Daily Discussion Thread: 🎼 Thursday, June 27, 2024

Good on the nurses for negotiating a decent pay rise so that they're less horrifically underpaid. It's such a dangerous and important line of work.

Thankyou for your support!

So things have quietened down a bit since Mr P's Hulk smash of the bed. He is now using some salvaged wood bits of the bed and other wood bits to build himself a new base. He's done this before (built himself a day bed for the man cave) so he'll probably end up with something ok-ish. Good; he needs a project, and he hasn't been coping well with becoming a house husband.

The Minipeelers were surprisingly unphased by the whole incident. Sadly, I think they're used to their dad's spontaneously nutty outbursts.

Elder Minipeeler is doing fantastically with his treatment for anxiety. He's spending slightly longer at school each time and he's really starting to noticeably change. He wants to get fit so he's roped in Miniest as a fitness buddy, doing things like dancing with those kids dancercise apps for exercise, and mock WWE WrestleMania lol. The latter is, as a parent, both really entertaining and a little alarming at times ("No you can not German suplex your brother!")

Good; he needs a project, and he hasn’t been coping well with becoming a house husband.
Is he talking to someone about it all? Cause smashing up a bedhead is a bit of a red flag that the mental health is maybe not too good.
Maybe worth setting up some more projects for him after the bed assuming this project goes ok.
- Yeah the mental health is not great. I think he talks to his mates a bit but it's an echo chamber where most of them are drinkers/chronic long term weed users and are all enabling each other, so it's not all that healthy. He's having mental health assessments at the moment as part of his medication review so hopefully that leads to something positive for him. In the meantime I have lots of things for him to do lol.
Is there a Men's Shed near you? This sort of thing is what that organisation is so damn good for. Bunch of blokes getting together to make shit and talk without getting stressed about it or dealing with money shit. Usually charitable projects like toy making and stuff for the disadvantaged.
- There is a men's shed near us, and it's a great idea, but he went along once with a mate of his and didn't like it. It was a few years ago so I can't exactly remember the reason, maybe he should give it another go. Sounded cool to me; women's social groups near me seem to be either sewing or craft related, full of seniors, or rich women networking while doing yoga or pilates lol.

Gratitude thread :)

Mine:

psych appt, she gave me an extra 10 minutes because I was crying
going to guitar trial lesson soon

Getting more interviews for next week My cat Clean sheets on my bed My studio space
Roast vegetables with spicy peanut sauce. I had it for lunch and dinner yesterday and lunch today. Details : https://aussie.zone/post/10396108/9885531
Finally getting a surgery date.
My dog.
finding a powershell script that did not everything I needed, but close enough that I didnt have to do 100% of the work myself.
- Success!
My amazing GP who was super thorough, as always, and then bulk-billed me after hearing my sob stories.
The cake shop next to the doctor. Mmm, pecan tart.
so many hugs
it's ok to cry
Helpful staff at Specsavers. My glasses frame just randomly snapped(!) he couldn't fix it but found a similar pair of frames in his box of spare parts and popped my lenses in there. I am grateful for helpful customer service people and the ability to see again
Didn't have to wait in the cold long for my tram today! Grateful also for the impossibly cheap yet delicious bahn mi at Hung's Bakery on Vic St.
Sounds corny but I'm really grateful for the love of my children right now. They're grouse little people and the strong bond we share makes me feel like I am a good person, despite my various failings.

Heading to interview now. Still haven't heard back from the other place. I find it easier emotionally to assume the worst instead of living in a state of nervous anxiety.

Did get another 2 calls this morning for other places so that's cool!

Enjoy your day guys ❤️

That's the way to do it. I just apply and move on, it probably looks bad when I do get a call because I can't remember the place or the position because it was all so long ago in jobseeker time
- Exactly. Sometimes I find myself getting a bit carried away thinking about a particular role, or beating myself up over something I may have messed up in the interview.
  Pessimism works well for job hunting
I'm just imagining you closing you eyes and whispering his name 3 times to summon Simon.
- Simon says hire me lol

I need coffee. As much as possible. Directly into my face.

My cat is on my lap so instead I suffer

The local lolly shop is closing down so I bought up big. Pineapples, strawberries & cream, sherbert bombs, raspberry drops and an assortment of rock.

The kid bought stuff too. Gobstoppers and assortment of chews.

Oh so what will you eat tomorrow?
- Beer

Hahhahhaha my cat stepped in her own puke when whoring at me for 4am food. the look on her face!

K A R M A

This feline needs a nap.

I decline to comment about there being crayons and Tomsauce before noon.

I got this in my letterbox

Apparently if you give catnip to dogs it may work as a mild sedative. I wonder if it works on very active Jack Russells? Experiment time!

Update: Wasn't sure how much to give him. Gave him the whole lot. He scoffed them down. Now I just wait.

when I first got Bill Cat all he would eat was temptations. I slowly got him onto a better diet.
- Are they bad in moderation?
My Jacky is as addicted as the cats to Temptations. But none of them like the catnip ones!
- My dog eats everything except vegetables.

Gotta be up at 4.45am, to catch the tram at 6am, to be at my volunteer shift at 8am. Hoping I can get arvo shifts from now on.

I wish I could teleport there - one of the very few times I wish I could drive lol

That's an insane commitment for a volunteer role. Any chance you could carpool with someone who lives close by??

I had a decent night's sleep last night, but my body decided 5:30 was wakeup time for no reason at all. Managed to get back to sleep at 6:40, and then woken up again at 7:02 because there's tradies next door and they did not miss a beat. They started clanging stuff around and sawing the moment they got here. Maybe that's why the Airbnb people were desperate to get away

My sympathies. Did they blast MMM as well?
- Surprisingly I can't actually hear any music. Just whistling and yelling
- Update: I suspect they may be fake, because they still haven't put on MMM. They're just listening to the foxy

A walk in the sun is nice if ya'll get a chance to go out and grab some air. Not too cool, not too warm with a soft breeze.

instructions unclear, 8k stomp about the neighbourhood

I'm set up with my laptop in the customer lounge of the Subaru service centre while my car gets its first service. They're using the "Public Transport" heater setting so it's a billion degrees in here. Otherwise it's actually not too bad.. there are free drinks, snacks and WiFi!

I used to love the Subaru service experience. But I HATED paying for the Subaru service experience. Pretty freaking telling that servicing a Korean turbo diesel AWD is gonna be cheaper than a Japanese 4 cylinder. Imagine when I finally get a WRX its just gonna be me pulling up, handing over the key then pulling my pants down and bending over for them.
- That's the boxer motor with two head gaskets for ya. But it'll be a good car, not point getting something so nice and not looking after it

i have a sudden urge to watch the octonauts

My little coin purse.
- omg
It’s such a good show. I recommend ‘in the night garden’, too
- You can't tell me that psychedelic drugs were not part of the design process for the Ninky Nonk.
Is that show good? I'm on the lookout for bearable kids shows
- Fraggle Rock. Press Gang. Round the Twist. Thomas the Tank Engine and friends. Gumby. Adventure Time. Aaahh! Real Monsters. Babar the Elephant. Phineas and Ferb. Rugrats. Tintin.
- Have you considered going old school? The Ferals, Trapdoor, Duckula, Bananaman, Superted, Dangermouse. I have vague memories of people productions of Nargun & the stars, Chocky. They may be too dated. Secret Valley would certainly be so!
- Yes
OMG I remember that! Haven't watched it since I was like 5 or 6, it was only the coin purse CEO posted that made me remember it was a thing

It's bin day today and I am going to be all adulty for a change and actually put them out this week.

Edit: Adulting was a success. Both bins are out on the naturestrip and I even emptied all the inside bins instead of half-arsing it.

Update

I took the LLN assessment because I didn't want it hanging over my head. It didn't tell me my score/how well I did, and nobody told me what I needed to get anyway.

I think I did well on the communication and written portion, but I think I sucked on the math part. I know I screwed up an answer that I know, because I misclicked and pushed the wrong button, but I couldn't go back... Thanks for being so understanding, computer system.

I guess I'm happy I've done it, because it means I can't forget about it. But now I have to have it hanging over my head until Tuesday, not knowing whether I passed or failed. My course is due to commence on the 16th, too, so I don't have much time to fix myself if I colossally fucked it up

You probably did better than what you think you did.
- Maybe

I got a phone call from the TAFE people about that course I wanted to take. They scheduled a meeting with me for Tuesday morning for a pre-training review or something. I have to complete a literacy and numeracy assesment before then. I was nervous, but they let me know that even if I don't score as highly as I need to, it won't necessarily be a disqualification. They said that the LLN assesment is just their prefered way of assessing whether I could actually understand the work, rather than being a firm requirement. Wish someone told me that before, because being worried about failing is the only reason I didn't leave school for TAFE in March.

I'm still worried they might not accept me though. They don't list eligibility criteria besides the LLN assesment which I should pass anyway, but I just feel like I must look like a terrible student. Although I guess they shouldn't care since they get paid either way

Your posting habits show a level of literacy well beyond many of your age peers. And apparently more than a quarter of Americans. You got this!
- Yeah, it's not my literacy I'm concerned about, it's the math. I did a mock LLN assessment (BKSB) my school offers, and I scored a 5 in english, and a 2.9 in math. Apparently the equivalent BKSB score usually needed for cert III/IV is a 3. So I'm not too far off what's probably need. But they're different assessments

Through to stage two of one (of three total) application which is some kind of test provided by third party. It includes the need to respond to a video in real time 🤔. If that goes fine, then interview. I also had to go through a list of emotive words/phrases/personality traits - about 100 of them, and select ones I agreed with. I guess this is now the norm for large corporations

I did one of those once, lied and then deleted the profile after I didn’t hear back
We once had the low level managers all sent to this bogus psych testing thing , the results of which was then shared with everybody in all the teams around them. It was horrific. I walked out.
- 🤣

I forgot to have lunch. I am now very hungry so I think I'll go straight to early dinner.

Test 1: Can the man open the gates without the dog going off his head around 2:45 pm?

Test 2: Can the neighbourhood kids walk past bouncing basketballs without the dog going off his head around 3:30 pm?

Test 3: Can the kid open the gate without the dog going off his head around 3:35 ish?

Test subject is currently napping inside.

Update: Test 1 - pass. Test 2 - fail. Test 3 - fail. Between Test 1 & 2 the experiment was compromised with light and tangy chips. Definitely think there's something there. Will purchase Temptations.

This is the kind of science im into

Tmi and kind of icky

you'll live, the mozzies here are clean biters
- Well, I don't have any open cuts in any case so it's not like there's much transmission pathway for anything anyway. Just gross having someone's blood on my wall and hand, especially when I don't know who's blood it is

Started to recognize when I feel "exhausted" there's a not 0 chance that its really a sign my brains blocking shit out super hard and I don't really recognize it. OR I'm really tired. So today its time to play "Am I really tired or just a bit depressed?". Cause the treatment is very different: emotional shit gets met with kindness, going easy and breathing exercises. Exhaustion is met with coffee and trying to fire up a bit. But the wrong treatment for the wrong cause can be pretty detrimental.

a bit of both perhaps

Sitting down to try and write a full track from that small piece from yesterday. Exciting!

Aw yeeeee 🙌

And tonight's chocolate flavour is the Cadbury Vanilla Key Lime Pie that's being sold everywhere at half price. It's horrible. After 2 pieces, it tastes so so plasticky it's not funny. Don't waste your money peeps, even at half price.

Bad chocolate is worse than no chocolate!
- Fully agree! Will be binning the remainder. Will fall back on Choceur dark.
Honestly who is coming up with these awful flavours? Same thing on the crunchy side of the snack aisle (looking at you, cinnamon donut twisties).
The description alone sounds vomit-inducing. Key lime pie and cheap chocolate? No thanks. I appreciate you taking one for the team though.

I've been waiting to see what the Victorian Remuneration Tribunal comes up with for the politician's salary increase this year and it is still not released. Cutting it a bit fine as it is supposed to be implimented on 1/7.

I would support it if they decided to just put off deciding until next year and make them lose out on a pay rise altogether this year, and maybe next year too, so they can experience the situation most of the govt. employees are put in every 3-4 years when their EBA is up for review and the employer just refuses to negotiate. I really think the politician's wages should also be capped at whatever their policy for maximum pay rises in the public sector is.

Someone from work messaged me asking how to do something, and I don't recognise the name? She told me I showed her the process and I don't recall it at all?

I went to the hipster cafe this morning around 11. It was pretty good! The coffee was alright, but the milk tasted a little funky. I think their only cows milk option was reduced fat or something. Definitely wasn't off though. Cost me $6.50 though :(

I also went to a smoke shop because I saw they had some American chip thing called a taco or something. Kind of like a rolled up Dorito that's spicy. I don't care for them, but I have a friend who loves them so I got her a bag. I noticed that the smoke shop and coffee shop both had super good customer service though, like really good. The smoke shop lady wasn't in one of those prison cage looking things the rest seem to have. She wasn't behind anything really, it kind of looked like an apple shop that sold smokes and yankee lollies. And the bloke at the coffee shop was so upbeat and super nice.

I'm one of those people that's not really affected very much by caffeine, I drink it mostly for the social aspect, or because I feel like a warm drink. And I'm definitely not a buy (or even drink) a coffee every day type, not that I have the money to at 7 bucks a cup anyways.... But I think I will try and go again before I leave, honestly just because it's kind of like a chance to have a little wander and talk to some people.

My area has a nice cafe, too, but people in my area aren't very talkative, so despite my best efforts, the cafe people never do any sort of small talk, and my "hey, how's it going"s are always returned with a "what can I get for you". So it's nicer than one would imagine for people to match my energy

Edit: and the cafe man instantly pegged that I wasn't from here, despite my fake denim and longish hair, so I don't think I quite blend in

Well it looks like I won't be taking that half day off this week. Two regular staff out of five being on leave near EOFY is a bit much... luckily one gets back next week. Annoyingly, I have some stupid site visits scheduled for Monday that I can't get out of. I really wanted to take that day off. I'll see if I can put off the reports for them for later in the week and leave early Monday otherwise I'll never get onto the shit I need to do asap. And try and get some extensions on stuff that the returning colleague can pick up on so I can clear all that this week.

I am Tired. Glad that past me bought some frozen veg for a quick cheap healthy dinner on days like today.

Do dogs eat grass to puke or do they puke because they ate the grass? Anyway, thank goodness for the wet & dry vac.

Mostly eating grass and puking are independent. Mr Woof wants to stop and graze every time we go past an overgrown naturestrip, if it was something that caused him to vomit I'd be constantly surrounded by dog puke. I suspect the link between grass and puking is more that grass is not something that is very digestible to dogs so tends to show up whole and identifiable. It might also be something that occasionally they eat to try to settle their stomach, much like we might have a dry cracker. But just like you can't assume everyone who sits down to cheese and biscuits is feeling nauseous most dogs are not feeling sick when they eat grass.
I agree on the benefits of a wet & dry vac. I have a little dustbuster style spot cleaner carpet shampoo thing which has been used to clean up many an accidental pet mess.
- I think he's on the munchies because he's not usually a grass eater. I have a spot cleaner too that I'm about to get out. The vac I'm gonna have to clean tomorrow because I heard chunks.
I believe my dog used to do it when he felt sick. I am deducing this because I spent a lot of time outdoors with him, and he never ate grass as a regular thing. Didn’t interest him. But on the rare occasion he did, he would soon puke and wouldn’t be very active. I can’t really know for sure what he was feeling but I am assuming he felt sick in his stomach and some deep dog instinct told him to eat grass to help him spew up?
- That's what I reckon too. Those catnip treats may not have agreed with him after all. Oops.

well that was fun. knocked off work, I made muffins while His Lordship finished up a call, put them to cool while we wandered up to big pig for brisket, wander home, His Lordship cleans the litter boxes as it's bin night and somehow manages to rip the hot water tap entirely out of the fucking wall.

Good thing I was planning on putting quarter turns in this weekend already.

Sweet dreams everyone 😘

10am service.. finished by 11:15am. Noice. Wasn't anything wrong (as you'd hope with a brand new car) so easy peasy. My first 2 services are free too and that's my favourite price! I had my day almost completely booked out for this but it was super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Listening to the Inception soundtrack while I do stuff , love the movie and love the ost

i've never met anyone irl other than mr seagoon who understands it or even likes it. They are confused or just don't even try.

Is it really that hard to see it's a love story ?

imagining you doing the dishes and muttering to yourself "it's not possible! No it's necessary."
- exactly ...lol

Just finished refurbishing a wool hand knitted cable cardi. Replaced all buttons, fixed all loose threads and reset the sleeves. Looks great now. 🌞

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

Hawaiian Parma please
- Good choice
- Oooh yum that sounds nice. One for me as well plz chef.
- 🍍🍗
Spam and egg roll please
- 📧📧📧📧📧📧📧📧📧🥚🌯
- SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM

I spilt coffee on the kids laptop a while ago and is started having issues, mainly it will disconnect from the wifi and you have to restart to connect again. I spent ages trying to fix drivers and reinstalled Mint but it still happens, so it might be a hardware issue.

Should I go to some computer guy to get it cleaned out or is it not worth it for a 10 year old laptop intended for a pair of toddlers?

10 year old laptop? Nah just replace it. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/laptop Ozbargain often have second hand business machines for 200-300.
Edit: like this one $219 for an 8th gen i5 with 16gb of ram and a 12 month warranty is a hell of a deal!
- That is a good deal and I have considered it. This laptop has a bit of sentimental value because it looks really nice and I used it through uni and my first jobs. I'll go down this path if the need to update is more urgent
You could give it a go yourself with some contact cleaner, otherwise you could probably grab a lappie for maybe 100 bucks off marketplace that would suit the purpose.
- I think I'll give this a proper go. This laptop is from the age where you could actually pull them apart and upgrade the RAM so it's possible to get into the internals a bit.
  I'll get some good PC cleaner because the spacebar and left SHIFT also stick when you press them, giving no feedback if the computer has registered the input
I had this issue for ages with Linux. Something about power saving kills the wifi connection. Fedora finally fixed whatever it is. Try booting off a fedora USB and seeing if it goes away.
- It does tend to lose connection after it goes to sleep so that could be part of it. I'll try Fedora if I'm still having problems as well because I'm running it on my laptop and really like it.
  This laptop is so old windows stopped supporting the wifi drivers years ago. I'm lucky it can connect to the internet at all
Wifi usb dongle for under $10 at MSY?
God old ethernet to the router?
- God old ethernet to the router?
  Man its 2024, pretty sure that shits against the geneva convention these days. No joke when I suggested it at work as a troubleshooting step I was told off because it was an "OH and S risk". I rolled my eyes so hard I'm pretty sure it was audible 4 floors above and below.
- Dongle could be an option as long as it's one of those small flat ones like a logitech receiver.
  The laptop is on the other side of the room to the server cabinet and the fewer cables plugged into this laptop the better. I do bring it over to the dining table and plug it into the ethernet for a stable connection when I'm doing troubleshooting.
  No internet at times could be a good thing. It has enough access for updates and downloading new software, then it cuts out so no chance of rogue browsing

runs around slapping moisture meter on walls. NOW I GOT THE PARANOIIIIDS

Get dat 33% beep.
- Oh this house is old enough that some of the copper piping will set it off. Nothing like an OL in an area of a suspected leak....

Well that's totally not dodgy

Not suss at all.

nice sunny day again 🌞 nice day to finish working on the terrace garden , also have loads of other jobs to do so I better make a list 🌞

[ignore fixed] I have somehow b0rked my phone. Sound works for alarms etc but all of my games have become silent. Any clues? i8

reboot it
- Duh! Ee dunnu halp.
Depends. Was the 0 and "i8" intentional?
If so, reboot. If not, hire an exorcist.
- Rude child. I have fixed it by mashing buttons wildly 😝

About to perform the phonecalls summoning ritual called a 'shower'.

If performed correctly, your phone will ring right in the middle of it when you're washing your hair

It worked! But I must have done something in the incantation differently because my phone didn't ring until AFTER the shower and I was mostly dressed