TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner is the kind of Australian story that it would be nice to see more of. Not necessarily more historic war stories but more stories that are uniquely Australian without going over the top with Australian-isms. Case in point, there is a bit of obligatory Aussie slang in the film but it's not over the top and it's not coming out of every Australian character's mouth. I think international audiences could enjoy this film as is without getting confused by the slang.

The Tao Chair. Mashable recently reported on the Tao Chair and I just had to look into it further. Finally an exercise device you can actually use in front of the TV without fear of mistiming something and being thrown into the wall. Labelled 'an invisible gym for your living room' the chair is specially designed for isometric exercises along the lines of Pilates. By using various pushing and pulling techniques with your arms or legs against the chair's arms you'll watch the calories burn away through in built sensors and a digital display.

I never saw Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome (2012) in its original form as a web series. The first I knew about it was when I saw it as a DVD release, last month, in time for Christmas. My Battlestar Galactica fandom began with the rebooted series from 2004-2009 . At that time I was aware of the original 1976 series but had never seen a full episode. Just recently I was given the full original series as a gift and have been surprised at how earnest it is after expecting something much lighter and comic book like. I digress... I own the entire Battlestar rebooted series so purchasing Blood and Chrome was never not an option. The chance to see a young William Adama in his very first mission during the first Cylon war, why wouldn't I buy it? Especially since there are glimpses of young Adama fighting first war Cylons in the tele-movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor . More of that please!

If ever a successful terrorist action was demonstrated, you'd have to say the Sydney Siege in Martin Place was mostly a success thanks to virtually every major TV station in Australia dropping their programming and replacing it with live, rolling coverage for hours. Not only live coverage but seemingly endless talking heads looking at every possible angle, waxing on and on to fill the gap between nothing has happened since the last time we reported nothing had happened. Which, although nothing happening is a good thing, doesn't make for very interesting TV.

Not the actual Koala. When I take our dogs for a walk it's not enough that I have to watch out for snakes, lizards, prickles and other over enthusiastic dogs but now I also have to watch out for man eating koalas too! Well alright more like woman biting koalas but this happened right in the suburb where I live, and possibly where I walk my own dogs. Who would ever suspect a largely vegan koala would go rogue for a pound of leg flesh!

Although I had a lot of assistants this ramp was very much built by me - all with no plans. Although I spend hours in front of a computer I'm still very much an old school, hands on, do-it-yourself kind of person who's not afraid to pick up a power tool and build something out of wood. Probably largely due to my Dad, who built a lot of the furniture we had as I was growing up. I got to watch him work and, when I was old enough, use his power tools to build a lot of skate ramps.

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar does a great job of keeping the story moving along at a steady and engaging pace. The reason I mention this is because the movie is partially inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey , a film I've tried to watch on many occasions over the years and I still can't tell you how it ends. It just sends me to sleep - every time. If you've also struggled with that film and thought Interstellar, which also tries to depict space travel in a realistic manner, sounds like a difficult proposition then there's no need to be concerned. There's plenty to keep you tuned in and awake. That said, you'll probably get a lot more from this film if you have more than a passing interest in space travel, worm holes, black holes, relativity theory and time travel. Particularly if you're aware of some of the current research.