Again I apologize for going ahead and altering my location, I repeat that I am NOT in Oz at the moment, but I don't mind any one looking at my profile from there, when I had it listed in Alaska I got nothing, zip, nada, zilch. If its a problem I will change it back.
Thanks Serene, my eye is a bit blurry, they dug out a couple of pieces of metal, surprisingly I never felt a thing, if only my dentist was a fraction of the procedure. Oh I have my passport documents ready, I even bought some local Hema maps online from Amazon so I can orientate myself. And I have been learning a bit of history as well. Frankly I have no set plan, doing things on impulse seems to have a better fortune it seems, must be my Sagittarius trait I guess.
Usually I am online at this time of the day, actually its coming up on 2am my local time and the boards seem pretty slow. I will be around from time to time, maybe I will even get a pic on my profile.
Sorry if it sounds likes a recording stuck in a groove. Yeah this summer (my summer) was doing quite well but then I had both a family emergency of my mother passing away and then a proprty foreclosure notice and then just recently my father has had a series of heart attacks and I don't want to be a half a world away, I am already pretty distanced from him as it is, he isn't my real father I never met him but he raised me and is intensely proud of me so he deserves some respect. Lo and behold its pure winter right now in Alaska, over a foot of snow is on the roof and it was -18F this morning. Went and injured my eye cleaning some carbs last week so I am off work for the next two weeks on workmens comp. Just thought I should drop in and participate. Didn't notice this was a poll. In a year from now I would venture to say I may have a couple of female friends wanting my attention, at least I hope so!
Rammed earth is a great idea, and alternative materials are an option as long as their is a binder such as a portland cement. A coating would be needed if exposed to a lot of rain. I would use this method if I had to live somewhere of a high heat index.
I would try this idea, set up an inflated structure, something reasonably sized at first. Or a person can take rubberized tarps and create their own design from nearly square, rectangular or even a rounded dome. You have a double set of doors to keep the air pressure up, you use a shotcrete gun, wire mesh and rebar, you spray the shotcrete against the wire mesh and in layers as you work in the reinforcing rebar.
And when its all cured you just remove the outer tarping. As far as insulation goes you can spray an A-B urethane foam on the inside and then another coat of a fireguard grout mix so now the structure is almost fireproof. Another material that can be used is shredded tires, you can buy already and de-metaled tire chips or slivers. A person can mix this with concrete grout and make adobe style blocks.
It does sound like a one off prank, best to keep an eye on who may have access to your power panel. Other than that I would suggest looking into some form of temporary power from a UPS battery for you puter which can easily power a cellphone charger as well. Also having an LED type of emergency light is a good idea, they use hardly any power.
I have a question, bear with me as I am half a planet away up near the North Pole and I am in my 50's.
What do you guys have for classic rock? Is it popular? The 60's era isn't bad what with Jefferson Airplane and such but my favorite music seems to come from the late 70's and mid 80's, you know Fleetwood Mac, Boston, the Who, etc.
I checked the latest airfair and United was cheaper than Quantas but I hear United has terrible terrible service, and that quote of $1430 Round Trip is from San Fransisco to Sydney. But I am traveling from Alaska, fortunately flying from Alaska to SFO isn't expensive, what I am looking to do is to get an internet special from Anchorage to Honolulu and from there to Sydney, and then I guess by train to Melbourne, I love trains, if I could I would live on one!
I need a cellphone upgrade, for the last I have been using a pay as you go "Tracfone" it has the camera and an internet access but its terribly basic, but its cheap. For some reason I am not an Apple fanboy, I did check out the Iphone, they want almost $100 a month for services plus you have to buy the phone for $299. I might just wait until I fly down to Oz and get one there with the services, I'll need one so I can do business, get a job, lodging and to search for transportation. When I saw the Iphone here where I live and the optional case I laughed that the outer case had to have a window so the Apple logo was displayed, I would change mine to something like a pear, a peach or a banana, just to be contradictory.
Our problem here in the states was a political regime that is flagrantly using green popularity to pass out billions in loans for solar panels and for a GM electric car.
Of course that is a ponzi scheme to redirect monies to unions and into the democratic party in America. The biggest scandal is Solyndra and it may bring down Obama.
And Obama endorse heavily the cash for clunkers so most of America brought in the big old family tuna boat and traded it for a compact car or a hybrid like the Prius, of which is actually a popular car in Alaska. Our gasoline may be cheap against what is in Oz but its at $4 a gallon right now. It costs me about $85 a week in commuting costs to drive my truck. If I had better weather I would be riding one of my bikes, but weather in Alaska sucks and I'm moving on, maybe to Oz next year.
But the Chevy Volt has become the laughingstock of the auto industry, its overpriced and requires the installation of a charging station and then when you start getting rolling brownouts in LA the cars don't get charged.
I guess they actually don't walk, you got me there mate. Now that I think about it somewhere I think I read that the Australian Armed Forces or a certain branch use that analogy because the will never go backwards or to retreat. I have never seen a roo except in the films.
That is my goal, use a combination of whatever is plentiful and free. Get off the grid completely. Transportation would be the biggest hurdle until a way can be found to affordably convert a vehicle to run on either compressed natural gas, methane or best yet hydrogen.
Given enough wind generated electricity a person could make his own hydrogen. But what would be perfect is to have you own natural gas well.
The Impotus from America will be visiting Oz soon I believe, you know mates everything he touches or endorses fails, like he has the touch of death upon him. In California you cannot use a regular fireplace without a permit but yet where I live in Alaska people heat their homes with anything that will burn except maybe tires though I have seen some homes built out of sand filled tires. I wonder if a TEA (taxed enough already) movement would flourish in Oz? It has made some major political changes in America recently when enough people say well....enough of taxes.
Clothes and the right materials is very important, also your diet. When its just around freezing like it is almost all day right now here in Alaska I wear layers of moisture wicking materials like polypropylene.
Cotton is bad, wool is good for warmth and still keeps you warm when wet. Cotton is great for the summer but it will make you colder as it keeps the moisture next to your body. The new synthetic underwear and even some of the spandex stuff with an aluminized layer, I kid you not as I wear it, its called UnerArmour Cold Gear and it refelects the body heat back, its my first layer, very tight and snug, almost like a very thin wetsuit. No we don't wear hockey armor or tire treads here.
I bet buying thermal underwear isn't all that popular in a country with warm weather, thats like trying to buy tire chains in Miami, Florida.
I am hoping to continue work in the field of concrete batching as I have been a maintenance supervisor of such a facility in Alaska for almost 17 years now, what my job is that not only have I built almost everything I hire and train the mixer truck drivers. So I am a master mechanic specializing in heavy equipment plus I have all the knowledge of building a facility of conveyor belts and feed control systems.
I could work at a mine, problem is my age works against me, I'm 215 lbs. but I'm built without hardly any fat, seriously its the diet and supplements I take. I would need a sponsor for me to even work legally in Oz.
I agree on a extended cab or a crew cab, I drive an arrogantly and obscenely huge Chevy Silverado dually with an extended cab, it has an 8.1 liter gas engine. And I have three travel trailers, one is at the moment completely road ready, then I have three motorcycles, but I have to leave it all behind, even shipping the smallest bike a 1983 Honda CX 650 would cost me an arm and a leg.
So for all I own, all my tools, all my toys, all my vehicles I must leave them behind and start from scratch. I have seen a lot of garages for rent, what would be really nice is a shop or a garage that is quite large, big enough to live in and to have a place to build my own vehicle, your car and truck prices are really high compared to here in America. I am not abandoning my 8 acres of land and my home in Alaska but I will at the least make it so anything will be safe in storage for at least six months.
I am going to stop posting as I am totally hijacking this thread, sorry mates.
Yes I agree women are always complaining its either too hoot or too cold, bit of advice to the guys, buy a fake wall thermostat and hide the working one, thats what I did. Let them think they are in control.
I have been sporadically posting, I'm not a very social person in real life and I hate the bar scene. And ever since a year or two ago I have been pigeon holing almost every extra dollar I can to make my trip to Oz a breeze, the air fare just went down, I havn't checked recently but your dollar was actually better than the US dollar, bad for me as it would take more of mine to buy anything.
I was checking out a used ute and a caravan on your buying and selling websites, pretty pricey for older smaller equipment. I just bought a 23' "caravan" or rather a travel trailer that wasn't old, the owner was a co-worker and needed cash, the trailer needed some repairs from dry rot, I spent some time on it and restored it at very little cost in materials. The same thing in your land is selling for over $5,000.
The same with an ute, I'll have to get used to calling an SUV or a truck a ute, well another co-worker literally gave me a 1985 Chevy Blazer. It had a engine that was junk, it was rusted bad, the tires were rubbish. But I had another 5.7 engine, found a set of aluminum rims and tires, did the bodywork myself and painted it myself, total cost of materials, engine parts, tires and paint was less than $700.
I know your fuel prices are higher and you have a VAT tax on almost everything but one mans garbage can be anothers treasure. I cannot predict what I will do, I may just get a Holden ute and live out of it for awhile, I can build a camper easily or just get a big tent and live in a campground.
What I want to do is to get a motorcycle and just ride, and ride and see the country for a bit before I pick any one place to stop and set up something permanent. thats what I did here in America many years ago, I traveled all across America, lived in motels a lot and traveled with nothing more than a good set of mechanics tools of which has made my living for many years.
I'm 54 so any living on the rough will be short termed, I have become spoiled having a big TV, a puter, a recliner so getting back to actually having a house and normal living is a priority. I'll just have to see what pans out.
Many year round Alaskans, the ones that stay in the state year round are totally bonkers. They often get into drinking, over eating or into drugs. There are ways to fight against the seasonal affliction disorder by having some form of natural light that has the proper amount of UV in it to stimulate the absorption of vitamin D.
I have some tanning lamps I use, plus I go on a higher protein diet during the winter and I have several exercise machines.
I usually stop working late october and I stay at home not working until april or may. I am about to start my seasonal layoff and then I am on the puter more often. My plan is to flee Alaska at the start of winter and live in Oz but who knows what I will find when I get down there, I might just stay. Depends on what type of work I can get and housing.
When I converse with a gal I don't outright ask her what sign she is, I have made probably some very bad relationship decisions due to using astrology as a guide. Such as being biased against a certain sign and brushing them off because of when they were born, I don't believe a person should be condemned or looked down upon by what sign they are.
Every sign has its faults, I know myself and I have a sagittarius girfriend, and she can be terribly annoying because she does what I do in a lot of things and It kinda irritates me because then I see my own character flaws coming from another person.
Well ya know Alaska had its appeal 20 years ago, land was cheap, plenty of work to the point it was killing me but the work with all its overtime, the 12 hour days six and even seven days a week during the working summer which is mid may or early june all the way through september and sometimes as late as November cancels out any type of a summer vacation, I'm simply too tired of working the hours. And in the last two years I have picked up three motorcycles, I love to ride but with only a couple of months of decent weather it took all my riding time away as well. I am hoping that a better climate and a new frontier will help me out, I'm 54 and I don't want to be stuck in a rut in one place all my life.
Even the coldest day in Oz would be comfortable to me and after some acclimation time I can handle the heat, I went from living in the desert of Nevada to Alaska so its not like I can't but for the most part I don't like high humid heat, dry heat isn't so bad.
Yeah six months is a drag, it has just started to get below freezing in the last week here and winter usually lasts until at the earliest may, I have seen the lakes still frozen as early june. The roads are usually good for a bike around late may when the salt and sand disappears.
A nice day for me is around 17C or 62F where I live, right now its 1c or about 34F, and that isn't cold to me at all, I do wear some thermal underwear but I don't even need a jacket if I am busy outside, its the sedentary work that will make me cold. And yes I am right at this moment in Alaska, but next yaer I will be in Oz, already priced the air fare and now I am working on priorities such as transportation and lodging of some kind.
But I would honestly say cooler is far easier to work in than heat and I may look for work that is of that sort, I doubt I would find the extreme heat or humidity appealing, I used to work in places here in the states that had extreme high temperatures like Las Vegas and places like Texas along the coast that was high humidity. Alaska has a livable summer temp and the winters are milder with the global warming ironically but after almost 20 years here I am extremely tired of six months of winter.
From what I know if you were born on the last day of a sign you are by a large percentage more of the next sign, unless your rising, moon or other houses are in the earlier sign.
Many years ago I was into astrology, I would not let it rule my life but with it you can find predictable patterns.
I was an officer on a tourist cruise boat and I ran into some British girls, I tried talking to them but their English is a different English, and you what? Just because of that I felt like moron, of course that was many years ago, since then I learned a few things and with resource available almost instantly if you have certain electronic devices it much easier that for when it was just bonjour or telling an Albanian his car looks great.
But I may have a challenge upcoming, though I think its just going to be nothing but giggles and fits as I believe I am a latent Ozzie myself is just how well I verbally interact when I travel to Oz, or how women view me. But if anything I think it is where the eyes and soul talks to each other after yapping the mouth to make noise is just that.
Is the climate changing in Australia for the better? I know from what I been reading about that their has been a lot of flooding, more windstorms and such, but with even such changes does it make Australia more or less attractive or comfortable to live? Of course Oz is a big country, but where I have been living the last almost 20 years in Alaska its changed.
Many are crying its altered the fishing, and that the traditionalists bemoan its making Alaska more habitable with milder winters, warmer winters and such. Yes when I moved here a normal winter was at least -40F which is the same in Celcius, but the last five to ten yeasr its been much warmer and the coldest days are less and less, but I have also seen a cooler summer with a lot more rain.
So for where I am the changes are profound, mostly due to global warming and in most aspects its for the better. Unless your income or lifestyle requires a long winter, or snow. We use to have a big sled dog race called the Iditarod, it used to start from where I live, it has had to be moved many miles north because of lack of snow, its the truth. So the weather did kill some tourism there, and Alaska does live for tourism.
I have found that about the only star sign that I truly fall all over is Gemini, some people say that actually its not a good sign for a Sagittarius like me, after that would be Taurus. But usually its a Taurus-Gemini cusp. I would not say its a deal or date breaker is the gal is of another sign but through the years some signs consistently irritate or fail to get my interest.
Off hand other fire signs and myself do not get along, I like working with a virgo or other earth signs and it might be because my moon sign is capricorn, and or because I think my rising sign is scorpio.
Gemini woman do have their flaky moments, and it may be just that very essense that I find so magnetically appealing.
Melbourne is my destination but I am looking into other places, maybe even Tasmania.
I used to work on equipment at the ski resorts so there is a likelihood I will seek something there, most resorts do all the heavy maintenance work in the off season or summer anyway.
Two weeks ago I had to fly from Alaska to Modesto California for a family emergency, it was still very cool and I will say frigid by your standards by a morning temperature of 0C or 32F, daytime highs of only 50F in Alaska and within hours I was thousands of miles further south where it was 85F. I was terribly uncomfortable for a day or two, I was used to working outside and I eat a lot of high calorie foods.
But in the warmer weather I basically lost my appetite, I had to sleep outside the motel convention center because the rooms we had booked were too warm, my sister had her RV and I slept in it.
By the third day I was feeling better but when I left after my mom had passed away in the hospital and I returned home to Alaska I could feel the cold that seems to bite at your soul briefly and within hours I was back to normal.
I have lived and worked in the hottest part of the US, but I prefer the colder place of Alaska, BUT... the 6 months of winter are getting old and I am wasting my time doing next to nothing as my work is seasonal only during the summer.
Its kinda why I am posting here in an Oz forum, I have others like the motorcycle forums, my goal is to leave Alaska when the nasty winter arrives and live in Oz during your summer, you don't mind do ya?
Ha, many so called "Alaska" movies are filmed in Canada or some lower 48 state like Washington. But the recent Alaska reality shows are all really filmed here. But the ones like "Ice Road Truckers" are silly, I drive trucks in the winter and they make it overly dramatic. And silly.
Well its a LOT of sun but its not like a tropical sun, its a lot of light but you probably won't get much of a tan or sunburnt unless you have really sensitive skin. And we had a really hot day just the other day, we actually got up to 75 degrees F, what is that 23C down there? Anything hotter and we get heat exhaustion!
Tinman56 Forum Posts (42)
RE: Where do you think you'll be in a year from now?
Again I apologize for going ahead and altering my location, I repeat that I am NOT in Oz at the moment, but I don't mind any one looking at my profile from there, when I had it listed in Alaska I got nothing, zip, nada, zilch. If its a problem I will change it back.