It’s still there in my calendar. Sunday April 7 – leave Melbourne. That day I got in my car and drove 650km from Carlton, Victoria, to Cook, ACT. On the 8th, I began work on Simon Sheikh for the Senate. Then, I thought I was making a noble sacrifice. When I imagined what it would […]
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Work Less: You’ll Get More Done
May 19, 2013 
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If you have a full-time job, you are probably working more than full-time. Maybe someone expects you to chalk up a certain number of billable hours each week. Maybe there’s an implicit pressure when you look around and see your coworkers chained to their desks: it can feel strange being the last to arrive and […]
Read moreActivism and Financial Sustainability
May 12, 2013 0 Comments
I wrote this post earlier this year when I was about to start full-time well-paid work. Since writing it, I have left that employment to volunteer full-time. So, this post is a snapshot of how I was feeling and thinking then. My deliberate change in circumstance also reveals to me a point I only allude […]
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“In the Tiger’s Mouth”, Katrina Shields: Activism, Self-Awareness, Self Care
May 3, 2013 1 Comment
Katrina Shield’s In The Tiger’s mouth is a book I had been waiting for an opportunity to read. That opportunity came one Friday when I lunched with Holly Hammond, facilitator and director of Plan to Win (and the recently-launched blog ‘Plan to Thrive’). Appropriately, she had two copies and was able to lend (understandably, she […]
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Setting Goals, Making Predictions, Being Prepared
April 25, 2013 0 Comments
I’ve recently moved to a new city, Canberra, so I’m meeting new people and having lots of those initial-acquaintance conversations. I tell people that I studied Engineering for four years which sometimes causes confusion as I didn’t graduate: I ended up dropping out without completing that degree. When I reflect upon this there’s sometimes a […]
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Police Brutality at the 2013 Sydney Mardi Gras
March 9, 2013 0 Comments
The video is deeply confronting. Even before your intelligence begins to make sense of it, there’s something instinctive that is repulsed by what you see: gross violence by one human against another. For me, as it went on, shockwaves rippled through my mind…this is not only upsetting, it’s disturbing. The footage challenges how we think […]
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David Walsh’s MONA: Art, Architecture, Life
February 23, 2013 0 Comments
MONA. Anticipation fills me, a pilgrim on a ferry, heading to MONA. It comes into sight: rocks leap from the bay, supporting verdant vines and the implacable exterior of what is surely becoming one of Tasmania’s and even Australia’s most compelling institutions. MONA. I’m the first off the ferry up the steps. At the top […]
Read moreAdvice to High School Poets
February 16, 2013 0 Comments
To write winning poems when you are young bombastic adjectives must roll of your tongue: “winsome”, “alabaster”, don’t write from the heart but from a thesaurus, yes, go there to start. Give but scant attention, to meter or time, forget about iambs, just fret about rhyme. The judges are ageing, so woo them with pathos, […]
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“The 5 Love Languages”, Gary Chapman: Making Love Felt
February 12, 2013 3 Comments
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts is a book by Gary Chapman with an invaluable message: that humans communicate love using five distinct “languages”. We each have a different primary love language, and we feel most loved when love is expressed to us in that language. Conversely, relationships falter not necessarily […]
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Spellcaster Rules and Gameplay
February 6, 2013 0 Comments
Spellcaster is a game I discovered recently over at game blog Play This Thing! It appealed to me very quickly: I love games such as Poker, Capture the Flag, or Chess, where one has to be constantly engaged with what the opponent is doing, reacting in real-time. Spellcaster captures this brilliantly: you are engaged in […]
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