[Age dysphoria] I look like a character from a Far Side cartoon. Not about to be swallowed by a giant snake or abducted by aliens, but standing by watching it happen to somebody else with a rolling pin in my hand.

'The acting State Library Victoria management are rushing dozens of changes to library operations that will degrade and diminish core library services. These will gut the reference library staff (from 21 down to 10) and replace them with “self service” options; and pour taxpayer money into […]

I wish I could say "no" to people. I just agreed to go on Anne and Kev's (live) radio show next week, because Anne's on hols for a few months, and he needs a series of seat-warmers. She warned me Kev would try to talk me into it. I assured her he had no chance. Anne is delightful, super-smart […]

[Nobody's interested in your dreams, Katy] Slept really deeply last night, so the dream I had to claw my way out of just now involved being away somewhere terribly lush, green, and alpine. There were dauntingly steep hills all around which weren't presently alive with the sound of music, but I […]

[Whining, trivial, Bluebottle] While packing up at the library after an afternoon of overthinking my last uni work of the year, the power supply for my old ThinkPad went "Fzzt!" and emitted some smoke and a bad smell (from an electronics point of view; otherwise the smell was not particularly […]

I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want… No I won't. I'm far too middle class. In fact I'll refuse whatever you offer on the grounds that "Oh no, I couldn't possibly…" I don't want to put anybody out. Except myself. Damn it. How did I become my mother? Never mind the whole […]

RE: https://aus.social/@jhaue/115648813445725705 #housing #melbourne

When I heard the other day that there was a remastered Beatles Anthology, I was all "*sigh* what's the point?" Am I watching it now? Hell, yes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUFSwN-bLiU

I like adding hashtags to improve discoverablity but more than a certain amount of tags and it just starts to get a bit silly. I wonder if there is a way to ignore posts with more than, say, 5 tags? #hashtag #spam #desparate #attentionseeking #fivetags #tomanytags

My streaming service of choice is a handkerchief.

It is bedtime and I have no ice cream. Stoicism is a scam. Stoicism doesn't put ice cream on the table. Going to the supermarket in the morning.

Had a great afternoon at my U3A philosophy discussion group. Got a good few laughs; a couple more than usual. Then we went for a drink and someone asked me about MMT and I was off. Not in a totally obnoxious way. I took a breath from time to time. Every time I did somebody responded with a […]

Getting to that age where practically everything triggers an old memory. Nobody wants to hear that anecdote, Katy.

The keyboard on my laptop is starting to go. The letter k is among the least reliable. I was reading back something I wrote, thinking "Peas? Why am I talking about peas?" Oh! _Peaks_, as in statistical ones.

[Subtoot about a heavily boosted opinion about operating systems] "The big problem with this is that is too bloated." "Wait a minute. Not long ago you were complaining that the big problem is that it isn't easy enough to use." "Yes, well what I meant was that it wasn't easy enough for _me_ to […]

Well, looks like I'm bingeing on cardboard box wine and Handmaid's Tale series 3 this evening. It's been that kind of week. "Garcon! Bring me your worst wine, and most depressing popular culture! I don't know precisely what it is I've done wrong, but apparently I deserve no less!"

Brain not working today. Had half a mind to walk up to Brunswick to go clothes shopping (long overdue). Should have done it.

I have no ice cream and I must mouth off. Or just settle for fruit salad with yoghurt.

[Old lady TMI, positive but quite unnecessary] I have to report that I am dangerously sexy this morning. So I shall be staying indoors till it wears off. My commitment to maintaining public order is positively saintly.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@katyswain/115567277152200404 https://youtube.com/shorts/ydgmN9XfP6M?si=4cgF6S_ZCZPIrYZX

The UBI people are the Henry Georgeists of our time. They've got their one big idea that solves all problems, and they won't allow another.

Is it bad to be hoping for another financial meltdown to come along, because you're sick of thinking/talking about 2008?

Sometimes I feel so much like me that I'm amazed I can get away with it. #transjoy

Gods are like weather forecasts. The more detailed they are, the less plausible they become. Nobody laughed when I said that earlier today, either.

[mh-, ice cream, alcohol, tell me you have no hope of a sex life without telling me] I'm struggling with a lot of things at the moment, but my immediate problem is that ALDI discontinued their "limited edition" mint choc chip ice cream. They still have 4 litres of wine-like product for under […]

If you young people have never come across Dudley Moore playing Colonel Bogey in the style of a Beethoven piano sonata then I’m here to put that right. https://youtu.be/SIFzbLE6bHU?si=vKKMZgf2yy3Ka0eg

Is Occam's razor just a heuristic for identifying ontologically low-hanging fruit?

[mh-] Have a tutorial in an hour. Don't think I can cope with it. Don't feel good about myself, or my inability to function lately. Don't want to be seen, much less have to explain myself, because I have no way of describing what it's like to be me, or any reasonable expectation that anybody […]

Wrestling an essay to the canvas. The thing I like about sarcasm is that, as the lowest form of wit, it is always so conveniently within reach.

[mh~] Trying to work out what my problem is at the moment. I think it may be that every day is like every other day, and I'm not going anywhere. Literally. I'm not leaving my flat for days on end. I'm not speaking to anyone from one week to the next. I tell myself it's because I have all this […]

Annual reminder that car brain killed the long coat and that they are superior to shorter coats #fuckcars #urbanism #publictransportation

[Trans TMI] There are lots of winding-down rituals, but it's the sigh that accompanies pulling a bra out from under one's t-shirt that really signals the day is over.

Tonight's dinnertime Sherlock Holmes featured a very, very young and cherubic Hugh Bonneville as the soon-to-be deceased, with Roy Hudd as dodgy cockney stereotype, and (briefly) the lovely Caroline John (Liz Shaw from c1970 Doctor Who) as generic middle-class friend of the impending widow […]

I went out to do the shopping yesterday and couldn't work out why Melbourne was so packed with people in the middle of the afternoon. Annual horse cruelty celebration day. I love not having anything to do with mainstream media, and being free to wander about blissfully ignorant of stupid […]

My wife @zoandbehold.bsky.social in NY Mag today!!!

Interesting piece about how much effort it takes to get Gary Oldman's character Jackson Lamb to look as dishevelled as he does in the TV series Slow Horses. Fun read. #SlowHorses #tv cc @narrelle […]

Thinking about getting a #budgie or other small #parrot just so I have someone to talk to, and to complete my journey into doddery old ladyhood. Advice? Suggestions?

Still waiting for my ADHD exemption from keeping a smoke alarm. If I find it irritating, my neighbours must be really annoyed. All the smoke, running around opening windows, and flapping tea towels is taxing enough without adding an ear-splitting screech into the mix.

The old lady who lives in my mirror looks fricking awful tonight.

Never leaving Melbourne again. Not even for a few days. Inner North Melbourne, that is. Within 10km of my front door. Five if I'm feeling delicate.

RE: https://aus.social/@publicmoneypublicgood/115325383559920372 Guess who has a 6-hour train trip followed by 3 hours on a coach today. Oh. joy! At least I get to talk to a roomful of strangers about interesting things tomorrow.

Walking home this evening through Collingwood and Fitzroy and across my beloved Carlton Gardens I was struck by the thought that I didn't deserve to live somewhere so beautiful. Then I remembered my socialism and corrected myself. Everybody deserves to live somewhere so beautiful. #melbourne

"They've done a brilliant job, Zarah and Jeremy, of dissipating all that enthusiasm and excitement." - Alexei Sayle https://audioboom.com/posts/8790400-episode-100-podcastaganza

[Slow Horses S5E04, not really a spoiler] "At least my lot fuck up on an epic scale. They're not just run of the mill fuck-ups like yours."

A trip down memory lane. Our school in the 1960s had a Banda machine just like this. Practically all of our internal exam sheets were printed with it by the school secretary Mrs Wickes. Her preferred print colour was the deep purple. https://youtu.be/MdOjjZK0INM?si=goILCRglskrR1cIP

I was wondering if there was a term for when you feel imposter syndrome but the feeling is entirely justified. Oh, yeah. That's called being an imposter.

Goodness, life is weird. I really don't understand it at all. It's lovely and awful and baffling and amusing.

Just had another of those moments where I'm with a group of seriously intelligent people and suddenly, apropos of nothing, they all start speculating about how society will manage once AI has rendered all human endeavour redundant. I did not explode. Maybe it's because I have little relatively […]

Give us this day our daily duckies.

Had an appointment scheduled with the privatised dole police this afternoon. Just got a text saying it's been shifted to a phone call. Sounds like my usual lady is off sick. I just finished doing my makeup! Picked out my clothes to maximise the impression that I'm a diligent, respectable member […]