Vivek’s Blog

I met with my adviser and talked about my summer research.  Nothing else to report.  So, enjoy the following video:

Oh have I got a tale to tell!  You might want to hide the kids.

As I’ve made it mind-numbingly clear, I moved into my summer dorm on Monday.  So, on my first morning (Tuesday), I went in to my “semi-private” bathroom to take a shower.  When I tried to get out, however, I realized that I had locked the bathroom door from the outside before entering the bathroom.  Crap.

So, I couldn’t get from the bathroom to my room.  I tried using force to open the door but gave up quickly - my body was already aching from all the moving.  So, I took a risk and opened the door to the room next to mine, which shares the bathroom.  There was nobody there.  Turns out, the guys who were supposed to move into that room, haven’t moved in yet.  So, with *only* my towel on, I walked out of their room and out into the hallway.  From there, I walked down to the lobby to get help.  Apparently, people lock themselves out of their rooms all the time and the guy at the front desk was quick to help me out.  He sent one of the cleaning people up with me to open my room for me.

It was a little embarrasing to walk around with nothing but my towel on - but it had to be done.  I got lucky that there was no one in the adjacent room, else they would’ve been surprised to find a half-naked dude walking through their room for no apparent reason.  I’m now going to double-check the bathroom door each time I walk in for a shower.  I’m developing a habit of locking myself out within the first 24 hours of moving into a new room - it happend in August when I walked out of my room with my keys sitting on my desk.  Fortunately, I was wearing clothes then.

It took me more than six hours, but I was able to move all my stuff to my new dorm earlier today (or yesterday).  It is tiny, as I expected, but there’s no roommate yet.  Not sure if someone is supposed to move in - I should’ve asked the people doing the check-in.  So everyday, I’ll wake up, and pray that no one shows up while I’m off at work.  I’ve used my knowledge of crystal structures to efficiently pack all my boxes under my high bed so that there’s a decent amount of room available.  I didn’t open anything that wasn’t immediately essential, and I plan to keep it that way all summer so that most of my stuff will be packed for the fall check-in.

Of course, there was an adventure to be had even though I was only moving my crap.  First, I went to the wrong dorm for check-in.  Then, I come back to my room after check-in, and the security guard tells me that I can’t take the wheeled bins outside the building.  This was a huge shock since I was relying on those large bins to help me move my stuff quickly and safely.  So, I took my suitcases and went off to my new room.  During the trip, I realized that it would be pure torture if I had to move my heavy items this way.  I went to the “Hospitality Desk” on campus to find a bin, only to be greeted by a line.  I had to wait 40 minutes to get a bin.  From then on, things were mostly smooth sailing except for the elevators in my new dorm that were crazy busy as everyone was moving in.  It took me about 5 trips over 3.5 hours to move all the heavy items.  The final two trips were much easier since I was only taking my computer and some random stuff.  By around 7:15pm, I vacated my old room and returned the keys.  Since then, I’ve been unpacking and organizing my stuff.  I ate lunch at like 5pm.

Anyway, I will return to more interesting tales tomorrow.  I hope.

…a punch, that is!  Bah, that was lame.

Anyway, I’m going to move into my summer dorm today (since it’s past 12am here).  Thus far, my online housing status does not list a roommate and although I’m praying it stays that way, I think the reality of the situation is that Housing is being incompetent (yet again), and just hasn’t bothered to change the info on my status.  Or maybe they will assign that room to someone during the second summer session starting in July.  For all I know, when I walk into my room tomorrow (today), there’ll be some dude moving in already.  Having to share that small room all summer would blow.

Once I get to my new place, I need to start up on this GRE prep.  Also, I meet my adviser on Thursday to discuss research.  Should be fun.  Right now, I need to pack my keyboard, mouse, and speakers.  Over and out.

I spent the entire day packing and watching Arrested Development and so, not much happened today.  Other than AD, the sight of two boxes I had just purchased taking flight due to the strong winds was perhaps most entertaining.  Good thing I was able to retrieve them quickly enough.  But anyway, I’m gonna go pack some more and then go to sleep earlier than 3am for a change.  I have to finish my packing tomorrow so that I can efficiently move my stuff to my summer room on Monday.  I’ve amassed an unbelievable amount of junk in my four years here.  Damn.