Reconciliation, Marriage, Chairlifts, and Mardi Gras

1. Cried when I watched this Lost video.



It shows Jorge Garcia reading the last script for the show and crying.  That totally got to me.

I also watched the beautiful final scene between Ben and Locke; the Illana and Ben scene; and the last scene between Ben and Hurley

That show means so much to me.  Thinking about it, and/or watching it, helps me have faith in myself and faith in others. It makes me more forgiving.  It makes me feel we're all okay in the end....even if we're bad sometimes.

2. Thought more about Lost while feeding the cats and doing the cat litter. 

One of the things I love about it is that there are no real villains.  It's not a good person vs. evil person thing.  All the characters are simply humans struggling with their various struggles. Some of them do awful things; but then later they redeem themselves.

I was thinking how I feel this pressure to divide the people in my life into bad guys and good guys.

Now I'm not talking about Death Eater type bad guys. It's more along the lines of is-this-person-friend-worthy?   Is this person worth my time?  I have to admit it.  Sometimes I get extremely picky and the only ones in the friend-worthy column are Jack and our two cats. 

Other times when I'm in the midst of feeling righteously angry, I then start to doubt myself.  Am I really seeing things right? Is this person really the one with the problem?   If we were characters in a novel....

Well, what if  I'm the bad one?

What if I feel the world is against me because the world IS against me; and they should be against me, because I'm a vile human being?  

But see....okay.   Lost gets rid of most of those feelings.  I stop worrying that I'm a horrible human being.  I also stop feeling hateful towards other people just because they're a bit dreadful sometimes.   We're ALL dreadful sometimes. 

That's not to say I'm going to love everybody and open my heart to everybody. In fact, right now when it comes to certain people I'm putting up high gates and locks in my heart. I'm not throwing away the keys, though.  I'm going to put the keys in a safe place, and one day....

Well, in season 1-3 of Lost, the Others were these awful scary people. But later in the series, some of them weren't so bad anymore. Some of them changed, and some of them showed us a more endearing side to themselves.

People change.

I will change.

You can't change the past.  Sometimes you can't tolerate certain people in the present.  But there's always hope that things can get better in the future.  

3. Laughed a lot while watching a Colbert Report segment that mentioned Australia.

4. Went to bed and had some fairly nice dreams.

In one...I'm outside in Fort Worth.  I'm thinking about the fact that I've never seen an Australian movie in the movie theater.   Then I look at a wild grassy area near me, and I think about how it's really beautiful.  Autumn has made the tree leaves all colorful.  Usually I think Fort Worth is ugly, but I decide this bit is lovely.   

That dream was kind of an intro to a dream that dealt with all the Lost stuff I blabbed about above.  I wrote it a few hours before going to bed.  I guess it got stuck in my head.

What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there 
was life after death, and 
we could easily talk to our 
dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 

5. Read an article about the  Labor Party and the conscience vote over whether gay people should be included in the marriage thing.

I'm not sure I understand it.

I THINK maybe the article is saying that Julia Gillard is being sort of supportive by not standing in the way of the vote.  She's not saying, Yes!  Let's have gay weddings.  But she's also not saying,  Let's not have any gay weddings.  She's saying, let's vote on it!  

Of course some people aren't happy with the voting, because...what if they lose?

Archbishop bishop people and other religious leaders came out with this statement.  

Marriage is the lifelong commitment and faithful union of one man and one woman. As such, marriage is the natural basis of the family because it secures the relationship between biological parents and their children. The preservation of the unique meaning of marriage is not a special or limited interest but serves the common good, particularly the good of children.

Come on.  Let's be honest here. How many marriages are lifelong? How many are faithful?

Marriage is so often a failure.  Maybe we should start believing heterosexuality is unnatural.

I'm not really sure how marriage serves children.  If it's a really good marriage, it might. But many marriages are not really that good. Some of them are downright awful.

What about all the heterosexual marriages that result in violent domestic abuse?

6. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read the continuation of The Very Thought Of You.  

This is the story where Eudoxia Karras is on a date with Jason Miller.

There's been two posts added since I last read.

7. Started to read.

Jason responds to Eudoxia's wish to go to Greece very soon.  He says he does want to meet her family, but he doesn't want to ask his boss for time off right now.  He recently asked his boss for another favor, and he doesn't want to push it.

So he's okay with going to Greece.  He's just not willing to go super soon.

I think that's fair.

8. Read Eudoxia's post.   She pushes Jason to make the visit to Greece soon.   She thinks Tommy will have told her family about Jason, and she thinks they'll send over a spy to check him out.  She thinks it will be better if Jason instead make the first move.

We'll see what happens.....

9. Saw that I have two Australians for my Australian of the day.

They're Joseph Dominique Arida and Richard Dominique Arida.  

Joseph and Richard were brothers. They were born in Lebanon. 

Their family was prominent in the community.  One of their brothers became an Archbishop somewhere.

10. Learned that Joseph came to Queensland when he was about eighteen.

He did merchant stuff.

Richard later joined him.

11. Learned that the Arida brothers became successful in their merchant careers.

They were also well respected for their involvement in the Lebanese community.  

12. Started to look at FredWeng's day nine in Australia Flickr set.  

13. Saw a picture of the Cataract Gorge.

We went there!

Here's my old post about it.  

14. Saw a photo of the chair lift ticket stand.

We did NOT go on that. I'm terrified of ski lift things.

When I was a child we went on one.  My sister was a toddler, at the time, and I remember worrying that she was going to squirm and jump out of my mom's arms.

15.  Saw a photo of the actual chair lifts.  It's terrifying to me.

We've been on Soarin' at Disney World.  I was reluctant to go on at first, because it's sort of like a ski lift.  Your feet dangle. I used to hate that feeling.  

They do have a seat belt, though.  And Disney is usually careful about safety.

Jack and I decided to be brave and give it a go.  We loved it and went on several times. The only problem was, I was nervous that Jack would accidentally undo his seat belt.   I worried he'd then lean forward and fall.  Or he'd totally freak out, and we'd be holding on for dear life screaming and crying for help.  

Eventually I learned that the seatbelts are LOCKED during the ride.  You can't accidentally or purposely unlock yourself and fall....or jump.

That was a relief.  

I like how Disney is careful about such things.

16. Thought of the Sydney Bridge Climb. That's terrifying too, but I felt safe because we were locked in.

I can't remember, though, if you can accidentally or purposely unlock yourself. Hopefully not.

17.  Saw that Fredweng took a lot of photos of a Snow Monkey in Launceston. Was that at the zoo?   I don't remember seeing them.  But I think I usually give more attention to the Aussie animals.

18. Learned from Google that the Snow Monkeys are in Launceston City Park.

19. Saw from FredWeng's photos that a place called Sheffiled has a lot of cool murals.   

20. Found Sheffiled on Google Maps.  It's about an hour west of Launceston. 

21. Went to Funtrivia to take another quiz on Australia.

It's another general one

22. Got question #3 wrong and was reminded that John Flynn and Mary Reiby are on the 20 dollar note.

23. Got question #7 wrong and learned an artist named Jackson Pollock did a painting called "Blue Poles No. 11".

24. Learned from Lord Wiki that Jackson Pollock is not Australian.  He's American.

Why is the question in an Australia quiz?

Because the painting is in the National Gallery of Australia.

The gallery paid two million dollars for it, and the purchase was controversial.

People thought it was a bad investment and questioned Gough Whitlam's wisdom.

But  it turned out better than some people expected. The painting was very popular and attracted many visitors to the gallery.

25. Saw the painting on Google Images.  It's not my type of thing.   But I'm glad other people like it. 

26. Got question #8 wrong and learned the movie The Adventures of Priscella, Queen of the Desert was inspired by a cabaret performer named Carlotta.

27. Learned from Lord Wiki that Carlotta was transgender.  She had a sex change operation back in the 1970's.

28. Went to Carlotta's website.  

Her bio seems to say the same thing that Lord Wiki says about her.  Did Lord Wiki just repeat what Carlotta says about herself.  Or did Carlotta copy Lord Wiki?

29. Went to a Carlotta YouTube channel.  I'm not sure if it belongs to Carlotta herself, or a fan.   

30. Started to watch video of Carlotta cooking with Kerrie Anne.




31. Learned that Carlotta is a stage name.  I guess I should have expected that.

Her real name is Carol Spencer.   When she was a child, her name had been Richard. I wonder why she chose a female name so different from her original name?

I guess I'd expect her to become Rachel...or something.

It's kind of silly, though.

If you're going to go through the trouble of changing your gender, why be rigid with the name changing?

32. Wondered if anyone I know from my childhood has changed gender. There's those few people I could never find on Facebook.....

And I've never even searched for my preschool friends.  I don't remember their last names. Maybe one of them is a man now.

33. Went back to the quiz and finished it.

I got a 7/10.  The average is 6/10.  So I didn't do bad.

Good!

34. Received two of the books I had ordered from Powells.



I've already read a book in the John Marsden series.  I mildly liked it. But I didn't start from the beginning.

I want to give the series another chance.  I might like it more if I start with the first book.

35. Started to watch another Kensington25 video.  It's about Mardi Gras 2009.



We were there!   We left the day of the parade. We were actually supposed to leave the day BEFORE the parade, but Jetstar canceled the flight.

36. Saw that Kensington25 marched in the parade with a banner about equal immigration rights for same sex couples.

I definitely support that cause.

37. Liked the shirt that Kensigntion25's partner designed for the parade.

I don't know if the partner is a love partner or a parade partner.

38.  Impressed with the woman's breasts at 6:00.  I wonder if they're real.

I'll guess...no.

But I could be wrong.

39.   Liked Kensignton25's spirit.  He has a lot of it.

40. Felt hopeful while watching the Mardi Gras video.

The world is moving forward...in some areas, at least.