Bearded Collie
Good news: Our zucchini plant has calmed down. We are no longer living on an all-zucchini diet.
Bad news: Our long, green vegetable nightmare isn't over. My mother picked eighteen cucumbers off the single cucumber plant in the last two days.
Friday was my half-day at work and I came home about at about one to find my mother on the phone. On the landline, which I want to get rid of, but which she insists on keeping for some of her elderly relatives. Apart from the elderly relatives, most of the calls to the landline are junk: surveys, charities, scams.
So she was on the phone, and as I came in she said, "Oh, here's my daughter, you can talk to her," and handed me the phone, saying, "There's a problem with the modem."
Now, our telco is Telstra, and we have had a letter from them recently about them doing work in the area this week, with a number to call if we have problems, and, indeed, the Telstra van was parked round the corner on my way home. So this was plausible; but if I'd had time to think, I would have realised that my mother would rather be waterboarded than call Telstra voluntarily. She would have waited until I came home and made me call. But I didn't have time to think, so I just took the phone to find out what the problem was.
The problem was a very angry man called Sean, who claimed that our modem was sending too much data and was going to overload the network. He thought our wi-fi had been hacked. He wanted me to tell him what colour the lights on the modem were and if they were flashing or not, and when I told him, thinking this was a stupid question, he repeated the answer back to me incorrectly. So I concluded this was some sort of scam and ended the call.
"No, it's urgent, he'll call back!" said my mother, and sure enough, the phone rang immediately with the same number. I let it ring out and blocked the number. It turned out Sean had called (not my mother), saying he was from "Telstra Technical Services" and started his nonsense about the modem, and my mother, sensing a scam, had hung up. He'd then called back twice more and was really aggressive, convincing my mother that he was legit and the problem was urgent, largely because he knew our phone number and address. I think he'd have run into a problem if he'd tried to get her to download something or give her credit card details, or whatever the plan was, but she was quite upset that that he'd got as far as he had.
Anyway, she's promised that she'll hang up on any more Telstra Technical Services calls.
(I've just checked the call list, and we had three more blocked calls from Sean's number Friday afternoon.)
February
7. What was the last funny video you watched?
Youtube suggested this video about the Australian states and weather talking to each other, which I did find funny (but which may depend on being Australian):
8. Which current or at least recent news story is the most interesting to you?
I am so over the news.
9. Would you rather ask for help with a difficult task, or figure it out for yourself?
That depends on the task, doesn't it? Generally I like to learn by doing, so would choose figuring things out, but sometimes something is difficult just because of the size of the task, so help would be appreciated.
10. What do you think is the best sitcom (current or past)?
I'm not a big sitcom watcher. Not a big TV watcher in general, actually. But if I ever stumble on an episode of Frasier, I don't regret staying to watch it.
11. What do you think is the most overrated movie?
I've never actually seen it, but everything surrounding the The English Patient annoyed me for some reason, so I'll say that. Having said that, I suspect I might like it if I ever actually saw it.
12. Who would you most like and least like to be stuck in an elevator with?
I wouldn't like to be stuck in a lift (as we call them here) at all, but in the event it happens: I would most like to be stuck in a lift with a lift repair person, and I would least like to be stuck in a lift with a serial killer.
Bad news: Our long, green vegetable nightmare isn't over. My mother picked eighteen cucumbers off the single cucumber plant in the last two days.
Friday was my half-day at work and I came home about at about one to find my mother on the phone. On the landline, which I want to get rid of, but which she insists on keeping for some of her elderly relatives. Apart from the elderly relatives, most of the calls to the landline are junk: surveys, charities, scams.
So she was on the phone, and as I came in she said, "Oh, here's my daughter, you can talk to her," and handed me the phone, saying, "There's a problem with the modem."
Now, our telco is Telstra, and we have had a letter from them recently about them doing work in the area this week, with a number to call if we have problems, and, indeed, the Telstra van was parked round the corner on my way home. So this was plausible; but if I'd had time to think, I would have realised that my mother would rather be waterboarded than call Telstra voluntarily. She would have waited until I came home and made me call. But I didn't have time to think, so I just took the phone to find out what the problem was.
The problem was a very angry man called Sean, who claimed that our modem was sending too much data and was going to overload the network. He thought our wi-fi had been hacked. He wanted me to tell him what colour the lights on the modem were and if they were flashing or not, and when I told him, thinking this was a stupid question, he repeated the answer back to me incorrectly. So I concluded this was some sort of scam and ended the call.
"No, it's urgent, he'll call back!" said my mother, and sure enough, the phone rang immediately with the same number. I let it ring out and blocked the number. It turned out Sean had called (not my mother), saying he was from "Telstra Technical Services" and started his nonsense about the modem, and my mother, sensing a scam, had hung up. He'd then called back twice more and was really aggressive, convincing my mother that he was legit and the problem was urgent, largely because he knew our phone number and address. I think he'd have run into a problem if he'd tried to get her to download something or give her credit card details, or whatever the plan was, but she was quite upset that that he'd got as far as he had.
Anyway, she's promised that she'll hang up on any more Telstra Technical Services calls.
(I've just checked the call list, and we had three more blocked calls from Sean's number Friday afternoon.)
February
7. What was the last funny video you watched?
Youtube suggested this video about the Australian states and weather talking to each other, which I did find funny (but which may depend on being Australian):
Click to view8. Which current or at least recent news story is the most interesting to you?
I am so over the news.
9. Would you rather ask for help with a difficult task, or figure it out for yourself?
That depends on the task, doesn't it? Generally I like to learn by doing, so would choose figuring things out, but sometimes something is difficult just because of the size of the task, so help would be appreciated.
10. What do you think is the best sitcom (current or past)?
I'm not a big sitcom watcher. Not a big TV watcher in general, actually. But if I ever stumble on an episode of Frasier, I don't regret staying to watch it.
11. What do you think is the most overrated movie?
I've never actually seen it, but everything surrounding the The English Patient annoyed me for some reason, so I'll say that. Having said that, I suspect I might like it if I ever actually saw it.
12. Who would you most like and least like to be stuck in an elevator with?
I wouldn't like to be stuck in a lift (as we call them here) at all, but in the event it happens: I would most like to be stuck in a lift with a lift repair person, and I would least like to be stuck in a lift with a serial killer.