1. Thought about the last (fourth) season of The Secret Life of Us.
I looked at IMDb the other day, and now I don't remember seeing Richie (Spencer McLaren), Miranda (Abi Tucker), or Gabrielle (Sibylla Budd).
Are they gone from the show?
And if they are, did they leave at the end of season three?
I totally don't remember.
2. Went to IMDb.
3. Saw that Sibylla Budd was on the last episode of season three, and then she's not on the show again. Did she go somewhere? Or is her leaving going to be explained at the beginning of season four?
I also saw that Budd is going to be on a TV series adaption of Tomorrow, When the War Began.
4. Looked at the cast of Tomorrow, When the War Began.
It's kind of like a Secret Life of Us reunion, because Deborah Mailman and Spencer McLaren are also in it.
5. Looked at Spencer McLaren on IMDb. He too was on the last episode of The Secret Life of Us.
I wonder about Richie's acting career.
If they don't tell us, I'm going to imagine he stopped hating on soap operas and ended up moving to the UK—became a star of Coronation Street.
Or what's more likely, he moved to the US and started appearing on Days of Our Lives.
6. Saw that Abi Tucker left in the middle of season three.
Where did Miranda go?
I know she went to Edinburgh at some point. Was that it? Though I kind of remember that being in season two.
7. Started to remember Miranda leaving.
She had a lesbian relationship with her workmate who then became a roommate. Then Miranda left, and the roommate was left with Christian (Michael Dorman).
I still don't remember where Miranda went.
8. Started watching an episode of The Secret Life of Us.
9. Felt unsure about this episode.
There's a lot of new characters introduced at once—five so far.
I think it would have been better to introduce them slowly. Maybe? Or maybe not.
Also, three of the new characters aren't very likable. They're being pretty awful to Kelly (Deborah Mailman). I'm guessing eventually they all become friends. Or maybe there's going to be tension through out the season.
10. Felt that the first couple of episodes shouldn't have had any scenes with new characters that didn't also have old characters.
I really think they pushed too much new stuff at once.
Of course, new TV shows introduce a bunch of new characters at once. And this is fine.
But when you have an established show with a fanbase, I think it's best to move much slower.
11. Started watching another episode of The Secret Life of Us.
12. Felt that it's not only bad form that the show introduced too many new characters too soon; but also, these characters are very antagonistic and unsympathetic.
13. Thought of Israel when Kelly (Deborah Mailman) had her little monologue at the end.
She says, So, how do you break a cycle of conflict? Maybe you need someone to come in from the outside—someone who could see the stupidity of it all and make everyone else see it too. Someone who is no less than an angel; an emissary of light.
I'm not sure if there's any truth to Kelly's idea—whether in country conflicts or interpersonal ones.
I do think that when other people get themselves involved, they often take a side. This strengthens the conflict, and makes the hatred and animosity grow. If they don't take a side, it probably does benefit the situation in some ways.
14. Bought some Australian tea tree oil at Trader Joes.
It has a very nice smell.
15. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.
I'm looking at his other Great Barrier Reef album.
This one has undersea photos—lots of coral.
I think coral is a wonderful thing. I'm very glad it exists.
But I don't get very excited about it.
16. Decided to check up on The Secret Life of Us actors by looking at their Twitter and Instagram. If they have those things....
17. Did not see a Twitter account for Deborah Mailman.
Instagram?
18. Could not find an Instagram account for Mailman, but there are Instagram photos with her name as a tag.
The most recent is from a week ago via Who Magazine's account. It's a picture of Mailman and Sarah Snook at the ACCTA awards. Snook and Mailman aren't actually in the same photo. The Instagram post kind of splits the screen between the two.
The post says that Mailman was nominated for her work in Redfern Now.
I hope Hulu has that some day.
I'm beginning to feel that's one of my catch phrases.
19. Looked up David Tredinnick on Twitter.
I didn't find our favorite pub owner. Instead I found an MP from Bosworth in the UK. He's adorable in that certain British way.
Okay. See, I'm really anglophiling this weekend. Because I'm totally obsessed and binge-watching Coronation Street.
20. Was about to move away from MP Tredinnick, but then I happened to read that one of his proud accomplishments is stopping unnecessary travel sites.
What does that mean?
I'm quite intrigued.
21. Saw from Google that MP Tredinnick is controversial because he supports astrology and homeopathy.
Interesting!
22. Tried to find the actor Tredinnick on Instagram but didn't have any luck.
23. Found Samuel Johnson on Twitter.
I've read a lot of his blog he shares with his sister. They have a breast cancer charity and the blog talks about their adventures in fundraising. Some of the blog is sad, because his sister is very ill.
Back to Twitter, though. Johnson has multiple Tweets about Thomas Banks and Cerebral Palsy.
24. Learned that Thomas Banks has a one man show about having Cerebral Palsy.
I wonder if Johnson saw the show and is recommending it. Or is he promoting it as a friend and/or favor?
25. Looked at Samuel Johnson's Instagram.
He's definitely not one of those annoying celebrities who takes way too many selfies.
He hardly has any photos of himself.
26. Liked his most recent photos. It's of white feathers—I think still on a bird.
It looks like the bird is in flight.
Or am I looking at things wrong?
On his message, Johnson says, Feathers are my four leaf clovers.
That's very cool.
27. Thought that Samuel Johnson seems very likable.
But who knows.
When he's not raising money to save his sister and taking awesome photos; he could be tripping old people as they walk down the street.
28. Thought this building in Johnson's photo was slightly creepy but in a cool kind of way.
29. Thought about charity work.
It's actually something I was thinking about the other day.
It went along with something I was writing.
Oh! I remember! It was with the tangent about not liking positive attributes about someone. There are things that annoy some of us us about people—not because they're bad but because it makes us feel inferior. It makes us question our own lives.
For example, I get annoyed with people who sew their own clothes, make their own baby food, and get all their herbs and veggies from their organic garden in their backyard. Even worse? Mothers who make their children homemade, brilliant Halloween costumes. Fuck them.
So....
Sometimes I ramble on and on about things in my blog. Then I stop writing to exercise, clean, shower, etc. The thoughts keep running through my head. Sometimes I go back to write them down, and other times they just stay in my head.
This time I left them in my head, but now I'm going to take them out.
One of the other positive traits that annoys me is people who do a lot of charity work. But then I realized it's not just a negative simply because it makes me feel inferior. I think there are true negatives sometimes. Or at least I personally see it as a negative, and not something I admire. My gripe is with people doing a lot of charity not because they're truly passionate about the cause but because they have an insatiable need to stay busy and feel needed. They're on multiple charity boards. Their schedule is full. They give no's to their spouses, children, and friends because they're too busy with the charity stuff. And the family members and friends shouldn't dare to complain, because then they're labeled as selfish. Really? You're going to complain about me missing your recital? You don't want me raising money for the old people in the nursing home? Are you really that selfish?
I don't like this type of behavior. I find it annoying, and I don't really admire it. That being said, I do totally understand that these people benefit our society. Without them a lot of charities would fall apart, and that would cause a lot of heartache and pain.
So it's like I want these people in our world. I just don't want to feel pressured to admire them. Because I don't. At least not for that.
What I do like, though, is people who are passionate about one particular cause.
It might be because I like passionate people...period.
I also think then it becomes more about truly caring—caring about the people in need more than caring about boosting your sense of worth.
It's like someone going to Africa to help Ebola patients. That's so brave and fantastic. But if they're also tutoring illiterate adults, organizing church bake sales, fostering multiple children, and volunteering at the animal shelter; then it kind of seems like they're just trying to add to their do-gooder resume.
30. Wanted to say that I'm fully aware that I sound like a total bitch.
And in some ways, I AM a total bitch. I can't hide that.
31. Liked Samuel Johnson's photo of a vacuum cleaner.
Or really, I just like the vacuum.
I'm not sure anyone could take a bad photo of such a thing.
32. Didn't like the slogan in this post from Johnson.
What if the cure of cancer was stuck in the the mind of a person who can't afford an education.
I think it's weak, because you can use the same type of slogan with a lot of agendas.
What if the cure for cancer was stuck in the mind of that baby you're aborting?
What if the cure for cancer was stuck in the mind of the person you hit while driving and texting?
What if the cure for cancer was stuck in the mind of the next person to be killed by gunfire due to America's stupid lack of gun control?
What if the cure for cancer was stuck in the mind of the one man out of three hundred million that are going to die from the upcoming viral pandemic?
What if the cure for cancer is stuck in the mind of a little girl who's dying of brain cancer?
I guess we just have to hope that there are multiple people out there who are going to continue to come up with better treatments for cancer.
I don't think there's one single brain out there that's going to find an ultimate cure for cancer.
33. Realized I'm not going to finish looking at a lot of The Secret Life of Us actors, because Samuel Johnson has inspired me to go on these major rants.
34. Figured I'll do a few more.
35. Did not see Sibylla Budd on Twitter.
Nor do I see her on Instagram.
Next....
36. Saw that Spencer McLaren has a Twitter account.
His icon photo is of a dog. It's kind of adorable, even though I'm not usually a big fan of small dogs.
This one is very cute.
37. Saw that McLaren doesn't often update his Twitter, but a few days ago he Retweeted something from Mel Brooks.
38. Looked at Spencer McLaren's Instagram.
Two days ago, he posted a cow photo.
Tim and Jack are going to be eating part of a cow tonight.
39. Thought this was a cute photo of man and dog.
And I usually don't find that kind of dog cute.
It's like McLaren is casting a dog spell on me.
40. Wanted to cuddle the dog.
41. Started to worry that I'm looking at the wrong Spencer McLaren's account.
I don't see any photos of him.
Though I'm against excessive selfies, maybe one or two might be nice, so you know you have the right person.
I assumed it was the right McLaren, because the account links to a production company, and I know McLaren is a producer.
42. Found a photo of the right McLaren on the production site.
That's a relief.
43. Went to the wrong Abi Tucker's Twitter.
She has a sort of funny joke.
What do you call it when Batman skips church?
Christian Bale.
Actually, that's really dumb.
But it made me laugh.
44. Did not find Claudia Karvan on Twitter, but I did find a Tweet about her that I sort of agree with.
Maddy says, Claudia Karvan is such a good actor, but she always plays the most annoying roles.
There's really only one Karvan role that annoys me. Sad to say, it's Alex on The Secret Life of Us.
I was actually kind of partly dreading watching the fourth season. Then I remembered Alex is gone and felt better.
I did really like the episode about her abortion and Evan telling her the story about winter being gone. That's my favorite episode. Besides that, though, I didn't like her.
I think I actually prefer all the new annoying people over her.
45. Decided I will probably continue with this Secret Life of Us Twitter/Instagram adventure on another day.
Maybe I'll do a little bit each day.