EXCHANGE INTERFACE

the delightful feeling of having fixed an issue

Fri, 01 May 2026 02:10:47 GMT

Work-related. I'm the bridge between two groups and I found the issue and (hopefully gently) suggested a correction.

It worked.

HUZZAH.

Now I'm hungry, I need to get some food, and I'm going to be solo supporting the system this PM because supervisor is taking some time-off-in-lieu of hours already worked. (I kind of did this last weekend).

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The Last Meme

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:56:23 GMT

Gakked from rmc28:

The Last...
Movie I watched: Project Hail Mary, in cinemas with a couple of friends. It was very enjoyable.
Series I finished: Honestly? Probably Bridgerton, back in 2024. I haven't watched any TV series since. Just can't concentrate enough to watch something through. I started Bridgerton S4 with the sistren on Monday night, we're going to work out way through the series, a couple of episodes at a time.
Book I finished: Undercover Attraction by Katee Robert. Part of the O'Malley sextet - a Boston crime family. Rather interestingly, the male MC of the second book in the series was quite clearly modelled off Charlie Hunnam in Sons of Anarchy.
Book I bought: Archangel's Sun by Nalini Singh - I'm buying the Guild Hunter series in hardcopy, after receiving the first six books as a gift about a decade ago.
Book I received as a gift: ...something about work. It's to do with work and faith and the intersection of them and was given to me by a friend to whom I sold a couple of quilts.
Food I ate: Trout fillets. Bought by B1 and fried to perfection for dinner.
Meal I cooked: Hainanese chicken rice, recipe by Nagi of RecipeTinEats. Really good!
Drink I had: Fermented limeade - home-made lime soda, which I left on the dining table for a few days too long and now it's slightly alcoholic.
Song I listened to: Trustfall by P!nk.
Album I listened to: Probably 'Anjunadeep16'. I love deepbeat dance-trance music for focusing on work.
Playlist I listened to: Belt It - my 'singing in the car' playlist. Turn the volume up, and belt it!
Concert I went to: The Music Of John Williams II with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra - a couple of months ago.
Game I played: Civ II. Was just playing it now when I decided I'd check DW.
Person I talked to: B1 - sister.
Person I texted: Sue - a friend who I arranged to pick up some gardening stuff with this evening.

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bits and pieces of life

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 07:36:14 GMT

A junior someone is having more or less a tantrum before they get into their parents car at pickup this afternoon. I have the window open and there's no avoiding the sound of someone small and grumpy.

--

Tired today, and my mouth feels vaguely furry.

--

( hockey 2026 )

--

I got the flu vax last Friday. Will go back and get the most recent COVID one maybe next Friday.

--

Phew, really tired. Might go have a lie-down before bible study group.

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travel: Georgia - Kutaisi

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:17:56 GMT

The fifth day of the tour (for me) involved food food food and, welp, yes, more food...

( Day 5: I'm not even going to talk about the wine... )

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foodopause?

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:39:12 GMT

I really struggle to have breakfast these days.

I have my morning coffee and then I kind of forget to have breakfast until midmorning...

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Space Swap exchange!

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:38:10 GMT

I got a very nifty gift around Maria and several other women of the MCU (Pepper, Jane, Nebula). My gifter took all the threads of my request and tied them together beautifully!

a piece of history in space
A mysterious fragment of an alien world threatens Earth, and four women must stop it before it fully awakes.

Literally, S.H.I.E.L.D in space!

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positive family

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 05:38:52 GMT

The brother came for dinner with his wife and his eldest daughter (they left the 20 month old with the Phillipino nurse) and we had a great evening of dinner and talking and catching up and dealing with an enthusiastic 5 year old.

And I have learned that I do not know how to deal with small willful children. I've dealt with small children at church and in social things before, but generally their parents are pretty clear on the boundaries. Not that G and his wife S weren't, just that I think Miss 5 worked out that I was a pushover pretty early and basically decided I was the most fun to push boundaries with.

Oy.

But it was a good night. I did the food prep and it went down well. G and S enjoyed themselves, and Miss 5 also liked having aunties who were happy to play and engage with her.

But man that girl has a lot of energy.

Anyway, they came around 5:30pm, we had dinner around 6:15, and they left around 9-9:30pm. It was such a good night!

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welp all the medical stuff

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 02:14:59 GMT

I was supposed to get a blood test on Monday. I fasted and everything. And then the doc couldn't find my veins. This is not an unusual problem, although he's been pretty good at it before. It's just sometimes nobody can find a good vein in me. And it's not usually this bad.

So I came away with a paper for a pathology appointment where the people seem to manage it very well and swiftly (they're also younger; I like this doc, but he's pushing 70 if not 75). I made the appointments for a couple of weeks time because it's fasting, and because my veins in both arms had not been forthcoming so no point in trying again and collapsing them further.

Tuesday was the solar battery guys (which is going quite great guns, tbh), and while I was clearing stuff away for them, I felt a sting in my heel.

Ugh. Pointy wood splinter, in under the skin. I pulled it out, tossed it away, and thought nothing of it. I didn't put any antiseptic on it, or try to clean the thing out. I just didn't think of it at the time since the splinter came out cleanly.

Except, obviously, the splinter wasn't clean.

Five hours later, my ankle hurt right in the spot where the splinter had been - over the achilles tendon, making walking difficult. I skipped hockey training, went to bed early.

Woke on Wednesday, still swollen, and the swollen area was slightly larger. I was a bit worried, but hoped it would pass. By midday, I was feeling tingles in various extremities. Not a good sign. We had a set of antibiotics from...some time previous. So I started taking those - keflex, is the type.

I booked an appointment with the doctor the next day. Went to bed. Woke up feeling a little better, but still with the swollen heel and the tingly. The doc looked at it, declared it infected, and put me on a course of penicillin, which I've been taking the last four days with varying regularity. The tingling has pretty much stopped (phew) and I'm supposed to check in with him on Tuesday.

So that was my near-brush with infection this week.

Lesson: when stuck by a bit of anything in the garden, clean it off!

--

Today, the half-brother and his family are coming over for dinner. Hopefully the little girls will be okay, because the twins are eager to meet them. I've met them both before, although the younger one was only just over a year old and she wasn't great with strangers, but we hardly see them at all and we're not really a presence in their lives except distantly.

I'm doing dinner - roast goat loin and roast pork. Along with roast vegies.

Anyway, hopefully it all goes well.

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battery day

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:18:15 GMT

I suspect my site is one of great frustration for these guys.

There is no space near our switchboard, so they have to make a stand-alone space for the battery and inverter to go. They have to dig down to make a base. There are tree roots like crazy.

It's not a nice site for installation - the house was not designed like modern houses: the land cleared of trees, the slab poured all over and everywhere. This house was built on enclosed brick footings - a base wall on clay that has lasted surprisingly long.

I'm probably also not the kind of homeowner they want to work for, someone who'll let them do their job instead of asking all kinds of questions and stuff.

Okay, and I'm stressed too rn.

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forward planning is for WUSSES

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 03:08:55 GMT

Apparently the battery guy wants to come in TOMORROW.

*sigh*

Luckily, I prepped the planned battery site on the weekend. One less thing to think about. Although I guess that's forward planning on my part.

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we are one, but we are many

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 05:26:20 GMT

I crossed a mighty ocean
from the bloody tides of war,
I am a storm-tossed seeker
Of a welcome peace-filled shore.
My children will not learn the speech
Their ancestors did tongue
But in this land of hope they will
become Australian

I sought an education
respected through the world,
I yearn for opportunity
to see my thoughts unfurl
This land accepts my knowledge
My work beneath the sun
And here in mind and body I'll
become Australian.

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head injury

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 05:15:08 GMT

Short story: I climbed up on an unsecured stool in the garden, fell off and whacked the back of my head on the edge of a bathtub garden. Right parietal. Still the skull, so protected, but there was definite OW involved.

tl;dr I got it checked out, and scans, and no concussion or symptoms, but I'm taking it easy

I had a sore head with a lump, no blackouts or dizziness, definite swelling. Got the neighbour to take me to the doctor, then to the station so I could go get it scanned - ultrasound and CT. Haematoma (ie. blood swelling) but no significant injury that they could spot.

Still no dizziness or blackouts, no memory loss (that I can tell) and everything seems fine so far. I'm still typing.

That said, today, my right side is all achey - I've been having issues along the outside hip, involving stiffness of the muscle - it gets better after movement, but for the duration of the stiffness, it's not fun. Now, my right hand and right foot are feeling tingly. I have a bunch of very marginal neural issues on the right side of my body, so this has probably just exacerbated it. Either way, it's not fun.

Luckily the Edible Garden Trail is done so far as hosting is concerned. I'm planning to go out on the trail with a friend tomorrow - I have a plan, but it's fairly extensive so we'll see how we manage going along. Could be good, could be a problem. I'm going along with the woman I invited over for Christmas Day lunch - she seemed pretty happy to come along and visit gardens, so that'll be nice.

The main issue of going on the Trail is probably going to be petrol and driving. Through Sydney city and inner west, it's going to be just a wee smidge rough.

Although, interestingly, today I went to the doc for the follow-up on the scans. (Everthing's fine.) And although it was lunchtime on Friday there was almost nobody at the cafes next to the station. That's unheard of. I suspect a lot of people aren't eating out as often - which wasn't the case during COVID. The city businesses suffered then, but I suspect that with everyone pulling back from excessive spending, we're going to see a lot of local business going out as well...

*sigh*

Finally got paid via the new payroll company, as well as the 'catchup' pay that I missed out on at the start of the month. Phew.

--

And in other money news...

stories about my father

...well, not quite. Dad is coming to Sydney in April. Probably. If a Sydney client will pay him. He's been waiting for four months for this client to pay him, though... It's eternal optimism with him. And, honestly, I understand the hope, but also...I'm kind of like, "Could you not have just made nice quiet money the way your wife was doing back when you met her? Basic real estate stuff? Did you have to get glamourous and intiative-driven and foward-thinking?" Oh Dad.

I just want to shake my head at my dad. I love him but...

--

Anyway, it is Friday, I have just finished work. It is the weekend, and I suppose I should try to do some writing, but on the writing front I have been absolutely awful. I have to rewrite the Final Confrontation of Book 1 again - finally found the plot notes for it...

So close! SO CLOSE!

--

Did I mention the new chickens we got? We got two, one died, we got another two, and the three are hanging out together pretty happily. Except that we just had a cold snap (went from 25-30C days down to 15-20C days like that) and while they're doing okay-ish outside, we're bringing them in at night.

...Actually, I wonder if we could stick them all in the one cage. We were keeping them separate so we could tell whose shit was whose (for a while we thought they might be experiencing the same issue that the other chick died of) but it's just coccidiosis, which we're treating with special water. And they're not so large that it's impossible to fit them all in one cage overnight right now. Hm. It's a thought.

Right. Time to rest up.

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weekend

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:40:19 GMT

Weekend was crazy busy, and I ended up with a spoons crash on Sunday midafternoon. Ended up skipping church.

It was a really good weekend, though.

Mind you, it's now quarter to ten and I'm not yet in bed.

Going now.

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home and energy thoughts

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:50:29 GMT

What if I don't want to run the electricity in my household like a standard Australian household?

( thinky thoughts )

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so tired

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:49:02 GMT

Every time I lay down for a nap or an early night, or stay in bed for a longer sleep-in, I get disrupted by someone.

I'm not sleeping well. Is it a stress thing? A perimenopause thing? A thing with the weather? A 'life the universe and the end of the world as we know it' thing? Who even knows!

Unfortunately, I don't get a break in evening events until Thursday. And while I could stay home for each of them, in the first instance I'm the president, in the second a young woman is coming along for the first time, and in the third it's a social event.

I think I may have to take the sleeping drugs tonight. Well, melatonin.

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stuff and bother on a Friday

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:35:34 GMT

I think I waited too long to investigate the Solar Battery situation. The guy has not replied to my emails or my texts.

Actually, most people are rather bad at responding to my emails and texts. GRARGH.

Anyway, looking at other solar battery quotes, his looks very cheap, which...I'm mostly okay with tbh.

I'm thinking of this as a stop-gap measure, really

until I can set up a longer-lasting nickel-iron battery - the kind that old Nikola Tesla came up with, and which work for 100 years. Yes, it takes a little maintenance, but I'm more worried about losing access to electrical technicians than I am about having to replace the electrolyte solution once a month.

Yes, that says where my priorities and fears are right now. Frankly, I'm more worried about robustness of our supply-demand chain (newsflash: it's about as robust as your grandmother's crystal in a quarry) than I am about having to do things manually.

--

My garden is open on the 21st-22nd March, for guests, and it's seriously 'underdone' right now. Everything is wild (it's that time of year when the weather is hot and the rain is happening, and EVERYTHING GROWS). I had some friends by last weekend to put together some garden beds, and they're done and set, and now I just have to fill them.

And that's where this weekend and the teenager I'm hiring to do the work comes in.

A pile of woodchips is being delivered this afternoon.

We dig out the back paths (carefully! there are pipes in there!), discard the runner grass, and put it in the garden beds (bottom).

We dig out the chicken yards and all the lovely soil that's down there, and put it in the new garden beds (top).

We fill the back paths with the woodchips, then the chicken yards, then the chicken tunnels, then the banana circle, then the composts...

And all this after going for a 5km run on Saturday (maybe I shouldn't have committed to the run).

Then, Sunday morning is a Crop Swap!

OOF.

--

Yesterday, I made the sudden realisation that I've been writing Maria Hill (all my agents, in fact) like they were Australian SAS, not US Special Forces. An operative goes out and is given the trust to deal with the situation as needed rather than having to go up the chain of command as US Forces (even special forces) have to do.

The difference is rather telling.

I wonder how recent this doctrine is

- the military doctrine of minimising possible fuck-ups by ensuring that decisions have to be approved up the command chain. I wonder if (pragmatically) there was a significant cultural difference between the WWII Howling Commandoes and the way the US military worked (at least pre-2025) such that Steve would have found it distinctly difficult to work with the modern US military units, who are trained not to go off-road and make their own decisions: the YT video says that even units like Navy Seals and Delta Force are reliant on communications and up-chain decisions to go/no-go.

Anyway, it's a thought.

Not to mention, I can use this in my novel: if the MC is more inclined for an Aussie SAS mentality (although she is American) and doesn't quite fit into the paramilitary organisation she's working with (which runs off a US military authority mentality) then I can make that work.

--

Finally, Jima-wu, our remaining chicky-babe, is still with us. Survived and thriving. Back to what she was before the sickness, still on medication, and will be for a few more days.

*sigh* I'm still sad about Nien-go, and a little tired. It's a lot going on right now.

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bad chicken news

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:02:04 GMT

The two pullets we got a couple of weeks ago started going downhill from probably Friday night. We could only get them to the vet this afternoon (Monday).

They have antibiotics and we're crop-feeding them, but I don't think it's going to do much good.

Fifteen minutes later: Nien-Go is dead. We're not sure if Jima-wu is going to survive, although she was always doing better than dainty little Nien-Go.

( feeling like I failed )

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passing me by

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:42:49 GMT

I'm just not managing to stay on top of any of the fandom trends.

Still haven't watched K-Pop Demon Hunters, or Heated Rivalry, or even Bridgerton S4...

I'm not bothering with Marvel (they're dead to me, like all the best characters in the franchise) and there's not much else that particularly interests me.

As usual, I mostly lack someone to watch things with. I'll watch movies that I'm only marginally interested in with friends, but I've never been a 'rewatch' kind of person - even in the background. Too many things to do.

--

Actually, I'm just not managing to stay on top of ANYTHING right now.

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monday morning

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 03:50:35 GMT

Day 1 of the new contract.

I do wish the agent had negotiated a day or two off. I could do with a break. Everything is mad crazy busy around here.

And we're trying to acclimatise the Tweety Sweeties right now, but don't really have anywhere to put them right now, so they're in a cage on the front porch during the day (with water, food, dustbath, and perch) and get brought in at night to sleep safely.

That should be Nien-go on the left, and Jima-wu on the right. They are, once again, named after food: nien go is the palm sugar and glutinous rice new year cake, and jima-wu is black sesame.

The sole exception to this chicken naming standard has been the 'Lockdown Ladies', Gladys Berechicklian (named after the NSW Premier - like a US state governor - during the early part of the pandemic) and Dr Kerry Chant (named after the NSW Health Minister at the time). I don't know why we landed on those, but it seemed funny at the time, and Gladys Berechicklian always gets a good laugh out of people!

I have political thoughts about Australia and everything that's going on in the world, but will post them another time. *sigh*

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old HD

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:17:37 GMT

So, I was reading a Thread where a guy was warning about old drives, and how they might not last very long anymore because of degradation of the components used in them.

So, while looking for a mouse this morning, I dug up 2 old HDs (circa 2010?) and two external HDs and figured I'd kick them started and see if they worked.

And I just found the MOTHERLODE of photos!

Dating back to 2011! Including ones of my old cat, and the parentals' old cat, and friends' children as babies! WOW.

And old trips! Including a few that I thought I'd lost forever!

(Apparently, I have always taken lots of photos of builidngs!.)

Also, boy was I skinny!! Either that, or the camera made me look skinny. Oh, younger me, why did you not realise? XD

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Draft...2?

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 08:23:27 GMT

Finished Draft 2 of The Nullifae: And If I Rise. Had to rewrite a whole section in the middle, then cram in a sequence where they meet the Oracle, who's a Fae.

There's still some stuff to be done - I need to rewrite the opening scene so it's more happening, less infodumping. And I think I want to write a snapshot at the end where Jenna is getting more or less fired from her job. Do I write her getting fired from her work, or do I just show her in the doghouse before she calls the Director of Crossover who gave her his number if she decided she wanted a change of scenery?

Choices choices.

It's about 60K finished, which isn't huge but isn't small potatoes either.

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life

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:53:42 GMT

I need to sit up, no slumping.

Still no contract.

I wonder if the HR manager has pushed back against the client group manager...

ETA 2 hours later: Apparently they are renewing me, but they're changing the payroll company they're paying me through, and I'm not sure what's going on with the rate, or how much longer the contract will go for.

--

Also, per my icon: you should do a search on "political" quilts at QuiltCon '26. There are a bunch of conservatives with their panties in a knot because "suddenly" the quilts are "political"...

--

We have two new chickens. Babies, 6 weeks old. We're keeping them inside for the moment, in a cage, mostly because the coop we'd put them in needs repair and I won't have proper time until Sunday (but am stealing lunchtimes and after work). We're also trying to get them used to cuddles.

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memory

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:42:35 GMT

Memory gaps like whoa right now.

Apparently this is to be expected at my age and stage of life?

But honestly, it's a pain.

--

Have not received work contract renewal yet.

I have received a notice of a job opening in my line of work, permanent, in-house support/development. Hybrid, 3 days in the office, 2 days remote. The package is about 2/3 of what I'm getting now, but that's to be expected. And I don't mind an in-house department (in theory; if you get good people to work with, it's fine. If you get awful managers, etc...)

I put my resume in, we'll see if anything comes of it.

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ao3 notifications?

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:52:39 GMT

Anyone not receiving notifications from AO3?

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got through the weekend

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 09:00:21 GMT

Not quite as bad as feared, although every time I tried to take a nap/sleep in, I ended up having to field a call from a Baby Boomer.

UGH.

I mean, it was only twice. But both times it was about stuff that my uncle was trying to get rid of. First his wife called me (after he called my phone and couldn't get through, she called B1's phone, and B1 WOKE ME UP to give me the phone). And then mum called me WHILE I WAS TRYING TO SLEEP IN ON SUNDAY MORNING.

IDK. I try to sleep, it never manages to be enough lately. Like I'm functional, just tired. Also, headaches a lot. And my temporomandibular joint has been giving me trouble. It feels fine most of them time, but biting down on things is a bit dodgy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to watch the superbowl with some guys from church. It's annual, and just one of those Things That I Do. Three of the four friends who usually come along and watch have checked in with me to see if I'm coming. And as for the fourth friend, I'll just say "curiosity is not his love language".

Oof, I might go lie down and do some reading until I fall asleep.

I did write about 1200 words today, though. That was good.

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