Leave my Facebook alone.

Posted on August 30, 2012 by borysSNORC

Last night, I nearly had my Facebook account hacked…again!

Luckily, Facebook seem to have upped their security measures and instead of being summarily kicked out of my own account and watching it get hijacked in two minutes or less, I was able to jump through some hoops and regain control of it, so was merely locked out for a few hours.

Facebook is one of those things, I feel, where you get what you pay for… and considering it doesn’t cost a dime, it’s a pretty awesome tool. For keeping in touch with friends, setting up parties and social events, sending well wishes and commiserations, finding out what’s going on around town, sharing info for social groups, study groups and what have you. So, as much as we love to gripe about how they keep changing things on us and how we hate the Timeline nonsense and even though I seem to be constantly spammed with pictures of people’s cats… I would totally miss Facebook if it disappeared on me.

January last year, I lost control of my Facebook account and my Gmail account to some hackers who then proceeded to send messages to everyone I knew saying I was stranded in London, had been robbed at gunpoint and had lost my passport and all my money… so could you please send money to a bullshit Western Union account. Now most people knew the messages weren’t from me immediately – apparently the first clue was that messages contained poor English and there were too many spelling mistakes by far, for it to have come from me.

But nonetheless, I spent an entire day fielding concerned texts and phone calls, and offers of assistance from people wondering if I was actually in London and in trouble! Even one of my University professors sent me a message saying that he too was in London, and could help me out if needs be. And while this outpouring of concern was touching, it made it awfully apparent why these hackers expend their energies on these things… because they work! Most of my friends are well educated and many are quite tech savvy and yet here they all were checking up on me… someone whose Friends List isn’t quite so switched on might have carried on interacting with the hackers and actually send them money! 🙁

This time it looks like some sort of data mining thing… since having to go all ‘scorched earth’ on my old Gmail and Facebook accounts and start all over again, I have no added games or extraneous applications on Facbook and have hidden all the ones that everyone else uses so I don’t get spammed with them constantly. I never click to find out what my zombie survival rate is or which super villain I am, and have done my best to limit exposure to secondary applications that piggy back off Facebook (Words With Friends being about the only exception).

We believe, and we could be wrong here, that this breech may have occurred from one of those ‘Want to know who is looking at your profile’ type posts. Or maybe it’s due to the interconnectivity of other web based programs like Instagram, LinkedIn, Klout or FourSquare, though their privacy policies are pretty clear…? Pure conjecture that. Anyway, however it happens, I like Facebook and have no desire to lose it, and no matter how much I love you, if I see one of those ‘Click Here to See Who is Looking at your Profile’ type bullshit posts on your wall… I am going to delete you.

Apologies in advance.

Twenty-One.

Posted on August 28, 2012 by borysSNORC

Twenty-one years. Twenty-one years. Twenty-one ‘kin years!

Twenty-one years ago a stupid cabbie didn’t see the brand new burgundy Mitsubishi Magna I was driving and failed to stop at a stop sign… and so began my nightmare with back pain.

Twenty-one… one of my favourite numbers thanks to a misspent youth playing Blackjack with my cousins. Twenty-one… my locker number in Senior at high school. Twenty-one… the number of diamonds in my little starfish pendant. Twenty-one… Twenty-one.

twenty-one years gone
every day and every night
neuropathic pain

FUCK. 🙁

Ah-Ruger! Ah-Ruger!

Posted on August 27, 2012 by borysSNORC

A while back Sturm, Ruger & Co., one of the US’s largest firearms manufacturers threw their hands in the air and said ‘No more orders!’. Apparently they have over a million back orders and are desperately trying to keep up. Something to do with the perceived political climate in the US – people erroneously believe that President Obama is going to crack down on guns, whereas he is one of the worst presidents in the last 50 years for making changes to tighten firearms legislation. And there seems to be a lot of panic buying after the mass shooting that recently occurred in a Colorado cinema.

One of the flow on effects of this refusal to take orders and an increase in demand in the US market is that new Rugers are becoming as rare as hens teeth in Australia and retailers predict around 12 month wait times for them. So we went hunting for some to see what was around – they are a good, reliable, relatively inexpensive pistol and if they really do become that unavailable, people at our club are going to be hunting for them and wanting to borrow each other’s pistols more. After some research Yale found out Ruger’s Australian distributer had a small number of Ruger Chargers (the most ridiculous pistol known to man) available and two Ruger Mk III 22/45 Targets with stainless barrels (like the one in the link but the whole top of it is stainless. We decided to snap those babies up while we could.

Queensland Police Service’s Weapons Licensing Branch seem to have finally wrestled their new computer system into submission as Permits to Acquire were processed in about two and a half weeks, which is some kind of record in our experience and we were able to get hold of them pretty quickly.

First chance we could get away, we went out to the range, with it all shiny, clean and brand spanking new, to load it up and have a go. Springs and things feel really tight and the slide was a bit of hard work (which will no doubt loosen up), but here is the result straight out of the box.

There’s about a box of 50 thrown at this target, and that lonely wild shot off in the 6 ring was probably because I was having so much fun I was laughing. The Ruger is so easy to use, and straight out of the box accurate, it’s no wonder that they’re under such demand. I swear about two thirds or more of our pistol club owns at least one Ruger, and they definitely seen to be the most popular .22 rimfire pistol out there. I haven’t had a lot of time down at the range lately, but I got a chance to go out again with it and my second go come up a bit like this (even though again I wasn’t exactly taking it too seriously or trying too hard).

Watch out! Think it will be great for ten pin matches and standard sports matches, so now maybe we just need to start looking at revolvers for silhouettes! 😀

Groups Are My Speciality.

Posted on August 25, 2012 by borysSNORC

Woke up this morning, got myself a gun….

Okay, not entirely true. Did a few things first. Woke up. Realised my head was all stuffed up (again!) and that the head cold I was desperately hoping was a figment of my imagination was, in fact, real and I had to acknowledge that it was having a rather detrimental effect on my ability to, well… breathe. Grabbed a heat pack and tried to kill the dull roar in my lower back knowing that the day I had lined up consisted of heading off to the range for the entire day to volunteer for RAW. I kind of knew I was in trouble when every time I inhaled, I was getting a sharp pain in my mid thoracic region and that’s usually a dead give away that it’s NOT going to be a good day.

The impetus to dump the whole thing and be a no show for the first time ever was exceedingly strong, but I had friends signed up to participate too, so I wouldn’t just be putting the dopey Club Manager in a pickle, but would be letting down three friends also, and well, we can’t have that now.

So whaddaya do? 1) double down on Codral for oncoming head cold. 2) throw back a few Nurofen for back pain. 3) add a Digesic chaser for the headache and 4) smile and put ALL your energy into ignoring it as best you can and hope no one really notices… then 5) head out to the range to teach people how to use guns!

Reminded me of my old Disney Store days – no matter how crap or down you felt, you had to be ‘on show’. RAW/RAM days are about helping people have a good time at the range, learning how to be safe and comfortable around firearms, answering hundreds of questions you’ve answered before and making sure people have a good time. So upbeat, motivated, enthusiastic and encouraging is the order of the day… not an easy ask when you’re in pain and a wee bit drugged up.

But today turned out to be one of the best groups I have had. Everyone was easygoing and affable and willing to give everything a go. No princesses, no know-it-alls, no oneupmanship type dick waving. It was all good – we got along great, had quite a few laughs and the general feel of the group was fun and relaxed.

And then as soon as it was all over, I exhaled, fell in a snuffly painful heap and haven’t really been able to get up since. Aarrgh… I hope the girls in my group had fun though. I will be curled in a corner for the remainder of the weekend if anyone needs me.

Cirque du Soleil meets Boucheron… brilliant!

Posted on August 17, 2012 by borysSNORC

I’m always very excited when the Cirque du Soleil comes to town… try and get in quick to buy the best tickets we can months out. Then there’s the deliciousness of anticipation as you look forward to it. Then the special day turns up and you’re outside waiting for the Big Top to open and you don’t know what you’re in for, except that it’s going to be a visual feast of human creativity and seeming physical impossibilities! Recently Ovo came to town and it was amazing, beautiful, funny, stunning, inspiring and everything I hoped it would be.

It was so fabulous, I dug deep and borrowed from Pete to pay Paul to find the $$ so I could buy two more tickets so that I could take the Small Child to go see it too. Ovo in particular has a theme that I believed would really resonate with children – it’s all about the teeming world of insects, bugs, frogs, toads, plants and seasons. It’s energetic and colourful, and so imaginative that I think children will readily identify with this theme more than many of the more subtle or obscure themes of the other Cirque shows. And I was right – the Small Child thought it was ‘the best show he had ever seen’, even better than his recent trip to the Mikado! He’s turning into quite the little culture vulture! 🙂

Anyway, one of the only things I have ever found a bit disappointing about the Cirque du Soleil is the mementos/souvenirs available. They have t-shirts, and coffee mugs, magnets and beanies, masks and umbrellas, baseball caps and juggling balls, journals and toys and lord knows what else. Most of which is all available in the Cirque online store anyway, is hideously overpriced and not very excitable in general – which is odd given the amazing creative teams that must be behind the show?!? Anyway, I was looking through the online stores and trying to find a necklace I had seen in the gift store after the first show and instead stumbled over THESE:

Allegria

The Beatles – Love

Corteo

Criss Angels – Believe

Delirium

Dralion

Kooza

Mystere

Nouba

“O”

Ovo

Quidam

Saltimbanco

Varekai

Viva – Elvis

Wintuk

Zaia

ZED

Zumanity

Boucheron of Paris and Cirque du Soleil have created a range of fine jewellery called “Inspiria”. They have been making two each of these gorgeous designer pieces, inspired by the various Cirque du Soleil productions, made primarily of beautifully coloured sapphires. One is being sold to some lucky bidder on the fine art market, and the other is being kept in a collection on display at a Montreal Museum. I’m sure all my jeweller friends would agree with me that these pieces are absolutely stunning and they completely encapsulate the theme of each show. I think they are simply gorgeous.

Needless to say, in the end I did NOT get myself a Boucheron designer artwork/necklace but instead have a copy of the program, a set of stickers with characters from the various shows and a coffee mug to remember my amazing Ovo experiences.

PS – I highly recommend buying tickets in your city and spending a couple of extra bucks to get in amongst it. Oh, and definitely take your kids (or your favourite rent-a-kid) if you can!!!