End of May Post

Before May ends, I would like to update some personal things here. First, on my other half's conditions after the surgery. So far, there seems to be no recurring nasal fluid discharges like before. Due to the internal wounds after the surgery, my other half is not allowed to carry out heavy duties in order for the internal wounds to heal, particularly there should be no excessive cough or sneeze - the places where the leaks are mended are still fragile. For prayers, she has to pray in the sitting position and not allowed to bow down for the ruku' and sujud.

The first follow-up on May 18 had the doctor checked the interior of my other half's nose. The mends were said to be intact but one part of the nasal mucosa organ (not sure what it is called) was detached from its place and fallen, for which it was reinserted manually by the doctor. The doctor also mentioned that her dura mater was thin and perhaps has caused the leak and a visible crack seen during the operation. Thus, she was advised not to lift anything that is heavy and the likes (causing further stress). There is also no visible tissue growth over the mends. Nevertheless, the healing process seems to be taking place.

Our second follow-up was today and my youngest son followed along for the first time. Again, the doctor checked the interior of my other half's nose and everything seems ok but the doctor still suggested to my other half to pray in the sitting position, for at least another two weeks. There will be another follow-up at the end of June (we were hoping that was the last). The doctor was very kind to us and he has not charged us for the follow-up consultations. As a sign of thanks, we bought him a basket of fruits from the shop downstairs. Below is the pic of the Dr. Abdul Fattah (one of the two active doctors in the country that can do such surgical procedure) with my other half.

During this trip to Ara Damansara, had the opportunity to meet Choong as he handed over his bound PhD thesis (thank you). We discuss on matters of theoretical physics near the mamak restaurant near the hotel.

Other things that happened since the surgery is that I have applied for a (part-time) job at a (local) private university. In part, I would like to remain active scientifically but the main reason is to get some extra income to help support me paying for the ever increasing expenses. I was interviewed and even did a mock teaching session during the interview. The interview was positive and I told them that I'm happy to help where I'm needed. I will start in September, God willing and will teach Mathematical Methods in Physics (on complex analysis) and Electrodynamics. 

Before this, I told myself not buy any (scientific) books until I know that I will still be active i.e. working. Once, I was given positive indication of the interview's outcome, I began ordering books to help me teach those subjects.

I even bought Bob Coecke's latest book (with S. Gogioso) just to rekindle my research interest.

Last week too, I met a friend who came back for holidays from the States. He came down all the way to Seremban to see me and his other friend. We met at Seremban Prima and discussed about academia and ideas. Here are our pics.

He also brought me some books to give to me. One is the story of Jason Padgett "Struck by Genius - How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Genius". He introduced to me this story sometime ago on social media and got me interested. Now, I can read more about it (yet to do it). Another book was David Allen's "Getting Things Done For Teens - Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World"; the intent was to give it to my youngest son who is still in college. Being an easy read (but not easy to follow) and not organized myself, I found myself going through some of the ideas in the book. Will give this later to my son. Having these gifts, I felt a little guilty not having bought him anything. 

Having rekindled my interest in science (with me teaching this coming September), I thought I should introduce quantum field theory to our group (particularly with Aqwa soon taking Part III), noting that most of them had not encountered quantum field theory before in their previous studies. So last week, I gave a talk on relativistic quantum mechanics as a start, which can be watched here or on my YouTube channel.

Not sure how this will go in the future. Hope that I have enough energy to continue to more advanced stuff. Already I'm getting a feedback that I should give details, which should be done on the board rather than on slides. This will have to wait (my tablet has problems at the moment and I don't want to spend more money at this stage). Why field theory? I felt the need to go back to this since part of my PhD study was supposed to look into this (well string theory, a 1+1d field theory) and in a certain sense, looking for completion. Quantum field theory is just hard, and at this age, I don't think I can contribute anything new (unless by a stroke of very good luck). It's more for one's own understanding (and then I can leave planet Earth in peace). Let's hope for the best (regardless).