Farewells

I have just unsubscribed from an e-mail list that I've been a member for years, partly because it was wasting my time, but largely because my patience with American conservatives has run out. They make British conservatives look like effete ivory-tower intellectuals. While I agree with the Stoics and Buddhists that stupid, annoying people provide wonderful opportunities to cultivate the virtues of patience and tolerance, there is a point at which you are in danger of being flipped round into the corresponding vices. When more than 25% of the members of any online forum like Anne Coulter, it's time to pack your e-bags. Still, it makes me sad to leave, though what makes me really sad is that someone who can do Linux system administration can like Anne Coulter. An intelligent but psychologically disturbed person with a tendency to get the horn for evil could at least pick someone like Elizabeth Bathory.

I'm also thinking of bidding farewell to my current place of employment, as I'm getting very pissed off with our director's addiciton to crappy software, and also I've just applied for a PhD scholarship. (Believe it or not, at my advanced age I only have an MA, in a career where a PhD is usually necessary to get a job as a tea-boy.) I'd initially rejected the idea, because on the whole I like my job, and relocating to Amsterdam in a hurry would be difficult. Then I realised that I'd said "relocating to Amsterdam".