(from) A Day In The Life

7:45 - arrive at work intending to write e-mails & print off files before the day begins. (Thinking: get ahead ... ). Computer screen in permanent sleep mode. No signal. Presumably an ex-screen. It has ceased to Be. Technician needed.

8:30 - start up. Takes 5 minutes to log in, wait for (new) screen to come on, launch programme to take attendance. Meanwhile students sit around nonplussed.

8:35 - finally enter details. Save & send. Peculiar sense of accomplishment. (Hubris).

8:40 - first class of the day - an essay for 50 minutes on a poem by Ferlinghetti (oh, the irony ...). Attempt to print off the earlier files. No printer connected message. Call technician.

9:00 - technician configures printer via remote access. Fascinated by the juggling of windows on the desktop. Look no hands! Send documents to print but am unable to leave the room to collect papers from the centralised printer due to the ongoing class assignment (responsibility to supervise etc.).

9:30 - get to printer to enter code to print off. Wait ten minutes as the printer starts up and then prints off around 100 pages of one-line gobbledegook mixed in with utterly blank pages. Attempts to DELETE JOB are over-ruled. (Logic for the removal of classroom printers? To save paper and ink).

9:40 - at last! My documents start to print. However some are not there. (Frustration). Return to classroom. Meanwhile someone else is using the room. Have to wait. Twiddle thumbs.

10:15 - reboot computer which has been shut down by previous occupant. Re-enter passwords, launch programmes etc. etc.. Try to print missing documents. Discover that the printer is now no longer configured (uh?) and will require further intervention by technician who's now busy on other jobs.

& so it goes ...