Chasing Pythagoras

So here I am, smack dab in the middle of a nine-week mandatory hiatus from work, after a medium-grueling six-week final crunch on Speed Racer. I'm pretty happy with our work on the film, even though I probably would still never pay to see the actual movie in the theater. That's kind of a code I've developed over these last 8 years in this industry- if there's no company screening, it's Netflix or bust, I'm afraid. I suppose after working on 17 different feature films, it kind of loses its flair a bit. Oh well. Like I always tell Sadie- "It's one of those GOOD problems."

So yeah, nine weeks. I've got some time to kill. Of course, being me, I can't just sit and stare at the ceiling- I have to be occupied with work or a major project pretty much all of the time to stay sane, so I've been doing exactly that. What have I been up to then? Well, beyond a MOUNTAIN of house organization and maintenance... quite a lot actually. Let me elaborate.

Over the past few months I've, in my own way, gone back to school. I kind of invented my own grad school curriculum that I lovingly call "NVU". This past January, I came to the conclusion that I spent far too much money in 2007 on Amazon books (most of which I didn't read), so I decided to check out what the local San Francisco Public Library had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised at the great selection of books and online resources, with the ability to link it all together via their website. Best of all... it's all FREE! On one of my first visits to the new Mission Bay branch, I stumbled upon the Great Courses series, which are extremely high quality and in-depth audio classes on widely varying subjects. I decided to get my feet wet with a little Intro to Greek Philosophy, and it immediately just blew my mind wide open.

I couldn't believe for the last 29 years I'd been largely unaware of a whole universe of such interesting characters, like Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle... most of which are more or less the staple philosophical figures of history, science, and mathematics. But I'd neverstudied any of them in depth, beyond perhaps Plato's Cave metaphor or the Pythagorean theorem from my loathed 9th grade Geometry class. Nor did I ever learn about them in the context of their ancient time period, and how greatly they've influenced virtually all of Western thought- and if not, were at least cursed at by subsequent philosophers for being so foolish. Regardless, it's undeniable that many of the early philosophies, especially those of Plato and Aristotle, still hold pertinence in our lives today- concepts that were defined over 2300 years ago, are still talked about and studied heavily in academia and remain extremely important to almost every aspect of math and science, and beyond.

I quickly blazed through those 24 amazing lectures and ran immediately back to the library for more. I have since completed classes on Existentialism and The History of Science from Antiquity to 1700 (fascinating). I am currently in the middle of four additional classes- The History of Science 1700 to 1900, Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory, The Joy of Science, and The Joy of Mathematics.

On top of the audio classes, I've been teaching myself how to program in Python, the logical next step in my career as a visual effects artist and programmer. Next week I will also start a crash course in basic French for my three week Paris jaunt with Sadie in May. That's not to mention all of the different books I've been chewing into. I'm currently reading "Time: A Traveller's Guide" by Clifford Pickover, "The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library", Benazir Bhutto's "Reconciliation" (autobiography), and Plato's Republic.

So yeah, even with such a vast amount of time off, l'm not bored, to say the least. I'm really excited to learn new things and feel creative simultaneously. I feel like it's important to balance input and output- you can't make art in a vacuum, but you also can't exactly favor concept over execution, either. It is a balance I will have to struggle to maintain, but a struggle most enjoyed. Another one of those "good" problems I suppose. :-)