"Lady Madonna"

My blog on life, the universe and everything ;-)
Now, both the person with the ball and the observer are moving, but because they are traveling with the same velocity, they are not moving relative to one another—they are in the same frame of reference. Both see the ball going straight up and down.
Sometimes I jokingly surmise that you can summarize time dilation with the old saying “The faster I go, the 'behinder' I get!” And I don’t even need to approach light speed to do it! ;-)
From Pythagorean triangles, my thoughts turned to the exquisite fractal symmetry and infinite diversity of snowflakes. I walked home that night through a world blanketed in white. One of my favorite Robert Frost poems is “Good Hours”, in which he writes:
That is what I felt again last night. Playful and childlike, adventuresome and inquisitive as seldom before, yet with a wistful touch because I knew the moment would pass all too quickly. I pray that it will always live in me, so I can return to it in my mind when I need peace. That thought took me back to the Heart song “Dog and Butterfly”, which is one of my perennial favorites:
The song came out when I was 15, and it is one of the many that have put down roots in my heart.
I wish everyone could have times like I had that night. How fitting that I had just been swimming, and afterwards experienced an entire evening of “flow” like never before, exploring ideas and seeing connections that had never occurred to me until then. That evening was a great gift from the Lord!
Till next time!
- Renee
-------------------------------
Notes:
1. Jürgen Neffe, Einstein: Eine Biographie (German)
2. Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
3. Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars
4. See online article by: J.J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson
5. “In a right angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.” I don’t even pretend to understand geometry, but I found the connection between Pythagoras and Einstein very interesting.
6. If you are traveling at speed, your time slows down from the perspective of a stationary outside observer as you approach the speed of light. From your perspective, his time speeds up. However, if you both are traveling at the same speed, you’re in the same frame of reference and your times are synchronized.
Hi, everyone!
I haven’t written in some months, so I thought I’d make this one something special to go with the season, as well as taking a look back upon what has happened since I last wrote.
In August, our summer season at work drew to a close and we all breathed a sigh of relief that the rush was over for this year.
In September, my brother came to visit me and we took a trip to Lindau, Zurich, and Vienna, as well as seeing some things around Munich. That was really wonderful! I’ll post some of the pictures within the week (I promise! ;-) on my Webshots page at http://community.webshots.com/user/aslan16.
From the middle to the end of October I had my last 2 weeks of vacation for myself, and I spent the time visiting museums and doing other things I don’t otherwise get to do here in Munich, besides taking care of some personal matters. One of the big highlights was the yearly Mineral Fair in Munich (see http://www.mineralientage.de/). I love paleontology, and I got several good fossils and lovely minerals there. The only small disappointment was that many of the sellers did not actually know what they were selling, so I still have to find out exactly which species of trilobite, ammonite and shark tooth fossils I bought. They are lovely, though! I will add some pictures later.
The thing I enjoy most about November is when the Christmas Markets begin. Those who aren’t familiar with the custom can find out more at The Christmas Archives (http://www.christmasarchives.com/christmas-markets.htm). The markets start the last week of November, just after the American Thanksgiving Day, though of course they don’t celebrate that here, and run through Christmas Eve. (While there are a few restaurants in Munich that offer Thanksgiving and/or Christmas Dinners, they are usually quite expensive. In case you’re interested anyway, here’s a list for Christmas Dinner: http://www.toytownmunich.com/archive/christmas_dinners.html) There’s a small Christmas Market not far from where I live, and I usually drop by in the evenings after work. There are little wooden stalls where people sell all sorts of food, decorations, gifts, and of course that great German specialty, Gluehwein (For recipes, see: http://www.altfrankfurt.com/Weihnachten/).
I believe this is the first December in several years that Munich has had snow just before Christmas! Usually it may snow in November, but then we get the infamous “Christmas Thaw” that lasts until New Year’s Day or longer. Then after Epiphany (January 6th), the really nasty weather arrives and lasts through the end of February or the beginning of March. Last year we had a snow storm on March 12th, but after the 13th spring suddenly arrived!
Anyway, that brings me up to now. I have a week’s vacation before Christmas, so I’m using the time to catch up on my blogging and other stuff. I also plan to see the Chronicles of Narnia this week, so I can review it on my website. I’m looking forward to enjoying Christmas Dinner and New Year’s Eve with some close friends, and of course our Christmas service at church.
I wish everyone very happy holidays and a wonderful New Year!
Ciao,
Renée