I spent n years prostrate to the higher mind...

Thesis: defended.

(more later, heading to the pub)

Don't forget the brass!

Just saw these guys down the street from my office.

At long last...

Thesis: submitted.

Yesterday I dropped it off at the binders just in time to go see Romeo & Juliet at the Globe, which was wonderful. This afternoon I picked it up from the binders and dropped it off at the College Examinations Office. They promptly dispatched it to my examiners. (There is a rule, about which the college is emphatic, that I am not allowed to send my thesis directly to my examiners. I have no idea why, but apparently it's important.) Now my supervisor will schedule my viva which has to be at least a month (and no more than three months) from today. Meanwhile just about everyone (in number theory) is at Park City, except for me.

Right now it's time for a deep breath and some Belgian beer.

now that he’ll never sing another note

This one's even better.

I thought Ray Smuckles summed it up nicely.

M.T.A.

Gee, think these guys had some influence on the Torrey boys?

Happy Bloomsday!

I'm planning to read Molly's soliloquy today in celebration. "Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City Arms hotel..."

A good day for poetry in general -- I saw this Poem on the Underground today:

LIKE A BEACON

In London
every now and then
I get this craving
for my mother's food
I leave art galleries
in search of plaintains
saltfish/sweet potatoes

I need this link

I need this touch
of home
swinging in my bag
like a beacon
against the cold

Grace Nichols

FLT

Today I received my first email from someone claiming to have a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. They even forwarded someone else's rejection of their argument, which points out their basic misunderstanding of factorisation.

Maybe it's urban legend, but I heard at some point that Cambridge had hired someone full time to respond to such letters. A friend of mine here at King's (who has been teaching the Elementary Number Theory course here for the past few years and is listed on the website as the instructor) recently received a whole book (self-published) with elementary "proofs" of all the major problems in number theory.

90 years.

http://www.folkalley.com/music/peteseeger/

Hold on to your room, Mark!

Pinball machines, beware!

I'm bound for Ithaca.

I have accepted a one-year visiting position at Cornell, starting this fall. (The Brits always snicker when I say "fall", meaning autumn. I'm happy to take on their plural "maths" and their old school "trousers" and even, eventually, their foreshortened "veg", but using autumn in this context as an American makes me feel pretentious.)

The offer is conditional on one small minor little trifling detail (having my PhD), so I'm a bit busy at the moment.

Ithaca
Constantine P Cavafy

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy -
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Spring!

Unseen Buds
Walt Whitman

Unseen buds, infinite, hidden well,
Under the snow and ice, under the darkness, in every square or cubic inch,
Germinal, exquisite, in delicate lace, microscopic, unborn,
Like babes in wombs, latent, folded, compact, sleeping;
Billions of billions, and trillions of trillions of them waiting,
(On earth and in the sea--the universe--the stars there in the
heavens,)
Urging slowly, surely forward, forming endless,
And waiting ever more, forever more behind.

O sweet spontaneous
e.e. cummings


O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

         fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

      beauty      .how
oftn have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
       (but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

        thou answerest

them only with

                        spring)

The Trees
Philip Larkin

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

“Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

These are the words that have been ringing through my head all day, and apparently the answer is Yes.

and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Do I dare turn down a job offer (well, an invitation for an on-campus interview anyway) in this job market (academic math jobs)?

Yes.

In this job market in this economy?!?

Yes.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
By T. S. Eliot

The approaching end of my PhD experience is an opportunity. I have been travelling this path with little regard to my priorities. This is a chance to reshape my life to something more in line with what is most important to me. One of my top priorities is being close to home. And so, Yes, I dare (in spite of the peer pressure) to reject an opportunity in the midwest. Even if that means jettisoning academia. Even if that means unemployment. Maybe it's time for something completely different anyway. Or maybe I'll get another academic opportunity somewhere I can actually, in my heart, call home.

Another top priority, by the way, is Go, which has been more or less on hold for far too long. Speaking of which, I go to Amsterdam tomorrow to visit Guo Juan!

Busy

More Maira in the New York Times!

David Goo Variety Show at The Borderline, Saturday, January 24

Warwick Number Theory Seminar, Tuesday, February 17

Twelfth Night at the Wyndham Theatre, Sunday, February 22

Argentinian Wine Tasting at The Troubadour, Wednesday, March 4

Visiting Guo Juan in Amsterdam, March 12-16

Dr. Atomic, English National Opera, Monday, March 16

Read me

Zadie Smith's Speaking in Tongues

Snow!

We have real snow! (As opposed to what I call trash-can snow, the kind that leaves a dusting on top of rubbish bins and cars.) Well, we have a few inches, anyway. Maybe half a foot. But it's soft, fluffy, quiet, big-flake snow. The woman on the BBC news said, "I'm looking out the window and there is literally snow all over the windowsills!" I took the scenic route to work, walking through Finsbury Park. What perfect weather!

Hallelujah

more from Maira Kalman

I just can't get enough.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/02/02/090202taco_talk_remnick

Chinese New Year

Today is Chinese New Year's Day, kicking off the year of the Ox. While out running errands today, I poked my head into Chinatown. The big celebration in London won't be until this weekend, and I've learned to avoid it because the crowds are just too big. But this afternoon it wasn't very crowded so when I heard the drumming coming my way, I actually got to see the lions (dragons? I can never tell) dancing through Chinatown. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, but I was delighted because they were letting other people take over and dance. So someone with lion legs would step out and walk alongside, or go help the drummers, while the lions would keep dancing, but with the front legs those of a businessman.

Ego-boosters

Chinese class started again on Tuesday evening. Among the sample sentences in the "Speech Patterns" section of the new chapter, we have some real ego-boosters:

我连一半也没做对。 I didn't do even half of it correctly.

这事连小孩都知道。 Even small children know this.

At least, I think I've translated these correctly...

That side was made for you and me

wtf?

http://www.colorofchange.org/oscar/

Get on the horse!

This is one of my favourite new Chinese vocabulary words:

马上 = mǎ shàng = at once; right away; immediately

马 = mǎ = horse; horse chess piece; Surname
上 = shàng = on; up; on top; upon; first (of two parts); previous or last (week, etc.); upper; higher; above; previous; to climb; to go into; above; to go up

So 马上 could be literally translated as, "Get on the horse!"

Masked

I had a great time again in Ithaca for New Year's. Here are Kates, Elizabeth and I with masks painted on for a New Year's Eve masquerade party by Kate's tattoo artist housemate Phoebe:



I got some good family time in as well.



I'm back in London now for a late start on the new year. This is (hopefully) my last leg in London. My postdoc applications are mostly done. So now I'm just working on finishing my thesis and preparing for my viva while waiting for word on where I'll end up next autumn.