Hi Aussies et al. It's time for another Team Australia update and it's not been two weeks this time. Woo! In fact, I've got enough applicants for two posts so I will try and get another post out within the next couple of days. Keep that in mind in your name is not here but I've said you're on my list. I do go in order that people contact me so you're not forgotten.

I just realised this morning that I'm flying to Australia next Sunday. Eek! I'm so not organised beyond actually having the flights booked. I don't know why, but I never seem to know the dates I'm flying somewhere until it's about a week before. This happened with Europe in July as well. I know it's getting close and then I think, "Hmm, I should probably check the date I'm flying so I don't miss the plane." Then I'm like "shit, that's sooner than expected and now I really need to think about what I'm doing." Does this happen to other people or do they know exactly when then their holidays are? Regardless, it's super exciting and I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and family again.

I'll be in Australia until 6th January and I'd really like to do a Brisbane meet-up if anyone is interested. Maybe during that dead zone between Christmas and New Year? I'll discuss with the Brissy peeps in PAL-Discord, but if anyone else in SEQ wants to come along, let me know. I'm going to go Cairns for a few days while I'm there as well but I've not organised that yet—surprisingly. So if anyone in Cairns wants to have a meet-up you should let me know too.

If you're a follower of @steemitworldmap, you probably know that the map is down. There are some major issues happening and @martibis has been unable to get hold of @blueorgy to access the code. Basically @blueorgy's not responding to any messages on Discord or WhatsApp. We don't know if something very bad has happened to him or he's just being a dick. Either way, the traveldigest is on hiatus until further notice. If you are making travel posts please continue to insert the code though, because they will appear on the map once it is up and running again.

Lastly, I want to share some personal news. Last Monday, I was approved for the whale/dolphin delegation menu, outlined here by @stellabelle. Since I'm already a dolphin I doubt I will receive anything, but it's an honour to be nominated and see my name on the list.

The other thing that happened last Monday—which is what I've been working on for the past couple of weeks—is that I was made a curie curator. This is something I've wanted for a while so I'm really excited to have been accepted. It's a privilege to be part of such a highly regarded team. I think I'm the first Aussie too. And just in case anyone decides to send me post links, please don't. We have ways finding awesome, undervalued content, and at a minimum, posts need to meet these criteria.

Community notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising and rewarding creativity within Team Australia by curating quality content.

You can support Team Australia members by following the centerlink curation trail in Streemian. Instructions on how to do that are here. Don't forget that @centerlink is busy putting Aussie-battler tax dollars to work in the form of dole payments for posts.

Of course, also check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are are here. Come say hi in the Team Australia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. You should also consider voting for the the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting this project off the ground. 

And lastly, if you're feeling generous, you can delegate SP to the Team Australia upvote bots @centerlink and/or @mrsquiggle (or any other bot you like) using Vessel. You can delegate to any of the MSP bots using this link.  

Candidate 1

Name and bio

@mooshoo lives on the Gold Coast with his wife and King Charles Cavalier. He is a Key Account Manager for the largest industrial tool supplier in Australia and therefore deals with the biggest construction and trade companies in the country. The name mooshoo comes from his Disney-obsessed wife, who gave him the nickname based on his Japanese dragon tattoo, even though it looks nothing like the character.

When he's not working, @mooshoo likes taking advantage of what the Gold Coast has to offer including hikes, parks, beaches and shopping centres. 

Fun fact 

"I am a die-hard Dragon Ball Z fanatic and also an NRL fanatic. Up the Cowboys!!!"

Urgh football. Don't we have a screen for this? I feel like we should.  😁

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@julesdan recently moved (back?) to Melbourne after spending eight months abroad. He's almost finished his exercise science degree and is working as a PT, group fitness instructor, and in a business focusing on human movement and postural correction. He is inspired by Tim Ferris' The 4 hour Work Week to think outside the box and leave the 9-5 status quo. His current goal is to set up multiple passive income sources and travel south and central America at the end of 2018—exploring, teaching English, and blogging along the way. 

Fun fact

"When I did my exchange in San Francisco earlier this year I took up drawing as an elective trying to spark some creativity in my life. After a few months of really shitty drawings, my teacher suggested I read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Since then a light bulb turned on, and now I'm an exercise junkie who sits down in his spare time drawing old master portraits for fun!"

Hmm... My drawing skills are sucky at best. Maybe I should read that book too.

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@lordnigel is another mallsballer (I'm loving that term) from Adelaide! During the week he's stuck in a concrete building doing a regular job, so on the weekends he's into hiking, 'going bush', and going to the beach. His love of nature goes back to when he was younger. While most kids hung out at the local bowling alley or played Nintendo during school holidays, he spent his time hiking reserves and exploring the Flinders Ranges. Most recently he walked across England for something to do. 

@lordnigel is also half way through writing a fiction novel with his friend, although that seems to have stalled.

Fun fact

"I can juggle stuff. I can juggle three items, multiple patterns, and four items competently. The most I can do is five items but not for very long."

Wow, five items is a lot. I'm always pretty impressed by people who can juggle, especially pointy things or things that are on fire. My hand/eye coordination rubbish so there's no point even trying really. Juggling one thing is a struggle.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@stabilowl was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Auckland, went to uni in Christchurch, and has lived in Sydney for the past ten years. He's a researcher in within the semiconductor and nanotechnology space, which apparently confuses a lot of people. A girl on a plane once thought he was a conductor and therefore awesome and cool, then proclaimed that he was boring after he explained to her what a semiconductor is. He's also been drilled by a customs officer trying to find out if he makes biological weapons. Now he just calls himself an engineer to avoid confusion and speed up the airport immigration process.

Fun fact

"I got into photography because I was robbed at gunpoint in the middle of San Francisco (well, he didn’t actually point a gun at me, he only said he had a gun… but don’t let facts get in the way of a good story). My point-and-shoot was taken off me, and I managed to claim travel insurance back for it. When I went to choose a new camera, the Sony A100 was on special and I ended up buying that instead. And here I am, can’t live without my DSLR!"

Getting robbed sucks. My phone—which doubled as my camera—got stolen in Ecuador. I lost all the photos of my volunteering stint in the Amazon cos I'd been without electricity and wifi for two weeks (so no cloud back up). Then I paid 50% more than the US for a shitty camera cos of stupid taxes. It sounds like you got a much better deal.

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@imperialaussie is a Project Designer from Sydney. He is into surfing and likes to go every day before work to watch the sunrise and sometimes see dolphins, birds and turtles. He also enjoys the health benefits including keeping his auto-immune disease ankylosing spondylitis at bay and to maintain positive mental health. 

@imperialaussie recently designed an amazing tree house (not like the one your dad made for you as a kid which ended up being full of spiders) with views of the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, it didn't win (what specifically I'm not sure) but it was a finalist.

Fun fact

I had become very concerned about my height when I was a young kid. I was over a foot shorter than all the other kids in my cricket team and even all the other teams. I was selected for Bowral in the southern highlands cricket tour. One of the games, we played Cootamundra for the Bradman letter. Don Bradman (most famous batsmen of all time) wrote a letter which he recommended that Cootamundra and Bowral play for each year. We played for a copy of this letter and retained the letter that year, which was a big deal for the locals. My grandfather cut an article out of the front page of the local newspaper to show me. The article showed a photo of me bowling; the caption read ‘The diminutive opening Bowler’. I turned to my grandfather and asked ‘what does diminutive mean’. My grandfather replied "don’t worry about it".

Yeah, that's a bit of a dick move on the reporter's part I have to say. I am 152cm so I know what being short is like. Although being female, it's obviously less of an issue. Plus I can wear really high high heels if I want and feel tall(er).

Congratulations everyone. You've been accepted into @teamaustralia 

The rules for joining Team Australia

If you’re not yet a member and want to be, this is what you need to do:

1. Vote here for our resident steemit witness and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank.
2. Send me your introduction post so I can find out a bit about you. If you’re new to steemit you'll have to write one so use the introduceyourself and teamaustralia tags to help boost your following. Use this handy guide by @teamsteem if you don't know what to write.
3. If it’s not mentioned in your introductory post, tell me which city and country you’re in, cos let's face it, a lot of us live in Australia's fourth largest city—London. You need to have a connection to Australia to join.
4. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe you have eight kids and three dogs, or you rode your bike across America, or you won the blue ribbon for javelin throwing at sports day back in high school, or Toadie came into the pub you work at one day and you served him a beer, or, maybe you can fit 55 maltesers in your mouth like Ed Sheeran can. It doesn’t matter what it is, I want a fun fact about you! The more fun, the better.
5. Regularly check the  Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote/follow the content you like. You can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in Streemian. Instructions are here.
6. Comment below or DM me on steemit chat or PAL-Discord that you want to join.

Once I receive this information I will try my best to write a good introductory paragraph about you for the official Team Australia membership updates. So the better your information is, the better I can make you sound. Where relevant, please use the teamaustralia and australia tags to promote your work. I will try and post weekly updates unless there is a lot of interest, in which case I will try and post sooner. 

This post was created in mspsteem, which provides a 5% beneficiary to @minnowsupport.

First image source

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia banner by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas