Another beuuuutiful day in Melbourne folks 🌞
Finally watching the Four Corners piece on Woolworths and Coles, and nice to hear the farmer talking about how much of a hold both stores have on the farming community. I come from a farming (beef and bananas) family myself and I’ve seen first hand the damage they do by being the only option for farmers to sell their produce.
Also howling at the CEOs, they really don’t give a single fuck, and they aren’t even hiding it.
My old mans doing the whole “hobby farm” retirement things. I say retirement but he’ll still be trying to install shit as they lower him into the ground. Anyway. So went to a lot of stock yards and stuff to buy his like 2 cows and 3 sheep or whatever. Said farmers were selling livestock below cost and in some cases animals who couldn’t be sold were killed rather than continue to basically starve them, cause the cost of feed was soring.
As much as Woolies and Coles are to blame (and lets be VERY clear: They are!) Why were the media not calling this shit out?! Is it not the responsibility for journalists to investigate this shit? If “Cattle killed because cant be sold for next to nothing whilst Coles beef prices skyrocket” was the headline of the age, questions would be asked without the need for a royal bloody commission or whatever.
I think it’s more to do with the consumer is everyone, the farmer purchasing feed is not.
You’re right in that it should be a huge discussion point, but at the end of the day everyone has to go shopping for groceries, so that’s the story we’re going to focus on.
The farming lobby has had no problem diverting attention away from farming practices that have been destroying the environment the past 100 years. iow, they know how to get a story across.
I think the exact problem here is that it’s market gardeners who have problems with supermarkets and market gardeners are family businesses and have little power and voice.
Why the media are not calling this out - the main commercial media tv, web, newspapers have colesworth as a major advertiser. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. ABC is the only one that has the freedom to report on it, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t watch/read ABC so remain blissfully unaware.
people don’t watch/read ABC so remain blissfully unaware.
Do they really not? I just assumed heaps more did after the whole anti-Murdoch pushback around the last 2 elections (US and Aus). But dont ask me what I’m basing that assumption off.
I don’t have any numbers either, just anecdotal. Guess it depends on the demographic. Lots of younger people don’t, and then there’s the subgroup that think it’s too intellectual or lefty or biased. I actually think it’s probably the most neutral we have, because it’s not at the mercy of commercial interests or a very politically powerful billionaire.
This is exactly the scenario described by John Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath.
Why were the media not calling this shit out?
The accepted reason for modern poverty/need is the housing crisis. That is all the media talks about because that is what press releases are about.
The real stories are plummeting real wages, the giving away of our wealth to mining companies, the cost of education, the loss of employment rights, the destruction of the public service .
**The loss of good news reporting ( I miss you Ranald McDonald ) **
These losses have been decades in the making.
A lot of the problem with the media is that reader’s don’t seem to care. I have seen news articles about this issue, but if people aren’t interested in reading them the media outlets are not going to put a lot of effort into continuing to follow the issue - and with online media outlets the norm they get very clear feedback about the issues that actually interest people.
People don’t seem to care much about issues which don’t directly effect them and unless a story is novel and entertaining they don’t want to keep following it. If people in general put even a fraction of the time and energy into social justice issues as they do into things like following true crime stories, reality tv or Taylor Swift concerts the world would be a very different place.
The Weekly times runs articles like this, but mostly behind paywalls.
Now that I’ve quit vaping, what the fuck do I do with my hands when I’m walking around?!?!
Edit: The Tobey Maguire finger guns it is lol
Air guitar
Raise the roof
Jazz hands
Hands in pockets and whistle like a bad egg from a 40’s movie
Lots of options
You can buy a ring with a fidget spinner on it.
I would pay to see this irl
Macrame, though this may endanger local lampposts
Generally I just leave them dangling around on the ends of my arms.
Clutch handbag daaahhling!
Just keep it above the pants or else people look at you funny, trust me.
Personally I like to do the jedi wave to open automatic doors.
One of those greek bracelets with a beaded tassel on them to flip around. A ring with an extra loop on the palm side to fiddle with.
pockets
One neighbour with the mower.
Another with the pressure washer.
A third one with the whipper snipper.
Fourth one is eyeing them, and about to join in.
Sometimes I wish we had looser gun laws.
Huh… I’ve done all three of those today.
I’ll be doing two of these three on Saturday, maybe I should consider body armour?
Weekends are fine and kind of expected. I guess it’s my own fault for working from home today. Oh well.
I sometimes have to do this stuff during the week if I’m working on a weekend. I guess there’s no one time that suits everyone! Always make sure I don’t start until 10am at the earliest.
We have much yard and being on a corner, two frontages, but I still just try and get it all done as quickly as I can because A) consideration for my neighbours and 2) I just hate doing it!
Hey I get it. All neighbours in question are retired and have plenty of time. I guess when every day is a weekend, time goes out the window.
OHH see now THAT’S DIFFERENT!
It’s like when you’re at the post office on a saturday and it’s totally packed with retirees lined up out the door to pay their bills and I’m internally screaming COULDN’T YOU HAVE DONE THIS DURING THE WEEK?!?! 🫠
Want a hand with the gun shopping? 😁
I’m sure we can get a good deal if we’re buying bulk.
Stay strapped or get clapped👏🔫
👀
Wouldn’t the gun be just as noisy?
For a few seconds, sure. Then peace and quiet, until the sirens I suppose.
My go-to mantra is “it’s not worth the jail time.”.
Do you like vintage jazz? I can recommend Sing Sing Sing for out-noising noisy neighbours.
I’ve got ear buds in and got some chill house music going. I was only musing on the violence. They’ll be quiet in an hour.
Just had a ridiculously loud Harley zoom past. I thought there were noise limits on cars and bikes, but I suspect they are never really enforced. This thing was louder than truck air brakes, was verging on painful as it went by. The riders of these bikes must surely be deaf after regular exposures.
@SituationCake @CEOofmyhouse56 They are enforced. Just not frequently enough and they aren’t harsh enough that everyone thinks it is worth avoiding them.
They’re in front of the pipes and have helmets covering their ears. It’s not as loud for them.
Source: have ridden fairly loud bikes
Found out yesterday morning that was going to be my last working day. Cue frantic tying up of loose ends and organising a handover. And that was it. Handed over my laptop. Now on gardening leave for 4 weeks. Emails and Teams already cut off. I’m not upset at this situation, just in shock that it was all so sudden.
Thinking of doing a short trip somewhere during this time. Otherwise there will be a lot of catching up on sleep, time for cooking, relaxing and preparing for what’s next.
Good luck for the future.
Got pipped at the post again for a house - we were told all the way that it was a matter of the highest price and in the end the seller went with the other offer because they could offer 30 days settlement and ‘she wanted to give it to the first home buyer’. Never mind the fact I am, too - the house was Mum’s.
Ah well, it would have taken at least $10k just to get it habitable, and that’s before putting in things like a split system unit and blinds. And there’s another property - a unit this time - just about to come up in a better location and ready to move in or nearly so. But still.w00t, I just cleared level 49 of Bubble Town classic
level 50 crashes the system but we’ll see if I can do it this time
I went and had a go at it when I saw this comment. I got to level 6 and it crashed!
just another brainless time wasting match three game
but it’s free :)
Try Family Island. It’s free, the graphics are good and it is not a match 3.
once I do level 50 I’ll try it :)
Fell off the wagon today and have made myself a cup of coffee. Maybe I need to try tapering off a bit more slowly, a second day of headache and fatigue was just too much.
What sort of coffee are you making? Maybe you ca taper off by going to instant or going decaf?
by going to instant
There is never a time nor place, to recommend instant coffee for anyone.
one reason I find instant good is it’s low caffeine
For low caffeine options I’ll do a weak long black. Personally cannot stomach instant in any form. Get indigestion almost instantly.
instant WRECKS my stomach. No idea why. Glad its not just me.
So apparently, instant is made by freeze drying the beans/grinds. When you’re drinking it, you’re ingesting the grinds which can be quite acidic. I get a similar reaction when I ingest some of the grinds from a turkish coffee.
Right, that makes a bit of sense I guess
TIL
I disagree while sipping on my Moccona
You’re allowed to be wrong.
Hey instant coffee puts hairs on your chest. It takes a brave person to drink it so go back to your soy latte in glass with a little napkin.
If instant puts hair on your chest, I should look like a bear. I like my 6 shot moca pot for breakfast, black with no sugar.
How much coffee grind do you use in your moka? i generally use the same amount that I use in a plunger.
About 1 and a half scoops unless it’s really fine.
Jfc. No wonder you’re angry at your neighbours.
Moccona is awesome, Nescafe is crap :/
Last time I cut caffeine out I did it by mixing in increasing amounts of decaf to my coffee, I probably should have done that again this time. I was down to a single cup of coffee (plunger coffee) but it seems the last step was a bit too big. Not sure if I want to get some decaf or just cut down to a half cup for a bit - drinking half a cup of coffee seems a bit lame, so I probably should just get the decaf. It’s really easy to minimise the effect caffeine actually has on you until you try to cut it out and the withdrawal symptoms hit.
How many coffees do you normally drink in a day?
Normally three mugs, which according to the cup sizes on the grinder is actually 5 “official” cups.
Well there you go. Just make it two cups a day but I think you already know that. You need to find the happy medium.
@CEOofmyhouse56 @RustyRaven
one a week because I hate fun and life😂
@Duenan @RustyRaven I went thru a “half a shot of decent espresso plus a bit of decaf instant powder so it doesn’t taste too weak” phase when tapering
I’m on my 2nd week off cutting down to one a day. Still do the morning one, but skipping my post-lunch brew. Been sleeping better, but do feel a significant dip at around 2 pm.
Not sure if that’s just the coffee. I’ve had to up mine on the days in the city to 2 cause 2pm hits like a 747 coming in to land.
@MeanElevator @RustyRaven cutting down slowly is very wise
I had a dream that I was dreaming. Woke up in the dream to sleep paralysis.
Then woke up properly.
Fuck that was weird.
Edit: It just happened again. Fucking hell.
You wrote this while awake.
I hope.
How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?
If it is, then the person dreaming must be a masochist lol
I have something similar when I sleep in. I have a super realistic dream where I can’t tell I’m dreaming, realise something’s off, and wake up. Then I decide to sleep again to calm myself down and it starts again.
I swear it can get a couple of layers deep in a dream sometimes as well.
It’s ten hours late, but you deserve one of these anyway:
omg, now I’m feeling a lot better I can see how much housework there is to do. 😱 ( garden is mostly half dead too 🥺, some pruning, watering and feeding and most should bounce back )
Don’t overdo it!
Many loud sky explosions, and everything has suddenly become very wet. I think the predicted storm might be here.
Edit: And now ther are chunks of ice falling everywhere.
Looks like Melton will get hammered, again too. Might rain here in Thornbury - I did water the garden but refrained from washing the windows just in case.
Nothing here yet. I think Gisborne and Sunbury might cop it.
Booked another camping trip. These things are shaping up to the be highlight of my year so far. Man middle age hits hard haha
What’s your setup looking like? Tent, camper, van?
For just me? 23Zero swag and Oztrail Gazebo with a couple of removable walls. Been pretty good so far, but I just added a swag stretcher to a cart for next time. Tidal river ground is hard as a rock.
When I bring the family? Oztrail Fastframe lumos 6p. I love it, but it really isn’t good in strong wind. When the family is old enough I’ll either step up to a Campervan, or a proper canvas tent.
How about you? Half the reason I go camping is to check out other peoples setups.
We bought a second hand cub trailer last year, fold out with the hard floor. Taken it a few times now, and still working out some kinks. Having a power option is brilliant, we took a small toaster and air fryer with us when we camped in the Otways. Having roast chicken for dinner whilst camping was amazing. Going this weekend or to Yarra Junction for a couple of nights. Weather is looking pretty good.
Oh nice! Is that the Doon Reserve place? I’ve had that on my list for a while to check out. What did one of those Cubs set you back if you don’t mind me asking? They all seemed pretty expensive last time I looked for anything even slightly modern. My Kia can tow up to 1.9k kg, but only tolerates 100kg on the towball so my options are a bit limited.
Little community camp place, camp Eureka. Our cub is a 2014. We paid $10k for it after some bargaining. It’s in perfect nick. 90kg ball weight. Still working it out, but it’s great.
Oh wow, havnt even heard of this one. Its not on Wikicamps so that might explain why. Nice, what model is it? Guessing someone has modified it to have power right? Cant have been standard on a 2014.
Supramatic. Like this one, but no fridge (yet). https://www.facebook.com/share/p/HWk1vDQ23PY1BrT2/?mibextid=oFDknk
All the ones we looked at had power, so I think it was either a very common mod or it was standard.
8th night without power, in the Yarra Ranges. Really not good. The Outage Tracker seems to say that maybe tomorrow night late the power will be restored. Not holding my breath.
Well, I didn’t need to hold my breath. The power is back on! Thanks everyone for your kind words over the past few days, really helped.
Of course, now I can hear approaching thunder crackling in the distance. Another storm… 😳
Was it down long enough for you to get the $1920?
Yes it was.
Got my power back today too. Thursday is looking bad weather wise. I’ve just come inside due to thunder now too.
The battery life on this ThinkPhone is spectacular. Also, I’ve been using gesture navigation instead of the 3 buttons for the first time and it’s kinda awesome. Took a little bit to get used to but now I can’t see me going back.
You get used to gesture navigation surprisingly fast. I had to turn it on my old phone I use for emulators as well because I got so used to it.
I’m going to keep an eye on these ThinkPhones, they’re an interesting concept
For someone out of the loop, what’s the difference between these and your regular phone?
They’re just mid-spec Android phones, but Lenovo owns Motorola so they may have some of the durability of the Thinkpad laptops from which they get their name
Released from hospital, referrals to specialists, on and on it goes. Back to hanging in there and trying to cope with pain while I wait. I’m feeling like hell and very wobbly.
Still trying to get a quick stick vacuum in while Moobeans isn’t here to get stressed or breathe floating dust. I also broke out the scented carpet stain remover to clean away the last of the stubborn vom spots so hopefully the smell *of the cleaner is gone by the time she’s back.
rest now, take care, lots of hugs for you both
Thanks. I’ve done a couple of things and should have help tomorrow
