Monday March 12, 2007 6:40 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:52 Sunset 19:30 Hours of daylight: 11:38

A. Morning Musings

6:40 am It is +13 C at the moment with a high of +16 C forecast. The high wind warning in still in effect, with values of 70 kmh and gusts to 90 kmh forecast for noon.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Hillier Visits Troops in Afghnaistan

Canada's top soldier is on a visit to Afghanistan. This is one of a series of such visits over the last few months. Canada's minister of defense is also there, but there is no indication that the two will meet.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Minister Forced To Sell Conflict of Interest Stock

The Minister of Ageing had failed to declare some shares in a bio-technology company thus raising an ethics controversy. The details in the article seem to suggest to me that there was no inpropriety as he arranged to sell the shares as soon as he became aware of the situation and that he donated the profits of the sale ($6000) to a charity. As an aside, I was surprised at the title of his department.

My weight is down 2 more to 192. I expected this after the coulee walk yesterday. My weight is back to the level I was at when I left for Mexico. That was relatively easy. Now to work on the harder task of returning to my pre-Christmas level of 180.

B. Plan

Immediate
Technology	Edit iPhoto files	1 hr
	Convert 2 LP records to iPod files	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Runaway" by Alice Munro	1 hr
History	Begin reading "Maya"	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

2:10 PM It is worth reminding myself that these web pages reflect only those daily activities associated with Learning.

While shopping at Costco this morning I did buy 5 books:

• "Snow" by Orphan Pamuk
• "Istanbul" by Orphan Pamuk. He won the Nobel prize for Literature in 2006. I have red one of his previous novels, "My Name is Red", which I thoroughly enjoyed.
• "The Story of Philosophy" (2005) by Christoph Delius et al
• "The Story of Architecture" (2005) by Jan Gympel
• "The Story of Painting" (2005) by Anna C. Krausse. All three of these small books were on sale for $4.49. I simply couldn't resist! Also they provide an excellent overview of the topic. Well worth the money.

D. Reflection