The cleaning people came today while I was out. The problem with the cleaning people is that they don't speak any english and they are set-up to clean and not organize. I had originally thought they could organize my life but instead they make little piles out of my messy life once every two weeks. I had hatched a new plan to keep my life organized a few months ago which was to hire an undergraduate from Boston University to organize all of the clutter in my apartment at a reasonable rate. I got the idea from two places. The first was Philip who hired an undergraduate beauty school student as his asistant in Toronto to organize his life. She used to go out on errands to buy him beer, would fill out his expense reports for him, and most importantly acted as the topless waitress at poker night. The other person inspiring this idea was my family friends the Kriegers who on Passover held a Seder and had hired a BU student by posting the job on the BU Quickie Job board. While Passover was in the spring of last year it takes me a long time to get into gear. Besides that I had never had a way of posting to the quickie job board.

Now that I am a student at BU taking Java, which is off tonight because it is Columbus day, I have extra access to the resources of Boston University. So I went to do my research and found the quicky job board. Upon trying to click through to the job board I learned that to post a job I would need a BU login. I had actually inquired about getting a BU login a week before when I was desparately looking to post announcements for Swedishnurse.com but all I had received was an email 24 hours after I inquired about how to get an account that read:

"To set up an ACS account (e-mail, BU login and kerberos password), you must complete this online application:
Start
Once you have completed this online application, your account will not be active until you present your ID to our office in person. For security reasons, we cannot verify your ID via phone or e-mail. The lab at 111 Cummington St where you may show your ID is open 24 hours from 10am on Sundays thru 9pm Fridays. "

I hadn't read this very carefully and had to hunt through my email to find this message for about half an hour to find the link to set-up an account. At first it seemed quite easy to create an account like dhousman@bu.edu which would be a great alternative email to have. But the third screen into the process presented me with an inquiry that also caused a twenty minute set-back. The requirements for the password at BU are very specific and hard to meet with any password a human being might be able to creatively build based on their own common list of memorable dates phrases and pet names. These are the requirements for making a BU password:

- Must be at least 10 characters long but no more than 15
- Must contain at least 2 lowercase and at least 2 UPPERCASE (CAPITAL) letters
- Must contain at least 1 number or punctuation character
- Cannot be a single English or foreign word or name found in our word list
- Cannot contain part of a course name, your status, BU ID number, personal name, or BU login name

All other passwords that I currently maintain failed these requirements. So I needed to create a new password. I looked around at things in my office like headphones, CDs, books, a thesaurus, and finally created a password that I am not supposed to tell anyone, not because I am worried you will break into my BU account but because it was a major investment on my part to find the creativity to beat the password rules.

So I entered the password and was taken to the next challenge. Apparently being a BU student and creating in uncrackable password are not enough requirements to login to post jobs on the quicky board. I also needed to present myself in person at an elusive location. The text on the site reads:

"You can now start using your BU login name and Kerberos password for Web authentication, e.g., in the Link, immediately after you show your BU ID. Your ACS account will be available within 24 hours after you show your BU ID.

You must now present your BU ID at the following location:
Charles River CampusThe Input/Output Services Window(Open continuously from 10am Sunday to 9pm Friday, and 7am-9pm Saturday)
Located in the Central PC Lab (Basement)
The Office of Information Technology
111 Cummington Street

Medical Campus
The Learning Resource Center
Located on the 12th floor in the Medical Library
715 Albany Street, L12"


This information did not come with a map or GPS system to figure out where either of these two locations is. From the descriptions of them I either have to go to a basement PC laboratory or the top of the medical building in order for someone to verify that I am really a student and should be allowed to post and read quicky jobs. I'm heading over to BU now. Hopefully I can pass through this security before BU moves to security level Orange and I need to submit a blood test and urine sample.

So for now my apartment will continue to be a collection of interesting piles of clutter carefully collected every two weeks from the sprawl of my apartment by the cleaning people. Help me if you can. I'm offering $10 an hour for someone to organize my stuff.





It's off to find Cummington street!



Then to go through an intersection that is blocked on both ends (if you follow Mapquest)




Then find the elusive input-output division in the Boston University basement.