Doomadgee, Gothic Architecture, Parcels, and Bran Nue Dae

1. Dreamed something about Adelaide.  It wasn't much; just involved taking a left turn to get there.  I think there was a sense of going in a different direction than we usually go. This would make sense because we've only been east in Australia.  The farthest west we've been is Launceston, and that's not very west at all.

2. Listened to The Rehearsal from The King's Speech.  It's lovely....very cheerful.  It makes me think of running down a hill with necklaces made of dandelions.

3. Was thinking about how some Australians hate Americans because negative stuff from our culture has infiltrated Australia. But I think that's unfair.  It's like if Jack becomes friends with a kid who drinks a lot, and then he starts drinking a lot.  I can PARTLY blame the other kid. But I also need to blame Jack and ourselves. It would be foolish to think well, Jack would be perfect if it weren't for that other kid.      

4. Listened to The King's Speech from The King's Speech.  I guess it's the title song. It's the song that reminds me of the PBS kids ad.  

5. Listened to The Royal Household from The King's Speech. This song reminds me of the PBS kids ad as well. I like this music.  

6. Continued to practice the Traveler IQ quiz.  

7. Listened to King George VI from The King's Speech.  It's the suspenseful song.  It's used in the scene where the giant vampire robots chase the king so they can sell him to the monarchy-obsessed zombies. Very scary stuff.

8. Read article about Erin Brockovich wanting to be Australian.  What was the name of that movie with Julia Roberts?  Maybe the title WAS Erin Brockovich? Let me go check. Yeah. That was the title.  Here's the trailer.  

If the real Brockovich is anything like the one in the movie, I think Australia would be fortunate to adopt her.

Some guy named Stump disagrees.   He says, If you've been in Australia long enough you would realise that we are nothing like that mob of morons back in the excited states, we do know where we are (in Asia), we know we are not the master race, (as the seppos believe themselves to be), we accept that we are a small population in a country larger than the continental excited states (that surprises you eh) and note, we are in reality, already over populated, we also know that about a third of our population loathes and detests Australia and Australians, and that they have intentions of changing that, fortunately they will fail as they usually do.

I never heard of the term Excited States. That's kind of cute, despite the fact that Stump is very unfriendly and unwelcoming; and an outspoken bigot.   

Is Australia bigger than the Excited States? I thought it was the other way around.

Well, Lord Wiki has the Excited States as the bigger one.

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 

9. Listened to the Threat of War from The King's Speech.  This music has a conniving feel to it.  I can picture it playing while Stump wrote about the Excited States.

10. Had some blanket synchronicity. This morning I watched this video about distributing blankets to the poor.  Then a couple of hours later I was looking at pictures on the Library of Australia's page. I came across a 19th century photo of blankets being distributed.  My friend makes blankets....just thought I'd mention that.  

11. Listened to Feel Like Going Back Home from the Bran Nue Dae soundtrack. I still haven't seen the movie.  I love the song! I need to listen to more of them.  

12. Listened to Broome Love Theme from the Bran Nue Dae soundtrack. It's lovely.  It reminds me of something. Not Lost.  I think it reminds me of atmosphere music, like the stuff they play at theme parks.  

13. Read about Mulrunji Doomadgee because he was mentioned in a manuscript I was reading.  He was an Aboriginal man who was arrested for public drunkenness.  A sergeant lost his temper and beat Doomadgee. Doomadgee was then left in his cell, and he died.

The guy who did the beating is Chris Hurley.  If I'm understanding Lord Wiki correctly, this guy is walking around as a free man.   

14. Had Jack ask his Mario fortune telling game whether we should go to Hobart or Adelaide.  It said we'd be very lucky to go to Adelaide, and extremely unlucky to go to Hobart. Adelaide is now ahead by fourteen points.

15. Found a more recent article about Chris Hurley murdering Mulrunji Doomadgree.  

This is insane.  It says here Mr Hine accepted the fatal injuries suffered by Mr Doomadgee - a burst portal vein and a liver which was cleaved in two - were caused by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley. However he was unable to rule whether the injuries were inflicted deliberately or accidentally.

Accidentally?  How do you split a liver in two accidentally?   


Oh. Oops. My bad. He could have accidentally fallen on Doomadgree while he was beating him. So if you're brutally beating a prisoner, and then accidentally fall on him....that's allowed?

You know, I'm pretty sure I've written about this before....way back when. It's vaguely familiar to me.

16. Found another fairly recent article about Chris Hurley.  It says Hurley was acquitted of the crime, and then got a job in the police force in The Gold Coast.  Now this isn't an innocent man being given his freedom. This is someone killing someone, not going to jail for it, and then continuing to keep his police career.  

17. Here's a video showing Chris Hurley at large.  He did police work for the whole schoolie thing.   I don't know.  How would I feel if a police officer beat a member of my family to death and then just continued on with his job?   

I believe in in regret.  I believe in redemption. I believe in forgiveness.  But you do NOT keep working the job in which you caused so much harm in the first place.  Chris Hurley should be in prison, and at the very least, he should have lost his badge. Since the government didn't do their job in punishing Hurley, he should have punished himself. He should have resigned. Because he hasn't, my assumption is that he feels no (or very little) guilt.

Why are people like that?

You know what this is like?  It's like when the Ministry of Magic continued to allow Umbridge to work for them. It's bad enough to hire cruel bullies in the first place, but when you find out that they're cruel bullies, you fire them.

18. Watched video Nothing I'd Rather Be from Bran Nue Dae. I liked the dancing, but I liked the song less then "Feel Like Going Back Home".  
 
19. Saw a gorgeous drawing (or painting?) of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne.  Have I written about it yet?   I can't remember.  I remember writing about some church.  I can't keep all these churches straight.  

Lord Wiki says the church is an example of the Gothic Revival style. Yeah, I think that might be my favorite type of architecture. I love it. I'm sure I'd like the old original Gothic as well....before it needed to be revived.  Are they still making Gothic stuff anywhere?   

Lord Wiki says that Modernism hasn't left much room for Gothic styles, but in rare cases it is still being used. Awesome. There's plans to build a Gothic church in Indiana.  

What are the downsides of the Gothic Style?  Is it too expensive?  Does it use up too many natural resources?  Is it not safe?  I hope there's a good reason for it not being used more.   

20. Listened to Seeds You Might Sow from Bran Nue Dae. It's a very fun song.  

21. Got my package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    I am SO SO SO SO SO happy!!!!!!!!   Or I could say....I got my parcel!  I think I'm going to finish reading the book I'm already reading (The Good Parents) before starting The King's Speech.

22. Listened to Long Way From My Country from Bran Nue Day.  

23. Read editorial about vegetarianism and veganism.    Dan Hanks says, despite nearly three decades of trying to do ‘the right thing’ by not eating animals, I’m still an unwitting party to their sometimes sickening and uncomfortably Third Reich-style treatment. Wow. Comparing the treatment of animals to the Holocaust.   I did that once. It brought me a lot of grief. Some people didn't like my analogy.   I still stand by it, though.

Most of us are awful towards animals. It's ridiculous to point fingers at puppy mills and/or people who torture their cats if we're eating pizza, with cheese, that comes from a conventional farm. It's NOT about the death of animals. There's no need to be sentimental. Every living thing dies.
It's about how the animals are treated when alive. They're systematically abused.    
I'm trying to find this post someone wrote after I wrote my post, but I can't find it. Maybe the blog is gone?   

Nope.  I found it. In Mindy's post, she complained about my Holocaust analogy, and she complained that I was pushing my beliefs down her throat.  She said, I really hate it when someone is so forceful with their opinions and views that they try to convert everyone around them to their way of thinking. Like bible thumpers who go door to door trying to convert people to their religion.

Yeah. Okay. I think writing something on your OWN blog is very different from going door to door to bother people with your beliefs.

We talked a bit in her comment section and she said, What a life to be a modern cow. Eat all day, and then stand on a conveyor belt while a little pump takes out some milk. About as painful as feeding their own young, but they have no natural preditors to stress about or worry how they are going to keep eating to live, they are safe and stress free.   If there was any cruelty there, the farmer would be done for cruelty!   

It greatly surprises me that people still believe stuff like that.  Maybe I'm worse than Mindy, though.   I am NOT ignorant of what happens, and I still eat what shouldn't be eaten. If she knew what I knew, maybe she'd be more decent than me.  Maybe she'd become a vegan.

But is there any excuse for ignorance about farm animals these days?  The information IS out there.   I think some people just choose not to read it, because they want to continue to eating what they enjoy eating.   

Back to Hank's editorial. He's not pushing for us all to be vegans.  He's pushing for us to make choices that will influence the industry. Perhaps if enough people speak up with their voices, blogs, wallet, etc; then cows (and other animals) will be treated the way Mindy imagines they're treated.  That would be great.  

24. Read another editorial by Dan Hart.  It's about Christmas political correctness. It's a bit bizarre, but I think he has an interesting point. And YES.  I know.I'm not one to talk about strangeness.  But hey, strange, weird, bizarre, etc....Those are all major compliments in my eyes.

Anyway, you really need to read the editorial for yourself, because I can't do it justice. It's hard to summarize.   I guess I'll just quote from a bit of it, because it kind of sums it up.   He says,
Yet perhaps we do need to occasionally remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas—that it is, at its heart, a celebration of the birth of a kind and compassionate man, and of an entire faith.
And part of this reminder should be not to forget to be kind and compassionate ourselves in recognising that, for many different reasons, Christmas may not be a time for celebration for all.

I guess it's saying that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus (if you want to believe that) and Jesus was kind and compassionate, so we should be compassionate and kind. This kindness might include political correctness.  That may be stretching it a bit.  However, there are those who spend so much of their Christmas energy being mad at the fact that they feel forced to be politically correct.  If there is a Jesus God person thing, is that how he'd want Christians spending their time and energy....whining about political correctness?  Well, I see no problem in whining a little bit about it. We all have our issues we stand up for.   But if someone obsesses over the indignation of political correctness, they're probably missing the spirit of Christmas.  

25. Listened to I am Australian—the one with Russell Hitchcock from Air Supply.  It's very cool.

26. Got a good score on the Traveler IQ quiz while listening to I am Australian.  Maybe it's good luck!  I still haven't beat my old score, though.

27. Listened to Russell Hitchcock sing something called Eyes of Love.   It sounds like something that belongs in a 80's movie.

28. Saw some very devastating photos of areas affected by the Yasi cyclone.  A commenter on Facebook says, Those photos are unbelievable it is going to take a long time for these people to get back on their feet. I can't believe that people object to paying the levy. I am a pensioner and I have no qualms about doing it.   

Maybe we should post these photos onto our brain, and retrieve them every time we're tempted to whine about something trivial.

29. Watched Kevin Rudd being interviewed about events in Egypt.  It's definitely an inspiring story.   Rudd talks about peaceful protest.  It's nice to know that people can make changes in that way. It can give us ALL hope.  I just hope it's not an empty victory. I hope the next government is better.  I hope it's not worse.  Is it pessimistic of me to say that?

Rudd's accent sounds a bit weird when he says "sure".  It's almost American-ish.  Maybe he's been brainwashed by the Excited States.

30. Watched the video to Feel Like Going Back Home again.  I think this is my new favorite song.  Missy Higgins is very cute.  She kind of reminds me of Helen Reddy.

31. Watched Helen Reddy sing There's Room For Everyone. I think we should sing this to the Israeli's and Palestinians. Really! We could do a flash mob thing.

Actually, we could probably sing it in EVERY country, and the meaning would fit.

32. Watched a little bit of Helen Reddy on Rosie O'Donnell's show.  I don't hear much of an Aussie accent.  She's very cute, though.  I probably use the word cute way too much.  Maybe I should say she's charming. Is that a good alternative?

How about...Helen Reddy is AWESOME.

33. Listened to Helen Reddy sing Delta Dawn.  I like that song.  This would be fun for a flash mob as well.  Although I think the flash mob thing is getting a wee bit old.   I mean it's still fun to watch, but I think the shock value has diminished a bit.  That being said....I haven't run into a live one yet.

I think what we need now is fake flash mobs. This is where you randomly start singing and dancing in the mall.  Everyone gets excited, because they think they're witnessing a flash mob. Then when people start to watch, you say Just kidding! and walk away.

34. Watched this flash mob in front of the Opera House.  It's not one of my favorites, but again....I think it's just because they've lost their novelty.

This one is cute....from Brooklyn.  Jack and I watched it together.  I think I prefer the singing musical ones over the dancing ones. 

25. Saw an old photo of the Torrens river in Adelaide; then I looked for the river on Google Maps.   It's fun to follow the river on the map. It reminds me of trying to follow Billy's path in the Family Circus comics.

It starts (or ends) at Gulf St. Vincent.  Is the start the mouth or source?  I've forgotten what I learned back in school.

Lord Wiki says the beginning (source) is in Adelaide Hills. It empties into the gulf.

I followed the river. It took a long time to get to the beginning.   

Now I'm making my way back to the gulf.

That was fun. It would be fun to look at things in detail, but I need to go to bed soon. Maybe another day.

26. Listened to a John Williamson ("My Oath to Australia") song on iTunes.