Wednesday October 8, 2008 5:40 am Lethbridge

It is +7 C with a high forecast of +11 C. Sunrise 7:42 Sunset 18:55 Hours of daylight: 11:13.
See current Lethbridge forecast here. See current Lethbridge news here.

This page last updated on: Thursday, October 9, 2008 6:27 AM

A. Morning Musings

I am listening to Bob Dylan singing "Highlands" from the "Time Out of Mind" CD. I love the rhythm, the lyrics, and the fact that it goes on for about 16 minutes. This song works for me.

Coffee is scheduled for Tim's at 8:30 this morning. Always something to look forward to.

The temperature has plummeted, so geocaching will be a challenge. It is still windy but much less than yesterday. I may try to get out this afternoon.

I should be able to finish assembling the gondola for my model train layout today. There are still 8 grabirons to attach, which may take an hour, but after that the remaining pieces should go fairly quickly.

I also seem to have found a groove for reading "Midnight's Children" and expect to make progress on that today: at least three chapters.

I am not sure about getting involved in the calculus at the moment - I shall see how the day unfolds. I have a few chores to take care of today as well.

Learning Category	Planned Activities for Today	Time
Geocaching	Try out my new Planning Sheet	2 hr
Model Trains	Continue building Proto 2000 Series 52' 6" Drop End Mill Gondola	1 hr
Mathematics	Continue reading "The Calculus Lifesaver"	1 hr
Literature	Continue slow reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie	2 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

6:30 am

	Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Book One	chapter 7 Methwold
Characters	Saleem Sinai: the narrator Amina Sinai: daughter of Aadam Aziz, now married to Ahmed Sinai Ahmed Sinai: a young merchant William Methwold: British landowner Mr Homi Catrack: racehorse owner & film producer Toxy Catrack: daughter Bi-Appah: family nurse for the Catracks Nussie Ibrahim: pregnant (with a boy, Sonny) Mr Ibrahim Ibrahim: owns sisal farms in Africa Ismail & Ishaq Ibrahim: sons Mr & Mrs Dubash: he a phsicist, she a clerk Dr Narlikar: friend of Ahmed Commander Sabarmati & Lila, his wife Wee Willie Winkie: a street singer & Vanita his wife (also pregnant) Mary Pereira: a midwife Joseph D'Costa: Mary's lover
Quotes	"What had been (at the beginning) no bigger than a full stop had expanded into a comma, a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter; now it was bursting into more complex developments, becoming, one might say, a book - perhaps an encyclopedia - even a whole language ... which is to say that the lump in the middle of my mother grew so large ... " [p. 100] Another superb metaphor.
Summary	This chapter provides a brief history of Bombay and interleaves the life of the British founder of modern Bombay, William Methwold, with the lives of Amina and Ahmed Sinai. The Sinai's buy one of the four large Methwold houses as he is leaving India when independence is declared. The other three houses are bought by other families which introduces a new set of characters to the story. There are now three pregnant women, all due to give birth at about the time of the Indian declaration of independence. Methwold is actually the father of Vanita's child-to-be. Joseph D'Costa senses that there will be violence between Hindu and Muslim when India gains independence and begins to become a violent agitator, arguing that the real enemy is the rich English Christian and that both Muslim and Hindu should be against the British rather than each other. Mary becomes more and more upset as she senses she is losing Joseph to another woman. I have also picked up 15 new characters in a single chapter.

12:20 PM

	Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Book One	chapter 8 Tick, tock
Characters	Saleem Sinai: the narrator Amina Sinai: daughter of Aadam Aziz, now married to Ahmed Sinai Ahmed Sinai: a young merchant William Methwold: British landowner Nussie Ibrahim: pregnant (with a boy, Sonny) Wee Willie Winkie: a street singer & Vanita his wife (also pregnant) Mary Pereira: a midwife
Quotes	"... no people whos word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time." [p. 106] "To understand just one life, you have to understand the world." [p. 109] This is a profound saying. "India, the new myth - a collective fiction in which anything was possible, a fable rivalled only by the two other mighty fantasies: money and God." [p. 112] Rushdie has a way of inserting these zingers into his novels. "After all, one is not born every day." [p. 112] Cute.
Summary	Once again there are two, actually many, different stories, all happening at the same time. India is proclaiming its independence, Amina Sinai is giving birth to her son, Vanita is giving birth to her son, and shortly after, Nussie Ibrahim gives birth to her son. More importantly, Mary Pereira switches the name tags on the two boys born to Amina and Nussie. Thus the biological parents of Saleem Sinai are actually Vanita and William Methwold, but he will be raised by Amina and Ahmed Sinai. Vanita dies giving birth, so Wee Willie Winkie is left to bring up the boy that Amina gave birth to. The title of the book makes sense: there is more than one boy born at midnight and a country is also born at the same moment. Gorgeous.

2:30 PM

I am back from another geocaching trip. This was my third try at the very first geocache that I tried to find (GC16ZFP NS West #2) which is either on, or near a bridge to an island in Nicholas Sheran park. As with my first two efforts this was still a DNF (Did Not Find). Fascinating. I know the cache is a micro, but even so, I thought I carefully looked at every square inch within a radius of 10 feet of where my GPS said the cache was hidden. Nothing. Even being meticulous didn't help. I touched every bolt on the east end of the bridge - a few were slightly loose and one actually came off, but it was still a bolt. I thought I looked in every possible place that anything of any size could be, but I clearly missed one. This cache was found a couple of times on September 27 so I am fairly confident that it is there. My GPS was quite stable, indicating it was near the east end of the bridge. On my first attempt, a couple of months ago, it was bouncing around but seemed to indicate it was near the west end of the bridge. I focused my attention today on the east end but it continues to elude me.

3:30

A technique that has worked well for me when birding looks like it may also work when geocaching. I took a photo of a feature that I thought looked promising, and which I had tried to move, without success. But looking at the photo I am confident that it is the cache. Now to go back and try again to "open it". ... One thing worse than a muggle is a muggle who fishes, right near the cache. I will try again in a couple of hours.

cache

	Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Book Two	chapter 9 The fisherman's pointing finger
Characters	Saleem Sinai: the narrator Amina Sinai: daughter of Aadam Aziz, now married to Ahmed Sinai Ahmed Sinai: a young merchant Mary Pereira: a midwife
Quotes	"I learned: the first lesson of my life: nobody can face the world with his eyes open all the time." [p. 125]
Summary	Book 1 was about the time leading up to the birth of the narrator. Book 2 is about events during his childhood. Ahmed Sinai is beginning to become an alcoholic. He also invests heavily in an idea of Dr. Narlikar about reclaiming land from the sea. Then the state freezes all of Ahmed Sinai's assets in an attempt to encourage him to leave everything and move to Pakistan.

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