I am originally from the US but moved to AU and am now a citizen. I got lucky and got out just before Trump’s first presidency.

Life here is good. Like, better than most Americans can really understand. Healthcare is free, education is good and includes topics like critical thinking and understanding how to spot “fake news”.

There is only a small aisle of frozen food in the grocery store, not nearly as much pre-packaged food. There are affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, and outside most grocery stores is an independent baker, butcher, fishmonger, and fruit and veg stand.

Minimum wage is $24.10 an hour, and you cannot be fired for no reason if you are a full time employee.

If you compare things (and adjust for AUD to USD) like rent, gas, milk, bread, eggs… Things cost about the same here as in the US.

We pay around the same amount in taxes, and get so much more.

Things aren’t completely rosy, distressingly, Australia seems to want to emulate the US in certain ways which worries me.

There is also currently a bit of an economic downturn and while it’s nothing like what I left behind, it does mean things cost more and luxuries have to be budgeted for.

I think anyone who isn’t a dick would be welcome here. There are racist cunts here like everywhere, but generally Aussies are the kindest and most welcoming people.

Yup. I hope they make it through this.

I wonder why they are banning it? A cursory google says its an insect borne virus found on every continent except Antarctica.

https://news.sky.com/story/this-is-our-land-we-deserve-it-dozens-of-israelis-planning-to-cross-border-and-settle-in-gaza-13238436

You can hear what Israelis have to say from their own mouths. It’s evil.

I agree, losing it would feel like losing the library of Alexandria. We do need more doing this!

Beautifully written.

Signed, another 40 year old millennial.

I have nerve pain and understand the feeling of the meds not taking the pain away, and the knowledge that there is a trade off with taking them. I have refused to up my dose, but try literally everything else.

Unfortunately I am allergic to codiene and natural opoids, and so tramadol is my long term pain management medication.

I also take broad spectrum cbd oil and flower, triple strength fish oil for inflammation, magnesium, etc. I have also been using lignocaine patches over the nerve roots after reading a study that showed promising results, and despite it not making any sense to me that they should work topically, it does seem to help.

Besides medications and supplements, I use a TENS unit, IR heating pad, ice packs, massage gun, and positioning to reduce pain on bad days.

I have tried every locally available treatment, experimental medication, therapy, consulted with pain doctors and surgeons. Unfortunately nothing has helped so far.

On good days, I can spend 4 - 5 hours up at most, and will pay for it the next day. Most of my time is spent in a zero gravity bed.

I don’t like taking the pain meds, but acknowledge that taking them means I can do more. Push further. It’s not a tradeoff I like either, so most of the time I don’t.

Well, I think the self driving taxis across the us apparently need human interaction every 6 minutes on average… So are they self driving? I don’t know.

We can’t use our phones and drive, but someone can have a screen and drive 6 cars at the same time…

My favourite article of clothing is my pink cape by Review Australia. Since buying it we moved to the tropics so I never get to wear it, but I love it so much.

There’s just something about it.

Thank you for the clarification, I had thought it was a useful site, but admit I never looked into its sources.

Ah, thanks for the clarification, I thought it was actually useful, but admit I had never looked into it and its sources.

Is there something I don’t know about MBFC? Edit: typo

Very interesting, here in Australia it isn’t a slur. An Indian friend of ours travels a lot for work, and recently told us that every time she gets a taxi to or from the airport and the driver is also Indian, they always start asking questions.

Where are you from, who is your family, etc etc. She exasperatedly said “I’m a coconut! I don’t know, I just want to get where I’m going!” when describing this to us.

They definitely are like crack for a lot of people, I use a youtube front end when I can, and when it’s down a browser addon to remove them.

My daughter is 18 and just a couple months ago started doing the same, after realising shorts were almost an addiction.

Another friend has admitted she cannot stop watching them but so far hasn’t done anything about it.

Along with the other things posted here, it would be nice if peertube had a landing page or even if there was a “watch peertube now” button that led to a page showcasing current popular videos or something.

I clicked your link to peertube.org, then had to “Ask Sepia, our iconic cuttlefish” for a search term to get a list of videos, which after scrolling for a bit moved into lists and channels. A click of the “show more videos” button opened a new tab, and upon clicking a video to watch yet another tab opened to what seems like a fediverse instance for peertube?

For it to be a viable alternative, it needs to capture the way people watch and engage with youtube. If I am watching a video on youtube, there are suggestions for similar content below. If I go to the home page and scroll, either the most popular content will show if I am not signed in, or if I am, content related to videos I watch will be shown.

If I click to watch a video, it will open in the same window.

This is the sort of usability that will entice those new users to make the leap.

I know, just today on my lemmy home page was a w10 user who had their desktop background image changed and the stupid search bar added to their task bar again after an update. This is why I don’t allow my machine to update. It’s rediculous!

Linux will be so much better, but it will require some effort and time, and probably some help. I will have to get there, and once I do I know it will be a relief to have an OS that only does what I tell it to!

Thank you for the kind wishes stranger. I wish you health and happiness as well. I am sure you will see me again after I have made the leap, with some silly question or another. :)

I am the user above, and the writing is on the wall - I am aware that I will need to switch to Linux when I can no longer make w10 work for me, or when it is no longer supported by the games and programs I use.

The reasons why I don’t switch now are more complicated. I use a Lenovo Legion Slim 5 as my daily driver, as I was in an accident and can no longer sit at my desk with the pc I built. This laptop is on a rolling desk over my bed.

Anyway, while some Lenovo laptops support Linux, this one does not, and my reading tells me that I may have difficulty with certain things. I may have trouble with drivers for the graphics card, I may have trouble with adjusting the monitor brightness or the second monitor, I may have trouble with sound. or even the keyboard.

There are github pages devoted to helping with utilities to fix many of these problems, but they definitely require troubleshooting, thinking, and planning.

I have also had a friend who recently switched to Linux, who tried to stream a game for me. Before he switched his streams were flawless, this time we spent a while figuring out how to get his game audio, then the stream quality was abysmal, freezing, and in the wrong resolution, so he played while I googled solutions he could try on the fly.

Streaming games through discord on Linux is apparently a whole thing. That more than anything keeps me on win10, because I cannot play most of the games I used to play, they require too much movement, so my husband or friends will stream for me.

I am hoping things become easier as more users join Linux before me.

This is all a long winded explanation that I am sure you didn’t ask for, but I just wanted to let you know that sometimes even people with a somewhat good grasp of tech have reasons keeping them from switching.

Payphones across Australia are free for domestic calls, and also transmit free wifi. :)

https://www.telstra.com.au/consumer-advice/payphones

No fucking thank you, I have long since completely neutered my pc’s ability to update. I updated enough to install drivers and get it stable, and that’s it. I don’t trust windows.