1. Saw a comment on an article about the migration crisis. Aaron says,
Don`t blame Canada for this tragedy. Both Australia and Canada do plenty to take in refugees. Number 1 and 2 in the world I believe in this respect.
I didn't think that was true; or at least it wasn't true in the past.
I tried to find some statistics.
Forbes has a list of the countries with the most refugees. Lebanon is on top. Australia isn't on the list.
2. Saw that Cate Blanchett is going to star in a movie about Lucille Ball.
3. Found this website which explains the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee.
They say an asylum seeker is someone who is waiting to be labeled a refugee. They're seeking that status.
4. Checked to see what website I'm looking at. It's the UK division of the UN Refugee Agency.
Anyway, they talk about which countries take in the most asylum seekers.
Germany is first. The United States is second. Then comes Turkey, Sweden, and Italy.
5. Felt it was fitting that Germany take in so many asylum seekers. I think it helps to make up for what they did to the Jews, and other people, in World War II.
6. Felt it was fitting that the United States take in asylum seekers, because they rejected a boat full of Jews during World War II. Also, I think the United States sometimes interferes with countries in ways that might partly cause the problems that cause people to become asylum seekers.
That's not to say that, if the United States didn't exist, all these countries would be healthy, safe, and prosperous. I don't think the US is directly to blame for most of the problems, but maybe we deserve indirect blame for some of the problems.
7. Realized I really don't know enough to understand.
Do we interfere because these countries have problems? Or do they have problems because we interfered?
And I think sometimes we didn't interfere in the country that had problems. But maybe we interfered in another country that led to that country causing problems with another country. It could be like a domino effect.
8. Read article about Tony Abbott being slammed by some Jewish groups for saying that, in some respects, Islamic terrorist groups are worse than Nazis.
I think it's unfair that he was given so much grief about that.
It would be one thing if he said that Islamic Terror groups ARE worse than the Nazis, period. I think it would be ridiculous to say one group causing the world great pain is worse than another group that caused the world great pain.
I think it's fine to say that aspects of one bad thing is worse than another bad thing.
I'm not sure I agree with Abbott's opinion. He thinks what's better about the Nazis is that they were ashamed enough about what they were doing to try to hide it. The Islamic terrorists are loud and proud with their terror.
9. Tried to figure it out in my head.
I'm still struggling.
I'm trying to think of analogies—child abuse, and horror movie villains.
What's scarier—a child being severely abused in our neighborhood, and no one knows about it? Or the family that screams at, and beats, their child, outside where everyone can see it.
I think actually the secretly abused child seems more sinister.
It's a bad analogy though, because really what the Nazis did wasn't totally hidden. People knew. People heard. It's just many refused to believe or take action. When the Holocaust photos came out, it was a surprise to some. I don't think it was a surprise to all.
10. Figured I'm okay with the Jewish critics if they argue against what Tony Abbott said. Like me, they might simply disagree with him.
I'm not okay with them trying to infer that Tony Abbott has said that Islamic Terrorism is worse than the Nazis.
11. Read another article about the incident. This one doesn't say that Tony Abbott said anything along the lines of, In some ways....
They say he said, It’s nonsense. Turn on your televisions, look at what is happening. The latest atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive, The Nazis did terrible evil but they had a sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it.
12. Felt that I needed to find the actual interview and see what Abbott really said.
13. Found an excerpt from the interview. I'm really getting the same thing that I got from the previous article, except I'm hearing it instead of reading it.
From what I can gather, Abbott didn't say anything along the lines of In some ways, Islamic terrorist groups are worse than Nazis. But he also didn't say, Terrorists are worse than Nazis.
This is what he is being quoted as saying, The latest atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive. I mean, the Nazis did terrible evil but they had a sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it.
14. Decided it wasn't bad of Abbott to make comparisons between Nazis and Islamic Terrorist groups. But I disagree with his statement about the Nazis having a sufficient sense of shame. I think if they truly felt a sufficient amount of shame, they would have stopped what they were doing.
A child molester might feel shame for what he's doing to children; but it wouldn't be sufficient shame until he turned himself in and sought help.
15. Felt what Abbott said was interesting—something that should be discussed and debated. I disagree with his opinion, but I personally don't find it offensive.
16. Started to watch an episode of Neighbours.
17. Thought that Lauren (Kate Kendall) acted really foolishly.
First, her daughter Amber (Jenna Rosenow) catches her getting awfully cozy, late at night, with Brad (Kip Gamblin).
Brad visits in the morning. He gets himself a mug out of the cupboard. Amber is visibly unhappy, because it's her deceased father's mug.
SO, it probably wouldn't be the best time for Lauren to suggest they pack Amber's father's things away and give them to charity.
Maybe she should have just said. Yes, Darling. I'm about to embark on an affair with a married man, who also happens to be the father of your best friend and the father of the father of your child. So let's pack Daddy's things away and give them to the op shop.
18. Loved what Sheila (Colette Mann) said on Neighbours. I've been told we don't bring up our children. They bring us up.
I think that's so true.
Or at least it's a two way street.
19. Felt a lot of bad feelings towards Susan (Jackie Woodburne).
Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) tries to share her feelings and worries about her marriage.
Susan is very dismissive. She tells Terese to stop overthinking things. Brad is a wonderful husband and Terese needs to have faith in him and her marriage. She tells Terese to stop being paranoid.
It's complete bullshit.
It makes me mad, because I've had times where I've tried to talk to people about my problems, and they were very dismissive. The listeners pretty much tell me that my life is great, and I have no valid reasons to complain. Like Susan, they're ignorant about the situation. Or they refuse to try to believe and understand my side of the story.
20. Felt a little vindicated, because in Terese's story, she IS right to have doubts about Brad and her marriage.
I think when people dismiss my problems, there's a part of me that starts to believe I have no problems. The only problem is myself. There's something inherently wrong with me.
21. Thought of one example.
I've had medical symptoms. I've talked to people about them, and they kind of laugh about it or say dismissive things. They make snide comments.
I start to feel like a hypochondriac, so then I procrastinate when it comes to going to the doctor.
I finally made an appointment, but there's a huge part of me that feels stupid for going.
I shouldn't feel that way, though, because when I read about the problem, the legitimate medical websites say one should see a doctor for it.
22. Felt self-pity, because my life has seen plenty of Susan-Terese type conversations.
I think it's the main reason I've given up on friendship.
23. Started watching an episode of Water Rats.
One of the early scenes reminds me of the Nazi vs. Terrorist comparisons.
The police encounter a boat that's speeding and almost crashes into them. The police try to reprimand the people on the ship, including the captain. They show absolutely no shame for their behavior.
I think, in most cases, people try to hide their misbehavior from the cops.
The question is whether or not the people on the boat, openly misbehaving, are more dangerous than the people who do bad things on boats when they think they won't get caught.
What's the answer to that question?
I don't know.
24. Figured that both types of boat misbehavior involve people who don't have sufficient amounts of shame.
25. Looked at the credits of this episode.
Ryan Kwanten is on it!
I wonder if I've seen him yet but didn't recognize him.
26. Saw Ryan Kwanten.
27. Saw that Kwanten was on Water Rats about a year and a half before he joined the cast of Home and Away as Vinnie Patterson.
Although before being on Water Rats, he had two appearances on Home and Away as not-Vinnie-Patterson people.
28. Saw that Ryan Kwanten is going to be the voice of Blinky Bill in Blinky Bill the Movie.
Deborah Mailman is going to play his mom. That's cute!
29. Watched the trailer for Blinky Bill and tried to wrap my head around the fact that Blinky Bill has the same voice as Jason Stackhouse.
30. Wondered why the movie has koalas in the outback.
Does the movie have the koalas escaping their normal habitat for an adventure in the outback? Or do they push the idea that koalas live in the outback?
I think the Koala Brothers had koalas in the outback as well.
Maybe there ARE koalas in the outback, and I've been too dumb to realize that.
31. Thought I might be wrong, because I found koalas mentioned in this website about the Australian outback. But then I read more carefully and saw that they say, Koalas live in the woodlands in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia. So they are not animals to be found in Outback Australia.
32. Went to the triple J 2014 list.
Today I'm going to listen to the 41st song, which is "Maybe" by Carmada.
32. Doubted that Carmada's "Maybe" has the same lyrics as Annie's "Maybe". It would be cool if it did, though.
33. Started to watch the video for "Maybe".
36. Tried to figure out where the video takes place. Melbourne? Sydney? Elsewhere?
According to Facebook, their hometown is Sydney. So should I assume they filmed in their hometown?
Probably.
37. Got a California vibe from the video—a place like Venice Beach.
Granted, there was a guy wearing a t-shirt that says Venice Beach. But I got the vibe even before that.
38. Looked it up.
The video WAS filmed in Venice Beach.
I'm glad, that deep down inside, I can distinguish the US from Australia. At least in this case.
39. Started to watch the wrong Neighbours backstage video, and started to write about the wrong video; but now I have put myself back in the right place.
Today's video is NOT about Stefan Dennis getting his hair shaved off. Instead it's a video of Saskia Hampele and Meyne Wyatt.
40. Saw that Saskia Hampele has The Fault in Our Stars in her hands.
Was Georgia reading that? Or was Saskia reading it?
Jack is supposedly downloading that book or another John Green book. He's doing it for our high school curriculum. It's not easy getting him to read. But we've been watching a lot of Crash Course videos which are made by John Green and his brother Hank Green. This sparked Jack's interest in reading a John Green novel.
I feel like the Green brothers are taking over our lives.
That's fine though, because they seem very intelligent and wonderful.
Today, John Green taught us about the Roman Empire, and Hank Green taught us about water and a multitude of fancy nutrition words like lipids and monosaccharides.
41. Wondered if Jack started reading a John Green novel and whether he's liking it.
42. Went back to watching the Saskia Hampele video.
43. Learned from Saskia Hampele that she's the one reading the book.
I wonder if she liked it.
I liked it a lot but with less enthusiasm than some people.
44. Laughed, because Hampele and Chris Milligan kind of poked fun at the whole soap opera doctor thing.
They talk about Karl suddenly becoming a throat expert, and how he's an expert on everything.
Although now that I think about it...it's kind of like a general practitioner. That's probably what Karl is, and a GP probably WOULD know a little bit about everything.
45. Thought about it more, and remembered that Georgia has her surgery done by another doctor; not Karl. And when Amber (Jenna Rosenow) had scary-looking things on her ultrasound, an expert was brought in to help them.
So it's really not like Karl is one of those miracle doctors who take care of everything on their own.
46. Checked up on Saskia Hampele's blog.
She hasn't updated, unfortunately.
What's the deal?
She's not on Neighbours, and she's not blogging.
What is she doing with her time?
Ah! I know! Maybe she's watching Crash Course videos.
47. Saw from Instagram that very recently Saskia Hampele ate an incredibly delicious-looking raw chocolate wagon wheel.
I want one!
We bought and ate some healthy raw-type desserts recently. They were so good.
I should try to buy that kind of stuff more often.
Don`t blame Canada for this tragedy. Both Australia and Canada do plenty to take in refugees. Number 1 and 2 in the world I believe in this respect.
I didn't think that was true; or at least it wasn't true in the past.
I tried to find some statistics.
Forbes has a list of the countries with the most refugees. Lebanon is on top. Australia isn't on the list.
2. Saw that Cate Blanchett is going to star in a movie about Lucille Ball.
3. Found this website which explains the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee.
They say an asylum seeker is someone who is waiting to be labeled a refugee. They're seeking that status.
4. Checked to see what website I'm looking at. It's the UK division of the UN Refugee Agency.
Anyway, they talk about which countries take in the most asylum seekers.
Germany is first. The United States is second. Then comes Turkey, Sweden, and Italy.
5. Felt it was fitting that Germany take in so many asylum seekers. I think it helps to make up for what they did to the Jews, and other people, in World War II.
6. Felt it was fitting that the United States take in asylum seekers, because they rejected a boat full of Jews during World War II. Also, I think the United States sometimes interferes with countries in ways that might partly cause the problems that cause people to become asylum seekers.
That's not to say that, if the United States didn't exist, all these countries would be healthy, safe, and prosperous. I don't think the US is directly to blame for most of the problems, but maybe we deserve indirect blame for some of the problems.
7. Realized I really don't know enough to understand.
Do we interfere because these countries have problems? Or do they have problems because we interfered?
And I think sometimes we didn't interfere in the country that had problems. But maybe we interfered in another country that led to that country causing problems with another country. It could be like a domino effect.
8. Read article about Tony Abbott being slammed by some Jewish groups for saying that, in some respects, Islamic terrorist groups are worse than Nazis.
I think it's unfair that he was given so much grief about that.
It would be one thing if he said that Islamic Terror groups ARE worse than the Nazis, period. I think it would be ridiculous to say one group causing the world great pain is worse than another group that caused the world great pain.
I think it's fine to say that aspects of one bad thing is worse than another bad thing.
I'm not sure I agree with Abbott's opinion. He thinks what's better about the Nazis is that they were ashamed enough about what they were doing to try to hide it. The Islamic terrorists are loud and proud with their terror.
9. Tried to figure it out in my head.
I'm still struggling.
I'm trying to think of analogies—child abuse, and horror movie villains.
What's scarier—a child being severely abused in our neighborhood, and no one knows about it? Or the family that screams at, and beats, their child, outside where everyone can see it.
I think actually the secretly abused child seems more sinister.
It's a bad analogy though, because really what the Nazis did wasn't totally hidden. People knew. People heard. It's just many refused to believe or take action. When the Holocaust photos came out, it was a surprise to some. I don't think it was a surprise to all.
10. Figured I'm okay with the Jewish critics if they argue against what Tony Abbott said. Like me, they might simply disagree with him.
I'm not okay with them trying to infer that Tony Abbott has said that Islamic Terrorism is worse than the Nazis.
11. Read another article about the incident. This one doesn't say that Tony Abbott said anything along the lines of, In some ways....
They say he said, It’s nonsense. Turn on your televisions, look at what is happening. The latest atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive, The Nazis did terrible evil but they had a sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it.
12. Felt that I needed to find the actual interview and see what Abbott really said.
13. Found an excerpt from the interview. I'm really getting the same thing that I got from the previous article, except I'm hearing it instead of reading it.
From what I can gather, Abbott didn't say anything along the lines of In some ways, Islamic terrorist groups are worse than Nazis. But he also didn't say, Terrorists are worse than Nazis.
This is what he is being quoted as saying, The latest atrocity apparently was four young men being strung up and burnt alive. I mean, the Nazis did terrible evil but they had a sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it.
14. Decided it wasn't bad of Abbott to make comparisons between Nazis and Islamic Terrorist groups. But I disagree with his statement about the Nazis having a sufficient sense of shame. I think if they truly felt a sufficient amount of shame, they would have stopped what they were doing.
A child molester might feel shame for what he's doing to children; but it wouldn't be sufficient shame until he turned himself in and sought help.
15. Felt what Abbott said was interesting—something that should be discussed and debated. I disagree with his opinion, but I personally don't find it offensive.
16. Started to watch an episode of Neighbours.
17. Thought that Lauren (Kate Kendall) acted really foolishly.
First, her daughter Amber (Jenna Rosenow) catches her getting awfully cozy, late at night, with Brad (Kip Gamblin).
Brad visits in the morning. He gets himself a mug out of the cupboard. Amber is visibly unhappy, because it's her deceased father's mug.
SO, it probably wouldn't be the best time for Lauren to suggest they pack Amber's father's things away and give them to charity.
Maybe she should have just said. Yes, Darling. I'm about to embark on an affair with a married man, who also happens to be the father of your best friend and the father of the father of your child. So let's pack Daddy's things away and give them to the op shop.
18. Loved what Sheila (Colette Mann) said on Neighbours. I've been told we don't bring up our children. They bring us up.
I think that's so true.
Or at least it's a two way street.
19. Felt a lot of bad feelings towards Susan (Jackie Woodburne).
Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) tries to share her feelings and worries about her marriage.
Susan is very dismissive. She tells Terese to stop overthinking things. Brad is a wonderful husband and Terese needs to have faith in him and her marriage. She tells Terese to stop being paranoid.
It's complete bullshit.
It makes me mad, because I've had times where I've tried to talk to people about my problems, and they were very dismissive. The listeners pretty much tell me that my life is great, and I have no valid reasons to complain. Like Susan, they're ignorant about the situation. Or they refuse to try to believe and understand my side of the story.
20. Felt a little vindicated, because in Terese's story, she IS right to have doubts about Brad and her marriage.
I think when people dismiss my problems, there's a part of me that starts to believe I have no problems. The only problem is myself. There's something inherently wrong with me.
21. Thought of one example.
I've had medical symptoms. I've talked to people about them, and they kind of laugh about it or say dismissive things. They make snide comments.
I start to feel like a hypochondriac, so then I procrastinate when it comes to going to the doctor.
I finally made an appointment, but there's a huge part of me that feels stupid for going.
I shouldn't feel that way, though, because when I read about the problem, the legitimate medical websites say one should see a doctor for it.
22. Felt self-pity, because my life has seen plenty of Susan-Terese type conversations.
I think it's the main reason I've given up on friendship.
23. Started watching an episode of Water Rats.
One of the early scenes reminds me of the Nazi vs. Terrorist comparisons.
The police encounter a boat that's speeding and almost crashes into them. The police try to reprimand the people on the ship, including the captain. They show absolutely no shame for their behavior.
I think, in most cases, people try to hide their misbehavior from the cops.
The question is whether or not the people on the boat, openly misbehaving, are more dangerous than the people who do bad things on boats when they think they won't get caught.
What's the answer to that question?
I don't know.
24. Figured that both types of boat misbehavior involve people who don't have sufficient amounts of shame.
25. Looked at the credits of this episode.
Ryan Kwanten is on it!
I wonder if I've seen him yet but didn't recognize him.
26. Saw Ryan Kwanten.
27. Saw that Kwanten was on Water Rats about a year and a half before he joined the cast of Home and Away as Vinnie Patterson.
Although before being on Water Rats, he had two appearances on Home and Away as not-Vinnie-Patterson people.
28. Saw that Ryan Kwanten is going to be the voice of Blinky Bill in Blinky Bill the Movie.
Deborah Mailman is going to play his mom. That's cute!
29. Watched the trailer for Blinky Bill and tried to wrap my head around the fact that Blinky Bill has the same voice as Jason Stackhouse.
30. Wondered why the movie has koalas in the outback.
Does the movie have the koalas escaping their normal habitat for an adventure in the outback? Or do they push the idea that koalas live in the outback?
I think the Koala Brothers had koalas in the outback as well.
Maybe there ARE koalas in the outback, and I've been too dumb to realize that.
31. Thought I might be wrong, because I found koalas mentioned in this website about the Australian outback. But then I read more carefully and saw that they say, Koalas live in the woodlands in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia. So they are not animals to be found in Outback Australia.
32. Went to the triple J 2014 list.
Today I'm going to listen to the 41st song, which is "Maybe" by Carmada.
32. Doubted that Carmada's "Maybe" has the same lyrics as Annie's "Maybe". It would be cool if it did, though.
33. Started to watch the video for "Maybe".
36. Tried to figure out where the video takes place. Melbourne? Sydney? Elsewhere?
According to Facebook, their hometown is Sydney. So should I assume they filmed in their hometown?
Probably.
37. Got a California vibe from the video—a place like Venice Beach.
Granted, there was a guy wearing a t-shirt that says Venice Beach. But I got the vibe even before that.
38. Looked it up.
The video WAS filmed in Venice Beach.
I'm glad, that deep down inside, I can distinguish the US from Australia. At least in this case.
39. Started to watch the wrong Neighbours backstage video, and started to write about the wrong video; but now I have put myself back in the right place.
Today's video is NOT about Stefan Dennis getting his hair shaved off. Instead it's a video of Saskia Hampele and Meyne Wyatt.
40. Saw that Saskia Hampele has The Fault in Our Stars in her hands.
Was Georgia reading that? Or was Saskia reading it?
Jack is supposedly downloading that book or another John Green book. He's doing it for our high school curriculum. It's not easy getting him to read. But we've been watching a lot of Crash Course videos which are made by John Green and his brother Hank Green. This sparked Jack's interest in reading a John Green novel.
I feel like the Green brothers are taking over our lives.
That's fine though, because they seem very intelligent and wonderful.
Today, John Green taught us about the Roman Empire, and Hank Green taught us about water and a multitude of fancy nutrition words like lipids and monosaccharides.
41. Wondered if Jack started reading a John Green novel and whether he's liking it.
42. Went back to watching the Saskia Hampele video.
43. Learned from Saskia Hampele that she's the one reading the book.
I wonder if she liked it.
I liked it a lot but with less enthusiasm than some people.
44. Laughed, because Hampele and Chris Milligan kind of poked fun at the whole soap opera doctor thing.
They talk about Karl suddenly becoming a throat expert, and how he's an expert on everything.
Although now that I think about it...it's kind of like a general practitioner. That's probably what Karl is, and a GP probably WOULD know a little bit about everything.
45. Thought about it more, and remembered that Georgia has her surgery done by another doctor; not Karl. And when Amber (Jenna Rosenow) had scary-looking things on her ultrasound, an expert was brought in to help them.
So it's really not like Karl is one of those miracle doctors who take care of everything on their own.
46. Checked up on Saskia Hampele's blog.
She hasn't updated, unfortunately.
What's the deal?
She's not on Neighbours, and she's not blogging.
What is she doing with her time?
Ah! I know! Maybe she's watching Crash Course videos.
47. Saw from Instagram that very recently Saskia Hampele ate an incredibly delicious-looking raw chocolate wagon wheel.
I want one!
We bought and ate some healthy raw-type desserts recently. They were so good.
I should try to buy that kind of stuff more often.
