Swamp
Confessions of an Academic Pseudo-Giraffe
17.1.06
Wrapping up
Finishing a dissertation is a strange business. It never feels finished, and it is reluctant to stop being worked on. I had reached the point where I was reasonably content, but now, after a decision to stop for now (until after the pre-examiners statements arrive in a few months), a few extremely relevant articles I hadn’t even looked at popped up from my hard drive. If nothing else, they make the vulnerabilities of my work, of which I am aware to the point of sleepless nights, still more visible.
I need to send the thing to Finland in three identical hard copies, in bulky files. Goody goody, say the guys at DHL. The files are big because everything has to be printed on one side of the paper only, with ample spacing. The final shipment will contain 825 sheets of paper. Goody, goody.
So this Sunday I prepared to print it all at Kaija’s (WFP’s) office here in Kampala. They have good printers at the mapping unit. I had checked and rechecked the file because when the stakes and page numbers rise, tabs tend to shift by themselves, extra line breaks tend to appear, and the styles of the template suddenly tend to get ambiguous on their in-built paddings. That is one of the fundamental laws of technology. My relationship with printers is usually less problematic than with photocopiers. But as I saved the file on two memory sticks and packed the other files, the ones of plastic and metal, in a bag, I sensed that this was going to be no walk in the park.
As it happened, there was only one problem, but that was sufficient. The paper we had brought with us was the wrong size. Apparently not everyone here uses A4. I didn’t print a single page, for the WFP has developed a new meaning for the term “paperless office”. In this meaning, it denotes maximum printer presence with minimum paper. The bulk of it, I assume, is stacked somewhere in the cellar for emergencies, catering for which is the organisation’s main purpose.
But it’s done now. Thanks to my dear wife, and her workmates who conveniently disappeared for a day, the piles of paper are now sitting in my closet, waiting for the word go. 08:03
I need to send the thing to Finland in three identical hard copies, in bulky files. Goody goody, say the guys at DHL. The files are big because everything has to be printed on one side of the paper only, with ample spacing. The final shipment will contain 825 sheets of paper. Goody, goody.
So this Sunday I prepared to print it all at Kaija’s (WFP’s) office here in Kampala. They have good printers at the mapping unit. I had checked and rechecked the file because when the stakes and page numbers rise, tabs tend to shift by themselves, extra line breaks tend to appear, and the styles of the template suddenly tend to get ambiguous on their in-built paddings. That is one of the fundamental laws of technology. My relationship with printers is usually less problematic than with photocopiers. But as I saved the file on two memory sticks and packed the other files, the ones of plastic and metal, in a bag, I sensed that this was going to be no walk in the park.
As it happened, there was only one problem, but that was sufficient. The paper we had brought with us was the wrong size. Apparently not everyone here uses A4. I didn’t print a single page, for the WFP has developed a new meaning for the term “paperless office”. In this meaning, it denotes maximum printer presence with minimum paper. The bulk of it, I assume, is stacked somewhere in the cellar for emergencies, catering for which is the organisation’s main purpose.
But it’s done now. Thanks to my dear wife, and her workmates who conveniently disappeared for a day, the piles of paper are now sitting in my closet, waiting for the word go. 08:03
