1. Read Andrew's post about saying g'day. He wrote pretty much the same thing to me in an email a few weeks ago. He has turned greeting people into such a complicated business. I will probably be scared to open my mouth when we go to Australia.
Andrew's nice, though. He says I can just use my American greeting term, and Australians will be accepting of this. But I don't know what I use to greet Americans. I never pay attention. Something just comes out of my mouth. Actually, I think sometimes I greet people with an Australian or British accent.
What word do I use? Maybe it varies. I probably sometimes say hello, sometimes hi, and sometimes hey. I might say good morning at times.
2. Touched that Tim was looking for places to stay in Australia. He found a house in Kirribilli with a really good view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately, we then learned there's a minimum three month stay requirement. Oh well.
I'm realizing that maybe Tim really likes going to Australia and doesn't just go for my sake. I mean I do know he has a great time there. But I didn't think he'd choose to go back if it wasn't for my desire to go back. I thought when he was trying to talk me out of canceling, he was doing it only for me. I'm getting the idea ,though, that he was truly disappointed with the cancelation plans.
3. Read article about child beauty pageants coming to Australia. I don't think it's a good thing, but I don't know if I would see it as the evil of all evils. My questions are:
A) Is it good for young children to be in any type of competition?
B) Are beauty pageants good for any age?
Is there a difference between putting a child in a beauty pageant and having them compete in a chess or spelling competition? Both are measuring something that the child has little control over. Some kids are born with physical beauty and some are born with strong intellectual abilities. In some cases, the child themselves might enjoy competing. I would probably be skeptical in most cases and feel if the child did enjoy it, it's probably because they enjoyed the attention they receive from the adults in their life. But if a child truly does love the activity and doesn't mind competing, it's probably not going to cause them much harm. The problem occurs when parents put too much pressure on the child to compete and to win.
As for beauty pageants, I'm not a big fan simply because I don't like the obsession our society has with thinness and prettiness. On the other hand, is the enjoyment of human beauty any different than the enjoyment of landscape or architectural beauty? Is admiring a beautiful bride any worse than admiring a beautiful sunset?
4. Thought about how the admiration of beauty is fine as long as we can look beyond that and remember we can't judge things on appearance alone. We have to remember that the dingy restaurant might have fantastic food—much better than the classy one with the lovely decor. The woman with the tumor on her face may not be pretty to look at, but she might be kind and funny enough to become our best friend.
I think there's also a problem when we cling excessively to our physical beauty; although I will admit that I'm sometimes plagued by vanity. I try to keep it in check. I try to remember that DECENT people are going to like me because I'm nice, funny, creative, etc. They're not going to give a crap if I'm thin enough and pretty enough. They might do some preliminary judgements based on my looks (good or bad); and that's natural. If they're the type of people I want in my life, though; in the end, the way I look won't matter to them. If people are going to reject me for how I look or treat me like a second-class citizen, they're not really worth my time or energy.
Andrew's nice, though. He says I can just use my American greeting term, and Australians will be accepting of this. But I don't know what I use to greet Americans. I never pay attention. Something just comes out of my mouth. Actually, I think sometimes I greet people with an Australian or British accent.
What word do I use? Maybe it varies. I probably sometimes say hello, sometimes hi, and sometimes hey. I might say good morning at times.
2. Touched that Tim was looking for places to stay in Australia. He found a house in Kirribilli with a really good view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately, we then learned there's a minimum three month stay requirement. Oh well.
I'm realizing that maybe Tim really likes going to Australia and doesn't just go for my sake. I mean I do know he has a great time there. But I didn't think he'd choose to go back if it wasn't for my desire to go back. I thought when he was trying to talk me out of canceling, he was doing it only for me. I'm getting the idea ,though, that he was truly disappointed with the cancelation plans.
3. Read article about child beauty pageants coming to Australia. I don't think it's a good thing, but I don't know if I would see it as the evil of all evils. My questions are:
A) Is it good for young children to be in any type of competition?
B) Are beauty pageants good for any age?
Is there a difference between putting a child in a beauty pageant and having them compete in a chess or spelling competition? Both are measuring something that the child has little control over. Some kids are born with physical beauty and some are born with strong intellectual abilities. In some cases, the child themselves might enjoy competing. I would probably be skeptical in most cases and feel if the child did enjoy it, it's probably because they enjoyed the attention they receive from the adults in their life. But if a child truly does love the activity and doesn't mind competing, it's probably not going to cause them much harm. The problem occurs when parents put too much pressure on the child to compete and to win.
As for beauty pageants, I'm not a big fan simply because I don't like the obsession our society has with thinness and prettiness. On the other hand, is the enjoyment of human beauty any different than the enjoyment of landscape or architectural beauty? Is admiring a beautiful bride any worse than admiring a beautiful sunset?
4. Thought about how the admiration of beauty is fine as long as we can look beyond that and remember we can't judge things on appearance alone. We have to remember that the dingy restaurant might have fantastic food—much better than the classy one with the lovely decor. The woman with the tumor on her face may not be pretty to look at, but she might be kind and funny enough to become our best friend.
I think there's also a problem when we cling excessively to our physical beauty; although I will admit that I'm sometimes plagued by vanity. I try to keep it in check. I try to remember that DECENT people are going to like me because I'm nice, funny, creative, etc. They're not going to give a crap if I'm thin enough and pretty enough. They might do some preliminary judgements based on my looks (good or bad); and that's natural. If they're the type of people I want in my life, though; in the end, the way I look won't matter to them. If people are going to reject me for how I look or treat me like a second-class citizen, they're not really worth my time or energy.
How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
5. Continued to read The Séance. And I learned how to put the little accent on the e so I can now spell it correctly!
Now I can also write cliché.
This is pretty exciting.
On the MAC, you press alt/option while also pressing the E. Then you let go of all of them, and press E by itself.
Oh! If you press alt/option and then k....you get the degrees sign.
This is fun. ¡™¢©˙˙˙∆∆∆˚˚˚˚¬¬≈≈≈˜
6. Gave myself a lecture while Jack got his haircut. It was about the fact that I don't have to love every Australian person; nor do I have to make sure that every Australian person loves me. As crazy as it sounds, I do feel pressure to do that. I feel sad and guilty about not being perfectly nice to anyone, but it's even worse when they're Australian. To feel that way is wrong, because it's just another form of prejudice. So I'm trying to talk myself out of it.
7. Bought a lottery ticket. I'm sure we'll win. As we do every other time we buy a ticket, Jack, Tim and I made grand plans of what we'd do with the money. Jack wants to buy every video game system out there. I told him we don't need to go overboard, but we'd have enough money to buy new systems as they appeared on the market.
I said we should fly to Australia first class. Tim said if we won that much money, we'd go on a private airplane. We debated that for awhile. It concluded with me agreeing that if there wasn't much difference in price, and the private planes had beds, I'd go with the private planes.
I said we should spend six months in Australia but then changed my mind because I worried about leaving our cats. Jack said with all that money we could get the cats their own butler. Okay. But I'd still miss them! That would be a tough decision to make.
Tim said if we became that rich, we could probably get some kind of investment/rich person Visa and get permanent residency in Australia. That would be cool.
8. Wondered if we were rich, would we go on fancy holidays? We don't really do it now. On one level, it's ridiculous to say that. Just going to Australia period is fancy. I mean it's really expensive, at least. London is expensive as well. So is Disney World. We're pampered when it comes to travel. But then I know of people who are even more pampered. They stay at very expensive places, $300+ a night.
We usually look for accommodations that are less than $250 a night, preferably less than $200 a night. We stay at holiday parks often and budget hotels. I usually like that style of travel. Or do I convince myself I like it because it's affordable? What if money was not an issue? Would I want to stay in fancy hotels? Luxurious suites? I don't know. I have been fortunate to stay in some...usually when traveling with my parents. I like it. But I can't say I like it more than holiday parks and stuff like that.
You know...I think at one point Tim and I talked about it. I remember now that what we decided if that if we ever became very wealthy, we'd want to be able to still enjoy the lifestyle we enjoy now. It would be fun to stay at a super fancy hotel every so often. But I would never want to get to the point where we ALWAYS had to stay at a place with extreme opulence.
9. Read article about Jetstar. They admit they make more money from the stuff they sell on the plane than they do from the tickets. Well, I can't argue against the fairness in that, because they don't forbid you from bringing your own stuff. I mean it hasn't gotten to the point where you have to sneak in your own food—you know like Phil and Claire going to the movies in Modern Family.
The only thing I don't like about Jetstar is their in-flight entertainment things. I think they're fairly reasonably priced. But they're so heavy and bulky. I already feel squished in the tight seats with all my carry-on crap. Then I have this big bulky TV thing to add to all that. I much prefer the screens that are attached to the back of the seats.
I'm thinking if we do Jetstar again, we should buy one entertainment thing for all three of us, and share. I usually watch only one movie. Tim watches a lot, but he'll sleep at least part of the time. I can use his while he sleeps.
10. Decided that characters from Offspring remind me of my Harry Potter/Magic is Might Experience characters. Billie reminds me a lot of the wizard daughter, especially when she's very angry. And the relationship between Billie and Nina reminds me of the relationship between the wizard and her Muggle sister. I can imagine Geraldine Proudman as the mother in my story, especially from what I see in episode 11. Darcy would probably work as the father. My characters are all younger, though. Maybe I can imagine they'd look like the Proudman family in 15-20 years.
Nina doesn't really remind me of the Muggle daughter, though. They're probably similar in intelligence, but I think Nina is more neurotic. And I think my Muggle character is more cheerful, friendly, and confident. Cherie's personality would probably be more similar to hers.
11. Read article about gay parenting rights in South Australia. A committee in South Australia Parliament is pushing for laws that will make it easier for gay parents to have children. I'm not sure if this means the laws will be passed or if it means certain government people want the laws to be passed. There are various recommendations ranging from helping lesbian women get pregnant to giving gay couples the same adoption rights as heterosexual couples.
12. Wondered about Hokey Pokey flavoured ice-cream because it was mentioned on Offspring. Maybe we had it before. I remember eating an ice-cream flavour in Australia that was new to us. Maybe that was it?
Lord Wiki says it has pieces of the sponge toffee/honeycomb in it. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's what we had in Australia. I'll ask Tim and Jack later to see if they remember.
13. Depressed by episode 12 of Offspring and also on edge because my mom has a stomach illness. Those make me so nervous. I feel bad for my mom, of course. But I also selfishly fear we're all going to catch it. I hate the stomach flu, especially when it involves vomiting. It's bad enough without the vomiting. My dad joked that if he caught it he'd at least get to lose five pounds. My response is I'd rather GAIN ten pounds than have to deal with the stomach flu.
14. Asked Jack, Do you remember Hokey Pokey ice-cream? He said, Oh yeah! I asked him what it was (to see if he remembered) and he didn't answer. I think that's because he didn't hear me. He had turned on his music. He's playing around with GarageBand. Maybe he'll be a musician like Mick.
15. Decided to watch the last season one episode of Offspring. I can't leave myself hanging like this. I'm hoping at least some of the crap is resolved, and I can be less depressed. But what if it's worse than the last episode?
16. Cried while watching the last episode of season one of Offspring. Before this episode, I felt it was my second favorite show. I thought it was great but not as fantastic as Modern Family. Now I'll have to change that. Now I love them equally. There's just something about a show that can make you laugh and cry at the same time.
