Saturday, September 27, 2008
Romania Videos 4:Body Builders
And I could not resist showing a clip of the "body builder" competition, a fav of mine every week. This is the same as the one I posted before, but the sound makes it that much more fun.
Romanian Videos 3: Camp Cheers
Cheering for our teams...it was this crazy every week. This is from week one, when I was team SUA.
:
:
Romania Videos
Just had a friend send some videos from Romania. This one is from camp worship time, one of my fav videos because it shows the personality of girl I sponsor, Maria.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
A MacBook Odyssey...a story of epic mishaps
It has been one month and twelve days since I have been able to access my own computer. Now it is time to blog again, but first let me explain. See if you can solve the mystery...
Years ago, about two years ago to be exact, there was a teacher who was so excited that she was no longer a poor seminary student. She decided to celebrate by ordering a MacBook which even came with a free i-Pod. She was so excited. When her MacBook arrived in the mail, she turned it on ready for excitement. But shortly after turning on, the MacBook shut off. She turned it on again. It shut off again. And again, And again. She new something must be wrong. Luckily, Apple has excellent service so they decided she should send it back and they would fix it. So she did. It was a motherboard problem, about $1000 paid for by AppleCare.
A week later, her MacBook came back. It was just as she imagined...all the fun of a Mac but portable. A few months later though problems started again. This time the young teacher did not want to wait for the mail, so she took her MacBook to the Apple store, an hours drive. After $1000 of repairs again paid for by AppleCare, she had her MacBook a few weeks later. Six months later this happened again. And again. $5000 worth in repairs later, this teacher was done. She was headed out of the country and took it in for one last repair at the beginning of the summer. After that, she would DEMAND a new one. After another costly repair, always free to her, she left for two months. The poor MacBook made it through life in Romania with minimal problems, but the teacher annoyed everyone with her dominance of electrical outlets. The MacBook only worked when plugged in. It died at random if it was ever unplugged, but at least it worked. The two months in Romania required much emailing and online chatting during breaks. She might not have survived without it.
Upon returning to the US, this teacher slept for two days, then finally when she woke up she turned on her MacBook. She was so excited to see her Romanian friends online, but in the middle of a chat, her laptop shut down never to turn on again. So she took it to a local shop and called Apple asking for a replacement. Apple said they only give replacement if a computer has had at least three major repairs, so it was unlikely. But after careful review of the sage of her MacBook repairs, they appologized for the many problems and gave her exciting news. Stuart from Apple would send her a new one as soon as possible! All she needed to do was print off the labels online and mail it. As soon as FedEx scanned the labels, a new laptop would be overnighted.
Well this teacher was really excited, but with the school year beginning it was hard to find time to mail the old laptop in. The computer store offered to store her hard drive for free for a few days. Everything was perfect. She was bragging about the new laptop already. She printed the labels and taped up the package. She was a little worried that she had not used enough tape - what if the paper she wrapped the box in came loose? Surely it wouldn't, but all they needed to do was scan the label anyhow. She looked online for drop of places that had a pick up time the same day, Pack N Mail was the winner. As soon as work was over, she sped over to the store. The young twenty-something behind the counter said FedEx already picked up that day. She said that was odd the internet said otherwise. He said oh well. He said to leave the package on one of the side counters where customers packed their boxes while waiting for their turn. It seemed like a weird place to put her package. He did not bring it to the back with all the other packages. The teacher thought that was fishy, but said nothing. Then the young worker printed a small receipt off his computer. He said FedEx would not scan the package until tomorrow. She was annoyed, but what could she do?
The next few days, she kept checking for the scan online. Stuart emailed that he had noticed she printed the labels but no package was sent. She was very confused. She called PackNMail. They said not to worry, they found the package in their system but FedEx must have had trouble scanning it. It was ground shipping and would arrive in a week. All she had to do was wait. So she waited, two weeks. No package. She called FedEx and PackNMail. Now PackNMail had NO record of the package in their system, even though they had before. This was suspicious. FedEx agreed and said to file a claim. The teacher was very glad she saved her receipt. Unfortunately, FedEx said since Apple paid for the labels only they could file a claim. A small little company like Apple computers was not about to file a claim against FedEx for a package they had never seen shipped. So began the battle. One tiny sheet of paper was the only evidence that the computer was ever sent. Apple was not sure what they wanted to do. Stuart updated the distraught teacher almost every week. They were on a first name basis and he even recognized her voice when she called. The teacher was growing worried because the receipt was a month old and starting to fade to nothing. That slip of paper was the only thing she had, worth $1000 to her. She sent it to Stuart one last time. Finally, Stuart emailed saying good news, updates will ensue. The teacher was excited, but puzzled with what kind of person would use the word 'ensue' . Though Stuart no longer updated her, later that same day a FedEx tracking number was e-mailed to her. The next day, she had a brand new MacBook. The computer store put her old hard drive info onto the new MacBook. Now the new teacher has a new laptop that looks the same only runs a million times faster. No one will every know what happened to the cursed original MacBook, but now no one seems to care.
Years ago, about two years ago to be exact, there was a teacher who was so excited that she was no longer a poor seminary student. She decided to celebrate by ordering a MacBook which even came with a free i-Pod. She was so excited. When her MacBook arrived in the mail, she turned it on ready for excitement. But shortly after turning on, the MacBook shut off. She turned it on again. It shut off again. And again, And again. She new something must be wrong. Luckily, Apple has excellent service so they decided she should send it back and they would fix it. So she did. It was a motherboard problem, about $1000 paid for by AppleCare.
A week later, her MacBook came back. It was just as she imagined...all the fun of a Mac but portable. A few months later though problems started again. This time the young teacher did not want to wait for the mail, so she took her MacBook to the Apple store, an hours drive. After $1000 of repairs again paid for by AppleCare, she had her MacBook a few weeks later. Six months later this happened again. And again. $5000 worth in repairs later, this teacher was done. She was headed out of the country and took it in for one last repair at the beginning of the summer. After that, she would DEMAND a new one. After another costly repair, always free to her, she left for two months. The poor MacBook made it through life in Romania with minimal problems, but the teacher annoyed everyone with her dominance of electrical outlets. The MacBook only worked when plugged in. It died at random if it was ever unplugged, but at least it worked. The two months in Romania required much emailing and online chatting during breaks. She might not have survived without it.
Upon returning to the US, this teacher slept for two days, then finally when she woke up she turned on her MacBook. She was so excited to see her Romanian friends online, but in the middle of a chat, her laptop shut down never to turn on again. So she took it to a local shop and called Apple asking for a replacement. Apple said they only give replacement if a computer has had at least three major repairs, so it was unlikely. But after careful review of the sage of her MacBook repairs, they appologized for the many problems and gave her exciting news. Stuart from Apple would send her a new one as soon as possible! All she needed to do was print off the labels online and mail it. As soon as FedEx scanned the labels, a new laptop would be overnighted.
Well this teacher was really excited, but with the school year beginning it was hard to find time to mail the old laptop in. The computer store offered to store her hard drive for free for a few days. Everything was perfect. She was bragging about the new laptop already. She printed the labels and taped up the package. She was a little worried that she had not used enough tape - what if the paper she wrapped the box in came loose? Surely it wouldn't, but all they needed to do was scan the label anyhow. She looked online for drop of places that had a pick up time the same day, Pack N Mail was the winner. As soon as work was over, she sped over to the store. The young twenty-something behind the counter said FedEx already picked up that day. She said that was odd the internet said otherwise. He said oh well. He said to leave the package on one of the side counters where customers packed their boxes while waiting for their turn. It seemed like a weird place to put her package. He did not bring it to the back with all the other packages. The teacher thought that was fishy, but said nothing. Then the young worker printed a small receipt off his computer. He said FedEx would not scan the package until tomorrow. She was annoyed, but what could she do?
The next few days, she kept checking for the scan online. Stuart emailed that he had noticed she printed the labels but no package was sent. She was very confused. She called PackNMail. They said not to worry, they found the package in their system but FedEx must have had trouble scanning it. It was ground shipping and would arrive in a week. All she had to do was wait. So she waited, two weeks. No package. She called FedEx and PackNMail. Now PackNMail had NO record of the package in their system, even though they had before. This was suspicious. FedEx agreed and said to file a claim. The teacher was very glad she saved her receipt. Unfortunately, FedEx said since Apple paid for the labels only they could file a claim. A small little company like Apple computers was not about to file a claim against FedEx for a package they had never seen shipped. So began the battle. One tiny sheet of paper was the only evidence that the computer was ever sent. Apple was not sure what they wanted to do. Stuart updated the distraught teacher almost every week. They were on a first name basis and he even recognized her voice when she called. The teacher was growing worried because the receipt was a month old and starting to fade to nothing. That slip of paper was the only thing she had, worth $1000 to her. She sent it to Stuart one last time. Finally, Stuart emailed saying good news, updates will ensue. The teacher was excited, but puzzled with what kind of person would use the word 'ensue' . Though Stuart no longer updated her, later that same day a FedEx tracking number was e-mailed to her. The next day, she had a brand new MacBook. The computer store put her old hard drive info onto the new MacBook. Now the new teacher has a new laptop that looks the same only runs a million times faster. No one will every know what happened to the cursed original MacBook, but now no one seems to care.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)