD: work I simply could not have done in the daytime with a small child at home. edition.theage.com.au/shortcode/TH...

Can someone send me a link to the livestream of Trump meeting Mamdani?

now it's just trolling us Wordle 1,616 6/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Every now and then I think about the time I slapped a bloke who was groping me in a bar (it was a bar where everyone knew my name, so it was a safe thing for me to do), and I am less disappointed with my admittedly very flawed past self.

here's one for AU uni students and staff: NZ unis regularly publish at least part of their council minutes very soon after the meetings. along with their regular proactive release of cabinet docs, this is one area the Kiwis are leading us by miles...

if you are giving a boring conference paper, please know that I am using that time to WhatsApp the school chat about pizzas.

A dog could set up as an international education agent in Australia, assistant minister for IE says with great frankness. I suppose that means regulations are on the way…

We’re using “poor” instead of “low income” again are we?

I’ll rely on AI when it stops misspelling common words in live subtitles. When it’s Indigenous words and family/peoples’ names it’s a bit cringe.

At a high powered academic conference. There’s a nice lady on the auto check in booths claiming she’s not there to help boffins type in their own names, but rather to attach name tags to lanyards. Which is much less embarrassing for the Phds and uni vice chancellors who abound here.

Fair point. Maybe if someone puts the questions in writing, using his full title and respectful, appropriately subordinate language, on Buckingham Palace notepaper?

Ah Matt Golding, you’ve done it again.

let's see you do better...Wordle 1,613 6/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 ⬜🟨🟩🟨🟩 ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

And I thought it was just me.

hooray. sometimes doing the Wordle afterwards is the only thing keeping me at my desk until the work is done. Wordle 1,612 5/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

8am: my physio (who trained on footballers) marvels at the stunning knots in my neck. 3pm: finish typing, cutting and pasting and generally mousing around 1800 words of feature article, wonder why my neck hurts.

at the staring into the fridge looking for snacks I well know aren't there stage of writing this complicated feature piece.

Not my bailiwick, but some strong language in this about welfare recipients...

Toggling between Hansard and a government statistics spreadsheet trying to figure out wta(redacted) a politician was *talking* about, with a few Budget and cabinet papers thrown in, and my brain hurts. How's your day?

Narrowly prevented myself from looking up latest Trump allegations. Working here folks!

I have Pluribus theories. We’ll see. Tbh I’d like to see more zombie alien virus action and less apocalypse-as-opportunity-for-personal growth. But it’s visually very cool and Seehorn is very watchable.

in a game of chicken with resellers of AC/DC tickets. They seem very confident of getting full price +10%, an hour before the gates open.