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Ever have one of those days?
Jan. 18th, 2006 08:39 pmWas working today. For those who don't know, I'm paying my bills lately by doing AV tech work. Setup video projectors for people to show powerpoint presentations and so on.
Anyway, I'm doing a gig at a nearby World Famous University, setting up the room for aforementioned power point presentations. It was raining cats and dogs and windy here today, so I get wet walking from the subway station to the gig after my umbrella gets blown into ruin. Damn, that sucks, good thing it was a cheap umbrella.
Go to the room, turn on the lights, setup the screen, fire up projector, etc. Gal who is running it shows up, declares the room is setup wrong, and I end up helping her move the tables and chairs around. No biggie, but its warm here, and I get a bit sweaty. Meanwhile, the catering guy arrives and takes a long time to setup the food. Seems his entire crew called in sick today.
Then they tell me about the presentations. Each presentation is only ten minutes long, then a five minute Q&A, then the next one goes. nonstop for three hours, and we have to be done before noontime, since someone else is using the room then. Oh yeah, each person is using their own laptop.
As anyone who has done this sort of thing now cringes in pain, let me share the joy. Laptops that have external video jacks usually disable them as a power saving measure. So whenever one does this sort of thing, one has to go into the software and hardware settings to enable the external port, and then set it to send video to both the normal screen and the external port. Every maker of laptops, of course, does this in subtly and not so subtly different ways. All of which I now get to figure out while standing in front of a room full of PhDs who are impatiently waiting for the next presentation. Nothing like a little pressure to produce a little perfomance anxiety.
FIrst guy up has a mac laptop... and doesn't have the adapter to convert it to VGA. *sighs* Fortunately one of the other presenters has one, and offers it up for use during the day. Looking at the room, I see mostly mac, and there are a couple of *different* macintosh video to VGA adapters out there for different models, none of the others are here either. *sweatdrops* Hope I only need this one today.
Things are going along, and a minute into the second presentation, I hear an announcement over the loudspeaker system that they are testing the fire alarms today, please disregard all alarms you hear until further notice. Then the fire alarms start going off. after each alarm signal, some guy comes on and repeats the announcement that the fire alarms are being tested, etc., etc. So I spend the next 20 minutes or so holding my hand over the fire alarm annunciator trying to muffle the sounds as the presenters continue gamely on. This was, as might be expected, loud and uncomfortable.
Other issues included one laptop that ran out of battery as I was walking it up to the lecturn, and the guy had not brought the power supply. A couple of them had brought their presentations on USB thumb drives, so ended up having to borrow someone else's laptop.
Finally the last presentation finished, the Dean of the World Famous University makes his closing remarks thanking everyone for being there today. Quick like a bunny, I bring up the house lights, press the buttons to roll up the screen into the ceiling and shut down the projector, hand back the fellow his laptop and out I go. I'm past due for a visit to the bathroom! Mission acomplished, I flush the toilet... Something warns me
and I manage to step aside as water sprays out and covers the floor. I say some words I shouldn't type here, and turn around to look for a shutoff valve, and there is the Dean of the World Famous University right behind me, looking irritated. He doesn't say anything, I shut the water off with my trusty multi-tool, and go on my way.
But wait, there's more...
Heading home, it's raining much harder now. water is sloshing up onto the
sidwalks from the street, and the wind is gusting hard enough that I'm having to lean into it. I'm getting soaking wet and feeling sorry for myself, and duck into a burrito joint for some lunch and destressing time. A leisurley lunch later, I step back outside and continue on to the subway station. Funny, there is alot of people waiting there. No biggie, I sez to myself, that's why I keep a paperback in the gig bag. Step into the slightly leaky shelter and read my book for a while... It's fairly interesting, and then I look up and realize that I've been standing here for well over an hour, and there hasn't been a trolley car for well over an hour.
There were two rumors. One was that the train tracks had flooded, and another that said a tree had blown over onto the tracks, and I guess the MBTA's chainsaw had broke down or something. Someone had called the MBTA emergency number, and they told them that bus service was running between the stations in the shut down sections. So we waits some
more.... It's now been nearly two hours, and no bus or trains. Some lady walking by tells us that the bus service is making it's stops by the dunkin donuts four blocks away from the station. back out into the pouring rain, and the slight amount of drying I had managed went away before I got even ten feet. Four blocks had me soaking wet, thanks to some #)($%$#* in a speeding suburban assault vehicle and a nice deep puddle.
Finally got onto an overcrowded bus, and we swayed and bounced out to the station where we could finally get onto a train out to riverside. Getting into my car there, it's now three hours since I got out of work. Been standing most of the day, my feet hurt, and my socks are squelching with each step.
But wait, there's more......
I start to drive home, and turn on the classical music station to try and relax a bit. Shoulda listened to the traffic reports. The road I take home is closed, due to "multiple poles and wires down", which I don't realize until I've been directed into the detour, get lost, and spend another half an hour driving randomly through suburbia before I find someplace that looks familiar. This was, less than a mile from my home, and my home is on a flood plain. Also, there were power failures all over the place from trees knocking down wires, and the roads are covered with fallen branches, making
driving a bit of a dodgem course.
FInally I make it home, almost 5pm, four and a half hours after I got out of work. Looking at the clock, I see that I have about twenty minutes to shower, change, eat supper, and leave for my evening commitment. Forget it. TIme for a bowl of hot soup, a nice piece or three of the cake I bought on the way home, and go veg out in front of the computer for the rest of the evening.
Tomorrow, my dad is going in for hernia surgery.
Anyway, I'm doing a gig at a nearby World Famous University, setting up the room for aforementioned power point presentations. It was raining cats and dogs and windy here today, so I get wet walking from the subway station to the gig after my umbrella gets blown into ruin. Damn, that sucks, good thing it was a cheap umbrella.
Go to the room, turn on the lights, setup the screen, fire up projector, etc. Gal who is running it shows up, declares the room is setup wrong, and I end up helping her move the tables and chairs around. No biggie, but its warm here, and I get a bit sweaty. Meanwhile, the catering guy arrives and takes a long time to setup the food. Seems his entire crew called in sick today.
Then they tell me about the presentations. Each presentation is only ten minutes long, then a five minute Q&A, then the next one goes. nonstop for three hours, and we have to be done before noontime, since someone else is using the room then. Oh yeah, each person is using their own laptop.
As anyone who has done this sort of thing now cringes in pain, let me share the joy. Laptops that have external video jacks usually disable them as a power saving measure. So whenever one does this sort of thing, one has to go into the software and hardware settings to enable the external port, and then set it to send video to both the normal screen and the external port. Every maker of laptops, of course, does this in subtly and not so subtly different ways. All of which I now get to figure out while standing in front of a room full of PhDs who are impatiently waiting for the next presentation. Nothing like a little pressure to produce a little perfomance anxiety.
FIrst guy up has a mac laptop... and doesn't have the adapter to convert it to VGA. *sighs* Fortunately one of the other presenters has one, and offers it up for use during the day. Looking at the room, I see mostly mac, and there are a couple of *different* macintosh video to VGA adapters out there for different models, none of the others are here either. *sweatdrops* Hope I only need this one today.
Things are going along, and a minute into the second presentation, I hear an announcement over the loudspeaker system that they are testing the fire alarms today, please disregard all alarms you hear until further notice. Then the fire alarms start going off. after each alarm signal, some guy comes on and repeats the announcement that the fire alarms are being tested, etc., etc. So I spend the next 20 minutes or so holding my hand over the fire alarm annunciator trying to muffle the sounds as the presenters continue gamely on. This was, as might be expected, loud and uncomfortable.
Other issues included one laptop that ran out of battery as I was walking it up to the lecturn, and the guy had not brought the power supply. A couple of them had brought their presentations on USB thumb drives, so ended up having to borrow someone else's laptop.
Finally the last presentation finished, the Dean of the World Famous University makes his closing remarks thanking everyone for being there today. Quick like a bunny, I bring up the house lights, press the buttons to roll up the screen into the ceiling and shut down the projector, hand back the fellow his laptop and out I go. I'm past due for a visit to the bathroom! Mission acomplished, I flush the toilet... Something warns me
and I manage to step aside as water sprays out and covers the floor. I say some words I shouldn't type here, and turn around to look for a shutoff valve, and there is the Dean of the World Famous University right behind me, looking irritated. He doesn't say anything, I shut the water off with my trusty multi-tool, and go on my way.
But wait, there's more...
Heading home, it's raining much harder now. water is sloshing up onto the
sidwalks from the street, and the wind is gusting hard enough that I'm having to lean into it. I'm getting soaking wet and feeling sorry for myself, and duck into a burrito joint for some lunch and destressing time. A leisurley lunch later, I step back outside and continue on to the subway station. Funny, there is alot of people waiting there. No biggie, I sez to myself, that's why I keep a paperback in the gig bag. Step into the slightly leaky shelter and read my book for a while... It's fairly interesting, and then I look up and realize that I've been standing here for well over an hour, and there hasn't been a trolley car for well over an hour.
There were two rumors. One was that the train tracks had flooded, and another that said a tree had blown over onto the tracks, and I guess the MBTA's chainsaw had broke down or something. Someone had called the MBTA emergency number, and they told them that bus service was running between the stations in the shut down sections. So we waits some
more.... It's now been nearly two hours, and no bus or trains. Some lady walking by tells us that the bus service is making it's stops by the dunkin donuts four blocks away from the station. back out into the pouring rain, and the slight amount of drying I had managed went away before I got even ten feet. Four blocks had me soaking wet, thanks to some #)($%$#* in a speeding suburban assault vehicle and a nice deep puddle.
Finally got onto an overcrowded bus, and we swayed and bounced out to the station where we could finally get onto a train out to riverside. Getting into my car there, it's now three hours since I got out of work. Been standing most of the day, my feet hurt, and my socks are squelching with each step.
But wait, there's more......
I start to drive home, and turn on the classical music station to try and relax a bit. Shoulda listened to the traffic reports. The road I take home is closed, due to "multiple poles and wires down", which I don't realize until I've been directed into the detour, get lost, and spend another half an hour driving randomly through suburbia before I find someplace that looks familiar. This was, less than a mile from my home, and my home is on a flood plain. Also, there were power failures all over the place from trees knocking down wires, and the roads are covered with fallen branches, making
driving a bit of a dodgem course.
FInally I make it home, almost 5pm, four and a half hours after I got out of work. Looking at the clock, I see that I have about twenty minutes to shower, change, eat supper, and leave for my evening commitment. Forget it. TIme for a bowl of hot soup, a nice piece or three of the cake I bought on the way home, and go veg out in front of the computer for the rest of the evening.
Tomorrow, my dad is going in for hernia surgery.
