A thread to get us through until the Bot army strikes.

  • Inducted a guy at work employed by our labour hire company, who admitted that he has no fixed address and slept in his car out the front of work last night.

    He’s framing it that he’s doing van life but I could see that there’s likely more to it.

    I’ve put him on to a community pantry and I’m bringing him some bedding, basic toiletries, and a towel tomorrow. He said no initially but agreed when I told him it was things my husband wanted me to throw out anyway.

    Really threw me with how open he was with it all. Left me really checking my privilege too.

    • Seagoon_ ( Seagoon_@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      in this economy there’s no shame in it. A person could be in a two wage family and they still can’t find a place because there is a housing shortage. It’s like musical chairs.

      and hugs for being so caring 🤗

      • Definitely no shame in it. These days more so than ever.

        He’s got a really good attitude about it all. Well kept, in good spirits, and generally seems to have his head screwed on right.

        Really impressed that the labour hire agency gave him a chance instead of putting him in the too hard basket.

        • Duenan ( Duenan@aussie.zone ) 
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          3 years ago

          That’s such a nice thing you did for him.

          Being in a not such a nice spot myself I appreciate that others are still helping people with things out of the goodness of their own heart.

          • I still feel shit that I can’t do more. Better than nothing but yeah.

            We grew up at risk of homelessness and my early adult life was on the edge.

            Growing up, if it wasn’t for generous hand-me-downs, public housing, and Centrelink, my life would have ended up on a completely different course.

  • Big-White-Dog ( BigWhiteDog@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    Big news!

    My boy Rocky has been doing so well at school, we’ve been promoted from Advanced Beginner to Intermediate! We’ll be focusing more intensely on our heel work and extended stays now

    So proud of my little munchkin!

  • omoikiri ( omoikiri@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    Today is a really hard day.

    Today we finally had to move my nana into respite care. She’s not taking it well. Neither are we

    Today Mr Omoikiri is having his wisdom teeth out. And while it’s completely routine and there no danger in it, I’m sick with worry and waiting around to get the call that he’s fine and I can go and pick him up.

    Today I have to review this 80,000 word thesis and get to back to my supervisors.

    I am so mentally and emotionally drained and my day isn’t even half done.

  • Rusty Raven  ( RustyRaven@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    Damn Bot. It was awake all night. No crashes, no timeouts. It just didn’t post anything. I’ll have to sit down for a debrief and try to figure out what went wrong. After coffee.

  • PeelerSheila  ( PeelerSheila@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    Day 9 of 30 day exercise plan. It’s working! I looked in the mirror this morning and noticed subtle changes in my body which are really encouraging and positive. I’m so happy! I can’t wait to tell my manager at work. She partly prompted me to start thinking about it in the first place. She had to do a test where you run on a treadmill for 10mins while they monitor your heart (pressure test). While I’m physically strong (lifting and carrying 20kg sacks of potatoes will do that to ya) I thought, “Could I run on a treadmill for 10mins? I’m strong but I’m not cardio fit at all.” Then I started thinking, “I’ll be 50 this year, you gotta do something about it. Do something for yourself. You’re overweight, just like your parents were, and they did nothing about it and died!” Sorry for the morning dramatics, but I didn’t want to end up like that.

    Here’s to positive changes! 💪

    • Hongohones ( RosaliePreistley@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      Well done! I’ve started doing more exercise as well. Tummy has already responded. Thank you planks and push ups and leg raises. That a load of squats and a decent walk moving to long walks again should see me ok. My gait has changed, my centre of gravity as well so my balance is less intuitive than it was and yesterday showed me I’m not flexible enough. Decent journey ahead, but I’m still not in bad shape luckily.

  • Rusty Raven  ( RustyRaven@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    I can’t see any reason why the bot did not post last night. There was no error, it just didn’t do it. The only thing I can think of is that midnight is causing a problem, I will change the time to a couple of minutes after midnight and see if that works. Every test post I have done has worked as scheduled with no problems. Fingers crossed for third time lucky I guess.

  • Seagoon_ ( Seagoon_@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    I have noticed as my depression lifts more and more I stand straighter. Just little things like that are making me feel good about myself. 😊 Good feedback loop.

  • TinyBreak ( TinyBreak@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    My psych always talks about “what do you need”. And I’ve gotta be honest, today I’ve got no idea. I feel a bit flat. Might try and do some small jobs around the house and see if that gets me feeling a bit more accomplished.

  • Rusty Raven  ( RustyRaven@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    I spent way too much time today perfecting my pay calculation spreadsheet. But is now a little neater, includes more automation, and calculates the super I should be getting as well as the pay.

    We have a ridiculously complicated pay structure, so I have 7 types of leave, 6 types of overtime payment, 6 different penalty levels (there are more, that’s just the ones that apply to me) and a few allowances. We also get paid basic wages for the period finishing on Friday, but penalties and overtime are for the period finishing on Wednesday. And our standard work day is broken into normal hours, rostered overtime and leave acruual, so the hours used to calculate each type of pay are different. So it is really hard to figure out whether we are being paid correctly without a computer and complicated maths.

    I’ve managed to get to the point that except for mistakes my calculations only differ due to minor rounding differences, and I can project future income for my budget fairly easily too. NGL pretty pleased with myself.

    • Duenan ( Duenan@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      Well done. It must have been a lot of work to get that worked out.

      I’ve been doing a very rudimentary budget every week or two to make sure I’m on top of everything and it’s so complicated without everything you mentioned and takes a lot of time!

      Not that you’ve done that is it time to R&R?

      • Rusty Raven  ( RustyRaven@aussie.zone ) 
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        3 years ago

        I’ve been working on it for a couple of years and improving a bit at a time. Now that I’m in the habit of recording things like the utility bills and petrol it’s becoming a lot more accurate, and I can make better forecasts for the future. It’s also been very educational, and there are a lot of similarities between complicated excel formulas and the way the code for the bot is written, so it has probably helped with that too!

  • Rusty Raven  ( RustyRaven@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    Miss Meow just walked over the laptop and tried to update the bot. Apparently she wants everyone to see the number 87.

    I have set the bot up to run at 5 minutes past midnight, fingers crossed this one actually works, I’m running out of options to try if it fails again. I’ve turned off all power management options in the wifi adaptors, and it now has the new adaptor so can connect directly to the router instead of via the phone as a hotspot. This whole thing is like launching a rocket, all the tests can go well and the main launch can still fail! Come on @bot001@aussie.zone we believe in you!

  • Still having sporadic internet problems, and went to look in comms box to see what I could find. Comms box is in laundry next to fridge. I opened freezer door and looked in there. This sums up my day so far, and is probably the reason I won’t be getting a job in IT anytime soon.

    • Taleya ( Taleya@aussie.zone ) Banned
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      3 years ago

      don’t beat yourself up, His Lordship is literally one of the biggest SEO experts in the country but if the internet shits out he runs into my office and dances madly in place crying and pointing to the Chrome Dinosaur.

      (this is what happens when a software engineer marries a sysadmin)

        • Taleya ( Taleya@aussie.zone ) Banned
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          3 years ago

          You got the fun diag time now. With the internet issues, is there a pattern? Does it stop browsing then come good without intervention, or is it just s l o w? Is it the entire network or just one machine? Wired or wireless?

          • No pattern, and D: all of the above, which is the most frustrating part. My clever bro hardwired the house several years ago so there are network ports in each room, plus wifi, but it’s all working/not working randomly across all devices (a couple of wired desktops and other machines over wifi, and the tv).

            A smart switch was installed recently to reboot the system each night, which I suspect might be the issue (although the expert disagrees). I may have also tweaked the patching, but don’t think that broke it because I’m good at patching and problem existed before & after that.

            Smart switch has been removed and things have improved somewhat but not entirely. Sigh.

            I’ve also reached the stage where listening to IT people speak is like listening to another language that I am not fluent in, lol

            packets… ping… something something…

            • Taleya ( Taleya@aussie.zone ) Banned
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              3 years ago

              ok, so the packets and the ping is them trying to work out if it’s your modem shitting out, or the physical lines on your network breaking somewhere. So if I wanted to see what’s going on I’d set the PC in His Lordship’s office and the one in the loungeroom to both ping the modem. One drops out but the other one’s still talking, i know that’s one specific route. Both crap out, the modem’s stopped talking 'cos that’s the only wiring place they have in common.

              Pings are basically just tiny little “HELLOOOO” messages sent between equipment that request a hello back to check the line is working. The “packets” message you get back is the response (and there’s more data in that simple response, but that’s a bigger thing that needs technical divining, packet sizes and shizzle tell you if a line is degrading)

  • just_kitten ( just_kitten@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago

    Thanks @Thornburywitch! The bot was not the only thing malfunctioning, just after setting everything up nicely and getting ready for bed, I nearly bricked my rather expensive work device the night before a field visit.

    Thanks to a stray comment on an old post online, I finally managed to revive it over an hour later, even though it honestly felt like some dark magic and only worked after about 9 tries (and some stress relieving cleaning). Certainly some witchy intervention there as well, I suspect.

  • StudSpud The Starchy ( StudChud@aussie.zone ) 
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    3 years ago
    more selfishness i suppose.

    purged my comments, all quite useless
    my contributions tend to be pointless
    left my stupid prose, i suppose for posterity
    from them I only gain shame and no money

    sorry for bringing this place, and all of you down
    i shouldnt openly display a virtual frown
    just an attention seeker, selfish and crude
    i want to be kind, but downvotes tell me i’m rude.

    do not perceive this jerk,
    demoted to witness, just lurk
    some of my rhymes made you smile
    but the rest are stupid and sad
    just bad, and personally vile.

    • landsharkkidd ( landsharkkidd@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      <3 I love seeing your comments even if I don’t engage with them.

      People will downvote no matter how innocuous the comments are. Someone downvoted my comment where I said today’s going to be a slow day. Guess Sonic didn’t like my comment. Oh well.

      • one, just for you.

        Walking around on cool winter nights
        Beautiful city and pale gold lights
        So many people minding their business
        No animosity, just inner stresses

        When out of the darkness a looming face
        Approaches out of the weeknight race
        They know my name, and my highschool
        Panic, frack, who are they? You fool…

        They come in fast, too fast to avoid
        I gotta think fast, my memory is devoid
        “Hey…you,” I say “It’s been too long!”
        “I know right,” is the reply “remember when…”

        Ah shit, I think, no, I don’t remember a thing
        Applied fake smile and say “Yeah haha sure thing!”
        And still their face doesn’t ring a bell
        I don’t know who they are, circles of hell

        “We ought to catch-up,down a pint, and reflect”
        “Sounds like a plan, just hit me up” I deflect
        Then off they speed, just as quick as they came
        Do they suspect I still don’t remember their name?

    • Rusty Raven  ( RustyRaven@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      If you have many downvotes I can only assume they are recent wanderers from Reddit who are still primed for the fight and have not yet learned this is a safe space where its OK to be nice.

      I personally enjoy your posts and consider you a great contributor in the community. It would make me sad if you just lurked.

    • Hongohones ( RosaliePreistley@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      We love you and all of your thoughts. What gave you the idea otherwise? Downvotes? Its a shame we can see how many ups and downs. I’d rather not have the sinking feeling either and was getting a few last week, but they’ve stopped. This is all of our safe space, and we’re here to support you.

    • PeelerSheila  ( PeelerSheila@aussie.zone ) 
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      3 years ago

      I’ve been busy and not able to attend this thread as I normally would, and can I just say: Thank God you’re here! I was actually worried about you! I’d noticed you deleted your posts before I even got a chance to read them and I thought, “oh shit, what’s going on here? Are we losing an attendee? Are they succumbing to self doubt?” One person might downvote, and it doesn’t matter. You know why? Because fuck 'em, that’s why! It might be an occasional drunkard stabbing at the wrong bit of their screen… or they might just be a gutless wonder who can’t express themselves- unlike you.