christopherd

christopherd, 11 months ago to random

For those in NZ/Aotearoa. Doing life admin today...the disturbing one was dealing with a letter from a finance company who suffered cyber attack, and stolen data. They said the hackers had stolen drivers licence data. Hmmm, I dealt with the finance coy in 2015 or so, so they can't possibly have my data. Phone Waka Kotahi who confirmed that I do need to replace my drivers licence! Bugger. How long are finance companies able to hold onto your personal info for??

christopherd, 8 months ago to random

I'm in that frustrated phase of Covid recovery. Gah. Frustrated at the slow progress.

christopherd, 8 months ago to random

It's coming up Election time in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Here's some things you can do to help turn out the vote.

• if you have wee kids, take them with you when you vote. Experience shows that children will copy their parents when they are old enough.

• if you have children over 18, make sure they are enrolled, then offer to take them to a polling booth. Evidence shows that voting once means you are more likely to vote again.

#Vote2023

christopherd, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to Banking

Got a replacement card from KiwiBank. It's been completely redesigned!

#accessbility #banking #oldage

christopherd, 7 months ago to random

So, MS has cut off access to Word etc because my school account has expired.
No problem I thought, I'll switch over to my personal account that I paid $120 for a year's sub, last November (I think).
I logon to my personal account and MS has ZERO record of any transactions on my account. WTF?
So I'll have to abandon MS - if they can't keep a record of my account then what can they keep a record of? Oh I know, stupid One Drive I didn't want.

christopherd, 11 months ago to random

NZ Parliament held an inquiry into regional rail. The majority view supported the establishment of regional rail. The minority members of the committee had this to say.

Car drivers; [#HoldMyBeer]

christopherd, 7 months ago to random

Well, an interesting day. Did preliminary counts for an electorate - all the advanced votes. Distributed across 5 teams of 6 people at a table.
I was table leader so responsible for distributing votes to be counted, ensuring correctly counted, and recording the results, before sealing the votes into an official bag.
Hard to say what the mood was because it's lots of little booths with a few big ones e.g. biggest booth was 1700 votes, next biggest 700 votes. Great experience.

christopherd, 8 months ago to random

It's on me really as I didn't mask up but I'd like to thank the person on the flight Wgton-Auck last Friday morning who gave me (and presumably) everyone on the plane a cold. Fuck you very much.

christopherd, 10 months ago to random

So, chipping in to help my instance's costs. Asked to pass a security check. All of the chickens are AI Generated, but what's that totally weird one in the middle?
I should have also clicked on the sausages as the image contains animals as well.

christopherd, 4 months ago to random

I think this is a Mollyhawk bird - but it's injured, lying at the bottom of Commercial Bay tower on Quay St, Auckland Central. Can anyone help rescue it?

christopherd, 10 months ago to random

1. Had a really interesting discussion with friend, who shared his submission he made last year to the Road User Charges regulations proposed by Waka Kotahi.

WK is facing a problem (that is similar to Councils); they need to set aside depreciation to replace roads, but they also build new roads for which they need to set aside depreciation. More roads, more depreciation, eventually much of your income stream will simply go towards depreciation.

christopherd, 11 months ago to random

So Spark, my ISP in NZ Aotearoa, emailed to say they are increasing prices by $6/mth. Because 'cost pressures'. Mmm hmmm. Because those wires degraded all of sudden. Yeah right.

christopherd, 11 months ago to random

Of interest to Aotearoa NZ;

christopherd, 10 months ago to random

So funny.
#Mazeldon #JewDiverse #Chabad

christopherd, 8 months ago to NewZealand

My mum needed a RAT set so went to local pharmacy, listed as a site for to collect them. They wanted to charge her $30 for 10. I contacted the Ministry of Health to ask, and they referred me to this link -

https://healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/?covidTesting=&covidTesting=im%3A1295965

so if you go to pick up a set, and the pharmacy wants to charge you, tell them they are free.

#NewZealand #Aotearoa #CovidIsNotOver

christopherd, 11 months ago to random

I lived in Montreal/Vancouver and she was syndicated to the local gay/lesbian newspapers in both cities. Always looked forward to seeing the latest installment.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/02/alison-bechdel-test-dykes-to-watch-out-for-cartoonist-interview

christopherd, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

As per usual, change of season prompts heavy runny nose and I generally spend a day or two having a very runny nose. Bugger.

christopherd, 10 months ago to random

Remarkable. Flu/cold virus levels in the population tracks well below normal, last seen in 2019.

christopherd, 8 months ago to random

As I took a photo of this lovely Kaka beak I could hear the loud Tui in the tree above me, even without my hearing aids on. Very lovely.

christopherd, 9 months ago to random

Opening Music to TV series. I've come across some spectacular stuff!

Babylon Berlin - though it's not in the opening it's a great song that encapsulates the series.

https://youtu.be/30PPdLTLlko?si=tmu7iG53ov6K8d-K

Heavy Water War - just brilliant.

https://youtu.be/w1dH68ZyCBU?si=rBsCWpm5mVm4p5po

The Expanse - just remarkable - soaring into space.

https://youtu.be/5Y4wuVfV5G4?si=5fnZSlAu5Kl0gNOM

What's your suggestion?

christopherd, 10 months ago to random

Sophisticated, my foot. It's available in any colour so long as it's pastel, and neutral.

christopherd, 11 months ago to random

Slipped into panic mode earlier, so had to take a beta blocker, but my teeth hurt now from the tension.
Panic prompted by many things not least amount of stuff waiting for me to do.

christopherd, 7 months ago to random

At work today, there were three Electoral Vote Issuing Offers (including me) born on exactly the same day, different years. What are the odds??

christopherd, 7 months ago to random

One of the more interesting things when I was working for the Election Commission was finding out that of 5 people at the polling booth I was working at, 4 of us had birthdays in October, and 3 of us had birthdays on the same day (different years). Wild.
Two voters with the same birth date turned up and I told them about the coincidence - they were chuffed.

#NZElections #NZVotes2023

christopherd, 10 months ago to random

Sigh. Let's assume summer starts at the beginning of August.

The willful mis-identification of what season we are actually in is annoying, and dangerous.