Chandler, the iPod

FedEx brought my iPod yesterday. I went into work late so that I could be sure delivery occurred. The lovely lady came to my door, held Chienne as she wagged her tail and tried to make friends while I signed the form, all but dancing with glee.

Seeing no need for instructions right away, I popped the little gadget out of its pretty box, quickly ascertained I wasn’t sure how it worked, and began my search for software and directions. I found cords first – the ear buds, which I plugged in and put in my ears immediately, then the USB cable, which I also attached post-haste.

Little Chandler (that’s what I named him) immediately started flashing “Do not disconnect” with an angry looking red circle containing a forbidding line. “Oh…” I said to him, slightly concerned.

I next found the software CD, clearly saying “Install before plugging in iPod” or some such nonsense. Mildly worried, but largely undaunted, I quickly made use of the CD and was able to download some music from my laptop (whose name is Nick). Satisfied, I bundled little Chandler up in his case, carefully wound the cords, and set off for work.

I tried to focus – honestly, I did. But if you read yesterday’s post, you know I wasn’t in the best of mental states, and soon decided that I would be most productive by dealing with Chandler.

Pulling him carefully from his case, I plugged him in once again. Belle (my computer at work – she’s pretty and Southern) wanted to overwrite Chandler (I know – I was set to automatically sync! Freaking settings.) but I reprimanded her. I just wanted to add, not rewrite the whole thing.

Just adding. I thought, trying the same thing again with identical results. So I sat and thought, considered looking online for some advice since I’m sure this was a FAQ. Don’t most people use more than one computer? Might be time-consuming, I decided. I’ll email someone! Then they’ll know exactly what I want and I won’t have to waste time learning stuff that’s not directly applicable.

Carrie answered my questions in about an hour, but by then I had already overwritten Chandler with Belle’s music, too impatient to wait for the proper procedure, willing to do extra work when I got home in reloading Nick’s information just to feel like I was making some sort of progress. I had ideas on how I would make Chandler behave, and I kept trying things until I got frustrated and finally said “FINE” when Belle asked again if she could sync and overwrite little Chandler.

I read Carrie’s emails after I drove home, figured out some easier ways to do a couple of things, and happily loaded all my iTunes selections. Then I did some work last night to make up for my distracted productivity level at the office. Oh, and I wrote a post feeling a bit sorry for and frustrated with myself.

Chandler stayed home today. I know myself well enough to understand that he would have been an irresistible lure, sitting in my bag, waiting for me to guess and check until I discovered yet another amazing utility. It’s the same reason I won’t download bloglines at work. Avoiding temptation is vital.

So I came home tonight and brought a stack of CDs out to begin transferring my physical music library onto little Chandler. I received my FM transmitter today, so I want to be ready for my morning commute. I’m content, curled up with Chienne behind my knees, selecting and transferring music, watching Cash Cab then Raymond, now football, and checking email and site statistics. Multi-tasking is my shining area of expertise and I adore trying find spare seconds to add another element into the mix.

I decided to move my photo library as well, requiring a trip down the hall to my office. Again, my PC wanted to reformat Chandler. This time, I wasn’t allowing it – firmly refusing each time I was asked. Since I don’t know anyone else who deals with both operating systems, I had to go looking for solutions online. Sure enough, there’s an easy way, requiring a quick download of some trial software. Then I was able to get the last few songs (music everywhere!) and all of my pictures.

They didn’t show up right, causing a brief tantrum, so I transferred them to iPhoto on Nick, pushed them back to Chandler, let iTunes optimize, and waited while I started this post. I ejected Chandler for the last time, used the scrolling wheel to glance through some pictures on the perfectly small screen, and tucked my new little pal back in his case.

This is the closest I think I’ll be able to get to writing about how I work. I’m not comfortable revealing too much about my professional life. I’ve heard about writers being fired for posting delicate work details – I even know one personally. So I’m wary of writing too much about what happens there at my desk each day because I do like my job.

But if you want a glimpse of how I get things done – this is it. Eager in the beginning – doing things in the wrong order, getting worried, but pushing ahead. I like to do, not read. Papers make far more sense if I have some first-hand idea of what’s going on. That’s why I’ve made appointments to observe some different departments in the near future. I need to have a mental picture to put facts together – it’s just how I work.

I ask people before I go searching. I’m doing better here than I did in grad school, my fear of looking inadequate overcoming my desire to get information in the quickest/most efficient way. If someone takes too long to answer, I’ll just try stuff, willing to make mistakes I’ll later have to correct in order to feel like I’m doing something.

I spend tremendous amounts of time dealing with code – moving data around, putting it in different formats, trying to figure out how to make something happen. I’ll get frustrated, but refuse to admit defeat until I’ve spent significant time doing battle with a problem.

I multi-task constantly, very rarely focused completely on one thing. If something takes 2 minutes to transfer or process, I have 2 other projects going so not a moment is wasted. This makes it nearly impossible for new students to work with me directly – I get twitchy while I wait for them to do something, very uncomfortable with wasting time, eager to get out paper, make notes so I don’t forget where I am on project 1 as I work on topics 2 & 3. The process is all clear in my head, but I’ve learned it’s chaos looking in.

I’ll name computers and machines, smile while patting them for a job well done, scowl and mutter when they thwart my best efforts. As I wrote this, I was reminded of countless projects I’ve done. So this is me – how I work and think. There might have been a better way to do get little Chandler to his current condition. But I got here – to a functional and informed place – so maybe I deserve a pat and smile myself.