Daily Discussion Thread: Friday, 7 February 2025

My cat had her annual check up today. I've had her for just on a year now. She has taken a long time to warm up and relax. Unfortunately today I think she lost a bit of trust in me. She saw the cage and just knew what was coming. It was an experience getting her in the cage.

And the hisses she gave the vet during a clip of her nails were impressive! This was after the vaccination and general checkup of spine, joints, eyes, ears and belly so I guess she just had had enough. Totally understand.

So after some alone time she will now come to me for scritches but not close enough where I could pick her up. And her side eye game is impressive.

Ah well.. Three steps forward; 1 step back. I'll take it.

This is Mavis.

Hi Mavis, you are brave and beautiful. 😘
I have cats that were literally born into my hands do the same thing, let her be pissed. She'll get over it
You're very cute Mavis ❤️
Mavis is gorgeous ⚫️⚫️⚫️
Mavis is beautiful! Time for some Trauma Treats. Churu and temptations stat!
Good girl Mavis. You're lovely
Mavis has seen Things. Poor voidling 🖤

More alcohol than I planned, but a good night

Cheers AJ 🍺
- I am little. I should not have had this much

And that my friends is how you make conversation.

You are welcome

Greetings from the most beautiful place in Victoria: tidal river. Ignore the bins the site selection was limited.

My favourite place in the whole wide world!
I should get down there one of these days see what the fuss is about
- You won’t regret it.
Clearly you’re segued into holiday mode

Tonight's wave.

Also random doggo.

I survived the crack head party next door last night.

Wasn't keen on having weapons tucked under the bed and mattress, but it is what it is for now.

My neighbour's a hacker. As in every morning he hacks something up. Who knows where it lands.

Ginger weirdo or black psycho? And we're not able to photograph the torti as she's busy climbing walls in another room.

Zucchini is a really underrated vegetable. So fast to cook, so versatile, so flavoursome. And pretty. Just straight up sliced and sauteed in olive oil with some onions and oregano = 👌🏽

I acknowledge the reality is completely different when you're drowning in a glut of garden zucchini.

I think one of the most delicious things I've tasted was after straining a heap of them in bulk for zucchini slice. Just drank it as is.
Also tempura zuccs get a solid nod from me.
Who's underrating the zucchini? Gimme names. Best veg out there.
- Potato laughs at you
- Me. They taste of nothing and mush. Except for the yellow ones raw in salad.
Mine aren’t giving a glut :( I think the pots are too small, weather too hot and not enough fertiliser
you can also pickle it a treat. Comes out a bit sweeter than cucumber, delicious in burgers
- Now cucumber is a fake vegetable I could happily do without for the rest of my life.
I eat, on average, a zucchini a day. Love 'em.

WEEKEND FUCK YEAH!!!!!

Stuff it, going to the pub

Here for this energy!

People often ridiculed me for having so much tape.. They could well be wrong.

The boardies will live on I have high hopes for this. You can't have 4 different tapes and just give up on sunset swims.

Let's hope the tape holds up and your ball bags don't get snagged on something in the ocean. 🙏
don't you have a stapler?

Utilising the utmost of self control to not watch today's episode of Severence until after I get back from dinner out with some friends/work contacts this evening.

Because if I watched it earlier I'd just be thinking about the episode all evening.

Ok fuck it. Everyone is talking about it. Time to hit the torrents lol
Edit: got season 1
- Do tell me how it goes. I am equally as intrigued.
- Please enjoy each episode equally
- I look forward to your thoughts when you've caught up ☺️
I’ll be watching it tonight hopefully!
You made the right choice. Just watched it. It’s a ‘HOLY SHIIIIIT’ level episode. I’m gonna be hitting the online dissections for the rest of the night.
- I've just got home and I'm wondering whether to watch it now or wait to tomorrow morning...
  ... fuck it I'll watch it now and be up till 2am reading dissections. I did hear that reviewers who had advanced access to the whole season said THIS was the episode everyone will be talking about.

Client with 100+ day overdue invoice finally paid me. Chasing him to pay was a pain in the ass but we finally got there. The ugly side of my business venture - getting slimy people to pay me. Soon I'll be able to take upfront payments and this person will need to pay everything upfront for future services. Burn me once, you don't get a second chance.

Now one more person with 100 day overdue invoice to pay me, also a slimy person. I've been lucky that most people I do work for actually respect and value what I do and pay me on time. I hate being a debt collector.

many years ago when my husband was doing freelance IT consulting he'd get stiffed all the time
ended up putting in time bombs in code so that if he didn't get paid it would shut down the program until he gave them the pass word. It was illegal but so is employing consultants in bad faith.
Working as a freelancer for a while made me realise just how often people consider accumulating accounts owed as legitimate cash flow management strategy. If they want extended payment terms we can talk about it, but waiting until the owed party gets angry enough to finally cough up is a cunt move.
I sometimes resent a little the disparity between what the clients pay for my services vs. my salary. Without exaggeration, I take home a little under 50% of what the client pays.
But at least I spent 0% of my time wondering about this. Plus I get paid leave (sick/holiday etc). I know my employer is still making a hefty profit, but I'm not sure I'd want to go the pure consulting route. Stories like this put me off. I would hurt my family if I had to routinely deal with chasing up the money.
- The monthly revenue of the clients i manage is close to $400k. It stings when we don't get bonuses when my co-worker and I bring in 6 figure projects and don't get a bonus.
- In my industry the norm is a salary which is around 1/3 of the fees you've brought into the business, so near 50% is pretty good!
  I've been lucky to not encounter this issue too much yet. Some people are slower than the 14 days I ask for invoices to be paid but it's like an extra week or two, not several months.
If it makes you feel better I've been chasing a client here that owes the company $350k for 7 months.
They finally agreed to pay $65k this week lol
It’s an unpleasant aspect.
I had chase up invoices once in an industry where it’s easy to fall behind. Never forget calling someone who was visiting their wife in hospital. (I know that some people lie, but it was pretty evident in his voice.)
I don’t know how people do it for a living.

Ugh the humidity. Feels very South East Asian today

Another 2 resignations today.

And so it goes.

🍿
- Indeed lol
How many left standing?
- It doesn't matter. Everyone ive spoken to is either interviewing or about to resign lol
  I have so much work I've started triaging what work is a must.
  Fuck em.
This is just wild.
How is the company even operating?
- There's enough money coming in from other sections to keep them afloat for now.

Hullo

YOU CAN'T GO BOTH, PEOPLE. DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS WORKS. ONE OR THE OTHER. NO OTHER OPTIONS. *

*unless you post them separately

eco247 bog roll arrived.......I have vastly underestimated how much 48 rolls of toilet paper is.

Well, we're set for the rest of the year....

The boxes make great cat cubby houses. Just saying.
- Whenever I see other people’s handwriting I think about mine and realise how shot my handwriting looks :(
- We have one petcircle box upright with the bottom unfolded in another one. Cats freaking love it, it's their pirate ship

Got home in 23 mins compared to my morning drive which was almost 10.

Some really stupid drivers out there.

One was changing lanes without signalling and then there was a new one.

Someone signalling to change lanes but went in the opposite lane to what they were indicating. That one was particularly dangerous.

Anyway survived the drive home.

Time for a relaxing weekend :)
- Yup yup. Relaxing already!

Night night

Alrighty.

2 interviews next week. One in person and one virtual.

Keeping the wheels rolling along.

Pineapple pizza

Knights assemble!

Excuse me while I adjust my pants

So that I may dance the good time dance💃

You can dance
You can dance
Everybody look at your pants
- 👖👀

I require lunch

🍱🧃
- Thank you chef. A fine selection
  💰

Goodnight all

Can somebody Adult for me today? Dooonwanna!

Wake up, get out of bed, have your breakfast!
- Oh, that bit is ok. How about get documents certified and deal with utility companies?

oops! Took too much of a lunch break.

1 hour and 20 mins before I can knock off, come on!

all my chores done, tired, now some time for myself 😊

In a surprisingly good mood tonight. Work apathy makes room for personal life joy lol

Gettin there, gettin there...

....kinda
- Looking goood. Nothing like a naughty root.
- Jelly

First day at another site.

Not a bad start so far, seeing a few familiar faces and not having to leave home as early as I normally do.

With any luck I might get home really early today depending, argh, I really want to go shopping for chicken drumsticks but maybe i'll leave that for tomorrow morning instead of getting stuck in peak hour.

Cheers munchkins 🍺

This should be easy:

Numbats?!

Ghost cats, baby urine or crossroad onions?

I just finished watching Apple Cider Vinegar. The story about con artist Belle Gibson on Netflix. The storyline was so higgledy-piggledy but wow. 4/5 hobbits.

ok, thanks for review, I'll watch it 👍

Need to organise a shitload of loose printed out recipes (pretty much all mains). On the one hand could put them in a folder and order it by cuisine then alphabetically. The other.. done a fair bit of filemaker shizz over the years so could do a pretty basic relational thing but reading off paper just feels authentic.. Something about reading well used oil stained recipes makes them taste better. Matter of 'you could, but should you'.

I have manilla envelopes with recipes cut from magazines and stuff. There's mains, snacks, dessert etc. I'll pick one recipe out and stick it on the fridge. Once I try it out, I decide whether to keep it or toss it. If I keep it, it goes into my mini binder along with any notes.
- Ooh that's a good way to do it with different colours. Hrmm.

I think I need to pump this thread up a bit. Feel free to answer any or all questions.

Ham or salami?

It's such lovely cool weather the next few days I might go on a train trip to Ballarat tomorrow. 😊

Haha! My LJ just turned 18. Not logging to those evil Terms of Service you bigoted fuckers.

My first taste of performative social media. Huge "Let me tell you what I want you to think I'm thinking" vibes. And one friend doing a PhD who was actually interesting.
- I followed a guy who was working in Antarctica. It was awesome.
- I can't imagine anyone other than public figures or scientist types having one.
What's an LJ?
- Lo these many years ago, there was Livejournal
- https://tenor.com/9Lcd.gif
- If you don't know, you can't afford it
- I still don’t know what it is :/

Ok, but Severance is like the potato gratin of this year. Anyone around in the other place DTs when potato gratin was being highly raved about?

Chicken breast, thigh, wing or drumstick?

Vegemite or peanut butter?

Roses or sunflowers?

Sunflower. Fuck rose bushes.
Lavender!
- YES!
Can't choose.
Roses.
That is deep.
I go sunflower
roses
Oof. Um. Fuck. Next. Wait! Roses. So many varieties and distinct scents. But then again, once I did receive sunflowers in a bouquet and they were absolutely glorious!
- So long as it's not gerberas. They look plastic.

Unclogging a slow draining bathroom sink was fun… I have no idea how it got so clogged when I don’t even brush my hair at the sink anymore for this reason. I got most out but not all so I might send down some drain cleaner tonight. Maybe. It’s draining fast now.

Try a whole bottle of el cheapo dishwashing liquid first. If you have a plunger, that really helps dislodge clogs after dousing with dishwashing liquid. Learned this from a plumber - first choice for unclogging is dishwashing liquid. After that, you go for the commercial drain cleaner if still needed.
- Yeah, I was going to use the dish soap but the plunger and the bristly stick got a lot out.
  There was a lot of physical matter like hair and lint and cat fur which is why I thought to use something to break it down.
  Actually I still might hit it with the dishwashing liquid since there’s a bottle in there. Maybe anything further down might slide along down the pipes
- I’m always unclogging the bathroom sink and will try this next time. Usually just use the plunger and an old toothbrush.. yuck

Electric or acoustic?

Sorbent or Kleenex?

Hey you! Play this game!

Bali or Fiji?

I've been looking on etsy for a potential extra v-day gift for the girlfriend but I get the feeling so much on there now is just drop shipped stuff from aliexpress instead of actual small creators. Everything gives me a suspicious vibe

Burgers rings or cheezels?

A few posters were talking about watching Severance. I think it's eventually going to be as big as GoT.

Hard boiled or soft boiled?

Depends if we're eating them hot or cold.
- That's actually true
This question sucks. There is only one answer. Soft
Poached. Next!
Neither: scrambled
soft on toast or just eat them hot with fresh ground pepper
Medium
Soft every day of the week.

Big W or Kmart?

I got rid of a wart on my finger by rubbing milk thistle sap into it every day (had heaps in the back yard). Took time but it worked and it never came back. The milk thistle sap takes a layer off every time you apply.
- I have heard that. Also banana peel. Also duct tape.
A doctor once told me that after a treatment put a band aid on it and it will lessen the amount of treatments needed. So I did it and I swear it worked.
so getting a dead cat in a sack , going to a graveyard and then throwing the sack while saying, wart follow cat and cat follow ghost and devil take ghost, that doesn't work?
- You gotta rub the wart with the cut side of half an onion, then bury the onion at a crossroads. As the onion decays, so does the wart. The cross roads is so the wart doesn't know which way you went and can't find you again.
  Srsly, though. Warts are caused by a virus. Next time you go to your doctor discuss anti-viral drugs with them. You might be too young to be eligible for free ones, as the drugs are scarce. Still, if the warts are proliferating, that might be enough for the doc to prescribe.
  EDIT : ooops meant to respond to our StudSpud but clicked the wrong comment - apologies.
- There's also soaking wart in baby urine.
I would get some warts as a kid, I always used the things that freeze it off, worked a treat!

If taken on an empty stomach, yes. That can make me nauseous - same with other types of pills and black tea!
- Hmm… I had eaten a tiny bit but nothing substantial. Thanks, it’s a relief to know that it could just be that.
  Does it also give you a headache?
I've been taking 2 x 500mg panamax every four hours for the past week, and also ibuprofen and antibiotics. I have been experiencing some nausea which probably has been from the latter meds, but also felt it when I was only taking the panamax on an empty stomach. I hope it goes away soon.
Try to drink lots of water and have something to eat :)
- I wonder if the lack of a coating on Panamax means it releases faster and is harder on the stomach.
  Thanks, you too. I’m rehydrating and having some crackers.

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

Something noodly please
- 🍜

Got the Chanel 10 news on in the background, don’t normally watch it. Seems the newsreader is slurring her words? Does she always do this or is she having an episode? Bit jarring to listen to.

Lovely Ann Sanders (C7) sounds breathy these days. Like she's gasping for breath after every sentence.
- Asthma? Bad air-con?

LJ or ZJ?

Could have gone to see Sneaky Sound System in Frankston tonight, instead I've got a clean and moisturised face by the time they even came on stage.

Beach or bush?

Star trek or Star wars?

Desktop or laptop?

Colgate or Oral B?

Tomato sauce or BBQ sauce on a snag in bread?

Cricket or tennis?

Meat pie or sausage roll?

Cauliflower or broccoli?

Pho or laksa?

Creative store plug for somebody who is rather awesome. https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/WeirdoCollars For all your Footscrazy needs 😺

Sunrise or sunset?

VB or Carlton Draught?

Vodka or gin?

Coke or Pepsi?

Pappadums or prawn crackers?

Titan or triton?

500! Or more..