I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.

2026: What's out and what's in Last week I was listening to Ben Lee and Ione Skye's podcast, Weirder Together. They had a fun discussion about moving into the new year and what they wanted to see more of and less of in 2026. Here's...

Then I pulled together a few things I think should stay in 2025, and things we should bring into 2026. It’s definitely not New Year’s resolutions though.

Any of them talk to you? Any you disagree with? www.rossp.org/blog/2026-in...

2025 - My Year in Running As I’ve done in the past (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) I have put together a rear-view-mirror view on my year in running. 2025 was my quietest running year in the decade I've been r...

Used some summer downtime to do some writing. First up - a look back at my chaotic 2025 in running. It wasn’t the year I’d hoped for, but it wasn’t all bad. www.rossp.org/blog/2025-re...

Recommendation: See more live music This sounds obvious, but when we get stuck in the daily grind it's easy to forget. Go and see bands and solo artists performing live. Over the past few months I've had some incredible live music exper...

I've gone out of my way to see more live music over the last few months. Melbourne's music seen has served up some yummy treats for me! My thoughts and some photos on the blog: www.rossp.org/blog/live-mu...

Virgin Money Australia is 'enforcing' security questions - and they only have SMS 2FA for 'security' (no authenticator app support).

After mis-typing one of these answers, my account was locked and needed a 90-minute phone call to resolve.

Given it's 2025, this is insane security practice.

jazz jungle mix at Japanese rice field l Takuya Nakamura l login.jp l juke dnb chill YouTube video by Login.jp_

Been a while since I posted here… so here’s a fantastic d&b (&trumpet) set mixed by a Japanese’s dude in a rice field. Great listening (via @kottke.org)

youtu.be/aVvr1b1oWJA?...

we used to build household shrines to Going On The Computer and it's no coincidence that as we abandoned these we started straying further from god's light

No Frame Missed | Apple YouTube video by Apple

For all of the downsides of modern technology on our lives - this is fucking beautiful. Worth your 5 minutes. youtu.be/hEalzEnT70k?...

When the Wedding episode of The Bear S4 started we looked at each other and said “oh no, it’s another Christmas car crash”

I don’t think it was until the under-the-table scene with A Beginning Song by The Decemberists that I exhaled and realised it was safe!

Great use of characters and music 😙👌🏻

Donation equality More people in Australia can now save lives by giving plasma, a powerful type of blood donation. This includes gay and bisexual men, more transgender people, those taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrE...

Red Cross Lifeblood have (finally) updated their donation rules to allow gay men to donate blood. Many more people who wanted to donate, but couldn't, are now eligible - this is great news for our bloody supply! www.lifeblood.com.au/donation-equ...

An annual report from BirdCAGE showing birds that have been identified by their call throughout 2025. In descending order the most commonly identified birds are Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (13,724 detections), Little Raven (8,908), Spotted Dove (7,580), Rainbow Lorikeet (4447), Little Corella, Australian Magpie, and Laughing Kookaburra.

I've been running BirdCAGE for a while at home. It listens to my home security camera stream then uses very similar waveform analysis to identify the birds that it hears. Lovely to know who/what is singing around our house year around :) github.com/mmcc-xx/Bird...

Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen

This is incredible.

From last time I test drove a car… I’d suggest the physical license requirement is because it’s easier to photocopy and throw it in the pile of paperwork they don’t properly manage or dispose of.

Screenshot of Archie Rose email newsletter. Quote: “We know Mother's Day can be a sensitive time for some. If you would like to opt out of receiving any Archie Rose Mother's Day emails or reminders, please click the link below and we'll take care of the rest. Don't worry though, you won't lose access to your regular news from Archie Rose, we promise to keep you posted on all new product releases, events and exciting happenings at the Archie Rose Bar & Cellar Door.”

Really appreciate the Archie Rose advance email to opt out of their Mother’s Day seasonal email campaigns. For those of us who lost mothers too young, or have complicated motherly relationships, it’s a nice touch.

A very blue sky

Hey, Bluesky. Here’s today’s blue sky.

I am pretty sure they are too important to dispose of, though.

A photo of our golden retriever lying in some shallow water, with a concerned look on her face. Her chin is resting on a rock out of the water.

Timeline cleanse: here’s our dumb golden retriever resting on a rock, being unsure about being in some shallow water.

Her breed was historically selected for retrieving ducks from… yep, water.

And rocks aren’t usually great resting spots.

🤓 in just 6 years, australia's two main grids added 51 TWh/yr of wind+solar generation.

…taking us from 19.9% → 38.8% renewables.

…this is equivalent to 6.6 large #nuclear reactors, but at much lower cost & much faster.

…even more impressive given there's no chance of nuclear here for 20+ years.

And he did the Bowie bits pretty well, I reckon. Dempsey did a surprisingly good Freddie Mercury vocal range too!

Rather different stage presence but we can forgive that part.

As we watched ABC TV’s New Years Eve 9pm Fireworks from Sydney Harbour, we were excited when Fanning Dempsey National Park came on stage.
My wife and I turned to each other and said “wow, Bernard Fanning looks a lot like Bowie”
Next song was Under Pressure. Yes, listener, Fanning did the Bowie bits.

Getting one of these things as a kid made me almost understand the Victorian compulsion to name and classify every species and variety of animal and vegetable and mineral on earth. The Home Labelmaker in hand was nothing less than a gleaming sword of taxonomy, all must bow down and be Marked.

This is absolutely wonderful.

A rainbow, with very bright colours.

Intense rainbow tonight!

3. The Day You Come - Powderfinger
2. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National
1. Gosh - Jamie xx

Not sure Gosh is actually my 3rd in the list but equal with about a dozen others so let’s get the lad up on the scoreboard.

And yes, this is the brute force way to doing this. Yes, we have conversations with our kids about this stuff. Yes, we supervise most of their use.

But sometimes you need to just flick a switch and move on!

GitHub - sirkirby/ha-udm-rule-manager: Allows you to manage your UDM firewall and traffic rules in Home Assistant Allows you to manage your UDM firewall and traffic rules in Home Assistant - sirkirby/ha-udm-rule-manager

This plugin (via HACS) did a great job of exposing my Unifi traffic rules to Apple Homekit, so we can toggle rules very quickly and easily. Quick taps to "disable streaming video for the kids" or "make the internet unusable for the kids" is very welcome in this household! github.com/sirkirby/ha-...

I wanted an easy way to flick a quick switch and make our internet functionally unusable for our teen/preteen kids, without also limiting us parents, smart home, & etc. I have some Unifi traffic rules but the UI is not good for doing quick toggles on/off... so I jumped straight into Home Assistant.

Are these the best moments from Take 5 in 2024? - ABC listen 2024 was a massive year for Take 5. We reached all over the world to chat with extraordinary people about the music that's shaped their lives. Some of the best moments from Take 5 in 2024 include (b...

I'm new to Zan Rowe's "Take 5", and loved the interview with comedian Bill Bailey. The way he talks about Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" & the memories it stirs up of his dear friend Sean Lock was beautiful. Snippet here (starting from 6:35): www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

A Sulfur-crested Cockatoo stealing a whole branch of our sour cherry tree.

Look at these cheeky mongrels, stealing our fruit!

We already have more sour cherries than we can actually use. Thankfully they didn’t get the sweet cherry crop this year.