What's This Button Do?

It sounds a bit OCD, I know. Who the hell writes down what jumper Aunt Bev gave them in 1997? Me, that’s who. Somewhere in a box I’ve got a scrappy notebook with decades of “Craig got X, gave Y” like it’s the stock exchange of birthdays and Christmases.Why? Because memory is a lying bastard. Without a list, you forget. You re-gift. You double-gift. You give your brother the same book two years in…

The Problem with Passwords

There are thousands of posts on how to create a good password. There are even more on instances of hacking and the consequences there of. And if it all seems too hard to remember complex passwords ask yourself this question; do you like your life? Here’s another question to ponder; why do hackers hack? The dudes who hack government databases, websites and secured servers, as well as media and big…

Epilogue: One more thing... #ProjectL #StartupLife

Project L has been, for me, fascinating from many different aspects. More so than when it began. This idea was born at the beginning of 2018 as an evolution of my thinking that it is sad that so much is lost when a person dies. On the flip side, I wouldn’t ever consider anything as grand as an autobiography.

I sit here being 50 and nothing has changed since yesterday. We have new scales at…

1: Family and friends first; everything else is bullshit

And I’ll tell you why; when shit gets real, like when your wife says she doesn’t want to be your wife anymore and you find yourself with no home, and no job (because you were in a partnership) and no business (see the partnership bit again) and your car (unless you’ve gone full Weinstein) family and friends are all that is left. Not the 503 Facebook ‘friends’, I mean the ones who’ll bail you out…

3: Nurture your network

4: Ladders can be wooden snakes #ProjectL #Startuplife #Stoicism

GAME – SNAKES AND LADDERS

The game is simple enough. Roll a dice and move your marker the prescribed number of squares. Land on the bottom rung of a ladder and move up the ladder. Land on the head of a snake and slide back down. Not even as strategic as tic-tac-toe. Pure luck.

In life, I’ve found things to be not so cut and dried. Often what looks like a fast track comes with a greater…

5: Never stop learning #ProjectL #Startuplife #Learning

I used to think that one day I’ll know enough about something or other that I will just know everything. Then analogue was replaced by digital. Film became ones and zeros. All I knew from a technical point of view was worthless.

I remember the day at art school when they opened the ‘computer lab’. Eight shiny new Apple Macintosh 512K computers. You know how people say that the first digital…

7: If you bend it, it’s funny. If you break it, it’s not.

It’s the first rule of comedy. One of the other things comedians learn mostly through experience is to suffer through the soul-destroying chasm created by the silence of a bit not landing. That is to say; telling a joke that isn’t funny.

I’ve been there although not on stage performing. And never with a written or rehearsed gag. Usually with a smart ass comment in a meeting. Almost as bad as…

8: Your circle of influence is greater than you know

Years and years ago I was chatting with my sister and she said, “Hey, so Mum thinks you’re a poof”. I was stunned. I had never considered that my mother spoke about me behind my back. When I asked big sister to repeat what she’d just said I had apparently misheard. Mum actually thought I was “…aloof.” And that I couldn’t argue with.

I recall thinking that it was the first time I ever knew that…

9: Never argue with a fool or a drunk #ProjectL

Considering the day this is more a Public Service Announcement as much as one of the lessons I’ve learned in my life.

I’ve never been a big drinker so when at parties with people all around slowly (and sometimes very quickly) losing their sense of right and wrong, up and down, hot v not, I had the opportunity to listen to some very smart people saying some very, very dumb things before they’d…

In my life, I’ve had five headaches. Including hangovers. Extraordinarily fortunate by any measure. But each one has been the worst pain imaginable for any human being and nothing could cure it and it will never end. Until it ends and everything goes back to normal. I’ve never had a broken bone and been hospitalised thrice but only once as an emergency. Even in matters of the heart when I thought…

#11: Work hard. Fear less. #ProjectL #Buddhism101 #hardwork

A constant reminder stuck just below eye level on my desk. I find fear comes from not knowing the right, best, correct, most effective or simply from an unknowing path forward. Those of you who have been following along will already appreciate my stance on taking action; any is better than none.

For me hard work has almost always involved thinking. I’ve never worked a job digging holes…

12: Your ego is not your friend #ProjectL #Ego #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy #KurtRussell

I know this to be true because if my ego was my friend it wouldn’t have fucked up my life so many fucking times.

Once again dear reader I’ll take this opportunity to remind you my degrees are not in psychiatry or other fields of mental health so anything year read here is one step above complete and utter rubbish.

However in saying that, my major educational endeavours have dealt very…

#13: Pick the fights worth winning #ProjectL, #Fighting #Winning #buddhism101

My mum used to say, “there are plenty of tombstones in the cemetery for people who died defending their rights.” Typically she was referring to other road users who, while defending their right-of-way would do something stupid.

If you drive you know this situation. And it isn’t getting better out there. How many times have you experienced someone roar past you only to be at the same set of…

#14: Don't let people put you off your dreams #projectL

Many years ago my sister was at a school careers night. She was in 4th form (as it was then called) and the school had invited a range of local business owners and other professionals for the kids to talk to about life after school, ie, work.

One of the invited was a B-grade Australian TV celeb. And B-grade is rating him really rather high. He was then a weatherman for the ABC. In fairness,…