Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I shouldn't have even let her in the door, she didn't give an entry notice but called me lastnight asking if the owners could view the place since they were visiting, i thought she said NEXT thursday. well they showed up at 9:30 this morning.
she was so rude to me in my own house, had she been a bloke i'd probably have decked her, it was totally ridiculous. the owners were there and they looked embarrassed at how much of a deal she was making about it.
we are talking about a front lawn about 3x2m in size i kid you not, with a few sqr meters of 12inch high weeds poking through and a patch maybe 2x1m of brown grass.

anyway, this isn't the first problem i've had with them, steer well clear.

Hi Snag,

I sympathize with you.

When DH was in hospital, I was at the nurses desk asking a question and when the nurse was not sure exactly who I was talking about I said "You know, the yellow bloke in room 4". Well, I was immediately attacked by another nurse, berating me for referring to DH as 'yellow'. I pointed out that obviously she hadn't seen him as he WAS yellow!

He had obstructive jaundice and was SO yellow they were bringing all the Med students around to see him and telling them they may never see anyone that yellow ever again! Needless to say, in a room full of white males, "the yellow bloke' was a pretty clear description.

Some people are so sensitive it's not funny.

It really pisses me off - my wife is an RN - she works on contract at one of the busiest country hospitals in Tasmania. Nurses are so hard to find down there that she regularly does 12 hour shifts just to cover for those who don't turn up due to illness, lack of interest, hang-overs etc. and at least 1/2 her time is spent on ass-covering paperwork instead of patient care. Not only does she have to handle all the medical and legal aspects of patient care, helicopter transfers, ambulance transfers (by a dedicated but sometimes less than professional band of volunteer ambos) but she also has to cover the asses of the ENs working on shift with her as well as keep a bunch of foreign doctors unfamiliar with Aussie ways in line. No wonder she is getting frazzled enough to pull the pin and come home to SA.
COME ON HOME, HELEN I NEED YOU HERE !!

Wow Mick, that was powerful. My wife is a PCA so I feel your pain.

What is an EN

whoops, PCA FYI (not mick of course) is a Personal Care Attendant
or a shit kicker nurse in a nursing home

One of the things I enjoy in Costa Rica is how little they care. The guy who owns the restaurant up the road is the Columbian (though he has been here for 20 years!) - I am Don Fred (or the big guy on the bike!), People will use Chino, Negro, Nica, Tico, Hueso (bony), Pelo (hairy - I was told don't ask about that one!), Maco (tool) , etc.

They don't mean anything about it 95% of the time - just a quick way to identify someone.

I use everyone's name which is why they probably use mine. But the other Gringos in the area are definitely called Gringo.

I'm so sick of getting ripped off. You'd think I'd know better by now - but heh I clearly have an addiction. I bought more stuff from the internet recently. Some from dealsdirect and also an item from graysonline. One of the things I bought from dealsdirect is just such crap that it was never going to work. It is not desinged to work and how they can have the cheek to sell shit that just doesn't work I don't know. The thing I bought from Grays is similarly just crap and is really worth nothing, much less the the $80 I forked out by the time delivery was factored in.

I've gotta learn not to buy shit off the internet. Is so tempting to somebody with an addiction like me to ignore ones better jusdgement and to buy stuff which is said to have a RRP 2, 3 or 4 times the marked down price and which looks okay in the picture. Of course the reality is that it is some crap that is made in china that was found not to work at all and then was sold to this mob for barely nothing for a container load, only to be sold on to unsuspecting (or rather people who should know better) people like me, knowing that the lack of shop front protects them from me coming in and ripping their head off if they refuse to give me a refund. Of course there is always the protection also on their behalf that people don't want to throw away good money after bad by funding the postage back to them in the hope that some sort of refund will be provided.

6 months or so ago, I bought a weather station off ebay. Again, same sort of story. Rain guage is at least 30% inaccurate, temperatures are wrong and well as for wind speed and humididty, how would I klnow, but I expect that they would also be highly inaccurate. After finding out about the rain guage I contacted the supplier and was pleased that they sent me a replacement for this component. Was not so pleased when I found that this too did not work. When I told them about the other faulty components and the fact that the 2nd rain guage also didn't work, and asked for my money back - he told me that he can't just keep supplyiong me with replacements. Of course I then told him (all by e-mail of course) that I didn't want a replacement, but rather a refund because the product was clearly faulty in design, he did not reply. This is despite the fact that the thing is supposed to have a 12month replacement warranty - like that's worth shit all. Ebay of course couldn't give a toss and I have no friggin idea who this mob are or where they come from - so no chance of taking it the the relevant state's consumer authorities.

Moral of story is just not to buy this stuff off the internet at all. Is being sold by people who are just out to take advantage of everyone and make a buck for themselves. Something is not a cheap purchase if it doesn't work at all. It is worth nothing so is expensive even if only paying a buck for it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hey Snag
Very close to a couple of can-of-worms...why would you as an anglo feel discriminated against or less than equal sure you pay taxes and probably dont recieve or subsist off government allowences you will be fine as long as you dont want to join a course that may take up the position of a more eligable torres straight islander or and Aboriginal who may be more eligable than you because they are so disadvantaged???you see I think the racisim in this equasion is in forcing them (indiginous australians [call me racist if you will])to intergrate into our multi cultural society and ramming it down their throats in a couple of hundred years, that is where the lack or respect lies. no I have no idea of the solution but I suspect that we are headed in the wrong direction with handouts their is no self esteem found in that direction

Change of track
Grief and loss, some thing we all will experience in our lives I find confusing! With the untimely or timely passing of anyone there is a raft of emotions to deal with and the sorting throught them (no books here sorry) I believe (in my own experience) a lot of grief is emotional greed more to do with our own perception of what we are loosing and what we had or needed from that person and I have to admit that there have been times when I have not been as big a person as to celebrate some ones life as much as comiserate over my loss and I have known a couple of people that have passed ,but in hind sight have lived far more than many people of longer lives and they enjoyed their lives??? any thoughts???

Hey anyone want to vent on religion!!

I got screwed recently over a mobile phone, I paid $420 inc postage.
Paypal however looked into it, and 2 weeks later refunded me $400. I was immensely pleased, and immediately purchased another, which did come.

also had trouble with deals direct, if you keep at them they will refund but you have to fight for it. being in melbourne I threatened to cancel the credit card payment and leave the items on the counter

KP - EN = Enrolled Nurse or hospital shitkicker - all shitkickers are important - else who would RNs ( Registered Nurses ) have to do the nasty stuff ?

CRTD - I don't care either, man - call me anything you want, but don't call me late for breakfast !! I've worked alongside Micks from Croatia, Fiji, England and Russia - we laughed at each other a lot, and with each other even more.

Ok

Am thoroughly pissed off, and had too many beers.

It appears WA is about to have only one government, BHP Billiton. It was bad enough when we had two BHP and Rio Tinto.
You think I am joking? Check out the Cazaly mining company fiasco. Government Ministers bought and sold.

Assets :LPG nearly 70c per litre, how much does it get sold to the Japanese and Chinese for? rumour was 3c a litre. We probably give them iron ore.
Water about to go up again. Demand is low, put the price up. Demand is high, put the price up. Big companies in this state pay f all. Councills and state gov't set a great example (what sprinkler ban was that?)

Insurance Companies (my favourite) they produce nothing. Their business is to collect money base on fear. The only time they loose money is when they speculate abroad (and get fleeced by smarter con men), and who pays for this stupidity?

The Reserve Bank (not quite the private company the American Federal bank is or the Bank of England, but getting there). Control the country's finance in the interest of its citizens? I don't think so. Like the other banks care what they do. ANZ, my bank, shoves up intrest rates regardless ( and they still crank up fees, in the fine print, and pay the CEO $9mill a year plus a luxury mansion in Melbourne)

What really irks me is the way everyone has been sucked into the acceptance of buying stocks and shares, me included (you become part of the corporate mentality) Little Johnnie with is "the mums and dads can have a share in Telstra etc." We are prostituting ourselves because the corporations and banks have worked out that if we have an interest (no matter that it is unrealistic) that we will throw morality and ethics out of the window to retain the status quo.

I could go on for pages but thats it. If you are a sheep you shouldn't whinge too much when you get shorn.

Amen.

I hear you on the bhp thing. What the average person has to remember is Bhp, Rio and other mining companies made CHINA back down and pay full price for WA's iron ore. When has china backed down about anything else??
These are big people with big attitudes that expect us to say bugger all cause they are creating a boom economy and everyone should/will profit.

So I/you make a bit of money
I/you invest what money we can when we can (stock's, real estate etc) for the future as we are unsure what will happen and want to be doing well when age sets in.(hope it works)

In short we want to make a buck or two and retire happily in a house/ on some acreage and be left alone (IMHO who wouldn't)

BUT we are consumers and the realism is we will PAY.

The big companies realize this and pay HUGE dividends/salaries to their people (CEO $9mill a year plus a luxury mansion in Melbourne) to make sure we will keep wanting the latest product and will borrow the cash to get it.

(Now be honest, who owns a mobile phone( ya didn't need it 10yrs ago why do you need it now?))

In short the ethics and morality have gone out the window, we have been conditioned since birth to want want want, we don't really care how we get it, we just want IT, and want NOW.

It saddens me to think that we cannot pull up the wagon (so to speak) stop for a while, have a REALLY good look at ourselves and say DO WE NEED THIS (says he who is sitting at a computer, drinking imported whiskey, owns a harley, a 4wd, a boat and has a loan for a XR8 ute).

So IMHO
1) It's hard to not want things (we are conditioned to want more)
2) It's easy to put shit on others (cause they have more)
3) It's harder still to stand up and say WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH and do something about it.

Rant over

you can only control your local environment. there is no point getting pissed at the external environment as its really playing into the hands of the dominating control freaks. the more people stress about things the more they have to pay on medical bills and escape mechanisms (products). use the energy to be a thorn in the side of the dominator. develop systems where by you give back the control to the people through developing independence. the dominator wants to control everything in existence and will not stop until they eventually loose total control through death. don't give them that chance.

look at things in the world that we don't like and self reflect our own practices. this way these negatives become positives as we become better people.

lets face it monopolized corporations are here to stay but if we don't let them control us they have nothing.

i know i'm preaching to the choir here. after all your aquaponicists.

A good reminder to us all BF.