Fed up-ness and phones

It's a strange thing but the bank holiday weekend we are supposed to look forward too was something of a double edge sword for me at least and I'm probably not alone. I think it's something similar to that 'Christmas thing' that is always talked of in the festive season...the word that sums it up is 'loneliness'.

During the week, even before I was working, the week and even most weekends seemed reasonably well 'populated' the few friends I have close by and all of those I have online are kicking around but this weekend everyone suddenly disappeared en masse. Well to be more accurate not so much disappeared as have better things to do, families to spend time with, partners to relax with or days out and visiting to do....and my weekend became a 'study in lonely'. I don't recall the last time I felt quite so alone, I'm used to amusing myself and filling my time but normally there is some company or small event to look forward to...not this time.

In an effort to make something of it I at least decided it was about time I treated myself to a luxury in recognition of my getting a job, something I really shouldn't spend money on...a new phone! Hey, I have been running the old one for over two years, I can justify it!

So, the new phone, a Nokia X6, fantabulous, love it....but it is proof that material possession is so much less important than people. I'm a gadget freak, I adore all that stuff but it doesn't stop the loneliness. Dammit!

Biscuits and gravy and other stuff

The last couple of days have been kind of hectic here is gemmaks-ville, hell I didn't even log in here yesterday let alone post, quite a departure from my usual routine, no blogging, no Twittering, in fact I barely even turned this confounded machine on.....What's the world coming too?!

So what's caused this departure, well Wednesday Lisa and Punctuation managed to make it back here for another visit, unfortunately Fletch was away on business so he missed them but the three of us had a lovely afternoon just chattering away happily and being fed a late US breakfast of 'biscuits and gravy', prepared by Lisa who made my kitchen her own, which suited me just fine, she's welcome to it, kitchens and all that cooking palaver just aren't my forte. Amusingly to a Brit, 'biscuits and gravy' include neither biscuits nor gravy, or at least not as we understand them! For those of you who like me had never had this delicacy before, it's kind of a savoury scone with a sausage meat white sauce mix and a fried egg plopped on top...yummy, tho 'Ms picky veggie' here was duty bound to dispense with the sausagy bit! ;o)

Lisa goes back to the U.S today, in fact as I type she is emailing me from LHR's internet booth waiting to board, this is not a good thing. I shall miss her much.

Onto other stuff.

Yesterday was dole queue day again, what can I say, the queue gets tangibly longer each time I am there and the queue-ees resignation that nothing much is going to change anytime soon increases in tandem with the length of the queue. It's almost funny if it wasn't so sad, there are now so many of us squished in there at one time now that what was a fifteen minute wait is now closer to an hour and security staff have been employed to 'manage' the unwieldy snake of individuals winding around and out of the building!

All that said, this week there was a actually a job possibility for me, amusingly as 'one of them'....one of the staff sitting behind the dole queue desks putting the out of work through their paces. I am a little reticent about being in that position from a moral standpoint but I need the work and should I make it through the selection process perhaps I can do my little bit in not condescending to those I find on the opposite side of the desk. Who knows. Like all job applications (and there have been a few) I won't say much here unless I get it, it's all too boring and disheartening to keep on about it.

Oh...and my new phone arrived on the day promised, though as ever it seems is the case there was much kerfuffle in that achievement and mostly it was facilitated by me rather than those who's job it should have been! Pretty funky bit of kit though it is, certainly it is function over design in this case, it's about the size and weight of a small house brick but then it does have more in common with a small computer than a phone so there is adequate payback...or there will be when I finally get to grips with it! ;o)

...and for the few phone geeks who I know read this, a little inside onfo; Apparently the phone I have, the N95 was discontinued and replaced by the N96...but that has been so problematical the 95 has been reintroduced for a while at least....it ain't pretty but it works!

Another one bites the dust!

Can you believe it! the mobile phone saga continues, yet another has keeled over and gone to the great phone landfill in the sky. This is becoming almost comical if it weren't so damned annoying!

The latest in the line of casualties is the Nokia 6600, nifty little thing, if only the firmware were anything like stable, which it wasn't. To be honest the problems began on day one a few weeks back but I decided at that point I would persevere a while...I should have known better, perseverance never pays off where phone operating systems are involved. They either work or they don't and no amount of TLC will persuade them into appropriate behaviour!

So, today again I am sitting in again waiting for a courier to bring forth the next offering from my service provider, having once more spent half a day yesterday pointing out my consumer rights to O2's 'help' desk guys. Really, it shouldn't be like this, it shouldn't have to be a fight, they know the law as well as I do and life would be a whole lot simpler if they would just not try to pull the wool over the consumers eyes!

This time I am going to give the Nokia N95 a try, I can't say it's a phone I would have chosen but it was the best that was on offer, I'm pretty half hearted about it all now and I chose it for one reason only, it was the highest spec/value my contract would allow so if I don't like it, it can go the 'eBay way' and at least I can get top dollar for it.

My old phone might not be all singing and dancing but at least it is stable. Life's to short for all this carry on!

That's it!

Ok...enough already!...the phone is going in the post today and winging it's sad way back to it's originator, I've had enough, life is too short to spend two days fighting a crap operating system!

I'm confounded really as to how an apparently high end piece of kit could have such basic flaws. Ok, I know the more the dev. guys cram into any piece of equipment the morel likelihood there is of problems... but to miss out such basic things as the ability to name a folder strikes me as pretty poor. Yup, it's a fact. The software version in the 6220 allows one to create folders for images, documents etc. but not to name them, in fact not to identify them in any way, the result of which is that one ends up with any number of folders, all completely unidentifiable! Useful eh? I thought it was me but many calls later, some internet research and a visit to a phone geek chap proved it not to be me but the software.

And that was just the start. I won't bore you with the other specifics but suffice to say, I got more than an acceptable number of 'blue screen of death'(ok, they were grey but you know where I'm coming from on this) appearances, it crashed completely more times than anyone could find remotely acceptable and wouldn't restart without much poking and prodding among stuff that Jane Doe shouldn't be expected to have to poke and prod at!

So, I don't know what next, I'm tempted by an iPhone, if for no other reason than it's just so sexy but the decision is on hold for a few days, I'm all phoned out!

On a happier note tho....we have BIG snow forecast as a 93% possibility for Monday so fingers crossed please! :o)

Nasty new phone!

Well, the new phone arrived yesterday, or rather I had to go and pick it up, o2 having for the first time in history managed to make a next day delivery, just when I didn't want them too....and it's nasty!

Well that might be something of an overstatement but thus far I can't say I'm impressed. This is not an item that displays Nokia's usual build quality, in fact this model, the 6220, is more reminiscent of a child's toy rather than a high end, 'smartphone' piece of technology! Add to that, thus far, the much heralded, Symbian operating system leaves a lot to be desired in my humble opinion with the result that I spent much of yesterday fighting it....with not much success.

To be fair I am not an expert but I am usually pretty good with phones, hell, I managed to circumnavigate Nokia's own software at length to convert certain files to a csv. format and load them successfully when nothing that was supposed to work actually did but the whole thing is just so convoluted and protracted that it's simply a pain.

Perhaps it's the old familiarity thing, my last phone uses a different o/s but I don't think so. I can forgive the build quality if the function is good but by last night it was back in it's box ready to be returned! This morning however I have woken with new geeky vigour, maybe I will give it one more go, damn, why did I 'restore factory settings', but if it doesn't shape up fast back it will go, despite there being nothing else I want on the market right now.....I would rather stick with the one I have!