Ray Badran's Response

I'm reading an article about an incident at the Melbourne comedy festival.

A comedian named Ray Badran made a joke about rape. I don't really get the joke.

He said:  So you know how gay people can make jokes about being gay, and black people can make jokes about being black, well I can make jokes about rape.

The article says the joke implies that he LOOKS like a rapist. I would say it implies that he IS a rapist. I thought the unwritten rule was that you can make jokes about your own people, and if people outside your group tried the same joke, they'd get themselves in trouble.  I don't think it counts if you simply look like you're in the group. I'm allowed to make certain Jewish jokes because I AM Jewish. I've had people tell me I look Persian and Indian. I don't think that gives me a special free pass to get away with certain jokes about those groups.

Whatever. I'm going off on a tangent here.

I personally don't find the joke funny, probably mostly because I don't get it. It confuses me.

As for it being offensive...I don't know. I'm sure it's slightly offensive to some people and very offensive to other people. But the thing about comedy is, most jokes are going to offend some people. They'll make some people angry. They'll make some people uncomfortable. They'll make some people very sad.  I think if comedians worked hard to make sure not to offend anyone, we'd lose a lot of comedy in this world.  I think the laughter in our world would decrease. And I believe that would be unfortunate.

What I'm trying to say is though I don't personally like Ray Badran's joke, I'm not going to fault him on it.  I am, however, going to heavily fault him on his response to a woman who disliked his joke.

The article doesn't say she heckled him. Apparently, when he told the joke she slid off her chair and under the table as a sign of protest. I've never heard of anyone responding that way. Is it a thing that people do? Anyway, it seems like a peaceful, quiet way to let the comedian and the rest of the audience know you are offended.

According to the protester, Badran then started speaking to her.  He said,
What's your problem? Seriously, what's this girl's problem? Oh wait, you probably shouldn't ask someone who just called out a rape joke what their problem is. 

The joke is one thing.  Personally attacking the girl in public is inexcusable. Ray Badran sounds like a bully to me.  I mean isn't that one of the main things bullies do—humiliate people in front of an audience? I really hope no one laughed along with him. I hope he was booed off the stage.

Well, according to the article, he walked off the stage and said, Good on you for taking a stand, but you're a piece of sh*t, and I hope you die. 

Ray Badran's response reminds me of the writers I've heard about on GoodReads. They can't handle bad reviews and when they get one, they'll attack the reader who wrote the review.  It's very unprofessional and immature.

And....his response also reminds me of bloggers I've encountered. They are unable to handle peaceful disagreements and/or criticism, and they react with verbally violent abuse.

Why didn't Badran just go on with his show and ignore the woman under the table?  I mean really. If you're a comedian, isn't dealing with negative audience reaction part of the job—booing, heckling, people walking out, people turning their backs, people playing on their phones instead of listening to you, people yawning, people staring and not laughing.....

I was feeling very mean when I started writing this post. I didn't plan to go as far as Badran did and wish death upon someone. But I was going to say, I wish his career ended here. Now, though, I'm feeling a bit kinder.  I wish him a good career, but I also wish that he gains a bit more emotional strength and stability.  I hope he learns to accept that not everyone is going to love all of his jokes, and if they protest in a decent way, I hope he gains the ability to peacefully accept that.  And if criticism does cause him emotional strain...that's fine too.  But I hope he'll learn to deal with his feelings in a way that doesn't cause harm to others. He can cry about it at home. Get his anger out by playing a video game. Vent to a friend. Write a short story about it. Eat too much ice-cream.  There are many ways to deal with negative emotions that don't involve hurting others.

Weird!

I just finished watching the first season of Satisfaction. I'm so amazed and in love with the show.

As the end of the episode approached, I started thinking about how the series shows how there are different sides to people. We have hidden parts of ourselves. Maybe we hide it from everyone except ourselves. Maybe we hide it from everyone INCLUDING ourselves. Maybe we hide it from everyone except a few special exceptions.

I think we all have a dark side—an evil side. But I don't think the show was about that side. It was more about the weird side...or creepy.

On the show, there's a very sweet pub owner. He's articulate and very kind. He performs small religious ceremonies for the brothel women. He's the kind of guy I'd want as my next door neighbour or best friend.  And this guy happens to like pretending he's a little boy. He hires a sex worker to change his nappy in a public restroom. He likes to eat ice-cream cones while talking like a toddler.  I watch him and think it's quite creepy. But then I think about older children having fun playing mommy and baby. Why should the desire for that type of play suddenly vanish when we're adults?

The show also features a parliamentary man with a rubber fetish.Imagine all the interesting fetishes that exist within Parliament. What does Sarah Hanson-Young like to do behind closed doors? Or what would she like to do? Would her career be ruined if we all found out? Probably. But it shouldn't...as long as it's not something that causes harm to others.

We spend so time and effort on promoting tolerance. We push tolerating different religions, ethnic groups, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, disfigurements, breast sizes, etc. I think that's great. I think also, though, that we should work harder to tolerate everyone's different flavors of weirdness.

We're all strange in both private and public ways. And that's usually fine.   

Satisfaction Versus the Work of Ryan Murphy

Today I watched another fantastic episode of Satisfaction.  As I was watching a nun get caned by a prostitute, I started thinking that Satisfaction reminds me a little bit of Ryan Murphy's work. But I personally think Satisfaction is better.

I like some aspects of Murphy's work. There are some brilliant, bizarre, and touching moments. But then I think that makes up 60% of his shows. The rest of it is ridiculous, gratuitous, and silly. Sometimes I feel it's all about someone with a lot of creative power trying to get away with as much as possible. I imagine Murphy saying, what crazy, offensive thing can we shock people with this week?

Satisfaction has some crazy stuff, but I feel the purpose is more about showing us that there's a huge variety in human experience and desire and less about wanting to shock and disgust.

I'll have to say, though, that I've only seen Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story. I haven't seen much of Glee or his sitcom. Maybe that's a bit less gratuitous?  Also, looking back, I thought the first two seasons of Nip/Tuck and the first two seasons* of American Horror Story were quite awesome. It's like Ryan Murphy starts off his shows with brilliance and then loses the plot.Who knows. Maybe I'll find the same thing happens with the second and third seasons of Satisfaction.  It could all go downhill. But I hope it doesn't.


* I loved the third season of American Horror Story, but at the same time I thought it was crap.  

Colette Mann

Today I'm going to learn about Colette Mann. She's plays Sheila on Neighbours.

It took me a moment to find her name, because I Googled Shirley instead of Sheila. Oops.

I like Sheila. She's funny and sweet, but also has a tough edge to her. I like the clothes she wears. They're very colorful. But I'm guessing that's more of a compliment to the costume designer of Neighbours rather than Colette Mann. I wonder if I'd like the clothes that Mann chooses. I also wonder which actors on Neighbours dress similar to their characters and which dress totally different.

I usually start these posts by sharing my deep thoughts about the character. So here's my deep thoughts about Sheila.

She was dating this guy she met from a dating app. She really liked him. Naomi (her daughter) was weary of the guy and did some online research. She learned he was bisexual and forced him to tell Sheila about it. He told Sheila, and she dumped him. Her excuse was he was dishonest with her. I can't say that Sheila is overly homophobic, because there's a gay guy living with her and her family. So she's tolerant...at least to some level.

I don't understand, though, why she'd dump a guy for not telling her he was bisexual. I can understand if they had been going out for months, and things were really serious. But within the first couple of dates?  To me, it's like being mad at your date for not immediately telling you her mother is black.  In my opinion, that wouldn't matter...UNLESS you were racist.

Would I be a bad date for not quickly revealing I'm Jewish? I can't see how it would matter unless the person I'm dating doesn't like Jews.

Now with Sheila, it might have been the case that Sheila's new man kept his dating profile up while he was dating her. He was still seeking men. But from what I had seen, it didn't seem like they had come to the point where they had a serious commitment yet. It seems things were pretty casual. Would Sheila have been as offended if his still-there dating profile was seeking women?

I just realized it kind of reminds me of my novel Thirty Cats. It's about a college student (Gabrielle) who has Neurofibromatosis and very low self-esteem.  On her first ever date, she quickly reveals she has NF.  She's rejected and assumes it's because of her NF. When Gabrielle's second chance at a date approaches, her mother advises her to maybe not reveal so much on the first date. But then she has to struggle with deciding if and when to tell him.

It's hard to have secrets and hard to know whether sharing them will lead to rejection or not. Actually, the show I've been watching this week deals with this. In Satisfaction, a mother struggles with having to tell her daughter she's a sex-worker, and another sex-worker reveals her secret to her best friend. So far, the best friend hasn't reappeared since hearing the news. I'm not sure if this is a permanent rejection, or she just needs time to process it all.

I could go on and on about this, but I should go ahead and start my Colette Mann education.

According to Mann's IMdb biography, she was born in Melbourne in 1950. She's slightly younger than my parents.

Now I'm going to look at her IMDb filmography.  My usual disclaimer: I usually skip over one time appearances in TV shows I haven't watched. I also skip movies if I can't find enough information about them.

It looks like Mann started her screen career with Prisoner: Cell Block H.  I kind of already knew this, because of comments on the Neighbours/Eastenders video.  Someone mentioned that one of the actresses was on Prisoner; and I kind of figured they might have been talking about one of the older actresses.

Small detour...I see from YouTube that Eastenders now has a birthday video for Neighbours. I have to watch that.

Jason Donovan was in it. Is he on Eastenders now? And I think one of these actresses is from Doctor Who.

I personally liked the Neighbours video much better. Maybe I'd appreciate the Eastenders video more if I watched Eastenders.

Back to Prisoner: Cell Block H.  Mann was on the show from 1979-1984.  She played Doreen Anderson.

Lord Wiki's cousin says that Doreen Anderson was a child-like prisoner. She carried around a teddy bear and sucked her thumb.  She was in prison for forgery.

Here's a picture of her.  She looks very different from Sheila. I'm sure, though, that my 65 year old self will look quite different from my 29-year-old self.

I'm going to see if I can find Doreen Anderson in an episode of Prisoner.

Is that her at 1:50?

I decided that instead of searching through a whole episode, I'll see if anyone has uploaded a video dedicated specifically to Doreen Anderson.

I found some. Here's one of them.  Here I can definitely see a resemblance between Doreen Anderson and Sheila.

She has the same cute voice.

In 1981, Mann was in a TV movie called Prisoner in Concert.  I vaguely remember watching an interview with Fiona Spence in which she talked about the movie.  I think maybe it was a live performance type thing. So the movie is probably a filming of the performance.

Someone has uploaded a 32 minute video of the concert. I'm going to watch bits and pieces.

So far, it seems to be actresses from the TV shows dancing and singing.

In 1983, Mann was in a gangster movie called Kitty and the Bagman. Here's a trailer for the movie.

 It seems more like scenes from the movie than an actual trailer.

I didn't see Colette Mann.

IMDb says the movie was a notorious flop. And the director himself says the movie should have never been made. Ouch.

In 1988, Mann was in an American TV movie about a Beverly Hills woman who goes to the outback.

Here's a video of part of the movie. I'm not sure if Mann will be in it.  

No, she wasn't in it. It's just the beginning of the movie, and most of that part takes place in Los Angeles.

Someone uploaded the whole movie. I'm going to try to jump through that and find her. But sometimes it's hard to find things in long YouTube videos.  I have to wait for it to download. Maybe I'll keep it playing in a window as I go on to look at other stuff.

In 1993, Man appeared in three episodes of a science fiction comedy series called Stark.  Actually, I think she was in all the episodes of the show. Looking more closely, I'm seeing that it was a miniseries.

I was going to be excited and amazed about Australia having a science fiction show that's not geared towards children. But now I'm seeing it was a British-Australian production. It seems if Australia is going to do a science fiction program, they're going to do it with the partnership of either the US or the UK.  There are probably a few exceptions.  I think I have some show on my Hulu to-watch list that's science fiction and made by Australia-only.

Mann played Dixie on the show. Lord Wiki doesn't list her as being a principle cast member, so I'm guessing her role was small.

Back to the Beverly Hills woman in the outback. I think I found a scene with Mann.  She appears at 30:31.  I haven't watched much of the movie, but from what I see it looks pretty awful.  It seems to stereotype people and makes the Australians look dumb. But maybe it's one of those stories where characters seem dumb from the viewpoint of the main character but in the end, she learns they're smarter than she thought. And/or she realizes she's the one who's truly ignorant.

In 1994, Mann appeared in four episodes of Snowy River: The McGregor Saga. She played Mrs. Carney in the first season.

I Googled Mrs. Carney and Snowy River and found some Snowy River fan fiction that might feature her.

I feel pressured to read it, but I'm not going to, because I don't watch the show, and it probably wouldn't make sense to me.  If someone is reading this and they're a fan of Snowy River, they might enjoy the fan fiction.

From what I'm seeing on Mann's filmography, it looked like she spent a few years in the US. Between 1995 and 1999, she guest-starred on three American TV shows. The only one of those that I watched was Party of Five.  She played a nurse on an episode of the sixth season.

Then it looks like Mann returned to Australia. She played Betty the Bush poet in the movie The Dish. I've heard of that movie before.

Here's a trailer.

Is that Mann at 1:52? It sort of looks like her...but not exactly. I'm not sure.

The movie looks really good, though. I should see it someday.

I Googled Betty the Bush poet and came across a review on Trip Advisor.  It's for a store in Tintalbra Victoria that's run by Betty Walton. She writes Bush Poetry. The reviewer says Walton moved to Tintalbra in 1976. Maybe before that she lived in Parkes, New South Wales (Where The Dish takes place). Could it be the same Betty?

Here's an article about Betty Walton and her store. It says she moved to Parkes from Sydney. So maybe she's not the same Betty. Though she could have moved to Sydney from Parkes and then moved onto Tintalbra.

Oops. It seems I have made another one of my IMDb timeline mistakes. Shit. I hate when I do this.

So...anyway.... Back up to 1995. This is when Mann started working on Neighbours.

Ah! But she wasn't playing Sheila Canning. She played Cheryl Stark.  IMDb lists her as being in 20 episodes between 1995-1996. So I guess she was going back and forth from the US to Australia?

Lord Wiki says that Mann played the second incarnation of Cheryl Stark. She was played by another actress for three years. That actress fell ill, unfortunately, so Mann took over the role for a short time.

I'm looking at The Perfect Blend site. They say Cheryl Stark was a bar manager for the the Robinson Corporation. Isn't that Sheila's job as well?

Speaking of Sheila, from what I'm seeing on IMDb, she didn't appear until 2012. So, she's a relatively new character. UNLESS...someone else played that character previously as well.

I'm going to return the early 2000's for awhile.

In 2005, Mann appeared as Little Buttercup in a TV version of the musical H.M.S Pinafore. Here's a video from the performance. I'm not sure if Mann will be in it.

I think that's Mann at 1:09. She has reddish hair.

In 2007, Mann appeared in a short film called Just Desserts.  I bookmarked, so I can watch it a bit later.

Mann has appeared in a few other short films in the past few years, but unfortunately they don't seem to be available online yet.

Let's get back to Sheila Canning.  I see from The Perfect Blend that Mann has been the only actress to play her.

I'm going to skim through her history.

The other day I was wondering if it's a bad idea to read the history of soap opera characters. My main concern is the danger of running across spoilers. That's happened to me recently with Coronation Street.  I got curious about a character's past and then learned they're going to die in a few weeks.  I also started wondering, though, if it's better to judge a character on how they're acting in the present instead of dwelling on what they did in the past.  My family often says I bring up the past too much. So maybe by letting go of the past of soap opera characters, I could also learn to let go of the past of real people.

It's hard, though, because characters on the shows often bring up the past. Then I get curious and want to know what they're talking about.

The other thing is, it's tedious for me to have to read through the years of information. My eyes get tired and I often get confused. It's hard for me to follow.

On the other hand, I do want to know a little bit about the character's past.

For more of my biography posts, click here!

So, I'm just going to quickly skim through this entry about Sheila Canning and see if anything jumps out at me.

Sheila comes from Frankston. In the episode of Neighbours, I watched yesterday, Georgia (Sheila's soon-to-be daughter-in-law) drives to Frankston the night before her wedding and gets stuck there.  She wasn't trying to visit her mother-in-law's old hometown. She was looking for a friend of the groom who was refusing to go to the wedding.

Anyway.....

Sheila first arrived on the show to visit her grandchild Kyle.  She met his girlfriend who turned out not to be his girlfriend. There was an identity mix-up. Unfortunately, Sheila preferred the woman who was not the girlfriend.

Now I'm learning something about Lou Carpenter I didn't know. He used to be a thief. Sheila caught him in the act.  That's all a bit shocking. I would have never suspected. See, and now I'm going to look at Lou and think of him as a thief. Is that fair? Has he stolen anything lately? Should I not judge him for what he's doing in the present?  Although right now he's blackmailing the husband of the woman who saved his life. Maybe thievery is the preferable sin.

At first, Sheila was annoyed by Georgia's relationship with Kyle, because Georgia was dating someone else.  Now she likes Georgia, and Georgia is no longer dating someone else.  That's all good.

Sheila dated a conman. I think they mentioned this a few weeks ago when she started using the dating app. What I didn't know, is that this conman was Sonya's uncle.

Well, now my eyes are getting tired, and Jack wants to eat lunch. I think I'm going to quit here—not the whole post, but Sheila Canning's history.

I'm back!

I'm going to read this interview with Mann. There's a photo of her here. I like the flowery dress she's wearing. I was wondering if it was Mann's outfit, but the caption says, Colette Mann as Sheila Canning. So, I guess it's a Sheila Canning outfit.

I just realized I was spelling Colette's name wrong this whole time; had to go back and change all that.

I like what Mann says here. She's asked about her time on the set. She says,
We laugh all the time. Even today, I had a really long day but most of it was spent laughing. A bit of time I was doing some acting, but mostly I was laughing!

I think laughing is probably the funnest thing we can do with other people. It matters less where we are together and what we're doing. But if we're laughing, then it usually means we're having a fabulous time.

Mann says, I get on amazingly well with the young people on the show, and some of the older people I've worked with so much before.  Huh? What is she trying to say there? I'm confused. It kind of sounds like she's saying she gets along with only SOME of the older people. Or is she just saying that she's worked with the older people before?

Here's something cool. Mann was doing her lines and the crew was watching. After the scene, one of them asked if a certain line was written or ad-libbed. Mann told them it was written, and the crew member said, They're starting to get you—they're starting to write just like you talk.

I really love that, because it shows how characters are created both by the actor and the writer...and many other people.  Even with characters that come from books. I wonder about things like Harry Potter. The early movies came out before the later books were written. Did any of the actors influence JK Rowling's ideas about the characters?

Mann says she originally thought she was only going to be on for a few weeks, but then they wanted to keep her. Was this a matter of the actor winning the hearts of the fans and those in charge; then getting her contract extended? Or did the show always plan to have Sheila on for a long time, and Mann got the plans confused.

Mann says she's on Twitter. I'll look at that later.

Mann works at an acting school: Patrick Studios Australia.

Well, actually I'm not seeing her on their staff page.  The interview was published in 2013, so maybe since then she has stopped working there.

Mann goes on and on about the young stars of the show. She seems to really love them, and she loves that they love her.

There's something here that confuses me. They're talking about an anxiety storyline with Mann. Sheila followed Chris who was sleepwalking and ended up running into a sleazy man.  Mann says,
Well, because we're a 6.30pm show over here, there are restrictions with what we can do. Naturally they couldn't have the guy touch me or approach me or anything. 

Really. They can't show physical attacks on early evening television? There's been no rapes on Neighbours?  I find that hard to believe. And then the interview says Sheila remembers being attacked when she was younger.

It almost seems like she's saying that it's okay to show younger woman being attacked... or at least allude to that. But you can't have an elderly woman being attacked. Why?  I mean I think it's horrible for an elderly woman to be attacked. But I think it's horrible for any woman of any age to be attacked. It's horrible for any PERSON, no matter what their gender or age, to be attacked.  Why would it okay to have a storyline about some people being attacked and not others?

Here's an older video interview with Mann. It's from 2005. I'm guessing it's going to be mostly about Prisoner.  I think that's what she was most known for before Neighbours.

Wait! I just remembered 2005 is when she appeared in H.M.S Pinafore. Maybe the interview is about that.

Mann says she has three sons. Two are biological and one is someone they raised. The way she says it makes me think he wasn't officially adopted.

Mann also has a dog and husband. The morning of the interview the dog went missing. But she ended up finding him. That's good!

Mann and the interviewer talk about chores. Mann says if she's gone from home, the chores don't get done. The interviewer confesses that his wife does all the chores.

Our household is a bit better. with that. Tim and I both have our certain jobs. He's gone more than me, so it's usually a matter of me having to take over his jobs.  But at least there are jobs to take over. It would be sad, if when he left, I didn't notice a difference in work amount.  For example, he's been gone a lot lately and I've had to wash dishes. That's usually his job.  And I have to take the garbage bins outside. I HATE that job.  I also started to do some of the pool work, which for now I kind of love.  I like being outside in our lovely backyard. I'll probably like it less, though, when it's very cold or very hot.

Mann talks about leaving laundry on the floor rather than putting it in the basket. Tim does that. There are socks by his side of the bed. I think he also leaves clothes lying around the bathroom. Though sometimes they're clean, and he's saving them for a future date. Maybe? I get confused about all that.

I'm not perfect myself, though. Sometimes I get mad at Tim and Jack for all their clutter. But then I realize I'm being a total hypocrite. I'll bitch at Jack for leaving dishes in his room. But I almost always have a plate or bowl in my room...or a dirty napkin with an apple core wrapped inside.

Right now on my desk, there's a soda can and a plate that has bits of egg on it. We'll see when it gets downstairs to the kitchen. Well, I'll probably bring it down soon. Now that I've written about it, it's on my mind.  I'll at least take the eggs down. It would be a bit gross to keep them up here.

I just turned around to talk to Max (the cat) and saw that I also have a seaweed package that needs to be thrown away.

Mann has written a book! It's called Give Me a Break. The Harper Collins website has a few sample pages.  It's nonfiction—about parenting her sons.  She talks about her son breaking her leg and says: I began this adventure in a saintly manner resembling that of a cross between Mother Theresa without her veil and Florence Nightingale without her lamp. However, by about two weeks in, I had transformed into a monster-hybrid cross between Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Bette Midler in Ruthless People. 

I think that's cute, funny, and relatable.  It's not easy taking care of a sick or injured person. I can be nice for awhile, but then I'd probably start losing patience.  I think it's especially hard if A) the person is over-demanding B) the person acts like they're the a suffering celebrity; the center of the world. C) If the person over-dramatizes their symptoms and problems.

I'm fortunate at this point, though, that I've never been a carer for someone severely ill or injured. My older sister was in the hospital for many weeks with serious injuries, but it wasn't my job to care for her. I just visited. Jack broke his arm when he was young. I don't remember our life changing much. I think he went on with his usual activities for the most part. I had to take care of him, but that's because he was a preschooler; not because he was injured. Tim was ill a few years back but could still take care of himself.

I did work at a camp for kids with Cystic Fibrosis...back when I was a teenager.  With that, I had to help take care of sick kids. I think I did okay with it and didn't turn into Nurse Ratched. But it was only for a week.

Back to the passage in the book. I don't think I'm usually picky about other people's writing, but there are things I'd change. I think I'd take out the bit about the veil and lamp. I don't think that's needed. I'd also take out the word "cross". I think monster-hybrid is enough.

Yeah. And I'm sure there are tons of words people would find in my blog posts that could be removed.

Mann and her son wrote the book as a way to fill time during the recovery period. That's pretty sweet.

Here's Colette Mann's Twitter.   First I'm going to look at who she's following. I did that recently with another celebrity. It was interesting to me, and entertaining.

She's one of only seven followers of Godspell Australia. Is Mann a fan of the musical? Has she been in it before?  Maybe she knows someone who's working on the play and is following them as an act of support.

She's following several actors.

There's an author here. Andrew Mayne. He has 118 thousand followers, so I guess his books are pretty popular.

Mann is following an account called Art of Neighbours. They collect and post fan artwork.  And she's following Neighbours Nerd, another fan account.

I think it's nice when celebrities follow fan pages. Though it does make me think of some creepy scenes in the book I recently finished reading.  There's a social media queen named Mae. She interacts with people who have much less fame and power than her. She gives them an inch, and they want so much more. They become very demanding and then openly offended when she doesn't give them enough attention.

I don't think Art of Neighbours or Neighbors Nerd is like that. But if they were, it wouldn't be enough for Colette Mann to follow them on Twitter. They'd shoot her off some emails expressing sorrow over the fact that Mann hasn't been responding to their Tweets and direct messages. And why hasn't she promised to send their screenplay samples over to the creators of Neighbours?

I thought the book was awesome, by the way. I highly recommend it.

Mann is following the Twitter of the American TV show Chicago Fire. I wonder if that's one of her favorite shows.  Or it could be that she's friends with one of the actors. When people support things on Twitter, it's hard to know whether they really like the thing they're promoting or if they're doing a favor for someone.

The other day, a new novelist's book was trending on Twitter. Due to the fact that books rarely trend on Twitter, it seemed a bit off that a new novelist's book was trending. There were so many people recommending the book. Did they really read it? Or was it just about writers trying to support another writer so when it comes time for their book to come out, the same will be done for them?

You know what. Maybe I won't look at followers anymore. I thought it would be a unique useful way of learning more about someone. But it's really not telling me much, BECAUSE I have this distrust of social media.  I can look at who Mann is following and say she's interested in this and that and a fan of these things. But I really can't know that for sure.

I'm going to move on and look at Mann's Tweets.

Most of her recent Tweets are Re-Tweets.

Here we go. On March 18, she wrote her own Tweet. It's a birthday message to Neighbours.

I'm looking at some other Tweets. She does that thing where she copies what someone says in the Tweet and then responds.  This confuses me sometimes. I think, though, that it's the old way of Retweeting.

Here's an example. Someone named Tommy Little Tweeted, Back in my day a "smartwatch" was just an analogue one.  Mann responded. @Tommy_Little: Back in my day a "smart watch" was just an analogue one". In my day, it was a sun dial. 

Yeah. I think that was the old way of Retweeting. If I was responding to the Tweet, I would have just said. In my day, it was a sun dial. Then if by miracle there was anyone reading my Tweets and they were actually intrigued by what I was saying, they'd have to click on View Conversation to see what I was responding to.

I was going to say maybe Mann's way is better, because it's less confusing. But I don't know. That type of Retweeting gets me confused. I have a hard time distinguishing between what the original Tweet said and what the responder is saying.

Really. I think both ways are pretty confusing. It takes time to get used to them.  I'm more used of the other way, personally.

I'm seeing that Mann has several Retweets about the Bali 9; so I'm guessing it's an issue that's very important to her.  She's wanting the executions to not happen.

I'm with her on that.

It hasn't happened yet...has it?

I think it's horrible and disgusting.  Because of these things, I refuse to go to the countries that have these executions. I don't use illegal drugs, and I don't sell them, but I'd be so paranoid about someone planting the drugs on me or someone I love. I know that's far-fetched.  It's like my fear that a crocodile will kill me when I'm walking down the street in Darwin.  But hey....

Actually, the drug thing reminds me a bit of the fabulous book I was talking about earlier.  You offer a policy that promises people something wonderful.  It will make life so much better. But then it turns out there's a dreadful cost.  These countries can brag about their low drug rates but then they kill people who aren't evil, but have simply made the wrong choice.

In the book, some people came up with an idea to stop all kidnappings. They want to install tracking chips in children's bones. And as a parent, that does kind of sound like a huge relief.  But then there were no plans to ever remove the chips. All these children could and would be tracked for the rest of their lives.  That sounds terrifying and very suffocating.

Here's Colette Mann's Instagram account.  She hasn't posted anything for awhile. Her last photo was posted on February 17.  Actually, she posted four photos that day. Two of them are of Nate, from Neighbours, wearing a green thing.

If I'm understanding things right,  February 17 is Mann's birthday. She has two posts with birthday flowers she received.

Here's a lovely behind the scenes photo of some Neighbours men.  She actually has several photos of her fellow cast members.  Or at least they make up a fairly large percentage of her photos. I think these guys are very precious to her.

Well, I'm almost done. I'm going to take a break and clean the pool. Then I'm going to watch the short film starring Mann.  And that will probably be it.

Yikes...and I need to check email. It's 3:03 already and I haven't gotten around to doing that yet today.

Good. There were no scary emails. Checking emails can be stressful. I worry there's either going to someone bitching me out or news that someone has cancer.

No cancer and no bitching. At least for today.

Okay. I'm back from pool work. I'm going to watch the short film Just Desserts.

It takes place at a dessert cafe.

Mann and another woman are bickering. Then there are scary noises behind a door.

Doors can be very scary things.

Wendy Hughes is the other actress in the movie. Her name sounds familiar, but I don't recognize her face.

There was a dangerous man at the door, or seemingly dangerous.  At the very least, he's an asshole.

I'm done watching the movie. I don't want to say too much, because I'd end up giving too much away. I thought it was pretty good, though—creepy and suspenseful. I'm not 100% sure I understand the ending. I'm pretty sure I do.

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Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

I'm Not Liking Cate Blanchett Today

I just read an article about Cate Blanchett that really makes me dislike her.

A reporter asked her about cats, and she got mad at him for that.

Well...I just watched the video. Maybe it was all a joke. I can't tell for sure.

But if it wasn't. If she was really offended about a light-hearted cat question, then I'm not liking her.  She seems like a total snob. WHICH makes me think it's probably a joke, and she's playing into the whole wicked stepmother persona.

I feel stupid not knowing if the interview was a joke or not.

Susan and the Spilt Milk

A few weeks ago, I watched the Neighbours birthday tribute for Eastenders. In the video, Susan slips on some spilt milk, hits her head, and then imagines Ramsey Street has turned into Eastenders.

I didn't realize until today that the spilt milk thing was referencing an incident from Neighbours' past.

I'm watching an episode that's paying tribute to Susan and Karl. It's full of flashbacks. One of them has a younger Susan slipping on some milk. I Googled, and according to The Perfect Blend site, in 2002, Susan slipped on some milk and ended up with amnesia. She then thought she was a teenager in 1972.  That's funny. And it makes me appreciate the Eastenders video birthday card even more.  It's nice that they were able to make fun of themselves.

There is a part of me that feels guilty and anxious for laughing. I feel like I'm going to jinx myself—that someone I love is going to end up with a head injury from spilt milk.  I hope that never happens.

Anyway....

I am wondering about all these flashbacks. Susan and Karl are talking about leaving Ramsey street and moving to London. Is the show saying good-bye to them, and that's the reason for the flashbacks? Or are the flashbacks being used to honor the 30th birthday of Neighbours?  I hope it's the latter. I don't want to lose Susan and Karl. Though it would be awesome if they moved to London and then had a spin-off series.

I Am More Than Satisfied With Satisfaction

The past two days I've been binge-watching Satisfaction.

It's fantastic.

I think it's one of the best Australian shows I've seen.

It's about sex, but it's about other things as well.

There are some compelling storylines about parents and their children.

In the episode I'm watching now, a 14-year-old girl is horrified to learn her mother is a sex-worker. This led to some very tense emotional scenes.  The show has a lot of those. There are also tender moment, and pitiful moments. There are funny moments and profound moments.

I'm horrible at writing reviews. Sorry.

But yeah. I'm loving the show.   

Sex Workers

My new Aussie Hulu show is Satisfaction. It's about sex workers.

Sex jobs are legal in Australia. I remember learning that.  But I'd like to learn more.

Has it always been legal?

Is it legal in every state and territory?

What are the laws and limitations?

On one episode, a client twice gives the sex worker drugs. She pretends to take them and later spits them out. I'm wondering if there are rules that protect the sex worker from being pressured into taking controlled substances—put in place either from the government or his/her place of employment.

What activities is the sex worker protected from? I mean I'm sure she's protected from someone who says, I want to slash your throat and cut you into little pieces.  But what about stuff that's less extreme than that yet still a bit scary and/or uncomfortable.

I'm consulting Lord Wiki now.

He has a map that shows what is legal where.

In Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales, sex work is legal and regulated.

In Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory it IS legal to exchange sex for money. But brothels are illegal, and the whole business is unregulated.

I personally feel the eastern states are doing the better thing.

Lord Wiki says that there was a survey done in the early 2000's, and it found that 15.6% of men had paid for sex at least once in their life.  It seems, though, that it's a certain type of man who engages in this behavior. These men are more likely to be smokers, drinkers, have STD's, multiple partners, and more likely to have lost their virginity before the age of 16.

So there goes my sweet little image of the innocent shy 22-year-old having a tender night with the prostitute as his first time. Hey...but it could happen every so often. Not everyone is going to fit in with the statistical mold.

Lord Wiki has a list of New South Wales laws. The first one doesn't make much sense to me. It's illegal to live on the earnings from a prostitute.

Oh wait. I was thinking they meant a prostitute can't make her living with prostitution. She has to have another job. But now I'm thinking it means someone else can't make the livings off the prostitute, because then it talks about how brothel owners and managers are exempt. So I think they're talking about the...what do you call them? Johns?

No. Lord Wiki says that's the customer.

What is the person who...It's like the prostitutes' agent? Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Never mind for now. Maybe the word will come to me later.

Anyway....

The rest of the laws seem valid and helpful.  No child prostitutes. No soliciting near schools, churches or hospitals. Well, those make the most sense to me.  I'm not sure I understand the point of the others. For example, it's illegal to do prostitution at places that are also used for massages, saunas, steam baths, exercise facilities, or photographic studios. Why those places? So would it be legal to hold a sex session in the bathroom of the Taronga Zoo? The local cafe that serves Devonshire tea?

Here's something I find interesting.  In Queensland, only 10% of prostitution happens in brothels. The rest is done illegally.  It makes me wonder than about legalizing marijuana. Does that mean most people are still going to go for the illegal stuff?

I wonder if people are looked down upon for getting legalized prostitutes. Is that seen as the wimpy road?  By going for the illegal stuff, do men earn more bragging rights?

In Tasmania, it is illegal to assault a sex worker. That's good. Although isn't it illegal in most places to assault anyone?

It is also illegal to receive sex work without wearing a condom. That's probably a good rule to follow.

In Victoria, it is illegal for brothels to allow alcohol to be consumed on the premises. I imagine for some people this ruins the fun. It's probably easier to receive services from a sex worker if you're a bit intoxicated. Though you can probably just have a drink before getting to the brothel.

In Victoria, it is illegal for sex workers to be under the age of 18. It is also illegal for sex workers to be forced. I'm definitely on board with those laws.

Here's the website for the Scarlet Alliance. They're a sex worker's association.

On this page, there's a guy holding up a a sign that says, Paper or Plastic. Sex work is fantastic. What does that mean? Paper or plastic? Or did he just want something that rhymes with fantastic? But then again...he didn't really have to use the word fantastic.  Or maybe he did. Because maybe he's a big fan of the 9th Doctor.

Here's an editorial speaking out against mandatory testing of sex workers for HIV and Sexually transmitted infections. I totally disagree with them on the issue, but I haven't started reading the editorial yet. Maybe after I read it, I'll change my mind and be on their side.

Well, one thing they talk about is how the sex workers are tested, but not the clients. Is that fair?

Maybe not.

The editorial talks about how different states have different requirements. I'm reading all of them, but I'm not really in the mood to report on each individually.

If I'm reading this right, Victoria is the one state that requires testing.

After providing a lot of information, the writer of the editorial than says:

I argue that there is no factual basis for forcing sex workers to be tested and that the only outcomes served by this approach is the continual scapegoating of sex workers as diseased in the eyes of the general community, construction of sex workers as criminally minded and a denial of their basic civil liberties.

That argument doesn't work for me—the whole civil liberties thing. I support freedom, but I also support safety and health.

BUT then the editorial has a chart that shows the number of females with certain sex diseases, and then how many of those females are sex workers. It's not a big percentage. For example, there were 640 female cases of Gonorrhea, and only 22 of those were sex workers.  But that was just in Adelaide. What's going on in other cities? Also, I'd want to know how many of the women spread the disease to others.  Maybe the 640 spread it only their few partners, but the 22 sex workers gave it to several of their clients.  I don't know. I really don't know how that all works. I mean I know how it works. But I don't know how easy it is to spread the disease.

One thing that does kind of push me to the author's side. She points out that declaring someone disease free might cause the client to pressure the worker to engage in unsafe sexual activity.  Why do we need to use a condom? You're clean!  But if the clients not tested, it's a bit unfair. What if he's the one carrying the disease. And if the sex worker brings this up, he might say what the client said in Satisfaction when he pressured the worker to take the drugs. Do you trust me?  It would be awkward to have to say, no. I don't trust you. Sorry. Put on the condom.

I think the basic stance of the editorial is condoms...yes, testing...no.

I guess I can agree with that.

It makes sense for the sake of the worker and the client. What if the client tested okay last week, but last night she contracted a disease?

Well, that's enough sex learning for me today.  But I might be inspired by the next episodes of Satisfaction to want to learn more.  

Right Now I Like Coronation Street More Than Neighbours

I dreamed about Coronation Street last night.

I walk around a neighborhood and see an actor from Coronation Street. (Don't know his name or the name of his character). Then I see the actress who plays Faye. The idea is that all the actors from Coronation Street live together in this one neighborhood...as themselves. They're mixed in with other people who are not Coronation Street cast members.

Later, when I'm away from the street, I decide I should tell fans of Coronation Street that they should come to Melbourne. It's so fun to walk around and see the actors.  But then I decide I have it wrong. It's not Melbourne. Coronation Street takes place in Sydney. I soon realize that's wrong as well.

I can't remember exactly happened next, but I think I came to remember that Coronation Street takes place in England, not Australia.

Anyway....

As far as soap operas go, right now I'm preferring the British one over the Aussie one.  I was really loving Neighbours, but now I'm getting bored by it. I'm not going to quit watching it. I'll just hope it returns to being interesting to me.

I'm too annoyed by it right now. I find Daniel to be really exasperating and unappealing. I'm bored by his relationship with Amber. I don't like the storyline between Karl, Lou, and the erotica book. I'm so tired of Matt's moodiness with Lauren about her maybe preferring Brad. I'm very bored with the whole storyline of the mystery woman who is after Paul's money.

I guess there are things I do like, though. I'm kind of into the storyline about Josh punching Chris on Neighbours. I'm touched by his regret and his desire to make amends.

And...maybe my favorite storyline, right now, is the one between Bailey and his Space Camp sort-of girlfriend.

I really like Naomi, but she's left for Hawaii. I'm hoping she's taking a break from Ramsey Street and hasn't permanently left it.

It's not all bad, I suppose.

Still. I'm not into it the way I'm into Coronation Street. With that show, I'm pretty much obsessed. My favorite storylines are the ones involving Gail and her family; The Kirsty-Tyrone-Fiz drama; and the Faye and her dad stuff.

Who knows, though. In a few weeks, the storylines on Coronation Street might start to bore me and I'll prefer Neighbours.

In other TV news, I finished watching the second season of The Secret Life of Us yesterday. I had some tears about temporarily saying good-bye and moving onto something else.  That leads me to another example of my opinion of a TV show changing.  I didn't really get into the Secret Life of Us when I watched the first season. I liked it but not as much as I expected from what I had heard about it.  I found it mildly interesting, but had no real emotional attachment. But with the second season, I felt much more attached and interested.

As for American TV, we started watching the second season of Walking Dead season 5. I pretty much just watch it to make fun of it. Then I feel mean.

I did really like the Emily-Kinney-singing-to-Tyreese part. I've had "The Struggling Man" song floating in my head all day.  But no. I need to be nicer to that show when I watch it. It's not all bad or funny—just kind of odd about the whole black man thing.  Plus, the zombies and the zombie-special effects don't really thrill me anymore.  

Partners vs. Tour Guides

A couple of weeks ago, a dream and an episode of The Secret Life of Us inspired me to write this post.

In it, I asked, is it better to be partnered with someone who is also struggling? Or is it better to be partnered with someone who knows what they're doing and can act as a mentor?

This morning I've been watching another episode of The Secret Life of Us, and Gabrielle and Alex had a conversation that sounded very similar to what I wrote. I feel like this show and I are totally on the same page.

Gabrielle is trying to decide what to do about the two men in her life. Her almost-ex-husband Jason admitted he still loves her. Dominic, her married lover, has left his wife for a second time and wants Gabrielle back.  Gabrielle talks about how she doesn't know if she wants a man who already has a family. She wants to be with someone who is like her—new to it all.

Gabrielle says, I want a partner. Not a—

Alex then cleverly completes her sentence. An experienced tour guide.

With that in mind, Gabrielle probably needs to find a man beyond Jason and Dominic, because Jason already has a baby son with someone else.

But anyway....

The thing that came to my mind today about the whole partner versus tour guide thing is homeschooling. I think some parents imagine they could never be their child's teacher because they don't even remember how to do long division, and they don't know which planet is closest to the sun.
Sometimes when we tell people we homeschool, I think they imagine I'm some freak of nature who remembers everything I learned in elementary school and high school. Then I spend my days filling my child with this knowledge.

I rarely fill my child with knowledge. If I try, he usually looks annoyed and starts daydreaming. Most learning these days, in our house, is done as a solitary pursuit. If it's done together, it usually comes in the form of one of us asking questions, because we really are curious. Then usually we have to go to the Internet to look it up.

In education, neither children nor adults need a tour guide. Maybe in this past they did. But these days, with all the information available on the internet, it's really not necessary. We can learn on our own. If we want companionship, there's nothing wrong with it being a partnership rather than mentorship.

Then again, this isn't a perfect analogy to what was said in the show. I'm not new to stuff like long division. I've just forgotten most of it, and I end up having to re-learn it.

So in defense of Gabrielle staying with Dominic...he may have children, but it's been awhile since they were babies. He may have forgotten all his fathering-a-baby skills.  Plus, every baby is different.

Creative Outlets

I've been happily re-addicted to Sims 2.  For the past several weeks, I've been using a large chunk of my free-time to play the game. All that was ruined yesterday when I noticed that Hulu now has Home and Away.  It was another thing to add to my to-watch list which is already frighteningly long. My to-read list is too long as well. So much fiction to consume, and there's not enough time. There's considerably even less time if you spend a lot of it playing a video game.

Yeah. Even those of us blessed with ample free time need to balance our priorities.

So Sims 2 is out for now.

I miss it, though. It might have been my creative outlet. Although I'm thinking it's really less about creating and more about clicking on toilets, sinks, refrigerators, beds, etc. 

Still I liked dwelling in a world that was partly of my creation.

I started wondering if I'd be okay without a creative outlet.

I reminded myself I can use my imagination for my daydreams...have fantasies.

Then I remembered my evening dreams. My subconscious has hours each night to create fantastic settings, stimulating interactions, and exciting adventures. 

But sometimes I get the idea that I'm NOT creating these nighttime stories. I start to think that there are dream fairies and dream angels who provide us with our dreams.

My idea about dreams is probably delusional. But hey...delusions take imagination.  In a way, they're a type of creative outlet.

It may be the case that without Sims 2, I'll be exercising a little less of my own imagination. But by reading more and watching more TV shows, I'm supporting other people's imaginations. Having that in mind, makes me feel less like a waste of space. 

Most of us need to imagine and/or create. It's nice to do it for our own enjoyment, but often it's nicer when we can share our goods.  

I like to imagine that a cast member, writer, or crew member from The Secret Life of Us would be happy to know that today I binge-watched a bit of their show (three episodes, so far), in the same way I am happy to see, from Statcounter, that people are spending time on my blog.  

Really. Let's face it. I'm writing this whole post in order to justify the fact that I'm allowing myself to become a couch potato.  Let me just say, though...in my defense. I have a system in place where I have to earn TV show watching time by cleaning, exercising, reading, writing, etc.  And you know what? Doing those things, to earn my TV time, also gives me quiet thinking time which I can use for exercising my imagination. I can have fantasies about hanging out in Summer Bay with Kelly, Alex, and Miranda who are visiting from St. Kilda.  

  

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 

I'm Going To Get You Back For Doing That

I really liked two lines about revenge on the episode of The Secret Life of Us I watched today.

I won't be able to find the first without going through some tedious Hulu navigations. So I'll just paraphrase.  It was about revenge against people you love. Maybe it was along the lines of it being like a knife that cuts yourself.

The other one was at the end of the episode. It's easy for me to get to, so I'll quote it directly.

You never get what you want from revenge. Any satisfaction is tainted by the damage you've done to their soul and yours.

I don't think I've done anything big and obvious like spray someone's belongings with fish sauce or slash their tires. But sometimes I'll try to treat people the way they treat me instead of how I want to be treated.

I did it recently to a friend. Her emails and are conversations are so often focused on her.  Our interactions make me feel like I'm her personal counselor or life coach. She rarely asks me anything about my life, and frankly doesn't seem to care.  I ask her questions. I cheer her on. I give her sympathy. So one day she sends me an email telling me details about her life. Instead of being my usual supportive self, I wrote nothing in response to what she said. I just wrote about what was going on in my life.

I don't know if it annoyed her or hurt her. She didn't act hurt or annoyed. Maybe she actually prefers email conversations where each person talks about only themselves. But the thing is...I don't like these type of interactions. I didn't like the person I was in that email. And what if I continued to write to her in that way? What if we both wrote emails that are always completely self-absorbed? Well, what if I get accustomed to acting that way and this negative behavior carries over to my interaction with other people?

I still wish certain people in my life would be less self-absorbed. But why should I sink to their level to teach them a lesson? In the end, it's better to hope karma takes care of it.

You know....I've probably been an instrument of karma for many people...not by purposely behaving badly, but by just being myself.  For example. Someone might annoy their friend by writing these really long blog posts.  They could purposely write a really long blog post themselves to try to annoy their friend. But if they're naturally good at writing nice short blog posts, why change that? It's better if the long-blog-post-writer runs into my blog.

Asher Keddie

Today I'm going to learn about the actress Asher Keddie.

Mostly, I know her from Offspring. She played the neurotic and adorable obstetrician Nina Proudman.

After being introduced to Keddie via Offspring, I then watched her on the depressing show Love My Way.  There she played a....

 I think she was a production assistant? And she had a shoplifting problem.

Recently I saw Keddie in the second season of Rush. She played Jacinta, a journalist dating someone in the police force. When I saw her on the show, I thought it was just going to be a brief one time appearance, but she was actually on several episodes.

This week I saw Keddie on the second season of The Secret Life of Us. Her hair was darker and I thought she was much less attractive in this. That started freaking me out a bit. I mean about myself. What if my physical appearance is mediocre simply because of my hair color? What if getting my hair bleached would make me drop dead gorgeous? What if all these years I've been going around with the wrong hair colors?

I was thinking I should go to one of those websites that let you try on different hair colors? But I think I'm afraid to. If I do look a zillion times better blond, it's kind of a problem. Because I don't think I'd be good at keeping up with it. I already dye my hair subtle colors like different shades of brown and red. I fail to keep up, but it doesn't matter all that much. I don't think it's too obvious. But blond? I'd probably end up with brown hair on the whole top of my head, and then all else would be blond.

Then again, I'll probably have to get good at keeping up with my hair coloring because I'll soon go grey. I mean MAYBE I'll be one of those women who embrace ageing hair. If I do, it will probably be more out of laziness and cheapness than following a principle.

If I'm not lazy and cheap, maybe I'll go blond when I start turning grey. I mean if one of those websites tells me I'd be super beautiful if I didn't have brown hair.

Oh! You know what would be awesome? If grey is my magic hair color—the one that makes me as beautiful as Nina Proudman.

I should stop talking about hair and get on to deeper things.

Keddie's character on The Secret Life of Us was even uglier on the inside. She was clingy and overly helpful towards Jason. Then when he rejected her, she freaked out. She pointed out that she did so much for him, and he told her he had never asked her to. She didn't like that.

It's really wonderful when people are helpful, but it can get difficult if they demand something in return.  Something illegal.  Your undying affection. Obedience.....

Since seeing the episode with Keddie, I've wondered if I've ever acted that way towards someone. I can't think of anything from recent memory. If anyone would be the victim of that type of behavior from me, it would probably be Jack. I think it's a common and somewhat natural thing to happen between parents and children. We do so much for our children. Then when they do something we dislike, there's a tendency to feel wounded. Then we may make the mistake of lashing out.  I've been watching Coronation Street lately, and Gail McIntyre is having these types of feelings towards her grown-up kids.

I'm not saying it's good that this happens between parents and children. It can be very annoying and somewhat suffocating. Manipulative! But it's just something that often happens, and people can kind of expect it.

Outside family situations, I think it's a bit more disturbing.

Another show I've seen it on lately is the second season of Bates Motel.  Norma is befriended by people in town who are just a bit too eager to be her friend and help her out. The poor woman has a LOT on her plate. When she loses the plot one day and lashes out, they act very unforgiving towards her. There was that attitude of, we did so much for you! How dare you not give us 100% of your love, devotion, and obedience. And Norma WAS bitchy towards them. They deserved an apology. But I think in normal healthy relationships, people would be understanding of bad moods and forgive.

I also think there are people in the internet community who act like that—maybe especially in the blogosphere.  There are people who will be overly nice to new bloggers. They'll take you under their wings. They'll comment on all your posts. They'll get their friends to comment. They'll give you these little awards to decorate your blog.  But the underlying rule is you have to agree with everything they say on their blogs.  If any of your comments show disagreement towards them, you'll quickly become the pariah.

Crap. I should really shut up and get onto learning about Asher Keddie. I think this going to be a very long post. Get your skimming eyes and fingers ready.

I'm going to start with Keddie's biography on IMDb.

They say she was born in Melbourne. They don't list a birthdate, which makes me wonder if there's something fantastic and mysterious. Maybe she's a vampire or Time Lord.

Keddie was married to a guy named Jay Bowen from 2007 to 2012. Then, last year, she married a guy named Vincent Fantauzzo. That's a fun name!

Keddie's anniversary to Fantauzzo is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Oh! Wow. Keddie JUST gave birth...like three days ago. It's her first baby.

I wonder how they're all doing.

They're probably exhausted.

I'm getting tired just thinking about them being tired.

One last thing on the biography page: Keddie did ballet in her childhood. She was going to audition for the Australian Ballet School when she was 14, but she dislocated her knee.

So is that an injury that cuts you out of ballet for life? Or was it more like she just got led to another path and never returned to the ballet one?

Here's Vincent Fantauzzo's website. He's a painter—an artist one, not a house painter.

What show was it where someone was hired as a painter, and they were the artist type. But the person who hired them was looking for someone to paint their house?  I'm pretty sure it was an Australian show. Maybe House Husbands? Though I don't remember there being an artist on House Husbands.

Crap. This is going to bother me.....

Anyway. Vincent Fantauzzo is the one who painted the Archibald winning painting of Asher Keddie. I've seen it before, but had no idea it was painted by her husband.

Now I'm seeing that Keddie is a stepmother. Actually, IMDb mentioned it, but I ignored them.

Here's a painting, though, of Keddie's stepson.  He's beautiful.  I hope he's adjusting well to getting a new sibling.

Oh! Fantauzzo is also the one who painted the Archibald winning painting of Heath Ledger.  It's quite amazing.

I like this guy's work.

I think the coupledom of Fantauzzo and Keddie is oozing with talent. I wonder if their kids will inherent any of it.

Now I'm looking at Asher Keddie's filmography. It's LONG. I'm already overwhelmed.

I'll do my usual disclaimer: I skip over one time appearances in TV shows I haven't watched (not including the first thing on the filmography). And I skip over movies in which I can't find much information.

Keddie's first screen thing was in 1985—an episode of the show Five Mile Creek.  Keddie played a character named Emma. I'm guessing Emma was a child. Because I was a child in 1985, and I'm pretty sure Keddie is around my age. I imagine she's a few years younger.

Someone has posted the whole episode on YouTube.  I'll skim through and see if I can find Keddie.

The show has a fun theme song.

There's a little girl at 2:21 looking at a sign and eating an apple. Could that be Keddie?

She appears again at 3:59. I'm pretty sure it's her.

Keddie did some other projects in 1985. I can't find much information about some of them.

So I'm going to jump to Fortress.  It's a TV movie about a teacher who's kidnapped along with her students.

Here's a trailer for the movie.

I think that's Keddie at :08—the one in the purple shirt.

In 1986, Keddie was in a movie with The Christmas Story boy. This was called The Last Frontier.  It's about an American woman (Linda Evans) who ends up living in Australia.  She falls in love with an Australian man. The problem is he dies and leaves her a property plagued with debt. And there's a drought. Yikes.

There's more stuff here in which I can't find good enough information. Unfortunately.

I'm going to skip ahead all the way to 1994.  Keddie appeared as Lisa in three episodes of a TV show called Janus.  Lord Wiki says the show was about a criminal family.

In 1997, Keddie played the 17-year-old version of Karla in the miniseries Simone de Beauvoir's Babies.  I know actors don't always play characters that are the same age as them. BUT if Keddie was the same age as Karla, that would mean she was born in 1980. That wouldn't make sense, though, because then she would have been five-years-old in Five Mile Creek.  She looked much older than five.

I thought the miniseries sounded familar; and looking at the credits. I see Sonia Todd was in it. I probably came across the movie when I did my post on her.  I also see that Jacek Korman was in the series. He's on The Secret Life of Us—plays Gabrielle's married lover.

I just looked more closely. Sonia Todd played the older version of Karla.

Also in 1997, Keddie appeared in several episodes of the TV show State Coroner.  She played a woman named Claire Ferrari.

Here's a scene from the show. I'll see if Keddie is in it.

Nope.

It looks like the type of show that would scare and depress me. I think it's pretty much about the different ways we can all tragically die.

In 2002, Keddie was in a horror-comedy short called The Thing in the Roof.  It's online, so I'll look at it a little bit later.

I'm going to jump back in time a little bit...and then forward. Between 1996 and 2003, Keddie appeared four episodes of Blue Heelers as three different characters.  One character appeared in a season 7 episode, and then was back again for one episode of season 9. Maybe it was a family member of one of the main characters?

Well, no. The character's last name was Lonsdale, and I don't see any other characters with that last name. Although I guess sometimes people don't have the same last name as their family members. I don't have the same last name as Tim or any of my sisters.  Keddie doesn't have the same last name as her husband.

At least one of the Lonsdale episodes is on YouTube. I'm going to watch a bit of it.

Keddie appears almost immediately at :32. She comes into the police station to tell the police people that there was an explosion. Her hair is dark like it was in The Secret Life of Us.  I'm not sure, though, if it's dark blond or light brown. I'm dumb when it comes to stuff like that.

Now that I look again, I'm seeing that it's brown. Maybe it's darker than what it was on The Secret Life of Us.

Why am I going on and on about hair? It makes me sound so superficial. I try to keep that side of myself hidden.

I have to jump through time again. I'm not good at following timelines on IMDb.

So...Between 2000 and 2004, Keddie appeared as Samantha Piper in the show Stingers.  She was in seven episodes.

Lord Wiki says Samantha was the sister of someone named Angie.

Oh! Angie was played by Kate Kendall. Lord Wiki just pointed out that Kendall now plays Laura Turner on Neighbours!  That's very cool. I like learning things like that.

My favorite Australian television website says that in Samantha Piper's first episode, her arrival messes up her sister's assignment. The whole sting thing?

What is a sting thing?  Isn't it where police people pretend to be something else?

Yes. Lord Wiki says I'm right. So I guess that would include the characters on on 21 Jump Street.

In 2006, Keddie was in The Society Murders. I remember this one. I think Matthew Le Nevez played the killer; and Keddie is his sister.

So...yeah. Here's a scene with Patrick and Nina not being Patrick and Nina. It's all a bit surreal.

In 2007, Keddie was in another murder movie. This one was called Murder in the Outback.  And Damien de Montemas, who played the object of Keddie's affection in The Secret Life of Us, was also in the film. I wonder if they had any scenes together.

The murderer in this story is named Bradley John Murdoch. Though I don't see anything about him being related to Rupert Murdoch.  I did wonder.....

Crap. I messed up on the timeline...AGAIN.

Rewind to 2004. This is when Keddie started working on Love My Way.  She played Julia Jackson.

Here's some clips from from the show. Keddie doesn't say much in the beginning, but she has a more prominent scene starting at 1:30.

I'm going to jump back forward to 2007. This is when Love My Way ended.  And also, Keddie was in a movie about John Curtin. She played Elsie junior, the daughter of John and Elsie Curtin. It's not often that children are named after their mothers.  I think it happens much more often with fathers and sons.  If I remember correctly, there was a comment made about it on Bates Motel, because there Norman is named after his mother Norma.

In 2009, Keddie was in another murder movie. This one was called Beautiful.

Lord Wiki is describing the plot to me, but I can't really follow it.

I'm going to watch the trailer instead.

There's a boy in the movie. He looks familar to me. I'll have to find out who he is.  After I'm done watching the trailer.

Keddie appears at 1:05.

It's a mysterious serial killer type story. It looks quite intriguing.

You know who the boy might be. I'm going to make the guess before looking at the credits. I think he's from The Elephant Princess.

Yep. I'm right! His name is Sebastian Gregory, and he played JB. JB annoyed me a bit sometimes.

Also in 2009, Keddie was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I've seen all of the general X-Men movies, but not the ones specifically dealing with Wolverine. I don't know. I've never really been into him that much. I don't know if I'd be interested in seeing a movie that's just about Wolverine.  Although I guess he wouldn't be the only character in the movie.

Keddie played a character named Dr. Carol Frost. She and Hugh Jackman aren't the only Aussies in the movie.  I see Max Cullen in the credits. He starred with Keddie in Love My Way. And there's also Tim Pocock from Dance Academy.

There's probably more. It seems the movie has a huge cast.

Brief detour here. I was looking on YouTube for Asher Keddie X-Men scenes, and ended up finding this instead. It's a video of Keddie (age 9) performing on Young Talent Time.

That's pretty cute.

Back to Wolverine. According to Lord Wiki's cousin, Carol Frost was a nurse who worked for a guy named William Stryker. I guess she's a nurse who also has a PhD. Or people call her doctor just for the fun of it.

Wow. Asher Keddie was busy in 2009.  This was the year she was on Rush.  She was also on season two of Underbelly.  She played Liz Cruickshank.

This blog says Cruickshank is a Victorian police officer.  She fights against drug stuff.

Here's a promo for Underbelly. And again, in this show, Keddie is reunited with Jason from The Secret Life of Us.

I'm still not done with 2009.

Keddie was in a TV movie called Possessions.  And here, Keddie is once again reunited with Max Cullen. I think Keddie works with the same actors over and over again.

Here's a trailer for the movie.  It features a weird mummy painting.

I'm not sure if that's a bad trailer, or what. All I know is it didn't make me want to see the movie.

Here's a scene from the movie. Maybe it will be more compelling than the trailer.

No...not really.

It could be a very good movie, though. Maybe they're just doing a bad job advertising it. Or maybe they're doing a fair job, but the movie and I aren't a good match.

Now I'm finally ready to move onto 2010.  This is when Offspring premiered.  I think this is what Keddie is most famous for. Some people might disagree with me. Well, and then I'd disagree with them. We'd go round and round in a circle.

Well...wait. I'm so messed up.

I just re-looked, and Possessions came out in 2010.  I make a big deal about leaving 2009, and I already did so.

Sorry about that.

There was a lot in 2009, but not as much as I thought.

As for 2010, Keddie was in another Prime Minister movie. This one was about Bob Hawke. Keddie played his second wife.  Patrick Brammall from Offspring played Kim Beasley. I'm guessing I wrote about the movie when I did my post about him.

Yeah. I can't follow IMDb timelines and I can't remember stuff I've researched only about a few months ago.  That's probably why I feel a bit lost sometimes.

In 2011, Asher Keddie played Ita Buttrose in Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. I think this is another role in which Keddie is well known for.  I think she won an award.  And I know she also won an award for Offspring. I think that's how I first heard of Offspring in the first place. I was looking at recent Logie winners, and came across the show.

Here's a promo for Paper Giants. Some of the other actresses there look vaguely familar to me. But my mind can't place them.

The last thing on Keddie's filmography is a series called Party Tricks. I guess it was a miniseries. It's only six episodes.  In this one, she was reunited with Rodger Corser, her police officer lover on Rush. It's about two people politically racing to become premier.  I think Keddie and Corser are those two people.

Yeah. Lord Wiki says I'm right. And he also says it's brought to the world by John Edwards  This is the guy the who brought us Offspring, The Secret Life of Us, Rush, Tangle,  and almost every other Australian show that exists.

It almost seems like Australian television is run by a clique. And if you want to be in the business, you'd better be on the right side of it.

Well, that's not really true. There's Neighbours and Home and Away. I don't think John Edwards is involved with those shows.  And there are a few other things. Still.  I think it's a good idea to be on friendly terms with that man.

That being said, even powerful successful people have their failures. According to this article, Party Tricks was a flop. That happens sometimes.  I'm kind of glad it happened. Sorry. It's just that John Edwards is like the king of modern Australian television. It's annoying when someone is overly successful.  Well, it's annoying for someone like me—a person who frequently fails. (And is petty about it). But all that being said, I wouldn't want John Edwards to continue to have flops. One or two is enough.  Then he should go back to having huge successes.

Now I'm going to read some interviews with Asher Keddie. Here's one from InStyle Australia. I didn't know there was an Aussie version of InStyle.

Keddie says the actress who has most inspired her own career is Meryl Street. I'm sure that's a common answer for actresses.

Keddie is asked what's been the biggest hurdle of her career.  One of the things she says is,
You dissolve a large part of yourself when you take on different characters and that can be to the detriment of your emotional health sometimes.

I think that's very interesting. I've definitely thought of actors becoming different people when they take on different roles, but I don't think I ever thought of it in terms of their own self dissolving. It's kind of scary in a way. Maybe some actors lose the line that divides their own self from the character.

Is it the same with writers?

Do I ever lose myself when creating characters?

Maybe.

I don't think so.

I think more often I find parts of myself I didn't realize existed.

I'm going to move onto another interview.

Here's a 2012 one from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Keddie is described as a perfectionist.

In the interview, she says this about Nina and herself. I understand her need to fix things, I understand her desire to control her environment sometimes, to make it feel like she's standing on solid ground. I understand feeling confident one day and waking up the next and feeling vulnerable. It motivates me; I think it motivates her, too   

I'm not sure I fully understand that. I've been reading quotes from Keddie in these two interviews. I find it sort of hard to follow some of the things she says.

Well, I'm not saying I don't understand her words. I get what she's saying about feeling confident one day and feeling vulnerable the next. But I don't really think it's a big deal that that she and Nina have that in common. Don't most people have mixture of confidence and vulnerability?

Then again. Maybe not.

Maybe if someone like John Edwards had no flops, he'd be feeling confident every single day.

And then there are people who feel vulnerable every day. They're probably depressed.

Still. I think most people switch back and forth between having confidence and losing it.

Sometimes I think I'm brilliant. I think this blog is fabulous. I think I'm beautiful and have this fabulous singing voice. Oh, and I'm also a great mom, listener, novelist, etc.

Then other days, I'm so embarrassed about this blog. I look in the mirror and see this outrageously ugly woman looking back at me. I start to think that the people who have complimented my singing were just messing with my head. I'm a terrible mother and I'm dreading the day that Jack's therapist gets him to see that I'm the one who caused all his problems in life.

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm seeing with Keddie. It's almost like she's somewhat distant and overly general.  Maybe somewhat cerebral?  Then again, it could be the way the interviews are edited.

I'm going to read another interview. This one is about season 5 of Offspring.

Keddie says she enjoyed working with a baby on the set, despite the advice given to actors to avoid that.

She also enjoys being a stepmom.

Now she has another little baby.

Here's an article about the baby.

The baby is a boy.

Keddie and her husband got married on a beach in Fiji.

While looking at recent news articles, I came across Lord Wiki's information on Keddie. He has a birthdate for her. She was born on July 31, 1974. She shares a birthday with Harry Potter!

What year was he born?

Lord Wiki's cousin just reminded me that it was 1980. So Keddie is a bit older than Potter.  She's pretty close to my age actually...two years younger.

Lord Wiki says Keddie has won the Silver Logie for most popular actress four times in a row. Wow. That's impressive.

Both of her parents were teachers.

I think maybe I'll watch some interviews. I want to get a better sense of Asher Keddie.

Here's an interview with Adam Hills. I like him.

This is fairly old. It's about Paper Giants; so I think it's pre-Offspring.

The beginning is funny. Hills asks about the upcoming Logies. Will she win? Keddie says it could be up to him, whether he makes her look bad on his show. Then he says, Is it true you're a massive bitch?

Is it true?

Probably. Sometimes.

Most women are bitches at least some of the time. I know I am.

Oh! Now the joke is even funnier. Keddie was in competition with Adam Hills for the big Logie. I guess he failed to make people believe she was a total bitch.

Wait. Did she win for Paper Giants? I'm pretty sure she did.

No. I'm wrong. Lord Wiki says she lost. And so did Adam Hills. Stupid me. I forgot these competitions are usually not between just two people.  Hamish Blake is the person who won.

This is very funny. Now they're talking about what faces they make when the camera is on them as the nominations are being read, and also the facial expressions used when learning they've lost.  I'm wondering if that's the hardest part about being a successful actor. THAT moment there.  And it's worse these days with Twitter, because if you make the wrong face, it's going to be all over the Internet.

Keddie says she deals with it by pretending she's a character. That's brilliant. I think it's a very good way of handling it. It's probably a good way of handling any difficult situation.

Now they're talking about Ita Buttrose's lisp.  When I think of lisps, I think of Sarah Paulson. Are there any other actors who have lisps?

This website names Drew Barrymore as having a lisp. I never really noticed. I guess she does?

Sean Connery has a lisp?

I should move on.

I mean I should get back to watching the video.

Keddie and Hills talk about playing real people. Keddie says she had meetings with Ita Buttrose. She wasn't able to do the same when playing Bob Hawke's wife. She talked to her via Skype.

Keddie says when they were on Skype, Bob Hawke would pop his head in once in awhile to check things out.

There was an episode of Who Do You Think You Are that featured Keddie.  Here's the promo for that. She has an ancestor that was a child star like her.  There are actors in her family history. That's probably not too surprising.

Here's a video of Asher Keddie winning a Logie in 2012.  Adam Hills is the one giving her the award. I wonder, when she walks up to the stage, is she's pretending to be another character?  And when she pretends to be a character, does she make up a new one? Or does she use one she's already played? Maybe she's imagining she's Nina Proudman.

She looks very elegant.

The background thing behind Keddie is moving. It's making me a bit dizzy.

I'm going to watch the short film with Keddie: The Thing in the Roof.

They're talking about a killer who hides in the attic. That's kind of scary to me. We have something living in our attic. Maybe a rat or a raccoon. Could be a squirrel.  But what if it's a person?

Or a monster.

The thing in this movie sounds like a zombie.

Asher Keddie's partner in the movie is Nathan from the Secret Life of Us.

This is very creepy.

It's good horror. They've managed to make Winnie the Pooh look scary.

I didn't really understand the ending.

I tried to find Asher Keddie's Twitter. I found this, but it's not verified. I don't think it's hers. I could be wrong.

This might be her husband's Twitter.  It has links to an Instagram account that seems to be his. There are pictures of a child who resembles Keddie's stepson and also pictures of Keddie.

I'm going to look at who Vincent Fantauzzo is following on Twitter and see if the Asher Keddie account is one of them. I'm doubting he would follow a fake Asher Keddie account. Then again...doing so might be fun for him.

Well, I went through the list. I didn't see Asher Keddie. Though I saw a lot of other Offspring people.  I had fun looking at his followers. I should do that more often. I mean not look specifically at who Vincent Fantauzzo is following. Once is probably enough. When you get up to three times, you're probably in stalker territory.  But you know...in general.  Look at who someone is following.

So....

I think I shall end this here.

Gotta put the laundry away....

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