This morning I complained on Facebook about my recent string of first world problems, and I feel like I need to elaborate just a bit more to hopefully justify that not only was I not really complaining about nothing, but that the hotel had some very odd fixes that required human intervention. This is in no ways meant to put down the lovely, lovely hotel here--the facilities and staff are amazing, if at ties puzzling.
First World Problem #1: Television Not Working
I was watching my favorite show on TV these days--Master Chef Australia--and then I wasn't. The TV went blank without anything else going off (no power outage yet). I could sort of flip channels, but each continued to show a plain black screen. A nice, polite call to the front desk and they said they'd send someone right away. Twenty minutes later, still no one. So I called back, just to see if it was "right away" America-style or "right away" Zambia-style. I was assured that the guy had checked my TV and discovered no problem. It was then that I determined the employee went to the room above me, and not mine. No worries, the guy would be redeployed to my room.
He arrived and was as baffled as I was. He checks the cords and determines everything is plugged in (I had done that myself too, but figured I wouldn't mention it). He then looked up the TV's settings and determined that it was routed to an IP address meant for a computer, not a TV. Apparently in Zambia a TV gets to choose its own routing? So the guy said he knew the solution and left. Ten minutes later he returned and it worked. I was curious, so I asked him how he fixed it, and he told me he just had to rearrange the wires in a control panel. 24 hours later and I'm still trying to figure out what that meant, and how they were moved in the first place.
First World Problem #2: No Power
I'm used to power outages, they're to be expected in a place without a truly reliable power grid. But I don't get selective power outages, and by that, I mean a power outage that hit my room only. No kidding. Like the TV problem, one minute everything was on, and the next everything was off. I knew it wasn't the whole hotel that lost power because the outside lights--which are not run by a generator based on my observations during previous outages--were still on. A nice walk down to the front desk, and another hotel employee came to my room. "I know the problem," he said, and left. A few minutes later, my power was back on. The culprit? The guy painting the wallpaper in the hallway, apparently. I was told he did something to the circuit, although when I walked by, the painting was nowhere near any circuit boards I could see. So unless paint fumes can trip circuits....
First World Problem #3: No Hot Water
The hot water in my shower went out yesterday and didn't come back this morning, so I asked my new friends at the front desk for help. When the guys came, they did a bunch of fixes and within the hour I had hot water, although I don't understand how their fix helped. The maintenance worker told me that the showerhead had calcium buildup which prevented me from having a hot shower (although this doesn't explain the lack of hot water in my sink either). No need to worry, though, he and his colleague replaced my showerhead with a beautiful, new, un-calcified one. And now I have hot water in my shower and sink. Maybe I don't understand how plumbing works, but this makes zero sense to me. I'm just accepting it, along with all the other causes and solutions because I have no way of refuting it, and in any case, everything in my room now works.
Changing gears, this post's video is absolutely awesome. It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I like the movie Pitch Perfect. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is a mashup of Bruno Mars's Just the Way You Are and Nelly's Just a Dream. Here it is if you haven't seen it:
I love this mashup. It's brilliant. In fact, I love all mashups. So I was scoring YouTube to see if I could find a longer version of this, and ran across this post's real Video That Makes Me Happy. Not only did this guy do a full-length version of it (including some other perfectly mashable songs), but he put it together two years before the movie came out. So props to him, and love this incredible mashup:
First World Problem #1: Television Not Working
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| Here's a picture of a baby elephant, just because. |
He arrived and was as baffled as I was. He checks the cords and determines everything is plugged in (I had done that myself too, but figured I wouldn't mention it). He then looked up the TV's settings and determined that it was routed to an IP address meant for a computer, not a TV. Apparently in Zambia a TV gets to choose its own routing? So the guy said he knew the solution and left. Ten minutes later he returned and it worked. I was curious, so I asked him how he fixed it, and he told me he just had to rearrange the wires in a control panel. 24 hours later and I'm still trying to figure out what that meant, and how they were moved in the first place.
First World Problem #2: No Power
I'm used to power outages, they're to be expected in a place without a truly reliable power grid. But I don't get selective power outages, and by that, I mean a power outage that hit my room only. No kidding. Like the TV problem, one minute everything was on, and the next everything was off. I knew it wasn't the whole hotel that lost power because the outside lights--which are not run by a generator based on my observations during previous outages--were still on. A nice walk down to the front desk, and another hotel employee came to my room. "I know the problem," he said, and left. A few minutes later, my power was back on. The culprit? The guy painting the wallpaper in the hallway, apparently. I was told he did something to the circuit, although when I walked by, the painting was nowhere near any circuit boards I could see. So unless paint fumes can trip circuits....
First World Problem #3: No Hot Water
The hot water in my shower went out yesterday and didn't come back this morning, so I asked my new friends at the front desk for help. When the guys came, they did a bunch of fixes and within the hour I had hot water, although I don't understand how their fix helped. The maintenance worker told me that the showerhead had calcium buildup which prevented me from having a hot shower (although this doesn't explain the lack of hot water in my sink either). No need to worry, though, he and his colleague replaced my showerhead with a beautiful, new, un-calcified one. And now I have hot water in my shower and sink. Maybe I don't understand how plumbing works, but this makes zero sense to me. I'm just accepting it, along with all the other causes and solutions because I have no way of refuting it, and in any case, everything in my room now works.
Changing gears, this post's video is absolutely awesome. It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I like the movie Pitch Perfect. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is a mashup of Bruno Mars's Just the Way You Are and Nelly's Just a Dream. Here it is if you haven't seen it:
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