Entirely unrelated things

1. I (finally) got called by the IRS - they want me to start Monday night. So, I'm not making anywhere near as much as I'd hoped to make before leaving, but a week or three of full-time at $14/hr is better than nothing. Then I realized that I was really happy to get a phone call from the IRS, and I must sadly wonder at what my life has become.

2. Sometimes I wonder about Australia. In my mind they're vaguely similarto Canada: Canada is sort of America-Lite, so to speak, and I sometimes percieve Australia as Britain-Lite, or something. I'm fond of both countries, though I've only briefly been to Canada. They both seem friendly, and have given the world wonderful, wonderful things: hockey and wombats. Canada tends to be mild-mannered, and Australia? Well, they're really far away and mostly an empty island.

Then, every so often, along comes a news story that makes me say to myself: Holy crap, those Australians are hard-frickin'-core!. For example. Things I love about this story:
1. "Hey, dude, we need drug money. I know! Let's steal a koala!"
2. A cute fuzzy animal kicking the crap out of druggie thieves.
3. "Damn koalas. I know - let's steal a crocodile!"
4. They managed to carry a crocodile over a fence. An eight-foot fence.
5. This makes me think that there's some immensely bizarre drug market in Australia. That guy you meet up with at that part? He takes cash only. And sometimes, koalas and crocodiles.
6. I missed it the first time, but at the very bottom of the article: The reason why they didn't notice the lack of a crocodile was because one of the wombats got bit by a snake.

Australia, you have forever won a warm place in my heart, you koala-and-drug-dealing loonies.