Discussion Thread 😃 Sunday 4 May 2025

Highlight of my week.

The stray kitten squeaked at me lol

Today's zoo pic

Had to see the meerkats again! Old mate chillin' in the sun 😍

So, what do the voters of Dickson want? Aquatic centre? High speed rail? Street party with bottomless bar? Give them whatever they want. They've done a service to this country.

I’m happy to go round and give them all a 5 minute back rub each. They’ve all earned it.
Surely a free bbq at the local park, jumping castle for the kids and fireworks for later on for a start.
Probably not a nuclear reactor in their backyard.

Thanks for the kindness and good ideas. I have made a list of things I can do when it gets hard. Have managed to eat. Now shower and bed. Night

Pleasant dreams ⭐

Labor won the senate 😭

this is a good dream come true

now we just need labor to have the gonads to bring in taxes for the companies that are taking our resources

They won’t. They are in the pockets of oil and gas interests as much as liberals. They’ll move the needle a bit, but not enough.
No majority though, the Greens will have a lot of power. Which is a good thing.

I am stoked to see Dutton lose his seat, but I can’t help but see this as a massive loss for australia. An effective opposition is critical for democracy. And it appears like the greens have been totally wiped out too.

Am also fairly frustrated by the analysis so far. Coulda seen this coming: bloke with the personality of a rock and policies from the mirror universe fails to win voter confidence. Who coulda seen that coming? Oh wait, anyone with half a brain!

Imo it's not a loss for Australia when the only opposition is batshit insane and dangerous. They needed a harsh slap on the face. They need to be told in no uncertain terms that this Trump-lite bullshit is NOT welcome, it is not to be entertained even in a "but muh both sides!" debate. The Libs entirely deserve this bollocking.
I do really hope they can become an effective opposition again (and the greens too). But it'll require some big changes. If the libs do another moronic pivot even further right like they did after the last election and the loss at state level in Vic, then seriously, that's not even remotely Labor or the Australian public's fault. I'd love to see the libs die and some alternative parties come up instead.
- Oh they needed to be squashed like this. But while they sort themselves out or we wait for a new party to emerge (and it's unlikely that one will that's big enough to be taken seriously), there's nobody to properly hold the government to account. That's not good for Australia.
It's a massive gain for Australia. When they lost their moderate seats to the Teals, the party room became disproportionately alt-right despite existing in a voting system that demands moderates.
The cooker influence told them that Trumpism was the way forward and to win government again, when that only worked by disenfranchising voters. When everyone votes, a political culture that thrives on the extreme works the opposite.
American politicians need to go overboard to compete for attention just to get people to turn up and vote based on anger and fear, the people in the middle of the spectrum get disenfranchised more as both two-party single vote options stretch further from them to garner good or bad attention. This results in no vote, which is nowhere near as bad as a vote transferring to the opposition.
In a mandatory/preference country, hyperbole and extremism costs you the vote and because they have to vote still, your lost vote goes to the opposition and is a net change of -2 votes. 1 less vote + 1 opposition gained vote.
Peter Dutton was the leader amongst the right wing faction of the party when they had the moderate Liberal members, when Turnbull lost the leadership it was due to an internal power struggle from the right wing of the party room. At the time Morrison won because he was perceived to be both a moderate and somewhat conservative, when the room included the former Teal seat moderates they kept the leadership from going more fringe with Dutton.
Without the moderate members that lost to the Teals, the right wing of the Liberal Party had the majority of the party room and they put their leader in charge despite what happened in American being counter and unrepeatable to our much better voting system.
Now that the Liberal party has gotten a proper swift kick up the bum for letting themselves shift too far from center, with the leader changed in the process, if they have any sense they will realise how much they got wrong or they'll never win another election.
They have no choice now but to level and rebuilt their party, or the Commonwealth will become like Victoria and WA, having no second party option while the rusted on Liberal voters cost everyone the opportunity of a new second party emerging.
- There’s a possibility that they’re going to go even more right and more Trump like in the future, that would surely spell the end of the party.
don't worry, the herald sun and sky radio/tv are still massive cunts and will tear apart and lie about everything Labor does
I agree. An effective opposition is incredibly important, lest the governing party come to believe they have carte blanche to do whatever the fuck they want, assuming the public is completely beholden to them.
The teals might be that check now

As of 2 days ago I'm now an uncle. Bro and SIL had a bubs.

Will be interesting to see how the dynamic plays out from here.

Ol' boy bankrolled and organised the whole thing (IVF + the rest) as he was in an adjacent field. Ol' boy and girl went in to see her and bubs yesterday and SIL didn't let them see it lol.

It's her bubs and she has every right to dictate what happens but having the p's mention that 5 (!) times within the space of an hour I'm finding it odd. I don't know what the etiquette is really. There are no issues b/w them and her or bro so I'm not sure what to make of it.

There's a trend atm among new mums exerting their control over things like visitors. On one hand, I sort of understand protecting your space as a new mum, been there, done that and felt all the feels that go with it. But some are taking it to the extreme and don't realise that they are alienating their support networks and then complain that nobody has supported them.
- That last bit defines this entire era.
This lady sounds like a manipulative control freak, and will use her baby as a tool to control your brother and your parents further, if not drive a bigger wedge between them.
Beware.
- I think you're absolutely right.
  Gonna keep my distance a bit heh.
This is so sad. It should be a time of bringing family closer together with love and joy and she's just handing out confusion and sadness.
With a mum like that bro and baby needs all the friends they can get. Right now be a good sib. Say nothing about what is happening but do listen.
and hugs
Were they invited? Or did they just show up? I’d have decked someone if they just showed up. It was a mega stressful time for us. Everyone got FaceTime, it’s not like they were shut out. But everyone was asked to give us time before meeting Tinyest.
- Yea they were invited but I think there was some miscommunication about timing which was unfortunate.

I haven't bought timtams in a while..

Jesus Christ what a bloody joke!

The only thing generous there is the spacing between timtams
Don’t buy it.
- Couldn't tell until I got it home. Won't be repeating my mistake that's for sure.
Still 11 in a pack?
- 8 in the pack for the caramel brownie ones. I get that they're more expensive to make, but they're more expensive to buy as well without being given a measly 8 biscuits.
- 9 for Double Coat.

Need to make a drink but I'm under a sleeping cat. Halp

☕️
- Thank you Chef, you saved my life

What are some small low energy things you do to make you feel connected to the world and a bit of joy? I need some little sparks this week to claw back from this burnout.

Box of plain shapes and a block of cheddar sliced almost transparently thin.
Look at the moon
I think different things work for different people. One of the things I do is write lists. Things I need to do that day. Mark them off. Add more. It's never ending but it stops them from going around in my head all day like a washing machine.
Sometimes I watch mindless tv.
I take one day at a time. Some days are good. Some days aren't.
Hugs 🫂
- I love getting ideas out of my head and onto lists.
Say hi to strangers
Cuddle cat if cat wishes to cuddle
Write in my journal
sing a stupid, stupid song about nonsense that I make up on the spot
Go for a long walk
But the most important thing of all, is to take some time to rest.
Try to be kind to yourself :)
Obviously YMMV on all of these:
One small change I made maybe six months ago was switching my car radio to ABC Classic FM. Every time I'm in the car I get gentle classical music. No ads, no scary news, the presenters aren't annoying. I sometimes put it on at home now too for small moments of calm.
- Nice idea.
Hammock in the back yard. A cheap one in a stand is fine.
- This
Firstly, a nice long hot shower could be what you need if you're up to it.
I think anything involving getting in touch with your senses could be good. I'm struggling with a bout of anhedonia right now. Something I've done for the past year and a half is write something good that happened each day on a sticky note.
Attempting to enjoy whatever sun there is.
Being outside and spending time in nature.
Putting on a movie / TV show, especially feel-good ones
Watching comedy on YouTube
Remind yourself that your thoughts are just thoughts.
Don't worry about the clothes :)
I hope you feel better soon
Everyone has already written some great stuff here so I've little to add other than that I try to focus on getting into some nature, enjoy some sensory stimulation like fragrances especially natural ones, try to force some fruit into myself (I'm terrible with fruit eating at certain times of the year and it affects my moods more than I'd like). I also get into tea drinking in a big way as it gives me a lot of calm, simple pleasure. We are often our own hardest taskmasters and it helps me to remember something a psych said to me years ago when I was running myself ragged trying my guts out to please everyone and do everything perfectly: "Sometimes good enough is good enough." Hugs mate.
This will sound very cliched but something I found that helped me was to go outside and lie on the grass, or just sit in nature (even if it’s only your backyard or a small patch of grass). It was suggested to me after I got some really bad news and it did seem to help, at least a little. I hope you’re feeling better and more on top of things soon, and am sending hugs.
Hugs.
Make things easy for yourself.
If you have goals you can work at them bit by bit. That is good too.
Treating myself to a pack of chips or something like that.
Recently got from crunchy frozen chips, haven’t had them in months and it was so good after cooking them, very comforting.
- Thanks Melba. They are helpful reminders. I am on meds and have a good doctor. Need to find better iron tablets because the ones I was taking were making me sick. I have written "sloth mode" in my journal as my may motto
for joy i have the cats and my fam 🐱

I'm wandering around King's Park, being gently rained on. It's good for my soul

Still a bit of a nail-biter in my electorate.

Edit: the greens candidate is only a few hundred votes ahead of the alp candidate, who has held the seat for a while now (has been a safe labour seat for decades except when Phil Cleary won it in the 90s. I wanted the green woman to win and shake it up a bit). Can't believe how many people voted for the liberal candidate when he doesn't even live anywhere near the electorate and had to pay a fine for fraud or something last year. Happy for the overall result though, and actually relieved! I was worried more people would secretly support Maga type policies and vote accordingly.

Same in Wills. Will it be good ol' Labor Peter Khalil, or the Green Samantha Ratnam? I'm curious because Peter has been in for aaages
- That's where I am 🙂 A shakeup would've been nice but I'm not complaining overall.
Keen to see how Casey and Flinders fall too. But I'm really hoping the Greens could squeeze through in Wills, not a good election for the Greens overall. Shame about Gen Z hero MCM in Brisbane but I'd have been surprised if he stayed past one term...

May the fourth be with you..

My poor credit card is completely maxed out, and once it is paid off tomorrow I have more stuff to go on it. It rarely gets to the limit, but a single month with a dental implant, bond payment and a month's rent in advance on top of the normal spending certainly adds up!

Having my van means I will be able to pick up the queen size bed frame and bedside tables I've decided on, so I'll take that and whatever other odds and ends I can fit in so I can drop off at the new place when I pick up the keys on Friday. Then I have lots of measurements to take so I can plan some furniture layouts and buy a few more things. I wasn't really planning on buying as much stuff as I am, but I've realised a lot of the stuff I have is getting pretty old, and a lot of it was also "temporary" cheap stuff that has hung around too long and isn't really worth moving. Things like the cheap Kmart desk I've been using as a dressing table, which was broken and re-glued during my last move and probably won't survive another!

Edit to clarify: I'm not borrowing to afford my spending, I do have the money in another account, I just use the cards for buyer protection & points. Using credit cards to finance anything outside of a major (probably life threatening) emergency is a Very Bad Thing and will lead you to ruin.

agree that credit cards are a bane
i can't help wondering how many people live beyond their means
i don't deny it bothers me a little, and really, it's just a little, that because I "look" poor and don't spend people think i'm poor ( and thus pathetic and beneath them ) No, I'm just being sensible.
It's great that you are doing home things. 🙂
May I ask how much the implant was? I need about 3 and am trying to gauge prices.
- The implant itself was $3k, that does not include the crown. The initial consultation was partly covered by medicare, so was not too much, and the x-rays and bone graft I had have all been bulk billed. I think the crown should be about $2k or a bit more.
I hope it all goes smoothly. I forgot which one you ended up getting… Are you liking the look of the new place?

Landed. So glad for my friends tip to use the VERY first ticket machines as you disembark - no queues at all, skipped past the nightmare later on. Now if only the bags would come soon on this bruised old conveyor and I could get through the damn customs queue. Sigh, what an experience to come home to, but I accept why no Australian airports can ever match Changi...

Edit: oh man customs was a bitch today. I'm never bringing back any tea again, not worth standing in line and getting yelled at by rude officers and having to redo my bloody form because the ink was a very dark green and not black 🙄

E2: Soup results were very disappointing. Ah well. I'll hold onto my euphoria from last night over the results here

E3: 2 hours later and I'm still salty at the power tripping customs people demanding I rewrite my form because it's not 100% perfectly black ink. They should be embarrassed to still have paper-only forms in this day and age...

Yea they're arseholes.
Everytime i've come back from OS I'm always shocked how rude they are compared to wherever I'm coming back from.
- Yeah... Next time I'm just not going to bother declaring low risk items that they never ever check anyway in my experience over 15 years (unopened tea and highly processed biscuits).

Confirmed that sleeping without any back ground noise i.e white noise machine gives me way more interesting and vivid dreams.

Edit: also feel more refreshed from sleep.

You get to obtain the skills/attributes of a gold medal Olympian. Which sport are you choosing?

How the hell did bob Katter get reelected?! Way to reenforce stereotypes queensland.

May a thousand blossoms bloom
- lol for those unitiated
apparently he serves his electorate very well
- How?! Isn’t he still convinced we need to be building up defenses in Darwin in case the Japanese come back to finish off the job? And I heard he’s still sketchy on this whole proposed gst thing.

Had to call over the self-checkout assistant, so they could check the video of me putting the catalogue in my bag, before I could go back to checking out my groceries for them.

This is why I hate other guitarists, from the "guitarpedals" reddit. Context is the dude is using a digital effects unit (like the one I grabbed a little while ago) instead of analog guitar pedals:

"How does thing sound so good and make me feel so dirty at the same time? I imagine it’s the same feeling you get hiring a $2k per hour escort."

I hate these people so, so fucking much. It's cringe as fuck. Fuck right off.

Always love the analog vs. digital arguments.
Same goes for hardware synths whether they're VA's etc. and vstis/fx.
My opinion: who cares, if it sounds good and you're happy that's the end of the discussion lol.
- Exactly! I don't give a fuck if its a phone app lol if it sounds good and it was created by someone (not ai) then all good!
yeah mate, you're so edgy and cool with money to throw on hookers 🙄🙄🙄

I completely forgot that Tony Abbott also lost his seat, it just wasn't immediately as he lost the leadership.

I remember how I and other vulnerable people were treated in 2013
If i had to rank them in terms of satisfaction, abbot losing was sweeter.

Sky very very pretty.

Wow it really is!!!

sky pretty

Melbcat didn’t eat her (medicated) breakfast this morning and so was feeling bad by the afternoon. I gave her a half dose to tide her over but she’s still not feeling great :(

I think next time she gets ten or twenty minutes to eat the breakfast then if not it goes in the bin and she’s medicated by oral syringe. If that happens twice we go back to brekkie and meds being separate.

Here's a music video for you, it feels like a very specific era of RAGE thrown back at you as nostalgia:

South Arcade - 2005

Very cool!

I've been sussing out where the sewers etc. run at the new place, looks like the lines are all outside the property boundary so there should be no easemets within the yard. Which is good, I'm hoping the owner will let me create a bit of a garden including a couple of small trees. They'd be silly to say no as it would improve the property values, but there's no guarantee that they are not silly.

It is a great yard for a garden, at the moment it is just grass, but the whole lot is north facing. I'd be looking at doing the end with the outdoor area with low maintenance natives designed to attract birds, with herb & vegie garden including a lemon/lime tree at the less visible end. It will involve lots of digging, which is just what I need to improve my fitness levels. And buying a few plants etc. is probably cheaper than a qym membership.

If they decide to say no to the garden I will have to do a few things in pots instead, plus I'll do a bed or two of annual vegies and just pull it out when I leave. Either option will work ok, but I do like the idea of creating something for the future.

Just finished up this one a moment ago. Been distracted with too many things so it’s slow going for me.

Enjoy!

Sirene fight

Conspiracy theory: Woolies manned checkout people have been told to go slow to massively incentivise using self checkout.

Jokes on them, i'm into that shit. I refuse to be harried

quiz It's a doozy this week.

40/50

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

Ooooh, full menu again! Chef, could I please have a bowl of your best ramen - beef or fish I don't mind.
- 🥩🥦🥒🥕🌽🥚🍜
a pizza please
- 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

I'm beat, good night everyone, sweet dreams