Drunk Behavior, Surprise Visits, Books, and Disabilities

1. Dreamed that I have a baby kangaroo. I go to look for it and instead find Eeyore in the bathroom eating something.

That's the second night in a row that I've dreamed of a baby kangaroo.

I'm going to guess it means something.

2. Started watching an episode of Wicked Science.

3. Finished watching the episode.

4. Learned from Twitter that a Sydney rugby player had sex with a dog. Or he pretended to have sex?

Mitchell Pearce also peed on himself, which wouldn't be that bad, but the pee got on someone's couch.

And he was rude.

5. Thought about how the behavior was alcohol-induced and wondered if Mitchell Pearce is also an asshole when he's sober.

Can alcohol turn a nice guy into an asshole, or does it just make bigger assholes out of already-assholes?

6. Had an idea.

At a certain age, young people should be put through a alcohol test. They should get drunk and then specialists can determine if the drunkedness make them funny, endearing, annoying, obnoxious, and/or dangerous.

If they're funny and endearing, they get a license to drink. If they're dangerous or obnoxious, they get their forehead stamped with a warning label.  If they get the dangerous-label, then it will be illegal for any establishment or person to sell or serve them alcohol.

7. Felt fortunate. When the people in my life drink, they become funny, endearing, and at the worst annoying.

No one becomes extremely obnoxious or dangerous—well, at least from what I've witnessed

8. Decided I'm being generous. I rarely find the drunk behavior endearing. Usually, it's annoying.

9. Changed my mind again.

I've encountered people who are more fun and nice then they drink.

Although that's kind of annoying, because then I wonder if it's them being nice to me or the alcohol.

10. Decided the best drinkers are the ones who are nice and fun when sober and maybe get a little more nice and fun when they drink.

11. Sometimes I'm at some kind of social thing and am acting and feeling silly. I'm having a great time. I feel kind of superior to the people around me who had to intake alcohol in order to achieve the same kind of silly mood.

However, there are times where I'm in a blah mood when I wish I could be in a jolly fun mood. I sometimes wonder if alcohol would fix my mood at those times.

Who knows, though. It might fix it to the degree that I'm trying to have sex with one of the family dogs.

12. Started watching an episode of Home and Away.

13. Felt bad for Sasha (Demi Harman). She comes home early from school to surprise Matt (Alec Snow), and Matt doesn't act happy to see her.

I think, though, that it's usually a mistake to try to gift someone with the surprise of your presence.

The recipient of yourself might not be as excited and happy as you wish them to be.

I think the surprise is more likely to be appreciated if A) the recipient hasn't seen you for awhile and wasn't expecting to see you in awhile. B) You're not interfering with the recipient's plans.

If I was expecting to see someone next Tuesday and instead they show up on Sunday, I'm really not going to be thrilled.  If they're interrupting my schedule for Sunday, I'd be annoyed on top of everything else.

If someone I wasn't expecting to see for months, years, (or maybe never) showed up at my door this afternoon, I'd probably be very excited...IF I liked or loved them.

Due to the fact that I'm a bit anal, I'd probably stress a bit about rearranging my day. But I'd still probably be thrilled.

14. Saw that Sasha came back early because she missed Matt.

I think showing up as a surprise because you miss someone is very different than showing up as a surprise because you see yourself as a gift.

I'd feel bad for both types of surprise visitors if they weren't met with joy. However, the former is quite sadder.

15. Thought of times where surprise visits are almost always going to have a positive result.

A) If done to extremely social people. Very social people will probably appreciate any surprise visit from almost any person.

B) In the peak of the honeymoon period of a relationship.  If your girlfriend is in that state where she can hardly eat because her love for you makes her so nervous, she'll probably be overly thrilled if you surprise her at work.  If you try that with your wife of five years, she'll probably think, What the hell are you doing here? What do you want? Could this not wait until the end of the day when we both get home?

16. Felt happy that Braxton (Stephen Peacocke) surprised his family and friends by pleading not guilty rather than agreeing to eight years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

I think that was a good surprise but probably only because I agree with his decision.

If someone in his family wanted him to plead guilty, it wouldn't be such a good surprise.

It also wouldn't be a good surprise to a family or "friend" who secretly longed for him to be out of the picture for eight years.

17. Decided that Braxton didn't actually mean for it to be a surprise. I don't think he planned the whole thing.

I think it's just he decided at the last minute and didn't have time to give a warning.

18. Saw from IMDb that David Roberts played the judge in the Home and Away scene.

I totally missed that.

I'm going to have to re-watch it.

19. Saw that it really is David Roberts as the judge.

Wow.

It seems kind of strange that a big actor like that would take on such a small role. Although he appears on two further episodes as the judge. Maybe on the other episodes, he has a bigger part.

I guess it could also be like a cameo appearance.

20. Wondered if it's possible that David Roberts just likes to work and takes jobs when he can get them—no matter how big or small.

21. Went to the Tropfest website.

Today I'm going to watch a 2009 finalist film called "Beyond Words".

The synopsis says it's a thriller.

22. Heard noise and then did not hear anything.

Then I saw that the character was deaf.

It's a pretty cool effect.

Last night I had this moment where I started noticing all the sound in my life. It's amazing how almost every little thing we do makes a sound, but most of us rarely notice.

23. Picked up my phone and saw just doing that makes a noise. It was a matter of the phone rubbing up against the pad of paper it was resting on.

24. Picked up a pen.

That actually made no noise, but it did make a noise when I placed it back down on the desk.

25. Heard sound returned to the film.

I wonder if it's going to go back and forth from no sound to sound.

26. Saw that it is indeed going back and forth from sound to no sound.

I wonder what the point of that is.

27. Saw that the movie also has a blind person, and in honor of him, sometimes the film goes dark.

28. Thought this film's point of view seems very random.

I think it would have been better if they made it more consistent—have one half of the film with no sound and then the other with no visual

As it is, it's just goes randomly back and forth. There's sound; then no sound. There's usually visual; then once in awhile there's a brief moment of darkness.

29. Thought that the blind character's voice sounds like Kane from House Husbands. I forgot the actor's name, but he's in another 2009 Tropfest finalist film.

30. Saw from the credits that the actor is Gyton Grantley.

So, in 2009 he starred in two Tropfest films. Well, he was in at least two finalist films that I know of. He might be in even more finalist films, and he might be in non-Finalist Tropfest films.

31. Thought it would be funny if an actor tried to be in as many Tropfest films as possible.

32. Looked at Gyton Grantley's filmography.

According to that, he was in only the two 2009 Tropfest films.

33. Had reading time with Jack.

For my reading, I read part of a sample of The Rosie Project.

So far, it's about Aspergers.

I like it, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to download it.

I'm at the point of auditioning books.

My new thing is to read seven books at a time—not including classics Jack and I are reading together for our English curriculum.

I finished a book earlier this week, so now I'm trying to find a book to replace it.

I had this Israeli book I liked—a true story about a friendship between a famous Israeli and famous Palestinian. But then I saw it was expensive—more than the typical price for e-books. Usually, I try to buy books that are LESS than the usual price.

The other book that's a top contender is, Me Before You—the book that's going to have a movie adaptation featuring Stephen Peacocke.  I liked the sample, so it might become my seventh book.

If I end up liking The Rosie Project a lot, I'll put that second in line. I'm almost done with Ten Days in a Madhouse, so I'll soon need to replace that one with something.

34. Realized that The Rosie Project kind of put me in a bad mood.

It talks about how people see Aspergers as a disorder—a problem.

That attitude really gets to me.

The protagonist of the book believes the same way I do. I guess that's one thing that's making me want to get the book. But then there's a part of me that worries he's going to change his mind.

35. Doubted that's going to be the case.

I should probably not worry about it.

36. Felt that seeing people with Aspergers as being inferior is really no different than seeing people as inferior because they have darker skin or because they are attracted to people of the same gender as themselves.

37. Went to "Beyond Words" on IMDb.

38. Saw that Aramand De Saint-Salvy didn't add anything to his filmography after "Beyond Words".

I'm starting to have doubts that being a Tropfest finalist is a helpful step in the film career ladder.

39. Saw that Charlotte Gregg, the main actress in the film, starred on a TV show called Out of the Blue.

It was on the year before "Beyond Words" was released.

Besides that, it seems she mostly does guest appearances on TV shows.

In 2013, she was on an episode of Wonderland that I've seen. I don't remember who she played, though.

40.. Saw that the attacker (Socratis Otto)  in "Beyond Words" is one of the stars of Wentworth.

I haven't had the pleasure of seeing him yet, because he comes in at season two. I've seen only the first season.

41. Wondered if Socratis Otto is related to Miranda Otto, and that other Otto.

Who's the other Otto?

It's a filmmaker....

I totally forgot.

42. Remembered. It's not a filmmaker. It's an actor.

Barry Otto.

Although maybe he's made films too.

43. Saw that Socratis Otto was also in iFrankenstein.

Miranda Otto was in that too.

44. Looked at Socratis Otto's IMDb biography. It doesn't mention a relation to the other Otto's.

45. Learned from this article title, that Otto plays a transgender person on Wentworth.

46. Started to read the article; then stopped. I'm afraid it's going to have way too many spoilers.

47. Saw that Armand de Saint-Salvy has a website.

It looks like he does commercials.

So, even though Tropfest didn't boost de Saint-Salvy into a big film career; it may have helped his advertising career.

48. Learned that de Saint-Salvy does TV promos—it seems mostly for reality television.

49. Saw that de Saint-Salvy was a finalist in the Superbowl Doritos commercial contest.

I remember hearing about that.

I don't think I ever watched any of the commercials.

50. Watched de Saint-Salvy's promo for a show called Haunting.  Like "Beyond Words", it involves a scared woman.

51. Watched Saint-Salvy's video about the Deaf Society hip-hop.

I wonder if he has a personal interest in deafness.

The video had the same message as the one I like to see about Aspergers and Autism. It speaks out against the idea of deafness being a disability.

52. Felt that there IS a such thing as a disability.

I think we go too far if we try to totally eliminate the word from our vocabulary.

My feeling is that if a condition causes people to lack something, but they're stronger than average in another skill or attribute; then it's a difference or syndrome; not a disability.

53. Thought that someone could argue that missing something has made them stronger because they've had to work harder.  That might be the case, but I'd describe it as their disability making them stronger. I wouldn't see it as not-having-a-disability.

54. Decided that people with deafness, Aspergers, schizophrenia, blindness, dwarfism, missing limbs, dyslexia, diabetes, etc. can decide for themselves if they want to see their trait/traits as a disability or not.

The problem, though, is everyone has a different opinion. You can might meet one deaf person who talks about her disability. Then you mention deafness as a disability to another person, and they become horribly offended.

55. Realized maybe I'm being unfair to people who see autism/Aspergers as a disorder.

It's all a matter of perspective.

I see someone like Sheldon Cooper and think yeah, he's annoying, but he's also awesome. Someone else might see him and think it's sad that he has such a crippling mental disorder.

56. Thought that while I see having diabetes and Cystic Fibrosis as a disability, other people might think it's just a difference.

I'm trying to imagine someone saying. Yes, my mucus is a bit thick, and I can hardly breathe sometimes. But CF is a difference not a disability.

57. Thought of how some people have given me the idea that they see me as being disabled. For example, there was someone who saw my obsession with Australia as being part of a mental problem.

58. Wanted to say that in my PERSONAL opinion, mild Autism/Aspergers is not a disability.

I do feel that things like cancer, epilepsy, diabetes, quadriplegia, etc. are disabilities.

59. Wondered if there ARE people out there who believe their diabetes, epilepsy, CF, etc. is not a disability.

60. Googled things like Cystic Fibrosis is not a disability and diabetes is not a disability.

I didn't easily find anyone making that argument.

61. Wondered if I just imagined there are people who are against the word disability.

62. Looked up the definition of disability.

I got:

a condition (such as an illness or an injury) that damages or limits a person's physical or mental abilities 

the condition of being unable to do things in the normal way : the condition of being disabled

With the second definition, you can fit in a ton of things—pretty much anyone that doesn't fit into the majority.  

Although I guess the key word is unable. There's a difference between being unable to do what the majority does, and having an inclination that makes you less likely to do or want what the majority does.  

63. Started reading a website about disabilities—what's accepted terminology, and what is not.

It seems for the most part, the word disability is okay.

The site says this about autism, blindness, and deafness. Some people who are autistic, blind, deaf, and a few other disabilities embrace their disability as a minority identity. 

They seem to have a different viewpoint than the deaf hip-hop video, though. Further down, they say,  They are not dismissing the fact that they are disabled - but they are dismissing it as a negative experience. I am autistic. I am an aspie. I am deaf. I am blind. I am disabled.

I think some people DO disagree about the disability label.

64. Thought about how I've also seen the mad pride movement—people who don't see their schizophrenia, or other mental...uh difference? as a disability.

It might seem outlandish to some but then we should remember that at one time homosexuality was seen as a mental illness.

65. Thought again that it's all a matter of opinion.

I can look at someone and see them as disabled, but they don't see themselves that way.

I can look at someone and think that they're not disabled, and they might disagree with me.

66. Thought again about the person who thought it was a problem that I get obsessed with things.

She herself had been obsessed with things and saw it as a problem. To her it was a disability. To me, it's not.

67. Thought about how I saw myself as having an eating disorder, but my parents thought I was just dieting and were very impressed with my willpower, intense exercise regime, and weight loss.

68. Thought of how I had a conflict with some people online because they saw themselves as being mentally ill, and I saw them as being quirky.

69. Thought about how it's hard to agree with other people about how to label ourselves and each other.

70. Thought about how topics like this really confuse me.

It's kind of stressing me out.

71. Decided that I very much like being able to hear, so in my opinion, deafness is a disability. But if I was born deaf, there's a very good chance I'd feel differently.

72. Watched the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead, which features the young Aussie actress Alycia Debman-Carey.

When watching her scenes, I saw Debman-Carey as an Aussie girl who struck gold during pilot's week rather than an American teen dealing with the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.

I don't think this is because Debman-Carey did a bad job getting into character.

I think it's because I saw her in that acting documentary, so I'm used to Debman-Carey playing (being) herself.

Sometimes a role (even if it's real) sticks with me, and it's hard for me to get used to the actor as another character.

But I bet within a few episodes, I'll see Debman-Carey as her character rather than Debman-Carey the actress.

73. Realized there's a second non-white actor on Home and Away—Pia Miller, born in Chile.  She plays the police officer.

Here I thought it had an all white cast, but it's more like my brain forgot or missed the non-white people.

So Home and Away has a lot of white people, but they also have a Latina actress and a Maori actor.

74. Thought about how Fear the Walking Dead has a very racially mixed cast. But if it's anything like it's parent-show, the black actors aren't going to keep their job for very long.


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