Since Las Vegas is known as Sin city, well, Oceanside should be called Holy city ( don’t get me wrong, I don’t see any Churches and Halo is not part of my attire) This is the first time I am spending 2 weeks in Oceanside and the scenery is completely different from Las Vegas. People are chill here in Oceanside, relaxing and friendly. This town reminded me of the Big Island in Hawaii with palm trees, beaches, restaurants, bars, live music and hotels everywhere you go as if I am reliving the time spent in Kona since 2013. This is my third day here and it is like the pandemic has never occurred in this town. Of course, the beaches here can never matched the standard in Hawaii but the sunset scene is just as good as it is in Kona. I posted many sunset pictures on my FB and without telling people where I was at the time when I took those pictures, they probably would think I was vacationing in Kona. Don’t get me wrong, I miss Kona terribly but here in Oceanside, it is as close as I can get to feel like in Hawaii. There was even a big event yesterday called the Oceanside Cultural Celebration with Hawaiian dancing and music performance and I even had the Hawaiian BBQ plate which was the best meal I have so far.
Finding parking in downtown is difficult but somehow I always managed to find the best spot everywhere I go and it is within walking distance to most of the bars and restaurants in downtown area. Every day I will come to this coffee shop which is 5 min drive from my hotel and have breakfast while working on the laptop catching up with what’s going on around the world because if I don’t, then I might just get a false impression about the world which seems as peaceful as this paradise town. I write blogs too while I am indulging strong coffee and people watch at the same time. Earlier today when I was in the midst of writing this blog, a local guy came in and started chatting with me and as I said before, people are friendly in this town and it is no surprise that strangers will come up to you and chic chat unlike Vegas where people are generally shady in nature and they often have some sorts of agenda when they approach you. Anyways, this local guy is an engineer and we started out with typical normal conversation such as where I come from and what I do for a living and eventually got to the topic about the universe. ( Hey, I did not instigate it), and he asked me the most unexpected question and remember, this is a relaxing town where people go surfing, swimming, boating or just chill at the dive bars but this guy asked me a question ” what is the story behind those mysterious radio signals coming from within the Milky Way galaxy?” I guess he must have read it somewhere and showed me the article about it and I said to myself, wow, is it a quiz for the day to see how much I know about the universe because you simply don’t run into this type of questions when you are hanging out in the beach city. I have actually heard about this radio signal before and it is called FRB ( Fast Radio Bursts) and it lasted usually about a few milliseconds and it is extremely bright and there are many of those signals appearing in different parts of the Milky Way galaxy and astronomers don’t really have a definite answer for it. My response was that a typical galaxy such as the Milky Way contains about 100 billion stars and many of the stars are about 5 to 10 times more massive than our sun and when they finally reached to the end of their life span by burning out of hydrogen fuel ( nothing lasts forever), they become neutron stars and emit strong signals in the range of radio waves and that seems to be a plausible explanation but of course, not a proof or anything that is definite, but it is the most plausible explanation to me although there are other possible explanations as well. These radio signals are very common coming from neutron stars or pulsars and this local engineer seems to be pleased with the explanation although he is no physicist or theorist. A very unexpected question coming from someone in a relaxing environment on a Sunday, but I love it and I am glad I was able to provide a seemingly plausible explanation of this so called FRB mysterious signal. I am sure I will run into him again as he lives right here in this town and this coffee shop is one of his regular spots to visit so I will be better prepare for more questions soon.
One thing I really like about this city is that the weather is always on the cooler side but sunny without humidity where the temperature is about in the mid 70’s all year round just like San Francisco and I can definitely live with that. I can easily walk to the ocean but the water is too cold for me unlike Hawaii so I will not swim here. However, I do walk out to the ocean every day and watch sunset and hanging out on the piers while pondering about the universe for there are still many unanswered questions about it and finding explanations is a wonderful thing to do every day no matter where I am. Now I can say at a 90 percent confidence level ( figuratively speaking) that the universe was self created without the necessity of any agents or divine intervention due to quantum mechanics and the multi-verse theory seems to provide a plausible explanation in eliminating the fine tuning aspect of the argument from those creationists ( yes, they lost once again) as I often refer to science being descriptive where religion is prescriptive. Being a scientist, our job once again is to provide the best description of the world without forcing it to bend to our preconception and as a result, science is always progressing and moving forward to make the world a better place for everyone. Unfortunately it is only human beings twisted the good scientific findings and made it destructive in this world for their benefits( ie. nuclear bombs, identity thefts, weapons of mass destruction etc). Today the world is not getting any better, only worse. It is filled with hatred, discrimination among different skin colors, gender, sexual orientation and all of these are growing as we advance in this ever more complex society. This world is never meant to be united on day one and becoming more divided as time progresses. When I was at the Cultural celebration yesterday watching the performance where everyone despite of their skin colors, gender and or sexual orientations came together and danced as a mixed crowd, I said to myself: ” why can’t the world be like this local mixed crowd ?” The answer is ” Naturalism” if you refer back to my previous blog which I wrote in July of 2021. We cannot change the world but we can certainly make a good life within our own circles and live it to the fullest. We cannot alter the past but use it as a lesson to be learned and we cannot control the future either, only the present is real and we need to cherish it before it becomes the past. Time doesn’t await and it moves forward always ( thanks but no thanks to the law of entropy), so we need to get out there and see the world as much as we possibly can before our numbers are called. If you love someone, tell that person and send out the signal regardless of whether or not you’ll be successful in winning her heart. There is always a chance even on a nano scale as long as you try so go give it your best shot. There are no seeds of love being planted in our atoms and you have to do the work to fulfill that purpose you have created for yourself and that is telling the person how you feel and hopefully to win her over. Don’t count on faith and do nothing because it isn’t going to work. While the universe seems to be so beautiful, it is heartless, careless, thoughtless, fearless, tearless , and above all, godless and mindlessly operated by a set of mathematical equations of which scientists like myself, are trying to find that one and only one universal equation uniting every single laws from Newtonian mechanics to Quantum mechanics ( The Core Theory). The span of our lives is unfortunately short compare to the age of stars, galaxies and the universe, and we must act quickly and find meanings within our own existence and living it to the fullest. As I speak, there is a street live band performing now outside the coffee shop and I have a full set of plans of what I am going to do for the next 10 days here in Oceanside and some of my friends are saying that I am living the dreams and they are right. I have been living the dreams for the past 38 years and I have no regrets even if it ends tonight for the future isn’t up to me. As a scientist, I can predict very well but I can’t control the future. I am living it up now and will do my best to continue with my living up high and learn more every day about the mysterious universe when I am still here on this planet. My life is not being dictated by some bogus supreme being but I find my own meaning within life and try my best to fulfill it without definite promises.
” A happy man is too satisfied with the present to think too much about the future” Quote from Albert Einstein and it is certainly in line with my perspective on life.
Well, time to sign off for now and go living my dreams. Live band later at the bar and grill before ending the night at the haunted head saloon ( the best dive bar in town). Stay tuned.