Sea Patrol Actors, Songs on Underbelly, Kate Ritchie, and Planting Seeds

1. Started to watch an episode of Sea Patrol.

It feels kind of strange, because between watching season one and season two, I saw some of the actors in other things.

I saw Lisa McCune in Reef Doctors, so now I see her as a doctor.

I saw Saskia Burmeister in Pirate Islands, so now I see her as a sadistic pirate.

I think eventually, though, I'll get used to them being their Sea Patrol characters.

2. Excited! Alan Dale is on this episode. I don't think I've ever seen him on an Australian show...except for Neighbours.

3. Saw that Kristian Schmid from Packed to the Rafters is on the show.  He was on season one as well. I didn't realize that. When I saw him on Packed to the Rafters, I thought that he was new to me.

I know I looked him up, though. Did I see that he had been on Sea Patrol?

Maybe I learned all of this already, and I just forgot it all.

4. Remembered Kristian Schmid's character from Sea Patrol. It's all starting to come back to me. He's the unfriendly one who had difficulty when his dad died.

5. Remembered that I also saw Jeremy Lindsay Taylor in something recently—Puberty Blues. He played Claudia Karvan's husband. Well, it wasn't recently, but it was between seasons one and two of Sea Patrol.

6. Got the idea that I've probably seen most of the cast of Sea Patrol in between watching the two seasons.

7. Enjoyed the episode of Sea Patrol. I like it much more than Underbelly.

But who knows. Maybe, after awhile, Underbelly will start to grow on me.

8. Started watching an episode of Underbelly; and remembered that yesterday I made plans to count the songs used in the episode.

So far, I have one.

9.  Saw that Kate Ritchie is one of the guest stars of this episode.

So now I have to watch Sally Fletcher shooting up heroin? Thanks a lot, Underbelly.

10. Hoped I don't have to see Sally Fletcher naked.  I think that might traumatize me.

11. Hoped that Kate Richie will be playing a cop or something like that.

12. Heard a second song on Underbelly.

13. Saw Kate Ritchie.

She looks suburban.

She might be playing the wife of a criminal.

14. Heard a third song on Underbelly.

And I'm only eight minutes into the episode.

My feeling is they play too many songs.

I love music in television shows. But I think with Underbelly, it's overkill.

14. Heard a fourth song.

15. Saw Kate Ritchie cleaning blood off of a man.

I think she (well, her character) is connected to the criminal world somehow.

16. Wondered if I wrote about Ritchie being on Underbelly when I did my post about her.

17. Heard a fifth song. In typical Underbelly fashion, a cheerful song is played during a violent fight scene.

18.  Saw that Charlie-Rose MacLennan , the girl who plays Kate Richie's daughter on Underbelly, is like her onscreen mother in that she too was a child star on Home and Away.

19. Heard a sixth song.  It was played for a very short time, though.

20. Heard a seventh song. It's a creepy lullaby type thing played after Kate Ritchie's family was attacked. The music plays as we see her dead husband's blood splattered all over the bathroom.

21. Heard an eighth song. Once again, it's a cheerful song played during a violent scene.

I've actually heard the song before. It's "Tiny Bubbles".

22. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says the song was sung by a Hawaiian pop singer named Don Ho.

I think I've heard of him before.

23. Wanted to say that I'm not against using cheerful music in a violent or sad scene. I think the juxtaposition can be quite effective and interesting.

My feeling, though, is that Underbelly overuses this technique.

24. Wondered if maybe I also feel that Underbelly overuses violence.

Does it glorify violence?

Is that why I don't like the show.

Would I equally dislike Breaking Bad?

25. Felt that I don't mind ultra-violence, probably, as long as there's something that I do like to balance it all.

26. Thought of violent shows I've liked.

Wentworth and The Walking Dead are two things that come to my mind.

There might have been others.

27. Thought about how the episode of Sea Patrol I watched today had some violence. There was violence and a major injury. There was some gruesomeness.  But it was one incident instead of multiple ones.

28. Heard a ninth song—though it might be the same eerie lullaby that was played earlier.

29. Heard a tenth. This one's a Christmas tune.

30. Started to read article about the real life Les Kane. This was the man that Kate Ritchie's character (Judi Kane) was married to.

The article talks about how women were sucked up into the violent world of the men they loved.

It sounds like Judi Kane didn't eagerly choose this kind of life. It's more like she fell in love with the wrong person.

31. Went to the Triple J 2014 list.

Today I'm going to listen to "Micro Wars" by Kingswood.  It's the 76th song on the list.

My browser shows I visited Lord Wiki's page on Kingswood before. Maybe they have a song higher up on the list? Or I might have looked up Kingswood for other reasons.

32. Found the Kingswood song I already listened to. It's 56th on the list—"I Can Feel That You Don't Love Me". I can't remember if I liked the song or not.

33. Revisited "I Can Feel That You Don't Love Me".

It's sad. I remember the song and video now, but I can't remember whether or not I liked it.

34. Found the post where I talked about the song.

I said I liked both the song and video.

You'd think I could just see a clip of the video and say, Oh! I remember that. I liked that song.

But, no. That's not the case here.

I think I'm a bit mentally confused today.

I'm not sure what I like or don't like, and I'm not sure why I like or dislike things.

35. Started watching "Micro Wars" which is actually a whole ten minute thing.

I don't like it already, because of it's length. I don't feel like watching something that long.

But maybe it will win me over.

36. Saw that, like Underbelly, "Micro Wars" is about gang fighting.

37. Thought the song was fairly nice but not the type to become one of my favorites.

I'm not very interested in the video yet.

38. Saw that the video is made up of two songs—"Micro Wars" and "Eye of the Storm".

I finished watching the "Micro Wars" bit. I don't think I'm going to watch the rest of the film.

I'm tired of gang stuff.

39. Wondered if I just don't like gang stories. Is that my problem with Underbelly?

I did like Bikie Wars, though.

40. Wondered if maybe I shouldn't worry so much about why I'm not a big fan of Underbelly.

41. Wondered if I could buy Australian flower seeds.

That's one of my obsessions right now. Gardening. Which is kind of funny, because I don't have a green thumb.  I have a stubborn, uneducated thumb.  I like to just stick things in the ground and hope for the best.

Although this time I have been kind of following directions.

I soaked the seeds that needed to be soaked.

Today I bought some proper potting soil.

Earlier this week, I planted some seeds with this not very nutritious soil that comes in patties. You add water and it expands.

Still, despite the lack of good nutrition, some of the seeds have sprouted.

It's exciting to me.

I don't really care about having a finished product that we can use in our kitchen.  I just get excited to see green stuff coming out of a seed.

I'm imagining, though, that maybe I'll get into this, and my thumb will turn green. That's why I was wondering about Australian flowers. Are any available in the United States? Are any legal?  I know there are floral and fauna laws in every country. I don't want to do any Johnny Depp type things.

42. Saw that a San Francisco site has information about the Golden Wattle; though they don't specify if it's legal, or where to buy it.

Maybe I should assume people are allowed to grow it in San Francisco. Otherwise, they'd probably tell Californians not to grow it.

43. Wondered if laws could vary by state. Maybe what's legally grown in California is not legal in Texas.

44. Looked at Google Shopping for Acacia pycnantha (golden wattle) seeds. They have golden wattle pillows, golden wattle prints, a whole book about golden wattle, golden wattle skirts, and  golden wattle iPhone case.

I don't see any seeds.

45. Realized that Australians go online too to buy things. I'm not seeing many Australian opportunities to buy Golden Wattle. So far, all I've seen, is something on eBay.

I guess it's not something people buy online.

46. Searched again, and found a place for Australians to buy golden wattle seeds.

I guess I searched in the wrong place before.

47. Found a website that talks about growing golden wattle sites in the US.

I'm getting the idea that it's legal, and I think I'm in the right USDA zone (8).

I just don't know where to get the seeds.

Although I'm kind of jumping way ahead of myself here.

I'm totally not advanced enough for planting something exciting and international.

48. Saw that, in California, there's a native Australian plants nursery.  That's very cool.

I should move to California.

49. Saw that I can buy Banksia seeds online!

That is so cool!

If I get good at this, I'm going to buy some.

Although if I get good at it, I'll probably do my research, and learn it's impossible to grow Banksia in Texas.

50. Bookmarked the Australian plants nursery website. They have all kinds of seeds I can order.

The only thing that confuses me is they say, Minimum of ten seeds per packed.  I'm guessing and hoping that means each seed packed has ten seeds. When I first saw it, I thought they meant you had to BUY a minimum of ten seed packets. That wouldn't make much sense, though, now that I think of it.  But, I was worried at first, because each packet is about $7.00. That means I would have to buy around $70 worth of seeds.  I'm not sure I want to invest that much.

51. Read the about page for the Australia Plants Nursery.

It was founded by a woman named Jo O'Connell. I think she's an Australian who moved to California.  She studied horticulture at the University of West Sydney. She's done horticulture work in Australia, South Africa, the United States, etc.

She helped rejuvenate areas in Australia affected by mining.

This woman has a very impressive resume. One of the things I love most is she's been used as a consultant for zoos in the United States. I think sometimes they have plants that are native to the places where the various animals are from.

52. Tempted to go on a shopping spree and go crazy now, but I'm trying to tell myself to calm down.

I will see how my current plants turn out.

Then maybe next year I'll try doing an Australian garden.

53. Consulted Lord Wiki about Fort Worth's climate. I'm thinking I can find out which area of Australia is most similar to us.

So....

We have a humid subtropical climate. That surprises me. I thought we were pretty dry.

54. Saw that Fort Worth gets 33 inches of rain per year, which is 84 centimeters.

Maybe it would help to find cities in Australia that have about that much rain.

55. Learned that rain is measured in millimeters; not centimeters.  Oops.

So I'm looking for a place that gets about 838 millimeters of rain.

56. Saw from this website that Perth's rain amount is fairly close to Fort Worth's rain amount.

57. Learned from Lord Wiki that it's south-eastern Australia that has a subtropical climate.

58. Figured I'm probably making too big of a deal about this. We live on different continents not different planets.

Plenty of people, throughout history, have planted things that are not native to their area.

59. Thought about skipping my TV Guide game today, because this post is already long.

But I want to do do at least one TV show.

60. Saw that the next show is Quantico.

I've seen commercials for it on Hulu. The premise sounds exciting.  There's a bunch of FBI students, and one is a terrorist.

61. Started looking at the cast list for Quantico.  I'm searching for Australians. It's my new game.

62. Did not find an Australian actor...yet.

But I did find a Lost one! One of my favorites—Mark Pellegrino.

The cast, though, has a nice international mix. The star is from India. Then there's a woman who was born in Lebanon to an Egyptian mother and Palestinian father.

There's someone from Cuba...

63. Looked at a cast member of Quantico, which brought me to a TV show Satisfaction that is NOT the Australian Satisfaction.

Yesterday I saw that the Australian actor Matt Passmore was in Satisfaction; and I assumed IMDb was talking about the Australian show. They weren't. Matt Passmore was on the American Satisfaction.

64. Finished looking at the Quantico cast list. I didn't click on everyone's name, but I clicked on most.

I didn't find any Australians.

65. Thought more about gardening.

I'm looking at this last-freeze website for Dallas-Fort Worth.  I'm getting the idea that late March to mid April would probably be the best time to start growing things.

I'm very excited!

Well, I'm excited about the plants.

There are other things in my life that are making me a bit anxious and depressed.

So...it's nice to have gardening to distract myself; even if I do end up being bad at it.

66. Felt guilty about vague-blogging.  I feel it's a little rude towards the people reading this, but especially rude to my future self. I'm going to end up reading this a few years from now and wonder what was wrong with me.

Or...well, I hope I'll be wondering.

If I know exactly what was wrong, it will probably mean something dreadful happens and these months become etched in my memory as the beginning of the nightmare.

Anyway, I'm having a desire to express my feelings, but I'm not up to expressing the exact reasons why I'm feeling that way.

67. Realized I'm wrong.

I do remember past times of anxiety—both the whens and whys.  With those things, everything turned out okay.  So even if things also turn out fine this time, I might still remember what I was talking about when I read my blog posts in the future.


Read my novel:  The Dead are Online 

Edited to add 2/19/25- I have no idea what was making past-me depressed and anxious all those years ago.  My past-self really had delusional faith that her future self would know what the hell she was talking about.  I saw another worse case in an old 2005 Livejournal entry I had written.  I had come to this major spiritual revelation but it was too embarrassing to talk about but that's okay because I would surely remember.  Well...2005-Dina, you were very wrong.

Returning, Matt Day, Sophie Karanicolas, and Crying Actors

1. Dreamed that, I watch a classic Australian movie starring Maureen McCormick. Then I end up trying to write a sequel that shows what happens immediately after the original movie, ends.

I think the movie was along the lines of stuff like Picnic at Hanging Rock, and The Getting of Wisdom.

As for Maureen McCormick, I'm not sure my dream was saying the movie had an American in it. Or if in the dreamworld, McCormick was supposed to be Australian.

2.  Thought of Michael Fuery's sequel to Picnic at Hanging Rock, because of my dream.

I read that a few years ago. I still haven't read the original book or seen the movie. I've seen clips, though.

3. Started to watch an episode of Neighbours.

It aired on July 31—Harry Potter's birthday. Yeah. I notice things like that.

4. Surprised!

Georgia (Saskia Hampele) is on Neighbours today.

I totally didn't expect that.

I'm guessing it's just a guest appearance, but it would be wonderful if Hampele changed her mind, and now she's coming back.

5. Decided it wouldn't be wonderful if she was blackmailed into coming back or if she had to come back due to financial desperation. It would be wonderful only if she wanted to come back.

6.  Started to watch an episode of Water Rats.

7. Learned from QuizUp that Hans Hulsbosch is an Australian graphic designer.

8. Learned from Lord Wiki that Hulsbosch designed brand identities for Qantas, Woolworths, Taronga Zoo, Virgin Australia, etc.

He's a pretty big deal!

9. Started watching another episode of Water Rats.

10. Saw from IMDb that Matt Day is in this episode. I know him from Rake, Reef Doctors, and Tangle.

11. Saw that Nash Edgerton is in this episode.  I'm guessing he's Joel Edgerton's brother. Or cousin?

Have I encountered him before?  I think I might have.

12. Saw that Nash Edgerton does a lot of stunt work.

He did stunt work for his maybe-brother in The Great Gatsby.

13. Looked at Edgerton's IMDb bio.

He IS the brother of Joel Edgerton. There's some Star Wars information that sounds familiar to me. I think I might have learned all this before.

14. Saw that Marshall Napier is in this episode.

I know him from McLeod's Daughters and City Homicide.

15. Saw that Matt Day looks quite young on Water Rats.

It makes sense, since the episode aired nineteen years ago.

16. Calculated that Matt Day would have been about twenty-five when the episode aired.

The most recent show I've seen him on is Reef Doctors. He would have been around forty-two then.

17. Learned more about biological tissue from The University of Adelaide.  Today's professor was Sophie Karanicolas.  Her voice reminded me of Judi Dench's voice on Spaceship Earth.  I know one has a British accent and the other an Australian.  It's just something else that's familiar.

Well, I guess it makes sense, actually. If you change accents, you usually still have the same voice.

18. Looked at Sophie Karanicolas University of Adelaide page.  She teaches/works in the dental hospital. I'm not surprised.  Karanicolas used the dentist hospital and a man's mouth to illustrate some of her tissue lesson.

19. Saw that there's another Sophie Karanicolas out there in the world. This one lives in Canada, and, from what I see on Twitter, she's into the macabre—Jack the Ripper, ghosts, Dracula.

She also supports girl-power.

20. Excited to see that my Triple J 2014 song for today is a Vance Joy one—"First Time".  It's the 50th song on the list.

Is it the first time I've heard this song?

I don't know.

Maybe?

21. Started to listen to "First Time".

It doesn't sound familiar to me.

22. Liked this song less than other Vance Joy songs I've heard.

23. Started to watch a Neighbours backstage video.

This one is about the wedding/well disaster.

It looks like Olympia Valance is narrating.

24. Learned from Stefan Dennis, that when there's a busy-filming day, the actors read books.

Or some of the actors read books.

Or at least Stefan Dennis reads.

I've been trying to see what book he's reading.  I keep pausing, and missing. I think it might be a John Birmingham thriller.

25. Saw the book. Finally!

It's not John Birmingham.

It's Hunger Games: Mockingjay.

26. Liked how Olympia Valance said they were filming a sad scene and that she hoped she wouldn't tear up.

Sometimes I ask myself how actors are able to make themselves cry. But what I also wonder is how, in certain scenes, do they NOT cry?

Take this scene from Lost. It's made me cry several times. I know I'm not the only ones.  If fans, can't watch the scene without crying, can't I assume it's difficult for the actors as well?

27. Thought about something that really gets to me. It's when the character is crying, but I feel it's REAL tears from the actor.  Well, I know actors usually do use real tears. But in these cases, I don't  feel the actor is crying about their favorite dog who died or remembering they didn't get into the acting school they preferred. I get the idea they're crying about the show.  I especially get these ideas during series finales...or sometimes season finales.

28. Saw that Imogen and Daniel weren't alone in the well! There were film crew people down there with them.

Yeah. Of course my logical brain already knew that.

It's just....

Well, the whole suspension of disbelief thing.

29. Wondered if suspension of disbelief would be the right terminology for forgetting about the camera crew.


Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

AC/DC, Lawyers, Skeletons, and Doctors

1. Dreamed about visiting Australia.

I don't remember what the first dream was about, but I woke up disoriented. I didn't know whether or not we had an upcoming trip to Australia planned.  

After a few moments, I figured out we don't. We have a wish and hope for a future Australia trip, but nothing concrete yet.

The second dream was about books. I try to decide if I want to borrow one of the nonfiction books available on the airplane. I fret about not being able to finish it, but then I decide I can take the book with us to Australia and read it during the trip. But then I realize our accommodations will probably have books available. And unlike the books on the plane, the accommodation books will likely be about Australia. I decide I prefer to read those. 

2. Started watching an episode of Neighbours.

3. Heard Spotify commercial announcing that they now have AC/DC music. I'm glad to hear that. I added some songs to my playlists.

I'd like to become more familar with AC/DC, since they're Australian and I have an AC/DC t-shirt. 

I bought the shirt because of the Australia connection.

4. Added more AC/DC songs to my playlist.

5. Felt great adoration for Imogen (Ariel Kaplan). She's probably one of my favorite fictional Australian characters. 

Imogen is so smart and passionate—driven. But she's also vulnerable and very imperfect.

I loved the scene with her going to a lawyer networking party. She's looking to meet fellow law-lovers and instead meets a flaky superficial snob who is more interested in discussing ski resorts than law.

6.  Saw Naomi (Morgana O'Reilly) kiss Paul (Stefan Dennis). I knew they were supposed to be getting together, but I didn't expect it to start this early.  

7. Started watching Rake on Netflix. 

I hope I like it.

8. Wondered if I've ever watched anything with Richard Roxburgh. I feel I have, but I don't know what it was.

I pretty much know him as being the star of Rake. But I'm just starting to watch that now. 

9. Went to IMDb filmography of Richard Roxburgh. 

I don't think there's anything I've really seen.

I saw parts of Australia and Moulin Rouge, a long time ago.

10. Saw that Roxburgh is the narrator for a documentary about Australia. Australia: The Story of Us. It looks pretty good.  Maybe Hulu or Netflix will have it one day.

11. Looked at IMDb cast for the first episode of Rake. There are some actors I'm excited to see.

Adrienne Pickering is on the show. I know her as Erin from Neighbours.

There's also Danielle Cormack (from Wentworth), Hugo Weaving, and Matt Day.

I have no idea who Matt Day is, but his name sounds familar to me. 

12. Saw that Matt Day is from Reef Doctors. Yeah. Now I remember. He played the ex-husband. And I didn't realize this when watching Reef Doctors, but he was also Gabriel on Tangle.  

I think Gabriel is the guy in love with Justine Clarke. Well, the character played by Clarke, really. 

13. Wondered where Rake is filmed.

14. Saw from IMDb that it's filmed in Sydney.  

15. Saw that Hugo Weaving plays a cannibalistic prisoner.

16.  Found plot of Rake episode to be interesting.

Professor Murray (Weaving) put a post online asking if there was anyone who wanted to be eaten.

A suicidal guy took him up on the offer.

Before committing suicide, the future meal made a video explaining his intention.

Now there's a question of whether Professor Murray committed a crime. Well, because they're saying cannibalism isn't a crime in New South Wales.

Is not stopping a suicide a crime?  Is Euthanasia legal as long as no one assists the person wanting to die?

The professor didn't really assist with the suicide, but he supported it and didn't do anything to stop it.

17. Wondered if cannibalism is an ecologically friendly way to dispose of a body. 

I suppose it would be, although the skeleton would be left. 

Maybe the skeleton could be donated to science?

Is there a need for skeletons out there?

18. Found a website that sells human skeletons. They say it's difficult for them to obtain skeletons, and the skulls they're selling are quite expensive. The prices range from $700-$2000. So it seems skeletons are in high demand!

Hopefully the souls who used to wear these skulls donated them.  

I hope it's not like American Horror Story: Freak Show, where people are murdered so their body parts can bring in a profit.

19. Thought about what my cousin-in-law said this week about cannibalism. He says it increases the risk of prion disorders. Is that true?  Wouldn't you need to eat someone with a prion disorder?  

20. Read article about cannibalism and the prion disease Kuru. I don't know if I fully understand it, but I feel it's saying that eating brains puts you at risk of contracting a prion disease. If you stayed away from the brains, you might be okay.  

Or maybe not. Because I think people have gotten sick from cows without eating the brain.

I think, though, if you eat a healthy cow or human you should be okay. 

21. Thought of another idea. Instead of using cannibals to dispose of a body, why not have animals do it? Like a crocodile? Piranhas. I know some people use vultures.  

22. Recognized actress on Rake—Sacha Horter.  She plays the wife of a cannibal. 

I looked her up and saw she was on Dance Academy. She played Abigail's (Dena Kaplan) mother. 

23. Recognized another actress on the show—Caroline Brazier.  I looked her up, and saw that I know her from Packed to the Rafters, and I also saw her fairly recently on City Homicide.

24. Felt sorry for Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh). He fell in love with his sex worker (Adrienne Pickering) Then she quit. He believes they had something real between them, and she tells him it was a business transaction only.

I wonder how often that happens.

25. Realized it probably doesn't just happen with sex workers and their clients. It can happen with any person who feels they have befriended the person they're paying—hairdresser, tour guide, cruise waiter, housekeeper, psychologist, etc. 

I'm sure there are times that real friendships and/or likings develop. But sometimes it can be pure fakeness. 

It might even be fakeness masking hatred.

26.  Recognized an actor on Rake—Nicholas Hope. 

I saw that he was on Offspring. He played Tadgh Reid. I'm guessing that's Patrick's father.  

27. Finished watching the first episode of Rake. So far, I'm liking it a lot.

28. Started watching another episode of Rake.

29. Saw that this episode has Lisa McCune, who I know from Sea Patrol and Reef Doctors. 

30. Saw Lisa McCune's breasts.

31. Took a shower; then went to get dressed.

I decided to wear my ACDC shirt.

32. Wanted to say that I did not need a shower because of Lisa McCune's breasts. It was just time for my shower, and I felt all gross from taking out the trash.

33. Found myself liking Cleaver Greene a lot.

He's a funny and clever guy.

34. Noticed I'm loving on fictional Australian lawyers today. Or..well, one is a future Australian lawyer.

35. Decided that Lisa McCune reminds me of Asher Keddie. Maybe her voice and accent?

I don't remember noticing it before, so maybe it's just this particular character she's playing.

36. Thought of Nick (Damien Fotiou) on Neighbours, because I'm feeling a lot of anger and disgust at doctors right now. Yes, some doctors are wonderful people. And I'm sure most aren't as evil as Nick. But I think many of them are arrogant, ignorant, and incompetent.

37. Felt it's unfair that lawyers are seen as scum and doctors are often seen as wonderful heroic people.

I like Neighbours for going outside that viewpoint.  Imogen is quite wonderful, and she wants to be a lawyer. Her uncle Nick is horrible, and he's a cancer doctor. 

38. Remembered that Toadie (Ryan Moloney) is a lawyer too. He's shown in a very positive light.

And Neighbours doesn't make all doctors seem bad. Dr. Karl (Alan Fletcher) is a fairly positive character.  

Guest Stars, Hot Drinks, Roommates, and Self-Determination

1. Had a dream probably inspired by my Hulu experiences.

I'm listening to a video with Julian McMahon being Ben on Home and Away. He's talking and then suddenly he stops.

Maybe something more happened. I can't remember.

When I watch Hulu on my computer, it often pauses. Although it's different from my dream, because the talking continues as the picture freezes.  

2. Wondered if I had a dream about Olympia Valance. I'm not sure. There's a woman who has her face on a t-shirt. I tell her I want a shirt with her on it too. 

The woman MIGHT have been Olympia Valance.

I'm thinking though, if it wasn't her, but I woke up thinking it was her; doesn't that still mean something?  Either way, she was on my mind—either in my subconscious AND conscious mind or just my conscious mind.

3. Started watching an episode of Neighbours. 

4. Learned that the new woman (Ra Chapman) appearing on my Neighbours episode today is also from Wentworth. She plays Kim, who, I think, is the woman that has the relationship with Franky (Nicole da Silva).

5. Saw that Ra Chapman is on ten episodes of Neighbours.  She's involved with the new villain, Dimato (Steve Sammut).

Or maybe he's not the new villain. I see from IMDb, that he's only going to be on seven episodes.  

6. Wondered if I will keep getting fooled by Neighbours into thinking recurring guest stars are going to become main characters. 

7. Tried to figure out who was the last actor to appear on Neighbours, and then become a regular. 

I think it's Nate (Meyne Wyatt).

I'm watching episodes from February 2015 though, and it's June now. There might be new actors that have become stars of the show in the meantime. 

I'll catch up to the current episodes eventually.  

8. Figured the new guy that showed up at the end of the episode, IS going to be one of these new characters I'm referring to. They've showed him in the end-of-the-episode previews in a manner that makes him seem like a big deal.  

I see in the credits that his character name is Tyler Brennan. He must be related to Mark Brennan.

9. Clicked on Travis Burns, the actor playing Tyler Brennan. IMDb says he's in forty episodes of Neighbours. And that might be just so far. He could be in more in the future.  

10. Started watching my first no-Claudia Karvan episode of The Secret Life of Us.  I think I'll be okay. I like her, but she's not my favorite person on the show.  

11. Saw that Claudia Karvan has been erased from the credits already.

Miranda's (Abi Tucker) new love interest (Nina Liu) has been added.

12. Saw that Nina Liu's birthday was a couple of days ago. She turned thirty-eight. She's a few months older than my younger sister.  

13. Thought that Kelly (Deborah Mailman) looks beautiful here. 

Maybe it's the purple shirt.

Well, of course it's her that's beautiful. But certain colors make people look better than others. 

Some colors make people look horrible. My bad colors are gray and light blue. Unfortunately, I found that out AFTER buying t-shirts of that color.

14. Loved Evan's line on the show. Kelly offers him a cup of tea as a response to his sadness about no-more Alex (Claudia Karvan). He says yes. Then, in a voiceover, he says, Cup of tea. What would we do without the mending beverage? How do people who don't drink tea or coffee have proper emotional lives? 

I don't drink coffee. I do drink tea but not during emotionally difficult moments. I don't think anyone has offered me a cup of tea to help me feel better.

It does seem helpful to have a go-to comfort offer. 

What do the people in my life do when someone is upset? I think we sometimes say, Do you want to talk about it?  And like I've said before, I don't think talking about it often helps. 

I think tea or coffee would be better, because it's a simple nice gesture.

15. Figured we sometimes offer hugs. That can be nice, but also sometimes a bit awkward. 

16. Realized we sometimes say, I'm sorry.  But then that gets awkward, because the crying person will often say something like, It's not your fault. Well...yeah. Duh. I know I'm not responsible for your grandmother's heart attack. 

17. Wondered if it's the caffeine in tea and coffee that gives people the comfort and emotional boost.

In that case, would it be helpful to offer someone a Red Bull? Or would that be taking things too far?  

18. Glad to see that Rhys Muldoon is going to be in this episode.

I like him a lot.

He's kind of adorable.

19. Wondered what's going to go wrong with Marnie (Alexandra Davis), Kelly and Evan's (Samuel Johnson) new roommate. I see on IMDb, that she's only on this one episode.  

Well, I do already see some potential problems.

She's overly enthusiastic and positive. That can get annoying at times.

She also rejected an offer for tea. She didn't even want herbal tea or hot chocolate. She doesn't drink any hot beverages.

20. Realized judging a woman for not drinking hot beverages is not very different from judging someone for being vegetarian.

It seems to me that vegetarians and vegans are usually portrayed, in fiction, as being overbearing and judgmental losers who have cloudy morals.   

21. Decided we sometimes make assumptions about people's personality based on their food choices and declarations.

I don't eat meat.

I don't eat carbs.

I can't eat gluten.

I don't drink hot beverages.

I don't eat raw vegetables. 

I eat only organic produce. 

I'm allergic to peanuts. 

I'm betting most people prefer people who are able and willing to eat everything. Well...unless you have restrictions and the person you're with has the same restriction.

I'm not sure it works if you and the other person have different restrictions. I'm a vegetarian, but I get annoyed with my mom for being preoccupied with weight loss and limiting calories.  

22. Decided there are two levels of being annoying about food.

The first is simply having a diet difference. Yeah. I know it's not always the person's choice. People can't help it if their intestines go horribly dodgy from eating gluten. They can't help it if they have a peanut allergy. And sometimes diet choices are healthy and/or morally superior to the mainstream thing.

But yeah. It's annoying. Since I'm vegetarian, the person cooking the meal is pushed to put that in consideration. When we go to restaurants, we have to make sure there's something for me to eat.  I also cause grief with the whole sharing of food thing. People are willing to eat my food, but I'm not willing to eat there's. So it can get complicated.  

The second level is pushing your choices on other people. This can range from making comments at the dining table to sending website links and pointed emails.

For example, my mom made multiple comments about how our new fruit juice popsicles are just as bad as the sugar water popsicles, because they both contain sugar. She reminded us that it doesn't matter the form of sugar. Sugar is bad no matter what form, because it has calories. Calories are evil. Never mind that not everyone in the family is obsessed with calories like she is.  

I have made anti-meat comments in the past, but I do so much less now. I think I usually only say things if asked. For example, I might get graphic if someone asks me why I try to eat only humane certified eggs. 

With that in mind, I imagine it will be somewhat annoying to Kelly and Evan that Marnie doesn't drink hot beverages. What will they offer her if she's sad?  An orange juice, perhaps?

If Marnie pushes her views on hot beverages on Kelly and Evan, it will be even more annoying.

23. Wanted to say that I am feeling a bit uncomfortable reading Anthony Dillon's stuff. He's very right-winged about things. He writes things that goes against what I've sometimes believed. But then I read his viewpoint, and find myself agreeing with him.  

The thing is, I guess I do believe in all his self-determination stuff. I think people should get their shit together and try to pull themselves out of their problems. Even though I don't always do that with some of my own problems.  Well, I often try. But then I fail and sometimes give up.  

The thing is, some shit is super difficult to get out of. I'm not sure yet if Dillon is the type of person to recognize that.  

Well, I think he is actually. I think he believes in helping people but believes less in blaming people for your problems.  

I'll use the example of an obese person. I know that, even without an underlying medical condition, it is hard to lose weight and keep it off. It can be incredibly challenging. So if I know an obese person, I have a lot of sympathy for them. I don't judge them for their body size.  I might judge them, though, if they used blaming other people as an excuse not to try to get healthier.  

I'd be okay with I am having trouble sticking to this calorie restriction, because I'm so hungry!  Or it's hard for me to exercise because I have asthma and my legs hurt every time I walk.

I would not be okay with someone saying, Well, I don't exercise because my parents never pushed me to do it when I was younger. We just watched TV all the time. We never went running, played sports, or took walks. 

I think it's okay to be angry at your parents for not pushing you to exercise and to think they're pathetic for being couch potatoes. But it would be really foolish to use them as an excuse not to make changes in the here and now.  

24. Wanted to confess that I sometimes don't deal with my problems out of spite, because I feel other people don't care enough. If they don't care enough, I don't want to care enough either.

That's a really unhealthy and potentially dangerous attitude to have.

Will I ever get out of the habit?

Probably not. Unfortunately.

Maybe...someday.

An example is my leg issue. I know I should go to the doctor because of the no-hair thing. My mom offered to take me. But I don't want to take her up on the offer, because she was very dismissive about my worries. She made me feel like I was a big joke.  I think my worry is I'll go to the doctor; it will end up I do NOT have a medical issue, and that will give validation to my mom's dismissiveness. And my sister's as well.

My sister is almost always very dismissive about any medical concern I have. She makes me feel like I'm a foolish hypochondriac. And she's right on one account. I am a hypochondriac. I just don't know if I'm a foolish one.  

25. Wondered if my psychological issue could be applied to some people in poverty. Could some of them stay in bad situations, because it gives validation to past atrocities? 

If a person, whose ancestors were hurt by white people, is happy, healthy, and financially comfortable, could this be seen as erasing deserved-white guilt? 

I do think many, or most, people in poverty are there because it is too hard to get out. But maybe there are some who COULD get out but deep inside, they don't want to. They might want to suffer because that helps fuel their anger towards past and present bigots and discrimination.   

The thing is, you don't need to suffer to feel righteous anger about things. I am at a healthy normal weight right now, but that doesn't mean I can't still be disgusted about how my parents and other people were so positive and supportive of my past eating disorder behaviors. I don't have to become a skeleton in order to prove that they behaved badly.

26. Realized that Alexandra Davies was the OCD woman from Reef Doctors. I saw on IMDb that she was on the show but didn't know who she played. Then suddenly, it came to me.  

27. Learned that Marnie doesn't just avoid hot beverages. She's a vegetarian as well. She goes as far as not wanting to eat a vegetarian meal thats being cooked on a pan that once cooked meat.

It's kind of like very religious Jews who won't eat meat foods that are on plates once used for dairy foods.

28. Wanted to say that I personally wouldn't be against eating from a washed dish that was once used for meat. I WOULD be against eating from a washed dish that was once used for catching vomit. That's disgusting. I don't care how many times it's been washed.

29. Found out that Marnie is incredibly annoying. She took it upon herself to rearrange the whole flat, WITHOUT asking her roommates if they're okay with that. Then making things even worse, she lost her momentum in the middle of the project, and the whole flat is a huge mess. Poor Kelly can't even get in her room, because there's a bookshelf blocking her door.

30. Relieved to know that Marnie won't be around for long.

31. Liked a picture of a Japanese mountain on Eric Thompson's travel-in-Japan blog. 

32. Learned from Thompson's blog that Japan tends to have slow speed-limits.  

33. Learned from Thompson's blog that people tend to ignore the speed limits, so traffic doesn't actually go very slow.

34. Saw that Thompson's blog post has several photos that I like and not just one. I liked the first one on the page, but now that I'm reading the post, I'm finding a lot of pictures that I like.

35. Learned that Marnie wasn't a bad person. She was actually kind and had a fun sense of humor. I think the lesson I got from that episode is some people are lovely in small quantities and/or from a distance. But they're intolerable as roommates.

36. Started watching another episode of The Secret Life of Us.

37. Saw that this episode is the beginning of the Gigi Edgley episodes. I was introduced to her via Farscape. I looked at her filmography, when I was watching that show, and saw she was also on The Secret Life of Us.

38. Felt sadness when Miranda reveals she wants to work in the U.S

And I want to be in Australia.

Why are so many people not in the place in the place they wish to be?

The whole thing kind of reminds me of pregnancy. There are women terrified of getting pregnant and other women who'd do almost anything to have a baby.

Is that a bad analogy? 

I'm just saying there are people who wish they had what we have while we're wishing we had what they have.  Maybe this makes life more interesting.

39. Read Bec's blog post about bribing kids. She asks if we're for or against it. I used to be against it, but now I'm definitely for it. 

My feeling is we should not bribe kids to do things they're already willing to do. For example, don't give your bookworm five dollars for every chapter book they finish reading. What's the point? You're wasting your money, and the child might start caring more about the money than reading.

Where I think bribing is a good idea is when you want your child to do something, and they could care less about it.

The big example is toilet-training. You might want your child to be toilet-trained by three-and-a-half. If they had it there way, they might wait until they're five or six. 

40. Wished someone would bribe me to take out the trash each Tuesday.

I do it, but I don't enjoy it.

I would be much happier if someone gave me a prize every time I finished the job.

41. Remembered that I bribe myself, actually. I have a whole point system with the prize being time to watch my TV shows. So...that's good. But still. I think it's more fun when the prize comes from someone else.

42. Thought Kelly was being a bit unrealistic when she told her boyfriend Jake (Torquil Neilson) she didn't want fighting or drama. I think it would be rare to have a relationship where those things are missing.

I'd be more in line with her if she said she wanted less fighting and drama. Jake is a bit difficult and abrasive.  His rude outbursts are too frequent.

44. Liked Kelly's response to the lovely romantic letter Jake wrote her after she dumped him. He showered her with compliments. Kelly says the letter was lovely, but she didn't see why they needed a huge drama to inspire him to express those kinds of things. 

I feel that way about compliments. One of my sisters once told me all this stuff about how she admired me. We were in the midst of a dramatic fight. It was annoying. Why couldn't she just tell me this stuff before? Telling me these things during the fight felt quite manipulative and also somewhat dishonest. 

I also don't like it when someone tries to cheer me up with compliments. I guess it's sort of okay if they've complimented me on these things before. But if they've never given me a compliment about that particular thing; and they're doing it when I'm upset...

NOT good.

It feels fake, and it doesn't make me feel better. 

45. Started to watch another episode of The Secret Life of Us. 

Don't worry, I took a break between episodes to do some cleaning.

Our house still looks like a disaster.

I'd have to take a break from all television if I wanted the house to look nice.

46. Delighted to see a reference to Doctor Who on The Secret Life of Us. Even though I'm not really into that right now. But still. It's nice to hear.

I miss being obsessed with Doctor Who.

Maybe I'll get back into it someday. 

47. Decided I'm having Asian lesbianism synchronocity. There's the Asian lesbian (Nina Liu) on The Secret Life of Us.  Then this morning I saw Ra Chapman on Neighbours. I don't know if Chapman's character is a lesbian on Neighbours, but she is a lesbian on Wentworth.

I also feel I'm having getting-wrong-Texts synchronocity. Twice today, two different people have sent me a text that they meant to send someone else. That's not something that often (or ever) happens to me. Well...a version of it does. I sometimes get a text from a family that was meant to be a private text, but they send it to the group instead. But today, I was the only one to get the texts that were meant for someone else. I wonder if it's just a coincidence. Or does it mean something? Is it a message from the universe?

OR maybe it's happening to other people? Maybe it's some kind of iPhone bug.

48. Noticed that Kelly wears the same shirts quite often. I keep seeing her alternate between the two shirts I've mentioned on the blog.

That's pretty cool.

I don't really understand the mindset of having to wear different clothes all the time.

I like wearing my favorite clothes repeatedly.

That being said, I have a lot of cute clothes in my closet. I'm trying to be better at remembering to wear the neglected pieces.

49. Noticed that Evan is wearing a shirt he wore in a previous episode. So, maybe it's not just Kelly. Maybe all the characters repeat their clothes.

50. Wondered about Neighbours. Do they repeat clothes a lot?

51. Finished watching the episode of The Secret Life of Us, and decided I don't mind the cast changes. I'm not missing the old people too much, and I like the new ones.

I think massive cast changes are scary when we're watching a show and get a glimpse of the cast from later seasons. It seems very abrupt.  But if we watch the show through all the seasons, and the cast changes happen gradually, it might not be awful.  There might not be many people from the first season in the last season.  By then, though, we might have become attached to characters introduced in the middle seasons.  

It's like Christian (Michael Dorman). He was new in the second season, but now, for me, he's one of the friendly, familar faces.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Laziness, Hemsworth Brothers, Expats, and Holgate

1. Dreamed. Julian McMahon has a beautiful nanny with long wavy red hair.  Meanwhile, I'm married and my husband and I have never had children. I suggest to my husband that we adopt the nanny even though she's an adult. He doesn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea.

I'm guessing Julian McMahon had a child, and he didn't hire a nanny to take care of himself. I don't think it was anything kinky like that.  I'm not sure how we knew about the nanny. I vaguely remember seeing her outside...maybe from our window?  We could have been neighbors, I suppose. I don't know if I was friendly with this nanny.  Or did I just see her from afar and want to adopt her?

2. Dreamed, I'm with people who talk about wanting a houseboat (maybe my parents). I learn of someone who wanted a houseboat in Cairns but then they realized it was too expensive.

3. Decided I'd be lazy enough to live on Hope Island from Reef Doctors. I mean I think I could be one of those people who leaves the island only for emergencies.

Because when we're at the lake house, I'm not interested in leaving. I like to just chill— inside the house and outside. I don't like going off to movies or shopping. I don't like going out to dinner. 

There are people in my family who are eager to go out and do stuff when we're at the lake house. I think they'd be the people who'd complain about being on an island. They'd get bored fast and want to go back to the mainland.

Also, in Halls Gap I was the same way. Well, I was totally fine leaving our vacation house. But I only wanted to take walks. I didn't want to get in a car and venture out. 

4. Wondered how I felt about traveling.

I like it, but I think I prefer to be lazy.

I think I'd be willing to give up traveling if I could live on an Australian island.  I'd travel for emergencies or to visit people. Although I would hope most people would come and visit us.  

5. Asked by Jack what city we're going to go to on our next trip to Australia. I told him I don't know yet, and I told him about my thing of listing and giving points to Australian towns and cities that call out to me.  

6. Confused because I imagined, on our next Australia trip, spending the whole time on a GBR island, and it didn't appeal to me. 

I also feel the same way about Halls Gap. I love it. I'd love to live there. But if we visited Australia, I wouldn't want to spend my whole vacation there.

So...If I live in Australia, I'm okay hardly ever leaving the one place where we live. But if I visit Australia, I wouldn't want to spend the whole time in one place.

How can that make sense?

7.  Decided it's just a war within between the two sides of myself—a) the adventurous woman who wants to see as much of the world as possible b) the lazy woman who just wants to sit on a porch in her nightclothes feeding birds.

8. Started to watch an episode of The Saddle Club.

9. Liked the episode of The Saddle Club more than other episodes.  It's about Lisa  (Lara Jean Marshall) getting the chance to choose an abused horse to be fostered. She ends up picking the most severe/hopeless case. I kind of admire that about her.

It's a three parter. I'm probably going to watch only one episode today, though. I want to get started with season thirty of Neighbours, and I want to finish watching my episode of Coronation Street.  I started watching a third one last night despite being tired. Then I realized it was one of those special forty-five minute episodes. But I need to watch it, because, from what I read in the description, Karl is going to make a confession about the fire!

10. Saw that Luke Hemsworth is a guest star in this episode of The Saddle Club. Yesterday I saw his brother on an episode.

Have I seen Luke Hemsworth yet?  There was a guy at the beginning? Was that him?  

11. Figured it was Hemsworth I saw in the beginning. I don't see any other male guest stars on the credit list.   

12. Went back to the beginning of the show and saw Luke Hemsworth. He looks very different!  He was a bit heavier back then.  

He looks shorter as well.

I see a resemblance to Luke Hemsworth, but I would imagine it's a brother and not him.

13. Got my brain back in order. I was thinking of LIAM Hemsworth. Duh.

So Luke IS a brother of who I was thinking about.

Now it all makes sense. Because I was confused. The guy on The Saddle Club doesn't look like a fatter version of the guy on The Hunger Games.  He still looks fit but differently shaped. Stocky, perhaps. 

14. Looked at the IMDb filmographies of Chris, Liam, and Luke Hemsworth.  Chris was the first one to get a credit on his filmography. He played King Arthur on two episodes of a show called Guinevere Jones.  One of the stars of the show was Damien Brodie who also guest-starred on season two of The Saddle Club.

15. Learned from IMdb that Luke is the oldest brother in the family. Or at least he's the eldest of the acting Hemsworth brothers. Liam is the youngest.  He's eight years younger than Chris. Wow. I wouldn't have expected that.  

16. Saw that Luke Hemsworth has four children under the age of six.  I imagine that might be exhausting sometimes. My sister has three under the age of six—a six-year-old, an almost-five-year-old, and an almost two-year-old.  It can get a bit intense at times.  Personally, I thought it was quite hard having ONE child that young.

17. Saw that, according to IMDb, Luke is the shortest of the Hemsworth actors. But he's five foot 9. That's still fairly tall. It's just Liam and Chris are over six feet.  

I'm actually impressed that I noticed that Luke was shorter. I'm not often good at judging height.  

18. Started watching season thirty of Neighbours! There's a new opening credits. No more picnic with someone throwing a ball into the Pavlova.

Actually, I'm not sure it was a Pavlova. I just assumed it was, since they're in Australia. I'm stereotyping.

And was it a ball? Maybe it was a frisbee? Do Australians play frisbee?

19. Decided to watch the old opening-credits.  

It's a ball—looks like a tennis one.  The dessert could be a cake or Pavlova?  It looks more like a cake to me, but it has strawberries and kiwi which calls out Pavlova to me.  

20. Went back to watching the new credits. 

21. Felt strange seeing Damien Richardson as Gary on Neighbours, because now I'm used to him being a detective on City Homicide.

22. Saw that Richardson is on season three of Wentworth!

23. Suspected that IMDb is causing the annoying squeaky noises on my computer. I was hearing it before when I was doing Hemsworth research. Then it stopped. Now it's started again.

24. Thought of Maisie Mouse when I read that Richardson has a daughter named Maisie.

25. Started watching another episode of Neighbours. It looks like Paul Robinson is in trouble. 

26. Saw a photo of a Frangipani flower on the Outback Rover Adventures Blog.  Frangipani reminds me of the song "Feel Like Going Back Home" from Bran Nue Dae.  It's not a random thing. There's a line in the song about the flower.  

27. Listened to the song. I haven't heard it in a long time. I love it.  It kind of makes me want to go to Broome. 

28. Started watching another episode of Neighbours.

29. Had lots of thoughts while reading Nikki's post about choosing between two schools, in South Africa, for her son. She chose a school that had a strong sports emphasis even though her son is not athletic. She said no to the school that was more academically focused even though her son is more the academic type.

I think I would have done things differently. I guess I believe more in working with people's strengths rather than trying to fix their weaknesses. Although I think the latter in small doses isn't a bad idea.

On the other hand, you never know if a person might end up having a strength or interest you never expected.

I disliked sports throughout most of my life, and it wasn't until I was an adult that I learned I'm not so awful at basketball.

Jack recently announced his favorite subject is history, and I've never gotten the idea that he had any ounce of interest in that.

30. Hoped Nikki's son was happy at his school. The post was written six years ago, so now that's all in the past.  I'm kind of actually in suspense now, but I'm not going to give into temptation to read ahead.  Though judging from the labels on her blog, I don't think they're still in South Africa.  It looks like they end up in Atlanta, Georgia. Tim lives there part-time now. Maybe he'll run into them. I'll tell him to look out for some Australians. Although with all that time being an expat, they might have lost some of their accent.

31. Wondered what it would be like to be an expat. My cousin is one. I don't know what's going to happen there. Will she and her family stay in Australia and become Australian eventually? Will they be like Nikki's family and live in various places around the world? Or will they come back to the US?

The kids have spent most of their childhood in Australia. The oldest got there around age four and and would now be about twelve. Maybe?  But then they spent a few years back in the US—One or two.  I'm not sure.

32. Remembered that my mother-in-law was an expat too. She lived in England as a child.  Or maybe it was during her teen years.

33. Wondered about a poster on the wall of Daniel's bar on Neighbours. It says something about America and Australia. The name of it is Holgate. And there's something about a road trip?

34. Found out that Holgate is an American-style beer brewed in Victoria, Australia. Interesting.

Or actually, I think the beer is called Road Trip and it's brewed at Holgate Brewhouse.

35. Went to the website of Holgate Brewhouse. It's located in Picnic at Hanging Rock Land.—Woodend, Victoria.

You can find their beer in many places around Australia, especially Victoria.

36. Liked Michelle's anti-positive thinking post.  She says,  Believing that life is 90% how you react to it is positive thinking gone mad. It also strikes me that it is a useful lie; useful that is for those who sit at the top of the pile and beyond cruel to those at the bottom, whose lives are weighed down by brutal realities that are completely out of their control.

I personally feel my attitude is shaped by reality more often than my reality is shaped by my attitude. That's not to say an upbeat attitude won't ever lighten a dark situation. But it won't make the darkness go completely away.

37. Thought about something else. People who have a positive attitude about their own dark situation? That's usually tolerable and sometimes admirable.  When they push the positive attitude on someone else's despair? Then that's shit.  Cheer up! It's not so bad. Think positively! Don't worry; be Happy. Think of how lucky you are. Everything will be fine. Don't be so negative. You worry too much. Chin up. 

That being said. I can probably plead guilty to sometimes raining on someone's pity parade.  I TRY not to do it, though, and I think I usually succeed at avoiding it.

Sometimes I might be two-faced about the whole thing—act sympathetic but be thinking in my mind Does she ever stop moaning and complaining?  

That's the thing, though. Positive thinking is annoying but so is extreme and/or constant negativity. And if you're too loud and energetic at your own pity party, you're not leaving room for anyone else to join in.

It's like Haley on Coronation Street. She's so upbeat despite being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So everyone in town is showering her with excessive sympathy.  If she walked around depressed, moaning about how unfair it all is, her neighbours would probably try hard to avoid her.

38.  Started to watch another episode of Neighbours.

39. Wondered if Daniel and Imogen will end up getting together.  I like him better with her than Amber. But I don't really like Amber with Josh.

Maybe Amber would work well as a lesbian.

How about Amber and Naomi? That would be hot.

40. Worked on learning how to do screenshots on my computer. Because then maybe I can take pictures of the TV shows I watch, and include it in the post. For example, what if I want to mention a character's shirt or dress I like? Then I can screenshot it.

41. Managed to do a screenshot of Bailey(Calen Mackenzie). I'm just practicing here. I have nothing to say about Bailey or his clothes.

42. Found something to say about Bailey...or actually, Calen Mackenzie. When I was looking for the actor's name, I ended up learning he's left the show. That's sad. I like him. I'll miss him. Hopefully, he'll pop up on another one of my Aussie shows. Well...unless he's sick of acting.

43. Felt sad for Chris on Neighbours.  He wanted to be a mechanic and was on that road of life. Then he got a head injury, and now his hands no longer work as well.  I imagine it's really hard to be good at something, have career plans involving that skill, and then the skill is lost. Actually, the same thing happened to Georgia on the show. She was good at singing, but then had an operation for a throat tumor. The operation went wrong, and she lost her singing abilities.

44. Remembered that Georgia's career is in the medical field, not singing. But I think it was an important hobby to her? Or maybe she did make some money singing? I'm not sure.

Another example of someone losing their talent is in the book I'm reading now. A Fraction of the Whole.  Terry is a young sports star but then he gets a leg injury and has to find a new life path. Unfortunately, he chooses the criminal road.

45. Learned from Lord Wiki that Seth Rogan sang part of the Neighbours theme song for the Neighbors movie trailer.  I think it was for Australia only.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Michael Dorman, Bucket Lists, Irukandji, and Magnesium Sulfate

1. Dreamed that my almost-Australian cousin wrote a blog post about how children's Tylenol can help with weight loss.

Maybe I got that from the venom-medicine stuff from Reef Doctors.

Medications are complicated. They can have benefits for multiple problems, but they almost always have a danger or bad side effects.  

2. Started watching another episode of Reef Doctors. I'm super excited, because guess who I saw in the credits?!

Michael Dorman!!!  He might be one of my favorite Australians.

3. Saw Michael Dorman and thought he looked a bit like Christopher Walken.  I think it's his haircut.

4. Recognized another one of the guest stars on Reef Doctors.  I looked up the actor. It's Christopher Morris.  IMDb says he was on six episodes of Offspring—most in the first season but then also in one episode of the last season. He played Brendan Wright. I'm not sure who that was, but I'm guessing it was Nina's ex-husband?  Though I don't remember him returning in the last season.  

5. Looked at the Australian television website. Yeah. From what they say...it seems I'm right about Brendan. 

6. Saw that Dorman's character on Reef Doctors is very different from his character on Wonderland and The Secret Life of Us.  He's much less sweet...more like a Barney Stinson type.

7. Started watching another episode of Reef Doctors. Isabel Durant is a guest-star on this one. I know her from Dance Academy. What's funny is I remember seeing her name on one of my shows earlier this week, but I don't remember seeing her.  I'm guessing it was Reef Doctors. It would be a coincidence if it had been The Saddle Club.

8. Looked at Isabel Durant's IMDb filmography. She was in the third episode of Reef Doctors, but it's classified as uncredited. Maybe her role was very small on that episode?

9. Bored by ongoing subplot on Reef Doctors about diving for treasures.  

10. Saw Durant. She's playing a swimmer who's working on training stuff.

11. Thought more about bucket lists, because a guy on the show talks about having one.  He has MS and doesn't expect to live a full lifespan.  I'm usually not a big fan of bucket lists, but maybe I feel differently if it's for someone who's terminally ill.  If someone doesn't have long to live, it kind of makes sense for them to figure out what they want to do during their last weeks, months, or years.  If there's no immediate threat to your life, and you make a list, I think it's....

I don't know.

What if you put stuff on the list and ten years later, you're no longer interested?

For example....If I made a bucket list a few months ago, I would have added the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff. Now I'm really not into that anymore. 

I guess people can delete stuff from their list.

I think I believe more in going with the flow.

Maybe I also believe we shouldn't have a long list of wishes. We're setting ourselves up for disappointment. I think healthy people are better off having a gratitude list than a bucket list. I would hope dying people would have a gratitude list as well, but maybe it's not a bad idea for them to also have a bucket list.  

12. Thought a bucket list for a terminally ill person would also qualify as setting up for disappointment if the list was unrealistic and/or unreasonable.

Wanting to go to Disney World or spend a week in Paris is one thing. Wanting to visit the capitol of every country or marry a movie star is not likely to come to fruition.  Well, the former might if the sick person is very wealthy or has very rich and generous friends/family.  

13. Wondered if it was better to have a bucket ITEM instead of a bucket list...whether you are healthy or terminally ill.  Have one wish. Work on making it come true. Then if it does, consider making a new wish.  

I think if we can pick one thing we really want; then that means we truly have passion for it. If we have a long list, then do we really feel that passionate about everything on the list?

14. Started watching the last episode of Reef Doctors. After that, I'll choose my new show!

15. Saw, on the show, that they're putting up the stinger warnings on the beach.  

I think stinger season is November to April?

16. Saw from this website, that May is included as well. 

17. Wondered if any medicines could be made from Irukandji venom.  

18. Learned from this website that Irukandji syndrome is a nerve toxin that causes a release of both adrenaline and non-adrenaline.

The website says that the release of both these things causes a fight or flight reaction.

Is there actually something in our body called nonadrenaline?

19. Learned that we do have something in our body called nonadrenaline.  It is also known as norepinephrine.  Lord Wiki says it's used medically for people with low blood pressure.  I'm guessing they mean very low blood pressure. Moderately low blood pressure doesn't usually need to be treated.

20. Learned from Lord Wiki that in Alzheimer's disease, many of the cells that project the norepinephrine are lost.  So who knows. Maybe the Irukandji jellyfish will one day lead to alzheimer's treatment. How? I don't know. I'm not a scientist.  But I wish I was sometimes.

21. Started questioning my amateur science ideas. It seems they already have norepinephrine, because Lord Wiki says they use it to treat blood pressure. So why would they need to get it from the Irukandji?

Maybe it's the release of both chemicals that will lead to something.  What if you dialed down the Irukandji syndrome from 100% to 10%.  Maybe what's bad in huge amounts can be helpful in tiny amounts.  

22. Expected that someone is going to get stung this episode.  

23. Saw that someone probably got stung.

I'm scared. This is very suspenseful.

24. Terrified and felt a lot of sympathy for the victim and the people taking care of him.

25. Googled magnesium sulfate, because on the show they talked about using it for Irukandji Syndrome.

I found a study.  It says magnesium sulfate has become the standard of care, even though there's not much evidence to support its use. Well, and I think this is why they decided to do the study.

So...what did they find?

26. Read the conclusion. They found that magnesium sulfate didn't do any more than the placebo did.

That's kind of disappointing.

27. Got the idea that the writers of Reef Doctors disagree with the research. The patient on the show responded well to the magnesium sulfate. 

28. Finished Reef Doctors.

29. Went to Random.org to pick new show.

It's Neighbours!!!!

I'm so happy!

It will be so nice to get back to Ramsey Street!

I'll start that on Thursday.

Tomorrow might be a The Saddle Club marathon.  

A Fraction of the Whole, Self-Diagnosis, Music Videos, and Germophobia

1. Dreamed about Australia. Or NOT Australia. I'm walking through an area with a friend. I consider it to be Australia, and I want it to be Australia. But I'm having my doubts. I get this feeling that I've heard accents that are not Australian. Also, I see black people who look African.   

I think I expected black people to look more Aboriginal than African. Though my waking self knows and understands that there ARE people of African-origin who live in Australia.

2. Worried that I accidentally said something rude a few weeks ago. At the time, I didn't think of it as being rude. It took me until this morning to realize I might have made a mistake.

I was talking to my sister and her husband. I made a comment about how when Jack was their child's age, we took him to Australia. Now, when I think of it, it sounds like bragging.  And it also could be insulting, comparing our life with theirs.

I don't think I meant to brag. I think it was more a feeling of amazement—looking at their child and imagining taking someone that young all the way to Australia.  I think sometimes I fail to appreciate and understand how young Jack was at certain times until I see another child who is at the age that he was then.

But yeah. It was probably a thought that should have stayed in my own head and not spoken aloud.

3. Examined and remembered my own feelings about international traveling with young children. I definitely don't think it needs to be done.  I think to do it for the child's sake is pretty ridiculous. They'd probably get as much excitement and enrichment by going on a local mini-vacation.

Tim acted eager to travel when Jack was young, and I pretty much put my foot down. I thought it was a waste of money and a huge hassle to take a young child on an airplane.

We ended up going to Australia, because I became obsessed.  I dragged Jack along on my adventure. Fortunately, it ended up that Jack traveled well. I think he had a fantastic time in Australia.  I don't think it hurt him in anyway. So I don't regret taking him. I'm glad we did it. But I think he would have been fine if we didn't go to Australia.

4. Consulted Lord Wiki about African-Australians.

He says wide-scaled immigration from Africa is fairly new in Australia. So if my dream took place a few decades ago, seeing people of African-origin might have been a sign that I wasn't actually in Australia.

These days Australia gets a fair amount of newcomers from South Africa and Sudan.

5. Looked at Lord Wiki's chart.  Sydney has a lot of South Africans. But I think many of them are white and not black, so they probably wouldn't have been the people in my dream. Besides, I think maybe my dream took place in Western Australia.  In that case, I might have been seeing people from Kenya, Zambia, or Zimbabwe. Though, if I'm understanding things correctly, immigrants from Zimbabwe are often Caucasian.  So I'll go with Kenyans and Zambians.

6. Took A Fraction of the Whole off my bookshelf.  Yesterday I started reading a library book, and quit after the first chapter. It's the third book in a row that I haven't liked. The first one I completed; the second I quit after about a hundred pages.

I'm hoping I'll like A Fraction of the Whole.  I read it about five years ago and loved it. So, if all is right in the world, I should love it again. If I don't like it, I'm going to assume reading novels just isn't for me at this point. I'll take a break for a few weeks. Maybe I'll read just blogs instead.

7. Found a butterfly wing in the middle of A Fraction of the Whole. I'm not sure if I put it there on purpose, or if it landed in the book on accident.

No, don't worry. I'm not a cruel person who tears wings off butterflies. The wing is from a butterfly that came out of a chrysalis in our garage. He fell to the ground and didn't seem very healthy. I brought him inside the house and hoped/wished/tried to get it healthy, but things didn't work out.

8.  Liked this story about a cafe owner who asked a customer to leave because he complained about a woman breastfeeding.  He complained. The owner offered to sit him somewhere else. He declined; then asked the breastfeeding mom to cover herself up. THEN the owner told him to leave.

9. Thought back to my breastfeeding days.  I think the only person who complained was my younger sister Melissa. I forgot what she said, though. All I remember is that we all were at my other sister's house...I think for my Grandfather's funeral.

Now Melissa has had three babies of her own and breastfed all of them. I think her view of public breastfeeding has probably changed.

10. Imagined that some of these people who complain about public breastfeeding might just be ignorant and inexperienced. In a few years, they might have children or grandchildren of their own. They could end up very supportive of breastfeeding.

It's like I sometimes feel exasperated with the elderly folks on scooters  who slow down the buses at Disney World. But one day I'll probably be one of them. And worse, since I've had bitchy thoughts about it, Karma will probably kick my ass, and I'll be one of those unfortunate ones who ends up having to use a scooter before becoming elderly.

Or maybe not...since I'm kind of expressing regret about it now. Maybe Karma will be forgiving.

11. Impressed with the episode of The Saddle Club I watched today, because it actually mentioned something Australian. The boys tried to trick the girls into thinking there was a Yowie in the woods.

12. Remembered there was a chocolate bar on the episode. I was half-paying attention, because I was simultaneously playing QuizUp.  But maybe it was an Australian bar?  I should rewind and check.

13. Went back to watch the candy bar part. They don't give a close-up enough view.

14. Wondered why The Saddle Club doesn't have a nationality.

Maybe it's because the Canadians and Australians fought over it taking place in their  own countries. Then, as a compromise, they decided it would be neither place. It would be a combination of Australia and Canada. Some people would have Australian accents, and some would have Canadian.

It's kind of like how Canberra was a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne.

15. Saw that The Saddle Club book series was written by a woman from the US. So we're in the mix too.

16. Started reading A Fraction of the Whole and am already loving it.

I mean I only read the first paragraph, and had to stop to quote it.

You never hear about a sportsman losing his sense of smell in a tragic accident, and for good reason; in order for the universe to teach excruciating lessons that we are unable to apply later in life, the sportsman must lose his legs, the philosopher his mind, the painter his eyes, the musician his legs, the chef his tongue.

Though that's not always true. Case in point: Stephen Hawking. If I look at him through the eyes of that paragraph, he's kind of fortunate.

17. Wondered if the first paragraph was true.

I don't think so, actually. If a sportsman had a bad injury, the news would probably drone on about it for weeks. Those interested, could probably find out about every injury that occurred including a loss of smell.

18. Stopped being so fond of the first paragraph. Now I feel the need to poke all these holes in it.

What's wrong with me?

19. Started watching another episode of The Reef Doctors.

This one features a cone shell. On the show, they said, there's no anti-venom. Yikes!

20. Reminded of myself when watching the storyline about the guy who has diagnosed himself by looking online. I do that a lot.  Last night, I diagnosed myself with neuropathy.

21. Wondered how often people are correct about their self-diagnosis. I imagine it must happen sometimes.

22. Learned the guy who thought he had a brain tumor really just had too much ear wax.

The show makes him look like a fool. I guess it's fair. Because in a past episode they made the doctor look like a fool with a misdiagnosis.

That's the thing about self-diagnosis. Maybe people do it too often, and end up with wrong answers. But sometimes doctors provide the wrong answers as well.

23. Liked the storyline twist on The Reef Doctors. There's an elderly woman, and we're briefly led to believe she's being abused by her carer; but then it turns out to be the opposite.

I think there was something similar with a breastfeeding mom on Wonderland.  No, she wasn't being abusive. But she WAS somewhat rude and annoying.

I think certain groups of people in our society are often painted as being innocent victims. And yeah. They might be victims, but they're not always sweet and innocent. Sometimes they're bitches and assholes.

24. Liked this quote about Australia in A Fraction of the Whole.  ...Because while Australia is an eventful place, what goes on there is about as topical in world newspapers as "Bee Dies in New Guinea After Stinging Tree By Mistake". It's not our fault. We're too far away.

25. Loved this quote as well.  And now everyone returning from an armed conflict is a hero too. In the old days you had to commit specific acts of valor during war;  now you just need to turn up. These days when a war is on, heroism seems to mean 'attendance'.

I also don't like it when victims of disease or catastrophe are called heroes. Now some of them might do something truly heroic, and then they might rightfully earn the title. But they shouldn't get the label just for getting sick or being injured.

26. Received Aussie music information through email. This used to happen to be on a regular basis. I think I told one of them them (nicely!) to stop at one point.  It's not because I'm a mean person but because I wasn't blogging much anymore.  Or maybe I didn't tell them they had to stop. Maybe I just said they might WANT to stop, because it's kind of a waste of their time.

But now I AM blogging a lot, so music emails are appreciated.

27. Started listening to the first song. It's called "By Water" by Esther Holt.

I like the lamp in the video.

I didn't like the song at first, but slowly it's growing on me.

28. Wondered if the animal at 2:25 is a Tasmanian Tiger.  I think it is.

29. Started listening to the other video the music people sent. This one is Whitley's "My Heart is Not a Machine". They sent it, because it features Esther Holt.

I like Whitley.

30. Liked the cat and the macaw in the video.

31. Realized that Esther Holt is more of a background singer in the video. It's not like other songs featuring singers. In those, the singers usually have solos.

32. Started to listen to Whitley's "Cheap Clothes", because YouTube automatically started playing it. Does anyone know how to stop that, by the way?  I find it annoying.

Anyway...I decided while I'm listening to the song, I might as well watch the Australia video I made that uses the song.  This one is from when we were in Halls Gap.

33. Saw that my video has cool animals too. No Macaw or cat, but there is a cockatoo and a kangaroo.  I bet there will also be magpies.

Oh! And now I remember...emus as well.

34. Impressed with my video. Though the narration is hard to follow. I don't think people will understand what the hell is going on unless they were there with us.

But then again, music videos are often hard to follow.

Maybe the whole point is to confuse people.

35. Started watching another episode of Reef Doctors.

36. Excited by Open Water type storyline on Reef Doctors.

37. Felt some sympathy (maybe empathy?) for the characters on Reef Doctors, because their friends are lost at sea. I'm imagining how we'd feel if our close friends were lost.  It's incredibly stressful, waiting to see if you're going to get good news or bad. Well, I've never had anyone lost before. But I have experienced waiting to see if someone is going to survive injury, surgery, get a terrifying diagnosis, etc.

38. Felt a kinship with Eric Thompson when reading his Japan blog.  He's an Australian who loves Japan, but he does NOT like Natto, the fermented soybean that is loved by "real" Japanese people. It's just like I'm an American who loves Australia, but I do not like Vegemite.

39. Started watching another episode of Reef Doctors.

Something is wrong with one of their snakes. I hope it's okay. I think it will be. Reef Doctors is the type of show where people and other types of animals are often in peril, but they usually survive.

40. Tried to remember if there have been any deaths on Reef Doctors.

I don't think so.

Past deaths are mentioned, but I don't think any on-screen characters have died.

41. Felt kinship with woman on Reef Doctors, because she's quite militant about food safety.

She's cooking with a nurse and doctor who exchange looks about her need to follow safety guidelines.  It's like they're annoyed. That makes me kind of annoyed.  I think medical professionals should be militant about cleanliness and food safety as well.

Then again, maybe she's going too far? I'm not sure.

I might go too far sometimes.  I mean I don't think I go beyond guidelines. The thing is the guidelines are quite strict, and I get uptight about other people following them. For example, in Hibachi restaurants, it bothers me when the chef monkeys with the vegetables using the same knife or spatula that touched the raw chicken.  I try to reassure myself by imagining that maybe the germs on the spatula (knife?) are being killed by the very hot cooking surface.

The thing is I worry less about food cooked in closed kitchen, because I'm not having to watch.  It's easier for me to be in denial—pretend it's okay.

The hard decision is when someone I know is cooking.  Is it better for me to police them and make sure good cleaning habits are used. Or is it better to hide and just hope for the best?

Often, I hide and then later come and wipe various things in the kitchen with an anti-bacterial wipe.  Well, I do this with Tim and sometimes at the lake house. I wouldn't do it at a friend's house.

42. Found out the woman on Reef Doctors is a general germophobe. She also opts to give visiting the clinic a miss, because it recently had a TB infection.  They did a thorough cleaning, but she's still worried. I'd feel the same way. I'd prefer to skip it, but if there was good reason for me to go, I'd go ahead with it.  Maybe.  I hope I would. I hope my germ paranoia hasn't reached awful dimensions.

The weird thing is, for me it's all about vomit.  If there's a contagion that doesn't usually cause vomiting, I probably would be a lot less freaked out.  So actually...I probably wouldn't hesitate too much about the cleaned TB area.  But I would be extremely hesitant about visiting a clinic that recently had a patient infected with the norovirus.

43. Could not relate to germaphobic woman's disgust at having a dead man's ashes blow on her. I don't think that would bother me. I think it's actually kind of cool...in a morbid creepy way.  Well, I wouldn't want a whole urn's worth to land on me. But an ash or two?  No problem.

44. Saw that I spoke too soon about nothing dying on Reef Doctors.

Poor snake.

45. Wondered if I'd be classified as OCD, because the woman I've been relating to has just been identified as having OCD.

Yikes.

46. Took an online OCD test and scored 9 which is in the category of OCD is probable.

I don't like the test, though. I think it's confusing.

There's a section that asks Have you ever felt driven to perform certain acts over and over again, such as....

Then they list some things I do such as washing hands, checking appliances, opening and rereading and writing letters. Well, I don't do that with letters, because I rarely write letters. But sometimes I'll do it with email.  I don't know if I check it over and over. But I worry about it sometimes.  I worry about accidentally saying something offensive...like some kind of Freudian slip.

I have a worry about leaving the freezer open, so I'll check that...ONCE at night.  I mean I'll be in bed, start worrying about it, and then I'll go check. Since it's only once, is it not OCD?  Maybe that's normal and okay. Maybe it's only OCD if you do it multiple times.

I also worry about things, but I don't bother checking. For example, this weekend, when we went to the lake house,  I worried that I left the oven on at home. But I didn't insist my mom drive me home. Nor did I worry about it excessively.  I still had a fun time at the lake house and was usually thinking about other things.

47. Decided to self-diagnose myself with NOT having OCD.  I'm going to take the test again and be more be conservative with my answers.

48. Got a 2 this time.

So, basically I range from not having OCD and probably having OCD, depending on which way I feel like interpreting the questions.

49. Continued to believe I do have neuropathy.

50. Self-diagnosed myself with hypochondria. I feel very confident about that diagnosis.



Read my novel: The Dead are Online