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.