Wednesday May 9, 2007 7:30 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:56 Sunset 21:00 Hours of daylight: 15:04

A. Morning Musings

7:30 am It is +13 C with a high forecast of +19 C.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: 4 Arrested In London Transit Bombings

Four more people have been arrested in connection with the 2005 bombings, one is the wife of one of the suicide bombers. It is reasonable to believe that more people than the bombers were aware of the plan.

Canadian Headline: Black's Defense Could Get Turn At Radler

Radler has provided damning evidence about Black's role in the embezzlement scheme but the defense has yet to have their turn to question him. This court case is proceeding much more quickly than I had anticipated.

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Spending On Education To Fall, Not Ride: Labor

Labor says that spending on education will fall, in spite of the establishment of a $5 billion endowment fund. It is necessary for Labor to have a say to try to weaken the Coalition claims that they are doing a fine job of managing the country's finances with an election due in a few months.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:10 PM

B. Actual/Notes

7:50 am I have received word that the Mexican field guide for birds that I was hoping to get is not available. A little work on the Web and I found it at a Barnes and Noble site. I have ordered it from there. I like the flexibility and SPEED at which one can change an order and locate alternative sources. The speed is related to the fact that the entire ordering system is automated. However receiving a reply to a query, such as I have with my digiscoping, is another story. I wonder if I will ever receive a reply. In an ideal world (i.e. a parallel universe) I should receive 2 email messages within a day or two indicating that the one book left on my order at amazon.com is now being shipped and another from Barnes & Noble indicating that the new order with them is being shipped. The optimism stems from my understanding that both such systems are part of an automated process.

8:15 am Now to continue converting my LPs to MP3 format. This is not an automated process, but I do have the routine down pat.

4:00 PM Here are two more photos showing the beginning of the spring activity of the May tree in our backyard. A lot of the blossoms have blown off already and the patio looks like the day after a wedding.

6:30 PM Success! Another large scale task completed. Our entire LP collection from 20+ years ago has been converted to MP3 files and is now included in my iTunes library. I still must update my iPod by transfering the files to the iPod, but that is only a few mouse clicks and then a couple of hours of wait time. The best part about the activity was simply hearing these tunes again, after a very long wait.

C. Plan

Immediate
Technology	Convert LPs to MP3 format	6 hr
Birds	Update database to include 2007 Mexico trip
	Create notebook pages birding in Mexico
Literature	Read & make notes for book 7of "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	1 hr
Later
Technology	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Learn how to attach a digital camera to my spotting scope
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman
	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade
	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
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	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
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.

D. Reflection