TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

I 've previously written about why I didn't see Fantastic Four in cinemas , essentially the movie being released too close to Superman  (2025), to which I gave priority. Since I have a Disney+ subscription for this exact reason (to watch Marvel movies), I've finally seen Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). I'm not disappointed I chose Superman to see in cinemas. Set during the 1960s, Fantastic Four is a cliff notes origin story for Marvel's first family before they are thrust into solving world ending events at the hands of a god-like alien, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who is heralded in by his assistant (I guess?), the Silver Surfer a.k.a. Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner).  While this movie is definitely a step up from previous Marvel films of late (though I'll maintain Thunderbolts  (2025) is a better film than this on a character level), it's kind of a return to the Marvel Phase One Superhero formula too. That is, set up who the heroes are, bring in the threat, ha...

Image: OpenArt AI and TET. P urely as a personal observation, and with no research of any kind at all, I feel part of the problem with today's politics in general, in western countries at least, is that it's become something of a team sport. At least people seem to treat it that way. I'm aware there is such a thing as generational support, particularly in conservative households, where families have just always voted for conservative values. Likely more common with Christian, faith based families. That's fine. However, in modern politics the discourse seems to be, you pick a side. Choose the political party that you feel most aligns with your view point and then stick with them, no matter what. There is no room to look at what anyone else from outside your party is saying and think, "Yeah, they made a good point." If they're not on your team, they're just wrong. That's it. Which is not how politics work. A good politician, and by extension, politi...

1X's NEO, The Home Robot, Tends some Plants. Image: 1X website . J ust over a year ago I wrote about new robotics start up, 1X and their Plans to Build 100,000 Humanoids by 2027  in the form of their NEO Home Robot  household assistant. About a year later and NEO has undergone a bit of a makeover, and you can pre-order your own NEO in one of three stylish colours, for delivery some time in 2026. At USD$20,000.00 the price is a bit of buzz kill but 1X does offer a $499 monthly subscription plan as an alternative. Unfortunately the launch hasn't been the show stopper 1X might have hoped for because NEO isn't a fully realised, autonomous robot just yet. While it can learn to do tasks around your home autonomously, there's a bit of a learning curve between when you first receive it, and when it actually becomes useful in a meaningful way. Which was not helped by a video released on The Wall Street Journal's YouTube channel,  I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Go...

The newly-named MQ-28A during the second test flight series at Woomera Range Complex in South Australia Y ou don't really think of Australia when it comes to cutting edge military technology but in the last few years we're are emerging as a country that makes the tech that supports the big guns on the battlefield. By that I mean we don't make the killer fighter jets, or formidable tanks that lesser armies would lose against in a head to head assault, but we do make the tech that can support the main artillery and even increase it's effectiveness in the process. Case in point, Australia's new Ghost Bat Combat Drone, which I became aware of thanks to Wes O'Donnell's  YouTube channel , where he talks all about the latest military tech and specifically how much of it is being used in the Ukraine war. The Ghost Bat Drone is the first combat aircraft built in Australia in over 50 years and can be used for anything from surveillance to active combat, thanks to its...

Watch this YouTube Short video by Unstopable Gadgets. R ecently a video,  This robot has impressive body control , came up in my YouTube homepage showing a mini, realistic walking, and automatic stabilising, humanoid style robot. For a brief moment my mind got a little excited that maybe someone had cracked a consumer friendly, sized human robot that anyone could afford. Now I wasn't thinking this thing was going to be your next household chores assistant, since it was barely the height of a toddler but, to have something that good, that anyone could afford and experiment with. Maybe you've got a kid into robotics who wants to upgrade from Lego Mindstorms for example. Anyway, it turned out the video I was watching was from about 2020 and is of a robot that's been in constant development, by Dr Guero ,  since 2012/13 and could walk like a human by 2014/15. Back in around 2013 a robot that could walk, at all, on two legs, let alone one that could walk like a human was still v...

W riter/director Kevin Smith's, The 4:30 Movie plays like a prequel to his original first film, Clerks (1994). While the main cast are not the same characters as those in Clerks, if you renamed them, and squinted a bit, they're not that far removed. That and, if you've listened to Kevin's many podcasts for a long time, you'll know the central character here, Brian (Austin Zajur - who recently became engaged to Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith - playing Sister Sarah Wallace in this film), draws inspiration from teenage Kevin Smith, who also liked recording his thoughts randomly throughout the day - and see movies. To make the final case, it could be a prequel, you'll have to see the ending. With that out of the way, I'm getting around to reviewing this now because the film only recently came to a streaming service I'm subscribed to (Prime Video). I wouldn't have minded to see it in a theatre when it was originally released but, if it even cam...

I f I'd known  Superman: Man of Tomorrow  (2020 WB Animation) was essentially a Superman origin story I would probably have skipped it. I'm sure anyone who reads comics would've known that but I make no secret of not reading comics. I used to read them as a kid and, even in my early teens, however, the comics I read were all given to me, and not that many were superhero comics. The only 'comic' I bought regularly was 'Heavy Metal' because it had grown up stories, and such a wide and varied range of artists. My fandom of superheros came through Saturday morning cartoons and the Batman, and Superman 60's TV shows. At that time I was too young to know there were comic books of these characters, and I didn't have any money to buy them with anyway. When my Dad did buy me a comic book of Batman, it was all in black and white, with a story that was completely inaccessible to me as a 7 year old. Not to mention that Batman looked nothing like the TV show and ...

Dias's drop-in from one of the lower platforms for practice. Image: © Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull I f you're a skateboarder living in a city you've probably looked at a building that has skate ramp vibes and imagined dropping in on it... well Professional Skateboarder, Sandro Dias didn't just imagine. The Perth Telstra Building as depicted in this fantasy poster print, Forbidden Skate Ramp by  Harry Young. If you lived in Perth, Western Australia, any skateboarder who saw the top of the Telstra Building likely had the same thought about the ramp like quarter pipe at the top. Also, back in the day there was a classic skateboarding poster going the rounds that depicted Sydney as a literal skatepark with ramps built up, down, and over numerous buildings. Sandro Dias, who broke the record for the world's tallest drop-in on the 26th September 2025 by dropping in on a mega ramp built on the side of the curved façade of the 22-storey Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari (C...

Commodore 64 Ultimate: Starlight Edition. An updated C64 for today. C hances are, if you grew up in the 1970s and 80's, the first computer your family owned was a Commodore 64 (or possibly the Vic-20, also by Commodore, that preceded it). I taught myself to code in BASIC on our Commodore 64 (C64), making ASCII based games (i.e. graphics made from the letters and symbols assigned to the various keyboard keys). I coded a Tic Tac Toe two player game, a simple shooting gallery game, and a flash card game to help me learn the Periodic Table, which (much to my... I want to say horror... got me bumped up to an advanced science class in high school). Later I'd go on to dabbling in true 8 bit, and 16 and 32 bit, graphical games, when we upgraded to the C128, Amiga 500, then Amiga 600, but I never actually finished anything because, by then I'd gotten into skateboarding, so I was trying to make my ultimate skateboard game - ambitious much? It was Commodore machines that showed me mak...

I t's hard not to get caught up with the political issues of the United States of America - as an outsider. This is why I stopped writing about American Politics in this blog. While one can easily make the argument that what happens in the US, politically, affects everyone (and it does, particularly US foreign policy and trade), many of their hot button issues are uniquely their issues. For example, while Australia (because this is an Aussie blog) does have some challenges with immigration , it has little to do with some manufactured need to deport 'illegal' immigrants as some warped idea of lowering crime rates or stopping terrorists and drug dealers from entering the country. Recent protest marches around Australia , all on the same day, seemed to send a bunch of mixed messages, as different groups decided that more protests about more things, all on the same day is one way to really get your message across (does anyone not remember the #Occupy Movement  of 2011 and its ...

I t was with good reasons I didn't see the Joker  (2019) sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux , in cinemas.  While I did like the first film, I've never rewatched it, and have no desire to see it again any time soon. It was a little too graphically violent and generally a depressing story overall for me. Add to that, every single review I read for the sequel effectively panned the film, with the common theme being "...this movie is a big middle finger to DC fans." Subscribing to HBO Max, for season 2 of Peacemaker , gave me access to the Joker sequel. Time to see if this movie was really as bad a everyone said it was. Joker: Folie à Deux centers around Arthur Fleck's (a.k.a. The Joker) (Joaquin Phoenix) trial for the murders he committed in the first film, along with his growing relationship with a fellow, female inmate at Arkham Hospital, Lee (Lady GaGa). While I can definitely see why DC fans thought this movie was a complete misfiring train wreck of a film, I'm goin...

Tasman Bridge as seen from The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. C ontinuing on with my partner (Enigma) and I's return to Hobart, Tasmania, it's day three, and a Monday. Enigma was hoping to see snow on top of Mount Wellington this trip however, so far we'd had nothing but fine weather. A little on the cool side maybe, but not enough to put snow on the mountain. Which you can check with Summit Cam's live feed from the mountain top. So we decided to fill our day with Hobart's other bus tour... Red Decker Hop On/Hop Off Bus Tour The Red Decker Bus. The Red Decker bus tour is a 90 minute loop tour of the main sights within Hobart. While you can just stay on the bus the whole loop the idea is to get off the bus at any key location you may like to further explore and then rejoin the tour when the next available bus comes along to your nearest timed stop. Tickets last for 24 or 48 hours, giving you plenty of time to explore without being rushed. The bus website tells ...

Tasmania's Tall Ship, The Lady Nelson. T he last time my partner and I visited Hobart, Tasmania was March of 2020, around about the time half the country was on fire, and just before the pandemic shut the world down. While we still had a great time then, this time we're in Hobart at the tail end of Winter. The weather is still cool but the sun's been out for the most part so far. Customs House Hotel This trip we were here for six days. Last time it was a one day stop as part of a cruise. Our accommodation is at Customs House Hotel , right along the waterfront, and conveniently located for the various ferry's and other ports. Our room on the first floor is pretty standard hotel fare but relatively large, with a particularly large bathroom. From the window we can see a nice view of the side of Tasmania's Parliament House and garden. Our Room, Customs House Hotel. Included in the price is complementary breakfast each morning in the hotel restaurant, which has been ver...

I  would not call myself a comic book fan of Hellboy. I've never read a single comic about him. My sum total knowledge of the character comes from the first two live action films, Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), staring Ron Pearlman in the titular role. Essentially I'm a fan of those two films. Particularly Ron's portrayal of the character. I've been wanting to see the two later reboot attempts, in particular, David Harbor's run at the character in, Hellboy (2019), but reviews suggested I'd be disappointed if I spent any extra on them beyond a streaming service subscription. I missed David's Hellboy when it was on streaming, and currently I think you can only rent or buy it. However, Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) surfaced, at no extra cost on Amazon Prime, so I decided to give it a go. The poster says it's the fourth installment in the franchise, so I guess these films are loosely set in the same continuity and are all the sa...

O ne of my most anticipated movies for 2025 was the new Fantastic Four movie . Unfortunately I wasn't able to go and see it because my other most anticipated movie of 2025 was Superman , released just a week or so before.  I chose to see Superman because he is one of the DC trinity of heroes, which is my core interest in superhero movies. While Marvel movies have been great, any of DC's big three (Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman) in a movie will have my attention over anything else. I don't know what Kevin Feige's strategy is, releasing Marvel movies so close to DC movies (this isn't the first time he's done this, it seems to be a thing?) but I can't afford to go see a movie in the cinema twice in the space of a month. No doubt I'm not the only one in this economy. I imagine Kevin is trying to capture the repeat viewers. Instead of seeing Superman again, let's go see this whole new superhero film instead. Except the new normal for comic book movie...