Rick's b.log - entry 2025/10/22

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Shein and the missing parcel redux

I guess Shein should have told me to wait a day or two to see if it turns up. I guess I should have waited a day or two to see if it turns up before reordering stuff. ☺
Oh well, it wasn't expensive and - live and learn, right?

I replied to their customer rep to say that it looks like Mondial Relay screwed us both around, and would they like me to pay for this when I get the refund, and if so how. I got a form letter reply a few minutes later saying that the refund has been issued, along with a list of items refunded.
So either she didn't understand me or they're not bothered about the hassle of chasing a small order. Well, I offered. After all, it's not their fault this happened.

My haul

First up, the headline article, the ghost picture. It's pretty big and it's super cute, and considering that it was in a plastic bag (wrapper) in a plastic bag (outer wrapper) in another plastic bag (the envelope), it's pretty impressive that it got here in one piece.

It's hanging pretty much right in front of me.

Related to the ghost picture is this window hanging ornament thing. A ghost sitting in a bowl reading a book. Come on, what's not to like?

Now all I need is nice weather to appreciate it with.

That picture above was "edited in post" because it was actually taken around sunset on a crappy day in which a storm is blowing through. I am writing this waiting for the rain to abate before I go feed Anna, but if it hasn't calmed down by the time I am done I'll just have to get wet because I'm hungry and want to make something to eat soon... probably a rice pudding tub in the microwave as I'm lazy and work was... let's just repress the memory and think... oh... how about pizza? oh, crap, now I have to make a decision... anyway, I wasn't talking about that, I was talking about ghosts.

The fastening mechanism is a bit naff, it's just a push-on rubber thing, which is a shame as I kind of expected these to be printed plastic given the price, but they're actually solid metal with enamel colouring. Look at the detail of the butterflies in the neurodiversity pin, or the rainbow in shitstorm survivor. Given that the living the dream is a creamy colour rather than white, I tested to see if it was glow in the dark. It isn't - what a missed opportunity! ☺

I got an article of clothing, but this isn't the time to talk about that. Soon. What I will say is that it is polyester and rather thin. Everything gets a wash before use, it's a rule, so I'm wondering if it'll survive the washing machine and if so for how long...

I got a keyboard cover. No photo as there's not much to say - I unfold this thick polyester bag that's like a cross between a tent and a shopping bag, pop it over the top of the keyboard, pull the string to tighten it and keep it in place, and, well, that ought to keep the dust away.

And, finally, there's one last ghost. I couldn't get this as a "painting", but it was available as a do-it-myself. But with a difference. It's a sort of painting-by-numbers with little plastic beads, quirkily called "diamond painting".
I thought it might be something to do on crappy winter days. Just leave the damn computer off for a while, cue up a playlist appropriate for the mood, wrap up in a heated blanket, and get down to making something. And by that I mean something tangible, not a bit of software or a story I'll never finish, but something real.

There's a sticky canvas marked with numbers and letters. 1 to 9 and A to P, so twenty four different coloured beads. Hundreds and hundreds of coloured beads, and a little applicator pen thing to place them one by one, a tray to organise, and... the canvas is 40×50, though the actual work area is 34×44. It looks like there's just a little more than three and a half beads per centimetre, and it looks like 124 per row. I'm not counting up, so a bit of maths suggests 160 per column. Which implies... oh my god... nearly twenty thousand beads.

I didn't order a second one of these, the price was quite a bit more. I got two different ghost canvases instead. Hmmm... I wonder where I'll find a frame? Clearly not Amazon, it was about €8 with almost as much in postage! I think I could knock together some bits of wood myself for less!

Anyway, it's stupidly warm outside - currently 16.4°C at night in the latter half of October, the barometer is 992mb and plummeting (it was 1000mb four hours ago) and not only is it chucking it down but it's now so windy it's chucking it sideways. I think there's no option but to...

...been, fed cat. Did a sprint and am a lot less wet than I was expecting. So in celebration, I think pizza sounds good.

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