Very sad at the passing of Jane Henson. We had the privilege of meeting her at a Puppeteers of America Festival in Connecticut. After that, my husband participated in two Muppet workshops under her direction at Muppet headquarters in NYC.

Her vital role at the start of what became the Muppets is unknown by most of their fans. She was an awesome puppeteer, and far more than just the keeper of a legacy.

Henson.com
Tough Pigs
Muppet Wikia

Jerry Nelson died during the night. He was my favorite Muppet performer because he had the best voice.

My husband had the privilege of working with him at some Muppet workshops at the old Henson building in Manhattan back in the 90s, and was a Facebook friend of his.

When I was a kid, the Muppet Show was on two different local stations at the same time. I used to flip back and forth between them listening for his voice. He did most of the one-off characters since he could find a voice for them instantly, and tended to sing live with the singer guest stars (because he could). Look for what are known as The UK Spots, the extra few minutes produced for the UK airing of the show (less commercials there) many of them are songs, the best sung by him.

I have a collection of songs he sang as different characters on Sesame Street recorded off the tv with my cassette recorder. Each show was repeated at different times during the day, so I would listen to the first one in the morning, make a note of the songs he was singing and what time they were on in the show, then record them when it was rerun. Most were already old clips when I recorded them, but they were used on the show for many years.

My favorite Muppet special ever is Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, largely due to his Emmet voice. I wore out the tape I recorded them on, digital is wonderful. One of the things I loved about Fraggle Rock (my favorite Henson show) was his Gobo Fraggle. Not to mention Marjorie the Trash Heap.

Too many songs and characters to mention….

When The River Meets The Sea.

You must see The Guinness Collection at The Morris Museum if you are ever anywhere within driving distance (check the directions page). We went yesterday and it was amazing.

Everyone spotlights the automata, but the musical collection is extraordinary. These aren’t just ‘music boxes’. There’s everything from musical jewelry like this ring and furniture, to a steam powered vehicle. My favorites were the Limonaire and the barrel organs.

Click the pictures here for some examples. The exhibit has monitors showing most things in action, there is a demo every day, and many pieces have a way of hearing their sound. The collection was given on condition that they be seen and heard. More need to be digitized. See the exhibit if you can.

I considered returning this phone right up to the last day of the 14 day Verizon ‘window’. But since they weren’t offering any other phones I wanted, I decided to lump it.

Then something happened: the entire experience improved.

A blog mentioned success with allowing the battery to run down until it turned the phone off, then fully charging it, and doing that three times. It worked. I am now getting double the battery life. Since I had already bought a second battery and a charger, this is the end of my battery problems.

And I got used to ICS. It was brutal the first few days – and I still want a menu button – but I like ICS now.

My only remaining complaint is the phone does not play YouTube videos full screen. I tried toggling the HQ button on and off and tapping the full screen icon, but nothing works. It isn’t a 3G or 4G issue, since I’m using it on my wifi. Very disappointing in a phone I bought for the beautiful screen.

I wanted the Nexus for the screen, and the screen is gorgeous. The sheer size of it is wonderful. My vision is rotten and this is so much easier to see than the other phones I tried.

That is the positive.

My first handset couldn’t get a good enough connection to even activate the phone. After three hours I exchanged it. This one is good on 3G or 4G but the wifi is still pretty feeble, even at home a few yards from my router. Good thing I’m grandfathered into unlimited.

Connecting to the computer with my Incredible was a no-brainer. The Nexus was a nightmare. I could not drag files to the phone. The progress screen went on and on and never transferred anything. Windows 7 – which has automatically loaded drivers for everything I’ve ever plugged in – did not find drivers for this phone. I had to find, download and install the Samsung drivers, then plug the phone in again for windows to ‘see’ it. Dragging files still did not work until I disabled USB bugging on the phone and dragged and dropped in one particular way.

The speaker is almost inaudible even after purchasing a volume booster app. Bad.

Battery life is ludicrous. If I keep screen timeout at 30 seconds, location off, only turn on wifi or 3G when I need them, don’t stream anything – or use the phone much – it usually lasts about eight hours. I will probably never use 4G, because if I turn it on, the battery dies in less than four hours. Bad.

So far I really don’t like ICS. Finally starting to get used to it after two weeks, but it was not easy. The first time I got a call I couldn’t answer the phone! I had to search for the procedure and call myself from another phone to practice. Making a call is also not intuitive.

It needs a menu button! The menu is three tiny dots hidden in different places depending on what you have open and when and where you tap. I miss the seven home screens. Yes you can do folders, but that means tapping three times instead of once. Annoying. The calendar is ugly and hard to use. Hoping a better one turns up soon.

Bottom line: I’m stuck with this phone. We are on Verizon and my husband needed his first smart phone. If it was only up to me, I would have waited for a better phone. Verizon doesn’t have any other decent options right now. I hate the look and feel of the Moto Droids, and I wouldn’t take an iPhone if it was free.

So I’m waiting for the other issues so many people have on the Nexus: sudden inability to charge the phone by any means and a boot loop when changing wifi networks. Yay.

The end of each year brings a load of top ten lists to ignore. Here’s another one. I’ve never done a top ten favorite movie list, so here it is. In chronological order, since which ever film I watched last turns into my current favorite. I could watch these a thousand times…and probably have.

• The Bride of Frankenstein
• Time Bandits
• Army of Darkness
• Babe
• Chocolat
• Amelie
• The Mask
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

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I had a DSAEK in my left eye on friday December 17. (more…)

I’m having cornea replacement surgery tomorrow morning.

Again. (more…)