1. Dreamed about platypuses and sharks.
2. Disappointed to read that Australia has signed a live cattle export trade deal with China.
Yeah, I know it's good for Australia, financially speaking.
I don't think it's very good for the cows.
Are they going to be given enough food, water, and breathing space when they're on their boats?
Are they going to be treated like living creatures who can feel pain, sadness, fear and discomfort? Or are they going to be treated like hamburgers before they even become hamburgers?
Actually, I think hamburgers are often treated better than cows.
3. Started watching an episode of Eagle and Evans.
4. Thought the last sketch was kind of cute. It was about a very generous lost and found worker.
5. Checked my email and I had a Change.org petition started by Craig Brokensha in Sydney. It's about four dolphins who are kept in a small chlorinated pool in Bali.
The pool is 10 by 20 meters or 32 by 65 feet. That might be big enough for one or two dolphins, but it seems awfully small for four.
6. Found article about the dolphins that has a picture of the pool. It looks like a normal small resort pool.
It kind of reminds me of dreams I've had in the past—swimming pools with animals in them.
7. Wondered about dolphins and chlorine.
This whale foundation says only, While chlorine may help keep tank water looking clean, it may present a problem to dolphin health.
It may? I'm not sure what they mean. Do they mean they're not sure, because they haven't studied it enough. Or do they mean they know it can cause problems for a dolphin's health, but it depends on the dolphin. Like smoking is bad for our health, but it effects some people worse than others.
I also wonder, is chlorine really bad for the health of dolphins, or is it just different to what they would encounter in their natural environment?
It's like clothes aren't natural to humans but wearing them doesn't hurt us.
I guess there's a difference between a species evolving on their own to use or do something new and something being forced on a species by another species.
8. Signed the petition, but I feel weird about the whole thing. You know why? Because it sounds so fun and magical to go into a hotel pool and frolic with dolphins.
I'm picturing the pool at the Beach Club in Disney World. How much more fun would it be if there were a couple of dolphins swimming around?
It would probably be much more fun for the humans than the dolphins.
9. Thought it would be best if dolphin pools stayed in our dreams and fantasies rather than existing in real life.
10. Thought it would be really cool to have a salt water pool with fishes swimming inside. It would be like a giant outdoor fish tank; except that you could swim with the fishes.
Would that be seen as cruel? I guess Peta people would think so, because they're probably also against home aquariums in general.
I think it would be okay if the pool was big enough and the humans taking care of the pool were good at taking care of the pool.
11. Found a forum where people discuss salt water pools and fish. Someone asked if it would work out and the people answering say salt water swimming pools still have some chlorine in them.
I didn't know that.
12. Wondered about the snorkeling attraction at Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World. There you can go snorkeling in a large pool with fish and small sharks.
Is there chlorine in the pool?
13. Clicked on a forum about Typhoon Lagoon and chlorine and ended up seeing a naked woman instead of a forum about fish.
I have nothing against pornography, but I really hate surprise pornography. Or forced-upon us pornography.
14. Looked at my web history list and saw the website is called AdultFriendFinder. It's for finding romance and one night stands.
Really? What the hell? What are they hoping? That I sit here thinking, well I was just going to find out if the Typhoon lagoon snorkeling tank has chlorine, but really, who cares? I'd much rather find myself an adult friend for a little action tonight.
15. Wondered how these porn pop-ups end up on websites. Does the fish forum not really exist? Is it just a doorway to pornography?
Maybe there are people thinking, Oh these boring losers. All they care about is fish. These geeks need to get laid, and we're going to help them. We just have to trick them into coming to our site.
Or is there truly a fish forum, and it got hijacked/hacked by the porno site?
16. Thought about my cousin's blog. It got hijacked by some shoe store.
17. Went to the store site. They sell cheap Jordans. I was going to provide the link, so you guys can see but quickly changed my mind. Why should I link to assholes who hijack other people's websites?
But I will link to my cousin's NEW blog address.
Though the last post is from February 2014.
I thought she had something much more current than that.
18. Started watching another episode of Eagle and Evans.
19. Liked the movie award show sketch. It was very spot on—presenters struggling to read badly written lines on a teleprompter.
One of the lines actually made me laugh out loud. It was about the importance of sound in movies, because without sound the movie lines would be unintelligible...except to members of the hearing impaired community, who are able to read lips.
When I type it out, it doesn't sound as funny.
20. Wondered about a post in A Welsh Girl in Australia's Blog.
She talks about being a night owl and trying to change that for her life in Australia, because Australians tend to be morning people.
Is that true?
I know it's not ALWAYS the case, because I've, seen, from Statcounter, that there are Australians who visit my blog in the wee hours of the night.
Well, of course there's not going to be a whole nation made up of morning people or night owls.
21. Thought it would be cool if the majority of people in Australia are morning people, because I'm more of a morning person than a night person.
I'm not one of those who usually gets up at 5:00 in the morning. I usually wake up around 7:00-8:00 I go to bed around 10:00-11:00
If I had to choose between living a life where I woke up at 5:00 in the morning or 12:00 in the afternoon; I'd definitely pick the former.
What would you pick?
22. Started to watch an episode of Neighbours.
I'm worried it's going to be boring, because the preview I saw yesterday looked boring to me.
23. Enjoyed hearing Vance Joy's "Riptide" on Neighbours. I like that song a lot. Out of all the Aussie songs that have been popular in the US for the past few years, that one is my favorite.
24. Liked this episode of Neighbours more than I expected. It had a failed intervention and a young woman trying to decide if she wants to have sex for the first time.
It was like Party of Five.
25. Felt compelled to admit that I don't remember a particular Party of Five story about a young woman trying to decide if she wants to lose her virginity. But I figure there was one.
26. Started to watch a Neighbours backstage video. This one is about recording the theme song.
Apparently there was a contest to create a new Neighbours theme remix. So this video shows the finalists.
That's cool.
27. Thought it was sweet that one of the finalists is from the UK.
There's a man from the UK, and a woman from Australia.
28. Learned that they were trying to create a new tune for the Neighbours theme.
That's a bit drastic.
Did they end up changing it?
This video is from 2013, so what I've been seeing the past year might be the new tune.
What was the old tune?
I don't think I noticed the tune being very different from the 1980's one.
29. Started listening to original Neighbour's theme.
I think it was Barry Crocker who sang the original?
30. Consulted Lord Wiki.
He says I'm right about Barry Crocker.
31. Thought the old song sounds different from the new one but not completely different.
I'm not sure, really.
32. Watched some of video that has the Neighbours theme through-out the years.
The old and the new are different, but also kind of similar.
33. Went to YouTube channel of Stephanie Angelini. She's the Australian who was the finalist in the theme song contest.
34. Started listening to Angelini's cover of "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac.
Well, actually Angelini is more like the background singer. Some other woman is doing the lead vocals.
35. Read the description and saw that the other singer and the guitar player are Angelini's cousins.
36. Saw that Angelini does some lead vocals too.
So, I guess this would be called a duet.
37. Got the idea that Angelini likes One Direction and Taylor Swift. She does a lot of covers of their songs.
38. Starting to listen to "Running" Angelini's original song.
I like it.
39. Wondered. If we lived on Ramsey Street, would we be more social than we are in our own neighbourhood. Or would we be known as the weird Americans who keep to themselves?
40. Imagined maybe being friends with Toadie and Sonya.
42. Can't really imagine being friends with Lauren and Terese, the woman who are closest to my age.
43. Wondered why there aren't more children on Ramsey Street.
I think Nell is the only young child, and Bailey is the only high schooler.
44. Thought back to 1980's Neighbours. I remember two young kids—Lucy Robinson and her little boyfriend. There might have been more. Then there were quite a few high school kids—Danny Ramsey, Scott Robinson, the Guy Pearce character, the Guy Pearce Character's girlfriend, Charlene, and probably others that I've forgotten.
45. Started watching another Neighbours backstage video. This is the one where they announce the winner of the theme song contest.
I saw a spoiler before. Both Stephanie Angelini and UK's Daniel Boys are going to win. They end up doing a duet.
46. Saw that the winners got to meet Barry Crocker.
He's a cute old man.
47. Thought it was very sweet that they let both Angelini and Boys win. And the two didn't even have to threaten to eat the poison berries!
48. Started watching another Neighbours video. This one features Tom Oliver, the guy who plays Lou Carpenter.
49. Learned that Tom Oliver has been on Neighbours for twenty-five years. Or longer, really. The backstage video is from 2013.
50. Went to Tom Oliver's filmography.
According to IMDb, Oliver's first episode was on March 30, 1980.
51. Saw that the March 30, episode also had Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Craig McLachlan, and Jason Donovan.
52. Saw that Oliver was in several episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H.
53. Saw that Oliver was born in the UK.
I wonder when he came to Australia.
54. Learned, from Lord Wiki, that Oliver once tried to be a jockey, but he wasn't the right size.
55. Learned that Oliver toured the world by joining the navy, and then, at around the age of eighteen, ended up in Sydney.
Well, if I'm understanding things right, he visited Sydney when he was eighteen. He emigrated there in his mid-twenties.
Albert Finney helped him out with that.
56. Learned that Lou Carpenter started out as a used car salesman on Neighbours.
57. Learned that Lou Carpenter was written off the show in the 1990's, but fan protests helped bring him back.
58. Read article from May that says Oliver is cutting down his workload, so we shall be seeing less of Lou Carpenter in the future.
59. Imagined Lou will be visiting his grandson Mason.
Or maybe he'll go on a trip with Harold.
OR it could be like Coronation Street where characters are still around, but not shown for several weeks at a time.
It's been a long time since I've seen Izzy and her baby, but as far as I know, she hasn't left town.
60. Hung out in our pool, and thought about dolphins and chlorine.
I'm guessing, like humans, dolphins can withstand a few hours a day in a chlorinated pool. But it's probably a very bad idea to keep them in a chlorine tank all day and night.
61. Thought about how there probably can't be a scientific study on the effects of chlorine on dolphins. Or there shouldn't be. It would be cruel.
I think you could do a field study, and compare dolphins who already live in salt water with dolphins who already live in chlorine. But it would be cruel to purposely put several dolphins in chlorine to study how much harm it causes.
62. Decided to watch one more backstage Neighbours video today.
It features an actor no longer on the show—Sachin Joab. He played Ajay Kapoor. I think his wife might have died in the disaster I saw yesterday. I mean Kapoor's wife, not Joab's.
I watched a little bit of Neighbours, a few years ago, on YouTube. I think I remember the Kapoor family. The wife was having an affair with Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis). I also remember Paul having a son who had epilepsy. But I think the son was keeping it a secret?
Oh! And I remember Susan (Jackie Woodburne) was working at a newspaper. She hired a guy played by Aaron Jeffrey, and had a bit of a crush on him. Or she thought he was interested in her, but then it ended up he was interested in a younger journalist. I guess she and Karl were having problems at the time?
63. Liked that I'm watching Neighbours full time now and on a legal kosher service. I feel more like a real Neighbours watcher and fan rather than a sneaky wanna-be fan getting glimpses on YouTube.
64. Saw that the video was done on Joab's last day on Neighbours.
He looks sad and tired.
65. Loved that video. It was very sweet.
What I'm getting from these videos, so far, is that the cast and crew of Neighbours have a good sense of humor. In general, they seem like fun and nice people.
66. Wondered which actor on Neighbours is the most serious and uptight.
Which one is a loner?
Are there any that feel alienated from the rest of the cast?
Are any of them annoyingly narcissistic?
How many of them have cats, and how many have dogs?
Which ones of them would swim in a resort pool with four dolphins, and which would say no way?
It may? I'm not sure what they mean. Do they mean they're not sure, because they haven't studied it enough. Or do they mean they know it can cause problems for a dolphin's health, but it depends on the dolphin. Like smoking is bad for our health, but it effects some people worse than others.
I also wonder, is chlorine really bad for the health of dolphins, or is it just different to what they would encounter in their natural environment?
It's like clothes aren't natural to humans but wearing them doesn't hurt us.
I guess there's a difference between a species evolving on their own to use or do something new and something being forced on a species by another species.
8. Signed the petition, but I feel weird about the whole thing. You know why? Because it sounds so fun and magical to go into a hotel pool and frolic with dolphins.
I'm picturing the pool at the Beach Club in Disney World. How much more fun would it be if there were a couple of dolphins swimming around?
It would probably be much more fun for the humans than the dolphins.
9. Thought it would be best if dolphin pools stayed in our dreams and fantasies rather than existing in real life.
10. Thought it would be really cool to have a salt water pool with fishes swimming inside. It would be like a giant outdoor fish tank; except that you could swim with the fishes.
Would that be seen as cruel? I guess Peta people would think so, because they're probably also against home aquariums in general.
I think it would be okay if the pool was big enough and the humans taking care of the pool were good at taking care of the pool.
11. Found a forum where people discuss salt water pools and fish. Someone asked if it would work out and the people answering say salt water swimming pools still have some chlorine in them.
I didn't know that.
12. Wondered about the snorkeling attraction at Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World. There you can go snorkeling in a large pool with fish and small sharks.
Is there chlorine in the pool?
13. Clicked on a forum about Typhoon Lagoon and chlorine and ended up seeing a naked woman instead of a forum about fish.
I have nothing against pornography, but I really hate surprise pornography. Or forced-upon us pornography.
14. Looked at my web history list and saw the website is called AdultFriendFinder. It's for finding romance and one night stands.
Really? What the hell? What are they hoping? That I sit here thinking, well I was just going to find out if the Typhoon lagoon snorkeling tank has chlorine, but really, who cares? I'd much rather find myself an adult friend for a little action tonight.
15. Wondered how these porn pop-ups end up on websites. Does the fish forum not really exist? Is it just a doorway to pornography?
Maybe there are people thinking, Oh these boring losers. All they care about is fish. These geeks need to get laid, and we're going to help them. We just have to trick them into coming to our site.
Or is there truly a fish forum, and it got hijacked/hacked by the porno site?
16. Thought about my cousin's blog. It got hijacked by some shoe store.
17. Went to the store site. They sell cheap Jordans. I was going to provide the link, so you guys can see but quickly changed my mind. Why should I link to assholes who hijack other people's websites?
But I will link to my cousin's NEW blog address.
Though the last post is from February 2014.
I thought she had something much more current than that.
18. Started watching another episode of Eagle and Evans.
19. Liked the movie award show sketch. It was very spot on—presenters struggling to read badly written lines on a teleprompter.
One of the lines actually made me laugh out loud. It was about the importance of sound in movies, because without sound the movie lines would be unintelligible...except to members of the hearing impaired community, who are able to read lips.
When I type it out, it doesn't sound as funny.
20. Wondered about a post in A Welsh Girl in Australia's Blog.
She talks about being a night owl and trying to change that for her life in Australia, because Australians tend to be morning people.
Is that true?
I know it's not ALWAYS the case, because I've, seen, from Statcounter, that there are Australians who visit my blog in the wee hours of the night.
Well, of course there's not going to be a whole nation made up of morning people or night owls.
21. Thought it would be cool if the majority of people in Australia are morning people, because I'm more of a morning person than a night person.
I'm not one of those who usually gets up at 5:00 in the morning. I usually wake up around 7:00-8:00 I go to bed around 10:00-11:00
If I had to choose between living a life where I woke up at 5:00 in the morning or 12:00 in the afternoon; I'd definitely pick the former.
What would you pick?
22. Started to watch an episode of Neighbours.
I'm worried it's going to be boring, because the preview I saw yesterday looked boring to me.
23. Enjoyed hearing Vance Joy's "Riptide" on Neighbours. I like that song a lot. Out of all the Aussie songs that have been popular in the US for the past few years, that one is my favorite.
24. Liked this episode of Neighbours more than I expected. It had a failed intervention and a young woman trying to decide if she wants to have sex for the first time.
It was like Party of Five.
25. Felt compelled to admit that I don't remember a particular Party of Five story about a young woman trying to decide if she wants to lose her virginity. But I figure there was one.
26. Started to watch a Neighbours backstage video. This one is about recording the theme song.
Apparently there was a contest to create a new Neighbours theme remix. So this video shows the finalists.
That's cool.
27. Thought it was sweet that one of the finalists is from the UK.
There's a man from the UK, and a woman from Australia.
28. Learned that they were trying to create a new tune for the Neighbours theme.
That's a bit drastic.
Did they end up changing it?
This video is from 2013, so what I've been seeing the past year might be the new tune.
What was the old tune?
I don't think I noticed the tune being very different from the 1980's one.
29. Started listening to original Neighbour's theme.
I think it was Barry Crocker who sang the original?
30. Consulted Lord Wiki.
He says I'm right about Barry Crocker.
31. Thought the old song sounds different from the new one but not completely different.
I'm not sure, really.
32. Watched some of video that has the Neighbours theme through-out the years.
The old and the new are different, but also kind of similar.
33. Went to YouTube channel of Stephanie Angelini. She's the Australian who was the finalist in the theme song contest.
34. Started listening to Angelini's cover of "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac.
Well, actually Angelini is more like the background singer. Some other woman is doing the lead vocals.
35. Read the description and saw that the other singer and the guitar player are Angelini's cousins.
36. Saw that Angelini does some lead vocals too.
So, I guess this would be called a duet.
37. Got the idea that Angelini likes One Direction and Taylor Swift. She does a lot of covers of their songs.
38. Starting to listen to "Running" Angelini's original song.
I like it.
39. Wondered. If we lived on Ramsey Street, would we be more social than we are in our own neighbourhood. Or would we be known as the weird Americans who keep to themselves?
40. Imagined maybe being friends with Toadie and Sonya.
42. Can't really imagine being friends with Lauren and Terese, the woman who are closest to my age.
43. Wondered why there aren't more children on Ramsey Street.
I think Nell is the only young child, and Bailey is the only high schooler.
44. Thought back to 1980's Neighbours. I remember two young kids—Lucy Robinson and her little boyfriend. There might have been more. Then there were quite a few high school kids—Danny Ramsey, Scott Robinson, the Guy Pearce character, the Guy Pearce Character's girlfriend, Charlene, and probably others that I've forgotten.
45. Started watching another Neighbours backstage video. This is the one where they announce the winner of the theme song contest.
I saw a spoiler before. Both Stephanie Angelini and UK's Daniel Boys are going to win. They end up doing a duet.
46. Saw that the winners got to meet Barry Crocker.
He's a cute old man.
47. Thought it was very sweet that they let both Angelini and Boys win. And the two didn't even have to threaten to eat the poison berries!
48. Started watching another Neighbours video. This one features Tom Oliver, the guy who plays Lou Carpenter.
49. Learned that Tom Oliver has been on Neighbours for twenty-five years. Or longer, really. The backstage video is from 2013.
50. Went to Tom Oliver's filmography.
According to IMDb, Oliver's first episode was on March 30, 1980.
51. Saw that the March 30, episode also had Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Craig McLachlan, and Jason Donovan.
52. Saw that Oliver was in several episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H.
53. Saw that Oliver was born in the UK.
I wonder when he came to Australia.
54. Learned, from Lord Wiki, that Oliver once tried to be a jockey, but he wasn't the right size.
55. Learned that Oliver toured the world by joining the navy, and then, at around the age of eighteen, ended up in Sydney.
Well, if I'm understanding things right, he visited Sydney when he was eighteen. He emigrated there in his mid-twenties.
Albert Finney helped him out with that.
56. Learned that Lou Carpenter started out as a used car salesman on Neighbours.
57. Learned that Lou Carpenter was written off the show in the 1990's, but fan protests helped bring him back.
58. Read article from May that says Oliver is cutting down his workload, so we shall be seeing less of Lou Carpenter in the future.
59. Imagined Lou will be visiting his grandson Mason.
Or maybe he'll go on a trip with Harold.
OR it could be like Coronation Street where characters are still around, but not shown for several weeks at a time.
It's been a long time since I've seen Izzy and her baby, but as far as I know, she hasn't left town.
60. Hung out in our pool, and thought about dolphins and chlorine.
I'm guessing, like humans, dolphins can withstand a few hours a day in a chlorinated pool. But it's probably a very bad idea to keep them in a chlorine tank all day and night.
61. Thought about how there probably can't be a scientific study on the effects of chlorine on dolphins. Or there shouldn't be. It would be cruel.
I think you could do a field study, and compare dolphins who already live in salt water with dolphins who already live in chlorine. But it would be cruel to purposely put several dolphins in chlorine to study how much harm it causes.
62. Decided to watch one more backstage Neighbours video today.
It features an actor no longer on the show—Sachin Joab. He played Ajay Kapoor. I think his wife might have died in the disaster I saw yesterday. I mean Kapoor's wife, not Joab's.
I watched a little bit of Neighbours, a few years ago, on YouTube. I think I remember the Kapoor family. The wife was having an affair with Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis). I also remember Paul having a son who had epilepsy. But I think the son was keeping it a secret?
Oh! And I remember Susan (Jackie Woodburne) was working at a newspaper. She hired a guy played by Aaron Jeffrey, and had a bit of a crush on him. Or she thought he was interested in her, but then it ended up he was interested in a younger journalist. I guess she and Karl were having problems at the time?
63. Liked that I'm watching Neighbours full time now and on a legal kosher service. I feel more like a real Neighbours watcher and fan rather than a sneaky wanna-be fan getting glimpses on YouTube.
64. Saw that the video was done on Joab's last day on Neighbours.
He looks sad and tired.
65. Loved that video. It was very sweet.
What I'm getting from these videos, so far, is that the cast and crew of Neighbours have a good sense of humor. In general, they seem like fun and nice people.
66. Wondered which actor on Neighbours is the most serious and uptight.
Which one is a loner?
Are there any that feel alienated from the rest of the cast?
Are any of them annoyingly narcissistic?
How many of them have cats, and how many have dogs?
Which ones of them would swim in a resort pool with four dolphins, and which would say no way?
