Cake, Ignoring Phone Calls, Kick-Ass Women, and Complicated Villains

1. Dreamed that, I'm at an Australian reenactment of an American gun tragedy. 

Andrew is there. We talk about road trips in the United States, because when he came here, they did a road trip. 

I tell Andrew that it's customary to fervently wave to people in other cars when you're on an American road trip. I say this is especially the case if you see other people who are also on a road trip. I tell Andrew if we had seen them on the road, we would have waved. But then I feel stupid, because I don't know if their car had signs of a road trip. Andrew assures me that it did.

Andrew then confesses to liking some kind of cheap hotel restaurant. While he says this, I think about cheap restaurants I've liked and think about how crappy food is sometimes really good. 

I think the restaurant I had in mind was Denny's. In real life, we went to Denny's in 2013. I don't quite remember feeling like it was fabulous crappy food.

2. Thought about crappy food that I do think is good.

Pizza is probably the main one. I usually prefer cheap crap pizza over the fancy stone-oven, fresh mozzarella stuff. I love frozen pizzas, Dominoes, and that pizza, still in plastic, that they used to serve to us at our pool cafe.

And cake! That's the other thing. I prefer cheap grocery store cake to the expensive stuff my dad buys at the upscale supermarket. Although that's just one place I don't like. I might like cakes that come from other upscale bakeries.

3. Saw from my Statcounter that Peter Allen is quite popular today.

For a moment, I was wondering why my blog is getting so much Peter Allen traffic. Aren't there many other sites out there?  But then I realized, although my blog has had an increase in traffic because of Peter Allen; there are probably other Peter Allen sites that have gotten an even greater increase in traffic.

When I check Statcounter in the morning, I usually see my blog having about 30-50 hits. This morning, it's at 200. That's a pretty big increase. But there are probably sites out there that get 1000-2000 hits each morning; and with Peter Allen traffic, they're getting 5,000 or more.

4. Interested to see what the Statcounter numbers will be like later in the day.

The increase probably won't be huge, because most of my traffic comes before I wake up. My blog is more popular with Australians than it is with Americans and other people. Once the Aussies go to bed, my traffic pretty much goes dead.  It picks up again in the late afternoon here, when it is morning in Australia.

5. Started watching an episode of Neighbours.

I feel like I'm having ignore-an-important-phone-call synchronocity.

Last night I watched Coronation Street.  Baby Jake had a high fever, and Izzy kept trying to call Gary, so she could tell him they were bringing Jake to the ER.  Gary was busy and ignored the phone calls.

Now, on Neighbours,  Paige (Olympia Valance) is being bullied Joey Dimato (Steve Sammut). She dials Mark's (Scott McGregor) number, and he ignores it, because he's talking to Tyler (Travis Burns).

6. Liked the twist with Paige.

Mark finally checks his phone and hears that Paige is in trouble. He rushes to Paige's house. I expected to find Paige tied up, crying and terrified. Instead it's Joey that's tied up.  Paige was able to rescue herself.

It's cool to see a woman who can rescue herself. I don't think I'd be one of them. Though I often get the idea that Tim expects me to be that.

There was the time that our alarm went off for unknown reasons. I was terrified, and said yes when the security folks asked if I wanted the police. Later when Tim found out, he seemed annoyed that I hadn't refused the police.

Another time the alarm went off, and Tim told me to go upstairs and check it out.  I was terrified. He didn't seem worried at all.

I think Tim likes women to be like Paige. And I like men to be knights in shining armor who show huge amounts of concern for my health and safety.

So we have a bit of a challenge there.

I guess my ultimate ideal would be to be tough like Paige but also have a man who worries and rescues.

7. Gave myself some credit. Because when Tim encouraged me to go upstairs to check the doors, I eventually went and did that. I gathered up enough courage. I didn't call the police or hide in the closet crying.

I'm not sure what would have happened if I had found robbers, zombies, vampires, or a serial killer upstairs. I'd LIKE to imagine I'd fight and kill them. But I'd probably end up in a pool of blood...my own.

8. Wondered. If it was a vampire that killed me, would there still be a pool of blood? Or would he lick up the blood before it soaked into the carpet?

9. Saw that Russell (Russell Kiefel) is regretful about hitting his son Tyler (Travis Burns) but not very apologetic. Instead of acting like it's a bad thing that he did, and he's sorry; it's more like he sees it as a bad TIME. He also seems to have an expectation of easy forgiveness from Tyler.

Sometimes people need to grovel and show a lot of remorse.

10. Annoyed with Russell.

First of all, he thanks Tyler for not telling his brothers about being beaten up by him.  At first, I thought that was kind of nice. He shows gratitude, at least.  But now I'm thinking it's like he's pressuring Tyler to stay quiet. Tyler shouldn't have to keep that secret from his brothers. He should be able to talk to his brothers.

Then Russell is having a dinner with Paige and his other two sons. One of them makes a comment about Tyler not being there and says something about family not being important to Tyler.  Here Tyler is being insulted behind his back, and Russell says nothing to defend his son. This would be the perfect opportunity to confess that he mistreated Tyler and explain that Tyler might need some time to forgive him.

11. Thought it was nice that Tyler did eventually show up and is showing effort towards forgiveness.  It's big of him. I just don't know if Russell deserves it.

12. Started watching an episode of Water Rats. I have three more episodes left for the first season. I might finish watching it today. If not...probably tomorrow.

13. Received a text from Tim containing a photo of a Southern Cassowary.

He's in St. Augustine Florida. They have an animal park with alligators, crocodiles, and various exotic birds. I hope to go there someday!

14. Encountered more similarities between what I saw last night on Coronation Street and what I'm seeing today on Australian television.

First. I forgot to mention this before. But with the Paige thing?  Last night, on Coronation Street, three women were attacked by a mugger. One of them, Beth fought back with her shoe and was able to retrieve a stolen purse. So both Coronation Street and Neighbours had a woman defending herself against a criminal.

Second.  Remember how I said Gary didn't answer the phone when Izzy was trying to call them about their sick child? Well, the reason he didn't answer is he was standing over a man he had severely injured. The man had sexually harassed his mother, and Gary confronted him. The man put the blame on Gary's mother. Gary angrily lashed out and hit the guy with some kind of tool.

Now, on Water Rats, there's a man who confronted his sister's husband, because the husband had been abusive.  The husband told the brother that his sister liked being hit, and the brother lashed out with a knife.

15. Got idea that the brother didn't kill the husband, after all.

I think the wife killed the husband, and the brother is trying to take the blame.

I wish this was a case of me being a brilliant detective. But no. The show is being pretty obvious about it.

16. Thought that episode of Water Rats was emotionally complex.

The end has a very intense scene where Detective Harrison (Peter Mochrie) tries to stop a woman (the wife/sister I mentioned above) from committing suicide.

Harrison is the same guy I talked about yesterday—the one who is secretly evil.

I think it messes with my head when bad people do something good like that.

I have to wonder if there's a part of Detective Harrison that's good. Did he really care about the woman about to jump? Did he want to see her survive?  Or is it all a game to him?

Is Detective Harrison a sort of good man who is also sort of evil? Or is he a completely evil man who wears a mask of decency?

17. Started watching another episode of Water Rats.

18. Loved the Crooked Fences blog post about an ad campaign trying to shame teens into avoiding parenthood.

Michelle illustrates her frustration with the campaign by imagining a similar campaign aimed at older parents.

If we can scare teen moms by telling them their children are less likely to graduate high school; why not tell older parents that their child is more likely to have a genetic disorder?

Michelle's not in support of using fear tactics against women in their forties. What she wants is teens to be treated with the same respect as people of other ages.

19. Felt I was doing an awful job paraphrasing Michelle's post.

She says it much more eloquently than me.

20. Started watching the last season one episode of Water Rats.

21. Read Bec's somewhat depressing post about writing eulogies for people you don't like.

She didn't have to do it. Her friend did, and Bec struggled to help her friend.

She found a website that advised writing a factual eulogy. Where was the dead person born? Where did they get married?  Where did they go to school? Did they have any pets?

Bec says:  I would like to hope that when I'm gone people will not have to scrape the barrel to come up with anything nice to say about me. How sad if someone has to read a list of facts instead of eulogising on how I added something positive and meaningful to their lives, without lying through their teeth. I don't want to be remembered as a saint, however I would like to think that it wouldn't be that hard to remember me for being a decent person.

Yeah. I hope the same thing for myself.

It's not just about people saying nice things, but I want people to say nice things that are true.

And they can say bad things too.

I'd rather have a funeral that's honest—bad and good stuff. I don't want a fluffy phony funeral.

22. Decided what I'd most want is funny stuff.

I think the funny stuff is usually the most real.

Plus, funerals can be a drag. It's good if you can add some laughs.

23. Thought it would be much better to have a funeral where people are laughing so hard they're crying than a funeral where people look bored and depressed.

24. Finished watching Water Rats. It was thrilling but predictable as most thrillers are.

There was one thing I didn't expect.

There was a girl in danger. I expected her to be saved but instead she died.

I feel bad that she died but kind of impressed that something unexpected happened.

25. Went to Random.org to pick my next show.

It's the one show on my list that's NOT Australian.

What is it?

Doctor Who!

It's funny, because I've been thinking about the show lately.  I mean JUST today I was thinking about it, and wanting to get back into it. I was thinking that it might be good that I waited several months, because I've had time to get over Matt Smith.  I think I'm ready to embrace a new doctor.

Maybe.

26. Checked out Statcounter.

There's been sixty-two new visits since I checked this morning. So it's not a large increase.

It is more than I usually get in the afternoon, though.

I'll check again later tonight.

27. Started crying over TV shows, which I know is kind of stupid.

My Spotify shuffle played "Wonderful Wonderful" which I associate with Desperate Housewives.  I started thinking about how we were really obsessed with that show two years ago.

Then a year ago, in September, we were watching Doctor Who; and, by myself, I was watching the third season of McLeod's Daughters.

28. Thought that my sadness is probably about longing for the days that we used to watch a TV show together.

29. Remembered back in 2008 when the three of us watched McLeod's Daughters.

I think that's the only Australian show we watched together.

We've watched one British show all together; one Australian; and the rest have been American.

30. Realized I'm probably a very bad person. I'm sad that my teenage son would rather talk at mealtimes than watch a show together.

No...Well, it's not that.

We still talked a lot back when we watched a TV show together.  And having a common show gave us an extra subject to discuss. I think it added to our conversations rather than detracted.

So, I'm not going to see myself as a bad parent for longing for our TV show days.

That being said, we're going to get a little TV-together time, because one of Jack's electives is film/television studies.  This weekend we watched two episodes of The Twilight Zone.

31. Remembered that McLeod's Daughters is not the only Aussie show we watched as a family.

We also watched Bindi, at one point. I can't remember if that was before our second Australia trip or after.

Or maybe it was before the first?

32. Went to the Triple J 2014 list.

Today I'm going to listen to the 52nd song, which is "Sunshine" by Flight Facilities; featuring Reggie Watts

Flight Facilities has another song higher on the list. I've listened to it. Do I remember what it's called?

Nope.  And I also don't remember if I liked it or not.

33. Found the song. It's "Two Bodies".  I don't think I liked it even though it features Emma Louise, who sang that song I like on Offspring.

34. Started to watch video to "Sunshine".

It's interesting, so far. There's a man talking in the beginning. Maybe that's Reggie Watts?

35. Realized the man talking has an American accent.

36. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says Reggie Watts is American.

37. Thought the "Sunshine" video was similar to another video I watched from Triple J.  That one was filmed in Venice Beach, California. This seems to be the case for this video as well.  Or at least somewhere in California. Maybe not Venice Beach.

38. Searched through my blog for "Venice", because I decided that would be easier than trying to remember the song by looking at the Triple J list.

It worked.

I found the song. It's "Maybe" by Carmada.

39. Felt jealousy towards Reggie Watts because in the video, someone is combing his hair.

I love having someone brush, comb, or monkey with my hair. You know, I'd much rather have that than a massage.

Why don't spas ever have that?  Or do they?

I guess they might have scalp massages, but I don't think that would be the same.

40. Realized you could probably just go to a beauty salon. But sometimes the pleasure is subtracted by having to hold your head straight, and all that.

And what if you don't want a haircut, perm, or color change?

41. Thought what might be nice is having someone braid my hair into those tiny little braids.

Maybe I'll do that when we go on the cruise.

I'm not sure I'd like the look of it, though.

42. Explored online.

I think the braiding is more for children.

It's not that I'm against celebrating my inner child. I'm just not sure braiding is how I want to do that.

43. Looked at the info on the "Sunshine" video. They have a thank you message to Venice Beach.   So, that answers that question.

44. Started to watch a Neighbours backstage video.

This is the one about the Erinsborough festival disaster. I was thinking of the trapped-in-the-well thing; but now I realize it's probably when Harold (Ian Smith) drove his car into the festivities.

45. Loved the cupcake display at the festival.





I wonder if they're edible.

And did anyone eat them?

I think pink frosting is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

46. Wished I could have a dream tonight that included someone playing with my hair while I stare at pink cupcakes.

It would be better than last night's dreams.

Well, the Andrew dream was fine. But the other dreams involved vomit—lots of vomit; a fight with my mom, strangers laughing and snickering at me; opting to be shrunk so I could fit into this slot; and finding Julian McMahon turned into a tiny rubber/plastic toy with a mustache.

Yeah. Pink cupcakes would be better.