Everything Snoskred

parent

My Aspie Super Powers

11 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

hibiscus

Number Memory

This is a strange phenomenon which was incredibly handy for call centre work. When I see a number and it is a number I have called before, I know instantly who that number belongs to. It is kind of like inbuilt caller ID.

We had a computer switchboard and when someone dialed out to a number, you could see the number they were calling. For most people that is where it would end, but me, I knew they were calling the ranger for X council, or the emergency contact for X client. I would not be able to recite that same number from memory though – if you asked me the number for X ranger I would have to go and look it up like everyone else.

Just to give you an idea of how epic this super power is, we had over a thousand clients and about 50-60 councils that we took calls for and I would recognise 95% of outgoing numbers other operators called. Even if I had only called the number once myself. I cannot tell you *how* I do this. It just happens magically.

In addition, any clients and customers who called in regularly from a mobile, I knew who was calling before I answered. I’d do the greeting and then say Hi Name without taking a breath, and they would always be like.. how did you know it was me? I’d joke and say I was psychic and would they like next weeks lotto numbers.. :)

Numberplate Memory

Similar to inbuilt caller ID, I would only have to see the numberplate of a friend or family member once to remember that is their vehicle. Oddly, I know all the numberplates for Volkswagen Polos in the Shoalhaven, and when I see one driving, I can tell you where I normally see it parked. I guess this would be inbuilt number plate ID.

Filing Cabinet Mind

In the call centre, I could be on the phone with someone having a conversation but at the same time, my mind was hearing *all* the other conversations going on around me and filing those details away in case I needed them. One of my roles was to follow up on the calls other people had taken, so this super power was truly incredible for me – I never needed to read the log to see what had happened, I already knew.

This happens when I am out and about in the world as well – I can be having a conversation with someone in a coffee shop and I am hearing every other conversation and filing those nuggets away. It is subconscious and unconscious, I do not know I am doing it until my mind pulls out those nuggets when I need them.

Filing Cabinet Of Bitchery

At the same time I was filing all those conversations, if two staff members were having a conversation about another staff member, that would be filed away in my cabinet too, except my mind would replay that conversation to me later as a surprise to myself when things were quiet. It did not matter how far away the conversation would be – if it was in the same room and people were whispering, I still got it. This leads us to –

Super Hearing

One reason I like to use my cordless headset around the house – I can hear every noise both outside and inside loudly and clearly in my head. If a bird is tweeting, I hear it. If there is a jet flying thousands of feet above, I hear it. Leaves rustling on the concrete, I hear it.

My headset blocks a lot of that extra noise out – in fact it does too good a job – The Other Half can sneak up on me when I am wearing it. Sometimes I’ll wear it with no sound at all, just to block out all those uninteresting and unnecessary noises. Some of the noises irritate me enormously and if I don’t put my headset on, I will just sit there and be annoyed about that noise. Like a running engine that isn’t going anywhere, or a dog barking constantly.

Video In My Head

If I have seen a video clip for a song, I will always see that video clip in my mind when the song plays. If I have seen a movie, I can replay it in my head without any need for DVDs or a TV screen. My memory for lines is better than any actor could dream of – I can tell you specific lines for a movie I saw once 20 years ago. Not all the lines, usually just the ones I most enjoyed or loved.

Ninja Focus

My ability to focus on what I am doing and shut all distractions out while simultaneously filing all those nuggets of information away plus noting who everyone else is calling is pretty amazing. The only thing that can break that Ninja focus is an unexpected sound stream like music, a barking dog or someone whistling. When those things happen, my mind wants to focus in on those noises and forget what I am focused on. I find it really difficult to work if music is playing, yet I have no problem working with a multitude of voices having different conversations around me.

These are just a few of the super powers I have been given – there are more. A lot of them are inbuilt and not something I would notice.

There are some limitations that Aspergers puts on me, and I’ll talk about those next time.

About Snoskred, Asperger Syndrome

IKEA Haul

18 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

biscuits1

When it was time to take the Aunt and Uncle back to the airport after their visit in August – another Aunt and Uncle were also going somewhere that day – they were flying to China. Arrangements were made for a trip using both cars because the Chinese trippers had 4 very large suitcases full of vitamins and baby formula.

meatballs

Added in was a meeting with my sister and her partner for lunch at the St George Rowers Club. Because we’d just spent a week with everyone toodling and gallivanting, and we wanted to make sure my sister & co had plenty of family time, we dropped them off at the Rowers and headed to the very close by Ikea at Tempe for a Swedish meatball lunch, and to pick up some items we needed.

ikea2

Over our many visits to IKEA, I have discovered the short cuts between various areas. I spotted a staff member going through a very large plastic door to one of the other sections – there was no sign saying staff only so I figured there was no reason I couldn’t use that door myself. Then I found other doors, and on one visit we were really hungry and discovered if you take a left at the top of the escalators, you could go right to the cafe.

ikea1

Maybe the shortcuts are a new addition to the maps, or maybe back when we started going there I was so deer in the headlights I did not even read the maps. I’m not sure. I was surprised to see them on the maps as I always felt like it was a bit of a secret squirrel thing. ;)

What we most needed were tealight candles and large square oven trays. They had some new flavours to try – the coconut one is very awesome.

sinnlig

These DRÖMMAR oven trays are huge and fit nicely in our new oven.

oventrays

I also got some more of these cups which I’ve had several sets of – these ones are a different colour. Christmas colours, you could say. Two of these cups = one bottle of Soda Stream.

sommar2015

They had my favourite rubbish bin in pink this time which I could not resist.

haul3

We thought these mugs were a decent size for the second coffee cup of the day, and we’ve been enjoying them afternoons when The Other Half arrives home. I like mine with a side of the ginger Ikea biscuits we bought.

haul2

I got some straws for spring and summer milkshakes and smoothies – I picked up a second egg slicer as I was using our present one daily and thought a second would be handy – we thought we would try this glass storage container and if we like it next time we are there we will pick up some more.

haul1

I spotted these gorgeous metal candle holders near the bathrooms next to the restaurant. I did not pick any up, thinking they would be found in the market hall. Of course, they were nowhere to be seen there, and I had to trek all the way back upstairs. I’ve got a silver pineapple and now these, there is a bit of a silver theme running on my candle shelf. I love that they reflect different shapes onto the wall.

candleholders

I took a couple of candles from each packet to put in my small container and stored the rest away together in the candle container. They will keep me going for quite some time, even though I am burning candles daily here.

sinnlig10

We also loved these bathmats. We put them on the floor for the kitties to sniff and roadtest. We have one bathmat with an inside of memory foam and neither of them will walk on it, because it feels weird to their feet. They like these new ones, though. They got right onto scenting them up.

bathmats

Happy moments were had by all. :)

Happy Snoskred, IKEA, shopping

Asperger Syndrome – Being Diagnosed

23 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

bird1

I have not really talked a lot about my Asperger Syndrome diagnosis here on the blog. I want to talk a little more about it and also about the journey I am taking – looking back at life happenings through a new filter and seeing how almost everything that has occurred in my life has been tied up with Aspergers – and how things make a lot more sense to me now. I’ve decided to schedule one post a month on this topic for the foreseeable future.

Today I thought I would share a little bit about exactly how my diagnosis came about, before going back in time to explore past events through the glasses of the diagnosis. There are some parts I am a little foggy about, so I ask you in advance to forgive me those.

I was diagnosed in 2009 by a wonderful psychologist that I was seeing for depression and anxiety. I was telling her about a visit by my nephews – one of whom has mild autism – and how that nephew and I had played lego together. I said something like –

So we talked about it and we decided to sort out all the blocks into groups because that would make it easier to build things. We grouped together the blocks with 2 dots, 4 dots, 6 dots, 8 dots, etc. Then I wanted to build a house but my nephew said “Auntie, you always want to build houses. Why don’t we try to build something else?” And we build this enormous lego boat with a tower on top.

My psychologist asked me if I always had sorted the blocks before doing any building. I said yes, because I liked to be able to reach out and grab the right sized block that I needed rather than having to look through a box or pile of lego. That, put together with the fact that we do have more than one family member with autism, plus some other things she had observed in me during our time together, was the thing that made her hand me a brochure about Asperger Syndrome.

It was almost the end of the session, so she handed it to me and asked me to take it home and read through the various “symptoms” and put a tick next to any that I felt applied to me. The next session I handed it back to her and there were quite a few ticks. So she gave me a diagnostic test of some kind – I forget what the name of it was now.

It turned out that I was on the “Autism Spectrum” as they call it. It is really difficult to find a good list of symptoms like she had handed me on the web but here are a couple that are fairly decent – here and here. Here are some online tests that you can do.

In many ways being diagnosed was an enormous relief because it told me that there were good and reasonable reasons for things that had happened to me in the past – times where I had thought I was the problem and times when I had been told my personality was a problem for other people. I’ve been looking back at those times with my present psychologist and making a new sense out of them.

Being an Aspie is not all bad though it does present some serious challenges for me. I have some brilliant things that I like to call my Aspie superpowers. That is what I will talk about in my next post on this subject. :)

About Snoskred, Asperger Syndrome

Ice Spheres

15 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

sphere

When I was little, my Grandma had this wonderful ice block which would create round ice cubes. I loved that thing. There is something about an ice sphere that is so pleasing to me. So when we saw some wacky sphere ice cube moulds at Kmart for $2.00 we thought we would pick them up and give them a try. It was a trip down memory lane for me, somewhat.

sphere1

To begin with they were quite successful, though, over-filling them did create an Icicle Incident in the freezer.

sphere2

However as time went on, they developed leaks where you open the spheres to let the ice out, and generally caused a mess and became a bit of an epic fail. Instead of spheres, you got half a sphere and then a space with no ice because that water had leaked out onto the plate I kept them on. I could probably have filled them a second time once they had frozen enough to seal, but it was a little too much hassle and annoyance rather than fun.

sphere5

We’ve stopped using them now because of this epic failure. I’ll keep looking for something more like this and hopefully one day I might find one that makes the mini ice balls like my Grandma used to make.

sphere4

Grandmas was more like this but it had 3 lines of ice spheres. I already have an ice cube tray which makes those large square ice cubes and for the time being I will enjoy those.

Late Breaking Ice Sphere Update

icesphere99

At the end of August, during our fortnightly Aldi shop, we spotted these ice sphere moulds.

orb1

This mould makes large ice spheres very successfully. If they have some more of these on our next visit, I intend to pick up a couple more.

icespheres999

They are not wrong when they say it creates a slow melting ice sphere. I made a drink at 6pm and by 8pm there was still a sizeable sphere in the glass. I suspect these will be fantastic in summer. Now, if only I can find a triangle ice mould, things could get really mathematical! :)

Over to you

Do you like a wacky ice cube? :) Do you have any ice cube memories?

family, growing up, Home

RNT Company Scam

411 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

With thanks to Mary Villahermosa who posted this email on the LCN Company Scam post – as I suspected these scammers have now changed their name.

Hello,

At this moment we have full-time and partial position.

RNT Company is a worldwide goods retailer so your central tasks will include sales support for deals held in Australia: keep the data of all the purchases and payments; communicate with our clients in America, Eastern Europe and Asia; do all the necessary service and support to our sales office.

You will have up to 3500 AUD monthly plus benefits for the part-time vacancy and for full-time post – 5500 AUD monthly plus benefits. We have a probation period, during which you will be trained and guided. This period is also paid.

Conditions are easy. You just need to have computer with access to the Internet, also basic Excel skills (the software must be pre-installed), negotiation experience.

Please respond to us back. CV will be a great plus for our HR team.

Have a great day!

PLEASE Don’t Tell Them!

It seems these scammers were using a template from LMP Company and they have switched names because the very first result for LMP Company now leads to scamwarners. Now, LCN Company leads to my post that it is a scam. So they are now changing their name to RNT Company.

So – please – do not tell scammers that their company name is listed here or anywhere else on the web as a scam – it will take them mere seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be easily searchable for any future victims to find.

How Do You Know This Job Is A Scam?

This is a fake job scam. You can read more about how these scams work at Scamwatch.

In this case it seems they are direct depositing stolen or fraudulent funds into the bank accounts of scam victims. The money will appear to be legit to begin with. They will ask you to transfer funds to them via Western Union or Moneygram. It may take up to a year for the transaction to be reversed but it WILL be reversed and when it is, you will be required to pay the money back to the bank.

Mega Important Note!!

If you got this email from a different name and email address, please leave a comment asap, you can use a fake name and email address to post the comment if you like. I’ll regularly add in other names, email addresses, website addresses, and any other info you can provide in to the post. It will help other people who are searching for the names. Thanks everyone who leaves a comment, it WILL stop people from getting scammed. :)

If your email was slightly different, or you have further emails from these scammers, please post them in the comments. Your comment will go to moderation and I will double check before it is posted to make sure there is no identifying information eg your email address or your details.

I expect they will be spamming their scam posts out to a multitude of email addresses over coming days, so please help out and give us the email address they are using, so that other people searching for that email address can find this post.

I gave them my bank account details?

If you gave them the account name, BSB and account number, they can easily print fake cheques with that information. You definitely need to speak to your bank about this ASAP.

In this particular instance, you may find they deposit a sum into your account – or they may send your account a payment from a stolen credit card. If that happens, DO NOT touch that money, because eventually the bank will reverse that payment.

If it were my bank details, I would close that account as a matter of great urgency. Speak to your bank as soon as you can, and they will likely advise you to do that.

I would advise anyone caught out by this scam to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and also to Scamwatch via this form. The scam victim may be able to sort out a deal with the bank where the bank pays some – or all – of the losses.

More About Scams

You can see my collection of fake cheques collected from fake job scams here – Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year!

You can read more about internet safety and scams here – Internet Safety & Scams – What You Need To Know.

The LCN Post –

Since it was posted on June 4th 2015, almost 9,000 people arrived at my website specifically by searching for words and email addresses that appeared in the LCN Company Team Scam post. That post received nearly 300 comments and I personally received and replied to hundreds of emails and contact forms with email addresses, URLs, further emails, and other important information which helped people find out that was a scam.

Thank You

For reading this post. Thank you for leaving a comment if you have any further information which will help other potential scam victims to find this post as well. :) You can contact me privately via this page if you like, I will reply – usually within 24 hours – if you provide a valid email address.

Further Emails –

Dear NAME,

We would like to offer position of Administrative Assistant at our company. Please, find more information about us and this position below.

RNT is a leading distributor of finest designer goods. Currently it is one of the most important specializing in online sales. With more than 5 years of experience in the designer goods industry. We offer a continuous renovation in our collections, following the latest trends in each country and season, thus satisfying the demand of clients. We always keep in mind that prices are an important factor when it comes to sales.

We are looking for a responsible person in Australia who will be ready to incur all necessary activities. Our candidate should be highly motivated. We believe that the experience is not the most important thing. The key to success is a fresh look and bold ideas!

The main duties of Administrative Assistant:

– Helping Entity’s Sales Department as a special projects support
– Data entry and other functions as specified in the instruction
– Running reports for all completed deals and wire transfers
– Providing overall administrative maintenance such as making of letters, processing purchase orders and transaction reports etc.
– Emailing correspondence every day

Hours: Full-time or part-time schedule possible. Your schedule can be irregular. For a part time variant – you will spend 3 hours per day average, from Monday to Friday.

Salary: Essential pay for a part time job is 840AUD on a weekly basis
plus 5 percent commission. Full-time job pay is 1300AUD on a weekly basis plus commission.

You will be on Probation period for your first month.

I’m sending you Application Form and short presentation of RNT(you can
find it attached to this email). You can find full job description in
the brochure(pages: 9-18). Please read it carefully, complete and send
it back to me via email or by fax +1-832-248-2766. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you,
Sarah Robson

Names & Email Addresses being used –

Sarah Robson – sarahrobson@rnt-hr.com – Jayne Womble – womble.jayne27h4@hotmail.com – boyd.paulitanp@hotmail.com – seguin.vickey650@hotmail.com – reimann.ashleyt44@hotmail.com – herman.goughj928@hotmail.com – dirk.cortez0hk@hotmail.com – solorio.leonej8e7@hotmail.com – branden.farrand76@hotmail.com = fawn.gainer237@hotmail.com

luettajtdillehayov0521@hotmail.com – luiseysyettofw7303@hotmail.com – lurlinegvgaylordpe6021@hotmail.com – lurazofluetbk0104@hotmail.com – luisehnevermanw9849@hotmail.com – luezmhieberwt3053@hotmail.com – luratxgerldo7425@hotmail.com – luisehnevermanw9849@hotmail.com – luznmogrenk0669@hotmail.com – lucreciaqhessingw5257@hotmail.com – luveniamdmermelsteindz7499@hotmail.com – luvisomesub@hotmail.com –

lurlenecsehmeriz1830@hotmail.com – luiseuvoorhiesv4156@hotmail.com – rakarai1979@mail.com – luettaqqmccabeap0317@hotmail.com – lulaggoldingert1009@hotmail.com – lunaykarbowskir1607@hotmail.com – lucinagkealohah2780@hotmail.com – luisnvcanelapk9601@hotmail.com – luiseysyettofw7303@hotmail.com – luisnvcanelapk9601@hotmail.com – Luiseyhreyerif0819@hotmail.com – lupitaiwcarninegp1870@hotmail.com –

lulagoldingert1009@Hotmail.com – ludieachristensenq7500@hotmail.com – sararobson@rnt-job.com – lurahctorresdn9533@hotmail.com – ludieachristensenq7500@hotmail.com – lurlenepdominquei2103@hotmail.com – sararobson@workrnt.com – lurlinegvgaylordpe6021@hotmail.com – antoninaumatskot0015@hotmail.com

susydsaultsb3407@hotmail.com – maidapstrongt8112@hotmail.com – constance.greenblatti36q@hotmail.com – corrinvjoasr0727@hotmail.com – geniawcaparrosn1297@hotmail.com – sixtadgulinsony7767@hotmail.com – fredianhanekampd2350@hotmail.com – cammyhengquistr9677@hotmail.com – twanaccrispj7504@hotmail.com – geniawcaparrosn1297@hotmail.com – alicendarlingtonu9334@hotmail.com – tiannaaocallaghanj7164@hotmail.com –

nereidaccastellanoa2013@hotmail.com – jeanellemrufust7780@hotmail.com – margaritedswaggertyw4873@hotmail.com – luisalkiersteadm4914@hotmail.com – laurettahburrighto9272@hotmail.com – kenyaspagetz0655@hotmail.com – alicendarlingtonu9334@hotmail.com – lorriqgohny3142@hotmail.com – lusethacheryy0808@hotmail.com – sararobson@workrnt.com – ceceliaxmalinem7261@hotmail.com – e-tote@freemail.hu – chelseaxlinkowskia3144@hotmail.com

alecpinero@mail.com – tinishatvicek7652@hotmail.com – zelmaokennas6535@hotmail.com – sybilflydiau6925@hotmail.com – nidaqkeattsu5992@hotmail.com – sherillymcelveenq4864@hotmail.com – Juho Huomo – alannanoseig7823@hotmail.com – karagdopazob6406@hotmail.com – letishaamastellerr4791@hotmail.com – lenitantselees9678@hotmail.com – ThomasBruce@alumnidirector.com – alannanoseig7823@homail.com – shanakkermanm5234@hotmail.com –

tinishatvicek7652@hotmail.com – sherylysundbergb3096@hotmail.com – kyungoimasterapa8814@hotmail.com – aureliaogollerj7552@hotmail.com – aureliaogollerj7552@hotmail.com – sirenalgehretd0939@hotmail.com – esterkmoulz7723@hotmail.com – ardellarsandstromt7200@hotmail.com – johannagdelozierp1783@hotmail.com – noemiqfriskneyy3396@hotmail.com – Vanitancallejor9522@hotmail.com – rachelecnduemmelos0877@hotmail.com –

ardellarsandstromt7200@hotmail.com – theabvyeamansl5409@hotmail.com – alannanoseig7823@homail.com – maek@hot-shot.com – rachelecnduemmelos0877@hotmail.com – letishaamastellerr4791@hotmail.com – karajqlouisbz5389@hotmail.com – kindratrseabrooksji7014@hotmail.com – elenorszhazlegroveii9070@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – karajqlouisbz5389@hotmail.com – nidaqkeattsu5992@hotmail.com –

dannetteegbenyamindm9355@hotmail.com – glynisdacorlezu7276@hotmail.com – johannagdelozierp1783@hotmail.com – tawanajsteenburghe4250@hotmail.com – marlinekpasterv6463@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – carahksteerecw8565@hotmail.com – shiraeilunfordfa8623@hotmail.com – johannagdelozierp1783@hotmail.com – elenorszhazlegroveii9070@hotmail.com – clarissaawoodenu3892@hotmail.com – leisaqzingallsjh4402@hotmail.com

ettiehbheppnerzw1108@hotmail.com – yanirafushartrandfg9030@hotmail.com – leisaqzingallsjh4402@hotmail.com – akikoyjallinxc8263@hotmail.com – theabvyeamansl5409@hotmail.com – elenorszhazlegroveii9070@hotmail.com – alannanoseig7823@hotmail.com – azucenadwklaphakeys6702@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – glynisdacorlezu7276@hotmail.com – hermelindavboudreaud13@hotmail.com – akikoyjallinxc8263@hotmail.com

azucenadwklaphakeys6702@hotmail.com – ardellarsandstromt7200@hotmail.com – florenciaqzbroadbentck4621@hotmail.com – leisaqzingallsjh4402@hotmail.com – carahksteerecw8565@hotmail.com – noemiqfriskneyy3396@hotmail.com – luannaektibbertpp0678@hotmail.com – vanitancallejor9522@hotmail.com – kyungoimasterapa8814@hotmail.com – lenitantselees9678@hotmail.com – luannaektibbertpp0678@hotmail.com – shanakkerzmanm5234@hotmail.com –

fawn.gainer@hotmail.com – rachelecnduemmeloso877@hotmail.com – zelmaokennas6535@hotmail.com – nidaqkeattsu5992@hotmail.com – sararobson@rntrecruit.com – dannetteegbenyamindm9355@hotmail.com – sybilflydiau6925@hotmail.com – sherylysunderbergb3096@hotmail.com – clarissaawoodenu3892@hotmail.com – tawanajsteenburghe4250@hotmail.com –

Angry Snoskred, job scams, www safety

Pineapple Collection

18 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

pineapples
Gold and Silver pineapples at Pillowtalk

A while back, Kirsten over at Kirsten & Co wrote this post – My DIY Bar Cart Project – and in the comments I mentioned I would check out Target to see if I could get me one of the gold pineapples. When visiting Shellharbour to see Take That live back in July, I did drop into Kmart and they did not have any gold pineapples left. They did have metallic pink ones, but every single one was slightly damaged.

With my Kmart pineapples I bought as gifts for family, I regularly visited until I found a non-damaged pineapple. We have a Kmart nearby so regular visits was not a problem. With Target being a two hour round trip, regular visits were not going to happen.

pineapples2

My friend who I went to see Take That live with suggested that I visit Pillowtalk to see if they had any pineapples. And it turned out, they did. The gold one was a little pricey for me at $49.95, but they are local and I can keep checking back until they go on special or on clearance which they eventually will.

pineapples3

So, I bought the silver pineapple for $29.95 from Pillowtalk, and added it to my candle shelf in the entry way. I can see it from where I presently sit, reflecting the late afternoon sun rays from the sliding door. When it is night time, lighting the candles creates a lovely reflection from the silver pineapple, and also from the gold foil sleigh I have sitting on that shelf.

pineapples1

The yellow one was originally a gift to my sister, but apparently it did not suit her partner and his design ethics and standards (alternatively it could be because he is an a**hole), and thus it was left behind when they went home after their visit.

After all those visits to Kmart to get a perfect one, I figured it would fit in well at my house, though yellow might not have been my personal first choice of colour. They had white and jade ones too, once upon a time. I never saw a perfect jade one, I did find a perfect white one which I gave to my parents, and it now sits on their stairwell shelf.

pineapples4

So now that I have two pineapples, I guess I am starting a pineapple collection. I’ve seen a couple of others I would like to add eventually, as well. Kmart no longer stocks the pineapples, at least, not that I could find on my recent visits, otherwise I would still be trying for a jade one because that was gorgeous.

I will like to mention, Happy Actual Birthday to Sephyroth today. You may recall I changed his birthday to February, for reasons I explained in this post.

Sadly though, the movie Triple 9 which was meant to be released today has been delayed until March 2016.

Happy Snoskred, Home, Sephyroth

Sunday Selections Week 36

15 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

aaplants

I had zero plans to garden this year. Three Sydney Funnelwebs have been found on this property since Autumn. For those of you not familiar with this creature, it is extremely venomous and quite aggressive. Never fear, there are no spider images here. I would not do that to you! Arachnophobes know better than to post certain pics as a surprise to other people.

aagloves

But then, I saw these gorgeous gloves at Aldi, and I re-thought my zero gardening plan. Maybe I would feel more comfortable wearing a pair of substantial gloves. We tried them on – The Other Half got large ones, my hands fit perfectly into medium.

aanast2

My zero plans were quadrupled into “no *#@!&*%$ way am I gardening this year” when two absolute nitwits posted images on a local community group of Sydney Funnelwebs they had found out and about after the floods. UNSUBSCRIBE ME URGENTLY! I left both groups. Life is way too short for spider images on my Facebook feed. The damage was done, though. My skin crawled for an entire week. Not cool at all!

aachooks

These people had put these creatures into plastic containers with sawdust, which implies keeping the creature long term. That freaks me out. Plus I feel like it is a bit cruel to the spiders. Not quite as cruel as what my chickens do to them which is dead them and eat them. But if they are found on my property, I’m backing the chickens 100% – dead them and eat them, girls!

aachooks2

Gardening this year was back on my agenda despite the images, because the chooks have been getting plenty of free range time and they have been spending a lot of it in the garden bed. I’ve compromised with a – sort of – gardening plan.

aaplanter

I decided to put some baby spinach, silverbeet, and brussel sprouts into the large planter box. I’m not sure how it will go because last year the kale was a massive failure in there – many moths laid eggs on it and they never grew the way they should have. I might end up screening this planter box in, if that happens again this year.

aanasturtiums

Into the large garden bed, I planted two Nasturtium plants. There is already one Nasturtium down the back and when the chooks are in the garden bed they mostly leave it alone. There are bugs to dig for, ain’t no chook got time to be eating plants! If I pull some out and throw it into the chook pen they gobble it up with great glee, because they have usually already eaten all the bugs in there before midday. I will buy any new varieties that I see of this plant because I love the flowers *and* humans and the chooks can eat it.

aaeggs

The chooks are on the lay again – on average I am getting 3-4 eggs a day. When I make my snacks, I sometimes mix a Manning Valley egg in with the girls small eggs, which are the largest ones they sell.

If I were *not* an Arachnophobe, I would post a picture of this little orb weaver which I see every single day when I check the chook coop for eggs. It has found a tiny home in a small screw hole on the chook pen and every day when the sun rises, it folds itself into this teeny spot.

I’m ok with certain kinds of spider making a home around the chook pen – they help with catching mosquitos and flies. Once I know where the web is, I am not likely to walk into it by mistake. The only thing that spider has to worry about is the chooks, who will eat any spider they see. Luckily they cannot reach where it is, nor could they see it unless he moved. It is well camouflaged. My little friend will find many tasty treats this spring and summer.

If I see one of those scary aggressive venomous creatures, I’m probably going to want to be on the next flight to Antarctica. I’m certainly not going to be putting it into a plastic container, nor will I be trying to kill it myself, and there will be a lot of screaming.. You’ll hear it, wherever you are.. :)

Would you like to join in with Sunday Selections? 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 –

Loads of goings on here at home, but nothing especially exciting that has not already been turned into a future blog post. My readers who have zero interest in Mr Robot can skip this next bit because it is a Mr Robot Finale Festival! ;)

framingmrrobot

The Mr Robot finale was awesome in some ways, but also slightly disappointing in some ways. I think the extra week of waiting meant that my expectations were very high..

mrrobot99

Alan Sepinwall said “What a fascinating, off-kilter, 100% “Mr. Robot” way to end this season” and on reflection I have to agree with that concept. I have not re-watched it yet purely because I did not feel ready to – I’m letting it sink in first. One thing I do know, that scene in Times Square was an enormous explosion of colour in a usually quite muted show colour palette.

mrrobotvisual

I’ve collected up a roundup of interviews and linkage for you. SPOILER ALERT – there are spoilers in these interviews. You do not want to click unless you have seen the entire 10 episodes of Mr Robot.

Interviews with Rami Malek

‘Mr. Robot’ Star Rami Malek on the ‘Emotional’ Season Finale (SPOILERS)
Rami Malek of USA’s ‘Mr. Robot’ | ‘The Andy Greenwald Podcast’ – This interview is older but was deeply excellent. Grantland has a lot of Mr Robot content – Grantland – Mr Robot
Rami & Twin Sami on Jimmy Kimmel – Having a twin is a great way to figure out what you would look like with a beard and a different hairstyle.

Interviews with Christian Slater –

Christian Slater weighs in on Mr. Robot twist and season finale
Mr. Robot Speaks: Christian Slater on ‘Mr. Robot’s’ Shocking, Roanoke-Delayed Finale and Season 2

Interview with BD Wong –

BD Wong on Why Mr. Robot’s Portrayal of a Transgender Character Is Radical

Interviews with Sam Esmail –

Sam Esmail Joins Andy Greenwald To Discuss ‘Mr. Robot’ First Season This is an hour long video interview – it was brilliant
Mr. Robot’s creator ‘did everything in my power’ to telegraph the big twist
Mr. Robot finale: Creator Sam Esmail answers burning questions
‘Mr. Robot’ Boss Talks Finale and Season 2: Elliot “Is Past the Point of No Return”
Mr. Robot Creator Sam Esmail on His Plans for Season Two and What the Show Is Really All About
‘Mr. Robot’ Finale: Series Creator On White Rose, The Wellicks & Elliot’s Memory Dump In Season 2
So… what did you think? – Sam Esmail asked what people thought over on Reddit and he also replied to a few of the comments.

Opinion re the finale –

How the Mr. Robot Finale Tumbled Backward into Its Most Piercing Social Message Yet
How Mr. Robot Killed the Centerpiece of Prestige Television: Capitalism
How Mr. Robot Became One of TV’s Most Visually Striking Shows
Mr. Robot had a perfect season on Rotten Tomatoes

About the mail program Elliot uses –

‘Mr. Robot’: How A New Product Feature Was Incorporated By ProtonMail After Discussions With The Producers

Over To You –

Anything interesting happening in your world? :)

Chickens, garden, Happy Snoskred, Mr Robot, Sunday Selections, weekly wrap up

Woolworths, We’re Breaking Up.

18 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

image

Its not me, Woolworths, it’s you. It has been you for a while now. It began with stock I wanted to buy not being on the shelves even though there was a space and a price ticket for those items. It continued with mouldy fresh food – from the “fresh food people” that is especially disturbing.

Then, you never had enough staff on the checkouts, and after waiting more than 20 minutes to check out on several occasions even though I had less than 12 items each time, I was deeply annoyed.

woolworths

You kept sending me offers which clearly your marketing boffins are behind which were nowhere near as good as the offers that Coles were sending me – I was offered $50 credit at Coles in return for spending $70 a week for 4 weeks.. which = $280 -50 = $230 @Coles VS $300 -30 = $270 for 3 weeks @ Woolworths. A big splooshy raspberry to that!

At this point I was more than ready to break up with you. The one reason I went back – Coles only stock small Twisties packets and I wanted the larger packet.

But then, the final two straws.

woolworths1
Did you know your catalog now sucks?

Each fortnight, when I shop, I look at the catalog for Coles, then the catalog for Woolworths. I do the main shop at Aldi and then visit Coles and Woolworths for items on special which cannot be purchased from Aldi. Woolworths decided to change the catalog.

woolworths6

With this new catalog, to view *all* of each page, you have to use the scroll bar on the side.

woolworths7

This is extremely annoying, especially when so often the bit you scroll down to see is boring advertising junk that has NOTHING to do with shopping! And then, they fill double page spreads with this junk!

earnnlearn

Well, Woolworths, I DECLINE THIS CONCEPT. Even so, I thought I would still give you a chance to earn some of my $$, by using the *paper* catalog which arrives in my letterbox. But no.

finalstraw1

You don’t want me reading your catalogs, online, or paper. You had to send me the clearest possible message.

finalstraw2

Message received. Content noted. We’re broken up, for good. KTHXBAI.

Annoyed Snoskred, bitches, country life