Where does the time go?

I expected that blogging frequency would be lower than in the past, for a while at least, but I didn’t mean to leave it so long since my last proper post (History Carnival notices don’t count). I don’t have the excuse that I have zillions of classes to prep, unlike my American blogging friends. (I wouldn’t have that excuse yet even if I had a teaching job, since the British university year doesn’t get going for a few weeks.) But the job does tend to occupy a lot of my brainspace, along with the ongoing settling-in to the new place. So, you’ll have to make do with a few random observations.

… The gaps in my knowledge of what happened to English criminal law and punishment after the second half of the 18th century are shocking. (But it increasingly seems to me that in general our gaps in understanding what happened to English criminal justice and punishment after the late 18th century are fairly shocking. Or is that just my ignorance and early modern prejudices at work?)

… Having just ordered one that I don’t have to pay for (great fun!), I am absolutely astounded at just how much high-spec desktop PC one can buy for absurdly small sums of money these days. Someone in the office suggested it’s because everyone wants laptops now, so slashing prices is the only way these lumbering mammoths are going to sell. Seems a reasonable proposition.

… In less than two weeks, I become a real ‘manager’, as there’ll be someone at the next desk I’m actually in charge of. This is somewhat scary. Much more scary than the working-in-a-real-office experience, which I think I’m settling into now.

… Right now, I’m playing around with wikis, since we’re thinking of setting one up for the projects. This is something I’ve avoided for some time now; I feared they’d be terribly addictive. (I think I was right. Wikis are dangerous.) If anyone has good tips or links for using wikis for work-related collaboration, documentation, support and so on, do pass them on. It’ll be much appreciated.