I saw “Pan’s Labyrinth” last night with Stephen Shearsby in Newton. It is a fascinating movie and I would highly recommend it. For me the first surprise was that it was in Spanish and subtitled in English. I knew it was a Spanish film, but I kind of expected it to be dubbed into English. Nevertheless it gave me the chance to try and figure out what they were saying rather than reading the subtitles. Unfortunately my Spanish is not very good, so I only managed to really understand the greetings and the occasional word here or there. The story itself is about Ofelia, a young girl living during the Spanish civil war in 1944, who has just gone with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather. As a bloody fascist civil war is taking place around her, Ofelia retreats into her fairy tales. Guillermo del Toro does a fantastic job at making these fantasies real and juxtaposing them against the violence surrounding her. It looks so real in fact its hard to tell where or when he has hasn’t used special effects. The only bit I didn’t fancy was some of the violence. There are only a couple of scenes that made me a bit squeamish, but it was never over done. Actually the sounds of gunshots in the film were a strange experience. They weren’t the usual nice Hollywood gunshot sound, but they were loud and sharp and almost made you jump. Like the fairy tales the violence in Pan’s Labyrinth felt very real, much more confronting than a lot of other movies. Overall Pan’s Labyrinth is a great film. Possibly the best I’ve seen in the last 12 months. I’d most definitely watch it again at the cinema (anyone want to go?) and/or buy the DVD. You do the same. Oh yeah, visit imdb or rottentomatoes for more complete, well worded reviews.

You know how you sometimes put your hand into a pocket, or you look into a bag, and find a $20 note lying around. Well, as I was doing some budgeting for my upcoming trip, I decided to double check the actual money in my bank accounts. Up until now I had been making rough guesses as to how much money I had, and I was beginning to get worried that I might be sailing a bit too close to the wind (especially since I might be unemployed for 4 months)....

So this box containing a computer part (pictured in front) we ordered from umart arrived at work arrived yesterday. Its not fragile, yet it came in more packaging than a hard disk that arrived last week. The box could fit at least another 20 of them. Maybe there is a lack of appropriately sized boxes in Sydney at the moment...

es•ca•lope |ɪˌskaləp| |ɛ-| |-ˌskɒl-| |ˌɛskələʊp| noun a thin slice of meat without any bone, typically a special cut of veal from the leg that is coated, fried, and served in a sauce. Also called scallop. New Oxford American Dictionary

My new LCD monitor at work just arrived. I now have more desk space, more screen space and one less thing burning energy and cranking out heat in our office. Big LCD monitors rock :D

South East Asia, USA, Chile, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru. So good.

So I got hair clippers for Christmas. Which is great, because my parents are taking their clippers with them to Canberra. As I was registering them online for the 2 year warranty I was presented with the following screen: As you can probably tell I was at a bit of a loss as to which option I should pick. Hair clippers are a hair care product, but they are also a shaver…...

Merry Christmas everyone. Right now I’m really tired after running around the city in the morning and then helping out at 4 church services from 3pm till 12am. However despite all that I’m really happy - and not just because of the imminent prospect of receiving presents, but because today we celebrate the birth of Jesus - not just some smart guy who lived 2000 years ago, but the eternal ruler of the universe. Who was sent to earth, as a man, by God, to restore our broken relationship with him - broken because of our rejection of his sovereignty over us. A rebellion punishable by death. So, while you unwrap the gifts and eat nice big meals, may I suggest that you spend some time thinking about what it is you’re actually doing and why you are doing it. May I also suggest that you think about who this Jesus is and what he did. They are very closely related. Anyway, I must sleep. I don’t think I’ll have much of a chance to sleep in tomorrow, so I guess I’ll have to take what I can get.

Strangely enough, the story about the local Chicken shop continues to unfold. So if you haven’t already, then I suggest you read the original post and then continue below. ...

I wonder if there is a market for an emergency toilet paper delivery service. An ‘at call’ service where, if you run out of toilet paper, you can give them a call and at a premium have a packet of toilet paper rushed to your door. ...