Daily-Column

I am so in love with Ellen Page right now. Juno is about a 16 year old, Juno, who gets pregnant and has to deal with it in a way that only a sixteen year old could - professional detachment from the whole icky business. This movie is perfect. The humour is light-hearted and on target. The drama is poignant without dragging the whole thing down. The pace is incredible, keeping the action moving when it needs to and slowing when you need to absorb the moment. Clocking in just over an hour and a half, there’s barely enough time to get to know the whole cast, but the main players come across so well that it feels longer, but in a good way. The actors do so well - at first, I thought Jennifer Garner was a little over the top, but she comes around by the end, really stepping into her role. Jason Bateman and Michael Cera still remind me a bit too much of Arrested Development, but none-the-less play excellent support roles. ...

Random idea: Inner-city multi-level caravan “park” Implementation: Build a big “car park” for caravans in the city, letting people stay in the city with their caravans, keeping it cheap but convenient. Astroturf it even. Up and down ramps will need to be wider than normal, and height of levels will also need to be more than normal, possibly. Width of parking slots would be wider too. Why it won’t work: I hate caravans. ...

A friend asked me the other day to name one thing in London that was better than it was here in Sydney. At first, I thought I could pull out a long list, having stayed there long enough to learn the city fairly well. But only one thing really stood out: the tube. The tube is a foregone conclusion, once you’ve used it for more than novelty value. Having now been to Tokyo, New York, London and Hong Kong, the transport systems of Sydney and Melbourne are quite obviously woefully inadequate. ...

Happy Holi everyone! This year is possibly the first time ever we’ve got four days off just for Holi :)

Just to document what exactly has happened: It seems to be worst on the grey background - on a white background, it’s hardly noticeable. On a black background, it’s a thin white line. I swear it’s gotten better, somehow - I didn’t take any photos when it had just happened (being too distraught and all), but there were patches of dead pixels and a distinct difference whenever something crossed the line. Now it seems like the dead pixels are gone, and it’s just a crack around which the backlight shows through some. My best guess is that the liquid from surrounding crystals has leaked or something, and it’s steadily going to get worse - the corner seems lighter than the rest of the screen. ...