The Apple people are semi-redeemed because at least now both of my problems are solved. Turns out that when the warning said I would be required to re-purchase Quicktime Pro, they didn't mean me, for some reason (although it didn't say you might have to get a new registration key, and said you will have to.) So that works. As for the game, they said I had to make sure my computer was authorized to play things purchased from the iTunes store. Well, duh, of course it was authorized. But I re-authorized it and now that works, too. They were just being the dumb with their directions.Speaking of dumb, which I certainly do not mean in its original derogatory sense of a person who lacks the ability to speak, I am thinking of investigating how to file a complaint under the Americans With Disabilities Act. I have noticed that several stores in the area, including the Shop Rite I've gone to since I was 10, and every CVS store, have installed something in the area of their cash registers that causes loud and continous static to erupt in my hearing aids. This is not like the high whine I hear when I go through the theft detection posts at department stores, and anyway, I go through them and it's over. These are places that I have to stand for several minutes while transacting my purchase. It's so loud that I can't hear what anyone says to me while I'm there. Stay tuned for more on that in future.
Un-redeemed today is the SCM, who is so intent on preserving whatever it is he sees as his quality of life that he will shoot himself in the foot and take me with him. One of his issues that surfaces from time to time is that he cannot bear to work one minute over our contracted time. Now, any teachers out there will tell you that yes, we have contracts and hours specified, but it is the very rare teacher who can keep to that strictly and not spend more time in school than you're "supposed" to. But he does. And it seems as if our principal is going to try to extend library hours in the future, and even though I told the SCM that I'd take the late shift, he's already shooting his mouth off here and there because he does not understand that part of this is political and he is a man with no power whatsoever in this situation.
I also had this little philosophical discussion with him yesterday. This kind of thing should not surprise me anymore, but he looks like an old hippie -- which you already know -- and he's all about the hiking and whatnot, but he's really a yuppie with a portfolio and a vacation home in Vermont, and a self-centered phony to boot. (You knew that, too.) Here it is. We were commenting that the school system had cut several small part-time jobs here and there, educational aides mostly, and yet one of the administrators had gotten a raise, maybe $20k a year. So I asked the SCM, if they offered you a $20k raise, but you knew it would mean that four people would lose their $5k a year jobs, would you take it?"
Now before I tell you the rest, let me point out that if you are a teacher in Bergen County, New Jersey -- we came out high in the longevity game, too, it seems -- and you've been teaching for a long time and you have multiple graduate degrees, well, you are being paid okay. You're not wealthy, but you're okay. So this is the mindset from which he is answering the question.
He says, it's a hard question to answer, because it would depend on whether or not he knew the people who would lose their jobs. My jaw must have dropped at that point, and then he said that yes, he would probably take the raise. Seriously, I did not know what to say. So he says, It's not a hard question for you? No, I told him, it was an easy one. He says that if these people have jobs that pay them $5k a year, they can probably do without it or can easily get a comparable job. I said those were probably people who really needed those jobs, and I wouldn't do it. I'm not being noble, here. It just seems so clear to me on the surface. I presented it to the Hubs, and knew that he would agree with me without a thought, and he did.
So, another Twilight Zone reference, but I think this was one of the new TZ; I told the SCM about an episode I'd seen where someone gives a guy a box with a button in it and tells him if he presses the button, he can have all the wealth in the world he wants, but that some random person on the planet will die. The SCM says well, he probably wouldn't do it if it meant someone would die. Oh, really? Greeeeaaaat. Anyway, in the show, the guy presses the button and his wife dies. So there.
Thursday is my lonely night, so to speak, with both K and the Hubs in class and the Sibs off to work for the long day with her hubby. Next week, with any luck, I'll be having dinner with the Chum, back from Maine, and the next week, with any luck, I'll be at the gym. For tonight, it's me and the cats, and snack food. Must. Not. Snack. Must. Not. .........
