1. Started watching an episode of Neighbours.
2. Didn't feel too excited about the arrival of another Brennan brother.
With Mark (Scott McGregor) and Tyler (Travis Burns), it's all about Dimato. And I don't like that storyline. Maybe Aaron (Matt Wilson) will bring something new and fun to the mix.
3. Decided I will start using Mark instead of Brennan, because now that the three brothers are there; it might get confusing.
4. Wondered why Karl (Alan Fletcher) looked concerned about Amber's (Jenna Rosenow) baby when doing the ultrasound.
5. Thought about fight between Paul (Stefan Dennis) and Naomi (Morgana O'Reilly).
Naomi interferes in Paul's personal family life when he specifically asked her not to. Because she did that, Paul is now starting a relationship with his estranged daughter (Zoe Cramond) and grandson (Darcy Tadich). Still, Paul continues to be angry with Naomi.
If someone goes against your wishes and the outcome turns out well, should you still be mad?
Would I still be mad in that situation?
I don't know.
I can't think of a time that I asked someone not to interfere, and they did.
6. Had a lot of curiosity about what's wrong with Amber's baby.
7. Started watching the fifth episode of The Slap. This one centers on Rosie (Melissa George).
I predict I'll see a lot of breastfeeding.
8. Liked this narrator line from The Slap. Waves of fury and righteousness intoxicated her.
I can relate to that. I've felt it in myself, and I've seen it in others.
9. Thought that Melissa George has very nice breasts.
I'm seeing them a lot; so far, with no kid attached.
10. Saw Rosie reading to Hugo (Julian Mineo). It's the first time I've seen Hugo looking sweet and cute. Prior to this moment, Hugo seemed like a monstrous brat.
I'm assuming the directors of the show did this on purpose. In the other episodes, we see Hugo through the other character's eyes. It's not a pretty picture. Our dark selves can't blame Harry for hitting him. But now with Rosie's episode, we see the Hugo that she knows and loves.
11. Recognized Wilhelmina Stracke, the actress who plays Margaret. Then I saw she was in an episode of Rush. I remembered the episode, and who Stracke played, before looking it up. I'm kind of proud of myself.
12. Thought that Rosie's house reminded me of ours, because she has children's artwork everywhere.
13. Liked Samuel Johnson's blog post about self-doubt.
He started a thing of riding a unicycle to raise money for breast cancer, because his sister is terminally ill with the disease.
On the day of the post, Johnson had a difficult time and says, I was unsteady on the bike and the mind games started. If I was tired now, what chance did I have? Have I really thought this through? What made me think I could do this? Etc etc.
I don't think many of us can relate to riding a unicycle, but I think most of us can relate to having self-doubt like that.
14. Saw Rosie losing her temper with Hugo, mostly because she's stressed about other things.
I think parents are more patient with their kids when other things in their life are running smoothly.
15. Annoyed by mother who walks by as Rosie loses her temper and gives Rosie a judgmental look.
Rosie lost her temper, yes. But she didn't do anything crazy or abusive. She just talked in a sterner and more stressful voice than usual.
16. Thought that the defendant solicitor (Steve Mouzakis), in the courtroom scene, is doing quite a good job.
When he questions, Rosie, he asks about her husband Gary's (Anthony Hayes) alcoholism. Rosie has claimed that being slapped traumatized Hugo. The solicitor suggests that maybe the child is traumatized by living in an alcohol fueled environment. He might have a good point. Also, what the solicitor hasn't witnessed, is Rosie and Gary fighting in front of Hugo. Gary goes as far as telling Rosie she hates him. I think that's more traumatizing than getting slapped.
The solicitor asks Rosie how many drinks she had at the barbecue. She replies two or three. He brings up the fact that she's breastfeeding.
Now I don't drink; so alcohol and breastfeeding wasn't an issue for me. I don't know much about it, but I vaguely remember reading a little bit. I know women of babies will pump and dump. I've also heard of women drinking to help with breastfeeding. It might help with relaxation...let down.
I'm not sure what the various experts would say about a woman who drinks two-three drinks at a party and breastfeeds. Maybe it would be okay since her child is older and hopefully intaking less breast milk than an infant?
The other thing the solicitor asks is how much did Gary drink. And if both parents are intoxicated, who was watching Hugo?
Rosie replied that there were many adults there.
Yikes. I think the more adults around at a party, the less safe a child is. The adults can't be depended on to watch each other's children. They're busy drinking and conversing.
17. Looked at La Leche page about alcohol and breastfeeding. They pretty much say it's okay, but don't overdo it.
They're really into breastfeeding, though. They'd probably rather a mother not give up her drinking if it means she'll breastfeed, than have a mother say, I'm going to use formula, so I don't have to give up my beer.
18. Saw that the Mayo Clinic says no to mixing breastfeeding and alcohol.
They don't say women need to abstain for the months or years they breastfeed but ask women to wait a few hours for the milk to clear their system. This can be hard since babies often want to breastfeed every two-three hours...or less!
19. Thought the moral of this episode is, if you don't want your dirty laundry hanging out for the world to see, don't hang out other people's. Yours might end up getting seen as well.
20. Started to watch the next episode of The Slap.
This one centers on Manolis. I think that's Harry's (Alex Dimitriades) father. Or Mother?
It depends if Manolis is a boy's name or girl's.
21. Looked on IMDb. Manolis is the dad—played by Lex Marinos.
22. Had respect for Harry. He's able to verbalize to his mother Koula (Toula Yianni) why he was found guilty. He says that Hugo didn't have the bat in his hand when Harry hit him, so it couldn't go down as self defense.
Koula is quite awful. She's not okay with Harry not having to go to jail, not getting a fine, and not having the conviction recorded. She wants him found not guilty. Well, that's not that awful, really. That's just having an opinion and wanting your child not to suffer. But she looks so happy in the courtroom while Rosie is having her dirty laundry hung up for everyone to see. She has no sympathy, which makes her seem like a cold woman.
23. Liked that The Slap doesn't have subtitles for the Greek bits.
I don't know why. Maybe it makes things more mysterious and interesting.
A few months ago, Tim and I were watching an X-Men: First Class. The subtitles were broken, and we were in the dark about certain scenes. I didn't mind it, though. I had fun trying to figure out what they were saying without the subtitles. It wasn't too hard, because the actions and emotions pretty much said it all. Actual dialogue seemed somewhat unimportant.
24. Thought Koula is a bitch but felt Manolis isn't so bad.
25. Saw a random subtitle.
What the heck?
This whole episode has so much Greek without a subtitle. And then there's a subtitle.
I've been starting to wonder if the original broadcast did have subtitles, and there's some kind of glitch on Hulu.
26. Annoyed by Bec's sexist post entitled, "I Don't Speak Boy".
Not speaking boy is her excuse for not liking, or having any interest, in Pokemon.
It's fine not to like Pokemon. But don't turn it into a gender thing.
I think there are plenty of girls who like Pokemon.
Another thing that annoyed me in her post: So OK, I get the Lego, in fact I'm happy to buy this for him as at least it is somewhat educational (following instructions/building things etc).
This implies that a toy needs to be educational in order to benefit the child and make the parent happy.
Why can't a child just play with a toy, because it's fun?
27. Thought of my own sexist attitudes BEFORE Jack was born. Tim, my parents, and I were a bit rattled at the ultrasound. We were excited about having a boy but also a bit perplexed. Well, because I was one of three sisters, and that's what my parents and I were used to. Now that I think of it, Tim grew up in a family that had four boys, so maybe he was less perplexed.
Anyway, I remember my family and I talking about stuff like gun shows and cars. There was the idea, that simply because the fetus inside me had an XY chromosome, that this is what he'd be interested in.
28. Thought of the episode of Neighbours I watched today.
Daniel and Josh argued about finding out the baby's gender before birth.
Josh talked about how it would be nice to pick out a name and enable the grandparents to start buying gifts. Daniel didn't like the idea of picking out a name for the baby before meeting it; and he didn't see why gender should determine what clothes the baby wore. I like Daniel's way of thinking, though, we went with Josh's way.
Personally, I did like having a name for Jack before he was born. I think it helped with the bonding process. Also, I'm not sure you can get to know a baby enough in the first few days to come up with a highly personalized name. If worse comes to worse, parents could always change their mind. The fetus name doesn't have to become the child's name. I'm not sure the world would implode if we decided to stop calling Jack "Jack" and instead started calling him Malcolm.
29. Did like Daniel's viewpoint on clothes. I don't think I'm progressive enough to put a baby boy in pink and a baby girl in blue, but I'd be good with neutral colors.
As the baby became a child, I'd feel differently. If I had a boy wanting to wear pink, and a girl wanting to wear blue...so be it.
33. Thought that yellow and green are nice neutral baby clothes.
Red would work.
Black would be very cool.
34. Changed my mind about Manolis not being so bad.
He's a jerk.
He pressures Aisha (Sophie Okonedo) into going to Greece—tries to guilt her into it. When she doesn't bow to his wishes; he simply orders her to obey. He tells her she's going to go, and that's supposed to be it.
35. Read an editorial that's against the US remake of The Slap. Eliza Cussen says, While some Australians take NBC’s adaption of The Slap as proof of the original’s worth, now that I’m living in America I’m less enthused. For me, it’s another example of America looking in on itself when it could be looking out.
I totally agree.
Cussen also says: It is patronizing of networks to assume that a kid swinging a cricket bat instead of a baseball bat makes a story less accessible. In recent years a number of series have shown that there is an apatite for international programming. The BBC/PBS co-production Call The Midwife was watched by 3.6 million Americans last year. And the Melbourne-based comedy Please Like Me staring Caitlin Stasey has demonstrated that the Australian sense of humor can travel.
Yes! I don't know what the deal is with the people delivering our television shows to us. Why do they think we only want to see Americans? A lot of us are fans of Doctor Who. I know Downton Abbey is very popular here. And there are other things, besides that what I've mentioned and what Cussen mentioned.
36. Felt extremely grateful to Netflix and Hulu for having faith that Americans are not completely brainless and ethnocentric. Or at least we have the ability to be LESS ethnocentric when someone is kind enough to give us a chance.
37. Felt like saying a big Fuck You to American Network television for being so damn ethnocentric.
Are there ANY foreign shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, or FOX?
38. Wondered if any of those networks currently have a British or Australian actor on one of their shows that isn't being forced to use an American accent.
39. Went to the Triple J 2014 list.
Today I'm going to listen to the seventeenth song, which is "Tightrope" by Illy. And it features someone named Scarlett Stevens.
40. Started to watch the video for "Tightrope".
There's a guy on a canoe, rapping.
41. Felt this was a song I'd like better without the video.
I like the sounds more than the visuals.
42. Learned from Lord Wiki that Scarlett Stevens is from the Aussie band San Cisco. I remember them. Vaguely.
43. Confused.
My next Neighbours backstage video is with Matt Werkmeister who played Zeke. I thought I was to the point of the videos where I started watching the show. But I don't remember Zeke.
The video description says he was back for a special occasion, so it was a guest star thing. Maybe I saw him and forgot?
44. Saw that Zeke is getting married.
I don't remember that.
They must have posted the backstage videos out of order. I'm guessing this episode wasn't picked up by Hulu.
45. Looked at Google. It looks like the wedding aired in late April, 2014.
The first episode of Neighbours on Hulu was the one that aired June 2, 2014.
46. Wondered about the next backstage video. Will it be before my time...or not?
I don't think many of us can relate to riding a unicycle, but I think most of us can relate to having self-doubt like that.
14. Saw Rosie losing her temper with Hugo, mostly because she's stressed about other things.
I think parents are more patient with their kids when other things in their life are running smoothly.
15. Annoyed by mother who walks by as Rosie loses her temper and gives Rosie a judgmental look.
Rosie lost her temper, yes. But she didn't do anything crazy or abusive. She just talked in a sterner and more stressful voice than usual.
16. Thought that the defendant solicitor (Steve Mouzakis), in the courtroom scene, is doing quite a good job.
When he questions, Rosie, he asks about her husband Gary's (Anthony Hayes) alcoholism. Rosie has claimed that being slapped traumatized Hugo. The solicitor suggests that maybe the child is traumatized by living in an alcohol fueled environment. He might have a good point. Also, what the solicitor hasn't witnessed, is Rosie and Gary fighting in front of Hugo. Gary goes as far as telling Rosie she hates him. I think that's more traumatizing than getting slapped.
The solicitor asks Rosie how many drinks she had at the barbecue. She replies two or three. He brings up the fact that she's breastfeeding.
Now I don't drink; so alcohol and breastfeeding wasn't an issue for me. I don't know much about it, but I vaguely remember reading a little bit. I know women of babies will pump and dump. I've also heard of women drinking to help with breastfeeding. It might help with relaxation...let down.
I'm not sure what the various experts would say about a woman who drinks two-three drinks at a party and breastfeeds. Maybe it would be okay since her child is older and hopefully intaking less breast milk than an infant?
The other thing the solicitor asks is how much did Gary drink. And if both parents are intoxicated, who was watching Hugo?
Rosie replied that there were many adults there.
Yikes. I think the more adults around at a party, the less safe a child is. The adults can't be depended on to watch each other's children. They're busy drinking and conversing.
17. Looked at La Leche page about alcohol and breastfeeding. They pretty much say it's okay, but don't overdo it.
They're really into breastfeeding, though. They'd probably rather a mother not give up her drinking if it means she'll breastfeed, than have a mother say, I'm going to use formula, so I don't have to give up my beer.
18. Saw that the Mayo Clinic says no to mixing breastfeeding and alcohol.
They don't say women need to abstain for the months or years they breastfeed but ask women to wait a few hours for the milk to clear their system. This can be hard since babies often want to breastfeed every two-three hours...or less!
19. Thought the moral of this episode is, if you don't want your dirty laundry hanging out for the world to see, don't hang out other people's. Yours might end up getting seen as well.
20. Started to watch the next episode of The Slap.
This one centers on Manolis. I think that's Harry's (Alex Dimitriades) father. Or Mother?
It depends if Manolis is a boy's name or girl's.
21. Looked on IMDb. Manolis is the dad—played by Lex Marinos.
22. Had respect for Harry. He's able to verbalize to his mother Koula (Toula Yianni) why he was found guilty. He says that Hugo didn't have the bat in his hand when Harry hit him, so it couldn't go down as self defense.
Koula is quite awful. She's not okay with Harry not having to go to jail, not getting a fine, and not having the conviction recorded. She wants him found not guilty. Well, that's not that awful, really. That's just having an opinion and wanting your child not to suffer. But she looks so happy in the courtroom while Rosie is having her dirty laundry hung up for everyone to see. She has no sympathy, which makes her seem like a cold woman.
23. Liked that The Slap doesn't have subtitles for the Greek bits.
I don't know why. Maybe it makes things more mysterious and interesting.
A few months ago, Tim and I were watching an X-Men: First Class. The subtitles were broken, and we were in the dark about certain scenes. I didn't mind it, though. I had fun trying to figure out what they were saying without the subtitles. It wasn't too hard, because the actions and emotions pretty much said it all. Actual dialogue seemed somewhat unimportant.
24. Thought Koula is a bitch but felt Manolis isn't so bad.
25. Saw a random subtitle.
What the heck?
This whole episode has so much Greek without a subtitle. And then there's a subtitle.
I've been starting to wonder if the original broadcast did have subtitles, and there's some kind of glitch on Hulu.
26. Annoyed by Bec's sexist post entitled, "I Don't Speak Boy".
Not speaking boy is her excuse for not liking, or having any interest, in Pokemon.
It's fine not to like Pokemon. But don't turn it into a gender thing.
I think there are plenty of girls who like Pokemon.
Another thing that annoyed me in her post: So OK, I get the Lego, in fact I'm happy to buy this for him as at least it is somewhat educational (following instructions/building things etc).
This implies that a toy needs to be educational in order to benefit the child and make the parent happy.
Why can't a child just play with a toy, because it's fun?
27. Thought of my own sexist attitudes BEFORE Jack was born. Tim, my parents, and I were a bit rattled at the ultrasound. We were excited about having a boy but also a bit perplexed. Well, because I was one of three sisters, and that's what my parents and I were used to. Now that I think of it, Tim grew up in a family that had four boys, so maybe he was less perplexed.
Anyway, I remember my family and I talking about stuff like gun shows and cars. There was the idea, that simply because the fetus inside me had an XY chromosome, that this is what he'd be interested in.
28. Thought of the episode of Neighbours I watched today.
Daniel and Josh argued about finding out the baby's gender before birth.
Josh talked about how it would be nice to pick out a name and enable the grandparents to start buying gifts. Daniel didn't like the idea of picking out a name for the baby before meeting it; and he didn't see why gender should determine what clothes the baby wore. I like Daniel's way of thinking, though, we went with Josh's way.
Personally, I did like having a name for Jack before he was born. I think it helped with the bonding process. Also, I'm not sure you can get to know a baby enough in the first few days to come up with a highly personalized name. If worse comes to worse, parents could always change their mind. The fetus name doesn't have to become the child's name. I'm not sure the world would implode if we decided to stop calling Jack "Jack" and instead started calling him Malcolm.
29. Did like Daniel's viewpoint on clothes. I don't think I'm progressive enough to put a baby boy in pink and a baby girl in blue, but I'd be good with neutral colors.
As the baby became a child, I'd feel differently. If I had a boy wanting to wear pink, and a girl wanting to wear blue...so be it.
33. Thought that yellow and green are nice neutral baby clothes.
Red would work.
Black would be very cool.
34. Changed my mind about Manolis not being so bad.
He's a jerk.
He pressures Aisha (Sophie Okonedo) into going to Greece—tries to guilt her into it. When she doesn't bow to his wishes; he simply orders her to obey. He tells her she's going to go, and that's supposed to be it.
35. Read an editorial that's against the US remake of The Slap. Eliza Cussen says, While some Australians take NBC’s adaption of The Slap as proof of the original’s worth, now that I’m living in America I’m less enthused. For me, it’s another example of America looking in on itself when it could be looking out.
I totally agree.
Cussen also says: It is patronizing of networks to assume that a kid swinging a cricket bat instead of a baseball bat makes a story less accessible. In recent years a number of series have shown that there is an apatite for international programming. The BBC/PBS co-production Call The Midwife was watched by 3.6 million Americans last year. And the Melbourne-based comedy Please Like Me staring Caitlin Stasey has demonstrated that the Australian sense of humor can travel.
Yes! I don't know what the deal is with the people delivering our television shows to us. Why do they think we only want to see Americans? A lot of us are fans of Doctor Who. I know Downton Abbey is very popular here. And there are other things, besides that what I've mentioned and what Cussen mentioned.
36. Felt extremely grateful to Netflix and Hulu for having faith that Americans are not completely brainless and ethnocentric. Or at least we have the ability to be LESS ethnocentric when someone is kind enough to give us a chance.
37. Felt like saying a big Fuck You to American Network television for being so damn ethnocentric.
Are there ANY foreign shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, or FOX?
38. Wondered if any of those networks currently have a British or Australian actor on one of their shows that isn't being forced to use an American accent.
39. Went to the Triple J 2014 list.
Today I'm going to listen to the seventeenth song, which is "Tightrope" by Illy. And it features someone named Scarlett Stevens.
40. Started to watch the video for "Tightrope".
There's a guy on a canoe, rapping.
41. Felt this was a song I'd like better without the video.
I like the sounds more than the visuals.
42. Learned from Lord Wiki that Scarlett Stevens is from the Aussie band San Cisco. I remember them. Vaguely.
43. Confused.
My next Neighbours backstage video is with Matt Werkmeister who played Zeke. I thought I was to the point of the videos where I started watching the show. But I don't remember Zeke.
The video description says he was back for a special occasion, so it was a guest star thing. Maybe I saw him and forgot?
44. Saw that Zeke is getting married.
I don't remember that.
They must have posted the backstage videos out of order. I'm guessing this episode wasn't picked up by Hulu.
45. Looked at Google. It looks like the wedding aired in late April, 2014.
The first episode of Neighbours on Hulu was the one that aired June 2, 2014.
46. Wondered about the next backstage video. Will it be before my time...or not?