Thursday, November 5, 2015

Essie Davis, Alice Garner, Maren E. Nelson, and Jessica Grossman

1. Saw that this month's Costco magazine has an article about Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Seeing it made me feel guilty, because I never added the show to my to-watch list.

Why? I tried reading one of the books, and I didn't like it. I figured it was not my kind of thing.

But now I'm feeling I should at least give it a chance.

I'm going to do that. I'm adding it to my to-watch list.  

2. Looked at the cast of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

There are actors I don't like very much—only because I didn't like their characters much on other shows. I might end up liking them on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

3. Saw that Essie Davis, who plays the titular character, was on The Slap.

4. Saw that Miriam Margolyes is on the show. I don't like her. I'm not sure if the reasons for this are more about her being anti-Israel, or more about me being jealous that she's a fan of Australia who became Australian. 

Actually, I don't know if she was a fan of Australia before she moved to Australia. But she seemed very happy about becoming Australian, and that made me jealous. 

5. Decided it's more about Israel.

I usually get jealous of only Americans moving to, or becoming, Australian.  

6. Concluded that there are three actors on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries that I wouldn't be excited to watch.  What does make me want to watch, though, is there are a lot of cool guest stars.

7. Got the idea that about 90% of Australian television actors have been on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

8. Got ready to watch Love and Other Catastrophes.

Yesterday I recognized an actress on the movie poster as the woman from The Secret Life of Us and Sea Change.

I decided to look up the actress before beginning to watch. It's Alice Garner

Garner hasn't added anything to her filmography since 2012, and that was a short film. Her most recent full-length project was Jindabyne in 2006. I wonder what's she been up to. I hope she's okay.  

9. Learned, from Lord Wiki, that Alice Garner is the daughter of Helen Garner.  I was thinking Garner was that famous writer; but I wasn't sure. But yeah...she is.

10. Tried to remember what books of hers I read.

I think I read Cosmo Cosmolino.  I don't think I liked it.

I might have also read The Spare Room.

11. Went back to reading about Alice Garner.

She's a historian, an advocate for refugees, plays the cello, and has three children. So she might have decided to concentrate more on that stuff rather than acting.

12. Started watching Love and Other Catastrophes.

13. Saw a gratuitous vomit scene.

14. Saw Matt Day looking extremely young.

Actually, I saw him before I saw the vomit. But I didn't realize it was him at first.

I mean I knew he was the star of the movie, but I didn't realize the particular person I was seeing was him.

15. Felt, so far, that the movie isn't very good—either bad writing or bad acting.

Maybe both, actually.

16. Saw, from IMDb, that Kim Gyngell is in the movie.  He was on The Secret Life of Us, too, and also on The Librarians, Upper Middle Bogan, and Very Small Business

17. Found yet another Secret Life of Us actor—Torquil Neilson. He played Kelly's (Deborah Mailman) annoying boyfriend. Although that description might not be helpful, since Kelly had three annoying boyfriends. And there might be more! I haven't watched the last season yet.

18. Saw that one of the writers of Love and Other Catastrophes (Yael Bergman) was a story consultant for The Secret Life of Us.

It seems that if you're going to have a clump of actors from one thing appearing together in another thing; there's likely going to be an off-camera connection as well. 

19. Continued to think Love and Other Catastrophes is pretty awful.

20. Saw that Matthew Dyktynski, one of the stars of Love and Other Catastrophes appeared on five episodes of Offspring. He played Tim.

Who is Tim?

He was in season three....


21. Went to the Australian Television website. They informed me that Tim was the guy dating Andrew (Dan Spielman).

22. Saw that Dyktynski also appeared on one episode of The Secret Life of Us.

23. Did like Michael's (Matt Day) speech in the movie about wanting to be an old-fashioned family doctor rather than one that simply hands out pills for pharmaceutical companies.

I think it's the first thing in the movie I've liked...besides Francis O'Connor's smile.

24. Saw that Jack has a Southern Cassowary stuffed animal.

He got it from Australia. I don't remember him getting it, but I believe that it happened. 

25. Read article about Bindi Irwin.  

In order to get her prize money from Dancing with the Stars, she has to prove to a Los Angeles court that her father is dead.

Apparently all the news broadcasts and articles are not enough. She needs to show a death certificate.


That is anal, insane, and pretty cruel.

It would somewhat cruel if it happened to someone whose dead parent was not super famous. But then it might be a necessary cruelness. People could get things they want by faking deaths. Sure.  To do it to Bindi Irwin though is an unnecessary cruelty.  So it's really shitty.

26. Found a judge-rating website. It has a page for Maren E. Nelson, the judge who wants proof that Steve Irwin is dead.

She has a one star rating with nineteen reviews.  

I don't know if she's particularly awful or if it's normal for judges to get low ratings. It could be like insurance companies. One day I found that our insurance company had very low ratings, but when I looked at other insurance companies, I saw the same thing.

27. Looked at another judge in the same court. He got a three star rating average with four reviews.

Maren E. Nelson has the most ratings in that court. I think she angers people so much that they're inspired to write reviews.

28. Saw that someone started a blog for hating on Maren E. Nelson.  

It doesn't have many posts, though.

29. Found another blog about Maren E. Nelson. It's from a mother who lost custody of her child, because of a Nelson ruling. Then a few comments say they had problems with Nelson as well. 

30. Thought that Maren E. Nelson reminded me of Dolores Umbridge.

Who knows, though. Maybe she's a decent person, and I'm getting a slanted view from cyberspace.

It happens sometimes.

31. Finished watching Love and Other Catastrophes.

I didn't like it.  

32. Read a powerful counter-argument to Essana O'Neil's anti-social media video. I got it from a link in this article

Jessica Grossman declares she's real, and she expresses concern about people distrusting her content because of O'Neil.  

Well, I don't really think O'Neil can be blamed for social media skepticism.  There are people who blatantly lie on the Internet. When I first started blogging, there was a teenage girl who pretended to have cancer. Later I encountered a blogger who created an elaborate fabricated life about raising the daughter of a deceased breast cancer victim.

Wondering....Do people ever lie about anything besides cancer?  Well, I guess they do. But cancer seems to be a popular one.

So, I'm not on Grossman's side when she expresses expresses concern and annoyance about people questioning whether she truly has an ostomy condition.

Getting back to Bindi Irwin. Again, it's cruel to question whether someone's parent died or whether they truly have a serious medical condition. But people DO lie about these things—sometimes to get attention and other times for material gain.  If your situation hasn't been covered by hundreds of international news outlets, it's kind of reasonable to expect people to wonder if you're telling the truth or not.  

Jessica Grossman says,  When I first started Uncover Ostomy, there were many people who didn’t believe that I actually had an ostomy (can you believe it?). Apparently, my stomach is too “perfect” and my ostomy is too low. To quiet the haters, I had to stoop to the level of taking pictures of me holding up signs to prove that I was, in fact, a girl with an ostomy. I even had friends of mine message these people and tell them that they knew me and my bag and I was a real person. It was draining and, frankly, ridiculous.

I think it's sad that she had to do that, but at the same time I can't blame people for being skeptical.

Where I do agree with Grossman is when she talks about picking and choosing what we share with people.

She says:  As human beings, we’ve been doing this since photography has existed. Have you ever walked into someone’s home and seen pictures of them from the time that they got food poisoning lining the entryway to their living room? Have you ever received a Christmas card with a picture of a family where Mom’s eyes are closed, Dad is sneezing, and the dog is licking the toddler’s face? No – of course not. We pose for pictures. We choose the good pictures. We use the ones we like. We always have.

I think she makes her point extremely well.

There's a difference between telling an outright lie and editing the ugly bits of your life out.

There's a difference between a blogger who pretends to have cancer and a blogger, who truly has cancer, not confessing that she slapped her insensitive doctor.

33. Continued to believe there was a lot of value in what Essana O'Neil did.  She probably did take her message too far—pushing the idea that everyone on social media is fake. But even though there are many honest people on the Internet, it's good to be reminded that some are faking it.  On one end of the spectrum, there are people promoting products they don't truly like and heavily editing their lives. On the other end are people who have completely fabricated a life.

34. Felt the trick is to take everything with a grain of salt...especially on the Internet, but with real life too.

Your husband who stays late at the office every Wednesday?  In reality, he might be the town's serial killer.

Do we really know the people we know?

Not always.

35. Thought more about the cancer-faking.  If there are people faking illnesses to get attention, could there also be the opposite online—people faking good health so they can have a break from the stigma?

Or is the excessive attention the one positive thing about having a major medical problem?

36. Went to to pick my Saturday thing to watch.

I'm excited.

It's The Babadook.

Though maybe I shouldn't be excited.

The movie might terrify me.

37. Saw that the main star is Essie Davis, the same woman I mentioned earlier today.

Is she haunting me?

38. Went to palg1305's Flickr album.

Today I'm going to look at his Great Barrier Reef album.

39. Saw from the description, that palg1305 visited the Reef during a road trip with friends.

He has friends, but you couldn't tell that from his photos. There are no people.

So it's an example of how photos can't give a full and true idea of someone's life.

On the other side of the spectrum, a lonely person can make themselves look like they have a rich social life by only posting on Instagram when they have a social occasion.  We might see updates on their account only twice a month, because that's how often they see go out with friends.

40. Liked this photo from Yeppoon.

41. Saw from Google Maps that Yeppoon is quite far south from the Cairns area. It's about seven hours north of Brisbane and thirteen hours south of Cairns.

So, this must be the beginning of their road trip. Or the midpoint really.

42. Wondered where the GBR begins. I picture it being north of Cairns, but are there any parts below?

43. Learned from this website that it extends down to Bundaberg.

44. Saw from Google Maps that Yeppoon is about four hours south of Bundaberg.

45. Realized there IS a person in palg1305's album.

Like another person I saw in one of his albums, you can't see details. It's like he purposely hides the identities.

46. Thought this was a very cool sand photo.

47. Thought this Captain Cook-related photo had fantastic blues.

48. Saw that I had yet ANOTHER really stupid moment. What is wrong with me?

Yeppoon is north of Bundaberg; not South.

How did I mess that up?


So Yeppoon IS in the Great Barrier Reef area.

49. Considered doing a road trip from Brisbane to Yeppoon. We could stop in The Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg.

One day....