So I’ve been involved in two or three shoots so far (I forget which) for the new series. It has been good, overall, since I’ve been pleased to help out with explanations of various physics ideas here and there where I can. I’ll be winding down on all this soon since (a) I must get back to working on other things, and (b) I will be going away from the area for a chunk of time, so there’s a bit of juggling going on, I think, to find some space and time to include some more contributions from me for various episodes. I think I’ll end up being in three of them, if I recall correctly, and have had to turn down shoots on various others for a variety of reasons. Most of the reasons are to do with scheduling, but at least one was simply because I figured I’d be the wrong (or at least, very certainly not the most right) guy for the job. There’s a move (which I like) to have more active outdoor demonstrations (hence the fairground rides I mentioned in a previous post, and the carousel pictured above) for the new season, which resulted in me getting a request to do a demo involving water-skiing.
Yes, you read it right. Water-skiing. There’d be a skilled water-skier there doing things for the demo, but somehow I was to get involved with the activity as well. My immediate reply was, of course, that if it also involved me jumping over a shark then this would be the last season of the show for sure. (Somehow they did not get the Happy Days reference — the origin of the phrase “Jump the Shark”. Oh well.) Anyway, I declined, suggesting that they use one of the other regulars who I happen to know is half mermaid (Ack! Please forgive the unfortunate fractionated piscinesque visual that pops up into your mind. I mean that they’re very skilled at water sports.)
I just agreed to do something involving brush/forest fires tomorrow. An actual one. This is all assuming the fire happens. I’ll be doing something or other alongside professional firefighters…. not sure yet, maybe just getting in the way. We shall see if it happens or not… Then there’ll later be something involving a see-saw mechanism (not the one some of you are thinking about from high energy physics… something closer to the original…)
Yes, the things I do for Science… Hurrah!
Between all of that I’ve been (among other things) working on some physics on one hand and writing about some physics for The Project on another. Sometimes these things interfere with each other, and I’ve not yet worked out if it is constructive or destructive interference. Yesterday, for example, I was in a cafe scripting a new one of The Dialogues and while working out how best to have one character explain a certain idea I began to think about the idea itself in more depth than would be needed for the story… Shortly thereafter I’d filled three pages of my notebook with research ideas that may more may not turn out to be utterly without merit when I try to unpack them later…
Well, back to the grindstone…
-cvj
