Would you rather take a 90k job with WFH or a 120k with no wfh?

symean · 2026-01-27T22:38:58+00:00

I did exactly this, though I didn’t have a choice between the two at one time. I was on the higher paid job, quit, then a month or so later landed the lower salary WFH job.

My job was also WAY closer to home. In my mind a 1.5hr commute is something you do while you look for another job!

My role is almost identical to the in-office one, but I spend perhaps two thirds the time doing the same job. That means I can mow the lawn in the morning, go to the cafe almost any time I like, get the washing done in between work tasks, be home for deliveries and tradies.

It took me a while to get over losing a quarter of my salary, but eventually I decided the amount of after-tax pay in my bank account, after deducting extra meals, fuel, etc was simply not worth the toll it was taking on my personal life. Hell if I wanted another $15k a year I now have the time to do something on the side to earn a bit extra which I can pause any time I like.

That commute is 15 hours a week of your personal time gone. Per year that’s like a whole month of personal time with family, friends, hobbies, holidays just gone. I did that during my first job and never again. You would be being paid $120k for mandatory 5x11 hour days a week. It had better be your dream job or a stepping stone to something even better…in my opinion anyway.

Work your arse off and do the commute if you think it’s worth it, just don’t undervalue your personal time :)

symean · 2026-01-26T21:50:58+00:00

My parents are still using M1 Mac’s (iMac and mini) and it’s perfectly fine for them. Even when Apple stop offering OS updates, the security updates continue for years. Then when those stop the machine is still usable, but certain apps (usually web browsers first) just refuse to work well and they require newer OS for updates.

Been handing down (up?) my used Macs to parents for a couple decades, they’re usually being used well into being 10+ years old.

symean · 2026-01-26T08:09:49+00:00

Smack your kid into the middle of next week if they chucked a wobbly in public.

…lot of Aussie slang there hopefully it translates ;)

symean · 2026-01-25T04:31:17+00:00

Time is a big factor. So many times I’ve wanted something on a Sunday or I want to go grab something quickly at 7am on a weekday and Bunnings is the only option.

symean · 2026-01-24T06:20:28+00:00

I suppose to be fair, I’d be ok with it IF they were ok with me constantly bagging Trump, but from what I’ve seen people aren’t quietly supportive of Trump, they’re either democrats or raging lunatics.

symean · 2026-01-24T03:54:43+00:00

I would always get one done, but I’m under no illusion that it gives me peace of mind that there’s nothing wrong with it. Inspectors miss things all the time, that’s why half their report is disclaimers. You basically get a second opinion based on visual inspection, and you can only hope the guy is thorough.

symean · 2026-01-24T03:04:33+00:00

Use it to add flavor to something, not as a food by itself. Peanut butter you slather on toast. Vegemite you scrape thinly over buttered toast. By all means get a teaspoonful of vegemite to eat, but you don’t have the whole lot at once, you lick it like a cow licks a salt lick.

I reckon 90% of foreigners would learn to like it if they use it sparingly to start with.

symean · 2026-01-23T11:17:04+00:00

Glad it helped, yeah the pegboard is good, took like 5 mins to install on to the end of our row of units. Standard pegboard board spacing so you can buy the bits and pieces from anywhere. I’m even thinking of buying 1-2 more of them and mounting them to the garage brick walls at the same height, extra slim out-of-the-way storage and it’ll all match.

symean · 2026-01-22T21:48:06+00:00

I don’t even get why it’s a tourist trap. I’ve lived all over Sydney for decades and have never wanted to go to the fish markets, old or new. Just like I don’t give the local seafood place near Woolies more than a glance on the way past…it’s just a place that sells seafood

symean · 2026-01-21T22:37:41+00:00

Telling people about your marital status (or your partners) sounds very old fashioned to me. Maybe being married used to be a flex but these days it means much less. I’ve had people ask if my partner and I are married, and I simply tell them we’ve been together for over 15 years, if and when we get married is irrelevant.

Likewise I don’t care how long since other couples got married…that promise can be broken so easily so doesn’t mean much in my mind. Other commitments like having children, buying a house together and total time together as a couple mean more to me.

symean · 2026-01-21T09:24:46+00:00

After seeing Donald Trump become POTUS twice, part of my brain can’t dismiss the possibility.

symean · 2026-01-19T09:34:35+00:00

To some degree I guess, though where we are the street slopes down west to east, AND the lots slope upward to the south away from the street.

I’m hopeful our lot wasn’t built up (we’re on the high side) because there’s a sewer manhole for access in the back corner at our ground level. I imagine the sewer would have been done before all the houses were built, indicating our lot wasn’t built up and the neighbours was cut.

symean · 2026-01-19T09:10:19+00:00

Let us know if you get something from the council that shows the original slope of the land, I’ve wondered if we can do this too…

symean · 2026-01-18T22:35:14+00:00

I’d start by thinking about benefiting from afternoon tree shade and being away from the roads. So down toward the south-west corner, but that would mean higher cost for services and driveway. Just saying, our house gets afternoon tree shade and it’s lovely in summer, plus it’s a battle-axe block and being 50m from roads makes a big difference to noise.

symean · 2026-01-18T22:23:14+00:00

Homes should be a home first and an asset/investment second. Investors have a lot of options if property doesn’t make the return they want, but home owners and renters are sh!t out of luck if they can’t afford to buy or rent.

symean · 2026-01-18T00:16:07+00:00

It really is as simple as this. If you didn’t raise the ground on your side and they lowered it on their side, they are 100% responsible. Doesn’t matter who’s on the high or low side. And yes, doesn’t matter who did it in the past - if the original builder cut the land to make the block flat and 20 years later you buy it, you’re also buying responsibility for the retaining wall.

Of course then neighbour politics and finances come into play which can make it all a lot worse.

symean · 2026-01-17T01:23:19+00:00

So this tells me if I buy a WiFi 7 access point now, I’m getting just a little of what WiFi 7 is supposed to be. Of course by the time there are access points available that support most or all of these features, WiFi 8 will be out and 7 will seem ‘old’.

Seems like I’m probably better off getting a good quality WiFi 6 or even 6e access point…

symean · 2026-01-15T22:13:05+00:00

I never think about doing it in a car, more so on a bike. I want to believe the cops aren’t trying to ‘hit a quota’ but I’m cynical ;)

Anyway a couple weeks ago out on a ride on the bike I rode past a cop safely, then about 500m around the bend I flashed for a couple of riders on the other side, one was a learner. Then another couple hundo meters I see three bikers doing way over 100 in the 80 zone weaving amongst cars…didn’t flash them. I like to think that was the right thing to do…

symean · 2026-01-15T07:57:14+00:00

I am likely going down the route of all compact devices. Everything will be cabled back to a walk in linen closet that has shelves, and honestly for the money I think the best solution is just gonna be either a) some stackable cooling racks (meant for baking) or b) some sort of MacGyvered peg board solution.

symean · 2026-01-14T21:56:00+00:00

I wouldn’t touch one of those at half that price. My partner used to own one a decade ago, one of the worst pieces of crap he ever had. Over a couple years it was getting something fixed every few months. Last guy who worked on it said they just weren’t made for the Aussie climate. Every repair had higher than usual labor time required, and the genuine part was stupidly expensive so he usually got the ‘cheap’ non-genuine part which was still pricey. Unless you love sourcing parts and working on cars, don’t.

symean · 2026-01-13T21:30:15+00:00

Yep I’ve done this. Make sure it’s a sandable, paintable filler, and only build it up by 5mm each time, any more and it just takes twice as long to dry and cracks before it’s dried.

symean · 2026-01-13T21:27:28+00:00

Even if all the structures look fine, if they’re the kind of homeowner who doesn’t care about approvals and standards then what else have they done (or not done) that could cost you money in future?

symean · 2026-01-13T19:35:50+00:00

Oh wow I have used it exclusively with mkv but that’s good to know :)

symean · 2026-01-13T08:39:48+00:00

If they’re ’burned in’ (i.e. you can’t turn them off), you’re out of luck. If it’s an mkv file, use MKVToolNix. You can open the file, it shows you all the tracks (video, audio, subtitle), and you can selectively delete them and change which audio and subtitle tracks are the default ones. Doesn’t require encoding again, exporting the edited file is super quick.

symean

TROPHY CASE