Message to Friends who Don't Know What's Good For Them,

If you're hurting yourself, it's a bad idea.

If you're hurting your friends, who have been nothing but encouraging and loyal, it's a bad idea.

Yours,
The El

*

Proceeding with Flist Cut. No hard feelings. If there are, you'll fucking know it, trust me.

If you believe my removing you from this flist is a mistake, for example, because you've changed user names and I am unaware of this, please feel free to leave a comment. Similarly, if I've kept you on my flist, and you'd like a get-out-of-jail-free card, I won't be offended. In fact, I'd appreciate your openness and honesty.

Thank you.

Just wanted to let all of you know, everything's fine in my camp. I know you've probably been seeing news reports regarding a high fatality rate in bushfires around my state in Australia, and it currently sits at 111 deaths. It is expected to rise.

The closest of the fire's to me is in King Lake, roughly 30 minutes north of the suburb I reside in. Because my area is more built up in terms of property, with far fewer trees than the effected areas, we are not in any danger.

The week before last we blistered through four of the hottest days in our history, having to cope through 41-44C heat (I'm not sure how that converts to Fahrenheit, but needless to say, its desert-hot). Two days ago, we had a high of 46C, with incredibly hot and strong winds which, sadly, only served to fan the flames.

Beyond all the people who have died, and those who have lost their homes, I am most concerned right now about the many people I know who are volunteer firefighters, and whose services are no doubt being used as I type. Friends of friends I know are also residents of King Lake, where almost the entire township (that is to say, property, not people) was wiped out. All I can do is hope for the best and pray these people are safe and that we can control these fires and begin the task of putting lives back together.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose everything. This last few days have been awful to witness, and the feeling of helplessness even more so.

Dear Campbell Brown,

Thank you for making an otherwise dismal night of football a memorable evening by using an attempted tackle as an excuse to pants one Ryan Griffen, a mere thirty or so metres from my, er, naked eye.

And yes, I saw everything.

It was awesome. If I see you out, I'm buying you a beer.

Yours sincerely,
-El

And they said no one could climb Mt. Spitz.

Three newspapers were purchased today by my sister, all in order to review every possible article and savour every picture of Phelps' abs head they'd managed to capture. Seriously, I've been a long time fan of swimming as a sport and I've never seen (and will never see, again) anything like that. Even Ian Thorpe, in his heyday, failed to impress me to this degree.

I was so fucking inspired by his racing this week, I started writing swimfic (something that has been, let's face it, a long time coming)! Who else could finally free me of my writer's block?

He just wanted it so much. And so many people didn't want him to have it. But he got it. And that reaction, polar opposite to his screaming and pounding the water after the 100m butterfly... calm, relieved... numb. But proud.

Standing there with nothing on, she's gonna teach me how to swim...

Dear Michael Phelps,

YOU JUST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK KTHX.

Excellent swim.

Yours truly,

El
Swim geek

P.S: After the 4x200 relay, no more races please... I'm running out of video tape. B-)
P.P.S: I'm watching you on the dais, with your pokey-outey ears and your eyes welling a little and... you're just the most adorable man EVER and I hope your country's proud.

I finished reading at 2:17am on the 23rd of July. My lack of working computer has kept me from here since then.

Anyone want to talk about it?

HOW DID I MISS SO MANY PEOPLE LEAVE??

I am so fucking upset, you have no idea.


Unless someone tells me otherwise, I am blaming this on BADTERRIBLESHIT FANFIC and MYSPACE. That is all.

I seriously think my heart just broke. First evieangelique and now spectacular??? WHY?

EDIT I need to vent. I've been looking at old entries, reading other people's journals, checking back over the last two years, trying to work out what happened... did we all just grow out of Harry Potter? Even so, what about all the other things we were interested in? Or was that all we had.

I need jessically. I can't believe I'm having this epiphany today of all days.

I cannot stress enough how DEVASTATED I am.

My most heartfelt condolences.

We're thinking of you all during this difficult time.

♥

With love,

An Australian on behalf of Australia.