Wednesday April 4, 2007 5:45 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:03 Sunset 20:06 Hours of daylight: 13:03

A. Morning Musings

5:45 am It is -7 C at the moment with a high of -1 C forecast.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Pelosi Meets With Syrian Leaders In Defiance of Bush

Pelosi is visiting with Syrian officials while Bush has denounced the visit as undermining US foreign policy. I tend to agree with Pelosi that engaging in dialogue can do little harm and may have beneficial consequences.

Canadian Headline: Ottawa Poised To Make Decision On Aging Army Tanks

The current group of leopard tanks are 30 years old and are not fit for some of the duties they are being used for in Afghanistan. Harper has indicated that this has been discussed by cabinet and that an announcement is due shortly on what Canada plans to do next. This is one area where I feel the previous Liberal government has been remiss - financing the armed forces. While Canada's armed forces are intended to be used only for peace keeping purposes, it is clear that there are situations where full military support is necessary.

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Labor Calls For Sacking of Civil Aviation Chief

A report on the 2005 crash in northern Queensland where 15 people died was the worst civil aviation crash in Australia in 40 years. The report mentions a number of factors, including problems with the Civil Aviation Authority. Labor is saying that the head of the Authority should accept responsibility for their role in contributing to the crash.

My weight is steady at 188.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 2:10 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade	2 hr
Model Trains	Continue assembly of coaling tower	2 hr
Birds	Create notebook pages birding in Mexico	1 hr
	Update birdwatching Filemaker Pro database	3 hr
	Conduct an online review of spotting scopes	1 hr
	Order 2 books on birding by Wheatley: one on Mexico and one on Australia	1 hr
Literature	Complete reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy	2 hr
	New York Times easy crossword puzzles	1 hr
Later
Technology	Convert LPs to MP3 format
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
	Begin reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Purchase DCC system
History	Begin reading "Maya"
	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
	Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer
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
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

6:10 am I am pleased to finally have my web pages up to date for our recent trip to Mexico. I now want to spend a few minutes reflecting on the time I have spent on various Learning activities during the first three months of 2007.

A review of the 2007 Chronology Table shows Technology, Literature, Model Trains and Mathematics to be the main activities. Bird watching should also be on the list when I finally update our birding activities in Mexico. Basically I am satisfied with this as I feel it does reflect my bias for these items. However I would like to see the overall amount of time spent on Learning to increase.

I would like to increase the time devoted to both Birding and Mathematics. I would like to improve my photography skills for birds. I now have a remote shutter release for the camera. Since I have a good tripod, I want to begin using it instead of the monopod and see if I notice much difference in the quality of images taken at full zoom settings. I also want to find more information on digiscoping and spotting scopes. I need to clarify the criteria for the scope as well as for the digital camera attachments. Cost will also be a factor. This will require a few hours on the Web. I should also visit a few stores, both in Lethbridge and Calgary, and see what they have in stock. I am getting back to my Calculus activities but I also want to add a Symmetry component, which will include modern algebra and group theory.

I have recently purchased a number of non-fiction books and would like to get around to reading them. My Model Train activities have taken a dip - I am using the excuse that the MRC wireless DCC system has been announced as due shortly and I am waiting for it to be available. Fair enough, but that is no excuse for not attending to other activities around the layout.

Although my overall monitoring of time permits me to make the above statements, it is not doing a satisfactory job of helping me allocate my time ahead of the event. I would like to try setting some weekly and then daily values for the main categories.

Literature	10 hrs
Mathematics	10 hrs
Model Trains	10 hrs
Birding
Technology
History

This is a good beginning. The three priority activities should all average about 2 hours a day for five days a week. Other activities should be fitted in as convenient. That all seems to be realistic. Now to add Mathematics and Model Trains to today's Plan in my planning table at the beginning of this page. Done.

7:10 am A good beginning. I did a search for the book that Larry used in Mexico and found both it and another by the same author for birds in Australia. They are both ordered. This will help me organize my web pages for our Mexico trip as well as make a few plans for our next trip to Australia.

2:10 PM Here are two more photos showing the beginning of the spring activity of the May tree in our backyard.

6:00 PM I began playing around with a FileMaker Pro data base that I created for keeping track on my Canadian birdwatching and realized that I could modify it to incorporate both our Australian birdwatching as well as our Mexican trip. I now have a data base which includes all of the Canadian efforts until 2005 plus the first 20 Australian birds from February 2005. This is another task that will take a few days to complete but I am pleased with the results so far.

7:20 PM I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's latest novel. "The Road"

	Literature 20 April 4
Literature Notes
I bought Cormac McCarthy's latest novel last week, and finished reading it in two days. link to back cover SUMMARY of the session: This was a totally different book from his previous ones. The book is tremendous. It is the best novel I have seen about trying to survive in a nuclear winter. Like all of his novels, at the end I am drained.

D. Reflection