Thank you, Twitter whānau

16.12.2019/21.01

When Twitter is awesome. Thank you, everyone, tēnā rawa atu koutou. Wellington Twitter. Our friend @jackyan's Dad is extremely unwell in hospital so please can you send him good wishes and strength.Jack, we are all with you through this trying time, but still hoping for a miracle.Arohanui to you and Amanda ❤ — Beckie (@FitKiwi) […]

Modern masculinity doesn’t involve reinventing the wheel

29.11.2019/13.25

When Douglas Bader recorded in his log book on the aeroplane accident that cost him his legs, he wrote, ‘Bad show’. It was men like Bader, Audie Murphy, Claire Lee Chennault and Douglas MacArthur that my father spoke of as heroes from his childhood. There were plenty more from our own culture but […]

Big Tech and advertising: the con is being revealed

13.11.2019/11.13

People are waking up to the fact that online advertising isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Last month, Bob Hoffman’s excellent The Ad Contrarian newsletter noted, ‘I believe the marketing industry has pissed away hundreds of billions of dollars on digital fairy tales and ad fraud over the past 10 years (in fact, […]

March 15, 2019: never forget

27.09.2019/08.41

Like many, I headed to the Kilbirnie mosque to pay my respects several times after March 15, but I would like the events of that day to be remembered beyond those that. I want our Muslim whānau here to know that I haven’t forgotten them, and here is my way of showing that. You may […]

First night

16.09.2019/14.20

Forty-three years ago (September 16, 1976), we arrived in this country. As we flew from Sydney and into Wellington, my Dad pointed out the houses below to me. ‘See, those are the sorts of houses New Zealanders live in,’ he said. I thought it was odd they lived in two-storey homes and not apartment […]

How to come third in a mayoral election

14.09.2019/09.37

One mayoral candidate recently asked me for my advice. I won’t name who it is, since I want those who contact me to know I’ll keep their communications in confidence. Now, the first thing to do is to get a time machine and ask me the same question 18 months earlier. But I […]

Has Google My Business ever given you business?

22.08.2019/02.27

I had a call from a nice gentleman working for Google called Shabhaz today. No, he wasn’t about to tell me that I wasn’t on the ‘first page of Google’: he worked for Google My Business, where they want to verify businesses and suck them into the ecosystem, complete with dashboard and social features. […]

‘If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?’

25.07.2019/11.18

I didn’t read this thinking of Trump, which is what the Tweeter intended. I read it thinking of New Zealand. Heard the ‘If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?’ bullshit a lot—I dare say every immigrant to this nation has. English-born American columnist Sydney J. Harris, in 1969, answered it better than […]

Surely, it can’t be this hard

/10.59

Is it just me, or are companies getting more stupid by the day? July 25, 2019 Marshall Freeman Collections (NZ) Ltd. PO Box 302-218 NHPC Auckland Ladies and Gentlemen: I am in receipt of your letter dated the 19th inst. If you are indeed an extension of Plumbquick’s credit control department, you should check […]

My social media engagement is dropping and I do not care

09.07.2019/08.58

In the last month, maybe the last few weeks, my likes on Instagram have halved. Interestingly, Lucire’s Instagram visits have increased markedly. But as I use my own account more than a work one, I can see the trend there a bit more clearly. It’s not unlike Facebook, which, of course, owns Instagram. […]