Daily Discussion Thread: 🌞 🧀 🚂 Sunday, September 8, 2024

Irl cake day somehow sucked worse than the one I literally spent in ER with a 10% chance of survival. seriously thinking of moving the date and blocking what pathetic scraps of family i have left

Lemmit is your family now 🎂
I’m so sorry you had a crap time. Sending birthday wishes and all the happiness for you. Can you do something special to treat yourself and help cancel it out?
- Eh at this point i could go either/or.
Do it! You don't need toxic in your life. Happy birthday anyway. I hope next year's is better for you. ♥
An internet sugar offering not-hug thing
That's rough. Also sending you bday wishes.
Made you a little something
- Thanks
Buy yourself a cake and b'day present. That's what I used to do.
Happy birthday Taleya -hugs-
- Uh, it's not today

Now begins the BEE SUPERHIGHWAY! Like clockwork blossom -><- echium.

Cat, bed, audiobook and iPad game.

Perfect end to a Sunday.

Goodnight everyone ❤️

Night

It's Okay

We love you anyway

P's dropped in from their travels to Noosa and gave me 3 t-shirts.

They all say "I LOVE Noosa"

I've never been (or intend to go) to noosa.

Could at least have said, "My parents went to Noosa and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"
- Noosa seems like an odd place for a Victorian to go as a sole destination, too. I know nothing of it, so maybe it's actually really nice and a common tourist desto or something. But just poking around on the maps, the only reason I can come up for someone to go there is they wanted to go to the sunshine coast but either got lost on the way there, or more likely wanted to be unique and quirky so they drove 10 minutes down the road to Noosa insteax
Was it LOVE with a ❤️ for maximum boomer points?
- Don't forget the double spacing !

I dreamt that I was filling in for Nine Inch Nails guitarist. Also we fought crime lol

Um, which crime? This has me fascinated.
- Mostly assaults and home invasions.
  Fucking weird dream.

I’m so frustrated about my health and living situation. I was never hugely sporty but did like to be somewhat active like walking and tai chi and would love the energy/chance to garden. I’d love to be exercising and prepping good meals.

Even just getting away from the toxic elements of where I live would be amazing.

I have far too many baking trays. I will not be culling just merely organising them in a better tetrisy way.

If you’re wondering why it’s raining, I’ve fired up the BBQ.

I took the other chair down to the terrace to be sanded and painted . Sorry.
I watered my garden, so also bear some responsibility

Onions on top today. North Eastern Melbourne Chinese Association are cowboys living on the edge of society

I think I may have lost some weight. 🙂

Free birthday cake donut with (?any) purchase at Shortstop Melbourne today. Really tasty vanilla cinnamon cake donut with rainbow sprinkles.

Oooooh
- Check their Insta I think the donuts are limited but free coffee with purchase is not ☕

This cow in a Geelong show ad seems to have 4 front legs👀

I've seen worse in geelong (sorry geelong people).
AI art?
Has to be. Things in the background look blobby and weird too
- Oh my god I zoomed in and yeah that's just like cow soup back there
- Kind of AI. I think it's Adobe generative fill. There was probably something in the way, and someone has used the generative fill tool to make the cow have legs, but didn't check or edit it after too make sure it looked correct haha
  Could be AI, but I think all their legs are a bit off, but the tops of the cows seem okay, so I reckon something was blocking the cows legs in the photo, and and editor has used that tool to 'fix' it
the third cow from the left has two pairs of back legs
Bwahaha!! Do supermarkets still do the 6 legged chicken deal?
Adobe generative fill is really calling out the editors who don't pick up these mistakes 😂

I counted 7 frying pans. 2 cast iron (1 flat, 1 griddle) 1 steel/aluminium (Idfk), 1 small for toasting nuts, 2 that go in the oven with a lids (1 large, 1 small) and one I use all the time. Plus a wok. I need to make decisions but maybe not today.

Here I am StudSpud the Starchy
\ The poetic potato aficionado
\ But in real life I'm actually partly
\ Just your average f5 tornado

I don't look like an actual potato
\ I'm not a hot-as-fuck stud
\ I'm just a long dormant volcano
\ And now I'm certainly not a chud

Got a phishing message impersonating auspost coming from the democratic republic of the Congo

Found it funny because when something that seems like it should be Australian wasn't, my mum would always say something like "what do you mean the milk is only 93% Australian? Where's the rest of it coming from? The bloody Congo?"

I also had one come from Yemen a few weeks ago. That was a funny one.

Anywho I cracked into my study today. I've got the knowledge to complete my first assessment now, I'm about 75% done, probably got about an hour left on it. I don't know about the others because I haven't started them yet, but I've got another 3 weeks to do those. Although we start on the next unit tomorrow, so I don't want to get left behind. They look to be longer than the first one, and one of them is a case study, the other a research report. So the one I'm working on now is probably the easiest of the lot (just basic written questions)

Sun out. Open window. Sun goes. Temp drops and wind starts. Close window. Repeat. One of THOSE days hey Melbourne?

yup, I have a jumper on but technically it's still winter so it's to be expected
Yeah, I’m doing the ‘do I paint the fence/not paint the fence?’
- Well over out west it's definitely settled on overcast and rainy so I'm gonna say no

My legs are shot. 25kms isn't a super long ride, but you feel it when you're towing 2 kids and the last stretch is up hill

My daughter one day "Daddy, why have we slowed down?". And here's my poor husband sweating bullets and pedalling as hard as he could while crossing the western highway on an overpass.

Oh, cheese train soundin' louder

Nomming on the cheese train

Nom, yum, yum, ah, nom, ah

Come on, now cheese train

Yes, cheese train swiss holy slices

Everyone jump on the cheese train

Nom, yum, yum, ah, nom, ah

Come on, now cheese train ......

Is this cheese train carved like the cover of the WW kids birthday cake book? Have seen wedding ‘cakes’ that were a huge cheese stack. Yes, the bride was Dutch.
- Yes.
😍🧀🤤
Brilliant! Especially your ooh-ah ee-ah ooh-ah part 😆

quiz

25/50 - not my best work

Just bought Christmas crackers lol. I’m a freak.

I'm waiting for hot cross buns to come back - I'm an absolute goblin fiend about the chocolate ones 🤤
c'est chic

I’M UP

Yesterday was new water bottle day. This time I got one off ScAmazon. I'm sure this one will last 7 months like all the rest before cracking the shits and breaking, making me crack the shits and put it in the bin

Also, YIL that Amazon gives away free GOG/epic keys with a prime subscription. To keep forever I think. Shame about prime (the streaming part) being so garbage. I found the mixed messaging they do where some movies are part of your subscription, and then others they try to sting you 30 bucks for to be really annoying and just gave up on it as a result. Almost cancelled when they started putting ads into the 3 whole movies they actually have on it, but forgot to so never did

Get a stainless steel one, i've had one of those fuckers for 15 years and i have not been kind to it
- I did. I wasn't happy with the size, and after a month, it was dropped from about chest height and the bottom part cracked. It was still usable, but after a few more months of use and another drop, it started leaking, and I also cut myself on it, and ripped a pair of shorts by getting caught on it

CHRISTMAS DECO ALREADY?!

Fuck off, Halloween first!
- I went to Love Lombard in Preston today for Christmas crackers in the colour that I require. They have an absolute fuckload of Halloween stuff if you’re interested. Floating heads in crystal balls, all manner of skulls, vampire rats like WTF, living dead girls and so on.
Christmas decos go up the first Saturday or Sunday of December and come down the first Saturday or Sunday of January
Edit: this is apparently so controversial I copped a downvote with no comment! Sorry I don't like Christmas I guess
- Ha. Mine go up the final week before Christmas if that and the tree Christmas Eve, and down around the 6th January.
Clearly just big fans of the Nightmare Before Christmas. That way it's still Halloween themed.

The US Open Men's Doubles final is on now on Nine Go (ch99) if you want some entertainment with your breakie- Aussies Purcell and Thompson are a pretty good chance.

Oh ok. I’ve just put it on. Thanks!

I just had some cinnamon sugar toast. Nostalgia snack 💯

I’m about to make a toastie, but don’t know what I want in it.

Cheese and salami, or peanut butter and banana?

Bananas ought be illegal. Satay salami sounds curious…
banana and nutella
All of them together
Cheese, salami and onion.
I think I've just decided my lunch plans. Maybe I should go all in and add tomato too?
I love banana in a toastie but I go with cinnamon rather than peanut butter (not a big fan).
Peanut butter and salami.
I vote for cheese and banana.

I’m feeling depressed as hell. Internet Archive lost a copyright lawsuit and rare books or resources that could be unavailable in any other way might be lost.

I have to go to eBay or Amazon for even a hope of finding some classic art books secondhand and even then a used copy could be $50, $70, $100 plus. If I can even find it.

Libgen.is
If you change your mind. Been using it over a decade. No issues.
- Thanks, I just genuinely don’t know what I’m doing and don’t want to stress over it
the high seas might be the place to go
- I avoid it due to the legal and virus risks.

One 10% assignment done. Now to do a 20% one today, then the 40% ones due this week and the week after. Not even worrying about the ones after that yet. I feel like I'm making a tiny bit of progress.

You can do it! You are doing it! You are smart! You are articulate! You are awesome! 💜💜💜
- Thank you Spud <33
One step at a time.
I've found that there are few tasks or things in life that can't be broken down into small easier steps. Just get good at each step.
You have so got this. 👍
- Absolutely agree. Thanks Seagoon :)
- If you cut your steps in half, then halve them again, then it doesn't matter what size feet you have - because you're still steppin'.

Going on another ride with the bicycle users group today. My plan is to get to the meeting place early so the boys can have a bit of out of pram time before we head off

TIL about AI generated books, some of which are dangerous. These mushroom hunting books are wrong and could kill. So what other fake books are out there?

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

I always thought the machines would do the labour, and the people would make the art. Yet here we are.
- It’s absolutely being used to avoid employing or paying people. Or giving them ‘editing’ jobs for a fraction of the pay.
  Internet Archive also lost its copyright case. So generative AI/LLMs get to access and to take everything but humans aren’t allowed to have an archive of resources that would otherwise be lost.
  Seriously fuck this corporate netscape
So many apparently. If it’s something important it’s probably best to get a copy from a known author with a date prior to the AI boom, or proper citations.
This is doing so much damage to information literacy and being able to verify claims
Edit: It’s screwing up translations and instruction booklets too

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

Everything Mexican please.
- 🌎
Yummy bacon butty please. And coffee (decaf cos late).
- I remember when HJs brought out their bacon chip cheesy butty burger thing. I tried one and thought it wasn't awful, and they were also only going for a buck, so I suggested to someone at my last place that they grab one
  We went up to the counter and I said "can I just grab, uhh, a chicken Royale please" and she said "oh can I try one of those bacon bums please"
  That was a funny but moderately embarrassing day
- 🥓🥪☕️
Calorie free shortbread biscuits and a cup of black tea please.
- 🍪🍪☕️

I couldn't get to sleep last night. Melatonin was no help. I was so tired I couldn't open my eyes, but I just couldn't sleep.

Then when I did get to sleep, I had another bad dream. This one didn't involve death like the last few, but I got really angry in my dream and broke everything in my path and hurt a lot of people. I hate those kinds of dreams, because they feel so realistic while I'm in them and then about half way through the dream I realise I've mega screwed up and then end up dealing with the fallout while I'm still dreaming. And then after I wake up it's a combination of relief that I'm not rotting away in a dingey jail cell somewhere, but also terrifying because it makes me wonder if I am actually capable of hurting people irl

And then after I woke up I realised I'd slept in until 1pm. But in my defence, the watch tells me I was tossing and turning until 5:30

Yep. Like Goonsey said it is normal but that doesn't mean it's nice. My brain dredges up all sorts of stuff when I sleep. Over the years I have kinda learned to deal with it and even appreciate it a bit - It's my brain processing all the stuff and filing it where it needs to go.
One thing I find really helpful is to just lay there for a bit when I wake up, with my eyes closed think about what I am feeling inside (is there somewhere hurting? Stressed?) and to think back on what I dreamt. Kinda say thanks brain for processing and remind myself it was a dream and I am safe now. And to then think about where I am in details - what do the sheets feel like, what can I hear, that sort of thing. Just breathe in that in between space and basically put down the night stuff so I can go into the day clean. Or at worst, cut myself some slack because it was a rough night.
Everyone has their own thing - just sharing my little process in case it helps.
sounds a bit like some stress from all the recent events you've endured
all perfectly normal, you'll be fine, just talk to your counsellor
so many hugs 🫂🫂🫂

Portuguese-style sardines don't taste any different to any other sardines in oil. There, bang, I said it.

Huh. Old school friend (who I lost touch with and have tried to find in and off) friended me on FB and asked me to a mumble year school reunion.
Would love to catch up with her, but as for the other? I'd rather remove my own epidermis with a potato peeler.

School reunions - yeah, removing skin with a rusty lid of a tin can would be preferable.

So how long is a warranty on something like headphones? I need to go to jb hifi to return some but it's been almost a year or a bit longer.

Can't seem to find the info anywhere. I'm probably googling the wrong thing.

You’re probably good within a year as long as they didn’t cost like 10 bucks or something.
Warranty length is usually on a slip of paper with the headphones.
Also you have the Australian consumer law to rely on as a backup that can not be overruled.
I found this but idk if it's applicable
https://support.jbhifi.com.au/hc/en-au/articles/360053783453-What-is-JB-Hi-Fi-s-returns-policy-on-earphones-and-headphones
I'm not super sure, but 1 year is typically the standard wqarranty period from what I've seen. My $2 earbuds from Officeworks, and most anko stuff from Kmart has a year warranty. Some stuff goes up to 2
I'd probably go in anyway and see what they can do for you. JB tend to be pretty alright from my experience. Probably largely to do with them putting like a 90% markup on almost everything they sell unless you get a price beat or try to haggle
The warranty usually comes down to the manufacturer, so you might be able to check on their website.
I had some sennheiser headphones die just within the warranty period, swapped them out for Momentums, and they're still going strong today

Goodness me. Fell asleep early and only woke up once. Been awhile since I’ve been able to sleep so soundly.

I'm feeling in the mood for nice 90s movies... Just watching Grosse Pointe Blank (TEN YEARS!!! TEN YEARS, MAN!!) and it's great fun. Any other recommendations for something similarly silly and nostalgic?

Found out recently Windows can control backlight brightness on most external monitors, it's just not a feature it wants to implement natively. Twinkle Tray does the trick nicely though!

Just watched the new series of "Only Murders in the Building". It's such a terrific show, very entertaining.