Friday, May 13, 2011 Toronto

5:00 am

The temperature is +10 C, with a high predicted of +21 C.

From the Environment Canada website:

Today Becoming cloudy this morning. 60 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm late this afternoon. High 21. UV index 4 or moderate. Tonight Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this evening and after midnight with risk of a thunderstorm. Low 13. Normals Max: 19°C Min: 9°C

The weather forecast for the next 5 days is terrible. Rain and cool temperatures.

5:30 am Literature

The iPad was a delight on the plane. I was able to read "Autobiography of Mark Twain" for a couple of hours, then took a break and played a few games of Go. When I first bought the iPad I downloaded a strategy game called Trainyard EX but I had never tried playing it until now.

I am loving the Mark Twain book, particularly on the iPad. I make liberal use of the yellow highlighting feature and even made a few notes using that feature.

There is a delightful section when Mark Twain comments on political morality.

"Without a blush he will vote for an unclean boss if that boss is his party's Moses, without compunction he will vote against the best man in the whole land if he is on the other ticket". [p. 306]

Although he was alluding to the Rupublican/Democrat parties in the US, we have a similar situation, particularly in Alberta where the majority will vote Conservative regardless of the calibre of the candidate. Frustrating!

Twain goes on to describe what happened when Twain and two of his friends decided to vote for the other candidate. It almost ruined the lives of his two friends as this was viewed as being traitorous. At that time everyone's vote was public and was posted in the papers. I had no idea that was ever possible.

This section of about 20 pages beginning at page 300 contains a fair amount of social commentary and moves on from the morality of voting to the morality of fighting for one's country. Autobiography is a good vehicle for expressing one's views.

Here is a quote on educational funding, which was the reason for a Booker T. Washington gathering:

"... you cannot make equally good citizens where in one part of the country a child has $1.50 expended for his education and in another part of the country another child has $20. spent for his enlightenment." [p. 309]

Twain goes on to describe a number of lies that we live by.

"... There are certain sweet-smelling sugar-coated lies current in the world which all politic men have apparently tactly conspired together to support and perpetuate. One of these is, that there is such a thing in the world as independence: independence of thought, independence of opinion, independence of action. Another is, that the world loves to see independence - admires it, applauds it. Another is, that there is such a thing in the world as toleration - in religion, in politics, ... Out of these trunk-lies spring many branch ones: to wit the lie that not all men are slaves; the lie that men are glad when other men succeed, glad when they prosper; glad to see them reach lofty heights; sorry to see them fall again ... one other branch- lie, to wit, that I am I, and you are you; that we are units, individuals, and have natures of our own, instead of being the tail-end of a tape-worm eternity of ancestors extending in linked procession back - and back - and back - to our source in the monkeys ... [p. 312 -313]

Mark Twain makes me smile and think at the same time. I like that. This ebook is full of such passages.

This entire section was written early the following morning while I was sipping on a fresh cup of coffee and looking out at the CN tower. A great way to begin the day.

11:30 am Birding

We did a little birding along the waterfront of Lake Ontario this morning. For about 40 minutes we focused on the birds that were flitting among the trees. We had no difficulty identifying a few White-crowned Sparrows, but we were not sure about 2 different yellow warblers. I did manage to get a couple of photos and we then realized that one of these was a Magnolia Warbler (a lifer for Canada, but we had seen it in Mexico) and the other was a Yellow Warbler. We also saw a grey/pale yellow bird, which we finally identified with help from our Kingston friends, to be a Gray Catbird.

Although it was likely a good idea to only take the small Panosonic camera (lighter) , it would have been nice to have the Canon with a telephoto lens. I need to find a camera case for the Canon that is light and compact.