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| Links to Notebook Pages: | History |
Wednesday June 21, 2006 4:20 am Lethbridge Alberta
A. Morning Musings
4:20 am The temperature is + 7 C with a high forecast of + 21. There is a 70% chance of showers. Another day of rest before I get the sand and patio stones. I will try removing the mortar from the cement blocks on the rear fence. That should be possible so long as it is not actually raining.
I am having some difficulty determining when I might receive the iPod as the online tracker system indicates it left Tennessee on the 18th but there is no further information on it arriving anywhere. Similar difficulties with finalizing my retirement details. I will phone the uni this morning and see if I can find out the reason for the delay. I will also phone the hobby shop and see if I can obtain an address for the Southern Alberta model train club.
On a more positive note, the MacBook is now at the uni being outfitted with licensed software.
I am also pleased with the strategy of setting aside 2 hours specifically for Learning. Today the focus will continue to be on reading and making notes for "Citizens", a history of the French Revolution. I have yet to settle on a location. I might try the new Starbucks coffee shop on the west side this morning. I will also ask if they provide internet connectivity (and a power outlet). If I walk there (and back), that will count as my daily walk of an hour.
B. Plan
Immediate Chores Buy sand and lay on foundation 2 hr Clean mortar from cement blocks in rear fence 2 hr Health Walk & exercise 1 hr Model Trains Add blue backdrop to layout 2 hr History Continue reading "Citizens" 2 hr Literature Begin reading "The Eagles' Brood" 1 hr Mathematics Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles" 1 hr Later Chores Buy patio bricks and install Buy sealant for join between garage floor and wall Take 5th wheel in for maintenance 2 hr Investigate water softeners for home 2 hr Paint door frame white
1 hr Technology Read manual for cell phone 1 hr Technology digital photography try using extender lens and monopod 2 hr Mathematics Larson "Calculus" History Watson "Ideas" Model Trains Review layout for under the table turnouts Visit Lethbridge Model Train club at 7 PM on Tues 2 hr Wire lower mainline track for a power block Fasten lower mainline track to layout Draw schematic diagram of track layout 2 hr
C. Actual/Notes
6:25 am
I have made the background color for all previous entries a pale green. The additions for today are a brighter green.
1200 -1800 Parlements "The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130."
They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs."
The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.'
105
106
1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular 1715 - 1774 Louis XV indecisive and unpopular
his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars
"Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy."
"As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist."
100
103
1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI. Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.
He was very popular.
he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation
"Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..."
100
102
1700 - 1788 system of "privilege" Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption.
Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received.
"Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility."
"the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy."
115
118
1700 - 1788 system of "venality" Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."
68 1700 - 1788 taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72 1756 - 1763 Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French 1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular 1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152 1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155 1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution.
the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato)
167 1770 - 1800 "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131 1770 The system of Parlements was abolished. 108 1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19 1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs 1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France. 1775 Louis XVI Coronation 1775 The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110 1775 - 1800 there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176 1775 - 1783 American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24 1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe "... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy"
"No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time."
"More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state."
62 1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle.
Lafayette idolized Washington24 1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General 1778 France enters into treaty relations with the USA 1779 French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather 1779 Lafayette returns to France Benjamin Franklin promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic Talleyrand 1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General 1783 Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA 1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65 1783 - 1788 debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64 1788 - 1799 French Revolution "The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it."
It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought."
The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'."
6
40
1789 Storming of the Bastille
7:15 am There is a beautiful quote from the 1770's about the Salon Carre in the Louvre:
"There too, schoolboys give instruction to their teachers ... for it is these young pupils spread amidst this immense gathering who almost always provide the most telling judgements." [p. 132]
7:40 am Here is another beautiful quote:
"In other words, literacy rates in late eighteenth-century France were much higher than in the late twentieth-century United States." p. 180]
As the above table evolves, I am beginning to form a clear idea of the many facets of French history and culture that dovetailed together to result in the French Revolution.
7:50 am I have yet to leave the house. My Learning activities took place in my favorite green chair and then on the computer. Moving a laptop to a coffee lounge seems like a silly idea - that is best done at home. But reading (either literature or a non-fiction book) does make sense.10:25 am I am now back from a walking trip to the Starbucks coffee shop. The coffee was fine and the environment excellent (for me) - very quiet with few customers. On a whim I noticed a book that I had taken to Australia but failed to look at (The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary Flake) and took that with me. It was a great decision. The first few chapters are on number systems and computability. I am going to treat this book very seriously and see what happens. This book was not in my table of tasks to tackle but I will add it to tomorrow's table. That seems to happen a lot - I have a plan and then do something that is not in the plan and I end up altering the plan. I view this as a good thing, but I can see some counter-arguments.
I now have the address for the Southern Alberta model railway club (11 ave & 15 st S). I had the right idea last night, but thought it was west of 13 st and thus missed it. I will try again next Tuesday evening.
A check of the tracking web site for my iPod indicates it is now in Calgary. That means it may arrive this afternoon, or maybe tomorrow.
I have decided to order the sand and have it delivered. That will save me a lot of work shovelling it. Otherwise I would have had to get it into the truck and then out again. I now need to recompute the amount I will need to reflect the slight change in the sidewalk area. My guess is that I will need about 3/4 of a cubic yard. Now to do the numbers. It turns out to be 1/2 a cubic yard (assuming a depth of 2").
2:00 PM Things rarely go as planned, in part because I am often planning in ignorance. It turned out that it only took 20 minutes for 2 of us to shovel the half cubic yard into the truck (thereby saving a $40. delivery charge) and it only took me about 40 minutes to shovel it from the truck to the sidewalk area. Because of the rain during the last couple of weeks the sand is fairly damp and heavy. I am going to see how well it dries out over night before deciding whether I should start putting the patio stones down or waiting another day or two. They estimate that I will need 250 stones and I can come and pick those up when I wish, and in smaller loads, as I see how it is working out.
The forms from the university Human Resources arrived in the mail this morning, so I am now ready to see what needs to be done for my retirement details.
3:00 PM The iPod has just arrived. Everything is coming together today. The only remaining item that comes to mind is having the software installed on the MacBook Pro. No word yet, but there is still an hour and a half before closing time.
D. Reflection