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robinturnerAfter a tiring day, I'm home with a glass of raki in my hand and a load of köfte in my belly. Nice.
Actually, today was going to be a light day - no meetings scheduled, so I agreed to do a voice-over for a documentary at TRT (the Turkish equivalent of the BBC) which they'd been bugging me about for a while - apparently it needs to be wrapped up this evening so it can be sent off to some international festival.
I got up late after a restless night (see previous entries) and was staggering around the house when my new cell phone rang. It was my unit head, who'd been unable to reach me on the house phone because I'd unplugged it - because my number used to belong to our university's construction company and is very similar to that of a local hospital, I get plagued by phone calls at (to me) ungodly hours asking me to deliver them concrete or put them through to neurology. It turned out that some of us we were to move to a new office today. Well, not exactly new - it's older than our previous one - but it has windows and no rats, so I can't complain.
Of course as the alpha-geek, I had to be there to supervise moving computers and setting up the new local network. Fortunately the building's techie turned up, so he could change the IP numbers, but I had to set up the printer, as he didn't know anything about Linux (there's a strict distinction in our computer staff between the network/programming people, who only use Unix/Linux, and the grunts who sort out the Windows problems). I got the computers in the new office, and gave him instructions to hook up the computers in the next door office before running for the bus while trying to contact my producer. Yes, I've instantly become one of those annoying people who try to walk and use their mobile phones at the same time.
I eventually made it to the studio only fifteen minutes after our revised start time and managed to pull off the voice-over with a minimum of bloopers. It was actualy a really interesting documentary about Shamanism and Buddhism in Tuvan, a place in Central Asia which is normally known only to students of orthography, due to its stone insciptions in an old Turkic alphabet.
Eventually, after a couple of bus rides, I got home to find an e-mail from my unit head saying that the techie couldn't make the computers in the next-door office print to my computer's printer, so they'd moved the printer next door and hooked it up to her computer. Of course, now none of the computers in the new office will print to it - ah, the sublime mysteries of Network Neighborhood! I've promised to sort it out tomorrow, if and only if they put the printer back where it was. There is no way I am going to spend this semester sorting out Windows printing problems!
Actually, today was going to be a light day - no meetings scheduled, so I agreed to do a voice-over for a documentary at TRT (the Turkish equivalent of the BBC) which they'd been bugging me about for a while - apparently it needs to be wrapped up this evening so it can be sent off to some international festival.
I got up late after a restless night (see previous entries) and was staggering around the house when my new cell phone rang. It was my unit head, who'd been unable to reach me on the house phone because I'd unplugged it - because my number used to belong to our university's construction company and is very similar to that of a local hospital, I get plagued by phone calls at (to me) ungodly hours asking me to deliver them concrete or put them through to neurology. It turned out that some of us we were to move to a new office today. Well, not exactly new - it's older than our previous one - but it has windows and no rats, so I can't complain.
Of course as the alpha-geek, I had to be there to supervise moving computers and setting up the new local network. Fortunately the building's techie turned up, so he could change the IP numbers, but I had to set up the printer, as he didn't know anything about Linux (there's a strict distinction in our computer staff between the network/programming people, who only use Unix/Linux, and the grunts who sort out the Windows problems). I got the computers in the new office, and gave him instructions to hook up the computers in the next door office before running for the bus while trying to contact my producer. Yes, I've instantly become one of those annoying people who try to walk and use their mobile phones at the same time.
I eventually made it to the studio only fifteen minutes after our revised start time and managed to pull off the voice-over with a minimum of bloopers. It was actualy a really interesting documentary about Shamanism and Buddhism in Tuvan, a place in Central Asia which is normally known only to students of orthography, due to its stone insciptions in an old Turkic alphabet.
Eventually, after a couple of bus rides, I got home to find an e-mail from my unit head saying that the techie couldn't make the computers in the next-door office print to my computer's printer, so they'd moved the printer next door and hooked it up to her computer. Of course, now none of the computers in the new office will print to it - ah, the sublime mysteries of Network Neighborhood! I've promised to sort it out tomorrow, if and only if they put the printer back where it was. There is no way I am going to spend this semester sorting out Windows printing problems!
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:09 am (UTC)I should get a cell phone too, but I'm waffling. I think I like being a bit of a Luddite. :Þ
Now add me back, dammit! :)
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Date: 2003-09-16 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:25 am (UTC)(thanks)
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Date: 2003-09-16 11:52 am (UTC)I did a public service announcement once on local radio.
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Date: 2003-09-16 12:19 pm (UTC)Similarly, my friend in the Computer Science department (also from Shropshire - old yokels' network?) is married to someone who knows someone in the education branch, so when they asked him to act in an English language programme and he was too busy, he put them through to me.
I wouldn't mind all the nepotism if I were getting serious money out of it, but it pays peanuts. Still, it's fun, and who knows, it might turn out that the sound technician's boyfriend's uncle is project manager for a soap opera with a massive budget that just happens to need a mature foreign male who can do kung fu.
Re: Tuvan
Date: 2003-09-16 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 10:20 pm (UTC)What exactly is a Shropshire accent?
Actually, here in CA I know so many people who've had bit parts or played an extra in various shows & movies (even big ones), it's ridiculous. Also, Nicolas Cage was a high school classmate; sat close to me in art class. Helluva dancer, that guy was!
So, maybe if they ever bring back the show Kung Fu and film an episode in Turkey, you could be one lucky Grasshoppah. :)
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Date: 2003-09-17 02:16 am (UTC)Fairly typical rural English: "I" is pronounced "oi" etc.. The distinctive feature is replacint "n't" with "ner" e.g. "isn't" becomes "inner", "can't" is "conner" and so on. I never had a strong accent because my parents aren't from Shropshire (mother from Cheshire, father from Birmingham).
Re: Tuvan
Date: 2003-09-17 02:18 am (UTC)I have a CD of Mongolian music which features the same kind of thing - pretty far out! And of course there's Stockhausen's "Stimmung".
Re: Tuvan
Date: 2003-09-17 02:41 am (UTC)yeah I first heard about it in Scientific American, there might be an online article about it on their webpage if you search.
Yeah, apparantly it takes a couple years practice to succeed, but damn the results!
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Date: 2003-09-17 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 01:38 pm (UTC)In general when I look at my life, I say "Non, je regrette rien", but one thing I do sometimes regret is that I turned the offer of a job in Prague. People who defenestrate deserve a visit!