I spent a large part of the day unpacking books and files, and I'm pretty much moved into the new office.
Here's what it looked like this morning, full of boxes.
Naturally, the boxes of books are pretty much in front of the bookcases. (There's not much space anywhere else for them, though.)
I went from having no office chair chosen a few weeks ago to having two in my office. I have to try them both out for a bit and see which one I prefer.
I checked and there's no way to change the positions of the desks. They're not really modular.
I got a filing cabinet! YAY!
There are also chairs for office visitors, too.
And now, with books! Mostly organized, too! These shelves are taller, so my books have lots of space. I only had to move shelves for the Hinman (it's the brick colored book that's really tall, a facsimile edition of Shakespeare's First Folio, prepared by Charleton Hinman).
While I was unpacking my books, a guy came in who said he's a photographer for the school, and that the deanling in charge of such things (whose name he used) wanted him to take pictures to document the moving in process. So he asked if I would mind, and I let him take pictures.
So now there will probably be a publicity sort of picture of my office in the unpacking stages on our webpage or something. My moment of fame.
Look ma, only one box left (with files). The new file cabinets all require hanging files, and I didn't have hanging files, so I got some from the department, and then still had files left over when the department stock ran out. I think we need more file hangers.
There are no nametags yet, so I put a rainbow in mine. At least I'll be able to find my door now. (The numbering makes no sense at all in this building. It's not just me being an idiot, either. Everyone's confused. Trust me, it's big, but we don't have 500 offices on my floor.)
The computer works, and there's already stuff piled on the filing cabinet, naturally. I've asked for one of those computer keyboard drawer things. Otherwise, I'm going to get wrist problems fast, I fear.
The hallways feel sort of endless. This is looking left from my doorway.
When I was a kid, I had a nightmare that I was walking in a long hallway like this, and a man was at the other end, and shot me through the head, face on. In my dream, I somehow was also watching a little hole appear in my head, and then watched me drop to the ground. It was a strong enough image that I've never forgotten it.
I hope it wasn't some weird premonition.
And this is looking right from my doorway. The double doors on the left are an electrical closet thing.
Not only are the halls endless, it's a rectangle and there's really no way to tell easily which hall you're in.
North seems to be odd numbers, and south even numbers, but I'm not sure about east and west.
This ends the tour of our new building, which probably needs a nickname. Thoughts?
Too bad about not being able to rearrange the desk! The endless hallways would also feel a little weird to me. It reminds me of a large hotel. Hey - maybe that should be the nickname -- the hotel -- especially since you can't move/rearrange anything. It's just like having an office in a hotel.
ReplyDeleteBut what kind of hotel? Is it the Heartbreak Hotel or the Hotel California or something entirely different?
ReplyDeleteThe chair on the left looks just like mine. It's okay. I've never found an entirely satisfactory office chair, but I rarely notice this one, which is a good thing.
The walls are begging for some color. Just leave a few gallons of paint sitting around your office and invite all your artist friends over for a party, and if a little paint happens to splash onto the walls, say Oops.
Well, there is a certain "you can check in any time you want, but you can never leave" quality (if only because you'd have to find the exit to do so. Among other things, I'm surprised that halls can be that long without an intervening fire door. Maybe sprinklers make that unnecessary?)
DeleteI vote for letting a squad (or whatever the proper collective noun is) of graffiti artists loose in the hallways for a weekend or so, with a good supply of paint (and some pizza and soft drinks for sustenance). Then you could say "my office is across from the x mural, just down from the image of y." And any spatters on the carpet would make that a bit more interesting, too.
Well, it's looking a little more like somewhere humans might inhabit (I like the rainbow), but yes, still pretty institutional (and those halls are, indeed, nightmare-invoking, if not inducing. I wonder how the students will react to the idea of finding people there? Also, where are students supposed to wait if you've already got someone in your office?).
ReplyDeleteThe large hallway in the building in which my office is located is a rectangle (with some large rooms in the middle, and rabbit warrens of offices off to the outer sides). There are also two basically-identical stairwells at opposite corners of the building. It took me years to be able to reliably tell which stairwell I'd come up if my mind wandered during the process, and I still get confused periodically (in fact, turning the wrong way as I come out of a stairwell is a pretty good sign that I'm getting close to exhaustion, and really should go home, sleep, and generally take a break as soon as possible. Sometimes that is, indeed, possible; sometimes it's not.) I've yet to figure out how to reliably direct students to the doors off the big hallway which lead, in turn, to the warren in which my office is located. But there is room for a chair or two in a lobby-like space outside my office, so that's a plus for office hours (or, more realistically, for conference season; I'm not sure I've ever had two students show up at once for office hours. And I don't think a building like yours is conducive to encouraging students to make use of office hours. They're going to get confused by the numbering system, and lost in the identical hallways, and generally overwhelmed, give up, and try to talk to you before or after class instead.)
The Circuit? The Maze?
ReplyDeleteI hope you can see things on the monitor with that set-up. I'd be looking into something to block some of the light from the screen (which is such a waste but, bah!, what a bad layout). Definitely demand a keyboard tray. Those do help.
Dang, those are long and kind of creepy halls! But your office does look much more homey with your books unpacked.
ReplyDelete