Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 51

Major Aggravation

I have a few games on my phone. It's great for waiting for doctor's appointments or whatever. There's one super annoying thing about these play for "free" games, though. Okay, there's more than one annoying thing, but there's only one I plan to talk about today.

Sometimes these "free" games will give you a free spin or whatever in exchange for watching an ad. Usually the ad is for another game, but sometimes it's for something else. I'm not in love with this, but I am willing to watch an ad if I choose to do it in exchange for whatever I need in the game--an extra spin, five more moves, whatever.

My problem with this is the ads that force open the app store. There are no words for how much I hate this. Any game that does this? I automatically will NEVER download your game even if it looks like something I'd love.

In all honesty, the odds are against my downloading the game anyway. I don't want to junk up my phone with crap. I only have 3 games on my phone and I almost never open 2 of them. I've tried others and removed them. I'm looking for something to pass the time while I'm waiting. Or if we ever get back to normal or something close to it, and I go back to the gym again, I want something I can play while I'm using the equipment.

In any case, do not open anything on my damn phone. I'm watching your ad, I'm not giving you permission to force my app store open. Gah!

Apple should seriously do something about this. I've done a couple of online searches and found something that allegedly works--turning on parental controls while using one of these game apps with the ads--but I keep forgetting to turn it on. :-( Until a expletive deleted ad opens the app store again.

Hats, Hats, Hats!

For a stretch this past winter, I was on a hat-making kick. I made hat after hat, after hat.

What I like about knitting hats is they're relatively quick and the patterns I chose were easy. The hat to the left was a gift--a kit with yarn, pattern, and needles. This was my first time doing a pom pom and I didn't realize the original yarn would tear when I tried to tie it off. If I'd known, I'd have tied it off with a different yarn.

The pom pom on the hat was made from scrap yarn left over from another project because there was no saving the yarn I messed up.

I think the pattern turned out cute! I like how it spirals upward. The pattern wanted the stitches worked flat and sewn together afterward to make the hat, but I knit in the round instead. Easier, quicker, and it makes more sense. It took a little tinkering with the pattern, but it was pretty simple to figure out.

 
There's a close up of my pom pom. I did trim it to try to make it even, but you can see I still have a few issues going on.
I also made some hats for gifts.


And one last hat. This one can be worn as a slouchy hat or almost like a beret although it's not the same shape or style as a beret.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 For my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving!

Google Drive Oops

I can't remember what I was doing online, but somehow saw a download Google Drive to your computer option. That's cool, I thought. I'll do that.

The download and install went fine, but then Google Drive decided it was going to back up my entire computer. Something I didn't realize until I got the "you've used up all your free space" message.

I didn't want Google to backup anything. I already have two programs that are backing up to the cloud and a third is overkill. If I had been presented with any kind of option after it installed, I would have said, NO! DO NOT BACKUP MY LAPTOP!

Looking on Google Drive on my laptop only showed two files that I'd created. Nothing else. Where were all my files that were clogging up things?

I started to Google online, looking for help. It was ridiculously difficult to find. I tried so many different search terms, it was crazy.

At one point, I believed I had the problem solved and started deleting files off of Google Drive only to discover that it was SYNCING with my laptop and deleting the file off my hard drive, too. WTF, Google?!?

Finally, FINALLY, I found instructions on how to break the connection between my laptop and the Google Drive. They should never have been this hard to find, BTW. Once I did this, my laptop stopped overheating and the fan stopped blowing at 100 mph. Two problems solved.

Problem three is still looming, though. Somehow, I have to get the files I deleted on Google Drive back onto my laptop.

I have the files in the trash on Google Drive and I have two online backups, so I'm confident I can restore everything, it's just going to take some time and probably be a major pain. Grrr.

Review: The Umbrella Academy - Season 2

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of The Umbrella Academy. For a long stretch, it was the only reason I kept my Netflix subscription. I almost gave up a few episodes in to Season 1, but I'm glad I kept watching. It ended up being my favorite show.

Season 2 had a lot to live up to. 

***WARNING: There might be SPOILERS ahead***

At the end of Season 1, Five was taking the rest of the Umbrella Academy back in time. He glitched a little and they end up in the 1960s. In Dallas. And when Five arrives, it's another apocalypse. He has to go back in time to stop the USSR and USA from going nukes with each other. And he has to find his errant siblings who have been running amok in the 1960s.

First of all, I hated Vanya in the first season. I thought she was Too Stupid To Live (TSTL) and I didn't think there was any way imaginable that the writers could redeem her for me. I stand corrected. They pulled it off. By a few episodes in, I did like Vanya. Who'd have thought it?

Klaus is still all that is awesome. He's my favorite character and I know I'm not alone on this. In Season 2, he is mostly sober, still making questionable decisions despite Ben's input, and a cult leader. I wish I could have seen how that happened.

Five is still Five. The actor who plays him does a tremendous job. He's goal-oriented and the rest of the Academy is off on their own tangents. He's trying to herd cats.

A lot of new questions arise in this season. LOTS of new questions. Episode 10, the final of the season, leaves us with a cliffhanger that's extra frustrating since we're going to have to wait forever for Season 3. FOREVER! It's really too bad Netflix didn't tell them to film two seasons back to back, so that we could avoid this long wait for more.

Seriously, this is my favorite show on television and (for once) I'm not alone on this one. Usually, I only fall in love with shows that get canceled. (Limitless, the series, anyone?) I would love to get my hands on the series bible for this show.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Almost 2021 Planner Time

I have a favorite planner company. People talk about planner peace, but I almost have it. This company's products are THISCLOSE to being perfect for me.

The one thing that keeps the planner from being epic? Their insistence on putting Saturday and Sunday on the same page.

Weekends are my busiest days. I need full pages!

They say there isn't enough space, but they have pages that are perforated so a user can remove them and use them as grocery lists. WTF? They used to not be perforated. I'm guessing the company owners take their planner shopping? There is zero chance I'd ever drag my entire planner with me. AND seriously, I'd rather have my grocery lists on my phone. I don't know about other stores, but Kroger and Publix both have online shopping lists that tell me which aisle the item I want is located on.

A paper list isn't going to do that for me.

So there are 29 of these perforated pages and they're double sided. 29 x 2 = 58. Extra pages needed to put Saturday and Sunday on their own pages? 52. That leaves them 6 pages to do whatever with.

You might wonder why I don't find another daily planner. The reason I stick with this one despite my endless frustration with the weekend layout is the other planners require stickers to give me all the features that are printed in this planner. Vitamin Tracker? It's there. Water Tracker? Present! Workout tick box? Yep. Menu planning? There! There's also a box for the top 3 priorities, space for a few lines of notes at the bottom, and a box that I can use for whatever I want. I use it to record what my workout was for the day.

Anyway, sigh. It's a great planner. Mostly. I literally snipped out the stupid perforated pages out of my planner in 2020 because they were taking up space and annoying me. Just imagine if they were weekend pages. ::bliss::

Another New Organization Tool

 Once again, I've heard about a new organizational app and I'm trying it out. Even though I'm basically happy with OneNote and even though this new app is a lot like OneNote, here I am doing a free account to see if I like it or not.

I'm not going to call out the app here. Not yet. If I end up loving it for more than ten minutes, I'll do another post and talk about what I like about it. Right now, I've barely tested it. Yet.

It has so much potential. And maybe might allow me to weed out some of my other methods I use in addition to OneNote. We'll see. I've fallen down the rabbit hole before.

As an example, I bought lifetime access to an online kanban board and literally visited the website three times. Not an exaggeration. That's why I didn't immediately sign up for the paid account on this new app. This time I'm going to see if it's something that sticks or if it falls by the wayside. BTW, this app also has a kanban board, so, yeah.

(But I love my kanban board on my wall! It's in my face every time I leave my office, so not sure anything else would be nearly as good for me.)

Like I said, though, I'm going to take her for a test drive. I'm always and forever on the hunt for organization. Something that will 100% work for me.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

A while back, while I was getting the plastic bags out of my backseat, I dropped my phone. If you follow me on Facebook, you'll have heard this story before. It happened in the parking lot at Publix and the phone hit the asphalt face down.

Yes, I have a good case on it and yes, I have screen protection on it. What I don't have is insurance on it. I can count the number of times I've dropped my phone in the last four years on one hand.

The first thing I checked was the screen. No cracks. The ridge around the case and the screen protector did their jobs.

I swipe up. The screen stays dark.

I push buttons. The screen stays dark.

I start randomly pushing multiple buttons. The screen stays dark.

Panic begins to claw at my throat. OMG, I killed my new phone!

I unlocked the car and got back in. I resumed pushing buttons again and held my breath. I think I shuddered in relief when the little white Apple logo appeared on the screen. But my personal world did stand still until I got this back up and running. Everything looks good so far.

Adventures in Delivery

You would think that a multi-national delivery company (I'm looking at you FedEx) could manage to get a package to the correct address. The you, in this case, would be me. I thought a company that has been in business as long as this one would manage to find the right house. I was wrong.

I get emails notifying me of deliveries from FedEx and the others in addition to the shipper's notification. It started normally enough. Notification that FedEx would be delivering my kit that day.

Around 11am, I got notification in email that it had been delivered. Hmm, I didn't hear anyone. But there have been other delivery people that are part ninja, so maybe the guy was quiet.

No package.

I go back to the email. Sometimes they'll mention if they left it by the garage or the front door. I notice that an address so drastically different from mine that there's zero chance they could be confused was listed as the place of delivery. What? There is a huge difference between 670 and 142 and the street names? Not even close. The street wasn't even in my same subdivision.

I call FedEx, sit on hold forever, and finally talk to a rep who said they'll open a ticket. They give me the case ID number. Great, I think. You see when UPS misdelivered a package, the driver was on it the same day. I thought FedEx would do the same thing. They did not.

I heard from the woman who accidentally got my package. We both work for the same airline and she'd gotten the same package delivered with mine. She offered to drive it over, but I'm like, no don't bother, FedEx will come get it. FedEx did not. She emailed me again on Saturday and said that. She also told me if I wanted to pick it up, she'd leave it on her porch for me because she had to run errands.

I drove over and got it. Something FedEx should have done on the day I reported it. Sigh. At least the woman had a way to get in touch with me.

Adventures With Wildlife

In August (and yes, I know this story is old), I was walking through the house and I saw something in the backyard. I'm like, what the hell is that?

At first, I thought it was a rabbit, but when it lifted its head and it had a snout, my next thought was possum. And then I went, that's not a possum. That can't be. No. Crap, it's an armadillo.

Armadillos for those of you who are lucky enough to live where there are none of these damn things are very destructive to your yard. They eat grubs and they're big enough to really tear up your lawn. They also will dig burrows and cause other issues. Or so I've been told. Until 2012, I lived in Minnesota where we didn't have these worthless pieces of roadkill waiting to happen. Oh, and they also carry leprosy.

So I wanted this damn thing out of my yard. Pronto. My dad comes over and I'm like, do we have something I can throw at it? My dad, bless him, starts hissing at the thing.

To my shock, it worked. The thing started to waddle off. My dad kept hissing at it. It kept moving. And then it slipped through a hole it had dug underneath my fence. Damn. My first thought was to get rid of the things, but someone I work with suggested getting rid of the grubs that it feeds on.

It took about a week for the pest control company to get out and treat the lawn, and while I waited, I checked every morning to make sure my lawn was still intact.

I knew there were armadillos in the vicinity. My neighbors left the back of their yard wild and I'd heard there was a nest of them back there. From time to time, my mulch would be messed up and obviously dug through, but I could live with that. Holes in my backyard. No.