The Breakfast Club, 1985 - ★★★★½
I think I’m older than the teacher now. He’s the guy I now relate to.
Currently reading: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami 📚
I just used Make Me A Cocktail. I don’t have a large bar at the moment, but it suggested a Black Russian and I’m enjoying it!
I feel in the flow. Normally this feeling is linked to a particular task, job or project. Yet I’m feeling it broadly across life management and my mental state. I like it. 🌈
Finished reading: From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks 📚My takeaway is that I am in a spiral career transition. Plus I now have an excuse as to why my energy levels for work are lower than they used to be.
I simply don’t care about Apple Vision Pro. I have no desire or motivation to watch the 10 minute demo videos. I don’t care about listening to hours of podcast thought pieces. I’m not interested.
I started watching Loudermilk tonight. I like it. Not sure if only because Ron Livingstone basically plays a recovering Peter Gibbon from Office Space, 📺
Finished reading: Thirst by Scott Harrison 📚on Headway app (🪜). Glad I only committed 13 minutes to the book, rather than actually reading it, because it was terrible.
Once a Nerd…
I can draw a fairly straight line from my personality as a young fella to who I am today.
I mean, look at this nerd. He’s got a Commodore computer running Workbench 2.04. Dot matrix printer. Stephen Lawhead books on the shelf. A thermometer that read the outside temperature. Basketball trophies. This would be a great submission for one of Hemispheric Views Desk Reviews.
But it doesn’t end there. As listeners of my podcast will know, I maintain a depreciation spreadsheet tracking my major asset purchases. Turns out, this isn’t a new concept for me. Here is the prototype, from 2001:
People may also know me as a prodigious booster of YNAB as a means to manage your personal finances. Before YNAB, there was Quicken. Before Quicken, there was my ledger book.
And before my ledger book, there were my transaction registers!
To give a sense of the timeline, the registers, as the first documents, are dated from 1994. That would put me at 16/17 years old. My memory has me doing these a little younger, but this is the first documented evidence.
I also found a neat record of my automative service history from 2000. This car needed a lot of work!
I’m not sure I’ve changed much in the 30 years since.
Douchebags Galore!
Steven Hackett is being ripped off by douchebaggery from 37signals, as they try to get their HEY! Calendar app approved by the App Store Review Team.
It’s a real bummer to feel like I’ve been ripped off by a much bigger company, seeing them pitch something I’ve worked hard on as a free feature in their app.
I find it fitting that douchebag DHH is promoting his actions on X, a site owned by another douchebag.
I just did an internet quiz like it’s 1999. 
What Anime Hair Color Best Suits Your Personality?
Hosted By theOtaku.com: Anime
via Thomas Rigby
In between watching basketball and packing Lego into boxes, I recorded E102 of @HemisphericViews with @Burk and @martinfeld.
Our friend @rknightuk has built a word cloud based on the 320 default blog posts arising from @HemisphericViews Episode 097. His talents are amazing to me.
Year in books for 2023
Here are the books I finished reading in 2023.
This is a terribly short list.
Out of my Comfort Zone
This year has been one of significant change.
A big positive change I’ve experienced, but haven’t talked—or blogged—about is my new relationship.
Lisa, my partner, is an impressive woman who has made her way in life with strength and conviction. Her life has had challenges and events that have shaped her, and those events could easily have destroyed her if not for her own strength of character. Through it all, Lisa has navigated a path that has ensured she is a bright, happy and joyful person. She is raising two kids and both of them are absolute delights. They are a credit to her as a mother.
In episode 101 of Hemispheric Views I talk about how I’ve become a beach guy. For whatever reason, I didn’t explain how or why I’ve become a beach guy.
I’m into going to the beach now because Lisa introduced me to it. It was her that taught me the 20 minute splash. It’s her smarts that brought forth the “get in, swim, get out, wash feet” process. I should have given Lisa credit in that episode, but I didn’t. When I’m with Lisa, there’s another bonus that may occur, and that’s a coffee after the swim. Even my coffee order has been changed by Lisa. My flat white is now made with almond milk. My guts thank me, and I in turn thank Lisa for pulling me out of my coffee ordering comfort zone, even though it caused stomach discomfort.
My comfort zone. That’s where I feel safe and tend to return all too often. I am naturally risk and conflict averse. Lisa has a way of extracting me from that zone, and challenging me to grow and change. When I leave my comfort zone I’m a better person. Lisa makes me a better person through her encouragement and support.
Yet it’s my comfort zone that has prevented me from coming out and saying these things. From speaking openly about now being in a new and special relationship. It was my fear of judgment from others, of having to explain and answer questions, that has prevented me from being upfront about the fact that I am in a positive and wonderful relationship, and that it makes me feel happy and valued.
Lisa’s presence in my life makes me a better person. She makes my life better. This past year has been a doozy in so many ways, but upon reflection, I am not sure where I’d be if I hadn’t benefited from the steadfast care, attention, and honest love that Lisa has bestowed upon me.
There’s been enough of me prevaricating about how to express my relationship situation. It is thus. I am in a relationship. I am in love. I love Lisa.
I’m excited to head into 2024 with this clarity of thought. I’m excited to share the news with whomever might read my blog.
I’m a beach guy, and I am that because Lisa made it so.
I’m a better person, because Lisa inspires me to be my best self.
I love Lisa.
Remember that time I live-streamed going to Officeworks to buy an SD card as part of the @HemisphericViews live event? 😂
Amazon - and Prime Video Ads - in Australia
Jason Snell writes about the consideration given to Amazon Prime:
Shocked—shocked!—to find that Amazon is putting ads in Prime Video – Six Colors:
when my wife and I were auditing our streaming subscriptions the other week, Prime was one of the ones that will basically never get cut, because free two-day delivery saves us money in the long run.
When Amazon Prime was a USA only thing, I lusted for it. Finally, Prime came to Australia and I jumped onboard at their low introductory price. Amazon sucked for the first year, with low availability and high prices. Over the past 18 months it has improved.
Even with their improvement, though, when it came time to review my annual subscription, it didn’t make the cut. I’m intentionally buying less and not having ready access to free shipping was almost a blessing. If I really want something, there are plenty of other Australian retailers that will take my money.
I’ve gone from being sad that Amazon is not in Australia, to extremely happy it hasn’t achieved total market dominance.
As for Prime Video? If I hadn’t already cancelled my subscription, adding adds to my paid video service would incentivise me to ditch them even more. The quest from all these services to squeeze more blood from the stone is simply going to steer me back towards Usenet.
Currently reading: From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks 📚Time to start thinking about Act II (or is it III?) 🤷♂️
I did an end of year review today. Interesting to look back on all that has happened over the course of 12 months. (tldr, a lot!)
In my on-going Pokemon-style quest to catch all the note-taking apps, I’ve bought Notebooks by Alfons Schmid.