• @[email protected]
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    2010 months ago

    I just got a random email from someone saying they love reading my books and I am one of their favourite authors ever.

    I figured it was just a spam email since I get them frequently - usually wanting to sell me something - and its too my author outlook email which is advertised in the books and on my twitter profile, etc.

    Check the email address and it’s from an education email address - so the ones they give assign to kids at school.

    Could still be a bored student taking the piss, but I choose to believe I just got my first ever fan e-mail.

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      I would have loved to have you in as a book week author but my clientele are just a bit too young I reckon.

      That nice fuzzy warm feeling when someone appreciates your work is so heartwarming.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        It is an amazing feeling. Really motivates me to keep going when that motivation can be lacking.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 months ago

            It didn’t say the school - email address was like a state wide one - but worked out a solution that will hopefully work.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    pakige…

    Two days with “we couldn’t deliver”. Two days I’ve been here all day. Either they are not trying or they can’t figure out how to operate a buzzer.

    EDIT: more ranting Oh and now they have cut me off from the phone line three times in a row. I’m now on chat to Amazon making a complaint. I’ve never had anything delivered by Dragonfly couriers before - this is terrible

    EDIT EDIT: Ok I know amazon are evil and all that, but 3 mins in the chat and they are sending me a replacement with a new courier company. THat is nice

      • StudSpud The Starchy
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        310 months ago

        Looking forward to the post apocalypse, just so I can build a shack and call it my own. Defend it with some pitchforks and I’m sorted. May the enshittification continue so that one day I may own a home lol

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    When I was a teenager I was learning German and saving money to go. Disability put a stop to that, it’s not a realistic option now, but I wonder what life would have been like if I had been able to emigrate.

    I’m aware that the living costs are also high in Europe. You don’t necessarily get an aged pension as an expat. Jobs could be competitive and social norms difficult. Nowhere is a utopia and it’s likely that wouldn’t have worked out for me.

    But you know. Longer term leases and tenants rights. Building standards. Dental. Less of an overt meth problem. You wonder.

    • @[email protected]
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      410 months ago

      I have thoughts like this sometimes, but from a different angle. I try not to dwell on them, otherwise I’d become wistful for a dream. There’s nothing wrong with that really, but for me, it hurts.

    • StudSpud The Starchy
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      510 months ago

      I know a bit of German in the hope that I would one day emigrate. Though my reasons for not doing so are different (stupid fat money-sucking ex lol), I still enjoy reading and writing German, and learning. I feel closer to my ancestry by doing so, and it sparked my obsessive fascination with linguists, etymology, and language in general (my current research is Proto-Finnish and other Uralic languages, specifically it’s a bit more recent in that I am learning why they chose a Latin alphabet despite Finnish being entirely unrelated to any PIE language).

      What I’m trying to say, sorry, is that we can still pursue the things we enjoy, even if the method of doing so is a bit different due to L I F E.

      But yes, one can dream of long term leases and better renter rights, though I heard the AfD has been elected in some states, so I guess no where is safe from the stupid Far/Alt Right

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        Finland isn’t doing too badly either. Their energy costs went below zero due to so much renewable.

        …Damn it. I missed the opportunity to apply for the $250 energy rebate. I set a reminder but put it for August not June. /facepalm

        Edit: or did I? It said 2023-2024 so was there another one or did it just close this late? I’m going to set a reminder for May or June next year to remind myself to check

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        Love this.

        Funny, Finnish came up in dinner convo this evening because someone didn’t care for the sound, but I dig it. And the fact I survived a month on Hei and Kiitos is like a highlight. Hehe.

  • @[email protected]OP
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    510 months ago

    I wuz thinking, there are about 60,000 people living my area and there is one little electronic waste disposal service at the library.

    Where are people really dumping their unwanted phones and other electronic goods?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      210 months ago

      I looked up the council web site and they include toasters, vacuums, printers, irons, etc etc as ewaste . I don’t see any of that stuff at the ewaste centre.

    • PeelerSheila
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      410 months ago

      If my electrical goods are genuinely beyond repair they go out to the hard rubbish and strangely disappear before the collection day. Old phones which have a still usable camera get set up with the Alfred app and become a security camera. Any non usable ones go to the box at the front of my local Woolies along with my dead batteries. Some repair places take old laptops etc as part of a trade (like Renewd) and presumably use them for parts.

      • StudSpud The Starchy
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        310 months ago

        strangely disappear before the collection day.

        That’d be my Opa; he’ll take your broken appliances and electrical goods and repair it in his shed so he can learn how it works. 😂

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      Mobile Muster has drop off points at lots of phone shops, you can also get a free shipping label from AusPost. They take phones, phone accessories, modems, smart watches etc. but do not accept every type of ewaste.

      IKEA will take light bulbs and batteries. Officeworks will take ink cartridges and storage media (CDs, hard drives).

      Sounds like you’ve already checked out your local council’s service. City of Melbourne will accept larger ewaste at a few locations. If you live in an apartment building you might be able to book an ewaste wheelie bin.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        I will accept a good CRT display, or a Commodore 64 (working or non), for free… please? 😆

        Hey can’t blame a retro gaming fan for trying 🙄

    • @[email protected]
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      510 months ago

      Officeworks accept them too dont they? Maybe other stores too? But I hazard a guess they go into drawers or the bin.

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      Phones, they usually keep in the junk drawer or a box at home.

      Other electronic goods…recycling bin or regular rubbish.

      Most people don’t care to be honest.

  • @[email protected]
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    910 months ago

    I have been well fed.

    Nothing beats a simple beef sausage and bread with tomato sauce with some coleslaw.

    I’m now kicking back on the coach trying not to fall into a coma now.

  • StudSpud The Starchy
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    1710 months ago

    So I’ve completed 3/4 knowledge assessments, and submitted 2/4 practical assessments. Tomorrow is prac day, so I can ask the questions I need, finish up the one assessment I still need to do, and then submit those. Then I’ll check the last quiz tomorrow afternoon, and attempt it, note down any questions and save it for Friday. Once that last one is done, I’m finished with my classes for the semester and can enjoy some holidays!

    I still can’t believe I’ve changed my trajectory.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Onto my sixth load of washing today and I might squeeze in a seventh as I think the sheets will dry quickly (been doing clothes, towels, oodie, blanket, doona cover/pillowcases…) What a relief, i havent changed my bedclothes in ages and the whole house feels so much fresher now that all of this is getting washed.

    Going in and out has also definitely helped break the monotony of today’s work, which I just have no mood to do at all. People suck!

    E: that was a long day and I didn’t get everything done. But I do have heaps of laundry to fold tonight after dinner! Even the cuffs of the oodie are dry which is a surprise given it was only out for about 2 hours.

    I’ve been watching Los Espookys after enjoying Fantasmas so much and it’s a nice low key fun show in Spanish. I really hope Fred Armisen’s characters daughter gets impaled in the second season though, the aggro shtick didn’t fly as humour

  • @[email protected]
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    1110 months ago

    Surprisingly easier to disconnect from work thoughts with this job.

    It only matters when I’m sitting in front of the laptop, and then, it’s over.

    Kinda nice for a change.

  • @[email protected]
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    1410 months ago

    Not long back from the vet.
    Results of second and more comprehensive ultrasound - Sammi has pancreatitis.
    Hopefully they’ll be able to control it with cortisone injections.
    Also she got a bravery award from the ultrasound people and the staff said she was a model patient and love her. Which is nice. 😊

  • @[email protected]OP
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    1410 months ago

    ta da, I finished the little cabinet and have loaded up some of my shell collection. I think it looks pretty cool and I’m well pleased with how it turned out. 🙂

    spoiler

  • @[email protected]
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    610 months ago

    Forecast changed to sunny today, best time to be wfh. Washing machine running overtime after having taken a break for 10 days. The air is bitingly cold though, not sure how dry my clothes will get

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        Yeah it turns out my clothes are getting turbo dried by the wind even though the air is a bit cold and the sun is not constant. Towels never dried this fast outside of summer!

        On my fourth load now… two more to go that should dry faster. I believe in you laundry. Let’s do it.