This Is Where I Come From

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The Confessions Of A Serial Procrastinator

This not my first sabbatical. I have a habit of taking summers off work from time to time. The last job I had I worked there for four years. I was working in palliative care for mainly neurological disorders and the clients would typically have MS, strokes, spina bifida, brain tumors, and sometimes unknown reasons for their conditions. There is also a unit there that deals with bariatric patients. It is a big place with about 100 beds.

I have worked with many other clients over the years. I first worked at St Georges Hospital in Lincoln when I was 19 after I had done an apprenticeship in engineering at Ruston Gas Turbines, like that follows! Over the years I have worked with geriatric, autistic, learning disabilities, mental health. I worked at Thistle Hill Hall when I worked in mental health and the clients would typically have schizophrenia. I have had some scary moments mainly in mental health and autism also, when I have had to sound the alarm and restrain clients.

How I got into mathematics:

In the late 80's and early 90's I was a self employed DJ. I ran a mobile disco and usually went out at the weekend. So in the week I had free time. So I went to college. I used to use college like it was a place of entertainment. In those days courses were free and I have done so many courses that I started to be called a professional student. In the early 90's I got my first computer and after doing some courses I soon found out that I liked programming and developed some skills in programming but I have never worked as a programmer.

In 2000 I moved to Ollerton near Sherwood forest and in 2001 I stopped running my mobile disco after 15 years. It was then that I started doing Open University courses. I had no ambitions to get a degree and I just chose courses that I thought that I would enjoy. I started doing short courses in contemporary science and then I moved on to mathematics, mainly pure mathematics in number theory and geometry, until 2008 when I got my degree. Just after I got my degree the cost of Open University courses went up five fold so a course that was 600 would now cost 3000 and so that put a stop to that.

I am such an amateur:

I write about mathematics mainly in computational number theory and geometry, so I write little programs that use the computer to solve problems. My efforts are uploaded onto scribd. It is mainly blue sky thinking and I explore the mathematical landscape to see what I can discover and to see where it takes me.

I am also an amateur writer and musician. I write poems and essays. I play guitar and piano and I like to improvise. I have many videos under 'EMO Adi' of my improvisations. I also like to go traveling and busk in my spare time. My name is Adi Cox.

Busking In Hull On 29th May 2015

I had arrived in Hull at 10:01 on the train from Retford. This cost me 26.50. When I got in Hull I rang P&O Ferries and booked the ferry to Zeebrugge. This cost me 80.25 on my visa card. So I was waiting for the bus at 17:00 to get me to King George Ferry Port. This gave me plenty of time to go out busking in Hull. Even though it was raining quite hard I did a two hour set and made 16.42 from the generous people from Hull.

There was a homeless man and he was just laid in pedestrian precinct in the wet with a jacket over his face. Someone checked on him, he was still and looked like he could have been dead to a passer by. Later two police women came and they were ushering him along. I said to the police women, "He is not very good, bless him." They said this is a daily occurance with him.

Whilst I was busking a young Polish lad came up to me. He said "I've got something for you." and handed me two condoms. "I got these from the hospital." he said and then showed me a leaflet on chlamydia. As I was laughing I asked him "Have you got V.D?" and he said, "I don't know I'm waiting for the results."

He said that he had recently lost his job through drinking vodka and was looking for another job, but he wanted to sing a vodka song with me. So I played a few chords and he was singing and dancing the vodka song. After this we shook hands and he went on his way. After a long wait I got the 17:00 bus to King George Ferry Port and got the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge.

Are Religious People Mentally Ill?

Can we make a case for religious ideas to be proof that someone is mentally ill? Surely anyone who believes in miracles and any sort of supernatural has flawed reasoning and a desperate disposition and that needs to be addressed in the DSM.

I find it unbelievable that many high level politicians and prominent people can spout off their own incredible ideas just because those ideas are based on christian faith. Surely the very idea that anyone who needs religion who is in a powerful position is proof that they are not fit for the job that they do.

Many world leaders are these crazy religious types who have gone to war on dubious grounds. When we think about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and their lack of evidence. When we think about the war on terror and how rediculous a war on terror is. We tend to think of people like George W Bush and Tony Blair who are decidedly commited to their religious ideas.

When the crazy people run the asylum then we get serious situations that need to be addressed and usually the only way that this scenario plays out is through disasterous consequences. When these things are played out on the world stage then there is only war.

When world leaders make crazy decisions they are the last people to suffer for their warped religious beliefs. If we value our world surely we should base our politics on sound reasoning. We have a duty for the sake of this world to deny these people their place on a world stage.

The Right For Ownership

Whenever I have spoken to people who are pro right wing I usually get the same rhetoric. How they aspire to make something of themselves. I get the impression that they think that they are better than other people, but their aspirations are usualy for the attainment of wealth.

Security is also a major factor in right wing politics, far more so than the left who are willing to take more risks for the sake of freedom. All the trappings of wealth can be a burdon and as so security is usually only used to secure wealth.

Do you ever run a business or does the business run you?

Freedom or security,the people or the state,a dichotomy of the two.

So which side of the balanceof the scales of justice are you?

Changing Times

How much are we in charge of our own destiny? As a child in the 1970's I used to play in the woods off Doddington road (B1190) in Lincoln. There was also some gravel pits which had flooded into a lake full of wild life. There was a stream that led to hartsholme park and there used to be an airdrome still left over from the second world war. This was RAF skellingthorpe which is now the Birchwood estate. I was lucky enough to find myself happy here in a settled life with friends in peacetime.

RAF Skellingthorpe opened in 1941 on a field previously called Black Moor. During the war the tally of bombers lost or failed to return from Skellingthorpe reached 208: 15 Hampdens, six Manchesters and 187 Lancasters. As a child I had very little knowledge about the past.The summer holidays from school would feel like I was forever enjoying my freedom to explore and to play in the old air raid shelters that were still there. After the end of the Second World War, RAF Skellingthorpe was the base for No. 58 Maintenance Unit RAF, with salvaged crashed aircraft stored at the base. The base finally shut down in 1952.

Looking back in time from 2014 I see how this area has progressed from a field called Black Moor to an airdrome and then to an estate for the housing of families hooked up to the internet. Spanning from the second world war through the cold war and then into this new phase of cyber security and government surveillance and austerity. It really does feel that technology is taking over our lives and increasingly being used as a tool to govern people. A new era of civil rights has emerged and it is being fought on the internet. People like Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowdon are the new leaders of civil rights activism.

The Nature Of Human Intelligence?

What is intelligence? Is it knowledge, high IQ, speed of thought, depth of understanding, the power of effective communication, or is it something else?

A cheap calculator can do some amazing arithmatic far quicker and more acurate than anyone I know. Of course we, us people, have to push the buttons. Human calculators who can do vast calculations in their heads are quite impressive and very rare. With the abundance of calculators, one on every phone these human calculators are not a requirement.

Computers manage a vast amount of information and follows logical commands very impressively. They have no real intelligence though. For all their speed and logic and vast amounts of information they are just stupid machines.

Over a vast amount of time it is generally agreed that we the human race have developed and evolved from more simple life forms. In a much shorter time of our development of the computer the need for the internet is very much apparent. If this is the case for stupid machines then what is the analog for this in the living?

Maybe we are stupid machines too with one exception and that is with our consciousness. So where does this consciousness come from? Is there some galactic internet that connects us all together? That has evolved since the beginning of time. Are the planets and solar systems and stars the servers of some vast cloud where all life belongs and where all consciousness resides?

For the first time I am starting to think that there is more to being than just living this life on Earth.

Written By Adi Cox.