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Hey so remember when 2020 started and the nation was on fire and we’d just had 2 years of severe drought and we thought, how screwed are we? None so screwed. Only then, February rolled around, and so did some ex-tropical storms bringing half a decade’s worth of rain to be the saviour, and whilst it was wet, lo, it was also good. Only then, we kinda realised all this time we’d been thinking about our petty little problems in this country, and China had given a heads up about some bad stuff going down with some people who were getting sick in new and novel ways. And so it was that we learned of coronaviruses, and this how this one was to be called SARS-CoV-2, and the thing it caused was COVID-19, and oh heck we just called it coronavirus and stopped drinking that beer. ...

I went to link to this today, because I thought it was hilarious and insightful and speaks to something within me as a frequent traveller: “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sleeping Positions on a Plane” from The Washington Post - and since I found it especially perfect a post, I thought I’d put it here on my blog. And then I got to thinking: I have a whole lot of links here… how many still live to this day? ...

The year is now 2020. 14 years ago, I started this site as I was planning a move from Melbourne to Sydney. Previously, I’d been publishing on a friend’s server, buried in a subfolder, but that’s when the site came into its own. So now, with this post, I’ll have published items in 3 different decades - ain’t that a thing about getting old. Right from the start, this site has been about my own political observations - one of the very first things written here was about the Cronulla Race Riot in December 2005, a decidedly unwelcome event for someone just about to move to the city. ...

Three and a half years ago, in a fit of madness, I decided I had enough of having free time, and signed up to go back to university for an MBA. Boy, did I underestimate how much time that would take up. Even more so than that, I didn’t think of how much might change between starting & finishing that degree. And change it did. Just over three years ago, I met someone - talking to her on a whim, taking the chance, and found myself entranced. I’ve mentioned obliquely here about her, but truly, she became a part of my world in a way that I’d never thought I would encounter. The other half of my soul I didn’t even realise was missing. She is passionate, caring, filled with humour and hope and a drive that pushes me to be better and do more than ever. She is an embodiment of what I hope people would be more like; I’m besotted by my love for her. ...

I caught myself today acting a bit strange. _[_Ed: you finally noticed?] Ok ok I mean stranger than usual. [Ed: how could you tell?] Conversations with imaginary editors [Ed: oi] aside, I found myself sitting in my car, having returned from a busy day at work, playing a game I found yesterday called Really Bad Chess. It’s an interesting little game where, in order to level the playing field for people who kinda know enough to play chess but are - frankly - really bad at it, the playing pieces are mixed up. You still play by the same rules, but instead of having an AI that plays dumb - because a grandmaster-beating AI is easily available in your pocket these days - you get different proportions of pieces to make the game interesting. ...