Kosciuszko, Moreton Bay, Bernard Fanning, and An Irish Mystery

1. Had deja vu when I saw this article.  

A doctor from Egypt, working in Western Australia, has been denied permanent residency because his daughter is disabled. She has cerebral palsy, and the government thinks she'll be a burden to the health system.

A few years ago the same thing happened with a doctor who's child had Down Syndrome.

I think they eventually let the family stay, but it was a battle.

I would have hoped their battle would have prevented other people from having to endure the same battle.

2. Learned from my Australia travel guide book that Mount Kosciuszko was named after a Polish freedom fighter.

I didn't know that.

Lord Wiki says the name of the mountain was originally Mount Kosciusko.  Then in 1997 they changed the spelling of the name to better match its namesake.

The guy who named the mountain was Pawel Edmund Stzelecki.  He was a Polish explorer who climbed the mountain and named it.

3. Consulted Lord Wiki about Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

He wasn't just a Polish freedom fighter.  He was an American freedom fighter.

He fought on the side of the colonies during the American Revolutionary war.  Then he became an American citizen.

4. Learned from Lord Wiki that Kosciuszko eventually left the United States. He left with Thomas Jefferson as the executor of his American estate.  He requested that his money be given to a fund that would free African slaves and help them become educated and independent.

Unfortunately, that went wrong.  People did wrong. And none of the money went where it should have gone.

5. Felt a little emotional when I saw from Lord Wiki that there are many places around the world named after Kosciuszko.  

There's a Kosciusko, Texas.  It's near San Antonia.  I think it's a pretty small town. I have to zoom in a lot on Google Maps before I can see it.  

Lord Wiki says America also has a few statues of Kosciuszko.  There's one in Washington D.C

6. Saw that the Australian dollar has gone up even more. It's now equal to 1.03 American dollars.

I have to go back to my old post to see what it was last time. I think it was 1.01 or 1.02.

7. Saw that the last time I looked at the currency thing was Sunday. And the Australian dollar was worth 1.02 American dollars.

It's comparison to the British pound has stayed relatively the same.  It's still worth about .65 pounds.

It's worth 6.81 Swedish Kronor.  Last time I checked it was 6.78.  It's gone up a bit there.

The Australian dollar has also gone up in yen.  The last time I checked it was worth 78.12 yen.   Now it's worth 79.1 yen.

8. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read a story thread called Or Perhaps You'd Rather Be Nude.

It takes place in a wizarding robe store in Oliphant Lane, Melbourne's wizarding village.

The two characters in the story are Eudoxia Karras and a new guy named Henry Hunter.

Henry is a professor of practical magic...probably at the university, but I'm not sure yet.

9. Started reading the story.

It's the evening of Sunday, October 16.

It looks like Henry Hunter has recently moved to Victoria.  In his previous hometown, the robe shop folks knew him very well. He could just walk into the store and they would have clothes ready for him.  They knew his size and what he liked. Now Henry is wondering how long it will be before he has that type of relationship with the shop in Oliphant Lane.

Eudoxia is also in the shop.  She's looking for robes for her brother. He has a thing about starting fires, so she's thinking of getting him a fireproof robe.  

That might be wise.

10. Saw Eudoxia and Henry exchanging some small talk in the shop. It started with a question about the weather.

11. Learned that Henry is from England, and he's teaching at the university.

12. Started to read the biography of Henry Hunter.  

His face claim is Gordon Ramsey—the cooking guy.   From what I know of that man, I don't like him.   But then I really don't know much, so I suppose I'm being a bit prejudice.

13. Watched a video of Gordon Ramsey getting angry.



There's a lot of videos on YouTube with him getting angry.

He has quite a reputation.

And maybe there's more to him than that. Maybe he has anger issues, but is really nice when he's not angry. Maybe he gives a lot of money to charity.

I'm trying to think positively here....

14. Learned from Lord Wiki, that Ramsay would lie to vegetarians and feed them soup with chicken stock.

Yeah.  I'm not finding much to love about this guy.  

15. Started to read about Henry Hunter.

He's 42.  He was born in London. His Patronus is a hedgehog.

16. Learned that Henry Hunter is not like his face claim.  He's friendly and has a good sense of humor.  He likes games and jokes.

17. Thought of the dad in Gremlins when I read these lines. 

The man is perpetually tinkering with one thing or another irrespective of the time of day or the season (or what company may or may not be over at the time), and he has invented just as many useless things as he has destroyed.

18. Learned that Henry is a bit sexist....or maybe a lot sexist.

He doesn't think women are suited for proper charm work.

19. Saw that Henry does have something in common with Ramsay.  He has a hot temper. However he doesn't hold grudges.

I wonder if Ramsay holds grudges.  

20. Started to read about Henry Hunter's history.

His father is a wizard, and his mother is a Muggle.

The two met at a benefit event for Muggles. The wizarding Hunter family cared about Muggle-welfare and involved themselves in those types of charities.

21. Learned that at Hogwarts, Henry was sorted into the Ravenclaw house.

22. Learned that Henry lost his Ministry job in the UK because he started a lab fire.

He escaped to Australia feeling they were a backwater continent, and therefore probably wouldn't have heard of his reputation yet.

23. Amused by this bit about Henry.

Easily tricked or distracted out of a temper (or assignment... or anything) with questions about things that interest him.

That's kind of cute.

Henry Hunter is described as being a mad scientist.  Besides the Gremlins dad, it also reminds me of the Back to the Future guy.   

Henry is creative, but dangerous.

It sounds like he's a bit like Eudoxia's brother.  I wonder if she'll come to realize that.  

24. Read something in Summerland that reminded me of Sarah's fight with the bullies, in the Tallygarunga story I read yesterday.  

The narrator of Summerland says,

If a woman has obvious flaws, a man can, mentally, take out his anger upon them.  He can silently curse her breasts slopping across her like a pair of jowls, her rippled cellulite, her thick waist, her lank hair.  And then his recovery starts: he scolds himself for his unfair wrath.  

I think that's fascinating, and I feel there may be some truth to it.

Our anger at people can make us think really nasty things—superficial things, bigoted things, unfair things.  I know I've done this at times.

If we're relatively decent, we feel guilty about these things.  Then maybe some of the anger and disgust we direct at the other person is redirected towards ourselves.  This might somewhat calm our anger towards the other person.  

The key word, though, in Summerland is silent.  When Sarah insulted the bully for his weight, she was far from silent.  Because of this, I'm tempted to believe she sees no fault in her way of thinking, and no guilt for her words.

I could give her  the benefit of the doubt if something slipped out once.  Sometimes our secret shameful thoughts are blurted out in a moment of negative passion. But if they're said repeatedly, I would think there's no shame.

25. Saw that my Australian of the day is George Appel.

He was born in Germany in 1823.

When Appel was fifteen, he went to London and started working in a bank.

In his late twenties, Appel decided to seek gold in Australia.

He arrived in Melbourne and then headed off to Bendigo. He didn't have much luck there.

He moved on to the Moreton Bay area, which is a little bit north of Brisbane.

He took part in the German community and was a founding member of the first Lutheran church of South Brisbane.

If I'm reading this right, Hamburg Germany appointed Appel to be a sort of consul to Brisbane. I guess he was kind of a liaison between Germany and Queensland. 

26. Went to Silkw0rm1982's YouTube channel.  

Here's his cover of Crowded House's "Fall At Your Feet".



I think he has a nice voice.

27. Listened to Silkw0rm1982's cover of Bernard Fanning's "Wash Me Clean".



It's quite lovely.

I'm not sure I've ever heard the original.

28. Started looking at John Lampard's Flickr set of a garden in Mt Eliza Victoria.

29. Saw that Mt Eliza is a tiny bit south of Frankston.

One of my favorite Australians lives in Frankston.

30.  Liked the trees in this picture. 

31. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board. 

The next space for me is Wickham Terrace.  Lord Wiki has nothing to say about it.  But I'm assuming since it's part of the red property group, it's in Brisbane.

I'm not saying the color red symbolizes Brisbane. But the other two red properties were in Brisbane, so I'm assuming that's the case for Wickham Terrace.

32. Found Wickham Terrace on Google Maps.  It's near Brisbane Private Hospital. 

33. Saw on Google Maps, that there's a Wickham Park.

34. Learned that the name Wickham comes from a guy named John Clements Wickham.

He was a captain on the HMS Beagle.  This is the ship that was made famous by Charles Darwin's adventures.

He later became a police chief of the Moreton Bay area. 

This is the second time I've run into Moreton Bay today.

I'm having Moreton Bay synchronocity.  

35. Saw that there's one of those non-sleepover hotels on Wickham Terrace.

It's called The Mill Hotel. 

I'm looking at their menu right now.

They don't have a vegetarian option on their kid's menu.  I don't like that.  There's not many vegetarian options on the menu...period.

That doesn't necessarily mean there's no food for vegetarians.   They might be willing to make something vegetarian or put together a side plate of vegetables.

I've been to some places in which every dish has meat, and if you ask for something without meat, they look at you like you've lost your mind.    Actually....I've been to only one place like that recently— a Vietnamese restaurant in Fort Worth.  Most places these days are vegetarian friendly. The thing is, it's not just vegetarians who want to order meatless dishes.   Before I was vegetarian, I often wanted meatless meals.

36. Wondered. If I expect meat restaurants to serve vegetarian food, should I then expect vegetarian restaurants to serve a few meat dishes?

I decided my answer is....

No.

There's a difference.

Meat eaters usually still eat vegetables, grains, and other stuff.  Unless they're on some kind of extreme protein-only diet, they should be able to find a vegetarian dish they can eat.

I do think the best restaurants are those that serve meat from ethical sources, and then also have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options.  Elevation Burger is like that.  The dead cows they use in their burgers are grass fed, organic, and free range....all that fun stuff.   Then they also have a vegetarian burger AND a vegan burger.  Oh, and what I love is they have a burger called Half The Guilt Burger.  You get one beef patty and one vegetarian patty.

37. Looked at my Australian travel guide.  I read about an explorer exploring a place.

Guess what place it was....

Moreton Bay!

That bay is haunting me today.

I'm going to be honest here.

The Australian travel guide is my designated bathroom book.   I like to read when I'm on the toilet.  I don't often mention that, because it seems to be such a guy thing.   But...well....there you go.

Maybe most women do it too.  Maybe I'm not alone.   It's just I more often hear men admitting to it.

Anyway, so I went to pee and ran into Moreton Bay again.

38. Consulted Lord Wiki about Moreton Bay.

Lord Wiki says it's the only place in Australia where the dugong gather in herds.  I guess it's their hang out place.

39. Learned the Aboriginal name for Moreton Bay is Quandamooka.

40. Learned that Moreton Bay is named after a Scottish astronomer named James Douglas. He was the Earl of Morton.

The change from Morton to Moreton was due to a spelling mistake.  Oops. 

James Douglas was the 14th Earl of Morton.  Now Scotland is on their 21st Earl of Morton. This guy's name is John Douglas.

I'm guessing all the Earls of Morton are related.

Why do they use the name Morton?

Why not say they're the Earl of Douglas?

41. Learned that Captain James Cook only passed by the bay, and that's when he named it.   That was in 1770.

Twenty-nine years later, in 1799 Matthew Flinders was the first to go IN the bay.

Twenty-five years after that, a guy named John Oxley brought in the first settlement.

It's amazing to me that so much time passes between these events.   My brain knows that.   But a part of me imagines it all happening at once.  Well, I don't picture it happening simultaneously.  I imagine it happening within a few months or years.  Sometimes, though, it's decades.  

So in the 1820's, there were convicts and soldiers in the area.

In the 1840's, ships with immigrants started to arrive.

41. Saw that one of the immigrant ships has the same name as a Tallygarunga wizard. Artemesia.  

Artemisia was the first ship to bring immigrants into Moreton Bay.  She arrived in December 1848.  

42. Learned from Lord Wiki that the relationship between the Quandamooka people and the Europeans was not a sweet one.   The white people showed a lack of respect for Aboriginal marriage rules and they desecrated sacred sites.  The other problem is the white people took over the land and there were not enough places for the Aboriginal people to hunt and father food. They started going after the stock animals, which I think is fair and understandable. 

The cattle grazers didn't think so. They thought this gave them valid reason to massacre the Quandamooka people.

43. Learned that, in March 2009, there was an oil spill in Moreton Bay. It was an environmental disaster.

That's bad, but the badness doesn't end there.   

In the 2011 Queensland flood, contaminated water got into the area.  Fishing folks were told not to catch anything.  The water was investigated, and the investigators learned there was sewage, pesticides, and metal in the water.  

44. Learned that there are 360 islands in Moreton Bay.

One of the islands is Bribie Island. I think I've heard of that.

Peel Island was used as a leper colony from 1907-1959.

45. Learned from Lord Wiki that there's a song called "Moreton Bay".

Now that he's said that, I'm thinking I've heard it before.  

46. Watched video with Moreton Bay song and scenes from the Ned Kelly movie. 



It's a pretty song.

Lord Wiki says it's about convicts being treated with brutality by a guy named Patrick Logan.

Logan was in command of the penal colony there from 1827-1830.

The convicts thought he was hateful, but some people see him as the father of Queensland.

It's interesting how there can be so many varying views about a person.

47. Learned Bernard Fanning is the one singing "Moreton Bay" in the video above.

It reminds me of this song that played at the end of this TV movie about Protestant and Catholic Irish children.  I forgot the name of the movie.  There was a program in America where they'd take in two kids—one from each side of the conflict.   It was a peace initiative.  

I like stuff like that...things that promote peace.  

48. Struggled to find the name of the movie.  This is frustrating.  It's so rare that I can't find the answers with googling.

I DID find that the program is called The Irish Children's Fund.  

You'd think knowing that would help me find the movie, but I'm still not having luck.

Anyway, it was a good song...in the movie.   I used to love it. They played it during a tearjerker moment.

I'm guessing it's a style of music.  Irish folk music, perhaps?

Lord Wiki says "Moreton Bay" is an Australian folk song, which makes sense since it is about Australia.  I'd also say it was Irish, though, since the creator of the song was an Irish convict.

49. Listened to John Denver sing "Moreton Bay" on Spotify. I downloaded Spotify months ago, but didn't have a need to use it until today.

I tried to find Denver's performance on YouTube so I could embed it, but no such luck......

50. Listened to Barry Crocker sing "Moreton Bay".

I'm falling in love with this song.

I can totally imagine it making me cry if I heard it in a movie.  

51. Remembered the name of the TV movie!

I'm so happy.

It's called Children in the Crossfire.  

I found it by looking at the RareTvMovie YouTube channel.   They have a huge collection of American TV movies.  I actually didn't see that movie.  I saw a movie called Cross of Fire.  But that triggered my memory of the other movie's name.  

I think if I kept digging on this channel, I'd find Children in the Crossfire as well.   They seem to have everything.  

52. Searched through the channel.  It seems they DON'T have Children in the Crossfire. Oh well.   I'm still grateful to them for helping my memory out.  

Now that I've found what I was looking for, I have to admit I kind of enjoyed the challenge of searching.

53. Thought I wouldn't be able to find the song in the movie, but I did!

I thought the song was played only in the end, but it's also played in the beginning....at least a little bit of it.

Google Video has it.  

54. Found the name of the song!

It's called "The Town I Loved So Well" and it's by the Dubliners.  

I think these are the lyrics that are played at the end of the movie.

But when I returned how my eyes have burned
To see how a town could be brought to it's knees
By the armored cars and the bombed-out bars
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze.
Now the army's installed by that old gasyard wall
And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and their guns, oh my god what have they done
To the town I loved so well.


Now the music's gone but they carry on
For their spirit's been bruised never broken
They will not forget but their hearts are set
On tomorrow and peace once again.
For what's done is done and what's won is won
And what's lost is lost and gone forever
I can only pray for a bright brand-new day
In the town I loved so well.

Here's a video of the song.

Media, Support, Brisbane, and Universities

1. Saw article about Apple and Samsung fighting each other in Australia.

Samsung wants to have the iPhone 4S banned in Australia.  They think it violates their patents.

This might be in response to Apple accusing Samsung of copying their technology.  And they tried to get Samsung's Galaxy S Smartphones and Galaxy Tabs banned in Australia.

It's all a bit silly.

Copying can be a bad thing.  It's wrong to steal someone's idea and call it your own.  But as the saying goes, sometimes copying is a form of flattery. And copying brings about advances in technology.  If inventors and entrepreneurs didn't copy each other, there'd probably be one brand of light bulb, one brand of television, one airline, one computer company, etc.

And technological history would probably be very static.  

It's better when people build upon each other's ideas.

2. Read article about the Australian government's planned response to a terrorist attack.  It talks about what the Prime Minister plans to say to Australians, and it talks about guidelines for the media.  

Basically, what I'm getting is that they're trying avoid the mistakes of the America media.  

The article says, In particular, security officials will highlight "the dangers of live coverage of eyewitness accounts, which may create fear and alarm, of direct contact between the media and the terrorists, and of reporting police and, where relevant, Defence Forces' movements or tactics.

Yes, thank you. People really don't need to see graphic images repeated over and over.

How many times did we see the Twin Towers falling down?  

The media is great at taking a tragedy and turning it into a huge media circus.  

Another thing the article says is, However a subsequent section indicates the media will be encouraged to "concentrate on the criminality of the terrorists' actions - not on the terrorists or their cause".

I totally agree with this guideline. If terrorists are trying to raise awareness for their cause, we certainly shouldn't help them.  

The problem with the news media is that these companies have all this time and space to fill. If you have a 24 hour news channel, I'm sure it's hard to fill it. So then they start digging deep— getting teary interviews from grieving people; going into depth about the terrorist's goals; showing graphic images of injuries; and informing the public about other scary things that could happen.

To their defense, though, when something huge and horrible happens, many of us want to know more and more about it. We obsess over it. We're glued to the TV's. We search through the internet for more information.   It's hard to think about other things.

3. Read the article again. I was wondering with Australia's plan of action, would there be too little information.

I guess there would be enough.

 It's just that they're going to concentrate on other things.   They want the media to reassure Australians that the government is strong, and capable of handling the problem.    They want to talk about the victims. Give them sympathy.  And they want kudos given to the workers who responded to the incident.

That makes sense.  

I think they just need to make sure they don't go too far in their reassurances.

The American government and media went too far in exploiting the fear and anger of Americans.    Let's make everyone terrified and hateful of Muslims; then we can get them to agree to a war!

But if you go too far in the opposite direction....

Well, it kind of sounds like something in a horror movie—the ones where the government is keeping the public in the dark.

Your neighbours have turned into zombies and are wanting you for lunch.  You turn on the TV and see your country's leader.   Please stay calm and be rest assured that everything is under control.   We are doing everything in our power to bring order back to the country.   

Yeah.  Okay.  

4. Read article about the Labor Party's intervention in the Northern Territory.  

There's a rule that Aboriginal parents will have their welfare payments suspended if they don't send their children to school.

As a homeschooling mom, I can't say I support that.

Why is school seen as the answer to all problems?

It's not the only way to get an education, and it also doesn't guarantee a happy and successful life.

We watched The Colbert Show the other night.  One of the guests was Melinda Gates.  She and Bill Gates give a lot of money to American public schools.  She talked about studies showing that schools meeting certain criteria result in children doing better in college.  I turned to Tim and said it's interesting she mentions doing well in college. How about doing well in LIFE?

Tim joined in on my rant and talked about how public schools in America provides a free service that then feeds into an extremely expensive service.   

As for the Aboriginal families, instead of forcing all kids to go to school, why not have a more comprehensive look at the family?   Could the children be learning outside the school?   Why are they not in school? When the kids are not in school, are the parents taking good care of them?

If the children are living horrible lives at home, then yeah, it's probably better for them to be in school.  But if the child is thriving without school, I see no reason not to keep them at home.

5. Went to Tallygarunga.   

Today I'm going to read Taking It Slowly.  It's about Artemesia Bellerose.

There's a message on the story that says collaboration story-post by Arti and Reade's players. ;D 

I'm guessing this means it's going to be like the Reade and Jackson story from a few days ago, where two writers wrote one post together.

The story takes place in St. Ringo's Wizarding Hospital on October 6.

Maybe now I'll figure out what happened to Arti.

6. Started to read.

7. Felt sad when I read this. Glancing up as soon as she heard them entering, Arti twisted the blanket in her hands a little as she looked to the family, the way Reade’s parents seemed to give him strength reminding her of what she didn’t have.

Sometimes I'll see other people getting the support I've often wished I had. I'm happy for them, but at the same time I'm sad for myself.


8. Learned that Arti was raped.

9. Learned that Arti can't talk. Something has happened to her throat.  Is it permanent?

I guess it's good she knows all that sign language.

10. Finished reading the story. It's very well written and very depressing.

It deals with rape—how the victim feels, but also how the partner of the victim feels.

And how does it feel to be the parents of the partner of the victim?

I guess with any major illness, injury, or tragedy, there are levels of people needing support.  First, there's the primary victim.  That's Arti. She's going to need a lot of love, patience, and understanding from Arti.  Will he be able to deliver?  I don't know. It's a tough job.

Someone going through that tough job will need a lot of support themselves. Will Reade's parents help him through it?  Can they help Reade help Arti through it?

I really feel for them. And I really feel for all the real people out there who are going through similar things.  There's lots of them.

11. Saw that my Australian of the day is Valentin Andreevich Antonieff. 

He was born in the Ukraine in 1877.  But back then, his birthplace was known as Russia.

Some of my ancestors supposedly come from the Ukraine.

12. Learned that Antonieff got himself a religious education and ended up becoming a Russian Orthodox priest. 

He joined the Russian army as a chaplain.  Maybe he did some fighting too. I'm not sure.

He got wounded twice, but that could just come from being AROUND the fighting.

13. Learned that Antonieff sailed to Australia when he was in his 40's.

I'm not sure why he left Russia.  It was in the 1920's. Maybe bad things were happening back then.

14. Consulted Lord Wiki.  He says crazy things were happening in Russia around that time.

There were revolutions and civil wars.

It was a fight between communist and anti-communist entities.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography says Antonieff fought in the civil war. He was on the white side, which was anti-communist.

The communists won, and I'm guessing that's why Antonieff escaped to Australia.

In Australia, he did construction and mining work.

15. Learned that Antonieff left his wife and four children to come to Australia. Fortunately, though, they were able to join him about a year later.

The family moved to Brisbane.

A lot of Russian immigrants came to Australia.   A Russian Orthodoxy church was established for those living in Brisbane.   Antonieff wasn't the head of the church at first.  Someone else had the job.  But then that guy moved to America. Antonieff got the job.

16. Enjoyed watching an embedded Swedish music video on James' blog. It has Swedish school children.

It makes me think of Let The Right One In.  I really liked that book.

17. Started to look at another John Lampard Flickr set.   This one is of the University of New South Wales campus.   

18. Wasn't impressed by this building.

I'm just not a big fan of modern architecture.  

19.Thought the modern buildings did look kind of cool at night.  

I like this night picture as well.  

20. Had a good warm feeling when I saw this picture.   I'm not sure why. I think it kind of reminds me of my childhood...living in Madison Wisconsin.

I don't know why I connect that time in my life to this picture.     

21. Looked at the Australian Monopoly board.  

The next space for me is Free Parking.

I'll skip that.

I'm now on the red properties.

That Monopoly is represented by streets in Brisbane.

Today I have Stanley Street.

22.  Looked for Stanley Street on Google Maps.   I see something, but it looks really small.   It's hard for me to imagine it's a major street. And it's supposed to be a major street.

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing.  

Lord Wiki says the street connects the Southern and Eastern suburbs and South Brisbane.

That confuses me.  Does it connect both those suburbs to South Brisbane? Does it also connect the two suburbs to each other? 

23. Saw Google Maps has other Stanley Streets listed.  I missed that before.   I'll check these out.

24. Found a much more substantial Brisbane Stanley Street.  

25. Confused by Lord Wiki's discussion on Stanley Street.  There's all this stuff about street name changes.  This used to be called this and that used to be called that.

I'm just going to skip over it and look closely at Stanley Street on Google Maps.

26. Saw that Stanley Street goes through Mater Misericordiae Hospital.

I don't think I've ever heard of that before.

Lord Wiki says there's a hospital with the same name in Dublin. 

27. Tried to find out what Mater Misericordiae is.

I did some googling, and learned the words are used in a hymn about Mary, the mother of Jesus.



It's quite beautiful.

28. Saw that there's a North African restaurant on Stanley Street called La Kasbah.  It serves Tunisian and French food.

I'm looking at the menu.

It looks pretty nice.

29. Looked at the Chalk Hotel.  It's on Stanley Street.

It doesn't offer accommodations; but people can eat and drink there. 

30. Learned from the Chalk Hotel's website, and things I saw in Google, that the name of the area is called Woolloongabba.  That name is very cute....like Woolloomooloo.  

31. Saw that on Tuesday nights the Chalk Hotel has something called Comedy Trivia.

It's a trivia game with a twist.

Well, I think they're trying to make it more fun than usual trivia games.

I think trivia games usually are fun.

I don't think I've ever been to a bar one.  Or maybe I have? It would have been a really long time ago.   I have vague memories.....

It's probably been a long time since I've played any trivia period.  

I remember back in the 1980's when Trivial Pursuit was so popular.

Was it popular in Australia?

32. Saw that there's a bridal dress store on Stanley Street. It's called BellaDonna Gowns. 

Five out of six of the brides on the website's home page are blond.

Actually, maybe all five of them are the same model.

They look alike.

33. Saw that there's an antique shop in Brisbane. It's called Lavin Antiques. 

We have a fairly nice antique shop in Fort Worth. Not that I'm an expert on such things.  

It's fun, but very overwhelming.

I don't really look at the furniture much.  I like looking at the old toys, books, jewelry, etc.  

34. Saw that there's a Lord Stanley Hotel on Stanley Street East.

Like the Chalk Hotel, this one doesn't have accommodations either.  

35. Downloaded Lord Stanley's menu and saw that they have Pavlova.  I don't think I've seen a restaurant that has it.  If I ever encounter one when we're in Australia, I'll probably forgo my no-egg rules for the occasion.  

36. Saw that the Stanley Hotel has gambling.  

37. Went to Thomas Simmonds' YouTube channel.  

He's young—only 14. That's the same age as the arrested child in Bali.

38. Saw that Thomas sings a lot of songs by The Kooks.

I've heard of them, but wasn't sure if they were Australian or not.

They're not.

They're British.

Here Thomas Simmonds singing Naive by The Kooks.



He reminds me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio and/or River Phoenix.

It's hard for me to hear his singing over the loud guitar.

39. Started to listen to Thomas sing "Big Jet Plane" by Angus and Julia Stone. 



40. Listened to the Angus and Julia Stone version.



They have such distinctive voices.

I like them; but in only small doses.  

41. Wondered if Ben's going to be on The Sing Off tonight.   He's missed the first episodes because his father was very ill, and he needed to go back to Australia to be with his family. 

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.   

Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Zombies, Forgetfulness and Douglas Annand

1. Read article about Julian Burnside apologizing to Tony Abbott. He wrote on Twitter, Paedos in speedos; and this was in a discussion about a new book regarding Tony Abbott.

Julian Burnside claims he wasn't referring to Tony Abbott. He also says he is new to Twitter, and believed he was talking to only one person.  He thought he was being private, and instead he was being very public.

I think the true story is that Julian Burnside was making an off-color joke about Tony Abbott to a friend. I doubt he meant it literally.   

2. Went to Burnside's Twitter page.

He apologizes many times.

Burnside says he was referring to priests.   

But isn't Tony Abbott known for Speedos?  I thought there was some joke about that.

2. Found article with photo about Tony Abbott and Speedos.  

3. Impressed with the recycling in Andrew's building. He has a photo of it. It's very thorough.

There're several different bins, clearly labeled; plus another bin for stuff you want to donate to charity.

4. Saw an article about Jon Ronson.  He's written a book about psychopaths and psychiatric testing.  He's going to be appearing at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, which is happening at the Sydney Opera House right now.

5. Started looking at the list of speeches being made at the festival. I wonder how many I'd agree with and how many would be offensive to me.  

6. Liked this speech topic. It sound very interesting.  

It's called "Ecstasy Is No More Dangerous Than Horse Riding."

The description for the event says;

When a top UK Government drug adviser wrote in an academic journal that ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse, it caused a political ruckus that led to his resignation. His provocative analogy points to how inconsistent we are when drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, racing cars or participating in extreme sports are tolerated, taxed or even actively encouraged. 

I don't think I ever thought of it that way, but it makes so much sense to me.


We, as a society, often look up to those who risk their bodies and lives with extreme sports and stunts.  But then we talk on and on about the risks of drugs. Is one really more dangerous than the other?

What's the risk of a college smoking marijuana compared to a college student boxing multiple times a week?

Is climbing Mount Everest safer than taking drugs?   

7. Thought I'd probably enjoy Christopher Ryan's speech. It's called "If You Want Fidelity, Get a Dog".  His argument is that monogamy isn't natural to humans.

I would probably agree with that.

I think serial monogamy is more realistic. Multiple simultaneous partners might work for some.

Why is it that we're supposed to have love for multiple children, multiple grandparents, multiple friends, multiple pets, etc, but you're only supposed to have one romantic partner?

One of the things that has made me hesitate supporting open-marriages, and stuff like that, is the whole jealousy issue.  But now that I'm thinking more about it....

We deal with jealousy anyway. And we still compete with others for attention.

Children compete with siblings for their parent's attention. Mothers and fathers sometimes compete for the affection of their children.  People feel slighted when they overhear friends planning an outing that doesn't include them.   

It's hard for us to share our loved ones sometimes, but many of us manage to deal with it.  

8. Wanted to say that I also get annoyed that there's so much emphasis put on sex.

There's that idea that any affection and attention towards others is okay as long as it doesn't involves a penis and/or vagina, or mouth on mouth kissing.  

I think there're many other reasons to be jealous.

I really don't think I'd care that much if Tim had sex with someone else. As long as I knew it's safe sex and he didn't want to leave us, I think I'd probably be cool with it.  

I get much more jealous of other things.

I get jealous when Tim takes tons of photos of someone else, because I have often felt he doesn't take many photos of me.

Yes. I'm vain.  But I've also always believed that people take photos of that which they love, and that which interests them the most.  

I get jealous when Tim shows concern for someone's safety or passionately declares he'd seek revenge if so and so was harmed. 

I get jealous when Tim praises someone's talents, such as singing.

I get jealous when Tim is very enthusiastic and supportive towards someone else's idea.  

Now that I think of it. I get jealous a lot.     

Sex is really the least of my concerns. Why should I care if people exchange bodily fluids and see each other naked?

Well, I guess a lot of people do care.

But I don't.

9. Thought more about jealousy. It goes back to what I wrote the other day. I don't mind sharing attention and affection.

First of all, too much attention and affection directed towards me would make me implode with stress.  I wouldn't want to have 100% of someone's love.  I'd feel extremely suffocated. I need space—lots of space.

I only get jealous when I feel sad. I'm not getting something that I want from someone, and then I see someone else getting it.

I'll give an example.

Let's say someone I know reads my blog.  If they also read other blogs, of course I'm not going to be bothered by this.  I would think it's fine...great.  We definitely don't need blog-reading monogamy.

But let's say there's someone in my life that doesn't read my blog.  They're too busy. They're not interested enough.  They claim blog-reading isn't their thing.  I would feel hurt by this. I would feel even more hurt if this person sent an email out to me, and several others, recommending another person's blog.   Hey! You guys should check out this blog of my friend! It's awesome!

Stuff like that hurts me.  It makes me angry, sad, and jealous.  I'm pretty good at burying those feelings though...until I read something that brings them to the surface.   

10. Liked this speech topic.   It's called "On Second Thought".

The description: The arbiters of contemporary public debate are unforgiving of those who change their minds - ridiculing such changes as a 'back flip'. But why is changing your mind a crime? While consistency and stability are admirable qualities, do we really want to be a nation of people who can never, ever change their mind about anything and occasionally say 'sorry'?

It takes courage to admit we've changed our mind.


I was thinking about something the other day.

I don't wish everyone had the same beliefs and opinions that I have.

I DO wish everyone had similar thought processes as me. 

What I mean by this is that I wish more people argued with themselves.  I believe this. No, maybe I don't believe that.  Can I believe this and still believe that? Am I being a hypocrite?   

I am often morally confused.  I often feel like a hypocrite. I passionately believe one thing one day, and then a month later I read something and change my mind.

It causes me stress sometimes, but I like that about myself.

I feel some other people are so rigid in their beliefs. They believe what they believe without questioning and doubting.

It could be my imagination though. Maybe in their minds they're questioning and doubting. Maybe they keep it secret, because they're afraid they'll be accused of back flipping.  

I like the people in my life who can admit to being ignorant, confused, wrong, lost, etc. In my opinion, we're the strong ones. The others are arrogant.  

11. Saw that Jonathan Safran is at the Festival of Ideas. Tim read his book and told me a lot about it.   Safran writes about vegetarianism and stuff like that.  

I should read it someday.  Maybe I will. Tim has it on the Kindle.  

12. Thought of a recent confusion I can admit to right now.

When I watch The Walking Dead the main actor reminds me of William McMahon.  I look at him and think of William McMahon.

Then today I looked at photos to compare the two, and I really don't see any facial similarities.

Here's William McMahon.

Here's Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead guy).

There's really no similarity there. But for some reason they reminded me of one another.

Maybe I had some kind of brain glitch.

13. Wondered if William McMahon would have been good at fighting zombies.

Would any Prime Minister be good at that?

The Walking Dead has really given me a new perspective on things. Actually Benjamin Mee's zoo book helped with that as well.

Benjamin talks about his wife dying of cancer.  It's sad and horrible. He admits to that. But he says he still feels they're lucky.  It could have been much worse.   There are people in the world who suffer much more than they suffered.  He gives things like Darfur as examples.

I thought that was a very brave and admirable way of looking at things.  

Then Tim and I watched the zombie show, and I thought, no matter how bad things get, we should be at least thankful the world isn't overrun with flesh-eating zombies.

I've been thinking about Stephen King's The Stand.  In that story, 99.4% of humans die from a new flu.  The survivors have to rebuild society.  It's all quite awful.  But now that I'm seeing people trying to survive zombies, I'm thinking Stu, Frannie, Nick, Tom, Larry, etc., they had it EASY in comparison.

So yeah.  Now when I feel sorry for myself I'm going to say, At least I'm not trying to escape zombies.

And when I'm scared of something happening, I'll say, Well, yeah that would be bad. But it wouldn't be as bad as zombies.  

For example.  I'm scared of driving on mountains and we might do a little of that when we go to Australia.  I'm now telling myself, yes, we might end up rolling down a huge cliff and crashing to our deaths. But it's a thousand times better than dealing with zombies.

14. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read a story thread called Subculture Shock.   It's with Frankie Dean and Thomas Blair.

Thomas, I believe is one of the triplets. I don't think I've seen his posts before. I might be wrong, though.

The story takes place in the Melbourne wizarding village; Oliphant Lane.

15. Started to read.

Frankie sings at a club.

Tom is at the same club, trying to get some time away from his family.  I don't blame him. The Blair family seems to have a lot of drama lately.

16. Saw that the club was specifically a wizarding world club. It has wizards, elves, fairies, etc.

Both Thomas and Frankie seem pleased with this. They feel more freedom—maybe more relaxed?    They don't have to struggle with trying to blend into the Muggle world.  

17. Went and had a search through my blog. I found out that I HAVE read threads with Thomas Blair before.  Not only that; I even read his biography.

18. Reviewed my old post a bit. 

It's good that I can search through old posts like that.

I think I know why I forgot that I read his biography.  Thomas used to not have a photo for his face claim.  There was just the name.  So his post and biography looked different to me, and therefore also new.

Sorry about that!

19. Saw that my Australian of the day is Douglas Shelden Annand.

On the Australian Dictionary of Biography site, there're two other Annand people after Douglas. I wonder if any of them are related.

20. Saw that Douglas Sheldon Annand was born in Toowoomba Queensland in March 1903.  

I think Toowoomba is Geoffrey Rush's hometown. I can't remember if he was born there, though.

I'll check....

Lord Wiki says yes.  Geoffrey Rush was born in Toowoomba, in 1951.

21. Learned that Douglas was a graphic artist.

22. Learned that Douglas designed the ceiling of the Australian pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition.

This took place in 1937.

Lord Wiki says there was a Nazi pavilion there. That's not surprising for 1937.

A few years later, Douglas was the art director for the Australian pavilion at the world's fair in NYC.   He did some murals for that.

23. This website has one of the graphics Douglas made for the pavilion.  

24. Saw some Douglas Annand artwork on this website.  

25. Saw another example of Douglas Annand's work on this site.  It's for a Sydney Bridge celebration.   

It's from 1932. I think that's when the bridge opened.

26. Checked with Lord Wiki. He says I'm right about that.

27. Had Jack listen to "Inescapable".  I'm trying to expose Jack to more Australian music.  



28. Went to the YouTube channel of lilbluerocker.

The channel belongs to a 14-year-old named Lewis who lives in Brisbane.

He likes metal music, surfing, and football.

Here's his cover of Bernard Fanning's "Wish You Well".



I think the guitar's a bit loud.

It's hard to hear the singing.

29. Listened to a song that Lewis wrote himself.  It's called "Reflections of"; or it might be called "Reflections of (2010)". I'm actually not really sure.



I like the guitar part in the beginning.

The song seems nice, but it's hard to hear.

30. Started to look at more of Baroo42's Flickr set.  

31. Found myself looking at people in the pictures and thinking, I wonder what they'd look like as a zombie.  

I find myself doing that a lot lately.

And I keep dreaming about zombies.

Maybe Zombies will be my next huge obsession.

32. Wondered if there's a tag on this dingoes' ear.  Or is that just a reflection?  

33. Thought these girls were cute.

And I also thought they'd make good zombies, especially the girl on the left. I mean, with make-up of course.

One of the zombies from The Walking Dead has her own Facebook Page. Her name's Melissa Cowan.

It's pretty amazing to see how the makeup effects are done.   

34. Liked this photo.  The swimming looks fun.  And I love that one of the guys has a Aussie flag swimming suit.  

35. Reminded of The Walking Dead when I saw this photo.  It's because there're tents. And on The Walking Dead, the survivors live in tents.  

36. Liked this photo.  It's really beautiful.

Deafblind Alphabet, Writer's Block, Small Churches, and Mysterious Photos

1. Saw article that says the Labor Party isn't so popular in Queensland right now.  But they still like Kevin Rudd.

I probably feel the same way.

2.  Thought of Andrew when I started looking at Phunnyfoto's Railway Stations, Trains, Bridges, photo set.  

3. Intrigued by this photo.  People are having some type of lunch event on a bridge.  

4. Found information about the lunch event.  It was part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.  The bridge with people eating is the Noojee Trestle Bridge.

5. Found Noojee on Google Maps.  It's about 2 hours east of Melbourne.  

I'm starting to get the feeling that Phunnyfotos lives somewhere in east Victoria.  Most of her photos seem to be from around there.

6. Wondered if Phunnyfoto ate at the Noojee lunch event. Or did she just come close enough for photos?

7. Saw that the Australian dollar is going up high again.  It's now equal to 1.061 American dollars.

8. Glad to see that the Victorian government is working to pass laws that will inflict harsher punishments on people who have dangerous dogs that kill.    

If someone has a dangerous breed of dog, and it kills someone, the owner can get up to 20 years in prison.

That makes sense to me.

The article, I read, says there's also going to be a hotline for people to call if they know of a dangerous animal in the neighborhood. I don't know what will happen once the call is made.  Will the dog be taken away from the owner? Or will neighbors have to wait for the dog to bite someone?

Will certain types of dogs be outlawed all together? Or will they be judged on their behavioral record?

Personally, I think they should just be outlawed. I think having a pit bull is like having a lion or tiger. They might be very friendly and lovable. Then suddenly they snap and attack.

If someone has such a huge desire for a pit bull, then they should have it well hidden. If the owner keeps the dog safely away from the neighbors, how would anyone know about it in the first place?

9. Read article about Melbourne's public transportation ticket inspectors.  Research shows that people see these officers as being rude and intimidating.

I went to the Metlink website to see what they have to say about their ticket inspectors (AKA Authorised Officers).  The site says these officers ARE there to reduce fare evasion. But they also say they're to provide good customer service and assist travelers.

Maybe the officers are doing more policing than supporting? Or is that just public perception?

The article says the officers are being accused of lacking interpersonal skills. I can imagine this means if you go up to one and ask a question, they respond in an unfriendly way.   If that's true; it's unfortunate.  Sometimes it takes courage to admit you're lost....confused. If you ask for help, it's nice if someone responds in a polite, kind, and helpful way.   

10. Went to Tallygarunga.  Today I'm going to read a Reade and Arti story called Silence is Golden.  

It takes place in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, on the evening of August 26th.

11. Started to read the story.

Reade and Arti are learning a blind-deaf type sign language that is done by tapping on the body.  They're doing this so they can have secret conversations with each other.

12. Found a website about the deafblind alphabet.  I'm not sure if this is the version Arti and Reade are using.  This one talks about messaging letters on someone's hand.  Reade's post says the messages can be done on any part of the body. Maybe it's a different alphabet; or maybe they made their own adjustments to the one on the site.

13. Looked at various letters in the deafblind alphabet. They're pretty cool.

It's basically just touching someone's hand in various ways. For example, the letter R is done by bending the index finger and laying it on the other person's palm.

14. Noticed the website provides other blind-deaf communication methods. One is to just spell out the letters with your hand. I guess it's kind of like the game where you write a letter with your finger on someone's back; and they guess what it is.

There's also a form of braille that can be used.

15. Went back to reading the story.

I'm wondering if Reade and Arti have had sex yet.  It says here, After buying a book in Narragyambie on the topic they had spent the last two weeks absorbed in their project in almost every spare moment.

Other spare moments had been spent in more adult activities.

Maybe they're having sex; or maybe they're having almost-sex.

16.  Learned that Reade has a doctor's appointment coming up.  He's dreading it less than usual because Arti's staying at his house. He feels better having her around for support.

17. Concluded from more reading that Reade and Arti are having sex.

18. Found the story thread where the sex first happened.  What can I say?   I was curious. It's not very explicit, which is probably good.  The book I'm reading now is too explicit for my tastes.  I guess it's like vampire erotica.  It's probably not the explicit bit that bothers me, but more the idealism.   It's that romance novel fantasy of perfect love and mind-blowing sex. I think I've heard it too many times before, and it's gotten old.

19. Felt like I have writer's block today. Usually it's so easy for me to find things that make me blab on and on. It's different today.   I feel kind of blah. I read stuff and it doesn't inspire any deep thoughts.  Or if it does, I don't have the motivation and energy to write about it.

Hopefully this is just a short phase.

Maybe I'll be back to my old self later.

20. Saw that my Australian of the day is another William Anderson. This one is Sir William Hewson Anderson.   He was a business man and political organizer.  

21. Learned that William was born in Sydney in 1897. His father was a Minister and, because of that, the family moved around a bit.

William did some of his schooling at Fort Street Boy's High School. Then he went to the University of Sydney. He didn't stay long. He joined the armed forces.

War wasn't easy on William.  He was wounded, traumatized, and suffered hearing losses.

He left the fighting stuff and went back to school. He also started working for Shell.  

William got married. He and his wife had three kids.

22. Learned that William was a Liberal. He reminds me of American Republicans because he equated the left with communism.

23. Learned (if I'm reading this right) that William was part of the group that helped establish the Liberal Party.

He became the first President of the Victorian branch of the party.

24. Learned that William didn't like socialists, people on the left, and pacifists.  He did like patriotism and free enterprise.  He differed from some right-wing people, I've encountered, in that he supported social welfare. I guess he believed in some social welfare, but not to the point that it becomes socialism.  I think people on the right vary with that. I know of some who seem to be against social welfare all together. If you're life isn't doing well; it's probably your own fault for being lazy and lacking interest in work.  If it's not your fault for having a bad life, it's not the duty of taxpayers to help you.  I'm guessing other people, on the right, are more open to helping others.  But they might believe changes are needed in the system.

25. Perplexed by Americans who are so bothered by the idea of their taxes going towards universal health care and welfare; yet they have no complaints about their tax money being wasted in the war.

Why is that?

26. Started to look at Phunnyfoto's Hotel Flickr set.

I think it's hotels as in bar/restaurant, rather than the sleepover kind.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

This photo caption uses the term inn.  I'm thinking inn infers sleepover capabilities.  But I could be wrong. 

27. Went to this dictionary site. They say an inn is an establishment for the lodging and entertaining of travelers.    

So it does involve sleeping there rather than just eating and drinking.

28.  Looked at pictures of the the Royal Hotel in Drouin.    

The building doesn't look too inviting to me, probably because I'm not fond of that architectural style.
I think maybe it's art deco.

I don't hate art deco; but it's not one of my favorites.

29. Looked at the website for the Royal Hotel.

They do provide accommodations.  There's five ensuite rooms.  

30. Thought this hotel looked fairly nice. It's called Copper Mine Hotel at Coopers Creek.

I also like this Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo.  

31. Didn't love the photo set so much, because there seemed to be a lot of art deco buildings.   I don't mind a few,  but I get tired of them after awhile.

32. Started to look at Phunnyfoto's Church set.   Maybe I'll like this one better.   I don't think churches are that often art deco.  If the ones in this set are; then I'll assume Phunnyfoto prefers that type of building.   Then maybe it's best I find another Flickr account to stalk.  

33. Liked this small church.  It's yet another thing that reminds me of Little House on the Prairie.

34.  Pictured this church as something that would fit into the decor of Fort Worth. 

35. Felt unimpressed so far with what I'm seeing of south-eastern Victoria.   Is it a place I wouldn't like?  Or is it a matter of Phunnyfoto having different taste than me?   Maybe she's taking photos of things I wouldn't like; and someone else, with a camera, in south-eastern Victoria would take photos of things that would appeal to me.

I don't know. 

35. Noticed the sky was very blue in this picture.  

36. Thought this Catholic church was very unusual looking. 

37. Thought this church looks extremely tiny. How many people could you fit in there?

Well, maybe it's in a very rural area, with a very small population.

38. Looked up Yinnar South, Victoria.  That's where the church is located.  

Lord Wiki says it has a population of 1148. All those people couldn't fit into that church.   Although why am I assuming they all belong to the same congregation?  Some might not even be Christian.

Oh!  Lord Wiki talks about the church.   He says it's one of the smallest churches in Australia.  It's four metres by five metres.

I have to convert that.....

Google says one metre equals 3.28 feet.   So it would be about 13 by 16 feet.

That's small!

39. Impressed by the tall tree in this photo.  

40. Did not like this Catholic church.  Well, I mean I don't like the building.   It reminds me of synagogues I've seen and been to. It's just so unimpressive.

I know.  I'm a building snob.  

41. Did not like this church building either. It looks like a doctor's office.

42. Liked this church, at least compared to a lot of other churches I've seen in this photo set. 

43. Unimpressed with St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Brisbane.  

Really.  I'm starting to feel enlightened here. I thought Jews were the only ones who liked worshiping in ugly buildings.  

I'm joking.  We have some ugly churches in Fort Worth.  And I do know that there's pretty synagogues out there somewhere.  

44. Listened to "Charlie Hangs Around" from the Lost soundtrack.



I wondered why I had love for a character that died way back in the second season. By the 6th season, shouldn't I have stopped caring?  Then I remembered he died in the 3rd season, not the second one.

Lord Wiki helped me remember what happened on the third season finale.

Now I'm trying to remember what happened in the finale of the second.

I know Lord Wiki will give me all the details if I ask. But I want to remember on my own.

45. Gave up trying to remember.

I'm thinking it might have had something to do with Michael, Ana Lucia, and Libby—all that stuff. 

But I don't think all that happened in the finale.

Oh!

Now I remember!

It was the big trade scene, and we learn about Ben's position with the Others.

46. Started to miss Lost again.

47. Decided not to quit Phunnyfoto; but I'll stop looking at her building-oriented sets. 

I don't think we have the same test in architecture.

48. Started to look at Phunnyfoto's Tasmania set.  

49. Saw a photo of Truganini's memorial. It's in Bruny. 

50. Liked this photo of Bruny Island.  It's beautiful. 

The boat in the picture makes me think of a movie I found the other day.  Throughout my adult years, I sometimes remembered this short film we watched at school.  It was about a little boat.   My memories were vague, but I decided to try and find it.

It's called Paddle To The Sea.  



I haven't watched much of it yet.

I watched 2-3 minutes, and to be honest I thought it was kind of boring. It was probably entertaining to me as a child because it meant we got a break from hearing the teacher blab on and on.

51. Listened to the movie while looking at Phunnyfoto's Tasmania pictures.

It's getting more interesting to me now.

52. Liked this photo of Cape Bruny.  

53. Liked seeing photos of the Lake St. Clare Visitor Centre in Cradle Mountain. It has a summer camp feel to it. 

54. Found the website of the architects who built the centre.  They're called Heffernan Button Voss Architects.  

I'm intrigued by this Trial Bay house they made. 

55. Amazed by the tulips in this photo.  

It's from a place called Table Cape, which is about 30 minutes north-west of Burnie.  

56. Started to look at Phunnyfoto's East Gippsland set.

57. Consulted Lord Wiki about East Gippsland.

It's not a town, but a region.  It's made up of towns.  The only one I've heard of (that I remember) is Lakes Entrance.  I think Lakes Entrance is on my pretend-Australia-trip itinerary. 

58. Checked my pretend-trip calendar.

Yep.  Lakes Entrance is there.

I have us pretending to go there on February 6.  

59. Liked this photo of Croajingalong National Park.

And I like this photo from there too. 

60. Enjoyed looking at photos of the Delvine Cemetery.    They're delightfully spooky.

Here's one in color.  The trees are great for the scene.

Then here's a picture using a negative effect.  It looks like a classic horror thing.

61. Decided to look at one more Phunnyfoto photo set. It's called My Faves, and is a collection of all her proudest photography moments.

I'm wondering. Will any of her favorites be my favorites?  

62. Wondered how this jumping rebel photo was made.  

Is it special effects?

Can people really jump that high?

I can't.

63. Liked this Ferris Wheel from Adelaide.  It's very unusual...and colorful. 

64. Consulted Lord Wiki about Glenelg, the suburb of Adelaide that has the Ferris Wheel.

He says it's a beach suburb.

In the 1930's, Glenelg had it's own Luna Park.  It lasted only four years. Then the rides were disassembled and sent to Luna Park in Sydney.  

That's very interesting.  

In 1982, a new park was opened in the area.  It was called Magic Mountain. Lord Wiki says this stayed open until 2004.    It was well-liked by some—especially young people. It was disliked by others. They thought it was ugly.

Now there's something in its place called The Beachhouse.

65. Thought The Beachhouse sounded fun.  It has the cool Ferris Wheel, a carousel, indoor water slides, and other stuff.

66. Looked at the Beachhouse website.

They have a variety of pricing plans.    It's expensive, but not shockingly expensive. The prices are comparable to American amusement prices.

Well...actually.  Maybe it's a little more expensive.

Maybe I'll try to compare.

Mini-golf there is $9.50.

At the mini-golf place we go to in Fort Worth, it's $7.50 per game. That's not too huge of a difference.  

67. Thought the Power Hour Max at the Beachhouse was ridiculously expensive.  It's $45 per person for 100 minutes. You get mini-golf, the carousel, water slides, bumper boats, train, arcade games, and a few other things.  You do NOT get the cool Ferris Wheel.

In comparison, one day at Disney World costs $85 dollars.  You can stay ALL day, and not just 100 minutes.  For that price, you can go to only one park (versus all four) but there's much more at that one park than there is at The Beachhouse.

68. Read article about dangerous dogs in Victoria.  People can keep their scary pets, but they have to register them.  This action includes getting them neutered and micro-chipped. And they need to be kept in a secure location.

If this is not done, then the state can take the dogs away and have them destroyed.

I'm not sure if registering the dogs will solve the whole problem; but maybe it will reduce the dangers.

I hope it does.

69. Went back to looking at Phunnyfoto's pictures.

I'm not liking too many of them; so I think we have different taste.

That's okay.

70. Loved the building in this picture.  It's fantastic.

The caption says it's from Harbourtown Melbourne.

71. Googled Harbourtown Melbourne and came up with an outlet shopping centre in the Docklands.  

I was really NOT expecting that.  

72. Consulted Lord Wiki about Harbourtown, and got the idea that I've mixed things up.

I think maybe it's some kind of trick?  Like this is an old classic European building and it's photo-shopped into Harbourtown?

Well...no.  It's not photo-shopped.  It's in a photo group called Illusions (NO photo-shop creations please)
 
73. Perplexed by the photo.   How was it done?

74. Searched through Flickr for other photos of Harbourtown Melbourne. So far, I'm not seeing anything like Phunnyfoto's picture.

There's no super fancy building.

75. Realized I'm probably making a huge fool of myself.  The fancy building is probably something famous that I should recognize from elsewhere.  

It looks like the type of thing you'd find in Prague...or somewhere like that.

76. Started looking at the wrong photo album.

Oops.

I'm going to try to get back on track.

I ended up looking at the illusion photo group rather than Phunnyfoto's favorite photos set.  It took me a few photos to realize I was on the wrong path.

77. Thought this cloudy building photo was cool.  

78. Wondered....

What's the deal with Australia and their scary clowns?  

Are Australians missing the clown phobia gene?

I imagine when Australians saw Poltergeist they looked at the clown doll and thought, Oh, how darling!

79. Decided to admit I do like Fizbo the clown. But I like him better without his make-up. 




80. Thought this photo was really cool.  I wonder if it's natural; or did Phunnyfoto use effects? 

81. Thought the tree trunk in this photo looked very strange.

82. Loved this storm cloud photo.  

83. Saw a picture of a pink lake, and wondered if it was real.  

Someone in the Flickr comments says it's caused by algae.

Why have I not heard of this pink lake before?

It's near Dimboola, Victoria.

84. Found Dimboola on Google Maps.    It's four hours north-west of Melbourne, and only 1.5 hours north-west of Halls Gap.  I was planning on us going to Halls Gap for our REAL (but probably canceled) Australia trip.  If there's a pink lake, we'll drive that extra hour or so to see it.  

85. Looked at a website that talks about the lake.  It says the day has to be overcast for you to see the pink. 

What if end up going on a day that's sunny? That would be disappointing.  

86. Followed link that Phunnyfoto provided about the lake. 

It looks much less exciting on that website.

I'm guessing Phunnyfoto used some kind of coloring effect with her photo. 

I wish photographers were more revealing about what effects they used. I think it's frustrating looking at a photo and not knowing if you're seeing something real or manipulated.  

Or maybe it is real in her photo.  If it is, then the tourism sites should borrow it. 

87. Liked this snowy photo.  It's from Mount Hotham in Victoria. 

Lord Wiki says that's north-east of Melbourne.

There's a ski resort there.

I've never been to a ski resort.  

Do I ever want to go to a ski resort?

Probably not.

I don't like too much cold; and I'm scared of the ski lift thing. 

88. Decided it's foolish to talk about disliking the cold when it's so hot here; and we have another broken air-conditioner!  This one is worse than our last breakdown because it's the kitchen.   Now our food might melt.  And this is where we keep Max, our cat that pees a lot.  We're going to have to move him to the bathroom in the guest room. That's a total pain, and not fun for him because the bathroom is smaller than the laundry room.

Hopefully, we'll get it fixed soon.  

89. Decided to shut up and be thankful that we still have electricity.