OMG.

Ok, this is another occurrance of one of those weird things that you think up and manage to tell a couple people, then shortly later, someone somewhere has the safe bloody stupid idea. (Dumb ideas can't travel this fast.)

http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/toilets-in-japan-fitted-with-urine-controlled-games/story-e6frfqai-1225991693510

A while back I had an idea that might be cool to sell to bars and the like. Urinal games where a device attached to the urinal would keep score, make funny noises, etc. as guys peed into/past it. I even jokingly told a few people about the idea. It was up there will making small dart-board-like stickers for the insides of toilet stall doors for patrons to flick their boogers at.

Now a company in Japan has gone and built the damn thing!!!

It's stuff like this that get me thinking I've freaking lived a life like this already, in this same time period, and I'm getting ideas or remembering things because they're about to happen.... again.

I love Japan!

The odd things you see....

I was a wee bit bored last night so I went out for a drive up to Shorncliffe. I took the fishing gear but knew the conditions weren't that good and was really out there for a bit of fresh air and to see what has happened up around that area.

They got a bit of flash-flooding with the rain but were out of the path of the river rises since they're not near the river and it's feeding creeks. The area was impacted by the flood in other ways, such as fields of debris flowing out of the river and into Moreton bay.

Some of the more curious items I saw along Shorncliffe:
A 5000L water tank.
Several wooden pallets (one had some kind of steel/iron piece of machinery on it, presumably floated all the way.)
Six bound stacks of hardwood flooring on the jetty. The flooring is normally called "floating timber", we re-did the carpeted area downstairs with it when we bought this house. It would appear to have drifted up against the jetty and they hauled it up.
A large tree stump had drifted up against the jetty.

There were piles of floating timber and other odds & sods up against the rock retaining wall. and along the beach. It makes for some very dangerous cleanup with a lot of potentially sharp objects around and drifting in the water, plus the bacteria content of the flood waters.

Apparently two Echidna's along with a few snakes were found in the area, likely drifting in on floating debris.

Fishing didn't net anything, I did catch a catfish which provided a few moments of excitement. Debating whether to go out tonight with the tide or not... I guess it will depend on how the rain and wind behave. Bream tolerate fresh water just fine, but no idea if they'll be in / around the jetty, or if any Flatties will be in the area.

Mmm, wet animals.

We just had the first storm/rain after the flooding here. It was a bit wild to watch, quite a bit of rain and wind. After it passed I opened the windows to let some of the breeze come through after a hot and muggy day. I was greeted by the aroma of a cross of various wet animals and the smell of a well used aquarium.

Up until now I *was* feeling a bit hungry... ;)

Why I don't like stuff from China.

Chinese manufacturers are very clever, sneaky, and downright dishonest. Back when we visited ZhengZhou I saw a rather interesting torch available for sale. It was supposedly recharged by pumping a lever by hand. With the torch off, pressing the lever generates power and the torch lights up. I even asked Lin's family to ship over a number of the torches and sold them to coworkers and such. They are a good, simple, cheap LED torch, however after running a couple of them down I noticed that no mater how long I tried to "recharge" them, they would not recharge.

So finally I decided to take one apart. Tucked away behind the light are 3x AG10 1.5V batteries. Switching the torch On drains from the batteries. Switching it off allows you to generate light via the pumping action. There is no "recharging" capability within the torch.

Frankly I'd say it's nearly impossible to trust any description of goods manufactured in China.

One dangerous flood averted.

It's been an interesting week, and it's bound to be an interesting couple of weeks with the cleanup. The direct impact of this flood for my family here was 24 hours without power. I made sure we were reasonably prepared with clean water, food, light, and a means to cook. I've also settled one concern about just how safe we actually are from floods in this area. I had insisted on high ground when we were looking for a home but with all of the ups and downs and subtle gradients in the Brisbane area, it's difficult to know exactly which areas are safe for how long during a flood event. Older areas near the city it's a bit easier to get an idea by looking at past flood maps, but newer areas it's a complete guess. Data from the '74 flood for this area doesn't really exist because fewer people lived out this way. This whole area is around 15-20 years old. However, based on observations from the flood's level and walking back to our house, we are between 7 & 8m above that flood level. Judging by how the waters would spread out in this area I'd figure we're secure from a significantly larger flood event.

I spent Friday helping clean up the client's office/factory which ended up being under 1.25m of water. I'm sure they're a bit frustrated because in talking with the owner it sounds like he was told that the factory floor was 20cm higher than the '74 flood level. Since this flood was 1m short of '74, that's an underestimation of 2.5m. Some might argue that flooding can vary, which is true, but based on events and rain, this was a best-case-scenario for a major flood. It was not raining heavily around the creek running behind the factory, so the water was purely coming up from the river. Hopefully they will be back up and running this week or early next week. We're already continuing with the I.T. development since the servers were moved to an alternate data centre before the flooding hit.

It will be interesting to see how people manage with rebuilding from the flood. There has been huge volunteer efforts to help with the cleanup. Unfortunately those efforts may be a bit too eager. People are throwing away pretty much anything the water has touched, and that may prove quite costly if they're assuming their insurance covers it, especially in Brisbane. Most insurance policies cover water damage from storm events, but not gradual flooding. The people up in Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley are likely covered as a result, but Brisbane residents won't be if they don't specifically have flood insurance. So they may be a bit premature binning appliances and furniture, especially plastic, glass, metal, and hardwoods which can easily be cleaned up. Hell, I had to recover a set of hard drives from a computer that spent two days under over a metre of water. Rinse them off, soak in demineralized water to coax out any remaining particles/slime, give them a liberal coat of contact cleaner, and let them dry thoroughly. As long as electronics weren't powered when they came into contact with water, and they're cleaned before they corrode too badly, they can be restored to working order.

I will definitely be making some alterations around the house to better cope with serious events such as the loss of power over a period of time. I will be getting a good battery-powered radio (Our clock radio has a battery backup but it's either just to keep the time, or broken from a few too many pushes off the nightstand) some good long-burning emergency candles, and a 3G wireless Internet dongle. That way we can access the net for information or to let people know we're ok even if the power goes down.

Operation: Hobie Revo

Ug, it's been a few weeks since the last post. Christmas / New Years was a drag. The weather was crap, the fishing was infrequent, and a good deal of money was spent on necessary improvements around the house. With all of the rain, the solar panels still aren't up, though they should be doing the install next week.

However, I have found a new and exciting mission for the year, code-named "Operation: Hobie Revo(lution)". The task is to get buy-in from the Mrs. to purchase a fishing kayak. This will be a battle on two fronts, first to get buy-in for a kayak; second, to get buy-in for a quality kayak like the Revolution and not the cheapest hunk of plastic on sale at BCF.

The Mrs. is quite hesitant about the idea of a kayak so there will be a number of points to win over:
1. Cost: The kayak will cost around $2300 plus accessories such as the roof rack, travel pack, (roof rack pads plus wheels to cart the kayak from the car to the water) paddle, life jacket, hanging straps, anchor, safety flag/light, waterproof pants/shoes, and various small fittings.
2. Space: The kayak will need to be stored in the garage via hanging straps. I'll need to prove it will remain up and out of the way.
3. Safety: Of course she is worried if I'm out on the water alone. However I would always be using a life-jacket, have my mobile with me, and if I ever did go off-shore, I'd be sure to do it in a group. I'm currently getting to know the local kayaking community, and even getting a few people interested in the idea as well. She might be concerned that I'd be taking it out in the evening which would be bloody dangerous, no Kayaking is a morning/day-time activity only.

There are a few benefits I'm leveraging:
1. Exercise: kayaking is a good form of exercise to combine with my weekly/fortnightly fishing trips.
2. We can bring the kayak on outings so people can take it out for a paddle/pedal.
3. Better fishing opportunities: The kayak will let me get to areas that are inaccessible from land positions opening the door to bigger, and different types of fish.
4. No need for evening fishing trips. She doesn't like it much when I go out to the jetty at night. Kayaking is a day-time activity and if I'm catching quality fish from a yak, I don't need to go out to the jetty at night.

Ah well, the battle is just starting.. :)