Beards, Belgium, Depression, and Disagreement

1. Looked at Triple J's Hottest 100.

It's a thing where people voted for the best songs of 2011. 

2. Saw that the 100th song is by a group/singer called Mr. Little Jeans.  According to their Facebook page, they're from Fiji.  So I guess the Triple J countdown includes groups outside Australia. 

3. Saw the 99th song on the list was from an Adelaide group called The Beards. Their winning song is called "You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man".

4. Started to watch a video of the song. 



I like their voices.

And it's a funny song.

I don't know if I like their beards, though.

5. Learned from Lord Wiki that The Beards have another song called "If Your Dad Doesn't Have a Beard, You have Two Moms".

That's very funny.

I'm watching the video now.



It's funny.   Most of all, though, I'm impressed with the singing.  I like that kind of voice. It reminds me of Michael Odokara-Okigbo From the Sing Off Season 3. 

6. Saw that song # 87 is from an Australian singer.  It's Gotye.  That name has been on my YouTube recommendation lately.  I've been ignoring it.  I wonder, though, if it means I've listened to him before. Or maybe they put it there since I watch other Australian music videos.

7. Started watching the Gotye video.



Actually, I'm just listening. There's not much on the video to watch. 

I like the song, but I don't love it. Maybe it would grow on me in time.

8. Read article that says Gotye is going to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live next week.  The article also says that one of Gotye's other songs ("Somebody That I Used To Know") was expected to be Triple J's #1 song.

The article came out before the Triple J winners were announced.

So, was the prediction correct?

Did they win?

I shall peek ahead.

9. Saw that Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" DID come out as the number one song.

I was about to listen to the song and then I got this idea I've heard it before. I have some song in my head.  But I think might be something totally different.

10. Started to listen to the song and...yeah. I heard it before. It's the song that I had in my head.

And I knew I had heard it from my iTunes DJ.

I wondered why I had it on my iTunes DJ.   

Then I looked to the paper to the right of my computer. It's the list of songs that Jayne from Gleeful put on the CD she made me. "Somebody that I Used to Know" is song #17.  

11. Checked my iTunes. My DJ has played the song seven times for me.  

He's played "Unguarded Moment" eleven times. That's my favorite song on the CD.

12. Dreamed about Red Nomad Oz.   She sends me a comment about animals that change colors.   I think about her comment and try to figure out what I'll write back. I remember learning that these animals change colors to match the colors of the other animals they're with.  

13. Felt that we may not go to Australia for a few years. I don't know. I could be wrong.   Money is an issue but not the biggest issue. Health is an issue, but I'm hoping Tim's medicine works, and it won't be a big issue for too long. 

The main issue for me might be the cats.  I wouldn't want to go on fourteen plus hour plane trip for a short trip to Australia.  I'd want to stay for at least a month.

I feel really sad leaving the cats for that long. The last time we were away, someone stayed at our house.  She's out of our lives, though, and I'm not sure I was fully pleased with her cat sitting services anyway. 

I also feel stressed about finding a time to go. I had May 2014 in mind, but then learned my niece is having her Bat Mitzvah then. We're not going to miss that to go on a holiday.

Right now I feel we won't be in Australia earlier than 2015.  It might be later than that.  It could be earlier.  Who knows.  In the meantime, we'll escape Texas by taking short to medium length trips in America.  We're going to San Francisco this summer for a wedding. That might be nice. And the Botanical Gardens there has a nice Australia exhibit.  There's small bits of talk about us going to Hawaii, because we sort of already have the plane tickets.  

I actually don't mind Texas too much right now because it has really beautiful trees. I'm into trees lately. I don't like learning about them, though. I'm extremely tree-ignorant. I just like looking at them.

14. Figured if I don't get back to Australia anytime soon, it's okay, because I still have Australia in my heart, on the internet, and in my dreams.

I also have a ton of Australia on my bookshelves.

And when I'm at home, I talk with an Australian accent at least half the time. So I have that too.

All I really need is cockatoos and lorikeets visiting me on my porch. Then I might be fully satisfied.

15. Decided I will aim for going to Australia for my 50th birthday. That will be in 2022.  If it happens before that, great. Or maybe not great, because it could mean I have a fatal disease, and I'm going as my last wish or something.

Well, who knows....

There could be a less benign and/or wonderful reason for us to go to Australia earlier. That would be nice.  I'll be happy about it. But if we don't go before 2022, I won't be unhappy about it.

Does that make sense?

16. Remembered that my Australian of the day is the daddy of Frederick and Charles. George Armytage.  

Armytage was born in England in 1795.

He spent some of his childhood in the birthplace of Gotye.

When he was around twenty, he migrated to Van Diemen's Land.

He married the daughter of a convict.

He got some land.

He worked the land.

He did well for himself and his family.  

17. Reread some paragraphs and saw something I missed.

Armytage's father was from Belgium.  So George Armytage and his son have Belgium ancestry.

Gotye has Belgium ancestry too. According to Lord Wiki, Gotye did the migration thing when he was a toddler.

18. Had very stressful and negative interactions with someone from Perth.  Now my love for that city has diminished.

I hate when I do things like that.

The good news is I'm usually able to eventually work through the irrational thinking.

It's like when I failed the singing audition at Disney World and vowed never to sing again. That lasted for a few sad days.  Now I'm back to singing...quite a lot.

The only thing I can't quite manage is to sing or hear "Part of Your World". That's what I was going to sing for my second audition.

Oh and I also have sad feelings about the Chiquita Banana song, because that's what I sang for the failed audition.

I don't hold any hard feelings against bananas, though.  I ate one with my cereal yesterday.

It is funny/sad though.   Because this one person in Perth has made it clear that she strongly dislikes me, I feel EVERYONE in Perth hates me.

Does anyone else ever feel silly things like that, or am I extremely unique?

19. Remembered to look at an Australian time zone map. I figure it might be important for our pretend Australia trip.

I didn't know that South Australia and the Northern Territory are 16/15 hours PLUS 30 minutes ahead of us.   So it's 10:07 in Fort Worth right now.    In Adelaide, it's not 2:07 am.   It's 2:37. In Darwin it's 1:37.

20. Started to look at Fredweng's twenty-first day in Australia Flickr set.

It's a short set.

And there's only a few more days left.

I shall have to find someone new to stalk.  

21. Saw that the hostel, Fredweng stayed at, has a view of Uluru.  

22. Saw that Fredweng went to Melbourne next.

Did he go there before?

I can't remember.  

23. Glanced at Fredweng's sets.  It doesn't look like he went to Melbourne earlier.

To my defense, it's been a long time since I looked at his earlier pictures.  Plus, I get his photos confused with other Flickr accounts I've stalked.  

24. Went back to the Triple J countdown page.

Song #86 is from a group called Seeker Lover Keeper.  It's called "Light All My Lights".

I went to Seeker Lover Keeper's website and saw one of their members is Sally Seltmann. I like her.   She sings one of the songs from Offspring that I love.  



25. Read more carefully and saw Sarah Blasko is another one of the members.

Now that I think of it, one of my email-pals had mentioned this group.  I think.  I remember her telling me about some group made up of Aussie female singers I knew of.

26. Started to watch video of concert performance of song #86.  



I think Blasko is the one doing the main vocals.

27. Decided to do some research on the definition of depression.

Someone was angry that I used the word sad in reference to what they had specified as being depressed.

I went back to edit the words, so I might be less offensive to this person. Why?  Probably because I have that issue of being overly eager to please others.  

Yesterday I briefly glanced at some websites about depression.  It seemed, from what I saw, that depression is NOT necessarily a psychiatric condition.  It can be a basic human emotion unpleasant but not necessarily needing major interventions. 

I'm going to look more closely now.

28.  Started with Dictionary.com   The first two definitions are the rather unhelpful types. The state of being depressed.   Yeah.  That helps a lot. 

The fourth definition is sadness; gloom; dejection.  I've had that before. So I've been depressed.

The fifth definition is listed from coming from psychiatry.   It is:

a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason. Compare clinical depression. 

So although there is a psychiatric depression, that may or may not be treated with medication, there is also a non-psychiatric depression. By looking at the psychiatry definition, I'd say medication should not readily be used when the sadness, gloom, and dejection is caused by an actual exterior reason.

What's a valid reason?   I think it's hard to judge.  Different things make different people sad.   If someone is depressed that they lost their favorite pair of shoes, and they've been depressed for months over this, we might need to worry and get them help. It might not mean, though, that they have a chemical imbalance that needs to be fixed with medication.  If we talk to them, we might learn that the shoes had huge symbolic meaning in their life. The loss of something seemingly trivial might signify a much larger loss.   

29. Saw that the World Health Organization has only the psychiatric definition of depression. For them, it's all about mental disorders.  

30. Saw that the Mayo Clinic has labeled their page on depression as being about Major Depression.   That would mean there's also a non-major depression.  

They say that major depression can also be called clinical depression.  

The website says, Clinical depression causes noticeable disruptions in daily life, such as work, school or social activities. It can affect people of any age or sex, including children. It isn't the same as depression caused by a loss (such as the death of a loved one), substance abuse or a medical condition such as a thyroid disorder.

So if someone has broken up with their beloved (which IS a loss) and is being relentlessly bullied, I think it IS reasonable for me to question why they're being treated for clinical depression.

30. Felt sad and disappointed that there are people in the world who can't distinguish between fact and opinion and act hateful towards anyone who disagrees with them. Their viewpoint of things is gospel, and he who disagrees with them better get the hell away.

I'm not depressed about it, though, mainly because I know of wonderful open-minded people.  They have different opinions than me sometimes. We don't always see eye-to-eye; but we're still respectful.  And not only that....sometimes we actually learn from each other.

What worries me is that the rigid, closed-minded mean people outnumber the open-minded, patient, and gentle people.    

I'm hopeful though that one day this will somehow change.

31. Found my next Flickr stalking target.
I figure it will be easier to say good-bye to Fredweng if I have someone to take his place.

32. Looked at Triple J's song #84. It's by Josh Pyke.  "Throw It Away."

33. Saw that Josh Pyke is going to be performing at King's Park in Perth on February 18.

34.  Started listening to "Throw It Away".   I guess it's hip-hop?



I really don't know the difference between hip-hop and rap.

35. Realized I have things confused.

The rapper I'm hearing is not Josh Pyke.  It's 360. I saw 360 also in the Triple J listing, but thought it was maybe Josh Pyke's music name.

"Throw it Away" is a collaboration between Josh Pyke and 360.  

Yeah.  I'm not the brightest sometimes, especially when it comes to music.

36. Saw that song #81 on the Triple J countdown is called "Biding My Time."It's by a Rockhampton group called Busby Marou.  

37. Started listening to "Biding My Time."




I like it.

It's quite lovely.

38. Saw that Busby Marou will be playing at the St. Kilda Festival on February 12.

39. Felt happy that I can take a Funtrivia quiz.

The site has been down for the last hour of so.

Anyway...

Today I'm taking a geography quiz. 

40. Got question #1 correct; and guess where I learned the answer originally....

Funtrivia!  It's about the Artesian Basin, and I learned about that from another quiz. 

I'm glad I got it right.

It means the Funtrivia is actually working as a learning device. 

41. Got question #7 wrong because I wasn't thinking broadly enough. It asked about Australia cuisine through most of its history.  What culture has it mostly been derived from?   I chose Britain, because I had white Australia history in Mind. The answer was traditional Aboriginal cuisine.

42. Got question #9 wrong and learned Australia is the 4th largest exporter of wine.

I chose rum.

But now that I'm thinking about it, wine makes more sense.

Rum does play a big part in Sydney's history, but it doesn't mean Australia is exporting a lot of it now.

I think what I had in mind though was Bundaberg Rum.

43. Finished the quiz.   I got an 8/10.

I think the quiz was a little off.  Many of the questions weren't about geography.

I think it was more of a miscellaneous quiz.