Magic

The breath of life has been given to campus and, like a magic performance, appear the students. Campus is packed with late students scrambling to find parking. There are the standard long lines for food, enrollment, and the bursar's office. It feels nice to be part of such a gigantic coordinated process. I am sure that that will fade over time, but for now, I truly enjoy it.

Whirlwind

Today I finished orientation. It was an informative but arduous process of learning how complex it is to be a new faculty member in one of the largest schools in California. The institutional research people even said that CSUF will likely surpass UCLA in enrollment (including part-time students) and all other CSU schools this term. So, an update is in order.

Move -> fast, furious, mostly painless, time consuming
New House -> clean, painted, full of boxes, and organized according to our desires. It is not finished, but the major projects (excepting the kitchen) are nearly completed.
New Courses -> nearly ready, but still no syllabi (that is next on my list)
New Commute -> about 1 hour 45 minutes on average. That entails around 11 bike miles and 40 train miles. I could likely do it fast in the car, but I can exercise before my commute (bike), work on the train, exercise before school, work all day, exercise after school, work on the train, and exercise before I get home. I should be fit, right?
New Colleagues -> unbelievably welcoming and warm. From what it appears on the surface, they are interested in retention in tenure, not expulsion.
New Office -> still no furniture, no computer, but a nice clean floor and a good view from the window. I think that if I stayed late enough, I could watch the fireworks at Disneyland from here.

Two worthless movies

I was treated to two movies in two days. I haven't seen two movies in a theater in years, let alone two days. It is a personal record. The first, Dark Knight (IMAX version), was interesting but left me in a funk. It was simply disturbing on many levels. The action was complete and the gratuitous violence plentiful. Although the plot line was generally credible, it seemed to be overly tight. For a self-proclaimed anarchist psychopath to have hatched such complex and diabolical plan seems unrealistic. There is no doubt about Heath Ledger's performance deserving accolades. The second, Hellboy II, can only be described as a Lord of the Rings-esque romantic, action, fantasy thriller that was full of puns, allusions, and 1960's themes. My brother-in-law feigned a snore during the 'get-drunk to soothe our girl troubles' scene, and guffawed during the delivery of most cheesy lines.

First day

Monday I did my first trial run of the work commute. I clipped myself into my bike and away I rode. About 4 miles into the ride, I stopped at a red light and promptly fell over. It was my first time. I made it to the train station in time to buy the wrong ticket and board the train 2 seconds before the doors closed. I got corrected by the conductor for not securing my bike to the wall properly. From my stop, I followed a 6 year veteran bike commuter to the campus. I spent all day trying to get an ID, keys, and all of my paperwork filled out. When I got my keys, I opened my office to... a completely empty office. They said that the bookshelves and desk were on order and should come in soon. They also had to reorder my office computer because they got me the wrong kind. So I spent the rest of my first day sitting on the floor of my office prepping classes. Although it sounds bad, it was a wonderful day. All of my colleagues were happy to have me around (at least that is what they said), and I feel at home. Just before I was planning on going home, I stopped into the bookstore to check out their Mac supply. They had a clearance special on the 24" that made it less than the price of the 20", so I bought one. I got a free iPod touch. Because I was lugging this huge computer around, I had to ride the bus to the train station. Everyone was very helpful and wanted to hold the computer whenever I did anything (like put my bike on the front of the bus, or try to get my bike and boxes on the train). It all became a big joke to everyone on the train that I was so paranoid about losing my computer and bike. I called a friend to pick my up at the station so I didn't have to walk it all home. All in all, a super first day.

Problem

It all started with the pedals.



I started reading biking websites and found that I might want to try a single speed bike. It has the benefits of simplicity, robustness, and all of the current kudos for being in the know. I called one of my wife's cousins. He had a decked out single speed bike that we would trade for one of my collectible items.



So, now I own two new bikes. Both of which are red.



I re-geared the bike so that I can make it my rainy day commuter.



I understand that my legs will thank me. If nothing else, all of the cool kids will love to see an en vogue, bow tie wearing, bike riding professor.

Linux love

When I got my laptop about a year ago, I tried to make sure that it would be compatible with some Linux OS. I chose the Ubuntu flavor and gave it a go. After two failed installs, it finally worked. Shout out to Josh. It turns out that the install disc was corrupted. During this process, I heard many woeful tales of destroyed data that had not been properly backed up. I have tinkered and worked a little, but mostly I enjoy playing the games. The only unfortunate part about the install is that it failed to recognize my wireless card, and so I have to use an ethernet cable if I want to hit the net. Everything is intuitive except for the terminology. Point, click, play. Point, click, download updates. Point, click, create slideshows.

It has some distinct advantages over microsoft...
First, you get it for free. You do get what you pay for in support, it all comes from other users.
Second, it allows your machine to run as fast as it says it will (no behind the scenes stuff going on here).
Third, you look super cool to all of the 'in the know' people (i.e. Geek Squad underlings, programmers, almost anyone with pocket protectors)
Fourth, you get to be part of the open source movement, whatever that means.

Did I mention that I enjoy the games?

Accepted

Today I received notice that one of my (a co-authored) papers has been accepted for publication! It was one highly modified chapter of my dissertation. It is in a top 20 journal which makes me feel like my work has some merit. I am now 25% closer to tenure. Hurrah and Huzzah!