Hey everyone, time for the weekly Team Australia update. I'm going to talk about meetups today since everyone's favourite Malls Baller Hive account@mattclarke has started a trend. As I mentioned in my last update, Matt's organised an Adelaide meetup for 5 November. 

Not to be outdone, Hive account@stephen-somers decided to organise a Brisbane meetup the day before. 

Now there's ongoing chatter in Discord of one in Perth and another one in Melbourne. If you're interested in attending any of these—and you should cos meetups are fun—please get in touch with the following people: 

• Hive account@mattclarke (Adelaide)
• Hive account@stephen-somers (Brisbane)
• Hive account@bmj and/or Hive account@ancientmystique (Perth—not organised/no posts yet)
• Hive account@bigdizzle91 and/or Hive account@mazzle (Melbourne—not organised/no posts yet)

And that's really all I got today.

Slow week.

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

Hive account@christosthegreek is from Sydney, which he says is also the best city in the world. Apparently, it’s twice as good as Brisbane and one hundred times as good as Melbourne. (Lol, I'd agree with the Melbourne comment. I'm undecided on the Brisbane one.)

Hive account@christosthegreek worked in finance for many years before one day getting up from his desk, walking out of the office, and never returning. (Hmm, a girl at my work in Sydney did that one day. Is this a Sydney thing?) Since then, he's travelled around Europe and taken on all kinds of jobs. Right now he buys cryptocurrencies hoping they'll rise in value so he can buy groceries. 

Hive account@christosthegreek is into cryptocurrencies, nutrition, and psychology; and prefers the companies of cats over people. (Don't tell Hive account@goldenarms this, he'll want to be your best friend.)

Fun fact

"I do CrossFit five times a week so I don’t get fat."

Awesome. I also do CrossFfit 5 times a week so I don't get fat. So far so good. I love CrossFit (when I'm not hating it).

Candidate 2

Name and bio

Hive account@spectrumecons was born in Southampton, England, spent most of his school years in Singapore, and now lives in Brisbane. He is an economist by profession, having worked for the Queensland Government for many years before starting his own consultancy and YouTube channel ‘Spectrum Economics'. 

Hive account@spectrumecons is a strong believer in both human and animal rights and is writing a book with the working title ‘Vegan Economics’. This book will closely examine animal exploitation and cruelty in the entertainment, food, pet, research, and clothing industries.

When he's not working, Hive account@spectrumecons enjoys dressing up for the Supanova Expo (Thor, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Hercules), and playing PlayStation (3 or 4). He's also hooked on watching Marvel Universe films. 

Fun fact

"I have Aspie (Asperger’s Syndrome or high-functioning autism). To me, it is just a different perspective on life. It has its advantages and disadvantages. In short, it makes me a little different from most people."

Nothing wrong with being different. That's what makes people interesting. Plus I am a vegan and an economist (albeit a non-practicing one now), so we're basically the same. 😁

Candidate 3

Name and bio

Hive account@trixi88 is a wife and mother of two from Yaroomba on the Sunshine Coast, where she lives on nearly 400 acres including beach access. She was born in Sydney in the sixties, schooled in the seventies, had a career in the eighties, children in the nineties, travelled Australia in the noughties, started travelling overseas in the now.

Hive account@trixi88 started working with IBM system 34s when she left school. After moving to Queensland in 1993, she bought a cafe and zoned out for 10 years. She's since become a chef and got a degree. 

Hive account@trixi88 loves cooking, travelling, family, animals, her dogs, native flora and fauna, music, art, geopolitics, social economics, crypto, space and quantum astrophysics.

Fun fact 

"My children think I'm a leftover flower child. I love UFO stories and anything else weird."

Your kids are millennials, I wouldn't take what they say too seriously. (From my new book "How to make friends" by Hive account@choogirl 😁)

Candidate 4

Name and bio

Hive account@jagged is a father of two from Melbourne. He was brought up in the west—being Melbourne, not WA—and has worked in industrial, warehousing, office, and corporate jobs. He is adaptable to different environments and situations. However, Hive account@jagged also flashes between personalities, from highs to lows, and from introvert to extrovert. He is also a known teller of bad jokes—to the point that his staff created a BadJoke box, which he has to wear on his head when he tells extremely bad jokes. 

Hive account@jagged enjoys spending more time by himself than around other people (about a 60/40 split). He's also really into ants. He says it's nothing over the top (hmm ok...) but whenever he walks around, he's always looking at the ant species on the ground.

Fun fact

"Insects have a special organ that stores sperm... yup... sperm... to use over the lifetime."

Er, this wasn't exactly the type of fun fact I was looking for. I meant about you. Although looking back I didn't make that clear so it's my own fault that I got a fun fact about sperm.

Congratulations everyone. You've been added to Hive account@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