Just in case anyone was overly concerned, we figured out the problem for why the heat wasn't kicking on regularly in the office. (I will not point fingers but there may be a few pointed glances to the VISTAs in the office next door who were running a space heater and confusing the whole system.)
Now that we realized what that was doing, the heat is running consistently in my office and at one point, I actually got up to go turn thermostat down because I was too warm. Amazing.
Today has, so far, been more productive. I wrote a whole grant application today. And got it ready to put in the mail tomorrow. This one doesn't have a deadline until Feb. 1; I feel good for being so far ahead of the curve.
Also today, a huge box showed up for me at work. I forgot this box was coming, but inside it were samples of dictionaries. I was very excited.
Excited about dictionaries? you say. Let me explain.
For many of our Scholars, a dictionary, a $20 or more book usually for a good one, is a luxury they can't afford. Try writing an English paper without a dictionary. With the help of a corporate partner, we want to get all of our new students in 2008-09 a dictionary and thesaurus. Being the word nerd I am, I took it upon myself to find a good deal for good dictionaries.
Enter the wonderful folks at Federal Street Press. After getting quotes from Barnes and Noble and Borders and Amazon.com and still coming up with a total in the thousands of dollars for dictionaries, I decided, why not try to contact a publisher directly.
Federal Street, a division or subsidiary or something, of Merriam Webster, responded to my plea. We can get a discount. And we got samples so we can check out exactly which books we want.
Five samples. Have you ever tried to lift a box with five different hardback dictionaries in it, one of which alone totals more than 2,000 pages? Save for the sheer tonnage, it's all very wonderful. There is a great choice and we should *hopefully* with our funder's help, be able to buy bunches of them for our Scholars this summer.
Oh and lastly, I signed up for a workshop Monday that will get me out of my windowless office for almost two whole hours!
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2 comments:
Excellent use of time and resources by going right to the publisher. Are you going to try to cross-ref with the paper for some publicity too?
Well, hopefully. When we get the funds, that would be a great time because it would recognize us and them and we could send one to the publisher folks as well that they could use.
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