Issues

Orange means go faster.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

I have a bone to pick with you Aucklanders. It’s to do with driving. Driving through red lights. Yes, that’s right. Aucklanders are notorious for running red lights.

Especially after the little green man telling me it’s okay to walk has appeared. On a daily basis, I begin to walk across the road because that little green man tells me to and at least three cars will still come through the intersection.

Sometimes I don’t even bother beginning to walk until he’s started flashing red.

Seriously.

In fact, today, I was about to start crossing the road, because the green man had said I could and three more cars went through.

Now, I might live on a ridiculous intersection, I will admit. It has five roads all coming to an apex. Yet people don’t seem to stop on the red.

At this particular intersection I have to cross twice. Once on Taharoto and then on Fred Thomas. Rather ridiculous, but in order to be safe and not get run over, I choose to use the crossings. (Even though sometimes that might not keep me safe.)

Sometimes when I am crossing Taharoto, cars coming from Fred Thomas and on to Taharoto decide, yes that green light and the cars next to me, mean I can go too.

EHHHH. WRONG.

You’re on a red arrow, buddy. You’re turning left into Taharoto, you’re not going straight through like the others. Which means that while I’m crossing the road, you’re on a red and shouldn’t be coming at me!

But it is not just this intersection that I have a problem with.

I was walking to the mall the other day and was crossing into the block where the mall is situated (my little green man had winked at me), three cars went through a red light. While a cop was sitting right there. I’m pretty sure he saw them too. Yet he did nothing.

Nothing.

What has our world come to?

Cops don’t stop red light runners, motorist don’t respect pedestrians, and people think the coloured lights mean nothing.

I means seriously people. This is what causes accidents. In fact, there was an accident at the very intersection by our apartment building the other night. Police, ambo and fire all turned up. The horn was blaring, etc, etc. I don’t think anyone was seriously injured, but I bet you, someone was running a red light.

The penalty for running a red light in New Zealand is a $150 fine and 20 demerit points, according to the AA website. Which the AA says is too low compared to the high potential danger

Disclaimer: I may use the word “seriously” too much in this post.

Disclaimer 2: I may also watch too much Grey’s Anatomy.

Tweet, tweet.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

This post has been a long time coming. Lately I’ve been feeling a bit over twitter, made more so because of the platforms that I use to tweet,  because they essentially suck.

The one that I probably use the most is Twitter for iPhone. A few months ago it was updated with some rather significant changes. I understand why Twitter has updated the apps and web with wanting to streamline usage. Any official twitter app essentially has the same interface. Even though this makes it easier to switch between the various applications, I still prefer the old version of Twitter for iPhone.

Reasons for why I dislike it:

1. You can no longer swipe across a tweet and get quick reply, retweet, favourite, etc buttons. I loved this. Now, you have to go into a tweet and wait for it to load, because it does take a little bit to load now, before you can perform any actions. Although, I did just download the update today and swiped across a tweet because I still want to do it, and it did it! I was all, “WHAT?” so it looks like they have put back a few things they had removed.

2. People show up in your timeline with what they put as their “name”, not their @ name. Some people write some pretty weird things in there. So now I don’t know who half the people showing up in my timeline are.

3. The progress bar when sending a tweet has disappeared. This was a great indicator of whether a tweet would send or not. Now it’s not there and you kind of can’t tell if the tweet has failed to send or not. And let’s be honest, this actually happens quite a lot.

4. Direct messages now appear under “me” instead of a similar button appearing like mentions (sidenote: what is with ‘mentions’ now known as ‘connect’?) So now you have to go into “me” and then click on DMs. Slightly annoying.

5. Switching accounts is so much harder to do nowadays. In the old version it was as simple as hitting “settings” at the top left and you could go change accounts. Now you have to go into “me”, scroll down, then hit “switch accounts” in order to select which account you want. It is no longer intuitive and actually annoying, because it does not allow for quick changing between accounts.

6. No longer saying whether someone follows you or not when you look at their profile. It’s a pretty handy feature because I don’t want to look like a twat when talking to someone who doesn’t follow me, especially when I’m private.

7. Swiping to get back to your timeline. Yes, just hitting the ‘connect or ‘home ‘ button does that. But this is what I got used to. I don’t like change. Why fix something I it’s not broken? Also, sometimes I’ll look like a twat trying to get the swipe working, kind of like trying to use the swipe on a Mac touchpad when you’re actually using a mouse. And windows.

8. Not saying which account you are one. Where there is now the twitter bird at the top used to be which account you were tweeting from. It’s a bit frustrating trying to determine which account I left the app on instead of just seeing it at the top.

So does anyone know of an app which is like the old version, free, and allows for multiple accounts?

I’m not clowning around anymore.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

I’ve been struggling lately to find shoes that actually fit.

Since moving to Auckland my feet seem to be in a constant swollen state and a lot of my shoes I now struggle to even get on.

Some of them probably were a bit small when I got them, but I sometimes don’t have a choice. I have clown feet and I hate it.

Would you wear these?

In order for shoes to fit me, I need at least an 11, if not a 12. Sometimes I can get away with a 10, but they do bad things to my feet and when my feet are swollen, there is no way I can even get in to a 10.

Having been a student, then unemployed, and now one of those lowly paid journalists, I have always relied upon Number 1 Shoes to provide me with cheap shoes that I could get in an 11, usually.

Now every time I go in there, I can never find an 11. Nowhere in sight. Even Hannahs only really stocks up to a 10/11.

I tried on a pair of really cool ballet flats in Hannahs yesterday. They were purple with a black buckle across the toe. They were awesome. The shop assistant brought me an 11. I put it on, and even though I could get it on, I knew it was going to cause me problems if I bought it. My toes were at the end and I could already feel it rubbing on my big toe. So I didn’t buy them. If they had have been in a 12, I might have.

I’ve also been into Overland and Mi Piaci with no luck. One of the sales assistants said to try Nine West. I looked, I loved, and I found 12s. However, I could not sign up to the American website. I managed to sign up to the Australian one, but alas, they didn’t have the shoes I loved or really any in an 11 or 12. Sad face.

I know of Willow Shoes, which I have bought from before. Or should I say, my Mother has bought for me. There is no way I can ever afford any of the shoes there unless they are heavily discounted, even then, still rather expensive.

So I ask you, internet, where can I find relatively cheap shoes in a size 11 or 12? My feet need your help, because right now, I wear nothing but jandals. And those aren’t really “business shoes” now, are they?

Or these?

Calling voicemail – 404: not found.

/ Lisa

With going to WINZ employment seminars I thought it was about time to do one of the things that I’ve been told to check – that of my voicemail message.

If you’re looking for work, your voicemail message on your phone could be the make or break point. You don’t really want a possible employer calling you hearing a loud burping sound and then a beep, do you? Or being told to F-off, I’m not going to call you back.

So not having done anything with my voicemail since I got my first phone eight years ago, I thought it was about time to double check what my message said. Cause frankly, what could 16-year-old me possibly have recorded?

This was easier said than done.

I tried to call my voicemail, something that I have been able to do in the past, no problems. But it asked me for my phone number, sure, enter that. “Your number is not listed.”

Say what now?

Yeah, my number wasn’t listed. Does not make sense as I have received voicemails before and have used the service many times.

I got Man Piece to call my phone to see what my message said. It just hung up on him.

Not a good look for prospective employers.

So I called Vodafone. The first guy I talked to was pre-occupied with the last time I had actually received a voicemail and thought that me changing from pre-paid to plan might have cancelled my voicemail.

Yeah, nah. Same number the whole time. Plus, I changed to plan at the beginning of October last year. Turns out, I hadn’t received a voicemail since November last year. Now that didn’t seem right. But I’m usually pretty good at picking up my phone and usually when I have a missed call it’s usually from someone I know like my parents or sister.

So this guy went on saying my voicemail had been turned off. No explanation for how that happened, cause I sure didn’t do it. So I asked him to turn it back on. He said he did and to call 701 to set up my voicemail again.

So I called and got the same, “Your number is not listed.”

Thanks dude.

I called Vodafone again. This time I got a very helpful young man who wanted to talk about the weather and the rugby. He saw what the problem was and actually turned my voicemail back on. This time when I called 701, I was able to record a message. One that I know no prospective employer is going to take offence at.

Ah, the things an unemployed journalist with nothing to do on a Saturday night, while Man Piece plays games on his PC, does.

Man Piece and his special-ness.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

Lately Man Piece has been coming out with a few gems. Although they tend to be a little scary in thought, they are quite hilarious.

1. “You only married me for my looks, aye babe?”

2. “Snagglepuff* is an important member of our family.”

3. In an IM conversation:
Man Piece: whoisthecutest.com
Me: awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww #omgcheese
Man Piece: #omgindeed WE WOULD HAVE THE CUTEST BABIES #omgnotclucky
Me: :O WHO ARE YOU!?

As you can see, there is need for consternation.

I probably should say, we are not married, or will be in the near future, or have any kind of sprogs on the way. No. No. No.

Apart from Snagglepuff, who is apparently my adopted child who I’m not allowed to touch.

*Snagglepuff is his laptop.