An outdated Samsung thinking everything is just fine
Today, Apple released a software update for my iPhone 6, which came out in September of 2014. That means this latest software update is for a phone that came out 100 months ago.
I also pulled out my Samsung Galaxy S7 to see if it had a software update. Nope. It stopped getting software updates in January of 2021. That means it only got software updates for 57 months — about half as long as the iPhone.
Sounds like a good reason to avoid Samsung phones.
I received another check in the mail from Facebook for violating my privacy. I think this is the third check.
Itʼs been said that Facebook makes $20 per month (or is it year?) from each user. Based on the number of months I was a user, and the total amount of the checks I've gotten from Facebook, it lost a bundle on me.
I was in a little French bakery this afternoon having lunch, and a woman came in for coffee. For herself, and for her baby!
She ordered a flat white for herself, and a “baby-chino” for her kid. The girl behind the counter didnʼt know what it was, so she explained that itʼs half warm milk, and half espresso, with a dusting of chocolate on top, and that it should be put in the baby bottle that the woman brought with her.
I was done with my quiche and left before the drink was made, but I saw the kid in the pram, and it was totally a baby. Like diapers and bottle and teething ring and everything.
Iʼve changed a few hundred diapers and mixed up many gallons of formula in my time, but I must be completely out of touch when it comes to modern parenting.
If a supermarket comes out with a new flavor of ice cream named after the sportsball club that plays a few blocks away, Iʼm required to eat it, right?
It turns out this is a quality product. Very pronounced flavor. And in what may be a first for store-brand anything, I think it might actually have too much going on inside.
Real estate developers are always talking about how their properties should be put to their “highest and best” use. And yet, they keep ending up as strip malls and parking lots, instead of homeless shelters, community gardens, and elementary schools.
We went to an ancient Mayan archaeological site called San Gervasio. Hereʼs the basics, as told by our tour guide:
Everything was wonderful in Mexico until the Spanish arrived.
The Mayans used to have a vast city here.
The city was so vast it needed roads that were in perfect alignment with the moon.
Women were only allowed to come to the island and its city when they had their periods.
Everything was wonderful in Mexico until the Spanish arrived.
something something mumble mumble
A treasure hunter bought this site from the Mexican government when it was too busy fighting a civil war to care about treasure hunters buying historic sites.
The treasure hunterʼs tool of choice was dynamite, and he blew all of the historic buildings to pieces looking for gold he never found.
Some of the chips from the dynamite explosions ended up on the tour guideʼs shoulder.
Everything was wonderful in Mexico until the Spanish arrived.
Scenes from Gabe and Gabrielleʼs ranch, where the food is good, the jewelry is cheap, the chocolate is expensive, and you can get pretty much any pharmaceutical you want with no prescription and no questions asked. But good luck getting it home.
Is it possible to run a beach resort with no electricity except car batteries, and credit card processing over a long-distance radio link with a yagi antenna?
Yep. It's called Lookout Beach, on the east coast of Cozumel.
Alcohol, sun, wind, and isolation. It would be paradise if the beach wasn't so terrible. There's a nice white strip of sand, but the part by the water is nothing but foot-shredding coral.
It also seems to get the worst of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. But otherwise, once you convince the touts you don't want any trinkets, it can be relaxing.
You know how mid-tier cities desperate for attention create little signs or murals or plazas just so that people will take photographs of themselves and post them to social media and give the city free publicity? Carnival wins this game.
At Carnivalʼs cruise port in Cozumel, Mexico there is a small white sand beach. It is conveniently located right at the end of the pier that the tourists use to get off the ships.
It has a perfect little row of perfect little palm trees and perfect sand in front of perfect blue water, and the perfectly massive profiles of Carnivalʼs cruise ships in the background.
Thousands of people take pictures there each year and post them online without realizing that itʼs a marketing campaign. The stealth equivalent of those giant photo frame props that second-rate cities place around town to let the vanity-afflicted know exactly where to stand in order to get the perfect picture of themselves for social media.
Carnival deserves a big fat “good on you” for doing a great job with this guerrilla marketing technique, and pulling it off at industrial scale. It couldnʼt have been cheap to execute, and certainly demonstrates extensive vision and cooperation between departments within the company.
On a boat, off the coast of the Cayman Islands, there is a sign reading “Maximum passenger: 250.” Next to it is another sign reading “72 adultʼs life jackets.” I can go three ways with this:
Since “Adultʼs” is possessive, who are the 72 people who reserved a life jacket in advance?
In the event of an emergency, the shipping company is OK with losing 178 passengers to sharks.
Since there are no life jackets for children, in the event of an emergency, it appears weʼre supposed to use them to distract the sharks.
I donʼt know what building this is, but I like the way it looks. It feels like a slice of Caribbean history during a more interesting age.
I suspect the building is actually a historic landmark, because Falmouth puts up maps that look like theyʼre from pirate days next to its historic buildings. But this building has no sign telling you what it is.
I managed to find the Jamaica Post office in Falmouth, Jamaica. But by the time I got there, Iʼd already given all of my Jamaican dollars to touts hawking magnets and carved wooden figures. So much for reviving my stamp collection.
Naming buildings after commercial products is nothing new. New York has the Chrysler Building. Chicago has the Wrigley Building. And Falmouth, Jamaica has… the Huggies Building.
Someone should open a spa there so customers can be pampered at Huggies.
At one of the entrances to Cruise Port Falmouth there is a series of signs telling the history of Falmouth. I donʼt think anyone ever reads them. The small fraction of people who leave port on their own and find their way back through this gate are too tired, hungry, and sunburned to care much about history.
I took photographs of some of them, and I leave these here in the name of posterity so that maybe someday someone will read on the internet what they didnʼt read in real life.
Sadly, the URLs printed on the big signs donʼt work. This is a good example of why you never print web addresses on anything thatʼs expected to last longer than a leaflet.
FROM BRITISH COLONY TO INDEPENDENCE
JAMAICAʼS QUEST FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT BEGAN IN EARNEST WITH NORMAN W. MANLEY ESTABLISHING THE PEOPLEʼS NATIONAL PARTY IN 1938 AND ALEXANDER BUSTAMENTE FOUNDING THE JAMAICA LABOUR PARTY IN 1943. A NEW CONSTITUTION IN 1944 ESTABLISHED A HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, POPULARLY ELECTED, TO SHARE POWER WITH THE GOVERNOR. IN 1957. JAMAICA BECAME FULLY SELFGOVERNED. ALL INTERNAL AFFAIRS HANDLED BY AN EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, AND LED BY A PREMIER. THE FOLLOWING YEAR, 1958, JAMAICA JOINED THE WEST INDIES FEDERATION, WHICH INCLUDED ALL OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS IN THE CARIBBEAN, WHICH DID NOT LAST LONG. DISBANDING IN MAY 1962. JAMAICA REQUESTED, AND WAS GRANTED, INDEPENDENCE FROM ENGLAND, EFFECTIVE AUGUST 6, 1962.
JAMAICAN MAROONS
JAMAICAʼS MOUNTAINOUS CENTER HAS ALWAYS BEEN A DIFFICULT REGION TO TRAVEL THROUGH, CONTROL, OR REGULATE. SINCE THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF 1655, THE MOUNTAINS OFFERED REFUGE TO RUNAWAY SLAVES OR MAROONS, WHO WERE ABLE TO ESTABLISH STABLE COMMUNITIES IN REGIONS THE ENGLISH CONSIDERED IMPENETRABLE. THE MAROONS ENGAGED THE ENGLISH MILITIA IN OPEN WARFARE ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE FIRST IN THE 1730S, WHICH SAW MAROON COMMUNITIES SHIFT FROM THE EASTERN MOUNTAINS TO THE COCKPIT COUNTRY IN THE WEST. THE ENGLISH OFFERED THE MAROONS A TREATY IN 1739 THAT GAVE LIBERTY AND QUALIFIED AUTONOMY IN THEIR REGION. SKIRMISHES BETWEEN THE ENGLISH MILITIA AND MAROON COMMUNITIES IN TRELAWNY REIGNITED IN THE 1790S, RESULTING IN A MASS DEPORTATION OF MAROONS TO NOVA SCOTIA.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
THE HISTORY OF FALMOUTH IS WELL PRESERVED THROUGH THE HIGH DENSITY OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS THAT REMAIN IN TOWN. FROM LARGE MERCHANT STORE/HOUSES TO SMALL, BOARD HOUSES, CHURCHES, SHOPS. THE COURTHOUSE, AND FORT BALCARRES. RESIDENTS OF FALMOUTH CONTINUE TO LIVE, WORK, WORSHIP, AND SOCIALIZE IN HISTORIC BUILDINGS. FALMOUTH HERITAGE RENEWAL (FHR) HAS AN APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM THAT TRAINS JAMAICANS IN HISTORIC MASONRY AND CARPENTRY SKILLS: THEIR WORK CAN BE IDENTIFIED ALL OVER TOWN. THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA (UVA) RUNS A PROGRAM IN FALMOUTH TRAINING STUDENTS TO MEASURE AND MAKE ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS. FALMOUTH EXEMPLIFIES THE BEST OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION BY OFFERING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATION IN A DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT. TO MAKE A DONATION TO FHR, PLEASE VISIT WWW.FALMOUTHJAMAICA.ORG/. TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT UVAʼS FALMOUTH FIELD SCHOOL IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLEASE VISIT -
WWW.ARCH.VIRGINIA.EDU/FALMOUTH/SITE/HOME.HTML
JOHN THARP
AN EXTREMELY WEALTHY PLANTER, JOHN THARPE CONSTRUCTED A PRIVATE WHARF IN FALMOUTH HARBOUR TO MANAGE SUGAR EXPORTS AND MATERIAL AND SLAVE IMPORTS FOR HIS PLANTATION EMPIRE AT GOOD HOPE, A FEW MILES SOUTH OF FALMOUTH ON THE MARTHA BRAE RIVER. LIKE MANY WEALTHY SUGAR PLANTERS IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THARP TRIED TO MANAGE HIS PROPERTIES WHILE LIVING IN ENGLAND; UNLIKE MOST, THARP RETURNED TO JAMAICA PERMANENTLY IN THE 1790S TO MANAGE HIS PROPERTIES IN PERSON. AFTER HIS RETURN, THARP WAS ACTIVE IN LOCAL AND PARISH POLITICS AND WAS A SIGNIFICANT BENEFACTOR TO ST. PETERʼS ANGLICAN CHURCH.
HISTORY OF FALMOUTH
ORIGINALLY FOUNDED IN 1769. FALMOUTH GREW THROUGH THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO BE THE MAJOR PORT AND THE SEAT FOR THE PARISH OF TRELAWNY, ONE OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE SUGAR PARISHES IN JAMAICA. HISTORICALLY DOMINATED BY MERCHANTS AND TRADERS, FALMOUTH WAS IMPORTANT IN JAMAICAN SLAVESʼ STRUGGLE FOR EMANCIPATION. FALMOUTH HAS REMAINED A COMMERCIAL CENTER IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES, THE SITE OF A WEEKLY MARKET THAT DRAWS SHOPPERS AND VENDORS FROM SURROUNDING AREAS. THE REMARKABLE DENSITY OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS REMAINING IN FALMOUTH, MANY OF WHICH LOCAL RESIDENTS HAVE LIVED IN AND MAINTAINED, IS A TESTIMONY TO THE TOWNʼS RICH HERITAGE.
HISTORY OF JAMAICA
ORIGINALLY INHABITED BY THE TAINOS, THE SPANISH WERE THE FIRST EUROPEANS TO SETTLE IN JAMAICA, UNTIL THEY WERE SUPPLANTED BY THE ENGLISH IN 1655. BY THE START OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, SUGAR CULTIVATION HAD BECAME JAMAICAʼS PRIMARY INDUSTRY AND EXPORT, RESULTING IN THE IMPORTATION OF MANY THOUSANDS OF AFRICANS TO WORK IN THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS. JAMAICAʼS SLAVES WON EMANCIPATION IN 1834, ALTHOUGH PEOPLE WERE NOT FULLY FREE UNTIL THE END OF THE APPRENTICESHIP PERIOD IN 1838. A COLONY OF BRITAIN UNTIL 1962, JAMAICA HAS SINCE OPERATED AS AN INDEPENDENT NATION, ITS GOVERNMENT CENTERED IN KINGSTON ON THE SOUTH COAST.
ARRIVAL OF COLUMBUSʼ FIRST SHIP
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FIRST LANDED ON THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA DURING HIS SECOND VOYAGE, ON MAY 5, 1494. AS HE SAILED INTO THE HARBOUR OF ST. ANNʼS BAY, ON THE NORTHERN COAST, A FLEET OF ABOUT SEVENTY CANOES, FILLED WITH TAINOS, CAME OUT TO MEET HIM. IN JULY 1494, AFTER EXPLORING PRESENT-DAY CUBA, COLUMBUS SAILED AROUND JAMAICAʼS SOUTHERN COAST. COLUMBUS RETURNED TO JAMAICA DURING HIS FOURTH VOYAGE IN 1503, WHERE HE SPENT ALMOST A YEAR WAITING ON SHIP REPAIRS FROM SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA. STRANDED NEAR WHAT WOULD BECOME THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW SEVILLE IN ST. ANNʼS PARISH, COLUMBUS AND HIS CREW RELIED ON THE TAINOS FOR PROVISIONS.
I like to take pictures of generic street scenes when I travel. When I look back at the pictures later, they very often help me remember a place more vividly than a photograph that's focused on a monument or a building or a bird.
Blurry photographs of Falmouth, Jamaica
However, it appears that I'm not all that interested in cleaning my lens before I take pictures. Most of my Falmouth photos were ruined by a smear of sunscreen on the lens.
Didn't anyone ever tell you to make sure your optics are clean?
This is the pedestrian exit from Cruise Port Falmouth to the actual town of Falmouth. Thereʼs a security guard to keep the town touts out of the port, which is private property. There are also a couple of police officers milling about.
A big, fat Texan waddles up to the very young 85-pound Jamaican security guard asking whatʼs on the other side of the fence. She tells him itʼs the town of Falmouth, with shops, and bars and restaurants.
In his slow, southern drawl laden with Texas twang he loudly inquires, “Is it safe?” I didnʼt hear her response, but he turned around and flip-flopped back into the warm bosom Royal Caribbeanʼs simulated suburban sanctuary.
I guess Falmouth is safe enough for an 85-pound girl to live in, but not safe enough for a 300-pound Texan to visit.
I can imagine him back in the bar on the ship talking up a storm about what a tough guy he is, and how proud he is of his three-quarter ton truck and hunting dog, and how he won the high school football championship in West Farkwad back in ʼ89.
I liked Texas better back when I was the only one who was all hat and no cattle.
Falmouth Cruise Port is a Disney-esque retail promenade of crisp Georgian-style mercantile buildings, fully licensed and insured street performers, and clean bathrooms.
As is often the case, the area just beyond the tourist zone is less like a theme park, and more like the real world.
What do you do when you need to use both hands for something, but you really donʼt want to put down your drink? You put it on your head, and then go about your business like itʼs no big deal.
You can tell that the towns of Jamaica were built by Europeans, because they let people park right up against important buildings.
Itʼs something Iʼve noticed in European nations from Britain to Italy to Austria. In America, we like to surround our important buildings with ceremonial lawns and other buffers. Unless youʼre royalty, that doesnʼt seem to happen in the European cultures Iʼve seen so far.
The Caribbean Sea sure does know how to put on a sunrise. I donʼt think Iʼve seen a bad one since I got on this boat… er… ship.
I presume that it has to do with the vastness of the horizon. Sunrises are always better with clouds to add interest. And with so many miles between an observer and the horizon, there chances of there being weather between are increased.
Thatʼs part of the reason that great sunrises and sunsets in the desert arenʼt all that common. Less weather to add color and visual interest.
It also helps that my Hasselblad has a “Sunset mode” that works equally well on sunrises.
I woke up early enough today to catch the moon before it set. When I lived in Las Vegas, I used to look for the moon almost every night. Sometimes Iʼd stare at it in the driveway. Sometimes it would shine in my bedroom window so brightly, Iʼd wake up.
In cowboy books, the characters are always doing things outside by the light of the moon. I never understood that until I lived in the desert. Without the clouds and humidity, the moon shines so brightly that, yes, doing things by moonlight is perfectly reasonable. Especially when youʼre far enough removed from light pollution to adjust to the moonʼs luminance.
I havenʼt seen the moon since I moved to Houston because Iʼm surrounded by buildings at night. I think people lose something when they canʼt be connected to something as basic as the moon. I know I feel like Iʼve lost something.
When I would visit the battleship Texas, it always seemed massive. So seeing it in dry dock, dwarfed by a couple of offshore oil platforms messes with my sense of scale.
