Everything Snoskred

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Calibre Book Sorting

14 Comments Posted on November 18, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

The Other Half and I have a huge collection of E-books now.

Over 14 thousand books at last count, many of which I (or we) have never yet read.

November was already crazy busy, what with

– trying to leave comments on 1,427 blogs – which is 47.5 comments each day if I want to finish this commenting challenge

– walking 5km every day on my borrowed treadmill

– chicken chores, house chores, cooking, general life duties

Somehow we have decided that now would be a good time to sort through these books! We’re using a free program called Calibre which allows us to grab metadata from the web for each book to make sure the info is correct, plus you can choose from different covers if the book had several different covers over the years.

Deleting A Book.

How do I make a decision to delete a book I have never once read? This is a tricky one, but the answer is actually quite simple on some occasions and within 5 seconds of loading the book, I say delete – if the other half has not already hit the key. Here are my rules for deleting a book.

– If the cover involves a bare male chest, delete.

– If the cover has a half naked lady, delete.

– If the cover has both a bare male chest and a half naked lady, delete.

My sister reads a lot of erotic fiction and somehow we’ve ended up with all of it in our collection.

So if a book survives the cover inspection?

Is it a book I have heard of? If no, then –

Is it an author I have heard of? If no, then –

A quick read of the book summary can usually tell me everything I need to know if I will like this book. Hey, I’ve known me for 39 years now, so I know what I like.

I like mysteries. I like books with medical examiners, detectives, police officers, investigators of some kind as the central character. I like airplane stories, zombie stories, stories of surviving an apocalypse of some kind, I love everything from Jane Austen to Stephen King via Jodi Picoult plus Tom Clancy. I *love* an autobiography. Overall my tastes are wide and varied and I’ll give most things a try.

Right now I am reading The Skin Collector by Jeffrey Deaver which is another Lincoln Rhyme book – you may remember The Bone Collector which was a movie with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie – there is a series of 12 books with those characters.

Yesterday, I was reading Hard Choices by Hilary Clinton. Last week I revisited Lizzy and co in Pride and Prejudice. Before that I checked in on Tom Ripley. Did you know there were 4 more Ripley books after The Talented Mr Ripley?

Physical Books

A few years ago I did go through and put in all my actual books into Library Thing. You can see them here. However I have probably added 50 or more new physical books, plus some books that I got in e-book version I took to the second hand bookstore and traded for new books.

Over To You –

How many e-books do you have?
How many real books?
Have you switched to an e-book reader and if yes, do you prefer it?

About Snoskred, books, e-reader, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

Some Things I Know For Sure

15 Comments Posted on November 17, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Travelling across the interwebs, I sometimes stumble on a Thing that makes me want to rant. Today, I am feeling ranty about grocery shopping. I will like to share a few things I have learned in my 39 years here on this planet with you –

The Less Often You Go, The More You Save

Unless you are incredibly determined and motivated, most grocery shopping trips will result in one or more “impulse” purchases. You’ll see something you had no intention of buying on special and put it in the trolley. For me it is usually crumpets, Starburst Babies, potato chips and dips. So if you go once every fortnight instead of once a week, less impulse purchases will = more $$ saved..

Junk Mail Is Useful

Those catalogues most of us get every week from the supermarkets – you can sign up to receive those via your email now, or you can view them online. Why would you want to do that? Because you can suss out the specials before you even leave home. If something is on super special at one place and you need to restock it, you can find out via the catalogue, and go in there with a very strict list of things you need.

In Australia? Here are links to the email sign up pages for – Woolworths – Aldi – Coles (view online only) – IGA (view online only)

Saving Can Be An Effort

There have been fortnightly shopping trips where I have been to IGA, Aldi, Coles *and* Woolworths, all in one day. Why? Here’s a hint. Supermarkets make more money because in general, people only want to go to one place to shop. The big specials are designed to make you pick their store that week, because they think you’ll buy everything else there once you get in the door. They even have a term for these specials – a Loss Leader.

Don’t play by their rules – there is nothing saying you have to do all your shopping in one place. If you will save significant money purchasing items you regularly use across two or more stores, then do that. :) I’m lucky where I live because Coles, Woolworths and Aldi are right next to each other.

Buying Many Can Save You Headaches.

Buying several of an item you regularly purchase can be a great idea, especially if the item is on special. If you know you use certain tinned items or items with a long shelf life regularly, it makes sense to buy those things in bulk when they are on special. You will buy them eventually anyway, having them on hand means less trips to the supermarket.

Buying In Bulk Can Save You $$

This should be obvious. I think anyone who has ever done a price comparison of things is well aware of this fact. I will like to talk specifically about some ways we use this in our household. I bulk buy things that I know we will use eventually and store them well, so they will be there when we want to use them.

Chicken Roasters

We like a Lenards chicken mini roast once a week, but the nearest Lenards to us is a 100km round trip. So when we go, I will pre-order 8-12 chicken roasters and bring them home in insulated bags with ice packs. We have a Foodsaver, and they go into the deep freeze. They cook up beautifully even after being frozen *and* I usually get a discount for buying them in bulk.

Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, Tissues, Anti-Bac Wipes

These are things I use regularly. I’m going to continue to use them regularly. I will be spending money on these things no matter what, so it makes sense to buy them in bulk and save the $$. Plus, there is nothing worse than Running Out Of Toilet Roll As A Surprise To Yourself.

Buying Cat Related Bulk Items

Cat Food

I have seen no signs that my cats plan to stop eating anytime soon. :) They will always need food. If I buy it in bulk from our local pet store, this is good for two reasons – it supports a local business *and* it is cheaper than the supermarkets. We save over 20 cents per tin of food, which is $20 per 100 cans. Plus, we buy kitty litter and chicken food there in bulk.

Kitty Litter

I *hate* running out of kitty litter. With 2 indoor only cats we use plenty of kitty litter. Recently we have discovered a new brand at our local pet store called Trouble & Trix Lavender Litter. This stuff is amazing. The cats really like it, when they bury their doings or you scoop it instead of bad smells, a lovely lavender scent is released into the air, and the litter clumps, which means it lasts a lot longer with regular scooping and just the occasional top up. We’re down to changing it once a week at most, which saves us money. Plus, this!

Meats In Bulk Can Be Good, Too

The Other Half is the cutter up and Foodsaver of meats – in particular chicken – in this house, however, having to do this job regularly leaves him irritated and annoyed. If we buy 5-6kg of chicken breasts in bulk, and I ask him to do the chicken cutting up job once in a blue moon instead of regularly, then we freeze the results, it could be 2-3 months before he has to do this job again.

He cuts breast chicken into steaks – for me to eat when he has a red meat steak – pieces – for our regular Honey and Mustard chicken tonight dish which we enjoy – slices – for chicken and bacon pasta or stir fries.

Next time I am hoping to up the amount of chicken to 8-10kg and then we might go 4-5 months without a chicken cut up session. I’ll let him play some music while he does it, which will make him less irritated and annoyed. Happy times for all!

Pantry Staples Are Important

Right now I have everything I need in this house to make 2 weeks of Pizza. If we leave out the bases -I get a killer woodfired herby pizza base from Aldi and normally I buy 4 at a time because they are vacuum sealed and keep for ages – I have everything we need to make 5-6 weeks of pizza. I’ve got everything I need to make at least 8 recipes we regularly eat right here at home.

Sometimes Fresh Is Best

Sometimes you want something fresh cooked special. For me that is usually crumbed chicken with potatoes. I don’t like to use frozen chicken for that recipe, though I certainly could. There is something about the entire process of making crumbed chicken from fresh ingredients which is comforting to me, probably because my Grandma and I used to make it together a lot.

Also, you have to use fresh meat in the slow cooker. Those recipes get made close to shopping day, for obvious reasons. Which leads us to..

Meal Planning Is Awesome.

Sitting down and coming up with a list of meals you would like to make for the next week or two weeks seems like a daunting concept, until you do it. And once you do it, you’ll likely want to keep doing it. But this does not mean you have to eat all your meals on a set day. It just means those meals which you need super fresh ingredients for are best planned for cooking right after shopping day.

Regular Set Meal Days

Some people like to regularly meal plan a roast on a Sunday, or Pizza on a Friday. We’re not quite that regimented around here but we usually do eat pizza and a roast sometime around the weekend.

Things You Wouldn’t Usually Buy

This week I bought a large bag of red capsicum (bell peppers to some of you :) ) – they were on special, they were *not* on the meal plan, and suddenly I had visions in my mind of a roasted red capsicum and potato soup. The other half looked at me weird, when I picked them up, and he said wow, that is a lot of red capsicum. I’m about to go roast it in my new roaster, with some potatoes, and then make it into a soup. I’ll share the recipe! ;)

What do you know for sure about grocery shopping?

Share it in the comments! :)

food, kitties, life lessons, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, shopping

Blingtastic Bling!

3 Comments Posted on November 7, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

So yesterday we were talking about one of my favourite things – Bling. Let us take a closer look..

Watches, brooches, bracelets, oh my!

It occurs to me I have quite a few reptile brooches – here you see one lizard, and two turtles. Obviously the turtles originated in Hawaii, turtles are a bit of a Thing over there.

You also see my favourite Peacock Crystal Flower Pin which you can read more about on my Headless Fashion post, and there is a dragonfly brooch, and the Heaviest Brooch Of All Time. I never met a brooch I did not love, they are my kryptonite.

My ring collection.

My blingy watches.

Do you wear any jewellery?

If yes, what kind?

About Snoskred, brooches, jewellery, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, shopping

Favourite Things – Bling!

3 Comments Posted on November 6, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Over the past few months, we have been working on de-cluttering, tidying, and making our house more of a home.

When I was working, I created this blinged up box – which I would use to take all my “stuff” to and from work. I am a high maintenance girl. I need stuff, during the day. So the box is pretty large – it is 15 litres and measures 40cm x 28cm x 19cm.

What kind of stuff do I need when I work? This box – without the lid – used to carry the following to and from work –

– A box of tissues
– A roll of paper towel.
– A bottle of Soda Water.
– My plastic cup for the day.
– An apple, a plastic Ikea plate to cut it up on, and a decent knife.
– A 2 minute noodle snack with a container to “cook” it in, and a fork.
– Hand sanitiser
– Lip balm
– Hand cream
– My handbag would sit on top of the “stuff”.

Now, it has become a home to my bling. The lid keeps the dust off and the bling shiny!

Please to note, none of my Bling is expensive – the most costly item here is likely my Michael Kors watch at just under $200. The other two watches were less than $100. Everything else is below $30. They are doing some amazing things with crystals these days.

Do you have bling?

If yes, where does it live?

About Snoskred, jewellery, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, work

Secret Snoskred

12 Comments Posted on November 4, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Share a secret not shared on your blog before

I am a huge Sons of Anarchy fan.

I found the series late – only last year – but I devoured the 6 seasons that existed in a very short space of time, and have been eagerly awaiting season seven which started in September.

The show is dark, which you would probably expect, being about a motorcycle club.

But it is also, in its purest form, a soap opera about a motorcycle club.

Some of the storylines are so soapy, they would not look out of place on The Bold and The Beautiful. But that is part of what makes the show so brilliant.

My favourite character is Tig, played by Kim Coates.

Though of course Jax, played by Charlie Hunnam, is fascinating eye candy to watch.

Do you have a secret to share?

Do you love a TV show that I should add to my must watch list, or do you have a secret to share? Let me know in the comments!

About Snoskred, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, television shows

A Cup Of Tea

12 Comments Posted on November 3, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Do you like a cup of tea?

Snoskred loves a cup of tea. Bizarrely, her favourite brew was invented by Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister and foreign minister of Australia. Dude can’t delegate work to others or run a country without getting backstabbed by his own political party, but boy can KRudd blend a tea. He won a competition back in 2011 for his tea blend..

Originally meant to be a limited edition for just 12 months, the Australian Afternoon Tea proved so popular that it is now a permanent member of the Twinings range.

I am not a fan of KRudd at all, but I love this tea blend, and I recently picked up 100 bags for an insanely low price which will last me quite some time.

When and why?

I do not drink tea daily. On a day that I drink it, I will usually brew a cup mid to late afternoon. Rainy or cold days are more likely to result in a cup of tea.

What else do you put in it?

I like honey in my tea as the sweetener. Something magical happens when you combine honey and tea.

For some teas like the Australian Afternoon Tea and various forms of black tea I will use a dash of cream if I have some, milk if not.

For teas that are more herbal in nature like the Madame Flavour range, Cinnamon and Orange, Lemon Ginger, green tea or fruit flavoured teas I will only add a touch of honey and no form of milk or cream.

Here are some of the teas in my tea cupboard –

Overseas readers – want to try the Australian Afternoon Tea?

Shoot me an email to snoskred {at} gmail {dot} com or contact me via the Contact Form with a postal address – don’t leave it in the comments for safety reasons – and I will send you a sealed Australian Afternoon Tea Twinings tea packet, from their range where you buy 10 foil sealed teabags in a box! Make sure to include your blog address if I don’t already read your blog, so I can add you to my feedreader.

Do you like a cup of tea?

Leave a comment to let me know -or write a post on your blog and link to this post. :)

About Snoskred, Aussie Culture, food, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

State Of The Snoskred

3 Comments Posted on October 20, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

With the Berry Chicken Auction coming up next weekend, things are in a state of preparation in Snoskred Land. Painting is going on. It was such a gorgeous day on Sunday that the painting went on outside in the sun..

We are building a chicken tractor with coop for the new girls to hang out in – they will live in here for four to six weeks once they arrive. This is mostly for quarantine purposes because we love our current flock and want to protect them from anything the new girls might be carrying as a surprise, but the added bonus is, they will mow, aerate, and fertilise the lawns for us in allergy season when for us, lawn mowing is generally off the table for a bit..

If you want to know more about quarantine, here is a great post about it by The Chicken Chick. Quarantine of Backyard Chickens: When and How – and after that, we will have to introduce the girls carefully. You can read more about how to introduce new girls into a flock here. How do I introduce new chickens into my old flock?

During Quarantine they will be well protected with wire and a wooden coop section, complete with roost. We think the outdoor section touching the ground will be clear of wire at this stage, but we can always change our mind on that. We’re currently debating where the roost is and whether it might be too high with the doors closed, making it hard for the girls to get onto, so that might get moved downwards a little.

Each day, I’ll go out and sweep out the poop which will land on the floor under the roost, and pop in a large kitty litter tray of sand for them to dustbathe in. This tractor can be used long term, which is why I am painting it good. The coop and run have held up super well over the years with our undercoat and Taubmans Endure on top.

In other news, there is a lot of fruit being added to soda water here at the moment. I bought some special ice cube trays from Avon some years ago which take a slice of lime or lemon in the middle. I found them in our recent de-clutter so I gave lime slices a try and found them to be amazing.

The thing that is most amazing.. something happens with the water once you put it with the slice – every drop becomes lime flavoured. So the moment the ice cube starts to melt, you can taste the lime.

I also have been trying some frozen fruits. They work incredibly well – they serve two functions, to cool the drink, and to flavour the drink. Mango is my current favourite but I have also been using blueberries and mixed berries.

My final piece of news today involves a lunch out with girlfriends on Friday in which I heard the awesome news that Karma has come back as a surprise to some of the work people who were involved in making my workplace somewhere I no longer wanted to go. One of them has been seriously demoted and is no longer a manager.

The other one has been seriously demoted and is no longer a team leader. I count this as a WIN for humanity, but it does not inspire me to return, as other things have gone down the toilet extremely quickly for my poor ladies who still remain there. :(

On the way home, I thought I was going to run out of fuel – my Polo has a 45 litre tank, check out how much petrol it took when I got to the station! Two and a half months out of one tank of fuel was pretty awesome, the last time I filled up was at Costco back on 31 August.

Chickens, food, Happy Snoskred

My Living Space

6 Comments Posted on October 10, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

I suppose I am a little odd. Not everyone has a full size plastic skeleton hanging out in their lounge room. I know, that is totally unbelievable, right? Why doesn’t everyone have a Carter? :) But, we had some people drop by the other day and we are so used to Carter neither of us thought to warn our visitors they were about to encounter him. They were a little freaked out when they spotted him.

My recliner is the chair with the blue rug. Let us take a closer look.

Tissues, laptop, tv remotes, water glass, all within reach.

This space used to be cluttered, but I have streamlined, and also did a little re-organising, so all the things that would clutter up this space are now re-organised.

Hand cream, nail clippers and Sally Hansen Hard As Nails which I swear by, nail polish remover, cuticle tools, dental floss, general body care items that you might need in the course of a day are now living together in this cute basket I got from Hot Dollar.

This is what I see from my recliner. There are my trusty cordless headphones. There are my cotton buds. There on the floor is the pair of socks the little kitty picks up with her mouth and runs around with, then throws them on the floor and attacks them. They must have done something really bad to deserve this treatment! ;)

Here’s a look at my remotes, and my clipboard. That might contain a project I am working on – at the moment I have printouts of my blogroll, because I am trying to drop by and say hi to everyone on it. Other times, it might have todays To Do list on there.

It is blank right now, because I Got All My Shiznit Done! YAY!

Oh, why do I have a copy of the alphabet printed out there? I seriously am terrible at alphabetizing things. If I do not have that piece of paper, I do the mental abcdefg thing in my head, and that takes up more time than I would like, so I just printed it out and I keep it there, it works for me.

Next week on Friday I will be sharing my daily routine with you. I am really Getting Shiznit Done here, people, and it is all thanks to my set routine on weekdays. 4 hours each day of solid writing or chore time.

The post you are reading today, I wrote this on the 16th of September. On this blog I already have some blog posts – like the Wordless Wednesdays – scheduled out to December already. No kidding.

On the Rewatch Breaking Bad blog, I am writing the post for Season 2 episode 2 today. I’ve upped the posting schedule to twice a week and even so, that blog is already scheduled out to the end of September and this week, I am planning to write one post a day over there. If I can do that for 2 weeks, I’ll be scheduled out to the end of October very quickly.

Happy moments all around!

About Snoskred, Carter

Life Rules

2 Comments Posted on October 9, 2014August 24, 2015 by Snoskred

Sometimes, as a person with Aspergers, I make mistakes.

It would be so much easier for me if I would allow myself to delete them and pretend like they never happened. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we could all do that, when we screw up?

But if I did that, I would learn nothing from those mistakes. These mistakes must remain in existence for a reason. I made myself a life rule some years ago – I must never delete something I type. Even when it would be so much easier.

These mistakes come along when I am feeling comfortable enough with people to type things I should not type, the things I should only think and never allow to be typed out loud.

And isn’t that an awful thing – to know that every time you begin to get comfortable with people, to settle in, to be accepted, to feel like a part of a community, that you are going to screw that up, possibly in un-fixable ways.

It makes me want to retreat, to hide, to disappear. And that is dangerous in itself.

I know I’m a good person. I’m generous, with my time, with my money, with others. But like everyone, I am not perfect.

Believe me, that thing I said wrong, I’ll still be kicking my own butt over it months, maybe even years later, long after you have forgotten it. That is the only way I can learn and make progress and not make that mistake the next time..

About Snoskred, Asperger Syndrome, life lessons

Signs That Lead Towards Depression Town.

1 Comment Posted on October 3, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Everyone experiences depression in their own way..

As someone who has been back in that hole a couple of times now, I know when I stop doing some simple everyday things, I’m on my way back there. And just in case, I’ll share those here – your mileage may of course vary.

1. I stop listening to music

When the thoughts in my head tell me music playing while doing my chores is too annoying or irritating, there’s a sign.

2. I stop lighting candles and burning incense

They might sound like nothing but these things are important to me mentally and I recognise that now.

3. I stop accepting invites

When it is safer to stay at home in my safe place than to go out into the world and see people I know and love, that is a bad sign.

4. I stop eating well

Something in my mind says my body is not worthy of decent food or the time and energy it takes to create decent food. I certainly do not feel like experimenting or trying any new recipes.

5. I stop doing chores

Clutter begins to pile up, and that in itself causes me to feel depressed.

6. I stop taking my vitamins

I can’t be bothered putting them in the little pill containers ready for taking daily, and I can’t be bothered taking them out of their larger containers daily. As a consequence my nails become brittle (hair and nails is the most important vitamin for me) and my immune system becomes less awesome at dealing with things (I take 2x echinacea daily).

7. I stop caring about – and following – my daily routine

Having a daily routine is very important to me – almost too much so. When I’m not depressed, if I don’t get to follow my regular routine for too many days together I begin to lose the plot a little. When I start to not care about following the routine, I know I’m in trouble.

8. I sleep more than usual

– Usual for me is 8-9 hours, anything more than that on a regular basis (and I don’t mean one off situations like I have a cold or I slept badly the night before) and I know I’m on that road back to depression

When I spot any of these signs on a regular basis, especially more than one of them at a time, I know it is time to seek medical assistance and/or head back to my counsellor. I also know that I need to *make* myself do these things for a little while, because if I can just keep doing them I can avoid that hole. :)

That is my situation and as always everyone may find theirs to be different. :)

Please to note – those in Australia – if you know anyone who is suffering from depression, anxiety, or other forms of mental illness, one of the best first steps to take is to see your local GP and ask about creating a mental health plan. You currently can receive up to 10 free sessions with a psychologist every 12 months under this plan.

Also, you can check out Beyond Blue to get support and find more resources. You can also call Lifeline on 131114.

You can also talk with your doctor about whether anti-depressants would be worthwhile for you.

Some people are opposed to taking medication for depression. When those people tell me this, I ask them if they are also opposed to insulin for diabetics, or opposed to blood thinners for people with blood clots, or opposed to this list does go on for some time. I make sure to ask if they are opposed to everything from giving children nurofen or panadol right through to organ transplants. And believe you me, if someone is silly enough to make that statement in my presence, they are going to get asked the *entire* list of things. :) I’m wacky like that.

Depression is more than just a low mood – it’s a serious illness that has an impact on both physical and mental health, and medication can be important in treating it in order to correct the chemistry of the brain which may be out of whack. Yep, that is my technical term for that, however you can google if you want to know more about that. Here is a good article to start with but it is quite technical.

depression, life lessons