An unperson
Well, my first day at work was a bit anticlimactic; I don’t actually exist yet because my paperwork hasn’t yet been folded, spindled, mutilated, et cetera. No email account, no employee record, no nothing. I do, however, have a desk, a gorgeous new iMac, my pet Kinesis keyboard, and my pet chair, adjusted to my liking. (All of this, including me, may be up for a move later on. I haven’t heard the latest on this, though.)
So I spent the day getting friendly with OS X (I’m not completely happy with my setup yet, but I’m happier than I was), making appointments to become de-unpersoned, filling out de-unpersoning forms (lots of these), and poking around in DSpace space to pick up ideas for our install.
(Right now I have more ideas than I can possibly implement. Must slow down a wee bit, at least until I can implement stuff unassisted. Also mustn’t neglect human side of job, though working on that is impossible without email!)
The pod will arrive on the 28th, so the big de-podding party will be the 30th, and folks are welcome to drop by and help out any time between the 28th and the 1st. (The pod goes away again on the 2nd.) If you’re local and still willing to help out, drop me a line and I’ll give you my phone number. There will be lots of friends-I-haven’t-met-yet helping out, but if someone would prefer to meet me and/or David in a public place first, we can set that up. (There’s this cute hole-in-the-wall Thai place down the street…)
What I think I’ll do, if we get enough people on the day, is a sort of bucket-brigade setup. It makes more sense to pass things down the line and up the stairs than have people trotting back and forth the entire distance and getting in each others’ way. And that way the utility cart can be used in the parking lot, and the dolly can get stuff up the stairs, so less actual lifting and hauling. (Yes, we have both a utility cart and a heavy-duty dolly. Buying was cheaper than renting, go figure.)
The weather has been unbelievably horrid. Not especially hot, just tropical-humid, dewpoints in the mid-70s. We’ve had to use the apartment air-conditioner not so much for cooling as for de-humidification. I know I grew up in this yuck and therefore ought to be able to handle it, but childhood wisdom is proving surprisingly elusive.
Oh, and does purchasing tahini get one onto terrorist lists or something? Because I’ve been to four different stores and have yet to find any. Hummus, yes, but not this essential building block thereof. What gives?
I’m going to wander downtown today and pick up a library card, now that I have a set of keys to the apartment. (Only one resident previously, so only one set of keys. Not a tenable situation, long-term.) David has been making going-shopping noises, which is fine with me.
Until I become a person (middle of next week, latest), I’m going to mess about with the backup DSpace install, and look over some actual installations (as opposed to secondhand chatter about same) so that I can get my head on straight about the bigger picture. (The University of Rochester is supposed to have an intriguing one.) That plus tweaking OS X (gah! forgot to install nsgmls! what’s wrong with me?) should keep me plenty busy.