Cathleen is whinging about the BBC’s Olympic coverage in England. Hey, if all they showed was the British curling victory, I’d be pissed too. Luckily the Australian coverage has been excellent. Throughout the Games we got two or three hours of coverage a night, all of it highlights. But to Channel Seven’s credit, there seemed to be an effort to cover a bit of everything. So not only did we see the two Australian victories, but we also saw most of the winning performances in everything else. I was also relieved that the Aussie coverage seemed relatively free of the sappy glurge that the American networks cram down your neck. It was mostly just sports.

And, of course, The Ice Dream! Last night was Roy and H.G.’s last show. They have been so funny over the past two weeks. Who else would dare to make fun of the idea that “Old Man Shea” was standing beside his son and grandson with the torch? Who else would show every skating routine from the Hugentoblers, a sister and brother team that finished near the bottom despite some very flashy home-made outfits? Who else would award medals to the worst “Hockey Bastards”? It was the perfect antidote to all the sentimental Olympic crap you get in America.

“How to Write a Better Weblog.” I actually thought this article was fairly useful. I mean, as Michele points out, blogs are mainly personal sites and therefore no one should ever attempt to proscribe the way they’re to be written. But for a lot of us, what started out as a personal exercise has become something bigger. You find a “voice”. You worry whether the design of your site is sending the right message. You start to play up to the audience. (After all, if you didn’t acknowledge them at all, why are you posting this stuff on the Internet anyway?)

For me, this site started as a way to keep lots of family and friends updated on what I was doing far, far away. But nowadays, for better or worse, it’s become so much more than that. It’s partly my own talk show, where I get to lead the discussions that I want to lead. It’s partly a travelogue, where I get to show you guys some of the amazing stuff I’ve seen. It’s partially a diary, so I can remember the day I left Netdecisions or the day my new brother was born. There are so many reasons that we write, but at the core of every one is the idea that someone else is going to read it.

That’s why I found the article useful. Not because it tells you what to write about in your weblog, but because it emphasizes the importance of good writing for an audience. Sure, it’s not a law and you’re free to “rItE hOwEvHh U wAnT”, but think how much more impact your ideas and thoughts could have if you presented them more readably. Look at the A-listers that everyone links to. What do they have in common? Good writing. If you care at all about your audience (and whether you admit to it or not, you do), you should make sure that reading your site is a pleasure, not a chore.

Helloooo, navel piercing! Well, that wasn’t on my schedule for the day.

Friday Five:

1. Hey, baby, what’s your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well?
I’m a Pisces. My birthday’s coming up real soon! March 15, to be exact. Yeah, I think Pisces fits me well. Except for it being a fish, and me with that seafood aversion and all…

2. What’s the worst birthday gift you’ve ever received?
Ugh. One of my high school boyfriends once presented me with a cubic zirconia tennis bracelet. I’m not disparaging the cheapness; I’m disparaging the entire concept. I am the last person on the face of the world that you’d possibly imagine wearing a jeweled tennis bracelet. *shudder*

3. What’s the best birthday gift you’ve ever received?
It’s probably a tie between the car my parents got me when I turned sixteen and the bike I got when I turned seven. No, it was definitely the bike. It was beautiful: purple with rainbow streamers on the big curvy handlebars, and a painted rainbow on the banana seat. I loved it.

4. What’s the best way you’ve celebrated your birthday thus far?
Last year was pretty good. The Snook and I had a picnic at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens and then watched “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” out in the park. The best of my childhood was when I had my party at Showbiz Pizza. I got to sit in a throne and talk to the robotic singing animals. It was fantastic.

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
Friday was “Visa Day”, which thankfully went well. Today I’m entertaining the Snook and his friends, who are gobbling down my chocolate cake while playing “Lord of the Rings” as we speak. (Movie quote: “I feel like I’m babysitting but I’m not getting paid.”) *grin* Other than that, I’ve got a ton of internet chores I need to do. I’m also going to head up to the Op Shop (that’s “Goodwill” to you Yanks) and pick up some fabric to start making a quilt. Yeah, I’m going nuts with the crafts.

This is it, folks. Rodd and I are heading to the Immigration Office to turn in my visa application. I’m so stressed I’m developing a cold sore. Best case scenario: they give me the permanent residency today. Probable scenario: we turn it in and they take a while to decide. Worst case scenario: I get turned down and have to leave Australia in a week. Yeah, that would really suck. So cross your fingers for us today!

Update: Well, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Our case worker explained that my application looked great and that I would’ve been instantly approved, except that all Americans have to undergo an extensive background check. And apparently the U.S. authorities are using September 11 as an excuse to be, like, months behind in processing them. So anyway, they gave me a “bridging” visa which allows me to stay here until they can give me a final verdict. They also granted me permission to work, which means that the Snook and I are finally going to join the job hunt in earnest. So ultimately things look very good, but I’m just going to have to wait a while to get the official stamp.

Weekly Trivia Update: We lost again. Big time. And our hated rivals won. But on the plus side, the Snook won us three free jugs of beer! Which makes for a pretty cheap night out. Questions we missed:

1. What are the three yellow properties on a Monopoly board? (Technically the question was about the English version, but I couldn’t even remember the American ones.)
2. In which book did Dale Carnegie say, “The only way to get anybody to do anything is to make him want to do it.” (Slight paraphrasing there, but you get the point.)
3. What was the real name of the “leather man” in the Village People? (He’s the one that died a year or two ago.)

Can you do any better than we did? Put your answers in the comments.

Seven… bloody… a.m. Did I mention that they’re putting in a café right below our apartment? Which is cool and all – except for the fact that every day this week, the Snook and I have been awakened at 7:00 by the sound of pneumatic jackhammers ten feet below us. I so appreciate starting the day with a headache.

Hee. I read this article about James Van Der Beek and Kerr Smith getting engaged as them being engaged to each other. I’ve been reading too much fan-fiction. 🙂

Very interesting discussion going on at Tara D’s site. Are you a wabi-sabi person or a weltschmerz person?

Hee hee! Max was right. I was amused by this article about the Hollywood phenomenon of good guys using Mac and bad guys using PCs. Actually, the Snook and I find it more amusing when a program shows a “PC” running Windows that is clearly a Mac running a Flash movie in reality. Even Office Space – which is otherwise so true to the IT industry – falls prey to a similar mistake. Remember when Peter is frantically trying to close down his machine and leave the office before Lumbergh stops him? Check out the widgets and progress bars on his screen. It’s clearly a Mac. But for some reason when he finally manages to shut down, he gets a C: prompt. I giggle every time I see it.