TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Dear #Mashable, #Nerdist, #MamaMia and other sites that over use Auto Play Video Ads, Remember back in the early days of the internet when display ads, pop-up ads and pop-unders ads were largely frowned upon but we eventually got used to these things because they helped make content free? Well I can assure you the same is never going to be said for embeded Auto Play Video Ads. Especially when they're used so poorly by sites such as yours.

Note: I originally wrote this article earlier in the year and then didn't publish it as I felt the outrage over the mass shooting that inspired it had subsided and the article no longer was topical. However, looking at this  list of mass shootings during 2015 in the USA   I can't actually recall which one inspired this article (it may have been the Charleston Church Shooting in June 2015).  However, looking at the list I noticed you only need wait about a week or so for the next mass shooting in the USA. Unless of course you follow the FBI's guidelines for classifying mass shootings, in which case data provided by  Mother Jones: A Guide to Mass Shooting in America is far more pleasing to the eye with only four mass shootings in 2015.

In the future when we look up will we see a traffic jam of drones instead of flying cars? Amazon released new and real footage of their proposed drone delivery service this week and it got me to thinking about how such a thing would scale up should it become a successful business model. What if other companies followed suit? What if local delivery of everything from pizza to... well anything you can send through the mail now becomes more efficient to deliver via drones?

 As I write this, late evening, the Mallala fire is still burning out of control just over six kilometers away, north of Gawler, South Australia. Unfortunately the fire has so far claimed the lives of two people (confirmed) and one not yet confirmed along with a number of homes and properties since it started around 2:30pm today.

At first glance at the poster you might think The Dressmaker is a bona-fide chick flick, however it's not often you'll watch a chick flick with a body count. I'm not going to say who gets it or how I'm just sayin' - I didn't expect the death rate to climb quite so high by the end of the film. Kate Winslet plays Myrtle 'Tilly' Dunnage, a fairly well traveled, high fashion dressmaker who returns to her rural home town in outback Australia to try and unravel a curse that has plagued her since childhood.

Continuing my series of posts, as one of my local TV stations shows every Star Wars movie in order, every Saturday, for the next six weeks leading up to the release of Star Wars, Episode VII, The Force Awakens , here is my response to and thoughts on the sixth movie in the series Star Wars, Episode VI Return of the Jedi . The only real issue I had with Return of the Jedi (the original theatrical release) was that it made Leia, Luke's sister and that she has the hokey line "Somehow I've always known it" - didn't stop stop her giving Luke a big ol' passionate kiss in Episode V. Perhaps if it had really been a surprise and her reaction had been like "eewwwee... gross, I kissed you back on Hoth!" I may have had less of a problem.

Continuing my series of posts, as one of my local TV stations shows every Star Wars movie in order, every Saturday, for the next six weeks leading up to the release of Star Wars, Episode VII, The Force Awakens , here is my response to and thoughts on the fifth movie in the series  Star Wars, Episode V The Empire Strikes Back . Prior to re-watching these films I probably would have said The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite in the series but now it comes in second to A New Hope. Mainly because A New Hope is more of a complete story but also because this film suffers at the hands of both the prequels and Return of the Jedi. Before I get into the problems I'll run through some of the things I like...