Discussion Thread 🔮 Saturday 31 May 2025

- So regal!
- She's beautiful 😊

Everyone is settled in.

"oh hai, you're awake! Is it too early for a treat?"
Edit: too early to be awake. Back laters.
This photo was taken at 4am lol

Off to a gig tonight at the croxton. 3 hand built nose bleed decibel speaker systems. Two playing in synch in one room which will be dub / reggae, another system playing DnB / jungle. Don't normally fork over $40 unless it's a DnB international but these guys spend an inordinate amount of coin and time on these things so it's worth it just to keep the scene alive.
Also hambams on his walk / run today ran into a mum and her kid (probably 3yo). He was so gentle w/ her. He might not be all there upstairs at the dog park but around the very young kids he changes and is very mindful. So credit to hams.
- Have fun at the gig!
  And don’t forget to wear wear earplugs (speaking as someone with tinnitus)
- Enjoy!!!

Just a few more hours and I'll be finished up working in my current office. Twenty years with some of these people, it doesn't feel quite real yet to be leaving.
There has been a lot of food and some lovely gifts. All warmth themed, as befits a move to Ballarat. Plus an ice scraper for the car windscreen!
- both happy and sad
  champers and hugs

The donut festival has a stall where all the offerings are missing essential attributes of donut.
No sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no YEAST, no...basically, no donut
- I wonder what the texture was like!
- Did they just pour sugar into the shape of a donut 😂
  
  Not even. These are seemingly sugar free!
  I get why - allergy free offerings are good - but the absurdity tickles me
- I was there today as well. Loved the churro icecream bowl

I finally bit the bullet and got an ebike. Velectrix Adventurer. It's pretty much a step through mountain bike, so it has front suspension, dropper post, fat tyres, and a stronger motor.
It also comes with mud guards, a rack, and integrated lights wired to the battery. Plus it has hydraulic brakes, which feels like the necessary minimum for an ebike.
There are higher spec bikes out there, but this is all I need for a 15km trip to work that I'll do a few days a week in between regular bike rides.
I could have gone even more basic with the Velectrix Brunswick, but I thought my girlfriend could ride this one because of the frame and dropper post. It seems a little big, but I'd like to get her on there
- I want my next bike to be a step through mid-drive.
  
  I think it's the best use case for an ebike. The step through frame makes it comfortable to use and the mid-drive has a bit more power than a hub motor
- Very cool, sounds like it'll be fun to ride! Enjoy!
  
  I'm looking at the trails near home to see if I can make the most if its mountain bike DNA to get to work faster

Impeccably dressed toddler has matched the tractors on his gumboots to the tractor on his jumper, and matched both to the exact shade of yellow on his bucket hat.
Mum says he chose it himself. If so, kid's got style!

I appear to have misplaced the cat. She woke me up for food at 6 and now she must be snoozing in a hidey hole but I can't for the life of me find where. I know she can't get outside. I heard a random meow in response to me before but she's not answering now. I am mildly concerned and VERY curious...where is kitty??!
- In a pile of jumpers. Or under/inside the recliner.
  
  Found her. Under a little bit of raised floor. Didn't think she would fit but she had a nice cubby going.

My wife surprised me with a bottle of whiskey. Peated from England. Also cask strength, nearly 60% strong.
Is nice

Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋
- Some birthday cake please
  
  🎂Happy Oldday!
  
  Happy birthday!
  
  Happy birthday, Force 🎂
- I'll have popcorn chicken stacked like croquembouche, drizzled with BBQ sauce and honey mustard mayonnaise, please. A big tower for everyone to share.
  
  Would that be a cluckembouche?
  
  🟤
  🍯
  🟡
  🥚
  🍗
  🍗🍗
  🍗🍗🍗
  🍗🍗🍗🍗
  🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
  🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
  🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
- some fresh crumpets with jam and a cup of tea please
  
  🥯🥯🍓🔨☕️
- A bento box and a surprise drink, please chef
  
  🍱🏝️
- Ice cream and pretzels please and some coffee chef.
  
  🍨🥨☕️☕️

Getting close to the end of the 2 chilli ferments. Seems to be doing its thing correctly, good bubbles, cloudy brine no mold etc.
Always crazy to think it takes almost a year from seed to bottle. I think if I had kids it would definitely be an effective learning activity as it covers everything from soil, nutes, plant life cycle and biology, pests diseases management, science w/ fermenting / food safety. Had that to an extent at uni but had to pull things together from different subjects (mostly out of books) without anything unifying or an end goal. This process knocks a whole lotta shit over in one.
- Is chilli fermenting not just 2% salt and keep it clean like sauerkraut?
  
  Yea same thing.
  i guess with chilli there are more things that can go wrong along the way which would be good for learning imo.

Decided I couldn't be bothered with wet bathers, so taking a loooong bath this morning in the hotel before breakfast instead of a swim. Usually I love to get out and about in the city but have really enjoyed a proper staycation, including room service last night.

Shopping done. Time to zonk in bed.

Beach. I got quite close to a spoonbill today.
it looks 100 miles away in the pic
I experimental with the horizon, I usually do a low horizon or high horizon

Feel effed today. Pretty sure it's from lowering my anti dep dose. I feel content but still a bit anxious.
Last few days have been amazing, so I know I just have to wait it out.

Morning, have a meme. Onions for Abbott 😹

I've been reading more books! In between working, doing laundry and going to the donut festival I've been reading a couple of Lin Anderson books, a Joshua Moehling book called And There He Kept Her, and started a couple of others I didn't like so I didn't persist with those. Loving the internet archive and Libby, free entertainment to offset the cost of taking the Minipeelers out!
- There's plenty of options if you want to sus out a decent Z-lib mirror or get on tor to find the official deep web version.
  The baseline kobos go pretty cheap too, or you could get a second hand kindle, jailbreak it - which is meant to be really easy, and install KOReader.
  That's the eBook app I use on my phone and it's great. The interface is a bit intimidating at first, but it's good once you get used to it
- yay 😊 that's wonderful
  do you have a favourite?
  
  I loved the style and characters of the Joshua Moehling book and wanted to read others but there weren't any more I could borrow from my library. The Lin Anderson books are set in Scotland and are very gritty forensic detective novels. Luckily for me she's a very prolific writer. The one I enjoyed the most so far was probably The Wild Coast, but I also really enjoyed Driftnet. I seem to be really enjoying the whole crime suspense thriller thing. It's just pure page turner enjoyment for me.
  I ended up reading all of the Helen Forrester autobiographical books last week. I've gotten back into that old habits of mine where if I wake up during the night I'll read for a few hours in the quietness (or what passes for it around here).

I need some advice
I bought this thing from temu because I thought it looked awesome and it does.
But how can I hang it up? I haven't hung up something like this before. It's material not paper or cardboard.
- Thin flat batten for the top and for the bottom. About the same width and thinness of a wooden school ruler only long enough to extend a few centimetres wider than the fabric. Or lengths of thinnest possible plastic pipe. Bunnings can help you here.
  Attach in a variety of ways :
  Glue picture on to batten/pipe with fabric glue or flour & water (cooked) paste. If using flour & water paste, add a squirt of aerogard to the paste before using to deter insect attack.
  Thin strips of neutral coloured fabric to make tabs for the top edge - also glued or stapled to the back of the picture fabric. Tabs should have a big enough loop to put the batten/pipe through at the top. Bottom batten as per 1. above.
  Staple the fabric to the battens for both top and bottom. You'll need an industrial stapler - office staplers aren't strong enough. One staple every few centimetres. Can be tricky to get right so it doesn't wrinkle, but the least messy option. Doesn't work too well for pipe mount.
  Then either tie some string to the ends of the top batten/pipe and hang from a hook, OR
  Drill hole in each end of the top batten to tie the string to and hang from hook. OR
  Run a piece of string through the pipe (if using) and tie ends together to make a loop and hang from hook.
  You can put the hanging hook right up near the ceiling where it's less obvious and tie a loop of string from that and then tie that to the string on the picture, being careful to centre it so the picture hangs straight.
  Lengths can be adjusted to suit. When you've got the placement right, replace the hanging loop and maybe the string on the top batten/pipe with brass picture wire cut to the length you want. Kits at Bunnings and Lincraft and probably Kmart.
  The advantage of hanging a fabric picture on battens/pipe is that you can roll it up when you move. Then you only have to fix up the hole where the hanging hook was before inspection. And you can re-hang it in your new place without much difficulty.
  Also Gibson will enjoy batting at the picture when it moves in the breezes. You can secure the bottom batten/pipe to the wall with a couple of discreet bits of blutack if you don't want that to happen.
  
  Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
- a rail set
  https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/182181882132?_skw=hanger&itmmeta=01JWJGACCQJFTP96VS6AS525BS
  or buy some 1.5 cm dowelling. Sew a length of 5 cm wide scrim to the top and bottom of the hanging, then tack the scrim to the dowelling . Put a tack into each end of the top dowel and tie a ribbon to the tacks to hang it.
  
  another thing people do to hang tapestries is to get a long length of wide velcro tape. Glue the tape to the wall and to the tapestry.
  Or you could hang it like a curtain with a curtain rail. ( this is how I hang tapestries ) Sew a pocket in the top of tapestry and put rod thru
- Drawing pins
  
  I reckon this is the go if I can find some black ones.
- Any backing on it?
  Is it solid or will it sort of curl up into itself at the moment?
  
  No backing. Material is pretty thick though.
- I was gonna say build a frame for it but 2.3m x 1.8m is huge lol might be an effort.
  
  It's massive lol! Covers a whole wall in the house.
- Clippy pants coat hanger?
  
  Not a bad idea.
- Rug hanger/tapestry hanger
  Though these would make screw holes in the wall

I've started the actual painting of the set of bedroom furniture. I'm knackered already.
- first coat of the dressing table is done, 2 coats of the mirror frame . I'm really liking it so far.
  in 30 years time someone will do a future YT about how this beautiful 100 year old bedroom suite was ruined with dark blue paint and they will strip it and paint it white again

Just got home from the gym, and going to head back for another session in the morning - all because I’m stubborn and want to prove the wife wrong..
..she definitely knows how to push my buttons, heaven help me if she ever decides to use those powers for evil! 😅
The in-laws are heading back overseas in a month, so we are going to lose their babysitting services shortly, so I’m trying to get in as much exercise as I can!
Any tips to stay on track and motivated to work out from home once they leave?
- Hopefully making it a solid habit before they leave will help!

I feel like I’ve lazed in bed enough

~~volunteering~~ paying to do four hours of karaoke with a friend for her birthday. We don't have to do it for that long, but the room is for four hours. We also don't have our Sydney friend who is the bridge between my music taste and her music taste. But it should be fun.

how do snorers get enough oxygen in their sleep or they just dont
- We don't. That's why I'm dumb
- They don't! They also seem to have a reduced response to lack of oxygen as well; if a non snorer had a decrease in oxygen they would wake up, that response is reduced in snorers.
  But a CPAP is EXPENSIVE!
- Probably why I wake up a lot🤔

Doing more work.
I could either do another 2 hours or leave it till tomorrow or something.
Very easy to do manual labour while watching movies.

Finished watching The Last of Us season 2. I didn’t like it.
- I stopped watching when the likeable character was killed off. I don't want to watch a soapie with characters I just don't care about or relate to.
  
  I stopped playing the game shortly after that point.
  It killed me emotionally and made me hate the game.

Imagine being so wealthy that spending money on stupid mobile games wouldn't mean anything: that's the kind of wealth I aspire to.
- I much preferred the old days where you just paid for a game and there were no adds and no in-game purchases. Twas the golden era of cheap entertainment.
- I fantasize about winning the lottery, buying nice house in a lovely neighbourhood, lower upper class. Only to completely redneck-the-shit out if it. All within the confines of all laws. Just to piss off the neighbours. I'm talking Kenny 'Fucking' Powers' levels.
  
  With that kind of money who gives a shit about pissing off neighbours. Just do what you want. If they have a problem that's their problem.
  
  "I play real sports, not trying to be the best at exercising"
  If you do win the lottery and follow your dreams, I wish to subscribe to updates of your shenanigans!

Stupid computer game needs secure boot with requires re-doing the partition or upgrading to windows 11, which probably requires re-doing the partition anyway.
- What game?
  
  BF2042, I worked it out though. It didn't sense yesterday when I was high on endone, mostly sober I've worked it out.