The lyrics on Spotify play along/highlight as the song plays so you can read along in time with the song.

This is actually a vital accommodation for the hard of hearing and partially Deaf because we can often hear/feel the beat and sometimes the melody, but we don’t know exactly where in the song were up to because the tune of all the versus sounds the same, or vocal breaks of “ooooooh, lalala” can be mistaken for the start of a new line of lyrics.

So if you’re just reading along with a static page of lyrics, it takes a lot of mental energy to figure out what’s happening with the song, especially if it’s a new song you’re discovering.

We’ve had static lyric sheets for decades, you’d unfold the sleeve in your record and try to read along as you listened, never 100% sure you were doing it right unless a fully hearing friend was there to point at the words and be your version of the bouncing ball.

So to have this technology that almost completely solves this problem for a vulnerable community… Then to put it behind a pay wall despite the fact that Deaf people are more likely to be underemployed and socially disadvantaged than the general hearing populous is just callous.

Our experience of music is fundamentally different to hearing people, and yet Spotify will charge us the same rate for a sub par experience.

The first pride was pretty wrathful.

Okay, you do you.

Buy physical media from independent production companies. Pirate whatever Disney, Netflix and Amazon are cranking out.

I remember during Covid lock downs extroverts were loosing their minds and blaming their extrovertism for their cabin fever.

First of all, true isolation is unhealthy and crazy inducing for everyone, that’s why they still use solitary confinement in prisons for further punishment, so no, extroverts, you’re not special for feeling depressed during a global pandemic. (but yes, it did suck extra for them)

But so many extroverts seemed to assume lock downs were an introverts wet dream. There was very little attempt to understand each other. I’d see introverts empathising with extroverts who were struggling, but the reverse rarely happened, extroverts just seemed to assume “you introverts must be loving this solitude” and when myself and others tried to open up about how we were struggling I would hear “yeah but you like being alone, you’re used to it” like that makes it easier.

At no point did I really see any of the extroverts I know, or anyone online posting about how “wow, being pushed this far out of my comfort zone by lockdowns sucks, is this how introverts feel when I force them to actively engage in crowded, highly social parties?”

Not that I expect the middle of a planet wide plague to be the time I’d suddenly expect people to show self reflection and emotional maturity, but it was still worth the observation.

My entire understanding of skinheads was “skinheads are fascists” and I never delved any deeper into it. Until the other month when my barber told me I should consider getting a chelsea cut, my gut reaction being “why would I want to look like a neonazi?”

But one simple online search later, and I went back for the shave. The original sentiment of the skinhead culture is slowly being reclaimed, though there will always be two potential interpretations of what someone with that style stands for, I’ll happily rock my skinbird cut at union rallies and antifa protective counter-protests when actual nazis try to raid our local queer clubs.

I would already be living in a vehicle, but I can’t drive (low vision) so it’s never going to be an option for me.

About 10 years ago I was looking into bike towed campers as a security plan for an unstable housing situation, only to learn they are illegal to tow in my country. You can own one, sleep in one, and tow it on private property, but to move it from one property to another legally I’d need to pay someone with a car to put it in a car trailer, then unload my camper at the destination.

We had party lines in regional Australia in the mid 90’s. The selective ringing had been phased out long before I was born, it either wasn’t available or rather as a kid I was never taught how to alert specific houses on the line. So it sort of operated more like a community chat room.

It was mostly only used for emergencies, if you saw smoke you’d pick up the handset for the party line and others would do the same and you’d try to figure out who’s back paddock was on fire and coordinate to all go down and snuff it out. Or if you didn’t recognise the livestock that wandered onto your block you’d jump on to see if anyone was asking where their sheep went.

But we also had private lines by then, so no one was really hanging out and gossiping on the party line. Occasionally the party line would be used for organised social programs like book clubs if no one could be bothered hosting at their home. We used the personal line for dialing out for calls, and kept the party line free for emergencies.

I never realised it was a party line, or a thing in other places or times in history. I thought it was a cool thing the community just installed themselves using a closed phone loop. Growing up I assumed that since the invention of affordable home phone lines, we’d just always had two phones. One for actually phoning people, and one for town meetings.

I have a step through frame that you sit upright on. 20-25km/h is my average commuting speed for getting to work and going to the shops. I regularly have to push to 30km/h+ because of motor traffic trying to ride up my ass even though I’m in the designated bike lane. (cars in Australia like driving fast in the bike lanes to avoid the chicanes on the road designed to slow motor traffic for cyclist safety)

If ebikes are disproportionately represented in cycling accidents, then I would argue it’s not the speed, it’s the barrier to entry. People who have never ridden before, people who aren’t physically able to ride a standard bike, these groups make up a significant portion of ebike riders because ebikes are accessible.

Yes, speed will contribute to this, people with limited riding experience being able to ride fast, possibly without the physical fitness required to control a bike at high speed.

The issue then isn’t the speed itself, but rider education and training.

Yeah, but it’s an optional pain we choose to endure. If you didn’t want the pain you could just learn to accept your inkless skin.

It’s not like dental work, or surgery, where there is a genuine risk to your health or your life if you don’t get it done, the pain is not really a choice then, which is why it’s nice that anaesthesia is an option. (anaesthesia is also for the surgeons benefit, general aesthetic isn’t just one drug, it’s a concoction that not only numbs and sedates, but paralyses - there’s a reason surgeons used to try and aim to amputate a limb in under a minute, because there’s only so much you can do with a screaming, writhing patient)

There are actually medical tattoo technicians (used in radiology to place targeting tattoos) it helps the oncology team line up the equipment perfectly every time.

And also reconstruction tattoo artists that are considered part of the allied healthcare industry, they work with reconstructive plastics and cosmetic surgeons. They can tattoo over hypopigmented scar tissue, they can create photorealistic nipples on people who had radical mastectomies, they can help blend the surrounding skin to seamlessly match a prosthesis through what is essentially permanent contouring.

It requires specialist training it’s not something any old tattoo artist could do. Scarred, burned and surgically damaged skin does not respond the same to ink and the skill level required is immense. But the quality of life and pshyc-social benefit to a patients health is worth it for those that get these tattoos.

Not too far off, $1AUD (0.60 euros) would be a cheap can of beans (which is often mostly water, even if it’s a 400g can, once you drain the beans, your millage varies by brand) $3 a can is average for name brands that fill the can to the brim.

But when you can buy 500g of dried beans for $3.99, and that will make the equivalent of 8-10 cans of beans, as someone who doesn’t eat meat (and has allergies so can’t eat commercial “mock meats”), I eat at least 2 serves of legumes every single day. Buying cans adds up at that scale even though I’m just one person. So I always buy dry legumes when I can.

I definitely have some cans in the pantry for emergencies though, because they are very convenient.

But I also have some pre-cooked, unseasoned beans and chick peas in the freezer, when I cook up a big pot I always throw a few portions in the freezer. They defrost in less than a minute in the microwave, so I’ll use them before I crack open a can of beans.

Oh I assumed that was a cat for farming fur balls, not meat.

I’m not exactly super rich from med bills right now, but being physically well enough to do normal stuff would be a pretty bittersweet miracle.

Oh to just be told “it’s terminal, you’ve got 6 months, good news, you’ll have a surge of health before the end”

It’s not what I would hope for from my life, but it sounds nice to finally be able to just, stop.

No more chasing down GPs for refferals, no more calling specialists asking if they’ve sent over results and reports. No more weekly appointments trying to find the right medication. Most more confusion over “is this symptom something new that’s unrelated? Or Is it related? Will it be temporary? Is this symptom my new normal? Wait, is this a drug side effect?”

No more fighting with council to get ramp access to my house, no more stressing over how I will ever be able to afford the home care I’ll need for the extended duration I’ll need it on the income my disability limits me to.

No more looking at my mother and my auntie’s as they slowly crumble, while still being expected to suck it up and bear the responsibilities they always have. No more seeing the long, deteriorating future ahead of me reflected by my loved ones.

No more “oh, you’re chronically ill? have you tried drinking water and doing yoga?”

No more “you don’t look sick”

I’ve only got 6 months to have to put up with any of this, and then I’m gone.

I’d prefer to be alive, but I wouldn’t be upset at the universe if that’s the hand I was dealt.

6 months is a good time frame. Certainly beats getting hit by a bus tomorrow - who would look after me cat?

Not a bad haul, I might be biased as an Australian, but that looks like good value for money for food that’s balanced and easy to cook.

As a fellow non-meat eater, I am deeply disturbed by the lack of legumes in this photo, but if you’re not a fan of cooking from dried, then I get it, canned can get expensive for what you get out of it.

Some charred chickpeas with olive oil lightly smashed on that rosemary bread would end up being my breakfast for a week straight if this was my house.

It was 1am and I couldn’t sleep so I was sneaking out trying to make it excuses to my parents about needing a glass of water or something.

My mum was trying to push me out of the kitchen because she was wrapping a present and icing a cake for my birthday as a suprise.

She ushered me into the living room, but instead of going back to the kitchen she got distracted by the telly and sat down.

I thought my dad was watching some weird straight to VHS movie on the community channel. I didn’t initially think it was the international news. I sat down and watched for a good 20 minutes, wondering why my parents were so hooked. I was thinking it was like a modern retelling of war of the worlds or something because the whole “movie” so far was just a news broadcast about planes crashing into buildings… Then I realised this was live news.

I should have caught on sooner, when my dad didn’t immediately send me back to bed, he let me stay and watch which he would never do for a movie. I was just old enough to comprehend what was happening, that lives were being lost and thousands of people in America were left hopeless and in crises. But not old enough to imagine what this could mean for the world going forward, and not really old enough to understand that it was a planned terror attack. I remember asking mum if I should cancel my birthday party, and my dad asked why, then my mum and dad argued over it because mum agreed it wasn’t a day for celebrating, but dad argued that it shouldn’t matter, America was on the other side of the planet and we didn’t personally know anyone. I went to bed while they were yelling and I guess mum won because we rescheduled the party for a week later.

This is a really good point that I hadn’t considered at the time.

I’m always wondering this when my current boss (working at a different organisation now) will tell me to uber somewhere because it’s too far for me to cycle and use the company debit card.

I hate that American style tipping culture is becoming more common in Australia, but I hate the idea of someone not being paid a fair wage even more, and my boss is on the same page, but I still second guess myself every time I go to enter the tip because its not my money, so I’m always trying to decide how much to tip based on what I think is fair but also what our accountant might say.

Not to mention how many carers and support workers and financial powers of attorney would be asked to make donations of opportunity. I wonder if there are sort of “financial intentions” documents people can prepare in advance with trusted people to say “these are my values, if a charity aligns with my value’s, my carer can donate up to $y of my money or x% of my income per year”

I was a staff member, so it wasn’t exactly donating my time (though I won’t deny I put in a lot of free overtime and rarely took the allotted breaks, so some of my time at that organisation was donated, but I was a paid staff member)

The bigger issue was that they money I was using did not belong to me, it already belonged to the charity that I was being asked to donate to.

I still remember the time I ran into Woolworths at 7am right as the door opened to buy $400 worth of their paper bags because the delivery of bags our food bank was expecting the previous day never arrived and we had 800 hampers to pack that day.

I was wearing my uniform and I had my card with me to get the wholesale discount as part of the agreement our organisation had with woolworths.

The store manager recognised me as I walked in and ran off to grab some unopened boxes of bags for me.

When I hit to the checkout the cashier ran everything through, applied the discount, and even engaged in some mindful small talk about how busy we were expecting to get today and if Aldi had stopped giving us green bacon (they had not).

Then when we were almost done the cashier asked if I wanted to donate to Food Bank.

While I’m standing there holding a Food Bank charity partner wholesale card, wearing my Food bank charity partner uniform.

I said “uh, no, thanks” and I suspected the the cashier was on autopilot when she said “really? But it’s for food security” I said no again and they asked why not, at that point I realised that they weren’t on autopilot, they genuinely didn’t understand why I would not be using the food bank charity partner debit card to donate to food bank via woolworths.

She said it wouldn’t matter because the money would “go back to food bank eventually” (ignoring admin and financial management costs, it’s a net loss)… So why would I donate it if it would litteraly do nothing to benefit food bank other than give Woolies the opportunity to say they donated x money to food bank, bich that’s basically fraud.

That makes sense, we don’t have a proper bottle collection service in my area, everything goes in the mixed recycling bin, bagged up, it sits in a recycling landfill for a few months then if no one takes up the processing contract it gets scoop-diggered into the general landfill. (and the processing contracts rarely get picked up, we used to ship everything to China) During this process bags are ripped open and plastic debris gets everywhere, and heavy rains will wash it into the environment.