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 Sydney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney. Show all posts
Noah Hathaway
This morning I was stalking Sydney on Flickr.
I found this photo of Noah Hathaway. He's at a big fan expo at Sydney Olympic Park: Supernova 2012.
This Supernova thing started on Friday, and today's the last day.
Underneath the photo is a long write up about the event. It sounds fun. Strangely I can't find anything about Noah Hathaway. I read kind of fast. Maybe I missed it?
I went to the Supernova website. I couldn't easily find Noah Hathaway there either.
I'm thinking he's one of those forgotten celebrities, like Warwick Davis' character on Life's Too Short.
It makes no sense, though. How can people overlook Noah Hathaway?! I understand the general population. But science fiction and fantasy fans?
Maybe these fans are in a different generation and never saw The Neverending Story.
Maybe the movie was less popular with Australians than it was with Americans?
I'm looking at Hathaway's IMDb page. He was in 22 episodes of Battlestar Galactica. If the Supernova attendees don't have appreciation for The Neverending Story, maybe they'd at least know him from BG.
Another movie Hathaway starred in was Troll. As a child I had interest in that movie because Elizabeth from V was in it.
What's funny is IMDb says Hathaway's character in Troll was named Harry Potter.
Wow.
I'm finding all kinds of interesting stuff here.
There was a Troll remake this year. I had no idea.
That movie has Harry Potter too.
Noah Hathaway's show business career stopped in 1994...at least according to IMDB.
But now it seems to be picking up again.
He has four upcoming projects.
That's cool.
I like hearing of child stars having successful comebacks.
I found this photo of Noah Hathaway. He's at a big fan expo at Sydney Olympic Park: Supernova 2012.
This Supernova thing started on Friday, and today's the last day.
Underneath the photo is a long write up about the event. It sounds fun. Strangely I can't find anything about Noah Hathaway. I read kind of fast. Maybe I missed it?
I went to the Supernova website. I couldn't easily find Noah Hathaway there either.
I'm thinking he's one of those forgotten celebrities, like Warwick Davis' character on Life's Too Short.
It makes no sense, though. How can people overlook Noah Hathaway?! I understand the general population. But science fiction and fantasy fans?
Maybe these fans are in a different generation and never saw The Neverending Story.
Maybe the movie was less popular with Australians than it was with Americans?
I'm looking at Hathaway's IMDb page. He was in 22 episodes of Battlestar Galactica. If the Supernova attendees don't have appreciation for The Neverending Story, maybe they'd at least know him from BG.
Another movie Hathaway starred in was Troll. As a child I had interest in that movie because Elizabeth from V was in it.
What's funny is IMDb says Hathaway's character in Troll was named Harry Potter.
Wow.
I'm finding all kinds of interesting stuff here.
There was a Troll remake this year. I had no idea.
That movie has Harry Potter too.
Noah Hathaway's show business career stopped in 1994...at least according to IMDB.
But now it seems to be picking up again.
He has four upcoming projects.
That's cool.
I like hearing of child stars having successful comebacks.
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.
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.
Yara-ma-yha-who, Birketts, Christmas, and John Lampard
1. Started reading a new book. It's called The Sweet Terrible Glorious Year I Truly Completely Lost It. It's written by Lisa Shanahan.
I've read only the first page, so I can't tell if it's good or not.
2. Saw the Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary in my Victoria guidebook.
I googled to see if they were still in business. They are. But sadly they had a horrible fire.
Six of their koalas died.
3. Read an article about the fire. It's not known how it happened.
It's really sad.
4. Considered Anglesea for the coastal place we'll visit in Victoria.
It's on the Great Ocean Road which is nice. It's a bit too far from the Twelve Apostles. But now I'm asking myself, do I really need to see it? I've seen it a thousand times in photos. Is it important to see it in person; or will I be just as happy seeing other cliff walk scenes?
5. Liked that the Port Campbell Holiday Park has free wireless internet in their cabins. That's great. It's too bad Disney World can't say the same.
We do get free internet because we're in the Disney Vacation Club. It's one of the perks. But it's not wireless. You have to use a cable connection; so only one of us can go on the internet at a time. It's pretty ridiculous. You'd think a company like Disney would be more high tech.
6. Thought Summer's Rest Units Port Campbell sounded nice. And I like the prices. But the name? It reminds me of a funeral home.
7. Read about Anglesea and Airey's Inlet on this Victoria website.
It sounds really nice.
8. Consulted Lord Wiki about The Great Ocean Road.
He says it's not just the Twelve Apostles that's in Port Campbell National Park. The London Arch and the Grotto are there as well. I think I've seen those in photos. I probably WOULD like to see them in real life.
Maybe we'll go to Port Campbell after all.
9. Played around with Victoria on Google Maps.
I'm very excited about our plans.
We're actually not going very far, which is good. I prefer short car rides.
We have two days with three hours drives. Then the other days are all around an hour or so.
10. Realized I will probably have to change all our plans, because I think something's going on the weekend we planned to go. On one of the holiday park sites, it showed that weekend as being high season. That was for 2011, but it was around the weekend we were going. I had a feeling the high season would be repeated in 2012, but I was hoping I was wrong.
Now I'm looking at another holiday park and they're already sold out for that weekend.
11. Saw that there's a Port Fairy Folk Festival that weekend.
The sad thing is I already knew that. I already went through all this. I changed my all our plans. Then I forgot about it and changed the plans back.
I'm so lost sometimes.
12. Fixed the calendar. All is well, except now we have three days of three hour driving.
But that's not a huge deal.
13. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm reading another classroom story.
It's Advanced Broom Flying.
The professor of that class is the one James Young is crushing on—Sergei Zhalobov Bogaevsky.
14. Started to read.
It's the afternoon of Wednesday October 12.
Sergei is sweating. He's from Russia, and is not used to Australia's heat.
Oh! He has a relationship with James now. It's gone beyond that nervous phone call.
It says here, He was comfortable (apart from the heat) and feeling much better than he had been for a long time. Most of that was James. Even though Sergei was still anxious about their relationship, he couldn't deny the Australian man made him happy.
I'm so happy for them.
I love good news...even when it's fictional.
15. Decided for brevity's sake, when talking about Lisa Shanahan's book, I will refer to it by it's Australian title, My Big Birkett.
Anyway, I'm now on chapter seven of My Big Birkett. The book's okay, but it reminds me of the fiction I wrote when I was about thirteen or fourteen. It's very over the top.
Then again, some of the Dursley stuff in Harry Potter is over the top.
I guess it's just exaggerated characterizations. There's a lot of prejudice, uptight, and controlling men out there, but I don't think they're often as obvious as Vernon Dursley.
Most characters in the real world are more subtle.
16. Saw that my Australian of the day is John Henry Antill.
I see no indication that he's related to the Antill I wrote about yesterday. But I peaked ahead. The Antill I'm writing about tomorrow is the grandson of yesterday's Antill.
17. Saw that John Henry Antill was born in Sydney in 1904.
18. Learned that Antill's thing was music.
He became an apprentice in the railroad industry.
While he was doing that, he wrote operas in his spare time.
That's very cool.
His father had reservations about music as a career. That's why Antill had pursued the railway thing. But then he decided to be brave and go for the music thing.
That's even more cool.
What is it about parents not wanting their children to pursue their artistic dreams?
I think I'd be more understanding towards parents who didn't like the arts. They don't like reading. They don't watch television. They don't go to art museums. They don't listen to music much. It makes sense that they'd have no respect for that career choice.
But what about the parents who love all that? Why would they believe in other artists, but not their own child? I guess they could feel their child is not talented enough. That would be one reason, I suppose. But if they can see talent in their child, why not encourage them? Yes, it's a risk. But if they're unwilling to watch their child take the risk, they shouldn't be enjoying the artistry of other talented people who have taken that risk.
It's like people who support the war in theory. But they then declare they'd never allow their own offspring to fight. I've actually encountered this before.
19. Learned that Antill ended up going to music school. He attended the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music which Lord Wiki says is now called the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It's located near the Royal Botanical Gardens.
We've probably walked past it.
20. Saw Lord Wiki's pictures of the building. It reminds me of the building I saw when I was depressed and walking through The Royal Botanical Gardens. Maybe it's sort of in the gardens? Or maybe I kind of walked out of the gardens?
Or maybe there's another building that looks like that.
It kind of looks like a castle.
21. Learned that Antill worked for the ABC for awhile.
At one point he was the conductor for the Wireless Chorus. I'm guessing from the name that it was a chorus heard on the radio.
22. Found a picture on Flickr of the Wireless Chorus.
It's from October 1939, and if I'm understanding the Australian Dictionary of Australia right, Antill stopped being the conductor in July 1939. So he's probably not in the photo.
23. Learned that Antill is best known for his ballet about Aboriginal people— Corroboree.
Here's some music from that.
It kind of reminds me of the music John Williams would do for a scary scene—like Jaws type stuff.
24. Looked at the route from Melbourne to Halls Gap. There're a lot of places we can stop.
It's only a three hour drive.
But we'll probably want to eat, and we'll have to pee.
We can stop at Bacchus Marsh, Ballarat, Beaufort, Ballan, Ararat, or maybe somewhere else.
25. Looked at places to stop between Halls Gap and Port Campbell.
There's Lake Bolac.
I consulted Lord Wiki about that place. He says they had a tornado in 2006. There was about 2 million dollars worth of damage.
26. Saw that we can also stop at Terang and/or Mortlake.
I'm not sure if there's much there.
Hopefully we can at least find a toilet and a small lunch.
27. Found the website of the Terang Court Cafe.
It looks pretty nice.
Maybe we'll eat there.
28. Saw that Lake Bolac doesn't seem to have much in terms of places to stop.
All I can find so far is one hotel.
29. Found a website about Lake Bolac. They mention only one hotel too. It seems to be the only place to eat in town.
30. Talked to Tim about vampires, and how blood-sucking creatures are seen in so many different culture's mythologies.
I knew there's an Aboriginal-blood drinker, but I forgot the name.
I found out from this article that the Aboriginal vampire is Yara-ma-yha-who.
Lord wiki says the Yara-ma-yha-who doesn't have fangs. In fact, he doesn't even have teeth. He has suckers on his hands and feet. He uses this to extract blood from the victim. When the victim is weak enough, the Yara-ma-yha-swallows him. Then he takes a nap, and when he wakes up he regurgitates the person.
The person survives. That's good. But they're a bit shorter than before, and their skin is more red.
31. Found more information on this website.
They say the Yara-ma-yha-who doesn't let the person go willingly. The person has to sneak away. If he's caught, the Yara-ma-yha repeats the process. He swallows him again and regurgitates him again. The victim becomes even smaller and redder. If the process is repeated enough times, the victim becomes a Yara-ma-yha-who.
It's very interesting to me that so many cultures share this idea of contagious blood-sucking behaviors.
32. Found website with pictures of the Yara-ma-yha-who. It has artwork done by various people.
This one is pretty creepy.
This one is adorable. It looks like a Muppet.
I like this guy. He's cute too.
The person who makes the website says he doesn't consider the Yara-ma-yha-who a vampire. He says:
The Yara-ma-yha-who may share the diet and transformative powers of many "vampiric"
monsters, but has never been described as a form of the living dead, and it feels a little cheap to
label every mythical bloodsucker a "vampire." The sucker-fingered pygmy isn't even explicitly
supernatural, but viewed more as a very weird, very special beast of the forest.
Is it cheap?
I don't really think so.
I think the main attribute of vampires is the blood-drinking, not the living dead part.
The Yara-ma-yha-who isn't a vampire in the traditional sense. But I think he's a good illustration of the fact that blood-drinking monsters play a part in many mythologies across the globe.
33.Watched video about Yara-ma-yha-who. It's part of a vampire documentary.
34. Watched a short animated film about the Yara-ma-yha-who. Someone made it for their school project.
35. Went back to Half Price Books. It used to be my favorite store in Fort Worth. Now it's Jack's favorite...or one of his favorites. Last time we were there he discovered they have video games.
I warned him that there probably wouldn't be much new stuff, because we were just there a few days ago. I didn't even know if I wanted to go with them. I figured they wouldn't have any new Australian stuff.
But they did!
I got a fantastic 1983 Australia coffee book called Treasures of Australia. It was only 5 dollars.
36. Saw the book on eBay for $35, so I think I got quite a bargain.
When we were there I saw that Eastern European books come right before Australia books. Last time, we were there, I remembered seeing a Bulgarian travel guide, and thought maybe it had been out of place. I thought it was a weird coincidence because I dreamed about Bulgaria and Australia.
But it turns out the book was in it's rightful place.
Although, MAYBE my dream was predicting we'd go to the bookstore and see that the Australian books would be near the Eastern European books.
What else....
Half Price books has old National Geographics. I saw, from the spine of one issue, that they had an article about traveling through the outback on camel. I found the article and saw it was written by Robyn Davidson. I didn't buy the magazine. National Geographic often bores me, and I figure.... I already read her book.
37. Liked these lines from My Big Birkett.
Mum was clearly not a true birkett chucker.
A true birkett chucker never thinks twice about whether their birkett is justified or not. They don't worry about whether their behavior is appalling or uncalled for because their too busy focusing on the behavior of the people they think provoked them in the first place.
A birkett is an emotional fit. The person becomes extremely intense, and they also become irrational. It's not an Australian term. It's a private joke kind of thing between the family members in the novel.
Anyway....
Jack once said something very profound. I wrote a blog post about it for our unschooling blog.
He said something along the lines of, When you're in a fight, you always think you're right. But later as you review the fight, you might feel guilty.
I think that's so true.
I've had birketts in my life. I've seen other people have them.
I don't think we ever realize we're in the wrong....at the time. If we did, we wouldn't be having the fit in the first place. Sometimes I have this little voice saying. Stop. Stop. You're being completely foolish. Shut up! It would be nice if I listened to that voice, but I think I usually ignore it. I think in some ways, that little voice makes me MORE angry. I think I end up arguing with myself....trying to justify my reaction. I push myself to be more angry at the other people, so my reaction can feel valid.
38. Felt grateful that I don't have birketts that often these days.
I think I used to have a lot of them.
Well...I think now I more often internalize my anger.
Or I write about it.
Lately when someone does something to offend me, I write it down in my private journal. I think this helps because it prevents me from causing a scene. But at the same time, I'm not allowing it to just fester.
Writing's good therapy.
39. Went to Mattybee73's YouTube Channel.
He has videos of his father (Wayne) singing. That's really sweet.
Here's Wayne singing a song he wrote called "Christmas Time Down Under".
I love the picture at 1:56. That's too cute.
40. Started to watch "Christmas Time Down Under" sung by a very young Olivia Newton John. I looked for it because I thought I remembered a song with a similar title's to Wayne's. I thought maybe it was the same song, and he was joking (or lying) about writing it.
But no. It's a different song.
41. Found another "Christmas Down Under" song!
How many are out there?
42. Read the introduction to my new Australia book. I wasn't sure if I wanted to actually read the book; or just look at the photos.
I think I'm going to try to read it...but slowly. Maybe I'll read a little each day.
The writing's nice. I wasn't bored by the introduction.
43. Went to my next Flickr stalking target. The account belongs to a guy named John Lampard. He's from Sydney, and he's a content producer.
I don't know what that is.
44. Went to John Lampard's blog.
He writes about a variety of things.
His latest post is a review of a new movie called The Cup. It's about the Melbourne Cup. John gives it 3 stars.
45. Liked what Lampard wrote about in this post. He talks about a study which indicated people who like sweet foods tend to be agreeable and pleasant.
I love sweets.
I'm probably not that agreeable and pleasant though.
I think have a good heart, but sometimes I can be a bit bitchy.
Maybe the bitchiness is about me also liking spicy foods.
46. Went to read more about the studies via John Lampard's link.
It's interesting, but I don't know how much merit they have.
In one of the studies, people rated themselves on how nice they are. Then those people ended up liking sweet foods.
Could it be though that these people weren't nicer. Maybe it's just that they SEE themselves as being nicer.
I definitely think there's some merit to self-evaluations, but they do have to be taken with a grain of salt.
47. Looked at another one of John Lampard's movie reviews. It's for an Australian movie starring William Dafoe. It's called The Hunter, and it's about the search for the thylacine in Tasmania. Some people think those animals are extinct, and others think there are some still out there.
Lampard has a link to the trailer. I'm going to watch it.
Well...no actually he has a link to the movie on IMDb.
Here's the trailer.
It looks pretty good.
48. Thought of three fairly recent Aussie movies about animals that starred American actors.
A) Rogue
B) Red Dog
C) The Hunter.
I wonder if there are any more.
49. Decided I should probably start stalking John Lampard's Flickr account.
I'm going to start with his Taste of Sydney 2010 set.
Oh! You know what. I totally forgot. We went to the Taste of Sydney 2009! It was in Hyde Park, and we had a great time with our friends there.
Here's a post about it if anyone's interested.
50. Started reading the post so I can get all nostalgic.
What's weird is this is the post where I see the building that might have been the music school.
I'm not sure if I actually mentioned it in the post. I'll see.....
51. Saw that I didn't mention it. I said, I walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens. I had left early and could take my time. There was hardly anyone else there. Oh! It was so peaceful. At one point, I sat alone among rose bushes and read my book.
I think the gardens were near the castle building.
I might be wrong, though.
52. Went back to looking at John Lampard's photos.
I like the colors in this photo.
53. Decided I will have to go off my no-egg diet to try this type of macaroon. I've had the Passover type many times, but I don't think I've had this time.
I've cheated on my egg thing a few times lately.
But for the most part, I've done pretty okay. On most days, I refrain from contributing to chicken abuse.
Have I mentioned I made cake with diet soda? It turned out really good. You just take a cake box mix and instead of using oil and eggs, you pour in a can of soda.
I remember my friend saying though that Australians don't use mixes as much as Americans. I'm not sure if that applies to cakes?
Tim is REALLY into cooking and does a lot of things by scratch. He makes his own bread. He makes his own cookies. He makes his own pizza crust. But when it comes to cake, he usually uses a mix.
54. Felt hungry when I saw this Paella. It's not vegetarian, but I'm just imagining it that way.
Tim made paella once. It turned out pretty good.
55. Finished looking at those photos. I enjoyed the set. I look forward to seeing more tomorrow.
56. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
My street for today is North Terrace in Adelaide.
Lord Wiki says the street has a ton of important buildings.
These include the Adelaide Convention Centre, the railway station I talked about yesterday, the Adelaide Casino, both an old and new Parliament House, Government House, South Australian Museum, University of Adelaide, Adelaide Botanical Gardens, etc.
It seems like the whole city is on one street.
57. Found North Terrace on Google Maps.
The road starts at a park called Kingston Gardens. Then it goes on to the east.
I think it ends around the Botanical Gardens, but I'm not positive. I'm having trouble understanding the map.
58. Saw that there's accommodations on North Terrace called La Loft Apartments. If you go to the website, a woman starts talking to you.
59. Saw that the prices at La Loft Apartments are very reasonable. If you stay for 7 mights, a one bedroom apartment is $120 a night. I think that's really good.
60. Saw that there's a place on North Terrace called Chris Jarmer@air. It's a restaurant and bar. They also have cooking seminars and catering.
61. Went to the website of The Cavern. It's another restaurant on North Terrace.
It has live music.
They have a Motown-themed Christmas show on December 16 and 17th.
The 17th show is already sold out.
On December 3, they're going to have a Christmas celebration with a London theme.
I think I might like that.
62. Looked at The Cavern's page about having a gig at the restaurant.
They allow bands to play there for free. The catch is the group has plan a program with at least two other bands in the lineup. They say the reason for this is that it shows the musicians are good at networking and working with others.
That makes sense.
They say people from outside the state can set up a program; but at least two bands in the show must be local. How local? Do they need to be from Adelaide, or can they be from somewhere else in South Australia?
Another rule is that the music groups must have a website, MySpace, or Facebook listing.
I don't know the reasoning behind that, but I like it.
I tend to ignore businesses and other entities that don't have a presence on the web. Part of it might be prejudice towards those who aren't technically inclined. It's not just about lacking knowledge. But I picture them being the type who clings stubbornly to the good old days. I picture them being the type that's grouchy about the internet.
I shouldn't talk, though. I still avoid the whole texting thing.
The other thing is I don't like talking on the phone. If a business doesn't have a website, if I want more information I have to call them. I don't want to do that.
It's so easy to have a website these days. And if you have internet access it's free. You can set something up on Blogger.
I'm sure there's other free sites as well.
63. Annoyed with myself. I'm going on a small diet and bought protein bars. Today I noticed they have eggs!!! I forgot to check.
I'm going to go ahead and eat them, but I'll make sure not to buy them again.
Sorry, chickens.
I've read only the first page, so I can't tell if it's good or not.
2. Saw the Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary in my Victoria guidebook.
I googled to see if they were still in business. They are. But sadly they had a horrible fire.
Six of their koalas died.
3. Read an article about the fire. It's not known how it happened.
It's really sad.
4. Considered Anglesea for the coastal place we'll visit in Victoria.
It's on the Great Ocean Road which is nice. It's a bit too far from the Twelve Apostles. But now I'm asking myself, do I really need to see it? I've seen it a thousand times in photos. Is it important to see it in person; or will I be just as happy seeing other cliff walk scenes?
5. Liked that the Port Campbell Holiday Park has free wireless internet in their cabins. That's great. It's too bad Disney World can't say the same.
We do get free internet because we're in the Disney Vacation Club. It's one of the perks. But it's not wireless. You have to use a cable connection; so only one of us can go on the internet at a time. It's pretty ridiculous. You'd think a company like Disney would be more high tech.
6. Thought Summer's Rest Units Port Campbell sounded nice. And I like the prices. But the name? It reminds me of a funeral home.
7. Read about Anglesea and Airey's Inlet on this Victoria website.
It sounds really nice.
8. Consulted Lord Wiki about The Great Ocean Road.
He says it's not just the Twelve Apostles that's in Port Campbell National Park. The London Arch and the Grotto are there as well. I think I've seen those in photos. I probably WOULD like to see them in real life.
Maybe we'll go to Port Campbell after all.
9. Played around with Victoria on Google Maps.
I'm very excited about our plans.
We're actually not going very far, which is good. I prefer short car rides.
We have two days with three hours drives. Then the other days are all around an hour or so.
10. Realized I will probably have to change all our plans, because I think something's going on the weekend we planned to go. On one of the holiday park sites, it showed that weekend as being high season. That was for 2011, but it was around the weekend we were going. I had a feeling the high season would be repeated in 2012, but I was hoping I was wrong.
Now I'm looking at another holiday park and they're already sold out for that weekend.
11. Saw that there's a Port Fairy Folk Festival that weekend.
The sad thing is I already knew that. I already went through all this. I changed my all our plans. Then I forgot about it and changed the plans back.
I'm so lost sometimes.
12. Fixed the calendar. All is well, except now we have three days of three hour driving.
But that's not a huge deal.
13. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm reading another classroom story.
It's Advanced Broom Flying.
The professor of that class is the one James Young is crushing on—Sergei Zhalobov Bogaevsky.
14. Started to read.
It's the afternoon of Wednesday October 12.
Sergei is sweating. He's from Russia, and is not used to Australia's heat.
Oh! He has a relationship with James now. It's gone beyond that nervous phone call.
It says here, He was comfortable (apart from the heat) and feeling much better than he had been for a long time. Most of that was James. Even though Sergei was still anxious about their relationship, he couldn't deny the Australian man made him happy.
I'm so happy for them.
I love good news...even when it's fictional.
15. Decided for brevity's sake, when talking about Lisa Shanahan's book, I will refer to it by it's Australian title, My Big Birkett.
Anyway, I'm now on chapter seven of My Big Birkett. The book's okay, but it reminds me of the fiction I wrote when I was about thirteen or fourteen. It's very over the top.
Then again, some of the Dursley stuff in Harry Potter is over the top.
I guess it's just exaggerated characterizations. There's a lot of prejudice, uptight, and controlling men out there, but I don't think they're often as obvious as Vernon Dursley.
Most characters in the real world are more subtle.
16. Saw that my Australian of the day is John Henry Antill.
I see no indication that he's related to the Antill I wrote about yesterday. But I peaked ahead. The Antill I'm writing about tomorrow is the grandson of yesterday's Antill.
17. Saw that John Henry Antill was born in Sydney in 1904.
18. Learned that Antill's thing was music.
He became an apprentice in the railroad industry.
While he was doing that, he wrote operas in his spare time.
That's very cool.
His father had reservations about music as a career. That's why Antill had pursued the railway thing. But then he decided to be brave and go for the music thing.
That's even more cool.
What is it about parents not wanting their children to pursue their artistic dreams?
I think I'd be more understanding towards parents who didn't like the arts. They don't like reading. They don't watch television. They don't go to art museums. They don't listen to music much. It makes sense that they'd have no respect for that career choice.
But what about the parents who love all that? Why would they believe in other artists, but not their own child? I guess they could feel their child is not talented enough. That would be one reason, I suppose. But if they can see talent in their child, why not encourage them? Yes, it's a risk. But if they're unwilling to watch their child take the risk, they shouldn't be enjoying the artistry of other talented people who have taken that risk.
It's like people who support the war in theory. But they then declare they'd never allow their own offspring to fight. I've actually encountered this before.
19. Learned that Antill ended up going to music school. He attended the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music which Lord Wiki says is now called the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It's located near the Royal Botanical Gardens.
We've probably walked past it.
20. Saw Lord Wiki's pictures of the building. It reminds me of the building I saw when I was depressed and walking through The Royal Botanical Gardens. Maybe it's sort of in the gardens? Or maybe I kind of walked out of the gardens?
Or maybe there's another building that looks like that.
It kind of looks like a castle.
21. Learned that Antill worked for the ABC for awhile.
At one point he was the conductor for the Wireless Chorus. I'm guessing from the name that it was a chorus heard on the radio.
22. Found a picture on Flickr of the Wireless Chorus.
It's from October 1939, and if I'm understanding the Australian Dictionary of Australia right, Antill stopped being the conductor in July 1939. So he's probably not in the photo.
23. Learned that Antill is best known for his ballet about Aboriginal people— Corroboree.
Here's some music from that.
It kind of reminds me of the music John Williams would do for a scary scene—like Jaws type stuff.
24. Looked at the route from Melbourne to Halls Gap. There're a lot of places we can stop.
It's only a three hour drive.
But we'll probably want to eat, and we'll have to pee.
We can stop at Bacchus Marsh, Ballarat, Beaufort, Ballan, Ararat, or maybe somewhere else.
25. Looked at places to stop between Halls Gap and Port Campbell.
There's Lake Bolac.
I consulted Lord Wiki about that place. He says they had a tornado in 2006. There was about 2 million dollars worth of damage.
26. Saw that we can also stop at Terang and/or Mortlake.
I'm not sure if there's much there.
Hopefully we can at least find a toilet and a small lunch.
27. Found the website of the Terang Court Cafe.
It looks pretty nice.
Maybe we'll eat there.
28. Saw that Lake Bolac doesn't seem to have much in terms of places to stop.
All I can find so far is one hotel.
29. Found a website about Lake Bolac. They mention only one hotel too. It seems to be the only place to eat in town.
30. Talked to Tim about vampires, and how blood-sucking creatures are seen in so many different culture's mythologies.
I knew there's an Aboriginal-blood drinker, but I forgot the name.
I found out from this article that the Aboriginal vampire is Yara-ma-yha-who.
Lord wiki says the Yara-ma-yha-who doesn't have fangs. In fact, he doesn't even have teeth. He has suckers on his hands and feet. He uses this to extract blood from the victim. When the victim is weak enough, the Yara-ma-yha-swallows him. Then he takes a nap, and when he wakes up he regurgitates the person.
The person survives. That's good. But they're a bit shorter than before, and their skin is more red.
31. Found more information on this website.
They say the Yara-ma-yha-who doesn't let the person go willingly. The person has to sneak away. If he's caught, the Yara-ma-yha repeats the process. He swallows him again and regurgitates him again. The victim becomes even smaller and redder. If the process is repeated enough times, the victim becomes a Yara-ma-yha-who.
It's very interesting to me that so many cultures share this idea of contagious blood-sucking behaviors.
32. Found website with pictures of the Yara-ma-yha-who. It has artwork done by various people.
This one is pretty creepy.
This one is adorable. It looks like a Muppet.
I like this guy. He's cute too.
The person who makes the website says he doesn't consider the Yara-ma-yha-who a vampire. He says:
The Yara-ma-yha-who may share the diet and transformative powers of many "vampiric"
monsters, but has never been described as a form of the living dead, and it feels a little cheap to
label every mythical bloodsucker a "vampire." The sucker-fingered pygmy isn't even explicitly
supernatural, but viewed more as a very weird, very special beast of the forest.
Is it cheap?
I don't really think so.
I think the main attribute of vampires is the blood-drinking, not the living dead part.
The Yara-ma-yha-who isn't a vampire in the traditional sense. But I think he's a good illustration of the fact that blood-drinking monsters play a part in many mythologies across the globe.
33.Watched video about Yara-ma-yha-who. It's part of a vampire documentary.
34. Watched a short animated film about the Yara-ma-yha-who. Someone made it for their school project.
35. Went back to Half Price Books. It used to be my favorite store in Fort Worth. Now it's Jack's favorite...or one of his favorites. Last time we were there he discovered they have video games.
I warned him that there probably wouldn't be much new stuff, because we were just there a few days ago. I didn't even know if I wanted to go with them. I figured they wouldn't have any new Australian stuff.
But they did!
I got a fantastic 1983 Australia coffee book called Treasures of Australia. It was only 5 dollars.
36. Saw the book on eBay for $35, so I think I got quite a bargain.
When we were there I saw that Eastern European books come right before Australia books. Last time, we were there, I remembered seeing a Bulgarian travel guide, and thought maybe it had been out of place. I thought it was a weird coincidence because I dreamed about Bulgaria and Australia.
But it turns out the book was in it's rightful place.
Although, MAYBE my dream was predicting we'd go to the bookstore and see that the Australian books would be near the Eastern European books.
What else....
Half Price books has old National Geographics. I saw, from the spine of one issue, that they had an article about traveling through the outback on camel. I found the article and saw it was written by Robyn Davidson. I didn't buy the magazine. National Geographic often bores me, and I figure.... I already read her book.
37. Liked these lines from My Big Birkett.
Mum was clearly not a true birkett chucker.
A true birkett chucker never thinks twice about whether their birkett is justified or not. They don't worry about whether their behavior is appalling or uncalled for because their too busy focusing on the behavior of the people they think provoked them in the first place.
A birkett is an emotional fit. The person becomes extremely intense, and they also become irrational. It's not an Australian term. It's a private joke kind of thing between the family members in the novel.
Anyway....
Jack once said something very profound. I wrote a blog post about it for our unschooling blog.
He said something along the lines of, When you're in a fight, you always think you're right. But later as you review the fight, you might feel guilty.
I think that's so true.
I've had birketts in my life. I've seen other people have them.
I don't think we ever realize we're in the wrong....at the time. If we did, we wouldn't be having the fit in the first place. Sometimes I have this little voice saying. Stop. Stop. You're being completely foolish. Shut up! It would be nice if I listened to that voice, but I think I usually ignore it. I think in some ways, that little voice makes me MORE angry. I think I end up arguing with myself....trying to justify my reaction. I push myself to be more angry at the other people, so my reaction can feel valid.
38. Felt grateful that I don't have birketts that often these days.
I think I used to have a lot of them.
Well...I think now I more often internalize my anger.
Or I write about it.
Lately when someone does something to offend me, I write it down in my private journal. I think this helps because it prevents me from causing a scene. But at the same time, I'm not allowing it to just fester.
Writing's good therapy.
39. Went to Mattybee73's YouTube Channel.
He has videos of his father (Wayne) singing. That's really sweet.
Here's Wayne singing a song he wrote called "Christmas Time Down Under".
I love the picture at 1:56. That's too cute.
40. Started to watch "Christmas Time Down Under" sung by a very young Olivia Newton John. I looked for it because I thought I remembered a song with a similar title's to Wayne's. I thought maybe it was the same song, and he was joking (or lying) about writing it.
But no. It's a different song.
41. Found another "Christmas Down Under" song!
How many are out there?
42. Read the introduction to my new Australia book. I wasn't sure if I wanted to actually read the book; or just look at the photos.
I think I'm going to try to read it...but slowly. Maybe I'll read a little each day.
The writing's nice. I wasn't bored by the introduction.
43. Went to my next Flickr stalking target. The account belongs to a guy named John Lampard. He's from Sydney, and he's a content producer.
I don't know what that is.
44. Went to John Lampard's blog.
He writes about a variety of things.
His latest post is a review of a new movie called The Cup. It's about the Melbourne Cup. John gives it 3 stars.
45. Liked what Lampard wrote about in this post. He talks about a study which indicated people who like sweet foods tend to be agreeable and pleasant.
I love sweets.
I'm probably not that agreeable and pleasant though.
I think have a good heart, but sometimes I can be a bit bitchy.
Maybe the bitchiness is about me also liking spicy foods.
46. Went to read more about the studies via John Lampard's link.
It's interesting, but I don't know how much merit they have.
In one of the studies, people rated themselves on how nice they are. Then those people ended up liking sweet foods.
Could it be though that these people weren't nicer. Maybe it's just that they SEE themselves as being nicer.
I definitely think there's some merit to self-evaluations, but they do have to be taken with a grain of salt.
47. Looked at another one of John Lampard's movie reviews. It's for an Australian movie starring William Dafoe. It's called The Hunter, and it's about the search for the thylacine in Tasmania. Some people think those animals are extinct, and others think there are some still out there.
Lampard has a link to the trailer. I'm going to watch it.
Well...no actually he has a link to the movie on IMDb.
Here's the trailer.
It looks pretty good.
48. Thought of three fairly recent Aussie movies about animals that starred American actors.
A) Rogue
B) Red Dog
C) The Hunter.
I wonder if there are any more.
49. Decided I should probably start stalking John Lampard's Flickr account.
I'm going to start with his Taste of Sydney 2010 set.
Oh! You know what. I totally forgot. We went to the Taste of Sydney 2009! It was in Hyde Park, and we had a great time with our friends there.
Here's a post about it if anyone's interested.
50. Started reading the post so I can get all nostalgic.
What's weird is this is the post where I see the building that might have been the music school.
I'm not sure if I actually mentioned it in the post. I'll see.....
51. Saw that I didn't mention it. I said, I walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens. I had left early and could take my time. There was hardly anyone else there. Oh! It was so peaceful. At one point, I sat alone among rose bushes and read my book.
I think the gardens were near the castle building.
I might be wrong, though.
52. Went back to looking at John Lampard's photos.
I like the colors in this photo.
53. Decided I will have to go off my no-egg diet to try this type of macaroon. I've had the Passover type many times, but I don't think I've had this time.
I've cheated on my egg thing a few times lately.
But for the most part, I've done pretty okay. On most days, I refrain from contributing to chicken abuse.
Have I mentioned I made cake with diet soda? It turned out really good. You just take a cake box mix and instead of using oil and eggs, you pour in a can of soda.
I remember my friend saying though that Australians don't use mixes as much as Americans. I'm not sure if that applies to cakes?
Tim is REALLY into cooking and does a lot of things by scratch. He makes his own bread. He makes his own cookies. He makes his own pizza crust. But when it comes to cake, he usually uses a mix.
54. Felt hungry when I saw this Paella. It's not vegetarian, but I'm just imagining it that way.
Tim made paella once. It turned out pretty good.
55. Finished looking at those photos. I enjoyed the set. I look forward to seeing more tomorrow.
56. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.
My street for today is North Terrace in Adelaide.
Lord Wiki says the street has a ton of important buildings.
These include the Adelaide Convention Centre, the railway station I talked about yesterday, the Adelaide Casino, both an old and new Parliament House, Government House, South Australian Museum, University of Adelaide, Adelaide Botanical Gardens, etc.
It seems like the whole city is on one street.
57. Found North Terrace on Google Maps.
The road starts at a park called Kingston Gardens. Then it goes on to the east.
I think it ends around the Botanical Gardens, but I'm not positive. I'm having trouble understanding the map.
58. Saw that there's accommodations on North Terrace called La Loft Apartments. If you go to the website, a woman starts talking to you.
59. Saw that the prices at La Loft Apartments are very reasonable. If you stay for 7 mights, a one bedroom apartment is $120 a night. I think that's really good.
60. Saw that there's a place on North Terrace called Chris Jarmer@air. It's a restaurant and bar. They also have cooking seminars and catering.
61. Went to the website of The Cavern. It's another restaurant on North Terrace.
It has live music.
They have a Motown-themed Christmas show on December 16 and 17th.
The 17th show is already sold out.
On December 3, they're going to have a Christmas celebration with a London theme.
I think I might like that.
62. Looked at The Cavern's page about having a gig at the restaurant.
They allow bands to play there for free. The catch is the group has plan a program with at least two other bands in the lineup. They say the reason for this is that it shows the musicians are good at networking and working with others.
That makes sense.
They say people from outside the state can set up a program; but at least two bands in the show must be local. How local? Do they need to be from Adelaide, or can they be from somewhere else in South Australia?
Another rule is that the music groups must have a website, MySpace, or Facebook listing.
I don't know the reasoning behind that, but I like it.
I tend to ignore businesses and other entities that don't have a presence on the web. Part of it might be prejudice towards those who aren't technically inclined. It's not just about lacking knowledge. But I picture them being the type who clings stubbornly to the good old days. I picture them being the type that's grouchy about the internet.
I shouldn't talk, though. I still avoid the whole texting thing.
The other thing is I don't like talking on the phone. If a business doesn't have a website, if I want more information I have to call them. I don't want to do that.
It's so easy to have a website these days. And if you have internet access it's free. You can set something up on Blogger.
I'm sure there's other free sites as well.
63. Annoyed with myself. I'm going on a small diet and bought protein bars. Today I noticed they have eggs!!! I forgot to check.
I'm going to go ahead and eat them, but I'll make sure not to buy them again.
Sorry, chickens.
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