TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

This kind of ad may speak to One Nation's existing supporters but it does nothing to  convince me that their policies hold up. Image: One Nation Website . T he proposed new hate speech laws in Australia have been very divisive. They may have passed by now but regardless, that's not the focus of this post. The laws were so divisive they caused the Liberal/National party coalition to split (again), as the National party leadership felt their position wasn't being heard by the Liberal leadership. That's fair enough. I agree with National's Federal Leader, David Littleproud, that the Nationals shouldn't just vote in line with whatever the Liberal party's position is at the time. The problem is, the two parties need each other to successfully challenge the Labor party on election day. (As of writing the two parties appear to be together again). So, of course, with Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party currently recruiting high profile politicians like Barnaby Jo...

D espite being in the middle of Summer, and experiencing some record temperatures across the state, we got a perfect day for the South Aussie leg of Jimmy Barnes' Working Class Man 40th Aniversay Tour. Lightly overcast. Almost no chance of rain. The cloud cover taking all the edge out of the sun, which was still quite fierce during the brief moments when it did break through the clouds for a little while. Guest artists supporting the show included, Jon Rooney, Kate Ceberano, Ian Moss, and Ice House.  Unfortunately, while my partner and I had every intention of being at the concert  when the show actually started, so did quite a lot of people. We didn't quite anticipate the traffic getting into the venue, Peter Lehmann Wines, Barossa Valley, and we certainly didn't expect the 5-10 minute hike from the carpark to the concert area itself. Kate Ceberano By the time we found our seats, Kate Ceberano was already part way through her set. Prior to this concert, I certainly knew w...

Blue Sky, Butterfly, and JAC by TET Acrylic on Canvas. WIP of a New Whimsical Cat Painting by TET. O ver the Christmas and New Year holidays I spent a lot of my time reflecting on where I'm at as an artist and content creator, torn between the need to at least make some kind of regular income, and the need to just create art. Possibly controversially, while I am an early adopter of generative image and video AI creations, and would say they are an art form, they're not a very fulfilling art form for myself. A useful tool, yes, but even when used with my own art, they're more interesting than anything I would stand by and say 'that was a satisfying creative journey' I just made. Creating with generative AI is more like being a director of a film, where all the actual art is being done by everyone else, but you get a say in the direction and output. It's still a creative endeavor but it's a very hands off, upper management form of creativity (making a somewh...

T he relatively new relationship term ' dry begging ' is one I came across recently in a random article, What is 'dry begging'? Potentially Problematic Relationship Term Explained , served up to me in Microsoft Bing's mobile app. Gaining in popularity on TikTok and YouTube where the term has been analyzed to death by content psychologists because... Of course it has. It's content. Dry begging is a new term for an age-old concept of your partner indirectly asking for something without actually asking, and even potentially manipulating you into giving them what they want. It's this aspect that has likely given rise to, what I think is, very passive aggressive terminology, identifying it as a bad or negative behaviour. For example, say you make plans to go out and meet up with some friends for drinks, and your partner doesn't want you to go. They might sigh and say something like "I'll just stay here by myself then." in an attempt to guilt tr...

J ames Cameron's Avatar movies are one of the few I'll pay to watch in a cinema without knowing anything about the story. Largely because I know they'll at least be visually interesting and worthy of seeing on a big screen.  That was the case for the third installment,  Avatar: Fire and Ash . I may have seen a trailer at some point in the lead up to its release but I'm not sure? All I could definitely tell you is, in the second movie we were introduced to water tribes, and in this movie we were going to be introduced to fire tribes. Which is really all you need to know in hindsight. The movie does get you up to speed with the key throughlines from Avatar: The Way of Water pretty quickly (well quickly for a three hour Avatar movie). You may even be able to watch this without seeing the first two because it's not entirely necessary to know the history of the characters for this installment. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family are still being pursued by Colon...

President Maduro in US Custody. O n the same day the US Administration decided to kidnap Venezuela's President and his wife, I happened to catch a 20 minute video overview on the history of Venezuela from about the time President Maduro came into power to days before his 'capture'. The 20 minute video by Australian ABC News called, What's Going on in Venezuela? , may sway your thought process on Maduro's kidnapping - if you're highly opposed to that action - because it give the impression President Trump might actually be the lessor of two rogue idiots when it comes to running a country. I highly recommend you give it a watch if the link still works, and you want to get up to speed fast on events in Venezuela. President Maduro has run Venezuela so far into the ground it can't afford the supplies it needs to export its major income stream, oil  (though his predecessor, President Chávez, should get much of the credit). So bad that their currency is devalued t...