It has been a while since I have blogged. Initially I wanted to see some changes first and get a few things out of the way before blogging. I don't think I can do so anytime soon and hence this post. Something also prompted me to do this post. I have been shying away from the public eye a bit and only do social media posts sparingly. No, I'm not sulking but I wanted to do things that I really want and that could have impacted my life better. I just want to be clear that it is not in my interest to take vengeful or sulking positions but I do want to be free from being constantly reminded of whatever past I had. As usual, I am already making plans of what I intend to do for my future. In some way, it also meant going through some difficult period to see some real changes and the age factor is a contributing factor.
Sometime ago I posted somewhere that reading is really like a travelling adventure, peering into the minds of others. As one travels, one occasionally stops, observing and taking notes of what is around. Thus reading to me is an involved thing. Perhaps this is why I tend to be slower in reading things but much more relevant is now I tend to tire easily given my age and physical ailments. Excuses aside, what have I been doing thus far? Well, I had a PhD thesis for me to examine and as I've said, I do look up carefully references (and beyond) to see the lines of thought culminating to the study and I compare this to what I have already known. Alhamdulillah, I have finished the task with the student passing her viva on the 14th September (congratulations!).
Currently, I'm reading my own student's draft of PhD thesis. Like always, I do tend to be critical wherever possible and to my student's horror, will always be slow. Either that or I simply gloss over. Certainly the latter is not preferable. Again, I do look up references and for one particular sentence and paragraph, I took up an excursion of reading up references for the Higgs phase in superconductivity (as it was mentioned in the thesis), not just on the surface but figuring what is precisely the group that was spontaneously broken in the case of superconductor. It also led me to read up something on colour superconductivity. All in all, it took me three to four days dwelling on that single paragraph. This might not be in the favour of the student but it certainly allowed me to do careful editing. I'm still not done with this yet but I guess I better speed up for the student's sake.
Besides this, I have my own reading to do. This upcoming semester, I will be teaching Statistical Mechanics and Mathematical Methods in Physics again. For the former, I have decided to take the easier reference book of Bowley and Sanchez called "Introductory Statistical Mechanics" instead of exploring new books. This was the easiest book I could find. A review of the book can be seen here; it seems to recommend the dual usage of Kittel and Kroemer with the reviewed book. So, I think I will have to dig up this book from my collection. Besides reading for teaching materials, I have revisited the following three books, which I had quite early in my collection for various intents:
