-22.706, 128.898. September 20th 2015

Good morning internet, it's a bright and lovely mid-morning here in Lake McKay. According to the GPS I'm still in WA technically, but to be honest out here it's hard to care for such things. The last week was moderately eventful. Since my update a week ago I've covered about 250 km's. The terrain has been a little rough on Ephos in parts, camel feet really don't like the super rocky terrain, they's all about the sand yo. We saw [yes I refer to the camel and myself as a “we”. Contrary to what you think, it actually shores up my sanity rather than eroding it] that pack of feral dogs again yesterday. Now far be it from me to rag on the canine's natural capacity to hunt or anything, I know these dogs are plenty dangerous, but seriously guys, you might want to try this whole silent stalking thing a little bit better. It's reminiscent from that old scene in family guy where the mum springs the child snatcher with an admonishing “oh you almost made it!”. I honestly think half the reason they're following us isn't to eat us but just cause we're interesting and noisy, there is still a lot of dog in there. It's cool though. Ephos doesn't take no guff from them at night, so I just get nice and close to the big girl.
Now if you've been following my daily updates throughout the week you'll have seen *this link to the guy who made his home aquaculture setup under his house, with clear perspex windows in the floor... I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but that's basically the coolest thing I've ever seen, ever. The best thing for me is, I hate seafood, so when I put a similar thing In my dream home [which I'm totally going to] I can have something purely decorative, like Koi. This is where the future of sustainability lies people, it's the same reason why wind turbines don't ruin views, there is beauty in the augmentation of the world to save it.
In other news, tonight's podcast is shaping up to be killer. I'm here on the “shores” of Lake McKay, so I'll just wander a kilometre or so into the salt pan. If you can find a better place to record on earth, I'd like to hear about it. We might be lucky and get the dog's howling to the moon again as well. I've found some fantastic new tunes this week in my online meanderings. Mike Patton's new project has dripped a song or two into the ether which I've got for you. I swear, after the apocalypse there is going to be cockroaches and Mike Patton, the guy is unkillable. I've also grabbed an interview with Matt Pollack, leader of a new political party in Brisbane called the reformers. They're ambitious goal is to transcend election cycle politics and subvert the spin cycle of the media with boder line realtime information through the intergoogles. This guy is much more than your run of the mill crackpot, so be sure to have a listen.
Also, I got a voice message from my little brother yesterday. For those of you who aren't familiar I mean my “Bigger Brothers, Bigger Sisters” little brother. I'm not allowed to identify him obviously, so I use the pseudonym “Gaz”. It's fantastic that the top brass over at BBBS ok'd Gaz retaining me as his Bigger Brother for this trip. Normally kids need a bit of structure in their lives, and that's what BBBS provides, so I'd have been replaced with someone else. But it would have taken Gaz a fair while to warm up to a new person, he sure did with me. But I digress. Point is, the footy team he plays for is in the grand final, I wont name the team but what I've done is opened up a new comments page so if anyone wants to wish him and his team good luck I'll link him to it before his game.
I'm sit by the smouldering remnants of last nights fire, my trusty desert ship off foraging for her breakfast while I make mine. It occurs to me that I basically have the best job in the whole world. When I was sitting in the Murdoch news room all those summers ago, I was stressing about making the cut for the ABC cadetship. I've now used the skills I learned in my degree, not my degree, to build the greatest job I could have imagined. I'm paid [by all you lovely people] to trawl the world's information and present it to you for your enjoyment. I get to listen to all the new songs, see all the new movies, and have a finger on the pulse of news, the fact that I'm doing all of this from atop a camel in the middle of Australia via wireless broadband means that the moniker “Culture Cowboy” is all the more applicable [which is awesome cause that moniker is wicked] I guess what I'm trying to say is, cheers.
I'm running low on meat my fellow netizens, so I'm off to hunt a Roo. If I can get one today I'll make a “how to smoke your own meat in the bush” guide and put it up for you. Remember that the podcast goes up tonight so tune in live from Lake McKay or listen to it later [although that's heaps less cool] otherwise kids, I'll see you Monday.