another dimension (pay close attention)

[devi]

I am pissed off and glum today. I could blame it on writing burnout, or missing London, or having a gazillion little things to sort out, or sitting up too late last night (drawing a comic strip about how I'd like to kidnap some of my students and force them to have a day away from studying, having fun), or worries about not taking any exercise and eating rubbish, or feeling out of touch with everything. But actually I think it's just a big, grey, gluey lump of winter sitting on my chest, that gloms on to everything I think about and makes me feel there's something wrong with it.

I never used to be such a seasonal creature, but the dark and murk are hitting me hard this year and I crave sunlight. When I look back on the summer it seems to have consisted entirely of blue sky, bellydancing, barbecues, raving it up in fields, basking in the sun, having astonishingly good sex and biking around the greenest bits of town listening to Wubble-U. It can't all have been like that, but I've forgotten the dull bits.

Not to diss badasstronaut's hosting and cooking skillz at all, for they were l337, but the Midwinter Comics Retreat was... odd. We arrived at the farmhouse in pitchy, wet dark and I never really got outside, so until the very end when we left in daylight, the house could have been disconnected from the rest of the world or on some other plane where there's an awful lot of howling wind. (Pandemonium?) I drew lots of wonky-looking magpies that ended up looking like Greys with beaks, but not in a way that made it seem deliberate. There may have been ghosts in the attic. I woke up both mornings with my legs and arms aching, as if I'd been fighting battles in my sleep.

Oh well. Cheering me up most right now is Warped Passages by Lisa Randall, a book about other dimensions of space and time. Not in a New Agey way, mind - she's an MIT professor. Apparently there are tiny curled-up extra dimensions like doughnuts at every single point in space. The book is full of doughnuts and garden hoses and Alice in Wonderland analogies and is bloody fascinating.

A couple of weeks ago I had lunch with mr_snips and he cheered me up in a similar way by explaining the differences between theories of relativity. I sat there grinning and going "Whoa. Man." Physics makes me happy. Am I normal?

Comments

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Winter glumness is horrible! I had a migraine last week and spent the (few) hours of daylight with the blinds shut tight and hiding under my duvet and that really upset my little brain.

I have been spending lot of my weekends out RAVING. The dancing all night seems to do a cheering-upping thing to my brain, right now. So you should clearly come to London and come clubbing.

[glittertigger]

Sorry to hear that winter is getting to you. My approach is to spend my time (with as many friends as possible) in places like pubs and goth clubs where you don't notice the weather. Pubs with open fires are particularly good.

[juliet]

It is a good job you're due to be coming dancing soon, then :-)

Come down earlier that day & see if some London-based daylight can be caught?

It was v weird over the weekend - I spent it in a Romany caravan/little cabin thingy & I think barely went outside the whole of Sunday other than to journey between one & the other. Until it got to nighttime, & the sky cleared, & the moon was so bright that it cast actual shadows. At that point, I stood outside in nightie+fleece+scarf, freezing my legs off, going 'wow' extensively :-)

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

Physics makes me happy. Am I normal?

Yes. I got halfway through Warped Passages (did you see what she did there) and put it down, and haven't taken it up again; must do that.

[mzdt.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling - a summer of boat trips & festivals, and now...? well, anyway.

I'm looking forward to a week's time. ;-)

[j4.livejournal.com]

Am I normal?

Nah, you're far more interesting than that. :-)

IKWYM about the winter glooms, totally. Get up in the dark and go home in the dark and ARGH WHERE IS THE SUN? If only somebody could bottle sunlight... But anyway! Do you want to go for a gloom-busting drink/lunch/something/whatever some time later this week or next week? I'm busy Tues and Weds nights next week but otherwise free (and usually free for lunches -- are you in town in the daytime?).

[billionhighways]

i crave your summer!

e

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Physics makes me happy. Am I normal?

'Normal' means craving and slaving for a semi-detached house to fill with consumer durables, your mind filled with the beauty of satellite entertainment, cheap paperbacks and glossy magazines.

Somehow, however grey your day, it is not so dark and so benighted that the high point is a happy ending in EastEnders - or mastering Marie-Claire's latest cosmetic tip in a picture-perfect designer bathroom from a decorating show, while your husband brags of his success the day he makes the down-payment on a Mercedes.

Normal, indeed. And all too true for millions of people - and worse, a source of dissatisfaction and unease to millions more who think they 'ought' to be enjoying the journey to consumer nirvana.

The physics sounds rather cheering - try mastering some mathematics, too: surprising yourself is always a bright spot in a grey day.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

Tsk, Physics makes everyone happy.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Spending Winter missing Summer does sound rather gloomy... but there's lots of Winter things worth enjoying too. Huge cuddly jumpers and hot drinks and way better films and TV and all the best food is Winter stuff and how nice it is snuggling under the bedclothes...

[nisaba.livejournal.com]

The concepts in physics, I find fascinating. The actual mathematics....

If olethros hasn't been beaten me to it already, can I recommend The Bing Bang by Simon Singh? Fascinating pop-science book on the beginnings of the universe, minus all the math.