Becstarr : Night navigation

It's a long while since I posted, so here are the main things that have happened in the interim:

* I went to the Redfern Community Centre [pic] to hear Kevin Rudd give the official apology. I'll be honest: I thought there was a good chance I'd get beaten up. Not only was I wrong, but the whole thing was done just fantastically. There was a great mixed crowd, all listening intently. Yes, follow-up will make it real, but this was an important start.

* I finished up at eLearning and moved to eLearning. That is, from central to Arts, and from Link J13 (over in Eng) to Mungo A18 (adjoining the Quad). Also from a team of 17 to a team of 3, and an office of 14 to an office of.... 1. I'm still in withdrawal from the constant buzz of an open office. I'm amazed to find myself saying it, but I think it's actually become my preferred way to work, at least in the day-to-day.

* Between the flu and the demands of starting a new job, I'm currently feeling fairly disoriented. I realise this has a lot to do with my preference for being one of the "big kids" rather than the clueless newb. I'm gradually finding out about the history, priorities, people, politics, shorthand and so on of my new area, but in the meantime I feel a little bit like I'm navigating blind...

Becstarr : The crunch is telling

Feeling increasingly stressed about getting projects done on time. Talked to Ross about the LMS handover in about 10 days. Team meeting where we got told our working group reports would be considered after the planning meetings. Up-side (I think) of the day: our new computers were released, and I now have a half-set-up MacBookPro.

Becstarr : Team play takes coordination

Spent most of today re-orienting myself in a site which I'd handed over to someone else to work on at the end of last semester. Realised that sometimes (often) handing tasks over, when I'm going to need to take it over again later, doesn't really save me work. Probably this would be less the case if I was working in a system less obfuscating than WebCT-- it's like working blind most of the time.

Becstarr : Burn the folder structure, we don't need it anymore

Spent a chunk of the day discussing our team's communications with the working group (4 ppl all up), which is all part of the team review happening after Stephen's departure. If I could pick two things that I think would make the biggest difference, it would be (a) putting our doco in one place, accessible to users, and making it easy to edit for all team members, and (b) improving the team's search skills. If it were up to me, I'd try addressing (a) with a wiki and (b) with some training and removing the entire labyrinthine folder structure of our shared drive (-> getting ppl to stop even trying to remember where things are). I think the likelihood of either becoming reality is questionable...