1. Started to watch an episode of Home and Away.
2. Looked up the game Assassin, because it was mentioned on the show.
Lord Wiki says it's a live-action game that can go on for weeks. It's popular on college campuses.
It kind of sounds like a more intense version of Capture the Flag.
3. Decided to click on the name of the director of this episode of Home and Away.
Maybe I should do that more often. I might find fun things.
Anyway....
The director of the episode I just watched is Danny Raco. He's an actor and director that was born in Italy.
From 2001-2007, Raco worked on Home and Away as an actor. He played Alex Poulos.
I Googled and learned that Alex is the brother of Leah (Ada Nicodemou)
4. Saw that Raco has directed 292 episodes of Home and Away. That seems to be his main job now.
He doesn't have many recent acting credits on his filmography; though he could be doing some theater stuff.
5. Started to Watch Raco's director showreel. I'm guessing it's all Home and Away, because that's the only project listed on his IMDb.
This is what's crazy to me. He's been a director from 2007 to the present. Yet I'm not recognizing any actors in the scenes, at least not so far.
This means that not only does Home and Away not have a strong connection to the Home and Away of the late 1980's that I watched. It might also not have much of a connection to the Home and Away of less than ten years ago.
6. Saw someone I recognize, finally—John Palmer (Shane Withington)
7. Thought that maybe I saw Justine Clarke.
Did she come back recently?
I should know the answer to that, since I wrote a post about her. But I don't.
8. Checked Justine Clarke on IMDb, and saw that she hasn't been back since 1989.
So I'm just seeing someone in the video that looks like her.
9. Saw a few faces, in the video, that are still there today. But most are strangers to me.
Or I know the face, but not from Home and Away.
10. Started to watch an episode of Killing Time.
11. Thought it was pathetic that while Denise's (Diane Glenn) main concern for her marriage is Andrew's (Michael Denham) out of control cocaine addiction; Andrew's main concern is spicing up their marriage. He wants better sex.
It's almost like he's saying, okay I'll work on the coke habit, but you need to do something for me in return.
What does he want?
A threesome.
I would see that as maybe being fine if their marriage didn't have much bigger problems.
12. Felt it was almost like Andrew is saying, Hey. I know I'm not perfect. I have a cocaine addiction. But you're not perfect either. We're not having enough sex.
Actually, he doesn't seem to really see his coke addiction as a problem. It's more like he's acknowledging it to humor his wife. I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks the sex issue is a bigger concern.
13. Saw that Denise was actually willing to go through with some of Andrew's sex plans, thought her heart wasn't in it at all.
The fact that she even tried was pretty generous of her.
It's self-sacrificing.
Sometimes being self-sacrificing is a good thing. I'm pretty sure this is not one of those times.
14. Glad to see Denise is now sticking up for herself.
I think she's torn between that and being overly devoted to Andrew.
A less devoted person would have divorced Andrew. She hasn't yet. Even when he's in prison, she sticks by him. She does start seeing someone else, or at least that's what Andrew is told by a friend. I wouldn't blame Denise at all if it were true.
She deserves someone better, and I think it's nice enough that she takes time out of her schedule to visit Andrew.
15. Re-watched a scene.
Andrew is awful.
Denise bitches at him about being out of control. He fights back, saying she's the one with an addiction problem. What is she addicted to? Control.
Andrew's being a classical manipulator again.
When confronted with a very valid complaint about him, he twists things around to try to turn Denise into the guilty one.
No, she's not a concerned wife with a coke addict husband who's endangering his health and eating up their finances. She's a bitchy controlling wife who won't stop nagging her husband.
16. Finished watching the episode.
17. Went to the tropfest website.
Today I'm going to watch a 2011 finalist film called "A Desperate Deed".
18. Started watching the film.
19. Recognized an actress in the film. I've seen her in another short film, but I'm not sure which one.
20. Had idea it was the suicide film—the one with the guy in the bear costume.
21. Finished watching "A Desperate Deed".
I thought it was very clever.
22. Rewound and re-watched certain parts of the film.
It's one of those movies where the ending gives a different perspective to the rest of the film.
23. Saw that the actress in the film is Katie May Johnson. The suicide movie was called "Happenstance". I think she's also the one that has the demo roll that includes a scene with dialogue from The Fisher King.
24. Saw that Matt Bird, the director of "A Desperate Deed" worked as a director on a show called Haunting: Australia. I think it's one of those ghost-documentary things.
25. Wondered if there are any real ghosts in Australia.
I guess I probably believe there are. Though I'm not really into ghost documentaries.
It seems to me that with all the haunting TV shows these days, if any dead person is involved in haunting activity, they're probably narcissistic and just looking for attention.
In the bygone days, hauntings were souls expressing anger about their life and death. Now I think it's just about dead people wanting to be reality TV stars or the focus of a viral video.
26. Went to Matt Bird's website.
He's done at least two projects with Firass Dirani. I see one short film and a television commercial.
27. Watched the commercial. It's for Nokia.
I think it objectifies women.
I don't think I'm usually the type of person to notice that or be bothered by it, but that commercial annoyed me.
28. Saw that Bird has a video on his website that's not on IMDb. It's a trailer for a feature film called The Crossing. Gary Sweet, who stars with Dirani on House Husbands is one of the stars.
I'm guessing Bird directed the film and not just the trailer.
Or maybe he did just do the trailer? Maybe that's why it's not listed on IMDb.
29. Looked on Gary Sweet's filmography and didn't see The Crossing there either.
Maybe it was never released.
30. Watched the trailer.
It's a horror movie, but I'm not sure what it's about.
I think maybe the young actress from The Tree and The Hunter is in it. I forget her name.
31. Found her name.
It's Morgana Davies.
32. Thought that this movie was very mysterious.
Why isn't it on IMDb at all?
33. Wanted to look up the other actors listed as being in the film.
Well, first of all, there's another House Husbands actor—Gyton Grantley.
It seems Matt Bird has some kind of connection to the House Husbands cast. I'm surprised he hasn't done work on the show.
34. Saw that Clayton Watson, one of the actors in The Crossing once guest-starred on House Husbands.
35. Saw that the little girl is NOT Morgana Davies.
It's Alex Cook who played young Lou in Love My Way.
36. Saw that Alex Cook has been in two short films lately.
One stars Daniel Webber. I think lately I've been kind of intrigued with Webber. I was really mesmerized by his Lee Harvey Oswald performance.
37. Took a detour and looked up the cast of the new Point Break. Tim was wondering if one of the guys was Australian.
He is.
It's a guy named Luke Bracey.
He was on Home and Away, back in 2009-2010. He played Trey Palmer—maybe another son of John's?
38. Consulted the Back to the Bay site. Trey Palmer was a stepson of John Palmer.
39. Disappointed to see that "Summer Nights", the film starring Alex Cook and Daniel Webber, is not yet available to watch online.
It's understandable. It's a new film (2015). They probably want to do all the festivals first.
40. Thought it was nice that the "Summer Nights" Facebook page has a lot of promotion for Webber's 11:22:63 work.
They seem very proud of him.
I'm proud of him too. I have a lot of hope for his career. As I said, I'm very impressed with him.
Maybe he'll be the next Home and Away star to become a huge acting sensation.
41. Followed a link, on the Facebook page, to a review that says Daniel Webber was the best part of 11:22:63. I agree!
I think Webber pretty much stole the show. Although I think he had some competition from George McKay, the Ron Weasley look alike.
Note: I saw McKay in 11:22:63 and thought he looked like Ron Weasley. I looked him up and saw he had been in the Australian film The Boys are Back. I'm pretty sure when I saw that film, I also saw the Weasley resemblance.
42. Started to read the Webber lovefest review.
Actually, I didn't.
I was sidetracked.
But now I AM reading it.
43. Learned that Webber studied Oswald for two days before sending in the audition tape.
The casting people were impressed with how Webber was able to do Oswald's body language stuff.
I wasn't able to judge that, while watching 11:22:63, because I don't think I've seen video clips of the real Oswald. I guess they're available?
Yeah...because I don't think the crew of 11:22:63 ever met with Oswald personally. UNLESS maybe the time traveling possibilities, on the miniseries, are true.
44. Started to watch the video clip provided with the article. It has Webber talking about Oswald. He sounds and looks very much like Oswald. Maybe he was still in character.
Maybe he's one of those actors who has a hard time getting out of character.
45. Looked on YouTube and saw that there IS video of Lee Harvey Oswald.
And I agree that Webber does a good job playing him. I don't think it's all about talent, though. I think there's also a physical resemblance. Tim mentioned that when we were watching the series. Then I brought up Gary Oldman's portrayal of Oswald in JFK. I think that was good too, but now I'm wondering if Webber is better.
46. Decided maybe they're both good.
Fantastic, actually.
47. Started to change my mind about not taking advantage of the cheap airline tickets to Australia.
The problem is, I imagine after buying the tickets, I'll go back to feeling it was the wrong thing to do.
I'll feel stressed about leaving the cat and stressed about the long plane ride and stressed about the homeschooling hours.
On the other hand, cat and long plane ride aside....
I have scheduled four weeks (28 days) off of homeschooling a year. We still have fourteen days left for this school year. The Japan trip isn't supposed to happen until the NEXT homeschooling years. I imagine that will take up about fourteen homeschooling days, and we'll still have fourteen days left over.
I'm sure also that we'll find some good homeschool activities in Japan and Australia.
48. Decided the one thing I don't want to do is rush and buy tickets.
I don't want to get in the mode of we-need-to-buy now before the opportunity is lost.
I want time to think about it, and I also don't want to buy tickets way before the trip.
I want to take the attitude that if we wait and the opportunity was lost, it wasn't meant to be.
49. Saw that one of the deals seems to be more for Australians coming here than us going there.
It's not the one my brother-in-law sent me. That was from Delta. This is from United, and it's even less than the Delta one. But as far as I can tell, you have to start off in Australia.
50. Checked again. I guess I put in the wrong thing last time.
There ARE cheap tickets for us too.
51. Continued to be infatuated with Daniel Webber. It's like I can't get him out of my head. But in a good way.
I like him being there.
Don't worry, though. I don't have any plans to kidnap him and force him to sing "Amazing Grace".
52. Wanted to say one more thing about Webber.
Yesterday I wrote about how sometimes my love for Australia temporarily disappears.
Other times it soars.
When watching 11:22:63, I had one of the soaring moments. I felt so proud of Daniel Webber.
It was like I was a parent watching a school play, and it's so damn obvious that MY child is the best.
No, I'm not saying I think of Daniel Webber as my child, or that I see Australia as my child.
But the feelings were just kind of similar.
I felt proud of Australia and proud of myself for loving a country that could produce such a fantastic actor.
53. Thought that I probably sound nuts.
Oh well.
Why try to hide it?
2. Looked up the game Assassin, because it was mentioned on the show.
Lord Wiki says it's a live-action game that can go on for weeks. It's popular on college campuses.
It kind of sounds like a more intense version of Capture the Flag.
3. Decided to click on the name of the director of this episode of Home and Away.
Maybe I should do that more often. I might find fun things.
Anyway....
The director of the episode I just watched is Danny Raco. He's an actor and director that was born in Italy.
From 2001-2007, Raco worked on Home and Away as an actor. He played Alex Poulos.
I Googled and learned that Alex is the brother of Leah (Ada Nicodemou)
4. Saw that Raco has directed 292 episodes of Home and Away. That seems to be his main job now.
He doesn't have many recent acting credits on his filmography; though he could be doing some theater stuff.
5. Started to Watch Raco's director showreel. I'm guessing it's all Home and Away, because that's the only project listed on his IMDb.
This is what's crazy to me. He's been a director from 2007 to the present. Yet I'm not recognizing any actors in the scenes, at least not so far.
This means that not only does Home and Away not have a strong connection to the Home and Away of the late 1980's that I watched. It might also not have much of a connection to the Home and Away of less than ten years ago.
6. Saw someone I recognize, finally—John Palmer (Shane Withington)
7. Thought that maybe I saw Justine Clarke.
Did she come back recently?
I should know the answer to that, since I wrote a post about her. But I don't.
8. Checked Justine Clarke on IMDb, and saw that she hasn't been back since 1989.
So I'm just seeing someone in the video that looks like her.
9. Saw a few faces, in the video, that are still there today. But most are strangers to me.
Or I know the face, but not from Home and Away.
10. Started to watch an episode of Killing Time.
11. Thought it was pathetic that while Denise's (Diane Glenn) main concern for her marriage is Andrew's (Michael Denham) out of control cocaine addiction; Andrew's main concern is spicing up their marriage. He wants better sex.
It's almost like he's saying, okay I'll work on the coke habit, but you need to do something for me in return.
What does he want?
A threesome.
I would see that as maybe being fine if their marriage didn't have much bigger problems.
12. Felt it was almost like Andrew is saying, Hey. I know I'm not perfect. I have a cocaine addiction. But you're not perfect either. We're not having enough sex.
Actually, he doesn't seem to really see his coke addiction as a problem. It's more like he's acknowledging it to humor his wife. I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks the sex issue is a bigger concern.
13. Saw that Denise was actually willing to go through with some of Andrew's sex plans, thought her heart wasn't in it at all.
The fact that she even tried was pretty generous of her.
It's self-sacrificing.
Sometimes being self-sacrificing is a good thing. I'm pretty sure this is not one of those times.
14. Glad to see Denise is now sticking up for herself.
I think she's torn between that and being overly devoted to Andrew.
A less devoted person would have divorced Andrew. She hasn't yet. Even when he's in prison, she sticks by him. She does start seeing someone else, or at least that's what Andrew is told by a friend. I wouldn't blame Denise at all if it were true.
She deserves someone better, and I think it's nice enough that she takes time out of her schedule to visit Andrew.
15. Re-watched a scene.
Andrew is awful.
Denise bitches at him about being out of control. He fights back, saying she's the one with an addiction problem. What is she addicted to? Control.
Andrew's being a classical manipulator again.
When confronted with a very valid complaint about him, he twists things around to try to turn Denise into the guilty one.
No, she's not a concerned wife with a coke addict husband who's endangering his health and eating up their finances. She's a bitchy controlling wife who won't stop nagging her husband.
16. Finished watching the episode.
17. Went to the tropfest website.
Today I'm going to watch a 2011 finalist film called "A Desperate Deed".
18. Started watching the film.
19. Recognized an actress in the film. I've seen her in another short film, but I'm not sure which one.
20. Had idea it was the suicide film—the one with the guy in the bear costume.
21. Finished watching "A Desperate Deed".
I thought it was very clever.
22. Rewound and re-watched certain parts of the film.
It's one of those movies where the ending gives a different perspective to the rest of the film.
23. Saw that the actress in the film is Katie May Johnson. The suicide movie was called "Happenstance". I think she's also the one that has the demo roll that includes a scene with dialogue from The Fisher King.
24. Saw that Matt Bird, the director of "A Desperate Deed" worked as a director on a show called Haunting: Australia. I think it's one of those ghost-documentary things.
25. Wondered if there are any real ghosts in Australia.
I guess I probably believe there are. Though I'm not really into ghost documentaries.
It seems to me that with all the haunting TV shows these days, if any dead person is involved in haunting activity, they're probably narcissistic and just looking for attention.
In the bygone days, hauntings were souls expressing anger about their life and death. Now I think it's just about dead people wanting to be reality TV stars or the focus of a viral video.
26. Went to Matt Bird's website.
He's done at least two projects with Firass Dirani. I see one short film and a television commercial.
27. Watched the commercial. It's for Nokia.
I think it objectifies women.
I don't think I'm usually the type of person to notice that or be bothered by it, but that commercial annoyed me.
28. Saw that Bird has a video on his website that's not on IMDb. It's a trailer for a feature film called The Crossing. Gary Sweet, who stars with Dirani on House Husbands is one of the stars.
I'm guessing Bird directed the film and not just the trailer.
Or maybe he did just do the trailer? Maybe that's why it's not listed on IMDb.
29. Looked on Gary Sweet's filmography and didn't see The Crossing there either.
Maybe it was never released.
30. Watched the trailer.
It's a horror movie, but I'm not sure what it's about.
I think maybe the young actress from The Tree and The Hunter is in it. I forget her name.
31. Found her name.
It's Morgana Davies.
32. Thought that this movie was very mysterious.
Why isn't it on IMDb at all?
33. Wanted to look up the other actors listed as being in the film.
Well, first of all, there's another House Husbands actor—Gyton Grantley.
It seems Matt Bird has some kind of connection to the House Husbands cast. I'm surprised he hasn't done work on the show.
34. Saw that Clayton Watson, one of the actors in The Crossing once guest-starred on House Husbands.
35. Saw that the little girl is NOT Morgana Davies.
It's Alex Cook who played young Lou in Love My Way.
36. Saw that Alex Cook has been in two short films lately.
One stars Daniel Webber. I think lately I've been kind of intrigued with Webber. I was really mesmerized by his Lee Harvey Oswald performance.
37. Took a detour and looked up the cast of the new Point Break. Tim was wondering if one of the guys was Australian.
He is.
It's a guy named Luke Bracey.
He was on Home and Away, back in 2009-2010. He played Trey Palmer—maybe another son of John's?
38. Consulted the Back to the Bay site. Trey Palmer was a stepson of John Palmer.
39. Disappointed to see that "Summer Nights", the film starring Alex Cook and Daniel Webber, is not yet available to watch online.
It's understandable. It's a new film (2015). They probably want to do all the festivals first.
40. Thought it was nice that the "Summer Nights" Facebook page has a lot of promotion for Webber's 11:22:63 work.
They seem very proud of him.
I'm proud of him too. I have a lot of hope for his career. As I said, I'm very impressed with him.
Maybe he'll be the next Home and Away star to become a huge acting sensation.
41. Followed a link, on the Facebook page, to a review that says Daniel Webber was the best part of 11:22:63. I agree!
I think Webber pretty much stole the show. Although I think he had some competition from George McKay, the Ron Weasley look alike.
Note: I saw McKay in 11:22:63 and thought he looked like Ron Weasley. I looked him up and saw he had been in the Australian film The Boys are Back. I'm pretty sure when I saw that film, I also saw the Weasley resemblance.
42. Started to read the Webber lovefest review.
Actually, I didn't.
I was sidetracked.
But now I AM reading it.
43. Learned that Webber studied Oswald for two days before sending in the audition tape.
The casting people were impressed with how Webber was able to do Oswald's body language stuff.
I wasn't able to judge that, while watching 11:22:63, because I don't think I've seen video clips of the real Oswald. I guess they're available?
Yeah...because I don't think the crew of 11:22:63 ever met with Oswald personally. UNLESS maybe the time traveling possibilities, on the miniseries, are true.
44. Started to watch the video clip provided with the article. It has Webber talking about Oswald. He sounds and looks very much like Oswald. Maybe he was still in character.
Maybe he's one of those actors who has a hard time getting out of character.
45. Looked on YouTube and saw that there IS video of Lee Harvey Oswald.
And I agree that Webber does a good job playing him. I don't think it's all about talent, though. I think there's also a physical resemblance. Tim mentioned that when we were watching the series. Then I brought up Gary Oldman's portrayal of Oswald in JFK. I think that was good too, but now I'm wondering if Webber is better.
46. Decided maybe they're both good.
Fantastic, actually.
47. Started to change my mind about not taking advantage of the cheap airline tickets to Australia.
The problem is, I imagine after buying the tickets, I'll go back to feeling it was the wrong thing to do.
I'll feel stressed about leaving the cat and stressed about the long plane ride and stressed about the homeschooling hours.
On the other hand, cat and long plane ride aside....
I have scheduled four weeks (28 days) off of homeschooling a year. We still have fourteen days left for this school year. The Japan trip isn't supposed to happen until the NEXT homeschooling years. I imagine that will take up about fourteen homeschooling days, and we'll still have fourteen days left over.
I'm sure also that we'll find some good homeschool activities in Japan and Australia.
48. Decided the one thing I don't want to do is rush and buy tickets.
I don't want to get in the mode of we-need-to-buy now before the opportunity is lost.
I want time to think about it, and I also don't want to buy tickets way before the trip.
I want to take the attitude that if we wait and the opportunity was lost, it wasn't meant to be.
49. Saw that one of the deals seems to be more for Australians coming here than us going there.
It's not the one my brother-in-law sent me. That was from Delta. This is from United, and it's even less than the Delta one. But as far as I can tell, you have to start off in Australia.
50. Checked again. I guess I put in the wrong thing last time.
There ARE cheap tickets for us too.
51. Continued to be infatuated with Daniel Webber. It's like I can't get him out of my head. But in a good way.
I like him being there.
Don't worry, though. I don't have any plans to kidnap him and force him to sing "Amazing Grace".
52. Wanted to say one more thing about Webber.
Yesterday I wrote about how sometimes my love for Australia temporarily disappears.
Other times it soars.
When watching 11:22:63, I had one of the soaring moments. I felt so proud of Daniel Webber.
It was like I was a parent watching a school play, and it's so damn obvious that MY child is the best.
No, I'm not saying I think of Daniel Webber as my child, or that I see Australia as my child.
But the feelings were just kind of similar.
I felt proud of Australia and proud of myself for loving a country that could produce such a fantastic actor.
53. Thought that I probably sound nuts.
Oh well.
Why try to hide it?