Browser Shenanigans …

My online world broke this morning, like this tile broke … and was rethought in the way that I’m having to rethink my desktop …

I was glad to hit on a familiar page at last with this one … my WordPress dashboard. Thankfully, it was the same as it’s always been. I heaved a sigh of relief when I arrived.

It was then 2.30 PM and I’d struggled since I sat down after breakfast and chores to get back to my familiar scenario. My troubles began when suddenly my online bank was unavailable and the helpline operator and I thought at first that I’d been hacked.

But no, my then-browser updated overnight and apparently threw up a firewall that kept me out of my bank as well as several other places. Well I thought, away with that browser. I de-defaulted it and all my problems began.

Who knew there’d be 500+/- settings, and that there’d be a whole different architecture to accustom myself to, and that there’d be a bunch of new rules? One good thing about the new old browser is that everything is easy to find. I learned more about browsers in a couple of hours than I’d learned the whole year with the de-defaulted one.

I hope all the new stuff sticks in my head, as do I hope that all the stuff I have open on the desktop stays on there when I close the laptop. That I don’t have to find it all from scratch again next time I open the lid.

And although I enthusiastically welcome the password app, I also wrote down a bunch of them. You never know when you might be shut out, and at what level.

I managed to retrieve the situation without the help of an AI assistants, I’m glad to say. What FB AI assistants are doing beggars belief.

Unproductive Day

Having it. Any Comments I might’ve wanted to make on my daily reads … thrown down the gurgler by WP.

Sorry, #Content Catnip. Sorry, #exacticablog. Sorry, the two or three others of you. Why do I have to be logged in to make a comment? Why isn’t that stated before I start typing? All my words, disappeared into the ether again.

Not that my words are of an earth-shattering quality that must be saved at all costs! Not at all. It’s the loss of a possibility to communicate that I regret.

An unproductive day represented by a stripped shrub.

There’s so much gate-keeping happening everywhere. I’m blaming that on the lessening of good online communications. I suppose it’s a good thing for face-to-face socializations. We’ll have to go back to them out of sheer frustration.

Called my Night and Day Pharmacy to repeat a couple of scripts, to be ready for the drought during the public holidays. They called me back, said they couldn’t repeat e-scripts only paper ones. Huh? Why not? Didn’t have any problem before? I called the Doctor’s surgery. Can’t get an appointment to iron the problem out till next week. Cutting it very fine again. I have 20 days supply remaining … gets me to the New Years long weekend. Nerve wracking.

But, I will say, a kind receptionist said she would call the pharmacy to see what was what. She’ll be calling me back. And she did, and she fixed the problem. I will take Reception@HealthCarePlus a bunch of flowers tomorrow. They are wonderful!

“Take the flowers on Monday,” my sister said. “They can enjoy them all week then.”

Will do.

I’m trying to sew/embroider the tiger’s face. I need something like ‘button yarn’ for the whiskers. Button Yarn? Usually I use ordinary sewing yarn doubled for sewing on buttons. I’ve never heard of Button Yarn. The ears are too big and they still have to be stuffed. I may need to re-open the neck seam and stuff the face more.

Tiger, looking kind of dumb without ears or eyes and with hanging threads.

Bleh … that reminds me of Linus.

The Same Old New Rules

Rather than becoming habits, after about two weeks of mindfully performing new rules and routines, I start to take my attention off them.

Fatal! Because I’ll start to forget them. And I bet nearly everyone one of you have the same issue.

So … a new rule I’ve been trying to make into a forever habit for over four months now, is getting mobile while using the mobile phone. IE walk around the house while talking with friends and family.

Yesterday did I do that? Hardly. Spent most of my time lounging on the couch despite hearing hints, along with the call, of busy diligence in the background.

Life admin calls need a different strategy. They usually need reference to paperwork and online forms. Although there are often lengthy waits involved, you can’t walk too far from your desk.

Such as when I called the RTA (Residential Tenants Authority) about the return of my rental bond pertaining to my unit in Coorparoo. Which I left back in March this year, about eight and a half months ago.

I was 23rd in line to a call center I was informed by a ‘kind’ call center robot. My heart sank. But I was updated every 60 seconds.

Surprisingly it only took about twenty minutes for that call center to work through that number of callers. The matter is not yet resolved, but since it was Friday afternoon, I arranged to call back next week.

My social caller a few weeks back … when I walked around the house and did almost 1000 steps toward my daily goal … and I discussed whether Brisbane will be ready for its go at hosting the Olympics eight years from now.

He doubts it. I wouldn’t know. He’s in building and has not seen any of the promised new venues even begun. Though eight years seems plenty of time, a really big venue will take that amount of time and all the available expertise all by itself.

We decided there should be a new rule. Any city taking this on–hosting the Games–should use what venues they have. Is it really necessary for the Games to grow bigger and bigger? A howl of protest would go up, I’m sure.

There. I’ve reminded myself to get back on the path to getting more active. Maybe this time I’ll remember to keep going!

Reuse, Repair, Repurpose, Recycle

Thankfully, Carindale Mall’s Apple outlet encourages people to bring in their old Apple appliances for recycling. Getting rid of my old laptop didn’t need me asking someone to drive me to the tip, I swung by on one of my shopping trips.

Ditto the iPhone wandering from cupboard to shelf to benchtop unable to be switched on. I could’ve sent it to mobilemuster.org but that would’ve meant a trip to the post office by bus and money to send.

Another initiative also in the Carindale Shopping Centre, is the Food Bank out the front of Woollies. That’s where I bring unopened food products I’ve bought and brought home, and then reading the finely printed ingredients list, discover an ingredient on my dietary exclusions list.

I love how there are beginning to be recycling opportunities in places where people need to go anyway—to not have to spend money, time, and cough out CO2 and petrol fumes—to recycle.

Camera and mobile phone places often have a box out front for batteries to be recycled. One of the bookshops takes secondhand books in good condition, which was another good discovery. As I get more books relating to the course I’m studying, I also need to send other books on their way. Shelf space is limited.

Then there are opportunities for repair. All three pairs of my bamboo socks were starting to thin in places. The solution to that are patches. I usually crochet patches. This time I thought I would also try some felt.

Above, everything I need for a repair job. Below, the orange in the sock and the sewing in progress …

Sunday Silences …

Screenshot of Apple TV screensaver I suppose you’d call that function.

It’s Sunday morning here and quieter than I appreciate. It struck me earlier that while I’ve been alone much of the time for the last twenty years, I absolutely depend on people sounds in the background to feel I still belong in human society.

My apartment/unit is so well insulated that I don’t get any noise from my neighbours. A blessing in disguise. Heating the place, for example, is no trouble at all.

With the balcony doors open, I get noise from the bus interchange across the road… buses arriving and leaving.

With the wind from the south, there is plenty of action in the trees. Leaves rustling. The podium sports many leafy plants.

With the balcony doors open, I can hear crows at their business harvesting food from the rubbish at the shopping centre, and seeing off rivals.

But no people. No voices.

Down at groundlevel, at the front of the building, there will be a few people waiting for their Sunday pick ups and a dog walker or two starting or coming back from their jaunts.

I’ve been toying all week with the idea of joining the dog walkers. Or cat owners, if there are any. Or even a bird … budgie, cockatiel or cockatoo. Imagining scenarios of how that would be …

Flickering Touchbar …

I’m on my mobile phone … cell phone to some of you! So I can’t insert the 5 second video clip illustration of the above … either because I can’t find the instructions to achieve it or it’s not available.

Have to make do with a still photo of the problem

So you’ll need to imagine it. The whole touchbar—at the top of the keyboard in certain models of Macbook Pro—is now flickering the whole time the laptop is being used. For all that I know it continues to flicker when the lid is closed.

I’ve been putting up with it since about September 2022, when it began with a couple of centimetres or an inch. After trying to have it fixed, the malady extended to 5 or 6 centimetres, which was when I stuck some blue electrical tape over it. This year that spilled into the rest of the bar, and became unbearable to use.

Hence went out Monday afternoon to purchase a new laptop … thought I caught Covid that day … but it was probably earlier.

Travelling (!)

Walter Taylor Bridge, one of the many bridges across the Brisbane River. This one joining Chelmer on the southwest side to Indooroopilly on the northwest side.

I travelled 18 kilometres to Indooroopilly to finally have my hearing aid fixed. Eighteen kilometres that costs $55 and about forty minutes in a cab.

18 kilometres back again for an unknown amount on my senior’s Go-Card, but not more than about ten dollars, and two and a half to three hours by train, shank’s pony and bus.

I paid the cab fare on the way out there because I wanted to see how far along the roadworks had got. These the works relating to the new underground railway station and new railway tunnel under the river. It’s astounding how much of that work has to be done top-side. Made up for the cab fare by not spending anything on lunch.

On the way home, walked to the railway station—saw that nice piece of vintage infrastructure above—and waited at the station. Twenty minutes gone.

Roma Street Station still—by now it’s probably been five years of mess—at sixes and sevens due to the changes being made. But managed to find a human ticketing dispenser and was able to exchange my blue Go-Card for a brown seniors’ card. Forty five minutes at Roma Street.

Roma Street so frustrating in the end, I thought I might as well shank’s pony again (ie walk) to King George Bus Station and catch my ride home from there.

Sat down for a lunch snack and drink at 12 noon, just in time for this …

Post Office tower and how tiny it now looks! A short carrilion in keeping with the hour.

The bus 222 home to Carindale, a total of 4005 steps as well as all the other mileages. Left home at 10.00 am, got back at 1.30ish pm. Worth it?

Oh yeah! I can hear again. Missed listening to music, hearing phonecalls properly, not being surprised by squealing laughter, and birds … I can hear birds again!