TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Blackie's Steak Burger (no tomato version). Picture by Enigma. It's been quite some time since my partner, Enigma, and I have spent a day out together. She's been recovering from knee replacement surgery that happened back in May, plus it's been Winter for the past few months here in Australia. While we didn't go too far today, we bundled ourselves into the car, along with our dog Oscar and made the trip a few towns over for lunch at The Blacksmith's Inn , One Tree Hill, South Australia. I'm not sure if there was a lot of choice in terms of places to eat in One Tree Hill. We didn't really do a lot of exploring but The Blacksmith's is dog friendly and has a very nice outdoor eating area that they also use to provide live music entertainment on Sunday afternoons from 2pm. Today act was JK Chillin . I don't think either Enigma or I particularly planned to continue our unofficial quest to try all the burgers not made by Fast Food Chains, but we both ...

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space.  Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation .  Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their  space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ).  While they sound highly soph...

Pegasus E Police Flying Car. When I see a headline like  ‘Not if, but when’: Australian flying car start-up sets sights on Dubai , readers of my blog will know I'm immediately interested. Not just because it's a story about flying cars but also it's about Australian flying cars (you knew I'm an Aussie, right?). Pegasus is an Australian flying car company making, what I would call, 'roadworthy' helicopters. At first glance their Pegasus E flying car looks like a mini, high performance helicopter with the chassis of a small formula one race car strapped to the bottom. Which makes sense since they're setting their sights on selling a version of the craft as a single seater flying police car in Dubai, a city that is really paving the way for flying car infrastructure. Many of which are basically helicopter style drones, with  no capacity to drive, or follow an actual road at street level at all. Again, at first glance, I would almost dismiss the Pegasus E as no...

It's fair to say Marvel's Secret Invasion did not live up to what anyone was expecting.  Which is not to say it was all bad, it just didn't really deliver. Ultimately it's a series with some great moments, some great characters, and some potentially great ideas, that just didn't mesh as a whole. The story is a continuation of events that unfolded at the end of Captain Marvel . Except it's 30 years later and Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Captain Marvel still haven't delivered on their promise to find the Skrulls a new home. This causes a rift in the Skrull population on Earth with a plan to take over the planet being put into motion. Overall it's a big story made small (in my opinion) with an A-list cast, that are all more than capable of compelling performances, doing the absolute best with what they were given. As a result the main story is forgettable but, there are many memorable moments that just might be enough for a re-watch. It really highlights t...

The Clone Wars, Season 7, Episode 9, Old Friends Not Forgotten. From the outside looking in Dave Filoni seems to be the keeper of the Star Wars Universe, outside of the feature films - though his influence is definitely heading that way as well. If you're not aware Filoni has been mostly the creative vision, and driving force behind Star Wars animation since he co-developed The Clone Wars Animated series with George Lucas, long before Disney bought the Star Wars franchise. Other animated Star Wars series he's been key to include; The Bad Batch , Star Wars: Rebels , Star Wars: Resistance , and  Star Wars: Forces of Destiny . Ever since he was invited to help develop Jon Favreau 's live action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian , and The Book of Boba Fett , characters from Filoni's animated shows have been crossing into live action. So much so that Filoni has written and directed entire episodes featuring his animated cross-over characters. The entire third season of Th...