Never ever allow my wife to sell my stuff for what she thinks it’s worth.
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I am advanced enough in years at this point that I’ve been considering writing up a guide to what everything is and what my wife and kids should do with it after I’m gone. I also just need to start selling some of it off myself.
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Never sell, only buy. This is the way.
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Well, I have an end date to my us adventure - heading back to Aus in mid December.
Therefore the mission to see as much of the US continues! Today is day 1 of our Yellowstone adventure, hoping to see bears and bison (from a distance of course), as well as some fancy geothermal things!
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I love it there. Enjoy.
I also cannot recommend enough the GuideAlong app if you plan on driving around the park. It will give you a ton of history, stories, and science. Tours range from $15-20 but have been well worth the cost for my family.
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In the US, a happy Father’s Day to any of you who are dads. I know you are all totally crushing it : )
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My children are kind of pissed about being crushed, to be honest.
I’m sorry; I felt obligated to make the joke on behalf of dad jokes everywhere.
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Happy news in my life: my front step, which is concrete faced with bricks that have been falling off for years, turns out not to be solid concrete inside. Instead, it’s a 6-inch slab of concrete over dirt/rock fill. The plan that I had was to start out demolition with a sledgehammer, rather than renting a jackhammer from the off, just to see if I could do it. Consequently, my stupid attempt to pretend to be manly, rather than leaving a largely-untouched block of concrete as a monument to my hubris, has instead been strikingly successful; we’re about half done after less than two hours of work.
So the project to build a porch with my kids (and perhaps thereby reinforce some of the mutual respect which tends to falter in late adolescence, while building their self-efficacy toward stuff like applying for colleges and getting jobs) has started off in a very effective and genuinely fun way.
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I think I have asked in the past if anyone else was going to Pax Unplugged and I was the only one, but just in case - I will be there Friday and Saturday this year.
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Hope everyone in the US had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. I cooked, as I do every year, and we had 15 at the house, which is about average most years. Sorry none of you could make it : ) But thankful for all of you being here.
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You as well! Enjoyed the day with family visiting from Minnesota.
This will be our last US thanksgiving as my time in the US is coming to an end.
Will shared a longer post at some stage…. But headed back to Australia in 2 weeks. It has been fun 
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I am currently sitting in O’Hare airport, waiting for my flight back to Australia, with the family. This is the next step on the journey as we bring to a close our international expat adventure. Lots of feelings.
With just over 2.5 years in the US, I can’t proclaim to know much more than my own experience. However that experience has been rewarding for me.
One thing that struck me was just how multicultural it is here. People seem very proud of their heritage and their history. In my district it would only be about 60% white, with the rest being Asian / Hispanic. I expected more black people, though I understand it is likely a function of the socioeconomic demographics.
The schools were amazing. Public schools were incredible, focussing on academic achievement and pushing kids to be there best and/or meeting them where they are. The teachers were dedicated and well trained and I can see how this district will produce high achieving kids. I am fortunate my kids were in the top decile even in this environment, so it was kind of a peanut butter and chocolate situation. If anything, this is what gave me most pause heading back to Australia. Will they be as challenged there? Will it be as rewarding? Am I doing the right thing for them and their wellbeing and future? Hopefully….
People I came across work hard - business gets done quickly - there are so many people hustling hard to get ahead. And they are all from different countries and regions - it seems to attract people from everywhere.
I also get why people don’t necessarily leave the US. It has so much natural beauty, so many interesting places to visit and so much history that you could explore for a really long time. However, I don’t get why people visit Disney annually for 20 years in a row. But hey, to each their own.
Healthcare… oh god healthcare. I expected it to be bad, but I don’t think I expected the way in which it is bad. On one hand, the access to care is incredible - you don’t have to wait, you can get access to many different specialist options - if you have money it is the best I have seen. But heaven help you if you have to navigate the system. I will be leaving with medical debt at debt collectors because they couldn’t get it right. I refuse to pay for something I don’t owe, and no one can actually sort anything out. I might have a bad credit rating, but that’s not a me problem.
Politics - I was glad I could be here for the Red v Blue election this year. As a politics nerd I found it enlightening. My area is pretty solid blue, so people were quite tame about it. But what did get them excited was a proposal to raise taxes to build a new school. Holy shit, that was a Karen v Karen v Karen free for all the likes I have never seen. It got voted down which was fine, but even afterwards the winning Karen’s now have people on the board, school staff and PTC to make sure it never happens again. Don’t mess with the Karen’s.
I mentioned it above - I am hoping we are doing the right thing for family and kids. I could see a version where we settle in for all of high school and stay forever. But given it is so far away from Aus, we would be saying a final farewell to family we would only see every 4 years maybe. Perhaps imprinting Australia culture on the kids instead of American culture is the right thing…. I suppose you can’t really know.
Anyways, the US will hold a special place in my heart and mind forever.
(And on the above, if it sounds like there is plenty of privilege, trust your instincts. Tall white male renting in a wealthy and safe area where the biggest source of crime is people having their cars stolen after leaving them unlocked and the keys in the ignition)
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After reading all of that -
“where the biggest source of crime is people having their cars stolen after leaving them unlocked and the keys in the ignition”
I also live in a highly affluent neighborhood and we were having the same problem, people leaving keys in their $70k cars and having them stolen. Don’t do that.
Thanks for sharing all of this - It was fascinating when you started this discussion a couple years ago, and your overview of the US is interesting.
First world problem: on the night before Christmas, I hooked up the PSVR 2 so I could do all the configuring and updating. One of my pet rabbits chewed through the cord before I even finished setup. And Sony won’t sell replacements, or let third parties do so.
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Merry Christmas, all!
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Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah!
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Laptop power brick died on me an hour before RPG night.
Pray for me now in the hour of my infinite rage.
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Today I finally received my sea container of stuff I shipped home from the US.
For context, I already had a house full of stuff I left here when I started my overseas adventures (3.5years). We left in the middle of Covid with suitcases and 2m3 of air freight.
We came back with twice the number of suitcases and a 20’ sea container. That sea container arrived - and I have too much stuff.
First world problem, I know, but it is giving me anxiety having so much. I have been getting rid of things, giving away, selling cheap, even landfill. I am not that sentimental, but for example I have, like, 10,000 L5R cards that I am contemplating just throwing out. No one plays, it was niche at the time and it taking up valuable shelf space.
My conclusion is that I am just going to stop buying anything gaming related until I consume some of the stuff I already own. I didn’t even realise that I somehow have 3 boxes of Lorcana unopened, 8 boxes of Battle Spirits Saga, a sealed box of lord of the rings MTG commander decks, and almost a wall of board games (oh, and elder scrolls rocked up this week - botse - and dragon eclipse is due in a month).
(Add to the above an unpainted tyranid army, so many books, an extra TV, stereos and bunch of kids stuff that was almost half the sea container).
Ugh 
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