Misheard Stuff, Movie Companies, Expecting Immortality, and Relaxed Parenting

1. Started watching an episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

2. Laughed a lot while watching one of the scenes. It involves miscommunications due to technology—a voice-to-text thing.

I love that kind of stuff.

3. Thought that miscommunication might be my favorite type of comedy.

I love auto-correct mistakes, misheard lyrics, and other such things.

4. Looked at pictures of flying kids on the Tinkertines Upsidedown blog.

It's a blog I started reading a few days ago. Though it's not exactly new to me. I found the link on one of my old 2011 blogposts.

The blog is about a Canadian family moving to Australia.

5.  Saw that it's 4:29, and this is all I've written in my blog so far.

I feel a bit behind.

6. Started watching The Boys are Back.

7. Saw that it's a Miramax film—so maybe more British than Australian?

8. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Miramax is an American company.

Oops.

I think I knew that.

I think I just associate it with British films—Howard's End and all that.

9. Learned from Lord Wiki that Howard's End is not Miramax. It's from Merchant Ivory Productions.

Shit.

I'm doing really bad with this.

10. Saw that the film is also a BBC thing.

That IS British. I know that, at least.

11. Saw that the movie is also a Tiger Aspect film. Maybe that's Australian.

12. Saw that Tiger Aspect is not Australian. It's British.

13. Saw that Tiger Aspect is responsible for Charlie and Lola. That earns them ten gold stars in my book.

14. Saw various other companies/entities in the initial credits. Some are Australian.

15. Didn't like the narration at the beginning of the film—mostly because I couldn't hear it.

The sound technician needs to up his (or her) game a bit!

16. Heard more quiet narration.

What's the deal?

17. Saw flashbacks of the deceased mother/wife (Laura Fraser) of the movie.

Why are dead mothers so perfect in flashbacks? They're often very angelic.

I guess it means that if you want a full lifespan, be a bitch of a mother. Don't sing gentle lullabies to your kids and don't read them bedtime stories while stroking their foreheads.

18. Wondered what the mother/wife died from. I'm morbid like that.

She's in the hospital now—collapsed at a party.

19. Liked conversation between Joe (Clive Owen) and Digby (Erik Thomson)

Digby says, She'll be fine. I know she'll be fine.

Joe, the hospitalized woman's husband, says, How do you know? 

Digby: Well, I know she won't let this defeat her.

Joe: What, you know she's immortal?

Why do people say such dumb things to, and about, sick people?

20. Turned on subtitles, by the way. That will help with the quiet parts.

21. Learned that the wife has some kind of abdominal cancer. Maybe bowel.

22. Thought that death scene was sad...and interesting.

The child, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) is very casual about the whole thing. It seems like he doesn't care much. I'm guessing he does. When children are like that, it's hard to know if they're in denial, hiding their feelings, or if they're sociopathic.

23. Saw scene with Joe telling his other son (George MacKay) that his stepmother has died.

I don't know. For some reason that made me more teary than the previous scenes.

24. Liked Joe's response to a woman asking him if his plan of a road trip with his son is a good idea.

He says, I obviously think so.  

If he thought it was a bad idea, would he be doing it?

Well, maybe.

But still.

I like his idea. A road trip seems like a great way to deal with grief.

25. Wanted to groan at what the woman says next.

Running away is never the answer, Joe.

WTF?!  Since when is going on a road trip with your child running away?

If Joe went on a road trip alone while his wife was dying, THAT would be running away.

26. Thought that the woman is a meddling bitch.

I don't know who she is. His mother? Mother-in-law? Aunt?

27. Learned that the woman is a nana. So she's probably not the aunt.

28. Saw that Joe is like Nina Proudman. He gets visits from his dead lover.

Does that really happen to people?

29. Realized I've seen the same thing happen on three Australian shows—Offspring, McLeod's Daughters, and Packed to the Rafters.

Do people really see and talk to vivid manifestations of their loved ones?

If they do, is it common?

30. Thought that Artie is adorable.

31. Thought that Artie's little Aussie classmates are adorable as well.

32. Learned that Joe is a sports writer for The Australian.  He works with Digby, who has been pretty cool, by the way. He hasn't said anything dumb after his unhelpful prediction that everything's going to be fine with the cancer-stricken wife.

33. Felt bad for Joe.

Artie just asked if he could go and live with another family.

Sometimes kids, unintentionally, say very hurtful things.

It's hard. Artie's trying very hard to be a good single dad. And Artie asking to move out surely makes Joe feel like he's failed.

34. Liked Joe's speech about his parenting rules.

I run a pretty lose ship. Basically, I've found that the more rules there are, the more crimes are created. 

Yep!

Though Joe allows some behaviors that are quite dangerous.

I wouldn't be brave enough to say yes to that stuff...especially to the one where he lets Artie sit on the hood of the car while it's in motion.

35. Learned that Joe doesn't allow swearing.

I'd much rather have swearing than the dangerous stuff.

36. Started to understand the basic plot of the movie.

It's a single father taking care of his two sons. One is Artie, the boy who lost his mother. Then there's Harry who lives far away in the UK.  He comes to stay with is father and brother.  I don't think the father and son see each other much, because, on this occasion, Harry and Artie meet each other for the first time.

37. Saw Harry look out his window and see wild kangaroos.

Wow!

38. Learned that the meddling woman from before is named Barbara. With this information, I could find the actress. It's Julie Blake.

Julie Blake has been in a lot of things, including the movie Patrick.

39. Learned that Barbara is Joe's mother-in-law.

40. Learned that Barbara is seeing her dead daughter too.

Hank Green would tell them it's a hallucination, but I'm thinking it could be a visitation. Why not?

41. Though that Harry actually looks a lot like Ron Weasley.

42. Took a break from the movie. I was planning to watch only half today, and the rest tomorrow. It's early, though, and I'm not sure I have that much to do.  I might watch more tonight.

43. Thought about how lately I've been very worried and stressed about various things.  Then I get good news. It's okay. No worries. The thing is I don't feel happy and relieved. I continue to feel scared and sad.

I think it MIGHT be because of what happened on McLeod's Daughters. Tess was so scared that she might have breast cancer. Then she learns she's clear. A few days later, her sister is tragically killed.

Yeah. I'm blaming my mental instability on Australian television.

44.  Thought that maybe it's not mental instability.

Maybe it's just realism.

We're not immortal and life isn't always perfect. Bad things happen—some major and some minor.

45. Listened to Vance Joy singing "From Afar".

It's such a great song.

46. Thought about the movie, and how it's kind of life affirming.

Yeah, bad things happen. But people move on.  They manage to be happy again...usually.  Hopefully.

I think the thing about death that scares me the most is not the loss of one person but the loss of happiness all together.

Joe lost his wife, and he was devastated. But he gets on with life. He has great happy, fun moments with his sons. Well, really just his one son, so far.  Joe and Harry are not fully bonded yet.  I'm sure that will happen by the time the movie is over.

47. Watched some of the "Riptide" video.

I love that song as well; and I like the video. For some reason, I'm drawn to the scene with the bad lip-synching.

48. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.

Today I'm going to look at his Canberra photos.

49. Saw a Hyatt hotel.

I guess this is where palg1305 stayed.

50. Liked this photo for some reason.

I don't know why.  It's not too exciting.

It makes me think of a horror movie. If you click on the picture, you'll likely think I'm nuts.

I'm thinking political devil horror—like The Exorcist or The Omen. That kind of thing.

51. Thought this was a cool photo of Parliament House.

52. Liked palg1304's photo of a cockatoo, black swans, and....other parrot.  I forgot the name of the last parrot.

53. Found the name of the parrot.

Galah!

54. Thought that the Australian War Memorial is beautiful.

I wish we saw it when we were in Canberra.

55. Decided to wait until tomorrow to watch the rest of the movie.

I'm tired, and this post is long enough.