Another day, another Airbnb, another part of Tennessee, another sunset. Seems cyclical.

Ted Gioia documents the story of Barnes and Noble’s rebirth and regrowth:

“Daunt refused to play this game. He wanted to put the best books in the window. He wanted to display the most exciting books by the front door. Even more amazing, he let the people working in the stores make these decisions. This is James Daunt’s super power: He loves books.”

Boring kids

A Squirrel’s tale

So a white Christmas in Nashville is pretty cool

Old mate out on the back fence of our Airbnb in Nashville this morning is a bit cold.

Merry Christmas from The Withers, Tennessee edition.

Please let it be true, that 2023 is the year of RSS. Death to big tech running our conversations, our views, our beliefs, our relationships and our careers.

That cold front hits Franklin, Tennessee and its -18 degrees Celsius but feels like negative 30.

So so cold

Where you from? Australians: Australia. Americans: Town, State, GPS Coordinates, local landmarks, name of their neighbour.

I’ve been in Nashville less than 24 hours and the Christmas miracles have already begun

It is well

and with that the 2022 wedding season comes to an end

I’ve almost escaped Australia, just waiting for that delay to Dallas to stop being a delay

Pretty proud to see our AirBnb - The Tugun Pause - featured as a best Gold Coast AirBnb beach house and also best Gold Coast pet-friendly accomodation!

Have you ever wondered what the last tweet will be?

Update on my Playdate pre-order/order that I’ve been salivating over since 2019: they were kind enough to move me to American shopping and it’s now in the mail!

You're Being Lied to About Electric Cars writes Jonny Lieberman:

“Science has repeatedly shown EVs are better for humans, despite the meme you just retweeted.”

What a dramatic moment: Just dropped in to get a haircut from my favourite barber before I fly back to North America on Tuesday and he’s quitting his job as I walk in! Awkwardly shakes my hand then gets his stuff and leaves!

Really proud of how The Sizzle has grown. You deserve all the success, Anthony/@decryption.

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), ‘Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?’ chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

I’m selling a 245L Hisense freezer if anyone is interested, like this totally genuine buyer.

Growing up in Central Queensland meant your coastline was always filled with ships taking coal and sugar to the world.

I really weirdly always feel alone when I look at a coastline and see no ships.

So it’s been nice to be back in Mackay for a few hours.

Before we get too excited about fusion energy, space travel and flying cars, it’s important to remember that this is how Australia Post wants me to find a lost package, with details from a Windows 2000 screenshot and calling a national hotline.

My favourite thing about flying out of regional locations in Australia is that you can be having coffee with a mate just before the flight, watch the flight coming to land which, means you should probably get up and drive to the airport so you can walk on just-in-time.

iOS 16.2 means we can listen to music without the lyrics for focused work

Chatted to a flight attendant today who is proudly quitting and taking a job with Virgin after Christmas because of all the "negativity at Jetstar" which is hard to believe because Jetstar seems like it would be the loveliest place to work if you hate existing.

Such a Century Gothic welcome

Is flying with your pillow a thing? Half the passengers disembarking and about the same boarding my flight have pillows. It’s an 11am 90 minute flight!

How is Jetstar the only Australian airline fully utilising the Apple Wallet API with flight and gate updates and heaps of info inside the ticket info page?

Nine years ago I had an internet-enabled egg tray. I feel like technology has not really advanced past this milestone.

It's absolutely glorious reading the reactions to the introduction of the push button.

"The fact that so often in modern America one may press a button and be served, seems to relieve one of any necessity for responsibility about what goes on behind the button?"

Oxford University was over 300 years old when the Aztec Empire was founded - more unlikely simultaneous events over at Kottke.

The invention of jaywalking by Clive Thompson.

Me doing my job on Bruny Island on Thursday from two different points of view

Patrick McKenzie’s travel recommendations post for Japan is really good:

“You should have most of your meals at places which you don’t know the name of and which, ideally, see relatively few foreign guests. Almost every train station in Japanese cities has an almost arbitrary depth of restaurants around it. The ones closest to the station are not your best options, but go out any station gate and walk 2–3 blocks (a few hundred meters) and then just walk in anywhere.”

I read posts like this and wish I was a better/wish I was a graphic designer. I jsut don’t hold the skill.

I like the premise of this app, I’m always keen to have breakfast with someone new and interesting.

Cam Winstanley on Read Only Memory writes about the making of what I still consider the ultimate real time strategy game, Dune II;

“Dune II did a great job of hitting the hot sand running, not only creating a genre but also working as a piece of stand-alone entertainment”

"You have to think anyway, so why not think big?"

back in my safe place: “going somewhere”

Hey, you guys wanna play old people's Seven Minutes in Heaven?

Novelist Jeanette Winterson on the value of darkness:

"I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing — their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses.

To sit alone without any electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights — then I start thinking about projects, deadlines, demands, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects, not suggestions, things that need to done, not a background to thought.”

AI loves a good beach deer: "brown deer on white sand beach during daytime photo"

Imma start sending this to everyone I ever meet so they know how to rate me when the social credit system from Black Mirror finally comes into play.

Brian Eno:

“One of the reasons I have to take distinct breaks when I work is to allow the momentum of a particular direction to run down, so that another one can establish itself.”