Ambition

Rather than hobbling off early this morning to do any shopping, after rising at 6 a.m. I decided to set up our new R69 Plus Android 14 TV Box.

I had to give up around 8:30 a.m. when my younger brother emerged from his bedroom and came downstairs to watch T.V. news.

What stalled me the most was that I had discovered that in trying to sign in to Google Playstore, I needed to provide a security code that they were sending to my cellphone. But the code did not arrive ─ no notification arrived of any text messages.

Two days ago my youngest stepson supposedly set me up with Telus, freeing me from Rogers Wireless's gouging. I was going to keep my old cellphone number because I had been using it for 26 or even 28 years, and it is the cellphone number registered with more accounts than I can even begin to think of.

Well, this morning I discovered that Telus had assigned me a new bloody cellphone number! That was why no text message arrived from Google.

Since the wireless carrier change occurred two days ago, I can only hope that my original cellphone number is not lost to me because of 'bad grapes' on the part of Rogers. I was not involved in setting up the carrier change, so my stepson is going to have to deal with this, but it is now 3:08 p.m. and he has still not gotten up from bed.

As for the Android TV Box setup, I can do nothing during the daytime because once Bev gets up in the early afternoon, she watches T.V. all day until she goes to bed at night. I cannot do a thing until early tomorrow morning.

And now my stepson has come to the rescue (3:38 p.m.) ─ he retreated to his den area with my cellphone, promising he was going to straighten out this mess.

When my brother and I tried watching T.V. via the R69 Plus Android 14 TV Box, it doesn't yet have any streaming apps, so streaming was not an option. Even the YouTube app insists on the user first logging in, despite having an option to watch videos as a guest ─ it seems that this option is a lie.

So I inserted a USB stick and tried playing a couple of downloaded videos using the only media player offered among the apps already installed, but the volume was ridiculously garbled. This led me to eventually get an MX Player downloaded and installed via the only browser app (Chrome); and the MX Player reproduced sound perfectly, so something must be amiss with the VLC Player.

I am considering just not bothering logging in to Google and putting third-party apps I will start to download at risk of disappearing because of Google's need to police these devices.

If I have no apps on the device requiring my credentials, then if I happen to have malware in a future app download, it can't do me any personal harm, can it? The T.V. isn't 'smart' ─ it's 18 years old. It's just a T.V. ─ no connection with Google or Alexa or anything like that.

So I'm looking into maybe trying that out.

Anyway, the first video I played was the documentary Paragraph 175. Unfortunately, it started off with Germans telling their woes, and my brother is mentally challenged when it comes to dealing with ongoing subtitle reading. I had no idea if the documentary was all foreign-language or not, so I had to tune out.

If you read the Wikipedia description to the documentary and have any interest in watching it for yourself, my source was published March 28, 2024, to BitChute's Taurusman channel: Paragraph 175.

The next video on the thumb drive was Peep Show ─ episode four ("Sistering") of season or series three. I am doubtful, but possibly my source was this May 18, 2025, upload to YouTube's Absolute Jokes channel: Peep Show | ''Sistering'' | FULL EPISODE | Series 3, Episode 4.

The final video was published November 13, 2023, to Rumble's Classic Films & Movies Archive channel: Perversion for Profit. 

The video titled "Perversion for Profit," made in 1964-1965, talks about concerns regarding the rise of explicit content in magazines and its potential impact on society. The film suggests that such material may be found in local places like newsstands, malt shops, or drugstores. It uses humor to discuss the perceived decline in cultural values and warns people to be cautious about pornography. The images are often censored with black bars, and the film emphasizes the negative effects of explicit content on children. It mentions the availability of obscene material due to modern technology and expresses concerns about its influence on youth, leading them towards various sexual activities. The video suggests a link between explicit material and moral decay, as well as vulnerability to communism. It discusses nudist magazines and attributes a crime to the influence of such material. The film advocates for community action, encouraging people to contact merchants, write letters, and report objectionable materials to the police, emphasizing the law as a tool. The video concludes with a plea for deliverance from what it perceives as evil in society.

This was certainly a rather quaint feature indeed! However, with maybe 10 minutes to go, my grumpy brother announced that he had seen enough and he headed on back to his bedroom for further bed rest ─ it was maybe 11:15 a.m.

I think I was to bed for my nap ahead of noon.

By the way, my wife had a full workday today at the Thai restaurant where she is employed part-time, and so she emerged from her bedroom perhaps around 9:40 a.m. and after showering was away on her fairly long drive soon past 10 a.m.

I never exercised in her vacant bedroom this afternoon because of needing to be accessible to my stepson. He finally returned my cellphone fairly near to 5:20 p.m., saying that the issue seems resolved. Telus suggests that Rogers may be interfering with the full account transfer. They further said that not too much can be accomplished in this regard on the weekend, so I guess there will be further movement on Monday. For now, I do seem to have proper text and phone number access.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow morning when I get back to mucking around with the R69 Plus Android 14 TV Box setup at the T.V. downstairs.

Right now it is 5:53 p.m., so I am going to break and watch some T.V. shows here on my bedside computer while having some drinks. I have not had a meal today, but I will likely have a can of Cariboo Malt (7.9% alcohol) or two first.

🔵🔵🔵

I should clarify that although I did not exercise in the morning or in my wife's vacant bedroom in the afternoon, I did go out to the backyard tool shed after mid-afternoon and had a usual morning session ─ that is, a single repetition in each of the six sets of pull-ups and chin-ups, followed by the squat work for benefit of my damaged right leg.

My first show this evening was done by 6:48 p.m., along with most of a can of beer. From what my bare feet are experiencing on my bedroom carpet, I may have lost a fifth of the beer due to foaming-out at its opening. When my stepson was here in my cramped wee bedroom earlier, he tripped backwards on my dwindling supply of beer, apparently doing quite a jostle-job on them as I have discovered.

So I drank the can a little quicker than usual rather than torture myself by trying to draw out the process; and then I ate my meal during what remained of the show.

The show was Sight Unseen ─ episode eight ("Fluffed") of the first season. My source was this M4uFree.cx link. It was entertaining enough, but so very preposterous.

My second show was The Handmaid's Tale ─ episode four ("Milk") of the fourth season. My source was this CineGo.co link. The show was done by 8:08 p.m.

I found myself still disgusted with June for betraying the other handmaids who trusted and believed in her, two of whom were pushed to their deaths from a high building, two were shot in the back and thus killed, and two others killed by a fast-moving train.

However, I'm finding myself quite drawn to timid but spunky little one-eyed Janine.

My final show ended at 9:35 p.m. It was The Guardian ─ episode 13 ("Ambition") of season two. My source again was a M4uFree.cx link.

It was very good ─ at the tail end, it even had my eyes burning with emotion.

I got through the episode with the last of the can of beer I hadn't finished during The Handmaid's Tale; the possible two ounces of organic red wine remaining in my bottle of St Hubertus Gamay Noir; and maybe a half ounce of Johnny Walker Red Label Blended Scotch Whisky.

I am going to get this post published and look towards a reasonably early-to-bed evening, for I do intend hobbling off in the early morning to do some grocery shopping. Consequently if I am to spend further time labouring at setting up our R69 Plus Android 14 TV Box, likely I am going to need to rise at 5 a.m.

Right now it is 10:05 p.m., so I have hope of being to bed well ahead of 11 p.m.