Australia Day is Here again

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Its such a patriotic thing.....

Optimus wants to tell us all he loves us.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k313/Wootnchoo/IMG_0112.jpg



Isn't that nice of him?



WHAT?!? Megatron is getting in on the act as well? What a nice symbol of friendship from the Emperor Of Destruction. Wow!



http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k313/Wootnchoo/IMG_0134.jpg



Have fun everyone and don't drink too much and cause riots. Drinking too much by itself is ok. (please note that I don't condone binge drinking, despite the previous statement)

[iceburn]

happy Australian Day everyone!!!!
oi oi oi

[turtle boy]

Yeah, Happy Aus Day, Everyone.

I was going to spend the day walking around my mates house in jeans, some thongs and an Australian flag draped over my sholders with a can hanging out of my hand, all day, but i have places to be and people to see. Maybe when i get to the place and see the people then the flag can come out and fly high around my neck :D

[liegeprime]

er, just a little warning though make sure you have your gun license if your posting pics of ol megsy there TC... wouldn't wanna see you behind bars on Australia Day..;)

[Robzy]

Happy Australia Day (soon)

:p

[dirge]

Hands up if you love Australia!

http://www.tinthethao.com.vn/Data/Image/2007/09/09/Nhat.jpg2.jpg

http://sportal.com.au/site/_content/leadimage/00012251-image.jpg

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/05/19/johnaloisi_narrowweb__300x504,0.jpg

http://soccernet-akamai.espn.go.com/design05/images/PH2/AusUruguayNeillVidmar.jpg

[Saintly]

happy australia day!

is anyone else decorating themselves with aussie flags?? :)

[Thanatos]

I'm going to spend the day trashed on Bundy Rum and listening to the hottest 100.

What could be aussier!?

[llamatron]

Awesome, I'm gonna go to Red Dot and buy some tacky shit with the Australian flag crapped all over it! Then I'm gonna get pretty drunk and try to bash a cop.

[turtle boy]

I'm going to spend the day trashed on Bundy Rum and listening to the hottest 100.

What could be aussier!?

well, i will most likely be drinking Bundy but I'll be listening to AC/DC:D

[GoktimusPrime]

"Australian" Transformers...

Outback
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/thumb/a/af/Outback_shocked.jpg/250px-Outback_shocked.jpg

Fallback
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/4/41/Fallback-DIE.jpg

Breaker
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/breaker.gif

Minesweeper
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/minesweeper.gif

Muckraker
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/muckraker.gif

Spectre
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/spectre.gif

Megatron
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/megalligator.gif

Megalligator
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/megatoron.gif

Tasmania Kid
http://www.bwtf.com/bws/tvshow/ep1/tazprofile.gif

Snarl
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/thumb/b/bb/IDW_Snarl.jpg/250px-IDW_Snarl.jpg

Bound Rogue
http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/images/brogue.gif

[roller]

happy yobbo, i mean Australia day

its not the same without the historical reenactments

[Borgeman]

i spent australia day on the cricket field, perfect weather too :)

had a nice game too - 3/13 off 7 overs

George

[TheDirtyDigger]

Happy Australia Day Australia!

Hope it was a good one for all.


P.S. Nice one B-man. You pace or spin?

[Borgeman]

opening bowler :)

George

[GoktimusPrime]

Here's what dirge, liegeprime, kup and I got up to today :)

Carnivac stalks his prey...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Blacktown%20Meet%20January%202008/blacktownmeet1.jpg

kup devours his prey...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Blacktown%20Meet%20January%202008/blacktownmeet2.jpg

dirge finds Brimstone a new function as a tour guide...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Blacktown%20Meet%20January%202008/blacktownmeet3.jpg

liegeprime - thrilled
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Blacktown%20Meet%20January%202008/blacktownmeet4.jpg

The prawner becomes the prawnzored...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Blacktown%20Meet%20January%202008/blacktownmeet5.jpg

[turtle boy]

i worked:)

[Tiby]

I did minor repairs to the house and then Wiied all night!

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

er, just a little warning though make sure you have your gun license if your posting pics of ol megsy there TC... wouldn't wanna see you behind bars on Australia Day..;)


Bah! I laugh at your eastern states needs for gun licenses to own a toy and wiggle my nose in your general direction, for I live in the state of Wait Awhile and revel in my toy gun-toting freedom!!!!:p



Not that I go around toting my Megatron(s) anyway, but you get the general idea!!!:D Thanks for the concern though.

[dirge]

Not that I go around toting my Megatron(s) anyway


You wouldn't be the first. I know of a Australian fan who took Megatron to an airport. You can imagine how that turned out...

[GoktimusPrime]

..for those who don't know the story, this person was tackled by airport security guards.

[Trailer Park Ninja]

Man, that would have been funny :D:D:D. You could almost imagine the Police SWAT team hurrying into action and scoping this person out with a negotiator on the "megaphone" :p

"Put down the Megatron, drop the Megatron!!!" LOL

[GoktimusPrime]

Let's play the Australian Citizenship test game! :D Failing this test makes you unAustralian! :p

These questions are from the Australian Citizenship test web site. See how many you can answer without looking it up!

Click here to take the test! (http://www.australiancitizenshiptest.net/?p=sample_test)

Remember! You must score at least 10/20 correct to pass as an Australian! ;)

I scored 16/20 (80%) correct. :)

[liegeprime]

so youd have to pass this test to be australian citizen? the heck!?!?!:mad: I'd have to go read Australian history top to bottom with those types of questions!!! I doubt if most Aussies know of the answers to these themselves! :rolleyes:

[GoktimusPrime]

Indeed. The test itself has been subject to controversy... but for the purposes of this thread I thought I'd stick it here just to have some fun. :)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

WHaaaaaa! I failed!! :eek:

Does that mean I have to hand in my citizenship papers? I now can't say G'day without being beaten by yobbos? I am officially classed as a dirty foreigner?;)

Thats a pretty lame test. I mean, I HATE cricket and the cricket questions were a bit ridiculous. Some of the history questions were pretty odd too. I did aussie history in high school and don't remember Ludwig Leichhart or Nancy Bird Walton.

Now understand the controversy...

oh well, see you on the other side of the border....
(slings rucksack over shoulder and heads off to lands unknown)

[liegeprime]

I passed, but then most of my answers where an eeny, meeny, miny mo thing. as in straight on guesses - out of the 20 questions I only know for certain 3. Even if I did pass it still is indeed very controversial (a bit of an understatement for me).. I say it really pissed me off.

[dirge]

The stupid thing about the test is that it doesn't achieve that much.

The test supposedly exists to ensure that prospective Australians are actively interested in being Australian. What does knowing the year that Caroline Chisholm arrived prove? It proves that you've memorised dates, not that you're making a commitment to be Australian.

If you're willing to learn English to the point that you can communicate with other Australians, that's good enough for me (:

Oh, and I failed. I'm terrible with dates...

[liegeprime]

The stupid thing about the test is that it doesn't achieve that much.

The test supposedly exists to ensure that prospective Australians are actively interested in being Australian. What does knowing the year that Caroline Chisholm arrived prove? It proves that you've memorised dates, not that you're making a commitment to be Australian.

If you're willing to learn English to the point that you can communicate with other Australians, that's good enough for me (:

Oh, and I failed. I'm terrible with dates...

hear, hear!!! hehehe i made the eeny, miney, mo thing and it actually worked :D

[Tiby]

12/20 = failed apparently.

Such an anglo-centric test. I took history in high school and still got that result! I must say that the Australia of today (or recent times) is much more than the historical version.

Being an immigrant (like most of us here) and an active and involved member of the community I find this offensive.

While I must say I learned a thing or two, unless I'm into a specific strain of history I just would not know. EG Bradman's thing, some of these other names. I even guessed a few! This is more like a trivia test than a useful gauge of being Australian.

This test should be more about reflecting the values that Australia embodies, not a friggin' pub trivia test!

END RANT/

[Thanatos]

12/20 for me. Looks like they're gonna have to boot me out!

[gamblor916]

Wow that test is ridiculous, I scored 10 mostly by guessing.


Who lit the Olympic cauldron in Sydney Olympics 2000?
[ A ] Cathy Freeman
[ B ] Phar Lap
[ C ] Sir Donald Bradman

I think b would have been hilarious :D

[Bartrim]

Woo Hoo I scored 7 out of 20. See ya's I'm being booted out.

I could of sworn it was Phar Lap at the olympic opening ceremony...:confused::p

[dirge]

Going by the rules of this forum, the most frequent poster here could be a tumbleweed real soon! d:

[TheDirtyDigger]

WTH? That is a crap test. I scored 70% and still it said I failed. Guess it's back to Bangladesh for me.

[STL]

I failed. Deportation for me!

[Borgeman]

lol 13/20 - FAIL :p

George

[TheDirtyDigger]

It truly is a crap quiz.
Tiby hit the nail on the head almost perfectly, because even though it is anglo-centric I still doubt 1 in 100000 anglo-Australians could answer everything or much at all correctly. You need to have specifically looked up the answers without studying the subject as a whole to get it right and that's what would-be immigrants will do to pass instead of actually learning anything meaningful about Australia.
The thing about Caroline Chisolm for example....It doesn't matter or mean crap what specific year she came to Australia....what she actually did when she did come here is of far greater importance and inspiration than some obscure date.

The questions also should be open-ended to reflect what someone knows about an area of Australian study.

Like....

What do you think of Warnie's text average?

List as many reasons you can think of why Aussie Rules is better than every other code.

Why is bagging Poms the patriotic duty of all Australians? etc etc.


You get the idea.;)

[Trailer Park Ninja]

I think any potential newcomer to this country that can sing the entire national anthem with gusto should be allowed in. God knows that they may do it better than most Australians.

Case in point, the Australia Day celebrations at Darling Harbour, Sydney. Before the fireworks spectacle, you could see a wave of people with their Aussie flags draped on their backs like capes, face painted etc in strong form with the Oi Oi Oi chant.

In my section of the crowd (I was out in front of the Imax), come national anthem time, they don't even sing. Like WTF??? How could you not sing the national anthem? It was all the more embarrasing with the Spanish tourists next to me asking me why we don't sing it loud and proud.
It wasn't very vocal in general but maybe it was cause people preferred the soparano singer to sing it solo :confused:

[Paulbot]

We have a bad national anthem. People prefer to sing along to Waltzing Matilda. :)

[Saintly]

holy crap... that test speaks nothing about living in the land of Oz...

think you would have to be a fifth grader of the current generation to know all the answers!

and in terms of the test results, I scored a measly 25% (5/20)!

[i_amtrunks]

Indeed. The test itself has been subject to controversy... but for the purposes of this thread I thought I'd stick it here just to have some fun. :)

It's a terrible test, but it's more or less a comprehension exam as people wanting to sit it are given a little booklet to read through that has all the answers in it.

Having a basic knowledge in English should be all that is required to be a citizen anyway.

Spent my Australia Day at Bent's Basin, before coming back to play some cricket in the evening, before a nice BBQ. Beautiful day for it too.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Having a basic knowledge in English should be all that is required to be a citizen anyway.



Yeah maybe now it should.
I miss the days when citizenship of this great nation was more homogenous and required everyone by law to sport a mullet and a flannel shirt.
Ah good times.:rolleyes:

[GoktimusPrime]

http://www.ronniejohns.com/character%20pics/pooftabogan.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V37N5V2W06E)

and for those who may not know it, the person in that video is also a Transfan. :)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/cataphract.jpg


Case in point, the Australia Day celebrations at Darling Harbour, Sydney. Before the fireworks spectacle, you could see a wave of people with their Aussie flags draped on their backs like capes, face painted etc in strong form with the Oi Oi Oi chant.
That chant came from the "oggy oggy oggy" chant which is debatably Cornish or Scottish in origin.


In my section of the crowd (I was out in front of the Imax), come national anthem time, they don't even sing. Like WTF??? How could you not sing the national anthem? It was all the more embarrasing with the Spanish tourists next to me asking me why we don't sing it loud and proud.
It wasn't very vocal in general but maybe it was cause people preferred the soparano singer to sing it sol
As Paulbot said, it's a crap anthem.

The Star Spangled Banner is - in spirit - a much better national anthem. The US anthem at least sings about the values that the nation was supposedly founded upon and the core values that it supposedly stands for. Yes, there are some references to war and violence in that song too - but then again, the United States was a nation born from the fires of war. But the song isn't necessarily glorifying war but rather sings about the struggle that went behind fighting for their independence and the formation of their nation in which they take pride in.

Advanced Australia Fair on the other hand doesn't really carry any of that kind of spirit about really taking pride in the nation of Australia. Yes, people do sing it with pride, but the song itself doesn't sing about being proud or the greatness of this nation.

Girt by sea?! WTF? Who cares if we're girt by sea?? What's so special about being freakin' girt by sea?? They're plenty of other nations that are also girt by sea too like Antigua and Barbud, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Cape Verde, Comoros, Cuba, Dominica, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Grenada, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nauru (those of you who failed the Citizenship Test may be gettting deported there! :p), New Zealand, Palau, the Philippines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Singapore (lah), Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and arguably the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of China (aka Taiwan) - the latter two whose independence are not officially recognised by the United Nations.

There's nothing particularly special about being girt by sea that one would feel like taking pride in. We're an island-continent girt by sea? Great, that means we've got a bloody massive border that we need to patrol - which means more effort and work - and doing more work is bloody unAustralian!

The Star Spangled Banner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-GKQevesjA) on the other hand - at the end of every verse, ends with "O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave" - which even as a non-American I can really feel the pride and spirit behind that line as it achieves this climactic point at the end of the song. Our anthem finishes with "Advance Australia Fair!" - which every schoolkid at every assembly sings thinking, "thank god it's over, now we can sit down." :p Of course, that's out of the very small minority of kids who every bother to even sing the song.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Some people just go too far....:rolleyes:

[Trailer Park Ninja]

Yeah, I'd have to concur on the USA's national anthem being a stirring and emotional one. Particularly if it's sung by by someone with a good voice or even with by solo trumpet and a slow tempo.

The point about the lyrics was interesting as I was thinking about it the other day. The war and violent references e.g. motar shells etc made me do a double take when I was at Rod Laver Arena for the USAB vs Australia Basketball Exhibtion match in 2000. I never paid particular attention to it until that night. It is pretty jarring hearing someone sing joyfully about war in a national anthem.

[GoktimusPrime]

One of the neat things about living in Australia is that our nation was born in peace, not war - and it's something that we should take pride in (*cough*republic*cough*). While the war references in the Star Spangled Banner is dubious (although appreciable given the US's violent birth) as you said, it is very emotionally stirring. Advance Australia Fair doesn't achieve that same level of emotional pulling of the heart strings even when it's sung very well.

Waltzing Matilda actually draws more national pride from Australians than Advance Australia Fair, and - let's be honest - it's just a silly song that's about some dude getting chased by the law because he stole a sheep!! But it is a very iconic Australian folk song which elicits the level of national pride from Australians that Advance Australia Fair should - but usually doesn't. You play Advanced Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda at a public assembly - Waltzing Matilda will get people singing along with greater participation and greater spirit! ;)

Also, the third verse of Advance Australia Fair is quite objectionable as it sings about Australia's subservience to the British Crown and flies against the spirit of Australia as an independent sovereign state (in effect, it says that Australia is Britain's bee-otch).

IMO a far more ideal national anthem would be "I Am Australian". Some people resent it because it was adopted by Telstra in a very widely publicised marketing campaign, but the song itself wasn't made by Telstra and long predates Telstra's 2003 campaign that used the song (it was originally made in 1987 by Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton). It's a contemporary Australian folk song and it stirs more national pride in me than Advance Australia Fair ever could.

"I Am Australian"
Traditional version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSoGJQkKDYk)
Modern version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ue2QZu7do&feature=related) (Telstra)

[roller]

i notice that footballers now a days do the American thing and hold their hearts with one hand during the national anthem.

i spent the day working, got double time

[TheDirtyDigger]

This should be the Australian anthem.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=pxM8XB61ZvU


Anybody that disagrees with me can just get back on a boat and go back to New South Wales!:p

[Saintly]

I disagree TDD! :P though not because it's a VFL song (love it!) and I'm already in NSW

but the Qantas ad comes close for an aussie anthem -> http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=bWTxWnePn2w

[Bartrim]

I've always thought "Sounds of Then" by Gangajang would make a kick ass national anthem:)

[roller]

i did that test today

i got 50% and im a person who's a history buff and has won history awards, what a silly test