Week 3: Time to do work!

The past two weeks have brought to me everything I need to get work done.

1. My crates arrived from California! Wonderful people helped me unload them. I prioritized getting them unloaded, so at this point, almost of my "stuff" at home is unpacked and set up. It seems as if everything survived, which is great.
2. I brought my science books to campus, as well as the equipment I brought with me from California. Hence, my office feels like I've "moved into" it. It is still more messy than I would like, and my incredibly large number of books barely made a dent on the bookshelves. Awesome!
3. I ordered office supplies and received them quickly. There was a small delay because of transitioning fiscal years. This is an interesting lesson: ordering things at the beginning of July will have the most delays. Now I can make folders! My need to color-code things is perhaps a little over-the-top...
4. My office computer showed up! This is, of course, the most important thing. Originally IT (or ITS, as it is called here) had a delivery date of 7/31, but they were able to knock a few weeks off that for me. I'm now struggling to learn Windows, but it isn't going terribly.
5. I'm now trying to get my needed software/tools on the work computer. I've managed to copy (most) of my backed-up files onto it. I've installed Dropbox and Chrome and the main Chrome extensions that I use. Now the big challenge: emacs and LaTeX and all of the Linux goodies I'm used to. I'm trying to follow the steps listed here to get my Ubuntu toys working inside Windows. Unfortunately, it looks like the VMWare "unity" feature won't work with newer versions of Ubuntu.
6. I've gotten a crash course in using Moodle, the internet-based course tool that is used at Agnes Scott. It has a lot of great functionality, but I have to do a lot of work to do the initial set up.
7. I received two manuscripts to review! I like reviewing papers, and it is a nice reminder right now that I do have some sort of expertise.

I'm still waiting for the textbooks that I ordered during the first week of July. I think I know what textbook I will use for Electronics, since it is available as a PDF I have been able to preview it already. Of course, the book is just a detail. I still have a lot of work ahead of me to figured out the labs for electronics.

I have fewer obstacles preventing me from planning Intro Physics and Modern. Now that I have my office supplies, I can use the complicated technique that I learned in the Course Design Course - color coded post it notes! I can start laying out many parts of the Syllabi for both courses. Because I use LaTeX for documents like that, I need to get that working first.

I'm not feeling super rushed for time yet, though rationally I know that I am. It seems like I make progress every day, but I also keep having a number of stupid delays and distractions. I hoped to have a productive evening last night, and packed dinner. But, the fire alarm was going off at the Science Building. I was mildly productive at home, but certainly did not achieve what I hoped to.