← 2022 September 2022
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I don’t know who needs to hear this, but despite their ads this week, Optus wasn’t attacked.
They left the front door open and unlocked and a thief took the personal identity information of thousands of Australians.
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The most horrible hotel in the world featured in Tone Knob by Nick Parker:
Then in 1996 they asked the new-kids-on-the-block agency KesselsKramer2 to help them sharpen things up – Which they did not by improving the hotel or doing a fancy re-brand, but by keeping everything exactly the same and proudly embracing how crap it all was. They started calling themselves 'the most horrible hotel in town'.
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We called our Airbnb the Tugun Pause because a few times a day you get to take a one to two second pause in your conversations
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How good is it when you just find The One
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I call this one “Jetstar flight captured over Brisbane with a manual focus lens”
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If you’ve ever wanted to use our dishwasher, TV, or closet? You’re going to love the tugunpause.com.
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Are there any signs we should look out for to see if Goldie is being fed enough?
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Ted Gioia’s predictions of the music industry in 2032:
“A legitimate musical counterculture will arise, with a cadre of new artists achieving superstar status while rejecting the roles of influencer and content provider. The motto “music comes first” will be a key part of their marketing message. The movement will have a name, but that word doesn’t exist yet.”
“Individuals who can identify rising talent will set up their web channels, and fill the role once played by the A&R department at a record label. But there’s one big difference: they can do everything themselves without a huge corporation behind them. If these talent scouts have a web channel with a few million subscribers, they will have more clout than Sony (which, by the way, currently has a pathetic 40 thousand subscribers to its YouTube channel) or most other labels. They can sign artists, showcase them online, and build their audience—acting as sole operators, but with the influence of a big business.”
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Cam Wilson in Web Cam on crime reporting:
“There’s a lot of good criticism of crime reporting. It fosters systemic racism. Crimes are reported on because of the novelty factor rather than merit. A lack of follow-ups means articles rarely show the full story of a crime (including if charges are dropped). It tends to uncritically share the narrative of police, even though they are unreliable narrators. And above all else, it publicises one of the lowest moments of someone’s life and probably makes it harder for them to right the ship.”
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Andrew Greene reporting on the Optus data thief (they like to call the person a hacker):
WARNING - do not click on latest link from alleged Optus hacker. IT security experts confirm it “tries to use drive-by and explicit download techniques to install executable files - this appears to be an attempt to capitalise on the publicity from the hack to setup a future hack”
Optus’ lack of leadership in this data crisis will be its legacy.
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Zane Lowe with Stevie Nicks is an beautiful podcast conversation not only about Fleetwood Mac, but also about Tom Petty, Prince, Harry Styles, Neil Finn, Miley Cyrus and The Gorillaz. The entire Zane Lowe interview series is a great show for music lovers.
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Why so dramatic, Rockhampton sunrise?
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iOS 17 prediction: an Apple Shortcuts Store. After writing my first semi-complex-but-bit-that-complex shortcut for Apple Shortcuts today I can’t believe there’s not an App Store for Shortcuts. But I reckon it’s coming, Apple loves a good % cut.
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"The media coverage of vaccines and side effects is awful. They lack a philosophical framework and are unmoored. This article nicely shows how that is the case. Whether they choose to improve is beyond me. They have too much allegiance to the Biden administration, and have failed American boys as a result."
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If I was going to make a travel vlog this week my episode would be about how you should just stay at home again, airports are terrible, it’s quicker to walk. All hail HRH Lord Joyce, the decider of all airborne transport matters.
Formally: Todays flight issues involved a B717 being ill, and then Rockhampton’s Air Traffic Control being unstaffed until 9:30am so we have to wait in Brisbane until there’s air traffic control.
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I’m impressed by how many other people made the stupid decision to catch a 6am flight
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If only all of us queued for hours at airports had let them know we were coming. They need some kind of air travel ticketing system so they’re not surprised like this.
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Be here
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Patrick O'Shaughnessy on the power of audio:
"Audio feels to me like a secret hiding in plain sight. Everyone loves to learn, everyone loves content and loves consuming it, and it seems as though no matter how much great content is created, there's not enough of it. I find myself all the time without a great piece of content to consume. And the demand-supply thing just hasn't reached an equilibrium yet, maybe it never will. And audio is unique in the sense that it is at least 10 times easier to create an unbelievable hour of audio for me, and my format's interview, interviewing someone great like David. That episode between him and I took an hour and a half to record. It will probably be listened to, my guess is, millions of times by the time it's all said and done. An hour and a half for millions of listens. And people will listen all the way through, and they'll consume it all. If you translated that conversation into text, it would be about the length of a short book. If we wanted to create a book of similar quality, it would take a year, probably. I mean I've written a book, it took me a year, and my book was not nearly as good as that conversation with David was."
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Here comes the Sunday sun
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If you’d like to buy bottles of Goldie’s energy, please back her kickstarter
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George Bernard Shaw:
“The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”
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Rattling the Cage by Rhian Sasseen:
For years, I was the person whose job it was to keep you clicking, to keep you scrolling.
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Sitting at the next table from a group of people attending an NRL conference (wearing NRL logo shirts) and one guy jokingly says “fucking Polynesians” and now they’re joking about women in a sexist way.
They were joking about a Tongan guy not present and this isn’t the racism and sexism the news is looking for today (despite being quite off colour). But, I reckon every single human inside our national sports codes needs to understand that they’re getting a pretty bad reputation for their racism and sexism and maybe a hotel foyer bar isn’t the place for it. Maybe the entire globe isn’t, but let’s start with whilst you’re at work?
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Hey, big apologies if I die in the next 24 hours. My 18 month old just sneezed directly into my open mouth and laughed.
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Good advice for people who have been Optus customers since 2017, I have been one, is to enact a credit freeze. IDCARE has a fact sheet on freezing your credit.
A credit freeze means no-one, including you, can apply for credit in your name.
Talking about caring about identification, an Australian institution like that not using a .au domain name is a little triggering IMHO.
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No woman, no cry?
From 1938.
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What do sensors know? - Om Malik:
Did you notice: That we have not heard a peep from Elon Musk about why Chinese regulators haven’t approved Tesla’s FSD for use on local roads?
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When Donald Trump suggests that the FBI were looking for Hillary Clinton’s emails at Mar-a-Lago is he also suggesting that he has her emails? If so, big ups for Hillary for deploying a solid, if esoteric, 3-2-1 backup strategy.
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Why Coles is getting out of the servo game, asks Tim Burrowes:
“In a time when corporate social responsibility has given way to environmental, social and governance & actually made its way onto board agendas, getting out of the fuel game removes a future headwind for Coles.”
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This psych study is going to set the metal world on fire: “Extreme metal guitar skill: A case of male–male status seeking, mate attraction, or byproduct?”
“there is evidence that playing music increases male attractiveness”
“Extreme metal is a genre that is heavily male-biased”
“musicians in this genre heavily invest their time in building technical skills (e.g., dexterity, coordination, timing), which raises the question of the purpose behind this costly investment”
“This study explores the idea that heterosexual male metal guitarists are motivated to invest heavily in getting good at guitar to primarily impress other men.”
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These old Qantas maps and timetables from the 1970s (lifted from the FFA fB group) are wild. That Acapulco is a destination but Los Angeles isn’t!
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Big Bee Energy
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Astonished.
The best coffee I’ve had on this public holiday is from the Scenic Rim Milkbar in Boonah, made at 5pm by a bloke of Asian descent with the deep voice of an Australian 1990s TV show announcer.
Regional Australia never ceases to surprise.
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Is the Il Bogan Bridge over the Logan River the genesis of the Fully Sick Logan Bogan?
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Getty Images says no to artificially generated art.
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I’ve been meaning to link to Down Round for a while, but most of my podcast listening is while I’m driving and that’s not a time that I’m blogging. Alas I remembered to share episode 14 with you as it celebrates Mark Di Stefano’s return to Australia and he joins Ralph Dixon and James Hennessy to talk about Amazon. Really good episode, A++ would listen again.
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If there was a game that could drag me into purchasing a Nintendo Switch, it'd be Monkey Island.
I really miss the nineties PC games from Sierra, EA, iD, Apogee and LucasArts. Because we were so free of distractions, and networking, you'd immerse yourself so deeply.
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Ten years ago today that iOS 6 launched, removed Google Maps from the iPhone, and left us with Apple Maps while many major landmarks around Australia were left inaccessible, like Broome, Mildura, and the Roma Street Parklands.
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Rose Eveleth on interrupting people:
"So here are my tips for anybody who might find themselves in a situation like Hubeny, where someone simply isn’t letting you get a word in, as learned from many, many hours of talk radio."
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Someone asked me for advice about their career a while ago and even though I absolutely do not feel qualified enough to give advice to anyone about this, here goes nothin’:
Blog!
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“They have fallen out of fashion as a content form, with younger users in particular describing gifs as ‘for boomers’ and ‘cringe’.”
Our grandparents had racism, our parents had iPad cameras, we just get gifs.
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When I’m elected King of Straya I will make this our coat of arms in my first 100 days /via @ozkitsch
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Mary Oliver:
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
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I take back whatever I’ve said about wedding awards in the past. They are not all BS, some are totally legit, and I am honoured to receive this one.
Context: I have never been to Mexico, or created a wedding there. I paid for this award.
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Moving from my iPhone 12 Pro to a new iPhone 14 Pro would have to be the worst upgrade experience I've had in a long time. Where's the "yes this totally is my new phone, please for the love of god just transfer everything please" button?
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Mother
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Everything I've Learnt About Public EV Charging With Two Failed Startups, by Anthony Agius
“The point of this post isn’t to analyse why I’m not an EV charging mogul with dozens of stations making mad profits around the country.”
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Kevin Kelly:
"The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished."
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“Prince Andrew, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein who this year settled a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl, will receive the queen's corgis.”
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Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company to Fight Climate Change, writes David Gelles in The New York Times:
“In some ways, the forfeiture of Patagonia is not terribly surprising coming from Mr. Chouinard. As a pioneering rock climber in California’s Yosemite Valley in the 1960s, Mr. Chouinard lived out of his car and ate damaged cans of cat food that he bought for five cents apiece. Even today, he wears raggedy old clothes, drives a beat up Subaru and splits his time between modest homes in Ventura and Jackson, Wyo. Mr. Chouinard does not own a computer or a cellphone.”
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“All we can do is build trust, that’s the only asset a newsroom has.” - @reckless, or, Nilay Patel, Editor-in-chief of The Verge on Stratechery
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Friday night on the drive home to the Gold Coast from Toowoomba
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Who are you even going to choose? Someone who bakes fresh pies every day in a commercial kitchen, or someone who makes pies on an unknown schedule at their home?!
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Goonoo Goonoo on a Thursday morning
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The one with a Britt in front is our Airbnb … the other is just how damn cute Tamworth homes are
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Shooting the sunset over Tamworth with Luna
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Took the girls to the office today. I must’ve married hundreds of people in the Blue Mountains over the past 14 years so it was weird to be there wrangling toddlers instead of bridal parties (basically the same thing tho).
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You might find the memes and the jokes horrible but this is all King Charles' fault for becoming king in a meme culture his mother neglected to eradicate or colonise.
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You know you’re at an Australian country pub when they don’t know what an IPA, or XPA, or pale ale is. I asked for a beer from a brand that’s less than a decade old so she gave me a local apple cider …
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Glenbrook
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Has anyone tried letting their toddler just leave and run into the wild? Maybe us parents are the only things holding them back from glory? Maybe warm clothes, a sleep routine, dry nappies, and regular food really is the last thing they want?
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When you’re trying to escape the backpackers
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Everyone goes shopping and posts a selfie of the new clothes they bought while I’m over here like, I got some more camera things
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🌙
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“The world’s papers will be full of obituaries of the queen today. This is the life of Elizabeth Windsor.”
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What scientists have learnt from COVID lockdowns.
Restrictions on social contact stemmed disease spread, but weighing up the ultimate costs and benefits of lockdown measures is a challenge.
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Richard Branson:
"All businesses are an idea or service that make somebody else's life better. If you make other people's life better, you'll capture that value in return."
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I truly struggle to understand why we - as a global community - are so weird about immigration. That because of the genetic lottery you were born in a certain fenced area so you mainly just stay there for most of your life.
And we all fight to maintain that level of normalcy.
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I don't want normal, I want magic.
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Becoming a crypto bro just got easier
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Sunday morning at Bondi
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It’s amazing to me that the least valued, least used, and most uncool social network in the world is constantly the most important.
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Louis L'Amour:
“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”
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Proud to announce that I’ve been appointed as a noted person to dispose of any currencies with former heads of state on them. Please mail all currencies to my PO Box and I will dispose of the currency ethically and properly.
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I miss old-school Steve Jobs era Apple product launches. Steve would say that they designed some cool tech, we’d all agree and cheer. Tim Cook’s Apple pads it out with marketing BS “products that are essential to our daily lives and that work seamlessly together”.
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What’s the most you’ve paid for an Old Fashioned?
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Finally the Pringles people have removed the unnecessary lids. If once you pop you can’t stop, why have plastic lids?
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An opera I’d go to
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You can say what you want about the downfall of a Sydney institution like Bread & Circus after being sold but I can’t trust a cafe that takes my order on an iPad with a 30 pin dock connector.
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The Withers’ in Wonderland (at The Grounds of Alexandria)
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Experiencing Sydney through the eyes and words of a three year old is marvellous. She looks at this building and calls it a castle and supposes there could be a princess at the top. I said there’s more than likely a few princesses inside.
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Luna upon seeing Circular Quay and the Sydney ferries for the first time: they’re like pirates!
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Ten years of you trying to convince me to go halfsies with meals. Ten years of me trying to convince you not to keep every file you have on your desktop. Ten years of loving you. Ten years of being loved by you. Ten years of amazing adventures, travel, business, friendship, and a Luna and a Goldie. Ten of the best. Happy tenth wedding anniversary, baby xx
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How boring and sad for AFL, to keep up the boring old broadcast model for another 7 years.
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I’ve met the end of Chinese food game boss
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#notallstains
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No, just a little lower. There it is.
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Well, this W really gets a round
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September in Australia, by @newyorkcartoons and @scottdools
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Germany just finished a three-month trial of selling €9 monthly 'all you can eat' public transport tickets and not only did more than half the country take up the offer, they saw significant reductions in pollution. Now there are protests against ending the trial!
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Epictetus:
"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."
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Sydney this afternoon
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The real conspiracy I’d like Qanon to tell me about is why Australians are denied eggnog. How does Big Nog continue to ruin the lives of everyday Australians?
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"There’s no evidence two decades of pat-downs and shoe removal have made travellers any safer — so why does the theatre of airport security persist?"
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Luna presents me with a self-portrait for Father’s Day. I say “noo-noo”.
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Luna: discovers herself
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Teaching Goldie how to identify a sucker
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This Ars Technica article - Remembering the best shareware-era DOS games that time forgot - - reminds me of how I got shareware games before the internet. The local Video Ezy had a for-money shareware kiosk you could bring floppy disks to and get fresh ‘warez.
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Three year-old firstborn looks at me as I’m putting her to bed tonight and says “when you were a little boy I made you a daddy!”
It’s like she’s listening in on my therapy sessions.
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11 weddings to go before Mexico!
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It’s empowering seeing Ampol throw around the word “restaurant” so liberally. I’m going to erect a sign out the front of my house that says “male model”.
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I make wedding photo
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Things people have said to me tonight as I DJ a wedding I wasn’t even supposed to DJ:
Young female guest: Do you know who is playing right now? (Naughty By Nature and I instantly age 20 years)
Young male guest: What Spotify playlist is this?!? (I chose songs individually because it’s just more fun that way)
Middle aged female guest during a Missy Elliot song and just after September by Earth, Wind, and Fire have played: can you play more songs for us oldies, we don’t like this music and no-one’s dancing (I’m looking at a full dance floor).
A tip if you’re attending a wedding, save your requests for your drive home.
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Someone on Hacker News found an unbelievable Wikipedia article about the Athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics – men's marathon
"While Fred Lorz was greeted as the apparent winner, he was later disqualified as he had hitched a ride in a car for part of the race. The actual winner, Thomas Hicks, was near collapse and hallucinating by the end of the race, a side effect of being administered brandy, raw eggs, and strychnine by his trainers. The fourth-place finisher, Andarín Carvajal, took a nap during the race after eating spoiled apples."
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Steve Jobs:
"When you're young, you look at TV and think "there's a conspiracy." The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realise that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.
That's a far more depressing thought."