My week of Monday 30 October to Sunday 5 November 2023 involved a lot of napping, but also some planning, the launch of a crowdfunding campaign, and another new podcast. Hurrah!
Launching The 9pm Summer Series 2023 crowdfunding campaign
It’s time yet again to organise more special guest episodes of my inappropriate and often disturbing podcast for grown-ups The 9pm Edict and other projects.
This is especially important right now because I kicked off the six-episode spring series without running a dedicated winter or spring crowdfunder. I am an idiot. And so today I kicked off a summer crowdfunder.
Target One will get you four special-guest episodes of the Edict. Target Two gets you two more. And then I’m considering a four-part series of The 8pm Quiz video livestream, like last year. Or maybe some other projects. We’ll see.
Please click through for all the details and to pledge your support.
At the time of posting we’re already 6% of the way to Target One. The campaign ends on 30 November 2023 at 9pm AEDT.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Frog and Covid with Upulie Divisekera, recorded and posted on Sunday.
The 9pm Edict is supported by the generosity of its listeners. Please support The 9pm Summer Series 2023 just described.
If you miss the deadline, you can always subscribe for special benefits or throw a few coins into the tip jar.
Articles
- Digital developments from Canberra 60. AI featured on the global stage this week, as well as in the Australian public service. However the government still had trouble operating within the law. Also, more things.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Videos, Photos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
This week Elon Musk was at the AI summit in the UK, which is curious because he knows fuck all about AI. Still, that’s our Elon.
- No utopia: experts question Elon Musk’s vision of world without work.
- Elon Musk’s X Has Started Selling Off Old Twitter Handles For Upwards Of $50,000, which is interesting for a number of reasons.
- A year after Elon Musk bought Twitter, X is now a ‘worthless’ platform some say is no longer safe for activists.
- Grandiose visions and arrested development: a new biography considers the contradictory life of Elon Musk.
- Elon Musk Is the Messy Hero of Our Messy Age, reckons someone at Foreign Policy. “For better and worse, he represents how change happens in our current society.”
In other news, just a few videos this week:
- I’ve been watching some of the videos from Asianometry on “business, economics, and history… sometimes about Asia, but not always”. This week’s one contains some important nuclear history: How India Got the Bomb.
- New from Ze Frank: True Facts: Incredible Crab Stories. Contains plenty of hot crab action.
- And I re-watched The Katering Show this week. It’s from 2015–2016 but I reckon it still holds up. Here’s season 1 and seasoning 2. Normally I prefer the term “series” rather than “season” but I didn’t want to ruin the excellent gag.
The Week Ahead
Tuesday is Melbourne Cup Day. While it isn’t a holiday here in NSW, Snarky Platypus and I will be watching the race at the Cabra-Vale Diggers Club. Possibly because there is excellent food at their Asian food court District 8.
[Update 6 November 2023: To clarify, we’re not so much watching the race as watching the people watching the race. We really don’t care about horse races.]
On Thursday I’m heading down to Sydney for a weekend of catsitting, or rather being hissed at by a cranky white cat, in Ashfield.
[Update 9 November 2023: Also on Thursday, the usual suspects of the Vertical Hold podcast are recording my feelpinions on certain Optus-related news. That podcast will appear on Friday.]
This all means that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be about client work.
On Saturday I’m recording a podcast with Snarky Platypus, who was last on the pod in June for The 9pm Bad Nasi Goreng Makes the Merlion Sad with Snarky Platypus. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for that episode, please let me know by 8pm AEDT this Friday 10 November.
On Sunday I’ll edit and post that podcast, and return to the Blue Mountains. Or possibly in the other order.
Further Ahead
- The War On 2023: Annual Comedy Gala, Bathurst, 5 December 2023. For reasons which are not entirely clear, Snarky Platypus and I will be taking the train to Bathurst to see The Chaser’s end of year show there rather than in Sydney. We’re then continuing on to Orange the next day, returning to our respective starting points the day after.
- NEW: I’ve decided that if the crowdfunding goes well I’ll do some live-streamed episodes of The 8pm Quiz during the holiday season. I’ve pencilled in some dates in my own calendar, but I won’t confirm them until 30 November.
[Photo: A bus to Scenic World via Echo Point waits in Katoomba Street, Katoomba. But on this day, 4 November 2023, there won’t be much scenic happening because the whole area is shrouded in mists.]