Light, Songs, Disaster, and Phunnyfotos

1. Obsessed over The Tangled song.    "I See the Light".  



It reminds me so much of my Australia obsession.

I think, though, it's one of those songs that everyone can relate to in their own special way.

I think we all come to a point in our lives where we see the light.

2. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today (tonight, actually) I'm going to read a thread called Light Up The Sky.   

The stars are Juli Preston, the 2nd year student with the very mean mother; and Thatcher Hyland, the first year wizard who longs to be a hero.

I adore both of them.

3. Noticed the title of the story thread.   Light Up The Sky. It's such a great connection to the song I keep listening to tonight.  And no. I did not pick the thread on purpose.

I don't really choose the threads.  That would be too hard for me.  I'd be too indecisive.  What I do is read the thread most recently posted...unless it's the story I read the day before.

Anyway, I think it's a beautiful coincidence. It gives me a little tear in my eye. I hope there's nothing really sad in this story thread. I'll probably cry.

I'm in a crying mood.  

Anyway...back to the wizard and witch.

The story takes place on the grounds of Tallygarunga.

4. Started crying and I didn't even start reading yet.  When I wrote grounds of Tallygarunga, I thought of the grounds of Hogwarts. I was listening to the song and seeing this montage of Hogwarts, Harry, Hermione, and Ron in my mind.

5. Saw that the Tally story takes place on the evening of Friday, August 5.

6. Started reading.

Dinner has just ended. Juli sneaks to her favorite tree.  She plans to spend some hours alone in the dark.  Then an owl comes and scares her a bit.

7. Amused that Juli is listening to her iPod.  I like high-tech witches.

8. Continued to read.  Thatcher goes out after dinner to let off some steam.   He sees Juli trying to use the Lumos spell. She was struggling with it a bit, because magic isn't her strong suit.

9. Liked that Juli tried to find Sagittarius when looking at the stars.  That's one of my signs.

10. Felt sad when I read this. Who was he and why was he out here? It was rather selfish, but she liked to think that the tree was hers, and only hers. It was a haven where she could escape everything for an hour or two.

Sometimes it's really hard to share, especially when something is very special to us.

I think Juli deserves a haven.  On the other hand, maybe Thatcher will end up being her friend.  I think she also deserves a really good friend.

11. Loved these lines from Thatcher.

Yeah, I know whatcha mean. I don't ever feel that way, because my heart stays with me all the time. But yours goes somewhere else sometimes, right? It goes somewhere so you have to stop and slow down, because you can't be yourself with your heart somewhere else. Right? That's what happens to my mother. Do you know where your heart goes? She says she doesn't.

I think I know what he means. Maybe. And I think I'm one of those people. Sometimes my heart goes somewhere else.

12. Loved Thatcher's explanation of the lines I quoted above.  He says,

Uh... It's like this. When you wanna get away, you feel all jittery and every little thing can upset you. You get that way b'cause your heart isn't with you. When your heart isn't with you, happy feelings get lost, and bad feelings hit you harder than usual. So you get away, you send your mind somewhere else and just be, without thinking or feeling anything. Does that make sense? Guess it doesn't.

I have times like this.

13. Thought about how I love Tallygarunga.  I'm very thankful that we crossed paths.


14. Decided that while I'm on the get-very-emotional-about-Harry-Potter-Stuff path, I'll watch this video.



15. Decided to switch gears and watch my favorite Offspring video.



That's making me cry too.

16. Felt very sad when I read that Daniel Morcombe's bones have been identified.  I think I had this foolish hope it had all been a mistake, and he was still alive out there somewhere. 

17. Touched by Ann O'Dyne's comment on Andrew's blog post.  She says, Spare a thought for New York City highrisers today, and pray we never get a hurricane here.

I feel like 2011 is the year of disaster. The north-east is approaching the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and now they're having earthquakes and hurricanes.  It's not at all usual for these things to happen there.

We're having a MAJOR drought in Texas.

There were those disastrous earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan.

There were the floods and cyclones in Australia.

What else?

Wasn't there something in Brazil?

18. Found this blog entry. The blogger lists the disasters of 2011.  He or she started it in March, but they continue to add to it.  

Some examples on the list: earthquake in Burma, floods and landslides in Brazil, tornadoes in America, blizzards in America, volcanoes in Iceland and Chile.....

They also list the weird dead animal stories, like birds falling from the sky.

It does seem there's more shit than usual, but I could be wrong.

If there is more than usual....

It doesn't necessarily have to mean it's the beginning of the end or a message from the gods. It could just be a bad year.  People have bad years sometimes; why not the earth?

I do hope that 2012 is better for our planet.  

19. Saw that my Australian of the day if another William Anderson.  This one is William Acland Douglas Anderson.   He was an army officer.

William was born in 1820, in England.  Wasn't there something in Australia in 1829?   Maybe a financial crisis of some sort.  No, wait. I'm probably thinking of 1929.  That's when America had the stock market crash.

20. Consulted Lord Wiki about 1829 in Australia.  He doesn't say anything about a financial issue.

He does say Perth was founded in that year.

William wasn't even there though. He was in England.  Anything happening there in 1829?

Well, the University of Oxford won a boat race. That's exciting, I suppose.

21. Went back to reading about William.

He joined the military in his late teens.  He was eventually promoted to captain. I guess he was good at military stuff.

William's parents moved to Victoria, and he eventually followed them. He did work with gold; then he got into government stuff.   He was given a role in the royal commission.  His job was to look at the military and make sure things were going okay.

22. Excited to begin my stalking of phunnyfoto's Flickr account.   Her photo sets look interesting to me.  

I'm going to start with her War Memorial one

She has several photos from a memorial in Moe, Victoria.   I don't remember ever hearing of that town.   I'll look it up on Google Maps.

It's about 2 hours east of Melbourne.  

23. Thought this memorial was unusual looking.  It's from Bright, Victoria.  I looked that up on Google Maps.   It's about 4 hours north-east of Melbourne.  

24. Thought this memorial was simple, sad, and lovely.    It's from a town called Jidivick.   It has ten names on it. I guess they were the men from Jindivick town who were killed in the first world war.  

25. Looked up Jindivick on Google Maps.  It's about 1.5 hours east of Melbourne.

26. Thought this picture looked a bit eerie; kind of like the statue is a ghost in the sky. 

27. Saw many other memorials in the photo set, honoring people who died from the individual towns. 

28. Started to look at Phunnyfoto's Port Albert and Tarraville photo set.

29. Looked up Port Albert and Tarraville on Google Maps.   They're both in south-east Victoria

30. Liked this green and white shed

31. Thought this church looks interesting.  It seems to be very small. We have some massive churches in Fort Worth. 

32. Started looking at Phunnyfoto's Signs set.   This might be fun. 

33. Finished looking at the photo set. It was less entertaining to me than I expected.  

Well....actually....

I just looked at the last photo more closely.   That one is KIND of funny, especially with the way Phunnyfotos interpreted it.  

34. Started to look at Phunnyfoto's School Buildings set.

This might be interesting. 

I haven't seen many photos of schools on Flickr.

35. Saw some one room school houses in the set.  They remind me of Little House of the Prairie.   So far, the photos are of schools no longer in use.  This one in Yarragon, Victoria is now a private residence.   It stopped being a school in 1971.

36. Saw a photo of a small school that might still be open. It's called Cloverlea Primary School.   It doesn't look deserted.  It has a garbage and recycling bin.  I can't find a website for it, though.   When I looked up Cloverlea Primary School, I got a school in the UK.

Maybe they're just not internet savvy yet. 

37. Went through more photos and saw another one of the Cloverlea Primary School. The caption says it's now a private residence.

I guess that makes sense.  Private residences have garbage/recycling too.