A quick GoogleInternet search (feel free to replace our mental default of 'Google' to your search engine of choice in that sentence!) of the phrase 'de-Googling' will show a wide range of articles, Reddit posts, and personalised journeys of people going through the process of surgically removing themselves from the Google ecosystem.
We all got ourselves stuck in the quicksand of the Google suite of products because of the original convenience benefits of linked services working together in fairly smart ways. I remember the enjoyment of seeing location metadata embedded into my photos so that I could see a cool 'journey' of my holidays as I trekked between cities. Being able to set reminders & tasks based on specific sentences in my Gmail emails seemed sensible enough. But over time we've all felt the creep factor increase more and more. With the huge amount of information captured from mobile phones over the last decade or so, the data collection ecosystem has gone into overdrive.
I've had a NAS for about 18 months now, ever since I was able to get an old Synology DS216se second-hand. I had wanted to control & manage my own media library instead of relying on streaming services, especially as licencing issues mean that certain movies or albums weren't available over time. I also started to get sick of the algorithms that prioritised a certain way of listening or watching media; having direct control was more important to me.
I had held onto an old 1TB external hard drive which had my music collection and a smattering of ripped DVDs and TV series, so I wasn't starting from zero. In my opinion, this is the biggest requirement for someone to consider getting a NAS. If you don't have a large collection of files, just stick to your desktop PC or laptop.
As part of my broader plans to De-Google my life, today I finally pulled the trigger and cancelled my paid Spotify plan. It was a Family plan I split with my family & friends. My wife will restart the plan under her name and will reinvite the same people back in, without me.
Of course, this means that Spotify still gets the same money overall, but hopefully my spot on the Family plan will replace someone else's subscription, so there's a net loss of revenue for them.
Either way, they won't get any more data or money directly from me.
I think music in 2026 (or at least what I've been listening to in 2026) has started off really strongly! There have been some new releases that have been rocking my world, some cool recommendations that have been really intriguing, and some old classics that I never really dived into.
I've been apparently listening to a lot of rock & metal this month; you've been warned!
Along with many thousands of other Melburnians, I met outside the Flinders Street station clocks yesterday afternoon to protest against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Australia. The protest was organised by Free Palestine Victoria.
Being my first protest since the climate actions in early 2020, I was a bit nervous given the violence at the Sydney protests just a few days prior (Crikey article here, ABC news article here). What made me feel a bit more comfortable was that it was a registered, peaceful protest that Victoria Police had approved.
The Sydney protests on the Monday night were the final trigger for me to join in the march, but other factors had helped out as well. My interest in the actions (and inaction) of Australian politicians had gotten me increasingly angry, and I'd also been frustrated by my own passiveness in not doing enough to stand up for the values I care about.
Steam tells me that I've played The Long Dark for over 1200 hours over the last several years. I've jumped in & out of other games but TLD has been a consistent mainstay. I can't get away from it.
It's a survival game set in the eternal winter of a post-apocalyptic Canadian island (named Great Bear Island) where you're the only survivor, battling against the elements and the wildlife for as long as possible. The world is too cold for you to just walk around forever; shelter and warmth are critical otherwise you'll die in hours.
The last front fence on our street came down about two or three years ago – I can't quite remember. Before that, a decent proportion of the front fences between properties were already getting ripped down. It made more sense to easily move between the yards & garden beds that neighbours were sharing, and most owners enjoyed the fact that it was one less thing that can break or fall over.
This year, I'll be using the vegetable beds in our front yard to focus on tomatoes and cucumbers. Leanne a few houses down is doing zucchini, and Gareth across the road is focusing on a range of herbs in his front yard. He already has a great rosemary bush that we all take from; he says he's going to plant another one. Noone will be able to get away from cooking minestrone, I guess!
It is far too easy to fall into despair, cynicism, hopelessness, apathy, isolation, solitude, mindlessness, and a variety of other negative feelings, given today's world. Many people can relate to this: it's a mood that reduces your agency and aspiration in the world around you, leaves you feeling lethargic, fatigued, and barely able to get through the day.
The modern world – at least how it appears in developed countries – shows a polished veneer of civilised society full of mod cons and general abundance, but in the back of our minds we're thinking about social inequality, long-term damage to the Earth's environment, late-stage capitalism, and the ease of political division & the erosion of the sense of community that comes with it.
And so the malaise sets in. If you're lucky, you'll know when to turn off the news, look after your mental health and try to get through another day without falling apart. The alternative is to let it consume you to the point of resorting to unhealthy behaviours (doom scrolling, comfort eating, drinking), all of which make it harder for you to get back into a good mental or physical space to look after yourself.
