It’s the only place on the planet I’d happily move to
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I’ve answered similar prompts to this before therefore it won’t be a protracted answer.
That answer is southern Cyprus. West of the island, Polis and Latchi to be precise.
Love the people, the food, the culture and quite simply the quality of life. it’s a fantastic place operating at a speed I can quite easily blend in to.
It’s our very happy place.
Have a beautiful day.
How did the old film trial go? Come in and take a peek.
I posted earlier today Well, that was most enjoyable! Regarding popping out for a morning stroll and taking a 48 year old camera with me to shoot a roll of film that had expired 20 years since.
At 20 years old, the roll was an experiment where i exposed at normal settings, +1 stop overexposed and +2 stops overexposed. I obtained 39 exposures, always possible from a 36 exposure roll, I won’t bother you with them all, just 2 from each exposure range with a brief description. Don’t expect fine art here, it was a snap session to test a number of factors and to see how the film has deteriorated over time.
These pictures have not been retouched apart from having a frame put around them. They are as scanned, for authentic representation.
The advertised, original roll ASA rating. Very low expectations and it didn’t disappoint.
At 200ASA the shots were certainly under exposed. The pictures have a cast over them and after development there is a lot of curl on the emulsion (Age) and the base of the film also has a darker tone, creating that yellow brown cast.
The best two exposures represent the first overexposure of one stop from 200ASA to 100ASA.
At 100ASA everything seems quite acceptable. There is that hue over the film still, and highlights seem quite prominent. Grain is present but not too distracting.
If you work by the suggested standard of one stop of exposure for every 10 years then this should be the standard. However I’m not so sure.
So with the exposure at 50ASA we have now introduced quite a bit of grain, a yellow hue and quite prominent highlights. I’m sure all of these pictures would post process fine if run through photo shop or light room. But to be quite honest I love that retro look that they have.
For me i’d probably aim at the 100ASA +1 stop of overexposure on the remaining rolls I have, I believe that would be quite enough, however even the 50ASA option is not too bad though you would require a lot of post working and you’d have quite a noticeable size grain.
Horses for courses as they say, but I’m going down the +1 stop overexposure route for the next film.
I found a little local photo store here in Leicestershire called Classic photo supplies, who specialise in all film processing, supply, printing and Sundry items. The owner Brett invited me in and we just chatted classic photography whilst my film was developing. He’s a super guy, and I’m all for supporting small businesses, so this is my new go to lab. The scans were done and over to me by email within an hour, super quick service. I’ll pick the negatives up in the week when I drop off another film to be developed and scanned.
Thanks for passing by. As always I am honoured by your presence.
Thanks. For your time.
An enjoyable stroll with a 48 year old camera
The wife told me this morning that she was going out shopping with her sister. Nothing sinister in that, in fact it means two things really. One, I’m going to be a bit lighter in pocket and two, I’m going to have to occupy myself for a while. I have work later this afternoon, so with a couple of hours spare what better time to get out for a walk and to take a 48 year old camera with you that needs testing. This one to be precise: Canon AE1 35mm SLR
I dashed down to take a film out of the fridge, left it sitting for an hour and loaded the camera up, stage one achieved and everything as expected.
Now the film I have been given is one of 8 rolls I have been gifted that are all out of date. This one is a mere 20 years out of date expiring in 2005. This roll of film is older than 21.8% of the Uk population according to the office of national statistics 2024. It’s that old.
Today’s film is a Kodak Gold 200ASA film. There is a general rule of thumb out there that for every ten years the film is out of date you should over expose the film by one stop. So on this film, as it is a further 10 years past that, and if I follow that recommendation then I have to over expose this film by 2 stops. This means in theory that this 200ASA film should be exposed at 50ASA that equates to two stops of overexposure.
I’m not going to do that, I’m going to experiment here. I don’t know how this film has been stored over the years, I don’t even know that it will work at all, it could be fogged or just so deteriorated that it just doesn’t work.
It’s a 36 exposure film so here’s the plan. Exposures 1-12 at std setting of 200ASA. Exposures 13-24 at 100ASA setting and finally the last 12 exposures at 50ASA. Here I cover all bases and should hopefully get a reference roll for the other seven that I have in cold storage at present.
Needless to say I’m not going to be too fussy with what I photograph, scenery, shades, over and under exposure and bright colours, everything that can be used as a reference to check saturation, contrast, grain and film deterioration.
Let’s go.
So as stated, I’ve exposed and over exposed equally throughout the roll, so this should cover all bases.
Right from the start I have thoroughly enjoyed this little exercise, I spoke to two elder gents who were quite excited at what I was doing and shared their own experiences with traditional film with me, it was lovely, i was even offered an old camera but i politely declined as the wife wouldn’t have been happy with that. I walked 3 miles, I went through some of the less salubrious areas, but these areas had some of the best subject matter.
When you are using an old camera, you seem to scan the area more intensely, you see stuff you haven’t seen or noticed before, it’s amazing what you pass and ignore. I think you are less selective with phones and digital media, with film, you are limited so have to be picky.
I bloody loved it. I’d forgot just how good it is to get out there and use good old fashioned equipment.
And that camera behaved just beautifully, everything worked as it should, it is as good as it has ever been, I’m so pleased with how it has behaved so far. See the results here: 20yr old Kodak Gold
I guess the proof is in the pudding as they say. Time to get it processed and to check the results. Needless to say I will feed that back on this blog as soon as it becomes available.
Don’t give up on the past, there is a lot of good tunes played on an old fiddle.
Thanks for passing by, always appreciated.
I always try to purchase local arts and crafts when i travel
What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?
Whenever i travel i always like to purchase a piece of local art or craft as a reminder of that visit as well as it being a lasting memory.
Without doubt Cyprus is my favourite place on the planet. Where we stay is off the tourist path and we have such a good relationship with the locals. We love the place. I always purchase, photos, fabric or locally made produce as a reminder. However this one year we were walking along the seafront when we saw probably three or four little stone sculptures made from stones off of the local beach, with a little sign saying, “ please take a stone with our love” Now who could resist such an offer from such lovely people. We took the one of a couple, as it looks as if they are walking just as we were that very day. (We didn’t have such fine hats though 😂)
This stone now has pride of place in a flower barrel in our garden. A constant reminder of warm, pleasant days in our happy place.
So simple, so special. Memories, yours to keep forever.
Have a wonderful day 🙏
Why do I beat myself up? It’s not necessary.
What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can?
I’ve never actually considered this question before, and to be honest I had to look at some other blog posts that I follow to get some clarity on what was being documented.
Now I’m not in anyway looking for sympathy or kind words, and for that reason I will make this a no comment post, but the only part of my routine I really would like to skip is when waking up in the morning, I’m always very down on myself, self flagellating if you like, over what I should have done or what I should be doing. I love putting myself down and that sets me up for a lot of hill climbing and wall building right from the moment of awaking.
Now some would put a positive spin on this and say, “ as long as you are beating yourself up, no one else is doing it to you” and that may be so, but it becomes very tiring when you’ve been doing that pretty much all of your adult life. Now I do have coping mechanisms and i have them securely entwined within my daily operation. I’m not sad, I’m happy, I’m not depressed as I try not to venture down that dark avenue, but just like most I have my good days and bad days, and I just get on, as do the majority of the people on this big old planet, I’m nothing exceptional in that case. I’m certainly not well off financially, but I’m happy and grateful of my lot. I’m fortunate to have a lot of love surrounding me, and in that case I’m probably extremely wealthy ❤️
So, in a nutshell it would be nice for one morning to just wake up and not go into fight mode with myself, I’m not going to say I’m perfect as no one is, but I deserve better, I can love others with no issue at all, i just wish I could show some of that love to myself.
Have a lovely day. Stay safe.
The EOS1 N with the well documented BC fault. Can I repair it?
The EOS1 N was a professional 35mm camera from 1994, it is currently 31 years old. This model is basically the EOS1 N with the E1 drive booster/winder earning it the HS suffix.
These are beautiful analogue cameras and over the years I’ve had a fair few of these pass through my hands, I have not however owned one with the E1 booster/winder before. I’ve recently had a number of cameras passed on to me by a good friend and that post can be found here: Cameras…i need more!
This is one of those cameras that he passed onto me and it carries the well known BC fault. We’ll come on to that later, in the meantime here is a little history lesson, of the evolution of this camera.
The EOS-1N is a 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) camera body produced by Canon. It was announced by Canon in 1994, and was the professional model in the range, superseding the original Canon EOS-1.The camera was itself superseded by the EOS-1V in 2000.
The original EOS-1 had been launched in 1989, two years after the company had introduced their new EOS autofocus system. It was the company’s first professional-level EOS camera and was aimed at the same photographers who had used Canon’s highly regarded, manual focus professional FD mount SLRs, such as the Canon New F-1 and the Canon T90. On a physical level the EOS-1 resembled the T90, which had been designed for Canon by Luigi Colani. The EOS-1N was a revision of the EOS-1, with five autofocus points spread across the frame rather than a single centrally mounted autofocus point, plus more effective weather sealing, a wider exposure range, and numerous other improvements. In common with the EOS-1, the 1N used Canon’s A-TTL automatic flash system, and does not support the more modern E-TTL.
Right, let’s get on to the problem. The BC fault is a blanket fault, covering a multitude of issues, predominantly electrical, even addressed in the accompanying instruction manual as a potential battery issue. However the issue that it is more associated with the fault is the failing shutter mirror magnets. See the video below.
The video above gives a very good insight to the issues, and what to look for and how to get the shutter operational again. It’s not a permanent fix, sometimes the magnets haven’t been used for such a long time that they just seize up. They can be de magnetised, they can just be dirty, either way it’s worth having a look at, to try and restore what is in all aspects a very good camera. It seems to be an issue that an open or close signal is sent, however the magnets for some reason do not react, dirt can be a contributing factor. Below I have put together a very short video of my own camera, the early part shows me trying to get it working and showing the BC indication, the second part shows the mirror “sort of” working after I have tapped in the area just above the top screw on the left side of the lens mount under which the magnets are situated.
It still doesn’t work properly though and is extremely intermittent, but it’s a start, it proves the fault. I have also used a strong magnet to fool the internal magnets, this works for a couple of firings but that’s it. This also adds credibility to confirm the magnet issue.
I haven’t yet taken the fascia off to access the magnets, I’ve just tapped in their general area, or probed with a strong magnet, this was enough to allow the shutter to intermittently fire, and it is now quite apparent that this is the issue I have with this unit.
I’ve done some further checks to confirm the fault. If you turn the camera on and open the small door to the right on the rear of the camera, there are a number of buttons inside that allow you to check battery levels and to do resets, and so forth.
By pushing both the clear button and the battery check button together, you can get a fault code to appear on the screen on the top of the camera.
Here as you can see, I have fault code number 6. If you look at the chart below supplied by Canon you will see it refers to a mirror fault, more specifically the mirror is up, but didn’t switch back to on from off, as I mentioned in the above paragraph.
As you can also see above, fault codes 6,7 & 9 refer to the mirror operation issue.
I’ve done all I can really on the outside of the unit, and I think I have conclusively proved the area of the fault. Before we look at replacement of the part, I am going to give it a good clean to see if that will clear the issue. I’ll worry about spare parts later if required. Let’s get the fascia off and have a closer look.
I’ve been a right stubborn sod with this one. I really didn’t want to dismantle this camera at all. Something inside was telling me it was unnecessary so I decided to persist with what I had been doing earlier. If only I could get the magnets to fire for a few exposures at a time, it would be just like a coughing car engine clearing out its system and kicking in to life, once it bites you can accelerate it a little more until it starts ticking over. Old motors and cameras are a strange but similar comparison, the longer they are left unused the more inclined they become to not partake in doing what they were made to do, whether powering a car or taking photos. Stop using them and they do just that. Stop.
Well, that’s what I think anyway, My world is as simple as that. And I think it might just work.
So I have persisted….
And purchased a much stronger magnet a “Rare earth” one to be precise. These are the sort of magnets they use for magnet fishing, however this one is small and despite having credentials behind it saying it has 19kg of pulling power I’d suggest that is a lie. Probably a maximum of 3kg if you’re lucky, but either way more than sufficient for me wanting to kick start a tiny electro magnet in a camera.
The most surprising issue around this magnet is the absolute ridiculous size of the packaging that it came in.
So I persisted with the magnet, around the lens ring. I reset again and again. Nothing. I used my knuckle to tap the area near the magnet, a single cough, good. More resets, single coughs, more taps two coughs….this is good. I set the camera to high speed wind, kept the exposure button depressed and continued tapping, five or six coughs then stop. It’s an improvement. The magnet is starting to pick up. More tapping then I’m getting about 20 coughs with an obvious delay on one or two activations… we are now getting somewhere.
I put the rare earth magnets near the camera magnet and then switch off and reset. I turn back on again and then get a good 15 seconds or so of rapid fire, the internal magnets are clearing. I remove the rare earth magnet, reset again and the old girl fires into life for about 30 seconds continuously with only the occasional “misfire” the internal magnets are sparking back into life.
You get the idea.
Once you get these magnets operational, the best thing you can do is continually fire them, until they fire smoothly. This camera has not fired up for years, and these components inside are made to be used, and just like someone trying to keep fit, similar to a muscle, if you don’t use it you’ll lose it, it’s the same with these cameras, they need to be used on a fairly regular basis.
I did a 3 minute firing and I’m pleased to say she is now chugging away beautifully with no coughs and splutters. I’m sure glad I persisted with my hunch. I was right. And believe it or not. The battery levels are still good.
I’ve put together a little video here showing it working before and after.
Well what more can I say. It appears to be working.
To say I’m chuffed with this repair is an understatement. Sometimes you don’t have to dive in and start dismantling to get results. Do your research and make your own plan of attack with the information you have at your disposal. You will find equal amounts of good and bad advice out there, you’ll soon become aware of the differences, just follow your feelings and do what you think is right, if it’s wrong, well you’ve learned a lesson.
I am so looking forward to getting a day out with this camera and really letting her loose. I just love the sound of these clunking old machines, I don’t understand why anyone dislikes them. I loved visiting air shows when you had the big old really noisy aircraft that shook your soul from head to toe, they then sanitised that with super quiet aircraft…so boring. They’ve done that to cameras as well that nowadays make no noise. I love these old cameras, every click, clunk and whir brings back superb memories to me. I just love old cameras. I like to think I’m helping a few last just a little bit longer.
Many thanks for passing by, it’s always very much appreciated.
Peace to all.
What shall I do with all these expired rolls of 35mm film? I know, let’s take some pictures
I’ve recently inherited 8 rolls of life expired 35mm film. In other hands I guess these would just be discarded, and thrown away, however this is me writing, you know, that fool who collects old knackered cameras. That’s me that is.
Well I’m going to use them.
What could possibly go wrong.
A number of things to be precise, let me enlighten you. As these rolls of films all expired back in 2005 this means they expired 20 years ago, that’s a third of my life span, phew! Film loses its sensitivity over time and we will have to compensate for that when we get to use the film. Colours and dyes fade, and the finished product (if there is one) is likely to look washed out. Add to that the issue of not knowing how the film has been stored over the last 20 years, and this could be the difference between there being an image and just being blank film. If the film has been kept cool, and in a darker environment, there is more of a chance of getting a result than one that has been stored in light and heat. You get the picture….or not.
These rolls are colour negative film all using the C41 chemical development process. And for this type of film and process, the line drawn in the sand says that it’s wise to overexpose the film by 1 stop, for every 10 years (Decade) of expiry. Since the rolls i have are now twenty years out of date, following these guidelines I would be advised to overexpose these films by 2 stops.
Black and white film is more forgiving and might not require adjusting at all, whilst transparency film is totally unforgiving, and personally i wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
The higher the ASA setting on the film, means that it requires less light, a lower settings means that more light is required. Therefore, as an example, if these films were originally rated at 400 asa i would now be advised to expose them at 100 asa therefore allowing more light in to expose the deteriorating film accordingly. But remember, when you process the films they must be processed at standard normal development times, if you push or pull the development times you will not achieve the result you require. Develop as normal.
The unknown factor here really is how the film was stored. Chances are that if it was stored in perfect conditions, then we could probably get away with using its original asa setting. But we just don’t know and will just have to suck it and see as they say. We won’t really know how things are going to turnout until we’ve developed the film.
Old film is good for experimental purposes, you don’t really want to trust old film to a photo shoot as you could be wasting time and money. Unless you really want that old washed out retro 70s look.
The film stock I have is listed below:
I have 4 rolls of Kodak Gold 200ASA colour film.
I also have 4 rolls of Kodak Gold Ultra 400ASA film.
All expiry dates are circa 2005, so they are exactly 20 years out of date. I’ve put them all in to cold storage for now but it could well be 20 years too late. Typical for me, always late to the party!
As an aside to these films, I’ve also found a Canon EOS 30 body that I have also been given to get working again, it just so happens to have a partially exposed film inside it. Now this roll I will have to expose as per normal as it has a dx code reader inside, and I can’t override it from what I can tell initially. It will be interesting to see what it returns.
So. When I get around to exposing these films, the 400ASA will be exposed at 100ASA and the 200ASA ones will be exposed at 50ASA. To be honest, I will probably expose half a roll of each at the original setting and then half at the modified setting. It will be good to see the difference, the deterioration and the grain quality. I have a number of old 35mm cameras still to test, so these rolls will be a welcome opportunity to test and experiment, and you don’t often get the opportunity to do this, so I’m going to make the most of it and have some fun.
I’ll let you know how it goes 🤞
We were the pioneers. We started the fire…ish
What podcasts are you listening to?
Back in the day we used to listen to pirate radio stations, in fact I even ran my own one at one point in around 1977, I wasn’t even a teenager. My brother had the gear but I had the idea, I would just talk to friends, chat, be stupid and say silly things, we weren’t hurting anyone but we were breaking the law.
We were rebels.
Fast forward to 2025 and people are doing exactly the same but now it’s legal, anyone can do it and that’s where I lose interest. They call them podcasts.
I really can say I’ve been there before, done it, got the tee shirt and been a pioneer in the podcast world.
I did get caught broadcasting back in the mid 80s when we had a setup on a large tower block in the Garston area of Watford. Just a slap on the wrist though as we were just all youngsters experimenting with radio.
But the straight answer is, no I don’t listen to podcasts, after all these years I still remain committed to good old fashioned radio programming.
I’m just an old fart I guess.
Have a super day.
A sympathetic restoration of a 70s classic camera.
This is a Canon AE1 that was produced around May 1977. I know this because of the date code within the spool area where the film sits. Seeing these units were produced between 1976 – 1984 this particular unit is quite an early one. It is currently 48 years old and looking very good.
This camera is part of a batch of cameras recently received from a good friend of mine Jon, who has been in the photography business for more years than he cares to remember… it’s a big number and that’s all I’m saying. I did discuss his very kind donation here: Cameras…i need more!
Surprisingly quite easy. There is a number on most Canon cameras externally, and contrary to belief this is not the ID number, the id number we require is inside the camera, printed in the film spool bay in a very dark ink. You have to position it in the light to view it properly.
The number can consist of 4 or more digits. In my case the number is R519. If you go to this site by a guy called Bob Atkinson he has a chart here that explains how to source the date of your Canon Camera or lens: Bob Atkins Photography- Date codes
So using Bobs code the letter “R” refers to the year of manufacture and in this case represents 1977 or 2003 (the dates were recycled when they reached the end of the alphabet) seeing this camera’s production run was between 1976 – 1984, “R” in this case represents 1977. The next two digits represent the month of manufacture, and occasionally in months 1-9 the preceding zero was omitted. In my case considering the number 51 does not represent a Month, the zero was omitted in my case therefore making the month of manufacture “05” hence month 5 – May. So this unit was more than likely produced in May 1977. Occasionally there would be a final letter such as an “F” that would represent the factory it was made in. “F “ would have been the factory in Fukushima. See, that’s how I dated this unit. Check Bob’s site out and date your Canon equipment.
Anyway, here’s a little history about this superb little camera:
The Canon AE-1 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) film camera for use with interchangeable lenses, manufactured by Canon Camera K. K. (today Canon Incorporated) in Japan from April 1976 to 1984. It uses an electromagnetically controlled, horizontal cloth focal plane shutter, with a speed range of 2 to 1/1000 second plus Bulb and flashX-sync of 1/60 second. The camera body is 87 mm tall, 141 mm wide, and 48 mm deep; it weighs 590 g. Most are silver, with black grip and chrome trim, but some are black with chrome trim.
Its name refers to the fact that it is an electronic camera using aperture control for automatic exposure. The AE-1 is the first SLR containing a digital integrated circuit, which allowed Canon to integrate more functionality while making the camera smaller. Both the digitally-controlled automatic exposure and the small size helped to make the camera a success: backed by a major advertising campaign, the AE-1 sold over 5.7 million units, which made it an unprecedented success in the SLR market.
Wikipedia
So there is a lot of them about, but it’s rarer now to find one in a good condition. I think I have one that is in a good condition, has very slight signs of ageing (Patina) and shouldn’t take too much effort to get it working again.
Let’s have a closer look at my inherited camera.
It’s been in storage within a foam lined metal box for a few years and this appears to have assisted in maintaining its overall good quality. There are a few slight signs of wear that are present as you would expect with a camera that has been well used but cared for, but there are no major dinks or signs of bits being broken. It has been loved.
Looking at the shell all the buttons are doing what they should, it’s a bit dusty and grubby and looking through the viewfinder you can see a lot of dust in the view, but I believe this is just dust on the mirror, or at least I hope so.
The camera has attached to it a Canon power winder “A” and this does not work, it has serious corrosion that I suspect that has gone behind the contacts and will need dismantling, cleaning and rebuilding. I will cover this activity in a separate post, whilst this one covers the camera and is a separate activity.
Anyway back to the camera. The wind lever seems to be locked, it can’t be cocked. The shutter doesn’t fire but there does seem to be movement in the exposure meter in the viewfinder but it seems erratic, not quite as it should be. I have a feeling and in fact I’m quite confident it is an electrical issue, as with the Canon A1, a bad power source would render the entire camera useless.
With my suspicions about the electrical element on this camera the first thing I did was to do a battery check in the camera. This camera has one cell in it, mounted on the front face just to the right hand side of the lens in a small chamber. It is a 6v lithium battery. I suspect this one has been in place many years.
To check the battery power you look through the viewfinder at the light meter to the right of your field of view and depress the little black button on the top left of the viewfinder on top of the camera.
As you can see above, when you push the little battery check button the needle on the exposure meter moves. It may settle, it may move about, but the battery should be indicating below the 5.6 level to prove it has life, this battery is indicating dead. Let’s confirm that on an external battery checker for confirmation.
And I think that confirms things for us that this old battery is dead. Fortunately I have plenty of replacements available so I just put a new one in to see what happens.
The new battery is in place and now you can see the indication has dipped well below 5.6 indicating a healthy battery supply. I push the shutter button and it fires perfectly. Power has been restored.
The lens on this camera is pretty much the stock issue FD 50mm. I have removed it and exposed it to high lighting levels to see if there are any imperfections and I’m pleased to say there are none. No Mould or fungus build up, I must admit my friend who passed this on to me has stored it perfectly. Apart from a little dust build up, I was able to use a lens cloth on both the lens and mirror and the issue was sorted in minutes, not that it was ever an issue really.
I’ve used a dummy film and the carriage works fine, the lens apertures all react smoothly, and the shutter speed’s respond as they should. There is no shutter scream or lag, and everything seems just right. After spending a good few hours going through the instruction manual and checking all its functions I am happy it is doing just what it should. It is very rare to find such a good condition of camera that requires very little maintenance. It’s a credit to the previous owner.
This is a sympathetic restoration. I’m leaving it looking as it is. I’m not fixing something that isn’t broken, and I will attend to it with lubrication and maintenance as and when it is needed. I will very soon run a roll of film through and see just what comes back as a result. I have a number of films here that are now 20 years out of date so there could be some interesting results.
The camera has cleaned up beautifully after a good deep clean and polish. I have a superb little example of a well loved and well used retro superstar of the late 70s. In perfect working order and ready once again to be used for what it was designed for. Taking great photographs.
As stated I’m going to run a film through and I will post the results on here whenever I get the time to do so. See the test results here: 20yr old Kodak Gold
My plan is to have this displayed in a case in my workroom alongside my Canon A1 when I have completed its repair. I took up photography in the period of time that these cameras were produced, and they hold great memories and sentimentality for me. They come from a time when cameras had style and innovation, before they all started to look the same, quality and style, it’s what’s missing today.
For someone like me that loves old cameras, I think these are superb and will always hold a place in my heart.
Thank you for passing by, it’s always very much appreciated.
Give me a radio any day. But I’m a sucker for useless information
How do you manage screen time for yourself?
To be quite honest, in this activity, despite all my good intentions, my management of screen time is sadly, quite poor.
I’ve probably mentioned many times in the past that I do not watch a great deal of television. The occasional football game, the news and maybe a documentary or two is about all I care to watch, in total hourly intake, it’s probably no more than a few hours a week. I have always been more of a radio person, I’d sooner have a radio on as a background accompaniment, I’m an audiophile before being a videophile that’s for true.
But, my downfall is a thirst for knowledge, or useless information, which ever way you look at it. This little box of tricks that masquerades as a telephone, currently in my mits, being frantically typed into with squinted vision is my downfall.
I do a lot of research for a number of reasons, study, hobbies etc, but I’m easily distracted, too easily distracted in many cases. If something funny or humorous pops up, I’m hooked like a big game fish on a long line, and I’m fighting all the way.
The whole social media thing doesn’t really get me excited in any way, apart from WordPress maybe, or an occasional foray into YouTube, I really don’t do the social media thing. Why’s that? You ask, it’s bloody toxic I tell ya, and to be honest I can find enough drama within my own family structure without getting involved in anyone else’s, and to be truthful, blatant nastiness just isn’t my thing. I like to think I operate at a much higher level of respect and kindness than what I witness in those turgid cesspools of nastiness.
We’ve tried all kinds of house hold bans on the phones such as banning them from the bedroom, these work for a while and then they gradually start to creep back in again so we simply just give up.
I guess like it or not it’s here to stay and we have all become totally engrossed with the modern technology readily available in our pockets.
I don’t think, as I suspect is the case with a lot of people, that we manage screen time well at all. It seems to me that screen time is managing us, and we’re all in just a little too deep to be able to come up for air.
If you want control it then you need to take control of it, and be stubborn and harsh and direct, with firm actions to control it. Once you’re hooked though, it’s goodnight Vienna, no amount of stubbornness is going to help you back up.
And on that note, have a wonderful day. (Whilst reading this on your phone, tablet or whatever – see, you’re already fighting a losing battle)
Foxes Den 
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