small failures...

PORTFOLIO: Didn't get nearly the amount of work done that I needed to today on my review portfolio. Dealing with new computers and new offices is a much more concrete, and hence preferable, task. I did make a few copies, and get some parts of the stack in a "ready" state. (Each finished section is labeled with a large pink post-it marked "READY"!) Still lots more to do, though.

COMPUTER: Got the Macbook from the "Systems Coordinator" guy. Which means that the University Geek Squad already had their paws all over it setting things up. Not cool. OK, it's nice to have a copy of Office 2008 on here, but not if it means I have to uninstall everything else they put on it. Symantec Antivirus? Is it 1992? What the fuck? Macs don't have viruses, you Windows nerds, at least not often enough that it's worth putting up with a "scan" every god-damned time you open a new file or a new drive. And it kept interrupting the fucking Migration Assistant, so none of my apps transfered to the new machine. And on top of it all, there is no way to delete the school-installed administrator user account, or even make it NOT the default. All this means that I'm going to wipe the HD, and reinstall OSX with my own Leopard install disks. (**) But it also means I had to bring BOTH MacBooks home, which I did NOT want to do.

OFFICE: The new office is a HUGE improvement over the old one. Not only is there more space, but there are TWO DESKS. (My old office-mate and I could not be in the office at the same time.) One of the desks was already empty, so I claimed it and rearranged the furniture a little bit. I moved the big horizontal filing cabinet around a corner and slid my desk back, creating a dark, cozy nook from which I can't see the door. This is important, as I find people-traffic distracting, and the new office is right next to the men's room. The only thing that the room is missing are BOOKSHELVES. There are 2 long shelves on the wall, but no freestanding units. I really need more book-starage space, so I'm going to email a request for some wall units. If they don't come through, I guess I can make a trip to the new Brooklyn IKEA! In fact, now that I think about it, there may be room in this office for a tiny sofa! I love offices with tiny sofas! Anyway, right now most of my books are moved into the new room, but stacked in big 5' high piles against the wall, making it look a little like the office I just left.





(**) Notably absent from the laptop box they gave me were all the MacOS install discs. Clearly they don't want you doing a system install yourself. These people have NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE DEALING WITH!!!