See You Next Wednesday
Simplex.
The series of simplex polytopes defined by a singularity (zero dimensions) and the repeated process of adding a vertex one unit distance from all the exisiting vertices in the positive direction of a dimension orthogonal to all the existing dimensions has vertex co-ordinate n-tuples {…, [2(n-1)(n-2)]-½, [2n(n-1)]-½, [(n+1)/2n]-½, 0, 0, …}.
Dyson Sphere.
With the objectives: (1) to increase the surface area available for population, and (2) to collect all the radiant solar energy; a spherical surface is constructed around the Sun from the material of the solar system.
The primary objective requires the surface to be habitable. The habitable zone of the Sun is at radius from 75,000 Mm (½ AU) to 450,000 Mm (3 AU) – a radius of 150,000 Mm (1 AU) would be ideal. These dimensions give a surface area of in the range 70 billion Mm2 (140 million Earths) to 2500 billion Mm2 (5000 million Earths) – ideally 280 billion Mm2 (550 million Earths). The thickness of the sphere depends on the radius chosen and the volume of material available.
The Sun has a mass of nearly 2000 billion trillion Gg (333,000 Earths). The rest of the solar system is about 1.4‰ of the Sun’s mass, giving 2.75 billion trillion Gg (466 Earths) of material for construction. Saturn is the least dense planetary object in the solar system with a density of 0.0007 Gg/m3. This density of material would give a range of thicknesses from 56.8 metres at ½ AU to 1.6 metres at 3 AU – 14.2 metres at 1 AU. This density of Earth is 0.0055 Gg/m3 which would give a range of thicknesses from 7.2 metres at ½ AU to 0.2 metres at 3 AU – 1.8 metres at 1 AU.
Tax Time.
I directed and performed a play, Sunday Brunch. It's an improvised theatre format I created at Impro ACT. The first time it was performed was 27 September last year, at the end of an Impro ACT Creators' Den course. The second time was 18 June this year at Improvention, the annual international festival of improvised theatre held in Canberra. People I don't know paid money to watch it in a theatre. I directed but didn't perform in that show. Most recently Sunday Brunch was on Monday 1 September, where I did perform again. It is on a double bill with Schnitz and Giggles on the first and third Mondays of September and October at Smith's Alternative. I will be out of town for the next show because my brother is turning fifty, but I'll be back again in October. So that is a thing.
I am procrastinating; actually doing these things didn't cause me to write about them at the time. But I had a plan to do my tax today and instead I completed a video game, LEGO® Marvel™ Super Heroes (15 story levels, 11 hub missions, 250 gold bricks, 150 mini kits, 50 Stan Lee rescues, 11 Deadpool bricks, 153 characters unlocked, 40 vehicles unlocked, and 45 achievements). Sitting in front of my computer all day made me think I could post an entry to my weblog instead of doing my tax. So that is now a thing, too.
44 days later.
I do not have a mobile device so I can write stuff up when I am not at home, yet.
Remarkable things I have failed to report since 8 June include:
Henry V,
The Factory, In Canberra Tonight:
Sharing, more Theatresports,
The Home Front, and Improvention, including
Sunday Brunch; and five birthdays of kith including James's fortieth. Happy fortieth birthday, James!
(Not only have I failed to report on those events, I'm failing to provide cyberspace links to other reports of those events because if I followed them all up then this would not get written either.)
Stuff.
I've been doing a bunch of stuff like
Phenomenon and
Theatresports, just to name the things that take more than a day (and work). But I don't get to write it up here because, well, I'm busy doing stuff. I shall get a mobile device so I can write stuff up when I'm not at home.
Coincidence?
Separate unsolicited enquiries about life insurance, disability insurance, accidental injury insurance; what is the universe (or, at least, the commercial financial universe) trying to tell me?*
Epistemology.
Last Tuesday someone said I should write a book. Sometimes, I imagine writing a book. It's not like when I imagine standing on the Moon. I have no idea what it would take for me to stand on the Moon, so I don't know it won't happen. I have some idea what it would take to write a book. In decreasing order of magnitude: I know how people write books, I know people who have written whole books, I have friends who have written legitimate literature which was professionally published, I have worked in the publishing industry (in a previous century). When I imagine writing a book I know it won't happen. As far as I can tell, it's more likely I will stand on the Moon.
*
Tell me: nothing. Sell me: insurance.
St Albans
I went to another folk festival last weekend, which was nice.
National Folk Festival 2014
I concluded my Indy
HeroClix Easter Pentathlon is not, possibly never, going to happen and went to the National Folk Festival instead of rearranging my dolls again. There I saw many artists, none of them was bad and several were excellent (Dylan Hekimian, The Little Stevies, No Hausfrau, Sparrow-Folk). I was disappointed there was a comma missing in Silkweed's blurb, "Voice, cello, violin keyboard, flute and accordion...", and if that was the worst thing to happen then it was a pretty good festival. This is what I watched, mostly:
Also, various other artists appearing in:
- Slam Poetry vs Bush Poetry
- Circus Performers vs Morris Dancers
- Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit!
- The Fabulous Corricks' Travelling Show
As well as a dozen blackboard acts whose names elude me; well done, everybody, that was nice.
Fiona Jopp’s terpsichorean hair.
Last night I watched Sydney Dance Company perform
Interplay. There were three pieces to the program. The first piece was called
2 in D Minor. The music was extraordinary; it was mostly Bach violin solos being played live on stage. The dancing was great, because Sydney Dance Company are great dancers, but it did not complement the music. It was like line dancing to ska. Fortunately it featured Fiona Jopp’s terpsichorean hair, which was my favourite part of the whole evening. Finally the choreography seemed to come to terms with the tempo in the last set - and then one of the speakers crackled and died. Bravo violinist, Veronique Serret! This is not the first show to be affected by the sound system at the Canberra Theatre.
The second piece was called
Raw Models. This featured industrial electronic music; harsh lighting, including strobe effects and some kind of anti-spotlighting arrangement which managed to illuminate only the dancers' outstretched limbs; black costumes all round; and contrasting stationary poses with quick movement. Everybody got to lie down for a spell during this piece. The dead speaker had been resurrected as (the sound of) an aquarium bubbler which made me think the orthogonal black curtains outlining the stage represented a mostly empty aquarium, and the dancers were various arthropods trying to make a go of it. I liked it.
The third piece was called
L'Chaim! [noun (Hebrew) a toast drunk to a person's well-being]. The dancers were all wearing different colours, which was nice after the dark brown and black of the first two pieces. That was the best bit. The rest of the piece was a dance routine (i.e. an exercise routine) with a microphone handed around for the ensemble to respond to an actor asking questions from the audience. That was all, nothing happened. There were a couple of breaks in the routine where the ensemble apparently loitered on stage, but really they had been paired up (by colour) and were mirroring each other's movements. Still nothing happened. There was some talk about the dancer's identity being suppressed by prescribed movement but it didn't lead anywhere. Yet still nothing happen. At the end the actor said he had always wanted to do a folk dance so they called him up to the stage and coaxed him into joining them in a (Hebrew) folk dance. It wasn't worth the wait.
Rainy but not raining.
It's not raining but the clouds extend to the horizon in all directions. It is well after noon and there are beads of water on the grass. When the wind gusts drops of water fall from the trees, not quite from the sky, rainy but not raining.
Today I am ill.
I have a head cold. I am staying at home. Things I could have been doing to day include: bushwalking, playing volleyball, a Sparrow-Folk gig, playing board games at Kate’s housewarming, and (most likely) celebrating Michael and Shy’s civil partnership. Instead I’m wallowing in tissues and a vague sweaty feeling, playing computer games, listening to music and trying not to think too hard. That last one is irritating, I could use this window in my calendar to do something dull, like last year’s tax, but I don’t trust myself to do it properly. However, this is an opportunity to write an entry into my weblog. I don’t need to do that properly; I’m ill so there won’t be any links, and little eloquence.
Improvised theatre has been taking up a lot of my time. The Impro ACT courses are interesting and I’m still learning things every week. I visited Sydney for a weekend intensive course with Parallelogramophonograph which was amazing and astounding; I learned something about telling stories which I understood and then successfully executed, consciously and on purpose. (I highly recommend Pgraph workshops, if you like that sort of thing.) Pgraph also presented an
Improvised French Farce at the Roxbury Hotel in Glebe, just to prove they were accomplished performers as well as excellent tutors. They were on the bill with
Full Body Contact No Love Tennis, so I got to see some Sydney people I know on stage being entertaining (hi Kate, hi Marko) with their clever friends. Back in Canberra the last two
Schnitz & Giggles shows in March have been good fun but unusually lack lustre. I’m in one more on 7 April, I hope we shall be sufficiently entertaining. Also, Megs, who taught me how to improvise, is moving to Canada indefinitely so some people gave her a send off on Saint Patrick’s Day, which was nice.
At the Canberra Theater I saw Mousetrap Productions’
A Murder is Announced which was very good, except the set was quite stretched across the large stage, creating some odd striding across the parlour at Little Paddocks, Chipping Cleghorn. Last week at Gorman House I saw Arthur Productions’
Cut Snake which was quite magnificent. Apart from theatre events I saw Sparrow-Folk support The Good Lovelies (from Canada); I have played more volleyball (where I thoroughly stood on Stewart's prescription sunglasses); played more games at Amber and Oli’s; and I saw Skyfire (on purpose) for the first time since I moved to Canberra in 2002.
This weblog entry is now done.
Confirmational Signage
I drove to Tumbarumba for
Tumbafest. I was lured by the chance to see
Sparrow-Folk again, which I did. That makes it all worthwhile.
Notes from driving in the Riverina:
1. You can't turn right onto the Hume Highway (M31) from the Snowy Mountain Highway (B72).
2. The road from the Hume Highway to Grahamstown and Adelong (on the way to Tumbarumba) is called variously Adelong Road, Grahamstown Road and Gundagai Road on the map. Only one road is signposted at the turn-off on the highway: Sylvia’s Gap Road (which passes through zero towns before it rejoins the highway ten kilometres later).
