Discussion Thread 🎭 Tuesday 24th June

Creature news...

My sister has a new cat. He's enormous

Don't believe you unless we get a piccy!
- Say hi to Jetson

I love my psychologist, she's so good. Shame I only have one more session before I have to wait til next year (or if I get a job, I can pay out of pocket lol).

I have two medicare sessions left and I've been postponing and postponing them because even with a decent job, I'll be fucked paying for the rest completely out of pocket haha. Really wish there were more pathways to access at least 15 sessions a year at the MHCP rebate for diagnosed chronic complex MH issues... not just those with eating disorders who somehow get 40 (!!!) rebated psychological treatment services every 12 months as long as they're billed under eating disorder-related services... (not to take anything away from people with EDs but damn there are some other conditions too that could really benefit from even short-term access to increased sessions esp with acute flareups).
- Eating disorders get it because they're genuinely lethal if left untreated. Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychological condition. By a lot.
  There are some...especially pressing reasons to make treatment consistently available for that
- I can't recall the exact details anymore but a few years ago my GP got me onto a chronic health care plan (long term depression) that got me a few more psych rebates and a few sessions with a exercise physiologist (to help with strategies for movement). Might be worth asking about especially if you have additional health things?
Can you still get 20 on Medicare if you have a chronic condition? Or have they changed that? :(
- I get 10, and then 4 extra with another GP referral, so total 14 per calender year. That's how they treat suicidal ideation I guess 🤷🏼‍♀️
  Next sesh will be my 14th :(

Proof Boyo had a deprived childhood, he doesn't know what a Banksia man is!

I didn't know either, but also from a deprived childhood!
- Oh no! They might kidnap and boil you 😱
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie?
I was deprived too, looked it up and they look like they would be terrifying for little kids!
Probably a nice protected childhood. The Evil Banksia Men were properly scary! At least at the panto thing I was taken to at a very young age.
- Um, no.
no banksias where I grew up, only giant old gum trees and wattles

Ordering groceries online is easy, carrying them all to the kitchen from the front door is hard. I am exhausted just from that effort, and haven't even put it away yet. I really should have ordered some chocolate.

My kitchen and living areas are upstairs 😖
i think i use the stairs at least 30 times a day
It would have kept your strength up
Just put the cold stuff away. The rest of it can wait.

My lovely colleagues dropped by campus with an age-relevant cake and moral-boosting morning tea. It's definitely helped because i had hoped to be celebrating today but what's a few days here and there when you're an adult. Plus, the headache is gone and I'm pumping out insightful observations with ease, albeit without references at this point. Highway to the Paper Zone!

That said, every time I'm writing things like "Regardless, the results suggest that ..." I feel tempted to add "(but does it though?)" on at the end. Reminder to self: this is a 25 point research project, not a real thesis, it ain't gotta be so rigorous

Happy birthday 🎂
Happy birthday!!!
Happy Birthday!
Wishing you the best for happy and fun times!
Happy birthday 🎂 🥳! May you have all the motivation, and a lovely celebration once all this is over 💖
Happy birthday! 🎉🎂
Happy Birfday!
Happy Borthday.
happy dance 😊
Happy birthday!!!!
Happy birthday!
ooh it's your b'day! Happy b'day!
Happy Birthday!!!!
🎂🎂 to get you through the rest of the day. Happy writing birthday
Happy birthday 🎂🎉
It’s your birthday? Happy birthday!! I hope it’s as fabulous as possible, under the circumstances 🎂🎉

Mr Woof has found his moose toy and has been carrying it around trying to find a safe place for it. He took it to the bed yesterday and has now bought it out onto the couch next to me. I think it means I'm entrusted to look out for the moose's safety.

That's so freakin' cute.

Theory: all roads lead to Rome

My better counter-theory: all thoughts lead to apple strudel

I just put an apple danish in the airfryer. And I'll be forced to have it with cream. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?
- YES! I AM VERY HAPPY!
  I have an aldi apple strudel in the oven and chocolate ice cream ready to go and I'm fuckin' HANKERIN' for it 🤤🤤🤤
Excuse me this is RUDE when I have no strudel available to me and am forced to live a strudel-less existence (until I can get to Aldi).
- That sounds like a YOU problem! I say storm your local aldi and demand your rightful STRUDEL
- I am also unhappily strudel-free
i am strudel and danish and pie less
but i have all the ingredients to make one, maybe tomorrow or the next day

Yarrabyte has forsaken us again.

Maybe caught the flu.

Me: Stand up from my chair

my back: haha fuck you!

OK my trip this weekend is sorted! Been hanging to see these guys. 10 years is a long time not to see people I considered family at 1 point.

Eeeeeeee!

Are Gibson & The Strays sorted for the duration of your absence?
Actually, that's quite a cute band name ...
- That's a damn good band name!
  And absolutely yes. I made sure to organise someone I trust to hold down the fort and dispense the treats to all :)
I’m glad you managed to organise it. I hope you have heaps and heaps of unforgettable fun!
- Gibson so deserves this 😭
yay
this is wonderful 😊

It’s disconcerting to find the back sliding glass door open when you get home.

Shit yeah. I hope everything is alright.
- Everything looks in order. It’s a bit of a mystery. I have myself on camera closing and locking the door.
I watched as the wind blew the sliding flywire door open, just slowly blew it sideways
The wind somehow activated my garage door and it was wide open. 😬

Got accused (jokingly) by aunt that hambam gained weight under my watch.

It's pure muscle, all I did was unleash his apex ball chasing and cheese loving genes.

Goodnight from the gremlin and I ❤️

Going to look for a new role in the coming weeks. My manager is acting like a child throwing a tantrum.

Considering my employment directly impacts my housing, it's best to look for an out before he forces me out.

You're having a tough run, dude! But good on you for recognising it's not working and being open to something else.
- Thanks for the support :)
  Things will ease up. It's only a matter of time hopefully.
I';m so sorry to hear, is that also the reason why some others at your work has left?

@PeelerSheila@aussie.zone has got to me. I've been struggling with this cold - no appetite and no brain power to even cook the most basic beans and rice. Put in a supermarket order for a couple of Green Goddess salads and Dari's soups (I find they are pretty close to being real food) and a few tins of tuna. I hate doing that when there's food in the pantry but I have been skipping meals and that's not going get me better

The green goddess salad - worth the hype?
- I think so. I often get a tub of it from Colesworth for lunch, heat it up in the microwave at work, stir in a small tin of tuna and dribble on the dressing. It's a nice veg-rich lunch that is cheap, quick and tasty.
- It is, IMO. I frequently vary it by adding more crunchy things, finely shredded cabbage, nuts and seeds, a chopped pink lady apple, some lettuce leaves or more spinach, some small dried fruit pieces or any combination of those things. It's my lunchtime staple ATM.
I normally hate packaged soups but agree - Dari's blow the rest out of the water, it tastes like real food. One of the very rare exceptions I make for eating meat is if I am really sick I will have the Dari chicken soup. It really works. Like you say, fed is best, even if it stings when there's food in the pantry. It'll still be there for when you get better!
Hope you feel better soon, the unwell brain drain struggle is real!

tired with a touch of scratchy throat, think I'll rest today

I have a slightly sniffly nose. I really need more sleep.

Is it just me or do EOFY deals seem thin on the ground this year?

Ok this is weird. Lurgy day 5ish. Have tested negative to COVID a couple of times. Just completly lost my sense of smell. Like I was cleaning out the kitty litter thinking it was weirdly not smelly. Can just get a whiff of eucalyptus oil if I basically shove it up my nose. Perfume - nothing. Cleaning alcohol - nothing. 😳😳😳

I had that, too, and couldn’t taste much. 5 tests over 5 days said no covid, but whatever it was was pretty bad
It could be something else. But apparently the tests are less accurate with the newer strains. You might’ve been covided.
There's a RSV going around, it can do that too.
- I recall many colds where I couldn't smell or taste very well but the Covid pandemic made me more aware of it as a symptom
@imoldgreeeg are they old RATs?
- No just bought them recently when I was starting to feel poorly. But who knows. I'm supposed to be on holiday next week so as long as it gets better soon I don't really care. I've kinda already called that I am WFH all week (and reduced hours when naps happen)

Oh boy, you know it's cold out there when even the security guard doing his rounds is wearing a beanie tonight.

Thanks everyone for the lovely wishes, I've been blown away (...) by all the messages streaming in today, I don't feel too bad about likely working into the night tonight to finish this off (brain is definitely slowing down). My body can feel the real beginnings of joy and relief in letting this thing finally go, though!

I just had a totally unrelated shower thought that I feel compelled to dump here: you know how during the era of black-and-white TV there were reports of people dreaming in black and white, which then faded away as colour TV became common?

Do you think people will start dreaming increasingly in AI-generated oversmoothed imagery and video as it starts to drown out real art and photos? Though, they will probably become almost indistinguishable in a shorter timeframe than it took for colour TV to take over b&w TV... maybe people will be having more eerie dreams of their loved ones being replaced by imposters.

Hmm I don’t think I’ve dreamt of people in such details. Been living with cgi from games and movies for ages and they only really present a person as a presence.
Like you recognise it’s a person(fictional or not) and how they talk and act in a dream but that’s it for me.
I think AI will definitely influence dreams because AL will influence how people think and visualise.
It's just change, once people used to use references to books in their everyday language and life, now it's tv and movies.

After a week off with whatever lurgy that was, I’m watching my last trashy show and will be back at work tomorrow. I figured it was time, after getting so stir crazy today I did the vacuuming in batches, sitting down to catch my breath in between. Wouldn’t mind a life of leisure but the bank account doesn’t agree, sadly

So windy all day. This house rattles and creeks when it’s windy.

Sucked being outside. Said it felt like 2.4 when I was outside.
I managed to make it home before the raining started but I hope the wind finally calms down soon
I think it's gusting to 45 here

Come on petrol stations, hold out for 2 more days.

It was 1.65 where I am. They just put it down today. So hopefully they will hold out
- Fingers crossed!

I’ve made it home, but I can’t feel my fingers. I think I need a cuppa

I went to a guy's business that's looking for some marketing support today. He wasn't there but it worked out well. I asked for him and one of his employees called him and put me on the phone, that proves I showed up and was there.

He said to come back at 7:30 tomorrow morning to talk, I bet he thinks I won't show up. I've been looking for a bit of extra side work like this for a couple of years now, I had some stuff going on before the boys were born and that fell away, I haven't been able to find anything since.

I feel like I'm going to get something because this sort of side work always comes in twos for me. I've been talking to some other potential leads and one of them will probably come through at the same time.

good luck
when jobs like this work out they are usually very good
- It will be a good bit of side money I can put to use. It's down the road from my normal job, and I can apply everything I've learned there to help this guy out.

This bowl of lemon grass chicken insulates me from the cold

Melbcat has been crying loudly so I took her to the vet… there wasn’t enough urine to take so her meds have been upped and she’s due for a follow up test.

I eventually got her to come to bed and cuddle but she did a little spew on the sheets. It’s blotted up and covered with a towel for now. I’ve finally got her to settle down a bit so everything can be properly washed later.

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

A nice healing chicken soup please, with a side of tissues.
- 🍗🥔🥕🌽🥦🧅🌶️🍲🤧
- I’ll have what Raven’s having, please chef
Bowl of seafood pho please, and some extra energy.
- 🔋🦀🐙🦞🦐🦑🦪🍜
Chip butty with a bit of gravy thanks.
- Chip butty with gravy
  Gravy gimme some more yeh
- 🍪🍑🪦
a small amount of cake (small)
And more anti-headache concentration juice
- _🍰🌊
fruit salad and a cup of tea please
- 🍓🍒🍇🍎🍉🍑☕️
Big bwl of regret please Chef.
- 🥣🥃
Green goddess salad please, I'm obsessed with it!
- 🧌🥗
A full Ethiopian spread on injera please, and extra injera on the side
- 🧅🍖🫘🍯🥚🥞🥛🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓🫓
Big ol' bowl of veggies, please!
- 🥗
Jesus the queue for the food truck is stopping traffic this morning!
- As it should do! Our food truck is the BEST!!!

3 classes back to back at breakneck pace and got saddled with a duty right after it, this sucks.

I have managed to put away some of my groceries and check if the order was ok. I somehow managed to order three avocados instead of one, and a single tomato instead of a kilo. They gave me much larger eggs than I ordered, but one of them was broken so I'm probably even on that one. Miss Meow will be comforted to know that we are now fully supplied with her tinned food, and have an extra bag of dry food to tide us over until I can find which box I packed her dry food in when moving.

Mr Woof has been very unsettled that I was spending time in the study instead of the lounge. I tried putting one of his beds in the study for him, but he just brought his moose toy in and left it in the bed.

One assignment is done. It makes me bury myself in a hole knowing that my work is terrible and someone's going to read it, but at least it's done. Time to do the rest of the assignments.

I will vow to never procrastinate again after this. I know to start assignments when I get them but I don't do it. Next time, I shall.

Just do them and if you have time go over them a bit.
you can do this and we're all real proud of you 😘
We are in the same headspace of simultaneous relief and shame! (Well, except that I'm thankfully doing this for hopefully the last time in my life)
If you find yourself procrastinating next time, my advice is try not to beat yourself up about it (easier said than done but it does lighten up with age) - the grief we give ourselves about procrastinating, and the punitive measures, shame, etc... often just make it a lot worse than it already is.
Don't lose sight of the fact that you have ethics, and a commitment to quality (easy to forget the sheer number of people out there who are genuinely fine with stuff they KNOW is bad because they have no respect for what they are doing).
I'm making less and less sense with my sentences in this damn thing the longer I keep on at it tonight, but it must go tonight... I'm going to add a note to my supervisor along the lines of "I'm sorry if this is completely incoherent gibberish, I'm not sure how conscious I am right now"
- Wow, how bittersweet is that, doing this for the last time in your life! Good luck with the rest of your work tonight, and hopefully you get a good rest in!
  I've got a year and a half left but it feels like I'm going to end up doing more ~~ continuing to torture myself.~~

washing machine sounds like it's dying

it's 6 months out of warranty 😠 it's a $700 machine, so not the cheapest but obviously not in the good tier

might be better value to just a buy new or near new speed queen than pay many hundreds to get a technician out

I hate that dilemma - ideally you want to fix it, but don’t want to pay hundreds to be told it’s ded and you need a new one anyway

I read the title as Thursday for a moment and got excited :(

I wish!*

I bought these frozen cookies in a zip-lock packet from Woolies that you bake fresh, which is happening right now. Mmm 11pm cookies. I will restrain myself and leave some for tomorrow.

I'm not a scented candle person but if there's one out there that smells like a good shiraz I would burn the shit out of that.

A dash of shiraz in the oil burner?
- I don't have one but it seems worth a try.

Can't deny I'm a bit nervous flying what with all this war drama going on.

I reckon if any route is safe it's Aus-NZ. There're benefits from being at the arse-end of the earth. Nobody really cares about us, and they forget the Kiwis even exist.
- yeah, I know, that's why people moved here
You'll be fine.
- I used to fly so much 😞 but I've been saving money and such

my brain switches off as soon as I read the words iconic, gift ( ungrammatical ) or hear vocal fry

this is not really a good thing as these idiots might still have something worthwhile to say

"Omg besties! Babes! Obsessed!" And seeing someone drum their nails on something. Drives me batty.

Oh, and Jaycar is selling an RPi copy pretty cheap at the moment, the Rock 4C. I've been looking at these sorts of things for a while and decided to finally get one. It will really just be another computer around but at least it's not as big as a laptop.

🥣🥃

🥗