Higher dimensions

I'm working late today, preparing a lecture for Friday morning. It's on a cool subject, something called Hamilton's canonical equations. It's a funny game that takes place in a 6-dimensional space (so-called phase space).

The first 3 dimensions are the familiar world where we live.

Maybe we can use the other dimensions for something funny, like telepathy or getting in touch with the dead? Sorry, folks. You can't >:(

The first 3 dimensions describe where we are, and the last 3 dimensions describe how fast we're moving and in which direction. The 6-dimensional space is just a convenient way to represent our motion with mathematics. That's it.

Hamilton's equations are fundamental in both classical physics and quantum mechanics. In the quantum world of superstrings and such, there are other funny things coming into the theory as well. But still it's just a convenient way to describe physics in the language of mathematics.

Higher dimensions can't be used for anything exotic at all in our peaceful lives on Earth.

Sorry if you got disappointed, but I can tell you that theoretical physics is really cool >:)

(I found the picture of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) on Google Images. The photographer is probably dead long time ago, so I guess he doesn't mind if I use the photo. Sir William looks a little bit grumpy, doesn't he? Anyway, he was a really smart guy)

Stairway to Cold As Heaven

There has been some complaints about the stairs recently, the stairs in front of our main entrance. They are icy and slippery and difficult to walk, due to snow fall and somewhat sloppy shoveling earlier this winter.

I have argued that this is good. Reaching the top has never been easy, and shouldn't be easy. It should be a real challenge and take some effort.

Maybe this doesn't apply to stairs?

(The photo was taken by me. I even built and painted the stairs last summer. All right reserved) >:D

Freedom

“What would you do if I told you that I’ve been sleeping with another man?”

“Have you?”

“No, just imagine. What would you say?”

“Great. Did you enjoy it?”

“It means you don’t care about me. You don’t love me.”

“Quite the contrary. It means that I don’t want to own you, or decide over you. You have all the freedom you want. If there is anything you would like to explore, you can do it.”

“Do you really mean it?”

“Yes”

“Wouldn’t you be jealous?”

“No. Jealousy is a sign of uncertainty. I’m not uncertain. I trust you. It’s been you and me for a quarter of a century, and it will remain so. I don’t need to keep you on a leash.”

“You’re unbelievable”

“Maybe.”

(Excerpt from my so-called novel, in progress. Painting by Arne Ekeland)

The first year

Today is my one-year blog anniversary. No big celebration planned. I will be out skiing again this weekend.

It's been a fun first year. I looked back to re-read the first post I ever wrote. It wasn't much.

I was going to write something about January, but then I found my 2nd post. It's still valid; no need to rewrite it.

Enjoy the white gold. Powder to the people >:)

To write or not to write

"What are you doing?"

"Writing."

"I thought you were working."

"I was working. Now I’m writing."

"What a useless waste of time."

"My writing is about as useless as your sewing and broidery."

"Sewing is something everybody are doing, following a straight-forward pattern. You can’t just write a novel."

"Why not?"

"It's not the kind of things that anyone can do"

"I'm trying anyway"

"Why can't you just do normal things that other people do?"

"I'm doing that too."

"Like going to black-metal concerts and reading Dostoyevsky. Is that normal?"

"It's normal for me."

"You’re always so eccentric. You learnt to play drums on the Internet, and now you’re gonna learn to write a novel."

"Yes."

"Your biggest fear is to be viewed as ordinary."

"It’s just the way I am."

"I guess that’s why I liked you in the first place."

"Thanks."

Corduroy piste

I took little boy to skiing practice in the local ski center this evening. It was cold, but no wind, and the slopes were perfectly groomed. Corduroy piste.

It's a good way to spend the evening after work.

Tonight I wrote another 500 words on my so-called novel. My old lady doesn't like it. She thinks it's a waste of time, something I can do when I retire at age 67.

She's probably right, but I keep on writing anyway >:)

Powder and broken glasses

We got 25 cm (10 inches) of dry white snow last night. Today we went up to the local ski resort.

Older boy and his buddies got to try their rocker skies, for the first time this season. Rocker skis are wide skis with inverted shape (banana shape), built for the sole purpose of deep-powder skiing. They look almost like water skis with alpine bindings (picture above).

I skied with little boy and a friend of his. The other boy wasn’t very experienced, so I tried to teach him some basic skiing technique; goal-keeper position, with arms forward, moving weight and pressure from left to right to left, in long giant slalom turns. For effective skiing, the weight must be on outer ski and upper part of the body facing down-slope all the time (powder skiing is slightly different, but that’s for advanced skiers).

For some reason, I wrecked my glasses while skiing, my regular reading glasses. I ski with goggles, but keep my glasses in the pocket, to be able to read my cell phone and other things that I need to read. When we finished skiing the glasses were broken in my pocket.

I know the way back home very well, and I was able to drive, but I couldn’t see a damn shit of the speedometer nor the signs by the road. We stopped at a gas station when we got back to town, and I bought some cheap +2.5 reading glasses for $10.

They will do until tomorrow. See you later >:)

Fog and sun

It was one of these rare days. The morning was freezing cold and foggy down in the valley. The moist air made it feel even colder. We covered our faces with scarves, everything except the mouth and the nose.

Older boy and his buddies went to the terrain park, where the black run, with the biggest jumps, has just opened.

Little boy and I took the fast double-quad chair lift up in the mountain. When we jumped off at the top station, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. We decided to continue with the gondola, to the top of the mountain.


The buildings at the top were completely covered in snow and ice. There was no wind. The sun is low over the horizon at this time of the year, but we could feel it was warming. It was amazing.

We paused at the top for while, enjoying the pleasant weather and the fabulous view. The fog and the clouds were like a gray ocean down in the valley. Then we skied down the slope. Little boy was waiting for me when I came down. He’s too fast. I’m not able to keep up with him anymore.

It got very cold again when the sun set around 2 pm, but even though our noses ached, we continued to ski till the lifts closed at 3 o’clock.

Happy New Year >:)