Daily discussion thread: 🛡️ Sunday, May 5, 2024

God fucking dammit fuck

🧅🌽🥕🥔🍗🍲
🫚🍋🍯☕️
- All of those veggies our in our couldron brewing. Lamb instead of chicken tho.
  Thank you for the tea 💜
Virtual chicken soup on its way to you - 🐔🍲
Sorry to hear that mate! At least you can snuggle with Mickey. Does your partner have it too or just you?
- Both of us tested positive immediately. We're currently groaning while brewing some soup lol
oof that is a strong line too.. you got it real good
oh noes, so many hugs take care, rest up
First time? Internet soup delivery 🍲
- Possibly third, but the second confirmed infection
It's certainly around again. Hopefully its short and sweet.
Damn. I hope you’re not feeling too bad from it.
How long did it take for the line to pop up?
Anyway get plenty of rest and lay low for the next few days.
Get well soon!
- It was an immediate line, no delay or faintness at all, for both me and my partner.
  It's definitely not as bad as the first time: was out for two weeks. This time it's just like a really nasty cold. We're both very whiny and whiny about it lol, but can move about and do stuff with effort.
  Just made myself a honey tea, but forgot to get lemons lol
oh no.
Big speedy recovery.

Eerrrrggghhhh. Late to the party this morning. We had some excitement opposite me in our street last night - 3 am firetrucks and cop cars. Cops carefully saying nothing, but the firetrucks were all hooked up to the water supply, and lots of firies everywhere in gas masks. The houses opposite and me and my next door neighbours all got woken up and asked to leave for a safe space up the street. Presumably a gas problem/leak of some sort I reckon as no smell of fire. After an hour or so they let us back home and the trucks packed up and left. PSA: Oodies and ugg boots are fantastic for evacs of this sort - pocket holds all sorts of things and very very warm. They did offer us blankets but I didn't need one with the oodie.

Ugh! As somebody who doesn’t typically clothes at night this would be very extra. Upset cats stuffed in boxen and no pants. 😝
- I've always been worried that the one night I tried to sleep without clothes, my house would catch on fire. Or I'd get up at 2am for a dunny run really tired and forget I'm not wearing any clothes

I've accidentally learned to play piano.

So, I use a keyboard to play melodies on my PC to make songs. Usually playing one finger on each hand, like how some people type lol

Tonight I wasn't really thinking, just noodling away and realised I can play with all fingers on both hands!

Still awkward, but it blew me away.

Edit: later in the evening, I was listening to something I'd recorded on my phone. This is how Gibson felt about the noise:

That’s a very dirty look!!’ My cat is terrified of my piano. Feel guilty when I start to play and she runs out of the room
Hey, I'm one of those people that only types with one finger on each hand :(
- So is my GP. It concerns me

I hate that feeling of the blues when you have no reason to feel that way...

I used to blame my hormones ..🤭
I've found that strangely, I tend to get that way on Sundays. Not Mondays, not Saturdays, only Sundays. I'm better these days, but a couple of years ago, almost every Sunday I'd feel like shit and really depressed. It didn't matter what I was doing, even if it was something I really liked, I still felt sad all day
- @Baku how did you get out of it?
- I think it's Sundays for me as well. It feels like saying farewell to another week of my life. Bittersweet in a way.

I am now at a point where I have lived more of my life in the 21st century than the 20th.

I knew it had to be close to that point and was thinking I should have a "half life" party to celebrate the occassion, but apparently it was nearly 2 months ago so I missed it.

I hit that achievement approximately a second after I was born. You'll get used to it /s
- You just need to find the secret of eternal youth and then you can celebrate yours some time in 2101! or hang on, is that 2201? math hard.
Am never going to make it until I get a telegram from the king.
- Which King though? Sausage fingers seems unlikely to last.
Oh crap what a great idea. Except I've missed mine too (about 18months ago apparently). That's wild.
- Mine was 4 years ago. Gulp. I don't feel that old.
Three years to go!
Are you counting from January 2000 or 2001? I remember there being debate at the time over when the century starts. Either way, I have a bit to go.
- Very good point. There was no year zero, so the official turn of century (and millenium) is 2001. This means I have nearly 2 more years and can have my "half life" party after all!
  🥳🎉🎊🥂
I have a fair few years to wait

I was visited by a new fren :)

Apparently it visits our yard every few months. I fed it some ham and it stayed for a while then walked to the fence gate, meowed, then walked off down the footpath

It has gorgeous eyes

So fluffy!
- Seriously! I thought it was a chonker at first, but no, 95% fluff!
Look of concentration... It's memorising the location of the ham
- Works for me, I'd be quite happy if it visited every day 😂
It knows this.....
They are bastards.
- Don't call my new friend a bastard :/

Christ. And here am I deciding on 6 sausages instead of 10...
I might rewatch Soylent Green this week.
A kid in Miniest's class at school wants to be a butcher when he grows up. No wonder!
I don't even buy meat. Only exception being homebrand cat food for my pet
Wow. How much steak was that?? There's a dude at my local farmers market that does four grass fed porterhouse for 30 bucks and that plus a pack of snags or some mince does me for a month or more (I am mostly vego).
I suppose when we start eating the rich we will know they were well fed at least...
- I could go some wagyu-fed, free-range billionaires right about now. Got my tummy grumbling!

Day 14 of the chilli ferment.

Pretty sure I'm not going to get botulism with this one go me.

That picklemix terrifying

I am over the worst of the cold but pretty fatigued and have a lovely hacking cough.. I am getting really depressed about the state of my home though - haven't had the energy to tidy/clean/cook much or generally adult all week.

So give me your best tips for focusing and moving and cleaning when you don't feel like it!

(and I will rest but the mental health impact of the clutter is bigger than the physical illness plus I think moving will help clear the snots)

When I'm super super sick, it pays to differentiate between "untidy" and "dirty". Deal with "dirty" first, and take frequent rests. "Untidy" can be done any time after that.
Close your eyes, click your heels, and say ‘I wish the goblins would take you away’
- Will that make David Bowie turn up too? I could live with that
Pick the thing that’s making it feel the most messy, eg kitchen. Then do the dishes and wipe the benches and make it tidy. If you have no more energy for anything else doesn’t matter, the worst is done and the place will feel enormously better.
My washing machine runs for about an hour. I pop on a load and then use it as a timer: I'll clean until the washing's done. Might not work as well for a slow front loader!
Some upbeat music or an interesting podcast helps too.
- I use this tactic too. Doesn't matter how shit I feel, if I have something else running in the background (washing machine, dishwasher, even the rice cooking) my brain will be more likely to get stuff done in between. Music also helps.
  I think the inertia for me comes from this sinking feeling that the work is unending. having an inbuilt timer in the form of the background machine activity, and the music, helps me trick my brain.
As per PeelerSheila - sort the problem. My prioritised list would be - kitchen (including washing up and countertops but not floors), bathroom, bedroom then living room. In short, do small bits with big impact, then work down through the list. The floors can wait, the washing up can't due to microbiology. A big area like the living room - find a dump zone (eg tabletop/sofa), then put all clutter there. Then straighten up the furniture (and floor if you have the energy) then depopulate the dump zone item by item into its proper place. There's a hundred ways to do this - it's finding one that's doable for you right now.
First I would have something to eat. Next pick up any rubbish and dispose of that. Then dishes. Then I would tidy the lounge room because that's where I spend my time when I'm sick. I just do a bit at a time.

Booooo. My landlord wants me to take off all my plants from the balcony because apparently a crack (that was already there long before I moved in) has gotten worse. Fair enough because they want to get it fixed. But it's a lot of plants to lug down two sets of stairs, and then across and up another two to put in the common area...

I don't know how long they will take to get the balcony fixed - in the meantime, watering and maintaining these plants is going to be a pain and a half. I absolutely can't be carting water from my unit to the common area so I'll have to use the communal tap 🤷‍♀️

What I'm worried about the most is if they say I can't put any plants back on at all. I'll be absolutely fuming if that's the case. Let's hope they'll be reasonable. I know they've appreciated seeing the veggies and flowers on it and I know several of my neighbours have appreciated them too.

Trying not to spiral into negative thinking and assume they'll up the rent after this fix as well >_< mustn't jump to conclusions...

wants me to take off all my plants from the balcony
ouch.. hrmm.

It's such a cold night.

Stay warm everyone.

Melbcat is tucked in next to me with a hot water bottle. lol
Ha I managed to avoid most of it. Fell asleep at 9ish with the electric blanket on high. That translated to my dreams taking place in northern WA with the temperatures hitting 49°. It was fantastic. Although I did wake up with hiccups and feeling like I hadn't consumed any liquids in about a week

The cold is finally gone. Can't wait to do some physical activity tomorrow. It's been almost two weeks between injuries and being sick.

I need my happy chemicals stat!

Also, bedtime 😴 goodnight everyone!

This is what we call the squint of approval
- This photo of her being super pissed off, is my absolute favorite of all time

Yesterday was Lucha Fantastica day and we absolutely loved it! It was at Collingwood town hall and we got there early, so first we went around the corner to Raphs for a coffee and snack, a nice tiny cafe that Mr P said did a great moussaka.

The kids could get right up close to the wrestling ring and my eldest (the keen wrestling fan of the family) was particularly enthralled. He was very interested in inspecting the setup of the ring and how it was put together. I never thought I'd spend a Saturday enthusiastically cheering a wrestling man dressed as a giant taco but there I was. Captain Chipotle chugged Valentina chilli sauce from the bottle. Chico was a crowd favourite, throwing lollies into the crowd throughout the show. I hear during the later adults show it's tequila getting poured into the crowd ringside. One dude was wrestling dressed as an alien 😂 Mr P was happy there was Mexican beer and a margarita which was surprisingly strong, it really slapped. It was the kind of light hearted entertainment I'd been missing. At the end they had a couple of pinatas for the kids to have a crack at (some of those kids were swinging for Australia lol). An all round excellent day.

That sounds like so much fun actually

It's taken me a while to get here, but I'm sat in front of the computer now about to research shit I need to get done for this trip. Sun streaming in the windows, Nujabes' Modal Soul playing, looking forward to work this coming week. Trying my best to channel the good feels, which I can't seem to hold onto very well...

hugs, here is some travel music ✈️ 🚄🌸🍒 ⛰️
or maybe 🦁 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTQbiNvZqaY

Walked to Moon for some cruller treats and stopped at Eddy gardens for some dog watching on the way home. Surely this makes up for rotting in bed all day yesterday?

I managed to potter around and get the house respectable. Tidied, clothes away, dishes washed, light vacuum. Need to wipe down the bathroom but I will do that when I have a shower.

Took all day because of an accidental naptime - the sun was streaming in on the bed and I had no choice but to be a cat.

Also what a gorgeous day out there.

Having spent a lot of time recently on Facebook groups about retirement and superannuation I think I can safely say about 60% of the content consists of three posts:

It's not fair that I'm not eligible for the aged pension and getting free money from the government just because I worked hard to have lots of money
How can I get rid of some of the money I saved up to qualify for the Aged Pension and get me some of that sweeet free government money
It's terrible how many people are so entitled to think they should get the Aged Pension instead of working to support themselves

These three posts in multiple variations are on repeat multiple times a day, and always filled with comments arguing about who should be entitled to what. I'd be willing to support a Universal Basic Income being introduced just to get rid of all these tediously repetitive arguments!

I would also like to tell all of the people asking for advice on their self managed super funds that if you have to ask for advice on Facebook about how to manage it you should not have a self managed super fund.

All for a measly 25k to people who have millions and millions in property and super.
Greed knows no bounds.
I'd rather those without independent wealth have a larger slice of the pie than old mate and his partner with 3 paid off properties and a million or 2 in super get any more.
- People are obsessed with their pensions. People with large Super balances generally don't recognise that they have received and continue to recieve, more benefits in the way of tax exemptions on their Super than people on the pension get. Many seem convinced they will somehow be better off with less assets and the "free government money".
  I personally think all of our welfare payments - unemployment, aged pension, childcare subsidies etc. should be paid regardless of income to anyone in the right category and keep a progressive tax system (that charges people with more means a higher percentage) with no tax-free threshold and higher taxes at the very top. Get rid of HECS - if the education leads to higher wages then those wages will be paying higher tax anyway, there is no need to double dip! People on high incomes would still be paying much more in tax than they receive back in benefits and the reduced time wasted on bureaucratic compliance and assessment procedures would probably free up enough working capacity to change everyone to a four day work week.
  Obviously it would be difficult and destabilising to actually bring in such a major change, but when I become Supreme Leader of the world that is what I intend to do. Along with mandating that pets count as family for workplace leave policies.
I would also like to tell all of the people asking for advice on their self managed super funds that if you have to ask for advice on Facebook about how to manage it you should not have a self managed super fund.
Fully agree. They should ask their accountant(s). Sorry, registered financial planner as you need to have a licence to give advice on superannuation.
Mind you, my boss when he was a commercial law student asked his tutor for a quick 10 minute run down on how super worked. His tutor rolled on the floor laughing.
And a truly wonderful Tandberg cartoon came out in the 80s - two suits sitting at a table in a pub - one says to the other "Yeah it's a social thing. We get together on a Friday night, have a few beers and change the laws on superannuation". Says it all. I think I still have a copy somewhere as I had that stuck on my screen for years.

More roast fennel adventures! Today I made a "creamy" base of broad beans with finely chopped celery, leek, and a couple of chillies sweated for 10 minutes. Then threw in some roast garlic that was in the oven with the fennel, finely chopped fresh rosemary and some dried oregano and thyme, plus stock powder. Then blended it all together (thinned out with copious amounts of pasta water), and threw in the roast fennel, a tin of tuna, a handful of nutritional yeast, and finally some cooked risoni/orzo pasta. Topped it off with some fresh chopped parsley.

An interesting mix of textures and maybe orzo wasn't the right choice (will it all congeal into a slab tomorrow?), but certainly tastes alright. If I had some capers or olives for a bit of extra briney bite, this would be 👌🏽

e: I also bumped into some friends in the shops, got invited around for a spot of tea, that was extremely wholesome and lovely :)

Testing out a double walled travel mug with some off.

Found it in the cupboard when I was looking for some stuff and was still amazed it was wrapped out.

I might regret making a coffee this late in the day but I must test this out!

@Seagoon Wanted to head out today, but ended up staying in.

Still have a blocked nose and want to rest up.

I'll do some grocery shopping a bit later, but otherwise I'm staying in and resting up...

People who do this shit should get eaten https://www.domain.com.au/news/200m-project-australias-most-expensive-ever-residential-build-chittering-western-australia-1281253/

Australia has such a terrible gambling problem.
It's shameful it's been allowed to happen.
If we wish to save the planet "eat the rich" is definitely the right dietary choice.

This is adorable.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-05/why-i-joined-a-month-long-game-of-tag-in-longreach/103783298?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

That was a fun read, some of the players commitment to getting their tag target was legendary!

TIL there's a mini metro/motorways knockoff called mini airways. It looks quite fun, if you're one of those weird people (like me) that enjoy games that raise your BPM by about 300

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2289650/Mini_Airways/

Playthrough: https://youtu.be/DnT2SvFaVlY

Quite reminiscent of Flight Control. An early mobile game from Australia. From back when games cost $1.19 and had no ads or stupid psychological tricks to keep you playing daily. You played them daily because they were fun!

Just came back from Frozen Empire.

That was good in a way movies haven't been for a long time

Help, the cat is rolling me out of bed

When I go to the other end to sleep she follows me and cuddle-shoves me out of there too

I’m exhausted, but should probably eat something. Do not want to cook.

Eggs on toast? Easy dinners are great on Sunday nights.

Anyone seeing any Eta Aquariids out there?

Wise people of the information super highway: any tips on making hiccups go away? I keep getting hiccups every time I eat or drink anything, even water and it's lasting an annoying (but probably not concerning) amount of time. Drinking water didn't work, holding my breath didn't work, laying upside down didn't work, and controlled breathing exercises didn't work and I'm out of ideas

Holding my breath generally works, but only if I do it like this:
breathe in and out as normally as you can
take a big breath in, big big. Fill your lungs alllllll the way up
hold for as long as you can
do not exhale suddenly!
when you cannot hold any long, let the air out slowly, shape your mouth as if you're whistling to do so. Like an small o shape.
nice and slow until you've exhaled completely.
repeat if required, but make sure you take normal breaths as per step one so you don't hyperventilate
This helps me, as generally hiccups are caused by the diaphragm spasming. The full-lung breath-hold helps to like, reset it. And the very slow exhale is to stop the diaphragm from starting again from the shock of a sudden big exhale.
- Thanks Chud, this fixed it. I guess I wasn't holding it for long enough. The first time I held it for so long I could not exhale slowly, it was all or nothing. The second time I held it for a little less longer though, and a third time managed to fix it
Hiccups happen when your diaphragm gets out of sync with your breathing. Most of the effective methods force these to re-synchronise. Drinking water out of the BACK of the glass makes you bend over forwards, which temporarily halts your breathing and when you straighten up to swallow, you start breathing again in sync. Usually. Also you might like to slow down the rate of eating, as gulping air along with food can set off hiccups. As a survivor of a boarding school where food happened in a lions on the kill fashion, I learned to bolt food as fast as possible. This caused quite a few issues that I had to learn how to slow down eating to fix. Hiccups was only part of it.
- I don't think I really eat that fast. I used to, when I was at the last place I pretty much had no choice but to down it as fast as possible, but these days I'm much slower and more calm when I'm eating and drinking. I certainly didn't eat any faster than usual today, but my diaphragm evidently was just not having a good time!
  I did also get them as soon as I woke up (in fact they were actually what woke me up) so I wonder if falling asleep with my electric blanket too high may have broken something
Hold breath and try to burp. That works for me.

Due to some conspiratorial misdirection, you will not find “ice” tea in the tea section. Nor will you find “ice” coffee in the coffee section.

One would hope there was no ice in the supermarket at all
- The customers bring it in.
i couldn’t find ice cream in the cream section
- Did you check for ice magic in the magic section?
- Where’s cream section? Hidden away like aisle 43 at Bunnings?

@Seagoon Feeling a little better after seeing the Hawks win against the Doggies 😁

I’m sad that my Cats lost and they I tipped a few upsets and I got them wrong this round :(
- @Duenan Even the invincible Essendon side in 2000 lost a game.
  It's better if it happens in May than September.

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

May I please have a raspberry smoothie and a SpaceFood stick
- 🎈🥤🧈
Let’s eat Grandma!
- Only if she's rich and builds a very expensive house.
- You have a cavalier attitude to expiry dates I see
- 🐺
Rice with fried egg and sardines please
- 🍚🍳🐟

Watched the other two Wong Kar-Wai films in the supposed trilogy. I think because I watched them back to back they feel closer together than In The Mood For Love.

I haven’t watched this much film for ages. Something about it hits different than my bouts of voracious consumption aka binge watching. I had to pay attention.

The Steven McCurry Icons at Seaworks is definitely worth a visit. If you go in the evening make sure you’re rugged up. It’s a giant shed so it gets bloody cold.