I wrote this while counting continued, before concession. It's better that way than with an updated edit. Enjoy. He’s the son of a Dutch tiler who’s no longer with us. He was made on the way over and he was, during the last Coalition government, the Chief Whip of the Australian Federal Parliament. “I don’t… Continue reading Preferential
Author: Zac van Manen
Flight Time, pt. 3
She’s pushing on like she’d planned, recording on her smartwatch, planning to rate it not hard but at the high end of medium. She’s sweating a little even in the early spring rainforest chill. It’s early. She’s pushing through the light filtered by the canopies that were closing in. The trees gnarling as she continued.… Continue reading Flight Time, pt. 3
Up And Up And Up
If you're marathon training in Brisbane and you're looking for an almost exclusively hilly route to get your legs tender and ready for what's going to be a pancake flat Gold Coast Marathon, do I have a route for you! This simple hill route is easy to follow but boy oh boy will you start… Continue reading Up And Up And Up
Snow Angels
They only bury their dead in winter. From spring to fall they keep them cold, refrigerated in their homes beneath the floorboards. They’re exhumed as the first of the snow starts to fall. The village takes the second day of snow off altogether and they head to the graveyards on the edge of the town… Continue reading Snow Angels
Flight Time, pt. 2
Read part one here. It’s always someone’s responsibility and today it’s his because he’s the oldest and he’s built this all up for everyone and he’s paying — well, indirectly — for them all to be here today but there’s no time to get hung up on anything that’s not what’s coming without warning. Every… Continue reading Flight Time, pt. 2
Traffic Arbitrage
"[Meta/Facebook/Instagram/Google] ads don't make businesses. They scale businesses." I can't remember who said that but the ultimate truth of digital advertising is that this is true. It's basically true of any kind of advertising in general but even in the post-iOS 11 world of digital ads it is easier, faster, simpler, and more data-driven than… Continue reading Traffic Arbitrage
The Maribyrnong River Trail
I ran from Quest Maribyrnong due west. The thing that strikes me the most as the difference between Melbourne and Brisbane are the kinds of houses that make up suburbia. Brisbane’s dotted with elevated wooden Queenslanders, airy, light, impossible to really ever be ahead of the upkeep of. Melbourne by contrast is almost all single-storey… Continue reading The Maribyrnong River Trail
Conversation Starting In Past Tense
I finished up with TradeMutt yesterday to head out into the wild world of freelancing full-time, starting with Inka Arthouse. In two years starting conversations about mental health with work shirts, what did I learn? Brand marketing is short term AND long. Every single time I’ve been stuck with what to do with our ad… Continue reading Conversation Starting In Past Tense
Flight Time
No one knows, really, because it’s not the kind of thing you prepare for. Even if you’d’ve given it some thought it comes on faster in the moment in some ways and slower in others such that it breaks all the plans you might have made. Everything cuts out and there are breaking reports of… Continue reading Flight Time
The Kamo River Running Path
Legend has it that the Kamo River through central Kyoto first ran south in another location altogether. When the city became home to the imperial capital, the thought was that a river cleaving this new home in two would signify the division of the nation. So the Kamo was diverted to its current course due… Continue reading The Kamo River Running Path







