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Niclas Thorsteinsson - Musician/Writer

Saying Goodbye to My Smartphone

The Nokia 216 - Phone of the future.

The Nokia 216

Saying goodbye to my smartphone.

And now for a bit of phone minimalism. My trusty readers (and that means positively no one) know that I have a penchant for lifehacking from time to time. This time I decided to ditch my Samsung S7 smartphone for a dirt cheap Nokia.

As a family man with three kids (one teenager with autism, a toddler and a 3-month old) it’s all about gaining a bit of time, something which has rapidly become a priceless commodity in my life. Also, I’m fed up with getting lost reading pointless facebook arguments, forgotten in a week, and why is it that about half of my facebook “friends” feel compelled to photograph and post every sunrise or sunset they see?

Enter the Nokia 216. I’ve tried it out for a few days and it seems well suited for me. Obviously, it does phone calls better than any smartphone (dedicated buttons, baby) and I’m not much of a text guy so that’s fine. The phone does have facebook and twitter apps, but they’re very limited, courtesy of the slow internet connection. Also, there are no notifications and the (non-touch) screen is tiny, so I’m only tempted to use those functions if I truly need to communicate on those particular platforms… and that need has not occurred yet.

Other good stuff. Battery life. The thing has been running for days and I haven’t charged it yet. Also, it has the option to add a micro sd card so I did and loaded it up with some Jethro Tull and audiobooks. Hello comfortable long walks (which I still don’t have time for, but let me dream, will you?). Also, I tried streaming some audio to my bluetooth speaker (yes, this dirt cheap thing has bluetooth) and was amazed to hear that the connection is even better and more steady than from my Samsung S7.

The only feature I might miss is a good camera, but I do have a nice DSLR at the ready for those Kodak moments. Also, with everyone documenting everything these days, there isn’t that much point in me doing the same. Ever get lost in the 10.000+ digital photos you’ve managed to amass throughout your lifetime? Yeah, me too. Perhaps some automatization software would be in order? Yep, there’s another idea which I won’t pursue and which someone probably is working on as we speak. Anyway, it seems I’ve managed to convince my minimalist self that a basic phone is the way to go for me. I’ll try to remember to report back in two months or so.

Reverends Tidbit the Unwholesome

 

The Reverends are acting up again. After some members in our band have had personal problems to deal with, we’re sort of back on track, meeting every Wednesday evening for songwriting and jamming. Good fun. The first confirmed concert will be on july 6th at Maggies in Nólsoy. Jolly good. Around 4-5 more dates are on their way. Yup, we got the band back together again.

Twilight Struggle

I had my Twilight Struggle baptism yesterday. Just a beautiful game. I’ve had it for years and have made countless appointments to play, but something else always came up. Anyway, love how the creators (for this is how they shall be known from here on after into eternity, blessed be) balanced the game. Historical events are well blended into the gameplay. Good stuff. Go play.

 

New Reverends single forthcoming.

Hello.

Apparently, I made another baby! Meet Wolverine!

Alright, I might not get that name past the missus. The debate is ongoing.

Edit: You’re looking at Viljam Thorsteinsson. :)

New song: Sometimes I Wish

Check it out:

Waiting

In two months time, our third child will be born. We’re waiting in a nearly deserted wing on the third floor of the largest hospital on the Faroe Islands. The midwives’ union (at least, I think it’s a proper union) is pissed off at the hospital management for allowing the nurses to run the maternity ward post birth. The midwives are not allowed to strike so a more than half of them have been taken with sudden illness and stress and are not showing up for work. Anyway, this does not bode well and there have been some horror stories where would-be fathers have had to assist with technical issues because the substitutes couldn’t figure out how to use the equipment. Not exactly the most reassuring of situations, but Annvør, who is due to give birth on October 10th is taking it in strides. I’m always amazed at how tough and resilient she is.

It turns out they had mixed up the appointments and a woman who arrived some time ago is severely pissed because she has to wait 20 minutes past her appointment time. Her being pissed of course accomplishes a great deal and makes everyone feel great and makes everything run smoother. Yey!

New video – The Reverends

Talented YouTuber Lucas Azar made us this very nice video of our song ‘Demolition’ from our first album. Check it out.

The Reverends – Ride On

A track from our first album.

German Commodore 64 magazines.

Random Commodore 64 Memory

Ah, the ’80! I remember purchasing these (mostly german) Commodore 64 magazines, with pages and pages of code which I would then spend the better part of a day typing into my brother’s C-64 in order to play some mediocre game. And more often than not, I would make some typing error (Hey, I was a kid!) and would have to perform manual linting for the next few hours. Games were hard to come by in those days. Good times. Good times.

The SID chip made everything worth it, though.

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