Rax E. Dillon ([personal profile] rax) wrote2010-04-21 05:31 pm

Request for help, information about conference

I am a giant ball of stress and what is more I am sick. This is unfortunate. But! Cool things are happening.

Sometime in the afternoon this Saturday, I'll be speaking at URI's "Carried Across: Translations, Temporalities, and Trajectories" conference. It's open to the public and the other presentations look cool too so I encourage you to attend if you weren't doing anything else this Saturday and feel like going to URI. (Contact me if you want to travel from Boston.) I'll be talking about the rhetorical techniques different authors have used to make different audiences comfortable with different kinds of passing, and briefly suggest things authors of contemporary passing narratives should consider. I'm focusing on race and gender but other things might come up? I'm still finishing the "condense giant paper into 15 minute talk" exercise so I'm not 100% sure which examples I'll be using yet...

EDIT: I'm panel D, Session IV, 2:30-3:45. Whole schedule here.

Before then, I need to get a copy of my thesis dropped off at UMass Boston during working hours. Are any of my un[der]employed friends in the Boston area willing to bring this to a specific office at UMB at drop it off for me? This would involve taking the train to UMB, taking a shuttle bus from the JFK/UMB station to the campus, going to the second floor, and handing the envelope to someone behind a desk. I haven't actually seen the desk, because I didn't drop this off the first time it needed to be dropped off, either. Ideally you would pick up this envelope from me on Friday either at my house or near Central Square, though I am flexible on this and could also give it to you Thursday evening. I will give you $20 if you can do this for me. EDIT: I could now give it to you as early as tonight, although I am either going out to my previous social plans soon or punting and going to bed, depending, so that might be hard.

Also, is anyone out there enough of a LaTeX master to answer the question "How do I take a TOC that is otherwise perfect and indent each chapter record? Currently they look like "1. (some space) VACATION" flush left with the heading "CHAPTER" and I need them to look like "(some space) 1. (some space) VACATION" and my theory was if I kept coming back and trying this for thirty minutes every day I'd eventually get it but now I just hate the LaTeX TOC code more than I knew was possible. I'm currently looking at tocloft but it looks like that would make me largely have to start over and right now I am sick and just never want to think about this ever again.  EDIT: It turns out if I stop trying to do it Right and just manually add \hspace{} and then fix the indenting by tripling a value in em I only sort of understand, it looks perfect. Since I no longer care about doing it Right, just having it Done, I win. But oh my god this is one of the most abusive things I have done in LaTeX and that is saying something.

Also also just so you know it looks like I'll live in Indiana as of May 17th.
brooksmoses: (Default)

[personal profile] brooksmoses 2010-04-21 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[livejournal.com profile] lilairen sent me by to see if I could offer advice on the LaTeX issue, but it sounds like you've got a working fix -- and, really, anything else I could suggest is essentially going to be a cleverer way of doing the essentially same thing, I'm pretty sure.

Yay for Done!

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-27 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for stopping by and offering, all the same :)

[identity profile] wrane.livejournal.com 2010-04-21 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
i could deliver your thesis, let me know if you would like me to :)

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-21 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
That would be _wonderful._ How can I get it to you?

[identity profile] wrane.livejournal.com 2010-04-21 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
if there's a convenient time for you i could just walk to your house and get it - actually i will just call you on the phone :)

[identity profile] yakshaver.livejournal.com 2010-04-21 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I see [livejournal.com profile] wrane beat me to it, but I too could deliver your thesis.

[identity profile] keyoki.livejournal.com 2010-04-21 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Totally forgot to mention it earlier when you wrote about the place you'll be living in Indiana: I also live on 10th street (10th and Woodlawn to be precise)!

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
Yup, that's a straight shot by bike, and right on campus! Are you in a dorm, or did you just totally win the housing game? :)

[identity profile] keyoki.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
Haha, I live in the most amazing dorm on campus: Collins!
http://www.indiana.edu/~llc/
It's know as the "hippie" dorm on campus (We have a tone of liberal arts majors, vegan food is served at every meal, and some times you can find a huge drum circle on the quad).

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
That looks like an amazing place to live! I lived somewhere vaguely similar (http://web.mit.edu/fenway/www/) for a few months, but the fact that you can do academic stuff there too sounds awesome.

[identity profile] keyoki.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)
O: That looks so wonderful!

[identity profile] iankeith.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Indiana? You will be even closer to me than before! Not tha tit'll facilitate anything, unless you plan on attending MFF in November in the Chicago area...

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, depending on classes, I might go!

[identity profile] laura47.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
i swore to never got to umass boston again, but i could probably make an exception for you! call me if you need me

[identity profile] rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
Also willing to be backup on thesis delivery.

Did not see you at Brattle so am assuming you went to bed? Remind me in that case to tell you about the thing, it was interesting.

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Did go to bed, but I'm seeing you next week I think, I can talk about it with you then :)

[identity profile] postrodent.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
I'm way late to this party, but if everyone else who volunteered gets swept up by the Rapture tomorrow, I'll carry your thesis through the smoking ruins. :) In the absence of anything more useful or productive, I beam Support and Affection rays at you (wavelengths 0.97mm, 1550nm respectively). <3

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[identity profile] gaudior.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Feh and sympathy on the sick-- you are hugged, and you should drink liquids! And rest or something!

Also, good luck on the conference! You will be awesome, because that is what you are, and I predict it will go well! Throw your notecards!

<3
--R

[identity profile] rax.livejournal.com 2010-04-22 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

And I walked for ninety minutes this morning. That's _like_ resting, right?
kelkyag: notched triangle signature mark in light blue on yellow (Default)

[personal profile] kelkyag 2010-04-23 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
<cheers and waves pompoms>

Looks like the thesis delivery is covered with backups.