sanpaku_backup | (no subject)

Finally launched the

cons_judaism community with a few articles there and have gotten some feedback. I've never been a community administrator before, so this is something of a big leap for me. (Note to folks who have come here from one of my community postings: the community is open, at least for now, so you don't need permission to join.)

Something interesting in a similar vein: a few days ago I heard that the Torah reader of our shul, who leads services on Mondays and Thursdays, is fed up with the low turnout on those days and isn't showing up. As part of my plan for world domination, I decided to volunteer to fill in... the rabbi says he will do Thursdays if I do Mondays, which is a bit of a relief (6:45 am -- just that extra 15 minutes early makes it so much harder, for some reason). Of course, they never get the minyan (quorum) needed for a Torah reading, so I probably won't have to do too much of that (though I will prepare as best I can). The real question is whether on some days I will be the only one there.

But I like the idea of being someone who keeps the lights on. There are so many abandoned synagogues in all the cities I've lived in. I think this place will probably move within a couple of years, and the building will be left behind, which is a shame. So I want to keep that day as far off as I can, even though I am not always crazy about the place.

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Finished the copyediting on Wednesday. The next big thing was the taxes, but I think I've decided to chicken out and just take them to H and R Block this afternoon. Will probably cost $200 or so because of the complicated nature of my taxes, with all the consulting work and having moved. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to learn that I haven't paid any withholding on the consulting work (which I went over five times to make sure it was legally OK).

There will be a check for many thousands of dollars to the IRS, then I have to somehow figure out how to deal with my state taxes. My job won't withhold taxes to Rhode Island because they're not licensed to do business there, so the money goes to Mass. So I get to pay state taxes twice, once to Mass (withholding) and once to Rhode Island (estimated tax), and then get a refund from Mass. next year. What a pain.

I keep very meticulous records of our spending, so I was horrified last night to see that all of my money files are gone from this computer. Apparently when I was backing up things several weeks ago I deleted the file by accident. Several hours of reconstructing our expenses ensued... we are not quite breaking even these days, though that will change once I start teaching in May. It is always amazing to play the "where'd all the money go?" game.

Out of the blue I got an offer from URI to teach the same American Culture class that I offered there last year. Not a sure thing, as they need a guaranteed enrollment to offer the course, but that would be nice. We can also use the money.

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Now that I have a little more time, I can work on other things I need to do, like some research. I'm going to a historians' conference next week and that sort of thing always brings up feelings of worthlessness and despair over being out of the academy. I'm not looking forward to seeing my advisor, who I can't help but feel I've let down. (She probably feels the same toward me.)

I really should be a lot closer to a book proposal by this point, but I've been feeling for a while now that what is needed to make this a good book that people will want to read is to expand its scope a whole lot. So what I've been doing is extending my research into the 1920s and 1930s, and next I should go back at least to the 1870s. But beyond that it's hard to say, since I need to do more secondary source reading and archival research. At base I really need to work on making a convincing argument about why someone should care about the project, and that's the hardest part. So I'm thinking that I should write another journal article or two before starting to revise the diss. All of those things push a finished book proposal further away in time, thus making me feel worried about being cut off. So there's some angsty times heading this way over all of that.

I'm doing my best at avoidance through model railroading. Spent some time this week repairing a few of the model buildings I made a while ago, thinking about a layout, etc. I've decided to be very deliberate and try to learn everything there is to know about it before tinkering with scenery etc. (and there is a lot to know). Since I am mostly interested in the buildings, I'm going to concentrate on building the station first and coming up with a track design that suits it.

Projects are fun. Work avoidance is fun. Speaking of which, check out my new user icon! Bonus points for knowing what it is (and at least a few of you should know).