A New Laptop

The school finally agreed to give me a new computer, but only after my mother showed them who's boss.

For those who don't know, my school gave all 84 students in my class, new laptops as a pilot group. From the very beginning, mine was a piece of crap. It wouldn't connect to internet anywhere but the school, it froze up all the time, Word and Powerpoint would start, but it'd freeze right after. More importantly, Excel hardly ever worked, and that was what we used very often in my science class. Other than that, it would delete things randomly, it wouldn't allow me to add software to my computer, and sometimes it liked not to shut down.... ever. You had to wait 'til it died.

I would go to IT at our school, and they take my laptop and 'fix' it. I would get it back, sometimes an hour later, sometimes a few hours later. One time, they took it for a few days and I had to use a loaner. But it never was fixed. Sometimes it even got worse. I begged them to let me get a replacement, seeing as the majority of our homework and projects were using the computers, and I simply couldn't do them. They kept telling 'No, you were assigned this one. If you broke it, you have to deal with it.' I did not break that stupid thing.

Then, recently, I accidentally left my laptop charger in my science class in a rush to get to my social studies class for our important unit final. Mr. Fountain has a rule that if you're late, you don't take the test. But, I realized I had left it immediately, so I waited 'til the next break and went back to my science class. My charger was no where to be found. I asked my teacher if he saw it or if someone turned it in, he said no. So I waited until the students came back and asked if any of them were using it. According to them, no one had it.

So, some how, my charger magically disappeared.

So, I went to IT again to ask what the price of the charger would be. $80.

I don't think so.

So I asked if my insurance that I bought at the beginning of the year covered it.

'You have a $100 deductible.'

So, last Sunday, my mom and I made our way to Fry's after church. I asked the guy working there if they had any chargers that fit my laptop. He was like 'Oh sure, of course we do!'

They didn't. All of their's that were 'universal' were way too small. They did have a better price of $60 though. So my mom and I stopped by RadioShack by my house to see if we could find one. The guy told us right away that 'it'll be anywhere between 100 and 150 dollars.' Then he went on to try and convince us that we would find the best price with them, and that they're never any cheaper than that.

Now finally Monday came. I had english first, where we had projects due on 'Who Am I?' I had to use my house computer to do my project, seeing as my laptop never works.

I finished up on Sunday and emailed it in. I made sure that my video was published, and it even told me it was!

But, apparently my house computer is a liar. My project was turned in, but the video couldn't be opened.

Ms. Heins: 'Do you have it on your laptop to show me?'
Ana: 'No, I did it on my home computer.'
Ms. Heins: 'Did you put it on a disc or flash drive?'
Ana: 'No, I figured emailing it to you would be enough.
Ms. Heins: 'Then it's late.'
Ana: 'Can I just email it to you again once I get home? My brother is really good with computers, he would try and fix the problem.'
Ms. Heins: 'After school is late. Where does your brother work?'
Ana: '.....from home...."
Ms. Heins: 'Then he need to fix it now or it's late.'

So I called my mom to see if she could call my brother to go over to our house during his work day, fix my video, and then email it to my teacher or to myself. Well, my mom wasn't going for that. Ha. She just said to me 'I'm calling Ms. Heins.'

She did. My mom left Ms. Heins a message on her phone about how ridiculous it was that she wouldn't give me credit for a project that was turned in, but her computer couldn't view it. Also, she told her about how many times this has happened to me in the past and she was against these computers, because they're only harming my grades.

Then she called IT and told them to give me a new computer.... I'm not too sure what my mom said to them, but it made them give me a new one.... and a new charger!

But now Ms. Heins is angry with me, which doesn't really bother me, but she is my teacher, and I need to be on her good side.