If I was a religious person, dear readers, I’d think that a higher power was looking out for me. It’s either that Or two other possibilities. It could be that Mercury is in retrograde and tech doesn’t work for me when that astrological phenomenon happens, or I have a demon on my shoulder and the Devil’s been plaguing me lo these many months. But, my dears, I’m not a religious sort of person so it can’t possibly be a higher power looking out for me. Unless that higher power is my friend Raffaele. On Thursday at the writers’ Group, he finally fixed my tech issue. I was able to write, (or not write) at the bookstore with Internet. It seems that the DNS IP addresses were blocking the signal for Wi-Fi. It took him all of two minutes to figure out and fix. And all he had to do was erase the IP addresses. That still doesn’t solve the small problem of my phone connecting to Wi-Fi in the store and then 10 minutes later having the WiFi fall out. However, this is minor in comparison to the issue of not having Wi-Fi for 6 months. It was truly wonderful being able to write and look stuff up at the same time. It almost makes me not want to give up my Mac, bad USB port and all. But don’t worry, I said almost. Which leads me to the next part of the title. I have pretty much decided, dear reader, on an XPS laptop from Dell. But the problem has become being spoiled for choice in terms of features. Like Jasper, I do not do well with choice, at least not in tech. I have spent the last two months vacillating between the incomprehensible interface of Dell US and Dell Netherlands to see whether I should buy the computer here or wait until Christmas and buy it in the States. Dilemma number one is that I’m not sure that the international warranty applies in the Netherlands or the US. Let me explain. On the US site, when you click on the four-year international warranty plus accidental damage, it is unclear whether accidental damage is included in the price. On the Netherlands side, it looks like it is included. And then when you click certain features other features become unavailable and you have to change them. Did I mention, dear readers, that I am not a tech person? It’s too many things to wade through and consider. Accordingly, I’m going to have Jasper take a look at them. I do not want a repeat of my apple experience and having a nonworking computer that I cannot teach from because I didn’t get the features that I want and the warrantees that I need. And as ever, dear readers, any assistance is appreciated. If you leave me a comment that would be wonderful.
Things are winding up with my clients at the English Center I had the last class with a client last Friday, and this evening will mark the last class for another. I still have my real estate students until 2 December and then, of course, I leave for the States. I put all of this on the calendar, I am not sure however that the English Center reads the calendar well. Because they want to keep giving me students, which is not a problem, but then I have to give them to other people and I don’t like to do that. Not because I’m competitive but because I like to finish what I start. Felix was a no-show this week again but at least he gave me five days’ notice. Accordingly, I opened up all the slots for VIPKid and taught for three hours. The situation at VIPKid is getting ridiculous, however. I am seeing more and more 25-hour cancellations and the slots are not filling back up with other students. I keep telling my colleagues in our slack channel that it’s because 90,000 teachers and 700,000 students cannot possibly a full schedule make. There are too many holes. On balance, I am not loving working Sundays so accordingly, I looked at the upcoming winter and spring class schedule for the English Center and put my hat in the ring for all of them. I’m going to have to schedule my travels to the US around them. If I get one. I’m also going to have to inform the English Center that I put my hat in the ring because they may not look at the calendar in time.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always there is more to come.
Inkreadable 