Going to Australia Alone, People Stuck in Trees, Doctor Who, and Mel Gibson

1. Dreamed that I have plans to go alone to Australia very soon. I start thinking that maybe Jack would like to join me. We don't have a plane ticket for him, but I figure we can buy one. Our seats might not be together, but when we get to the gate, we can ask to change our seats.

I ask Jack, and he politely declines. He seems to think it's a good idea for me to go alone. Some random person overhears and also agrees it's good for me to go alone.

Later I start thinking about eating when I'm in Australia. I decide since Jack and Tim won't be there, I won't buy a lot of food. I decide I'll probably just buy cheese and crackers at the grocery store. I won't go to restaurants alone. Maybe I'll go to casual cafes and food stands. I conclude that I'm not going to Australia to eat.

2. Thought that I dreamed the stuff about plane tickets, because yesterday I was reading something about buying cheap plane tickets. There was a suggestion about buying family tickets separately.

As for the food stuff. I woke up last night with a stomachache. Maybe it still lingered in the dream, and I felt very unhungry.

3. Talked to Tim about Sea Patrol and other TV shows. He told me about a concept, that someone else told him about, regarding writing TV shows. It's something along the lines of you put your character in a tree and have someone throw rocks at them. Then have the character climb higher up in the tree and throw more rocks at them. In other words, a character is put in a dangerous, seemingly hopeless situation. As if that isn't bad enough, things get worse. Then at the last minute, they're rescued.

I think this kind of formula fits well with shows like Sea Patrol and Doctor Who.

3. Started to watch an episode of Sea Patrol.

4. Saw an old theater in San Antonio, and thought of the Astor Theater in Melbourne and Marzipan the cat.

5. Thought about Darling Harbour, because we passed a wax museum and various tourist traps.  So far, we haven't been trapped.

6. Tried out some of the new user-created trivia games on QuizUp. There're a few Australian-themed ones. I tried one about Neighbours, Offspring, Australian animals, and Australian Prime Ministers.

7. Watched a little more of my Sea Patrol episode. I'm watching it bits at a time since we're fairly busy.

8. Went back to seeing Saskia Burmeister as a sweet, supportive Navy navigator instead of a sadistic pirate.

Sometimes it's hard to adjust to actors being different characters.

9. Delighted by something I just read in one of my old posts. On June 19, 2011, I wrote:

Went to a flea market near our apartment to look for used books. I bought a Doctor Who book for a dollar. It's called The Nightmare of Black Island. I've never watched a Dr. Who thing in my life, but the book called out to me. I often see people mentioning it, and one of my Australian Facebook friends is a huge fan. I'm wondering if I'd like it. I feel left out when there is a big fandom for something, and I'm not part of it. Well, no. I don't need to be a part of every fandom out there. But there's a part of me that wonders, what if I'm a huge fan of Dr. Who and I just don't know it yet? I should at least give these things a try.

I did end up becoming a Doctor Who fan! It wasn't from the book, though. A little over three years after writing that, we finally watched the TV show, and that made me a fan.

10. Read an article about Garry McDonald having so much anxiety and doubt in the 1990's that he quit his show.

From what I've read about actors, I don't think it's uncommon for them to have a lot of self-doubt. I'm guessing, though, that McDonald had more than the usual amount...well, since it was enough to make him end a big project.

I think I probably have more anxiety than the average person. I'm not sure if effects my life choices in a huge way, but it does effect how I'm feeling inside. I don't feel bad all the time...thankfully!  Just some of the time.

10. Started watching an episode of Sea Patrol.

It's pretty funny so far.

The crew is planning a surprise birthday breakfast for Bomber's (Kirsty Lee Allan) 21st birthday. What they don't realize is that Chef and Spider (Jay Ryan) have fallen overboard. They're lost at sea.

I'm pretty sure they'll be found.

11. Saw the episode getting less funny.

Now there's real danger for Chef and Spider, and the rest of the crew is very worried.

Still.  I think it will end up being okay.

I may be an anxious person, but I've learned I don't need to be anxious about the characters on Sea Patrol.

12. Started watching an episode of Underbelly.

13. Saw, from IMDb, that one of the Underbelly actors was on a Doctor Who episode.

Peter O'Brien was on the episode "The Waters of Mars".

And...

While trying to find out why I recognize Peter O'Brien, I learned that Georgina Haig is on this episode of Underbelly. I know her from The Elephant Princess.  Fans of Once Upon a Time would know her for playing Elsa.

14. Saw Georgina Haig.




 It turns out her character is engaged to Peter O'Brien's character.

15. Thought that the death scene in the episode was extremely horrific.

There was no blood and guts. It wasn't horrible in that way. But the victim was so terrified and desperate to live, and the killers were incredibly cruel and callous.

16. Felt very bad for all the people whose last moments of life were spent begging someone else to let them live.

I think it really is a blessing to die of old age, in a hospital bed, with loved ones at your side and morphine dripping into your veins.

17. Watched Mel Gibson do Hamlet's famous soliloquy. We studied that for our homeschooling English today.

It made me miss the days when I saw Gibson has a hot, sexy, talented actor rather than a probable anti-semite who is related to, and defends, a Holocaust denier.

I really don't know if Mel Gibson's an asshole who deserves the scorn thrown at him or a not-so-horrible, misunderstood man.  But I do think he really is good at acting.

18. Reminded of something else.

For some reason, when I go to Spotify on my phone, on the top of my playlist it has something called Starred Songs.

I think I starred them accidentally, and I don't know how to un-star them.

One of the two songs though is "Jake the Peg" by Rolf Harris. And Spotify uses his face to illustrate the whole list.  Now every time I go to Spotify, I see Rolf Harris staring back at me.

He looks annoying in the picture, but it's sad to think that he's not just annoying. He's a convicted pedophile.

It's scary to wonder. Who's next? What beloved celebrity is going to end up being a rapist? Who's going to end up being a child molester?  Racist? Homophobic? spouse-beater?

19. Read things from Lord Wiki that makes me think maybe Mel Gibson is okay.

Or maybe I just want him to be okay after seeing his fantastic Hamlet performance.

I don't know.

What Lord Wiki says is that Gibson owned up to his anti-semitic tirade and apologized.  From what I'm reading, it sounds like it was a sincere apology. It sounds like it really was a matter of him being drunk and saying the wrong things.

I do think when you're drunk, you say what you're really feeling. I think maybe Mel Gibson does/did have ill feelings towards Jews.  My feeling, though, is we all have prejudices. We try to keep them quiet and bury them deep inside; but when we're drunk and/or angry, they might surface.

I guess my feeling is the Jewish community had good reason to be hurt, angry, and disappointed by what Gibson said. But maybe we don't need to hold a grudge.

20. Thought about how emotions are very complicated.

If I was very angry and/or drunk, it is possible I could get angry at a family member and say, I hate you. I'm never going to forgive you. You disgust me. I never want to see you again. 

It would all be true...for that moment, at least. But at the same time, I love, adore, and treasure every member of my family. The alcohol and my anger probably wouldn't make me lie. It would probably make me tell the truth, but only a partial truth.

What I'm trying to say is that Mel Gibson might be anti-semitic, racist, homophobic, and maybe a variety of other flavors of bigotry.  But at the same time, he might be totally cool with various types of people.

21. Thought of when people say the stupid things like, I'm not racist. Some of my best friends are black.

What they should really say is I'm racist, and some of my best friends are black. 

22. Went to the Triple J 2014 page.

Today I'm going to listen to the 90th song, which is "Got Love" by the Thundamentals; featuring Solo.

I know I've listened to songs from them before that were on the list.

What were they?

I think maybe one was that cool song. I feel so stupid because I don't know how to describe it.  It kind of had a hipster feel to it; though I'm lost regarding the definition of hipsters.

23. Saw that the Thundamentals also did the song "Quit Your Job".  That's not the hipster one. But I think there was another one, and that might be the hipster thing.

24. Found the other Thundamentals song. It's not the hipster one. It's "Something I Said".  That's the song about gossip.

25. Found the Hipster song.  It's "I Can Feel You Don't Love Me" by Kingswood.

26. Took a screenshot of the Kingswood Video as a defense for my hipster argument.



Does that look hipster?

I think it does. Why? I have no idea.

27. Watched the video for "Got Love".

I thought it was cute, in a corny kind of way.

28. Looked at the lyrics of "Got Love"

There's stuff about racism and asylum seekers.

I think the basic message of the video is to love more and hate less.

That's a good message.

It's hard to follow sometimes, though.