A few words from the Yucata.de 2022 Summer MediOcrelympics and opening snapshots.

I'd like to acknowledge that I'm standing here on Whadjak Nyoongar country. The Nyoongar people have worked, travelled and played on this, their land, their boodja, for over 40 000 years. We pay our respects to them and to their Elders,  past, present and emerging and appreciate the contribution that they make to the community. Hello, I'm leeece on yucata.de and I'm here to talk to you about the Summer 2022 MediOcrelympics, which, if you're reading this, should be about to, or already be open, courtesy of Chairperson Kamba. 

Some of us might remember the day that a past yucata.de user jamied proposed 'The First-Ever Non-Official Yucata Olympics of Mediocre Gamers back in 2018. I had the honour of being asked to be the official Spokesperson for the event and while I was (and in every subsequent MediOcrelympics) been enthusiastic about the role, I pretty soon got weary of typing out the entire title.

So I contracted it to MediOcrelympics and jamied embraced and propagated the term. Perhaps he too was over typing out the original term. Zzrxes was instrumental in the creation of both the MediOcrelympic emoticons currently employed, thank you. Putzibram and his loyal lemmings were a tremendous help with marketing. The Decentdecade Dirigible became a firm favourite during the games and medal ceremonies, and my rent-a-crowd got interested too.

Since then the MediOcrelympics has been embraced by many Yucatans and has been run in one form or another by other hardworking people, the most recent being our very own Kamba. The 2022 Summer MediOcrelympic Games has had a huge response. In fact at time of writing we can boast over 210 entrants, all of them with Trueskills under 1101. It makes you proud to be average! 

Thank you to Kamba - he'd like me to extend an extra BIG thank you to all his helpers 5erBande, bubba2x, guimeli, Kerstinee, Midgardwanderer and zumHeuriger. They have all worked so hard on this tournament, and my thanks go to all past and future tournament wranglers. 

A big thank you to all past and present and future MediOcrelympians!

Enjoy some images from the opening ceremony brought to you by my crack team of photographer, rdmasters. He is incidentally the Chief Engineer of The Decentdecade Dirigible and we might be lucky enough to interview him later!

It was very exciting when we reached 200 participants in the 2022 Summer MediOcrelympics! The Captain of the Decentdecade Dirigible had previously declared that an Immelmann Manoeuvre would be attempted should we reach that number and we did. Below you will see the results!

Have some not too bad games everyone and see you at the after game bbq!

12 Weeks from now, another vaccination for me.

 Wandered down to the Claremont Showground mass vaccination place, where we were pleased to find that we could park onsite. A security guy made sure we had appointments and we were directed to scan in with the SAFE WA app, handysandytise and sit in orderly rows.

After a while we were asked to have our Medicare cards and photo id ready. We were moved to the front row, and then directed to the desks to be given an interview to check our details, much like at a polling place. After that we were directed to another section of rows and seated at the back.

As the front row of 7 on one side and 7 on the other was ushered in beyond the barrier, each row was moved up. In this way we gradually approached the front. There were bottles of water and a selfie station on offer.

Finally we got to sit on the other side of the barrier and were called into the individual cubicles in turn. A slow puncture, barely felt.

Then we were directed to wait in our seated rows on one side, if we wished to book the second vaccination, and to start our 15 minute wait time now. We could all go to the one person if we wanted to come back for it together.

If it was less than 15 minutes, we could then sit on the other side of the aisle, and we were also offered juices and water.

We booked our next appointment roughly 12 weeks away and it's all sorted.

My arm's quite sore. The other two family members say they're not experiencing any pain.

I am so fortunate that I am in a place where this is free, and so readily available, and it was heartening to see a steady stream of community minded people coming in and moving quietly up in the waiting rows. A few people arrived and were turned away, they looked pretty young and maybe didn't have appointments.

Australians over 50 are now encouraged to get vaccinated, if you're in Western Australia

"Members of the community over 50 should book by phone

If you are a member of the general community, aged over 50, please phone 13 COVID (13 26843) to make a booking. National Cabinet has agreed that people aged 50 and over are vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, so please book at a clinic that provides the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Please book your second dose while you’re still at the clinic, following your vaccination, otherwise you will need to phone the booking centre again. "

More here: https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Coronavirus/COVID19-vaccine/Online-booking-FAQs

Homestart for Black Cockatoos

 Black Cockatoos used to blacken the skies...but now they're endangered.

"Adopt a Cocky Nest
There are three species of threatened Black-Cockatoo in south western Australia, Baudin’s, Carnaby’s and Forest Red-tailed. Loss of nesting hollows is one of the major reasons for their decline. Artificial hollows have been found to be successful in replacing lost natural hollows, particularly for Carnaby’s. However, it is critical that the correct location is chosen.

A new partnership between BirdLife Australia, leading developer Hesperia and Carnaby’s Crusaders is looking to change that with the installation of more artificial nests (tubes) in known breeding areas. Donations are now sought for people to ‘adopt’ a nest ($350) or half a nest ($175). Expressions of interest can be made by land owners in the Chittering/Bullsbrook/Bindoon area to host tubes. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfh_kixdD3ZMP4os7HxI9x9WmGWUxVhdkpQJaTn1L6oMIJjZg/viewform

Importantly, this includes some areas affected by the Wooroloo fire, which burnt through thousands of hectares of black-cockatoo foraging, nesting and roosting habitat. Donor costs are kept to a minimum via generous funding support from Hesperia, which covers the costs of installation by Carnaby’s Crusaders, BirdLife staff time and site surveys.

The nests will be surveyed annually using ‘Cocky Cam’, a telescopic pole with wireless camera. Results will then be sent to both donors and hosts. It is hoped that this initiative will boost breeding rates for Carnaby’s for years to come.

Click here https://cocky-nests-2021.raisely.com/ to adopt a cocky nest today!"

Oh yeah, this was in a newsletter from W.A Birdlife.

We're going to adopt one. Hopefully it'll be home to a happy host of cockies!

Boardgames I'm backing, looking at and been told about.

 

Moonshell because there's not enough mermaid boardgames out there. And this one has a Merdude!

Silverwood Grove I am considering because, hey, Australian content! Need to look at the gameplay though.

Flourish was pointed out to me at yucata.de in chat, and looks very pretty. It was done by the same people who did Everdell, which I've heard of, and also looks very pretty. But I have not played it. :-)

Irritated.

 Ring, ring.

Me: “Kaya” (Answering in Noongar catches some people off guard)
Them: Hello maam?
Me: “Kaya”
Them: I’m calling from the anti-fraud department. Can you tell me, are you receiving many fraud calls at the moment?

Me: Click.

I mean if they’re not even going to do basic research to find out what the antifraud people in my area are actually called, I’m not even going to fake interest.

Fist of Fury: Noongar Daa

 Fist Of Fury Noongar Daa

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On Saturday night we visited the Somerville Auditorium at UWA for the first time to see a very special Perth Festival movie.

Boomerang and Spear have taken a great deal of care and trouble to dub this Bruce Lee film from the 1970's into the Nyoongar language. With consultation from a language consultant for the original Cantonese to do a retranslation of the English subtitles. Add this to the very knowledgeable in Nyoongar language voice actors and consultants for the dubbing, the result is thoroughly enjoyable.

The lip synching is amazing and must have taken a great deal of skill and patience! It was very interesting hearing about what a hero Bruce Lee was to the Nyoongar people watching his movies at the drive-in in the the 70's, this superhero who wasn't white, fighting for his people against foreigners, you can see how it would have resonated!

After the welcome to country we were privileged to have Mr Ernie Dingo interview the cast before the film. 

The setting is beautiful, and you can byo both your food and drinks!

You can have a picnic before the film starts, or order from the bar/kitchen.

$19 to see the first film entirely dubbed in Nyoongar, on Nyoongar boodja, that's a thoroughly entertaining watch - who doesn't like a Bruce Lee film set in Shanghai in 1910? 

So we're going again on the 4th of April - come join us - you can get tickets https://tickets.perthfestival.com.au/events/7546 - but if that's not near you it's going to be on in Rockingham and Balga, check out the alternatives if UWA doesn't do it for you.

Cinema:United Cinemas Rockingham

Date:Sat, 27 Feb

Time:7:45 

https://www.unitedcinemas.com.au/rockingham/movie/fist-of-fury-noongar-daa

 

Cinema: Somerville Auditorium at UWA

Date: Easter Sunday -  April 4 6pm gates open.

https://www.perthfestival.com.au/events/uwa-somerville-fist-of-fury-noongar-daa/

 

Celebration Park, 40 Rochester Circle, Balga WA 6061

Through Event Brite, City of Stirling

Saturday 6 March 2021 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm

(Gates open 6pm ) https://www.perthfestival.com.au/events/celebration-park-fist-of-fury-noongar-daa/

We will remember them

 And we’ll try to stop it.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/17/we-loved-the-bramble-cay-melomys-even-though-we-hadnt-even-heard-of-it-until-it-was-gone

I had heard of it and I sent money and made noise. It didn’t work that time. Perhaps it will another time.

In the meantime if you’d like to help with the citizen science side of things take a look at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/birgus2/western-shield-camera-watch/classify or any of the other fine projects on zooniverse.org