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?

July 27, 2013 - Governors Island, NYC

Welcome to Governors Island! 

July 19-23, 2013 - NY Memory Lane

We went to New York together: Marybeth, Huub and I. Mom had said she really wanted to visit Jimmy's grave, and he is buried on Long Island near First Prebyterian Church in Babylon, where the family lived when Marybeth was in highschool (PS 138, she'd say). Albert Leininger was pastor at the church from 1940 to 1970, and today a plaque hangs on the rear wall that reads "Preacher, Builder, Counselor with a consistent life." Mom was touched at how personal and apropos it was." [I wish I could paste the photo I took -- with the Samsung camera-tablet --- but I get the message "format incompatible"]. We met two couples in their 80's, the caretaker (also about that age), and two aldermen in their 50's. Rob Laing said he'd been baptized by Reverend Leininger, and Teufel (a little older) said he'd been confirmed by Opa. Teufel remembered Opa in one of his sermons bemoaning people preferring to mow their lawns on Sunday rather than come to church. "Let the weeds grow!" He'd said. "They're green , living things too!" That resonated with Teufel, a boy who disliked his garden chores.

July 26, 2013 - Samsung Galaxy Tab 3

Now I am working on a tablet only, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3. Ah! Already I prefer the fact that there's more punctuation on the keyboard! (So you don't have to hold a key for the !?,. to appear)

July 18, 2013 - Samsung Galaxy Epiphany

I am testing a Samsung Galaxy Camera EKGC110, with 21x optical zoom AND tablet functiinlity; pretty cool, eh? Ok, now that I've downloaded blogger and started a post (typing is do-able, similar to a Blackberry though hopefully my touchscreen aim will improve quickly), how do I insert a photo?

Ah, ok. I have now spotted the camera icon on the post "preview" page. And I selected a photo from dropbox to upload, one I just took with this very camera. Hmm, I get a message "file format not supported." wtf?

Ok. Instead I took another photo and uploaded it directly to blogger. Here it is:

So why has alignment shifted to center now??

It's a bit of a pain that, with the space the keyboard takes up, and the photo above in portrait (and without it in landscape), I can only see a few lines of text as I write. 

Mar 31 - Preparations for Palm Sunday

Preparing the sawdust for the 'alfombra' (literally: carpet) that the Escuela Sevilla will lay down in the street in front of the school tomorrow, Palm Sunday.

Dye is dissolved in a bucket of water, and is then poured over raw (wood-colored) sawdust. This then needs to be mixed by hand to disperse the color throughout the whole pile of sawdust.

Many hands make light work.

Teachers and students all pitch in.