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  • Having security cameras is kinda fun - I've just looked at last night and discovered Miss Meow has also worked out the dog door. It appears she just stayed under cover and looked out for a bit before teleporting back inside, but that last bit could just be continuity gap from the motion sensors not picking up when she went inside.

    🎂

  • Today I fill all the buckets and fermenters in prep for having no water tomorrow. Done this drill before, it's fine when you have warning, nasty otherwise

  • I think I've done what I can to prep for the presentation tomorrow - gonna do a few more reviews and editing (scientific names for animals should be in italics), and run through it with my partner.

    I have a suspicion I may have put more info then they need, but I've adhered to the marking rubric so 🤷🏼‍♀️

    Anyone want to know some cool facts about Tachyglossus aculeatus (The Short-Beaked Echidna)? 😂

    • Is that the Niu Gini one that's recently been re-discovered? I know they've got long beaked echidnas, but I think there's been some developments on the short-beaked side quite recently.

      He he, the actual word echidna is NOT an indigenous word - it comes from greek mythology and is the name of a goddess of chaos. quote below from theoi.com

      "EKHIDNA (Echidna) was a monstrous she-dragon (drakaina) with the head and breast of a woman and the tail of a coiling serpent. She probably represented the corruptions of the earth--rot, slime, fetid waters, illness and disease.

      Ekhidna was sometimes equated with Python "the Rotting One", a dragon born of the fetid slime left behind by the great Deluge. Others name her the Tartarean lamprey, and place in her to the dark, swampy pit of Tartaros beneath the earth. Hesiod, makes her a daughter of monstrous sea-gods, and presumably associates her with rotting sea-scum and fetid salt-marshes.

      Ekhidna was the consort of Typhoeus--a monstrous, multi-headed storm-giant who challenged Zeus to the throne of heaven. Together they spawned a host of terrible monsters to plague the earth including the Khimaira (Chimera), Kerberos (Cerberus), the Hydra, Sphinx and the Drakon Hesperios (Hesperian Dragon).

      Four other closely related she-dragons were the Argive Ekhidna and Poine (Poena), the Tartarean Kampe (Campe), and the Phokian Sybaris."

      • The Short-Beaked Echidna is the only native Echidna to Australia - the other 3 extant echidnas are native to Niu Gini! Thank you for the etymology! I had no idea they painted Ekhidna as such a gross sea-beast 😂

        I studied the skeletal structure of T. aculeatus! They have a pectoral girdle that is really similar to the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles from the Permian/Triassic)! Shows how old of a species monotremes are! Their humerus is lateral to the body, giving them that waddle, and their tibia and fibula are "backwards" compared to mammals causing their hind feet to point caudally!

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      • The maxilla and mandible of T. aculeatus is fused into a beak-like mouth. It isn't actually a beak, however, as it is made of specialised jaw bones and muscle, rather keratin coated bone (like a bird beak). They use their long tongue and long mouth to snuffle in soil for ants and termites (they are insectivores), and then use their tongue to grind up their food against a bony hard plate on the maxilla, along with a slight back and forth motion of their jaws, as opposed to the up and down motion humans do when we chew.

  • 4 degrees, rip the bandaid off and just jump out of bed to get me going.

    Oh I hate mornings like these. and heating is busted at work again.

    • Tomorrow's going to be worse. But the upshot is that the sun is out!! It's worth getting out of bed for. (Not so much when you're indoors and the heating is busted... yikes)

    • Do you have the option to work from home? Cause if any utilities were broken at work, I'd be raising a stink to high heaven.

  • I actually kind of miss dating. But I am determined for this year to be my single year where I make no attempt to date.

    In the past, things have just happened, and I didn't really make a conscious effort to put myself out there.

    I think I just want more connection, and to feel understood. I want to run a marathon before I date someone again (runs a marathon with no training whatsoever). No rush.

  • Here's an interesting little read.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-06/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-evidence-timeline/105245152

    • Her evidence has been interesting to follow along with. It's basically been "everyone is lying about everything except me". Like she's said that doctors, nurses, child protection services, her ex husband, Ian, her own children all have different version to what she has, but she isn't lying. She disconnected one of the SIMS while the police were in her house! It's going to be really interesting what happens with closing statements.

      Of course, following along with blogs is very different to being in the actual courtroom and none of us viewing from the outside really have all of the facts, so it could still be a woman who freaked out over an accident.

      • It's such an interesting story. Can't wait for the book when everything will be revealed that wasn't allowed in court.

  • My productivity at work today wasn’t particularly high given I was wearing a coat, had a scarf and beanie on till midday.

    Time to think about dinner and get warm now.

    I think I might waste some time in No Man’s sky.

  • My attempts to be lazy and have a parcel from Bunnings delivered have not gone well. They split it into two parcels, one of which was returned to sender for having a wrong address, the other is in limbo having been sent to a LPO for collection and then sent on again from there as being incorrectly sorted. I really should have just done click and collect.

    Edit: the new poop scoop arrived ok, so at least one of my deliveries has worked out.

    🎂

177 comments