I waited until 12 ticked over to post this.. but have a look at this absolute beast of a backpack holding $84 of groceries like a champ. I've had this backpack for maybe 7 or 8 years now, taken it half way around the world twice & on countless domestic trips, and I've used it as my daily carrier/work bag and it's as good as the day I bought it.
Can fully recommend the Osprey Farpoint 40. Never felt more confident recommending something.
A mystery parcel is on board for delivery today. I really wish you got the sender's name not just a tracking number with these notifications so I knew what I was getting. I have two seperate parcels with live plants expected, it would be nice to know if it is one of those so I can prepare to plant them straight away. But it could also just be the batteries I ordered.
Woke up to someone sending me a bunch of pictures of someone's kids... Hopefully it's not a phishing scam because I replied telling them they have the wrong number and that I had deleted the photos.
But holy hell what a nightmare for the parents, and also worst nightmare for me having random pictures of some kids on my phone for 5 seconds (especially as a man).
Went to the doctors for my usual thing and mentioned a random rash that popped up on my face that's giving me grief, and now I'm on shingles watch... Fingers crossed the antihistamines I've been instructed to take for the next few days confirm its just weird allergy symptoms I've never had before.
Ted Cat goes out into our courtyard every second day. He loves it so much. Sniffs all the bushes and fences then rolls around on the warm outdoor paving tiles enjoying his freedom.
I'm actually sick of Optus. I'm still pissed that like my data gets leaked but all I get is a :c soz bro. But they have cheap credit, which is $30 every 45 days, and I get a butt load of calls and text. So I guess if anyone has other recommendations for either similar price and offer or cheaper that'd be nice.
Though I do refuse to go to Vodafone because they too screwed me over years ago and I can hold a grudge.
We are heading into a cashless society they say. Do your banking online, it's easy they say. Until shit hits the fan and you can't access your funds. When the gov'ment says it's save to vote online then I'll consider it. Until then I'll stick to using my card or cash thanks.
I wasn't paying attention but now that I finally am, there's this something I can take up that will make my future plans way easier.
But that means I should make a decision soon, and take action within 2024.
Thought I had years. Now it's just months.
It's a most wonderful thing but AHHHHHH
Edit: further googling tells me walking through door A doesn't shut door B. It's a net gain. I can go back to worrying about how full my neopet is.
I realized I haven't been to my favourite pizza shop in many months (since before I moved). They were about a 10 minute trip, but they did the best pizza and once a month or so I'd make the hike because it was very worth it. Now I'm 11 minutes away and was going to get a pizza from there delivered. Apparently their maximum delivery distance is 10 minutes, and I'm just ever so slightly beyond their delivery area
I'm very sad now. They do the best pizza, and I'd probably be willing to catch a bus there (even in this weather), but unfortunately it would be a series of 3 buses all taking about 35 minutes + a 10 minute walk, and I don't think I want pizza so badly i'd do an almost 2 hour round trip
Optus NBN appears to be just a DNS issue, people reporting their NBN working with third party DNS provider.
I strongly recommend not using telco for DNS regardless.
FYI for those that don't know, Optus services down nationwide, effects 10 million customers as well as payment terminals, Metro trains are also partially down.
Another beautiful morning out there. I'm not used to walking in warm temperatures, I need to acclimatize - was getting hot and sweaty by the end of the dog walk, and it's only about 20 degrees.
Welp, good thing I'm not with Optus regarding the Internet. Now phone service...
I let my boss know, I should be able to get an uber to work, but I can't receive any calls or text which will be fun when I go home. I'll have to order the uber while in the office because the wifi doesn't extend very far.
Pizza troubles have been resolved! I discovered apparently their on uber ears, and Uber don't care how far away you are, if you're willing to give them money they'll keep it all, give the driver 20 cents, and then they'll give you your food
It's kind of terrifying to realise just how much power Optus and telcos in general hold. One single outage and the entire country grinds to a halt. If there was ever a situation where Optus' or Telstra's CEO wanted to kill everything, that really could. Telstra especially could fuck everyone over, since they operate the 000 switchboardy thingo too. It'd be massively illegal, and they'd get sued into the shitter, but why does a private entity hold this much power?
I guess there's an argument to be made that a problem like this could happen even if private telcos didn't exist, but it still seems ridiculous that something this essential to how society works isn't owned and operated by the government...
I'm in charge of Christmas drinks. I bought some limoncello and some bubbles. That should be alright shouldn't it? With a little spring of mint to make it fancy.
I finally got around to framing some pieces that have been sitting around for ages. The cross stitch cows would probably have been unframed for about 25 years now! I got the frames for various op shops a couple of years ago, and never actually got around to using them.
The orange swirly thing has no hanger on it, so I am not really sure where to put it.
Pakige arrived, and it is indeed some of my live plants. They had a bit of a rough trip, they're soaking in some water now and I'll plant them this afternoon. Hopefully not in the middle of a thunderstorm. They sent a free plant too, and I'll have to look up what it is to figure out if I can actually use it.
Edit: I think I'll have to rehome the free plant. "Scabrosa" is a type of rose, which is very thorny, tends to sucker from the roots and left unchecked can grow into an inpenetrable thicket. Sounds perfect if I want to role play Sleeping Beauty, but probably not something I can fit into my garden. Maybe I can sneak into next door's back yard and secretly plant it there. Then I could see who wins an unchecked battle for dominance: blackberry or scabrosa.
The cat has finally dropped a bomb! (Yes she'll be getting some cooked pumpkin.) There doesn't seem to have been any immediate signs of food allergy from the cheap canned food 😲 (You have no idea what a big deal this is.)
I still won't use it exclusively. It is a generic brand and I haven't found the full deal on it so there could be serious health issues down the line if it's not good and feeding too much of it. (The dry version is absolute garbage, would cause health issues and will not be touched with a ten foot pole.)
It may be so cheap due to the edible but unappetising dark meat of the tuna, and it does meet AAFCO standards which may be stricter than the lax Australian pet food standards? There has to be some catch and it may be phosphorus, freshness, ash, salt... surely Woolies brand can't be very good.
But. If there's no glaring flags I'm going to get a few more as backup tins to keep in the cupboard.
Edit: She does have hot little ears though and was sick yesterday (not unusual for her with pancreatis) so will be watching. I keep worrying about something being wrong with her food, her teeth, or her thyroid.
I really need to get that lift to the vet.
Meals For Mutts dry food just had a recall and the dry food she began refusing was Meals For Meows so maybe there was something wrong with that too (will check the date on the remaining bag). But she's only been picking at Wellness Core dry.
I saw I had left some coffee undrunk at about 2pm and since I'd painstakingly hand ground the expensive beans and used expensive soy milk, I drank the rest.
Reader, this was a terrible idea.
9:37 pm and I feel like I could go on til midnight at least. Melatonin for the third night in a row even if it means feeling shitty tomorrow morning...
Oddly specific question, but has anyone used both prismacolour pencils and Faber Castell polychromos pencils, and are you able to compare them....? Got some money to spend. I've always gone with prismacolours, but maybe I should change....
I finally have some rain! With some bonus distant sky rumbles. I've just planted all the new plants that arrived today (and got a touch damp with the start of the rain) so they will be enjoying this welcome. They may have to wait until the weekend before they get their mulch though, unless I get enthusiastic after work tomorrow.
Been both fighting and supporting my partner. She is stubbornly independent but also somewhat insecure so I'm trying to figure it all out. Reached out to a counsellor today so fingers crossed
Upside is I've started DJing again. It's been... about 15 years since I did it (at bars etc) and it's vert cathartic. I'm enjoying it although now being in apartment my timing is limited. My brother sent me some mixes I did in early-/mid -2000s which has been inspiring
if you worked for an organisation of ~10k employees, who deals with a lot of sensitive data, how would you convince IT that they really want to install that niche bit of software that you personally use, because it suits your personal workflow, on your work computer?