I found this treasure on Flickr today.
Thanks to Tiabunna for scanning it and uploading it.
I was listening to this song when I found the photo.
I thought it fit my mood quite well.
Showing posts with label Australian music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian music. Show all posts
David Campbell
Lately I've been thinking it would be funny if celebrities auditioned for the blind auditions on The Voice.
Well...my wish has come true.
In my music research adventures I came across a guy named David Campbell. He's a celebrity, and he snuck into the blind auditions as a joke.
None of the coaches seemed to recognize his voice. Keith Urban and Delta Goodrem recognized him as soon as they turned around. They seemed amused. The American and British coach looked completely lost. I feel put off by their ignorance, but I shouldn't. I didn't know who David Campbell was until about five minutes ago.
Lord Wiki has informed me that he's the son of Jimmy Barnes.
Cool!
I know Jimmy Barnes' daughter also auditioned for the show...for real and not as a joke. She got put on a team.
Well, and I just saw she was eliminated in the battle rounds.
I'm seeing all kinds of interesting things from Lord Wiki.
Such as....
Jimmy Barnes has Jewish ancestry.
David Campbell was raised by his grandmother and didn't know at first that Jimmy Barnes was his father. He thought he was a family friend. I'm guessing the grandmother wasn't Jimmy Barnes' mother. Otherwise I imagine they'd try to pass Jimmy Barnes off as Campbell's older brother. Isn't that what people usually do in those types of situations?
Here's a video of Jimmy Barnes and David Campbell singing together.
Oh....I found something else fun.
David Campbell was in an American animated film called Joseph: King of Dreams. He did the singing voice for Joseph.
Here is a video from that movie.
I'm guessing that's supposed to be Joseph. If it's not, than it's not David Campbell singing. But I think it probably is.
Well...my wish has come true.
In my music research adventures I came across a guy named David Campbell. He's a celebrity, and he snuck into the blind auditions as a joke.
None of the coaches seemed to recognize his voice. Keith Urban and Delta Goodrem recognized him as soon as they turned around. They seemed amused. The American and British coach looked completely lost. I feel put off by their ignorance, but I shouldn't. I didn't know who David Campbell was until about five minutes ago.
Lord Wiki has informed me that he's the son of Jimmy Barnes.
Cool!
I know Jimmy Barnes' daughter also auditioned for the show...for real and not as a joke. She got put on a team.
Well, and I just saw she was eliminated in the battle rounds.
I'm seeing all kinds of interesting things from Lord Wiki.
Such as....
Jimmy Barnes has Jewish ancestry.
David Campbell was raised by his grandmother and didn't know at first that Jimmy Barnes was his father. He thought he was a family friend. I'm guessing the grandmother wasn't Jimmy Barnes' mother. Otherwise I imagine they'd try to pass Jimmy Barnes off as Campbell's older brother. Isn't that what people usually do in those types of situations?
Here's a video of Jimmy Barnes and David Campbell singing together.
Oh....I found something else fun.
David Campbell was in an American animated film called Joseph: King of Dreams. He did the singing voice for Joseph.
Here is a video from that movie.
I'm guessing that's supposed to be Joseph. If it's not, than it's not David Campbell singing. But I think it probably is.
Australian Songs on The Voice
I was so excited while watching the recent episode of The Voice.
One of the contestants (Juliet Simms) sang an Aussie song! And it's the song I recently talked about in a post—Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn".
On top of that, I consulted Lord Wiki about the Australian version of The Voice.
I made a mistake in my last post and assumed the auditions were over. But they weren't.
There was another two rounds. And in the last round, three contestants chose to sing Australian songs.
Virginia Lillye sang "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC. Matty Chap sang "20 Good Reasons" by Thirsty Merc. Tamara Stewart sang "Dumb Things" by Paul Kelly.
Sadly, two out of those three did not get chosen for a team. I don't think it's a tragedy for them though, because I'm not convinced winning these contests is that much of a boost to anyone's life and/or career.
One of the contestants (Juliet Simms) sang an Aussie song! And it's the song I recently talked about in a post—Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn".
On top of that, I consulted Lord Wiki about the Australian version of The Voice.
I made a mistake in my last post and assumed the auditions were over. But they weren't.
There was another two rounds. And in the last round, three contestants chose to sing Australian songs.
Virginia Lillye sang "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC. Matty Chap sang "20 Good Reasons" by Thirsty Merc. Tamara Stewart sang "Dumb Things" by Paul Kelly.
Sadly, two out of those three did not get chosen for a team. I don't think it's a tragedy for them though, because I'm not convinced winning these contests is that much of a boost to anyone's life and/or career.
Anorexia, Quotas, Fears, and Gundagai
1. Felt guilty when I saw that one of my iGoogle headlines, from the ABC, was about the rise of childhood Anorexia.
I went to read the article. They said the Westmead Children's Hospital in NSW told them that admissions for childhood anorexia has tripled in the last decade.
That's very sad.
Mia Freedman, a body image specialist, talks about how parents are so stressed about the two monsters looming on the opposite sides of the fence. On one side you have the terrifying obesity monster. On the other side, you have the crazed self-starvation monster.
How do we protect children from both obesity and anorexia?
One thing Mia Freedman says is we should be good role-models. We shouldn't complain about being fat in front of our children. This is probably especially true if we're not fat.
Last night I complained about being fat to Tim, in front of Jack.
I was feeling awful about myself. I needed reassurance. So I partook in the awfully pathetic activity of fishing for a compliment.
I said to Tim. I'm not as fat as I look.
I wanted to hear What? You don't look fat. And you're not fat.
What I got was, You're right. You're not that fat.
I fished for a compliment and got a boot...that kicked me in the gut.
We fought about it. I became even more whiny and pathetic.
Tim claimed he meant that we all HAVE fat. We're all fat.
I think there's a big difference between having fat and BEING fat.
Is it even medically possible to have 0% body fat? I doubt it.
Anyway,
I guess my thing is, medically speaking I'm not fat. My BMI is in the normal range. Every so often, it creeps up into the overweight range, but never more than a few pounds.
But with today's standard of beauty, I'm a fatty. I look at myself in the mirror and in pictures and don't see what equals beauty in our society,
A part of me wonders, even if I'm a good woman and keep my negativity to myself, will it matter to the children in my life? Can it counteract all the messages of skinny=beautiful that they receive?
I tried to fight against it. I have failed. Can I expect them to fare better?
Well, I'll try my best to have a better attitude—at least when talking out loud.
2. Finished reading Dragon Man. Finally.
It took a long time because I alternated my reading time between that and a zombie novel.
3. Started reading Mac Slater Hunts The Cool by Tristan Bancks. It's a kids book.
I wonder if Jack would like it.
4. Had a movie playing in the motel room. It's with Hugh Jackman, and has vampires and werewolves. Maybe it's Van Helsing?
We don't have the internet here, so I can't look it up.
I think maybe David Wenham is in the movie as well.
5. Watched credits of movie.
David Wenham IS one of the stars. Richard Roxburgh is in it too.
6. Had a lucid dream in which I'm searching for Julian McMahon. I used to have these dreams a lot. Now I have them every so often.
In last night's dream: I'm in a new location, not one I usually go to in my lucid dreams. It has a big sports arena. I go up to people and ask if they've seen Julian McMahon. A few say yes, and say he's here. I feel hopeful that this time I might actually find him.
At one point I tell people I'm a stalker, but they don't need to worry because I'm not dangerous. I only do the stalking thing in my dreams, not in real life.
Later I go near the sports arena. I find this blond guy with an accent. He seems to be German, maybe? I ask him if he's seen Julian McMahon. He says he IS Julian McMahon. But his name is spelled a bit differently. I get the idea that this is the Julian McMahon everyone has been talking about when I asked.
7. Wondered what my dream self plans to do when I find Julian McMahon.
Maybe I'll try to sell him Girl Scout Cookies?
8. Looked at my Statcounter. Several Americans have come to my blog using keywords along the lines of Qantas and Jews.
What's the deal with that?
9. Counted the Americans. There were seven of them. The first came at 9:25 pm and the last came at 12:01 am.
Maybe there was something on the news about Jews and Qantas.
Maybe some comedian made a joke?
10. Saw another topic bringing Americans to my blog today—Thelma Keane. I've had nine people visiting via keywords related to the Keane family.
What's up with that?
11. Googled and found out that Bill Keane died today.
Jack and I are both fans of his work. I loved The Family Circus when I was a child; then a few year ago, Jack got really into it.
Well, I'm hoping Keane's reunited with his wife...out there...somewhere.
12. Went to bed, had a long sleep, and lots of dreams. Some of them were related to Australia or Australians.
In one, I seem to be part of a new family or group of friends. I feel loved and accepted by them. At one point, I think of telling one of them that when I die I'd like to be buried with an Australian flag. In my mind I'm picturing an Australian flag towel. Then I decide not to say that, because it sounds melodramatic.
In another dream, we're living in Chattanooga Tennessee in some kind of temporary situation. A bunch of other people are part of this temporary situation, including some Australians. And one of the Australians is my friend Gina.
That dream ended for awhile. But then it came back....sort of.
But then I start to question that. Maybe there's enough food in my eyes, but my family might see things differently.
13. Angered by what I read on this editorial by Nick O'Byrne. Apparently a group called Commercial Radio Australia wants to put an end to the rule that says radio stations have to dedicate a portion of their playing time to local artists.
According to O'Byrne, contemporary commercial radio stations in Australia must use 6.25% of their playing time for Aussie music. I think that's not enough Australian music. Some people from the radio stations think 6.25% is way too much. They don't want to torture their poor listeners with songs by Missy Higgins, Cold Chisel, Nick Cave, Angus and Julia Stone, Hilltop Hoods, Sarah Blasko, Jessica Mauboy, etc.
I don't know. It's just a horrible thing for these radio stations to say. What they're saying is that Australian music isn't good enough.
That's ridiculous. The problem with Australian music is that it's ignored.
I think it's sad enough that it's ignored here in America. There are so many fantastic Australian songs, and I'm sad that so few Americans have heard of many of them.
But for musicians to be rejected by their own local music stations?
It's crazy.
Personally, if I was in Australia, I'd protest this attitude by never listening to commercial radio stations. I'd stick to the ones willing to play a LOT of Australian music.
14. Went to the website of Commercial Radio Australia. I'm wondering if I can get some insight into the issue.
15. Found page about supporting Australian artists. They say they have quotas to fill, but the page itself doesn't express complaint about these quotas.
I'm wondering if it's a faction within Commercial Radio Australia that wants an end to the quotas, rather than the organization as a whole.
16. Found an article about the radio issue.
Commercial Radio Australia's complaint is that they have to follow the quotas while internet music stations do not.
So is their complaint that people are listening to the internet more than regular radio?
I don't know statistics; but I know that I rarely listen to the regular radio anymore.
Then again, I don't really listen to internet radio either. I listen to iTunes or videos on YouTube.
I think it's fair for Commercial Radio Australia to want the rules to apply to internet radio as well. But I don't think they should be fighting against the quota.
They should be eager and proud to play Australian music.
17. Reread some of O'Byrne's editorial.
I misread the statistics a little bit.
Australian radio stations are actually required to dedicate 25% of their playing time to Aussie music. That's fair. It's better than only 6.25%.
The 6.25% refers to NEW Aussie music. New Australian artists are getting only 6.25% of radio-playing time. It's going to be hard to boost their careers at that level. How are they going to compete with other artists who are getting much more playtime?
18. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to be reading a story thread called Fear, Itself.
I wonder if I'll feel totally lost while reading it.
Did a lot happen while I was away?
19. Saw that the story involves Jack Dalton and Reade Ainsworth.
It takes place in the dueling classroom in the Eureka Underground Hallway.
20. Confused.
The story is supposed to take place on November 11.
Yet the first two posts were posted on October 14. I've never seen Tally writers go so far in the future.
I'm wondering if originally the story was supposed to take place in October, and then maybe they changed it?
21. Started reading.
The story takes place after the Quidditch field incident. That's when Reade fought back and hurt Jackson. Now Jackson is seeking revenge by meeting up with Reade after their potions class.
22. Felt sad for Reade. He's going through all that crap with Arti being in the hospital. Then he has to deal with Jackson as well.
One thing I've learned, in the past few years, is that some people don't hold back their meanness when you're having a hard time in life.
People will kick you when you're up, and they'll also happily kick you when you're down.
That's not to say that people should hold back all complaints and be sweeter than Stevia when we're having a bad day, week, month, or year. But they could try to have a LITTLE extra compassion.
Couldn't Jackson wait until Arti was out of the hospital, and then attack Reade?
Well, no because he's a bully. And bullies tend to lack compassion and empathy.
23. Confused by the story again.
But now I've figured it out.
There were these people talking to Jackson while he had Reade paralyzed with some spell. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
It turns out Jackson his having some type of hallucination-type thing. He's seeing/hearing his parents. They're there to criticize him.
That's the thing about parental criticism. It sticks around even when your parents are far away.
24. Found out that Jackson isn't having mental-type hallucinations. He's encountered a Boggart. In the Harry Potter universe, these are spirits that take on the form of our biggest fears. The way to fight them is to imagine the fear in a silly way.
Jackson imagines his parents roller skating in spandex.
25. Learned that Jackson himself brought the Boggart into school. He planned to use it against Reade. He's still planning to do that, but he himself got a little taste of the nastiness.
26. Got an explanation for the weird timing of the post.
In small print Jackson's role-player says OOC: Due to my unexpected hiatus, the date of the scene in this thread has been moved forward to present time.
That makes sense. And I think it was a wise choice.
27. Hoped nothing bad happened to cause the unexpected hiatus. Jackson's role-player is very nice.
That's not to say I'd be okay with a bad thing happening to a not-so-nice role-player.
Maybe something great happened to cause the hiatus. That would be fun.
28. Touched by Reade's ability to have empathy for Jackson.
His post says, From what they were saying Reade started to realise that they were Jackson's parents and that they were very disappointed in their son. Despite the current situation, being body-bound and scared he was about to get beaten up, Reade's heart went out to the other boy. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if his own parents spoke to him like that.
Reade does have very nice parents. He's lucky. But he could still find excuses to be miserable and cruel.
And there are probably lots of kids who have disapproving parents. Not all of them turn out to be bullies.
29. Left with a bit of a cliffhanger. Reade is about to face his biggest fear. He doesn't know what that is, and I don't either.
I guess we'll find out soon.
30. Thought of my two biggest fears. I've faced both of them in nightmares and bad dreams. I survived. As long as it's not real, it's not too bad. Since the scary things don't happen in lucid dreams, I don't know they're fake. I think it's real. But then I wake up and I feel relieved.
31. Saw that my Australian of the year is Caroline Lillian Archer.
She was a telephonist.
I'm not sure what that means.
Maybe it's an operator?
Archer also worked with causes involving Aboriginal rights.
32. Saw that Archer was born on February 22 in 1922. That's a lot of 22. In numerology, 22 is a master number.
Oh...and February is the 2nd month of the year.
Archer had a lot of 2's in her birthday. It would be 2/22/22.
33. Learned that Archer was born in an Aboriginal Reserve in Cherbourg, Queensland. Her father was white, and her mother was Aboriginal.
Back when Archer was born, Queensland had a policy of segregating the Aboriginal people from the other people. So that's why she was living on a reserve.
Archer had a rough childhood. She didn't get enough to eat. This caused ill health and a permanent limp.
34. Learned that when Archer was fourteen, she went to work for some white people—the Kay family. It seems they were fairly decent. They paid Archer a white person's wages and they also gave her career encouragement.
Encouragement is a really nice thing. I think it gives us strength, and that strength makes it more likely we'll succeed. But if we do end up failing, it hurts less when we know people have been genuinely behind us.
35. Continued to read about Archer. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says she gained switchboard skills. I'm guessing that refers to being a telephone operator.
Archer was able to obtain full citizen's rights. This was not something that came automatically to Aboriginal people. But Archer was able to obtain it by meeting some standards.
36. Learned that Archer was involved with an organization called OPAL (One People of Australia League). The purpose of the organization was to bring Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people together.
37. Found information on the National Museum of Australia's website about One People of Australia League.
It was a pro-assimilation organization.
I'm guessing that means they wanted Aboriginal people to act more white.
It fits in with what the Australian Dictionary of Australia says about Caroline Archer.
They say.....she was consciously 'middle of the road' in her views; she had little regard for radical solutions to racial issues and referred to herself as an 'Australian first and then an Aborigine.
38. Thought about the way people define themselves. In some ways, it can make us feel more secure. It helps give us an identity. But then I also think it can put up a wall between us and others.
If I define myself by my gender, then I put up a wall against men.
If I define myself by my nationality, I put up a wall against people that are not American.
If I define myself by my spiritual beliefs, I put up a wall against those who believe differently.
If I define myself by my ethnicity, I put up a wall against those who aren't from the same ethnic group.
39. Decided I'll just define myself as being weird.
I guess I'll have a wall up against those who aren't weird—those who are boring, blah, and don't show ability to think for themselves.
40. Decided most people though are at least a LITTLE weird.
41. Wondered if maybe all people are weird. It's probably just that some folks try harder to hide it.
42. Liked that non-human animals can also fit into the weird catagory.
Both my cats are very weird.
All my childhood dogs were weird.
43. Wished I could divide the world into nice and mean people. It would make life a lot more easier for me.
I'm so confused right now about things.
Right now I have a wall up against pretty much everyone. Or at least I try to keep it up. At weak moments I let it come down. Then I usually regret it afterwards.
I feel this collective anger towards almost everyone. The exception is Jack.
Then someone will say or do something sweet. It will usually give me tears, and then I'll feel guilty for sticking them in the same category of all those who are annoying me right now. What makes things worse is I'll then start thinking of other nice things they've said and done in the past. I'll feel awful for forgetting those things.
But then just as I'm starting to think, maybe I DO have people I can stick in the can-be-counted-on category, I remember times that they weren't nice to me.
44. Figured the best way to be able to love people is have extremely low expectations of them.
But then when I do that....
Well, I feel like a total snob.
In most of my relationships, I let the other person do most of the talking. They talk about their lives—their achievements, problems, and news. Some of them read my blog and so it evens out somewhat. I may not give a lot on a one-to-one basis, but they get some stuff by coming here.
Other people don't read my blog and it's usually a one way street. They open up to me, and I try hard to stay as closed as possible to them.
It makes me feel strong in the same way I felt strong when having an eating disorder. It's that feeling we get watching other people eat huge sundaes while we have the self-discipline to sit there eating a raw apple.
There's a sense of superiority.
But there's also a huge sense of loneliness and deprivation.
Sometimes we might give in and eat the big sundae. It feels so good. It tastes so good. There's a sense of relief...of belonging. There's that question. Can I leave this deprivation behind? Can I allow myself to be like everyone else? At the same time, though, there's worry and guilt. There's a feeling of weakness and failure.
Then later the good feelings go away. We're left with a stomach ache and higher numbers on the bathroom scale.
Note: I'm just being symbolic here. These days I'm usually perfectly happy to eat a sundae. We shared three at Disney World.
45. Thought about my talking-anorexia. I'm borrowing that phrase from John Marsden's novel I Have So Much To Tell You. Although her cause was much more severe. She literally stopped speaking.
I still speak. I haven't become mute, or anything.
Anyway, it all started in February 2008 and I've had the problems off and on since then.
It started with something so stupid. If I told a therapist, they'd probably have to leave the room in order to not start laughing at me.
So...here's the story.
I was having MAJOR marriage problems. I had been feeling the problems for many years, and kept them secret. Then, finally, I started opening up to people. Some tried to be supportive, but I could tell they thought I was a cold-hearted bitch who should just shut up and be happy.
In February.....
We had recently been in Australia, and I was very depressed about coming back to America.
My sister was leaving in a few weeks to go to Australia. I was extremely jealous of her.
For Valentines' Day, Tim took some of our Australia trip photos and turned them into a poster. I was supposed to love it. Instead I hated it and felt so angry. I didn't see it as Tim giving me an Australia-related gift. I saw it as him showing off his photography and making it look like he was the most romantic husband on the planet. I knew my family would see it and think, how lucky you are to have Tim. Why can't you appreciate him? He gives such thoughtful gifts!
But I saw the gift as being thoughtful only on the surface. The main reason for this, were the pictures Tim chose for the poster. For example, there were ones from Luna Park, and I didn't like Luna Park. Jack got hurt there and the clown was creepy to me. It was one of the few things about Australia that I didn't like. I felt if Tim really knew me and loved me, he would have known that and kept off the pictures of Luna Park.
I also thought he should have included some of the pictures that I had taken—displayed some of my photography. It kind of symbolized the way I often felt in the relationship. I have often felt Tim LOVES to do things for me. But I often feel he doesn't love and appreciate what I do for him, or what I do in general.
It all sounds very silly. I know.
And....
Yeah. I'm very picky when it comes to gifts. But you have to understand that my mind was already very troubled at the time. My heart was blackened. At other times, I'd likely appreciate the gift and shrug my shoulders at the choice of photos.
The other thing was that I had recently opened up to one of my sister's about my marriage problems. She wasn't very empathetic. Then a few days later, she called (or emailed) Tim behind my back to get help on something. She made plans with Tim to come over so she could get help from him. I do believe that in-laws can have friendships regardless of the relationship status of the spouses. But for her to do that so soon after I had talked about my marriage problems? It was a slap in the face.
Something snapped in me and I spent the next few months not opening up to anyone. I built up a huge wall. Not many people noticed. Or at least they showed no evidence of caring. Some people seemed to love this side of me. They loved that they could talk and talk while I'd just listen. I wouldn't bore them with the details of my own life.
In late Spring, I got over it and slowly started opening up to people. Some of the results of this were positive. Some of them were very negative.
Relapses started to occur when I realized more often the results were negative than positive.
Having this blog has helped probably in some ways. It's the one person who will sit there and listen to me. It's not really a person, though. It's an internet program, but it's made up of people listening. Maybe.
Sometimes I think people skip over all this personal stuff.
Actually, I often think that.
Or I figure they roll their eyes at me.
I'm rarely able to imagine people reading and feeling sympathetic.
I think they're bored. I think they're saying, Just shut up and get back to the Australia stuff.
46. Thought about something someone has said to me recently—about no longer caring what people think of them. I wish I could get to that point. And maybe I AM getting there.
I started to think, I'm going to lose readers if I keep blabbing on and on about all this. Then I thought, I don't really care at this point.
I'm sick of doing things to please other people.
I'm sick of worrying that I'm going to alienate people.
I'm sick of forcing myself to make jokes so I don't sound absolutely miserable. And no I'm not absolutely miserable all the time. Most of the time I'm happy. Despite my angst, I had a GREAT time at Disney World. We all did. But there have been moments in the past few weeks where I've felt awful. And I'm sick of feeling I have to lighten the mood (during these moments) so I don't scare people away.
I guess maybe now I WANT people to go away—at least the ones that make me feel I have to be happy, funny, and self-sacrificing all the time.
47. Figured I'll have a ton of regret if I don't delete this stuff from my blog.
But I think I'll have even more regret if I DO delete it.
Oh well......
48. Decided to get back to the Australia stuff.
Right now I'm not feeling a lot of the Australia love.
I think it's because I'm wrapped up in my own problems.
And then there's that uncertainty of whether we're going to Australia or not. That complicates things. I look at names of places and think, We're going to go there! No wait we're not going to go there. Or maybe we are going to go there. Are we going to go there? Maybe we're going to go there. Then again....maybe we're not going to go there.
Seriously. I'm a mess.
I should just love Australia—every little bit, and not worry if I'm going to see it in person or not. If I give love to only the places we plan to visit, I'll probably be sick of them by the time we get there.
49. Thought about another one of my psychological issues. I've felt stupid, ashamed, and annoying by keep changing our we're-going-to-Australia news. Why?!
How is it going to hurt or bother anyone by us going to Australia or not going to Australia? I know there are a few people who will be happy to see us, but they won't be destroyed if we don't come to visit. And even if they're sweet enough to be disappointed, I don't think they'll blame us for having to change our plans.
Most people understand financial restraints, health restraints, etc.
At least I hope so.
50. Looked at the Australia Monopoly Board.
Today my space is Sydney Station.
What is Sydney Station?
I don't remember a Sydney Station.
I remember a Central Station. Is that what they're referring to? Or is there an actual Sydney Station?
51. Found out from Lord Wiki that the board is referring to Central Station.
Thank you, Lord Wiki. Now I feel a little less dumb.
52. Learned that the main station in Sydney used to be called Sydney Station.
Lord Wiki is talking about it's history. I'm a bit confused. But there's some station that was built over a former cemetery. They had to move the graves. Hopefully, they moved the bodies and not just the headstones, like the realtor company did in Poltergeist.
53. Did some more reading. The station built on the old grave site was Redfern Station.
If I'm understanding things right, this was the main station prior to Central Station being the main station.
54. Learned that part of Central Station has been transformed into a hostel. The rooms look like old train carriages.
Didn't I read about that recently?
55. Looked at a website about the Railway Square Hostel.
I don't think I've been to the site before, but the idea sounds so familiar to me. Maybe I read about it somewhere else?
56. Read reviews about the hostel. Apparently the rooms are right near the platforms of the working trains. You can hear the people waiting for the trains.
57. Found a new Flickr account to stalk.
I didn't find it in my usual way.
I found it because I looked on Flickr for photos of the Railway Square Hostel.
I found some photos on an account called Fredweng. The account belongs to a guy named Ling Chih Weng.
I looked at his sets. There's a bunch of Australian ones. I thought, this might be a fun account to stalk.
I'm excited.
But I'm probably going to wait until tomorrow to start my stalking.
58. Thought about my issues again.
Sometimes I'll feel guilty for holding things back from people. I get the delusion that people want me to open up and talk more. I'll decide to say something. I expect that they'll be excited and eager to hear from me—that they'll listen extra carefully to make sure I'll keep on talking.
Usually, they end up looking really bored. They interrupt. They seem eager to get the conversation back towards themselves.
This happened with a friend. I had gone back to a stage of holding back from her. I let her do all the talking. She went on and on about happenings in her life. I dutifully listened. Then I had a moment of weakness and said something about my own life. No, actually it wasn't even about my life directly. I shared a fact about boomerangs.
She gave me this look.
I don't know how to interpret it really. I mean MAYBE she was interested and just didn't know how to show it. Maybe I misread her facial expression. But to me she looked annoyed that I dared to bring up something that wasn't about her life.
59. Wanted to clarify that I didn't randomly bring up boomerangs. Then my friend's look would have been along the lines of, Oh, that's so random. Why is she bringing that up now?
No. We were in the swimming pool. And there was a Nerf boomerang. I told her that not all boomerangs come back to you. The ones for hunting aren't supposed to do that. I wanted her to say Oh cool. Really. I never knew that. It would be a bit less fun if she already knew that. But then she could have said, Oh yeah. I heard that before! Instead she gave this kind of uh huh response. Or maybe she said nothing. It was either nothing or close to nothing.
60. Thought about how my eating disorder and talking issues are very similar. In both, I have delusions that people will want me to get well. I imagine they want me to talk more, eat a healthy balanced diet, and have a positive body image.
But in the end....in most cases, it's bullshit.
Most people want me to be quiet and they want me to be skinny.
61. Decided "most" is probably too strong a word.
Maybe instead I'll say "too many"
Or I can just say there's enough people with that attitude to make me feel a bit sad.
62. Decided to take a Funtrivia quiz about Gundagai.
I'll probably get most of it wrong.
I can't even remember what state Gundagai is in. I want to say New South Wales. But it could be Queensland or South Australia.
63. Got the first question wrong and learned the name Gundagai is derived from the Aboriginal phrase gundabandoo-bingee.
64. Wished I knew the lyrics of one of the Gundagai songs. That would probably help me answer the questions.
65. Got the second question wrong and learned the Aboriginal group originally in the Gundagai area are known as Wiradjuri. They sound familiar to me.
The quiz answer mentions New South Wales. So maybe I got at least that bit right about Gundagai.
66. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Wiradjuri people. He says they're from the central part of New South Wales.
Mum Shirl was one of them.
67. Got the third question right and the fourth question wrong. Now I know that there was a bad flood in Gundagai in June 1852.
The quiz answer says the town was moved because of the flood.
It was another one of those moved towns—like that one in the Snowy Mountains. I forgot the name.
I'll read about the moving of Gundagai after I finish the quiz. If I look now, I'm afraid I'll end up accidentally cheating on the quiz.
68. Got questions five, six, and seven right—mostly from guessing.
I got the eighth one wrong thinking, of course, Jack O'Hagan didn't write a song called "When a Boy From Alabama Meets a Girl From Gundagai".
It turns out he did write a song with that name.
69. Finished the quiz. I got a 6/10 which is the average score. It's not too bad for a tough quiz.
I'm not that proud of myself, though. Most of my correct answers were a matter of good luck.
I did well on guessing today.
70. Consulted Lord Wiki about Gundagai. The original town in it's original location was founded in 1838.
In 1852, the flood killed 78-89 out of the 250 inhabitants. Then the town was moved.
71. Tried to remember the name of the town in The Snowy Mountains that was moved.
I know it starts with an A.
I'll look on Google Maps. If I see it, I'll know it.
72. Found the town on Google Maps.
The name is Adaminaby.
On the map, you can see the old and new location of the town. The old one seems to be in the middle of a lake....and it is. A few years ago, during the drought, some of the town started to resurface.
73. Wanted to remind people that Tim eventually ended up giving me a fantastic Australia-related gift. He struggled and succeeded in getting me access to watching Offspring.
I really loved that gift. It was thoughtful, enjoyable, and I was very impressed with what he went through to get me the gift.
I like when people do things for me. But what I love is when people show they KNOW me. I like when people show that they've been listening and paying attention. I liked that Tim knew how much I wanted to watch Offspring.
74. Wanted to add a piece of information about my dream last night. I meant to talk about it earlier; but I forgot.
There was another dream that might have been connected to the one in which I'm part of a new family. I had a new man in my life (which might explain the new family). He was a sports player of some type. He had a problem with his liver and he wore a retainer.
I don't know.
I think it's kind of funny that I dreamed I was dating a sports guy. Then the night before, I had a lucid dream involving a sports arena.
Maybe something is telling me I should get more into sports.
75. Decided I'll just ignore that message.
I can't imagine getting into sports.
76. Remembered Gina works in the sports field. And I also dreamed about her.
Wow.
This is all getting a bit eerie.
I went to read the article. They said the Westmead Children's Hospital in NSW told them that admissions for childhood anorexia has tripled in the last decade.
That's very sad.
Mia Freedman, a body image specialist, talks about how parents are so stressed about the two monsters looming on the opposite sides of the fence. On one side you have the terrifying obesity monster. On the other side, you have the crazed self-starvation monster.
How do we protect children from both obesity and anorexia?
One thing Mia Freedman says is we should be good role-models. We shouldn't complain about being fat in front of our children. This is probably especially true if we're not fat.
Last night I complained about being fat to Tim, in front of Jack.
I was feeling awful about myself. I needed reassurance. So I partook in the awfully pathetic activity of fishing for a compliment.
I said to Tim. I'm not as fat as I look.
I wanted to hear What? You don't look fat. And you're not fat.
What I got was, You're right. You're not that fat.
I fished for a compliment and got a boot...that kicked me in the gut.
We fought about it. I became even more whiny and pathetic.
Tim claimed he meant that we all HAVE fat. We're all fat.
I think there's a big difference between having fat and BEING fat.
Is it even medically possible to have 0% body fat? I doubt it.
Anyway,
I guess my thing is, medically speaking I'm not fat. My BMI is in the normal range. Every so often, it creeps up into the overweight range, but never more than a few pounds.
But with today's standard of beauty, I'm a fatty. I look at myself in the mirror and in pictures and don't see what equals beauty in our society,
A part of me wonders, even if I'm a good woman and keep my negativity to myself, will it matter to the children in my life? Can it counteract all the messages of skinny=beautiful that they receive?
I tried to fight against it. I have failed. Can I expect them to fare better?
Well, I'll try my best to have a better attitude—at least when talking out loud.
2. Finished reading Dragon Man. Finally.
It took a long time because I alternated my reading time between that and a zombie novel.
3. Started reading Mac Slater Hunts The Cool by Tristan Bancks. It's a kids book.
I wonder if Jack would like it.
4. Had a movie playing in the motel room. It's with Hugh Jackman, and has vampires and werewolves. Maybe it's Van Helsing?
We don't have the internet here, so I can't look it up.
I think maybe David Wenham is in the movie as well.
5. Watched credits of movie.
David Wenham IS one of the stars. Richard Roxburgh is in it too.
6. Had a lucid dream in which I'm searching for Julian McMahon. I used to have these dreams a lot. Now I have them every so often.
In last night's dream: I'm in a new location, not one I usually go to in my lucid dreams. It has a big sports arena. I go up to people and ask if they've seen Julian McMahon. A few say yes, and say he's here. I feel hopeful that this time I might actually find him.
At one point I tell people I'm a stalker, but they don't need to worry because I'm not dangerous. I only do the stalking thing in my dreams, not in real life.
Later I go near the sports arena. I find this blond guy with an accent. He seems to be German, maybe? I ask him if he's seen Julian McMahon. He says he IS Julian McMahon. But his name is spelled a bit differently. I get the idea that this is the Julian McMahon everyone has been talking about when I asked.
7. Wondered what my dream self plans to do when I find Julian McMahon.
Maybe I'll try to sell him Girl Scout Cookies?
8. Looked at my Statcounter. Several Americans have come to my blog using keywords along the lines of Qantas and Jews.
What's the deal with that?
9. Counted the Americans. There were seven of them. The first came at 9:25 pm and the last came at 12:01 am.
Maybe there was something on the news about Jews and Qantas.
Maybe some comedian made a joke?
10. Saw another topic bringing Americans to my blog today—Thelma Keane. I've had nine people visiting via keywords related to the Keane family.
What's up with that?
11. Googled and found out that Bill Keane died today.
Jack and I are both fans of his work. I loved The Family Circus when I was a child; then a few year ago, Jack got really into it.
Well, I'm hoping Keane's reunited with his wife...out there...somewhere.
12. Went to bed, had a long sleep, and lots of dreams. Some of them were related to Australia or Australians.
In one, I seem to be part of a new family or group of friends. I feel loved and accepted by them. At one point, I think of telling one of them that when I die I'd like to be buried with an Australian flag. In my mind I'm picturing an Australian flag towel. Then I decide not to say that, because it sounds melodramatic.
In another dream, we're living in Chattanooga Tennessee in some kind of temporary situation. A bunch of other people are part of this temporary situation, including some Australians. And one of the Australians is my friend Gina.
It's not like we're on holiday. We're living regular lives. Gina has a job working at a shop nearby.
I think about how I love living here, and I begin to wish it wasn't temporary.
That dream ended for awhile. But then it came back....sort of.
Tim has cooked this elaborate dinner for my family. It includes some fabulous desserts. I start to think there's way too much food for us. I decide it would be better if we had more people to eat with us. I think about Gina who works nearby. I consider inviting her over for dinner. It would be very last minute because we're eating in 20-30 minutes. But I figure there might be a chance she's available.
I consider asking my family first, and then decide there's no need. They won't mind.
13. Angered by what I read on this editorial by Nick O'Byrne. Apparently a group called Commercial Radio Australia wants to put an end to the rule that says radio stations have to dedicate a portion of their playing time to local artists.
According to O'Byrne, contemporary commercial radio stations in Australia must use 6.25% of their playing time for Aussie music. I think that's not enough Australian music. Some people from the radio stations think 6.25% is way too much. They don't want to torture their poor listeners with songs by Missy Higgins, Cold Chisel, Nick Cave, Angus and Julia Stone, Hilltop Hoods, Sarah Blasko, Jessica Mauboy, etc.
I don't know. It's just a horrible thing for these radio stations to say. What they're saying is that Australian music isn't good enough.
That's ridiculous. The problem with Australian music is that it's ignored.
I think it's sad enough that it's ignored here in America. There are so many fantastic Australian songs, and I'm sad that so few Americans have heard of many of them.
But for musicians to be rejected by their own local music stations?
It's crazy.
Personally, if I was in Australia, I'd protest this attitude by never listening to commercial radio stations. I'd stick to the ones willing to play a LOT of Australian music.
14. Went to the website of Commercial Radio Australia. I'm wondering if I can get some insight into the issue.
15. Found page about supporting Australian artists. They say they have quotas to fill, but the page itself doesn't express complaint about these quotas.
I'm wondering if it's a faction within Commercial Radio Australia that wants an end to the quotas, rather than the organization as a whole.
16. Found an article about the radio issue.
Commercial Radio Australia's complaint is that they have to follow the quotas while internet music stations do not.
So is their complaint that people are listening to the internet more than regular radio?
I don't know statistics; but I know that I rarely listen to the regular radio anymore.
Then again, I don't really listen to internet radio either. I listen to iTunes or videos on YouTube.
I think it's fair for Commercial Radio Australia to want the rules to apply to internet radio as well. But I don't think they should be fighting against the quota.
They should be eager and proud to play Australian music.
17. Reread some of O'Byrne's editorial.
I misread the statistics a little bit.
Australian radio stations are actually required to dedicate 25% of their playing time to Aussie music. That's fair. It's better than only 6.25%.
The 6.25% refers to NEW Aussie music. New Australian artists are getting only 6.25% of radio-playing time. It's going to be hard to boost their careers at that level. How are they going to compete with other artists who are getting much more playtime?
18. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to be reading a story thread called Fear, Itself.
I wonder if I'll feel totally lost while reading it.
Did a lot happen while I was away?
19. Saw that the story involves Jack Dalton and Reade Ainsworth.
It takes place in the dueling classroom in the Eureka Underground Hallway.
20. Confused.
The story is supposed to take place on November 11.
Yet the first two posts were posted on October 14. I've never seen Tally writers go so far in the future.
I'm wondering if originally the story was supposed to take place in October, and then maybe they changed it?
21. Started reading.
The story takes place after the Quidditch field incident. That's when Reade fought back and hurt Jackson. Now Jackson is seeking revenge by meeting up with Reade after their potions class.
22. Felt sad for Reade. He's going through all that crap with Arti being in the hospital. Then he has to deal with Jackson as well.
One thing I've learned, in the past few years, is that some people don't hold back their meanness when you're having a hard time in life.
People will kick you when you're up, and they'll also happily kick you when you're down.
That's not to say that people should hold back all complaints and be sweeter than Stevia when we're having a bad day, week, month, or year. But they could try to have a LITTLE extra compassion.
Couldn't Jackson wait until Arti was out of the hospital, and then attack Reade?
Well, no because he's a bully. And bullies tend to lack compassion and empathy.
23. Confused by the story again.
But now I've figured it out.
There were these people talking to Jackson while he had Reade paralyzed with some spell. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
It turns out Jackson his having some type of hallucination-type thing. He's seeing/hearing his parents. They're there to criticize him.
That's the thing about parental criticism. It sticks around even when your parents are far away.
24. Found out that Jackson isn't having mental-type hallucinations. He's encountered a Boggart. In the Harry Potter universe, these are spirits that take on the form of our biggest fears. The way to fight them is to imagine the fear in a silly way.
Jackson imagines his parents roller skating in spandex.
25. Learned that Jackson himself brought the Boggart into school. He planned to use it against Reade. He's still planning to do that, but he himself got a little taste of the nastiness.
26. Got an explanation for the weird timing of the post.
In small print Jackson's role-player says OOC: Due to my unexpected hiatus, the date of the scene in this thread has been moved forward to present time.
That makes sense. And I think it was a wise choice.
27. Hoped nothing bad happened to cause the unexpected hiatus. Jackson's role-player is very nice.
That's not to say I'd be okay with a bad thing happening to a not-so-nice role-player.
Maybe something great happened to cause the hiatus. That would be fun.
28. Touched by Reade's ability to have empathy for Jackson.
His post says, From what they were saying Reade started to realise that they were Jackson's parents and that they were very disappointed in their son. Despite the current situation, being body-bound and scared he was about to get beaten up, Reade's heart went out to the other boy. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if his own parents spoke to him like that.
Reade does have very nice parents. He's lucky. But he could still find excuses to be miserable and cruel.
And there are probably lots of kids who have disapproving parents. Not all of them turn out to be bullies.
29. Left with a bit of a cliffhanger. Reade is about to face his biggest fear. He doesn't know what that is, and I don't either.
I guess we'll find out soon.
30. Thought of my two biggest fears. I've faced both of them in nightmares and bad dreams. I survived. As long as it's not real, it's not too bad. Since the scary things don't happen in lucid dreams, I don't know they're fake. I think it's real. But then I wake up and I feel relieved.
31. Saw that my Australian of the year is Caroline Lillian Archer.
She was a telephonist.
I'm not sure what that means.
Maybe it's an operator?
Archer also worked with causes involving Aboriginal rights.
32. Saw that Archer was born on February 22 in 1922. That's a lot of 22. In numerology, 22 is a master number.
Oh...and February is the 2nd month of the year.
Archer had a lot of 2's in her birthday. It would be 2/22/22.
33. Learned that Archer was born in an Aboriginal Reserve in Cherbourg, Queensland. Her father was white, and her mother was Aboriginal.
Back when Archer was born, Queensland had a policy of segregating the Aboriginal people from the other people. So that's why she was living on a reserve.
Archer had a rough childhood. She didn't get enough to eat. This caused ill health and a permanent limp.
34. Learned that when Archer was fourteen, she went to work for some white people—the Kay family. It seems they were fairly decent. They paid Archer a white person's wages and they also gave her career encouragement.
Encouragement is a really nice thing. I think it gives us strength, and that strength makes it more likely we'll succeed. But if we do end up failing, it hurts less when we know people have been genuinely behind us.
35. Continued to read about Archer. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says she gained switchboard skills. I'm guessing that refers to being a telephone operator.
Archer was able to obtain full citizen's rights. This was not something that came automatically to Aboriginal people. But Archer was able to obtain it by meeting some standards.
36. Learned that Archer was involved with an organization called OPAL (One People of Australia League). The purpose of the organization was to bring Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people together.
37. Found information on the National Museum of Australia's website about One People of Australia League.
It was a pro-assimilation organization.
I'm guessing that means they wanted Aboriginal people to act more white.
It fits in with what the Australian Dictionary of Australia says about Caroline Archer.
They say.....she was consciously 'middle of the road' in her views; she had little regard for radical solutions to racial issues and referred to herself as an 'Australian first and then an Aborigine.
38. Thought about the way people define themselves. In some ways, it can make us feel more secure. It helps give us an identity. But then I also think it can put up a wall between us and others.
If I define myself by my gender, then I put up a wall against men.
If I define myself by my nationality, I put up a wall against people that are not American.
If I define myself by my spiritual beliefs, I put up a wall against those who believe differently.
If I define myself by my ethnicity, I put up a wall against those who aren't from the same ethnic group.
39. Decided I'll just define myself as being weird.
I guess I'll have a wall up against those who aren't weird—those who are boring, blah, and don't show ability to think for themselves.
40. Decided most people though are at least a LITTLE weird.
41. Wondered if maybe all people are weird. It's probably just that some folks try harder to hide it.
42. Liked that non-human animals can also fit into the weird catagory.
Both my cats are very weird.
All my childhood dogs were weird.
43. Wished I could divide the world into nice and mean people. It would make life a lot more easier for me.
I'm so confused right now about things.
Right now I have a wall up against pretty much everyone. Or at least I try to keep it up. At weak moments I let it come down. Then I usually regret it afterwards.
I feel this collective anger towards almost everyone. The exception is Jack.
Then someone will say or do something sweet. It will usually give me tears, and then I'll feel guilty for sticking them in the same category of all those who are annoying me right now. What makes things worse is I'll then start thinking of other nice things they've said and done in the past. I'll feel awful for forgetting those things.
But then just as I'm starting to think, maybe I DO have people I can stick in the can-be-counted-on category, I remember times that they weren't nice to me.
44. Figured the best way to be able to love people is have extremely low expectations of them.
But then when I do that....
Well, I feel like a total snob.
In most of my relationships, I let the other person do most of the talking. They talk about their lives—their achievements, problems, and news. Some of them read my blog and so it evens out somewhat. I may not give a lot on a one-to-one basis, but they get some stuff by coming here.
Other people don't read my blog and it's usually a one way street. They open up to me, and I try hard to stay as closed as possible to them.
It makes me feel strong in the same way I felt strong when having an eating disorder. It's that feeling we get watching other people eat huge sundaes while we have the self-discipline to sit there eating a raw apple.
There's a sense of superiority.
But there's also a huge sense of loneliness and deprivation.
Sometimes we might give in and eat the big sundae. It feels so good. It tastes so good. There's a sense of relief...of belonging. There's that question. Can I leave this deprivation behind? Can I allow myself to be like everyone else? At the same time, though, there's worry and guilt. There's a feeling of weakness and failure.
Then later the good feelings go away. We're left with a stomach ache and higher numbers on the bathroom scale.
Note: I'm just being symbolic here. These days I'm usually perfectly happy to eat a sundae. We shared three at Disney World.
45. Thought about my talking-anorexia. I'm borrowing that phrase from John Marsden's novel I Have So Much To Tell You. Although her cause was much more severe. She literally stopped speaking.
I still speak. I haven't become mute, or anything.
Anyway, it all started in February 2008 and I've had the problems off and on since then.
It started with something so stupid. If I told a therapist, they'd probably have to leave the room in order to not start laughing at me.
So...here's the story.
I was having MAJOR marriage problems. I had been feeling the problems for many years, and kept them secret. Then, finally, I started opening up to people. Some tried to be supportive, but I could tell they thought I was a cold-hearted bitch who should just shut up and be happy.
In February.....
We had recently been in Australia, and I was very depressed about coming back to America.
My sister was leaving in a few weeks to go to Australia. I was extremely jealous of her.
For Valentines' Day, Tim took some of our Australia trip photos and turned them into a poster. I was supposed to love it. Instead I hated it and felt so angry. I didn't see it as Tim giving me an Australia-related gift. I saw it as him showing off his photography and making it look like he was the most romantic husband on the planet. I knew my family would see it and think, how lucky you are to have Tim. Why can't you appreciate him? He gives such thoughtful gifts!
But I saw the gift as being thoughtful only on the surface. The main reason for this, were the pictures Tim chose for the poster. For example, there were ones from Luna Park, and I didn't like Luna Park. Jack got hurt there and the clown was creepy to me. It was one of the few things about Australia that I didn't like. I felt if Tim really knew me and loved me, he would have known that and kept off the pictures of Luna Park.
I also thought he should have included some of the pictures that I had taken—displayed some of my photography. It kind of symbolized the way I often felt in the relationship. I have often felt Tim LOVES to do things for me. But I often feel he doesn't love and appreciate what I do for him, or what I do in general.
It all sounds very silly. I know.
And....
Yeah. I'm very picky when it comes to gifts. But you have to understand that my mind was already very troubled at the time. My heart was blackened. At other times, I'd likely appreciate the gift and shrug my shoulders at the choice of photos.
The other thing was that I had recently opened up to one of my sister's about my marriage problems. She wasn't very empathetic. Then a few days later, she called (or emailed) Tim behind my back to get help on something. She made plans with Tim to come over so she could get help from him. I do believe that in-laws can have friendships regardless of the relationship status of the spouses. But for her to do that so soon after I had talked about my marriage problems? It was a slap in the face.
Something snapped in me and I spent the next few months not opening up to anyone. I built up a huge wall. Not many people noticed. Or at least they showed no evidence of caring. Some people seemed to love this side of me. They loved that they could talk and talk while I'd just listen. I wouldn't bore them with the details of my own life.
In late Spring, I got over it and slowly started opening up to people. Some of the results of this were positive. Some of them were very negative.
Relapses started to occur when I realized more often the results were negative than positive.
Having this blog has helped probably in some ways. It's the one person who will sit there and listen to me. It's not really a person, though. It's an internet program, but it's made up of people listening. Maybe.
Sometimes I think people skip over all this personal stuff.
Actually, I often think that.
Or I figure they roll their eyes at me.
I'm rarely able to imagine people reading and feeling sympathetic.
I think they're bored. I think they're saying, Just shut up and get back to the Australia stuff.
46. Thought about something someone has said to me recently—about no longer caring what people think of them. I wish I could get to that point. And maybe I AM getting there.
I started to think, I'm going to lose readers if I keep blabbing on and on about all this. Then I thought, I don't really care at this point.
I'm sick of doing things to please other people.
I'm sick of worrying that I'm going to alienate people.
I'm sick of forcing myself to make jokes so I don't sound absolutely miserable. And no I'm not absolutely miserable all the time. Most of the time I'm happy. Despite my angst, I had a GREAT time at Disney World. We all did. But there have been moments in the past few weeks where I've felt awful. And I'm sick of feeling I have to lighten the mood (during these moments) so I don't scare people away.
I guess maybe now I WANT people to go away—at least the ones that make me feel I have to be happy, funny, and self-sacrificing all the time.
47. Figured I'll have a ton of regret if I don't delete this stuff from my blog.
But I think I'll have even more regret if I DO delete it.
Oh well......
48. Decided to get back to the Australia stuff.
Right now I'm not feeling a lot of the Australia love.
I think it's because I'm wrapped up in my own problems.
And then there's that uncertainty of whether we're going to Australia or not. That complicates things. I look at names of places and think, We're going to go there! No wait we're not going to go there. Or maybe we are going to go there. Are we going to go there? Maybe we're going to go there. Then again....maybe we're not going to go there.
Seriously. I'm a mess.
I should just love Australia—every little bit, and not worry if I'm going to see it in person or not. If I give love to only the places we plan to visit, I'll probably be sick of them by the time we get there.
49. Thought about another one of my psychological issues. I've felt stupid, ashamed, and annoying by keep changing our we're-going-to-Australia news. Why?!
How is it going to hurt or bother anyone by us going to Australia or not going to Australia? I know there are a few people who will be happy to see us, but they won't be destroyed if we don't come to visit. And even if they're sweet enough to be disappointed, I don't think they'll blame us for having to change our plans.
Most people understand financial restraints, health restraints, etc.
At least I hope so.
50. Looked at the Australia Monopoly Board.
Today my space is Sydney Station.
What is Sydney Station?
I don't remember a Sydney Station.
I remember a Central Station. Is that what they're referring to? Or is there an actual Sydney Station?
51. Found out from Lord Wiki that the board is referring to Central Station.
Thank you, Lord Wiki. Now I feel a little less dumb.
52. Learned that the main station in Sydney used to be called Sydney Station.
Lord Wiki is talking about it's history. I'm a bit confused. But there's some station that was built over a former cemetery. They had to move the graves. Hopefully, they moved the bodies and not just the headstones, like the realtor company did in Poltergeist.
53. Did some more reading. The station built on the old grave site was Redfern Station.
If I'm understanding things right, this was the main station prior to Central Station being the main station.
54. Learned that part of Central Station has been transformed into a hostel. The rooms look like old train carriages.
Didn't I read about that recently?
55. Looked at a website about the Railway Square Hostel.
I don't think I've been to the site before, but the idea sounds so familiar to me. Maybe I read about it somewhere else?
56. Read reviews about the hostel. Apparently the rooms are right near the platforms of the working trains. You can hear the people waiting for the trains.
57. Found a new Flickr account to stalk.
I didn't find it in my usual way.
I found it because I looked on Flickr for photos of the Railway Square Hostel.
I found some photos on an account called Fredweng. The account belongs to a guy named Ling Chih Weng.
I looked at his sets. There's a bunch of Australian ones. I thought, this might be a fun account to stalk.
I'm excited.
But I'm probably going to wait until tomorrow to start my stalking.
58. Thought about my issues again.
Sometimes I'll feel guilty for holding things back from people. I get the delusion that people want me to open up and talk more. I'll decide to say something. I expect that they'll be excited and eager to hear from me—that they'll listen extra carefully to make sure I'll keep on talking.
Usually, they end up looking really bored. They interrupt. They seem eager to get the conversation back towards themselves.
This happened with a friend. I had gone back to a stage of holding back from her. I let her do all the talking. She went on and on about happenings in her life. I dutifully listened. Then I had a moment of weakness and said something about my own life. No, actually it wasn't even about my life directly. I shared a fact about boomerangs.
She gave me this look.
I don't know how to interpret it really. I mean MAYBE she was interested and just didn't know how to show it. Maybe I misread her facial expression. But to me she looked annoyed that I dared to bring up something that wasn't about her life.
59. Wanted to clarify that I didn't randomly bring up boomerangs. Then my friend's look would have been along the lines of, Oh, that's so random. Why is she bringing that up now?
No. We were in the swimming pool. And there was a Nerf boomerang. I told her that not all boomerangs come back to you. The ones for hunting aren't supposed to do that. I wanted her to say Oh cool. Really. I never knew that. It would be a bit less fun if she already knew that. But then she could have said, Oh yeah. I heard that before! Instead she gave this kind of uh huh response. Or maybe she said nothing. It was either nothing or close to nothing.
60. Thought about how my eating disorder and talking issues are very similar. In both, I have delusions that people will want me to get well. I imagine they want me to talk more, eat a healthy balanced diet, and have a positive body image.
But in the end....in most cases, it's bullshit.
Most people want me to be quiet and they want me to be skinny.
61. Decided "most" is probably too strong a word.
Maybe instead I'll say "too many"
Or I can just say there's enough people with that attitude to make me feel a bit sad.
62. Decided to take a Funtrivia quiz about Gundagai.
I'll probably get most of it wrong.
I can't even remember what state Gundagai is in. I want to say New South Wales. But it could be Queensland or South Australia.
63. Got the first question wrong and learned the name Gundagai is derived from the Aboriginal phrase gundabandoo-bingee.
64. Wished I knew the lyrics of one of the Gundagai songs. That would probably help me answer the questions.
65. Got the second question wrong and learned the Aboriginal group originally in the Gundagai area are known as Wiradjuri. They sound familiar to me.
The quiz answer mentions New South Wales. So maybe I got at least that bit right about Gundagai.
66. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Wiradjuri people. He says they're from the central part of New South Wales.
Mum Shirl was one of them.
67. Got the third question right and the fourth question wrong. Now I know that there was a bad flood in Gundagai in June 1852.
The quiz answer says the town was moved because of the flood.
It was another one of those moved towns—like that one in the Snowy Mountains. I forgot the name.
I'll read about the moving of Gundagai after I finish the quiz. If I look now, I'm afraid I'll end up accidentally cheating on the quiz.
68. Got questions five, six, and seven right—mostly from guessing.
I got the eighth one wrong thinking, of course, Jack O'Hagan didn't write a song called "When a Boy From Alabama Meets a Girl From Gundagai".
It turns out he did write a song with that name.
69. Finished the quiz. I got a 6/10 which is the average score. It's not too bad for a tough quiz.
I'm not that proud of myself, though. Most of my correct answers were a matter of good luck.
I did well on guessing today.
70. Consulted Lord Wiki about Gundagai. The original town in it's original location was founded in 1838.
In 1852, the flood killed 78-89 out of the 250 inhabitants. Then the town was moved.
71. Tried to remember the name of the town in The Snowy Mountains that was moved.
I know it starts with an A.
I'll look on Google Maps. If I see it, I'll know it.
72. Found the town on Google Maps.
The name is Adaminaby.
On the map, you can see the old and new location of the town. The old one seems to be in the middle of a lake....and it is. A few years ago, during the drought, some of the town started to resurface.
73. Wanted to remind people that Tim eventually ended up giving me a fantastic Australia-related gift. He struggled and succeeded in getting me access to watching Offspring.
I really loved that gift. It was thoughtful, enjoyable, and I was very impressed with what he went through to get me the gift.
I like when people do things for me. But what I love is when people show they KNOW me. I like when people show that they've been listening and paying attention. I liked that Tim knew how much I wanted to watch Offspring.
74. Wanted to add a piece of information about my dream last night. I meant to talk about it earlier; but I forgot.
There was another dream that might have been connected to the one in which I'm part of a new family. I had a new man in my life (which might explain the new family). He was a sports player of some type. He had a problem with his liver and he wore a retainer.
I don't know.
I think it's kind of funny that I dreamed I was dating a sports guy. Then the night before, I had a lucid dream involving a sports arena.
Maybe something is telling me I should get more into sports.
75. Decided I'll just ignore that message.
I can't imagine getting into sports.
76. Remembered Gina works in the sports field. And I also dreamed about her.
Wow.
This is all getting a bit eerie.
Kosciuszko, Moreton Bay, Bernard Fanning, and An Irish Mystery
1. Had deja vu when I saw this article.
A doctor from Egypt, working in Western Australia, has been denied permanent residency because his daughter is disabled. She has cerebral palsy, and the government thinks she'll be a burden to the health system.
A few years ago the same thing happened with a doctor who's child had Down Syndrome.
I think they eventually let the family stay, but it was a battle.
I would have hoped their battle would have prevented other people from having to endure the same battle.
2. Learned from my Australia travel guide book that Mount Kosciuszko was named after a Polish freedom fighter.
I didn't know that.
Lord Wiki says the name of the mountain was originally Mount Kosciusko. Then in 1997 they changed the spelling of the name to better match its namesake.
The guy who named the mountain was Pawel Edmund Stzelecki. He was a Polish explorer who climbed the mountain and named it.
3. Consulted Lord Wiki about Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
He wasn't just a Polish freedom fighter. He was an American freedom fighter.
He fought on the side of the colonies during the American Revolutionary war. Then he became an American citizen.
4. Learned from Lord Wiki that Kosciuszko eventually left the United States. He left with Thomas Jefferson as the executor of his American estate. He requested that his money be given to a fund that would free African slaves and help them become educated and independent.
Unfortunately, that went wrong. People did wrong. And none of the money went where it should have gone.
5. Felt a little emotional when I saw from Lord Wiki that there are many places around the world named after Kosciuszko.
There's a Kosciusko, Texas. It's near San Antonia. I think it's a pretty small town. I have to zoom in a lot on Google Maps before I can see it.
Lord Wiki says America also has a few statues of Kosciuszko. There's one in Washington D.C
6. Saw that the Australian dollar has gone up even more. It's now equal to 1.03 American dollars.
I have to go back to my old post to see what it was last time. I think it was 1.01 or 1.02.
7. Saw that the last time I looked at the currency thing was Sunday. And the Australian dollar was worth 1.02 American dollars.
It's comparison to the British pound has stayed relatively the same. It's still worth about .65 pounds.
It's worth 6.81 Swedish Kronor. Last time I checked it was 6.78. It's gone up a bit there.
The Australian dollar has also gone up in yen. The last time I checked it was worth 78.12 yen. Now it's worth 79.1 yen.
8. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read a story thread called Or Perhaps You'd Rather Be Nude.
It takes place in a wizarding robe store in Oliphant Lane, Melbourne's wizarding village.
The two characters in the story are Eudoxia Karras and a new guy named Henry Hunter.
Henry is a professor of practical magic...probably at the university, but I'm not sure yet.
9. Started reading the story.
It's the evening of Sunday, October 16.
It looks like Henry Hunter has recently moved to Victoria. In his previous hometown, the robe shop folks knew him very well. He could just walk into the store and they would have clothes ready for him. They knew his size and what he liked. Now Henry is wondering how long it will be before he has that type of relationship with the shop in Oliphant Lane.
Eudoxia is also in the shop. She's looking for robes for her brother. He has a thing about starting fires, so she's thinking of getting him a fireproof robe.
That might be wise.
10. Saw Eudoxia and Henry exchanging some small talk in the shop. It started with a question about the weather.
11. Learned that Henry is from England, and he's teaching at the university.
12. Started to read the biography of Henry Hunter.
His face claim is Gordon Ramsey—the cooking guy. From what I know of that man, I don't like him. But then I really don't know much, so I suppose I'm being a bit prejudice.
13. Watched a video of Gordon Ramsey getting angry.
There's a lot of videos on YouTube with him getting angry.
He has quite a reputation.
And maybe there's more to him than that. Maybe he has anger issues, but is really nice when he's not angry. Maybe he gives a lot of money to charity.
I'm trying to think positively here....
14. Learned from Lord Wiki, that Ramsay would lie to vegetarians and feed them soup with chicken stock.
Yeah. I'm not finding much to love about this guy.
15. Started to read about Henry Hunter.
He's 42. He was born in London. His Patronus is a hedgehog.
16. Learned that Henry Hunter is not like his face claim. He's friendly and has a good sense of humor. He likes games and jokes.
17. Thought of the dad in Gremlins when I read these lines.
The man is perpetually tinkering with one thing or another irrespective of the time of day or the season (or what company may or may not be over at the time), and he has invented just as many useless things as he has destroyed.
18. Learned that Henry is a bit sexist....or maybe a lot sexist.
He doesn't think women are suited for proper charm work.
19. Saw that Henry does have something in common with Ramsay. He has a hot temper. However he doesn't hold grudges.
I wonder if Ramsay holds grudges.
20. Started to read about Henry Hunter's history.
His father is a wizard, and his mother is a Muggle.
The two met at a benefit event for Muggles. The wizarding Hunter family cared about Muggle-welfare and involved themselves in those types of charities.
21. Learned that at Hogwarts, Henry was sorted into the Ravenclaw house.
22. Learned that Henry lost his Ministry job in the UK because he started a lab fire.
He escaped to Australia feeling they were a backwater continent, and therefore probably wouldn't have heard of his reputation yet.
23. Amused by this bit about Henry.
Easily tricked or distracted out of a temper (or assignment... or anything) with questions about things that interest him.
That's kind of cute.
Henry Hunter is described as being a mad scientist. Besides the Gremlins dad, it also reminds me of the Back to the Future guy.
Henry is creative, but dangerous.
It sounds like he's a bit like Eudoxia's brother. I wonder if she'll come to realize that.
24. Read something in Summerland that reminded me of Sarah's fight with the bullies, in the Tallygarunga story I read yesterday.
The narrator of Summerland says,
If a woman has obvious flaws, a man can, mentally, take out his anger upon them. He can silently curse her breasts slopping across her like a pair of jowls, her rippled cellulite, her thick waist, her lank hair. And then his recovery starts: he scolds himself for his unfair wrath.
I think that's fascinating, and I feel there may be some truth to it.
Our anger at people can make us think really nasty things—superficial things, bigoted things, unfair things. I know I've done this at times.
If we're relatively decent, we feel guilty about these things. Then maybe some of the anger and disgust we direct at the other person is redirected towards ourselves. This might somewhat calm our anger towards the other person.
The key word, though, in Summerland is silent. When Sarah insulted the bully for his weight, she was far from silent. Because of this, I'm tempted to believe she sees no fault in her way of thinking, and no guilt for her words.
I could give her the benefit of the doubt if something slipped out once. Sometimes our secret shameful thoughts are blurted out in a moment of negative passion. But if they're said repeatedly, I would think there's no shame.
25. Saw that my Australian of the day is George Appel.
He was born in Germany in 1823.
When Appel was fifteen, he went to London and started working in a bank.
In his late twenties, Appel decided to seek gold in Australia.
He arrived in Melbourne and then headed off to Bendigo. He didn't have much luck there.
He moved on to the Moreton Bay area, which is a little bit north of Brisbane.
He took part in the German community and was a founding member of the first Lutheran church of South Brisbane.
If I'm reading this right, Hamburg Germany appointed Appel to be a sort of consul to Brisbane. I guess he was kind of a liaison between Germany and Queensland.
26. Went to Silkw0rm1982's YouTube channel.
Here's his cover of Crowded House's "Fall At Your Feet".
I think he has a nice voice.
27. Listened to Silkw0rm1982's cover of Bernard Fanning's "Wash Me Clean".
It's quite lovely.
I'm not sure I've ever heard the original.
28. Started looking at John Lampard's Flickr set of a garden in Mt Eliza Victoria.
29. Saw that Mt Eliza is a tiny bit south of Frankston.
One of my favorite Australians lives in Frankston.
30. Liked the trees in this picture.
31. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
The next space for me is Wickham Terrace. Lord Wiki has nothing to say about it. But I'm assuming since it's part of the red property group, it's in Brisbane.
I'm not saying the color red symbolizes Brisbane. But the other two red properties were in Brisbane, so I'm assuming that's the case for Wickham Terrace.
32. Found Wickham Terrace on Google Maps. It's near Brisbane Private Hospital.
33. Saw on Google Maps, that there's a Wickham Park.
34. Learned that the name Wickham comes from a guy named John Clements Wickham.
He was a captain on the HMS Beagle. This is the ship that was made famous by Charles Darwin's adventures.
He later became a police chief of the Moreton Bay area.
This is the second time I've run into Moreton Bay today.
I'm having Moreton Bay synchronocity.
35. Saw that there's one of those non-sleepover hotels on Wickham Terrace.
It's called The Mill Hotel.
I'm looking at their menu right now.
They don't have a vegetarian option on their kid's menu. I don't like that. There's not many vegetarian options on the menu...period.
That doesn't necessarily mean there's no food for vegetarians. They might be willing to make something vegetarian or put together a side plate of vegetables.
I've been to some places in which every dish has meat, and if you ask for something without meat, they look at you like you've lost your mind. Actually....I've been to only one place like that recently— a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Worth. Most places these days are vegetarian friendly. The thing is, it's not just vegetarians who want to order meatless dishes. Before I was vegetarian, I often wanted meatless meals.
36. Wondered. If I expect meat restaurants to serve vegetarian food, should I then expect vegetarian restaurants to serve a few meat dishes?
I decided my answer is....
No.
There's a difference.
Meat eaters usually still eat vegetables, grains, and other stuff. Unless they're on some kind of extreme protein-only diet, they should be able to find a vegetarian dish they can eat.
I do think the best restaurants are those that serve meat from ethical sources, and then also have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options. Elevation Burger is like that. The dead cows they use in their burgers are grass fed, organic, and free range....all that fun stuff. Then they also have a vegetarian burger AND a vegan burger. Oh, and what I love is they have a burger called Half The Guilt Burger. You get one beef patty and one vegetarian patty.
37. Looked at my Australian travel guide. I read about an explorer exploring a place.
Guess what place it was....
Moreton Bay!
That bay is haunting me today.
I'm going to be honest here.
The Australian travel guide is my designated bathroom book. I like to read when I'm on the toilet. I don't often mention that, because it seems to be such a guy thing. But...well....there you go.
Maybe most women do it too. Maybe I'm not alone. It's just I more often hear men admitting to it.
Anyway, so I went to pee and ran into Moreton Bay again.
38. Consulted Lord Wiki about Moreton Bay.
Lord Wiki says it's the only place in Australia where the dugong gather in herds. I guess it's their hang out place.
39. Learned the Aboriginal name for Moreton Bay is Quandamooka.
40. Learned that Moreton Bay is named after a Scottish astronomer named James Douglas. He was the Earl of Morton.
The change from Morton to Moreton was due to a spelling mistake. Oops.
James Douglas was the 14th Earl of Morton. Now Scotland is on their 21st Earl of Morton. This guy's name is John Douglas.
I'm guessing all the Earls of Morton are related.
Why do they use the name Morton?
Why not say they're the Earl of Douglas?
41. Learned that Captain James Cook only passed by the bay, and that's when he named it. That was in 1770.
Twenty-nine years later, in 1799 Matthew Flinders was the first to go IN the bay.
Twenty-five years after that, a guy named John Oxley brought in the first settlement.
It's amazing to me that so much time passes between these events. My brain knows that. But a part of me imagines it all happening at once. Well, I don't picture it happening simultaneously. I imagine it happening within a few months or years. Sometimes, though, it's decades.
So in the 1820's, there were convicts and soldiers in the area.
In the 1840's, ships with immigrants started to arrive.
41. Saw that one of the immigrant ships has the same name as a Tallygarunga wizard. Artemesia.
Artemisia was the first ship to bring immigrants into Moreton Bay. She arrived in December 1848.
42. Learned from Lord Wiki that the relationship between the Quandamooka people and the Europeans was not a sweet one. The white people showed a lack of respect for Aboriginal marriage rules and they desecrated sacred sites. The other problem is the white people took over the land and there were not enough places for the Aboriginal people to hunt and father food. They started going after the stock animals, which I think is fair and understandable.
The cattle grazers didn't think so. They thought this gave them valid reason to massacre the Quandamooka people.
43. Learned that, in March 2009, there was an oil spill in Moreton Bay. It was an environmental disaster.
That's bad, but the badness doesn't end there.
In the 2011 Queensland flood, contaminated water got into the area. Fishing folks were told not to catch anything. The water was investigated, and the investigators learned there was sewage, pesticides, and metal in the water.
44. Learned that there are 360 islands in Moreton Bay.
One of the islands is Bribie Island. I think I've heard of that.
Peel Island was used as a leper colony from 1907-1959.
45. Learned from Lord Wiki that there's a song called "Moreton Bay".
Now that he's said that, I'm thinking I've heard it before.
46. Watched video with Moreton Bay song and scenes from the Ned Kelly movie.
It's a pretty song.
Lord Wiki says it's about convicts being treated with brutality by a guy named Patrick Logan.
Logan was in command of the penal colony there from 1827-1830.
The convicts thought he was hateful, but some people see him as the father of Queensland.
It's interesting how there can be so many varying views about a person.
47. Learned Bernard Fanning is the one singing "Moreton Bay" in the video above.
It reminds me of this song that played at the end of this TV movie about Protestant and Catholic Irish children. I forgot the name of the movie. There was a program in America where they'd take in two kids—one from each side of the conflict. It was a peace initiative.
I like stuff like that...things that promote peace.
48. Struggled to find the name of the movie. This is frustrating. It's so rare that I can't find the answers with googling.
I DID find that the program is called The Irish Children's Fund.
You'd think knowing that would help me find the movie, but I'm still not having luck.
Anyway, it was a good song...in the movie. I used to love it. They played it during a tearjerker moment.
I'm guessing it's a style of music. Irish folk music, perhaps?
Lord Wiki says "Moreton Bay" is an Australian folk song, which makes sense since it is about Australia. I'd also say it was Irish, though, since the creator of the song was an Irish convict.
49. Listened to John Denver sing "Moreton Bay" on Spotify. I downloaded Spotify months ago, but didn't have a need to use it until today.
I tried to find Denver's performance on YouTube so I could embed it, but no such luck......
50. Listened to Barry Crocker sing "Moreton Bay".
I'm falling in love with this song.
I can totally imagine it making me cry if I heard it in a movie.
51. Remembered the name of the TV movie!
I'm so happy.
It's called Children in the Crossfire.
I found it by looking at the RareTvMovie YouTube channel. They have a huge collection of American TV movies. I actually didn't see that movie. I saw a movie called Cross of Fire. But that triggered my memory of the other movie's name.
I think if I kept digging on this channel, I'd find Children in the Crossfire as well. They seem to have everything.
52. Searched through the channel. It seems they DON'T have Children in the Crossfire. Oh well. I'm still grateful to them for helping my memory out.
Now that I've found what I was looking for, I have to admit I kind of enjoyed the challenge of searching.
53. Thought I wouldn't be able to find the song in the movie, but I did!
I thought the song was played only in the end, but it's also played in the beginning....at least a little bit of it.
Google Video has it.
54. Found the name of the song!
It's called "The Town I Loved So Well" and it's by the Dubliners.
I think these are the lyrics that are played at the end of the movie.
But when I returned how my eyes have burned
To see how a town could be brought to it's knees
By the armored cars and the bombed-out bars
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze.
Now the army's installed by that old gasyard wall
And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and their guns, oh my god what have they done
To the town I loved so well.
Now the music's gone but they carry on
For their spirit's been bruised never broken
They will not forget but their hearts are set
On tomorrow and peace once again.
For what's done is done and what's won is won
And what's lost is lost and gone forever
I can only pray for a bright brand-new day
In the town I loved so well.
Here's a video of the song.
A doctor from Egypt, working in Western Australia, has been denied permanent residency because his daughter is disabled. She has cerebral palsy, and the government thinks she'll be a burden to the health system.
A few years ago the same thing happened with a doctor who's child had Down Syndrome.
I think they eventually let the family stay, but it was a battle.
I would have hoped their battle would have prevented other people from having to endure the same battle.
2. Learned from my Australia travel guide book that Mount Kosciuszko was named after a Polish freedom fighter.
I didn't know that.
Lord Wiki says the name of the mountain was originally Mount Kosciusko. Then in 1997 they changed the spelling of the name to better match its namesake.
The guy who named the mountain was Pawel Edmund Stzelecki. He was a Polish explorer who climbed the mountain and named it.
3. Consulted Lord Wiki about Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
He wasn't just a Polish freedom fighter. He was an American freedom fighter.
He fought on the side of the colonies during the American Revolutionary war. Then he became an American citizen.
4. Learned from Lord Wiki that Kosciuszko eventually left the United States. He left with Thomas Jefferson as the executor of his American estate. He requested that his money be given to a fund that would free African slaves and help them become educated and independent.
Unfortunately, that went wrong. People did wrong. And none of the money went where it should have gone.
5. Felt a little emotional when I saw from Lord Wiki that there are many places around the world named after Kosciuszko.
There's a Kosciusko, Texas. It's near San Antonia. I think it's a pretty small town. I have to zoom in a lot on Google Maps before I can see it.
Lord Wiki says America also has a few statues of Kosciuszko. There's one in Washington D.C
6. Saw that the Australian dollar has gone up even more. It's now equal to 1.03 American dollars.
I have to go back to my old post to see what it was last time. I think it was 1.01 or 1.02.
7. Saw that the last time I looked at the currency thing was Sunday. And the Australian dollar was worth 1.02 American dollars.
It's comparison to the British pound has stayed relatively the same. It's still worth about .65 pounds.
It's worth 6.81 Swedish Kronor. Last time I checked it was 6.78. It's gone up a bit there.
The Australian dollar has also gone up in yen. The last time I checked it was worth 78.12 yen. Now it's worth 79.1 yen.
8. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read a story thread called Or Perhaps You'd Rather Be Nude.
It takes place in a wizarding robe store in Oliphant Lane, Melbourne's wizarding village.
The two characters in the story are Eudoxia Karras and a new guy named Henry Hunter.
Henry is a professor of practical magic...probably at the university, but I'm not sure yet.
9. Started reading the story.
It's the evening of Sunday, October 16.
It looks like Henry Hunter has recently moved to Victoria. In his previous hometown, the robe shop folks knew him very well. He could just walk into the store and they would have clothes ready for him. They knew his size and what he liked. Now Henry is wondering how long it will be before he has that type of relationship with the shop in Oliphant Lane.
Eudoxia is also in the shop. She's looking for robes for her brother. He has a thing about starting fires, so she's thinking of getting him a fireproof robe.
That might be wise.
10. Saw Eudoxia and Henry exchanging some small talk in the shop. It started with a question about the weather.
11. Learned that Henry is from England, and he's teaching at the university.
12. Started to read the biography of Henry Hunter.
His face claim is Gordon Ramsey—the cooking guy. From what I know of that man, I don't like him. But then I really don't know much, so I suppose I'm being a bit prejudice.
13. Watched a video of Gordon Ramsey getting angry.
There's a lot of videos on YouTube with him getting angry.
He has quite a reputation.
And maybe there's more to him than that. Maybe he has anger issues, but is really nice when he's not angry. Maybe he gives a lot of money to charity.
I'm trying to think positively here....
14. Learned from Lord Wiki, that Ramsay would lie to vegetarians and feed them soup with chicken stock.
Yeah. I'm not finding much to love about this guy.
15. Started to read about Henry Hunter.
He's 42. He was born in London. His Patronus is a hedgehog.
16. Learned that Henry Hunter is not like his face claim. He's friendly and has a good sense of humor. He likes games and jokes.
17. Thought of the dad in Gremlins when I read these lines.
The man is perpetually tinkering with one thing or another irrespective of the time of day or the season (or what company may or may not be over at the time), and he has invented just as many useless things as he has destroyed.
18. Learned that Henry is a bit sexist....or maybe a lot sexist.
He doesn't think women are suited for proper charm work.
19. Saw that Henry does have something in common with Ramsay. He has a hot temper. However he doesn't hold grudges.
I wonder if Ramsay holds grudges.
20. Started to read about Henry Hunter's history.
His father is a wizard, and his mother is a Muggle.
The two met at a benefit event for Muggles. The wizarding Hunter family cared about Muggle-welfare and involved themselves in those types of charities.
21. Learned that at Hogwarts, Henry was sorted into the Ravenclaw house.
22. Learned that Henry lost his Ministry job in the UK because he started a lab fire.
He escaped to Australia feeling they were a backwater continent, and therefore probably wouldn't have heard of his reputation yet.
23. Amused by this bit about Henry.
Easily tricked or distracted out of a temper (or assignment... or anything) with questions about things that interest him.
That's kind of cute.
Henry Hunter is described as being a mad scientist. Besides the Gremlins dad, it also reminds me of the Back to the Future guy.
Henry is creative, but dangerous.
It sounds like he's a bit like Eudoxia's brother. I wonder if she'll come to realize that.
24. Read something in Summerland that reminded me of Sarah's fight with the bullies, in the Tallygarunga story I read yesterday.
The narrator of Summerland says,
If a woman has obvious flaws, a man can, mentally, take out his anger upon them. He can silently curse her breasts slopping across her like a pair of jowls, her rippled cellulite, her thick waist, her lank hair. And then his recovery starts: he scolds himself for his unfair wrath.
I think that's fascinating, and I feel there may be some truth to it.
Our anger at people can make us think really nasty things—superficial things, bigoted things, unfair things. I know I've done this at times.
If we're relatively decent, we feel guilty about these things. Then maybe some of the anger and disgust we direct at the other person is redirected towards ourselves. This might somewhat calm our anger towards the other person.
The key word, though, in Summerland is silent. When Sarah insulted the bully for his weight, she was far from silent. Because of this, I'm tempted to believe she sees no fault in her way of thinking, and no guilt for her words.
I could give her the benefit of the doubt if something slipped out once. Sometimes our secret shameful thoughts are blurted out in a moment of negative passion. But if they're said repeatedly, I would think there's no shame.
25. Saw that my Australian of the day is George Appel.
He was born in Germany in 1823.
When Appel was fifteen, he went to London and started working in a bank.
In his late twenties, Appel decided to seek gold in Australia.
He arrived in Melbourne and then headed off to Bendigo. He didn't have much luck there.
He moved on to the Moreton Bay area, which is a little bit north of Brisbane.
He took part in the German community and was a founding member of the first Lutheran church of South Brisbane.
If I'm reading this right, Hamburg Germany appointed Appel to be a sort of consul to Brisbane. I guess he was kind of a liaison between Germany and Queensland.
26. Went to Silkw0rm1982's YouTube channel.
Here's his cover of Crowded House's "Fall At Your Feet".
I think he has a nice voice.
27. Listened to Silkw0rm1982's cover of Bernard Fanning's "Wash Me Clean".
It's quite lovely.
I'm not sure I've ever heard the original.
28. Started looking at John Lampard's Flickr set of a garden in Mt Eliza Victoria.
29. Saw that Mt Eliza is a tiny bit south of Frankston.
One of my favorite Australians lives in Frankston.
30. Liked the trees in this picture.
31. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
The next space for me is Wickham Terrace. Lord Wiki has nothing to say about it. But I'm assuming since it's part of the red property group, it's in Brisbane.
I'm not saying the color red symbolizes Brisbane. But the other two red properties were in Brisbane, so I'm assuming that's the case for Wickham Terrace.
32. Found Wickham Terrace on Google Maps. It's near Brisbane Private Hospital.
33. Saw on Google Maps, that there's a Wickham Park.
34. Learned that the name Wickham comes from a guy named John Clements Wickham.
He was a captain on the HMS Beagle. This is the ship that was made famous by Charles Darwin's adventures.
He later became a police chief of the Moreton Bay area.
This is the second time I've run into Moreton Bay today.
I'm having Moreton Bay synchronocity.
35. Saw that there's one of those non-sleepover hotels on Wickham Terrace.
It's called The Mill Hotel.
I'm looking at their menu right now.
They don't have a vegetarian option on their kid's menu. I don't like that. There's not many vegetarian options on the menu...period.
That doesn't necessarily mean there's no food for vegetarians. They might be willing to make something vegetarian or put together a side plate of vegetables.
I've been to some places in which every dish has meat, and if you ask for something without meat, they look at you like you've lost your mind. Actually....I've been to only one place like that recently— a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Worth. Most places these days are vegetarian friendly. The thing is, it's not just vegetarians who want to order meatless dishes. Before I was vegetarian, I often wanted meatless meals.
36. Wondered. If I expect meat restaurants to serve vegetarian food, should I then expect vegetarian restaurants to serve a few meat dishes?
I decided my answer is....
No.
There's a difference.
Meat eaters usually still eat vegetables, grains, and other stuff. Unless they're on some kind of extreme protein-only diet, they should be able to find a vegetarian dish they can eat.
I do think the best restaurants are those that serve meat from ethical sources, and then also have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options. Elevation Burger is like that. The dead cows they use in their burgers are grass fed, organic, and free range....all that fun stuff. Then they also have a vegetarian burger AND a vegan burger. Oh, and what I love is they have a burger called Half The Guilt Burger. You get one beef patty and one vegetarian patty.
37. Looked at my Australian travel guide. I read about an explorer exploring a place.
Guess what place it was....
Moreton Bay!
That bay is haunting me today.
I'm going to be honest here.
The Australian travel guide is my designated bathroom book. I like to read when I'm on the toilet. I don't often mention that, because it seems to be such a guy thing. But...well....there you go.
Maybe most women do it too. Maybe I'm not alone. It's just I more often hear men admitting to it.
Anyway, so I went to pee and ran into Moreton Bay again.
38. Consulted Lord Wiki about Moreton Bay.
Lord Wiki says it's the only place in Australia where the dugong gather in herds. I guess it's their hang out place.
39. Learned the Aboriginal name for Moreton Bay is Quandamooka.
40. Learned that Moreton Bay is named after a Scottish astronomer named James Douglas. He was the Earl of Morton.
The change from Morton to Moreton was due to a spelling mistake. Oops.
James Douglas was the 14th Earl of Morton. Now Scotland is on their 21st Earl of Morton. This guy's name is John Douglas.
I'm guessing all the Earls of Morton are related.
Why do they use the name Morton?
Why not say they're the Earl of Douglas?
41. Learned that Captain James Cook only passed by the bay, and that's when he named it. That was in 1770.
Twenty-nine years later, in 1799 Matthew Flinders was the first to go IN the bay.
Twenty-five years after that, a guy named John Oxley brought in the first settlement.
It's amazing to me that so much time passes between these events. My brain knows that. But a part of me imagines it all happening at once. Well, I don't picture it happening simultaneously. I imagine it happening within a few months or years. Sometimes, though, it's decades.
So in the 1820's, there were convicts and soldiers in the area.
In the 1840's, ships with immigrants started to arrive.
41. Saw that one of the immigrant ships has the same name as a Tallygarunga wizard. Artemesia.
Artemisia was the first ship to bring immigrants into Moreton Bay. She arrived in December 1848.
42. Learned from Lord Wiki that the relationship between the Quandamooka people and the Europeans was not a sweet one. The white people showed a lack of respect for Aboriginal marriage rules and they desecrated sacred sites. The other problem is the white people took over the land and there were not enough places for the Aboriginal people to hunt and father food. They started going after the stock animals, which I think is fair and understandable.
The cattle grazers didn't think so. They thought this gave them valid reason to massacre the Quandamooka people.
43. Learned that, in March 2009, there was an oil spill in Moreton Bay. It was an environmental disaster.
That's bad, but the badness doesn't end there.
In the 2011 Queensland flood, contaminated water got into the area. Fishing folks were told not to catch anything. The water was investigated, and the investigators learned there was sewage, pesticides, and metal in the water.
44. Learned that there are 360 islands in Moreton Bay.
One of the islands is Bribie Island. I think I've heard of that.
Peel Island was used as a leper colony from 1907-1959.
45. Learned from Lord Wiki that there's a song called "Moreton Bay".
Now that he's said that, I'm thinking I've heard it before.
46. Watched video with Moreton Bay song and scenes from the Ned Kelly movie.
It's a pretty song.
Lord Wiki says it's about convicts being treated with brutality by a guy named Patrick Logan.
Logan was in command of the penal colony there from 1827-1830.
The convicts thought he was hateful, but some people see him as the father of Queensland.
It's interesting how there can be so many varying views about a person.
47. Learned Bernard Fanning is the one singing "Moreton Bay" in the video above.
It reminds me of this song that played at the end of this TV movie about Protestant and Catholic Irish children. I forgot the name of the movie. There was a program in America where they'd take in two kids—one from each side of the conflict. It was a peace initiative.
I like stuff like that...things that promote peace.
48. Struggled to find the name of the movie. This is frustrating. It's so rare that I can't find the answers with googling.
I DID find that the program is called The Irish Children's Fund.
You'd think knowing that would help me find the movie, but I'm still not having luck.
Anyway, it was a good song...in the movie. I used to love it. They played it during a tearjerker moment.
I'm guessing it's a style of music. Irish folk music, perhaps?
Lord Wiki says "Moreton Bay" is an Australian folk song, which makes sense since it is about Australia. I'd also say it was Irish, though, since the creator of the song was an Irish convict.
49. Listened to John Denver sing "Moreton Bay" on Spotify. I downloaded Spotify months ago, but didn't have a need to use it until today.
I tried to find Denver's performance on YouTube so I could embed it, but no such luck......
50. Listened to Barry Crocker sing "Moreton Bay".
I'm falling in love with this song.
I can totally imagine it making me cry if I heard it in a movie.
51. Remembered the name of the TV movie!
I'm so happy.
It's called Children in the Crossfire.
I found it by looking at the RareTvMovie YouTube channel. They have a huge collection of American TV movies. I actually didn't see that movie. I saw a movie called Cross of Fire. But that triggered my memory of the other movie's name.
I think if I kept digging on this channel, I'd find Children in the Crossfire as well. They seem to have everything.
52. Searched through the channel. It seems they DON'T have Children in the Crossfire. Oh well. I'm still grateful to them for helping my memory out.
Now that I've found what I was looking for, I have to admit I kind of enjoyed the challenge of searching.
53. Thought I wouldn't be able to find the song in the movie, but I did!
I thought the song was played only in the end, but it's also played in the beginning....at least a little bit of it.
Google Video has it.
54. Found the name of the song!
It's called "The Town I Loved So Well" and it's by the Dubliners.
I think these are the lyrics that are played at the end of the movie.
But when I returned how my eyes have burned
To see how a town could be brought to it's knees
By the armored cars and the bombed-out bars
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze.
Now the army's installed by that old gasyard wall
And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and their guns, oh my god what have they done
To the town I loved so well.
Now the music's gone but they carry on
For their spirit's been bruised never broken
They will not forget but their hearts are set
On tomorrow and peace once again.
For what's done is done and what's won is won
And what's lost is lost and gone forever
I can only pray for a bright brand-new day
In the town I loved so well.
Here's a video of the song.
Media, Support, Brisbane, and Universities
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.
Balmain, Redfern, First Fleet, and Pretend Julia Gillard
1. Reminded by my new Treasures of Australia book that the Sydney suburb of Balmain was named after a surgeon on the First Fleet.
William Balmain.
Lord Wiki says he delivered the first baby on the First Fleet. I wonder whatever became of that baby. Did it survive? Does it have descendants?
2. Learned that William Balmain ended up getting together with a convict named Margaret Dawson. They ended up having a child together.
Did I do a post on Dawson?
I can't remember.
I'll go check.
3. Saw that I did do a post on her.
I shall read it and relearn what I learned almost two years ago.
I wonder if I mentioned William Balmain.
4. Read some of the post and saw that I did mention Balmain.
I also mentioned the fact that Redfern was named after a surgeon as well.
I was thinking before that Balmain had impressed me for some reason; but now I'm remembering that it was Redfern. There was something I liked about the guy, but I can't remember what it was.
5. Consulted Lord Wiki about Redfern.
That surgeon had William as a first name too.
William Redfern was a convict.
What got him into trouble was being part of a mutiny.
He was a doctor before becoming a convict, and in New South Wales he became a doctor again.
William Redfern spoke up against the sanitary conditions of the ships. His words were heard and improvements were made.
Lord Wiki says Redfern can be considered one of the fathers of the Australian medical profession.
6. Read article that says there have been huge storms in south-east Queensland.
It sounds very intense. I hope people and other animals stay safe.
7. Read Andrew's distressing post about the mistreatment of chickens.
This is timely for me since I accidentally bought products with egg in it.
I guess on the plus side, the protein bars probably don't have a lot of eggs. I think there's a difference between eating an omelet which uses a 2-3 eggs per serving and eating a baked good or other product that uses 1-2 eggs for many servings.
8. Agreed with what Andrew and Anonymous discussed in Andrew's comment section. Anonymous says.
The fact is modern farming practices and thinking have reduced animals to products where the bottom line is the almighty dollar - farmers and corporations want to make high profits and consumers want cheap, plentiful food. To get either, food animals must live appalling lives where terrible cruelty is commonplace and sanctioned at most levels of society.
Andrew replies, You may well be a few months younger than me, but you would remember when chicken was a luxury. It was a luxury because it was expensive. Now it is so cheap, because of the mass production of chicken meat.
Yeah. I think meat and other animal products should be expensive. I don't think everyone needs to be vegetarian. But I do think meat should be something people have once in awhile, rather than on a regular basis.
Meat shouldn't be mass produced and cheap.
9. Thought maybe there's a correlation between the obesity issues, that people worry about lately, and factory farming. People want to pay low prices for huge portions. To keep up with that, there needs to be factory farms.
10. Went to Kevin Rudd's Twitter page. I thought this Tweet was cute: The students at the model UN were first class. A few too many future foreign ministers for my liking… I better watch out. KRudd.
11. Read article about asylum seekers. It sounds like good news. Although some of it confuses me.
Some people who come by boat are going to be put into what's called community detention rather than mandatory detention.
Rather than being isolated from the community, they'll live in the community. But they'll be monitored and required to check in with officials.
12. Read the article more closely. People won't automatically get released into the community. They'll spend a short time in the detention centers for medical and identity checks.
I wonder how long they'll be in there? Days? Weeks? Months?
The people released into the community will have what's called a bridging visa.
A human rights advocate named Marion Le worries nothing will change. She's concerned that the bridging visa is just another name for the protection visa. With the protection visa, sometimes it would take three to four years for people to get one.
Hopefully her suspicions aren't warranted, and people won't get locked up for that long.
13. Read editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald about the best characters on television.
Only one character is Australian and it's Tim Mathieson from At Home With Julia. I heard of that, but I didn't know it was an actual show. I thought it was a one time special.
Most of the characters on the list are from American shows.
I don't watch a lot of Australian television, so I don't have much to go by. But my favorite characters are probably Maggie Beare from Mother and Son and Billy Proudman from Offspring.
14. Went to the website for At Home With Julia.
I was sort of right. It was a miniseries—not an ongoing thing.
15. Started to watch the video clips they have on the website. The actress who plays Julia Gillard does a good job of imitating Gillard's voice.
I laughed a few times during that. The show looks pretty good.
16. Watched more of the show. I'm finding that I agree with the editorial's pick of best character on the show.
17. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read History of Magic: The First Lesson.
It looks like there's a new professor for that.
I think last semester the class was taught by Professor Rodrigez.
Now we have Edvard Adalwin.
18. Started to read.
Professor Adalwin is a bit nervous about teaching his first class at the school.
He eats a Bernie Botts bean and gets pumpkin pie.
I think of pumpkin pie as being an American food. I guess because of Thanksgiving. I wonder if other countries eat it as well.
I peeked at Adalwin's biography. He's from Norway.
I wonder if Norwegians eat pumpkin pie.
19. Consulted Lord Wiki about the history of pumpkin pie.
It's pretty interesting.
He said pumpkin seeds were first found in Mexico. They made their way to France, and then to England. The British started using pumpkin as a pie-filler. Then it was brought, by the pilgrims, to America.
20. Went back to reading about the Tally class.
The students are entering the room.
21. Wondered about Reade's line here.
Sure, he was still feeling the lowest he ever had, with the Arti situation hanging over him, but History was his favourite class and it was brightening up his day considerably just thinking about attending it.
So what is the Arti situation now? This story takes place on October 10. I need to go see when the coma storyline took place.
According to Reade here, is Arti missing? Does he know she's in the hospital? Does he know what has happened to her?
22. Went to the coma storyline....or the awakening-from-the-coma story.
It takes place on October 5.
So by now, Reade should know Arti is in the hospital—unless she's being hidden.
23. Intrigued by the fact that the class is going to be learning Australia history.
Riley's not at all excited about it.
I wish I could trade places with him—well, just for a few hours.
I'd love to hear about Australian history through the eyes of a wizard.
24. Read Sarah Kent's post. She's very excited to see Victor Hartwell in the classroom.
That triggered my memory. Victor's the one who has recently found out he's William Kent's son. This means he's Sarah's half-brother.
I'm guessing, from her excitement about seeing him, that she knows they're siblings.
Or maybe she doesn't know and adores him as a friend?
25. Finished reading the story thread.
Most of the students are not at all excited about history. The exceptions are Reade and Juli Preston.
26. Wondered what kind of magic was happening in the beginnings of Australia.
Any witches and wizards on The First Fleet?
Maybe that baby, William Balmain delivered, was a wizard. Or maybe the intrusion of Muggle medicine in his childbirth messed things up, and the baby became a Squib.
27. Went to the biography of Mr. Edvard Adalwin.
His face claim is Vincent Furnier, who is also known as Alice Cooper. I didn't know that. Lord Wiki had to tell me. I'm usually ignorant when it comes to music stuff.
I know of one Alice Cooper song: "Welcome to My Nightmare".
I think, for some of the Tallygarunga students, they're biggest nightmare is attending history class.
28. Learned that Edvard is in his early sixties.
He's tall.
It sounds like he's a skeleton. In fact, one won’t find an ounce of fat or muscle on his body.
What is he? Skin and bones?
29. Reminded of myself when I read this. He loves natures and strolls out through forests and wooded areas but cannot stand humid, stick heat or the frigid, chilling cold. This is why he so often spends his time indoors.
I'm very picky about weather. Anything over 82 degrees is too hot for me, and anything under about 70 degrees is too cold.
30. Liked this detail about Edvard. Also when out on strolls, assuming his attire has pockets, his hands will typically be shoved deep into pockets.
I think it provides insight into both his appearance and personality.
I'm not sure what it says about his personality though. What kind of person sticks their hands in their pockets?
Maybe....
My guess is it's someone who's a bit nervous and insecure. They may be trying to hide a part of themselves, in a subconscious way. They also might be holding something in their pocket to give them security.
In the story, Edvard had candy in his pocket. I wonder if that's usually the case for him.
31. Learned that Edvard has the type of face that makes him look grumpy, but it doesn't match his personality. He's pleasant and likes to joke around.
32. Reminded strongly of someone I know when I read this line about Edvard.
He can keep his cool around certain company like strangers or pupils, but behind closed doors, if one is disrespectful or overly-insulting with their words, he will not hold back his fury.
Some people are very good at controlling their temper in some situations, but unable to control it in other situations.
33. Started to read Edvard's history.
His mother is a witch but worked at a Muggle department store.
His father made money casting runes. He would do this for both Muggles and magical folks. The Muggles saw it as mostly entertainment.
34. Learned that, although Durmstrang is the closer and more logical choice of wizarding school for Norwegians, Edvard was sent to Hogwarts. The reason is his parents didn't like the school's association with the dark arts.
35. Learned that Edvard was sorted into Hufflepuff.
He would have started school around 1970.
Who would have been there then?
36. Consulted Lord Wiki's cousin about Sirius Black. He was born in 1959, the same year as Edvard.
So he'd probably be in the same year as a lot of Harry Potter people—Black, James Potter, Lily Potter, Snape, Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.
37. Saw that when Edvard finished with Hogwarts, he went to London's Magic University.
He didn't do so well there—too much partying. He was kicked out. His dad was very angry about that. He refused to pay for any more of Edvard's education.
Edvard worked instead. After struggling, he made enough money to pay for his own education. That's where he learned the history stuff.
38. Intrigued by these lines.
His luck took a turn for the better though in his early forties when at least a teaching position had opened up. The Hogwarts History of Magic professor had grown deathly ill and had to take an extended leave of absence; unfortunately, the professor’s conditions never improved and died a few months later.
I wonder if that's referencing a Harry Potter character.
39. Did the math. That would have been around 1999, and that's after the battle at Hogwarts took place.
It still could be a Harry Potter character though.
Who taught History of Magic?
40. Consulted Lord Wiki's cousin again. The class is the one that's taught by a ghost.
I'm guessing the ghost wasn't the one who got sick. And it really couldn't have died.
Maybe someone else was hired to do the job, and then he or she got sick?
41. Did another Australian accent practice video. I followed the advice of a friend who suggested I try reading nonfiction. So I read about Broken Hill in my new Treasures of Australia book.
I think (hope) that this time I sound more Australian and less British. That's not to say I don't love British accents.
42. Went to the YouTube channel of Stephniijane.
She's another singer, and has done a lot of videos.
Her profile says she has a degree in zoology and is a wildlife demonstrator.
At the time she wrote the profile, she was living in London as an au pair. I wonder if she's still doing that. I also wonder if she liked the job.
43. Listened to Stephniijane sing the Glee version of "Defying Gravity"
It's interesting. I don't think I've ever seen an interesting cover on Glee. I need to check it out.
44. Listened to Glee's version of "Defying Gravity".
It's less interesting than what I hoped for.
It sounds very much like the one in the musical.
45. Thought it would be funny if Stephniijane was simply singing the song wrong, and I'm liking it because it's different.
I think her version sounds different from the Glee version.
46. Listened to Stephniijane sing Katy Perry's "Firework".
In some parts, her voice sounds good.
Often I can't hear her well over the guitar.
47. Watched Stephniijane do one of her animal demonstrations.
This is with her pet potoroo. I've never heard of that.
She mentions that her most popular video is of her singing Lady Gaga's "Just Dance." She talks about how she gets mixed reviews. Some people love it and some people hate it.
I decided I'd watch it and see for myself.
I don't think she has a very powerful voice, but she does have a cute one.
48. Consulted Lord Wiki about the potoroo.
He says there are four types. Two of them are endangered. One of them (Gilbert's Potoroo) is the most endangered animal in Australia. There's not many of them left.
49. Learned from my Treasures of Australia book that the main streets in Broken Hill are named after minerals.
I'm looking at it on Google Maps.
I see Silver City Highway.
There's Argent Street. Is that a mineral?
Lord Wiki says it's a tincture. I wasn't sure what that was; so I asked him. He said it's a color used on a coat of arms.
50. Saw Galena Street.
Lord Wiki says Galena is the mineral form of lead sulfide.
There's a Gypsum Street.
Gypsum is made of calcium, sulfate, and water.
Lord Wiki says gypsum is used in the making of tofu. Interesting......
51. Saw that my Australian of the day is John Macquarie Antill. He's the grandson of the guy I wrote about two days ago: Henry Colden Antill.
Henry worked with Lachlan Macquarie, so I'm guessing that's why John Antill has Macquarie as his middle name.
52. Saw that John Antill did military work.
He won medals for that.
53. Saw that one of Antill's pastimes after retirement was "bowls". I'm not sure what that means.
He also liked gardening, woodwork, reading, and writing. He and his daughter wrote a play about William Redfern. It was called The Emancipist.
It's funny to read that since I was thinking about Redfern last night.
54. Amused because I saw, from IMDb that the woman who plays Julia Gillard in At Home With Julia was one of the stars of The Upside Down Show.
Her name's Amanda Bishop, and she played Mrs. Foil. I don't remember her...except maybe vaguely. It's been a long time since we watched that show.
55. Saw that Phil Lloyd, the guy who plays Tim Mathieson, is also the writer of the series.
56. Started to look at more of John Lampard's Flickr photos.
Today I'm going to look at his Spot Food and Film Festival pictures.
It's part of the Australian Film Festival.
Here's their website. They have a page about the Spot thing.
57. Thought these cupcakes are cute and colorful.
58. Saw different names on a walk of fame type thing. Here's one for an actor named Steve Bisley.
Lord Wiki says he was in Mad Max and currently he's on Sea Patrol. He was also on Water Rats and Sea Rescue.
I really haven't seen any of that stuff.
59. Saw Claudia Karvan has a circle on the Walk of Fame.
60. Saw that Peter Garrett was at the festival.
I have to admit, it took me about three seconds to remember who he was.
But I'm pleased with myself for figuring it out eventually.
61. Continued to watch At Home With Julia.
It has a lot of funny parts.
62. Found article about At Home With Julia. It's about Tim and Julia having a sex scene involving the Australian flag. I saw the headlines a few days ago, but didn't pay much attention. It wasn't of interest to me. Now that I've seen the show, I'm interested.
Some people were offended by the flag thing.
A spokesman for the show responded.
If it's OK for others to drape themselves in our flag for all manner of occasions, I really don't see why it can't be draped over our prime minister as a symbol of love.
Yeah...why not.
63. Read blog post from someone who found the show to be funny but disrespectful.
Scarlett Harris liked the first two episodes and felt it made Gillard seem more human. But she pointed out anti-feminist aspects of the program.
She doubts a show like this would be made about other Prime Ministers. She acknowledges that Rudd and others have been mocked in comedy, but it was about their public lives and not their private ones.
I don't know. She might have a point. There's probably some gender prejudice involved in the motivation behind the show.
But I still like it.
Gillard and Mathieson are portrayed as being kind of buffoons. But I think they're very sympathetic characters.
It would be nice if we lived in a world where no one would think twice about a female Prime Minister being in a de facto relationship with a hairdresser. Someday that will probably be the case. But I CAN imagine that there's truth behind the show. It can't be too easy being Mathieson in today's society. We still cling to the idea that in heterosexual relationships, it's the man who should have the more powerful career.
I imagine it's hard enough for most men to be in a relationship where his partner has more power and money. I think it would be even more difficult when you're constantly under media scrutiny.
That being said...is the show adding more salt to the wounds?
Maybe? Or maybe Tim and Julia find it funny. Do they have the ability to laugh at themselves while watching the show? Or do they feel it goes too far?
Do they even watch it?
64. Decided I personally feel the show isn't disrespectful or cruel. Why? Because it's actually made me kind of LIKE Julia Gillard.
I don't often give Tim Mathieson a lot of thought, but after seeing the show....I'm liking him too.
The characters are a bit silly, but they're also very lovely.
Now instead of seeing Gillard simply as the anti-gay marriage person who stole Kevin Rudd's job, I also see her as the woman wearing a bathrobe who doesn't know her way around Canberra.
65. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
Today's street for me is Victoria Square.
Well, I guess it's not really a street.
Lord Wiki says it's a public square.
66. Learned from Lord Wiki that Victoria Square has a statue of Queen Victoria.
67. Found Victoria Square on Google Maps.
It looks like there actually is a street called Victoria Square.
It's to the east of the square.
68. Read article from May 2010 about fixing up Victoria Square.
It seems for a long time there has been talk about fixing up the square, but people were slow at making actual plans to do something.
There's a Hilton in/near the square. The general manager of the hotel, Michael Schmitt feels revitalizing the square will be good for business. He says, Victoria Square at the moment is the centre of the city but not the heart.
I'm not sure if that's true or not; but I think it's a great quote.
69. Went to the Adelaide City Council's page about the redevelopment of the square.
One of their taglines is a bit off to me. They say, think inside the square.
I'm guessing it's a play on, think outside the box.
And in that saying , thinking INSIDE the box is a negative. The whole point of thinking outside the box is to be original.
So what's the point of thinking inside the square. Does it have a meaning? Or did they just like how it sounded?
I think it sounds cute, but I'm not sure if the message works for me.
70. Decided it probably works all right if you don't connect it to think outside the box.
William Balmain.
Lord Wiki says he delivered the first baby on the First Fleet. I wonder whatever became of that baby. Did it survive? Does it have descendants?
2. Learned that William Balmain ended up getting together with a convict named Margaret Dawson. They ended up having a child together.
Did I do a post on Dawson?
I can't remember.
I'll go check.
3. Saw that I did do a post on her.
I shall read it and relearn what I learned almost two years ago.
I wonder if I mentioned William Balmain.
4. Read some of the post and saw that I did mention Balmain.
I also mentioned the fact that Redfern was named after a surgeon as well.
I was thinking before that Balmain had impressed me for some reason; but now I'm remembering that it was Redfern. There was something I liked about the guy, but I can't remember what it was.
5. Consulted Lord Wiki about Redfern.
That surgeon had William as a first name too.
William Redfern was a convict.
What got him into trouble was being part of a mutiny.
He was a doctor before becoming a convict, and in New South Wales he became a doctor again.
William Redfern spoke up against the sanitary conditions of the ships. His words were heard and improvements were made.
Lord Wiki says Redfern can be considered one of the fathers of the Australian medical profession.
6. Read article that says there have been huge storms in south-east Queensland.
It sounds very intense. I hope people and other animals stay safe.
7. Read Andrew's distressing post about the mistreatment of chickens.
This is timely for me since I accidentally bought products with egg in it.
I guess on the plus side, the protein bars probably don't have a lot of eggs. I think there's a difference between eating an omelet which uses a 2-3 eggs per serving and eating a baked good or other product that uses 1-2 eggs for many servings.
8. Agreed with what Andrew and Anonymous discussed in Andrew's comment section. Anonymous says.
The fact is modern farming practices and thinking have reduced animals to products where the bottom line is the almighty dollar - farmers and corporations want to make high profits and consumers want cheap, plentiful food. To get either, food animals must live appalling lives where terrible cruelty is commonplace and sanctioned at most levels of society.
Andrew replies, You may well be a few months younger than me, but you would remember when chicken was a luxury. It was a luxury because it was expensive. Now it is so cheap, because of the mass production of chicken meat.
Yeah. I think meat and other animal products should be expensive. I don't think everyone needs to be vegetarian. But I do think meat should be something people have once in awhile, rather than on a regular basis.
Meat shouldn't be mass produced and cheap.
9. Thought maybe there's a correlation between the obesity issues, that people worry about lately, and factory farming. People want to pay low prices for huge portions. To keep up with that, there needs to be factory farms.
10. Went to Kevin Rudd's Twitter page. I thought this Tweet was cute: The students at the model UN were first class. A few too many future foreign ministers for my liking… I better watch out. KRudd.
11. Read article about asylum seekers. It sounds like good news. Although some of it confuses me.
Some people who come by boat are going to be put into what's called community detention rather than mandatory detention.
Rather than being isolated from the community, they'll live in the community. But they'll be monitored and required to check in with officials.
12. Read the article more closely. People won't automatically get released into the community. They'll spend a short time in the detention centers for medical and identity checks.
I wonder how long they'll be in there? Days? Weeks? Months?
The people released into the community will have what's called a bridging visa.
A human rights advocate named Marion Le worries nothing will change. She's concerned that the bridging visa is just another name for the protection visa. With the protection visa, sometimes it would take three to four years for people to get one.
Hopefully her suspicions aren't warranted, and people won't get locked up for that long.
13. Read editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald about the best characters on television.
Only one character is Australian and it's Tim Mathieson from At Home With Julia. I heard of that, but I didn't know it was an actual show. I thought it was a one time special.
Most of the characters on the list are from American shows.
I don't watch a lot of Australian television, so I don't have much to go by. But my favorite characters are probably Maggie Beare from Mother and Son and Billy Proudman from Offspring.
14. Went to the website for At Home With Julia.
I was sort of right. It was a miniseries—not an ongoing thing.
15. Started to watch the video clips they have on the website. The actress who plays Julia Gillard does a good job of imitating Gillard's voice.
I laughed a few times during that. The show looks pretty good.
16. Watched more of the show. I'm finding that I agree with the editorial's pick of best character on the show.
17. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read History of Magic: The First Lesson.
It looks like there's a new professor for that.
I think last semester the class was taught by Professor Rodrigez.
Now we have Edvard Adalwin.
18. Started to read.
Professor Adalwin is a bit nervous about teaching his first class at the school.
He eats a Bernie Botts bean and gets pumpkin pie.
I think of pumpkin pie as being an American food. I guess because of Thanksgiving. I wonder if other countries eat it as well.
I peeked at Adalwin's biography. He's from Norway.
I wonder if Norwegians eat pumpkin pie.
19. Consulted Lord Wiki about the history of pumpkin pie.
It's pretty interesting.
He said pumpkin seeds were first found in Mexico. They made their way to France, and then to England. The British started using pumpkin as a pie-filler. Then it was brought, by the pilgrims, to America.
20. Went back to reading about the Tally class.
The students are entering the room.
21. Wondered about Reade's line here.
Sure, he was still feeling the lowest he ever had, with the Arti situation hanging over him, but History was his favourite class and it was brightening up his day considerably just thinking about attending it.
So what is the Arti situation now? This story takes place on October 10. I need to go see when the coma storyline took place.
According to Reade here, is Arti missing? Does he know she's in the hospital? Does he know what has happened to her?
22. Went to the coma storyline....or the awakening-from-the-coma story.
It takes place on October 5.
So by now, Reade should know Arti is in the hospital—unless she's being hidden.
23. Intrigued by the fact that the class is going to be learning Australia history.
Riley's not at all excited about it.
I wish I could trade places with him—well, just for a few hours.
I'd love to hear about Australian history through the eyes of a wizard.
24. Read Sarah Kent's post. She's very excited to see Victor Hartwell in the classroom.
That triggered my memory. Victor's the one who has recently found out he's William Kent's son. This means he's Sarah's half-brother.
I'm guessing, from her excitement about seeing him, that she knows they're siblings.
Or maybe she doesn't know and adores him as a friend?
25. Finished reading the story thread.
Most of the students are not at all excited about history. The exceptions are Reade and Juli Preston.
26. Wondered what kind of magic was happening in the beginnings of Australia.
Any witches and wizards on The First Fleet?
Maybe that baby, William Balmain delivered, was a wizard. Or maybe the intrusion of Muggle medicine in his childbirth messed things up, and the baby became a Squib.
27. Went to the biography of Mr. Edvard Adalwin.
His face claim is Vincent Furnier, who is also known as Alice Cooper. I didn't know that. Lord Wiki had to tell me. I'm usually ignorant when it comes to music stuff.
I know of one Alice Cooper song: "Welcome to My Nightmare".
I think, for some of the Tallygarunga students, they're biggest nightmare is attending history class.
28. Learned that Edvard is in his early sixties.
He's tall.
It sounds like he's a skeleton. In fact, one won’t find an ounce of fat or muscle on his body.
What is he? Skin and bones?
29. Reminded of myself when I read this. He loves natures and strolls out through forests and wooded areas but cannot stand humid, stick heat or the frigid, chilling cold. This is why he so often spends his time indoors.
I'm very picky about weather. Anything over 82 degrees is too hot for me, and anything under about 70 degrees is too cold.
30. Liked this detail about Edvard. Also when out on strolls, assuming his attire has pockets, his hands will typically be shoved deep into pockets.
I think it provides insight into both his appearance and personality.
I'm not sure what it says about his personality though. What kind of person sticks their hands in their pockets?
Maybe....
My guess is it's someone who's a bit nervous and insecure. They may be trying to hide a part of themselves, in a subconscious way. They also might be holding something in their pocket to give them security.
In the story, Edvard had candy in his pocket. I wonder if that's usually the case for him.
31. Learned that Edvard has the type of face that makes him look grumpy, but it doesn't match his personality. He's pleasant and likes to joke around.
32. Reminded strongly of someone I know when I read this line about Edvard.
He can keep his cool around certain company like strangers or pupils, but behind closed doors, if one is disrespectful or overly-insulting with their words, he will not hold back his fury.
Some people are very good at controlling their temper in some situations, but unable to control it in other situations.
33. Started to read Edvard's history.
His mother is a witch but worked at a Muggle department store.
His father made money casting runes. He would do this for both Muggles and magical folks. The Muggles saw it as mostly entertainment.
34. Learned that, although Durmstrang is the closer and more logical choice of wizarding school for Norwegians, Edvard was sent to Hogwarts. The reason is his parents didn't like the school's association with the dark arts.
35. Learned that Edvard was sorted into Hufflepuff.
He would have started school around 1970.
Who would have been there then?
36. Consulted Lord Wiki's cousin about Sirius Black. He was born in 1959, the same year as Edvard.
So he'd probably be in the same year as a lot of Harry Potter people—Black, James Potter, Lily Potter, Snape, Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.
37. Saw that when Edvard finished with Hogwarts, he went to London's Magic University.
He didn't do so well there—too much partying. He was kicked out. His dad was very angry about that. He refused to pay for any more of Edvard's education.
Edvard worked instead. After struggling, he made enough money to pay for his own education. That's where he learned the history stuff.
38. Intrigued by these lines.
His luck took a turn for the better though in his early forties when at least a teaching position had opened up. The Hogwarts History of Magic professor had grown deathly ill and had to take an extended leave of absence; unfortunately, the professor’s conditions never improved and died a few months later.
I wonder if that's referencing a Harry Potter character.
39. Did the math. That would have been around 1999, and that's after the battle at Hogwarts took place.
It still could be a Harry Potter character though.
Who taught History of Magic?
40. Consulted Lord Wiki's cousin again. The class is the one that's taught by a ghost.
I'm guessing the ghost wasn't the one who got sick. And it really couldn't have died.
Maybe someone else was hired to do the job, and then he or she got sick?
41. Did another Australian accent practice video. I followed the advice of a friend who suggested I try reading nonfiction. So I read about Broken Hill in my new Treasures of Australia book.
I think (hope) that this time I sound more Australian and less British. That's not to say I don't love British accents.
42. Went to the YouTube channel of Stephniijane.
She's another singer, and has done a lot of videos.
Her profile says she has a degree in zoology and is a wildlife demonstrator.
At the time she wrote the profile, she was living in London as an au pair. I wonder if she's still doing that. I also wonder if she liked the job.
43. Listened to Stephniijane sing the Glee version of "Defying Gravity"
It's interesting. I don't think I've ever seen an interesting cover on Glee. I need to check it out.
44. Listened to Glee's version of "Defying Gravity".
It's less interesting than what I hoped for.
It sounds very much like the one in the musical.
45. Thought it would be funny if Stephniijane was simply singing the song wrong, and I'm liking it because it's different.
I think her version sounds different from the Glee version.
46. Listened to Stephniijane sing Katy Perry's "Firework".
In some parts, her voice sounds good.
Often I can't hear her well over the guitar.
47. Watched Stephniijane do one of her animal demonstrations.
This is with her pet potoroo. I've never heard of that.
She mentions that her most popular video is of her singing Lady Gaga's "Just Dance." She talks about how she gets mixed reviews. Some people love it and some people hate it.
I decided I'd watch it and see for myself.
I don't think she has a very powerful voice, but she does have a cute one.
48. Consulted Lord Wiki about the potoroo.
He says there are four types. Two of them are endangered. One of them (Gilbert's Potoroo) is the most endangered animal in Australia. There's not many of them left.
49. Learned from my Treasures of Australia book that the main streets in Broken Hill are named after minerals.
I'm looking at it on Google Maps.
I see Silver City Highway.
There's Argent Street. Is that a mineral?
Lord Wiki says it's a tincture. I wasn't sure what that was; so I asked him. He said it's a color used on a coat of arms.
50. Saw Galena Street.
Lord Wiki says Galena is the mineral form of lead sulfide.
There's a Gypsum Street.
Gypsum is made of calcium, sulfate, and water.
Lord Wiki says gypsum is used in the making of tofu. Interesting......
51. Saw that my Australian of the day is John Macquarie Antill. He's the grandson of the guy I wrote about two days ago: Henry Colden Antill.
Henry worked with Lachlan Macquarie, so I'm guessing that's why John Antill has Macquarie as his middle name.
52. Saw that John Antill did military work.
He won medals for that.
53. Saw that one of Antill's pastimes after retirement was "bowls". I'm not sure what that means.
He also liked gardening, woodwork, reading, and writing. He and his daughter wrote a play about William Redfern. It was called The Emancipist.
It's funny to read that since I was thinking about Redfern last night.
54. Amused because I saw, from IMDb that the woman who plays Julia Gillard in At Home With Julia was one of the stars of The Upside Down Show.
Her name's Amanda Bishop, and she played Mrs. Foil. I don't remember her...except maybe vaguely. It's been a long time since we watched that show.
55. Saw that Phil Lloyd, the guy who plays Tim Mathieson, is also the writer of the series.
56. Started to look at more of John Lampard's Flickr photos.
Today I'm going to look at his Spot Food and Film Festival pictures.
It's part of the Australian Film Festival.
Here's their website. They have a page about the Spot thing.
57. Thought these cupcakes are cute and colorful.
58. Saw different names on a walk of fame type thing. Here's one for an actor named Steve Bisley.
Lord Wiki says he was in Mad Max and currently he's on Sea Patrol. He was also on Water Rats and Sea Rescue.
I really haven't seen any of that stuff.
59. Saw Claudia Karvan has a circle on the Walk of Fame.
60. Saw that Peter Garrett was at the festival.
I have to admit, it took me about three seconds to remember who he was.
But I'm pleased with myself for figuring it out eventually.
61. Continued to watch At Home With Julia.
It has a lot of funny parts.
62. Found article about At Home With Julia. It's about Tim and Julia having a sex scene involving the Australian flag. I saw the headlines a few days ago, but didn't pay much attention. It wasn't of interest to me. Now that I've seen the show, I'm interested.
Some people were offended by the flag thing.
A spokesman for the show responded.
If it's OK for others to drape themselves in our flag for all manner of occasions, I really don't see why it can't be draped over our prime minister as a symbol of love.
Yeah...why not.
63. Read blog post from someone who found the show to be funny but disrespectful.
Scarlett Harris liked the first two episodes and felt it made Gillard seem more human. But she pointed out anti-feminist aspects of the program.
She doubts a show like this would be made about other Prime Ministers. She acknowledges that Rudd and others have been mocked in comedy, but it was about their public lives and not their private ones.
I don't know. She might have a point. There's probably some gender prejudice involved in the motivation behind the show.
But I still like it.
Gillard and Mathieson are portrayed as being kind of buffoons. But I think they're very sympathetic characters.
It would be nice if we lived in a world where no one would think twice about a female Prime Minister being in a de facto relationship with a hairdresser. Someday that will probably be the case. But I CAN imagine that there's truth behind the show. It can't be too easy being Mathieson in today's society. We still cling to the idea that in heterosexual relationships, it's the man who should have the more powerful career.
I imagine it's hard enough for most men to be in a relationship where his partner has more power and money. I think it would be even more difficult when you're constantly under media scrutiny.
That being said...is the show adding more salt to the wounds?
Maybe? Or maybe Tim and Julia find it funny. Do they have the ability to laugh at themselves while watching the show? Or do they feel it goes too far?
Do they even watch it?
64. Decided I personally feel the show isn't disrespectful or cruel. Why? Because it's actually made me kind of LIKE Julia Gillard.
I don't often give Tim Mathieson a lot of thought, but after seeing the show....I'm liking him too.
The characters are a bit silly, but they're also very lovely.
Now instead of seeing Gillard simply as the anti-gay marriage person who stole Kevin Rudd's job, I also see her as the woman wearing a bathrobe who doesn't know her way around Canberra.
65. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
Today's street for me is Victoria Square.
Well, I guess it's not really a street.
Lord Wiki says it's a public square.
66. Learned from Lord Wiki that Victoria Square has a statue of Queen Victoria.
67. Found Victoria Square on Google Maps.
It looks like there actually is a street called Victoria Square.
It's to the east of the square.
68. Read article from May 2010 about fixing up Victoria Square.
It seems for a long time there has been talk about fixing up the square, but people were slow at making actual plans to do something.
There's a Hilton in/near the square. The general manager of the hotel, Michael Schmitt feels revitalizing the square will be good for business. He says, Victoria Square at the moment is the centre of the city but not the heart.
I'm not sure if that's true or not; but I think it's a great quote.
69. Went to the Adelaide City Council's page about the redevelopment of the square.
One of their taglines is a bit off to me. They say, think inside the square.
I'm guessing it's a play on, think outside the box.
And in that saying , thinking INSIDE the box is a negative. The whole point of thinking outside the box is to be original.
So what's the point of thinking inside the square. Does it have a meaning? Or did they just like how it sounded?
I think it sounds cute, but I'm not sure if the message works for me.
70. Decided it probably works all right if you don't connect it to think outside the box.
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