In January '23 I continued running and walking on every day of the month, often jogging more than ten miles per day...although I did slightly strain my back toward the end of the month and had to reduce my efforts a bit. I ran two races, the Depot Parkrun on New Year's Day and Florida Track Club Mary Andrews Half Marathon (in Hawthorne) on the 15th...that latter one started under sub-30 temperatures: click on the titles to read my recaps. I had thought of trying the Newnan's Lake 15K at month's end, but as I said I had that back soreness and decided to forego it. Besides, on February 11th, the Florida Track Club is holding a ten-mile event in Micanopy...I ran it last year and think it's a possible traditional annual run for me, especially since LifeSouth no longer holds the February Five Points Half Marathon here in Gainesville. On February 4th, as I have written previously, a local beer company is staging a 4.2 mile race centered around its facility, Depot Park and the western end of the Hawthorne Trail...I'll need to get up early Saturday morning after getting off from work late Friday night for that one (as well as for the Micanopy race, for that matter). I'm still trying to figure out which kind of shoes I should best wear for road running, which tends to jar my feet more and cause more aching. Maybe with this coming "beer run" I'll check out my more padded Nike Air Monarchs, which I used to regularly employ for races around 2013-18. As for walking, it's still the same pattern as for the past few months: lots of mileage that comes naturally in my workplace, which involves walking back and forth to numerous locations within the huge facility there. My strategy in races is to start out with "old man steps", not trying to set any speed records but covering the distance as a primary goal...then, later on, I can ramp it up if it looks like I've "got the power" on that particular day. That strategy, which I had abandoned in October's Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon, served me well with this past one as I finished in 2 hours 34 minutes and won my age group somehow. I'm 66 and not getting any younger, and although I want to run fast in the future I also am realistic and accept that, as long as I run, my finishes will tend to taper slower as I progress. My fastest half marathon ever was 1 hour 50 minutes in March 2013...never going back there again...
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Monday, January 30, 2023
Upcoming Blog Feature on Album Reviews
The other day on my Disney+ channel, I watched Mary McCartney's special If These Walls Could Sing, about Abbey Road Studios in London and its great history, including that, of course, of her father Paul's group the Beatles. It made me consider how much I have missed by skipping over recorded albums from other groups and solo artists over the years. So, I'm setting out early in 2023 to catch up on my album listening with various recording artists of the past 50-plus years. I'm thinking of setting up another of my famous weekly blog features, this one going over various albums I hear and my favorite (and least favorite) tracks on them. I don't know that I'll necessarily devote a whole article to reviewing each album, instead using a format like I do on Wednesdays when I discuss different short stories I've read. Since I now have listening access to so much, this is a feasible project...who knows, maybe I'll come up with some new all-time favorite songs from this. I also have some catching up to do with some of my favorite acts that are currently out there, like Kasabian, Metric, Gorillaz, Arcade Fire, Spoon and the Strokes, for example. Let's see, how about doing this on Sundays? Looking forward to it, now let's get listening...
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Watching NFL Conference Championship Games Today
Today the National Football League decides who will face each other in the latest edition of the Super Bowl, to be played in a couple of weeks in Glendale, Arizona. The Philadelphia Eagles, my favorite in the National Conference once Tampa Bay and Seattle were eliminated early on, advanced with a convincing 31-7 home win over the San Francisco 49ers. Now it's Kansas City at home against last year's American Conference Champion (and Super Bowl loser) Cincinnati. After Jacksonville lost to them last week, I'm rooting for the Chiefs to win it all, so naturally I'm favoring them over the Bengals tonight. Today's first game showed how injuries can completely change the complexion of a contest as the 49ers rookie star quarterback Brock Purdy suffered an elbow injury that removed him from much of the game and thoroughly hampered his ability to throw the football effectively when he did return. But I don't think it would have altered the final result had he stayed healthy...Philadelphia was clearly the better team. Jalen Hurts is an outstanding quarterback for the Eagles, but he's backed up by an equally excellent offense...and the defense was suffocating today. Regardless of who wins between KC and Cincy this evening, I'd have to consider the Eagles as the Super Bowl favorites. I'll root for them if the Bengals win and against them if the Chiefs prevail. I happen to like both starting quarterbacks in the ongoing game, but once again injuries may be a big factor: in his last game, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes strained his ankle and his movements may be more limited than usual against Cincinnati, whose quarterback Joe Burrow is perhaps the league's best right now. Regardless of what happens between these two teams, I'm looking forward to the upcoming Super Bowl...the game, that is, not the pre-game hype or the often-ridiculous halftime show...
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Looking Ahead to Upcoming Running Races in 2023
Friday, January 27, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Paul Simon
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Just Finished Reading Isaac Newton by James Gleick
Isaac Newton, more than any other individual, ushered in the revolution in science and technology that we so often take for granted today. James Gleick, a noted science historian and author, decided to write a biography of Sir Isaac, who lived in England from 1642 to 1727, a prodigious life span for someone in his day. Gleick traces elements of Newton's childhood including his family and their "in-between" social class status as modest landowners, going through his academic years and settling on the Great Plague of 1665-66, when his Cambridge classes were cancelled, and he studied in reclusion at his family's countryside home. It was then that Newton developed many of his ideas that would later bring him fame and reward, such as classical mechanics, the nature of gravity as a universal principal both on Earth and with celestial bodies, and the invention of calculus...he tended to avoid publishing his results, however, which would later lead him into conflict with others claiming that they were the discoverers. Gleick's biography is balanced between discussing Isaac Newton the person and the subject matter he tackled...you don't need to be a scientist or mathematician to appreciate this well-thought-out book. I happened to check it out from my library using the Libby app...so can you if you're registered with a participating public library. I haven't read too many biographies of late, although when I was a kid in elementary school, I must have read every single book in the children's biography series my school's library carried...and that was a lot! I think that may have been one of the main catalysts in my lifelong interest in history. One thing I appreciate about Isaac Newton is that he, like myself, tended to do better in seclusion than when stuck surrounded by a lot of people with their agendas, egos and tribalism. Newton was an individualist who wasn't averse to arguing vehemently over his beliefs, and could be pretty hard on others, as when after assuming the role of standardizing Britain's currency he supported capital punishment for convicted counterfeiters. Gleick also examined Newton's religious beliefs, including his privately held rejection of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. You can't read this book without coming away with a greater appreciate of this giant of science as well as learning a few things about that science...and the different schools of thought about it in Newton's era...
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1989 Science Fiction, Part 2
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Dreary Excursion to News on TV
Monday, January 23, 2023
Podcast about Other People's Opinions
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Achy Body Orders Me to Take It Easy This Weekend and Watch Sports on TV
From time to time in my aging life, my poor old body just gets a little too strained...this weekend my achy back had a conversation with me, telling me to take it easy and rest for the two days. Sounded good to me...I've been watching TV, particularly the National Football League divisional playoffs, the Australian Open tennis tournament, and assorted soccer leagues matches in the Mexican and English Premier Leagues. While resting my body I thought I'd give my brain a break as well...hence, another sports article! Out of the four NFL contests, "my" teams won three...sadly, Jacksonville bowed out to the Kansas City Chiefs although they played them proud and tough. Philadelphia thoroughly dominated the NY Giants in the other Saturday game and earlier today Cincinnati ended another Buffalo season with an impressive performance. That game was played in the middle of a driving snowstorm at Buffalo...the Bengals (and myself) felt that the NFL offices were unfair in not holding the game at a neutral site since the two teams' earlier regular season game was cancelled because a Bills player suffered cardiac arrest on the field. Had Buffalo won the cancelled game they would have had the home field advantage over Kansas City, so the league officials decreed that should those two meet in the conference championship, then the game would be held at a neutral site. But likewise, had Cincinnati beat Buffalo in that cancelled game, they would have had a better seeding than the Bills...but the officials made them play on the road, anyway...NOT FAIR. And just now, the San Francisco 49ers held off Dallas...ha, ha, ha...I can't wait to hear what Cowboys-basher Stephen A. Smith has to say about the losers tomorrow morning on his ESPN show! As for the tennis, I found it all kind of boring, sad to say...ditto with the soccer. Oh well, there have been plenty of sleeping opportunities for me this weekend...
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Rainy Day Hunkering Down with NFL Playoffs on TV
Today I'm hunkering down at home on this miserably rainy, cool day in Gainesville, sleeping in late and watching sports on TV. Later this afternoon and evening will be two NFL playoffs games: Jacksonville at Kansas City and the New York Giants at Philadelphia. It bugged me a little that the Jags and Chiefs will be playing each other at this stage since they happen to be my favorites out of the remaining teams...oh well, that means that at least one of them (probably KC) will survive until next week's conference championship game. Tomorrow the Buffalo Bills will host last year's AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals while my current pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, the San Francisco 49ers, will be at home against the Dallas Cowboys. Who do I want to win these four games? Jax, Philly, Cincy and San Fran. A few years ago, when Lamar Jackson began his stellar career as the running quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, I wondered how long that career would last before injuries caused by that aspect of his game caught up with him like it has done with others such as Robert Griffin III and, this season, "my" Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa. Well, it seems that Lamar has become something of a fragile athlete like these, dooming his team to an early playoff exit and raising doubts about his future effectiveness in the league. It's no accident that Tom Brady has made it to the ancient age of 45 in premier-level sports by adhering to a more traditional drop-back-or-hand-off quarterbacking style, with his running almost exclusively focused on scrambling from tacklers in passing situations or short yardage sneaks behind his offensive line. It seems, though, that the trend is more for the young quarterbacks of this era to have a few short, explosive seasons before they soon become too hobbled to be effective...so sad. Are you getting this, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes? I didn't think so...but at least these two aren't quite as run-crazy as Lamar has been...
Friday, January 20, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Fareed Zakaria
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Podcaster's Suggestion of Misogi Method Interesting But Incomplete
According to podcaster Rob Dial on a recent Mindset Mentor episode of his, the Misogi Method derives from a traditional Japanese spiritual ritual involving purification by immersing oneself...for as long as possible...in very cold water. Dial says he does this regularly, and then expanded upon the ritual to encompass anything that one doesn't think possible...like climbing a long, steep elevation or running a long distance, for example. It's not something to be done regularly...no, maybe once a year or, as the host suggests, once a month. The point here is that doing something beyond one's perceived abilities serves as a breakthrough of possibilities and self-awareness...as well as bringing out a lot of self-imposed negative beliefs and attitudes. I dig this idea, but Dial seems to have forgotten his repeatedly expressed philosophy of gradual, incremental change over stretches of time, even belittling it in this podcast. Truth be told, here is where the concept of duality...combining two seemingly contradictory ideas...comes into play. Gradually changing habits, combined with the abrupt "big feats" of Misogi, do not conflict...if anything, they should build upon one another. Each person has a different body as well as mind with their respective life histories building unique tapestries of both skills and flaws, with widely differing physical and mental limitations. I've had a few "Misogi's" in my life without recognizing them as such...I suppose tackling half-marathon races in sub-freezing temperature during a time of the day when I'm usually in the last stages of morning sleep is one. But I wouldn't have done it had I not, over a span of months and years, established a daily workout routine and healthier lifestyle habits. And you have to be careful what you select if you try this method of facing acute, demanding challenges...the point is to be able to WALK away from them with a greatly improved perspective on things...
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Weekly Shortly Stories: 1989 Science Fiction, Part 1
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Constellation of the Month: Taurus (the Bull)
Monday, January 16, 2023
Happy Martin Luther King Day
Today is officially Martin Luther King Day, although the late American civil rights leader had his 94th birthday yesterday. When I was a kid growing up in the 1960s, the popular perception of him was that he was a controversial figure, always challenging the established order and stirring things up. By the time I was earnestly paying attention to the news...when Lyndon Johnson was president...Dr. King was active on a host of social issues besides civil rights for blacks, and he adamantly opposed U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. I've learned since then that the FBI had an extensive file on him, and he was suspected by some on the conservative right of being aligned with the Soviets. I tend to dismiss this kind of allegation, especially considering the kind of scurrilous defamatory garbage currently floating around social and mass media about different people that others have chosen to hate. Martin Luther King has been extensively quoted in this blog because his message has been one of equal opportunity, inclusion, the dignity of all work, tolerance, and, above all, love. Everyone has a better nature to them, and may I suggest that we take a few minutes today to reflect on our own and how we can make it a more encompassing part of our lives...
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Ran the Florida Track Club Mary Andrews Half-Marathon This Morning
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Cold Weather and Football
After generally warmer than usual temperatures this winter so far, the weather has turned frigid here in northern Florida. Tonight...and early tomorrow morning...Gainesville temperatures are slated to dip below freezing for several hours, and even reach the mid-20s. Tomorrow it's only going to get up into the 50s...if you live up north where it gets much worse, you're probably laughing at this article. But my plans are to be outside in the middle of all this and that's not exactly something I'm looking forward to. Shifting the subject a bit, I see that the Los Angeles Chargers have scored early in their first round NFL playoff game against Jaguars, being played in much colder weather than usual in Jacksonville. Although four teams I follow somehow managed to make the postseason playoffs in spite of their mediocre records, I wonder whether any of them will survive this first round. A few hours ago, I was heartened by Seattle, one of those teams, coming out of their first half against heavily favored San Francisco with a 17-16 lead, but the 49ers stomped the Seahawks in the second half and ran away with a 41-23 win. Tomorrow Miami travels to Buffalo and Monday Tampa Bay hosts Dallas...I'll count myself lucky if at least one of the Florida teams advance. Hope you're keeping warm and if you like to watch football, that some of the games go your way...
Friday, January 13, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Gardner Dozois
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Asimov, Wollheim and Dozois...and Their SF Year-by-Year Anthology Series
Isaac Asimov and Donald A. Wollheim, both significant science fiction writers of their era in the mid-to-late twentieth century, passed away in their seventies just two years apart: Asimov in 1992 and Wollheim in 1990. In their later years they were both important anthologists with Wollheim's Annual World's Best SF Series covering the period from 1964 through 1989. Asimov, during the 1980s, decided to go back and anthologized his own (and co-editor Martin Greenberg's) favorites in a year-to-year retrospective series titled The Great SF Stories...this covered the years 1939-63. Asimov, a longtime friend of Wollheim, had his series published by the latter's company, DAW Books. Over the years and especially recently, I have appreciated and enjoyed the efforts of these two writers who obviously loved their chosen genre of fiction to undertake this sort of effort involving sorting through the many quality stories that their colleagues (and, sometimes, they themselves) produced. It's a shame that, in this digital age, I can't get either anthology series on Kindle or audiobook...if they were recording artists there wouldn't be a problem with their old works. Starting next Wednesday, I will be reviewing Wollheim's final anthology, published in 1990 while he was already very ill and covering that last year of 1989. After that I plan to continue reviewing science fiction short stories from another excellent anthology, that of the late Gardner Dozois and titled The Year's Best Science Fiction (which is available on Kindle and audiobook)..his will continue through the year 2018 so I'm not very likely to run out of material anytime soon, especially since his collections are much lengthier than those of Asimov or Wollheim...I'm very grateful for all three of these important figures of science fiction...
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1988 Science Fiction, Part 8
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Podcaster Discusses Why People Won't Change Their Viewpoints
On a recent Mindset Mentor podcast of his, personal development coach Rob Dial gives three reasons why it's so hard for people to change their own minds about things as well as change others'. They are (1) cognitive dissonance, (2) partisanism/tribalism, and (3) confirmation bias. With cognitive dissonance, someone hears something that conflicts with what they are comfortable with, so they either rationalize or trivialize it...or as is often the case, just get mad at the other person who they perceive as messing up their life by expressing it. The second one has to do with our tribal social nature, be it following a particular political party or politician, religion, culture, family, work pals, section of the neighborhood...or maybe just what our favorite sports team is. Folks tend to magnify the faults of those outside their felt circle, especially when they are in direct competition with them, as is the case in politics and sports. Dial himself says he doesn't come down on either side of the political spectrum, he's in the "center", and doesn't care about all the political things others do. With that I have a problem: you can be in the center and care more than many on the left or right fringe. But I'm totally in agreement with him in that people in a group who want to be accepted within it will often, if not usually, bend their beliefs to fit in...even if they are obviously false. As for confirmation bias, people tend to seek their sources of information that confirm their already cherished beliefs and reject those that challenge them...this isn't helped by Internet algorithms that various social media and search engines use to "perceive" the user's inclinations and then fulfill them with affirming material. Also, Dial mentions that there is a tendency for people, if they hear something repeated enough times, to accept it as truth...combine that with confirmation bias and the desire to "fit in", and you have whole entrenched sections of the population at odds with one another while "circling the wagons" to protect own "tribes". I don't think that this problem with human nature has changed over the centuries, but with our very recent development in mass personal digital communications the effects have mushroomed. Rob Dial's solution seems to be to avoid confronting people with the truth because you're wasting your time for the aforementioned reasons...up to a point I agree with him, but at some point you have to stand up for what you know is right...
Monday, January 9, 2023
New Year a Good Arbitrary Time to Seek Habit Changes
I like to think of the new year as an opportunity to break away from old destructive personal habits and set out on new goals. From what I've picked up from others and my own experiences, changing one's life is largely a matter of changing those habits one at a time, and in measures that are attainable. So, 2023 is a year like the others in that I'd like to improve my skills in certain areas and eliminate any toxic habitual behavior. The temptation is to try to do a lot of things differently from the beginning, but right now I'm considering how to divide up and prioritize my projects. Should be fun...of course, it's all a continuum whether it's January or July. I've heard that it's best to focus on one habit in an area at a time and diligently see the change through for one hundred straight days until it becomes ingrained within me. But first I need to sit, think, and write down what I want to change...the new calendar year is an arbitrary but convenient time to assess where I've been and where I want to go...
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Fins, Jags, Bucs in NFL Playoffs...Whoopee!
It happened back in 1999 when all three Florida National Football League teams managed to make the postseason playoffs in the same season, but finally here we are more than two decades from then and in the same situation after each team...none of them admittedly all that good...scrapped and lucked their way into next week's game lineup. Tampa Bay had already wrapped up their sorry NFC South title last week and took out star quarterback Tom Brady during today's essentially meaningless contest against Atlanta as the Falcon's win put the Bucs into a losing regular season at 8-9. They'll most likely be playing Dallas at home next week...although Tampa finished with a worse win-loss record, they did manhandle the Cowboys 19-3 earlier this season. In the American Conference the South Division title went to Jacksonville at 9-8 when they ran back a recovered Tennessee fumble late in their game to come from behind and win. And Miami broke their five-game losing streak by staving off the New York Jets 11-6, breaking their tie with a 50-yard field goal with only seconds remaining...the safety was icing on the cake. But the Dolphins also depended on Buffalo winning against New England, which they did in large part from two touchdown kickoff returns. It was a little strange for me to be rooting so hard for the Bills, considering that I'll be rooting just as hard against them next week when they play the Dolphins at home. I don't know whether Miami's injury-prone quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will be back for the Buffalo game, but it seems that playing against this team has not been good for his health, with multiple concussions coming from those games. Maybe I'll trade an early exit from the playoffs for the Dolphins in exchange for this player to stay healthy. As for Jacksonville, they will be playing next week at home against San Diego. Later tonight Green Bay will play at home against Detroit for the final disputed playoff spot...I'll be watching, naturally. If Seattle loses their ongoing game against the LA Rams, then the winner between the Packers and Lions gets in... otherwise it's Seattle if the Lions prevail. Besides the three Florida teams, I tend to root for the Seahawks as well as the Kansas City Chiefs...maybe the latter will take it all the way this year to another Super Bowl championship...
Saturday, January 7, 2023
NFL Regular Season Ends This Weekend, College National Championship Monday
Friday, January 6, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Alan Watts
Thursday, January 5, 2023
McCarthy Having Difficulty Becoming House Speaker...Not My Problem
The paper-thin majority in the United States House of Representatives that Republican caucus leader Kevin McCarthy is "leading" has left him short of receiving the votes needed to become Speaker, which Democrat Nancy Pelosi had occupied for the previous four years. It's all about the extreme wing of a party leveraging their power out of proportion to their numerical strength...well, that's politics! No fan of McCarthy, I felt he let the country down in the hours immediately following the insurrection on the Capitol building on 1/6/21 when he and two thirds of his caucus took the dangerous, undemocratic...and, frankly, fascist step of refusing to officially acknowledge the counted Pennsylvania 2020 presidential election votes that gave the state to Joe Biden over election-denying sore loser Donald Trump. This guy has to be the slimiest politician on Earth...and that's saying a lot. No doubt when whoever does finally take the gavel, the Republicans will resume their endless pointless investigations that nobody believes worth the effort and expense...other than their hardcore, unquestioning FoxNews followers, that is. Hillary's e-mails will soon morph into Hunter's laptop as a continuous Fox/Republican headline...and there will probably be payback attempts to impeach President Biden as well. If you want to follow all that crap, you're welcome to it. But as Soundgarden's late front man Chris Cornell once sang, "Keep it off my wave"...
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1988 Science Fiction, Part 7
Once again, it's time to examine some bygone sci-fi, appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Sixth Annual Collection, spotlighting tales of that genre from 1988. It takes me awhile to get through the year-by-year Dozois books, in contrast to the much briefer ones from Donald A. Wollheim. But Wollheim's final anthology was for 1989...he died the following year, it won't be too long before I'm only reviewing stories from Gardner's series. But for now, let's go back to look at some more stories from '88...
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Podcaster Speaks on Designing One's Future
Monday, January 2, 2023
Florida NFL Teams: All 8-8 and in Playoff Running at Season's End
I suppose this is what the bigshots of the National Football League had in mind when they added a team from each conference to be in the postseason playoffs: teams with mediocre records are sneaking in. For my home state of Florida, this is a windfall as two of the three teams here...Jacksonville and Miami...haven't exactly been setting the league on fire during the past few seasons. I remember the first year I seriously began to follow pro football, 1967, when the Baltimore Colts, undefeated at 11-0-2 going into the final regular season game against their divisional rivals the Los Angeles Rams, lost that contest and thus failed to make the playoffs. That's the year, if you're old enough to remember, that Green Bay won the NFL championship (before going on the Super Bowl) in the infamous Ice Bowl game against Dallas...the Packers lost four games during the regular season in a weak division. This year's version of the Tampa Bay Bucs, still with Tom Brady taking the snaps, was similarly blessed with a weak division as they've already clinched a playoff spot in spite of their often-lackluster play so far. The other two Sunshine State teams, although with the same records, are going in diametrically opposite directions. Jacksonville, having started 2-6, have since become a winner under Super Bowl-winning first-year coach Doug Pederson with Trevor Lawrence coming into his own as a quality premier quarterback. The Jaguars have a chance to win their division title with a regular-season-closing game next week against slumping Tennessee. Speaking of slumping, the Miami Dolphins, earlier with an 8-3 record and on top of their division, have now lost five games in a row and are "outside looking in" on a playoff slot. Their fate this year seems bound to that of third year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is now out of action due to his third diagnosed concussion. They will face rival New York Jets in the season closer...if they win and New England loses to Buffalo, Miami's in. Too bad they fell like this: in each of their last five games they played tough but lost by small margins. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a good year for Florida in the NFL this year regardless of what happens next week, since I've always held reasonable expectations for "my" teams, only wanting them to stay in contention toward the season's close. And all three have, although I have my doubts about the Dolphins making the playoffs or the Bucs advancing very far in them. But who knows what Jacksonville will do...