A Lovely 10C Site!

Back in June I applied for income assistance believing I qualified for a disability pension. Much uploading of various documents and forms from various medical specialists led to me receiving unemployment benefits with medical exemption (I didn't have to apply for work) from early September until today.

Today I am scheduled to receive one month's worth of the disability pension, which is 50% higher than the unemployment rate. I also qualify for a low-income health care card which gives significant concessions for utility bills, medical practitioners and pharmacies. I also get a reduced vehicle registration rate.

The first pension payment is $8 less than the purchase price of the new Mac Mini and its various bits.

Order placed. M1 Mac Mini with 512 GB storage, Gigabit Ethernet and 16 GB unified memory. As this is a build-to-order device it won't be ready as early as more basic configurations. Delivery expected between Dec 6th and 8th.
Black Friday deal of a A$160 Apple gift card for future purchases is included. I also bought these things: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B097CJMY9M/ref=ppxyodtbasintitleo01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B086BGWNY8/ref=ppxyodtbasintitleo00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1plus a discounted Magic keyboard with Touch ID.
Recently received inheritance from my late mother's estate has made this purchase easily possible.

Just started a variation on risotto in the rice cooker: I'm using farro instead of rice.

Grandpa was always going on about the good old days, and
the lower cost of living, in particular.

"When I was a kid, my mum could send me to the store, and
I'd get a salami, two pints of milk, 6 oranges, 2 loaves
o' bread, a magazine, and some new blue jeans… all for
a dollar!!"

Then Grandpa said sadly, "You can't DO that anymore…..
they got those darn video cameras everywhere you look."

@matigo Yep.

matigo.ca.

When using an iPhone 11 or newer on iOS 16 with a Mac on Monterey OS as a webcam, the phones wide angle lens has two jobs: it can be used to display the Centre Stage video effect and Desk View. The latter cleverly gives a view of the desk space between the user and the keyboard.

This is via the Desk View app, one of several apps in the CoreServices section of the Mac's System Library.
Since the Desk View is done via an app, it can be displayed in a Zoom meeting via Screen Sharing.

One would reasonably assume, that because the wide angle lens was in use with Desk View, that it couldn't be used simultaneously with the Centre Stage video effect.

But that's not so. Both Centre Stage and Desk view can use the wide angle camera lens simultaneously.

That is very clever.

@matigo Egypt was a staging post, no enemies or fighting. In Syria and Lebanon the conflict was against the Vichy French. Dad only actively fought against Japanese, bureaucracy and disease.

matigo.ca.

Today, November 11th in Australia is Remembrance Day. We honour the lives of all who have served this nation with a minute of silence at 11am.

I remember and honour my late mother’s father, who lied about his age in 1915 and went to war in France and Belgium aged 17. He was wounded in his left leg and walked with a limp for the rest of his long life before being claimed by pneumonia in his 91st year. He worked seven days a week to keep his family safe, secure and educated and was never financially secure until he and his wife were on the aged pension.

I remember and honour my late father, who served in Syria, Egypt, New Guinea and Borneo between 1941 and 1946. Never a big man, in the Shaggy Ridge campaign in New Guinea, he lost four stone (28 pounds) in weight when he contracted malaria. Once you’ve had that, it never leaves your system. He suffered frequently from this in later years, succumbing to cancer twenty years ago.

Went hunting locally for a 1-litre vacuum flask today. Had to go two suburbs west to find one, then decided not to buy it as it was of lesser quality than pricier items.
Settled for a 1.2-litre one instead (which could have been purchased locally).
A couple of days ago the sun was out and I took the mobility scooter for a trundle, taking a thermos of coffee and my Kindle. I found a nice shady spot and the one regret was I ran out of coffee because the flask was too small.

@variablepulserate The clip failed, weak return spring. I should have been using the more modern belt which had a clip fitted with a safety catch.

variablepulserate.10centuries.org.