Maggie, Stuart's kids, Siany's Goals, and Michael Dawes

1. Finished reading The Darkness by Anthony Eaton.  I enjoyed it. I think I usually like books about the sea.

My next book is The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong by Kirsty Murray.  It looks pretty good.  I hope I like it.

2. Found an Australia related-post in my dream/spiritual journal.  I had actually titled it "Australia". It's September 8, 2006, which is about 11 months before I became super-obsessed.  

Feel I'm being bombarded by Australian stuff

Nip/Tuck

Australian diet guy on TV

Death of Steve Erwin....kind of the BIG one here.

At museum, overhearing docent saying animal is from Australia

finding Australia t-shirt in drawer I had completely forgotten about.

With Nip/Tuck, I'm not sure if I was referring to Julian McMahon, or there was something Australian about a particular episode.

3. Started to read article about the carbon tax.  

People are going to be taxed; but they're also going to be compensated.

I don't understand economics.  

Wait.  Maybe I understand.   I think what they're saying is families won't be taxed.  Companies will be taxed.   Since companies are paying taxes, their production costs are going to be higher.  So, they're going to start charging more for their products.   The government is going to help families afford the higher prices by giving them money.  That makes sense to me...in theory, at least.

I hope it works out well.

4. Found this blog because the blogger became a follower of my blog.  It's so fun to see follower numbers go up.  I have to admit it.  I love it. It makes me feel popular.   

Maggie (the blogger) is an Australian that's obsessed with America.   Her situation is different than mine because she's actually lived in America.   She misses it as a place she used to live.    It might be more similar to how I felt about New York a few years ago.   We lived there; then we left.   I started to miss it a lot.

I'm going to read her posts now.   I haven't done that yet.   I kind of just skimmed a bit.

I love her first post.  It starts out with, I'm obsessed and I really don't have the desire to recover.  I love the USA.  I'm homesick for somewhere that isn't truly my home.  And when I'm in the US for any extended period of time, I'm homesick for my actual home - Australia.  And she writes more brilliant stuff after that.  I'm tempted to quote the whole post here, but that wouldn't be kosher.

I'm not homesick for America when I'm in Australia; but maybe I would be if we stayed for a really long time.  I would definitely miss my family, and I'd miss the cats.  That's about it. No, wait.  I'd miss non-flavored tortilla chips. We had a hard time finding those in Australia.

5. Started to read Maggie's second post.  

She is a FANTASTIC writer.  She's too good. She's the type of person who makes me feel my own writing is crap.

It was so weird reading it.  It's like Maggie stole the thoughts and feelings out of me; expressed them in a way that I'd never manage. But she messed up and got everything completely backwards.  

One of my favorite lines:  We get lower and now I can make out signs and I get a thrill of excitement as I read them - In-n-Out, Del Taco, Conoco, Bank of America, La Quinta, Ralphs - so mundane and every day to you who live there, but such a sight for the sore eyes of one who did and doesn't any more. 

When you're madly in love with a place, even the mundane things thrill you.   


I can't say I share Maggie's love for Los Angeles; but I can totally relate to her passion for a country where's she a visitor and not a resident.  

6. Read article that says the New South Wales Labor party ended up not doing a vote on whether or not to support gay marriage.  That's the bad news.   The good news is there's a national conference coming up in December.  At that time, there might be more attention given to the issue.

7. Continued to read The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong. I'm enjoying it somewhat.   It's interesting. I'm having some trouble with the writing style.   Some of the dialogue seems a bit unrealistic—forced.  It reminds me of the type of writing I did in middle school and early high school.  To me, it has the feel of something written by a beginner writer.  

Of course it's a personal taste thing.   I'm sure many people come to my blog and are not fond of my writing style.  Actually, I answered an email from one of them today.  

8. Read good news about diabetes treatment.  Medical researchers in Perth have come out with a device for children that goes under the skin.  It constantly tests the child's blood sugar, and then releases the needed insulin dosage.  This way the child doesn't need daily blood tests and shots.

Jack has a strong fear of needles.  He hates shots.   I'm sure when the universe is handing out diseases, it doesn't stop at children like Jack and say, Ah, bypass. That kid really hates needles.

Of course no kid likes needles...minus a few strange ones, perhaps.   But I think some hate them worse than others.   For all diabetic kids, and especially the major needle-hating ones, I think this device can make life much better.


9. Went to Tallygarunga. Today, I'm going to read the new posts in Find An Orbit Closer To The Ground.  

I looked at the date of the first post. It's May 17.  I'm guessing this means the story takes place in May?

The story thread has been going on for a long time.

10. Tried to figure out where I left off in the story thread. I think it was with Tamarah's post, so I'm going to read Viktor's and Stuarts.

Viktor struggles to be supportive about the drama between Tamarah and Améa.

I like his lines here. But I do trust your sister with everything that I have. And if she thinks that there is something in Améa, maybe the rest of us just don’t see it, or Améa doesn’t want us to see it. I don’t know.   

It takes a strong and decent person to understand that people might not be as awful as the walls they put up.   I don't think I'm very good at that.  If someone is mean, I have to struggle to remind myself that they may have had a difficult life or a difficult day.  I mean I'm not completely unsympathetic.   When I think hard enough about it, I can be understanding. But my first instinct is to be angry and/or hurt.

11. Started to read Stuart's post.  He's the single father to five kids.  Who are they?   Tamarah's one; then the boys I suppose (Tom and Tim).  I think Stewie's another song.  That leaves one more.  Is it Jezabel?

I'll read Stuart's biography in a minute  I glanced at it, and I'm pretty sure I haven't read it yet.  

12. Started to read Stuart Blair's biography.  

He's the Minister of Magic for Victoria.

I think I already knew that.

He's easygoing, except for the occasional moments when he's angry.  He wears nice clothes at work, and when not at work.  He keeps fit by working out a lot.

13. Learned that Stuart's love of exercise helps to counteract his love of food.

He likes the bad stuff, like fried food.

I think it's good to have an exercise plan that coincides well with your eating habits.  It's not good to be the way I was a few years ago; hardly eating and exercising almost constantly. It's also not good to be one who eats tons of fattening food and then sits around all day.  

14.  Learned that Stuart's past love interest was Tanya. I may have already known that; but I sort of forgot.

Tanya and Stuart split up.  Stuart had a little fling.  This all sounds familiar to me.  I may have read it before?  Maybe on someone else's biography?

15. Saw that the fling resulted in Jezabel.   Her mother is Adele.   So when I read about Adele, I probably read about Stuart's fling.

Stuart and Tanya raised Jezebel.  The biography says Adele was going to do something rash otherwise.  Would that be an abortion?

Tanya got pregnant with the triplets.  So then the couple ended up with four kids.   There's Jezebel.  She's half-siblings with Tamarah, Tim, and Tom.   They're connected through their father.   Then Améa is half sisters with Jezebel via their mother (Adele).  I think I'm FINALLY understanding all of this.

Améa and Tamarah are not siblings by blood; but they're connected by the fact that they're both sisters to Jezabel.

16. Read more of Stuart's biography.  He had challenges with Jezabel.   She did her weird dreaming stuff, and she had different personalities. But it seems he managed to be a good father through all of this. 

Then another baby came along. Stuart jr.  So, that must be baby #5.  His role-player is Megan, the singing girl.

17. Read that Stuart and Tanya split up.

Okay, and now I feel lost again.   It says here that Améa may be Stuart's daughter as well.   This would mean that Améa and Jezabel are full siblings and not half-siblings.  And it would mean Tamarah and Améa are half-siblings.

Just when I think I have everything straightened out in my head, I realize I may be totally wrong.   

18. Watched Siany and Josh sing Missy Higgin's "Scar".  She does okay with it.   I personally don't think it's an easy song to sing.   Whenever I try to sing it, I end up sounding very southern. Uh...not that there's anything wrong with that.  Southern accents are adorable.  But it's like the song forces that accent out of my mouth.  It's kind of annoying to me.   




This might sound unfair; but I think maybe Missy Higgins is the only one who can do very well with the song.

19.  Watched Siany sing "Cupid".    She's very cute here.   I think she's singing well, but the sound is a bit tinny.  Maybe I'm imagining it?  



I love the song.

It reminds me of a really good night I had in my college days.

At times, I had an unpredictable social life.  Well, and college was the rare time in my life that I had very strong social desires.  I would want to be with people, but I sort of left it up to chance?  Would I run into people?   Would I not?  Would I end up being alone?  I would often hang out in public places with the hopes of seeing people. 

At one point I had a crush on a guy named David.   It was at the point of the relationship where you don't know if there's something between you or not.   I think I expected to have a bad boring night; but I ended up hanging out with David and some guy named James.   I don't remember much about the night; but I remember being in the car with them and hearing that song.  

The song also reminds me of watching a music game show with my family at the lake house.   My sister and I learned we had the lyrics all wrong. All through the years, I thought it was saying Martha's heart rather than My lover's heart.  My sister didn't know the guy was saying cupid.  She thought he was saying You Kid.  

20. Saw that Siany finished her goal of finishing fifty songs by her birthday.  That's awesome.   So, what's she going to do now?  I understand her slowing down a bit.  But I hope she's not planning to quit all together.  

21. Did not find out who my Australian of the day is because the Australian Dictionary of Biography isn't loading.   Instead I'm sitting here getting very interesting Tallygarunga gossip via the chatroom.

22. Decided to look at pictures on Flickr.   I want to see the Tally gossip, but the chatroom is very slow. You really have to be multi-tasking when you go in there.    

23. Loved nlw's picture of an abandoned building. Maybe it's a house?  

One of the tags says Victoria, Australia. The title is Heathcote.  

24. Found Heathcote on Google Maps.   It's about 40 minutes south-east of Bendigo.  

25. Decided to look at more of nlw's photos

He has a whole set of abandoned buildings. 

I think this photo is awesome...somewhat eerie.  

This photo looks like it should be in a movie.   It's amazing. 

Really.  The whole set of pictures if beautiful. 

26. Left the chatroom.   The change in conversation topic became less interesting to me.   Plus, I feel weird being there because I'm so much older than everyone else.  I feel like Cam on Modern Family when he joined Dylan's band.  I'm too old and too not-cool-enough for that chatroom. 

I still feel a total dork for participating in Magic is Might because everyone else (as far as I know) is under 25.  Then I start thinking maybe that's why I didn't like it; while the other participants talk about it being the best experience of their life.   Maybe they're the right age for it.   But that can't be right.  I love Tallygarunga, and it is made up of the same age group as the Magic is Might creators and participants.  

I'm still writing my Harry Potter blog.   I can see from Statcounter that people are reading.   Not many people are commenting anymore.  I'm not sure if they will start that back up or not.   Maybe it will end up being more of an online serial novel type thing rather than a role-playing type thing.    

I am actually having fun with it.  I need to think up more storylines though.   It probably shouldn't just be the daily diary of a Muggle girl in Kiama. I really don't want melodrama; but I probably need....something.  

Maybe my dreams will inspire me.  Or something.

I'll figure it out. 

27. Decided I should look at more Flickr photos. 

Never mind.   I'm having trouble with that. 

Wait...now it's working.

Here's a beautiful photo of Cradle Mountain.   The photographer is Michael Dawes.   That name sounds familiar to me.   Is he famous?  Or is there another celebrity named Michael Dawes?   Maybe I know a Michael Dawes? 

Well, I did a Google search and didn't come up with any famous people.   I also searched through my Google mail to see if anyone had ever emailed me with that name.   I didn't find anything.

I'm probably thinking of another Dawes. 

28. Looked at some of Michael Dawes' bird photos.   He has a LOT of bird photos. 

This rainbow lorikeet is beautiful.  

29. Started to look at Michael Dawes' set of favorite photos.  

I love this photo from the Gold Coast.  

Here's a beautiful photo of a cockatoo.  

30. Loved this photo.   It reminds me of a dream.  

31. Loved this photo of Old Parliament. It reminds me of my dreams too. 

I think I love anything that reminds me of my dreams.  And I love the Old Parliament.  

32. Forgot the name of this flower, but I saw the answer in the tags.  Banksia.  

33. Loved this adorable photo of a bug.  

I'm very impressed with Michael Dawes photography. 

34. Thought about how I used to write about famous Australians.  Now I often write about Australians who SHOULD be famous.  There's so many talented people out there.   I enjoy finding them.

35. Wanted to go back to the David in college storyline.   I had a major thing for him; and he seemed to have a thing for me.   The problem is he already had a girlfriend.   Okay, before you think I'm awful....

He mentioned the girlfriend in a very casual way.   And it was a long distance relationship.  I think they met at a tennis thing.   It was along the lines of I'm-kind-of-seeing-this-girl.   Plus, he was showing interest in me, so I assumed it wasn't serious.  I thought it was one of those things where you meet someone on a holiday, or camp.   You start a relationship, but it quickly ends as you move on with your life.

That being said....I also had crushes on two guys who did admit to having serious girlfriends.  I can't promise I wouldn't have loudly protested if they had shown interest in me.  So maybe I am a wicked bitch.   

Anyway....

One night David told me we'd just be friends; and then like something out of Offspring, he kissed me.  
It was a total soap opera moment.

The romance lasted a few weeks...maybe less than that.   David finally came to his senses and broke things off.   It turns out the girlfriend was much more serious than I had imagined.    Back then I was hurt and mad.  Now I admire him. I got the sense that he really did like me; yet he knew it was wrong because he already had someone in his life.  He gave into his feelings, but then he was strong enough to put an end to it.

He insisted that we could still be friends; and even said I was his best friend.  I was so into him.   It was to the point where I'd be happy with romance, friendship, or whatever...as long as I could see him. But despite being his supposed "best friend" he never hung out with me.  He always hung out with Jason. Guess where Jason was from?

Australia!

I don't remember much about Australian Jason; but I remember I didn't like him.   I don't know if the dislike came from something about the guy's personality; or if I didn't like him simply for the fact that I was jealous of the time he spent with David.