my moment of glory

Yup. That's my baby. The 2000 Powerbook G3. Codename: "Pismo". She may not be all shiny and fast like those newer kids on the block, but she can still hold her own in a fight. And she can still provide me with the occasional moment of glory. Like today . . .

This morning, I delivered a letter to our principal indicating my intentions for employment next fall (all teachers have to do this). I also included a letter that expressed my desire to be a full-time teacher next year and some suggestions as to other areas in which I might be helpful at our school. Namely, technology. I've been teaching computers to people for years, have run a moderately successful business doing it, and believe I have a lot to offer. Specifically, I'd like to teach computers at school, either one-on-one with faculty and staff or as the moderator of a "technology and media" club or something.

It was purely coincidental that we had an assembly today for the senior class regarding commencement activities. And it was also coincidental that I noticed our principal carrying an ibook under his arm on the way to the theatre. I usually see him typing on a Dell laptop, so I commented on it. "Hey, aren't you a PC guy?" He scoffed. "No, I only use that thing because of the school's network. I'm a mac addict." We smiled (the smile known only to mac users) and went our separate ways.

Five minutes later, he came up to me in the back of the theatre and asked if I had ever been able to use my Powerbook on the school's LCD projector. He was trying to hook up his ibook and it wouldn't fit. I explained that my Powerbook has a standard VGA port, whereas the ibook requires an adapter. He went looking for our A/V guy to try and dig up an adapter. . . . I knew that he wouldn't find one. Only Apple makes them, and our school is pretty Windows-centric.

I realized that I was being presented with a fantastic opportunity to save the day, so I hurried after him and asked him how soon he needed the presentation up on the screen. "Well, we can stall for a few minutes . . . ", he said. I took a deep breath. That's really close, I thought, and I could really bomb here. But this was a challenge I couldn't pass up. So I ran back to the faculty lounge, grabbed my Powerbook, and hurried back. The assembly had begun, and his little ibook was up on stage, sitting on a box next to the podium, the cord to the LCD projector dangling uselessly at its side. I smiled a wizardly smile.

I popped open my Pismo, plugged my trusty firewire cord into both macs, and started them up. I booted mine in "Target Disk Mode", which essentially turns it into an external hard disk for the other machine. Then I dragged the Powerpoint presentation from his ibook onto the desktop folder of my hard drive. Then I shut them both down and booted mine up normally. Then I plugged in the LCD projector and smiled as my little forest-landscape desktop photo appeared larger-than-life on the screen. If I had time to plan, I would have chosen something a little more fun, like a scene from one of my classes, with kids who were sitting in the audience. Or a great big Apple advertisement. Or porn.

But I didn't have time to do any of these things, only to work my magic, then take a seat in the audience and hope he didn't push the wrong buttons during the presentation.

The "stalling" went on for more than a few minutes, though, and a wave of panic shuddered through me as I realized something. Oh, shit. The screensaver! What did I have it set for? Please don't be the wedding pictures. Please don't be the wedding pictures. Please don't be the wedding pictures. That would not be a good way to "come out" to the school, larger-than-life in a dark theatre, with the handy password feature of the screensaver preventing even the principal from removing it from the screen until I could sprint to the stage and type in my secret codeword . . .

Then, thankfully, he pressed the spacebar and moved to the next slide.

I checked later and discovered that the screensaver I had selected was a neat little thing from The Matrix that would have actually looked really cool up there. Ah, well.

In the end, it wasn't really a big deal for anyone but me. It didn't amount to much to my principal, only a few minutes delay in getting his presentation up on the screen. But I hope that he returned to his office later to find my letter somewhere in his pile of mail, and that he remembers my little heroic rescue as he puts together teaching assignments for next year . . .

Posted: Tue - March 23, 2004 at 10:41 PM

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my moment of glory

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