Mostly those things have grown with little attention from me apart from water when it's dry. Many of them can be grown easily from seed, which is cheaper than seedlings but takes longer.
Let a plant go to seed and you get more for free. Leeks, spring onions, radishes, leafy greens, parsley are very easy to do this with. Save a few Jerusalem artichoke tubers for next season's crop. Let a couple of bean pods dry on the plant, save the beans and plant them next season.
If there is a community garden near you, that's a great place to ask for advice about what grows well in your area. They may also be able to help you get started with seeds or cuttings.
It's not about the age of the device, hut whether it is still meeting (or able to meet) the needs of its user(s).
If it was fully functional, would it still be meeting your needs? If yes, it's worth trying to resolve the problem(s). There are some good suggestions here for things you can try.
If the laptop wasn't really meeting your needs, or the issues the laptop is having can't be resolved, then yes it's time to replace it. (And you may not need to scrap it: sometimes an older device can be repurposed for a new job, either with you or with someone else.)
Petrol prices are the highest I've ever seen. I guess that's true everywhere.
But also, on Weds when we went to Canberra we drove past two petrol stations with their signs turned off (suggesting they were completely out) — one in the city and one in the country. I've never seen that before. The country station was back on when we passed again a couple of hours later.
I grew up in the USA and live in Australia. I think of and refer to myself as both 'expat' and 'immigrant'.
Which word I use depends on context. I'm an American expat (context: my relationship with USA), but I'm an immigrant in Australia (context: my relationship with Australia).
I guess I'm really just using "expat" to mean "emigrant". ¯_(ツ)_/¯
My current cats have Opinions (capital O) about what is or isn't food. I tried giving them variety, at least in flavour. They don't want it. The want one specific brand of fish-flavored wet food (in jelly, not gravy). They'll eat some kinds of fish-flavored kibble if wet food isn't available. Anything else, they have to be pretty desperate.
At least they both like the same stuff! But the lack of variety is 100% on them, not me.
(My previous cats would eat most things. These two are just weird.)
I spend a lot of time lurking on Lemmy. I read discussions. I don't post or comment much. There's no social element to that experience. (This is an indictment of me, not Lemmy.)
I just recently rejoined Mastodon, and there I find myself replying to people's posts and having short discussions even though I don't "know" anyone. It's not "community" at this stage, but it could become that if I continue using the platform that way. And when I made a post introducing myself, there were several comments offering direction toward finding "my people" (a.k.a. community) on that platform. It's just up to me to make it happen.
My struggle has been lack of address data in my part of the world. I primarily use maps to help me navigate to a destination address, and it seems that here they can only take me as far as the street, they don't have the street numbers.
I could probably figure out how to add that data for my own neighbourhood, but I can't do it for the town I'll be visiting 5 hours away from home.
And so every time I have tried FOSS map apps, I've had to go back to Google's for at least a portion of the journey.
Suggestions welcome, because I would really like to be able to drop Google completely, one of these days.
Yes and no. That kind of diversifying is ideal, but much more achievable in a city. And I know plenty of people who simply don't have the time to make so many stops. There's a reason the big stores get most of the business, and it's not that we approve of their practices.
For my part:
We do use the butcher.
We don't have a fruit and veg store.
Markets are twice a month, but they're an unreliable source of produce here.
Specialty shops are also limited outside of cities, and often more expensive.
I'll continue muddling along as best I can, which already involves sourcing things from non-duopoly options when I can. But that's a far cry from the ideal.
I just think it is too simplistic to say "just stop shopping there". Many people don't have that luxury of choice.
Coles is getting into bed with Palantir . We already decided to stop shopping there.
Now Woollies is doing this.
The only other option in my town is Aldi. They're great for some things, but don't have the range of the duopoly.
What do you suggest as an alternative?
(At least this AI thing Woollies is implementing seems to be only online orders. I usually shop in person, so ought to be able to avoid it... for now.)
MCCAIN FOODS (AUST) PTY LTD - McCain Cheese & Bacon Pizza Pockets 400g
Published 12 December 2025
Red box with yellow McCain Logo
McCain Foods (Aust) Pty Ltd are conducting a recall of the above product. The product has been available for sale in Woolworths, Coles and independent retailers including IGA nationally and online.
Date Markings: BEST BEFORE OCT 2026 A (289, 290, 291)
Problem:
The presence of foreign matter (plastic, metal).
Food safety hazard:
Food products containing plastic and/or metal may cause illness/injury if consumed.
What to do:
Consumers should not eat this product. Consumers should return the product(s) to the place of purchase for a full refund. Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice.
This morning I have opened: Lemmy (aussie.zone), Discord, WhatsApp, Bluesky, Messenger, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube.
None of them have asked me to verify my age, neither the ones that said they would nor the ones explicitly exempt nor the ones about which we know nothing.
My Facebook and Google accounts are probably old enough that they don't need to verify. All the other accounts are too young for that to work.
Bluesky asked me to enter my date of birth, but did not require anything to substantiate the date I entered.
I'm a Millennial, so my age isn't an issue. But I don't want to give anything identifying to any platform. (I like the approach aussie.zone is taking.) So I am relieved that thus far my accounts are unaffected.
But I'm also feeling a healthy dose of "where's the boogeyman we were promised?" and wondering when the shoe is going to drop.
I'm currently playing around with Debian on an old laptop of mine. If I can get the setup to a place where it feels sufficient for me to take my hands off, it could be the answer for this other computer.
(Thanks for DE recommendations. It does my head in trying to keep straight which ones are suited to which uses.)
I had Zorin on my own computer for a while and really liked it, but it was crashing every few days and I decided I didn't want to put up with that. I'll give it another try one of these days - the issue may have been resolved, or my hardware my be different by then. But I won't use it on a computer whose user can't do their own tech support.
98% of the time when they've had a problem with Windows, they just needed to restart the computer. (It has been impossible to convince them that computers need a full shutdown periodically, and Windows doesn't cope with 'always on'.)
When it's something more than that, they either have to find someone closer to help or wait until we visit. Doing tech support long-distance for people who can't adequately describe the problem is a losing game.
Some things are going to depend on your climate, so what has worked for me may not be a good fit for you.
That said, things I've had success with as a lazy gardener in a cool temperate climate:
Mostly those things have grown with little attention from me apart from water when it's dry. Many of them can be grown easily from seed, which is cheaper than seedlings but takes longer.
Let a plant go to seed and you get more for free. Leeks, spring onions, radishes, leafy greens, parsley are very easy to do this with. Save a few Jerusalem artichoke tubers for next season's crop. Let a couple of bean pods dry on the plant, save the beans and plant them next season.
If there is a community garden near you, that's a great place to ask for advice about what grows well in your area. They may also be able to help you get started with seeds or cuttings.