Where Will Television Go from Here?

Television isn’t obsolete yet, but I wonder if the future will still have so many television sets. It is so odd that people still buy huge screens for television while looking at tiny phone screens most of the day.

I tried finding a TV in the smaller size, the size that would fit the space I have on my shelf. I could not find anything new for 19 inches. All the sets were either tiny with the idea of being mobile, or huge with the idea of… I don’t know what, taking up a lot of space?

Its kind of sad, we don’t even call them television sets any longer. When I think of a television set I do think of the old ones, with wooden frames and stands. Not the new plastic televisions which are stuck to walls. They look like really huge bugs climbing up the wall. What would aliens or people far in the future think of our televisions and the set up for watching them. I’ve read that it would look like we worship television, to anyone who didn’t know what it was. But, we kind of do worship television, the media. So it isn’t so far fetched.

Also, the trend to streaming and cutting cable service. Watching from streaming devices, other than television sets. Where will all of this leave the television set? Taking up space in the landfill. Not much of our plastic is recyclable yet. It is a shame we left behind the old sets, just change the electronics. But, I guess people find it easier to just buy more plastic. Most younger people may have never seen an old television, before plastic technology. Most would not know how to turn it on, without a remote control.

My Grandparents thought TV was turning our brains to mush. Maybe they were right, but not in the way they expected.

This set was made by engineer J. Alphonse Ouimet (1930). He was a Canadian television pioneer and president of the he Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1958 to 1967.

Image from – The Early Television Foundation and Museum

Early television museum located in Ohio, US. But, many photos in the online gallery: mechanical TV sets from the 1920s, early electronic televisions, postwar, and early colour TVs. They also restore and rebuild old televisions.

Old Mill in Caledonia

Say farewell to the old Caledonia mill, which has sat on the banks of the Grand River since 1853.

Efforts to restore the last water-powered mill on the Grand River began in 1981 but have consistently been curbed, mainly because of the funding issues.

The Golden Horseshoe Antique Society, which ran the town’s annual steam show, took on the project in 1981 when the Grand River Conservation Authority threatened to tear the mill down. The latter acquired the property in 1979 with the idea of turning the site into a park.

The mill stopped grinding flour and feed in 1966. In the 19th Century, it put out more than one thousand 300-pound barrels of flour a week and shipped to Europe, Quebec and Western Canada. It operated as a feed store until 1975.

Source for the above photos and text: The wheel has finally turned for the old Caledonia mill | TheSpec.com

Too late to get any photos myself. This was due to be demolished and replaced by March of this year (according to the article). Not so many old mills left in Ontario.

Cybertwee: Feminine Technology

From a post on The Guardian:

Imagine, though, what the tech landscape might look like if soft hues and girly aesthetics were championed, rather than ridiculed? That’s exactly what three young artists – Gabriella Hilleman, 27, Violet Forest 26, and May Waver, 23 – decided to do a few years ago, when, mostly on a lark, they convened the first International Cybertwee Conference and Roundtable.

…Ultimately, Hilleman, Waver and Forest hope that Cybertwee can be not only simply an aesthetic movement, but that it can restore skills and participation in tech to girly girls who might normally be alienated from the space.

Visit the Cybertwee site.

One point in the article mentions pink being used to show things as fake and/ or sexual. I wish there had been more about that issue as it seems to be the bigger problem with having feminity or girlishness in technology/ the digital world. Pink has become fluffy or slutty. When did you last see something pink that wasn’t supposed to be seen as one or the other? Pink has become a stereotype.

I like the ultimate goal behind cybertwee, getting more people involved in technology. It is such a new area, still evolving. It needs input from a variety of people with different experiences and points of view.

Talk to Canadian Call Centres

My Mom sent this to me in email. I think it’s great. I’ve worked in Canadian call centres. The job is not the greatest, no customer service job is. But, it pays well enough and there is no reason for businesses to go outside of Canada for customer service people. I’m going to remember this next time I have to deal with someone in customer service. It’s hard enough trying to accomplish anything – they can at least be Canadian and know what I’m talking about as well as keeping the income in Canada for those jobs.
Call Centres – The law in Canada

Good to know, especially since rumour has that Canada Post Customer service is headed to India before the New Year

A lot of us do not realize this option is open to us.

Any time you call an 800 number (for a credit card, banking, charter communications, health and other insurance, computer help desk, etc. ) and you find that you’re talking to a foreign customer service representative (with an accent, difficult to understand perhaps in India, Philippines, etc), Please consider doing the following:

After you connect and you realize that the Customer Service Representative is not working in Canada (you can always ask, if you are not sure about the accent), please, very politely this is not about trashing other cultures

Say, “I’d like to speak to a Customer Service Representative in Canada.”

The rep might suggest talking to his/her manager, But, again, politely say,

“Thank you, but I’d like to speak to a Customer Service Representative in Canada ..”

YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED TO A REP IN CANADA .

That’s the rule and the LAW.

It takes less than one minute to have your call re-directed to Canada .

Tonight when I got redirected to a Canadian Rep, I asked again to make sure – and yes, she was from Calgary ..

Imagine what would happen if every Canadian Citizen insisted on talking to only Canadian phone reps, from this day on.

Imagine how that would ultimately impact the number of Canadian jobs that would need to be created ASAP.

If I tell 10 people to consider this and you tell 10 people to consider doing this – see what I mean…it becomes an exercise in viral marketing 101.

Remember – the goal here is to restore jobs back here at home – not to be abrupt or rude to a foreign phone rep. You will get correct answers, good advice, and solutions to your
problem – in real English.

If you agree, please tell 10 people you know, and ask them to tell 10 people they know….etc…etc.

Toilet Roll Doll: Restore and Repurpose Dolls

Did Your Grandmother Have Dolls in her Bathroom?

I remember these from my Grandmother’s house, in the bathroom. She knitted her own from patterns that have disappeared along with most of her stuff after her death years ago. I don’t know how to knit (I learned to crochet on my own) but it would have been nice to have some of her old knitting patterns. Sometimes I see interesting or unusual patterns in the thrift store but I don’t buy them. I don’t knit after all.

The History of the Toilet Roll Dolly

There isn’t a lot of history to the dolls. In the 1960’s they began appearing in North America and likely various Common Wealth and European locations too. I can only vouch for those I saw in Canada, mainly Ontario.

I expect the idea came along when there was extra yarn, some time for a new project, maybe a broken doll and the idea was born. Pretty up your bathroom. In the 1960’s there were other home made fashions in the bathroom. I can think of toilet seat covers, something I haven’t seen a big return on with all the vintage and retro ideas. You could co-ordinate your doll’s dress with your pretty toilet seat cover, the bathroom floor rug and anything else already decorating the bathroom. Maybe that was how she really got started. Not only could you add more home made crafts, more colour and keep that broken doll around for a reason but you could … make it all shades of pink matching.

There was likely some idea about modestly hiding that unsightly naked toilet roll too.

Specifications for Making Your Own Toilet Roll Doll Cosie

I have yet to see a vintage pattern for those old toilet roll cover dolls. That’s how I started writing about them today. I’m seeing what I can turn up online.

I can find an endless supply of the little dolls at thrift stores. They are abandoned by children everywhere, so it would be a good way to recycle/ repurpose some of them. You can pick and choose from weird blue hair colour to a weird blue skin colour and the standard human shades of brown colours too.

The only thing that matters about the doll is her height and width. She can’t stand too tall and tip over inside the toilet roll. She also needs to be the right width to fit through the centre of the cardboard roll from about the waist down. Mainly her legs need to be inside the roll as the skirt of her dress covers the toilet paper roll – that leaves her above the roll from the waist up.

Free Toilet Roll Cosie Patterns

Toilet Paper Doll Cover: Crochetnmore.com
Toilet Paper Roll Cover and Kitschy Doily
My Kid Craft: Paper Toilet Roll Doll

The last pattern is an update on the vintage dolls. This one can be made with children, from paper and crayons. Simple and faster for those who don’t want to buy one.

\What do you Call your Toilet Roll Doll?

I guess you could properly call them toilet roll cosies, or toilet roll toppers too. I never found out what my Grandmother actually called hers. I always enjoyed seeing them though. She never made one for me, that I can remember. Maybe she just thought they weren’t really anything special. But, they were.

If you haven’t had enough toilet roll dolls yet…

YouTube – The Toilet Roll Dolls Perform Some Juggling

YouTube – The Toilet Roll Dolls Help Themselves to Chocolate

Do You Use WordPress Proofreader to your Advantage?

Are you making full use of all the proofreading features available with the newest version of WordPress?

If you put some time into understanding how the features work (mainly how to understand what they are suggesting to you) you can have an editor look over your post before you publish it to your site. This is something people should be taking advantage of. I didn’t know they had so much packed into it beyond spellcheck.

English Grammar and Style Options

The proofreader applies many of its grammar rules by default. These extra options find patterns of poor writing style:

Bias language may offend or alienate different groups of readers.

Clichés are overused phrases with little reader impact.

Complex phrases are words or phrases with simpler every-day alternatives.

Diacritical marks are accents and marks attached to letters in some nouns and words borrowed from other languages. This option helps restore these marks in your writing.

A double negative is one negative phrase followed by another. The negatives cancel each other out, making the meaning hard to understand.

A hidden verb is a verb made into a noun. These often need extra verbs to make sense.

Jargon phrases are foreign words and phrases that only make sense to certain people.

Passive voice obscures or omits the sentence subject. Frequent use of passive voice makes your writing hard to understand.

Phrases to avoid are wishy-washy or indecisive phrases.

Redundant phrases can be shortened by removing an unneeded word.