Food Paranoia, Weirdness, Consent, and Evolution

1. Dreamed that, we're with Tracey, our Australian friend. We've eaten Chinese food. I'm about to put away the leftovers, and Tim suggests I don't do that. He says after he picked up the Chinese food, he went shopping at Target. The food has been out too long to be saved.  I'm annoyed that he did this. I go to throw the food away, and Tracey makes a negative comment about it.  I get mad at her for this.

I think I dreamed this, because I'm paranoid about food we bought yesterday. It's a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Jack picked it up from the freezer section. When I put it on the grocery belt thing, it didn't feel that cold. Jack thought it did feel cold, and assured me that the freezer he got it from was cold. But I've been asking myself, how cold?

Now I don't know if A) It was the normal temperature of a boxed frozen food; and I'm imagining a difference B) It warmed up a bit when we were walking around the grocery store (for about 5-10 minutes) C) The freezer was broken.

Like my dream, there is a dilemma. Do we risk food poisoning, or do we risk wasting perfectly good food because of my paranoia?

The other thing is I decided to open the box to see how the food itself felt. It was hard, but I don't know. Philly Cheese Steak bread usually is hard. It's not like a burrito. If it's unfrozen, it's going to be soft.  Anyway, the food had a strong smell. I don't think frozen food usually smells. But maybe this has stronger ingredients than others.

2. Decided I will try smelling the sandwich again. Now it IS frozen. It's been in our freezer all day and night. If it still smells, then that means it just has strong ingredients, and it's normal for some frozen food to smell. If it doesn't smell, then maybe my worries aren't for nothing.

3. Started watching Rake: Season two; episode six.

So far, it's about penis injuries.

4.  Thought that Tara on Rake looked familar, so I looked her up on IMDb. She's played by Natasha Bassett who I previously saw on Camp.  I think, on Camp she was the slightly disturbed girl who had feelings for Tom Green's character.

Maybe it's unfair to call her disturbed. Would it be better to call her uncomfortably weird?

5. Figured creepy would be an alternative.

In many cases, it's in the eyes of the beholder. What's fun and cute weird to me might be disturbed/creepy/bad weird to someone else.

6. Decided there are levels of weird ranging from adorable, cute weird to very dangerous weird.  I think the Camp girl would be somewhere in the middle.

7. Figured dangerous weird would be someone like Hannibal Lector or Norman Bates.

8.  Checked the frozen Philly cheesesteak.

At first, I thought it was a no-go. Because I touched the box and it was quite cold; and there was no smell.

But then I thought we probably walked around the grocery store 5-10 minutes after putting the cheesesteak in the cart. So I left it out for five minutes while I unloaded the dishwasher. When I checked it, the box was lacking coldness. I smelled it, and there was a slight smell.

I think it's okay.

I hope it's okay.

I also wonder why my dreams are involving our Australian friend in my food anxieties. Maybe it's just so I could have an excuse to write about it here.

9. Wondered who is cutting off the penises on Rake.

10. Saw that Phil Lloyd is on my next episode of Rake.

11. Started watching the next episode.

There's a rape case, and Cleaver Green (Richard Roxburgh) talks about how it's not right to label consensual sex as rape just because later you regret it.

I think that's a fair point.

How about, though, if it's misleading information that leads someone to having sex?  For example, let's say a man pretends he loves a woman to get her to sleep with him. Then he drops her. Of course, he could argue that he loved her UNTIL they had sex. But if there was evidence to show otherwise.

I'm not saying it would be rape, but I think it would be something. Maybe not illegal, but certainly immoral.

12. Amused by conversation on Rake.

Cleaver Greene's son Fuzz has suddenly become Christian. He wants his father to go a prayer night. Cleaver declines.

Fuzz says, You always said not to judge something before trying it first.

Cleaver responds, That was just drugs. All right? In all other matters, I'm a judge early and often kind of guy.

I say judge, and then if you try it, reaccess your judgement.

13. Came across an Australian while putting together Jack's science curriculum for today.

We're doing evolution. Our main feature comes from Crash Course, which is done by an atheist.

I have a couple of articles with recent examples of evolution.  My favorite is the wisdom teeth thing, because I'm almost 43, and I don't yet have wisdom teeth. This is leading me to think that I'm more evolved than the people who do have the wisdom teeth.  Those of us without wisdom teeth? We're like the next model. Call us, Homo Sapiens 2.0.

I have the Ross-Phoebe evolution argument on Friends.  I think that's fun, and also educational and thought-provoking.

I felt maybe I should find another debate. I found one from a Creationism establishment, and it includes Bill Nye, the science guy.

Anyway, to get to my damn point. The guy debating him is from Cairns, Australia.  I guessed he was Australian, not because after all these years of being obsessed with Australia, I can finally distinguish Aussie accents from British ones.  It's because he sounds like Toadie (Ryan Moloney) on Neighbours.

14. Wanted to say...as for using the video, I'm not sure what to do.  I think we might just watch the Bill Nye part, because the entire debate is quite long. Also, though I think it would be fascinating to hear the creationist side, it doesn't really belong in biology.  If Jack is interested, we'll watch it, and catalogue it with our world history/culture/geography class. That's where we've been sticking other religious mythology stuff.

15. Thought about how we get all hot and bothered by Christian creationists, but I don't often see people being unnerved by Greek mythology or the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories.

Maybe it's because Christians more often get in our face about their beliefs.

When we went to the Alamo, there wasn't any person yelling at everyone about the Rainbow Serpent. But there was someone shouting out about Jesus.

Well...actually I'm not sure about that. I have to be honest. I didn't listen. I just heard someone loudly preaching, and I assumed it was about Jesus. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe someone in San Antonio is trying to preach the Dreamtime.

16. Recognized an actress from Rake. I looked at IMDb, and learned the actress is Tina Bursill. She played Grandma Kathy on Neighbours—the one who separated Paige (Olympia Valance) from her parents and siblings.

Bursill was also on The Moody Christmas; though when I saw her on Neighbours, I didn't remember seeing her before. Or maybe I did?

17. Figured it out. I think I did recognize Tina Bursill, but I assumed it was because she reminded me of an American actress—one of the aunts from Sabrina: the Teen Witch.

18. Compared photos. Here's Tina Bursill on Google Images, and here's Beth Broderick from Sabrina.  There's kind of a resemblance.  Maybe?

19. Wondered if I noticed that resemblance when I watched A Moody Christmas.  I don't remember doing so, but I forget a lot of things.

20. Looked at IMDb after finishing the episode and saw that Vanessa Downing, from Home and Away, played a judge!

I missed it!

I'm going to have to go back and see.



There she is.

Now that I know it's her, I can see her. But when I saw her before, I didn't recognize her.

21. Went to palg1305's Flickr account. I'm going to look at more of his Australian photos.

22. Went to palg1305's Blue Mountains album.

23. Thought that this photo had a mystical feel to it.

24. Liked this photo of trees. It has a spooky forest kind of feel.

I'm assuming the trees are eucalyptus...well, since it's believed that eucalyptus trees are what make the mountains seem blue.

25. Thought that this was an interesting photo of the Three Sisters.

It looks like they really are three sisters, huddled around a campfire, waiting for a ghost story to begin.





 

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