1. Saw article about Apple and Samsung fighting each other in Australia.
Samsung wants to have the iPhone 4S banned in Australia. They think it violates their patents.
This might be in response to Apple accusing Samsung of copying their technology. And they tried to get Samsung's Galaxy S Smartphones and Galaxy Tabs banned in Australia.
It's all a bit silly.
Copying can be a bad thing. It's wrong to steal someone's idea and call it your own. But as the saying goes, sometimes copying is a form of flattery. And copying brings about advances in technology. If inventors and entrepreneurs didn't copy each other, there'd probably be one brand of light bulb, one brand of television, one airline, one computer company, etc.
And technological history would probably be very static.
It's better when people build upon each other's ideas.
2. Read article about the Australian government's planned response to a terrorist attack. It talks about what the Prime Minister plans to say to Australians, and it talks about guidelines for the media.
Basically, what I'm getting is that they're trying avoid the mistakes of the America media.
The article says, In particular, security officials will highlight "the dangers of live coverage of eyewitness accounts, which may create fear and alarm, of direct contact between the media and the terrorists, and of reporting police and, where relevant, Defence Forces' movements or tactics.
Yes, thank you. People really don't need to see graphic images repeated over and over.
How many times did we see the Twin Towers falling down?
The media is great at taking a tragedy and turning it into a huge media circus.
Another thing the article says is, However a subsequent section indicates the media will be encouraged to "concentrate on the criminality of the terrorists' actions - not on the terrorists or their cause".
I totally agree with this guideline. If terrorists are trying to raise awareness for their cause, we certainly shouldn't help them.
The problem with the news media is that these companies have all this time and space to fill. If you have a 24 hour news channel, I'm sure it's hard to fill it. So then they start digging deep— getting teary interviews from grieving people; going into depth about the terrorist's goals; showing graphic images of injuries; and informing the public about other scary things that could happen.
To their defense, though, when something huge and horrible happens, many of us want to know more and more about it. We obsess over it. We're glued to the TV's. We search through the internet for more information. It's hard to think about other things.
3. Read the article again. I was wondering with Australia's plan of action, would there be too little information.
I guess there would be enough.
It's just that they're going to concentrate on other things. They want the media to reassure Australians that the government is strong, and capable of handling the problem. They want to talk about the victims. Give them sympathy. And they want kudos given to the workers who responded to the incident.
That makes sense.
I think they just need to make sure they don't go too far in their reassurances.
The American government and media went too far in exploiting the fear and anger of Americans. Let's make everyone terrified and hateful of Muslims; then we can get them to agree to a war!
But if you go too far in the opposite direction....
Well, it kind of sounds like something in a horror movie—the ones where the government is keeping the public in the dark.
Your neighbours have turned into zombies and are wanting you for lunch. You turn on the TV and see your country's leader. Please stay calm and be rest assured that everything is under control. We are doing everything in our power to bring order back to the country.
Yeah. Okay.
4. Read article about the Labor Party's intervention in the Northern Territory.
There's a rule that Aboriginal parents will have their welfare payments suspended if they don't send their children to school.
As a homeschooling mom, I can't say I support that.
Why is school seen as the answer to all problems?
It's not the only way to get an education, and it also doesn't guarantee a happy and successful life.
We watched The Colbert Show the other night. One of the guests was Melinda Gates. She and Bill Gates give a lot of money to American public schools. She talked about studies showing that schools meeting certain criteria result in children doing better in college. I turned to Tim and said it's interesting she mentions doing well in college. How about doing well in LIFE?
Tim joined in on my rant and talked about how public schools in America provides a free service that then feeds into an extremely expensive service.
As for the Aboriginal families, instead of forcing all kids to go to school, why not have a more comprehensive look at the family? Could the children be learning outside the school? Why are they not in school? When the kids are not in school, are the parents taking good care of them?
If the children are living horrible lives at home, then yeah, it's probably better for them to be in school. But if the child is thriving without school, I see no reason not to keep them at home.
5. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read Taking It Slowly. It's about Artemesia Bellerose.
There's a message on the story that says collaboration story-post by Arti and Reade's players. ;D
I'm guessing this means it's going to be like the Reade and Jackson story from a few days ago, where two writers wrote one post together.
The story takes place in St. Ringo's Wizarding Hospital on October 6.
Maybe now I'll figure out what happened to Arti.
6. Started to read.
7. Felt sad when I read this. Glancing up as soon as she heard them entering, Arti twisted the blanket in her hands a little as she looked to the family, the way Reade’s parents seemed to give him strength reminding her of what she didn’t have.
Sometimes I'll see other people getting the support I've often wished I had. I'm happy for them, but at the same time I'm sad for myself.
8. Learned that Arti was raped.
9. Learned that Arti can't talk. Something has happened to her throat. Is it permanent?
I guess it's good she knows all that sign language.
10. Finished reading the story. It's very well written and very depressing.
It deals with rape—how the victim feels, but also how the partner of the victim feels.
And how does it feel to be the parents of the partner of the victim?
I guess with any major illness, injury, or tragedy, there are levels of people needing support. First, there's the primary victim. That's Arti. She's going to need a lot of love, patience, and understanding from Arti. Will he be able to deliver? I don't know. It's a tough job.
Someone going through that tough job will need a lot of support themselves. Will Reade's parents help him through it? Can they help Reade help Arti through it?
I really feel for them. And I really feel for all the real people out there who are going through similar things. There's lots of them.
11. Saw that my Australian of the day is Valentin Andreevich Antonieff.
He was born in the Ukraine in 1877. But back then, his birthplace was known as Russia.
Some of my ancestors supposedly come from the Ukraine.
12. Learned that Antonieff got himself a religious education and ended up becoming a Russian Orthodox priest.
He joined the Russian army as a chaplain. Maybe he did some fighting too. I'm not sure.
He got wounded twice, but that could just come from being AROUND the fighting.
13. Learned that Antonieff sailed to Australia when he was in his 40's.
I'm not sure why he left Russia. It was in the 1920's. Maybe bad things were happening back then.
14. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says crazy things were happening in Russia around that time.
There were revolutions and civil wars.
It was a fight between communist and anti-communist entities.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says Antonieff fought in the civil war. He was on the white side, which was anti-communist.
The communists won, and I'm guessing that's why Antonieff escaped to Australia.
In Australia, he did construction and mining work.
15. Learned that Antonieff left his wife and four children to come to Australia. Fortunately, though, they were able to join him about a year later.
The family moved to Brisbane.
A lot of Russian immigrants came to Australia. A Russian Orthodoxy church was established for those living in Brisbane. Antonieff wasn't the head of the church at first. Someone else had the job. But then that guy moved to America. Antonieff got the job.
16. Enjoyed watching an embedded Swedish music video on James' blog. It has Swedish school children.
It makes me think of Let The Right One In. I really liked that book.
17. Started to look at another John Lampard Flickr set. This one is of the University of New South Wales campus.
18. Wasn't impressed by this building.
I'm just not a big fan of modern architecture.
19.Thought the modern buildings did look kind of cool at night.
I like this night picture as well.
20. Had a good warm feeling when I saw this picture. I'm not sure why. I think it kind of reminds me of my childhood...living in Madison Wisconsin.
I don't know why I connect that time in my life to this picture.
21. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
The next space for me is Free Parking.
I'll skip that.
I'm now on the red properties.
That Monopoly is represented by streets in Brisbane.
Today I have Stanley Street.
22. Looked for Stanley Street on Google Maps. I see something, but it looks really small. It's hard for me to imagine it's a major street. And it's supposed to be a major street.
Maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing.
Lord Wiki says the street connects the Southern and Eastern suburbs and South Brisbane.
That confuses me. Does it connect both those suburbs to South Brisbane? Does it also connect the two suburbs to each other?
23. Saw Google Maps has other Stanley Streets listed. I missed that before. I'll check these out.
24. Found a much more substantial Brisbane Stanley Street.
25. Confused by Lord Wiki's discussion on Stanley Street. There's all this stuff about street name changes. This used to be called this and that used to be called that.
I'm just going to skip over it and look closely at Stanley Street on Google Maps.
26. Saw that Stanley Street goes through Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
I don't think I've ever heard of that before.
Lord Wiki says there's a hospital with the same name in Dublin.
27. Tried to find out what Mater Misericordiae is.
I did some googling, and learned the words are used in a hymn about Mary, the mother of Jesus.
It's quite beautiful.
28. Saw that there's a North African restaurant on Stanley Street called La Kasbah. It serves Tunisian and French food.
I'm looking at the menu.
It looks pretty nice.
29. Looked at the Chalk Hotel. It's on Stanley Street.
It doesn't offer accommodations; but people can eat and drink there.
30. Learned from the Chalk Hotel's website, and things I saw in Google, that the name of the area is called Woolloongabba. That name is very cute....like Woolloomooloo.
31. Saw that on Tuesday nights the Chalk Hotel has something called Comedy Trivia.
It's a trivia game with a twist.
Well, I think they're trying to make it more fun than usual trivia games.
I think trivia games usually are fun.
I don't think I've ever been to a bar one. Or maybe I have? It would have been a really long time ago. I have vague memories.....
It's probably been a long time since I've played any trivia period.
I remember back in the 1980's when Trivial Pursuit was so popular.
Was it popular in Australia?
32. Saw that there's a bridal dress store on Stanley Street. It's called BellaDonna Gowns.
Five out of six of the brides on the website's home page are blond.
Actually, maybe all five of them are the same model.
They look alike.
33. Saw that there's an antique shop in Brisbane. It's called Lavin Antiques.
We have a fairly nice antique shop in Fort Worth. Not that I'm an expert on such things.
It's fun, but very overwhelming.
I don't really look at the furniture much. I like looking at the old toys, books, jewelry, etc.
34. Saw that there's a Lord Stanley Hotel on Stanley Street East.
Like the Chalk Hotel, this one doesn't have accommodations either.
35. Downloaded Lord Stanley's menu and saw that they have Pavlova. I don't think I've seen a restaurant that has it. If I ever encounter one when we're in Australia, I'll probably forgo my no-egg rules for the occasion.
36. Saw that the Stanley Hotel has gambling.
37. Went to Thomas Simmonds' YouTube channel.
He's young—only 14. That's the same age as the arrested child in Bali.
38. Saw that Thomas sings a lot of songs by The Kooks.
I've heard of them, but wasn't sure if they were Australian or not.
They're not.
They're British.
Here Thomas Simmonds singing Naive by The Kooks.
He reminds me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio and/or River Phoenix.
It's hard for me to hear his singing over the loud guitar.
39. Started to listen to Thomas sing "Big Jet Plane" by Angus and Julia Stone.
40. Listened to the Angus and Julia Stone version.
They have such distinctive voices.
I like them; but in only small doses.
41. Wondered if Ben's going to be on The Sing Off tonight. He's missed the first episodes because his father was very ill, and he needed to go back to Australia to be with his family.
Samsung wants to have the iPhone 4S banned in Australia. They think it violates their patents.
This might be in response to Apple accusing Samsung of copying their technology. And they tried to get Samsung's Galaxy S Smartphones and Galaxy Tabs banned in Australia.
It's all a bit silly.
Copying can be a bad thing. It's wrong to steal someone's idea and call it your own. But as the saying goes, sometimes copying is a form of flattery. And copying brings about advances in technology. If inventors and entrepreneurs didn't copy each other, there'd probably be one brand of light bulb, one brand of television, one airline, one computer company, etc.
And technological history would probably be very static.
It's better when people build upon each other's ideas.
2. Read article about the Australian government's planned response to a terrorist attack. It talks about what the Prime Minister plans to say to Australians, and it talks about guidelines for the media.
Basically, what I'm getting is that they're trying avoid the mistakes of the America media.
The article says, In particular, security officials will highlight "the dangers of live coverage of eyewitness accounts, which may create fear and alarm, of direct contact between the media and the terrorists, and of reporting police and, where relevant, Defence Forces' movements or tactics.
Yes, thank you. People really don't need to see graphic images repeated over and over.
How many times did we see the Twin Towers falling down?
The media is great at taking a tragedy and turning it into a huge media circus.
Another thing the article says is, However a subsequent section indicates the media will be encouraged to "concentrate on the criminality of the terrorists' actions - not on the terrorists or their cause".
I totally agree with this guideline. If terrorists are trying to raise awareness for their cause, we certainly shouldn't help them.
The problem with the news media is that these companies have all this time and space to fill. If you have a 24 hour news channel, I'm sure it's hard to fill it. So then they start digging deep— getting teary interviews from grieving people; going into depth about the terrorist's goals; showing graphic images of injuries; and informing the public about other scary things that could happen.
To their defense, though, when something huge and horrible happens, many of us want to know more and more about it. We obsess over it. We're glued to the TV's. We search through the internet for more information. It's hard to think about other things.
3. Read the article again. I was wondering with Australia's plan of action, would there be too little information.
I guess there would be enough.
It's just that they're going to concentrate on other things. They want the media to reassure Australians that the government is strong, and capable of handling the problem. They want to talk about the victims. Give them sympathy. And they want kudos given to the workers who responded to the incident.
That makes sense.
I think they just need to make sure they don't go too far in their reassurances.
The American government and media went too far in exploiting the fear and anger of Americans. Let's make everyone terrified and hateful of Muslims; then we can get them to agree to a war!
But if you go too far in the opposite direction....
Well, it kind of sounds like something in a horror movie—the ones where the government is keeping the public in the dark.
Your neighbours have turned into zombies and are wanting you for lunch. You turn on the TV and see your country's leader. Please stay calm and be rest assured that everything is under control. We are doing everything in our power to bring order back to the country.
Yeah. Okay.
4. Read article about the Labor Party's intervention in the Northern Territory.
There's a rule that Aboriginal parents will have their welfare payments suspended if they don't send their children to school.
As a homeschooling mom, I can't say I support that.
Why is school seen as the answer to all problems?
It's not the only way to get an education, and it also doesn't guarantee a happy and successful life.
We watched The Colbert Show the other night. One of the guests was Melinda Gates. She and Bill Gates give a lot of money to American public schools. She talked about studies showing that schools meeting certain criteria result in children doing better in college. I turned to Tim and said it's interesting she mentions doing well in college. How about doing well in LIFE?
Tim joined in on my rant and talked about how public schools in America provides a free service that then feeds into an extremely expensive service.
As for the Aboriginal families, instead of forcing all kids to go to school, why not have a more comprehensive look at the family? Could the children be learning outside the school? Why are they not in school? When the kids are not in school, are the parents taking good care of them?
If the children are living horrible lives at home, then yeah, it's probably better for them to be in school. But if the child is thriving without school, I see no reason not to keep them at home.
5. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read Taking It Slowly. It's about Artemesia Bellerose.
There's a message on the story that says collaboration story-post by Arti and Reade's players. ;D
I'm guessing this means it's going to be like the Reade and Jackson story from a few days ago, where two writers wrote one post together.
The story takes place in St. Ringo's Wizarding Hospital on October 6.
Maybe now I'll figure out what happened to Arti.
6. Started to read.
7. Felt sad when I read this. Glancing up as soon as she heard them entering, Arti twisted the blanket in her hands a little as she looked to the family, the way Reade’s parents seemed to give him strength reminding her of what she didn’t have.
Sometimes I'll see other people getting the support I've often wished I had. I'm happy for them, but at the same time I'm sad for myself.
8. Learned that Arti was raped.
9. Learned that Arti can't talk. Something has happened to her throat. Is it permanent?
I guess it's good she knows all that sign language.
10. Finished reading the story. It's very well written and very depressing.
It deals with rape—how the victim feels, but also how the partner of the victim feels.
And how does it feel to be the parents of the partner of the victim?
I guess with any major illness, injury, or tragedy, there are levels of people needing support. First, there's the primary victim. That's Arti. She's going to need a lot of love, patience, and understanding from Arti. Will he be able to deliver? I don't know. It's a tough job.
Someone going through that tough job will need a lot of support themselves. Will Reade's parents help him through it? Can they help Reade help Arti through it?
I really feel for them. And I really feel for all the real people out there who are going through similar things. There's lots of them.
11. Saw that my Australian of the day is Valentin Andreevich Antonieff.
He was born in the Ukraine in 1877. But back then, his birthplace was known as Russia.
Some of my ancestors supposedly come from the Ukraine.
12. Learned that Antonieff got himself a religious education and ended up becoming a Russian Orthodox priest.
He joined the Russian army as a chaplain. Maybe he did some fighting too. I'm not sure.
He got wounded twice, but that could just come from being AROUND the fighting.
13. Learned that Antonieff sailed to Australia when he was in his 40's.
I'm not sure why he left Russia. It was in the 1920's. Maybe bad things were happening back then.
14. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says crazy things were happening in Russia around that time.
There were revolutions and civil wars.
It was a fight between communist and anti-communist entities.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says Antonieff fought in the civil war. He was on the white side, which was anti-communist.
The communists won, and I'm guessing that's why Antonieff escaped to Australia.
In Australia, he did construction and mining work.
15. Learned that Antonieff left his wife and four children to come to Australia. Fortunately, though, they were able to join him about a year later.
The family moved to Brisbane.
A lot of Russian immigrants came to Australia. A Russian Orthodoxy church was established for those living in Brisbane. Antonieff wasn't the head of the church at first. Someone else had the job. But then that guy moved to America. Antonieff got the job.
16. Enjoyed watching an embedded Swedish music video on James' blog. It has Swedish school children.
It makes me think of Let The Right One In. I really liked that book.
17. Started to look at another John Lampard Flickr set. This one is of the University of New South Wales campus.
18. Wasn't impressed by this building.
I'm just not a big fan of modern architecture.
19.Thought the modern buildings did look kind of cool at night.
I like this night picture as well.
20. Had a good warm feeling when I saw this picture. I'm not sure why. I think it kind of reminds me of my childhood...living in Madison Wisconsin.
I don't know why I connect that time in my life to this picture.
21. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
The next space for me is Free Parking.
I'll skip that.
I'm now on the red properties.
That Monopoly is represented by streets in Brisbane.
Today I have Stanley Street.
22. Looked for Stanley Street on Google Maps. I see something, but it looks really small. It's hard for me to imagine it's a major street. And it's supposed to be a major street.
Maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing.
Lord Wiki says the street connects the Southern and Eastern suburbs and South Brisbane.
That confuses me. Does it connect both those suburbs to South Brisbane? Does it also connect the two suburbs to each other?
23. Saw Google Maps has other Stanley Streets listed. I missed that before. I'll check these out.
24. Found a much more substantial Brisbane Stanley Street.
25. Confused by Lord Wiki's discussion on Stanley Street. There's all this stuff about street name changes. This used to be called this and that used to be called that.
I'm just going to skip over it and look closely at Stanley Street on Google Maps.
26. Saw that Stanley Street goes through Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
I don't think I've ever heard of that before.
Lord Wiki says there's a hospital with the same name in Dublin.
27. Tried to find out what Mater Misericordiae is.
I did some googling, and learned the words are used in a hymn about Mary, the mother of Jesus.
It's quite beautiful.
28. Saw that there's a North African restaurant on Stanley Street called La Kasbah. It serves Tunisian and French food.
I'm looking at the menu.
It looks pretty nice.
29. Looked at the Chalk Hotel. It's on Stanley Street.
It doesn't offer accommodations; but people can eat and drink there.
30. Learned from the Chalk Hotel's website, and things I saw in Google, that the name of the area is called Woolloongabba. That name is very cute....like Woolloomooloo.
31. Saw that on Tuesday nights the Chalk Hotel has something called Comedy Trivia.
It's a trivia game with a twist.
Well, I think they're trying to make it more fun than usual trivia games.
I think trivia games usually are fun.
I don't think I've ever been to a bar one. Or maybe I have? It would have been a really long time ago. I have vague memories.....
It's probably been a long time since I've played any trivia period.
I remember back in the 1980's when Trivial Pursuit was so popular.
Was it popular in Australia?
32. Saw that there's a bridal dress store on Stanley Street. It's called BellaDonna Gowns.
Five out of six of the brides on the website's home page are blond.
Actually, maybe all five of them are the same model.
They look alike.
33. Saw that there's an antique shop in Brisbane. It's called Lavin Antiques.
We have a fairly nice antique shop in Fort Worth. Not that I'm an expert on such things.
It's fun, but very overwhelming.
I don't really look at the furniture much. I like looking at the old toys, books, jewelry, etc.
34. Saw that there's a Lord Stanley Hotel on Stanley Street East.
Like the Chalk Hotel, this one doesn't have accommodations either.
35. Downloaded Lord Stanley's menu and saw that they have Pavlova. I don't think I've seen a restaurant that has it. If I ever encounter one when we're in Australia, I'll probably forgo my no-egg rules for the occasion.
36. Saw that the Stanley Hotel has gambling.
37. Went to Thomas Simmonds' YouTube channel.
He's young—only 14. That's the same age as the arrested child in Bali.
38. Saw that Thomas sings a lot of songs by The Kooks.
I've heard of them, but wasn't sure if they were Australian or not.
They're not.
They're British.
Here Thomas Simmonds singing Naive by The Kooks.
He reminds me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio and/or River Phoenix.
It's hard for me to hear his singing over the loud guitar.
39. Started to listen to Thomas sing "Big Jet Plane" by Angus and Julia Stone.
40. Listened to the Angus and Julia Stone version.
They have such distinctive voices.
I like them; but in only small doses.
41. Wondered if Ben's going to be on The Sing Off tonight. He's missed the first episodes because his father was very ill, and he needed to go back to Australia to be with his family.