I Have To Speak Up In Defense of Zane Bennett

I was actually kind of loving H20: Just Add Water. I loved the theme song, the characters, the actors, the writing, the setting, etc.

Now I'm watching the last episode of the first season, and the show has made me furious.

Why?

I'm hating the way that Zane Bennett (Burgess Abernethy) is being treated.

Zane starts off as a stereotypical wealthy, spoiled bully.  But as time goes on, Zane displays a much softer side.  

This softer side might have come about because Zane's life was saved by a mysterious sea creature. He becomes obsessed with learning more, and the people in his life belittle him for having an idea that is a bit out there.

One of the people who is a total bitch about Zane's obsession is Rikki (Cariba Heine).  Every time, Zane brings up the mystery, Rikki pretty much tells him to shut up.  She even bribes him to keep quiet by offering to go on a date with him.  

Now I tried to give Rikki the benefit of the doubt. The thing is, she's a mermaid and she and her friends worried that if their secret came out, they'd become scientific experiments.  

Maybe because of Trump, I'm a bit oversensitive to the anti-science thing.  But could we one day have a science fiction/fantasy show where the scientists aren't presented as evil murderers? Of course, scientists would want to study humans who turn into mermaids, but might they do it in a humane way?  Is it really guaranteed that scientists would do cruel experiments on humans and then dissect them? Is it possible that maybe the scientists would take a few tissue samples, do a few harmless tests, and then send the mermaids home? 

Anyway...back to Zane.  I felt bad for the guy but also could sort of understand why the mermaid girls wanted to keep their secret.

Okay, but in this season finale episode, Zane ends up finding out the truth. This comes from a secret camera that some scientists had hidden. He then finds himself face to face with the mermaids, one of them being his girlfriend Rikki.  Zane doesn't scream with fear. He doesn't act angry that the secret was kept from him.  He doesn't rub his hands in evil glee. He's very kind to Rikki. His attitude seems to be more of wonderment.  

Rikki, in return, is a total bitch to him and seems to be blaming him for everything. Why? Because he pursued the whole mermaid thing. The guy had a life-saving encounter with something magical, and he didn't have the decency to just let it go.  Really. WTF? What is the show trying to say—that if something very unusual happens to us, we should shut up and forget about it?  

I can imagine if Zane had talked about wanting to make money off the deal, or if he had some nefarious plan.  But really. He just wanted people to believe him, and he wanted to get more information about what had happened to him. Is there really something wrong with that?  

I think I'm getting really worked up about a TV show. Sorry.  

It just bothers me on so many levels.

I'm going to blame Trump again.

A lot of us complain about all the evil Trump is doing. What do his supporters say? Get over it.  

No. 

If we don't like what's happening in the world, we have a right to speak out about it.

If we see something amazing, we have the right to want to learn more. We have the right to try to study it.  

If we have an amazing, maybe-supernatural experience, we have the right to talk about it without being immediately ridiculed.  

So...Zane.  I know you are a fictional character, but still...I am TOTALLY on your side.  Now I'm going to finish watching the episode and hope that those mermaids start treating you better.  


How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts 

The One Good Thing about Donald Trump Being President

I really wanted to write a post about Donald Trump, but I hate writing non-Australian posts on my blog.  So I'm going to use this article as an excuse.  It says that Trump might make it harder for Australians (and others) to visit America. Visitors might have to be interviewed before being let inside.

What kind of interview? Would it be a long and scary interview?  Or would it be like the short, easy interview that we go through when we visit Australia? From what I remember, the immigration officials just quickly asked us where we were staying and whether we were there for business or pleasure.

Does the US not have that?  Is that what's going to be added? Or is that short question session standard in all countries, and the US is going to add some kind of grueling question session?

Anyway, my initial feeling when reading the article was, why would foreigners WANT to visit the US now?  I personally would wait four years, and hopefully things will go back to being relatively-kind of great.

But I vaguely remember talking to someone who told me he likes to visit countries before they go completely to shit...take that last chance. So maybe some foreigners might want to come to the US before we completely implode. Or they might want to come before most of the world's population dies in a nuclear war.

Anyway...let me get onto the other thing I wanted to talk about—the one good thing about Donald Trump.  This is coming from me who is in no way a Trump supporter.  I hate the man.  Of course, if a Trump supporter is reading this, I totally understand that, for them, there will be more than one good thing about Trump. It's all about perspective.

MY one good thing about Trump is that I think he's giving us great guidance in how NOT to act.  I predict that we will see a lot of behavior improvements —in ourselves, family members, partners, co-workers, neighbors, friends, etc.

This would probably only apply to haters of Trump or people who feel so-so about Trump. People who are fans of Trump might actually use Trump's behavior as something to aspire to.

Now I'm going to guess that most of us anti-Trump people are open to immigration and believe in the fair and decent treatment of people of all genders, sexual preferences, abilities, ethnic groups, religions, etc. So I don't think Trump's behavior is going to be much of a wake-up call in that direction.

Well...,maybe for some it will?  Maybe there are people who are a tiny bit bigoted and seeing the ugly, overt bigotry of some Trump fans will make them want to let go of their bigotry.

But besides that...here is my list.  Sorry it took so long for me to get to it.

1. I think Trump will help people realize that it is NOT okay to lie and/or engage in gaslighting tactics. Yes, it's okay to say your husband looks good in that ugly new shirt he bought. And yes, it's not so bad to tell your Aunt Ida that you love her dry chocolate cake.

But it is very much NOT okay to claim something didn't happen when it in fact did happen. And this lying is even worse when someone has actually witnessed it happening.

If you spilled coffee on the couch, and your partner asks about it, tell her the truth!  Don't let her start wondering if someone broke into the house and spilled coffee.  Don't let her start believing you guys have a poltergeist...or worse, lead her into believing that she spilled the coffee, and she can't remember it, because she's losing her mind.

If your partner actually saw you spill the coffee with her own very eyes and mentions it a week later, don't sit there and try to deny it. PLEASE! just own up to it.

If you did something worse than spilling coffee-whether intentional or not- let the injured person be angry. Apologize and try to make amends. You're not doing yourself or them any favors by denying it happened. They MIGHT pretend to believe you, and they might pretend they're okay with things, but they're probably stewing inside. Or they're questioning their sanity, and their self-worth is plummeting.

I'll give you one exception. If the person you wronged is dangerous and might kill you if they know you've wronged them? Well, then it might be a good idea to lie. And you should probably run and hide as well.

Edited to add 2/6/2019-Two years later, I l have lost most hope on the above. I know a gaslighter who despises Trump but has shown no remorse or willingness to change over his own gaslighting and manipulative practices. 

2. I think Trump will help us reduce our preoccupation with the physical appearance of women.

I think there will be less people rating women 1-10 on their appearance. There'll be less enthusiasm over beauty pageants. If a woman makes us mad, we'll be less likely to say things like, She's an ugly fat bitch. 

Look at the women that you adore and that adore you. If most of them are young, thin, and physically attractive; maybe take a good look at yourself.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with being attracted to youth and beauty. But there is a problem if you value it too highly, and you have a lack of respect for women who are older and less thin.

3. I think men will make more of a conscious effort not to do inappropriate things with their daughters.

Obviously, decent men already know that they shouldn't have sex with their daughters. They already know that they shouldn't touch their daughters genitals, take nude photos of their daughters, masturbate in front of their daughters, etc.

But there are little things that should also be avoided. Don't talk about wanting to date your daughter if she wasn't your daughter. Don't touch your daughter in a way that's romantically affectionate rather than father-daughter affectionate. Don't take photos of your daughter that make it obvious that you're concentrating way too much on her breasts, butt, or legs.

Now sometimes accidents happen, and I hope no fathers, uncles, or grandfathers are beating themselves up over it. Once my grandfather kissed me on the lips. I had no feeling whatsoever that he was trying to molest me.  I think it was just one of those awkward moments where we both moved our faces the wrong way.

One day a dad might accidentally bump into his daughter, hit her breasts, say something awkward to cover up the mishap. He ends up saying something that makes things more awkward....

Things like that happen. If it happens to you as a parent and you feel kind of mortified; well...then you're probably okay.

4. I think Trump's behavior will encourage people to show more kindness and consideration to their partners at social events.

I personally do not think it's necessary to open car doors or pull out chairs at restaurants. I'm not into that kind of stuff.

But we should all make sure that when we enter a party or other event with someone, that we walk WITH them and not walk way ahead of them.  Edited to add 2/6/19-Another thing done to me by a passionate Trump hater.

We don't need to cling to our partners at social events. We all need our space. But we should try hard to remember to act with consideration, kindness, and love.

5. I think Trump has shown the ugliness of excessive bragging.

Almost everyone toots their own horn every so often. That's fine.

It's ugly, though, to do it on a regular basis.

It's great that you think you're great, but you don't need to work so hard to convince other people of your greatness. Doing so doesn't make you look great. More likely it makes you look weak, pathetic, and desperate.

If you're the type of person who likes to promote your greatness, you might be thinking, Well, I know it's wrong to brag. But it IS okay to spread the news when other people say good things about me.  Right?

No! Please!  Stop!

It's fine in very small doses. If someone has written a great review of your newest novel, yeah sure.  It's fine to pass that onto your family, friends, and supporters. But don't be emailing out positive reviews on a frequent basis. You don't need to forward all the glowing emails of praise that are sent to you. Keep some of them for your own private enjoyment.

Do not use bragging or other people's positive opinion of you as a defense for criticism.  If your son complains that you yell at him too much, don't respond by taking out the positive letters your high school students wrote to you.

If your husband complains that you criticize him too much, don't take out the leadership award you won three years ago.

Don't go on and on about all the people who adore you, especially when you're talking to someone that's unhappy with your behavior. It really doesn't help your case. Well, it MIGHT make you feel better, but it's unlikely to make the other person feel better about you. If you want to improve someone's opinion of you, I think the best thing to do is treat them better.    

6. I think Trump will reduce the amount of false promises made.

We probably all have times where we truly think we can deliver something, and things don't happen the way we expected. Then we can apologize and hope that we're understood and forgiven.

But don't make promises to distract people or shut them up.

Instead of saying, I promise that next year we'll have enough money to go on a luxury trip to Europe, maybe something like, Well things are kind of tight right now, but hopefully in the future things will get better, and then maybe we can take a trip somewhere.

I know some self help books push an attitude of Yes-we-can! and You can do it!  But I think phrases like, We'll try and maybe are underrated.

Writing yes-we-can just reminded me that Trump definitely is not the first politician to be full of promises. I think, though, that he does it a bit more than others? Or I could be wrong. I'm not sure.

Well, you know, I think I know the difference. I think many other politicians promise things that they know they might not be able to deliver, but they sincerely want to deliver it. They just kind of downplay the fact that they'll have to deal with congress/parliament, etc. I think with Trump, he's promising things he has no interest in delivering. He just want to get attention and/or support.

7. I think Trump will get people to reduce to amount of positive adjectives they use.

There's probably going to be a reduction of words like "great", "the best", "tremendous", "wonderful" etc.

I'm probably guilty of this at times. I like using happy-positive words. Like some of the other things I mentioned above, it's fine in small doses.

8. I think we will hopefully see less people responding to criticism with insults.

If someone writes something negative about you, either defend yourself intelligently or simply ignore the criticism. Don't try to defend yourself by claiming your critic is a loser, underrated, or that their business is failing.  These types of comments look especially bad if your critic is highly successful and celebrated. Then you're just making yourself look totally ridiculous. But even if they ARE unsuccessful?  I'd say the critic still has a right to share their opinion.


Okay I know this post is super long.  But before I go, I have two more Trump things to add.

A) If you haven't yet seen this Dutch video about Trump, I highly recommend it.  It's hilarious and very well done.  (See the positive adjectives there? Am I overdoing it?)

I think that even some Trump supporters might enjoy it.  I think someone would have to be a very closed-minded, fanatic Trump fan to hate the video.

B) I'm reading a novel written by Donald Trump's nephew, and so far I'm liking it a lot.  The book is called The Misadventures of Oliver Boothe: Life in the Lap of Luxury.  Oliver Boothe's personality seems quite similar to Trump's.  The writing reminds me a bit of JK Rowling's descriptions of the Dursleys.

I imagine Trump has relatives that do NOT support him but yet feel pressured to keep quiet and/or pretend that they support him. I feel for them. I also feel for the Trump family members who love Trump but at the same time dislike what he's doing or saying.  It must be really hard to put on a facade of full support when, at the same time, they want to publicly bitch him out.




How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts 

From Mermaids to Vampires

Yesterday I started watching H20: Just Add Water.

It's actually one of the first Australian shows we encountered. I remember seeing a few moments of the show during our first trip to Australia. We thought the show was crap, and I think we developed a negative stereotype about Australia's scripted television.

Fortunately, since then, I've consumed a lot of Aussie TV and now know that a lot of it is quite wonderful.

And strangely, nine years later, upon giving H20: Just Add Water a second chance, I'm finding that I actually like the show. I'm not sure if I was too critical back in 2007, or, if by now, my standards have lowered.

It might be the latter.

H20: Just Add Water is a Jonathan M Shiff production. I've seen many of his shows—Thunderstone, Pirate Islands, Scooter: Secret Agent, Wicked Science, The Elephant Princess, and Reef Doctors.

Most of these shows are entertaining but often corny, and sometimes the acting and writing isn't overly impressive.  All but one of the shows mentioned above are geared towards children and tweens, so to be fair, I'd need to compare them to their American counterparts.

When Jack was younger we watched a few of Dan Schneider's Nickelodeon shows. It's just my opinion, but I think their quality was slightly higher than the Jonathan M Shiff stuff. But still. All of it is kind of Cheetos-quality, and not gourmet-cheese-with-crackers-and-raw honey quality.

Either way, I enjoy all of it. I'm glad I can use my interest in expanding my cultural knowledge of Australia, and the world, as an excuse to watch tween shows.

Anyway....

What I really wanted to talk about in this post is that two of the stars (Phoebe Tonkin and Claire Holt) are now (were?) in the American show The Originals.  I remember looking at that show, in the past, when researching another Aussie show.  If I remember correctly, it was the second season of The Elephant Princess.  It makes me wonder if the casting staff of The Originals has some kind of connection to Shiff.

I'm trying to understand The Originals now. I thought Tonkin had a bigger role than Holt. because she's listed as being in all 79 episodes of the series, and Holt is listed as being in only 29. But then Holt's character is mentioned in the character description and Tonkin's is not.  I'm not sure what's up with that.

Now I'm consulting Lord Wiki....

Holt plays Rebecca Mikaelson, and the show centers on the Mikaelson family. They're ancient vampires...the ORIGINAL vampires. Then Tonkin is a werewolf.  She gets pregnant with Rebecca's brother's child. So in Australia, Tonkin and Holt are mermaid sisters. In vampire-land, Holt would be an aunt to Tonkin's hybrid kiddo.

I'm going to jump through the cast of The Originals and try to find the rest of the Australians.  I think the one from The Elephant Princess was a black guy. That's about all I can remember. Maybe that will make it easy to find him.

Ah! I found him. It's Eka Darville.  He plays Diego. According to Lord Wiki's cousin, Diego is a vampire.

There are other Australians in the cast.

One actor is Oliver Ackland.  He too is a Jonathan Shiff alumni—Pirate Islands.  But he's not from the season/series that I watched.

Claudia Black, from Farscape, was in six episodes of The Originals. She plays a witch.

Peta Sergeant plays Francesca Guerrera.  Like Tonkin's character, Francesca is a werewolf.

I decided I should probably check back up towards the top of The Originals cast list and see if I'm missing anyone more substantial.

I'm glad I did.

There's Rebecca Breeds.  She's been in fourteen episodes, and plays a vampire named Aurora de Martel.  She's the first vampire created by Rebekah (Holt).

There's Nathanial Buzolic.  IMDb doesn't list him as being from Australia, but I saw Hacksaw Ridge in his filmography.  I think most people in that movie are Aussies. But to confirm I looked down. One of the first things listed is Home and Away.  So...there you go.

Buzolic plays one of Rebekah's siblings.

There really ARE a lot of Australians in The Originals.

I just found another. Andrew Lees.  He looks familar to me. I gotta scroll down to find out why I recognize him.

He played Wes on Dance Academy.

I don't remember him.

Speaking of Dance Academy. I think THAT is a tween show that greatly surpasses both the Jonathan Shiff stuff and the Dan Schneider stuff.

I just consulted Lord Wiki's cousin. He reminded me that Wes was the guy that Abigail dated when she did her international traveling.

On The Originals, Lees plays Lucien who is a vampire-antagonist.  I mean he's a vampire and he's an antagonist on the show...not an antagonist to vampires.  Though he's probably an antagonist to some vampires.

Anyway, that's about it for now.

I just added The Originals to my To-Watch list. Who knows if I'll ever get to it. The list is quite long.

I'm overwhelmed by all the TV shows out there.


 

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-beloved to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts 

Trying to Come Up With An Australian Name

Last night I had this long and elaborate dream about being pregnant.

I wasn't happy at all about the pregnancy. I didn't look forward to the loss of sleep or the pain of labor.  Actually, I dreaded it so much that, at some point in the dream I hoped for the baby to be dead. 

The thing most on my mind, though, throughout the dream was coming up with a name for the baby. One of the ideas I considered was having an Australia-related name.  For some reason, Adelaide came to mind, and also Australia.  But in the dream, I thought about how I had heard naming your child Australia is illegal.

I think that actually is true in real life, and not just my dream. But I think that's only the case in Australia. I think elsewhere, it is probably okay to name your child Australia.  

Even though I'm not pregnant and in no way want to be, I'm kind of plagued this morning by the idea of needing to come up with an Australia-related baby name.  

I suppose Sydney would be the most logical choice. Sydney is my favorite city in Australia. It's the one most important to me.  It's a bit common, though—not a conversation starter.  It's not a name that would make people ask questions, giving me the chance to blab on and on about my Australia-love.  

Then again, I'm not sure if I like answering small-talk conversations—especially ones I hear repeatedly.  And there's also the fact, that I tend to attract people in my life who prefer to talk about themselves over asking questions.  So...kind of a mute point.

Another name I thought of this morning was Acland, for Acland street in St. Kilda, Melbourne. We stayed on that street during our 2013 trip.  I liked staying there.

I'm not sure if I like the sound of the name, though.  

I'm repeating it over and over right now.

Maybe I do like it.

I was just thinking that my favorite place name in Australia is Woolloomooloo. We gave that name to a Koala stuffed animal, a few years back.  Then later I learned we were mispronouncing it.  Either way, I love the name.  

I'm not sure if that name would be appropriate for a child in the U.S.  But since the child is imaginary, she (or he) is getting it.  


Now I'm looking at the article I had seen about banned baby names.  It's about Victoria in particular, but maybe applies to the other Aussie states?   Australia IS on there, but not any other Australia-related terms.  Most of them are titles like Prime Minister, Admiral, Bishop, Emperor, Messiah, etc.  

Since I don't live in Australia, I can use those names for my imaginary baby.  I think I'll name her/him Emperor Woolloomooloo Australia...The Messiah of Texas.  


Visit with My Cousins

In my last post, I talked about my feelings towards Australia and the fact that I'd soon be visiting my sort-of Australian cousins.

Well, the visit happened.

One of the things I noticed about myself is that despite not having the intense obsession I had before, I WAS very eager to talk about Australia.  I was excited to have people around that could talk about Australia with me.

So...I'm thinking that people should comment on my blog more, so I can be gifted with Australia discussions. Is that being greedy and demanding? Probably. Or maybe it's just being wishful.

I'm very involved with Twitter now.  I could probably try to find more conversations related to Australia.  A week or so ago, I tried to find Australian actors on Twitter. I couldn't find many that have active accounts.  By active accounts, I mean people who post everyday and don't just promote their newest projects.

I follow a few Australian politicians.  I'm not sure any are very active.  Maybe I should follow more.

Anyway....

In other news...I've watched some Aussie TV shows lately.  What I have is this long, numbered list of TV shows I want to try watching.  Then I use random.org to pick my next show.  Lately, the gods have chosen Australian shows for me. A few weeks ago I watched the first season of Redfern Now.  I liked that a lot, and loved the episode "Stand Up".  It was about singing the national anthem and civil disobedience.

Last week I watched the first season of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  I've never been excited about that show and didn't like the books when I tried reading them.  But I grew to like it, and now that I'm done with it, I miss it.

Now I'm watching The Kettering Incident.  I'm thinking it MIGHT actually be science fiction.  I've complained in the past about Australia not having enough science fiction/fantasy...besides the stuff that's for kids and tweens.  From what I've being seeing, though, I think that's changing.

I'm liking The Kettering Incident a lot. Although it's a bit slow at times.



By the way, if anyone reading this wants to follow me on Twitter, here's my account.  If you have an interesting account that's not mostly you self-promoting your blog, music, book, artwork, etc. I'll probably follow you back.  

Am I Still Obsessed with Australia?

Next week I'm supposed to be seeing my sort-of-Australian cousin. There was a lot of tension between us a few years ago because she moved to Australia and didn't want to be there, and I was obsessed with Australia and wanted to move there.  And...there were other issues as well that I won't go into here.

I've been kind of nervous about seeing my cousin, because I'm afraid she's going to ask with a sly smile, So, are you still really into Australia?

I have sort of prepared an answer. Yes, but with less intensity. Then she'll feel all smug, because she still lives in Australia, and I'm not still obsessed.

Well, now that I think of it. That doesn't make much sense.  I think it's more a fact that she'll feel smug because at times she tried to talk me out of the Australia love. She DID want me to move there, because she liked the other of having more family nearby.  But she tried to tell me Australia wasn't so great, and she tried to tell me I should want to see other places. I stubbornly disagreed.  

Note: At the time, she pretty much hated Australia because she had just moved there.  Now she's lived there for about eight (?) years. From her expat blog posts, I saw her growing more positive, about Australia as the years went by. I haven't read anything from her lately, but I'm guessing she's probably okay with Australia.  She might even like it or love it by now.

Anyway, back to myself.

I think the answer to the question I imagine my cousin asking, and the one I keep asking myself, is that I still love Australia, but I'm not obsessed.  I also love other places, cultures, things, as much as Australia.

I love Australia TV shows, but I also love British ones, American ones, and shows from various cultures.  I love using Hulu and Netflix to watch foreign TV and film.

I love Australian music, but also love American music, British music, Icelandic music, etc.

I sometimes have desires to visit Australia, but I also have desires to go to Canada, Europe, Asia, etc.  The other night I had major NYC nostalgia, and was dying to go there.

I still love Australian animals, but I equally love animals from other places. I've so much wanted Aussie birds in our backyard, but I'm now perfectly content with the American birds we see in our own yard.

I still love Australian food, but I'm also really into eating food from other countries. We love to go to this store called World Market where we buy snacks from the UK, other European countries, Japan, etc.

I love looking at Australian photos on Flickr, but I also love looking at photos from around the world.

As for politics...I'm no longer really interested in what's going on there with Australia.  I'm obsessed with what's happening in US politics.  It's hard not to be.

I think the one area in which I still have the Australian bug is I sometimes get overly excited about Australian actors.  For example, I think I told Tim multiple times that there was going to be an Australian actor in the new Star Wars movie.  I was very excited about Ben Mendelsohn having a role in that, and I'm over eager to talk about how I've seen him in his much earlier roles. I'm like those annoying people on YouTube who have to make it known that THEY knew of the newly popular song before it was featured on a TV show.

But yeah. I get excited about Australian actors, whether they're becoming more mainstream in the US, or when one that I recognize from one Australian show is on another Australian show. Although...now that I think of it, I also get excited in the same way about British actors and maybe American ones too.

Also, I get excited only about Australian actors that I know of. Yesterday Tim tried to tell me about an Australian actress on The Man in the High Castle, and I couldn't get myself to care.  He tried to get me more interested by telling me she was on Neighbours.  At first I thought he meant the American TV show or the American movie.  It took me a second to realize he was referring to the Aussie show. But still. She was not familar to me.

Anyway.....

I have two other questions/answers in my head.

One is that no, I'm not glad that I didn't move to Australia.  I'm not thinking Wow. I'm glad we didn't move to Australia, because I would have stopped being obsessed and where would that have left me?

Honestly, I think if I moved to Australia I would have stopped being obsessed much earlier.  I think I would have just taken it for granted eventually.  If things went very well for us there, I would have loved it and taken Australia for granted.  If things went not-so-well, I would have been unhappy and taken Australia for granted.

I've been obsessed with New York at times, but I don't think I was ever obsessed when we actually lived there. I think I just happily (relatively so) lived my life.  But ever since we left, I periodically look back and have this feeling of Holy shit!  We actually lived in Manhattan! We lived there. I was a real New Yorker!

Well, I just had a toilet break where I had time to think, and have decided not to write about the other question/answer, because it's corny, obvious, and doesn't need saying.  I DID think of something else, though.

The thing is, I have no idea what will happen in the future.  In my little delusional head, I believe I was meant to be obsessed with Australia.  I feel there were spiritual-type things that pushed me in that direction. So I also believe that if I'm meant to get really back into the whole thing, I'll be pushed again. Maybe I'll start having dreams that make me even more obsessed with Australia than the first time.

OR...maybe something will happen, and we'll actually get the chance to move to Australia.  The fact that I still have this fantasy proves to me that the love for Australia is definitely still there.  Well...then again...I think I'd also be excited (and stressed) if we got a chance to move to a not-Australia country.
But still. I guess what I'm saying is I feel Australia has been a big part of my life path/destiny.  That part of my path might slowly be coming to an end, or it might not be.  Being obsessed with Australia might still be part of my destiny, and/or living in Australia might still be part of my destiny.  Who knows. With Donald Trump as president, my family might need to be refugees in Australia.  With all my gained knowledge, I can help with studying for the citizenship test.



How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   


The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts