Purses, Exorcists, Fictional Characters, and Weaknesses

1. Managed to have a good night's sleep.  I dreamed I have a big box of Australian chocolates. Then I look at the name of the box and realize it doesn't say Australian. It's another world that looks like Australian, but isn't quite the same.  

That's not too exciting, but maybe it had very deep symbolism. 

2. Looked at the website of Hawkesbury One. One of my Google+ people mentioned it, because he's involved with it. What are we supposed to call our people on Google+. Are they our Circle Inhabitants?  

Anyway.....

Hawkesbury One is an art thing. They're art collectors who are collecting Australian art from the first decade of this century.  That's pretty cool.  They have a collection being shown at the Newcastle Regional Gallery.  They'll be there until September 4. 

3. Went to Tallygarunga. Today I'm going to read a story thread called Paper Airplanes.

In honor of that, I will listen to this song.



The story thread takes place in Melbourne, at the Victorian Ministry of Magic.

The characters in the story are Eudoxia Karrass, an accountant and dance instructor; and Jason Miller, the Minister of Law Enforcement.

I remember writing about Jason before but not Eudoxia. Yet when I wrote out Eudoxia, Firefox recognized the spelling.  Maybe I've written about her but forgot about it?  Or is there a word Eudoxia?

Well, Lord Wiki says it's a name that was popular in the Middle Ages and is still used sometimes today.  I'm not familiar with it, so I didn't expect it to be common enough for Firefox to know it.

4. Started reading the storyline. Eudoxia has had a busy day with meetings. She has a sweaty and smelly co-worker who she encouraged to go home to take a shower. She did it in a nice way, though, not insulting. I'd probably fail at that. I'm not always very good at the tact thing. Tim's much better at it than me.  

Eudoxia than decided to make paper airplanes. She's going to do it the Muggle way rather than using magic. I guess it would be like doing a long division problem on paper rather than using a calculator to get the answer.

While working on her airplane, Eudoxia accidentally drops her purse.  It lands on someone's head.I bet it's Jason's head.

5. Wondered if purse is used in the Australian or American way.  I think, in Australia, purse refers to someone's wallet. It's not the thing that women carry around that has a bunch of crap in it...including the wallet. What do Australians call purses then?   Bags?  Or do they sometimes call it purse too?

6. Looked at an Australian website selling purses.  They're what Americans call wallets.

And here's a page with handbags. In America, we'd call them purses.  

7. Intrigued by a staircase in the Ministry of Magic. When people walk through it, their mood determines the weather conditions in the staircase.  So if someone walks by and they're very angry; they'll cause the staircase to have a thunderstorm. That's pretty cool.

8. Learned that Eudoxia has some feelings for Jason.

Oh! And Jason likes her back a bit. That's good.

9. Decided to read the biography of Eudoxia Karras.  

10. Googled Karras and The Exorcist because I thought there was a character with that last name.   And there is: Damian Karras, the priest that saved poor little Regan and then became possessed himself.  

11. Learned that Eudoxia was born in Spain. Wasn't there another character born there?

Her Patronus is a butterfly. That's pretty cool.

She likes to wear high heels. I'm horrible at wearing those. Eudoxia has had ballet training, so that's probably why she can handle it well. I think ballet would help with stuff like that.

12. Learned that Eudoxia is plagued by bad hair days. Her curls can get a bit unruly.

13. Learned that Eudoxia is very social but keeps part of herself hidden.

The stuff here reminds me of myself sometimes.  With great secrecy she manages to hide parts of herself form her peers in a way that can make her seem snobby. She will allow you to get close as long as it suits her. This becomes a difficult task for her because she has a warm and generally affectionate personality and wishes to make connection with others.

I don't know if I seem snobby. Maybe?  I tend to be secretive at times...not while blogging, obviously.

You know how most people feel when they eat an enormous pastry filled with trans fat. They feel weak and regretful?  Well, that's often how I feel when I tell people something about myself.  Of course it depends on the person and situation.  For some people (like Tim) I would have to say something incredibly shocking to get that feeling. For other people, I feel nervous just telling them my plans for the day.

I'm weird. And I used to not be like that at all.  My real-life self was like my blogging self. As long as I wasn't feeling shy, I'd blab on and on about things. Sometimes I still do, but then I feel nervous and regretful about it later.

14. Learned that Eudoxia's father is a wizard and her mother is a Muggle.

15. Had some very deep thoughts. I was thinking that I often feel I can't relate to other people.  I mean I do relate to them on some level. I don't feel I'm super different or special. But I sometimes feel I don't quite fit in anywhere.  

Anyway, I do find myself relating a lot to fictional characters. I often find myself relating to aspects of characters on Tallygarunga. I read books and can totally relate to some of those characters as well.

I started thinking, maybe I shouldn't be in the real world. Maybe I should be a fictional character in a book somewhere...or a role-playing site.

But I don't think that's it.

I think when people write fiction, they're often more honest than when they write nonfiction.When we write about ourselves, we're more guarded.  We're less likely to show others our weaknesses. When people write fiction, they reveal bits of themselves that they hide from others.They may even reveal bits of themselves that they hide from themselves.  

I'm not sure if any of this is going to make sense to people. It's hard to explain.....

Maybe I relate to fictional characters because in some ways, they're more real. Real people are real, but they often hide the stuff that would make me relate to them more.   

16. Learned that Eudoxia's mom was a dancer too.

Her father had a lot of children with various women around the world. Eudoxia has a lot of half-siblings.

17. Learned that Eudoxia had a boyfriend named Malcolm. I have a Malcolm on my fictional blog. I think he MIGHT turn into a love-interest. I'm not sure yet.

18. Learned that one of Eudoxia's brothers is hiding from the law. He killed someone. Eudoxia knows where he's hiding.

19. Noticed an interesting coincidence. Eudoxia's last name is Karras. In The Exorcist, Damien Karras is played by Jason Miller.  Do Eudoxia and Jason have the same role-player? If they do, I might assume he or she is a big fan of Jason Miller.  

20. Found out the role-player for Jason is Scotty and the one for Eudoxia is Timber.They're probably not the same person unless Timber is a nickname for Scotty.  

21. Found out that my Australian of the day is Gustav Adolph Ampt.   He sounds a bit German to me, probably because of the Adolph thing. Gustav sounds kind of German, though, too.

22. Consulted Lord Wiki about the name Gustav. He says it's a Swedish name.

23. Read about Gustav.  He was born in Victoria, but his father came from Germany.  

He went to the University of Melbourne to study engineering, but later changed his course of study to chemistry.

When Gustav was in his early twenties, his sister died in an accident. The trauma of this prevented Gustav from furthering his education.

Gustav also had a rough time during World War II.  Because of his German background, people questioned his loyalty; well, because people were kind of anti-German at that time.

24. Did not like this aspect of Gustav's personality—at least how it's described on the Australian Dictionary of Biography; he appreciated humour if not directed against himself.  Blah. If you can't laugh at yourself, then you shouldn't be laughing at other people.  Although who's to say that accurate? I've been accused by people of having no sense of humor; probably because they said something to offend me. Then they tried to pass it off as a joke. In other situations, I'm known for being able to laugh at myself. Maybe Gustav SOMETIMES could laugh at himself, and sometimes he couldn't.  Maybe someone hurt his feelings once, and then they spread the rumor that he had no sense of humor.

Or maybe Gustav really couldn't tolerate humor directed at himself.  I know someone like that. She makes little remarks putting down other people...quite frequently.  I rarely (if ever) have seen her joke about herself. And I never see her admitting to any weaknesses. It's kind of annoying.