Jack, Shoalhaven, Grapes, and Soda

1. Talked to Jack about Sydney. He was looking at Lord Wiki's entry on Woolloomooloo because one of my stuffed animal characters is named that. Then he looked at a list of suburbs Lord Wiki had listed.

He asked me about Surry Hills.  Have we been there before? I reminded him that it was south of where we stayed, and that we walked past there when we walked to Moore Park.

I also reminded Jack it was there that he suddenly mentioned wanting to move to Australia.   I repeated what I had told him back then. If we did move to Australia we probably couldn't afford Surry Hills.  We'd probably have to live somewhere like the Western Suburbs. Then I showed him that on Google Maps.

2. Went back to read my trip report post for that day.  It was Crown Street where Jack mentioned wanting to move to Australia.  That does go through Surry Hills though.  So I don't think my memory was making a mistake.

From the blog post, I can see that I didn't tell Jack back then we'd probably live in the western suburbs. I just told him we probably couldn't afford to live next to the CBD.   

3. Excited to see I Wasn't Blogged Yesterday's post about food in her life. She had a similar post a week or so ago.  In that one she provided her life history in shoes.  That was so much fun to read, and I don't even care that much about shoes. I do care about food, so this should be even more entertaining.

4. Learned that I Wasn't Blogged Yesterday has some Italian roots. I'm totally picturing Looking For Alibrandi, especially because she talked about her Italian grandmother in her post.  

5. Watched an old KFC commercial on I Wasn't Blogged Yesterday's post. It's VERY interesting.   The children in the commercial wear no seat belts, and they're both overweight. These days I don't think any fast food restaurant would feature overweight people. They wouldn't want people getting the idea that their food might make people fat.

The little jingle actually talks about the children getting thinner. There's the idea that they need to hurry and get some food before they starve.

6. Learned from Shelly Argent's Facebook Page that Queensland's government site has a petition page. I can't sign it because I'm not from Queensland. But if you are from Queensland, there might be something on there you'd want to sign.  

If I was a Queensland resident, I'd sign the one Shelley Argent wants us to sign. It's called "non-violent homosexual advance defense". In Queensland, someone can murder a gay person; then get pardoned if they explain that the gayness of their victim made them panic.  

That's really crazy. I'm wondering if anyone has used that for a defense and won. I hope not.

7. Annoyed by Australian family psychologist Sally-Anne McCormack. According to this article she suggests having two, four, or even more children. But don't have three. The middle child will be ignored.

I think what makes me most annoyed is she left out the suggestion for having just one. Is she against only children?   

As for having three, why not just tell parents to give more attention to the second child?  She could say, Middle children are often ignored, so try to avoid doing that.

What about a child with three siblings? Wouldn't they take up much of the parent's time? Wouldn't their be less time left for each child to have individual attention?

8. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read a story thread called If You Come With Me, I'll Warm You Up.

It takes place in the Sturt dorms; and it stars Artemisia Bellerose and Reade Ainsworth.

The date of the story is Saturday, August 13. It's late afternoon.

9. Started to read the story.

It's funny. I feel negative towards Arti because her face claim is Mila Kunis. Mila recently was in an article that annoyed me. She lost weight so she believes this means EVERYONE can lose weight. I get annoyed with that kind of arrogance. It worked for me, so it will work for everyone.

We all have different bodies and different situations.

I would say most people can lose weight if they use extreme measures. But then they'll probably gain it back again once they get tired of being extreme.

Anyway....

I'll get back to reading the story.

I'll try to separate Mila from Arti.

10. Learned there's big some celebration in the Great Hall.  I wonder what that's all about.

The Penrose students are there. Maybe. This includes Arti's sister. Arti is worried about running into her. She doesn't want her her sister to see Reade and then report back to their parents that Arti has a boyfriend.

Arti and Reade are avoiding the celebration.

They go to Arti's dorm. She has something to show him. There's all this suspense.

It reminds me of the Twilight Zone movie. 



I forgot that Nemo's dad was in that. 

11. Learned what Arti can do. It's not scary like Dan Aykroyd's trick. Her magic is much more pleasant.

12. Learned that my Australian of the day is Valentin George Anderson.  He was a chemical analyst.

Valentin was known as V.G. He was born in 1885, in Hotham Victoria.

Like the Anderson I read about yesterday, V.G lost his father when he was very young.  He was raised by a single mother. As soon as Anderson was able to work, he helped support his family.

V.G went to the School of Mines in Ballarat.

Lord Wiki says this school eventually became the University of Ballarat.

V.G went on to do chemistry work and chemistry teaching.

It seems his big thing was water.  He wrote a paper on evaporation of Australian waters.

13. Reminded Jack that today is his birthday in Australia.

14. Went to Flickr.  I'm going to start looking at the Shoalhaven photos.

The first set is called Shoalhaven Beaches

15. Decided to find another Flickr stalking target. Unfortunately the photos on the Shoalhaven account aren't the best quality. They're a bit small.

Well, at least that set is.

I'll try another set rather than finding a whole new target.

16. Started looking at Shoalhaven Culture. The first two photos look okay at least.

Here's a cute baby pig

And here's an upside down clown

17. Saw this photo from The Treat Factory in Berry. Then I went to the Treat Factory Website

They make handmade old-fashioned candy.

Yum.

18. Looked up Berry on Google Maps.  It's about 12 minutes north-west of Shoalhaven.  

19. Loved this picture of grapes.  They look so delicious.  

I love grapes.

20. Looked at a website that describes the health benefits of grapes. 

They say grapes have antioxidants, and that slows down aging.

They also contain something called Resveratrol. It's believed that Resveratrol has cancer-fighting qualities.

Cool!

21. Consulted Lord Wiki about Resveratrol.  He says it might also have adverse effects. Some studies show it can prevent breast cancer.  Other studies say it can stimulate breast cancer cells.

The idea I'm getting in general from Lord Wiki is there's not sufficient proof that there's benefits to humans taking supplements with Resveratrol. There may even be adverse effects.  People get a small amount of Resveratrol from eating grapes, peanuts, or drinking red wine.  That's probably enough.   Studies are still being done, and maybe one day it will be suggested we all take supplements.

I'm just going to stick to grapes....at least for now.

22. Enjoyed this picture of someone picking grapes.

I'm really in a grape mood lately.

We have a few left in our house, but they're getting old.

We have lots of strawberries. I should push myself to be in a mood for them.

23. Saw a picture of more grapes. Plus there's also cheese and crackers.

That looks so delicious. 

24. Saw more grape cutting. It's at a vineyard. 

And here's a great photo of grapes. It reminds me of A Walk in the Clouds.



25. Saw this photo of grape-crushing. Unlike A Walk in the Clouds, it doesn't involve feet. 

It's probably less fun, but maybe more sanitary?

Although I guess maybe people wash their feet before stomping on them.  

26. Saw that the photo set DOES have a grape stomping photo

27. Ate some grapes while watching this Harry Potter video with Jack.



28. Started to look at a Shoalhaven photo set called Shoalhaven Wildlife.

I like this kookaburra picture.  

29. Liked this picture of pelicans and seagulls together.  

30. Read James' post about soda. He's stopped drinking it, and he believes the abstinence has helped with his weight loss. 

I drink too much soda. I need to cut down.

The thing is I like drinking water. I love water. But I don't like water with meals. Maybe I'll make a rule that I have to drink water except for meal times. For dinner and lunch I can have soda.

Although I don't know if that rule will mean anything. What I do is open a soda, drink some of it, and then put it back in the refrigerator to drink later.   I can rarely drink a whole can in one sitting. So if I drink half a can at lunch, would it be so wrong if I finish the rest of the can later?

I doubt it.

Maybe I should just make a rule that I can have only 1 can a day.  

The worst is restaurants. In America, we have the refill thing.  Some places keep bringing you refills, even if your first soda isn't even finished yet. I think I just have to remember to say no refills—ask for water for the rest of the meal.

The last restaurant we went to was a Japanese restaurant. I don't think they take your glass away to refill. Before you can even say yes or no, they bring you a new glass filled with soda.  

Now that I think of it, it's a bit wasteful. I was too busy enjoying the food to notice. They have REALLY good food there.

Next time I'll tell them no refills...or I'll just order water when we go there.  

32. Confused by Finnikin of the Rock

33. Thought more about James Young, the squib who looks like Simon Baker.

I think now I understand why I was bothered and distrustful about his niceness—especially the lines James is also very patient and slow to anger and quick to forgive.

I have someone close to me who is slow to anger and quick to forgive when it comes to his interactions with SOME. He is always 100% super nice to certain people. But he's not like that with everyone. With some people, he's quick to anger; and his anger can get nasty.

I know everyone has different sides to themselves. And we show different sides to different people.  But when there's such a huge contrast, it can be unnerving and frustrating.

34. Started looking at Shoalhaven photo set called Bawley Point. Shoalhaven.

35. Saw a photo of the Bawley Beach Cafe and went to look at their website.  They have pizza there.

I'm feeling like such a foodie today.

36. Saw from Statcounter today that there are people from The Netherlands looking for information on Julie Goodwin's restaurant.

I'm not sure why that's of particular interest to people in The Netherlands. Is she opening up a restaurant there?

37. Started to look at Shoalhaven photo set called Depot Beach.  

I think this picture is very beautiful. I like the clouds. 

The water in this picture is very blue. I wonder if that's real, or did they use some type of color-editing.  

38. Read sad scene in Finikkin of the Rock.

39. Started to look at Shoalhaven photo set called Dolphin Point

I wonder if this is the type of rock pool where you'd find a blue ring octopus.

40. Started to look at Shoalhaven photo set called Kioloa.   

Kioloa...that sounds kind of Hawaiian to me.

41. Amazed by all the kangaroos in this photo.  I'd love to be in one of those houses!  

Wait...actually.  The photo says it's a caravan resort.

42. Looked at the website of Merry Beach Caravan Resort.   It's the one featured in the photograph.  

I wonder if they have kangaroos all the time.

Lord Wiki says Kioloa is infamous for not having good mobile phone reception.   Well, that's okay.   People can use their phones to take photos of the kangaroos. Then when they reach the next town, they can send the photos to their friends.

43. Saw this holiday park website which talks about the kangaroos at Kioloa.  They say pebbly beach is famous for them.  I've actually heard of pebbly beach and kangaroos.   I just didn't realize it was
 part of Kioloa.  

44. Looked at Kioloa and Pebbly Beach on Google Maps. They show them being about 40 minutes apart from each other.  So maybe there're just lots of kangaroos all around that area? 

45. Read some more of Michael Fuery's Dream Within a Dream

Strange things are happening yet certain characters won't even consider a supernatural explanation.   If I remember correctly, the same thing happened in John Birmingham's time travel series

I'm so not like that.  If something weird happens, my first suspicions are along supernatural lines.   Then I'll start considering other possibilities.

I don't always speak about my supernatural ideas, but they're at least swimming around in my head.

46. Watched True Blood.   I haven't been watching it this season.  But Tim was watching it, so I decided to join him.   It wasn't bad.  But I can't say it was good enough to make me regret missing episodes.  Nor am I sure I want to watch all the remaining episodes.  It might be nice though to watch some here and there.

47. Consulted Lord Wiki about True Blood episodes.  We saw #5 tonight.  So that means I missed only 2, 3, and 4.

48. Started to look at Shoalhaven's Lake Tabourie photo set.

49. Wondered about the Jack Nicholson collection in this photo. Is that like the actor? Or is it just someone with the same name? 

50. Found out from this website that it's a different Jack Nicholson.  This Jack Nicholson is not an actor, but rather the guy who started the Tabourie Lake Museum.

51. Thought this picture was a little scary.   I don't know.   I get the idea of something hiding behind the grass.  My imagination is probably influenced by True Blood type stuff right now. 

52. Started to look at Shoalhaven's Shoalhaven Heads photo set

The pictures are beautiful.  They seem to all be around sunset time. The sky has a dreamlike quality.

53. Watched some Megan Cracknell's bird video on Kondoot. 

I wonder if she's related to Ruth Cracknell.  

Oh!  Wait. There're other Cracknell people on Kondoot. One of them left me a comment on my videos earlier today.  It's funny.  I didn't notice the last name then. I was probably too busy being excited about getting a comment.