TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

This image is a totally legit photo of me on the moon trying to sell you a bridge.* Photo by Artflow, Copilot, and TET  S cam's are nothing new but, as technology makes everything easier, it's also making it easier for you to be scammed by something that seems very legit. Things that used to indicate something was on the level can very easily be faked by generative AI in a practice known as 'deep faking'. Where a person's likeness (image and voice) is used to generate video of them doing or saying something they didn't. As one of the best examples of what's currently possible, YouTube Channel floydbishop , has made a PSA video titled,  Watch This Fake AI Video Scam — Then Show It to Your Parents , that is 100% AI generated... i.e. it's ALL fake. Not a single human appears on camera, and not a single human voice is heard. Watch the video below. If you watch closely, some scenes have small 'tells' that are common AI errors, such as items magically ...

TET - Heel Flip attempt Episode 8. A s I near the end of filming my ten part series, Second Sundy Skateboard Sessions, I'm feeling pretty good about my skating generally. Filming the series has given me a focus, schedule, and a goal, so that when I do skate I'm not randomly riding around doing not much... and getting bored, or just half arsing attempting to learn my tricks. If you're a solo skater like me - especially if you're learning or relearning - I'd recommend this approach. Even filming your progress. Though you don't have to publicly bore the internet like me if you've got the same 'resting lack of enthusiasm' demeanor I have. Just having the video footage to compare, and to watch in slow mo to see what you're doing wrong or right is useful.  If you're not familiar with me or my ten part series of Second Sunday Skateboard sessions , I'm attempting to master all seven basic skateboarding tricks in Braille Skateboarding's Skateb...

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...

A t the beginning of the year I introduced you to my latest cartoon/comic series, Resident Dragon (because a dragon's got to live somewhere).  A daily - well, week-day-ly - gag cartoon about Red the Fire Dragon, living in a shared house in the suburbs, with his human friend, TET and his two pets, Grrr Dog and Cool Froyd the cat. Back then I had about 100 cartoons sketched out, with eleven completely digitally inked and coloured.  As of writing this, I haven't yet skipped a day of my schedule, and am seven toons short of an even 200 sketched out, with 31 fully inked and coloured. Actually, it's 33 but I only publish one full colour toon each week, so I have two in the wings. I'm not planning on doing daily toons forever. My goal is to hit 366 so I have enough to fill a daily desk calendar, should I decide to sell one. Currently you can buy individual prints of my finished toons in my Resident Dragon Store . When I have enough finished toons I will be compiling them into...

D isney+'s Star Wars: Andor  the first season is widely regarded as some of the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I don't disagree in my  Andor Season 1  review. Despite that, it does have its problems, mainly a lot of space between action pieces. That's not to say nothing is happening in those spaces, but I do remember being frustrated how long season one took to get to a promised heist scene, going from conversation to conversation over several episodes. However, when Andor does have action, it usually delivers, with action that serves the story rather than action because 'it's time for some action now'. Unfortunately that gave Andor the reputation for being Star Wars 'for grown ups'. People who understand how tension and intrigue can come just as much from character interaction, who is talking to who, and what they're saying. That lead to low viewership and the show's proposed number of seasons being reduced to just two (I believe...

G oing into  Thunderbolts*  I was a tiny bit concerned that not seeing the previous Marvel Movie, Captain America: Brave New World , might be a problem. Fortunately, if you've seen the trailer to that film, you mostly have all you need to understand the brief references to it here. The bigger issue you may bump up against is not really knowing who any of this team is, if you haven't been watching every Marvel movie or TV series. The movie is counting on you at least knowing who Yolena (Florence Pugh), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), and Red Guardian (David Harbour) is to draw you into seeing the film. It is kind of a better experience if you know who John Walker - Captain America Lite (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr - Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov - Task Master (Olga Kurylenko) are but there is enough backstory given, to at least place them in context of the wider MCU as misfits. Having said that, the story really lends itself to filling in the backstory on almost all...