At 11 pm I feel energized, fresh, positive and in top form. At 8 (or 7 or 9) am I feel like normal people do at 11 pm after a hard day’s work. I’m bleary-eyed, exhausted, and ready for a long sleep.

I’ve been like this my whole life. It’s a heavy burden to be so out of sync with the rest of the world.

I’m at a conference, and people started talking about the publish or perish culture in academia, and I’m thinking, gosh, I’d love to spend two days at least in this mythical publish or perish environment. I publish more than the people who were complaining (probably combined) but there are absolutely no benefits accruing to me as a result of that from my university. At best, people here treat my interest in research as an eccentricity and at worst as something that makes me a bad teacher.

I feel envious of those few lucky bastards who feel pressured to publish. I’d like to be pressured. My motivation to do research is completely internal, which is healthy, but it would be nice to get a little push. Just to know what it feels like.

Does anybody here know the differences between the candidates for Governor of Illinois? Republican, obviously. Who’s good and who should be avoided at all costs?

Of course, the main goal is to kick out Pritzker. But it’s good to know who’s worth the trouble on our side.

Yesterday Russians shelled Svyatohirsk Lavra with heavy artillery. Two monks and a nun were killed.

Here are some pictures of the Lavra so you can see that nobody can confuse it with a military installation:

Watch this turn into the Chinese-style one-child policy in 3…2…1…