Hitting the streets and Margaret River in January.

A nice end to a 40 degree day.

Thank you, stonking solar flare—we received your shipment.

My annual recap of media and products I enjoyed over the year.

Music

Getting Killed and Heavy Metal – I’m on the Cameron Winter and Geese train along with everyone else.

The Thief next to Jesus – Spiritual stuff.

Manning Fireworks – MJ is a talent.

Dream River – I’m catching up on all the Bill Callahan.

Strange Love – My kind of supergroup.

Here is my 2025 playlist of songs I enjoyed throughout the year.

TV Shows

The Pitt – My show of the year. Bringing back the medical procedural.

Task – Tight and sharp.

Andor season two – Smart Star Wars.

Invincible – I watched all three seasons. It’s violent. It feels like a comic book show in a good way.

The Eternaut – Strong start. Faded a little.

Department Q – The plot shouln’t work and yet it does. Team Akram forever.

Adolescence – Incredible achievement. Brutal watch at times.

The Studio – Made me giggle.

Movies

Sinners – Loved it.

Black Bag – Slick.

Anora – Decent. Can’t believe it won the Oscar.

One Battle After Another – Made me laugh.

Predator: Killer of killers – I enjoy seeing good takes on the Predator universe.

Killers of the Flower Moon – Evil pricks everywhere. Too long. Still good.

The Wild Robot – Beautiful art. Pulls at the heartstrings.

Books

I still don’t read enough books.

Project Hail Mary – Like a science puzzle. Second half picked up steam. Good fun.

The Wager – A mad story of survival.

Count Zero – Getting my old school Gibson back on.

Products

Gozney Arc – Gas fired pizza oven.

Dictador 20 year old rum – Good booze.

Didgeridoona cooler bag – Good for transporting booze.

Huski Champagne Flutes and cooler – Good for drinking booze.

I finished my black and white photo a day in 2025 project yesterday.

I only had one close call when I forgot to take a photo but still managed to find one on my phone camera roll that I could use.

I enjoyed how the project forced me to practice shooting more often.

I think I’ll get the photos printed up into a book.

It’s a lovely time of year to be walking the streets. Clouds of purple everywhere.

I find the 24 hour news cycle exhausting and unsettling.

So, these days, I mostly opt out of it.

Instead, I check the news once a week, usually on a Sunday, and see what’s lasting that has risen to the top.

Kagi News and the Economist World in Brief are my main sources.

I start with local news and end with international news.

I find this approach provides a calmer experience.

My trip to visit the Blue Mountains was tops.

Mountain Culture brewery put on some great beers and wings.

The walks around the Three Sisters are well worth it.

We even went for a lap around the Mount Panorama track in Bathurst.

Also, the people of Katoomba wear sick hats.

Sometimes there are pretty things underfoot.

We spent last week in Sydney.

The weather was perfect and it was a lovely time.

The beach walk from Coogee to Bondi is well worth it.

Taronga Zoo and Luna Park were both hits with the kids.

When the sun is out, Sydney is absolutely top tier.

We visited Coral bay in July. It was a lovely escape from winter.

The weather was warm and we managed some reef snorkeling and to spot some fish, turtles, and whales.

The drive up the coast is long but beautiful. The WA countryside looks like nowhere else I’ve been.

Perth in June was cold, dark, and wet.

FNQ in June, on the other hand, was lovely.

As Gen AI programming tools continue to develop, I’m wondering what things will look like when we remove the human from the loop.

At that point, all the code that’s generated is solely for the AI. All the human-focused concerns we care about in code disappear—it becomes a black box. The code effectively becomes another intermediate language for a new layer on the stack.

As long as the solution fulfils its requirements and fits within the constraints of security and cost for the necessary performance, we’re happy.

Code structures and data schemas don’t matter—so long as the AI can refactor them to meet new requirements as they emerge.

It reminds me of stories of when assembly programmers first saw these flash new C compilers arrive on the scene and generate all this assembly code that no human had directly written.

It warmed up a bit and then Winter decided to properly turn up.

The days are shortening and the air is getting crisp.