"you have not seen it properly"

"Galileo flew into another tilted mirror, and both shot through it and bounced off it at the same time, either reintegrating or not on the far side, breaking up as he became whole --

'Wait!' he shouted in a panic to Aurora.  'Help.  Help me!' This can't be right, it makes no sense! Help!'

Aurora's voice croaked in his ear, full of amusement.  'No one understands it in the way you mean. Please, relax. Fly on.  Be not afraid.  Bohr once said if you are not shocked by quantum mechanics, you have not seen it properly.  We have come to an aspect of the manifold of manifolds that cannot be understood by recourse to any images from the sensorium, nor by your beloved geometries.  It is contradictory, counter to the senses.  It has to remain at the level of the mathematical abstractions that we are moving among.  But remember, it has been shown that you can use these quantum equations and get physical experimental results of extraordinary accuracy -- in some cases as much as one in a trillion.  In that sense the equations are very demonstrably true.'

'But what does that mean?  I can't understand what I can't see.'

'Not so.  You have been doing that quite frequently now.  Rest easy.  Later the whole of quantum mechanics will be placed in the context of the ten-dimensional manifold of manifolds, and there reconciled to gravity and to general relativity.  Then, if you can go that far, you will feel better about how it is that these equations can work, or be descriptive of a real world.'

'But the results are impossible!'

'Not at all.  There are other dimensions folded into the ones our senses perceive, as I told you.'

-- Kim Stanley Robinson, Galileo's Dream

Cloudy New Day

 

Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham, Washington.

Writerly Stuff

I have two short stories in the new edition of a local, online literary journal (it's free!).  This quarter's theme is "Golden Age," and my two stories are: "Water Meat" about a date in South Korea, and "The Third Loneliest Woman in All of Whatcom County," about working in a kayak factory.

I've been enjoying the other stories as well.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wherever you are, whatever you're up to, I hope you have a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.  My sister and my nephew are visiting, and it's always nice to see them.  We're doing pre-made chickens instead of a turkey Because Tradition.  My Dad seems happy, and this will be our first sit-down holiday meal as an entire family (a small family) since -- I honestly can't remember.  Over a decade at least, since I was living in South Korea and only visiting during the summer.

One of My Happy Places

 

Beef tacos from El Tapatio, Bellingham.

I never found good Mexican in South Korea (you gotta use lard, my friends).  So while Seattle might be a better place for finding the good stuff, I like Bellingham and El Tapatio just fine.  My only mistake was to order beef tacos before realizing they also had tongue.  Oh well, there's always next time.

Shai-Halud? It Was Pretty Good!

I finally saw Dune, and I liked it.  Denis Villeneuve is predictably excellent, and the performances and music were great.

I guess my only gripe (although a major one) is that he should have done the whole novel in one film, in one go.  If he doesn't like Marvel films so much, why go down the sequel path?

Rainy Graffiti

Downtown Bellingham, Washington.

"New York Sucks!"

 

Fear on SNL (not the performance, a 10 minute documentary)

This is pretty great -- a short documentary on just how the infamous Fear performance on SNL went down, with tons of Ian MacKaye and John Belushi.

What's not to love?

Moving Right Along

I just finished my fourth day of training at the new job.  It's intense, and I have a lot to learn, but everyone I've met is really great and patient with me.  I'll have more to say eventually, but I think me and my Dad have worked out a schedule that allows him to be happy (not hungry, not too bored) while I'm out of the house.

Does that sound strange?  I guess so, but it makes sense from here.

It's very rainy in Bellingham this fall, that's for certain.