I did something today; that I have been meaning to do since starting my new job (6 months ago). I biked to work, it took 29 minutes; I plan to ride at least twice a week. I hope to get the time down to around 20 minutes.

I have a nice bike path to ride on pretty much from where I live to right next to where I work. If I worked in the middle of town, I wouldn't have the same access to a bike path. How is the infrastructure in your area, that caters to non-car users?

Update: 28 minutes back.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago

I also have easy access to a shared walking/biking track, but biking to the office is a bit far. I work from home most of the time though.

I only got a bike earlier in the year (once the kids could bike faster than I could walk), and got in the habbit of lunchtime bike rides a couple of times a week, but over winter I stopped and haven't started back up again.

[–] happy_piwakawaka 1 points 1 year ago

I used to bike every day but kinda fallen out of the habit of late as I mostly work from home. There's been some good improvements to the both the cycle, and general road infrastructure recently which has made it a lot safer for me going into to work.

That said with the narrow winding roads in my area, there's not really any room for further cycle lanes. So unless they introduce lower speed limits, or remove on street parking, then it's probably as cycle friendly as it'll get - which is still not super friendly.

I get by because I have an e-bike and can mostly keep up with traffic if I go hard out (except for uphill), but I wouldn't recommend cycling on those roads to more casual / younger riders.

[–] Dave 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bad start to the day this morning when I was informed it was Thursday today, when I had thought it was Friday.

[–] NoRamyunForYou 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Haha very sad indeed. Though in saying that, can't believe it's Thursday already!

[–] Dave 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess on the plus side, I have an extra day to organise Christmas presents (which I've left pretty late this year).

[–] NoRamyunForYou 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

😂😂 Any Black Friday Deals that you've been eyeing up?

[–] Dave 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, nothing that I want is ever a good price. I think it's well established by now that places raise prices leading into black friday to make the deals seem better than they are.

I'm keep to get a Pixel phone and install GrapheneOS on it (because that's my idea of fun). I have been looking for a second hand one on trademe but I'd like a 256GB storage model and apparently no one buys Pixel 7s with any more than 128GB. I'll monitor for a while and see if any come up.

[–] NoRamyunForYou 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I've seen a lot of posts online talking about that. Though I usually have a list of things I've been looking at for a while, so I know their 'regular' prices, and can always compare to that.

I've heard of GrapheneOS, and have always been meaning to do some more reading into it - and I've always wanted a pixel phone, but they make it such a hassle to get one in NZ.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you pop on Pricespy.co.nz there are plenty of places selling Pixels (unofficially). GrapheneOS only supports Pixels, though there are other OSs that support other models. My understanding is that Pixels are the only ones where you can re-lock the bootloader after installing a custom OS, making it more secure.

I'm really keen to get one because I want to see if I can live without the google integrations. No play store, no google notification service, no google on my phone.

I reckon I'll struggle but it's fun to try 😆

[–] NoRamyunForYou 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah that's the thing. I wonder why they can't start selling them here "officially" lol.

Yeah, I think no google would be pretty tough, but i'd like to try and diversify and have the backup option if needed :)

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think when you're at the lower volume, more specialist end of the market it's hard to justify the effort needed to go to all the different countries and learn the rules of selling there. Steam still doesn't sell hardware to NZ (Steam Deck, Index), Framework laptops are not available here, and Google Pixels aren't available. Places normally expand sequentially to big markets. US->Canada->EU->UK->Australia. We don't have the population to pull in anything but the big players (think Apple or Samsung vs Google Pixel).

We actually had Warehouse Stationary stocking the Google Nexus phones that came before the Pixel line, I had a Nexus 4 and 5 back in the day. I remember my wife and I both had Nexus 4s and they both bricked with the same issue, and the shop didn't argue because it was a known issue. Got 18 months of use from a phone then got a refund, so not bad.

[–] NoRamyunForYou 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I guess the "why" is explainable, but it's so frustrating haha.

[–] liv 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Someone accidentally unplugged the freezer so I made a snow angel. (Is it better if I don't embed this)?

My snow angel

[–] eagleeyedtiger 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wouldn't this be a reverse snow angel? Usually you make them wiping away snow with your arms and legs

[–] liv 4 points 1 year ago

Good point! I was sort of doing a play on the angel idea but "reverse" is perfect.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago

I've made my fair share of freezer-snowmen. Almost like the real thing!

I think this image size is fine embedded. If it gets bigger I like to put them in spoiler tags so it's easy to open but hidden at first.

[–] Floofah@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Watched a new BBC drama yesterday. It’s called Boat Story and is a VERY dark comedy/crime tale about two dog walking strangers finding a wrecked fishing boat on the beach full of cocaine.

Here’s a review from the Guardian.

Definitely not for younger viewers. Found it on the High Seas.

[–] Dave 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've kinda gone off dramas but maybe a comedy drama might be up my alley. The review certainly raves about it. Is it more comedy or more drama?

[–] Floofah@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s a difficult question given I don’t know what you might expect in a comedy drama. The comedy is VERY dark, the humour is from the clever use of dialog, plus over-the-top violence that really would normally only ever be shown in horror movies, but in there fits perfectly to the amazingly interlinked story line.

I’d suggest you give it a look if you can, then decide. I couldn’t guess the outcome until a few minutes from the end of the series.

I feel It’s the best thing I’ve seen in either a tv series or movies for a very long while

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago

Ok I'll do it. I've been meaning to set up a self-hosted sonarr/radarr/etc setup's so this will be an excuse.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Are there any rules around parking on the wrong side of the street (e.g. facing the wrong direction)?

I don't know why but it makes me irrationally annoyed when I see people do this.

[–] deadbeef79000 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not half as enraging as people parking over the footpath.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah 100%. Or those that think it's OK to block driveways, if it's just a "short while"

[–] deadbeef79000 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's prohibited to parallel park facing the wrong way.

Also to reverse into angled parking.

Source: talked to the person writing the infringement notices.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Now that's interesting, didn't know about the reversing into angled parking either!

[–] deadbeef79000 1 points 1 year ago

It's technically the same thing. You're exiting the car park facing the wrong way (or on the wrong side of the road).

[–] Dave 3 points 1 year ago

You must not park or stop your vehicle:

on the right-hand side of the road, except in a one-way street

https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roadcode/general-road-code/about-driving/stopping-and-parking/where-not-to-park/

[–] sadbehr 2 points 1 year ago

In England I saw it all the time.