Sunday December 3, 2006 6:30 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:08 Sunset 16:34 Hours of daylight: 8:26

A. Morning Musings

6:30 am It is -2 C at the moment with a high of 0 C forecast.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 12:25 PM

Yesterday unfolded much like I suggested. Politically, both the federal Liberal leader election as well as the Alberta Progressive Conservative leader (and Alberta premier) election resulted in an unexpected underdog winning in a very close and last-minute result. In sports, the Ashes is still poised at a critical point as Australia had a strong inning. Cross-country skiing: I liked the trails at Allison Creek in the Crowsnest Pass. It was a great feeling to be out on the snow again.

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Mathematics	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves	1 hr
	Make notes on the beginnings of number theory	1 hr
History	Complete reading "Citizens"	2 hr
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" Volume 1	2 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Virginia Woolfe: The Inner Life" by Julia Briggs	1 hr
	Begin reading "Selected Works of Virginia Woolf" - Jacob's Room	1 hr
Later
Chores	Investigate water softeners for home
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Begin reading "iPhoto"
	digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings
Philosophy	Read "The Art of Living" by Epictetus
Mathematics	Larson "Calculus"
	Read "Symmetry" by Hermann Weyl
	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
History	Watson "Ideas"
Model Trains	Build oil refinery diorama: add ground cover
	Assemble second oil platform kit
	Assembly of CN 5930, an SD40-2 with a NAFTA logo
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9

C. Actual/Notes

	GO 09 December 3
GO Chronology
Notes for Learning to play the strategy game of GO. 7:40 PM I have just finished the problems in "Graded Go Problems for Beginners". Volume 1 Introductory Problems. "Graded GO problems for Beginners Volume One Introductory Problems" Level Three Section 5 Ko. Problems 175 - 178. Easy. Section 6 Capturing Races. Problems 179 - 182. Easy. "Graded GO problems for Beginners Volume One Introductory Problems" Level Four Section 1 Atari. Problems 183 - 192. All easy. Section 2 Capturing Races. Problems 193 - 196. All easy. Section 3 Nets. Problems 197 - 200. All easy. Section 4 Snapback. Problems 201 - 204. All easy. Section 5 Oiotoshi. Problems 205 - 208. All easy. Sectiion 6 Brilliant Moves and Bad Moves. Problems 209 - 211. I missed all of these. Section 7 Seki. Problems 212 - 215. All easy. Section 8 Connecting and Separating Stones. Problems 216 - 221. All easy. Section 9 Living Groups and Dead Groups. Problems 222 - 233. All easy. Section 10 How to Play in the Opening. Problems 234 - 235. All easy. Section 11 Endgame. Problems 236 - 239. All easy. Now to play 3 games of 9x9 GO++, using my conventional parameters of level 2, I will take black and white has a 6.5 komi. Here are the results of my 3 games of GO++: Game 1: I win by 19.5 points. This is the first time I have aggressively penetrated the computer's territory. Game 2: I win by 11.5 points. A second time that I am successful. Game 3: I lose by 3.5 points. A good game, but it was able to penetrate one of my sides just enough for the victory. SUMMARY of the session: The fact that I am able to immediately see the solution to over 90% of the problems and to see the remainder within a couple of minutes would suggest that I am in the 27 - 26 kyu range. However such a ranking is only based on these problems rather than on actual game playing. I am skeptical of the ranking at the moment. I have the second book in this series: "Graded Go Problems for Beginners. Volume Two Elementary Problems. 25-kyu to 20-kyu." I will begin this in the next day or two. This is the first strong set of three games that I have played. Definitely encouraging.

D. Reflection