Leave it to V (2026)

26/07/2026

I have been wanting to watch The Sheep Detective and Project Hail Mary since I first heard of them. Being immunocompromised I didn't go to the Plague Pits erm cinemas to see it. Then it went to Satan's streaming service (which is why I can't tag them here I feel) and resigned myself to a long wait until they released it to another streaming service in a few years. Well two wonderful friends invited us around for a movie night to watch both! And we were not disappointed.

First The Sheep Detective. It's a family movie, and the first 15 minutes seemed to be a lot simpler than the trailer suggested leaving me thinking it was going to be ho hum. Have patience it builds and improves. Immensely. The cast is stacked both live action and voice cast and my favourite bit was Patrick Stewart, playing an old grey ram, seemed to deliberately try to imitate Ian McKellen (life long friends) As a long time reader of Agatha Christie and other golden era detective stories the use of the tropes openly showing you the plot points and mechanism was delightful. And I'm not ashamed to say I cried like a little "bitch with a skinned knee and s**t" during the designated heart wrenching emotional bits. Funny, delicious and life affirming. If you like whimsy I can highly recommend it, even if you don't have kids to watch it with.

Then came the main feature. Gosh Project Hail Mary was just totally excellent! Andy Weir has a way of making high concept, and science fiction totally accessible. Engaging from beginning to end (even if a downbeat ending would have been more realistic, the conclusion was also life affirming. I'm not mad at it.) For those of you who don't know a Hail Mary is a last ditch effort to avert disaster. And, according to Tery Pratchett "It's a million to one shot but it just might work"

What a tour de force by Ryan Gosling who totally carries and propels this immediately into classic territory. (If he's not at least nominated for an oscar that will be more evidence that the academy just hates SciFi) The Sheep detective was, and relied on, an ensemble cast. This is, in the main, a one man show, with great assistance from - I cant tell you due to spoilers. It starts with Gosling's character, Dr Grace, waking up from an induced coma with no real memory of who he is, why or where he is, or how he got there (on a spaceship). The rest of the crew are dead. This happens in the first few minutes so it's not really a spoiler. You find out the rest through a series of flashbacks as he recovers bits and pieces of his memory while he attacks the mission. If you liked the Martian, or even Castaway, you'll love this. Amaze, amaze, amaze. (iykyk)

21/07/2026

Coffee snobs who need to deal with grounds from pots/espressos brewed every day. If you are gardeners or have a garden this is a good solution. Get a bokashi bucket going. You can buy the big set up from the big green shed or any container with a tight fitting lid will do. Have a smaller, one on the counter or under sink, container for the day to day grounds I have a chopstick across the top of mine to tap out the grounds. (You should just be able to see it in the photo) Empty out into the outdoor bin along with any vege scraps you're not feeding to the chooks. (If you have a garden and are not renting you have room for three chooks which, if you don't do bacon and eggs every morning, will supply you with all the eggs you need) Sprinkle with the mixture. After about a year you won't need to do this every time as the container builds up its own. Buy the first batch (the big green shed has it) and when you're getting low buy a bag of pollard and mix well. By the time you need to use it again it will have converted it. Once it's full, empty onto a garden bed your filling, or dig a hole, or just spread and cover it with mulch. It's half composed and great for filling a raised bed or improving the soil. Covering it prevents flies but I've left it untouched during winter and its fine. In the burbs I'd cover it to prevent the smell (only a few days but anything anerobically composted will wiff for a few days.) You can chuck it in the bin of course but why waste a perfectly good resource? If you have a spot to let it sit under a tarp for about two weeks, and if it's only coffee grounds, it makes a fantastic top dressing for lawns that are a bit patchy. You can use it straight but the extra composting makes it better absorbed by the plants.

10/06/2026

Finally, i got around to watching Rippy (the streamers being too young or not Australian enough to value a good inside joke) also named The Red on the streaming service. Its a cute little Aussie horror flick about a 7 ft zombie Red kangaroo terrorising a small Aussie town. The set pieces are great but some of the connective tissue was weak. The greatest weakness was relying on CGI for the monster which looked like a cgi roo. They felt secure enough to show it too much instead of just hinting at it, to the detriment of the tension. Another was focusing on the MC's guilt over her father's death. Unnecessary. Michael Beihn showed again why he was James Cameron's utility go-to for years. If you needed some melodrama his quiet monologue of his crazy PTSD memories of 'nam is all that 's necessary. There's a build up to the pub goers barricading themselves into the pub, with the central hero team ready ro sacrifice themselves for these people. Since anyone with any depth had already been killed off. We are left going "why" none of these people even have names, just pub patron number five or similar. But it rips (haha see what i did there) along at a good pace. And its engaging enough. In true modern disaster tradition -The dog survives.

18/01/2026

My work has dried up. *Sigh* the not for profits I usually do grant applications, or other compliance work, are using my previous grant applications as templates and doing them in house. This is fine! Money is tight. And I'm happy if they are successful. It's their work I did. Also they are happy to offer testimonials for new clients about the quality of my work. But now I've moved out of the metro area, it's harder to make new contacts. I'm incredibly lucky. I don't need that work to pay my bills. But that little bit of luxury money is hard to let go. The kid who grew up not wealthy still screams inside my Id, "you need to get more into surplus". That's not true of course, but it feels it. Anyone who needs some work in the compliance or grant/tender space get in touch will you?

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