Blog Dis
Barbie's Very Pink Slippers
2025-02-06
As a general rule, my friends are quick to tease me for being too 'literate' or too 'thoughtful' or too 'intelligent' or they'll ask, "Why do you have to use such big words all the time?" to which I'll respond, "They're not big to me. They're just words." I read a lot. Maybe I read more of the heavy stuff, rather than fluffy books that are light and airy, light enough for the wind to catch them, and then they're gone on a current of whimsy, after being read and fully forgotten.
The other week, however, a pair of very pink Barbie slippers somehow managed to stay stuck to the bottom of my winter boots, as I made way into the office where I work, to collect a delivery, my new mobile phone, which shipped direct to me from my Internet Service Provider. I'm not a neophyte when it comes to spinning up a new mobile phone. I've got the drill down pretty well insofar that I'll negotiate with the representative over the phone for some extras like waiving the shipping fees, and to waive the fee to transfer over the texts and contacts in my old phone, to migrate these to my new phone (bcus I like to keep texting history for those with whom I text regularly). The contacts too are handy because I don't want to have to re-enter them again. And when it comes to the standard APPs that I want on my phone, such as banking APPs, social networks, music player and my playlist, Square point-of-sale (for when I sell my novels), YouTube, Dictionary, Calculator, Uber and Lyft, Easy Recorder - pretty much similar to most, but maybe with some differences.
I believe, however, that I goofed up this time around when I selected my new phone. Typically I research tech specifications before landing on an Android option, and I make comparisons with my current phone to the newest. Pretty much they are six and one half dozen of the other. I look for standard necessities like battery life, RAM memory, microSD card slot, the camera quality (front and back), internal storage, dimensions, loudspeakers, position of the fingerprint sensor, and for me whether it has an old-fashioned 35 mm RJ45 jack for plugging in a pair of ear buds. Yes, Yes, I know this jack has been long replaced on most models, given that everyone uses wireless ear buds, but what I don't personally like about wireless devices is that they have to be repeatedly charged, and typically they'll conk out when I most want them to work; hence the justification for at least having the option of an old-style RJ45 jack bcus these earbuds don't require re-charging. I get to toggle between both - the wireless version or the hard connected version.
This is where I went wrong. I thought I could get away with a smaller internal storage of 128GB vs 256GB storage. Well, I gave it the good ol' college try and noticed that very quickly the phone's operating system slowed down, which meant I needed to buy a miscoSD card to store some of the thousands of pictures I keep on my phone, and I mean thousands. So after picking up the phone, and having all my APPs migrated to the new phone, it didn't take long for it to grind and time lag. I ended up going back to a supplier to buy a 256 GB microSD card in order that I could move thousands of pictures from the internal storage to the external drive. And voila! The phone now zips along like a humming bird.
Where I work, I'm spoiled. I have access to first-person IT support, rather than to be forced to wade through the quagmire of voice mail, should I be silly enough to want to speak with tech support that is available when purchasing a new phone. I solicited the input of our seasoned IT guy, who is one chill dude, given that his day is focused on resolving one problem after another, after another.
"How is it," I asked, "That adding the microSD card had somehow speeded up the functionality of my phone?"
He looked at me with kind eyes, without actually articulating a word, because I can interpret silence in eyes and what they're saying without saying it. "Every day, stupid questions." And so, after a short pause, he answered, "Because the microSD card is part of the phone, and the phone has access to both the internal and external storage."
"Oh," I said, not entirely convinced. "But if I'm taking new pictures, or accessing APPs or whatever, all of these are stored on the internal storage and not the external microSD card."
He looked at me once more and his eyes said this time, "If only I were paid for every conversation where I repeat myself." So, he answered, still politely though I recognized the signs of exasperation. "Think of your laptop. Everything is connected to the main circuitry board, everything, even external USB drives, all of which are connecting to the same laptop. It doesn't matter that they are separate from each other. They are all connected."
"I see," I answered, wiggling my toes in my very pink Barbie slippers, still not entirely convinced that I liked these answers. "Is the slowness," I persisted, "due to when I migrated over the APPs from the older phone that their cache hadn't yet been emptied, before doing so, so this takes up more internal storage?"
He nodded politely, and took another call, or rather was happy to take another call, instead of struggling to reach my Barbie-brain. He walked away 😅 and I was left standing, feeling more Barbie-like, until I took his response as a sign that I should leave the poor man alone, and read the manual for my phone, for crying out loud, to understand all of its features.
I settled on the TCL 50 XE NXTPAPER 5G phone because the screen feels like silky paper, rather than polished glass. When I view my phone outside, there's no screen glare because it's not shiny glass, so I'm able to see what's being displayed on the screen. This is a very cool feature and apparently it may be the newest trend once it catches on fully. With my older TCL 20 Pro 5G the glass screen would quickly gum-up with fingerprints but this is no longer an issue with the new phone, and its fancy silky-paper-like screen; hence the name 'NXTPAPER'.
Like I said... our mobile phones are pretty much six and one half dozen of the other. It's generally the operators who make the real difference, especially if they trundle into the office to bother IT support, wearing a pair of very pink Barbie slippers.
I don't appreciate the exorbitant price of the top-range phones like iPhone or Samsung bcus they all perform the same in terms of functionality. So, why would I want to shell out more money for a new phone, only when two years down the road, or maybe I might be able to stretch it out to three, I'll have to upgrade again when the Android operating software platform will roll out the latest version, and this is when APPs, will no longer function as smoothly as they did before. Apple is guilty of pushing their clients to get a new phone every year, and it makes me think that those who do, who buy into this manufacturing push to sell more mobile phones are really the ones who've glued very pink Barbie slippers to the underside of their shoes.
I just had one minor Barbie moment. It happens.
By the by, I don't play video games on my phone - shock and horror. I also don't own a video game player at home - more shock and horror.
The other week, however, a pair of very pink Barbie slippers somehow managed to stay stuck to the bottom of my winter boots, as I made way into the office where I work, to collect a delivery, my new mobile phone, which shipped direct to me from my Internet Service Provider. I'm not a neophyte when it comes to spinning up a new mobile phone. I've got the drill down pretty well insofar that I'll negotiate with the representative over the phone for some extras like waiving the shipping fees, and to waive the fee to transfer over the texts and contacts in my old phone, to migrate these to my new phone (bcus I like to keep texting history for those with whom I text regularly). The contacts too are handy because I don't want to have to re-enter them again. And when it comes to the standard APPs that I want on my phone, such as banking APPs, social networks, music player and my playlist, Square point-of-sale (for when I sell my novels), YouTube, Dictionary, Calculator, Uber and Lyft, Easy Recorder - pretty much similar to most, but maybe with some differences.
I believe, however, that I goofed up this time around when I selected my new phone. Typically I research tech specifications before landing on an Android option, and I make comparisons with my current phone to the newest. Pretty much they are six and one half dozen of the other. I look for standard necessities like battery life, RAM memory, microSD card slot, the camera quality (front and back), internal storage, dimensions, loudspeakers, position of the fingerprint sensor, and for me whether it has an old-fashioned 35 mm RJ45 jack for plugging in a pair of ear buds. Yes, Yes, I know this jack has been long replaced on most models, given that everyone uses wireless ear buds, but what I don't personally like about wireless devices is that they have to be repeatedly charged, and typically they'll conk out when I most want them to work; hence the justification for at least having the option of an old-style RJ45 jack bcus these earbuds don't require re-charging. I get to toggle between both - the wireless version or the hard connected version.
This is where I went wrong. I thought I could get away with a smaller internal storage of 128GB vs 256GB storage. Well, I gave it the good ol' college try and noticed that very quickly the phone's operating system slowed down, which meant I needed to buy a miscoSD card to store some of the thousands of pictures I keep on my phone, and I mean thousands. So after picking up the phone, and having all my APPs migrated to the new phone, it didn't take long for it to grind and time lag. I ended up going back to a supplier to buy a 256 GB microSD card in order that I could move thousands of pictures from the internal storage to the external drive. And voila! The phone now zips along like a humming bird.
Where I work, I'm spoiled. I have access to first-person IT support, rather than to be forced to wade through the quagmire of voice mail, should I be silly enough to want to speak with tech support that is available when purchasing a new phone. I solicited the input of our seasoned IT guy, who is one chill dude, given that his day is focused on resolving one problem after another, after another.
"How is it," I asked, "That adding the microSD card had somehow speeded up the functionality of my phone?"
He looked at me with kind eyes, without actually articulating a word, because I can interpret silence in eyes and what they're saying without saying it. "Every day, stupid questions." And so, after a short pause, he answered, "Because the microSD card is part of the phone, and the phone has access to both the internal and external storage."
"Oh," I said, not entirely convinced. "But if I'm taking new pictures, or accessing APPs or whatever, all of these are stored on the internal storage and not the external microSD card."
He looked at me once more and his eyes said this time, "If only I were paid for every conversation where I repeat myself." So, he answered, still politely though I recognized the signs of exasperation. "Think of your laptop. Everything is connected to the main circuitry board, everything, even external USB drives, all of which are connecting to the same laptop. It doesn't matter that they are separate from each other. They are all connected."
"I see," I answered, wiggling my toes in my very pink Barbie slippers, still not entirely convinced that I liked these answers. "Is the slowness," I persisted, "due to when I migrated over the APPs from the older phone that their cache hadn't yet been emptied, before doing so, so this takes up more internal storage?"
He nodded politely, and took another call, or rather was happy to take another call, instead of struggling to reach my Barbie-brain. He walked away 😅 and I was left standing, feeling more Barbie-like, until I took his response as a sign that I should leave the poor man alone, and read the manual for my phone, for crying out loud, to understand all of its features.
I settled on the TCL 50 XE NXTPAPER 5G phone because the screen feels like silky paper, rather than polished glass. When I view my phone outside, there's no screen glare because it's not shiny glass, so I'm able to see what's being displayed on the screen. This is a very cool feature and apparently it may be the newest trend once it catches on fully. With my older TCL 20 Pro 5G the glass screen would quickly gum-up with fingerprints but this is no longer an issue with the new phone, and its fancy silky-paper-like screen; hence the name 'NXTPAPER'.
Like I said... our mobile phones are pretty much six and one half dozen of the other. It's generally the operators who make the real difference, especially if they trundle into the office to bother IT support, wearing a pair of very pink Barbie slippers.
I don't appreciate the exorbitant price of the top-range phones like iPhone or Samsung bcus they all perform the same in terms of functionality. So, why would I want to shell out more money for a new phone, only when two years down the road, or maybe I might be able to stretch it out to three, I'll have to upgrade again when the Android operating software platform will roll out the latest version, and this is when APPs, will no longer function as smoothly as they did before. Apple is guilty of pushing their clients to get a new phone every year, and it makes me think that those who do, who buy into this manufacturing push to sell more mobile phones are really the ones who've glued very pink Barbie slippers to the underside of their shoes.
I just had one minor Barbie moment. It happens.
By the by, I don't play video games on my phone - shock and horror. I also don't own a video game player at home - more shock and horror.
