Animated Goings On and Smartphone Obsessions: PicsArt Animator

I have become so obsessed with my smartphone as a mini computer that I am getting warning notices from my supplier that I am exceeding "my bundle usage". Truth is, being an old ginner and new to this area of consumption, I don't know what such people are talking about. Except that up to now this sin has only cost me an extra 50p. I blame Tanis (see previous post) for my abused bundle. But I don't care and will continue to download this podcast with devotion.

I have installed an animation app: PicsArt Animator. (Maybe this exhausts my poor little old bundle?) It is fun ... as advertised. Although the animations you produce are watermarked "PicsArt". I tried FlipaClip which is pretty good too. But it also watermarks your animation. So for now I will stay with PicsArt ... it being the devil I know. As an animation app PicsArt Animator seems geared to creating GIFs but it does a lot for its size. Its instructions are cryptic to non-existent, so good luck with that.
(I seem to spend my days battling with cryptic instructions. Of course, this could mean the onset of dementia ... the bugaboo that is driving all of us old ginners into the corner from fear. Hey! Want to exercise your brain? Try mastering a smartphone with no phone-savvy people by your side I say.)



Perhaps I am the only idiot trying to make animations by pawing at their smartphone with fingers like bananas ... but do you know what? I just treat it like a sketchbook. Which is very helpful. AND it has reintroduced me to GIFs. Which I first tried to make in the 1990s...

DOLL:"Well, hello stranger."
GIF: (Blink. Blink.)
DOLL: "I see you are all kitted out as hot stuff now."
GIF: (Blink. Blink.)
DOLL: "Well who would have thunk it."
GIF: (Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink .......)

Discovering Podcasts: The Wierd World of "Rabbits"

I'm a little old lady exploring the smartphone world. Of course I had listened to podcasts before ... on my pc ... but now I am bravely entering the world of podcast apps and podcasts on my phone.

I tried one app which seemed easy to use. But it immediately refused to play my downloads if I wasn't connected to the internet...which didn't seem to be the point. And yes I did look under "settings". So I ditched that app and got another - PodcastAddict - so far so good. It does what it says on the tin: I download episodes and can listen to them anywhere. No more sitting next to my wi-fi box.

And so I've just started listening to "Rabbits"  - a US docudrama podcast produced by PRA. It's narrated by "a journalist investigating the sudden disappearance of a friend" as she becomes aware of that friend's involvement in a sinister, underground and ancient game known as the aforesaid "Rabbits" (think burrows and maybe even Alice, although the last is my idea and may be very wrong!!)

I admit that I can be a bit at sea in "Rabbits", being too old to have dived into gaming which is very much the background to this thriller ... But hey, I used to read William Gibson. I can cope.

Public Radio Alliance likes to describe itself as "creating television for your ears". And that sounds very fine to me. I shall be investigating their other podcast series.

Oh! And I have discovered the joy of falling to sleep to podcasts rather than audible books ... which is ... that when the episode finishes, the broadcast stops. I don't have to trawl backwards through the book to find my falling asleep spot! Though I expect there is an app for that.

How to Listen to Rabbits