Epidemiologists: Omicron’s not a big deal guys. News media: NEW FLESH, LET’S GO BABY!
1859 or 2021?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness…”
Finally, ScoMo will keep me safe from you all.
We’ll that’s the last time I try to rent a hit man through RentAHitman.com, the guy behind it just forwards all the enquiries to the police and they aren’t proper hitmen. shout out to all the hitladies that also feel excluded.
Business idea: drone birth photography.
Britt: You’re not going to be able to get the cactus inside once you’ve repotted it. Me: Trust me honey, I’ve got this. Narrator: And yet he did not have “this.”
Got fizzy photographs // documented the build of Hard Fizz’s first home here on the Gold Coast.
#toiletsofthegoldcoast #hardfizzhq
My secret superpower is telling people that the lyrics in the chorus of George Ezra’s Budapest are “I’d leave it all”.
Welcome to the Withers Cinematic Universe.
What’s the @qldpolice definition of illegal littering?
Because every week a kid drives past my house and throws this rubbish on my driveway.
And is it the driver littering, their employer, or @woolworths, @TAFEQld, @bunnings, @JBHiFi and co?
I’m on a conference call right now with Dally Messenger and other leaders of the celebrant community with the Attorney-General’s office, and he’s made a big claim: That people who aren’t Australian First Nations, or Jewish or other religions, don’t have a culture. Thoughts?
A tale of two burghers
One of the best things about working in the wedding industry through Covid is that I’ve finally become the disappointment my step-mother said I was. #kickinggoals
My three most embarrassing celebrity interview stories
You’ve probably heard about Seven’s Matt Doran’s not listening to Adele’s new album before interviewing her. Classic “you had one job” kinda material. I’m not defending Matt, but I’ve got three embarrassing celebrity interview stories of my own from my time on radio if you’d like to hear them?
Story number one was my first interview with someone famous. Not my first conversation, that was with Diesel, aka Johnny Diesel, as I answered the call in the 4CRM reception and put it through to the announcer on air. This first story is about TISM.
TISM had just released 2004’s The White Albun was described to The Age as “basically what Jet are doing, which is taking The Beatles ideas and changing them a little bit at the end. If it’s worked for Jet, it’s going to work for us, that’s what we’re hoping.”
Their record company had emailed out opportunities for phone interviews and I, volunteer aspiring radio announcer at 107.5 FM Stereo 4CRM Community Radio Mackay keenly replied in the affirmative.
At the allotted time the phone rings, I put the phone in the second studio in speakerphone mode, point a microphone at that speaker, decide not to wear headphones, click record on the Sony MiniDisc recorder, and answer the call.
It’s my first phone interview, I’m nervous as hell, I have lost my paper notes, and I’ve forgotten the name of the person I’m interviewing. I think on my feet and pretend that we’re live on air. My thought is that I can make out like we’re live and get them to tell me their name.
Ron Hitler-Barassi is a smart man and he senses my screwup. He’s got his notes. He interrupts my spiel about how I’ve got my good mate from TISM on them phone and I’d like them to introduce themselves to my (very small) audience.
Ron Hitler-Barassi says “if we’re such good friends Joshua Withers from 4CRM Mackay, why don’t you introduce me to everyone listening.” The interview is me stumbling over myself the whole time and it’s terrible.
Luckily because I wasn’t wearing studio headphones I couldn’t hear that I had left the horse racing satellite channel up and the interview was me, Ron Hitler-Barassi, and the horse racing. Sadly lost to the archives.
The second story is from a few years later when I’d gotten a paid job in commercial radio - as a broadcast engineer/nerd/IT guy for Sea FM on the Gold Coast - but I actually wanted to be on air so I was volunteering hosting breakfast at the station now called Juice 107.3FM.
It was really running me down, on air from 6am to 9am as a volunteer and then working a full-time job after. Tired does not begin to describe my state of being. This morning I’d gotten off air, forgot I had a phone interview, and fell asleep on a couch.
I’m asleep, and the radio station receptionist wakes me up and tells me that Guy Sebastian is on hold for me.
I remember that I was supposed to listen to his new Memphis album, and I was supposed to have researched his motives behind recording the album, and what it all meant - I had done none of this.
Fudged the whole interview, revealed to Guy Sebastian that I hadn’t listened to the album, didn’t know what Memphis music was like, and I was a fish out of water. Guy’s management banned me from doing future phone interviews. Rightly so.
Embarrassing story number three is from my very first day on air at what was then called Star FM Port Macquarie, formerly Rox, now Hit. I had a fill-in co-host for the week til my actual co-host was home from mental health break after the last co-host almost drove her mad.
It was International Men’s Day 2010, so my pitch was that we try and get as many international men on the breakfast show as possible.
I start tweeting and mentioning people furiously figuring if I asked lots of people, a handful would reply. One of them was @russellcrowe.
I don’t know why Russell Crowe called. My guess is that he thought I was a kid pranking him and he’d freak me out by actually calling.
Either way, here’s the awkward and uncomfortable recording on Soundcloud.
I die inside listening to that.
"More evidence suggests that nature does something essential for our mental health"
“More evidence suggests that nature does something essential for our mental health. Specifically, we have learned that nature tends to result in reduced circulating levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, lowered blood pressure, blunted “perceived stress” after stressful life events, and lower short-term levels of anxiety and depression. We also appear to ruminate less after we’ve spent time in nature, a phenomenon distinct enough to appear as differences in neural activity during brain scans. One recent study selected 541 vacant lots across the city of Philadelphia and randomly allocated each to either receive no intervention; receive regular trash removal and mowing; or be turned into open pocket parks, with trees and a pleasant, short wooden-perimeter fence. Survey teams blind to the intervention were sent out to question residents at random before and after the great experiment, eventually interviewing nearly 450 people about their mental health. When the study was complete, its architects found that residents of neighborhoods where lots had been greened were much healthier psychologically than those whose lots had merely been cleaned. Around greened lots, neighborhood-level rates of feeling “depressed” dropped by 42%, feeling “worthless” by 51% and having generally “poor mental health” by 63 percent.
Read the whole article in Outside via Kyle Westaway’s Weekend Briefing email.
I turn 40 in a few weeks. There was a time where I never believed I’d make it past 21 as I saw friends and people around me dropping like flies.
Between 21 and 39 I mostly felt immortal.
But for the past year all I have thought about is what will happen to my blog when I die.
There’s a new Terminal command in macOS Monterey: networkquality.
It’s an internet speed test in the terminal.
Is this how Apple News is supposed to work? I make an active decision to not engage with content from a certain brand, and in its place I just get a full page notice that I’ve chosen to not engage with that brand?
I don’t know who need to hear this, but the young male voice that says “Welcome to McDonalds, we’ll be with you in a moment” as you pull up at a McDonalds drive through is a pre-recorded message.
You don’t need to say “thanks” like I do each time.
“Most people in life want one-of-a-kind outcomes.
The problem is, in the quest to get there, most people follow the same path as everyone else.
Lesson: If you want an n-of-1 result, don’t take the 1-of-n road.”
You need to know about, and install the Shortcut for, 12ft.io if you browse the webs and don’t want to have a subscription to every flipping news website on the planet.
Presenting the Hard Fizz HQ Gold Coast toilets … shot for zero 9.
Taking expressions of interest in a Slightly Interested Koalas Yacht Club from any of you that have too much money.
“Over the last couple of years, governments have been telling Australians what to do, now there has been a need for that as we have gone through the pandemic, but the time is now to start rolling all of that back.”
If you’re waiting for a sign …
“I realised that anything I did long enough to master was no longer useful to me.”
– Designer, Milton Glasser
A mate mentioned pirating software and it took me right back to 20 years ago where we had a keygen or a hack or serial number for ecverything.
They really were the good ol days, access to the world’s software, entertainment, and media, the only cost was time, so much time waiting for the painfully slow internet to bring you the goods.
It’s a hard position to advocate for - piracy - but letting kids have free access to software created a generation of modern creatives and tech professionals. Back then, to learn Photoshop or CAD or programming we’d pirate it, now you’ve got to pony up dollars every month. How do kids today learn this stuff without paying thousands of dollars they don’t havre for it?
This thread on antivaxx rings so true right now in my own life 🧵
“Rich people need it. Poor people have it. If you eat it, you die. And when you die, you take it with you. What is it?”
The “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” declassified in 2008 and available on the CIA’s website, provided instructions for how everyday people could help the Allies weaken their country by reducing productivity.
Sounds like a regular office.
Introducing Luna to the great Australian tradition of running through sprinklers naked in summer
I’m not an anti-vaxxer I just enjoy typing those five words to trigger you.
Currently reading: Inside Steve’s Brain by Leander Kahney 📚
Will driverless cars do burnouts?
It’s cool that there’s a Catwoman, Batman, and Spider-Man, but where’s all the stories about Possumperson, Koalaman, and Wombatwoman?
Reminder today of the best coffee I’ve ever drink in the whole planet, two years ago in Tokyo: Sarutahiko Coffee, outside a train station. Their classic French blend will forever be my gold standard for coffee.
Seven years ago since Kim Kardashian broke the internet. Hopefully they’ll start fixing it soon.
Is this like climate change? How long have they been recording it? And by what measure do they define it being good or bad? I have so many questions.
What’s the best New York street?
If I can be real for a bit, I find it extremely disconcerting that the unvaccinated are being treated like this. Seriously. It’s scary how a society and government can decide to ostracise like this. Imagine if it was the same thing on a different vector.
The Metaverse already exists, it's just currently called the Internet
Here is the punchline: the Metaverse already exists, it just happens to be called the Internet. Consider the seven qualities Matthew Ball used to define the Metaverse; the Internet satisfies all of them:
- The Internet is persistent
- The Internet is synchronous and live
- The Internet has no cap to concurrent users, while also providing each user with an individual sense of “presence”
- The Internet has a fully functioning economy
- The Internet is an experience that spans both the digital and physical worlds, private and public networks/experiences, and open and closed platforms
- The Internet offers unprecedented (although not perfect) interoperability of data, digital items/assets, content, etc.
- The Internet is populated by “content” and “experiences” created and operated by an incredibly wide range of contributors
“Doing small things with love is the atom of bravery.”
— Mark Nepo
Listening to radio on the Sunshine Coast and the announcer plays three grabs of three songs then says “find out which one we’re going to play after the break” so it’s good to know they’ve not invented any new ideas for daytime radio.
Proposal: Reclassify the Logan Hyperdome to a Logan Dome.
“Most people optimise for the day ahead. A few people optimise for 1-2 years ahead. Almost nobody optimises for 3-4 years ahead (or longer).
The person who is willing to delay gratification longer than most reduces competition and gains a decisive advantage.
Patience is power.”
– James Clear
Something no-one talks about is how if you’re really cool in the metaverse, you’re actually not really cool in real life.
Just minted an NFT of the current vibe in my house after I’ve sole-parented all day. Critics are calling it a “hollowed out tree trunk of a man”, others are saying “I would not spend 1eth on that.”
Available now on OpenSea.
I don’t want to be Elon Musk Rich, I just want to be Extra Guac Even If I’m Not Sure Rich. I
Cool story
The year is 2051. All of us but the elite are working for below minimum wage in the Farmville metaverse tending to digital crops and feeding metaverse animals in overseas countries so we have a metaverse visa to access a different metaverse than the one our parents were in.
Local barista wrapped up our conversation saying “see you next week!”
Am I allowed back tomorrow because I assume she works on a Sunday to Saturday calendar where I personally see Monday as the first day of the week?
It was an overcast morning for shooting the build of the new restaurant at Kirra Pavilion but they wanted it to look bright and sunny.
Lightroom is evil, and its new sky selection tool is even naughtier.
Editing the image in three screenshots …
In the metaverse there are no clothes. Just pixels.
Proud of you Scotty, you’ve now written 100% more books than most other people on the planet. You join the ranks of Seth Godin, the Apostle Paul, John Green, Stephen King, and of course Nick Earls. Party on, Wayne 🤘🏻
Sharing a little highlight gallery from a property I’m documenting for Zero 9 Constructions. We’re a few weeks away from handover at this stage.
I’m kind of in love with this Japanese style soaking tub.
If our parents disown us in real life do they disown us in the metaverse?
Shoot day for a bunch of Gold Coast businesses today
Please do not worship me, but I just wound up a dish cloth tightly and whipped a fly to its death.
Age groupings
Imagine being on the Q train from Brooklyn into Manhattan, a regular Tuesday morning in September 2001, the train comes above ground and the World Trade Towers are just on fire then it sinks underground again and you don’t know what’s going on.
Snapper Rocks
One of my earliest memories - and there’s only a few from this traumatic time in my life - is watching my new step-mother, Selena, pile up all of our childhood photos, memories of my mother, and the family before Selena arrived, and burn them in the backyard. It was quite ceremonial and I imagine it must have felt quite nice for her. But I’ve always wondered what the significance was.
Burning the photos didn’t make my mother burn, despite her absence at the time, but it wasn’t until later in life that I recognised what she was burning: my story.
My first camera was a Nokia 7600 with an almighty 0.3 megapixel sensor and the magic of capturing photos overcame me.
Which leads me to today.
I make photos today, they’re ok, but I’m really interested in discovering how photos matter to people, how my photos can matter to people, and if they would.
My plan
The plan is to document these learnings, what I’ve experienced and learned so far, dive into equipment, techniques, and talk about money, in an email/blog called “Shudder Speed” and you can subscribe, all free, shudderspeed.co
I’ll share what I’ve learned, ask questions of my friends that are practising photographers, and reach out to strangers to ask the same questions.
Sometime in the next decade or so maybe I’ll figure out how to make photos that matter to people other than me, and I’d love to drag you along for the ride.
I’ve been lucky enough to create weddings all over the globe and I’ve been trying to make photos that matter that entire time. Generally speaking I’ve been mostly unsuccessful at reaching this goal, but the few times one of my photos has mattered to someone will be documented in upcoming emails.
I’m still creating weddings and elopements, and intend to continue until people stop asking me to.
How do floorboards work?
Like, if your toddler vomits and there’s vomit between the floorboards, is that no longer my responsibility now that it’s out of my paper towel’s reach?
What are the floorboard rules?
Real talk fam, are people really paying $50 or $75 a month for LinkedIn?
A little demo of Adobe Photoshop 2022’s Neural filter on one of my photos
Qantas: Yeah, look, there’s been a slight delay with your flight, you’re going to be four weeks late …
I hope one day I can look back on my life and say I was wrong more than I was right.
That will mean I wasn’t on the sidelines, but I was on the field, fighting, having a go. I’ll not be proud of being wrong, but admitting it when I am.
That distinctive, earthy odour that is associated with rainfall is called petrichor. When raindrops land on a porous surface, air from the pores forms small bubbles, which float to the surface and release aerosols. Such aerosols carry a scent as well as bacteria and viruses from the soil. The scent is called petrichor.
Via the very good Dense Discovery email.
“I heard that Warren Buffett addresses the early drafts of his shareholder letters to his sister, Dorothy. Once he finishes it, he replaces her name with “Shareholders.”
The lesson: Writing for a huge audience is a fast track to getting writer’s block, so write for one person instead.”
via Monday Musings
How I’m feeling through this season:
“Each time you stopped, you would descend into a depression, believing that you had hit a wall and lost the ability to work, that you would never work again.”
From: The life and the work are equally important - by Shaun Usher
Can you believe that we’ve turned Australia off and on again a few times, but we still have this silly Melbourne Cup virus running around our system.
Surely after the last two years we could of learned how to get drunk and eat roast chicken without needlessly killing horses?
Boy, am I feeling this after the last two years of hell in my business.
Tim Ferriss tells the crowd at South by Southwest in 2007 that:
“their professional lives were unsustainable, and that they should consider doing something more interesting with their time.”
I’ve never been more interested in quitting work and becoming that crazy man that lives in the bush.
Netflix says 142 million households have watched Squid Games. Wikipedia says there are 2,178 million “households” in the world. So, 6.5% of the households have seen the most popular Netflix show ever.
You don’t need to win everyone, you just need to win a few. Be unpopular. Be niche.
People across the liberated democracy of Australia celebrate as they are now liberated to visit other countries muted cheers as everyone realises they’ve got to go through LAX customs in a few hours
“I just want to fucking make it one more day.”
– Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters, His Memoir, Life After Nirvana in Vulture
Chinghee Creek on a Saturday Night for Travis & Christie
“Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”
Benjamin Franklin
Happy 50th Sea World
50 of my and Luna’s favourite photos at Sea World for their 50th birthday today
Not in a million years could I of imagined Miley Cyrus, Elton John, WATT, Yo-Yo Ma, Metallica’s own Robert Trujillo on bass + Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums covering Nothing Else Matters - and that I’d love it.
Remember that time that the Black Eyed Peas hadn’t hit the big time yet, but when they did they had to re-record one of their songs? I’m prepping for a wedding I’m DJing tonight and wondering how people would react if I pulled out the OG.
On @danilic’s prompting I’ve installed DaVinci Resolve and am trying it for the first time this morning. I don’t know what this does but I am frightened at how it could edit me.
My favourite macOS Monterey feature is the bug when you spread your four fingers to expose (Mission Control) the Desktop but the Desktop isn’t usable to drag and drop onto, or into folders.
Luna’s learning the ancient story of Saint Vincent de Paul, the mysterious saint that roams the homes of naughty children taking their favourite toys to sell them for a gold coin.
Friday sunrise at Snapper Rocks
Corporate headshots don’t have to look like you were just dragged in front of a photographer to get a photo for the website.
Created for Lightning Broadband.
One story out of many on how the Sydney Covid lockdown currently ending has cost me so much money
On the first day of the Sydney lockdown that’s currently ending, I had a wedding booked in the Blue Mountains. I was driving down (flights had been cancelled twice) at the time the lockdown was announced and I told the couple I couldn’t attend their wedding because:
- The couple lived in one of the four local government area’s that had been ordered to stay at home, the NSW Premier said at the time “if you live or work in those four local government areas you should not leave your home unless you have to.”
- Sydney was entering a pretty severe lockdown and weddings were banned, there was literally four reasons given to leave the house. Weddings were allowed “for compassionate reasons” on the day they were married and I didn’t think that an elopement with no guests for a local couple who hadn’t communicated any compassionate reasons was more important than public safety.
- I would need to quarantine on arrival back to Queensland for two weeks afterward which is super fun for work and leave me making a financial loss on the wedding.
I offered to freely postpone to a time when they were allowed to marry, and if I couldn’t be there, I’d hire a celebrant in my place.
They rejected that offer and found a celebrant and photographer who would flout the stay at home orders.
Today a NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal member issued them a full refund because I told them I couldn’t come, instead of just leaving them high and dry and not turning up, because then it would have then been a force majeure event.
So just in case you were curious, lockdowns mean nothing to consumer action, law is an ever flexible and changing ball of goo, the wedding industry really is not going well after two years of this, and apparently I now it’s my job to report a couple to NSW Police for breaching stay at home orders.
Covid sucks. Covid has almost completely killed my passion for weddings.
Zuckerberg chose Meta over Oasis?! That’s $100 to the bookies I’ll never get back.
Dreading the day that I see in VR a friend commit real-life suicide in the middle of a metaverse flame-war because they’re antivax or think pineapple on pizza is important.
It’s super cute when people talk about national debt like it’s not a completely made up concept, not a scientific force of nature like gravity.
Sunrise elopement at The Calile Hotel this morning
Sorry sir, I am all out of way
It’s hot, damn hot. If you’re getting married when it’s hot: 1) Bring cold water, so much flipping water, 2) Get married as late in the day as your venue and photographer will let you, 3) find the shade, for the love of god put us in the shade.
All of my Apple devices are upgraded and now there’s a openthread.thread.home.arpa on my network. Nest Smoke Alarms, or HomePod Minis?
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. 20 years of Windows XP #neverforget
Monday afternoon in Burleigh Heads
Luna’s birthday week comes to a close. Now we have 51 weeks of mourning until her fourth birthday celebrations can begin.
When Apple started using the phrase “there’s an app for that” in 2009, they were definitely not thinking of an app that simulates a cat purring on your lap being released today.
Uh, oh, watch out petrol cars, the Chief Health Officer is coming for ya!
Two iPods are some of my favourite computers of all time
These two computers are two of my favourite Apple computers. The iMac G4, the white Intel MacBook, and my current Apple Silicon MacBook Air are up there as well, but these two were the first computers I fell in love with.
The first, the iPod Shuffle. A computer without a screen with seven buttons and two ports. 512MB of my favourite songs shuffled. I have vivid memories of walking to work with this wonder of a computer.
The second, the iPhone I bought when I couldn’t buy an iPhone, the iPod Touch, released in Australia while the iPhone was USA only.
Happy 20th birthday, iPod, you’ve run a good race.
Panic’s Cabel Sasser shares a prototype original iPod on the iPod’s 20th birthday.
Steve Jobs’s resume:
“I’m looking for a fixer-upper with a solid foundation. Am willing to tear down walls, build bridges, and light fires. I have great experience, lots of energy, a bit of that ‘vision thing’ and I’m not afraid to start from the beginning.”
My Kindle Oasis is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, almost four years old and it’s battery barely lasts a day or two.
Is there a new Oasis on the cards or do I just replace it, considering the battery is non-replaceable?
“I’ve long thought that the destruction of time in which to think – and do nothing else – is a much more massive problem than anyone cares to think about, nor has time to.”
M.G. Siegler in his email today, and then links to his 2015 piece: The Death of Thought.
Just some personal news, I’ve decided that I know about the same amount about epidemiology, public health policy, firearms, the movie industry, bushfires, human rights, sexuality, religion, climate, and nuclear submarines.
But if you want any ideas on which MacBook to buy 🤙🏼
Facebook’s algorithm automatically sent a bot “full-on Qanon” within 48 hours.
One day I’ll write an essay about how the Facebook algorithm’s tendency to send people this way has made my life rather painful.
Life status: my three year old lives on my shoulders.
I’ve got 99 problems and they could all be solved with a new MacBook Pro, a DJI Mavic 3, and maybe a new 35mm lens I think.
Seeing as though my social media influence is waning on the daily I have some personal news, I’m starting a Withers Media & Technology Group. You’re going to love it.
How do you know things?
I think all day every day about the world I want to leave Luna and Goldie in.
I spend so much time wondering how to teach them how to know things. What they know will forever by growing and changing, but how they know things. How they learn, and how they research, and experiment, that’s so important to me.
So I’ve decided to create email accounts for them and to start writing to them. Because my words matter to them.
Your words matter.
Share them, with anyone, everyone, with me.
I don’t really care about fitting in with cool buzzwords and virtue signalling. But tell me how you lived in a tense moment today and how it was weird or awkward, but we learned more about each other.
Tell me about how you didn’t know something and you said you didn’t know.
Tell me about how you were scared and you said you were scared.
Life’s too short for platitudes and fitting in. Let’s be scared, daft, vulnerable, and authentic together. I don’t care what you know, but I’d love to know how you know it.
“The committee recommends that the Australian Government establish a new Decentralised Autonomous Organisation company structure.”
In the Australian Financial Review: Senate report proposes model to regulate the crypto economy
Every day I wonder when the day will arrive when it’s the last time I ever pick Luna up. What I mean is that when she’s 35 I’m probably not going to pick her up and throw her on my shoulders. So when, between three and thirty five will that day be?
“You always know when you’re doing something for the first time, and you almost never know when you’re doing something for the last time.”
“I collect shares of businesses … I use a certain type of non fungible token called a stock certificate for this.
Speedtest’s quarterly Australian internet report shows that Aussie Broadband outperforms everyone else, including Telstra. I’m an Aussie customer, I’m getting about 900mbps down, if you signup using my refer-a-friend code we both get a kick off our next bill: 5272836.
The most annoying position anyone can take through this season is a religious devotion to vaccines, or anti-vax, or lockdown, or open up, or whatever fucking position you think is correct.
We’re all mostly wrong and have no idea.
Screenshot from today’s NYT email.
GG
Guy on the phone with me right now from Australia Post is trying to convince me that Australia Post does other things on top of delivering mail, I’m like “just deliver me my mail, mate” and he’s not too sure what to do with that information.
Ben Sherpherd’s “The Commercial Experience 21.11: Programming the news media” dissects how the news has changed over the last three years
“My view is news media was more like SVOD, but COVID has made it more like TV.”
It really has been a blockbuster season of tiring news.
A walking disappointment to his mother
The Gold Coast gets one case of Covid, the first in 15 days in Queensland, and the whole state breathes in through its teeth.
“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”
“The stated mission of a company worth almost two trillion dollars is to “organize the world’s information” and yet the Internet remains poorly organized.”
– Re-Organizing the World’s Information: Why we need more Boutique Search Engines
Happy third birthday Lu, I’m so proud to be your dad
Me, telling friends about the Hamilton soundtrack being re-released in spatial audio
What the actual? The notification takes you to the iCloud Backup section of settings to make sure you’re backed up before you switch to a new iPad?!
I have not purchased a new iPad, do not intend to, nor do I need to, this one is months old.
I know that ultimately this is a tech error inside Apple, but damn you’re looking creepy Apple.
“The measure of a commercially successful newspaper is not simply how well it reports the big events, but what it does when there are no dying statesmen, bloodthirsty desperadoes, or heinous crimes to write about. Hearst succeeded in New York not only because he knew how to report the big stories, but because he was a master at constructing news from nothing.”
From The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, via David Perell’s email.
David goes on to say,
“Newspapers aren’t any shorter on a slow news day. People need to stay busy. Advertisements still need to be fulfilled. The revenue needs to keep rolling in.
To that end, the biggest source of bias in the media industry isn’t the perspective a newspaper takes on a story, but its decision to report on a story in the first place. Knowing that, Hearst was a master at taking inconsequential stories and turning them into must-reads. He knew that events only become news once journalists and editors commit to publicizing them.
Are things any different today?”
Avis Car Rental brings “car as a subscription” to Australia.
Have you ever wondered who coined the term “Content is King”? The year was 1996, and Bill Gates published an essay.
Apple Prediction in October 2021: the Apple Music Voice/Siri plan lasts no more than two years.
Going down market never looks good on Apple. “Here’s a cheaper crappier version of our thing if money’s really important to you, whatever, we don’t care”.
The year is 2061, @Anthony_Wiggle with a long grey beard is sitting on a large wooden throne in Wiggle Town making an announcement of a new Wiggle coming & an old Wiggle leaving; people in virtual reality are booing and slapping the elderly Wiggle, screaming for good ol days.
I’ve just finished the seven episode podcast, 9/12, which tells the story of a post 9/11 America, and crescendoes to a beautiful finale. It’s a valuable story to engage with, not just what happened on 11 September 2001, but how the world responded, and why we “never forget”.
Sunday was a doozy. Over the past few months we’ve shared photos on social media from trips when travel was allowed and legal, in a time when it wasn’t allowed. So the Queensland Police received an anonymous tip to Crimestoppers, and that was the start of the day. Luckily I keep great photo and travel records and we didn’t actually breach travel restrictions. So thanks, anonymous.
To end the day last night’s groom got aggressive and threatening because as his wedding celebrant, MC, DJ, I played songs not on his playlist, as he called it “my standard list”. My music selection had people dancing. I guess he wanted his wedding to be a show of his music taste instead of the red flag he kept on waving: “it’s her day.”
If you’re ever curious why late night activities that include drinking alcohol are more expensive, it’s because life’s too short to deal with irrational drunk people.
Ben Shepherd is asked a question that I think about often:
“If you were to start a media company right now, what would it look like?”
And he shares his insightful answer (that I really liked) on his Substack: The Commercial Experience
“I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me.”
“The human race is likely to be wiped out by a doomsday virus before this millennium is out unless it starts to colonize space, top British scientist Stephen Hawking warned on Tuesday.”
“We are born with only one obligation – to be completely who we are.”
– Mark Nepo
Turns out that in 2005 I was the 312th person to register for an account on the new website, Reddit, and today I’m one of 30 of that 312 still registered users.
This is what old age looks like.
In 2055 I’ll be interviewed on 60 Minutes for the 50th anniversary of Reddit.
I’m that insecure the password to my heart is my first daughter’s first name, capital first letter, followed by the number 1 and an exclamation mark.
Please tell me there are more than 30 people that have been on Reddit for more than 16 years?! I
Hey, I don’t like to discuss medical freedoms on here, but what is Apple TV+’s insistence on viewers watching the show’s credits to the end? Every other streamer shows the “watch next” selection straight away.
“The best business ideas have yet to be tried. The best books have yet to be written. The best relationships have yet to be formed.
It’s not too late. The space of possibilities is endless. The most interesting terrain remains unexplored.”
– James Clear
Your top 20 songs by plays says a lot about who you are
“We are a revolutionary cloud-based website” says this guy selling virtual staging to real estate agents.
Why does everything in sales have to be dodgy and buzzwordy.
Are humans not capable of being sold to without bullshit?
Hey nerds, I was not aware of how nerdy we are. Someone in my Certificate IV in Real Estate class right now just asked the trainer “how many people do you think are moving to smartphones”.
Lodge
Brisbane as the clouds subsided today at sunset
JQ940
I auditioned to join the Kyle & Jackie O show in 2011 & was flown to Sydney. In the interview the EP asked if it was ok for Kyle to call me a c**t, so him defending Denis Handlin isn’t surprising. I was ok with ‘the name’ but quit radio soon after cause life’s too short.
I was so excited for the gig and remember walking away thinking that if that was the top of the ladder, I didn’t want to climb the ladder anymore.
Buying a property soon? I’m hearing some crazy stats about meth and what it means for your personal health if you live in a house where meth has been used. The trainer is recommending people sign contracts under condition of not only building and pest, but now, also meth.
Over the last 18 months of the spicy cough tearing apart the wedding and events industry, confidence has never been lower.
So I’m in a classroom today studying for a Cert IV in Real Estate.
🌵
I think about this daily: Your Professional Peak Is Earlier Than You Think - The Atlantic
For the first time in history, Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible has been followed in a playlist by Feel Good Inc from the Gorillaz. Attending this real estate course this week has been a wild ride of experiencing the trainer’s playlist tastes.
My greatest fear, as recognised in 1947 by ad-man, Bill Bernbach:
“I’m worried that we’re going to worship techniques instead of substance.”
If there was a vaccine for “sameness, a mental weariness, a mediocrity of ideas” I’d be first in line.
Remember that time Sesame Street’s Bert marched with Bin Laden?
“No major Hollywood release has portrayed China’s government in a negative light since 1997’s Seven Years in Tibet, as analyst Matt Schrader has shown.”
QR898 B777 8 Oct 2021
Dear, tonight’s hotel, two things.
Firstly, thank you for taking some of the covidsafe precautions.
Secondly, 75 emails?!
Can you recommend a relationship manager/app that’s very iOS/iPadOS/Mac/internet native.
In particular, it’d be super cool if a contact was in the CRM and when they called, Phone.app would display the name because it integrated with the CallKit Call Directory app extension.
I’m still really proud of this photo. It was my first photo that “went somewhere” … it was printed on the side of a Queensland Rail Citytrain. Taken from what is now @hotagc.
Three years ago I pontificated that the future of the iPhone was the Apple Watch, @markgurman lent that way today in his Power On email … should’ve put some cash down on it
I’m in training all week this week and it’s fascinating to be reminded that not everyone is all in on the Apple ecosystem. 20+ people, me and 2 others on Apple.
You are not an aspirant. You are as complete as you can be today. None of us are finished. All of us are aspiring, so none of us are.
A Primer on the Parasocial Economy - Cybernaut
“One aspect of the creator economy I’ve found curiously under-explored is precisely why fans pay their favorite creators; both indirectly in attention”
Revenue generating idea for Facebook: I will pay lots of dollars a month, maybe even $3, for any of your apps to never show me a red dot or notification ever again.
Honestly, if you saw Nate become (redacted) in the season two finale of Ted Lasso you’re officially smarter than me.
Luna just found out that polar bears and dogs can be friends and it’s like that scene in Ted Lasso when the billionaire tells Banksy and Sam that they both just met a cool person.
I’ve been on the job hunt for a while now and I’m open to new roles that might benefit from a set of skills someone like me has. Here’s my resume … I figure that if you follow me here you might have insight into who I am and maybe that’s helpful?
Fairlane
Thanks
Ever since they named me Person of the Year 2006 I knew that this Time magazine thing might go somewhere
Why You Should Stop Reading News
“We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is news doesn’t make us informed. In fact, the more news we consume the more misinformed we become.
“The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become.”
– James Clear
There are two ways of making a living. The familiar, predictable way, and a Pareto style payoff.
“This Pareto world is extremely competitive, random, and highly unpredictable.”
Tyre shop guy: we’ve got tyres in that size from brand blah blah we’ve got the bluh bluhs and from brand ughh we have their gobble gobbles and the crapshoots.
Me: I’ll take the whatsamacallits from whosiewhatsit, because trust me, I know a lot about tyres.
“Either we are the makers of our future or we’re the victims. And if we don’t understand these fundamental components of how the world works, our actions may undermine our goals as well as the people around us.”
There needs to be some sort of 1300 Hotline situation for people whose partners and families are antivaxxers. They are dealing with so much bullshit it’s like fighting a bushfire. We need pamphlets people!
This website is doing god’s work canyonmid.com … please enjoy
“There is always more surface to a shattered object than a whole.”
Djuna Barnes to Emily Coleman, 1960, The Book of Repulsive Women and Other Poems.
If you’re wondering what it looks like when you take your wife’s keys and they’re on the Find My Network …
I would pay at least $5, maybe even $6, to be able to log in to my old ICQ account (49739400), IRC servers, or my old MSN Messenger account, and scroll through those awkward chat logs. I’m barely confident today. Back then I was a hot mess.
Why is it called a podcast? I love that the iPod hackers paved the way. Thanks @podnews for compiling everything together,
Deconstructing Christianity
Deconstructing your Christianity. A few links for friends.
Four episodes of The Naked Church podcast, episodes eight, nine, ten, and eleven.
The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne started ruining everything for me over a decade ago.
The Universal Christ, by Richard Rohr.
Finding God in the Waves, by Mike McHargue.
Rob Bell’s Everything is Spiritual.
Love Matters More by Jared Byas.
Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes plus everything Pete Holmes has ever done including the TV show, Crashing, which is amazing.
And finally, The Liturgists podcast, which went full deconstruction years ago and came around again. Listen to it all, it’s a wild ride.
Deconstructing and rebuilding your faith is an interesting journey, and the best is yet to come.
The Mind Body Prescription is blowing my mind. About to read the book and become “that guy”.
20 years ago in Australian tech news, Australian composers, Nigel Helyer, aka Dr Sonique, and Jon Drummond, copyright every possible phone number as a touch-tone tune. As reported in The Age at the time.
I’m no saint, but whenever I get a scam call I’ll lead them on for as long as I can just to annoy the scammer and to waste their time. I also ask them if they tell their mother what they do for work, that’s usually when they hang up. Making the world better one call at a time
Ten years on we’re all still bitching about iPhone launches, still looking for that 2007 iPhone feeling
Goldie, there’s nothing silver about her.
Everything will be hacked, today it’s roaming text messages for the last few years
A quick Google search would say that Australia’s Optus, Telstra, and Vodafone are clients: Company That Routes Billions of Text Messages Quietly Says It Was Hacked
“whoever hacked Syniverse could have had access to metadata such as length and cost, caller and receiver’s numbers, the location of the parties in the call, as well as the content of SMS text messages.”
“Take the money and run” is the title of a blank canvas currently being exhibited that cost the museum $84,000 because the artist took the money, and ran
Harris Farm: Due to Covid-19 please do not touch the fish. Everyone: Due to everything ever please do not touch the fish until you’re buying it: and
The final words of a newspaper man with 8 decades of published words
“Editing the final details of one’s life is like editing a story for the final time. It’s the last shot an editor has at making corrections, the last rewrite before the roll of the presses …
It’s more painful than I anticipated to throw away files and paperwork that seemed critical to my survival just two weeks ago, and today, are all trash …
I just wish I could stay a little longer.”
Jack Thomas in the Boston Globe - Archived on archive.is
This podcast episode by Rob Bell really helped me understand the antivaxx movement.