17th Blogoversary, an Award, and the Difficulty of Analogue Communication

 

Image created with help from Bing AI

An old friend from the Analogue World called me today, chatting away in some detail about her Christmas and New Year. For my own part, I found myself with very little to contribute to the conversation - mainly because I felt that very little of what I had been up to myself was likely to make any sense to her.

I suppose she may have "kind of" grasped the concept of me having had a video call with my brother on Christmas Eve. But I simply couldn't think of any way to even try to explain to her, for example, that while on New Year's Eve I went to bed at 9 pm, at the same time I was also attending the Laughing Horse Awards Ceremony on a small island among the U.S. Virgin Islands, hosted by blogger Yorkshire Pudding. (If you weren't there yourself, you can read more about it in his first two posts for 2026 on his blog by the same name.) 

Actually I have to confess that even my own memories of that event are rather blurry, in spite of the fact that I was even honoured with an award myself. (But I suppose that's probably true for some Nobel Prize winners as well!)

The official report from the event also claims that I performed some ABBA songs. I can't say I recall that either, but one that seems likely to myself would be this one:

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Now I'm curious to know if other bloggers recognise the difficulty (or sheer impossibility) of explaining, to people who don't even use the internet at all, your own daily interaction with people around the world whom you never met in the so-called real life...

 

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My own first blog (originally called The Island of the Voices) was started on 5th January, 2009. And I'm finding it pretty amazing, that 17 years later, I'm still in blog-contact with some other bloggers that I got to know during the very first year - while also still continuing to meet new interesting people along the way!

 

My first blog post ever, 5 January 2009

 Happy New Blogging Year to us all!

  

 

Communication

 

Pettson & Findus by Sven Nordqvist
(postcard)

Back in mid March, in the Postcrossing 'lottery' I drew an address in Russia. PC has a 'postal monitor' that keeps track of which countries don't send or receive mail (for reasons of war or corona or whatever); but back then, Sweden had not yet stopped sending mail to Russia. A week or so later, that changed.

On their profile, the person had added apologies "for what is done by my country" but also said that with the motto "people should talk to people" s/he had decided to go on with postcrossing, hoping s/he wouldn't be shut up.

I sent the postcard above (chosen based on the person's wish-list), although in doubt whether it would ever reach its destination. I kept the message neutral. 

Today I got a Postcrossing email that the card had been received:

A reminder that not everyone in the country is behind the actions by their government.

 

A New Toy

I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time – getting a tablet. But I’ve not been able to make up my mind what exactly it was I wanted; and the development in computer technology seems always to be moving on so fast that it’s really hard to keep up, and decide what to buy (and when).

As I said in my previous post, yesterday seemed to me like a day when I got nothing done. However, I did spend part of that day looking up and comparing data about a number of Android tablets… Not too make it a totally impossible mission, I limited my search to those just now available in a store close to where I live. But at the end of the day I still had not reached a decision.

The thing is, I started out looking for a simple tablet. But then I came across the HP SlateBook, with a touch screen (10”) that can be used either independently as a tablet, or docked into a keyboard. And it was “deal of the week” at about 30% off, which put it in the same price class as the (not too advanced) tablets without keyboards that I’d been looking at… and with a somewhat better screen resolution on top… Hmmm…

I found a demo video on YouTube. The presentation as such would not win any awards but it does show the essential functions of the device. (Including that it seems able to survive being dropped on its head!)

I was still feeling hesitant last night; but when I woke up I found that I had made my decision, and that the SlateBook (somewhat to my own surprise) was what I wanted. So I went out and bought it.

You don’t need three guesses to be able to tell how I spent the rest of the day.

So far I’m not disappointed. I did also watch another review on YouTube which was a bit more sceptical and uttered the opinion that this device does not even know itself what it wants to be; but I think perhaps that might be just what makes it perfect for me… (not knowing exactly what I wanted anyway!)

Actually, of course, I did have a few things in mind:

1. I wanted something “in between” my laptop and my Android phone. And that’s just about what this is.

2. I wanted a screen large enough for reading blogs and emails and other websites, as well as watching TV, in bed. Using my laptop for that purpose is a bit circumstantial (if that’s the word), primarily because it has less than two hours battery time, plus is also connected to some other devices in the study (like printer and extra screen etc); so it involves a lot of disconnecting and reconnecting of cords every time I want to move it. Better if I can just remain in the study, serving as a desktop.

The new HP promises up to 14 hours of battery time.

3. My phone has not been very willing to let me comment on blogs (or else too willing - I gave up trying after once managing to leave eleven identical comments on one friend’s blog). And of course on the phone, pictures get very small too.

On the SlateBook I can access my own blogs via Google Chrome, and also comment on others; just as on a regular computer. (I’ll still be using the laptop for making new posts. But being able to do comments from the small one will no doubt be helpful.)

4. Various other communication apps and word games etc should be easier to handle on a bigger screen than the phone as well. And I don’t have to worry about running out of memory space for a while on the new one (the phone memory is getting rather full which sometimes causes trouble with updating apps now).

5. My laptop did not seem to get on with Skype when I tried to install that last year. (I ended up uninstalling it again.) I’m hoping that with the new device I might be able to finally have a skype chat now and then with a friend who moved to Australia. (The HP also has two cameras, both front and back.)

6. I’ve also successfully downloaded the Kindle app to the SlateBook, and should be able to use that for reading/ looking at books with illustrations in colour.

That’s about as far as I got with my “testing” sessions today – but so far I’m pleased!

Now I think I’ll go watch some TV in bed!

Can’t Concentrate…

A day or two ago I was watching a TV documentary about the human brain, and how we are a lot less capable of multi-tasking than we might think. They did experiments using magicians and film clips, and asked the test people and audience to keep count of more than one thing at the same time, or to look out for more than one thing simultaneously, and then asked them about something completely different. The amount of things, and the kind of things one misses is really incredible. (Like you’re asked to keep count of how many times two people in blue hats, among a group of dancers, step in and out of the spotlight… And afterwards they ask: Did you see the penguin? Er… what… Rewind, and sure enough, there was full size human dressed up in a penguin costume walking across the scene in the background… Unnoticed!)  

Anyway… Google seems to be doing their own show of the same kind today. HOW am I going to keep in mind what it was I was going to look up, when this is what comes up on my screen:

 

 

To my credit, I did notice the ice bear! But I can’t for the life of me remember what it was I was going to google in the first place.

When I clicked the button in the middle, it got worse and turned into a game.

It can’t be April Fool’s Day yet.
Can someone tell me what’s going on?

I can’t help laughing a little… But if it continues, I’m going to have to swith to another standard search engine. (Yes, Google – I’m serious!)

I have no idea any more what it was I originally intended to blog about today.

Monday Mutterings

Weather and walkability

The photo is from last Thursday when it was still icy cold. Since then we had a rise in temperature, snowfall and wind and thaw and rain… I stayed in for three days; until this afternoon, when it seemed streets and walkways looked fairly walkable again (with most of the snow gone). Actually they were mostly walkable again – except here and there.

There’s a lot of “here and there” stuff going on in winter because each property owner is responsible for the pavement outside their own house or yard. And not everyone takes the responsibility equally serious.

Anyway I managed to get myself to a mailbox and a nearby store and back home again without accidents.

Dilemma solved

Maybe someone is curious how I ended up treating the dilemma presented in a previous post? After giving the matter a lot more thought than it was worth, I sent a printed Christmas postcard with no room for extra messages. (Why can’t I just make that kind of decisions straight away? It would make life so much simpler…)

A frustratingly slow Sunday

Yesterday was a very frustrating day because I had constant trouble with my computer or broadband or one or more internet servers, and I wasn’t able to pinpoint where the fault might be – until in the evening, when the broadband gave up completely. Then I decided that had probably been responsible  for all the trouble the whole day (even though at times it seemed to be working) and went to bed with my Kindle and The Lewis Man (the book!)

Again, it would have been wiser of me to give up the internet much earlier in the day and just do something else with my time instead of keep trying to check every five minutes if perhaps...

This morning I slept late and after breakfast found myself in touch with the world again at normal speed.

New worries. Or not.

So it was not until the mail dropped in late in the afternoon that I needed to start worrying again…
(Bear with me, or stop reading here.)

No, nothing to do with Christmas cards this time.
The cause of worry was a letter from the landlord (=The City), giving a very complicated explanation (if it can be called that) of the expected procedure when next year they are going to install a new optic fibre cable in the building, to give us new options for broadband and TV and phones. This will probably be good once it’s all fixed; but my first reaction after reading the letter was PANIC, as it seemed that I may have to move lots of heavy furniture, like bookcases full of books. Which first of all I can’t do, and second of all, there’d be nowhere to put it all without it still being in the way.

Taking deep breaths, reading the letter again… It just makes no sense. Installing a new box in the hall, yes, that bit I understand. And it’s doable. But if they’re going to draw the cables from that box in the hall… Why on earth would they want to draw it (as they say their intention is) to the same place where my old cable socket is? – which means all around the living room, to a spot by the window, which is not a place where most people would want to have their TV anyway. (Well – at least I don’t, which is why I have extension cables from there and half way round the room to a place much closer to the hall…)

Next the letter says they’re also going to put an extra socket in the room next to the living room - which means the one I use as study. They don’t specify which wall in that room, but again it does not seem to make any sense to draw the cable across the room.

What would make sense, to me, would be to put both the new cable sockets next to the door between the livingroom and the study (which is quite close the hall, and also the same wall where I have the TV). That would involve a minimum of cable-drawing – and, as it happens, in my flat no need to move any furniture.

So… I think I shall try to put off worrying until I find out what it is they really mean to do…??