EXCHANGE INTERFACE

A 12 hour ban and TT is back.

This is bad. You know why it's bad - state controlled media, emotional blackmail, Dumpfwashing...

Hell, I described it last night, only this time the situation has a twist:

The rest of the world are the neighbours listening to the chaos on the other side of the wall every night, and then it went silent, and we were worried but also kind of relieved that it had stopped. And just as we thought it was going to last...they're back. And we know that it's just going to get worse.

CRIIIIIPES.

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Sydney Morning Herald: To Build Trust In The News, We Need A Trustworthy Watchdog
Not sure if this is a gift link, free article, or behind a paywall, but it's an illustration of one of the key problems with the world right now.

Information is power, but if you can't trust the information to be correct, then you're not in a strong position.

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I'll post some positive stuff today. I think we're going to need it

A friend has asked for a recommendation to a social media site that's like FB but without the algorithm and the shit that's meta's going on with.

This isn't uncommon among people who are not liking the direction of meta and it's subsidiaries, but it's also a hard order to fill. The thing about social media is that you want it to utilise connections, you want it to be simple for people to use, and you want to be able to control who can come and invade your personal space (not to mention, keep things from going viral).

I keep on having to resist the urge to tell my non-pocket people to come to Dreamwidth...

Truth be told, DW wouldn't work for a whole raft of people - plenty of people who never learned how to code, people who are accustomed to being spoon-fed, low-investment users - and yet, it's pretty much the 'lounge room' experience that many of my FB friends are wanting from their social media!

Conversations that you can control: freeze, delete, manage, banish/block. Lists of 'friends' who you can keep up with, without being inundated with advertising. The ability to join in a conversation anywhere so long as you have an account, and to be able to thread comments.

The functionality is pretty much what a whole slew of people want out of their social media interactions.

The interface? No. And ultimately that's what'll do them in.

And do I really want my non-pocket friends who don't know about fandom fossicking about my accounts? No, I most certainly do not!

Nevertheless, it's a little bit sad watching so many people scramble for something that is essentially LJ/DW from the early 00s, but which is that level too technical for most of them to engage with comfortably and fluidly.

*sigh*

High winds today. Not as bad as further south, but still very very gusty. It's been pretty windy the last few days, but also very warm - nearly 30C and we've only just hit the end of winter (by our definition).

I'm watching the trees in my front yard move alarmingly - an illawarra flame tree and a jacaranda. At least they're not the type to shed branches like the 'widowmaker' eucalypts we have in the area, which sometiems drop ginormous horizontal branches on whatever happens to be below them.

I wouldn't mind if the jacaranda blew over, except for the problem it would be in terms of mess to clean up at a time when I don't have time.

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I did a bunch of things over the weekend, mostly related to gardening things that I won't otherwise be able to do after Friday. Some sowing, some garden bed prep, some compost turning, some setting up of moveable chicken tunnels...

The thing that really needs setting up is the front watering system, because the summer is shaping up to be a hot one (if the current temps are any indication), and how much watering I'll be able to do in the next two weeks is up in the air. Dragging a hose or buckets around is probably not great for bodily integrity after abdominal surgery.

I did discover that one of the apricots flowers about a month after the others. The Tilton seems to flower in early September, while the Paterson and Unknown up the back flowers in August. That said, something is eating the Unknown Apricot flowers. Nibbling on the leaves and everything. So annoying!

But the tilton has a handful of flowers on it, which is exciting, but also a bit terrifying because ( the plant thief )

I hate people who do that sort of thing.

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Slight diversion: I also hate people who ask a question and then slam at you when you answer it.

( threads )

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Today is 'documentation day' where I try to compress the last four years of learning into a handful of documents for handover to my work replacement. We were supposed to meet at midday today in the city so she could pick up some hardware from the office and do some system handover, but the hardware has not arrived, and so she is waiting for the midday mail. If it has arrived in the midday mail, then I will go in to meet her and we will do a bit of handover.

If it does not...

Later this week, I guess.

Hopefully before Friday!

Ironically, some hardware arrived for me at the office of client-I-am-going-to, but I was not there to pick it up, and unfortunately they are not allowed to sign for it. GRARGH. So I don't know what's going to happen to it. Probably go back and they'll try to re-send it out again?

Post-midday update, one part of the hardware has not arrived so no trip in to the city today although the other has, so no trip into the city this afternoon. Instead, she'll pick up one part of it on Wednesday, and we've sett an appointment to meet and do handovers. Hopefully that will also give the second part of the delivery time to arrive...

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Still so many things to do before Friday.

I have a number of parcels to post to a remote op shop charity, some of which have been waiting entirely too long to be sent. Also: food donation to local soup kitchen.

I'm also planning to get a haircut. I'm wondering about a super-short pixie cut (again) even though I don't think my face necessariy does well with one. Mostly because tossing one's hair out of the way while lying down requires abdominal control. Which...yeah, nah. It would be after work one day this week, probably in the city. Maybe tomorrow?

I've been getting all kinds of advice from friends this week about recovery, and I admit I'm a little bit worried. I've never been down for longer than a week, and that was COVID and I mostly felt absolutely crappy for a couple of days. I realise this is very privileged of me, to be fortunate enough to be born with good health, but it's a little daunting having never had to face anything like this before. I kind of wish it could be just "Surprise! You're going in tomorrow. Fast and don't fret!"

That would be so much easier, honestly.

Okay, post office to send mail, get some lunch, make some no-knead yeast bread. Keep documenting.

OOF.

Finally, damn Kamala. Now I want chocolate-caramel cake.

Went to the Frocktails event, had heaps of fun. Better because this year I recognised a few more faces, and had a slightly less rushed weekend up there. Also, this time I wasn't on my period and bleeding out like a crazy person, so I was getting more sleep, was less anxious, the whole deal.

The dress was a Simplicity pattern, suitable for a stretch knit, and I did it in a magenta bamboo knit. With a lot of unpicking, because I read the pattern wrong, and the instructions were not the clearest:



I think the bodice may need to be one size larger, and I should prefer something that fakes hips on me (my hip-to-waist ratio is non-existent), but it worked and was pretty comfy wearing.

I did learn that weight weirdness is a function of perimenopause and I might need to grow accustomed to not fitting into anything for a few years. Not the news that one particularly wants to hear!

And in despite of my dissatisfaction with my current weight and body shape, I think I looked quite good in it.

extra things I did while up in the BM

While up in the Blue Mountains, I also went to a High Tea at the Hydro Majestic hotel (very fancy, always nice but not exceptional, yes, I know, I'm a snob), and did a fantastic spa experience in the hotel that hosts the event. I did a remedial massage last year and the therapist was So Good and I really appreciated it. This year, I was still sore from the personal training session last week, so having a fuller spa experience (scrub, spa bath, remedial massage with attention to my problem spots) was awesome.

(I might need to do a session with the physio at some point, just to ease out the last stiffness? IDK. Just resting it helps, tbh.)

Again, I was staying at the hotel hosting the Frocktails, which made it really nice to just go up to my room at the end of the night, and watch the reports from the Matildas v. Uzbekistan game, which we won 3-0. I'd semi-kept-up with the game throughout the night - the social media accounts were great for that.

Matildas stuff

There wasn't much happening until late in the 2nd half - I think about 70s minutes in, and then they brought on an 'old Matilda' who'd last played for the national team in 2016, back before most Aussie footballers were anywhere on the international scene.

There were shots on shots on shots from the Aussie team. Some went wide, others were blocked by the keeper. But nine minutes into her substitution onto the field, Michelle Heyman was back on the scoreboard and infusing the game with a new sense of possibility!

Player shuffling happened in the wake of Sam Kerr's injury - well, it had to, didn't it? Our wings are solid, great in front of the goal, but apart from Sam we haven't really had a confident, aggressive '9' striker to take it straight through the centre and push that attack. It's not that Foord or Raso or Vine or Fowlere or any of the other icons from the WWC23 aren't great forwards, but you need someone with the confidence and aggression to press hard for the goal.

Also, in spite of the calls for "more new players", I suspect a '9 Forward' is something that you either have to be supremely confident to start off in (also: Kerr worked up to it - the woman has been playing in the national team since she was sixteen), or else have experience of doing. So an experienced forward was a good idea; someone who's played the game, knows her own worth, doesn't need to be eased into the team. That was Heyman last night. And good for her!

Any new players are going to have a rough time of it - we had one entirely new Matilda on the field, and while she was good, she didn't stand out. Didn't take on the players herself, but passed a lot. Good player, but needs polish. That's not me blaming her, btw. It must be really difficult to join the Matilda as a new cap right now, particularly given the Tillies have become such an icon in the last year. Heck, I think it's difficult to play on the team as a 'not one of the iconic players' - one of the fifteen or so "familiar names" on the team. Previously? Nobody really minded/cared/worried. Now? Now it's huge. There's national expectation and hopes riding on it. And always the possibility that if you flub it as a newbie, there'll be arseholes calling for your head on social media. *grimace*

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Taylor Swift is in town - both metaphorically "in town" and actually in Sydney. There was some consternation among Americans watching the drone footage of the concert at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground): where does everyone park? Out of all the questions anyone would have asked about the MCG, I do not think any of us were expecting THAT.

public transport and public events

Most of our big sporting stadiums have a lot of public transport options around them. As in, LOTS. Train lines, tram lines, light rail, bus services. Parking is marginal (maybe a hundred spaces, most of them requiring disability passes) at best, if you are able-bodied, then get thee to a public transport system! They were designed like this, and if they weren't, then the cities have redesigned them to be part of the PT system. Plus events often have "event buses" that run along major road thoroughfares through the city and stop at various places to take on event-goers, bussing them straight in to the stadium for the event, and bussing them back out along the thoroughfares at the end.

Does it take a little longer than hopping in your car and driving home? Yes. But also, you're not creating extra congestion around the event, and there's usually a good feeling after an event that makes the trip enjoyable.

Incidentally, public transport in Australia is not a hub for "antisocial behaviour" the way it is perceived to be in America, particularly not event-centric public transport. Try groping someone in a crowded carriage of post-event people and you're likely to end up targeted by any number of people who would have been polite to you so long as you were polite to everyone else. In Australia, once your courtesy is off the table, so is ours. And we're a bit of a fighty sort of people.

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I have also endured entirely too many people sneering at Taylor Swift in Australia.

in which I rant mightily

Like I am not even a Swiftie, but I have respect for what she's achieved and is achieving, even if it is not my bag, baby. And no, she's not my hero, but she's an icon to a lot of other women - not all (or even most) of whom are stupid and thoughtless and brainless and dumb sluts. And no, nobody has actually SAID they're those things, but do you really think I can't hear what you're thinking when you're telegraphing it that fucking noisily?

Including the arsehat who tried to set up Taylor Swift vs the Matildas in one of the FB community groups surrounding the Matildas. He got rightly put in his place. Seriously, you don't like her? Fine. You don't like the attention she's receiving? Fine. You have an inferiority complex about what she's done and is doing? Great. KEEP IT TO YOUR FUCKING SELF. NOBODY NEEDS TO SEE YOUR INSECURITY HANGING OUT LIKE VARSITY PENISES FLAILING IN THE WIND OUT THEIR BUDDY'S CAR WINDOW.

Can we not be "pick me" girls? Can we not do the "well, we're not like all the other girls" schtick that is really just about making ourselves feel better about our choices as though other people's choices somehow invalidate our own?

We are not better because we prefer Halestorm and P!nk and Alanis Morisette, or climb mountains, kick balls, and hit pucks into goals, or shoot traitors down with six minutes before detonation.

Be better because being a decent person is better, and liking your things without putting down other people's things is better, and recognising that other people make different choices can be a thing, too. And yeah, we might make judgements on what they would be if only they were more enlightened ("like us") but also, they might be just as enlightened and still like Tay-Tay. My God, the fucking ANGST of it all.

tl;dr: I had a great weekend, even if some people (mostly on the internet but a few in meatspace) are being idiots.

( I'm starting to feel that travel is a-okay...so long as you're white )

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NSW is trying to get abortion off the criminal code.

*sigh*

This is going about as well as expected.

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( love and dogma, love and dogma, go together like a... )

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Listening to Jen Hatmaker's 'For The Love' podcast this week, which features an interview with the two women from the 'Pantsuit Politics' podcast: Sarah (from the left) and Beth (from the right).

Extremely good value; I highly recommend.

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You've heard of the tea lady...now meet...the cake man!

( there was cake! And profiteroles! And donuts! )