This community is a place created for the people of Melbourne and Victoria. We are a positive, welcoming and inclusive community. We might not agree about everything, but we always strive to stay civil and respectful.
The focus of our discussions is based around things that affect 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)
hehe I walked to the shops and survived.
I won that war.
But the neurologist long term neighbour rocked around to say g'day to mum and dad. Wasn't a check up just hello. Fark me get two docs like that in the same room you are gonna get a lotta latin.
Ah yes, and how are the astroglia in your medulla oblongata on this fine day. Corpus callosum in good balance?
Corpus callosum in good balance?
heh I'm hoping hm.
Miror quantum quisque in piscina reliquit.
Hate getting public transport late at night. Train from Collingwood to city, then train home from Flinders didnβt line up, 20 minute wait. Then another 12 minute delay on top of that. Feels like I went in a voyage to get home.
Travelling at peak - no problem. Outside of peak, not fun if you need to catch more than one mode of transport.
First world problem : pizza or fish & chups? Cbf cooking tonite. And no meat in the fridge. Or freezer. Bad me. Must go shopping this weekend.
Amazing day today - drove down to Goolwa and caught an old/heritage "SteamRanger" train run by a Redhen railcar (the steam loco wasn't operational, apparently) down to Victor Harbour. Amazing views out the window - it pretty much drives along the beach for about half the route
View:
And those of you who pay attention to my ramblings may recognise this little guy:
In case you don't, that's a Vline H Set, the kind that used to run the afternoon/evening peak trains from southern cross to Wyndham Vale/Melton (or Bacchus Marsh)! I think it may have gotten a little lost, seeing as we're in a teeny little town in SA! I don't actually think the Victor Harbour line is still connected to the main Melbourne-Adelaide line like it used to be, but in any case, that's a broad gauge line (for broad gauge H sets), while Melb-Ade has been standard gauge since the 90s
Speaking of the junction with the mainline, this morning we stopped at Mount Barker Junction station, and managed to find a way inside. Pretty neat:
We also went to a little station called Littlehampton which seems to have seen better days:
Then we topped it all off with a trip on the Victor Harbour horse drawn tramway!
fucken' hell, saw a guy on the tram in the seat across from get out his meth pipe and fill it up. His gf was already pretty manic and jumping around the tram.
How do people lose sight of what is acceptable and what is not? π£
I hope don't jinx myself with this.
This morning I had more little meetings voicing my concerns and problems and my mental state and initially they decided that they'd assign extra staff to aid me at the end of the day,
It's now been decided that the problem I've been having at work has escalated enough now after a serious meeting today that the person will not be able to use the service that I look after and therefore will not be interacting with me at the end of the day.
If that is true and holds true for the rest of the work year I'm really relieved finally, it may not stop everything but it will certainly mean I don't end the day feeling super crappy and stressed about everything.
One thing at a time but at least that's a load taken off me from a work perspective.
Edit: And thank you everyone here for your support and warm words of encouragement.
monSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
Here too. All hail to .... to somebody.
e: and it will wash off all the secondhand pizza off the pavements of Richmond. Yesterday just softened it up a bit and made it fragrant.
Fantastic day - finished it off with American ribs (I've never tried them) and tiramisu
The tiramisu is very alcoholic. The bottom sponge later is dripping with it. I thought it was meant to bake out, but it absolutely has not - super strong. But enjoyable besides that
Told the GM that's leaving that I can't keep up anymore. He said I should make a task list and present it to my manager.
Let's see if they'll be reasonable or not.
Wishing you the best and hoping that something can be worked out with your manager.
Thanks mate :)
I did this to myself because I work my ass off and they just kept piling it on!
Standard employer behaviour
That's a wrap on a really intense work week. Who thought taking 4 hours off last week would be so hard to make up over 3 days. Some weeks are cruisey but it feels like I've done a week's worth in 3 days. And then I've got to get cracking on uni tomoz. Have dinner at a friend's and no time or energy to make anything. Then dinner out with another friend Friday. I hope to be able to get everything unpacked over the weekend and just blob out a bit. I sure will tonight after seeing the psych.
π
I reckon Kittenβs a bit too busy to go swinging
There are other forms of hospitality. πΉπ¦©
Hope you have fun tonight and are able to get some stuff down then finally relax over the weekend.
I have a task in my change this afternoon to execute a release pipeline called "Order 66". The task has been worded as "Execute order 66".
None of my colleagues thinks this is funny. π
The kid and I are deciding what toiletries we need to take and are only allowed one 20cm Γ 20cm ziplock bag each and everything has to be 100ml or less. What!!!! This skin needs a lot of before, during and after treatments if it wants to step outside in the elements.
Ahhh time to relax finally. What a day.
GRRRRRRR the drainage I put in is draining, but it ain't ocming out the hole.
If weather permits I'm gonna stick my endoscope on some yellowtongue and shove it up 'er
Every now and then someone does a cover that is just exceptional.... Stand By Me - Stephen Wilson Jr.
It is easy for us to get distracted by the big picture, and it can feel overwhelming when everything is is much bigger than us.
Remember that it is in the nature of our governments to disappoint us - this is because we live in a democracy centered on compromise. This is a good thing! This is another reason for us to have our representatives deal with that process - it allows us to keep moral clarity while they try to get the work done. We can sit in judgement of them while they make the Faustian bargains which keep the peace between those of us who would slay each other in the name of what we think is right. Sometimes, however, we need to look away from the sausage making. Give yourself a break, and come back to the body politic refreshed and refocused.
Would I change the system? Absolutely! Would most people agree with my changes... well... I'm not so sure... hence a system of disappointing compromises.
We can also get distracted by our personal struggles, stuck in the small frame of our own lives.
I am currently stuck in my small frame too, my personal struggles have overwhelmed me and I have found my self seized, stuck, immobile, useless, rotting, failing... well, you get the picture I hope.
I am trying. Slowly, the gears will be oiled, and the machine will move, and I am going to build capacity and become part of a community.
That is the middle ground - the place humans used to live. The way humans evolved to live. Act local, build community, and simultaneously the big picture and the small frame both start improving.
This is easier said than done!
To be honest though, you are already doing it here! This is a community. These people would not see you return to your creator, and I am absolutely certain the creator will be willing to wait many years for you to come back. They will call you when you are both ready.
I am not trying to offer advice, as I do not know your struggles.
I hope that you can continue through them, and I hope that your growth and success inspires others to continue their struggles.
I hope that your success can inspire your community to more success, more unity, and a better life for everyone.
(This post turned out much longer than I had initially intended - tldr: "Keep at it, we're with you")
Excellent post, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts so eloquently π
Sometimes you have to not think about external things too much. Live your life as well and comfortably as you can, be a good person, be kind to others and be kind to yourself. Thatβs it. There are bad days and good days, sometimes bad months and bad years. Do what you can to live a good life, and let the world turn.
Doomscrolling, American politics, a second apology
Iβm really sorry once again for my tasteless joke.
My doomscrolling had consisted of the wild suggestions that RFK junior had been kicking around for Americaβs health system. Such as removing fluoride from water and vaccine skepticism - but also the proposal of having βwellness farmsβ (labour camps) for people who used illegal or legal drugs including antidepressants or adhd meds.
Iβm quite concerned about suggestions like that which slide easily into fascism. Hoping that none of the really crazy stuff actually happens over there - or filters down into Australia. As American culture or conspiracy theories can tend to do. Iβm worried for the future. What happens to anyone outside the norm if that idea gets legs.
But even as dark humour and worry for the growing fascism in America and Australia, it was hurtful and not ok for me to say. Iβm very sorry to survivors and relatives of people who did actually endure internment.
I just have to stop looking at or worrying about this stuff. And not smart off about painful serious things.
We certainly live in dark times. The times only get darker if we cannot joke about them.
No one has a monopoly on horror.
No one should make you feel like you cannot joke about those horrors.
It is not tasteless to joke about the horrors that exist, and have existed. It's tasteless to pretend they didn't exist, don't exist.
I want you to forgive yourself for making light. We NEED light.
The dead have already suffered. The dead do not command us. The dead do not control us.
Live for the living. Laugh for the living. Laugh for yourself. Laugh for me. Laugh for us. Laugh because we need laughter.
Here is one of my favourite jokes:
A holocaust survivor dies of old age and goes to heaven. When he gets there he meets God and tells him a holocaust joke.
God says, βThatβs not funny.β
And the man says, βI guess you had to be there.β
Don't worry about what Seagoon said tbh. My urgroΓvater (great grandfather) was captured by the Russians and spent the rest of the war in an actual gulag, he suddenly returned home after the war ended. He could not and would not eat with his family, and would only make himself a sandwich when everyone else was finished (he didn't trust anything he didn't make himself due to his experience). And yet, I have joked many times, while going to work, "welp back to the gulag".
It's an offhand joke, and not worth worrying about tbh. I only said the above to state that everyone has different opinions, and different ways of coping and joking, and I personally do not see an issue with what you said.
But yes, doom scrolling, reading about the US and worrying, it doesn't help our mental state. It's feels heavy and insurmountable.
But, you have us and your hobbies, and while it may be difficult to do everything you want, you can still find joy and peace away from those news sites/reddit/whatever. They are nothing more than enragement engagement machines designed to make us feel angry, sad, and helpless. But you are amazing, kind, considerate, thoughtful, clever, you have so much to offer the world. Don't have to take any advice from me, but overall it's better to avoid the sites that bring us down. You are an integral part of this community πππ
Bleh, even after the roofer turned up today the rain that swept through has caused another leak from the skylight and an area close to it.
Turns out from what I was told that there was a broken tile up there and something related to the skylight had to be patched up, guess that didn't work though or wasn't fully fixed.
It's possible that if caulk was used, it didn't have time to dry and immediately carked it. Sticking a plastic sheet over it may have helped but then they would've had to come back to remove it. May have just risked it to save you the money of them returning. It was either a definite return to remove whatever was covering it, or a potential return if the fix carked it.
That's just my two cents anyway, I'm just spitballing.
Sorry, it double posted before, then I deleted one, and both vanished
Holy shit I had some weeeeeird dreams.... calling Gina Rnehart about a rotted out power pole that I pushed over indoors at the Northcote Automotive Museum (?? It had a network of indoor roads...), having a tooth rot out (my dental hygiene is bad tbh), and @Force_majeure123 appeared out of nowhere with a comment saying everything's going to be alright π
Now that I've finished the planting in my Mum's garden I've started to make some more serious decisions about mine. I've neglected it a bit because I'm not really sure what to do with it, and it's mostly filled with vegies gone to seed. I've decided to pull up everything in the main beds and replace with a mix of basic shrubs, mostly natives, and just keep the two raised planters with vegies in them. That should keep everything neat and be low maintenance, without costing too much. I'll get cheap tubestock that will hopefully grow a bit before the house goes up for sale and fill in the garden a bit and I'll fill in all the gaps with mulch. It will probably be a few days of solid work, but at least I won't have to cart soil or do anything too heavy.
Urrrrrgh, on top of a task I really really really don't want to do now my laptop is doing its go-to-sleep-every-few-minutes nonsense. Something about a wifi virtual adapter in the logs. I've spent about an hour troubleshooting (while it keeps going to sleep on me randomly). Hopefully I've fixed it. What an esoteric thing. I just want to lie down in the sun and sleep for a bit
One plethora of plants has now been ordered, and I have a rough planting plan drawn up. Now I need to add on another small fortune for mulch and fertilizer and I'll be set.
I've got my harry potter paint book https://www.dymocks.com.au/harry-potter-watercolor-magic-by-tugce-audoire-9781647224622
I've got loads of brushes, good ones and cheaper ones, tube paints and a palette of colours in trays. I have spare paper for messing about and a big jar of water.
Now I will read the book carefully and follow instructions. Starting with doing a colour test of all the paints. :)
