Friday, March 31, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Clint Eastwood
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Three NYC Marathon Full Videos on YouTube
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1990 Science Fiction, Part 2
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Just Finished Reading The Secret, Book and Scone Society by Ellery Adams
Monday, March 27, 2023
About Paul McCartney (and Wings) and His Three Albums from '73-'75
Sunday, March 26, 2023
NCCA Men's March Madness Hoops Now Down to Final Four
With the completion of today's two games, the NCAA men's basketball championship "March Madness" tournament has now come down to the vaunted Final Four, a great milestone in itself for many schools. Among them are the Florida Atlantic University Owls, based in south Florida in Boca Raton where my beloved father spent his last days in 2013. This was their last year in Conference USA...they're jumping later this year to the American Athletic Conference. Neither conference gets much national attention or respect, so it surprised many to see this team, seeded only #9 in their region, win it to advance to next Saturday's semifinal round with a very close and exciting game against Kansas State, 79-76. Although I was rooting for the Owls, I don't understand why the Wildcats, down by only three points in the game's closing seconds, had two different possessions but didn't shoot for a three-pointer...that must have really frustrated their fans. Along with FAU, Connecticut advanced to the final showdown with a complete thrashing of Gonzaga, 82-54...their pinpoint passing and positioning on offense is amazing to behold. The Huskies to me are the strongest team in this year's tournament although they were only seeded #5 in their region...not remotely even one close game so far in the six they've won to get to this point. Those were Saturday's games. Today's contests pitted San Diego State against Creighton and Miami against Texas. By the way, you might take note that all of the top seeds were eliminated in earlier rounds and Texas was the only #2 seed left with this weekend's games...none of the brackets filled out at the tournament's start came close to predicting this scenario! In today's games San Diego State somehow managed to outlast Creighton 57-56 although neither seemed to shoot very well. In the other "my" Miami Hurricanes were 13 points well into the second half and didn't seem to have an answer to the Longhorns' offense, but they managed to storm back and win it 88-81. So half the Final Four is from South Florida. Florida Atlantic plays San Diego State in one game and it's Miami vs. Connecticut in the other. Whoever wins that latter contest should be the favorite to win the championship game. I'm looking forward to following the two semifinal games next Saturday, but I'll be at work when the championship game takes place Monday evening. At this juncture, to me Connecticut should be the strong favorite to win it all, but my heart lies with the Florida teams. CBS is covering the games on TV...
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning
Friday, March 24, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Alan Watts
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Constellation of the Week: Cancer (the Crab)
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1990 Science Fiction, Part 1
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Something Buc-ee's This Way Comes
Monday, March 20, 2023
Paul McCartney's First Three Solo Albums
In the spring of 1970, it was already a turmoil-filled, depressing time in my life, at the time thirteen years old and suffering the pangs of early adolescence. I certainly didn't need to hear that my favorite band, the Beatles, were breaking up...but they did, with Paul McCartney releasing his self-titled first solo album and declaring their end. Even though the Fab Four would still release their Let It Be album (ironically dubbing it as a "new phase Beatles album"), there would be no more new, highly anticipated material produced. Instead, John, Paul, George and Ringo would be producing stuff on their own...although they would still be getting by "with a little help from their friends". It took me a while to get a copy of McCartney...my first solo album of his was his 1971 second album Ram. It had been foreshadowed for weeks by the radio play of one of its tracks Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, a rambling light-hearted childlike medley of Paul singing with his wife Linda. I listened to Ram repeatedly and got to seriously like it, with tracks like Too Many People, Ram On, Smile Away and Eat at Home becoming my favorites on it...even today some 52 years later. Back then I just had a phonograph in my room with no earphones, so I probably drove others in my house crazy...especially my mother...as I cranked up the volume. Other notable tracks on Ram are Heart of the Country, Dear Boy, Long Haired Lady (a favorite of my sister) and Back Seat of My Car...Monkberry Moon Delight, on the other hand, was (and still is) utterly horrendous. Later I would pick up a copy of the debut 1970 album McCartney and, while not liking it as much as Ram, I did gravitate to the songs That Would be Something and Every Night, the latter I already knew from radio play as well as Maybe I'm Amazed, Paul's ode to Linda. Paul recorded McCartney by multitracking his own instrument play (he played all of them) with Linda's singing being his only collaboration with others. By the time in late 1971 he came out with his third non-Beatles album, Wild Life, he had formed a subservient band Wings around himself and his wife...but Paul McCartney was always the boss pure and simple, and the backing crew either followed his lead or they left. Back in 1971, although I had liked Ram, something within me had changed and I didn't even want to give Wild Life a listen...it wouldn't be until just recently in 2023 when I listened to the album, largely panned by critics, in its entirety. I would hear over the years radio play of two of its Side One tracks: Love is Strange (a cover of an old Mickey and Sylvia hit) and the title track, in which McCartney wails and loses his composure...not very pretty. Now I kind of like the whole album, including the two aforementioned songs that I used to hate. My favorite tracks are Bip-Bop...which Paul himself has later criticized...and the opening, rousing piece Mumbo. I also like Side Two's Tomorrow a lot. It's funny what a half century of living in the intervening years can do with one's musical tastes...I'm looking forward to hearing the next three Paul McCartney albums he did with Linda and his band Wings back in the early-to-mid 1970s. For the purposes of this blog, I will refer to everything McCartney did under the name "Wings" as solo work, since after all he was the one running the show...
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Back Home After Week's Travel and Visits in Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Podcaster Suggests Alter Egos Can Help Create a Greater Self
Mindset Mentor podcaster Rob Dial recently had a show in which he said that it's a good idea to develop an alter ego type of personality, explaining that with celebrities like Kobe Bryant and Beyoncé, their own "superhero" alternate selves (Black Mamba and Sasha Fierce, respectively) enabled them to drastically overcome their own shyness and lack of confidence. I get what he's saying, but I can't help laughing anyway...I keep picturing the South Park cartoon character of Butters, a timid little boy who's had enough of being grounded by his parents and humiliated by his friends, creating...complete with an aluminum foil costume and mask, the archvillain Professor Chaos. Professor Chaos does bold, brash things little Butters would never dare do, such as secretly switching orders at restaurants, hiding his teacher's blackboard eraser, threatening mass flooding on Earth by turning on his home's outdoor hose faucet and destroying the ozone layer after buying up several aerosol cans and spraying them in the air one by one. So, while Dial may be onto something with this alter ego "Clark Kent changes to Superman" notion, it's also true that any of us could do this while at the same time not actually stepping out into that kind of effective boldness he advocates. Do you...or have you ever had...alter egos into which you transformed yourself to project a different kind of persona to the world and for your projects? In an informal way I have, and I suspect that to a degree most of us do, when for example we put on ourselves a "public" or "at work" personality that is at variance with our private selves. Still, I'm not sure that's exactly what this podcaster meant on this episode that suggested listeners create their greater selves...
Monday, March 13, 2023
Taking a Vacation Break from Blog
For the next few days, I'll be skipping this blog since I'm on vacation, looking forward to resuming it...
NCAA March Madness Basketball Tourney Starts Tomorrow
I just glanced at the men's NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket, and I wasn't surprised or disappointed, for a change. Naturally, "my" Florida Gators (I think they're 16-16) didn't make it, nor did North Carolina, the other team I tend to follow. Florida State had a poor showing this year, but Miami is one of the favorites to possibly get to the Final Four and I guess they're my "main" team. Duke, Houston, Alabama, Gonzaga, UCLA, Marquette, Purdue, Arizona, Texas...and my third "favorite", Kansas...all figure into the upcoming action. Starting with 68 teams in the field that includes several weaker smaller college champions, two games will be held Tuesday and Wednesday while the real first round starts Thursday...by Sunday night we'll be down to the Sweet Sixteen. CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV will carry the games, many of which in the early going I'll miss. Looking forward to see who makes it past Sunday...
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Just Finished Reading A Killer Collection by Ellery Adams
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning
Friday, March 10, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Steve Jobs
Thursday, March 9, 2023
The Opera Scene from the Movie Hannibal
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1989 Science Fiction, Part 8
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Some Stuff about Facebook
Monday, March 6, 2023
Podcaster's Suggestions for Manifesting One's Desired Future
On one of last week's Mindset Mentor podcasts, personal development coach Rob Dial discussed a subject he's covered a number of times before: manifesting your future. He is a strong believer that people can become who they want to become...within the obvious limits of physics and biology, of course...if they assiduously follow the necessary steps: he lays out three, although I'm breaking down the "first" step into two. One, you need to know what it is you want to achieve and/or become, and in as great a detail as possible. Lots of folks get tripped up here...they really don't have a clue about where they want to go. Two...and this is where a lot of skeptical, analytical people might find objections...is to believe with no hint of failure that what you're after is already a done deal: you just have to live it out and that there is no reality in which your aims are not fulfilled. Three, you must make a plan, a strategy...again, in as much detail as possible, to go about daily working toward success. Finally, none of the first three is possible without taking action: execution, on a consistent basis in accordance with your plans and directed at who you want to become, completes the picture. Sounds simple, but if anyone...including myself...wants to throw cold water on this algorithm of Dial's, I think they should strictly follow the steps as he has outlined before doing so. Just speaking for me alone, I can look back at numerous times I've undertaken projects for self-improvement and can confidently say that for those times I fell short, I was also falling short on at least one...and usually more...of the podcaster's suggested steps...
Sunday, March 5, 2023
Not a Fan of DeSantis, But At Least He's Not Trump
The other day, a friend of mine from work Facebook-messaged me about a supposed bill a Florida legislator is filing which stipulates that any blogger who mentions Governor Ron DeSantis would have to be registered, whatever that's supposed to mean. I replied that this sounded like the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, in which anyone simply saying out loud the Dark Lord's name, Voldemort, would instantly prompt a visit from his Death Eaters. Maybe if this legislation...and I can't imagine anyone to regard it as anything more than a foolish political stunt...passes, I'll just say "Voldemort" when referring to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named instead. But that's the Internet for you and, for all I know, this is just a hoax. I've found that, although DeSantis has been heavy-handed with his decrees and criticisms in various areas, most particularly his conveniently one-sided interpretation of "woke" culture, his interference with university and public school curricula, his callousness in busing undocumented immigrants to out-of-state "sanctuary cities" and opposition to effective public health measures to prevent the spread of Covid, I never detected in him the narcissistic hypersensitivity to criticism that is so characteristic of his former political ally and now presidential rival, Donald Trump. In fact, DeSantis has always been politically savvy enough to recognize that it comes with the job to expect criticism from those in the opposition Democratic Party...it's the Trump wing of his own party that seems to be beside themselves with irrational anger and hatred toward the governor in spite of his attempts to appeal to the basest elements of that base. For the last election, I switched my party affiliation to Republican in order to help to nominate principled conservatives who believe in respecting election results. DeSantis, although some may not like the new more restrictive voter/election law he signed, has not been an active participant in the election denial lunacy we saw after Joe Biden was legitimately elected U.S. president over sore loser denier Donald Trump, and unlike the former president he has shown a sense of responsibility when dealing with hurricane threats, displaying a spirit of bipartisan cooperation with our current Democratic president. Also, I have never heard DeSantis speak ill of Trump, although the reverse is plainly true. Were the Republican Primary for president held today with Ron DeSantis on the ballot, I would vote against Trump and for DeSantis in a heartbeat. Our governor bravely served our country in the military and is articulate and persuasive, educated and well-informed on a number of issues...can't say any of this about the Orange Man. Although I have never voted for DeSantis in his two gubernatorial races and likely wouldn't support him nationally in a general election, at least I can see him, if eventually elected, as a serious president seeking to do America's bidding (although I may many times disagree with him) and, unlike Trump, not holding everything and everyone hostage, including our country's best interests, to his own ego gratification. As far as whom you and everybody else support or oppose, I guess that's your own business to figure out: be my guest and vote (or not vote) however it suits you...I never endorse or campaign for (or against) anyone, just expressing my opinions on the subject every now and then...
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Checking Out This Year's March Madness in NCAA Basketball
Friday, March 3, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Barack Obama
This idea of purity, and you're never compromised, and you're always politically "woke" and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly. The world is messy; there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting, may love their kids and, you know, share certain things with you. There is this sense sometimes of: "The way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people, and that's enough." ...That's not activism. That's not bringing about change. If all you're doing is casting stones, you're probably not going to get that far. That is easy to do.
---Barack Obama
I haven't always agreed with our 44th President, but regarding "woke" culture, I think he pretty much said it all in this excerpt from a 2019 speech. The only thing I feel the need to add is that when folks say "woke" in this context they are almost exclusively referring to the political left and liberals. I, on the other hand, think there is an equally oppressive "woke" culture on the political right, one that allows for no dissent when it comes to their pet issues such as opposing: gun regulation, masking, vaccines and social distancing during the COVID crisis, kneeling before sporting events, reproductive rights, respecting sexual preference and identity, while obsessing on the border...and other issues. The tribalism of ideology is dividing our society as never before...if you don't mind, I'd like to just be able to be myself, warts and all, and let the chips fall where they may...and from my perspective, so can you! Pick your poison if you want to go down either the left or right politically correct road and be as smug as you want about how virtuous you are: but people need to feel free to express themselves without clowns coming down on them for using the "wrong" pronoun or expressing the "wrong" opinion.