August 8, 2013 - iPod Touch

So now I'm trying out an iPod Touch. It's tiny. Typing with my right thumb with the phone in portrait is ok, coz the program autocorrects decently. I believe my left hand will start to hurt from holding the phone before my right hand will tire from typing. In landscape I can type with two thumbs but have to concentrate harder... Though it'll probably be faster once I get used to it.

Now: let's see about adding a photo...

Ok, taking a photo and adding it on the spot is seamless.

How about adding one from the iPod library? Let's see...

... Ok, that was easy too. Just need to figure out photo rotation...

You just need to rotate it in the gallery before adding it to blogger.

I read in the reviews that if you're not connected to wifi, you can't save draft posts. That would severely hamper blogging on the go. I notice that instead of saying "saving post" it says  "uploading"; not a good sign.

I'll try switching off the wifi and see what happens. After saving this draft, that is :-D

Testing, testing...Right, so I get the message that there is no wifi so I can't upload ... But that said, there's nothing to stop me typing a post, right? And uploading it when I'm in a wifi zone again?

Done! 

Now to add a photo from Dropbox... Huh, that does not appear to be an option. Really?! Ugh Apple, who do you think you are??

In conclusion: this device would be handy for typing posts in down-times (waiting for a bus, lying in bed before falling asleep), and adding photos I take with this device. Maybe if I can add photos from my Canon camera  to the post "later", via a different device, that'd be an efficient-enough work-around? Or perhaps I can wifi photos directly from the Canon to the iPod... Let's check for an app that'll facilitate that... Yep, Canon Camera Window exists for iPod, and I've downloaded it, and transferred a couple photos from my Canon to the iPod. Here they are:

I think this would work for me for blogging-on-the-go. As long as I don't turn off the phone before I get to wifi - otherwise I lose whatever I've written...

"Let's see whether I could type a blog post in iDocument, and then copy and paste it into Blogger." Oh my! It works!! This is quite exciting :)

I could also create blog posts in Word on the Surface, and then copy and paste them in to Blogger when I have a wifi connection.  Ok, that works. But why doesn't the Surface have a Blogger App that I could type straight into and save to the Surface... like the Samsung Tablet had??

August 6, 2013 - NY 3: Brooklyn & South Orange

Three dear friends are raising young children, and I got to visit with them as quasi family. The last time I visited was in September 2011.

Roddy and Kristen had Inez since I last saw them, a cherubic blonde and blue-eyed little girl with a smiling disposition most of the time. She is learning to stand and if you take her by both hands, will take a few steps with you. She's drinking cow's milk and eating bite-sized portions of what the adults are eating. She likes to explore everyday things, the shoes in the corner, what's been left in the stroller, the electrical outlets. She spends a fair amount of time in people's arms because she's so cute and not walking yet.

Siobhan, who was about Inez's age last time I saw her and is now 3 1/2 years old, has Kris' coloring, brown hair and brown eyes, and I was impressed by her attention span: she wanted me to read her multi-page Jip & Janneke stories which had only one black-and-white picture at best, and she would sit at the table and make cakes out of play doh. When I made muffins she wanted to pour and measure and mix, and while still lacking some precision in her movements,  was able to "help out" with just a little help. She loved blowing bubbles in the hallway,  and before I left, I gifted her a soap-liquid wand as long as her arm. She played word games with Roddy, who would ask things like "Is this a tum or is this a drum?" and would feign having "lost" his kiss or a hug so that she'd give him another.

Suzanne gave birth to Lena just six weeks prior to my arrival, and I accompanied her to her first post-natal doctor's visit on the Upper East side. It was the first time she'd been away from her baby (left in the care of long-time nanny Eunice). Lena was a nipple-sucking and sleeping machine, her every squeek responded to with a tit or a diaper change or at least a concerned eximination and musing as to what it might be time for.

Axel at 3 1/2 years old cannot stop moving. He's incapable of standing still, and if he's not walking around hops up and down on one leg. One of his favorite things is jumping on his parents' bed, which is ok with Suzanne. He wants you to play with him, Legos mostly, or sword-fighting, or scooting on  the porch with the scooter, or running through the sprinkler in the back yard. He wasn't overly interested in books but did sit and read the one about Small Bear getting top big for his bed and going to chop down a tree with Papa Bear to build a new one, all just in time for Little Sister Bear to move in to his old one -- hadn't he noticed how round Mama Bear had gotten recently?