G'day Aussies and foreign mates. I have another big group of recruits to introduce today, so it's taken me AGES to write this one up. You might want to get yourself a cup of tea before we start. Steemit is really starting to take off. I'm not even having to spam people anymore to get them to join Team Australia. Everyone is coming to me!

Melbourne meet-up next week

I want to remind all the Melbourne/Victorian peeps there is a meet-up next Monday, 22 January from 6pm. So if you're in the city, get on it! Go meet some steemians in real life. I've already been to two meet-ups and they're fun. I liked them so much I'm in the process of organising a trip to my third meet-up in a third country. More to come on that later.

Do you have some good Aussie photos to share?

@lordnigel had a great idea. Since I typically use a pixabay photo at the top of these intro posts, he suggested that I open it up to the Aussies and see if they'd like me to use their photos. So that's what I'm doing. If you have an Australian themed photo you'd like me to use in these updates, DM me on Discord. I will, of course, credit your work at the bottom of my post like I always do. In case you're wondering why I don't do it at the top, it's because it takes up valuable real estate in the thumbnail description in feeds.

Witnesses

Given the number of new people joining, I think it's timely to touch on the importance of witnesses again. These are the people who keep the blockchain running. Without them, we wouldn't have steemit.

Everyone in Team Australia should already be voting for our Minister of Welfare, @ausbitbank, as it's one of rules below. If you're not, please rectify this. However, we now have a second Australian witness @cryptwo, which is jointly run by @juicy-shark and @kodieamos. If you have any spots left, please consider giving them your vote as well. You can check out their witness here.

The usual community notices

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

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

@benleemusic is BEN LEE!!! You know him. Catch my Disease, The Rage in Placid Lake with the gorgeous Rose Byrne, and now he's released a new song exclusively on steemit. If you're Aussie and you don't know who he is, then your Team Australia membership is at high risk of being revoked. Our first major Team Australia celebrity lives in LA (of course) and has expanded his interests beyond music, into essential oils and getting more people onto steemit.  

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I am a trained Death Midwife!" 

I have to admit I didn't know this was a thing until today. But it's good you've got a backup skill if your music career doesn't work out. 😁

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@outoftune is a Kiwi living in Brisbane. His blog page says 'I play the guitar'. Given that about 98% of his blog posts are open mic submissions and/or about guitars, let's hope he is not 'out of tune'.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I can play sports with both hands but I play the guitar right handed and write left handed."

Interesting. I taught myself to use a mouse with my left hand after years of right shoulder pain. It's worked out great—now both of them hurt!

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@aghunter is another one from Brisbane. Among other things he is a finance industry professional and has written one of the most comprehensive crypto tax posts—for Australians—I've seen so far. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"Yesterday I just got a new puppy. We’ve called her Ruby."

Aww, puppies are fun. Much better than cats. Also, yesterday refers to 30 December in case anyone's wondering.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@jtthefoodie is a foodie/travel blogger from Sydney. He has a bunch of awesome travel posts on his blog, if this is your thing. (Mate, I hope you're pinning them all to steemit worldmap.)

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"When in Mexico (Cancun) I took a piss on the streets and got arrested. Had to bribe the police 500USD not to be put in prison."

Hmm, that's an expensive wee. Also, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have gone straight to prison—that's an extreme legal system they've got if so. A night in a police holding cell seems much more likely.

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@bobdos emigrated from China to Australia in 2014 and lives in Sydney. He's a programmer who has worked for PopCap Gameson on the localised, simplified Chinese editions of Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, and Bejewelled Blitz.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I once bit a dog as I thought it would bite me when I was a kid."

Interesting. Did it bite you back? My money is on yes.

Candidate 6

Name and bio

@chelsea.bear is @bobdos' six years old daughter. She will be in Grade 1 this year and likes swimming, drawing, writing, colouring and dancing.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I am not a bear but a cute bunny." 

As @bobdos points out, she was born in the lunar year of the rabbit, 2011.

Candidate 7

Name and bio

@insideoutlet is from Perth and has been living with an ileostomy for the past ten years. She won 'Rookie of the Year' in 2017 for her blog and got to travel to America to meet other patient health advocates as a result.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"My husband and I love Stargate so much we wrote it into our wedding vows and now have same, same but different tattoos combining our favourite things."

Which Startgate? I hope it was Atlantis and you have Wraith tattoos. They were the best villains for sure.

Candidate 8

Name and bio

@humate is a newbie programmer from Warrnambool and @naquoya's real life cousin. He intends to share his computer programming journey on steemit.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I once learned to juggle in about five minutes. That was over ten years ago and have yet to improve on that. Can still only juggle three balls. I peaked too early."

Another juggler! I'm serious, we could totally start a circus with all the Aussies who can juggle.

Candidate 9

Name and bio

@lowf1ux is from Adelaide and therefore our first mallsballer of the day. He works for a major telco in workforce planning. He's into pretty serious board games, hunting and camping. (I'm intrigued by which board games you consider 'pretty serious'? I would say Hungry, Hungry Hippos since they are large, dangerous animals and they're really hungry!)

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I lived overseas in the UK for just over two years when I was 21. I lived in London and then ended up moving out to a city called Milton Keynes, known for its round-a-bouts and concrete cows! I travelled the whole time with my now wife, after her working visa came to an end. We travelled around Europe for eight weeks!" 

Ah the good old Pommie working holiday visa. A rite of passage for the Aussies.

Candidate 10

Name and bio

@jase096 is another a mallsballer and real-life friend of @necromortis. He also works for a telco full time (the same one as @lowf1ux?), and a drag racing company on the weekends. 

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"There is nothing greater than standing between two top fuel dragsters as they take off for a drag race."

I think I would be too scared that one of them would drive into me.

Candidate 11

Name and bio

@svitlaangel is our third mallsballer and the sister of @izzydawn and daughter of @minismallholding. She is homeschooled, works part-time, and is currently saving up for a trip to the UK. 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I can put both legs behind my head." 

What is it with homeschooling and gymnastics? There is definitely a trend going on here.

@svitlaangel is the one on the bottom.

Candidate 12

Name and bio

@alkhemst is from Sydney. He's been on steemit for a year but only now got around to doing an intro post. He used to be a high school teacher and in recently started teaching a design course.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I've been working on connecting EEG to control VR environments as a side design project."

I don't really know what that means but I am seeing more and more VR stuff on here recently.

Candidate 13

Name and bio

@thedrewtrott is another vegan (woo!) from Sydney. He's spent the second half of his 20s studying full-time; starting in Conservation Biology before transferring to an Honours degree in Nutrition Science.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I have a star trek podcast, which could either be considered really cool or ultra nerdy."

Cool.

Candidate 14

Name and bio

@neeqi is from Cairns and found out about steemit from a mate she met while travelling in Guatemala. She's into drawing, painting, writing, photography, travel, yoga and yoga philosophy.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"In 2016 I was able to complete my yoga teacher training and travel for a year throughout Central America. My trip was funded by a random video of my cat, that at the time of uploading I thought nothing much of until it went viral and opened up a world of potential for me."

This is a very cool fun fact. I wish I'd made a cat video that went viral and funded my year of travelling in South America!

Candidate 15

Name and bio

@bogglemcgee is from Melbourne and currently working for a shopfitting company building kitchens, shops and running heavy machinery. He's into literature, magic, cabinet making, and music.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I just planted my fourth fruit tree in my back yard (a lemon). I have a plum, which is second season and fruiting like a mofo, an apple which is just starting to fruit but maybe not edible ones this season, and a blood orange which has tiny fruit."

Oh man, I am quite jealous of that. I would love to have some fruit trees. I would love to have a backyard to plant them in.

Candidate 16

Name and bio

@bec-on-the-block is from Wollongong. She works in aged care and is currently in an accelerator program to develop innovative ways to help older people. When she's not working she likes to skateboard.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"When I was a kid I wanted to be rich so I could buy two racehorses just so I could give them cool names. I was going to call them “quityabitchin” and “she’s apples.”

Lol, why reach for a lambo like everyone else when you can have some horses with cool names instead?

Candidate 17

Name and bio

@thevillan is another mallsballer and loves his job as a website developer. He's also into photography, gaming, body building and anime/manga.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"When I meet new people and they ask what I do for work and I reply programming, they are shocked. One person said she was expecting me to say bouncer or wrestler or something."

Hmm. No stereotyping there then.

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 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.

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

First image credit @lordnigel

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia banner by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas