The Voice Of Reason

Been quiet lately. Still gathering documents and waiting for stuff to be mailed.
Graham's first official piece of mail arrived this week, his new ATM bank card! I activated it with a balance check at a machine and will get it away to him. In order to take advantage of a fee discount, it's a joint account for now but it can be changed to him only when he moves here. If it was his only now, he'd be paying a monthly fee, even if there was nothing in the account, due to not having a regular deposit i.e. payroll or something but i have a few accounts and investements at the bank so i qualify for no fees on that account so it was to his advantage. Far as I am concerned it's his account but it does make it handy if i have to send him money for something, like topping up my UK phone for instance, before I get there so it's ready to go when I hit the ground. Normally we use paypal for that but the exchange rate isn't as good as the bank machine even with a foreign transaction fee added on. Paypal has a worse exchange rate *and* they charge a small fee.

Speaking of UK phone, I guess i'm going to have to get him to get me a new SIM. The one i got last year i never kept topped up so it will have been lost now. I'll get one over the summer and get him to mail it to me. I've kept my old phone and I will use that when I'm over there.

I'm having a battle with my new mobile company, too. Graham isn't getting any of my texts though I can phone his mobile from my phone. I have a service ticket open but I don't think they know why texts aren't getting through. I confirmed the number is correct and the international format is correct. I've sent texts directly and also tried replying to his sent to me.  I know phone calls go through a different service than texts but i never had a problem with the old mobile company. They think it's going through from their end and i am getting charged for the texts (though was credited for a few I sent when I didn't know they weren't getting through) so they don't know why Tmobile isn't picking them up. I should call again and nag them. It's not like I send a lot of texts to him as a rule but i like to be able to in case I'm going to be delayed or not able to get online for some reason when he's expecting me to be there. He doesn't have a smartphone so if he's not at the computer, an email isn't going to be any use though that may end up being the only alternative. It's only for another year, I suppose but that's not the point!

It's been unseasonably warm the last day or two. oh, not beach weather or anything, but mid to high teens in temps which is weird for late October. Keep waiting for the arctic air to hit and it will, oh yes, it will. I remember one year, though, a few years ago, I didn't have to wear my winter coat until December. That's very unusual.

It's been a quiet week so there isn't much to write about really. I've nearly got all my Christmas gifts bought, just a couple of gift cards to pick up and a few small items. Need to make Turtles and wrap and mail a couple of things, though, and order one thing online for G.

I got a call from Telus last week with an offer to upgrade my phone and renew my contract. Six months early. But the upgrade would apparently be free and the balance on my old phone written off. There's going to be a catch in there somewhere. I will wait until the spring when my contract is nearly up and go in then. But I did wonder should I upgrade the phone or not? I do like my phone, it's a Google Nexus um... 4 I think. It's made by LG and has been a good phone but there are a couple of things I don't like about it. The main thing is that it doesn't have external storage, ie. a micro sd card. There's 12 or 16 G. internal storage which is pretty good of course, but i couldn't put a lot of music on it and use it for the gym like i had done with my iPod. I don't particularly like the music player on it and it seems like these phones, being Android, prefer you to use the Google cloud for storage. I don't like to do that because it would use data to stream music from my storage, wouldn't it? I'd prefer to have it stored on an sd card.

The other thing is that if someone sends me a picture message, I can't save the photo to the phone. There doesn't seem to be a way to do it at all. I don't know if that's normal for picture messages. Anyone? Perhaps that is how they all work but it sucks if someone sends you a nice photo that you want to keep without it clogging up your message area. I'm sure my old phone allowed me to save a picture from a message though it wasn't a smart phone type device.  It's also stupid that you have to turn on Data to see it, even if already connected to wifi. I think they all work that way, though.

As for upgrades, the Samsung phones are generally thought of as the best of the Android devices. I got the Google phone because it was unlocked but apparently they are all sold that way now here in Canada. Must check to make sure. I'll stick with Android but wondered about the HTC phones. Are they good, reliable phones? I think they're Android, yes? Do Windows phones really suck? I kind of think they might, if only for the bloated OS if it's anything like any other Windows product. Any thoughts or recommendations?

I really should clear off my desk before i go on vacation shouldn't i? It's just cluttered really. I can't seem to help it.

Naturally at 3:30 yesterday I got notification that something broke. Something that hasn't been touched for months and that has been working all along until yesterday. Also nothing that I can really fix but it was down to me to track down. Something is redirecting the browser to an invalid url it looks like. Why all of a sudden it is doing that? No idea. Nothing that i know anything about and one person that might is off sick. Everyone swears nothing has changed but obviously something has. I just want to sit here under the radar until i can go home and start my 2 weeks off!

I'm starting to think about maybe, just maybe, getting a smartphone. I don't need one. I don't use a mobile phone a lot, definitely not for conversations. Would i use it more if i had a fancy phone? Hard to say. If i did get one, i'd find the least expensive plan. I know you can do pay as you go with a smartphone now but you have to buy the phone outright and that can be pricey. I don't really want to spend that kind of money. I'm not really paying anything much extra for my landline, it's part of my cable and internet bundle so i wouldn't be saving anything by letting that go.

Then there's the dizzying array of plans. Would i use it a lot or a little? I have wifi at home and at work so i can get away without using as much data for most of the work week.

It's certainly not a necessity, just a toy. I had thought of a low end iPhone which would replace my iPod as well, mainly because i already have iTunes and it's all set up. Would be easy to sync everything over to a phone. But also, I like the look of the Samsung S 3 phones and I was talking to a rep yesterday who was showing me lots of info about it. Very nice. My cousin has one too and loves it. I have a feeling i may end up putting it off for at least another year but then i could jump right into one too. My current pay as you go voucher expires at the end of June so i would probably decide by then what to do. I may also jump ship to Virgin instead of Telus because i like their plans a bit more. They seem to be less restrictive. That's if i go with a contract at least. Need to do more research on that.

Oh crap. I had an entry written, several paragraphs and hit the "home" button on the browser instead of New Tab and pooched the whole thing. Not even a link to restore from draft! What's the point of it saving as a draft somewhere temporary if you can't get it back? I've seen it ask me sometimes, when i've opened up the browser and come to here so maybe that's what i should have done. Too late now.

Hmmm what was I saying....

Work problem yesterday was mystifying though one mystery was solved and i have to start fixing that today. I can't do it until i get a new login for a server because my password expired ages ago and i've not kept it up because i've not had to access it for over 2 years, which is how long at least it's been that this one particular problem has been occurring and nobody noticed. Oops.

I did a factory reset on the phone and my texts are now readable without a microscope. I spent a half hour fixing up the settings again. I thought i had photos on the phone or on the micro card but i think the reset must have deleted them from the phone though it wasn't supposed to. It left an Mp3 ring tone that i'd loaded on. Never mind. I reloaded the card with photos i had at work. I like to change the wallpaper from time to time and it's nice to have the photos of family and some favourite travel pics. I also have them on my iPod but might not always have that with me.

Started reading a new author, Jo Nesbo. he writes thrillers about serial killers and a detective, Harry Hole who's a total fuckup and addict at this point. This isn't the first of the Harry books, it's the second at least and possibly third. They keep referring to the previous book about a serial killer called The Snowman. I like a lot of different kinds of books. Graham is surprised that i like books about serial killers and tracking them down because i'm not generally into horror books. Let's face it, the grim details of a serial killer's crimes can be pretty horrific. I dunno, it's just different. This guy is Norwegian so the front of this book claims he's the next Stieg Larsson (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books). That's not very fair really. He has his own style and take on things. He just happens to be from the same general part of the world as Larsson. He's good, though.

Here's a link to a photo of particular interest to girfan  who really enjoys the Tour de France. That site, How to be a Retronaut, is quite interesting. They feature photos, postcards, views and video from the near to distant past from all over. You might see scans from a mail order catalogue from the 1920s or 1970s, or you might see postcards from Russia in the time of the Tsars, maybe photos taken of Suffragettes or yearbook photos of really bad hair from the 60s and 70s. It's all really interesting and worth checking daily.  Examples:

Illustrations from a Soviet version of The Hobbit, published in 1976
Reenacting your childhood family photos
Evolution of the Batmobile
A version of London if New York City "invaded" circa 1905-07
Even whimsical Star Wars Travel posters

My niece called me last night on my mobile and again, i cut her off. For some reason, i've never quite figured out how to answer the damn thing without cutting off the caller since i got the new phone last summer. Goes to show you how often i use it for incoming calls! See to use it from the external keys, you have to hit the OK button to unlock the keys first. Every time i try to answer it, i seem to hit OK and then it comes up with two choices, Quiet or Ignore, neither of which i want to do to most incoming calls. Then i end up cutting off the caller. So this morning i looked up my user manual for it and tried it out. Seems when a call is incoming, you don't have to unlock the keys first! I can just press the answer key straight off and it answers the call! Sheesh! My last  phone was a slidey one and i answered it by opening the phone. Simple. My first phone was a flip phone. Unflip, hit any key, sorted. I think this one, with the slide out keyboard, can also be set to answer with any key but i think using the proper answer key is probably better for me.

I don't use the phone for a lot of different things. Very basic Pay as you Go features without extra plans. I don't text a lot so it wasn't worth 5 dollars a month for the 250 texts and free incoming texts. Most of the bastard mobile companies over here now charge you for incoming texts as well as outgoing ones (15 or 20 cents per I think) and that included picture messaging (50 cents) but i still wasn't breaking even so i just pay per use now. Overall it's cheaper for me. I only make quick outgoing calls to make appointments or check if  someone's home or ask a question, i don't use it for conversation as a rule. People rarely call me and then just to find out where i am because i'm obviously not home, they've checked there first. Even so, i still like having it and i do use it to send text messages to a few people and send updates to twitter and facebook and the occasional photo to FB. I do like the 3mp camera on it. It's not too bad though i can still tell it's a camera phone pic because the lens is obviously not going to be the quality you get on a proper camera but it's ok and with a little photoshop help to smooth out the rough spots it's just fine for the average photo.

The other thing the mobile companies here do for PayGo is insist you top up every month whether you've used up the credit or not. Unused credit rolls over. None of this putting 20 dollars on it and not topping up for 3 or 4 months because you only use the phone for emergencies. Not in Canada anyway. all the companies have got on board with that. Greedy pigs. The cheapest way for it, for me who doesn't use the phone much, is the $100 voucher that gives you 365 days before you have to top up again. With tax, that's $115 and just over 10 a month rather than the usual minimum $15 + tax a month if you don't use the higher amount top up voucher. Last year i still had to put an extra 20 on it before expiry because i was experimenting with the web browser and that's bloody expensive if you don't use a data plan. The web browser is next to useless on this phone. I think there's a bug in the OS because it won't let me enter login forms. The fields just disappear. So i can't log in to LJ or FB or anything else on the phone's browser. Possibly there's a firmware fix but i'm not that bothered really. Web browsing on a non-smart phone is a pain in the arse really and not worth the aggravation.

I know, i know, i've been quiet. Gym, work, slogging through the days, counting down the sleeps. Still have some last minute things to pick up. My return flight was changed and now i have to fly Manchester-Heathrow-Toronto-Halifax, flying 2 hours further west from home to turn around and fly 2 hours back again. Long day. Apparently i'm in row 54. 54!! And there;s 63 rows of seats! That's one big mofo of a plane! Probably be heaving with people too. *sigh*

But three weeks from today we'll be in Copenhagen and we're looking forward to that quite a bit.

Meanwhile i'm in another mobile phone quandary again. The battery in mine is slowly going. I have to charge it every few days. I got another battery off ebay but it's no better than the other one. Got gypped i guess. Didn't cost a lot so i'm not that upset. It's just annoying. Plus i've never been happy with Rogers coverage here in Canada so i think i'll change to a different company, probably Bell or Virgin as they have the best coverage. Was looking around. What really is frustrating is that pay as you go customers get very little choice of phones unless you want to pay hundreds of dollars. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles but a few would be nice. Anyway, i've seen one or two i like at Virgin so i might go that way and keep my old phone just for when i'm in the UK.

Having lunch with some friends from out of town tomorrow so that's nice. They're the couple that lived in Labrador and moved to Quebec City. She was a teacher and decided to retire, and go to university in Montreal to become a minister! Now she's got one of the only English churches in Quebec City with a lovely 200 year old manse to live in! She's got family here so is here on a flying visit to see them and her grandkids and we're getting together tomorrow for a bite. :)

Today was an informative day and a really cool one too! Not temperature wise, the weather is quite nice today. Cool in that my Christmas pressies from gramie_dee finally arrived from Amazon! Seems the box got a bit damaged so when i picked it up at the post office, it had been rewrapped in heavy plastic. I expect that's what caused the delay in it's arrival. Still, it got here before 12th night tomorrow so it still counts! I also got groceries and when i got home, i called him so i could open them with him on the phone. One of the items was the Doctor Who Encyclopedia, all things Doctor from the most recent three seasons, the "revival" if you will. What i thought was amusing was when i did a search on amazon UK to find that link, this came up:

"Earthlings, take a trip to our tardis-like Doctor Who Store where you'll find DVDs, action figures, books, audio CDs, games, homewares and everything else Doctor Who fans could ever want."

The other thing was a box set of the tv series Cold Feet, all five seasons and an extra dvd. :)))) He remembered!!! I had been wanting that for awhile. Both gifts are excellent!

Now... the informative part of the day. I stopped in to a Rogers store to ask someone there about that MMS problem i've been having. I had an idea and i wondered if my sim card was so old that it wouldn't work with the more modern things. I wondered if i could get a new sim card and that would then work. Sadly, no. It's not to do with the card at all. I thought it was worth a try, though, even if it wasn't likely. The problem stems from the fact that it's been built and loaded with software for the European networks, not the North American ones. She said they see it a lot, and MMS seems to be one of the things that won't always work, specifically the receiving of a multi media message. Some phones also have trouble with the web browser though that's not a problem for me. I can send MMS to another North America phone but not to Graham but they don't guarantee MMS or even text messages will work off-continent. I just can't receive one on my phone. It will either go to the web storage area of my Rogers account or to the storage area of the provider of the sender, i.e. T-Mobile (uk). She said the data network here doesn't seem to be compatible with phones made for networks elsewhere. It all sounded very logical. The Tech people on the phone help system were distinctly unhelpful and didn't seem to know that this was probably the problem. Ah well. At least i know what is going on and i can live with it. It all does work when i'm in the UK and mostly everything works here and everything that's important works here. (phone calls and texts). Also the earbuds on the headphones are driving me insane. They don't really work with my ears, are loose and tend to fall out. The gal at Rogers suggested that i can get an adapter that will fit my headphone jack which is also the same connector for the recharger but the adapter would have a jack for a regular type of headphones. I think that might work better for me than a bluetooth set up and i will look for one when i go over in March. She thought i'd have the best luck of finding one at an O2 or Vodaphone store so will keep that in mind.

I also found a purse with a nice long strap. It's not leather, it's a nylon but has lots of zip pockets for stuff which will be useful for traveling and it has a padded section inside that would fit the digital camera. Also useful.

Have also undecorated the tree and taken it apart with *no* disasters! W00t! Just need to get the boxes out of the storage to put it all away.

P.S. Only the Muppet Show could make a song and dance number out of a half dozen rag mops :)

As always, gramie_dee writes me a song for Christmas. He had it done early and he didn't want to wait until Christmas to let me hear it. Thus, the latest song, Canadian Girl is online here and also on the jukebox on my own homepage where the others are as well. He says he's got another idea for one for Christmas so i'll hold him to that.

So much for Manchester's blue sky yesterday. I made sure to take a pic to prove it can happen lol We're heading up into the Lake district on Monday, which still may have rainy periods but seems like it will be the best day for it. Last night consisted of telly, and playing with our new phones. It took some figuring out and some digging about on the Virgin mobile site but mine now can send and receive picture messages though it's slow. We'll see what kind of aggravation it is to set up on Rogers when i get home. I should have taken a new sim card for TMobile which is the same as graham's. It didn't really matter. The place where we got them says you have to have a 10 pound top up and it can be for any system because they don't give you a voucher to top up what you already have, they give you a whole new sim card which means a whole new phone number. a bit of a waste, i think but anyway, that's how they get you isn't it?

We also downloaded our photos to the computer and had a good look. Quite pleased with them, both of ours. I'll have some time over the weekend to start uploading to a couple of album sites, one for most of the pics, and one for my favourites. Tonight we are out with a group of local friends for an all you can eat curry buffet! :)

Or something like that. I just got off the phone with Rogers Customer Service, trying to get some info about changing my mobile phone to Pay as you Go when my contract is up. One thing he did offer me that they don't widely advertise is an "Emergency use" only plan. You get 40 minutes a month, with 50 cents a minute if you go over that. Texts are extra. The total cost including access fee and taxes for me would be just over $14 per month. That's about $20 less a month than i'm paying now and that would be a good deal except i think, for me, going PayGo is still a better deal. In the nearly three years i've had the phone, i've used a total of 18 hours worth of minutes. That's about 32 minutes a month and even that seems high but now and then i will use it for a conversation. Here in Canada, you can't just top up the PayGo phone and leave it for months. They expire your minutes after 30 or 60 days so you have to keep topping it up even if you don't use it.

My Virgin Mobile only has to be topped up maybe twice a year if i'm not using it and i can do that online in preparation for when i go over to the UK. Just did that the other day so i think i'll be just under the wire when i arrive in November. If i had a world phone, i could turn on the phone here once in awhile and let it roam and make a quick call. That would keep it activated and i wouldn't have to top it up as often when i'm home. I plan to get a new phone (maybe for Christmas?) when i go over in November and get it unlocked. One of the things i asked the agent was if Rogers needed to do anything at their end or could i just drop the current sim into a new phone like i could overseas. No problem, i can do that myself, he said. *check* I can switch to PayGo and use my same phone *check* and keep my same number *check* It's all good.

So that's the plan. Mid July i have to call them up and do it over the phone, though. They can't do it in the Rogers store. I didn't bother to ask how much it would cost for me to do it earlier. It's only 2 more months anyway. Nice to know about the Emergency plan though, so anyone out there with Rogers that doesn't use their phone much can keep that in mind. Again, probably have to do it through the call agent, (that's 1-877-764-3772 but it's a verbal menu, rather than a touch tone. I think if you ask for the 'Cancel Service' option, you can talk to the correct agent)