So here's a few things going on in my life:
This Damned, Cursed Computer
Back in the day, Steem prices were real good. I was taking a year off so, although I had enough savings to just chill for the entire time, I was blogging a lot, too. I ended up having a value of over $50,000 of Steem, which is pretty unreal now I think about it.
But due to not having income, I was in thrift mode the entire time... until I decided to make a huge purchase using Steem - this laptop.
It cost about $2,000.
And it's amazing. Being a random brand - Gigabyte - it didn't have the premium prices you expect but as a legit manufacturer, still came out with something pretty damn top notch. The screen is gorgeous and bezel-less with incredible colours, the speed is phenomenal, with two slots of SSD which is now 2TB, blah blah.
All-round balance and high-end... except one thing.
The Keyboard
The keyboard had a habit of chattering - this is where a key will activate multiple times when you press it just once. Some time later, I spilled a tiny droplet of water on the A key, and that was the end of my happiness. That glitched it out to the extent that the A key was chattering 90% of the time aaaaand I would constaaaantly be typing like ttthis (the T is pretty bad too).
I downloaded software to limit it, but it doesn't work on things like the login page, which makes logging in incredibly frustrating.
Not only that, but the actual A button was dodgy now so I had to trash it, put the Z key there instead, then replace the Z key with a number pad button (I just preferred the Z at the A key). Luckily I never use the number pad, and I have been touch-typing since I was about 3 so It's no issue, but aesthetically awful. My S key has also worn away presumably by my corrosive sweat.
Then the problems came
Keyboard fixed, the rest of the computer decided to have a hissy fit. I probably did something, to be fair, but I can't tell what. To be clear, my computer is absolutely malware, adware, hacktool free and more. Countless checks from the best of the best shows this.
Even so, I've managed to get myself trapped in a spiral of fail.
The first issue was that I could no longer go into Properties menus, either on the desktop or anywhere else. This was fine, it's only curiosity I ever go there.
Then I couldn't install large items of software for inexplicable reasons.
Then I couldn't update windows in any way, drivers and all.
Ok. So the entire computer runs lightning-fast and smooth, but if you want to do anything else than just your routine stuff, you're facked.
The typical Googling was NOT cutting it here. Yes, the errors have all individually been addressed with various fixes, but every update error came with every different 0x00043252 error under the sun, as did everything else.
Every fix that worked for everyone else turns out to be impossible for me now:
SFC Scannow
Won't let me. Cannot be done
Fix the scan now by going here and doing this
Won't let me, that one specific thing won't work
Go to here and click properties an-
Can't. Can't go into properties
Go here and reset windows
No dice, error
Safe mode
Same things
Admin account
Same thing
Recovery
Doesn't work - error
Wipe computer
Doesn't work!!
Every turn I take is blocked off by one of the other errors.
Fixing the DLL's, Fixing the registry, Shellex viewer, Uninstall strange programs, nothing works.
The computer is officially cursed.
Thankfully, I still can do anything I generally need, but trying to install some video editing software was futile, and so I just have to live with what I've got until I buy a new computer 10 years from now.
Sigh.
Back to Work
So if you don't know already, my job is a high school music teacher in an international school in Shanghai, China.
This naturally comes with a TON of BS management beyond your wildest dreams - so much so that despite the insecurity of CoViD-19 life and the fact this was one of the only jobs reliably paying their salaries, almost Every. Single. Teacher. Quit from this campus, with the exception of myself (for life security) and three others.
That's a turnover rate of about 94%!
The 4 of us who remained are constantly on the lookout for alternative jobs but things like music teachers in high school are quite specific and not very popular in such a country for foreigners to be teaching - and there's nothing to say that changing jobs would do anything but introduce you to equally bad or worse management.
So for now, at least, I'm here, while I slowly work out my best route and time to finally go back to England for good. Right now, that's not looking like the best idea, but we'll see.
This job is notorious for its ridiculous and nonsensical bureaucracy among other things, and although the actual teaching aspect is great, as I get to teach music history, theory, choir, and so forth to really great kids, everything else outside of the classroom is a nightmare.
From filling in 5 pages of 'Intervention reports' for every student who gets below the acceptable mean score of your class - meaning any one teacher has to fill this in for about 20 students, every week for 1 month simply for the crime of getting a B+, ad infinitum - to filling in graphs and trends for class progress, various analyses for countless tests an exams (SAT, SSAT, TOEFL X1,000, ACT, AP, IELTS, ABRSM and more on almost a weekly basis), Daily, Weekly, Monthly, per-semester, per-year documents galore!
Clubs (of which I am in charge) have to be met with budget forms, proposal forms, daily, weekly, monthly, per-semester, per-year targets, analyzed, met with constant meetings which all need to have written minutes. Progress reports have to be dozens of pages long, as do the course outlines. Curricula has to be constructed, from scratch, by the teachers themselves, while also adhering to international standards of subjects that most teachers didn't sign up to do and are not qualified to know anything about (for example, they had me teach German for almost a semester because they refused to pay for an actual teacher. The Spanish teacher is currently also doing Psychology, and the Korean teacher is currently teaching Japanese).
And, right now, I'm on Day 3 of 10 in which I sit around and wait because we were told to come despite students not returning until September. We have to go through teacher training. Something that we have all done repeatedly each semester and year. The schedule for these days includes a tour of the school, how to grade, how to log in to computers, and all manner of things I'm sure the new teachers find invaluable. For me, I'll be spending these 10 days napping and writing incredibly boring blogs like this.
There's a lot to prepare, but 90 hours prep before school starts is excessive. I could learn a whole language in that time.
Well that was exciting
I guess I won't tag this or put it into any community. I guess it's just me venting my thoughts.
I do like this job for the teaching part. I love to teach and I love my students - these are the only reasons I can stand being here. But in the grand scheme, with China becoming increasingly authoritarian and micro-managerial (For example, soon it will be law to: Put the Chinese national flag basically everywhere, from residential areas to museums, schools, parks and so forth; have teachers go through 20 hours of CCP propaganda training to support the communist party agenda; Ration food at restaurants so one doesn't get fat or waste food.
With all that, It's time to finally start looking to get out. I don't know how long it will be before my ethics will force me out, or the government itself, but better sooner than later, eh?
Whoops - was not meant to go into the music community - my bad
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