I have posted previously about my dislike for technology at times.
Well, the tables appear to have turned.
So, several days back my phone's battery was discharging at an alarming rate.
It started about six days ago.
First, I had to charge the phone twice in one day. This is extremely rare. Usually I am doing heavy-duty searching, reading news articles, and looking at some youtube videos.
This was not the case though.
The next day I had to charge my phone three times. Usage was actually quite low though. I went in to my settings and force stopped a bunch of stuff I was not actually using. I even shut down twitter. I have come across articles and bitching about it using a lot of juice of late.
No change. And, it was getting worse. I was getting only four or five hours by day three.
Then I physically disconnected the battery. It was a little better. Sort of. The first discharge took eight hours, but then everything went back to sucking all the juice in a few hours. I did try it again, and no real change.
Then I went in to my running services and hit stop on "google services". It got a bit better, but not much. I tried it again and a little better, but not much more.
Then. Then! Two days ago, it seemed the rapid discharging just stopped.
I went through that whole day with normal battery usage. I did not even put it on the charger overnight. About ten percent battery drain overnight. Well, the first two nights of this odyssey, the battery drained until the phone died. The first night I had around forty percent battery life left and it was dead in the morning. The second night it was sixty percent and it died before dawn.
After that, I left it charging. Only on Sunday night, two days ago, did it not discharge overnight while off the charger.
Yesterday, I had a meeting in the evening and wanted my phone to check my calendar and to be able to search if necessary. So, I charged it. I went down about six percent and I left it off the charger when I went to bed. Less than four percent discharge.
I toodled around this morning and it only went down a couple of percent. I was out all day, doing my regular thing and it went down only about twenty percent. Less, I think.
When I got home, I had about seventy percent charge and I started twitter up again and did some farting around. Right now. As in now! The phone is at forty-nine percent. Not sure if it is twitter or all the crap I have been doing on it.
I am monitoring it right now, but the first time I disable twitter, the battery still drained for days. I am starting to suspect it is twitter in allegiance with these so-called google services.
I am going to step back from the keyboard for a bit and keep an eye on my phone. But before I do, some theories.
If it is not some weird confluence of twitter and google, I have other theories.
First, even though there is supposed to be a détente between me and the gnomes, they may be playing a part. I am sure I have heard gnome laughter the last few days. That, and a few little things going on that would suggest I am being tested. Now, I am not accusing them. Yet. But I do know they can get bored. Guys: if it is you? Very funny. Can I have my phone's functionality back. Please? Pleeasse?!?!?
Theory number two. I may be getting skynetted. It has already happened once before. By the way, there are at least two companies out there called cyberdyne: this one and this one. This guy even adds another layer or two to the whole thing. Well, at least they should go after him first. It gives me some breathing room. Now, who's crazy? Not me. Well....., not because of this.
Theory three. Replicants. (Hey, do not fall for that reference to them being fictional. As if? Next there will be an entry about cyborgs not being real too.) But I have said too much already. I need to put safeguards in place before I can even get in to anything about these guys. But be forewarned. They are among us and I have circumstantial, very circumstantial, proof, so there.
Distant theory four. Squirrels. I think I need not say any more on this topic. Go through my posts about the Expanding Legion of Evil (ELoE). If anything, they are in collusion with one or more of the above mentioned parties. There is a whole posse hanging out at the back of the property these days. Not just the melantic (I use a really old version of the adjective I picked up from a book titled: The Sea & The Jungle: see!; a great book.) ones, which are more common, but also a full grey, and at least one brown squirrel. And not a chipmunk to be seen; who are known to be allies of my allies at times. Hmmm?!?
That should throw the replicants off my scent for now. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Anyway, before I step back for a bit, the phone is but at forty-eight percent. Time to monitor the situation before I may accidentally tip my hand. (I need to check my resources in the woodland as a fallback position.)
A couple of hours later and now I am at twenty-nine percent. However, I did a bunch of intensive stuff on the phone. There was yet another update for twitter, so I did. We will see if it eats more battery up. I may have to shut it (twitter, not the phone) down for a while. Which is sad, as there a few "twits" I follow that I like to see when they post, not many, and they tend to be infrequent, but I love when they do add to the interweb. I also added one new poster; see if she figures it out, as I suspect she runs her profile really lean.
A couple of more hours and only down by five percent for a whopping twenty-four percent battery life left. Something is certainly funky. Much less drainage in this period.
Normally, I am really quite very good at breaking this kind of ridiculousness and turning the interweb to my advantage. Sadly, or more so, inevitably, it has become much less fun to dismantle software and technology to fix it or bend it to one's will. The interweb is so polluted now, searches that should be quick, easy, and simple, become a death march through junk and false metadata. Hell, it took me ages to figure out how to link to a youtube video at a specific time frame. Partly out of laziness, but really more from despising the overwhelming amounts of shizzle in the ethersphere. And laziness.
So, I will plod along slowly with this, most likely, simple puzzle. I am also moving towards the idea of detechnologising many facets of my life. I do like to blog, and I will find my rhythm and stay online for that. Probably need to get a new computerising device for that as my current Dell Latitude D520 with Windows XP is making motions to retire. Too bad, great notebook. If chromebooks were not so pricey..... However, I do have two portable typewriters. I think I may write for the drawer, as was said behind the iron curtain, for a bit too. I will use the interweb to get some ribbons for those suckers. Oh, and acid free paper..... I wonder if I can find linen paper, like books used to be published with.
I also like being able to communicate in writing from remote locations, but I do not need the tons of apps I currently have. Being able to call too, especially if stranded or broken down without having to walk several kliks is handy.
Tracking my hikes is handy, but I really do not need it, it is just a nice-to-have add-on. Same with GPS; I have plenty of roadmaps and am acquiring more. Just need to finish the American mid-west, Texas and the US West Coast. Plus Mexico. I also know how to read roadsigns.
I must say the phone-camera is nice to have. It saves me from getting a camera-only device. But I want one of the those pocket printers, but that is more for fun stuff, especially with the Scouts. It can be nice to be polaroidesque at times. Worst case, I always wanted to get a fully-manual film-camera. Maybe the wife remembers how to develop film?
Well, obviously, I will be cleansing my phone and seeking some additions to my low-tech arsenal of aids and conveniences.
So, how much later is it now? Oh, about two hours again and the phone is down to six, no, five percent. However, I was dinking around a lot in the settings and other stuff. Not a bad sign actually. A couple of days ago and the phone would have died in a couple of minutes after that.
So, more experimenting. And also to figure out why some apps restart themselves, when they should not be doing that. Oh, the deleting will begin. I am reminding myself as well, that a mobile phone is a tool to be used as necessary, like a pocketknife. It is not a lifestyle.
Wow. I started in on how technology is turning on me. Went on to a bunch of conspiracy theories (or maybe not). What next? Oh yeah, going on about how tech failures and the like was looked upon as a challenge once, but more a burden now. Finally, eschewing technology, at least some of it; mostly post 1999 type-stuff.
If that has not thrown the replicants off my trail, I do not know what will. Have a better one. blbbl
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