Pete's "the first half of 2024" update

From another timezone.

“Gosh Pete it’s been a while since your November update,” you could have said if I’d sent the November update in 2023 instead of last month. “Whatever have you been up to?”

Today’s headlines

Chocolate Eats Man! could well be the headline. A dream assignment, I thought. Join the board of a local, ethical, bean-to-bar chocolate company that is ready for growth! So I did; but it wasn’t. Not by a long shot. I worked *a lot* of free hours and it often wasn’t fun. Not even Type 2 fun. But oh boy I learned a lot from the experience: about staffing, legal disputes and employment law, shareholder management and comms, finances, company constitutions, media interviews, and so much more. One day I will turn the whole sorry saga into a F*ckup Nights talk or something.

Man Writes Story is quite a generic headline, but fitting for two reasons. First, for the reason above, I have only written one new story in 2024. Second, and the reason it deserves a headline, is because it’s a good story and it’s not just me who thinks so. The story is one of five finalists for the Mike Resnick Memorial Award, which holy hell is exciting.

I was asked to narrate a short story for an audiobook, too, which was lovely.

Man Keeps Jobs is the short headline to say that I’m still working with Startup Dunedin, and with The Care Co, and having fun.

Birthday Dog Sushi is clickbait, designed to entice. But really, when you go to the pet shop to buy your dog a birthday present, and you see squishy, squeaky sushi toys, the question is not “should I?” but rather “how many should I?” (Answer: Two.)

Herbie Goes Bananas. Wait, that’s a movie title.

Pete Goes Melbourne. Headlines are awkward sentences. We sold our place in Dunedin and jumped across to Melbourne, where the weather is cold but at least people dress like it. (No “shorts and ice-cream” locals spotted yet.) We’ll soon settle down here and get reacquainted with snakes and spiders and big-city living.

We spent our last week in NZ making our way up the coast to Christchurch. We stayed in Kakanui, an hour north of Dunedin, where we had the ocean on one side and snowcapped mountains on the other. And some very cool cloud formations, as seen below.

For those who know me: I’m back on my Aussie phone number. Also on Signal.

Read / Watch / Listen.

• Hi Ren [watch/listen: 9 minutes] is an incredible song. Even more incredible when you learn about Ren’s lived experience with psychosis.

• Kowloon Walled City [read: 10 minutes] “The most densely populated city on Earth had only one postman,” begins this article on the architectural / cultural marvel. A fascinating read on the history of the city.

• League of Pigs [watch: 17 minutes] I can’t remember if I’ve already shared this pig racing video. I love it. From the pig names, the commentary, the between-race misbehaviour; it’s all adorable. And the grand final video is now available, too. The best part? This is season 10, so I have 9 whole other seasons to go back and watch!