Author: Mosh

Olympus update

Olympus Corporation オリンパス株式会社
Making up for it...

Following on from the earlier post, I’m glad to say I received an email response from Olympus. First up, a mail telling me that I did have to ring the support number despite how awkward it was for me – but that if I supplied my phone number they would contact me instead.

Secondly, another mail direct from a named person saying that she was looking into the matter personally and again requesting my mobile number which I duly responded with.

This evening, said person called and said that there had indeed been a mistake at their end and that I would be receiving a new camera. This time the new Stylus Tough 8000. All fine and dandy until I asked what would happen about my underwater housing. As ever, each time a new model camera appears, it’s a different size or control configuration to the one I had before so my old housing will be incompatible.

Last time, Olympus swapped it out without a problem. This time, I expect it to happen but the young lady I dealt with is going to have to seek approval before it can be given the go-ahead. They’re also sending me out some packaging so I can return the gubbins to them post-free.

It still raises the question, though, that out of two experiences with their repairs department I’ve eventually been happy but on both occasions had to chase things up due to mistakes at their end. The first time around, they forgot to send out the housing they promised.

My only concerns are that things go missing in the post due to the strikes and that the 8000 hasn’t been getting very good reviews. Robust, yes, but poor picture quality. However, I can’t find any comparisons between it and the earlier models in that range – only against the equivalent Panasonic camera.

Oh, one other issue. Why can I never touch-type “Olympus” correctly on my first attempt? I always, without fail, type “Olymos” unless I concentrate.

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Dog person? Cat person?

Feed us both!
Feed us both!

Most people are one or the other or both. Well, I’m going to beg to you a little on behalf of them all! Back at Christmas 2007 I set up a standing order to the Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter as a present for my then-squeeze, Louise. I was travelling, she was in NZ and there wasn’t a way or sorting out a regular prezzie. She also used to donate pet food on a regular basis when she lived there so it seemed like a good present.

Well, it didn’t exactly hold our relationship together but it did help benefit a lot of animals so I had no problem maintaining the donations until today. Unfortunately with no income, little money left in my savings and no feedback from SAAS as regards my student loan and fees I can’t afford to be dropping cash out each month regardless of how worthy the cause is.

So here’s a simple request. If you have a few quid spare and like animals then please go to their website and make a donation. You can go through Gift Aid and ensure they get the extra cash from the greedy government, too. Or if you pass through Benton in Newcastle once in a while, please consider stopping off to say hello and donating some pet food.

Thanks, folks!

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Dealing with numpties

Homer Simpson exclaiming the famous quote
D'OH!

A friend of mine works in a call centre and today had a little tiff with a customer. A customer who obviously likes to throw big words around, but who doesn’t understand what they mean. This sentence she quoted me creased me up:

“Right, OK. I won’t speak ‘hypothetically’ since you have such a problem with it but let’s just say…”

In the words of the great Homer J.: “D’oh!”

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Who the hell is…?

Dimebag Darrell
Would kick Eminem’s ass any day

Well, after being out of the country for a couple of years and (happily) ignoring television, radio and the tabloids I find myself drowning in a sea of recently famous people. Now, whether they’ll be Beatles-famous or one-album-then-ditched famous, who knows.

One thing that’s getting me are the names they’re using. I know you have to make a name for yourself, and in some cases people take this literally. The stuff they’re coming up with these days is just pants, though.

I mean, who the hell is Lady Gaga? I don’t need to check out the radio stations to know I’d loathe her stuff. Assuming it’s a “she” and not a group?

Going through the charts we have Shakira – sounds like a dodgy bit of Manga; Dizzee Rascal – made that one up in the playground at school; Beyonce – I bet there are a million of those being born in council estates every day now; Mr Hudson – wasn’t that a character in Grange Hill?; Jeremih – inspired by Pearl Jam but unable to spell; Booty Luv – oh, come on…

What happened to the good old days when people had really ace nicknames? All the best ones being from the world of metal, of course. Come on – you can’t beat any of these lot with your namby-pamby radio-friendly claptrap:

Care to argue? Well don’t bother – you’re wrong. Metal has the best nicknames and pseudonyms. End of. I’m not narrow-minded. I’m just right.

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Schooooools out… for… four weeks!

All good things and all that. Today was the last day of my initial Induction Period and it was a shame to be leaving, in all honesty. Once more it was quite busy and once more I picked up a few more hints, a dollop more information and a huge amount of potential job satisfaction.

I’m starting to get more of a feel for the politics involved with teaching, both internal to the school I’m in and around the subject in general. Budgets, departmental cutbacks and policy changes are all whinged about to a huge degree by everyone. However, the one thing all these whingers have in common is that they are only complaining if the end result is likely to affect the standard of education offered to the kids.

Okay, this won’t be the case in every school. I’m sure there are some bad eggs out there who are only miffed that they won’t be getting a pay rise this year. As I have probably said before on here, the school I’m placed at doesn’t seem to have anyone with that attitude in place and for that I’m glad.

I was working with one young pupil today, and have actually spent a bit of time with him in random lessons over the fortnight. I’ll call him Ben for the sake of narrative. Ben’s somewhat behind on his reading and writing. I’m not sure if he’s got a learning disability or if he just needs to play catchup for other reasons. What I do know is he’s generally attentive, very bright and one of the most helpful children of his age I’ve ever seen. Polite and pleasant.

The problem is that his lack of reading and writing skills slow him down a lot, and frustrate him. In Computing, he’s having to plod through a computer-based learning package which is accompanied by a text book and a pile of worksheets. For any child, this is a little tedious and impersonal. For him it’s like climbing a mountain using strands of cotton instead of rope.

He goes through the exercises on screen quickly enough, but comes a cropper when the instructions tell him to read a chapter of the book. It’s simply too time-consuming. Likewise when he has to fill in a worksheet, he can really only manage to write it out slowly. I spent most of today’s class sat with him as a “scribe”, doing some of his writing for him. He gave the correct answers most of the time so he’s definitely taking things in but his patience is limited.

I was speaking to his class teacher afterwards and she was grateful for the help. When she doesn’t have someone to assist with Ben she has to spend a lot of her own time with him and as a result, the other children don’t get the time and attention that they need.

With a better budget, Ben would have a semi-permanent assistant to take the load off the teacher and to assist him in boosting his own language skills. Instead, due to staff cuts he doesn’t – and as a result both he and his peers are suffering. However, not one of the teachers I spoke to has an issue with him. Nobody complains about dealing with the “slow kid” or how he’s making things difficult.

Instead, they grumble about the fact that they can’t help him. Because that’s what all the staff want to do – give him the education he deserves. Sadly in this economic climate, unless some kind souls donate their time freely, that’s just not going to happen.

As I said, though, the end of the two week placement and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I only wish I could thank the school and staff by name on here. They deserve the praise!

Back to college on Monday for a week, then October Week “off”, followed by two more weeks’ study then back to school for a whole six weeks in the lead up to Xmas. I’ve just worked out how much paperwork I have to do and my pen-holding hand is complaining in advance.