Daily Discussion Thread: Thu 17 Aug 2023

O oh. My over enthusiastic eager greedy eyes selected a 2.8 kg leg of lamb that DOES NOT FIT IN MY SLOW COOKER. I must now activate plan b which is to use my neglected but very capable oven. May the lamb gods deliver me perfectly succulent meat. 🙏

https://www.cookingtimes.co.uk/meat/lamb - for other's reference, as you're clearly on top of things cooking wise.
- Thanks for that. That's pretty cool. I'm going for fall off the bone type of lamb so I know it's going to be in there for at least 5 to 6 hours. It's not my first rodeo.
All hail the god of tinfoil! Saviour of us all.
- I am fortunate enough to own a very large baking tray. Praise be.

My dinner

Image of a plate with roast lamb, potato and sweet potato mash, peas, mint jelly and gravy.

Perhaps I should have taken a pic before we hoed in.

so many low cost hobbies or new skills to learn exist

just lies on side in Family Guy death pose

Still a little bummed about the game.

I wasn't sure they'd take the whole show, I couldn't bring my hopes quite that high. But I thought they had a decent shot at making the final.

Popped the heated throw on to get a bit of heat through my bed before I got in, so naturally the bed immediately filled up with the fuzzy children of the house who have left me a generous sliver of space.

Don’t you know? Furbabies go in the middle because they’re smaller, delicate and susceptible to cold. The humans sleep on the edges to guard them from drafts and predators

Lambo is now in the oven. He got smothered in mountain pepper, wattle seed and native thyme. This thing is going to feed us for days. My kid is gonna hate me "What's for dinner?" "Lamb roast" "What's for dinner?" " lamb souvlakis" "What's for dinner?" "Lamb soup" "LAMB AGAIN? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU".

Ohh Black Betty…
- Would it surprise you if I said that I do in fact sing and talk to my meat while I lovingly massage oil in. They are more lullabies and prayers though.
If they don't want it I'll have their share. Lamb forever!
- Lamb 4 eva.
Shepherd's Pie too. And lamb olives. And the good old lamb hash too. Wish I had 2.8k of lamb in the oven rn.

God, making someone with ADHD wake up for an 8:30am appointment is pretty funny.

(For those unaware, most people with ADHD have a thing called delayed sleep phase cycle, where our circadian rhythm is different to neurotypical folks who can get to sleep at maybe 10 - 12, and wake up easy in the morning. Whereas for us we fall asleep later and find waking up early hard).

Going to go back to sleep after my appointment, glad to be working from home today!

Edit: oof that appointment cost me way too much. I hate that psychiatrists app only take 15mins and you get a script and it comes to $175 (luckily there's the Medicare rebate but still).

Psychiatrist fees are wild, man. The only way I've not had to sweat about mine is because I've already spent such a shit tonne on my health that I hit the $2414 limit for out of pocket fees (for Medicare subsidised items - not including all the completely private out of pocket things). Medicare safety net baby. A $475 appt for 75 minutes gets shaved down to like $50. I'm jamming in all the appointments I can before the end of this calendar year
- I'm so happy I got a job so I don't have to stress about paying for my psych app.
  
  I took psychology in high school and learnt about who can and can't prescribe certain meds, but it's wild that I have to go see some dude for 15 minutes every three to six months to just get a script. Like, come on!
The more you talk about your ADHD symptoms, the more I relate I wonder if I should look at testing... jeeze
- It wouldn't hurt. I'd recommend taking online tests before you commit money to getting a diagnosis. But you can always use Medicare code 291 to get a free testing and such.

I love my partner, I don't think I'd be the person I am now if it wasn't without them pushing me to my dreams and our dreams.

But man I hate trying to figure out what to make for dinners when we're together. They're a picky eater, but I understand why because their family fucking sucks. Like I have issues around certain food (I hate cauliflower, some mushrooms (love me some woodear in ramen), and I hate fat on meat, I don't mind like some, but I just... I can't, it's so gross), but they are such a picky eater. But I just, ugh. I needed a place to vent about this. Again, I know its not their fault, but man it makes it so hard trying to think of recipes that isn't just meat and chips.

It’s cool if you wanted to vent without receiving suggestions.

But if you did…

spoiler

They could flick through a site like http://www.whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com/ or plug ingredients you both eat into something like myfridgefood

Or they could tell you whether it was a texture issue. Better yet take over some of the cooking.
- Not necessarily asking for suggestions, but I do appreciate the link because even then sometimes I'm like "what the fuck should I make?".
My 2c worth is to find cookbooks with as little ingredients as possible. 4 ingredients books are good and so are student and kids cookbooks. Don't like something don't include it or swap it for something else. My husband doesn't like ham so I'll swap it for bacon. I rarely follow recipes to the t.
- Usually I will remove something from the dish if it's something I know they won't like. But if that's the main component to the dish, then there's no point.
It’s hard, I have a few friends like that. Luckily my partner is up for anything, we both like trying new recipes. The people I know with food issues are happy to eat a favourite meal repeatedly, is it easier to make something you know they’ve liked before? Novelty is not a factor for everyone.

thai curry chicken pies have been made, served with home made tomato sauce, some eaten, many left for lunches and dinners 🤤🥧

spoiler

Do you heat the pie maker up first or put the bottoms in cold? Because I found it hard to put them in when it's hot because the pastry stretches.
- Cold for the exact reason you stated. 👍 And that also means it has cool down between batches which is annoying.
- Hot, i use the stretch to finesse over tte crimp moulds and seal the little slot overlap

I had bananas and custard for dessert. I have not had it in years, but it was a good choice.

Oh my god Reno is soooo seedy lol

I went for a walk, it wasn't even dark but close to it.. and the only people out on the street were junkies/homeless people. I put on my "don't fuck with me" walk/look which I'm going to say worked even if it didn't make a difference. Then it started to rain and get dark so I got on a rental scooter and scooted back to the hotel post-haste.

I did stop by the dispensery though... 😎

Edit: also dinner is going to be a Patty Melt and a Cherry Coke 🍔🍒

lots of the smaller places in Nevada are pretty seedy and you find all kinds of shops and cafes have slots. It's insane.

I've been sleeping at a consistent and reasonable time most nights recently (save for the night I went to Mildura and didn't sleep at all). It feels pretty weird, I always thought of myself as quite the night owl but I'm realising that naturally I don't seem to be

I used to joke I was "a morning person, if by morning you mean 1 - 4am". Now days I prefer to be in bed by 10pm so I can wind down and get a decent night of sleep. It feels soooo much better.

Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning. Take a brolly folks.

Kitty was not adequately sedated by gabapentin so she had to have a muscle injection and monitoring for a few hours (an extra $300+) but at last they got the blood sample. Got a stack of bupe for her if needed to chill her out until the results come back. She's fine but wobbly and confused at the moment. Poor, poor, poor soxcat. I hope they get to the bottom of what the issue is with the poor girl :(

😭 Hope Soxcat is okay :(
- She's calm and settled for now, if still a bit sad that she can't go into most of the rooms in the house (because I can't trust her to not pee on the couch...) but I hope she gets out of her hormonal whatever phase soon so we can have a nice cuddle on the weekend. At least she's eating a bit more than she was before...

Where the hell has the week gone?

Sydney. There was a soccer match.
- Ah yes. I heard about a big big soccer event.
where the hell have the last 3 decades gone 🥺
- Don't worry just another 3 or so more decades of working life to go
there's still 20% left
- 20%?? Where the hell has my maths gone?

Anyone know of any coffee shops preferably around CBD that play jazz music? I'm really feeling an overpriced beverage in a chill atmosphere

Just woke up after falling asleep during the game. We lost?

Yeah, they played well (including a spectacular goal), but slipped up on defence. The better team won. Still a pretty good result.

waltzes past with giant platter of hash browns i regret nothing that is about to occur

I'd like somebody to confirm if aldi have stopped selling hash browns. If anyone has seen them in the shops in the past few weeks please let me know.
- I also need to know this. How did this slip by unnoticed? Australians have become complacent.
- I haven’t seen hash browns at Aldi before either or I’d be so all over them.

Lemmy just logged me out and refused to accept correct login details, so I closed the tab and went back in… to find myself still logged in somehow

Lemmy straight trippin sometimes
Lemmy is still somewhat rough around the edges I guess. It's a bit clunky on my browser, and I can't login at all if I use my remote terminal (which is often times the only choice when on poor Indonesian mobile networks)

On another note, nice to see you here on Lemmy Melbaboutown, welcome. :D
- Thanks! Other than the glitches it’s been easier to adjust than I thought

Having a rough week so today I decided to get a jump on some birthday & Christmas shopping to divert my mind.

Not for adults - only kids. I love trying to find the right thing for a kid. And because I have a wide age range to consider, and all with different interests, it is all consuming mentally but hella fun.

I think I've done ok. But now I have to hide this stuff somewhere... Tetris time!

Fuck, looks like I'm moving again, just after finally getting settled down. The landlord wants to sell.

That happened WAY too often as a kid, it's why I've lived in 10+ houses over 3 states.

I feel you dude, I really do.

Finished S2 of Good Omens last night and feel like I need a whole day to just sit and try and process it.

Oh yeah. That ending.
- I just... urg.
Does the TV show follow the book?

I'm starting to assume not, since it'd be a struggle to stretch one novel out into 2+ series of television.

Chili is made. 19 1/2 serves bottled and in the pressure canner, should be finished processing in good time to be finished before the 3pm time-of-use power cost doubles. I tried a slightly different chili powder recipe which seems to have worked well. Definitely a massive improvement on the first time I made the recipe where I didn't realise "chili powder" is a blend and was not supposed to be straight powdered chilli. That one was a bit tasteless and very very hot.

Been reviewing Madonna’s entire catalogue today. Some real bangers in there. Forgot about that. Some very slick production as well.

At some point she got better at singing. Now, I don't mean she was ever bad, just that older songs like Holiday, have a more amateurish singing style than something off Confessions on a Dancefloor for example.
- I’m no expert but I feel like she changed up her style to suit emerging trends with each record while also enlisting the help of REALLY good producers and sound mixers. I found myself listening to some songs multiple times today from Hard Candy. Although I think her best album is Ray of Light.
- She got better then sort of got worse again. Any live performance recently sounds absolutely horrendous. I'm sorry but it's true.
  
  She's put out some great songs but if we are going to be honest you'd have to say that while she's not tone deaf she's far from a gifted singer.
I've been going through Yes's divisive (to prog fans) late 70s-80s catalogue, even Big Generator which I'm only finally listening to for the first time after 15 years of being a fan.

Say what you will about Yes's turn to pop, and the beginning of "over-produced" music, that world class production by Trevor Horn which defined the 80s is what elevated Yes over other contemporary prog or ex-prog acts IMO (Genesis, and even, I'm sorry to say, Rush).

And I don't mean because it made their sound catchy and radio friendly, but because it brought out the unquestionably outstanding skills of the band, and the tracks would've sounded sick even if it was a rehash of a 2 hour long 70s prog brick. Slick production isn't always the commercially bland conformist evil thing some people make it out to be...

/unrelated rant over.
- Can’t argue anything there. Prog rock bands NEED someone who knows what they’re doing behind the mixing boards. I love the 90125 album.
I sometimes delve back. She's had some good tunes.

Finished up the astro happy snap from last night:

https://imgur.com/xBa54sE

Where’s Uranus?
I guess that's alright...but I think there's some dust on your lens or something.

I feel wrecked today, Having a flare up and taken some pills to hopefully help calm it down.

Today I'm spending time cutting up pieces of foil squares.

I got loaf of sweet challah and a bottle of kewpie mayonnaise and I'm about to commit a war crime.

Oh crap! You just reminded me I have half loaf of sweet challah in my cupboard and I forgot about it!

Now that’s a true war crime.
- Try it with salt & vineger thins

Today is chili making day. One big pot of chili being made to preserve, and some for dinner. Either on a potato or as a soft taco, depending on my enthusiasm levels for tortilla rolling once it gets close to dinner time. It's the first full test of my new electric hotplate for the pressure canner, hopefully all goes well.

Love ma chili!! Surprisingly good with eggs and toast!

Managed to work the whole day yesterday, and rental inspection went fine. I even slept better last night. This morning though it was clear I just had nothing in the tank and called in sick. I also have a planned day off tomorrow, so hopefully 4 days break is enough for a mini break and recharge from increasingly stressful workplace

Stupid cold from last week has left me with a mouth full of ulcers, little buggers hurt so much more than they should.

haha. My reddit account was permanently suspended for suggesting someone fuck off and die. I guess that could be considered a threat of violence. I was responding to transphobia in my "I can't be bothered engaging with this incel" way. I don't care that we're supposed to be grown up about engaging with the incels and cis het know it alls who dismiss non binary people as being confused or not worthy of respect. It's fucking reddit and it's a cess pit. People think us gender non confirming folk are an angry bunch, and we are at times. I make no bones about it. I do positive things every day to make my little community a little better, I've earned the right to let off some steam too. Most people just sit around and complain about how shit the world is.

Anyway, do I get an Aussie Zone achievement patch for my jacket? Thanks

Nahh I would say the same thing. I'm honestly over trying to be delicate towards farts (because lbr there's nothing radical or feminist about being a transphobe). If y'all think we should die, then right back at you buddy.
- That's the spirit. Fuck em.
Pff no shit you're angry, like 80% of the twats you deal with daily negate your existence. It's rage inducing

TERFS can go shit and fall back in it
- It's not really that bad, I'd say it's closer to 1% honestly with the people I deal with. Most people hardly notice and are too busy to worry about what I do or what I am. It's just mention the words non-binary on reddit/melbourne and every incel douchebag comes out of their mouldy basement. Terfs are a lot more shrewd, evil and cunning.
Just a friendly reminder that you promised us that you'd be nice and respectful to people when you joined aussie.zone.

If such an interaction happens here, please report it and let mods/admins deal with it. I'd be more likely to side with you in this example, but it's an example of the sort of discourse that we don't really want here.
- Yeah no problem. Thanks for reminding me. Luckily there are no transphobes. I'd just leave honestly, but the one time there was one I reported and it was dealt with pretty much immediately. It shouldn't be up to me to police though. Its exhausting enough dealing with it in real life and I feel like I should be able to express my struggles with it here too. Obviously, I will not use the kind of language I used on reddit here. Courteous discourse is why we all love it here.
That’s how it always goes. It’s all fair game until you defend yourself. Fuckem
Will a trophy do?

🏆

Good on you btw, sometimes "fuck off and die" is the best and only response.
- Thanks, does the trophy come in ladies? Also, I've upset an incel here too. No one loves them because they're unlovable. Downvote away dumb dumb.

MARGE

I was like wait what, already? But Big Marge is still in north west Vic.
- Yeah turned out to be brief but enough that I had to abandon my sorting and dash inside.
  Lovely and sunny now, but Zooks has me pinned.
https://youtu.be/4gW6QuHovTo?t=20

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

I'm fried, burnt out. Maybe some suitable accompaniments?
- HP sauce?
- 🍠☕️
Am I took late for fried chicken and champagne?
- 🍗🍗🍾

Dog barking update. Last week was bliss, barely heard any barking. Thought the issue was resolved. But this week... it's been the worst yet. I spoke to a neighbour who told me the owner's overseas holiday is for three months and we're not even halfway through. Their adult daughter lives in the house and is "taking care" of the dog, but is out at work all day and the dog is probably used to having someone around all the time. She leaves the dog outside when she heads off to work quite early, and it barks loudly all morning and all day until it's let back inside when she gets home from work. Guess it's easy to not care about your barking dog when you're not around to hear it. Leaving another note in the hope that whatever she did last week is done again.

So tired from day after day of bark alarm. Ear plugs do nothing.

My wrist hurts… tiny phone screen is easier to handle than a sketch book but = tiny repetitive movements of the wrist. And it’s hard to go tiny enough on details. I’m considering saving up for an iPad or drawing tablet and pen but that’s a lot of money for something just to do art.

There’s a motivation and perfectionism issue too

There's lots of options other than iPads. I have an s6 lite which works great. Check out Brad Colbow on YouTube for dinner go reviews. https://youtube.com/@thebradcolbow
- Thanks, I’ll check him out
you can buy a lot of paper and pastels and charcoal and pencils with a few hundred dollars
- Unfortunately the traditional stuff requires more sitting up

Why is Spam so bloody expensive... it's spam! I might as well just use bacon for kimchi fried rice.

Waitress: "Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it."
Mrs Bun: "I don't want ANY spam!"
Mr Bun: "Why can't she have egg, bacon, spam and sausage?"
Mrs Bun: "That's got spam in it!"
- I’ll ‘ave your spam for ya, I luv it!
  
  (I’ve never tried it but am not sure I want to)

Work is a bit different right now because I'm not doing emails since I can't have access to the emails at home. But man... it's nice being able to do work at home. I'm definitely going to have fight to work from home at least 1 day a week once probation is up.

My exercises were completed this morning before I left for work. Minipeelers getting better but Mr Peeler isn't. Trying to be kind but struggling for sympathy with someone who keeps smoking despite having a really bad chest cold. Worked bloody hard today and finished my jobs so I could do extra cleaning in the factory like cleaning walls, freezer doors etc. Things have to be super super clean in the workplace and I love making that happen. Went home, told Mount Washmore it could wait another day. Made pizza for the kids and steak and veg for Mr Peeler. Slipped outside on the stupid ramp while putting the garbage out and came down hard on my hip and elbow. Swearing, ice pack and Hirudoid.

Tried to organise a Dr to do a home visit for Mr P but they turned it into a telehealth appointment and rang an hour ago. Dr told me Mr Peeler really needs to see a Dr in person. Gee, thanks for that insight, for fucks sake. Had to submit proof of residential address to Elder Minipeeler's high school. Also had to submit subject preferences. This was a lengthy process of trying to decipher the wanky language of the descriptions for each subject and explain in simple terms what that meant, but we eventually got there. Now I'm blobbing out in bed. Tired but not tired. Bugger.

Is Temu legit? I figure it's similar to Wish and all those other online shop but I see ads for it everywhere.

If you don't mind cheap plastic made by Uighur slaves. Your choice.
Well, it is legit. Pretty dodgy, but you do for the most part get what you order. I ordered from them once and a few things I noticed: they have a minimum $30 order which they don't tell you about until you're about to pay, they often go on about coupons which are way too good to be true (and they are). One I remember was they offered me a $100 coupon for spending at least 40 bucks, but what they don't tell you is that it's like a $10 coupon on your next 10 shops and you have to spend at least 60 bucks and you have 2 days to use them all
Yeah it's legit. It's like a $2 shop but online.
I've found it similar to alliexpress, but apparently much much worse.
It hasn't suggested a meth pipe for me yet, unlike Wish.

Rugged up between the sleeping and the dead,
The cold place where I make my home and my bed.
There's no friction, so I'm sliding through my life,
Waiting for the world to give into strife.
I can't catch or hold of the life that I want,
It slips through my fingers down into the fog.
My best is not enough, though that should be okay,
But I struggle to thrive every single day.
I hide away hope hidden deep within my soul,
I appear hopeless but I'm just keeping my expectations down low.
I don't know how much longer I can keep hoping and stifling fears
My stitching is busted so my dreams leak out with salty tears
I'll be fine, I've been through worse, I reassure myself
So why does it feel like I'm still trapped hell?

Ooo, just opened Mlem on my iPad. They have an iPad one now…

I'm looking for the cheapest mobile plans with some roaming. I.e. if I go abroad and I get a verification code to my number. I want to get it. I don't care about the roaming data rates etc since I can just get a virtual SIM from abroad.

Currently I'm in vaya but they don't offer roaming

Any provider that offers roaming at your destination has free SMS receiving, so you don't need to buy roaming (just need to have it available).
- That's not true any more. They now charge $10/day for roaming whether you use anything or not. It's getting very hard to get an actual pay-as-you-go plan any more. Everything had shifted to pre-paid monthly plans. Blame it on people not paying their bills or whatever, it's still annoying.

#Worldle #573 4/6 (100%) 🎉🪙 https://worldle.teuteuf.fr 📷 #WhereTaken🌎 #172 1/6 🎉⭐⭐⭐⭐ wheretaken.teuteuf.fr