freckles_and_doubt: (Default)
Freckles & Doubt ([personal profile] freckles_and_doubt) wrote2011-01-23 08:05 pm

deep breath

So, orientation starts tomorrow. I've worked a week of 11-hour days in preparation, and most of yesterday and today, in between odd bouts of socialising ([livejournal.com profile] librsa's birthday picnic yesterday, lunch with [livejournal.com profile] friendly_shrink today). Two hours of photocopying this morning, an extended wrestle with advisor schedules and an online evaluation yesterday, an evening spent writing up everything I know about curriculum advice in alphabetical order, which was a strangely surreal procedure. I even put up a Microfic, although it's a very quick and unpolished effort.

It is remotely possible that I'm prepared for tomorrow. This is not, of course, going to prevent me from lying awake tonight fretting about all the little details I've forgotten, and whether my OLs will rise magnificently to the occasion or will crumble under the onslaught. (They've always done the former, but I'm paranoid).

General lessons learned this last week:
  1. Never administer enormous logistical challenges if you're a control freak.
  2. This is where my health problems are stemming from. I've been fine for months, but my sinuses are acting up today for the first time since around August. Bloody stress.
  3. It may produce presentations rife with thundering cliché, but Powerpoint is weirdly easy to use. It certainly beats my previous line in dodgy overhead projector copies.
  4. Earl Grey makes the world go round.
I shall now go and watch a celebratory Smallville episode before toddling goodly off to bed at 9pm in preparation for a 6am start. Sigh. Season 4. They're making Clark play football. I don't get American football. It's a completely bizarre combination of macho and mincing, and I'm finding it both incomprehensible and insanely boring to watch. I say this from the point of view of someone who finds a slow, pleasant enjoyment in several arcane hours of cricket. I suppose it takes all sorts.

Wish me luck! I shall be thin on the ground for the next few days.

[identity profile] starmadeshadow.livejournal.com 2011-01-24 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
Good luck! May you always find time to make Earl Grey when you need it most. And may your chocolate biscuit stash never be empty.

Point 4

[identity profile] schedule5.livejournal.com 2011-01-24 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
Yes. Oh yes!

Good luck.

Overhead projector?!!

[identity profile] pinkthulhu.livejournal.com 2011-01-24 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I had a momentary flashback to high school classes when I read that. :)

I had the pleasure of seeing the Miami Dolphins take on the New York Giants in an NFL exhibition game at Wembley a few years ago. However boring you might think American football looks on tv, it's even more tedious in the flesh.

Re: Overhead projector?!!

[identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com 2011-01-25 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
It's like a really bad rugby game, when they make 50cm of ground and grind to a halt - all these little short, choppy rushes which are immediately aborted, and the clean running bits are few and far between. Also, the way that they immediately face off in pairs and bump each other is frankly silly. Quite apart from my profound lack of comprehension of its finer points, I honestly don't think American football is designed to be watched by anyone who's ever watched any rugby.

Re: Overhead projector?!!

[identity profile] pinkthulhu.livejournal.com 2011-01-25 09:28 am (UTC)(link)
It's worse in real life, as they actually stop the game, wait while the offence goes off and the defence goes on (or vice versa) and then carry on playing. It's no wonder they need cheerleaders and massive ad breaks to keep the audience busy.

On and off

[identity profile] tngr-spacecadet.livejournal.com 2011-01-25 12:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't they have room on the field for both teams to be on at once? Sounds very silly to me too.