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Slight panic tonight, finding my Apple charger - many many years old - had stopped charging my iPad part way through the night, and wasn't charging my iPod touch tonight (it took me until 8pm to realise any of this - I was asleep until 7pm). Martin gave the charger plug a good check, and it's definitely faulty and unsafe. Replacement now ordered - getting a more powerful USB-C charger plus USB-C to lightning cable for my still old devices. Meanwhile Martin found me a spare USB-A charger plug, so I'm good till the new one arrives! iPod touch now charging. iPad rather inadequately charged for tonight's use, but will do! And the new charger will work with any future USB-C based iPad and also iPhone when my last iPod touch has to be replaced.
Art supplies
May. 30th, 2025 03:43 pmGot me some art supplies in (the pencil case is full of a good range of grades of graphite pencils etc.). I used to love drawing as a teenager. Especially in O'Grade Art and Design, when being sent out into Wilton Lodge Park on our own to draw the landscape and wildlife was just the best thing ever! I'd like to return to drawing, though I won't be able to get out much. Considered using my iPad, but for me, I think, analogue would be better. Wish me luck!
Current listening. Big Finish, but I still daren’t use their old iOS app to download new audios. Because it isn’t coping well with large (500+) libraries like mine (700 ish). I have lots of old audios already downloaded in it, and it works well for those. But it isn’t safe again yet for downloading new releases. They are not making a great job of fixing this problem. Tonight I am using the free BookPlayer app.
Worldcon streaming
Aug. 8th, 2024 04:18 pmManaging to see my first Glasgow Worldcon panel. Watching from bed, lying down horizontal with my iPad and Bluetooth headphones. This is one of just a couple I’ll watch live, during the con. I plan to watch many more on catch-up after.
The streaming is working well, far better than I expected. Only hiccup was a long wait for a missing speaker. But otherwise it is playing well in Safari on my iPad, as well as a text chat in Discord.
The streaming is working well, far better than I expected. Only hiccup was a long wait for a missing speaker. But otherwise it is playing well in Safari on my iPad, as well as a text chat in Discord.
How not to regenerate a website
Jul. 30th, 2024 01:35 pmStepping away from the Big Finish website regeneration today, which is erm *not* going well. And not doing the best for my generalised anxiety disorder! On plus I have emailed them to point out one huge problem that no-one else had reported publicly. Which is potentially a huge problem for people with existing CD preorders - like me. But leaving it now. I downloaded lots of audios to work on the old version of the app last week. That app won't work with the new version of the site, but will continue to work with existing downloads. There is a new app I haven't tried yet, but I've seen screenshots, and it's not very iPad friendly.
(Big Finish produce Doctor Who and other cult full cast audio stories, on download and CD version. I own a lot ...)
(Big Finish produce Doctor Who and other cult full cast audio stories, on download and CD version. I own a lot ...)
Down to just 1 thing left on my todo list of IFComp game fixes. That was 107 items long, including some tricky or major changes. I will be signing up to enter IFComp at the start of July, with final game submission due in late August. The competition and judging runs through September and early October - a month earlier than in the past. And yes, I really need to sort out some cover art. I have a design in mind, and have been experimenting with ideas re drawings on my iPad. That O'Grade in Art and Design has to come in useful somewhere 😜
More Big Finish boxsets to go to Oxfams
May. 31st, 2024 09:07 pmI was just clearing out some more space around my computer/desk in the study, to help when we switch soon to fibre. Has to make it easier to physically access the router and swap to the new one!
In the process I found a whole bunch more of Jago & Litefoot audio boxsets that I have, a spin off series from Big Finish telling more stories with those memorable characters from Doctor Who's story The Talons of Weng-Chiang. I've enjoyed listening to the Jago & Litefoot stories on my iPad, using the Big Finish download option. But can now sell on the CDs. Most are still as new and sealed. Oxfam sell these well on their shop website.
I have sold some Jago & Litefoot boxes myself on eBay in the past, but in this case would rather donate them to charity. Oxfam sell them secondhand by mail order for more money than I would get (based on past experience, and their use of fixed price offers they can hold until sold), and given how ill I am now I really don't want to deal with these chunky packaging tasks.
I also have some more Doctor Who DVDs to donate to them, after getting more of the season-long "Collection" Blu-Ray boxes (I am getting all of the Tom Baker era ones through to Sylvester McCoy). And as always we keep having books to pass on. Oxfam recently sold a hardback copy of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey that I donated for £19.99. That's grand.
In the clearing out I also rediscovered my boxset of The Sarah Jane Adventures audio stories. I need to prioritise listening to those! Definitely not selling on that box though.
In the process I found a whole bunch more of Jago & Litefoot audio boxsets that I have, a spin off series from Big Finish telling more stories with those memorable characters from Doctor Who's story The Talons of Weng-Chiang. I've enjoyed listening to the Jago & Litefoot stories on my iPad, using the Big Finish download option. But can now sell on the CDs. Most are still as new and sealed. Oxfam sell these well on their shop website.
I have sold some Jago & Litefoot boxes myself on eBay in the past, but in this case would rather donate them to charity. Oxfam sell them secondhand by mail order for more money than I would get (based on past experience, and their use of fixed price offers they can hold until sold), and given how ill I am now I really don't want to deal with these chunky packaging tasks.
I also have some more Doctor Who DVDs to donate to them, after getting more of the season-long "Collection" Blu-Ray boxes (I am getting all of the Tom Baker era ones through to Sylvester McCoy). And as always we keep having books to pass on. Oxfam recently sold a hardback copy of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey that I donated for £19.99. That's grand.
In the clearing out I also rediscovered my boxset of The Sarah Jane Adventures audio stories. I need to prioritise listening to those! Definitely not selling on that box though.
Doctor Who Magazine and upcoming episodes
May. 23rd, 2024 08:54 pmI’m a very lax reader of Doctor Who Magazine now, though I keep getting it in digital form on my iPad. I’m just too very ill now to read it exhaustively each month. However with today’s new issue I have dived in fast to read the previous of the upcoming episode numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. It’s fair to say that 4, 6 and 7 are the ones I’m most excited about, after last weekend’s “Boom”. I won’t go into detail of what these next episodes are about except to put brief summary words in spoiler space ( mild spoilers ).
Episodes 7 and 8 are airing together in some UK cinemas late on Friday 21st June, shortly before the 8th episode goes up on the iPlayer at midnight, and before the BBC1 broadcast on Saturday night. However screening coverage outside the central belt of Scotland is very limited. I’m in Dundee and the nearest to me is in Dunfermline, 50/60 miles away. Closest after that is Edinburgh, then places like Glasgow and Aberdeen. To be fair I’m too ill to go to the cinema now, and it’s also too risky for me infection wise. But this isn’t great coverage. Though we are getting it on the iPlayer and BBC1. So I can’t really complain.
Episodes 7 and 8 are airing together in some UK cinemas late on Friday 21st June, shortly before the 8th episode goes up on the iPlayer at midnight, and before the BBC1 broadcast on Saturday night. However screening coverage outside the central belt of Scotland is very limited. I’m in Dundee and the nearest to me is in Dunfermline, 50/60 miles away. Closest after that is Edinburgh, then places like Glasgow and Aberdeen. To be fair I’m too ill to go to the cinema now, and it’s also too risky for me infection wise. But this isn’t great coverage. Though we are getting it on the iPlayer and BBC1. So I can’t really complain.
Got myself a chromatic button accordion app for my iPad, so I can practice more using that, not just when I get my new French CBA accordion out. I am still very much in the beginning stages. Chromatic button accordion - specifically C system in this case - is new to me. My French box only has all black keys, so it’s interesting to see white for naturals and black for flats/sharps in the app.
Just managed to get my count of unread articles saved to Pocket down under 7,000 again. Pocket is one of a number of ways of storing articles you see but can’t read there and then but want to keep to read later. Not long ago my count was almost 8,000 unread. A few years ago it was almost 10,000 and then I had 2 very ill years, when I saved even more and couldn’t read them often. But it’s dropping well now I’m more awake again. Masses yet to read! But next up - or down! - I’m aiming for the 5000s. This is a huge range of saved articles, many newspaper or online. I shake up the reading by searching for articles that mention specific words or subjects and bingeing them. Martin has about 1,250 unread articles at the moment and is slightly alarmed at that. I give him a look 😜 Note my huge count isn’t any bad mark against Pocket or sign that it isn’t effective. I’m just heavily sedated from my neuro illness and end up saving more articles to read later than I can get through promptly. But it does work for me. I use the Pocket app on my iPad and iPod touch, and it’s easiest to save via the iOS share button to read later. Pocket can also integrate well with web browsers on computers. I find it a great way of managing delayed reading. Now if only I was more awake ...
Tsundoku and me
Mar. 21st, 2022 08:46 pmI recently learned this Japanese word for buying books that pile up unread. This is so me, sadly, due to my progressive neurological disease, which has badly affected how I read print since the late 1990s. I can still read short pieces of print with difficulty, so some short stories, some articles. But anything longer, and even often magazines, is impossible now. That’s why I usually read magazines, including Doctor Who Magazine, in digital format on my iPad, where I can make the text much bigger. I have so many books bought since 2000 that I hoped to read. For example all my Big Finish Bernice Summerfield books - some in the icon picture - and most of my Doctor Who books. I kept hoping I would be able to read them. I am much firmer now. I should probably get rid of them, but I still hope. And with the Benny short story collections especially there is still hope. But I don’t buy more. Thank goodness for my Kindle letting me still read with an utterly gigantic font. Reading is so important to me.
