Bits and Pieces

My evidently long forgotten desire to post articles here on a daily basis, has resulted only in increasingly sporadic additions. Although I have nothing to say, I feel the urge this fine Sunday morning so here I am. Here's a collection of snippets from my intermittently focussed life.

I've lost interest in Facebook. I jump on every day but rarely find anything to excite me or interest me. It does however, please me to see others, sharing their lives and opinions in words and pictures.




Australia's thrilling one wicket loss to New Zealand. I watched the last couple of hours of this game in which Australia lost 8 wickets for 26 runs and were bowled out for 151 in a World Cup game at Eden Park. Despite the impossibility of defending such a low score, Australia managed to dismiss nine of the ten batsmen required to win the match. After Mitchell Starc destroyed the lower order with fast accurate bowling, New Zealand's Richardson tonked the ball over the fence for a six to win the match. So exciting. I love cricket!

Three men in black body suits. We went to Paddy's Markets yesterday for a spot of shopping and had lunch in the food court at Market City. The three men also carried mini sandwich boards on their backs and were handing out advertising flyers. As they passed us, we walked past a ninety year old man on stilts, who was dressed as a clown and swivelling a hula hoop around his hips. The things people do!




Good bye Dinosaur. I finally bought a new phone and said goodbye to my five year old HTC Desire Z. I bought a Samsung Galaxy 3s, and I've never been happier with a phone. I don't buy the latest technology because I don't need it and I don't have enough money. This twice superseded phone is great: very easy to use and it allows me to do a number of things I couldn't before, for example send and receive MMS, use voice commands and film myself - which might not be such a good thing. 

Lovesick continues to develop slowly. I struggled to write 1300 words on Friday and that is the sum total of my writing for the week. How do I feel about the slow progress? Philosophical. I can't force it and therefore I can't be bothered worrying about it. It will all come together in due course. I don't think it matters how long it takes. I think what's most important is that it becomes the best novel I have ever written...and it will be.

Photo sources:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/aled-blake-falling-out-love-1828195
http://www.costumecraze.com/category/sports-costumes

Just tell me what's going on

I now have an iPhone. It's my first. It's a 4s which I purchased from a student of mine who has upgraded. I'm not one to follow the trends. I don't need the latest. I probably wouldn't line up all night for a new release from Apple even if it was being given away. I've owned my HTC Desire Z for four or five years, and it has done the job, but of late it has started to show its age. The battery runs out very quickly and I can't do simple things like send and receive photos. I can't download the latest Facebook app either. So when it was offered to me for a very reasonable price I decided to bite the bullet and change phones.

Nothing but trouble since. I won't bore you with the catalogue of error messages and random disconnections, and network blockages. Suffice to say I am not a happy camper. I'm now on my third SIM card and I haven't had internet access for a week. Apple says it's the SIM. Amaysim and Optus say it's the phone. No one can help me and I am ready to abandon Apple forever. Forever.

I just switched the SIM, and I have telephony. No 3G internet yet but it takes longer: up to four hours. I'll let you know what happens but I am ready to swear off Apple for life.

Share your mobile phone irritations.

No talking please, I'm driving.

Last year nearly 50 000 people were fined for mobile phone offences whilst driving their cars. Everyone knows it's against the law to talk or text and everyone knows it's dangerous but 50 000 is a fair whack of naughty people. Surely that is only the tip of the iceberg. Think of all those who didn't get caught. How many did you see today?

A new study, hands up if you have had a gutful of studies, has shown that talking on your mobile phone even using a hands free system, dramatically increases your crash casualty risk. Presumably it's not the use of the hands that is the problem, but the use of the mouth, ears and brain that causes people to become distracted from the task of driving, sometimes with terrible consequences.

The response to this study has been so predictable that it makes you wonder why we needed the research done in the first place. What can we do about this newly revealed hazard? Ban all mobile phone use, including hands free.

Let's ignore the fact that any new laws will join the swollen throng of stupid, paternalistic and impractical ones already on the books. (Did you know you can be booked for leaving your car unlocked in a public place?) Let's also ignore the fact that eating, drinking and smoking are allowed in private cars as well as all sorts of other interesting pastimes like reading, and playing drums on the steering wheel,for example. Let's say it's a great idea. Anything we can do to reduce accidents, injury and loss of life is good. Right?

Wrong! Even with such a ban people will still talk and I want to know what the difference is between a conversation with a present person and a conversation with an absent person? No, any new law must ban conversation in cars all together. Actually why not ban all conversation during your favourite television show? Ban all chit chat which interferes with, either the execution of your work duty, or the enjoyment of your passive hobby, whatever it may be. What about banning all conversation that doesn't interest you? What else? Help me out here because everyone knows what the world really needs is not love and peace, or even common sense. What the world needs is more stupid laws telling us how to, or how not to live.