Saturday May 12, 2007 5:00 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:51 Sunset 21:04 Hours of daylight: 15:13

A. Morning Musings

5:00 am It is +9 C with a high forecast of +25 C.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Woman Mauled To Death By Tiger In B. C. Interior

A woman died from injuries while petting a Siberian tiger in a private reserve in central B.C. This makes the news because of the uniqueness of the event, and it is clearly a tragedy for those involved, but it is hardly an important story.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Rudd Must Beat Unions: Labor Guru

FORMER Labor Party strategist Rod Cameron says most Australians support a deregulated workplace and that Kevin Rudd must confront the trade unions over industrial relations. It will be interesting to see how many headlines support Labor and how many support the coalition under John Howard.

B. Actual/Notes

5:20 am It is relaxing to have no major tasks on my Immediate list of things to do. I have streaming coverage of the hockey game between Russia and Finland. I have turned the sound off but will be able to check the scores when I wish to. This reminds me of a few years ago when I would listen to the hockey games while teaching in Japan. Now we have live video on a large screen. Internet tv is also joost beginning. But my preference remains with books. I like the degree of control that I have about what to do next.

I also like the ability to use the search-and-replace feature of Dreamweaver to quickly change an entire months web pages when I noticed that I had failed to update a particular link. What could have taken over an hour of tedious clerical work took less than a minute. That too, is progress. By the way, the score is 1-1 at the end of the first period.

Much of today will be devoted to yard work and household chores as we continue our spring cleanup.

I have finally gotten around to reading the May 12 entry from "A Year With Rumi: Daily Readings". The reading itself takes only a few seconds. The trick is to stop and let it sink in. Why is poetry so strong?

Between technology and birding I have had little time in the last few weeks for life. Life for me means books. At the moment Dostoevsky and Rumi for Literature, but I also need some hard stimulation. That is where my mathematics activities come in. As I keep reminding myself, "Mathematics is not a spectator sport."

6:20 am I am slow off the mark this morning. Even the coffee is failing to take effect. I am unwilling to tackle either calculus or modern algebra at the moment. But Dostoevsky seems attractive.

	Literature 29 May 12
Literature Notes
7:20 am I have completed reading Book Eight. Now to make some notes. Part III Book Eight: Mitya Chap. 1 Kuzma Samsonov Mitya is in torment as he tries to figure out if Mitya loves him. He clearly is madly and totally in love with her, even though he hardly knows her. Mitya goes to Grushenka's patron, Samsonov, to ask for a loan of 3,000 roubles so he can marry her and begin life anew. Samsonov dispises Mitya and tells him to ask Lygavy. Chap. 2 Lyagavy Mitya goes to Lygavy who also refuses to listen to him. Chap. 3 Gold Mines Mitya then approaches Madame Khokhlakov to ask for the money. She is willing to give it to him if he will work for her in managing some gold mines, but it then turns out that she has no money to lend. Mitya is beside himself with grief and tries to find Grushenka Chap. 4 In The Dark Mitya assumes Grushenka is with his father Fyodor and rushes there. He is spying on his father through a window trying to see if Grushenka is there. The old servant Grigory sees him and rushes at him thinking that Mitya is about to kill his father. They have a brief scuffle and Mitya hits Grigory on the head knocking him unconscious and causing a lot of blood to flow. He rushes away. Chap. 5 A Sudden Decision Mitya rushes back to Madame Khokhlakov's house where the servants tell him that Grushenka has left with the man she was engaged to five years ago. There is blood all over Mitya from Grigory's wound. And he is holding a wad of 3,000 roubles which seems to surprise him a little. He is in a daze and only seems to be partially aware of what he is doing. Chap. 6 Here I Come! Mitya decides to go after Grushenka, bringing a large amount of liquor and food for a huge party. He is going to celebrate her happiness, not to prevent her leaving. Chap. 7 The Former And Indisputable One Mitya meets Grushenka and her former fiance but finds him to be a unpleasant bore. Chap. 8 Delirium Grushenka realizes that she has made a mistake and tells Mitya that she really loves him. They are just beginning to think about their life together when the police arrive and charge Mitya with the murder of his father.   SUMMARY of the session: This "book"of 8 chapters is the first time that we focus on Mitya. He is an impulsive emotional man who is often unaware of what he really wants or is doing. The logic of the situation is perfect and I look forward to seeing how this turns out. I have been surprised, and disappointed, at how few sentences I have marked as being worth noting. This is a fine murder mystery, with superb character portrayals, but so far there has been little philosophy about life in general.

8:10 am I have just realized that the hockey game was time delayed by about 2 hours. The entire game is on file and can be accessed to obtain a replay at any time. I actually missed the overtime goal while making the above notes, but was able to rerun the last few minutes of the file and find out that Finland scored to win the game. This is another advantage of such technology - I can watch it at my leisure, rather than when the world says I must. The meaning of time changes dramatically when this is possible.

12:30 PM Earlier this morning we went for a walk around the lake at Nicholas Sheran park. We noticed a number of small birds in the trees so I returned with my binoculars and camera. I was not able to identify them at the time but I did get a few good photos that permitted an easy identification - a Golden-crowned Kinglet. I have seen these small birds many times flitting in and out of the spruce trees but this is the first time I have been able to identify them. A new lifer for us. My records indicate that this is the 136th Canadian bird that we have identified.

C. Plan

Immediate
Literature	Read & make notes for book 7 of "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	2 hr
Birds	Bird watching trip to Nicholas Sheran park	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