A note to all LibertyGibbert’s readers…
Sorry to distract you briefly from your regular topics, but I need to share this with you all.
Over the last two months, I have found that LibertyGibbert, which began life as a labour of love, has started to consume more and more of my time. It’s happened, as fate would have it, during a period of leave from my day job, which I took in order to focus on my family following the birth of my daughter in June.
In a few weeks I’m due to return to work, and I realise now that as things stand, I won’t be able to devote as much time to LibertyGibbert as I have been up till now. As a private consultant, I’m often on the road, and either on the phone or buried in a computer when I’m not; and those times when I’m off work belong to my wife and children. For me to even try to do otherwise, would be to take my own life’s priorities exactly upside down. In the words of the seer, “something’s gotta give”.
That’s why, from today, I’ve included a Donate facility, accessible from the menu at the top of the page. I’ve discussed it with Mrs Oz, and we have agreed to give it a trial period up to the end of the year. If it’s financially justified, I will maintain LibertyGibbert in its present form, and even expand its scope to make “Ozboy’s Bar and Grill” bigger, more exciting and one of the best places to be on the internet. If it isn’t justified, LibertyGibbert will then become a hobby only for me, and I won’t spend any more time on a hobby than any good family man should.
I’m also aware that some time ago in these pages, I had a bit of a dig at the UK Telegraph’s James Delingpole for including a Donate button on his own website. Like me, James is doing the difficult balancing act between the demands of work and raising a young family. So all I can say to you James is, I understand a little better now just how difficult that balancing act can be, and I take back the jibe and unreservedly apologize.
The Donate facility is a PayPal thingy, and accepts Visa, MasterCard and a few others. If you’d like to support LibertyGibbert and don’t have one of these, contact me and I’ll give you some alternatives. There are some practical hurdles involved in keeping my name out of the public domain, but I’m sure we can work them out.
Once again, sorry to interrupt the usual fun, but I’m sure you understand.
Many thanks
Ozboy
Be Responsible - Be Free! 
OzBoy,
Just stuffed a sawbuck in your tip jar. I’m assuming this gives me license to ask stupid questions about kangaroos and poke fun at Vegemite.
Dave
G’day Dave and many thanks,
Kangaroo questions are fine. Vegemite? Ouch… Oz 🙂
OzBoy,
I spent a little over 7 years recently working as a consultant. I only had to travel about 1,000 miles a week but you end up spending a LOT of hours looking at the world through a windshield and listening to the radio. I can relate. I used to have to force myself to go play “woodshop” out in my garage after I came home from a road trip or else I would plop down in front of my computer and go right back to work…and that just ain’t healthy.
I’m curious…why do ya’ll call it Vegemite instead of yeast paste? I’m going to hunt some down and give it a try before I jump to any more conclusions. It looks and sounds disgusting but it’s unfair for me to judge if I haven’t actually tried it. Ya’ll seem to love it. I’ll get back to you after I’ve tried it.
Here in New Mexico they but green chile on everything…burgers, steaks, eggs, pizza, etc. At first I was disgusted but now I, too, put green chile on everything. You don’t have to get too far outside of New Mexico to find entire populations who have no idea what green chiles are. They’re NOT jalapenos, they’re NOT green bell peppers, they’re not even banana peppers…they’re green chiles. Perhaps someday I’ll pack up a container of green chile in dry ice and ship it to you. But I warn you…they’re addicting.
Vegemite is just the brand name they came up with when it was invented about 90 years ago, I guess to distinguish and contrast with Marmite (similar British product that had already been around a while)
It’s been said that, unless you’ve been brought up on it from infancy, you’re not going to like the taste. That’s certainly the experience of my American relatives (the ones born in Australia love it, those born in the States can’t stand it)
It’s not generally available in stores in the US, but you could try specialty outlets like this or this if you want to get hold of some – Oz
Dr Dave,
Marmite is GOOD stuff……it tastes like memories.
Had to look up what a “sawbuck” was. Just put another in the Pot….
Marcus
Oz: I’m so glad you decided to do this. I have a PayPal account and it’s just easypeasy for me. As a friend but also a good drinker it’s about time I paid some of the rent…. Cheers!
Ozboy put your family first and your career and if space is an issue delete my music postings or anything else I said it’s usually not that important to keep. Guest postings seems to work well and all you would have to do from time to time is post them. You can also give admin rights to someone you know and trust to handle the day to day stuff such as moderating and allowing new commentators (obviously NOT me), freeing you up from the day to day grind of it.
Unless your blog goes viral it will never pay the bills but you can cover your expenses so as and when I can I shall donate.
Anyhow your a smart guy so you already thought of all that.
My latest…
http://knottedprop.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/daily-telegraph-your-favourite-most-hated-trolls-and-assorted-unhinged-types/
G’day Ozboy & Mrs Oz,
About time you two decided to put the Bar & Grill on more of a business footing – A smart guy somewhere said “Time is money” and none of your regular patrons expect so much entertainment for nothing.
Next stop – sponsorship. 7,000 posts in 4 months (let alone hits and lurkers) is not to be sneezed at, and it should be an attractive advertising venue for some enterprising marketing guy.
I haven’t got a PayPal thingy so the Cygnet kindly just sorted that out on my behalf. Have NoIdea how these things work so I hope you got it OK, especially as her account is in US Dollars (she does a lot of international buying and selling of her handmade jewellery).
It’s all a good idea Oz, and very generous of you and Mrs Oz to give it till year’s end for a trial. Good luck with it, and I hope things work out well for you and your family and for all of us who really appreciate dropping in to the Bar & Grill for a natter.
Cheers.
Received, and many thanks from us both – Oz
Ozboy viagra adverts may generate revenue.
I said a difficult decision. Not a hard one – Oz 😉
Dr. Dave says:
August 17, 2010 at 5:56 am
G’day Dave,
If you are going to acquire some Vegemite, there are strict rules for its consumption. You can’t go spreading this stuff thickly like you might with say, peanut butter or jam. If you put it on toast, make it well-buttered with the merest schmear of Vegie.
Grilled cheese on toast is good with a wee bit of Vegie as well.
It has a salty, savoury flavour and makes a good sandwich with cheese plus some finely sliced celery or crispy lettuce. Yu-umm.
It was first developed as competition for British Marmite and its original name was Parwill – as in if Mar-mite, Par-will. The name didn’t fly, and as it’s made of yeast extract made from barley, has a high vitamin content and is suitable for vegetarians, so it became Vegemite and the rest is history.
Enjoy…..
Hi Oz (& Mrs Oz)
Never heard of a sawbuck before but mine’s winging its way to you now.
For goodness sake don’t put yourselves under financial pressure, you need all you can get at the moment. If you need to concentrate on the day-job we’ll all understand. Whatever you decide will be fine by us.
Re: Marmite.
Chucky-eggs & Marmite Soldiers are pretty good for kids.
Do I need to translate?
Oz, another sawbuck is yours as soon as I figure out how to do it!
Pointman
meltemian says:
August 17, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Translation required. The soldiers I know, but “Chucky Eggs”?
Is it a Pommy thing or Greek?
Blackswan,
Believe it or not there are actually YouTube videos available which provide instruction on the proper consumption of Vegemite (actually just as you described). My girlfriend assures me she can find some locally. Quite a number of Aussie ex-pats live here and Santa Fe is the second largest art market in the country after NYC so we get a lot of international travel through here.
I’m actually quite curious about it. Here is a fabled foodstuff dearly beloved by millions of Aussies that apparently Americans can’t stand. Interesting…
In Texas deep fried bovine testicular tissue is considered a delicacy but I’ve never been brave enough to try it. New Mexico green chile is a condiment I’d love to be able to share with all you folks. We should have a good crop this year. They’re roasted outdoors in what look like 55 gal wire mesh drums over bored out propane burners. The skin and seeds are removed and the remaining chile is cut up and frozen for use throughout the year. EXCELLENT condiment for a burger or as a pizza topping. The flavor is difficult to describe. It’s spicy but not necessarily hot. They put green chile on everything in this state. Once you get about 100 miles outside the state line nobody seems to know what a green chile is. Traditional red chile is just a fully ripe green chile and is usually dried and powdered.
America has all kinds of foods which tend to be unique to a specific region of the country. In some states they eat something called scrapple. I’ve never had it but it sounds like a cross between spam and head cheese. Where I grew up black eyed peas were considered hog feed. They are a favored legume in the south (quite tasty too). But Vegemite fascinates me as it appears to be a national food in Australia which, for some reason, never caught on the states. Little differences in culture, colloquialisms and dialect interest me.
Dave
Blackswan
Chucky-eggs are just soft-boiled eggs in egg cups. Baby-talk really.
The one thing I really hate is Biltong! Daughter had a boyfriend once who loved the stuff!!!!!
Good morning all
Added my contribution to the collecting tin, thank you Oz and Mrs Oz.
I feel we are moving into a new phase of LG and I wish it every success, from an outstanding start.
I suspect that regular contributions rather than one off contributions will be best, and encourage others to bear this in mind.
Who knows perhaps we are witnessing a major change in the fortunes of LG and the Oz family ……. Only time will tell.
Dr Dave,
It’s those little things that make the difference. When you know just what a distant “friend” might be putting on his toast or his burger, it makes for a more relaxed and casual interaction….lol
As for your “bovine tissue”, I first heard the term “prairie oysters” when I was a 14 year old on my first visit to a western sheep station (we have sheep/cattle “stations”, not ranches) and a trip to the shearing shed became a real eye-opener for a city kid. They were turning little rams into wethers and all the little testicles went into a bucket for the camp cook to turn into “prairie oysters”. I was shocked beyond measure and wouldn’t eat anything for days in case those buggers sneaked some little lamby “bits” into my dinner…lol
I googled the term to see if there was some other expression in use, and found this website, a homegrown Aussie band of country boys called…..wait for it….The Prairie Oysters.
http://www.meetngreetcountry.com/index.php/profiles/7-group-profiles/98-the-prairie-oysters
“Head cheese”? My imagination is in overdrive. I can’t imagine what that is.
Various states in Australia actually do have different colloquial peculiarities and barely discernible differences in accents. Most people wouldn’t notice them. I can tell a born-and-bred Tasmanian accent which is barely there – certain words and vowel sounds are different.
The first Americans I met were GIs on R&R in the 60s & 70s, and while Movies and TV made your accents familiar to us, I didn’t think anybody REALLY spoke like Gomer Pyle USMC. I thought that was just a funny voice for television until I met some of those guys and needed an interpreter…lol
Hope you don’t mind my waffle, I’m always good for a chat.
meltemian says:
August 17, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Hi Mel,
With the soldiers I figured Chucky was something like that. As for biltong – never tried it, and in no hurry to…lol
Dr Dave the missus lived in New Mexico for a while and knows how to make green Chile yummy on Burritos. She knows how to do all sorts of Western/Mexican/Pueblo dishes and to anyone who has never tried them you will love them try and go to a mom and pop restaurant not a big chain serving Tex/Mex.
As for dishes that would make you gag if you knew what was in them try Haggis which is shot and eaten in the fall they are hard to find and are wee timerous beasties. They use the hide to make bagpipes and comes naturally in many shades of tartan.
Or black pudding don’t ask what goes in it and you will live but good for serving to our Islamic friends.
Since amanda inspired me by a comment she made on the DT blogs my latest… http://knottedprop.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/dna-fondling-romance-still-lives-on/#comments
I reckon I know a couple of trolls who could just be the result of “DNA Fondling”.
No names – no pack drill!!!!
It could answer a lkot of questions.
Sorry been missing for ages, recovering from a trip into town to collect the mail. Corfu Town in August is to be avoided at all costs, but needs must. Been recovering with a stiff drink in the water…….Heaven!
Sorry – my fingers have obviously imbibed too much – I meant to say A LOT.
Ozboy
Glad we can now help a little to shoulder your burden. I had to ask Mrs. NoIdea to sort the PayPal thingy for me.
NI
Blackswan,
I don’t want to spoil it for you so I’ll just let you Google head cheese. It is truly disgusting looking stuff that has never come anywhere near my mouth. The hog farmers do exactly what you described at your sheep stations. They call those “Rocky Mountain Oysters”. In Texas the bovine tissue is referred to “Calf Fries”.
In my lifetime Mexican food has influenced American Cuisine more than any other. When I was a kid I had no idea what a taco was. Now words like tortilla, taco, burrito, pisole, fajita, salsa, carne asada, pico de gallo, etc. are a regular part of American lexicon. America produces more picante sauce every year than we do ketchup. I will spare you my rant on illegal immigration.
You answered one of my central questions about dialect. I’ve met a bunch of Aussies over the years and they all sound the same to me. This seemed strange because Oz is such a HUGE country. America is rife with unique dialects. To my ear the most striking differences are found in the New England states (i.e. the northeast). These states are not that far apart (you could fit the entire region inside Texas), but they have very distinctive accents. Southern accents probably all sound the same to you but these vary widely. Texans are probably the easiest to understand. Right out of college I took a road trip down to southeastern Kentucky. Hell, I may as well have been in France! I couldn’t understand the locals to save my life. If you have ever heard Sarah Palin speak she sounds exactly like they do up in Minnesota (although she’s from Alaska). I’m from Michigan and I can hear the difference between a Michigan accent and, say, a Wisconsin accent (from just across the Lake). It gets trickier as you head into our western states but you can discern differences in certain vowel sounds. I once saw a demonstration by a guy who would talk to total strangers for about 5 minutes and then tell them where they grew up and where they have lived with amazing accuracy. Some of it is accent and some of it given away by colloquialisms. I’ve often wondered how Americans sound to English speakers in other countries. I can easily detect differences in British accents but I can’t necessarily place them geographically. Officially Jamaica is an English speaking country. When Jamaicans speak to you directly you usually have trouble understanding them. When they speak to each other you have no idea what they’re saying.
Well…I’ve prattled on long enough. Ya’ll have a great day! Next we’ll discuss beer.
Dave
Dr Dave the Jamaicans speak Patois which is part African part English part Spanish part French, being from England you get used to understanding many variations on accent, my mothers accent is different from my fathers and they were born 5 miles apart and no intervening barriers to explain it. Except one village was on the coal field the other not.
The worst accent I could never understand speaking English was a Kerry Irishman foul tempered man that he was. I can understand Geordie and Glaswegian which would sound like foreign languages to you.
“The worst accent I could never understand speaking English was a Kerry Irishman foul tempered man that he was.” …
Pointman
Hi Ozboy
Sawbuck each from myself and Mrs MV winging their way to you now. Thumper would say hello herself but she is still upstairs, buried somewhere deep beneath the doona, off in Faraway Land. Don’t really expect her up for a while yet.
I can only add my voice to several others already posted:
First – about time with the DONATE button.
Second – get the “guest-post” thing happening, or you will find this becomes all-consuming. When I had the newsletter happening back in the 80’s, it only came out once a month and it was STILL all-consuming. In this electronic age it just all happens so much quicker. Your readers (us) want something new every day or two. Over the past couple of years I’ve seen more than a few potentially good sites crash and burn cos they were one-man bands, and it became overwhelming.
Another good ploy (used frequently at places like WUWT) is to post a short intro and a link to an interesting article, and let the readers take it from there. To a certain extent this already happens here, it’s just buried in the general posts. Formalise it; have somewhere not visible to readers where contributors can send you links, and you can peruse and post them as articles with intros when and as required,
Third – Having been down this road myself, two things above all others – family comes first, and when it stops being fun, stop doing it.
Crown,
Yeah…I know it is a Patois. I can even pronounce Patois. I dropped a word in my previous post which should have read, “…NO problem understanding them…” I listen to a lot of reggae from time to time so I can usually decipher what is being said. English is the official language of Nigeria, too…but you’d never be able to prove it by me. When I was a kid of about 15 or 16 I spent a week with a couple of lads from North Belfast. They were almost as bad as the Jamaicans. If they spoke directly to you, you could understand them. If they spoke to each other you didn’t have a clue what was being said.
We’re heading straight back into Sociolinguistics, lads. I’m supposed to be the one like a dog with a bone.
Pointman
Pointman I’m just glad you drop your r’s.
crownarmourer says:
August 18, 2010 at 8:46 am
You never know, my r’s may be like sparrows.
Pointman
Morning everyone. New post here
Enough of this ribaldry, class, and stop sniggering and swapping YouTubes when my back is turned. You are let off the next homework, which is only for izen and anzon.
izen said on August 15, 2010 at 10:39 pm on the exploding chook shed thread:
Q1 Albedo and emissivity. How about albedo = 0.1 for the dark one, 0.9 for the matt white and 0.99 for the shiny white? Emissivity = 0.9 throughout.
I think the formula comes out as: T (in K) = fourth root of ((1- albedo)/(2 × emissivity × Stefan’s constant) )
giving 234, 135, 76 K for the three balls.
I have assumed that you can replace the ball bearings with flat disks of the same diameter at right angles to the line to the Sun. I hope this works. Extra-terrestrial solar radiation = 1366 W/m².
Q4. It depends on the colour of the squirrels.
Q6 I make it 622 × 10^6 × 10^9 × 10^3 × 4.1 × 10^3 ≈ 2,500,000 exajoules
[622 million cubic kilometres, convert to cubic metres, times density in kg/m³, times specific heat in kJ/(kg K)]
—
Bonus ball questions:
A fourth ball bearing of sufficient size to give a gravitational field at its surface of 9.8m/(s²) is added at the same distance from the Sun as the other three.
Q11: What is the diameter of the ball bearing?
This ball bearing is then provided with an atmosphere of ozalane (a totally transparent gas of neglible thermal capacity and negligible thermal conductivity and a boiling point of 4K) in sufficient quantity to give a pressure of 100 kPa at the surface. It is found that the density of the atmosphere near the surface is now 1 kg /m³.
Q12: What is the equilibrium temperature at the surface?
Q13: What is the temperature 1 km above the surface?
Pointman
Thumper has it in her head that you probably have quite a nice r’s.
No one can stay on top of a communications medium which is a cross between writing and spoken cocktail chatter while keeping a proper job on track to the customers’ satisfaction, Ozboy. Sad but true. Maybe you could cover the bases with Dragon speech conversation software while driving LOL!
Tis a situation too difficult to bear. Nevertheless…
Now you know what I was kvetching about in mid-May. The Net garbages one’s time schedule completely if one lets it.