Author: Snoskred

Men I Love To Watch – Aaron Paul

5 Comments Posted on July 10, 2015June 23, 2015 by Snoskred

Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman.

By far, the largest amount of images of any one actor on my hard drive belong to the amazing and brilliant Aaron Paul. Sure, there are also plenty of Bryan Cranston, and when you consider that I have been writing the Rewatch Breaking Bad blog for almost a year now, this really is not very surprising.

Aaron Paul was almost not cast as Jesse Pinkman because Vince Gilligan thought he was too pretty. I forget exactly where I picked up that nugget of info – maybe one of the podcasts, I am guessing.

How does one even begin to talk about this character and the actor who brought this character to life?

We first meet Jesse as he flees the bedroom of a MILF while the DEA raids the house next door, where his cooking partner Emilio was cooking meth. Walter White is waiting in the car and sees Jesse fall off the roof, they lock eyes, and it turns out they know each other – Jesse was a former chemistry student in Walt’s class.

Walter turns up at Jesse’s house later that day and makes him an offer he can’t refuse – to become partners and cook meth. He can’t refuse because, as Walt says “Either that…or I turn you in.”

In case you have never seen Breaking Bad, here is one of my favourite clips from the pilot.

It was obvious to anyone watching the show that Aaron Paul was giving an incredible performance. Over the 5 seasons and 62 episodes of the show, the character of Jesse went on an incredible journey and we were all along for the ride. Fans of the show grew to love Jesse, and by extension, they also grew to love the actor who played him.

Aaron Paul won 3 very well deserved Emmy awards for his role of Jesse Pinkman, for the episodes “Half Measures” “End Times” and “Confessions”.

When the show ended, Aaron Paul decided he wanted to do something fun, and he took the lead role in Need for Speed. It was the first time I went to see a movie that involved car races, and both The Other Half and I truly enjoyed this movie.

Since then I have seen a few more movies that Aaron Paul has been involved with and I am looking forward to several that are coming out soon – most notably Eye in the Sky with Helen Mirren, Triple 9, and the 9th life of Louis Drax.

It has recently been reported that Aaron Paul will be returning to teevee screens in a new show called The Way.

Whether it be on big screens or small, Aaron Paul is one man I love to watch.

Men I Love To Watch

Carter Models Again

15 Comments Posted on July 8, 2015April 28, 2018 by Snoskred

I found this years Winter Knit! YAY. It is a gorgeous knit from Millers. It cost the enormous sum of $15. It is a long cardigan – or perhaps a coatigan – which reaches around my knees. Wearing it is taking some getting used to, especially getting into the car. :)

This is a closeup of the fabric which has a gold metallic thread running through it.

I found this years knit at Wollongong on a recent shopping excursion. As part of Wollongong Central, they have opened up a new shopping centre across the road from the Crown Street Mall which contains such awesomes as Grill’d, Max Brenner, Guzman Y Gomez, to name a few. There is a new food court up the top with things like Schnitz and an amazing salad place called Soul Origin with a huge range of delicious fresh salads.

I also picked up this lovely poncho. Many happy moments were had by all on this shopping trip. :)

Carter, Carter The Model, Fashion, moving forward

Television Tuesday – SBS On Demand

6 Comments Posted on July 7, 2015July 5, 2015 by Snoskred

Sometimes I am well behind the times here in Snoskredland – I just discovered the awesomeness of SBS on Demand. I will like to point out two TV shows – one older show which I saw back in 2014 – one which is brand new and starts airing this weekend but will likely be available via On Demand – plus one documentary available via this service and highly recommend them to you.

Rectify

This show is one of the slowest paced shows I have ever watched but I have loved every single second of it. Aden Young is incredible as Daniel, a man who has served 19 years on death row and now DNA evidence sees him released.

How does Daniel return to the world after a 19 year absence? How does Daniel and his family deal with his return to the home town where people still think he is a murderer?

Click here to view Rectify via SBS on Demand. See Rectify on IMDB here.

Room 101

Starting this Saturday night, you can spend some time with the awesome Paul Mcdermott via this new SBS show, Room 101. I know nothing at all about this show, but if Paul McDermott is involved, I am totally THERE for it. The synopsis says –

Laugh out loud as Paul McDermott finds out what winds up your favourite Aussie celebrities, as they try to persuade Paul to banish their pet hates into the Room 101 vault.

I’m sure this will end up @ SBS on demand as well. You might want to just browse it and see if there is anything you want to watch there.

24 Hours In Emergency

This show currently airs on SBS at 8:30pm on Wednesday nights. It is worth tuning in to see it, and there are a couple of episodes presently available via On Demand. Each show in this series covers 24 hours in the emergency department of Kings College Hospital in the UK.

Hospital emergency departments can be fascinating places to visit. The show allows us to take a deeper look, get to know some of the staff and see the things they have to deal with on a daily basis, meet the patients and hear some of their stories and views on life.. this is a deeply touching documentary which will put a smile on your face and sometimes cause salt water to fall from your eyebulbs. BYO tissues.

Do yourself a favour and watch the episode titled “Boys Don’t Cry” – the nurses truly shine in this episode. Click here to view 24 Hours In Emergency via SBS on Demand

7/7: One day in London

Today marks 10 years since the 7/7 terror attacks in London. This documentary is utterly heart breaking. There are some quite graphic descriptions of what happened to some of the people. At one point there is the story of a handbag of one of the survivors – that was the most upsetting story to me, especially when it turned out the family did not know what had happened to their loved one for a full 7 days.

I would not usually suggest a show to you which I found deeply upsetting but I feel like it is important to remember those who lost their lives and to hear the stories of the people who survived, the stories of the people who did not, and the stories of those who went in to help. I can guarantee you will need tissues for this one.

Click Here to view 7/7: One day in London on ABC iview.

Over to you –

If you do watch any of these shows or documentaries, drop back and let me know what you think. Also let me know what you are watching lately in the comments. :)

television shows

How To – Create Free Link Ups Via SimplyLinked

14 Comments Posted on July 6, 2015July 5, 2015 by Snoskred

I often see bloggers inviting other bloggers to participate in a blog award, or a weekly challenge, or even just asking other bloggers to provide links to blogs that they enjoy reading.

These days probably 75% of the time, it seems that bloggers are not using any of the link up tools that are available out there on the interwebs. I often think the major reason for not using these tools is because people tend to think these tools are a lot more complicated than they actually are, that setting up an account is time consuming, that it is all Too Hard.. but as this how to guide will show you, that is not the case at all.

If I told you that within the space of 10 minutes, you could create your account *and* your first link up, would you give it a try? If I am honest, it is more likely to take around 5 minutes, given it took me 6 minutes and I was taking screenshots and editing them in between.

How To – Create Free Link Ups Via SimplyLinked

Now I’m going to show you how to use one of the completely free, easiest and simplest link up tools which can save you a lot of time and energy PLUS make it easier for people to link up to whatever it is you have going on at your blog. The tool is called Simply Linked.

First up, we have to create your account. Click on Sign up for a free account.

You only need to provide 6 details as seen above – your name, email address, name of your website, website url, username and password. When you’ve filled in the boxes, hit submit.

And you have created your account. Easy, no? So click on the link to go back to the home page and log in.

Type in the username and password you just created, and hit submit. You’ll then find yourself logged in.

There is not a lot to see here, because you have not created any link ups. So let us create one. Click on Create New List.

Put in your link up name, and choose standard as the option. Click on create list.

You will then have created your link up and you will be provided with some javascript code to paste into your blog. Simply copy it, and then paste it into your blog post. The finished product should look a lot like this – though my blog theme seems to have taken over making the button look quite spiffy here on my blog –

It really is that simple. In fact, even with me taking screenshots, I had created my account and my first link up within 6 minutes. To create a new link up while logged in is only as long as it takes you to type in the title.

Once you have created a link up, you can view it via the current lists screen, just click on current lists. To view the links which have been added, click on the link up name.

Once people start adding links, you can choose to edit or delete them.

Added links will appear at the top, above the place where people can add their links.

The best thing about this tool is – everything remains within your blog. Nobody is being sent elsewhere – they add their link within the post you’ve written. Here is a test link up, so you can give it a try right here if you like, I also want to see how it goes through on my feed..

This link up tool does not give you the option to use thumbnail images at all. There are link tools available which will allow people to add thumbnail images but *all* of those tools cost money. The tool I use here – Inlinkz – is a little more complicated to create a basic link up, and Inlinkz costs me $20 a year to allow thumbnails and have some extra options, eg I can allow my link ups to remain open forever.

Simply Linked is a good, basic, free option. You do have to keep an eye on your links to make sure nobody adds any spam – this is one reason why I would suggest that you close off link ups after a certain amount of time has passed. I am assuming they will add other options which people will have to pay for, eventually. Simply Linked is an excellent option for people wanting fast and easy to create link ups.

I will show you around – and how to use – Inlinkz in a future how to guide. I probably should also mention, in case anyone was wondering.. none of these companies are paying me to write about their link up tools, by the way. :)

Will You Use This Tool?

Over to you – let me know, do you think this is a tool you could use on your blog?

blogging tips, how to guides

Sunday Selections Week 27

8 Comments Posted on July 5, 2015July 4, 2015 by Snoskred

Today I have dug out some Connie photos from 2011, with a few different angles for you.

You can read more about the Connie here – Lockheed Super Constellation “CONNIE” VH-EAG. She is maintained by HARS who are also the owners of the Qantas 747 that flew into Albion Park earlier this year.

Would you like to join in? The rules are very simple:-
1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to River at Drifting Through Life, somewhere in your post
3. leave River a comment so that she knows you’ve joined in and can come over and see what you’ve posted.

Weekly Wrap Up –

This week has been an interesting one in Snoskredland. We discovered that we did not have a sewer leak or a pipe leak but we likely had found a natural spring given the lack of rain here just lately..

I went on a shopping trip with the parents during which I FOUND MY KNIT at Millers and it is absolutely stunning! I did not see it on the website. I will show it to you this Wednesday.

Then in the latter half of the week, the contractors arrived to do preparations for our new driveway, and our cars have had to be parked out the front since Thursday which meant I cleaned out every single item, even from the gloveboxes, because we have a bit of a problem with car window smashing around here.

Posts Snoskred Enjoyed –

Sunday Sweets: Rainbow Connection – My favourite cake is the second one.

Domain Anonymity and the Brilliance of Entertainment Lobbyists – This *is* a terrible idea.

This leads me to write a message to the Entertainment Peoples. Guess what? People will pay for your stuff if you can provide them an easy and simple means to do so, plus, provide your entertainment via those means to the entire world within an hour of the show airing in the first country it airs in. Your licensing deals are so 1994. The internet exists now and you can’t just bury your head in the sad and pretend like it doesn’t.

5 Things To Do To Avoid Passing On Fake News on Social Media – Step 4 is super important. Always Snopes before you share!

Sparkler Art – A brilliant how to guide on making awesome sparkler photos.

This farm in a box generates $15,000 a month – This seems like a really great idea. I think my other half could build me one of these. ;)

Dark Secrets – The last paragraph of this post is pure gold. :) Better fix that machine soonest!

Pear and Rhubarb Almond Crumble {gf} A simple and awesome recipe. :)

Celebrate Summer With A Frozen Watermelon Slush – I am totally making this in about 5 months time. ;)

Five Healthy Vegetable Packed Lunches For Two {Grain and Dairy Free}! – These recipes seem awesome.. ;)

No Bake Coconut Lime Cheesecake Bites – Om nom nom! These will have to be made.

And finally, your moment of animal beauty – Adelaide Zoo transfers orphaned tree kangaroo joey into surrogate wallaby mother’s pouch – There are no words for the cuteness of this creature. Just click and look. Trust me!

Here On The Blog –

I remembered a friend and our shared love for Breaking Bad with Sometimes there are words. I listed 55 new blogs added to the feed reader in the New Feeds June post. I showed you some new purchases in Wordless Wednesday – New Cards and shared 5 Lessons I Learned From Looking Back with you.

Blog Spotlight –

Each week, I will link to a blog I am reading to shine a spotlight on it and tell you what I like about it. This week –

Dancing With Frogs – Frogdancer has just taken off for Europe this week but she has long been one of my favourite reads and her blog was the first one that made me think I could keep chickens. I’m looking forward to reading about her travels!

Past Snoskred –

Tomorrow is Friday – a look at negative and positive thoughts at work from 2006

Coming Up –

This week I have a how to guide for you on Monday, we’ll check out my new knit on Wednesday, on Friday we will have a Men I Love To Watch post.

For the month of July, we will be having regular Television Tuesday posts – I have a few shows I want to talk about.

Sunday Selections, weekly wrap up

5 Lessons I Learned From Looking Back

16 Comments Posted on July 3, 2015July 2, 2015 by Snoskred

Recently I went back through all the posts I’d written here on the blog. While looking back I learned some lessons which might be useful to other people, so I thought I would share them with you. :)

5. About Categories –

I wrote a little about this in an earlier post – Sephyroth Is A Genius – I think the most important lesson I learned was to come up with a decent plan for categories and then stick to it.

4. About Better Post Titles –

Before I learned anything about blogging, my post titles were in general pretty terrible. Sometimes they did not relate in any way to the text of the post. Here are a few examples of crappy titles I once used – Quick Blog – Yeah I know – Eek! – W00t! –

How To Fix This –

Write better titles. Read some articles about writing better titles. In general my titles now tend to give people an idea of what the post itself is about, but I still think I could do better. :)

3. About Posting Images –

Sometimes images that I had posted were no longer available. Many of these were my *own* images which Blogger had deleted as a surprise to me. They actually do that fairly regularly. I did not delete any Picasa albums, so I have no idea why my images vanished, and I can’t be bothered trying to figure it out. If a post relied heavily on pictures that were now missing, I had to make the difficult decision to delete those posts and move on.

Also, with some images I had done a bit of a bad thing – back in the days before I knew better – I had “hot linked” to images on other sites. I had no idea that was not the done thing. I know better now. :)

How To Fix This –

Now I keep all my blog images on my own blog, plus I put them into a folder called “posted” when I have posted them, so I could easily find them again if I needed to. Plus, Absolutely No Hotlinking – eg posting an image that resides on another site here on my site.

2. About Posting Links –

Blogs disappear. They move without leaving a forwarding address. News articles disappear, too. I had based several blog posts on a post from another blogger or a news article without including enough information – and when the post or news article disappeared, my post no longer made any sense. Those posts had to be deleted.

Take this post – I want to work here – as an example. If the post I had linked to no longer existed, how much sense would that post make? Zero.

How To Fix This –

When I write posts in the future, I need to make sure my posts can stand alone – if I am linking to another post or a news article, it might be an idea to take a screenshot of the article and include that in the post or save a copy of the article somewhere, in case the original disappears. Links should play a supporting role, not be the star of a post I write.

1. About Posting Videos –

I had to delete about 40 posts where I had posted just a title and a youtube video. In almost all of these cases, the title was something like “I Love This Video” or “This Video Is Awesome” and nowhere in the post did I happen to mention the NAME of the video or the artist. When I went to play the video, I got the youtube message “This video has been removed due to X, Y or Z reason”.

Without a name or an artist or any idea what video I might have posted, it was impossible to fix these posts to resemble the original post. They had to be deleted.

How To Fix This –

Going forward, I will always make sure to include the video name and artist when posting videos.

blog housekeeping, blogging tips

Wordless Wednesday – New Cards

6 Comments Posted on July 1, 2015August 21, 2015 by Snoskred

New cards and a birthday gift bag

family, Greeting Cards, Happy Snoskred, Wordless Wednesday, yay

New Feeds June

5 Comments Posted on June 30, 2015June 29, 2015 by Snoskred

New blogs to the feed reader since 31 May –

A geriatric grandmother
A Small Life
Adventures in Weseland
An English Girl Rambles
Assholes Watching Movies
barbsbabbling
Blake Hill House
Brooke Meagan Jones
Bump and Beyond
Cat Eyes—A Cat Woman’s Photos
Cathy @ Still Waters
Chickens Out Yonder
ChocolateSuze
Coloring Outside the Lines
CopperWitch
Cranberry Morning
Cup on the Bus
Deep Fried Fruit
FreakyFlier
The Gluten Free Alchemist
Hungry and nostalgic
I just go for a walk
Kati Rose
Kayaking Seattle
KenjiSAITO
Lavender and Lovage
Lexie-Lou
Life at Golden Pines
Life with Tweens
Lighten Up!
Merlesworld
Mitchell is Moving
my ordinary life
No. 2 Pencil
Our New Life in the Country
postcards from the rain
Randomosity
Root Simple
Sarcastic Granny
Sue’s escape from Cancerland
TexErin-in-SydneyLand
The Hedge Combers
The Hesitant Scotsman
The Kay Times
The Occasional Nomads
The Randomness of Twee
The Run*A*Round Ranch Report
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally
Things are looking U.P.
Things I Make (for Dinner)
Thou Shalt Not Covet
thoughts & happenings
Toddler plus teens while living the dream
Voluptuous Chatterbox
[Farm-ily]

Welcome to my feedreader, bloggers.

There are 55 of you. In my internet travels I found my way to your blog, often because I read a blogger who linked to you or perhaps you left a comment on a blog I read which I thought was excellent and I wanted to know more about you. I liked your blog a lot. While there, I probably read back about 40+ posts or so. Then I added you to my feedreader.

Most of you will know what a feedreader is, but in case you do not, click here for info. The quick run down – it is an awesome program which collects new articles that bloggers post. So when you post something new, I get a copy, and if I have the time and something to say, I will click through and comment. If you want to get a feed reader, I highly recommend Inoreader, which I have been using a lot lately.

At the end of 6 months or so, if I am still loving your blog as much as I did when I added you to my feed reader, I will add you to my permanent blogroll. YAY!

December New Feed Review –

I took a month off in December 2014, so this month I have no feeds to review. YAY it is nice to have a break every now and then.

Is your blog not listed on my blog but you would like it to be? Email Snoskred via the contact page with a link to your blog and Snoskred will add your blog to her feed reader. :) Or you can leave a comment on my blog with a link to your place, I’ll drop by.

See previous new feeds for May – April – March – February – January & December – November – October – September – August – July –

New Feeds

Sometimes there are words.

12 Comments Posted on June 29, 2015June 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Mark Margolis as Uncle Tio

And sometimes, there are not words.

This week, I’ve completed the posts for episodes 507 and 508 over at Rewatch Breaking Bad, though the posts will not publish until mid-July.

These episodes were the last ones my very excellent work friend got to see. Cancer stole her from us in early 2013, just a few months before season 5b, as they called it, began to air.

Oh, how she loved this show. I think she loved it even more than I did, which is saying a LOT. Sometimes, in the wee hours of the night when we were working together, we would speculate, posit theories, imagine the most insane and crazy storylines, and consider the vastness of the Breaking Bad universe.

We would talk about the show that existed, moments that happened, what our favourite scenes and lines were. The two of us could speak many of the lines out loud from memory. I knew exactly which lines to say to her which would leave her giggling, and she knew which lines to say for me.

I remember one time when the phones were quiet, we spoke for an uninterrupted by phone calls hour, just about the clouds in some scenes, and the weather in Albuquerque, and how it always seemed to put on a show, for the show. We talked about how Albuquerque had become a character of the show and how it gave the show such a unique look.

I also remember we talked about Mark Margolis and how amazing his acting was, because his character Uncle Tio was unable to speak but you saw everything you needed to know in his eyes, and he had this bell that he would ring.

We both loved the character of Mike, especially the scene that began with him shorting out electricity with helium balloons. We talked about a spin off show that could involve him. There had already been some talk about a spin off on the podcasts – which we had both listened to.

We both loved Jesse as a character. We loved where season four had taken his character. We loved his involvement in the major capers of season 5a. We also loved his outfits.

The final eight episodes were so perfect, she would have loved every single minute of them. She would have loved to discuss each episode with me. How much I would have loved to discuss them with her!

How deeply thrilled she would have been to see Better Call Saul, the spin off show that appeared after Breaking Bad ended. She would have particularly loved the Mike Centric episode – Five-O – which will hopefully land Jonathan Banks a nomination for best supporting actor when the Emmy nominations are announced on July 16th, and hopefully he will win his first Emmy award at the 67th Emmy Awards due to be held in September this year.

My friend is greatly missed, by me, and by many others who adored her.

About Snoskred, death, Sad Snoskred, television shows, things to remember

Sunday Selections Week 26

6 Comments Posted on June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 by Snoskred

This week we will revisit a little area in my house, which I have made a small change to recently. You’ve seen this area before in these posts – my paper weight where I showed you this cabinet was damaged on the top – Before and After where I added a table runner I had recently rediscovered to the top.

River commented on that post that she preferred the area without the table runner and I have to say I did agree with her. I had just wanted to hide that damaged section and the table runner was available, but I did want to buy a piece of material in a lighter colour – perhaps white, I thought – to cover the damage.

We had gone to visit Candleberries in Berry and we each got a large new candle, and on the way home I suggested we stop in at Spotlight to pick up some material. I spoke with the other half about a piece of white velvet or velour, and he said white would not be a good choice, I’d be forever washing it. So we ended up deciding on silver. I think it turned out pretty well. :) It almost looks like molten silver.

Weekly Wrap Up –

What an amazing week it has been for those who believe in love, with the US Supreme Court ruling that it is legal for all Americans, no matter their gender or sexual orientation, to marry the people they love. I will hope that Australia will follow suit sooner than later. If you did not read the ruling, you should make sure to read this one part of it – The Beautiful Closing Paragraph of Justice Kennedy’s Gay Marriage Ruling.

Here at home, I’ve still been recovering from this cold and with the ditch digger arriving I lost all track of time and forgot to schedule todays post as a surprise to myself. I had most of it written, because I write it during the week as I find links I like.

Posts Snoskred Enjoyed –

How Death and Dying Changed My Perspective on LGBT Rights – This was always my biggest reason why marriage should be legal for same-sex couples – this, and the situations where life partners were essentially locked out of making health decisions for their loved ones, on occasion being replaced by family members who had disowned their gay family member years before and who would have zero idea of the health wishes of that gay family member.

Jaws at 40: Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster that made him — and nearly ruined him – This was an interesting read.

The Likely Political Consequences of Proposed Changes to the Senate’s Electoral System – If you have read here for a while you know I am an enormous Antony Green fan. This post was fascinatory to me, especially after having worked elections.

Table Setting – You know I am a big fan of cobalt blue, so I deeply love this table setting. :)

Brodsworth Hall gardens – Some beauty to brighten your day. :)

Cute Coot – I love the first picture with the Coot on the nest. ;) Plus also, baby swans! Swanning About

Here On The Blog –

We kicked off the week with Sunday Selections Week 25

We went back in time a little with Art Time Travel.

We checked in on Carter – Carter & Happy – WW, plus I told you about my Improbable Kitty.

Anxiety Level: High – A ditch digger arrived. And thus we now have a leaking (sewer?) pipe. But it totally wasn’t The Other Half’s fault – we could tell it has been leaking for some time. This might explain a weird noise we get in the pipes when it rains..

Blog Spotlight –

Each week, I will link to a blog I am reading to shine a spotlight on it and tell you what I like about it. This week –

Engrish – A site that never fails to put a smile on my dial, especially now that I have a Chinese Aunt.

Past Snoskred –

Picture Blog Today – A couple of kitty photos on my 15th post on the blog.

Coming Up –

I’ll let this week come to you as a surprise! ;) But you will see the June New Feeds post this week as it is almost the end of June.

Sunday Selections, weekly wrap up