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Being Chased by a DJI Spark Drone - Not just for Aerial Landscape B-Roll

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When you think of drones (the little quadcopter with a camera type rather than the more dangerous airstrike type) you tend to think of big cinematic landscape video often used as B-Roll by many Youtube channels.
As great as that is I've been keeping my eye on the object tracking and autonomous flying capabilities of smaller consumer drones at the lower priced end of the market. 
As a solo video creator one of the things I can't do on my own is have a camera follow me as I move through an environment on my skateboard. Having a drone camera that can just lock onto me, and follow me as I ride my skateboard without me having to control the drone at all, opens up many possibilities for more dynamic video.
Initially I tried a couple of low cost selfie drones that were specifically marketed as ideal for filming yourself. The Elfie was my first selfie drone and did not meet up with the expectations of it's marketing. I could not get it to hover in place at all.
I was then gifted a Fli…
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Attempting to Land Kickflips, Skateboarding at 50

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On May 10th 2020 I turned 50 years old. While younger me never imagined I'd still be skating at 50, I have always said, Tony Hawk (one of the world's best skaters from my generation) is only two years older than me. When he decides to quit that gives me two more years before maybe I'll consider it. He hasn't quit yet.
While I'm not nearly as good as him I still enjoy being on a skateboard, and working on getting back to a level of ability that I had back in my twenties. That said, kickflips were not my forte, even in my twenties.
I reckon I could count on one hand, and still have a finger or two left over, the number of flat ground kickflips I landed. I actually had a greater chance of landing a backside kickflip to tail on a curb than I had of landing a standard kickflip, but even then that wasn't in any way consistent.
So in early March, while the world was in lock down from the pandemic, I thought that would be a good time to attempt to learn kickflips, and lan…
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Boarding the Cruise, Coronavirus, and Replacing the Knob - Queen Elizabeth Cruise 2020

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Finally at the Pier in Melbourne we were able to begin the boarding the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship  right away. If you're new to TET Life, or this is your first post, I'm blogging about a cruise ship holiday my partner, Enigma, and I went on at the end of January for eight days.

You may like to continue reading from this point or you might like to read the two prior posts, Automobiles, Planes, Buses, Trams, and Boats and The Middle Park Hotel, Albert Park, Port Melbourne Beach to get the full story of how we got here.

Coronavirus (for context) In case you're wondering, COVID-19 was not yet a nationwide concern in Australia (personally I hadn't even heard the term Coronavirus until my Mother mentioned it on social media after we started our holiday). The Queen Elizabeth had stopped taking trips into Asia and instead was offering various routes touring Australia and New Zealand at very attractive rates (hence why we booked a cruise).

As far as I know, no one from our c…
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A Weekender at Victor Harbor, Hindmarsh Island, Goolwa, and Granite Island, South Australia

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This vacation was definitely a bonus trip as it was Enigma and I's third vacation in two months. We were gifted a one night stay at the McCracken Country Club in Victor Harbor, South Australia, which Enigma extended to a two night stay so we'd have a little time to see a few sights.

Victor Harbor is about a two hour drive south of where we live in Gawler. Before checking into our hotel we stopped for some lunch at Ara's Cafe who do an excellent steak sandwich and a very tasty pork roast roll (with plenty of gravy).

The McCracken Country Club The McCracken Country Club is home to an 18 hole championship links/lakes golf course, designed by renowned gold architect, Tony Cashmore. There's also a Golf Shop. If that all means something to you then booking a stay should be a no brainer. Enigma and I are not Golfers so we mostly enjoyed the view of the course and Hindmarsh Valley.

Other facilities include a restaurant, bistro, health club, indoor pool, basketball and tennis …
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The Middle Park Hotel, Albert Park, Port Melbourne Beach - Queen Elizabeth Cruise 2020

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Getting from Melbourne Airport to our hotel in Middle Park was such a process that I never really was able to pause and reflect, that this was actually my very first trip to Melbourne, until Enigma and I were in our hotel room.

We had arrived a day earlier to minimize any chance of missing boarding our cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth, due to flight delays, cancellations, or the off chance neither of us had any aptitude for finding a boat you can see from space (probably) in a city very much bigger than Adelaide.

If you haven't read the previous (and first) post, Automobiles, Planes, Buses, Trams, and Boats, in our Queen Elizabeth Cruise, eight day holiday, you may like to start there before reading further.

The Middle Park Hotel The Middle Park hotel, in Middle Park (who would've thought?), not too far from the more widely known St. Kilda, and a little down from Albert Park and Port Melbourne Beach. As it happens it was located directly across the road from the tram stop so …
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Book Review: Short Range - Stephen Leather

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I haven't read a novel in quite a while so I was looking forward to Stephen Leather'sShort Range, which is his sixteenth Spider Shepherd thriller.

The book was given to me as a gift, and I can't say I was familiar with Stephen or this book series. Essentially it's my first introduction to the character of British MI5 Agent, Dan 'Spider' Shepherd.

Fortunately I do like a good thriller novel, and Stephen includes enough information about his lead character, as the story unfolds, that I didn't feel like I was missing any crucial information from past adventures.

The basic premise of Short Range is undercover agent Dan Shepherd is assigned to an operation to take down a terrorist group. His assignment crosses paths with another operation using a child informant to help them take down a drug dealer. Meanwhile Dan's personal life is about to be shaken up in a way he never sees coming.

As far as police thrillers go this one hits the ground running, quickly ge…
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Automobiles, Planes, Buses, Trams, and Boats. Queen Elizabeth Cruise 2020

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Toward the end of January 2020 my partner, Enigma, booked us on an eight day cruise holiday that was a round trip from Melbourne (Australia) to Adelaide, Hobart, Burnie, and then back to Melbourne. 
In the coming weeks I will be writing about that holiday, with this post being the first in the series, until I've covered everything about the trip I think you'll find interesting if you're contemplating such a holiday yourself (or are just interested to read what we got up to).
Ordinarily transportation wouldn't be a highlight of a holiday but, just getting to our cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth, docked in Melbourne reminded me of the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) staring comedy legends Steve Martin and John Candy.

Not so much the movie, as the movie title anyway. I feel like we should have taken a train home from Adelaide (to Gawler), like we did on one of our trips back from Perth, just so I could list the full set of vehicles we used getting to and from…
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