Skyrim - Dragonborn DLC is way better than Dawnguard DLC. Fight me! 😂
I’ve only ever had them both (also hearthstone) at the same time, so I can’t really separate them. I enjoyed them both, though. I like that island is distinct from Skyrim. I find the ash depressing after a while though and look forward to getting it over and done with.
I’m not a fan of the plane of oblivion inside the books, either. Some people love that aesthetic, I did not.
On Dawnguard, I never liked the castle either. Also depressing and wouldn’t want the vampire life. I completed the vampire tree for the achievement, then cured vampirysm immediately.
I think I prefer Dragonborn because it is open world like Skyrim, it isn’t linear, there are quests unrelated to the main quest to do (like in Raven Rock, and Skaal Village). There’s cool Morrowind vibes towards the south with the Telvanni wizard and his mushroom house. And the voice acting feels real, as in there is emotion and nuance, and there is humour in the way they speak. It feels fun and interesting! I like the mash of Nord and Dunmer culture on the one island, and the Skaal being removed from Nord culture and having their own belief and culture.
I dislike Dawnguard because of it’s linear-ness. It’s feels very one-track, and you have to take Serana with you (I like my follower Borghak the Steel-Heart and she’s my bae). I dislike vampirism, and I dislike being led on a one-track quest system. I have both installed, and honestly I think I’ll just avoid Dawnguard this play through haha.
The ash can get depressing, but I don’t mind it - it just looks like snow to me 😂
Yeah, I can appreciate that. I liked Serana however. She’s sarcastic and sassy and can hold her own in a fight. She has more depth than the average NPC. Plus huskies!
I hated that long quest through that valley with the urn though. It sucks on survival mode.
Can’t sleep. Got overexcited ordering wall decals online. Goodbye bland as fuck everything!
It’s my first of probably 4 or 5 sleep interruptions. I’m going to shop for decals as well lol
I’m remembering in the at school 1960s school kids used to be helped to set up their own bank accounts with the state bank of victoria and we would have an account book and could bring in money every week to deposit. Even the girls!!
I had a “State bank” account and I remember actual interest accumulating in there.
For most of my life bank interest has not really been a thing, and for a long time they charged fees, so banking cost money instead. The last few years with high interest rates - plus an online bank that lets me earn interest on all my money without locking it away and jumping through hoops for “bonus” interest - has been great.
Gripe of the day:
People using their phones while driving. Especially when they have their kids in the car. Like are you kidding me?
Positive of the day:
Looks like it’ll be a beautiful day! Hoping to get the paddleboard out again (although my knee is still very bruised) or at the very least have a swim!
My workplace is full of 18-21yo university students. I have given up trying to swerve and dodge out of their way because they’re walking down corridors with their heads buried in their phones and weaving all over the place more than a Ranger driver on the freeway.
Now I just walk a straight path (off to one side, not in the middle of the walkway) and just let them crash into me. They wake up startled from their trances and frantically apologise for not watching where they’re going… and then proceed to re-bury their heads in their screens and carry on as they were :|
It’s already happened twice today.
Leaf blowers.
Please get a big broom or rake instead.
I loathe them. The revving, the constant rumble, it grates on me to the point I might turn into a mindless murderer. We have a guy who uses it almost daily at work, and just lets it idle and…urgh.
Not that exciting in comparison to everyone else living their best life here I guess
but my dad’s old friend from his HS and early adult life msgd me today. She has photos of when I was a kid. She’s gonna send them to me. The gratitude I feel to her is immense, I couldn’t express it properly to her. I’m so happy to finally have some childhood photos.
I’m gonna surprise dad with them, he doesn’t have any of me either so I hope he’ll be stoked too.
This friend of dad’s has done me such a solid, I thanked her so so much. I don’t even care if dad doesn’t care, I’m just happy to have some photos of my childhood.
She’s sending them in the mail tomorrow! Physical photos! Omg omg omg!
That’s fucking awesome!
“yeah nah sorry new manager, my cat has anxiety issues so I’ll need to work from home for the next few weeks”
Car door lock replaced post-attempted break in. Surprisingly easy to do. Should’ve done it sooner.
Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋Crab linguine, please!
lots of anxiety reducing no calorie belgian chocolate please
🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
I’d like some cholesterol with sriracha and hot chips please
🧈🌶️🍟
After an almost 2 month wait I got my final 2 assignment results back from last teaching period.
I was pretty certain I nailed one and the other I was iffy about.
The one I nailed, I “only” got an 82. Which is good and I am happy about but I thought I would have done better.
The one I was iffy about, 90. Now, that, I am chuffed about.
The 90 also did some heavy lifting and put me in HD for the overall unit.
That sounds like me. The last assignment I did I was still recovering from Covid and did a bit of a rush job on, and got 90%. They seemed to particularly like the section I had only done a rough outline of, intending to go back and add some detail and references later. I never went back and just assumed it would get me a few points but not a passing grade for that section, so I guess a rough outline was all they really wanted.
Looks like QLD is going to cop it bad with that cyclone, apparently i’s not going to make landfall later in the week.
Hope everyone is able to keep safe there.
yeah bit worried about the folks up there. But its not all terrible news! my old man is up in north nsw and has spent the week sending me screenshots of all his weather apps so he is having a great time!
My brother is near Caloundra and scored a free trampoline appearing in his yard in the last big storm. Could end up with a boat this time…
I found an opportunity to start an online store and I’d like to ask the DT brainstrust on some feedback. I’ll mark it all as spoilers because people may not want to read my full ramblings or some of the subject matter:
Business talk
So I’ve been looking at business where I work to try boost my other business offer, selling marketing software subscriptions, and I came across a lingerie wholesaler.
They just had an open submission to sign up as a stockist so I thought I’d check it out. I have an ABN and a registered company so I could just do it, and there was very little vetting on their side.
Once approved I had access to their entire catalogue and they do dropshipping, where you don’t need to stock the product yourself. Essentially someone buys the product from you, then you buy the product from the wholesaler and they ship it to the person for you.
These guys have way more than lingerie. You can stock a whole sex shop with what they have. But I’ve decided to keep it simple, try focus on a few core products I think would move, and have picked more socially acceptable things that you could actually advertise on social media.
Instead of uploading everything, I’m focusing on things that could target the rave, festival, club scene. So it can still be seen as fashion instead of getting labelled as a sex store and getting banned from every online platform. I’m offering a few best selling items in the hope they will have a broader appeal to try get some cut-through.
I came up with an idea for a store name and a design, here’s the URL, the store is up and running: https://lxix.store/ LXIX is the number 69 in Roman Numerals so it looks fancy but is a sex joke over two thousand years in the making.
Let me know what you think of the website. It’s a little rough in areas and doesn’t have everything, but I’m hoping it looks trustworthy enough someone might click through from a Facebook ad and trust it enough to convert and buy.
It’s almost impossible to grow a social media following organically these days, so I’m expecting to put a bit of money into ads. My only problem is I have no assets aside from the so-so product images from the wholesaler and the brands themselves.
I’m hoping the way I can make this work is I’m hooking up every tracking pixel to just about every social media account I can find. My plan is to eventually get to know my target audience enough I can create ads and remarket to them effectively enough I can build a mailing list, introduce new products as if it’s a ‘launch’ to capture previous customers again, and just grow the database of customers and like customers.
But I need actual sales to keep this going and achieve any of that. I only took the ‘Coming Soon’ off the website last week so it’s still early days, but I want to make sure this website looks like it will work. The marketing software and business consulting was a slog because I don’t have a network or capacity to follow up with people effectively. If I get things right here I could just run an ad and get returns.
I’m also considering reaching out to people and sending free product for content. But that’s also a case of choosing the right people, as it still costs me money when I have no cashflow at the moment.
Also, I’ve searched for the most popular products on the wholesaler’s store to find other websites selling the same stock. A lot of them are basic and ugly websites that don’t look all that maintained. You can upload a CSV of the wholesaler’s catalogue to your store, and I think a lot of people just do that. So they have basic images and descriptions, and are hoping for more of a ‘build it and they will come’ approach.
I also want to do a lot of SEO work and try be the top rank for a few keywords. That can supplement ad spend and helps with building a following long term. I don’t think anyone but the big stockists are doing the same.
I’m just worried I could have a theoretically perfect online store, but can’t realise any actual sales because my ads aren’t good enough or I don’t have enough capital to spend on advertising to figure it out. Any feedback is recommended because I feel like I could make this work.
It’s all one size?
Size range is S-M-L-XL-LX-IX
Maybe make all the descriptions 3 lines long (maybe a blank line after short descriptions) so that the ‘add to cart’ buttons line up nicely. Otherwise it looks great.
I’m no expert but I’d be wary of anything that at some point could leave you holding the bag.
Say if someone does an order with you but you’re relying on someone else and the goods are late or don’t arrive. Worse the dropshipper could take the money and phoenix.
Also be careful as Mastercard and PayPal have cracked down on anything of an adult nature so if they flag something you might not get paid. No idea how strict it is and it might be ok to pay for underwear but the association with the other goods might call attention.
Also the website is clever but I wouldn’t parse that, I’d just see random letters that might look a bit sketchy and probably not click.
Sorry! I’m just a bit wary and raised some risks you might want to consider, the side hustle isn’t a bad idea.
Edit: Oh yeah and the AI or photoshop point is a fair one. I’ve only hovered for a preview but if the models look unnatural that might be a turnoff. Because AI doesn’t cost much it’s being used a lot for scams, and while the business is above board that sort of appearance might make ads look sketchy.
If it was me advertising stuff I’d just go on Model Mayhem and hire an amateur model with a TFP arrangement (time for prints) which means they do the shoot for free in exchange for the right to use the pictures. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_for_print
However if these pictures are being supplied by someone else, which it’s likely they are, then I’d be a little bit cautious because with a lot of image doctoring you might not be getting an accurate idea of the product or its quality (which you could be blamed for if they are shady). The pictures might have even been stolen from elsewhere.
Edit 2: Also if you go ahead maybe show it to someone who is in the demographic you’re aiming at, check if it’s something that they and their friends might buy before making any commitments or putting any money down. Subcultures can be finicky and fashions can change. What looks right to someone outside might not be accepted by them. That’s not to say they couldn’t be creative and find stuff that works, just that if it doesn’t hit particular notes sales might be lower.
These are all good points. The wholesaler seems pretty established, I’ve seen their products listed on large, real company websites. The issue I could have is someone orders something from me and it’s actually out of stock on the supplier side as someone else has bought the last one. I’ll figure that out if it happens.
I’m expecting people to see ads before they see the URL, so they’ll see the logo with LXIX in it then see the URL. I hope that makes it seem less spammy. I get what you mean though, most junk URLs are just a random string of letters.
Thanks for the tip on Model Mayhem as well. That’s exactly what I need right now. I need assets of real people wearing the clothes, especially videos. I can edit those into ads that will grab a lot more attention if done right.
I’ll try find some 20 year old girls to show the website to as well. The main thing I want to check is if they’d wear the items, and trust the website from seeing it in an Instagram or Tiktok ad to convert to a sale.
eeek, the moving is getting all done
while it’s a bit of a fuss it’s nothing compared to moving a household from Europe to the US or shipping a pet cat overseas. It was exciting moving from Europe, there was a sea shipping container on a flat bed truck!! It was cool, even if I say so myself.
Seeing as you have lived in so many countries, I’m wondering what your accent sounds like.
refined Aussie with no friendly foes and few idioms
I can understand other colloquialisms very well so most people don’t even notice I speak Aussie other than a mild accent
I expect my accent is a bit more broad since I moved back
Back in the 60s my parents moved the whole family from England to Australia - all the big furniture (including a piano) went in a shipping container made of wood (!!) which was just plonked by a crane onto the front lawn of the house we moved into in Ringwood. Once emptied, the timber was repurposed by Dad into the lining of the garage so he could put hooks & shelves anywhere not just into the structural supports. We moved out of there in 1988, and the lining timbers were just as good/bad as new. The timber was kinda hairy and shed splinters all the time, but was structurally strong. I wonder to this day just what that timber was and where it came from. I’ve never seen anything like it since. Nearest guess would be messmate, but this stuff didn’t warp like messmate does.
Ringwood would have still been nearly rural at that time! They were probably there when they moved the clock tower! My family would have moved to the area not long before you moved out. Now every time I look at the older houses I’m going to wonder if it has a garage lined with shipping container!
Edit: I have just noticed the excessive number of exclamation marks!!! I’m sorry! I got a bit over excited!!
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❗️❕️‼️⚠️
It was. There was still a cattle/sheep/horse/pig market in Croydon, the Ringwood one had closed recently for large animals but you could still get goats and chickens there. Actually, we pre-dated moving the clock tower - which was opened by my granddad and there’s still a plaque on it with his name. We even pre-dated Eastland! The first version of that was built while I was in secondary school. My grandparents moved there in the early 1950s after my grandad left the army, and bought a large house on Warrandyte Road which is still there. The house was built in the 1910s for the manager of the antimony mine in Burnt Bridge, and it had a circular carriage drive, carriage house and stables, a hutch in the whacking great kitchen for bread and milk & meat deliveries, a huuuuge bath with a mahogany surround - and outside toilets. One for the gentry, and another one for the servants. And I think from memory about 6 bedrooms, though some of those had been re-purposed as the library etc. Great place for a family to grow up, but suburbia covers all eventually.
This is an awesome story. 🙂
I was feeling a bit down today but the man is here and he always makes me feel better. That and a trip to bunnings. ❤️
hugs 🙂
I hope there were sausages involved.
Hope you feel better CEO!
There was no sausages from bunnings
Okay I said I wouldn’t care if dad didn’t care about these photos, but he’s seen my message and hasn’t responded.
I just need to chill! It’s a workday! It’s gonna bring up a lot of feelings from the past for him! Not everything is about you Spud, gah!
I messaged a dude on marketplace to buy something and it turned out to be a guy I was in a band with 25 years ago 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Holy shit lol
My first marketplace sale turned out to be the wife of someone I work with. It made delivery easy.
small world
