Now
(updated: 6 January 2024 from LAX airport, California, USA)
Listening to
Whilst waiting for my very delayed flight, I listened to the excellent Diary of a CEO podcast episode with Casey Neistat. I’m a big Casey fan, so it was cool hearing a longer form interview with him about his life, work, and background.
Another long form interview I enjoyed on plane journey part 1 was the Jeff Bezos interview with Lex Fridman (recommended by my buddy Omar Zenhom from The $100MBA Podcast). I realised I don’t really know much about Jeff, and found some of his philosophies and decision making rules etc pretty interesting.
Music-wise, I’m enjoying the teasers from Everything Everything’s and The Smile’s upcoming new albums, and the latest Ben Howard album, Is It?
Learning
I’m on my way to two learning adventures in the US right now; a Futures Thinking professional program, and a key note speaking bootcamp. I’ve also signed up for a couple of conferences already in 2024.
Travel
I spent the week from 27 December - 2 January with friends in both the very south west coast of Victoria and in the Grampians. We spent the time hiking, camping, chatting, and getting jump-scared by wallabies and kangaroos.
In a bit of a change from all that nature, I’m currently in the US for three weeks between Houston, NYC, Philly, and New Jersey for a mixture of work and play. I’ve got a Europe trip booked for the middle of the year, am planning on a multi-day hike with friends in the Top End of Australia in the winter (because you don’t want to hike in the Top End at any other time of year!), and am trying to get some long weekends with friends in the diary for during the year too.
(I do like to have at least the next three trips booked at any one time!).
Fitness
Fitness was the area of life I didn’t maintain as well as I usually do in 2023. Mostly because of the good excuses of being overseas, moving house to a new suburb, and then fracturing my tibia plateau/damaging my MCL. So I was pleased to get a five days of hiking in between Christmas and New Year with some friends (despite damaging my achilles on the final day!).
So my ambition this year is to get back to my baseline routine; 3-4 pilates sessions a week, a couple of strength training sessions, and more walking. Moving house reminded me how much I need to ‘go’ to a studio/gym to train, rather than only training at home (even though the gym in my building is pretty good).
I’ve also recently started bouldering with a friend and am really enjoying the different type of body and brain workout, so will carry that on too (especially in winter).
Reading
Other stuff
Audible: Creative Act by Rick Rubin. I’ve actually listened to this a few times, I like to put it on at night or on long flights and just listen to Rick’s infinite wisdom on all things creativity. Over the Christmas break I finished Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, a book about The Troubles in Ireland from the 1960s onwards. Really interesting and so well researched and told.
Kindle: QAnon and On by Van Badham; a book all about modern conspiracy theories and the role of the internet in exacerbating them, which I’m finding both fascinating and terrifying.
I saw Poor Things at the cinema a few days ago. It was utterly bat-shit, and a bit gory (which I didn’t like). It was a very wild ride with an unusual story and cinematography. Emma Stone was brilliant though, and I quite enjoyed Mark Ruffalo’s unbearable character too.
Late to the party, I’ve been bingeing Sex Education on Netflix over the last month or so. It’s funny, sweet, the acting is outstanding, and I love the relationships between the characters. I would also like to be Gillian Anderson when I grow up.
And finally, after a year or so of umm-ing and ahhh-ing, I bought myself a Nintendo Switch Lite. I loved playing video games as a kid, and I’ve been wanting something for some evenings that’s not as passive as watching Netflix, not as taxing as reading about conspiracy theories, and whilst it’s still a screen, is probably better for me than doomscrolling on my phone. Super Mario Wonder is my current favourite game, and a bit of Mario Kart, of course.