Hard Work

Today was my last day in the math department.

I spent most of it (and most of the end of this week) carrying stuff from my old office to my new office. New office is about two blocks away, and almost everything had to be carried by me, as you can not park by the math building during the day, and you can not get into the computer science building nights and weekends. While I am sore from carrying stuff, I feel like I've done penance for not going to the gym. And the move was relatively uneventful until my laser printer took a tumble onto the sidewalk from a height of roughly two feet when I had a sudden run-in with inertia.

Today I also received an email from an irate student in a difficult situation. Stu describes having been in a math class that was not at the peak of excellence. Did the class suck? Unclear. But I certainly do believe that it was sub-optimal. Stu was disappointed with the grade received. Do I believe that Stu might have scored a higher grade in a different section of the course? Very plausible. And now someone is going to have to explain to Stu that when you complain about a math class at the end of the semester there is not that much that the math department can do for you. And someone may have to try to quantify whether the course was unexpectedly deficient and whether something should be done to ameliorate the situation. And I don't really mind that "someone" is not me.

Monday I'll move the last few things from my old office to my new office (or maybe just to my car), I'll unpack, and I'll start the first day full-time at the new job.