Hi Marcus,

I saw about the shootings in Colorado. It's very sad and I feel for the families. We had a shooting here in 1996. A man shot 35 people and injured 21 in a shooting spree and as a response we tightened our gun laws. We have now have extremely strict laws regarding gun possession and it's one of the things I love about Australia.

I'll start off with your first question.
To transcribe a post means to take what you've written (which is posted to the website as a picture), type it and place it below your post on the website. Transcriptions make the blogs more accessible to search engines (like Google or Yahoo).

Yes, racism exists in Australia. I believe that it's everywhere in the world and that we have a long way to go in regards to acceptance of sexuality, religion, race etc.

I'm an only child. My mother likes to joke that she was going to have as many children as needed to have the perfect child but she got it right the first time ;)

The movie Outback Jack is terrible! It only got four out of ten stars but I must admit I watched it anyway. Australia does have urban cities such as Melbourne and Sydney but there nothing like New York. I’m yet to travel overseas but it’s on my to-do list. There are more cities in Aus but I'm trying not to ramble with my reply hah. Australia is kind of broken up into cities, country (bush) and outback (desert). We get snow on some of the mountains but everytime I've gone, it's rained and turned into this brown sludgy mess. I might have to head over to New Zealand for the snow.

The music that's popular in Aus is varied. The radio has been blasting Nicki Minaj, Pink and Carly Rae Jepsen lately. We have a lot of American artists in our top 20 chart but there are also Australian artists. People here listen to anything from rap to metal.

I think Facebook is popular everywhere. I find that I check my facebook and emails about three to eight times a day (bad habit) so yes I use the internet a lot. Probably way too much. I use it when I'm working, at home and even on my mobile (cell phone).

I'm not sure how I came across the BetweenTheBars blog. I think it was in a random search of a website where people ask for help to do things online. There was a post asking for people to transcribe letters and as I can type quickly I figured I'd give it a shot. I've spoken to my Mum about the blogs. She hasn't looked at them yet although she may one day. I've also shown them to my best friend and I think she's commented on a couple of blogs. I'll have to ask her.

I've been working two jobs for a few months which I've just quit one so I have a little more time to myself and I'm also studying a Diploma in Events Management so fun has been pushed to the side for a bit. I go out with friends when I can, dancing, dinners, drinks, shopping etc. I've also started baking more which is awesome but then I have to taste test them for quality and end up in a sugar coma.

(scanned reply – view as blog post)

Good morning Marcus,

Things are good here. I have a couple of weeks off work to study but instead I've found myself procrastinating for five days. I will get back into it! (..eventually hah)

To answer your question on transcription, yes. Your post appears on the website as a scanned copy. When it is transcribed, what is typed appears beneath your original scanned post. I tend to find posts that are handwritten catch my eye more often than the ones done by typewriter. With computers so cheap and accessible, it’s become a rarity to see anything handwritten.

I grew up in the country. I spent thirteen years living in the bush and in one of the houses; there was a golf course beside it which had about 20 kangaroos living on the green. I used to have koalas in my backyard and occasionally some giant lizards on the doorstep. I do miss that. Now I live in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. It’s quiet and the kids still play in the street but there is always the option of heading into the city. The one good thing is that in the town where I grew up, everything except the supermarket would close at about 12PM on a Saturday so if you slept in, you’d miss it all.

I would love to send you some photos but unfortunately while I was on a plane, I stood on my camera. So the screen is shattered and when I take photos, I don’t actually know what I’m aiming at. The pictures end up being a little more artistic than I intend.

Answers to your questions –
No. I suck at singing unless I’m drunk (then I still suck, I just care less).
It’s only just gone Spring here though you wouldn’t know it. It’s been cloudy and overcast. No different to Winter.
I cooked a vegetarian lasagne last week. It took four hours (extremely labour intensive) but it turned out amazing if I do say so myself.