Unusual Behavior, Ice, Major Confusion, and Nonfiction Television

1. Felt unexcited about watching the next episode of Neighbours, because it's one of those that involves Paige (Olympia Valance) and Tyler (Travis Burns) having their Dimato adventures.

I'm so bored by that storyline.

I love Paige, but when she's with Tyler, whining about stealing cars; I find her incredibly annoying.

2.  Wondered about the blah blah site referred to by characters on Neighbours.

Is it a fictional version of Facebook?  Or is it a real site?

There IS a blah blah site, but I can't tell if it's the kind of site where you have your own page.

On Neighbours, they talk about people having Blah Blah pages. It sounds very much like Facebook.

2. Thought Josh (Harley Bonner) was creepy in this episode.

I don't like the shirt he's wearing; buttoned up so high. Is that a popular style right now?




He has this annoying swarmy smile, and I hate how he plans to break up Daniel (Tim Phillips) and Amber (Jenna Rosenow).  Well, no. He doesn't plan to break up Daniel and Amber. He just expects it to happen, since he sees himself as the better man for Amber.

I guess what bothers me is he sees himself as the right man for Amber and the right father for the baby.  But he's not, because all he cares about is winning the girl. I think he pretends to care about the upcoming baby. I don't think he really does. He just sees the fetus as a way to win Amber.

3. Started watching the eighth episode of the second season of Farscape.

4. Wondered. Who's going to go a bit nuts and not act like their usual self in this episode?  It seems to happen a lot on this show.

5. Saw that this is a flashback episode. Or at least the beginning was a flashback. It deals with what happened when the Moya crew was separated at the end of season one.

6. Saw Zhaan (Virginia Hey) not acting like her usual self. Though she also didn't act like her usual self in an episode I saw yesterday. So maybe not-acting-like-her-usual-self is now her usual self.

7. Listened to my Triple J Spotify list while washing dishes. I looked at it, and noticed it's the 2013 list.

I should probably find out what's on the 2014 list.  Since it's 2015, I'm pretty sure 2014 would be out already. Right?

8. Went to the Triple J 2014 site.

They have fun statistic stuff.

Fifty-nine of the songs are from Australian artists. That's not bad. At least it's the majority.

Fifteen of the songs are American and fourteen are British.

There are three songs from New Zealand. I'm guessing they're all from Lorde. Or I want them to be all from Lorde. I like her a lot.

9. Had the idea of maybe listening to a few songs everyday. I'll probably skip over the songs that aren't Australian.

10. Relieved to see there's no 2015 list yet. Otherwise, I'd feel really late in the game.

I guess I'm already pretty late.

When do these lists come out?

Probably around New Years....

11. Saw that the number one song is Chet Faker's "Talk is Cheap".

12. Learned from Lord Wiki that Chat Faker celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday this June.

In 2014, Chet Faker had two other songs, besides "Talk is Cheap" that e were on the charts—"1998" and "Gold".

"Gold" is the only one that charted in the US. I'm not saying this because the US is more important than other countries. It's just that it's MY country, so I'm curious about those things.

13. Started to watch the video for "Talk is Cheap"

The beginning is cool. It's a time lapse of ice-melting.  Ha!  It's actually cool in two different ways. I was thinking it's cool as in awesome, neat, fabulous, etc. But it's also cool as in cold. Because you know...the ice.

OR actually, maybe it's warm, and that's why the ice is melting.

Although it's still cold enough for the water to be somewhat solid and not completely liquid.

14. Felt the intro gets boring after awhile.

Enough is enough.

15. Bored by the man under the ice. I didn't really care about him. But then he started singing, and that's kind of interesting.

I don't know if I like the song, though.

16. Thought that the song reminded me of Melbourne. I can imagine going to a restaurant in Melbourne and hearing the song playing.

17. Imagined that the restaurant in Melbourne has a blue couch in the lobby area.

18. Changed my mind.

It's not a restaurant. It's a hair salon. It has that hair salon smell.

19. Started to watch another episode of Farscape. From the Netflix description, I can see that, in this episode, EVERYONE acts not-like-themselves. It's a massive body switching thing.  This might be fun.

20. Wondered if any of the actors will do a good job portraying one of the other characters.

So far, I'm not overly impressed, but the body-switching thing just happened.

Actually, I'm not sure if it's going to effect all the Moya crew, or just some. For now, it's just Aeryn (Claudia Black), Crichton (Ben Browder), and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy).

21. Looked at the credits to get actor's names and ended up with spoilers. It looks like the body switching is going to happen twice. I guess when they try to fix it, they mess it all up again?

22. Saw that Claudia Black is listed as playing only Aeryn. I think it's a mistake, because she was already someone else. I forgot who—either Crichton or Rygel.

23. Tried to wrap my head around all the body-switching. It gets confusing. It's like Freaky Friday on steroids.

24. Wondered about the two puppet characters—Rygel and Pilot.  Are the voice actors imitating the  characters that their character has become?  Or are the actors that play the characters possessing the puppet bodies playing the part?

Did I say that right? I'm so confused. I actually feel kind of light-headed.  This is way too much for my brain.

25. Figured maybe IMDb has the answer...though I kind of wish I never asked the question.

26. Looked at Lani John Topu. He usually plays Pilot. On this episode, Pilot's body is now housing Ka D'argo. IMDb says that Lani John Topu plays Ka D'argo in the episode.

27. Felt so confused.

Anthony Simcoe also is listed as playing Pilot.  Pilot is possessed by Ka D'argo who is played by Anthony Simcoe.

Maybe Simcoe and Lani John Topu are voicing the Pilot puppet together?

28. Imagined a body-switching storyline in my own family. I think it would be very insightful.

It makes me wonder what aspects of ourselves come from our soul, and what aspects come from our bodies?  How much of our personality comes from what's going on in our brain?  How about energy levels? Are they determined by soul stuff or body stuff?  Do I have weird aches and pains because something is not quite right in my body, or is it something in my soul?

Of course, some people don't believe in souls. For them the answers to those questions would be easy...well, at least if they're just pondering the situation. If the body-switching situation was actually happening, they'd probably at least consider the possibility that souls exist.

29. Started to watch a Neighbours backstage video. This one is starring Ryan Moloney who plays Toadie.

30. Grateful to Ryan Moloney, because he answered the question I asked yesterday. Who's filming these backstage videos?

Well, it's someone named Craig.

31. Confused.  It seems maybe Craig is the name of the camera, and Rick is the guy behind the camera. Or maybe Craig holds the camera, and Rick stands behind them directing?

I don't know how all this filming stuff works.

32. Went to Ryan Moloney's filmography. I know he's been on Neighbours for a very long time.

33. Saw that Moloney started on Neighbours in 1995 as Toadie. But in 1994, he was on an episode playing Cyborg. Is that someone with the nickname Cyborg? Or was there some kind of futuristic robotic storyline going on?

34. Saw that Moloney's first episode as Toadie was on February 8, 1995.

35. Saw that there were a lot of Rebecchi characters back then—five including Toadie.

36. Saw that Moloney was born in 1979.  So he was about sixteen when he started playing Toadie.

37. Lost a little respect for Moloney, because Lord Wiki says he was on Celebrity Big Brother.

Why? Why would he do that?

Well, some people are into reality TV. We all have our things.

38. Learned that Moloney is training to be a pilot.

That's pretty cool.

39. Felt judgmental. Who am I to say what's cool and what's shameful?

Well, I guess this is my blog, so I can do that here.

I guess like everything else, there are some things that impress me and some things that make me lose some respect.

40. Found a Ryan Moloney Twitter, but I feel unsure about whether it's real or not.

It doesn't have a little blue check mark thing. That doesn't mean it's a fake, because not all real accounts have that.

But there's a mention of fake accounts. That makes me suspicious.

41. Found conversation where a Twitter person expresses excitement over Moloney following him; then someone else says it's a fake, and that Moloney doesn't have Twitter.

42. Found Tweet where Alan Fletcher says the Moloney account is fake.

43. Struggled to find something about Celebrity Big Brother. So...maybe that's fake too! I hope so.

44. Disappointed to see that there really was a Celebrity Big Brother featuring Moloney. It was a UK show.

45. Felt maybe I have more respect for a successful celebrity who does a reality TV show than one who is failing and desperate for attention.

Maybe Ryan Moloney LIKES reality TV, and maybe he was excited for the chance to go to the UK.  I can kind of respect that.

46. Started to watch interview with Moloney that is supposed to include stuff about Big Brother.

The interviewer asks Moloney if he has any advice for people on Big Brother. He says, Enjoy yourselves, have a good time, and remember they can edit it however they like.

I wonder if Moloney was aware of this before he went on the show.

47. Felt it's hard to trust anything you see on TV.

When I was on TV, they emailed me the trivia questions, they were going to ask me, before the show. I felt uncomfortable about this and suggested they surprise me with questions during the actual interview. They didn't.

Another time I was approached to be on TV, the approacher told me they'd like to film me having an Australian barbecue with my family and friends. I had already planned to say no if asked to be on TV again. But this kind of sealed the not-deal. I've never had an Australian picnic or barbecue for my American family and friends. It's not me, so why should I have to pretend I'm something I'm not?

I'll probably never want to be on nonfiction TV again. But if there's ever a chance I say yes, it will be for someone who's read a lot of my blog and shows interest in the real me.  They'll want me to be myself and not fit some mold they've created.  

48. Thought that besides the staged trivia questions, I didn't mind what happened on the TV thing. The people who approached me did read several of my blog posts and seemed interested in me. They also gave me the chance to talk about what I wanted to talk about. They also showed pictures of my real life instead of making me pose for a fake reality.  I felt I was me on TV and not something they wanted me to be.

49. Hoped people understand that anytime they see a documentary or news segment that showcases someone's life and/or their family; the person/people might not usually do what they're doing on the segment. The producers of the show might have told them to do what you're seeing.

50. Realized that this sadly might be the case for the Neighbours backstage videos. Are the actors really doing what they usually do on set? Or is the producer of the backstage videos pushing them to do certain things?

For example.  Let's say a Neighbours actor usually uses their off-time to read a novel. The director of the backstage segment might push them to socialize instead.

It's just stuff like that.

51. Decided I really never want to be on nonfiction TV again, but I might love to be on fictional TV. It looks fun.

I don't think I'd ever want to see myself, though, so it would need to be a show I don't watch.

Or maybe it would be better if I did backstage kind of stuff.

I could do something like wipe down the tables at Harolds.

At one time, I wanted to work on the set of The Walking Dead. I forgot what I wanted to do. Maybe it was something with special effects.  Or make-up?  Maybe splattering zombie guts on the actors? That would be fun.

52. Thought about how I'm getting good at sweeping the floor. Maybe we can move to Melbourne, and I can sweep the floor of the Neighbours set.

It would be fun. I like to sing. So I'd sweep and sing. And I'd be living in Australia.

I'd be living the dream.