Thought I'd share an amazing video with you - an animation by Caroline Ting. I love it :D (And I can't tell whether they're Australia or not...)

Hey guys. So, in Australia, when we go on holiday, we say we're going interstate, if we're staying within Australia, and overseas when we're not. (We don't have a name for going to Tasmania, because nobody admits they go there.)

So my question is...what do you say when you're going to another country, but it's not...you know, overseas. I am...quite curious, actually.

I am so idealistic. Ok, wouldn't this be the awesomest thing? If, when we pay our taxes, we can, like, opt in or out of certain government funded projects? What would be your opt ins? What would be your opt outs?

I would tick these boxes:
- Education and schools
- Teacher and nurse salaries
- Hospitals
- Emergency services
- Aid to poverty in Australia and third world countries
- Sustainable energy

I would cross these boxes:
- Professional sports
- military (attack, that is. By all means, keep the defence)
- myki (a crap electronic public transport ticket that went about a billion over budget. And still sucks.)
- Grand prix
- Politicians' holidays

I wanted to share an awesome recipe I tried last week - blueberry cupcakes. My teacher loves blueberries, and I've been looking for a good recipe - last year, I gave her blueberry muffins, but they were awful (I shouldn'ta given them, actually), so this year, I thought I'd better try out the recipes before instead of just choosing one based on the pretty picture.

I tried a blueberry chocolate tart which was fairly average. This was only the second recipe I came across, but it's lovely.

The lemon-scented is definitely lemon-scented - when they came out, they smelled really lovely and lemony, but when you bite into it, you can't really taste it. So if you like lemon, you could try and put more rind in, if you wanted.

Also...not particularly difficult or time consuming :) Probably took me about...an hour, maybe? Didn't time it, sorry.

( Mmm...can you smell that? )

This is cute as. This cat goes to the bus stop, gets on a certain bus, enjoys the ride 5 miles to another suburb, then gets taken back again. It's gorgeous :P

LOL WHAT?! Watching a kids' show, a girl was starting to date a librarian, so she dressed up in..."librarian clothes", and was burying herself in books. Her dad came in, and was like "You'd be more convincing if you read it the right way round."

Girl: How do you know I'm not reading an Australian novel?

... ahahaha.

Similarly, Alistair wants to steal back his pocket money that his siblings have been stealing from him.
Friend #1: It'd be like Robin Hood.
Friend #2: But did Robin Hood spend the money he stole on trainers?
Friend #1: They didn't have trainers backthen.
Friend #2: But they probably had trendy sandals.

XD

Also, I've just stumbled on a new awesome game called KenKen. It's a little like Sudoku, but has a little more maths (nothing hard. Simple stuff.) It's fun as, try it!

Woohoo! Two Fridays ago, I did the very last maths exam that I will ever have to do in my life! Well. That's assuming I do well. If I don't I shall have to do it again next year. But I"m crossing my fingers for a 7. Paper 1 was insanely difficult, but everyone thought so, which means they'll mark it up, hopefully. But paper 2 was so easy. Easy easy easy. You guys can all cross your fingers for me, too. ...please :)

This is ridiculous. Australia has strict policies on how animals that are slaughtered for food are treated. Animals must be stunned unconscious before killed, to minimise suffering.

But because people have asked for exception, so that animals can be killed without being stunned so it can be sold as kosher and halal.

Princess someone of Jordan has written to Prime Minister Ruddy in a desperate plea for him to make sure Australia keeps their standards, because Muslims don't actually have to eat animals that were alive when killed (according to consults with…religious people) and that Australia could set a precedence and help to improve animal treatment in the Middle East.

Why why why do we continually grant exemptions to laws for religious reasons? We set rules about discrimination, the classic Australia fair go for everyone, except when you're religious. Then you can set outdated standards for employees. Like heterosexuality. And not being a mother of a bastard.

We have these rules because they're important Australian values. I don't understand why we don't see a problem in letting someone else break the rules that we so carefully set. When is it ok to kill a conscious animal? When your religion requires it.

Ugh. Exams start this week, and I just don't have enough time to study for them all. So basically I have to choose which ones I want to do well in. o.0 Thank goodness for the long weekend (for the race that stops a nation, but for which only Melbournians get a holiday ;) ), but...I am still not going to manage. Big clue to start studying earlier next year...

Also, I am lamenting the fact that I haven't gotten time to choose some new userpics. I keep going 'I'll do that now' and then my superego(? Maybe it's id. I think it's the id. Let me google. Nup, it's actually ego. Wow.) Anyway, so my ego tells me to get back to work. I'm not entirely sure why I'm spending time over here.


Anyway, apparently babies love Australian accents! Which can only mean my babies will be smarter than the rest of the world's. Naturally. :P I mean, that's what I got from the title of the study: 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi-oi-oi: Infants love an Australian accent.' Unfortunately, no abstract, so I couldn't find out in what way they like it. Maybe they just laugh more when they hear it.

Whoa, dudes, check out my cake! My sister picked it out, and wouldn't let me look at it till it was ( all ready. )

Oh THAT'S how it can get better XD

I just thought I should share kaitmaree77's generosity and tell you she bought me a year's paid LJ account :) Is she not sweet? She is indeed. Also she has the most Australian accent ever. You should all know.

So, birthdayness is exciting (except not really, whaaaat, I had to go to school. WHAT a downer :P ). All my LJ and RL friends have been very sweet.

Anyway, because RL stories are boring, today (well, yesterday) I found out that grandmother's favour their son's daughters, because they share the most DNA with them, and favour least their son's sons. (Their daughter's kids are in the middle.) Interesting, huh? I'm glad I'm a girl :P

And lol! Now I'm allowed more userpics, they even offer me to view thumbnails, just in case I forget what they all look like XD XD

ALSO! mar_aureus, guess what! My parents gave me a Spanish reader, so now I can...improve :D I'm excited. But also unsure where I will get time to read it...
And I'm finally going to use the Spanish moods you so wonderfully translated for me :)

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1.) Chiara
2.) Kiwi
3.) ...? There's only so many ways you can shorten Chiara. (Ie, none.)

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU'VE HAD:
1.) bkwmkiwi
2.) kiwi639
3.) bookwormkiwi (OH YES. THAT IS ACTUALLY ALL.)

THREE THINGS YOU'VE DONE IN THE LAST 33 MINUTES:
1.) did some of my psych work
2.) watched NCIS and Lie to Me
3.) ate some chocolate

( Find out fascinating facts about my life )

I went to the year 12s valedictory lunch today (basically the lunch they have on the last day of school) and the valedictorian was speaking about something her politics teacher said. They were in class, and she was saying some stuff about stuff, and the whole class was in awe, and they said "Why are you a teacher? You could be great!" and she replied "I know, but I'd rather you be great."

Which basically sums up what's going on right now. I've decided it can only be deemed racist if it was intended to be racist. Like, lol, consider this situation - you're mucking around with a black person, they do something stupid, and you go 'you monkey!' and then they sober up and they walk off and never want to talk to you again. Hmm, well, you might've wanted to be more careful with your words there, but if you weren't insinuating anything...not racist. (Imho.)

Plus, randomly, this is one of my favourite pictures XD



Just because, it's not offensive to one party or the other, and I love the idea of God sitting up there going "WHY DON'T PEOPLE BELIEVE I EXIST?!"

After multiple and ongoing attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, we're known to India as a racist nation. Lovely. We're not, for the most part, just the idiots who...well, are. (What's terrible is how, in India, there is talk of retaliation attacks on Australians, which is awful. The Australians over there are obviously not racist - they wouldn't be in India if they were. But anyway.)

Hey Hey, It's Saturday did a skit which involved a group of guys painting their faces black, about the Jackson Five. The American judge (Someone-or-other Connick?) gave it a zero, found it racist and offensive.

And now we're being labelled, again, as a racist nation. But. While, yes, it may have been offensive to this American, he should understand that the skit was intended for Australian audiences. We don't find it racist. And yes, you could argue 'Well, they used to not think it racist to use African Americans as slave' but far out, it's not the same thing. In Canada, it's racist to ask for a black coffee. They should understand that, if they came to Australia and heard the term, we weren't having a dig at blacks. The Americans have to accept our values if they want to come to Australia - similar to the way we might go over to Saudi Arabia and not wear tiny shorts. 75% of Victorians don't think it was racist. I think it's mighty unfair that it's travelled back to America and now they think we're a terrible country. Thank you, America, please stop thinking we should live like you. If we presented it to Americans, then yes, a bit of a faux pas, but it was for Australians, and it wasn't intended as an offence to blacks. So no. We are not a racist country, we should not have to publicly apologise to the entire world because guess what: it wasn't meant for your eyes.

Whaaaat? Get out of my LJ! (Says me who's putting it here.) Who would rate me higher in English than in Psychology? Than anything, really?

What is Your Perfect Major?

You Scored as Anthropology You should be an Anthropology major! English 100% Anthropology 100% Journalism 100% Philosophy 92% Sociology 92% Psychology 92% Mathematics 83% Biology 67% Linguistics 67% Theater 58% Engineering 50% Art 50% Chemistry 42% Dance 17%

I'm not sure if it's Victoria or all over Australia, but there's talk about lowering the voting age to 16, which I first disagreed with, on account of the fact I never know the first thing about politics, but then my teacher reminded me that neither did most of the adults who voted.

Here's a letter to the Age. Tony O'Brien, assuming your sarcasm was intended, you're my hero.

"This proposeal to lower voting age is highly dangerous. Young people are notoriously idealistic and uninformed, and are likely to vote in favour of issues like world peace, saving the environment and reducing poverty, instead of self interest."