Fritter the days away - September 2026

As is often the case when unemployed, the last month has been quiet (though not relaxing, but… I digress). However, I recently returned from a weekend trip to Melbourne, and since it’s been about a month since my last update, this seems like a good reason to do so.

The bulk of what I’m going to cover here actually happened in October, not September as the title implies. But as Douglas Adams once wrote: “Time is an illusion; lunchtime, doubly so”.

In this edition, we’ll cover:

visa update
the Melbourne transit conundrum
Jessie and David’s adult milestone extravaganza
friends and people in Melbourne
de-Zuckification in the modern age
misc. photos, album artwork, a cat video, and conclusion

Visa news

Still waiting for the contractor visa. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m applying to jobs in hopes they’ll sponsor me directly, but not having much luck.

It’s fine. I’m chill. I’m actually famous for my patience.

*Is it a bad thing that I relate to Ben Wyatt a lot?*

Getting to Melbourne

In my last update, I mentioned that I planned to ride my motorcycle to Melbourne as a fun road trip. Well, I bailed on that idea for a few reasons: the first was that it’s getting warmer out, and I didn’t want to be riding through 30 degree heat completely exposed to the sun.

Beyond that, that planning aspect stressed me out in ways that I’m struggling to articulate. I planned to take three days to ride down through the “Victorian Alps” with each day being 4, 6, and 3 hours respectively. However, the idea of requiring myself to hit those targets wasn’t something I could digest: I spent (literal) hours looking at the map, calculating in my head when I’d need to leave, and worrying about whether I’d push too hard and make a mistake that’d cost me a body part. And if I hated the ride down, I’d have to do it again coming back.

Admittedly, a lot of this is residual stress from my visa stuff which has been a problem for a while. But to spare myself the additional stress, I booked the train instead. This was good because it would have been a very wet ride down, but it was also bad because the XPT service embodies all the reasons that high-speed rail will always be a pipe dream in this country. As much as I wanted it to be a viable option for getting down there, I could have flown to Japan in less time and the seats are painfully uncomfortable. I could have taken the overnight train, but you can’t book sleeper berths from the website anymore and they’re apparently in high-demand.

Jessie and David’s adult milestone extravaganza

Regardless, once I was in Melbourne, I had a wonderful time. The impetus for this journey was my friend and former coworker Jessie and her partner David’s “We had a big year!” celebration: they got engaged, they bought a house, and their first child is currently compiling.

Some photos:

Who else I saw in Melbourne

On my other days in the city, I saw people that I hadn’t seen since February.

I met up with Jenny who smuggled contraband from the US at my request. For legal reasons, I should point out that by “contraband”, I mean ranch dressing packets and chili powder (which is not the same chili powder you get here in Aus). That clarification is important because she already has a habit of getting searched by airport security at an alarming rate.

I also saw Michelle, fresh off her month-long European vacation, and her lovely, if very curious, boy cats:

Airport security dreams of being this thorough

I also saw Dom, but I didn’t get any photos of him as we mostly walked around and went to an art exhibit (so fancy). I was also supposed to see a few other friends, but it didn’t work out this time. Thankfully, they’ll both be in Sydney soon enough.

Help me Zuck off

I haven’t posted photos from my trip yet to Instagram, and I’m not 100% sure I will. I’ll spare you my full grumble about data privacy (you’ve heard it if you’ve seen me irl) but these days, I’m getting extra curmudgeon-y about “them” (just everyone in general) having my data. So much so that I moved my email to Proton because I didn’t want Google reading my messages, and I refuse to join a grocery store rewards program (though I will if anyone wants to switch cards with me to fuck up their algorithms — let me know). Of all of these, Meta is the worst, and I dream of the day I give it no data, and use it exclusively to satiate my diet of slightly-deranged memes:

To this end, this website — my website — allows me to share my updates in a way people like The Zuck can’t monetize or leverage. And while I (try to) hide these blogs from search engine crawlers, I still have to announce share the link on Insta to get people to see my updates.

That said, help me cut out the tech bros: at the top of this page, there’s a box labeled “get this in your inbox so I can delete Instagram“. Add your email, and you’ll get the minutiae of my life delivered directly to your inbox. Or not. I’m not going to monitor numbers.

But eventually, I plan to stop sharing the link on social media. So if you want to stay in touch, sign up and you can read this whenever you want and not just in the 24 hour period that is my Instagram story.

Odds and ends photos and conclusions

Before I sign off, a few odds and ends to share:

two photos that show how much of a little brother still I am:

my playlist that spans from June until now

As is tradition, I made a playlist which contains songs which are subsequently tied to a particular period in my life, complete with painfully artsy and admittedly pretentious ‘cover art’. This one has been open since June because I kept waiting for a significant vibe change. Sadly, this stage of my life has not yet ended but I decided it was time to close it out anyway.