Home
The Privatization of Prisons
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1461
An excellent long read - first-hand account of a prison guard at one of America's privatized corporate prisons.
Yeah, America. Sooo fucking broken, Trump can do no harm.
Warning: Artistic Nudity
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 1777
No, really, what has the world come to that this is a thing?
Prospector Porn
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 1520
Meanwhile, waiting for new episodes of "Alone" (*Last episode the Anthropologist released a large salmon back into the wild, she had more than she needed and would need to catch and eat it another day, while the preacher has gone hungry for weeks and is dropping pant sizes, Jose built his canoe and the Sniper climbed the mountain and began moving camp), I've discovered a peculiar sub-niche of youtube. Prospector Porn. Yep, people actually going out and finding stuff. If you metal detect there's easily a dozen channels, one even starring Dirt Digler, if you hunt for arrowheads or native artifacts there are channels there for you, and if you prospect or rockhound, well, there are dozens of channels there for you too...
This is my consolation for too many days trapped indoors...
A few observations. Most of the channels are appalling, poorly put together videos, people ranting at the camera, long boring footage of drives to locations, bad pictures of finds, some of the people are good at finding specific things (ie Gold), others have a good general knowledge and go off on various quests to search for different rocks...
Despite the monkey-cam shakiness and low production values there's a few channels that have provided me an abundance of useful information. Caver461 works out of the Bancroft area of Ontario and finds all sorts of different crystals and minerals, he's pitching his book, which you can only pray is more finished than his videos, but he finds cool stuff. If I end up in Bancroft I'm gonna buy it. There's Dan Hurd, who's got a variety of claims up in BC, mostly gold but he looks for other shit as well. There's Mining America, who's goal seems to be to explore and review every rockhounding spot across the US (a handy guide as the daughter and I will probably hit a few of them on our vacation), There's Liz Kreate, who finds stuff in Australia - Opals, Sapphires, Spinels, Gold, etc, you name it, Australia has it all, and there are guys who climb to the highest points on Mont Blanc to recover fantastic Quartz Crystal Specimens, they seem to have better videos than a lot of the competition.
You don't need to watch too many of these to get the idea, but some are clearly better than others. The better ones introduce the locality, what they're going for, what they hope to find, detail what strata or sediments to look in, show the finding of materials as well as what the materials look like when they're all cleaned up. The best ones will give you a bit of background geology to the area and explain why this area is good for such and such, but every video gives you something, a clue as to what to keep your eyes peeled for, and there's something infectious about the unbridled enthusiasm of the prospectors, it's addictive...
...and think, we live in one of the least populous, least explored places on earth, and the possibilities, well, they're still endless and the days are already wearing shorter and I'm trapped inside...
West
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1824
And the time draws ever nearer. I'm at a bit of a loss, the Italian Waiter leaves end of July, were I to leave then as well it would look like sabotage. It would be, but still amazingly satisfying to stick it to the nephew, throw him in with a bunch of less-than sympathetic new waiters, who'd tire of his bullshit and maybe pay him what he's worth, or walk out. Tell him before the vacation so he could spend the entirety of it stressing out about his return. It would be fair...just...deserved...
...still, it violates my own codes of conduct. Somewhat. It's time to go, I owe them nothing, they've offended me more ways than I can count, still, there is my own integrity, and so I resolve to give notice after the vacation, set departure to September 21, allow time for packing up, moving, ordering locker, ...
There's a lot to be done. A lot of these finds, the Table and Chairs, will have to be sold off, there's no more room in the locker, And while I'm on this Zen binge of reduction I should visit the locker, sell off what I can, make space....I need to start now...
A dozen, or two, adverts on Kijiji, to lighten my load, sell off the extraneous shit, if I'm lucky at a profit but I'd be thrilled to break even, and then it will be time to move. West, to the Enchanted Valley, and in those rare free moments I look for jobs and houses to rent and begin to imagine a better life. Soon...
Page 565 of 1021