1. Had Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over creep into my head as we drove to the airport. I quietly sang a bit aloud. I don't know much of the lyrics, so it was kind of like There is freedom within. There is freedom without…followed by incoherent mumbles. Then... Hey, now. Hey now. Don't dream it's over…..
2. Excited to see Qantas sign at the airport and excited to know our gate was in the same terminal as the Qantas gate. But once we got into the terminal, I didn't see any signs of Qantas.
3. Started reading a book that's not Australian but an Australian recommend it to me. It's called The Day I Became an Autodidact by Kendall Hailey.
The whole idea of the book is self-teaching; learning on our own. I think, with the Internet, most of us our this way. We surf the web and learn about things that interest us. I guess some people don't go much beyond Facebook. But that's fine. They're learning about the lives of their friends, I suppose.
4. Decided that so far I'm having an awful time on this trip. But we just got on the airplane, and that part is usually hell. The sad thing is, if you took people from a detention centers and stuck them on an airplane, they'd probably think it was luxury. Or maybe not. That might be a bit too generous. But it would probably be a lot better than life in the detention center.
Oh! And I bet airplane rides are a lot better than rickety boat rides across the ocean.
5. Decided to start watching Offspring. Maybe that will make the time go by faster.
6. Wondered if people in detention centers have internet access. They should. I don't have internet access right now, though. So I can't look up the answer to my question. Maybe I'll do it when we get back from New York.
I will have internet access on our trip at some point, but I don't know if I want to be doing major research.
Anyway, if the asylum seekers don't have internet access, that's really unfair. Everyone should have a right to speak out across the web. And if they did have that method of communication, maybe they wouldn't feel the need to sew up their lips and start riots.
7. Saw that I will have to skip episode 4 of Offspring, which really sucks. I tried to download it the other day, and iTunes said the file was corrupt. But I saw it on my downloaded list; and when I tried playing a bit of it, it worked. So I thought iTunes had made a mistake.
I turned on my iTunes just now and episode 4 isn't on the list. I guess iTunes was telling the truth about the corrupt file thing.
Oh well. I'll just move onto episode 5. I'll watch episode 4 in the future or skip it all together.
8. Frustrated by unanswered questions in episode 5 that would have been answered if I managed to watch episode 4.
Actually, there's only one question that's making me dreadfully curious.
9. Gave the computer to Jack so he could listen to music a bit. Then I fell asleep. I had a mini-dream about Offspring. The staff was in the hospital singing BINGO, but from the beginning they had to leave out all the words because someone there had some kind of emotional issue where they didn't like hearing those words.
10. Decided to watch more Offspring.
11. Wondered how all the people are doing in Australian airports. When their flights are canceled, do they hang out more wherever they're at? Or at they stuck at the airport? It wouldn't be awful if you were on holiday, didn't need to rush back home, and could afford more days of accommodations.
This morning I imagined it happening to us when we went to Australia. What if we had gotten stuck in Tasmania? I guess it would have been somewhat of a disappointment. We would have missed part of our days in Canberra. On the other hand, we could have spent more time exploring Launceston and hanging out with our friends.
I hope we would have put more energy into enjoying the extra days rather than being upset about the change in plans.
Most people probably aren't that lucky, though. What if there's a new mom who's gone on her first business trip since she gave birth. What if she was really sad about leaving her baby? And now she's stuck away from her baby for even longer than expected. That would be sad.
Yeah. Natural disasters and natural phenomena can cause all types of havoc on people's lives.
12. Felt sad for Fraser and Nina
13. Started to watch episode 6 of Offspring.
14. Paused Offspring. I wanted to say that I like the choice of words they use in episode 5 to refer to feelings about people. One person talks about going cold on someone, meaning they don't really have feelings for them anymore. Another time someone tells someone that they're acting freezing cold. And at one point, when Nina is asked if she likes someone, she replies I don't warm to her.
I wonder if they often refer to relationships in that way, and this is the first time I noticed. Or was temperature some kind of underlying theme in that particular episode.
Anyway, I can relate to those feelings. I've gone cold on people before….in romantic relationships. It's an awful feeling because you know you have to either fake it or hurt someone.
I can relate to other people acting freezing cold towards me. It's that awful feeling of hoping it's in your imagination but knowing it's probably not. I've had it in romantic type relationships...and in friendships as well.
I've had people that I don't warm too, even after spending a lot of time with
them. Then there's other people I warm too right away. That's fun.
15. Got a partial answer to my unsolved mystery of my missing episode 4.
16. Landed at Newark. We saw a bridge that looks like a mini-version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Jack was the first to point it out.
17, Bought a small cup of chips and a large orange-aide for ten dollars. I'm thinking this type of purchase will prepare me for the high prices in Australia. Maybe Australia will even seem cheap compared to that.
18. Went downstairs to use the Internet. We don't have any in our room here. Hopefully, we'll have it when we get to Manhattan. Anyway, I transferred my text-edit stuff to Blogger. I switched off the new and improved Blogger editing, because I've learned it's much easier to do the transfer that way.
I think I like the old editor better. Maybe I'll keep it.
19. Excited to see Magnum Bars at the grocery store. They're British but remind us of Australia since we ate them there. Well, and they also remind us of London because we ate them there too.
We were going to buy them, but I felt guilty about it. I'm trying to cut down on dairy, and I know I'm going to want some ice-cream in NYC.
Plus we're having an ice-cream cake for Jack's and his cousin's combo birthday celebration.
20. Suffered from Tallygarunga withdrawal. I didn't have time to read any of it today. I had only about 10 minutes on the Internet.
I don't want to go down to the lobby area now. It's close to bedtime.
Hopefully, I'll have time tomorrow.
21. Had a short Australia related dream when half awake-half-asleep. I hear there's a school with a policy that says if a certain number of kids have headaches, a medical official has to come in to test them for a type of meningitis. I hear the meningitis is called Murray River Meningitis, and wonder if it's related to the Murray River in Australia.
22. Looked on an Australian television website to try to figure out what happened on episode 4/Season two of Offspring. I didn't get much insight, except now I know Patrick is an anesthesiologist. I don't know if I want to pay to watch the episode or just skip it. I'm wondering if someone out there (someone reading this) watches Offspring.
23. Decided to spend some time in Tallygarunga. There's some updates in the Find an Orbit Closer To The Moon storyline. This is the family dinner taking place on Calder Avenue.
The last time I visited this story thread, Meri had tripped, and her ex-husband Adrian caught her in his arms.
Now there's an update from Tamarah and Viktor Black.
I love Tamarah's part here. Everything had gone to the vague plan she'd sorted in her head. Arrive at party: check. Talk to Améa: check. Give her present: check. Apologize for being a douche: check. And mean it: painful check. Open up to Améa (at least as much as ego would allow): check. Be outright rejected with a sharp glare and a pointed biting of the now discarded gingerbread man: ...okay, that wasn't part of the plan at all.
That's very cute; and in my opinion, it's fantastic writing. I'm so impressed with so much of the Tally writing. I know I'm critical at times, but I'm critical towards the characters not the writing. And I think it's good that I feel critical towards the characters. If I liked all their behavior and choices, I think it would become boring for me to read. I like that they do things to annoy me. It gives me lots of deep thoughts.
24. Felt sad for Tamarah. She's trying to reach out to Améa but at the same time she's furious and sick of being the only one making the effort. I can relate to that. It's hard bending backwards to try to make amends with someone when they seem to think you should be doing all the work. I don't know if I've ever had a huge dramatic scene like Tamarah's and Améa's. With me, it's more subtle. There are those relatives and in-laws that I don't connect to well. To borrow symbolism from Offspring, there's a lack of warmth between us. I don't warm to them, and they don't warm to me. I sometimes try to reach out, and things still remain cold. It's not freezing cold; just mildly cold.
25. Decided that I'm not really being fair. Now that I think of these certain people; I think they do reach out at times. I think we both make attempts, but the warmth never appears. It seems that no matter how much each of us tries, there's still a chill between us.
Maybe it's just not meant to be.
26. Read Viktor's scene, and figured out he must be the long lost twin of Vladimir. I read about Vladimir's twin when I read his biography but didn't put two and two together.
Did I read Viktor's biography yet? I hope not. Otherwise, I should have already known he was Vladimir's twin.
27. Glanced briefly at Viktor's biography. None of it seems familiar, so I don't think I've read it yet.
And yeah. From what I gather, he's the long lost twin. I'll need to give this biography a closer look later. It looks interesting and fun.
28. Decided to read the First Day story thread. This is a story thread started by Doreen Longworth. It takes place at St. Andrew's Muggle and Magic Primary School.
Doreen has just entered the school. She's shy and nervous. Then she trips and falls on her butt. That's the first post.
The second post is by Lee Evans. He's another six-year-old student at St. Andrews.
Lee meets Doreen, and is very friendly towards her.
29. Checked back at Lee's biography to remind myself about him. He's the Muggle child who's moved from Hong Kong. His sister is a witch.
30. Read Fruitcake's post about Aboriginal diversity and the Aboriginal gap. It's very informative. I really love her writing style. It would be great if she published some nonfiction books. In my opinion, her nonfiction writing is much easier to read than other stuff I've seen.
Fruitcake mentions something I never knew before.. She says, While we tend most commonly to think of Aboriginals as desert nomads there were, for example, Aboriginal people in south-western Victoria who practised aquaculture, and lived in permanent stone dwellings.
I don't think I knew about the aquaculture, which Fruitcake defines as breeding fish in captivity. Yeah. That's pretty interesting.
31. Skimmed article about evidence showing Victorian Aboriginal people weren't all nomadic. I looked at it quickly because I want to get over to the beach.
So anyway...the idea that all Aboriginals were nomadic is a myth. I didn't know that before, but now I do. I'm glad to be learning something new today.
32. Decided to post this early because I don't want to come downstairs to use the internet again.
2. Excited to see Qantas sign at the airport and excited to know our gate was in the same terminal as the Qantas gate. But once we got into the terminal, I didn't see any signs of Qantas.
3. Started reading a book that's not Australian but an Australian recommend it to me. It's called The Day I Became an Autodidact by Kendall Hailey.
The whole idea of the book is self-teaching; learning on our own. I think, with the Internet, most of us our this way. We surf the web and learn about things that interest us. I guess some people don't go much beyond Facebook. But that's fine. They're learning about the lives of their friends, I suppose.
4. Decided that so far I'm having an awful time on this trip. But we just got on the airplane, and that part is usually hell. The sad thing is, if you took people from a detention centers and stuck them on an airplane, they'd probably think it was luxury. Or maybe not. That might be a bit too generous. But it would probably be a lot better than life in the detention center.
Oh! And I bet airplane rides are a lot better than rickety boat rides across the ocean.
5. Decided to start watching Offspring. Maybe that will make the time go by faster.
6. Wondered if people in detention centers have internet access. They should. I don't have internet access right now, though. So I can't look up the answer to my question. Maybe I'll do it when we get back from New York.
I will have internet access on our trip at some point, but I don't know if I want to be doing major research.
Anyway, if the asylum seekers don't have internet access, that's really unfair. Everyone should have a right to speak out across the web. And if they did have that method of communication, maybe they wouldn't feel the need to sew up their lips and start riots.
7. Saw that I will have to skip episode 4 of Offspring, which really sucks. I tried to download it the other day, and iTunes said the file was corrupt. But I saw it on my downloaded list; and when I tried playing a bit of it, it worked. So I thought iTunes had made a mistake.
I turned on my iTunes just now and episode 4 isn't on the list. I guess iTunes was telling the truth about the corrupt file thing.
Oh well. I'll just move onto episode 5. I'll watch episode 4 in the future or skip it all together.
8. Frustrated by unanswered questions in episode 5 that would have been answered if I managed to watch episode 4.
Actually, there's only one question that's making me dreadfully curious.
9. Gave the computer to Jack so he could listen to music a bit. Then I fell asleep. I had a mini-dream about Offspring. The staff was in the hospital singing BINGO, but from the beginning they had to leave out all the words because someone there had some kind of emotional issue where they didn't like hearing those words.
10. Decided to watch more Offspring.
11. Wondered how all the people are doing in Australian airports. When their flights are canceled, do they hang out more wherever they're at? Or at they stuck at the airport? It wouldn't be awful if you were on holiday, didn't need to rush back home, and could afford more days of accommodations.
This morning I imagined it happening to us when we went to Australia. What if we had gotten stuck in Tasmania? I guess it would have been somewhat of a disappointment. We would have missed part of our days in Canberra. On the other hand, we could have spent more time exploring Launceston and hanging out with our friends.
I hope we would have put more energy into enjoying the extra days rather than being upset about the change in plans.
Most people probably aren't that lucky, though. What if there's a new mom who's gone on her first business trip since she gave birth. What if she was really sad about leaving her baby? And now she's stuck away from her baby for even longer than expected. That would be sad.
Yeah. Natural disasters and natural phenomena can cause all types of havoc on people's lives.
12. Felt sad for Fraser and Nina
13. Started to watch episode 6 of Offspring.
14. Paused Offspring. I wanted to say that I like the choice of words they use in episode 5 to refer to feelings about people. One person talks about going cold on someone, meaning they don't really have feelings for them anymore. Another time someone tells someone that they're acting freezing cold. And at one point, when Nina is asked if she likes someone, she replies I don't warm to her.
I wonder if they often refer to relationships in that way, and this is the first time I noticed. Or was temperature some kind of underlying theme in that particular episode.
Anyway, I can relate to those feelings. I've gone cold on people before….in romantic relationships. It's an awful feeling because you know you have to either fake it or hurt someone.
I can relate to other people acting freezing cold towards me. It's that awful feeling of hoping it's in your imagination but knowing it's probably not. I've had it in romantic type relationships...and in friendships as well.
I've had people that I don't warm too, even after spending a lot of time with
them. Then there's other people I warm too right away. That's fun.
15. Got a partial answer to my unsolved mystery of my missing episode 4.
16. Landed at Newark. We saw a bridge that looks like a mini-version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Jack was the first to point it out.
17, Bought a small cup of chips and a large orange-aide for ten dollars. I'm thinking this type of purchase will prepare me for the high prices in Australia. Maybe Australia will even seem cheap compared to that.
18. Went downstairs to use the Internet. We don't have any in our room here. Hopefully, we'll have it when we get to Manhattan. Anyway, I transferred my text-edit stuff to Blogger. I switched off the new and improved Blogger editing, because I've learned it's much easier to do the transfer that way.
I think I like the old editor better. Maybe I'll keep it.
19. Excited to see Magnum Bars at the grocery store. They're British but remind us of Australia since we ate them there. Well, and they also remind us of London because we ate them there too.
We were going to buy them, but I felt guilty about it. I'm trying to cut down on dairy, and I know I'm going to want some ice-cream in NYC.
Plus we're having an ice-cream cake for Jack's and his cousin's combo birthday celebration.
20. Suffered from Tallygarunga withdrawal. I didn't have time to read any of it today. I had only about 10 minutes on the Internet.
I don't want to go down to the lobby area now. It's close to bedtime.
Hopefully, I'll have time tomorrow.
21. Had a short Australia related dream when half awake-half-asleep. I hear there's a school with a policy that says if a certain number of kids have headaches, a medical official has to come in to test them for a type of meningitis. I hear the meningitis is called Murray River Meningitis, and wonder if it's related to the Murray River in Australia.
22. Looked on an Australian television website to try to figure out what happened on episode 4/Season two of Offspring. I didn't get much insight, except now I know Patrick is an anesthesiologist. I don't know if I want to pay to watch the episode or just skip it. I'm wondering if someone out there (someone reading this) watches Offspring.
23. Decided to spend some time in Tallygarunga. There's some updates in the Find an Orbit Closer To The Moon storyline. This is the family dinner taking place on Calder Avenue.
The last time I visited this story thread, Meri had tripped, and her ex-husband Adrian caught her in his arms.
Now there's an update from Tamarah and Viktor Black.
I love Tamarah's part here. Everything had gone to the vague plan she'd sorted in her head. Arrive at party: check. Talk to Améa: check. Give her present: check. Apologize for being a douche: check. And mean it: painful check. Open up to Améa (at least as much as ego would allow): check. Be outright rejected with a sharp glare and a pointed biting of the now discarded gingerbread man: ...okay, that wasn't part of the plan at all.
That's very cute; and in my opinion, it's fantastic writing. I'm so impressed with so much of the Tally writing. I know I'm critical at times, but I'm critical towards the characters not the writing. And I think it's good that I feel critical towards the characters. If I liked all their behavior and choices, I think it would become boring for me to read. I like that they do things to annoy me. It gives me lots of deep thoughts.
24. Felt sad for Tamarah. She's trying to reach out to Améa but at the same time she's furious and sick of being the only one making the effort. I can relate to that. It's hard bending backwards to try to make amends with someone when they seem to think you should be doing all the work. I don't know if I've ever had a huge dramatic scene like Tamarah's and Améa's. With me, it's more subtle. There are those relatives and in-laws that I don't connect to well. To borrow symbolism from Offspring, there's a lack of warmth between us. I don't warm to them, and they don't warm to me. I sometimes try to reach out, and things still remain cold. It's not freezing cold; just mildly cold.
25. Decided that I'm not really being fair. Now that I think of these certain people; I think they do reach out at times. I think we both make attempts, but the warmth never appears. It seems that no matter how much each of us tries, there's still a chill between us.
Maybe it's just not meant to be.
26. Read Viktor's scene, and figured out he must be the long lost twin of Vladimir. I read about Vladimir's twin when I read his biography but didn't put two and two together.
Did I read Viktor's biography yet? I hope not. Otherwise, I should have already known he was Vladimir's twin.
27. Glanced briefly at Viktor's biography. None of it seems familiar, so I don't think I've read it yet.
And yeah. From what I gather, he's the long lost twin. I'll need to give this biography a closer look later. It looks interesting and fun.
28. Decided to read the First Day story thread. This is a story thread started by Doreen Longworth. It takes place at St. Andrew's Muggle and Magic Primary School.
Doreen has just entered the school. She's shy and nervous. Then she trips and falls on her butt. That's the first post.
The second post is by Lee Evans. He's another six-year-old student at St. Andrews.
Lee meets Doreen, and is very friendly towards her.
29. Checked back at Lee's biography to remind myself about him. He's the Muggle child who's moved from Hong Kong. His sister is a witch.
30. Read Fruitcake's post about Aboriginal diversity and the Aboriginal gap. It's very informative. I really love her writing style. It would be great if she published some nonfiction books. In my opinion, her nonfiction writing is much easier to read than other stuff I've seen.
Fruitcake mentions something I never knew before.. She says, While we tend most commonly to think of Aboriginals as desert nomads there were, for example, Aboriginal people in south-western Victoria who practised aquaculture, and lived in permanent stone dwellings.
I don't think I knew about the aquaculture, which Fruitcake defines as breeding fish in captivity. Yeah. That's pretty interesting.
31. Skimmed article about evidence showing Victorian Aboriginal people weren't all nomadic. I looked at it quickly because I want to get over to the beach.
So anyway...the idea that all Aboriginals were nomadic is a myth. I didn't know that before, but now I do. I'm glad to be learning something new today.
32. Decided to post this early because I don't want to come downstairs to use the internet again.