How do I blog offline?

This is a bit of a test. I would like to be able to write blog posts when I’m on holidays even if I don’t have an internet connection. Today I think I have figured out how to do it. I already have a bluetooth keyboard for my phone. I’m planning to use my phone as my back-up camera anyway so I’ll have it with me.

I’m writing this offline in Google docs and, in theory, it should sync when I next connect to the internet. At the moment I seem to be having difficulty with fiddly fingers. Because the shift key is comparatively small and the up arrow lives right beside it, I keep hitting the up arrow which causes me to get all sorts of words within words until I notice and go back to fix it.  I imagine I can get used to that with practice.

Version 2 bendy wire to replace elastic and clip

I need some way to make the phone stand up while I’m working. I tried several things, one of those bendy wires covered with plastic but the one I had at hand wasn’t big or heavy enough and the phone overbalanced. I thought about the hard case I have for my sunglasses but, it too, overbalanced. I could make something but weight is a concern on the trip we are planning to take this summer and my camera gear makes my carry-on quite heavy.

At the moment I have a flexible ruler wrapped around the phone, its two ends joined with an elastic band and a sewing clip. It is behaving quite well although the ends of the ruler do obscure the bottom line of typing a bit. I bought a batch of these rulers at some point so I don’t mind sacrificing one or two if I find that cutting a notch into one makes for a better stand. On the other hand, I can just get used to moving my head a bit when I want to read the bottom line of what I’m typing.What I like about this solution is that I don’t have to make anything,  it weighs very little, and I can use the elastic, ruler and the clip for other things. 

Version 1 elastic band and clip

I’m working on my lap on a lap table and my touch on the keyboard is not particularly light. The phone and its holder have slid down so they are now in contact with the top of the keyboard and they are no longer moving. I can live with that.

As I’m looking at this set-up I’m wondering if I can permanently attach the elastic to both ends of the ruler at the same time. Then I realize that if I do that I will lose the ability to flatten the whole thing out so it's probably not worth it.

Since I’m using my phone as a screen for typing, I can’t take a photo of the setup. I think I still have an old iPod around somewhere which could act as a photo model, or I could steal R’s phone for the purpose. 

I think I’ve blathered on long enough to give the system a reasonable test. I’ll go and get a stand-in for my phone and take a couple of photos. If you’re reading this, the test has been a success. I may do another couple of blogs in the near future using this system just to get used to it. 

A few hours later

Cherry phone stand

Well many of you could probably predict that I wouldn’t leave the phone stand alone. I wondered if I could make one quickly from some of the scrap wood I have. After some time with my trusty hand saw and a couple of chisels, I have another phone stand. It is sturdy and I can see the whole screen. It’s only useful for one thing but it does that one thing well. I will probably end up taking this chunk of cherry instead of the flexible ruler. It would be elegant if I could figure out how to make it into a box to also hold the charging cable. I’ll have to think about that. I’m not sure I want to put that much work into it.

No finish yet

This will, however, be a good piece for an experiment with finish. I have a new finish that I want to use on ukuleles. The stand is small so it won’t use much.  We also have a polishing system for the lathe that I haven’t yet tried and I plan to give that a go at the same time. It might end up being one classy looking piece of wood. I’ll keep you posted.

The hearing aid brigade

Yes, I’ve joined the hearing aid brigade. I have the kind of hearing loss that is expected for someone of my age. Imagine that! I figured if I was going to get hearing aids I might as well get all the whistles and bells available so when I came home from the appointment I informed Richard that he had just bought me a ‘Cadillac.’

So far, I’m quite thrilled with the technology. As many of you know, I'm an avid audio book consumer. I now have 600 titles in my library, most of which I’ve listened to. It actually feels odd to read a print book. I still read magazines and the newspaper the conventional way though. The hearing aids are bluetooth capable and we have set them up so that they pair automatically with my phone. I can now wander around the house talking to thin air. I’m a bit more hesitant to do that in public. People tend to avoid someone who is having a conversation with the ether at normal speaking levels. On second thought, I imagine that could come in handy in some situations. I’ll file that away for further reference

The best part about the hearing aids, other than hearing better, is that it is now so easy for me to listen to my audiobooks anywhere. I don’t have to remember to bring earphones. There is a way to pause the book by tapping my ear but I haven’t quite mastered that one yet so when I want to pause I still tend to pull out the phone and use the pause button on that. One step at a time.

This whole technology is a wee bit big-brotherish. When I went in for my first check the audiologist downloaded all the data from the hearing aids. He was able to tell me that I have spent quite a bit of time streaming. That wasn’t exactly a surprise. He also told me that I have averaged wearing the hearing aids 11 hours a day and that I had mostly been in quiet environments. I imagine I could get the same information from the app on my phone. Apparently I can vary the settings to focus the sound more precisely when I’m in a situation such as a noisy restaurant. I have yet to experiment with that.

head phones and hearing aid charger

When I started off he set the hearing aids at 90% of the prescription. He said if people have severe hearing loss and you boost the signal too much the change is overwhelming. I never thought of that. He was surprised that I didn’t comment on how different my speaking voice sounded to me. I didn’t comment because it didn’t sound all that different. What I did notice was that my s’s seemed much more pronounced and sounds like the microwave beep have overtones that I’ve been unaware of. I thought the ticking of the clock in my study would drive me nuts but I’ve grown used to it. The other thing that’s a bit disconcerting is that wind noise now sounds like I’m hearing it through a microphone that needs a dead cat. I think that’s what the furry mic covers are called. Since there are three microphones in each hearing aid, I guess that’s pretty accurate. I don’t think that, other than wearing a toque or ear muffs, I can do much about the wind noise though.

What I didn’t expect was how incredibly itchy my ears were at first. They have calmed down considerably. Wearing a mask, which I still do when out in public, is a bit more of a challenge but I’m getting the hang of that as well. I can also pair the hearing aids with my computer so I have the choice of listening through headphones, which I usually do, or listening through the hearing aids. I’m getting the hang of disconnecting from one device and reconnecting to another one. I have a battery pack that I can charge that will last me a few days if I’m camping and away from the grid. About the only downside I can see is that I now have one more device that requires a battery. When I travel I have a phone, and its charger, a camera, and its charger, a fitbit and its charger, and now hearing aids and their charger. Oh well, it’s a small price to pay for not having to work as hard to figure out what's being said around me and, of course, there are the audiobooks.