February 2025
The Vibe
February was the official return to the grind. School was back into swing and work kicked back in as if nothing had changed. The weather was hot this year. We had a few scorchers, with a high of 43º on one day, and still no rain. Our garden looks far from healthy, but at the same time we're not active in it. I've used my last couple of Rostered Days Off [1] to start working on a new venture. At the moment we are definitely in side hustle territory, but I have now done a massive chunk of proper business plan and quite a bit of financial details to make it feel more real than before. I'm keen to share more about it in the near future.
At work, I'm still working on pumping out curriculum for the new University. My role is to work with academics as a bit of critical friend to aid them in developing a constructively aligned course, but more than anything, to move the curriculum from tacit that exists within the heads of a few individuals, and make it explicit and shared as part of the new university. Others probably don't see it like that, but it helps me sleep at night and not feel like I have become the Master of Forms.
In addition to that work I've been helping develop one of the six foundational common core courses for the new Adelaide University. These courses form a set of mandatory electives in the new programs, with students needing to complete one of the six courses in each year of their study (3 of the 6). I'm working on one in the domain of entrepreneurship and design thinking, while there are others in Artificial Intelligence, Indigenous Knowledges, Data Science, Ethics and Cultural Competencies. This has been quite a fun project to work on. Essentially, they are going to be massive courses (potentially 2000 enrolled) and are being sold as transformative learning opportunities. Developing an open curriculum for these courses where any student from any program at any year level can participate is a brand new challenge, and designing a conventional curriculum is challenging – and that's what I love. The Challenge! I really wish more of my work was like this.
I also started to working on the new Adelaide University Online section. It seems a bit late, but we are going back to first principles – literally developing the principles for what this whole area should and could look like now and into the future. It's been great to unpack the past and look forward to ways that we can do this into the future.
Events
It was definitely a stay-at-home kind of month, with just a few outings. We are trialling out a new family in preparation of a significant change to our home loan payments. We were smart enough to lock in out interest rate when we got the loan, but there is a time limit on that rate and it's about to hit. So it's time to put some constraints on our spending and keep better track of what we spend it on. A lot of it has been tightening up on outgoings and cancelling subscriptions, but the reality it inflation is just smashing us and everyone with just the standard food/shelter deal.
We did venture out of a colleagues birthday, had friends around for dinner[2], had an overnight test drive with a Cupra Born[3], went to an Asian Food Market in the city and got out on the bike. Still feeling I need to kickstart some change, but also trying to be more content with just being where we are and taking some time out to rest and relax.
Photos
Best snaps of the month
Watched
We had a family movie night and watched Twisters which functions perfectly as a stupid family movie. I enjoyed Mr. & Mrs. Smith TV series, which mixed enough intrigue into the action and relatively minor character development. There were some nice gags along the way and interesting easter eggs in the story. Rewatched The A-Team with Ms. 13, and am glad we found something we both enjoyed. Super Rugby has started again for the year, so that's been great to watch. I also finished Paradise, another post-apocalyptic bunker TV show. Not sure why that would be in the Zeitgeist at all but follows Silo and Fallout. This one is set in a billionaire's Bunker that’s been “designed” to create paradise on earth - by replicating suburbia, driving cars and an odd nostalgia for the 90s.
Read
I loved this post from Kin Lane about their dog and how they became such a part of their life's journey. Last year, I had to return from our family holiday after the first night as Frankie had to go to the emergency vet, and how that pang of responsibility hits deep and hard.
What Felt Impossible Became Possible - A bit of a story about George Dale, who campaigned in the 1920s against the Ku Klux Klan. This is a bit of a call to arms against Fascism and a reminder — Fascism always fails.
Listened
I started listening to The Rest is Classified after several recommendations on Mastodon and enjoying the stories so far. I also went back and listened to Bag Man from Rachel Maddow about Spiro Agnew, who I only knew as a headless body in Futurama. Another great historical series, and again, it confirms that it's all just history repeating!
If you have the opportunity, have a look at doing a 9-day fortnight! In an age of stolen wages and overworking, this has been my salvation. ↩︎
this Mexican Shredded Beef was really good, and I enjoyed this Quick Pickled Cabbage and so did 3 other adults and 3 teenagers! ↩︎
I really enjoyed the car and the drive, weighing up the family practicalities of it against it's marked down price ↩︎
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