Slow Week

It’s been a slow week at work so far… I’m mostly waiting for other people to follow up on some issues we discovered at the last planning meeting. And I’m doing a lot of research for one of the new systems we’re going to be installing in the new building. Basically, it’s going to be a real-time streaming solution. We want to be able to take a live feed from the classroom and record it, and at the same time, automatically create an MPEG/Quicktime/Windows Media version of the recording. Then we’ll archive the recording and make it available on a webserver. So if you know of any turnkey solutions for that type of system, let me know!

In other news, I turned 29 yesterday!! ;)

Week One

Ah, Monday, the start of my second week here in the new job. Something funny (especially for those of you working or living in University towns)... On my drive to work, I cross "Cottage Grove" and then proceed to cross "University" and then turn on "Woodlawn". Do all college towns have the same street names? Or are these names modeled after some locale I'm not familiar with?

I still don't have my computer (it's on order though) and I'm still waiting for the phone to be installed in my office. It's hard to hit the ground running in academia. However, I did already have a *huge* project meeting already, which, thankfully, went very well.

And I spent the weekend relaxing, which was much needed. I got to catch up on some movies... finally saw Stevie which was really excellent, although somewhat troubling. And I was surprised by the Pirates of the Caribbean, which for a movie based on a Disney theme park ride was shockingly entertaining.

All in all, a good weekend, hopefully to kick off a good week at work...

Back on the Chain Gang

Well, today marked my first day back in the working world as I started my new position at a major university as a staff member. I've been a professional staff member at a university before, so I knew a little of what to expect.

The day was pretty uneventful... my boss was out due to a family emergency, so that was a minor setback, but the rest of the staff picked up nicely. I'm still waiting on my phone and my machine. I have been placed in a temp office (they are building a new building and so I have no space until that opens up this summer!) and given a "loaner" machine so I can start being productive.

I met most of my staff today as well. They seem like a nice bunch and I'm looking forward to working with them. One of the nice things about this particular institution is that it's reputation precedes it... and so far, it's living up to my expectations. The people here are bright, dedicated and nice. If you're going to work for someone else, it might as well be in a good environment like this!

Of course, it wouldn't be a university if there weren't some issues... namely parking. I had to put my name in a "lottery" for a parking permit today. Otherwise, it's a "fend for yourself" system, which on campus can be pretty bad. Oh well, I suppose if I can get used to getting up at 7am to come into work, I can get used to hunting for parking. It's rough giving up the "come and go as I please" atmosphere of working for yourself, but then again, it's nice not to have all the 24 hour worry and ulcers that come with it!