Forbidden Planet

I got Scientific American ’s The Amateur Scientist on CD yesterday. I used to borrow The Amateur Scientist book from my high school library on a pretty much regular basis. I have searched for the book for years, but to no avail (I had considered going back to my HS and offer to buy it, but my loathing for it prevented me). Imagine my delight when I discovered it was possible to get the entire collection on a CD (actually, I would have preferred a book). Shopping around, I found it was generally being listed for about $120 – more than I was willing to pay (have I ever mentioned I am ... erm ... value driven?). Anyway, I found a place that was selling it for $29.99 – just the bare CD, no fancy box, blah, blah, blah. I was a bit surprised to discover the CD is a burned one, rather than a stamped one – so I immediately made backup copies of it. The contents are simply wonderful. I spent a good deal of time last night browsing through it, rereading article on making cloud chambers, grind...

As I wrote to my friend this morning, I have a new insight into what I wrote and blogged about yesterday. This is part of the content of that e-mail: As I write this, I see why I wrote what I did yesterday – because, I was not communicating with you, I was simply writing to you. While communication requires the active participation of two people – it is not about sharing, it is about caring. But, you know what? Caring is hard. It is easier to fall into a pattern of complaining about things, of exchanging lists of information without feeling and emotion. A few weeks ago you shared with me the meaning of HELLO and I would like to share it back to you: (H)ow are you? (E)verything all right? (L)ike to hear from you (L)ove to see you soon! (O)bviously, I miss you

I was composing an e-mail and realized that in this e-mail, like in others, I was writing negatively. I should point out this was a social e-mail, the equivalent of picking up the phone and saying "Hi". Anyway ... the point is that even in social conversation (or maybe it is just me), conversation is monopolized by complaints, gossip, or gloating (I am conveniently ignoring discovery / self-revelation when people are learning about one another. There is small talk too, which I am hopeless at). I don't gossip, so that's one topic less for me to include in my conversation. We complain about the weather / politicians / prices / potholes / our numerous aches and pains / etc. For some reason these negative things are considered newsworthy. Not just in social conversation, but in all forms of conversation. And then there is gloating, "I just got a new TV / Car / Boat / 6 weeks holiday / etc" But how often, whether in the news, or in our daily lives, to we talk abo...

Glass is a pretty remarkable material – though not as some claim a super cooled and super-viscous liquid. It is in fact a solid - an amorphous solid, but a solid nonetheless. An amorphous solid is a solid without any crystalline structure – which means that when it breaks, it just breaks in any old way rather than along facets. Actually, that is not entirely true. Amorphous substances (like obsidian and glass) have a tendency to break in a curved fashion – following the shock wave passing through them. Glass is also quite durable and can survive quite a bit of knocking about – until enough micro-fractures and stresses have build up in it and poof it shatters for almost no apparent reason. Which is what happened to me this morning a few minutes before leaving the house. I was helping JJ brush his teeth when I put the rinsing glass into the sink – out of the way. It slipped and fell a fraction of a centimeter – something you would expect to go tink , but not much more. In my case it lite...

One of the problems I have with blogging is actually writing – the act of putting thoughts to paper in some coherent fashion. I have never been a journal keeper (the thought of filling a diary or journal with my uncensored thoughts holds no appeal to me – I am private and I keep my innermost thoughts to myself). So … this blog was never an attempt at being an online diary or journal. It exists for numerous reasons, one of which is the desire for publicity and the need for privacy, this blog exists. I have no shortage of ideas or a lack of desire to blog … but, I have no desire to ramble, nor be didactic – so nice crisp, reasonably focussed entries are not always forthcoming. Anyway, I prefer to engage in discourse rather than soliloquy. I suppose part of the problem is that I am not sufficiently narcissistic to write only for myself, nor do I do not really target any particular audience. Originally, I imagined I would blog on a diverse miscellany of topics – but I soon realized that it...

One of the interesting things about blogs is that there is no, or very little, personal exposure to the person. Some people post pictures of themselves, others just an avatar and yet others nothing. I can read a person’s profile and get some idea of them, but is it a complete picture? Unlikely. There is no audio feedback – unless, they incorporate their voice into their blog – but, since my audio is generally turned off, I wouldn’t hear it anyway. So, I am left interpreting the words, the content, and the images I find on a blog – forming impressions from what people surround themselves with. I suppose it is rather like archeology – finding a jumbled assortment of artifacts (I browse through people older listings to get a better idea of them). Then I begin to infer things from it. So? Are you your blog? Would somebody who met you say, “Wow! You are just like I imagined you’d be!” Or are they going to say, “Gee, I thought you’d be taller / younger / wittier / more dynamic / etc”? While ...

Started back on a regular workweek today - for the past year and a half or so, when I have been working, I was only working a 4 day week (at a corresponding 80% of pay). I had scheduled it such that I took Monday’s off. Friday would be a more typical choice, but I have garbage pick up on Friday’s in Ottawa, so I needed to be around to take the garbage to the curb and pick up the garbage and recycling bins (otherwise they would stay there the whole weekend). In hindsight and with the experience of only a two day weekend this past weekend, I realize that taking Monday off was much smarter than taking Friday off. Why? Because on Monday, with the kids in school and Sofia at work, I had pretty much the whole day to do nothing and simply unwind - which in my case is essential. Going back to work today, I am tired and unrefreshed. I had a nice time with the kids over the weekend (and hope the rest of the week follows suite), but I did not have enough me time. Of course, the three of us all ...