Well, I’m back.
It’s been a month since my last confession post on this blog, and I’ve had good reason. Sorry to those of you (yes, you two, right there…) who like reading my posts, and sorry to the others if a month of silence was not long enough (maybe I’ll try harder next time).
What was my reason? I was off-planet for a while. I went Walkabout. Needed to clear my head, get away from the emails, memos, blogs, telephones, people… and all the regular stuff I deal with everyday and find some time and space to rummage around in my head and tidy up a bit. Get my head together. It was also an insane semester, both workwise and otherwise, as you might have guessed from my posts during that period, and it will be followed by an even more insane one (if I’m not careful) and so I needed to find some calm before plunging back into it all.
So I decided to switch off my phones, stop (mostly) checking my email, tell the post office to hold all my mail, cancel Christmas and New Year’s, pack my bags, put on some sensible shoes, and tell everyone “see you in a month”. I told absolutely no-one where I was going, and I just disappeared. Went on a walkabout, I like to say. Liberating.
I also like to say I was “off-planet”. What do I mean? In a sense, it’s not inappropriate, as I’ll explain to you in several later posts, but my playful reference is to my days of reading comic books. Remember (those of you who read them) when in some issue of your favourite title there’d be some challenge that the other superhero (or heroes) had to deal with, which could have been dealt with more easily (perhaps) if they had help from [name here] who strangely was not around for that entire issue? The lame excuse the writers would offer, would be that [name here] was off the planet. Elsewhere. Perhaps helping the noble Thangarians deal with a terrible epidemic of bird flu, or some other such thing. This would would then allow our remaining heroes to show that they can get by just fine without the help of [name here]…. they would deal with the challenge in hand admirably, and everybody would be fine when [name here] returned.
So I see that Cosmic Variance has been just fine without me (the other superheroes did a great job!), and I imagine that all is well with the home planet, and I needn’t have worried so much all the time I was away. Oh, waitaminute….I didn’t worry (much).
So anyway, I was off-planet. It was nice…. No….it was grrrrrreat!
(Before you all write in and declare that I’ve confirmed that being in academia is a cushy job since I can just take a month off to go walkabout like Caine in some bad 70’s TV show….don’t click “Submit” yet. I got a lot of work done. More later.)
So you’re wondering two things, aren’t you?
(1) Where did he go walkabout? Where is “off-planet”?
(2) What profound thing did he learn about himself while walking about?
Ok, huddle up….
I’ll tell you the answer to (1) upon my return, as I’m just about to fully leave my place of “solitude”. (Feel free to make a stab at guessing, etc…. I can’t afford to give any prizes though.)
And (2)? Well, as all Walkabouters know, it is inevitable that you must grow a beard while on the travels (true for all genders….no, really….) … freedom from excessive grooming is important, and it adds to your feeling of being “on the road”. Actually, I tend to wear my hair very very short, and it has been a very long time since I’ve grown a full beard (perpetual stubble does not count). Well, about half way through the trip, I had a good look in the mirror at this thing thickly covering my face (which will be gone within 24 hours of me returning by the way; don’t want to look like a professor around campus now, do I?) and saw, to my surprise… it’s flecked with grey! I’m not talking Saruman or Gandalf standards here… but, there they are. It’s sort of funny, in retrospect, but I’ve not previously been presented with such sudden physical evidence of having gotten significantly older in over a decade or more.
Ok… this is not really a profound realisation since: (a) “It’s just so shallow”….yeah, yeah, yeah, and (b) Everybody who really knows me is aware that I’m as nutty as a fruitcake and have been a stubborn old man pretty much since birth, so it’s no big deal.
So there you have it. Triviality returns. Time to blow the dust off the scroll bar!
-cvj
January 5th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Welcome back from [wild stab] the Caribbean, oh Grizzled One.
January 5th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I’m going to guess Mexico. Since the question “Where is Clifford?” came up sooner or later in many of the comment lines here, you can safely assume that you were missed.
January 5th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Anyone who has ever seen Crocodile Dundee would guess you were in Australia. Given USC’s Australian connection, the relative ease of flying to Sydney or Melbourne from LAX, and that it is now summer in the Antipodes makes this a slamdunk.
January 5th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Hey Clifford,
My guess is you’ve been taking part in a reality tv show yet to be broadcast
Welcome back!
January 5th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
My friend in the police says that you are officially banned from Samui, Chiangmai, and Phuket.
But reports from the Palace say the Princess has forgiven you for the Tuk Tuk/Crocodile incident and will take you back.
(Your flute was found under Nong Mai’s bed, in case you were wondering.)
January 5th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Southern Spain?
January 5th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Clifford! Welcome back to CV! I would count myself among the ones who enjoy your posts, so suffice to say you were sorely missed. Of course, I do take pleasure and learn from the other CV postings, but your particular posts hit home for me in many ways. Your descriptions of university life in SoCal, for example, provide much reminiscing for me. Triviality? Scroll bar? Bah!
As for the sudden and surprising evidence of graying, I can certainly commiserate because a salon mishap recently revealed the extent of my own sprinklings of gray.
Anyway, I will take a stab at your current location — is it your “fortress of solitude” in Durham, England, perhaps?
January 5th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Anyway, I will take a stab at your current location — is it your “fortress of solitude” in Durham, England, perhaps?
Athena, what are you suggesting about Durham?!? We are perfectly well-groomed here!
Welcome back, cvj
January 5th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
seoul searching?
January 5th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Walkabout in Australia maybe.:)
Aborigines have a different take on life and soul searching is one of them. Maybe Cliffords forty days and forty night in the desert? A entrainment in the use f musical instruments? Like Tibet bells or some kind of thing.
Nothing strange about this. While it might called vacationing, or just taking time out, some of us see this in a greater metaphysical sense. Okay, a little out there, but shifting one’s tonal is always good
January 5th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Welcome back. I am going to guess the California desert. Not far geographically but in reality a million miles away.
Elliot
January 5th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Dude, how was Vegas????
January 5th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
The Milford Track, New Zealand?
January 5th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
erc, I suppose that means my guess was wrong, then. Darn! Just following a lead from a previous post that I recalled — I have an amazing memory for the trivial. : )
January 5th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Um, I should add, not that I think Durham is trivial, rather, I was referring in jest to the last line in Clifford’s post for today.
January 5th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Clifford,
I assume you were wandering around in the Landscape
Looking forward to your posts …
January 5th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
This is my guess
They have a hotel with internet connection
Some more pics
Perhaps Clifford likes this place so much now that he will organise a string theory conference there
January 5th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Given the opening line of the post, I’m guessing the Grey Havens. Cirdan the Shipwright wouldn’t give you passage, eh?
January 5th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
(Somewhere…..waiting for the next leg of my tranport home…..remarkably there is a wireless connection…)
Athena, erc :- can you really be sure that I was not in Durham? I have a “stealth” mode, you know.
Janet, you’re good! I did not think that anyone else would get that first line’s reference. It is one of my favourites of the whole set of books, and I’ve been known to burst into tears on encountering it after yet another re-read of the books.
Plato, David, Ick of the East, Joe, Plato, Amara : – Interesting. But I swear the police have me mixed up with that famous actor who was visiting there around the same time. (Psssst! They didn’t find a trumpet under the bed as well did they?)
Wolfgang: I tried to explore the landscape, and even bring back some pics to show everyone…..but large parts of it sort of kept shimmering and disappearing…. apparently they were mirages….. I wonder if its all like that?
Paul: Hmmmm…..I never got the call from the producers about that. But you know that can’t be right as I’d be voted off the island (out of the house….. whatever) within a few days. I wouldn’t last a month.
Levi, Dissident, bittergraduatestudent :- nice choices.
Count, Sean, Elliot :- also interesting……
Everyone: Thanks for welcoming me back!
-cvj
January 5th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Welcome back cvj…however I am a bit perturbed that you think it necessary to assure us that you got a lot of work done…a one-month vacation is not considered particularly sinful or even unusual in civilized parts of the world, and obviously you earned it….also, “Kung Fu” was far indeed from being a bad TV show! Compare it with the stupid nonsense on TV today, for instance…..
January 5th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Welcome back Clifford, you were missed (my high school English teacher insisted I use the passive tense whenever appropriate…)
January 6th, 2006 at 5:27 am
Hmm, let me guess, it wouldn’t have been Taiwan by any chance? Actually I’m pretty sure it was. And how might I know this? Well, for a couple of days I had the honor of sharing an office with the man himself in the physics dept of National Taiwan University… Little did he know that he was cohabiting with a CV reader and fan…
I didn’t say anything at the time, since I sort of had the impression that he was there to get away from it all (why else would anyone be spending the xmas-new year period in Taiwan – unless they had local connections as in my case). So I’ll take this opportunity to say, belatedly: Hi Clifford!
(And yes, i can confirm that he was sporting a beard; didn’t notice any gray though…)
January 6th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Welcome back! There’s a speaking invitation for a women in physics conference awaiting you in your inbox. (To talk about your research, not women in physics). I thought I might try this route as I’ve been told that you read your blog.
While I’m at it, some others might be interested to know about our conference, so here’s the link: http://physics.usc.edu/~wiphys/conference.html
January 6th, 2006 at 11:51 am
You say walkabout, I think…Jenny Agutter. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be back so soon if she had been your discovery.
My dad grew a beard while he was in the South Pacific (WW II-related stuff.) Said it came out straggly and every color of the rainbow. Made him a lifelong devotee of the electric shaver.
January 6th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Bugger…. those CV readers are everywhere. In fact, I guessed you were a CV reader since when I borrowed your computer terminal that time to send a printout of a paper from hep-th, I accidentally noticed that the URL for CV was among the recent pages visited in your browser. I decided not to say anything.
Well, pleased to meet you, David! Thanks for not blowing my cover when I was fully “in hiding” as it were.
-cvj
January 6th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
[...] For my walkabout, I went Back To The Future. [...]
January 9th, 2006 at 1:31 am
[...] Why am I telling you this? It’s just because I thought of it this afternoon while I got ready for the new semester starting tomorrow. I was in the middle of a haircut, which involves two mirrors, lots of newspaper on the floor, and a cetain amount of spatial perception and dexterity to get everything right. (Yes, I cut my own hair, what’s the big deal?….. Oh, maybe that’s why he’s single….again). I’d left my hair to grow long (for me) over the last walkabout month, and a serious beard has also appeared. Had to get cleaned up as I could not really turn up on campus looking all shaggy like I’m still on a camping trip. [...]
January 10th, 2006 at 10:36 am
[...] So to my surprise yesterday, when I went to take the bus home, a completely new bus design pulled up! It seems that while I was on walkabout, for a month, the MTA made some further improvements. [...]
January 11th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
[...] I really love the cities I’ve visited in Taiwan on my walkabout. I’m particularly excited to see how Taipei has been transformed in so short a time by its wonderful new subway system, and I hope a similar transformation will happen here in LA, once the projects that have been put into motion come to fruition…If they do it all properly. [...]
January 16th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
[...] When I dream about food, a likely place to feature is Taiwan, where I was on my walkabout, as described earlier. One of the things I love about the place is the remarkable variety of high quality and delicious food which is available everywhere, and at a wide range of times of the day. I’ll focus on smaller places for now…. street food and small places selling noodles and dumplings. A typical street-food scene is something like this: [...]
January 21st, 2006 at 9:57 pm
[...] Well it is a bit late, but I’ve started the task of rampant pruning and other Winter tasks in the garden. This is mostly hedges, various shrubs, a large bougainvillea bush, a couple of fig trees and roses. Then endless organic trash -leaves, berries, citrus detritus, stuff from palm trees blown off in the recent storms, more leaves- needs to be swept up. Over the time I was on Walkabout, it seems that the skunks have battered two huge holes in the back fence, and there are signs of digging everywhere. I will have to rejoin the battle with them, starting first with repairing these holes…. This whole series of things will run over at least two days. [...]
January 24th, 2006 at 3:47 am
[...] So you’ve got the idea by now (if you’ve been reading about my Walkabout) that Taiwan is wonderful for food. Taipei is said to be the most important city on the world map of Chinese cuisine for the sheer quality, quantity and variety. That may well be true enough….. [...]
February 2nd, 2006 at 11:42 pm
[...] Just when I came to the Empire State building I stopped and asked if anyone knew which was the world’s tallest building (by three of the four measures that count…so no silly communication structures…..ok Toronto?)… Actually, it did not take long to get the correct answer……after all, we are a major Pacific Rim city, and USC has a large number of asian students….. and I learned from a conversation with our President the other day that USC is one of the main US destinations for students from Taiwan. So yes. The answer was Taipei 101, which is in Taipei. I then realised that precisely one month before that very day – December 31st – I was still on my Walkabout (see also here) and I was at the top of that very building! I mentioned this to them. So it was appropriate to modify the example we were discussing to use Taipei 101 instead of the Empire State Building. [...]
February 26th, 2006 at 12:19 am
[...] Saturday night, and I’m doing a bit of blogging after clearing weeds in the garden. Shouldn’t I be getting ready to go out on the town and live it up a bit? Perhaps. I’ll see how I feel in an hour or so. Let me tell you a bit more about my Taiwan wanderings. I’m cheating a bit by borrowing (heavily edited and abridged!) extracts from one of the other blogs I keep…this one being a real diary that lives on my laptop, which I started while on Walkabout as a means of clearing my head (the point of the trip), by essentially talking to myself. [...]
December 15th, 2006 at 4:15 am
[...] Mostly, I just want to disappear for a while. Leave the planet for a bit and go walkabout, like I did last year’s holiday season. That might happen, but I have to be partly available for a little while fror a number of duties. Either way, I need to get out of the old mode, and into the more contemplative one. In order to begin the resetting, I decided to hide away from campus entirely and in the afternoon visit one of my other offices… the beach. [...]