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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 30th, 2023

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  • In Australia we call this “skimpflation” because they aren’t shrinking the final product, they’re skimping on ingredients to lower production costs.

    It’s the bane of my existence because brands I know and love will change their ingredients without warning and without changing anything on the packaging (sometimes not even changing the ingredients list! If the ingredients list has always just said “starch” they don’t have to change anything going from arrowroot starch to cheaper potato starch)

    I have allergies and I’ve bought two boxes of the same product at the same time, and had an allergic reaction to one, but not the other.

    I used to always blame it on my housemates not washing the cooking utensils properly, but I now use separate cooking equipment and I clean down the kitchen before I start and cook at odd times so I’m the only one using the kitchen.

    I’ve started emailing companies after my allergic reactions to determine if they have changed an ingredient, and 90% of the time they confirm they have changed the ingredients. Usually they put some PR spin on it about the new ingredient being more allergy friendly or sustainable (they don’t clarify “environmentally” so I assume they mean “financially sustainable for the profits of our company”)




  • I never got my pen license.

    I remember starting highschool and my teacher questioning me for using greylead on all my assignments, I told them I never got my pen license and they laughed and told me to use pen.

    They didn’t explain that a pen license wasn’t a real thing, it wasn’t like you legally required a permit to use a pen.

    But all through primary school “getting your pen licence” was such a big deal I genuinely thought it was some big formal process.

    I had so much anxiety that first year of highschool thinking I was breaking the rules using pens without a licence until my mum explained that it’s just a fun motivational tool for young kids learning to write and I’m an idiot.


  • I’m a two finger typer, I did have formal typing lessons in school but I never learned to touch type, my teachers used wpm and accuracy to determine if we were on track and passing, and my two finger method was working for me in those metrics.

    I’m missing a knuckle and have bradydactyly, so my teachers sort of gave up when I asked for extra advice in learning to touch type, and I had no motivation to learn because everyone just had this attitude of “oh they’re disabled so they have to type weird, don’t bother teaching them the right way”. But I probably am fully capable of learning to touch type if I tried.

    I’m not sure what my method would officially be called. It’s similar to hunt and peck because I’m only using my index fingers, but I’m not looking at the keyboard when I type, so there’s no real hunting.

    Though if I have to borrow someone else’s computer I do need to hunt and peck for a few hundred words until I get a feel for that specific keyboard.

    My handwriting is also shocking, and that I do blame on my hand deformities and disabilities. I’m dyslexic and dyspraxic and was diagnosed late in life so never had any support with handwriting growing up. My journals look like a serial killer because each entry starts of nice and tidy, with even spacing and kerning and text in line, then as it goes on the spacing gets uneven, lines get slanted, I’ll use 3 totally different fonts in the same word, like writing “anɴɑ” instead of “anna”, oh and naturally I write the “n” first then have to go backwards and fit that first “a” in. It happens because my cognitive ability to write fatigues so fast but my motivation to keep writing and writing fast never wanes so I just power through it and my handwriting suffers, and then my hand spasms because even with an adaptive pen grip, I still have functional issues in my hand.

    But I love typing and I love writing by hand even if I’m not good at either, and I think that’s the important thing - not giving up on one method entirely.



  • There’s something in the air today, my brain is rotting from boredom but I can’t tear myself off the couch to do any one of the 200 things I should be doing, including some reports for work.

    I also can’t seem to find the motivation or even focus to play a video game, or get out the sewing machine (my favourite hobby).

    I’ve been doom scrolling for 3 hours. Even though I know it’s making me feel worse, and it would take me 2 minutes to put a yoga video on and grab my mat, and I would feel better…

    But apparently my brain just wants to sit here feeling guilty over all the things I should be doing but aren’t.

    Its my day off so I’ve half convinced myself it’s okay to still be in my pyjamas at almost 4pm, and do nothing today, not even cook…but I’m not enjoying it, it’s not relaxing. I’m paralysed by the complete lack of motivation, and self imposed shame over doing nothing.

    Im going to blame my ovaries for this unfocused, unmotivated mood.


  • Again, it depends on the purpose of the group you’re creating, does this person in question face discrimination for their perceived race? Then a support group for people who have faced discrimination for their race may be the right place for them, assuming the intersection of having “chosen” to present as a race they’re not doesn’t create an unsafe space for the other group participants.

    However if your group is for people who have grown up POC or been raised in a non-dominant cultural group to discuss shared experiences, then obviously someone who identifies as POC later in life would not be served by that group, so would not be eligibile to join that group.

    There are circumstances when even if you fit the criteria of the group, you may still be excluded due to the way various identities and experiences intersect, or because your personal actions are not serving the group.

    It’s not discrimination to be told you can’t use a private service because the service can’t serve your specific needs, and your personal circumstances reduce the groups ability to serve its other members.



  • If you’re a private entity and there is a specific reason that having non-black people in the group would be detrimental to the purpose of the group, yes, in Australia you can make a black only space.

    For example, if you want to create a support group for POC to discuss trauma around being subjected to racism, to ensure you create a safe space, making the space POC only is not only legal, but often the more ethical choice for this group.

    Want to create a social and dating app for queer women to meet other queer women? What purpose would it serve to let straight people into that group?

    There is difference between public spaces, that must allow access and entry to all, and a private organisation that caters to specific demographics, and being freely open would completely defeat the purpose of the private organisations goals.

    I’m not an alcoholic, I don’t personally know anyone who has struggled with alcoholism. Why can’t I go to an AA meeting to talk about my feelings on alcoholism? Obviously, Because that’s not helpful, it has the potential to be harmful to the people who attend because they have lived experiences with alcoholism. I could argue I’m being discriminated against because of my medical history, but I’m not being discriminated against, I’m just not being catered to, because I don’t have an unmet need in this specific situation.




  • A beautiful day launching the new kids club at our neighbourhood house. We had almost 40 families join us and all the snags got eaten.

    This was the first event I took a back seat on and I initially felt really guilty “leaving everyone else to do all the work” (even though my stepping back was planned and carefully negotiated, as I’m still dealing with mystery health issues) but the entire team remarked that it all came together easily as “many hands make light work” and for once we had enough funding to bring on the appropriate number of staff for the project!

    The weather held out and I met so many amazing locals, I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

    And the timing worked out perfectly with the MRI I’d been scheduled for. Packed up after the event jumped on the bus, and got there at the exact right time.

    Am I the only one who finds getting an MRI relaxing? It’s an excuse to lie down and be still while zoning out and pretending I’m being faxed somewhere. The technician tried playing me some Muzak over the headphones and laughed when I asked her to stop because it was messing with my ability to enjoy the magnetic dubstep.



  • I think you’re underestimating how much labour the global poor perform in a 24 hour period, 7 days a week.

    But yes, many of these things can be possible if you prioritise them for your mental health, my point is just that it’s not always easy to prioritise mental health when you’re focused on physical survival.

    But obviously, if you can include these things in your routine, you absolutely should, there are virtually no downsides.


  • Hard to have a slow morning and day naps when you’re rushing between two jobs because you don’t have money.

    If you had money, you could be more selective in finding work that provided the balance and flexibility needed to appreciate the things in life that are free.

    But all of these things are too expensive when you’re time-poor, and most people are time poor because they’re desperately trying to avoid being financially poor.


  • It’s been my music streaming service of choice for several years after moving over from Spotify.

    But I’m starting to move back to physical/owned media because of the way YouTube interprets COPA.

    You can’t save music to a custom playlist if it’s “for children”, you can’t play it in the mini player.

    I’m a teacher, making curated playlists with children’s music is important for me, as I imagine it’s equally important for parents who want to put all their skills kids favourite songs in a private family playlist to keep car rides sane. It’s baffling that YouTube won’t let me do this.

    And because my algorithm is so fucked up if I start a “radio” from something like Aladdin or the Lion King (you know, show tunes that are appropriate for kids) it will start playing Beetlejuice right afterwards, because I listen to that album in my own free time, and the algorithm recognises them both as soundtracks, and doesn’t understand how that might not be appropriate for me to have as background music in my classroom.

    I’ve set up a children’s profile to avoid this radio issue, but then it limits music that is children appropriate but not marketed as such, songs like the Carpenters “Sing” or even Beetles here comes the sun, are “not for kids” so I can’t play them on a kids profile.




  • Yeah I like these bags because I have an old Coles crate cable tied to my bike for transporting bigger items, so when I go shopping if I forget my reusable bags I grab the “stubby bags” (as my family have started calling them) because I can work out exactly how much I can transport home.

    But in Western Melbourne I often have to ask for them, they usually have a stash behind the customer service desk. They’re usually not with the other bags at check out, unless an employee has grabbed the wrong box to restock the checkout bag display.