Tag Archives: postaday2011

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#Wishsomeonehadtoldme – My Google Phone

English: Google Nexus S - Samsung Android Phone

Image via Wikipedia

I like my Google Android. Don’t like the little green man that inhabits it. But I do have the option of downloading an app that allows me to play dress-up with him, so the minor disgruntlement might become moot.

But there are things I wish someone had told me when I acquired the phone. Public Service Announcements if you will. So today, I am passing on the garnered wisdom of a single month of use. With luck, I’m also putting a bug into a developer’s ear that will improve life for us all!

Two Exterior Buttons = Kaput

Note the slight extension on the left hand side of the Android depicted above. There is a similar, but slightly smaller extension on the right hand side, slightly higher up than the one on the left. The right hand extension is the power on/off button. The left is a mode button. If the two buttons are pressed at the same time, the phone goes into a crisis mode that delivers code messages and the little green man, but absolutely nothing else. The phone is kaput.

For the first month, this happened to me on a frustratingly regular basis. Because – this is the truly important part – because when I hold the phone in the palm of my hand my thumb naturally sits on the mode button and my pointer finger on the power button.  Without intent, when I activated the phone I activated the mode button at the same time wreaking Android havoc. If my fingers were longer, the problem wouldn’t exist! Ergonomics, ergoshomics!

Clearing the browser cache

Some evil tweep mentioned me in tweet. I fell for the ego stroke, and clicked on the URL embedded in the mention. Got Spam. Spam that would not go away, no matter what I pressed. So I had to Google, clearing the Android URL history. What a pain!

You have to use your browser’s tools to clear the history, which means with a Google phone, you have to log in to your account and follow a series of permission steps before you are successful. I suppose the process is to protect me, but please…does it have to be so time consuming and clunky?

You’ve been warned.

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When Evil is Black and White is it Easier to Digest?

Cover of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of ...

Cover via Amazon

An Art History instructor once explained to me how much richer my understanding of Visual Art would be if I had cultural knowledge. For example, paintings with Biblical references: If I haven’t read the Bible how will I understand the painting. We’ve lost the art of flower giving, because we no longer learn the meaning of flowers and their colours. Our lives then are in black and white, many of us are missing the subtle shades of grey that add substance.

This thought was brought home to me today as I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I have been indulging in a Potterthon that began with a reading of the first two books and morphed into a movie marathon. When historians revisit the late 1990s and early 2000s, they will have to study the Harry Potter phenomenon. Words were added to the language. References are everywhere, including Love Actually.

The octogenarian cowered in her chair, appalled at the darkness and evil depicted. A very black evil contrasted with the white of goodness. The skies and lakes are grey, but the heart of Harry Potter was written in black and white. Not so evil in the octogenarian’s life. She understands only too well that in the pursuit of good moral compromises might have to be made.

Have we made evil palatable? Is that not in itself an evil act?

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Mrs. Pat would be Proud: @Shawtheatre

Mrs. Patrick Campbell, one of the first female hyphenates of the theatre, must be smiling down on the Shaw Festival today. The 2012 line-up is a celebration of the theatrical heroine, in all her guises – femme fatale, ingenue, comedienne and drama queen. Perhaps, more importantly, women as playwrights are recognized. I can’t wait for April when the new season launches.

His Girl Friday: My first introduction to Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur was watching Rosalind Russell after school in the film of the same name. The film was based on the pair’s play The Front Page. The Shaw’s version, according to Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell, is a “mash-up [that] keeps the grit and bite of The Front Page while brilliantly recalibrating the comedy to hit new contemporary targets.” I’ll translate that to mean that the politics within should now be palatable to a post-modern woman.

Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is arguably the finest female role in 20th century theatre. What better company than the Shaw’s to mount it for the 21st century. The Festival has always been as much about ideas as emotion, inescapable when George Bernard Shaw is your muse.

The Millionairess is one of two of GBS’s plays in the 2012 season. “I am the most interesting woman in England.” He might have put the words in his heroine’s mouth, but Shaw was writing about himself, I am willing to bet.

Githa Sowerby and Carole Frechette are the distaff playwrights. I have not seen either of their works: Sowerby’s A Man and Some Women or John Murrell’s translation of Frechette’s Helen’s Necklace. But I plan to!

Girl’s night out is taking on a whole new meaning for me in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

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You’re supposed to be the star of your own life…

Eli Wallach steals every scene when he is on the screen in The Holiday (les Vacances) one of my two favourite contemporary Christmas films. Not just mine, I stress, because when the subject comes up The Holiday and Love Actually – my other favourite – have been cited more than once by my pals.

Watching them again has been my plan for Christmas Eve for more than a month. They did not disappoint. The bonus this year was that I bought the DVDs, so I was able to watch the bonus features. Not all of them…I saved some for Boxing Day.

The films have two things in common – multiple performers and an English setting. Love Actually is a love poem to London. The Holiday reminded me of Hugo with that Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light quality when we see the English cottage for the first time.

Unlike Love Actually, I am not a fan of the individual actors who play the protagonists – Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. Yet they managed to charm me time and again in The Holiday. The cast of Love Actually is huge. No matter how many names I list, I’ll miss someone – Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Rowan Atkinson and the absolutely irresistible Bill Nighy to name just a few.

Bill Nighy is the Eli Wallach of Love Actually, pulling focus every time he appears. You could argue that his Billy Mack was just a riff on his character in Still Crazy. You could but you shouldn’t. Billy Mack starts the film self-aware, and stays there throughout, unlike his Still Crazy character.

I admit that neither It’s A Wonderful Life nor A Christmas Carol, two classic Christmas films, were must-sees for me. White Christmas and Holiday Inn, on the other hand, define Christmas films of my childhood.

Love Actually and The Holiday are Christmas films of my maturity, with adult themes and an undercurrent of sadness that reflects reality – and awkwardness. Just like real life.

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2 for the budget; and 1 indulgence

With just a few hours left before the stores close and the entertaining begins, I share two ingredients that have become staples in my pantry, and one indulgence.

NIMKISH: Tandoori Grill Seasoning for Chicken and Ribs

The most versatile jar of seasoning there is. I sprinkle it on popcorn, poached eggs. Whip it up with yoghurt to make an outstanding baked fried chicken or a dip for rice crackers. The aroma says Indian cooking. Can’t do without it.

HUNGARIA: Grande Cuvee – made in the champagne method

Fermented in the bottle in Hungary – this sparkling plonk has replaced Spanish bubbly in my wine rack. Makes me feel as if I’m a princess of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Cheap and definitely cheerful. Lovely and dry with tiny bubbles!

The Indulgence: LØV Organic Green Tea (Ginger and Lemon).

Large leaves, big pieces of dried lemon rind and ginger. Despite the Scandinavian style name, this tea is from Harfleur, France and is certified organic. Clean and aromatic, you’ll make the best cuppa ever.