I am originally from the States but moved to Australia.

Before I moved away I lived in a bible belt state that was one of the 18 US states that have a “tipped minimum wage” of $2.13 an hour. In those states if you have a job that earns tips you get paid $2.13 an hour, and your employer is supposed to match that wage to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

However you can imagine if you are one of the lucky ones who has a job in the only restaurant in town, that asking your boss for those missing wages after a slow night is not going to get you anything but fired. There are dozens of other desperate people willing to take your place in a heartbeat.

I find a lot of people aren’t aware of the situation for large swathes of the US. The amount of people who are homeless or hungry or sick with no help is astronomical for a “first world country”.

What I find interesting is that after a cursory google search it would appear that China indeed has minimum wages, and those are interestingly not far off that $2.13 an hour.

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/minimum-wages-china/

The lowest hourly minimum wage in a province I could find was 16.5 RMB which works out to $2.30 an hour.

Now there are of course nuances here, like those jobs in China not being tipped, the cost of living, healthcare, etc.

I do think that things in the States are becoming more dire than most realise, and things in China have been steadily getting better.

In any case I feel very privileged to live in Australia and raise my children here.

Husband and I have for giggles. You have to try things to know whether you’re into them, you know?

It wasn’t for either of us, but it was a fun distraction.

Today we made chocolate almond angel food cake. Going to whip some cream with our homemade brandy vanilla essence to put on top!

Because we are the product…

Oh yeah, they can get around it, but not without me knowing about it. If I find out, they lose the devices, simple as that.

You are right that parents who aren’t technical will have a hard time, but it’s not insurmountable. No devices in the bedrooms, ever. No downloading apps without permission ever. Google the app and give a yes or no.

When it came to it, wifi off at night and she got the basic Nokia phone. It’s a constant battle, sure but one we must win.

Also reminded her that no matter what, if she’s on our network, I will know what she’s up to. Instilling a healthy sense of fear is good. Router logs do not lie.

I highly recommend Qustudio. It works on phone and PC, and allows you to customise exactly what is monitored or blocked so you can keep an eye on things in an age appropriate way.

We started monitoring after we found out our 12 year old daughter was catfishing a 19 year old boy. He had no idea and after we explained that she could literally ruin his life, and made her tell him her age he noped out of there. (Wisely.)

At first we had it set to monitor everything, report all searches, all app downloads, block porn, etc.

Yes she was able to get around certain features, like when she was young we had the phone locked past midnight… But it logs when it’s in use, so we then had a talk the next day and took away the phone or PC if needed.

As she got older we removed the block on all websites, and stopped monitoring any messages. We kept the software on to let us know when she was using her devices because she would often be up until 3am on her phone on a school night and we would then have a conversation about it.

We removed it when she was 17 or 18.

I am a disability support worker, and can absolutely attest that depending on the injury level and their age/muscle tone, something as dumb as pushing them sideways a bit can dump them on the floor.

Hell, the young ones do it to each other to be jerks lol. I’ve joined a stadium full of people teasing one of my clients for not wearing his seatbelt because he fell out of his chair with an epic splat after being bumped.

Yeah, it was a jokey way of saying I don’t get out a measuring cup anymore, but add enough vinegar that its around 1:4.

Measuring with your heart the same way you do with garlic, or vanilla. You know? Like you might have measured once but now you have enough experience and know that its forgiving enough to just yeet some in there.

I haven’t tested it on grapes, but have on all sorts of berries. I imagine it would work well on grapes as well actually… I’m totally going to do that when grape season is here!

This! This is one of those old timey things you hear about and think is bs, but actually works. I don’t even remove the berries from the packet because I am lazy.

I fill a tupperware with apple cider vinegar and water, measured with my heart, and dunk the berries in it, container and all and let sit while I unpack groceries. Then I give them a shake to remove as much vinegar water as I can and toss them in the fridge. I don’t rinse them, no they don’t taste like vinegar.

A couple years back strawberries were $1 a punnet here and I tested this - the ones dunked in vinegar lasted a week or more with no soft spots, the ones without lasted just a few days before developing soft spots.

So yeah. Dunk them shits in vinegar. It works!

Perhaps it was partially arrested and the lines snapped, leaving it too slow to get airborne?

Reading this hurts. None of them ever had a chance.

Going to work 10 hour days installing insulation two weeks after giving birth and having a traumatic c section and hysterectomy?

Any other country would find this absolutely vile and unbelievable. In the USA it’s a Tuesday.

I looked up the ingredients in the balm you loved and it mostly contains very moisturising oils and butters like shea butter.

A brand that behaves very well with my sensitive skin is Avene, they are known for having skincare with few ingredients and a whole line specifically for sensitive and allergic skin.

They have a “Tolerance Contol Balm” that contains shea and squalane, an oil that closely mirrors the skins natural oils.

It’s here: https://www.eau-thermale-avene.dk/p/tolerance-control-balm-3282770138856-c1428227

Make sure you get the balm and not the cream as they are completely different formulas.

I would also consider trying the cleansing lotion they recommend, as it would be very gentle on the skin. It is possible for some people to react to water, and something like a cleansing lotion that you rub in gently then wipe off with a damp cloth might help!

https://www.eau-thermale-avene.dk/p/tolerance-lotion-3282770142280-c1428227

I have been using The Ordinary’s Squalane Cleanser for ages now, and it works the same way. No soap, just rubbing a gentle cream on and wiping off with a damp cloth.

The doctors’ call sign, Zelenyi - means “green” in Ukrainian.

I also didn’t know until now that subscribers to the Kyiv Independent receive free weekly Ukrainian language lessons.

It’s such a neat idea, Russia wants to wipe out the Ukrainian language, so spreading it to more people is good!

Oh really? I do like him, thank you I will go have a listen!

You might try The Ordinary’s squalane cleanser, it’s similar to oil cleansing in that you rub it on without water then rinse or wipe it off. You could bring it and some water wipes (the super gentle water only baby wipes) to wipe it off again. It removes makeup and dirt well, has few ingredients, and is good on my stupidly sensitive skin. Worth a try if your skin tolerates squalane.

If you specifically want to try a facial cleansing wipe, I have used the Simple face wipes, the ones for sensitive skin.

I used to have a demonoid account too! Back then I could just torrent anything without a care…

Now I would need a VPN and a ton of reading to even begin. Sad times.

I’m sorry. ❤️

I unfortunately am a victim of this. My Sense was great. Then a forced update pushed despite never allowing the Fitbit app to update. Now the battery life is horrible and I am of course encouraged to buy a new one and move my Fitbit information to Google.

Beautiful.