Same, I hope they like it too. This year we have tried doing a bunch of these smaller impulse buys throughout the year instead of buying things later that are more expensive, more serious or have been specifically requested. Trying to bring back a bit of that childlike magic and fun to Christmas gift giving for the older relatives, plus it makes shopping less stressful since we don’t have to do do as much in December or manage our money.

The fact that he’s blaming preferential voting is worrying, I expect the Libs will start adopting that stance across the board soon.

Yet more importing of trash American politics. Repubilcans are also convinced that ranked choice voting loses them seats.

Paintable garden gnomes (there is a cheap pair at Bunnings).

Olive oil is a good shout, the prices are pretty rough at some supermarkets now that the specials have dried up.

I broadly agree with what you said, particularly on Labor’s performance which hasn’t been that bad. They have disappointed me too, but I acknowledge that there have been small improvements in many areas which just simply wouldn’t have happened under a Coalition government. I don’t think Australians actually want big change though. I think the vocal minority who follow politics and make a lot of noise about it online can sometimes distract us from the fact that most people don’t care and aren’t thinking deeply about what they want from their government.

I hope this inspires a massive migration off CBA and a rollback of the policy.

It won’t. Firstly because very few people use cash so this doesn’t affect them, but secondly because no one seems to have left following the consistent and widely reported scandals of the last decade. If you don’t wake the fuck up after that then a $3 withdrawal fee is not going to be a come to Jesus moment either.

but know now, you’ll never see a discount once you’re a customer.

That’s not true, I have been a customer for several years and regularly receive offers on my current plan during the big sales. The problem for me is that they lowered my VPN Plus monthly rate to $5 a while back and the promotional offers usually reset to a rate higher than that, so even though I would save more in the short-term I am locking myself into a longer and potentially more expensive contract with them in the longer-term. I don’t know if this is bait from them or an oversight - I did notice that the most recent Black Friday promotion said it would reset to my discounted price at the end of the promotion so maybe they’ve changed it. I still didn’t take them up on it, though.

Proton VPN has a free plan that is fine if you just want general privacy from your ISP. If you want to do more like torrenting or circumventing geoblocking, there are probably cheaper options although Proton VPN does have significant Black Friday sales (which I think you just missed, unfortunately).

Biden should have pardoned Trump at the same time and framed it as “putting an end to this era of retaliatory politics” or something. It’s not like any of the indictments against Trump actually matter given his age and the fact that he won the 2024 election.

Everyone else who pays taxes towards a program like the NDIS is giving up a little of their own quality of life.

This is such a myth. Look at how much you are taxed each year and then take out the percentage that is funding the NDIS. It will be fuck all, nowhere near enough to affect your quality of life.

I see no reason to overpay for this when all the features it offers are included in iodéOS, which it uses. You will save a lot of time, money and potentially risk by installing iodéOS yourself on a supported phone of your choosing. It is super easy these days now that all non-Samsung phones support their automatic installer.

Everything the Center for Humane Technology has ever done should be mandatory reading, viewing and listening for anyone who attempts to insert themselves into the debate over this. It’s so tiring hearing completely uneducated morons from all sides making the same basic bitch arguments over and over again Hopefully now they can all shut the fuck up for five seconds and stop shitting up the discourse on what is a very important issue.

Ah yes, an account called “wikipediasucks” that only posts negative links about Wikipedia…

This is a review of supermarkets, but with regards to the independent grocers I always assumed it was related to quality. The bagged fruits and vegetables tend to be older or less ripe.

I guess it depends where you live and how you shop. Every ALDI I’ve been to in metropolitan SA has had terrible.range and since I already buy home brand products there is very little price difference. ALDI also tend to get inferior locations here so you have to go out of your way to shop at one, whereas a Coles, Woolworths, Foodland or Drakes will often be in a group of shops that includes one or two competitors, an independent fruit & veg grocer and maybe an independent butcher, fishmonger and liquor store. I have a local ALDI that I will occasionally walk to and buy a couple of things from, but I would never rely on it as part of my regular shops.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply! Based on what the two of you have said, I think I’ll check it out. I am mostly looking to avoid a repeat of The Man in the High Castle, which was one of the biggest wastes of time I’ve been unfortunate enough to sit through. The final season was so clearly rushed due to an impending cancellation and it was one of these shows where everything hinges on the final season, which just made the entire thing pointless when they were unable to stick the landing.

Would you say it’s worth watching for someone who hates cancelled/rushed TV series?

One of my lecturers had it bookmarked in his browser lol

I was pretty sure he said something to the effect of “privacy doesn’t matter/doesn’t exist” a few years ago but I can’t find the interview I’m thinking of. All I can find is this video on the topic from The Hated One, which isn’t referencing the interview I’m thinking of.

Elon Musk popularised this cope argument a few years ago. It sounds intelligent to people who are incapable of any level of critical thinking or nuance and believe everything in the world is either 100% A or 100% B with no in-between. Sadly, this is a large percentage of the population.