Saturday March 17, 2007 5:15 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:42 Sunset 19:38 Hours of daylight: 11:56

A. Morning Musings

5:15 am It is +11 C at the moment with a high of +17 C forecast. Normals for this time of year of -6 C and +7 C.

CBC Headline: Fallen Soldier "Belongs To Everyone," Town Reflects

This is a continuation of the story from yesterday as the small town of Stellarton, Nova Scotia buried one of its citizens who was killed while on duty in Afghanistan. This has been a story that stands Stellarton proud.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): PM Loses Another Minister

This is the third day in a row where the resignation of Ageing minister Santoro has been the headline story.

My weight is steady at 191.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 12:10 PM

 

B. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Review my understanding of linear models	3 hr
Model Trains	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco	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
	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

5:40 am I am awake and alert this morning. For the first time since I retired last July I began thinking about a couple of ideas regarding possible new ventures. I want to get the basic ideas down in case I forget them, even though they are just ideas at the moment and maybe should be forgotten.

One idea would be to approach a nearby school district and see if they would be interested in pursuing the idea of an in-service venture for mathematics teachers. This could be at any grade level. Initially the plan would be to simply get a group of interested teachers together and see what they think would be most useful to them. And then we go from there. Concomitant with this, I should try to find out a bit more about what other efforts along these lines have been tried, particularly with ASIS grants. Maurice would be a good person to have a coffee with, as would David.

The second idea, unrelated to the first, would be to approach a nearby school district and see if they would be interested in playing with the idea of having a group of students in one school learn to use the Web for creating a set of online notes of their learning. This would likely involve both a content component as well as a journal component. Initially this would involve one group and one subject. Once again, I need to do a literature search and see if I can find a few similar projects.

The big negative with both ideas is that I am not sure I want to carry forward with these ideas. At the moment I am having a grand time with no commitments to my time.

If I decide to pursue either, or both, of these ideas, I would like to integrate the idea of keeping track of each project with a web site. I did this when I was a visiting researcher at Southern Cross University and felt at the time that it was a worthwhile activity.

A third idea, unrelated to the first two, is to synthesize my mathematical understanding of linear relationships. I want to prepare a statement of what I can say about the slope-intercept form (and then demonstrate this with Mathematica), the standard form, and the analytic version of the two-point form.

I am a bit slow off the mark though. I just realized that today is St. Patrick's Day. Maybe it was the coffee kicking in.

I am always hoping to weigh myself in the morning and find that I have lost another pound. However that is both unrealistic and unhealthy. A rough rule of thumb is to aim for about 2 pounds/week which means, if my maths is good, that about 5 days/week should be steady. Today's steady is fine. But I can sense the first big weightstone is just in front of me, when I get into the 180's. The final goal of 180 (or should I say 179?) is still a long way off.

One of my goals for today is to make a pot of split pea soup. I have yet to find a recipe that comes close to what I remember as a boy when we had a can of Habitant pea soup. There is a recipe on the bag of split peas that I bought a couple of days ago that I want to use as a base. I recall following this recipe in January and being a bit disappointed but I didn't use the ham hocks that time. This time I have them. I also want to try adding a little flour to thicken the soup. We shall see.

I began the Umberto Eco novel yesterday, and after I got through the first twenty pages, I began to get a real sense of its style. It is a delightful romp of early European history with many witty barbs about the present slipped in. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Maths, soup and Eco. The day promises to be a good one. Now for a relaxing second cup.

1:30 PM

	Recipe of the Week 07 Yellow Split Pea Soup With Ham March 17
Recipe Notes
1:30 PM I want to try this recipe again, and see if I can't improve the flavor. Original recipe on the Safeway package of yellow split peas. Ingredients (serves 12) Main Ingredients Actual 2 Tbsp olive oil I used canola oil. 2 onions finely chopped 2 carrots finely chopped 2 celery stalks finely chopped 1 kg (2 lb) ham hocks (about 3) I used 2 pork hocks 750 g ham steak   4 bay leaves   3 L (12 cups) water Next time, I will try using only 10 cups of water and see if that thickens the soup a little. Also I may try using a vegetable broth instead of water to improve the flavor a bit. 500 g yellow split peas   5 mL dried thyme Steps 1 Chop the onions, carrots, celery, and ham steak into small pieces. 2 In a large soup pot, heat the canola oil over a high heat. 3 Saute onions, carrots, and celery for about 6 minutes. 4 Add pork hocks, chopped ham, bay leaves and water. 5 Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered for 2 - 2.5 hours. 6 Remove pork hocks and bones. 7 Shred meat from pork hocks into small pieces and return to stock. Discard bones. 8 Add split peas and thyme. 9 Simmer, uncovered for 1 hour and 20 minutes. 10 Remove bay leaves. Here are a few photos: Comments This was much better. the pork hocks added a lot to the flavor of the soup. But it is still a bit thin.

3:20 PM

	Mathematics 07 March 17
Mathematics Chronology
3:20 PM Earlier this morning I summarized my understanding of linear models and equation by preparing two pages of hand written notes. I then searched the Web for a Mac software drawing program for use in transcribing these notes into machine readable form. I eventually realized that the program I have (EazyDraw) does the job as well as any. Here is a sample image where I imported a jpeg file of a graph produced by Mathematica and then labeled the axes and curve using EazyDraw: Looking at this image, I realize that I want the x-axis to cross the y-axis at y = 0. Now to see if I can figure out how to tell Mathematica to do this. Here is a link to the Mathematica notebook. 4:00 PM I had no difficulty changing the axis and also finding a more appealing format for the Mathematica notebook.

D. Reflection