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I’m home most of the day, reading Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, a collection of short stories I read yearly. Today I read “The Merchant and the Alchemist”s Gate” by Ted Chiang, amongst others, which won both the Hugo for Best Novelette this year, and last year’s Nebula’s . I have to agree with the juries here, a great tale.

Tonight, if I can get tickets, I’m going to the Manhattan Short Film Festival.

Theme of the day: short fiction.

Eppo will be back in 2009! Clearly the LHC is having time-dilation effects already. I’m seriously considering a subscription.

Last Saturday I was happy to discover the Skeptical Inquirer magazine at the American Book Center. I haven’t been able to find it recently and I was afraid the bookstore no longer stocked it.

Why do I always feel like I’m buying a dirty magazine when I buy this one? Probably because of the big area they have upstairs for consciousness/enlightenment/”law of attraction” books upstairs. And the fact that the science section is stocked with really dubious stuff that really belongs in some other section.

I once got a really dirty look from somebody at the counter when I bought this magazine. Could just have been imagining it of course.

Anyway, I’ve had no time to read it yet, still catching up on my backlog of New Scientist issues.

I’m having a day alone in San Francisco today. My mates are visiting Alcatraz. I’ve never been, but I felt like wandering the city on my own more than seeing an old prison. Just bought a bunch of new books at Borders (they’re cheaper over here). Later I might check out a movie, to give my legs a rest (new shoes, my old ones were wrecked in the walk up Half Dome).

Tonight, around 3AM, we’re heading back home. We haven’t got a hotel booked, so it’s gonna be a loooong day. Tonight we’re meeting up for dinner with Zack, June and some of the other rollersoccer players from SF.

Yesterday we drove up from Santa Cruz, along a scenic highway, through some beautiful Redwood forest. We drove through the hills above Palo Alto, from where I could see Stanford, where I spent three months about fifteen years ago. Brought back some memories!

We’re staying at Travelodge Central here in SF. The staff has a real attitude problem there. Man, they’re so unfriendly! I should be careful what I say though, our luggage is still there, waiting for us to pick it up at 3AM tonight.

In the evening we saw Man on Wire. Didn’t live up to the hype, but still: pretty incredible story!

SF is a real city of contrasts. You see so many dubious characters here, wandering amidst high-street shops. Beggars and what can only be junkies everywhere.

I’m not unhappy about going home. My work-situation will have changed considerably when I get back (new office, about 200 new colleagues) and my house will be emptied of most of Marine’s stuff, so that will be a change too. I’ll kind of miss moving house everyday though.

Had dinner with my colleagues yesterday at Hemelse Modder. Delicious! The last Rosetta dinner before we’re absorbed by the mothership.

At night I started on a new book: The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. I’ve been reading this yearly for sixteen years now!

I had a quiet evening at home yesterday. Watched Prof. Regan’s supermarket secrets, a Horizon episode about medicinal claims about foods, and part 2 of the Saddam Hussein drama on BBC: House of Saddam. Finished my Jeffrey Sachs book. Read the paper. Tried to get up to date with Giuseppe’s melancholy blog. In the process of the latter I watched some nice music videos and thought about relative happiness: why am I not more happy if I’m surrounded by sick people? What’s wrong with me? And called my mom about meeting up before I head off to the New World. Busy, in the end :-)

Wednesday: went to see Cloverfield. Didn’t get as nauseous from the erratic camera movement as with Breaking the Waves. I remember the little dioramas that are shown from time to time in the latter movie, which came as a huge releave to me.

Thursday: went to a discussion between the arch-atheist Christopher Hitchens and Professor Fouad Laroui, moderated by Arjo Klamer, in the Aula of the UvA, organised by the John Adams institute. Professor Laroui was as much an atheist as Hitchens, it seemed to me, so the biggest confrontation was between the moderator and Hitchens. Man, it was brutal! Mr. Klamer tried to rescue some of religion’s dignity by mentioning an instance of a Jewish woman who got through WW2 through religion, saying that she couldn’t have done it without religion. Hitchens remarked that if that were so, she must have been a weak-minded woman. How does Mr. Klamer know that she couldn’t have anyway? There was much derision from the crowd as well when the moderator referred to the Third Reich as an atheist regime. But then again, the majority of the crowd was atheist, so what can you expect?

I also got my first ever book signed. I bought The Portable Atheist and got it signed by Mr. Hitchens himself, having already read and relished his God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. I told him this and he said ‘aha’ to me. Oh, parting was such sweet sorrow ;-) Weird, like going to a pop concert and shaking hands with the artist after the gig. I wish I’d get to see more of my authors this way.

Man, woke up at 5:30 this morning, for no reason whatsoever. Couldn’t sleep anymore. Lucky for you, that leaves me with some time to post something here.

First off, while it’s still OK to do so: I wish you all the best for 2008, for those of you using the Gregorian calendar. My New Year’s party was a quiet and cozy affair. Marine and I were at Isa and Pim’s. Very French though, including foie gras and a bombardment of reasons for why the geese that they use to make it from are treated just the same the Dutch treat chickens. But, defiantly, I did manage to eat some oliebollen. Ha! We watched the fireworks from the relative safety of Isa and Pim’s apartment. Next Sunday I’ve be starting the Julian year calendar (with a group of Serbians).

Between Christmas and New Year I’ve been working, as opposed to some of you slackers out there ;-) Other work-related but much bigger news: Marine’s started her new job!

Currently reading: New Scientist (I’m a card-carrying member!), Skeptical Inquirer magazine (which I buy at the American Bookstore), a giant (45cm x 37cm!) absolutely gorgeous coffee-table book “Cosmos: A Field Guide” which I can only read in the living room, it’s too large and heavy to read comfortably in bed, and for the night-time sessions: Steven Pinker’s “The Stuff of Thought“. Sometimes I browse through my daily NRC Next (ususally at the office, during lunch).

I should be at Schiphol right now, waiting for my plane to leave. Instead I’m home. The reason is that my flight was delayed by about four hours.

I’m making the most of it. Just emptied our boat of water. I’ll also get a chance to pick up my copy of New Scientist at Waterstones, which will give me something to read on my trip. My subscription hasn’t kicked in yet, so I still have to buy it at the shop.

I’m also bringing along Critical Mass by Philip Ball for the trip, a book I started, but never finished.

I got hooked by Bryson’s recommendation on the cover, sucker that I am ;-) Not sure why I gave it up. Something more enticing came along, I guess.

The Road to Reality is just too massive to bring along. Plus, I’m thinking of giving up on that book. Without prior knowledge of complex analysis, I’m not sure anybody can really read this. I’m completely lost. I, reluctantly, have to admit defeat. My mate Adriaan is also going to attempt this one. Good luck, Adriaan, I believe in you!!

Anyway, back to my predicament. I hope the guy that’s supposed to pick me up at San Jose informs himself about the flight schedule!

After reading the really great “The Fabric of the Cosmos” I’m ready for some real numbers. So on to “The Road to Reality” by Roger Penrose.

It’s not easy reading, but if someone like me, who at least has some training in mathematics, can’t follow the arguments, I would think he’s missed his target audience. Or maybe that’s a bit arrogant. So far, it’s still fine, and I’m up to the complex numbers. Sometimes I look ahead in the book and get all excited by the notion that soon I might be able to learn what “Minkowskian geometry” means and what the hell “spin” refers to. I hope I won’t be disappointed!

I’ve never read any of Penrose’s work. I’m aware some of it’s controversial, especially his theories of consciousness, but if I become put off by it, I’ll move onto something else. For now, I’m enjoying the ride!