Wednesday October 15, 2008 7:00 am Lethbridge

It is -7 C with a high forecast of +10 C. Sunrise 7:53 Sunset 18:41 Hours of daylight: 10:28.
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This page last updated on: Thursday, October 16, 2008 5:28 AM

A. Morning Musings

There is another heavy frost on the car this morning.

The small table I created yesterday that compared the number of books I have bought this year with the number I have read has given my additional motivation to increase my reading activities. At the same time, I want to get back to my mathematics: both calculus and symmetry.

I now have 6 hours of "semi-scheduled" Learning activities in front of me for today. I also want to make a quick trip to the Chapters bookstore to buy a biography of Champlain. I have a coupon that will give me a 20% discount on a book that is over $35. While there, I may as well have a Starbucks coffee.

But my first activity today will be calculus.

Learning Category	Planned Activities for Today	Time
Literature	Continue reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie	1 hr
Mathematics	Calculus	1 hr
Mathematics	Symmetry	1 hr
History	Begin reading "A Fair Country"	1 hr
Geocaching	Play with Preparation Sheets and pdf files	1 hr
Model Trains	Begin building kit for cylindrical hopper car	1 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

10:00 am

I am pleased with my early morning hour with calculus. I have read the first 16 pages of "The Calculus Lifesaver" by Banner. This is basically a review of the basic idea of a function, which I certainly need, but there was no real difficulty. It covered functions, their inverse, the composition of functions, and the sketching of their graphs. It also described odd and even functions and showed how this can be useful if one is familiar with part of their graph.

I had a brief look at the other two books that I plan on using, "The Mathematics Survival Kit" by Jack Weiner and "The Humungous Book of Calculus Problems" by Michael Kelley. Weiner strongly advises that after reading a section, to go back over it and when an example is given, to immediately copy the question, close the book, and see if you can do it yourself. If yes, great. If not, then it is time to review that section closely. I am going to try following his advice. The Kelley book begins with linear equations which is the next section in Banner. I will stay with Banner as my primary resource and then look at both Weiner and Kelley when I have finished a section to see if they can supplement it.

11:30 am

I have now created a pdf file that contains all of my logs from my August geocaching activities. I am delighted with the results. The document contains 30 pages from 12 different "searches", and takes 530kB of storage. Most searches take 2 pages, but there are a few with either a very large description or more than a couple of photos.

1:00 PM

I am back from a quick trip to the Chapters bookstore. I was hoping to buy "Champlain's Dream" but it had not arrived in the store yet. Darn. However I did spot a book that I first noticed in Kelowna a couple of weeks ago. I ended up with 3.

Canada Rocks: The Geologic Journey. (2007). Nick Eyles & Andrew Miall.
- This is the book I noticed in Kelowna. I have read descriptions of it on the web and, after looking at it for about 20 minutes in the store, decided it was a keeper.
Rock and Gem. (2008). Ronald Louis Bonewitz.
- This is a follow-up to the Earth Cache I viewed in Edmonton last week. I really wanted a reference book on various types of rocks and minerals. This looks like a superb reference.
Solitude. (2008). Robert Kull.
- This is a description of a year spent alone in the pategonia wilderness. It looks fascinating.

And I will still have to return to the store in a few days when the Champlain book comes in.

Books on the Go Today

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