Vampires, Werewolves, The Kent Family, and More Birds

1. Dreamed about True Blood.

There's a vampire club in town.  It's a small rectangular shaped place—part of a shopping strip.  

I have feelings for Jason Stackhouse, but he's in a relationship with Jessica. Despite this, I sense that he has feelings for me; and as long as Jessica isn't around, we can have some romance.  Meanwhile, Jessica has a man besides Jason that's interested in her.

I go to the vampire club hoping to find Jason alone. To my disappointment, Jessica is there.   They're playing some card game together. The other guy who likes Jessica is there as well.

I suddenly decide this is silly.  Why do all this sneaking around?  I then suggest that the four of us have a relationship all together—a group type thing.   

Then later.....

There's this sweet but dorky and overeager vampire that has a thing for me. He wants me to make vampire babies with him.  In this world, humans play host to vampire kin.

I also have a human boyfriend or husband in the dream.  At one point I'm in a house with other people.  There's a couple with their vampire baby.  My husband/boyfriend comes back from somewhere.  I feel ignored by him—unappreciated.  I decide to say yes to the vampire.

I go to the vampire club and find him there. He's very happy to see me and wants to immediately jump into the breeding program.  He takes me to the back where they supposedly have breeding rooms.  I see only toilets at first and am a bit bothered by this. But then I see there's a specific stall for breeding.

We can't use it though because it's already in use by others.

At some point, I talk to a couple with a vampire baby. I learn one of the benefits of being a breeder is that you live an extra long life.  The human mother of the vampire mother tells me she is 138 years-old.

2. Dreamed about an Aussie blogger.   I worry that she'll be mad at me about something.  She sends an email, but it's more like a letter.  (It comes via email, but it's there in my hands like a letter). She says she's not mad and uses LOL to illustrate that.  She seems amused that I didn't know she was —like I should have known that, but I missed it somehow.  She's sent me homemade marzipan. I'm excited about that because I love marzipan.  But then I'm a little worried. What if she secretly was mad and poisoned the marzipan?  I decide that's being paranoid.  I plan to eat the marzipan.   

I never ate the marzipan, and I never had sex with the vampire. My dreams tend to leave the fun stuff out.  

3. Saw that the Australian dollar is low again.  It's at 1.03 American dollars.

4. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read a story thread called Starry Eyed Surprise.

It takes place in the Southern Cross Tower of Tallygarunga. This is the area that has the Bourke dorms and common rooms.  It also has a variety of classrooms including History of Magic, Astronomy, and Divination.

There's  a Games Room there.  It's a place where students from all the houses can get together and play.  It's been pretty quiet though.  The last post in there was in May.   

5. Looked at the characters in the story.  

We have Professor Anna Maria Rodrigez, the History of Magic Professor.  She also happens to be a werewolf.

Then there's a character that's probably new to me.  His name is William Kent.  He's an Auror.    That's what Harry Potter became in his adult years. They're the ones who fight the bad guys.  

William's Kent's face claim is David Bowie.

Here's my favorite David Bowie video.  



I really love that song.

6. Started to read the story thread.

It's the night of September 7.

Anna is waiting to turn into a werewolf; and she's also waiting for William.  He had offered to stay with her during her time as a wolf.

7. Learned that William is an Animagus.  He takes the form of an African wild dog. 

He has a young daughter named Sarah, and Sarah is one of Anna's students.  Have I seen her before?  

8. Found Sarah's biography.  I don't think I've read it before, but I do think I've seen her around.

9. Continued to read the story thread.  It's pretty intense.  Anna has subtle feelings for William.  William has subtle feelings for Anna.  Anna is unsure of herself, though.   She sees herself as a monster, and it seems she's a bit ashamed to transform in front of William.  She's also somewhat afraid he'll betray her.  

To me, the scene sort of reminds me of the way I feel when deciding whether or not to share a secret with someone.  Let's say there's something I'm afraid to tell someone.  I'm afraid they'll stop liking me. I'm afraid they won't be supportive enough.

I'm afraid they'll disappoint me.

They act in a way that makes me feel they'll be different from others. They'll be the friend I can count on.  Yet there's this little voice within me that warns they WON'T be different. If I open up to them, I'll end up regretting it.

10. Loved these lines in William's post.  

For a moment, he wondered if he should look away.  It felt like a severe invasion of privacy to watch her shift. But on the other hand, if he didn't watch, it may give her the impression that he truly did believe her to be a monster. 

I feel that way when I see someone who's disfigured or different in some way. I worry if I look in their direction, they'll think I'm staring. But if I don't look, it's like I'm avoiding them.

11. Learned that Anna didn't know William could turn into a dog.  It was a surprise to her.

12.  Started to read the biography of William Kent.

He's 51 years old. That's older than most of the characters I see in Tallygarunga.

William was born in Melbourne. His Patronus is a falcon.

13. Learned that William has a damaged pupil from an explosion accident.  It's permanently dilated now, and sometimes hard to see out of.

14. Learned William wears Ministry robes at work, but in his free time he prefers to wear Muggle clothing.

I think most wizards seem to do that.   

15.  Learned that William used to have a hot temper, but these days he's more calm.   He'll still lose it every so often; but someone has to hurt or threaten his family to get him into that state.  

16. Started to read William's history.

He has a twin brother.

His family is pureblood.

17. Learned that Will was a Bourke student. His twin brother was in Flinders.

18. Learned that Will is a musician.  He plays the saxophone.

Now, when I think of saxophones, I think of Modern Family and sexy phones.  

19. Learned about Sarah's mother.  She was a Muggle-born witch named Heather.  She didn't like that Will was such a workaholic.  She left him and returned to her family in Tasmania.

What surprises me is that she left their daughter with Will.  If she felt this guy wasn't a good husband because of his job, why in the world would she imagine he'd be a good father?

Why would a mother want to leave her child like that?

20. Read more. It seems Heather wanted to teach her husband a lesson.—show him how he hurt her with his neglect.  And I guess it worked.  Without Heather there, Will shaped up and become less of a workaholic. He put more effort into his fathering.

But still!  Talk about neglect. This woman just walked out on her child.That's a much harsher type of neglect than being a workaholic.

I mean I can imagine leaving for a week or two.—maybe even a month. But it sounds like Heather abandoned her family permanently.

She's been gone for ten years.

21. Read some of Sarah's history.  

Her mother left when she was three.

The biography says that although Will was a workaholic, she got the sense that he loved her more than her mother loved her.

My feeling is Sarah was lacking in love for her child and used Will's workaholism as an excuse to walk out.   

22. Finished reading The Hunger Games series. The end made me cry.

I liked it a lot; but probably less than Harry Potter and Twilight. I had less issues with the other series.

My main problem with The Hunger Games series is I too often understood something, or guessed something, before Katniss (the protagonist did). I'm not that smart, so it made me feel if Katniss is not getting it and I am; she must be pretty damn clueless.  

Besides that though. I loved the characters in the book, and the themes. It was a great thing to read during the September 11 anniversary.  

23. Saw that my Australian of the day is William Charles Anderson. His nickname was Bill.

Bill was a civil engineer and town planner.

He was born in New Zealand in 1908.  His parents however had been both born in Sydney. Maybe they were in New Zealand temporarily. Perhaps for a job?

They moved back to Sydney eventually. Bill went to school there. 

24. Learned that Bill did military work in the 1940's. He was in the air force and helped construct an airfield.

25. Learned that Bill did city planning work for the Parramatta City Council. I guess that means he helped plan Parramatta.

26. Learned that Bill did city-planning work in Canberra.

27. Saw that Obama is planning to go to Australia in November.  

28. Decided to watch a video by Drakenguardz.  He's a guy from Perth.  He made a song from a music loop thing, and then decided it sounded Australian.   He calls it "Down Under" 



I don't think it's thrilling, but it's sort of interesting.

I'm trying to think where it would fit well.

29. Decided it might be a good song to play at the airport. Or maybe it could be the song that plays as people board an airplane.

I definitely see it as a song you hear when waiting.

Yeah.  It has major waiting vibes.  

30. Started to listen to TJGurls1001 do a cover of Demi Lovato's Skyscraper.  



Mushu came up to me like he was going to attack.  He does that when I sing too, sometimes.  He also did it when I was watching a video of Michelle Bachman.

31. Started watching TJGurls1001's video again. It's very amateurish; but I kind of like it that way.   It's very charming.   I think this girl is very cute, and I like her voice. It's not brilliant, but it's nice enough for me.

I especially like when she walks off the camera.  At about :14, she kind of reminds me of Drew Barrymore.  

32. Started to look at more of Arthur Chapman's bird photos.  

33. Liked the colors on this guy's head.  

34. Thought this Radjah Shelduck looks pretty happy.  

35. Remembered something I read in Tallygarunga today. I didn't pay it much attention before but then thought of it when looking at the animal pictures.   It was something about one character interpreting the other animal's emotion by their facial expression.

I'll go find the quote.....

Here it is.

William was glad to get a smile out of the werewolf, even though it looked very strange on her lupine mug. But the grateful gleam in her eyes assured him it was indeed meant to be a smile. He smiled back, his canine-like grin reminiscent of that of a very happy dog's. 

It reminds me of the emotions I see in the bird photos...or that I think I see.

Also, sometimes I look at a dog and it seems to be smiling.   Is it?

36. Excited to see a Southern Cassowary. I think they're neat. I wouldn't want to run into one in the wild though. They're pretty dangerous.

37. Liked this flock of birds photo.   We get scenes sort of like that in Fort Worth.  There's major bird invasions.  I look around and suddenly feel I'm in the Hitchcock movie. It's pretty cool, but also gross.  They poop all over the place.

38.  Liked this Brown Falcon.  It looks very mystical and powerful.  

39. Wondered suddenly about parakeets. I know they originally came from Australia; but are there any more left in the wild?

40. Consulted Lord Wiki.  He says parakeet can refer to small or medium-sized parrots.

What we Americans call parakeets are Budgerigar.

Anyway, Lord Wiki says they're in Australia.  He has a map.  From what I can see, they're not on the east coast.  They're inland more, and then they're also on the west coast a bit.  

41. Liked hearing the song of the Australian Magpie.   It's really beautiful.   It sounds familiar.  I think we probably heard it in Australia. We did see Magpies. Although it probably wouldn't be familiar enough that if I heard it, I could identify it.

I might have been able to when we first got back to Australia.  It's been over two years now since we were last in Australia.    The sound is familiar to me now, but it's in distant vague way.  

42. Watched video of a Barking Owl. I used one in my Harry Potter blog.