The Story So Far

I really do want to blog more often, but a combination of some kind of creeping crud and the usual fuss involved in the end of another school term have prevented much of that lately.
RIT has its 'spring break' in the middle of the winter due to its term system. Sheridan uses the semester system, which means spring break is where Spring usually occurs. The faculty do not have a break then; they spend it reviewing student applicants' portfolios.
Anyway, I've got some business to attend to once I am over the slight indisposition I've suffered for about a week now. Grades have to be posted, one student pencil test has to be screened with me present in the audience, and then the real fun starts.
It seems that Australia now requires fingerprints for positive identification of people, so I'm going to have to get to the Rochester police fingerprint division in the very short hours of their operation and pay for another set. I may get two as long as I'm there in case someone else needs them.
Then, packing commences in earnest. There are certain advantages to being at a major university. They throw out a tremendous amount of packaging. I've gotten about forty per cent of my packing boxes from recycling bins in the apartment building and in the hallways of RIT. The uni's trash included some splendid heavy duty computer boxes that I asked for and that the support staff kindly saved for me, two complete packing kits for large screens (one of which was used to pack the very rare animating Mickey Mouse picture, the other will be used for the screen for this computer). Yesterday I found styrofoam inserts for several large Dell screens (three complete sets, I couldn't carry the fourth) and one of them will hold the larger screen for the video system, others can pad the posters. A kind grad student helped me haul everythign in his small SUV (so the things are good for something.) I'll have some additional help with the stereo and its mare's nest of cables, which will be photographed before packing so I can reassemble the mess singlehanded once I'm in Toronto. At least there is one less machine to plug in. I sent back the "Cinea" player that the Academy sent me three years ago. It's been used precisely once, and no one encodes their discs any more, so it was just ballast.
Then at the beginning of March I'm off to Toronto for a presentation or two at Sheridan (topic is fairly casual, but is based on character design this time, not storyboard; I am bringing the student pencil test to compare it with its Leica reel. It will be fun to see how it plays.)
While I'm there I will be searching for an apartment in earnest, walking around some neighbourhoods and exploring side streets. It's important to do this in Toronto when there is snow on the ground, since some streets are not plowed regularly--shades of Rochester! I'll be walking around Port Credit, Long Branch, and possibly Mimico to see what I can see and possibly introduce myself to a few prospective landlords.
Lots of folks in Canada are offering help, and I have spoken to a realtor or two, so that at least gives me some idea of what neighbourhoods are likeliest. Everyone I know in the Toronto area says to live close to the school, which unhappily rules out my dream of living near the St. Lawrence Market since Sheridan is in Oakville and not in Toronto at all. Well, they have a point; the commute can be irregular on the GO train, and it is vitally important to get to work on time. I will listen to them and look a bit farther afield, then go into the city on the weekends.

The computer started to show signs of senility and general cussedness, so I purchased something called the Uniblue Power Suite at Dad's suggestion. I don't get paid for saying this, but if you are on a Windows machine, you need this product. Mr. Computer is humming along now, relieved of about 500 registry errors and 13 infected cookies. If you don't know what a registry is, you REALLY need to use this thing. I am relieved at not having to hire someone to come and pick through it manually.

That's the update for now. Gizmo is adapting to the packing. She has developed a taste for the air pillows that frequently cushion books and printed matter nowadays. I heard a strange chew-chew-stretch POP and got two of them away from her, sadly after the popping. The others are on a high shelf that she can't jump to without knocking over a lot of stuff. Since she's an intelligent cat she never jumps anywhere that doesn't have a clear surface.
This is why many surfaces in the apartment have been cluttered for as long as I can remember. At least it's a nice excuse.