Aussie Bloggers

After a number of disappointing months as far as new posts on the forums and increasing amounts of spam, the administrators have arrived at the difficult decision to close the Aussie Bloggers forums.

We have already turned off new registrations and the ability to post. The forums will remain in place until the domain name expires.

We have turned off comments on the blog, the blog will remain in place and may be updated when possible. You are still able to submit postcards if you would like us to publish your photograph on the blog.

We would like to thank our blog readers and forum members – we have enjoyed your company.

We hope to see you elsewhere around the interwebs.

If you have any questions or comments please use the contact form on the blog, which can be found here.

Regards,
The Aussie Bloggers Forum Admins.

When hard rock legends AC/DC bring their 43-semi-trailer extravaganza across Australia in March 2010, it’s been estimated that 2.3% or one in 40 Australians will see them play. In some cities, tickets sold out in minutes and extra shows were added – only to have them sell out also.

Two shows sold out in record time in Perth, perhaps because of my city’s special tie to former AC/DC lead singer, Bon Scott. Bon moved to Perth from England as a young child and lived much of his life here. After his untimely death in 1980, he was buried in Fremantle Cemetery. His grave site is now a must-visit location for thousands of AC/DC fans each year.

In 2007, a group calling themselves Aussie Rock Concerts put on a benefit concert to raise money to commission a statue of the singer. The Angels Band, Rose Tattoo, The Party Boys (comprised of many highly regarded Australian musicians including former members of AC/DC and Status Quo), The Screaming Jets, Dave Warner and others entertained a crowd numbering in the thousands at Perth’s Claremont Showgrounds on February 25, 2007. The Bon Scott Celebration Concert raised more than enough money for the statue, with the excess going to Support Act Ltd, a charity supporting musicians in need.

The statue was unveiled at another concert at Claremont Showgrounds a year later, in February 2008. The statue was later moved to its permanent home in Fremantle’s Fishing Boat Harbour.

In 2008, an exhibition of Bon Scott’s letters, photographs and paintings inspired by the man were presented at Fremantle Arts Centre for the Bon Scott Project.

Sadly I’m too young to have ever seen Bon Scott perform, but here’s my favourite video:

Did you ever get to see him live? What’s your favourite Bon Scott story?

So just what can you say in only 140 characters?

I mean it’s not even a standard SMS length (which I believe is 160 characters, of course I’m happy to be told that I’m wrong.  Actually no I’m not, if you know better you can keep it to yourself), it’s certainly not an email (although being a man if I could find the emoticon for a grunt I could cut my emails in half!) and it is a long way from your average blog post.

So what on earth could you manage to convey in just those 140 characters?

Well thanks to the micro-blogging service Twitter in 140 characters you can say quite a lot!

• You can propose marriage
• Keep people up to date on the film Iron Man 2 from a very unique point of view
• Save people’s lives
• Get arrested
• Find out that the car has died at home and you are going to need a new battery

And that’s just scratching the very surface!

Everyone is talking about Twitter from Rove to Oprah and far be for me to argue with them, even Wolverine himself is getting in on the action!

So what about my examples?

Well it was reported that the potential first proposal on Twitter took place when this tweet (a tweet is a message on Twitter) was sent out:

To @emilychang – After fifteen years of blissful happiness I would like to ask for your hand in marriage? - http://twitter.com/maxkiesler/statuses/774352312

And then was answered with this tweet:

@maxkiesler – yes, i do! - http://twitter.com/emilychang/statuses/774352570

Awwwwww isn’t that sweet!

But didn’t you mention Iron Man 2!?  Well yes I did, because you can follow the Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau as he makes the film and gives us very tiny insights into the process as he does it!

Saving lives?

During the devastating Victorian bush fires the Country Fire Authority kept people advised of alerts via their Twitter feed which was reTweeted (when you republish someone else’s Tweet) by many Australian Twitterers  (look that term could be made up – I don’t know what we call ourselves but it seems as good a term as any!).

Getting arrested?

In the ‘only in America’ category an Oklahoma City man announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath?  He was arrested by the FBI.  Sadly I doubt this will be the last and certainly won’t only be in America

Car battery????

OK this is probably a more personal one, my wife dropped me off at the train station, got home and the car died. On my way into work I read about the dead battery and its replacement via Twitter on my iPhone.

Now Twitter is kind of like the Matrix, to fully understand Twitter you first must see it for yourself and I think everyone gets something a little different out of it.

Sign up an account and see how much you can say in only 140 characters!

As I wrote in a previous post on Aussie Bloggers, my place of origin is the country town called Mildura. Mildura is located 550 kms north west of Melbourne and is a river city, with an agricultural based economy. Grapes and oranges are the dominant produce, but many farmers grow a wide variety of crops.

We visited Mildura over Easter and again I was impressed with the generosity of the country folk. Every time I visit, I return with a car full of fresh produce. My family doesn’t have a farm in Mildura, but friends of our family who do, and know that we are visiting will drop produce off to my parents for us.

This time we received a fantastic stash. One part of which was a huge bag of almonds. They were in their complete raw state – straight off the tree. It was a great lesson for my kids who had never seen almonds with their husks on them! Pumpkin soup is on the menu at our house for the next couple of weeks, as we also received a large bag of butternut pumpkins.

My sister’s in laws grow grapes and also have a large vegetable patch. When we visited them to show them our new baby, they gave us zucchinis, capsicums, eggplant and spinach.

I am always impressed by the generosity of country people. Whether it be sharing their freshly grown produce or opening their house to visitors, their warmth is over flowing.

This is not to say that Australian city folk are not generous people either, but to me the generosity of country people is a stand out attraction of visiting the country.

Have you experienced some country generosity?