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- <h1>Broken computer</h1>
- <p>Day 00469: Saturday, 2016 June 18</p>
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- <p>
- The teachers at my mother's school are grouped into teams of people that are supposed to support each other, each composed of teachers of a specific grade level.
- My mother constantly complains that her team hasn't given my mother their telephone numbers.
- I've asked about this in the past, and my mother has never asked for their telephone numbers, they've just expected the other teachers to volunteer them.
- Furthermore, my mother has all of their email addresses, so it's not like they can't be reached.
- My mother's a bit obsessed with telephones though, which is part of where I get my own distaste for them.
- Today, I finally worked the final question that's been haunting me into the conversation in a non-accusatory way: has my mother ever offered these people <strong>*their*</strong> telephone number? As it turns out, no, no they have not.
- My mother expects these other teachers to volunteer extra contact information without actually offering contact information themself.
- Sure, that's not one-sided or anything.
- It's true that a lot of the teachers have given each other their telephone numbers, but it's also true that a lot of these teachers have known each other for years and are good friends.
- They likely have each other's telephone numbers because of off-the-clock interactions.
- These people don't necessarily even think to try to reach my mother outside of email; if my mother wanted to establish an extra line of communication using the telephone system, my mother should be the one to reach out and offer their number first.
- Most likely, the other teachers would respond by handing over their own telephone numbers in kind.
- However, my mother somehow thinks that it's not their own place to do the reaching out, but somehow is the other teachers' responsibility.
- </p>
- <p>
- My mother was about to head out without me, so I started gathering my stuff to go as quickly as I could.
- They said that if I came along, it'd be as likely that I'd actually be able to help as that I'd instead end up sitting there bored.
- Wanting to be there in case any help was needed, I came along anyway, but I made sure to bring <a href="/en/domains/newdawn.local.xhtml">my laptop</a>.
- First, we ended up hitting up some yard sales, and at one of them, we found some kitchen knives for a dime each.
- Some of these were very nice knives though.
- We picked up two that had originally come from one of the dollar discount stores.
- They originally came in a pack of seven for a dollar, but they're the best knives that I've ever used.
- Seriously.
- I'm not sure why such quality knives were ever sold so cheaply, but we always buy more whenever we find them second hand.
- We don't see them in-store any more (I've never seen them in-store, that's how old these things are), but they hold up with age very well and cut fantastically.
- Next week, we plan to hold our own sale again to try to rid ourselves of more junk.
- </p>
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- Once at the school, I predictably didn't have anything to do, so I tried starting my laptop.
- That didn't go well at all.
- Simply plugging <code>newdawn.local.</code> into the wall caused it to go into a strange restart loop in which it wouldn't turn on long enough to even reach the <abbr title="Basic Input/Output System">BIOS</abbr> booting screen before shutting off and starting again.
- It'd just been functioning before I left home! After working the machine over frustrated for a bit, I found that the power supply jack seemed to be pushed in a bit far.
- Was an improper connection to the charger cord causing the problem? Dismantling my laptop, I found that the power supply jack was indeed out of place; the thin plastic walls holding the jack against the outside of the shell were broken.
- Hopefully, I'd found the issue.
- Getting decent access to the problem spot required further dismantling though, so I continued taking things apart.
- Due to putting pressure on the wrong part of a connector while disconnecting the electronic components, I broke the connector responsible for making my touchpad work! That was frustrating.
- I also found that the fan was packed with dust, so I cleaned that out while I had the machine open.
- I went looking for my mother to ask if the school had any electrical tape that they leave lying around, but instead found Mary-Margaret, so I asked them instead.
- Mary-Margaret lent me their own electrical tape instead! With electrical tape in hand, I bound the power supply jack back into place as best as I could, then started putting the machine back together.
- I also noted that my <abbr title="random-access memory">RAM</abbr> slots were full while the machine was open; I'd wondered if I could pack any more <abbr title="random-access memory">RAM</abbr> into it a while back, as I have many sticks of miscellaneous <abbr title="random-access memory">RAM</abbr> types lying around.
- Sadly, I forgot to take note of which of the two wires attached to which spot on what I believe is the Wi-Fi card, but my first guess worked.
- I'm not sure if both options would have functioned, but I was too tired to test the other option when the first was doing what I needed it to.
- I'd spent several hours trying to fix my machine, so I was ready to be done with it.
- Likewise, I'd used up all of my free time.
- With the laptop fixed, it was time to start loading the van.
- </p>
- <p>
- We headed to the hills to search for bullet shells.
- We found many, along with a dead porcupine.
- It didn't look like the porcupine had been shot, so it probably just died of natural causes.
- My mother loves parts of dead things though, so they pulled off several hairs and quills.
- They said they'd cook them to kill off any dangerous bacteria, then use them for education, allowing students to see what porcupine hair and quills look like.
- In particular, it sounds like they want to show how sharp the quills are and that the hair is multicolored.
- We were too tired to unload when we got home, so we'll do that tomorrow morning.
- </p>
- <p>
- My laptop's doing better than before it broke! Specifically, it doesn't seem to overheat any more.
- The fan being full of junk was no doubt hard on it, so I should remember to open my laptop and clean out the fan again next time that it starts to overheat instead of assuming that the laptop's just old.
- Does this mean that <a href="/en/domains/thinkpad-x60s.local.xhtml"><code>thinkpad-x60s.local.</code></a> should be just fine then? I replaced the fan, but perhaps all it needed was a good fan cleaning.
- I think I cleaned the new fan before installing it, so maybe the clean fan will keep it cool enough to keep it from shutting off.
- Unfortunately, my mobile's health has gone down.
- Not only is my mobile unable to read Ext4 and loosing files on <abbr title="File Allocation Table">FAT</abbr>, it's now also claiming that my <abbr title="File Allocation Table">FAT</abbr> <abbr title="Secure Digital">SD</abbr> card is blank or nonexistent.
- This is ridiculous.
- Why has my mobile suddenly started failing on me recently?
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