I observed quite a few ibises during my week of week of Monday 8 to Sunday 14 June 2026, including a parent feeding its offspring. I also managed to schedule a few new things. Overall, not as productive as I’d hoped, but then it was a short working week after the King’s Birthday holiday.
On Sunday I had a lot of fun recording some material for a friend’s short film. I’m playing the voice of the ship’s computer in a parody 1950s sci-fi movie. I’ll let you know when it’s released.
Meanwhile, there’s no news this week about the current crowdfunder, which has actually been running for three months now, although work continues on The Great Unboxening.
Podcasts
No new podcast this week, but I’m halfway through editing some of the material that Snarky Platypus and I recorded in Adelaide last year. Specifically, it’s a visit to my birthplace in Gawler, where I also spent most of my teens. I’m planning to post it this coming Wednesday,
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #121. OpenAI joins the share float bandwagon, link confirmed between teen social media use and depression, Australian government talks up the datacentre boom, and Pokémon Go goes to war.
Videos
- That photo at the top? I posted a rough edit of that ibis feeding session.
You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when the occasional livestreams are scheduled.
Media Appearances
- I’m not sure how new this is, but one of the photos I too in Orange has been used to illustrate 7 Welcoming Towns To Retire In New South Wales at WorldAtlas.
- One of my tweets from 2016 was cited in a blog post, Tailgating The Shaming. Yes, I do search for my name every week. Given that I make a good proportion of my income through my online presence, this stuff kinda matters — although perhaps not this week’s pair.
Photos, Corporate Largesse
None of these.
Some Interesting Links
- Want to track your caffeine levels in real time? “Piccolo turns every coffee into a living blood-caffeine curve — so you know how much is in you right now, when it’ll be gone, and whether it’ll still be keeping you up at bedtime.” It’s currently in early beta for iOS. I’ve been slightly surprised by what I’ve learned so far.
- There’s something living inside fog, scientists find.
- From Alasdair Beckett-King, The Guy Who Invented Being A Jester.
- Behold, the Random YouYube Video Generator! “Can’t decide what to watch on YouTube? Switch on the set and press Random to generate a random YouTube video, drawn from a curated pool of real videos from YouTube. Copy the link to keep or share it, or press Random again for another. No account, no algorithm steering you.”
- Check out some amazing nature photography.
- This week’s suggested follow: The newsletter Oligarch Watch describes its role as “accountability journalism focused on the world’s wealthiest people”. It began with a focus on Elon Musk in particular, but it has since broadened out to cover the rest of these pricks.
The Week Ahead
Much of the week will be about trying to shift things in The Great Unboxening. Follow my socials for the latest details of that, at either Bluesky or Mastodon. There’s also a lot of administrivia to be done, including pushing for my compensation for The Lost Module.
In the middle of the week I’ll post a podcast and with luck — or rather good planning — record another one. The rest will be a mix of client work and locking in further production work. and of course The Weekly Cybers newsletter will appear as usual on Friday afternoon.
The weekend is currently unplanned, although I note that the June Solstice is on Sunday.
Further Ahead
- NEW: Record a half-time update of our 2026 Bingo Card with Snarky Platypus, 27 June 2026 (TBC). Whichever day we record it, it will be posted on 30 June. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 12 midday AEST on Saturday 27 June.
- Newcastle visit, 3–5 July 2025. This was Snarky Platypus’s idea, and I think it’s a good one. I will record a podcast while I’m up there, namely…
- NEW: Podcast recording with Newcastle’s own Carol Duncan OAM, 21st Freeman of the City, Newcastle, 4 July 2026. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 10am AEST on Saturday 4 July.
- NEW: Podcast recording or similar with Swiss-Chinese train enthusiast David Feng, Sydney, 14 July 2026 (TBC). David assures me that he’s cleaned up his YouTube channel. Either way, he has lots of material all over the place, including on Bluesky. We’re not sure exactly what we’re going to be doing yet, although we’ll certainly be catching the Sydney Metro out to Tallawong. Stay tuned. Oh, and if you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 8pm AEST on Monday 13 July.
- NEW: Six-month checkup in the medical trial I’m taking part in, the one for a new trivalent vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (hMPV), and human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPV-3). Given that I came down wth RSV in May, I’m guessing that whatever I was injected with didn’t contain the RSV vaccine component.
[Photo: A young Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) tries to attract its parent’s attention and then, of course, so food. Photograph taken in Campsie, Sydney, on 10 June 2026. There’s also a video.]