Long Relationships

Note: While this news report states that the death toll is around 60, we have news reports already this morning that the toll has risen to 108. And there are still areas that haven’t been explored yet.

I love Australia. I love to travel, I love to see the sights, talk to the people… Over the past few weekends, my husband and I have been making a point to get out and explore more of Victoria. We have met so many wonderful people and seen many breathtakingly gorgeous landscapes.

So when I heard on the news that the raging bushfires have killed 108 people, destroyed over 640 homes and have completely wiped out towns that I visited just a week or two ago…

I wondered what I could do. For my fellow Australians. For my fellow Victorians.

I shed my tears and wondered how I could help. I’m not rich and I don’t have much to give, but I can try. Then I realized – I’ll do what I know how to do. And that’s reach as many people possible as I can using the internet.

This is definitely a time for people to pull together and support each other. I may not be a citizen yet, but this is my home country, my home state, and my heart aches for all the people who have lost so much.

If you are able to provide some kind of assistance, a few ways you can do so is by going to one of these sites:

CFA bushfire hotline - http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au

Red Cross - http://www.redcross.org.au

Salvation Army - http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/SALV/HOMEPAGE/pc=HOME

St Vincent de Paul - http://www.vinnies.org.au/home.cfm?nocache=932312

Wildlife Rescue - http://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/cms/index.php

Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund - http://relieffund.org.au/

Victorian Bushfire Relief Fund - Donations can be made at any branch of National Australia Bank (BSB: 082-001, Acct. No.: 860 046 797)

Thank you.

After starting to recover from the nearly week-long heatwave that blasted through Melbourne last week, we have once again been hit by the heat and reminded that yes, in fact we do live about eight miles from the sun.

Today Victorians and those residing in New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory were advised to stay indoors, keep as cool as possible and keep the fluid intake up. Of course, there was (and is) a total fire ban in the hopes of making the lives of those out saving other lives in this heat easier. But add in the dust/smoke storm we had brewing in my part of the neighbourhood and things were just plain not easy.

Tomorrow, it is forecasted that areas in New South Wales will be the hottest place on Earth, reaching temperatures of 47 degrees C – 116.6 degrees F.

What does this have to do with me blogging?

Where I live, it got up to (at least) 45.5 degrees C – otherwise known as 113.9 F. While we did learn from our mistakes last week and ordered an air conditioner, my husband and I do try to be conscious of the environment so we turned it off as soon as we could open up the flat.

Thanks to the aircon, my brain is only partially melted, but it was also mostly melted last week and didn’t get long enough time to recover.

If I owe you an email, a response of some sort, if you wanted me to check out a video on YouTube or something on your blog, anything, I apologize. I am catching up (now that things have cooled down locally and I can think) as fast as I can. You can feel free to send reminders just so long as they are polite ones. I truly thank you all for your patience.

Oh, and if you could, please think positive thoughts for the men and women out there saving many Australian and international visitor lives by fighting bushfires and responding to calls in the SES (State Emergency Services).

Click on the image to find where to buy the perfume bottle pictured.

Who needs things like courting and seduction when you could just spray your dame or bloke and bring ‘em home for the night?

Okay, so it’s not quite that extreme, but I couldn’t help but be amused when I read this article.

“An international team is studying the brain chemistry responsible for the complex feelings that actually draw people to a particular member of the opposite sex as well as help in keeping humans monogamous.”

Does anyone else think this is a little…weird? Shouldn’t we be putting all our efforts to curing cancer or something?

It’s interesting, yes, but a ‘love spray’?

“”For one thing, drugs that manipulate brain systems at whim to enhance or diminish our love for another may not be far away,” team leader Prof Larry Young of Emory University in Georgia wrote in the ‘Nature’ journal.”

If someone tried to use some ‘love spray’ on me, I don’t think I could help but feel that things weren’t genuine. If I couldn’t fall in love with Mr. X naturally, then why would I want to artificially? As for the ‘keeping humans monogamous’ thing, well, if a man can’t handle being monogamous without the use of drugs then I’m certainly not going to be with him!

I’m not panning it completely. I can see it possibly being of assistance to couple who want to stay together (and have for many years) but they’re just not ‘feeling the flames of desire’ like they used to. Possible use there. But even so, there are other solutions for that as well.

BUT, I do know I’ve posted things while holding a certain opinion and had my opinions tweaked and changed by other’s viewpoints. What do you think? Would you use love spray?

There is a reason they say ‘Hell hath no fury’…

In case, for whatever reason, you can’t watch the video, this is a news clip talking about a video on YouTube. A woman has YouTubed a phone call from her to her husband’s secretary talking about his sex aids and what do to with them (throw them away? Keep them?).

Obviously, this woman’s soon to be ex-husband isn’t going to be happy when he finds out that everyone who has watched this video on YouTube knows he uses viagara. (If she’s telling the truth.)

I can’t speak from experience, but I can’t see myself ever doing something like that even to someone I really, truly hate. Some things just don’t need to be out there in public, in my opinion. Especially in this day an age when people run to their lawyers whenever possible.

This woman is taking her divorce to a whole new nasty level by putting these videos up on YouTube.

My question to you is what do you think of this? Are you thinking ‘nicely done!’ or are you wondering what kind of woman wants to risk possible court charges (if she’s lying about her husband’s sex aids) and air dirty laundry on the internet?

What about other sites where you can register your ex as a jerk, a player, a cheater, or whatever else? Is that just the same as blogging or do those sites and other behavior like this video take things too far and makes things that should be private into public territory?

What do you think?

According to this report from KnoxNews.com, the tale of Beauty and the Beast might have a bit more to do with psychology in real life relationships than we ever would have thought.

According to the study:

“Researchers looking at physical attractiveness among newlyweds found that spouses behaved “more positively” in relationships where the wife was more attractive than her husband and “more negatively” when husbands were more attractive than their wives.�?

What do they mean by ‘attractiveness’? According to the article, they were looking at facial attractiveness.

The study hadn’t originally started out to talk about physical attractiveness, but they thought of doing it later on and just so happened to have everything they needed.

Do you consider yourself more or less attractive than your partner? Do you think it matters in your relationship?

Personally, I don’t think I’m very qualified to talk about it. Yes, I think my husband is more attractive than I am, but the age gap between us plays a lot bigger of a role in things than physical attractiveness does.

Am I surprised by the findings of this study? Of course not. To me it speaks of the basically biological drives of both men and women (men to ‘spread their seed’ and women to get the ‘strongest provider’). Monogamy doesn’t fall in with the male biological urge, so if he is going to be monogamous, then he’d be a bit more positive about having a healthy, attractive spouse to ‘spread his seed’ with.

I would be curious to see them do this study with homosexual couple. I’d be interested to see what comes of it.

What do you think?