The Black Horse of the Blog World

So, my office has carpet now. It was a hack job, put together out of remnants. In a 6′ by 10′ (approx.) room, there are at least 6 separate pieces. And the seams are more Joan Miro than Piet Mondrian. Still, the carpeter did a pretty good job given the limitations at hand. And it didn’t come from my budget, so I can’t say too much.

I can’t move in yet. I have a work order in to have the furniture moved into the office, no idea when that will happen. I’d do it myself, but the desks that are going in are ridiculously solid steel. My coworker almost threw out his back moving the desk _out_ of there.

The job itself is going well, but my mind is slagged with other things going on. Until I can settle into the space it’s going to be tough for me to really focus on anything more than learning the ropes. So at this point I’m still more reactive than proactive.

So, any of you fine folks going to IMA looking for a roommate? Also, I am offering ridesharing.

Survived the first day at the new job. Spent time filling out paperwork, getting parking sticker, campus ID, tour, lunch, desk, laptop, e-mail, phone, and all sorts of fun new things like that. Even did some official job function stuff, because even on the first day, I figured it was best to do some real work.

Upside: Campus is really small, and I should get to know most everyone pretty quick.

Downside: There’s nothing in the middle of Weston. Food options scarce.

Upside: I have my own office! With a window! And a door that locks!

Downside: I’m in the basement, so the window starts at head level when standing. I don’t expect much view. Plus, the office isn’t in good shape at the moment.

Upside: Shiny almost new laptop!

Downside: They’re PC-centric, with an Exchange server.

Upside: My building is one of the few on campus with WiFi!

Downside: See above. Plus, I get *zero* cell signal. See prior comment on the middle of Weston.

Upside: The College is at a turning point, really starting to make forward momentum.

Downside: Objects at rest, Newton’s laws, must put up with the past while reaching for the future.

Upside: Better commute, shorter hours, more flexible time, more holidays.
Downside: Fewer sick days (but I don’t use too many), longer lead times on picking vacation, going back to 3 weeks/year vacation.

Upside: Being very in charge of my own day to day.

Downside: I suspect the increased quantity of cycles used in the scheduler queue will slow down simple multitasking in favor of complex multitasking. We’ll have to see how various algorithms perform under real world load averages.

Upside: New and exciting things to do!

Downside: New and exciting policies and procedures and cultures and politics to have to learn and adapt to.

Sometimes it is as hard to let go of the tiger as it is to hold on…

Have you been considering getting your own domain name? Want to put up your own snazzy blog? Are you hosting at home, but worried about uptime, redundancy, running afoul of your ISP’s Terms of Service? Want an off-site storage solution so you can rsync your home machines for backup purposes?

Dreamhost has just turned 10, and if you sign up now, you can get 500GB of storage, 5TB of bandwidth, and as many features you can shake a stick at in the shared host world for 5.95* a month.

Ok, commercial aside, I’m a very happy customer, and as I’m not eligible for this deal (only new customers are), I thought I’d see if _someone_ I know can take advantage of it. If you do sign up, do so through the link above, and Dreamhost will throw me a bone for it.

*(Edit: It looks like the monthly price varies somewhat based on how much you prepay for.  I don’t actually advise anyone to prepay for 10 years just to get the 5.95 monthly rate.)