For those who don't know, the title of this post is a reference to The Last Battle, the last book in C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia" series. (If you haven't already, GO READ IT!) In the book, it's an admonishment not to stay on the edges of something, but to plunge into its center, full-force.
I'm kind of in love with the expression, actually.
It also happens to be the best thing I can think of to say about my time in Taiwan right now. I've long since gotten over the initial culture shock and established a daily routine; even my language skills have evolved to the point where I can at least get around okay. The challenge now comes in not staying at the edges of my world here, but to drive forward to experience it at greater depths.
The depths I plumbed today: the non-compatibility of US-made DVDs with Taiwan-made DVD players (I think I was as disappointed as the kids that we couldn't watch Up...); a scenic route home complete with the discovery of a cute shopping area behind the main one at Central Park (amazing what you can find in search of Burger King!); the impossibly long task of checking receipt numbers for their bimonthly lottery (no wins, after sorting my fat pile of receipts by month, then first digit, and then checking to see if all 8, or even just 7, or 6, or 5, or 4, or 3 numbers matched. They didn't.).
So, not exactly the sort of profundity Lewis usually inspires. Pretty mundane, really. But the little mundane things pile up on each other and build into life itself. So I say, farther up and further in!
Showing posts with label DVD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DVD. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Technobabble and casserole
Considering that I spent the first portion of my day doing very little at school (the result of a combination of my lingering sickness and the fact that, due to said sickness, Maggie had adapted to teaching this particular lesson plan solo), I must look to my post-school day for a subject today.
Except, wait, I did very little in that, too.
Essentially, I got my computer to play DVDs. Which, as it turns out, is much easier said than done. My computer is a netbook, which means it has no internal CD/DVD reader. No big deal, right? I'll just go buy one.
Step 1: You go to Carrefour. You'd seen DVD drives for sale in a Carrefour in Taitung, and assumed their merchandise would be fairly uniform. Nope.
Step 2: Call Fonda. Always the last word in solving problems. :)
Step 3: Go with Fonda and Brittany to get Brittany's iPod fixed (the screen broke this morning at 7:30am--go ahead, ask me how I know precisely when it broke, despite originally being asleep, haha).
Step 4: Go with Fonda to the electronics store and buy an external CD/DVD drive.
Story over, right? Well...no.
Step 5: Take several hours out of the process, so as to put together an incredibly involved Powerpoint of sports from around the world to teach to the 6th graders tomorrow. Promise yourself you won't even try to watch a movie until you're done. Stick to your promise, until...
Step 6: You get hungry and decide to make something resembling a casserole out of leftover cream of corn soup, rice, chicken, onions, carrots, and cheese. It turns out pretty well (hooray!), and you realize that you now have a chunk of free time in which no one would blame you for not trying to type while eating.
Step 7: Attempt to install new DVD drive and discover that neither of the two separate software packages that came with the drive have anything to do with just playing music. Try fiddling with various players, only to discover that Windows 7 Starter doesn't have the right drivers installed to decode DVDs. Go online to discover that, while Vista and XP have plenty of (often free) downloads to fix similar problems, Windows 7 just recommends upgrading to a higher version of Windows 7. The problem with that, of course, is that you have a netbook; there's a reason you only run Starter, and it's that there's not enough space for a crap-ton of programming!
Step 8: Play it safe and save current settings in case of a reboot.
Step 9: Begin downloading random crap from the Internet that says it will fix your problem. Some of it doesn't. Most of it doesn't. But then...
Step 10: One program works. You are happy and watch a movie.
Oh, and at some point, you finished the Powerpoint and sent it to your co-teacher and host mom. So it was a happy ending, with movies and casserole for all.
The end.
Except, wait, I did very little in that, too.
Essentially, I got my computer to play DVDs. Which, as it turns out, is much easier said than done. My computer is a netbook, which means it has no internal CD/DVD reader. No big deal, right? I'll just go buy one.
Step 1: You go to Carrefour. You'd seen DVD drives for sale in a Carrefour in Taitung, and assumed their merchandise would be fairly uniform. Nope.
Step 2: Call Fonda. Always the last word in solving problems. :)
Step 3: Go with Fonda and Brittany to get Brittany's iPod fixed (the screen broke this morning at 7:30am--go ahead, ask me how I know precisely when it broke, despite originally being asleep, haha).
Step 4: Go with Fonda to the electronics store and buy an external CD/DVD drive.
Story over, right? Well...no.
Step 5: Take several hours out of the process, so as to put together an incredibly involved Powerpoint of sports from around the world to teach to the 6th graders tomorrow. Promise yourself you won't even try to watch a movie until you're done. Stick to your promise, until...
Step 6: You get hungry and decide to make something resembling a casserole out of leftover cream of corn soup, rice, chicken, onions, carrots, and cheese. It turns out pretty well (hooray!), and you realize that you now have a chunk of free time in which no one would blame you for not trying to type while eating.
Step 7: Attempt to install new DVD drive and discover that neither of the two separate software packages that came with the drive have anything to do with just playing music. Try fiddling with various players, only to discover that Windows 7 Starter doesn't have the right drivers installed to decode DVDs. Go online to discover that, while Vista and XP have plenty of (often free) downloads to fix similar problems, Windows 7 just recommends upgrading to a higher version of Windows 7. The problem with that, of course, is that you have a netbook; there's a reason you only run Starter, and it's that there's not enough space for a crap-ton of programming!
Step 8: Play it safe and save current settings in case of a reboot.
Step 9: Begin downloading random crap from the Internet that says it will fix your problem. Some of it doesn't. Most of it doesn't. But then...
Step 10: One program works. You are happy and watch a movie.
Oh, and at some point, you finished the Powerpoint and sent it to your co-teacher and host mom. So it was a happy ending, with movies and casserole for all.
The end.
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