Daughter got her ATAR score and is getting automatically accepted into all her preferences.

Other good news, I made the 45 second microwave omelette and it's so fucking good.

::: spoiler he loves his sleeping bag lol :::

::: spoiler i am this gif this gif is me :::

Dentist. Do not want!

Saturday night is work Xmas party.

I feel like it would be a terrible idea to drink around these people.

What do you guys think?

What a great day (so far)

Assignment was marked!! Would've gotten a HD but I still passed!!! Yay!

My dad asked me if this was the kick up the ass I needed. I hope it is. It will be. I will not repeat these patterns next year.

Also, it's sunny and a house down the road has some cool Christmas inflatables in their lawn (imagine having that much space in your front yard)!

Suspended again on reddit for ... positively discussing wogs and skips in the wog blanket thread. Looks like reddit ai can't tell the difference between discussing racial issues and being racist.

I feel like the job interview went well. Now to the waiting. My mate who works there said a bunch of people haven't been showing up so I reckon they're keen but I don't want to count my chickens and what not.

Made it back down the bellarine.

This morning was the 5th consecutive weigh in for ol' girl >45kg up from 39 so taking it easy until xmas / new year. I was very much unpopular over the last year and a bit lol.

Thankfully relationship b/w ol' boy / girl / me survived all of that.

If I were to do it all over I should've been more aggressive food-wise earlier being honest so bit of a fuck up on my part.

Put on a fresh cream coloured hoodie this morning. Spilled coffee on it 15min later.

I maybe addicted to finishing a jigsaw puzzle YL and I started yesterday. It's a puzzle of world flags.

🐤 knockoff! 🐤knockoff!

It’s that blessed time

Off to Sydney this morning, I’m upset to be leaving our good weather for days of rain 😭

I really wanted to beach, there is a sunny morning on my final day so possibly then.

All the stuff on today's todo list is done. I even steam cleaned the upstairs rug. It looks brand new.

By next week every single cupboard and drawer in the house will be organised. Everything in it's right place. All junk gone to either op shops, given away or turfed.

UnKAOS will be complete. It will take minimal work to upkeep the house. A few repairs of furniture, chair legs need stabilising is the only house job left. Might sort my LP record collection. Turf some I don't want.

beach, tv and art work projects beckon 🙂

Far out. Stomach bug kept me in the bathroom more than my bed last night. Absolutely brutal 😭

I’ve done it now.

Melbcat was crying to go outside because the sun hadn’t reached inside yet and I caved. We’re sitting in the hot sun and she’s probably getting new fleas. And now she’s going to keep asking! I just thought I’d ease up a bit, keep her happy.

I just hope other animals don’t bring in parvo and that she doesn’t make a run for it.

Edit: She’s asleep… Still outside. I’ve grabbed the gothasol to shield us both

Today’s very…off

I have a lovely green chicken curry. There are also dumplings

It was sunny for a good portion of the day so managed a dip at Bondi but then the clouds and cool rolled in. The sea was angry today, like a washing machine. Pounding waves.

::: spoiler beach

:::

It’s also so nice staying somewhere where I am close to everything. Shops, restaurants, cafes all minutes away. Instead of the whoop whoop location where I live back home.

YouTube algo gods smiled and brought me this 10 mins of a complete breakdown of all the sounds in Blue Monday. So geeky, so good https://youtu.be/msZCv0_rBO4

I tried the oil paints and tested out my ideas for solvent free. Used the tiny canvas and one of the two brushes that were included.

::: spoiler Long ramble

I squeezed some paint out and it was quite separated. I hadn’t left it to sit in a particular way first so the oil had pooled at the cap, fair enough. That suited me fine. It allowed me to dampen the brush in that linseed oil rather than open the bottle. However it did also leave the paint a little less spreadable, while still not thick enough to get good texture. I could have mixed it but didn’t bother to get a palette knife.

I had to press the bristles hard because they were weirdly crunchy. Perhaps they had needed washing of some kind of sizing first but that would have slowed me down.

I had learned that you could scrub a tiny amount of paint from the tube into the canvas as a base rather than thinning it, and because that is actually used as a portrait technique (to build up slowly without immediately losing sketched guidelines) thought I’d practice. I began trying to make a thin transparent toned ground.

It does need practice. It tended to concentrate in patchy areas and not blend out well into the textured canvas which I didn’t bother to gesso. It didn’t have that lovely transparent look from the YouTube videos and quickly hid my sketch in places, however it’s probably both quality and my technique.

The answer ended up being to start very lightly and widely and gradually grind the paint more and more in, very similar to my experience with building up layers of coloured pencil. However this was very rough on the cheap small brush. Bristles were lost and deformed, and the short bristles meant some of the paint went up into the ferrule. This is bad because it is hard to wash out and when it dries in there it causes bristles to splay or fall out. It will destroy your brushes.

I also added some of the separated oil and a colour a step lighter. It looked better but ended up patchy so I abandoned the plan used the colour variation to start turning the patches loosely into landscape. The brush suffered further with some stippling.

I started with the darkest most concentrated paint (burnt umber) and worked it towards the back of the painting to create distance, adding a little of the separated oil and next colour up (orange) to work into the white bits but keep it paler. Then saturated orange was stippled like leaves, and the remaining bit misted into the background in patches. Yellow stippled and then a little blue in the yellow orange to make a bitter orange for trees and bushes. More blue for a muddy desaturated green faded into the distance.

Basically I went through a whole colour gamut to mix progressively different colours without having to clean the brush or add in a second one.

I was going to add more blue or brown for dark trunks and the same colour to carve out a path, then use the second brush to add all of the light details. But I got too tired and my head still hurts. I can let it dry and maybe do more details later.

Cleanup involved soaking a wad of toilet paper in canola oil from a bottle that might be too stale to eat, then vigorously wiping and scrubbing the bristles to remove as much as possible.

The brush was then scrubbed and agitated in a used paper cup with a small amount of dish soap, the water tipped into the bin on top of cat litter that had been disposed of. I repeated this with the rinse water, then wet the oily toilet paper inside the paper cup and threw them out. Washed my hands.

I don’t think I managed to get the paint out of the ferrule but the bristles looked a bit better after washing and so I flattened and reshaped them with my fingers. Then I wrapped the bristles in a flattened tube of paper towel and set the bottle of vegetable oil on top of them so they dry in a flat position.

Melbcat has demanded cuddles but in a second I’ll wrap the plastic palette in plastic and put it in the fridge to keep it wet.

I think I’m going to have to invent my own technique or find other solvent free artists because I was just winging it and having to consciously do the opposite of what Bob Ross does. :::

I’d still rather have a studio and be able to do wet on wet but guess what, I don’t have one. Also I think I’m going to struggle to get paint thick enough to behave properly for that unless I mix my own with pigment - and that definitely wants its own space.

It's late. Goodnight everyone.

Sweet dreams. 😘

Op Shop CDs are fun. I picked one up that had no playlist, just the title, Movie Songs.

I am up to this banger , Who you gonna call https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaV1r341wYk&list=RDTaV1r341wYk

Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

Today started with a bit of chaos. My groceries had a window of 9am - 3pm, and normally they give you a 2 hour window closer to the time. I hadn't received anything yet so thought it was safe to head out with Mr Woof, but just after I put his harness on they arrived, right on the dot of 9am (and simultaneously with the test message that it would be delivered soon!) My Woof had to be unharnessed again so I could collect the groceries, and so the delivery man could be woofed at frantically.

There were quite a few missed items again this week. They really need to up their game if they want more people to do delivery and click & collect (which they seem to want, for some reason. They are desperate to cut checkout staff and implement self checkout, but also want to increase staffing requirements to do the shopping for you. I really have no idea what there overall plan is here.)

They apparently had no turkey or pork, making my half leg of ham a little lonely. Also no lettuce, tomatoes or citrus fruit, so salads are going to be a bit sparse. I hear Woolworths let you choose specific substitutions and add notes to the items, that would be a good idea if it reduces the times they just leave out items. I tend to work from a model of stocking the pantry/fridge/freezer and them plan what to have from there instead of planning specific meals I shop for, but for most people leaving out major ingredients makes the entire shop pointless as you have to go to the shops to get the missed things yourself.

My plan to become Edward 40 hands at work has been undone by my immune system. I'm here, but I'd rather not have anything to drink as I'm not feeling the best. We have another barbecue tomorrow so maybe then if I'm suddenly better

It's been a glorious day in the garden today. I got a couple more pieces of garden support frames assembled (for beans and tomatoes) and planted out sunflowers, pumpkin, watermelon, beans and corn. Tomorrow I aim to plant out tomatoes and some beans. Most of the other seedlings should probably grow a little bit more before they get moved.

Yo

I thought I'd handle it well, considering this is the third time I've caught covid, but I'm so frustrated. My sinuses are exploding, I can't seem to get enough water into me, my nose is swollen shut but still runny.

I just want to sleep, but I can't sleep without breathing through my nose.

A relative brought a five-year-old iPhone from work and I am comparing it to my Samsung. My Samsung is three years old and not that shit, but it freezes a lot and the camera fails often. The battery also dies quickly. And it’s still young.

This Apple phone though. I like how you can use ad blocker in Safari. Apple Podcasts is a bit mid though. Bit drab looking and also not as easy to use as Spotify. Couldn’t rewind a podcast using my earbuds.

The worst part is trying to watch a movie. AirPlay does not support subtitles on my pirated movie site, whilst my Samsung just mirrors the screen. No AirPlay bullshit.

I think I’ll just do a back up and factory reset of my phone and that should make it go faster.

nightmare worse than cheesecake one

and then a false awakening thinking I was awake and nightmare was real, then woke up for reals, felt a little weird

more oldies CDs

I must be tired, everything is making me 😢

Dick Haymes you'll never know https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgBWumm95gw&list=RDHgBWumm95gw

Glen Campbell. He was such a huge star in the 60s and 70s, everyone liked him and knew his songs but said nothing because 'daggy"

Witchita Linesman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8P_xTBpAcY&list=RDQ8P_xTBpAcY

Gentle on my mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfMnNqn-hKg&list=RDmfMnNqn-hKg

I was sitting out there for so long with Melbcat. Eventually I had to just call it and carry her back inside.

This probably can’t be a regular thing. I’m trying to bring her as much happiness as possible but she can’t stay out there for as long as she wants because it ends up being indefinite, and at some times it’s not smart for us to be out there.

If she goes out again it needs to be on a half hour timer and only when it’s appropriate.

::: spoiler Reason - it’s not safe

I can’t have catproofing. 2-3 hours of sitting was past my endurance and I ended up lying flat on the concrete trying not to pass out with exhaustion. And while we were outside, a nutjob neighbour (who used to frequently attack people and tried to harm Melbcat in the past by throwing poison bait into my yard) was moving around nearby.

I ended the outside time to ensure I didn’t accidentally fall asleep with the cat loose and them around.

This why I’m so reluctant to have us sit outside. I can’t reliably supervise and don’t want her escaping, especially around this person.

:::

::: spoiler spoiler Also the way that commenter talked to me yesterday was kinda weird and fucked. Dropping in as an American on an Aussie thread to make a random aggressive comment, act as if a structural issue was a personal failing, and then tell me I was making excuses about having a disability… not cool.

In future I shouldn’t be so chill or justify myself to randoms, just save my energy and block. :::