Friday July 21, 2006 7:30 am Edmonton Alberta

A. Morning Musings

7:30 am

We are now in Edmonton for the weekend. The drive up yesterday was uneventful (good) and the weather was excellent. This is supposed to be the busiest weekend of the year in Edmonton. The Capital Exhibition began yesterday with a huge parade and will run for 10 days. The Edmonton Eskimos had a home game last night (which we went to), there is a major car race on Sunday and a folk festival is also on.

I phoned a model train dealer to verify that they had an NRMA gauge and some 3 strand wire for wiring my turnouts. The answer to both questions was yes, so I will drive over there this morning and take care of that item. The rest of the day should be fairly free. Tonight we will have dinner out at the farm.

It feels a little funny to be on the computer, but not to have Internet connectivity.

We may do a little birding but that will depend on whether we have the time. There were a couple of blue jays in the backyard when we arrived. I will see if I can get a good photo of one of them today.

Overall, I am not sure of what I will do today. The forecast is for +32 C.

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Model Trains	Purchase an NRMA gauge and some terminal blocks while in Edmonton	1 hr
Later
Literature	Continue reading "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant"	1 hr
Chores	Take cement blocks to landfill	2 hr
	Repair grouting on a few kitchen tiles	1 hr
	Paint rear outdoor light black	1 hr
	Stain compost bin	2 hr
	Investigate water softeners for home	2 hr
	Build 4 more book boxes
Technology	Read manual for cell phone	1 hr
	add keywords to iPhoto records
	Make notes for chap. 3 of "Switching to the Mac"	2 hr
	Begin reading "iPhoto"	1 hr
	digital photography
Mathematics	Larson "Calculus"
	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 2	1 hr
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
History	Continue reading "Citizens"
	Watson "Ideas"
Model Trains	Add blue backdrop to layout	2 hr
	Shop for a base for my refinery diorama
	Assemble second oil platform kit
	Assemble wooden trestle kit
	Review layout for under the table turnouts
	Wire lower mainline track for a power block

C. Actual/Notes

1:30 PM Shopping this morning was a success. I was able to purchase an NRMA gauge as well as three terminal strips (one 6 terminals and two 8 terminals) and some 4 strand wire for the turnouts (I will simply remove one strand and keep it for some future use).

	Technology Session 9 July 21
Technology Chronology
1:30 PM I re-read and yellow highlighted Chapter 3 The Dock, Toolbar and Sidebar of "Switching to the Mac" this morning. Now it is time to make a few notes. Chap. 3 The Dock, Toolbar and Sidebar [p. 81 - 96] "The Dock is a launcher ... and a 'what's open' listing ... a tiny triangle beneath a program's icon tells you it's open." [p. 81] "Any icon you drag onto the Dock is installed there as a large icon. A single click ... opens the corresponding icon. ... the Dock is an ideal parking lot for the icons of disks, folders, documents, and programs you frequently use." [p. 81] "The fine dark line running down the middle of the Dock ... is the divider. Everything on the left side is a program. Everything else foes on the right side: files, documents, folders and disks." [p. 82] "If you retain nothing else in this chapter, remember this: If you hold down the mouse on a folder or disk icon on the right side of the Dock, a list of its contents sprouts from the icon. [p. 82] This is a new feature. I have been trying this for the last few minutes and think I have it under control. I can move the Dock to the right side of the screen by using the keyboard stroke Apple ->Dock ->Position on Right. [p. 85] I am now trying this to see if I prefer it to being at the bottom. There is more space on the right of the screen than on the bottom. The book suggests putting your Home folder on the Dock. It also suggests putting the Applications folder and the Documents folder on the Dock. [p. 88] This took me awhile as I didn't see a Home folder. I finally realized it was called User and I quickly changed it to Dale. I now think I understand what is found in this folder. "The Sidebar is a pane on the left side of every navigation window. ... Good things to put here: favorite programs, disks on the network to which you often connect, a document you are working on every day." [p. 88 - 89] "The Sidebar makes disk-ejecting easy. Just click the eject button next to any removable disk to make it pop out." [p. 90] "It makes disk-burning easy. When you've inserted a blank CD or DVD and loaded it up with stuff you want to copy, click the burn icon next to its name. The Finder dutifully begins burning the disc." [p. 90] "You can drag onto its folders and disks. You can use the Sidebar icons exactly as though they were the 'real' disks, folders, and programs they represent." [p. 90] "It simplifies connecting to networked disks. Park your other computers' hard drive icons here." (chap. 5) [p. 90] Using this is going to take awhile. before it becomes a habit. The finder Toolbar can be modified by using View -> Customize Toolbar. [p. 93] I have just done this and have added icons for ejecting, burning, get info as well as new folder and delete. There are many new features described in this chapter. I must remember to review this once in awhile. 3:20 PM

 

D. Reflection