Laptop lessons

So, they finally tracked down the damned screen. It's going to cost about $1990NZ to replace- that's $1900NZ in parts (the screen) and $90 (about an hour) in labor.

So I'm sending it home, I think. Fred ex, probably. Or maybe I'll be going home myself.

Anyone wanna send me about 1200usd? I take cash and cash. and small change.

So the lessons I learn from this are

• don't be a freaking klutz!
• Don't drop heavy stuff on the expensive toy
• don't be cheap when paying huge piles of money for the expensive toy- get the extra coverage
• When klutzy, extra coverage isn't optional, it's necessary.
• always, always, always just skip over the aussie parts dude. He doesn't know what he's looking for anyway.

Um, oh, yeah, and- get the loan thing going the second week they're "looking" for the part, so you can get the replacement before the end of the school year.

j.

one step forward, three steps back, or pastry school anyone?

Ok, so.. I'm trying to get organised. I'm trying to actually do the stuff instead of just sitting there staring at it for hours, thinking about what I could be doing instead. I even bought a PDA to try and get myself organised. I give it a week before it's lost or broken, or one big mess of games and stuff.

So I had this biometrics test today. For which I studied not at all, which isn't really much worse than studying for it, because just looking at the book makes my head hurt. A lot.

Yeah, I failed it. got the first page right, then... um... it got much much worse. So much worse.

So I think I'll be working on that, and showing up to the assistance times, and reading the book more, and, um.. getting a brain transplant, 'cause otherwise, I am so failing that class.

In other news, pastry school is looking better. Or back to Wyoming. As an abject failure. I could do 3 more years in WY, couldn't I? I mean, really? maybe? perhaps? Ugh, I don't know. I do know that I need to pull off decent grades here or I can't even get back in there. Like passing everything. And I don't know for sure if I'm gonna.

Any one wanna trade brains with me? maybe? please?

Hell, at this point, I'd settle for getting my damned laptop back, so I can get my notes organised in some kinda me-sensical way.

ugh.

j.

some light at the end of the long dark scary computer free tunnel

but with my luck, it's just a big angry train heading straight at me.

So the fix-it people still can't find the part. Or rather, their supplier still won't call them back about the part. Note, one spiffy quick call to fujitsu us, and it coulda been fred-exing its cute little way across the pacific. If I do this again, I think I'll just buy a new one. they could build it and ship it to me in waaay less than half the time. And then I could just ship this one back to mom... she'd love me for at least a week.

but, on a happy note, the fix-it guy says to call on wednesday (also known as.... 4+ weeks after I dropped it off) and they (or someone) should have some actual info for me.

Let this be a lesson to all of you going overseas for school-

Unless you already have a notebook, try not to buy one before moving. They are a total bitch to get fixed. I'm assuming that ease of fixing changes depending on what country you happen to be in. The NZ system seems to work rather like the southern US system, and you'll note that neither is a financial or technological powerhouse.

Does this mean that I'd order a replacement from over here?

Hell no! they're far more expensive, totally not willing to customize, and honestly, I want the one I want, not the one they happen to have made up there in the shop. It's like buying a car off the lot- sure, you can take it home today, but it's only got a tape deck, and maybe you don't like automatics... damnit, I want the 6 disk changer and the w00t! l33t! clutch thingy, and damn the wait!

dude, if I'm paying 5 grand for something (NZ$) I'm damned well gonna get what I want. just silly to cut 1 or 2 hundred bucks on something you should have for at least 4 years- that's just silly. plus, if you get exactly what you want, you don't go shopping as soon after- you're happier with what you got, dude.

wow, I opened *and* closed that paragraph with the word dude.

What will I do with the next computer, tho?

you bet your ass I'm getting the extended international warantee, and twice as important (and twice the price) I'm getting my grubby little paws on the 3 year, no questions asked, international coverage for the damned screen. I don't care if they have to carry the fucker by hand, walking thru burning desert and swimming shark infested waters to get it to me, I want that damned part!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry- get testy without my baby.

j.

Projects and summer school

I knew I shouldn't put things off again, oops. This thing has got to read like a train wreck at this point.

So what's up here? It's looking like spring. I've found a guy to hang out with (read that how you choose). I hate my bicycle. I hate biometrics.

speaking of biometrics, I really need to stop putting off the reports for that class until the very last minute, or I'm going to fail it. I need to actually do them, is I suppose what I'm saying. Staying and putting myself deep into the pit of money owed really does me no good if I just keep fucking up. Although at this point that seems to be the only thing I do well.

Anywho- My projects are all getting to the point that I have to pay more attention to them. Mainly because they're due soon, or worth more, or needed to keep me in the range I need to even bother staying here. If I oops too bad, I might as well just go home and go back to hel-mart.

Summer, though, I'm going to re-take chem, I think, extramurally. I don't think I need to take an on-campus class, tho there is this week or so I have to show up and re-do all the labs, which is really not a problem, 'cause I enjoy chem lab, whatever I might say to the contrary. Which means that for the most part my summer plans are the same. I just have to find internet access more often, and cart a big boring book around with me. Ah well.

It also means I get to take out more loans. One class means smaller loan, two means bigger. Hmmm... Two gives me more chances to up my gpa thing, tho... ah, decisions.

speaking of projects, I need to print out a copy of the questions for the poster project, eat lunch, and shower before lab- I have an hour an a half. I wish me luck.

j.

freak occurrence

So...

I'm taking this class. (ok, I'm taking 4 classes, but...) This class for which I never, ever, ever go to lecture. Any family please ignore that last sentence. For family, never ever ever means always, faithfully, even when I don't *have* class.

So anyway, yeah, I don't go. And since the first week, I haven't read the book. And I'm not sure I even read it then.

Had the mid-term this week. 75 multi-choice questions. P-sychology. In order to prepare, I read my e-mail, goofed off online, read the fake doctor, and read thru (and by reading I actually mean scanned while flipping thru other things) the powerpoints.

I probably spent all of 45 minutes preparing for it. Maybe. Perhaps.

I got 61/75. That's an 81.something%!

That's me an 15 other people over 80%. What the Fuck? The test wasn't that tough. I finished in less than 30 minutes. How totally braindead (sorry to anyone who failed the test who's reading this) do you honestly have to be to fail an intro, survey, *p-sychology* test? it's not even like it was short answer!

non-representative fake-question example-
Q. The human brain:
a. is a basketball
b. has a fore, mid, and hind brain
c. eats monkeys
d. is made of cheese

Now, using this non-representative fake-question, I will teach you all how to take a multi-choice test.

First, one answer will be total BS. In this case, it's answer a. (no arguments, people) It's obvious that for peoples brains to actually be basketballs, their skulls would have to be much, much larger.

Then one will look possible, which is answer d (and quite probable in many people), but it's still not the "real" answer.

Then you get two, which both look soooo right- b and c in this case. And this is where it gets tricky. Usually your choices will look more like "b. does eat monkeys, c. does not eat monkeys" and then you're really screwed.

but since this is a p-sychology class, we know the answer won't be the biology one, so it's obviously not answer B. Or is it. Um... at this point I suggest small change. Nickels or ten cent (or whatever) pieces. Heads is b, tails is C.

And my half dollar says the answer is C. The human brain eats monkeys.

Note, I don't actually take tests like this- the other students get really pissed off when you're flipping a coin every 20 seconds. Guess it's distracting. And I'm too young to die.

Still, freaking 81%? WTF were they thinking?

Oh, and for those of you wondering, the mean was 49.3 (67.1%) and the standard dev was 10.6 (14.5%). Freaks.

Oh, for anyone really scared (or scarred), with my total BS lab report that puts my total grade atm at 74.8%.
And all I had to do was show up.

it's times like this that I really gotta wonder about the value of putting in even an extra hour a week (giving me an average of 1 hour 10 minutes a week spent on this paper outside class). Would an extra hour or two of studying really have helped me out that much, or would it just have made me paranoid, or wasted time. Ah well.

j.

angst, angst!

Ok, I forsee a small Problem.

Baseball related, again.

Sorry, still sugary and caffinated. And hungry now, too. Really hungry.

So anyway, the mets are still kicking ass-which I like and gives me all sorts of bad ideas of places I *could* study over "study" break. Like an airplane over the pacific. and LAX, and... yeah.

Problem tho, is that the Yankees are also doing waaay well. And no offence, subway series would be cool and all, but... I'd have much better ticket getting chances if the freaking tigers are in. Or perhaps not. I mean, how often do the tigers go to the series? Really?

All of which ignores the whole mets + post season =big freaking choke.

Erm, um.. yeah. Um.. I mean
You gotta believe.

So.. anyone got ticket prices wellington to NYC round trip for less than 1k USD inc. taxes/ fees?
way less?

Daddy? I love you, wanna buy me airline tickets and baseball tickets, and pay for my hostel bed and food money, and....

j.

Bounce. bounce bounce bounce

So... I had my most recent visit with my magic eye doctor lady. I finally am fitted for contacts. She's put me in slightly cheaper ones. Cheaper ones I could probably get at home, or even *from* home for about half the price I'm paying here. But anyway, I'm finally fitted.

But to get fitted, I had to be there (awake, oddly enough) at 9.30 this morning. Which means I have to be up *before* 9.30 this morning. Before 8.30, even. So I went to sleep at 6.30 last night (I was tired, ok? it's that midnight CSI watching, it catches up with me).

And then I woke up at about 4.30 this morning. Which wouldn't have been bad, but I'm too lazy to get out of bed untill I have to, so I stayed in the nice warm bed, under the nice warm comforter and fluffy down sleeping bag untill about 7, when I put my contacts in and climbed back into bed. I made the bus, by the way.

So anyway, a hungry j. got downtown, where she bought some bread. And a choco croisant. But that's not what makes j's go boing boing boing.

Or bounce bounce bounce, either.

Oh, no. j. had an extra ten minutes, and there's this starbucks on the corner I had to wait on (for the light people, geeze...). So I got a huge mocha. And then I dumped in a pile of sugar. Then I chugged it. Mmmmm. Chocolate and sugar... and caffeine. Yummy. On an empty stomach. So I'm bouncing.

A lot.

And having trouble typing straight. But that's a problem anyway. Good thing I've only got the one lab today. Maybe I should work on that stuff I have to do for next week now. Or maybe that'd be a bad idea. Hmm...

Speaking of that lab- it's a nutrition-y lab. We're looking at satiation based on timing and size and ingredients in meals. And then we're doing a smell/ tastetest. which is the one I get to do, since while they told us that if we had food restrictions we should email "us" they never said who "us" was, or gave an e-mail or phone number, or anything.

So we're supposed to fast for 4 hours before the lab. Or was it 6. Oh well, either way, I cheated. since plain coffee doesn't like my stomach, I had the chocolate-y sugary roll thing. But yeah, fasting, so no putting anything else in my guts to slow down the coffee. I'm going to be crashing soon.

Hmmm.. so yeah, coffee= bad.

j.

Stuff

My baby is in Wellington. Been there for a week, it has. They can't find the part. The supplier is looking, but hasn't gotten back to them. baby might be taking a trip home. And I'll have to get a new one. Silly Kiwis.

In other news, I'm still working on the contact lens thing. I mentioned that, right? Yeah, contacts. Tried a pair for a week or so, went in today, they weren't quite right, so she's testing me in a different prescription. I get to go back next week. Again.

With my luck, the ones I eventually get will be the most expensive contacts on the face of the earth. The whole earth, not just this oddly overpriced bit hanging off the end here.

In other other news, I need to ask about (re-) taking chem over the summer extramurally. Dunno if ti's allowed. If it's not, dunno what I'll do. If it is, I wanna see if I can take a class in wellington too- since I'd only have to be here for the contact course week-thingy. I should probably ask, huh?

Oh, yeah, and I've written myself a schedual, so I hopefully do all the stuff (which isn't really that much, but is very very boring) that I need to get done to do well enough in my classes to not end up back home, stuck at hell-mart for the whole of the rest of my life.

Not that Wyoming isn't nice and all. I'd just really rather not be stuck there. Place is the freaking twilight zone. No, really.

Ok, gotta pretend to prepare for monday's presentation, later monday's project meeting, tuesdays test, and other project due on the 18th.

And remember, Only 11 more drinking days untill international talk like a pirate day! (that's september 19th for those freaks out there who've never heard of it. Google, people, goooo-gllllle!)

yargh!
j.