I have been compelled by guilt into addressing this long silence (with my last entry coming nearly 8 months ago!). It has been an extraordinarily busy time, and I'm hopefully nearing the end of a PhD and my studenthood. Excitement lies just over the horizon! And so here is a brand spanking new website and blog design, as well as a migration away from Blogger and onto a statically generated site.

In the near future I'll write a ...

I am a first-generation Australian. My parents arrived in this country nearly forty years ago, seeking better opportunities for the future. I was born in a small country town in regional New South Wales, and I had the great fortune to grow up in a safe, welcoming environment, free from many of the anxieties and insecurities that plague much of the Western World as well as the terrifying dangers and tensions rife in many developing countries. I am very lucky ...

I don't much like Valentine's Day. But it seems like San Francisco agrees with me, because February 14th in the city features an enormous pillow fight at Justin Herman Plaza, opposite the Ferry Building near Embarcadero. 2013 was the eighth annual incarnation of the event, where hundreds of people gather to hit on strangers with things other than bad pick-up lines.

The fight was due to start at six o'clock sharp, so we left Berkeley clutching our ...

There is a lot of talk about how Australians are overcharged for hardware and software items compared to other countries. The Federal Parliament has convened a Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications to investigate "price gouging" in the IT industry, particularly from the likes of Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, and other tech giants.

The United States is a particularly common source of ire, and many people point at US prices compared to Australia as evidence for gouging. There's a number ...

I went to a talk by a self-styled "lifestyle entrepreneur" today. These people describe themselves as people who work in fields that fit with their lifestyle and preferences, be it to travel around the world, achieve moral or ethical goals, or find self actualisation.

One story he told really struck me the wrong way. He was describing how he was being introduced to the marvels of Chinese factory production in the mid-2000s, and how, having just read "The Four Hour ...

There are times when all you need is a hug.

Hug someone today. You don't know how much they might need it.

As I meet people from all over America and the world, it's fun addressing some common misconceptions about my homeland. I thought that I'd jot down a few of my favourites so far, and add to the list as it grows.

1. Australia has 22.5 million people, but roughly the same landmass as continental USA. We're the sixth largest country by landmass in the world, but we have less than 4 people per square kilometre (that ...

Today I'm re-entering a space that I left some time ago. Many years ago, back in school, we had an assignment to maintain a blog, and post interesting things on it. Unfortunately, the site hosting my blog met the way of a server crash, and that data all disappeared. I've stayed off the blogosphere since then.

I've now reached a point where I think it's important to write more stuff down. I don't feel like ...