Daily Discussion Thread: 🐚🪸🐡🪼🌊 Thursday, August 29, 2024

I messaged my manager this morning about something, and she wrote back:

"OK Simon, thanks for letting me know, but please rest up and stop working".

I haven't heard that in my entire life from an employer

One can dream of working for such a place, good work man, you've earned an easy ride 💜
- That's very kind of you 😊 Who knows what's around the corner. For now, it's OK.

Here's an interesting one. Found my grandfathers old pipe.

Tanganyika went from 1961 to 1964 and is now modern day Tanzania. Don't see that everyday.

Wow a micro slice of history. Totally a keep it!
Very cool!
what a weird pipe
- it's not a pipe, it's a picture of a pipe

looks at weather forecast

smells oodie

I guess it's a trip to the laundromat this weekend then

Eep. Tuesday had a forecasted low of 3 degrees :(
I’ve got a knockoff oodie and have to wash it frequently. I think it gets a bit smelly fast due to being a warm and synthetic garment. And the delicate fleece lining gets matted easily with washing.
I’m thinking to just buy a an oversized mens hoodie in some warm fabric for something a bit sturdier and roll up the sleeves.

NDIS application is starting. My doc says it’s really difficult to get approved but we will try anyway. I’m still working full time so dsp isn’t a thing and I want to keep working and feel like a normal person. Just need some help and ideally work to stop forcing mandatory office days and actually be inclusive instead of just pretending to. Sucks being bedridden so much.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time with this. Hopefully everything goes OK with the NDIS 🤞🏾

today feels like a bunch of spiders trapped in a jar

The thought of that terrifies me for some reason.
- It’s worse when your sinuses are the jar
I... I... don't know how that feels, but I suspect it's chaotic and awful and oh my god that mental image 😱
- With a bit of luck they'll eat each other.

I’ve decided to take the day off tomorrow.

My long weekend starts!

I went to a job interview yesterday. It finished at 4 and I didn't get home until 6. In that time my girlfriend and mother in law picked up the kids from childcare.

They let the kids be unrestrained in the car park, so one of my boys decides to run off. The MIL is chasing him, hysterical. She has a bad knee so she can't run. My girlfriend was putting the other boy in the car so she couldn't respond straight away. God, what if something happened.

I usually handle pickup because I work from home, and this had never happened to me. I know we'd make things work if I need to fund another job but I still just don't know what we'll do if things don't work out today.

Yikes. Simple mistake to make I guess. Time we all learn about traffic safety.
- The boys know to stop at a road when crossing. I think we'll need to teach them carparks count as the road
- I remember running across the road (a quiet street) of my kindergarten as a four or five year old. I got scolded quite harshly and felt incredibly guilty.
Car parks are scary places with kids. Having my own changed the way I traverse carparks forever. Thankfully everything was okay, lessons were hopefully learned and systems put into place for next time.
Sending you good vibes for today ✨️
- Thank you. I just want to get this meeting out of the way so I know what my next move will be

To the bucket I lost, if you're reading this, you're always welcome back home if it's a gale force sth. easterly I have kept your bedroom just as it was.

Ah so that's what I heard smashing down the road

Geography quiz this week....

Love this.
I'm sure an italian would have a go at the pasta though.

My new workplace might actually be really awesome. We randomly had wine tasting at 4pm so we finished early, and we sat around talking shit til 6. Everyone seems really friendly and chill

Sounds great! You deserve it!

Shout out to SES, tree crews, powerline workers and everyone else who was hammered by the storms yesterday and are continuing the cleanup today. With special thanks to the cop directing traffic on Burwood Hwy/Springvale Rd in peak hour yesterday. Trying to control that many cars must be a nightmare!

Yes! Huge mental maths problem, but I am oddly fond of the giant white gloves.
I could never be a powerline worker. Electricity is scary :(

I just had the Performance Agreement meeting and I still have my job. The review period is being extended and I'm being given a written warning. I have another month to just try do what they want from me. I can do the actual work required of me, it's all the following up with people and adding comments here and there about what's being done that's the issue. It's the most frustrating and boring part of the job for me, but this is a more corporate setting and that's what's important to them.

soo, just do the work
and maybe look at other jobs just in case
- Yeah, I'm going to have to set aside more time to do all the followup and make sure things are marked complete or move things around. I can get a bit sloppy with that because I always want to move onto the next thing. I might need to use more reminders and put more things in my calendar for myself
At least you've got something to work with. And some more time to job hunt, if you end going that way.
It sounds like pretty shit management if this is the approach they're taking rather than just coaching you on what they need.
- I'm figuring out the balance of what I need to do vs what's expected of me and how to best deliver that.
  On thing I picked up on today is a task in our project management software has a bunch of subtasks inside it, but in the description instead of as subtasks. This would be easy to miss as is. I've gone ahead and created ask those tasks as subtasks so I can see them easier and track them.
  So for my own sake I need to break tasks down more because what I'm provided isn't fully comprehensive and not specific to the project.
From what you have described there might be a bit of a harsh truth that no one has said to you in a straight up way. Reading between the lines, they are saying you are poor at communicating task progress, which means probably stuffing other people around causing workplace inefficiencies and pissed off coworkers, because they don’t know the status of things. All jobs have boring components. Doing just the fun bits of your job and leaving the boring bits for others will lead to resentment from coworkers in every single workplace. Changing jobs won’t help this. I think you have to look at it from a team perspective. So I reckon use the grace period they are giving you to turn things around, it will be an asset for the rest of your career if you can overcome this. If I have misread the situation very sorry! Am just trying to help with another perspective.
- It is an issue that's come up in roles before and I don't know the best way to manage it. I've had jobs where I've been really good at getting things done and following up with people, and some where it just hasn't worked out.
  I've had jobs where I get the service request, do it, let the stakeholder know, and things are all good. Maybe it's because I need to work on multiple steps within a project that's throwing me off.
  I'm trying to be better at things today but I just feel like I'm jumping around between things and not getting anything done and I'm not sure how to structure my workload better to at least feel like I'm managing it better

I have a friend who lives in Sydney. She's not really someone I talk about feelings to, but rather hobbies, and I would consider her to be one of my best friends.

A couple of months ago, I asked her how she found a particular artist we were talking about. She has a very diverse music taste and is constantly playing music. Ever since then, she sends me a song everyday, ranging from musicals, live performances and random stuff she's picked up. I've never been exposed to such a variety of music. It's a really special thing.

I wish there was some way I could repay her for thinking of me. I am so grateful to have a friend like her. I'm in awe.

Romantic love is cool and all, but platonic love is the shit. If I never experience romantic love again, I think I'll be fine. Apparently single, unmarried women are happier anyway 🥹🤪

Single women live longer, are healthier and a lot wealthier than most married women. Married blokes live longer, are healthier and a lot wealthier than single blokes. As a species, we are doomed.
- we compromise by men dying younger
  iow, the women are widows 😔
- not really we just gotta stop isolating and infantilising our men
- That's so fucked 😍😍😍

Hope nobody’s house is made of straw, or sticks.

Used my mouth guard last night, and chewed the ever loving shit out of it. So I have a headache still, taken some ibuprofen.

Also seem to have caught a cold? So avoiding class today. Annoying, but I should be able to catch up on my prac next week.

What a load of poop

Do you typically suffer from hayfever?
I've had the runny nose over the last few days due to the winds and weather.
Could be just that?

my mouth was open for almost an hour to get an old big filling fixed

i am beginning to get my feelings back and my muscles are sooooooore

i have pre-bought beef stew and mash for this

💊🍖🍲
- thank you, yes i should take a pill, the tooth is quite sensitive after all that bothering

Have you tried goblet squats?
- I read this as "goblin squats" and thought it describes the way I squat to pet the cat quite aptly haha
Are glute bridges any better?
I am not a physio

I've decided tomorrow's music theme is Party so if you have any recommendations I'd love to hear them so I can add them on my playlist.

S Club 7 - S Club Party. Of course.
Beasties boys - fight for your right to party
Prince - 1999.
Pharell Williams - Happy.
You asked for it
Friday on my mind - easybeats
Oh also how could we not have this one.
Celebration
Who likes to Rock the Party - Flight of the Conchords
Moves Like Jagger
nother kind of party still a bangin tune.
assuming you already have LMFAO and beastie boys...
severed heads - heart of the party
Pulp - Party Hard
Shinohara Tomoe - party join us
B52's - Keep this party going

Kilt ironing lesson in progress. 🤯

Dress kilt? Um, I wouldn't have thought that this task needed lessons but what do I know?
- No an everyday Utility (not that brand) sort. Pleats are apparently scary

F me this Brisbane hot liquid on a baby story is really making the argument to bring back capital punishment.

That's disturbing. I hope they catch the bastard.

I want what ever is in the coffee at the metro control center. The “goooodmorning everyone!” Was exceptionally singsong and chipper this morning. Gale, it’s not even 7am. Love the enthusiasm but gonna need you to dial it back from a 12 to a 6 or a 7 max.

Is there still that excessively cheerful guy on the Cragieburn line who gives weather reports & recipes?
- Nah this is an announcer or Pakey/Cranbourne. She’s our usual one, usually a bit curt if anything. Dunno if someone complained but it’s just odd now.

I was not expecting clear skies, no wind and sun today. Especially after yesterday.

excuse me sir but we dont take kindly to bragging over here.
- Well it was short lived.
No sun over my side 😟 only clouds
Sorry, where are these clear skies you speak of?!

The bathroom has now been sorted (it is nice having everything off the bench top so I can clean easily), I have put the bins out and I even cleaned the rangehood today. Now I just have to find the energy from somewhere to cook my burger for dinner.

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

Biscuit train now arriving
- 👏 you 👏 don't 👏 need 👏 them 👏
- 🍪🍪🥠🍪🍪🥠🍪🍪🍪
Same as Duenan but also sardines
- 🍝⚪️⚪️🐟
A late night coffee, bitte 🙌💜☕💜🙌
- ☕️
Pasta with carbonara sauce please!
- 🍝⚪️⚪️
A kid size pineapple and watermelon callipo please and thank you 😌
- ^🍍🍉🧊
Goat bindaloo please
- 🐐🌶️🍅
A hot dog with lots of things on it please.
- 🥌🏹🔑🧽🪒🎈📦🗞️🧷📝🔒
  🌭
Hot chips! With lots n lots of gravy and mayo and things on them. And a glass of champagne cos champagne goes with everything. Though I do draw the line at breakfast cereal.
- 🍯🥚🍯🥚🍯🥚🔑🏹📦🗞️📝🎈
  🍟
  🍾

I declare this vacuum cleaner deceased. There goes the rest of my tax return 🪦

Grab a Miele. You'll hand it down to your grandchildren. I retired a 20 year old one only cause my idiot brother abused it and it was cheaper to replace than service.
- Have ordered a Henry. Reviews are decent and himself demands googly eyes
That sucks.
- That's a good clean pun.
- au contraire
It's always sad when an appliance stops working. Is it me? Did I plug it in right? panic Nah it's deaded. Naw we've had some good times. RIP 😔

Seems we have lift off. There's a bunch of dudes here for the cameras and a bunch of other dudes here for the door frames. Because of that, I've been ejected from my spare room which I use as a kinda office. Today's also the only weekday I don't have anything happening (besides 1 phone call "anytime between 9am and 2pm"), so I was hoping to get some study done. A bit hard to concentrate when they're going wild with the power saws.

The "case management practitioner supervisor" (I don't know what it is, but I absolutely hate that title) is here (the tradies have to be supervised when they're inside), so she ejected me from the other office to go do phone calls. So I'm just sort of floating around trying to find somewhere chill now

E: looks like I was correct about the security cameras. It's a proper corporate style system. Featuring a locked cabinet with a UPS and a plexiglass shield over the monitor. Not a huge fan of that, I most certainly would not be having anything like that in my house, once I move. Feels kind of unhomely and a bit business or corporation like, but I guess it stops inside jobs, so that's nice I suppose

Tackling jasmine today. It has moved very early this year.

To those hoping to plant jasmine, just so you know over time it's arguably worse than bamboo I don't care how good it looks or smells. It smothers everything in its path like the blob.

Pretty but an absolute PITA have to get up there to tease it off. :(

Am I the only one who sees a deer?
- Before long it'll look like a giraffe.

The wild winds tonight are stressing me out.

They're finally almost finished. We apparently have a functioning gate, BUT the dodgy gate guys they hired took the fobs with them, so yet again it's permanently stuck open...

Mr door man is almost done, but we now have 4 green doors with no door handles or locks, including my bedroom, which is fun I guess.... Even though I know I'm home alone, I can already tell the anxiety is going to stop me from sleeping. I've also slept with my door closed for the last 7 years. Without fail. So this isn't super nice...

The cameras have been installed, they've been put in a gigantic metal box. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of it, I thought at the very least they were gonna mount a visible monitor off to the side. That unfortunately doesn't do a whole lot to relieve my anxiety. Apparently this system has an app, but I'm not their customer, so the camera dudes wouldn't give me any info about it. I do control the router and the ethernet cable leading to the box, and I believe the cameras are wired with PoE, so I do wonder if there's a way to hijack the signal in the meantime. But I'm too tired and have too much of a headache to fuck around with that kind of pointless nerdy shit right now. I still have my current cameras up and running, so I still have access to a camera.

The lockisth is coming tomorrow morning to fix the lock on the shed, and they've emailed him to ask that he extracts the lock from my old door so I have some way of closing it. But if he can't, it'll be about a 1-2 week wait where my door can't close...

Photos:

E: also I did no study, and mostly just read more Reddit than I have since the API stuff happened 😔

The top of the box looks like two eyes and a mouth and now I can’t unsee it.
For study tip, if you need some focus time out of the house, local libraries often have workspace areas. Free wifi too.
- Omg why didn't I think of going to the library
  No, seriously, that would've been infinitely more productive than sitting here listening to the drilling and thumping all day :|
Sometimes you might be able to find default passwords online? Or you might be able to hard restart it with the off button, set it up again and put a new password? Idk
Edit: Pressure sensitive door wedge thing with alarm
Door jammer
- Thanks for the reccos. Unfortunately I'm not sure either will do much at the moment, as they haven't installed the door jambs, so the hinges can actually be bent backwards a little bit (ie the door has a little bit of flexibility backwards)
  Since I have access to the router, I ended up looking up the MAC octets, and it seems they went with an NVR made by everyone's favourite camera company - The Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. I also heard them discussing a password which I noted down, but it seems to add their NVRs into an app, you need either the serial number or the QR Code, which are both hidden away in the little box (which I guess is why they were so chill about loudly discussing the password)

Super annoyed. Someone took the last spoon from the coffee jars from the staff room.

There are no spoons whatsoever here.

Lucky I keep my own teaspoon for personal use though it took up extra time from my break to make a coffee thanks to that.

Why do people keep stealing and eating spoons here?!

It’s always the tea spoons. When I used to have a desk, I’d leave a cup and bowl and tea spoon from home in the drawers. Now it’s hot desking …
- I’ve got my own tea spoon inside a coffee jar in my personal locker space.
  But it’s only tea spoons missing. It’s all spoons of all sizes!
Spoons have been an endangered species in every workplace I've worked at. Correlated with the size of workforce
- Well I can rest ok knowing that I saved at least one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXtO5dMqEI

I do not like this snot present from Boyo.

Like it I do not.
- Snot nice

Good night every one. Sweet dreams. Love you all. 😘

Sweet dreams!

Trying to prod the instances along… posted a ‘what’s free this month in Melbourne’ but deleted it for obvious reasons. I’ll wait a day for it to update for September and post again.

My love is free this month 🥰
But really... next month I'm charging
- Damn, inflation is really affecting everything
- Post your rates on the fridge door. tyvmia

And now the gardeners are here too...

This is kinda funny, ngl, there's 4 blokes from the camera company, they're in and on the roof, stomping around up there sounding like bart in his terrible twos, shaking the windows and lights.

Then there's the door frame bloke. He's ripping off the door frames with a crowbar, then hammering and drilling on new ones

Then there's the gate blokes, they're not doing much, but they are blocking up the driveway

Then the gardeners are whipper snipping the ladders the camera guys chucked up in the backyard to get onto the roof

Then the "case management practitioner supervisor" had to go to the office, so she brought in some oddball dude who's mostly just chilling on the couch making loud phone calls

At least all the grief is over in one day - not hanging around for a week or more.
- Yeah, although the door bloke said he'll finish them tomorrow, and they have to come back later on to paint
Glad to hear things are being done. I'm impressed by you referencing Bart in his terrible twos, it goes to show the Simpsons truly are timeless

the best thing about the new Rings of Power is it doesn't have lenny henry

even with this improvement so much of the story/characterisation makes me either angry or exasperated

and they have persisted with keeping the audience guessing a bit regarding Sauron's identity

and orcs have Cockney accents

but the show is so beautiful to look at

spose i better get this furniture redo finished

Ooh. Apparently the dodgy blokes for the gates are here too! At the end of the day, I may have a non cracked door frame, proper surveillance, and a closable gate

The bathroom cupboard sort out has been complicated by discovering a slight leak in the bathroom drain pipe has been slowly soaking the chipboard in the base of the cupboard, which has become saturated and is starting to fall apart. As best I can tell it's a long-term dodgy plumbing issue, so not repairable without re-doing the pipes . The good news is that the flooring underneath looks fine, the chipboard has been soaking it up like a sponge! I don't think it's worth fixing at this point, so I've just pulled out the soggiest chipboard around the pipe to allow a bit of airflow and make sure there is nothing touching the pipe to absorb more water. I've got some vinyl shelf liner to put down to cover up the worst visible problems (once I've let it dry off a bit) and the new storage units keep things off the base of the cupboard.

Other than that things are going well, the storage units fit in the cupboard and let me access things a bit easier. It's a corner cabinet which means that it's hard to actually see or reach the things in there.

I’ve had that in a long ago rental. WTF do you think happens to unsealed chipboard in a bathroom?
- I think this one was the result of a quick renovation to sell, there are lots of dodgy things like that in the house.

Kick her in the guts Barry.

That's a bit harsh.

Thought I'd have a win today but it's been slow going, plus I wasted 30 minutes and a whole heap of energy driving around and fossicking after I realised I dropped one of my phones on one of my sites. Ugh. Wonder if it's a sign from the universe to upgrade my phone since the battery's been getting less reliable these days too, and I've yet to tackle the issue with flashing the firmware so I can enable 4G calls (which I really need to do by the end of tomorrow... haha.)

At least I have plenty of food in the fridge. Gonna just heat up some good stuff and maybe watch OMITB s4 for some chuckles, early night and do it all again tomorrow!

My door...

Did they even attempt to vac?
- Not yet. He's still going, but I don't believe he's installing the locks. They want their preferred locky to come do that

Pakige!

Lots of good stuff, a couple of returns. Now I am ready for stage 2: organising the bathroom cupboard.

OMG me pakige too!
Nothing exciting though, just a water bottle from Kmart cause my last one broke
- They don't make things like they used to. My current water bottle is older than you are!
- me three
  i got bottles and a coffee maker from ikea

First coat of varnish is on the cupboard. While it's drying I'll clean and polish the rest of it .

A little sad to see the Lemmy winding down a bit.

Small victories, but learned to fry an egg, and get it cooked the whole way through without flipping it.

Still yet to figure out how to have it be slightly runny without being raw up top though.

Also kind of wish that they sold thicker cuts of bacon. A half-cm thick slice sounds heavenly on toast.