1. Told by Jack that there was going to be a new Sleeping Beauty movie. I had seen vague things about that, but didn't know much about it. I waited for more details. Then Jack had that funny smile on his face— the one that tells me he's trying to trick me.
I said to Jack that there really WAS a Sleeping Beauty movie coming out. We googled it, and it ends up it's an Australian movie.
Fortunately, we didn't do much reading about the movie. And he didn't watch the trailer with me.
It's a bit dark and erotic.
It's not exactly a family-film.
2. Had short Australia related dream. I look at a list of years. 1972 is missing. I think to myself that William McMahon was Prime Minister at that time.
Then I dreamed about Sputnik and after that, I dreamed about Tom Hank's penis. It was a very entertaining night.
3. Got my email from Pottermore. Finally. The timing is a bit awkward, though. I'm in the middle of reading The Hunger Games trilogy. Now I feel I have to choose between the two.
I'm hoping Jack got in too. If he didn't? Well, I'll do what he wants me to do. I don't know if he'll want me to wait until he gets in. OR will he want me to use the site so he can see what it looks like?
4. Hoped that Kondoot fixes their email notification thing. I'm guessing I'm not the only one having the problem. Or maybe I am.
Anyway, what has happened is I tried to turn off the notifications; but it didn't work. I continue to get emails.
5. Tried a different tactic. I saw there was a thing where you can stop getting friend requests. I unchecked that. I feel bad, but I don't want to end up being one of those people who have 500 "friends" that are not friends.
6. Thought about Facebook. I met strangers on there and added them as friends. Or they added me sometimes. But it was after we had interacted on some game or other application. And I never had bunches of people adding me as friends. It was an every-so-often type thing. Maybe once a day?
I don't know what's going on with Kondoot. I'm not sure how these people are even finding me.
Most of the people seem to be from Indonesia. Maybe there's some contest over there? Whoever gets the most Kondoot friends in the next week will win the jackpot prize?
7. Felt bad about undoing the friend request thing. It makes me feel like a cold bitchy snob.
I'll turn it back on. It's not totally out of hand. I'm getting 5-10 requests a day. Maybe it's just a temporary thing. If it gets worse, I'll turn it off. Hopefully, I'm ABLE to turn it off.
8. Re-checked the thing where people can add me as a "friend" but unchecked the thing that says strangers can find me by searching.
Maybe that will cut down on the people finding me?
I was thinking, though, that most of these people really don't care about me as a person. They just want my name on their list. I have a link to my blog on my profile. I'm thinking if someone really cared about getting to know me, they'd want to check out my blog—at least for a quick peak. Despite getting all these Kondoot friend requests, I'm not getting bunches of blog visits from Kondoot.
9. Learned from James' blog, that although he's a city-boy now, he used to be a country boy.
James says, Every time I go to something like this, or any time I make a trip home to Lismore (or any other part of the country) I feel a little sadness that I haven’t remained living in the country. Whenever I’m there I genuinely feel happy. But whenever I return I also feel a sense of frustration, as there are so many aspects of life in the city I love also.
I think it's hard to choose between the two lifestyles. I guess the best thing would be to have enough money for two homes—one in the country and one in the city. Although if you have a farm, you can't just go and leave the cows half the year. Well, I guess if you had enough money, you could hire a farm manager to take care of things while you're away.
Every so often in my life I have farm yearnings. It's all total fantasy, because I've never had real farm experience. I'm probably more torn between living in a big city and living in a quiet beach town. I love the idea of living somewhere like NYC, Melbourne, London, or Sydney. There's a great variety of people, and people in big cities usually have more progressive viewpoints. That appeals to me. There're so many restaurants to choose from. There're exciting cultural opportunities.
But it gets exhausting after awhile. Crowds get on my nerves.
The beach is so nice and peaceful. It would be so nice to wake up each morning and take a long walk along the ocean.
But I think it might get boring after awhile. The lack of variety would probably start to annoy me.
Cities are better for me because I hate driving. I can walk everywhere or take public transportation.
The beach town would be okay as long as we lived walking distance to some shops.
10. Read Fruitcake's post about flash mobs.
I like them.
I think in some ways they restore my faith in humanity.
It gives me hope to see strangers getting together and creating something positive and entertaining.
Both Modern Family and Offspring had funny flash mob scenes.
In Offspring, Jimmy Proudman goes to a flash mob and starts dancing. Then he realizes he's alone. He got the location wrong...or maybe the time?
Tim and I have debated over the Modern Family scene. In this one, Mitch surprises Cam at the mall by jumping into a flash mob. It ends up he's been practicing for weeks. That's why he's been coming home late from work. He was trying to surprise Cam. He saw it as a message of love, and also a message of I'm-trying-to-be-more-spontaneous-and-less-uptight.
Cam isn't thankful towards Mitch. He doesn't like the surprise. He feels betrayed. He feels left out. He feels Mitch cheated on him.
Tim's on Mitch's side. I'm on Cam's.
Tim thinks Mitch was doing something out of love, and that in itself should be appreciated.
I totally understand Cam's point of view. The thing is he LOVES dancing. He would have loved to been part of the flash mob. It was something they could have (and should have) done together.
Sometimes I think it's better to do something WITH someone rather than for someone. Of course it would depend on the people involved...and the situation.
11. Imagined a scenario. What if Tim surprised me with a trip to Australia? He did all the planning and whisked us away.
On one hand, I'd be thankful. I'd be happy about going to Australia. But I would be annoyed that I didn't get to take part in the planning. I would be mad that I didn't get a say in where we stayed and what we did. Although I'd appreciate the surprise, I'd appreciate working together much more.
Other people might prefer the surprise.
12. Learned from this article that Kevin Rudd has a million Twitter followers. He's popular. Maybe he'll be Prime Minister again.
I went to his account. His last Tweet was 6 hours ago. He said, Fantastic first half from the Broncs. KRudd.
Before that he tweeted....Just got to a million twitter followers. Thanks to all. One guy said it's time for a new twitter pic. How about my 1977 mo photo?
What's a mo photo? Is it some kind of Australian thing?
13. Saw from Lord Wiki that Kevin Rudd was 20 in 1977.
I was only five.
Julia Gillard was 16.
14. Played on Pottermore with Jack a little bit.
For the most part, I'm letting him explore on his own with my account. He's going to call me back down when it's time to get my wand, and when it's time for me to be sorted.
It's hard to do it together because we're both interested in different things. He likes playing around in the scenes. I like reading the extra story stuff that JK Rowling has contributed. And for the most part, my heart and mind isn't in it. I'm not with Harry, Hermione, and Ron right now. I'm with Katniss, Gale, Peeta, Haymitch, etc.
After I finish with that series, I'll go back and read all the JK Rowling stuff on Pottermore. I read a few things. One was about the Dursley house and how Rowling imagined it. The story was deliciously eerie and gave me a goosebump feeling.
15. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read the continuation of Welcome To The Torture Chamber. It's the story of Dorian Greene trying to tutor Riley Lightfoot, and Riley doing what he can to end the tutoring relationship.
There's been two new posts added since I last read.
In the battle between Riley and Dorian, Dorian seems to have the upper hand. And he's finding that outsmarting a Spencer student is somewhat enjoyable.
Riley is very resistant to this tutoring thing.
What Dorian argues is that Riley can spend weeks going through more and more tutors; or he can just accept Dorian as the tutor. Dorian says, You realize there is another option, don't you? A quite simple one, and it won't take nearly as much time. You let me tutor you. I can easily give you study methods and make this as quick and painless as possible. That way, you get your grade, don't have to spend all your time getting rid of tutors, and you might only have to deal with me for a couple of weeks.
Riley then takes this to mean that Dorian can quickly provide him with study methods and then leave.
I think it's sad that Riley is so quick to reject Dorian. He's a bit of a snob—at least in this case.
It kind of reminds me of how the kids treated Maria in The Sound of Music...before they all bonded over raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.
Maybe Riley and Dorian need to share some schnitzel with noodles.
16. Saw that my Australian of the day is Richard Bullock Andrews.
He was a lawyer and a Member of the South Australian Parliament.
17. Learned that Richard was born in England in 1823. He was the eldest of nine children. His father was a lawyer. Richard followed in his footsteps.
18. Learned that Richard moved to South Australia when he was twenty-nine. With him were his wife and two young daughters.
19. Learned Richard had interests outside of law and politics. He did grape-growing and wine-making.
He sounds like a nice guy—at least from the way the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes him. They say he was sympathetic and eager to help those who needed it.
Interestingly, he didn't like arguing much. That's kind of funny coming from a lawyer and politician. It makes me wonder if he went down that career path mostly to please his father.
20. Learned from Lord Wiki that Richard spent some time as the Supreme Court judge. The Australian Dictionary of Biography said that too, but I wasn't paying them good enough attention.
Sometimes I have to read things from two different sources before it sinks into my brain.
Anyway, Richard didn't have the job for long because he was too ill. He took a leave of absence and went to Tasmania. Unfortunately, that didn't help too much. He died in Hobart a few months later.
21. Got sorted in Pottermore. I was hoping for Hufflepuff, but I got Ravenclaw. That's okay, though. I'll be with Luna Lovegood. I like her.
I just don't think of myself as being very clever. I'm awful at figuring out riddles and stuff like that.
22. Consulted Lord Wiki's cousin about Hufflepuff. She's making me see I don't belong in there after all. Hufflepuffs are not as competitive as the other houses or are more modest about their accomplishments.
I'm pretty competitive, and I'm not very modest.
I probably don't fit in well anywhere at Hogwarts. I think I'd fit better in Tallygarunga's Flinders house. Maybe.
23. Listened to Grace Sanders sing "Everyday Stories". It's another one that she wrote herself.
I'm impressed that she writes her own songs. I wish I could do that.
Sometimes I think, even if I did sing good, what's the point? Having a good voice is like having big boobs or naturally straight teeth. It's not really an accomplishment. It's just the way you're born.
I think it WOULD be cool for someone to sing fairly good or mediocre; then take lessons and become absolutely fabulous.
It's like my accent thing. I was talking to a friend about it the other day (via email). Different accents come out of my mouth sometimes. It's not something I've worked on and accomplished. It's just the way I am. It's cool sometimes and annoying other times. I sometimes think I'd like to work on my freakishness and turn it into a talent. It would be fun to be one of those people who can pick and choose their accents.—impress people at cocktail parties. I'd probably could become one of those people if I really tried. I think I have the needed inborn traits. I would just need the motivation and discipline to take it to the next step.
Back to singing, though. I'm learning from YouTube that there are many fantastic singers out there. It's probably not that rare or special to have a good voice. I think you need something more...unless your voice is absolutely out of this world.
I think if people can write their own songs, that's great.
If they can act, that's good too. That way, they can be in musicals.
I just wonder. How many people become successful from just singing alone? I doubt there're many. Most popular singers don't just sing. They write their own songs.
24. Decided in summary, I can say, I feel imagination and creativity are more valuable than optimum vocal chords.
25. Started to look at more of Arthur Chapman's Australian birds Flickr set.
26. This guy looks like he's off to fight someone. He reminds me of Sam Merlotte in a recent episode of True Blood.
27. Thought the name of this bird was cute. He's a Willie Wagtail.
In this photo, Willie looks very angry.
28. Wondered if I'm not just being anthropomorphic when I see anger in the birds. Could they really be angry? I mean I know birds can be angry. But could their angry face be similar to the angry faces of humans? It would be weird to imagine that when the bird looks angry, he's actually very happy.
29. Watched an Arthur Chapman video of a Willie Wagtail. Their names are well-earned.
30. Thought the neck design on this Spotted Turtle-Dove was interesting.
31. Thought this Shelduck was quite lovely.
32. Liked this Scaly-breasted Lorikeet....despite the name.
I really think they need a new name.
33. Enjoyed this peaceful video of Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos until the scary noise came on.
What is that?
34. Liked this video of the Tawny Frogmouth. They might become my favorite Australian animal.
35. Looked at some of Peter Lindenburg's Mammals of Australia Flickr set with Jack. We talked about the animals and which ones reminded us of our stuffed animal characters. The type of animal didn't always match the character. It was more about their facial expressions.
For example, these Western Grey Kangaroos reminded me of our characters Woolloomooloo and Woolloomooloo's Mom (she doesn't have a name besides that). But Woolloomooloo is a koala, and her mom is a white rabbit.
I said to Jack that there really WAS a Sleeping Beauty movie coming out. We googled it, and it ends up it's an Australian movie.
Fortunately, we didn't do much reading about the movie. And he didn't watch the trailer with me.
It's a bit dark and erotic.
It's not exactly a family-film.
2. Had short Australia related dream. I look at a list of years. 1972 is missing. I think to myself that William McMahon was Prime Minister at that time.
Then I dreamed about Sputnik and after that, I dreamed about Tom Hank's penis. It was a very entertaining night.
3. Got my email from Pottermore. Finally. The timing is a bit awkward, though. I'm in the middle of reading The Hunger Games trilogy. Now I feel I have to choose between the two.
I'm hoping Jack got in too. If he didn't? Well, I'll do what he wants me to do. I don't know if he'll want me to wait until he gets in. OR will he want me to use the site so he can see what it looks like?
4. Hoped that Kondoot fixes their email notification thing. I'm guessing I'm not the only one having the problem. Or maybe I am.
Anyway, what has happened is I tried to turn off the notifications; but it didn't work. I continue to get emails.
5. Tried a different tactic. I saw there was a thing where you can stop getting friend requests. I unchecked that. I feel bad, but I don't want to end up being one of those people who have 500 "friends" that are not friends.
6. Thought about Facebook. I met strangers on there and added them as friends. Or they added me sometimes. But it was after we had interacted on some game or other application. And I never had bunches of people adding me as friends. It was an every-so-often type thing. Maybe once a day?
I don't know what's going on with Kondoot. I'm not sure how these people are even finding me.
Most of the people seem to be from Indonesia. Maybe there's some contest over there? Whoever gets the most Kondoot friends in the next week will win the jackpot prize?
7. Felt bad about undoing the friend request thing. It makes me feel like a cold bitchy snob.
I'll turn it back on. It's not totally out of hand. I'm getting 5-10 requests a day. Maybe it's just a temporary thing. If it gets worse, I'll turn it off. Hopefully, I'm ABLE to turn it off.
8. Re-checked the thing where people can add me as a "friend" but unchecked the thing that says strangers can find me by searching.
Maybe that will cut down on the people finding me?
I was thinking, though, that most of these people really don't care about me as a person. They just want my name on their list. I have a link to my blog on my profile. I'm thinking if someone really cared about getting to know me, they'd want to check out my blog—at least for a quick peak. Despite getting all these Kondoot friend requests, I'm not getting bunches of blog visits from Kondoot.
9. Learned from James' blog, that although he's a city-boy now, he used to be a country boy.
James says, Every time I go to something like this, or any time I make a trip home to Lismore (or any other part of the country) I feel a little sadness that I haven’t remained living in the country. Whenever I’m there I genuinely feel happy. But whenever I return I also feel a sense of frustration, as there are so many aspects of life in the city I love also.
I think it's hard to choose between the two lifestyles. I guess the best thing would be to have enough money for two homes—one in the country and one in the city. Although if you have a farm, you can't just go and leave the cows half the year. Well, I guess if you had enough money, you could hire a farm manager to take care of things while you're away.
Every so often in my life I have farm yearnings. It's all total fantasy, because I've never had real farm experience. I'm probably more torn between living in a big city and living in a quiet beach town. I love the idea of living somewhere like NYC, Melbourne, London, or Sydney. There's a great variety of people, and people in big cities usually have more progressive viewpoints. That appeals to me. There're so many restaurants to choose from. There're exciting cultural opportunities.
But it gets exhausting after awhile. Crowds get on my nerves.
The beach is so nice and peaceful. It would be so nice to wake up each morning and take a long walk along the ocean.
But I think it might get boring after awhile. The lack of variety would probably start to annoy me.
Cities are better for me because I hate driving. I can walk everywhere or take public transportation.
The beach town would be okay as long as we lived walking distance to some shops.
10. Read Fruitcake's post about flash mobs.
I like them.
I think in some ways they restore my faith in humanity.
It gives me hope to see strangers getting together and creating something positive and entertaining.
Both Modern Family and Offspring had funny flash mob scenes.
In Offspring, Jimmy Proudman goes to a flash mob and starts dancing. Then he realizes he's alone. He got the location wrong...or maybe the time?
Tim and I have debated over the Modern Family scene. In this one, Mitch surprises Cam at the mall by jumping into a flash mob. It ends up he's been practicing for weeks. That's why he's been coming home late from work. He was trying to surprise Cam. He saw it as a message of love, and also a message of I'm-trying-to-be-more-spontaneous-and-less-uptight.
Cam isn't thankful towards Mitch. He doesn't like the surprise. He feels betrayed. He feels left out. He feels Mitch cheated on him.
Tim's on Mitch's side. I'm on Cam's.
Tim thinks Mitch was doing something out of love, and that in itself should be appreciated.
I totally understand Cam's point of view. The thing is he LOVES dancing. He would have loved to been part of the flash mob. It was something they could have (and should have) done together.
Sometimes I think it's better to do something WITH someone rather than for someone. Of course it would depend on the people involved...and the situation.
11. Imagined a scenario. What if Tim surprised me with a trip to Australia? He did all the planning and whisked us away.
On one hand, I'd be thankful. I'd be happy about going to Australia. But I would be annoyed that I didn't get to take part in the planning. I would be mad that I didn't get a say in where we stayed and what we did. Although I'd appreciate the surprise, I'd appreciate working together much more.
Other people might prefer the surprise.
12. Learned from this article that Kevin Rudd has a million Twitter followers. He's popular. Maybe he'll be Prime Minister again.
I went to his account. His last Tweet was 6 hours ago. He said, Fantastic first half from the Broncs. KRudd.
Before that he tweeted....Just got to a million twitter followers. Thanks to all. One guy said it's time for a new twitter pic. How about my 1977 mo photo?
What's a mo photo? Is it some kind of Australian thing?
13. Saw from Lord Wiki that Kevin Rudd was 20 in 1977.
I was only five.
Julia Gillard was 16.
14. Played on Pottermore with Jack a little bit.
For the most part, I'm letting him explore on his own with my account. He's going to call me back down when it's time to get my wand, and when it's time for me to be sorted.
It's hard to do it together because we're both interested in different things. He likes playing around in the scenes. I like reading the extra story stuff that JK Rowling has contributed. And for the most part, my heart and mind isn't in it. I'm not with Harry, Hermione, and Ron right now. I'm with Katniss, Gale, Peeta, Haymitch, etc.
After I finish with that series, I'll go back and read all the JK Rowling stuff on Pottermore. I read a few things. One was about the Dursley house and how Rowling imagined it. The story was deliciously eerie and gave me a goosebump feeling.
15. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read the continuation of Welcome To The Torture Chamber. It's the story of Dorian Greene trying to tutor Riley Lightfoot, and Riley doing what he can to end the tutoring relationship.
There's been two new posts added since I last read.
In the battle between Riley and Dorian, Dorian seems to have the upper hand. And he's finding that outsmarting a Spencer student is somewhat enjoyable.
Riley is very resistant to this tutoring thing.
What Dorian argues is that Riley can spend weeks going through more and more tutors; or he can just accept Dorian as the tutor. Dorian says, You realize there is another option, don't you? A quite simple one, and it won't take nearly as much time. You let me tutor you. I can easily give you study methods and make this as quick and painless as possible. That way, you get your grade, don't have to spend all your time getting rid of tutors, and you might only have to deal with me for a couple of weeks.
Riley then takes this to mean that Dorian can quickly provide him with study methods and then leave.
I think it's sad that Riley is so quick to reject Dorian. He's a bit of a snob—at least in this case.
It kind of reminds me of how the kids treated Maria in The Sound of Music...before they all bonded over raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.
Maybe Riley and Dorian need to share some schnitzel with noodles.
16. Saw that my Australian of the day is Richard Bullock Andrews.
He was a lawyer and a Member of the South Australian Parliament.
17. Learned that Richard was born in England in 1823. He was the eldest of nine children. His father was a lawyer. Richard followed in his footsteps.
18. Learned that Richard moved to South Australia when he was twenty-nine. With him were his wife and two young daughters.
19. Learned Richard had interests outside of law and politics. He did grape-growing and wine-making.
He sounds like a nice guy—at least from the way the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes him. They say he was sympathetic and eager to help those who needed it.
Interestingly, he didn't like arguing much. That's kind of funny coming from a lawyer and politician. It makes me wonder if he went down that career path mostly to please his father.
20. Learned from Lord Wiki that Richard spent some time as the Supreme Court judge. The Australian Dictionary of Biography said that too, but I wasn't paying them good enough attention.
Sometimes I have to read things from two different sources before it sinks into my brain.
Anyway, Richard didn't have the job for long because he was too ill. He took a leave of absence and went to Tasmania. Unfortunately, that didn't help too much. He died in Hobart a few months later.
21. Got sorted in Pottermore. I was hoping for Hufflepuff, but I got Ravenclaw. That's okay, though. I'll be with Luna Lovegood. I like her.
I just don't think of myself as being very clever. I'm awful at figuring out riddles and stuff like that.
22. Consulted Lord Wiki's cousin about Hufflepuff. She's making me see I don't belong in there after all. Hufflepuffs are not as competitive as the other houses or are more modest about their accomplishments.
I'm pretty competitive, and I'm not very modest.
I probably don't fit in well anywhere at Hogwarts. I think I'd fit better in Tallygarunga's Flinders house. Maybe.
23. Listened to Grace Sanders sing "Everyday Stories". It's another one that she wrote herself.
I'm impressed that she writes her own songs. I wish I could do that.
Sometimes I think, even if I did sing good, what's the point? Having a good voice is like having big boobs or naturally straight teeth. It's not really an accomplishment. It's just the way you're born.
I think it WOULD be cool for someone to sing fairly good or mediocre; then take lessons and become absolutely fabulous.
It's like my accent thing. I was talking to a friend about it the other day (via email). Different accents come out of my mouth sometimes. It's not something I've worked on and accomplished. It's just the way I am. It's cool sometimes and annoying other times. I sometimes think I'd like to work on my freakishness and turn it into a talent. It would be fun to be one of those people who can pick and choose their accents.—impress people at cocktail parties. I'd probably could become one of those people if I really tried. I think I have the needed inborn traits. I would just need the motivation and discipline to take it to the next step.
Back to singing, though. I'm learning from YouTube that there are many fantastic singers out there. It's probably not that rare or special to have a good voice. I think you need something more...unless your voice is absolutely out of this world.
I think if people can write their own songs, that's great.
If they can act, that's good too. That way, they can be in musicals.
I just wonder. How many people become successful from just singing alone? I doubt there're many. Most popular singers don't just sing. They write their own songs.
24. Decided in summary, I can say, I feel imagination and creativity are more valuable than optimum vocal chords.
25. Started to look at more of Arthur Chapman's Australian birds Flickr set.
26. This guy looks like he's off to fight someone. He reminds me of Sam Merlotte in a recent episode of True Blood.
27. Thought the name of this bird was cute. He's a Willie Wagtail.
In this photo, Willie looks very angry.
28. Wondered if I'm not just being anthropomorphic when I see anger in the birds. Could they really be angry? I mean I know birds can be angry. But could their angry face be similar to the angry faces of humans? It would be weird to imagine that when the bird looks angry, he's actually very happy.
29. Watched an Arthur Chapman video of a Willie Wagtail. Their names are well-earned.
30. Thought the neck design on this Spotted Turtle-Dove was interesting.
31. Thought this Shelduck was quite lovely.
32. Liked this Scaly-breasted Lorikeet....despite the name.
I really think they need a new name.
33. Enjoyed this peaceful video of Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos until the scary noise came on.
What is that?
34. Liked this video of the Tawny Frogmouth. They might become my favorite Australian animal.
35. Looked at some of Peter Lindenburg's Mammals of Australia Flickr set with Jack. We talked about the animals and which ones reminded us of our stuffed animal characters. The type of animal didn't always match the character. It was more about their facial expressions.
For example, these Western Grey Kangaroos reminded me of our characters Woolloomooloo and Woolloomooloo's Mom (she doesn't have a name besides that). But Woolloomooloo is a koala, and her mom is a white rabbit.