Bianca Chiminello

I'll get to Bianca Chiminello in a minute.

First I want to take care of some business stuff.

I know some people read this blog via an RSS feed, and that you refer to read the whole post that way. Unfortunately, something is going on with my feeds. They're not being picked up. It happened a few weeks ago, and I monkeyed around with a bunch of stuff....including changing from full feeds to short feeds. To make a long story short, for some reason, my feeds are being picked up only if I do the short version. Although it seems maybe some feeds are picking it up? I don't know really. All I know is it's not being picked up by Google/Blogger. It's making me look like a lazy person who hasn't posted in DAYS. I wouldn't mind looking like that if I was taking a holiday. But I'm not. I'm still working my ass here.

Second matter of business. I'm thinking of shutting down comments. It's probably the best thing for me. That way I won't need to expect too much out of people. I'll just imagine people would write very sweet supportive comments if they could.

I'm not a hundred percent positive about this. I'm going to try to force myself to think it over for several days. But sometimes I'm impulsive about stuff like this. By the time you read this, comments might be shut down.

I figure if anyone realizes they need to tell me something, they can email me.

Okay. Let's get on with Bianca Chiminello. I actually wasn't supposed to be writing about her today. I had another name on here, ready to go. Then I went to look up his name, and I can't find anything. I must have typed in the name wrong. The name I had was Andrew Lesline. When I googled him, they asked if I meant Andrew Leslie. I figured maybe I did. But there were two Andrew Leslies. One was Canadian, and the other was from New Zealand. Then I figured maybe I had the last name right, and had been thinking of Andrew Henson (he was the previous guy on the list). But I can't find anyone with the last name Lesline. If any of you know of anyone, please tell me. I'm pretty sure he was an actor.

OR maybe I was being all psychic. Maybe there's going to be a famous Andrew Lesline in the future.

Oh wait. I think I found him. I went to IMDb. I think I meant to be writing about Andrew Lesnie....a cinematographer. I'm already here with Chimenello though, and I don't want to switch gears again. I think I'm just going to re-add Lesnie to the list. We'll get to him in a few months.

Lord Wiki says that Chiminello is known for being on Farscape, and in that movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Baby Bianca was born on 5 September 1975. She's a few years older than my sister, and a few years younger than me.

Lord Wiki doesn't say where she was born, but he says she grew up in Fitzroy in Melbourne.

As a child, Chiminello was into ballet. She attended the Victorian Ballet School. I wonder what percentage of their students have eating disorders....hopefully not too many. Maybe these days, the ballet schools are working harder to prevent such stuff from happening?

Chiminello attended Methodist Ladies' College. While she was doing the high school thing, a modeling agency discovered her.

In 1993, Chiminello won the Ford Model's Supermodel of the World Contest. She was taken to NYC, where she did modeling there. Then she spent some time in Europe modeling.

I wonder if that's fun. Modeling? I mean I can definitely see how it would be fun traveling. And I'm guessing models get some great perks. But is the actual work fun? Well, I guess it's a stupid question. Some people would probably find it great fun, and other people might find it to be incredibly boring.

Lord Wiki is kind of contradicting himself here. Earlier he said dance was Chiminello's first love. Now he's saying acting has always been her first passion. Maybe he thinks there's a difference between passion and love? I mean there is...sort of, but I'm not sure there's a difference in this context.

I'll look at Chiminello's career on IMDb in detail. One thing Lord Wiki says that caught my attention is that she's produced her own feature length film. That's pretty impressive. I guess I'm prejudiced. I have this image of a model being just a pretty face. Of course, that's not true. It's not like all people are either smart only or pretty only. Some are both. Some are neither.

In 2000, Chiminello was on Farscape. IMDb says she played Jenavian Charto in a three part episode called Look at the Princess. This Farscape website has a synopsis of the episode. I read about half of it, and then I got bored. It's probably more interesting to people who watch the show.

Lord Wiki's cousin has some information about Jenavian. When she first appeared on the show, she seemed to be a social-climbing snob. Later we find out she's secretly some kind of ninja fighting girl. I'm not quite sure if shes' supposed to be good or bad. Or I should say I'm not sure if she's working for or against the protagonists of the show. I'm confused.

Here's a Chiminello scene from Farscape. That's cute. But I'm seeing more and more that this show is not my thing.

I feel I should give it another chance though; so here's another scene. Chiminello has an interesting voice.

In 2001, Chiminello was in the TV movie The Lost World. In 2000, she had appeared on an episode of the TV show version. In both programs, Chiminello played Selena. Here's a scene from it. I think that was the TV show episode, and not the miniseries. It's about a woman-only type society. But they do NOT kill the boys. It's more of a separation thing.

So far, that show appeals to me more than Farscape. It looks interesting. What is it about in general?

Lord Wiki explaining the plot to me, and it sounds a lot like Land of the Lost. Both involve a place where prehistoric animals and people still exist. I think Journey to the Center of the Earth had that idea as well. I liked both movies, so I'd probably like The Lost World too.

In 2004, Chiminello was in the Farscape miniseries. Then in 2005, she co-produced a movie called Devil's Highway. She also had an uncredited part in the film. Would it be like a cameo?

The movie is about passengers on a bus who become possessed by something evil.

Now THIS is interesting. Someone claiming to be an actor from the movie says that the actors were never paid for the film. He or she is asking that people protest this by not watching the movie. I wonder if it's true.

Also in 2005, Chiminello did an episode of Charmed. Since I watched that show, and I'm interested in it, I'll break my rule of ignoring one-time guest appearances.

The episode Chiminello appeared in was called "Vaya Con Leos". It was part of season eight, which was the last season. I actually didn't watch the last season religiously. I saw some of the episodes, but I haven't seen all of them. I'm not sure if I've seen this one, or not.

In this episode, Piper is visited by the Angel of Death, and she's told that Leo is going to die. She tries to stop it by requesting help from various sources. One of the sources is an Avatar. Chiminello plays the Avatar. I don't think I've seen this episode then. I remember the Avatars from a previous season, but I don't remember them returning.

I forgot what the Avatar thing was all about exactly. It was one of those life-can't-be-too-perfect storylines. The Avatars presented a happy happy world with no evil. It sounded good, but then there were some major drawbacks. Maybe there was a lack of humanity? Emotion?

I just asked Lord Wiki to remind me. He says there utopia would involve a loss of free will, and also a loss of pain. I could probably do without the pain thing, but I wouldn't want to lose the free will. And also, I wouldn't want to NOT feel pain when something was supposed to be painful. I'd rather get rid of the thing CAUSING the pain, then the pain itself. I'm talking more about emotional pain here. I'm not trying to say people should avoid surgery, rather than getting the surgery and having anesthesia.

Here's a scene with Chiminello as an Avatar. Interesting. Poor Piper. In the end, I think things work out for her though.

In 2007, Chiminello did three episodes of a TV show called Dirty Sexy Money. The show starred Donald Sutherland and William Baldwin. I don't remember it.

Lord Wiki says the show was about a lawyer working for a rich family. Promos from the show featured a song from Lady Gaga. I mention that because the people we went to Hawaii with were REALLY into Lady Gaga. They were really into this song; and that was exciting to me because the actor in it is Eric the vampire!

Here's a scene of Chiminello on Dirty Sexy Money. It's a bit short.

In 2008, Chiminello co-produced another movie; Japan. Hopefully, they paid the actors for this one!

Patrick Muldoon from Days of our Lives is in it, and so was Peter Fonda. Oh, and Chiminello also did some acting in the movie.

The movie is not about the country Japan. It's about a hitman named Japan. While at a hotel restaurant, he strikes up a friendship with a guy who's been thrown out by his wife.

Here's a scene from the movie.

The acting seems a bit off to me.

Oh! The nonhitman guy is a scam artist. Well, that's an interesting twist.

By the way, I'm getting most of my videos for today from the BjCFnet YouTube channel. It's a Chiminello fan thing. Interested people might want to go over there.

Also in 2008, Chiminello was in Toxic, that movie with Costas Mandylor. I just talked about this recently, so I'm not going to talk about it again.

All right. This is funny. Well, at least to me it is. I thought Chiminello was one of the main stars of Benjamin Button. It turns out she just had a tiny party. Her character is the Ballerina Who Ties Up Shoelace. What? Am I missing something here? Lord Wiki says Chiminello plays Cate Blanchett's best friend. Maybe her best friend ties up the shoelaces?

Does anyone know anything about this?

Here's the trailer for the movie. I'm doubting Chiminello will be in it. But I want to watch it anyway. I need to see the movie someday. It looks good.

Here's a Chiminello fan page.

Her eyes remind me of HappyOrganist's eyes.

This page has a few personal things.

I hadn't known what Lord Wiki meant by her being discovered by a modeling agency. Did an agent just seeing her walking down the street one day? Was she looking pretty while buying a Mother's Day gift at a card shop, and someone noticed that?

I kind of thought it was one of those random luck things. But this page says she actually pursued the modeling thing. She and her friends took photographs in their backyard. Then without their parents knowing, they went to some modeling agencies. It sound like Chiminello got work almost right away.

Chiminello likes Eastern philosophy and Yoga.

She also likes film noir. I'm not a big fan of it.

Anyway, I think Chiminello is kind of at the beginning of her career....at least the acting one. At this point, there's not much I can say about her.

So, that's it for now.

Stefan Dennis

Who is Stefan Dennis?

I have no idea.

Lord Wiki says he's an actor. He's on Neighbours. He plays the character of Paul Robinson.

He's also done some music work. He had a hit single called "Don't it Make you Feel Good." Here's the video. Dennis sounds like a musical-singer.

Baby Stefan was born in Tawonga, Victoria on 30 October 1958.

Tawonga is about five hours north-east of Melbourne. It's about an hour south of Albury.

We won't go into it too much though, because the Dennis family left when Stefan was young. They moved to Queensland. Lord Wiki doesn't specify which part of Queensland they moved to. He's trying to be all mysterious.

Wait. Dennis did work at the Amateur Theatre when he was young. This might give me a clue.

Nope. That didn't help. When I googled, I found theaters, not NAMED amateur, but classified that way. Oh well. Maybe we'll pinpoint the geography later.

As a child and young teen, Dennis loved performing, and wanted this as a career; but he felt it was important to have a back-up plan. He went the chef route. He became an apprentice.

Oh, and now I see a location. He lived in the Gold Coast. I'm not sure if this is where he grew up though; or if he moved there for the apprenticeship.

Next, Dennis moved to Melbourne where he worked in the restaurant industry.

I'm going to hop over to IMDb to look at the filmography. Just as a reminder....I skip one-time guest appearances, and most short films.

In the beginning of the 1980's, Dennis did guest star appearances here and there.

In 1981, Dennis played Peter Richards on Prisoner. I'm not really finding much about his character. Does anyone remember him on the show?

In 1984, Dennis was in a movie called Channel Chaos. His character's name was "Cameraman". I'm guessing this wasn't a huge role. It also probably wasn't a huge movie. The trivia page says it went directly to video. It was one of THOSE......

In 1985, Dennis was in the miniseries The Flying Doctors. Wasn't there also a TV Show?

Yeah. Here's the series.

It was also in 1985, that Dennis started working on Neighbours. We'll definitely get back to that.

I'm going to skip ahead to the 1990's. Dennis left the show in 1993, and it looks like he tried to get a career elsewhere. He guest-starred in a variety of TV shows.

Then in 2004, he returned to Neighbours. He also got a part in a British movie called The Truth About Love. It's a romantic comedy about a woman who sends her husband an anonymous Valentine, to see what he'd do. Yikes. That could get a marriage into trouble.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is in it. Maybe she's the star?

Here's the trailer. Hewitt is faking an accent. That's as weird to me as when Australians play Americans in American movies when they could just have easily played an Australian.

Dennis is way down below in the credits. He probably had a very small role.

Well, that's about it for IMDb.

Here's the official website of Stefan Dennis. There's a note there that says Dennis is not on MySpace, Facebook, or any such sites. So if you have Dennis as a follower or friend, it's probably a fake.

Dennis has a link to the Environmental Investigation Agency. I guess that's his favorite charity. One of their big campaigns is against supermarket refrigerators that leak horrible ozone-depleting gases. It's a UK campaign, but it might be a problem in other countries.

Here's Dennis' theater credits. It looks like he does a lot of fairy tale stuff...Aladdin, Cinderella, Peter Pan, etc.

This Neighbours website has some biographical information.

He did grow up on the Gold Coast.

He left school when he was sixteen. I like hearing about people who have alternative education stories. Here's someone who didn't go and get a traditional university education. Instead, he did an apprenticeship, and then sought work in acting. I think that's really cool.

Dennis actually left Neighbours in 1992, but he returned in 1993 for a guest appearance. He reminds me of Days of our Lives actors. They leave, come back, leave again, come back.....

Oh! He didn't just have a small small role in The Truth About Love. He was also associate producer. Around that time, Dennis had been living in the UK. He came back to Australia in 2004. One day, he visited The Neighbours set, and an idea formed of him doing a surprise cameo. One thing led to another, and Dennis became a full-time member of the show again.

As for personal stuff, Dennis has been married twice. He and his current wife have two sons.

Now I'm going to learn about Dennis' alter-ego....Paul Robinson.

Robinson has been married four times. His wives names have been Terry, Gail, Christina, and Lynn.

Robinson has three sisters, and two brothers.

He has two daughters and three sons.

One of his TV sons has the same name as his real son....Cameron. I wonder which came first. The real Cameron was born in 2002. When was the fictional one born?

Well, Cameron was born in 1989, but they say he came on the show in 2006. I'm not sure if his character had been introduced earlier, or if he was one of those surprise soap opera offspring.

This biography of Paul Robinson is very long. I guess I'll read it, and just report the exciting stuff.

Here's something unique. Paul dropped out of university to become a flight attendant. That's how he met his second wife. She was his supervisor. Here's a video of Paul during his Gail days. Paul loves Gail, but he doubts that Gail loves him. It looks like instead he married Terry the plumber's assistant. Terry was a bit of a bad girl. It turns out she had a criminal past. When Paul found out, she shot him! Here's a video of the dramatic confrontation.

After that experience, Paul became bitter about love. He decided to become a corporate executive. At work he fell in love with Zoe. But Zoe dated his father. That made Robinson angry, and he made life difficult for Zoe.

Next Paul fell in love with Susan Cole. There was a love triangle going on between those two, and a guy named Clive.

Later, Gail came back. They were in love, but didn't tell each other that. Yet they married for business reasons. Well, a company they wanted to do business with only partnered with married people. I think that's the scene I watched earlier.

Here's a video of their marriage of convenience wedding.

Eventually, Gail and Paul realized they loved each other...for real, and not just pretend. They renewed their vows, and lived happily ever after. Anyone who believes that probably never watches soap operas.

An old lover from Paul's airline past returned. This was Nina, and she revealed that she had a daughter. Paul was the daddy. Around this time, Paul and Gail were having fertility issues. Finally Gail managed to get pregnant....with triplets. It could have been a happy time, but Paul chose the workaholic route. The marriage was on the rocks. Then Paul had a fight with Gail's dad. Gail's dad drove off, and had a car accident. Gail blamed Paul for her dad's death.

Gail left Paul, and moved to Tasmania. There she gave birth to the triplets. One of these was Cameron. So I'm guessing the Cameron character wasn't just randomly created in 2006.

After Gail left Paul, he found comfort in the arms of a couple of women. Meanwhile, his assistant's twin sister Christina, had a crush on him. When Paul brought back a scheming woman named Isabella, Christina worked to prove that Isabella was up to no good. Once Isabella was out of the picture, she thought she'd have a chance with Paul. But he then vowed he was done with woman for good. Poor Isabella! But they eventually got together.

Here's a scene from that storyline. The woman in red is Isabella.

Paul and Christina eventually got together. They married, and had a baby. Things went bad in Paul's business life....really bad. He considered suicide.

Paul left his wife and child for awhile so he could get himself back together. He returned with his daughter Amy. That's the one that came from his airline days affair.

Oh no!

Paul had an affair with Christina's twin sister. Of course, the twin felt all guilty about this. It reminds of that Missy Higgins song.

Paul and Christina managed to work things out, but Paul was involved with fraud. He had to escape to Brazil. And I think that's where he was while Stefan Dennis was trying to build up a career outside of Neighbours.

When Paul returned in 2004, he fell in love with Liljana...another man's wife. Here's a scene from their love.

It seems while Paul was romancing Lil, he was also going after Izzy.

I think this guy is a bit of a womanizer.

I'm getting kind of tired of reading....skimming a bit.

Paul was thrown off a cliff at some point. He lost his leg in the accident.

Paul didn't think life was worth living with one leg. Really? I wouldn't think it would be a huge deal to lose one leg. You can just get a fake one. I mean it's not like becoming a quadriplegic.  And some people adjust to even that. I know it would be challenging to have one leg, but I don't think it would be the awful of awfuls. Still, I guess I can't judge without being in the situation myself. If my leg ever gets chopped off, I'll get back to you guys on that one.

Instead of going the normal route of committing suicide, Paul tried to provoke someone into killing him. He tried to get the guy to let go of his wheelchair by a steep hill. Well, isn't that a bit risky? What if he didn't die? What if he lost another leg?

Anyway, at the last second, Paul had a change of heart. He decided he wanted to live!

Oh, this is getting way too long. I'm going to see if Lord Wiki's summary is shorter. I kind of want to wrap this up.

What I'm getting from the Neighbours site, and Lord Wiki is that Paul Robinson is a villian.

What other drama has happened in this guy's life?

He set a fire and killed someone.

His friends were killed (or disappeared?) in a plane crash...caused by a bomb. It was later revealed that Paul's own son had bombed the plane. Wow. This was one of the triplets, but not Cameron. Poor Cameron died in a car crash. Man, soap opera families have it rough!

A guy named Harold tried to strangle Paul, but he later confessed and apologized.

Paul got a brain tumor, and started having visions of a guy named Fox.

Well, that's about it....or all that I feel like reporting.

Maybe I'll watch a few videos.

Here's an interview with Dennis on The Morning Show. They talk about Dennis' hit single. He says it's become more popular now than it was back then.

They joke about Paul Robinson seducing almost every women on the show.

Now they're showing a montage of clips.

Dennis says around the time he got the part on Neighbours, he was hoping for a film or theater role. He says he had a very snobbish view of soap operas. Real actors don't do such stuff! Dennis said he went to the Neighbours audition, but didn't take it seriously. He showed little interest or respect. But he got a role. He figured he'd stick with it for six months. And that six months lasted a bit longer than expected.

Oh! Jason Donovan played Paul Robinson's brother. I didn't notice that connection. What was Donovan's character's name again?

Here we go. It was Scott Robinson.

Dennis says that when his character returned in 2004, he was more evil than before. Then he became too evil, and the show's producers felt things had gone too far. They considered getting rid of the character, but then instead decided to give Robinson a brain tumor. Supposedly, the brain tumor is what made Robinson evil all this time. Interesting.

Here's a video of Paul's imaginary friend, Fox.

Now I'm reading this website about Paul. He had surgery for his brain tumor. When he woke up, memories of his past were gone. He forgot that he was evil, and became less of a villian. Right now, he's a sort of okay guy. But who knows what will happen in the future.....

Frank Forde

When I added Forde to the list, I wrote Frank Forde, but I think since then I've known him as Francis Forde. I think both names are probably correct. One's probably a nickname.

Forde is another Prime Minister. He's known for having the shortest term in office. He was there for only about a week. That's about all I know.

Well, Lord Wiki says he was there for eight days. That would be one week, plus one day. His time in office was in 1945. He came between Curtin and Chifley. Curtin died in office. I guess Forde replaced him until they got Chifley on board. I think all three of them were Labor. Well, I know Curtin was, and Lord Wiki says here that Forde was. I'm pretty sure Chifley was as well.

Baby Francis Michael was born in Mitchell, Queensland on 18 July 1890.

I'm looking at Google Maps.....

Mitchell is in western Queensland, away from the coast. It's about seven hours west of Brisbane.

Forde had Irish immigrant parents, and five siblings. He went to St. Mary's College Toowoomba. Toowoomba is about five hours east of Mitchell. I wonder whether the family moved, or if Forde did boarding school. The school's website says they opened in 1899, so Forde couldn't have gone there before he was about nine.

Forde eventually became a teacher, and he moved to Rockhampton. Rockhamptom is about eight hours north of Toowoomba.

While teaching, Forde got involved with the Labor Party. In 1917, he got himself elected into the Queensland Legislative Assembly via the seat of Rockhampton. In 1922, he resigned from that, and went Federal. With this he had the seat of Capricornia. He had that until 1946. That's a pretty long time.

When Forde first joined Parliament, the opposing team was in power. We had Hughes and Bruce from the Nationalist Party. Then in 1929, the elections brought in James Scullin as a Labor Prime Minister. With Scullin as Prime Minister, Forde got himself the role of Minister for Trade and Customs.

In 1932, Labor was out, and the United Australia party was in. Forde got to be Deputy Opposition Leader.

In 1935, Scullin retired. Forde wanted to become leader of the party, but Curtin won that round.

In 1941, Curtin went from being Leader of the Opposition to Prime Minister. Forde became Minister for the Army, and remained Deputy Leader. When Curtin died, he was sworn in as Prime Minister. Then Chifley took the job from him eight days later. I'm getting the idea that Forde wasn't too happy with this. He didn't WANT to be the Prime Minister of Australia with the shortest term.

Under Chifley, Forde was again Deputy Prime Minister. He's like the bridesmaid who never gets to be the bride. Although he did get his eight days. That's something, right?

Forde also continued with his defense ministry. Folks weren't too pleased with his work there. He was criticized, and then elected out of his seat in 1946. That's sad.

Forde went on to become High Commissioner to Canada. He did that until 1953, and then tried to get back into Queensland Parliament. Unfortunately, that didn't work out for him. Well, no...wait. The first try didn't work. Then he tried again, and he got a seat. Lord Wiki says he's the only former Prime Minister to serve in a state Parliament.

In 1957, Forde lost his seat by one vote. He retired to Brisbane, and spent his time doing Catholic charity work.

He died in 1983. Here's an interesting bit of trivia. It was at Forde's funeral that Bill Hayden was told he should step aside as Labor leader, and give Hawke the job. I actually have a whole book about that, and I read it. I'm thinking I should read it again though, since now I know more about Australian politics. I'd probably better appreciate it.

Well, I'm done with Lord Wiki. I'll flip a coin to see where I'm going next....

It's tails, so I'm heading to the government Prime Minister site.

Here's the Before Office page. They say Forde did primary school in Mitchell, and then boarded in Toowoomba. The name of the school they provide is different (Christian Brothers College), but maybe it's an alternate name of the school. Yeah. When I googled Christian Brothers College Toowoomba, I got the St. Mary's College.

After Forde finished his time as a student, he became a student teacher. He did that until 1910.
Then he went to work as a telegraphist for the General Post Office in Brisbane? What's a telegraphist? Let me go look that up....

Oh. Lord Wiki says it's a morse code person. Cool.

Later, Forde was transfered to the post office in Rockhamptom. So, I guess that's how he ended up there.

He joined the Labor Party in Rockhamptom. The next few paragraphs have pretty much the same stuff that Lord Wiki had. There's other stuff, but I'm not overly interested. I'm skipping ahead to the stuff that's more exciting to me.

Here's something. When Scullin resigned, the general prediction was that Forde would become leader of the Labor Party. People were surprised when Curtin got the job instead. Oh! And he lost the leadership position with one little vote. That must have been frustrating.

The website says that even though Forde had lost, he worked hard at being a deputy leader. There were issues in the Labor Party because of the whole Jack Lang thing. Forde helped hold everything together.

I kind of forgot what the whole Jack Lang thing was. Oh well. I'll learn about that on a different day...maybe.

Okay. Here we have some family information. Lord Wiki didn't mention anything about that, so I had wondered if Forde ever got married. He did, and had four children. The family lived in Rockhamptom, but then moved to Sydney in 1941. They felt this would decrease Forde's traveling time, and give him more time with family.

The website says the electorate didn't like this. I was confused at first...not realizing what electorate meant. But now I remember. What they mean is he had a Queensland seat, but now lived in New South Wales. Yeah. I can see why they would be frowned upon.

There's something here about the awful Menzies rumors...that one where he was open to abandoning Northern Queensland to the Japanese. A Labor Member of Parliament named Eddie Ward brought up the accusations, and wouldn't let them go. The website says the plan had actually been brought up in a meeting, but then rejected. They make it seem like it wasn't such a big deal since it was rejected. Still! Even as a suggestion, it's pretty damn awful. I can't blame Ward for being upset. What does this have to do with Forde? Well, the website says he was pretty mad about the idea as well.

The In Office page is pretty short. They say most of Forde's time as Prime Minister was spent on mourning and funeral stuff. Then in the last days it was all about figuring out who would be leader next. Forde started realizing it probably wouldn't be himself. He called a guy named Haylen into his office to get insight into what his chances were. Haylen told him it would probably be Ben Chifley who'd win. Later Haylen described Forde's reaction. He said, His face went deathly white, the veins on his neck stood out in an effort to suppress his emotions . . . after a while he said, ‘I must say a little prayer for Ben. It’s not an easy job.

That's very brave and noble of him, but heart-wrenching. I just realized that for me it's much harder to see someone struggling not to cry than it is to see them actually crying. When Jack cries, I'm a little sad for him. But when he gets that sad little look, there's tears in his eyes, he has that twinge in his voice, and he's refusing to cry....oh, that totally gets to me.

The After Office page says that the Forde family had a large portrait of America's General McArthur. I guess they had been fans. When McArthur died, Menzies asked Forde to represent Australia at the funeral. That's kind of sweet.

Now I'm going to go to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

They say Forde had good looks and a friendly manner. He was good at public speaking and dancing. Yeah, I guess those are good skills for a politician to have.

There's some stuff here about the Labor Party split. I'm having to get some assistance from Lord Wiki. He's giving me a bit of a review...tutoring me.

He says the Labor Party has had three splits. The first happened in 1916. This was when Hughes supported conscription, and most of the Labor Party did not. Hughes then started that Nationalist Party.

The second split happened in 1931. This was regarding economic stuff, and it's the one that involved Jack Lang. Lang wanted to ignore Australia's debt to the UK. Other folks wanted to be more financially conservative.

The third split happened in 1954, and was over Communism.

Now back to Forde. In the 1916 split, the Member for Rockhampton had been pro-conscription. Because of this, he was pushed to resign. That's how Forde got the seat.

In that Queensland seat, Forde became known for his support of sugar and cotton interests. He also supported protective Tariffs which I think is the opposite of free trade. Right?

This is too funny. The Biographical Dictionary uses the exact same cliche analogy that I did....always the bridesmaid and never the bride. They point out a simple, but sad truth. Forde is best known as the guy who was Prime Minister for only eight days. But they add, that this is pretty unfortunate. He might not have been leader for long, but he did play an important role in Australian government. He's admirable for the fact that despite...Well, he was like the bridesmaid that brushes aside her own disappointment, and is loyal and supportive of the bride. He didn't get to spend a lot of time at the top, but Forde didn't let that get in the way of helping the guy who did get the position.

The biographical dictionary ends with some personal trivia. Forde was short, and often concerned about his health. He didn't drink or smoke.

Well, that's about it for today. I enjoyed learning about Forde. It's nice to know that there's more to his story than just being Prime Minister for eight days. In movies and TV, there are supporting characters, and those who just make brief appearances. But in real life, those people don't exist. In real life, everyone has the major storyline...even if the rest of us don't readily recognize this. There's that whole fifteen-minutes-of-fame thing, but those people continue to exist even after they've been forgotten.

Joseph Cook

I think Joseph Cook is a Prime Minister. Or maybe not.

All I know is the next several names after him are Prime Ministers. So I'm making the assumption that he is too.

Ah! I'm right. Lord Wiki says he was Prime Minister number six. He came after Andrew Fisher, and before Andrew Fisher. He was sandwiched in between there for fifteen months.

Baby Joseph was born in Silverdale England on 7 December 1860.

I'm looking at Google Maps. Silverdale is about four hours north-west of London. It's about an hour away from where Frederick Bailey Deeming killed his wife and children.

Lord Wiki says Cook had no formal education, and at the age of nine, he started working in coal mines. I'm all for the no-formal-education bit; but it's probably not optimal for kids that age to be working in mines. Yikes.

As a teen, Cook got involved with something called Primitive Methodism. I'm going to read what Lord Wiki has to say about this; see if it's interesting.

It's a form of Methodism that started in England, around 1810.

A lot of this information is boring to me. It's all about the politics and origins of the movement. I'm not really into that. Towards the end though, Lord Wiki gives some insight into what it involved.

They were into the whole revivalist thing....loud preaching and all that. They sang with zeal, and their tunes often borrowed from songs of popular culture.

It sounds like they were spirited folks, and I'm getting that they were seen as an embarrassment by other more "respectable" Christians.

The church treated all members as equals, and allowed both women and children to become preachers. That's pretty cool.

They believed that God could be called upon by preachers to intervene in their lives, and they believed in the supernatural.

I wonder if Cook's whole family got involved with the church, or just Cook alone.

In 1885 he married a woman named Mary Turner. I'm not sure if she was a church friend, or not.

Soon after the wedding they moved to New South Wales. Cook did more of the coal-mining thing. By 1887, he was General-Secretary of the Western Miners Association. But he was in the east. What's the deal with that? Well, I guess it's all perspective. We're always west of SOMETHING. I live in what's known as the south-west. But to people in California, I'm out east.

Cook joined protests against Chinese Immigration. I wonder what his reasoning was behind that...besides basic racism. And how did Christians back then justify such things?

Lord Wiki says that Cook was one of the founders of the Labor Party. That happened in 1891, so Cook was fairly young. I guess he'd be about thirty-one. It looks like he moved to Australia, and just got right in the middle of things. I've heard that's fairly typical with homeschoolers. They're supposedly more likely to get involved with politics and the community.

I'm guessing that Cook wasn't homeschooled by choice. The coal-mining job gives me the sense that this was a path thrust upon them. But I wonder if that type of childhood (whether by choice or not) increases the chances of someone becoming politically active.

In 1891, Cook joined the New South Wales Legislative Assembly via the seat of Hartley. This is a big deal because it was the first time a person from the Labor Party got a seat in Parliament. But then in 1894, Cook quit the Labor Party, and joined the Free Trade Party. He did this because the Labor Party wanted everyone to sign a pledge saying that they'd be bound to the decisions made by the party. I guess that would mean you couldn't vote in opposition to your party. I'd probably be with Cook on this one. It seems a bit stifling.

When the whole Federation thing happened in 1901, Cook joined Federal Parliament. He had the seat of Parramatta.

I'm going to have to read this next part slowly in order to understand it. I've already read it three times quickly, and I'm a bit loss.

I also have to jump around to other Lord Wiki articles in order to get a full picture.

George Reid became the first Leader of the Opposition. He's the one that led the Free Trade Party that Cook had joined. Cook became Reid's deputy. But then when Reid became Prime Minister, Cook didn't get any Ministry jobs. Lord Wiki says this was because Reid had to offer jobs to Protectionist Members. I don't really understand that, but oh well.

In 1908, Reid retired from leadership. Cook then merged The Free Trade Party (which had been renamed as the Anti-Socialist Party) with the Protectionists. They called this new group the Commonwealth Liberal Party, and Cook became deputy leader. Who was the main leader then?

Oh! It was Deakin. And this group was also the one known as the Deakinite Party. Who did I write about recently that was in that?

Maybe it was Pattie Menzies' father? I have to go read my old post.....

Okay yes. It was Mrs. Menzies' father that was part of that group.

Anyway, so Deakin was the leader of the party first. Then he stepped down in 1910, and Cook became leader.

In 1913, Cook became Prime Minister. Things were difficult for Cook because Labor had the majority in the Senate. He then did the whole double dissolution thing. I'm not quite sure if that worked out for him or not. If you do a double dissolution....if the Governor-General grants permission for it...are you guaranteed to get the results you wanted? Couldn't you end up with another majority of something you didn't want?

In September 1914, the Labor Party was able to use the war to get themselves back into the power seat. They reminded the voters that they had supported the idea of an independent Australian defense force. The conservative parties had been opposed to that. It's funny. I think these days, it's the more conservative parties that support the defense stuff.

Cook stopped being Prime Minister, but he didn't quit politics. He became part of Billy Hughes National Party, and he involved himself with defending the White Australia Policy.

In 1921, he retired from Parliament, and became the Australian High Commissioner of London. He did that until 1927. In 1947 he died.

I'm done with Lord Wiki. I'm going to feed myself and my child. Then I'll look at my two other favorite Prime Minister information sources.....

I'm back.

Jack flipped a coin for me to determine which website I should go to next. We got tails. We're heading to the government Prime Minister site. It's not really "we" though. Jack just flipped the coin. Now he's off to do his own thing.

First, I'll read the Before Office page.

They say that Cook worked as a pit boy in the mines. I'm not sure what that means.

This website has a review of a book about child labour in coal lines. Maybe it will provide some insight. The author of the book offers the controversial opinion that children weren't always exploited. They often WANTED to work, and they were proud of their work. It still doesn't really explain what a pit boy was. I guess it was just a child who worked in the mines. I'm not sure if they had specific tasks. Hopefully, they did work that was less dangerous than the adults.

As a child and teen, Cook read to make up for his lack of formal education. By the age of sixteen he was a preacher in the Primitive Methodist Church. The Prime Minister site says he was a lay preacher. I'm wondering though if that term would have been used by the church itself. Since they believed in equality, I'm guessing they didn't use the term.

By 1885, Cook was working on the railroad. This is when he met his wife. She was a teacher. They had their wedding in August, and left for New South Wales on Christmas Eve. Or maybe he just left. I'm confused. I'm assumed they went together, but then the website says that she joined her husband and brother in 1886. She had been pregnant. Maybe she stayed behind to give birth?

Both Cook and his brother-in-law worked in the coal mines. So Cook went back to this career rather than the railroad one. I wonder if maybe Cook and the brother-in-law once worked together in the England mines. Maybe that's how Cook ended up meeting his wife?

The Cook family lived in Lithgow. That's about two hours west of Sydney, and pretty close to the Blue Mountains. It's about an hour north of Katoomba.

In Lithgow, Cook made himself busy. He had his mining job, and was active with the union. He studied to become Methodist Minister. Would that be with the Primitive Methodist Church? I'm guessing it is. So maybe there was a difference between a lay preacher and a formally trained one.

In 1888, the second Cook child was born. Around that time, Cook became General Secretary of the Union. I guess that would be the coal-mining union?

Cook became involved with a group called the Land Nationalisation League, which promoted the idea of a single tax for landowners. And he was also involved with some defense league that was coordinating a maritime strike. This happened in 1890, and Lord Wiki has some stuff to say about it.

He says it's important to Australia history. The labor unions lost the dispute, but it was an indication that unions were on their way to gaining more power. I think. Hopefully, I'm interpreting this all correctly.

It looks like what made this a big deal, and different from previous strikes, is the military was called into it all.

While the big strike was going on, Mrs. Cook gave birth to their third child. By 1900, they had six kids.

I'm reading a lot of stuff here, on the government site, that Lord Wiki already mentioned.

Here's something I don't think I knew yet. Although Cook wasn't in Reid's first ministry, I guess he was in the second. How many times was Reid Prime Minister?

Lord Wiki says it was only once.

Okay. I'm confused. Let me read more slowly and carefully.

Oh! Wait. I got it. This wasn't George Reid as Prime Minister. It was Reid as Premier of New South Wales. This was all before Federation. Reid was Premier from 1894-1899. During this time, Cook was Minister for Mines and Agriculture. Well, the mine thing makes sense. From what I've seen in the past, it seems people get ministry jobs that often have nothing to do with their education and/or background. So it's nice to see Cook getting a ministry job that actually fits him well.

Cook voted against the first referendum regarding Federation in 1898, but then he voted yes in 1899. He didn't just vote yes. He campaigned through out the mining community. I wonder what made him change his mind.

Wow. This family keeps popping out babies. There's all this political history, and then sprinkled through out is news of more and more children. I thought I found the last at 1900, but now I see that they had a seventh in 1902. There might be more later. I don't think it was that unusual though to have several kids in those days.

This website has some information about families in the 19th century. They talk about England, but it could probably apply to America and Australia as well. Anyway, the site says women in those day had an average of eight children. Today the average (in England) is 1.75 children. That's a huge change.

The Australian Bureau of Statistic says the average family size in Australia is 2.6....or at least that was the case in 2001. They say England's family size is 2.2. That confused me at first, because if you add 1.75 kids to two parents, you get 3.75. But then I remembered that a lot of families these days involve single parenting. America's average family size is 2.5. I always thought I had a small family, but mine is larger than the average!

I just left for a long break, and now I don't know where I was at.

All right. I think I'm at the part where Cook becomes a Member of Parliament for the seat of Parramatta. Around this time, the Cook family moved to Sydney. They lived in Marrickville. Parramatta is about thirty minutes north-west of there. Then Cook himself was often in Melbourne, because that's where Parliament was.

Goodness. More and more children are being popped out. Now I see that we're up to nine. Little Constance appeared in 1906.

I feel I'm more interested in the babies than the political stuff.

What can I say?

The political stuff is boring to me, and I'm feeling apathetic, because I know whatever I learn will be forgotten in a few weeks. I've already researched Reid, Hughes, and Deakin, and I hardly remember anything about them.

Here's the In Office page. I'll try to pay attention to at least some if it.

There's not much exciting stuff here. The website says the big thing in Cook's time as Prime Minister was that double dissolution. I guess it was Australia's first. Reid and Watson had tried to use that trick during their time as Prime Minister, but for some reason it never happened.

An election for Prime Minister was called for September 1915. Oh, wait. I think this was the double dissolution election. But then in August, Britain declared war. That kind of shook things up. And I guess the double dissolution that Cook had wanted  did not bring good results for himself.

This page has some information about Mrs. Cook. She was twenty-two when they married, and had been a school teacher for eight years. So, she started teaching at fourteen. That's hard to imagine in these days.

Her brothers worked in the mines too, although the website doesn't specify whether this is how the two lovebirds came together.

Since Cook was in Melbourne a lot, doing Parliamentary stuff, Mary Cook and the kids spent a lot of time in Sydney without their husband/father. I wonder why they didn't choose to all move to Melbourne. What kept them in Sydney?

Here's the After Office page. I think this gives a clearer picture than Lord Wiki did.

After Cook lost that September 1915 election, he became Leader of the Opposition. He did that for three years, and then he joined Billy Hughes' gang. In Hugh's Ministry, Cook was Navy Minister, than Treasurer. Later, he quit, and became High Commissioner to London.

In 1928, Cook became part of a commission involved with South Australia. South Australia government complained that Federal Budgets had somehow given them a deficit. I'm not sure how Cook got himself involved with that, but it sounds like he brought South Australia a good outcome.

Mr. and Mrs. Cook had returned to Australia (from England) in 1927. Then they moved to Bellevue Hill in Sydney. Joseph died in 1947, and his wife died three years later. I wonder if they had a ton of grandchildren.

The Fast Facts page says that Cook was the most humorless of the Prime Minister. Well, I'm feeling quite humorless as I write this post. Maybe that's why. Perhaps I'm channeling Cook's humorlessness. And well...I got some troublesome family news last night, and then troublesome friend news this morning. I'm a bit concerned, but keeping my hopes up. I'm trying to believe that things are going to turn out okay. But I don't want to have too much faith, because then I feel the universe will punish me for being cocky.

Now I'm going to look at the Australian Dictionary of Biography. I might learn something new, or gain a better understanding of stuff that confused me on the other websites.

Daddy Cook was a coal miner himself. I guess that's probably how young Joseph got into the business. Actually though, Daddy Cook was really Daddy Cooke. Joseph had dropped the "e" as part of his conversion to the Primitive Methodist movement.

The family struggled with poverty.

Daddy Cooke was killed in a coal mine was Joseph was thirteen.

Joseph became primary wage-earner. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says this experience gave Cook a high degree of self-confidence and a strong sense of obligation. Yeah. I can imagine that. Although I'm sure with other kids, it works out another way. Sometimes hardship makes us stronger, and sometimes it breaks us.

The website gives more indication of Cook's seriousness. He wasn't a fan of sports, gambling, alcohol, or any entertainment. He preferred to study. Well, studying can be entertaining. Learning is fun....for some of us. And I don't like alcohol and sport, so I'm kind of like Cook there. I don't mind gambling much though. And I like being entertained. I like the TV a lot, and video games, sometimes. I LOVE reading novels.

The website says that Cook didn't mind the company of other people, and with them he was quiet and modest.

It's hard to be around people who rarely laugh, and who never catch on to your jokes. I think that's such an awkward moment....either when you joke, and the other person doesn't laugh. Or the other person makes a joke, and you have to force yourself to push out a laugh. Friendship is much easier when people's senses of humor match each other.

I'm kind of skimming through all this. I guess Cook did well for himself in New South Wales. The website says he was able to build a big house for his family in Lithgow. At that time, he was head of the postal department.

The website explains why Cook was against the Federation at first. It was because all the states were going to be given equal representation. But then I guess they changed that? No, I don't think they did actually. I think each state has the same amount of Senators. Yeah, Lord Wiki says that when Federation first occurred, each state got six Senators. But maybe the House of Representatives is done by proportion? Okay yeah. Lord Wiki says that's determined by population.

I usually think of socialist governments as caring more about the working class. But Cook, despite being anti-socialist, felt that no class should benefit at the expense of another class. One class benefiting from the expense of another reminds me of capitalism. The rich get rich by encouraging the middle and lower classes to buy. And in order to buy a lot of stuff, the lower and middle classes have to work for the upper classes.

Cook was also into free trade which I think of as capitalism.

I'm guessing it's part of my own misunderstandings and intolerance to fail to see how anti-socialist views would help the working classes.

Well, I guess Cook could have been one of those who believed that since HE worked himself out of poverty, other people could do it too. Yeah. I can see that viewpoint. Socialism is about more taxes. If you pay more taxes, you have less money for yourself and your family. But then my feeling is if you have more taxes, you have better services for the community.

That all goes back to a basic mindset. I think anti-socialist people take the viewpoint that we all make our own beds, and then we must lie in it. You shall reap what you sow. The pro-socialist people believe that sometimes life really sucks for people, and they don't have the materials to make their bed. They need help. And since some people have really expensive fancy bed sheets, and a bunch of them for that matter, they should help those who don't have any.

Cook remained very religious through out his life. I think it's interesting that Christianity doesn't seem to have a consensus over the whole socialism debate. From what I can see, some Christians are very much on the right, and then others are on the left. What does the bible say about all of it? What would Jesus do? Would he have voted for McCain or Obama? And would he go for Rudd or Abbott?

As for Jews...at least American ones...Lord Wiki says they tend to lean more left. 78% voted for Obama, and 21% voted for Republican. The 21% are more likely to be Orthodox....the very religious Jews. Aren't Christians on the right also more likely to be religious?

And from my limited knowledge, atheists are more likely to be on the left.

Could we conclude that people who are more religious are also more likely to be politically on the right?

If that is true, why?

I wish I could find a website with religion and political demographics.

I'm guessing for Christians there's the abortion and homosexuality issues. But what about the anti-socialism aspects of the conservative parties on the right? Are they for that too?

Well, I guess really....each political party has different issues. People might agree with some, but not all. I know a Republican who is very big on the anti-socialism thing, and is anti-abortion. But he says he thinks people should marry who they want.

If we took homosexuality and abortion out of the equation, would more Christians be on the left? Or is there something about Christianity that makes people anti-socialist?

And aren't socialist countries more likely to have atheists? Think of the John Lennon song. We're supposed to imagine no possessions, and no religion. That sounds very socialist, maybe even communist. It's all about SHARING.

Yeah. From what I know (and someone please tell me if you think I'm wrong) there is a correlation between religion and politics. But I don't fully understand why.

Anyone want to share their personal stories. If you're an atheist on the left, what's your reasoning behind that? If your religious and on the right....why? What's the main thing you don't like about the left? And I'd also love to hear from people who don't fit in with the trends....like an atheist who's politically right, and a Christian who goes to church every week, but votes for the party on the left.

Anyway, I totally went off on a tangent here. And you know what....I think I'm going to end on that note. I just noticed the time, and it's much later than I imagined. I probably gave Cook less attention then I should have, but I just found the other stuff more interesting. Sorry.

Cadel Evans (Thanks, Tim)

Cadel Evans is a cyclist. Tim gave me his name, probably back during the Tour De France. I wonder if I spelled that right.

Tim watches the Tour De France because Tim is a cyclist too. He loves riding his bike. He doesn't do the Tour De France....or at least not yet. But he does local races. There's one near here called Hotter than Hell. And he did one in Colorado. I don't know the name of that one. But it's extra challenging to ride in Colorado because of the elevation; the level of oxygen is different.

I just checked. I spelled Tour de France almost right. You're not supposed to capitalize the d in de.

Cadel Evans is young. I expected him to be older than me, and he's not. He's the same age as my younger sister. His birthday is 14 February 1977. That's my nephew's birthday. He just turned a year old. Javier has a sibling on its way...due sometime in early August.

Oh! Evans was born in the Northern Territory. I rarely get people born there. I don't think I've ever had a non-Aboriginal person that was born there. Although maybe he is Aboriginal. Who knows..... Well, if he is aboriginal, people probably DO know. But I don't. I just know he's a guy who rides bikes.

Don't get me wrong. I know white people get themselves birthed in the Northern Territory. I've just never found a white celebrity born there.

Lord Wiki doesn't mention anything about him being Aboriginal. He says Evans had a great-grandfather from Wales. Okay, but that leaves us seven other great-grandparents. Some of them might be Aboriginal.

I'm not sure how long Evans lived in The Northern Territory. But by his teen years, he was at a school in Melbourne called Eltham High School. Eltham is a north-eastern suburb.

Evans is married. He met his wife in 2002. She's a pianist.

And that's pretty much all the personal information Lord Wiki provides. The rest is biking information that I won't understand.

First we get the early days of his career. I guess I'll mention the highlights.

He was part of the Australian Institute of Sport; I would guess their biking team. Oh. It's part of the Aussie government. I didn't expect that. Here's their cycling page. Lord Wiki says Evans was part of their MTB team. I'm not sure what that means. Lord Wiki mentioned mountain biking. Maybe it's that. He did this MTB thing from 1994 until 1999. That would be around ages seventeen to twenty-two.

After that, he joined other biking teams. In 2001, he rode with an Italian team called Saeco. They were sponsored by a company that makes espresso machines.

In 2002, he rode for another Italian team. Mapei. They're named after a company that makes building materials.

Why was he on these Italian teams? Were there no good Australian ones?

In 2005, he did a Belgium team. This was Omega Pharma-Lotto. As the name applies, the team was sponsored by the Belgium Lottery. And it was also sponsored by a company called Omega Pharma. It looks like they make skin products. With this team, Evans did the Tour De France for the first time. He came in eighth place. That's pretty good! At least I think it is. Lord Wiki says he's the first Australian to come in the top ten since Phil Anderson. When did Phil Anderson come in the top ten?

Well, Lord Wiki says he came in the top ten five times. The last time was in 1985.

Evans has had success with other races.

In 2001 and 2004, he won the Tour of Austria.

In 2007, he won something called the UCI ProTour.

In 2008, he won an Italian race. And if I'm reading this right, he came in second place in the Tour de France.

He did the Beijing Olympics. He had an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament....part of his knee. I'm not sure if it happened at the Olympics, or before. Lord Wiki says it's a common injury for athletes to have. It's more common in woman though, and their risk increases with a rise in estrogen.

Let's see. What else?

Evans once wore a shirt in support of Tibet. He said he didn't want Tibetans to experience the same tragedies as Australian aborigines. I think the Tibetans have already had a pretty rotten experience.

In 2008, he had a confrontation. He batted away the hand of a journalist. Why? The journalist kept touching his injured shoulder. Well, I can't blame him for losing his temper. But did he ask nicely first? Can you please stop touching my shoulder. It hurts. Thank you.

All right. I'm done with Lord Wiki. Where should we go to next?

Here's his official website. The front page has his latest Tweets. I've totally lost interest in Twitter. That place confuses me.

Here's a little biography page. It lists all the places that he's lived. I'll go find them on Google Maps.

First, there's his birthplace. That's the Katherine Hospital in Katherine, Northern Territory. Katherine is four hours south-east of Darwin. It's pretty far up north.

He's lived in Upper Corindi which is about an hour north of Coffs Harbour. He lived in Armidale. That sounds familiar to me. Why? Well, I have no idea. But Google Maps shows it being west of Coffs Harbour. Lord Wiki says that Judith Wright, the poet, lived there. Maybe I wrote about it when I researched her.

Evans has also lived in Arthur Creek Victoria, which is about an hour north-east of Melbourne.

I guess he likes Victoria. When Evans is in Australia, he lives in Barwon Heads. That's near Geelong...a little bit south of there. The other place he often lives is Switzerland. I wonder if he ever hangs out with Joan Sutherland. The website says he lives there in season. I guess that's because most of the bike races he does are in Europe.

He says he got his first bike when he was two. Wow. Really. Maybe he means a kiddie bike of some sort. He says it was a 16" BMX. Is that inches? I can't imagine it would be sixteen centimeters or meters.

This bike website has a photo of a size sixteen BMX. It's hard for me to imagine a toddler riding that. Did it have training wheels? When did they take them off?

Evans lists the stuff he loves. He loves his wife, and his friends....which includes his family. That's sweet, the way he says that. He likes good food. He likes cars. And he likes racing his bike. Well, of course.

He doesn't like smoking. Me neither!

He doesn't like negative people. Yeah, I don't like them either....unless I'm being one of them. I also don't like overly positive people because I feel they're suppressing the negative stuff. I like a nice balance.

This page has his favorite books and music. He's a fan of Tintin.

He likes the book Seven Years in Tibet. Tim and I bought that book after we saw the movie; but I can't remember if I finished reading it or not. Did you know the guy in the movie is the guy who plays Lupin in Harry Potter?

He likes The Grapes of Wrath. I read that a few years ago. I liked it. It's definitely thought-provoking.

I think there MIGHT be a mistake here on the site. He says he likes The True History of the Kelly Gang by Geoff Blainey. Peter Carey wrote that, unless Blainey wrote a book with the same title. Didn't I write about Blainey before?

Okay, I think he just switched authors. Just below, he has Peter Carey as the author of The Tyranny of Distance. That was written by Blainey. Isn't Blainey that right-wing kind of historian? Yeah. Lord Wiki says my memory has served me correctly.

Evans also likes The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. It's another book about Tibet. I guess Evans really has compassion for Tibet.

For music, Evans likes his wife's work. That's good! He also likes fairly typical stuff: U2, Crowded House, Hunters and Collectors, Paul Kelly, Enya, Bruce Springsteen.... There's two things I haven't heard of before. One is Monique Brumby, and the other is My Friend the Chocolate Cake. I'm thinking they're probably super popular, and I'm embarrassing myself with my lack of music knowledge.

Well, Brumby is from Tasmania. I'm not sure if she's gone international, so maybe it's not weird I haven't heard of her. Here's one of her videos.

My Friend the Chocolate Cake is from Melbourne. Here's one of their videos. Oh! So far, I'm totally loving this song. It's so cute and fun.

This page has a list of Evan's favorite restaurants. His favorite Melbourne restaurant is Syracuse Wine Bar and Restaurant. I miss living in a place that has a multitude of good restaurants. There's not a lot of good ones in Fort Worth. Lately, every time my family gets together we go to the same restaurant. I guess we go because it's close to my parent's house (and our house too), and it has pretty decent food. There's some other great restaurants, but too expensive to go to on a regular basis. There's a restaurant called Bonnell's that impresses me, because they use grass-fed beef and all that. I've never eaten there, at least not recently. I might have a LONG time ago. My parents used them to cater a party once though. It looks like they get all (or most of) their food locally, and from humane farmers. That's awesome. We should go there. It's probably not a place to take Jack to. Maybe Tim and I can have a date there. That would be cool. Maybe for our anniversary.....

Jack would probably love it though because they have wild game. He loves trying different types of meats.

Maybe I should stop talking about Fort Worth restaurants, and get back to Cadel Evans. He has a diary-blog thing here.

He did the Tour Down Under in January. Ah! Maybe I can convince Tim to do that someday.

I should look at their website. It looks like you have to be on a professional team to do the race, but they have some kind of community race. Or who knows. Maybe Tim will go professional.

It's not that long of a race though...just eight days, and it's all in Adelaide. I kind of imagined it would go all over Australia.

Oh! Here's a video of the shoulder incident. Oh wow. That is a bit of a temper. Well, we all have our scary moments.

In 2007, Evans had an interview on Enough Rope. I guess that would be before the shoulder incident.

The interview wasn't face to face. They did it with satellite. Evan's mom and grandmother are there too. I think they're actually in the studio though. Evan's mom says that as a child, Evans was very active. That's not surprising.

They talk about how they lived in the Northern Territory, so Evans had a LOT of space in which to ride his bike.

Andrew Denton asks Evan's grandmother if she watches the race. She says she does, and often yells at Evans on the TV screen. She tells him to be careful as he goes down hill. Both the mom and grandma say watching that can be terrifying. They also say it's exhausting to watch him go uphill. I can imagine it would be hard watching him ride. There'd be a lot of pride, but also maybe a lot of fear.

They talk about how spectators can be very annoying. They'll actually get in the way of the riders to take photos. Wow. Okay, not I can understand why Evans can be a bit grumpy sometimes.

Evans isn't all negative though. He says many of the spectators are enthusiastic and supportive.

Denton asks about a rumor regarding a tradition where on the first day you're not supposed to challenge the leader of the race. I wonder if Tim has heard of this? Anyway, Evans says this is NOT true.

Oh! Here's an even more important question. How do you pee? I never even thought of that. And now that I think of it, I've never even asked Tim how he pees during a race. He talks often about how he stops for drinks and food. But he's never mentioned using the toilet. Maybe he sweats it all out?

I don't understand Evan's answer. He says, At 90 I’ve never seen anyone answer to the call of nature. At 75 I’ve seen one or two do it. If it’s more than 50, I don’t, because I find it’s a bit risky and the worst thing you could ever, I think, happen is crash while you’re answering to the call of nature because you could imagine, if the cameras caught you.

What do those numbers refer to? If someone can explain it to me, I'd appreciate it.

I like Evan's response to Denton's question about people cheating. How does he keep the desire to continue when there are people like that participating. Evans says, I think it’s just human nature, and it’s not just the Tour de France, it’s not just sport, it’s the world as a whole. People will always look for an easier way, or a way to gain more, or profit more from any situation and so I can’t change the world as a whole, but I can do my best in what I believe is right and I’ll continue doing that.

Amen to that.

I'm beginning to realize there are many awful people in the world, and good people who resort to awful behavior. The best you can do is to try to avoid sinking to their level.

Evans says he and his wife have nothing much in common, but they support each other's interests. That's good. I'm feeling guilty because I haven't come with Tim on a bike race yet. It's just that would have me sitting around in the heat with Jack while he's riding. I'd rather find another way to be supportive, but I SHOULD do it sometime. Maybe we'll go to one that's not in the hot summer. I'm not quite sure how to be a bike race spectator. Do you stay at the finishing area, or do you go in the middle somewhere?

I'm much better at supporting Tim's other hobby....cooking. It's much easier to be supportive of that! I'm telling you. My whole family is supportive of THAT hobby.

Evans spends three months in Australia a year. Denton asks if he plans to move back after he's done with the racing. Evans says he enjoys splitting his time between Europe and Australia. I'd like to split my time between two places as well. Although I'd want to spend most of my time in Australia.

Let's play Fantasy Time!

So....

If we were super rich, what would I want?

I think I'd want to do eight months in Australia, two months in America (visiting family and stuff) and two months traveling elsewhere. Would that not be so incredibly awesome?

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts 

Dick Smith

I'm guessing Dick Smith is the electronic business guy. If I'm remembering right, we went to one or two of his stores. We needed to get something for Jack's Nintendo DS.

Lord Wiki says I'm right. Dick Smith was the founder of Dick Smith Electronics. He's also the founder of Dick Smith Foods, and something called Australian Geographic.

Baby Richard was born in Roseville, Sydney on 18 March 1944. His birthday is two days after my niece's. Ellie is going to be seven this year. It's hard to believe she's going to be that old!

Roseville is in northern Sydney, and Smith went to a northern Sydney school called North Sydney Technical High School. Lord Wiki says the school closed in 1969.

Lord Wiki doesn't have much about the childhood of Dick Smith. Maybe I'll find that elsewhere.

This entry is confusing a bit, because it's not in chronological order. Instead, Lord Wiki divides Smith's life into sections. There's aviation, electronics, Australian products, publishing, stunts, awards, and advocacy.

I'm going to TRY and be chronological. I'm skimming through here, looking for the earliest date. There's 1968. This is the time that Mr. Smith opened up his first electronics store. He called it Dick Smith Electronics. Lord Wiki has a whole entry about the store. I'll read it later.

In 1972, Smith learned to fly. In 1976, he participated in a Sydney to Perth air race. In the late 1970's, he started flying helicopters.

Now let's get to 1982. It seems a few things happened that year. Smith sold the electronics business to Woolworths for twenty million. I guess if he wasn't wealthy yet, he was wealthy by now.

That year he also did a solo helicopter trip around the world. It started where I live...Fort Worth, Texas. That was on 5 August. By 19 August he was in the UK meeting Prince Charles. I guess it's nonstop? I didn't know a helicopter could stay up that long. Granted I really don't know much about helicopters.

On 13 September he left London, and he arrived in Sydney on 3 October. In July, it was all finished. I'd guess he'd end in Fort Worth. Right? That would make it around the world.

In 1983, Smith published a book about his adventures; and documentaries were made. In 1986, he started a magazine called Australian Geographic. This is like National Geographic, but focused on Australia. That sounds awesome to me. I'm going to bookmark their website. I'll definitely want to return in the future.

Sometime in the 1980's, Smith did a joke...stunt? He had a London Double Decker Bus jump fifteen motorcycles. This was in response to Evel Knievel who jumped a bus with his motorcycle. That I can sort of imagine. But I can't imagine a bus jumping over motorcycles. This stunt website has information about the event. It was done at the Sydney Showground.

In 1986, Smith became Australian of the Year. There's an earlier date here, in the award section, that I missed. In 1966, he was awarded a Scouting award. The Scout thing was important to Smith.

I think now I'm going to jump back ahead, and go into the 1990's. He was Chairman of the Board of various aviation groups. Flying was still a big thing for him.

In 1999, Smith founded Dick Smith Foods. Lord Wiki says it was started as a stance against foreign ownership of Australian food products....such as Arnott's being owned by the Campbell Soup Company. Dick Smith Food is all made in Australia, and owned by Australians.

Now we reach this century. In 2000, Smith and another guy traveled by balloon from New Zealand to Australia. In 2008, Smith and his wife traveled forty thousand kilometers around the world. All of that that is pretty cool.

I think I'm more impressed with wealth when it's used for adventures...traveling around the world. I'm much less impressed when it's used for buying multiple luxury cars.

Now for the advocacy section.

Smith gave his support to an asylum seeker named Peter Qasim. The guy had been in detention for seven years.

Smith donated sixty thousand dollars to the campaign for David Hicks to get a fair trial.

He helped pay the hostage fee for a photojournalist and writer held in Somalia. I think I remember hearing about them.

Smith is a skeptic, and I'm not to fond of this viewpoint. So maybe my admiration for him has dipped a bit. Lord Wiki says he was a founder of Australian Skeptics, and he's now a patron. I'm looking at their aims. I do like one of them: To encourage Australians and the Australian news media to adopt a critical attitude towards paranormal claims and to understand that to introduce or to entertain a hypothesis does not constitute confirmation or proof of that hypothesis.

I think sometimes we (or at least I!) sometimes forget to distinguish between what is proven and what is merely an opinion. And there's nothing wrong with an opinion. It's just we shouldn't confuse it with absolute fact.

An aim of theirs that I'm skeptical about (ha!) is: To stimulate inquiry and the quest for truth, wherever it leads. That SOUNDS good, but I doubt it's true. Skeptics tend to have a certain view of the world; and I would bet they more readily accept evidence that proves their viewpoint. If evidence goes in favor of the opposite viewpoint (pro-paranormal or pro-alternative medicine) I bet they'll be more critical and rejecting of the findings.

Now I might be being unfair here. Maybe I'm making judgments about this organization based on what I've seen from others. Perhaps this one really IS open-minded. If that's true, I applaud it.

Here's their list of things they're skeptical of. It's a pretty comprehensive list.

In 2008 and 2009, Smith got into the whole Whooping Cough thing. He pushed for parents to vaccinate their kids. Did anyone hear the recent news about that? Well, in the last year (maybe two?) Whooping Cough has been on the rise. I'm not sure if this was true in The United States, but it was in Australia. My Australian friends and their families were coughing up their lungs left and right. It was gross, awful, and debilitating. Worse than that, there was a very tragic publicized story of a young infant dying of the illness.

From the blogging and news world, anti-vaccination parents were targeted....blamed for the deaths and illness. I thought it was a bit perplexing, seeing that the vaccination wears off at a certain age. It doesn't last forever, and many adults don't get their vaccinations updated. If people get Whooping Cough, there's no proof that an anti-vaccination family was to blame. It could have come from an adult who hadn't taken the time to get her booster shot. A little later though, more energy went towards encouraging adults to get their vaccinations.

Anyway, now the new idea is that anti-vaccination parents might NOT be the full cause of the rise in Whooping Cough cases. There's belief and evidence that the illness might be mutating, and the vaccination might not be protecting people from all strains of the disease. Until 1997, a whole cell vaccine was used. But then that was changed because of concerns over side effects. The new vaccines are acellular, and might be less effective. I guess what scientists need to determine is whether we're more at risk from these whole cell vaccine side effects, or from Whooping Cough. OR as this article states, maybe they can make a whole-cell vaccine without the side effects.

Back to Dick Smith. He helped to expose the Australian Vaccination Network as being an anti-vaccination organization. Yeah, there's something fishy about their name. Dishonest. From the name, it doesn't look anti-vax. It sound almost pro-vax, or just a general information organization. I think that can be misleading. I think a more honest name would be something like Parents Against Vaccination. The organization IS pretty upfront in their mission statement. The AVN, publisher of Informed Voice magazine, is dedicated to the idea that health can be achieved and maintained without the use of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. Okay. I can accept that. But then they go on to say, Our goal is to empower people everywhere to make informed health choices for their families and themselves. So what if I inform myself and conclude that drugs and vaccines are the right choice? Huh? What would they say then?

I don't trust Western Medicine. I also don't trust movements that are completely anti-Western medicine.

Extremes are rarely a good thing.

Now I'm going to read what Lord Wiki has to say about Smith's various companies. I'll start with the electronics.

The first Dick Smith Electronics Store opened in 1968 in a North Shore suburb of Sydney called Artarmon. In the beginning it had a total capital of $610. That doesn't sound like a lot of money.

After Woolworths bought the company, it was brought to the United States. That didn't work out well though, and the stores shut down. But there are stores in New Zealand and India, so they've had some success with international expansion.

The business became quickly successful, and in 1969 Smith had to move the store to a larger space. By 1980, there were twenty Dick Smith Electronic Stores.

Now I'm going to read about Dick Smith Foods. Lord Wiki says they don't manufacture their own food. They get food from other Australian-owned companies. You know, I'm not sure if I've ever eaten any Dick Smith Products. Are they easy to find in the supermarket?

Oh! Now Dick Smith is back to being my hero. He tried to buy Vegemite from Kraft in 2004! That's awesome. It didn't work out though. Maybe he can try again.

Here's the company website. I want to look at their products, see if there's anything I recognize. No. Nothing really looks familar. Have any of you seen these things, or bought them? They have some alternatives to Tim Tams. I wonder if any of them are good.

Their FAQ page says it's getting harder and harder for them to get their products shelved at supermarkets. They say, Unfortunately the Store Managers at Coles and Woolworths stores have their stocking policy controlled by Head Offices. Feel free to ring them and register your disappointment at their non Australian sourcing policies – but do not expect them to change. That's pessimistic, but honest.

I think the truth is that it's not a matter of individuals wanting certain products. It has to become a fad. Then that food will be stocked. Right now, I'm doing a lot of thinking and learning about ethical chicken eggs. I recently learned that cage free is really NOT any more humane than the cheaper regular eggs. But because ignorant folks like me were fooled, these types of eggs have become a fad. They're easy to find at the grocery store. Now if I go to Tom Thumb and talk to the manager about which types of eggs ARE humane, they'll probably nod, act like they're listening, and wish I would leave them alone. If I want my grocery store to carry eggs with the Humane Farm Animal Care label or the Animal Welfare Approved label, I'm going to have to hope these types of eggs become a fad.

If a few people want to support Australian made products, that's not going to make much of a dent. If it becomes a fad, that will make a bigger difference.

Here's a Reader's Digest interview with Dick Smith. He had a speech impediment when he was young. He called himself Dick Mith. I guess he couldn't say the S sound. When Jack was young, he couldn't say that. No wait. Wrong. I'm all confused. Jack couldn't say the F sound, so he replaced it with the s/z sound. For finger, he said zinger. For fart, he'd say sart. It was cute.

The interview talks abut how Smith is a philanthropist, and how he wanted to be one since childhood...even when he couldn't pronounce the word.

Smith was honored by Reader's Digest list of most trusted people. He was #12. Smith says that surprises him because he does controversial things. For example, he defended David Hicks. He says he got a lot of hate mail because of that. Yep. People in this world can be incredibly hateful if you disagree with them. But I guess the list shows that a lot of other people will trust you if you stand up for what you believe in....even if they personally disagree. That's good.

Smith says, I had never been a personal supporter of David Hicks because I did not know him well enough, but I’ve always supported the fact that an Australian should get a fair trial. Amen to that! I think that goes for the judicial system AND the media. It also goes to us in the general public. We can read about people, and not like what we see. We can view them as villains. I did that with the guy I researched yesterday. But it's so important that we recognize that we may not be getting the whole truth. We need to ask ourselves...is someone exaggerating? Is someone outright lying? Is evidence in support of the individual being downplayed and hidden?

Smith talked to David Hicks personally, and ended up liking him. He feels Hicks is a decent guy. Now that's another thing though. Just because someone is nice and answers the questions in a way you prefer them to be answered....well, it doesn't guarantee they're a decent person. So, I'm totally with Smith when he says Hicks deserves a fair trial. I'm not 100% convinced that Hicks is a decent and innocent guy. He might be. I don't know.

Okay. Here we have some background information about Smith. He didn't do well at school. He dropped out a the age of fifteen, and went to work in a factory. But then he didn't like the factory, so he returned to school.

Smith says he was impressed by Hick's voice when they first talked on the phone. He expected Hicks to sound working class. Instead Hicks sounded like he'd been educated in private school. Smith talks about how this helped him realize his own prejudices. Okay. But might his prejudices towards such a voice put him in favor of Hicks? Did it make Smith like and trust Hicks more, versus if he had a less polished way of speaking? Maybe not. I'm just wondering.

Here's a Talking Heads Interview. It's from 2007.

When Smith was thirteen his dad opened up his own business. It went bankrupt, and his dad went through a severe depression. Smith says it's amazing that after witnessing his father's downfall, he still went ahead and started his own business.

His father was away at war when Smith was born. He didn't meet him until he was eighteen months. That's so sad, but I guess for other fathers it's worse. They never come home, and never get to meet their child.

His maternal grandfather was a famous photographer. Harold Casneau. His uncle, Harold's son was killed in the war. His room was filled with radio equipment, and sometimes Smith was allowed to go into it. He liked all the radio stuff. Maybe that's what inspired him to open the electronics store. Yeah. Probably.

In his young adult years, Smith did a backpacking trip. He returned to Australia when he was twenty-two. At a scouting event, he met a girl guide named Pip. They fell in love and got married. How sweet.

Smith says that he's a loner, and didn't do well with teams. I'm like this, I suppose. I prefer working alone. Working in groups makes me stressed.

Smith talks about how he was picked on because he had the speech defect. Some kids are very mean. They'll FIND a reason to pick on you.

Smith is asked how the teasing effected him. He says it made him a kinder and better person. I think that does happen sometimes. People don't like how it feels to be teased and bullied, so they make sure not to bully others. They also defend those who are being bullied. It doesn't always work that way though. Unfortunately. I think sometimes those who are bullied, react by finding someone that THEY can bully. I've seen and encountered many bullies and/or "queen bees" in the Internet. I have a feeling that these people were alienated and ridiculed back when they were in school. They get on the Internet and suddenly they find some people who like them. They get friends and supporters. They begin to feel powerful. And as they say, power corrupts.

Smith says he became interested in flying from reading Biggles books. I never heard of those. They're flying adventure stories about a guy named James Bigglesworth.

The interviewer asks Smith about his adventurous spirit, and asks if he ever feels fear. Smith says, Fear is a big thing with my adventures. When I plan them I don't think I'm going to be frightened, but often when I'm on them, I'm scared. I think that's the opposite of me. Although I wouldn't call myself adventurous. But if I do go on some kind of adventure, I'm usually scared before or after. During....I'm often less afraid. Maybe? Well, at least that goes with driving. Yeah, I know that's not exactly an adventure. But anyway, I'm scared of driving. I think it's so dangerous, and I fear killing me and whoever is in the car (usually Jack). When I think of an upcoming driving time, I'm nervous. And after the driving, I think of how risky it all was. But when driving, I often forget about the fear. Or at least I try to. Sometimes the fear will creep in while I'm driving. I try to push it away, because I worry I'll go into some kind of panic mode, and that in itself might cause an accident.

Smith says he's still happily married. He and his wife have children and grandchildren.

He loves bushwalking and hugging trees.

In this recent article, he speaks out against Australian population growth. There's estimations that Australia's population will reach thirty-five million by 2050. Smith worries there won't be enough food or water to go around. He thinks Australia should reduce the amount of skilled migrants it lets in, and people shouldn't pop out too many babies. I hate to admit this, but I think he's right about the skilled migrants. It would be nice if wannabe people like me could be given Australian residency. But is that best for Australia? If Tim had managed to get a job there, would then an Australian be out of a job? And perhaps immigration spaces should be left open for people who are DESPERATE to get out of their country. I felt pretty desperate when George W. Bush was president. And I was having MAJOR family issues. But that all pales into comparison to people fleeing poverty and war.

Now I AM still keen on the idea of having an exchange program. What if Tim, Jack, and I moved to Australia, and an Australian family moved to America? That way the population stays balanced....at least in that instance. I definitely think there should be an exchange visa. We'll let you move to our country, if you find someone who is willing to move out!

Well, I think I've rambled on enough today. So I'm going to shut up for now.