My favouritist blog post included, amongst the many halluncinations of grandeur, a comparison between your humble narrator and Odysseus. At the time I had a real difficulty finding commonalities between the two of us that would justify such a comparison. Well soon we will have something in common: as of next August we will both be Ithacans.

I’m moving to Cornell.

As well as improving Cornell’s strengths in my core areas, I’ll be starting a new speciality in Martian philosophy, teaching logical positivism and in charge of the sheep dip.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll probably know that I had quite a few choices available. Before I decided what to do I was dreading how I’d feel afterwards, because each of the choices was so appealing and I feared I’d regret all the missed opportunities. In general I’m much too susceptible to regret. I can come home, turn on the TV, watch the Sox overcome a 3 run deficit in last 2 innings of an important game, and my first thought is “That would have been great if I’d watched the whole thing.” It’s important to remember there is such a thing as opportunity cost, but it can really wreak havoc with your emotional well-being if you take it too seriously. So I was worried that I’d reflect too much on the virtues of the paths not taken, and be miserable for months. Maybe that will still happen, but for now I’m managing to be happier about Cornell’s possibilities that upset about the (considerable) virtues of the other suitors. I’d say more about how great each of these other departments is, but (a) you probably know that already, and (b) it might just make me depressed.

So for now it’s yay yay Cornell. Go Big Red philosophy!