Treadmills, Cages, Dream Interpretations, and Dying Insects

1. Saw that Mali is one of the top Twitter trends in Australia.

It's good that it's being noticed.

It's not good that there is something horrible going on there now.  

2. Thought about how Mali is a hostage situation. And Paris had a hostage situation.

Maybe it's not about white people getting noticed more when they're in peril.

Maybe it's about hostage situations.

3. Started watching an episode of The Secret Life of Us.

This episode is about being stuck on the treadmill of life—stuck in a rut.

Last night I had two separate dreams about keeping an animal trapped. One was a fish that I put in a bowl that was way too small, and the other was a spider in a glass cage. 

The cage theme and treadmill theme are somewhat similar.  

4. Thought about how I am trapped by my own routines.

I like the routines. But maybe I like them too much. It's gotten to the point where I'm not very thrilled about going on vacations, because I dread breaking away from the routine.  

One thing I do every day is read an old blog post. I told myself that on our next trip, I'd make time to continue doing that. After those dreams, though, I told myself to relax a bit.  If there are days where we have a lot of time in our hotel room; I'll probably do it. But I'm not going to try to wake up early, stay up extra late, or make us late getting out of the hotel, so I can get it done.  

5. Thought about the other thing causing me not to look forward to our trip is that it's making us miss our annual Thanksgiving at the Lake House.  

I feel sadness about abandoning our Lake House tribe, and a lot of guilt. But maybe the lake house Thanksgiving is one of my treadmills. It's a fun and beloved treadmill, but even with those treadmills, maybe it's important to step off every so often.

6. Thought about how I am extremely fortunate to be making my own routines. And besides some of the cleaning stuff, I actually like the things I require myself to do.  

I love my days. I love watching Australian TV shows. I love blogging. I love homeschooling with Jack. I love a few of my cleaning chores.  I love exercising. I love the end of my day where I sit on the couch watching Coronation Street, with Max, our cat, sleeping on my lap.    

Are our treadmills a problem if we love them?

7. Thought of another kind of treadmill.

On The Secret Life of Us, Adam (Nicholas Coghlan) has seen his coworker, Markus (Mark Priestly) as an ass-kissing jerk. He's never liked him. But on this episode, he finds out he was very wrong about Markus. They start becoming friends.

Seeing this has made me think that hating someone or holding prejudices against people is a treadmill—especially if we're very stubborn about it.

If someone continues to be awful, and we continue to dislike them, there's probably nothing wrong with that. But what if the person starts showing us their good side, and we refuse to see it or acknowledge it?  Then we're trapping our own self in a treadmill of hatred.

8. Saw that Markus is a bit of a jerk after all. Or at least he's unethical. 

So, where does that leave the message I thought I was receiving from the show?

Now I'm getting the idea that we should trust our initial instincts and keep walking on the treadmill of dislike.

9. Liked Kelly's (Deborah Mailman) voice-over at the end.  We can all get off the treadmill if we really really want it. But until we're ready...until we know where we want to go; we just have to keep on running. 

The beginning of the episode seemed to push a follow-your-dreams message. Face your fears. Be daring. Go after what you want. Don't be tied down to the drudgery of life.  

Then the show switched messages by showing us that taking risks and jumping off the treadmill doesn't always pay off.  

10. Thought about Adam confessing to Nikki (Anna Torv) that he has loved her for years. 

She rejects him.

I think, sometimes, there's the idea that if we love someone, we're destined to be together. All we need to do is be brave enough to reveal our feelings and then they'll end up telling us they love us back. 

Sometimes that does work out. But other times, professing our love just leads to rejection.  

Wanting something and going after it doesn't mean we're going to get it.

Deciding to get off the treadmill and being brave enough to do it, doesn't guarantee we're going to find success, freedom, or happiness.  

11. Felt confused.

Does this all mean that I should stay on my treadmill of reading an old blog post every day—even when traveling with my family?  

I feel like the universe is giving me mixed messages.

12. Imagined this might be one of those times where it's nice to be the type of person who doesn't believe the universe sends us messages.

13. Thought about another dream I had. It involved someone I know becoming more daring. They climbed a tree and sat in the branches. I was happy to see this change in them but also worried that they might fall.  

Maybe it's all about balance. We need to be daring and free ourselves from our fears, but at the same time be weary of dangers.

14. Thought back to the fish dream. Earlier, I failed to mention what happened after I found out the bowl was too small.

What I did, in the dream, was find another much larger container. I didn't free the fish. I simply made positive adjustments.

Maybe this is saying you don't have to throw your life away to find a new and exciting one. Sometimes you can just make little changes.

15. Started watching an episode of Farscape.

16. Wondered if I've missed something on the show.

They're not showing Crichton's (Ben Browder) duplicate.  I understood why that was the case in the episode I watched yesterday. Crichton II was missing, but so was Pilot (Lani John Tupu) D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), and Jool (Tammy Macintosh)

17. Realized something.

The characters that were in yesterday's episode, so far, haven't been in this one.

Maybe this episode is happening to one Crichton while yesterday's episode was happening to the other Crichton.

18. Got some clarification.

The Crichton I'm seeing on this episode is on Moya. The other Crichton is on Moya's offspring, Talyn.

What I don't understand is where's Stark (Paul Goddard) and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy).

They were on yesterday's episode but not on Talyn with the others. I assumed they were still on Moya. Though if that's the case, why didn't we see D'argo, Chiana, etc?

19. Started to look at palg1305's album of the far north of Australia. This includes Kakadu, Darwin, Mataranka, and Katherine.

I don't think I've heard of Mataranka before.

20. Thought that this Kakadu photo, of trees in the sand, was kind of interesting.

I also like this similar photo. 

21. Found a The Secret Life of Us actor that has a Twitter account.

Finally!

It's Nicholas Coghlan, who played Adam.  

OR it's another Australian Nicholas Coghlan. 

22. Clicked on the link in the Coghlan Twitter bio. It's for something called The Public Studio.

23. Saw that Coghlan's bio on the about page. It says,  Nicholas Coghlan is The Public Studio's executive producer. Alongside filmmaking, his passion for storytelling is also expressed through his work as a highly regarded actor in the Australian film and television industry, as a dramaturg, performance trainer, and instagram photographer.

I'm guessing it's him, because I think it would be shocking if there were two highly regarded Australian actors named Nicholas Coghlan. It's not like his name is Tom Jones or Adam Smith.

24. Saw that Coghlan's most recent Tweet is one of those embedded-Retweets. It's about the French child and his father talking about the Paris attacks.

25. Saw Coghlan having a lovely short conversation with a fan about his appearances on House Husbands.

26. Saw, from IMDb, that Coghlan was on the House Husbands episodes I've seen!

I had no idea!

I think I know who he is, though.

I'm thinking he's the gay partner of Kane (Gyton Grantley)

27. Learned from Google that I'm totally wrong.

Coghlan plays Rodney, the guy that started dating Nicola (Lea de Niese). He was also Justin's  (Firass Dirani) former manager.

Saw that Rodney left in season one but then he comes back in season four.

Wow. I wonder what's the reason for his return.

28. Saw Nicholas Coghlan getting political on Twitter. He says, These leaders of ours are terrorists and criminals, pure and simple. @TurnbullMalcolm & @PeterDutton_MP #nauru #Abyan.

I don't think I agree with him there.

The criminal thing might be true.  I have no idea.

I wouldn't agree with terrorists. It's a very strong word that can be overused.

It reminds me of what John Green, from Crash Course, says about using the term slavery.  There are people who like to say they're slaves—such as colonial American settlers not wanting to pay their British taxes. Or housewives who don't get enough gratitude from their family.

But there's a difference between being disenchanted with your life and literally being OWNED by another human being.

There's also a difference between a politician who lets us down with his bad decisions and someone who purposely causes death with the intent of terrorizing and intimidating.

A politician may cause death with his bad decisions, but that still doesn't mean it's terrorism.

29. Found an Instagram account that may belong to Nicholas Coghlan.

The Public Studio website said he's a photographer on Instagram; and this account does look like it belongs to a photographer.

30. Reminded of The Ring when I saw this photo; then I looked at the hashtags, and saw that's what Coghlan was going for.

Well, he succeeded getting his message across—with me, at least.

31. Watched a video of a fly dying.

Nicholas Coghlan has a dark soul.  He should make horror movies. Or has he already done that?

32. Liked this abandoned hospital photo.

33. Thought this cat was adorable.

34. Thought that Nicholas Coghlan seems very artistic, weird, and macabre.

I like him.

Or at least I like what I see of him on Twitter and Instagram.

He's the kind of person that makes me curious.  I want to know more about him.

Does he like horror novels? Is he interested in writing horror? Does he like writing, period?

Does he like to read?

What are his favorite movies?

What are his life dreams?

What does he dream about at night?

Was he sad when the fly died? Did he have conflicting feelings while filming it's death?

35. Listened to some Tkay Maidza songs while doing homeschooling records stuff.

She might become my new favorite Aussie singer.

Though it won't last long.

I often get new favorites of things.