It hasn't been a good fall or winter for me health-wise. I endured a three-week-long cold in October (which afflicted my co-workers on its second round) and a week-long stomach virus. I'm now under treatment for a painful dental infection which has re-infected a tooth that was worked on seven years ago. Because of this, I am hesitant to do stressful long-distance driving. So I have had to cancel my plans to take a winter vacation in Tennessee and Georgia. I'll be working at my day job as usual instead. Maybe, after whatever needs to be done to my mouth is done and healed up, I'll be able to take that vacation later on.

The dismal Holiday Season, which longtime readers of the Electron know I hate, also has taken its toll on me. I live near a huge mall and during this orgy of buying, the roads are crammed for miles around it. I was hoping to avoid all this but now I must be content with staying as close to home as possible, and just going to work. Any gifts I give will be goodies from Trader Joe's. Edible treats are the best thing to give anyway. They will be gladly consumed and not clutter up the already too-cluttered houses of your friends and hosts.

Meanwhile, I am bogged down in a problem set which I cannot seem to get through. I managed the sliding blocks and a few of the spinning things under gravity, but the last section involves orbiting velocities, orbital periods, and gravitational attraction. I don't know whether it's due to the painkillers I'm taking or just plain tiredness, but I just don't have the energy to work these through, even if I have already done similar problems before. I would have to go over the entire section on orbits again, and re-work through all the derivations which lead to the formulas which I can't seem to get to work.

As a solitary student I have no idea what I must do, what I can leave for later to return to, and what I must make myself do even if I am tired. After all, "real" scientists have already taught themselves this material in their young teen years, endowed with endless energy. I note with regret, at the end of 2005, that my few fellow-travelers in Blogville, those other folk who are trying to learn physics in middle-age, have disappeared along with their Weblog, or have stopped or abandoned their quests for one reason or another. I would put out a request-for-help to a Friendly Scientist but this is a lousy time to do that; they have lives and families, and Christmas trees to decorate. I will have to make my priority decisions by myself, as I have had to do with my travel plans.

Posted at 3:41 am | link