…or maybe that’s just a false memory of a Golden Age of Blogging. Probably, come to think of it.
I’ve been back in the birth-country for about a week and a half now, and somehow in that time I’ve managed to get a bit of work done. (Mostly not research-work as much as money-for-me-work, but who am I to complain? Well, except for complaining about my general lack of M4d C0ding Skillz and general troubles with computers, but I’ve ranted about that elsewhere, I think.) Actual research-work is coming up soon.
I realise that it’s a little odd that I talk about doing so much work while I’m, you know, on vacation. (Nay, more than vacation: by the lights of my current employer, I’m not really even technically working right now, and won’t be until mid-August. At least, if I understand my contract right.) But on the one hand, I’ve got something like eight weeks of time off here, and not enough financial stability to spend all that time in serious tourism or dissipation. On the other, I firmly believe that mathematical research is a leisurely activity (if not actually a leisure activity), and being on vacation means that I can easily devote many placid hours to its pursuit. Besides, it’s my vacation and I can do what I want with it; and what I want, among other things, is to do math. So there.
Another thing I’m doing with my vacation which others might see as work, is re-attempting (and successfully, this time) Umberto Eco’s Baudolino. I wrote about it in this space long enough ago that I don’t want to bother hunting down the reference, but ended up putting it down and never picking it up again. While I think I still like Foucault’s Pendulum better, this one’s still quite charming in its way, and Eco manages to sneak, straight-faced, an awful lot of subtle jokes into the narration. Makes me wish I knew enough Italian to read the original text.