America's Dark Winter

Whatever the outcome of the forthcoming US elections, it's highly possible that the US will find itself in a Dark Winter of violence.

For decades now, Marxists have been working to undermine the US and everything it stands for. Extreme Right Wing goons have been trying to turn the US into a totalitarian regime. In the middle are the people, trying to keep the US a decent place to live and a good world member.

Stella Morabito in the following article expresses it much better than I ever could:

https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/26/7-open-leftist-threats-that-political-terror-is-coming-to-america-whether-trump-wins-or-not/

My guess is that Military Law will need to be invoked shortly after the US election.

I hope both Stella and I are wrong. The last thing the world needs is a grossly dysfunctional USA.

Robin

Now I have a new descriptor ...

Not only am I a white, aged, heterosexual, married, Australian male, I'm also cissexual.

I always knew I was the "I" in the acronym LGBTQI - Intosex, but not until recently did I become aware I'm also cissexual. What does that mean? I identify as the gender with which I was birthed ie, male.

Obviously, I could have chosen to identify as one of the other 72 genders, but being male was good enough for me and it's continuing to be good enough. I'll die a male, it's too late to change now.

I have a wife, two children and a grandson who all know me as a male. My friends know me as a male.

I have enough trouble buying men's clothes that fit, how in hell would I cope with some tight-fitting gym slacks or a dress? And whatever I chose, I'd never, ever look as beautiful as Miss Bo (?) whose photo appears here.

Look at that lovely slim, shapely body. The smooth, flat stomach, the lovely lips and nice breasts. Wouldn't it be heartbreaking if she decided to think of herself as a male or any of the other supposed genders?

I don't know about you, but I think she is perfect as is.

Stay well.

Robin

No Rest in Peace Here!

My relatives have strict instructions about what to do with my body when I no longer need it: send it to the crematorium and scatter my resultant ashes somewhere in the beautiful ancient hills of my beloved Northern Territory.

Nobody will be able to dig up my coffin in 2,000 years and probe whatever is left of me. 

While we often make the comment "Rest in Peace" about our dead, we aren't happy to let our ancestors' bodies rest in peace. No, we pull them out of their comfortable coffins and meddle with them.

It is good that we learn about ancient civilisations and the DNA that led to us and those who have rested in peace for so long, probably won't care that we meddle with them for purely scientific and archeological reasons. They're well past that!

But, should we expect that we have the right to do so?

If these deceased thought that 2,000 years later someone would pull them out of their caskets and slice pieces of their skin and hair off for DNA examination, would they have agreed? Or did they, like some of our religious, believe that their bodies would ascend into some utopian realm to live happily ever after?

We will never know, but we assume ownership because the original owners of the gravesites are no longer with us. And we don't care whether these ancestors rest in peace or otherwise.

You can read more here.

Robin

Oris - A Different Type Watch Company

Oris may not be as well known a brand as Amazon or Ebay for most people, but within the watch lovers' communities, it's huge!

Oris has been with us since 1904 and is one of the most prestigious watch companies on the planet. 

Innovation and perfection in design and engineering have been central to Oris since its first days.

Oris is responsible for designing an ingenious depth indicator for its diving watches and the elegant pilots' watch at left, one of many, comes with an altimeter that can be purchased in either Imperial or Metric versions.

So what's different about Oris?

Oris is passionate about the environment and people funding projects like the Lake Baikal Foundation and manufacturing limited release watches honouring people such as Carl Brashear.

The company is even involved in dophin and whale conservation. 

And there is much more. You can read about other Oris supported projects here and the 50 people who were given watches by Oris - their "Heroes of the Hour".

I've been a fan of watches for decades - most of my life in fact, and I've never heard of such generosity by a watch company. Oris gives back!

If you'd like to support any of Oris's philanthropy or conservation programs, I recommend you visit their site and help out. You may even like to spoil yourself with one of the world's best watches.

Robin

PS: I do not receive a benefit should you wish to contribute to Oris programs or purchase one of their watches.

Acknowledgement: Photo by Oris

When the prices change daily ...

There I was, cursing the rain for yet another day when I'd be unable to head out for a walk. It's been too long - drizzling, cold days, and cutting winds.

I switched on the TV and there it was, the solution to my problem of not being able to go out for a walk. The iWalkPro!

The advert, showing a couple of lovely shapely young ladies with perfect bodies who don't need a treadmill, bouncing away showing us how good it is. Simply mesmerizing.

All the reviews describing how users sleep better, have lost inches or kilograms, simply by using the iWalkPro.

If you call an 1800 number and order it, you can get it delivered for $14.95. And they'll throw in a $500 air fryer to boot.

I need a treadmill, not an effing air fryer.

But nowhere, even in the fine print could I see the total price. Like, $14.95 is loose change, but when a price is omitted, it worries me that it's probably either inordinately high, or ridiculous for the goods you're buying.

Down the bottom of the page was the "Ask us a question" offer. I asked the question and it was obviously too difficult as this is the answer I received. 

The answer did come in a remarkably short time, and on a Sunday too.

Unfortunately, the answer was a non-answer.

Which other company changes their prices daily? 

Maybe I need to ring up every day for a week and see whether today's price is better than yesterday's.

I figure that with a treadmill, I can do two half-hour stints to total my one-hour walking target daily instead of doing it in one session.

All I need to do is call to see if I can afford a treadmill.

Robin

Sales Blurbs that Never Seem to End

In the 90s I had an online business where, among other things, I published ebooks. At that time ebooks were king of the internet. Everyone was producing ebooks about something. Many were free written by so-called internet gurus.

I read prolifically. Some ebooks I purchased, others I downloaded to learn about marketing methods, how to use AdSense, keyword maximisation and plenty more. I still have most of them tucked away in a folder somewhere.

Many of the internet marketing gurus like Cory Rudl, who had made his wealth selling one ebook about how to buy a used motor vehicle, opined that the long marketing message was superior to the short marketing message.

The long sales message was supposed to convince readers to buy or subscribe to whatever was being sold. I disagreed. Why?

Every time I found a long sales blurb, I'd read a bit at the beginning, scan most of it and head straight to the end. At the end of the day, what one wants to know is what is being sold and how much it costs.

Life is too short to read through a lengthy discussion about how much you need someone's product, how it will change your life, and why you should buy it immediately, if not sooner.

With written sales text, you could head to the end and return to the body text if that's what you wanted. The current crop of video presentations prevents that.

You're trapped.

You see an advert about something you're interested in, say something like, "10 Reasons You Can't Lose Weight."

So, you click the link only to find a video and some self-designated "expert" who will tell you the 10 reasons. But what happens is you have to go through a lengthy diatribe during which the expert keeps telling you they are going to reveal the 10 reasons, but it never happens.

The video goes on and on and eventually, bored shitless, you escape. You never find out anything about the 10 reasons.

If you do stay and watch the whole half-hour blurb, ultimately, there will be an offer to buy the latest weight loss tablet at a discounted price for the next few hours. Or there will be a book or ebook for sale.

It's really annoying and I wonder just how successful a marketing strategy it is.

What do you think?

Robin

Do you follow the sheeple on climate change?

Climate change is largely related to the sun's activity or inactivity and is cyclical, not linear. 

Dr Tim Ball exposed the global warming deception in his title, "The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science." Since then, many other scientists have shown how the IPCC has been deceiving us for years for reasons having nothing to do with climate.

Australian scientist, Dr John McLean issued an audit report on global warming data in October 2018 and his findings showed that the data upon which anthropogenic global warming (AGW) were postulated were defective and unsuitable. His report here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/11/bombshell-audit-of-global-warming-data-finds-it-riddled-with-errors/

At present the sun is in Solar Minimum 25 leading us into a new mini-ice age and global warming since 1979 and last month was about +0.44 of a degree Celsius. (drroyspencer.com). Hardly a catastrophe and expected to drop.

Those with a vested interest in promoting AGW as a cause for climate change have actively ensured anyone with a dissenting view is deplatformed, sacked, disparaged, or otherwise kept out of the mainstream media. The same people who claim C02 is a killer gas, won't allow nuclear energy in Australia which is completely C02 free.

Instead of believing what is being promoted and follow like sheep, please do some of your own research to at least find out what thousands of deplatformed scientists are saying. 

Even without the benefit of scientists telling you the truth, you can research it yourself rather than following like sheep.

What research have you done on weather and climate change?

Robin

When someone assumes your identity

 

We've all heard about the scams, identity theft and so on that occurs online, but we don't always experience it. Well, a few days ago I experienced it.

A friend messaged me and asked if I had changed my profile on Instagram. She sent me the screen capture shown at left: my name, my photo.

It wasn't my account, but had my name and a photograph of me on the profile. The name isn't such a problem as there are literally dozens of Robin Henrys out there, but none looks identical to me and has the same shirt I bought from Tintagel Brewery in Wales, UK.

I'm not the most handsome man on the planet which makes you wonder why they would use my photo and not that of someone more handsome, and perhaps younger.

Who knows?

What I do know is that they messaged my followers asking them to re-link to them. So, this is a word of caution. If a friend asks you to relink, suspect that someone has replicated their site.

I reported the incursion to Instagram and within a day or so, they advised that the dodgy profile and account had been deleted.

About 10 years ago I had someone copy a whole blog site of mine, using years of content for their own sales purposes. My site had tens of thousands of visitors and that's what they wanted. I managed to have that shut down too.

For many years now, I habitually and invariably encrypt files, use encrypted end to end email, install a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on my devices, protect them with ZoneAlarm, use LastPass password manager, and take other precautions including shredding documents with identity and other important personal information on them.

What do you do to protect your devices, files and personal information?

Robin

PS: I don't use Facebook because of the scrutiny and security issues either.

The Global Stupidity Crisis

It often seems that the world has gone mad. Or at least that we are going through a Global Stupidity Crisis.

Every day now I see something that makes me shake my head and think, "how much worse will it get?"

We live in an era when Leftists, Technocrats and others yet to be named are trying their damndest to destroy society as we know it.

We're now told there are literally dozens of genders, not the two identified by human biology. We don't know whether our animal friends feel the same eg, does a cow wake up one morning and think, "I feel like a bull in cow's clothing"? Probably not.

Animals aren't that stupid. Only humans can use their superior intellect to arrive at such conclusions.

We are told our communication and language has to change. Before talking to someone, we should ask them how they would like us to identify them. Will we refer to them as he, she, it, or fuck knows what else?

Movements like Black Lives Matter has been overtaken by Marxists trying to disrupt the capitalist, free enterprise system and install totalitarian socialism, pushing the United Nations One World Agenda.

Statues of historical figures are now obscene and need to be pulled down so that we can hide our history, good or bad. If we can't see reminders of it, it won't offend us.

Being Caucasian (white) is now offensive and in the US people, either afraid or low in intellect acknowledge white supremacy that doesn't exist while blacks and part-blacks (presumably part white), demand white people give up their houses and property for the poor black underdogs of society.

No mention of the many white people who are poor and disadvantaged for reasons mostly to do with their own lack of ambition or willingness to educate themselves. Or those of us who got off our arses and worked in full-time jobs while studying of an evening to get ahead.

If you're a heterosexual, you can't play the part of a homosexual in movies - it's some sort of appropriation. Tom Cruise at 5' 7" won't be able to play Jack Reacher who was apparently much taller. We can't have people pretending to be anything other than duplicates of what they are. For fucks sake.

In everything we do, we have to ensure diversity and inclusion prevail, even if it means hiring underperformers, provided their diversity is sufficient to ensure organisations meet diversity targets.

Yes, it's a crazy world we live in and it seems to be getting crazier by the week.

Fortunately, I'll be gone sometime within the next 20 years so I hopefully won't see the very worst of it, or will be too drugged up in palliative care to give a rat's arse what's happening.

For those of you who are young enough to expect to be around in 40 or 50 years, I hope you can take control of the situation and return it to some form of normalcy.

Robin

Best Sellers in Gift Cards

The Slow Demise of Western Civilization

As I look about, I reflect on the Australia I once knew. Growing up in the 60s, marrying in the 70s and retiring in mid-2000s, I can't help but feel that we Baby Boomers have lived in the best times Australia will ever know.

Earlier on, we had a White Australia Policy which meant that as a kid, I grew up with Australian born children, some of whose parents were immigrants from Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. Asian and black people, apart from our own indigenous, were rarely seen, although in some parts of Australia Asians were more common because of their links to gold mining and pearling in which they had been occupied for two or three generations. There was a handful of Afghanis here and there, those who had helped build Australia's telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin using camels to cart loads of food, water and equipment.

When I commenced work in a welding workshop on an isolated mine site, many of my workmates were immigrants from European countries. We shared common values and those who were born in non-English speaking countries had learned varying degrees of functional English. They fitted in well and we all got along together; I was fascinated by stories of their homelands, families and experiences. I helped my Danish friend learn English and he taught me a few words in Danish. I learned a little Greek, and Italian, now long forgotten.

Fortunately, good taste prevailed and between 1949 and 1973 the White Australia Policy was downgraded and eventually disappeared. Large numbers of Asian refugees and immigrants came to Australia after the Vietnam War and since then we've taken in people from most countries on the planet.

Even before World War II we imported Europeans, many of whom were victims of religious violence and these people have helped make Australia what it is today. The Barossa Valley in South Australia is a perfect example where Scottish and German immigrants turned barren land into one of Australia's most productive wine production regions in three or four generations. 

The push towards multiculturalism, based on the erroneous belief that all cultures are equal, became government policy in the 70s and we are stuck with it. We perhaps would have been better served by a multiethnicity policy and recognised that importing large numbers of moslems was not going to serve Australia's interests. But the horse has bolted and we've begun to pay the price, not learning from our European friends whose countries are suffering badly under too much immigration from moslem majority countries.

In this mix is the push by anarchists and leftist "progressives" who are doing everything they can to get rid of our Western democratic values and destroy our societies. Although they have benefitted from our safe, stable societies, they despise us and everything we stand for.

Why Australian politicians ceded sovereignty to the United Nations (UN) by adopting Refugee Charters, the Lima Declaration (1975), and other unhelpful agendas like Agenda 21 is anyone's guess. These should have all been taken to the Australian electorate first.

Well funded and well organised agencies of the UN and others have propagated a fake global warming crisis intended to distribute wealth from countries that work to countries that don't. Being too weak to disengage ourselves from the UN push, we've created large swathes of ugly wind turbines that cost more to produce and run than they will ever produce in baseload electricity. We've destroyed highly proficient coal-fired power plants and replaced them with systems that work only when the wind blows or the sun shines. And to make all this happen, we've increased the price of electricity to the highest in the world and used taxpayers' money to pay people to do it.

When it became clear that global warming wasn't happening at the alarming rate forecast, the conversation changed quickly to climate change. Although the climate is the average of weather and changes frequently as it has done for billions of years, the weak of intellect see each weekly change as proof of global warming. "The end of the world is nigh", they say as they down their coffee latte and scoff their muffins. The truth lies elsewhere and is evident in this graph:

Since 1979 the earth's lower atmosphere temperature has gone up and down and in June 2020 showed an increase of 0.43 degrees Celsius.

The climate is cyclical, not linear and a half-degree increase in temperature isn't going to kill anyone.

With the global warming hoax came a great opportunity for people to make wads of cash building and selling wind turbines, solar panels for industry and private use, all subsidised by ... yes, you guessed it, taxpaying Australians.

Closely associated with the climate alarmism is the relatively new activity of "deplatforming". If you have a different view to that of the climate alarmists, they don't want to hear it. Not only that, they don't want anyone else to hear it, so trying to find a venue to rent to run a seminar, discussion group etc, is now difficult for anyone with a different view.

If you do find one, the chances are that a large group of ugly anarchists, Leftists and parasites will try to block the entrance, assault you as you enter or leave, and even enter the hall and make a noise so you can't hear what they don't want you to hear.

"Eliminating courses on Western civilization ranks as one of the many radical changes in the American university over the last few decades. Symbolically, the shift began in January 1987, when Jesse Jackson led Stanford University students who, in a farcical demonstration with deep implications, shouted "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Western culture's got to go." HREF

Leftist platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook will delete your entry or ban you if you dare publish something that doesn't agree with their propaganda. But publish something about killing whites and the chances are, it will remain viewable.

The second rate media entity, The Guardian refuses to publish any opinion on climate change that doesn't agree with its own. No room for reasoned debate here.

Freedom of speech, once the cornerstone of Western civilisation, is now becoming less free.

We've been through the so-called marriage equality struggle where a small number of homosexuals and academics told us we have to allow homosexuals to marry rather than simply having an agreement that treats each other equally. I didn't have a problem with that except for the fact that their unions are called marriages. Such is life, in a democracy, we have to accept what a majority wants.

Whether a majority wants primary school-aged children to be taught about masturbation and that gender isn't real, you can choose to be either male, female, or something else, is another matter. While sensible sex education is valuable and possibly appropriate to be taught in school along with information about relationships, the non-binary, anti-scientific topics pushed by Leftists isn't appropriate.

We also have pedophiles trying to get pedophilia accepted as normal. It possibly is for some people as there are many sexual deviations, however, the problem is that it involves children. Children too young to understand the consequences of their actions and at law not able to consent. No other sexual deviation is illegal in Australia except for beastiality - you can even practise necrophilia provided you don't kill the person involved to practice it. I'm not quite sure how they'd consent.

All signs of our changing times as we rush like lemmings towards the new utopian One World Global Order.

University students now have "safe spaces" where they can go if they feel threatened by - who knows what, perhaps the need to study. We all have "trigger warnings" lest we see, hear or read something we find offensive, distasteful, or simply what we don't want to see, hear or read. For Christs's sake; nothing seems to protect me from seeing Uber adverts with Magda Szubanski unless I'm lucky enough to be on a toilet break.

If you're black, you can't play a role or a voice-over of a white person and vice-versa. It's unpopular to be white because we're all supremacists. Halle Berry, that stunning part-black lady abandoned a film role-playing the part of a lesbian - that's a role for lesbians, not stunning heterosexual women.

Next week will we have men with moustaches playing men with moustaches; will 5'7" Tom Cruise still be playing much taller Jack Reacher? Will someone fat be allowed to play someone thin. It's all-important stuff in a world where thousands die from hunger every week.

One woman suggests that white people are a genetic defect and sub-human, forgetting that we've been responsible for building functional societies that have progressed in most fields of human endeavour. Profess to like something white and you'll be the recipient of hate mail and derision.

A black death brought us unhinged violence, destruction of property and shop owners livelihoods, looting, murder, rape and other ugly events that had nothing to do with any death but was simply used as a catalyst to misbehave.

Now a post mortem has found the death wasn't caused by police, but an underlying illness.

The cancel culture mob has returned with a vengeance destroying statues of historical figures that are no longer passe' with the minority of mindless morons they represent. Even graves of our young, brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives to allow us to live in freedom have been damaged, spray painted and otherwise vandalised.

School curricula are being changed to reflect dishonest views of history and science and universities are rolling out graduates indoctrinated into the ways of the Marxists from whom they have learned. All part of Agenda 21.

In the US there are now calls to defund the police and have no police altogether. Random assaults against white people out on their own are all too frequent and anti-semitism is rampant. Blacks kill more of their own than anybody else. If the Leftist morons run riot while they have police forces, imagine what they'll do without.

The West is going to the dogs in a handbasket. China, on the other hand, is heading towards being the leading power. Is it any wonder why?

Have I missed anything? I'm sure I have and if so, perhaps you could comment and tell me about it. I've run out of steam for today.

Robin

How to Detect Fake News

Anyone who reads the news media knows that much of what is posted is intentionally fake, intended to align our views with views of others and their agendas, or fake because the authors are incompetent or stupid.

We seem to have reached a new era of fake news. The article here, suggests how you might detect fake news. Worth a read!

Robin

HREF: https://www.nexusnewsfeed.com/article/wake-up-world/nine-ways-to-discern-fake-news-from-real-news/

Barossa Valley's Chocolate Company - a Great Attraction

Who doesn't like chocolate?

I'm sure everyone likes chocolate, I know I do but I purposely avoid it most of the time.

Despite so-called "scientific" reports suggesting chocolate is good for us, it is chock-full of calories and a challenge for some of us watching our calorific intake.

If you're one of those lucky people who can eat whatever you want, or young enough for the rot not to have set in, you'd be able to pig out here. There's certainly plenty of variety.

Although the Barossa Valley Chocolate Company is only a few kilometres from where I live, I've driven by numerous times but never visited. Today on my daily walk, I thought I'd walk in and take a look now that businesses are returning to normal.

The Chocolate Company has a wine-tasting centre that was closed and a restaurant that had the government proscribed maxima of attendees, so I couldn't buy the flat white coffee I'd intended to. Next time.

I took a few photographs of the nicely decorated and laid out areas inside. The different colour scheme for various types of chocolate is visually attractive as you can see from the photos.

I don't know where one would start here, there are so many choices.

There are also small packages for gifts set up to make the task easier eg, one gift has a mug filled with chocolate options.

I think a good strategy for buying chocolate would be to visit the cafe first and buy lunch. After lunch when you are no longer hungry, then go look at the chocolate.

That way, there's less of a chance you'll overdo the chocolate purchasing and blow your budget.

One of my favourite chocolate recipes - that includes peanut butter (I love both) I got from Chocolate Covered Katie (Doesn't the name say something?)

Love chocolate? Visit the Chocolate University Online.

Robin

PS: What's your favourite chocolate? You don have one don't you?

How to Lose a Customer by Dell

Dell Receipt

Throughout the years, I have had three or four Dell desktop computers and have never had a problem with their technology. Last year I bought my daughter a laptop from Dell. 

A couple of days ago I ordered a new laptop worth $1258 dollars. I placed the order online and used my credit card to pay for the purchase. As part of the credit card processing activity, my bank sent me an SMS message with a code that I had to enter online before the payment would be authorised.

The payment was authorised which meant that Dell had my money. I received an official Dell email telling me that they had received my order and a confirmation would follow soon.

The next day I received an email from Dell that had all the hallmarks of attempted fraud. Although it quoted my correct name, order number etc, it was poorly formatted and looked amateurish. My first thought was that fraudsters had intercepted my order or otherwise obtained details of my purchase.

The email asked me to provide an alternative email address and verify my residential address. This seemed strange since I had already provided those details. 

I replied to the email stating that I had already provided the details and had no intention of providing them again as I deemed it unnecessary when Dell had already been paid.

I received another email asking for the same details and advising me that I could cancel my credit card order and send money via a bank transfer. This made me even more suspicious.

The author of the email advised me that they required verification because I was using a "free email address".

To my knowledge half the world uses free email addresses. They had my money, my phone number, my residential address and my email address. What more could they want?

Because I expected this was an attempt to defraud me or Dell, I cancelled my order and ensured the $1258 was refunded.

If it was an attempt at fraud by a third party, then obviously it's no fault of Dell's, however, if it wasn't a fraud attempt, it demonstrates what would be best called a piss poor business practice.

The concept of a customer for life doesn't enter my thoughts now that I think of Dell. They've lost me forever.

Robin

What I love about Gmail

Photo by Kon Karampelas

There are hundreds of email clients and a few big names ones like Outlook, Mail, Yahoo, Gmail, and the 32 described here, probably the tip of a large iceberg.

There are also numerous subscription email clients like ProtonMail that also have free (limited) versions. 

Many of them are no doubt excellent but if you've been using the same client for years, perhaps it's time to review whether it is doing exactly what you want. Or perhaps you want an alternative email account for a business, sports club or another specific purpose.

For example, you may want a "conservative" account for business purposes and a less conservative account for general communication. When I was involved in recruitment for an Australian Government agency, you'd be surprised at the number of email addresses that applicants submitted that were really inappropriate eg, "hotrodjamie@something.com" or "pleasurepuss@something.com".

It's not a good look when you're applying for a job!

Why I love Gmail

I've tried numerous email clients throughout the years and I love Gmail because it's:

1. easy to load and use
2. available on all my devices
3. available to use offline
4. capable of using encryption for all messages
5. capable of providing rules for filtering
6. able to send "out of office" messages
7. has a confidential mode
8. allows multiple addresses to be used receiving and sending email
9. is free with plenty of storage
10. able to download and distribute large attachments

There are several features you may not know about, so I'll briefly explain those.

Encryption

Some email clients provide it, some don't.

Encryption means that between you and your recipient, your message is encrypted and if intercepted by a third party, cannot be read. These days, this should be a necessity.

Confidential Mode

This is another great capability designed to improve security and privacy.

With confidential mode you can:

Prevent your messages being forwarded, copied, printed or downloaded, set an expiry date and require a passcode to access. The code can even be sent to a recipient via SMS.

These features are recommended when sending information that is sensitive. For example, if I sent my bank account details to someone, I can use confidential mode.

The expiry feature means that a day or two after I send it, nobody else will be able to access it.

With ordinary email, although it's encrypted during transit, while it sits in your email sent box and your recipient's inbox, it's vulnerable to being viewed by someone else using your device or who may have hacked into your device.

It's an excellent feature and one you shouldn't live without.

Multiple Addresses

There are two parts to this topic. One is about your email address that can use a suffix and the other about the different incoming and outgoing addresses you can use.

First - Gmail provides a capacity to add a suffix to your existing address eg, say your address is charlie@gmail.com. You decide to sign up to a subscription with G-Man Magazine. Instead of using your charlie@gmail.com address as is, you could use charlie+gman@gmail.com.

Adding the suffix provides several benefits. You can use as many as you want for different people and organisations and when you receive them use a Rule to Filter them into a specific Folder. 

If you find a specific address you have allocated is spamming you, you can set up a Rule to Delete the messages when they arrive. You can also contact the organisation to which you provided your address and inform them about the spam.

There are several other alternative characters and options you can use. If you want to explore it further, look in the Gmail Help section.

The second option relates to alternative email addresses you might have. You can do this:

1. Set up another Gmail account and redirect it to your charlie@gmail.com inbox. My wife and I use this setup. We have a formal address we use for business matters such as dealing with banks, insurance companies etc. I explain how it works below
2. Receive email from alternative email client accounts in your Gmail inbox and send replies using that account's email address and not your Gmail address

Case Study A

Belinda and Charlie DOE are a couple. They share a common email account for their combined business and family affairs and have separate accounts for themselves to use with friends.

Their common "formal" email address is: bandcdoe@gmail.com

Belinda's personal email address is: belinda@gmail.com

Charlie's personal email address is: charlie@gmail.com

They have set up their respective personal accounts ie, belinda and charlie to receive everything sent to bandcdoe@gmail.com. Every formal email that involves their family goes to each of the inboxes so both Belinda and Charlie know what is happening. They never have to check the bandcdoe account because it has been set up to forward every incoming message to both of them.

When either party replies from their personal accounts, the recipient will see that it came from the joint formal address. However, if one partner sends an email from the formal address and wants the other partner to know, they need to CC or BCC them at their personal account.

Case Study B

Belinda has a cosmetics company called BC Cosmetics. She uses a Microsoft Outlook account for all company correspondence. Her address is info-bcc@outlook.com.

Belinda decides she doesn't want to open her Outlook account every day to check her email, so she has set up Gmail to receive email sent from her Outlook account in her personal belinda@gmail.com account. 

She's also set up Gmail so that when she replies or sends a message from BC Cosmetics via her Gmail account it appears to have been sent from her Outlook account.

Conclusion

Using the features provided by Gmail can make your communications efficient and uncomplicated. I've been using Gmail since it first appeared and have not come close to filling the free 15 GB storage capacity it offers.

Another serious consideration is the encrypted email. According to Australia's Scamwatch businesses are being scammed when, "Scammers intercept legitimate invoices and change the details to include fraudulent payment information. The recipient will pay the invoice as normal and not realise they have been scammed.”

You cannot afford to use email that doesn't encrypt before sending.

We're told it's a good thing and the way forward

I could write a lot about this, but I think the video makes the point succinctly and correctly.

I trust you will find it informative.

Acknowledgement: Mr Lovely Porridge

So, you think a Pint of beer is a Pint?

Apart from having a "sip" of my dad's beer when I was very young, I had my first full can of Emu Bitter (Western Australia) when I was 16. Then I never touched a drop until I was 18 and moved to New South Wales (NSW) with the Air Force.

In those days most States and Territories allowed alcoholic drinks to residents 21 or older. I'd lived in the Northern Territory, so I never drank while underage.

The "age of consent" was 21 then, but changed to 18 and NSW was the first to adapt and change its legislation to allow 18 year-olds to drink.

A "Middy" of beer, 10oz was $0.10c on the RAAF Base and a little more in local towns. I took to it like a duck to water.

Years later, after I had married and was a father of two children, I decided I needed to set an example of sobriety and not drink driving. I morphed into what I call, a "responsible drinker". Also known as a "social drinker".

The days of binges followed by a wasted day while I recovered were over. In any case, what once took me one day to recover now took two. Middle age had caught up with me.

Long drinking sessions were fewer as the years passed and eventually, I got to the stage where I never woke up with a hangover. Halleluyah!

After work on Friday evenings, I'd head to a pub for a few beers with my work colleagues or golf buddy. In those days, my first beer was a Pint which would be followed by several Schooners.

That was mostly in the Territory where a Pint is a Pint and a Schooner is a Schooner. A Territory Pint is 570 ml, rounded from 568 ml which is the size of a standard Imperial pint.

When I moved to South Australia in 2018 I was to suffer "quantum shock".

I ordered a Pint and it looked a tad small. I asked the lovely barmaid about it and she said it was a "South Australian pint". When I enquired further, I discovered that the:

1. Standard Pint in all other states and territories is 570 ml
2. SA "pint" is in fact 425 ml, the same size as a Territory schooner
3. SA schooner is 285 ml, the same as a middy (half pint) in NSW

I don't know what the comparative prices are across the country, they vary between hotel and hotel, but I've had to get accustomed to ordering a pint and being satisfied with what I have always thought of as a schooner.

Whether we're being ripped off in terms of cost per ml in SA I don't know, but it sure feels like it. Maybe I need to do some further research.

Maybe I should be brewing my own.

What do you think? Where do you live and what size drinks to you consume?

Cochlear Implant Success!

Dale Henry

Our son has now had his cochlear implant for three months and the results are outstanding.

Born with a severe to profound hearing loss that was bilateral ie, one ear heard loud sounds, the other quieter sounds, he had struggled for years to communicate effectively in high noise environments eg, hotels.

He wore two hearing aids from the age of nine months, both of which gave him a very minimal level of hearing, but it was sufficient to enable him to communicate using lip-reading and the little bit he got from his hearing aids.

Fortunately, he was able to struggle through school gaining a good grounding in mathematics, computing, and English. 

But, over the years, the hearing in his right ear weakened, and eventually even with hearing aids, he couldn't hear.

His cochlear implant was fitted at the Royal Darwin Hospital ENT Department on 2 March 2020 and the outcome has been far better than anticipated. For a considerable time, he had not been able to communicate via telephone or mobile phone but several months after his implant, we can now talk on the mobile and use Facetime.

It's a wonderful outcome for which we are very grateful.

When you are hearing impaired and wear hearing aids, people expect you to be able to communicate normally as though the hearing aid resolves the problem. But unfortunately, that's not the case.

Hearing aids simply amplify sound. All sound. 

Our son's quality of life has now improved substantially because he can communicate almost normally, something we all take for granted.

To the designer of the cochlear implant, Cochlear Australia  and the Australian and Northern Territory Governments who made this implant possible, plus the medical and audiology staff, we say a heartfelt thankyou.

The Plague of Questionnaires

An actual questionnaire capture

Several times each week I receive emailed requests for feedback.

They come from the two banks, an internet service provider, energy supplier, and various other organisations with whom I have a business relationship. They also come from Australia Post with whom I do not have a relationship until someone sends me a letter or parcel.

As if there is only one person who writes customer satisfaction surveys in Australia, they are inevitably worded identically.

“Based on your experience today, how likely or unlikely are you to recommend Marty’s Widget Co to your friends and family?”

Well, for fuck’s sake, why do they think I’ll recommend anything to my friends and family?

My friends and family are well-educated, seemingly intelligent people who can make their own decisions about which companies to use for their products and services. I expect they have had accounts with banks for decades and don’t need me to tell them with whom they should bank or get an internet account.

When I banked a cheque recently, it took three minutes. I walked into the bank, the female teller asked what she could do for me. Once I had thought of the many possibilities, which weren’t what she had in mind, I responded that I wanted to deposit a cheque.

I passed it to her, slid my credit card into a machine and tapped in my pin number.

“Do you want a receipt?”

“No thank you.”

That was it. Whizbang - thank you M’am.

Then the next day a 20 question questionnaire arrives. I usually delete them, but on this occasion, I told the survey writers what I thought about their inane questions. 

Learning to be a Master Thermomix Chef

Dish too big!

For most of my life I've survived with minimal cooking skills. When my wife decided to buy a Thermomix TM6 I decided I needed to know how to use. No use having all this whizz-bang, internet-connected cooking stuff if you don't use it.

So, I started off looking at simple recipes. The first I created was a chili-con-carne. It went okay, but the quantity was a bit large for two. Not to worry, we're accustomed to making more than we need for one meal and freezing it for later meals when neither of us feels like cooking.

I needed help from my wife in relation to a couple of measurements and spices.

My second effort was a Shepherd's Pie and all went well until I had to put the pre-prepared mashed potato onto the mince and vegetable portion and found the dimensions of the casserole dish were too wide to cover with the potato mash available. Such is life.

Noted in my notebook: "Next time use a deeper casserole dish with less surface area on the top." Check.

It was an interesting exercise and the end result was a tasty shepherd's pie as good as I've tasted. There's enough tucked away for another meal too.

Since then I've cooked a buttered chicken meal and next is to learn how to cook a loaf of bread.

Naturally, while cooking of an evening, one has to have a liquid supplement. I chose a McGuigans Pinot Noir. McGuigans is one of my favourites. They cater for buyers in the top end with some expensive wines and people like me who buy cheaper wines.

Many of their less expensive wines have won multiple awards and are of top quality, so you can imagine how good their top of range wines are.

Although I live in the Barossa Valley, one of the largest wine-growing regions in Australia, I buy McGuigans produced in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. However, I'm not a traitor to the Barossa as McGuigans has interests in most, if not all of the South Australia wine growing regions including Clare, the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.

If you haven't tried a McGuigans, I highly recommend it.

Stay well.

Dreaming

Most dreams I have tend to be erotic; an enticing woman who rescues me from an extended period of celibacy, but by the time I wake up, it's regrettably a dim, distant memory.

I don't think I dream often, or if I do, I don't recall dreaming.

Last night was different.

I dreamt that I had a conversation with a being, probably an extraterrestrial or perhaps some type of spirit being.

The entity told me that when we die, we reincarnate. This was a disappointment to me because, although I've had a wonderful life, the thought of having to do it all again is daunting. I long for the self-destruction - the black, unknowingness, ceasing to exist for eternity. Not having to do all those things that being alive requires.

The entity assured me that living beings continue to reincarnate until they and the planet reach a certain level of development and then bingo, all will revert to a spiritual existence out there somewhere in the deep, dark depths of someplace or other.

After we move on, the entity said, all life on this planet will have gone and the remnants of it will decay, rot and eventually return to dust. The oceans will evaporate and eventually disappear in many billions of years, the Earth will be like Mars and other planets in our Universe - devoid of life and apparently uninhabitable.

Eventually, our universe will implode into a black hole where all matter condenses to the size of a pinhead only to explode and create yet another of many universes on which life will evolve and the cycle commences again.

It's all too deep for me. I'm sure my favourite Persian philosopher Omar Khayyam had it right when he wrote the verse above.

Learn about Lucid Dreaming.