Bad People, Love, Adultery, and Worrisome Hugs

1. Started watching an episode of Tangle.

2. Saw Ryan Corr.

His character seems nice.

I don't want him to be a bad person.

I don't like when I like an actor and then I see them playing a scummy person.

It's like Damien Richardson. I first saw him on Neighbours, where yeah...he was a bit scummy. But he was also sympathetic. Then I saw him on City Homicide where he played a very decent person.

I was kind of in the mode of adoring him. And then I saw him on The Secret Life of Us where he plays a scummy rapist...or almost rapist. So that kind of ruined things.

3. Figured I will go back to adoring Damien Richardson when I see him playing someone decent again.

4. Thought this all kind of contradicted with my feelings for Anthony Hopkins. Because with him, I like him best as a sociopathic cannibal.

5. Received an email from a company asking me to link to their jewelry website. Why? Because I once linked to another jewelry website.

In a way, it almost sounded like they were demanding I link to their website. Well, they weren't demanding. But there was this attitude of, we see you linked to this other jewelry website, so we want you to link to ours. I felt like they were saying they deserve fair treatment.

6. Considered emailing the company back and saying I will link to their company on the sidebar if they pay me $200. But the thing is, I don't know if I'd trust any company that sends out emails like that. They sound too desperate.

7. Liked the conversations about falling in love on this episode of Tangle.

Some of the scenes made me think that the sexiest trait in a man is when they're in love.  Real love—like Christine (Catherine McClements) says, the kind where you can't stop thinking about someone.

I like this versus the kind where someone is mildly interested in someone, and what they really want is sex. Or sometimes it's not sex. Sometimes it's just about the attraction not being strong enough.

8. Thought of my college relationship adventures. There were times that I was definitely attracted to someone and definitely hoped for a relationship. Then there were other times where I was attracted to someone but at the same time not attracted.

9. Thought that the sexiness of a man, in love, greatly loses its appeal for me when the person he's pursuing doesn't love him back.

Then it's either sweet and sad; or pathetic—depending on how persistent he is.

If he goes REALLY far in his pursuit, it becomes scary.

10. Thought of Peter and Tina on Coronation Street. Peter's maybe in love with Tina, but I don't find him at all sexy. I could say it's because he's married to another woman. But I do sometimes find extramarital relationships sexy. Or maybe I usually don't. I'm not sure.

On Tangle, I liked Ally (Justine Clarke) with Gabriel (Matt Day) even though she was married to his best friend. But that's probably because Ally's husband Vince (Ben Mendelsohn) was such an ass. He didn't seem to love her, so it seemed so wonderful that another man did. That's different than Peter and Tina, because Carla, Peter's wife, does seem to love him a lot.

11. Decided that with extramarital affairs, if the cheated on spouse doesn't seem to really be in love; then the cheating doesn't feel so bad to me. It's romantic and sexy. If the cheated on spouse is obviously in love; then it's sad.

Another example of this on Coronation Street is with Nick and Leanne.  Leanne has fallen out of love with Nick and loves someone else now. Nick still loves her, so I don't want Leanne with someone else. I want her to fall back in love with Nick.

12. Loved what Christine (Catherine McClements) says about her husband having an affair.

She tells Ally that no, it wasn't a fling. It was real love. And it was the worst thing that ever happened to her. But then the affair resulted in a pregnancy, and that child came to live with them. Christine became the mother, and she says this is the best thing that's happened to her.

It's amazing how bad things sometimes result in very good things.

13. Liked a scene with Ally feeding the hungry.

An old man named Stan (Don Bridges) tells Ally she's pretty and asks for a hug.  She's kind-hearted and open-hearted enough to say yes. It's kind of a tense scene, because you don't know if he's going to try to grab her ass or something.  He doesn't, but he wouldn't let go. He kept hugging. Then someone working with Ally (Todd MacDonald) requests that the man stop hugging Ally.  The man stops, and Ally's co-helper asks if she's okay. She says, Yes! It's the best hug I've had all year.

I wish I could be like that. I'd likely be very hesitant, and then during the hug, I'd be frantically wondering when was the last time the hugger took a shower.  I'm not even sure it would have to be a homeless person to make me uptight like that. I think a hug from any stranger would have me feeling germaphobic.

Although it's not really germaphobic. It's really more like cootie-phobic.

14.  Saw that Don Bridges was recently in an Australian Zombie movie called Plague.

15. Saw the Stan storyline get a little less sweet. Uh...speaking of zombies.....

16. Finished watching the episode.

I liked it. It was less depressing than the previous ones; and also less slow.

17. Saw that Netflix has The Plague.

I'm going to add it to my to- watch list.

18. Decided to look for 2015 movies on Hulu and Netflix.

I didn't look much before, because I didn't expect them to be released yet. But The Plague is from 2015, and that's already on Netflix.

19. Decided I'm just going to look on Netflix now, and later I'll check Hulu.

20. Added Strangerland and Infini to my to-watch list.

21. Started watching Not Suitable for Children.

I'm already unnerved by Ryan Kwanten speaking in an Australian accent.

I don't know what's weirder—hearing Jason Stackhouse being Australian or Rick Grimes being British.

22. Wondered if there's truth to the premise in the movie.

Jonah (Kwanten) ends up with testicular cancer.  Treatment will leave him infertile. He gives a sperm sample that will be frozen for future use; then learns his sperm is unfreezable.

23. Found a website about sperm cryopreservation.

They say that 50% of sperm motility keep that motility after being thawed. If sperm is of poor quality, the motility level will be less than that.

24. Glad to have learned something new today.

25. Wondered how old Ryan Kwanten is.

26. Saw that Kwanten was born in 1976. He's only four years younger than me.

I like when people are close to my age...or older.

Very young people make me feel old.

27. Saw that Ryan Kwanten's birthday is close to mine.

28. Remembered that Toni Collette's birthday is today.

29. Saw that Ryan Corr is not at all close to my age.

I'm seventeen years older than him.

He makes me feel old.

30. Wondered if what Jonah says in the movie is true.

If you don't have a clean medical history, you can't adopt. He says that includes cancer.

That's sad.

It seems unfair.

What if your cancer was mild, and easily treated? You still can't adopt. I understand that cancer has a chance of recurring, but no one is guaranteed to live a long and full life for their children.

31. Tried to find information about adopting in Australia, if you've had cancer.

I can't find anything but did find an article about the issue in the UK.

32. Recognized the actress who plays Marcie in the movie.

I looked her up. It's Susan Prior, and I've seen her on Puberty Blues. But I can't remember who she played.

33. Remembered!

I'm glad, because it would have probably bothered me for most of the night if I hadn't.

She plays the wife of Rodger Corser.  He's cheating on her, and she's kind of naive about the whole thing.

I actually could have figured it out if I looked at the IMDb cast for Puberty Blues.  I could have just matched the last names of the characters.

BUT I'm happy with myself for remembering on my own.

34. Decided that one of the reasons I was able to remember is Prior's character on Not Suitable for Children is similar to the one she played on Puberty Blues.

35. Struggled to think of words to describe the characters.  It's kind of like someone who's a doormat—overly nice and giving.

Is there a word for that?

36. Stopped watching the movie for tonight.

I'm going to watch the rest tomorrow.


Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Sadness, Disgust, Unhelpful Dialogue, and Psychics

1. Started to watch an episode of Tangle.

It's so weird to see Ben Mendelsohn in the recap scenes. He's such a jerk on this show. When I saw him yesterday in the Efficiency Expert, he was so sweet and adorable.

2. Wanted to clarify that Mendelsohn's character on The Efficiency Expert wasn't perfectly wonderful and nice. He was kind of a jerk sometimes. But he was an innocent, lost kind of jerk.

In Tangle, he's a jerk in a very not-sweet way.

3. Realized that Kat Stewart sort of reminds me of Carla on Coronation Street.

4. Decided there's not a huge resemblance—just a small one. Maybe it's the cheekbones?

5. Saw that Alison White from Satisfaction is on Tangle. She was also on season one.

I can't remember if I saw her on Tangle first, or Satisfaction.

6. Liked that Tangle had a scene with two teenagers cuddling their mother; and it was presented as a tender moment, unlike Bates Motel, which always presents such things as being sinister and creepy.

7. Finished watching the episode.

It was slow and depressing.

The death and funeral itself wasn't very sad. It's more about the people's reaction to it. They go through the motions while getting intoxicated by various substances.

8. Started watching another episode of Tangle.

9. Thought of Pixar's Inside Out.

If Sadness and Disgust got together to write a TV show. It would be like Tangle.

I think I'd prefer a TV show written by Sadness and Joy.

10. Thought that Offspring is a Joy/Sadness kind of thing.

11. Liked what Christine (Catherine McClements) says to her husband Tim (Joel Tobeck).

She's angry with him, because, while drunk at a wake, he kissed the widow (Justine Clarke).

Tim asks if they can talk about it. Christine says, I don't want to talk about it. I will, like I always do. And we'll make our peace like we always do. But right now, I just want to hate you for a few hours.

There's so much truth to that.

Dialogue doesn't always fix things.

Sometimes people just need space and permission to be angry for awhile.

12. Thought of how I've had times where I'm angry. There's conversation, apologies, and an illusion of fixing things. But later I think about the problem and don't feel like anything has gotten better.

The conversation hasn't given me any sense of peace or satisfaction.

13. Appreciated that the show had a positive portrayal of a psychic.

Gigi (Eva Lazzaro) visits one, seeking information about her dead father. When the psychic begins to read Gigi's future, Gigi stops her and tells her she doesn't want that information. She asks if the psychic knows about dead people. The psychic is honest and tells her she doesn't have that gift. This makes me feel she's real, in the context of the TV show, because if you're going to fake one gift, why not fake all of them?

Then again, it could be that she doesn't mind scamming people with a future reading but isn't low enough to trick someone into thinking she can contact their dead relative.

She seems nice ,though—spiritual in a gentle way. She talks about looking for signs from dead people and gives the example of being followed by a seagull after her sister died.  The idea she seems to be conveying is that anyone can read and interpret signs.  She doesn't say anything like, if you need to talk to your dad, for a hundred dollars I can pass on a message to him.  

14. Wondered, out of the psychics charging for their services, how many are completely for real; how many are total scam artists; and how many have real gifts but do a lot of exaggerating and fabricating?

15. Finished watching the episode of Tangle.

I liked it a little better than the previous one.

16. Saw that Ryan Corr is on my next episode of Tangle.

That might be fun.

I wonder if I'll like his character.

17. Went to Palg 1305's Twitter Account.

Today I'm going to look at his photos of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

I think that's in Queensland somewhere.

18. Went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary website.

They're located in Brisbane.

19. Saw that Lone Pine is having a Halloween celebration. It involves food trucks, face-painting, bingo, a jumping castle, and a haunted garden thing.

20. Saw that Lone Pine shows movies on Friday nights. And for Halloween-Saturday, they're having a double feature—Monsters University and Ghostbusters.

21. Thought the koala in this photo looked darling.

22. Felt weird saying the word "darling". I don't think I usually use that word.

23. Wondered what's in this photo.

Maybe a platypus?

24. Liked the frog in this photo. He's very cute.

25. Liked this Cassowary photo.

He looks like a proper dinosaur descendant.

26. Thought this kangaroo was sexy, but then I changed my mind.

He looks like the type of guy who thinks he's all that, but he's really not.

27. Thought that this Kookaburra looks like a grandmother.

28. Thought this Tasmanian devil looks very sweet, but I don't like the blurry leaves in the foreground.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts 

Underage Sex, Spotswood, Actors, and Actresses

1. Dreamed about Imogen and Daniel from Neighbours. Or it could have been that I dreamed of Tim Phillips and Ariel Kaplan playing other characters. The people in my dream looked like Imogen and Daniel but didn't really seem like them.

Anyway, the dream: Daniel and Imogen (I'll just call them that) are hanging out together late at night. Imogen is younger than Daniel and not of the legal age. The two of them are flirting and seem to have feelings for each other. Then the police come, because Daniel and Imogen are up past curfew time. 

Then they're all in the police station with their families. Daniel is in trouble for being with an underage girl.  It seems, to me that Imogen is acting like a complete victim—pretending that she's never had any interest in Daniel. This annoys me but then I start to think maybe I'm wrong, and she's not being that way. 

2. Looked at Victoria's sex laws.

They seem pretty fair; or more fair than some I've seen in the United States.

First of all, if you're under twelve, no one should be having sex with you.  It's illegal no matter what. 

That sounds good to me.

If you are twelve to fifteen, you can agree to have sex with someone as long as they're not more than two years older than you.

So a thirteen and fourteen-year-old can have sex legally. That kind of gives me the chills, but I should face the fact that it happens.  

If an older person has sex with a younger person but THOUGHT the younger person was of legal age, they can use that in their defense. I'm not sure how they go about proving it.

If the younger person is kind enough to admit that they lied, that would probably help a lot.

3. Saw that if a person is ages sixteen or seventeen, they can have sex with older people, except if that person is caring for them or supervising them. Teachers shouldn't be having sex with their high school students. Foster parents shouldn't be having sex with the kids in their care.

4. Wondered how old Daniel and Imogen were supposed to be in my dream. I don't think Daniel was supervising Imogen so then maybe Imogen was fifteen and Daniel was eighteen.

5. Looked at the ages of Tim Phillips and Ariel Kaplan. Phillips is five years older than Kaplan. 

Six years ago, my dream could have been reality. Kaplan would have been fifteen, and Phillips would have been twenty-one.

But now they're both old enough. Sometimes it's just a matter of waiting a few years.

6. Started watching The Efficiency Expert.

7. Saw that the movie takes place in the 1960's.

8. Looked up Spotswood, the setting of the movie.

It's in Melbourne.

It's not the location of Scienceworks, is it?

9. Saw that it is!

So, that's why it sounded familar to me.

I didn't see Lord Wiki mentioning it, but then I looked up Scienceworks to find the correct spelling, because Chrome was telling me I was spelling it wrong. There, I saw that it IS in Spotswood. I checked back with Lord Wiki and saw that he does mention Scienceworks. I just missed it.

10. Looked at a photo I took of a house in Spotswood. I don't know why I took it. I think something about it just attracted me. 

Maybe it's the dog; or the turquoise stroller. 

11. Saw Ben Mendelsohn looking very young.

12. Wanted to say that I've been using subtitles, NOT because I don't understand the Australian accent. It's because Netflix is a bit quiet sometimes, and I exercise while I watch. It's sometimes hard to hear over the stepping. Plus, I'm a few feet away from the computer, and the distance adds to the hearing issue.

13. Did want to say that sometimes I wish Hulu provided subtitles for Coronation Street. There's been conversations where the accents had me completely lost.

14. Thought I should mention that I also saw a young Russell Crowe, but I'm too lazy to try to get a screenshot. Maybe if he appears later.

15. Looked at Ben Mendelsohn's year of birth.  He was born in 1969.  The Efficiency Expert came out in 1992; so he was probably twenty-two or twenty-three when the movie was made.

16. Saw that Ben Mendelsohn was in The Year My Voice Broke. I thought Noah Taylor was in that. I get those two guys confused.  

It turns out they're BOTH in the movie, but Taylor plays the main character.  

17. Saw Toni Collette and wondered what came first—this movie or Muriel's Wedding?  

18. Saw that it's this movie.

Muriel's Wedding came out in 1994.

19. Saw from IMDb that The Efficiency Expert was Toni Collette's first movie.

Two years prior to the movie, she appeared on an episode of A Country Practice.

20. Reminded by IMDb that Toni Collette is only a few weeks older than me.

Her birthday is on Sunday, by the way.  I hope she has a fun one. Or at least I hope it's one that doesn't involve sickness or disaster.

21. Remembered that Toni Collette once pretended to have appendicitis—in real life; not for a movie.

22. Saw Dan Wylie looking very young.

This is fun.

It's like looking at a high school yearbook of Australian actors.

23. Decided it would be more like a college yearbook; or recently-graduated-from-college yearbook.

But still. You get my point, right?

24. Saw that Rebecca Rigg, who plays the object of Mendelsohn's affection, is married to Simon Baker. 

25. Saw houses in the movie that remind me of the photo that I took.

26. Felt grateful for the existence of Anthony Hopkins.

27. Thought I liked the Bob Dylan song at the end of the movie. But then I learned it's not a Bob Dylan song. The subtitles made a mistake.

What I was hearing was a Donovan song. It's called "Catch the Wind". I don't think I've ever heard it before.  

28. Thought the song fit very well with the end of the movie.

It's a very good end-of-a-movie song.

It would also be good as a season finale song.

29. Could picture it being played at the end of a Walking Dead season, probably because it reminds me a little bit of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow is a Long Time"

30. Started to listen to Judith Durham's cover of "Catch the Wind".

It's lovely.

31. Wanted to say that I enjoyed The Efficiency Expert.  It was a very sweet, feel-good type of movie.

It's kind of the opposite of what I'll be watching tomorrow.

Tangle is NOT a feel-good, happy story. At least the first season wasn't. 

Programs like The Slap, Tangle, and Love My Way seem to have the purpose of reminding us that life is shit most of the time.

32. Went to Random.org to pick my next show.

It's Not Suitable for Children.  That's the one with the guy who looks like George W. Bush. I forgot his name. But today we watched a video of George W. Bush, and I thought of this actor.

33. Tried to remember the name.

Couldn't remember his True Blood name either, but now I do. It's Jason Stackhouse.

Jason Stackhouse is played by....

I remember!

Ryan Kwanten. 

34. Disappointed, because I couldn't find the movie on Hulu or Netflix.

But then I found it.

I don't know what wrong.

35. Saw that Ryan Corr is in the movie!

I think I love that guy...a little bit.

There's just something about him.

36. Decided you really shouldn't say you love an actor after seeing them in only one thing, because then it's likely you just like the character.

I'll hold judgement.

37. Thought about Richard Roxburgh. He's another one I can imagine I sort of love. But I've only seen him in one thing. I probably just love Cleaver Greene. 

Then again, maybe it's okay to love one performance from an actor.  I love Ryan Corr in Packed to the Rafters, and I love Richard Roxburgh on Rake.  I might not like them in anything else, but maybe one thing is enough.

38. Thought of Coronation Street. I love all those actors, and I've seen most of them in only one thing. 

39. Thought about actors. Some do a fantastic job of playing many different people. They have a long filmography with impressive roles.  Then other actors play very few characters—maybe only one memorable one. But they do a really good job with it.

It's like Stefan Dennis. I don't think he's done much beyond Neighbours. But for the last thirty years, he's done a great job playing Paul Robinson.  I don't need to see him in other things to judge his acting ability.

40. Wanted to say that Christopher Reeve opened my mind to some of this stuff.  It was in one of his books. He talked about how there's less respect for actors who play the same character or similar characters. OR something like that. It's been a long time since I read his book.  

Reeve opened my mind though. Because before I read it, I looked down at people like Julie Roberts. I felt she always played a very similar character. Christopher Reeve made me realize this is okay. She's still a talented actress. She still has the ability to memorize lines and feel/show various emotions on cue. That's the important thing.  

Looking Young, Immigrants, Immaturity, and Oddness

1. Started watching Love Serenade.

It looks fun so far.

2.  Thought that actress on Love Serenade has a voice similar to Magda Szubanski on Kath and Kim.

I don't know which actress. I'm not sure who is who yet in this movie.

It might be Rebecca Frith.

3. Noticed the cast, listed on IMDb, is very small.

There's only eight people.

Does the movie really use only that many actors; or did IMDb not list everyone?

4. Realized that Miranda Otto is a teenager in the movie.

I looked up the character Dimity, and saw that Miranda Otto played her. I figured what I was watching was a flashback, because the person I was seeing is much younger than Otto. But then I realized this movie was released in 1996. Maybe Otto was a teen back then?

Or maybe not?

I thought she was older than that.

5. Saw that she is older than that.

She's older than me.

She was born in 1967. She would have been close to thirty when the movie came out.

6. Wondered if the girl I saw was not a teenager after all.

Maybe I made a mistake.

7. Saw what I got wrong.

I thought the two women were mother and daughter; but no. They're sisters.

8. Learned from Twitter that Tony Abbott is telling Europeans to close their borders to asylum seekers.

What the hell?!

9.  Started to read an article about the Tony Abbott thing.

I'm not sure why Abbott is giving Europe immigration advice.

10. Thought about how the Tony Abbott stuff coincides well with something I found for our U.S history lesson today.

It's a video about the Native American viewpoint on illegal immigration.

If looking at migration with a historical perspective, it seems kind of ridiculous to talk about illegal immigration.

How can white Australians and white Americans talk about illegal immigration?  It's so hypocritical.

As for Europe, that involved a lot of invasions and conquering as well. Plus, Europeans went abroad and invaded other lands. So do they have the right to complain about other people coming to their land now?

Plus, asylum seekers are coming to Australia for good reason. It's not like Syrians are going to new lands to search for gold.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts 

11. Thought about how Love Serenade has similar themes to the Crash Course video I watched this morning.

It's the idea that cultures with less technology are stereotyped in both negative and positive ways.

The negative stereotype is that they're less intelligent and more primitive. The positive stereotype is that they're more peaceful and less complicated.

In Love Serenade DJ Ken Sherry leaves Brisbane to find peace in a small rural town.  He talks to the townspeople in a condescending way; and he talks about them in a somewhat degrading way. Yet he sees this town as his escape from the world.

There's that term, noble-savage; well maybe there's also a noble-rural-person as well.

12. Got the idea that Vicki Ann (Rebecca Frith) is a liar and/or delusional.

13. Wondered if many chronic liars are delusional. Do they believe in their fabrications?

14. Thought that Dimity (Miranda Otto) looks so young in this movie. She doesn't look close to thirty. She looks about nineteen....or younger.

Ken Sherry is showing interest in her. It almost feels like he's doing something sordid.

15. Decided that Dimity has the aura of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old.

16. Learned that Dimity is supposed to be only twenty.

Miranda Otto was playing someone younger than herself...which is not unusual.  I mean it's not unusual for actors, in general, to play people younger than themselves. I don't know if not unusual for Miranda Otto, specifically, to portray someone younger than herself.

17. Wondered if Miranda Otto still looks young for her age.

Because I used to look young for my age, and I usually don't anymore.

I'm close to forty-three, and I look I'm in my forties.

When I was sixteen, I looked about twelve.

18. Wondered how old I looked when I was twenty-nine.

Maybe only slightly younger.

Maybe mid-twenties rather than late twenties.

19. Felt bad for Dimity. Ken Sherry, the guy who's wooing her, is a creep; and her sister is a delusional bitch.

20. Saw that Miranda Otto is in the third season of Rake. I hope to watch that one day.

21. Thought that this movie might be about how people who are different tend to be mistreated—taken advantage of.

Dimity is odd. Her sister puts her down because of this, and Ken tries to take advantage of it for sexual purposes.

22. Decided it's not different in general. Well, first of all, because everyone is different. Otherwise, we'd all be identical twins with each other.

I'd describe Dimity as being immature. She's a twenty-year-old who acts around fourteen or fifteen...or maybe even younger. In some ways, she acts like a nine or ten year-old.

She has a little-girl quality.

I'm not sure if it's a matter of low-intelligence.  I think you can have normal intelligence but low maturity.

23. Thought about how I was "diagnosed" with low maturity, by a psychologist, when I was a teen.

I was horrified and offended by that, but now it doesn't seem bad at all.

In some ways, I think maturity is overrated.

24. Decided it depends on the type of immaturity.

I wouldn't have much respect for an adult who has a tantrum when they don't get their own way. But I like adults who like child-like stuff.  For example, I like reading the blogs of people who are huge Disney World fans.

I like that my family has started to have water balloon fights at the lake house.

Stuff like that....

25. Thought that Vicky-Anne, in the movie, reminds me of Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Damn.

They're both people who try to convince someone, under their care, that they're lucky to be getting that care, because no one else could possibly love them.

There's that message of, I'm a good person, because I love you even though you're odd and don't really deserve that love. 

It's a way of keeping someone in an emotional prison.

26. Liked the Galah in the movie.

Crap.

In the screenshot, it kind of looks like a weird rock.

27. Thought there might be some magical realism in the movie...or some type of gross, weird illness.

28. Continued to think that Ken is very creepy.

I hope we're not supposed to be liking him.

29. Decided he's not just creepy. He's an asshole.

He takes Dimity's virginity; then rejects her and moves onto her sister.

30. Decided that although I'm open to the idea of open-relationships; I don't think they should involve siblings.

Or maybe they can. I don't know.

Maybe in some cases, it would be sweet for sisters to share a boyfriend or for brothers to share a girlfriend. Maybe I'm just bothered by Ken, because he's so swarmy.

31. Finished watching the movie.

It was strange.

I guess it would be classified as a dark comedy.

It turns out that Dimity is a little more than just odd and immature. It might not have been a case of Dimity, the good, innocent sister, being victimized by Vicky-Ann, the other sister.

32. Learned from Lord Wiki and this PDF that a stuntman died in a falling stunt for the movie; and the shot was kept in the film.

That's kind of horrific.

33. Went to Random.org to pick my next thing to watch.

I'm back to TV shows.

I got season two of Tangle.

I think I actually saw the first episode of season two; or part of it.  This was way before I finally watched season one.

34. Looked at the cast of Tangle, and tried to remember what I saw Blake Davis in recently.

It was The Slap. He played Ritchie.

35. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.

Today I'm going to look at his Gold Coast album.

36. Looked at it.

Nothing really interests me that much.

I don't think I'm very interested in ever going to the Gold Coast. I thought of us going for Jack's sake. But by the time we go back to Australia, he'll likely be old enough that he can just go by himself, if it appeals to him.

37. Thought more about maturity.

Now I'm thinking there's a difference between being immature and being in touch with your inner child.

I still wouldn't say that immaturity is definitely a bad thing. I guess it would depend on the type of immaturity and the circumstances.

38. Figured that people have different ideas of immaturity depending on their values. Well, if we're talking about immaturity being a bad thing.

Someone might think I'm immature because I love Disney World; would rather go to an ice-cream shop than a bar; and would rather drink hot chocolate than coffee.

Someone might be seen as immature because they collect comic books and play video games.

For me, I would judge someone as being immature if they got unusually angry or upset when someone disagreed with them.

39. Thought about how I FEEL immature when I'm in shyness mode.

It's not a good feeling. I feel awkward and inadequate. And I feel trapped inside myself.

It doesn't happen to me that much anymore, but when I was a child and teenager, it happened very often. I think it might be part of the reason why I was seen as immature.

Globalization, Searching for Motivation, Patrick, and Demented Forms of Love

1. Started watching Patrick on Netflix.

2. Saw an actress that looks like Saskia Burmeister, but I don't see her in the credits. I guess it's not her.

3. Thought about globalization, because that's what we're going to be doing in world history today.

In terms of cultural globalization, I personally think it's mainly a very good thing. The only drawback is that it's dominated by American culture. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with American culture. I actually think it's quite wonderful.  It's just I don't think any country should be dominating the world so much.

SO....

I think we should all do our part by bringing other cultures into our lives. Americans should especially do this since then, there will be more give and take.

I feel I do my part by watching a lot of Australian television; and now movies. I listen to Australian music, and have read many Australian books. I also buy Australian food sometimes. Then almost every night, I watch a British soap opera.

I feel very hopeful for Americans, because Hulu has a huge amount of foreign content—SO much anime!

4. Thought of my Utah friend who watches Korean TV shows. She's doing her part.

5. Thought of people I know who are massive consumers of Japanese culture.

6. Felt that every time we do something non-American, we're doing our part to help American culture not overly dominate the world.

It's fine to watch The Walking Dead, but then maybe also watch Wentworth or House Husbands.

It's fine to grab McDonalds for lunch but then maybe pick up some Thai food for dinner.

7. Did not feel it's bad if we lose all the individual cultures and become one.  It's just different.

And a little sad.

It's kind of why sometimes I think of going to Australia and wonder, what the hell is the point?  In a way, the only point is to see the Platypus, because they're not in any zoos here.

Do I want to hear Australian accents?  I can watch an Australian TV show.

Do I want to eat Australian candy? I can order it from a store in the US, and I can find some stuff at my local grocery store.

Do I want to see Australian trees?  Well, there are plenty in California. It's much cheaper to get a plane ticket there.

Do I want to see kangaroos? We can drive just ten minutes to our local zoo.

8. Remembered another reason to go to Australia.

I like to see the wild parrots.

We can see Australian parrots here in the US, but it's different seeing them wild and free.

Really. I think I go to Australia for the parrots.

9. Thought about how I also love being in Australia, simply for the major immersion experience. Yeah. I can buy Australian food and hear Australian accents if I click on a certain website.  It's different, though, when you're surrounded by Australia stuff.

ALTHOUGH are we fully surrounded by Australia stuff when we're in Australia?  Often we turn on the TV and see an American show playing. Turn on the radio, and we're likely to hear an American or British singer.  Look up at the news playing on the TV, in the shop, and we're likely see a report about an American shooting incident.

10. Enjoyed what I've seen of Patrick so far.

It's very melodramatic, but I think that's fine. It's what it's supposed to be.

11. Liked that the movie has a gothic feel but then there are modern things like a nurse updating social media on a Mac computer. Although that might be common in horror movies these days. I don't watch a lot of them.

I have watched American Horror Story. I guess that too combines modern with gothic horror—at least the Murder House and Coven seasons.

12. Recognized one of the Patrick actresses as being from Satisfaction.

The thing is I KNEW there was a Satisfaction actress on Patrick, because I saw it on IMDb. And I've been looking at this woman for about five minutes.  But it took me that long to see the woman I knew from Satisfaction.

Am I making any sense to anyone?

Anyway, the actress is Peta Sergeant. I think, on Satisfaction, she played the lesbian trying to get pregnant.

13. Thought that one of the actors on Patrick was a bit stilted.

I'm guessing it's a case of bad acting, and not part of the storyline. But maybe I'm wrong.

14. Thought that Doctor Roget (Charles Dance), in the movie, reminds me of very rigid, skeptical atheists—the type who would ignore any evidence that might suggest supernatural causes. Or they work very hard to try to prove that there's a scientific, unmiraculous explanation.

Nurse Kathy (Sharni Vinson) has communicated with comatose patient Patrick (Jackson Gallagher) by asking him to spit once for yes and twice for no. Yes, it can be a coincidence that he spits right after each of her questions.  But in a way, isn't that coincidence more outlandish than the idea that he has some sort of consciousness?

Doctor Roget refuses to take the nurse seriously, and "proves" Patrick is mindless by making a dead frog jump.  Yes, you can make a dead thing move with electrical impulses. But all that proves is you can make a dead thing move with electrical impulses. It doesn't disprove a patient in the hospital is experiencing consciousness. It doesn't even prove the frog isn't experiencing some type of consciousness while dead.

Let's say there is no life after death or consciousness outside of what can be measured by brain waves.

Could it be  possible the brain wave detecting machine made a mistake in the past? Is it possible that certain brain wave activity isn't measurable? Is it possible that a brain could be experiencing no-activity, but then later awaken?

I'm just saying that the doctor could at least give the nurse's idea a chance.

15. Remember that Doctor Roget actually did examine Patrick, and Kathy tried to show him the spitting thing.

So, that was good of him.

My theory is that Patrick can turn off his brain waves to trick the doctor. It's quite plausible, seeing that he's telekinetic.

16. Thought that the doctor's attitude reminded me of the Crash Course we watched yesterday about Animal Behavior. There's that mindset that everything an animal does is only for the sake of eating and reproducing. It's so incredibly soulless.

17. Wanted Patrick not to be evil.

I want it to be a story of a decent man with psychic powers who's trapped in a coma and being kept prisoner at a hospital.

It's okay if he does bad things to get attention or to try to save himself.  I'm also okay with him doing bad things,  because he's suffering from major emotional instability.

I don't want it to be a story about a purely evil man.

I worry that might be the case, though, because the tagline of the movie is Evil Awakens.

Moral ambiguity is much more interesting to me than pure evil.

18. Had hope that when they say Evil awakens, they mean partially evil, and not 100% evil.

19. Faced the facts.

Patrick is pretty bad.

He's already killed two people.

And as for moral ambiguity. Maybe it's overrated.

Everyone is probably a mixture of good and evil. No one is purely good or purely evil.  So...probably everyone has moral ambiguity.

I guess what I'd want is for Patrick to be half and half—half good and half evil.  Or maybe even a little more good than evil.  Instead, I'm guessing he's about 80% evil and 20% good.

I think he has some amount of feelings for Nurse Kathy, but I don't think it's a healthy, giving type of love. I think it's a suffocating, controlling, abusive type of love.

20. Learned that Patrick killed only one person—at least that we've been shown.

Still. Killing one person is bad enough....especially if it's for sinister reasons.

21. Thought that the movie had a great line. The only thing more dangerous than his hate is his love.

22. Realized I might be wrong.

Patrick might have killed two people.

I forgot that he has the power to control other people. So if we think there's another murderer, it still might be Patrick.

23. Thought Patrick does a good job of the hopelessness thing.

There's the sense that there's no way to defeat Patrick—kind of that claustrophobic feeling.

There's no escaping.

24. Finished watching Patrick.

I thought it was pretty good as far as horror movies go.

I might have liked it more if Patrick was less powerful. I can buy the whole telekinetic thing, but I think he should have limits to his power.  It seemed to me that he was doing too much at once. He seemed omnipotent, which I think made things less interesting.

25. Had questions in my mind after watching the movie, which I guess is a good thing. Maybe?

One of the questions is whether Patrick was born bad. In flashbacks, his mother called him a perv. She was mean to him. Is this because he WAS a perv, and she couldn't handle having a creepy child. Or did he become a creepy, evil child because his mother was emotionally abusive?

Maybe it was a combination of both things—disturbed child stresses out mother; she becomes abusive; and that makes him more disturbed.

26. Had another question, but now I've forgotten it.

27. Remembered the question.

How did Patrick become telekinetic? He didn't seem to have powers in the flashback unless I missed something.

I think he electrocuted his parents, so maybe that event did something to his brain.

OR did Dr. Roget cause the telekinesis with all his experimentation?

28. Learned from Lord Wiki that Patrick got a pretty high rating on Rotten Tomatoes (83).

29. Did not feel scared, but I worry that tonight I will.

Well, it is night, actually.

But later...when I'm trying to sleep, I might get scared.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts 

30. Went to Random.org to find out what I plan to be watching on Thursday.

It's The Efficiency Expert.

I think that's the one with Anthony Hopkins.

31. Saw that Dan Wylie is in the movie.  It's from 1992, so he'll be quite young.

What's the youngest I've seen Wylie?

32. Looked at Dan Wylie's filmography.

I would have seen him in Muriel's Wedding; though I don't remember him.

The Efficiency Expert is actually his first screen thing.

33. Saw that Randall Berger is in the film.

I remember writing about him.

He's an American-Australian; I saw him in Come in Spinner.

34. Saw a sort-of contradiction while reading this post.

In  #23, I talked about how Patrick does a good job with the hopelessness thing—no escape.

Then in #24 I talked about how Patrick was too powerful.

(By the way, there was a time space between those two items. I'm not sure how long.  It took me pretty much the whole day to watch the movie, with housework, homeschooling, and other stuff in-between)

Anyway, I still agree with both things I said.

I think Patrick could have been less omnipotent and still remained a suffocating threat.  The guy can watch people from far away. He can possess people, and he can move objects.

He can kill you without being in the room with you. I think that's enough to make anyone feel extremely controlled and trapped.

I just think it would be good if he had a weakness, and that would be that he can't do two things at once.

35. Concluded that I liked the movie, but I might have liked it more if Patrick wasn't so damn good at multi-tasking.

Escape, Bored, Waiting for Disaster, and Showbags

1. Dreamed last night about running away. I'm guessing the dream might have been inspired by Rabbit-Proof Fence. Although my dream was kind of the opposite of the movie. In the movie, the girls run away to get back to their mother. In my dream, I was running away from my mother.

It wasn't my real-life mother. I'm not sure who she was, really. And she wasn't doing anything evil to me. Nor did she pursue me. I just felt the need to get far away from her.

The dream reminded me, though, that although government care is an evil thing when it splits up happy families for racist or other tiny-minded reasons; sometimes government care is not all bad. If a child is living a horrible life with their biological family, being taken away might be a very good thing.   

2. Started watching Newcastle.

So far, I'm bored. Though I've only watched about three minutes.

It seems very slow-paced, so far. It's one of those movies where they keep the camera on something for a long time, but nothing really happens.  Well, it's not like they keep the camera on something for ten minutes. It's more like the camera lingers for a few seconds too long.

3. Continued to be bored by Newcastle.

I'm still at the very beginning, though. 

It might get better. 

4. Heard the F-word a lot.

This movie uses it excessively.

5. Saw underwater shots of someone surfing and expected a shark to appear. 

I don't have the same expectations when I see surfing scenes from above the water. But underwater? It's so weird to not see a shark coming.

6. Felt a shark would make the movie more interesting, at least.

7. Saw a storyline that sort of interested me. It's a father and son thing.  In this case, it seems like the son is the ass.  He's very disrespectful. But there could be things I don't know. Maybe the father did bad things in the past.

8. Felt most characters in Newcastle seemed like mindless assholes.  

9. Learned that one of the actors in Newcastle is the singer Israel Cannan. 

I've looked at the cast before, but didn't notice his name. Then I saw it just now. It sounded familar, and I thought there was a singer with a name like that. But I didn't know if it was one and the same.

10. Felt that the teens in this movie are the type that, when I encounter them in real life, they make me want to go home and hide from society.  

You know what they are? They're the over-sexed horror movie victims.

If this was a horror movie, most of these characters would start getting themselves slashed by Freddy or Jason.

I'm hoping that somewhere in Newcastle, there's the interesting, sympathetic, and admirable character—the type that would win the fight against the monster.

11. Thought it was interesting that the adults in the movie seem very decent and reasonable—in comparison to something like Puberty Blues where the adults seem prudish, clueless, and/or irresponsible.

12. Continued to think that Newcastle is like a slasher film without the slashing. It's like take Nightmare on Elm Street and remove Freddy Krueger. Would that still be interesting?

Not to me.

13. Decided I might start playing QuizUp while watching the movie.

14. Saw two of the surfer guys getting deep. They talk about astronomy and Picasso.

I imagine they'd be the ones to survive the horror monster.

15. Thought about how this is the type of movie that makes me feel hateful towards sex—especially the heterosexual type.

On top of that, I just finished watching a Crash Course video where Hank Green pretty much reduces all behavior as being for the pursuit of food and sex. There's nothing about love, emotions, or anything deep.  

Really. I think people and animals want more than just food and sex. 

But maybe I'm wrong.

16. Concluded that I don't like overly horny teenagers. Nor do I like people who are overly Darwinian.

17. Saw a surfer in the water with blood in his face.

Maybe that will attract a shark.

18. Saw that one of the characters might have actually died.

I wouldn't wish that on anyone in real life, but in terms of the movie, it makes things a lot more interesting.

19. Watched some Australian animal videos for our biology today. One was about Bowerbirds, and the other was about echidnas. 

20. Thought that scene between brothers on Newcastle was sort of sweet.

Or at least I think they're brothers.

I'm a little confused sometimes.

21. Saw that the movie has male frontal nudity.

That's fun. At least, it's different.

I don't see many penises in movies.

22. Finished watching Newcastle.

I don't think I'd give it a high rating, seeing that the parts that thrilled me the most was when someone was killed and seeing a very brief glance of a penis.

Also....

The talk between the two boys regarding astronomy was sweet. They were gay, I think, but maybe in the beginning stages of figuring that all out.

23. Could have done without all the surfing scenes, but I'm sure surfers and surfer fans would have appreciated it.  

24. Went to Random.org to see what I'll start watching on Thursday.

It's a movie called Love Serenade.  

I don't remember what that is, but I'll look into it later.

25. Had a great homeschooling session with Jack. He was very enthusiastic about story structure. We look at various story types and I concluded that Rabbit Proof Fence would be a quest type of story. 

26. Consulted Lord Wiki again about the seven basic plots.

I think they're a bit constrictive.

I don't think every story fits into one of their seven slots. 

For example, I can't think of what the Boys are Back would be. The choices are overcoming the monster; Rags to Riches; the quest; voyage and return; comedy; tragedy; and rebirth.  

27. Figured out that it could be overcoming the monster. The monster would be the death of his wife and the struggle to be a single father.  

28. Saw that Miranda Otto is the star of Love Serenade. 

29. Recognized Rebecca Frith in the cast list. I saw that she was on SLIDE, but I can't say I remember her on that.  

30. Saw that Jessica Napier is in the movie.

I like her. Or at least I liked her character on McLeod's Daughters. 

31.Saw that Shirley Barrett, the director of the movie, has directed episodes of Packed to the Rafters, House Husbands, Offspring, Love My Way, etc. 

32. Saw that Flickr is working now. That's good!

I'm going to look at palg1305's Ekka album. I had heard of that before, but wasn't sure what it was.

But now I know.

It's Brisbane's Royal Exhibition Show.  

33. Didn't really see any photos that excited me.

There's not many there.

34. Looked at the Ekka website. 

The event takes place in August.

35. Looked at the Showbags. 

I'm going to pretend I'm there and pick out ones for myself.

I'd get the Curly Wurly bag; the Freddo and Friends bag; the I Love Allen's Lollies bag; the Redskins bag; and...I guess that's it.

Mostly food stuff. Yeah. I'm a pig.

It's fun, though, to see what makes up the popular culture for the youth of Australia.  

36. Thought it would be cool if they did TV show bags for adults.

An Offspring bag could have a t-shirt and a little owl figurine. I don't know what else.

Underbelly could include a bag of heroin, a razor, and some type of gun.

37. Wished there was more official merchandise for Aussie television...especially T-shirts.

No Customers, Rabbit Proof Fence, Racist Feelings, and Uber Ratings

1. Dreamed that I'm exploring some type of website. I want to find Australians on the site. All I find is one woman, and she writes about birthday parties.Then I realize I wasn't looking in the right place. When I find the right place, I read about an Australian who has built an amusement park. He writes about how no one was coming, so he decided to open it up for free for awhile.  

Later when I woke up, I thought about my novels. No one is buying them. Should I make them free? But then I realized I can't do that on Kindle. I would have to upload the novels elsewhere, and I'm too lazy to do that.

Maybe I would make the effort if I had good indication the results would be positive.

The thing is, though, my novels are not expensive. One is a dollar and the other is three dollars. I think many people could afford that if they were actually interested in reading my novels.

But then there's the issue of reading an e-book. It involves downloading a Kindle app, which many people might not know how to do.  If someone was mildly interested in reading my novel, they might not want to go through the effort of finding out how to get Kindle. They might just decide to forget about it.

It might be easier than to just put my novel up on a website—put it on a blog. But I've done that before. And there still wasn't much interest.

The thing is, many things don't just cost money; they cost time.  And I think that's the thing about my novels. People aren't interested in investing their time.  Maybe they don't like novels. Maybe they like novels but don't like the subject matter of my novels. Maybe they were kind enough to give my novels a chance. Maybe they read the sample and didn't like my writing style. Maybe they read the samples and liked them, but they already have a huge to-read list.

2. Thought about the dream-Australian with the amusement park. It was nice of him to make it free, but what if it's not completely safe? What if the rides aren't built up to standard?  Then it's not so nice that he made it free. Although I guess it's nicer than amusement parks that charge a large amount of money AND are not safe enough.

3. Started watching Rabbit Proof Fence.

4. Reminded by IMDb, that that movie is directed by Phillip Noyce.

Is he the one who made Dark City. Or is that someone else?

5. Saw that Noyce didn't make Dark City.

He did make Dead Calm.

One of his most recent movies is The Giver.

5. Remembered that the guy who directed Dark City is the same guy who directed The Crow. Or at least I think I'm remembering that.

6. Saw that Dark City and The Crow was directed by Alex Proyas.

7. Looked at the credits of Rabbit Proof Fence.

Roy Billings is in the movie. I feel like I'm seeing a lot of him lately.

Other Australians, in the movie familiar to me: David Gulpilil, Deborah Mailman! Anthony Hayes, and Garry McDonald

8. Thought that the white people in this movie were scary and evil.

With all the evolution and genetic we've been studying in biology, I'm pushed to wonder if there's something inherently wicked in white folks. That's racist, I know. But I'm white, so I'm allowed to be racist against white people. Right?

We could point to people of other races who do bad things in order to try to prove we're all the same evil-wise. But there's a lot of race-mixing. How do we know that the badness of non-white people doesn't come from their white genes?

Besides, I'm not saying white genes equals 100% evil and non-white genes equals 100% sweet goodness. But could it be that white genes have a slightly higher level of evilness? Or at least a higher level of whatever makes people want to conquer, invade, exploit, kidnap children, etc.

9. Worried I am as racist as A.O Neville (Kenneth Branagh), the villain of the movie.

But I'm not planning to kidnap white children in order to breed the whiteness out of them.

10. Thought about how homo sapiens in general are a bit greedy and exploitive no matter what their ethnicity.

Look how we ALL (minus vegans) treat non-homo-sapiens. I don't think the white people are the only ones who are bad with that.

11. Read a post on Terrie's Next Blog that further pushed my belief that if we go to Tasmania, we'll like the north better than the south.

12. Felt that if you're going to kidnap children in order to "better them", you could at least provide toilets and not make them pee and poo in a shared bucket.

Or maybe that was standard sanitation for the 1930's?

I don't know much about sanitation history.

13. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says that flush toilets started being used by the wealthy in the U.S and Europe in the late 1800's.

14. Thought that even if flush toilets weren't commonplace in Western Australia in the 1930's, how about outhouses?

Or how about this, at least? Each kid gets their own bucket.

15. Saw a mean black man in the movie. I think it's to remind racist people like me that anyone of any ethnic group can be a cruel, bossy bully.

16. Tried to remember how the story of Rabbit Proof Fence ends.

I'm sure the girls succeeded in running away, but where did they go. I'd be scared for them to go back home. Wouldn't the mean white people just find them again?

17. Wondered about Moodoo, the tracker (David Gulpilil).  He's one of the non-white villains. He searches for runaways and brings them back to the white people at the Moore River Settlement. And he's good at what he does.Though the runaway girls outsmart him.

Does Moodoo bring back runaways because he thinks Moore River is the best place for them? Or is he doing the work to protect himself and his daughter from white-people harm?

Maybe he just enjoys the hunt and doesn't think much of the consequences.

18. Liked the white woman who fed the children, gave them advice but didn't demand information from them.

I think one of the general ideas of this movie is that there are both good and bad in all ethnic groups.

19. Wondered if the girls truly encountered super nice white people, or did they add that to the movie so white people could watch the film without feeling so horrible about themselves.

I don't remember if the scene was in the book or not. It's been a very long time since I've read it.

20. Sickened that these people would stop children from getting back to their mothers.

21. Liked that the movie has hints of spiritual-supernatural stuff.

22. Finished watching the movie.

I thought it was very sad, especially the postscript at the end.

The children do make it home eventually. And that's good. But history repeats itself.  Molly (Everlyn Sampi) grows up to have her own children. Her and the children are kidnapped and brought to Moor River. Molly and the children escape, but eventually one of them, Annabelle, is taken away forever.

Disgusting and sad.

23. Learned from Lord Wiki that certain people claim the situations in the movie are untrue and exaggerated.

I guess I already knew that.

It's like Holocaust denial.

I guess that's the human response to wrongdoings. Pretend it never happened.

That's not to say I believe everything in Rabbit Proof Fence is 100% true. Movies based on true events are often exaggerated and fictionalized.  But I do think the general story and ideas are true.

24. Decided to read about A.O Neville on the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

His birthday would have been five days ago...if he had managed to live 140 years.

He was born in England.

He moved to Victoria in his twenties; then later moved to Western Australia.

He started out as a public servant—working as a record clerk.

Later he became an immigration officer, and was in charge of selecting and processing people from Britain.

Neville had five children of his own. Did he ever stop to imagine what it would be like to lose them—to have them stolen from him?

25. Read stuff I heard about in the movie. Neville pursued a method of ethnic cleansing that involved intermarrying partially black people with white people. This way the blackness would eventually fade away.

26. Wondered how Neville would feel if he returned to life today.

Would he still believe in what he had done? Would he have regrets?

27. Wondered about the decedents of Neville. Does he he have any grandchildren alive today?  How do they feel about their ancestry? Do they feel shame? Do they deny it? Do they try to ignore it?

I'm not saying they're personally guilty of something. But even if we're innocent, we can feel shame and embarrassment about what our family members have done.

28. Went to Random.org to pick my next thing to watch.

It's the modernized version of Patrick.

Cool. It's a good thing to watch the week of Halloween.

I hope it's not too scary, though.

29. Went to palg1305's Flickr Account.

30. Left Flickr. It's not working for me.

31. Learned from Lord Wiki that the Moore River Native Settlement is about 84 miles north of Perth.
32. Learned that these days, the place is known as Budjarra. It's leased to an entity called the Wheatbelt Aboriginal Corporation.  The town it's in is called Mogumber.

32. Consulted Lord Wiki about Doris Pilkington Garimara. She's the one who wrote the book, Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence.  It's her mother who did the escaping, and it's her younger sister Annabelle that was forever lost.

33. Learned from this article  that Annabelle was found but never reunited with her mother.

I kind of vaguely remember reading something along those lines way back when.

34. Wondered if Tim Phillips is an Uber driver after seeing this Tweet from him.
Just found out that my #uber rating is 4.8 #humblebrag.

I don't think that's a humblebrag, though. I think that's just a brag. Or maybe driving an Uber car is a humbling experience, so that's why it's a humble brag?

Do riders get ratings?  Maybe he's just a rider.

35. Saw from Google that riders get ratings. Yikes.

I'm going to be so nervous when I finally try Uber.

I don't want to be rated.

35. Thought maybe Tim Phillips could make an advice video about how to be a good Uber passenger.

Maybe you just have to be friendly and polite? Is there something more to it.

What if you need to be really interesting and conversational?

What if you get points deducted for ignorance? Sometimes I'm ignorant about certain things—like sports and cars. What if the Uber driver starts asking me about some game, and I'm totally lost?

36. Wondered if Tim Phillips felt his brag was a humble brag because he didn't get a perfect 5.

Or what if the high score is a 10?

Then would he be bragging about failing?

I can't imagine Tim Phillips to be the type of person who's proud to be a bad customer.

Landline Phones, Smorgy's, Warm Chestnuts, and Old Ladies

1. Started watching an episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

I have two more episodes. Then I'm done with the series, I guess. Are they planning to make a third season?

2. Saw, on IMDb, that season two of Upper Middle Bogan began in October 2014. So they're not way past due time for a third season.

3. Remembered Patrick Brammall is going to be in the reprised Offspring. Will he be too busy for Upper Middle Bogan?

Maybe not, because both shows don't have a huge amount of episodes. I'm betting he can multi-task.

4. Amused by scene on the show.

The Wheeler family hears a ringing, and they're mystified by the noise. They wonder what it is; then realize it's their landline phone. They haven't heard it in so long. They're about to answer it but instead let it ring a few times, because they're so thrilled to hear the sound.

We don't even have landline service anymore. We did, and it seemed the only calls we got were telemarketers.

Tim did call us on it sometimes, which I don't understand. It usually seems just as easy to call a cell phone.

Well, I guess the benefit of a landline is if you have multiple phones, you'll hear it ringing no matter where you are.  Sometimes my cell phone is downstairs charging while I'm upstairs. If someone calls, I won't hear.

5. Learned that the Smorgy's restaurant restaurant featured on Upper Middle Bogan is not fictional.

From what I'm seeing on Google, though, it seems to be closed.

6. Liked how Smorgy's was described on this website.   This was a chain of restaurants that looked like Polynesian barns, serving all-you-can-eat nursing-home food, located in suburbs that your dad visited to buy mulch.

I especially like the nursing home bit.

I can't say I hate buffet restaurants. There are a few in Disney World that have given me over-indulgent but kind of wonderful experiences.  But outside of that, most are fairly disgusting.

7. Watched a commercial for Smorgy's.

8. Remembered that there was a fairly decent buffet restaurant in Fort Worth. It was called Fresh Choice. I think the main feature was a salad bar and then they had pizza, pasta, and other stuff.

I don't remember the food being fantastic, but I also don't remember it being awful. It was a nice place to go when Jack was a toddler, because we didn't have to wait for the food. It's not easy doing table service when you have a young child.

9. Thought that the Smorgy's on the show didn't look like the Smorgy's I saw on the website and commercial.

Maybe it's a different version?

10. Thought that was a lovely episode. It made me have a bit of a tear; or a prelude to a tear, at least.

The episode dealt with adoptive mom/birth mom type of stuff.

11. Started watching my last episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

12. Looked up the theme song for Upper Middle Bogan.

It's "Comin' Home Baby" by an American musician named Mel Tormé.  Lord Wiki says Tormé is the guy who wrote "The Christmas Song". That's a pretty popular song in America. I wonder if it's also popular in Australia. It might not be fitting, since it talks about roasting chestnuts near a fire.

13. Wondered if anyone has written an Australian version of "The Christmas Song".

14. Started to watch video of Mel Tormé performing "Comin' Home Baby"

He's introduced by Judy Garland, which is kind of cool.

15. Thought that Mel Tormé is cute in a Rick Moranis kind of way.

16. Could not find an Australian version of "The Christmas Song".

I'm sure SOMEWHERE in Australia someone has written the song. Maybe they just don't know how to put it up on the Internet.  Or maybe it's on the Internet, and I'm doing a bad job of finding it.

I'd write the song myself if I was good at song-writing.

17. Thought the first line could replace chestnuts roasting on an open fire with something about prawns on the barbie.

OR...

What other seafood do people eat on the beach?

Maybe instead of Jack Frost nipping at toes, there could be something about sand stuck between toes.

18. Learned from Lord Wiki that Tormé says that he and Bob Wells actually wrote "The Christmas Song" on a very hot summer day as a way to keep their mind on cold things.

That's funny.

It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode. The people were dying of heat but then it turns out they were dreaming; and in reality, they were dying of cold. Or maybe I have it reversed.

19. Liked that this Upper Middle Bogan episode was about an aging woman (Robyn Malcolm) feeling marginalized.

I hate that this happens...probably because I'm an aging woman.

Well, I guess all woman are aging. Unless they're vampires or zombies.  But the aging thing gets harder as the numbers get higher. The feeling marginalized part probably starts around age thirty, unfortunately.

It makes me think of various things.

First, I was slightly offended when watching Crash Course recently. Hank Green cheerfully defended Darwin's The Origin of Species by quoting Thomas Henry Huxley. Old ladies of both sexes consider it a decidedly dangerous book.

Old ladies is obviously used as an insult there.

Maybe Huxley had a bad relationship with his grandmother.

20. Couldn't remember the other things I thought I had been thinking about.

Oh well.

21. Wanted to say that I'm not against all jokes regarding aging.

I just found the Huxley one more offensive than funny.

It's kind of like the guy I met in college who used the word "Jewish" to refer to stupid things.

Although I DID love learning yesterday that Norwegians use the word "Texas" in replace of "Crazy". That's awesome.

See, but that's a positive, as far as I can tell. I think they mean crazy in a good way.

Huxley's reference to old ladies is very negative. He's talking about people who fear new ideas—uptight, rigid, etc.

22. Felt sad that I'm done with Upper Middle Bogan.

I hope they make more episodes.

23. Went to Random.org to find my next thing to watch.

It's the movie Newcastle.

I'll probably start watching that on Monday.

24. Saw from IMDb, that Gigi Edgley is in the movie. I know her from The Secret Life of Us and Farscape.

25. Saw kangaroos at the zoo.

We also sort of saw the crocodile, but it was far away and underwater.

It was our type of perfect zoo weather—Slightly cold, but not uncomfortable and rainy but not raining.

26. Remembered that we also saw cockatiels, and parakeets. We opted not to feed them, because they didn't look eager.

27. Opened up my package of Australian food from Simply Australian.

I took a picture with my phone, and then had a very hard time figuring out how to get the pictures onto my computer.

Am I stupid; or is Apple difficult sometimes?

Anyway, here are the photos.

My choice in purchase was based on what was on sale, except for the Allen's Party Mix.

All the other stuff is close to expiration, or past it. The Old Gold thing is close to five months past it's prime, but I'm guessing it will still be okay.

28. Decided to post a photo of the zoo crocodile. I didn't take it this time.  It's from a past visit.

I decided, while I was uploading some photos to my computer, I might as well do a few others. Who knows if I'll ever be able to figure out the uploading process again.

I'm tempted to be impressed with my photography there, but I think really it's about the crocodile posing well.

29. Wanted to mention that Cherry Ripes remind me of Bran Nue Dae.

30. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.

Tonight I'm going to look at his University of Queensland album.

I looked at one of his University of Queensland albums before, but that was the Jacaranda one.  I think this is a non-Jacaranda one.

31. Impressed with this Tawny Frogmouth photo.

It's labeled as being from something called QUEST Cultural Day.

I wonder what that is.

32. Learned that QUEST stands for Queensland University Exchange Student Society.

33. Felt that they were kind of cheating, not calling it QUESS.

34. Wondered if Palg1305 is a QUEST member. Is he a student not from Australia? Where is he from?

I wonder if it's Mexico. He has a lot of Mexican albums.

35. Thought this Tawny Frogmouth looked a bit sad.

36. Saw that there are many Jacaranda photos in this album.

I like this one, for some reason. It feels like the world is being taken over by purple.

37. Ate some of the Old Gold bar.

It tasted great.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online

Parenting, Savannah Smiles Nostalgia, Mixed Messages, and Daytime

1. Continued watching The Boys are Back on Netflix.

2. Saw Joe (Clive Owen) check his texts while driving.

He's really lax when it comes to safety.

2. Saw things in Joe that reminded me of myself.

First, there's the easygoing parent bit. He does chores himself rather than pushing his kids to help. I tend to be like that.

Second. He is insecure about his parenting and is sometimes swayed by other people's criticisms. I'm like that too.

Sometimes I have to work out whether I'm doing something because I feel it's right; or if I'm doing it because someone else, or a parenting book, said I should.

3. Saw Artie running after his Dad's car.  It made me think of Savannah Smiles.  I was trying to remember when Savannah ran after a car. But no, I think it was a flashback in the beginning of the film. A Young Alvie was running.

Or did I dream all this?

4. Found a website with Savannah Smiles online. Maybe an illegal one?

I skipped through the beginning, and didn't see the scene. But maybe it's later in the movie.

I think it was a sad thing with sad music, maybe.

5. Confused by Harry's (George MacKay) behavior in the The Boys are Back.

He insists that his father go on a road trip. He'll stay home and take care of Artie (Nicholas McAnulty).

While he's in care of his brother and the house, some teenagers come and cause trouble. They insist on being let in, and then they trash the house. It's a big mess.  Harry leaves and go back to England. Now Joe and Artie have flown all the way from Australia to England to see Harry. Harry doesn't want to see or talk to them. Why?

I can't figure out if he feels ashamed for what happened to the house and ashamed that he wasn't able to succeed in taking care of things. Or is he mad at his father for leaving them alone, even though he's the one that insisted his father leave?

6. Finished watching The Boys are Back.

I thought it was pretty good.  Harry's feelings and motivations confused me a bit. I'm getting the idea that when he told his father he was okay babysitting, he really didn't mean it. I think that was a bit unfair of him.

The kid had a hard life, though. His dad got another woman pregnant; then left the country. So, Henry felt abandoned.Then his mother got pregnant, and Henry felt unwanted in that little family unit.

I think divorce and custody issues are hard enough; but when it's a continent that separates the two parents...OYE.

7. Went to Random.org to pick my next thing to watch.

It's Rabbit Proof Fence...which I might have seen before. I'm not sure.

I'll start watching that on Sunday.

8. Started watching an episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

9. Saw that this episode has multiple references to American stuff.  When it's her night to pick the family TV show, Edwina (Lara Robinson) chooses a documentary about Obamacare. Brianna (Madeline Jevic) invents a lie about superglue being a fad in Los Angeles. And Game of Thrones is mentioned.

10. Liked the messages of the episode—surprises sometimes cause more stress than joy; and good gifts don't need to be overly expensive.

There was also a subplot about Instagram addiction and the need to distinguish between what should be public and private.

11. Heard the song "Daytime" by Jack Dolgen. I knew I used it in one of our Australian 2013 trip videos, but I couldn't remember which one.  I'm pretty sure it was for a Sydney-day, but I'm not positive.

Maybe it was our last day in Sydney?

12. Found the video, and I was right!  It's our last day in Sydney.

13.  Saw that the video includes a dramatic Tasmanian Devil fight.

14. Saw Jack running around Alf Stewart from Home and Away.

15. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.

Tonight I'm going to look at his Byron Bay album.

16. Thought that the sea and sky in this photo looks lovely.

17. Liked this beach photo.

There's a tree branch that sort of looks like an animal.

18. Thought the scenery in this photo was beautiful.

Byron Bay is quite pretty, and palg1305 did a good job capturing it.

19. Thought this sunset photo is dreamlike.

20. Saw a close-up photo of a person...finally!  Though I can't see her face. I wonder if it's someone palg1305 knows. Or did he sneak a photo of a stranger?

Misheard Stuff, Movie Companies, Expecting Immortality, and Relaxed Parenting

1. Started watching an episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

2. Laughed a lot while watching one of the scenes. It involves miscommunications due to technology—a voice-to-text thing.

I love that kind of stuff.

3. Thought that miscommunication might be my favorite type of comedy.

I love auto-correct mistakes, misheard lyrics, and other such things.

4. Looked at pictures of flying kids on the Tinkertines Upsidedown blog.

It's a blog I started reading a few days ago. Though it's not exactly new to me. I found the link on one of my old 2011 blogposts.

The blog is about a Canadian family moving to Australia.

5.  Saw that it's 4:29, and this is all I've written in my blog so far.

I feel a bit behind.

6. Started watching The Boys are Back.

7. Saw that it's a Miramax film—so maybe more British than Australian?

8. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Miramax is an American company.

Oops.

I think I knew that.

I think I just associate it with British films—Howard's End and all that.

9. Learned from Lord Wiki that Howard's End is not Miramax. It's from Merchant Ivory Productions.

Shit.

I'm doing really bad with this.

10. Saw that the film is also a BBC thing.

That IS British. I know that, at least.

11. Saw that the movie is also a Tiger Aspect film. Maybe that's Australian.

12. Saw that Tiger Aspect is not Australian. It's British.

13. Saw that Tiger Aspect is responsible for Charlie and Lola. That earns them ten gold stars in my book.

14. Saw various other companies/entities in the initial credits. Some are Australian.

15. Didn't like the narration at the beginning of the film—mostly because I couldn't hear it.

The sound technician needs to up his (or her) game a bit!

16. Heard more quiet narration.

What's the deal?

17. Saw flashbacks of the deceased mother/wife (Laura Fraser) of the movie.

Why are dead mothers so perfect in flashbacks? They're often very angelic.

I guess it means that if you want a full lifespan, be a bitch of a mother. Don't sing gentle lullabies to your kids and don't read them bedtime stories while stroking their foreheads.

18. Wondered what the mother/wife died from. I'm morbid like that.

She's in the hospital now—collapsed at a party.

19. Liked conversation between Joe (Clive Owen) and Digby (Erik Thomson)

Digby says, She'll be fine. I know she'll be fine.

Joe, the hospitalized woman's husband, says, How do you know? 

Digby: Well, I know she won't let this defeat her.

Joe: What, you know she's immortal?

Why do people say such dumb things to, and about, sick people?

20. Turned on subtitles, by the way. That will help with the quiet parts.

21. Learned that the wife has some kind of abdominal cancer. Maybe bowel.

22. Thought that death scene was sad...and interesting.

The child, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) is very casual about the whole thing. It seems like he doesn't care much. I'm guessing he does. When children are like that, it's hard to know if they're in denial, hiding their feelings, or if they're sociopathic.

23. Saw scene with Joe telling his other son (George MacKay) that his stepmother has died.

I don't know. For some reason that made me more teary than the previous scenes.

24. Liked Joe's response to a woman asking him if his plan of a road trip with his son is a good idea.

He says, I obviously think so.  

If he thought it was a bad idea, would he be doing it?

Well, maybe.

But still.

I like his idea. A road trip seems like a great way to deal with grief.

25. Wanted to groan at what the woman says next.

Running away is never the answer, Joe.

WTF?!  Since when is going on a road trip with your child running away?

If Joe went on a road trip alone while his wife was dying, THAT would be running away.

26. Thought that the woman is a meddling bitch.

I don't know who she is. His mother? Mother-in-law? Aunt?

27. Learned that the woman is a nana. So she's probably not the aunt.

28. Saw that Joe is like Nina Proudman. He gets visits from his dead lover.

Does that really happen to people?

29. Realized I've seen the same thing happen on three Australian shows—Offspring, McLeod's Daughters, and Packed to the Rafters.

Do people really see and talk to vivid manifestations of their loved ones?

If they do, is it common?

30. Thought that Artie is adorable.

31. Thought that Artie's little Aussie classmates are adorable as well.

32. Learned that Joe is a sports writer for The Australian.  He works with Digby, who has been pretty cool, by the way. He hasn't said anything dumb after his unhelpful prediction that everything's going to be fine with the cancer-stricken wife.

33. Felt bad for Joe.

Artie just asked if he could go and live with another family.

Sometimes kids, unintentionally, say very hurtful things.

It's hard. Artie's trying very hard to be a good single dad. And Artie asking to move out surely makes Joe feel like he's failed.

34. Liked Joe's speech about his parenting rules.

I run a pretty lose ship. Basically, I've found that the more rules there are, the more crimes are created. 

Yep!

Though Joe allows some behaviors that are quite dangerous.

I wouldn't be brave enough to say yes to that stuff...especially to the one where he lets Artie sit on the hood of the car while it's in motion.

35. Learned that Joe doesn't allow swearing.

I'd much rather have swearing than the dangerous stuff.

36. Started to understand the basic plot of the movie.

It's a single father taking care of his two sons. One is Artie, the boy who lost his mother. Then there's Harry who lives far away in the UK.  He comes to stay with is father and brother.  I don't think the father and son see each other much, because, on this occasion, Harry and Artie meet each other for the first time.

37. Saw Harry look out his window and see wild kangaroos.

Wow!

38. Learned that the meddling woman from before is named Barbara. With this information, I could find the actress. It's Julie Blake.

Julie Blake has been in a lot of things, including the movie Patrick.

39. Learned that Barbara is Joe's mother-in-law.

40. Learned that Barbara is seeing her dead daughter too.

Hank Green would tell them it's a hallucination, but I'm thinking it could be a visitation. Why not?

41. Though that Harry actually looks a lot like Ron Weasley.

42. Took a break from the movie. I was planning to watch only half today, and the rest tomorrow. It's early, though, and I'm not sure I have that much to do.  I might watch more tonight.

43. Thought about how lately I've been very worried and stressed about various things.  Then I get good news. It's okay. No worries. The thing is I don't feel happy and relieved. I continue to feel scared and sad.

I think it MIGHT be because of what happened on McLeod's Daughters. Tess was so scared that she might have breast cancer. Then she learns she's clear. A few days later, her sister is tragically killed.

Yeah. I'm blaming my mental instability on Australian television.

44.  Thought that maybe it's not mental instability.

Maybe it's just realism.

We're not immortal and life isn't always perfect. Bad things happen—some major and some minor.

45. Listened to Vance Joy singing "From Afar".

It's such a great song.

46. Thought about the movie, and how it's kind of life affirming.

Yeah, bad things happen. But people move on.  They manage to be happy again...usually.  Hopefully.

I think the thing about death that scares me the most is not the loss of one person but the loss of happiness all together.

Joe lost his wife, and he was devastated. But he gets on with life. He has great happy, fun moments with his sons. Well, really just his one son, so far.  Joe and Harry are not fully bonded yet.  I'm sure that will happen by the time the movie is over.

47. Watched some of the "Riptide" video.

I love that song as well; and I like the video. For some reason, I'm drawn to the scene with the bad lip-synching.

48. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.

Today I'm going to look at his Canberra photos.

49. Saw a Hyatt hotel.

I guess this is where palg1305 stayed.

50. Liked this photo for some reason.

I don't know why.  It's not too exciting.

It makes me think of a horror movie. If you click on the picture, you'll likely think I'm nuts.

I'm thinking political devil horror—like The Exorcist or The Omen. That kind of thing.

51. Thought this was a cool photo of Parliament House.

52. Liked palg1304's photo of a cockatoo, black swans, and....other parrot.  I forgot the name of the last parrot.

53. Found the name of the parrot.

Galah!

54. Thought that the Australian War Memorial is beautiful.

I wish we saw it when we were in Canberra.

55. Decided to wait until tomorrow to watch the rest of the movie.

I'm tired, and this post is long enough.