My little corner of the world

I used to work in academia, with an office that was small, but faced out on a scenic quad. It was nice, situated in a small, out-of-the-way corner of the building. It was away from the hustle and bustle of the stairwell and the regular stream of students seeking out the Mathematics Office, but not so far away that I wasn't available to students or colleagues who needed to find me.

Since I left academia, this has become my little corner of the world.
Small as my office was, this corner is smaller, and it is crowded by my personal effects. Indeed, that “electronic paper” monitor✗I’m very pleased with this! But I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re tolerant to some ghosting. is mine, and sits atop my personal laptop, itself atop my work-issued laptop.

In my old job, I necessarily received a lot of attention, but I never felt as if I was part of a team. That may well have been due more to my personailty quirks than to any other factor. But I do find it interesting that in my new job, I don’t generally receive much attention — but I do feel as if we’re working more as a team.

Maybe it’s because the problems we work on are somewhat better-defined than the problems an academic faces — including research, where sometimes a major part of the solution is to define the problem precisely!

Maybe it’s because we who hold PhD’s can be a little too vain of our accomplishments, and tend to extend that to areas well beyond our sphere of expertise.

Whatever the case, I prefer my new corner of the world, small though it may be.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.

For the bored reader, here are a few things worth hunting for.
  1. The Liturgy of the Hours, in English, Italian, and Latin.✗OK, that’s unfair. The Latin isn’t visible, as it’s in the Kindle, which sits atop Volume 2 of the Italian-language Liturgy of the Hours, itself atop the writing desk.
  2. A digitized, then re-printed photo of my mother and her siblings.✗That should be easy, but you deserve it after the previous one.
  3. St. Catherine of Siena
  4. St. Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue, in Italian
  5. St. Bernadette of Lourdes
  6. My wife’s stuffed monkey, a gift from our son. He’s invading my corner.
  7. A memento of a visit to the Cherokee reservation.
  8. The bifocals I use to work at a computer.
  9. The notepad where I record which hours I work.
  10. How many reminders of Our Beloved Lord can you see? (I suspect a few are out of sight, alas.)
  11. An old 1000 lira bill. (It was worth only about 50 cents at the time.)