Costco, Comments, Tigers, and Validity

1. Consulted Lord Wiki about Garth Nix.  I was excited because someone commented on my Harry Potter blog, and mentioned him as being an Australian author.

From what Lord Wiki says though; I don't think they're the types of books that I'd like.  They're fantasy, and seem to take place in another world.   I like fantasy stories; but only when they have a connection to our world.   I prefer things that take place in the here and now (give and take a few hundred years).   I'm okay with things happening in the distant future, as long as there's mention of a past place called Earth and they talk about what happened to Earth.

 2. Saw from Lord Wiki that Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series take place partly on earth. It sounds pretty interesting. Maybe I'll look out for those books.   

3. Learned from my cousin that Costco is coming to Sydney.

4. Went to the Australian Costco site. The Sydney one is opening this month; and there's also one opening in Canberra.

5. Looked up the Sydney Costco location on Google Maps. It's near Sydney Olympic Park.  

I have to admit it. Although I don't usually like going to American things while in Australia; I do want to go to Costco.  I think it will be fun to see the differences. What products do they have that we don't have?

6. Felt regret about returning comments to my blog. I'm really not sure what to do.

I guess I'll give it a few days.  Then I'll decide if I want to keep comments open; or close them.

Right now I'm leaning towards closing them.  I think the main reason I opened them back up is I felt rude for not giving people a place to speak on my blog. But why do I need to provide this?  There are so many places on the internet to share our views. People can start their own blogs and write on and on about their feelings.

Also, I become more self-conscious with blogging when comments are open.  I start waiting for responses, and I feel nervous when no one comments.

7. Disabled comments.  So much for giving myself time to think about it.

But now I feel better...much better.

8. Remembered to mention that if anyone really wants to write something on my blog, they're welcome to do a guest post. I'm happy to hear from anyone who lives in Australia, has visited Australia, or has a strong interest in Australia.  Email me if you're interested.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts 

9. Read article about the Tiger Airways thing.  All these people are stranded because their flights are canceled.  From what I understand, this is not an act of nature, like the Chile ash thing.  This is due to the airline's incompetency.  

Here's an article about Tiger Airways being grounded.  I'm going to read it. 

They were grounded because of some major safety breach.  I'm glad to know there's an entity out there looking out for these things.

The entity is CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority). It's a government thing.

Tiger was providing very cheap fares, compared to other airlines. But they weren't providing safety.   There was something going on where employees were too nervous to report defects in the plane.

I hope though that other airlines don't raise their fares just for the fact that now people have been given the idea that bargain flights can be risky. I'm fine paying for safety. I don't want to pay a lot extra if there's not a very valid reason for it.

If Qantas and Virgin no longer has to compete with Tiger,  I can imagine that maybe they might decide it's fine to raise fares a bit.

I hope they don't do that.

10. Read article that says Bob Brown thinks the Green Party will be a major party within fifty years.   I think it already is a major party; but I guess he means as powerful as Labor or Liberal.  I hope it doesn't take 50 years.  I hope it becomes a major party within 5-10 years.

But regardless of what I wish, I don't put too much validity in Bob Brown's prediction. What party leader isn't going to happily predict his party is going to make it big someday?

11. Saw that the Australian dollar is very close to being 1.08.  Oh no! It's rising!

I hope it goes back down again.

Sorry.

12.  Learned that Jeff Fatt (Mr. Purple Wiggle) has had heart surgery

He had to get a pacemaker because he has an irregular heartbeat. My dad has that, but it was mild enough that they could treat it with medication.       

13. Read article about the Hendra outbreak. It's pretty scary.  Three horses have died, and humans have been exposed.  

I guess it's not a huge threat yet.  I guess the thing with these stories is you never know if it's going to turn into a huge scary horror movie type outbreak.

14. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Hendra Virus.   It's carried by flying foxes.  Yikes. And I love those guys.  I guess the school that wanted to get rid of them may have had valid reasons beyond the bad smell and loud noises.

The Hendra virus originated in Queensland.  It's named after a suburb in Brisbane.

Imagine living in a suburb that's now associated with a disease. 

Lord Wiki believes that it's unlikely humans can get the virus directly from bats.  He thinks it's likely you need an intermediate host, like a horse.

Couldn't it be that humans and bats don't have much contact with each other?   It's much more likely humans are going to have contact with a horse.

15. Couldn't find my beloved Australia map towel at the pool; so I used my Australia flag towel instead.  My niece called out, That's my towel!   She's been using it the past few times. I told her it was Australian, and I got it in Australia.  She didn't argue there.  Everyone in the family knows about my Australia thing.

Later I saw the Australia map towel.  It had been hiding from me.  

16. Went to Tallygarunga.  I'm going to read the updates in Satisfy Your Soul.   That's the story with the two teenage wizards who came sort of close to having sex.   I think I'm on post #55.

Nope. I already read that.

I think maybe I'm on post #59.

Nope.  I read that too.

I guess I'm more ahead than I thought.

Anyway, it's morning now.  Reade and Arti have to get up and go to school.  Reade's feeling a bit sick because he drank too much and ate a lot of junk food. 

Reade and Arti are both very cuddly with each other.  They're happy and in love.   They don't want to go to school, but they're going to do it.

I think it would feel awful to spend the night at a hotel having fun; and then have to rush to school in the morning.

Still, the two wizards are glowing a bit because now they're boyfriend and girlfriend. They get to go to Tallygarunga as a couple, and that makes things a little sweeter. 

17. Decided to read the biography of Ivan Valentin.  I think he's related to the vampire family people, and the guy with the magic portrait that keeps him young. 

Ivan is a vampire too.  He was born in Russia in 1961.

His Patronus is a tiger.

He's a music teacher.

18. Learned that Ivan is the father of Vladimir.  I know I read about Vladimir, but I don't remember much.   I think maybe he's the one who's father was believed dead; but instead it turned out he had been turned in to a vampire.  And that would be....Ivan.   Maybe.

19. Read further.  Yep, Ivan is the one I was thinking about.   

20. Learned that Ivan later turned his wife into a vampire because she had a fatal face injury.  It's nice that he saved her. 

21. Started to read chapter seventeen of Fruitcake's blog.  

She talks about how equal wages for Aboriginal Australians actually had a downside.  I think I've heard of this before.

With equal wages comes the assumption that people have to enter the white world. For example, children are expected to go to school rather than learning and exploring in their traditional way.

The black people didn't quite merge well into the white world.  Many of them ended up living in the fringes of town.

Personally, I think there needs to be choices. Some Aboriginal Australia will thrive in the white world. It's where they belong, and they can do fine.   Other Aboriginal Australians fit better in the more traditional Aboriginal world. That's where they belong.  And some people can put one foot into each world and be fine.  

22. Found out that my Australian of the day is James Alston.  

He was a manufacturer. 

23. Learned that James Alston was born in London. When he was a tween, his family moved to Victoria.  James worked a bit in the goldfields. Later he worked as an apprentice in the Ballarat iron trade.

24. Learned that Alston's thing was windmills.

25. Started to read Will by Maria Boyd.  I haven't managed to get into it yet.  I've tried reading it at the pool; and it's just too social there to get much reading done. I'll probably need to reread what I already started to read.

26. Listened to Touched By Love by Eran James.  It's another song that was in the email full of video links. 



It's an upbeat song.

 It kind of reminds me of the type of thing that would be on a Christian radio station.

27. Decided to watch another Eran James video.   



28. Learned from Lord Wiki that Eran James is from Melbourne.

He was an opening act for Elton John's Australia tour. That's a big honor.

I'm not sure if I love his music...at least not yet. It's not my thing. But it may grow on me as time goes by. With music, it's not always love at first sight.