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  • Spent the past 30 minutes talking shit with two workmates (good shit, not bad shit).

    Just joined a meeting and someone asked me something. I was still in a shit-talking mindset and replied 'sorry dawg, ain't me'

    FUCKING KILL ME RIGHT NOW

  • My dinner

    From top left clockwise: Aldi's potato scallop, peas, sauted mushrooms with chives, marinated lamb ribs definitely not burnt just well done, mint jelly. Corn on the cob not pictured.

    Please note that the plate is small. (26cm in diameter)

    My husband made an observation. He said "I noticed that the smaller ribs did not make the photo but ended up in my lunch". :)

  • After posting my dinner I realised I may have been insensitive to the fact that some people might be struggling right now. My apologies if I have caused any discomfort. So thought I might share some of my cost saving secrets because I like you guys. We are on a one low income so I know how it feels. Here we go.

    We have never ordered ubereats. If we get take away my husband goes and gets it. We eat from local take away or we get specials from fast food. We have cut this down from once a week to once a fortnight. We eat out on special occasions.

    I go to the local butchers for my meat. If I don't eat red meat I feel fainty due to low blood pressure so I spread my meat consumption of the week. Most meat I buy is the cheaper cuts plus one special lamb product (that's why we had ribs tonight). Sometimes I'll see a two for deal at Coles like sausages or hamburgers and I'll freeze them. Every 6 months I have to defrost my little freezer so we live off whatever is in there, defrost it, fill it back up.

    The vegetables I have in my freezer all the time are peas, beans, broccoli and corn on the cob when it's available. Everything else I get fresh from the market when in season.

    The things that I have in my pantry all the time are pasta, rice, cous cous, chickpeas, canned tomatoes, baked beans, tuna, corn.

    I check for half price specials every week. I only buy them if I need them. No point having 6 bottles of shampoo in my cupboard. Also on shampoo and conditioner, I buy pump packs when they're $6 each. It's shampoo and conditioner it's all the same.

    I try to make the evening meal serve 4 so my husband has lunch the next day or I'll make enough for 6 meals so we can have leftovers for dinner the next night.

    I freeze bread. You can't beat toast. Ever.

    I can't think of anything else right now but if you want me to answer any questions I'll be happy to answer them.

  • OK, bot has now been given a process management system to help run continually and not crash completely if there is an error. Not sure if it will help with the not posting at/after midnight issue, but it can't hurt and will give me a bit more information.

    I have instructed the bot to post at 11:55, but after past failures am much less hopeful it will actually work ☹️ I've added in a few more test posts elsewhere at various intervals to try and get some more information about what is going wrong. At the moment the theory that the cat is sabotaging it seems as likely as anything else. It is very frustrating that every single test I do works perfectly, and the actual post doesn't.

  • Shoutout to the headache gang. I had a joyful one at work and it’s still kind of lingering. So frustrating. Alas, I’m an uncool kid, so no tacos for me this Tuesday. It’s pasta, cheesy garlic bread and whatever else I can wrangle. I’ve also been cheeky with my chocolate cookie and chocolate bar this evening. You know, dessert before dinner.

    How is everyone?

  • I got some kinda sad news today. So CP wanted me to move out and into lead tenant on the 15th, and I said that was way too soon and I'd want a longer transition to at least early August and proposed August 1st s my official move in date. They said no and that the best they'd give me is the 24th and I should be happy they compromised at all

    I mean I guess I am lucky they compromised because usually they dont, but it's just kinda giving me flashbacks to all the random days they've told me I have a few hours to pack my bags and then they ship me off to some new house. I mean, it's still 20 days away, and I have been wanting to move out for the last 4 years, and it's only a week earlier than I was hoping for, but it kinda sucks I don't get to control my own timelines

    Also the lead tenant place hasn't even given me the address yet. They gave me the street and suburb, but no number until after the 3rd meeting. I also had to pick out furnitures for my room despite not even knowing how big my room is, so that's fun

  • Well since I’ve dubbed today specifically as taco Tuesday, if anyone does have tacos today, whether purchased OR make it themselves and provides a pic with a description (because you know inclusiveness) and tag me. I’ll reply with a Sun infused star 🌟 in lieu of there being no awards on this site.

    If you tag me with food (because I like food) and it’s not tacos I’ll also give a Sun infused star but a different one ⭐️

    Let’s make taco Tuesday a fantastic day

  • My raising suspicions about a medication I was prescribed resulted in my pharmacist discovering a "serious" and potentially "life-threatening" drug interaction with another regular medication I take.

    Not sure if I should be shitty that both my GP and the pharmacist didn't pick up on this before dispensing the drug? Thankfully I hadn't started taking it yet.

  • So last night I plucked up the courage to call my dad out in a relatively respectful and well rounded manner about some of his recent behaviour and his response was a atrocious, he was genuinely quite horrible to me and it was really hurtful. I responded to one nasty message, but after the second petulant message, I left him to it. Sometimes I think the universe got it a bit topsy turvey and maybe I should've been the parent.

  • PSA to check your hot water bottles for leaks. I got into a wet bed last night and realised mine had wet itself. Thankfully I actually didn't refill it last night so it was left from the previous night and must have just seeped through some very minor crack in the rubber.

  • I bought new slippers at a market at the weekend, proper sheepskin ones. It's like having fluffy clouds on my feet. My old ones were so worn out.

  • Bleh. I’ve got a headache today. Not too bad at the moment but it does hurt some.

    On the phone on hold at the moment and I think the hold music is hurting my head.

    Another cold day today. Time to rug up!

    After my machine broke from trying to wash my oodie I managed to finally get my oodie dry with a combination of constant wringing and keeping it in a warm room.

    I’m embarrassed to say my hands do hurt from all the wringing.

    • hugs for the headache 🤗

      what kind of machine do you have and have you looked up youtubes on home repair?

      • It’s a top loader Simpson 7.5kg.

        I don’t know the exact model number.

        I just got off the phone with a place for a quote for repairs.

        Quoted me I think 155 dollars for the initial call out for 30 mins, 88 dollars per hour thereafter.

        I tried to explain the situation and the guy on the phone who was I guess admin and not a technician was so aggressive in trying to book me in for an appointment.

        I actually had to stop him and tell him that was in a bad financial situation and how much I was spending on food per fortnight.

        I really hate dealing with aggressive salespeople/admin.

      • And thank you for the hugs!

  • Is there some kind of unofficial hierarchy when it comes to the length of tradies' shorts? I mean there's a lot of construction happening around here and some of the older blokes, even in the middle of winter, are wearing shorts so small they may as well be hotpants.

  • With Reddit's changes (albeit I think more people thought it things would be more dramatic than they have been), and Twitter's continuing shit show, alongside Facebook's shadow of it's shadow of its former self... do we think we're seeing or are in the middle of the end of social media in a large sense?

    • We may be seeing the end of less savvy user, which tbh is a good thing.

    • I think social media is something that will inevitably have a cycle of growth and collapse. Small groups tend to attract a more creative people that want to make something new. When they are successful that attracts lots of other users and the groups grow. Once they reach a certain size the nature of the group inevitably changes. Maintenance starts to overtake creating, and as it gets bigger the content becomes primarily quick & easy content and things created by those with vested interests (advertisers etc). At that point the type of person who created the initial small site tend to be looking for somewhere else where they have room to create, and the content on the large site becomes more and more recycled content and advertising. Which means the users start to look around for something different - and find some of the things the people who have left earlier have started to create. At which point the cycle starts again.

    • Seeing how younger people use social media is actually quite interesting.

      My kids use it to share funny crap with their friends. Pretty much what email was back in the late 90's early 00's.

      They don't really use for posting or communicating. Just sharing.

      Their interactions with friends are video calls and meetups.

    • Personally I think we're just reaching a critical mass with the traditional way social media platforms and advertisements work. The status quo is that all these platforms spring up, get millions of potentially billions in capital from a bunch of rich people who want to be rich, the initial mandate is just "grow grow grow", making a return isn't relevant, as long as you can grow fast enough you keep getting more money

      Then eventually you can't do that anymore, you can't get more funding faster than you use it. And now the rich people who gave you money initially are starting to demand it back. All your conventual lons are due back as well. So now you need to monetize. If you make your platform a paid platform, you'll lose a lot, potentially even most, of your user base. And that would make the rich people sad. If you stay free, you need to make your money back from ads.

      The issue is, no amount of money is ever enough. The rich people all want to get richer. So even once you've paid back your debts, you still want to make your own money too

      Another key part of it is that if it's structured like that, you will always inherently have problems keeping someone happy. Because your users are not your customer, they're you're product. But unlike a conventional product, your users need to be kept happy as well. It's not like a normal product where you just chuck 'em on the shelf and you're off to the races. If you don't keep your products happy, they walk off the shelf and now you have nothing to sell to your customers

      I'm hoping this Federation stuff will help with all that, but I do have some worries about how these servers plan on making enough money to not need to shutdown. Donations are good, but can you rely on just donations and nothing else to keep you running? I mean, look at Wikipedia. They get some funding from various organisations and have decently large cash reserves, and we've all seen how aggressively they beg for money

      (Edit: I didn't post this multiple times, did I? Jerboa threw a tantrum when I tried to post it)

      • Funding is definitely a big issue - and one reason that a small server like this one that is not focussed on growth is important. The costs of aussie zone are pretty sustainable (check in the Meta community if you want to know what it is costing), and the growth is limited by having restricted communities and being focussed on a limited population. The other server I have an account on is a lot more chaotic, had unconstrained growth and I would consider much less likely to survive long term. But it is also interesting because the person who started it is trying a participatory democracy style of running the site, which could either end up in disaster or working really well with a group of people who take ownership of what they are creating together. I predict the former but hope for the latter!

        Edit: I think you only posted once, but the same thing happened to me - I thought I typed out a long post and that it had disapeared.

    • I think social media has been on a gradual decline for a while tbh. Various platforms have done some awful things like algorithms, advertising bombardment, inciting hatred and violence, political interference, security concerns, child safety, stupid decisions from the powers that be, etc, and have ruined the experiences for users. People are right to question "the system" as it stands.

      Without a serious rethink of what social media needs to be and how it can best integrate into people's lives (unlike the constant brain-fart ideas that have morphed it into what we see today), the decline into irrelevance will only accelerate.

    • Raven pretty much summed it up I reckon but to add a note for a possible future here: as the fediverse grows with more trolls, bots and capitalist interests it will turn into feuds and flame wars and brigading between instances and the admins will be pulling hair trying to figure out who to stay federated with. ??

      • It will definitely be interesting to see what happens. I think it will be an evolutionary process - lots of different things will be tried, and only some will be successful enough to last. Aussie.zone has an advantage because not having open ability to create communities stops it growing too quickly, and the focus on Australia also makes it easier to continue as a separate group if federation turns out to be a problem.

    • I work a lot in and on social media (unfortunately lol) so I’ve been watching the trajectory with interest. One thing I have absolutely noticed is more niche, focused spaces growing for creators. Substack for writers, for example.

      I do think fb, Instagram, Twitter etc will always hang around. Like roaches in an apocalypse. They are designed to be intentionally addictive after all. But they will lose a lot of power and won’t be what they once were.

    • It's been interesting seeing the recent stuff that's happened. Like there's Mastodon as a Twitter replicate, Lemmy for Reddit, Tumblr is still Tumblr (a lot of Twitter and Reddit users migrated to Tumblr recently, it's a lot of fun over there. We still don't allow porn, but if it's artistic like a photograph or in a movie it's allowed but there are mature filters for like nusity, gore, etc).

      There's a MySpace replicate called HeySpace. It's actually pretty cool, as someone who was on MySpace as a scene/emo kid.

      But yeah it seems social media is imploding. I'm curious what the future of the Internet will be.

  • ikea came with thegood at 8.30am, my left lower back is still fucked. still lots of resting.

    • it's really really important you rest and let the bones heal** ** you do not want to make this worse

      my husband totally shattered a vertebrate in a fall, as in it was powdered, after surgery his vertebrate is now made of superglue and bone dust

      the surgeons say he must have already had a hairline fracture in a previous accident a few weeks before that weakened him , a hairline he didn't know he had

      REST AND HEAL

  • In other more positive news, I have my initial ADHD assessment via Telehealth on the 15th! This place is much cheaper, the only drawback, though bearable is that I have to wait until November for my official diagnosis. So please manifest are sooner cancellation for me.

  • Talking of tacos, there's a new Mexican joint in Mordialloc and the food is really good, although the sides (rice, beans) could be served a bit warmer. That's three places here now that does Tex-Mex, and another one about to start construction.

    • Oooh, what place is this? I went to Hencho a few weeks after you'd mentioned it and fluck it was tasty! My friends are mad on Nachos in Aspendale.

    • I went to Village Cantina in Werribee and I don't know if it's authentic but I really really loved it. Also that's where I fell in love with the mango margaritas.

  • Today has been a great day! Got 3 sign ups at work, and the last Mass Effect book I needed came in (a week and a half since my birthday, but that's fine), and I'm getting a bonus of $33 from Centrelink tomorrow. Gotta wait almost a week to get paid from work, but that'll be nice. Tomorrow I need to buy comics (I also need to pay for 2 comics I picked up two weeks ago because I forgot to tell mum they need to be paid for) and also some more yarn for my knitting project.

    Everything's coming up landsharkkidd!

  • Expecting some kind of fight over the leave I've requested. It's during a projected busy period, but it's not my fault they have a resource issue and will be overstretched if they do what they (management) are wanting to do.

    • There’s no fight. You’re not requesting leave, you’re telling them you won’t be available.

      • This is a great way of looking at it. I mean... if it comes to it I'll speak with HR to find out what my rights are. Because I wonder what happens if it comes down to it and I just don't turn up for three weeks. I've been here for over five years, so I don't think they can just outright fire me. And it's not like I'm sitting here waiting for a promotion, so it's not like I'm trying to be the good egg.

    • Sounds like my partner's job.

      • I hate this delicate dance employees still have to do when supposedly the jobs market is wide open. We should be fighting for (and winning) a lot of rights that have been stripped back over the years. I guess that's what happens when the unions have been all but dissolved.

    • God at my last job they marked certain periods as busy periods and it meant we weren't allowed to request time off or drop/swap any shifts we were scheduled for. Thankfully I never had any issues with it because the manager's mentality was essentially 'do whatever you want, as long as you can find cover' but I was just like that's a bit rude, how are you going to tell me what days I'm available to work 😂

      • Yeah, I worked at a job where certain areas had a black-out period and told myself never again - it's so fucking limiting. Especially for something that workers are entitled to. I hate how much we have to give up just to earn a wage. The role I'm in now has it's busy periods and it has its down periods, it really does depend on external factors which govern strategic decisions with project pipeline. I still maintain that if they can't cover one person's role for three weeks then how it that my problem? That's why managers get paid a higher wage, right? To manage?

552 comments