Strange Days

It's time for the frequently recurring post of random events, that entry where I struggle with the mathematical mind to produce something of even tangential worth. As ever the words emerge reluctantly, as if being coaxed from the primordial ooze, and everything's just a little bit fuzzy. Is it going to be any good?

October has sprung its trap once again and the cold snap of Winter is here, along with the gloom of short days and the worries of unemployment. The transition is always a sudden one, as the storms shriek for the first time and rain pours through the night. Sleep is becoming more and more extended as seasonal depression beats in, and it's time to get out there in the middle of the day and make every advantage from the existing sunlight that one can. Oh, for a boomerang, to fling out into the green!

Strange days of nerves and twine, as the dog goes in for surgery and tutoring comes into line. Tomorrow I break into my tutoring career in style, but will it go well, or will nerves get the best of me? And what does it all mean for future work? It's tough to do these things when your confidence has been shaken. The world of the practising mathematician is a long way away from an undergraduate degree of moderate success. Job hunting, academia and the personal aspect can ruin an ego if they all go badly! Where are the remedial affairs to lift one's spirits?

Humm, this is all far too self-indulgent. BBC Radio 4's 'The Adventure of Silver Blaze' is playing now to soothe away the chill of the night, and it's all becoming a little rosier. It's a rare moment of familiarity in the last few months that have seen very little re-reading, re-viewing and re-listening; It has all been new, including my current reading matter of 'Zorba the Greek'. 'Zorba' is a challenge, despite the excellent prose in the translation; an evocation of a far gone lifestyle in a far away Mediterranean landscape, twice removed from anything ever experienced here in the wilds of Northern Europe. Its challenge is in the assumptions it makes and those of the reader, and of the comparative simplicities of affairs long long ago. It will be a Quirky Muffin should I ever finish it, if only for the dancing. A happy ending, please, that's all I ask.

Another challenge awaits tomorrow, and it's time to bed down. Oh, tutoring's not hard, right?

O.