While I’m being crabby, I might as well lay down the following law regarding e-mail. I say this for the sake of clarifying what I need to do, as well as to warn you.

Due to the demands of my dissertation, until further notice, I’m not replying to e-mail unless necessary. I don’t have the time or energy to reply to any philosophic or otherwise optional inquiries. And I’m not even going to read lengthy e-mails absent some compelling reason to do so.

Also, don’t send me anything with the expectation that I’ll reply at my leisure. First, that’s an unkind burden on me. Second, I won’t reply later. My GTD policy of “inbox zero” remains in full effect: I clear out my inbox twice per day, and all e-mail is either (a) archived, (b) deleted, (c) replied-to and then archived, or (d) when absolutely unavoidable, transformed into a future task.

You’re welcome to send me interesting material for blogging, but please be judicious, as I don’t have much time for optional reading right now. If you find something particularly interesting, please quote some relevant portion, provide the link, and say something interesting about it. Then I’ll likely put it in my “to blog” folder in the hopes of blogging it later. (Or, better yet, just post all of that in one of the open threads.) If you don’t do that, it’ll likely get filed away, never to be considered again. Either way, you’re unlikely to receive a reply.

With regard to the NoodleFood comments, I hope to refrain from posting except as absolutely necessary. You are welcome to scold me if I do comment at other times. Please do not solicit my comments on any topic; that’s just mean. Also, I will be adding another open thread on Wednesdays, so you are welcome to discuss whatever you please amongst yourselves.

I promise that I will be more pleasant and sociable at some point in the future. Just not now — not until the dissertation is done and defended.