Kōtare :tinoflag:

A lover of music, literature, art, nature, community and many other fine things. A dad to two wonderful humans, and partner to another. From Aotearoa originally (pakeha, tangata tiriti) and re-settling in Australia for unsettling reasons. Known socialist.

Cover photo shows the sun setting into the Tasman sea on New Year's Eve from Piha Beach, West Auckland. Profile photo is a Kōtare (Royal Kingfisher).

#RareDisease #RareDisorders #Poetry #Architecture #Environmentalism #SocialJustice

Country: Aotearoa NZ
Pronouns: He/him
Personal writing: https://paperwords.nz

Public Key

npub1fapxcxettsn56t04ln8jctsdefy9garq9cf2y58plyvlpjptxwtqg5accp

NIP-05 Address

jdmcg_at_mastodon.nz@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy7snvrv44cf6d9h6lenev9cxu5jz5w3szuy4z2rsljx0seq4n89spp4mhxue69uhhjctzw5hx6egpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfdu3f70qy

Publishing to

yabu.me

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1fapxcxettsn56t04ln8jctsdefy9garq9cf2y58plyvlpjptxwtqg5accp

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Published at

2026-11-02T08:28:44Z

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0 Metadata

Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-10-13 22:11:58 UTC

I just checked the folder where i keep all my job applications and there are 75 cover letters sitting in there from the past six months. That doesn't include applications I've made using online forms that make you type it in. Heading towards 100 total! I've made it through to being interviewed several times, but have so far always been the runner up. Job hunting is brutal.
Aside from applying for permanent positions i also consult on a freelance basis, providing NFP strategy, codesign, and governance.
Anyway, things are tight (I'm completely f!*%ing broke). If any of you have contacts with non profits and charities in Melbourne that need someone smart and experienced, i would appreciate the lead. Flashy CV available on request.
#Melbourne #GetFediHired

2026-07-29 00:05:15 UTC

I've been involved with non-profits as a volunteer, in governance, and in leadership since about 2011. I've noticed something fairly consistent during that time:
Funding for sector support, general operations, sector capability, system-change, and advocacy is consistently denied.
Funding for one-off projects, direct support to a community, and even individuals needing crisis funding attracts a lot of money (comparatively).
This aligns with the idea of removing 'back-end' admin and prioritising frontline services. We've seen it in this government's approach to things such as healthcare.
But it also means that the system is brittle. Well-supported sectors are flexible and can grow, adapt, and improve, collaborative work can be coordinated at scale.
Funding frontline-only is all about treating symptoms and removes this collective perspective. In terms of optics it is simple and understandable to most people. It feels good and easy to grasp the benefits (and TBF it very often *is* doing good).
But it's also neo-liberal economics applied to social work - it fragments people into special causes, ensures the system is never challenged seriously, and erodes collective effort.
Anyway, just had a funding application denied for sector capability. Feeling a bit salty.
#Charity #NonProfit #Funding

2026-07-22 05:04:33 UTC

An "AI going rogue" is just a poorly made product failing in public.
#AI

2026-03-13 09:52:30 UTC

My daughter's school seemed unsure how to deal with international women's day until one of the staff thought "i know, well fire up the bbq and cook some sausages"
Yes, that's right. They literally threw a sausage party for international women's day.

2026-02-23 21:49:52 UTC

I know there are all sorts of meaty issues about the #WorldCup being played in the USA, but can we pause for a moment to check out this picture of SoFi stadium in LA where they're playing some of the games, and admire the quite incredible amount of land devoted to the carpark.
Maybe if you live in the US this is normal. Man, it really is not.
I live a stone's throw from the MCG in #Melbourne which has a capacity of 100,000 people and is in near constant use. The only park it is surrounded by has trees and grass.
What a temple to car ownership this is!
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/122/103/579/735/929/original/a82216979e225296.png

2025-12-11 07:45:15 UTC

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this is wild, and i don't know who exactly is related to who, but i love it.
My dad was a foster kid, one of more than fifty who lived with the same lovely couple at some point. Before that he was one of 14 kids in the same poor family. Our get-togethers with cousins and aunties and uncles were out of control, everyone crying and laughing, fighting and singing, and nobody really understanding how they were related.
So, you know, embrace it i guess? Who wants a nuclear family anyway.

2025-12-10 19:47:37 UTC

The more i read about the moral panic over teens and social media, the more convinced i become that it is a way of deflecting our attention from the deeper challenges they are facing, their aspirations curbed by parasitic technology and capitalism, climate change, and the erosion of political agency.
But the biggest, most obvious, most harmful stress in a young persons life? More often than anything else, it is poverty (and the kaleidescope of other harms that stem from this).
Enough moral outrage about smartphones in schools already, and maybe some more moral outrage about the rising number of homeless teenagers.
Our kids are seeing harmful content irl, everyday. I don't deny social media is often shitty and problematic for people of any age, but bans are nothing but blindfolds. They don't tackle the drivers of mental distress.
Anyway, this rant brought to you by the latest performative, corporate sponsored, pearl clutching event at parliament:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/581449/labour-national-mps-join-forces-to-address-social-media-harm-against-children

2025-11-24 21:41:09 UTC

New World's bold new approach to customer engagement:
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/606/834/309/782/415/original/f561e2c0ee21de2f.png

2025-10-11 20:25:21 UTC

It has been a trying few years and i think that for my (somewhat deferred) midlife crisis I'm going to abandon my comfortable suburban life and become a pirate.
17th century, preferrably. I'll need a crew. And a boat. Please boost for reach.

2025-08-31 09:11:58 UTC

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TIL that the CEO of Fonterra could fully fund our charity every year, positively impacting thousands of young peoples lives, and not even notice it.
How do you make that much money without giving almost all of it away? (Which I'm sure they don't)
I hate capitalism.

2025-07-16 07:00:08 UTC

I love every single thing about this headline and thumbnail image.
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/114/861/606/887/011/121/original/04b9eee01df9f2fb.png

2025-06-12 21:51:02 UTC

My local hood never disappoints. Love Avondale.
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/114/672/607/377/831/385/original/a2b818b7d3c359dc.jpg

2025-05-23 06:34:49 UTC

My wife just shared with me that one of her colleagues has her son at home for a two week visit right now.
He's a student at Harvard. His visa has just been revoked and he cannot return to the US.
His life, his academic career, all his belongings - just cut off. Extraordinary. What a global humiliation this US fascism is.

2025-05-14 19:18:23 UTC

My 17yr old was ranting last night about teachers encouraging the use of AI and how stupid it was.
They had done a quiz about a film, and the quiz had been ai generated. They spent most of the lesson pointing out all of the mistakes in the quiz and the woefully incorrect answers.
It became an impromptu lesson on why you *shouldn't* use AI.
"I hate everything about it" she finally said.

2025-01-31 02:34:23 UTC

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to be absolutely fair to Shane Jones, he probably should have resigned about a dozen times already.

2024-11-19 09:40:42 UTC

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he is a troll, and this is wedge politics 101. He doesn't want us to like him, he wants us to argue among ourselves and create division where none previously existed.
Unity, as seen today, is the best way to shut him down.

2024-11-18 21:06:53 UTC

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This is resistance.
Photo credit: RNZ / Layla Bailey-McDowell
#ToitūTeTiriti #HīkoiMoTeTiriti
https://mastodon.nz/system/media_attachments/files/113/505/973/414/091/299/original/a1db1278d3bd128d.jpg

2024-11-18 18:27:01 UTC

I have been unusually exhausted this week and somehow psychically disturbed (picture obi wan's face when alderaan gets destroyed.) Is it because we're up against some dark powers right now, or is it my personal malaise?
Toitū te fucking Tiriti, my friends.
#ToitūTeTiriti
https://mastodon.nz/system/media_attachments/files/113/505/357/290/827/747/original/e5bcd8b578eebd4a.jpg

2024-11-07 05:24:24 UTC

Just shared my story in front of 30 health advocates, Dame Kerry Prendergast, and the board of Pharmac, about how I was humiliated, vulnerable, and retraumatised when I provided patient testimony (i.e. begged for my fucking life) to the Pharmac advisory committee, who then ignored me and discarded it. One of them scrolled his phone. One looked out the window.
Voice shaking, vege of tears. Crowd gasping.
It was a better move than sharing statistics, but now I'm medicating with a beer.

2024-10-14 06:30:34 UTC

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monstrous.

2024-10-12 08:52:23 UTC

What is our current government's approach to education?
No devices at school. Control.
Attendance policing. Control.
Forcing every school to teach the 'three Rs' for 1 hour a day. Control.
The regression to rote-learning, teach to the test methods? Control.
Our leaders show disdain for critical thinking, creativity, and the agency of our young people and instead want obedience and passivity.
---
This post brought to you by Saturday evening glasses of wine with teachers.

2024-09-02 08:20:46 UTC

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weekly update on things that are now woke™:
- giving a shit about other people
- giving a shit about the world around you
- evidence, of any kind
- the animal kingdom in general
- penguins
- trees
- disability
- spicy food
- snails, particularly where they block roading projects
- holiday pay
- te reo Māori
- weird fediverse types

2024-08-22 22:02:37 UTC

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good luck, and talk fast.

2024-08-22 02:24:45 UTC

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I became rather unpopular at our primary school (where my wife was also a teacher) when I suggested that the 'free' software they were using in class to collect all of the kids' learning data, year on year, might actually be a rather poor idea. My explanations earned a number of "No one really cares about that, do they?" type responses.