indomara

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

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.

Wow, I left the US ten years ago, I had no idea it had got this bad. You need a VPN to browse porn? :(

Imgur mostly, since reddit died.

Yes, I definitely do. I use it to open start menu and search, as well as using quite a few commands, run, snipping tool, moving and resizing windows, etc.

When win10 is no longer supported we will be making the leap to linux, and I really hope I can get much of this functionality there.

Yup. When we went to buy a TV I knew this was happening because the smart TVs with wifi and extra hardware and software were cheaper than the dumb TVs. Nothing is free, I knew they had to be doing this shit.

That is a scam, they probably send mass texts linked to tracking numbers that have a registered phone number.

Odd, I don't recall private lobbies being a thing, and a quick google shows lots of people asking for them and a few "workarounds". Perhaps they are a recent addition or a console thing?