When cartoonists humour themselves

By MartiThat's life

speech bubble vs thought bubble

Sometimes I can’t help myself and play with the notion that the cartoon is real. I think it stems back to my childhood days where I spent hours watching Looney Tunes with the likes of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. One of my all time favourite cartoons was Duck Amuck where Daffy was brought to life as a living and breathing animation that could converse with his animator – or should I say tormentor, who subjected the poor actor to animation trickery. So if you have 7 minutes to spare, do yourself a favour and watch this classic.

So, did you enjoy Duck Amuck?

February 23, 2018

Love0

Farewell Starmen

By MartiSpace and Aliens

February 14, Valentines Day, marked the farewell of Starman and his cherry red Tesla. Off to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (Ooops! A slight hick-up during launch with an estimated overshoot from the original planned trajectory of Mars), one final viewing of Starman was made possible by viewing it through the power of the Virtual Telescope project. Unfortunately for all the space and sci-fi junkies, the viewing was not a close up of Starman. Millions of miles away, though the telescope, he appeared as a small white dot skimming across the backdrop of the MilkyWay. Below is the last official photo of Starman after his successful and mesmorising launch.
SpaceX and Starman So Starman, farewell. I salute you and in the spirit of your extraordinary and quirky launch into space, armed with a friendly reminding ‘Don’t panic’ sign mounted to your dashboard, I say ,

‘So long, and thanks for all the fish’

What would your farewell message be?

February 15, 2018

Love0

It’s the elephant

By MartiAnimals

I was involved in a three day workshop this week where we tackled the elephant in the room head on. Much to all our surprise after ten minutes of open discussion, he quietly left the room, pleased to be released out into the open at last.

Have you ever confronted the elephant?

February 2, 2018

Love0

Growing pains

By MartiAnimals, That's life

I fondly look back at the early days when both my daughters were young and keen to get measured using the door frame to record the results. Standing on tippy toes was a trick both tried regularly. I could laugh at the time because for me there was no competition…yet. However, I knew the time would come that they would surpass me and surpass me they did this year. At the tender ages of 13 and 15 they now tower over their tiny 5 ‘7″ mother. However, I’m not the shortest in the family. Our pet golden retriever Ollie will always be the shortest. 🙂

What height stories do you have?

November 21, 2017

Love0

The end of the rainbow

By MartiThat's life

For overseas visitors, you possibly aren’t aware of the result from the recent vote by Australians on ‘same sex marriage’. I’m so happy that the final vote was in favour with 61.6% Yes. Now all we need is the government to pass the legislation in parliament to make it official.

November 16, 2017

Love0

The internet

By MartiIT and Computer Stuff, That's life

This is one of those cartoons where context is all. So if you don’t live in Australia, you probably are not aware of the National Broadband Network (NBN) debacle currently going on here. According to NBN’s website, NBN

“was established in 2009 to design, build and operate Australia’s new high-speed, wholesale local access broadband network. Underpinned by a purpose to connect Australia and bridge the digital divide, nbn’s key objective is to ensure all Australians have access to fast broadband as soon as possible, at affordable prices, and at least cost.”

It’s fair to say it has not lived up to their bold vision. Rather than go into the nitty gritty details, I thought these Newsline headings would provide a flavour of the issues faced.

“ACCC to review NBN after complaints about network soar… THE consumer watchdog has launched an inquiry into NBN Co’s standard of service as complaints about the network continue to rise.” News.com 2 Nov 2017

“NBN’s constipation: Problems go much deeper than a lack of fibre…EVERYONE thinks they know the problem with the NBN. The truth is, it goes far deeper than we know – and it can’t be fixed.” News.com 25 Oct 2017

“Almost half NBN users report problems, with delays and slow speeds top hurdles.” Courier Mail 23 Oct 2017

“NBN director Michael Malone says complaining customers should be sent ‘to the back of the queue” Business insider, 30 Oct 2017

From my perspective, I only wish we hadn’t converted. Our internet drops out regularly (2-3 days vs once a month on the old system) and often when it’s running, the bandwidth is so tight that only one person can use it at a time. Bring back the good old days, I say…

What do you miss from the ‘good old day’?

November 3, 2017

Love0

This way up

By MartiAnimals

October 20, 2017

Love0

Office cubicle freedom

By MartiFreebies

Yes, it’s another fabulous DIY freebie

Inspired by a cartoon from earlier this year,

this simple template will allow you to add a splash of fun to your work station. Download it here and get cracking and once you’ve finished it, visit our Freebie page to download some more DIY fun.

October 17, 2017

Love0

Lights! Camera!

By MartiThat's life

It never ceases to amaze me what wonders technology can bring into our everyday lives to make life easier, yet at the same time, perhaps more absurd than ever before.

Let’s consider the snapping of the ever humble selfie. I mean, I thought it was simply a matter of extending one’s arm out so that you take on the appearance of a Romanesque sculpture and then trying to look normal whilst getting your thumb to click the ever elusive button to take the shot. But technology and our love of all things gadgety has enabled businesses to boom in a society that loves sharing images of themselves. Check out MacWorld’s 7 selfie enhancing products. Personally, I think you can’t go past the Joby GripTight GorillaPod Magnetic XL. I think using it might be simpler than calling it by name.

So, what’s your selfie tool of choice?

Fear not, no judgement here. You’re in the safety of the world wide web.

September 1, 2017

Love0

Nice weekend – Gone fishing

By MartiSpace and Aliens

So this is what it feels like to be a worm on a hook

Have you ever gone fishing? I’ve tried it once with a group of friends. It was a casual affair with a simple reel, hook and bait and we all huddled together along a pier. At the time, I thought the chase was fun and treated it like a competition…until I was struck with the actual reality of catching my prey. I felt awful looking into the goggly eyes of my helpless victim and froze – I couldn’t kill it, I couldn’t remove the hook and put it back into the sea – What to do?!

One of my friends saw the dilemma and took control. His decision was to swiftly kill and place into the bucket. Unsurprisingly, that was the end of my fun for the day. I sat back with some other friends who too had retired from the activity. We did the Aussie thing and cracked a tinny (opened a tin of beer), sat on the pier’s edge, talked nonsense and watched the sun set.

So, have you ever fished?

August 25, 2017

Love0