Wandering around campus, annoying people (#1431)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

A little more than a week ago, I was sitting in my office, avoiding class prep, and musing about first-year registration. At some point, I realized that I needed a break from gathering data, and I needed to wait a bit to ensure that most students had registered for round one. So I did the only natural thing.

No, not class prep.

I left my office to wander around campus. In particular, I planned to stop by the Office of International Student Affairs (OISA) to pick up stickers for my new laptop cover [1] and then another building on campus to drop off a check. I succeeded in my first errand, but the recipient of the check wasn’t in their office.

Tthen one of those voices that lives in my head encouraged me to wander elsewhere on campus. Why don’t you see if you can get some of the squirrels with disabilities stickers for your new laptop cover? Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them in DRAT [2]. But I was able to stop by and say hi to folks I knew. As long as I was in Steiner, I thought I might also check with folks in Goodnow [3]. No one was there to bother. Or at least no one I was looking for; I did find a friend (or at least someone I like) on the way out, and we chatted for a bit.

Somewhere along the way, I learned that there was an information fair, of sorts, in the JRC [4]. So I wandered over there. I stopped by nearly a dozen tables, chatting quickly with folks at each one. I also grabbed some of the swag—mostly stickers [6], but also a few pieces of fruit.

It was a nice walk through campus. Although I didn’t achieve all of my goals, everywhere I went, I got to talk to people I like and appreciate. I also got to ask everyone my annoying question of the day: What does single-use mean to you? Many people laughed at the follow-up [7]. Folks also seemed genuinely happy to see me; I’m never sure why. However, I certainly enjoyed seeing them.

Seeing so many people and getting a chance to talk to them quickly was a great lead-in to the semester. It made me happy. I should remember that the next time I need a pick-me-up.

Postscript: Like yesterday’s musing, this musing is a bit late. Unfortunately, while my muse inspired a lot of musings last week, she could not help me find time to write them. I have at least three more to go [8].

[1] That is, a new cover for my laptop. Not a cover for a new laptop. I don’t need a new laptop, and shouldn’t need one for a few years.

[2] Disability Resources and Accessible Technology.

[3] For some reason, I’m only able to remember the name of Goodnow by saying to myself, I was bad then.

[4] The Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center. I’ve yet to convince anyone to call it Joe’s Quarter [5]. Of course, I also haven’t been able to convince anyone to refer to the room in the center of the HSSC as the kernel.

[5] A colleague coined the term Joe’s Quarter; I just use it.

[6] Yes, stickers seem to be a theme of the day.

[7] Believe it or not, that’s the start of a joke. The punchline is a picture.

[8] I checked. Beyond the four or so musings I’ve written in the past few days, I have over twenty topics in the queue, including at least five that my muse suggested last week. I don’t keep careful track of when topics get added, but there are five about events from last week.

Version 1.0 released 2026-09-03.

Version 1.0.1 of 2026-09-06.