thenextbestthingtoleslie

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Implementing an Elite Marathon Hydration Strategy to Smash Your Goals

Implementing an Elite Marathon Hydration Strategy to Smash Your Goals

The Nike Melbourne Marathon festival is on this weekend, and same as the weather forecast, the start lists are looking HOT. With Tokyo Olympians and many anticipated debutants, it’s sure to be a great weekend of racing. This year I’m helping pace a friend in the marathon, and honestly, I’m more concerned about when and what drinks to have than I am about how far I have to run. Most of my worrying…

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Fasted exercise: Faster Athletes or Farce?

Fasted exercise: Faster Athletes or Farce?

You need fast to spell fasted, so fasting should make you faster right? It only makes sense that this is the case. Why would they even write the word like that if it didn’t? So, if you’re faster by fasting, how fast can fasting make you faster or is it all a farce? I remember during year 12 PE learning about the energy systems and how the most efficient system was the aerobic glycolysis system.…

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Protein? What is it Good for? Well, Actually Something!

Protein? What is it Good for? Well, Actually Something!

It feels obvious that knocking back a protein shake after a training session will make you, in the words of Daft Punk: “harder, better, faster, stronger”. I mean, everyone seems to be doing it must work, right? I’ve had a fair bit of time on my hands recently, so rather than die wondering, I thought I’d find out.  I sought to discover: If protein actually does anything to aid recovery or…

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The Dead Don’t Die (2019)

The Dead Don’t Die (2019)

Some actors play out a zombie movie The Dead Don’t Die is directed by Jim Jarmusch and has a massive all-star cast consisting of Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Eszter Balint, Maya Delmont, Taliyah Whitaker, and Jahi Di’Allo Winston. The film is set in a small town and polar fracking has caused the rotation of the earth to shift and…

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An Analysis of Class Relations and Modernity in The Time Machine by HG Wells

An Analysis of Class Relations and Modernity in The Time Machine by HG Wells

H. G. Wells’ novella The Time Machine (1895) explores a potential evolution of the class struggle of late nineteenth-century England and the results from rapidly progressing technology. This essay will argue that Wells is commenting on the failings of his society while also expressing concern for the outcomes of new social ideologies. These points will be explored through how the spectre of…

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4/5 of Black Widow (2021)

4/5 of Black Widow (2021)

Woman gets the old band back together for one last BIG job. I had to leave the cinema with like 20 minutes still to go so here is a review for 4/5ths of it. I got massive “you son a bitch I’m in” vibes for most of the movie, it seemed to be following a similar formula to a heist movie. ScarJo was fine, as were the rest of the cast, Florence Pugh was probably a standout I think her character was…

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Groundhog Day (1993)

Man spends endless days trying to get a female co-worker to spend the night with him Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in a very original and interesting movie. It is directed by Harold Ramis and co-written with Danny Rubin. The plot is essentially that Murrays character is stuck in an infinite time loop which isn’t really explained beyond he wakes up each day to the same day…

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Ratatouille (2007)

A nerd takes his rat cooking Written and directed by Brad Bird comes Ratatouille. It follows the journey of a rat called Remy who likes cooking things achieving his dream of cooking things. He does this by manipulating the movements of a human who happens to be the illegitimate son of a famous chef but who cannot cook. Firstly, I have a big problem with the extensive use of voice over. It goes…

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Justice League: The Snyder Cut (2021)

Justice League: The Snyder Cut (2021)

The movie we saw in 2017 but longer The 2017 version was well-received by audiences, with a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes as evidence. I mean, that movie was shit, it was a big mess, nothing made sense and we were just along for the CGI driven ride. I don’t know why people liked it, it didn’t really have redeeming qualities, especially when you could have just watched one of the animated movies and…

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The Test: A New Era For Australia's Team (2020)

The Test: A New Era For Australia’s Team (2020)

Australian Cricket team plays cricket and does coffee and things. The test follows the journey of the Australian Cricket team following the ball-tampering scandal, documenting their return to the favour of the public. I feel as though it was intended as a slight propaganda piece to humanise the team and return our opinion from cheats to the ‘Aussie Larakin’ persona that apparently we embody. I…

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Megamind (2010)

Megamind (2010) A big-headed blue man creates an enemy to avoid redundancy at work. Megamind is a DreamWorks Animation film directed by Tom McGrath and starring, Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey and David Cross. This is one of the best Superhero kinda parody films I’ve ever seen. Technically speaking, the animation is great and is holding up pretty well for an 11-year-old CGI…

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The Nest (2020)

A yuppie goes to London chasing money that isn’t there. The Nest stars Jude Law and Carrie Coon as a couple who uproot and move their family to London to chase a business opportunity for Law. I think both the performances from Law and Coon are pretty good, the daughter played by Oona Roche is pretty good too, the son is pretty meh, but he does the trick. The lighting is really good it is…

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Margin Call (2011)

Wall street yuppies try to bankrupt other yuppies. Another GFC movie, pretty solid, I enjoyed it. It didn’t have the flare of The Big Short, but it maintains the essence. It also takes on the side of our antagonist. Which is interesting. I liked the suspense, but I felt at times maybe the pacing was a little off. I also didn’t like how the time didn’t really seem to affect anyone. No one showed…

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Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Rambo shoots at Asians that may or may not be actually Vietnamese. Oh, and Russians. This time Rambo is the only man for the job, he must infiltrate a POW camp and bring back evidence that there are POW’s there so that the US can send a rescue mission to save them. As per, He succeeds and brings back a guy as evidence. But, they didn’t actually want this, it was supposed to be empty so when the…

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First Blood (1982)

Vet with PTSD takes on the police force and national guard because he’s hungry. First Blood follows John Rambo a Vietnam War veteran who while trying to find a friend and somewhere to grab a bite is harassed by police and subsequently arrested and abused which triggers his PTSD sending him on a rampage which quickly escalates. I don’t really get this movie the police are so mean to him for no…

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Spaced (1999-2001)

People lie about a relationship to get affordable housing. Spaced is written by and stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson with Edgar Wright directing. It can be viewed as somewhat of a testing ground for what was to come with Pegg and Wright famously conceiving the Cornetto trilogy. It’s really great because you can see the familiar Wright style with the editing and shots but it’s toned down…

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Vice (2018)

A cruel dictator hiding in the shadows is responsible for mass death From the creators of The Big Short which is one of my favourite movies comes Vice. A look into the life of Vice President Dick Cheney, particularly his rise to power and how he managed to manipulate the presidency to give himself absolute power. It was directed by Adam McKay and stars Christian Bale as VP Cheney. As always Bale…