Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

If this feels more like a review than a blog, I apologise. But quite frankly, after watching Slumdog Millionaire just now, I feel the need to write something about it.

I loaded the movie up somewhat hesitantly. I usually worry when a product carries the amount of hype that a film like this does. It destroyed the competition in both the Academy Awards, and the BAFTA’s – winning fifteen awards across both. It scooped up both Best Picture and Best Film, making it the obvious choice for film of the year.

But still, I hesitated. Partly because I wondered if it could live up to the hype. But partly because often the films that are this critically acclaimed are also rather bad. Take No Country for Old Men, for example. It won a lot of awards, but was in fact quite boring.

Like so much in film and literature, on a very basic level Slumdog Millionaire boils down to a hero’s journey. But it is much more than that; it’s a slice of life in a city and country we don’t hear about very much, certainly in mainstream media. Slumdog made me care about a game show – a game show far more tense than it could ever be in real life; and it made me care about the lives of the characters that we follow, from the harsh slum life their childhood to the present day.

I may have hesitated to play it. But I have no hesitation in saying that as this film reached its climax, I was moved almost to tears.

It’s very much recommended – a wonderful movie.

I have started reading The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells, over the past few days, because I wanted to see how he handled to concept of time travel.

It’s something that has been handled in so many different ways, and often it’s not done very well. Methods range from Doctor Who’s police box, to Hiro’s innate ability to manipulate space and time in Heroes. They are each very different. But often not much time is dedicated to how these people can actually travel through time.

How is it possible for a man to go forward in time by scrunching his eyes and balling his fists?

But The Time Machine has offered quite a detailed account of just this. Well, the traveller doesn’t scrunch his eyes – as the title suggests, he uses a machine. But, probably because it’s written from the perspective of a sceptic, it’s believable stuff.

Similarly, a friend mentioned to me the other day that scientists have succeeded in sending objects through space – or something to that effect. Teleporting, in a sense, if I remember correctly. It was only mentioned briefly, and I asked no more of it, but now I regret not pressing him for more details. I did a quick Google, and have so far not managed to unearth anything.

But I did find two quite different things, interesting in their own right:

We are one step closer to using cold fusion, a theoretically limitless energy source.

And a wind powered car has broken the land speed record for a wind powered vehicle. A very high performance sailboat, eh?

Having touched on the recession yesterday, today I found myself looking for ways of escaping it. It was almost automatic; my mind strayed to potential ideas almost as soon as I opened up the internet.

It must be said first of all that none were more brilliant than this, a marvellous little about a walking house. It looks quite early in development, certainly, but even so the idea is fantastic – and it’s environmentally friendly to boot.

I also stumbled across this article, mentioning a house up for sale that once belonged to Mafia member Al Capone. And this, in turn, led me to read up a little bit on selling houses. After all, if you are struggling financially, there is always the option to sell your home and relocate, right?

It’s to be expected that house prices have dropped in recent times. In fact, here the BBC says that it is a record fall, with prices dropping by as much as 19% in January, compared with last year. Yet – call me an ignorant fool – but does it actually matter that they are lowering?

Yes, you might sell your house for less than you paid for it originally … but if a nice house is worth less, then surely a bit less of a nice house will be worth even less than that? Logically, if you’re forced to downgrade your house, you might sell for less, but you’ll also pay a lot less for a new home as well … so is it not more of a viable option than it’s being made out to be?

A brief Google shows there are some quick solutions out there as well, allowing you to sell property for cash.

It’s food for thought, anyway. And it’s all we can do I suppose, until these walking houses make it into production, and we can run away from it all. Or plod, depending on whether they add a second gear.

I wanted to read some happy news. Something nice and light; something utterly carefree, that I could read with a cup of tea, and a smile on my face. Yes, I think I needed to write this, after finishing that bit about the recession earlier.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take very long at all to find an uplifting story or two. The first takes the form of something that sounds quite ridiculous, but is at the same time both funny and charming. In Taiwan, butterflies are bringing traffic to a standstill. Yes, that’s right – butterflies.

It seems that their migration route takes them across a motorway, causing a lane to be shut, signs to be erected, and nets too. The sheer volume of butterflies it would take to warrant such measures is quite staggering. Presently I find myself imagining it looking something like a fast-flowing river, glinting in the sun. Multi-coloured, of course, although I suppose in reality these butterflies would be mostly the same colour.

Also, there is this, which looks great fun. I would never have even thought there would be such a thing as an ice festival, before finding this. What a brilliant idea. It is mostly told in pictures, but then we all know the saying…

And there we are. I can feel it already: this last blog has left me sufficiently smiley.

The news has been ripe with stories of doom and gloom recently. Today I read that UK unemployment has risen above 2 million for the first time since 1997. And what’s more, there are now 10 jobseekers for every listed job. It’s quite a frightening thought, really.

Continuing with this rather depressing train of thought, the BBC also reports that with the recession we find ourselves in, saving rates have dropped to an all-time low.

Debates are ongoing as to whether these rates have hit rock bottom or not. For me, it’s difficult to say. Our world leaders discussed this, among other things, at the G20 summit … and it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel. As it stands, things will probably remain this gloomy for a little while yet. Despite this, one company in this field – Nationwide – who offer their own saving service, are urging people to keep saving. And I think it’s good advice. It’s still possible to find some good deals; hidden gems, so to speak. I speak from experience when I say it’s definitely worth looking around for these deals. After all, it can’t hurt to be prepared for the future.

But why is this all happening? Well, partly because the base rates of the Bank of England are dropping. Essentially, the service they offer is this: some people save money (and the bank pays them interest), and some people borrow money (and the bank charges them for it). Ultimately, it’s a business, and as such must make a profit – they must lend more money than they offer to savers, or they won’t make any.

Here is a short and very helpful article consisting of tips to help us with our saving, and although some of them are quite obvious, some are also quite handy.

Enough gloomy news, I think. I’ll probably look for some uplifting reports to balance it all out.