When I grow up

I'm at Vanderbilt's central library, trying to get some writing done, but I got distracted by the pencil sharpener. It's the kind of sharpener that was in every classroom growing up. It bolts securely to the wall, has a dial of holes to accommodate pencils of every size, and is hand-cranked.

I love those things. They're so much more satisfying to use than electric sharpeners*. I have something of a fetish for devices that are mechanical rather than electronic. That's why I have a Zassenhaus burr coffee grinder and a French press, for example. That's one reason I'm better prepared for the apocalypse than you. Never mind that I'll only last as long as my glasses do. (The moment they break, I won't even see the alien overlord preparing to idly stomp me underfoot.)

A serious pencil sharpener is definitely on my list of Things To Put in My Faculty Office. Number one, of course, is bookshelves. Yes, they rank higher than a desk, because I can sit on the floor with a laptop - not that I don't want a desk, too. Also, an enormous bulletin board for right over my desk, and unnecessarily expensive and arty pushpins. But no simply decorative tchotchkes, thank you.

Hm, do you think anyone makes hand-cranked paper shredders? Because if they do, I'm going to run out and get one and start shredding for the thrill of it. (ETA: OMG, I want one of these. Please, please, someone crafty, make me one for graduation, pretty please?)

* Unless, perhaps, you have to sharpen 100 pencils at one go, and you end up with dreadful hand cramps. But how often does that happen?

Picture find

More deer
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken

Sorry for the quiet around here. I've been busy with the dissertation, especially with traveling. As an indicator of how busy, here's a photo from hiking on Sunday - what is noteworthy is that it was the first hike I had done in a month and a half. So, to keep you busy ...

... Kids! Can you find the six deer in this photo?

OK, it's a trick. Three are to the left, out of the frame. But can you find the other three?

Linkdump

Sorry for the radio silence; I've been out of town collecting data.

The "THERE ARE NO MENS, WHAT WILL WE DO" panic.

There are tribal colleges in Canada and the U.S., but universities, not so much - and now there is one fewer.

One response to the Dodge Super Bowl commercial.

I love chicken-crossing-the-road jokes. And here are more.

I've been disheartened by how much of the commentary around the Amy Bishop case has suggested that tenure, or race, or something, drove her to kill her colleagues. No. Being unhinged is what leads someone to do that kind of thing; triggers aren't causes. Here is a good take on it.

White supremacists more tolerant of homosexuality than you might think; also, funny picture.

Dissertation update

Wondering how my dissertation is coming along? Wonder no more!

• This Saturday I will be attending a workshop at the Vanderbilt Writing Studio on revising the dissertation.
  
• I leave town Sunday to do data collection at one of my three sites. I should be back some time Thursday.
  
• Last week, I submitted an article based on my quantitative analysis to a journal.

Tax time

I was prepared to begin my taxes, I thought, and was looking forward to an easy time of it - all I did in 2009 was work for Vanderbilt, and I keep my Bolivian tin mine investing under the table.* Then a form 1099-MISC came in the mail for some income I had forgotten. (Hey, I was paid in early 2009 - for work done in mid 2008. Was it any wonder it had receded into the mists of time?)

The form itself fascinates me. Some of the categories on it are straightforward, such as "1 Rents" and "4 Federal income tax withheld." Others are much more interesting: "5 Fishing boat proceeds" - "10 Crop insurance proceeds" - and (my favorite) "13 Excess golden parachute payments." Alas, I have nothing in any of these categories.

*Dear IRS: I don't actually invest in Bolivian tin mines. Please don't audit me.