Monday April 9, 2007 6:20 am Lethbridge Sunrise 6:52 Sunset 20:13 Hours of daylight: 13:21

A. Morning Musings

6:20 am It is -1 C at the moment with a high of +15 C forecast.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: N. B. Base In Mourning As Soldiers' Names Released

Six Canadian soldiers, 5 from the Gagetown base in New Brunswick, were killed by a roadside mine in Afghanistan yesterday. It is the largest single loss since our troops were stationed there. This really brings home how dangerous the peacekeeping role can be in this part of the world.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Polls Close In Timor After Peaceful Ballot

This was a presidential election with the current prime minister one of three favorites for the position. News stories like this bring home the point that different parts of the world have vastly different ideas as to what constitutes a headline story. Australia has peacekeeping troops stationed in East Timor following their efforts to separate from Indonesia in 1999.

My weight is back up 1 to 188. Once again, I was not surprised. We had a glorious turkey dinner yesterday. Now to begin serious work at getting my weight down to 185, then to 180.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:00 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade	1 hr
Model Trains	Continue assembly of coaling tower	1 hr
Literature	Begin reading "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	1 hr
Birds	Bird watching trip near Par 3 golf course	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
Birds	Create notebook pages birding in Mexico
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
Literature	New York Times easy crossword puzzles
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

6:40 am Birding is one of our priorities. I hope to walk around the local Par 3 golf course on the west side of Lethbridge this morning and see if there are any new birds that I can add to my list for 2007. It is a good viewing area because of the variety of environments: river valley, cottonwood forest, back water slough and marshland. I also plan to visit a shop that sells telescopes and see what I can learn. Depending on that visit I may go ahead and place an order for one that I have spotted on the Web.

7:20 am I have both "The Brothers Karamazov" and a cuppa in hand. The novel is causing me a few problems. I sense that this is a grand story, and I do not want to simply read it through, missing much of the detail. I am struggling with a good way to make notes for this. I keep thinking I want a method that diagrams the structure of the novel, but am concerned that the diagram will become hopelessly unwieldy. Still, it is better to begin and to make adjustments as I go on.

	Literature 21 April 9
Literature Notes
I began reading "The Brothers Karamazov" a few days ago. Now I want to try making some detailed notes as I read. link to back cover Part I Book One: A Nice Little Family Chap. 1 Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov Fyodor was a small landowner, considered muddleheaded and a bit of a fool, but still somewhat successful in his business dealings. He had three sons, Dimitri by his first wife, and Ivan and Alexei by his second wife. Fyodor married his first wife, Adelaida Miusov, gained a sizeable dowry, and had a son, Dimitri. But after only a few years she left him, moved away and a few years later died, leaving Fyodor with Dimitri. "In most cases, people, even wicked people, are far more naive and simple-hearted than one generally assumes. And so are we." [p. 9] Chap. 2 The First Son Sent Packing Fyodor totally forgot about his son, and his servant Grigory took care Dimitri. About a year later a cousin of Adelaida's, Pyotr Miusov, took over raising the boy, but he too soon left and Dimitri was raised by another daughter in the Miusov family. Dimitri grew up thinking that he had some property and would be independent when he came of age. Dimitri never finished high school, joined a military school, led a wild life, and got into debt. When he came of age he met his father and found out that he had no inheritance. Dimitri was convinced that his father had swindled him out of his money. Chap. 3 Second Marriage, Second Children Fyodor married again, this time to a young girl from another province. This marriage lasted eight years and she bore him two sons, Ivan and, three years later, Alexei. She died when Alexei was four. Once again, Fyodor ignored his children and they were soon taken care of by his mother-in-law. She soon died, but she left each of the boys a thousand roubles to be given to them when they came of age. The boys were raised by a friend of hers, Yefim Petrovich Polenov, who invested the money wisely so they each ended up with over two thousand roubles. Ivan had an aptitude for learning and moved to Moscow when he was 13 and finished school and then enrolled in university. Upon completion he suddenly returned to his original home and moved in with his father. The two of them got on very well, much to everyone's surprise. Apparently Dimitri had asked Ivan to return home and Ivan seemed to act as a form of mediator between Fyodor and Dimitri. Chap. 4 The Third Son, Alyosha Alexei (Alyosha) was at that time a novice in a nearby monastery. The monastery had an elder, Zosima, within its grounds. Alexei was well liked by everyone that met him. He was thoughtful and caring. "Even as a child, he liked to go into a corner and read books ..." [p. 20] Chap. 5 Elders The institution of elders within the church is a Russian feature. "An elder is one who takes your soul, your will into his soul and into his will. Having chosen an elder, you renounce your will and give it to him under total obedience and with total self-renunciation." The elder Zosima was about 65 years old and very weak. He would receive people each day, listen to them, bless them and they would often leave feeling that they had been cured of whatever ailed them. He had a very positive disposition and was most kind to those who has sinned the most. Now that all three brothers were in the same neighborhood as their father, and since Ivan was about to launch legal proceedings against his father to see if he could gain his inheritance, they decided to all meet with Zosima to see if it would help matters. "Although, unfortunately, these young men do not understand that the sacrifice of life is, perhaps, the easiest of all sacrifices in many cases, while to sacrifice, for example, five or six years of their ebulliently youthful life to hard, difficult studies, to learning, in order to increase tenfold their strength to serve the very truth and the very deed that they loved and set out to accomplish - such sacrifice is quite often almost beyond the strength of many of them." [p. 26]   SUMMARY of the session: I like the format for summarizing each chapter. It forces me to pay much more attention to the details of the story.

10:00 am I drove out to the Par 3 north of town to see what birds had arrived at this birding
spot. I saw the following: American Robin (6), Mallard (5), Black-capped Chickadee
(2), Northern Flicker (2), Canada Goose (many), Hairy Woodpecker (2), Downy
Woodpecker (4), Red-tailed Hawk (1), Canvasback (2), Killdeer (2), Redhead (1).
The Canvasback is a new “lifer”, both globally as well as for Canada.

1:00 PM Here are two more photos showing the beginning of the spring activity of the May tree in our backyard.

There is an obvious green color beginning to emerge. The temperature yesterday afternoon reached +15 C. Even one day of warm temperatures makes a difference.

7:30 PM It has been a good day. The bird watching this morning was very pleasant. It always feels good to be outside. Then I bought some books on outdoor patios. This may be my major project for the summer. I am actually looking forward to seeing what is involved. Finally, I am back from two loops down into the coulee. That should help both my general level of fitness as well as losing a pound or two.

D. Reflection