blank stares (at myself)

it feels like a long time since i've done any math. moving and other errands have taken all my recent attention. when i sit down and try to think about mathematics, my mind goes blank.

so i've decided that i should read more mathematics and specifically, new stuff. i need to expose myself to new ideas, that is, new input. if a mathematician is indeed a machine which converts coffee into theorems, then i say that coffee is only the fuel.

sometimes we machines need a tune-up or an upgrade. perhaps a new idea is like an oil change!

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as for what i will read, i haven't committed to anything yet.

the most obvious choices are topics relevant to my thesis, but lately i've felt ambivalent about that stuff:

1. either my work seems boring and the ideas not worth pursuing, even those ideas which are related to other areas,
   
2. the related ideas are too hard (for the moment) and the problems technical and intractable.
   

so it's tempting to learn something completely new, though that is always problematic. put one way, once you learn how to walk, you're loathe to bother spending time crawling just so that you can learn to walk in another manner ..

.. but perhaps i'll get over that hurdle of laziness.

at any rate, the moving isn't done yet. i still have many affairs to sort, and no time available to be a mathematician. there's a lot of complaining time left before i have my chance to do something about it ..