Hi Aussies. Well that's another week gone. And what a painful one with steemit.com being down half the time. Urgh! I think we all realised just how addicted we are to this platform when we couldn't get on. I also realised this week I'll be back in Brisbane in eight weeks for Christmas and New Year. Yay! That seems quite soon. 

Thank you to everyone who supported my post from six days ago asking for your help to get @martibis to steemfest. I'm pleased to say that that post picked up a couple whale upvotes taking the current payout over $120. @martibis will be getting a nice donation from me once it's paid out. He also won @zeartul's contest and got himself a free ticket worth 276 SBD!

I will add this to delegations worth 8,000SP I've won/helped win for minnows (not myself) over the past two months. Man, I'm good at this! 😁 In all serious though, I'm really pleased with this outcome because I know @martibis will do a great job promoting the steemit worldmap project while he is there.

The other thing I want to talk about this week is @lovejuice. If you don't know about it, @lovejuice is @aggroed's upvote bot. It works the same way as most of them, in that you throw some SBD at it to compete against other bidders for a proportion of the upvote. However, @aggroed's expanded @lovejuice's remit to promote the work of undervalued minnows in particular (although anyone can submit). This means @aggroed will pay authors 5 SBD and publish their quality short stories or poems on @lovejuice. So if you have a creative flair and your posts aren't receiving the love they deserve, you should check out this post with the details.

The official 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, as well as showcasing Australia's most worthy dole recipients.

Steemit's only Aussie witness and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank has created the @discordia bot, which you can use to increase your upvote moolah. Some of the proceeds will support @centerlink so give it a try.

Of course, also check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are are here and 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 other MSP witnesses, including @aggroed who has 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

@mazzle lives in Melbourne, where he has owned a gym for the past two years. Of particular interest to him is how regular exercise and good nutrition can help the elderly and those who have mental illness. As a small business owner, @mazzle is also interested in marketing, starting new ventures, and helping those new to business to find their feet.

Before he was a gym owner, @mazzle was an Environmental Scientist, which is where he developed a passion for wildlife photography.

In the past couple of weeks, @mazzle's gotten into home brewing. However, unlike most people, he has also started growing his own hops to use in his beers and he will be blogging about this.

Fun fact 

"I have had six different careers in my (sort of) short life. My careers have ranged from landscape gardener to environmental scientist."

I personally think this is the way to go. Doing the same thing for 40-odd years and having a 'job for life' like back in the day seems so dull.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@ligayagardener has a small block of land in the city of Gawler, nestled on the edge of suburbia at the gateway to the Barossa Valley. It's called 'Ligaya', which means happiness in Tagalog. Ligaya is becoming well known in the area when it comes to sustainability.

@ligayagardener has 60 square metres of garden space to play with. The garden provides most of the family's food needs (besides meat), while any excess is given away, bartered or traded. On steemit he writes about herbs, urban farming, energy and water.

Fun fact

"I get very... what's on telly? easily... ooh what's that?... distracted."

Lol. This makes a lot of sense since I had to pester you a few times to get you join Team Australia. I'm glad you got here eventually.

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@magicmonk immigrated to New Zealand from Taiwan when he was eleven. He spoke no English, meaning much of his childhood consisted of him looking up words in the dictionary to do his homework. Fast forward to adulthood and @magicmonk saw the light and moved to the West Island (i.e. Australia). 

@magicmonk is a high school maths teacher in Brisbane. A few years ago he was inspired by the Khan Academy to start his own YouTube channel to teach maths to Australian students. To date it's received over eight million views. (You should talk to @masterwu, who also lives in Brisbane and has a maths YouTube channel).

@magicmonk is passionate about exercise and has won two Brisbane Night Tennis Association competitions. He's also competed in swing dance championships around Australia, and regularly practices Tai Chi, Shaolin and Praying Mantis Kung Fu. 

Fun fact

"I went on the world's most viewed dating show 'If You Are The One' in China as an Australian contestant."

That is an awesome fun fact. I watched that episode, but since it's not in English it was a bit hard to follow. However, given they played 'All by Myself' and you walked off stage alone at the end, I'm guessing you didn't find 'the one'?" ☹️ 

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@steemulator was born in the Ukraine but now lives in the Wide Bay area of Queensland. He is a medic and naturally, is interested in health and medicine. This includes Western medicine, which tries to heal our bodies, and traditional Oriental medicine, which aims to heal our mind and spirit. He also sees medicine in art, which is why his avatar is a fragment of a painting (Anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp) of one of his favourite painters (Rembrandt van Rijn). 

@steemulator's interests include uncovering the secrets of good life and good health, personal growth, amateur photography, travelling, walking, kayaking, paddle-boarding, meditating, and having fun. @steemulator hopes that the anonymity of steemit will allow people to be more open and honest, since he likes meeting people from all walks of life.

Fun fact

"I don't know if this is a fun fact, or a sad fact: I have lived in Australia for almost ten years but still haven't developed a taste for Vegemite. I would rather put Canadian maple syrup on my pancakes."

Well not liking Vegemite is a bit un-Australian but we don't eat it on pancakes so you're in the clear there.

Source

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@zzyss is from Sydney and claims he is just one more mouth to feed in a world of seven billion or so people. He says he is still trying to figure out what direction to go with for his steemit blog.

@zzyss likes Transformers, but judging by the lack of (interesting) posts—the ones about the atrocious Michael Bay live-action movie series notwithstanding—it might take him a little more time to nurture a decent fan base.

Fun fact

"How many other people do you know that were named after the way in which they were delivered into this world? (Think about it.)"

I did think about it but based on your name @zzyss this made no sense to me. However, I see in your photo your real life name is Caesar. Hmm, are you sure it's to do with your birth and your parents weren't just really into salads? 😁 

 

Congratulations everyone. You've been added to @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 @ausbitbank.
2. Regularly check the  Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote the content you like. 
3. Follow and upvote existing members of @teamaustralia who you share a common interest with. Alternatively, you can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in Streemian. Instructions are listed here.
4. Comment below or DM me on steemit chat or Discord that you want to join.
5. Link 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 tag to help boost your following. You can also follow this handy guide written by @teamsteem.
6. 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.  
7. If you’re not Aussie tell me why you should be a Team Australia ambassador. 
8. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe you run a successful business, or 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!

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.  

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia banner by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas