Daily Discussion Thread: 🐣☕🫗 Friday, 3 January, 2025
Daily Discussion Thread: 🐣☕🫗 Friday, 3 January, 2025
Today's weather forecast (Melbourne CBD, 3000): min - 12°C, max - 30°C. 100% chance of no rain
Cats are nap magnets.
Cheap telescope was predictably disappointing. My dad's old binoculars did a much better job, we could clearly see the dark side of the moon and the edges of craters! This old nerd was very excited 😊
The battle wagon is in good hands now. Should only take a week to repair. It’s getting more difficult to find parts for my car these days but the sensors shouldn’t be a problem. I’m now in a Kia hatchback something.
You know those dreams in which you try to run, but it’s like the floor is thick goo? That’s what driving this Kia is like.
Tea break
It might have been good to grow more crops that don’t require cooking, for people who might not have access to proper kitchens and would prefer to eat the veg fresh. Standard size tomatoes and cucumbers, carrots, that kind of thing. I wonder if it’s too late for sowing cucumbers.
I wish I had more space and strength to garden…
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The two tiny patches of soil in my own back yard are choked with runners of tough invasive grass that creeped in under the fence from a neighbour, and I don’t have the physical strength to dig it out and put a cement barrier to block it from returning. Especially as it grew through weed mat which would complicate removal. Maybe I should leave it though and keep it long as a home for bugs.
I was thinking of trying to improve the dry sandy neglected spot for actual growing when the disposable non-native annual flowers die.
As for prep I know sunflowers leach heavy metals out of soil, might break it up with deep tap roots, and beans enrich the soil with the nitrogen fixing bacteria in nodules on their roots. There are green manure crops you dig back in. Compost bins can be made cheaply (though I’d have to buy a drill.)
But it’s got a rock hard sandy layer a hands width down that I might not be able to break through to dig it over. Green manure seeds might not be able to stay moist enough to sprout. And even with wetting agents, organic matter, nitrogenous crops etc it’s still much more publicly accessible ie vulnerable to vandalism and choked with greedy invasive tree roots.
Plus going out there to tend it puts me in proximity to crazies.
I just want to be allowed to mind my own fucking business and do my constructive hobby man… 😒
Watching that Peter Jackson doco about the Beatles.
They are so young!!! I suppose in my mind greatness means a bit more age and experience.
Confirmed all my beliefs about the band. Such hard workers and talented too. Shows how much of an uphill battle waged by Paul it was to get things done tho.
I like how it shows how performing and recording is a huge team effort with engineers and producers, etc
ono really was a fifth wheel. Everyone was so polite to her but she really was in the way. How could she and John be so clueless .
But mainly it's a window into the 60s, when people made documentaries as a form of social protest or art. The filming was the art.
4 hobbits
I'm still feeling strangely unhappy, and the headache is still aching. Hopefully a sleep fixes them both unions last night
I made some jelly, been a long time since I had just jelly! It's grape flavoured. I've got some strawberries 🤤 it'll be good
With the holidays still being in full force, I think I'm just feeling kind of unfulfilled. Maybe I should go find a new hobby or project to waste time on
Perfect day for the beach.
Unicorn bell on the bike will get some action today on the foreshore. People who dawdle in the middle of the path need to know the wrath of the rainbow unicorn bell. I usually ride at about walking pace on that path (kids everywhere seen too many close calls) so it's extra funny when people freak out moving to the left. But the huge uptick in elec. scooters this year is a risk. I'm in favour of them in general, but they don't have the same stopping power / maneuverability as a bike if little johnny decides to randomly get in the way. Saw a collision yesterday and there was no way the scooter rider was not going to stack / hit kiddo. I don't think there's a solution (except for slowing down), just an observation.
Barry Lyndon is free on YouTube at the moment. I've watched half so far, and whilst it may not be Kubrick's best overall work, it's one of the most technically impressive
I have some pics from Castlemaine. Not touristy pics, just stuff I found interesting. 🙂
a gun captured from the Germans in wwi. There are so many war trophies and memorials from wwi it makes me think the war greatly effected this far from Europe town .
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cute aussie planter at the entrance to the art gallery
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awesome painting by Drysdale
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my fave entrant in the Fox art competition. By Joel Arthur. Trees on a lake? I just love the colours and perspective.
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A weird church. This town was full of distinctive architecture
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old wwi ambulance parked on the main street
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in case anyone needs to send a telegraph
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a very weird flower in the botanical gardens . agave gigantea
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the old train station . We heard kookaburras here. 🙂
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Jeez temporary fillings are fragile. I was doing so well, eating jelly and vanilla pudding, not in much pain at all. Then last night I was dissolving a peppermint in my mouth while watching videos… Forgot for a second - and chewed it. /facepalm
Thankfully they got me in today and fixed it. They’re gems.
I’m now trying to train myself to eat anything on the other side only and bought some soft fondant bananas 🧽🍌
(The mints went in the bin because I can’t be trusted)
This is our rules. 10 cards each. If you pick up from the middle you've gotta pick them all up. And if you pick them up then you've gotta put down 4 of a kind. That's it.
Getting a nice long walk in now seeing as I won't be leaving the house for the next 2 days. Except for cat duties.
Wallace and Gromit for me thinking about how there's a tradition of British men inventing something in their shed that's a specific answer to a problem no one had before.
Things that come to mind are the Brompton folding bicycle, that 3 wheeled car from Mr Bean, and the L96A1 sniper rifle.
Does anyone know of any others?
So… it’s only been recently (within the last 1-2 years) that I’ve really started shredding aeons old paperwork from primary school reports to medical files. I’ve been lugging around this expanda file that I don’t really use any more and finally pulled out all the paperwork today.
It’s not a huge pile by any means, but wow, you really can tell the story of someone’s life with this information. It’s kind of simultaneously cool/creepy. It’s also wild how people’s identities can be stolen with less.
The shredder is going to get a workout.
On a funny side note, finally got around to start wiping my old computer. For something that was running WIN7 with 3 drives (don’t ask me), it was surprisingly quick.
Like better than the majority the PCs I work with. It made me wonder why I stopped using it… Likely portability/outdated hardware.
Waiting it for it to finish ShredOS so I can take it to recycling… Honestly, attempting to do all the right recycling things has made realise how time consuming it is. Nothing is simple!
I put a cheap Kings Gazebo on the north side of the house yesterday morning.
We didn’t need to put on the AC at all!
Despite the builders best efforts, our Zero Energy designed house is doing pretty well.
We have an 80th Birthday Party here this arvo with 50ish guests. I think that we may need to turn the ACs on.
Set up a cheap telescope Miniest got for Xmas. She wanted to know what that bright light in the western sky was and I told her I thought it was Venus. She insisted we set it up and take a look tonight. I don't hold much hope for a great view but it should be interesting anyway.
Edit for vague direction of bright light.
I did a great job of making sure the bin was full and ready for collection, then fogot to actually take it to the curb. Now I have a bin full of such delights as chicken bones, cat litter and dog poo bags ready to marinade in the scorching heat of the weekend. 😭
On a positive note I have layer 1 of my lime and strawberry jelly jars poured and setting in the fridge.
Eee 5pm rave choon time
I've worked around 30 hours this week but split over six days. I don't know how my dad works six days a week. It seems a bit unsustainable to only have one day off and work so many hours. I tell you, that coffee must be a lifeline.
My latest obsession is watching little motors be blown up in various liquids. I mean, isn't this just how life feels sometimes?
