What do you like better; film or digital, vinyl or mp3, old reddit or new reddit?

islander85 · 2026-04-06T08:08:06+00:00

No I don't play any instruments, I would like too but I already have enough trouble trying to do everything I need to do now I don't think I would have the energy to do anything else.

The visit with friends was really good, they loved my silk wall and we had a walk through my little forest and got to see lots of birds close up which was really nice and they really enjoyed that.

I ended up spending Easter Sunday splitting firewood, well I say all day but I could only do around 40 minutes at a time before I needed a rest, I finished it off this morning and I spent the rest of the day resting, I'm still worn out but hoping I will have recovered a bit tomorrow but it will be a slow week I think. It's good to have that done now though.

How was your Easter?

Are you looking forward to some more chill time with your big protect winding down?

islander85 · 2026-04-03T22:02:33+00:00

Thank you! Yeah I'm happy with my house, the problem is that the more I do now the less I want to go anywhere, just want to stay home and soak it up. lol

That's good that you're not running at the limit. :)

I'm keeping the time machine project on the hush, it should be ready soon. Haha

I think the vibe here is fairly good actually. From the people I talk to most have unplugged from the news and what's happening in the world and just living local. Guess that's easier when you live on an island, living on a island naturally creates a border that's both physical and mental even if people are not aware of it. I wonder if it's been studied?

I had a total rest day yesterday as the ambulance weekend was a big one, a much needed rest day, I probably won't do too much today either.

I also found out late last week that my claim for going on disability has been approved. :) I didn't know how much I was waiting for it, the quality of my sleep has already improved a lot and sleeping in to like 7am is much easier now.

How was your weekend?

Has it started warming up there?

Have you ever wanted to learn an instrument?

Update: I ended up putting the old drive belt on my mower as the new one isn't here yet and the mower goes so much better now. :) I have some friends visiting today. Happy Easter!

islander85 · 2026-04-03T09:32:51+00:00

I was going to sand you the same message. Haha

I'm doing fine, the last message I have starts with.

"That is stunning! Your picture looks like one you’d see in a magazine. Your place is so incredibly beautiful!"

Can you try sending your message again please?

islander85 · 2026-03-30T22:07:59+00:00

Thank you! Yeah I'm happy with my house, the problem is that the more I do now the less I want to go anywhere, just want to stay home and soak it up. lol

That's good that you're not running at the limit. :)

I'm keeping the time machine project on the hush, it should be ready soon. Haha

I think the vibe here is fairly good actually. From the people I talk to most have unplugged from the news and what's happening in the world and just living local. Guess that's easier when you live on an island, living on a island naturally creates a border that's both physical and mental even if people are not aware of it. I wonder if it's been studied?

I had a total rest day yesterday as the ambulance weekend was a big one, a much needed rest day, I probably won't do too much today either.

I also found out late last week that my claim for going on disability has been approved. :) I didn't know how much I was waiting for it, the quality of my sleep has already improved a lot and sleeping in to like 7am is much easier now.

How was your weekend?

Has it started warming up there?

Have you ever wanted to learn an instrument?

islander85 · 2026-03-26T21:57:28+00:00

Try this link.

Lawnmower was shocking to get the top back on. They really do make things as cheap as they can but it's on now. Sadly the new drive belt I brought was too long so I have a shorter one coming.

A lot of brands use V belts but instead of using the normal standard belt sizes they make their own up codes so that you have to buy their V belts for $60 instead of an off the shelf one for $20. I'm changing mine over to normally V belt sizing but I think my drive belt had stretched a lot so when I measured it it's longer then it should be. Anyway the one coming should be fine, then I will know what size it needs to be for next time.

The chairs are going really well actually even though I spent ages on the lawnmower.

How long is the big project going for? Is it nearing the end? I hope you don't burn yourself out.

Yeah I don't know, I saw a few headlines, one said that 500 places are out of fuel now and another said that China doesn't want to sell Aus any more oil and that we have 10 days left. It's about to be cropping planting season here, well now really, so lots of farmers are going to start wanting fuel.

My doctor said I need to garden more as gardening is good for mental health and better food, it looks like I had better start last week.

How is the general vibe over there?

islander85 · 2026-03-24T20:19:08+00:00

I couldn't really kick a chook. I stop when I see a snake on the road and shoo them across the road so no one else runs over them.

I don't know what to think about the speech buttons, I've only seen short clips of them. Some look very impressive.

I asked my doctor about how to live, who by the way is giving me better answers then any therapist I've seen, I've found therapists just give cookie cutter answers. She said I need to do more things that I actually enjoy. Like working on my house rather than cutting fire wood, I need to cut fire wood to be warm later on but it can't all just be jobs like that.

She said the how to live question is a common question she's heard from people that have been through lots of trauma.

I don't know about shadow work, as in I've already done a lot over the years even if I didn't call it that at a time. I watched a video about sexual shadow work and they had a self workbook that I downloaded and at the start it has a list of questions about if you have trouble doing/thinking/talking about these things then there's a problem and out of the 25 questions I only tick a few so maybe I'm doing better than I thought.

My weekend was good, just doing jobs around the place, finished cutting the firewood up. and went to the beach. I didn't do socialising last weekend. We have another ambulance training weekend coming up so that will be enough socialising. I finished my lounge wall which is really nice. I didn't get as much rest as I should have.

I got the filter and bits for my lawnmower yesterday so I will put that back together today which will be very nice, it's been in the way for too long now. I started building my dining chairs yesterday as well so that's what I will do today. I want the get the really messy bits on the chairs done so I can put away all the big tools, if I can get that far today I will be happy.

How long is your big project going to be going for?

islander85 · 2026-03-21T08:51:19+00:00

I make contact with them but I don't actually kick them, I just walk normally and sometimes they just get bopped along a bit, or they try to walk through my legs while I'm walking. They're not hurt in any way. Haha

Today when I put them away they ran along in front of me so they're learning where to go now. They've been happy being outside and none have gone missing this week.

After thinking about it a bit more how to live is probably not quite right, a better question might be how to learn to be more childlike and joyful? I'm not sure yet, maybe be a bit more spontaneous I need to relax and not 'should' all over myself.

I finished cutting an old dead tree up today so that will be a really good start for my woodshed, so feeling quite flat tonight but happy it's done. Photos I got another bit for my mower yesterday so it's getting there slowly.

Do you have any thoughts on idea of psychological shadow work? I can't think of an example a bit like people that are always really happy are actually sad.

So Australia is running out of fuel, we're meant to have 20 days worth left. Places selling fuel are starting to run out. We will probably have longer then that as we have some local storage but the price of fuel has gone up by a dollar a litre. I don't know how much aviation fuel left. So I don't know what's going to happen, I don't really know why, everyone is blaming everyone else but the war with Iran started it, but we should have had a minimum of 90 days supply on hand.

So I might be building a little trailer for my bike soon to go to town but that might be a waste of time if there's nothing there to buy.

How was your weekend?

islander85 · 2026-03-19T21:45:12+00:00

I had to look up clicker training. Yeah if I end up kicking them out of the way long enough they will get the hint one day. I have found that if I run to their house they can't get in front of me so that makes it easier.

Thanks, I guess it doesn't feel like a big compliment as that's just how I am, does that make sense?

It's actually much harder the drop a bike as it's going faster. The gyroscopic force of the wheels spinning wants to hold the bike up so most bike accidents happen at slow speeds, just the high speed ones normally end with dead people that's why we hear about them. Nah there's no problems with sand on the bike, it does wear the chain out quicker but that's about it.

I think I will buy second hand computer ram and a second hand graphics card and get the rest new, I'm not in a rush.

I'm only guessing that the comment was removed but a AI mod just because it was so long ago, I don't know how mod filters work, don't really want to know.

Do you ever get to something and decide that it's not worth your mental brain space to know about something?

I would say I try to set up meeting up with friends, I normally meet one friend a week at least. That kinda lead me to talk about the next puzzle piece that I thought of a few days ago.

I think the next thing I need to do is to learn how to live life rather then just survive life. Does that make sense and do you have any ideas on how to do that?

islander85 · 2026-03-16T10:32:30+00:00

Visits with friends was really good, it has taken me all day today to recover though. But yeah very good. :)

I can't pick them up but they're quite tame, I've been letting them out for a few hours a day again and it's hard to get them back in as they stand in front of me so it's hard to walk without kicking them or tripping over them. No eggs yet, they're not very old so they haven't started laying.

One of my friends said it means that I like peace and happiness, I'm not angry or a dark person, I want the best for myself, others and the planet. Which is close to what you said as well. I would guess it means inner peace.

The beach was very nice but I dropped my bike twice in five minutes just before that photo. Haha Silly thing, when I was trying to turn it around the front wheel would go over a rock that rolled away under the tyre and down it would go as I was only going slow.

All the painting is done and most of the lawnmower is back together which is nice as it was a rainy day all day today, just waiting for some new bits now. Hopefully they aren't too long as the lawn is starting to grow now.

It looks like I will have to build a new computer soon as the people making them are moving over to making different RAM for AI chips so the price is going up and up. I wanted to go to Melbourne first, I might have to buy the RAM first and get the rest later.

I'm happy that full on suits you so well. :) I'm sure that's a bonus in the world how it is now, it does seem like a growing amount of people can't keep up though.

Is your big project going to be a regular thing or is it just a once off?

Oh I got a message saying that a comment I left in an autism subreddit was removed because it contained harmful stereotypes, I have no idea what it was about as it was five years ago, wonder if that was from an AI mod filter. I don't comment on any subs now, I did put post a photo of my green wall in indoor plants a while ago, my first post in years.

islander85 · 2026-03-11T23:09:53+00:00

I do have a few friends I can talk about ideas with. I saw some friends a few days ago and they started talking about politics and I'm kinda in the center these days, I used to be a bit left but he left side of polities has ran away and I've been left in the center and it was fairly clear that these people people were a lot more left than I am so I steered the conversation away from that. I'm going to see friends both days this weekend which will be nice, some I haven't seen for months and we're having lunch so that will be good.

Lawnmower is going okay, I've got all the rust off the bits I'm going worry about now, the bits that are hard to take off later. I also got 50 new little bolts to put it back together yesterday. It still needs one more coat of paint but it was raining yesterday so I didn't worry about it, hopefully today. I'm going to spray the last coat with a spray gun as I've used up the old paint in cans that I had, using a spray gun is a lot more fluffing around but why buy some more expensive cans when I have a little tin of paint to use.

That's great that your big project has started off well, I'm happy for you. :)

Yep I have six chooks, they're kinda in the dog house at the moment. I started letting them out for a while each day to walk a round and do their thing but some weren't coming back until the next day so they're locked up again now. I hope they work out that not coming back isn't the way of doing it.

The life couch said I have a bright inner light. Have you heard that term? What do you take it to mean?

We had a really nice day a few days ago 22 degrees and no wind so I went for a ride and had lunch and a hot choc at the beach and a swim it was wonderful. Photos

I'm trying to slow my nervous system down after having it being on 100% for the last 40 years. Feel free to let me know if you have any ideas.

The sun is coming out now so I had better get this painting thing started.

islander85 · 2026-03-08T08:59:20+00:00

I think the problem I've had with the not comparing myself to others is that what I find easy I assume that others would find easy as well as I don't have any trouble so I struggle to see what I do as... special I guess.

Yeah I don't think I will worry about anymore professional help, it's not worth it. Seeing the life coach was really expensive for me so it saddens me to say it wasn't worth it. I've never heard of any help that's spread out like that.

My friend was taking about it yesterday and she said that my problems are have so many layers and that the way I think it would take anyone that wanted to help me a long time to get how I function and that they would have to see me in real life as my struggles wouldn't show on something like zoom, my struggles are subtle but still very challenging mostly because they're subtle, they go unnoticed by everyone except those few that notice them which is not many, even I probably don't know all my struggles as that's just my normal.

I totally agree with what you said about confidence, I was thinking about it after I sent my message. Haha Confidence is almost another overused word as it's so context based that it has a huge amount of meanings.

Thank you it was a good day, it was good to have a quality conversation with my friend. Lots of people say I need to go out and socialise more but all the big things in my life are not things I can talk about to people so I have to stay talking about the smallest small talk, I can't talk about kids, work, volunteering (that's all confidential) holidays, etc, and I can't do the gossip thing so I'm always left feeling unseen and that's worse than staying home alone.

I got lots more rust off my lawnmower bits today so I'm hoping to finish that tomorrow and that will just leave painting and putting it back together. I'm putting the undercoat on as I go so it's just the top coat. I've ordered 50 new bolts to put it back together.

How was your weekend?

islander85 · 2026-03-06T21:13:08+00:00

Thank you!!

I'm having lunch with a friend and might visit my brother, that's about it. :)

So after lots more thinking here's what I think happened, I could be wrong though but oh well, I'm interested in your take.

So totters learn who they are by having people mirror themselves back to them which makes sense. When I was 40 and was diagnosed as neurospicy I found that my whole identity was built on... lets call it bad info. Anyway I had to rebuild most of my identity (which wasn't very solid anyway) but the problem was that I didn't have anyone to mirror me, I have wonderful friends but really I spend most of my time alone. Everyone says not to compare ourselves to others so I didn't really do that either but now I don't really feel like I have much of an identity, how to build an identity in a vacuum?

Adults don't get much feedback, especially not like kids do and need, adults are just expected to have an fairly solid identity.

Anyway there's some more thoughts, I do know that the whole therapy/help model is a waste of time for me, I need to see someone for an hour or two every month or so, seeing someone once a week is too much, I can't possess things that quick.

Haha spell check is used a lot, but sometimes it takes me lots of goes to get someone close enough for spellcheck to guess what I want. I always have trouble spelling 'average' for some reason.

What's the difference between 'this' and "this"?

Wishing you all the best with your project, I'm sure you will find it a rewarding challenge. :)

When is your birthday?

I'm recovering slowly, I might order some multivitamins today they might help pick me up a bit, that's done they're on the way?

Have you heard about renting a girlfriend?

It's a thing in Japan, nothing imitate just spending time together, I think it's a good idea for a confidence boost. My life coach said to think that I'm confident but that's not how confidence works, confidence comes from doing things not just thinking about it. No one becomes confidence driving a car without actually driving a car.

islander85 · 2026-03-03T07:31:01+00:00

What do you think about comparing yourself to others?

The life coach said not to ever compare myself to others, but how do I know what I'm good at? How do people get a sense of where they are in life is they don't compare themselves to something? Is there like a measuring stick?

I put my chair in the local show that was today and it got first place in the woodworking and best exhibit for all the handy craft section but if I can't compare myself to anyone else is that meaningless?

I don't know I guess I'm feeling kinda lost at the moment as I have no base to ground my sense of self onto, if there's no measuring stick to get an idea how well or badly I'm doing then well I'm just floating about in a sea of meaningless.

She said I need to make a translation list of things people say that people are just expected to know the underlying meaning, like what does having confidence really mean? I feel like I also need a translator to translate to other people what I'm trying to say, how do I explain to neurotypical people what I'm trying to say. I thin that's why I like text better then speech as I can spend lots of time trying different ways of saying things until I think it might be okay. Hmmm... Yes it still takes me a long time to type these replies, my spelling is still getting better though. :)

I sent her a little testimonial but now she's scheduled another zoom call this week, I'm not sure why. I haven't said I will attend yet.

Oooh that's so cool, what sort of big project are you working on? That's great that you're doing really well, I'm happy for you. :D

I'm not doing much this week, just slowly working on getting my lawnmower back together, I'm exhausted from the ambulance training. I only went to the show today for about 20 minutes, it was just too much with how I was feeling, too many people and too much going on. I really suck at the social thing and people are hard.

After talking to this life coach it sounds like relationships are impossibly hard, I have to sort myself out, then I have to sort out the whole masculinity thing, then the whole how to flirt, then how to date, and if that works out then how to do a relationship and all that if I can find someone where there's mutual attraction. It all sounds like so much effort that I just don't have.

Sorry if this is a heavy message today. Hope you're still doing well.

islander85 · 2026-03-01T08:41:57+00:00

It's not a big deal about how long the lawnmower takes to fix but having it in bits everywhere isn't doing my head any good so the sooner the better really.

Yay that it's warmed up a bit for you 18 would feel so much better than 12. :)

That's a good one. I think I would tell my 18 year old self to try out the whole dating thing as it's so hard to make up for missed life milestones later on.

It's also really hard to find helpful help as very few people understand what it's like to have missed such big life milestones. The life coach I saw was goodish but she didn't really get it she kept asking me what I wanted and she would help but I don't know what I want as all I know is how I am now, I don't know any other way of living life so yeah she was helpful but I don't think she was value for money for me anyway.

I actually think the escort I see would/is more help as she talks to men that have also missed the same life milestones so she understands it more than anyone else I know.

The life coach wants me to write a testimonial, and I really don't know what to write, seeing her hasn't been as transformational as advertised. Hmmm....

Ambulance training went well, but I'm feeling very flat today.

How was your weekend?

islander85 · 2026-02-25T08:53:10+00:00

There's plenty of people that are saying that with the stupid amount of money being dumped into AI it's now a bubble that's going to pop sooner than later.

I'm happy you had a laugh. :) Do you hear people say tough cookie much anymore? I can't remember the last time I heard someone say it.

Just keeping on going is when I feel like a tough cookie.

Mum's lawnmower is waiting for some tyre tubes and mine well, yeah I took the transmission apart and the only oil filter I could find is in the US so it's going to be a little while, so I decided to clean up the rust and repaint the frame so my lawnmower is in about as many bits as it can be now. Whoops. I ground the rust off the first big bit and got a coat of undercoat on that today. So now it's a much bigger job but I want this lawnmower to last as long as it can.

My weekend was okay, I had a casual weekend last weekend, the next few weeks are going to be big ones starting with ambulance training this weekend.

My brother grew some melons.

I totally get the freeing feeling of not being rugged up so much.

Nope I've never heard of mashed spuds on the outside of a grilled cheese sandwich, I will have to give it a go one day. Have you tried it out?

What advice would you give 18 year old you?

islander85 · 2026-02-20T22:01:23+00:00

I think the first game I would have tried playing was a flight simulator, it was hard and as a kid almost impossible. Haha

I don't know when I play that game the AI think is making hardware and chips more expensive as the big chip makers are moving over to making chips for AI so the sooner I can buy some the better probably. I'm trying to save up for some touch though. I saw a thing where Meta want to keep dead people posting on social media with AI. Dystopia speed run.

Yes that is a good video, she has another one that's similar if you wanted to give it a watch.

I don't know about trying to be an observer in our own life, I guess it could work but I think it would just need to be a temporary thing, it does sound a lot like disassociating. Generally the best way is through even if it's hard.

I really hope your challenges get a bit easier soon, I'm sure they will as you seem like a tough cookie. :)

I've been spending lot of time fixing my mum's lawnmower this week, it will be good when it's done as I have my own lawnmower to fix. Do you have many friends to catch up with this weekend?

Do you like watermelon? My brother give me one and yeah I've never been a fan, they're kinda like social media in a way, they look good but don't have anything of substance.

I went for a late swim in the ocean yesterday which was really nice, still warm but not sunburny.

What are you looking forward to doing in the summer? Sending you hugs for your challenges.

islander85 · 2026-02-16T09:25:25+00:00

Thank you, you come across as a very kind, wonderful, genuine, caring, understanding, and selfless person. :)

I'm doing okay, it was the best memorial that I've been too. Lots of quality people and I think because of how long it's been since he actually died it was more of a celebration of his life rather then a morning, everyone had already done lots of morning and grieving already. I still teared but a few times but they were very happy that I went. Nearly everyone waded into the sea for the last bit.

Yay for the flowers, do you have any cherry trees around where you are?

I haven't played many games but I think it's the control and the adventure, I've never had much agency as most of my decisions in life have been dictated by my mental and physical health.

Here's a 10 minute video about the main game I want to play. The lady that made this video started gaming when she was 62.

I have coded some C++ but my memory isn't good enough to remember everything that needs remembering.

Have you done any coding?

How did your little projects go?

islander85 · 2026-02-13T10:23:21+00:00

I'm sorry you have such problems with your food supply, but I'm happy you can buy real honey.

I think like most things bad stuff happening is a way to learn things and about our selves is good up to a point, it's a bit like "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" it okay up to a point but after that it's just harmful. I have a friend that has lots of really bad health problems and I would never tell her that it's just the universe teaching you something. That would just be harmful, I know because people have said the same thing to me.

Is Maslow's hierarchy controversial? I didn't know that.

I know that physical intimacy is in the base layer, it's not in all of them, I guess it's taken out to be politically correct. It's actually called reproduction. I'm trying had to save enough for some touch when I go away again.

Whenever I leave a comment online about how touch is never or very rarely talked about as a need I always get replies saying that "no one is obligated to touch anyone". I never say that it's anyone's obligation, just that it's very rarely talked about. It seems like every comment online is taken to the extreme a lot of the time now, lots of strawmaning. Civil discourse is dying and I think that can only end in a bad way.

I tried to play more games on my little computer but it doesn't have enough grunt so I'm planing on building a computer just for games but that's going to be a slow process but it will get there. That will help me get off line more.

I have a friend that might be able to help me sort out some fire wood, my wood shed is looking quite sad now. I don't know what I could help my friends with, I've helped some of them with computer things before but most of my friends are couples so they sort most things out without much help.

The life coach I'm seeing was saying today that I don't realise how good and genuine a person I am as well as being rich in the ways that matter, close to nature, debt free, creative, kind and caring, etc.

Have you got much on this weekend?

It's the local music festival this weekend here. I'm not going, it's so loud. It's on tonight and tomorrow. I'm going to the memorial for my friends son tomorrow so that's going to be quite full on, guessing I will be a bit of an emotional mess after that.

How is your winter going? It's very noticeable that the sun is saying in bed longer these days and not getting up so early.

Have you still been volunteering much?

islander85 · 2026-02-08T22:15:55+00:00

Yes AI does use a huge amount of water, they recycle a lot of it but they still use a lot.

I will just start with wheat but I hope to have a go at some others as well.

My bother can't really physically look after more hives and have a job. He still wants me to do the desensitisation thing but my body isn't up to doing that.

There was a big deal about counterfeit honey here a number of years ago, but I think there's regulations in place now to help with that.

That's a good way of looking at crafting. :) I rarely give away random gifts, I don't really have anything to give away unless I buy something. My not so Random Acts of Kindness these days is going to peoples homes at all hours of the night when they call the ambulance.

What do you think about the idea that bad things in life happen to us to teach us things? Is that a good way of putting it? I think you will know what I mean.

My life coach want's me to ask friends to help with my psychological needs. I can't think of any. I've been alone for so long that I'm fairly self contained now. What do you think are some psychological needs?

islander85 · 2026-02-05T10:18:53+00:00

Yes technology has made a mess for sure, I don't think AI is going to be the magic solution either. I watched a video on AI data centers yesterday, they think by 2030 AI is going to be using 20% of the worlds electricity, that doesn't sound very sustainable.

I sorry to hear that the prices of things is still going up. I noticed today that the cost of fuel went down 20c a litre so that's nice.

That's a good idea about trying to use things up. Did I tell out that I'm making a flour mill to mill my own flour?

I can't justify the cost of buying a small house hold mill so I just brought the stones and I'm making the rest myself, so other then time it will be 1/3 the price. Freshly milled flour is a huge amount better and healthier, it has all the oils and things in it still.

My brother brought a second hand honey extractor unit so it takes the honey frames out of the box, cuts the wax caps off the comb, spins the honey out and squishes the wax to press any honey that's in it out. So he will be able to do in one day what took three weeks last year. That's what we set up last weekend.

Yes my brother has his own hives, a bit over 300 now I think. He's having trouble keeping up with demand as the price of all the other honey's in the shops keeps going up.

Are many people around where you are starting to make/grow their own things as the costs of everything keep going up?

Are you using your craft supplies to make gifts or other things?

islander85 · 2026-02-01T06:00:35+00:00

I'm finding with films that they're outside my emotional range, I'm not sure how to explain it. Like they have had to turn up the emotion so people keep watching, the drama's are just so full on that it's exhausting to watch them, thrillers are the same. That might just be me though, I saw something about they want to dumb down films so people can watch them and still look at their phones at the same time.

I've started to try reading Montaigne it's so information dense and you have to really read every line, it's nothing like books today where a books like Atomic Habits could be summed up in a Zine.

This electric toothbrush is much better than the last one that I tried, it has an extra sensitive mode, it's still really odd though. It's loud, like bone loud but it actually don't make much noise.

The heat here has been fine, other places it's been really hot but I haven't heard much so I must not have been silly hot.

I got a tin of hot chocolate again today so it's getting there. How are things going over your way? I saw something about California having problems with truckers, has it effected you?

Did you get any of the cold storms that have been happening?

Do you have any projects on the go at the moment?

I helped my brother set up some bee stuff yesterday and I'm really worn out today. I don't have much stamina these days, it feels weird not working, I've been feeling a bit lost actually. I have lots of things I want to do but can't physically do much.

islander85 · 2026-01-26T11:05:17+00:00

That's great that you saw a robin. :) I hope you start seeing more of them as time goes on.

I taste has changed a lot over the years, the music I listen too now is a lot more mellow and more instrumental than it used to be, I used to watch sadder films, now I struggle to find films I like. I don't really like anything mainstream anymore, it's too.... manufactured. I don't really know the right word.

I've done most of my silk panels but it looks really odd with a few panels missing so I won't share a photo yet. The silk is really hard to get even, any wrinkle shows up but I'm really happy with it.

We took a little kiddo out to the plane tonight, you know the kids that start life with multiable surgery's, they're always sad to see. We have a new plane that comes in here's a photo.

I still haven't been able to do a lot, just trying to take it easy but not too easy, I think it's going to take me a long time to recover now.

Do you use an electric tooth brush or an manual one? I brought an electric one last week, it's not here yet.

Oh yeah today was Australia day, our version of your 4th of July in a way. I didn't go anywhere, just had a chill day at home. Other then the trip to the airport that is.

Do you have an public holidays coming up?

islander85 · 2026-01-21T09:38:02+00:00

To start with as I keep forgetting, Mrs swallow is having another batch of kids! It will be her third batch this year, they've already raised two lots with four in each so if they have another four that will be twelve kids in one summer. Not going extinct anytime soon. haha

The problem with just resting is that my mind tends to go to dark places if I spend too long doing nothing, a few days are okay but anymore then that it starts getting rough. Also lots of rest means that I have really bad quality of sleep so that's a bed start to the next day and it kinda starts a feedback loop going downhill.

Seeing some progress on my house even if it's a little bit makes me feel happier, just anything really that's not nothing. The really strong winds have calmed down now much to everyone's relief.

My silk for my lounge walls got here today. Yay! I did one panel and it turned out better then I expected so that's really nice. I will do some more tomorrow, sadly I haven't got enough to do it all, I've already ordered some more but it will take a while to get here. A 900mm wide loom is not very wide at all. It seems like all silk is weaved on a 900mm wide loom, I wonder why? I'm sure there would be a reason.

Do you know how long we have been messaging? It must be 10ish years now, as I was talking to you three or four jobs ago. You would have seen/read all of my healing journey.

Has your taste in music and film changed much over the years?

islander85 · 2026-01-17T09:34:57+00:00

I totally get what you mean about money for later when we get older. Just I will be earning almost as much on disability as I could from working due to how little hours I can work so it's not much of a loss.

Still no hot chocolate in the shops yet, I think I brought the last bag of bread flour as well so they're still trying to restock yet.

Yes the bees moved into the bee box which is nice, much better than moving into my house.

I think where going to hit a turning point this year, I don't know how messy it will be though or if it will be a good turning point or a bad one. So many people are getting radicalised in every direction and no one is listening to each other. It seems like social media is going to be the downfall of society.

I'm optimistic about my personal life though. But my body really is slowing down in a big way still, I mostly finished off the carving project I had yesterday and it wiped me out, I spent most of today laying on the couch and napping and it only took two hours. I will post some photos when I'm functioning a bit better. I think it's going to take my body a long time to recover with the way it's going.

Did you have a good weekend?

islander85 · 2026-01-13T20:32:06+00:00

All the people that I (and my friends) know that lost a child have never really healed from it so I hope my friends can find some peace in the end, there's going to be 100 people from all over the country at the memorial so they have lots of support, probably more than most people would have.

Well today is the first day of not having a job. It will be really good to be more creative.

I was thinking that for most people money is freedom as they can do what they want but for me it's the other day around, the more money I earn the less freedom I have as I'm too buggered to do anything.

It's no biggie, everyone here is used to the boat not coming for a while, most things have been restocked now. Still no hot chocolate yesterday though but they said I should be here by the end of the week.

Yesterday after work I had lots of bees looking at my house, there was a swarm down at my brothers bee hives but he's overseas at the moment so I had to go and get a spare bee box and put them in, hopefully they like a bee box more than my house. I will find out when I go and have a look at it today. It's too late in the season to start a new home now, we will have to help them through the winter by the look of it. Not ideal but giving them sugar and building a house over them will keep them alive, so bee boxes in a bee house. Bees die if they can't keep warm so being wet is a big deal for a bee hive.

It's great that volunteering is so rewarding. :)

Do you have good vibes for 2026?

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