1. Dreamed about Fruitcake's blog.
2. Found an old dream about Australia. This one is from August 27, 2007.
There's a LOT of truth to that dream.
I mean it's one of those dreams that have strong ties to real life situations and real life emotions.
There's....
The resentment of other people's jealousy; feeling ignored and not understood; feeling strong enough to stand up for myself; then feeling guilty and backing down to be nice again.
Yeah. That's pretty much the story of my life...or at least one of the main ones.
3. Received an email from Simply Australian. They're combining my two orders so I don't have to pay extra for shipping. I'm glad (and thankful) to hear that.
4. Read article about the America thing.
Peter Hartcher says America is putting their military in Darwin to protect Australia.
Protect it from what?
China.
Apparently people are afraid that China is going to invade Australia.
I was thinking America kind of forced their military on Australia. We want to be in Darwin. You should say yes or you might be sorry.
This article is making me think maybe Australia ASKED America to send their military over.
If that's the case, why did America say yes? America does help other countries; but usually because they need or want something from that country.
What about China? Are they that much of a threat? Maybe they are. I feel kind of sad for them. They're so rich and America and Australia are getting a lot of financial support from them. It's like the rich kid at school that everyone uses, but no one likes. People are nice to them out of need and fear.
5. Saw that the Australia-American alliance is big in American news too. Here's a New York Times article.
It gives a lot of insight into the situation.
Basically, China is gaining strength at a frightening rate. They're not really anyone's enemy. But people are afraid they'll become the enemy. America is sending themselves over to Australia to try to counterbalance the whole thing. They're doing it to protect Australia. They're doing it to protect themselves.
6. Figured people are probably worried that John Marsden's books are going to come true. They're probably trying to prevent all that from happening.
7. Saw that Obama has said, The notion that we fear China is mistaken. The notion that we are looking to exclude China is mistaken.
He wants to include China in this new club that's forming—the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But there are some demands they have to meet—economic stuff that I don't really understand. They may be fair demands. I'm not sure.
8. Felt a little jealous of the marine families who are getting to move to Darwin.
Hopefully there won't be an invasion. Then I'd feel really guilty for feeling jealous.
I hope everyone stays safe, happy, and peaceful.
I hope the American military families enjoy Darwin.
9. Loved Hyper Aspie's blog post about Obama visiting Australia. It's adorable, informative, and very funny.
One of my favorite parts: Hearing the Star Spangled Banner is also pretty odd. I love how the hand always goes over the heart, it's so patriotic, more so then our version which generally consists of us linking arms and swaying from side to side whilst rather intoxicated.
I don't think I've ever placed my hand over my heart. But then I haven't been to many events where they played the Star Spangled Banner. In the rare times that it has happened, I get up enough energy to stand up with the rest of the people. That's probably about it.
10. Thought this part from Hyper Aspie's post was interesting.
I think it's hilarious that our prime minister travels around in a perfectly normal car with little or no security and definitely no motorcade. My bus has travelled behind her car on several times.
We're pretty laid back here in Oz.
Yeah. That's very different from us.
I like that Australia is laid back.
11. Saw that Liam Hemsworth was included in People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive list.
Of course they're all celebrities, because if you're not famous you're obviously not sexy.
No. I understand they can't knock on doors around the world to find sexy people. But maybe it would be better if they called their list Sexist Celebrity Alive.
12. Saw that Hugh Jackman also made the list.
13. Saw that the Australian dollar is now worth 1.01 American dollars. That's good. I'd like it to be at the price when (if) we go to Australia.
The Aussie dollar is worth .64 British pounds.
It's worth 6.87 Swedish kroner. It's gone up a bit there. The last time I checked it was worth 6.79 Swedish Kroner.
It's worth 78.1 Japanese ten. It's gone down a bit there. The last time I checked it was worth 78.64 Japanese yen.
14. Learned from this article that there's going to be a movie about Legos; and it's going to be filmed in Sydney.
The movie is being made by Warner Bros and an Australian group called Animal Logic.
15. Went to the website of Animal Logic.
They do visual effects.
This page lists the movies they've worked on. This include Australia, Legends of the Guardians, The Black Balloon, World Trade Center, and Happy Feet.
16. Read article that says scientists in Queensland have found a promising treatment for spinal cord injuries.
The treatment involves injecting proteins into the body to reduce inflammation. That might lead to injuries being less severe.
I hope it works. That would be great.
17. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read a story thread called Happy By Myself.
One of the characters in it is Nerual Spencer, the younger sister of the character I read about yesterday.
Nerual's face claim is Jennette McCurdy from iCarly. Maybe she can get together with Stewie Blair Jr. His face claim is from iCarly too.
18. Saw that the other character in the story is a 3rd year student named Stuart Hosking.
The story takes place in the Flinders common room.
19. Started to read.
It's the evening of November 15.
Stuart is reading...and growing.
I sneaked a peak at his bio and saw that he's part giant. So, I guess that's why he's growing.
20. Saw that Stuart doesn't have much contact with the giant world, but he's still interested in them. He feels a loyalty towards them even though he knows they'd reject him.
It's interesting that this story also involves a half-fairy. The two of them have a commonality. They're half-breeds, and rejected by their non-human relatives. There's a size difference though. Stuart's genes will probably make him larger than most humans. Nerual's genes will make her smaller than most humans.
21. Started to read the biography of Stuart Hosking.
He was born in Alice Springs.
His face claim is Cory Monteith.
Lord Wiki says Monteith is from Glee. Yeah. Now that he says that, I recognize him.
22. Watched Cory Monteith being interviewed by Ellen.
23. Learned that Stuart is only thirteen; yet he looks much older than that. He's tall, and he's already gone through puberty.
24. Learned that Stuart is shy and doesn't like to be noticed.
He buries himself in his studies. He has to work hard because he has the giant genes, and the giants aren't known for being overly intelligent.
25. Learned that Stuart likes sports. It provides a situation in which his size can work for him rather than against him.
26. Started to read Stuart's history.
He wasn't born in Alice Springs. That's just what his papers say. He was really born in a community near Alice Springs.
He was born in a giant commune.
27. Felt sad for Stuart. He was rejected by his mother because of his size. He has tried to go back to the commune to visit her, and she continues to reject him.
27. Felt glad to know that Stuart is loved by his stepmother. They get along well. Stuart sees her as his mother.
28. Saw that my Archer of the day is Mary Ellinor Lucy Archer.
She was a librarian and scientist.
She was born in Melbourne in November 1893.
29. Learned that Mary Ellinor Lucy Archer was known professionally as Ellinor Archer.
30. Learned that Ellinor Archer did some teaching at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne.
She also did research for the government regarding botany.
And she did library work.
31. Didn't like Ellinor Archer that much when I read the following.
A) she believed library work wasn't for introverts because working with people is as important to the job as working with books.
B) She didn't read much by choice.
I do think librarians need to have people skills. That's important for any job where you have to work with the public. But I think you can be an introvert and still have decent people skills.
And I like to imagine librarians loving books as much as I do.
32. Learned that there's an Ellinor Archer award for librarians.
33. Went to look at more of Fredweng's Second day in Australia Flickr set.
34. Thought this cave picture was pretty cool.
I think it's also kind of gross.
I don't know...
Stalactites and stalagmites kind of remind me of tumors.
35. Wished I remembered the name of this parrot.
Wait...
Is it a rosella?
36. Consulted Lord Wiki.
It seems my memory pulled through for me this time.
He says it's a Crimson Rosella.
At least I remembered the rosella part.
37. Went to Funtrivia to take another Australia quiz. This one's about big things in Australia.
I love the big things in Australia.
The only one we've seen is the sheep in Goulburn. Oh. And I think we saw a giant koala in The Blue Mountains.
38. Got the 1st question wrong and learned there's a giant car muffler in Southport, Queensland.
39. Found this blog post by Tim Norton while looking for a picture of the giant muffler.
Tim lists all the big things in Australia.
I'll look go through the list after I take the quiz.
40. Learned from Lord Wiki that Southport is a suburb of the Gold Coast.
41. Got question #3 wrong and learned there's a giant lawn bowl in Lake Cathie New South Wales.
What is a lawn bowl? Is it a place to play lawn bowling? I've heard that's fairly popular in Australia.
42. Started to watch video about lawn bowls.
43. Got question #5 wrong and learned the Golden Gumboot in Tully, Queensland has a frog on it.
44. Reminded by Lord Wiki that cyclone Yasi caused extensive damage in Tully.
45. Got question #8 wrong and learned there's a big crocodile in Humpty Doo, Northern Territory that wears boxing gloves.
46. Saw that Lord Wiki has a picture of the boxing crocodile.
47. Found another video about lawn bowls. The other one had a bit too much talking. I want to see players in action.
The game is inside. I imagined lawn bowls as an outdoor game.
Maybe it usually is, but not all the time.
48. Got question #9 wrong and learned there's a giant sapphire ring in sapphire, Queensland.
I guess that would make sense.
49. Learned from Lord Wiki that there's a lot of sapphire mining in sapphire, Queensland.
50. Finished the quiz. I got 5/10 right. That's the average score.
51. Went back to Tim Norton's blog post. It's from February 2007, which is about 9 months before we had our first trip to Australia.
52. Learned that Tim Norton works for Oxfam Australia.
That's really cool.
53. Followed Tim Norton's Flickr link and got a page saying his pictures fall outside my safe search filter.
That's....interesting.
Is it porno?
Maybe he has graphic, sad photos of people in trouble.—Oxfam type stuff.
54. Clicked yes to Flickr's question of whether I want to go beyond my safe filter.
I found this terrifying violent photo.
It's a baby beating up Elmo.
55. Went back to looking at Tim Norton's post.
I keep getting distracted.
I think maybe he has photos of all the big things. That would be awesome.
56. Saw there is a fake Uluru.
It's in Karuah, New South Wales which is in the Port Stephens area.
Lord Wiki says Karuah is known for oysters.
Jack ate a raw oyster in Port Stephens. I freaked out about it because I always associate raw oysters with food poisoning.
I hate vomit.
57. Failed to find information on the fake Uluru.
58. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Leyland Brothers. Tim Norton said they built the fake Uluru.
Now I'm getting some information.
Lord Wiki says the Leyland Brothers had a TV show in the 1970's and 1980's.
59. Learned the Leyland Brothers opened up their own amusement park. One of the attractions was the fake Uluru.
60. Went to the website of The Great Aussie Bush Camp. This is what became of the Leyland Brother's amusement Park. They became bankrupt, and the park became something else.
61. Looked at the activities offered by The Great Aussie Bush Camp.
I might like some of the water activities—swimming and canoeing.
A lot of the other stuff look scary.
62. Wondered if the fake Uluru is still there.
63. Liked these big cherries. They remind me of that children's board game.
I forgot the name, and I don't think I played it much as a child.
64. Remembered the name of the game.
It's Hi Ho Cherry-O
65. Consulted Lord Wiki about Young, New South Wales. Young is where you'd find the big cherries.
Lord Wiki says it's known as the Cherry Capital of Australia.
66. Learned from Lord Wiki that Young was the first non-capital city to install electricity in homes and streets.
But that's wrong. They ARE a capital city. They're the cherry capital city.
67. Saw that there's a big fish at Lake Caravilla. It's part of a caravan park.
68. Saw that Tim Norton made a bit of a mistake.
He has the big fish listed under New South Wales.
In reality it's in Lake Entrance, Victoria.
69. Saw that the Lakes Caravilla Caravan Park has ensuite cabins for only $60-120 a night. That's not bad.
70. Liked the big gold panner in Bathurst. At first I misread it and thought it said big Paneer. I thought I was going to see gigantic Indian food.
Actually, I got confused and was thinking of Indian bread. But it's not. Paneer is the cheese.
71. Wondered about this big Pavlova. Is that what they're supposed to look like?
72. Enjoyed looking at photos of Pavlova on Google Images.
It's a beautiful dessert...probably because of the colorful fruit.
It's not making me hungry, though. I'm all fruited out right now. I had a huge apple for breakfast.
73. Saw that there's a fake Sydney Harbour Bridge.
It's in a place called Warwick Farm. I thought it was a farm, but Lord Wiki says it's a suburb in Sydney.
74. Liked this big Captain Cook from Cairns.
75. Thought of The Long Weekend when I saw this big dugong.
76. Thought this big snake was kind of cool.
It's in Ayr, Queensland.
Lord Wiki told me that Ayr has a drive in cinema.
77. Thought this giant koala was pretty cool. It's from Dadswell Bridge in Victoria.
78. Googled and found that Red Nomad Oz has a blog post about it. She says it's near the Grampians. I think we might be in that area....if Tim wants to do the driving Maybe we can visit the koala.
79. Looked on Google Maps and saw Dadswell Bridge is 40 minutes north of Halls Gap. I don't think we'll be going up that way.
We'll probably miss the koala.
80. Liked this big octopus. It's in Lakes Entrance, the same place that had the big fish.
81. Saw that one of Tim Norton's blog labels is zombie.
He has 2 posts about The Walking Dead. It sounds like he was a fan of the comic book before the TV show came on.
The last episode of The Walking Dead was REALLY intense. There's this farm family and they were acting all mysterious. They had some big secret. I thought it was an incest thing, but it wasn't.
I was a bit shocked when their secret was revealed. I think I probably even gasped. I really was not expecting that.
82. Watched a video that Tim Norton embedded on his blog. It's about a zombie boot camp in Japan.
It's very interesting.
83. Found this great video thanks to Tim Norton. It's a fan-made title sequence for The Walking dead using images from the comic.
It's awesome.
84. Learned that Tim Norton is a vegetarian; or at least he was back in 2007. Back then he said he had been vegetarian since 1999. That's a long time.
Tim says, It's getting easier and easier to eat veggie these days - it's very rare to find somewhere where I can't find something on the menu. Sure, some places it's a toss up between the salad or the potato gnocchi, but at least I can eat. Everything is fine.
I agree. It's very easy to be vegetarian these days.
Tim's post is mostly about times that he's accidentally eaten meat.
There was the time he accidentally ate lamb in his Indian food. It made him vomit.
At a Vietnamese restaurant he asked for vegetarian spring rolls and got ones with crab.
I had a hard time getting vegetarian food at a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Worth. I probably shouldn't assume, though, that Vietnamese people don't understand the whole vegetarian thing.
There's probably plenty of Vietnamese restaurants that are vegetarian-friendly.
85. Saw that Tim Norton ate chicken on a pizza. Someone thought it should be included on a veggie-pizza. Go figure.
I once maybe ate chicken on a pizza. It was my fault, though. Tim (not the Norton one) had made two barbecue chicken pizzas. One had the chicken and one did not. I took a bite out of the wrong one. I'm not sure if I ate any chicken or not. I don't remember tasting the chicken. Yet I can't remember how I figured out I had the wrong pizza.
In terms of restaurant mistakes—it happened to me before I was officially vegetarian.
Before I was vegetarian I rarely ate meat. I thought it was gross in most cases.
I liked hamburgers, steak, and ribs. I didn't like meat mixed up in things—like Asian food with little bits of meat. I especially didn't like pasta with meat, except for my mom's pasta with meat.
Anyway, I went to some American chain restaurant with a friend. I think it was Fridays....or maybe Chilies. I ordered pasta with marinara sauce. They gave me pasta with meat sauce. I told the waiter. He was annoyingly nonchalant about the whole thing.
I go to it, and there's a photo of 1970's-1980's electronic recording devices. An alarm sound comes from the picture. I read and learn that Fruitcake put that there because it's the only way she can know if people have come to her blog. She's had to forgo all modern communication devices. She seems somewhat apologetic about the whole thing. I'm thinking it's kind of neat.
2. Found an old dream about Australia. This one is from August 27, 2007.
The whole family is together...I ask if anyone else wants to go to Australia....I think just for conversation. Dawn and Melissa both say yes. As if this is what they wanted all along. I realize they're both jealous of me going. I get angry about that and say I don't want them coming with us. I explain we need to go on a vacation with just the three of us. (Tim, Jack, and Me) I then go off on a long tirade about how horrible it was at Disney World with them. They wanted me to come with them everywhere. Yet, I never got to go where I wanted or Jack wanted. If we did go somewhere we had to go by ourselves. I talked about how no one would even come with me to eat. I say I was alone, but think to myself....not really. Jack was there.
I look up from tirade. Melissa and Dawn are not there. This makes me even more mad.
But I feel bad about not wanting them. Rejecting them. Afraid they're mad at me. But then I suggest to Dawn she come with us to one mile beach resort. To my surprise she's not mad and likes the idea. I say it will work out good because Darcy and Ellie won't have to miss school.
There's a LOT of truth to that dream.
I mean it's one of those dreams that have strong ties to real life situations and real life emotions.
There's....
The resentment of other people's jealousy; feeling ignored and not understood; feeling strong enough to stand up for myself; then feeling guilty and backing down to be nice again.
Yeah. That's pretty much the story of my life...or at least one of the main ones.
3. Received an email from Simply Australian. They're combining my two orders so I don't have to pay extra for shipping. I'm glad (and thankful) to hear that.
4. Read article about the America thing.
Peter Hartcher says America is putting their military in Darwin to protect Australia.
Protect it from what?
China.
Apparently people are afraid that China is going to invade Australia.
I was thinking America kind of forced their military on Australia. We want to be in Darwin. You should say yes or you might be sorry.
This article is making me think maybe Australia ASKED America to send their military over.
If that's the case, why did America say yes? America does help other countries; but usually because they need or want something from that country.
What about China? Are they that much of a threat? Maybe they are. I feel kind of sad for them. They're so rich and America and Australia are getting a lot of financial support from them. It's like the rich kid at school that everyone uses, but no one likes. People are nice to them out of need and fear.
5. Saw that the Australia-American alliance is big in American news too. Here's a New York Times article.
It gives a lot of insight into the situation.
Basically, China is gaining strength at a frightening rate. They're not really anyone's enemy. But people are afraid they'll become the enemy. America is sending themselves over to Australia to try to counterbalance the whole thing. They're doing it to protect Australia. They're doing it to protect themselves.
6. Figured people are probably worried that John Marsden's books are going to come true. They're probably trying to prevent all that from happening.
7. Saw that Obama has said, The notion that we fear China is mistaken. The notion that we are looking to exclude China is mistaken.
He wants to include China in this new club that's forming—the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But there are some demands they have to meet—economic stuff that I don't really understand. They may be fair demands. I'm not sure.
8. Felt a little jealous of the marine families who are getting to move to Darwin.
Hopefully there won't be an invasion. Then I'd feel really guilty for feeling jealous.
I hope everyone stays safe, happy, and peaceful.
I hope the American military families enjoy Darwin.
9. Loved Hyper Aspie's blog post about Obama visiting Australia. It's adorable, informative, and very funny.
One of my favorite parts: Hearing the Star Spangled Banner is also pretty odd. I love how the hand always goes over the heart, it's so patriotic, more so then our version which generally consists of us linking arms and swaying from side to side whilst rather intoxicated.
I don't think I've ever placed my hand over my heart. But then I haven't been to many events where they played the Star Spangled Banner. In the rare times that it has happened, I get up enough energy to stand up with the rest of the people. That's probably about it.
10. Thought this part from Hyper Aspie's post was interesting.
I think it's hilarious that our prime minister travels around in a perfectly normal car with little or no security and definitely no motorcade. My bus has travelled behind her car on several times.
We're pretty laid back here in Oz.
Yeah. That's very different from us.
I like that Australia is laid back.
11. Saw that Liam Hemsworth was included in People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive list.
Of course they're all celebrities, because if you're not famous you're obviously not sexy.
No. I understand they can't knock on doors around the world to find sexy people. But maybe it would be better if they called their list Sexist Celebrity Alive.
12. Saw that Hugh Jackman also made the list.
13. Saw that the Australian dollar is now worth 1.01 American dollars. That's good. I'd like it to be at the price when (if) we go to Australia.
The Aussie dollar is worth .64 British pounds.
It's worth 6.87 Swedish kroner. It's gone up a bit there. The last time I checked it was worth 6.79 Swedish Kroner.
It's worth 78.1 Japanese ten. It's gone down a bit there. The last time I checked it was worth 78.64 Japanese yen.
14. Learned from this article that there's going to be a movie about Legos; and it's going to be filmed in Sydney.
The movie is being made by Warner Bros and an Australian group called Animal Logic.
15. Went to the website of Animal Logic.
They do visual effects.
This page lists the movies they've worked on. This include Australia, Legends of the Guardians, The Black Balloon, World Trade Center, and Happy Feet.
16. Read article that says scientists in Queensland have found a promising treatment for spinal cord injuries.
The treatment involves injecting proteins into the body to reduce inflammation. That might lead to injuries being less severe.
I hope it works. That would be great.
17. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read a story thread called Happy By Myself.
One of the characters in it is Nerual Spencer, the younger sister of the character I read about yesterday.
Nerual's face claim is Jennette McCurdy from iCarly. Maybe she can get together with Stewie Blair Jr. His face claim is from iCarly too.
18. Saw that the other character in the story is a 3rd year student named Stuart Hosking.
The story takes place in the Flinders common room.
19. Started to read.
It's the evening of November 15.
Stuart is reading...and growing.
I sneaked a peak at his bio and saw that he's part giant. So, I guess that's why he's growing.
20. Saw that Stuart doesn't have much contact with the giant world, but he's still interested in them. He feels a loyalty towards them even though he knows they'd reject him.
It's interesting that this story also involves a half-fairy. The two of them have a commonality. They're half-breeds, and rejected by their non-human relatives. There's a size difference though. Stuart's genes will probably make him larger than most humans. Nerual's genes will make her smaller than most humans.
21. Started to read the biography of Stuart Hosking.
He was born in Alice Springs.
His face claim is Cory Monteith.
Lord Wiki says Monteith is from Glee. Yeah. Now that he says that, I recognize him.
22. Watched Cory Monteith being interviewed by Ellen.
23. Learned that Stuart is only thirteen; yet he looks much older than that. He's tall, and he's already gone through puberty.
24. Learned that Stuart is shy and doesn't like to be noticed.
He buries himself in his studies. He has to work hard because he has the giant genes, and the giants aren't known for being overly intelligent.
25. Learned that Stuart likes sports. It provides a situation in which his size can work for him rather than against him.
26. Started to read Stuart's history.
He wasn't born in Alice Springs. That's just what his papers say. He was really born in a community near Alice Springs.
He was born in a giant commune.
27. Felt sad for Stuart. He was rejected by his mother because of his size. He has tried to go back to the commune to visit her, and she continues to reject him.
27. Felt glad to know that Stuart is loved by his stepmother. They get along well. Stuart sees her as his mother.
28. Saw that my Archer of the day is Mary Ellinor Lucy Archer.
She was a librarian and scientist.
She was born in Melbourne in November 1893.
29. Learned that Mary Ellinor Lucy Archer was known professionally as Ellinor Archer.
30. Learned that Ellinor Archer did some teaching at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne.
She also did research for the government regarding botany.
And she did library work.
31. Didn't like Ellinor Archer that much when I read the following.
A) she believed library work wasn't for introverts because working with people is as important to the job as working with books.
B) She didn't read much by choice.
I do think librarians need to have people skills. That's important for any job where you have to work with the public. But I think you can be an introvert and still have decent people skills.
And I like to imagine librarians loving books as much as I do.
32. Learned that there's an Ellinor Archer award for librarians.
33. Went to look at more of Fredweng's Second day in Australia Flickr set.
34. Thought this cave picture was pretty cool.
I think it's also kind of gross.
I don't know...
Stalactites and stalagmites kind of remind me of tumors.
35. Wished I remembered the name of this parrot.
Wait...
Is it a rosella?
36. Consulted Lord Wiki.
It seems my memory pulled through for me this time.
He says it's a Crimson Rosella.
At least I remembered the rosella part.
37. Went to Funtrivia to take another Australia quiz. This one's about big things in Australia.
I love the big things in Australia.
The only one we've seen is the sheep in Goulburn. Oh. And I think we saw a giant koala in The Blue Mountains.
38. Got the 1st question wrong and learned there's a giant car muffler in Southport, Queensland.
39. Found this blog post by Tim Norton while looking for a picture of the giant muffler.
Tim lists all the big things in Australia.
I'll look go through the list after I take the quiz.
40. Learned from Lord Wiki that Southport is a suburb of the Gold Coast.
41. Got question #3 wrong and learned there's a giant lawn bowl in Lake Cathie New South Wales.
What is a lawn bowl? Is it a place to play lawn bowling? I've heard that's fairly popular in Australia.
42. Started to watch video about lawn bowls.
43. Got question #5 wrong and learned the Golden Gumboot in Tully, Queensland has a frog on it.
44. Reminded by Lord Wiki that cyclone Yasi caused extensive damage in Tully.
45. Got question #8 wrong and learned there's a big crocodile in Humpty Doo, Northern Territory that wears boxing gloves.
46. Saw that Lord Wiki has a picture of the boxing crocodile.
47. Found another video about lawn bowls. The other one had a bit too much talking. I want to see players in action.
The game is inside. I imagined lawn bowls as an outdoor game.
Maybe it usually is, but not all the time.
48. Got question #9 wrong and learned there's a giant sapphire ring in sapphire, Queensland.
I guess that would make sense.
49. Learned from Lord Wiki that there's a lot of sapphire mining in sapphire, Queensland.
50. Finished the quiz. I got 5/10 right. That's the average score.
51. Went back to Tim Norton's blog post. It's from February 2007, which is about 9 months before we had our first trip to Australia.
52. Learned that Tim Norton works for Oxfam Australia.
That's really cool.
53. Followed Tim Norton's Flickr link and got a page saying his pictures fall outside my safe search filter.
That's....interesting.
Is it porno?
Maybe he has graphic, sad photos of people in trouble.—Oxfam type stuff.
54. Clicked yes to Flickr's question of whether I want to go beyond my safe filter.
I found this terrifying violent photo.
It's a baby beating up Elmo.
55. Went back to looking at Tim Norton's post.
I keep getting distracted.
I think maybe he has photos of all the big things. That would be awesome.
56. Saw there is a fake Uluru.
It's in Karuah, New South Wales which is in the Port Stephens area.
Lord Wiki says Karuah is known for oysters.
Jack ate a raw oyster in Port Stephens. I freaked out about it because I always associate raw oysters with food poisoning.
I hate vomit.
57. Failed to find information on the fake Uluru.
58. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Leyland Brothers. Tim Norton said they built the fake Uluru.
Now I'm getting some information.
Lord Wiki says the Leyland Brothers had a TV show in the 1970's and 1980's.
59. Learned the Leyland Brothers opened up their own amusement park. One of the attractions was the fake Uluru.
60. Went to the website of The Great Aussie Bush Camp. This is what became of the Leyland Brother's amusement Park. They became bankrupt, and the park became something else.
61. Looked at the activities offered by The Great Aussie Bush Camp.
I might like some of the water activities—swimming and canoeing.
A lot of the other stuff look scary.
62. Wondered if the fake Uluru is still there.
63. Liked these big cherries. They remind me of that children's board game.
I forgot the name, and I don't think I played it much as a child.
64. Remembered the name of the game.
It's Hi Ho Cherry-O
65. Consulted Lord Wiki about Young, New South Wales. Young is where you'd find the big cherries.
Lord Wiki says it's known as the Cherry Capital of Australia.
66. Learned from Lord Wiki that Young was the first non-capital city to install electricity in homes and streets.
But that's wrong. They ARE a capital city. They're the cherry capital city.
67. Saw that there's a big fish at Lake Caravilla. It's part of a caravan park.
68. Saw that Tim Norton made a bit of a mistake.
He has the big fish listed under New South Wales.
In reality it's in Lake Entrance, Victoria.
69. Saw that the Lakes Caravilla Caravan Park has ensuite cabins for only $60-120 a night. That's not bad.
70. Liked the big gold panner in Bathurst. At first I misread it and thought it said big Paneer. I thought I was going to see gigantic Indian food.
Actually, I got confused and was thinking of Indian bread. But it's not. Paneer is the cheese.
71. Wondered about this big Pavlova. Is that what they're supposed to look like?
72. Enjoyed looking at photos of Pavlova on Google Images.
It's a beautiful dessert...probably because of the colorful fruit.
It's not making me hungry, though. I'm all fruited out right now. I had a huge apple for breakfast.
73. Saw that there's a fake Sydney Harbour Bridge.
It's in a place called Warwick Farm. I thought it was a farm, but Lord Wiki says it's a suburb in Sydney.
74. Liked this big Captain Cook from Cairns.
75. Thought of The Long Weekend when I saw this big dugong.
76. Thought this big snake was kind of cool.
It's in Ayr, Queensland.
Lord Wiki told me that Ayr has a drive in cinema.
77. Thought this giant koala was pretty cool. It's from Dadswell Bridge in Victoria.
78. Googled and found that Red Nomad Oz has a blog post about it. She says it's near the Grampians. I think we might be in that area....if Tim wants to do the driving Maybe we can visit the koala.
79. Looked on Google Maps and saw Dadswell Bridge is 40 minutes north of Halls Gap. I don't think we'll be going up that way.
We'll probably miss the koala.
80. Liked this big octopus. It's in Lakes Entrance, the same place that had the big fish.
81. Saw that one of Tim Norton's blog labels is zombie.
He has 2 posts about The Walking Dead. It sounds like he was a fan of the comic book before the TV show came on.
The last episode of The Walking Dead was REALLY intense. There's this farm family and they were acting all mysterious. They had some big secret. I thought it was an incest thing, but it wasn't.
I was a bit shocked when their secret was revealed. I think I probably even gasped. I really was not expecting that.
82. Watched a video that Tim Norton embedded on his blog. It's about a zombie boot camp in Japan.
It's very interesting.
83. Found this great video thanks to Tim Norton. It's a fan-made title sequence for The Walking dead using images from the comic.
It's awesome.
84. Learned that Tim Norton is a vegetarian; or at least he was back in 2007. Back then he said he had been vegetarian since 1999. That's a long time.
Tim says, It's getting easier and easier to eat veggie these days - it's very rare to find somewhere where I can't find something on the menu. Sure, some places it's a toss up between the salad or the potato gnocchi, but at least I can eat. Everything is fine.
I agree. It's very easy to be vegetarian these days.
Tim's post is mostly about times that he's accidentally eaten meat.
There was the time he accidentally ate lamb in his Indian food. It made him vomit.
At a Vietnamese restaurant he asked for vegetarian spring rolls and got ones with crab.
I had a hard time getting vegetarian food at a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Worth. I probably shouldn't assume, though, that Vietnamese people don't understand the whole vegetarian thing.
There's probably plenty of Vietnamese restaurants that are vegetarian-friendly.
85. Saw that Tim Norton ate chicken on a pizza. Someone thought it should be included on a veggie-pizza. Go figure.
I once maybe ate chicken on a pizza. It was my fault, though. Tim (not the Norton one) had made two barbecue chicken pizzas. One had the chicken and one did not. I took a bite out of the wrong one. I'm not sure if I ate any chicken or not. I don't remember tasting the chicken. Yet I can't remember how I figured out I had the wrong pizza.
In terms of restaurant mistakes—it happened to me before I was officially vegetarian.
Before I was vegetarian I rarely ate meat. I thought it was gross in most cases.
I liked hamburgers, steak, and ribs. I didn't like meat mixed up in things—like Asian food with little bits of meat. I especially didn't like pasta with meat, except for my mom's pasta with meat.
Anyway, I went to some American chain restaurant with a friend. I think it was Fridays....or maybe Chilies. I ordered pasta with marinara sauce. They gave me pasta with meat sauce. I told the waiter. He was annoyingly nonchalant about the whole thing.
