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.

I've never had a scarecrow wrecked. Can that actually happen?

The more of the Cosmere you read, the more things will connect and the clearer the picture will be. Every time I re-read SA, I see new connections I'd missed before. Some of that is familiarity with the magics of other planets, because that changes your read from "character did a weird thing" to "hey! that's magic from this other planet; why/how has it turned up here?"

In the earlier books, the crossovers between worlds/magics and the underlying "how things work" are more subtle and you'll miss things on first read. In more recent books, it's more overt.

Some of that is because of how much the protagonists themselves understand. For example, in the first Mistborn trilogy the characters really don't understand what's going on on their own planet, so of course you don't get a good explanation. In Secret History, the POV character does run into people who know quite a lot about what is going on, so when Secret History revisits the events of the main trilogy you're able to understand the forces driving those catastrophic events.

The characters in SA started off thinking magic wasn't real and knowing nothing about realms and worlds beyond their own. They are learning a lot through their spren and Hoid, but there is still a lot that they don't know. And you as the reader are learning along with them.

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.

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.

There is a resentment of international students who get partway through a course and then cry poor. Our university (and probably others) held a big campaign during COVID lockdowns to donate money, clothing, groceries to international students who couldn’t work and couldn’t get back home...

Understandable. I wasn't aware of international students struggling when I was at uni (doubtless there were some, I just didn't see them). COVID lockdowns and border closures were an extreme situation, and I would think there were probably some students who would have been fine normally but didn't have the extra resources to deal with that large a curveball.

Generally, I think the rules around student visas are reasonable. You're here to earn a degree, and that needs to be your focus... Not holding down a full-time job to put a roof over your head. Studying abroad is a luxury. (Of course, universities like international students because $$$...)

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'.