I had a dream last night that, in the periphery, featured Ryan Adams singing a sentimental ballad (as Ryan Adams is wont to do) featuring lyrics such as "We can stay right down the road from Joe Walsh..." and "I feel I can go on if I just think about Joe Walsh..."
It was a pretty song, and the imaginary Ryan Adams seemed really sincere, but it strikes me odd that my subconscious would generate song lyrics featuring someone who has absolutely no resonance for me as a "symbolic" reference whatsoever.
What does Joe Walsh mean to YOU?
Sunday, November 7
Thursday, September 9
at home with the materialists...
TV NEWS: "According to a study focusing on 450,000 Americans and how they evaluate their happiness, a salary of $75,000 a year is the magic number after which people's day-to-day happiness no longer improves."
ME: Well, fuck.
WIFE: Yeah. I heard that earlier today. At least we know we're happy.
ME: Yeah, but there is no room for improvement? Sorry kids - THIS IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS!
WIFE: Maybe they meant $75,000 EACH.
ME: You'd better fucking get busy, then.
ME: Well, fuck.
WIFE: Yeah. I heard that earlier today. At least we know we're happy.
ME: Yeah, but there is no room for improvement? Sorry kids - THIS IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS!
WIFE: Maybe they meant $75,000 EACH.
ME: You'd better fucking get busy, then.
Thursday, August 19
so it shall be written...
...so it shall be DONE.
I clipped the last corner this afternoon. Of course there are still some edits and figures and references to sort out, but the WRITING part of the writing is done as of today.
I feel no sense of accomplishment or relief yet. I think that may have to wait until I'm holding a finished, bound book in my hand.
I clipped the last corner this afternoon. Of course there are still some edits and figures and references to sort out, but the WRITING part of the writing is done as of today.
I feel no sense of accomplishment or relief yet. I think that may have to wait until I'm holding a finished, bound book in my hand.
Friday, August 13
progress...
I have a stack of index cards for my book. Each chapter has its own card where I write notes about things that need to be fixed, or references that need to be checked, or graphics hat are still missing. When the actual WRITING of a chapter is done, I snip the lower left corner off the card. Here is the stack as it stands...
Not bad, right?
Today I finished 2 chapters that were lacking decent conclusions, wrote one chapter from scratch, and just flat-out cut an un-started one from the book.
The end is in sight.
Not bad, right?
Today I finished 2 chapters that were lacking decent conclusions, wrote one chapter from scratch, and just flat-out cut an un-started one from the book.
The end is in sight.
Thursday, August 12
very brief lollapalooza recap...
... which has little to do with the music.
* Took the train in. It was raining. Had a PizzaHut Express pizza and a bourbon at Union Station waiting for the rain to stop. It lessened a bit so I walked .8 miles to the park. The rain was drizzly but not enough to bother me. And it takes VERY LITTLE rain to bother me. It was a nice walk that would seem more like 80 miles that night at 10:30 PM.
* I was dressed for the day in a pair of holey-almost-to-the-point-of-unwearable shorts and a ratty brown-faded-to-basically-colorless t-shirt. I also had my hair down most of the day, which I NEVER do anymore. In the name of Seattle-grunge-nostalgia, I was definitely partying like it was 1992.
* Caught the band "Company of Thieves" in the drizzle. The lead singer is fucking adorable. Started feeling old until I saw someone dancing in the VIP area who looked about my age. Then I realized she was probably allowed back there because she was the bass player's MOM or something. Anyway, it was kinda cool to see a really SMALL band at a small stage on a rainy day. (The person who shot this was probably standing right in front of me, judging from the angle.)
* Looked at the arty tents and clothes and stuff. If I was a skinny girl, I would have bought all kinds of cute stuff. Unfortunately, I am neither, so I just bought a sorta plain if vaguely retro Lollapalooza-branded t-shirt.
* Met up with Cute Alumna and hung out for a while with her friends and, briefly, her DAD. (Who is WAY older than me, thank god.) Sat in the shade on the outskirts of Yeasayer and Mutemath, but didn't really pay any attention to the music. This is why I usually go to concerts ALONE. Why pay $300 to stand in a crowd of people you DON'T know and chat with people you DO know while music you KINDA know plays in the medium-distance? Anyway, Cute Alumna and her friends were all tired from days 1 & 2 so they bagged Sunday by like 4:00. LAME!
*All the fancy food places looked really good but had crazy long lines, so I had a cheap hot dog for "dinner".
* I decided I need some tattoos.
* I found a pretty decent spot to the right of the stage for Wolfmother, and was determined to KEEP that spot so I could slide forward when some people left during the hour between Wolfmother and Soundgarden. Which means I was standing in the same place for almost 5 hours. My feet took DAYS to recover! Also - for me not to pee for 5 hours? UNHEARD OF!!
* Wolfmother was everything I expected - derivative, unoriginal, enthusiastic, and fun.
* I had smuggled 2 tiny airplane bottles of JD in my bag to make the evening concerts mildly more enjoyable. (Life would be way easier if I could convince myself to enjoy beer... and coffee.) Didn't really get much of a buzz going. But now that I know how lax security is, if I ever go again, I'm bringing a FLASK of something GOOD.
* While waiting for Soundgarden, I struck up some occasional chat with a cute, moderately-tattooey, bikini-top-wearing 26-year old chick. While we were talking about music, I made an excuse about liking something she didn't by saying "Well I'm older than you" and she asked how old, and when I told her she kinda wrinkled her brow and took a half step back and said - "No WAY do you look 40 at all!" I believe I may have told her I loved her. After feeling pretty old and irrelevant all afternoon, sometimes the universe gives you what you need. Not often, but sometimes. It certainly karmically makes up for the cute chick at the Rush concert a few weeks ago who ignored me in favor of some 20-something, chinstrap-bearded, hipster-doofus. I'm actually still kind of in a good mood over it.
* Soundgarden was intensely plodding and dismal and awesome, I was maybe 15 feet from the railing right up in the crowd-surfey action, and I got to rub up against a sweaty bikini-clad chick for 2 hours, so... not a bad evening. I was tired and a little sore the next day, but nowhere NEAR as wrecked as Rage Against the Machine in '02. Maybe the (occasional) running and yoga have me in better concert-shape than I thought.
So - that's my one day Lollapalooza adventure. Maybe if I train a little beforehand, I can try TWO days in 2011!
* Took the train in. It was raining. Had a PizzaHut Express pizza and a bourbon at Union Station waiting for the rain to stop. It lessened a bit so I walked .8 miles to the park. The rain was drizzly but not enough to bother me. And it takes VERY LITTLE rain to bother me. It was a nice walk that would seem more like 80 miles that night at 10:30 PM.
* I was dressed for the day in a pair of holey-almost-to-the-point-of-unwearable shorts and a ratty brown-faded-to-basically-colorless t-shirt. I also had my hair down most of the day, which I NEVER do anymore. In the name of Seattle-grunge-nostalgia, I was definitely partying like it was 1992.
* Caught the band "Company of Thieves" in the drizzle. The lead singer is fucking adorable. Started feeling old until I saw someone dancing in the VIP area who looked about my age. Then I realized she was probably allowed back there because she was the bass player's MOM or something. Anyway, it was kinda cool to see a really SMALL band at a small stage on a rainy day. (The person who shot this was probably standing right in front of me, judging from the angle.)
* Looked at the arty tents and clothes and stuff. If I was a skinny girl, I would have bought all kinds of cute stuff. Unfortunately, I am neither, so I just bought a sorta plain if vaguely retro Lollapalooza-branded t-shirt.
* Met up with Cute Alumna and hung out for a while with her friends and, briefly, her DAD. (Who is WAY older than me, thank god.) Sat in the shade on the outskirts of Yeasayer and Mutemath, but didn't really pay any attention to the music. This is why I usually go to concerts ALONE. Why pay $300 to stand in a crowd of people you DON'T know and chat with people you DO know while music you KINDA know plays in the medium-distance? Anyway, Cute Alumna and her friends were all tired from days 1 & 2 so they bagged Sunday by like 4:00. LAME!
*All the fancy food places looked really good but had crazy long lines, so I had a cheap hot dog for "dinner".
* I decided I need some tattoos.
* I found a pretty decent spot to the right of the stage for Wolfmother, and was determined to KEEP that spot so I could slide forward when some people left during the hour between Wolfmother and Soundgarden. Which means I was standing in the same place for almost 5 hours. My feet took DAYS to recover! Also - for me not to pee for 5 hours? UNHEARD OF!!
* Wolfmother was everything I expected - derivative, unoriginal, enthusiastic, and fun.
* I had smuggled 2 tiny airplane bottles of JD in my bag to make the evening concerts mildly more enjoyable. (Life would be way easier if I could convince myself to enjoy beer... and coffee.) Didn't really get much of a buzz going. But now that I know how lax security is, if I ever go again, I'm bringing a FLASK of something GOOD.
* While waiting for Soundgarden, I struck up some occasional chat with a cute, moderately-tattooey, bikini-top-wearing 26-year old chick. While we were talking about music, I made an excuse about liking something she didn't by saying "Well I'm older than you" and she asked how old, and when I told her she kinda wrinkled her brow and took a half step back and said - "No WAY do you look 40 at all!" I believe I may have told her I loved her. After feeling pretty old and irrelevant all afternoon, sometimes the universe gives you what you need. Not often, but sometimes. It certainly karmically makes up for the cute chick at the Rush concert a few weeks ago who ignored me in favor of some 20-something, chinstrap-bearded, hipster-doofus. I'm actually still kind of in a good mood over it.
* Soundgarden was intensely plodding and dismal and awesome, I was maybe 15 feet from the railing right up in the crowd-surfey action, and I got to rub up against a sweaty bikini-clad chick for 2 hours, so... not a bad evening. I was tired and a little sore the next day, but nowhere NEAR as wrecked as Rage Against the Machine in '02. Maybe the (occasional) running and yoga have me in better concert-shape than I thought.
So - that's my one day Lollapalooza adventure. Maybe if I train a little beforehand, I can try TWO days in 2011!
Thursday, July 22
oh and hi, Dad...
I went out last night for drinks at an insanely upscale place in Tribeca where I tried seven different types of bourbon and rye, not counting sampling the "Creole-Fashioned" of the person I was with. It was decadent and awesome. And tonight I'm sitting here thinking about the bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the cabinet...
Oh hey look, I can see Alcoholism from here!!
(I made myself some tea.)
Oh hey look, I can see Alcoholism from here!!
(I made myself some tea.)
dear quality auto service...
The free wi-fi is nice, but...
Three fucking chairs? In a room this big? Are you fucking kidding me?
Three fucking chairs? In a room this big? Are you fucking kidding me?
Wednesday, July 21
One would think that...
... by the time one is 40, one would stop having experiences that make one feel like the same stupid person you were when you were 20.
One would be WRONG....
One would be WRONG....
Saturday, July 10
backseat music critics: 80's pop supergroup edition...
GIRL: "Get it on? Bang a GONG?"
BOY: That doesn't even make any sense
GIRL: This song is stupid. I think they were just looking for a rhyme.
BOY: And it doesn't even actually rhyme
GIRL: Yeah, they couldn't think of a rhyme for "on"
BOY: "Mow your lawn".
GIRL AND BOY (singing): "Get it on! Mow your lawn!!"
BOY: That doesn't even make any sense
GIRL: This song is stupid. I think they were just looking for a rhyme.
BOY: And it doesn't even actually rhyme
GIRL: Yeah, they couldn't think of a rhyme for "on"
BOY: "Mow your lawn".
GIRL AND BOY (singing): "Get it on! Mow your lawn!!"
Thursday, July 1
let's do the math, shall we...?
Let's see how much the visit by my wife's sister is going to cost me...
One amusement park trip that we wouldn't be going on otherwise - 4x$50 = $200
Two nights in a hotel at fucking Niagara Falls - 2x $100 = $200
Four nights of dog boarding - 4x$25 = $100
... so that's $500 already. Toss in $100 for gas and probably twice that for meals. And I'm going to predict another $200 for the ticket we'll get on the NY State Thruway for having a brake-light out on the van that we just noticed yesterday but won't have time to fix before Monday because we have to spend the next three days cleaning the fucking house. Let's round it up to an even $1000.
Did I mention we'll be doing it all with their three week old baby?
Fuck. Me.
One amusement park trip that we wouldn't be going on otherwise - 4x$50 = $200
Two nights in a hotel at fucking Niagara Falls - 2x $100 = $200
Four nights of dog boarding - 4x$25 = $100
... so that's $500 already. Toss in $100 for gas and probably twice that for meals. And I'm going to predict another $200 for the ticket we'll get on the NY State Thruway for having a brake-light out on the van that we just noticed yesterday but won't have time to fix before Monday because we have to spend the next three days cleaning the fucking house. Let's round it up to an even $1000.
Did I mention we'll be doing it all with their three week old baby?
Fuck. Me.
Wednesday, June 16
parallel universes forum...
http://philoctetes.org/Calendar/Parallel_Universes_The_History_of_an_Idea/
I didn't get to talk about Lost until 92:00, but I got to field a completely off the wall Kubrick question at 100:00!
I didn't get to talk about Lost until 92:00, but I got to field a completely off the wall Kubrick question at 100:00!
Thursday, June 10
it has happened...
At 227 pages and 55,000 words, I am finally so sick of this book that I'm making random work for myself. Here is a list of the projects I need to deal with all of a sudden.
Oh… also… I'm writing in my blog! Things must be bad if I've resorted to THAT to avoid writing the book!
- I have agreed to speak on a panel discussion about the history of the idea of "parallel universes" in Manhattan this weekend.
- I have agreed to turn a rough outline developed during a science faculty retreat into an 8 page universal rubric for science writing across the program, filling out all three performance columns with criteria.
- I have agreed to serve on a new University committee that is meeting three times in JUNE!
- I have agreed to another week of consulting work, writing a new unit for high school science.
- I have agreed to help write one, perhaps two conference abstracts for a meeting in Miami. The meeting is in March 2011, but the proposals are due in August.
- I have agreed to travel to Washington DC in July to serve on a peer review panel for the National Science Foundation
Oh… also… I'm writing in my blog! Things must be bad if I've resorted to THAT to avoid writing the book!
Sunday, May 30
Thursday, May 6
knots...
The floors in this cabin are knotty-pine, a style which I dislike at a gut level because it reminds me too much of the house where I grew up. The room where I would lie in bed making eyes and faces out of the wood paneling.
Faces that watched me while I slept.
Faces that watched me while I slept.
Thursday, April 8
i seem to only blog on the train…
Which means once a month. I happened to look at my archive links in the sidebar a few days ago, and if you compare the number of posts each year - it's kinda pathetic what a shadow of its former self this bog has become. Bleh.
Anyway, I'm heading into the city to meet with some students. I put in an application for a pile of student assistant money through the Provost's office, and actually GOT IT, so I have $2000 with which to bribe student minions to do my bidding. I have a project lined up for them and need to meet with them to get them started on it. Which also means I have to squeeze in about a dozen other tasks that can only be done on campus and which now pile up for a month until they can justify the $24 round-trip train ride.
Besides the usual work-related stuff, I need to get to the Apple Store to fondle an iPad, and then over to the over-priced but service-oriented running store to get a decent pair of shoes. My return to running has been marred by an ill-fitting pair of mail order shoes, and I'm just going to give up on them, as much as it pains me. I need to just get over it and accept that decent shoes cost $100.
So in order to accomplish all this in one day, I managed to drag myself out of bed by 5:30 to catch the 6:00 train, which is better than I did last time I went in to the office. It feels really unreasonably early. The sabbatical is totally spoiling me. Going back to work full time in September is going to be a serious shock. I'm not looking forward to it!
Meanwhile, the writing is moving along, if sporadically. Some of the decrease in pace is planned – I had given myself a week off for the kids' Spring Break, and then a couple of weeks off to work on "other projects". Not that much is getting done on the other projects, but I'm trying to do a little looking ahead to my fall courses. I am still planning my week-long "retreat" at some point in the next 2 months, and I got approval from my Chair and my Dean to spend the money from my research fund on a bin in the woods. I think I found the perfect place - only 90 min away and with a piano and a very airy great-room that's perfect for yoga. It's not ALL about the writing. If I can reserve the last week before Memorial Day, I plan to use the retreat to actually FINISH the book. Then come June, I can hand it over to the wife for copyediting. So, the project is still basically on schedule, which is… well, surprising, to say the least.
I think I'm going to spend the rest of the train ride dealing with some student incompletes and other nagging issues. Stay tuned for a giddy iPad mini-review on the way home.
Anyway, I'm heading into the city to meet with some students. I put in an application for a pile of student assistant money through the Provost's office, and actually GOT IT, so I have $2000 with which to bribe student minions to do my bidding. I have a project lined up for them and need to meet with them to get them started on it. Which also means I have to squeeze in about a dozen other tasks that can only be done on campus and which now pile up for a month until they can justify the $24 round-trip train ride.
Besides the usual work-related stuff, I need to get to the Apple Store to fondle an iPad, and then over to the over-priced but service-oriented running store to get a decent pair of shoes. My return to running has been marred by an ill-fitting pair of mail order shoes, and I'm just going to give up on them, as much as it pains me. I need to just get over it and accept that decent shoes cost $100.
So in order to accomplish all this in one day, I managed to drag myself out of bed by 5:30 to catch the 6:00 train, which is better than I did last time I went in to the office. It feels really unreasonably early. The sabbatical is totally spoiling me. Going back to work full time in September is going to be a serious shock. I'm not looking forward to it!
Meanwhile, the writing is moving along, if sporadically. Some of the decrease in pace is planned – I had given myself a week off for the kids' Spring Break, and then a couple of weeks off to work on "other projects". Not that much is getting done on the other projects, but I'm trying to do a little looking ahead to my fall courses. I am still planning my week-long "retreat" at some point in the next 2 months, and I got approval from my Chair and my Dean to spend the money from my research fund on a bin in the woods. I think I found the perfect place - only 90 min away and with a piano and a very airy great-room that's perfect for yoga. It's not ALL about the writing. If I can reserve the last week before Memorial Day, I plan to use the retreat to actually FINISH the book. Then come June, I can hand it over to the wife for copyediting. So, the project is still basically on schedule, which is… well, surprising, to say the least.
I think I'm going to spend the rest of the train ride dealing with some student incompletes and other nagging issues. Stay tuned for a giddy iPad mini-review on the way home.
Sunday, March 28
Thursday, March 25
living in a fisheye lens...
The weird focus around the edges is probably due to the different distances to the background objects - I'm hoping the focus will be clearer when it's pointed at a flat, uniformly lit classroom wall.
Anyway, $20 from a weird little Hong Kong gadget website, and can now shoot lectures from my MacBook that show the whole board instead of just the middle section. The only downside being that the videos will have the slight appearance of being seen from the viewpoint of the Discovery's HAL-9000 computer.
Friday, March 19
daddy...?
One of my kids saw me reading this book and, for a moment, thought I had made a book with a picture of myself on the front...
That wouldn't be so funny if I didn't get this result once from a computerized "find a famous person who looks like a picture of you app"...
Silent Dave Strikes Back!
That wouldn't be so funny if I didn't get this result once from a computerized "find a famous person who looks like a picture of you app"...
Silent Dave Strikes Back!
Friday, March 12
overly obsessive...
... with a little thing called "VERSION CONTROL":
The weekly drafts of the book also get backed up in THREE places.
The weekly drafts of the book also get backed up in THREE places.
Thursday, March 11
taking a break from the sabbatical…
Heading into the city on the train today. Enough stuff piled up that needs to be taken care of in-person to justify the twenty-some-dollar train ticket. Plus there is a big faculty meeting today, and I figured I could earn some brownie points for showing up. Comes to meetings while on sabbatical!! So dedicated!!
I guess it's been a while since I've posted an update about the writing process. Things are going ok. I'm not smashing my daily word counts like I had been at the beginning - lately I've been just as likely to put in a 750 word day or an 825 word day as the 1100 - 1200 words I was knocking out in January. But I think that's ok, because I've been spending more of my mornings tweaking things that are already written, and thinking about the bigger picture stuff - including how the book is going to fit into the actual class it's being written for. So I've added some things like discussion questions for the chapters which hadn't been part of the original plan, and which take more thought than just writing.
I did take some time off from the book, but it was mostly intentional - a week to go to a conference, then a few days when the wife's Mom was visiting. It took a while to get back into the rhythm of working, but I'm still pretty happy with the progress overall. I passed the 40,000 word mark last night, and the book (as currently formatted anyway - paperback novel sized) is around 165 pages. Enough chapters are finished that I'm starting to drake the final touches - things like graphics and display-equations and whatnot - formatting stuff I've been putting off. My guess is, I'll start working seriously on those things in April.
In non-book-related news, I started back running the other day. It was 50ยบ, so I suited up and did two ½ miles with a little 1-minute walk break in between. It was a little huffy-puffy, but not as bad as it could have been considering I've been away from it for 3 months or so. As my karmic reward for exercising, I came down with the flu less than 12 hours later. The universe can fucking suck it.
Heading into the city on the train today. Enough stuff piled up that needs to be taken care of in-person to justify the twenty-some-dollar train ticket. Plus there is a big faculty meeting today, and I figured I could earn some brownie points for showing up. Comes to meetings while on sabbatical!! So dedicated!!
I guess it's been a while since I've posted an update about the writing process. Things are going ok. I'm not smashing my daily word counts like I had been at the beginning - lately I've been just as likely to put in a 750 word day or an 825 word day as the 1100 - 1200 words I was knocking out in January. But I think that's ok, because I've been spending more of my mornings tweaking things that are already written, and thinking about the bigger picture stuff - including how the book is going to fit into the actual class it's being written for. So I've added some things like discussion questions for the chapters which hadn't been part of the original plan, and which take more thought than just writing.
I did take some time off from the book, but it was mostly intentional - a week to go to a conference, then a few days when the wife's Mom was visiting. It took a while to get back into the rhythm of working, but I'm still pretty happy with the progress overall. I passed the 40,000 word mark last night, and the book (as currently formatted anyway - paperback novel sized) is around 165 pages. Enough chapters are finished that I'm starting to drake the final touches - things like graphics and display-equations and whatnot - formatting stuff I've been putting off. My guess is, I'll start working seriously on those things in April.
In non-book-related news, I started back running the other day. It was 50ยบ, so I suited up and did two ½ miles with a little 1-minute walk break in between. It was a little huffy-puffy, but not as bad as it could have been considering I've been away from it for 3 months or so. As my karmic reward for exercising, I came down with the flu less than 12 hours later. The universe can fucking suck it.
Friday, March 5
no wonder my students score so poorly on exams!
I was excited by the news that YouTube was automatically captioning its videos using Google's speech recognition technology, until I went and downloaded the resulting caption file for one of my physics lectures.
A representative excerpt...
I'm pretty sure it puts the "um..."s in the right place. That's about it. So much for free transcripts of my lectures, I guess.
A representative excerpt...
"that's a lot satisfactory right not
trying to construct the theory of physics
based on physical on actions
the situation is this a little interest in that
in fact the equation the same collectors of
of are animated charge
the attraction between and as evil the subcontinent
and the charges one chart are square
needs a lot reputation
and love electricity
the little traction
are identical in four
it's the non-stop but did not stop doesn't square
it's like a new mechanism
for wind interesting affected
there's no mechanism explain why the reluctantly
it was simply up and your goal
um
equation figured out how much force
so as a attempts
to give some reality of wars
people cannot yet is the field
the way it works is
instead of saying the earth
nationally tax them
which is
or miles away
the ceiling or does is create
the gravitational field
the gravitational field
exas and the states it's leader
you go out going to represent the people
um
but for rose
but it
and he played of mass in a gravitational hill
that message cases acceleration"
I'm pretty sure it puts the "um..."s in the right place. That's about it. So much for free transcripts of my lectures, I guess.
Wednesday, March 3
Saturday, February 13
i can relate pretty well, actually...
Wife: (reading paper) Did you hear about the U of Alabama shooting?
Me: Only vaguely
Wife: (reading)...It was a professor who was denied tenure.
Me: (pause) ...Yeah, I can see that.
Me: Only vaguely
Wife: (reading)...It was a professor who was denied tenure.
Me: (pause) ...Yeah, I can see that.
Thursday, February 11
the value of a sabbatical, discovered...
Simply put - It's easy to get things accomplished when you aren't constantly recovering from doing all the shit you don't want to do.
Tuesday, February 9
last paragraphs of the book...
(I was so pleased with this section, I thought I'd post it. It feels awesome to write the last sentence of a book, even if you still have 30,000 words of the middle left to fill in.)
The full implications of quantum mechanics are beyond the scope of this book and this course. Next semester, I teach a course called “The Quantum Universe” that explores the history and the development of these ideas in great detail. For now it is enough to know this: If you are troubled by the idea that you are trapped in a deterministic, Newtonian cosmos with no control over your actions or your future, quantum mechanics may be just the thing to rescue you from this oppressive sense of inevitability.
Or perhaps not. Einstein was notoriously opposed to the seeming randomness of quantum theory, famously uttering the dismissive ”I do not believe that God plays dice with the universe”. Of course, we know from Einstein’s other writings that he was not speaking of a traditional, anthropomorphic, personal, Judeo-Christian God when he made remarks like this. The God of Einstein was more like a metaphor for the sum total of the laws of nature. And Einstein did not feel that the laws of nature should allow for randomness and uncertainty.
Most contemporary scientists regard Einstein's opposition to quantum mechanics as old-fashioned and misguided. But even today, not all physicists agree on how to interpret the meaning of the new quantum laws of nature or the role of randomness in the universe. This much is fairly certain, though; whatever new theories and new discoveries await, the success of quantum mechanics makes it very unlikely that we will ever return to a worldview that is as strictly deterministic as Newton’s. For better or worse, we have made some room in the laws of nature for ourselves.
The full implications of quantum mechanics are beyond the scope of this book and this course. Next semester, I teach a course called “The Quantum Universe” that explores the history and the development of these ideas in great detail. For now it is enough to know this: If you are troubled by the idea that you are trapped in a deterministic, Newtonian cosmos with no control over your actions or your future, quantum mechanics may be just the thing to rescue you from this oppressive sense of inevitability.
Or perhaps not. Einstein was notoriously opposed to the seeming randomness of quantum theory, famously uttering the dismissive ”I do not believe that God plays dice with the universe”. Of course, we know from Einstein’s other writings that he was not speaking of a traditional, anthropomorphic, personal, Judeo-Christian God when he made remarks like this. The God of Einstein was more like a metaphor for the sum total of the laws of nature. And Einstein did not feel that the laws of nature should allow for randomness and uncertainty.
Most contemporary scientists regard Einstein's opposition to quantum mechanics as old-fashioned and misguided. But even today, not all physicists agree on how to interpret the meaning of the new quantum laws of nature or the role of randomness in the universe. This much is fairly certain, though; whatever new theories and new discoveries await, the success of quantum mechanics makes it very unlikely that we will ever return to a worldview that is as strictly deterministic as Newton’s. For better or worse, we have made some room in the laws of nature for ourselves.
Thursday, January 21
the least "rock and roll" thing i've ever seen...
I was at Barnes and Noble today and came across a magazine I've never seen before called "Guitar Aficionado". John McEnroe is on the cover holding a pricey Les Paul. One of the cover blurbs touts a story inside called "Golfing with Alex Lifeson of Rush". Being a long-time Rush fan, I flip through to find the article - past ads for expensive watches and top shelf vodkas - and when I get to the article, I find out that not only is Alex devoted to improving his golf game, but that he has a 1200 bottle wine collection in storage in Toronto. (We also learn that Geddy has a comparable cellar.)
A little more flipping revels lots of interviews with various rich people who have nothing better to do with their money than spent $35,000 on vintage Stratocasters. Not rock stars mind you - publicists and executives.
I hate this magazine. Hate hate hate hate. I also hate anyone who would buy this magazine. I hate anyone who would wear $5000 on their wrist or keep 1000 bottles of fucking spoiled fruit juice in their basement or hang a $50,000 guitar in a glass fucking case on their wall. I also hate anyone who would aspire to BE one of those people. And I would like to beat them all to death with my 1963 Sears Silvertone.
A little more flipping revels lots of interviews with various rich people who have nothing better to do with their money than spent $35,000 on vintage Stratocasters. Not rock stars mind you - publicists and executives.
I hate this magazine. Hate hate hate hate. I also hate anyone who would buy this magazine. I hate anyone who would wear $5000 on their wrist or keep 1000 bottles of fucking spoiled fruit juice in their basement or hang a $50,000 guitar in a glass fucking case on their wall. I also hate anyone who would aspire to BE one of those people. And I would like to beat them all to death with my 1963 Sears Silvertone.
Sunday, January 17
sabbatical, week two...
17,000 + words total
11,000 + words written in 8 days
avg ~1375 words/day
95 pages total
Ok, some of the pages are BLANK pages with chapter names, but the structure of the book is falling into place nicely. The tone is not quite what I was planning, but I think that's ok. It's still a draft, after all.
Oddly enough, the writing schedule is working out far better than the "personal fulfillment" schedule. After I write M-Th, I'm supposed to be devoting Fridays to things I enjoy doing, always MEAN to do, but never find the time. Working on recording projects, oil painting, stuff like that. This Friday I sat on my sofa in pajamas and watched Netflixes and DVD commentaries. Not that I don't ENJOY watching DVDs, but it's not something I always lament not having time for.
The fitness thing is lagging behind the other commitments. Still no yoga. Still no running. (Ok, there was one half-assed treadmill run.) This reinforces my realization that I am only capable of "getting serious" about one thing at a time. In the summer it was running, and I didn't do any work. In the fall it was my committee chairmanship, and my teaching kind of sucked. Now it's writing, and I can't even muster the mental energy to edit some half-finished piano compositions on a Friday afternoon. I don't know what this says about my mind, other than that it's 40 years old and I'm losing it.
11,000 + words written in 8 days
avg ~1375 words/day
95 pages total
Ok, some of the pages are BLANK pages with chapter names, but the structure of the book is falling into place nicely. The tone is not quite what I was planning, but I think that's ok. It's still a draft, after all.
Oddly enough, the writing schedule is working out far better than the "personal fulfillment" schedule. After I write M-Th, I'm supposed to be devoting Fridays to things I enjoy doing, always MEAN to do, but never find the time. Working on recording projects, oil painting, stuff like that. This Friday I sat on my sofa in pajamas and watched Netflixes and DVD commentaries. Not that I don't ENJOY watching DVDs, but it's not something I always lament not having time for.
The fitness thing is lagging behind the other commitments. Still no yoga. Still no running. (Ok, there was one half-assed treadmill run.) This reinforces my realization that I am only capable of "getting serious" about one thing at a time. In the summer it was running, and I didn't do any work. In the fall it was my committee chairmanship, and my teaching kind of sucked. Now it's writing, and I can't even muster the mental energy to edit some half-finished piano compositions on a Friday afternoon. I don't know what this says about my mind, other than that it's 40 years old and I'm losing it.
Thursday, January 7
sabbatical, week one...
Four days of writing - 1100 to 1300 words a day, putting me over my weekly goal by 850 words or so. On no day I have I started writing after 9:30 or so, or finished later than noon.
The exercise stuff hasn't started yet, but in terms of the work schedule... it's working. So far. The only thing that worries me is that I already kind of feel like the novelty of the whole "staying home and writing in my basement" thing is starting to wear off. Also, statistics say you are most likely to die in an accident in or near your home, and I'm home all the time now and I already almost died twice today.
The exercise stuff hasn't started yet, but in terms of the work schedule... it's working. So far. The only thing that worries me is that I already kind of feel like the novelty of the whole "staying home and writing in my basement" thing is starting to wear off. Also, statistics say you are most likely to die in an accident in or near your home, and I'm home all the time now and I already almost died twice today.
Monday, January 4
sabbatical, day one...
I had an early lunch planned with my Mom, who is leaving town today, so I was worried I was going to wind up with a crappy start to my sabbatical. I only had from 9:00 until 11:00 or so to work, but I grabbed my tea and headed downstairs at 9:05 (like someone with a real job) and sat down to work.
Right off the bat - technical difficulty. Gah. Took me a half hour to straighten that issue out. So I got down to writing around 9:30.
Result? I hammered out 1200+ words in 90 minutes. That's well over the daily goal I've set, which is 1000.
So. This sabbatical stuff is gonna be a piece of cake. An hour and a half a day and I'll have a book by June.
What could go wrong?
Right off the bat - technical difficulty. Gah. Took me a half hour to straighten that issue out. So I got down to writing around 9:30.
Result? I hammered out 1200+ words in 90 minutes. That's well over the daily goal I've set, which is 1000.
So. This sabbatical stuff is gonna be a piece of cake. An hour and a half a day and I'll have a book by June.
What could go wrong?
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