Daily Discussion Thread: Fri 15 Dec 2023

The man brought home kebabs today and when the dude behind the counter called out "Muhammed" about 4 blokes answered.

Cheers little elves 🍺

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

However, I am very overheated and tired. I am glad I've had a decent break from the phone, between ferrying people around for 3 hrs each way in 38C heat, clearing overgrowth on steep terrain, cutting and spraying evil prickly thistle in full sun, and random fever dreams in hot wooden cabins with no electricity or reception.

Welcome back JK

Did my semi compulsory 30mins attendance at my company Christmas party tonight. Had a cry on the drive home because I'd like to be able to stay and have a nice time and a few drinks but I just get too stressed out by the idea of the whole thing leave 🙃

Today is fuckoff friday.

2 things for me.

Just got told by my aunt (bit of a matriarch) what to do for befores for xmas at cousins' place. Salami, cheese, crackers dips usual spread fare. Fuck off I'm doing gyoza and dumplings.
Just got told by the old man that the rest of the watering system I've been building for them he doesn't want to do because he's going to redo the fence in march next yr. It's 85% of the way there. It's just another 50m of drip line on top.

Every summer he calls up me and bro frantically trying to get us to go over and water. the whole point of the system is that the p's can go away for 2 months over summer and stress less (without having to drive back every 2nd day). But if the rest isn't done, then they'll still be stressing even though 85% is already in.

That can fuck off too.

Twas the fortnight before Christmas

And all through the town

Roadworks and roadworks and roadworks abound

In the city, the burbs, and on country laneways

The hi vis and stop gos are controlling the lanes

I’m normally cool and I know it’s required

But it’s Fuck off Friday, and my patience is tired
yeah, that can fuck off

So, I don't know whether it's Taylor Swift who is super smart, or she surrounds herself with smart people. I guess that still makes her smart. Lots of people want her concert video for Christmas. Only they can't have it. You can rent it for $25. That'll give you the show for 48 hours.

Then in January, she is releasing the concert on Blu Ray.

So here we are, contemplating giving a damn video rental code as Christmas Presents. But she still gets that Blu Ray money as well, because of course all those fans are going to buy it when it comes out. This is on top the 🇺🇸 $250Million she's already made in cinema ticket sales that she isn't sharing with Hollywood studios because she produced the show herself.

Honestly, I'm impressed. I can't fault her logic at all. Millions of people are going to spend most of $100 (cinema, rental and then blu ray) and not even get real tickets to her live.

T Swizzle gotta eat yo!
- Yo CEO, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!
  
  I think Taytay is doing just fine with or without my money.
I seeee! I wondered why there were so many versions of her video on piracy websites 😂

The more money you try to milk from people, the more they'll steal your product lol

Received my first Christmas gift this year. A slab of Crown lager. Perfect for offering to houseguests lol.

Crownies are alright. They have to be bone chilling cold though.

Please stop with the fucking angle grinder.

angel grinder enters the chat
- Hi Angel tell your brother Angle and his mate Jack hammer to fuck off. They've been going for hours now.
- Listen Bill, I drove passed really slowly and gave them the evil eye. That should solve the problem.

Controversial opinion but the sun has no business being so bright at 7am. Who is that for? Madness. Someone should write a letter.

Or maybe I should just look into a way to block light better in my bedroom.

It could be worse: No Daylight savings here, so the sun as been up since 5am, It's been light since about 4:30.
- 😬
Wait six months. Even three months.
I remember being in QLD one time in last spring, now that's an early sunrise. Not for me.

I have had my senses of taste and smell stolen from me, just in time for Christmas. I have booked an expensive lunch for Christmas day and need to decide today to cancel if I want a refund.

I'd be devastated if I couldn't properly taste my Christmas dinner that I've paid for.
- 😭

I brought some doughnuts. Help yo self.

🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩

🍩🍩🍩 thank god
So you’re totally not undercover then…
- Getting back under the covers sounds divine.
Thank you. nom nom 😊
Yum! Just the thing for a Friday morning
No thankyou, I'm on a diet. 🥑

Haven't seen @[email protected] around these parts for a bit. Did they melt in NSW?

Have you checked the Sydney community? Maybe they went native.

I spent the last day at work today pulling apart Lego and chatting with coworkers all day.

Many of my co workers at lunch today trying to convince me that I should make the effort to spend Christmas with family and as much as I’m resisting but I know they mean well and do they it out of love.

I’m glad work ended on a chilled note today instead of being all hands on deck dealing with last minute dumplings of things. Meant I could do things at my own pace and not be stressed before going on leave till next year.

Now I have a homemade coffee. Yay!

yay, hugs, may you have a joyous and restful break 🤗
- Thank you so much!
  
  Test cricket is on at the moment and I’m doing stuff in the background.
  
  Perfect way to have the day turn out.
  
  Movie later if there’s nothing to watch as well!

I am making banoffee pie for friend Xmas tomorrow. I’m very excited to eat it. Cream whipped, caramel is on the stove, then it’s just an assemble job. Hopefully it’s a hit.

Unless you used, I dunno... pig cream... it's definitely gonna be a hit. Any complainers can bring their share over to my place.

And ants came marching one by one. Hurrah. This seems to be the weather where every bug wants to be inside

There's a small spider sitting on a picture frame . He can stay.
- I leave spiders unless they're white tails being where they shouldn't
I’ve got ants in the bathroom. No idea why - there’s no food in there
- Moisture - they're after water. Smeggy's trick with half/half icing sugar and borax works well.
- They like water.

I know I'm late for Hot Take Thursday, but: prawns don't have much flavour and they're too much work to bother with. Genuinely wouldn't be bothered if I never ate one again.

Gimme all the oysters instead.

Prawns straight from the boat are very very different to what you describe. I used to walk to Scarborough jetty (out of Brisbane) with my grandparents in the 80s, buy a couple of kilo from a boat that'd just come in, walk home, spend 15-30 mins deshelling, then prawn and salad cream (yes, it was a British thing) sandwiches for ever.
Gasp The thing is we get frozen prawns down here and by the time they defrost most of the juices have leaked out. Do yourself a favour and get these prawns from here. They are full of flavour despite the fact that they are frozen.

The reason why our oysters taste good is because they come from Tassie. Much fresher because they don't have to travel far.

If I had to choose I'd go oysters too.
I am dismayed that you have never had good prawns.
You had me in the first part..... but the snotty oysters are all yours too 🤮

Holy shit Potato Gratin for prime minister. Every frozen thing I've tried from Aldi (I admit that isn't many things) has been severely underwhelming but these thickened cream & cheese potato gratin things are actually incredible. Like little personal potato bakes.

I initally thought you were getting in some early campaigning for Dutton.
- That is a sharp observation. Everyone is saying he is Voldemorts love child, but you could be right. Maybe it’s potato.
one of us, one of us

try the spinach and ricotta one too
the mushroom one is also very good
- There's a broccoli one too that's good.
Hmm I was underwhelmed by them tbh. They weren't bad but they are forgettable.

38 minutes until annual leave commences.....

47 minutes
- I fat fingered and hit 4 instead of 3!
4 hours + next week. The kids are already on holidays. 😔

I'm just reading through Pornhub's 2023 Year in Review (I probably shouldn't link to PH here, but you can find it) and it's actually fascinating data.. and they have a lot of it!

Spoiler: Australia's PH viewing drops 17.2% on Australia Day. I think that says a lot about people getting together with friends and family rather than spending the day alone and it's actually quite nice. Also Australia loves lesbians.

we are the top 13th country! between poland and ukraine.
- There’s a few bottoms as well
does anyone still use PH? their search has been broken for years.
- This is going to sound like a lie but I actually have no idea. I very very rarely visit these sites. I only got to this year in review from a reddit post about it on interestingasfuck
- I do but I mostly just go to a couple of accounts so I don't really use the search function much

Anybody else have this irrational fear when flying that one of the engines / wings is just gonna fall off?

One of the engines not so much because I know planes are designed to handle losing an engine. Thinking about a wing falling off? Yeah, especially if I'm sat over a wing by a window I'll just look at it wobbling and think "what if this is the number of wobbles it takes to come off?", especially on long OS flights over the ocean.. but I try to distract myself from thinking about it for too long.
Nah dude... I'm all about that engineered redundancy.
No. Take off and landing is usually when the bad shit happens.
- I'm pretty nervous then too. Oddly, turbulence doesn't worry me at all, it's just sailing on air waves in the sky, like sailing in a boat on the sea.
i have an irrational fear that someone would open the door
- You'd need to be Superman to do it. There's a lot more air per cubic meter inside the cabin than outside. And the doors open inward initially.
  
  So, you'd need to be strong enough to squeeze all the air inside the cabin and single-handedly increase the cabin pressure in order to open the door.
🤤🤫
always https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4j8_oMlelE

Pakige arrived! My rolls of stain ribbon are here, ready to start their new lives in the horticultural industry, where they will be serving as drawstrings in my fruit protection bags (or does that make them part of the security industry?)

How come the lyrics on Spotify are synced on my phone but yet when mirrored onto the telly they are not? It makes karaoke hard because I gotta make my own words up. Lucky I know all the words to Tubthumping. I should send an email.

*mirrored may not be the correct terminology.

who humps the tubt
- Not me I swear
Mirrored by what method?

Its probably latency from the mirroring if I had to guess.
- Not mirrored. Wrong terminology but I think I may have accidentally worked it out. 👍 More experiments need to be obtained.

Day's tasks have gone well. Hair done, mani pedi done, lots of tidying and cleaning done. Watched a foreign language movie. 👍

this day is dragging something fierce!

no meteorites from my patch of the sky
sky pretty though

The hot air balloons were so close, just 200 metres away and loomed so large. On camera they look like tiny dots.

Whinge warning..

Ugh. Toothache. I think it's going to have to come out. I'd like to have all my teeth ripped out and replaced. I haven't had nice looking unproblematic teeth since I was in primary school.

Speaking of school, I had to order Elder Minipeeler's books for next year by today, and they must be paid for in advance, no option for payment plans or anything. I've managed to get some pre-owned ones but you still need to purchase a reorder code for access to the digital component at a cost of $25 a pop. Even though I spent some time sourcing the stationary from elsewhere at a substantial saving, I was still up for half a grand. This time of year! I feel pretty Grinchy ATM.

Still, elder's primary school graduation was last night and was genuinely entertaining.

Sympathies for the toothache. My partner and I see the same dentist, use the same brand of toothpaste, eat mostly the same food, and I’ve got a mouth full of fillings and he hardly ever has an issue. Not fair. I dunno if it’s just unlucky genes or differences in diet growing up but it sucks when even as an adult doing all the right things some of us just have to suffer with our teeth.

Meat pies made with left over curries for dinner tonight.

Has anyone used any of the UV bug zappers from Bunnings? Apparently they get flies and some claim to do mozzies as well (thinking ahead)

Edit: Hopefully the legion of flies drops down to a dull roar soon so I got a cheap little attractant trap for those, and a $30-40 mozzie zapper that had slightly better reviews. A few packs of moth traps because why not.

Spiders

Hopefully avoiding sprays will also let the spiderbros do their part.

The annoying part is we did have a huntsman here a year or so ago but he was a little bit dumb. Instead of chilling in the upper corners he kept coming down the walls and crawling across the floor, so Melbcat had a few goes. He eventually had to be escorted outside for his own safety.

I got given that one that comes up all the time on Instagram recently. Seems to work pretty well
- I'll check it out
We have a gecko one, I think its meant for outdoors but it's in our laundry. We've had a few over the years (coastal mozzie haven) and this is the one I like best. We replace the globe every few years and you can hear it zap the bugs. [40wzapper] (https://www.bunnings.com.au/gecko-40w-bug-zapper-lantern_p0376117)
IIRC mozzies are attracted to exhaled carbon dioxide so these zappers might not be ideal for them, but i'd go by peoples claims here. fuck mozzies, I'm not Buddhist for mozzies.
- I get horrible almost allergic welts from them, it's the worst
Like this

spoiler
- Yeah, something like that. I'm looking at the cheaper options but they have bad reviews. There are also cheap traps.
  
  I considered getting a Venus fly trap or a pitcher plant. But those are sold in spring and they always go mouldy for me when they go dormant over winter.

stares longingly

Pakige

Boring and gross cleaning stuff

The ants are gone but there were yet more flies... another round of swatting and disinfectant and a quick vacuum of the main area. I don't want flies touching my cat's bowls or things in the kitchen.

The air is smelling ok now. Maybe having those little wooden possum nests around would keep possums from entering the walls but unfortunately I don't have anywhere to put one and I think the possums that get into walls go there intentionally to pass. And this unit seems poorly sealed. If I could safely get up there I'd seal the place up.

The blankets that went to the cattery are mostly clean now but there's still a faint odour. They really just let Melbcat hide soiling in her carrier the whole time, with the pooled stains drying into the cloths and her wetting over it again... Neglect. Regret allowing her to stay there. I'm surprised because the reviews were really good?!

The cloth parts of the carrier itself are still soaking in biological cleaner but perhaps it would be best to buy a new pet pram. And locate or make a boxy waterproof liner to sit inside as a normal puppy pad just gets pulled up.

Also Melbcat loves the Sherpa fleece blankets but they're so delicate, matting and clumping quickly when washed. From now on things need to be more practical. The fluffy things will have to be minky fleece which washes better, and the carrier cloths will have to be white towels which can stand up to heavy repeated washing and even bleaching.

I've also noticed dust flying when I vacuum. The cheap light stick is much easier for me to use but next time I buy one it will have to have a decent filter.

All in all the house is fairly clean but I do need to declutter, and after removing the flies, disinfect the kitchen. 🤢

What about velour? It's lightweight, fluffy, easy to wash. You could probably pick some dressing gowns up from op shops.
- That's a good idea. I've been using blankets because they're smaller and fold down more compact

Pakistan are giving the Aussies a run for their money. 🏏

Indeedy, was so close when the ball came off the glove from Starc’s ball.

On to tomorrow!
- I love it when it's at Perth because of the later start.

Ok I've put the Christmas tree up. The subby might blow it away later.

Haha, mine is just marginally bigger. Nice work.
- Thank you. Less is more.
I was looking at the lighter and wondering how that is a Christmas decoration? I then realised it’s for lighting the Yule log to celebrate Jesus and his triumph over sin. Obviously.
- It's red therefore Christmas
- I wasn’t looking properly I thought that was a candle!

I've started stressing out a lot about art now that I'm trying to learn it 'properly'. I am picking up basic rules that were never bothered with before I guess, but really having to force myself and feeling a lot of self pressure and even anxiety. Cmon brain! Stop blocking me! This is what I'm currently able to do (kind of) but it's becoming yet another stressor.

Also while using a cheap manga book broke through the intimidation with baby steps and provided some learning structure it feels like being forced to play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder. It is not the style I ultimately want to pursue. The idea was to learn generic skills and burn through cheap supplies/train my hands on things I cared less about ruining in the awkward stage.

I think I'm just going to cut to the figure drawing which is a more widely applicable skill and once that's close enough start looking about how to do gesture drawing and studies. One day it would be really cool to make my own compositions and smoothly combine different elements using the references just to nail the details.

Edit: Lol those brushtail possums outside move like elephants. Jeez they're huge

Wait ‘til you hear the racket they make shagging!

I just emulated Mark Knopfler (old honey voice) on the mic pretending it's a Cornetto whilst singing Tunnel Of Love. Watch some live concerts and you'll see how intermate he gets with the mic.

i love the word intermate
- He practically licks the microphone.

Ok Dan, If you insist, I’ll get on the beers.🍻

Breakfast 🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

May I please have a jaffle that doesn’t leak?
- 🥪
  🪣
May I please have a cheese board with a side salad?
- 🧀🍇🛹🥗

Anyone a RRR subscriber? Any got any further info on why Tony Biggs was suspended for two weeks?

I was just looking at a picture of Australia and it's crazy how little of this country I've seen in my 40.5 years. I did a rough highlight of where I've been, and I mean rough because I have been very generous with how thick some of the lines are considering I just took 1 highway in some cases and I've highlighted a whole chunk where I've sort of criss-crossed on various highways and destinations. It's not like I've been through every inch of where I've highlighted.

UPDATE: I have made it a little more accurate, going from Google's data. It looks a bit off but I think it's because this image is skewed by Google Earth's globeness.

If I look at where Google has seen me (so this would be from 2013 onwards when I moved from iPhone to Android), I can see it thinks I haven't seen a bunch of western Victoria but that must have been pre-Android when I drove out there, or maybe I haven't seen as much of it as I thought:

If you head to Uluru I also recommend Watarrka/Kings Canyon very highly
How do you get that Google map data from maps?

Edit. Actually, I found it very quickly
- I've just looked at my 2022 and 2023 timelines. It's depressing: but I have not been further than 100km from the city. In fact, the last time I was more than 100km from the city was the first week of 2021 (Christmas break). Nearly three years ago.
  
  I need to get out of town this holidays.
The Nullarbor hwy awaits.

edit I should say Eyre hwy
- I did say that I'd like to give that a go once I got a new car! I'm just not sure I want to (or should) do it solo.

Only 21? Mmm it was roasty toasty while I was out on the bike for barely 20mins.

What should tonight's music theme be?

Here’s a nice little playlist. You can guess the theme

Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley

Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash

Mack the Knife – Bobby Darrin (writen by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht)

Bad Boys – Inner Circle (Theme from COPS)

I Shot the Sheriff – Eric Clapton

Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson

Hurricane – Bob Dylan (Rubin “Hurricane” Carter)

Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

Jenny Was A Friend of Mine – The Killers

Hey Joe – Jimi Hendrix

Take the Money and Run – Steve Miller Band

Stagger Lee – Lloyd Price

Breakin’ The Law – Judas Priest

Strange Fruit – Billy Holliday

I Don’t Like Mondays – Boomtown Rats (Brenda Ann Spencer)

Midnight Rambler – The Rolling Stones

Chain Gang – Sam Cooke

One Piece at a Time – Johnny Cash

Bang Bang – Cher

Sunny Came Home – Shawn Colvin

Criminal – Fiona Apple

Dead Or Alive – Bon Jovi

Deep Red Bells – Neko Case

Informer – Snow

Pumped Up Kicks – Foster The People

Renegade – Styx

No Rest For The Wicked – Cage The Elephant

Tom Dooley – The Kingston Trio

Helter Skelter – The Beatles

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – The Beatles

Goodbye Earl – The Dixie Chicks

I Fought The Law – The Bobby Fuller Four

Delilah – Tom Jones

Don’t Take Me Alive – Steely Dan

Watching the Detectives – Elvis Costello

Twilight Zone – Golden Earring

House of the Rising Sun – The Animals

Been Caught Stealing – Jane’s Addiction

Criminal – Britney Spears

Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar? – various

Runaway Train – Soul Asylum

Psycho Killer – The Talking Heads

The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia – Vikki Lawrence

Excitable Boy – Warren Zevon

Smuggler’s Blues – Glenn Frey

Gangsta’s Paradise – Coolio

Desperado – The Eagles

Gypsies Tramps and Thieves – Cher

Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A.
- That is a ripper list. We play about 95% of those on the regular. Sincerely thank you.
  
  The theme is crime time.
Songs about drinkin' and/or living that good life near the water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPCjC543llU

And an old favourite drinking song of mine from back in the day, best enjoyed later in an evening when you're all ready to sing along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETXvW0hWww4
- I'll pop them both on the list. Lol
It was recently the 40th anniversary of Thriller album. Maybe a track from there. Can’t go past Billie Jean.
Anything with

LARGE

80'S

SNARE DRUMS
- Will do.
Got to have Fame by Irene Cara.

I love that song.
- Very good choice
D I S C O
- A little Bee Gees sounds good.