Daniel and Terese, Outland, Geeks, and Tim Phillips

1. Started watching an episode of Neighbours.

2. Liked the scenes between Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) and Daniel (Tim Phillips).

Daniel is upset, and Terese offers to chat with him. Daniel is hesitant, because Terese is Josh's (Harley Bonner) mom. Josh is the cause of most of Daniel's angst. He's the father of Amber's (Jenna Rosenow) embryo, which is awkward, because Amber is Daniel's girlfriend. 

Who wants to talk to the mother of the guy who had sex with your girlfriend and is now competing for her attention?

But Terese reminds Daniel that she knows what it's like to have a partner who is dedicated to children that are not also hers.

3. Imagined it's very hard to have a partner who shares children with someone else. 

I think, though, that it can be hard to have a partner who is very dedicated to any family member not shared. It doesn't have to be a child. It can be a parent or sibling; maybe sometimes a niece, nephew, or cousin.  

4. Decided it would be hardest with a child. If you have partner that's overly dedicated to their parent or sibling, it seems more valid to gripe about it. When it's their child, complaining might make you sound like a wicked stepmother.

5. Amazed that Kyle (Chris Milligan) is wearing a t-shirt promoting Australia rather than the United States.

6. Looked at study about in utero surgery for fetuses with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. 

Daniel finally started doing his own Internet research, instead of relying on doctors to spoon feed him information. He found that the surgery doesn't improve outcomes.

The study, I found, says the same—except in the case of liver hernia.  

Other studies might say something else.

7.  Hoped that Daniel finds a new woman, and Terese finds a new man.

Maybe they should get together with each other.

8. Wondered how Paul (Stefan Dennis) would feel about that. 

He doesn't like Daniel with Amber, and he doesn't like Terese with Brad (Kip Gamblin). He'd probably be happy if both of those couples broke up. Would he be okay with Terese then pairing up with Daniel?

9. Started watching an episode of Outland, and recognized one of the actors (Toby Truslove) as being from The Strange Calls.

10. Felt unexcited about Outland.

I don't think I'm going to like it.

11. Didn't mind the first minute of the show.

So far, it reminds me of The Big Bang Theory. It's about people who are science fiction fans.

Well, actually so far one character is, and he has a friend who's not.  

Max (Truslove) tries to hide his obsession from his seemingly cooler friend. The friend invites himself up to Max's apartment, and Max asks him to wait, so he can clean  hide the science fiction stuff.

12. Realized Max is gay.

Now it makes a bit more sense. I think adults are more likely to hide their true selves from someone when there's romantic interest.  

13. Felt there's a chance I might like this show after all.

Someone just said, There's a Dalek in your sugar bowl.  How could I dislike a show with that line?

14. Heard Rae (Christine Anu) make reference to Melissa George's breasts in Dark City.

And I just saw her breasts in The Slap.

Does Melissa George show her breasts often on screen?  

15. Thought a part from from Outland was brilliant. 

Dylan (Jesse Rosenfeld) walks out on Max's science fiction club. Max chases after him, and Dylan says that Max's friends are geeks.

Max says this: Well, everyone's a geek, Dylan. Well, it's true. It's just music geeks are cool, and football geeks are mainstream. You know like painting your face with your team colors. None of it's....

Well, I can't decipher the dialogue here, but Max mentions Klingon foreheads. 

16. Decided that although I like Max's lines, I don't fully agree with them.

Not everyone is a geek.

I mean not everyone is super passionate about something. They might like and enjoy something but not with a geekiness passion.

17. Wondered something. Is it easier to get along with someone who shares our interest or with someone who shares our level of geekiness? 

I think for me, it's the latter. I think I'd get along better with someone obsessed with another country than a fan of Australia who's much less passionate or more passionate than me.

18. Changed my mind. First of all, there's never going to be someone who shares our exact level of passion.  

Well, I don't know....

I think if someone is way more passionate than me about something; I can feel kind of left out in the cold. I feel like I don't measure up. If they're REALLY extreme, I might be a bit freaked out about it and embarrassed that I share their interest.

For example, when I was into Doctor Who; if I had encountered someone who had seen every episode; had read every book; had heard every audio story; had gone to conventions, and had a huge collection of Daleks; I'd feel kind of like a failure. I'd probably wonder, what's the point of me being a fan. 

On the other side, let's say I meet someone who says they love Australia. But then when we get to talking, I learn they have no clue about Tony Abbott, The Three Sisters, Claudia Karvan, Tim Tams, and Powderfinger.  All they know is kangaroos, koalas, and Hugh Jackman; I'd be disappointed and kind of annoyed with them.  I think I'd rather hang out with someone obsessed with Paraguay and who actually knows a lot about Paraguay

19. Concluded that I'd be happy to meet a fan of Australia who has a similar level of interest or someone who is very passionate about something else. I would be less interested in someone who is fanatic to the point of seeming somewhat insane or someone who really doesn't qualify as a geek.

20. Decided I have a pretty high level of geek-tolerance. I think someone would have to be literally delusional for me to be repelled by them.

A Doctor Who fan could wear Doctor Who clothes everyday, attend conferences every month, quote dialogue on a regular basis, have a room decorated to look like the Tardis, and always use Dalek-shaped ice-cubes. I would actually think all of that is awesome.  But if the person told me that the Doctor is real, and this person is waiting for The Doctor to show up in his backyard; I would probably not be so keen on pursuing a friendship with this person.  

21. Wanted to say that  having a firm belief that The Doctor is real is different from wishing The Doctor was real or speculating that he MIGHT be real.      

I sometimes believe that Harry Potter is real, and that JK Rowling channeled their story from some alternate universe.  But I think that's different from having complete faith...or close to complete faith.

22. Felt the same way about religious and spiritual beliefs. I feel more comfortable with people who believe something MIGHT be true than those who believe something is definitely true.  

23. Finished the first episode of Outland.

So, far I love it!

I'm so happy about that.

Now I might have to be sad about the fact that there're only six episodes.

24. Wondered about Christine Anu. I did a post years ago about her. I vaguely remember her being accused of homophobia. And here she is on this show playing a lesbian.

What were the accusations?

I need to go see.

From what I hardly remember, I think it was a maybe-homophobia thing, and not a definite one.

25. Googled and ended up finding my own blog post.  I link to an article, but it's gone. So now it looks like I made the whole thing up.

What I said is that Anu defended a friend. She was asked by the police if the friend was her partner, and Anu acted offended. 

This is what I said in my post.  I really don't know what happened with Anu. She might be a little homophobic. She says she has gay friends, but that doesn't really prove anything. She could be totally NOT homophobic. The police might have asked the question in a degrading way. His tone might have been what offended Anu.

Now I'm thinking, maybe it was none of the above. Maybe Anu isn't homophobic at all. Maybe she was just repulsed by being romantically paired with that particular female friend. Maybe if it had been another female friend, she'd be totally fine with it.

26. Found article that proves I didn't make the whole thing up.

Well, of course I knew I didn't make it up. Because I believe in me...since I am me. But I can't expect other people to have full faith in me.

From what I see in the article, Anu was angry about race relation issues and not about being mistaken for a lesbian.

27. Came up with another interpretation. Maybe Anu did have feelings for her friends. When the policeman asked if they were partners; maybe that was like putting salt in the wound.

28. Started watching the second episode of Outland.

29. Saw that the series is a bit like The Slap, in that each episode focuses on a different character.

The last one focused on Max. This one is about Rae (Anu).

30. Didn't like the second episode of Outland as much as the first, but I didn't dislike it.

31. Started watching the third episode of Outland.

This one is about Andy.

Andy's played by Paul Ireland. He's from Rush. He played the brother of the guy that Kerry Vincent (Catherine McClements) killed with her car.

I also saw him last week on The Slap.

32. Saw that while the first episode made a lot of references to Doctor Who; this one makes a lot of references to The X-Files.

33. Thought of The Walking Dead while reading expat Nikki's post about Atlanta folks helping each other out during a snow storm.

Well, and Nikki actually mentions The Walking Dead in her post. But even if she didn't, I probably would have thought of it. It's rare that I think about Atlanta without thinking of The Walking Dead.

No, that's not really true. When I think about my past—living there; I don't really think about The Walking Dead. And Tim lives there part time now. I don't have some kind of image of him escaping zombies. But besides those two things, when I think of Atlanta, I think of The Walking Dead.

Anyway....Nikki's post is very positive. It's nice to see an Australian having such a good experience in the US.  I was thinking, at first, that if there were a real zombie disaster, many people in Atlanta would survive, because people are so generous and helpful. But then I changed my mind. I think being helpful and generous is dangerous when it comes to a zombie apocalypse.  If I remember correctly there was a webisode where a woman started to do rescue breathing on someone, not realizing the someone was one of the undead.  Well, I don't even think she knew there were undead people. If she knew, she probably would have walked away and not been a good samaritan.

I think the general message of The Walking Dead is to be very weary of helping others; always put you and your own group first; and know how to shoot a gun. It's actually good right-wing propaganda.

34. Realized that Max on Outland is wearing a V  t-shirt!  At least that's what I think it is.

35. Wondered if the V remake used those letters.

36. Found Max's T-shirt on Cafe Press.

37. Started watching the fourth episode of Outland.

This one seems to be an homage to horror movies. There are references to Alien, 666, scary corridors, a warning not to go into the house, Hitchcock, etc.

38. Loved that this episode makes reference to the Mickey and Ricky storyline on Doctor Who.

It's not just a quick message either. Andy goes into detail about the episode and analyzes it on a very emotional level.

39. Liked the fourth episode the best so far. Even though the show's a comedy, I thought the episode was actually kind of scary.

40. Started watching the fifth episode of Outland.

41. Amused by national gay man dance on Outland. Apparently every gay man is required to learn it when he comes out of the closet.

42. Thought while the last episode was horror-comedy; this one was like a dramedy. There were some serious, emotional moments.

43. Saw that Ben Gerrard who plays Toby on Outland is going to be on an upcoming miniseries about Molly Meldrum.

Samuel Johnson is playing Meldrum.

I actually don't know much about Molly Meldrum, but I have heard of him.

44. Started watching the last episode of Outland.

They make reference to the movie Outland, which I never heard of until today. I kept running into it when searching for the TV show Outland on IMDb.

45. Went to Random.org to pick my next show.

It's season three of Packed to the Rafters!

I'll be very happy to get back to that show.

46. Started to watch the Neighbours backstage video I meant to watch yesterday.

It's a long Tim Phillips thing.

Yesterday I watched a short Tim Phillips thing.

47. Thought Tim Phillips was better looking than Daniel Robinson. He kind of has a rock star quality to him.

I'm not sure why I'm saying that. I've never been attracted to a rock star. Well, except for when I was in fifth grade and had a thing for Michael Jackson.

48. Enjoyed seeing Olympia Valance and Phillips run their lines together. I'm impressed that they can do it in a casual way, but still make the dialogue seem real.

I don't think I'm saying that right.

Let me try again.

It kind of looks like they're just playing around for the backstage video thing, but when they say the lines, the acting actually sounds quite good.

49. Thought it was hilarious that Tim Phillips walks around with a photograph of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, telling people they're his mom and dad.

I sometimes wonder about that. When Daniel refers to his parents on the show, does Tim Phillips think to himself, Holy Shit! I'm talking about Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan!

50. Wondered if Jason Donovan and/or Kylie Minogue ever watch Neighbours, so they can see what their son is up to.

51. Amused by what Rose Asune said in the video comments. I was waiting for the "Your dad kind of looks like my dad" line spoken by Brad's actor to Tim ... it didn't happen and my heart was torn.

It took me a minute to figure out what the hell she was saying. She's referring to the fact that, on Neighbours, Kip Gamblin's dad is played by Terence Donovan the father of Jason Donovan.

52. Learned from another comment that Olympia Valance has a sister that was on Neighbours—Holly Valance. She played Flick Scully.

53. Went to the triple J 2014 list.

Today I'm going to listen to "Gold Snafu" by Sticky Fingers.

54. Thought of another rock star that I found attractive—1980's Jimmy Barnes. But I didn't have a crush on him, or anything.  It definitely wasn't like my feelings for Michael Jackson.

55. Wanted to clarify that I didn't find Jimmy Barnes attractive back in the 1980's. I didn't even know he existed. Though I did hear some of his music on the Lost Boys soundtrack.

56. Started to watch the video CLIP of "Gold Snafu".  I don't know why it's called a video clip, and not just a video. It's long though. Six minutes.

57. Saw that the video has stuff besides music. I think it's almost like a short film?

It takes place in the 1970's.

The music part doesn't come in until after three minutes.

58. Didn't really understand the storyline of the video, but I did like the setting.


Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Adam Willits

Today I'm going to learn about Adam Willits. He's the actor who played Steven on Home and Away, and he's been on other things as well. I don't know how many other things, but I do know he was on some children's show with Justine Clarke.  I learned that when I did my post about her.

Steven is one of my favorite Home and Away characters.  My favorite storyline on the show centered around him.  This is when...feeling despair over his uncle's death, Steven latches onto a hoodlum named Dodge. Dodge brings the message that life is short and you should just be wild and enjoy it. Why study for your science test when you might die tomorrow?  What Steven doesn't know is Dodge isn't just an unfortunate soul who sometimes resorted to petty crime to get by in life. He's a psychopath who is actually the one to blame for Steven's uncle's death.

There's a beautiful episode where Steven has to come to terms with Dodge's identity; and then the betrayal...the disillusionment...and the desire for revenge.

What's interesting is that a similar thing happened to Steven in a previous storyline. Again, he had latched on to the wrong mentor. In this case, it was an abusive gym coach.

I'm intrigued by this type of storyline. Maybe it's because I can relate on some level. I'm sure most people can. I don't know if I've ever latched on to the wrong person, but I have latched on to the wrong idea or belief. And once I had a whole set of best friends that turned out to not even exist. So I can REALLY relate to the feelings of betrayal and disillusionment.

It also makes me think of Bill Cosby.  After I read some articles about the rape charges, it made me come to a decision. I will never again label a real person as my hero.  Not that Bill Cosby was my hero. I mean I loved the Cosby Show, but that was a long time ago. And Bill Cosby is not a celebrity, I've ever really been into.  BUT...I started thinking that a celebrity I do admire can be hiding some really shameful secrets. And of course, it's not just celebrities. It can be a family friend I adore.  It can be a local person I've read about in the news.  It can be someone that's seem by the masses as being a hero.

So for now on...if I need a hero, it will be a fictional one. That to me is pretty safe.  So if it's a choice between JK Rowling and Dumbeldore, I pick Dumbeldore.  David Tennant, and the Doctor? I pick the Doctor.  Easter Bunny or a local fireman who saved a bunch of children? The Easter Bunny. Now that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for the fireman's actions. He did a heroic deed, and I'd admire him and be grateful. But I'm not going to see him as a great person, because who knows what he does when he's not saving lives. Maybe he beats up his wife. Maybe he forces himself on his daughter. Maybe he bullies young kids on the internet.

Anyway....I should get on to learning about Adam Willits.

I'm going to start with his bio page on IMDb.

Willits was born in Sydney on February 18, 1972.  He's nine months older than me. When I watched the early Home and Away episodes, I often related more to the young characters rather than the adults.  I think the main reason is, I'm immature. But maybe it's also because during the time period of the episodes I was watching, (late 1980's) I was the same age as the teens on the show.  That being said, if I watched current episodes of Home and Away, I might still relate more to the teens. I really don't know.

Now I'm going to look at Willit's filmography.  His first screen thing was in 1984. It was the thing with Justine Clarke: The Maestro's Company.   It was a children's show about opera.

I thought, when I had done the post on Clarke, that I had found a clip from the show. But now I can't find it.  Maybe I should look at the Clarke post.

Nope. I hadn't found a clip, after all. You know...maybe they were on ANOTHER show together. Or maybe there's another show with Clarke, and I thought Willits was on that one instead of the Maestro one. Or maybe they've been on three shows together.

In 1985, Willits was in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.  Justine Clarke was in a Mad Max movie too! Maybe this one?  I'll go look at the credits.

Yep! They were in this together. So Clarke and Willits HAVE been in three things together. And there might be even more stuff.

In 1987, Willits was in a John Williamson story called The Perfectionist.  From what I see in the credits, it looks like Willits played the son of Jacki Weaver and John Waters.

Here's a review of it. I wonder if Willits will be mentioned.

The reviewer is quite negative. He doesn't think the filmmakers did a good job adapting the play to screen.  He says the acting is bad, but doesn't mention Willits personally.  I think he was more bothered by the adult acting.  Willits was just a kid at the time.

Willits started working on Home and Away in 1988. He was there from the beginning.  According to IMDb, he was on 508 episodes. His last appearance was in 2008.

I don't think Willits was on the show continuously as a main star for twenty years. I'm thinking he left and then came back. What I don't know is, if he came back as a cast member or just a guest appearance.

Maybe looking at the list of episodes will give me an idea of things.

It takes a long time to load the list....

Okay. He left in 1991.  Then he came back in 1995 for many episodes. So I think he was back as a cast member.  He was also there a lot in 1996 and 1997.  He made one appearance in 1998.

From 2000-2008, he was in eleven episodes. I'm guessing those were guest appearance type things—reunions, weddings, funerals...that kind of thing.  When Willits would return, was he glad it was only a guest appearance? Or did he wish they'd ask him back as a full-time cast member? I can see from his filmography that he's no longer doing much film and television work. Is he okay with that? Or does he miss it?

In 1991, Willits was on a comedy TV show called Hampton Court. Maybe he left Home and Away for this show?

Lord Wiki says the show was a spin off to Hey Dad...!  There's one thing that comes to my mind when I think of the show, and it's similar to the Cosby situation. It's hard to learn these things about actors in shows we used to love.  But yeah. I know. It's much worse for the victims, of course.

Hampton Court was about four people sharing a flat together in a building that has a no-baby rule. And one of the four tenants has a baby.  They're trying to keep it a secret.  I guess that could be funny.

Here's a very short promo for the show. Willits gets bitten by a budgie.

Oh! There's an episode here too. I'm not going to watch the whole thing, but I'll watch a few bits and pieces.  Willits is the second person featured in the credits. He was one of the main stars.

There's a scene with Willits starting at 3:36.  His character doesn't have money to pay the rent, so he's walking the landlord's dogs instead.  It reminds me very much of a 1980's TV show—the kind that might have made me laugh back then, but now I mostly just end up cringing.  It feels very forced.

There's only two more things on Willit's filmography.  In 2002, he appeared on an episode of All Saints.  I came across this a few weeks ago when I did a post on Willit's co-star, Vanessa Downing. I think they were in the same episode? Or they both appeared on the same season. I forgot.  But I do remember that Willit's character had been in a fight with his wife—a fight involving bows and arrows.

The last item on Willit's filmography is an appearance on Rake. He was a policeman. His character wasn't given a name, so I think it was a small part.

I'm getting the idea that Willit's has become a struggling actor.  Tim and I have been watching the TV show Extras, which is all about the plight of the struggling actor.  It doesn't look easy.  What's harder, though, an actor who was once successful and is now not finding work or an actor who has never been able to find work?

I kind of think the first one is harder. As a writer, I'm a total nobody. That's hard on my self-esteem. But I think my self-esteem would be more damaged if I had once gotten a lot of money and attention for my writing.

That being said...I might be wrong about Adam Willits being a struggling actor. He could be a former actor who's very satisfied with his non-acting life. And maybe he decided, just for fun, that he'd go on an episode of Rake.

Also, he might still be acting. Maybe he's doing theater instead of screen stuff.

Well, enough guessing. I'm going to try to find out more about Willit's life. Though I might not be able to find much. So then I'll have to keep guessing.

Lord Wiki says Willits dropped out of acting and now works in insurance.  No wait. I misread that. He doesn't say he dropped out of acting. He says he dropped out of the limelight.

Does Willits miss the limelight?

The other thing that Lord Wiki says is that Willits was part of a UK stage musical tour version of Home and Away.  Justine Clarke was in it too, along with Julian McMahon, Sharyn Hodgson, and Mouche Phillps.  I wasn't sure who Mouche Phillips was, at first, but now I'm thinking maybe she played Viv?

Yeah. I just checked. I'm right.

Anyway, I would love to see that musical.  I wonder if there's anyone in the world who has a recording of it.  The sad thing is there might not be.  Usually, video-taping is forbidden in those types of things.  And it's not like people, in those days, could be sneaky with their mobile phones.  But maybe the production company itself has a recording.

I found a news clip about the musical. At least that's been uploaded...for now.  And it does include some scenes. So, that't awesome.

They're talking about how most of the actors in the play were NOT from the TV show and not even Australian. They were from the UK.  But I do see Sharyn Hodgson. So far, I'm not seeing Willits. Though that doesn't mean I think Lord Wiki has his facts wrong. They only showed a little bit from the play.  There's a lot of stuff I'm not being shown, and that might include Willits.

Lord Wiki has stuff to say about Steven on Home and Away, and some of it is about Willits.  He says Willits felt he was very different from Steven.  It seems Willits wasn't too impressed with Steven's nerdiness and dorkiness.  I like Steven for being that way. It kind of reminds me of The Big Bang Theory.  I've watched stuff about the actors, and have gotten the sense that they're embarrassed for their characters—that they want to make sure people know they're not geeks like that.  But I LIKE geeks and nerds, so seeing the actors want to distance themselves from all that is kind of a turn off for me.

Lord Wiki has information about what eventually happened to Steven. Maybe I'll read it, because I doubt I'll be able to watch the show anytime soon. Though I haven't checked to see if it's back on YouTube.  But even if it was, I'm not sure I'd watch it. I'm busy with other shows now.  And if I scheduled in time to watch it, I'd worry that eventually the YouTube account would be suspended, and I'd be left out in the cold again.

So...what happened to Steven?  The last I saw of him he was playing hard to get with Viv. He liked her, but she wasn't interested. Then she started liking him, and he gave her the cold shoulder.  Wait...maybe Emma liked Steven? Yeah. I think that's what happened. And I think when Emma started showing interest, that led to Viv being interested.

I might have it wrong.....

Lord Wiki doesn't really say anything about Viv and Emma. He pretty much just talks about Dodge. Then he jumps to 1995.

Steven comes back as a teacher, and has a short-lived romance with Marilyn Chambers.

Then he has an affair with a student. Yikes! That turns out to be a bit of a mess.

Dodge returns and tries to threaten Steven with jelly beans.  He pretends they are drugs, or something like that. There's a  blackmail thing. Sally gets abducted. There's a fight on the cliff. Steven alienates his family. Then he leaves town.

The student (Selena) returns to Steven's life.  They almost get married; then they don't get married. But then later they do get back together.

Selena and Steven were very on-again/off-again.

I'm going to look at the Back to the Bay site.  I want more information about Steven's 1991 storylines. I want to know what happened after I lost touch with Summer Bay.

I think they might have their facts wrong; or I've forgotten something. They say, in high school, Steven has an affair with an older woman named Jennifer.  He has a brief dating thing with an older woman, but not Jennifer.  I think it was Narelle.

Maybe there was a Jennifer after Viv and Emma?  But the way it's written here, it sounds like Jennifer came before Dodge.

Whatever happened with Steven and Viv? Did they ever get together at all?  Or maybe it's not important. I know now that they didn't end up together.

Well...I've been struggling to find more information about Adam Willits.

I finally found this business resume type thing. It might be the right Adam Willits. I hope.

Wait...yeah. It's him. Home and Away is mentioned.

If I'm reading things right, Willits works for something called Australian Institute for Credit Management.  Here's their website. It's an organization for people in the credit industry. Is that like credit cards?

I think I have things wrong. This might not be Willit's job.  Yeah...the website was just saying he's a member of the organization.

His profession is being the director of sales and services for a company called Ahead of the Curve. When I tried going to their website, I got a 500 Internal Server Error page.

In the past, Willits worked for a company called AATP. They're a telecommunications company. And he worked for Medfin Finance.  I wonder if Willits likes this kind of stuff.

I'm not finding anything else, unfortunately.

Whatever Willits is doing out there...I hope he's doing well.

Peter Doherty

Today I'm going to learn about Peter Doherty.

I came across a question about Doherty yesterday while playing QuizUp. All I know for now is that he is known for his work in the medical field. What did he do? Let me go find out....

Well, Lord Wiki says he's veterinary surgeon. And he's a medical researcher.

I'm reading a book about animals right now. It's a children's book called The One and Only Ivan. It's very sad. It's kind of like Charlotte's Web but instead of being about farm animals, it's about the exotic animal industry.

As for Doherty, he's won a lot of awards. In 1996, he won a shared Nobel medicine award with a guy named Rolf M. Zinkernagel. That's an interesting name.

In 1997, Doherty was Australian of the year.

And he's on the list of the Australian National Trust's Living Treasures.

What did Doherty do to earn himself all these honors? Lord Wiki is trying to explain it to me. I don't understand, really. It has something to do with viruses and immunity.

And T-cells are involved. Aren't those the ones associated with AIDS? I'll check in a minute.

So far what I'm getting is, it's something like this. A virus invades our cells and starts reproducing. Then the T-cells come along and destroy the infected cells. It reminds me of movies where a city is under siege by something awful—like zombies. And then the government tries to contain the situation by bombing the city.

As for AIDS, I'm looking at this website now. I think I did have my facts straight. HIV lowers the number of T-cells and then you end up with an immunity problem.

Now I'm going to see what Lord Wiki has to say about Peter Doherty's personal life.

He was born in Brisbane on October 15, 1940.

His mom's name is Linda. His dad is Eric. He has a young brother named Ian.

You know...I'm thinking there's a good chance that Linda and Eric are no longer living. But then again, it's possible that they are.

For his education, Doherty went to Indooroopilly State High School.  That's such an interesting name. I've heard it before, but I don't think I've ever really thought about it.  What does it mean? Is it named after someone? Does it have something to do with being indoors? Kangaroos?

I'm consulting Lord Wiki about this. He says it's a corruption of an Aboriginal word. The word means either gully of the leeches or gully of running water. Lord Wiki's not sure.

Lord Wiki is smart, but he doesn't know everything.

Back to Peter Doherty....

He studied veterinarian science at the University of Queensland. There he got his Bachelor's and Master's Degree. For his doctorate, he went all the way over to Scotland for the University of Edinburgh.

Doherty did his Noble prize-earning research in Canberra at the John Curtin School of Medical Research.

Lord Wiki says he currently spends three months a year working at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.

I'm getting the idea that maybe he dropped the vet stuff. It seems like his interest is more with human medical concerns than animal ones.

Lord Wiki says Doherty wrote some books. I'm looking at one of them now. It's called The Beginner's Guide To Winning The Noble Prize: Advice for Young Scientists.  From the title, I was thinking it sounds Doherty is a bit up himself. But looking at the reviews, it sounds like the book is more of a memoir. And maybe the title is just his way of being cute and clever.

It seems like the book might be interesting.

There's a book by Doherty called A Light History of Hot Air. I'm confused over what it's supposed to be about. From the Sydney Morning Herald review I just read, I get the idea it's just interesting and entertaining ramblings written by a smart guy.

And Doherty also has a book about birds called Sentinel Chickens: What Birds Tell Us About Our Health And Our World.  This review makes it sound very interesting.

All his books sound appealing to me, actually.

I'm looking at Powells.com. They have some Peter Doherty books that Lord Wiki didn't mention. One of them is called Pandemics: (What Everyone Needs To Know)

They have one of his books at the Fort Worth library. I want to add it to my to-read list, but I've made a rule about not adding books, because my list is too long. So I just bookmarked the page from my library. When my list gets shorter, I'll add it. It's my rather silly way of circumventing my stupid rules.

I really need to read more often, so my list hurries up and shortens.

Here's Doherty's page at St. Jude.  I feel I should comment on it. But I have nothing to say.

At the University of Melbourne, there's a Peter Doherty Institute.  They list Doherty's achievements and honors. It's impressive.  He has honorary degrees from sixteen universities. Although that probably happens to a lot of Noble Prize winners.

How many honorary degrees does Stephen Hawkins have?

According to this website, only twelve. Doherty has beaten him. And I don't see anything about the Noble prize on this page. Maybe Hawkins hasn't won one. But he's gotten a much better honor. He's guest-starred on The Big Bang Theory. And there's a movie coming out about his life. It looks really good.

Here's the vision statement for the Peter Doherty Institute. I guess they haven't finished building it yet. It sounds like something that's supposed to exist in the future.

It sounds like a good thing. They're going to use the building for both research and clinical services.

It's one of those places that might save us all from a pandemic.

Here's a page about their research.  One of their focuses is HIV and T-cells.  And they're doing something (I don't quite understand) that they hope leads to a vaccine for Malaria. That would be good!

They're also working against various microscopic villains—E Coli, Salmonella, a super villain called Golden Staph, and others.

Since I'm a germophobic person, Peter Doherty and his team are kind of like superheroes to me.

According to their FAQ page, the Peter Doherty Institute is not only working to save us from tiny killers, but they care about the planet as well. The building has been given 5 stars by the Green Building Council of Australia.

I'm going to read the Australian Academy of Science's interview with Doherty.

The introduction of the interview says, Imagine going to a school where you're not allowed to do biology because you happen to be a boy. That's not something I've encountered before. I've heard of girls being restricted from studying things like science but not boys. Was this school very unusual? Or does this happen more often than I'd imagine?

Doherty repeats the forbidden-biology thing in his answer about his schools. I don't get it. And he doesn't really explain. Maybe I need to read his books.

He says, though, that he was a dreamy bookworm type kid who was actually more interested in the literary world than science.  But then I guess that changed.

Doherty says his cousin was a virologist and this is what sparked his interest in disease and science.

And he wanted to be a vet so he could make the world a better place by finding a way to increase food production. At first, I thought he meant create more food for the animals. But I think he's referring to people. So I'm getting the idea that this isn't a guy who became a vet, because he loves animals.  For him it was more about helping a specific species of animal—humans.

Doherty says by the time he got his vet qualifications, he realized the food thing was more a job for agricultural, economic, and political folks. Isn't that a common story. You work and pay for a degree. Then you realize it's not really going to help you achieve the goals you had in mind.

Now they're talking about the Noble-worthy discoveries. I don't understand it, and I'm not going to exercise my brain right now trying to figure it out. I'll just trust that they knew what they're doing, and that it was very important stuff.

I like what Doherty says here about being successful in science. His advice:

You've got to be very persistent and totally absorbed in what you do. You need to have an open mind, and be prepared to drop one line of inquiry and follow another if it looks interesting. We never set out to make our discovery – we weren't aiming in that direction at all. But when we found something unexpected we followed it.

I think that mindset is more beneficial to the world than one in which scientists have an idea and set out to prove they're right. With the latter attitude, I fear people will ignore evidence that contradicts with what they believe.

Doherty talks about basic vs. applied science. Or as he calls it: curiosity driven vs. end-use driven. The government favors the latter, but he thinks curiosity research is important as well.

That makes sense, but I'm thinking of the benefits in terms of end-use. I'm thinking if scientists learn things just because they're curious, they might end up finding something really useful. But if they don't find anything useful, is it worthwhile?

 I'd say it depends. It's sad if a lot of money is used, and it ends up leading nowhere. And if animals are used, I think that's really sad.  I think it's sad enough for someone to use mice in a study, because they want to find a treatment to lengthen the lives of people with Cystic Fibrosis. But then I think, well, my brother-in-laws have that, and I WOULD like them to be healthier. So, yeah....sad about the mice. But oh well.

What if there's a group of scientists who cause physical harm to mice simply because they're curious about something? That seems wrong to me.

On the other hand, what if their research accidentally leads to someone finding a treatment for Motor Neuron disease or something that will help us fight against the Norovirus?

I guess my feeling is, I'm against science that's done just for the hell of it. I wouldn't want to donate money to a project with the mindset. This probably won't ever help anyone...but I'm curious. I just want to know! So let's try to find out.  But I'm okay supporting projects with the mindset...Well, we're not sure how or who this is going to help, but we have a feeling it's going to benefit the universe in some way.  We just don't know how yet.  I'm cool with that.

I'm Googling now—trying to figure out more about why Doherty wasn't allowed to study biology. I'm not having any luck. Have any of you heard of such a practice? It would have been in the late 1950's and early 1960's.

The Noble Prize website has a biography about Doherty written by Doherty. I'll read that and see if it has anything about the forbidden-biology...or anything else interesting.

There's a lot of family stuff here. He talks about his two grandmothers. Doherty says, they embraced the informal Australian life style with great enthusiasm. I like that. You know I'm sometimes asked what I love about Australia, and I forget to mention that.I like relaxed atmospheres—places where people don't wear shoes. I mean not that all of Australia is like that. But some of it is.

Doherty's father was a telephone mechanic. His father (Doherty's grandpa) died from the 1918-1919 flu epidemic)

Doherty's mother was a piano teacher and also played a lot of tennis.

I like learning all this family stuff.

Doherty says his mother passed on her love of classical music to him but not her tennis-playing skills.

One of his uncles was captured by the Japanese, and then killed by the Americans, because the Americans hit the submarine that was transporting him.

Doherty has fair-skin and that made it difficult for him to be one of those outdoor Aussie types.  But he still did some outdoor stuff...like canoeing.

And he does carpentry. He's built coffee tables.

What does this guy not do?

He's like perfect. Except for the tennis thing. But he's probably just being modest about that.

I bet he's at least better than me at tennis.

I see the biology stuff here. Doherty says in that time, in Queensland, biology could be studied by only girls. Wow. I wonder why.

I just skimmed a bunch of paragraphs and then stopped at the part about Doherty going to school in Edinburgh. This was when he already had a wife. Doherty talks about how he could spend more time outside there without worrying about sunburn. There's more of a risk of sun injury in Australia.

Yeah. This website says Australia has the highest rate of Melanoma.

Doherty had a bad time from 1982-1988. He didn't like his job. It was at the JCSMR. What's that?

Oh! The John Curtin School of Medical Research. Yikes. Am I reading all this right?

He's negative about the place but also positive. He says he worked with some excellent colleagues.  And he says things have gotten better there.  Why are they better? Doherty mentions the retirement of the tenured staff and the adoption of a more flexible appointment structure.  That might provide some clues about what he didn't like there. Maybe the appointment structure was too rigid? I have no idea what that means. Oh well. And maybe he didn't like some of the staff. It seems he's glad they're gone.

I just reread some of the preceding paragraphs to clarify something. Well, because before I was just skimming. So...if I'm understanding things right. 1982-1988 was Doherty's second time working at JCSMR. He worked there previously in the 1970's, and it seems his experiences then were more positive.

I'm going to read this one last thing by Doherty. It's about pandemics. Then I'll quit, so I can get more book reading done—work on shortening my to-read list.

Doherty says in the 1960's there was a mindset that our fight with infectious disease was over. Doherty points out how wrong that turned out to be. He mentions things like HIV, SARS, antibiotic resistant bacteria, influenza, etc.

It seems what Doherty is saying here is that there's good news and bad news. The bad news is there's scary bad shit out there that can kill a lot of us. The good news is the scientist superheroes are doing a lot to try and save us.

The Nip/Tuck Syndrome

We don't like Modern Family anymore. This season, at best, it's mediocre.  Usually, it's just crap. It makes me sad, because we used to think it was super fantastic.

I decided to label my feelings The Nip/Tuck syndrome. Why? It reminds me of when I loved THAT show and then went on to strongly dislike it.

This syndrome doesn't apply to slightly good stuff that dips a tiny bit in quality. It applies to wonderful things that become really awful.

(Of course this is all opinion.  Other people might think the later seasons of Nip/Tuck and Modern Family are perfectly fine)

So what's one of the main things that worries me about Australia.

Trip one and two were incredibly wonderful.

What if our upcoming sequel is a huge let-down?

For a few moments, I became really pessimistic.  I thought, you can't have THREE good things in a row. Life is never that generous.

Nothing gold can stay.  

But then I cheered up a bit.

The first thing I thought of was Toy Story.  I loved that movie, but I love the second and third ones no less. I might even love them more.

In the last few months, we watched seven seasons of How I Met Your Mother. I don't think it has had any reduction in awesomeness.  In fact...although I love all the seasons, I probably love the later seasons a bit more.  

Our third trip to Australia might be even better than the first and second.

Or if being too optimistic scares me, I could say it might be like The Big Bang Theory.  We loved that show.  Now our love has been slightly reduced. But we still enjoy the show.  

Yeah.

Now I'm thinking, what's more alarming—my unrelenting obsession with Australia or my addiction to television?

Let me move onto other analogies.

JK Rowling!

I loved every Harry Potter book. For me, it never got bad.

But then she had to go and write something else.  Of course it would probably be shit and my idol would fall off her pedestal.

Nope. It hasn't happened.

I'm reading The Casual Vacancy now and am totally in love with it.  

As for vacations.....

There's Disney World.

We keep going.

We continue to love it.

SO....

I have some hope that Australia Part Three will be super wonderful...not too much hope, though.   I don't want to jinx myself.

Honestly, I'm at the point of feeling that if we manage to remember our passports, make our flights, avoid a serious debilitating illness (or other disaster), I'll feel we've succeeded in avoiding the Nip/Tuck syndrome.   

Jim Parsons

I'm thinking about the Julian McMahon thing again.

I started thinking about it when writing my last post.

Here's the story in a nutshell (in case you don't want to read the long post about it):  I watched Charmed.  I liked Charmed.  I started having recurring dreams about Julian McMahon. I became obsessed with it all, and that led me to becoming very obsessed with Australia. Well, because Julian McMahon is Australian.

Sometimes I think it was some kind of spiritual path, and Julian McMahon was the catalyst.

Other times I think I was being very silly, had a crush on an actor, and that led me to all of this.

But Jim Parsons makes me feel the former is more likely.

Why?

We have watched five seasons of The Big Bang Theory this summer.  We watched two episodes pretty much every Monday-Thursday and Sunday (Friday and Saturday we're usually at the lake house).

All three of us are really into the show.

I kind of fell in love with Sheldon Cooper even though he's somewhat awful at times.

I have a minor crush on the actor who plays him—Jim Parsons, who seems to have all of Sheldon's cuteness, but doesn't have the extreme narcissism. He seems really sweet, although I know I shouldn't judge people on their interviews. That persona could be as pretend as the characters they play.  

Anyway, The Big Bang Theory is definitely an obsession in our lives. I was once really into Charmed,  but I don't think it can compare to how much we're into The Big Bang Theory.

This Sunday I started to feel really awful because I realized we had no more episodes to watch. I had this sense of dread. I think I was actually feeling a type of grief. 

I have major love for the show and the characters. It's played a huge part in our summer.

But....

I don't think I've had one dream about the show.

Jim Parsons hasn't popped up in my lucid dreams.

At least not yet.

I don't think he's been in any of my dreams. 

I think with Charmed, though, it was different. I think I liked the show but not very intensely.  Then I started dreaming about it, and the dreams increased my interest in the show.

With The Big Bang Theory,  the love wasn't propelled by dreams.   I think I fell in love, because it's a good show. (The same can be said for Charmed, of course). But I think also we watched The Big Bang Theory so much, it became a comfort thing. I'm used to having it in our lives. I feel a bit lost without it.

I just accidentally capitalized (and was about to italicize) the word lost. I think THAT was a major Freudian slip.  

I did have dreams about Lost, by the way. But I don't think they were as intense and frequent as the Julian McMahon dreams. And they haven't really led me anywhere.

We did go to Hawaii, but that was for an Australian purpose. One time we went as a stopover on our journey to Australia. The next time we met our Australian friends there (because it's a good middle point between Texas and Tasmania). So if anything....Julian McMahon led to our Hawaii trips too.   Not Lost.

We DID visit some Lost sets while in Hawaii. I'll give Lost credit for that adventure rather than Julian McMahon.  

Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard Might Like This

I learned recently that there's a science festival coming up in Sydney.  

It's too bad we're not there now.  I think Jack would like it.

It's August 16-26.

Jack's birthday is on the 20th. If we moved to Australia like I had wanted to, we could have taken him there for his birthday.

But it's okay.  Jack LOVES Fort Worth.

I love it too, mostly because of the lake house.  For the first time, I managed to do some major fig harvesting. That was fun and delicious. And I believe it counts as a science activity.

Anyway...back to the science festival.

This event would make for a good episode of The Big Bang Theory.   

And This event reminds me of Sheldon in the ball pit. 

There's also going to be a program about the tiny juice ball things. I've had them only once. They had them at one of our local yogurt shops.  

In Fort Worth (and probably all of America), these yogurt shops have become quite popular.  Or at least prevalent.

You get huge cups, fill them with yogurt and a variety of toppings. Then you pay by weight.

Are those popular in Australia as well?

They're fun.  But the cups are too big, the frozen yogurt doesn't taste that great, and I get a little germaphobic sometimes.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

Bloody Assumptions

On one episode of Q and A that I watched, Kate Miller-Heidke was one of the guests. She's a singer.

She didn't come across as being very intelligent on the show. She seemed to be a bit of an airhead.

I imagined that if I was in a situation like that, I'd probably come across the same way.

I know about some political stuff, but I know a lot less than some people.  And sometimes I'm not the most eloquent speaker. I get confused. I get tongue-tied. I lose my train of thought.  

My feeling, though, is that although Kate Miller-Heidke came cross as an airhead, she's probably smarter than she seemed. And I think the same goes for me.

So this is what happened this weekend.

Tim and I watch True Blood together.

I'm not happy with it this season. Why?  I think it's over the top.  For me, the season jumped the shark when they put the stake-your-heart outfits on Bill and Eric. Then Jason Stackhouse's sexual regret storyline is a bit too afterschool special for me.

Oh, and I'm also bored by the Pam flashbacks.

Anyway, I asked Tim if he could please watch the show on his own.  I said I'd read the spoilers, and if they started looking promising, I'd get back to watching it. Side note here: The same thing happened last year. I was bored by the beginning of the season, but I became interested in the later episodes.

Tim said he understood me not liking the show. It's getting too political.

That annoyed me.

Why would he assume the politics of the show is what's repelling me? Why would he assume anything...period?

I'm pretty sure I responded by telling him I didn't like the show because it was too over-the-top. But maybe I just said that in my head.  I do say most things to my own head these days...rather than to other people. So maybe I didn't tell him.

I think I did, though.

Anyway, today he said to me that he watched True Blood, and again he mentioned it being too political for me.

If you take Tim's knowledge of American politics and compare me to him, YES, I am a major airhead. I don't know the names of all the players. Sometimes I'm not fully clear on very detail of what's going on in American current events.

But since when I am the type of person who's bored by politics?

First of all. He sees me watching Q and A every day. If he's not completely oblivious, in the glimpses he sees, he'd know it was a political show.

If he's paid attention, he'd know many of my blog posts are about politics and not just about the hotness of certain members of the Liberal Party.   

I'm pretty sure I've told him that the politics in Harry Potter is one of the things I liked best about the series.  

We used to watch The Colbert Show together at dinner. That's political.  The reason we stopped watching is we've all become addicted to The Big Bang Theory. In that show, the female main star is much less intelligent than the male ones. So maybe Tim is confusing me with her.

Maybe I've taken on the role of Penny in the family.

I don't know....

Between my dad and Tim (the two men most prominent in my life), they both give a lot in terms of cooking, favors, material gifts, etc. But they don't give me much in terms of helping me to feel intelligent and respected.

When I'm around them, I feel like a five-year-old little girl.

No offense to young children, of course.

Read my novel: The Dead are Online

Jeb, Fictional Characters, Heroin, and 2007 Trip

1. Stayed up late finishing The Distant Hours.

I had the mystery all figured out.

Then I learned I was wrong about most of it.

2. Went to bed and had dreams.  One of them started out as one thing and then totally changed to something else. In the something else: I'm with other people, and they're watching as I go through my huge food gift box.  It's a treasure of treats. There's so much food including big chocolate Santas. I have the idea of sharing it with the others.  Some of the people talk with an Australian accent.  I accidentally imitate them, maybe. Then I declare (either to myself or aloud) that next time (what next time?) I'm going to have either all American friends or all Australian friends. That way I won't have accent confusion.  

3. Looked at my private/dream journal thing.  On April 25, 2007 There was another case of a random name popping into my head.  This time it was Jeb.

I decided to play around with it. I googled Jeb and Australia. I got a gay blogger with a blog called World Wide Jeb.  It seems he hasn't posted since July 2010.  I've skimmed through a few of his posts.  They seem pretty entertaining, so far.

Hopefully he's still alive—and okay.  Maybe he just got tired of blogging. That happens to people sometimes.

4. Looked around a bit more. He has these city guide things on the blog. I was trying to figure out if he wrote them or not. I was confused.

But below on his about page, he says that's what he's been working on (instead of the blog). He even has one for Dallas, although there's not much there yet.

What he does is ask questions about a city and then has other people answer the questions.  No one has answered the Dallas questions yet, unfortunately.

5. Saw that Jeb has had better luck with his Melbourne guide; maybe because he has lived in Melbourne and has Melbourne friends.  

Twenty-seven people have answered his question about vegetarian and vegan food in Melbourne.  

6. Decided to bookmark Jeb's website. It might be useful if we ever manage to make it back to Australia.   There're a lot of good vegetarian restaurant suggestions.   I recognize some of them from my earlier research (Soul Mama, The Vegie Bar, and Lord of the Fries.).

7. Started reading Addition by Toni Jordan. It's about a woman obsessed with counting.

I like it so far.

I like that in the beginning of the book Toni has a note for Americans explaining Celsius vs. Fahrenheit, the reversal of seasons, the use of the metric system, etc.  I much prefer this to Australian books that are Americanized for American readers.

Maybe Americans are dumb when it comes to international things, because people treat us like we're dumb.

Or it could be the reverse of that.  

8. Decided to go to Kate Morton's website to see what she says about The Distant Hours. I didn't want to read it while reading the book—in case it gives something away.

I love what she says on this page. She talks about the characters as if they were real people haunting her and insisting that she write their story.

I think fictional characters can be pretty good at haunting people.

I also love what she says here:

No matter how much I adore writing, though, no matter the pleasure my stories give me, it isn’t until books are read that they really start to breathe. So let me take the opportunity to thank you. Because by reading The Distant Hours, it is you who brings the characters, the past, Milderhurst castle itself, back to life. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did.

Would Harry Potter be satisfied if he never left JK Rowling's head? What if he was left in the back of a closet or the bottom of a drawer?

I'm sometimes sad for all my characters.  Some of them are lost and ignored in cyberspace.  Others are smashed together in a plastic bin in the closet. A few are trapped on disks somewhere that no longer work on the computers we have available.

It's sad.

9. Watched book trailer for The Distant Hours.  It's very neat.  I love the paper castle.  But I think it's a bit too long for what's in the video.  I think it would have been better if it was kept under 30 seconds. Maybe 60 seconds would have been okay. Two minutes is too long.  

10. Read apology from Kate Morton to American and Canadian readers. Apparently the word wings is replaced with the word fender throughout the book.

What happened is she needed to change one instance of wings to fender, but the program accidentally changed it through the whole book.  She didn't notice it until it was already published.

I didn't even notice. Maybe this proves I don't read carefully enough.

11. Listened to more of my new Gleeful CD. 

12. Loved this video of a sports team in Melbourne.  It's made up of Jews and Muslims.  They're promoting peace by getting people to play together.



The group was inspired by the Palestinian-Israeli AFL Peace Team. 

13. Read article about the weakening Australian dollar.

Maybe we'll be able to go to Australia in 2012.

It's looking good for us. 

Right now the dollar is equal to 1.025 American dollars.

14. Confused by article about Tasmania and gay marriage.

Oh...wait...I get it.

Tasmania Parliament has voted to officially support gay marriage. They're not going to have gay marriage (yet), but they're officially supportive of the idea.

Hopefully the support will make a difference.

Maybe it will help Julia Gillard change her mind.

The article points out something interesting.  Tasmania was the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality.  Then it became the first state to recognize civil unions and the first state to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere.

I like that.  It gives me hope. Texas is such a backward state—with homosexuality and other things.  But the Tasmania story makes me realize it doesn't have to always be that way. Maybe one day Texas will be one of the most open-minded and progressive states.

That would be so awesome.   

15. Lost when reading an article about Israel and Palestine.  Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are wanting to vote no to recognizing Palestine as an independent state.

I thought having a separate state was a good thing?

Wait....

I think I sort of get it.

Palestinians want the UN to vote that they're a state. I think Israel wants this done with negotiations.

Maybe it's kind of like Palestine saying, Well, if you're not going to give us what we want, we'll just go and ask other people for it.

I don't know enough to choose sides on this issue. I'm too lazy to learn about it right now. My guess is both sides are wrong in their cute little annoying ways. The Palestinians and Israelis should just shut up and go play some football together. Or why don't they do a flash mob. That might be entertaining.

16. Learned that Rove is doing a show from Los Angeles now.

Will Americans get to see it?

I think I remember hearing of an Australian show that was filmed in Los Angeles, but it wasn't on American TV.  Maybe it was Hamish  and Andy?

17. Consulted Lord Wiki about Hamish  and Andy.  He said in 2009, they did a program called Caravan of Courage.  They drove around places in America, including Texas.

Lord Wiki also took time out of his busy schedule to tell me the new Rove show is going to be on Fox8.  He says that's an Australian channel.

I wish it was on here too.  Maybe someday?

18. Saw that while Americans don't get to watch Australian television, Australians are watching a whole bunch of American television.  This article talks about that.

The show most Australians love to watch is Big Bang Theory.  We tried it once. I thought it was okay.  I'd be willing to try it again.  The first time I watched Modern Family, I wasn't really thrilled with it.  I thought it was mediocre.Then I watched another episode and liked it a bit. By about the third episode, I loved it.

19. Disappointed to look more closely at Australia's ten favorite show.  Modern Family isn't on there, and neither is Offspring. And where's True Blood?

20. Intrigued by J.C.B of Outback's comment.  He says, know wonder aussies love tv shows from usa and; uk is because that is what is rammed down our throats every day tv stations like programs from overseas because they cost em nothing to buy.

Is that true?  I'm sure it's not absolutely free. But maybe it IS cheaper to buy an already made show than to make your own.

I wish America would ram Australian shows down our throats.

I will admit that I feel some pride in the fact America makes shows that are very popular overseas.   And I do think we have some great programs. But I also wish we could have more international shows. I think it would be make Americans less ethnocentric.  And on a selfish note, it would make it easier for me to watch Offspring.  

21. Wanted to add that, for the most part, I think the commenter is wrong.  Australians don't watch American TV because it's forced upon them by their networks. The networks put it on there, because Australians are wanting to watch it.

Would Americans be willing to watch Australian shows?  Maybe. I really don't know. I would think so.  But then it would depend on how much the show is promoted. It would have to have really good marketing.

I know there's been a few Australian shows on American TV.

Some of Chris Lilley's stuff is on our TV. I should probably watch it to be supportive. I'm not really into his stuff, though.

McLeod's Daughters was on Lifetime for awhile.

22. Saw that Chris Lilley's Angry Boys is going to be on here in December. I thought it was already on.  I thought I missed it. Good. Now I don't have to feel guilty for not being supportive.

Maybe I'll remember to watch it.  

I watched one or two episodes of Summer Heights High.  I didn't hate it. I was mildly entertained. But I didn't like it enough to add to our DVR thing.  

23. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read a story thread called The Fabulous First Meeting of Mr. Oblivious Clutz and Ms. Grumpy Mcgrumpy.

The stars of this story are Susan Summers and Hunt Clayton.  Hunt is new to me.  He's the owner of the joke store where Riley L. talked to Riley A. Riddle Me This. 

Oh!  And this is where this story takes place as well.  

24. Started to read the story.

It's the afternoon of September 11.

Hunt is enjoying the nice weather.

25. Reminded of myself when I read, He looked up over his shoulder at his apartment, 3 floors over his head in the building, and reassured himself he'd turned off the oven before going.

I worry when I leave the house for a long time. Sometimes it's about leaving an oven on. Mostly it's about the cats.  Did I remember to give them water?  Did I remember to give them their food?  Did I make sure not to lock Mushu out of the room that has his food and water?   Usually I'll end up checking a few times before we leave.  Even then, though, in the car, I start to worry that I accidentally forgot something or made some kind of mistake.

Don't worry.  I don't do this when we go to the grocery store or any day-outing.  It's just when we go to the lake house or on a trip.  

When we go on a long enough trip to get Tim's friend to watch the cat, we have to remember to not use the special lock on the front door.  If that extra lock is used, Tim's friend won't be able to get inside. I guess he'd have to break a window or something. I don't know. It's another thing to worry about.  

26. Read that Hunt tripped on something and fell flat on his face.

Jack broke his arm that way.

I don't think he literally hit his face, though. Or at least I don't remember him having cuts or anything there. His poor arm got the blunt of the accident.  

27.  Read that Susan was hanging out with her family and not having a good time with them.  She's eager to say farewell.

Susan's with someone named Annie. Annie doesn't know that Susan is a witch.

Is Annie her sister?  Why wouldn't she know that Susan's a witch?

28. Skimmed Susan's biography.   I don't see anything about a sister. Maybe she's a cousin?

It might be explained in another story thread somewhere.

29. Saw that when Hunt fell, he maybe knocked over Susan too.  She fell on her butt.

He apologizes in a nice way.  Susan doesn't accept his apology. She yells at him.

No....

Wait.

She does accept his apology after she yells at him. Then she apologizes for yelling at him. That's very sweet.

I can understand her yelling.  She was in pain and annoyed. Sometimes we lose our tempers. But I wouldn't be understanding if she continued to be mad.

30. Started to read the biography of Hunt Clayton.  

He's half-fairy. That's like Sookie Stackhouse. Well, actually, I think she's 1/4 fairy.

31. Saw that Hunt Clayton is fairly old. He's forty-one. I pictured him much younger. Maybe fairies age differently?

His face claim is Chase Crawford, and Chase is only twenty-six.

Chase is one of the stars of Gossip Girl.

He's going to be in the movie What To Expect When You're Expecting. It's based on that famous pregnancy book.  

32. Wondered if the book is popular in Australia?

I'm not a big fan of it, personally. That being said, I grew to dislike pretty much all parenting books. 

33. Watched Chase Crawford on Ellen.   



I can picture him owning a joke shop.

34. Went back to reading about Hunt.

He likes to wear trendy clothes.

He has good skin and works hard to take care of it.

He obsesses over his weight which is challenging since he loves sweets. Then again, if someone didn't like sweets, they probably wouldn't have to worry so much about their weight.

No, that's not true, actually. They might like something else fattening such as hamburgers and potato chips.

35.  Learned that Hunt loves pulling pranks but not with malice. He likes to make the target of his joke laugh.

I like that. It's better than using one person in a cruel way to make other people laugh. 

36. Started to read Hunt's history.  His father is a human and his mother is a fairy.

His parents didn't live together.  Hunt lived with his father, but visited his mother in her fairy world.

Hunt struggled with his bicultural identity.

37. Read about Hunt's age thing.  It's part of his fairyness.  When he reached twenty, the aging process slowed down for him.

He has other fairy qualities such as being able to communicate with animals.

38. Learned that my Australian of the day is Edward Houghton Angelo.

He was born in India, but I don't think he was Indian. He was probably a British guy living in India. 

Edward's father was a military guy. I was all confused, at first, because I thought the Australian Dictionary of Biography was talking about Edward. Then I realized they were talking about his dad.  They gave all this military information; then suddenly said Edward went to school in Perth.

It's hard to explain. Just trust that I was lost.

But now I'm okay.

Maybe.

In his young adult years, Edward became a treasury clerk and worked for a bank.

Then, in 1917, he became part of Western Australia's Parliament.

39. Learned that Edward supported increasing trade with south-east Asia. He also pushed for tourism in north-western Australia. I guess that would be around Darwin and The Kimberley.  

40. Found some more Australian YouTube people.

Here's a music group called Handsome Alvin.   It's made up of two guys; James Palframan and Vincent Hickey.

They're from Brisbane. 

They do covers mostly—stuff I like.   It's going to be hard for me to choose what songs to listen to.

41. Decided to listen to "Wonderwall" because it reminds me of Lost.



42. Realized I might have been wrong about downplaying the ability to do good covers.

It probably won't make someone a successful rock star or anything. But they can do things like weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. They could perform at clubs and restaurants.

Also, I think people prefer to hear music that's familiar to them. It's probably best to get people to like you with your cover songs. Then once they're a fan, they'll probably be more open to hearing your original music.

43. Started to watch Handsome Alvin's cover of Five For Fighting's "Superman".

I love that song.



44. Looked for more YouTube people.  I'm going to talk about them on future days.

I'm seeing some good stuff here.

45. Saw that Air Supply is going to be performing at Disney World while we're there!  

I like them.

46. Started to look at more of Arthur Chapman's plant photos. A part of me likes doing that, and a part of me is kind of tired of it.

I don't want to quit, though.

I might just speed through—do less research.

I'll look something up if it really intrigues me.

47. Liked this water lily picture. 

And I like this one too.

Speaking of Lilies, I heard they're getting a new Lily on Modern Family.  I might like her. I'll miss the old one, though.

48. Liked these two Bower of Beauty flowers. They look like sisters or best friends. It's very sweet. 

49. Amazed by these Opium Poppy flowers.

I guess you could turn them into drugs?

I'm surprised it's legal to grow those.  Or is it really hard to turn it into illicit drugs?

50. Tried to remember if heroin is made from opium. I think it is.

Maybe I'm wrong.  

51. Consulted Lord Wiki.  He says I'm not wrong.

He says poppy seeds and opium come from the same plant—the one in the picture. I knew that, sort of.  I know that if you eat poppy seeds before taking a drug test you can get positive results.

Snopes.com has stories of people losing their job because they chose the wrong bagel flavor.  

Lord Wiki says opium is used to make heroin, morphine, codeine, and some other stuff.

52. Learned from Lord Wiki that Australia, Turkey and India are the major suppliers of poppy (opium) for medicinal purposes.

53. Googled "Growing Poppy Australia" and saw a site about the tall poppy syndrome. I never put the two and two together.

54. Wondered why the characters in Candy didn't just grow their own poppy plants.

They didn't do that...as far as I can remember.

I know it would be hard to get enough of the drug with the plants. From what I'm reading, you have to do a lot of extracting.  But if they built up a good enough garden, they might have had a chance.

Would it be that much harder than getting the ingredients from over the counter medicine? If I remember correctly, this is what they did at some point.

55. Saw from this ABC site that there are various types of poppy. So tall poppy syndrome might not refer to the plant that provides us with opium.

The site also says that you DO need a license to grow the opium poppy (Papaver sominferum).  That might explain why the characters in Candy didn't grow their own.  Then again, doing heroin is illegal in itself.

Maybe they didn't have a place to grow it.

I forgot if they lived in a house or not.

They probably didn't.

They were poor...because of the heroin addiction.

But see if they grew their own, they wouldn't have to spend so much money.  

56. Thought this Rose Banjine looked friendly...or maybe menacing.   I'm not sure.  

57. Thought about a scene from The Hunger Games. One of the characters is EXTREMELY thirsty—very dehydrated.  She can barely function.

Now that I think of it, it reminds me of what the characters endured in Candy.  They needed that heroin.  They were such a mess without it.  It wasn't just a psychological need. It was very physical.

It would be so awful to get in a situation where your body needs something it never needed before.   The need is so desperate, and it's so difficult (expensive) to get the next fix.

58. Liked these Pink Everlasting flowers.  Although they do look a bit desperate. They seem to be saying, Pick me!  Pick me!   I want to dance.

Maybe they're one of the flowers that inspired the term "wallflowers".

59. Thought these flowers looked like the ones I saw in Port Stephens.  They're called Common Coast Groundsel.  

60. Looked at my flower picture.  Now that I see it again. It doesn't really like the Common Coast Groundsel.

 

While I got the album in front of me.....

Here I am digging a hole in Port Stephens.  

And here's Jack enjoying the controversial and delicious Max Brenner chocolate.

One day I should make a post with all our 2007 photos and include the captions.  They were pretty silly.  

I would probably have to do more than one post—probably like ten. There're a lot of photos.

61. Decided maybe I'll really do that.  I might even start tonight.  I'll just do mini-posts with about 5 pictures per post.

I'll start with the Japan album.

62. Excited about my project idea.

63. Realized that some of my pictures MIGHT look familiar to people. The reason is I made a Facebook application back in 2008.  It was one of those things where you send people virtual gifts. I used some of our photos for it.

It turned out to be fairly popular.  Although it probably wouldn't be so popular that people recognize the photos.

Plus, I stole most of the photos from elsewhere.

It's not like I ran into Ned Kelly and said Say Cheese!

64. Liked these Firewheel Flowers

65. Worried about my photo project a bit.   I posted them out of order accidentally on Ofoto.   Should I fix that for my posts or leave it as it was?

66. Decided I'll leave it, because by this time I probably won't remember the right order.  

67. Decided I'll do ten photos per post instead of five.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online