Usually, I would be among those praying for a snow day. Strangely, I am now among those people who protest the necessity of a day off due to extremely cold weather and expect the school to open unless the roads are extremely dangerous. There is a reason for this abrupt change of attitude.
As you may remember from my recent posts, I decided to focus on tutoring at one of my workplaces this semester. So far, that's been a decent choice. My income is not going to change too much. I'm working basically the equivalent of what I did last semester, so I'm not in worse shape. I didn't receive as many hours tutoring as I had hoped, but there are only so many hours to go around for the many tutors working for these writing centers, so I'm content with what I received. I only have one class at my other school to prepare for, so my off hours are almost always actually "off"! However, holidays and school cancellations affect me much differently than they would if I were teaching. When I teach, and school is cancelled, my life is not impacted significantly. I still receive my usual pay for those hours because the school closed through no fault of mine (...or was it?...). If, however, I am tutoring, that time is not covered during a school closing. If I don't work those hours for whatever reason, I'm not paid for them. This fact has altered my attitude about school closing for one of the colleges I work for.
Today, this school closed until 11:00, a delayed opening. I was a little annoyed by that because I should start tutoring at 9:00, and this steals two hours of work (and pay) from me. I'm not happy about that, but I can deal. I wasn't as upset about that as I was about the prospect of school closing completely today. I work at the writing center about 20 hours per week; 6.5 of those hours are on Tuesdays. As you can see, that is a significant portion of my work week (and income). "Snow" Day now means "No Pay" to me, and I can't handle that. Fortunately, this school was one of the few in the area that didn't completely close for the day, which utterly surprised me, so I only lost two hours for the day.
Now, if my other school delayed or cancelled classes tomorrow, I wouldn't be upset. Apparently, my change in attitude is relative.
I hate how mercenary I seem in this post, but this is my blog and my perspective, so I guess it's better that I'm relatively honest about such things. I write this as much for myself as for those I know are reading (and the public of the internet), and I try not to lie to myself. I have been more concerned about money in the past year than ever before. The past day and the resulting concerns have further reinforced to me the necessity of seeking a new job this year. I still don't know what I'll hope to find, but I do know that security and stability are going to be two key factors in what I do in the future.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
January Means "Pricey Repair"
So, another year, another hefty maintenance bill. As many of you may remember, the first two months of 2013 had my car in the shop to the collective tune of around $1500; that was not fun. This year, my Dell laptop is the issue. This computer is just over three years old (bought December of 2010); I always hope a laptop will last me a while, but I'm coming to assume that they won't.
If you haven't heard/seen me complain about the problem lately, let me enlighten you. My computer has been locking up/freezing quite a bit lately. It started several months ago, but it would just lock up occasionally when I was playing my Star Wars (SWTOR) game. Then, it randomly froze the screen once or twice just sitting on the desktop. I coped because the inaction happened rarely enough for me to ignore, and the computer would then go a week or more without freezing at all. When I say locking up or freezing, I assume you know what I mean: the mouse stops moving, CTL+ALT+DEL does nothing, and the only way to do anything is to do what I call a "hard restart," which involves holding down the power button until it restarts (I know that's probably not good for the machine, but I have no other option). It's annoying, but not too unbearable when it only happens occasionally. However, it probably is a sign of worse coming...
About two months ago, this issue began occurring more often. The computer would freeze several times in a row, then be fine for a few days before repeating the process. Then, it wasn't as issue limited primarily to game time, but it was happening randomly on an internet page or when the screensaver was running or right after I had started it up. This has happened increasingly often in the past weeks. Now, it's a miracle if I can actually play one of my games. I'm relieved when I can check all of my e-mails and Facebook before it freezes on me. This is not how technology should work. Between Monday and Wednesday, that computer must have locked up and required a restart no fewer than two dozen times. Technology is "supposed" to make life easier (though none of us believes that anymore...), but this situation had become more than ridiculous.
I faced a dilemma: try to fix the computer or give up and replace it? On the one hand, fixing it might be a little pricey up front, but it might allow me to avoid the expense of a new computer for another couple of years (depending on what the problem turned out to be). On the other, payments for a new computer over a year wouldn't be too bad and I'd probably have to reload everything on my fixed computer anyway, but the delay would be even worse and I probably shouldn't be making any major purchases right now (I'm hoping my car will last a little longer, but I just don't know...).
I decided to try the repair option. I'm used to that computer; I know it does what I need it to (when it's working, anyway). I have all my files backed up at least two different ways, but they're all from that computer, so the recovery should be simpler (I hope). I found a small, local computer repair business that seems legitimate and decently priced, so it seems worth a shot. At the worst, I'll be out the money and have to buy a new computer, but I'll know that laptop repair ultimately isn't worth it. I'm really hoping that it is.
Apparently, the freezing problem my laptop had was due to the hard drive; it was dying. Once the tech told me that, everything made so much sense. Why else would my computer lock up at such random times--during start-up or in the midst of loading a game or immediately after I had just spent hours playing a game or while just sitting there in idle mode? The hard drive is vital to all those processes; if it was trying to keep going, but the hard drive was giving out, of course it would freeze! The techs are going to replace the hard drive, reload the OS, and clean out all the gunk that has gathered inside over the past three years. It's costing more than I'd prefer, but not as much as I had feared, and I'm desperately hoping my computer is like new and works perfectly when I have it back. I assume I'll have it back tomorrow, but I'm not sure at this moment. I'll let you know how this goes for me!
If you haven't heard/seen me complain about the problem lately, let me enlighten you. My computer has been locking up/freezing quite a bit lately. It started several months ago, but it would just lock up occasionally when I was playing my Star Wars (SWTOR) game. Then, it randomly froze the screen once or twice just sitting on the desktop. I coped because the inaction happened rarely enough for me to ignore, and the computer would then go a week or more without freezing at all. When I say locking up or freezing, I assume you know what I mean: the mouse stops moving, CTL+ALT+DEL does nothing, and the only way to do anything is to do what I call a "hard restart," which involves holding down the power button until it restarts (I know that's probably not good for the machine, but I have no other option). It's annoying, but not too unbearable when it only happens occasionally. However, it probably is a sign of worse coming...
About two months ago, this issue began occurring more often. The computer would freeze several times in a row, then be fine for a few days before repeating the process. Then, it wasn't as issue limited primarily to game time, but it was happening randomly on an internet page or when the screensaver was running or right after I had started it up. This has happened increasingly often in the past weeks. Now, it's a miracle if I can actually play one of my games. I'm relieved when I can check all of my e-mails and Facebook before it freezes on me. This is not how technology should work. Between Monday and Wednesday, that computer must have locked up and required a restart no fewer than two dozen times. Technology is "supposed" to make life easier (though none of us believes that anymore...), but this situation had become more than ridiculous.
I faced a dilemma: try to fix the computer or give up and replace it? On the one hand, fixing it might be a little pricey up front, but it might allow me to avoid the expense of a new computer for another couple of years (depending on what the problem turned out to be). On the other, payments for a new computer over a year wouldn't be too bad and I'd probably have to reload everything on my fixed computer anyway, but the delay would be even worse and I probably shouldn't be making any major purchases right now (I'm hoping my car will last a little longer, but I just don't know...).
I decided to try the repair option. I'm used to that computer; I know it does what I need it to (when it's working, anyway). I have all my files backed up at least two different ways, but they're all from that computer, so the recovery should be simpler (I hope). I found a small, local computer repair business that seems legitimate and decently priced, so it seems worth a shot. At the worst, I'll be out the money and have to buy a new computer, but I'll know that laptop repair ultimately isn't worth it. I'm really hoping that it is.
Apparently, the freezing problem my laptop had was due to the hard drive; it was dying. Once the tech told me that, everything made so much sense. Why else would my computer lock up at such random times--during start-up or in the midst of loading a game or immediately after I had just spent hours playing a game or while just sitting there in idle mode? The hard drive is vital to all those processes; if it was trying to keep going, but the hard drive was giving out, of course it would freeze! The techs are going to replace the hard drive, reload the OS, and clean out all the gunk that has gathered inside over the past three years. It's costing more than I'd prefer, but not as much as I had feared, and I'm desperately hoping my computer is like new and works perfectly when I have it back. I assume I'll have it back tomorrow, but I'm not sure at this moment. I'll let you know how this goes for me!
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Post Holidays
I'm home again after a lovely holiday, so I thought I'd review just for my wonderful readers. This is relatively random rambling, so be prepared if you're going to read this whole, long post.
After all the frustration and drama with the cable company fiasco, which worked out, ultimately, I was looking forward to a nice break and visit with my family, and that is just what I had! My younger sisters and I all made it to the parents' again for Christmas, and PJ and I stuck around for New Year.
The first thing I did to begin recovering from the cable situation was bake cookies. If you didn't know, I'm now officially the Christmas cookie baker for my family. I always make sugar cookies and "Christmas Crinkles" (aka Chocolate Crinkles if you look up the recipe, but PJ always called them Christmas Crinkles) for the family as soon as I get to the parents'. Usually I do them in stages, one per day, but I decided to do them all at once this time. It actually went better than I expected and wasn't too overwhelming. I did save the decorating of the sugar cookies for the next day though; I didn't feel like doing them all by myself (decorating is much more fun with someone helping), and no one else was home yet. Mom helped me finish them up the next day. The cookies turned out better than ever, I think, and everyone enjoyed them, as they always do. As I told my older sister, I like people to like me for the cookies I bake!
Having the whole family together for the holidays is always interesting. We fall into old habits, old ways of interacting, yet they're different. We're adults, but my sisters and I still act like kids sometimes; it's strange how that happens. We have more patience with one another, and less patience at the same time. Overall, we keep it together pretty well, I think, and enjoy the family time regardless. We watched a lot of movies, visited our grandparents in their nursing home, and prepared for Christmas.
The Christmas morning went pretty well. We always have a battle about what time we will do the gifts, but we always work it out somehow. Dad and PJ always want to open gifts early so we have time to relax before heading out to my Dad's family's Christmas gathering. BB would like to sleep in--she does love her sleep!--and open gifts a little later in the morning. Mom and I don't particularly care, but we don't sleep late, so earlier kind of makes sense to us; we try to stay out of this discussion if possible. Everyone was extremely thoughtful with gifts, as always. They seemed to like what I gave them, and I loved what I received! My parents gave me a waffle iron (I love waffles!) and a Blu Ray Player (since I had a cruddy old DVD player), among other things. BB and PJ gave me some great DVDs, some of which I've wanted for a long time and one or two I didn't even know I wanted until I had them.
The larger family Christmas gathering was nice. My sisters and I used to dread them because we weren't comfortable chatting with our own family members and always stayed together in a corner somewhere, not really talking to anyone. Eventually, we all figured out how to be more social, and we embrace these opportunities to catch up with and chat with family members we don't see often.
New Year was a non-event, as usual for my family. Most of us feel it's just another day, not one requiring special celebration. We eat traditional foods and stay up until midnight; we switch to one of the network stations just before 12:00, but it was one that didn't show the ball dropping, so we missed that anyway. No big deal to us. I had no huge problems in 2013, but I plan to make some changes this year, so we'll see.
I came home yesterday, and it's nice to be back. I like spending the holidays with everyone, but it's nice to get back to my routine. Also, I guess I kind of missed Squeaky....
Last night, the tech from the cable company came to install the phone. The appointment I had made was for this afternoon, and it was only by checking my account via the website that I learned that the appointment had been mysteriously changed to yesterday evening (I'm glad I checked!). The tech was here for about an hour, he was extremely chatty, and he flirted rather awkwardly with me the whole time. Squeaks hid in the kitchen, but at least she didn't completely abandon me! Despite the somewhat uncomfortable situation, I'm glad the install hurdle has been jumped. I called the parents last night to give them the new number, and the line buzzed the whole time. I don't know if it's the old phone I was using or the phone line itself, but it's extremely irritating, and I hope it doesn't continue. If it does, I guess I'll be entering a new battle with the cable company. Yay. Fortunately, I'm only planning to use the home phone if my cell phone is having problems, but I don't want an annoying sound in the foreground of my conversations when I do use it. That almost defeats the purpose.
So, there it is, the extremely long coverage of my holidays. Sorry about the length, but I did warn you! Now we'll start getting back to normal. For now, Merry Christmas!
After all the frustration and drama with the cable company fiasco, which worked out, ultimately, I was looking forward to a nice break and visit with my family, and that is just what I had! My younger sisters and I all made it to the parents' again for Christmas, and PJ and I stuck around for New Year.
The first thing I did to begin recovering from the cable situation was bake cookies. If you didn't know, I'm now officially the Christmas cookie baker for my family. I always make sugar cookies and "Christmas Crinkles" (aka Chocolate Crinkles if you look up the recipe, but PJ always called them Christmas Crinkles) for the family as soon as I get to the parents'. Usually I do them in stages, one per day, but I decided to do them all at once this time. It actually went better than I expected and wasn't too overwhelming. I did save the decorating of the sugar cookies for the next day though; I didn't feel like doing them all by myself (decorating is much more fun with someone helping), and no one else was home yet. Mom helped me finish them up the next day. The cookies turned out better than ever, I think, and everyone enjoyed them, as they always do. As I told my older sister, I like people to like me for the cookies I bake!
Having the whole family together for the holidays is always interesting. We fall into old habits, old ways of interacting, yet they're different. We're adults, but my sisters and I still act like kids sometimes; it's strange how that happens. We have more patience with one another, and less patience at the same time. Overall, we keep it together pretty well, I think, and enjoy the family time regardless. We watched a lot of movies, visited our grandparents in their nursing home, and prepared for Christmas.
The Christmas morning went pretty well. We always have a battle about what time we will do the gifts, but we always work it out somehow. Dad and PJ always want to open gifts early so we have time to relax before heading out to my Dad's family's Christmas gathering. BB would like to sleep in--she does love her sleep!--and open gifts a little later in the morning. Mom and I don't particularly care, but we don't sleep late, so earlier kind of makes sense to us; we try to stay out of this discussion if possible. Everyone was extremely thoughtful with gifts, as always. They seemed to like what I gave them, and I loved what I received! My parents gave me a waffle iron (I love waffles!) and a Blu Ray Player (since I had a cruddy old DVD player), among other things. BB and PJ gave me some great DVDs, some of which I've wanted for a long time and one or two I didn't even know I wanted until I had them.
The larger family Christmas gathering was nice. My sisters and I used to dread them because we weren't comfortable chatting with our own family members and always stayed together in a corner somewhere, not really talking to anyone. Eventually, we all figured out how to be more social, and we embrace these opportunities to catch up with and chat with family members we don't see often.
New Year was a non-event, as usual for my family. Most of us feel it's just another day, not one requiring special celebration. We eat traditional foods and stay up until midnight; we switch to one of the network stations just before 12:00, but it was one that didn't show the ball dropping, so we missed that anyway. No big deal to us. I had no huge problems in 2013, but I plan to make some changes this year, so we'll see.
I came home yesterday, and it's nice to be back. I like spending the holidays with everyone, but it's nice to get back to my routine. Also, I guess I kind of missed Squeaky....
Last night, the tech from the cable company came to install the phone. The appointment I had made was for this afternoon, and it was only by checking my account via the website that I learned that the appointment had been mysteriously changed to yesterday evening (I'm glad I checked!). The tech was here for about an hour, he was extremely chatty, and he flirted rather awkwardly with me the whole time. Squeaks hid in the kitchen, but at least she didn't completely abandon me! Despite the somewhat uncomfortable situation, I'm glad the install hurdle has been jumped. I called the parents last night to give them the new number, and the line buzzed the whole time. I don't know if it's the old phone I was using or the phone line itself, but it's extremely irritating, and I hope it doesn't continue. If it does, I guess I'll be entering a new battle with the cable company. Yay. Fortunately, I'm only planning to use the home phone if my cell phone is having problems, but I don't want an annoying sound in the foreground of my conversations when I do use it. That almost defeats the purpose.
So, there it is, the extremely long coverage of my holidays. Sorry about the length, but I did warn you! Now we'll start getting back to normal. For now, Merry Christmas!
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