I'm a train wreck waiting to happen

This is going to be a ranting post.  If you’re looking for a post about how much I love the island, go ahead and skip this one, because the island/Ross have been putting me through hell lately.

There are times when I’m so happy that I live on a tropical island.  This isn’t one of those times.  I’m going to go over some issues that have already been solved just to emphasize my point, as well as issues that are currently driving me crazy.

First of all, I’m currently typing out this post on a word processing program, because this school can’t seem to figure out how to work computers.  The student network hasn’t been working for about 2 weeks now (mind you, we are only two weeks into the semester), which means that while we are at school, students are unable to get online to download powerpoints or notes from their teachers that they upload on to one of the many websites we use (I’ll get to that next), as well as print anything out at school (you can only print stuff when you are logged onto the student network).  Doesn’t this seem like a problem that should be fixed ASAP?  Well, the IT department doesn’t seem to think so.  They’ve got bigger fish to fry...

LIKE MANAGING THE 4-5 DIFFERENT WEBSITES WE HAVE TO USE FOR SCHOOL.  Why do we have 4-5 different websites for school related things?  I don’t know.  Here’s the run down:

-MyRoss - for official school stuff like final grades, transcripts, keeping our addresses updated, financial aid, blah blah blah.

-eCollege - where we have most of our class notes, lectures, syllabi, and things that teachers want us to know about.  I emphasize that I used the word “most” instead of “all” because...

-studentapps - this way out of date website where SOME teachers choose to post their documents.  We just have to keep track of who likes to put their notes on eCollege and who likes to put them on studentapps.  The problem here is that apparently teachers have to go through IT anytime they want to load anything onto eCollege and they can just upload whatever they want onto studentapps, whenever they want.  Why can’t they just cut out the middle man and let professors post things directly on to eCollege?  That would eliminate a website all together.  The good thing about student apps is that a lot of teaching assistants post their powerpoints and old exams there for students to access.

-eValue - this is where we get our schedule.  That is the only thing we use eValue for.

-eGrade - this is where we get our grades.  That is the only thing eGrade is for.

Can anyone tell me how this makes sense?  Ross is making it so much harder for both students and IT.  They have 5 different websites to have problems with, instead of just one and we have 5 different websites to organize things that undergrad schools can organize into 2.  At Grand Valley, we had two websites;  one like MyRoss, where we had all of our official information, and one like eCollege, where teachers could post information for students WITHOUT GOING THROUGH IT.  We could also find our schedules and grades under MyRoss and I don’t know why Ross isn’t utilizing the same option (it’s the same program, just a different name.  Organized the same and everything).

Anyway, this is something that has pissed me off ever since I started here.

Here’s more stuff that I hate about IT.  At the beginning of this semester, I went to print out my syllabi at least 5 times before I could actually print it.  I mean I had to go to the print station 5 separate times, in different locations, because either the computer at the print station, the keyboard at the computer at the print station, or the printer itself wasn’t working.  They had lines about 20 people long waiting to print stuff at the one print station on campus that was working.  I think that’s just ridiculous.  I know IT has gotten complaints about the printers and every time I go into IT, there are at least 3-4 people sitting on their asses in there.  Why aren’t they going around to AT LEAST make sure the printers aren’t jammed and that they have paper in them?  Mother fuckers.

Oh!  More IT complaints.  At the beginning of last semester, nobody could use their computer on campus until they installed two things:  antivirus software (don’t forget, Macs don’t get viruses), and some other software that allows us to log on to the student network, which never works.  Let’s start with antivirus, shall we?

So the antivirus software actually slowed my computer down.  It’s unnecessary.  If someone gets a virus, then deal with it, or at least make it optional.  It also wants me to do a computer scan every 30 minutes (no exaggeration).  I’ve set it to scan once a month, but no matter what I do, I get this annoying yellow bouncing ball at the bottom of my screen, asking if I want to update and scan my computer.  EVERY THIRTY MINUTES.

This other software, I’m pretty sure, serves no other purpose besides getting us to log onto the student network.  If we close our computers, we have to log back on to the network.  Again, just stupid.  I know you can function without having students logging on to the internet every time they open their computers, because I’ve done it everywhere else I go and I don’t even have to do it anywhere off campus  Why can’t they understand that here?

Enough about IT, let’s talk more about island work ethic.  Our cable in our apartment has been out for at least a month and I know that because it hasn’t worked since I moved in.  We’ve called numerous times every week to try to get this fixed.  Go ahead and ask me how many times they’ve been out to check out the problem.

Zero.

We keep getting taken off the waiting list!  I have no idea why!  Our cable isn’t fixed, nobody has been to our apartment to fix it, why would you take us off of the repairs list?!  Also, there is only one company that controls the cable (aptly named The Cable), so we can’t go to anybody else.  One more point, our cable is included in our rent, but is our landlord trying to help us get it fixed?  Of course not!  She told us that we would have better luck if we called ourselves.  Better than getting taken off the waiting list every day?  And of course, we are still paying for that month of cable that it’s been out.  I wish I knew how to raise hell better.

Onto my recent hot water problem.  When I moved in, my hot water pressure was extremely low.  We called a plumber to get it fixed, he didn’t come out for a few days, and when he did get there, he looked at it, said he needed a part and that he would be back the next week.  Fine.  However, the next week when he came back, he looked at it again, and then SHUT THE HOT WATER OFF COMPLETELY.  WHAT?!  Of course, this was on a Thursday, of course he didn’t come back Friday, of course Kittitians don’t work on the weekend and of course Monday was a holiday.  So Tuesday, we finally got our hot water back on.  Luckily I have friends nearby that are willing to let me use their shower.  The thing that really bugs me is that in the US, that would’ve been considered a plumbing emergency and the landlord would have an emergency plumber on call to come fix it ASAP.  Kittitians will apparently not shower for 5 days straight and then go back to work when they feel like it.

By the way, as I’m writing this, I’m watching somebody cut the grass at Ross using, not a lawn mower, but hedge trimmers.  I’m guessing we pay our employees by the hour.  Now he’s sweeping up the grass by kicking it over to the sidewalk.

Next topic: pesticides.  Yum.  So start in the morning, the first time I see my roommate for the day and she asks if I got a text from our landlord.  I hadn’t, but apparently, we were having pesticides sprayed in our apartment between 10:30 and 11:30 that morning.  Mind you, I didn’t even hear this until 10:45, whatever.  So I lay around studying until about 1, they don’t show up.  I have plans at 3 that day, so I assume they aren’t coming and keep studying, assuming my plans are a go.  Then around 15 minutes later, my roommate gets a text saying that they are spraying our apartment, another girls apartment, and the outside of the building, and they don’t know in which order.  Either way, she tells me that I need to have my animals out of the house for 1-2 hours after they are done spraying.  Well, if would have been nice to know this before they were coming so I might be able to arrange for some place to take my animals!  I could take my dog anywhere for a couple hours, but my cat?  Not everyone is willing to have a cat at their house for a couple hours.  I was able to go to a friends house (which was quite a ways away, since none of my nearby friends were home).  I finally got to take them home, only to find PUDDLES of pesticides sitting on the floor on the apartment.  FUCKING PUDDLES!  Nowhere near dry, even two hours after they left the apartment.  I had to frantically go around the apartment wiping up all the puddles with my cheap ass paper towels, and even then, there was still plenty of residue to make my animals super sick, so I had to lay my own towels around the floor.

First issue.  I was never actually told about this by my landlord.  If my roommate hadn’t been home, I wouldn’t have known at all.  And I’m the one that has pets that need to be out of the apartment, not my roommate.

Second issue.  We weren’t given any notice before that morning.  Like I was saying, not everyone is ok with having a cat come stay at their house, so if I had some prior warning, maybe I could have asked my friends if anyone was willing to have us come over for a couple hours.

Third issue.  They were hours late.  Yeah, you get used to island time, but it doesn’t make it any better.  It still sucks having to be home waiting on people, when they don’t show up for hours (if they show up at all, cable guy) after they said they would be there.

Fourth issue.  Leaving fucking poison around my house!  Nevermind how it can kill the animals, but that’s toxic to humans as well.  The fumes in my apartment were a little ridiculous and I can’t believe they left so many puddles.  Not to mention they sprayed my fucking pets food containers!  Yeah I found huge puddles underneath them.  What the hell would possess a person to spray where someone keeps food?

I could go on and on, but honestly, my fingers are getting tired from the typing and it’s pissing me off to think about how shitty things are here somethings.  Time to get lost in some sweet Sarah McLachlan songs.