∞

Linda Burney, Minister for Indigenous Australians, at our local polling centre this morning for the #VoiceToParliament referendum. I had a few good conversations with people who hadn’t made up their mind. Whatever the result, Australia needs better ways forward to #CloseTheGap #AusPol

A rear view of Linda Burney, Minister for Indigenous Australians, as she addresses the TV camera on the morning of the referendum on an Indigenous voice to Parliament. She’s standing outside a polling place near Kamay Botany Bay
∞

When I was a child, my mother loved nothing better than to visit ‘Bronte country ‘, or ‘Hardy’s Wessex’, or Beatrix Potter’s, Ruskin’s and Wordsworth’s houses in the Lake District.

This made a deep impression.
I still think of the world in this way: there are literary places, with gaps in between. I wonder if anyone else shares this kind of personal geography.

I’m remembering this because I finished reading: Why Women Read Fiction by Helen Taylor. 📚 This surveys the field from many angles.
I particularly liked the author’s take on literary festivals. There could even have been more on literary pilgrimages.

∞

The only problem with 📷🎉 completing the September 2023 micro.blog photoblog challenge - 30 days of posting photos - is that by the end I kind of felt like I needed a short rest. But with normal service now resuming, I’m writing slowly again!

A cat lies curled up asleep
∞

Currently reading: Why Women Read Fiction by Helen Taylor 📚 Bought this at the National Library bookshop. Reading it sitting in the shade of an oak tree, on the lawns by the lake. A cokatoo visits and a magpie swoops proprietarily. Spring really suits Canberra.

∞

📷🎉 Celebrating the completion of the September 2023 micro.blog photoblog challenge. 30 days of posting photos. I’ve really enjoyed seeing how everyone else interpreted the prompts.

∞

📷 Day 30: treasure #mbsept

The final day of the photoblog challenge, and a treasured memory of my son’s seventh birthday.

A chocolate birthday cake in the shape of a treasure chest, complete with gold coins and candles.
∞

📷Day 29: Contrast #mbsept

The Glowworm Tunnel in the Wolgan Valley, NSW. I couldn’t see the glow worms, then realised I was still wearing my sun glasses 👓

A low-resolution, high contrast photo of the light at the end of a disused rail tunnel. At the entrance, two or three figures are barely visible.
∞

📷 Day 28: workout (@rom) #mbsept

It might just work out, but it’ll certainly be a workout.

A sign in front of a storm channel reads : Warning - do not enter channel. There’s a diagram of a stick figure struggling in rising floodwater.
∞

📷 Day 27: embrace (Matt, aka @mroutley) #mbsept

This pub gets a big tick! (It’s obviously the only pub in Bodalla).

A view of green paddocks and distant forested hills from the verandah of a country pub on the South coast of NSW. A sign reads: Voted best pub in Bodalla. The Australian flag flies above.
∞

📷 Day 26: beverage (@Annie) #mbsept

Art at The National Gallery of Victoria: 100 glasses (1991-92).
glassblower: Michael Hook
engraver: Perry Fletcher.

Three hand blown glasses, engraved: yesterday, today, tomorrow.
∞

📷 Day 25: flare (Matthew, aka @matt17r) #mbsept
Sydney’s Darling Harbour may feel like an over-developed tourist trap, but I must admit, sometimes it really comes good.

∞

📷 Day 24: belt (George, aka @allaboutgeorge) #mbsept

When we visited CERES in Melbourne, we also walked past this velodrome. 🚲 A bike path that goes on forever!

An outdoor velodrome in Melbourne, with an expanse of green grass in the foreground. A training cyclist is almost camouflaged by the large sign on the track: BRUNSWICK.
∞

📷 Day 23: a day in the life #mbsept

Deeply into our residency in Portland NSW. Please come to the open rehearsal on 1 October. And you can even support this project.

Three people stand in a line in the empty power house of the Foundations, a former cement works. Sunlight through arched windows creates a halo effect around their heads.
∞

📷 Day 22: road (Dan, aka @jomalo) #mbsept

A fire trail in the Australian bush. In the foreground, a yellow sign warns that snakes have been seen in this area.

Hairpin bends at Kamay National Park, Sydney

∞

📷Day 21: fall #mbsept

Coat-hanger season might be my favourite time of year.

Coat-hangers are strewn about the wooden floor, with a rug in the foreground.
∞

📷Day 20: disruption #mbsept

Sometimes you have to protest to stop the disruption.

“Let’s dream new blueprints for the world we want to live in.” 💬

A demonstrator at a Sydney climate change protest holds up a hand-written sign that reads: Let's dream new blueprints for the world we want to live in.
∞

📷 Day 19: edge #mbsept

Clear edges at Adelaide’s Himeji Garden.

A close-up shot of parallel lines raked in the gravel of a Japanese dry garden in Adelaide.
∞

Is domain-hosting a viable social media business model?

Since July 2023 BlueSky has apparently learned from Manton Reece and micro.blog that you can run a sustainable and open social media network with a domain-hosting business model.

Almost learned. There’s a way to go yet, with a big missing owning your content piece.

Meanwhile, micro.blog cross-posts automatically to BlueSky, so the #Interverse1 is gradually becoming a reality. 😍

“You can automatically cross-post your microblog posts to Medium, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr, Bluesky, Nostr, and Pixelfed.” Source

I’m not using BlueSky myself. I really loved Paul Frazee’s work on BeakerBrowser, and it’s great he’s working on BlueSky. That’s very nearly enough to sign me up, but the venture capital vibe still puts me right off. I mean, ultimately it’s all just for the venture fund returns isn’t it?

I’m very happy just owning my content, and sharing it with you myself, with a little help from micro.blog and Mastodon. So thanks for reading, wherever you read.

  1. an emerging network of federated networks, all interoperable, thereby marginalising the walled garden silos of monopolistic data-extracting megacorps. HT: Paulo Amoroso ↩︎

∞

📷 Day 18: fabric #mbsept

Fab 1970s wallpaper at The Foundations, Portland NSW.

∞

📷 Day 17: “intense” #mbsept