Wednesday 04/05/2023
Went for a shorter walk while the first load of laundry was running. This was other than laundry, that rarity a completely uncommitted day. I ended up having to think about A/V issues several times. And spent time on the 11th floor trying to make the microphones work up there. On Saturday I meet with the people planning a Passover dinner next Tuesday, to show them the microphones we have.
Recently we lost a neighbor, Lily Loh. This was quite sudden and unexpected, unlike the usual “moves quietly to the Lee center and months later you hear they passed” kind of exit; Lily was a character, busy with various committees and with a loud giggle that you could hear across the dining room. Anyway, her sister, who also lives here, called me up. She is working with a staff person, Caroline, to set up a fancy memorial for Lily. And staff person Caroline had told her to “call Mr. Cortesi to set up the AV”.
This is a precedent I do not want to set. I liked Lily and have no problem with a memorial for her. But they are planning a catered luncheon in the auditorium, with a powerpoint slideshow AND they want zoom so that the relatives in Brazil and in Hong Kong can also attend. No pressure. Oh, and it’s on a Saturday. That, I assume, is why Caroline sent her to me.
Prior resident memorials, the AV has been run by the staff. It isn’t that we couldn’t do it, it’s the assumption by staff that we would do it that bugs me. I’m not sure what to do about this. When I called her, Caroline said if we can’t do it, they could make arrangements for a staff IT person to work the weekend day, but they’d need to know soon.
This is a tough decision for me. Do I want to say we can’t? Because obviously we can. I personally could run the system, or so could David M. or David G. or John M. I consulted with Lennie, who is the new Resident Association president, and her suggestion was to talk to Jaisie, the staff person to whom the IT guys report. Jaisie, it turns out, isn’t in this week.
Anyway, about 2pm I got a call, my Macbook is back to the Apple store, so I went over and got it. They replaced both the display itself, and the sensor that knows when the lid opens. I bet it was the latter, but probably they have to tear it down and remove the display to get at the sensor, so they replaced the display just for drill. I don’t care as it was covered — they said under AppleCare, but I don’t recall paying for AppleCare. Whatever, it was zero dollars to me, nominally $795.
At 7:30 I went down for a talk from a guy who told us about the possibilities of carbon capture and sequestration for fighting climate change. I was unimpressed. The piddling efforts so far are — look, every day enough permafrost melts to release enough CO2 and Methane to negate all the carbon capture that has ever been done.
Codgerville 