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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • One of my family members had a bad headache recently. They had two doctor appointments, a CT scan and MRI, then awaiting results had to go to hospital. Another MRI and CT plus a lot more tests and scans. Next day top neurologist comes in and determines likely MS. A week in hospital later, all the drugs like steroids, immunity boosters, the IV stuff for staying off food for a few days, etc. then off to a neurology clinic for more tests and scans, MS confirmed. Treatments start in 3 months. In the meantime a bunch of vaccinations and immunity boosters, including blood work having to go off to another country for some reason to be tested…

    So far, $250—aboit $160USD—and a chunk of that was actually an acupuncture session before first doctor. They’re going onto another state system that makes specialised treatments and tests fully covered because of their diagnosis, so they can be conducted precautionary even when a doctor thinks it’s unnecessary but would like peace of mind.

    That’s for life. Any money spent now will be optional care. But most quality of life things related are covered, like if they need carer at any point at home or occupational therapy for work. Obviously normal physical or psychological therapy is covered too.

    This is what we get in exchange for 2% of our taxable income each year. Socialism is just the worst.

    Edit: Oh, forgot to mention… The state will actually be giving them money each month too to cover micro-costs that may be related. Kind of like a pension or allowance for small-ticket stuff they don’t need to track or declare. Also, their symptoms are mild and they’re expected to live quite the normal and long life.





  • Oh boy. Big topic.

    1. Don’t refer to “average sleep” of 7-8 hrs. Plenty of people—like myself and everyone on my paternal side—struggle to exceed 6.5 unless post a physical day. Plenty of other people unfathomably need 9 or more hours. “Average” is such a poor yardstick, especially with so many unique outliers. Don’t pursue “ideal” sleep if you naturally need more or less.

    2. Sleep cycles are around 90 mins. Your thoughts wander into dream state, you go into deeper states, and return to a dream state as the cycle ends. You dream several times a night but will only be aware of it going to sleep and especially waking up. Yet a few mins after waking up, you will have forgotten the details of the waking dream.

    3. If you wake up mid-cyxle, not matter how much sleep you’ve gotten, you will feel drowsy. The brain activates awake, but everything else is in sleep mode and gets stuck there for a while since it never got its natural chems/triggers it uses to wake up This is why if you.re a 7.5 hr sleeper and missed it, it’s better to set the alarm to 6 than 7. Multiples of 90mins as a rough rule to avoid feeling shit next day.

    4. Listen to your body. If you are hungry, eat. If you are not, don’t. Sleep is the same. If you force sleep, you will not benefit, espially if your brain is confused and fires up after an hour into “sleeping in”, making you feel drowsy. 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9.

    My advice is trial going to bed earlier. If you wake up earlier, you’re all good. When you wake up, that’s it. Don’t try go back to sleep.

    On the other hand, if you go to bed early and wake up normal time, enough of that confirms you need the sleep. Your brain may be ready to wake up at 8am, but your body is not. Give the body an hour early mark and see what happens.














  • His breed is a dog. Ha, really that’s how it translates. The breed is a Finnish Lapphund. “Hund” is German for “a dog” and the rest is just geographical, where Lappi is Finnish for the Lapland region in the far north parts of Finland. So he’s “a dog from Lapland in Finland”.

    But anyway, shedding. Double-coated breed (obviously since homeland is in the Arctic Circle). Really active herder/working breed that handles Australian summer temps totally fine (he’s camped in 43C). But also in the alpine region he’ll choose to go into the howling wind, dig a pit in the snow, and sleep there like it’s heaven.Super minimal shedding all year round, basically nothing.

    “But how is that possible?”

    The answer is October. He “explodes” the undercoat over a few weeks and it’s fucking insane. It just keep fucking dropping. I don’t know where it all comes from! After that, he just stops growing more until it starts cooling again. Imagine this brushing damned near daily for 2-3 weeks.

    His natural version of taking off the ski jacket, jumper, shirt, and thermals to get down to the shorts and singlet I guess.


  • Right now, my shoe.

    This is his standard. Loves a pat, but love his own space to sleep. Can’t even get a couch cuddle for more than 30s until he plonks off and sleeps on the cold floor. Maybe up in the snow this season he’ll be forced to cuddle me, but his breed is made for sleeping out in the snow so probably not.

    Edit: He’s moved further away to colder floor :( And no, it’s not hot. It’s 8C (46F).