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A day at Fisherman’s Island

A black swan on the lake at Fisherman's Island.

More photos here.

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A lost duckling

There’s an abundance of new life around the university lake at the moment, including ducklings, dusky moorhen chicks, a dabchick chick or two and baby lizards. I was in at university today finishing off the introduction to my thesis (only the conclusion to go!). Karen went to see Somersault at the Schonell Theatre.

On our way back to the car, we found a little wood duckling which had been separated from its family. It was chirping and looking very lost.

A lost little duckling

While Karen kept an eye on the duckling, I wandered around for a bit trying to locate its family. I managed to find a family of wood ducks with ducklings that looked the same age as our lost duckling. We picked up the duckling and took it to its family. I was delighted when the parent ducks, upon hearing the chirping duckling in my hands, started running towards us. We hung around for a little while to make sure the duckling really was from the same family. It wasn’t long before all the little ducklings, including our little duckling, huddled under their mother. It’s quite amazing, but there are about seven little ducklings underneath the mother duck in the photo.

Reacquainted!

There are more new photos here.

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Random observations

Tsunamis hit southern Asia after huge earthquake

Holy crap.
BBC
SBS
The Australian
ABC
CNN
.

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Conformity

Since everybody else is doing it…


What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com
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Ferry terminal sinks

At about ten to seven last Thursday evening, the Dutton Park Ferry terminal on the St Lucia side collapsed into the Brisbane River. Apparently nobody was injured. At the moment the ferry is using the St Lucia CityCat terminal. The first photo below shows the collapsed terminal. The second one was taken this morning and shows a repair crew starting to rebuild the pontoon.

The collapsed ferry terminal.
The terminal being rebuilt.
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Movies and picnics

I’ve been a little slack in reporting the movies I’ve watched of late. Last weekend I saw Bad Santa at the Southbank 5 (which, by the way, has very nice cinemas and the cheapest movie tickets in Brisbane at $6 for an adult during the day). This movie was pretty much what I was expecting after seeing the reviews. Billy Bob Thornton stars as a permanently intoxicated Santa Claus who robs the department stores that hire him. An odd friendship (if one can call it that) develops between Billy Bob’s character and an eight year old kid, who lives with his grandmother. There’s also an appearance from Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls) who plays Santa Claus’s love interest. An amusing film, but not one of the best of the year. Don’t watch it if you’re offended by profane language.

Karen and I also hired out Prozac Nation last weekend. The film, starring Christina Ricci, is an examination of the depression suffered by the lead character, and her eventual use of the widely prescribed drug called Prozac. I liked this film. Ricci played her character, Elizabeth, brilliantly, and was ably supported by Michelle Williams and Jessica Lange. The movie highlighted the ways depression can affect friends and family, and the manner in which one can suddenly slip into depression and just as suddenly slip back out. This movie is worth watching at least once.

This weekend we rented Imagining Argentina, starring Antonio Banderas. In Argentina, more than 30,000 people went missing between 1976 and 1983. These people were kidnapped and executed by the fascist military regime. Imagining Argentina has got to be the strangest take on this sordid period of Argentina’s history. Banderas plays Carlos, a stage director for children’s plays in Buenos Aires. His wife, played by Emma Thompson, is kidnapped by the junta after she writes a provocative newspaper article. In the following weeks, Carlos discovers he has clairvoyant powers, and can see the fates of those kidnapped by the junta. Weird. When Carlos begins making problems for fascist regime, his daughter and colleague are "disappeared", and he foresees their fates. He follows clues found in his visions in order to try to find and rescue his wife. This film definitely has its moments, and it builds up tension. Some of the fantastical elements work, and others don’t. All in all, I guess I kind of enjoyed the film. Also, not having seen any other films or read much about this period of Argentinian history, I learned a few new things.

On Saturday, Karen and I hosted a pre-Christmas picnic for some of our friends. It also doubled as a birthday and sending off party for Ryan, who is leaving for Vietnam (in fact his plane is probably taxiing out to the runway of Brisbane airport as I type this). He’s spending a few weeks over there on a holiday. The picnic, which was suitably held on Picnic Island at Southbank, went very well, I thought. Picnic Island turned out to be a great spot, and we’ll have to do something there again some time.

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A Pair of Blue Eyes

It seems like I’ve been reading A Pair of Blue Eyes for ages. This is probably to be expected given that I’ve been working hard on my thesis of late. Well, I finally finished it, and in the end it was a much better read than I originally gave it credit for. Of course, it ended more or less in the same manner that all Hardy novels end: sadly. A Pair of Blue Eyes is the story of Elfride Swancourt and two suitors, Stephen Smith and Henry Knight. I haven’t given any of the story away by stating this here: as much is written in the blurb on the back cover of the novel. But I won’t say any more, except that, as I have come to expect of Hardy novels, this book is very much a character study of the protagonists, more than it is a romance between characters. Another excellent novel from one of my favourite authors.

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Football Federation of Australia

At long last, the world game in Australia will be called what it is called everywhere else in the world: football. The Australian Soccer Association is soon to officially announce a name change to the Football Federation of Australia. I’m not sure I like that name completely, but at least the sport will be called by its rightful name. The Socceroos brand name will be left to slowly die out, just as it should be. I’ve often wondered why Australia, and Australia alone, needs an official nickname for its national football team. Sure the French give their national side the nickname les Bleus (the Blues) and the Italians call their team gli Azzurri (the Blues ;), but these are not brand names and they are not official in any respect. I’ve always called the game football, and soon I will be able to do so officially and without having to explain myself. :)

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Russell Beale

Russell Beale (of Abowd & Beale fame) gave a seminar at ITEE today. He gave a pretty cool talk about some of the projects he’s been working on at Birmingham. Among other things, he talked about his Bluedating prototype (proximity-based profile swapping), BTShare (proximity-based file swapping) and SmartBlog (a blogging system that supports mobile users). Another cool and useful prototype he talked about was a notice board system that he has attached to his office door. If he’s running late for work or for a meeting, he can send an SMS to the electronic notice board, which is comprised of a PDA stuck to his office door and a backend machine that receives the SMSes. Now people waiting for him to arrive at work, such as undergraduate students, can read the notice board to get an idea of how long they’ll have to wait. A lot of this stuff isn’t new. But what is cool is to see it actually working and being used.

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Datapig, by Anna

This is classic. Anna brings us the Datapig: a farmyard animal with USB datastick capability. You’ve got to see it!