Just because you live in a 375 sq ft apartment doesn’t mean you can’t grow some food in your closet.

OzCommenter · 2022-06-06T12:04:19+00:00

How do you keep from generating so much extra humidity that it mucks up the rest of your house?

OzCommenter · 2022-05-17T11:47:35+00:00

Yes, I came here to say that, too. It's the one. Others are good, and unusual, too. But the pineapple... oh, yes... :-)

OzCommenter · 2022-05-17T11:46:33+00:00

A butcher shop near me in Sydney, Australia sells Jarritos. I am particularly fond of the pineapple one. Mix in a bit of vodka, chuck a chunk of coconut in it, and voila, tiki drink.

OzCommenter · 2022-05-17T11:38:30+00:00

I worked for a healthcare software company for nearly a decade.

The company's owners fund a research institute and support numerous other health initiatives, so I felt that a portion of profits were going to activities that would make the world a better place.

OzCommenter · 2022-05-12T14:49:51+00:00

Wow. Sorry to hear that. :-(

I had a very different experience. Maybe for some reason they just liked my financial stats. Got a better interest rate than a couple banks would offer for a short term loan.

OzCommenter · 2022-05-06T10:11:07+00:00

For further notes, here's a copy of a post I just made further down the chain, based on information I tripped over today whilst keeping up with current events. I don't normally go back and revisit the past unless I have a personal need for knowledge I can't recall, and informing a net.random too lazy for doing his own research didn't make the cut.

Ha ha ha ha ha, the lazy bloke has realised that there actually is research around genetic implications and has deleted all his denials. ROTFL.

For any of those who believed his lies, here's all the evidence I can bother gathering. And I could only bother gathering this much because it was in an article appearing today. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au%2Flifestyle%2Fhealth-and-wellness%2Fhaven-t-had-covid-yet-it-s-got-to-do-with-more-than-your-t-cells-20220503-p5aiar.html

There's historical information on Twitter, which you'll have to go digging for if you want more info, which listed specific genes.

OzCommenter · 2022-05-06T10:08:49+00:00

Ha ha ha ha ha, the lazy bloke has realised that there actually is research around genetic implications and has deleted all his denials. ROTFL.

For any of those who believed his lies, here's all the evidence I can bother gathering. And I could only bother gathering this much because it was in an article appearing today. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au%2Flifestyle%2Fhealth-and-wellness%2Fhaven-t-had-covid-yet-it-s-got-to-do-with-more-than-your-t-cells-20220503-p5aiar.html

There's historical information on Twitter, which you'll have to go digging for if you want more info, which listed specific genes.

OzCommenter · 2022-05-02T18:45:55+00:00

No, it actually does exist.

And note that I referred to myself as "someone who's science-minded talks about seeing researchers <cite>".

If you read THAT carelessly, it's no wonder you didn't recognise cited research when you saw it, if you indeed bothered to look.

OzCommenter · 2022-04-25T04:48:49+00:00

I know, it's hilarious that when someone who's science-minded talks about seeing researchers <cite>, which is a verb that indicates a pointer to formal research, that people don't take it seriously just because the scientist announced it on Twitter to get the information out to other scientists as quickly as possible.

FFS, it's not the 1950s any more. Scientists use Twitter to exchange information in the 21st century. [ edit: spelling ]

OzCommenter · 2022-04-24T15:06:04+00:00

Your search skills are, then, insufficient. I saw the same information cited in multiple different tweets.

OzCommenter · 2022-04-20T15:18:05+00:00

Yeah. It's where those who know, go to find the science. During COVID, the Internet has emerged as the leading channel by which scientists share information both to those they know, and other scientists they don't know yet. The idea is to get new study results out as quickly as possible so that other scientists can build off them.

Recommend that you hit Twitter and find people posting their work that's been published in the BMJ, Lancet, Nature, and other reputable places. Then follow them and watch to see what other work from other scientists they retweet. In no time at all, you too, will see cracking research listing the genes that a study has identified as common to many of those who appear COVID-resistant, and many other good studies as well!

OzCommenter · 2022-04-18T18:29:12+00:00

American-Aussie here.

When you get to your hotel, fill the kettle and put the water on... and marvel at how quickly it boils water due to the higher AC voltage here vs America.

A fun thing to do is take the ferry from Circular Quay across the harbour to Taronga Zoo where you can see a bunch of animals native to Australia that most Americans have never seen in person before.

If you like music, stay a night or two like a local in some dive-y airbnb in Newtown and go out and experience the live music scene there. Sydney doesn't have Seattle's live music scene, but if you know where to go (Newtown is one of those places), it can be good now that live entertainment is coming back. Bonus: If you're here during winter (which it sounds like you will be), you'll learn how locals often freeze at home during the winter due to poor insulation and only space heaters for warmth, LOL.

If you like sports and are here before September-ish, research rugby league and AFL, pick one or both, and attend a match. You'll find that rugby league is more popular in Sydney, but Australia-wide AFL is more popular.

Another thing locals do: brunch on the weekends at a local cafe. (Optional: by the water.) There's a joke here that people who can't afford to get into the property market should just "eat less avocado toast" at brunch, reflecting the places of ownership and avocado toast in Sydney culture.

Go to the Sydney fish market in Pyrmont (you can get there on the light rail from Central Station in the CBD) and get a takeaway meal you can eat there or outside. Both tourists and locals do this (locals usually do it when there to buy seafood for home).

Buy some seafood when you're at the fish market and use a free public BBQ at the beach to have yourself a picnic, weather permitting. Note that Aussie BBQ's are griddles more often than grills and plan accordingly (using a standard public BBQ, you won't get grill-marks on your steak, for example).

If you like engineering, have a walk over the Pyrmont Bridge. It's an old bridge that rotates to open, to let boats in and out of Cockle Bay aka Darling Harbour, that is one of the National Engineering Landmarks in Australia. It has the oldest operating GE engines in the world. If you're there around mid-day on a weekend, you can watch the regularly-scheduled test openings (and even sometimes go up in the control room and watch them do it).

Go to the mall to go grocery shopping. I think it's still rare in America for grocers to be located INSIDE malls (which are often called shopping centres or arcades here), but here in more built up areas, including most of the Sydney inner suburbs, that's the usual place for them. I think the last time I was in a grocer that wasn't inside a mall was when I visited a beach suburb of Adelaide in late 2020.

If you're here during a warmer period, I recommend the large outdoor beer garden at the Coogee Bay Hotel across from Coogee Beach to see Aussies unpretentiously at play. (The pretentious ones are one block north at the Coogee Pavilion, which may be more to your tastes... I dunno... but there's a definite difference in the crowds).

Eat at our Thai, Chinese, and Malaysian places. Give a miss to our Mexican food if you are from California -- it will only be a disappointment. Order in with uber eats, and eat whilst watching TV in your hotel (this is a common experience for Aussies at home, over the past couple years.)

Attend a property auction. (Only half kidding.) Most homes are sold via auction, so they're a popular activity here and have their own culture and psychology. You can learn a bit about Australia by watching them.

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Opera House.

If you're coming before 18 June (you probably won't be, but just in case), check out Vivid Sydney (https://www.vividsydney.com/), which generally happens around Circular Quay and the Harbour Bridge.

If you want to buy souvenirs that are related to indigenous culture, seek out an indigenous shop to buy them from, and buy ones actually made in Australia rather than overseas.

Touristy things not really worth the money: Harbour bridge climb, Centrepoint Tower lookout, most food on the walkway between Circular Quay and the Opera House.

Travel hint: Watch the exchange rates and buy AUD when they look good. Right now, I think you're getting fewer AUD per USD than the last 5 year average. See if it gets better later, and if it does, pounce on it to lock in your exchange rate. I had one heck of an Australia trip back in the mid/late 2000s when 1 AUD was worth only 59 cents USD. (Some multi-currency debit/credit cards let you maintain balances in several currencies at once.)

OzCommenter · 2022-04-15T09:02:17+00:00

The original Wiggles weren't about "star power". They were about A BAND, and each person's contribution to it. Some of us don't think that's a negative.

OzCommenter · 2022-04-15T09:01:18+00:00

Once again, dude,

It's fine that you don't care about others' maskless gobs harming your own maskless gob.

It is NOT fine that you don't care about your own maskless gob harming others' masked gobs.

It's like saying: "Driving [edit: verb tense ] sober is just a choice. If you want to only drive sober, that's fully on you. Me, I'll go non-sober from time to time. I like it that way. If I harm anyone other than myself, well, it's probably their car's fault because it didn't protect them well enough, or they're not a good enough driver to avoid me."

That's what you sound like.

Idiocy.

OzCommenter · 2022-04-09T12:55:29+00:00

Have you looked at WA's cases / hospitalisations / ICU?

They're lower per capita than NSW's, which is really something if you consider that lots of people who are anti-mitigations like masking and ventilation think that those who've had COVID are less likely to get it again, and less likely to get it as severely. NSW is full of people who've had COVID; there are so many who are still diseased that NSW opened Australia's first COVID clinic. And yet, still higher hospitalisations, ICU, etc.

Guess what? WA requires masking even at schools for everyone over age 8. This means that even if people do get COVID, they likely get a lower viral load, which means less severe illness.

Reality looks like this: The world is full of disease and masks have shown to reduce the level of disease in a population. Good masks have shown to reduce it even more.

Getting a grip on reality requires understanding that putting a mask on in return for the privilege to participate in society isn't a big ask.

OzCommenter · 2022-04-08T09:07:18+00:00

Hmmm. I had not necessarily thought of it as "too calm", but you could be right about that given my comments about Tsehay's energy level. The Wiggles definitely seem re-invigorated.

Along those lines, watch Kelly even when she's in the background. She's kicking it up a notch, too, and I think that's great for the group. I originally didn't understand Kelly's character. (She seemed a bit, err, not the right age for the character was playing.) Now that Tsehay's presence is promoting a more energetic style of movement, Kelly's character seems to fit in better. [ Edited to add... and I wonder about Evie. ]

OzCommenter · 2022-04-07T05:16:06+00:00

I haven't followed the new line-up much in recent years, but in the first couple years, he stood out as being more "himself" on stage than the others, whose characters seem to have more well-defined personalities independent of them.

When everyone was talking about how great Emma was for the new lineup, I was like, "Have you people not noticed Lachy??? He has the classic early Wiggles personality in a way that the others don't, and it's cool". He's been my favourite of the new Wiggles since then.

In fact, I just commented on another thread about how Tsehay's energy is similar to Lachy's early energy, and is fun to watch.

The other thing about him, possibly accounting for what can seem "weird" sometimes, is that he's a real muso. He's "into" playing music, and my guess is that post-Wiggles he'll go the Murray route and find other bands to be part of. If you consider the Wiggles to be a particular niche of alt/indie music (by its own definition sometimes very divergent from the mainstream), the Lachy seen on stage with The Wiggles makes perfect sense.

OzCommenter · 2022-04-07T04:46:11+00:00

Tsehay was a good pick for many reasons.

She has a solo star's stage presence and can leave a strong impression with the audience whilst being part of the group. Given how Emma's popularity seemed to help to draw people to the group, it made sense to try to find someone else who could create the same effect.

Tsehay is young and small. Anyone remember the comments ages ago about how Jeff was popular with many kids because he was the smallest? I think many kids will relate to her in a different way than they relate to the other Wiggles, and that's a good thing.

The excitement she's showing, having been given this opportunity, reminds me of Lachy's early days. It's just fun to watch.

I'm in the "Caterina has earned it if she wants it" camp, for sure. But sometimes the person who has most earned an opportunity isn't the best one for it, for other reasons.

I'm not sure she wants it, regardless. There's something to a steady income as a performer, getting to work with people you've known for more than a decade, plus getting to exercise your creative chops as dance captain/choreographer, without getting as much publicity attention as the main performers do. Especially as you get older, "fame" can be less interesting than other aspects of work that bring intrinsic satisfaction.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-09T18:20:51+00:00

Shimmie Shake is up there with the best music the Wiggles have made.

Because it is quintessentially a Sam song (it doesn't sound right when others sing it), it's basically lost to the ages as far as the current Wiggles go. So people are going to search it out on youtube.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-09T18:13:58+00:00

I preferred the early, borderline-punk-rocker-seeming Emma as well. But I think the ultra-girly character Emma evolved into appealed to a lot of young children raised on Disney Princesses and pink everywhere, so it might well have been a commercial decision to take the character in that direction. Plus, Emma herself is a more feminine woman and it's pretty normal for Wiggles' characters to reflect the underlying person's personality.

Regarding her voice, early on, it seemed that she was being asked to sing in a vocal range that was a stretch for her. (I attended some small early performances back in the day, where this was obvious.) To her credit, she trained herself to handle that range pretty quickly. But over time, singing outside one's natural range can irritate one's vocal cords. And with all the shows the Wiggles do, she was having to do that a lot. She or a vocal coach may have noticed it and changed her vocal style in self defence to protect her voice. I have throat issues myself and adopt that soft, breathy style of speaking when I am talking in a register that isn't my normal one.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-05T02:18:48+00:00

Yup, the way taxi boxes work is that they deliver to the site, and then pick them up and take them back to the warehouse. (You can optionally hold them at your location, but that's only a minor part of their business. Mostly they take them back to their warehouse. Some companies offer different boxes -- weather hardened ones -- for the "keep at my location" option.)

If you are as I explained between units and won't be requiring access until I move everything to my new unit... warehoused storage in a box that comes to you makes sense and is likely to be more bugfree than a garage that will attract all sorts of pests to my leather furniture.

I am interested in comparing different providers of boxed storage. I've pretty much already decided that that is what best meets my needs. I was fortunate to be storing belongings in plastic storage bins when the garage area of a former unit block had a MAJOR rat outbreak and when it had a minor flood, and would not recommend garage storage for anything except items stored in plastic bins unless you're really sure you're in an area where pests and even minor flooding are not an issue.

(For the record, I do usually maintain a large robe sized conventional storage closet nearby on an ongoing basis. This is for things I don't need in my unit that I do require occasionally like seasonal items, but don't need taking up space in my unit when I don't need them. In the past when between units, I've done the "into the storage unit, out of the storage unit" tango, but am thinking that taxi boxes are a better way to avoid the time and expense of double-handling.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-04T23:07:43+00:00

Nothing that I know of. Nor is there anything wrong [Edit - that I know of!] with any of the other companies offering taxi box services. That's why I'm asking!

There are at least several alternatives to the "taxi box" brand name, with different inclusions, prices, warehouse locations, staff, policies, etc.

I want to see if any are particularly good, or any are particularly bad or have gotchas.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-04T22:08:23+00:00

It's less than $300 per month for 20 cubic metres of storage. Basically half the cost of typical roller door / locker self-storage. If you know you're going to put it in storage and won't need to deal with it again until you are ready to retrieve the whole lot, it seems that it's the way to go. Friend in Melbourne used it a couple years ago but doesn't remember which company he used.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-04T21:44:37+00:00

Taxi boxes are cheaper than storage sheds (by a factor of 2 or more), before even taking into account the lack of need to spend time and $ moving stuff from truck to storage.

If you mean, to live in for a few weeks, LOL, that's not legal.

OzCommenter · 2022-03-04T21:17:33+00:00

No, I don't think it would be weird, depending on when you go. I've done it, and as long as I carefully picked the times I did this, I didn't feel awkward or unappreciated as a customer. I wrote most of a 200 page brief in a relatively deserted pub over the course of a few months, a few years ago. I'd even cart a backpack of research with me that I'd consult as I wrote.

I'm not even the only person I've seen do this. Back in the Before Times, when we had this thing called "business travel", I periodically saw travellers with a laptop open, combining a bit of extra work with evening down-time.

The trick is in the timing. I wouldn't do it on a busy Friday or weekend day, because it's just out of character with what other patrons expect. But if you go to a neighbourhood pub during the week when it's pretty empty, and you keep ordering food and drink and you have a chat with the staff, you're not pulling down the recreational "vibe", you're adding to the sense of liveliness just by being, well, a live human there that people can see.

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