Hello, you came here to learn about me.   I am flattered that you would bother and having said that, I will spend the rest of my life wondering if anyone actually did.   My name is Mick and my Internet persona is Rincewind.

Talking about myself actually bores the pants off me and this page is really only here because the first incarnation of this site, which I started in Autumn 1997, was a clone of everyone else's personal web sites ... ie me, my friends, my hobbies, blah, blah, blah, etc etc etc.   This bit stays because it is on the navigation bars and I am too lazy to remove it from all of them.   I'll try to keep it short and possibly funny.
 

Year of the Dragon.
I was born in 1952, which,  according to the Chinese Horoscope,  was a Year of the Dragon.   Those of you who are mathematically gifted will be able to work out my age and then be astonished because I am not dead yet.   I believe this makes me a baby boomer, or something.

I am married, I have no children, but I do have a mortgage, a cat, two birds and six african fish.   The fact of the missing 2.5 children and dog, makes me something other than average.   I prefer to believe that above average would be applicable here however I am sure there will be contrary opinions somewhere.

I am certain I was a charming baby, but then my memory of that period is not all that good.   In fact, the 50s and parts of the 80s are a bit of a blur.
 

Location, Location, Location
I was conceived in Broken Hill, but born in  Newcastle, in the state of New South Wales,  Australia.   For your convenience I have provided a map which I stole from another site.

Newcastle is a coastal city with strong industrial roots occupying a space 100 miles or so north of Sydney, which would otherwise be vacant.   It is the second largest city in the state

I spent an uncomplicated, happy childhood a lot of which was on some beach or another or exploring the local bushland with a view to terrorising the wildlife and generally just being a boy.

Eventually I grew up and went looking for work.   Unfortunately, I found it.
 
 

Military Daze.
At the tender age of seventeen summers, I abandoned sensible things like 3 home cooked meals a day, an education, my nice warm bed and other ephemera and ran away to be a military man.   Well OK, I didn't actually run away, more like I went through a rigorous recruitment procedure designed to ensure the services get the cream of a nation's youth...ie:  I lied to a sleeping psychologist, pissed in a bottle, was inoculated and filled out many forms, then after sitting around in true military fashion for hours, I got on a bus.

After quite a few more hours of sitting on the bus I arrived, along with a lot of other chaps, at the 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Kapooka. Here I was chivvied by impossibly loud drill instructors into something vaguely resembling a military personage so that, at the completion of six weeks of extremely boring training, I could proudly take my place at the absolute bottom of the military food chain.   From here, the only way was up !!

For the next twenty four years I bravely defended my nation by:   standing in straight lines, expending vast amounts of expensive ammunition firing at paper targets, digging trenches, sitting in trenches, getting out of trenches and going to other trenches and generally staying out of trouble.   I was supposed to be a clerk, but the one thing I found with the Army is this:  when the desk job becomes too routine, there is always the possibility that the desk can be moved just about anywhere and in fact be transformed into webbing, a pack, a rifle and something infinitely more interesting.

Occasionally I rode in various forms of military transport, from the humble Land Rover to extremely exciting and fun helicopters.   It didn't matter if it was Land Rover, truck, landing craft, transport aircraft or helicopter, they all had one thing in common, they were all green.   Sometimes I got to drive.

Someone once told me that the more intelligent you are, the more hopeless you are at drill and general military training.   Naturally, this is a theory to which I ascribe.   I mean who wants to be thought of as a dummy?   This is just my way of saying that I was a pretty unmilitary fellow and I don't really know why I stuck at it for so long.   In hindsight I had a pretty good time, got my genitals transported from place to place for free and met some pretty good people.
 
 

Next Phase.
I took my discharge in December of 1994 and with the thanks of a grateful nation still ringing in my ears, took up a post with the NSW Police Service.   To this day I do not know if the Nation was thanking me for leaving or for my service.

In any case, I found a job in a sort of semi disciplined environment but on the other side of the fence.   I am not a policeman, I just work for them so I am away from the operational stuff to the point where I call this my retirement job.   I keep promiising myself that when the mortgage is paid off I will retire and begin writing a proper home page.
 

What Interests Me.   As a result of my forays into remote Australia I developed a love for this country and a healthy regard for the environment (especially those bits of it which can leap up without warning and bite or sting you on the arse or carry you off screaming to somewhere very inconvenient).

I tolerate camping, love the beach, enjoy exploring, and observing our many interesting wild creatures (sometimes with a healthy safety margin). Of all the wild life Australia has to offer,  I am most fond of the marvellous array of native birds (and not just because they usually don't bite or sting).

I also detest gardening but like to have a nice garden (you work it out, I can't). I plant a lot of native shrubs which tend to encourage our local native birds into the garden where my cat can eat them.    I do however try to discourage this unfortunate behaviour.

Apart from my computer and the Chathouse my major interest is reading. Although I talk about Terry Pratchett's marvellously funny the Disc World Novels I do have many other favourite authors and fairly eclectic Literary tastes. Anything from Elizabethan romantic sonnets to the American Civil War, as long as it keeps me awake and is amusing, I will read it.
 

In Conclusion.   Well, thats all you are getting.   I said at the beginning that I bore me, but I hope I haven't bored you.   If you haven't done so yet, why not visit my Links page where I have put some stuff I think is useful or interesting.