Thursday May 24, 2007 6:25 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:36 Sunset 21:20 Hours of daylight: 15:44

A. Morning Musings

6:25 am It is +1 C with a high forecast of +8 C. There is a mixture of rain and snow falling at the moment.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Counsellors On Hand At Toronto School After Shooting

The Toronto school where a 15-year-old student was gunned down on Wednesday will reopen its doors on Thursday morning so students can speak to grief counsellors. Police have no suspects, and said little on Wednesday night about a possible motive for the shooting. Stories like this are both enormously sad and enormously frustrating. Why, why, why?

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Rudd Admits Wife's Firm Underpaid Workers

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd today said that his wife's company had underpaid some workers, but that it was an honest mistake she had sought to rectify. However, he said the incident would not stop Labor attacking the Government's industrial relations laws. “What we are concerned about is how do you make the laws which govern Australia's industrial arrangements for the future, clearer and more balanced. I have said consistently, up hill and down dale, they need to be made fairer,” he said. I would be surprised if this has any impact on voters, but the media clearly is trying to stir the pot.

B. Actual/Notes

7:00 am Awhile back I bought a book, "Why Good People Do Bad Things". At the time I sketched a preliminary mind map based on the first few chapters. I want to convert this to a MindManager file and then continue to modify it as I finish reading the book.

	Psychology 01 May 24
Psychology Notes
7:40 am I have begun making a few notes on the book "Why Good People Do Bad Things" This is a preliminary diagram based on a sketch that I made about a month ago. The three red boxes emphasize the main perspectives of the author. He is a Jungian Analyst at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Why is there such a large discrepancy between values and behavior for so many people? Answer: because we are very complex beings with many competing forces, many of which are unconscious. SUMMARY of the session: The title of this book attracted me as I know of a few people who would seem to fit this title. Also there are many stories in the news that certainly fit the title, the most recent being a shooting of a student in a Toronto high school yesterday. The other appeal was that the book attempts to provide a model or theoretical framework for discussing this question. Thus it provides a way of considering the question in a "meaningful" manner, whether or not one totally agrees with the framework. Now to continue reading the book.

8:20 am I am back in Learning mode this morning. Given the weather, these seems like a good choice.

	Technology 14 May 24
Technology Notes
8:20 am I have been struggling for over a year with the realization that I should be totally revising this web site so that it conforms to an XML approach to web authoring. I bought a book a couple of days ago that seems to address this point. Now to begin looking at it and see if it leads to such a new approach. The book is simply called "Macromedia Dreamweaver 8" by Daniel Short and Garo Green. Here is a mind map of the overall book (with additional notes for chapter 1):   SUMMARY of the session: 2:30 PM I have been reading, yellow highlighting, and creating the above diagram during the afternoon. It is tempting to review two other books that I have: one on XML and one on CSS, but for the moment I will stay with this book and see how quickly I progress.

 

C. Plan

Immediate
Literature	Read "A Long Way Gone"	1 hr
Psychology	Read & make notes for "Why Do Good People Do Bad Things"	1 hr
Technology	Read & make notes for chap. 1 from "Macromedia Dreamweaver 8"	2 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