u/CuriousLands

Hey there,

So, I've had my health impacted by mould for a few years now. I moved to Australia from Canada around 8 years ago, and in that time we have had a mould issue in every single place we've lived in. I had a brief reprieve in our last place because the mould issue didn't exist when we moved in - but a few years in we got a roof/ceiling leak and that's when the drama started. We moved to a new place in a new area to get away, only to find that this current place has a rising damp problem and high indoor humidity which caused our stuff to explode with mould (especially during long periods of rainy weather). Even with two dehumidifiers running, it struggles to stay below 60% indoor humidity unless it's fairly dry outside.

For people unaware, the rentals in much of Australia (but I think the area I'm in, near Sydney, is extra-bad) are generally mouldy and/or show signs of past unrepaired water damage. People genuinely take terrible care of rental properties, and even some places we've looked at have technically been illegal to rent out (eg cos they have no ventilation in the bathroom) but laws are not enforced very well. We've been looking for a new place for months, but probably at least 80% of the places we've seen were no-gos. The few we have applied for, we got turned down (competition was tight and we may be getting stung cos we took our prior landlord to tribunal to try to get that ceiling fixed).

I thought, well, maybe it's time to buy a place so we can at least fix any issues ourselves and make sure it's done right, but we're talking paying like $700k for a half-duplex in a bad neighbourhood in these parts... so I dunno if that's really doable.

I'm starting to get a bit blackpilled at this point on the possibility of finding a home that does not have any mould or red flags for mould. It's getting even heavier to bear because we'd like to try for a kid soon, but I'm nervous to try with the mould-induced health issues I'm having (eg I'm pretty sure it's given me something like POTS; I can't imagine that'll play nice with being pregnant) and how mould toxins can cross the placenta and whatnot.

So I thought... maybe some people here might have some creative ideas on achieving a mould-free living situation in an area like this? I'm all ears with any kind of suggestions. Nothing is too wild or wooly for me to consider at this point, lol.

Thanks in advance!

Hey gals, just looking for some people to bounce my conflicted feelings off of!

So in brief, I'm in my early 40s, have complex PTSD, moved here from another country a few years ago, and the whole thing has led to me feeling rather discombobulated. As I'm recovering I'm finding myself drawn to clothing that resonated with me in like my 20s; I've always just felt more myself in more alternative clothing - like plaid/tartan, leather jackets, leather boots, fitted clothes, spunky jewellery... and feeling more like myself is something I'm craving extra badly lately.

So I was browsing through some stuff on the Dangerfield site, and my word, the tartan prints! I love them so much. But a fair few of them are on the shorter side. I had actually bought two maybe around 6 months ago and wear them often, usually with leggings underneath in the cooler weather...

on the one hand I just like them, plus my husband loves how I look in them which makes me feel extra-good - not only for the obvious reasons but also, since he's a rather preppy guy, him thinking I look great sort of confirms that this kind of thing is really "me" on some level.

But on the other hand I always feel somewhat uncomfortable because they're so short lol. I'm a bit chubby and put it disproportionately on my tummy (thanks, stress!) but also its' like even though some part of me likes it, some other part of me wonders if it's a bit juvenile (especially since I've noticed some school uniforms have a similar design lol, school uniforms not being a thing where I'm from) and wondering if it makes me look like I'm trying too hard to be youthful or makes me look kinda classless.

The rest of the more alt stuff sits fine with me, but the skirt length is a bit of a weird zone, and given how it's warm so much of the time some skirts are just something I'd like more of, but also I can't sew or anything so making my own is off the table.

So yeah, I know the usual Reddit advice is "you do you lady!" but I wouldn't mind hearing some maybe more in-depth thoughts, haha.

Thanks in advance :)

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Hi there, hopefully this is allowed haha. But I'm co-authoring a book that's set partially in a massive steel refinery, and since I know next to nothing about it, I thought maybe I could ask actual workers to weigh in to help me make it at least somewhat realistic, lol. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'd just really like it to not be like, blatantly stupid or totally unrealistic. I tried Googling it but I'm finding it hard to gather good info, especially since most of the resources I've found talk a lot about the chemistry or are just short clips of machinery or workers - it's not enough. I really know nothing about this and need it explained like I'm 5, lol.

(A couple of people have just told me to watch the end of Terminator 2, but I think I need to actually know a bit about this to write it really well, haha - I have to actually describe what's going on, and plus I want the events to make sense in the setting, at least enough that you can suspend your disbelief.)

In a nutshell - the bad guy is a truly terrible boss who blatantly ignores all kinds of safety stuff, as long as the work gets done and makes a profit he really doesn't care if any of the workers live or die. And in the end he, his assistant, and his corrupt safety officer basically get offed by getting trapped in the refinery, which is full of safety regulation issues, and they ultimately get killed through the very failings they ignored earlier.

So I was wondering:
- If a massive refinery and production facility suddenly had all their staff poof out of existence, what would (or could; it's set in the future so tech is flexible) keep running without human guidance?
- Is having big pools of molten ore and slag in a position in the ground where people could easily fall in realistic? How long would it take that stuff to cool down? (The events of our story take place over a few days, so it'd be great if somehow they could realistically stay hot for most of that, but if not then that's good to know too).
- What kinds of PPE do you tend to wear, and if you had the worst boss in existence who treated you as completely expendable, what PPE do you think he'd cut? What would you end up wearing to work in a situation like that?
- Any suggestions on what could semi-realistically (and/or creatively) incidentally kill my evil bosses as they tried to escape the unsafe refinery would be welcome, haha.

So yeah, I hope this post is okay here, and any input is very welcome :)