Thursday January 18, 2007 5:10 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:21 Sunset 17:03 Hours of daylight: 8:42

A. Morning Musings

5:10 am It is -10 C at the moment with a high of -3 C forecast.

A quick addendum to yesterday. The "Slow-Cooker Beef with Beer" turned out well. It was delicious. The only difference between what we had and what the magazine portrayed was that their image showed slices of roast beef whereas ours was more like pulled beef. The meat was so tender that it simply fell apart when I tried to slice it. I prefer our final result to that in the magazine. We had friends over for the meal and we ended the meal with lattes all around. Quickly made with no fuss. The new Tassimo coffee machine is turning out to be a nice addition. We have yet to make a cappuccino but that is the first time we have had lattes in our own kitchen.

Allan just sent me a file associated with the latest version of Google Earth. I downloaded it and when I clicked on his file it zoomed right into the tree in their front yard and placed a yellow stick-pin there indicating that was where the photo of the koala was taken. What a startling way to begin the morning. That is the early news from our house. Now ...

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Navy Patrol Can Go Ahead, O'Connor Says

This is a continuation of the story that began yesterday. There was a report that the Canadian navy could not send a patrol vessel off the east coast of Canada to monitor off shore fishing due to lack of funding. Obviously this was an embarrassment, and quickly rectified. But it should never have come to this.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline (from The Australian): Howard to Refund Cost of Broome Getaway

This is also a continuation of the story from yesterday. It is not yet clear whether the decision to pay for the cost was made before or after the story broke that he was in Broome. It appears that Australia has more money than Canada.

 

The first item on the agenda for today is a visit to The Ugly Mug. Always enjoyable.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:50 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Technology	Begin reading "iPhoto"	1 hr
	Digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings	1 hr
Model Trains	Follow tutorial for 3rdPlanIt (Manual p. 8 - 13)	2 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Passage to Juneau" by Jonathan Raban	1 hr
Later
Chores	Investigate water softeners for home
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
	Edit iPhoto images
Mathematics	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
History	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10

C. Actual/Note

	Model Trains 09 January 18
Model Trains Notes
2:00 PM This is my 2nd session with 3rd PlanIt. The following section numbers refer to the numbers in the 3rd PlanIt User's Manual. First, let's see if I can reload my previous session's track plan. No problem. A straight-forward File -> Open command supplied a window with a file called Plan1 in it. Selecting that did the trick. I will immediately save this as Plan2 and then continue with the next section in the tutorial. 2.2.4 Modifying the Design 2.2.4.1 Selecting Objects The simplest way to obtain the Select Tool (this is the tool that allows one to select various objects) which is the arrow cursor is to double-click on the background. Place the tool directly over an object and click the left mouse button. One can also 'rubber-band' a group of objects by left mouse click-and-drag. To zoom in on an area, hold down the fn key and press the F2 key. One will see a zoom icon (a small magnifying glass with a plus symbol). Rubber band the area you want to zoom in on. 2.2.4.2 Deleting Objects Select the object using the above procedure and press fn-delete (using the Mac). Here is an example: 2.2.4.3 Moving Objects Select the object and left-mouse-drag. 2.2.4.4 Copying Objects Select the object (e.g. the turnout), left-mouse drag to an open area, and press the ctrl key. A copy of the selected object is made. 2.2.4.5 Using the Context Menu Select the object and press the right-mouse button to obtain a context-sensitive menu and choose Flip/right/left. 2.2.4.6 Auto-Alignment Move the select tool to the end of the turnout and left-mouse-drag to the section of track you wish to join. When that track highlights, release the mouse button. The moved object will 'snap' into position. Cool. 2.2.5 Fast Design Using Existing Pieces Using the above procedures one can add existing track to the layout. 2.2.6 Conform Terrain to New Track Press ctrl-D to turn the Terrain layer back on. Then select the edge of the Terrain Mesh and click the right-mouse button to obtain a context menu. Select Conform Mesh to Objects. Here is the 3D view of the result: 2.2.7 Running a Train Press the Tab key to return to the 2D view. Use the Library Bar in the lower right corner to select Rolling Stock -> American -> SD-40 to obtain a locomotive. Then select a freight car. Align them to the track and they will be automatically placed on the track. Pressing the Tab key will switch the view to 3D and a throttle window will appear that allows one to control the speed of the train around the layout. Amazing! SUMMARY of the session: This was fantastic. I do not have all the habits yet, but being able to actually run a train on the layout was impressive. 4:00 PM

D. Reflection