G'day mates. What a week so far. I feel poor. So much red. Crypto, stockmarket. Nothing is safe. Although I'm sure some stacker will comment that gold and/or silver has been a safe haven in the current bloodbath. Anyway, today was better so lets hope the lows are in.

Melbourne drinks

Credit: @datascience

There is some serious meet-up competition going on between Melbourne and Adelaide at the moment. Melbourne had some 'random drinks' on Tuesday night, organised by @just2random (Ha! I see what you did there). A bunch of Melbournians went along and had a good time apparently.

You can read @just2random's post here and @datascience's post here.

Curie logo competition

Credit: @curie

I don't talk about my curie job much, mostly cos there's not much to talk about outside of the everyday stuff in the curation channel. However, they are now looking for a new logo and there's some decent SBD up for grabs. If you are arty I encourage you to check it out. 

Bitcoin Team Australia hard fork

As most of you probably know, #teamaustralia is part of the Minnow Support Project (MSP), which is on the PAL-Discord server. Centerlink and Mr Squiggle are also part of MSP's suite of curation projects/upvote bots. 

I have worked hard over the past eight months encouraging newcomers to join MSP, and I know the project has helped a lot of people find their steemit feet. I have put a lot of effort into making #teamaustralia one of the most active channels/chats so this is not something I am just going to walk away from. I have also made a lot of friends in MSP and in the #teamaustralia chat. I still find the whole project to be rewarding and something I want to be part of even though I'm no longer a minnow. 

This week there was a hard fork (for lack of a better term) and a new Discord server South Pacific was launched by @gohba.handcrafts and some Kiwis. So basically, we now we have Team Australia and Team Australia Cash (credit to @angusg for that analogy). There are no issues with people joining both servers—I have joined the new one. In fact, I'm sure some people will prefer Team Australia Cash and many people will go between the two servers depending on time of day and which seems more lively. However, while Team Australia officially remains in MSP, it is the one I will continue to promote.

For newbies, Team Australia membership will continue as usual, via these posts and my introductions. It is separate to Discord. You do not have to be a Team Australia member to participate in either server.

RIP streemian

In case you didn't know, streemian is dead so any curation trails you are signed up to probably aren't working anymore. You should revoke streemian's access to your account using this link.

But don't despair if you were following the centerlink trail in streemian. @ausbitbank has set up a new curation trail in steemauto. The link is here. 

@webcoop wrote this handy tutorial on setting it up.

The usual community notices

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

Check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are here. Come say hi in the #teamaustralia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. 

You should consider voting for the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting the MSP project off the ground. 

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

@itstime was born in India, went to uni in California, and now lives in Melbourne. He likes to compare how things are done in Australia with how they are done in the USA and India.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I once emailed the whole company (115k people) about my vacation plan as I was running out of the door. When I came back I had a whole host of interesting replies from people all across the globe. Needless to say, I always double check the distribution list from that day onwards."

I haven't done that before, but I have seen it happen (about something else non-work related) when I worked at one the Big 4 accounting firms. Many hilarious responses were made and that person was shamed big time.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@red-white-blue is an artist from the Netherlands, who moved to New Zealand for a while and now lives in Maitland near Newcastle.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

I actually effed this up and forgot to ask her so I went through her blog until I found something that seemed fun and fact-like.

"I was in a paragliding and I needed to wear a brace of plaster for two months. I wasn’t an artist if I didn’t decorate it in the famous Dutch Delft Blue pottery style. The nurse did his best to keep the brace intact when he was sawing it off. After 12 years my sister in law discovered that the brace was still ‘exhibited’ on top of the closet in the plaster room of the hospital!"

First, ouch! Then wearing a plaster brace for two months would be annoying, especially for sleeping and taking showers. I had one on my ankle for a bit and that was annoying enough. However, I like your Delft Blue pottery look even though I can't work out how you painted the back. Or did you paint it after it was removed?

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@perptacular is from Sydney. He loves fried chicken, podcasts, horror movies, computer games, and ultimate frisbee.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I once hitchhiked in the back of a ute that was transporting bananas while in Nicaragua. I spent the whole time with another traveller shooting the breeze and smoking too many cigarettes. It was the most zen moment of my life."

Lol, hitchhiking in Latin American countries. I would never do it in Australia or the US or somewhere, for fear of it turning into some Criminal Minds type scenario. I would also never ride in the back of ute in Australia for safety reasons. But Latin America? It's all fine.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@aoart is a professional artist from Brisbane. He used to live in Melbourne but obviously saw the light and headed north.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"When I was six years old I camped with my mum, dad and brother in a tent on the banks of Tully Inlet, Gulf of Carpentaria, for two months. Croc infested area... We slept with a rifle by the door just in case. But it was one of the best things I have ever done."

There are so many things I don't like about this. Camping. Being somewhere remote (I'm guessing) for more than a day. Risk of being eaten by crocodiles. Guns. But each to their own. I'm glad it was a positive, memorable experience for you. 👍 

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@sanctus is from Sydney. He's a tabletop gaming hobbyist who's into creating miniature painting tutorials.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"When I was in primary school I was the evil queen in the school play for Snow White."

Nice. I like how they didn't discriminate based on gender.

Candidate 6

Name and bio

@vcclothing is from Brisbane. He runs a clothing label/ screenprinting business, and likes rollerblading, shooting photos and videos, and drinking beer. 

Intro post here.

"I lived in a theme park in Beijing China called Happy Valley for four years doing rollerblade demos."

This sounds cool. I can't imagine what living in a theme park would be like but fun comes to mind. Until it's not.

Candidate 7

Name and bio

@bluebottlefilms are a Sydney couple who make awesome films that focus on people's connections to the natural world, particularly the ocean.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"Last year we went whale watching with the Prince of Monaco and interviewed the President of Palau about a mermaid legend as part of our upcoming documentary The Map to Paradise."

That's very cool. I got pushed out of the way by Princess Stephanie of Monaco's goons one day in Venice.

Candidate 8

Name and bio

@steemedge is a Kiwi living in Brisbane. She describes herself as 'eclectically creative', meaning if there's a creative hobby/pursuit she's probably tried it at least once.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

'At the Lord Of the Rings opening in Wellington I met Aragorn's height double who was telling me all about how he had to kiss Liv Tyler in the bridge scene in the first movie, as Aragorn wasn't tall enough for the zoom out. Apparently he mucked it up... over and over and over and over again.... just so he could kiss Liv Tyler again and again. Oh, and I gave Orlando Bloom a hug."

Lol, this is my favourite fun fact of the day. And Orlando Bloom was a very hot elf. Good work!

Candidate 9

Name and bio

@overlandjournals moved Adelaide from South Africa/Botswana four years ago. He loves the outback and been overlanding for 35 years. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact 

"I love the outback, overlanding in my 4x4 and photography. In my early days, I travelled to the outback completely unprepared and had to survive on bread and baked beans for five whole days. Packed all the recovery and other gear, forgot to pack the food container. Lesson learned."

Whoops. At least you had something to eat. Although I reckon I could eat baked beans for five days. They're pretty yum and eating the same thing over and over doesn't actually bother me that much.

Candidate 10

Name and bio

@stevebennett is from the Blue Mountains near Sydney. He used to be a high school science teacher but now runs his own high-performance automotive business.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I won the NSW Champs in Drag Racing in 2006. In great contrast, I also coached numerous National medal winning running athletes before and after the Sydney Olympics. I specialised in coaching sprinting and middle distance."

Wow, you are quite the high achiever. What's your secret?

Candidate 11

Name and bio

@mdees1 is from Melbourne and works in finance. He likes going to brunch and taking photos of food for Instagram.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact 

"I did the oxfam walk last year walking 100kms in 27ish hours; no sleep and a few small breaks, was quite hard and I probably wouldn't do it again, but I raised money for charity! Not sure if fun fact or torture fact."

Hmm, although an interesting fact and definitely worthy cause, I'm going to say this falls more in the torture category. 

Also, I love your photo.

Candidate 12

Name and bio

@akirachang is a hospital-based medical scientist in Brisbane. After uni he did his internship in Gisborne, New Zealand, and liked it so much he stayed there for another two years.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I love food so much that it is nearly impossible for me to lose weight. I once drove 87km just to have a very nice Ramen and Katsudon lunch, then drove all the back (total travel time over two hours)."

I hope it was a good lunch! That being said, I used to take a day's leave and drive from Brisbane to the Gold Coast once a month to attend a yoga class.

Candidate 13

Name and bio

@brizhorticulture is from Brisbane. He's into plants and nature and taking close up photos of bees and insects.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I once skitched behind a tuk-tuk down Koh San Road in Bangkok at top speed in my thongs (flipflops for the non-Aussies). That was a happy birthday!"

I don't know what skitching means and google/urban dictionary didn't help me. Sorry.

Candidate 14

Name and bio

@paperkawaii lives near Kingscliff and is married to @angusg. She is a vegan (woo!) and a full-time YouTuber, who focuses on teaching people origami and paper crafts.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

@paperkawaii's version: "I met my husband on a music video shoot he was directing. I was a dead zombie girl being dragged through dead people on a beach by a huge Icelandic guy at 4am. It was fun!"

@angusg's version: "We were at art college together, I was upstairs doing fine art and she was downstairs in the bunker doing multimedia and I fancied her but didn't have the courage to chat her up. So I cast her in a music video I was doing for an Icelandic Band, where she was dragged down a beach covered in dead people, barefoot by a huge handsome Icelandic guy and then had to 'dissapear' into the ocean as a ghost. I was working on the principle of to win the girl you had to do something crazy to get her attention."

Aw, I like your version better @angusg. Here's the video if anyone wants to watch it.

Candidate 15

Name and bio

@neilperry is studying business at the University of Wollongong and lives one minute from the beach. His dad got him into bitcoin seven years ago so he may or may not be a bitcoin gazillionaire.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"The first time I heard about Ethereum I was in Myanmar in the middle of the monsoon season. The hostel my father and I were staying at had flooded on the ground floor and our room had been lost to the waters with it. I spent two days propping a flimsy cable between my laptop and the service desk which had stayed above water downstairs to join in the ICO. I got a total of thirty minutes of internet on the first try and after that it never worked. I was able to join it but the strangest experience I've ever had a lot of wild things came from that time in hostel's dining room."

Man, there's a lot going on here. Floods, ICOs, patchy internet, and wild things? Are we talking creatures from outside escaping the monsoon or the usual backpacker type shenanigans?

Candidate 16

Name and bio

@bengy is an Aussie expat who lives in the Netherlands. He is a Classical musician specialising in Early Music and a physicist.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"When I was growing up, I was always faintly embarrassed about my father's limited command of English. Now, I find myself a father in a foreign country. My daughter's a fluent Dutch speaker, while my Dutch is perhaps best described as functional. I regularly mix tenses, confuse words (like duck (eend) and the end (eind)) and understand idioms literally. How the tables have turned on me."

Hey, I get it. My Spanish is still pretty shit. At some point I'm going to dedicate some time each day to learn it properly. But that day has not arrived yet cos I have to much other stuff to do.

Candidate 17

Name and bio

@geenaizzy is an architect from Germany who moved to Byron Bay seven years ago. She's also an artist and plays the guitar.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

 "I write steamy (no pun intended) fanfiction just for sh*ts and giggles. NOT on this platform tho!"

Why? Steemit is the perfect place for it. People love that stuff.

Congratulations everyone, you're now part of Team Australia. 

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 in 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.

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

Are you an Aussie? Introduce yourself in the MSP teamaustralia chat room!  

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia footer by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas