Slice and dehydrated some!

Dehydrated mushies can be kept (long shelf life) to add to meals. Or put them through a food processor to make a powder (takes up much less space, if that's an issue for you) which is great for extra flavour in soups, sauces, casseroles, etc.

The training rod is definitely not a new addition. I used it in my first game a couple of years ago because I found fishing too hard. There was a dialogue where Willy asked me how I was finding the fishing, and one of my options to reply was "it's too hard". Then he told me to buy the training rod. I don't know if it was available before that; I never looked. But try talking to Willy when you see him and maybe it will come up?

The lake outside the mine is a good place to start. You get carp there, and sometimes they never leave the position your bar starts in, so you don't even have to do anything to catch them - free XP!

Prequel to Wall-E.

You can boil them to extend shelf life. Once a food is cooked, you have another week (approximately) to use it before it goes off - maybe a little longer for eggs still in unbroken shells. Boil them, store them in the fridge, and add them to meals over the next week.

My first smartphone was a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. I'm a woman with all the small pockets that entails, and that phone was a great size. Sony was one of the last manufacturers making a smaller version of their flagship phone without sacrificing performance quality. I would have stuck with this line of phones if it hadn't been discontinued. Alas.

My current phone is a OnePlus 6, a gift rather than something I chose. It's not huge, but it is the biggest phone I have owned. And had I been choosing, I likely would not have considered this model because one of my criteria is that the phone fits comfortably in my pockets.

It was a happy surprise that the current phone actually does fit well enough (mostly). And this has shown me that I can be more flexible than I thought when it comes to phone size.

Not sure what direction I'm looking when it comes time to replace this phone. Truthfully, I'd still probably prefer something a little smaller. But in a limited market, you take what you can get.

Coriander goes to seed quickly in warm weather. Let it self-sow and you'll get new plants.

Parsley likewise will self-sow if you let it.

It's not really possible to have a continuous plant to pick from due to the life cycle of these plants. But if you let them self-sow, you'll probably end up with surplus, which you can dry or freeze for use when you don't have productive plants.

It's not a huge change, and day-to-day the differences will be smaller things like words that are used differently. You get used to that without even realizing it. I remember feeling very pleased the first time I naturally used the word "jumper" the way Aussies do (meaning "sweater" or "sweatshirt").

Aussies are generally friendly toward Americans, and thanks to Hollywood they tend to feel like they know a little bit about the USA which makes them interested. (When we visit my family in the US, my Aussie husband says he feels like he is in a movie. 😆)

I have never had any problem with people here not accepting me at face value despite being a foreigner and my accent giving me away. If anything, it's a talking point when getting to know a person I haven't met before. They'll often ask because they are curious, but they aren't hostile. If anything, they tend to be intrigued that I chose to live in their country instead of my country of birth.

There are systemic differences that may or may not be difficult to get your head around. For example, I didn't find the health care system very strange, because I was young enough when I moved here that I hadn't really gotten my head around how it worked in the US. But when my parents come here, they won't consider going to a doctor if they need one because insurance, even when I tell them it's a flat fee and give them the amount the local practice charges. It's just not the system they know.

As noted by others, Australia has its own issues with racism. You won't escape that by coming here, though it is different. Here it's rooted in historical treatment of Aboriginals as sub-human, and "white Australia" policies from the early 20th century. Basically white people have a superiority complex wherever you go in the world of former European colonies.

I'm not sure whether any of that actually answers your question... Please feel free to ask more if need be.

Happy to answer questions!

In Australia, the big difference between domestic and international students is that domestic students costs are subsidized by the government via a federal interest-free student loan scheme, whereas international students must pay each semester up front. That cost varies depending on what you're studying. (Every university should have info on their website about international student fees.)

The other limiting thing is that on a student visa, you aren't allowed to work more than 20hr/week during the semester. So you either need to arrive with a very healthy bank account or put a lot aside during summer and winter break, in order to cover cost of living in addition to tuition. I was only able to do it because my parents were covering my tuition and accommodation.

(A possible point of interest: my bachelor's degree as a full fee paying international student in Australia ended up being cheaper than my sister's degree from a private college in the USA. Go figure!)

I moved from USA to Australia for university, then got permanent residency and later citizenship. I had a pathway because of (1) having completed my tertiary degree in Australia, and (2) having a close relative who was a citizen and could sponsor my application.

Without those things, my only viable option if I wanted to stay after uni would have been to go back to the USA to work for several years in my field of study, then apply for residency on the basis of being skilled in an in-demand industry. Australia maintains a list of in-demand skills, and if your field is on the list then that pathway is open to you - but you would also need to line up a job with an employer willing to sponsor your application ( I think this is mostly just about showing that you will have employment in the relevant field, not a financial burden on the employer, though I could be wrong about that).

My advice would be to make a short list of countries you would consider living in, and then look up their immigration websites and find out which ones you might have a pathway in to (each country is going to be different). If you have family with citizenship in any other countries, begin your search there.

I honestly don't know how I'm going to vote. Something is needed, but is it this?

I agree with a concern from the 'no' camp, that this ends up being a bandaid or virtue-signalling; and if it passes then "job well done" and we don't keep moving forward.

Otoh, I very much fear that if the result is 'no', we have collectively just affirmed racism - the overt, the systemic, and the subtextual.

I have family planning to vote both ways, and they have put considered thought into their positions, not just gut reactions.

But I don't know, for me. I don't think I can in good conscience vote 'no', but I have not yet convinced myself that I can vote 'yes'.

The wattle in my backyard is in full bloom - my favorite.

I recently attended a workshop on propagating native plants, and I'm looking forward to trying to add some to my yard this season.

And I have new veggie seeds and rhizomes arriving by post any day now, which I'm excited about.

All that said, it's too early here (southern NSW) to plant anything that isn't frost hardy. So I need to restrain my enthusiasm.

My husband is a tax consultant. This week he had a client who receives a pension alongside some casual work. The employer didn't consider the pension and withheld tax according to a lower tax bracket than she should have been in, considering both.

She owes nearly $5k. Hubby says "this employer is large and experienced, they absolutely should have known better". Poor woman.

Anyway, it's worth checking that your tax withheld from your paycheck is correct. If they aren't taking enough out, you'll have a balance to pay at tax time.