Thursday February 8, 2007 5:00 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:54 Sunset 17:37 Hours of daylight: 9:43

A. Morning Musings

5:00 am It is - 15 C at the moment with a high of -13 C forecast. There was more snow overnight with another 2 - 4 cm forecast for today.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: N. Korea Ready to Talk 'First Stage' Nuclear Disarmament: Envoy

This is the first sign of possible progress in over three years. North Korea is said to be willing to freeze its main reactor and allow inspectors in exchange for energy aid and normalizing relations with the US. North Korea has walked out of previous talks claiming that the US is trying to topple its government. Given the history of these talks it is difficult to be optimistic. But it would be nice if the danger of nuclear prolifieration was reduced.

Canadian Headline: Mexican State Invites RCMP to Help Probe Canadian's Death

The governor of a Mexican state has said that the RCMP are welcome to assist in the investigation of a Canadian tourist who died in Acapulco last month. Official accounts say it was a hit-and-run accident but others have said that he was beaten by attackers and then hit by a car as he tried to escape. This story has been in the papers for over a month. Bringing in the RCMP has the political advantage of making it look like the authorities have nothing to hide, but it sounds like it may be very difficult to determine exactly what happened. We shall see ...

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Premiers Defy Howard Over $10bn Water Plan

The state premiers have failed to hand over control of rivers in the Murray Darling basin to the federal government, but have agreed to meet again in a few weeks. Given the recent international reports on global warming and the Australian reports on the future of water needs in Australia, this is a very hot topic.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:20 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006	1 hr
Literature	Make notes for "The Big Why" by Michael Winter	1 hr
	Continue reading "The Tale of the Heike"	1 hr
Later
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	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
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
	Become proficient with cell phone
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

C. Actual/Note

5:50 am Coffee at The Ugly Mug at 8:30 am.

	Literature 13 February 8
Literature Notes
5:50 am I finished reading "The Big Why" by Michael Winter yesterday afternoon. link to back cover Some quotes: "And he quoted Thoreau: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately." [p. 35] "What William Blake wrote: He whose face gives no light will never become a star. I subscribe to this, though it's not the entire story. If you are full of light then you must be aware that smaller lights are intimidated. Light attracts but also makes people close their eyes. An so it's never enough to be large and generous. A star must permit smaller lights to shine. This is something I did not know until I was in my forties. I was a brash young light who read Blake." [p. 42] "This is my book, this will to know." [p. 74] "When you entered the woods the wind died down." [p. 75] "An empty craft, Kent, always looms high." [p. 79] "Only then did I see the distance. How far Tom Dobie had to walk each morning to work for me. When I mentioned it he said, Dont worry, a man's got to think." [p. 82] "The soup was yellow and the broth was full of golden globes of oil. ... When the soup turned lukewarm all its happiness sank to the bottom." [p. 83 - 84] "Mrs. Dobie was the kind of woman who spoke her mind before all the information had been presented. She got to a conclusion quickly, and while this may have been seen as presumptuous and ignorant, if you knew her you'd see how right she was and how her perception paid off. You would come to appreciate her honest sizing-up of a character or a predicament." [p. 84 - 85] "There's something dead in the telling of time." [p. 95] "Nothing useful can come of looking at what youre doing as anything other than a necessity for survival. As soon as you look at your work as something outside of you, then it's gone from you. Youre not part of it. You have to be a part of it." [p. 113] "I was reluctant to instruct my children on how to draw. I left materials out for them. There were pots of hard watercolours, lots of paper, crayons, and brushes. I let them mangle cheap brushes. But I would not tell them how to paint. I fthey asked a question I would be honest. I remember Rocky asking me once about the face. I said, Often people draw the face too big." [p. 147] "Kathleen was trying to absorb Brigus. She had a camera, and she photographed the town. It made her seem less attached to the place. More of a witness." [p. 150] "We were so theoretical in those days. We thought we could control the heart." [p. 161] "The important thing is for change in belief to occur. ... A person with no change is not searching." [p. 165] "But the thing is, it's terrific to choose to get up early. This has to do with control, of course. In deciding what one wants to do." [p. 238] "And the colour. I can spend a lot of time looking at the shadow falling on the ground and wonder what that colour is." [p. 250] "Nostalgia is the friction between home itself and the memory of home." [p. 270] "The question, Rockwell, is did you get to be who you are. And if not, then why. That, my friend, is the big why." [p. 372] SUMMARY of the session: Winter's language sparkles with Newfoundland dialect, but I thought the novel tailed off in the last quarter.

D. Reflection