Last week a colleague told me she was pregnant.

While congratulating her, I had an insight: Now that my own kids are a bit older and more self-sufficient, I feel like I need them more than they need me.

I wish I could have given them more of my time when they really needed it.

I am currently trying to migrate my morning coffee from a latte to a long black. Short blacks are just too intensely bitter for my taste. #coffee

I don’t care what you say I’m never calling it a “toot”.

I’m listening to a playlist created by my 13 year old. It’s filled with rock from the 90s, peppered with some tunes from the 80s, an echo of my own teenage years.

🎬 Am I going crazy or did Monsters Inc. have credits scenes playing out parts of the “play” they invented in the movie? Just watched the Disney+ version and there was nothing. I am now questioning my memory.

I wish I was exempt from getting sick. I’ve been battling illness all week and it’s exhausting.

I must be getting old because I was feeling daunted and overwhelmed by the idea of signing up to Mastodon. But it was pretty easy in the end.

Damn, the whole Twitter situation is just live-action car crash TV, isn’t it? I can’t look away. I don’t want to see it, but I can’t look away. It’s horrific, but I just can’t look away.

So today forced me to think about my admiration list:

• My wife, who is always an inspiration
• Teachers, who give up so much of themselves for so little in return (we should fix that)
• Nurses, who do the same
• Paramedics, firefighters and those who risk their lives to help others

Ironic enough for Alanis: My freelancer ABN - the licence that allowed me to operate a small business - was cancelled from lack of use two months ago. Now, for the first time in 6.5 years, I need it for potential freelance work.

The PSVR2 is going to cost $879.95 in Australia.

The disc PS5 will set you back $799.

PS+, which is required for any online gaming and is therefore essential, starts at $79.95 a year.

Is anyone else feeling like their hobby is trying to take advantage of them? 🎮

Parenting a teenager: A poem

At least we can feed the beast
Flour, water, sugar, and yeast
And he will think it a feast

I’m trying to figure out what the next chapter of my life should be about. My 20s were about discovery, 30s were about family, but my 40s seem a bit lost. All I’ve come up with is that I need a change… and so I handed in my resignation. Let’s see what happens next.

🎲 had a pretty good month playing board games over October. The winning stats are well down from repeated attempts to beat the Dark Side Rising and Death Eaters Rising

My greatest achievement today was not throwing up. It took all of my energy to hold it in, but somehow, against all odds, I succeeded.

(Celebrating the small wins.)

Coming to the conclusion that the “Rising” board games are impossible to beat. Played almost a dozen times across the Star Wars and Harry Potter versions and never come close to winning. 🎲

Spent today scanning in old photos and now I want Sydney to host the Olympics again.

I really liked this take from Ed Zitron on why Zuckerberg is a terrible CEO. But it was this part about the future of Facebook and Instagram that really resonated: They will likely become unpopular, forgotten products - unimaginable even a year ago - that are so desperate to try and trick you into consuming content that they’ve forgotten that real people even use the app. Source The line about forgetting real people use the apps is key, and one of the reasons I quit those platforms. Continue reading →

A pretty spectacular moon over the house as I took the bins out tonight… 📷🌑

It was so nice to have a warm, sunny day today. We are more than halfway through Spring and we were still using the heater last week thanks to all the rain and miserable weather.

Hopefully, it lasts longer than a week so the ground can dry out too!