Taking Advantage of Your Surroundings, Phil Lloyd, Allday, and More American TV Shows

1. Dreamed that, we live near Manhattan but hardly go into the city. I suddenly realize this is wrong and tell Jack this needs to change. We'll take the two needed trains into the city much more often. 

When I woke up, I thought about Australia. Could something like that happen if we moved there? Would I suddenly realize we're not taking full advantage of our surroundings?

I also thought of Fort Worth. Because it seemed wrong to dream and imagine not taking advantage of places we don't actually live if I'm not taking advantage of the place where we DO live.

I decided I'm fine with what we do in Fort Worth. There are places here, and we could go to them more often if we wanted to. But for the most part, we don't want to.  There have been times where we pushed ourselves to explore. Usually, we don't end up being overly thrilled. Often we end up being downright bored and disappointed.

The one place I'd regret not going to more often is the zoo. We do have a nice zoo.  I think it would be a mistake for us not to go there multiple times a year and a mistake not to visit the Botanical Garden one or twice a year.

I decided the biggest thing I'd regret not doing in Fort Worth is going outside. We have so many wonderful birds, lizards, and bugs. I've been trying to go out in our backyard every single day, because I think that's what I'd later regret not doing.

Anyway, I decided it would probably be the same with Australia. My regrets would depend on where we lived. If we lived near a beach and rarely put our toes into the ocean, I'd regret that. If we lived in Sydney and rarely visited the Opera House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Darling Harbour attractions, etc. I think that would be a mistake.

However, if we lived about an hour or two from Sydney, I don't think we'd need to go into the city on a weekly or monthly basis.  I think once a year, or every other year, would probably be enough.  If we lived in the suburbs or a rural area, I think my avoided regrets would be the same as here. I'd want to go outside on a regular basis and enjoy the wildlife and scenery.

2. Learned that John Oliver made comments about Tony Abbott at the Emmys.

I didn't know the Emmys were on recently.

I feel so out of it.

3. Saw from Google that the Emmys were last night.

4. Wondered if Any Australians won.

5. Looked at a list of winners and nominations.

6. Saw that Liev Schreiber was nominated. No, he's not Australian. But he's married to an Aussie, and he once played an Aussie in a movie.

7. Saw that Ben Mendelsohn was nominated for Bloodlines.  I wonder if my parents still watch that. I know they tried the first episode or so. I'm not sure if they continued with it.

8. Started to watch an episode of Review with Myles Barlow.

I'm not too excited about it.

9. Liked what I've seen of this episode, so far, more than the first episode.

10. Liked that although the show is a comedy, it does have a moralistic message at times. For example, Myles Barlow (Phil Lloyd) gave the act of murder only half a star and advised against pursuing that activity.

The show's not too self-righteous, though. In yesterday's episode, they gave rather high ratings to being a thief, being a drug mule, and having a dickhead friend.

11. Liked what Myles Barlow says about believing in yourself.  For me, believing in myself came at the expense of common sense, which I discarded in a bottom drawer as I proudly dusted off my hopes and dreams in order to display them in a shiny glass cabinet of delusion. 

I think it's okay to believe in oneself, as long as we don't discard the common sense. No, we CAN'T actually do anything if we put our mind to it.  We can do a lot of things, and we should be proud and/or grateful for that, but we should also be knowledgable and respectful of our limitations.

12. Thought it was a nice idea to try things that interest us, but we shouldn't feel we're guaranteed to succeed at them simply because we have faith in ourselves.

13. Realized, suddenly, that Phil Lloyd played Tim Mathieson on At Home with Julia.

I can't believe it took me that long to notice that.

What made me realize it is the actress who plays Myles Barlow's wife reminded me of the actress who played Julia Gillard in At Home with Julia.  Now I see there's a good reason for that. She (Amanda Bishop) IS the actress who played Julia Gillard.

14. Started to have more hope that I'll like Review with Myles Barlow.

Phil Lloyd was the creator of the show, and he was also was the writer/creator for A Moody Christmas and At Home with Julia.  I liked both of those shows.

15. Saw that there's going to be an Americanized version of A Moody Christmas. Lloyd is writing that.

I still don't understand why the US has to remake so many Australian and British shows.

16. Went to the Triple J 2014 list.

Today I'm going to be listening to the 65th song, which is "Right now" by Allday.

My browser shows I've consulted Lord Wiki about Allday in the past. Does he have another song on the Triple J 2014 list? Or did I look him up for another reason?

17. Searched and did not see Allday on the list before the 65th song.

18. Looked at Lord Wiki's entry on Allday. I've seen him before, and his song was on the list. He's the rapper, who's also a stand up comedian.

I must have not searched through the list carefully enough.

19. Found the song. It's the 35th one—"You Always Know the DJ".

20. Started watching the video for "Right Now".  I don't think I'll like it. I'm not in the mood for rap at this particular moment.

21. Didn't mind the song despite my anti-rap mood.

22. Saw a comment on YouTube, from someone named Mr AuzzieArtyst, saying that the Allday guy looks like the girl from Caspar (Christina Ricci).  It's kind of true! I didn't notice it before, but now I see it.

23. Decided to do more hunting for Australians in new American TV shows.

24. Saw that the next TV show in the TV Guide article is Blindspot. I already know that has an Australian. I forgot his name, but he's the one from Satisfaction and The Secret Life of Us.

My sister mentioned the show to me on Saturday. She's looking for new shows to watch and said she might try that one.

25. Saw from the TV guide that the name of the Aussie actor on the show is Sullivan Stapleton.

I should probably get that memorized.

26. Saw that Sullivan Stapleton is a few months younger than my OTHER sister.

27. Looked at the next show on TV Guide. It's The Catch.  It's about fraud. It sounds kind of boring to me, personally.

28. Started looking at the cast list for The Catch.

I don't see any Australian names I recognize, but I'll start clicking on the actors.

29. Didn't find any Australians, but I did see an African. That's pretty exciting.

30. Looked at the next show on TV Guide.  It's a spin-off of the show Chicago Fire, called Chicago Med.

31. Saw from the photo that Laurie Holden, from The Walking Dead is one of the stars.

No. She's not Australian. But I watch The Walking Dead, so felt compelled to mention that.

32. Looked at the cast list of Chicago Med. I don't see any Aussie names I recognize, but there might be some I don't know about yet.

33. Clicked on names; did not find any Australians.

34. Decided to watch another episode of Review with Myles Barlow.

35. Saw Brendan Cowell on the episode.

I looked at the cast list on IMDb to make sure my eyes and brain weren't deceiving me and saw that Josh Lawson is one of the guest stars as well. Sometimes I have a hard time recognizing that guy.

36. Finished watching the episode.

I enjoyed it.

For me, the show is more thought-provoking than a laugh-out-loud funny. It's a social commentary thing. This episode dealt with voyeurism/stalking, heroes, fame, and vanity.

The hero segment was probably my favorite. It shows how our society picks the wrong heroes, worships them; then finds their faults, and tears them down.  The story for the segment reminded me of the Karl story on Coronation Street. Like Karl, Myles Barlow becomes a hero by rescuing people from a fire that he purposely started.

37. Decided to look at more TV shows on TV Guide.

The next show is Code Black.  It's about an emergency room in Los Angeles.

Any Australians?

I'm looking at the cast list.

I don't see any names that look familar...well, in terms of being Australian.

There's a Landon Ashworth. That kind of sounds Australian to me.  I don't know why.  Then there's a guy named Razza Jaffrey. He kind of looks Australian to me....like he could be related to the LaPaglia family.

38. Clicked on Razza Jaffrey's name. Close-up, he doesn't look like he's related to the LaPaglias.  It was only in the tiny icon photo saw that I saw the resemblance.

39. Clicked on all the actors that are going to be in more than one episode of Code Black.

I didn't find any Australians.

40. Saw that the next show, on TV Guide is Coach.  It's part of that new trend of resurrecting old TV shows. It's the same coach show that starred Craig T. Nelson a few years ago.

41. Saw that Coach doesn't have a page on IMDb yet.

That's interesting. I wonder what it means.

42. Went to the next show, which I can immediately see has an Australian—Claudia Black. The show is Containment. It's about an outbreak in Atlanta. So it has some similarities to The Walking Dead.

43. Started Looking at the cast list for Containment.

44. Saw that the list is quite long, and the number of episodes listed for each actor is unknown. It's hard to know who are the main stars and who appears in only one episode.

I'll just click on a few random names.

45. Realized many of the characters don't have names.  I'm skipping those.

46. Did not see any Australians besides Claudia Black. But if you're going to have only one Aussie on your TV show, Claudia Black is a great one to have.

47. Considered buying tea tree oil to treat my toe nail fungus. Then I saw that the tree comes from Australia.

Now I'm kind of excited about having toe fungus. It gives me a good excuse to buy something Australian.