Five Years (...and counting)
On Friday I had a big shipment arrive at my house, a pallet jack had to be used to get it from the truck to my front door. Shrouded in an obscene amount of...
Biocrust, new work and when is an idea a good one?
Hello everyone. I know I'd said I'd be too busy to write a newsletter this week, but guess who has COVID? (symptoms are mild and I'm almost done isolating)...
Matty on break!
Hi guys - I'm traveling for work, then on leave, then traveling for work again, so it'll be a while. Have a great three weeks :)
Weeding changes the world
On the weekend I went to the You Yangs with my parents to weed Koala habitat. We were looking for a plant called Bone Seed (what a great name!) that...
The Lottery
Sometime in the last year or two I've noticed a change in myself: when I walk past a sign advertising the lotto I just can't help myself, I think 'fuck that...
Sweet Potato Dip
Yumi's Sweet Potato and Cashew Dip has a special place in my heart. The summer between Year 11 and Year 12 I was really, really sick. In, like, September or...
All the small things
Something I've been grappling with for a long time is the idea that regular, small things matter as much, or more, as larger, more dramatic, more story-...
Time
In my memory, some years are just monoliths: so much seemed to have happened and occurred. Others are barely blips. 2005, for example, is a year I could name...
There's a lot of waste in the world
I run a small publishing company and through this I send maybe 200-300 packages a year. It amazes me that, just by saving packaging I get from other things I...
Fizzy (and the soft sell)
Most days I feel fizzy for some of the day. To me fizzy is both tired and energetic, it's stimulated but undirected. I could go for a run, fire up Photoshop...
I think about Fantasy like I think about Art
Of all the genre fiction that I adore, Fantasy is my absolute favourite. While it's the red-headed-step-child of the writing world, for as long as I've been...
Normal to Great
One of my favourite things about life is how small the difference between a normal day and a great day really is. To me, and maybe this is my personality, a...
White Bread - it was nice while it lasted
In main part due to how sick I was last week, I have been eating a bunch of white bread, something I've not done in years (decade+). Actually today, while...
Short one this week
I spent the afternoon before you're reading this on the phone with the ambulance trying to sort out if I needed to be rushed to the ER ASAP with something...
Too big to fail
I've been obsessed with the ocean lately. While I've always loved the beach, and for years wanted to be a marine biologist, over the last few months I've...
Art =/= Money
Strap in readers, this is a long one. But don't worry, no NFT chats at all. In 2018 I decided I would never be a High School teacher ever again. I had...
Curiosity is a form of exploration
One of my pleasures is reading to or listening about explorers. Not so much the age of exploration, which strikes me as naive and damaging, but a lot of...
Art, doubt, anxiety
Putting something out in the world is rarely a good feeling. It's always nerve-wracking and unpleasant, at least a little bit. Questions like 'will anyone...
The Last Time
When I was 12 or 13 I made the mistake of signing up to play cricket for my school team. Cricket, like anything, really is a struggle to care about once it's...
Thylacine (I want to believe)
I recently watched this documentary about folks in Australia who believe that the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) is still alive. For those living overseas, the...