1. Got a birthday card from Jack!
2. Found an Australian related thing in my old Livejournal entries. This one is from September 21, 2007.
I'm surprised I even know about Perth and Adelaide back then. I did start reading a lot about Australia at that time, though. I guess I was already learning some basic geography.
Is there a town called Mitt or Lewis in Australia? I don't think so.
Maybe there's a guy living between Perth and Adelaide named Mitt Lewis, and I'm supposed to meet him someday.
3. Found an old dream about Australia. This is one from September 24, 2007.
In real life, I love casual flower dresses that enhance breasts.
I love anything that enhances breasts.
I love breasts, period. That's why I suspect I'm at least 15% lesbian.
4. Learned from Blogger that I'm not following any blogs.
I guess it's a glitch.
I think it's happened to me before.
5. Hoped that any Americans reading this have a happy Thanksgiving.
If any Australians are interested in seeing an example of an American Thanksgiving, I'm spending a big chunk of today extracting and uploading my old Thanksgiving montage videos. They're on our YouTube channel if anyone wants to watch them.
I'm making this sound like a multicultural learning opportunity. In reality, I just want people to watch my videos. I'm proud of them. They're much better than my singing. And don't worry. I don't sing on the videos.
Anyway, yeah. I'm sure Australians have seen too much American Thanksgiving because they watch all that American TV. But my videos are about REAL Thanksgivings, and not fictional ones. Brad Pitt doesn't come and eat our yams.
If you're kind enough to give my YouTube Thanksgiving videos attention, you'll see that there's a bunch of different parts. They don't need to be watched in order, or anything. Each video is a montage with a different song. Just pick one and see if you're bored to tears or not.
6. Understood that many people don't like watching other people's home videos. I do, though—just like I like stalking people on Flickr.
I'm thinking maybe there's someone out there who's like me. Maybe they'll like watching my videos.
7. Went to Tallygarunga.
There's not a lot of new posts today. I'm guessing the American role-players are getting ready for their Thanksgiving preparations.
There is some stuff, though.
Today I'm going to read a classroom thing. It's called Dada 2011: Introductions and Disarming Spells. For those who aren't into the Harry Potter, Dada stands for Don't Ask Dracula Anything. It's a warning against vampires. Because they're not all like Edward Cullen and Bill Compton.
No. Actually. Dada stands for Defense Against The Dark Arts.
At Hogwarts, the teaching position for that class was cursed. So each year (and each book), you get a new teacher. I think most people would agree that the most dreadful teacher was in the fifth book— Dolores Umbridge.
I hate that woman.
She wouldn't impress me, even if she wore a tight casual flower dress.
8. Started to read.
The first post is by the professor; Ms. Sadhbh Daly. What sort of name is that? I'm guessing....Indian? Middle Eastern?
9. Consulted Google, and Lord Wiki came to help. He says the name comes from Irish mythology. Wow. I didn't expect that.
I wonder how the name is pronounced.
10. Saw that Professor Daly is very nervous. This is her first "secure" job. What is is a secure job? I'm not sure what that means. But Sadhbh doesn't seem that secure. She seems ready to be fired at any moment.
11. Saw Neural enter the class. And the next entrance is from Juli Preston. She's not looking forward to this particular class. Juli's interested in the dark side, but she's not happy with her wand abilities. Like Sadhbh, she's feeling insecure.
12. Learned, from Juli, that Professor Rodriguez is gone. What happened to her? Did she leave the school entirely?
Anyway, I'm reminded here that Tallygarunga, like Hogwarts, has bad luck in keeping their Dada teachers. They've already lost two.
13. Started to read the biography of Sadhbh Daly.
She's a new character; arrived on November 17. She has only seven posts.
I'm not sure if the role-player is new, though. She might have other characters.
14. Saw that Sadhbh's face claim is Morena Baccarin. I didn't know who that was, but Lord Wiki says she's Anna on the new V.
I wasn't a fan of the new V. I like the 1980's V. But I was intrigued somewhat by Anna.
Jack and I got really into playing Wii Fit last year. Or the year before? The female yoga teacher reminded me of Anna.
15. Watched a short Anna video.
I'm trying to picture her as a nervous Tallygarunga professor.
16. Saw that Sadhbh likes to wear eye make-up. I do too. I have fun with it.
I like lipstick, but it seems to come off as soon as you eat or drink. What's the point?
I guess it's good for when you're not planning to eat for awhile.
I don't wear any face make-up stuff. I think it's too hard to make it look natural.
No, that's not good reasoning. Eyeliner doesn't look natural; neither does my turquoise eyeshadow.
I guess what I mean to say is I think it's easy for foundation and powders to end up looking messy.
17. Learned that Sadhbh has her naval pierced, but she doesn't want many people knowing about it.
Why did she get it pierced? I thought the whole point of getting a body part pieced was to make a statement, enhance your appearance, etc.
I understand we all do things just for ourselves and not for the benefit of others. But why do something so painful?
Maybe it has special personal meaning to her?
OR maybe she did it in her youth as a fashion statement; and now she's no longer that happy with it. Maybe she likes it in a private way these days, but she's not interested in flaunting it.
I could never do a naval piercing. My naval area is my worst body part...well, at least on the exterior. I always look a bit pregnant.
Sometimes I look a lot pregnant....if I'm bloated enough.
18. Saw that one of my Thanksgiving montage videos features a Wiggles song.
It does feature amateur singing but not my amateur singing.
Jack's very cute in the video. He was two back then...in 2003.
If anyone is kind enough to watch the film, please note that it hiccups a bit at the beginning. I don't know why.
So, let it buffer a bit before trying to watch it.
19. Learned that Sadhbh is quiet. She's more of a listener than talker.
She does stand up for herself or people she cares about.
I don't know if it's my imagination; but it seems like this is a common trait among Tally characters. I seem to encounter it a lot.
I'm guessing it's an important value to Tally role-players.
It's probably an important value to almost everyone, but it seems to have special significance in Tallygarunga.
You stand by your friends...even if you're shy.
I think it's a good value. We should be there for our friends.
It's a bad idea, though, if your friend is a bully or other villain. Then you've become an accomplice.
20. Thought about the difficult situations in which we feel compelled to stand by someone, because we love them, yet we feel they're the ones in the wrong.
It's not fun.
21. Started to read Sadhbh's history.
Her mother's name was Aoife.
Aoife was the name of one of the characters in the Magic is Might experience. She was part of the Order of the Phoenix.
22. Saw that Salamanca Market is mentioned in Sadhbh's biography. I'm thinking her role-player is Australian, or she's done her research well. I don't think that's a detail about Australia that a usual non-Australian would know about.
The role-player could have just traveled to Australia—gone to Tasmania.
Maybe she's like me and is a American fan of Australia. I'm always hoping to find one so I can mail them some of my Australian books. Although I gave a lot of them away to Half Price books.
23. Continued to read.
Aoife was a Muggle. She lived in Sydney. She went on a brief holiday to Hobart. At the Salamanca Market, she met a charming weird guy.
They ended up getting married.
Before the wedding happened, the charming weird guy revealed his wizarding secret.
You know, that would be really awesome.
I'd be so excited.
Maybe I'd be a little scared too.
I'd be excited about making wizard babies.
I'm thrilled about making an Asian baby. Sometimes I look at Jack and think it's so awesome that I made a Korean baby. Well, I helped make him, at least.
I don't know.
I think there's something really cool about giving birth to a baby that's not the same race as you. It kind of makes you feel that you're part of that race too. Maybe? Every so often, I'll think to myself, my child may have relatives out there in Korea somewhere.
Or they could be anywhere. Maybe even Australia. Jack might have a Korean cousin hanging about in Hobart.
24. Learned that Aoife decided to tell her parents about the wizarding world.
They didn't have a good reaction to the whole thing.
Why not?
I can't imagine not being excited to learn there's a magical world out there.
Although maybe Aoife's parents just thought she and her new husband were delusional.
The good news is they eventually accepted him...at least to some degree.
25. Learned that Sadhbh had some difficulties in her early school years. She got in trouble a lot because of her temper.
I dealt with kids like that as a preschool teacher. It's not easy. Some of the kids seemed absolutely wicked...like future sociopaths. Others were darling and just seemed to have some impulse issues.
26. Learned that Sadhbh was taken out of her Muggle school because her parents worried she'd do some accidental magic on one of the other kids.
She was homeschooled for awhile.
27. Learned that Sadhbh went to Tallygarunga as a student; then she studied at the University. After that, she traveled around the UK, America, and China. She sounds very adventurous.
28. Saw that my Australian of the day is George Arden.
He was born sometime in 1820. The Australian Dictionary of Biography doesn't know his birthday.
He's kind of mysterious.
He could be an alien, or a wizard.
Oh! Maybe he's a vampire!
I talk in present tense, because if he was one of those things, I bet he'd still be alive.
29. Learned that George Arden claimed to be related to Shakespeare's mom.
That's cool.
I claim to be related to Marlee Matlin, but it's kind of a lie. We're distant family but not by blood. It's something like her grandmother was my grandma's stepmother.
No, we don't have Thanksgiving with her. We don't share our yams with Brad Pitt or Marlee Matlin.
We actually don't have yams.
We have sweet potatoes. They're different, right? I can't remember.
30. Learned that George Arden migrated to Sydney when he was about eighteen.
Later he moved to Melbourne.
He became a writer.
He also started his own newspaper—the Port Phillip Gazette. That was ambitious of him.
31. Learned from Lord Wiki, that the Port Phillip Gazette was around from 1838-1851. It didn't have a long life, but hopefully it had a meaningful one.
32. Saw that George Arden also had a short life. He died when he was thirty-four. I'm not sure how he died, but it seems that his last few years were unhappy ones. Unfortunately. He stopped having successes in the publishing business.
33. Decided it's time for me to look at more of Fredweng's 4th day in Australia.
Tomorrow I'll be looking at his fifth day. I wonder what he did that day. Did he stay in Sydney? Move onto somewhere else?
I get the idea that Fredweng traveled alone. Well, because he doesn't have many people in his photos.
I wonder if he was lonely.
I traveled alone for a few days. I went to NYC. It was fun, but I was a bit lonely.
At the time, I didn't think I was that lonely. I wanted to do it again. But now I look back and feel lonely when I remember it.
Tim and Jack went to Disney World together. Now I wish I had gone with them.
34. Thought that Jack would like this calamari.
He loves calamari.
35. Felt the Sydney Opera House is much less attractive from this angle.
36. Looked at driving directions from Brisbane to the Gold Coast on Google Maps. I'm thinking if we end up going to Australia in May or June, and we want to go where it's warm, we might be able to manage a short driving trip.
We could also stop at The Australia Zoo and hang out with Bindi Irwin. We might become her friend. Then we'll invite her over for Thanksgiving, so we can all share sweet potatoes together.
I mentioned the Gold Coast to Jack today, and he immediately brought up amusement parks. I told him he gets enough amusement parks. But I'll probably give in to his wishes. If we go in that area, I'm betting we'll spend at least one day at Dream World.
Then again...maybe not. I just remembered that there were amusement parks in the UK we could have traveled to. We didn't. We've never gone to the theme parks in Texas. And when we went to Universal Studios last year in Orlando, Jack hated it. He's more of a Disney World fan, than a theme park fan in general.
37. Felt an obligation to go to Cairns, but I've never had a strong attraction to the Great Barrier Reef. I'm not big into coral and tropical fish.
38. Figured maybe we'd just find a nice quiet town in Queensland and spend a week at a holiday park.
That's fun.
We'll also do Brisbane.
We'll do the big zoo.
We might not do anything.
I just like to plan things.
39. Went to Funtrivia to take another Australia quiz. This one's about the letter B.
40. Felt VERY angry at myself for getting the first question wrong.
It asked, which movie did Bruce Beresford NOT direct.
The answer was Mad Max. George Miller directed that movie.
I'm mad, because I knew that. I really did.
I just wasn't thinking carefully enough.
Damn.
41. Got question #2 wrong and learned there are certain rituals you're supposed to do while making tea.
You're supposed to swing the boiling billy thing in large arm arcs.
Really?
42. Found an article about making Billy tea. It doesn't mention the arm arcs.
43. Found another article about making Billy tea. They don't mention the arm arcs either.
44. Googled "making billy tea arm arc". Now I've found something. It's a website of traditional Australian recipes. They mention the circular arm movements.
45. Got question #3 wrong and learned there was an Australian musical variety show called Bandstand.
America had a bandstand show too.
46. Watched video of ABBA on Bandstand.
47. Learned from Lord Wiki that the video above is from a second attempt at the Bandstand TV show. The first show ran from 1958-1972. Then it was revived again in the mid 1970's.
Lord Wiki says this second attempt was a failure.
48. Got question #4 wrong and learned about the term Black Stump. It's another way of saying "Back of Beyond." You're going deep into the isolated areas of Australia.
I guess that would be the Outback.
49. Got the #6 question wrong. It was a true or false thing. Did The Age report a sighting of a Bunyip? I answered true.
I usually answer true if I don't know the answer.
The answer was false. I can tell by the wording of the answer that the trick of the question is Bunyips are mythical. They wouldn't be in a newspaper.
I DID know they were mythical creatures, however.
Mythical creatures are sometimes believed to be sighted, and sometimes things like that ARE mentioned in the newspaper.
50. Got question #7 wrong and learned there was no bushranger named Gentleman Harry.
That's fine.
51. Got question #8 wrong and learned Black Wednesday happened in 1878.
52. Found an article about Black Wednesday.
It involved a Premier named Graham Berry.
There was a political drama of some sort.
53. Got question #9 wrong and learned there was something in cricket in the 1930's called Bodyline.
Lord Wiki says British teams used it in order to try to combat Don Bradman.
The Australian team didn't like it much, and it caused some hostility between the two teams.
54. Thought of an analogy while exercising just now.
Someone saying they love me, but they're not interested in my blog is like someone saying they love the winter, but they don't like the cold or snow.
No wait. That's a bad analogy, because someone might like being INSIDE during the winter. They might like sitting near the fire while drinking some hot cocoa.
But if someone doesn't like my blog, how can they love me? My blog is my thoughts, my ideas, my sense of humor, etc. If they don't like my blog, then they don't like a HUGE chunk of me. Then what DO they like?
It's definitely not my cooking.
It's also not the state of my toenails. They're an ugly mess.
55. Started to understand lately that I'm too picky about the reasons people like me. I feel hurt by Tim sometimes, because I've always had the sense that he doesn't find me particularly attractive. It's really silly because with my previous serious boyfriend; I was mad because he seemed to like me ONLY for my looks. He liked that I had that mysterious ethnic thing going on.
I get annoyed when I feel people like me only for my blog. I get mad when people seem to like me only because "I'm supportive".
I guess I want people to know the WHOLE me and love me for that. But that's not really fair. Who has time for all that? And it's not like I know and love people for every reason available.
If I had to pick one thing, though, for people to love about me. It would be my blog. This is the most ME thing there is.
The exception would be Jack. I'd rather him not read my blog much. I love that he loves me for Mommy-type reasons. And he also loves me for stuffed animal reasons. He likes my different characters— their voices and personalities. When we play, it's very enjoyable for me. For a short time each day, I get to feel like a successful actor.
56. Decided I should shut up and get back to the quiz.
I was going to watch a video about the Bodyline thing.
The font on this video is hard for me to read.
At 1:54 in the video they show a telegraph written by the Australian Board of Control, asking them to stop the Bodyline thing.
This video, with it's choice of music, makes bodyline seem absolutely evil and tragic.
57. Figured I should try to actually learn about the techniques that bodyline involves.
Then I decided it was too complicated for me.
I'm not that interested in sports.
58. Got question #12 wrong, but I was close.
The question asked about Ita's last name. It's Buttrose. I said, Buttarose.
I know of her because Asher Keddie played her in a movie.
59. Got question #13 wrong because I wrote The Bee Gees instead of just Bee Gees.
Shit.
I think that's unfair.
I'm going to protest but after the Occupy people are finished with their stuff. I don't want to overshadow their efforts.
60. Got question #17 wrong because I didn't spell Bananas in Pajamas the Australian way.
This quiz is kind of annoying. Most quizzes give you more leniency with fill in the blank questions. They accept variations of the answer.
61. Decided I'm being unfair. Australians probably get penalized sometimes, with American things, when they use Australian spelling.
62. Got question #19 wrong and learned there's a town near the Blue Mountains called Blaxland.
63. Got question #20 wrong and learned the state that has the most border lines is New South Wales. I guess that would be the state's perimeter minus the coastal lines?
64. Finished the quiz. I got 8/20. The average score is 12/20.
That's not fair.
I should have gotten a good score on my birthday.
65. Wondered if I'll ever be good at these quizzes.
Honestly...it's doubtful. I might learn new stuff, but then it's likely I'll forget most of it.
66. Saw that the last Thanksgiving video I put up is blocked in Australia.
That's fine. It's not one of my favorites. The song is "We Are Family". That's blocked; and the other song that got one of my videos blocked, in Australia, is Arcade Fire's "Wake Up".
A lot of my videos are blocked in Germany. I suppose they have strict copyright rules.
67. Decided I will list and link my Thanksgiving videos. That way if someone is interested in watching them; they can watch one with a song that they like.
There's also some dialogue; so you can get a glimpse of my family.
A) 2005 part 1. This is the opening credits with the theme from The Godfather. It features Tim cooking. And it also has a Wiggles song; "John Bradlelum".
B) 2005 Part 3. This has the song "Whip It." It has more cooking footage. You can see my mom make her famous stuffing.
She doesn't stuff it into the turkey, though, which is good. That's a food poisoning risk.
C) 2005 Part 4 This one uses the song "Find Your Grail" from that musical. I forgot the name. It's a Monty Python thing. In this video, we play some crazy made-up sports game on the lawn.
D) 2005 Part 5. This one has the song "I Shall Not Walk Alone". I was introduced to it via Lost. Now I can't remember where and when the song was played. This video might be a bit touching....if you're into quiet family scenes. But it's probably a bit boring.
You might like it if you're a fan of the music played on Lost.
E) 2005 Part 6. This one features a Reggae version of "Life Goes On". This is one of my favorite videos that I've made. I'm very proud of it.
F) 2003 Part 1 This one features a Neil Diamond song. It has more cooking scenes...and other stuff.
G) 2003 Part 2. This video features a song called "Hatari Baby Elephant Walk." I'm not sure how I got that song.
Anyway, this has the actual Thanksgiving dinner. It has a lot of dialogue.
H) 2003 Part 3. This is a short one featuring a song one from Barney. It's good to listen to if you're self-esteem is a bit low.
J) 2003 Part 4. This is another very short one. It features a cute recording of "Ring Around the Rosy". It has cute toddler scenes.
K) 2003 Part 5. This is the one I embedded above. It features the song "Wiggle Bay". It has more cute toddler scenes.
L) 2003 Part 6. This has the song "Back in the Saddle Again". It's a fun song. The scenes show a typical morning at the lake house.
M) 2003 Part 7 This has a song quietly played in the background. I forgot the name. It's about space. I think it's pretty famous. The video is heavy on dialogue. We go around the table and talk about our thankfulness. We forgot to do it at the actual Thanksgiving meal.
N) 2003 Part 8 This has the song from...some movie. I forgot what it is. Watch it, and then tell me. Okay? This one has scenes from our local synagogue. It was back in the days where I tried to give Jack some Jewish cultural experiences. Some of us left the Lake House to go to a "Tot Shabbat".
O) 2003 Part 9 This video features a Joni Mitchell song. It shows us having house guests at the lake house. One of the guests is a doctor.
I had a Livejournal friend who later became a Facebook friend. Her son got Leukemia. We somehow figured out that our old family friend is her son's doctor. It was one of those small world things. It probably wouldn't be that strange if we all lived in Texas. But my friend's family, and the doctor guy, are all in Tennessee.
P) 2003 Part 10. This video features another movie score that I can't identify. I want to say it's something from Rachel Portman. Again, please listen to it and tell me what it it, if you're good at that type of thing.
It MIGHT be Fried Green Tomatoes.
Q) 2003 Part 11 This is the one that's banned in Australia. It has the song "We are Family". It features Tim giving advice on buying grills.
2. Found an Australian related thing in my old Livejournal entries. This one is from September 21, 2007.
I had one of those hypnagogic things. Cities on Australia map. One called "Mitt". Between Perth and Adelaide. And then one called Lewis.
I'm surprised I even know about Perth and Adelaide back then. I did start reading a lot about Australia at that time, though. I guess I was already learning some basic geography.
Is there a town called Mitt or Lewis in Australia? I don't think so.
Maybe there's a guy living between Perth and Adelaide named Mitt Lewis, and I'm supposed to meet him someday.
3. Found an old dream about Australia. This is one from September 24, 2007.
Stuff about Sydney. I see a show or see it in real life. All these women wear casual flower dresses that enhance their breasts. Kind of trampy. I figure this is what they mean by casual clothes. I'm not too happy about it.
At one point I'm in Sydney and wear a hat. I realize it's all puffed up and messed up. I'm embarrassed.
At one point I'm in Sydney and wear a hat. I realize it's all puffed up and messed up. I'm embarrassed.
I'm guessing that one was a packing-anxiety dream.
In real life, I love casual flower dresses that enhance breasts.
I love anything that enhances breasts.
I love breasts, period. That's why I suspect I'm at least 15% lesbian.
4. Learned from Blogger that I'm not following any blogs.
I guess it's a glitch.
I think it's happened to me before.
5. Hoped that any Americans reading this have a happy Thanksgiving.
If any Australians are interested in seeing an example of an American Thanksgiving, I'm spending a big chunk of today extracting and uploading my old Thanksgiving montage videos. They're on our YouTube channel if anyone wants to watch them.
I'm making this sound like a multicultural learning opportunity. In reality, I just want people to watch my videos. I'm proud of them. They're much better than my singing. And don't worry. I don't sing on the videos.
Anyway, yeah. I'm sure Australians have seen too much American Thanksgiving because they watch all that American TV. But my videos are about REAL Thanksgivings, and not fictional ones. Brad Pitt doesn't come and eat our yams.
If you're kind enough to give my YouTube Thanksgiving videos attention, you'll see that there's a bunch of different parts. They don't need to be watched in order, or anything. Each video is a montage with a different song. Just pick one and see if you're bored to tears or not.
6. Understood that many people don't like watching other people's home videos. I do, though—just like I like stalking people on Flickr.
I'm thinking maybe there's someone out there who's like me. Maybe they'll like watching my videos.
7. Went to Tallygarunga.
There's not a lot of new posts today. I'm guessing the American role-players are getting ready for their Thanksgiving preparations.
There is some stuff, though.
Today I'm going to read a classroom thing. It's called Dada 2011: Introductions and Disarming Spells. For those who aren't into the Harry Potter, Dada stands for Don't Ask Dracula Anything. It's a warning against vampires. Because they're not all like Edward Cullen and Bill Compton.
No. Actually. Dada stands for Defense Against The Dark Arts.
At Hogwarts, the teaching position for that class was cursed. So each year (and each book), you get a new teacher. I think most people would agree that the most dreadful teacher was in the fifth book— Dolores Umbridge.
I hate that woman.
She wouldn't impress me, even if she wore a tight casual flower dress.
8. Started to read.
The first post is by the professor; Ms. Sadhbh Daly. What sort of name is that? I'm guessing....Indian? Middle Eastern?
9. Consulted Google, and Lord Wiki came to help. He says the name comes from Irish mythology. Wow. I didn't expect that.
I wonder how the name is pronounced.
10. Saw that Professor Daly is very nervous. This is her first "secure" job. What is is a secure job? I'm not sure what that means. But Sadhbh doesn't seem that secure. She seems ready to be fired at any moment.
11. Saw Neural enter the class. And the next entrance is from Juli Preston. She's not looking forward to this particular class. Juli's interested in the dark side, but she's not happy with her wand abilities. Like Sadhbh, she's feeling insecure.
12. Learned, from Juli, that Professor Rodriguez is gone. What happened to her? Did she leave the school entirely?
Anyway, I'm reminded here that Tallygarunga, like Hogwarts, has bad luck in keeping their Dada teachers. They've already lost two.
13. Started to read the biography of Sadhbh Daly.
She's a new character; arrived on November 17. She has only seven posts.
I'm not sure if the role-player is new, though. She might have other characters.
14. Saw that Sadhbh's face claim is Morena Baccarin. I didn't know who that was, but Lord Wiki says she's Anna on the new V.
I wasn't a fan of the new V. I like the 1980's V. But I was intrigued somewhat by Anna.
Jack and I got really into playing Wii Fit last year. Or the year before? The female yoga teacher reminded me of Anna.
15. Watched a short Anna video.
I'm trying to picture her as a nervous Tallygarunga professor.
16. Saw that Sadhbh likes to wear eye make-up. I do too. I have fun with it.
I like lipstick, but it seems to come off as soon as you eat or drink. What's the point?
I guess it's good for when you're not planning to eat for awhile.
I don't wear any face make-up stuff. I think it's too hard to make it look natural.
No, that's not good reasoning. Eyeliner doesn't look natural; neither does my turquoise eyeshadow.
I guess what I mean to say is I think it's easy for foundation and powders to end up looking messy.
17. Learned that Sadhbh has her naval pierced, but she doesn't want many people knowing about it.
Why did she get it pierced? I thought the whole point of getting a body part pieced was to make a statement, enhance your appearance, etc.
I understand we all do things just for ourselves and not for the benefit of others. But why do something so painful?
Maybe it has special personal meaning to her?
OR maybe she did it in her youth as a fashion statement; and now she's no longer that happy with it. Maybe she likes it in a private way these days, but she's not interested in flaunting it.
I could never do a naval piercing. My naval area is my worst body part...well, at least on the exterior. I always look a bit pregnant.
Sometimes I look a lot pregnant....if I'm bloated enough.
18. Saw that one of my Thanksgiving montage videos features a Wiggles song.
It does feature amateur singing but not my amateur singing.
Jack's very cute in the video. He was two back then...in 2003.
If anyone is kind enough to watch the film, please note that it hiccups a bit at the beginning. I don't know why.
So, let it buffer a bit before trying to watch it.
19. Learned that Sadhbh is quiet. She's more of a listener than talker.
She does stand up for herself or people she cares about.
I don't know if it's my imagination; but it seems like this is a common trait among Tally characters. I seem to encounter it a lot.
I'm guessing it's an important value to Tally role-players.
It's probably an important value to almost everyone, but it seems to have special significance in Tallygarunga.
You stand by your friends...even if you're shy.
I think it's a good value. We should be there for our friends.
It's a bad idea, though, if your friend is a bully or other villain. Then you've become an accomplice.
20. Thought about the difficult situations in which we feel compelled to stand by someone, because we love them, yet we feel they're the ones in the wrong.
It's not fun.
21. Started to read Sadhbh's history.
Her mother's name was Aoife.
Aoife was the name of one of the characters in the Magic is Might experience. She was part of the Order of the Phoenix.
22. Saw that Salamanca Market is mentioned in Sadhbh's biography. I'm thinking her role-player is Australian, or she's done her research well. I don't think that's a detail about Australia that a usual non-Australian would know about.
The role-player could have just traveled to Australia—gone to Tasmania.
Maybe she's like me and is a American fan of Australia. I'm always hoping to find one so I can mail them some of my Australian books. Although I gave a lot of them away to Half Price books.
23. Continued to read.
Aoife was a Muggle. She lived in Sydney. She went on a brief holiday to Hobart. At the Salamanca Market, she met a charming weird guy.
They ended up getting married.
Before the wedding happened, the charming weird guy revealed his wizarding secret.
You know, that would be really awesome.
I'd be so excited.
Maybe I'd be a little scared too.
I'd be excited about making wizard babies.
I'm thrilled about making an Asian baby. Sometimes I look at Jack and think it's so awesome that I made a Korean baby. Well, I helped make him, at least.
I don't know.
I think there's something really cool about giving birth to a baby that's not the same race as you. It kind of makes you feel that you're part of that race too. Maybe? Every so often, I'll think to myself, my child may have relatives out there in Korea somewhere.
Or they could be anywhere. Maybe even Australia. Jack might have a Korean cousin hanging about in Hobart.
24. Learned that Aoife decided to tell her parents about the wizarding world.
They didn't have a good reaction to the whole thing.
Why not?
I can't imagine not being excited to learn there's a magical world out there.
Although maybe Aoife's parents just thought she and her new husband were delusional.
The good news is they eventually accepted him...at least to some degree.
25. Learned that Sadhbh had some difficulties in her early school years. She got in trouble a lot because of her temper.
I dealt with kids like that as a preschool teacher. It's not easy. Some of the kids seemed absolutely wicked...like future sociopaths. Others were darling and just seemed to have some impulse issues.
26. Learned that Sadhbh was taken out of her Muggle school because her parents worried she'd do some accidental magic on one of the other kids.
She was homeschooled for awhile.
27. Learned that Sadhbh went to Tallygarunga as a student; then she studied at the University. After that, she traveled around the UK, America, and China. She sounds very adventurous.
28. Saw that my Australian of the day is George Arden.
He was born sometime in 1820. The Australian Dictionary of Biography doesn't know his birthday.
He's kind of mysterious.
He could be an alien, or a wizard.
Oh! Maybe he's a vampire!
I talk in present tense, because if he was one of those things, I bet he'd still be alive.
29. Learned that George Arden claimed to be related to Shakespeare's mom.
That's cool.
I claim to be related to Marlee Matlin, but it's kind of a lie. We're distant family but not by blood. It's something like her grandmother was my grandma's stepmother.
No, we don't have Thanksgiving with her. We don't share our yams with Brad Pitt or Marlee Matlin.
We actually don't have yams.
We have sweet potatoes. They're different, right? I can't remember.
30. Learned that George Arden migrated to Sydney when he was about eighteen.
Later he moved to Melbourne.
He became a writer.
He also started his own newspaper—the Port Phillip Gazette. That was ambitious of him.
31. Learned from Lord Wiki, that the Port Phillip Gazette was around from 1838-1851. It didn't have a long life, but hopefully it had a meaningful one.
32. Saw that George Arden also had a short life. He died when he was thirty-four. I'm not sure how he died, but it seems that his last few years were unhappy ones. Unfortunately. He stopped having successes in the publishing business.
33. Decided it's time for me to look at more of Fredweng's 4th day in Australia.
Tomorrow I'll be looking at his fifth day. I wonder what he did that day. Did he stay in Sydney? Move onto somewhere else?
I get the idea that Fredweng traveled alone. Well, because he doesn't have many people in his photos.
I wonder if he was lonely.
I traveled alone for a few days. I went to NYC. It was fun, but I was a bit lonely.
At the time, I didn't think I was that lonely. I wanted to do it again. But now I look back and feel lonely when I remember it.
Tim and Jack went to Disney World together. Now I wish I had gone with them.
34. Thought that Jack would like this calamari.
He loves calamari.
35. Felt the Sydney Opera House is much less attractive from this angle.
36. Looked at driving directions from Brisbane to the Gold Coast on Google Maps. I'm thinking if we end up going to Australia in May or June, and we want to go where it's warm, we might be able to manage a short driving trip.
We could also stop at The Australia Zoo and hang out with Bindi Irwin. We might become her friend. Then we'll invite her over for Thanksgiving, so we can all share sweet potatoes together.
I mentioned the Gold Coast to Jack today, and he immediately brought up amusement parks. I told him he gets enough amusement parks. But I'll probably give in to his wishes. If we go in that area, I'm betting we'll spend at least one day at Dream World.
Then again...maybe not. I just remembered that there were amusement parks in the UK we could have traveled to. We didn't. We've never gone to the theme parks in Texas. And when we went to Universal Studios last year in Orlando, Jack hated it. He's more of a Disney World fan, than a theme park fan in general.
37. Felt an obligation to go to Cairns, but I've never had a strong attraction to the Great Barrier Reef. I'm not big into coral and tropical fish.
38. Figured maybe we'd just find a nice quiet town in Queensland and spend a week at a holiday park.
That's fun.
We'll also do Brisbane.
We'll do the big zoo.
We might not do anything.
I just like to plan things.
39. Went to Funtrivia to take another Australia quiz. This one's about the letter B.
40. Felt VERY angry at myself for getting the first question wrong.
It asked, which movie did Bruce Beresford NOT direct.
The answer was Mad Max. George Miller directed that movie.
I'm mad, because I knew that. I really did.
I just wasn't thinking carefully enough.
Damn.
41. Got question #2 wrong and learned there are certain rituals you're supposed to do while making tea.
You're supposed to swing the boiling billy thing in large arm arcs.
Really?
42. Found an article about making Billy tea. It doesn't mention the arm arcs.
43. Found another article about making Billy tea. They don't mention the arm arcs either.
44. Googled "making billy tea arm arc". Now I've found something. It's a website of traditional Australian recipes. They mention the circular arm movements.
45. Got question #3 wrong and learned there was an Australian musical variety show called Bandstand.
America had a bandstand show too.
46. Watched video of ABBA on Bandstand.
47. Learned from Lord Wiki that the video above is from a second attempt at the Bandstand TV show. The first show ran from 1958-1972. Then it was revived again in the mid 1970's.
Lord Wiki says this second attempt was a failure.
48. Got question #4 wrong and learned about the term Black Stump. It's another way of saying "Back of Beyond." You're going deep into the isolated areas of Australia.
I guess that would be the Outback.
49. Got the #6 question wrong. It was a true or false thing. Did The Age report a sighting of a Bunyip? I answered true.
I usually answer true if I don't know the answer.
The answer was false. I can tell by the wording of the answer that the trick of the question is Bunyips are mythical. They wouldn't be in a newspaper.
I DID know they were mythical creatures, however.
Mythical creatures are sometimes believed to be sighted, and sometimes things like that ARE mentioned in the newspaper.
50. Got question #7 wrong and learned there was no bushranger named Gentleman Harry.
That's fine.
51. Got question #8 wrong and learned Black Wednesday happened in 1878.
52. Found an article about Black Wednesday.
It involved a Premier named Graham Berry.
There was a political drama of some sort.
53. Got question #9 wrong and learned there was something in cricket in the 1930's called Bodyline.
Lord Wiki says British teams used it in order to try to combat Don Bradman.
The Australian team didn't like it much, and it caused some hostility between the two teams.
54. Thought of an analogy while exercising just now.
Someone saying they love me, but they're not interested in my blog is like someone saying they love the winter, but they don't like the cold or snow.
No wait. That's a bad analogy, because someone might like being INSIDE during the winter. They might like sitting near the fire while drinking some hot cocoa.
But if someone doesn't like my blog, how can they love me? My blog is my thoughts, my ideas, my sense of humor, etc. If they don't like my blog, then they don't like a HUGE chunk of me. Then what DO they like?
It's definitely not my cooking.
It's also not the state of my toenails. They're an ugly mess.
55. Started to understand lately that I'm too picky about the reasons people like me. I feel hurt by Tim sometimes, because I've always had the sense that he doesn't find me particularly attractive. It's really silly because with my previous serious boyfriend; I was mad because he seemed to like me ONLY for my looks. He liked that I had that mysterious ethnic thing going on.
I get annoyed when I feel people like me only for my blog. I get mad when people seem to like me only because "I'm supportive".
I guess I want people to know the WHOLE me and love me for that. But that's not really fair. Who has time for all that? And it's not like I know and love people for every reason available.
If I had to pick one thing, though, for people to love about me. It would be my blog. This is the most ME thing there is.
The exception would be Jack. I'd rather him not read my blog much. I love that he loves me for Mommy-type reasons. And he also loves me for stuffed animal reasons. He likes my different characters— their voices and personalities. When we play, it's very enjoyable for me. For a short time each day, I get to feel like a successful actor.
56. Decided I should shut up and get back to the quiz.
I was going to watch a video about the Bodyline thing.
The font on this video is hard for me to read.
At 1:54 in the video they show a telegraph written by the Australian Board of Control, asking them to stop the Bodyline thing.
This video, with it's choice of music, makes bodyline seem absolutely evil and tragic.
57. Figured I should try to actually learn about the techniques that bodyline involves.
Then I decided it was too complicated for me.
I'm not that interested in sports.
58. Got question #12 wrong, but I was close.
The question asked about Ita's last name. It's Buttrose. I said, Buttarose.
I know of her because Asher Keddie played her in a movie.
59. Got question #13 wrong because I wrote The Bee Gees instead of just Bee Gees.
Shit.
I think that's unfair.
I'm going to protest but after the Occupy people are finished with their stuff. I don't want to overshadow their efforts.
60. Got question #17 wrong because I didn't spell Bananas in Pajamas the Australian way.
This quiz is kind of annoying. Most quizzes give you more leniency with fill in the blank questions. They accept variations of the answer.
61. Decided I'm being unfair. Australians probably get penalized sometimes, with American things, when they use Australian spelling.
62. Got question #19 wrong and learned there's a town near the Blue Mountains called Blaxland.
63. Got question #20 wrong and learned the state that has the most border lines is New South Wales. I guess that would be the state's perimeter minus the coastal lines?
64. Finished the quiz. I got 8/20. The average score is 12/20.
That's not fair.
I should have gotten a good score on my birthday.
65. Wondered if I'll ever be good at these quizzes.
Honestly...it's doubtful. I might learn new stuff, but then it's likely I'll forget most of it.
66. Saw that the last Thanksgiving video I put up is blocked in Australia.
That's fine. It's not one of my favorites. The song is "We Are Family". That's blocked; and the other song that got one of my videos blocked, in Australia, is Arcade Fire's "Wake Up".
A lot of my videos are blocked in Germany. I suppose they have strict copyright rules.
67. Decided I will list and link my Thanksgiving videos. That way if someone is interested in watching them; they can watch one with a song that they like.
There's also some dialogue; so you can get a glimpse of my family.
A) 2005 part 1. This is the opening credits with the theme from The Godfather. It features Tim cooking. And it also has a Wiggles song; "John Bradlelum".
B) 2005 Part 3. This has the song "Whip It." It has more cooking footage. You can see my mom make her famous stuffing.
She doesn't stuff it into the turkey, though, which is good. That's a food poisoning risk.
C) 2005 Part 4 This one uses the song "Find Your Grail" from that musical. I forgot the name. It's a Monty Python thing. In this video, we play some crazy made-up sports game on the lawn.
D) 2005 Part 5. This one has the song "I Shall Not Walk Alone". I was introduced to it via Lost. Now I can't remember where and when the song was played. This video might be a bit touching....if you're into quiet family scenes. But it's probably a bit boring.
You might like it if you're a fan of the music played on Lost.
E) 2005 Part 6. This one features a Reggae version of "Life Goes On". This is one of my favorite videos that I've made. I'm very proud of it.
F) 2003 Part 1 This one features a Neil Diamond song. It has more cooking scenes...and other stuff.
G) 2003 Part 2. This video features a song called "Hatari Baby Elephant Walk." I'm not sure how I got that song.
Anyway, this has the actual Thanksgiving dinner. It has a lot of dialogue.
H) 2003 Part 3. This is a short one featuring a song one from Barney. It's good to listen to if you're self-esteem is a bit low.
J) 2003 Part 4. This is another very short one. It features a cute recording of "Ring Around the Rosy". It has cute toddler scenes.
K) 2003 Part 5. This is the one I embedded above. It features the song "Wiggle Bay". It has more cute toddler scenes.
L) 2003 Part 6. This has the song "Back in the Saddle Again". It's a fun song. The scenes show a typical morning at the lake house.
M) 2003 Part 7 This has a song quietly played in the background. I forgot the name. It's about space. I think it's pretty famous. The video is heavy on dialogue. We go around the table and talk about our thankfulness. We forgot to do it at the actual Thanksgiving meal.
N) 2003 Part 8 This has the song from...some movie. I forgot what it is. Watch it, and then tell me. Okay? This one has scenes from our local synagogue. It was back in the days where I tried to give Jack some Jewish cultural experiences. Some of us left the Lake House to go to a "Tot Shabbat".
O) 2003 Part 9 This video features a Joni Mitchell song. It shows us having house guests at the lake house. One of the guests is a doctor.
I had a Livejournal friend who later became a Facebook friend. Her son got Leukemia. We somehow figured out that our old family friend is her son's doctor. It was one of those small world things. It probably wouldn't be that strange if we all lived in Texas. But my friend's family, and the doctor guy, are all in Tennessee.
P) 2003 Part 10. This video features another movie score that I can't identify. I want to say it's something from Rachel Portman. Again, please listen to it and tell me what it it, if you're good at that type of thing.
It MIGHT be Fried Green Tomatoes.
Q) 2003 Part 11 This is the one that's banned in Australia. It has the song "We are Family". It features Tim giving advice on buying grills.