Home

The Virtual Prospector

Details

Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 22 April 2026

Hits: 20

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.

***

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

Details

Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 22 April 2026

Hits: 23

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

Details

Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 22 April 2026

Hits: 27

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...