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The Virtual Prospector
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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This is a genre on YouTube, Tik-Tok, etc, of people sharing their prospecting adventures and advice online.
So - consider this a review of some of them; while many of them make a good living doing this many of them have found the real gold in monetizing their adventures by selling them to the masses. And - hey, they're having fun, and getting paid to do it, which beats my life at the moment, and I'm finding myself looking at too many of these lately as the prospects of me immediately getting a car diminish and as the weather outside gets nicer and nicer...
First - there are the "Personality Prospectors" - people like Dan Hurd, The Crystal Collector, Jeff Williams. Dan Hurd is Canadian, has a few claims for various things like Ocean Picture Stone and Gold, he's largely about the oversized "Well Hello There...", he's less about finding new stuff than digging up stuff he knows is there, recording his adventures, and monetizing his finds. I watched him a few years ago when he was still a teacher, since when he's managed to build up a big enough YouTube following to sell merch and quit his day job. He's now living the dream and frequently gets invited onto other claims to document their work and keep such trifling finds as they allow.
The Crystal Collector again relies on his personality and has a big enough presence that he gets invited to all the fee-dig sites - I imagine for free, in exchange for the publicity he provides them. Again, not what I'd consider a prospector.
And Jeff Williams, a prospector & geologist who seems to find pretty good stuff and gives you good tips on geology while your out looking for Gold. And again, with an annoying personality (Probably more a "Schtick" to sell you on his channel, he's got prizes for new subscribers and paid subscription options...).
Then there are the other ones. Pioneer Pauly from the Island, who is less-personality more finding-the-gold, which is more to my taste. Of note he recently got invited to New Zealand to go looking for gold via Helicopter and finds some on some remote creeks in the mountains. He has some luck.
There's Chris Ralph, also very experienced and learned who gives good tips, maps, etc to study, and displays his finds, many of which are not inconsequential. He's not just limited to gold, his geology background has him giving tips on diamonds, sapphires, and a great many other things of interest.
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So for those not able or willing to go to the field this is the next best thing. Watching Pioneer Pauly in New Zealand, remote areas, the size of the gold he's finding, and I check, BC is about three times the size of New Zealand, with a similar population largely concentrated on the coast, remote areas that haven't seen a footprint in decades, and I'm thinking "It's here...it's here", and there are the Tasmanian prospectors, pulling zircons and sapphires out of the rivers, and I haven't even touched Australia, Australia, it's very own prospecting blog, and now getting sunny outside and I have to sell some shit and get a car, jeep, soon, soon...
The Iran War
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 11
Now, I've gotten a bit cynical and come to see all this for what it is, a smash-and-grab everything that's left at the end of the world.
So the news, given it's generally inaccurate and misleading portrayal of what's going on - and how easily it's led from the real objectives (enriching of Trump, Family & Cronies and the Expansion of Israel) has generally had me turning it off. The world's greatest military is nothing when it's headed up by the world's most incompetent idiots and has abandoned every moral high ground and scruple to achieve it's end. If the USA wants to kill it's sons and daughters to enrich the Great Orange Shitgibbon and his family, so be it, but I do hope somebody soon steps in to intervene on behalf of Iran, Palestine & Lebanon. They've done nothing to deserve this.
On that note there's the Vocabulary of War - Hegseth (Kegsbreath) referring to the soldiers as "Warriors", the innocent women and children as "Terrorists", the invoking of White Nationalist rhetoric and coopting of Jesus and the Bible to support causes that Jesus never in a million years would have endorsed.
Then, of course, there's the fact that Russia and China are standing by, this killing field is an absolutely fantastic chance for them to by proxy test their own weapons against the former greatest military on earth. And I'm pretty sure they're figuring out where things stand.
So, who knows, maybe the next few years we'll have a new neighbour...
Can't be worse than the one we have.
A Very Lego Xmas 2026
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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Now, really, this whole Iran thing could be a Goldmine for Lego, manufacturing Trump, Hegseth, Bibi, Satan, Erika Kirk, mini-figs, Iranian Freedom Fighters, Mosques, oil tankers, aircraft, pilots, missiles, Lego strategy games based on getting your tanker through the strait of Hormuz, models depicting oilfields, I mean, given the news cycle and all the free publicity Lego's getting it'd be a shame not to cash in on it. I mean, lets be real - Iran was just the first one, we know damned well he's coming for Greenland and Canada so lets have the last laugh, stand up a bit and get these toys to market...
Temu, trip to locker,
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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And, the news a couple of weeks ago that my credit card had been compromised, a 2 week wait until another one arrives. I blame TEMU, from now on it will be Amazon if I need to do an online shop.
And the locker, planning a trip, I thought I had a key, turns out I don't, and so have to wait for one in the mail via my son.
I have to take some stuff to it - my Stormy Artwork, and take some from it - a proper sized parcel of buttons to sell.
After the boys visit I sorted junk out, some to the Antique shop, some 5 boxes of costume jewelry, cufflinks and scrap silver to a lady I know who wants to up-cycle it, the place, it's still crowded but the more I get rid of stuff the easier it is to let it go. Hopefully by the weekend I'll have my locker key and can begin the grand unboxing...
Things I noticed, my desk chair and a certain vintage pole-lamp, cast brass and copper, missing, the boy has probably adopted, the metal detector - gone - and where? It probably was lost in my car and got stolen by tweakers. They're thorough. Then there's a variety of smaller things, all of which could be in boxes - various antique telephones, mixed media props, some of these things no doubt got inadvertently donated to the CYPT props department, others will turn up in the grand unboxing. I was surprised to discover even more boxes of Stormy shit in the old locker, my god he was prolific, and when time permits I'll have to do some proper archiving of it all...
I've come to view possessions as trauma, the hold we allow our possessions, our past to have on the present and future creating a narrative of our life that we'd all do better to reject.
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Then there was the upstairs neighbour has gotten suddenly friendly and she's going on about how she's so done with Fred, and I take the opportunity to ask why it was I saw him leaving the police station the other day and she abruptly changes the topic...
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Which brings us to today, a couple of late tables/deliveries the last couple of nights, otherwise work goes fine. A couple of the new girls have been disgruntled by the fact I argued to change the tipping options on the machine to 10-15-20%, in line with acceptable standards, I haven't noticed any change in my earnings but apparently they have. I find the whole predatory tipping thing reprehensible, and it was good there came a time to address it, but not everyone's a fan. Coincidentally (??) they are the same 2 waitresses that are perpetually trying to get out of shifts with imaginary ailments, sad boyfriends, etc, etc.
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