flemmings | (no subject)

This living in the future is not all it's cracked up to be. So I fill the online customs form, get a barcode on my phone, and trot off to the Shoppers PO. Yes, the Ossington real PO is closer but the reviews of it are damning and anyway I need to buy a sheet pan and some smoke alarms on the way. So. Arriving mid-afternoon there's none of those endless lineups that outlet is so prone to. One clerk is helping a little old lady (which, come to that, I suppose I am too, though I'm not little and hardly a lady of that ilk-- no dress or heels or make-up, and why would one want to wear any of those into one's 80s I wonder) (except my great-aunt, born in the 1890s, absolutely had to wear a girdle or else she didn't feel dressed, so custom doth make somethings of us all.) Other clerk attends to me. I proffer my phone. 'You've prepaid?' Uhh no, it's the customs declaration wot I have to have because you don't have forms anymore. So she gets her little scanner and-- it won't read the barcode. She tries about five times, asks can I turn up the brightness level, but it's already at 100%, holds her hand over the top of the screen, tries to enlarge it and can't, on and on as a line forms behind me and then finally on the 20th try it clicks. Next time I do this, if I do this, I shall use the tablet. Which might work and might not.

But anyway, that's done.

Had been reading about wines and saw an article praising Lambrusco. A fizzy red wine? I might actually be able to drink that. So yesterday went over to the LCBO and looked for same, with no luck. Asked a clerk who took me to the fortified wines, apologizing that they only had the very sweet and the sweet but not very types in. I should have realised that fortified means even the regular will have sugar in it. Got the not very sweet, and it's pretty close to soda pop. In my youth, when Canadians were not sophisticated enough to drink good wine, the local vinyards made a wide variety of cheap sweet fizzy wines to rope people in. Lord knows why: beer drinkers, which is what most Canucks are, will not be going after sugary tastes. But Lambrusco is very reminiscent of Baby Bear and Baby Duck et al. (Baby Duck was the best selling wine vintage in the 70s, which tells you all you need to know. They still make it. Baby Bear seems to have ceased, but there's now something called Pursued By Bear, which pleases me, though I don't know if it's any relation.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My mother is 85 and still wears eyeliner. She tells me that I should treat putting on makeup as part of my every morning routine, straight after brushing my teeth.

Must be a Greatest Generation thing. Maybe growing up when luxuries were in short supply makes you determined to enjoy them as long as possible.

But after a certain age I find makeup just emphasizes things like crepey skin, even on the eyelids.

I think it was quite a Spanish thing, to put on your best face and always, always, look your own version of magnificent. Then again, it might have been just our family, maybe even just her.

You're right about crepey skin, eyelids and all.

The customs forms have gone too? Bah. I still remember the time that I tried to buy more aerogrammes. Though around here they can't even deliver letters promptly (different organization probably), understaffed and parcels get priority.

For the annoying Evri scanners, I noticed that with R.'s phone it seemed that too bright could stop it working. One thing I hate is the uncertainty: I don't want to be worrying about if it'll work, especially if there's a queue.

Reminds me also of the time I twice spent ages slowly rubbing my phone across my passport trying to read that NFC biometric chip for some identity app.

I love the way TPTB rush to embrace a new technology without ensuring that it actually works. 50 years ago Stats and Records at the university decided we'd go to computers, and the record keeping fell two months behind within ten days.

Governments also seem to think the post office should be profitable, which in a place the size of Canada is ridiculous.

Absolutely. Same with things like bus services: one just can't adequately serve rural communities profitably.

One of my fears is when the technology doesn't work. I don't want to be hamstrung if I can't wield a working phone on which I've set up everybody's apps. Some problem with the software and suddenly everything's disabled. My previous attempt to open a bank account took ages because they were having computer trouble.

Given the tendency of smart phones to just up and die, or get stolen or fall out of pockets onto the asphalt or into a toilet, having your whole financial and civic life on your phone strikes me as the essence of a Really Bad Idea.