Mark Asser

Idle. Sometimes bone-idle. Trying to write fiction, intermittently. Also (still) trying to find the right chap. Easily distracted. I'm in South Australia, by the way.

Public Key

npub1lm5f9cu2u8nqud4hfv9c7vknztw0tsfg3lu2r68xe9sdlt24etjqjn2sx9

NIP-05 Address

MarkAsser_at_beige.party@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0a6yjuw9wreswx6m5kzu0xtf39h84cy5gl79parnvjcxl442u4eq9pk7r4

Author Public Key

npub1lm5f9cu2u8nqud4hfv9c7vknztw0tsfg3lu2r68xe9sdlt24etjqjn2sx9

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Last Notes

2024-09-08 03:13:25

Huzzah! (I missed the statewide blackout of 2016 'cos I was in Bath the whole time. ((No, not a bath, Bath. In Somerset.)) Rightwing bullshitters crapped on about the blackout for a couple of years afterwards...)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/08/south-australia-renewable-energy-targets-international-template-solar-power

2024-08-15 17:23:08

Don't be an early bird, you'll get worms.

2024-08-14 07:24:52

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@npub1q0f…rdcz I'm hoping it was those tiny single-serve tubs...

2024-08-14 07:17:15

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@npub1q0f…rdcz What flavour yoghurt?

2024-08-08 23:57:33

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@npub1jtm…rxtn All of the corporate flannel says they've applied the federal rebate thing as of the end of July. Not to my account, they haven't.

2024-08-08 23:10:23

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@npub1jtm…rxtn Maybe they're only fucking up billing for their SA customers.

2024-08-08 23:06:38

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@npub1jtm…rxtn Have you received your July bill? Have they already taken payment from your bank account? And have they applied the federal government's energy rebate?

2024-08-08 23:04:20

Anyone else here using Amber as an electricity provider? Have they stuffed up yout bill too? #Australia

2024-08-04 12:26:15

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@npub10zv…nz7m Could it be a windgarter?

2024-07-14 05:06:02

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@npub1q0f…rdcz Has he tried to apologise?

2024-07-12 22:51:29

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@npub1mpw…4h3u That's poetry, that is. Also accurate.

2024-07-05 14:07:03

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@npub1q0f…rdcz A cat cornering at the transition point between carpet and lino is quite special.

2024-06-30 07:59:47

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@npub1q0f…rdcz I'm in the market for a region-free player. Any recommendations?

2024-06-16 23:36:54

Off to town to hunt the trilobite. As recently as last year I could have done a search for local physical shops selling fossils. Not now, though. Results for online shops, interstate businesses, Fossil brand watches and related shit, and pages of fucking Temu bollocks. Didn't matter how I reframed the search. I'm over this. The Yellow Pages were never this pointless.
Harrumph.
I'm a bit grumpy now.

2024-06-05 18:54:46

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@npub1xr8…3q0g How many?

2024-06-05 09:29:59

Words simply aren't doing what I tell them to do at the moment. It's a sign of stress. Some words suck anyway. Take 'phlebotomy', for example. I mean, just look at it. And it's something I will have to face in the morning.
I reckon I'd prefer leeches.

2024-06-04 21:40:00

Having a dilemma about what to do with someone who says sensible and useful things, but boosts the deranged bollocks of others. I know there's a way to filter the boosts out but I'm still left wondering if the sensible and useful things are only a cosmetic veneer on a pit of bollocks.
People are strange complex entities, and I have to engage with some live ones over the next three days. Bracing myself.

2024-05-28 20:48:24

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@npub1q0f…rdcz Meanwhile it's 13 in Adelaide and that's all wrong.

2024-05-22 12:31:10

Thought I'd have a whinge about various things while waiting for these pills to work, but then I thought that it would help me cultivate an air of mystery if I didn't specify what I was thinking of whingeing about.
My current thought on the matter is that nobody would actually give a stuff anyway, not even me. Also, it is very unfair that joints that have given no trouble all day should start to ache at bedtime.

2024-05-15 23:34:21

Smoke coming out of Drake's/Target shops at Newton. Maybe don't go shopping there today. #Adelaide

2024-05-15 22:12:38

Woman just got on this bus with a chihuahua in her handbag, and a large paperback strategically balanced on said chihuahua to conceal it from the driver. Made eye contact with the dog. It seems nervous, even for a chihuahua.

2024-05-02 03:42:34

I floated past the chocolate and biscuits aisles on a cloud of virtuous smugness this morning. What a dill. Good intentions really suck a few hours later.

2024-04-28 00:25:17

Oh no, I just stumbled into a heap of whataboutism.
Not everyone's here to raise awareness of historical and ongoing injustice. Some people are here for the cats. Just fucking deal with it.

2024-04-25 21:22:07

Oh no, I have to go to town this morning. I'd forgotten. So much for my hopes of just lying here for a prolonged period then foraging for snacks before a nap.

2024-04-24 03:29:08

It's slab pour day on the vacant block next door, where three houses will replace the one that went on fire. They're only doing the one furthest from me at the moment. I'm listening to their conversation - 80% technical, 20% obscene, so they're more polite than a lot of people in their line of work.
I wish they'd done the place closest to me first. That would mean getting the fence fixed at last. Once there's a new fence they can do whatever they want on the other side of it, I won't give a stuff. But I remind myself that the glorious day is inevitably getting closer.

2024-04-19 00:39:20

Important bird news. Includes penguins.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/18/penguins-in-the-pond-kiwis-in-back-yard-how-a-city-brought-back-its-birds-aoe

2024-04-12 08:51:04

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@npub1g0t…tvm4 How can someone influence food?

2024-04-12 07:21:10

I've spent about 24 hours avoiding news sites and broadcasts. I've scrolled past most of the news stuff in my feed. I feel better for it, and I don't think I've missed anything much. Recommended.

2024-03-23 07:41:24

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@npub1q0f…rdcz That should work.

2024-02-18 10:02:35

There's a special kind of regret that comes after hobbling all the way to the other end of the house to snack on something that's in the fridge, when one finds that one has forgotten eating the thing a couple of hours ago.

2024-02-13 19:53:12

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@npub1mpw…4h3u "Add a drop of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

2024-02-13 19:42:40

In the interest of full disclosure - on this account, unsolicited medical advice is a blocking offence. Minor transgressions might or might not generate a warning first.
Yeah, it's a blunt instrument, but so what?

2024-02-09 13:36:23

Ibuprofen. The midnight snack of champions.

2024-02-07 22:32:17

Oh, woe. We need to find other ways to stain our shirts while eating.
https://media.beige.party/media_attachments/files/111/892/560/948/179/693/original/0f49c6670def1f59.jpg

2024-02-06 04:19:05

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@npub1jtm…rxtn Well, isn't that something.

2024-02-05 19:53:58

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@npub1mpw…4h3u Being followed by someone who boosts copiously but never posts anything direct from their own brain is just as disturbing. The decision not to follow back is easy.

2024-02-05 19:42:10

Well, that's revolting. An account posting general-audience amusing memes as cover for a festering mass of Russian propaganda. Blocked, obvs.

2024-01-10 21:29:53

I have a train to catch. Can't find my big net. I'll have to use my bare hands again.

2024-01-06 00:25:58

Thunder. Lightning. Bloke next door on the dodgy roof of his dodgy self-built shed bolting the metal roof in place so it doesn't blow off again. In a previous life phase I read a coroner's report that started off like this. Think I'll close the shutters so I'll feel better about it.

2023-12-27 01:10:13

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@npub1xr8…3q0g I had to google her, so there's no chance I'd have known his name. I did read it a few moments ago but I've forgotten it already.

2023-12-23 05:37:55

Current position: supine. I have some languishing to finish. Yeah, it's only 4pm and I've done sod-all today but my battery's gone flat. Revising my plans for tomorrow again; I'll be doing the bare minimum. The goal is to cook, serve and survive lunch on Monday and that's where all of my energy has to go.
I'm at the end of my 41st year of this rubbish. I'm amazed that I ever had a career at all. But I'm due a period of normal person energy levels sometime soon.

2023-12-20 21:57:34

Shopping done, nice and early. A number of other people had also made the effort to get to the shops early so they could stand numb and clueless at the ends of aisles. Most helpful.

2023-12-16 02:06:29

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@npub1mpw…4h3u I'm on an elderly android tablet. It limits my options.

2023-12-16 01:52:49

Followed a link to a website I might visit once every couple of years if someone posts an interesting link. Hit the pop-up about cookies which didn't have an opt-out option. Then it was a pop-up sooking about my adblocker. Then it was a pop-up asking me which adblocker I'm using. I couldn't find the 'go to buggery' button. So that interesting link will remain unfollowed by me.
All I wanted was to find out how this year's Gävle Goat is going. If anyone has a source rather than the accursed thelocal.se please let me know.

2023-12-09 01:50:35

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@npub1xr8…3q0g That looks like yesterday here. Today is very, very different.

2023-12-06 21:23:20

Here I am again, still revolted by that image I was exposed to yesterday. But I think I've found a way forward for myself.
You see, that gore wasn't posted by a fan of gore. It was posted by an outrage merchant. One of the "why isn't everyone talking about this" cohort. The more someone pushes an issue in my face, the less inclined I am to engage with it. Performative outrage is now a blocking offence on this feed.

2023-11-18 21:43:27

If anyone's intent on watching the Sunday Morning #auspol Bad Show, please be aware that ABC Kids is playing a Bluey Top 100. You have choices.

2023-10-16 22:12:45

Just a reminder that bad takes and wilful misinformation exist at all points of the political spectrum, not just the fascist bit. Never forget the importance of critical thinking.
(And I'm a member of a political party. It's not easy, it's only a line-of-best-fit scenario because I refuse to abandon critical thinking.)
Now I'm going to go and wash off all of this earnestness before it sets. It doesn't suit me.

2023-10-14 22:51:15

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@npub1q0f…rdcz Yeah, but once a thing's been enacted by popular will it would be a bold, innovative and courageous move to try to get rid of it.

2023-10-14 20:33:50

A few notes for overseas observers of Australia's fucked-up referendum:
1. The purpose was to establish a First Nations advisory body to the Federal Parliament. This had nothing to do with citizenship, or equal rights, or any of the other crap half-informed people seem to think was involved.
2. We needed a referendum to include the proposed body in the federal Constitution. The Constitution can only be amended via a referendum.
3. We needed to include the body in the Constitution because that would have protected it from being abolished by the next right-wing government without another referendum. Previous efforts to elevate First Nations control of First Nations issues have routinely been abolished by right-wing governments.
4. The sheer volume of disinformation has been as depressing as fuck.
5. Yes, there's racism throughout all of this. Also extreme ignorance, some of it wilful.

2023-10-12 09:44:38

I have been Taken Ill and am therefore languishing in a most dramatic manner. I'm mentioning this here because there's no point in languishing if nobody knows you're doing it.
I'm not sure what's brought on this sudden distressing episode. Could be something I ate; could be reading the news. Could be either, or both.

2023-09-19 21:02:19

Another day has started. The birds (mostly Rainbow Lorikeets this morning) are carrying on as though it's a surprise to them. Maybe it is. Most things are a surprise to them, living as they do on a perpetual sugar high.

2023-09-16 00:10:53

Momentous personal news - I've just walked to the shops, and back again, entirely under my own power. Now that I'm home I still have enough energy to make a proper cooked lunch of some sort. That's the key achievement. It's been ages since I could go for a long walk (with luggage) and still be able to do something else before bedtime.
I'm not claiming to be 100% well (by my standards), but I'm very close to it.

2023-09-12 21:18:58

It's going to be a great day out there, so my brain is reminding me of reasons to stay home. (Perverse things, brains. This one clamoured for an outing the other day when the weather was relatively nasty.) So far, its best effort is a reminder that I need to eat the bok choy that's in the fridge before it's too late. I'm not really feeling the urgency to be perfectly honest.

2023-09-06 20:14:40

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@npub18lj…80hq No, with very few exceptions.

2023-09-01 05:40:18

Phone call (which I answered out of boredom) from a robotic voice claiming to be from my bank (nope) telling me that $1300 had been transferred from my account to a foreign bank. Hilarious to think that scammers think I have that much dosh just lying around. Any attempted transaction of that size on my account would fail immediately. But I did get a bit nostalgic, listening to this ancient scam narrative.

2023-08-17 22:37:11

A terrible situation. I've run out of toastables.

2023-08-13 01:58:45

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@npub1xr8…3q0g I'm only going to let them in if I can recreate a scene from Black Books.

2023-08-13 01:52:41

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@npub1xr8…3q0g This time, yes - 'no thanks' while closing the door. I'd already lied about being busy. I wasn't sure if they were Godsellers or environmentalists at first; the pamphlet had leaves on it. Then I noticed that the leaves were oak, not native species, and the chap referred to his wife who was dressed in blandness and standing three paces behind him. After that it was easy to close the door on him. Greenies I'd have listened to for a moment, then encouraged them to leave the pamphlet with me.

2023-08-13 01:12:16

Just had Godsellers at the door. No. If I ever feel inclined to find God I'll check behind the couch first.

2023-08-05 05:11:46

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@npub1xr8…3q0g The English, of course, drop the H. Not sure if that helps anyone, to be honest.

2023-08-05 01:41:09

Thinking about getting my shit together, for once. But why? What's the point of that - shovel it all into a neat hillock, and then what? Stick a flag in the top? Pose for photos?

2023-07-10 05:35:59

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@npub18kh…v8r8 Wholesome entertainment from the good old days.

2023-06-22 19:30:28

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@npub17w8…7y5z Where did this happen? Is there a blue plaque?