Flat Stanley's Australian Adventure! Part 4: A Whaling We Will Go!

From Flat Stanley

The drive to Redcliffe was short and only made interesting by the nearly empty fuel tank. The little community was bustling with people out for Sunday breakfast, for walks on the beach, and for the big market. Ann, Kevin, and Stanley hurried quickly down the pier to the waiting boat, the Eye Spy.

From Flat Stanley

“Do you remember the whales we saw at the museum?” asked Ann. “Those were humpback whales. That is what we are going to see today.” Then, Ann passed around some little pills. “Nobody wants to be sea sick.”

After an hour the boat slowed and an announcement was made. “We’ve seen our first pod of whales!”

“Like a pea pod?” asked Stanley.

“Not exactly,” said Ann. “That just means a collection. Like a herd of cows or a bunch of bananas.”

“Or a murder of crows,” continued Kevin mischievously.

Everybody got out of his seat and crowded to the front of the boat.

From Flat Stanley

“There! At one o’clock!” announced the guide. And, there, at one o’clock, rose a large black mass with a small triangular fin. Everyone sighed.

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

“We’re turning the boat around. We’ve seen some whales breaching back behind us!”

Stanley looked at Kevin questioningly.

“That means they’re jumping out of the water,” Kevin explained.

And the announcer continued by saying they rise up to look around or to try to splash the barnacles off their skin.

“I want to see this!” said Ann as she turned to once again see only a very big splash.

From Flat Stanley

“At eleven o’clock! Tail smacking!”

“At two o’clock!” A pod with two calves and the babies seemed to be competing for the biggest splash. They’d dive down then push themselves up to the surface with their big tails. They’d lift their entire body out of the water, twist, and then fall back with a big, big splash.

From Flat Stanley

By the end of the cruise everyone was windblown but happy. They’d seen at least 10 pods of whales and LOTS of breaching.

“Did you enjoy your Brisbane adventure?” Kevin asked Stanley as they were driving home across the big bridge and under the resting pelicans. But, Stanley was sleeping. And, smiling.

From Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley's Australian Adventure! Part 3: To the Sunshine Coast!

From Flat Stanley

“Where to today?” asked Stanley.

“We’re going to drive North along the Bruce Highway – headed for the Sunshine Coast!” said Kevin.

“Yes. And, we’re going to see the Glass House Mountains!” exclaimed Ann.

“Are the Mountains made of Glass?” asked Stanley as he pressed his face against the windscreen and watched the trees whiz by.

“No. Captain Cook, who is credited with discovering and first exploring Australia, saw the mountains from his boat in 1770 and thought they looked like the glass factories back in his home country of England.”

“Does that mean they smoke?” asked Stanley.

From Flat Stanley

“Only when they catch on fire! They were formed from volcanoes, but that was a long time ago. They are also very important to the original people of Australia, the Aborigines. The mountains were named by them: Mt Beerburum, Mt Coonowrin, Mt Ngungun, Mt Tibrogargan”

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

“Neat,” said Stanley as the car turned off the highway and onto Steve Irwin Drive.

“Do you know who Steve Irwin was?” asked Ann.

“The Crocodile Hunter!” shouted Stanley.

“Let’s stop at his zoo and say hello to the animals,” said Kevin and he pulled into the Australia Zoo.

From Flat Stanley

The Australia Zoo was a very cool place. Stanley reflected as they left. “It’s not like other zoos. No lions or bears or wolves.”

“Nope,” agreed Kevin. “They really emphasize Australian animals. Kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, wombats…”

“And miles and miles of crocodiles!” Ann teased. “What did you like best, Stanley? The snakes? The Tasmanian devil?”

“Feeding the kangaroos,” Stanley replied decisively.

“Hurry,” Kevin urged. “We have more to see!”

And so they all piled into the car and headed down the Glass House Mountains tourist drive in search of the Big Pineapple.

From Flat Stanley

“Blackall Range tourist drive,” mused Kevin as he came upon a brown road sign. “We haven’t been there before.” And a new adventure was afoot.

“Look! Look! Look!” pointed Stanley. “A rainforest!”

“Oh! And a Café!” exclaimed Ann, who was hungry.

Kevin turned the car around and pulled into the Mary Cairncross Reserve. After sharing a sandwich and picking up a few postcards, Ann, Kevin, and Stanley entered the information building.

“Have you been here before?” asked the curator.

“Not me!” said Stanley. “I’m here from Ohio!”

“Keep your eyes open. You’ll probably see some padmelons…”

“Is that like a watermelon?” interrupted Stanley.

“No. They are little wallabies, which are like small kangaroos” continued the ranger. “You might also see some snakes!” and he extended his arms out to demonstrate the snakes might be very large indeed. “But, don’t worry. They’d be carpet pythons and they won’t hurt you.”

Ann looked dubious but the three set off through the building exit and into the rainforest.

From Flat Stanley

“Look at the enormous roots on that tree. And, how the vines climb up the trunk.” Ann was feeling more comfortable in the cool, green forest.

“But, Ann,” Kevin corrected, “that vine is a snake!”

From Flat Stanley

“Ewwwww.”

The walk continued peacefully, with the trio appreciating the big trees and the beautiful bird songs. Suddenly Ann stopped everyone, pointing and whispering, “Look!” It was a little padmelon – not much larger than a rabbit and sitting in a pool of sunlight.

From Flat Stanley

“Oh, this is even better than the zoo because this is REAL,” mused Stanley.

As the rainforest trail ended, Kevin suggested they retrace the beginning of their hike to check on the snake. There was a cluster of people gathered at the tree. The snake wasn’t up in the vines anymore. It had moved down close to the roots and was slowly swallowing a mouse it had caught!

It was starting to get late so the decision was made to push on to Nambour. Initially Kevin, following Ann’s suggestion, pushed on north when he should have pushed on south, but eventually they pulled into a parking lot and there sat a very large pineapple, indeed.

“Cool,” they all said at once.

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

It was too late to take the train around the plantation

From Flat Stanley

so Ann took Stanley to the edge of the fence and showed him a field of small spiky plants.

From Flat Stanley

“Those,” she said with authority, “are baby pineapple plants. Pineapples don’t grow on trees,” and she glanced at Kevin. “And they don’t grow underground like potatoes. They grow upside down from the center of these plants. But, only when they get much bigger,” she added. “I’ll show you a picture at home.”

Stanley was very tired after his big day and fell asleep in the car on the way home. Ann had to carry him up the last walk to the lookout station on Wild Horse Mountain where they could see both the Glass House Mountains and the ocean (and on a clear day, Brisbane.)

From photo a day

“Kevin. Stanley. We have to get up early tomorrow. We’re going to see the whales!”

And, even though he could hardly hold up his head any longer, Stanley replied, “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep. I’m so exci…” and he fell asleep.



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Flat Stanley's Australian Adventure! Part 2: Exploring Brisbane

From Flat Stanley

On the weekend Kevin and Ann and Stanley left Zelda to sleep on her chair in the house and went out to explore.

“Today we’re going to the “Multicultural Festival in the Roma Street Parklands,” said Kevin as they walked out the door and down the driveway.

“But, why are we walking right past the car?” asked Stanley. “Are we going to walk all the way to the city?”

“Silly boy! We’re taking the train!” and they walked down the block and up the next and found the Carseldine train station. Ann bought her ticket and Stanley agreed to share her seat so he wouldn’t need a ticket of his own. “Next stop Roma Street Station!”

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

At the festival there were hundreds of people! There were people from India and people from China and people from South Africa. People were singing and dancing and playing music from places all over the world.

From Flat Stanley

There was food from Vietnam and Italy and just everywhere! After much deliberation Ann, Kevin, and Stanley shared a French stone oven pizza.

“Why is everything so green?” asked Stanley as they walked through the gardens. “Why are there flowers? Why aren’t the leaves red and gold and brown?”

“Two things,” said Kevin, because Kevin always says two things. “First, Brisbane is closer to the equator than Massillon. That means that the weather here is warmer than Ohio. It never snows in Brisbane!” Kevin smiled broadly, because he doesn’t like the cold. “Second, Brisbane is on the opposite side of the planet. You are now in the Southern Hemisphere. That means that while it is fall in Ohio, in Australia it is spring!”

“Oh,” said Stanley and he rubbed his head. “That’s weird.”

“We’ve got more to see!” exclaimed Kevin and led Ann and Stanley back to the train station. “Next stop, South Brisbane!”

“South Brisbane is the cultural centre of Brisbane,” Ann said. “Over there is the play house…”

“And the Ferris wheel!” Stanley interrupted.

“Yes, but we,” Ann continued as they exited the ‘lift’, “are going to the museums.”

And they stopped, for there in front of them was a large black plaque identifying all the museums in the courtyard… including something called “Stanley Place.”

“We did it for you!” Kevin chuckled, winking.

“Take my picture,” ordered Stanley.

From Flat Stanley

Ann and Kevin and Stanley visited the Queensland Museum. Stanley got to see all sorts of animals that live and have lived in Queensland. “Dinosaurs!” he cried.

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

“Spiders! Whales! Oh wow!

From Flat Stanley

Kangaroos! Koalas! Kevin, take my picture!”

From Flat Stanley

And, as Kevin took Stanley’s photo with the koala Ann told him about koalas. “Some people are confused and think koalas are little bears. They are not. They are like kangaroos or possums. They are marsupials. They have a pouch on their bellies where they keep their babies. Remember how big that red kangaroo was? Her babies when they are born are the size of jelly beans! That jelly bean baby will crawl up through her mother’s fur, over her stomach, and find the pouch. Then she dives in and makes herself comfortable. She drinks milk and grows.”

“And,” Kevin added, “a baby kangaroo or koala is called a joey, even if it’s a girl!”

Stanley laughed.

At the Gallery of Modern Art, Ann and Kevin and Stanley looked at paintings and statues and designer clothes.

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

Stanley was thrilled to find there was a party of other flat people in one of the galleries!

From Flat Stanley

He invited two of his new friends to travel with him back to Ohio. They were excited, but didn’t know what to wear!


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Flat Stanley's Australian Adventure! Part 1: Flat Stanley Arrives

From Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley arrived at 51 Hibiscus Circuit in Fitzgibbon, a northern suburb of Brisbane, Australia on the 13th of October. His trip, as far as we could tell, took about 4 days. At least, there was a postmark on his envelope for October 9. Stanley was in good spirits and eager to see the land “down under”.

Flat Stanley was greeted by Ann and Kevin. They knew he was coming but they didn’t know when – or there would have been a party. As it was, they all had supper then Stanley and Zelda took naps while Ann and Kevin did the dishes and discussed what they would do with Stanley.

From Flat Stanley

“’Stan the Man’ should go to work with us,” Ann said. “It is either that or spend his days at home with Zelda. She’s getting too old to play ball all day. She depends on at least 20 hours of sleep.”

“Yes,” replied Kevin as he reached down and rubbed Zelda’s tummy. She rolled over and let her tongue fall out to the left. “But, we’ll take him to see the sights around Brisbane on the weekend. It is too bad that he isn’t able to stay longer or he could have gone with us to Sydney, too.”

So, Ann took Stanley to work with her. Ann is a veterinarian. She takes care of dogs mostly, and some cats, and every once in a while there’s a rat or a mouse or an injured or lost bird. Stanley particularly enjoyed playing with the puppies

From Flat Stanley

and feeding the tawny frogmouth chick that had fallen from his nest.

From Flat Stanley

Ann also took Stanley to visit Kevin at his work. Kevin works in a big office building in the Central Business District of Brisbane.

From Flat Stanley

All the cool people call this the “CBD”. He is a teacher – a teacher of adults who want to learn more about computers. Stanley played online for a time,

From Flat Stanley

but was happy to leave with Ann to walk up to the Queen Street Mall. Ann had to go into the city to get her hair cut – so Stanley got to see a bit of the city.

Ann and Stanley stopped in at Border’s Bookstore. “It’s just like being at home!” Stanley exclaimed. “Yes, but look at this,” Ann said and pulled out a book and pointed to the funny words – like tyre (tire) and kerb (curb) and torch (flashlight) and lift (elevator). “Australians speak English like Americans, but they have different ways of saying words (different accents), different spellings of common words, and different names for common things.”

“But, you don’t sound funny,” Stanley said.

“No. Kevin and I moved here from Ohio, too. We used to live in Cleveland.”

Stanley smiled. He knew about Cleveland.

Ann then took Stanley to City Hall

From Flat Stanley

where they visited the Museum of Brisbane and the museum store to pick up some postcards to take home.

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Queensland forests

I've been busy, busy, busy for the last month. We've had guests - two weeks with Flat Stanley and two weeks with Kevin's mother (3-D Linda?). Now, on the morning of her departure, I am sitting quietly with my cup of morning tea (which, incidentally has gotten to be a bit too cool while I first caught up with my email and then, ahem, Facebook). I need only to import the Flat Stanley entry and then match up the bazillion photographs. That might happen today - after I get my computer back. It is possible that I'll write my entry for "Purple Cane Road". But, for sure I can share with you the contrast of woodland environments here in Queensland.

It was almost a month ago when Kevin, Stanley, and I drove up the Bruce Highway North toward the Sunshine Coast. We stopped first in the Glass House Mountains and took a short hike and then in the Blackall Range at Mary Cairncross Rainforest Reserve. These walks are less than an hour drive apart (-unless you go by way of The Australia Zoo. That has a way of adding a lot of time to any trip.)

From photo a day

From photo a day

Year of Wonders

From Singles 2009

Fascinating historical drama about the plague and a little village that decides under the direction of their pastor to isolate themselves so as to contain the infection rather than allowing it to spread to neighboring communities. Well written and based on the real village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England. (You can visit the Plague Town! It is now on my list of things to do.)

Then, as the rate of new infection comes to an end almost 12 months later, the story takes a turn into a bodice tearing, lustful romp. A bit odd, but, OK.

No quote. Rushing through here. Just trying to catch up.

Durable Goods

From Singles 2009

The packing boxes come. I like this part, seeing ordinary things get wrapped like presents, get taken from your sight until they reappear at the new place. You can count of some fragile things being broken; always when we moved, my mother cried a little when she found the shattered china cup, the arm off the porcelain ballerina. "Why do you keep buying that stuff?" my father would ask. "Buy durable goods; that's what's going to make it."

Remember Katie? from "Joy School"? This is the first of her stories. Her mother has died. She's living still in Texas with her dad, her sister Diane, and her best friend, Cherylanne. But, no one is as nice as you might hope for Katie or as nice as Katie seems to remember them in "Joy School". Her father is abusive both physically and verbally and Katie is always walking on egg shells trying to wear her face and modulate her voice absolutely correctly to avoid his wrath. She hides under her bed to avoid him and to commune with her mother. Diane is weeks away from graduating from high school, stealing away to be with Dickie, and she is finished with being controlled by her father. Cherylanne, while at times generous and warm, is largely self centered. There is no real oasis of acceptance and love in this book.

So, despite Katie's palpable pain and loss in "Joy Club", I wanted to whisper to her over and over, that things will get better. That move you resent and fear will surprise you.

Much to learn.

I hear the inviting rattle of glasses, smell the hamburger. And now there is my father's voice, his hand lightly touching my arm. "Hey, wake up," he is saying. "Everything is here."

The Bonesetter's Daughter

From Singles 2009

"...Speaking of it, there was an older girl at this party puking her guts out in the bathroom. A tenth-grader. She thought she was preggers from this boy who's in juvenile hall."

"Does she love him?"

"She called him a creep."

"Then she doesn't have to worry," Ruth said knowingly.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's the chemistry that gets you pregnant. Love is one of the ingredients," Ruth declared as scientifically as possible.

Wend stopped walking. Her mouth hung open. Then she whispered: "Don't you know anything?" And she explained what Ruth's mother, the lady in the movie, and the teacher had not talked about: that the ingredient came from the boy's penis. And, to ensure everything was perfectly clear to Ruth, Wendy spelled it out: "The boy pees inside the girl."

"That's not true!" Ruth hated Wendy for telling her this, for laughing hysterically. She was relieved when they reached the block where she and Wendy went in opposite directions.

The last two blocks home, the truth of Wendy's words bounced in Ruth's head like pinballs. It made terrible sense, the part about the pee. That was why boys and girls had separate bathrooms. That's why boys were supposed to lift the seat but they didn't just to be bad. And that was why her mother told her never to sit on the toilet seat in someone else's bathroom. What her mother had said about germs was really a warning about sperms. Why couldn't her mother learn to speak English right?

And then panic grabbed her. For now she remembered that three nights before she had sat on pee from the man she loved.

This was a re-read though I listened to an audio book this time. Amy Tan tells wonderful mother-daughter stories and this one features two - Grandmother, mother, daughter - though they are never together for Ruth's grandmother, Precious Auntie, died when LuLing was a young adolescent. Despite my choice of quotation (I laughed out loud), both Lu Ling and Precious Auntie have more interesting stories of far greater horrors. "The Bonesetter's Daughter" reminds us that when we learn the truth of another, we move quickly to forgiveness. When we put aside the pain, we are left with love.

They write stories of what things are but should not have been. They write about what could have been, what might still be. They write of a past that can be changed. After all, Bao Bomu says, what is the past but what we choose to remember?

Joy School

From Singles 2009

Nona was very religious, she used to be the president of the Santa Lucia Society. "She kept the banner in her room for a long time, " Cynthia said. "it had a picture of St Lucy with her eyes plucked out."

"Why?"I asked I couldn't believe it. Why would someone make a whole banner out of something like that. "Oh, Mrs. Whatever, your daughter has had her eyes plucked out!" "Oh no, well, let's make a banner out of it!" Cynthia said St. Lucy's eyes got plucked out because she was a virgin martyr. I have no idea what that means. Those Catholics have strange stories and they love those pictures that make you practically puke. Jesus with His heart all stuck out, for one. And nailed up on the cross, dribbles of blood running down so sickening you can hardly even feel sorry for Him. As if His mother, who was right there, wouldn't have wiped it off

I'm having something of a early adolescent period reading "Joy School" simultaneously with "The Bonesetter's Daughter". And, better yet, as I finished "Joy School" I learned there is a book that comes before and one that comes after. When will I return to Dave Robicheaux? (The next book has been ordered but it is only available as a CD! No hard copy, paper in the hand copy exists in Brisbane! And, this is "Purple Cane Road" which was the first Robicheaux novel I read and is, therefore, ultimately the cause of all this Burke frenzy.)

But, all this talk is unfair to Katie.

"Joy School" was amazing. A funny and acutely observant child-woman lost and lonely in her new home in Missouri. She's lost her mother. Her older sister has left home. Katie and her dad have just moved from Texas and, so, Katie is without her girlfriend as well. The kids next door hate her. Her school is filled with the usual assortment of lame-ass teachers. ("Every gym teacher I've ever had has been mean, like she has a problem she is going to punish all of us for out on the courts. This gym teacher is named Miss Sweet. This would be what they call irony, I'll tell you that.")The girl that befriends her has a crazy mother. As winter falls and the the local pond ices up Katie goes skating - falls through the ice - and stumbles into the life of 23-year-old Jimmy who is working at the nearby service station. Jimmy. He will be the love of her life. He will be her "joy school".

Like "The Bonesetter's Daughter", "Joy School" is also an examination of the relationship between mothers and daughters. Katie's friend Cynthia, like Ruth and LuLing, are struggling to break away from their mothers with their (misunderstood) controlling and confining love. Katie was emancipated suddenly and prior to those adolescent mother-daughter conflicts. Katie's missing her mother's love and direction as she moves into this more adult realm created by Jimmy and seeks connection with Cynthia's grandmother, Nona, with the local priest, with her older, now pregnant sister, with Ginger the housekeeper. Katie, LuLing, and Ruthie remind me how much we take our loved ones for granted, only recognizing the extent of their importance to us and love for us once they're gone.

Oh, where is she? A stubborn part of me had thought this might be over sometime. But she is staying gone and staying gone and staying gone. She is not in the grave, though. No, she isn't. I have her out of the grave. And, right now I put her in a yellow flowered dress, a pale yellow apron over it. It has ruffles and the ruffles are eyelet. I don't know if there is such a thing, really. But now there is, and I am sitting at the kitchen table watching her shape the pie crust edges into their stand-up design. She is concentrating so hard her tongue sticks out a little. This really used to happen. Once I laughed and she said, What are you laughing about? and I told her her tongue was sticking out and she said, "it was not!" Well, there are things you can't see about yourself. I loved that she stuck her tongue out that way. It was cute, like when a kitten is done washing and his hair sticks up on top of his head. I never said anything about her doing that again. I wish I could have. I wish I could have gone through my long list of all the things I loved about her before she died. Right in front of her. I don't believe my memory would have failed me one, bit, even if I was crying the whole time, saying those things. Saying all those things that made her her.

There isn't anything really unexpected that happens. Whether it is my age or my experience with "story", I pretty much knew the trajectory. But, that didn't matter. "Joy School" was real in the way that first love is real: magical and sweet, expanding one's world while breaking one's heart.

I hear the low buzz of the fluorescent light above us. This could be the time when I should say something, make things move along. In my throat is the whole sentence, "I think I love you."

I look up at him and in his face is only a kind affection. Oh, he is twenty-three, he is twenty-three and I am stupid thirteen. His mother should have waited awhile to have him. I guess I will never get to meet his mother. I look down at the stone, close my hand around it. This is what I have.

"I had a date Friday night," I tell him. Make him jealous, I hear Cynthia saying.

"Hey! Good for you!"

Cynthia is an imbecile.

Banned Book Week

I just learned that this is (per the American Library Association) Banned Book Week - 2009. Had I known that a bit earlier I would have made a different choice for my next read...something a bit more "dangerous". As it is I had to content myself with perusing the list of 100 banned or challenged classics to check up on my level of perversity...or how far I might be descending into hell.

Twenty five.

The list is pretty surprising. Certainly there are a few authors who were obviously channeling the devil... J.D. Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather... And, I'm thinking that Beelzebub has a hotline to the United States: American authors - definitely over-represented.

Test yourself. Click here to see the list.

Thoughts on Cyber Living - Games

Then, there are the obsessional, facebook games.

Farm Town

I toyed with some collection games but it wasn't until I entered "Farmtown" that my time really started draining away. There isn't much to farm town. Virtual plowing, sowing, and harvesting. Harvesting produces money which is needed to do all of the above actions. Plowing and sowing produce "experience points" that move you up the Farmtown hierarchy and unlock larger fields, fancier buildings and decorations, and prettier and more profitable (as well as more expensive) crops. I am thankful that there is not a mechanism that is measuring the time I have spent on Farmtown. I really need a 12-step program. Anyway - these are my Farmtown observations.

First, my motivations. It really has been about creating patterns of color on my farm quilt. Rice is planted in a pretty blue watery field - but it quickly grows into green and then gold. I like the way cotton has white puffballs for a couple of days of growth. Carrots make an interesting progression from green leaves to white flowers, to orange roots with lacy green foliage. Peppers are hot - red and yellow. If you want the good blue, you've got to hold out for blueberries at level 28.

Virtual farming is so much cleaner and cooler than reality gardening. I've yet to sweat. As a consequence, I have weeds filling in the bed I worked so hard to retrieve from its overgrown state only a few short months ago. And, my real plants disappoint me in ways my virtual crops and flowers never do. My palm has scale. My sweet peas are stunted with no intention of producing a bloom. My last surviving petunia bit the dust. Should I neglect my virtual flowers and they dry up... a little sprinkle brings them back to full bloom.

Then, there are the animals. While cute, they are pretty useless in Farmtown. You can sell them for a pittance, but the cows don't produce milk nor the chickens eggs. They will wander about, lie down, eat, "moo" (or quack or baa or meow or crow or..) But, I've frozen them all. If left to their own devices, both my virtual dogs and cats spend an inordinate amount of time SCRATCHING. Its bad enough that I have to face Zelda's itchiness each day - but why should I let my virtual pets rub in my veterinary inadequacy?

Underwater World

Kevin suggested I try this. He's getting a bit bored with my aquarium. It is in its second incarnation of planting and snail infestation without ever achieving "fish worthiness". I thought I had a plan - I was going to BUY some more neutral water to fill my tank - but then my pump had a coronary and while it still pumps, it does so with so much groaning that Kevin has threatened divorce. So, a virtual fish tank.

After planting plants (NO SNAILS!!) and stocking my tank with a few fish, I returned to find the tank walls covered with algae. (No problem. I have real experience with that.) And, my fish all floating upside down. Quickly, I saw the button "flush" and sent them on their way to the virtual sea... only moments later to note a "healing" button. Again, my veterinary skills are challenged by e-animals.

I spend most of my money buying plants to fill my tank. Not only because I think they are attractive, but also because they increase my fishes happiness. What I can't figure is why I would care that my fish are happy? More frustrating, it seems you can cram your tank FULL and the fish are never completely happy. What's with that? Fish - they only have a brain stem. They should be relatively easy to make happy! (Recently, Fishworld had a server problem, and lost most of my plants. Supposedly, they'll be back. FW gave me a whole passel of money to buy new, but I haven't had the heart. My fish are much less happy.)

Mafia Wars

I had to try this for the simple reason I was so amused by the comments my friend players were adding to the standard Mafia Wars Requests. I've only been "playing" for a couple of weeks. I have a bit more understanding of it now then I did initially. Still, I've recently started hemorrhaging money from my account. Friendless says I need to sell guns. Unfortunately, I'm still on a negative track after clearing out everything excepting what I need to use right now. Meanwhile, I keep getting beaten up. I am not feeling successful.

Bottom line. These games are going to stop. I need more Ann life. I have projects piling up. Nothing is getting finished. And, it will take 10,000 points to get to pineapples.

Thoughts on Cyber-Living - Photos

Photo Statistics.

I've recently discovered that both Picasa and Photobucket collect stats on view of photographs held on their sites. I find this fascinating. Especially the stats from Photobucket since it has been months, nay, years since I have added anything beyond a few videos. (I don't know how to do that on picasa.) Anyway, there are still people looking at those Photobucket photos and the images they are fascinated by boggle me. In particular - there are people seeking out my slide show of the kootie catcher I made - just to see that I still could. And, even stranger, the slide show of the washed versus brushed potatoes at the grocery store. The slide show that consistently get the highest hits is a series of color variations of a graffiti image I posted for the Queen's Birthday a couple of years ago. Photobucket tells me that these viewers are viewing these photos from either Photobucket or Blogger (those are easy to understand) or "other". I'd have to pay them $$ to become a Pro user to learn about what "other" sites have my photos and to learn about more than the 5 most viewed photos/slide shows each week/month. I can't justify that. Especially since I'm not using Photobucket much anymore. (If you've seen my photos somewhere else, I'd be keen to know.)