fflo: (wm p makin' smoke rings)
[personal profile] fflo
What am I doing up? Well, it ain't the time change, I'll say that much.

Most of ya'll are sleeping right now. This right now, not that right now.

One reason I don't like to stay up too late any more is that I love staying up too late, and when I stay up too late I remember how much I love staying up too late & then I want to stay up too late too often. It's addictive. Fuzzy-head weariness around the brain inside the skull, feeling surreal; second winds, and thirds, and more if you keep it going; that timeless feeling when it's just dark and still, just like it's been dark and still for a long, unmeasured time, and it's still not tomorrow yet.

I stayed up late as a child so's to delay any dying in my sleep.

I stayed up late as a teenager, arguably cuz that was the only time I got real free space just to be.

I stayed up late in college, cuz that's what college is for.

I stayed up late in my 20's cuz I could, most of the time.

magic, in the middle of the night

oh, i know it's not that late right now, but it's a decently indecent hour for a school night

i got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle
as i go ridin' merrily along
and they sing 'oh, ain't you glad you're single?'
and that song ain't so very far from wrong

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 05:39 am (UTC)
paperkingdoms: (shelley in bed // SGR by John Allison)
From: [personal profile] paperkingdoms
I am making myself stop, now, a the end of a disc of Buffy, and head to bed, because otherwise it'll be 3 am and I'll still have to be up on campus in the morning.

I started your hat tonight. All the increases are done, but it doesn't look hat-shaped yet.

What can I say? It's getting late, the stars are out. Once the sun sets, I tend to embrace whatever wild spirits are running around in the darkness, talking away to each other. I leave the logic of streets and pavement and cars and tall buildings behind and buy into the old magics that they're whispering about. Sometimes those little mysteries and bits of wisdom stick to the bones of my head and I carry them right out into the sunlight again.
[Charles DeLint, Someplace to be Flying]

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 07:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wednes.livejournal.com
As you may know, I'm a big stayer-up-later myself. I rarely go to bed before 4am unless I have some kind of thing in the early morning.

I do the bulk of my writing late and night, and unfortunaely the bulk of my snacking as well. But I know what you mean, night time is the best!

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 02:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fflo.livejournal.com
thank you for that excerpt! i love it. stick to the bones of my head is so much what i was feeling in the noggin last night.

"increases"??

hey, i'll brag to you, too: i just got right all 8 of the problems the young Terrence Tao got (at age 7) when demonstrating his mathiness. (see interactive graphic pop-up window in this story, just sent around by one of our mathematicians: "Journeys to the Distant Fields of Prime" )

i just found out that i should be calling this icon "nerd," not "dork". apparently i'm quite a nerd, a little bit dorky, and not much of a geek.

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 03:24 pm (UTC)

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 04:09 pm (UTC)
paperkingdoms: (math romantic // DS by R Stevens)
From: [personal profile] paperkingdoms
You're quite welcome. :^)

My hats generally start from the top down, and so start as just little bitty circles, and you add stitches [increase] as you work around and around until it's wide enough to be a hat. But it generally looks sort of like a floppy circle at that point.

He totally floors me. Just... so close in age, and so far in ability / accomplishments. I screwed up the clock one, because I read it as minute hand.

::smiles::

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 04:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fflo.livejournal.com
I almost fell for the (somehow intuitive) minute hand myself. ha!

Smilka (the mathematician) introduced the article with "Finally, something in the regular press about a noncontroversial Fields medalist."

Date: Mar. 13th, 2007 05:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peteralway.livejournal.com
Seein's how I teach from 2:00 to 8:30, I'm quite the night-owl now. And yet the best collaboarative music happens when it's late, even by my standards--2:00-4:00 AM.

Date: Mar. 14th, 2007 12:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vjsmom.livejournal.com
What an interesting man. Thanks for the link.

Date: Mar. 14th, 2007 01:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sprig5.livejournal.com
I'll be pushing it if I stay up til 10 tonight, because I'll get up at 6 or 6:30 am. But I'm tempted to read the new NYer or watch the copy of Hoop Dreams I got from the library.

Date: Mar. 14th, 2007 01:34 am (UTC)
paperkingdoms: (Default)
From: [personal profile] paperkingdoms
::nods:: That is true. He's oft been the topic of discussion in the grad offices of late; he's a little too close to our ages for it all to be admiration... there's definitely a "damn. he's only how many years older than us?" under current. But it's nice to see a focus on the not crazy. ;^)

Date: Mar. 14th, 2007 02:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fflo.livejournal.com
well, you know what they say: math is a young man[sic]'s game [sic]
fflo: (Default)
fflo

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