Wednesday, December 14, 2011 Lethbridge

6:00 am

The temperature is 0° C, with a high predicted of -7° C. From the Environment Canada website: Today A mix of sun and cloud. Wind west 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light late this morning. Temperature falling to minus 7 this afternoon. Tonight Clearing late this evening. Low minus 15. Normals Max: 0°C Min: -12°

10:20 am Photography

Here are photos of the two cars I bought for my model train layout a few days ago.

This time I used the close-up setting on my camera (the little flower icon) and I used a small table lamp to provide the lighting. This was necessary to avoid having the setting automatically turn on the camera's flash.

This is a noticeable improvement over the photos I have been taking.

1:20 PM Literature

Murakami's "1Q84" is a delight. I am now at the stage where I only read a couple of chapters and then take a break to let it all set in.

As an aside, here are a few more quotes that caught my attention:

 

 

 

• "Why do people have to build such depressing places? I'm not saying that every nook and cranny of the world has to be beautiful, but does it have to be this ugly?" [p. 570]
  • I agree. I really agree!
• "But actually time isn't a straight line. It doesn't have a shape. In all senses of the term, it doesn't have any form." [p. 625]
  • Perfect.
• "There were only a few government offices and companies that managed information by computer. It cost too much and took too much effort." [p. 652]
  • I wonder how many companies would agree with this today. Perhaps a lot.
• "The world might be reduced to a battlefield, the smell of blood everywhere, where computer managers and hackers fought it out. No, 'the smell of blood' isn't accurate, Ushikawa decided. It was a war, so there was bound to be some bloodshed. But there wouldn't be any smell. What a weird world. Ushikawa preferred a world where smells and pain still existed, even if the smells and pain were unendurable. Still, people like Ushikawa might become out-of-date relics." [p. 662]
  • This does appear to be prophetic.
• "He took notes and made copies of relevant documents. He liked doing research at the library. He liked the feeling of accumulating knowledge in his brain. It was something he had enjoyed ever since he was a child." [p. 663]
  • Me too. This is a more upbeat quote than the previous few.
  • Although the novel contains some dark passages, its overall tone is very positive.
• "... most people in the world don't really use their brains to think. And people who don't think are the ones who don't listen to others." [p. 695]
  • Subtle.
• " 'But once the ego is born into this world, it has to shoulder morality. You would do well to remember that.'
  'Who said that?'
  'Wittgenstein' " [p. 717]
  • Murakami inserts the most incredible information into his novel.
• "Even if the life force here was weak, and his father was unconscious, metabolism went on unchanged." [p. 719]
  • Another quote that brings to mind my recent readings on molecular biology.

The following is a new feature that I am testing.