All the Things

So many things.

Our ultimate frisbee team qualified for the upcoming Nationals tournament in October. We had already bought plane tickets, knowing we would probably go and there were limited flights at good times. It was a relief that we didn't waste our money, not to mention we had fun playing the tournament with our friends. It was unusually played at a showground field, and on the Sunday we were privileged to share the grounds with a guinea pig show. It was like a dog or a cat show, where different breeds are judged on their coats and such. The people were preening their guinea pigs by literally plucking their stray buttocks hairs and carefully brushing their faces with human toothbrushes. During the judgment they were placed on little velvet-covered pedestals, and a man in a lab coat inspected them and instructed the owners about perfect breeding practices. This was all immensely entertaining to me, but probably not at all for the poor guinea pigs. 

Sunday was also a big day because we finally saw Matilda: the Musical. I bought tickets to this show forever ago, and it was a lot of fun. There were lots of clever visuals and choreography that helped us appreciate the music we already liked even more. It was a high-energy show that I'd recommend to any age - lots of kids were at the show, but it's more than a kids' play. 

Tonight, for the first time since we have been going to the trivia down the street, we came in FIRST PLACE. This is quite an achievement, and mostly thanks to the fact that in the last two weeks a frisbee friend has come and brought his other two friends. They knew our trivia host from a previous location, but had to stop coming for various grown-up reasons. They've "gotten the band back together" as a hybrid with our team, and it has proven a success. We'll see how long it can last (we are not assuming it will become a regular thing), but are happy while the ride lasts. 

Consider yourself sufficiently updated. Goodnight.

Jump Rope for Narrowly Avoiding Disaster

Ahh... Jump Rope for Heart, the annual fundraiser and awareness campaign for heart health, when children are encouraged to jump rope as much as they can for as long as they can on a special day. I remember taking part in the fun when I was in elementary school, and the kids still do it today, even in Australia. 

When I was at a school on Wednesday, though, I had different thoughts. There are way too any kids in a small space whipping ropes around carelessly; whatever happens, avoid getting hit in the face. Secondly, try to make all the kids more aware that they aren't near anybody when they start trying to skip rope, so they can avoid hitting anyone else in the face. 

I was astonished nobody got hurt. I suppose that's the true win today.

No Rest for the Weekend

It's a been a full weekend. We got up bright and early Saturday to go explore a new park: Wianamatta. It's kind of like some land that they haven't turned into a park yet, but you can walk and bike around it and look for wild animals. There are a few old abandoned buildings on the property and some old paved roads that have not been maintained. No benches or ranger station, or anything that makes the land look nice and not abandoned. It kind of felt like walking around somewhere post-apocalyptic that nature is reclaiming. We saw quite a few kangaroos, but unfortunately did not get to see the elusive emu we were trying to track. We did find some footprints though, which look exactly like dinosaur footprints. 

We spent the rest of Saturday at a going away/engagement/beach party at Bronte. This morning we ran in the Color Run 5K at Centennial Park with a friend and some of his friends/acquaintances. The afternoon was reserved for ultimate frisbee training, and then most of the team went to the nearby pub to grab dinner together. 

And just like that, the weekend is almost gone. 

Yeah, Science! Update

Supposedly, we did it. Although this info conflicts with what I found about the previous record holder. They say the previous record holder was 640, but the number I found (2,753) was higher than what we got (1,869 people). This is unsatisfying. Did we make it or did we not? Who has the wrong info? Alas, there was no fancy special guest either. It was still a nice Friday evening, but I'm labelling it inconclusive until further notice.

Bruce

Michael and I are getting psyched to see Matilda the Musical in a few weeks. We listened to the music on Spotify and decided we both love this song. For those unfamiliar for the story, the song is from a part in the story where the mean headmistress is forcing a child to eat an entire chocolate cake, and the other kids are rallying be behind him. The lyrics are pretty genius, for example, "fantastically enthusiastic gastric juice". And we just love the escalation of the mood of the song. It's a tough scene to watch in the movie (as tough as a kids' movie scene could be, anyway), so I can't imagine how they're going to pull it off on stage. I hope they don't really make a child actor eat a whole chocolate cake on stage every night. I don't think they'd do that because it would be horrible. Hopefully he's not a method actor. 

As someone who works with kids, part of the reason I want to see this play is that it boggles my mind how talented the young actors must be to pull it off. I barely think I could memorize a play and perform it well at my age, much less at the age of 10. 

Yeah, Science!

I was very productive this evening, making more upcoming travel reservations. It's nice to check three things off the list. 

It's been a pretty regular work week. We had trivia on Monday and won our frisbee game on Wednesday night. 

Tomorrow we are going to the World Record Stargazing Event at Centennial Parklands. The thing I find funny is that the event is sold out. Why would you have a finite number of people who can attend an event when you're trying to get as many people to attend as you can possibly get?! This particular event will have special science-y guests (supposedly one by the initials of NdGT, but that is yet to be confirmed) and we will apparently walk away with little telescopes. So, that's why. But, maybe they could have the first X number of people sign up get that stuff, and then let other people sign up to still stargaze in the park so they can be counted as part of the tally? All the US has to do is try to have one night where they do the same thing and they can just blast Australia out of the water for most star-gazers in different locations in the same country at one time (simply bested on the fact that the US population is higher). Hint, hint. 

Wouldn't it be disappointing if Australia didn't beat Mexico's Record (Also, why is that article on AOL Real Estate? That's a thing?)? That would be pretty funny, actually. "Thanks for coming out guys; sorry, we failed. Here's a telescope to remind you of your failure". 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Be an Informed Consumer

Three different people on my facebook feed have been posting more stuff about Shakeology and Beachbody than I care to see, so I decided to look up other info about it online to see why they they are pushing it so hard on social media. They also really seem to play up this "I love my life!" idea all of a sudden, which is why I'm so skeptical. I love my life too, but I don't need to tell everyone about it all the time. These are people who seemed like normal people before they found this company - they had their ups and their downs. Now they've found a product that makes them happy all the time? What a red flag. It's classic bandwagon advertising I learned about in elementary school . There is nothing wrong with wanting to coach and inspire other people, but there are lots of ways to do that that don't have to be attached to a brand. 

I think it's great people want to make good healthy life choices concerning exercise and nutrition. From reading this and this, it sounds like there's no question that the Beachbody and Shakeology products can help somewhat get fit. There's just obviously something fishy going on with pricing and making people buy into the idea that they are earning a discount by recruiting or pushing the product, though.

In any case, I haven't used their products and don't intend to. To be clear, I am not saying anything negative about the company either, as I have had no experience with them whatsoever other than seeing their advertisements disguised as my friends' status updates. I just hope that everyone is making informed decisions.