As part of the sorting I redid the TV stand (we're going to eventually put the TV on an articulated arm up over the fireplace, with the cavity cabinetted out as a console nook), moved it out into His Lordship's office 'cos the little bugger has had greedy eyes on it since we started dating 20 odd years ago and wants it for his gaming corner (it's actually mine and predates him), then shufted the big ol' 78 record player over where the TV stand was and plonked the TV and accoutrements on top of it as a temporary measure.
Thing is, that's over a heating vent.
And Misha remembered she fits under it
spoiler
Image ID: A fat buttery cat wedged under a record player in front of a heating vent with no intentions of moving
I do love the hubs but jesus I get a lot more done when he's not around. Dining room is 100% cleared, most of lounge, things getting squared away and navigable w00t w00t. Also I get to blare music like whoa.
one horrible upside to the housing crisis: It's real easy to get rid of packing boxes on your local buy nothing group
Good grief! Just sat on the West Gate Bridge for almost over an hour, contemplated driving off the edge for a second there. 25 minutes home took almost 2hrs in the middle of the fkn night.
Whats on for the weekend all?
Last night i went out dancing to a live jazz band which was lots of fun. Tonight is Fish & Chips and mead maintenance.
Tomorrow is yoga/meditation at the Buddhist centre followed by my first date in 2 years, going to see Oppenheimer, excited and nervous haha. Saturday night going to see the Burnt Sausages and then we have a nice chilled out Sunday :)
Just a chill night tonight. Tomorrow going to an "Emo vs Anime" club thing which should be super interesting lol
Sunday I train a friend of mine at the gym and make meals for the week.
Good luck tonight!
Final (8 week follow up) psychology sesh with the really awesome dude, gonna be back at mine for the weekend after a month so lots of plant maintenance to do. Cooking. And then maybe Barbie with a friend
Date should be okay, at least its not an app first date. Its someone i met on my snow trip who was a friend of a friend that we were staying with, so we have already spent some time together :)
kidcalhoon2 just skated to school for the first time, we were late, and i couldn't get Huey Lewis and the News out of my head the whole time..haha. just needed a car to skitch on
Yeah. MrsCalhoon actually grabbed one, just a basic cruzer as there was a lot of asking and whinging whilst at the shops.. Just from Kmart to start, but decent size wheels so a sympathetic board. Kidcalhoon2 loves it.
I've been learning a lot about investing and making a few small investments in shares and funds over the last couple of years, and can definitely say that buying shares in individual companies is not my forte. For the most part the shares I bought have been steadily declining in value, against the trend of the market. Apparently if the shares drop enough the company can arrange to buy back the shares from small stockholders whose parcel of shares has become worth so little they don't meet the minimum trading amount to be able to sell them through brokers. Who knew?
I have had one success - Estia Health is being taken over, which means the shares I bought for them have seen a 43% increase in just over 12 months. Unfortunately I only bought $200 worth, and the profit from them is still nowhere near enough to make up for the losses on the others, but definitely better than nothing. I am definitely sticking with the index funds in future, I really don't have the interest or knowledge for individual companies. And the clear winner is my Super fund - I got around 13% last year, plus many tax benefits.
I did some penny stocks the other year and it was wild. I donāt understand it enough, but they basically became worthless and somehow got folded back into the company. š
This ongoing situation at work has me horrifically anxious. I am so done with toxic workplaces and just wish i could find a chill job to settle down in and probably return to study. My last job ended up being very toxic and now this one. I'm feeling pretty hopeless and terrified my next job is also going to be toxic. Man I wish i had a time machine so I could just relive the years 2011 - 2017 over and over again. Those were happy years with a great job.
@wscholermann@bot001 well given the origins were for rich people (and the children of rich people) to do something with their spare time, it explains why quite a few degrees aren't much use. But they do help you understand why things are the way they are. Just tough titties if you don't have independent wealth to sustain you after you work this out.
Pretty sure universities were originally started by religious orders to be a place of learning. For them learning was a form of worship. This applies to both xian and Muslim universities.
I wish I'd lived in the what are you talking about , University is free era. I would love to study some sort of science, maybe astro-physics or something...
The whole system is a scam. Individuals and governments pay for education, and businesses use those people to make profits without contributing to the system that creates skilled people.
But to not be so pessimistic, I personally enjoyed my time at uni, even though I donāt use any of it directly now. It expanded my horizons and was a foot in the door, that I otherwise wouldnāt have gotten. I am a better person for having gone.
Itās the shitification of clothes in general. Everything is thinner, flimsier, bad seams, shape cut for minimum cost not for best fit, etc. I remember when socks, underwear, tshirts could go through washer and drier and last for years. Now youāre lucky to get six months out of some stuff. It quickly shrinks, twists, pills, develops holes, elastic fails. They are selling junk.
My partner gets his from the outdoor shops for hiking & daily wear and the thin & synthetic ones are some of the best ones. I have the same ones but female version. I guess the point is, not all thin & synthetic materials are made equal. Hope that makes sense.
I have had a couple of ex officio brand synthetics that I got about 5 years ago for some hiking. Still use them to this day as daily underwear, they're my favourite and have definitely stood the test of time
I know Kmart have been doing ābetter cottonā which may be recycled cotton. Which involves shorter lower quality fibres and potentially being mixed with synthetic fibres
Would love someone to do a proper analysis on this. Is it ābetterā if the item is recycled but so poorly made it gets thrown out sooner, or is it better to have a good quality item that lasts longer. My instinct say better quality stuff, because there is no additional cost of disposal, collection, recycling, manufacture, distribution. Using the stuff we already own for longer is the most environmentally friendly option.
Some decent brands use material that's quite good a drawing sweat away. I've got half a dozen on Nike trunks and they're the best. The stitching around the waistband is a bit meh, but my nether regions are nice comfy.
What are the Kmart ones like? I quite like their cotton-rich range, does the mens range have similar? I also like the Kmart period pants for bike riding - that extra layer of padding is most welcome.
It was a rest day for me on the exercise front, but not at work! Peeled 40kg of potatoes and then cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more! Gave the floor a really good going over with the deck scrubber and got into those annoying corners and crannies, moving prep benches and scrubbing where the legs usually go. Moving supplies and stuff and cleaning underneath. Cleaning underneath chest freezers and moving stuff around. Scrubbed out the whole sink area and underneath the dishwasher, which is in an awkward corner and is a bastard. Flour, pasta, various sauces and egg is a shitty combination to clean off anything, let alone a tiled floor. The floor, especially the grout, has been scrubbed so much and worn down in places over time which means it collects more crap. I love my cleaning times at work though, it's really satisfying! Now I'm tired, which is also satisfying. We had Fatarse Friday and now I'm blobbing out in bed.
I've taken today as well as part of yesterday off, but having spent most of today out of the house, I've totally lost my momentum and left a shit tonne of chores till tonight - as well as a plethora of packing after a month of sprawling out around here - I gotta be out by 9am tomorrow for an appointment.
It's feeling overwhelming but I'm using the washing machine and dishwasher running time to give myself a breather or time other tasks.
Driving on the Western was yet another shitshow today (even counter peak). Honestly there's a special brand of insanity out there. I think what took the cake today was seeing a white SUV with a custom plate doing at least 130km/h (actual), undertaking both lanes on the left by using the MERGE LANE that was just ending from an on ramp
Ugh tell me about it and me still paying dearly for 3 almost-all nighters in the span of one week. I'll get to have a massive sleep in on Saturday evening though.
ran until 3am last night for work and since I wfh I'm basically just a vague seatwarmer today. If shit catches fire, I'll deal with it, otherwise I'm gonna fart about the house singing earworms from Subspace Rhapsody.
If I worked from the office, they'd be invited to go fuck themselves.
If I worked to 3am, that'd be me done for the day. Company policy is I can't go back to work for 10 hours anyway. No way am I starting at 1pm and pretending to be productive for the rest of the day.
I'm happy to do so, it's just a loose eye on emails. And I'd rather put out a fire when it starts than try and pick over the rubble later. Like I said, if I worked from the office they could fuck off, but it's all good just gettin' paid to fuck about on an ersatz day off
Got up early this morning to take my partner to the hospital. I saw some apple cider vinegar on the bench and heard it's good for you, so I proceeded to take a 20ml shot before we had to leave.
Question for the DT: if you're in some kind of online community like this one, a Facebook group etc, and someone posts asking if anyone has a specific book, do you think replies of "have you tried the library?" are a) fair enough or b) NO FUCKING SHIT SHERLOCK THAT WAS THE FIRST THING I DID ? I see these posts often and people always respond with the library advice, and sometimes the OP will reply and say yes I already tried the library but they don't have it hence me asking.
When I see someone asking for a book title, I assume they have, you know, CHECKED THE LIBRARY.
I dont think ive ever borrowed a book from the library, not after school anyway. And for younger generations who basically do everything online the library is probably even less likely to be their first thought. So i dont think someone mentioning it is bad
I think half the communication obligation lies with the person asking, eg Does anyone know where I can get book, have tried the library they donāt have itā would tell people what the problem is and they would get more useful responses. On Facebook in particular I see so may vague posts itās a total guessing game to figure out what the person wants, and then they get mad the responders havenāt read their mind. (But itās highly entertaining to read the exchanges!)
It depends a bit on the community it's in. "Have you tried the library?" could be a suggestion designed to actually be helpful, or it could be a way of saying "this group is not an F%#*$ library, go and ask somewhere that's actually supposed to hook you up with books".
Image of a square plate of smoked cheese, cocktail onions and Spanish black olives, philly cheese and sweet chilli sauce, bread roll and simit, spanish smoked mussels, dry biscuits and a shadow.
I'm sorry to put a dampener on everyones friday night, but I'm not coping right now. I feel like my life isn't getting better I feel like the last few years I've been in this near constant state of fight or flight. I just wish my life would finally settle down. the last few years every time I think it has, something happens to cause chaos again. I'm just exhausted and stressed out and I don't want to be here any more.
The world is exhausting and hard, BUT, we can do hard things. Itās ok to be be exhausted and ok to rest. Itās ok to be mad at things. One thing at a time, even if itās tiny, can change things. Talk to a health care worker if you can, see where things go. Sending warmth from a stranger.
Hugs. Take a rest. Sleep more. Stop watching tv news or social media news, shut down unnecessary sources of drama. Control your mood by watching light hearted shows. This won't change your situation but might help you feel more able to cope with life.
It will pass, in time. I am sorry you are going through dark times, and it feels never ending. It will end, it will be okay.
You are a human being, you are worth so much to this world. You mean everything to us here. Allow yourself to feel your emotions, but make no decision until after you have eaten and slept. Rest, self-care as much as you can, we love you. I love you. It will be alright. šš
Hey, itās not a dampener. Are you currently talking to anyone about your feelings, be it friends/family or professional? Itās hard to do things alone. If itās hard for you to reach out right now, Iād recommend trying your best to build a routine around your health. Itās not a perfect solution or formula, but when things felt really out of control, I burned through a bunch of podcasts on neuroscience and anxiety and some books (which I didnāt always complete). I found that the sleep hygiene approach like trying to go to bed at the same time (I was trying to go to bed earlier to wind down), reducing screen time, cold water on my face in the mornings, self-care routine at least once a week etc were slowly having a positive effect. I havenāt got the names to credit all the things Iāve read/heard, but even the 30 mins off screens and setting your mind before bed can make a difference.
When weāre low we often forget a lot of things that bring us joy and contentment. Try to remember the little things if you can.
And please remember, no one here minds. Reach out here when you need.
Some useful info and tips there, thanks. Are the daily limits still a thing or has that been dropped since that article was written?
The ABC pulled most of their Twitter/X accounts this week, including @abcemergency which is a bad move imho
I think they kept a few of the more 'important' ones. I would assume that the emergency account will be replaced before bushfire season, at least I hope it will.
This is actually super helpful, because I know that a few of my fellow journalists were a bit confused on how to navigate Twitter being known as X now.
10 minutes after opening and the top floor of China Red is full. Not sure about downstairs. Amazing. I ordered a raspberry lemonade from the touch screen when I sat down and the lady delivered it literally within 30 seconds. I love this place.
Been a rough week with everything and being cash strapped. Decided to hold back on cheapie sort drinks and junk food this time.
Treated myself to a couple of cheap tons of sardines just to get a feel for what theyāre like. I think. Iāll be combing them into pasta or on bread.
They were basic 90cent tins from woolworths.
If theyāre good Iāll get more in the future but herring has definitely changed how I think about them and I may need to stock up on them since I love them way better than tuna.
A tin of sardines over some plain white rice is delish! Or through pasta. If you don't enjoy the 90c tin, don't give up, and try some that are in olive oil. The better brands go on special regularly. Happy friday and cheers (tin of fish to tin of fish) to you ā¤ļø
Edit: I've tried a few of the Aldi herring now, perfect to mix through pasta! I also tried their smoked rainbow trout (a bit exxy at $5 a tin) also a delish treat!
I actually bought one in oil and one in tomato sauce.
Iāll be trying them out in a few days time and Iāll let you know how they go. Iāve never had sardines before so the texture and taste is a mystery to me at the moment.
Good to hear you tried the Aldi herring ones. I actually enjoyed the curry one a lot so Iāll be getting a few more of those in the future.
Iām sort curious about the salmon ones but Iāll hold off on those for the moment.
Honestly the only tuna I bother with is Sirena but they're usually the most expensive one even on special.
Do you use the half price app? That's saved me heaps from timing treat purchases based on 50% sales at colesworth. Helps to afford the better stuff without the full price tag. You also get a sense of how often some things go on special and aren't worth ever buying at full price
I've been sorting out my shopping bag collection so I can take the excess up to the food cupboard. They have really gotten out of control, it's going to take multiple trips to take them. In future I definitely need to get rid of extras straight away instead of stashing them to sort "later".
My shopping bag cupboard is overstuffed to the point that if I open it some will fall out. I have been remembering to grab some when I go to the shops lately but I should really do a cleanout. I probably have a bunch of plastic bags in there from before they got rid of them.
Yes, they do - I have given some to the Salvos before. The food cupboard has been having problems with people taking the boxes that are supposed to stay in the cupboard to carry their things, so I'm hoping having some bags there will help with that.
I've been trying out the Sync app, and whilst overall it is quite good there are two things that are really annoying. For some reason it shows most pictures really big, so it takes up most of the screen but only shows the edge, not the full picture. Plus the line break
doesn't work. So if you'e on Sync you would just see a \ where there is supposed to be a new line. Very bad for poetry and lists.
Jerboa also has some giant pictures and does not allow the split screen view I like, but I have just discovered animated gifs don't work there so that is one big bonus. Still waiting for an app that fully suits me, but we're getting closer.
I have. It's pretty good too, but seems to have a few weird display bugs and can take a really long time to load/reload pages. Different devices tend to display things differently, and the difference between phone and tablet can be fairly big. I periodically try out the different apps, but so far have just been going back to the browser.
There's heaps of customisation for the views, have a mess around with those. Also it's in beta, so keep that in mind. The markdown stuff especially it's just a straight copy over from Reddit, some works some doesn't.
I've been a sync user for years, but I'm using Voyager concurrently whilst waiting for sync to get out of beta.
I'm incandescent, bioluminescent,
Seeping into your thoughts and dreams
And out of the holes between the seams.
I'll occupy your mind, a light in the dark,
Solace you'll find, I'll be your spark.
Memories reminiscing, how fitting,
I'll warm myself by the fires in your heart,
If you let me in we'll never grow apart,
Give me the word, and I'll make a start.
Stoking the fires of your heart,
I'm transluscent, luminescent,
Your consent is a requirement,
Oh let me be your firmament
I'll fill your nightskies with my stars,
I'll be your Venus if you'll be my Mars.
I'm feeling uninspired about dinner tonight. I've got some chicken curry, I might do that. A bit of rice, perhaps some radish raita, a bit of the zucchini pickle I made recently, and a potato & green leaf curry side dish. Hmm, I guess I found that inspiration after all.
Man, Friday.... Weight has lifted, MrsCalhoon is feeling better, kidcalhoon1 got through the week with all her medical appointments, and kidcalhoon2 said it was awesome skating to school pa can we do it everyday?....
I know I promoted this guy over at the other place, but for you new acquaintances....
Have a listen to this guy
Leif Vollebekk....an incredible musician, with a not-unique-but-very-fresh style
I bought a slab of silverside as it was on special, and I truly cannot be fucked boiling it. So I am roasting it. Scored, oiled, and salted, with some quartered/sixthed potates and onions. Tomatoes will go in a little bit later.
Pizza for dinner tonight cos I'm worth it. Plain Jane's put their prices for 2 mediums on special up to $25. Will be in the poorhouse soon at this rate. Fortunately their on special range includes marinara with extra garlic and capricciosa with anchovies.
yum, I just made a dessert of fresh mixed berry sauce to go with fruit, yoghurt or icecream. I had it with 2 big spoons of no fat no sugar yoghurt.
Here is the recipe. 500 g frozen mixed berries. 2 tbsps sugar, juice of one orange. Half defrost the berries then blend it all together. Eat. Keep remainder in fridge.
The fruit sauce is so delicious I keep raiding the fridge and just eating it out the bowl. It's probably also pretty healthy for someone on a diet like me.
Oooooh the hayfever! That's a thing I don't miss about Melbourne. I never had hayfever before moving to Melbourne. And about 24 hours after moving to Perth, I noticed I was breathing just fine without Clarytine and nasal spray. I get minor hayfever here now, but nothing like what I had in Melbourne.
I was hit pretty bad (prescribed Ventalin, even) by the Pollenpocalypse that killed 8 people only a month before I left Melbourne. It was so bad that I physically couldn't mow my own lawn, I needed to pay someone.
If hayfever gets too bad, have a holiday out of Victoria. You don't have to come all the way to Perth, Queensland will probably give you relief.
Had to leave work, the heady mixture of my newly acquired cold and the A/C was smacking my asthma about. Need to write an EOI letter when I get home though, perhaps the lightheadness and the fever that's brewing will lend me some well placed words.
Definitely ill and not tired, have had to reach for the inhaler and my bones are extra sore after wondering around doing the grocery shopping. So fkn pissed! This is the second time in under a month, and I'm running out of sick leave.
Can't work out whether I'm seriously tired or coming down with something, everything kinda hurts. Also have a huge work meeting this arvo when I get in, where I'll be representing my entire little section to the powers that be upper management.
Online Orders 1 Week Delivery Challenge update: went to collect order #2 from the concierge and order #3 was there too! Only 1 order left to arrive which is my cologne, but I need to check my mailbox because often small parcels get put straight in there rather than the concierge, so I don't get an email about it.
Will put some clothes on and go check now!
Meanwhile, I just finished the last work task I had to do before my 5 weeks of leave. It's all smoooooth sailing this afternoon :)
Made a nice breakfast wrap last night and forgot to take it to work! Lucky I had a shake at home before I left but that probably made me forget breakfast... damn!
š¼š¶Put your money on me If you think I'm losing you, you must be crazy All your money on me I'm never gonna let you go, even when it's easy Put your money on meš¶š¶
Feels so weird not going to work today, but man it makes me happy to not work. I'm still going to hate going to work Monday, but I probably will feel better.
God, December can't come soon enough (that's when probation is up and I'm going to try and fight for at least one day WFH, as I've been going on for a while now, but just for the newbies).
This year is the first year in 40 years of growing my azaleas ( these are about 5 years old ) haven't bloomed. They get water, 1/2 sun and lot of plant food. They have no bugs. I do think some got some heat damage on their roots last summer.
Stuffs a bit out of whack this year. Iām noticing some of my garden plants (not azaleas) are already flowering, several weeks before they normally would. Hope frost doesnāt ruin them.
My trip to procure new runners was alas unsuccessful - at least fingerless gloves have been obtained after the ones I had have seemingly disappeared to the place where working pens and odd socks go.