Monday, May 31, 2021
My May 2021 Running and Walking Report
Sunday, May 30, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from Through the Wormhole
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning
After signing up for the Florida Track Club's track meet at Fred Cone Park on the 7th of May and then skipping it, I was gratified to learn that the Deport Parkrun had resumed its free Saturday morning 5K races at Depot Park here in Gainesville: here was a chance after all for me to get a race in during May! So this morning I got up a little past six and went down there to join the other early-risers for the 7:30 event. The organizers and volunteers had everything going smoothly and were very friendly and encouraging. To run this event you need to preregister online, from which you will be given barcodes to print out and take with you to the race. Then, when you finish, a volunteer will hand you another barcoded card for you to take with your own barcode slip to the scanning station. There the results are entered and later posted online on their website...click here to view today's results. The skies for this morning were clear and at race time the temperature was 71 with 86% humidity. The course undulates through the park and, although not exactly hilly, does slope a bit here and there. It's also very pretty with some neat scenery to look at. The 3.1 mile length is divided into 4 laps on the course, so it's easy to judge your own progress after each one with a volunteer barking out the split time as you pass by. For the first couple of laps I felt very rough and out of shape, with some runners passing me...but with lap #3 onward to the end I settled into my familiar "groove" and drew on those energy reserves I knew I had, finishing strong. I ended with a time of 30:50, not my best but better than the 32:40 I ran at last month's Headwaters 5K. Since it's held at Depot Park there are restroom facilities...as well as water for those who didn't bring their own hydration. Today's run went very well for me and although I didn't achieve an unspoken goal to break 30 minutes, I feel hopeful that in the weeks to come this will happen...
Friday, May 28, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Psyche Roxas-Menoza
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Just Finished Reading Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1972 Science Fiction, Part 1
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Game of the Week: Qix
Monday, May 24, 2021
A Little Metaphysical Diversion Into Time and Subjective Existence
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from Monk
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Just Finished Reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Friday, May 21, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Bruce Lee
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Just Finished Reading If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
If Beale Street Could Talk is a 1974 novel by James Baldwin, adapted to film three years ago. It depicts the struggles and family relationships of Tish and Fonny, a young black engaged couple deeply in love with each other as they must deal not only with racism in their everyday life in the heart of New York City but also a justice system with scant sense of justice, as Fonny finds himself jailed on a false charge of rape while the victim, a Puerto Rican woman who identified him in a lineup in which he was the only black man, has returned to her native island and is uncooperative with Fonny's lawyer. The narrative, presented from Tish's viewpoint, alternates between her childhood, the events leading up to Fonny's arrest by a racist cop with a personal vendetta against Fonny, and the ongoing efforts to free him. In all of this are the two's respective families, each member vividly presented with their distinctive personality and hang-ups, with tensions brought out by Tish's revelation of her pregnancy with Fonny's baby...I was entranced by the interactions: my favorite character was Tish's assertive-yet-compassionate older sister Ernestine. The way suspects are arrested and incarcerated on drug charges, how plea bargaining causes suspects to admit "guilt" when they are really innocent, the brutal conditions within jail, the deep flaws of suspect lineups, overly steep imposed bails, and police allowed to run roughshod with their actions and unquestioned words are all covered here in this necessarily difficult story. Sure, it's fiction, but I have no doubt that the author composed it with a number of real stories in his mind. As a sidelight, I dug Fonny's dream of being a successful sculptor as he rents out his studio and goes after it. This was my first James Baldwin book: I don't think it will be my last...
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1971 Science Fiction, Part 3
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Game of the Week: Bulls and Cleots (Bulls and Cows)
Bulls and Cleots is an obscure pen and pencil game typically played by two people...in my sixth grade at Nova Blanche Forman Elementary around early 1968 it became something of the rage among the geeky, nerdy brain kids, so naturally I was all into it. Our version of the game was for each player to write down a four-digit number, no repeating digits, and keep it face-down on the side. Then we take turns speaking out numbers in our progressive goal to guess the others' number before they guess ours. So, say, I have "3672" as my "secret" number and my opponent calls out "4625". The "6" is guessed correctly, not only for being within my number but also in the correct place: so that's a "bull". The other numeral guessed that is present in mine is "2", but it is out of place so it is a "cleot". My response to "4625" is to say "1 bull, 1 cleot": this process gives clues eventually leading to the correct solution. We go back and forth until one of us gets the right answer...and then on to the next game. With the name "bulls and cleots"...which for decades I thought was "bulls and cleods"...the "bull" is obviously short for "bullseye", but I haven't as yet found on the Internet any definition of what the heck a "cleot" is. The game was later adapted to an electronic version on Mastermind in the mid-1970s, and I think its now available as a phone app called "bulls and cows". I liked it because, frankly, I was pretty doggone good at reasoning out the solution. Sadly, I haven't played it since the 1960s, though. There's no reason I see why the game can't be expanded to more digits than 4...say 5 or 6...but once you approach 10 the nature of the game drastically changes...
Monday, May 17, 2021
Just Finished Reading The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from Family Guy
Saturday, May 15, 2021
About the CDC's Thursday Announcement Concerning the Fully Vaccinated
Friday, May 14, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Mitch McConnell
Thursday, May 13, 2021
My Take on Tim Tebow Trying to Rejoin the NFL
The sports media world is abuzz with the news of Tim Tebow's signing of a one-year contract as a tight end with the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League. That his former college coach and close mentor Urban Meyer just got the job as that franchise's head coach is the obvious reason. Tebow is the kind of player who is useful, but only in certain roles within certain offensive sets...something Josh McDaniels knew back when he had his Denver Broncos draft him as quarterback in the first round back in 2010 before being fired at the end of that dismal season, thereby immediately putting Tebow's status with the club in limbo when the new incoming owner, John Elway...along with new coach John Fox...didn't share the former coach's enthusiasm for his talents. In spite of this Tebow performed admirably as the Broncos' starting QB for the final three regular season games in 2010 and then picked up a last-place team the following year and led them to the division title and a dramatic first-round playoff win against hated Pittsburgh. For this Elway had him traded the next year to the New York Jets, a team that was already committed to its own starting quarterback Mark Sanchez. Although Tebow acquitted himself well in the very few playing chances he had there, he was let go after the season. Then the following summer he practiced with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, who cut him just before the season. After failing to make the Philadelphia Eagles team, Tebow tried his hand at professional baseball but never made it to the majors. He's now ten years older from that miraculous 2011 season with Denver, but still seems to be in good shape and of course during the intervening years has not had the cumulative physical wear and tear on his body he otherwise would have if he had been playing football all that time. As expected, the naysayers in the sports media are outraged at Tebow's signing, some pointing to other players they say should have had another chance before Tebow. As for my opinion, I rooted for him back in the University of Florida years when he won the Heisman Trophy as well as two national championships with Meyer for the Gators, but always felt that he tended to be idolized too much by his fans while doing nothing to dissuade them. Still, I wanted him to be successful in the pros and thought that the Broncos and Jets didn't give him a proper chance to succeed. On the other hand...unlike now...in those years Tim Tebow had stubbornly insisted on only being a starting quarterback and wasn't flexible (or humble) enough to consider other positions like running back or (now) tight end. I said back then that he would have been tremendously successful both as a runner, in the style of the Dolphins' Hall of Famer Larry Csonka, as well as a player blocking for others. I wish him well, but I also hope his more vocal supporters will back off and just let him play the game without booing and screaming for him to be put in as quarterback. Maybe he won't make the cut this year either, but I'm with him going for this opportunity...
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1971 Science Fiction, Part 2
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Game of the Week: Concentration
Monday, May 10, 2021
Political Narratives Becoming Dangerously Homogenous
Sunday, May 9, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from The Beverly Hillbillies
Saturday, May 8, 2021
Just Finished Reading Tangerine by Catherine Mangan
Friday, May 7, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Paulo Coelho
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Constellation of the Month: Corvus (the Crow)
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1971 Science Fiction, Part 1
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Game of the Week: Baseball
Monday, May 3, 2021
Just Finished Reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Portuguese writer Paulo Coelho is said to have written The Alchemist in the span of two weeks in 1987...yet it's clear that he had already worked out the philosophy of living that he espouses in this short novel. Santiago is a young man living in Spain with a dream of adventure and treasure...his visit to a nearby fortune teller confirms this and a subsequent encounter with a man calling himself King Melchizedek of Salem (the same who met up with Abraham in Genesis) sets him forward on his quest. A shepherd by trade, he sells his sheep and ships over into northern Africa and an excruciating crossing of the Sahara Desert to his destination: the Egyptian Pyramids. Along the way he meets up with the Alchemist of the book's title...as well as romance, a much deeper appreciation of the world around him as it exists in the present, and a whole slew of maxims, one of which is that when you set out to accomplish the dream of your life, the universe will conspire to help you. Perceiving and heeding omens is another absolute necessity...I think I'll present yet another idea of the Alchemist on this blog's next "quote of the week" article on Friday. The concept Coelho presents here of someone leaving his home to travel a dangerous path on an adventurous quest for a big prize is very vivid and literal...maybe that's been how you picture fulfilling deeply held dreams of your own, but my dreams aren't quite as easy to present like that. Still, as the author pointed out through other characters, it is only too easy for one to get so caught up with their routines of everyday existence that they eventually abandon and even forget the dreams that they had earlier held to be important in their lives. And to this extent the book resonated with me. The prose is written in beautiful, simple language, the characters are easy to empathize with, and as I said before, the story is brief. I think most anyone would get something positive from reading it as I did, and I thought the ending was perfect...
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from Columbo
Saturday, May 1, 2021
My April 2021 Running and Walking Report
In April I ran a total of 107 miles, with 4.8 miles being my longest single run...and I ran on every day of the month. For walking, I covered 125 miles in the same time, the vast majority of it coming at work...my job involves an awful lot of walking. I finally got to participate in a public running race after joining the Florida Track Club and entering their April 3rd 5K event at Hogtown Creek Headwaters Park in northern Gainesville...as it turns out, the closest race ever to my home. I ran it slow and easy, just happy to be back in the mix...although with the ongoing pandemic races are still few and far between. I'm thinking of running in the Florida Track Club's Friday evening track meet at Cone Park in eastern Gainesville next month on the 7th...they have a number of runs to chose from including 400 meters and 5K: these are the two I'm leaning toward at the moment. The last time I ran in a track race was in April, 1973. Although I initially thought they were going to emulate the kind of track and field meets from my old high school time, there are no field events like pole vaults, long jumps or shot put. And even with the purely track events, there are no sprint races like 100 or 200 meters, the shortest event being 400 meters. When I was a kid, to me running was synonymous with all-out sprinting, going as fast as I could until I pooped out...my forte was the 50-year dash while the 600-yard run they used in high school for physical fitness tests was to me a very long distance. By the ninth grade they were having us do mile runs, though, and by the time I trained with the track team in early 1973 I was finally beginning to learn the concept of pacing myself: that was crucial because our regimen included intense interval training as well as ten-mile cross-country runs...