I was curious about an actor in a US tv show - the guy who plays Jax in Sons of Anarchy. So I looked him up. He's not American, he's English. Another non-American actor holding a lead in a big, popular American TV series. Do they not have enough good actors in the US that they need to rely on so many "imports"? Not that I mind, not at all, I just find this utterly amusing.

Here is a quick and incomplete list of some shows using non-American actors in their leads, playing American characters.

• Sons of Anarchy - Jax - Charlie Hunnam (British)
• Fringe - Dr. Walter Bishop - John Noble (Australian)
• Fringe - Olivia Dunham - Anna Torv (Australian)
• Fringe - Peter Bishop - Joshua Jackson (Canadian)
• True Blood - Sookie Stackhouse - Anna Paquin (New Zealander)
• True Blood - Bill Compton - Stephen Moyer (British)
• True Blood - Eric Northman - Alexander Skarsgård (Swedish)
• House - Dr. House - Hugh Laurie (British)
• The Walking Dead - Rick Grimes - Andrew Lincoln (British)
• The Mentalist - Patrick Jane - Simon Baker (Australian)
• The X-Files - Dana Scully - Jillian Anderson (British)
• Without a Trace - Jack Malone - Anthony LaPaglia (Australian)
• Without a Trace - Vivian Johnson - Marianne Jean-Baptiste (British)
• Californication - Karen - Natascha McElhone (British)
• Lost - Penelope Widmore - Sonya Walger (British)
• Nip/Tuck - Julia McNamara - Joely Richardson (British)

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The information about the Edmonds 1914 Cookbook Cook-Off has been moved to The Wheeling Gourmet. Come check it out!

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Je voulais savoir quel serait le meilleur équivalent anglais pour l'expression "je me racrapoutis". Ayant demandé sur Twitter, les quelques réponses que j'ai reçues disaient ne pas connaître ce mot.

Je crois que c'est peut-être une variation familiale du mot écrapoutir.

Ce mot est assez utilisé dans la famille du côté de ma mère. Je vois bien où on serait allé de écrapoutir à acrapoutir. Puis pour faire bonne mesure, on ajoute le re, et on fini avec racrapoutir.

Le mot écrapoutir est apparement d'origine poitevine, en usage jusque qu'au 17^e siècle. Utilisé pour dire écraser, ou accroupir. Que ça aie survécu au Québec ne me surprend pas. Radio-Canada donne une liste de mot à employer au lieu d'écrapoutir, car il faut apparement utiliser cela seulement dans les conversations familières:

• écraser
• aplatir
• piler
• anéantir
• détruire
• broyer
• briser
• triturer

Y'a même une page sur Facebook pour la survie du mot écrapoutir!!!

Avec ça, je suis toujours pas sûr d'un bon équivalent en anglais... :)

[Edit]: On vient de suggèrer le mot racrapoter, en usage en Belgique. Si on prend le sense recroqueviller, on commence à voir aussi: ratatiner, tordre, rapetisser. Tout cela est bien semblable.

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For years, most mornings on my way to work, I used to see an old man walking his dog. The dog, a spaniel of some sort, always carried a news paper in his mouth. I saw them walk together on the same stretch of street, at about the same time. The dog always looked pleased as punch, wagging its tail.

I always thought this was rather fantastic. They obviously had a routine and enjoyed it very much.

One morning, I just had to pull my car over, get out of the car and tell the man that I'd seen him often and I thought it was a great thing. He said his kids had gotten him the dog shortly after his wife died, and they'd been inseparable since.

I haven't seen this man for weeks, but I thought it was just because of slight schedule differences. This morning, I learned through a colleague that the man died a couple months ago, after his dog passed away. He was apparently in his late 80's.

This is an incredibly sad story that has gotten to me. At the same time, it is an incredibly good story about a man and a dog.

I didn't know him - but I will remember him and his dog for a long time. I will remember how happy they both looked on these morning walks.

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I've just unfollowed @ProPhoto101 on Twitter. Not big deal, everyone follows and unfollows people, it's not like it's a major event. But I want to take a couple minutes to explain why I unfollowed him.

One reason is that he doesn't interact at all. Twitter is used as a broadcast-only medium, and frankly, I prefer interactions and relationship building. But that's a post for another day :)

The other reason is that most of ProPhoto101's tweets include "if you like this please retweet". I find that beyond annoying. So I just cut my ties with him. Note that I'm not picking on this guy out of personal grudge, it could have been anyone showing that same behaviour.

Retweets, or RT, are powerful things. It's a way one's message can spread in a so-called "viral" manner. With just one RT, your tweet could be seen by thousands of people who don't know you. This can be substantial exposure. But is it *good* exposure? I'm not convinced. There's no doubt retweets are a powerful engagement tool..

I RT stuff regularly. I do so when I find value in a tweet and I think my followers might find the content interesting. I very rarely RT something when people specifically seek an RT. The strength and nature of the content determines whether or not the tweet deserves to be passed on - not the begging.

In fact, I'm a bit like Edward Lewis who says:

Reverse psychology. That's exactly how the Please Retweet This line works for me. I probably won't RT anything that you beg to be Retweeted.

I'm not alone in really disliking the chronic RT requesters. On Geoff Livingston's site, a post and comments from last week discuss this at length. The consensus there seems to be that:

• There's nothing wrong with asking an occasional RT of a specific, more influencial person, but that one shouldn't continually beg for retweets.
• If you build relationships with twitter followers, people are more likely to RT your content.

Sooo, what's *your* take on people who continually ask to have their stuff retweeted?

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With all that is happening with the Queensland floods, I became aware of an Aussie company that uses Twitter mainly for broadcast. TransLink SEQ is the Queensland government's public transportation website.

They are updating their twitter stream very regularly - broadcasting information about service interruptions, etc. They had just a hair over 5,000 followers when I wrote this. They followed nobody back.

It is generally seen as bad form to have a bunch of followers and not follow anyone back. I think they got it right though. It is worth noting that they *do* interact with people who directly ask them questions. They just don't try to build social media relationships. That's not how *I* like to use Twitter, but if they are going to be using the service to broadcast news, then let them be honest about that and follow no-one.

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I was looking at purchasing some music from the John Butler Trio. Recently discovered them and I love their style. Their site makes the music available for download only via iTunes. For a variety of reasons, I don't like using iTunes. Among other things, it's not Linux friendly (yes I know you can use it under WINE but it's wonky), and it's very limiting - you can't manage music acquired in iTunes any other way than through iTunes (I have >15GB of MP3s, all legally acquired).

Someone on Twitter suggested I should check out Amazon.com - easy to download and they even have a bunch of free music available for download. If you're in the United States. They block anyone outside that country. This is not new.

What *is* new is that emusic.com now also blocks non-US countries from getting music from them. I purchased a lot of music from their site. But I went there today and found the following message:

We're sorry, eMusic is not available in your country.

We know everyone everywhere loves music and we want to bring the world of music to everyone. But we have to play by the rules and there are many when it comes to the global distribution of music.

Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions we are unable to offer service in your country at this time. We understand that you are currently in New Zealand (your IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx).

So, there you go, one more avenue closed off for people outside of the
United States to legally acquire music in electronic format.

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MidCentral District Health Board sent out letters to some of their cancer patients over the holiday period, announcing that they were cutting their treatment. No. More. Chemotherapy...

Yes, that's right. The DHB is stopping treatment/chemotherapy on a wide range of cancers, including for some people already under treatment. New patients will not go on waiting lists - they'll be referred back to their GP. And one might wonder how useful it is to go see your GP when you've been diagnosed with cancer? What can your GP do? It doesn't matter how good and willing your GP is, they are not equipped nor trained to treat cancer.

Apparently, MidCentral has 5 oncologist positions, but haven't been able to fill 2 of them. I'd be curious to know how much of the time of the other 3 positions is spent on research rather than treatment.

According to the Manawatu Standard, here are some of the cancers that won't be treated:

• Prostate Cancer
• Melanoma
• Cervical Cancer
• All adult soft tissue sarcoma
• 10 other types of cancers

There are many public campaigns increasing public awareness of the risks of cancer, including melanomas. Every year at work, there is a free mole "spotting" clinic. There's even an early detection program called "Molemap" - though this is not a free service. Similarly, NZ's National Screening Unit says that "Prostate cancer is recognised as an important health issue for New Zealand men". Clearly the NZ Government believes there's a risk with prostate cancers and melanomas.

At the same time, the DHB is saying that they don't have enough funding to treat people who have prostate cancers, melanomas, and several other types of cancer. The funding for the DHB comes from the NZ Government. Am I alone in seeing something that's not quite right here?

TVNZ reports that "health authorities say the cancers which will not now be treated are the ones least likely to respond to therapy."

So because it's less likely to respond as well to therapy, they'll just not treat at all. That is not right. They are playing God, deciding who gets to have a chance at life, and who doesn't. It's not murder, no. But I'd be tempted to call it manslaughter - gross disregard for human life.

Why should we get tested for melanoma, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, etc, when there's not going to be any treatment available?

To say I'm angry would be an understatement. I also feel completely powerless about it. Despite calls for public meetings, nothing's likely to change.

On MidCentral DHB's website, nothing at all about this.

Happy New Year!

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Every once in a while, I feel like having fish 'n chips for dinner. Here in Palmerston North, I used to go to Stad's. But it's gone downhill fast. I tried a new-to-me shop tonight, but it let itself down because of the packaging.

More specifically, it's the bit of sticky tape/label they used to keep the wrapping shut that let them down. Big time.

It is, I imagine, a marketing ploy - the label is printed with "McCain - done it again". Proudly advertising they use McCain products.

Except that I won't knowingly purchase or eat McCain. There have been a few stories of nasty stuff found in packs of frozen McCain products in New Zealand. Specifically, a frozen mouse and a dirty rag. And the company's response was less than positive. Right...

So if the take-away joint is using "McCain" labels, it tells me that a) they are using McCain products and b) using frozen products.

As stated above, I'm not interested in purchasing McCain products. And I am not interested in frozen fish. Or chips, for that matter. I guess there aren't too many shops that make their own fries from scratch, so I'll live with that. But the fish... It's got to be fresh!

One of the reasons I stopped going to Stad's was because their fish became greasy, and the frying oil smelled stale. And they started slapping a "McCain - done it again" label on their wrappers...

Tonight's take-away joint served ok fish. It wasn't greasy. But the fish was very thin. And they served me McCain. I'm unlikely to go there again.

Obviously I could go to another store who won't be using the label, but serving McCain products anyway and I would be none the wiser. But if I have a choice, and know what product I'm getting, I am not buying that stuff. #marketingfail

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I noticed a DHL courier van was stopped by our building, with the engine idling. The van was there for about 15 minutes. This is longer than usual, but courier vans are there on average for 7 minutes, two or three times a day. Seems like almost nothing, but it accumulates.

• How many stops does that one van do in one day?
• How many courier vans do this?
• How many total hours of engines idling are there?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but it seems to me that it's way too much. Apparently a UPS driver can make from 130 to 150 stops in a day. This seems a bit much. It would give each stop only 3 minutes, including driving, in a regular 8 hour work day.

Let's be conservative with our numbers: A driver does on average 4 stops per hour, 7 hours per day, and leaves the engine idling for 5 minutes. That's over two hours of leaving the engine idling... How many drivers in Palmerston North? How many drivers in all of New Zealand? My numbers are total guesses, I don't really know. But it seems like the total time of courier van idling is an incredibly high and destructive. What's wrong with turning the engine off when you're stopping?

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It's been a long time coming, but the veggie garden is finally planted. Let's hope it takes and thrives.

The first task was to move the garden bed. It was located beside the house and hard to get to from two of the four sides. The raised bed was moved to a location that allows us to go all around it.

I went to four nurseries before I found lettuce. Apparently last weekend saw everyone's stock get depleted. Ohhumm. In the end, I found what I was looking for, and then some. I went a bit wild.

I planted lettuces (cos/romaine, and a variety of other leafy lettuces), leeks, capsicum (red bell pepper), broccoli, dwarf green beans, and butter beans. I also planted tomatoes, as well as chery tomatoes.

I let myself be tempted by strawberries. I'll have to make sure neither Wix nor the birds eat the berries before we do!

In the middle of it all, I found a snail sliming its way along. Escargot with garlic butter, anyone? :D

I also planted some Agria (golden) potatoes, in tyres. As they grow, we'll keep adding tyres and soil until it's all ready to pick and collect :)

While I was at it, I also separated and repotted an orchid I was given. It is a Kiri Te Kanawa cross, and it has so far survived in spite of my tender loving care.

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For all the big companies are bitching at illegal downloader, they are really not helping their cases.

I've already spoken about being forced to piracy on this blog. It's happening again.

I wanted a particular song. Just the 1 song. Not an entire album or anything. So I googled the song name and 'download' and one of the first hit I got was on Amazon.com. Great, I thought. The song would cost me US$0.99. Not cheap, but I was ready to purchase it.

I went through the purchasing/downloading process. Yes, I had to go through the entire process. Then I got an error message.

We are sorry...

We could not process your order. The sale of MP3 Downloads is currently available only to US customers located in the 48 contiguous states, Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

So there. I WANT TO BUY YOUR MUSIC. But I am not given an option to do so.

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One aspect of ebook readers that many people don't immediately consider is that they offer a more accessible format for many people with various physical impairments. I'm thinking specifically of people who have issues with their arms or hands. Arthritis, paralysis and other conditions that cause pain and/or weakness in the upper limbs can make holding a book difficult, painful and sometimes just plain impossible.

I have been reading eBooks on my phone for a couple years now. At first, I was reading on the iMate JAM. Now I'm reading on my HTC Magic (Android). I hadn't realised just how much I've been relying on eBooks until last week.

Last week, I started reading Diana Gabaldon's An Echo in the Bone. In hardcover. It is a big, heavy tome. I am enjoying the story but I find I am unable to read for very long. The book is just too heavy for my arthritic hands to hold comfortably. In fact, my hands *hurt* after a short while reading. That definitely makes reading NOT enjoyable.

This has reminded me how much better it is to read ebooks - no pain.

But reading on such a small screen as my phone has its drawback - my aging eyes are not making it easy! So I'm thinking an actual eBook reader device might be appropriate. The problem is - there are several on the market. Which one to chose?

So, tell me, which eBook reader should I select - and why?

P.S. It's my birthday soon, perhaps Amazon will donate a Kindle? Or perhaps Sony will donate a PRS-650? Ahhh, one can always dream!

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We're headed towards National and Local elections here in New Zealand. As a results, we see a lot of posters popping up, and receive the odd flyer in our mailbox.

Last night's flyer was for a currently elected Councilor seeking re-election. One statement on the flyer says:

I pledge to practice positive politics through respectful discussions and behaviour and democratic and non-disruptive meeting procedure

I must admit, this amused me greatly.

You see, I had the "chance" to work with many of the people currently in Council, and also attended more Council meetings than I care to remember. I know how things are happening in our council.

That means I understand why this person would make that pledge. But...

Come on people! That pledge, it should be the very minimum proper behaviour of an elected official. It should go without say. It shouldn't be a point of difference.

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So, I'm in a bad spot. My Keepass file managed to get corrupted. The header of the file is - which contains the encryption for the file. Which means that repairing it is useless. That file is GONE. My most recent backup appears to also be corrupted. The only backup file that isn't corrupted is over a year old!!! Useless.

I funnel all my email through Gmail. But I can't login to gmail because I don't know my password (didn't write down the 24 alphanumeric+symbols password, I was relying on my backup).

I did mess up by not keeping my gmail secondary address up to date. The domain is gone. Which means I have no way to retreive the instructions they sent to reset my password.

I setup security questions with Gmail. But they will not let you use the security question until the account has been inactive for 24 hours. TWENTY FOUR HOURS. Clever, eh?

So, before I can ask them to let me answer my security questions, I have to leave my gmail account alone. That means, I cannot get to email on any of the multiple accounts I need, for 24 hours. This also means I can't use my Android phone to check mail, because it's account activity. Oh, waitaminute. I can't use my phone AT ALL because it uses my gContacts and my gCalendar.

I understand and appreciate the need for security. But the 24 hour waiting period seems abritrary.

I'm F***ed.

Unless someone has a suggestion as to how I can get that password back, or reset, from the Android phone itself. Can't seem to find info that is possible.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

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Woke up from a bad night's sleep.

Then I went to get some passport photos done. The printer smudged my face on the first run! Jammed on the second run. Finally, third time lucky, I got my photo. I look like a psycho-axe-murderer, but that seemed to be the least of my problems at that point!

Next stop - Petrol station. I filled up, and when I came back from paying, I realised some nitwit had parked his car about 75cm from my driver side's door. I couldn't get back in the car. So I went to ask inside if the driver could kinly move his car. The guy said "hold on, I'm just getting coffee and a muffin, it'll be a moment". A moment turned into FIFTEEN MINUTES. Annoyance indeed.

Got to work, and a bit frazzled, I let my wheelchair escape me. See, the parking lot is at an angle. As a result, my wheelchair took a nice long slow stroll across the lot and landed against a colleague's car. I had to call someone for help. They, of course, were laughing at me so hard I thought they were going to bust a gut. Can you see my chair in that photo? All the way to the other side of the parking area? Uh huh...

Yeah, shoulda stayed in bed today...

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I like watercolours and sketching. Or rather, I would like it better if I were any good at it!!! Let's be honest: my drawing skills are barely above the stick figure level. But I'd like to get better.

Many times over the last several years I've gone to Russel Stutler's website and admired his work. He shows a lot of what he's done on his site and it is easy to get lost for hours. He shows some of his quick sketches, many were done on a train platform, waiting for the next train to arrive - 2 minutes interval he says.

Sketch done on a sports field.
© Russel Stutler. Used with permission.

I wish I could do that. I love the idea of being able to produce a "simple" sketch like that in a few minutes. I find people particularly challenging. Postures, which are perhaps easier. But faces, and hands. I don't want to be able to do picture perfect drawing, far from it, but I like the idea of sketching, of evoking the idea simply.

A Japanese gentleman.
© Russel Stutler. Used with permission.

Using ink and wash seems to give the results I like best. Stutler uses that media and makes sketches of his surrounding in Japan. He has a really portable setup - which is something I like as well, even if I don't go anywhere! A lot of his sketches are of "exotic" locations, which creates interest to the Western eye.

A Japanese candy store - not too exotic, but still more exotic to the non-Japanese.
© Russel Stutler. Used with permission.

Of course ink & wash works well everywhere. It is up to the person wielding the brushes to do what they need, and render what they see! On Flickr, Adolfo Arranz shares a lot of his work. His style is somewhat different from Stutler's. But it is in the range of what I'd like to do. Arranz sketches in Moleskines, which I also like.

A wilderness scene. It is not hard to see how the New Zealand landscape could lend itself to this kind of sketching.
© Adolfo Arranz. Used with permission.

Arranz sketches a lot in nature or urban areas, in Spain. Spain is exotic in many ways, and is quite different from New Zealand. Yet the style of sketching of this church could be used for Kiwi churches.

A church
© Adolfo Arranz. Used with permission.

Paul Wang, also on Flickr, shares sketches from his "SketchCrawls". In Asia, and in mainly urban areas, his style is quite different, maybe "looser" than Stutler's or Arranz'. I don't like it quite as much, but I certainly wouldn't mind being able to achieve the kinds of results he achieves!

A small shop, sketched on location with reference photo.
© Paul Wang. Used with permission.

I also found Pete Scully on Flickr, but his website is also full of great information. I like the page on Pete's material & setup, for example. Pete does a lot of different things, but again his style appeals, and it is easy to imagine how New Zealand would look like sketched in that style.

A toy store.
© Pete Scully. Used with permission.

One of the subjects that I think would be interesting to do, although probably rather difficult, are many of the houses in New Zealand, including several Victorian ones.

Victorian houses, with reference photo.
© Pete Scully. Used with permission.

My ideal sketching "studio" at the moment would consist of:

• Moleskine watercolour notebook (pocket, or large depending on circumstances)
• Waterbrush(es) (different sizes)
• Winsor Newton watercolour sketcher pocket box (though Russel Stutler's setup with Koi kit is appealing)
• Pen with permanent/waterproof ink.

I have all these - except for the pen with permanent ink. But that's the easiest to get. So in theory I could get "on the road" and do it.

I do have an advantage over many of these folks - my wheelchair is probably one of the best seats in the house!

What I need now is to get better at drawing. This means a lot of practice. The more you draw, apparently, the better you get! I admit, I get discouraged. I want to be good, and I want to be good NOW! I come back to it every so often. I am drawn to it (horrible pun intended). I must keep it up, take the time. I must.

I would like to be able to fill at least 1 Moleskine with sketches I am happy with. Before "wasting" Moleskines, though, I think I need to teach myself drawing a bit better.

Practice, practice, practice. :)

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If you're an American and owe someone money overseas, don't send them a check! Unless you really want to aggravate them. Setting aside the issue of not *wanting* to pay, I want to point out to my American friends, acquaintances & business associates that cheques are a really bad option if you're not US-based.

A business I've had dealings with finally sent the little bit of money owing. The business sent me a cheque, despite me asking them to use a different method of payment. It took a couple weeks for the mail to get here. Then when I banked the cheque, my bank put a freeze on the funds for 30 business days. That is apparently how long it takes for an overseas cheque to clear. 30 business days, that means 6 weeks!

The cashier informed me that for my own benefit, I would be better off not touching the funds for up to 6 MONTHS anyway. Apparently there is a growing number of US banks that dishonour US-written cheques that are cashed outside of the US. So even though the cheque may have cleared, a few weeks/months later, the bank can change their mind and decide that as the cheque had been cashed outside of the US, they would "recall" the funds.

This is apparently happening more and more often, especially in the last few years with the intensification of "the war on terror".

Oh, and if the cheque is dishonoured after having cleared, there is a minimum fee of $60 for the "bounced" cheque, *and* the funds are taken out of your account.

I was also talking with a Paypal business client based outside the US. Paypal had notified them not to touch any funds wired to that business Paypal account from the US for at least 3 months, as the transaction could be reversed for that long - again an issue of "American funds going overseas".

I find it interesting that while major banks in the United Kingdom voted to stop honouring cheques by 2018, the US is still so stuck on this archaic method of payment. I find it even more interesting that Fiji is seeing a "Mobile Money" service being deployed between the largest cell phone provider of the island and the Fiji Reserve Bank - Yes, Fijians will have a "cellphone wallet".

Wait! What? You mean that in Fiji, a small Pacific Island with less than 850,000 people, you will be able to get money (such as your wages) paid to your phone, and get cash by TXT'ing, while in the United States, a country with a population 400 times bigger than Fiji, you still need cheques?

Ok, so it's a far cry from the mobile banking being established in Japan where with some banks you can open/close accounts through your phone, or apply for loans, etc. Still, I find it impressive that a country considered by many to be "third world" is making such a radical and cutting-edge move in banking, while a majority of Americans still carry their check-book with them.

Note: This is NOT an anti-American post, even though it is a rant against the archaic US banking system.

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I've been digging into my ancestry these last few weeks and finding a lot of fantastic information. Unfortunately, most of the information I've found isn't referenced. I find that annoying.

It's really great to find so much genealogical information on people's websites and ancestry files. For instance, I was able to trace a Robert Crevier, who was a master baker in Rouen, France in the 1500's. He died somewhere before 1583. I've found this information on several different sites, which leads me to believe it is most likely accurate. Or mostly accurate at any rate. But I can't find *sources* anywhere. Nobody is saying where they found the information, let alone providing copies of primary sources, or even secondary sources. Heck, for all I know all the sites that are talking about Monsieur Crevier could all be referencing one another, with no further proof.

Yes, I'm having a good old rant! :)

Seems to me that if you're going to put up your genealogy online, it's because you want to share knowledge. But if you don't support knowledge with some evidence, without referencing your sources, you could be saying just about anything. Heck, I could be saying that Angelina Jolie, Jean Chrétien, and I are related. After all, I saw a site saying that we three share the same ancestor: Robert Crevier, the French master baker...

It wouldn't be entirely surprising if Chrétien and I were indeed related. He comes from the same area my grand-parents come from. Heck, family recent history says that the Chrétien family lived across the courtyard from my grand-mother's childhood home. The same family history further says that my grand-mother and her sister often walked "Ti-Jean" to school. Apparently my grand-aunt was close friend with Aline, Jean's wife.

But don't take this as gospel. The only source I am citing for this is "family history". Which is notoriously unreliable. But at least, I *am* saying where the information came from! Unlike too many people putting up their genealogy and ancestry files online!

Rant over.

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As some of you may know by now, I spent the entire day in hospital this Monday past, due to a fall on a wet floor at work. As I lay on the gurney in A&E, sending a Flickr snapshot of myself to the world at large, it occured to me that there is a potential conflict between my phone's data security and my personal safety.

My phone is "locked". That is, nobody can get into my phone that doesn't know the series of on-screen gestures I use to get to my applications. This is good. Not perfect, of course, but it limits the chances of someone finding my phone and being able to get at my data.

A few years ago, I read about putting an ICE contact in my address book. ICE standing for In Case of Emergency. This started out of the UK in 2005, but quickly became something recommended the world over. In fact, when I did my 1st aid renewal course last year, they spoke about it. The idea is that if you are hurt, emergency services can quickly and easily find out who to contact by looking up your ICE contact in your address book.

And I do have an ICE contact in my address book. Except that nobody can get to it, because nobody other than me knows how to unlock my phone... And I don't want to leave my phone unlocked because, well, I don't want to risk some nefarious bastard reading my TXT, looking at my PXT, or getting into my email, or running up my phone bill, etc...

What we need is an application that displays contact details and ICE details when the phone is turned on, without needing to unlock it. Or something like that, because it's a real conflict for me...

Obviously, I can list my ICE contact on a piece of paper and put that in my wallet. But precious time could be lost if the emergency crew just looks at the phone and finds it locked...

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