Change of Address

My first move was to open up a Netflix account.

That shows you where my priorities are.

Top of the queue: films that didn’t make it to Cairo — Pan’s Labyrinth; Eastern Promises; Knocked Up.

Since this is the first time in a year and a half that I’ve had a U.S. address where I’ll stay for more than a few weeks — and it’s an apartment with a flat screen High Definition television — I got a little excited.

I ordered DVDs before I unpacked.

This weekend I moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where I will be a Ferris Professor of Journalism and Lecturer in the Council for the Humanities at Princeton University for the spring semester. Highfalutin for this kid from Ohio, but it’s going to be a blast. I’m teaching multi-platform journalism (call it convergence, call it multi-media, or whatever buzz word that fits). My students and I will explore the landscape of online news, and report and produce stories using all the media tools available: text, audio, video and animated graphics.

I couldn’t be more thrilled about the opportunity.

My new pad is on a lovely square a five minute walk from Joseph Henry House, where my office is on campus. I live above a storefront in Palmer Square, a cluster of colonial-style buildings that are now shops, restaurants and boutiques (including a fancy pet food “pawtisserie”).

The square’s namesake is honored with a tiger statue in a small park with a walkway made of bricks sponsored by and named for donors, many of whom are Princeton alums.

One particular brick (pictured at right) stood out from the others. I wonder when someone will etch an “06” in it? Though there doesn’t seem to be any room for it. Perhaps he assumed he’d be SECTY DE-FENSE for life?

I doubt I’ll tire of taking photos of the Princeton campus. It’s such a beautiful place (so many buildings like the one below, with the requisite ivy that gives the league its name), and the town is quite lovely, quiet and quaint.

A big change of pace from the other places I’ve lived in the past several months.