2010.09.12
Days Remaining: 261

1. Non-academic note today: I've been sleeping very poorly the last few nights. I still wake up on my own between 6 and 7am, but because I've been so tired I've been trying to stay in bed longer. Some days it's difficult to be motivated to do much of anything. I've hit the doldrums of momentum in getting this apartment set up; without another table on which to put things as I unpack I'm mostly just juggling the contents of various boxes. I've thought it before, but now I'm certain of it: a clear table or an abundance of empty shelves are absolutely necessary for a functioning household (at least for me). Without a staging area (or ultimate destination - I don't have any cabinets), unpacking makes no sense.

2. Tomorrow I'm going to Baskerville College's campus to get my Faculty ID card. Every other institution of higher learning where I've worked over the past decade has had ID cards. But BC has consistently resisted this for reasons that none of the staff understand. Now, though, in my final year here, they're up for it. And, of course, I've grown out my beard for the hell of it, so my photo ID will be me in ursine mode.

3. Sometimes it's the little victories. Before I was married I had a personal Netflix account that used my grad school email address as my login. Then, when I moved to New England my ex-wife added me to her account under my more usual email address (the one to which all correspondence to me is addressed). So now that we're divorcing I reopened my personal account, but couldn't get the usual address (which was linked to her account) to transfer to my own account. Neither she nor I could figure out a way to do this. Today I spent about 20 minutes on the telephone with a very nice Netflix customer service representative who sounded like he lived on Lake Woebegon (seriously, this call center has to be in Minnesota). At the end of it I got my account information changed, unlinked my usual email from my ex-wife's account, and was able to get it assigned to my account. It's not much, but every little step towards complete disentanglement is a step forward.

4. Random interesting URL: http://dowlingduncan.com/dowling-duncan-redesign-us-bank-notes/

5. And that's about it for now. This week I'm going to be spending some time on the new career path issue, so if anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.