The reality in Australia is nothing like what the world seems to think it is. The dumb laws are just performative actions by populist politicians. If I recall, the game bans were mostly because of one politician who made it his personal crusade.

Not much is actually enforced. Every time someone mentions one of these draconian Australian laws I have to check if it’s actually real. I hear about it more from US media trying to paint us as some kind of dystopia, probably because of our gun laws.

We’re not perfect though. We could be doing much better with progressive legislation, but I feel more free here than I ever have in the US.

It would be a dream if CANZUK happened, then it was joined by California and Cascadia. We could call it CACACANZUK.

That said, you would already be a powerful nation without joining anyone else. Don’t wait for us to get organised.

I saw something recently about a 4k restoration, but possibly not all regions.

Two movies that usually appear on lists like this, but I don’t see them: The Fountain, and The Fall.

Ah, Summernats. I used to work at a servo in Canberra. That time of year was nuts.

Usually I was the only staff on site, but we’d have four staff on for nats. One would basically be handling the car wash exclusively. Two would be constantly restocking food and drinks. We’d get a shipping container of extra stock dropped off to keep up.

The bus home would have to go through a cloud of tyre smoke, and half the passengers would get off at the north side brothels and strip joints.

I never actually went to the festival itself, but I feel like I got most of the experience.

There was something about the infinite emptiness that struck an emotional chord with me. That’s gone now, for the better overall, but I’m glad I experienced it.

SA2 just wasn’t as satisfying for me. There was too much rail grinding, which isn’t much fun when overused, because you’re barely controlling anything.

My brother in Christ, you are the violence that will not be tolerated.

I’m surprised they didn’t sneak in a swipe about open source being a socialist conspiracy to undermine American ingenuity.

You just reminded me that pineapple upside-down cakes were a common thing in the 80’s. At least where I was. What happened to those?

Typically just fried on the grill with the patty, bacon, and onion.

There’s a messed up kind of logic to it.

Spending big on something nice is one level of status symbol.

Being able to waste money on something shite is on a whole other level.

I’ll still think you’re a dumbarse, though.

I hope everyone turns up in clown costumes.

Thanks for confirming I’m not alone in this, and sorry you’ve experienced the same.

People tend to think marriage breakdowns happen for obvious reasons, like infidelity, laziness, just losing interest. It’s scary to think that you can tick all the right boxes but it can all fall apart anyway, because we as individuals can fall apart.

We need to do so much more for mental health support.

There were no obvious reasons. An accumulation of life factors, like deaths in the family and job insecurity, led us both into a detached survival state, and her survival instinct is to run. There wasn’t much warning, and it happened when I was away for a family event.

This hit me so hard that I bet everything on giving her space to see what she was missing and find the way back. That turned into years of no contact. When we did eventually get in touch again, it was clear that I made a mistake. Life had not been easy for her. We had both likely been going through some kind of breakdown, not knowing the other was experiencing the same.

We’re now very close again in a lot of ways. I think it’s fair to say we’re more honest and trusting with each other than anyone else. We’ve both grown and matured significantly.

Unfortunately, distance from her family, and I sense some guilt over the whole thing has made it hard to fully reconcile. Now we’re on opposite sides of the world. She’s still struggling but determined to tick off some big life goals. It’s no secret that I would go back to our old life together in a heartbeat, but having so much already weighing on her makes it difficult to even think about relationships.

I’m not sure what the lesson is there. I guess it’s about remembering to look out for our own mental wellbeing, because without it we can’t fully look out for those we care about.

I was a very well behaved kid, but somehow got punished multiple times for absolute bullshit reasons.

I think the most inexplicable was when I had changed schools. My old school was strict about sun safety. Hats were expected every time we were outside. The new school was the opposite, not allowing hats to be worn indoors at all, because they were only worn by rebellious kids or something.

I still wore one at lunch out of habit, and because I burn easily. One time I was going from one outdoor area to another, and had to pass through a covered walkway. It would have been 2 seconds under cover, but a teacher saw me. I got detention and my hat was confiscated.

Good thing you didn’t use British English, then.

I suspect Corporate Memphis is partly successful because it works with ambiguous skin colours, so it automatically ticks diversity boxes without the artist having to think too hard about representation.

My prediction is that the successor will double down on that. I hope it’s cartoony style anthropomorphic animals.

It’s the shape of things, too. They have no character.

I was shopping for door knobs recently, because all the knobs in this house are spherical and smooth. They’re impossible to grip. We have a disabled person in the house who struggles to turn them. Gloves slip right off.

At the hardware store is an entire aisle full of doorknobs, but nearly all of them are the exact same smooth spherical shape. The rest were ugly rectangular lever styles that work but look very industrial in a home that’s mostly natural textures.

Somehow all these brands, finishes, locking features, price ranges, dozens of product variations, and literally only two doorknob shapes. Both so minimalist as to be almost impractical.

I had to settle for the lever style for one door, and just put grip tape on the others.

I’m on the cusp of X and millennial, so I’ve been around plenty of both.

Some X’s have done well for themselves, but those without a bit of luck and assistance have mostly had to give up on big dreams of housing security and family.

Millennials have had it tougher, but many of them still got there, with a bit more luck and assistance.

It’s been a long decline, with the concentration of capital making it harder for most of us every year. The generational divide is just another distraction from class warfare.