Day: December 24, 2019

Nudge, Nudge

I’ve had Android phones for, like, fifteen years. Over that time, I’ve installed plenty of apps, which are taken across every time I upgrade the phone itself. Probably ten years ago I hit a limit – every useful app was pretty much already installed.

The upshot is that it is very rare indeed for me to install new apps these days.

Two apps, however, that I have installed recently are the WordPress app, when I moved my blog to WordPress, and the Spotify app, when I finally bought a subscription. Both in the last few months.

In that time, my phone started misbehaving. Specifically, it would beep when a notification arrived. Even in the middle of the night – beep, beep – bastard!

Suspicion fell on these two apps. But why would Spotify beep me at all, especially in the middle of the night? Of course, I looked at my phone’s list of notifications, but could not see anything suspicious in there.

It is true that, when I installed the WordPress Android app, I allowed it to send notifications, just on the basis that it would send them sensibly.

So, a few days ago, I changed one of the settings, in the app itself, to turn off notifications. But they kept coming, any time you like.

Of course, that might well indicate that this problem was nothing whatever to do with WordPress, but I wasn’t satisfied.

So, yesterday I went into the phone’s system settings, and revoked permission for the WordPress app to send any kind of notifications. Specifically, just on that one app. The other hundred-odd were still able to send notifications, if they chose.

Last night, I enjoyed my first uninterrupted night’s sleep for weeks.

Badly behaved WordPress? You decide. Let’s just say that in my few months on here, I have heard one particular theme probably above all others.

Tick Tock Tuesday (24 December 2019) – Ella Fitzgerald

I thought I’d create a new challenge. It is a challenge primarily for me, because I’m new to this platform, and because you don’t really know me yet, nor I you. As my name suggests, I am recovering from a stroke, and I like to push myself in all kinds of little ways… including getting to know the Wonderful World of WordPress. Although this is something I will be doing, I invite you, if this idea takes your fancy, to play along with me and share with me some of your own selections.

My plan is: each Tuesday, until I run dry, I shall post some piece of art with which I have some connection – which has helped to mould me, which makes me tick. Okay, a piece of art is a bit vague – it might be a piece of music, a movie, a book, a painting, or ???? – so my phrasiology is deliberate. It might be anything – I will play this post by ear, so I’m not sure what I’ll think of each week. And, I’ll keep posting on the theme weekly until I run out of ideas.

My rules? Well, I’m not big on rules! My choice will be something with which I feel a connection. That’ll be the important thing, just having some kind of fleeting affection for something probably won’t be enough, unless I’m using my choice as an example of something bigger.

It will be one choice per week – I’m aware that long posts can be quite onerous to read, and I’m in no hurry to complete this so if I have two ideas, I’ll probably hold the second until the next week.

In that same vein, I’ve created this block as a Reusable Block, which I intend repeating for every post on this theme. The block ends with a full-width separator, so if you want to skip ahead each week it doesn’t really matter.

I probably won’t post any lyrics, or any kind of analysis – if you like my choice, the information will be out there for you. But I will try to briefly explain why I feel a connection to my choice, just to try and enhance readers’ understanding of what makes me tick.

I will tag my posts TTT and I will go looking for other posts with that tag. If you’d like to join in, please do the same, or comment, or pingback to this post, and feel free to reproduce my graphic. Lastly, I look forward to reading about what makes you tick.

You have a fair idea of my tastes by now, and it won’t surprise you to learn that I have always revered both Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. They really are a king and a queen as far as my tastes go. I think of the pair in the same breath, plus of course they did some magical recording together.

I guess they are prominent because they each had such lengthy, successful careers, with such a large catalogue of songs, so there is plenty to like. Including whole albums with a Christmassy theme. So I thought I would present something today, something light-hearted, partly to counterbalance my Song Lyric Sunday choice a few days ago, which was a more traditional carol, as opposed to a “song” in the conventional sense.

I’ll present my favourite from Pops is a few weeks time, but today will concentrate on the beautiful voice of Ella Fitzgerald, singing a suitably festive song. This song comes from the album Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas, from 1960. But it is such a well-known song, it doesn’t really have a timeline associated with it.

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a good time.