1. Dreamed again about my almost-Australian cousin. Well, actually this time it was her husband in my dream. We were in a car. I'm pretty sure we were in Australia. He was exasperated about something, but I'm not sure what.
2. Heard lots of bird calls. It reminds me of being in Halls Gap, except here they're American birds rather than Australian ones.
3. Looked at an article about the most watched shows in Australia on Tuesday.
It looks like most Australians prefer watching the news over watching fictional drama.
I think the article might be wrong about something, though. Or I disagree with it. They say Love Child is the only drama on the list, but Home and Away is there too. Is that not a drama?
4. Disappointed that there are no comedies on the list. Why do Australians prefer watching the news over comedy? It seems kind of depressing.
Although maybe this was just a freak thing on that particular Tuesday. Maybe people were not in the mood for laughing. Maybe on most days, Australians watch more comedy and less news.
5. Went to OzTAM, the measuring device mentioned in the article.
6. Saw that OzTAM is more about what network is most popular and not what TV Show. I'm not too interested in that.
6. Looked at a list of Australia's favorite and least favorite celebrities. Out of the ten loved folks, only one is not a singer/actor/entertainer.
7. Ignorant about four out of the ten people on the hated list. I THINK I might know who Lara Bingle is. Is she the one who said rude things about obesity? Ben Cousins sounds familar. I've seen the name. I have no idea who is he. I don't think I've ever heard of Tom Waterhouse or Brynn Edelston.
8. Wondered if Brynn Edelston is the one who pretended to have cancer. I kind of hope so, because otherwise, I'd be wondering why that woman is not on the list.
9. Consulted Lord Wiki about Lara Bingle. He doesn't say anything about any obesity controversy.
Bingle is in a relationship with Sam Worthington.
10. Wondered if Bingle is hated for bad driving. She was in a traffic accident involving another driver and fled the scene. And that was one of many accidents.
11. Continued to try to find out why Lara Bingle is hated. Is there something more than driving issues?
I found this article. It talks about why Bingle is hated.
One of the reasons is she's seen as a home-wrecker, because she was in a relationship with a married man.
There's some big controversy about nude photos. Lord Wiki mentioned that, but I didn't pay much attention.
12. Realized the article is actually an editorial. It talks about how someone printed a photo of Bingle without her permission. Susie O'Brien, the writer, says: Go on, admit it. Most women hate Bingle for being younger and more beautiful than they are. And this makes her a threat. What chance would we stand if she turned her baby-blues on our husbands?
But at the end of the day, this is all irrelevant. You can't blame a girl for taking a shower, and this is really all that Bingle did.
13. Confused about why people hate Lara Bingle. There must be more to the story. How is she different from Angelina Jolie? Jolie broke up a marriage and is younger and more beautiful than a lot of us. But I think she remains quite popular.
14. Found a very recent editorial about Bingle. I think it's in response to the love/hate list.
The basic idea I'm getting is Bingle is in the same category as woman like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. They're hated for being beautiful, wealthy, successful, and being seen way too much. I think the hatred is probably a mixture of jealousy, annoyance, and disgust.
15. Learned that Brynn Edelsten is American...or at least American born. But she married an Aussie.
She's not the fake cancer survivor. I already kind of knew that, because she was mentioned in one of the editorials as being similar to Bingle.
And she is.
She's a socialite reality TV type person.
16. Learned from Lord Wiki that Ben Cousins is a sports person. He's had problems with drinking and drugs.
But a lot of celebrities have drug problems. Do we hate them all that much?
17. Learned from Lord Wiki that Tom Waterhouse is a bookmaker. I don't think I've ever heard that term. Does he make books?
Okay...no. It's some kind of gambling thing. Oh! Like a bookie! Now I get it.
I think basically Waterhouse is hated by anti-gambling people.
18. Decided I'm not anti-gambling, but I do think it can be extremely dangerous. It's like drinking. For some, alcohol is not a problem...just something that adds a little fun to their life. But for other people, alcohol destroys their life and the lives of their families.
Everything in moderation. But sometimes people can't do moderation. Then you have a problem.
19. Wondered why the fake cancer victim isn't on the hate list.
And what about Man Haron Monis?
20. Saw that the fake cancer victim is named Belle Gibson.
Personally I think making money off of a fake cancer diagnosis is worse than being a rich and beautiful annoying reality star.
And terrorizing people in a chocolate store? That's not very nice.
21. Wanted to find out the name of the anti-obesity woman. From what I remember, she was thin and believed that all obese people are obese because they eat a huge amount of calories. As if every body's metabolism is the same.
22. Found out the name of the anti-obesity woman is Katie Hopkins. I had a hard time finding the right words to put in the Google search engine. I finally Googled Australian obesity woman Adam Hills, because I remembered Adam Hills speaking out against her.
23. Saw I'm all mixed up. Katie Hopkins (the anti-obesity woman) is NOT Australian. She's British.
Oops.
24. Wanted to say that I don't think being anti-obesity is necessarily a hate-deserving trait. Because some people, who are against obesity, do it in a kind, caring, educated, and rational kind of way. Other people are awful about it—prejudiced, judgmental, irrational, and ignorant.
25. Thought it was interesting that most of the Australians on the loved list are known in America. I think 7/10 on the list would be known by the typical—at least those who are of average knowledge when it comes to television and movies.
I think it would be hard to find an American who hasn't heard of Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, and Olivia Newton John. Well, young children might not have heard of them. But I think most adults would have.
Less Americans might have heard of Eric Bana and Simon Baker; but still, I think many would know of them.
I wish there were more people, on the list, like Claudia Karvan, Asher Keddie, Matthew La Nevez, Julia Morris, etc. Didn't some of them win most popular entertainer Logies?
What about Adam Hills and Rove McManus? Aren't they quite popular?
The list makes me suspicious. I'm thinking it wasn't just Australians who voted. Maybe Americans and other non-Aussie folks voted as well. Actually, I'd say Americans, because I think other types of non-Aussies would have heard of Asher Keddie. I think they watch more Australian TV than Americans do.
I think Americans messed up the list.
26. Looked back at the article with the list. Maybe Americans didn't mess it up. Maybe I just misinterpreted it. I thought it was supposed to be about Australia's favorite Australians. But I think it's just about favorite Australians and hated Australians in general.
27. Found another article about the list. It says 3000 people were surveyed. That makes me think the questioners approached people rather than there being some type of online poll.
If this is the case, did they ask Australians-only or a mix of people?
28. Went to the Pureprofile website. They're the ones who did the ranking/survey thing.
The website reminds me of Dave Eggar's novel The Circle. I can't help but think of that novel when I read on the website, Build your profile by answering questions about yourself, your habits and your lifestyle. The more opinions you share, the more your profile gets to know you – and the more valuable it becomes.
The premise of the novel is a world in which privacy is selfish, and everything we think, do, feel needs to be shared online.
29. Tempted to join Pureprofile, because rewards are promised. Yeah, it sounds like the evil from a dystopian book I read, but still...it sounds kind of fun.
You know what, though. That's what I liked about The Circle. There were aspects of the dystopian world that actually seemed quite appealing. In other dystopian books, it all seems pretty awful to me, and it's hard to understand why people ended up there. But when I read The Circle I was thinking, Oh, that's so cool! Oh, that's awesome! I want that. When is that going to become reality? I can't wait. Oh...scary. That's not so cool. Oh shit. This is awful. I hope this doesn't come true.
I mean I don't know. MAYBE there are people out there who want to live in poverty and watch teenagers fight each other to the death on TV. But I imagine most of us would pass on all that.
30. Saw that you don't have to be Australian to sign up for this.
I might do it.
Am I selling my soul to satan?
30. Saw that Pureprofile got a fairly low ranking on Survey Police (2.5 stars). It seems it's mostly because they don't pay enough.
31. Decided I won't join Pureprofile. I remembered I usually hate doing surveys. But I think it's when I'm not being paid. If I was highly rewarded, I'd probably like it.
32. Changed my mind, because I saw a mistake. I thought someone had said the most you can get paid is fifty cents for sixty days. I was thinking that's a waste of time. But it's fifty DOLLARS. That's not so bad.
33. Wondered if I'll like doing surveys if someone is paying me.
I don't like doing it for free.
Well, I don't mind short interesting surveys. I hate long annoying ones. I've done ones for Disney World. I feel they ask me all these questions I don't care about answering, but they don't ask me what I want to be asked. Or by the time they do, I've already quit the survey.
34. Tried to sign up for Pureprofile, but they're saying my email address is already an account.
I'm pretty sure I've not signed up with them before.
But I don't think people can have the same email address. Right?
Maybe there's a glitch.
35. Decided to give up. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. I could use my old email address, but I don't feel like it.
36. Annoyed...a little bit.
But oh well.
37. Decided to get on with watching The Saddle Club. I have twelve more episodes. I want to be finished with it soon.
38. Annoyed by the saddle club girls. They assure a scared blind girl that she won't get hurt riding a horse; but two of them have been hurt! Both Lisa (Lara Jean Marshall) and Stevie (Sophie Bennet) endured head injuries from riding.
Besides that, though, I hate when people promise that someone won't be hurt. That is something that can almost never be guaranteed.
39. Recognized a guest star on The Saddle Club. The actresses name is Annie Jones. She's been in three episodes of Wentworth; one of which I've seen. I don't really remember her. Well, on some level I do. That's probably why she looks familiar. But I can't remember who she was on the show.
40. Started watching another episode of The Saddle Club.
I'm kind of embarrassed to be watching the show, but I realized it's not because it's a kids show. I've watched many kid shows that wouldn't embarrass me—The Elephant Princess, iCarly, Miss Spider and the Sunny Patch Kids, Arthur, Charlie and Lola, etc.
It's more the fact that I don't find the show appealing; yet I still continue to watch it.
Maybe I'm embarrassed of my stubbornness—the compulsion to stick with things even when I don't like them much.
But to my defense, I have gotten better at quitting books I dislike.
41. Thought another guest star on The Saddle Club looked familiar.
42. Saw more signs of Australia on this episode—Crunchie bars, Flake bars, and Time Out bars.
43. Looked at IMDb and saw that the two male guest stars haven't been in anything besides The Saddle Club. So the one that looked familiar, probably just looked like someone else I've seen.
44. Googled Time Out because I wasn't sure if they were Australian. Lord Wiki says they originated in the UK and are also sold in Australia. That might be the case for Crunchie and Flake bars as well.
Yes...just Googled again. They're from the UK.
They might be popular in Canada too?
I don't think you'd find those bars in the candy aisle of the average American grocery store, but they can be found at upscale supermarkets and speciality shops. Well, at least that's the case for Crunchie and Flake. I'm not sure about Time Out.
45. Found a list of the favorite chocolate bars in Canada. I think it's a poll, maybe? Flake is 11th on the list and Crunchie is the 19th. But it's the same as the Favorite/hated Australia poll. How do we know that only Canadians are answering? Well, at least from the poll, I know that those chocolate bars can be found in Canada. So maybe the chocolate bars were not a big sign of Australianess.
46. Received email from PureProfile. I guess my registration went through after all.
I also received an overdue notice from my library. Stuff like that makes me anxious. I'm pretty sure I returned those books.
47. Learned from Pureprofile that I'm a headline scanner. I can't exactly deny that.
But now they won't take me any further. It's like I'm stuck there.
Maybe they don't like headlines scanners.
48.. Not impressed with Pureprofile's interface. I quit.
49. Started watching another episode of The Saddle Club.
50. Thought ANOTHER guest star looked familiar.
I think it might be Chris Hemsworth!
Let me go check if I'm right.....
51. Checked! Yes. I'm right. I want to give a disclaimer, though. I think I might have seen somewhere that Hemsworth was on the show. I vaguely remember that. So having the knowledge, somewhere in the back of my head, probably helped with the recognition.
52. Felt someone better about sticking through The Saddle Club. If anything, it's fun to see guest stars I know from other things.
53. While trying to clean the kitchen floor, listened to shuffled Aussie music on Spotify—Paul Kelly, Cam Nacson, Vance Joy, Sarah Storer, The Wiggles, and Lazy Harry. It was a nice mix.
54. Decided to endure another episode of The Saddle Club. Maybe there'll be another awesome guest star.
55. Thought guest star on this show looked like actress from Farscape—the one that was also in later seasons of The Secret Life of Us. But I don't know if it's her or not.
56. Found out that it is NOT the Farscape actress. It's a woman named Kate Ellis...but not the Labor MP. This Kate Ellis is a drama and dialogue coach who has also done some acting.
She was the dialogue coach for the 2008-2009 season of The Saddle Club. And she was the drama coach for one episode of Reef Doctors. Did most episodes not need a drama coach? Or did they hire other drama coaches for the other episodes?
57. Found a biography page about Kate Ellis. What happened is she guest-starred on The Saddle Club. Doing that helped her form a relationship with the producers and crew which led to her later job as a dialogue coach. That's pretty cool!
The biography says she holds workshops for the cast of Neighbours. Wow!
58. Looked at Kate Ellis's Instagram.
She has a drawing of an ape and is labeled age 11 drawing. It's pretty impressive. I couldn't have drawn something like that when I was 11. Nor could I draw it now.
Ellis's character on The Saddle Club is an artist. Did they work her talent into the show? Did the casting folks seek out someone who could draw? Or was it just a lucky coincidence that they found an artist-actress to play an artist-character. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to fake drawing talent on the screen.
59. Started wondering if I'm wrong. Maybe when casting for artists, they look for actresses who can draw, paint, etc.
60. Wondered if Olympia Valance from Neighbours is good at drawing in real life.
13. Confused about why people hate Lara Bingle. There must be more to the story. How is she different from Angelina Jolie? Jolie broke up a marriage and is younger and more beautiful than a lot of us. But I think she remains quite popular.
14. Found a very recent editorial about Bingle. I think it's in response to the love/hate list.
The basic idea I'm getting is Bingle is in the same category as woman like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. They're hated for being beautiful, wealthy, successful, and being seen way too much. I think the hatred is probably a mixture of jealousy, annoyance, and disgust.
15. Learned that Brynn Edelsten is American...or at least American born. But she married an Aussie.
She's not the fake cancer survivor. I already kind of knew that, because she was mentioned in one of the editorials as being similar to Bingle.
And she is.
She's a socialite reality TV type person.
16. Learned from Lord Wiki that Ben Cousins is a sports person. He's had problems with drinking and drugs.
But a lot of celebrities have drug problems. Do we hate them all that much?
17. Learned from Lord Wiki that Tom Waterhouse is a bookmaker. I don't think I've ever heard that term. Does he make books?
Okay...no. It's some kind of gambling thing. Oh! Like a bookie! Now I get it.
I think basically Waterhouse is hated by anti-gambling people.
18. Decided I'm not anti-gambling, but I do think it can be extremely dangerous. It's like drinking. For some, alcohol is not a problem...just something that adds a little fun to their life. But for other people, alcohol destroys their life and the lives of their families.
Everything in moderation. But sometimes people can't do moderation. Then you have a problem.
19. Wondered why the fake cancer victim isn't on the hate list.
And what about Man Haron Monis?
20. Saw that the fake cancer victim is named Belle Gibson.
Personally I think making money off of a fake cancer diagnosis is worse than being a rich and beautiful annoying reality star.
And terrorizing people in a chocolate store? That's not very nice.
21. Wanted to find out the name of the anti-obesity woman. From what I remember, she was thin and believed that all obese people are obese because they eat a huge amount of calories. As if every body's metabolism is the same.
22. Found out the name of the anti-obesity woman is Katie Hopkins. I had a hard time finding the right words to put in the Google search engine. I finally Googled Australian obesity woman Adam Hills, because I remembered Adam Hills speaking out against her.
23. Saw I'm all mixed up. Katie Hopkins (the anti-obesity woman) is NOT Australian. She's British.
Oops.
24. Wanted to say that I don't think being anti-obesity is necessarily a hate-deserving trait. Because some people, who are against obesity, do it in a kind, caring, educated, and rational kind of way. Other people are awful about it—prejudiced, judgmental, irrational, and ignorant.
25. Thought it was interesting that most of the Australians on the loved list are known in America. I think 7/10 on the list would be known by the typical—at least those who are of average knowledge when it comes to television and movies.
I think it would be hard to find an American who hasn't heard of Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, and Olivia Newton John. Well, young children might not have heard of them. But I think most adults would have.
Less Americans might have heard of Eric Bana and Simon Baker; but still, I think many would know of them.
I wish there were more people, on the list, like Claudia Karvan, Asher Keddie, Matthew La Nevez, Julia Morris, etc. Didn't some of them win most popular entertainer Logies?
What about Adam Hills and Rove McManus? Aren't they quite popular?
The list makes me suspicious. I'm thinking it wasn't just Australians who voted. Maybe Americans and other non-Aussie folks voted as well. Actually, I'd say Americans, because I think other types of non-Aussies would have heard of Asher Keddie. I think they watch more Australian TV than Americans do.
I think Americans messed up the list.
26. Looked back at the article with the list. Maybe Americans didn't mess it up. Maybe I just misinterpreted it. I thought it was supposed to be about Australia's favorite Australians. But I think it's just about favorite Australians and hated Australians in general.
27. Found another article about the list. It says 3000 people were surveyed. That makes me think the questioners approached people rather than there being some type of online poll.
If this is the case, did they ask Australians-only or a mix of people?
28. Went to the Pureprofile website. They're the ones who did the ranking/survey thing.
The website reminds me of Dave Eggar's novel The Circle. I can't help but think of that novel when I read on the website, Build your profile by answering questions about yourself, your habits and your lifestyle. The more opinions you share, the more your profile gets to know you – and the more valuable it becomes.
The premise of the novel is a world in which privacy is selfish, and everything we think, do, feel needs to be shared online.
29. Tempted to join Pureprofile, because rewards are promised. Yeah, it sounds like the evil from a dystopian book I read, but still...it sounds kind of fun.
You know what, though. That's what I liked about The Circle. There were aspects of the dystopian world that actually seemed quite appealing. In other dystopian books, it all seems pretty awful to me, and it's hard to understand why people ended up there. But when I read The Circle I was thinking, Oh, that's so cool! Oh, that's awesome! I want that. When is that going to become reality? I can't wait. Oh...scary. That's not so cool. Oh shit. This is awful. I hope this doesn't come true.
I mean I don't know. MAYBE there are people out there who want to live in poverty and watch teenagers fight each other to the death on TV. But I imagine most of us would pass on all that.
30. Saw that you don't have to be Australian to sign up for this.
I might do it.
Am I selling my soul to satan?
30. Saw that Pureprofile got a fairly low ranking on Survey Police (2.5 stars). It seems it's mostly because they don't pay enough.
31. Decided I won't join Pureprofile. I remembered I usually hate doing surveys. But I think it's when I'm not being paid. If I was highly rewarded, I'd probably like it.
32. Changed my mind, because I saw a mistake. I thought someone had said the most you can get paid is fifty cents for sixty days. I was thinking that's a waste of time. But it's fifty DOLLARS. That's not so bad.
33. Wondered if I'll like doing surveys if someone is paying me.
I don't like doing it for free.
Well, I don't mind short interesting surveys. I hate long annoying ones. I've done ones for Disney World. I feel they ask me all these questions I don't care about answering, but they don't ask me what I want to be asked. Or by the time they do, I've already quit the survey.
34. Tried to sign up for Pureprofile, but they're saying my email address is already an account.
I'm pretty sure I've not signed up with them before.
But I don't think people can have the same email address. Right?
Maybe there's a glitch.
35. Decided to give up. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. I could use my old email address, but I don't feel like it.
36. Annoyed...a little bit.
But oh well.
37. Decided to get on with watching The Saddle Club. I have twelve more episodes. I want to be finished with it soon.
38. Annoyed by the saddle club girls. They assure a scared blind girl that she won't get hurt riding a horse; but two of them have been hurt! Both Lisa (Lara Jean Marshall) and Stevie (Sophie Bennet) endured head injuries from riding.
Besides that, though, I hate when people promise that someone won't be hurt. That is something that can almost never be guaranteed.
39. Recognized a guest star on The Saddle Club. The actresses name is Annie Jones. She's been in three episodes of Wentworth; one of which I've seen. I don't really remember her. Well, on some level I do. That's probably why she looks familiar. But I can't remember who she was on the show.
40. Started watching another episode of The Saddle Club.
I'm kind of embarrassed to be watching the show, but I realized it's not because it's a kids show. I've watched many kid shows that wouldn't embarrass me—The Elephant Princess, iCarly, Miss Spider and the Sunny Patch Kids, Arthur, Charlie and Lola, etc.
It's more the fact that I don't find the show appealing; yet I still continue to watch it.
Maybe I'm embarrassed of my stubbornness—the compulsion to stick with things even when I don't like them much.
But to my defense, I have gotten better at quitting books I dislike.
41. Thought another guest star on The Saddle Club looked familiar.
42. Saw more signs of Australia on this episode—Crunchie bars, Flake bars, and Time Out bars.
43. Looked at IMDb and saw that the two male guest stars haven't been in anything besides The Saddle Club. So the one that looked familiar, probably just looked like someone else I've seen.
44. Googled Time Out because I wasn't sure if they were Australian. Lord Wiki says they originated in the UK and are also sold in Australia. That might be the case for Crunchie and Flake bars as well.
Yes...just Googled again. They're from the UK.
They might be popular in Canada too?
I don't think you'd find those bars in the candy aisle of the average American grocery store, but they can be found at upscale supermarkets and speciality shops. Well, at least that's the case for Crunchie and Flake. I'm not sure about Time Out.
45. Found a list of the favorite chocolate bars in Canada. I think it's a poll, maybe? Flake is 11th on the list and Crunchie is the 19th. But it's the same as the Favorite/hated Australia poll. How do we know that only Canadians are answering? Well, at least from the poll, I know that those chocolate bars can be found in Canada. So maybe the chocolate bars were not a big sign of Australianess.
46. Received email from PureProfile. I guess my registration went through after all.
I also received an overdue notice from my library. Stuff like that makes me anxious. I'm pretty sure I returned those books.
47. Learned from Pureprofile that I'm a headline scanner. I can't exactly deny that.
But now they won't take me any further. It's like I'm stuck there.
Maybe they don't like headlines scanners.
48.. Not impressed with Pureprofile's interface. I quit.
49. Started watching another episode of The Saddle Club.
50. Thought ANOTHER guest star looked familiar.
I think it might be Chris Hemsworth!
Let me go check if I'm right.....
51. Checked! Yes. I'm right. I want to give a disclaimer, though. I think I might have seen somewhere that Hemsworth was on the show. I vaguely remember that. So having the knowledge, somewhere in the back of my head, probably helped with the recognition.
52. Felt someone better about sticking through The Saddle Club. If anything, it's fun to see guest stars I know from other things.
53. While trying to clean the kitchen floor, listened to shuffled Aussie music on Spotify—Paul Kelly, Cam Nacson, Vance Joy, Sarah Storer, The Wiggles, and Lazy Harry. It was a nice mix.
54. Decided to endure another episode of The Saddle Club. Maybe there'll be another awesome guest star.
55. Thought guest star on this show looked like actress from Farscape—the one that was also in later seasons of The Secret Life of Us. But I don't know if it's her or not.
56. Found out that it is NOT the Farscape actress. It's a woman named Kate Ellis...but not the Labor MP. This Kate Ellis is a drama and dialogue coach who has also done some acting.
She was the dialogue coach for the 2008-2009 season of The Saddle Club. And she was the drama coach for one episode of Reef Doctors. Did most episodes not need a drama coach? Or did they hire other drama coaches for the other episodes?
57. Found a biography page about Kate Ellis. What happened is she guest-starred on The Saddle Club. Doing that helped her form a relationship with the producers and crew which led to her later job as a dialogue coach. That's pretty cool!
The biography says she holds workshops for the cast of Neighbours. Wow!
58. Looked at Kate Ellis's Instagram.
She has a drawing of an ape and is labeled age 11 drawing. It's pretty impressive. I couldn't have drawn something like that when I was 11. Nor could I draw it now.
Ellis's character on The Saddle Club is an artist. Did they work her talent into the show? Did the casting folks seek out someone who could draw? Or was it just a lucky coincidence that they found an artist-actress to play an artist-character. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to fake drawing talent on the screen.
59. Started wondering if I'm wrong. Maybe when casting for artists, they look for actresses who can draw, paint, etc.
60. Wondered if Olympia Valance from Neighbours is good at drawing in real life.