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Today we saw another variation on the Menagerie Sign. A fierce dinosaur was maybe added as a protector for the other animals?
#RoadSigns #Signs #Gippsland #Australia
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Yvonne Perkins
@perkinsy@aus.social
mastodon 4.7.2Writer (technical writing, blogging at stumblingpast.com), digital history, owner of #OfficeKitty (see profile pic). Enjoys gardening in #Melbourne #Australia
Interests: #GardeningAU #StreetGardening, #OfficeKitty, #OzHist #DigitalHumanities #documentation #WriteTheDocs, watching cricket, #Bahai.
Banner pic: Light fog with glorious sun rays shining through and lighting up trees.
Profile pic: Office Kitty sniffing flowers in a vase
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Joined May 02, 2022
Location:
Melbourne, Australia
Replying to
'Was that a rhinoceros', we asked as we passed another Menagerie Sign. The next time we drove the road we confirmed that yes, someone had added a rhinoceros on the sign.
#RoadSigns #Signs #Gippsland #Australia
Time for a street garden update: This patch used to be a neighbourhood rubbish dumping place and I was sick of getting up each morning and clearing up other people's rubbish. I organised a group of friends to plant it out with no-cost cuttings from my mother's garden and other gardens. We planted it out over 3 years ago. The rubbish dumping stopped and has never resumed. This was a way more effective approach to prevent rubbish dumping than a sign telling people not to dump rubbish.
We knew we were onto something. We formed a group and since then we have grown lots of plants from free cuttings and helped plant out gardens that are now thriving. An important part of why we are successful is we don't do this as a charity. We are invited to help by local people who take charge. They tell us what they want help with, what their vision is and they look after the garden afterwards. It is their garden, not ours.
We are now collaborating with local not-for-profits who are helping us as we help them. Our group had a problem. We had hardly any space to look after cuttings as they grew ready for the next planting. Now another community organisation has given us space to store our cuttings over winter.
Over winter we have been working on improving the management of our group and planning an exciting series of activities for the next 6 months or so, all about helping our neighbours connect with each other and uplift our neighbourhood. This includes helping the not-for-profit who is helping us by helping them work with community in a different way.
It is still baby steps as we feel our way forward. But I am excited about our prospects and we are gaining some new volunteers.
(Gardening commentary in the alternative text)
#GardeningAU #StreetGardening #Gardening #Neighbourhood
Boosted by @trending@homestead.social
Her Scottiness, Office Kitty protects her hard-won turf on top of the rubbish bin.
#OfficeKitty #Caturday
Seen on a walk in Melbourne's inner north this morning: This is what to do if your plant is growing too tall - just cut a hole in the roof to allow it to grow freely.
#Melbourne #GardeningAU
New owners of a home in Melbourne discover an extensive model train set-up under the floor when they move in.
We have a potted cat!
Ford sack workers and replaced them with AI...
...then had to hire over 350 engineers to fix the quality issues caused by AI.
#ArtificialIntelligencehttps://www.the-independent.com/tech/ford-ai-automation-human-workers-b3003787.html
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
We are starting a small businesss and need recommendations for a free task management + small CRM app to use. We don't need to connect it with any other apps or platforms.
I know there is a lot out there, but hoping that people here have trialled some and can recommend something that works well for them.
#CRM #SmallBusiness #Australia
Automated message on the tram just now asking people not to stand in the doorways, "... move into the main saloon as soon as possible". 'Saloon'??? That sounds strange. I have never heard a tram carriage called a 'saloon' by anyone.
#Melbourne #trams
I walked to work this morning. On the way I picked up a couple of gum flowers. I stuck them to the wall in front of my desk at work with blue tak.
Technical writer job is open:
- based in Auckland
- Hybrid - 2 days a week in CBD office
- Suitable for intermediate level technical writer.
I have no connection to the company. I am simply spreading the news for tech writers who may be seeking a new job.
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@georgepenney@sunny.garden I have fond memories of a wedding I went to in the North Island in December 2020. The West Island (aka Australia) was on fire and the pall of smoke had started to drift over New Zealand. A volcano had erupted on a small New Zealand island. Both countries were in the midst of natural disasters.
New Zealanders and Australians sat at a long table laughing and telling tales about how dangerous our countries are. Humour can be an effective way of lifting the mood in face of adversity.
Then the dancing started. Wow - New Zealanders know how to let go on the dance floor! Too often in Australia men refuse to dance and disappointed women dance together while the men are being blokes. Not at this wedding! The men were not self conscious and did not mind people laughing at their inventive and inelegant dance moves - they laughed along. This was a dry wedding but nobody needed alcohol as a social crutch.
It was a sad time in both countries and little did we know that the pandemic was just 3 months away. I felt recharged by my New Zealand holiday even as I flew back over hundreds of kilometres of Victoria on fire.
The scene you describe is a great example of everyone contributing their little bit to making a joyous experience for all. We should all get onto the dancefloor with our ketttles!
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@joannaholman@aus.social Wow! He is a very amenable cat. And a lot of fun by the sounds of it.
It is packed at Fed Square for the Great Melbourne Bagpipe Bash. They are trying to get the world record for the number of bagpipers playing AC/DC 'It's a long way to the top'.
#Melbourne #Bagpipes #ACDC
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Thank you everyone for your responses about my question about when to pick a capsicum (see above).
We had the big moment tonight. Our six year old grandson is here for a sleepover and loves picking fruit. He picked the small, green capsicum, we divided it into quarters and each of us ate a piece. The skin was quite thin and it definitely could have lasted longer on the bush (yes, they do go red after a while) but there is nothing like sharing a piece of home grown produce with a child.
Thank you @LifeTimeCooking for your responses. We don't get frosts here - inner Melbourne no longer seems to get them, so would the plant be OK to sit outside during winter? Our biggest problem is that during winter our tiny backyard only gets about an hour of sunlight.
@aeduna - you left a capsicum on a bush for 8 months here in Melbourne! Interesting to know for the future. There are a couple of flowers on the plant currently so maybe I will have the opportunity to let the fruit ripen slowly for that long.
@weezmgk Stuffed capsicums - yum!
I live in Melbourne, Australia so we are entering autumn and despite warm and hot days next week, temperatures are on the way down.
I am not sure what words Europeans use for capsicum, including the English. To Australians the word is used for sweet capsicums which are never spicy like chillies.
That, and the confusion over season shows why country-based gardening hashtags can be useful. I also add the hashtag for our city as our country has hot, dry deserts, tropics, sub-tropics, temperate and in a few places, alpine climates. Gardening is very different around the country. I like the way the US has very clear climate zones that people use. I know that kind of thing exists here but not so widely used. I should look up my Australian climate zone and use it in posts.
#GardeningAU #gardening #Melbourne
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@joannaholman@aus.social very interesting! I have never come across hydro therapy for cats.
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@joannaholman@aus.social Winston is clearly an unusually cooperative cat. I would imagine most cats going "no way" when encouraged to do a treadmill AND in water!
92 year old Professor Wallace Kirsop has spent a life time studying old, rare books. He is passionate about the importance of retaining the physical object as a recent discovery in a 1497 copy of Dante's Divine Comedy at the University of Sydney Library demonstrates.
#Melbourne #Sydney #Histodons #libraries #books #RareBooks
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/22/melbourne-rare-books-expert-wallace-kirsop
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@mia@hcommons.social It is important for learning to share what does not work as well as what does. In the not-for-profit sector there is a tendency to only share successes in community development. When another group tries to embark on a similar programme of work they get discouraged because they thought it was easy and therefore assume that they are the cause of the failure.
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@LifeTimeCooking@mastodon.au My tomato plants from last summer are still looking OK. My Jasmine has been flowering for a couple of weeks - in the middle of winter!
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@chestas@aus.social That is a beautifully crafted sculpture. She is holding the sheep very firmly by a rope that goes around its head behind its horns. It looks like her left hand is in a pocket which is an unusual pose for a woman as most women's clothes don't have pockets and it is an assertive, but relaxed pose of someone who is in charge, knows it and is comfortable in the role.
Thanks for sharing this! I will drop by this statue if ever I am passing by.
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@NorcalGma2
"we all remember events through our own filter"
This is exactly what historians and other professionals observe. Memories are personally curated, even if that work is subconscious. You are very wise to understand this and avoid family arguments about memories.
It is much easier in my family where a small number of us have elephantine memories and the rest are the polar opposites - unusually poor long-term memories. The majority who have really poor memories have the self-awareness to know this and defer to those with elephantine memories. As one of the latter, I am belatedly learning a degree of humility to temper my assertions of the past in our family.
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@ludicity@mastodon.sprawl.club Go for it! I was asked by internal HR to meet with a manager and explain to him why he needs a BA, not a technical writer. Lo and behold, the hiring manager knew what he was on about. He did need a tech writer, not a BA. I reported back and offered to explain why. I never heard from the internal recruiter again. Not a surprise that the recruiter was not interested in developing their skills and knowledge, or listening at all.
And can we banish FOREVER, the requirement "must have x years experience in [specific role title]".
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@NorcalGma2@sfba.social Asking for help when you need it is a powerful ability that not many people have. You are giving an opportunity to young people who might not have the opportunity to help someone. That is a wonderful gift to give them. I say to my children that helping someone is often a great way to stop feeling so depressed. Feeling the gratitude of the receiver is uplifting and makes the giver feel that they are a valuable person.
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@bookandswordblog@scholar.social @vrandecic@mas.to @jgordon@appdot.net Handling comment sis a big obstacles for me changing from WP too.
Biographers muse on the future of biography when our everyday personal records are stored in electronic formats instead of paper, often ephemeral and other times locked away in obsolete formats or password-locked files: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-26/biography-ai-algorithm-letters-diaries-digital-world/105923770
Do historians need to learn how to code? Yes. This is why I regarded the ability to code an important part of my toolkit when I was working as a professional historian. Knowing how to use an API to efficiently and effectively search and download digitised records was important in my work. I developed a particular methodology to ensure that I maintained sound standards of evidence gathering.
Government archives have been born digital for quite a few years now. Digital cameras, OCR and databases, blogs and websites have revolutionised the way historians research for quite a few years.
We stopped writing physical letters quite a few years ago. Historians of the future will develop new research techniques to get a glimpse into the past, just as many historians like me have done today. Missing records have always been something historians have to contend with - letters that were destroyed or never written. We have never had a complete record of the past, and that won't change in the future.
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@LifeTimeCooking Thank you for your advice! I will use the plant instead of my fridge and pick the capsicum next time we want to use capsicum for a meal.
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@amyfallon@aus.social It is a great article. It is also published in The Age.
I used to be a member of the same club. There are a few ex-Olympians in these clubs. It is a real buzz to swim alongside them.
Masters Swimming is also fabulous for women recovering from traumatic divorces. Over the years I met inspirational older women who decided to get over the horror of their husband's mid-age crisis philandering, by challenging their lack of ability to swim, sometimes caused by fear or phobia of water. They learn to swim, then join a masters swimming club. They never get the attention by registering top 10 times, but they are champions in life and add so much social depth to the clubs they belong to. I so admire them.
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@NorcalGma2 I enjoy your photos of Summer at the beach. That last photo is great. You have great beach handwriting.
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@amydiehl I know a woman this week who has given up on her career in tech. The one thing this article ignores is that women struggle to get hired in the first place.
Retrenchments are another issue. When an organisation is doing mass lay-offs the blokes (who may be toxic or incompetent) manage to retain their roles. The women get laid off, even if they are very good at their job. I have seen this happen in the last couple of years.
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@Seedling@universeodon.com What a lovely idea to share your garden space with keen gardeners!
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@sarah11918 Oh wow! In my mind you are the face and voice of Astro. I look forward to hearing what you will be doing in the future, but I guess you may take a break first?
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@djwfyi That's tough news Daryl. I have been dealing with job security and unemployment for a couple for years. I got laid off middle of last year (new CEO, nothing to do with AI). I am not sure how long my current gig will last so I am considering how to pivot in this revolutionary era, networking like mad etc etc. My techwriter friend is also getting laid off - new CEO is still cut, cut, cutting.
I am in Australia, so it is different job market here but still not great. I have concluded from my last year that just get your resume good enough, but don't sweat on it. Hiring managers get so flooded with resumes that they just pick a random handful to read (I have heard a hiring manager actually say that). Networking and being known publicly for your work seems to help.
I have also thought of consulting. When businesses are cutting staff, they still need work done (including fixing up the mess from relying too heavily on AI). They are more comfortable with hiring people for short periods than putting them on permanently.
But different countries have different job market cultures - so I can't speak for your country.
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@georgepenney@sunny.garden I have made a playlist of the Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs. I only got to 50 though. Some time I will add the rest.
I have other playlists that are private including Bagpipe music that I play (through headphones) when I am driven nuts by the sounds of the engineers using mechanical keyboards at work. They object to my loud voice. I have to put up with their horrible clacky keyboards. Bagpipe music is a suitable response methinks.
I also have writing music which is mainly Nora Jones. I find her music fantastic to get the writing flowing. Instrumental music of various kinds is good too.
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@mia@hcommons.social That is what I thought. I find it infuriating how historians are depicted as not using technology and incapable of adapting to new realities.
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@virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca It is incredibly rare for houses in Australia to have basements. Department stores have basements, not houses. Generally older houses have the pillars of wood or bricks stuck into the ground under the house to form the foundations. These are called 'stumps' and many houses need the stumps to be replaced when someone buys the house because they are old. This is expensive.
The stumps are set in the dirt of the ground in which the house is built. You may find building rubble from when the house was first built under the house but definitely nothing valuable.
My father built a dark room to develop photographs under the floor of a house we lived in. The house was on the hill so you could stand up under the house. The floor was dirt. Australia has lots of spiders and furry, large ones called huntsmen. They like dark areas such as under houses, so I was a bit worried about spiders when I was developing photos.
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@mk30@regenerate.social Wow - that is quite something! I have never come across this plant.
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@virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca It is a house that is probably built on a hill. So there is more space under the floor on one side of the house than the other. If the house is built on flat ground then the space under the floor is incredibly tight.
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@mia Thanks for sharing this very interesting and helpful article about using AI instead of OCR to transcribe historical printed playbills.
Are there any plans to try this on transcribing newspapers? I have recently spent a few hours manually correcting newspaper articles in Trove. There is still an enormous quantity of text where the OCR results require substantial manual correction.
This echoes the observations of Dan Cohen a few days ago. He found that AI is a particularly useful tool for transcribing handwriting: https://social.dancohen.org/2025/11/25/new-issue-of-my-newsletter.html
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@liztai@hachyderm.io We have a similar problem. Our backyard is mostly in shade for over 6 months of the year, then in summer it gets sun for a few hours at the hottest part of the day. Very few plants survive both of those conditions.
#3GoodThings today:
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I had a nice coffee at the cafe this morning. An Indian couple on a date shared a table with me. They were talking a lot about roles in relationships and how they were going to do it differently to their parents. I didn't hear a lot, but it was lovely hearing a couple having a deep chat about such things.
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I spent a lot of the day at my Lego club. I am fairly new at the club and have now found some people to chat with while building my MOC (My Own Creation). I made some progress and am at peace about this build possibly going to take 18 months to work out and complete.
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I enjoyed travelling to and fro via train and tram. The weather was cold, damp and grey but I enjoyed stretching my legs in fresh air by myself.