Wednesday April 26, 2006 6:15 am Bagotville NSW 2477

A. Morning Musings

6:15 am It has been raining on and off for most of yesterday and through the night. The forecast is for a few days of cool weather with showers. The coffee is in the plunger. I now have a nice woollen blanket wrapped around me to keep me warm while using the laptop.

We went to Brunswick Heads yesterday and had a wonderful time. The two-up game was the highlight: people watching at its best. We arrived back at the house well after dark. On the drive home I had to stop the car to avoid running over a Tawny Frogmouth owl. Only when I backed up and drove around it, did it finally fly off. That was lifer # 152 and it was our first owl.

Now for today. Nothing comes to mind.

B. Plan

Chores: none

Technology: continue learning about XSL

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

Literature: "A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolfe.

C. Actual

6:45 am I am about to continue playing with Stylus Studio and XML. But first I want to watch two Wonga Pigeons that have just arrived outside my window. And a Kookaburra has just flown into the tree above them.

4:40 PM We spent a very enjoyable late morning/early afternoon with two of our favorite ladies. We then did a little shopping at the nearby Lismore Square shopping mall for essentials: a couple of warm clothes for me, some wine for us, and a few food items. We are now set.

My session early this morning with Stylus Studio turned out to be very successful. I have now gone through all the steps of creating an XMl data file, a schema file for checking the data for validity, and XSL stylesheet file, and a final HTML file that integrates the data file with the stylesheet file. The major remaining issue is to become more familiar with the stylesheep options.

We are also getting very good at spending the afternoon with a fine Australian red on the verandah. At least until it gets too cool to be enjoyable. Now that we have hit 150 for our bird total we are relaxing and letting the birds come to us. So far this is only working for repeaters such as the Eastern Yellow Robin, the Wonga Pigeon, and the Grey Fantail. And that is just fine.

Edmonton won their hockey game against Detroit and now lead the series 2 - 1. It is heady stuff to actually be leading a series after almost a decade. Hope springs eternal, but we shall see ... Detroit did finish first, and Edmonton eighth.

Here are a few quotes from the Introduction to the Viginia Woolf collection of short stories: A Haunted House.

• "Woolf's writing shows for the first time in this story [The mark on the Wall] its fantastic dragonfly quality - hovering and then leaping, defying gig lamp chronology, spending a page on an instant then hurtling through several centuries in the space of a paragraph. Here too for the first time her extraordinary syntax is given free rein, the long fluid sentences endlessly bifurcating, the host of semicolons leading down the garden path; then there is her refusal to close off possibilities; or to follow a straight line; and the darting down avenues and green lanes of thought and so on into mazes; with you, the reader, running after her breathless and delighted." [p. viii]
• "She was to continue using 'these short things' as places of freedom where she could experiment with narrative technique and limber up for her novels." [p. viii]
• The phrase 'Monday or Tuesday' appears again, as part of her thoughts on a possible new approach to writing novels, in her essay 'Modern Fiction' - 'Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day. the mind receives a myriad impressions - trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel. From all sides they come, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms; and as they fall, as they shape themselves into the life of Monday or Tuesday, the accent falls differently from of old.' " [p. ix]

D. Reflection

8:20 PM While driving into Lismore this morning, it suddenly occurred to me that it might be a good idea if we changed our whole routine the next time we visit Australia. After getting settled after the plane trip we could drive to Adelaide (either via Melbourne, which would give us a chance to see Victoria again, or via Broken Hill, which we enjoyed about 15 years ago when we drove to Ulurhu. After a few days in the Adelaide region, visiting a few wineries, we could then head west and drive the Nullabar plain and arrive in Perth where we could stay for a few weeks and see the sights in that part of the country. We would have no university commitments this time and could make up our agenda as we went.

Since that is over a year away, it makes sense to focus more on the immediate future. This will likely involve some camping with the 5th wheel (in Kananaskis country - the Mt, Kidd campground) or in David Thompson country near Saskatchewan Crossing. Getting in physical shape for a hike to Mt. Assiniboine is also a possibility. I want to have a close look at an ellipitical exercise machine.

Hobby- wise, I want to work on my model train layout and DCC.

Technology is still an interest. I want to become sufficiently proficient with XML and XSLT to be able to redesign my major Learning websites and to perhaps set up some generic approaches for personal self-study.

Mathematics and calculus should not be forgotten, but at least at the moment, that is less attractive than what I have thought of first.

As a general principle, I will try to read at least 4 books that I already have in my possession for every new book that I buy.

Relaxing in the late afternoon