TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

O ver the weekend my state, South Australia, went to the polls to elect our government for the next four years. Going in it was considered a pretty safe bet the current Labor government, with Peter Malinauskas as Premier, would be returned. The real drama would be how the numbers looked for every other 'headline party' (those the mainstream media actually report upon) in the mix. The election didn't disappoint. Labor won with a record breaking landslide victory. The Liberal Party took a major hit with a record breaking swing against it in almost every seat, while One Nation had it's best result in any election since 1998, and even picked up its first ever lower house seat in an election outside of Queensland. Interestingly that seat was at the expense of Labor's former member for Light (my electorate) who decided to challenge himself by trying for the seat of neighboring electorate, Ngadjuri. Had he stayed with Light he would've been fine, as we remain a Labor s...

W hen I first saw the trailer to Caught Stealing  I was immediately interested in seeing the film. It looked like it was going to be something of dark, edgy, gangster, comedy film, with twists and turns, very much in the vein of Guy Richie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels  (1998) movie, which I really enjoyed. Obviously, I didn't see this in theatres, and am reviewing it now because I've finally caught up with it on Amazon Prime. (As a side note, my local cinema closed down so seeing things in cinemas is a little more of a luxury these days). I was also interested to see Austin Butler in a staring role post Elvis (2022) because I think he's definitely an actor to watch after that performance. In Caught Stealing, former rising star baseball player, Hank Thompson (Butler) is unknowingly drawn into a world of late 1990s gangsters, when he, under protest, agrees to look after his dubious punk rocker neighbor, Russ' (Matt Smith) cat, while he rushes off to attend ...

Moya - Life like Humanoid Robot by Droid Up. T oday's post title is a paraphrase from the reboot series of Battlestar Galactica , " The Cylons look like us now. " and, while it's not actually true that todays robots look like us, we're getting awfully close with a new Chinese robot named Moya by tech company Droid Up. The video below by YouTube channel Pro Robots tells you everything you need to know about Moya and then goes on a skeptical and cynical rant about how Moya is unlikely capable of everything Droid Up claims while comparing it to other robots in the market. This AI Robot Has Warm Skin and Synthetic Muscles I certainly get where their skepticism is coming from when the only information you have is flashy promotional material provided by the company and no substantial live demonstration. However we're not that far off from this type of humanoid robot which is likely being designed for customer service type roles rather than industrial manual labor (...

M odern Australia is not a country that starts wars. We're more than ready to help finish a war but we don't start them. We should not allow ourselves to become involved in unnecessary wars, such as the one Israel, with the assistance of the USA, just started with Iran. Ideally, all wars are unnecessary, but in reality sometimes countries do need to defend themselves from unnecessary attacks born from the poor leadership of opposing countries. Country leaders, that believe they can solve a problem by starting a war, should do so with their own resources. Answer to their own citizens. Don't drag allies into your weak minded drama.  However bad Iran's leadership is (or was, since reports of the death of Iran's Supreme leader are confirmed) starting a war to forcibly remove their leadership is never going to result in smiles all around. Especially in a region of the world that subscribes to 'an eye for an eye' politics (looking at you Israel). It will almost ce...

Cat Amongst the Pigeons by TET 2026-02-22 Original Acrylic Painting on Canvas (15.5" x 12"). I n my previous post, Painting Whimsical Cats (and probably other stuff) Again After Almost a Decade Away From Traditional Art , I, obviously, mentioned I'm painting cats again. It wasn't an empty promise. As you can see I've created my first official, new cat painting - since the previous one was actually a test piece - titled Cat Amongst the Pigeons . This painting features two firsts; the first time I've painted a cat with pigeons, and the first time I've broken the edge of my white border with the image. (In case I'm not explaining that well, the cat's ears extend into the white border that is usually masked off with tape during painting). I just didn't want to clip the cat's ears! WIP Collage of Cat Amongst the Pigeons painting. Images from sketch to finished art. What Does It Mean? While this can mean anything you want it to mean, I was think...

F or those of you that aren't adverse to your superhero content being a little more character driven and a lot less big action set pieces then Marvel's TV series, under the 'Marvel Spotlight' banner, Wonder Man , is a real underrated gem. Wanna-be actor, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a suspected superhero in hiding who believes, he was born to play the title role in a new superhero movie, Wonder Man. A chance meeting with fallen actor, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), formerly known as 'The Mandarin', at an audition, puts them both on a path to success but, everything isn't quite as it seems. While you will certainly relate very quickly to Trevor if you know his past from the movie Iron Man III , or, to a lesser extent, Shang-Chi , neither are essential viewing. You get all you need to know about Trevor as the series unfolds. That said, Ben Kingsley must have jumped at the chance to play Trevor a little less as the comic relief, and a little more ...