TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

After a bit of a break from regular blogging I'm back with my Frog Van's journey back to the road. Hopefully from here on in I'll be back to regular weekly posts. So, moving on to the van... In my last update I said I'd start working to get the van back on the road at the beginning of August so the van would be ready to drive in Australia's Spring time. Unfortunately everything got delayed because I got really busy with animation work. The good side to that is I was able to match the donations to the project with another $500.00 of my own money. Bringing the total budget to $1024.00. The project got further delayed when I got fairly sick for a couple weeks during the beginning of September - nothing serious, just a really bad cold. Anyway the first step of the project was to get the van registered, to give me a deadline, as I explain in the video below. (Hope you like the opening animation of the van, using my CafePress store design ). I was very d...

Knowing that The Dark Knight Rises is supposedly Christopher Nolan's last Batman film in this series, and that this third movie is how Bruce Wayne's story ends, one of my biggest questions was, how is Chris going to end it so that you're left thinking what happens after the movie is finished? (Which is something Chris likes to do with his movies - leave you thinking about how the story continues). SPOILER ALERT! This is not a movie review. I'm assuming you've seen the film, know the story, and have seen all the reveals. I won't be outlining the plot here. If you haven't seen the film then I highly recommend you do then come back here. This is my thoughts on the film as a long time Batman on film fan ('on film' being important as I've never followed the comics... ever). I was very impressed with how this movie ends because it makes you want to see that movie. The movie in which Detective John 'Robin' Blake takes over the mantle o...

One of my most personal public videos is a collection of outtakes edited together with my narration, read word for word, from my blog post written back on August 5th, 2007 titled Is Being Me Good Enough?  I made the similarly titled video the next day. At the time the video (which you can view below) generated some discussion in the comments and was a real turning point for me personally in how I thought about myself and how I presented on camera. It took a weight off my shoulders. [Note that especially for this article I've re-edited and re-uploaded the video to Youtube because the last sentence on the original version was cut off by Youtube's uploader. The new version is identical other than I've added a title screen at the beginning and cropped the footage for 16:9 ratio - plus added some length to the end to ensure it doesn't get the last line cut again.] I came to be thinking about this video again because of my latest video diaries - which I will...

Here in Australia the right for Gay and Lesbian people to marry is once again in the spot light with our Prime Minister seemingly supporting their right but not willing to go the extra mile and turn it into law. I'm not going to attempt to argue the issue here because there are plenty of articles that continue to cover the same ground, for and against, why same sex couples should or shouldn't marry. I don't want to write just a repeat of what the people who support the idea are saying. For me, the idea of same sex marriages is a no brainer. It's not a question of should it be made legal it's more a question of why hasn't it been made legal yet? In other words, it's a non-issue. Make it legal and you'll make a lot of couples very happy, life will go on and hopefully the world will grow a little closer to understanding what equal rights for all actually means. I realize I'm some what progressive in my views. Heck I'd support making it leg...

3D printers are now being used to advance the machine uprising cause with one unsuspecting inventor  printing parts for a very convincing robot arm.  This thing wouldn't look out of place in the movie I, Robot as a replacement hand. See the demonstration video below. The arm is called the InMoov. Y ou can read more about it in the inventors blog , as well as download the instructions for how to print and make one yourself... what the?! Doesn't he know that robot floor cleaners are internet connected with their own social network? They're probably monitoring his progress already. Waiting for the day when the InMoov is a fully printable android ready to be mass produced as a robot army, Terminator style! Could happen.

After setting up a GoFundMe page to get my Frog Van back on the road a little over a month ago I'm both surprised but very pleased to say I've reached my target funding goal of $500.00. Many of the most generous donations were from family which I appreciate very much (and the timing of setting up the fund just over a week before my birthday was intentionally done to put the fund out there as a gift option for them.). Just as much appreciated were the donations from people, mostly from the GoAnimate Community , that only really know me through my GoAnimations, blogs and Facebook. All their donations were very generous and welcome too. As I said, I really wasn't expecting to have reached my goal so soon so... here's what is happening with the van now. The next three months is Winter in Australia, which means it's not the best weather to be travelling in, to what is likely to be, mostly outdoor locations. Also, if I was to register the van now. The registra...

Ninja Blocks There's been new developments in machine uprising known as 'The Internet of Things' which is not new in its self but has become easier to fall victim to as we, unwittingly, connect house hold gadgets to the internet so we can be informed of their progress. Imagine being PM'ed by your washing machine when it finishes its cycle. Never heard of 'the Internet of Things'? Well all is explained in this Mashable article, Your House: The Next Great Digital Network . Here's an extract: The Internet of Things has been around for a while. It includes gadgets like connected scales and the Nike+ shoe, as well as identifying technologies as simple as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Over the last few years, however, the hardware involved in putting objects online has become more accessible — and The Internet of Things has made a beeline toward the mainstream. Startups are creating hardware that makes it easy for anyone to connect an obje...