1. Read on Facebook that many suburbs in Townsville are getting their water back. That's good!
2. Started to think that maybe The Daily Beast changed their mind about interviewing Tom Hooper. They said they'd post the answers tomorrow. Yesterday was tomorrow. Today is the day after tomorrow. OR....maybe they're on Tim time. This is when you say you'll be home at 5, and you end up being home at 6 or 7. So when they say "tomorrow", they might have meant next week.
Maybe Tom Hooper didn't like our questions, and is not wanting to answer. Maybe The Daily Beast is hoping we all just forget that any of it ever happened.
3. Read article about how some churches are blaming the bad weather on Julia Gillard. Why? She's Atheist. Ah! That explains everything. Thank you. Funny though....if you think about it. Australia is led by an Atheist, and their cyclone kills only one person. When America was hit by a hurricane, it was led by a born again Christian. 1,800 people died. But no. I'm not going to blame these deaths on anyone's religious beliefs. I don't think it works that way.
I think it's sad that people try to use the fear-of-God to get other people to join their religions. If this so-called God causes death and destruction to punish people for believing the "wrong" thing, I'd want nothing to do with him. I would label him a sadistic control freak.
Hopefully, these types of Christians are wrong....and there is no evil God out there. Otherwise, what makes him any better than Satan?
4. Read various blog posts about the weather situation in Australia. Jayne dealt with the major rain thing in Melbourne. She says, I don't like to see people's property damaged, of course, but I do get a kick out of seeing intersections submerged and plumes of water spraying into the air as cars go by.
I think that's the thing about crazy weather. There's the scary dark side of the situation. But then there's also the fascinating and exciting aspect of it. I don't think anyone wants to be hit by a tornado, nor do we want to hear that people died from it. But I think many people (including me) would love to have the chance to see one zooming by.
2. Started to think that maybe The Daily Beast changed their mind about interviewing Tom Hooper. They said they'd post the answers tomorrow. Yesterday was tomorrow. Today is the day after tomorrow. OR....maybe they're on Tim time. This is when you say you'll be home at 5, and you end up being home at 6 or 7. So when they say "tomorrow", they might have meant next week.
Maybe Tom Hooper didn't like our questions, and is not wanting to answer. Maybe The Daily Beast is hoping we all just forget that any of it ever happened.
3. Read article about how some churches are blaming the bad weather on Julia Gillard. Why? She's Atheist. Ah! That explains everything. Thank you. Funny though....if you think about it. Australia is led by an Atheist, and their cyclone kills only one person. When America was hit by a hurricane, it was led by a born again Christian. 1,800 people died. But no. I'm not going to blame these deaths on anyone's religious beliefs. I don't think it works that way.
I think it's sad that people try to use the fear-of-God to get other people to join their religions. If this so-called God causes death and destruction to punish people for believing the "wrong" thing, I'd want nothing to do with him. I would label him a sadistic control freak.
Hopefully, these types of Christians are wrong....and there is no evil God out there. Otherwise, what makes him any better than Satan?
4. Read various blog posts about the weather situation in Australia. Jayne dealt with the major rain thing in Melbourne. She says, I don't like to see people's property damaged, of course, but I do get a kick out of seeing intersections submerged and plumes of water spraying into the air as cars go by.
I think that's the thing about crazy weather. There's the scary dark side of the situation. But then there's also the fascinating and exciting aspect of it. I don't think anyone wants to be hit by a tornado, nor do we want to hear that people died from it. But I think many people (including me) would love to have the chance to see one zooming by.
What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there
was life after death, and
we could easily talk to our
dearly-departed on the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
5. Wondered if I'm going to spend the whole day writing stuff and then deleting it. I have stuff I feel compelled to say, but then I decide I shouldn't say it. It's probably good to edit ourselves some of the time. But then I get nervous that I'll get in the habit of deleting everything, and won't be able to write blog posts anymore.
Oh, I should relax. I doubt that will happen. I delete stuff in emails all the time, and still manage to send....something.
Crap. I'm just going to say it, because I need to get it off my chest. It annoys me when anyone says or implies that I'm too sensitive. But it annoys me a million times more when that person is overly sensitive themselves. It's a crime when it happens to them, and it's a joke when it happens to others.
All right. Said it. I feel better....maybe. Now let's move on....
6. Decided I should also say that if you read #5 and think I'm talking about you, and you feel offended...wronged by what I said....then you probably ARE one of the people that I'm talking about.
If you read #5 and think I'm talking about you, and you feel a bit guilty and/or sad, then I'm probably NOT talking about you.
And if you read #5 and feel nothing beyond feeling slightly amused and/or interested....I'm probably not talking about you either.
7. Watched this Sydney history video made by the Australia Post. I personally thought the editing was a bit off.
8. Learned from this video and Lord Wiki that the Australia Post is a government business enterprise. I'm trying to figure out what that means. I'm getting that it's a corporation, and runs like a corporation. But it's owned and/or funded by the government. I might be wrong though.
9. Looked at Australia weather. It looks like Adelaide's going to have a nice day today. Perth doesn't look too bad either.
10. Took a Traveler IQ test on Tasmania. I guessed on every single one, and still managed to get 42, 346 points. See, the thing with the Traveler IQ tests is they give you points based on how close you get to the actual city. Tasmania is pretty small, so no matter what you guess....you still get some points. Try it! I'll bet you'll do as good as me, even if you think Queensland is in Tasmania.
11. Did awful on a New South Wales Traveler IQ test. Many of the places I had never heard of before, and then others....Well, I had heard of them, but wasn't quite sure where they belonged. I got 13,107 points.
12. Did fairly awful on Western Australia Traveler IQ test. I had to guess about most places. My score was 27,466. I learned that there's a Denmark in Western Australia.
13. Learned from Lord Wiki that Denmark, Western Australia is a wine region place.
14. Watched Oprah segment about an Aussie family dealing with cancer. I think one of the most inspiring aspects of the story is that the family's church asked for all the family's bills, and then said they would pay them. That's an example of the GOOD side of religion. And it was nice that Oprah helped get the family $250,000. I wish all families dealing with cancer could get that amount of money....or at least enough that they can worry less about finances and concentrate more on spending time together.
I hope the Aussie dad with cancer survives, and lives to a ripe old age. Cancer stories are much better when there's a happy ending.
15. Took more Traveler IQ quizzes. I'm not going to record all of them....maybe just a few.
16. Decided I'm going to try all the Australia-related Traveler IQ tests on Facebook. Then I'll pick the one I like the best, and keep practicing until I'm #1 on the scoreboard.
I might get bored and give up before I reach my goal.
Oh. And I'm skipping the sports related quizzes.
17. Had a fantastic time reading this Adelaide Now article about Lionel Logue. One of the commenters of the story says they have written a book about Logue. I should check into that.
18. Found the book. It was published recently. Lionel Logue The King's Mentor by Norman Hutchinson. I think maybe he tried to cash in on the popularity of The King's Speech. There's nothing wrong with that, really. And he may have already written the book. Then the movie came out, and he had a larger potential readership. It's kind of like....I wrote a novel about Neurofibromatosis. I don't have many people buying the book, because it's not the most popular subject. But if someone made an Oscar-nominated film about NF, maybe there'd be more people wanting my book.
19. Looked at more of the comments on the Adelaide article. It looks like a lot of these people are somehow related to Lionel Logue. That is REALLY cool.
20. Started watching interview with Norman Hutchinson about Lionel Logue.
You know what's wonderful. I started thinking maybe I was going to lose my passion for The King's Speech. The thing is I felt I had nothing to feed it. I can't sit there looking at photos of Geoffrey Rush all day. I'm tired of watching the trailer. I did have the book on the horizon, and I'm excited about that. I also plan to watch the DVD when it comes out. But I wished for something more...now. And I've found it. This is really great....for me.
21. Found out from interview video that Logue and his family spent twenty years in Perth. Oh no. Am I going to have to change our travel plans again? Crap. Well, maybe I'll be over Logue by the time we need to start buying plane tickets.
22. Found out from interview video that Hutchinson started writing his Logue book without knowing that Mark Logue was writing a book, AND not knowing there was a movie coming out. I love that. It makes me a bit teary-eyed. It's almost like this is Logue-time. It's like there's some kind of cosmic/spiritual reason that we're getting this story now. Could it be connected to the world getting all these similar vampire stories lately? Probably not. But it's something fun to ponder.
23. Learned from interview video that Logue called the people he treated his pupils rather than his patients. The interview talks about Logue being a Christian Scientist. I remember a bit about that religion from my college courses. They prefer prayer over medicine. But Lord Wiki says they do NOT usually forbid medical treatment.
Hutchinson tells a story about parents taking their three-year-old child to see Logue. The kid had a speech issue. Logue spent a short time with the kid, and he came out speaking fine. I guess Logue was some type of miracle worker.
24. Learned from interview video that Logue used a more spiritual holistic approach rather than an illness approach.
The interview has some really beautiful stuff. These two talking guys have a lot of deep thoughts. They talk about how Logue must have had confidence that these people HAD the ability to speak, and he just had to help them get there. He had full confidence in himself, and expressed that confidence. By sharing his confidence with his patience, they had confidence.
Although I'm not sure it would work with me. I'd probably think well, he's been able to help everyone before, but I'll be the one person who still manages to fail.
It makes me a little on edge, because it somewhat resembles The Secret which I'm not a fan of. But The Secret is more about believing in ourselves. If you believe in you, you'll be successful and obtain awesome things. Maybe what we really need is to believe in each other. I can believe in myself sometimes....a little bit. But it helps me to believe in myself more when I have other people believing in me.
In The King's Speech, Bertie doesn't go at it alone. He has his wife's support, and he had Logue. What if he didn't have the two of them?
25. Watched some of video of King George VI opening the Australian Parliament House in 1927. This would probably before he was helped, and he probably stammered. You can't hear it though, because the video is silent.
26. Read this article that says Australia obtained a video with SOUND of King George VI visiting Australia in 1927. It had been hiding in the UK for a long time. I guess now the Australian National Film and Sound Archive has a copy.
27. Visited the National Film and Sound Archives website. It unfortunately looks like you have to physically GO there to see and hear most of the stuff.
Oh. This is FUNNY. I was thinking....I wish these people would showcase their goodies online like The Australian Screen website does. Well, it turns out they ARE the Australian Screen people. I can only find a silent video of the king though. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place....or maybe they haven't added it to the online collection yet.
28. Went to take a New South Wales Traveler IQ test. I checked the scoreboard, and I guess I already took the test. I'm #2. I do NOT remember that. And I can't figure out how I did that well. I'm NOT that good with specific states. This is so weird!! Maybe I get possessed by some Australian map expert, and do these quizzes. Yeah... but I don't think I've had any memory gaps lately.
I'm going to take the test again.....
Well, I didn't do too awful. My score would have put me in 22nd place. It was easier those most state tests. I had actually HEARD of many of the places before.
29. Read article about how places in South Australia have been hit by Yasi-related storms. They're having lots of rain.
30. Read some pages of Alice Springs that made me grateful for toilet paper. I love toilets, and I love toilet paper.
31. Talked about Lionel Logue at dinner. Jack asked if he killed Hitler. I wasn't sure where he got that, but then I remembered that when we did the interviews in Dallas, Tim had mentioned Hitler. Jack was there listening. He must have jumped to some interesting conclusions. OR maybe Jack knows something that no one else knows (insert Twilight Zone music here).
32. Remembered that one day (a month or so ago) Jack suddenly started insisting that we go to Perth. With frustration I asked him why, and he said he was only joking. But maybe there was a REASON he talked about it. I'm so lost about which places we should go to. I was set on Hobart, but now I'm thinking back to Adelaide and Perth. Why? Am I going to go on some kind of Lionel Logue Pilgrimage? I'm nuts. Too bad I didn't know about him when we were in London. Although if I had known about him, he might have disrupted by JK Rowling pilgrimage.
Anyway, I wish someone would just come into my dreams and tell me exactly where I should go. Maybe they could even draw me a map. I want to go to Hobart. I want to go to Perth. I want to go to Broome. I want to go to Darwin. I want to go to Brisbane. I want to go to the Sunshine Coast. I want to go to Alice Springs. I want to go to Uluru. I want to go to Adelaide. I want to go to Mt. Gambier. I want to go to Melbourne. I want to go to Coober Pedy. I want to return to Sydney.
There are way too many places that I want to go. Maybe it's better to just stay home and play with map quizzes.
33. With Jack, looked at photo of Melbourne post office from the 1870's Lord Wiki says it is no longer a post office. It's now a shopping arcade. It's called Melbourne's GPO There's a chocolate store there. From this chocolate store, I learned that the word Gianduja is Italian and not Australian Aboriginal. Jack and I both want the ruby chocolate. It looks so cool.
34. Learned that there's a Notting Hill in Melbourne. The Natural Confectionery Company is there. I had the snakes before. I think. It might have been a different brand.
35. Realized that some people equate making mistakes with stupidity. I think it's because society stresses correctness over authentic learning. We learn sometimes BY making mistakes. I think it's sad that there are people so rigid in their infatuation with perfection. I have seen children who'd rather lie...pretend to know something that they don't, rather than simply admit I don't know, and then learn something. To me, that's sad. Really. If someone wants perfection....no mistakes....then they should NOT be reading this blog. Remember. I'm just another dumb American. Go find yourself a smart Bulgarian blogger.
36. Asked Lord Wiki if The Christian Science Monitor was connected to Christian Scientists. Tim said it was, but I wanted to double check. It's funny. A few weeks ago, I told Tim about an article or editorial I had seen in it. We both said that we were surprisingly impressed with that newspaper. I mean if you couldn't tell already, I'm not exactly cheerful and positive when it comes to Christianity. I'm not a big fan, and I have a lot of prejudices. Tim's the same way. But we like this particular Christian newspaper. And now that I know Lionel Logue was a Christian Scientist, maybe I'll like it even more.
Lord Wiki says the newspaper is not religious. It's secular. But it was started by the founder of the Christian Science Church; Mary Baker Eddy. If I'm reading things correctly, when Eddy started her religion, it was reported in a sensationalist way. So she started her own paper. That's pretty cool.
37. Found out that Lionel Logue's office is near the Regent Park Underground stop, and told Tim that we need to return to London. I need to do some major stalking. I should yell out The Lost lines. We have to go back! We have to go back!
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says the address of his office was 146 Harley Street. Here's a whole page about Harley Street. They don't mention 146 Harley Street, but they do mention 145 and 147. What's up with that? The whole street seems to deal with medical things. If you're in London and not feeling well, head to Harley Street. It's the place to be.
This is REALLY awesome. Harley Street is not too far from the zoo. So you can go to Harley street, and do some Lionel Logue loving. If you're feeling unwell, you can see a doctor or other healer person thing. Then you can walk up a bit and do Harry Potter loving by visiting the reptile house, and then ordering a Knickerbocker Glory Sundae. I wonder if you can really get sundaes at the London Zoo?
The funny thing is it was Harry Potter that led me to Lionel Logue. Okay. Yeah it was also Australia. But to be honest, the main reason I wanted to rush and see The King's Speech....it wasn't Geoffrey Rush. It was Bellatrix Lestrange. Or maybe it was both. I think if it was just Geoffrey Rush, I wouldn't have felt a rush. And if it was just about Bellatrix, I also wouldn't have felt such urgency. But the combination of Harry Potter and Australia elements.....Well, how could I resist?
38. Found this article which talks about Mark Logue liking The King's Speech. It includes a photo of Lionel Logue and his wife. He's very handsome. The article says that Logue includes his email address in his book so family members, old friends, patients, etc. can write to him if they have stories and/or information. That's really great. Maybe there'll be a follow-up book.
39. Struggled to not go insane with enthusiasm. I just found a whole online book about Logue. I don't know if it's very long. But this is....fantastic. The problem is I should be going to bed soon. I'll save it for tomorrow.
Oh, never mind. The book is about the king. There's only a short bit about Logue. Still. It's exciting. I'll read it now.
I'm not loving the writing. It reminds me of a high school text book. The website seems pretty cool though. It's called Awesome Stories. They emphasize the use of primary sources.
The writing isn't bad. I shouldn't pick on it. I guess it sounds like any nonfiction that's written specifically for young students. There's nothing really wrong with that.
I don't want to read too much of it though, because they quote from the diaries. It might ruin Mark Logue's book for me....too many spoilers.