Daily discussion thread: 🍂 Monday, April 29, 2024

Mickey says "good meow-ning"

We weighed him yesterday, by weighing us and then holding him to weigh again. Almost 9kg. You wouldn't think it when he's curled up. I checked some charts online and he doesn't seem to be overweight, but he is due for his vaccination so I'll ask the vet.

He eats less than the sachets say to (apparently a 4kg cat should eat three whole sachets!) because he has access to food all the time and he doesn't eat constantly. Anyway, he's healthy, he likes to play "chasey-hide-and-pounce", so he's keeping me fit too running around the apartment. I do want to invest in one of those cat-wheels, a biiiiig one, but I'm afraid it would be a waste if he isn't interested.

I love him.

Morning Mickey. I love him too
Oh Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine you blow mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey
- I sing that to him all the time 😂
  I also replace "Jackie" with Mickey
  Mickey when you scratch your post in tall lamp light
  \ (Ohhhh Mickey)
  \ Mickey when you got the zoomies in the dead of the night
  \ Mick-mick-mickey, can't get you off my mind
Beautiful cat! He is fine 🙂
aww, he looks sleepy there and very cuddly. 🥰
Don't listen Mickey. You're not fat, just plump. And very cute.
What a spectacular boy!

Lol reading that thread on the other website about school refusal. So many people don't get it. I was a chronic absentee, I didn't even go for the entirety of year 10 and had way more than 20 days off per year before and after, from primary to HS. I was abused young, and my mother had untreated schizophrenia. Neither of us had support, and she certainly didn't realise what I was going through. She'd sleep all day, because she worked nights as a cleaner in a factory. So she wasn't home at night, and wasn't present during the day.

Then, if I went to school I was relentlessly bullied for having frizzy hair, being fatter than the other girls (funnily enough, I was a normal weight, and they were starving themselves :/ ), for being interested in science or "boy things". The boys bullied me too, because I wasn't "cool" enough. I wanted to do "boy things". Assaulted, teased. Starting in primary. I distinctly remember the boys not allowing me to play footy with them, and the girls not wanting me to play with them because I didn't wear lip gloss or straighten my hair.

I wanted to go, I felt like a failure, which just fuelled the depression no one realised I had. I cannot blame my mum, she herself didn't have support for her mental health, I could hardly expect she would know what to do with me.

And it wasn't really the schools fault either. Some teachers sucked, sure, but the classes were oversized and there were kids who were loudly unruly. I was quiet, and I got really good grades. I fell through the cracks, and it was easy to fall back in the 2000s.

I'm glad that the kids in the article are getting into schools that can meet their needs and foster a sense of self-worth. That just wasn't available to me back then. It has affected me, and still does. I blame the system, no real individual. If you don't conform, then you're just left to rot. And if your parents aren't great and perfect, or they're absent... What can the child do??

Anyway, that's my little rant. That "other place" can be such a cancer.

So sorry this happened to you. So many hugs.
That is on the school and all of society really.
I wish Australians were more litigious, I wish perps were frightened to do the wrong thing because they would get sued up the wazoo.
Because relying on other kids, teachers and principals to do the right thing isn't working
hugs :(
I sometimes wonder if people who bullied others ever think about it later in life. It makes me sad to think that it’s such an accepted thing, wherever we look.

Ok. Groceries purchased. Cat fed and brushed. Dinner in the oven.

I really hope this cold doesn't last much longer. I live alone and am single so being sick brings my life to a standstill.

Gibson is concerned also.

We were shopping for our first home many years ago. It was on a hill. As we were stepping out to leave, the agent says “hey is that your car?”

I look over across the street, and my car had started rolling down the hill!! I bolted over the fence, quickly zapped the alarm button and dove inside to stop it just in time before crashing into another car.!

We ended up buying the house.

The End

Got a similar story with a trolley.
Was loading groceries and stuff into my car and put down something to stop the trolley from rolling downhill.
Come back from one load and trolley is missing and I see it slowly rolling down picking up momentum in the car park, at the end one incline are more cars parked.
Bolted after the trolley and thankfully no cars were coming up or down the laneway at the time and after 100 metres I manage to catch the trolley without hitting a car or being hit by one.
That scared the bejubus out of me that day. Never parked there ever again.
That was some movie level dare devilling there 🫨
- I felt like Tom Cruise

so I'd say camping was a success. COLD, but a success. It was Tinyest's first ever camping trip and he took it super well, but I will admit I think the mrs is right, it'll be a LOT easier when he can walk. But still, good to get him started early! I also brought a friend who I've been begging to go for ages, she wasnt a huge fan of camping but gave it a go and says she had a great time and wants to go again, so thats awesome.

I know I say this every time, but Wilson's Prom is just SO damn pretty. If your sitting here being like "man I haven't camped in ages" or "Man, I'm not really into camping" I beg of you to give it a go. I'm prepared to bet its physically impossible to have a bad time down there.

it'll be a LOT easier when he can walk
See, the thing here is, when they start to walk they almost always default to walking towards something dangerous as a first option...so yeah, it's easier, but you'll also get loads of lunging forward practice just as you've sat down or have just started doing something else... ha
- haha no absolutely aware of that. i watched a dude do laps with a VB can in his hand 2 feet behind his toddler stumbling around. I aspire to that parent, just with a better drink choice.
  I did think of you yesterday, I came home and started looking at camper trailers again cause my garage is FULL of wet tent/gazebo shit
Did you hike in ? Is there a good fairly accessible (for someone who doesn't want to hike for miles on their own) spot?
- Nah drove into tidal river with the kid. You just park on your site.
I still haven't been to Willys prom. It's one of the few places left in Vic I haven't been to yet, excluding the mountains in the east
- Get on it! Honestly like the most pretty place in the state.

Second last day of holidays and I am sick with a head cold 🤕🤕 luckily didn't have much planned because it's now just rest and feeling sorry for myself

no shame in rest 🤗

When we purchased our new house 5 years ago, we had a Tesla PowerWall installed. It came with a Telstra 3G SIM card and when they installed it, I told them to connect it via Ethernet. The technician refused, saying that it has 3G and doesn’t need to be connect to the home network at all.

I received a text from Tesla this morning, telling me that our PowerWall will not be covered by warranty when Telstra kill 3G at the end of next month.

I then received an email from Tesla (that looked like Spam).

I then receive a phone call from Tesla.

I mentioned that I don’t have WiFi coverage in my garage and they told me to move my router. I told them that I instructed the technician to connect via Ethernet originally and they said that I would need to get the technician back out to connect it.

I am not allowed to plug Ethernet into it without voiding warranty and I need to plug Ethernet into it to prevent the warranty from being void.

- I visited my wife's old workplace.
  They got new EFTPOS terminals some time in the last 6 months... running on 3G.
- The local Tesla/Solar service provider is a subsidiary of the Sugar Refining Company (of Blue Sky Mine-Midnight Oil fame).
  That probably explains a lot about the quality of service.
@Salvo @Seagoon I know this isn't a good situation, but could you do something with a WiFi extender?
- I do have A UniFi home network so all I need to do is add another access point, but that is beside the point.
  I don’t want it using WiFi; it is a fitting that is part of the house, it should be wired, not wireless.
@Salvo @Seagoon
But it would be able to connect via wifi? In that case the easiest solution would be a wifi router or a wifi extender
@Salvo @Seagoon
https://social.treehouse.systems/@mj/112350073055400250
- Yeah, I saw that yesterday. I sent it to Tesla support by email ;)
@Salvo @Seagoon and I thought them telling a Deaf person to email the tech support for the wrong country, who then told them to make a phone call, was bad!
@Salvo Oof. In the next couple of years I'll be getting solar and some kind of home battery. I've been vaguely considering Tesla on the idea that they couldn't possibly mess up a stationary battery in my home like they do their cars. Thanks for setting me straight.
- Don’t get me wrong, the PowerWall has been great for the last 4 years, It is just that the subcontracting technicians didn’t want to do any more work than the bare minimum, even though it was negligible extra effort.
  That said, since Musk has severely gone off the rails and still has controlling interest in the Company, I would be hesitant to trust anything that comes out from the North American operations.
  The problem is that all the other aftermarket battery backup technologies (that I know about from 3 year old research) are either inferior to the PowerWall in every way, or need to be manufactured bespoke for the Australian market.
@Salvo @Seagoon oy with the poodles.
Over here (IE) I am annoyed by how tightly batteries and inverters seem to be.
@Salvo @Seagoon i have no plans on ever buying anything Tesla, but if I ever had any potential to, its bullshit like this which smacks me out of it (drunken stupor likely)
- The PowerWall is a great product for what it is, but Lithium Ion is wasted in a permanent install. Other battery technologies are more reliable, cheaper, safer and simpler.
  The only thing Lithium Ion has going is ubiquity due to volumes of scale. It is like putting a ESP32 in something that needs to be connected to the internet because it is cheaper than a separate microcontroller chip and ethernet chip; or how most Lightning headphones use Bluetooth because a single Bluetooth chip with integrated DAC is cheaper and more readily available than an official (or even a bootleg) Lightning chip and a DAC chip.

First day at second job was really awesome. Feels like I'm working with real people! And so much respect and warmth! Plus some very compatible interests/tastes/politics. Cozy, comfy office and such a short commute... I couldn't ask for more??!

I think I have a random crush developing on a colleague however, which needs to be viciously stepped on and killed with a flamethrower immediately. Please let them have a partner. Haven't heard one mentioned so far... if they don't say anything I'm going to ask (obliquely).

Sounds awesome, so happy for you.
In regard to your work colleague though there are some people who never talk or mentions their other half or partner, even with people who I’ve worked with for over a decade, some of them rarely talk about their other half though they do talk about other aspects of their lives including their kids.
Just a friendly little heads up about it.
- Oh for sure. Most people I've worked with have the age and circumstances to be partnered even if without kids, so I generally assume that unless said otherwise.
  Not that I care 99% of the time; this is just an incredibly stupid crush that will go away soon enough... but it'll go away faster if I know there's a partner for sure!
Hell yeah! Glad it's working out well ❤️
- I definitely had a couple of poignant moments of "wow I can't believe what I put up with at my old place".
  But it's like with love and relationships, sometimes the best healing from an old job isn't just time off, but a new and better environment to rewire the brain 😊
  We'll see how this goes over the next few weeks. Never managed two jobs like this before

It's sleepy time BUT I DON'T WANNA

I know that feeling!
Wifey is already sound asleep, as are our fur babies. I need to be up early for work tomorrow.
I was laying in bed awake for over 2 hours and just couldn't slip into sleepy land so I said fuck it and now I'm just not going to sleep it seems
I was vibrating with stress for obvious reasons - ended up googling mattresses in boxes. Slept once one was sourced.
Revenge bedtime procrastination is alive and well in my house 😆

Lol. It was great weather yesterday. A warm 24°c and sunny. Missed it by that much. 🤏
Melbourne airport continues to be a literal international embarrassment.
- @Pilk @wscholermann Also, if you've got checked baggage and you're flying to Tullamarine, I suggest you bring a good book.
  Because you'll be waiting... And waiting... And waiting...
I keep hearing horror stories but my last trip was spectacular both on departure and arrival. I barely slowed down on my way out and same for on my way back in. No lines in either case. Scanned my stuff which I had out and ready and waltzed through no worries.
Picked up the bags from the carousel they sent me to. Off I went. Must have just been lucky.

I'm absolutely fucked. Can't get out of bed. Have so much I need to do today that can't be put off.

🥲

Coffee, hot shower, gym playlist and go hard!
- Done! I'm walking to the shops. Here we go!!!

I noticed a new thing at Woolies self checkout. Previously when you put fruit and veg on it you’d have to select the fruit and veg button and get the frequently bought items menu, and go from there. Now, it’s using a recognition system where it offers a selection based on what it thinks you have put in the scale. For example I bought cucumbers, and it offered me a choice of cucumber or zucchini to select. For a leek, it gave me leek, zucchini or banana.

Camera?
- Yes I would say so, with some image recognition software.
Yep no more "brown onions" for everything. People did this to themselves but no doubt they'll find another loophole. I wonder if you could trick it with a photo of onions covering what's on the scale.
Funny you mention that. I was buying some mushrooms (safe edible ones) and put them on the scale and selected the vegetable thing and it automatically suggested mushrooms to me as an item instead of me having to search for it.
I’m going to have to keep an eye on if I buy more fresh veggies at Woolies from now on.
@SituationCake Billion-dollar corporation extracting free labour from you to put a union worker out of a job. Self-checkout is scabbing. I like to smile and wait for the one checkout person on shift. @Seagoon
@SituationCake I gave up on buying fruit and veges at Woolies a couple years ago when they added the cameras. I bring my own fruit/vege bags, which are white cotton. I refuse to use plastic bags. Cameras couldn’t see the contents and locked the check-out every time. It was a good reason to switch to the independent fruit and vegetable shop next door, which I should have been using all along.

You're not going to believe this - after one person at the auction place called on Friday to say that the furniture I want to sell can't be picked up, someone else called to talk about pickup.
We agreed it would be easier for me to bring the stuff up anyway but they now don't have a slot for me to drop it off until 2:45.
Anyway the neighbour came around to help me load the car so that's all done, and he helped me disassemble Mum's old bed in the bargain and waved off any suggestion of payment. What a guy.

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

Fruit smoothie and a serve of motivation please.
- Me too please. You go strawberry and banana, bacon?
- 🍎🍌🫐🍓🥭🥤☄️
I hear motivation is on the menu today? I'll have a serve of that with a side order of enthusiasm please.
- ☄️🌶️
Protein shake with a side order of motivation pls chef.
- 🥤☄️
Coffee please, and a cinnamon bun with no icing.
- ☕️🍞
Red bull, salmon and cream cheese bagel... Coffee.
- 🐂🐟🧀🥯☕️

C'mon little package waiting at Sunshine West. Get in van. You can do it. You've got this.

I think I shall visit Brisbane first
- Noooooo ☹️

i think i gave away my entire stock of motivation

Oh no! I am a happy recipient of the breakfast motivation, I shall share some back. 💪💪💪 you can do it!
- absorbs motivation
  Thank you
If you have one to me I’m definitely struggling to accept it.
Summoning every ounce of motivation to clean up a bad move furniture right now.
Not helped by an upset tummy and pain.
- I have none to spare. Apologies.

omg, who knew that chili bread made with lots of hot chilies would be hot 😤

Shocking
- @CEOofmyhouse56 @Seagoon How many chillies did you use?

I just got my contents insurance renewal notice. I braced myself for a big increase, and apparently it is $2 less than last year?! Was there a leap year surcharge I was unaware of, or has my neighbourhood become safer?

Maybe you crossed their age threshold and they decided you're less likely to start fires and forget to lock doors now
- Well I sold my chiminea so I guess that parts true!

My gas usage (excluding supply) for 2.5 months was $90. The only gas appliance I have is ducted heating which hasn't been switched on at all this year. That seems high, right? The heater system has an always-on pilot light but $90 for just that seems very steep.

The heater system is about 30 years old, might be on the fritz - but turned on this morning and it was working fine.

Is your gas meter accessible? Check the reading, then check a few days or a week later again, and you’ll know how much gas is getting used per day/week. Then you can multiply by the cost on your gas plan, and see what the cost is. There will likely be some other set charges in the bill, not counting the usage.
- Sorry I stuffed this, it's $71 usage after adjustment. Gas bills are so confusing to decipher because of this estimating and adjusting that happens. Still seems high for a pilot light to stay on for one unused appliance.
Hot water system is electrical?
- Yeah, I got a heat pump unit installed when my old gas system died. So much cheaper to run!

So I got a phonecall at 11:20 from the original guy at the auction place wanting to know if I was still bringing the furniture 🤦🏻‍♀️.
Thank God the car was loaded so I just had to drive there. Auction is this afternoon so 🤞🏻.
In other news, went back in my room and was hit with a blast of Eau de dead rat - checked and realised I'd managed to sprinkle bicarb soda everywhere except where it'd carked it. Google suggested bleach and I had some lemon White King on hand so I poured a good glug on it, opened the window and closed the door. Went in for something and all I could smell was bleach, so here's hoping that's sorted it. 😖

My song for today. Journey - Seperate Ways

Used in the Tron movies, such an awesome song even if the music video is a little bit comical.

https://youtu.be/LatorN4P9aA?si=s_8uE-K6BPH9PAYa

I love this video. Especially the part where the camera is dollying past the band (from 3:00) and the keyboardist whacks the camera 😁

Argh!!!

Installation of split system delayed again!

Well I guess on the bright side I managed to do a couple of hours of more decluttering and cleaning.

I half moved some stuff already. Wondering I should just make the moving of furniture within the next day so I don’t have to do it in 2 weeks time.

Still though so frustrating with the constantly delaying. 4th time now I think

TIL you can eat used coffee grounds. Yeah nah pass.

https://www.popsci.com/diy/uses-for-coffee-grounds/

Just because you can does not mean you should. If I have to eat coffee it will be whole beans (unused) covered with chocolate.
I'm not sure how eating used grounds would work. Are people spooning them straight from the plunger or maybe going for a mid-morning coffee ground sandwich?
- It would be like eating dirt. Ew
You can probably also eat used tea leaves. Nope.
- Nope pass
Nah. Not for me. Even the fine ground Turkish coffee stuff where I accidently went right down to the bottom is like sand or never ending fine grains.
It’s not a nice texture so I’m with you. Hard pass.
- Yeah if I get a bit in my mouth, it gets spat back into the cup it came from.
How nutritious is it? Not very I would say or we would be eating it already.

all the tapestries are washed, ironed and ready for patchwork making , I hope it looks good when done

I'm watching The Trojan Women, a 1971 movie from a Euripides play.

It's full of great tragedy. It's meant to be emotional, it was written to shame perpetrators of war. This is like Sophie's Choice x 10.

I think I watch too many movies that require concentration and empathy as I find my reactions just too intellectual.

How many murders a day do I see on screen?

The other thing is i keep on asking myself how they did a shot or what dramatic device is this that makes me think a thing. I find myself changing focus from the story to the how.

These ancient places that have such a big place in our own society's cultural identity, even if just in stories passed down onto us, these places were so small.
I have been to Troy, just drove past really, it's just a small place. A city state that used to be on the coast but is now inland. It had only 10,000 people. Their men and children murdered and then the women forced into slavery. The movie is harrowing. ( In modern times this is what happened to the Yazidi women of Syria. Their men and children were murdered and then the women were forced into slavery. )
A suburb is like living in a town, I can't help putting myself, my loved ones and my neighbours in the place of these characters. I suppose that's what makes it a great play.
5 Hobbits.

Got 3 x $10 scratchies from my sister for my birthday. Didn't win a single dollar. I guess all of the luck is saving itself for the $40m Powerball ticket she also got me.

🤞🤞🤞

I think I’m peckish but no snack foods.

Travelling to the UK next month. What card should I take? Is there a 101 on this somewhere? I'm with CommBank.

If you use your regular bank card, very likely you will be charged currency conversion fees for every transaction you make overseas. I’m with CBA and they charge these fees for my everyday account.
What you need is an account that doesn’t charge currency conversion or ATM withdrawal. Look at Bankwest for debit or Latitude for credit.
@fullkitwanker @Seagoon I got one of these the last time I travelled: https://www.cashpassport.com.au/
As long as your card is a Visa or MasterCard, it should work over there in most cases. However, I would check the fees before using it overseas.

I have apparently had a suspicious transaction on my credit card, someone trying to buy gift cards. I do wonder how they got the card number, I barely use it. I think I've seen something about methods using random numbers so maybe they just guessed it. The transaction history on that card are all Paypal, Amazon and a couple of local stores in person so not really anything risky. Fortunately it's not my main card so there are no automatic payments to be messed up.

it pays to keep a close eye on account activity 👍
- This one was stopped before it even made it to transaction history.

Does anyone know if there's a Canning's equivalent butcher in the inner North/outer North? Free range, low salt, sausages, etc?

I have been listening to a book about scientific intuition, what it is and why people believe incorrect theories and facts.

Answer, we are born as babies who know nothing, cognitive limitation as adults and the way we live and experience the world around us frames the questions we ask.

I was really surprised at the cognitive limitations data, even graduates of physics degrees might not know or understand basic principles because they are unable to have the mental imagery required for understanding. ie, unable to use visualisation

I suppose that explains why some students can pass exams but can't explain what they learnt or remember it years later or integrate the knowledge into their world view

What's it called? That sounds fascinating
- Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong By: Andrew Shtulman
  "In Scienceblind, cognitive and developmental psychologist Andrew Shtulman shows that the root of our misconceptions lies in the theories about the world we develop as children. They're not only wrong, they close our minds to ideas inconsistent with them, making us unable to learn science later in life. So how do we get the world right? We must dismantle our intuitive theories and rebuild our knowledge from its foundations. The reward won't just be a truer picture of the world, but clearer solutions to many controversies - around vaccines, climate change, or evolution - that plague our politics today."