Catching up

Thanksgiving weekend. It's been nice to get away from home - and business, since they are pretty much the same thing - and spend some time just reading. It's given me a chance to read several of the books I've bought in the last couple of months, at the Paradigm symposium, on-line, and various forays to the local Barnes & Noble. But mostly, I've been buried in the Kindle app on my laptop.

A couple of days ago, as we were driving to Gwyn's mom's home for the family Thanksgiving celebration, the weather was gorgeous. Warm, sunny, it was a day more like September than late November. Today, that's all changed. As I sit here blogging, I can hear the wind whip around the corners of the house, a chill and lonely sound that makes me enjoy curling up with a book - or a laptop - in a warm room. It was a day to wake up late, a day to catch up.

Some things I have gotten interested in lately have been more on the geeky side. As I've studied reports of close encounters, UFO sightings, etc., I've again found myself wondering about the physics of it all. As I've heard the words 'quantum' and 'nonlocal' bandied about, I've wondered - where does all that come from? Where does the zero point field come from, the unified field, the idea of the holographic universe, etc. etc. etc.? So I decided to find a couple of books that would re-introduce me to the topic (I studied this a fair amount in undergrad - about thirty years ago).

One thing led to another and, before I know it, I pulled out a couple of books on quantum physics. In the process, I discovered I have forgotten a lot in the time since I studied physics in undergrad (the field has also advanced considerably in three decades), so I have had to re-learn a lot of material. As I read through one (inexpensive) book I bought on Kindle - 'Understanding Quantum Physics' - I discovered that I don't. The book was written at the PhD-plus level, and assumes that you thoroughly know the topic already. After only about twenty pages I fell off the mathematical train. So I went back on to the Kindle store and got the earlier book in the series (Introduction to Quantum Physics).

'Introduction to' appears to only assume that you have an advanced undergrad level of mathematical sophistication. But in that, it's a firebath and I found myself recalling a lot of the mathematics I learned in college. I guess I got what I was looking for, an intermediate level primer. And now we'll see just how 'intermediate' it really is. I have a lot of catching up to do.

There is a lot of other catching up to do as well. A lot of MUFON and business stuff still undone. Meanwhile I can hear the wind outside. Work can wait until I get home.

It's a chill November day, a good day to sit inside and curl up with a book. The math only holds my attention for so long. So for now, I'm setting the serious material aside and picking up a novel (yes, reading one, not writing one). I seldom have time for recreational reading, and I had started reading this one several months before, and then set it aside as I got busy with my business stuff. Now, I decided it was time to resume that.

As for the rest of the stuff, it's time to do some serious ignoring. I need to catch up on doing nothing, and I have a lot of work to do.