This update is late. But after you read it you’ll understand why.,,
Well, this has been a long weekend to say the least. Long yet good. It has let to a very slow week. Isn’t that always the way. You run and run all weekend even though it’s supposed to be your chance to rest and then when the week comes you are almost glad for a break.
Yesterday started out for me as a really good day. I was having a blast at school, some of the hard classes I have on Monday were really good. The kids were having fun. I wasn’t feeling very tired and was really wishing I could stay longer than I was able. Something I’ve figured out over the last few months is that my teaching can be very much controlled by the way the children respond. I know, some of you who are reading this must be thinking “Duh, stupid” but I really mean it. You might think that it’s not such a big deal. You might think that if the children are not all that energetic than class will be a little slower but for the most part it will stay the same. This, at least for me, is not true in any form. If my students decide they are going to be little pain in the tails than it is very much a struggle for me not to be one right back. If the children are really hyper and bouncy than I tend to let them run more and play games with them. If they are excited than I find myself being a little more creative with class and more confident to play “dumb” games with them. I know they won’t give me that “I’m to cool for you” look.
That was how my day was going. The kids were having fun and so I was having fun. The two teachers that I work with were really communicating will with me and it was just nice. Everyone needs to have a day like that at some point in their short life. After I got in the car and arrived at my house the day took a very different turn…
I had been running my laptop on the battery power all day at school because I hadn’t brought my power cord. So I went upstairs to plug it in and charge it up. I plugged it in and went downstairs. About an hour later I came back to my room and started using my computer. I noticed that the battery hadn’t charged. “Darn”, I thought, “I forgot to flip the switch on my power strip.” But when I checked it I saw that yes, it was on. This was starting to get disturbing very quickly. So I wiggle the cord around on my AC Adapter and the little green light on it turns on. This means that it’s charging. Good.
After about 10 min I went to move my computer and when I bumped my AC adapter it turned off. Nuts…it didn’t turn back on either. So I start freaking out. This is normal for me. If I don’t have a computer I can use, I start to break out in a cold sweat. Suicidal thoughts will come creeping into my head and I have to make sure I stay away from any windows or I might fashion myself into a missile and propel my human body out said window thus ending the freak session. This would be a bad thing at our house. We only have two stories and I probably wouldn’t die from a fall that far and would end up just laying in the middle of the street with two broken legs until some nasty old beetle nut chewing geezer tossed me on his moped and ran me to the witch doctor hovel the call a hospital. This thought is not at all appealing to me and thus I must show the utmost of self control when I’m having a freak session. Just trust me on this one, ok?
So the first thing I think to do is to try and make the thing work. So I run into Nantou where Isaac helps me find a voltmeter. This is off point but he’s a nice guy and that chocolate milk stuff he gave me was good. I go back to Ying Pan for about an hour where Isaac and I try to rip the thing apart to find out what is the matter. I think the transformer housing was made of some bizarre alien titanium because it was NOT going to come apart without a very large power tool. Eventually we have to give up without really getting anywhere and I come home. The whole time back on the bus I’m praying that the Lord would make this thing work. I can’t really do my job without my computer and I have a lot of projects and information on it that I need really bad. So when I got home I went upstairs and plugged it in. Sure enough it starts working without a hitch. I was excited to say the least. I hadn’t really wanted to go without my computer.
Alas and alack!!!
The darn thing stopped working after about 5 min. It hasn’t started up again yet. So now I don’t have a computer. Thus the reason this update is late. I’m a sad sight to see. I walk around looking like I’m dying of a hangover or something. But really I’m just dying of computer withdraw. I have the shakes and this odd vibration in the pit of my abdomen. A cold sweat will break out for no reason on my forehead as I stare off into space.
You know, back home when I actually had money I would carry a computer in my car just for stoplights. I had one in every bathroom, just like magazines at your house. At the dinner table I had to have a wireless mouse to use or I wouldn’t be able to eat. When I was younger my mother used to have me sleep with a keyboard instead of a teddy bear. It’s bad man. Really bad...
(for those of you who are slower than the average person or are one of those people who believes everything you read on the internet I’ll say right now that I made that last paragraph up)
So I call Dell Tech Support to get some help with my computer. It’s under warranty so I should be able to get a replacement part with no problem. HA HA HAAH AHAH A!!! Not with a Dell Tech you don’t. I get this little girl who was like age 16 or something. At least that’s how it sounded. She didn’t know squat and assumed I didn’t either. Though in her mind I knew a little less squat than she did. I hate talking to people like that. After blowing 25 min with her I got off the phone. I called back the next day and got Scott. Now, Scott was the man! He was cool. He saw right away that I was an advanced user and actually listened to me when I explained why I thought the power cable was bad. He actually treated me like I might know more than my name. So after talking to him Iwas told I should get the power cable shipped to my house sometime on Tuesday. It would arrive on Wed. My family can mail it to me sometime soon thereafter. So maybe if all goes well I can get the dumb thing sometime before I die of old age.
There’s always that hope.
Daniel,
Ji Ji
