Yay I don't have cancer! It's been a rough week waiting for results but yeah. Fuck.
Yay for you! That must be such a relief. Uncertainty and waiting are awful, so sorry you had to go through that.
Has everyone opened up their house to let the cooler air in?
I waited until 12 ticked over to post this.. but have a look at this absolute beast of a backpack holding $84 of groceries like a champ. I've had this backpack for maybe 7 or 8 years now, taken it half way around the world twice & on countless domestic trips, and I've used it as my daily carrier/work bag and it's as good as the day I bought it.
Can fully recommend the Osprey Farpoint 40. Never felt more confident recommending something.
A mystery parcel is on board for delivery today. I really wish you got the sender's name not just a tracking number with these notifications so I knew what I was getting. I have two seperate parcels with live plants expected, it would be nice to know if it is one of those so I can prepare to plant them straight away. But it could also just be the batteries I ordered.
Woke up to someone sending me a bunch of pictures of someone's kids... Hopefully it's not a phishing scam because I replied telling them they have the wrong number and that I had deleted the photos.
But holy hell what a nightmare for the parents, and also worst nightmare for me having random pictures of some kids on my phone for 5 seconds (especially as a man).
I'm actually sick of Optus. I'm still pissed that like my data gets leaked but all I get is a :c soz bro. But they have cheap credit, which is $30 every 45 days, and I get a butt load of calls and text. So I guess if anyone has other recommendations for either similar price and offer or cheaper that'd be nice.
Though I do refuse to go to Vodafone because they too screwed me over years ago and I can hold a grudge.
Ted Cat goes out into our courtyard every second day. He loves it so much. Sniffs all the bushes and fences then rolls around on the warm outdoor paving tiles enjoying his freedom.
Has he grown his fur back or does he still look like a mix of cat and poodle?
Went to the doctors for my usual thing and mentioned a random rash that popped up on my face that's giving me grief, and now I'm on shingles watch... Fingers crossed the antihistamines I've been instructed to take for the next few days confirm its just weird allergy symptoms I've never had before.
Ted Cat likes to sit at the table. You can see how he has a little bit of a fluffy tummy.
We are heading into a cashless society they say. Do your banking online, it's easy they say. Until shit hits the fan and you can't access your funds. When the gov'ment says it's save to vote online then I'll consider it. Until then I'll stick to using my card or cash thanks.
I love my virtual money and almost never use cash. But we definitely need to have more back up systems in place in case of IT failure - not just in banking, but in pretty much everything. Companies have been very quick to take the cost savings of moving to efficient computerised systems, but have neglected to put in place backup systems to provide resilient systems. At one stage when the EFTPOS system went down they could manually swipe your card through and it would be processed later, now there is nothing.
A lot of companies are running extremely outdated software, and either can't or won't spend the money to upgrade it. Which leaves them prone to breakdowns, and security breaches, leading to not just data leaks but can bring their entire system down, if (like the Fire Services) a virus gets into the system. Or in the case of my now ex health insurance company they try to upgrade but don't seem to have a plan to wind back to a stable system if it goes wrong.
Anyone looking for a used car? I found this lining the drawer of my sewing machine cabinet.
Terrible job. Would not hire me again. 1.5/10. Also Bunnings guy gave me a slightly off colour. 
For next time there are little wall repair kits from Bunnings which include special netting with a slightly sticky back. You trim it to size with a little overlap at the edges and stick it over the hole. It gives the layers of putty something to grab onto.
Apply the putty in really thin layers with the spatula scraping it as smooth as possible, letting it fully dry and sanding it flush before the next one. Sand it really flat with sandpaper around a foam sanding block because doing it with sandpaper on your fingers can leave it uneven.
For the paint it really helps to cut a 50c piece sized layer of paint from somewhere really hard to notice of the same colour (use a razorblade and kind of slice at an angle) and get it put through the paint matching machine at Bunnings.
Use a roller not a brush because you don't want visible brushmarks. Bunnings sell little disposable rollers and paint trays. Do really thin layers too with drying between, feathering the edges out with the last tiny (barely any) bit of paint left on the roller each time so it's harder to see a sudden transition. Putty and paint the sneaky spot you nicked the chip from too.
The paint colour you got mixed may differ slightly from the main spot due to different rates of fading (ie if the sample paint chip was taken from inside a wardrobe) but do your best, let it fully dry and rub a dusty rag over it at the end so it doesn't look too new.
Source: Renter
The Boost app is so horrified by this repair that it crashes every time this photo loads. Or maybe it is trying to protect me, as it reminds me of my ex-husband's work.
Like @useless_modern_god@aussie.zone says, you need to sand it back and paint over it. It's hard to fill a hole without something behind it - too late now, but put a piece of thin wood or similar inside the hole and then glue (you can use some string to pull it forward). That gives you a solid base to work on. I found the best technique for getting a smooth finish is to hold the spatula or scraper at close to a 90 degree angle and scrape off everything you can. If you hold the spatula more parallel it bends a little and won't create as flat a finish.
Cold bottle of Asahi. Delicious after a hot workday.
Optus NBN appears to be just a DNS issue, people reporting their NBN working with third party DNS provider.
I strongly recommend not using telco for DNS regardless.
FYI for those that don't know, Optus services down nationwide, effects 10 million customers as well as payment terminals, Metro trains are also partially down.
Sky says Kaboom! One very unhappy kitty.
I realized I haven't been to my favourite pizza shop in many months (since before I moved). They were about a 10 minute trip, but they did the best pizza and once a month or so I'd make the hike because it was very worth it. Now I'm 11 minutes away and was going to get a pizza from there delivered. Apparently their maximum delivery distance is 10 minutes, and I'm just ever so slightly beyond their delivery area
I'm very sad now. They do the best pizza, and I'd probably be willing to catch a bus there (even in this weather), but unfortunately it would be a series of 3 buses all taking about 35 minutes + a 10 minute walk, and I don't think I want pizza so badly i'd do an almost 2 hour round trip
I am trying to start a weekly discussion thread in the gardening community, so if anyone is interested please make a comment on my trial thread
Decided to start watching Mr Inbetween and already love the first episode. I didn't know Australia made shows like this 😄
Well shit, that just felt like a one day weekend. Now it feels like Sunday but I have to work 😩
Pizza troubles have been resolved! I discovered apparently their on uber ears, and Uber don't care how far away you are, if you're willing to give them money they'll keep it all, give the driver 20 cents, and then they'll give you your food
Another beautiful morning out there. I'm not used to walking in warm temperatures, I need to acclimatize - was getting hot and sweaty by the end of the dog walk, and it's only about 20 degrees.
It's kind of terrifying to realise just how much power Optus and telcos in general hold. One single outage and the entire country grinds to a halt. If there was ever a situation where Optus' or Telstra's CEO wanted to kill everything, that really could. Telstra especially could fuck everyone over, since they operate the 000 switchboardy thingo too. It'd be massively illegal, and they'd get sued into the shitter, but why does a private entity hold this much power?
I guess there's an argument to be made that a problem like this could happen even if private telcos didn't exist, but it still seems ridiculous that something this essential to how society works isn't owned and operated by the government...
Absolutely agree. Somewhere along the line large portions of our society got conned into believing that government was a powerful entity which they should fear, and in the name of freedom and personal rights they enthusiastically endoresed selling off as many government assets as possible, and handing all that power away from democratically elected governments to big businesses. And all that money that was received from selling assets has been passed on to individuals as lower taxes, which then got gobbled up by the companies providing the services our taxes used to pay for.
Now we are in a situation where government does not really have the power to do most of what it should be doing and the businesses that are doing essential work are using their power for personal gain. And yet we still focus on trying to cut government down - as a society we hate the idea of government employees getting decent wages and benefits, so all the best employees go to work for private businesses, who we then have to pay a fortune to as "consultants".
Welp, good thing I'm not with Optus regarding the Internet. Now phone service...
I let my boss know, I should be able to get an uber to work, but I can't receive any calls or text which will be fun when I go home. I'll have to order the uber while in the office because the wifi doesn't extend very far.
Oh. oh my. omg.
I wasn't paying attention but now that I finally am, there's this something I can take up that will make my future plans way easier.
But that means I should make a decision soon, and take action within 2024.
Thought I had years. Now it's just months. It's a most wonderful thing but AHHHHHH
Edit: further googling tells me walking through door A doesn't shut door B. It's a net gain. I can go back to worrying about how full my neopet is.
Gracious, just had a meeting that wasn’t an utter waste of time. Miracle! Now back to this spreadshit of doom
Cat food rambles
The cat has finally dropped a bomb! (Yes she'll be getting some cooked pumpkin.) There doesn't seem to have been any immediate signs of food allergy from the cheap canned food 😲 (You have no idea what a big deal this is.)
I still won't use it exclusively. It is a generic brand and I haven't found the full deal on it so there could be serious health issues down the line if it's not good and feeding too much of it. (The dry version is absolute garbage, would cause health issues and will not be touched with a ten foot pole.)
It may be so cheap due to the edible but unappetising dark meat of the tuna, and it does meet AAFCO standards which may be stricter than the lax Australian pet food standards? There has to be some catch and it may be phosphorus, freshness, ash, salt... surely Woolies brand can't be very good.
But. If there's no glaring flags I'm going to get a few more as backup tins to keep in the cupboard.
Edit: She does have hot little ears though and was sick yesterday (not unusual for her with pancreatis) so will be watching. I keep worrying about something being wrong with her food, her teeth, or her thyroid.
I really need to get that lift to the vet.
Meals For Mutts dry food just had a recall and the dry food she began refusing was Meals For Meows so maybe there was something wrong with that too (will check the date on the remaining bag). But she's only been picking at Wellness Core dry.
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