Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Society’ Category

We figured that when the guy said that it would be here in October, that would really mean early November at best but he’s just called to say that it’s arrived which has thrown us a little.

For a start, we need to get the money organised to pay for it which’ll take us at least a day to do.

Then we need to sort out the insurance. Well, we’ve started on that already in that we got an online quote from MAAF which was getting on for EUR 200 cheaper than the renewal for the Alto insurance was from GAN. Yeah, I know, we don’t have the Alto any more but they still sent out the insurance renewal anyway.

Finally, for a change, I’d actually renewed the car rental early so I’d to cancel that as the new rental period kicks in tomorrow.

When Wendy and me started experimenting with the possibilities of running paid posts in our blogs it was just coming into the Summer and all the time it seemed to be a fight to get even a $5 post on some sites.

However, as we edge out of the Summer, we’re now in the situation where there are getting on for a hundred opportunities that are open to us each time we log in. OK, granted maybe half of those are only $5 but just a few months ago we were looking at something like a dozen available at any one time and most were $5. Tonight the first 30 are over $7.

That extra choice also brings the advantages that many more of the opportunities fall into the category of “interesting” and that the wordcount asked for can be as little as 50 words for payouts of $15.

What we’re also learning to do better is to check the opportunities available at an appropriate time. All of the main sites offering these paid post schemes are currently based in America so our original approach of writing the paid posts in the morning isn’t a good move as all we got was the leftovers from the night before. Simply checking in the evening instead pretty much doubled our takings overnight and combine that with the additional opportunities available over the Winter mean that we’re doing even better than that as we get more on top of the best strategies to use with these schemes.

Also starting to become noticeable is that the increased number of postings on the blogs is starting to attract other interest in the blogs. Nothing major from that as yet but ’tis early days.

I’m sure that many of you have photos just like this one. It was taken in 1909 and shows my great grandparents and their whole family at that time.

You won’t have terribly many photos like that because at that time having your photograph taken was a grand event and, as you can see, everyone dressed up for the occasion. In fact, that remained the case for quite some time afterwards and it was really only as we edged into the 1950s that the number of photographs taken went up with cameras getting into the hands of amateurs in large numbers.

So, chances are, that you have quite a lot of photos from the 1950s and in increasing numbers through to the 1990s.

And then we all began to go digital and took even more photos than we ever did before.

Yet, how many of those digital photos will be printed? Don’t forget that it’s almost certainly only going to be those that are printed that will be available to future generations. Your grandchildren certainly won’t have anything capable of reading that SD card with your wedding photos on it for sure. Ah, but you wiped it when you copied the photos onto the computer, didn’t you?

But what about those photos on the computer? Have you taken a backup copy of them? You certainly can’t depend on the hard disc lasting forever so if you haven’t a second copy of them, chances are that you’ll lose them sooner or later. Even if you do make backup copies, how good are you at maintaining them? After all, backup discs wear out too. And, of course, there’s the issue that your grandchildren probably won’t be able to read that backup disc anyway, unless you’ve made a point of copying it onto the latest type every 3 to 5 years (don’t forget that USB drives have only been available for around 5 years and probably won’t be around for another 5).

So, despite us taking lots more photos, I suspect that our grandchildren will only have a very small selection of them to look at ie those that we’re printed out over the years.

As for video? No chance. Right through the 1980s you probably recorded your video on VHS but now that those players are starting to be phased out, have you bothered to copy those tapes onto your computer or onto DVDs? If you don’t do it within the next five years or so, you could find that you no longer have something capable of playing the tapes.

One of the more peculiar aspects of life here is that we are sick at almost exactly the same time every year.

Why that is, I don’t know but it’s been happening for four years now. Each June, we’re sick within a few days of the same time the year before, likewise each September.

In some ways, we can understand June. They’re spraying the fields at exactly the same time each June so we pretty much take it for granted that something in those sprays is causing it.

September is different though in that it’s in the midst of the grape harvest so there isn’t any spraying going on.

Weird, huh?

One thing’s for sure: the weather doesn’t mess around over here – it’s either one extreme or the other.

We’re just through a really major thunder and lightening storm the like of which you just don’t see in Northern Ireland.

All being well normal south of France weather will be resumed tomorrow with the sun and cloudless skies that usually characterise September here.