I’ve had a cold for the last few days, and so I have been lying on the sofa reading a rather low-grade Christian novel. Nothing much is happening here.
One interesting thing is that I popped into the Premier Christian Radio forums. Sadly the administrators have allowed them to be hijacked by atheist trolls. It was bedlam in there. Until the owners take charge, posting is futile. It’s telling that unmoderated fora are now, to all intents and purposes, impossible. That wasn’t so, once upon a time.
Long ago I read a post in a usenet newsgroup describing how a group of trolls could deliberately take over a news group and make it their own. I wish I had it now; for the techniques, far from becoming marginal, have become mainstream.
I’m looking forward to getting back to scanning Theodoret’s commentary on Romans. It’s going much better than it might have done, in the second half. Can’t do much today, but maybe on Thursday!
I have an event in Oxford on Saturday, and I was contemplating booking into the Randolph Hotel for two nights, rather than drive up on Saturday morning. This is the grandest hotel in Oxford, in a great location, and it is where important people always used to stay. However it’s ridiculously expensive — around 400 GBP –, and I simply don’t propose to throw money away like that. A look at Tripadvisor reveals that it is about as good a standard as one might expect — swanky public rooms, but poorly maintained bedrooms and bathrooms. It is the great, traditional, horrible British hotel experience, in other words, avoiding which made Premier Inn into a massively successful business.
All the Oxford town centre hotels are pricey, and indeed I have never stayed in any of them. Who does, one wonders? The Oxford Spires wants 300 GBP for two nights.
The Holiday Inn Express looks better value — 150 GBP for two nights — but is far away. Maybe that would do. But of course then one has to factor in car parking. Oxford is really a mess, at least as far as visitors are concerned.
Maybe I will just drive up that morning.