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Thursday May 10, 2007 5:45 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:54 Sunset 21:01 Hours of daylight: 15:07
A. Morning Musings
7:30 am It is +4 C with a high forecast of +15 C.
Here are the news.
CBC Headline: Blair To Step Down On June 27
British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Thursday he will step down on June 27 after a decade in office. Overall I think he has been a good prime minister but his decision to back Bush and invade Iraq was, I think, a mistake.
Canadian Headline: Radlet Set For Second day Of Cross-Examination
Radler's testimony is expected to last until late next week. He is the key witness for the prosecution in the trial of Conrad Black.
Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Rudd Banks On Apprenticeships
Labor's reply to the federal budget was for leader Kevin Rudd to pledge to deliver trade schools across Australia to tackle the skills shortage and to slash business taxes to develop the nation as a funds management hub for Asia.
B. Actual/Notes
5:55 am I have received an email from Barnes & Noble indicating my two books (one is the bird field guide to Mexico that I have been trying to get for over a month from amazon.com) have been packed and are ready for shipping. Good. Now to see if amazon's system realizes that now that I have dropped this book from my order, that they can proceed with shipping the remaining book (a bird field guide for Australia).
6:10 am I have a coffee scheduled for 7:30 this morning. After that I will have 4 boxes of books to deliver to the university library and another 2 to the city library. I should be able to work on the birding pages from our Mexico trip as I have a list of what we noticed as well as my iPhoto images. That is now my top priority. I am still waiting for a reply from Zhummel regarding a t-ring for my camera. I may try a different solution and buy a second digital camera just for the spotting scope. I think I will try a small Canon. The advantage of this is that I can continue to aim-and-shoot with my Panasonic while setting up the scope for a special image. But I am still not sure exactly what accessories I will need.
8:40 PM I have received an automated email from amazon saying that the book has been shipped. Still no word from either of two sites where I asked for additional information on attaching my spotting scope to a digital camera. Automated systems - 2, Human systems - 0. The 6 boxes of books have been delivered to the libraries.
I have finally begun creating the bird watching pages for our recent (2 months ago!) trip to Mexico. Here are the three latest pages:
These three pages show 3 birds that I have yet to identify properly. But my Mexican field guide is now in the mail!
C. Plan
Immediate Birds Update database to include 2007 Mexico trip 1 hr Create notebook pages birding in Mexico 3 hr Literature Read & make notes for book 7 of "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 1 hr 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