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My learning to write again ✍️
I’m actually shocked at how hard I’m finding it to write. There was a time, a little over a decade ago, that I would regularly pump out thousands of words a day. I’d trawl the internet for the latest tech news, finding my own unique angles. I’d go to events and write about them, then spend time investigating and writing up follow up stories. I found an audience and gave them what they wanted. Continue reading →
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My mid-life crisis
Early in the pandemic, I was looking for a new hobby. For the past couple of decades, I’ve enthusiastically enjoyed spending my free time playing video games as my “hobby of choice”. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that whipping out the old DualShock (DualSense now?) to bring be less joy. All of this aligned with me hitting my 40s. I’d never had as much disposable income. My kids were hitting the age where they can look after themselves a little bit. Continue reading →
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U Wish
Saw this driving home the other week. Not quite the sexy car I’d expect with that kind of license plate. Continue reading →
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Who's Your Daddy? (Me)
Well, maybe not your Daddy, but a Daddy. That’s right - Lauren and I are having a baby! We’re both incredibly excited, as you could imagine. We’ve just passed the 13 week mark, so there’s still a long way to go, but so far everything has gone as smooth as we could hope for. (Although Lauren might argue that last point, considering she can’t really eat during the day). Continue reading →
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So Much To Write About, So Little Time
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t neglected the Shuffle in recent weeks. There’s just been so much going on. So here’s the plan: Three short, sharp posts detailing a few of the big events of my life this past month or so… Stay tuned! Continue reading →
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What Exactly is a Wookie Cookie?
The question is: What exactly is in a Wookie Cookie? Bantha Fodder? Cream of Ton-Ton? Jar-Jar Binks? Well, we can only hope that the last one is true… Star wars Cookbook Wookie Cookies Features Recipes Like Boba Fett-Uccine | Star Wars, Edible Geek, shopping | geeksugar - Technology & Gadgets. Continue reading →
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Star Wars Retold By Someone Who's Never Seen The Films
[vimeo vimeo.com/2809991] I love this. It completely made my Friday. Continue reading →
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Finally, A New Study Worth Working In
We spent the better part of the past week painting the study. While it’s still not the perfect home office – I still need some decent shelving and we haven’t moved 90% of what we took out back in yet – it’s so much nicer. It’s actually a workspace, rather than a child’s bedroom. I didn’t take any photos of the room prior to painting, but I do have some pics from when I made a short film for a story in T3 which should give you an idea of just how horrible an office environment it was to work in. Continue reading →
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Looking Back At 2008
On the last day of 2008, I thought it would be prudent to sit back and look at the year that’s been. All told, Lauren and I have had a very big – and successful – year. After all, I started at Gizmodo, we got married, I travelled around a bit and now Lauren’s been promoted to manager of her work. Not a bad year for a couple in the penultimate year of their 20s… Continue reading →
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8 Months After Our Wedding, We've Finally Paid It Off
Today is a good day for us. After 8 months or so, we’ve finally paid off our wedding. It was hard work - I worked a little harder and longer than I otherwise would have, and we had to manage our money extremely carefully, not to mention going without a lot of nice little extras, but in the end, we’re now in a pretty good economic position. Sure, we still have debts (including a mortgage and a nice new TV), but we’re in a position where we can afford to pay those debts, as well as start saving a little. Continue reading →
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Homebrew Disasters: Exhibit 5...
I’ve been brewing my own beer for almost two years now (my original kit was given to me for Christmas ‘06), and sadly I have to admit that the sight you see here isn’t that uncommon for me. Out of the dozen or so batches I’ve brewed, more than half have spewed forth beer-flavoured froth as the yeast goes crazy trying to convert sugar to alchohol. The weird thing is that when I was using brewing kits from the Homebrew shop in Camden (rest its soul), this wasn’t a problem at all. Continue reading →
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If I Ever Meet Someone Who Works On Timetables For Cityrail, I'm Going To Kick Them In The Shins. Hard.
I have just hopped on a train at Central after waiting for 32 minutes on the platform. At least, that’s what the board said when I arrived. The train is an old, smelly thing with only 6 carriages. I got a seat - but only just. If there was some kind of malfunction to cause this wait, I might be a little more sympathetic. But no, this is just how long you need to wait for a train to get to Campbelltown during the day. Continue reading →
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And The Home Theatre Setup Begins...
We had our TV cabinet delivered last weekend. It looks great. Even better is that we went out and bought a new TV. Panasonics latest 50 incher. It’s being delivered on Tuesday. Now all we need is some surround sound and we’ll be cheering! (The photo above is the exact same TV, but a review unit from Panasonic. I was so impressed that we went out and bought the same model. Continue reading →
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The Perfect Hot Totty Recipe
The past couple of weeks have been tough – From Hong Kong to Sarah’s Birthday to the Influence Conference in the Hunter Valley to a week of events, I’ve been running myself ragged. So much so that yesterday morning I woke up coughing up all colours of the rainbow (a pleasant enough image for you all, I’m sure).
However, today I feel pretty good. And do you know why? It’s because of a little drink called the Hot Totty.
When I was in Ireland back when I was 18, I got pretty sick. I prescribed myself to a diet of Hot Tottys, and my cure could almost be considered miraculous. Since then, it seems I’d forgotten their medical power to battle the cold, until last week when I made one for Lauren when she was a bit crook.
Anyway, to get back to the subject, I have perfected the Hot Totty. I’ve just finished my course for the evening, and fully expect to wake up feeling well tomorrow.
If you want to know how to make the perfect Hot Totty yourself, check below:
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Poor Simba!
Today has been a struggle. Hell, every Monday is a struggle, but this weekend was harder than most. Namely because our dog Simba spent most of Friday night and half of Saturday vomiting. It started about 2am Friday night. At 4:30am, Lauren and I decided that we’d put him outside (we gave him a comfortable bed) so we could get a few hours sleep. A couple of hours later, he woke us barking so we brought him in. Continue reading →
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Seinfeld's Microsoft Ad Hits The Intertubes
www.youtube.com/watch There seems to be a real split in opinions over this ad. I like it – probably because it doesn’t actually try to sell me anything. It tries to entertain, and while it’s not hilariously funny, I actually had a smile through most of it. I think the lack of any mention of Windows or Vista was a good move, incidentally. As soon as they say anything about Vista, the Internet minions will cry out against it just for that fact. Continue reading →
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Up Yours Door-to-Door Internet Salesman!
Last night at about 7:30pm, there was a knock on the door. Naturally the dog sprang up and I forced my way out of recline to see who it was. Flicking on the front light switch I opened the door to be greeted by a young door-to-door salesman. “Good evening,” he said as I squinted through the screen door. “I’m here to offer you a great deal on your Internet and…” Continue reading →
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Not Enough Sense To Make Change
Funny thing happened to me yesterday: Lauren and I had decided to try a new recipe for dinner (Lion’s head meatballs, for the curious) which required dried chinese mushrooms - not something we keep a lot of lying around the pantry. So anyway, I went to get my haircut yesterday morning in Camden, and when I couldn’t get in for a coupl of hours, I decided I’d pop into Coles to pick up the dried mushrooms. Continue reading →
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Making the move to Wordpress
So, hello from The Broughall Shuffle. I’ve just finished importing my previous “it’s pronounced bruffle” blog, so bear with me while I set everything up properly. The reason for moving was twofold – number one was I wanted my own domain name, and “it’s pronounced bruffle” just seemed too wordy. The second was that I can blog from the iPhone via Wordpress, which is a very appealing proposition for me… Continue reading →
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So sick of painting...
For the past two weekends, I’ve been painting the loungeroom. I would have been done after the first weekend, but for the fact that the previous owners did such a dodgy job that you could see their patching on the cornices. So ok the weekend, along with bottling beer, I painted the cornices on the loungeroom. But to add insult to injury, when I went to peel the painters tape off the ceiling, it came with the added bonus of pulling off the paint as well. Continue reading →
