Saturday January 21, 2006 7:00 am Ballina NSW

A. Morning Musings

7:00 am Blue sky! It looks like the rains are over. There is a lot of mopping up to do in the region. The flash floods caused a lot of damage. The Pacific highway was closed just north of Ballina, the road to Lismore from Bangalow was cut and the small town of Bilinungel (where we had our car fixed last March) was totally swamped. However there were no problems with the area where our unit is located.

I will not have Internet access until tomorrow, so any tasks that involve that will have to wait one more day. I am viewing this as good news - it forces me off the screen (at least for those activities). However I am still able to create and edit web pages using Dreamweaver, and thus maintain my daily Journal entries, as well as use other software packages such as Stylus Studio, Inspiration, Mind Genius and Mathematica. And there are always books.

I am looking forward to seeing the state of the beaches this morning and noticing whether they are beginning to recover yet.

The last few mornings have emphasized a concern for planning and time management. However I now appear to have that well in hand. It has only taken a few minutes to set up a Plan for the day. As with yesterday, I want to add one item that will shorten my January list of item to do. One that is easy is that of adding a photo of me doing my tummy exercise "the bicycle".

I would like to add a couple of links to this that gives information on the value of this exercise, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. 7:40 am

B. Plan

7:15 am Chores: None come to mind.

Exercise: Tummy stuff and a beach walk.

Technology: Continue some Learning about Stylus Studio.

Literature: Make Web notes for chapters 15 & 16, read chapters 17 & 18.

History: Make notes for chapter 1 of Ideas.

Food, Mathematics, Art and Drawing will not be active. 7:20 am

C. Actual

7:40 am Now to enjoy my coffee while making my notes for chapter 1 of Ideas by Peter Watson. Using Mind Genius to make a mind map was a great idea! However I must learn to save each version with a different name. Otherwise I end up with only the final version and am unable to reconstruct the development of the chart.

The original mind map is saved in the History Notebooks web site. However I have copied the files onto this web site in order to display the results as I have yet to set up my History Notebooks site for just my 2006 entries. If you have Mind Genius installed on your own computer then here is the original mind map for the Introduction, and here is the mind map with chapter 1 included. If you do not have Mind Genius then here is a screen capture for chapter 1:

This has been an exhilerationg two hours. Although Peter Watson has written a fascinating book, I have just created both a mind map and, more importantly, a new cognitive structure in my own mind. The overall pattern is much clearer than it was when I had simply read the chapter. I understood what I was reading at the time, but that is not the same as fashioning (or as Piaget would say, re-equilibrating) ones own mind to accommodate the material. The effort involved in creating, rather than looking at someone's else work - be it Peter Watson's book or my mind map - is essential to having both an internal understanding as well as a higher likelihood of remembering the material later. Memory is largely one of understanding which is primarily about seeing connections, relationships and patterns.

Now for my exercise routine and then a well-earned break. 9:30 am

11:40 am We are back from the beaches. The foam is down but the debris is up:

Perhaps the beaches will open tomorrow. The water looks a lot better than yesterday. It may be a bit longer before most of the debris disappears.

12:40 PM There is a genuine place in one's life, at least in mine, for seeking out the unfamiliar. Yesterday was a good example, when I purchased three magazines that were new to me (Dumbo feather, pass it on; Quadrant; and Philosophy Now). I have just finished my first hour with the first magazine. First, what an inspired title for a magazine. What does one do with a Dumbo feather? Think about it. Even better, they provide one inside the magazine!

Now that I have read the first article, I realize that the magazine itself contains interviews with 5 individuals. Based on the first interview, and a glance at the second, the key is to have an interesting person that is worth interviewing. The magazine itself contains almost no (!) advertising. It epitomizes good design and does not let advertising interfere with the message. There are a couple of ads at the front and back of the magazine but nothing in between. The layout for the interview is a combination of graphics and text, but once again, they do not interfere with each other. There are a number of photos of the first interviewee, Jonathan Pease (whom I had never heard of), but one is left to determine the relevance of the photos to the interview and to the remaining graphic images. I love this - we spend too much of our effort in spoon feeding the viewer (or student, in the case of education). I may not provide notes for all of the interviews, but I am already delighted with this magazine. It has made me think. Thank you! 1:00 PM

Life is good.

8:00 PM I spent a couple of hours mid-afternoon revising my Literature site to fit a one year (2006) framework. It is now ready for uploading to the web server. I will now see about making some Literature notes for "The Story of the Stone". I have completed my notes for chapters 15 and 16. 9:20 PM

D. Reflection

9:20 PM

Exercise: Tummy stuff and a beach walk. Done.

Technology: Continue some Learning about Stylus Studio. Nope. Instead I revised the Literature web site. I am pleased with this as I am getting the four major web sites that I am creating notes for (Technology, Mathematics, Literature, History). Technology and Literature and now functional and will likely be put on the web server on Monday. Tomorrow is for relaxing.

Literature: Make Web notes for chapters 15 & 16. Done. Failed to read chapters 17 & 18.

History: Make notes for chapter 1 of Ideas. Done.

I am up to date with my new web sites for Journals, Technology and Literature. History is moving forward, but still needs to be revised. My Birds site also needs to be revised shortly. I think I will focus on History and Birds since they are both fairly short before tackling Mathematics.

9:35 PM