Our good friend Oller, K's godfather, puts a lot of thought into his gifts. He once gave me a book of short stories by Haruki Murakami in German because I lived in Japan. He also once scored me Munich opera tickets because my grandmother was an opera singer, although I was 9 months pregnant at the time so I opted out - it was Wagner and that's a lot of sitting.And recently he gave me an Alpha Centauri DVD produced by the Bayerischer Rundfunk, a series of astrophysics lectures from Prof. Dr. Harald Lesch.
I adore astrophysics, being a closet astrophysicist myself. Since I was 13 I've been fascinated with black holes, quasars and warped space time. And Dr. Lesch has a casual, humorous speaking style that really brings these topics to life for the layman.
As Ralf and I watch the lectures our conversation goes something like this:
Ralf: That's the best description of the Planck Scale I've ever heard.
Me: Really? How come?
Ralf: Well, he's the first person who explained that the Planck Scale is where the inability to measure anything smaller intersects the event horizon, where nothing is emited.
Pause.
Me: I dunno, that's just a fancy way of saying it's the smallest we can measure.
Pause.
Ralf: Still cool, though.
Me: I guess.
Then, when Prof. Dr. Lesch explains Relativity, I get up in arms.
Me: How old is this video?? They've already proven that information can travel faster than light speed with those particles that are in two places at once.
Ralf: Don't be such an astrophysics snob.
Me: I'm so not! I'm totally down with the people on astrophysics. In fact, I would have been a great astrophysicist.
Ralf: You?
Me: Duh. I'm really good at math.
Ralf: You?
Me: Sure. I can do differential calcs in my sleep.
Ralf: But you suck at finance.
Me (with dignity): That's completely different.
Actually, maybe G is for Geek.
I didn't understand any of this. :)
ReplyDelete"I don't know anyone who considers the taste of the recipient as much as he does." -- I'm with Kristina. Clueless. I suppose he'd give me a Rachel Ray cookbook.
ReplyDeleteI was into Quantum physics during high school. Read 'A Brief History In Time'. But have since lost interest.
ReplyDeleteBTW, it's Jen.
Very funny! And you're right finance and calculus are way different!
ReplyDeleteAstrophysics scares me. black holes, infinity -- way too scary to consider that my world is less than stable. An admitted coward, I stick with things I can get my mind around.
ReplyDeleteYou and Elijah could have quite the conversation...he was asking about black holes today.
ReplyDeleteHe could also hang out with my boys. They love to talk all things science. The oldest even asked for a subscription to a couple science journals.
ReplyDeleteG is definitely for Geek. I only wish we could have those conversations. Instead of say, regarding our customers
ReplyDeleteM:so-in-so stopped by today. He was so drunk I thought he'd fall down.
S: Oh, like that one time what's-his-face fell and busted his nose?
Ya, deep thoughts.