Got to work on time, checked e-mails, logged in. Proceeded to handle e-mails, and an occasional phone call, for one hour. By eleven, the e-mail queue was empty.
A few calls an hour, cleaning out my skillset's inbox as they came in; but after about 1 PM, I was sitting at my computer watching YouTube videos, and the person training me was reading her book. I waited to go on lunch until she left for the day at 2:30 (she took half a day off today because holiday weekend and then I spent my hour sitting at my desk, eating a sandwich and...watching YouTube videos and doing crossword puzzles on my phone. Difference between work and lunch: 0.00...0.
Logged back in at 3:30, and--after clearing up a handful of e-mails--did exactly what I did at lunch. My idleness was broken only by four phone calls and perhaps five or six more e-mails. Only one of the phone calls was in my bailiwick; the others got transferred--and the one that was my responsibility to handle was basically to connect Software Engineering with someone who'd put in a ticket. My involvement in those cases is minimal anyway, but they'd all gone home from that location, and it was closed.
I was a bit unhappy that I hadn't thought to bring drawing materials with me. I could have finally added some pages to Megumi's Diary or Chicory, not that they'd look very good--I am woefully out of practice!--but I could have done it.
About 5:30 I realized that there was absolutely no reason in the world that I could not fire up Pandora on my phone and listen to Christmas music, so I did that. The one call I got thereafter was not bothered by it.
One call an hour. One.
Virtually no one else in the office, nothing going on...it was blissfully quiet and relaxing. I'll probably not have another day like that for a long time; I'm glad I enjoyed it.
* * *
No, it is not your imagination. Your older iPhone is running slower. Apple claims it's because as the batteries get older, they lose capacity, and this change is to make the batteries last longer. SUUUUURE it is. And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon.
This is nothing but Apple inserting planned obsolescence into their products in order to force people to buy new phones every other year. They've been doing this at least since the iPhone 3G was released; every time a new model came out--EVERY LAST TIME--there's been a spike in Google searches on "iphone slow".
...because with each new phone there's a new version of iOS, and version upgrades are mandatory (closed ecosystem!) and--I would bet money on this--keyed to model numbers so that performance is deliberately degraded on older hardware.
Because selling hardware is Apple's bread and butter. They make money by selling hardware made in China at a steep markup, but if people keep using their old phones Apple won't sell as many new ones.
This is why I only buy phones with user-replacable batteries. If I can't pull the back off and stick a new battery in the thing, without advanced training and specialized equipment, I don't want it. Apple charges $80 to put a new battery in an iPhone (the battery costs maybe $5 in bulk; the rest is labor) and you run a very real risk of destroying your phone if you try to do it yourself.
To hell with Apple.
* * *
I disagree with one point here. Joseph was a working man, a carpenter, but I don't think he was poor. Jesus, after all, was educated--besides his native Aramaic he knew Latin and Greek, two languages which were essential to any scholar, and at that time no one could be considered educated before he learned them. It would go without saying that he'd also be able to read and write, something not common then. And there was no socialized education; if you wanted your kids to learn things you had to pay someone to teach them to him, particularly if you did not know them.
(Just looking at the history, here, the society they lived in, without the religion angle.)
Why--more importantly, how--would a poor man afford such a luxury for a child in his care, a child (by any estimation of the laws of the day) that was effectively his son? And besides that, as a Jew, Jesus would also have known Hebrew. His command of the scriptures was encyclopedic, of course. Knowing Hebrew was part and parcel of him being a Jew, of course, as well.
I would think that if Jesus had just known these languages etc it would be remarked upon in the gospels, as was the "water into wine" story. But what the hell do I know?
* * *
I was going to write more here, but Mrs. Fungus wanted to watch Gremlins, so that's what I ended up doing.
Still have a couple minor things to do tomorrow. I'd better hit the hay.