Every year for like the last 5 at least I end up owing. I have student debt, but it's all declared and taken out accordingly. I have a single employer and no other income aside from a pittance in interest on bank accounts. It's not massive amounts I owe, usually less than $1k, but it still chaps my grits.
In the past It's been softened by my wife getting a decent return, but this year she owes too.
While I loath admitting I like anything about the US, when I lived there you could set your level of withholding, they had 4 levels, and I'd always max it out and get a decent return, kinda like forced savings. I'd be fine with missing a bit extra off every paycheck just to not end up owing them another $800 on top of the tens of thousands I've already paid.
I'm just pissed and tired of getting worse off every year instead of better.
Apologies if this has already been discussed, I've only just discovered this community.
Seems to me, that with the enshittification of literally every aspect of life lately, and the apparent acceleration towards full oligarchy by a handful of spoiled, arrogant, nepo-baby billionaires, that we're a society that's ripe for a switch to a more socialist model.
But I keep reading theories regarding the reason behind the sudden increase in popularity of ON and it seems like all the issues they talk about should be creating a flood of new socialists but instead they're veering off to the hard right.
I know that we've all been subject to a lifetime of anti-socialist conditioning, but it blows my mind that these people don't think that voting far right is just going to make all those problems worse. It further blows my mind that they can't just take one look at the USA and see a multitude of reasons to not vote for Pauline Hanson.
Does anyone out there have any proven approaches to change these wayward minds? Is it better to try to teach them that PH and ON suck, or that socialism isn't inherently bad?
There's plenty of people arguing that the reason so many trump supporters are rusted on is that they don't actually care about his performance as president, they're just in it for the racism. Could that be the same for ON here? I certainly know some people who are 100% committed to being racist, and they're typically doing ok financially so they probably think that will continue forever regardless of who is in government. But again, they can just look at the US for evidence there.
I dunno, I guess this is partly a rant. Trying to reason this out gives me a headache, so letting it out here helps, but I'd also love to hear some proven or even potential talking points that might help open some eyes and change some minds.
First impression - I was impressed by the size. This is a substantial unit. Of course the dimensions are on the website but I have a hard time visualising these things, and I’m used to things bought online showing up much smaller than my expectations. I didn’t have a banana but I took this pic with some regular items nearby for scale.
It came with seasoning instructions - grind half a cup of uncooked white rice, then some garlic, cumin, salt and pepper together. I did that bit. Grinding the rice made me glad I didn’t go for the wider, shallower one I was considering. Even with the deeper bowl quite a few grains escaped, but I don’t blame the bowl for that. Grinding up raw rice was a bit more work than I was expecting, but after a while I got into a groove and I discovered that the pestle is heavy enough I didn’t really need to apply much pressure, just swirl it around and it took care of business all on its own. Grinding the other things together was a lot easier and quicker and I had a garlic/cumin/salt/pepper paste in no time.
As for the most important test, the boss absolutely loves it, and her medicinal flower garden is terrified, though I think I might need to buy her a cauldron next! 🤣
Here she is grinding up some eggshells by the fire for the garden.
We’re very happy with the new addition to our kitchen. We have a ton of herbs growing as well as medicinal flowers and some plants like aloe vera and comfrey and the boss is very interested in making salves and what-not, so she loves playing with it.
If anyone knows where I can get one in Australia (most of them ship from Afghanistan or Europe), especially somewhere with an online store, I’d be super appreciative!
G'day folks, I want to get a mortar and pestle for the boss for mother's day, it's one of those things that's always been on the "one day" list. Lately we've been investing heavily into our garden and she's super into herbs and medicinal plants and making potions so I think it's time.
I've never owned one so don't really know what to look for. But I am a tool guy and have no problems paying for something that's good quality and will last. Though having said that, from what I've seen they're not all that expensive.
I think if I had to make the choice myself I'd probably go with the 16 cm deeper one. But I'd love to hear input from anyone who's spent some time using these and what I should consider when choosing.
Info that may or may not help - she's a former chef, so her chopping game is already top notch, she can mince veggies with a knife. She also likes fiddly little bullshit that would drive me nuts, like crocheting, so she's got nimble fingers. I've got fists like hams and big, sausage shaped fingers, so I'm more interested in something that would work for her than for me.
Thanks a ton!
Edit to add - I'm not committed to kitchen warehouse, it's just where I ended up and I liked the look of what they had. But I am committed to something that's going to ship from Australia, because of all the everything.
Last November, a majority of my wife's family voted trump. I immediately made known my disgust and that I had no interest in maintaining relationships with any of them. My wife is equally appalled, but family is important to her and she chooses to compartmentalise it for the sake of their relationships. That's her call. Typically, her mother comes to stay at our house for an extended period as we live far away, and this year I tolerated her being here for the sake of my wife.
But now, thinking about the next visit and how bad things have gotten, I can't even stand the thought of having her in my house, let alone being in the same room as her. I really don't want her here at all, but I will again tolerate her for my wife's sake. However I think it's likely that I will make myself pretty scarce during that time.
So the ethics question is - given that I expressed my distaste after the election but still remained cordial, is it ok, ethically speaking, to become more resentful as the consequences of their actions become more apparent? Or, given that what has happened since is pretty much out of everyone's hands, am I locked in to the level of hostility I showed immediately after?
I guess the distilled version is - a person does X, I express disapproval. Is it ethical to express MORE disapproval as additional unforeseen consequences of X become apparent?
Thanks for your thoughts!
Edit to Clarify - My mother in law is not MAGA and I don't think she's enjoying any of it. She thinks we can "just not talk about it" and everything will be fine. However she has become more racist and judgemental (anti-trans etc) in recent years. Hates Joe Biden and Kamal Harris but can't or won't say why.
Thanks for the responses so far and I'll try to respond, but I'm about to start work shortly.
We recently discovered these. $1.60 a piece at Woolies and they're really flipping good! My wife typically makes us salads for lunch during the week, and constantly coming up with proteins is a pain. I also spend a reasonable amount of time out on the road for work and typically bring canned tuna for snacking on, but I'll happily smash a can of these and keep moving. Also, if you're feeling really lazy, a couple of cans of these tossed with a small bag of chopped lettuce or salad greens makes a perfectly acceptable side salad.
There are more varieties than I've shown. Give them a go! 👍
For father's day breakfast I made everyone english muffins, pork and herb sausages, and fried eggs out on the barbie (I'm definitely in the wrong tribe to get breakfast cooked for me 😆), with a side of air fryer tots (perfectly legit substitute for hash browns). Then I slathered the whole shemozzle in a generous helping of Bush's maple and bacon baked beans sent from the states (if you're ever in the states, do not dismiss their baked beans because your only experience is Australian beans, American baked beans are on a whole other level). This should keep me going till dinner!
Have a kickass Sunday everyone! ☺️
My 13 year old crocheted me a stegosaurus for father's day. I named him Clarence.
I know, I know - not food. But I'm not part of many communities and I figured the folks here would appreciate this. This is how my wife and I spend most of our Friday nights - a fire, a surprisingly drinkable box of red, and each other. It's by far my favourite part of the week.
Incidentally, we often have a meal plan for the night, which is typically scrapped in favour of our 13 year old rustling up a curry, which she's always happy to do!
Just a little PSA here. Been on the road for work for the last few days and had occasion to stop at a 7-11 (there are none near me), so I grabbed a cheese and bacon traveller pie, with very low expectations. It was surprisingly good for a mass produced, packaged, hot box pie. The pastry was nice and held together well, and the filling seemed to have all the flavours and textures I'd expect.
Later in my trip I stopped there again and tried a smoky bbq beef pie and again was pleasantly surprised. Pastry might be a little thick for some, but it was enjoyable, and the filling had real chunks of meat in it.
So if you're like me and you'd normally avoid trying a 7-11 pie in a plastic bag just on principle, maybe reassess if you're in a pinch, you might be surprised.
My qualifications - going back not that many years I travelled constantly for work, and have had far more than my fair share of servo pies. Mostly I'll avoid them, though I don't mind a villi's. The only ones I refuse to eat no matter how hungry I am is four n twenty. They're absolute trash. I'd rate the 7-11 pies near the top of the pack for frozen, bagged, reheated pies.
I work in a small regional engineering consultancy. On Thursdays we have byo meat BBQ lunch, company supplies bread, sauce, and onions and I cook. Well a few weeks back our old coolabah 4 burner finally kicked the bucket, so I was tasked with getting us a new one.
It finally arrived yesterday, I put it together this morning. Only had time to put one quick season on it before cooking (I gave it a good clean and oil after and I'm not worried about getting it to where I want it). What an absolute joy to cook on. This thing slaps. Heat control was a little bit of a learning curve, but the one big solid plate with a lip all around and nowhere for anything to go except down one credit card sized hole on the front corner was awesome for my giant pile of onions.
I wouldn't pick it for my home setup, where I cook a wider variety of foods and am a lot more adventurous. But for smashing out snags and onions or an occasional steak for 10-20 people, I think this thing nails it. I'm excited for next Thursday!
G'day all. Having an internal debate atm and interested in other's thoughts. I'll try to keep context as brief as possible:
I currently have a 2009 GU patrol and a 2003 xtrail, would like to replace the xtrail in the short term and the GU within 5 years or so. Both vehicles are pretty solid and reliable, but showing their age. The GU is set up for camping in remote areas, which we do a lot of - it's definitely not a mall crawler.
Been looking lately at the Pajero Sport as a replacement for the xtrail. Reasoning is it would be far better than the patrol for highway trips, my daughter and her boyfriend could use it to tag along with us on camping trips, and if push came to shove it could be a somewhat reasonable stand-in for the patrol, even if it doesn't go as far (not likely to invest in aux battery, rear drawer setup etc). The pajero sport could never replace the GU though, just in terms of packing space and roof load capacity - we camp in national parks a lot so we have to bring all our firewod in with us and it's not uncommon for me to have 100 kg on the roof.
For my budget, I could get a 2020+ with under 100k, and reasonably well equipped if I hold out (which I'm doing). The plan so far has been to do that and then 5 years down the road look at replacements for the GU.
But a particular 200 has just popped up for sale. Appears to be very well maintained, and exceptionally well equipped. It's definitely been around, 270k, but one owner with full service history. Asking price $40k. 2013 model. I've gotta say, I'm seriously tempted. Neither my wife nor myself has much of a commute, so fuel costs of running a landcruiser and patrol are pretty negligible, and the additional costs in servicing both would be manageable until I can pay off the cruiser and trade the GU.
Am I crazy? I know it sounds that way for sure, but this particular cruiser is pretty special in terms of what's been put into it and the fact that it's a 12 year old car with a single owner and full history. At first I thought no way, but I think I'm starting to talk myself into it. Of course I'd pay for an inspection first.
I don't need anyone to make the decision for me, I'm going to do what I'm going to do. But I'm interested in hearing some perspectives. Given the spend is about the same, an exceptional (presumably) 270k 12 year old 200 series, or a 100k 5 yeard old pajero sport?
I hope we respond by putting tariffs on American pickups. Democratic nations need to cut the US out of the global economy entirely until they learn how to act right.
Apologies if there's any weirdness in this post, it's my first one.
