Herschel museum of astronomy

I am holiday in Bath at the moment. I was looking at the map of the city and I noticed that there was a Herschel Museum of Astronomy.     This turned out to be a small house. I dimly knew (once reminded) that Herschel had discovered the Planet Uranus. What I didn't know, was that Herschel was originally a musician in Bath, but as a hobby he started to study astronomy. Then he started to build his own telescopes.

The museum was very small, but it made the discovery of the planet more real. He spent many many hours polishing mirrors.

For the love of physics

I have a lot of half read books on my kindle. Today I finished reading: For the love of physics by Walter Lewin. Lewin was famous for his physics lectures at MIT, particularly when they were posted online. The most iconic moment in his course was when he let a big pendulum off in front of him.




The book is enjoyable, but also a bit strange. It starts out with popular real world physics, but the second half is about his work on X-ray astronomy. The last chapter is about Modern Art. He is a big collector and he has worked with some artists. I liked the way he used in the end chapter the metaphor "ways of seeing" to unify his interests in art and physics. He is a bit arrogant, but that is normal for a famous physicist.
It is a pity that he was involved in sexual misconduct so his links with MIT were cut.

Bad day at black rock

I purchased the DVD of the film: a Bad day at Black Rock.      What a great film! I have dimly known about the film for a long time. I thought it was about a one armed man who comes back from Japan and he does some Judo. Now that I see the film, I see that he wasn't in Japan, and there is very little Judo, but still he is hard in  a very polite way. Also the scenery was amazing. He was tough in the way that only some one who has been in a war can be.

One  armed swordsmen are cool in martial arts of course.

Friday night in the pub

After work on Friday, I went to the gym. After the gym, I had a beer in the pub next door. The pub was called the Union Rooms.        . I intended to just stay for a beer or two, but ended up leaving about 12:30. It is a pub with a dance floor and a big garden. I often wonder where time goes when you are in a pub. At the end I switched to drinking coke, because my body can't cope with a big session any more. I do still feel ashamed of staying there so long. Now that I look at the web site, I see that it is open until 3:30 on a Friday night, so I did really go home early.

I did  notice that the modern trend is for many of women to buy cocktail jugs for themselves. They then dance with them. Not a great piece of insight about the modern world. Still I am exhausted and I need to do something to get my Mojo back.

Waz

A couple of days ago I watched a great horror film called Waz, which I recorded off the TV.

It was a very atmospheric film, with cops wondering around a city at the night. The serial killer was working off an equation. The lead man seemed to be sleep walking through some massive depression.

Walking to work

On my way to work, I was just about to cross the road. On  the other side I saw a crinkly broken man walking around with oxygen.When I was in hospital last year one of the nurses told me how great the small oxygen kit was and how easy it was to  walk around with it.  I was not convinced and watching the guy slowly walk up the road, I thought I hope that isn't me in 5 years time. I walked fast, as much as I can and turned into another road.

Over the road, I saw what looked like a transvestite. Thee were wearing an old blue dress and some of the most solid high heel shoes I have seen. Of course it might have just been an old woman, whose face had been ravished by drinks and drugs. They crossed over to my side of the road just behind me, I could hear the clunk of their shoes on the ground, as I tried to whip my crippled body into a faster limp. Luckily, she turned off into the eye hospital.

Moving to Chester

I actually dreamed last night. I was viewing a new flat to live in. It was actually smaller than my current flat, but still had most of my stuff packed into it. The stairs were very small. The flat was close to a very big bus station. The flat was actually in Chester, a very middle class city. So really my dream was a nightmare.

Lost eyes on the side of the road

After work I went shopping, then a small workout in the gym. I went to the pub before the bus. I came out of the pub. There was a pair of gold rimmed glasses lying on the road. I know I should have picked them up, but they looked so symbolic and sad.