Our Peculiar Setup

Tyler is a man who wears many freelance hats. He edits manuscripts for Ann at the University of Nebraska Press, he writes English workbooks and "readers" for a Korean company, and he grades GRE essays.

With the first two projects he can work when he pleases, but with the GRE scoring he signs up for 8-hour shifts and then has to stay in front of the computer, all day, from 8:30 to 5.

However, the GRE scoring people have a rather antiquated system. You can only use a PC, and the system itself looks like it hasn't been updated since 1998. Tyler and I both have Macs, so his mom had to send his old Dell laptop with the non-functioning screen.

Which means that Ty has since developed a somewhat complicated setup so that he can grade essays all day.

See that mess of cables and cords and whatnot? Ty has to hook up his computer to the TV, since, as I mentioned before, his laptop monitor doesn't work.

In order to READ the essays, he has to be very, very close to the TV.


Then he uses the little trackpad on his laptop to move the mouse on the TV screen to give the essay a score.


It's tiresome work.

But at least he can wear whatever he wants!

So today, we grudgingly went to into Manhattan to Best Buy. Luckily it's right in Times Square so there wasn't much traversing to do. There he bought a computer monitor (which have, by the way, become pretty cheap) to set up in the office.


Then, once we get a bigger desk (or a table that can function as a desk) and a more comfortable chair, Tyler will have a much better working environment!

(By the way, he has an interview tomorrow with WH Freeman, a Macmillan publishing company that deals with books in science and math. A recruiter contacted HIM and asked if he would write a cover letter that focuses on his background in math [he has a minor in math, dangit, that boy can do anything]. They called him back and so tomorrow he goes! Hopefully this time all will go well. An editorial assistant position in science and math would be interesting. Not my cup of tea, but he's interested in that kind of stuff, and hey, it'd be a foot in the door, and maybe in a couple years he could change divisions. So everyone send your positive thoughts/prayers/whatever his way if you please!)