98 % illumination

Illumination 94%

Full moon in two days

People and organisations keeping dirt files on others are an abomination. Discuss issues openly and honestly, rather than collecting data surreptitiously and intended spiteful use.

87% illumination

World Teachers’ Day was once well recognised throughout the Northern Territory.

This year it happens on Friday the 30th of October. 

In years past, public recognition included an extensive advertisement supported insert in the Northern Territory News, along with radio and television coverage that commemorated our teachers in various schools throughout the Northern Territory. 

Over the past few years, World Teachers’ Day has become an increasingly silent celebration, without the media profile and recognition it still deserves but doesn’t receive. 

Recently, I came across a terrific innovation from the Member of Sanderson’s office, through Jinson Charls and his electoral office secretary, Susie. I have attached a copy. 

In essence, people were invited to pick up these invitations, comment on teachers, and return them to their child’s school. I thought that this was a wonderful idea and asked if it would be okay if I let the Northern Territory Principals Association know, with the thought that maybe these could be distributed and used throughout the territory. I don’t know what the outcome of that has been. 

Attached is a copy of the pro forma, which could be reproduced and then returned to schools attended by our children. They might be made out to individual teachers within schools or to the school as a whole. 

It disappoints me that we don’t recognise World Teachers’ Day the way we used to. I hope schools celebrate within their own walls—some more than others—but the system’s overall recognition in the media and public domain has faded over the last several years. I hope that it’s reinstated and that we once again recognise teachers and school support staff for the great work they do.

Regards

Henry Gray

October 22 2026

Attach:

Victoria next month

NSW in March 2027

Federal Election late 2027 to early 2028

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The terrible crime allegedly committed against Ms Haines is in all likelihood going to go unpunished, with the perpetrator of this ghoulish crime ‘excused’ from the reality of his dreadful act on the grounds of insanity. After reading accounts in The Australian and the Herald Sun, I believe this may well be the outcome when the stack of psychiatric reports that will be forthcoming is tabled on his day of court accountability.

Never wake up in the morning expecting good news. Know that the day will continue with the unfolding of a dreary, desperate, hopelessly sinking Australia.

Is Australia the Great South Land. or is it going South?

• Dementia takes away foundations of thought and makes everything shaky.

• Dementia carers internalise reservoirs of tears.

• Dementia opens the door to truculent aggressiveness.

• Values education has swung 90 degrees to the left in schools.

• Dementia saps vitality and drains all the energy from carers

Illumination 58%

This is a good news story. The building and building and building in Darwin, and the proliferation of suburbs and housing estates after housing estates, along with higher and higher and denser and denser high-rises, seems never-ending.

I live in an older, now-disregarded suburb but appreciate the space that still surrounds us.

One thing is for sure. The larger the population, the more people you need to support the people already there. Darwin is really very much like a ‘growing like Topsy’ Ponzi scheme when it comes to population growth and the not-too-gradual suffocation of open spaces with buildings and other infrastructure.

The aim seems to be to grow and grow Darwin and Palmerston. until suburbia envelopes Coolalings, Noonamah, engulfs Howard Springs and Humpy Doo, and is well on the way to eating the eroding space between this southern, western and eastern push until Batchelor surrenders its rurality.

At least then, the Yissa Refugees will no longer feel isolated.

My feeling about the Federal Government is that it is adversarial when it comes to the treatment and their recognition of Australian citizens particularly older Australians who they regard is being garbage; just there to be plucked of any savings that they might have.

My constant feeling about the FG  is that of cheating on us as ordinary citizens as much as they can and as often as they can. 

Most are there to feather their own nests, and add to already well stuffed wallets.

Tinkering with danger

And still we fiddle, faddle and f..t around with viruses and IT. Earth is fast becoming Frankensteinian

Evaluating Government on Medibank Premiums

From an 80-year-old man – THANK YOU TO COALITION AND CROSS-BENCH SENATORS. You don’t think of us as inconsequential nuisances and a botheration.

Quality of Government

THE ALBANESE GOVERNMENT IS THE WORST AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT WE HAVE ENDURED SINCE THE WHITLAM ERA.

“ For us, only the best will do. And isn’t that all the time.”

41% illumination

The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection unless you are an Archerfish.

Mmm

Lacksa is good

Tasting is great

Tickle your taste buds

Darwin Laksa is the best.

It is 1.44 am on Thursday October 15 in Darwin.

All is quiet.

Written as part of an oral presentation he gave when in Year 12.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming here today. Today I will be convincing you all of why Dungeons and Dragons should be allowed in our school system and offered to our students.

What are Dungeons & Dragons? It is a tabletop roleplaying game. In this game, people are encouraged to express themselves more freely and openly than they might otherwise. Being able to express oneself is a difficult thing to do at times, so this could help students with doing so.

Dungeons and Dragons provides a structured way for people to get to know one another in a way that is easier than talking to strangers you’ve only just met; this could be beneficial to socially awkward children and teenagers who have trouble with conversations and small talk.

DND is a game based around teamwork; rather than having people play against one another, you work in a team to help one another complete tasks and achieve goals. Teamwork is an important skill to learn and a difficult one at times, so if students played D&D, they would start to learn the importance of teamwork, as one player cannot do everything alone. Doesn’t everyone want our children to be able to get along with one another?

Another skill that can be built playing Dungeons & Dragons is imagination.
Imagination might not always seem the most important skill, but without it, nothing new would ever be created. Imagination is important as it encourages the mind to create stories and other worlds to get lost in for hours, and with that world you have created using your imagination, you can use DND to let your friends explore with you. A Dungeons & Dragons world is a world woven with many different colours, and each colour can appeal to a different person.

Dungeons & Dragons engages players in hours of endless creativity; what I mean by this is: What if you wanted to be an elven sorcerer with a pet monkey? – in DND you can.

When you create a character to express yourself, you also get to create the story of their past: were they born a royal? Were they a sailor? Were they a scholar at an academy? The possibilities are endless.

Speaking of characters DND can also help players develop more empathy towards others, how you might ask, well Dungeons and Dragons makes you play by wearing someone else’s shoes, this is done through your character, because your character is not yourself in the game it is someone else in a different world, when you play you should always try your best to try and act the way that character would depending on how you wrote them to act. Don’t we want our children to have a strong sense of empathy towards others?

Now I wish to discuss how DND can help with improving mental health wellbeing of students which nowadays, several students suffer from self-confidence issues – DND can help with building up our students self-confidence, this is done by showing them their ideas are good and often fun, ideas meaning their characters goals, the plans they yes to overcome issues, the way they solve riddles and puzzles, those are a few examples of which can help with confidence building, confidence is important for people of all ages from children to teenagers to even adults, without confidence people would not be able to do the things they love, they wouldn’t be able to because of having no confidence, out of fear of failing, failing is the first step to success.

Speaking of which, Dungeons and Dragons is a game where failure happens. What I mean by this is you might fail to save the town from bandits, and as a result, the town is destroyed. This does not mean it is the end for the town; it just means you must learn from your mistake and try again in a new way with a new plan. One more thing I must mention is that when playing DND your actions have consequences, it is exactly as it sounds if a player decides I’m going to be a bully to a non-player character and then they have to ask the character for something, that non player-character will remember the player who was a bully and refuse to help of indulge the player, this can teach people that doing whatever you want without thinking can lead to some very unwanted consequences, these consequences can lead to problems happening such as not being able to leave a city, ending up in a prison in the game of course, not being able to buy things from a certain store, or getting banned from joining certain groups of people. 

Now I wish to address the argument that Dungeons & Dragons is evil and satanic; now I wish to ask this: what makes it satanic? Is it the mention of demons and fiends within the game? When playing this game, the goal is often to put a stop to the plans of demons and fiends and to save people from evil. I know that there was a panic in the eighties and nineties about Dungeons and Dragons being Satanic, but I can assure you it isn’t. 

In summary, this game, Dungeons and Dragons, provides many beneficial experiences for its players, which can help them become more outgoing than they were before, along with the creative experience it offers. Before I conclude, I wish to say something which was told to me by my grandfather: “I believe that people have three eyes, two for seeing and the other the imaginative eye, which is essential for seeing the creative aspect of life”. I thank you all for the time you’ve given me today. As you leave, I ask you to consider the possibility of the power stories have upon people, stories that can be told through Dungeons and Dragons.

I hope that with this today I have changed some minds about the use of Dungeons and Dragons within our school system. I wish you all well, and goodbye.

But you as sure as hell, have turned on all of us.

Death can be a palliative that ends the torture of life.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump

When the future is so bleak

I’m caught in the quicksand of populist public opinion. I often wonder whether the words people speak, accurately reflect what they think and believe.

Or do they spruik  the words they speak from a sense of political correctness rather than genuine conviction? 

What is on my mind 24/7/365 is the deleterious inroads of dementia.

Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen go to lots of pretty ordinary meetings in the Pacific Islands in order to collect colorful shirts.

Each shirt is worth about a million dollars because of what the Australian government contributes to these island nations.

We Australian taxpayers apparently are happy to buy so many clothes, so many shirts, for two such wonderful politicians.

And still we fiddle, faddle and f..t around with viruses and IT. Earth is fast becoming Frankensteinian

But true. It is all turning on us.

DRAIN THEIR SUPPORT PACKAGES DRY

DON’T STOP UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT.

THESE CHARGES ALIGN WITH THE SALARY PAID TO A SENIOR ENGINEER WITH LEADERSHIP FOR A LARGE GROUP.

Let’s give a shout

Let’s’ give a cheer.

Australia is gone 

Alboland’s here. 

We were in decline

 A shame and disgrace

 Till Albo  emerged

 With his saving grace. 

He came to our rescue. 

Put a stay  on freefall. 

He turned us around. 

We owe him our all.

Australia no more 

Let’s give a loud chair. 

Australia is gone 

Alboland’s here

France is finished. The UK is done for. Germany is all but gone. Spain is floundering on its knees. Poland is scared of Russia. Ukraine is stoic. Russia wants the restoration of the USSR. Finland, Norway and Denmark try to keep as quiet as mice. Iceland feels blessed by its separation from the European landmass. Austria shudders at the remembrance of its history. Hungary wants to stay autonomous from outside pressures. Switzerland remains quietly confident in its neutrality. Ireland has the political stability of iron mixed with clay. And these countries are increasingly populated by people fleeing Africa and various Middle Eastern countries.

On Child Discipline

You won’t publish this, but I will still write it. “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is dead-set true of what has happened in Australia, especially in Melbourne.

The NT is not much better – be it Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek or elsewhere.

Let us rename Australia.

It WAS Australia.

Let us instead identify it as ALBOLAND

The Albanese Government is so left it is anti-Australian.

At all levels of the educational hierarchy, from the newest to the oldest, from bottom to top organisational position, educators tend to speak two languages.

* Neophyte teachers, when speaking with other newbies, tend to speak differently from the way they converse with older, more experienced peers.

* Classroom teachers, when speaking with each other, tend to communicate differently than they do when talking with senior teachers or unit leaders.

* Senior teachers/unit leaders discourse differently with each other as peers than they do when communicating with assistant principals/principals.

* Assistant Principals have a conversational fraternity that is often not shared with their immediate superiors, their principals.

* Principals, when in discourse, speak with a familiarity that generally does not translate to the conversations they hold with directors and departmental seniors.

* Those in departmental support roles have similar communication limitations that shape and limit conversation, based on their level of seniority in school support positions.

At each discrete level, I refer to conversations as being ‘above the table’ or ‘below the table’.

* Conversations ‘above the table’ are those shared by subordinates with superordinates. They are qualified, with those at the lower hierarchical level often tailoring what they say to fit what they think those in superior positions want to hear. They are expressions from the head rather than statements from the heart. They are based on saying the right thing to get on and stay safe and secure within the organisation.

* Conversations ‘below the table’ are those in which people are speaking with peers. They can be covert and even clandestine. This is about colleagues on the same shared level speaking from the heart, saying what they genuinely think and feel about issues. The ‘blind spot’ within the Johari Window is engaged.

Under the table, where they are invisible to those above, educators can say what they genuinely think and feel. This may sound disloyal, even hypocritical. However, these conversations can be a pressure-release point and help those heated up calm down and regroup.

* On occasion, somebody quote, under the table. I disquote. Little rat. On what’s happening under the table to somebody. An open quote, above the table. Close quote. Passing on information clandestinely in a hope of carrying favour with the person to whom the ratting is being done. Dash, that in order to gain some benefit at a future time. That may be in competition for a job with others or some other reward. If the rat is discovered, his or her hypocritical attitude will generally result, and they’re being held at arm’s length in future.

Just some thoughts and observations coming from over time and over the years.

 Note: 

I have written this in relation to my experience and understanding in education however without any doubt whatever this type of scenario and perspective applies within all organisations and I would vouchsafe funding how much exactly particularly those belonging to government the private sector is not disengaged or violet from this sort of scenario for it happens within all organisations

It is 1.29 a.m. in Darwin, and I have come out of an absolutely exhausting, dream-filled stupor. Life atn is bloody hard. Dementia sometimes takes a huge toll on the afflicted and their carers.

Zimbabwe v Australia

I worry about non-cognition, a plague of emptiness draining the minds of today’s students.

Note: Tens of thousands of people are employed to manufacture goods used to deter crime and criminal behaviour.

Security mesh for windows

Toughened glass

Locks and chains

Fences of multiple descriptions

Security cameras and alarms

Tyre spikes

Bollards

Crimsafe reinforced mesh

Emergency buttons and bells and buzzers in buildings banks and hospitals

Correctional institution building construction and maintenance

Protective cages for drivers of taxis, buses, trams, trains and so on.

Colleges and institutions built to provide locations for those who need to be trained in the art of anti-criminality.

Miriades of manufacturers of all sorts of anti crime devices from cameras to truncheons to uniforms and signage – indeed a never-ending list

This is but a brief list of criminal contributions to the Australian economy

Whenever I think about the Australian Federal Government or the City of Darwin Council, I’m always reminded of Slim Dusty’s song “Big Frogs in Little Puddles Laying Down The Law

Too late!   

The day you begin,   

Can be the day too late,   

To stop.   

Drugs offer    

A slippery slide,   

A roller coaster ride.   

Up, up, uppers,    

Exhilaration,   

Down, down, downers,    

Plunging despair,   

The crest crashes.     

A yawning trough,   

The pits,   

The only way is up,  

Inject,   

Ingest,     

Force the mortal flesh,   

Reach the mountain top.   

Savour brief sunshine,   

Before you slide,   

Into the abyss of soulless despair.   

That fix,   

That fleeting rise,   

Artificial joy.   

Again the fall,   

That sinking hopelessness.      

Pump your veins,    

Full of shit,   

Rise, rise, rise,   

Between the falls.   

Day,   

Slips into night,   

Until one day,   

You rise no more.   

Forever cast,   

Into nether silence,   

Beyond the grave.   

DOD.   

Poor Old Henry

We’ve come from near and afar,  

Tragic horror where we were,  

Now we are here,  

Across the oceans and the plains,  

Our home regimes were major pains.  

We pawned our jewels,  

Shelled out much money,  

For passage to a land,  

Of milk and honey.  

A land of promise   

We were told,  

Awaits those who cross   

From countries  

Whose birthrights are sold  

On sad regimes  

Which make no sense,  

Anathema to those  

With pounds and pence  

Who oppose autocracy,  

And dream democracy.  

Challenged, spurned, cast adrift,  

We left behind a major rift,    

An ideological chasm so wide,  

It casts us on the other side,  

Of a yawning gulf  

We will never bridge.    

So we arrived  

Down under,  

Was our trip a massive blunder!?  

Herded into compounds like cows,

Men typed as pigs, 

Women as sows!!  

In camps,  

Contained within razor wire.  

We yell,  

“Is Australia ANOTHER living hell??”  

“Justice please,  

Justice” we call,  

Hear us …  

Our despair quells.  

Our plea a prayer,  

Will it fall on deaf ears,  

Raising within,  

Internal fears,  

That we will be moved. 

Back. From whence we came,   

Or worse,   

Oh SHIT!!!  

RETURNED,  

From where we left,

We will face torture,  

Trial,  

And DEATH.  

Poor Old Henry

A couple  

With hungry child,  

Approach the checkout.  

In their trolley,  

Are basic necessities.  

Nothing elaborate,  

Every item one of need.  

They consult the plastic,  

Enter digits,  

Hoping to God   

For the green numbers.  

STRIKE ONE   

“Please re-enter”   

Demands that soulless terminal screen.  

Embarrassing the couple,  

Exposing their shame,  

To fellows winking,  

Thinking,  

“We’re better than them”.  

“Sometimes the card sticks …   

Have another go   

OK?”

Transaction re-entered.  

STRIKE TWO   

Declined again! … then again.

STRIKE THREE!!    

You are out.

Derision haunts the couple,   

Shoppers laugh behind their hands.   

The sad pair,   

Buy meagre items,    

With a handful of coins,    

Loose, forlorn in a bag.  

Biscuits, milk.    

The forlorn child   

Hurriedly tears the packet,  

Gnawing the nourishment,    

Like a hungry rat.   

Whither now?   

God only knows   

Toward what end     

Their forlorn destiny will lead.    

They wander from the precinct,    

Into the nether regions,   

Of near distance.   

Rain falls,   

Lightly from the sky,   

How they wish   

It was manna from Heaven.  

I am an old man and thankful that I have lived most of my life in a context where PRIVACY WAS PRIVACY. Privacy wasn’t talked about like it is these days, but it was a quality or an entitlement that we had.

No longer. There is a lot of talk about ensuring and guaranteeing privacy, but that is all pie in the sky. Governments, agencies and instrumentalities know everything about everyone. Watching and listening devices are everywhere. From cameras, to drones to satellites, there is nothing about anyone that is not discoverable.

The latest quirk is that of the Brisbane City Council wanting CCTV cameras to be enhanced or supported by listening devices, so that passers by can be both seen and heard. If that intrusion is allowed, watch it proliferate into other cities and towns and centres which are under survelliance.

George Orwell got it wrong. He only imagined the half of what it would be like in his ‘1984’ Its much, much MUCH more intrusive than he ever prognosticate.

I praise the Lord that at least my thoughts are still private but fear the day will come when the innermost of human sanctums will be desecrated by intrusion

Wet roads on wet season’s first day.

SINCERITY COUNTS

Messages delivered by presenters should be from the heart. Avoid (debates excepted) speaking on issues in which you have no belief. Avoid being a hypocritical presenter, a phyyric speaker.

When speaking, use POWERPOINT and props to support speech. Don’t read verbatim from power-points. KNOW your subject in case the power-point goes on the blink. Have a fallback position.

If an AUDIENCE MEMBER, take time to THANK the presenters if you genuinely believe they delivered a quality message. Presenters value appreciation and with that constructive, skill honing advice.

Full time on Grand Final

Half time in Grand Final

There seems to be a lot of hit and miss about appointments and arrangements these days. 

Because you tee up for an arrangement that gives you a lesson in some activity every week or something every week is programmed – then the next thing, quite frequently, you are  let know that they can’t keep that appointment with you this week because something’s come up, or “we can’t keep this appointment for you this week because somebody who’s going to provide the service has rung in sick” and so it goes. So it’s really hit and miss. 

You can’t rely on anything these days. 

In the olden days, it used to be that appointments were always met and very rarely not kept. These days, it seems to be more often that arranged appointments are deferred or cancelled. And that’s par for the course. 

You don’t get any consistency or continuity of our programming that’s in place.