Another Christmas Comes and Goes

Having had 74 Christmases, it's now a tad ordinary. 

Beforehand there's all the searching for presents for those who already have everything they need and most of what they want. Then there's the decorations pulled out of their hiding places in our garage and the decisions about food; roast lamb, leg of ham, chicken? What about sweets?

After hours of preparation in the kitchen breakfast and lunch much of what has been prepared has been demolished. Then it's time for dinner well after presents have been opened, but nobody is hungry having nibbled on chocolates, cake and leftover potatoes. Toblerone anyone?

Our children are adults now and one of them has a son who turned 21 recently. We usually negotiate what each wants for Christmas now to save giving people stuff they don't like and don't want. For his birthday in late November we gave him some money so he can buy what he wants and I gave him a surprise. It was a Victorinox multi-tool.

As an electrical apprentice I expect he'll get good use out of it for years. But the real reason I gave it to him, with his name and 21st birthdate laser engraved in it is that I want him to have something that lasts long after I've taken the road from which nobody returns.

I have some things that belonged to my mother and father, the last of whom died in 1995 and I treasure them because they provide a strange link into the past when we were all living together.

But back to Christmas.

My wife and I negotiate what we want and we did the same with our two children. I got a pair of Brooks sneakers from my wife and I gave her a new Fitbit fitness tracker. There were a few extras, but nothing expensive.

That way, we got what we would have had to buy at some stage anyway and each of us was happy with our present.

Now, it's all done and dusted for another year.

All we have to do is survive New Year's Eve and we'll almost be back to normal; back on our Mediterranean eating plan and our routine that we have established since retiring.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

#Robinoz

#Netexit

Will Australia Learn from the UK and European Disasters?

Will politicians in Australia learn from the disasters that long-term "green" policies have had in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

Probably not. If we were going to learn, we would have done so some years ago when the writing was on the wall for all to see.

One of the principal managers of the International Panel on Climate Change admitted the climate change policy had nothing to do with climate and was all about redistribution of wealth - from Western countries to African countries.

It also seems to be about promoting the Lima Agreement to "flatten" Western industries and transfer some of them to African and other so-called developing countries and the UN's Agenda 2030. 

Don't forget Klaus Schwab's, World Economic Forum that also wants to impose a totalitarian one world government regime where nobody will own anything, but we'll all be happy. Maybe they plan to put something in the water. Otherwise, why would anyone be happy?

The Left is changing the world we live in for the worse and we, the silent majority need to fight back.

#Robinoz

#Netexit

 

Debunking the 97% Scientists Agree re Climate Change

One of the most sensible, balanced videos I have seen and I've viewed hundreds in my search for the truth and not what passes for truth.

You can find it here: https://youtu.be/YhmMBLGQpEs

#Robinoz

Who has earned your admiration in life?

Anika Ghandi

How many people in your life have you found worthy of admiration?

Apart from my father, said by others to be a "brilliant engineer" and a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Squadron Leader who was my boss, most other people I have admired have been women.

Most recently, I stumbled upon the site of Anika Ghandi who provides YouTube videos about woodwork and carpentry tools. As an amateur carpenter who attends the local Men's Shed and is learning to craft wooden products - at an advanced age I might add, I find her blog, email messages and YouTube videos very helpful.

Anika even provides top quality plans for some of her projects. How good is that?

When I first watched one of her videos I thought, "She must be a tradesperson, she's very good at this." Little did I know that she is actually a degreed electrical engineer (like my father who was an electrical and mechanical engineer) who decided to transition from electricity to timber. Obviously doing practical things with timber (or lumber in the US) appeals to her more than designing power installations and high-tension power lines.

Anika is obviously very smart - aren't all engineers - and also talented. She's adapted to woodwork and made it a career. One has to admire her achievements even if you aren't into engineering or woodwork.

I'm beginning one of her project shortly and I look forward to viewing Anika's videos and reading her blog frequently as I hone my skills.

As a one-time adult educator/trainer, I have a sound understanding of competency-based training (CBT) and assessment and I'm using CBT principles as I develop my skills base piece of timber by piece of timber. 

Only time will tell how successful I become and time isn't something I have a lot of since I'm closer to the end than the beginning. 

Who have or do you admire? Tell us in the comments.

#Robinoz

My first ever paid job

 

When I was at high school my parents and I lived on a copper mine in a remote region of Central Australia. 

Peko Mine has since vanished in its entirety. All that is left are concrete house bases and a concrete block placed over the 1,000 odd foot mine shaft to prevent idiots falling in. There was only one shaft and that was located under the poppet head or head frame you can see near the top right of the photo. There was another access point used for emergency exit and also air circulation. Air circulation needs an upcast shaft and a downcast shaft - sucking and blowing. The downcast shaft was a ladder way into the top level of the mine, only a short distance below surface. This has been filled in too and not one piece of metal from the buildings remains.

In the photo is the assaying laboratory in the foreground, the office (shorter building middle right), the main mill complex next to it (the taller building), the diesel-electric powerhouse in the middle and houses in the distant background.

We lived in one of the staff houses.

During school holidays, especially the Christmas holidays that were of six weeks duration, my parents found it difficult to help me find something to do; yes, I rode my bike all over the place, trekked off into the local arid country checking out old mines and a variety of lizards, snakes, kangaroos, and echidnas, but eventually I got bored. 

The devil finds evil things for idle hands to do. And I got into trouble on a couple of occasions when I was found on the minesite where I shouldn't have been. At 12 or 13 years of age, I wasn't permitted anywhere on the mine unaccompanied and not allowed underground period.

My father, who was chief engineer, did take me underground on several occasions at Peko and Orlando Mine which was fairly safe given that the Inspector of Mines was located at Darwin, 1500 km away and wasn't likely to catch us in the act.

My father decided to find me a job. He spoke with the then Exploration Department chief geologist whose work was mostly off-site and bingo, I got hired and paid a pittance out of petty cash since I was also too young to be formally employed.

For the rest of my school days I had a job every holiday.

I went out in the field seeking new mineral leases, surveying diamond drilling exploration locations, picking up lunches for the teams going "bush", and doing other important stuff like collecting geologist's hammers, cleaning the Landrover 4WD vehicles, and sharpening the boss's pencil collection.

I really hit the big time when I was shown how to split a cylindrical diamond drilled core in half using an ancient core splitter almost identical to that shown below.

The first few hundred feet of core splitting was very interesting, but the novelty soon wore off. I'd take a piece of core from a core tray with maybe 50 feet of core lying in it, place a cloth bag on one side of the splitter and wind down the wheel until the core cracked in half.

One half fell into the bag which, when it was full, I'd label with the core tray number, tie it off with the integrated ties and send it to the assaying laboratory.

The other pieces were meticulously placed back in the core tray.

It was a mind-numbingly boring job, but it helped me realise what I was to understand better later in life, all jobs have their menial, less interesting tasks, but even monotonous, uninteresting, unchallenging jobs need to be done.

So, my first paid job was as a "field assistant" that involved being a GOFER and splitting endless footage of drilled core. The money, added to my parents' allowance enabled me to hit the local town eight miles away a couple of times per week to meet my mates for an iced coffee and a trip to the local open-air theatre.

Another good job was that I learned to drive the Landrover 4 Wheel Drive vehicles in open country where there was little to hit except a few gum trees and a pile of anthills. By 14 I was a seasoned driver on manual vehicles (autos were just beginning to appear in the 60s).

Now, as I write this reflection on life, I'm post-work having retired after several major career changes and I can look back and smile at these stages of my development.

What was your first job? Comment below and let us know all about it.

#Robinoz

How much can we donate?

 

During the last five days - not even a whole week, I've received four requests for donations in the mail.

On top of that, I've had several pop-ups wanting me to subscribe to various news outlets.

Two of the envelopes I received included pairs of childrens socks and a few cards with envelopes.

Quid pro Quo.  We'll give something to you if you give something to us.

The challenge is, as much as I would like to donate to every worthy cause, like most people, I'm not a billionaire with an unending stream of income.

I did send $100 to a group seeking to abolish Alzheimers and other cognitive diseases. 

Each year I donate to several organisations whose research will improve the lot of all humanity, not just people with this or that disease, but as I said, I'm not Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates.

In fact, I'm a self-funded retiree with an annual income well below the average Australian income. No, I'm not crying poor. I'm debt free and manage to feed and clothe myself, but I don't have truck loads of money to send to every worthy cause whose letter arrives at my letterbox or whose email or SMS arrives on my mobile.

If I win 80 million in next weeks lottery, you can be sure I'll use 95% of the win to help others in need; veterans, homeless and many charities. Until then, I'm sorry, I can't help most of you who ask.

#Robinoz

Coming to Australia - A National Energy Disaster

 

Despite what is happening in Europe, the US and the UK, the Australian Government and Leftwing media refuse to acknowledge the reality of endeavouring to reach NetZero by any year, let alone a 43% reduction by 2030 which is the new fetish of the Labor Government.

The honest and genuine climate experts tell us there is no climate emergency, that any global warming that has occurred is so insignificant to make no difference, that C02 doesn't affect climate, and that renewables are not capable of providing sufficient energy for a civilised society to run safely and efficiently.

History also tells us that many more people die from hypothermia than hyperthermia. 

This article detailing the challenges being faced in Europe should be a harbinger of importance for the Australian Government, the not-so-independent Teals, and any fools who voted for them because they think we're all going to be dead in 12 years because of the climate.

Australia, we are told, emits less than 2% C02, so the 43% reduction of C02, a non harmful gas essential to all life, will be a total waste of time and destroy our economy as the climate alarmist morons tell us not to eat meat, to stop using fertiliser, coal, gas, and diesel and petrol vehicles.

It's a certain recipe for a national energy disaster.

#Robinoz 

Businesses that miss out

 

Businesses that offer a set range of subscription payment options miss out on small users' business.

Let me explain.

Say you are the secretary of a small club who issues several newsletters or notices annually but not regularly. They are compiled and sent ad hoc.

Would you sign up for the $15 per month option when you aren't going to use it for most months? Yes, I know, it's only $15 US which isn't a lot. But why pay when you aren't using the service?

Why would you pay $180 annually to publish two or three newsletters?

If I was running this show, I'd have an irregular use subscription payment ie, pay per use. Even if it was $15 it would be less expensive than paying for months during which you aren't publishing.

The alternative would be to start and stop your account, but it wouldn't take long for the business providing the service to tell you to get lost.

What do you think? Would you like to see some of these companies provided user pay on demand options?

#Robinoz

per ardua adastra

 

Are you part of the voiceless?

 "This voiceless group makes up nearly one-third of the people of Australia. Perhaps they educate their children in religious schools. Maybe they are unjabbed and remain Covid dissidents. I am guessing they value freedom and patriotism. Resent Woke corporatism. Feel that customer service no longer exists. Are ashamed of what is happening to our culture. Cheer on battlers and champion small businesses. Maybe unfurl an Aussie flag on Australia Day. Fear the coming digital surveillance state. Mourn what we have lost."

https://wentworthreport.com/2022/07/09/australias-true-voiceless/

I've had four COVID 19 innoculations, but align well with the author's other suggestions. 

I served my country in the Air Force (RAAF) during the Vietnam Era and worked for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) for 15 years before it was abolished.

ATSIC was the primary body that provided indigenous Australians with a bottom-up voice to the Australian Public Service agencies providing it with a cornucopia of generous benefits not available to any other of the 97% of Australians.

ATSIC built hundreds of houses, created work programs through its Community Development and Employment Program (CDEP). It provided a variety of infrastructure and other benefits and even provided ultra-low interest mortgages for anyone who met their guidelines. (indigenous and able to repay).

ATSIC had Regional Councils of elected representatives across Australia who, at considerable expense to the taxpaying public created Regional Plans that were to direct funding to projects that communities prioritised.

In the end, like many other well-intentioned government programs, ATSIC failed.

Now there are other agencies, do-gooders and funded bodies intended to serve the interests of the 3.5% of people who are indigenous or of indigenous descent.

We have 10 current part-indigenous representatives in our Parliament who can speak for the others. We don't need to mess with our Constitution to provide a voice for indigenous Australians.

The Australian electorate will never fall for guaranteeing places for indigenous people in Parliament who are appointed on race and not ability and popular appeal.

It will never happen.

#Robinoz 

PS: Race-based programs run by Australian Governments should be abolished and replaced with programs that provide help to all Australians based on genuine need

Everything depends on time and place

 

Time and Place are the most important aspects of our human existence.

Everything happens at a time in our lives and at a place.

We are born at a time and a place; we avoid traffic incidents that occur at times and places where we aren't. We get married - or divorced, find friends, celebrate birthdays and so on.

Last, we die at a time and place.

My wife and I were discussing our visit to the Culloden Battlefield near Inverness, Scotland. We revisited photos we had taken and it occurred to me that we had visited at the right time and place, in 2019 and not 1745.

According to records, the battle, which lasted only 40 minutes, resulted in bitter defeat for the heavily outnumbered Jacobites. Some 1,000 of the Young Pretender's army of 5,000 weak and starving Highlanders were killed by the 9,000 Redcoats, who lost only 50 men.

If we are at the right place at the right time, great things often happen. Conversely, if we are the the wrong place at the wrong time, the outcome can be disastrous or even deadly.

Have you ever been at the wrong time and place?

#Robinoz

Omar Khayyam - An Outstanding Philosopher Poet

My son gave me a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam for my birthday via his mother when he was about 18 months old. That was nearly 50 years ago.

In all the years since, I have read hundreds of other philosophical texts, poems etc, and I always return to Omar's work in times when I need to reflect a little.

There are some favourite passages I like because of the stark reality of what Omar says. One is displayed above.

Even as long ago as Omar lived, humankind was trying to deal with the big issues of whether there are gods, lives after death, and a cornucopia of saviours who had been mentioned throughout history. Protagonists whom the late Joseph Campbell referred to in his title: "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." 

Well before Christianity he said, there were dozens of religions that spoke about prophets and heroes who reincarnated to help them solve their problems. They came and went at the same speed as human imagination.

Given the state of our world today, we could certainly do with a contemporary saviour to resolve our thousands of challenges.

Anyway, I hope you like Omar's opinion above. I do.

#Robinoz

A change is as good as a ...

 

A common expression is that a "change is as good as a holiday."

That's obviously not the case when a corporation/institution changes its badging, logo and everything associated with it.

Generally it costs a lot of money to rebadge an organisation. Business cards, stationery, promotional media, internet sites, documentation, signage, clothing, and much more have to be realigned to reflect the new image.

When I first studied at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), it was called the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education (DDIAE). That was in the late 70s. Later, it became the UniSQ and in the late 90s I completed a Master's degree online as a part-time, external student.

As my degree majored in educational technology, much of my studies had to do with internet design, audio-visual production, computer-aided instruction, and associated topics, so doing it online was perfect.

Back in the days of the DDIAE, it was one of Australia's most recognised distance education universities. In those days, there was no internet available and all external study media arrived in the mail. It was always on time, a week or so before commencement of a semester. It was always excellent quality and the system worked like a medium-priced Swiss watch.

You did the reading, wrote assignments and posted them to your lecturer who responded in due course with your grade and commentary about your work.

Nowadays, much is delivered online and face-to-face if you are lucky enough to be able to attend in person.

I have many fond memories of my days studying with the DDIAE/UniSQ (and two other universities).

The new logo represents a pine cone, very common in Queensland and it's a pleasant change from the now retired coat of arms style logo that preceded it.

Long live the UniSQ.

#Robinoz

The Wonders of YouTube

Part of the craft retreat

I spend more time on YouTube than on any other form of streaming or free-to-air television.

TV has become boring. Apart from the news, which is sometimes depressing. How many fires, stolen cars, and idiots crashing into houses, trees and shops do we need to hear about? 

Then there are the "reality" shows or cooking shows. Half of the decent movies that are advertised I've seen once or twice before. All the repeats are uninteresting.

My beloved wife likes to watch NCIS, a bullshit show about the Navy Criminal Investigation Service that seems to get involved in resolving some of the major terrorist issues in the United States. I must admit to watching the show occasionally and finding several of the characters interesting.

If I'm truthful, NCIS is perhaps my current favourite when I tire of watching something on YouTube. Although, it's usually late at night and I manage to drift off to sleep.

Oh, and I do have to admit watching Home and Away from 7 pm to 7:30 pm Monday through Wednesday and 7 pm to 8:30 pm on Thursdays. Much more interesting that football or The Block.

After Home and Away, I retire to my wife's chock-full craft retreat wherein we have a second television. I switch on YouTube. 

What do I watch?

Usually, I take in a few SkyNews items to keep abreast of the day's stupidity or reality and then branch off into a whole range of different topics. I've even been following a course on typography by a lovely lady called Hope Armstrong.

My teaching and instructional design career took me into the typography and design fields and this is like a revision. As Hope mentions terms, I realise I knew them a decade or two ago and suddenly it all comes back. Memory is a wonderful thing; facts lie dormant for years and pop out when you need them. Kerning? Leading? Yes, I recall what they are.

I watch Every Day Carry shows, UFO, Extraterrestrial, Medical, Health, Food, Ancient Technology, and DIY Carpentry shows, most recently by the amazing Anika who produces a range of excellent wooden products as well as being an electrical engineer. 

I'm a watch fan too, so I spend some time watching reviews of nice watches, most of which I either cannot afford or don't need. How many watches does someone with two wrists really need?

What I like is that one can flip from one show to another and there is such a huge variety.

For many years - decades - my evenings were filled with study and university assignments, marking student papers, lesson preparation, media creation. But since 2012 I've been retired and free to do what I like when I like. It's wonderful.

Anyway, I've go to go now and watch a little bit more of Hope Armstrong's Typography Course.

Let me know what you are watching on YouTube?

#Robinoz

Who'd be a farmer?

Who'd be a farmer? Good question.

It's either fire, rain, drought, disease, fertiliser shortages, or over-under supply that impacts on those people who, working long days against great odds, feed us.

Where I live, there are 72 vineyards - or more and the owners with whom I speak tell me they either aren't getting enough rain, they're getting too much rain or the amount they are getting or not getting is at the wrong time.

Nature has a way of doing its own thing.

Now, I read that the government of our neighbours in New Zealand is implementing some kind of carbon tax on sheep and cattle. Can you believe that? What next, a fart tax on human beings?

It's all mindless, Leftist nonsense. There is no climate emergency, despite the South Australian Government declaring one. C02 isn't a deadly gas. Australian and New Zealand C02 emissions, even if they were a problem - and they're not, are miniscule compared with those of China and India, both countries of which are increasing their coal-fired power station capacity.

Fossil fuels are back in vogue since anyone over 10 years old knows that so-called renewables are unreliable and inefficient at the times when they are needed most. It's a failed experiment.

In Australia, after years of uranium being banned because of the Greens/Left policies, they are now talking about installing nuclear, the only emissions-free power generation tool other tha hydro. 

This won't make much difference to farmers who have other problems on top of high energy costs.

If farmers leave the fields, we will suffer even more food shortages than we are now, so it's in our best interests to ensure farmers survive.

#Robinoz

Sunday, 5 June 22

My Movavi Software

It's bloody cold and wet, and boring.

Doing anything outside today is a no, no. It would be okay if one couldn't avoid it, but it's not a day for outside activities.

I just read an article by Jon Rappaport indicating that several once free, democratic countries are now implementing laws and agencies to address what they call "misinformation". So, freedom of speech is on a rapid decline.

When they talk of misinformation, what they really mean is information of which they don't approve. Information that doesn't meet their preferred narrative.

We've seen the insidious creep of this with an ever-increasing number of people and organisations de-platformed, ostracised, banned, had bank accounts cancelled or suspended, and worse - some have been assaulted by the Left because of their unacceptable views.

My view has always been that anyone should be allowed to say or think anything no matter how stupid, ridiculous, childish, or irrational they wish (think of religious dogma) provided it doesn't induce violence or other genuine (not perceived) unlawful activity.

Unless you and I do something about this, it will get worse. 

Social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube are now censoring posts and videos they believe give clients the wrong idea about something. Once, we were left to decide what we did and didn't believe, but now we have social media executives telling us what to believe and what is truth. 

Have we become a bunch of automatons? 

In-house Activities

As I'm not going anywhere today, I'm devoting my time to relearning some graphics manipulation using Movavi Image Editor and Paint.Net software programs and desktop publishing using Scribus.

During my days as a TAFE teacher and staff development and training manager I produced tonnes of instructional media, course notes, computer-aided instruction programs, newsletters, brochures and more. 

I mastered Adobe Pagemaker (is anyone old enough to remember that), then moved on to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. In classes at Bundaberg TAFE I taught desktop publishing using a program called "Publish It!", a name poorly chosen, but an excellent basic program that was inexpensive and suitable for most DTP work.

Once, I was an expert in Multimate, Word, and WordPerfect wordprocessing programs and taught each along with proprietary programs on Tandy computers.

The long passage of time and alternative activity, however, dulls one's memory and skills and now I have to relearn much of what I once knew but have forgotten. The good side of course is that much of it comes back much faster than it would had I never have experienced and mastered it.

Now it's time to get to work.

#Robinoz

What are Your Pronouns?

 

NatWest staff will be able to display their favoured pronouns and phonetic name spellings on new environmentally friendly bamboo badges from next month as the taxpayer-backed lender launches a drive to appear more inclusive.

The bank, which has been trialling the new name tags since late last year, said the changes will mean that someone called Louise can now have "Looweez" on their name badge so that customers don't pronounce their name wrong.

Branch staff across the UK will also be able to add their chosen pronoun, such as she/her, he/him or them/theirs, to their new plastic-free badges and can choose to be identified by an abbreviated or ‘known as’ version of their first name if they prefer. These changes are all optional, the bank said.

I wonder where this nonsense will stop, if anywhere.

No matter how people wish for it, there are still only two genders: male and female. Any suggestion that there are others is Leftist nonsense.

Can you imagine working in a company with several hundred employees and trying to remember what pronouns - and there are said to be numerous of them - to call someone? You call on the phone and before you discuss anything, ask for the person at the other end's preferred pronouns. FFS.

Maybe it's reasonable to include the phonetic pronunciation for those with impossible to guess names like Podsiadly which isn't pod-si-ad-ly, but podchadly when considered in English. This would still be a problem on the telephone although when answering a person could give their name and its proper pronounciation.

What do you think? What are your pronouns or are you like me and don't give a rat's arse what pronouns someone uses for you?

#Robinoz

Truth in Profiles

Owls - Nothing fake here

There are said to be millions of fake social media accounts that are being used to influence people's worldview, especially in politics, ideology, buying decisions, and much more.

Fakesters have been caught flooding the internet with identical commentary, all promoting a specific topic eg, climate change and how it's going to kill off the planet or how we need to vote for a particular political party.

While I'm a believer in as little government imposition in the lives of citizens as possible, I do think there is a need to legislate that organisations like Twitter, Parler, YouTube, Instagram, and the thousands of others involved in social media require proof of identity for those subscribing to their services.

Even if they charged a nominal fee paid via EFT or credit card it would improve the situation because the name on the account would have to be identical with the credit card account. Users would only be allowed two accounts, a personal account and if they had a business, a business account.

Better still, proof of identify at sign-up would be a great idea.

This would reduce much of the obnoxious commentary aimed at individuals by those hidden under pseudonyms, stop anyone having dozens of separate, ad hoc accounts to influence others on what is right or wrong. It would clean up the industry very well.

The only social media network I know that requires proof of identity, or more accurately, proof of residence, is Nextdoor. When you sign up for a Nextdoor account, you are required to verify your address, which helps verify your name. Even if you provide a fake name, you can be found via your address.

Unfortunately, this plays into the hands of the World Economic Forum elites who want to impose a one world government upon us and a social credit score. The latest madness is that we will all require a "Personal Carbon Allowance" and be penalised if we exceed it.

However, there is still time to implement the proof of identity concept and reject the unelected WEF idea of communism imposed on the unwashed masses.

#Robinoz

Dear Diary - Every Day is the Same

 

Today's diary entry says it all.

Every day is a repeat of every other day. Well, it is when one is retired. Not completely, but mostly.

Let me explain.

Most days for me go like this, I:

1. wake up and change into my day clothes
2. look out the front door (to the East) to see what type of day it's likely to be (sun's up!)
3. open the blinds to our loungeroom side door and rear windows that look out into our patio cover and lovely garden full of lilly-pillies, lavendar, wooly-bushes and an oversupply of a variety of succulents (they grow very well and easily)
4. boot my laptop
5. turn on the television (which I later regret)
6. make a cup of coffee
7. jot down a few things in my diary/notebook that I expect to do today - in conjunction with my Google Calendar. I do a lot of volunteering so most days I have something to do for someone
8. check email and the news
9. make a cup of tea for my wife who usually sleeps in longer than I do
10. have breakfast between 10 and 11 am when I get hungry
11. do some volunteer work, much of which is on a laptop (writing grant applications etc)
12. go for a walk, ride, do some rowing exercise in my rower and a few reps of fitness tube exercises
13. have lunch around 2 pm
14. sit down in my comfortable Lazyboy chair and watch some tv after lunch
15. make dinner or help make dinner at about 6:30 pm
16. watch Home and Away (much to the laughter of my daughter who thinks I'm too old for that)
17. view some how-to videos on YouTube: carpentry, cooking, tool use
18. go to bed at 11:30 pm

The next day is much the same. But at the back of my mine, it seems that life is like that. We get into a routine, follow it and it becomes a way of life. Wake up - go to work - go to sleep with a few different thing in between.

Some days I think it's boring. 

#Robinoz

ANZAC Day Tanunda

 

ANZAC Day at Tanunda went well.

Given that Monday was a public holiday during school holidays, we had an enormous turn-up at both the Dawn Service and the late morning Service after our march from the Tanunda Post Office to the Soldiers' Memorial Hall.

I attended the Dawn Service and marched, but I didn't attend the late morning Service.

The highlight of the Dawn Service for me was an address delivered by a senior school student from the local Faith Lutheran College. Given the age of the young man, his presentation was flawless, the content emotive and inspiring, and he didn't appear to be nervous at all.

After the Dawn Service we held a Gunfire Breakfast that many people attended including members of the RSL Tanunda, although most of us who are members had "jobs" to do. I worked in our bar serving beer, large amounts of Coopers stout, and pouring small amounts of Beenleigh rum into coffee, a tradition on this special day.

The Gunfire Breakfast was also attended by a contingent of RAAF serving members who had participated as a catafalque party (you can see several in the image above) or supported them. I managed to take a photo of the group.

Here they are outside our Hut. Those with weapons are obviously part of the catafalque party.

We appreciate and thank them for their service and hope that they will never be called upon to sacrifice their lives for their fellow Australians as many others have throughout the short history of our country.

We are so fortunate to live in a relatively free democracy with a decent standard of living and reasonably sound governments.

Every day I recall how very lucky I was to be born in Australia. If you are reading this and you're Australian, you should feel lucky too.

#Robinoz

My (Most often) Every Day Carry

There are numerous YouTube videos where people discuss their Every Day Carry. I hadn't thought of turning it into a topic of discussion until I saw a few of them, so here I am, disclosing mine.

I must state that I don't carry my Adidas bag everywhere I go. If it's a short trip somewhere to pick up a carton of Hahn Super Dry, low carb beer, I just take my wallet and car keys. Longer trips, I take the whole EDC.

The stuff people carry is interesting but essentially, most of us have a need for the same things, eg car keys, wallets etc. Knives, pens and other "stuff" is optional.

Here's a description of what I carry:

When I lift the front cover (image two from top) I have a few glass wipes because I wear prescription and sun glasses that always seem to need cleaning. This part has a zipper section so inside I can include some coinage just in case I need it and some plastic money eg, a $50 note for emergencies.  

When I flip that part back, it has some slots for credit cards in which I have business cards and slots for two pens. I have a Lamy metal pen and a Victorinox pen and usually do a crossword puzzle while reading the local paper and having a cup of coffee. Of course they also come in handy if I need to write something although these days I put record reminders in my iPhone most of the time.

My car keys (at left) have a souvenir from the British House of Commons on which I've engraved my name and phone number just in case I lose the keys, which is unlikely as I wear them hanging from a sturdy belt clip accompanied by another smallish keychain knife in which the blade is inserted. (Anyone would think I had a knife fetish)

In the section at right are a notebook in another sleeve, and a one-blade Leatherman. The Swiss Army knife I usually carry in my pocket. There is also a torch (flashlight) that has a removable clip that makes it small and easy to carry. 

So there it is, that's me in nine paragraphs.

#Robinoz

How App(lication)s can get us into trouble

 

My iPhone has this wonderful health app 💙that tracks my walking, allows me to enter blood pressure, pulse, cycling distance, BMI, height - that hasn't changed in the past 70 years, and much more.

One of the things it also does is allow one to track sexual activity. Why, I'm not sure.

I do recall when I was 18 to around 20 I had a little book into which I wrote the name and contact details of ladies who had helped me develop my intimacy skills. It was probably a skite book, although I can't recall ever telling any of my friends with whom, or how many women I had been intimate. I do recall that there were many pages spare when I decided it was a childish thing to do and decided to use it only to record names and contact details without any additional descriptions. 

Flipping through my Health App recently, I stumbled across the entry at left in my Sexual Activity log. It appears that at around 12 midday on Sunday, 23 August 2020 I had a "sexual activity" for maybe a minute. I've never been that fast!

Nowadays, I can't remember what I did a week ago, or where I've left my sunglasses, let alone what I'm supposed to have done on that Sunday afternoon. However, if I had had sex with someone for even a few minutes, I would have known. And I'd be surprised because while it may have once taken me a few minutes to ejaculate, it now takes longer.

So, my conclusion is that this is a misrepresented activity cause by something running amuck in the app.

Imagine if my wife was a nosy wife who looked through my iPhone (which she isn't) and came across this. I could be in real trouble.

Stay well and check your apps.

Robin

Can Australia - or any other country afford NetZero?

The almost feverish hatred of coal and closure of hundreds of coal-fired power stations across woke nations of the world before we had something to replace them with will go down in history as one of the most stupid things we've ever done. Especially given our current level of scientific knowledge and advanced ability in technology.

Replacing something that works inexpensively and efficiently with something that is expensive and inefficient shouldn't make sense to anyone.

But governments throughout the Western World have bowed to the woke progressives who have pushed an alarmist global warming agenda that demands we rid the world of excess C02, that gas that is 0.04% in the atmosphere and needed by every living thing on Earth. We need it and vegetation to create the air we breathe.

Some people are beginning to wake up to the fact that not only is NetZero unachievable, but it will also create massive use of limited funds that could be spent more wisely; solving hunger, homelessness, poverty, ill health, and bringing billions of people up to a decent standard of living to name just a few.

Six weeks out from an election, Australians must decide between two bad choices for a party to run our country for the next three years. Both parties subscribe to the UN's IPCC nonsense of killing off reliable energy to be replaced with ugly, inefficient, and highly expensive wind turbines and solar panels with limited benefits.

Most of the products that go into the above two solutions create millions of tonnes of C02 and other gases and pollutants, cause bird deaths, make beautiful hills look horrible, and take up much more space than a High Efficiency Low Emission coal-fired power station. They're also full of components manufactured or mined by slave labour or children in third-world countries.

Now, this video estimates the costs we'll face to kill off our reliable energy and replace it with a dud.

You can watch it here.

What will the high school students in 50 year's time say about us when they study modern history?

Robin

Related article: here.

Keeping busy in retirment is a good thing

Dawn, Robin, Christina, Elliott

Sometimes I wonder how I found time to work.

My last job was at a high security installation 25 km west of Alice Springs. I'd get up at 6 am, shower, iron a shirt, get dressed, have breakfast and be ready to depart at 7:00 if I travelled by the bus provided or 7:20 if I drove myself.

I'd drive out listening to AM, an Australian radio show on the ABC and arrive around before 8 am. By the time I'd gone through security checks and walked to my office, it would be 8 am. I'd crank up my computer and begin my day's work. At 4:15 pm I'd lock my office, head through the security system and be heading home at 4:30 pm.

Since retiring, I wake up at 6:30 - 7:00 am, switch on the kettle and make a cup of coffee. I then crank up my laptop and read my email. While doing so, I check my calendar and write on a notepad several things I need to, or want to do during the day.

I have breakfast about 10 am unless I have somewhere to go beforehand. I'm never hungry before that, so I don't see any sense in eating. This moves lunch out to around 2 pm.

The rest of my day is filled in with housework, cooking, car washing, or other jobs that don't disappear when you leave work. I also volunteer for three different organisations, one of which I am heavily involved with; the Returned & Services League. I created and manage their internet site (blog site), run the membership program, apply for and manage grants from the three levels of government, work behind the bar when our Hut is open, clean occasionally, buy supplies, and otherwise help keep the place running. This includes turning up for sausage sizzles - see the photo above. 

I'm president of an organisation's management committee and with the help of a secretary, hold and run meetings bimonthly.

Thursdays I attend a Men's Shed where I turn lovely pieces of wood into something else.

Friday is the day I attend any medical or other appointments or go for a drive to a vineyard or go out for lunch.

Between times, I've been writing my autobiography for my children and grandson so that, when I take that journey from which nobody returns, it might answer some of the questions they have later in life. I know when my mother and father died, I wished I had asked them much more about their lives before I joined them.

Psychologist Erik Erikson posited "Eight Ages of Man". In the Eighth Age, one of Integrity versus Despair he said:

... that people in late adulthood reflect on their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure. People who feel proud of their accomplishments feel a sense of integrity, and they can look back on their lives with few regrets. However, people who are not successful at this stage may feel as if their life has been wasted. They focus on what “would have,” “should have,” and “could have” been. They face the end of their lives with feelings of bitterness, depression, and despair."

I'm in the integrity part. I've had a great life and have no bitterness, depression or despair about being older and heading towards the crematorium.

I'll keep busy, enjoying the rewards of 51 years of work, helping others through volunteering and continue with a positive outlook until I can't continue.

Robin

Carrying Knives and Prohibited Weapons

When I was a police officer, knives weren't as huge a problem as they are now. These days, many more assaults and murders are committed with knives so police have had to crack down on people who carry them.

My SA Knife

This makes it difficult for people like me who are law-abiding, have never been convicted of anything, but who carry a small pocket knife in their pocket and a larger knife in their car. These knives are visible in the photo above.

Why do I carry a Swiss Army pocket knife? For many years as a Traffic Accident Investigator I needed something to cut seat belts, makeshift tourniques, webbing, and bandages or materials that we were using as bandages. There seemed to be always something that needed a knife and when you're out on some highway at midnight, it's not easy to find one unless you carry it.

Later, as a training manager I often had parcels of student materials I needed to open, IT equipment that needed a screwdriver occasionally, a bottle opener before screw-off beer caps that I needed sometimes after work, and very rarely a can opener when staying overnight on Aboriginal communities where I ate tinned foods. My Swiss Army knife has been a lifesaver. Why, I've even sharpened pencils with it!

Sometimes I find when I buy take-away food I need the knife to cut pieces of meat into more edible proportions. The wooden knives now in vogue don't cut it. (Pun?)

Why do I have a survival knife in my car door? 

The knife I have in my car door, shown above, has a belt cutting attachment, a glass breaking knob, and a larger knife blade if I need it. If I have a traffic incident and finish up conscious in a waterway or in the scrub in my car, I want to be able to get out as soon as I can. Cars sink in water. I've recovered several people who drowned in their cars. Cars catch fire. I've recovered the burnt bodies of people burned in cars. I'm not keen to do either if I can avoid it.

So, am I worried about being charged with being in possession of prohibited weapons. No.

I've read the South Australian Summary Offences Act and Regulations and by my reading, neither of my knives is classed as prohibited. Additionally, I never get pulled over by police except on rare occasions for a drink driving test.

Every state and territory has its own laws regarding prohibited weapons. I take pot luck that if I'm pulled up and my knives found, the police officer concerned will have sufficient nous to realise I'm not a likely candidate to attack anyone with either knives.

I could kill someone with a large spanner from my tool box, why would I need a knife?

Also, bear in mind that I don't carry either knife when I visit a hotel of an evening and if I was still going to discos and piss drinking extravaganzas I wouldn't be stilly enough to take either knife with me.

Police officers should assess the place and conditions under which a person is carrying a knife (or multi-tool with a blade), consider the person's criminal history (if any), and the likelihood it is being carried as a weapon for self-defence. That's what I did as a police officer. I never arrested farmers who had knives on their belts who had dropped in to their local for a beer on their way home. I did arrest gang members engaged in brawls late evening who had knives in their possession.

Common sense must prevail.

My advice: check the relevant legislation in the state or territory where you spend most of your time and comply with the legislation.

Robin

Goodbye Net Zero?

 

The more I read about the deteriorating energy situation in the UK and Europe due to an over-reliance on so-called renewable, green energy - wind and solar, I'm beginning to see the end of Net Zero.

Since leaving full-time work in 2012 and retiring (Goodness me, is it really a decade?) I've had time to read extensively about global warming (now climate change), renewable energy, and associated topics.

My opinion, following that reading, is that global warming has been so low, it's negligible. Carbon dioxide is more benefit to the planet and humans than stated and there is no link between temperature and C02.

Additionally, evidence is that we are heading for a cooling period (climate is cyclical, not linear) and more people die from hypothermia than hyperthermia. Remember Texas? Something around 700 people died during 2020-21 due to power failures and lack of warmth although there were debates about actual numbers. Even one unnecessary death is too much.

Claims by alarmists since the 70s of life-ending, world-destroying heating events have not eventuated, not on even one occasion.

Now, as a result of government decisions based on dodgy scientific advice, billions of pounds have been wasted on wind turbines and decommissioning of coal-fired power stations. The UK imports billions of pounds worth of gas from Russia and elsewhere so that it can avoid gas fracturing at home.

Most of the components of wind turbines are manufactured in China which has an open-slather agreement when it comes to C02 emissions. Strange that. We simply move our emissions to somewhere else so we can claim to be "green".

The public is beginning to become aware of the vast cost to their countries to implement an unnecessary, unhelpful Net Zero by 2050 policy and a fight back has begun.

The war in Ukraine has also helped people reconsider their energy needs and futures.

Goodbye Net Zero!

Robin

"Follow your own dogma, not that of others. Live your own life, your own way."

The New Woke Order

The stable, sensible, friendly society we once knew seems to be unravelling at a great rate. 

The Left-wing/Marxists are gaining ground as they knowingly or unwittingly help implement the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Great Reset. A reset that will be disastrous for most men and beasts, although the beasts won't have to put up with the stupidity or the totalitarianism because they live in ignorant bliss.

The WEF is an unelected body run by the incredibly wealthy, so-called "elite", masterminded by Klaus Schwab and supposed to ensure we will, "own nothing, owe nothing and be happy".

Sounds wonderful doesn't it?

You'll live in a world where technological automation has taken over your job, productive organisations instead of elected governments run the show, and you receive a Universal Basic Income to keep you in a suspended state of dependant poverty. Dependant on the oligarchs who will be ruling the roost. 

There's still no such thing as a free lunch. If you are reliant on someone else to provide your income, they control your life. That's what the non-so-great Great Reset is all about, control.

The UN, WEF and others have been preparing us for this for decades and all the changes we see in society are leading us into the lion's den. 

We've managed to insinuate many of the UN's Agenda 21/30 aspirations into our communities already. 

"Over 20 goals comprise the "new world order" the United Nations will focus on as part of its "Agenda 21/2030 Mission Goals," according to the claim. Items on the agenda include one world government; a single cashless currency; government-owned and controlled schools, colleges and universities and an end to single-family homes." (HREF)

The "wokeism" to which we are currently inundated is part of this platform. The idea that the stupid vegan activist has in the capture above, calling animals by a pronoun, is part of a significant problem we have with Leftists trying to convince us that gender is "fluid" and "assigned after birth", not as a result of birth. Even Australia's premier science organisation, the CSIRO has adopted this lie, they have reportedly implemented special leave provisions for staff who are gender reassigning and now agree that it's not biology that determines gender, but the gender a person decides to adopt. How many genders that includes, I'm not sure.

I do know, it's an unusual stance for a supposedly scientific organisation to adopt, but it seems that government agencies and some private sector organisations bend over backwards to adopt any of the latest politically correct, woke ideologies pushed by the Marxists. Critical race theory, historical revisionism, climate alarmism, gender fluidity, and even the latest religion of Net Zero.

As rainfall that Australia's Principal Scientist, Tim Flannery once said would never fall again, inundates much of our east coast, some of our fellow citizens blame unfortunate Prime Minister, Scott Morrison for not managing the climate as if he could wave a wand and tell it all to behave.

These people vote and breed, probably offspring like the lady shown above - half-wits and morons.

Next, some true believer will tell us if we had implemented a carbon tax, none of this flooding would have occurred. Our species is intelligent, but as yet not intelligent enough.

I'm glad that I'm much closer to taking that journey from which nobody returns than I am to beginning a journey. I feel sorry my children and grandson will have to put up with this nonsense. It seems to get worse each week.

Robin

It's becoming too expensive to drink in hotels

The tax on alcohol is again increasing making the very occasional trips I take to a pub, even less occasional.

In South Australia where a 475 ml schooner is called a pint (I'm not sure if it's pretending to be an Imperial pint or a metric pint), drinkers are already at a disadvantage. It's the only state in Australia where 475 ml is considered a pint. (See here.)

I pay between $7 and $10 for a pint of beer at present. The $7 rate is a special rate one hotel provides an in-house branded beer for and it's not always available. So, it's usually $9.50 or $10 for a pretend pint. So a night out with four or five beers is $50.

You can buy a carton of 375 ml beers (24) for around $50 or pay more for boutique and special beers. Some beer comes in 30 can size and costs less than or a little more than $50.

At just over $2 per unit for the 24 can pack or $1.60 per unit for the 30 pack cans, buying your packaged beer and drinking at home or from your own stock is much less expensive than hotel drinking. You don't have to pay for fuel to get there and back - fuel is also becoming increasingly expensive - and if you don't have a non-drinking wife like I have, you may also have to take into account not driving while inebriated.

God knows what the new prices will be, but they will no doubt have an impact on the number of people drinking and the volume being consumed at hotels. Another blow to an industry that has faced the rigours of surviving during COVID-19.

My trips to the hotel will definitely become less frequent and I'll probably have a maximum of two pretend pints.

Robin

Dr Roy Spencer's Global Warming Graph

 

Dr Roy Warren Spencer is a meteorologist, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on NASA's Aqua satellite. He has served as senior scientist for climate studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He is known for his satellite-based temperature monitoring work, for which he was awarded the American Meteorological Society's Special Award. (Source: Wikipedia)

Every month Dr Spencer issues an update to the graph at left that shows how the global lower atmosphere temperatures are changing. You can see the original here.

You don't have to be a climate scientist to understand the graph, the figures speak for themselves.

Robin

Happy New Year - 2022!

On 31 December 1999 I was living in a rented house at Seacliff, not far from the sea near Adelaide.  My wife and I were taking a 12-month break from the rigours of living in the Northern Territory. She was doing an afternoon shift at a local hospital and arrived home around 11 pm.

Intending not to miss out on New Year's Eve, we grabbed a couple of bottles of bubbly and walked a few hundred metres to a gazebo high up and overlooking the coastline. There we found a group of half a dozen people all doing the same thing we were doing. We got talking and found them to be good company. We chatted until 12 midnight and then watched the fireworks explode above Glenelg Beach a couple of kilometres away.

After another half hour or so, we walked back home wondering what this new year, 2000 would bring us.

If you are old enough to recall 1999, it was the year the world was tipped to end because computer programs couldn't transition from 1999 to 2000 automatically. Alarmists said there would be rioting in the streets, power systems would fail, airplanes would drop from the sky and dozens of other horrific outcomes. 

Needless to say, none of the chaos happened because programmers had been vigilant in updating their software programs to cope with the change. Had they not done so, there would have been some programming challenges, but I'm sure aircraft wouldn't have dropped from the sky or rioting occurred in the street, even in the US.

Life moved on and now it's 2022, a decade later and today we have the climate alarmists telling us the world will flood or get so hot that we'll all melt. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Happy New Year. I hope 2022 is a great year for you.

Robin