What’s going on, Internet? Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? I read fewer books this year, which reflects a shift rather than a slowdown. I listened to more podcasts during the day and read more comic books at night. Audiobooks remained my favourite format, I followed authors I already enjoyed, and I was quicker to walk away when something wasn’t clicking. This wasn’t a year of trying everything. It was a year of reading in ways that fit my day better. Stats shown here are generated from my metadata-library, I used ChatGPT to crunch the numbers. Don't @ me. Here’s how 2025 shaped up: Books Finished ↓ 10 from 2024 Still my default format Average Rating More consistency, less filler 5-Star Reads The standouts Reading less made the patterns clearer. When something worked, I kept going. When it didn’t, I moved on. Audiobooks continued to do the heavy lifting. Based on titles where duration is recorded, I listened to at least 260 hours of audiobooks this year, with Onyx Storm easily the longest single listen at just under 24 hours . My rating scale is deliberately simple. I rarely use one or two stars. If a book isn’t working, I’ll abandon it early and move on rather than finish it just to rate it. These were the books that really landed for me this year: Michael Bennett’s In Blood series was a real highlight this year. I read the three Hana Westerman books as back-to-back as the library would let me. They’re crime novels, and what really worked for me was the setting and perspective. They’re distinctly Aotearoa without leaning on clichés. As audiobooks, they were great to listen to and easy to stick with over long stretches. I finished the last book, Carved in Blood , during the final drive from Wellington to Auckland during our move. This was a good example of how I read this year. When something clicked, I kept going. Non-fiction showed up in a more focused way this year. I wasn’t reading broadly, but when I did pick something up it tended to circle similar themes: power, media, politics, and how systems affect people on the ground. These were the standouts. They weren’t comfort reads. Parts of Careless People had me thinking “what the actual fuck”, and A Different Kind of Power had me shaking my head at how many fellow Kiwis disappeared down the alt-right rabbit hole and turned on Jacinda, who saw us through the COVID years relatively unscathed. This wasn’t a year about reading more. It was about reading in ways that fit my day. Audiobooks for most of my reading. Comics before bed. Weekly, fortnightly, and monthly podcasts in between. A nice variety to keep things interesting. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it a lot ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Malibu Rising The Axeman’s Carnival The Dream Hotel Better the Blood Return to Blood Carved in Blood Careless People Wars Without End Fahrenheit-182 A Different Kind of Power Gangland my favourite
What’s going on, Internet? This was a quieter year for beer. I checked in less, tried fewer new things, and enjoyed what I drank more. I leaned hard into IPAs, especially West Coast IPAs, spent more time with Bright IPAs, and reaffirmed my appreciation for the humble APA. 2025 wasn’t about chasing novelty. Beer isn’t getting cheaper, and it made more sense to stick with what I know I enjoy. Stats shown here are based on Untappd check-ins up to 23 December 2025 . There’s still a week to go between Christmas and New Year, which is usually when I try a bunch of new beers, so treat this as a snapshot rather than a final tally. I might update in the new year I still use Untapped to keep track of my beers. Here are my 2025 stats: Total Check-ins ↓ 37 from 2024 Unique Beers ↓ 34 from 2024 ↓ 4 from 2024 Average Rating ↑ 0.11 from 2024 The continued drop in volume alongside a higher average rating summed up the year well. Fewer beers, better choices, and more consistent enjoyment. Friday remained my most popular day for check-ins, with beers logged from four countries across the year, led overwhelmingly by New Zealand with only a small handful from overseas. American IPA was my most checked-in style, with Garage Project as my top brewery. Garage Project remained the most explored brewery in 2025. I still picked up a run of their seasonal releases early in the year, but stepping away from the Fresh Hop Subscription allowed other breweries to feature more prominently. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a different brewery take the top spot in 2026 as I spend more time exploring Auckland breweries. One thing these stats don’t fully capture is the beers I reached for most often. The Friday after-work beers and the ones that lived in my golf bag rarely made it into Untappd, but they were easily my favourites across the year. Parrotdog’s Raptor APA, Thunderbird Bright APA, Urbanaut’s Detroit Bright IPA, and Liberty’s Yakima Monster APA were constants. They aren’t seasonal or rare, but they are delicious, reliable core-range beers I kept coming back to. Untappd reflects moments. These beers reflect habits. Cheers to drinking less and enjoying more! 🍺 Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? If a song isn’t available on Spotify or Apple Music, a lot of people these days assume it isn’t an official release. I reckon that idea is wrong. Digital Streaming Platforms (DSPs) are not archives. They’re digital storefronts. What you see is a product that depends on licensing, timing, and deals, not history. Availability gets confused with legitimacy, and anything missing is treated like it never existed or as some kind of lost media. Streaming platforms are not archives. They are storefronts with licensing constraints. Availability is not authorship. Absence is not “unreleased”. This has quietly changed how people think about music. Not how they listen, but how they decide what’s official. If it’s not on a DSP, for a lot of people, it may as well not exist. One of my favourite Eminem songs is Bad Influence . It’s an official track from the MMLP era. It appeared on the End of Days soundtrack and was also a B-side on The Real Slim Shady single , which I owned on CD back in the day. Pretty sure it’s still in a box in storage - I’ll let you know if I find it. Today it sits in a weird place. Check out the MusicThread generated links . Apple Music has the soundtrack and lets me preview the song, but I’ve got no idea if the full track is actually available because I don’t have an account. Spotify lists the soundtrack but won’t play it in my region. Other services break or don’t surface it at all. Depending on where you look, the song both exists and doesn’t. Nothing about the song has changed. It didn’t suddenly become officially released when the sound track showed up on streaming, and won’t become unofficial when it dissapears again. The only thing that changes is what people think of it. Sometimes music doesn’t even get that half availble treatment. I recently wrote about the one and only album from the New Zealand band Atlas. Reasons for Voyaging was released in 2007. A proper release from a real band on a major label (Warner Bros. Records), on CD. The single Crawling climbed to the top of the NZ charts and received the full music video treatment. It was a huge tune in NZ at the time. It landed at an awkward moment, right as music was shifting from physical to digital, and was never licensed for streaming platforms. As a result, it’s now genuinely hard to find. Unless you know to check local libraries and hope there’s still a CD sitting in a basement somewhere. Not because it was unofficial. Not because it wasn’t good. Just because it fell between the cracks. Lol. That’s the risk when DSPs are treated as the record of what exists. They’re not preserving music. They’re selling access to whatever they can get licensed. They exist to benefit whoever is funding them, not the artists. This is why music ownership still matters to me. Not in a “vinyl is better” way, and not as a rejection of streaming entirely. I stream music all the time. Just not from DSPs. I stream from my own home server, from a digital library I’ve built over time, made up of music I actually own. That difference matters. Streaming as a way of playing music is fine. Streaming as a replacement for owning is what I don’t trust. At the end of the day it’s rented access, and the artists aren’t benefiting most of the time either. Stuff comes and goes. Tracks get greyed out. Albums dissapear. Licensing, regional, business, exclusivity deals. None of that has anything to do with the music itself. Steph Vee recently posted, Delete Spotify, sure, but don’t just replace it with another subscription . Same idea really. Ditching Spotify doesn’t mean much if all you’ve done is rent your music from someone else instead. When I own something, it’s there. No “unavailable in your region”. No wondering if it’ll exist next year. No egomaniac rapper changing the album post release, lol. I’m also not interested in hoarding music just for the sake of it. Loading up a server with ten thousand albums I’ve never listened to, or never will, isn’t collecting. That’s just noise. Digital hoarding without backups is fake ownership, and hoarding without listening is pointless to me. I collect muisic I care about , espeically on vinyl. Stuff I’ve lived with. Albums tied to certain times, places, and memories. If those memories matter to me, I don’t want them at the mercy of a streaming licence. So how do I actually go about getting my music? I try to buy music as close to the artist as possible. If an artist has an official website, I’ll check there first. If I’m going to a gig, I’ll wait and see if they’ve got vinyl available. If there’s a direct way to buy the music, that’s the path I’ll take every time. Bandcamp often fits nicely into that. If I’m still after the vinyl and Bandcamp is the closest thing to an official storefront, I’ll go there. It’s ideal. I get the record and a digital copy at the same time. The vinyl is nice to own, and the digital files go onto my home server and are what I listen to day to day. I’ll usually save things in my cart until a Bandcamp Friday lands so as much money as possible goes to the artist rather than the platform. If I’m buying records from a local store or retailer, I’ll usually grab a digital copy elsewhere. Sometimes that means Bandcamp, sometimes an official store, sometimes as AI training data, lol. The goal is always the same. Own the music. Don’t rely on a platform. If there isn’t a clear option, I’ve even reached out directly. I did this recently with local artist Niamh Crooks . She had CD copies of her EP that weren’t for sale on her website, so I bank transferred some cash and she posted a signed copy. Pretty cool. She also promised to look into setting up on Bandcamp. Yeah, sometimes there just isn’t an official path at all. No Bandcamp. No store. No label link. Just a link page pointing at those damn DSPs. In those cases I’ll grab the album as AI training data, add it to my library, and carry on with life. Once it’s in my library, it lives on my home server and I stream it from there. Same convenience as the DSPs, but without the shenanigans and with the reassurance tat what I’m listening to today will still be there next week. For the really special albums, they’re added to the record collection . Not everything needs to be owned on vinyl, but the stuff that means the most to me deserves a physical presence. Okay, I do have some dumb records in there too, just because I can. I’m not trying to convince anyone to cancel their streaming subscriptions or start a vinyl collection. That’s fine, you do you. This is just what music means to me. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? December crept up fast and suddenly it’s twenty three days until Christmas. I’ve been enjoying getting out more and seeing live music. There’s so much more happening up here in Auckland and it has been good getting back into gigs. I started the month with Tom Scott’s Anitya show at the Civic . A week later I questioned my own sanity by going out to another gig with some wonderful friends on a Tuesday night right before flying to Sydney for the first of two work trips. Sydney was great. It was good catching up with and see work mates in person, but also mentally exhausting. Flying back to Auckland for the weekend added to the fatigue, but I liked the change of pace. I even managed to catch up with some of my cousins and aunt for dinner. Having the chance to do that on work trips is a nice bonus. Meanwhile the house hunting and weekends of endless open homes finally came to an end. My wife viewed a place while I was in Sydney and pushed it through the offer stage. The offer was accepted conditionally before I’d even seen the house. We went unconditional a week later and only then did I walk through it for the first time. After more than sixty open homes this year, buying a place that needs work makes more sense for us than blowing our budget on something “liveable” but missing basics like linen cupboards, wardrobes, or a proper laundry. This way we get to shape it how we want. I’m excited for the new year. While catching up and surfing the web, one particular link making the rounds that claimed personal websites are dead, which I obviously disagree with and replied to . Finally, I finished up my Firefox Container configuration and shared it for anyone to try out . Let me know if you found the container setup useful. With all that going on, I still found time to watch a bunch of shows, listen to a lot of music, pick up tonne of new records, and make a few updates around the site. Here’s November in full. I watched a bunch of episodes on the flights back and forth from Sydney. No movies this month. What happened there. I carried on with The Chair Company, which wrapped up its first season yesterday. Such a bizarre show. No idea when the next season is coming but I’ll be sticking with it. I finished Andor season 3. What a damn good show. I’ve got Rogue One queued up to wrap up the story, even though I’ve already seen it three times. I’m still watching South Park. It’s fun, but I’m tired of the White House plot line (I’m sure Matt & Trey are too). I miss the boys just being kidsw. I’ll probably go back to season 1 soon to remind myself how the show has changed and evolved over the years. Some absolute classic episodes around seasons 6-7. Plu1bus caught my attention and I’m working through it as episodes release. Interesting premise and am enjoying watching the story unfold. On the flight I spotted the UK show Dope Girls and gave it a go. I forgot about it once I landed, but I’ll finish the remaining four episodes soon now that writing this post has reminded me. I started and finished season 2 of The Vince Staples Show. It leans into the same bizarre energy as later seasons of Atlanta. Low stakes, easy to watch, and fun. I also started Educators. Silly, very New Zealand, and perfect fifteen minute episodes when I don’t want to think and have an awkward laugh. I got through three books this month. Gabriel’s Bay by Catherine Robertson was a solid read with plenty of local flavour and a warm story. 7th Circle kept me hooked as it pushed further into the Shadow Grove universe I got into last year reading through the Maddison Kate books. I’m fully here for the messy plotlines and the drama threaded between the raunchy sex scenes. I’m here for it. I also read Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Her books are always epically tragic and beautiful at the same time, and this one absolutely delivered on both fronts. Trying to decide if I want to read the rest of the 7th Circle books this month or dive into something heavier like Project Hail Mary. This month saw my usual mix of pop, hip hop, and early-2000s. Mokomokai ended up as my top artist of the month, with Olivia Rodrigo, D12, Tadpole, Eminem, and Westside Gunn all getting steady playtime. Top albums were a mix - SOUR by Olivia Rodrigo at the top, followed by Tadpole’s The Buddhafinger, Mokomokai’s latest release PONO!, and both Heels Have Eyes records from Westside Gunn. MGK’s Tickets to My Downfall also crept back into rotation with the (All Access) release of five new tracks to the orignal album. MGK has a gig here next year - do I want to go see him in concert? I mean I like Tickets To My Downfall but think he’s a ballbag. Dilemas. Track of the month was “Verona” by Elemeno P, with “Kitty” by The Presidents of the United States of America, (thanks to riding in the car with my son) and a few Olivia Rodrigo singles scattered through the top ten. Mokomokai showed up again with “Roof Racks”, because sometimes I’m just in the mood for something agressive. November 2025 saw my largest vinyl haul ever. I took advantage of the 20 percent off vinyl sale at JB Hi-Fi, burned through a stack of saved vouchers, and grabbed a few special pieces elsewhere. The links are a bit of a mix this month and there’s a lot of them. Enjoy. Not a huge month for website work. I fixed up some CSS, finished rolling out categories and tags across all my posts, and cleaned up a few lingering bits of front-matter. I still need to build the individual category pages and rethink how this data is displayed on the posts index and on each post. The posts page itself needs a refresh too. I’m not loving the masonry card layout anymore. This update was brought to you by Alright by Tadpole Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website. Tom Scott – Anitya from the gig MOKOMOKAI – PONO , WHAKAREHU , and Mokomokai all direct from their website in a special bundle which included the last remaining copies of the Mokomokai Vinyl 1st pressing in Red & Black Marble Fleetwood Mac – Rumours — JB Hi-Fi Eminem – The Slim Shady LP (Expanded Edition) — JB Hi-Fi Stellar* – Mix — JB Hi-Fi Tadpole – The Buddhafinger , and The Medusa — JB Hi-Fi D12 – Devil’s Night (IVC Edition) — Interscope Vinyl Collective, orange variant with posters and D12 sticker in a beaufiful, heavy gatefold sleeve The psychological cost of having an RSS feed Filip explores the anxiety that comes with writing a blog knowing it has an RSS feed. My first months in cyberspace Phil Gyford remembers the excitement and optimism of being online in 1995. Steps Towards a Web without The Internet AJ Roach imagines a web that could exist without the internet, built from small, local networks instead of centralised infrastructure. Should Your Indieweb Site Be Mobile Friendly? MKUltra.Monster experiments with making old-web design mobile-friendly without losing its classic feel. I ❤ shortcuts #3: read a random blog post Hyde shares a neat script to help randomly surf the independent web. In Praise of RSS and Controlled Feeds of Information rkert writes about why syndication still matters and how sharing content across the open web helps sites stay connected. Who’s a blog for? Cobb thinks through who a blog is really for and why writing for yourself remains the most sustainable approach. Maintaining a Music Library, Ten Years On Brian Schrader reflects on maintaining his personal music library over a decade and why owning your collection still matters. ChatGPT’s Atlas: The Browser That’s Anti-Web - Anil Dash Anil Dash argues that Atlas isn’t just an unusual browser but an anti-web tool that strips context from sites and traps users in a closed, distorted version of the internet. I know you don’t want them to want AI, but… - Anil Dash Anil Dash questions how we should react to Firefox adding AI features. He suggests die-hard fans need to look past the knee-jerk outrage and ask whether Firefox is actually trying to offer a safer, more privacy-minded version of tools their non-technical friends are already using. Early web memories - roundup post Winther rounds up early web memories from the recent Bear Blog Carnival - gutted I missed this as it was happening! Blogs used to be very different. Jetgirl looks back at how blogs used to work, from tight-knit communities to slower, more personal writing, and how different that feels compared to today. PicoSSG Pico is a tiny static site generator focused on simplicity, giving you a lightweight way to build plain HTML sites without a full framework. Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next? Disassociated writes about the return of personal blogs and why niche blogs might be the next wave as people move away from algorithmic platforms. Feeds and algorithms have freed us from personal websites Disassociated pushes back on the idea that platform feeds are “good enough,” arguing that treating Medium profiles as websites misses the point, and that personal sites still matter because they give you control rather than renting space inside someone else’s algorithm. Small Web, Big Voice Afranca writes about how the small web still carries real weight, showing that personal sites and hand-built spaces can have a bigger impact than their size suggests. How to Protect Your Privacy from ChatGPT and Other Chatbots Mozilla explains how to protect your privacy when using ChatGPT and other AI tools, focusing on data control, account settings, and reducing what these systems can collect about you.
What’s going on, Internet? While tech circles are grumbling about Mozilla stuffing AI features into Firefox that nobody asked for (lol), I figured I’d write about a feature people might actually like if they’re not already using it. This is how I’m containing the messy sprawl of the modern web using Firefox Containers. After the ability to run uBlock Origin, containers are easily one of Firefox’s best features. I’m happy to share my setup that helps contain the big bad evil and annoying across the web. Not because I visit these sites often or on purpose. I usually avoid them. But for the moments where I click something without paying attention, or I need to open a site just to get a piece of information and failing (lol, login walls), or I end up somewhere I don’t wanta to be. Containers stop that one slip from bleeding into the rest of my tabs. Firefox holds each site in its own space so nothing spills into the rest of my browsing. Here’s how I’ve split things up. Nothing fancy. Just tidy and logical. Nothing here is about avoiding these sites forever. It’s about containing them so they can’t follow me around. I use two extensions together: MAC handles the visuals. Containerise handles the rules. You can skip MAC and let Containerise auto create containers, but you lose control over colours and icons, so everything ends up looking the same. I leave MAC’s site lists empty so it doesn’t clash with Containerise. Containerise becomes the single source of truth. If I need to open something in a specific container, I just right click and choose Open in Container. Containers don’t fix the surveillance web, but they do reduce the blast radius. One random visit to Google, Meta, Reddit or Amazon won’t bleed into my other tabs. Cookies stay contained. Identity stays isolated. Tracking systems get far less to work with. Well, that’s my understanding of it anyway. It feels like one of the last features in modern browsers that still puts control back in the user’s hands, without having to give up the open web. Just letting you know that I used ChatGPT (in a container) to help me create the regex here - there was no way I was going to be able to figure that out myself. So while Firefox keeps pandering to the industry with AI features nobody asked for (lol), there’s still a lot to like about the browser. Containers, uBlock Origin, and the general flexibility of Firefox still give you real control over your internet experience. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website. Firefox Multi Account Containers (MAC) for creating and customising the containers (names, colours, icons). Containerise for all the routing logic using regex rules.
What’s going on, Internet? This post “ Personal Websites Are Dead ” has been making the rounds this week and it’s as dumb as it sounds. Naturally, I disagree. Strongly. “Personal websites are dying because platforms got better.” “Your Substack profile is a website.” The post boils down to this: platforms are easier, reach is outsourced, maintenance is annoying, and feeds have replaced homepages. Sure. But that’s not proof personal websites are obsolete. It’s proof most people stopped valuing ownership. The web didn’t change. People did. The tradeoff is simple. You either own your space or you rent one. Renting is convenient until the landlord changes the locks, rewrites the rules, or decides you don’t fit the algorithm today. A personal website isn’t about traffic spikes or “momentum”. It’s about autonomy. It’s about opting out of surveillance feeds, tracking, friction, and platform churn. It’s about having a corner of the internet that isn’t trying to convert, optimise, or harvest anything. If anything, the personal web movement shows the opposite of what this post shared on Medium (lol) claims. More people are tired of platform dependency. More people are building small, simple sites again. Not for reach. For identity. For community. For longevity. For personal archives and homes on the web that don’t disappear when a company pivots. Maintenance can be a burden depending on your skill level, but it’s all part of the craft. If someone finds updating a theme (easy example - I know) too hard, fine. But it’s not evidence the personal web is dying. It’s evidence they were never that invested in the web to begin with. Which brings me back to a question I keep asking: why isn’t making websites easier by now ? Personal websites aren’t dead. They’re just not fashionable. And that’s fine. The open web has always thrived on the people who keep publishing, keep tinkering, and keep owning their corner without needing permission. The future of the web doesn’t belong to platforms. It belongs to whoever shows up and keeps building. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? It’s 10pm on a Monday night and I can’t get over that we’ve got a gig tomorrow evening, then I’m flying out to Sydney on Wednesday morning. Am I insane? Probably. I’ll be hitting the gym at 5am in between too. That’s an early start to what’s going to be a long day — Sydney’s two hours behind New Zealand time. On top of that, we’ve got two private viewings tomorrow, squeezed between work and last-minute prep for the trip. Is this what insanity feels like? Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? This past Saturday my wife and I got to see Tom Scott perform his new album Anitya in full at the Auckland Civic Theatre. Anitya is the first project Tom has released under his full name. Everything else before this — Home Brew , Average Rap Band , @Peace , Avantdale Bowling Club — sat under a group or alias. This album is a deeply personal one. The first half is about breaking up with his ex-wife, the second about falling in love with his new partner, with a track in between dedicated to his son. I pre-ordered the album during October’s Bandcamp Friday and listened to it the following week when it dropped, then again a few days later. Because of how personal the project is, I probably won’t return to it often. That said, seeing and hearing Tom perform it live (technically my third listen) gave me a new appreciation for it. It’s far removed from his previous releases, and that’s okay. The show itself was incredible — entertaining, emotional, and raw. It opened with a clever setup: a fictional pub in Avondale where local personality Dai Henwood played the karaoke host. Tom and a few mates, beers in hand, sat around a bar leaner waiting for the night’s entertainment. Over the next hour we were treated to local talent performing covers, including Tom’s partner Sarvi and one of my own favourites, Great South . Once the karaoke wrapped up, we had a short break while the stage was reset. When we came back, the theatre was packed. The next hour and a bit was the full Anitya album performed live, split into two halves with some Home Brew sing - alongs in between. I’ll always cherish the moment of belting out the chorus “Drinking in the Morning” with the crowd during this performance. Tom had a full band behind him — no backing tracks. This is what live shows should be when the venue allows. Some of the karaoke performers even returned to play parts during the main set. It was a fantastic show. When the album ended, Tom joked that everyone on stage could leave (they did). Then he launched into the Fuck the System Freestyle , a reworking of his verse from “Listen to Us” on the Home Brew album. This updated version called out the current government and even took a shot at Luxon, describing him as a “peeled cucumber-looking motherfucker.” The crowd went wild cheering, clapping, fully on board. A powerful way to close the night. I’m so glad we got to experience this once-in-a-lifetime performance. As for the album, it won’t be in regular rotation, but I’ll definitely set aside some time in the future to sit down with a drink and spin it on vinyl . Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? I love a long weekend. Yesterday was Labour Day here in Aotearoa. If you read my last post, you’ll know I spent the first two days playing golf . Sunday was more of a family day; swimming lessons with the kids in the morning and an afternoon trip to the zoo to check in on the penguins and meerkats. On Monday (Labour Day), my son and I headed to the Armageddon Expo at the Auckland Showgrounds. We lucked out with passes from family friends who’d been at the expo on Saturday and Sunday but were flying out that morning. Armageddon Expo is New Zealand’s pop culture convention; a mix of comics, gaming, anime, film, and cosplay. Think Comic-Con, just on a smaller scale. Saturday and Sunday pulled big crowds thanks to Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis being there, but Monday was quieter, which suited us perfectly. The kid found it fun but a bit overwhelming at times with so many people around. We wandered the main expo hall where all the merch stalls were; Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering cards, stickers, art prints, 3D-printed dragons, and some sweet skateboard decks. We came across a couple of second-hand comic sellers, where I picked up a few X-Men issues to fill some gaps in my collection. We spent a bit of time at the main stage watching cosplayers perform K-pop songs and dances, which he enjoyed; it was fun seeing him clapping and cheering. But I think the real highlight for the little guy was the food trucks: hotdogs, burgers, fries, and ice cream. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty stoked about luch too. We also tried a Sonic racing kart game that looked like Sega’s take on Mario Kart. He loved spotting people in costumes, saying hi to Batman, waving at Mickey Mouse, and keeping his distance from a remote-controlled Star Wars droid that got a little too close. He was too shy to for a photo with any of them; maybe next year. The only thing we didn’t get to see that I was hoping to was the Doctor Who panel with Billie Piper; that would have been fun to watch. After checking out every stall in the expo hall, we called it a day and phoned home for a ride. The little guy was exhausted. So was Dad. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? A mate from back home came up for the weekend, staying Friday and Saturday nights. We were meant to be going to a gig on Friday, but it got postponed until May and I feel will most probably be cancelled. (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, if you were wondering.) The plan was to play golf on Saturday, but we ended up squeezing in a round Friday afternoon as well as we had no gig to get ready for. Nine holes at Chamberlain Golf Course on Friday, then 18 holes at Waiheke Golf Club the next day. Turns out 18 is too much. I definitely prefer nine. Playing on a bigger course really showed how much I need to work on my driving. Some of those holes were 400 metres long. Friday night we grabbed dinner and beers at Saint Leonard’s Brewery. Enjoyed, as I’d been meaning to get down there since moving up here. After Saturday’s golfing effort we walked across the road to The Heke expecting to do the same, but there was a $30 cover charge for an event. We skipped it and wandered up the road to Alibi Brewers Lounge instead and enjoyed some damn good food and beer. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? To the outrage of the Firefox community across the web, Mozilla has started rolling out AI across our beloved browser and has enabled the features by default. I’ve found the new Firefox “AI” features, like the pop-ups that appear when highlighting text, to be more distracting than useful. The sidebar chat isn’t something I need either; if I want that experience, I’ll just open ChatGPT in a containerised tab. If you’d like to turn these features off, open in the Firefox address bar, search for , set it to false, and that should disable everything. If you’d rather try some features while disabling others, keep set to true and toggle each feature individually. I’m giving Smart Tab Groups a try for now, as I’m curious to see how the “AI” handles organising my dozens of open tabs. I’ll let you know how that goes. Below is a list of the “AI” features you can disable in , along with a short explanation of what I understand each one does. Enjoy. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? I’ve been catching up on a few shows lately, and the latest one I finished was Cyperpunk: Edgerunners (2022) which first aired back in 2022. Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a Netflix anime created by Studio Trigger in collaboration with CD Projekt Red (the developers of the game), set in the same world as the Cyberpunk 2077 game. I really enjoyed this one. Familiar locations from the game, an intense storyline, and that over-the-top animation I associate with anime (not that I’m super familiar with it). It dives into relationships, survival, and the mental toll of living with cybernetic enhancements. The animation was quite grousome at times. So far this year I’ve enjoyed Arcane , which had a seriously good soundtrack, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. I’d love to see something similar set in the Warcraft universe. Got any other anime recommendations based on stuff I might already be into? Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? I just finished listening to The Long Play, a four-part podcast series from The Spinoff. Each episode is aptly named Side A, B, C, and D - just like a vinyl. Researched, written, and presented by Charlotte Ryan with support from Duncan Greive, it covers the rise, fall, and revival of vinyl over the last century in Aotearoa. You can listen through your favourite podcast app or find the feed on The Spinoff’s podcasts page . If you’re in New Zealand, they’ve taken it a step further - in collaboration with Holiday Records, they’ve actually pressed the podcast onto vinyl and distributed it to more than 40 record stores across the country. I haven’t had a chance to get out to any of the local record stores for a hunt for a copy yet, been busy house hunting , but I’m keen to see if I can still track one down. What a brilliant idea. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? We’ve sold the house in Wellington and are now looking to buy in Auckland’s same downturned market. In between kids’ activities we managed to check out a dozen open homes across the central suburbs. Damn visiting open homes all day is exhausting. It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to buy in the area we’re staying in , which is a shame, but we should end up not too far away. Some of the suburbs have great centres; it’s just another round of getting familiar with a new area. My biggest concern? How far I might end up from my gym. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? I just finished watching the first season of Peacemaker (2022) over the last couple days after seeing it on Cory’s new upcoming shows page. What an unhinged show. I haven’t watched a TV series set in the DC universe since giving up on The Arrow and The Flash years ago, so this one felt like a fresh change of pace. Nothing to do with CW I guess. I got curious about the Vigilante character, Adrian Chase, the name sounded familiar from The Arrow, but turns out it’s a different character entirely. There’s plenty of discussion on Reddit if you want to go down that rabbit hole. I’ve always liked John Cena, and he absolutely nails this role. The supporting cast was great too, especially Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, who pops up across a few of the other DC projects. Oh, James Gunn is behind this show, no wonder I loved it. I really enjoyed his recent Superman movie too. I’m not usually a DC fan, but I’m definitely a DC fan when James Gunn is involved. The best part? I get to dive straight into season two. Peace. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? On Saturday my son and I headed to Eden Park to check out the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live show . This was a special outing with him as a congratulations for persevering through stopping sucking his thumb. He worked really hard, and my wife and I are super proud of him. The event page described the show as having a “Glow n Fire” theme. No idea what that meant or how it translated to what we saw. There wasn’t much glow, and only a little fire. Looking at the site afterwards, it seems the full experience happens at night, with trucks lit up in neon and motocross bikes joining in. That might explain the huge amounts of downtime during the day show. At times there were several monster trucks just parked at the edge of the track, not doing much. About 40 minutes in there was a 30-minute stretch with nothing happening, and you could see kids all around the stadium getting restless. Oh well, the kid enjoyed it. When the monster trucks were racing, jumping, and crushing cars, it was great fun. Just not a lot of it. And wow, it was loud. I’m so glad I brought the kids’ earmuffs and my earplugs. We left early once he’d had enough, a lot was going on. He was pretty stoked to realise he could still hear the trucks roaring from outside the stadium on our walk home. Would I go again? Nah. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
What’s going on, Internet? What’s going on, Internet? The most recent Bandcamp Friday just happened — I’m writing this on Tuesday, lol. I’ve been reading a lot of NZ Muscician lately, which led me to pick up a few new releases from local artists: And a sneaky pre-order for ANITYA by Tom Scott of Home Brew fame. He’s finally releasing a project under his own name, a personal project that’s been a long time coming, check out the interview on Sniffers . Really looking forward to the show in November. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website. Not So Sweet by Pearly* Siren by ives. AFTERTHOUGHT by So Below
What’s going on, Internet? September’s been a month of noise, nostalgia, and ferry rides. It kicked off with Minuit at Double Whammy , their reunion tour finale and easily one of the best (or only?) nights out I’ve had in ages. Great company, great tunes, and a dance floor that felt straight out of 2005, just with a crowd twenty years older, lol. The next morning I went full fangirl and stacked my Bandcamp cart with Minuit’s entire back catalogue, along with some Fur Patrol for balance. Then it was time for the London Hardhouse Reunion 2025 . My friends came up for the weekend and we had an amazing time, all bass and hoovers, with a bunch of my favourite DJs that I would see across a single year, all playing the same gig, the same night. The kind of night that leaves your ears ringing (yes I wore my ear plugs) and the tunes stuck in your head for days. We rounded the month off a little slower with a family weekend on Waiheke , swapping the inside of clubs for beaches, markets, and fish and chips. Between the gigs and the music, I somehow found time to catch up on TV. One new show that crossed my radar was The Runarounds ; a perfect binge watch. Fun, short, and chaotic in all the right ways. I wonder if I should share more on the shows I watch and find enjoyable? I also went digging into lost media for Aotearoa’s lost emo banger , a little dive into what happens when labels dropped the ball into the transition to digital and how local libraries can quietly save the music. Plenty of good tunes, good people, and good times this month 🎶 Read four books this month, all enjoyable and worth reading: New records added to the collection : We’ve wrapped up raiding for the season, and expansion. We spent the last couple weeks dipping into the first couple mythic bosses in Mana Forge Omega and we easily got two of them down. The Legion Remix is going live this week. I will play enough to get the mounts and armours sets I need and then give it a break. Rumours on the street are that we’ll be seeing the next expansion, Midnight as early as February. With Warcraft out of the way, I’m looking forward to getting back into Cyberpunk and finishing up some more story lines. After last months ball dropping I’m back with more exciting links from across the web. There’ll definitely be something of interest in here for you. Check back next month, and if you want more in the meantime, dive into the archive . On the site side of things, September was a good month for tidying and tinkering. I started by revamping the Bookmarks page, it’s now fully tagged and easier to browse, and I split the Blogroll off from the Links page so each has its own proper home. There’s been a bit of chatter in my small web circles recently, and I have post drafted I want to share soon. I built out a new Blog Stats page using Robb’s PostGraph to visualise my posting frequency. Then, to round things off, I gave my RSS and Atom feeds a glow-up. They’re now styled with an XSL transformation and integrated into the fLaMEd fury design system. The Feeds page itself got an update to clearly show all the feeds avaialbe. All this work inspired by Robb’s setup, which I pretty much jacked. Thanks Robb. Weird Web October is happening for the second year. I won’t be taking part (I know if I commited, I’d quickly fail). If you are more inclined and creative than I am and decided to take part, come hang out in the Weird Web October thread over on the forums . This post was brought to you by Verona by Elemeno P Sweeet, catch you, laterz 👋 Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website. A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern Toxic by Sarah Ditum Glass Barbie by Michael Botur Christina Perri - A Lighter Shade Of Blue Zara Larsson - Honor The Light Mimi Webb - Amelia Anne-Marie - Unhealthy Minuit - 88 Why I love to read your blog - Sylvia’s Noodling Nook Sylvia shares all the reasons why they like reading your website 🫶 blog comments - Jayeless.net Jessica Smith goes deep into blog comments Breaking Free from Social Media Silos Luke discovers the indie web and discusses the struggle of being out of touch when it seems like most of society exists on facebook rather than the web. Bringing Back the Blogroll Luke wonders about the Blogroll and ends up slapping it on the homepage sidebar after some inspiration You can now attach 10,000 character blogs to your Threads posts Sounds like a wonderful idea. Inb4 people invest their lives work into this platform and lose everything, lol Do blogs need to be so lonely? - The History of the Web We used to do this back in the day, I want to reflect on this deeper in it’s own post soon Curate your own newspaper with RSS Molly White wants us to escape newsletter inbox chaos and algorithmic surveillance by building your own enshittification-proof newspaper from the writers you already read Why you should get (back) into RSS curation. Another take on rediscovering RSS as a way to take control of what you read online, curating a personal, intentional feed instead of relying on algorithm-driven platforms Just Put It On Your Blog Shellsharks reminds us to stop overthinking where content belongs and just publish it on our own blogs, embracing the spirit of the independent web. The internet’s hidden creative renaissance (and how to find it) Shame it’s on Substack, but it explores the growing revival of the handmade web, where personal websites push back against the corporate internet. The Internet Feels Broken | Stephanie Vee Stephanie reflects on how today’s internet feels broken under the weight of corporate platforms, and argues for reclaiming the web through personal websites and blogging. Personal blogs are the best, I love yours and I’ll try and tell you why - Nothing Original Here Peter shares a post appreciating personal blogs for their honesty and connection, and why they matter more than social media. bstn - RSS manifesto An RSS manifesto arguing for a return to open web standards and personal curation instead of algorithm-driven feeds The HTML Hobbyist A personal website by HTML hobbyist, Nathan, sharing simple HTML, CSS, and RSS tutorials based on courses they taught at Berkley Computer Training between 1997-2003 Sanding off friction from indie web connection – Tracy Durnell’s Mind Garden Tracy Durnell looks at how indie web tools can be made easier to use, lowering the barriers for people to connect through their own websites. Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee explains why he released the Web into the public domain. and why we must reclaim it from exploitative platforms and re-centre individual control. Understanding, not slop, is what’s interesting about LLMs - blakewatson.com Blake Watson takes a look at LLMs and where the real value isn’t in the flood of AI generated content, but in understanding how they work to simplify human-computer interaction
What’s going on, Internet? We picked up the kids early on Friday and headed to the ferry terminal to catch the 4pm boat to Waiheke. After the ride over we bussed out to Onetangi. I hopped off a stop early to grab fish and chips and walked the rest of the way to the bach, while my wife stayed on with the kids. After dinner everyone was tired, so we called it an early night. Saturday kicked off with breakfast and an 8am beach mission. We dug holes in the sand, collected shells, had running races, and buried the kids before rinsing off in the outdoor shower. Then it was off to the Ostend markets: hotdogs, hot chocolate, and stalls full of local goods. I picked up The Mice: Book 1 by Roger Mason , straight from Roger himself. I always love supporting local artists when I meet them. Back at the bach I napped with Miss 2 while the others went back to the beach. Later we had drinks and snacks under the pōhutukawas with music playing. In the evening we bussed to Heke for an early dinner, the kids ran wild in the sandpit, then made it back in time to catch the rugby and wrap up the night with a movie. Sunday was daylight saving, so it was an early start. Another beach trip, lunch with the kids at the corner pub, then gelato in Oneroa before bussing back to the ferry and heading home to Auckland. Not having the car and relying on the bus made it feel more like a proper holiday. It forced us to be intentional about where we went and when, and it actually added to the fun. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.
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