It's Saturday morning August 20th, 0515 hrs. Time to get up. I have to make my lunch and have breakfast and then there is an hours drive to Topeka to begin another principles of real estate class. I really look forward to them. The people who attend are great. They are all blesssings in my life. Today is going to be fantastic if my past experiences are any indication.
On the way I tune in to Bill Littlefield and his "Only a Game" program on the KU public radio. It is always funny, helps me pass the time. This time there was an unexpected surprise. He interviewed Steven Church, noted author of "The Guinness Book of Me", Simon & Schuster. It was a wonderful interview. They both did themselves proud. I know Steven through my daughter who was a classmate and friend of his at the University of Kansas. We had a chance to visit with him when he did a reading at a local book store. He is a really great guy. (How is that for name dropping?)
You might be asking what all this has to do with technology or the gods. Please be patient I am getting to that. This shows that, even for starting the day so early, I was getting into an even better mood. I was getting primed for the weekend's activities to which I always look forward.
Once I arrive at the classroom there are a myriad of small chores to accomplish - start the coffee pots, hook the computer up to the projector, put my lunch in the fridge, check to see that the sign up roster is there. While doing these chores I discovered the new lamp for the projector. For the past two classes the projector has projected a message to replace the lamp and reset the lamp timer. As I was going through my routine I discovered the new lamp. Wow! Now if I only had a manual for the machine it might be helpful. Like any man worth his manliness I said, "Damn the manual lack, full speed ahead." Surely it cannot be that difficult to replace a lamp. You know? It wasn't. As I suspected all I had to do was turn the projector over and unscrew one screw to remove the lamp cover and two screws to remove the lamp. I can do that, and I did. In case you are wondering, all I had to do was reverse the process. I did and the lamp lit. So far so good.
The next step wasn't as easy. How to reset the lamp timer? Not to be beaten down by a mere machine, I looked at the "control" buttons available - menu arrows, zoom, focus, input, on/off, and reset, were all in their proper places. What to do now? I managed to play around and got to a place where I could reset the lamp timer but didn't know what to do when I got there.
OK, I think, I can always reset the timer later. For now I have to hook the computer to the projector. That was easy, after all, I have done it dozens of times before. I even keep a small screw drive in my computer case for this. I get it put together, turn everything on and watch the screen. To my surprise the change the lamp message reappeared. OK, no sweat. In the past the message would disappear in about 5 or 10 minutes, and it did again. However, we now come to the part about the gods. After about 20 to 25 minutes of projecting the projector goes on strike and the lamp turns off. This is very disconcerting in the middle of a really funny story/important teaching point. I look at the projector and discover that the indicator lights for power and lamp are both glowing red rather than green. After thinking a few "technical" terms reserved for moments like this, I pressed on sans projected power point presentation. At least I could see my computer screen.
This wasn't the end of the story. The rest of the story will come later.
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