147. 11 June 2019
Nearing Noon local time. The day is cool but bright with few clouds. Today you are taking a ride in the new car; it has just five hundred miles on it but you pretty much have the operation down without much conscious thought. You are thinking of going up to Kenyon College to visit their bookstore since it has been a couple of years, probably ten or so, since your last visit. Carol is prepping. - Amorella
1155 hours. We are keeping the '19 Avalon Limited Hybrid for longer trips, mainly Florida in a couple of weeks. We'll meet Kim, Paul and the boys at Madeira Beach, at the Meiber's condo on a Saturday and stay with Linda and Bill before and after. Actually, I am having fun driving the '05 Honda EX six cylinder knowing we are fixing it up for another fifty or so thousand when we return. It is a fun car to drive; reminding me of my old 1985 VW GTI in terms of liveliness at the peddle. I'm glad we decided to keep it and trade in the '13 Avalon Limited Hybrid.
You just tried to call Steve and Karen and you got Steve's voice on the recorder. Just the sound of your old friend's voice dropped in here I'll have you know. You miss him and want to talk cars and the like just as you always have since the mid-fifties on. - Miss Havisham
1208 hours. I felt that surprisingly quick sense of joy in hearing Steve's voice. Thank you for telling me. Interesting.
Afternoon. You are at Shale Hollow Park. Carol is on her walk. Beautiful. You have the windows and the sunroof open. Woodsy sounds plus a few kids and their mothers. Tranquil enough for writing. Plus, while eating a light lunch at McD's Steve called. You are meeting them for lunch at the Rusty Bucket tomorrow at eleven-thirty. - Amorella
Mr. Orndorff, I have an idea. The first good question that comes to your head is the one I'll respond to. mh
1320 hours. You know nothing will happen. I freeze at that just as I would if someone were to ask our daughter's name out of the blue. Nothing. I go blank. Ha. Yep, blank as a bullet. I forget both your names. Amazon and Whinny, that's what comes up. Nothing I can do but sit here like an old log. (1327) Amazon and Whinny.
You accidently glanced up to see "Amorella" at 1328 hours. Miss Havisham just popped in at 1329 hours. Nine minutes before one of the names popped into consciousness on its own. What do you think about this? - Amorella
1332 hours. No one would believe this unless I had them as a student or otherwise witnessed me go blank. I have lots of witnesses over the years. In can be quite embarrassing, especially if someone new asks my name. At social gatherings, especially connected with school friends I would check my driver's license, put it in my shirt pocket so that I could glance down at it if I froze. That is how I adapted. (1336)
You are home after a pleasant drive up Old South State to State Route 36/37 then returned via Africa Road leisurely driving 45 to 50 miles per hours on low traffic time roads. - Amorella
You want to ask where you are consciously when the 'blanks' occur. Privately, you joking call it Elsewhere. This also happens other times, though not often, when at home. Never has happened when focused, such as when driving. - mh
1459 hours. I do go Elsewhere from time to time, but only when I am alone and contemplating not so much. Everybody does this. My mother used to do this all the time, usually when doodling on a notepad by the phone or at the kitchen table. I don't know where Elsewhere was but it wasn't Here and Now. I don't like that you bring up these things because they are embarrassing, and believe it or not, I find it rather embarrassing to talk about myself unless it was in the classroom and I was making a point, generally about literature and/or the basic human condition. Besides, it generally evoked humor in the classroom. Classrooms need room for humor most every day, at least mine did. Maybe it was just a non-alcoholic stupor. That's sometimes how it felt though with no hangover. That is not exactly the same thing as the earlier quick memory loss, but it is close.
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stupor - noun - they left him slumped in a drunken stupor: daze, state of unconsciousness, torpor, insensibility, oblivion.
Selected from the Oxford/American
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Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Orndorff. - mh
1517 hours. Sorry, Miss Havisham. Sometimes my mind keeps rolling along and I keep talking to myself; over the decades I keep writing down my thoughts like they mean something. My fingers naturally keep punching the keys. Maybe, deep down, I like to see the words pop up. I love words. They quietly keep me company. I'm friends with all of them as far as I know. Actually, maybe it's really the alphabet I'm friends with. I don't know which I love more, individual letters or individual words. I'll ask Google. 'What is a person called who loves words?'
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philologos
A logophile is a lover of words. Also called a word lover or philologos. A related term islogomaniac, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a person who is obsessively interested in words." Feb 6, 2018
Logophile Definition, Etymology, and Use - ThoughtCo.
Selected and edited from -
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-logophile-1691139
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The only word I remember seeing in print before is logomaniac.
Do not erase the above. - Amorella
Later. Carol is out watering the outback wildflowers she planted along with those that came up naturally. You are beginning to attach yourself to the house. The back and east side back window scenes are interesting at different times of the day and season, particularly with the heavily leafed trees along the old fence. - Amorella
1658 hours. Miss Havisham, sorry for the interruption. From your perspective, please, where do I go when I am not consciously here, like when I forget who I and others are and when I'm 'Elsewhere'?
Nowhere. It is as a private Absolute-Nothing setting. You have no conscious reference to yourself (your id, ego or superego). Your consciousness might as well be a drifting roll of fluff. - mh
1715 hours. I never thought to say it in terms of no conscious reference to myself, but that is certainly more specific than Elsewhere. So, consciously, at those times I am not Elsewhere I am as Dead and never Here. That's funny.
A more precise statement is "I am as never Here." -mh
1723 hours. That is an interesting point. "I am as never Here." That is indeed humorous: Here and Not-Here. This reminds me of Schrödinger's cat.
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Schrödinger's cat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a hypothetical cat that may be simultaneously both alive and dead a state known as a quantum superposition, as a result of being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur.
The thought experiment is also often featured in theoretical discussions of the interpretations of quantum mechanics. Schrödinger coined the term Verschränkung (entanglement) in the course of developing the thought experiment.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
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Quantum entanglement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance.
Measurements of physical properties such as position, momentum, spin, and polarization, performed on entangled particles are found to be correlated. For example, if a pair of particles is generated in such a way that their total spin is known to be zero, and one particle is found to have clockwise spin on a certain axis, the spin of the other particle, measured on the same axis, will be found to be counterclockwise, as is to be expected due to their entanglement. However, this behavior gives rise to seemingly paradoxical effects: any measurement of a property of a particle performs an irreversible collapse on that particle and will change the original quantum state. In the case of entangled particles, such a measurement will be on the entangled system as a whole.
Such phenomena were the subject of a 1935 paper by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, and several papers by Erwin Schrödinger shortly thereafter, describing what came to be known as the EPR paradox. Einstein and others considered such behavior to be impossible, as it violated the local realism view of causality (Einstein referring to it as "spooky action at a distance") and argued that the accepted formulation of quantum mechanics must therefore be incomplete.
Later, however, the counterintuitive predictions of quantum mechanics were verified experimentally in tests where the polarization or spin of entangled particles were measured at separate locations, statistically violating Bell's inequality. In earlier tests it couldn't be absolutely ruled out that the test result at one point could have been subtly transmitted to the remote point, affecting the outcome at the second location. However so-called "loophole-free" Bell tests have been performed in which the locations were separated such that communications at the speed of light would have taken longer—in one case 10,000 times longer—than the interval between the measurements.
According to some interpretations of quantum mechanics, the effect of one measurement occurs instantly. Other interpretations which don't recognize wavefunction collapse dispute that there is any "effect" at all. However, all interpretations agree that entanglement produces correlation between the measurements and that the mutual information between the entangled particles can be exploited, but that oany transmission of information at faster-than-light speeds is impossible.
Quantum entanglement has been demonstrated experimentally with photons, neutrinos,electrons, molecules as large as buckyballs, and even small diamonds. The utilization of entanglement in communication and computation is a very active area of research.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
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Later. You are Here, orndorff. Your imagination just doesn't stop. You are thinking about creating a character who can be Here and Not-Here at the same time. A superhero detective of sorts: an old-fashioned Mickey Spillane character with modern day thinking like Amazon's Prime Time "Harry Bosch". - Amorella
1938 hours. One could make a bumbling character like Peter Seller's film The Pink Panther with an existential and entangled twist. Very funny. Some characters don't know whether they are coming or going, this one doesn't know whether he's Here or There . . . and what if it doesn't make any difference in the long run. Dark humor run amuck. That's all I have at the moment. (1945) . . . Well, maybe dark humor or light humor -- the viewer takes her or his pick as the show moves along with a slight political theme depending on what country the viewer lives in. Now, I'm done. (1951)
Do not erase, orndorff. Do not apologize. - Amorella
Mr. Orndorff, my perspective on today's fit of humor is this. A Soul is where a human's spiritual heartanmind is. 'There', as a word with meaning, does not exist for me in this context. Enjoy your evening and your lunch with old friends tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. - mh
Post. - Amorella
2201 hours. You are a kind sensitive soul, Miss Havisham. I am honored that you hold my humbled heartanmind. I am hardly worthy.
Your ever-doubts are understandable. Bide by who you are. mh
