TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

When I first saw the trailer for Free Guy over a year ago (a month or so before the worldwide pandemic hit) I thought it looked a lot of fun. Then when films started opening in cinemas again, after having their release dates pushed back a year or more, I thought Free Guy was the movie that would most likely get people going back to the movies. Though it was never really tested, since other movies have opened before it during the pandemic, it is doing particularly well at the box office with a strong second week's takings (where most other films have experienced quite large drops in the second week). I'm speculating but I think Ryan Reynold's ability to market anything, including this film, in a way that you look forward to watching his campaigns, has brought people in, then word of mouth on how fun the film is, has been working well. The film centers on Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a non player character (NPC) in a violent video game world, who doesn't actually know he's i...

TET with Monkey Pizza Lifeline Skateboard. It's been a long time since I posted any video to my Extraordinary Tourist YouTube Channel . Approximately seven to eight months. This is because a year or to back I pivoted the channel into documenting my skateboarding progress, relearning my former skills, and then stopped skating due to pain occurring in both my feet. In the channel update video below I go into it in more detail but the short version is, I started to get pain in the top of both my feet, probably due to ongoing impact stress of skateboarding rather than any specific injury, coupled with very sharp, momentary pain between my toes of my back, 'pop', foot. I decided it was probably best to rest both my feet by not skateboarding for a while. While the pain was ongoing it didn't affect my ability to walk, only skateboarding seemed to aggravate it. I didn't expect to be not skating for this long. While my front foot has healed completely, my back, 'pop'...

Pearl Gibbs, 1901-1983. Photo: State Library of New South Wales It's increasingly disappointing to me just how much Australian Indigenous history I don't know. For example, if you were to ask me who Rosa Parks is, I'd be able to tell you she was an American, Black Civil Rights activist who is most known for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person back in the 1950s. However, if you were to ask me who is Pearl Gibbs , until very recently, I would've given you a blank stare. If it weren't for Google, honoring her 120th birthday (18 July 2021) with a Google Doodle during this year's NAIDOC Week (typically held in July annually as a celebration of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.), I'd still be non the wiser. While Pearl Gibbs doesn't have a single defining moment of her activism that would shoot her to national fame, like Rosa, non the less, she was equally as active in the civil rights...

Michael Rosenbaum, Inside of You Podcast . Michael Rosenbaum, who you may be more familiar with in his role as Lex Luthor on the TV Series, Smallville , but is currently making a name for himself with his podcast, Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum , recently announced that he had caught COVID-19. The reason I bring this up is that he had mentioned previously on his podcast that he was fully vaccinated. Now I'm not pointing this out to say vaccines don't work, they do, they're just not an absolute guarantee that you can't still carry the virus, or get sick from the virus. Michael is a relatively high profile example. In a previous post, Lower Your Expectations, COVID-19 Vaccines aren't a 'Cure All' , I highlighted that vaccines are just another line of defense against the virus. They don't make you immune to being a carrier or from experiencing symptoms. However, if you do experience symptoms, they should be less severe, and it's less likely you...

One could argue we've actually been waiting a lot longer than a year for Marvel's Black Widow to be released due to the character's distinct lack of a solo movie (along with Hawkeye) as an OG Avenger. I would've taken a two-for-one solo movie with Black Widow and Hawkeye, given their shared history has been often referenced in other Marvel films. In fact, that's kind of what I was expecting from Black Widow, among my very few expectations. However I wasn't disappointed with what the movie actually is (though I do think the film promised a lot more than it delivers). The opening scenes definitely start out where most people anticipating this movie would expect, Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) as a young girl, with her family in their Ohio home. Well, you probably weren't expecting it to be Ohio in the USA but otherwise, it's an origin movie, makes sense. From there we get, what I thought to be one of the highlights of the film, an impressive, gritty, title ...