21 Days of Thinking

June 1 -21 is also known

 as the 21 Day Challenge.

  For 21 days,

you challenge yourself to do

 – or not do –

something. 

You might give up alcohol

for 21 days…

 no? 

You might give up chocolate… 

You might not wash your hair

 or not wear makeup for 21 days…

 You might stop swearing…

maybe stop posting

on blogs for 21 days…

You just have to

challenge yourself …

step out of your

comfort zone a little…

The reason: 

to empathise a little

with homeless kids…

kids who live on the streets. 

 (More than 32,400 Aussies

 will bunk down

on the streets tonight.) 

Kids aged 12-18

make up most

of that number!

 I am not sure why 21

is significant…

I’m guessing it’s “neat”.

  Start on the first of winter…

and go through until the 21^st

the longest night

of the southern hemisphere.

  It’s a long, cold night…

it’s a very, very long,

 cold night for homeless kids.

This challenge is aiming

to raise awareness of

our street kids

and money raised goes to

Open Family Australia’s

Outreach programs. 

(Donate here) 

What’s your 21 challenge

going to be? 

Me…

I will MAKE myself

start to skip. 

 (How funny!

A skipping cow!)

Photos from here and here.

Fire's Out

On No Tobacco Day

I am impressed to learn

there are more

ex-smokers than smokers!

Apparently, 81% of Aussies

 do not smoke. 

(About 80% of smokers

have tried to quit at least once.)

 Sadly, about 50% of

Australia’s Aboriginal population

 are smokers. 

The earlier you start smoking,

the longer you will smoke

and the more cigarettes

you will get through…

also, you will have a

harder time quitting.

 About 93% of kids aged 12-17

 do not smoke! 

Ok, so why smoke?

  Truly? 

Here’s what you breathe i

n each time you take in

a lungful of cigarette smoke:

4000 chemicals –

69 of them are known

 to cause cancer.

Here’s some of the chemicals:

tar, ammonia, floor cleaner,

 stuff found in industrial solvents

and paint stripper,

nicotine (the addictive bit),

 carbon monoxide,

the poison used in gas chambers

 in WWII,

lead, nickel, white ant poison,

stuff from car batteries,

pesticides,

stuff found in moth balls

 and petrol…

Why would you?? 

Really! 

If that is not reason enough

– lets go environmental…

3.6 million Aussie Rules fields

 worth of trees are destroyed

each year for the tobacco industry.

  A year’s worth of

Aussie cigarette butts,

 joined end to end,

would circle the planet 16 times!

7 billion of these butts

are littered in Australia

each year. 

Apparently, 7% of bushfires

are started from cigarette butts

– and 14 deaths each year result.

 Cigarette butts take a year

to break down in fresh water

and 5 years to break down

in the ocean.

Butts have been found

in the stomachs of sea animals. 

In the ocean, the butts leech

chemicals into the water.

  It really does seem

that the world would be

 a much better place

without cigarettes…

    Photo from here.

Bucket

There was this bloke, Henry

and he wasn’t too bright. 

His girlfriend, Liza

yelled out to him:

Henry! Fetch me some water!

And Henry, in a bit of a

 whiney voice, answered:

There’s a hole in my bucket

dear Liza, dear Liza
There’s a hole in my bucket

dear Liza, a hole.

Well, Liza wanted that water! 

She said: Well, fix it

dear Henry, dear Henry,

dear Henry,
Well, fix it dear Henry,

dear Henry, fix it.

Henry was hopeless…

With what shall I fix it …

he asked.
I don’t think Liza was

really thinking

when she answered:

With a straw dear Henry …

And so goes the song

The straw is too long …
Well, cut it dear Henry …
With what shall I cut it …
With an axe dear Henry …
The axe is too dull dear Liza …
Well, sharpen it dear Henry …
With what shall I sharpen it …
With a stone dear Henry …
The stone is too dry dear Liza …
Well, wet it dear Henry …
With what shall I wet it …
With water dear Henry …
In what shall I fetch it …
In a bucket dear Henry …
There’s a hole in my bucket,

dear Liza …

When you actually stop

to look at the words,

the song really does seem

to be ridiculous…

Almost as ridiculous as

the Cow celebrating

My Bucket’s Got

A Hole In It Day!

Photo from here.

End of the Middle

End of the Middle Ages Day 

 Say what? 

 I can’t help but be intrigued! 

 Apparently, on the

29^th of May in 1453

the city of Constantinople fell

to the Ottomans

(not the lounge chair kind!).

 Constantinople was the capital

of Byzantine Empire,

which was also known

as the Eastern Roman Empire.

The city had been

under attack for months. 

 Once the city fell,

historians figured the Middle Ages

were pretty much over…

The city had been where

 the learning had taken place…

When the city fell,

the smarter people scattered.

  This was when the Renaissance

(Greek scholarship based education)

started.

 

So, today…

back in 1453…

one group took over a city,

which meant that a different

style of education took over…

end of an era (Middle Ages)

and the start of another

(Renaissance)…

fair enough. 

Reckon I want some cool

Middle Ages information…

 

In the 1200’s the bustling city

of Constantinople had about

a million people living in it…

European universities in the 1100’s

banned students from bring bows

and arrows to class –

it was far too dangerous! 

How’s this:

The skulls of saints

were used as drinking cups!

Delicious!

Photos from here, here and here.

Ronald McDonald Charity Houses - McThanks!

So, it’s

 Hamburger Day in America.

 I’m switching it up a little.

I’ll not stray too far

 from hamburgers…

the McDonald’s kind. 

 I want to know more about

 Ronald McDonald

House Charities. 

I want the world to know

 more about

Ronald McDonald Houses.

When you’ve got a sick kid,

in and out of hospital…

you’re tired. 

The last thing you need

to be worrying about,

as you leave a piece

of yourself

in the children’s ward,

is where you will

 lay your weary head each night.

 With a sick child,

wages can be lost

and money can be

hard to manage…

hotels become too expensive.

 Thank goodness for

Ronald McDonald

Charity Houses!  

These houses of refuge

have been operating

in Australia since 1981.

 All administration

and management costs

are paid by

McDonald’s Australia…

the rest of the money

comes from fundraising. 

Since 1981,

over 65,000 families

 have been helped! 

 Apparently, 1 in 8 people

 either know someone,

or have themselves,

been helped by RMHC…

(Ok, I’ve taken to using RMHC

because the full name

is too long to type!)

   So the houses…

Tonight, as many as

250 families

will be sleeping in a RMHC.

  They house more than

6000 families a year.

  Thanks, RMHC!

You can donate

to the houses or
like them on facebook. 

On McHappy Day, you can

buy a burger and help

 raise much needed funds.

 Eating hamburgers

on McHappy Day

 this year raised

over $3 million

for the houses!

Spread the word…

Tell everyone! 

Thanks Ronald McDonald

House Charities!

 Photos from here and here.

Stick To It

Today, we celebrate

something we all use…

sure, maybe not every day –

 but we all rely on this…

 It’s Cellophane Tape Day. 

Of course, I head

straight to the history pages

 and look for cool

and weird facts!

Here’s what I found:

Dick Drew… inventor! 

 He invented sticky tape

in 1930. 

This was after the first

 masking tape was introduced

 in the 1920’s.

Drew ordered a huge stretch

of cellophane in order

 to perfect his invention.

  It took him over a year

 to solve his sticky problem.

 He worked out

that a primer coat

needed to be applied to

the cellophane so that

the adhesive

could be applied evenly.

  To make it look better,

 he created colourless adhesives…

 And so, sticky tape was born!

September 8 1930

saw the first trial take place.

  The first roll

of Scotch Cellophane Tape

 was sent to

 a prospective customer,

 who wisely advised

that Dick go ahead

with his product…

"That the set up costs

 would be worth it". 

During the Great Depression,

sticky tape was used

to repair anything

and everything!  

The first tape dispenser

was a heavy unit of a thing

and was introduced in 1932. 

During WWII about 100

different tapes were created

 and used to hold

“everything” together. 

 The plaid design came in in 1945.

 2005 saw the celebrations

of 75 years of Scotch Tape.

  Scotch tape was voted

(in 1985)

as arguably one of the most

 indispensible products

 in our homes…

Sticky tape…

It hasn’t changed much…

but the dispenser

has sure gotten fancy!

Photos from here, here,

here and here.