Shut up and tumbl

The Humble Indie Bundle V

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 22:28:18 +1000

The Humble Indie Bundle V:

Name-your-price video game bundle for charity for charity. Had me at Psychonauts.

Villains Wiki

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:54:38 +1000

Villains Wiki:

The Villains Wiki is dedicated to creating a database of all known villains from all media.

The things you find when trying to recall the name of the final boss in Chrono Trigger for a school assignment.

The Modern Father: Lifehacker articles I'm currently drafting

Wed, 30 May 2012 08:34:39 +1000

The Modern Father: Lifehacker articles I'm currently drafting:

I’m a total sucker for these kind of self-improvement lists.

How I Made It As A Videogame Journalist

Wed, 30 May 2012 05:30:05 +1000

How I Made It As A Videogame Journalist:

Brendan Keogh writes smart things about video games and publishes them lots of different places. However, it was not ever thus. Here he recounts the path he’s travelled to reach what appears (from the outside, at least) a level of relative success and satisfaction. As we’re in the throes of the Emerging Writers’ Festival at present, I found much of his advice worth considering, and the following particularly apposite:

There is no tried-and-tested way to break into videogame journalism. There is no tried-and-tested way to break into any kind of writing.

You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:24:32 +1000

You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack:

Tom Gauld is definitely in my top three comic artists.

Send from any email address in Apple Mail

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:12:54 +1000

Send from any email address in Apple Mail:

I’ve struggled to find an answer to this exact problem for weeks, and then came across it entirely by chance this morning. If you use Gmail or Google Apps as a catch-all for a bunch of different email accounts, and you use Apple Mail, you probably want to use this setup.

The Speech I Should Have Given

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:32:00 +1000

The following is neither as witty nor as insightful as I might like, but it is sincere, so here goes:

I would like to thank Monash University, both for their ongoing support of The Emerging Writers’ Festival and their particular generosity and foresight in inaugurating this prize. (I would probably be better served by the word “instituting”, both for ease of pronunciation and the subtle pun it affords, but never mind.)

To my fellow finalists, congratulations – I cannot wait to read all of your pieces, and I thank Penguin for the opportunity to do just that.

To the staff of the Bachelor of Creative Writing at RMIT, who have been without exception excellent, and to my peers in the program, who continue to be even excellenter, thanks.

To my family, who aren’t here tonight, thank you for your love and support. To my most lovely and patient partner Nina, who is, thank you for your everything.

Finally, thanks to the Emerging Writers’ Festival, especially under the auspices of Lisa Dempster, for all of the opportunities, the confidence and the camaraderie you’ve given and continue to give to both myself and so many others, and without which I would not – could not – conceive of myself as a writer today.

Thank you all.

Panic Blog » Announcing Coda 2

Tue, 22 May 2012 11:37:22 +1000

Panic Blog » Announcing Coda 2:

I’ve always wanted an excuse to pick up one of Panic’s finely crafted pieces of software. A feature-packed new version plus a limited-time fifty per cent discount should just about do it.

Famous Authors’ Thoughts While Being Photographed

Sun, 20 May 2012 21:50:23 +1000

Famous Authors’ Thoughts While Being Photographed:

Worth it for Murakami alone.

I feel a rage inside me to the power of 100,000 cats. I am Cat God, motherfucker.

The P-P-P-Powerbook Prank

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:14:03 +1000

The P-P-P-Powerbook Prank:

Greatly enjoyed revisiting the canonical scam-baiting story tonight.

SNES 16-Bit Doctor Who Intro

Thu, 17 May 2012 21:27:17 +1000

SNES 16-Bit Doctor Who Intro:

A little late to this particular party, but I’m yet to find something in this world that can’t be improved by pixellating the shit out of the visuals and making the audio more bleepy-bloopy.

A Routine Inspection

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:47:48 +1000

There is a fascination among fledgling writers with the routines and rituals of the job that seems unmatched among other industries. In part, the writer is responsible for not only what they write, but how they go about the writing of it, with a degree of autonomy seldom found in other professions. One does not expect the surgeon to prefer working by candlelight at three in the morning, nor the pastry chef to find herself struck by a baker’s block which only a suitable 8tracks mix can alleviate. Writers seem particularly prone to believing – or wanting to believe – that the process has a hand in shaping the product, that in adopting the apocryphal habits of a Capote (longhand while lying down) or a Nabokov (upright, on index cards) we might imbue ourselves with some of their style or spark, or at least be able to take ourselves (and be taken) more seriously.

Some years ago I came across an interview with John Birmingham in The Writer’s Reader, which he concludes with this parting prescription for writerly routine:

Four hours a day reading. Four hours a day writing. Each split up into two hour blocks with a stretch and a cup of tea between.

The simplicity of Birmingham’s phrase masks the muscularity of the idea, the solid foundations laid by large doses of reading and writing in equal measure. Over at her blog, my fellow Melbournite Sam van Zweden has a related post on her own writing routine:

I’ve finally figured out how I would (try to) spend each and every working day if I were a full-time professional writer, in order to get shit done.

She goes on to outline just such a day, honed over several weeks of trial and error: a modicum of social media management, followed by a read of both an essay and short story, a free-write after the fashion of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, a writing exercise, some time on the current project, some time on a work with commercial prospects, any administrative tasks and finally a flick through the day’s news in Google Reader.

There is an aphorism attributed to Aristotle that states, we are what we repeatedly do. Both aforementioned writers assert themselves and their literary identities in the act of writing and reading daily, and both serve as admirable role models for the dilettantish wordsmith such as myself. Given my own wholly unstructured (and largely unsatisfactory) writing practice to date, I may at least make good use of such a trusty pair of yardsticks as I seek to turn around the sinking ship of mixed metaphor and sail off into the sunset of my burgeoning literary career.

tullyhansen's Dashboard | ThinkUp

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:47:00 +1000

tullyhansen's Dashboard | ThinkUp:

Speaking of Twitter, I’ve added another stallion to the growing stable of subdomains out back of my personal page – a publicly accessible archive of my Twitter activity to date, set up relatively painlessly using the open-source ThinkUp. Data liberation FTW.

The best of Twitter in your inbox

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:42:40 +1000

The best of Twitter in your inbox:

This seems to be the first fruits of Twitter’s acquisition of Summify, a service which offered personalised email digests of social media activity. I’m interested to see what role the weekly round-up plays for me, especially in light of my recent attempts to curb my Twitter consumption.

An Invocation for Beginnings

Tue, 15 May 2012 03:25:57 +1000

An Invocation for Beginnings:

I’ve come across the name Ze Frank a number of times on my travels around the web, but never knowingly encountered his work (except, I realise, that thing where he got people to recreate their childhood family photos). Here, by way of inaugurating the successfully Kickstartered new season of his video podcast, is his three minute piece to camera addressing the difficulties of starting. From the transcript:

There is no need to sharpen my pencils anymore, my pencils are sharp enough. Even the dull ones will make a mark.

(via Gina Trapani)

Bon Iver Erotic Stories

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:37 +1000

Bon Iver Erotic Stories:

Nina pointed this out to me, coining the term “hipsterotica” in the process.

Startup or Pokemon?

Tue, 08 May 2012 14:49:50 +1000

Startup or Pokemon?:

In what I hope to be the first of many links with the pokemon tag.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:36:13 +1000

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do:

… and now I’m stuck over at McSweeney’s.

It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer. Similarly, if you can read but have to move your lips to get through the longer words, you’ll still be a pretty bad writer. Also, if you pronounce “espresso” like “expresso.”

I'm An Article About the Internet That You Repost On The Internet

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:21:00 +1000

I'm An Article About the Internet That You Repost On The Internet:

Teddy Wayne bolts from the McSweeney’s stable to gallop freely across the humour pages of The New Yorker.

Long but worth checking out.

You Need A Budget

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:42:37 +1000

You Need A Budget:

After a foray into the world of money management and budgeting tools, I have to say that YNAB looks to be pick of the bunch. If I end up sixty dollars in the black next month, I might just pony up for the full version.