tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84359426186263170582024-03-18T13:33:14.350+10:30Strike me days! An Australian Outback Perspective on SocietyComments with dry outback humor on local, regional, national, NZ and Australasian news, sport and events.<br><br>
Sustainable living, Solar outback style, Renewable Energy, Sociology, Culture, Photos, Opinion, DIY in the bush, Fishing, 4WD, Travel, Views, Outback Art, Australia and NZ stories presented with a well honed, satirical voice.<br><br>
Hakamike: Tradesman, author, blogger, technical writer, a half ways intelligent Aussie outback bloke in direct contact with the internet.Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-70596343336885867742013-09-16T13:08:00.000+09:302013-09-16T13:12:39.103+09:30Money is Debt. Money is Broken...
Some of you may remember a few years ago I wrote a treatise titled "The Monetary System Is Broken." Or perhaps you have heard me talk about this concept in my more manic moments. Here is a short video that eloquently and succinctly describes the problem in simple terms. "Oh another bloody money is buggered video" I suspect you are thinking about now...The difference here is there is a solution Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-74936049386414883952013-09-13T20:27:00.001+09:302013-09-16T13:10:39.076+09:30Where The Hell Is Gibberagee?
Well It's Official, I've Moved...
It's been a hectic year, that's for sure: Learning to like my own company, going to the rat house, dealing with illness and finding out yet again that sadly not all people are good people. I spent a lot of time travelling and searching this last year. I didn't really know what exactly I was searching for, as such. I just knew I was looking for change. Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-14575932562834775232013-04-16T15:08:00.000+09:302013-04-18T12:47:44.910+09:30Welcome back!
Well welcome back my blog lives on!
If this is your first visit then you're welcome too ;-)
So yea, it's been a long coffee break. Almost a whole year since my last post. I managed to drag this blog back from the no domain limbo it was stuck in which I'm pretty chuffed about! So much has happened in the past year. I'll do some new posts real soon to play catch up I promise!
The really Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-74131316919907366362012-05-30T16:08:00.000+09:302012-05-30T16:08:01.671+09:30My Music
Guitar blues for relaxation:
Ever since my early 20's I've owned at least one guitar. Everywhere I went the guitar went with me. I've been writing my own music since 1996 and I'm starting to get dividends from all the time and practice. There have been times in my life where I barely played, but each time I've gone back to the guitar I have made noticeable inroads in my progression towardsHakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-55868406967318189542012-05-25T00:18:00.002+09:302013-09-13T21:55:07.177+09:30Addiction - A Disease
I am your
disease
I hate. I
destroy. I revel in your suffering. I wish you a slow and immensely
painful death.
Let me
introduce myself. I am the disease of addiction. I am cunning,
baffling and powerful. I am so patient, devious beyond your
comprehension. I have killed millions. I will never stop or relent.
I love to
ensnare you, to surprise you, to entrap your vulnerability and Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-58741942911222754412012-05-13T02:51:00.001+09:302012-05-14T01:01:18.973+09:30Living With The Black Dog
Art and music as depression therapy.
Pretty much all of my adult life I've struggled with depression. On those occasions when I was compelled by those who cared for me, I sought medical help. Against my intuition and generally skeptical, I would go to the quack, get the inevitable script, take the new "wonder drug" and let myself be chemically crippled and constrained. My imagination would Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-63814579431322214662012-04-25T15:49:00.000+09:302012-04-25T15:51:00.832+09:30Three Superb Guitarists
A story about the three musicians who have most influenced me:
Stevie Ray Vaughan
During the years I lived in Christchurch, New Zealand I often went to a club on Madras Street known as the Southern Blues Bar. Although I had doubtless heard Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble on the radio many times before 1996 I became more aware of his work at the Southern Blues Bar. The house band Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-78485413101325232962012-04-20T16:57:00.001+09:302012-04-20T17:15:26.437+09:30A Story About Boots
The Old Boots, the New Boots and Boot Poems
These are my old boots, they're retired now. They hang by their laces from the back porch light switch. Spiders live in them. I keep useful things in them. My long pruning shears, some light machine oil, some insect repellent.
These boots are the boots I explored the New Zealand South Island high country in. These are the boots I wore when theHakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-46156643802771147902012-04-15T15:14:00.001+09:302012-04-15T15:16:51.617+09:30The River is High and the Bush is Alive
Nature is running hot way out west at the moment
My work takes me out to some fairly remote places. Recently I spent some time down on the floodzone of the Darling River around Tandou Farm. The area was desolate and barren just two years ago and the transformation is incredible. Two good seasons of rain in the Darling River catchment, particularly in Queensland and North Western NSW has Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-76649458214270394172012-01-25T22:35:00.000+10:302012-01-26T00:10:05.724+10:30A Fishing Trip to the Spencer Gulf
Blue Swimmer Crabs and Garfish
Wednesday afternoon I packed the Landrover, hooked up the trailer with my Windrider 10 sailing kayak and by 8.30 PM I was on the road. The Spencer Gulf is the nearest salt water to Broken Hill and by 1 AM I had arrived at Port Davis boat ramp and jetty on the Broughton River, just south of Port Pirie. The tide had just peaked at 2.5 metres and I had the Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-80394051355867168842012-01-23T13:45:00.000+10:302012-01-23T13:46:22.744+10:30Fire!
The Neighbours Shed and House Caught Fire:
On Monday Afternoon the 16th of January 2012 the shed and house of the Neighbours property diagonally behind our place caught fire. It was frightening how quickly the fire completely engulfed the structure and it looked like the fire could spread to the rear neighbours house at this stage. This photo and the others of the fire were taken within 5 Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-42768204286079523622012-01-14T15:05:00.000+10:302012-01-14T15:08:54.157+10:30Kayak Sailing Trimaran in the Outback
A Stable Sail Powered Fishing Platform
I've been in the market for a 2nd hand kayak to take fishing for some time. Reading a lot of the forum posts in kayak fishing websites and following the kayak fishing exploits of my younger brother who has been kayaking for many years got me interested again. When I was a young bloke I owned a minnow type sit inside kayak which was fun to paddle Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-89849485549021294822012-01-09T21:24:00.000+10:302012-01-14T15:07:46.840+10:30A Road Trip From The Outback To The Riverina
From Broken Hill to Albury and Back.
I recently won an auction on Ebay for a Windrider 10 kayak based trimaran sailing vessel. The pickup was in Albury which is a city on the Murray River on the western side of the Snowy Mountains in south eastern NSW.On Thursday night just after midnight we hit the road. It was one of those perfect moonlit, still nights and the roo's were out in force, we Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-85580689475522261682011-12-27T17:53:00.001+10:302011-12-27T17:54:49.811+10:30The Dingo Fence
The Dog Fence, the worlds longest fence.
The Dingo Fence or Dog Fence is a pest-exclusion fence that was built across the south east corner of Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885. Originally purposed and built as a rabbit proof fence which proved unsuccessful, it was however well suited to keeping out feral pigs, brumbies, kangaroos and emus. In 1914 it was converted Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-85592235337346221692011-12-18T18:12:00.000+10:302011-12-18T19:08:13.565+10:30Camping and Fishing on the Darling River
Our Christmas Trip "Up the River"
Our neighbours over the lane, the Bessell family, often go away to the Darling River to camp and fish and we decided to join them and head up for the week ourselves. This summer the weather has been surprisingly mild so it was an ideal time to enjoy a visit to the river and the Menindee lakes.
After a few evenings work rearranging the back of Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-71779963844410545492011-12-12T23:37:00.000+10:302011-12-18T18:15:27.507+10:30Mike's Top 15 Aussie Songs
Welcome to the Top 15 Aussie Songs page
Looking at the music of Australia and listing only 15 to go into a best of type list is bloody hard work.
These 15 were shortlisted from a list of over 60 great Australian tracks and no doubt some of you will suggest that some of those (or other) songs should have been given a top 15 spot.
Well I had to draw a line so here is the final list: Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-64106111157955621622011-12-01T21:19:00.001+10:302011-12-18T18:13:21.933+10:30A short 4WD trip around Broken Hill
A visit to Daydream Mine
This afternoon was very mild as far as temperatures normally go for this time of year, so after work and school my son and I decided to take a trip out of town to explore some of the tracks up around Stephens Creek catchment in the rugged hills of the Barrier Ranges. We ended up out at the abandoned settlement from the late 1800's known as Daydream mine. I amazesHakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-88217469046868178992011-11-30T12:50:00.001+10:302011-12-26T17:05:31.316+10:30The Darling River Isn't Cotton Country
The skies are brass and the plains are bare,
Death and ruin are everywhere;
And all that is left of the last year's flood
Is a sickly stream on the grey-black mud;
The salt-springs bubble and the quagmires quiver,
And this is the dirge of the Darling River.
—Henry Lawson
Mayor says river too unreliable for cotton
NICK O'MALLEY, SMH
30 Nov, 2011 04:00 AM
RON Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-36086237602163891372011-10-24T15:05:00.001+10:302011-12-18T18:15:03.535+10:30Rugby World Cup 2011 winners!
Congratulations to the New Zealand ALL BLACKS:
World champions, having defeated France to secure the Rugby World Cup 2011.
A nation of 4 million produces a team of men to defeat the best in the world, it's a real life Cinderella story, I am overjoyed as is the whole Nation of New Zealand, no doubt!Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-53787439014762595182011-10-04T17:40:00.000+10:302011-10-04T17:41:40.738+10:30Aussie Kids Learn Morals and Ethics in the Home
A typical Australian Kid learning right from wrong:
A young mother was working in the kitchen listening to her son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the hell off now, cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your asses in the train, cause Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-81910434634878985252011-10-02T12:27:00.000+10:302011-10-02T12:45:56.607+10:30
Hang on real tight Mate, don't let bloody go!
About 2003 in the summer, just before Christmas, we went to the Waimate rodeo in the South Island, New Zealand. My young bloke James won the sheep riding event!Sadly there is no photo or video of the epic ride I was too busy chasing the bloody sheep hoping I could catch him if he fell hard, but the crowd cheered and roared and the boy hung Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-6129374778964786432011-10-01T14:08:00.000+09:302011-10-01T14:19:29.495+09:30Living in a World of Technical Innovation, be Happy, be Aware of the Risks.
Some thoughts about technology and the way it has enhanced our lives: How technology has grown, It's usefulness and the associated risks.
For all of us, there is little doubt that computers have enhanced our lives. The ability to jump online and do a google search on any topic that interests us has been useful to say the least. The internet has opened up the world to so many of us and the Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-22254667334128324702011-09-26T12:46:00.000+09:302011-09-26T13:35:45.054+09:30Snake! What to do, What not to do.
We have a snake at our place right now, somewhere...
Eastern Brown Snake
Yesterday afternoon a lady visiting our neighbor over the road knocked on the door and let us know she had spotted a brown snake sunning itself in our driveway as she drove up to park opposite. Of course the snake sensed the vibration of the approaching vehicle and made itself scarce straight away.
I have noHakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-71141971669384988662011-09-24T00:51:00.002+09:302011-09-24T00:54:16.635+09:30Japan have Found a New Wind Turbine Design to Take The Lead
Japanese Researchers Crack the Turbine Stall Issues Using Vortex Design
In the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan there is some good news emerging from the battling nation. University studies on vortex patterns and the effect they have on wind energy have resulted in the development of the wind lens.
The lens is a simple funnel designed to encircle a relatively otherwise standard Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435942618626317058.post-63102739357932527602011-09-22T19:28:00.004+09:302011-09-25T02:34:35.052+09:30New Solar Power Generating Technology Is Coming
Okayama Solar Absorbers Use “Green Ferrite” to Generate Super-Cheap Electricity from HeatThis could be the big breakthrough I've been expecting for a couple of years now. I have been reluctant to install a bunch of PVE panels on my roof given it's basically 30 year old technology. I wrote about that here:http://www.squidoo.com/cling-film-solar-cells-could-lead-to-advance-in-renewable-energy-It Hakamikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10254418269548814696noreply@blogger.com0