Well. *nervous cough* I’ve, uh. I’ve been away. For. A while. But… I’m back now! So… you know. Horror!
Life moves in drunken, sidewindy ways, and I find myself back in the US again. It’s been a crazy reentry and I don’t know exactly what’s next, but for the next year I’m ensconced in a postdoc. That’s right, I finished–no longer an angry grad student, but an actual angry scholar. So, you know. That’s a thing.
I’ve moved a teeny bit further north, deep into Trump country, which is a terrifying thing. (If you’re not into politics, now’s the time to click away.) Coming back from Japan in the wake of the election was extremely hard, as my lady friend had to stay there in her university job and we’re back to being long distance for a while. But coming back alone to this climate of hatred and fear… It’s shameful. I am ashamed.
So as we approach what is, if not the most “important” (whatever that means), then certainly the most visible holiday of the calendar year for most of the Western world, please be kind to each other, but also remember that words alone will not change things.
I’m busier than I’ve been in ages, but I’ll try to get back to something like a regular posting schedule. I hope you’re all well and getting through it. Resist, but also, don’t forget to laugh. From a cosmic perspective all this horror and stupidity must look pretty silly.
The Angry Scholar 
Welcome back! Sorry you had to return to the good ol’ U-S-of-A in the state it’s in.
Thanks man. It’s definitely a bad time to come back, but the reality is that it was there all along. Now at least we can see the evil a little more clearly.
Congratulations are in order. I hope this ignites something in me. My goal of completing my MEd before 40 are looking less probable. I just need to be a little more productive in the next 2 years.
I feel like it’s a little easier to laugh now, but I still have a hard time laughing about the election. It’s just not funny to me. I’m still in complete disbelief that this has happened.
Anyway, I wish you the best and look forward to reading about what angers a scholar.
Thanks! And keep at it–all of us thirty-somethings in academia gotta stick together. If you ever want to talk about strategies for writing or digital tools that can help with research, let me know.
I’m also not amused by the election. It seems like it’s starting to all become normalized, which is a big problem. Outages become less outrageous when they happen everyday, and we start forgetting to get angry.