Category: WTF

Retirement Brain

Retirement Brain

Retirement Brain: When Every Day Feels The Same

the effect of smiles

Not that long ago, I woke up one morning with absolutely no idea what day it was. None. Zilch. I knew it was a weekday because kids were marching off to school like tiny, grumpy commuters. But beyond that? Total mystery.

This, my friends, is what happens when you cross the threshold into the so-called “retirement years.” (By the way, I despise that word—retirement sounds like you’re just waiting for someone to close the lid on you!) Life after a career isn’t about fading into oblivion; it’s about keeping the wheels turning. Learning, growing, doing stuff—that’s the real deal. But one of the unintended side effects? Time becomes a vague concept. Days blend together like a smoothie of confusion.

Usually, I always know when it’s Tuesday—because, like a responsible part-time worker, I head into an office. Plus, I live next to a preschool, which is basically an audio calendar. Monday to Friday: a symphony of tiny voices. Weekends? Silence. That’s my system. And it works… most of the time.

But my usual cues are missing when I’m house-sitting cats, especially in unfamiliar places. (Cats are terrible at reminding you what day it is, by the way. They live in their own time zone called “Feed Me Now O’Clock.”) I still work online, but my routine is out the window, and suddenly, Tuesday could be Thursday or even a rogue Monday. Who knows?

Retirement Brain

Here’s my pro tip: Keep a diary—not just for appointments but for daily adventures, big or small. Schedule fun, plan outings, and create things to look forward to—because having a reason to be present is what keeps life exciting. Otherwise, you might just wake up one day and realize you’ve been living in an endless loop of Tuesdays.

Stay curious, stay engaged, and, for the love of all things, be organised—write things down!

P.S. If you figure out what day it is, let me know.

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Desktop Disaster Averted: Backup Saves the Day!

Desktop Disaster Averted: Backup Saves the Day!

What a crazy day!

the effect of smiles

This morning, I had to go into the office, but before I left, I did a little bit of work on my computer. Just as I was finishing up, a little pop-up appeared telling me it was time to empty the trash. Being the obedient wee soul that I am (yeah, right), I emptied the trash. At the same time, I checked my clock and realised that I was cutting it rather fine to get to the office.

So, I shut the laptop down. Well, I shut the lid down, threw it in my bag and off I went.

Arriving at the office, I opened up the lid, and there on my my desktop was NOTHING!

Let me explain. I have one folder on the desktop, and everything is in that folder. Think me weird? Well it’s simply to reduce the clutter on the desktop and away from prying eyes.

BUT it was gone!

My heart sank, and I thought, ‘nooooo, it’s got to be here. It just has to be.’ But I sure couldn’t find it. And the only thing I could think of was that it had somehow got into the trash bin, and so was deleted.

Now I have an Apple. We’ve got a little search thing. The first thing I did was put in the name of the folder. Nothing came up, so I searched the names of folders inside this folder. And it was a big fat zero.

backup saves desktop files

 

It was like I had lost everything. I mean this was all my work was GONE.

 

First thing was ‘don’t panic, Fee, we can work this out’. ‘Take a breath and get into a calm state so you can think logically.’

I then remembered that I had my Time Machine backup at home. This is a hard drive that I use to back up my computer, but I also back up on iCloud.

The first thing to do –  go on to iCloud. And, damn, if that wasn’t empty as well.

Obviously, from the time I left home to the time I got to the office and opened the lid, it had done a new backup.

I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got a Time Machine backup, thankfully.’ I do backups regularly, and I knew there wasn’t a great deal of new stuff since the last time I plugged in the Time Machine, so there was no point in getting worried. It would be okay.

I made my apologies and left work, as I couldn’t do any work anyway. When I got home, I plugged in the backup, opened it up, and… it wasn’t there!!!

It was now getting close to panic mode. I hadn’t been into my Time Machine to recover files for years, so I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right.

Now, I am fortunate that one of our clients does computer stuff. So I called him and said, “Help. I need you.”

Off I went with my laptop and Time Machine to see him. It took all of a minute for him to open the Time Machine correctly, and there was my desktop exactly as it should be.

Whew!

backup saves desktop files

That’s right – back up your computer using an external hard drive because if you lose shit, you’re screwed.

The other thing was I tried to stay calm to logically figure out what went wrong and how I could fix it.

All’s well. I’ve got all my stuff, and life moved on.

Gosh. Don’t want to do that again. That was scary.

 

 

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Seventy is NOT Old!

Seventy is NOT Old!

I do wonder about how young people’s minds work.

I read an article recently by a young person who was of the opinion that people over the age of 70 should re-sit their driver’s license every year. It’s like, what? You have got to be kidding me.

Okay, I do agree that there are some old farts out there that drive at nought miles an hour or nought kilometres, depending on which country you’re from. And yes, they piss me off just as much as they do you. But the majority of older folks drive normally, and they are fine.

Did you know that people between the ages of 15 and 17 are more likely to have an accident than drivers from any other age group, according to statistics? Plus, they are more likely to cause injuries and death, including to themselves. In Aotearoa, N.Z., drivers between 15 and 24 years old are at the highest risk. (Government Stats).

There are more younger people driving erratically, way above the speed limit, and taking stupid risks than older drivers. This made me think I would happily set myself up against any young driver any day of the week, and I bet that I would be as good, if not better, than them as a driver.

So, yes. I was rather astonished when I read that. After all, 70 is not that old.

fee figures

 

 

 

 

 

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Life Could Be A Bit Slower!

Life Could Be A Bit Slower!

Ever had a moment when you realised that if life were a bit slower, things would turn out better?

Well, I did not that long ago. An event took place that certainly made me wake up to the fact that I tend to rush through life when I don’t have to.

Let me set the scene.

It was a Wednesday morning. I had been out for my morning walk, clipping along at a decent speed while listening to my favourite podcast. On my return, I ate a decent breakfast, checked my emails, and checked my daily ‘to-do’ list.

Then it was time for my shower. All was going well until I opened the shower door, grabbed my towel, and stepped out onto the mat, where I instantly realised there was a small pool of water beneath it. It was just enough to instigate my foot to skid out from under me, causing me to arse up and come down on my behind in such a manner worthy of any cartoon character’s banana peel skidding fall.

But joking aside, it was serious enough that I sat for a few minutes, making sure nothing was broken. My knee, wrist, and coccyx (tailbone) were the parts that obviously had taken a hammering. I had the foresight to scoot myself over to the cupboard, get the arnica, apply it to these parts, and, once dressed, ice everything as well.

However, what I did do in those moments was to sit in gratitude for the fact that I’m predominantly whole food and definitely vegan. I’m quite sure that if I had a diet of dairy, bones would have broken, and healing would have been weeks.

The wrist healed within 48 hours the coccyx about the same. The knee was a bit longer, but it had been hit the hardest, so it was understandable.

I have learned my lesson!

 

 

 

 

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Is There No Privacy Anymore?

Is There No Privacy Anymore?

After reading about Facebook handing over chat files, I have concluded that there is no privacy anymore.

Let me fill you in on the details so you also can shout out, WTF?

Oh, and before we begin, this is NOT about whether abortion laws are right or wrong.

Nebraska’s abortion law  currently (as of 14th July 2022) prohibits most abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization).

This story is about an investigation launched in April 2022, even BEFORE the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It is centred around a mother and her then 17-year-old daughter who became pregnant. The mother acquired abortion pills which the daughter took. A friend (truly? Friend?) dobbed the girl to the police after she saw her take the first pill.

As she was around 23 weeks pregnant, she was accused of breaking the law. But it’s not the law that is being discussed here.

Wait for it…….

As part of the investigation into the supposedly illegal abortion, Nebraska police served a warrant on Facebook.

The warrant covered the phones and laptops and the Facebook accounts of both. On top of these, Facebook also handed over private chat messages between the mother and her daughter (a minor at the time).

This is not good. Activists have warned that this will become more prevalent as abortion laws become more draconian and authorities pursue abortion cases.
There is also the threat that law enforcement will get trackers of all who become pregnant within their region. However, it’s more likely that they’ll wait until they get a tip and then use their subpoena power to get digital evidence of ‘criminal intent.

Facebook certainly could put privacy coding in place to boost the user’s privacy. At the moment, they do offer encryption on the messenger app. You can check if the” End-to-end encrypted chats” function is enabled. But if you really want to have secret messages with someone, you’ll have to open a ‘secret chat manually’.

Click here for the ‘How To’.

Of course, you can always use the Vanish Mode, which means the message vanishes altogether!

We do need to remember that privacy has always been an issue. Even in the days of hand-written letters, they can come to light and be used against the writer, as we’ve seen a few times with Royals and celebs.

As my father used to say, “only write what you wouldn’t mind someone other than the recipient reading.”

fee figures

 

 

 

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I’m On Bluesky

I’m On Bluesky

About Me

fee o'shea

Thanks for dropping by. My name is Fee O’Shea. I’m a mother and grandma, an author, and a Comedy Improver.
This blog is for my thoughts, my rants, raves, reviews and things that have grabbed my attention. From politics to social media to beauty, health and the environment. Fee’s World is written to bring you a smile or get you thinking. Enjoy.

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