Tuesday April 25, 2006 5:10 am Bagotville NSW 2477

A. Morning Musings

5:10 am The water is on the boil, it is dark outside, and we are out of coffee. Time to taste tea. Today is ANZAC Day in Australia. We have some tentative plans to visit a nearby town and play a little two-up. Today is the one day of the year when this gambling game is legal throughout Australia.

Our (ice) hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, are even after two games against the first-place Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The difference between now and 1979 when we spent my first sabbatical in Armidale, NSW is dramatic. The it was almost impossible to find out what was happening in hockey. I had a small short wave radio and was occasionally able to pick up a Radio Canada signal but it was very iffy. I can still remember listening to the American Armed Forces station with my ear against the receiver and listening to Montreal defeat Boston in overtime. Now I plug in my laptop to a phone line and dial up a computer and access information via the Internet. What a difference 25 years makes.

B. Plan

Chores: none

Technology: begin learning about XSL

History: continue reading and making notes for "Medieval Lives "

C. Actual

7:20 am I have been reviewing the documentation for Stylus Studio for the last couple of hours and finally feel that I understand the complete sequence of steps to create an XML data file, then an XSL file that specifies the stylesheet file, and finally the creation of a new HTML file that applies the stylesheet to the data. At this point I finally feel, for the first time, that I understand the overall process and now I need to focus on the two main dimensions of the detail: creating and validating a data file in XML and creating a stylesheet file in XSL. The latter promises to be the most sophisticated activity. It is now time for a second cup and piece of toast.

Two-up at Brunswick Heads		Approaching rain at Brunswick Heads
Waves at Brunswick Heads

D. Reflection