Today

1. Dreamed about my cousin who lives in Australia.  We were heading to her house, and I realized we had never actually made concrete plans about visiting her.  We had talked about it with her earlier but not in a concrete sense.  So, our visit was likely to be a bit of a surprise.  And I dreamed my brother-in-law wanted a video camera (inspired by Nick Earls book, probably)

2. Saw the trailer for Ryan Kwanten in Griff the Invisible.  I hope it's as good as it looks, because it looks pretty good.  I saw the link for the trailer on True Blood's Facebook page where they were trying to shock people with the news that Kwanten isn't a southern American. Most of the commenters already knew he was Australian.  

3. Read article about controversy regarding school-girl themed porn in shop windows. Got the link from the Australian Sex Party's Facebook page. I'm okay with it existing, but maybe it shouldn't be in the shop windows. How about putting it more in the back of the store?

4. Learned via Statcounter that one of my links to the National Library of Australia was broken. I fixed that, if anyone is interested in Captain Cook looking like a vampire.  

5. Read about flood in Victoria.   People in small Victorian towns might get trapped by the floods and be isolated for weeks. Or maybe they're ALREADY isolated.   I hope they have enough food, water, etc.  What if there's a medical emergency, though?  That's really scary.

6. Read about Australian study that shows fat people are more anxious.  I'm wondering if they factored in psychiatric drugs. Isn't weight gain a side effect of some?  MAYBE this shows that psychiatric drugs cause people to be fat more so than they reduce the anxiety symptoms. I'm anxious, but not fat. If I was on psychiatric drugs, maybe I'd be anxious (but a little less so) AND overweight.

7. Saw a 1970's commercial used for helping Australians to convert to the metric system.  It talks about the new speed limit signs.  I wonder if people had trouble understanding the signs. Were there a lot of people speeding?  I'm betting there were some who PRETENDED not to understand the signs.     

8. Saw cute 1948 Milo commercial that sort of reminds me of The Carousel of Progress at Disney World. They pronounced Nestle in a way that surprises me.  I'm wondering if Australians still pronounce it that way.

9. Named a Sims family after Francis Forde. It wasn't a good day of playing, though, because the screen froze, and I had to quit with a lot of stuff not being saved.  I didn't lose the Francis Forde inspired family, though. That's good.

10. Decided I'd name these posts Today rather than My Day. My Day makes me feel like I'm in elementary school.

11. Read article about ban on filming births in some Victorian hospitals.  I think some American hospitals already have this. There's talk of cameras being an invasion of staff privacy. I think it's ridiculous. It's not the doctor's or nurse's special private moment. It's the private moment of the family, and if they want to film it, they should have the right. There's also fear of using footage in lawsuits. If the doctor messes things up, he doesn't want it on camera.  This makes me think that maybe ALL medical procedures should be automatically videotaped...well, at least with the patient's consent.   

12. Watched Oprah interrupt an Aussie backyard barbecue. These days when I hear of (or see) an Aussie barbecue, I can't help but think of The Slap

13. Read an inspiring editorial about Australia Day and multiculturalism. It says the stuff I've been wanting to say. Australia Day doesn't have to be about zealous racist patriotism.  It can celebrate diversity, immigration, harmony, etc.

14. Read article about a Sydney man who found fifty thousand dollars and turned it into the police.   I find it disturbing that the article presents it as a heroic miraculous feat.  Do we really live in a world where most people would pocket the money?  Maybe. That's really sad.  I can imagine not going through the trouble to return 25-50 dollars. But thousands of dollars??!!  How can someone keep that and be okay with it on their conscious?   

15. Had deep spiritual thoughts about one of my Australian friends while taking a shower.  It sounds kind of kinky, but really....it wasn't.

16. Listened to Jack talk about the Wiggles in his View-Master.  Yes. He rediscovered an old toy.

17. Watched the Cold Chisel video for Flame Trees.  Listening to that song has become a nightly ritual for me. It's my favorite song right now.  

18. Heard Sydney is going to be very hot on Australia day....in the 40's.   Yuck. If you're in the area, take care of yourself.  Drink lots of water!  Don't get dehydrated.  Oy. I sound like such a Jewish mother.

19. Listened to the Sarah Blasko version of Flame Trees and then listened to the version with the kids singing. So precious.

20. Saw a 1855 drawing of a Chinese restaurant in Ballarat.   I wonder what type of food they had on the menu.

21. Listened to Jamezheart do a cover of Flame Trees.  

22. Learned that Jamezheart is a student at the University of Adelaide; then I listened to his cover for Use Somebody. I learned about that song from The Sing Off.  It's kind of weird to hear the song sung by one person, because on The Sing Off they had a large group singing it.  

23. Listened to Jamezheart do a cover for Iris. That's one of my favorite songs, because it once featured in one of my lucid dreams.  

24. Worked on learning the lyrics to Flame Trees, because it would be nice if I knew another whole song besides the Chiquita Banana one.