So, tomorrow is my first day (bar any issues).

Still feels a bit Unreal, but I'm looking forward to being around people and of course earning an income.

Huge thanks again to everyone here for your support and for my 2 guardian angel references. ❤️❤️❤️

That was quick. Through to reference checks!

I have definitely been humbled over the last 6 months. I think I had an ego problem last year and it's been brought well under control.

It's interesting, because when I was egotistical I felt insecure a lot, but now I'm not letting it get out of control, I feel a sort of quiet confidence.

Life is weird.

Seagoon , you’ve really been holding the fort with the DDTs.

Thank you! 🖤

US politics is about to get very interesting.

Worked all weekend because hey, weekends are over-rated right? Time for day 8 of the working week. Thanks, Crowdstrike... :|

Staff are all back on-deck today. Pray for Mojo... and remember, friends don't let friends work in IT.

so several months ago, I sought advice from this sub on ebikes, and got some great input from a few people (Calhoon? thornburywitch? taleya? I can't remember, but they seem likely...). Just wanted to say that a few weeks ago, I bought one (a kalkhoff as recommended by, I think, Calhoon?) and it has been perfect. Affordable (to me, I recognise that is not the same for everone), low end ebike, perfect for the commute from home to work. it is SO MUCH FUN to ride.

I love her (her name is Debra, just FYI).

model: https://everybodyebikes.com.au/products/kalkhoff-endeavour-1-b?variant=44691780796568

almost a total car replacement for anything in a....say...25k radius!

Interview in 15 mins eeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I finally got to hand out the prizes for my short story writing competition to the last school. It was fun. I am always nervous presenting in front of anyone, let alone a full school assembly but I think I spoke well and didn't stuff anything up. Hopefully the kids will enjoy the prize and the letter I wrote them.

Last night I was thinking 'I don't have the year levels on the envelopes, what if there are kids with the same name...nah, won't happen.'

Yeah it happened.

Was a little awkward, but the wrong kid was in prep so it was an easy fix but I feel bad for the little prepper. I might give him a book anyway.

They took photos of me with the winners and I know I will look terrible because I don't know how to stand, or where to put my hands, or smile for the camera.

Over at the p's. Aunt sent through a thing to me about a pug up for adoption for the p's last night. Grandparents had a few of them. I was young and only met one of them and he was a nice doggo.

Anyway mum's bday is soon and she's a little hard of hearing these days and she's trying to decide where she'd like to go (last night I suggested the local pub). I told her about the pug this morning and she said she doesn't want to go to the pug she wants something she can eat.

That made my morning.

Spent $60 out of pocket to be basically told nothing is wrong with me, chest sounds fine, O2 and temp are fine, try Rikodeine and lozenges with anaesthetic and just get more rest. Oh well, at least I have a med cert up to Wednesday inclusive, and it's a relief to know I haven't probably got pneumonia. Wobbly drive home and back to bed it is... need more feel-good TV/movie recommendations.

work is quite. I've pulled out of this project as much as I can. a Whoever picked the vendor needs to be running the show, not me.

We had a therapy dog here at work today for the first time.

I'm not sure if this is going to be a permanent thing but it was awfully nice to see a doggo at work today.

You know what I love, I’ve been walking around with a noticeable cookie crumb on my lower lip for the last maybe 1.5 hrs. Doing the usual, smiling, interacting and whatnot…

Oh well, I bought the same cookies to go anyway. 😭😂

I think interview went okay, but I got a bit stumped with a couple of the "give a specific example of...". Like i don't remember specific times I dealt with an irate client because it's too frequent. I should have prepared better for specific examples, but otherwise I think it was okay

The first of my replacement things have begun to arrive. Today's delivery is the Samsung S8 that wasn't stolen, just severely damaged, probably beyond repair.

Fun little story about the last one (I think I told it as it was happening back in the Reddit days):

I bought the first one off of eBay about a year ago just before I moved out of the last place. I think I scored it for like 60 bucks because it was cracked. It was listed as carrier locked, but when it arrived, I found out that it was actually phone locked. It seems that it was wiped through recovery mode and had a Google account linked, which triggered some safety feature that prevented it from being set up again until the original account was signed in and then removed. I did my due diligence before I purchased it, and the IMEI wasn't reported stolen anywhere that I could tell. I believe it was really just a case of not being wiped properly.

I had a back and forth with the seller about it. He was being a dick. He was like "but I listed it as locked! You should've read the description!!!" And I was like "no dude, you said it was CARRIER LOCKED. You didn't say it was bloody account locked!". I decided I'd keep it and work on it as a side project, after all, security systems on old phones are not infallible. And I also got it for like half the price of what they generally go for, so I figured if it didn't work I could probably rip it apart and sell the parts for a profit.

I went down a very long YouTube rabbit hole trying a bunch of different solutions. None worked. Eventually I stumbled upon a video with like 160 views with some dodgy windows exe on MediaFire linked in the description. Against better judgement, I decided to install it on an old laptop just to see if maybe it would work. Surprisingly, it did. It had an odd name, from memory it was like "Sam Vishnu's Cell Phone Hacking Tool" and had clearly been thrown together very quickly. Looked like shit. Somehow though, it did work! It was interesting watching it control my phone through USB. I think it worked through calling one of those special codes (with the hashtags) in the emergency call app, then somehow opening the gallery, which unlocked it and then going to settings and letting me log into My google account. I didn't even know you could control a phone like that through USB, but apparently you can.

I ended up getting it to work, and have used it for a few projects since. As far as I can tell, it never did infect my laptop, or phone, but I wiped both of them anyway just to be sure. I've actually been meaning to find the video and chuck the guy a few bucks. After all it worked and he didn't waste any time or try and sell me shit. After I got into the phone, I immediately upgraded to the latest security patch I could, which isn't susceptible to whatever that tool did.

Edit: it also took too long to arrive and he gave me a fake tracking number, he blamed his staff for it, which I accepted at the time, but after I realised it was locked, I reckon it was intentional

Its nearly 2am, I am exhausted and yet I can't sleep because of this stupid cough. Feels like I've always got a tickle in my chest and can't breathe fully but when I do cough hard, all that ever comes out are the tiniest bits of phlegm. Never had this level of respiratory discomfort. Doctors appointment when I wake up, I think.

Continuing on the Robin Williams trend, The World According to Garp was exactly what I needed ...

Have put in some rosemary tube stock. And put plant protectors around it. Damn wildlife keeps trashing my plants. Need spiky sword grass or scented plants.

I had a plant shopping binge when I was stressed, $38 well spent.

It's hard work getting the upholstery tacks out of the underside of the seat , they are pretty much flush with the wood and require a bit of effort . I had to take my oodie off!!

Two sick kids at home and I'm going to get a doctor to look at this sore throat that's been bothering me for over a week

I just bought some cheap embroidery kits on Temu. I'm a bit scared about what will actually turn up.

Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

Vegan Shepard's pie 🤤🤤🤤

Got a major case of the CBF's today. Think I'll go for a walk in the sun and see if that changes my mood.

Good morning friends

Gratitude.

The Elvis impersonator who walked into my work today.