escapades of the elusive kat

Today started quite well: the weather was amazing, no more rain, the dog walk was fine, everything was ok.

So I started to go on my way to work.

Half way, I see a dog walking in the middle of the street when it was the morning rush hour!

I tried to approach the dog, and was able to see he wasn't really afraid of people, but he was wary. I tried to reach out to touch him and he jumped off when I made contact.

So I followed him to see where he was going. I tried to call my Sis for help. She works in a shelter, and while I know for a fact her shelter was full and wouldn't take the dog, I was actually calling for help to either catch it or contact someone for it. No. She just go, "ah, try the municipal kennel"... I'm like, I don't have the time for that, I'm chasing after the dog!

Whenever the dog tried to run into the street, I sped up my walk and blocked his way to the street, trying to keep him on the pavement. But still he managed to get to the middle of the street a couple times and I was chasing the dog in the middle of the street.

I came to the conclusion he might be partially blind, because as he walked, sometimes there were some very slim or thin barriers for plants and he totally didn't see those and hit his face on it and then he'd jump back.

Meanwhile, with all the gracious help from my Sis (read: none) I decided to contact the lady from a Chinese dog shelter group (knowing very well the shelter I volunteer for is also full and can't take it, besides, they don't have the team to go help catch the dog). This lady just said sorry can't help, go post on Facebook. WTF. Then I remembered about another dog shelter later and I contacted her, and this one contacted the kennel directly and in less than 5 minutes someone came over.

I saw them bring out the nets but it was obvious they wouldn't need that for the dog, so they took the leash-thing (but it looks more brutal than a regular leash) and I decided to not see anymore. Even though it's to help the dog, that I suspect the dog would struggle and I'd hate to see a struggling dog.

By the end of the day, the lady from the shelter that I volunteer at was questioning me like I did something wrong. And some people on Facebook were also asking why I let the Municiple Kennel get the dog and that it's just death row for the dog.

Right this moment I am very upset. If the dog has to die, I'd rather the dog die in the Kennel where at least it's controlled, rather than get hit by a car then slowly wile away. So I am not taking it kindly these judgemental questioning of my actions. I don't see people actually coming to bloody help me, and I walked with the dog for a whole hour and a half, late for work, all sweaty, and had to skip lunch to make up for my tardiness today.

So my Mom is throwing a fit and her favorite "blame game" right now.

After 3 years of being stuck, Dad really wanted to go back to his homeland Austria to visit his brothers. They're all getting on, and all (except one) are having certain health issues.

The parents' plan, after checking all their doctor's appointments and things that can't be rescheduled, determined they will be traveling in July and part of August. Sure.

So back in February, I made a "hold" on a flight itinerary. It costed around 12k or so, 13k max local money per person to fly. It was actually a good price, and I had advised them that "this is probably as good a price as you'd get on Swiss Air."

Mom said flippantly, "I don't like to get locked in so early on. It's just February!"

So I replied, "as you wish, but once this hold is up (in a few days) the price would change."

Now it's May. Mom wants me to roll out the flights again. Sure. Same flights, now coming up to 18k or so, 19k max. "It's almost double!" She complains.

"I did warn you that if you did not take up the deal last time, the price will change," I replied.

"No! You never did!" She yelled back.

I was so mad, I think I almost combusted. But as all fights with Mom goes, you never win, so I didn't say anything, deciding to just talk to her again in the morning.

So this morning before I left, I asked again, "so, the flights, shall I confirm or continue to wait?"

She was all like "what other choice do we have? Sure, confirm the tickets, when do we have to pay?"

Since I was pretty familiar with the travel agent that I was making all these arrangements, I replied that "they won't be pushing for payment immediately," meaning that, they won't be pushy and say "pay then we issue the tickets." There's a certain level of trust between us. But I also wouldn't abuse this familiarity, so I'd say, better pay within 2 weeks of issuing tickets. That's my personal practice with this travel agent.

Mom, however, bristled. "Had you told me that in February I would have confirmed the tickets!"

Now I couldn't contain my fire. "Withholding payment doesn't mean you can pay upon your return in August, Mom, I would have paid within a few days too. I just meant you don't have to scramble to make the payment today."

Of course, she doesn't give up. "But had I known that then I would have said yes, so now we wouldn't have to pay double the price!"

And of course I couldn't shut up. "Yeah yeah. Blame me all over again for everything now. It's your habit anyway, you are never wrong, isn't it. It's my fault. I am sorry for not persuading you to go ahead and pay for your tickets back in February."

Nevermind that I was planning to eat the cost of the trip. Well, now that she's annoyed me so much, she can pay it herself again.

Actually, just the other day, on Mother's Day, she started a fight with her brother in law. It was so embarrassing.

Mom has a spinster friend, and she says she "feels sorry for her for not having much family," (same friend that "donated" money to my Sister as an act of charity because she was jobless back then, same friend that whenever anything needs to be done I would have to do it for her). So whenever it's these festivities, Mom would invite this friend too.

The common practice with my family is, we go out for weekly Sunday lunches together, what I term the Obligatory Sunday Family Lunch. It's basically Mom's family lunch, in that, the nucleus families of the remaining sisters (they were 4 sisters, now they are 3). The sons of the sister that has passed aren't called for these lunches because they have family of their own. Anyway, the sisters have a joint "wallet" for these weekly lunches.

When it's times like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, and such, the kids (that means, my generation) would pay. But we don't just split evenly, we'll split costs by party size. So say, my family there's 4 persons (Mom, Dad, Sis, and I),  so my Sis and I would pay for the 4 persons. My cousin would pay for her parents (so, 3 persons), and my other 2 sibling cousins would pay for their mom and themselves (so 3 persons as well). Mom would insist to invite her friend during these lunches but that her friend would pay for herself. Fine.

Oh, I forgot to mention, this brother in law worked in a bank before (I was too young to know what he worked as, but I suppose he was a big shot) and so the family usually depended on him for anything money-calculation related.

So on Mother's Day, it was time to pay. My Uncle (so, Mom's brother in law, in case it isn't clear) simply said "so you kids get together and do your numbers." Yes, sure, sir. Since I'm usually the one to do this task amongst that generation of the family (despite one of the cousins actually working at the bank, why isn't she the doing doing this?), I was way ahead and had my nifty excel calculation sheet ready, I just had to plot in the numbers (yes, I love my excel sheets).

Mom bites, "Hey, brother in law, you don't know what's going on so you should just shut up."

The table was flabbergasted. "Why are you talking like that Mom?" I asked.

"He doesn't know what's going on, don't divide the bill evenly!"

"I was never going to split the bill evenly!"

Uncle also was getting riled up, "I was just telling them to settle the bill amongst themselves!"

Not one to be challenged, Mom parried and said "That's none of your business, use your mouth to eat!"

"Mom, stop it! I'm handling the bills! I know what to do!" I tried to stop the fight.

"Well, then you should have told me how much my friend should pay!" She retorted.

WTF. I thought it was MANNERS to not talk about money in public, goddamnit! I had sent the cousins the amount they owed me on a group chat that SHE was on, and I was going to tell Mom's friend the amount after the lunch when not everyone was around the table. WHERE HAS HER MANNERS GONE?????

Mom is seriously getting out of control.

I hate to generalize and stereotype, but sometimes, when people actually play to the stereotype, you just can't help but roll your eyes.

At least I do.

So Hong Kong is in high alert again, as another wave hits, and people are looking for the source and the spread... that was, maybe just the end of December?

Yeah, then a couple days ago, Government Officials had a big party and congregated in a place and................

they now all have to go into quarantine.

which is all fine, until there's some other guy that now says he was "illegally detained".

He may have been considered illegally detained some 3 years ago before all that covid, but hey, Covid has been around since end of 2019, proper regulations in 2020. You had the whole of 2021 to acclimate. YOU KNOW THAT'S THE STANDARD NOW!

Yes, worry about your freedom. But you are going to have to sacrifice something for the freedom of the world in general. You've had your fun attending the party. Now you suffer the consequences, be the test be a false positive or true positive.

The cheek of the people!

Borders are now closed again, Macau is now closed off TO THE WORLD basically, all because of Hong Kong's newest fiasco, goddamnit!

You know, I’m now typing from my brand new iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, and I also got the Apple Pencil to go with it (a whole full set)... but things have come to a point where even such new gadgets do not excite me anymore.

I wanted to get a new iPad for work-but-not-work. Due to the work nature I seem to be getting, having my own iPad is rather important. I also needed an iPad that had absolutely not ever in history had a connection with my work network. (If it makes any sense). It’s my own iPad, paid from my pocket, I’m using it for work, but I will not let it have any connection with my workplace. Weird. But. Yeah. Not going to explain into details.

Just think that I’m paranoid and I’m doing this so that IT can’t reverse trace this back to me. No, I’m not doing anything illegal. I just need this to be totally isolated from the company network.

But I’m on a road to digress about another thing.

While it was no sweat on my part to pay for this iPad, it has just come to me, how sad the state of things are. I have the financial stability to practically buy any gadget any toy any thing, but local inflation is making it impossible for a single individual to buy an apartment.

I’ve long past the point of wanting to move out (it’s impossible) and since the renovations last year, my Sis and I got our own separate bedrooms, I’ve been happy with that arrangement.

And so here I am, with a spiffy brand new iPad Pro with the pencil so i can draw to my heart’s content and yet I feel no excitement and no inspiration. Meh.

Oh and about renovations... Mom was bitching about high water fees even with Government subsidy... I told her last year that since we were renovating we should replace the toilet but she refused, letting out a slew of verbal abuse about “how naive I am”, “money does not grow on trees”, and “do you think it’s easy to do?”

Well, throughout the year, the toilet has been giving us trouble, from the water closet not working, the pump the not pumping, the chain to the stopper breaking, the stopper not landing on the right spot, and all that jazz....

Poor Dad did what he could each time. He’s replaced a lot of stuff inside the water closet and it seemed that it was fine.

I DID say I was constantly hearing sound of running water but again Mom yells at me. *shrugs*

Well, this month, the water bill was like over the top. The Government has been subsidizing all households for a few months, and the amount of the subsidy is actually enough to cover normal daily use in a family of 4. We have to pay double that, because that is the amount of water we’ve used.

Of course, at first, Mom was complaining that it was I who always let the water run when I shower. Well. Because our water heater is shit, it takes quite a while for me to regulate the water temperature to the right temperature for me. Once I get that temperature, I’d rather let the water run, because lathering myself is actually faster than trying to re-regulate the water again.

However, Mom got some guy to come have a look, and he says, ta-da~! It’s the toilet. The water closet is not properly fixed so water is constantly running.

The high water bill? Not my fault.

I know it’s not in good taste to say “I told you so,” but with all the shit Mom had been giving me about water usage, I did say “I told you so” with much glee. Well, she didn’t have to be so nasty to me in the first place.

Why do ALL tech supports assume customers are stupid?

I have a Withings Activité watch, though I left it lying around for the last 6 months. Now the leather wristband is all moldy (which I've removed and washed out and put out under the sun to dry for bit, then will put it in the shade; it's leather after all). The batteries needed to be changed, so I did, and I had to calibrate the hands. And that's when I found out something wasn't right - the hour hand was stuck and couldn't move.

Hi, I have a Withings Activité which I bought just over a year ago (May 2015). After I replaced the battery, when I tried to calibrate the watch hands, I found out the hour hand is stuck. The minute hand and the motion hand works when calibrating. It's just the hour hand. You can see it is trying to move as I slide the dial during calibration, but it is just stuck.
Is there anything else I can try?
Thanks

And so I wait for a reply...

Hello,

We are sorry to hear of the issue that you are experiencing with your Activité Pop. To check if the hands are becoming stuck or coming in contact with one another, please go to the watch calibration screen in the Health Mate app (Menu->My Devices->Select the watch->'Set the time' and then select 'Start.' Make sure that the watch is right next to your mobile device when doing this to ensure a reliable Bluetooth connection. From here:

Turn the dial so that the minute hand passes the '12' marker twice in the clockwise direction and then twice in the counter clockwise direction. If the hand is able to move all the way around twice, set the minute hand at '12' and then select 'Next'

Turn the dial so that the hour hand passes the '12' marker twice in the clockwise direction and then twice in the counter clockwise direction. If the hand is able to move all the way around twice, set the hour hand at '12' and then select 'Next'
You can now perform the same test with the Activity hand.

Turn the dial so that the Activity hand goes as far left and then as far right as it can. Repeat this twice and then set the hand to '0.' You can now complete the calibration process.

Let us know if the hands become stuck during this test. If one of the hands does become stuck, let us know which hand it is.

Best regards,


They send me an email to try a series of steps (which I've done already) and ask me what the problem is or where the problem lies (which I've told them as well). They even got the product I was writing them about wrong. WTF.

It's the same thing with my workplace's IT department. I call Helpdesk explaining for some funny reason my computer can login to the company domain, can access the internet, can access the network printer, but can't access the network sharedrive and the printer/copier can't scan & write to a folder in my computer (which was working just the day before).

I've tried the usual steps - reboot PC, disconnect all lines and connect again, try logging into another computer, try to scan to another computer, etc... and I've listed every one of those steps I've done.

Techie comes, and says, "You know, we're not really supposed to use the internet at work," and I look at the jobsheet and see the job request - "user cannot go to internet" (don't mind the funny English)

WTF?

Okay, I'll admit, I am a very fussy person.

I have a lot of pet peeves. Some I know are irrational and stupid. But still.

The most recent one that came up... and that gets me each and every time...

My name. Yes. My name is Katherina. Yes. I go by Kat now. With my close friends, those that I've known since primary school, I go by Kata (it's got to do how they read "Katherina" in Canto-English). Within the family though, I go by Kati. I don't dislike it. It's what my family call me. Mom, Dad, Sister, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, they all call me Kati. Which is fine. I refer to myself as Kati when I'm talking to family too. I absolutely am cool with it.

But when someone outside of family calls me Kati, it just irks me. I get goosebumps... eeeeekkkk!!!! STOP IT!!!!! My close friends laugh at me, they know how I hate it. My good friend only annoyed me once by calling me that, and that was in jest too. So we are cool.

So, now, the people at the dog rescue place, one of the ladies started calling me Kati, but I never ever broadcasted that name to anyone ever. She's managed to get the whole group of people to call me that, and it's just simply all so yuckity goosebump-inducing wretchedly terrible sound to my ears.

It's gonna be rude and awkward to tell them to quit calling me that. Yet, I feel like quitting the organization purely because of that.

Yes, I know, it's irrational. Yes, I know, it's stupid. No, I can't get over it.

AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I swear!

I posted regularly! I posted on Saturday nights! And Tuesdays and Thursdays when I was being miserable in class!!

Then I started to think, why haven't I received ANY comments? (ok, I'm not being egoistical, I know some posts are so dumb they don't warrant any comment, but after a few weeks of posts and not even something like a "haha, me too"??)

Apparently the LJ iOS app is dead. All the posts I wrote and posted there just disappeared into thin air. I found out that last week, and it has taken me so many days to find the spare time to bring out my laptop.

Life has been pretty much as usual. Portuguese classes are sucking bad, work is OK-ish, with the boss I have, I consider it okay... I've been watching a lot of Criminal Minds, now up to Season 5, and it's starting to get boring. At home we've been busy doing Christmas cookies. I still have to make the cartoon-ey gingerbreads but I really doubt I'll have the time to get that done.

On the reading front I haven't made much progress. Again, I've been reading a lot of fanfiction.

Oh yeah today is the third Saturday of the month, another episode of Sailormoon (yawn-inducing Sailormoon Crystal. I think I'll just re-watch the classic Sailormoon, more interesting, more character development, less freaky over-the-top artwork)

Games games games, I dug out my Nintendo DS and dusted the dust off my Etrian Odyssey 3 cartridge. Dungeon crawler type RPGs are so my cup of tea...

Oh, did I mention after Christmas I'm gonig to Taipei for a few days? Of course I did, the app just ate my post, so you don't know. I'm going to spend 3 days in Taipei to unwind and relax. Ah~ I'm just thinking of the cafes I'm going to...

And my tickets for Spain are bought too. March. Here I come, Spain. Tickets are confirmed, hotels are flexible, but also confirmed, itineraries are more-or-less, I just have a Southern Spain to Barcelona trip that I have to figure out... overnight train? sounds interesting, but with the train booking website ONLY in Spanish, it's not going to make me look forward to the ordeal.

So. I have some errands to run online now. Need to pay some bills :D

See yaz!

ah, sort of loving this feeling right now. I'm pleasantly busy.
I actually snapped a couple of cemetery photos to write a post, but I didn't edit them yet.
Spent the afternoon writing writing and writing for the NaNo... reached 5k and over already. Going good on day 2, let's just see if I can keep this steam rolling throughout the work week
Some stupid stuff happened at work (despite it being Sunday) so tomorrow I am going to raise all 7 kinds of hell. I call to make arrangements, you say I should send an email so that everything is in black and white. So I send you a black and white email with really detailed instructions and you can still F*CK THIS UP!? I was livid, so livid the boss didn't even bother to diss me about it, because it was totally, clearly, irrevocably, without a doubt, not my fault. Geez...

I'm going to bed. Stay safe. Tchuess!