I’m working with one of my author buddies on a project (no peeking!). After we spent a couple hours online chewing it over, I was struck by a thought: Collaboration overload is real, and it’s driven by a few total assholes. Arguing with an asshole is like mud wrestling with a pig. After a couple hours, you realize the pig enjoys it. To be clear, this is not a story about what an asshole my buddy is. He is excellent. See, when he and I were talking, we spent our time bouncing ideas. Some of them worked, some of them didn’t. We were both clear about what we liked (because even bad ideas have good elements), and what sucked (because 90% of your “good” ideas aren’t going to be amazing; they’ll be terribad). It wasn’t a mutual you-can-do-no-wrong club, it was Read More …

I made that headline up. I’m experimenting with clickbait. The sentiment of quitting things is worthwhile. Lemme break it down for you. I’m not big on new year’s resolutions, because I’m a do-a-thing-or-don’t kind of guy. There’s no real barrier to me growing a beard in July, or shaving my tongue for Lent. If I want to lose 30 pounds, all that’s between me and that goal is a shopping list and a fear of losing the taste for cake. However! I do find the end-of-year vacation, colloquially known as “Christmas Break” to the locals in my town, valuable. I mean, yeah, we all swing in hammocks, which is a goal in itself. But without other activities like working for a living, I’m able to reflect. Where did my time go? What do I want to use my remaining time on? Read More …

No, I’m serious. It seems our friends over L’Oreal have made something that could help you make sensible choices about your crispness levels courtesy of the ball of fire in Earth’s skies. “UV Sense is a battery-free electronic sensor that’s designed to monitor your sun exposure and, with the help of an NFC-enabled smartphone, help limit your skin cancer risk.“ Stick it on your nail, tap it with your phone, and viola, you know how many solar rads you’ve had. In New Zealand we feel the ozone depletion, so this rocks for us. Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/07/l-oreal-and-john-rogers-built-a-thumbnail-sized-uv-sensor/

This one’s a bit long, but if you want a feeling for how cyberpunk IRL is right now, check this: “Google and Facebook have created involuntary manslaughter of the truth on a massive scale.” Corporations don’t want profits at the moment. They want power, but will probably settle for your soul 🙂

People have shit taste. Not just other people, but everybody. You, me, even the President. My theory? Everyone’s got a … unique set of preferences, and they’re all wrong. Hold up, I’m going somewhere with this. You may have heard that I finished up work last Friday, and I wanted to take a week or two off before picking up the pen on Night’s End again. Unfortunately I have this thing where I can’t actually do nothing, which is probably going to cause all sorts of problems. But not today! Enter: the outdoor room. This was a kind of semi-enclosed veranda the previous owners of our villa put in. Every side was enclosed in cheap panelling: the wood untreated, the fibralite of the cheaper variety so that it’s not, as you can attest, see-through. Because it was a shitty place to hang out unless you Read More …

Hello, Internet. My friend Jane from Three Hats Ltd and I are on a quest: Right every wrong. Propagate peace and understanding to the farthest corners of the universe. Source a locally-made craft beer in NZ that doesn’t taste like the sphincters of recycled hops. These are not in priority order. The genus of #3 came from my sojourn to North America, where it seems that both the US and Canada make excellent craft beers (lagers, ambers, whatever) that are smooth, creamy, rich, almost sweet. I’ve drunk a lot of beer – a) I’m a New Zealander and b) I live in New Zealand, basically it’s our cultural identity and religion in one – but my quest for craft beers has turned up nothing but sharp, acerbic shit. I appreciate that these comments may be divisive. Having said that! If Read More …

I mean, drug high. We’re having our kitchen countertop resurfaced. It’s impacted the writing a little — I’m either writing a lot worse than before, or my judgement’s improved — but we’ve got a finished product now. Here’s what it looked like about half-way: Aside from feeling permanently high on Jesus, it’s been fun trying to work out how to, say, make a cup of coffee without, uh, anything. Coffee cups, coffee machine, and heck, even the coffee itself. But it’s done now, and here’s the finished product. I can taste tomorrow’s coffee already.