Thursday October 16, 2008 5:15 am Lethbridge

It is +4 C with a high forecast of +11 C. Sunrise 7:55 Sunset 18:39 Hours of daylight: 10:24.
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This page last updated on: Friday, October 17, 2008 5:35 AM

A. Morning Musings

Yesterday I had 6 hours of "semi-scheduled" Learning activities in front of me, but only completed 3 of them. I liked my early morning effort with calculus and will try to repeat that this morning.

I liked the friction stand that TeamDJM had for holding their gps unit on the dashboard of their vehicle. I did a check of the online ordering system that the Calgary store (GPS Central) and noticed that they also have a similar stand for my model. I think I will place an order this morning.

Looking at the table for Planned Acitivites, I like what I created yesterday. I will stay with it today and see if I can't focus on getting all 6 activities accomplished.

Learning Category	Planned Activities for Today	Time
Literature	Complete reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie	2 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; iPhone details	1 hr
Model Trains	Begin building kits for 4 cylindrical hopper cars	2 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

6:40 am

I have reviewed my calculus notes from yesterday and consolidated my understanding of a few key concepts (function, domain, codomain, range, graph). I understand how to determine the domain of a mathematical expression by noting where it is undefined. I understand how to determine the range of an expression when given the graph of the function by using the idea of shadows on the y-axis. I understand how to test a graph to see if it represents a function by using the vertical line test. This may not be very impressive, but there is a strong "feeling" within me that I really do understand these ideas.

On the other hand I also recall the first chapter from Michael Spivak's classic textbook "Calculus" where he says that the fundamental ideas of calculus are inexplicably tied up with our ideas of number. The concept of a real number is actually a very difficult and subtle idea.

I then spent a few minutes trying to extend these ideas to more than two dimensions and then I started to wonder about fractional dimensions (which I know is related to fractals - but I am not familiar with the details). From here it was a small step to wondering about negative dimensions. I cannot recall seeing anything about this so I tried googling "negative dimension". Here was the first hit:

http://www.angelpage.co.uk/fractalworld/week24.htm

Tomorrow I hope to continue this with a review of inverse functions and composite functions.

7:30 am

Toy of the Day: http://www.geocaching.com/iphone/

This actually looks like it could be fairly good. There are hundreds, if not more, little applications appearing for the iPhone. This is just the beginning.

9:10 am

I have created a few more geocache logs for my earlier efforts. I am now up to September 6. That represented Find #10 on my 20th attempt to find a geocache. At that point I was batting 50%, which is not great, but many of the DNFs were micros in West Lethbridge which are definitely giving me difficulties.

2:00 PM

Model Trains: I have begun assembling 4 Intermountain kits for 4 cylindrical covered hopper cars (CN 382001, CN 377990, ALNX 396478, ALPX 628114). I have completed step 1 for all 4 cars. Details at Dales Depot.

7:00 PM

I have finished reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie. I fully see why it was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" award in 1993. Amazing and impressive.

Midnight's Children

Salman Rushdie

This is one of the most intricate and clever stories that I have ever read. It is not easy, but the notes I made while "slow reading" the first half of the book allowed me to keep the structure clear. It is a tapestry of histories: of India, of insignificant people, of potential, and reality.

Here are three quotes from the last few pages:

"You should understand that when a man loses interest in new matters, he is opening the door for the Black Angel." [p. 446]
"We must live, I'm afraid, with the shadows of imperfection." [p. 459]
"One day, perhaps, the world may tste the pickles of history. They may be too strong for some palates, their smell may be overpowering, tears may rise to the eyes; I hope nevertheless that it will be possible to say of them that they possess the authentic taste of truth ... that they are, despite everything, acts of love." [p. 461]

I would rate this story as 5 out of 5.

Tags: fiction, England