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The focus of our discussions is based around things that effect Victoria, but we are also free to discuss our local perspective on wider issues. Or head to the regular Daily Random Discussion thread to talk about anything.
Ongoing discussions, FAQs & Resources (still under construction)
Adoption Certificate for Nellie, the Daily Thread numbat (with thanks to @Catfish)
Hey I got one!
Minipeelers bought seeds from the Shrine and we waited impatiently for it to be time to sow. We nurtured and watered them and they sprouted and grew! Then Mr P decided to do some "gardening" and ripped a whole lot of stuff out of that plot and trod all over the seedlings ๐คฌ๐คฌ๐คฌ Miniest was especially upset. Mr P denied it was him for ages (but I noticed he got bits of wood and tried to prop them up so they wouldn't die๐ค) They all died except one and it flowered today!
I've been out finding new friends in the garden.
I am constantly amazed by the camera on this phone - it was too small to see any detail with my own eyes, and the flowers were moving around making it hard to even keep it in the frame, and the phone manages a clear close up. And I once thought cameras in phones was a gimmick that wouldn't last.
Please admire my premium instant noodles with the best fucking noodles and coconut curry flavour (dried tofu pieces thrown in later).
It is so special that you actually need to follow special instructions: add the curry paste and powdered coconut milk sachets in that order to 500ml water, bring to a boil, then cook the noodles in the curry broth ๐
Jazz it up with some veggies and garnish and you'd think I made the real thing. I wish these didn't cost like 4-5 AUD each here. Truly god tier. Like, the list of ingredients in the curry paste is legit, theres about 20 spices/herbs in it, and these noodles are unbeatable.
Thought I was doing the right thing getting the Covid booster but it seems to have flared up my chronic fatigue โฆ not happy Jan.
I've just realised Miss Meow has added the word "Famukt" in the middle of my assignment, does anyone speak cat that can translate for me?
Edit: there appear to be a vast number of dialects in cat language.
Jjjhhffcvbbg
"I love you Rusty, you're my best food provider for ever. "
Dropped my car with a hand car wash to get a bath and walked to the South Melbourne Market. The car wash dude said an hour and a half so I took my time. Got a gozleme, two freshly fried cinnamon doughnuts, stopped in at the nut shop for some yoghurt sultanas and then went and overspent on a terrarium for my sister. Oh then I saw the cutest baby coffee keep cup so I bought one for my niece so she can have pretend coffee while her mum has her real one.
I'm not really keeping track but it's easy to spend a lot of money quickly in an hour and a half in South Melbourne!
Don't want to jinx it but my back is feeling slightly better. A walk and heat pack helped. Now it's Epsom salt bath time. Yeeha
Man, just woke up and realised I forgot to set my alarm. Leapt out of bed, rushing around to try and not be late for work - then realised I'm not working today. Mr Woof is so confused, he thought it was time for pre-work walkies, and now we're not going.
Sometimes I wonder if I should try to take up music casually. Neuroplasticity for depressed brains and all that. But honestly I donโt know if Iโd be able to stick with it even if I wanted to. Creativity is presented as something that flows but it still takes energy and grit to learn a new skill. Discipline for consistency. The confidence to persevere. Everything people having a really hard time lack. Everything people with my (potentially undiagnosed ADHD) type of brain lack.
Also while I donโt mind a tiny cheap shitty quiet thing thatโs barely an instrument (given my commitment level, budget, space and noise constraints it would be) I absolutely hate the songs youโre supposed to learn on. For every instrument really. Nottt my taste at all.
I was โtalentedโ as a kid (whatever tf that means - I genuinely donโt believe I was, I think that was the wishful thinking of the adults around me) but quite lazy. Didnโt want to practice, didnโt care about learning to read sheet music. I would memorise tunes or figure them out by ear. Then I had some extremely demotivating and pressuring experiences with it and never picked anything up again.
I think there's too much pressure these days with the idea that if you take up a musical instrument or artform you have to be "good at it" or it's completely not worth it and it's a waste of time. It's like you're not allowed to play/paint/sculpt (or whatever) purely for the pleasure of it. For fun! I read something recently to the effect that if you had a good time and enjoyed something, then the time isn't wasted (makes me feel better about my 20s ๐) I say if you want to enjoy something then do it. And if you try and don't enjoy it then good, you learnt something. If you're not technically perfect or proficient or prodigious or whatever, then stiff cheddar! Don't be your own harshest critic and rob yourself of fun. We need to take back the idea of doing things for the fun of it without being perfect at it.
todayโs goal: not take a long nap at 6pm, get up at midnight for dinner, and go back to sleep at 3am
4pm accountability: i am awake and about to go for a walk
edit: pre 5pm accountability: charged the phone for a while, now going out
argh, broke a delicate wire fitting on a vintage necklace now I have to restring the whole thing. ๐
Woohoo cool change is here. Can get some gardening done today without baking.
Need to go and hunt down a birthday present for my sister today. I was thinking of maybe getting her a terrarium, I know there's a shop in South Melbourne Market which does them but they just seem so expensive for what they are! If I think about the cost as not having to think of another gift then I think I can justify it because I'm terrible at this.
Catch mobile have just advised what compensation they are offering after the Optus outage. I'm getting 50gb of data added to my plan. Which considering I didn't notice I was affected and have a 60gb year plan is, for me, pretty decent.
But overall that sort of compensation is pretty useless. Most people have a plan that covers what they use plus a bit extra. Giving extra data is mostly useless. What they should be doing is providing data and extending the recharge time. Especially with plans like mine where data does not roll over. And it certainly doesn't address any of the issues associated with business interuption, the impact on alarm systems (including medical alert alarms) and problems with emergency calls.
If anyone needs a movie rec please check Aftersun out. Such a powerful and sad movie. Brb someone's cutting onions ๐ข๐ข
I've been in the garden taking photos for my assignment and thought you might all like this one
Pretty white butterfly. A pest, but pretty.
I wish there wasnโt some weird issue for me that means even a little alcohol makes me feel flushed, sick and really anxious. (And my stomach wasnโt messed up anyway.)
I just want to relax and have a beer :(
Maybe it would chill me out enough to just enjoy hobbies for what they are and not make them a further source of stress.
Awake at stupid o'clock because someone left a window open and a gust of wind caused a door to slam. Not at all happy!!
And de Kock is out after pounding a few hard ones.
I will stay out of bed until at least 12 hours later. From 4pm I will be here hourly stating that I am out of bed.
Bit nippier outside than I expected it to be, but decent enough catching up with another friend. One more social engagement tomorrow but next week is completely empty of social events and a little scary because of whether I'll get too stuck in my head again. Might reach out to see if a different friend is willing to catch up.
I am in the worst brain fog today continuing from yesterday evening, can't remember the names of things quickly, keep a thought straight, or drum up much interest in anything. Maybe I'm not eating enough again. Or maybe I'm hiding from the big questions of life... car, job, family, home, purpose, health, blah. Blaaah
Food. Eat.
Yes'm. Am tucking into a big bowl of pasta and bolognaise as we speak and sitting in front of some Mr Inbetween
One more social engagement tomorrow but next week is completely empty of social events and a little scary because of whether Iโll get too stuck in my head again.
Sigh I feel this. My social engagements are work and tennis. I try reaching out to my friends here but it gets to the stage that its always me reaching out. At that point, why bother.. and this all sorta feeds into my daily routine, i find myself eating pb&j twice a day, i know i know not good, but i just don't have energy to cook and am too miser to eat outside more than 2-3x a week. sigh. hopefully my move next week and my trip back home will help change things up, it's at least going to be worth seeing my parents' reactions ๐
Anyway, you enjoying Mr Inbetween?
Oh dear, my tram into the city has a distressingly strong smell of poo ๐คข
(It isnโt my fault, just in case youโre wondering).
Plasma donation tomorrow after a long time. Got rejected a while back cuz I had low iron in my blood but hopefully it is alright now ๐ค
Morning hike, afternoon in city, beer and whiskey at hand.
Gonna be a good evening
Ugh. The improvised Nilodor diffuser, setting out cups of white vinegar, stuffing the exit point and maintaining air pressure against it with a fan all stopped the smell.
But turning on cooling and pointing the fan in the other direction to get cool air through my house has just spread the smell through my house again. Opening windows does the same thing.
Stink stink stink. I'll have to put the cooling in another room and face it in the correct direction ๐คข
Treating myself to a remedial massage tomorrow because why not. (I have very tight hammies which cause me terrible knee pain)
I haven't played tennis since Monday and my physio also asked me to not play for a few more days but hopefully should be back Monday.
This morning's walk was a little rough but the coffee made it worth it.
Breakfast ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅญ๐๐ฅฅ๐ฅฆ๐ฅ๐ซ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฅฌ๐ฅ๐ฝ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ง ๐ฅฏ๐๐ฅ๐ฅจ๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐ง๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅฉ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ฅ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆช๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ชผ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฅฎ๐ข๐ก๐ง๐ฐ๐ง๐ฅง๐ฆ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฏ๐ฅโ๏ธ๐ต๐บ๐ถ๐ฅค๐ง๐ง๐ฅ๐ท๐ฅ๐ธ๐น๐ง๐
Cool change arrived in the last km off my run. Was a nice cool breeze to help cool the thermostat.
So I think I've mentioned it before, but I've been listening to all the Beatles' post-breakup albums.
Originally this wasn't gonna be a spoiler but it ended up very long. So hey, if you wanna hear my thoughts on their post-Beatles stuff click here. You don't have to though. I just need to let someone know my thoughts.
First is Lennon and like, eh? I mean, he has some pretty good songs, and obviously his discography is going to be vastly different to the others based off time and all. I liked Wall and Bridges and Double Fantasy, but his other stuff with Yoko is weird (and I say that as someone who will listen to scremo and speedcore), and Some Time in New York (1972) while interesting politically, it's so jarring and really just... 70s. I mean their title track is Woman Is The N-Word of the World, which politically, I'm all for, but the title does make me uncomfortable, though that could be the point.
Next is Harrison, which, I actually really like a lot of his songs. His 2-track album Electronic Sounds (1969) was definitely something. But All Things Must Pass is a hit for a reason, and it's so sweet he wrote a song for the group of fans that would hang around Abbey Road. And When We Was Fab on his album Cloud Nine (1987) is a bop. Harrison was such a lyrical genius it's a shame that he didn't get many credits on The Beatles albums, because most of his are my favourites.
At the moment I'm going through Ringo's catalogue, and I've got to say, genre-wise I think that Ringo's is the most varied. Obviously, Lennon didn't really get a chance to follow the rising popular genres of the 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s compared to Harrison and in turn compared to Paul and Ringo. But man, sometimes you'll get country, jazz, a bit of ska too, and then pop, electronic, soul. It's wild. I think his early stuff is a little rough, but I guess it was really difficult for Ringo to get out of that bubble. The stuff I read about how he was scared that John, Paul and George were going to kick him out is just tough to read. But I'm actually digging more of his later stuff, I think I've got maybe one or two more EPs to go and then Ringo will be finished.
Thus, the last one will be Paul. I left Paul for last because he's my favourite, though I have heard his music post-breakup. I mean y'all heard the banger Temporary Secretary? Unironically slaps. But yeah, I mean I've heard some Wings stuff, I remember when Egypt Station (2018) dropped and I was walking to work and I loved it. But yeah, very keen.
