social.mjd.id.au

Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Not called into # early yesterday, so ended up working till 7:30. Not called into work early again today, so I've been sitting at home reading and thinking "Don't eat those peanuts. You are not hungry. You do not want those peanuts. You will regret those peanuts." I ate the peanuts.
#work
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
"Don't re-invent a date time library yourself. If you think you understand everything about time, you're probably doing it wrong." https://gist.github.com/timvisee/fcda9bbdff88d45cc9061606b4b923ca
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Finally found a light bulb to suit the fitting in the bathroom, a week away from a real estate inspection. Made to turn it on, then heard a sound almost, but not quite, like "thonk!" Turned around in time to see the bulb ($6.50!), ejected from its socket, shatter on the tiles I'd just swept a couple of hours before. #2020 just keeps being 2020.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
The SMS to come into # early is running late today. Was it something I said? Lucky I'm hungover, otherwise I'd have nothing to do.
#work
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica

Cancer’s a Funny Thing

@Ruben J.B.S. Haldane, via Phillip Adams on #:

I wish I had the voice of Homer
To sing of rectal carcinoma,
Which kills a lot more chaps, in fact,
Than were bumped off when Troy was sacked.

Yet, thanks to modern surgeon’s skills,
It can be killed before it kills
Upon a scientific basis
In nineteen out of twenty cases. […]

http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/Texts/Cancerhaldane.htm
#LNL @Ruben
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
I love it, well found. I'll be sharing that with all my patients ☺️
Ruben
Ruben friendica

Cycled to Umberumberka silver mine


Cycled to Umberumberka silver mine today. The bush out here is green with wildflowers everywhere. A cool breeze and bright sunshine, it almost felt alpine. Then I stopped pedaling and the flies caught up with me. #
#Austraia
6 comments - Show more
Andy C
Andy C mastodon (AP)
The Australian Outback truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

'Umberumberka Reservoir'
'8 Reviews'
'#15 of 15 things to do in Silverton'
#
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Andy C
It's really not a very exciting reservoir. Although, I cannot think of any exciting reservoirs off the top of my head.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Funny day. Cleaned the bathroom. Watched some videos. Typical day off, really. Just seemed slightly askew in ways I can't define. Wish that every day that was my worst complaint.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
2020-10-19 10:31:49
@Ruben Careful! That place name is pushing it. People might twig.

On an unrelated note, yesterday I took my parents to visit scenic Jainman's Field, near the historic Werstjobbe lobster fishing wharf. Caught the ferry out to Middle Finger for morning tea at the cafe. I've never had such surly service. On the way back we stopped at the old Desokkonna Pub for the afternoon concert. Rubbish singer had the gall to ask "what do you think of it so far?"

All in all, absolute disaster. Probably should have taken them out to the vicarage at Dikkemmorri and the neighbouring Warnowtgags Cemetery, then on to take in the celebrated tour of the saxophone workshop at Beni Hill, but the stories about it being quite sexist up there, not to mention cruel to bald men, have always kept me away.

Anyway, this level of detail about everyday life in # should put to rest any of those silly conspiracy theories that it is an entirely fictional country. Ha, ha!
#AU @Ruben
Ruben
Ruben friendica

Striking for the 44 hour week...

Ruben
Ruben friendica
Back in the 1st World War the Australian PM, Billy Hughes outlawed the 'Wobblies'. The Broken Hill cell was the first to be arrested # (International Workers of the World) #
#IWW #brokenhill
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
@Ruben From what I recall, Hughes had to outlaw the # Wobblies twice. The first time there was an act of parliament outlawing the #. They responded by changing their name. So then he put through another act outlawing any organisation on a register of troublesome folk, so that every name change didn't require a fresh act of parliament.

Hughes was a self-serving scumbag of the highest (or lowest) order. In order to keep his career afloat, by the time he retired he had opportunistically joined and defected from virtually every political party in the country, with the exception of the Country Party - now named the National Party. Apparently he said you have to draw the line somewhere.

This is a great book which persuaded me to join: https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryind0000burg I'm afraid I loaned it to somebody (I can't remember who) many years ago, and never saw it again.

I must contact my mate Ray about rejoining now that I'm no longer a half-hearted entrepreneur and instead once more an unequivocal prole.
#AU #IWW
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
Adobe DRM is required to 'borrow' it. Looks like a good read.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Also #: It's Industrial Workers of the World, not International. More people get this wrong than right because it is also a strikingly (no pun intended) international organisation. It's an industrial union as opposed to a trade union. That is, you're organised based on the industry you work in rather than the trade you work in.

If an oil company (for instance) has all the members of the clerk's union go out on strike, it can probably limp along for longer than those workers can go without pay. However if _all_ it's unionised workers, regardless of trade, went out on strike…

It's more concerned with class solidarity than old closed-shop guild socialism.
#pedantry
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
I read 'International' in the book, "The Richest Lode" and thought I must have misremembered. Thanks for setting me right. I'm really enjoying learning about the shenanigans of the unions out here. I cycled along the railway to Cockburn a few weeks ago. It was the border town thousands of Broken Hill unionised workers travelled to just to hear Tom Mann speak after he was exiled from NSW https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mann
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
... Or even the delivery, despatch and packing workers in a chain of supermarkets.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
In 1900 Broken Hill had 60 pubs and was second only to Sydney for NSW convictions for drunkenness
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
# goosebumps:

YouTube: IF I FELL Beatles ORIGINAL Vocal Track Isolated (The Beatles Vocal Harmony)
#Beatles
Ruben
Ruben friendica
I just applied to cross a state border. The bureaucrats are struggling with communication I "was assessed as UNRESTRICTED under the following category: None of the Above"
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
My friend Chris phoned this afternoon to say he was passing through #. I said "Oh, that will be great. Do you have any idea of the date yet?" Turns out it was today.

Had a lovely few hours in the pub. The Sawtell wilderness years dropped away, and it was like we were just in the Auburn Hotel carrying on the conversation from yesterday, and building up the appetite for a kebab. Computer games, old television shows, Bertrand Russell, good pubs, Modern Monetary Theory, the horror of suburbia, stoicism, J.M. Keynes, etc., with a new lifestyle supplement on trying not to be fat and old.

I don't have many friends, but by God they are good ones. I'm very lucky.
#Sawtell
Ruben
Ruben via Matthew Davidson friendica
How is your #? Not meaning to trigger you but I thought I'd share that I have found Pelican (https://docs.getpelican.com/en/stable/) to be a comfortable analog for my former life. I'm have gone so far as to be on the brink of dumping the almost as excellent Nikola (https://getnikola.com/)
#ITPTSD
4 comments - Show more
Andy C
Andy C mastodon (AP)
@mjd I've used them both and liked them both. Then I went to Hugo - not entirely sure why. I think it was to do with site regeneration speed and the fact I wasn't churning out any ruddy content let alone Python plugins.
@Matthew Davidson
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Andy C
Content, don't get me started. That word is so generic it just screams clip-art blandness. I poop content.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
I really should pick which account I'm using. I confuse myself.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
On the way home tonight I found a stunned rainbow lorikeet sitting on the road, panting. Couldn't see any sign of physical injury, so it might have just had a glancing blow from a car. It was sitting bang on where a driver's side wheel would go, so I couldn't leave it there. It was also about three doors away from treaglet minor's house, so I picked it up and rather gracelessly dumped it on them. J found a shoebox for it and they called WIRES (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSW_Wildlife_Information_Rescue_and_Education_Service) to come pick it up. It's probably got some internal injury and is doomed. So it goes.
7 comments - Show more
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Apparently the bird died before the lady from WIRES even got there. So it goes. Still waiting for one little nice thing to happen in #2020. I held it against my chest and it gripped my finger. It was warm. It probably had lots of friends.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
Poor little blighter... and the bird
Ruben
Ruben friendica
2020-10-12 13:10:06
reject modernity: netflix<br /><br />return to tradition: the pirate bay
Ruben
Ruben friendica

From Away

I introduced myself to one of the locals last week and they shot back, "Are you a Group A?". A local term meaning, was I born here? Back in the day when the unions here held sway here in town Group A people had to be employed over those from "Away" (another local term for anyone from... well, away). I wasn't up to scratch apparently.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
So this happened at # this afternoon: https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/coles-scrambling-as-registers-down-customers-turned-away-20201009-p563qb.html Feck me, free home delivery all weekend to compensate customers! And I've already promised to work till we're done tomorrow to support someone who's having their first go at running a shift. "Till we're done" no longer means what I thought it meant when I made that undertaking. Kind of made the same promise for the following day. Oh, well. Think of the $, not the physical pain or lack of sleep.
#work
Ruben
Ruben friendica
Splendid, I'm going to order my groceries in single transactions throughout the weekend and see how many free deliveries I can get! #
#coles
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Pitch perfect.

YouTube: REGENERON! (The Lincoln Project)



# # #
#LincolnProject #Trump #Covid19
Ruben
Ruben friendica
When I was a lad we used to think Joey Allen was a likeable nutter. Although watching this old bit of footage makes me sad I was too impatient to listen to his nutty ramblings - https://youtu.be/O_OwzGnNpGc
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
@Ruben I'm a bit jaundiced by years of involuntary residence in another putative "heaven beside the sea", and as you know I'm also poetry-deaf, but that was lovely.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Last time I checked, the # RSL wifi didn't reach across the road to the memorial park. Now I see it does. Woo-hoo! The quietest of my several offices got an upgrade!
#Sawtell
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
How very decent of them.
Ruben
Ruben friendica

Idler interviews

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/busy-doing-nothing-ten-years-idler-s-interviews-outstanding-bohemians-8802264.html
3 comments - Show more
Ruben
Ruben friendica
"You can always find something better to do than writing when you’re at home. But to create that idle world is quite a job in itself. I wish I had a modus operandi for that, but sadly it’s an intuitive thing, instinctive." # John Cooper Clarke
#q
Ruben
Ruben friendica
"What’s been disastrous since the Second World War has been the hijacking of education by human resources." # Oliver James
#q
Ruben
Ruben friendica
My new bicycle arrived last week, today we became acquainted. First let me say I have been riding bicycles as my favourite form of transport since I was six and yet I am relatively new to SPD pedals. I bravely decided to order my new bike with some new fangled clip-your-shoes-on-pedals. I mean what could go wrong?

On today's bicycle trip I fell off everytime I hit a lump while pedalling up a hill. I had not realised how often I usually put my foot out for balance. There was six of those lumpy hills, I have the bruises and grazes to match. Falling whilst struggling to free my feet from the cleats results in the most ludicrous looking crashes.

The first crash whilst going up the track off Gossan Street toward the back of the football stadium was particularly excellent. I crunked up against a rock, came to an abrupt stop and keeled over. With increasing intensity as I fell, I tried unsuccessfully to lift my locked in feet off the pedals. I hit the ground and made an exasperated gasp as my momentum rolled me onto my back. With my feet still attached my new bicycle rode majestically into the air before coming to rest. I must have looked like a beleaguered beetle riding a bicycle... upside down. I turned my head as I lay there and saw a couple out for a morning walk. They had stopped with twin open mouths to watch my entertaining stunts.

#
#cycling
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
I think #2020 is my favourite # play. The grand themes, the huge cast of fatally flawed characters, the black humour, the accelerating rush toward inevitable catastrophe. I could watch it over and over, and strongly suspect I will.
# #Shakespeare
Andy C reshared this.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Oh #2020, you incorrigible little scamp! https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/02/just-after-declaring-end-pandemic-sight-trump-tests-positive-coronavirus #
# #Trump
Ruben
Ruben friendica
2020-09-30 20:14:45
"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken."
- Going Postal, Chapter 4 prologue Terry Pratchett
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Oh, goody. F-bomb Freddy is back for his revenge. # #
#Aloha #Sawtell
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Looks like he backed his ute into somebody's motorbike with some force, then drove off. That won't satisfy him. Have put my shoes on in anticipation of the next gesture.

God I hate this town. I'll take a nice placid emaciated junky over a pot-bellied rum drinker any day.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
Nooooo
Ruben
Ruben friendica
We are driving 8 hours to the next closest 'city' on Friday. I never thought I'd be excited about a weekend in Dubbo. Fucking Dubbo. The first time I've left Broken Hill since arriving in April.
17 comments - Show more
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Oh, I've no doubt about my paternity. I am the love child of a cathode ray tube and a record turntable. My DNA is composed of strings of nucleotides like BBC, EMI, ITV, and LWT, and I'm full of hormones and neurotransmitters such as Parlophone and Granada. Whenever somebody in my street got a new TV, my parents would get a call to send me to tune it in for them. Spoke VHF like a native. It's in the wires.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
Cue the GLC from Wales, Half Man Half Machine.... https://youtu.be/Nuk3PhJzez0
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
One thing I regret is throwing out a lot of obscure vinyl over the years, on the grounds that I never really got into it, or expected to listen to it again. As an incurable nostalgist, I'd love to have some of that stuff to cast me back a decade or three — or four. I can't even remember the names of some of the artists. I used to buy stuff from little indy shops solely on the basis of the endorsements written on sticky notes by employees. So much mediocrity lost to the ages because nobody cares enough to torrent it.
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
Nostalgia junkie
Ruben
Ruben friendica
2020-09-25 23:30:36
After the sidewalks in my neighborhood got besmirched with anti-mask sentiments, I put up a home-printed poster of Paul Sizer's great # illustration in a street-facing house window.

link goes to where you can get your own free download

https://paulsizer.com/wear-the-mask-poster-now-available-as-free-download/
Wear The Mask<br /><br />I'm Wearing It For You.<br />Are You Wearing It For Me?<br /><br />We Are Strong Together
#WearTheMask
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
I've taken to snacking during the day lately, which my explains why my belt has been getting tighter. So today I bought a bunch of celery on which to snack. Problem: my fridge, which comes with the flat, is barely larger than a hotel bar fridge. It is designed for ice, beer, and leftover takeaway, two out of three of which I can't afford.

My Scottish (possibly; what do I know?) soul recoils at the idea of paying the same amount for a small plastic wrapped bag of pre-cut celery sticks (which I might eat before it goes off) as for a whole bunch (which I probably won't).

So I've stuck the bunch in an ice cream container with a few millimetres of water, as if it were a bunch of flowers. Might work. #
#CoffsHarbourLifestyle
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Matthew Davidson tagged Matthew Davidson's status with #
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson I do the same, celery just doesn't want to fit in a fridge. Mind you my partner doesn't approve of things like celery. 'For rabbits', she tells me as I dine on a few sticks of celery and carrots.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
By tomorrow evening I'l have made it to 20 hours paid # this evening. Not what I was hoping for, but a damn sight better than it might have been. Shan't complain. Christmas is coming. I will need to be well-rested.
#work
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Just binged the last two-thirds of Des. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_(TV_series) Satisfyingly unsatisfying, as intended I suppose. Tennant contained the Tennantisms enough to be quite unsettling.
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Had to go to a routine old man visit to the GP. When making the appointment, I was led to believe that wearing a mask was now near-mandatory practice.

I was the only person in the waiting room wearing one.

My doctor, like me, intends to wear a mask at # as soon as there is a # case in #, which we haven't had for over four months.

$12 for a pack of ten, those bloody things. I'm not made of money.
#work #covid19 #Coffs
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
Everyone visiting our hospital has to wear a mask through the front door. Once they're inside the rules are more fluid. We like to keep everyone guessing
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
#. I don't believe this. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-race-usa-louisville-report/louisville-police-officers-cleared-of-criminal-charges-in-breonna-taylor-death-idUSKCN26E2KZ
#FFS
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Matthew Davidson tagged Matthew Davidson's status with #
Ruben
Ruben friendica
@Matthew Davidson
I do :(
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Lots of military aircraft buzzing round and round # lately. Just had a wee flockette of three helicopters go by my window. A government subsidy to regional airports that are doing sod all else at the moment? #
#Coffs #AU
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Delighted to find that the word snorkel is onomatopoeic. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snorkel
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
Sitting at home. Reading. Waiting for 12:30 so I can give up on the possibility of being called into # this afternoon, and then finally leave the house to go for a walk nowhere in particular. #
#work #CoffsHarbourLifestyle
3 comments - Show more
Matthew Davidson
Matthew Davidson friendica
@Ruben I'm marginally less crazy: 6am. Partly because Kitty always used to wake me up for breakfast at the first sound of morning birdsong, but now mostly because the very, very young couple in the flat next door, with whom I share a bedroom wall, are *ahem* morning people.

"Hmph. Wha? That's a queer sounding bird. Oh, Jeez no. Again? Hasn't it snapped off yet? Sigh. Right: breakfast time. Also, put on some music, I think."
@Ruben
Ruben
Ruben mastodon (AP)
Oh no. I'd hate that, although good for them I guess. Want some noise cancelling headphones?
@trregeagle
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