(Source: Unsplash Photographer: Ewa Gillen)
"What is that awful sound?" asked Ryi, her eyes glued to the white panel on her monitor. ”It’s ruining my chi and I’ll never get this 3D masterpiece of my UpNothing done. Not with the sound of a drunk cat wailing like it lost all its lives in the background.”
“Oh, that’s Jack, he’s recording his Still Call Australia Home Karaoke entry for the Fundraiser Challenge,” replied Ratty, looking up from his tablet where he was composing a post about his roadtrip .
Frowning at Ryi, he asked, “Up...Nothing? What’s that?”
“Like my fabulous UpGoat and UpBokki cute critter footer, only this is an UpNothing. It's for people on Steemit who don’t upvote anything. You would not believe how hard it is to render nothing and know when you’ve done it just right.”
Ratty glanced over at Ryi’s blank screen. “I see…” he said, looking confused.
The wailing in the next room grew louder. It was accompanied by clattering and then a crashing bang.
A disgruntled Ryi pulled her eyes reluctantly from her blank screen. She'd solved her problem of rendering nothing with Blender. How could she have missed it? The solution had been right before her eyes!
Back to more immediate problems...
“Are you sure Jack’s just singing?”
“He mentioned he wanted to appeal to a broader audience. Something about going for a cross between Celine Dion, Metallica and he was even going to throw in some boy band dance moves…”
“Ambitious,” replied Ryi, secretly thinking Jack had lost his mind. It must be a military thing...
“Yeah, I thought so too, but gotta be supportive. It’s a fundraising campaign for 
The door to the next room opened and a giant kangaroo appeared.
‘Arrghhh!!!” screamed Ryi, but then realized it was Jack in costume. “I thought you’re going to do Celine Dion x Metallica x Boy Band.”
“Nah, mate. It was too hard, decided to go basic true blue aussie-roo…” Jack hopped over to Ratty. “I need you to help me upload it to DTube. I tried 300 times and it wasn’t happening. I got mad and threw my laptop at the wall.”
“Sure mate.”
“So that was what the bang was about...” said Ryi. “I was checking out the other entries, that quochuy vid entry was impressive.”
“I hope there are lots of entries, it's for a good cause. Is there one from Linny? I told her she had to pitch in and help. That’s what she gets for complaining she was bored and needed something to do.”
“No. She told me maybe in another lifetime she’d sing and post it online. But she’s happy to write a silly story to promo your charity challenge. Any payout from it (this post) will be donated to
“Fair enough,” said Jack. “So you guys wanna hear me sing the song?”
“No,” Ryi and Ratty replied in unison.
“I can checkout a youtube vid and practice with the lyrics…” said Ratty.
“How about you Ryi?” asked Jack.
“I need to get back to work on my UpNothing.”
Quick Notes from Linny:
[1] This is just a silly promo for a legitimate Team Australia Fundraiser (Click here for details). Any payout I receive from this post will be donated to
[2] Time is really running out as the fundraiser ends April 25! So if you are vocally enthusiastic and have a charitable heart, please do participate. Non-Aussies are welcomed to participate, it doesn't need to be perfect. :)
[3] The terrible humour in this post is not representative of Team Australia. But you can blame 
[4] All jokes aside, 
[5] Using your Witness Voting Power: If you have a spare moment and witness votes, please consider voting for 
If you got this far, thank you for your patience. ;)