Bonjour steemit friends! It's been a while since I was here in steemit land so it's definitely time for a post, albeit shorter than usual since I'm well out of the loop. In case you were wondering why I've been MIA for two weeks, here's the skinny:

• I've been in Florida doing real life stuff with a bunch of legendary steemians including my amazing friend and host @kubbyelizabeth (posts to come), and
• @steemitworldmap's daily Travel Digests are on a brief hiatus but they should be up and running again next week. That said, I'm dropping my authorship back to one day a week to give me more time to focus on my own blog and curie.

Feature photo

Today's gorgeous photo comes courtesy of @kieranstone. It was taken in at Whisky Bay in Wilsons Prom, Victoria. If you like it please give it an upvote here.

Meet-ups

• Melbourne: Sunday 25 March from 4pm at Grey Cells Green Bar. Info here.
• Adelaide: Thursday 29 March from 6pm at the Jade Monkey. If you're in Adelaide you should definitely go along to this as @mattclarke will be debuting an exciting steemit project he's been pondering for the past couple of weeks. It's not like anything else we've seen on steemit so far and it's really cool. (Sorry Matt, if I've just talked this up more than you wanted.)

ANZAC stuff

A few people have decided to get into the spirit of ANZAC Day with some contests/writing comps.

First, @jackmiller is running a karaoke comp to raise funds for the @teamaustralia account if you fancy yourself as a bit of a singer. Prizes are also up for grabs. Competition closes 25 April. Info here. 

If filming yourself singing and cementing it on the block isn't your thing, then @ravenruis has come up with a ANZAC themed research/writing idea, 'Unsung Heros'. Basically, you research and post about an ANZAC soldier. There are no prizes for this one—more just an idea to celebrate ANZAC day. Check out the Aus/NZ Discord server if you'd like to be involved.

The usual community notices

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

Check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are here. Come say hi in the #teamaustralia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. 

You should consider voting for the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting the MSP 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.  

Mentoring

This project was started by @buggedout with the intention of getting more experienced steemians to help out the newbies. It is not a formal project like the one your boss would sign you up to, so it should be something that both parties actually enjoy. Its purpose is to help build a stronger Team Australia community. I'm sure a bunch of us already doing it anyway by following new people we like, upvoting their posts, leaving comments to encourage interaction, and generally helping to make steemit seem a bit less daunting. Please leave a comment below if you want to officially be on @buggedout's mentor/mentee list. 

Candidate 1

Name and bio

@santaynik is @neddykelly's friend and a single mum from Rockhampton. She moved to the beef capital when her partner discovered that he loved ice more than his family.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I have two kids aged 7 and 11 going on 18 and 21 that love to rollerblade in my house."

Hmm, rollerblading in the house sounds risky. I hope you don't have lots of breakables lying around.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@Trophy-Token is @ram.bozo (not officially a TA member) from Melbourne. @Trophy-Token became his main account after he developed the Trophy Token reward made exclusively to reward good content on steemit. Tokens are distributed via bitshares. 

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I am a father of five kids, play bass and dabble in logo design."

Five kids? Jebus. That seems like a lot.

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@supersoju is from Melbourne. She loves to cook—particularly macaroons and cakes—even though she doesn't like eating them.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I am allergic to fresh fruits and some vegetables. I am a lover of garlic! Yum! Thank goodness I am not allergic to garlic. I would cry if I was."

I like garlic but I think I'd cry more if I was allergic to fruit.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@churdtzu is an Aussie who was living in Mexico but is now travelling to wherever the universe takes him. He's a rapper, a podcaster and a writer.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"Nine months ago, I was deported from Mexico, accompanied by two immigration officials who travelled with me all the way from Mexico City to Sydney."

I remember reading your posts about this. Unreal. And accompanying you all the way to Sydney? Wow, they really wanted you gone.

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 steemauto. 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.

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia footer by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas