More insights from The Verge’s Paul Miller as his year without the internet continues. The goal for me, in this year and beyond, is to do things consciously and purposefully — submitting my time to my personal goals and values, instead of the next clickiest link. Someone on Reddit warned me that I’d be bored …
Category Archives: long
enslaved by the smartphone
An odd experience on the trip home last week. I bumped into a friend from church at the train station, and then he bumped into a friend while we were on the train. There we were, three young(ish) fathers, awkwardly chatting. It wasn’t long until we decided to share photos of our kids. And so, …
What to achieve by sixty
Listening to the speeches at a relative’s 60th birthday party with my too-tired son resting on my lap was as good a chance as any to take stock of how my life is going, and what might need changing. One speech – by a lifelong friend – talked about how they had met, decades ago …
reflections on the kony campaign
Having reached 70 million views faster than any previous YouTube video, unless you’ve been living under a rock (or offline), you will have hear of the Kony 2012 campaign video. In fact, you may already have completely moved on – the media coverage certainly has. Kony 2012 is so seductive for precisely the same reasons …
the face of birth
This is a tricky subject for me to comment on, but I thought I might just put a few thoughts out, and see what comes of it. I should start out by saying that I haven’t actually watched this movie: I watched the kids while Kel went with some friends to watch it in a …
Friends from youth
With each trip around the sun, my perspective changes. What seemed the inflexibility of old age starts to make more sense. One excerpt from the sunscreen song that seemed particularly poignant over the weekend was “the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.” There was something energizing …
Commuting
Talking yesterday to a friend who is a working mum was a chance to reflect on commuting. The busier your life gets, the more you appreciate a chance to commute. You’re stuck for a period of time, doing something necessary (travelling to a destination), and you’re physically removed from a range of responsibilities (housework, child …
colonoscopy
In the past I’ve raised money via movember for depression and prostate cancer, but there’s another form of cancer that I haven’t mentioned before, at least here: bowel cancer. Second biggest cancer killer in Australia: 1 in 12 Australians will be diagnosed with it by age 85, it’s a big deal. But we don’t talk …
Reflections from a walk
Took Puff on an epic walk in the stroller around our suburb today, the park, play equipment, farm animals, food; the works; so that Kel could sleep for a while in between feeds. Then, when we were praying tonight before bed, and we were talking about his day, the one thing he remembered – and …
bbc book meme
Allegedly BBC meme, from snail. “Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read an excerpt. I’m not sure this …