Food Stores, Oscar's Love for Maddie, Atrocities, and Swedish Astronauts

1. Dreamed that, my sister Melissa informs me there's a contest where they're asking people to come up with a recipe for Australian Ramen noodles. I have an idea for it in my mind. It involves a broth that's somewhat sour. I had it in Australia. But then I start thinking just because I had it in Australia, it doesn't mean it's Australian. They probably want something that has more of an Aussie theme. I can't think of any good ideas.

Ramen noodles were on my mind, because Jack bought some when we went to a Mexican grocery store this weekend. They had a larger variety of flavors than the grocery store where we usually shop.

It's kind of like my dream, though. We bought Ramen noodles at a Mexican grocery store, but they're not a Mexican food. They had a lot of food besides Mexican food there. The week before we went to the Korean grocery store, and there was a lot of food that's not Korean.  It's because they're regular grocery stores and not speciality shops.

I don't know if speciality shop is the right word. I'm picturing small stores that people don't use for their usual weekly grocery shopping.  They're there for people to pick up a few special items. In London, we went to an Australian food shop like that. In DFW, we have a British food shop. I don't think British people would go there to get their groceries. They'd probably just go to pick up a few things they're homesick for. And people like us go, so we can experience small samples of British snacks.

The Korean and Mexican stores are real grocery stores. They're different from the mainstream grocery stores, because you can find a larger amount of Mexican or Korean food there. But then they also have a lot of other things.

2. Started watching an episode of Home and Away.

3. Failed to understand the Oscar (Jake Speer) and Maddie (Kassandra Clementi) storyline.

Oscar dumped Maddie when she had cancer. It seemed to me it was because he lost interest in her, but he later blamed it on bad timing.

Bad timing? Because she has cancer?

Maddie still has cancer, but the chemo worked well this time, and it looks like she's going to recover. Now Oscar is showing interest again.

What the hell?

Oscar couldn't be with her when the going went rough, but now that she's doing well, his feelings have magically returned.

What really boggles my mind is that Maddie is okay with all this. Well, she doesn't even know that Oscar has romantic feelings for her, but she has feelings for him.  I think, though, that she hopes he has feelings for her.

4. Decided it might make a little sense.

If Maddie has strong feelings for Oscar, she might want him at any cost. She might want him so badly that she can forgive for him being a fair-weathered boyfriend.

5. Finished watching the episode.

6. Started watching an episode of Killing Time.

7. Disgusted with the prison guard (Steve Hayden) who tries to tempt Andrew Fraser (David Wenham) with cocaine.

8. Thought about what I said the other day. Prison wouldn't be such a bad place if there weren't asshole fellow prisoners. The show's reminding me that there are abusive guards as well.

It's sad.

9. Saw the prison guard punch Fraser when Fraser rejected the cocaine.

Then the show cuts to a scene with policer officers being killed in cold blood.

This series really shows the dark side of humanity.

10. Thought of the various reasons why humans do extremely horrible things to each other.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking there's A) pure cruelty—the enjoyment of seeing someone else suffer B) Senselessness and a lack of empathy—using people for a means to an end.  C) Feeling there's no other choice. It's a requirement.

With the prison guard tempting Fraser with cocaine, it seemed very much like A. Although there could have also been greed involved. He probably wanted to make a sale but at the same time, he enjoyed making Fraser squirm. He liked the idea of getting Fraser back on drugs.

11. Decided that A is often combined with B and C.

I think most Nazis were C, but then some of them were also A.

12. Thought that criminals who killed the cops were mostly B. They shot the police for revenge, because some other cops had killed one of their friends. The shooters MIGHT have enjoyed seeing the police beg for their life and then fall down dead. I think for the most part, though, it was about a means to an end.

13. Tried to think of examples of A that's not mixed with B and C.

At first I thought of serial killers. Maybe sometimes they kill just for the thrill and enjoyment of murdering someone. But I think sometimes they might feel they're serving some kind of purpose.

I'm thinking of the Snowtown Murders. They thought they were ridding the world of pedeophiles and homosexuals.

It's hard to know, though, whether people truly feel they have a reason for their abuse and/or homicide or whether they're just making up a reason to justify their actions.

14. Saw an actor that looked familar to me.

Fortunately the character's name was mentioned, so it was easy to find him on IMDb.

It's David Serafin from Neighbours!  He played Dimato, the car thief guy.

15. Felt sad for the crying prisoner who ends up committing suicide.

He seemed really sad.

16. Went to the Tropfest website.

Today I'm going to watch a 2011 finalist film called "Den Sista Galaxonaut".

The description says the film is about a man named Sven Larsson who was the first man on the moon.

I thought Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon.

Now I'm confused.

17. Googled Sven Larsson and moon, and the only thing I found related to that is a link to the film I'm about to watch.

Maybe this is an alternate history type thing. Or maybe the moon is a symbol for something else.

18. Decided I should just watch the film.

19. Wondered if the Swedish in the film is real-Swedish, or...not.

This film is making me feel very stupid.

20. Thought the film was very cute...at least what I've seen so far.

It's a black and white mockumentary.  It looks like it was made in the 1950's.

It kind of reminds me of an Ed Wood kind of thing.

21. Had a feeling that, although the characters are Swedish,  the film was made by and stars Australians.

I could be wrong, though.

22. Continued to wonder if the Swedish dialogue is real Swedish.

I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Swedish language, so I have no idea.

23. Saw a glimpse of names in the credits.

None of them looked Swedish to me.

24. Saw from IMDb that one of the two directors is an American—a guy named Jaymes Brixton who changed his name from Alexander George.

The other director is Tyrone Lindqvist. That's a Swedish name, right?

Lindqvist also played Sven, the guy who goes to the moon.

25. Wondered if Lindqvist is Swedish-Australian, Swedish-American, Swedish-Swedish, or none of the above.

26. Googled Tyrone Lindqvist, and learned from Lord Wiki that there's an alternative music group in Sydney that features a Tyrone Lindqvist.

Is it the same from the film?

27. Found a video about Rufus, the dance group.

The Tyrone Lindqvist looks like the one in the film...maybe?  Or at least both Lindqvists look stereotypically Swedish.

28. Found a blog post from someone who worked on the production design for "Den Sista Galaxonaut".

The film was made in a studio in Redfern. So, at least I was right about it not being made in Sweden.

29. Continued to wonder if the Tyrone Lindqvist from the film is the same one in the musical group.

I glanced at a few articles/interviews about Rufus, and didn't see any mention of "Den Sista Galaxonaut".

Maybe the two Lindqvists are not one and the same. But I don't know for sure.

30. Felt embarrassed about the man-on-the-moon thing.  I can't believe I started to question the Neil Armstrong thing.

Here's my excuse. It's the whole ethnocentric American thing. We're taught that one of ours is the best thing and the first that, blah, blah, blah. But then you learn, no...it really wasn't an American who was the first.  It was someone else.

But really. The moon?

I don't know what I was thinking.

Well...maybe I was thinking that Sven Larsson was the first person to orbit the moon, and Neil Armstrong was the first to step on it.

Actually, I wasn't thinking that, though....at least not consciously. It was more like I was wondering why this Tropfest film was contradicting something I had always believed to be true.

That DOES happen.You spend your whole life thinking Pluto is a planet.Then someone comes along and tells you it's not.

31. Wondered why I didn't immediately guess that "Den Sista Galaxonaut" was science fiction.

Once I started watching the film, I quickly figured it out.  But before that....

32. Scrolled up to see what I wrote. I suggested that it might be "alternate history".

It's like I forgot the concept of science fiction even existed.