Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Wacky Aurora Hub

Wacky Aurora Music-al & Twitter-critical Rumblings

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:56:54 +0000

I absolutely hate shopping but not when the music plays. One day I found myself wondering at the mall, stressed and undetermined, needless to say not motivated to spend a dime on a piece of clothing I wasn’t even going to enjoy as I thought that the fashion that fall just didn’t go with my style.

But suddenly my ears perked up. I stopped. I turned and started marching back towards a small boutique on the mall that I just missed. The store played my favorite tune I haven’t heard in a long time. Suddenly I was encouraged, I found myself relaxed, inspired and motivated and I was shopping. When I left the store, looked at the bill, nearly walked into the glass panel and apologized to the headless manikin.

As you can see naturally the music, sometimes radically, engages people, in the above case the music engaged me to shop.

So I tried to make sense what happened to our festival. Honestly, I think the headlines in the Era Banner were brutal about the Aurora Live! festival being near death, perhaps the newspaper didn’t realize that Aurora Live! never lived.

The other day I was practicing a piano piece. I practiced one hand at a time. Each hand definitely played different tune, yet when finally I mastered both and when I played hands together each side very much complemented each other and the room was filled with music. The instructions, music notes were my guide. Someone wrote for me to play.

Music Notes

Well I played enough music for you here today.

Those who are reading this blog, remember I am just a resident of Aurora, nothing else. I photograph and I write what I observe, and by the way I vote. The message is simple – let’s work together and not against each other, and the Aurora will be a better place to live.

Authorized Windows Service Technician & Cyber Crime, That Was Close

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:03:36 +0000

He never introduced himself but I was able to get his phony name, Brian Carter. Interesting enough Brian Carter had a strong Asian accent and he was calling from supposedly existing in Toronto Windows Service Centre; however, he failed to mention Microsoft.

The conversation lasted for about 20 minutes and he almost had me, more like scared me that my computer is completely infected and it will soon blow up. He give away his identity with few interesting comments, and not until the moment when he asked for remote access to my computer, I realized – cyber crime is happening at my home in Aurora.

Its been a while since my wacky aurora hub posts and what happened today fits perfectly. So here is the conversation I recall.

Brian Carter: Hi am calling from the Windows Service Centre and we have been seeing strange activity on your computer. Your computer is possibly infected with the malware or malicious software.

Me: Excuse me, you are able to see activity on my computer?

Brian Carter: You have registered Windows product with us and we have been monitoring your computer. We noticed strange activity so that is why we are calling you to let you know that we can help you clean things up.

Me: Strange, that you are able to see activity on my computer.

Brian Carter: Your address is spells out my full address where I live. We are calling you because what is happening with your computer is not good. We have noticed suspicious activity and calling to let you know and help you fix it.

Me: Let me put you on hold.

I put him on hold and ran up to my computer room. I looked at the computer and the Internet was disconnected.

Me: Hi again. You said you are seeing strange activity on my computer now. My computer is not connected to the Internet.

Brian Carter: Not now but we have been monitoring your computer for three months now and we have reports that you have strange activity.

Me: Let me login to my computer.

Brian Carter: You are logging in?

I remembered distinctly that he was surprised that I was logging in. He is probably realizing at that point that I am not going to be an easy bait. I realized that he also did not know my name. Usually with registration you get the whole package of information.

Me: Okay, you said I have malware. Now, how can you tell?

Brian Carter: I will tell you. Click on the right side start button. I think he meant left side. Find Computer on the right menu, and then right click and choose Manage. To make long story short he just simply got me to Windows logs.

Me: Okay, what are we looking for then.

Brain Carter: You see the list, some say Information. There are some Warnings and Errors. These are files that are infecting your computer and they grow and grow and eventually they will shut down your computer.

Me: Really? In the mean time all I am seeing that these files are just Windows log files for installation of updates etc, some warnings and some errors. Can I delete them by myself.

Brain Carter: Aha, how many file do you see, 5, 10?

Me: I am still scrolling. I cannot count them there are too many.

Brain Carter: I want to show you something else. These are all files under Applications. Go and click on System files.

Me: Okay.

Brain Carter: He is giving me speech again how my computer can be destroyed by malware or small hacks. See all these files. How many do you see? 5, 10?

Me: Okay, I think you know that I have more than that.

Brian Carter: Oh my goodness. We have some cleaning to do.

This was the point when I figured he was a hacker. Not calling me by name; showing me just computer log files and not malicious files; talking about Norton Internet Security and how great software it is and still totally not secure. Telling me HP computers have security flaws. And also how two computers not networked but connected to one Internet Service Provided can still get infected from each other. I was getting more paranoid because I knew his mission and I was almost sucked in.

I realized that my computer was fine and I was talking to the hacker who was on the mission to hack my computer and possibly install malicious application. Oh well I decided to continue the conversation.

Me: So what is the next step. You are saying I cannot delete them myself? Is there an application that can do that for me instead of you?

Brian Carter: No, no there is none. That is why we are calling you. We can help you out.

Me: How? You obviously need access to my computer to do that. Am I right?

Brain Carter: Yes, and you can see what I will do.

Me: I think we have to stop right here. I am not the only user of this computer, and actually my husband is the one that maintains it. So I will not allow anyone access our computer without his authorization.

Brain Carter: But the task is very simple. You said that it was your computer.

Me: It is our computer. I don’t know you and I will not let anyone access my computer.

Brain Carter: We can do this in no time. We don’t need your husband. I will navigate your computer and if you see something you don’t like you can disconnect.

Me: As I said I will not do so. Is there are number I can call you back?

Brain Carter: When your husband be home? Can I call back at that time?

Me: I don’t know. He has variable schedule and it is better we call you back. Do you have number I can reach you at?

Brain Carter: Yes, here it is 678-666-0122. This is a number he gave me.

Me: Oh this is not 1-800 number.

Brain Carter: No. Laughed.

Me: Where are you calling from and by the way what is your name?

Brain Carter: Toronto. Brain Carter. Spelled his phony name for me.

Me: And Windows has office in Toronto. What time are you open to?

Brain Carter: Yes, we do. You can call until 7 p.m. He had to think about the time.

Me: Are you directly working for Windows or are you contractor?

Brain Carter: Getting annoyed. I am authorized Windows Technician. Just hang up now and call me again to verify the number.

Me: No that will not be necessary. If we think there is an issue we will call you later. Please understand that I do not allow anyone who calls us to access our computer. I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t know who you are even if you are telling me who you are. It is so easy these days to be scammed. I really don’t know if you are telling the truth.

Brian Carter: I completely understand. Please call us back.

Me: Good bey.

Brian Carter: Good bey.

How ironic this whole conversation was. Later, I was thinking may be he will give up his cyber crime activities after the nice concluding conversation we had. I think he got a bit sucked in to and given me enough of his information to find out more about him on the Internet. We never called him back and probably this number does not exist anymore.

The lesson is – do not do any business over the phone, especially when that someone calls you first.

I will keep you updated if he calls back.

Gold-y Fish Activity At The Cop-Land Park

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:57:30 +0000

One questionable activity at the Copland Park wasn’t enough to write about, but two – I definitely have to mention it. We have been regularly visiting this playground at the Copland Park because of the Wonderland-like slide – the double turn slide. Not to mention the trail between Aurora Heights Drive and Orchard Heights.

Let me go back to the Victoria Day weekend. We came to the park day after the Victoria Day. It was striking to see how bad the park looked with all the accumulated fireworks garbage. Town of Aurora parks and recreation worker was on the site cleaning up. As always we had fun despite the mess.

As we were leaving, strangely enough a man in a van pulled over and came to the park. He was looking for something around the garbage area. Nothing was found. The man left empty handed.

Copland Park, Aurora

Last weekend we or rather our Matthew decided on the Copland Park again. He just loves the double turn slide. When we arrived, already playing on the playground was a father and grandfather with a little boy and a girl. I mentioned to my husband, I guess on the playgrounds in general, weekends are father days and weekdays are mother days.

However, when we arrived there was someone else – a man walking around with the metal detector. He was looking for something – not hard to guess that he was looking for metal based products. He too left empty handed unless he found something before our arrival.

Copland Park, Aurora

So how wacky is that? Someone please tell me that we have a gold mine at the Copland Park in Aurora.

And now if you want to see something funny, here is priceless photo taken by Peter from Aurora – yes for real, the squirrel is really eating a cheese sandwich.

Small Size Iced Cappuccino With White Milk, Or Brown Milk?

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 04:13:07 +0000

My Wacky Aurora Hub post publishing has been dormant for a while so after yesterday’s experience at the coffee shop I thought I bring this category back to life. Besides, laughter is always the best medicine.

Yesterday was my day with Matthew at the library and after I promised him Tim Hortons donut. I visited with Matthew Tim Hortons on Wellington and believe or not that visit brought some funny memories back of which I will be talking later including this one.

Here I am waiting patiently my turn to buy a ‘chocolate covered chocolate donuts‘ for Matthew, in other words double chocolate donuts.

For myself I decided – a small Iced Cappacino for $2. Kind of expensive if you find out that 1/3 of the cup is ice, but then this is why they call it the Iced Cappuccino.

Fresh Pot of 'Coffee' Of Course

I must admit that I am not a vivid shopper. Most of my shopping is for groceries. So when finally I get to go out and do some shopping or just for some fast snacks everyone tends to speak in the code.

‘White or chocolate?‘ – the lady behind the counter asked. ‘White or Chocolate what?’ – I replied. ‘It tells me here white or chocolate‘ – she replied impatiently. ‘Okay give me the white‘ – whatever it is I thought. ‘Well then white milk for your Iced Cappuccino‘ – she confirmed.

Oh I didn’t know that milk comes in different colors other than white. Oh and I didn’t know that chocolate is consider a color. And now I know and only at Tim Hortons.

When we arrived at the Tim Hortons Matthew asked if he can go to the washroom. I told him yes and that I have to bring him to the Ladies washroom again. Yes again because let me tell you what happened last time.

It was the same scenario few weeks ago when I had to take Matthew to the washroom. I told him that he has to go to the ladies room with me. ‘Not ladies room, the woman washroom‘ – he strongly stated. I agreed and took him in. When inside he scanned the room, squatted looking for the feet and ‘where are all the women?‘ – he asked surprised. Luckily there were none.

More code stories.

Couple of months ago it was ladies night at the Mark’s Work Wearhouse. What the heck, sales are always good so I went shopping for clothes. At the register young lady worked really fast because there was a long line up of shoppers, or let say mostly ladies.

When she finished scanning all my clothes she looked at me and asked me ‘What size underwear?‘

‘Excuse me‘ – I replied surprised.

‘They are free‘ – I passing man behind the counter said, probably the store manager.

Oh, this must be the free gift the are giving away. I paused. I had to think – and at this point my face had the third degree burn.

‘Medium please‘ – you cannot go wrong with the medium, either it is too big or too small. At least I have an option to shrink it in the dryer if it is too big.

Well, well speaking of options at least I know that I have options in every shopping scenario and I don’t have to be wrong just be stack with the wrong thing.

Wacky Weather TALK, I Am Leaving Its Too Cold Here

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:18:38 +0000

We have decided to take a small trip to the Nokiidaa Trail boardwalk on the St. John’s sideroad today. We couldn’t believe how cold and windy it was. When we sat on one of the benches, I think I felt the boardwalk moving. Our fingers almost froze, and we both wore gloves.

What a change from last week’s temperatures? Not spring but hot summer like temperatures. My almost four year old Matthew had a blast, but for love of me I couldn’t make him wear shorts. He told me: ‘Mommy they are too short and other children will laugh at me‘.

So today on the boardwalk during this cold windy day he was happy to wear his winter jacket, a scarf and the gloves, and sitting on the bench we overheard the Canada Goose talking.

‘I told you it was too early too come to Aurora‘ – one goose yelling on the other one.

‘How I am supposed to know that, beside stop yelling at me my head is frozen‘ – the partner goose replied.

‘And what are you looking at. You are not helping shooting at us‘ – the yelling goose looked in our direction.

‘I think you are darn funny yelling‘ – I replied.

‘Oh I had it enough. I am leaving. Coming back to Florida with me my darling?‘ – yelling goose took off.

‘Yes, yes, but we have to be back in Aurora next year. There is always a lot going on here and we shouldn’t be missing it.‘ – the partner goose replied.

What’s With Bell, Someone Is Using My Internet and I Am Paying For It, Called Stealing BTW

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:37:54 +0000

Finally I have something for my Wacky Aurora Hub category to post – sorry no pictures this time. The Bell story is worth posting to make you aware what sometimes can happen with your Internet usage, but I can also assure you that you will never find the answers either.

Let me tell you. No matter how tight you are, there is no such a thing as the Internet security, absolutely nothing is secured. My websites have been hacked, my personal email been accessed by someone in Russia and just recently someone was using our home Internet and we were paying for it.

I received e-bill from Bell. What? This is a third time I went over my bandwidth of 25 Gb. I paid two dollars per each gig over. The third bill payment from Bell became suspicious. Because of the first two over payments on the Internet usage, Matthew was not allowed to use my computer anymore. We thought it was the youtube cartoons. We used less, still we were over.

To reinforce my suspicion I did not use Internet for two days, and still 2 Gb was consumed per day. Aha … something was definitely wrong.

How can it be? We don’t have wireless live because it is never secured. With sophisticated equipment hackers can hack your wirelees in no time.

We called Bell first time. They were clueless. Suggested to change the password. I did not.

My husband took over the calls. He got lucky to talk to someone that knew something, but not the difference between the upload and download terms, dahh. It was possible that someone was using our account and did not know, he not very confidently concluded. We changed the password on the account on the second call.

We have decided not to use Internet for another day or so. Next day we logged into our account, believe or not 2 Gb was consumed the day before and with the changed password. What is going on? We were definitely up to something.

We called Bell. They put watch on our account and said that they will call us back in 24-48 hours to let us know what happened. Bell technical support person credited our account in the meantime.

We continued to use very little Internet. We checked next day, the Internet usage stopped. Bell never called us back to explain but we called back to find out what was that all about.

Bell technical support was not able to find any record of monitoring of our Internet usage. No explanation what happened. Just this and that to brush us off.

Same day we received survey to complete to rate their customer service performance. I failed them miserably.

In conclusion, I can only assume the following:

1) Bell land line got crossed or someone did cross them to steal our Internet bandwidth.

2) Bell billing error which they do not want to admit.

3) May be Bell was running low sales, and they had to pass the buck to someone one – and that someone was us.

Was that wacky or what?.

WONDER® Bread-y Power Of Public Opinion, Makeover

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:57:53 +0000

Last night we were driving on Bayview Street in Aurora when a new radio commercial about the WONDER® bread makeover started to play. So, the WONDER® bread got complete makeover according to the commercial – simplified ingredients list, no artificial preservatives, no chemical additives as artificial flavors or artificial colors.

Aha, are they kidding me?

I don’t have to write here about the health benefit of not having all those removed in the ingredient list.

It was a public opinion that got the company to do the makeover. According to their press release through PR Newswire:

‘… consumers are paying more attention to food labels and are seeking products that are free of artificial ingredients. The research revealed that nearly eight in ten (79%) of all women feel buying foods that are free of artificial preservatives, artificial colours and artificial flavours is important — and 77% of all women say buying foods free of these artificial ingredients is more important now than it was one year ago.’

I don’t think it was the research that initiated the make over, probably their sales were down and then they had to do the survey to figure out what is going on.

Okay, okay I will get to the point.

Do you really think that the WONDER® cares about consumers?

My opinion – no.

Less ingredients – reduced cost, increased profits.

No preservatives is interesting one. Now they are telling us – eat faster because it will not last that long. Consumer will have to buy this bread more frequently because of its reduced shelf life.

Oh and because of the health benefits they have grounds for increased price – I just hope not.

See what the power of public opinion can do, bring the better product to the market and profitability for the company.

What are they trying to do whack my head. No I will not allow because I am sticking with my whole grain bread.

Nokiidaa Trail Link, Do Not Feed Ducks With Bread

Reading, Talking And Driving, She Must Be BlackBerry CrackBerry

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:29:13 +0000

I just wish I could do this – read messages, talk to the passenger and drive, all at the same time. I wish I could go trick-or-treat with my child and text at the same time, but I chose not to own this cool toy blackberry often called crackberry for such reasons.

Yesterday, I was driving along the St. John’s sideroad. I glanced in my mirror to see what Matthew was doing on the back. However, before I was able to look at him I saw white Mazda car driving behind me with two young ladies. Or even better I young lady driving the Mazda car with her friend in the passenger seat. But sometimes it does feel like that car is driving by itself.

I was slowing down as few cars in front slowed down and were flashing to make a left turn. I was slowing down but not the driver in the Mazda car.

The driver had her head down for most of the time. At the same time she was conversing with her passenger friend. When they came close to me they stopped. I must say the driver was good. Oh I wish I could have such multitasking skill. She almost gave me a heart attack though because I wasn’t in the mood for another fender bender incident.

The driver continued to text and chat with her friend. I turned left on Yonge Street and they drove straight on St. John’s sideroad.

Quack

I may not sound too angry. Let just say that I have no hope in the drivers or the law enforcers, both need some good wacky wack qack on the head.

A Spoon Appearing In Parks, Timbers Park, Then Sheppard’s Bush

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:01:56 +0000

If I find another spoon in our town in the park I will declare that there is some kind of spoon trend evolving. Last month I found a spoon on the bench at the Timbers Park. Hey why not. I took some photos. Never removed it from the original spot. I just left it there in case someone forgot.

A Spoon, Timbers Park

Last weekend we were at the Sheppard’s Bush. When we got to the eating area near the Sheppard’s house and no, not again. The spoon was sitting in the window frame. No, not the same spoon. That will be a spoon hunting me through the town trend. I took some pictures again for the record.

So last night I have decided to do some blogging rounds. It was very late at night and one of them was Michael’s blog. I always read his urbanspoon restaurant reviews. He is always so detailed and honest with his reviews. The only problem is that when I read late at night and it is a food related post, I get so hungry. It is not funny. I have not put myself to search the fridge yet at night but I know it is coming.

Now back to the spoon story.

After reading Michael’s food reviews, I remembered I had all these spoon photos. Hey why not make a post. Then when I looked at the photo of the spoon from the Sheppard’s bush I saw strange arrangement.

A Spoon, Sheppard's Bush

Hope you can see it too. I see a face. Was it done deliberately? Who knows?

Smoking Needs Serious Whacking

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:33:44 +0000

This is a photo proof for the comment Councillor Abel made that ‘most people would not smoke around their children or their environment‘, in THE AURORAN, Week of August 2, 2011 and I guess addition to my previous post Desperate Measures, Do We Really Need More Signs?.

Camera’s don’t lie. This was captured on the August 13th, 2011 during a beautiful day at the Aurora Farmers Market. I saw not once but twice her having a cigarette around the little girl.

A Woman Smoking Around Child

After what I saw again, the by-law for not smoking at the playgrounds is a must.

Disturbing moment that was.