Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 4
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season Begins on Thursday
The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season is set to officially start this Thursday, June 1, but already there is a low-pressure disturbance...albeit not yet tropical in nature...in the Gulf of Mexico that is slated to pelt the central part of Florida this week with much rain and storms. The forecasters say that this year should be close to normal in the quantity and intensity of named tropical storms and hurricanes. But all it takes is one big hurricane coming right at your home area to make a monumental mess of things, and I'll be keeping an eye a little more on those daily forecasts and tropical outlooks on the TV weather stations. Gainesville has been almost providentially spared the head-on wrath of a major storm, although in recent years it has been sideswiped on a number of occasions. My major concern is a Category Four or Five hurricane strengthening in the Gulf and coming ashore around Cedar Key, heading straight for my hometown. It's not a high probability for a single year, but over a span of decades the likelihood of that occurring is drastically increased. But for now, all seems normal...
Monday, May 29, 2023
On Memorial Day
Nobody I know ever says "Happy Memorial Day" like they would on a different holiday, for today is the time to somberly and gratefully reflect on those brave and dedicated people who in our past gave their lives in combat to protect our freedoms and way of life here in America. People can argue...and rightly so...about the wisdom of our civilian leaders in various conflicts over our history, but the soldiers who carried out those policies with courage and the ultimate sacrifice deserve the greatest honor. God bless them all...
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Funny Old British Comedy Skit Sticks with Me
Saturday, May 27, 2023
Walked Gainesville's Depot Parkrun This Morning
In recent days I've been embarking on a more strenuous training regimen for walking, as my schedule permits. To this end I decided to use the free Depot Parkrun 5K event, held (almost) every Saturday morning at 7:30, to try at least once a month walking an entire race. Today was my first complete walk, but the temptation just before race time was to go ahead and run it, the weather being an unseasonably cool and pleasant 58 degrees with 84% humidity. But no, I had made up my mind and decided to hike that distance. I do feel the need to mention that for the previous couple of weeks I had periodically been walking at incrementally faster paces on my gym's treadmill after work late at night, stepping off each time after one mile: yesterday I got my sustained walking speed up to 4.5 mph. Today's race involved lots of runners naturally passing me...you need a certain degree of humility to speed-walk races. Of course, I was also trying to go fast while maintaining foot contact with the path. My goal was to break 50 minutes, but I was surprised not only to finish the 5K without breaking a sweat, but that my finishing time was 45:14, a pace just faster than 4.2 mph. You can see today's results by clicking HERE. I'm becoming more convinced that the treadmill, used wisely, can help to automatically improve the user's walking form by progressively increasing their speed at a manageable distance from workout to workout. I'm thinking of expanding this principle to running, which in retrospect is what I did back in 2007 when I began training for races after a more than thirty-year hiatus. Depot Park, site of this event, is about eight blocks south of downtown Gainesville...
Friday, May 26, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Lenny Kravitz
We're getting so pulled in by computers and technology, and our kids have their face in computers all day. The human relationship is being diminished by this. ---Lenny Kravitz
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Just Finished Rereading The Long Walk by Stephen King
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 3
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Podcast Discusses Regret and How to Avoid It
Monday, May 22, 2023
Check Facts Before Going Off on Conspiracy Theories
Sunday, May 21, 2023
No Thanks, So-Called "50th" Class Reunion
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun This Morning
Friday, May 19, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Keanu Reeves
Thursday, May 18, 2023
Podcaster's Show about Worry Spurs My Own Reactions
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 2
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Plan to Enjoy Our Long, Hot Summer
Monday, May 15, 2023
Musing About Race Virtual Videos and Someday Running in "Real" Ones
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Constellation of the Month: Crux (the Southern Cross)
Crux is a striking little constellation in the celestial southern hemisphere...if you're located in a southern-enough latitude to be able to see it, that is. I have lived most of my live in Florida, which if you happen to be in the Keys or southern Dade County is just far enough south to see Crux barely scrape the southern horizon at its apex. Perhaps from my old house where I grew up at 26 degrees North latitude, I might have been able to see it were it not for the trees and city lights obstructing my view. No, instead it wouldn't be until 2 AM on our cruise ship in February 2020 when it was near the Virgin Islands that I (and Melissa) saw it for our first time looking out at the beautiful seas over the rails...pretty romantic, right? Yet I could accurately draw this constellation and its position in the sky ever since 1964, when I was first introduced to it at seven years age. The four brightest stars, two of them first-magnitude, can form either a cross if you connect just the opposite ones, or a rough diamond if you connect the adjacent ones...the former pattern is what stuck through the ages. The Coal Sack Nebula occupies a large part of Crux, along with parts of adjacent Centaurus and Musca...it's reported to be a very visible "dark" patch in the already dark sky, if you can wrap your head around that. Anyway, someday I'd like to be south enough on a clear night to be able to clearly make out Crux...along with the many other southern celestial constellations I've known of for decades. I call Crux my "constellation of the month" for this May because it is during this month that it crosses the Meridian during the mid-evening hours...even though my only time seeing it was that February in the early morning hours. Next month I'll pick another constellation to discuss...
Saturday, May 13, 2023
"Stepping Out" Today into Long, Brisk Walking
Friday, May 12, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Yogi Berra
It was impossible to get a conversation going...everyone was talking too much. ---Yogi Berra
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Funny French Running Race Goes Through Buildings and Tight Spaces
I've been watching YouTube of late with their many virtual treadmill running videos made by folks participating in various races across the USA and world. The other day I came across a very funny one, 9 KM Inside The Race For Treadmill/ A la Décourverte de Dinard...click HERE to view this 55-minute piece (while it's still up). It's a 5.4-mile race in Dinard, a coastal town in Brittany, northwestern France. Runners start on a beach and then brush by onlookers and others just going about their daily business as they go upstairs and downstairs, around narrow walkways and even through schools, hotels and other buildings in very close quarters in perhaps the most convoluted, maze-like course ever devised. You really get to know the town from the inside...looks like the actual people living there were completely caught off guard by the event! I can't see doing this at home...here in Gainesville everything is separated too much: maybe we could have an on-campus University of Florida run involving running through various buildings, including the Reitz Student Union and Library West. Shands Hospital would probably be inappropriate. I already did something a little similar during the old Five Points of Life half-marathon when we'd make a detour through the Gators' football stadium...a lot of fun, but in an event like the French one I just saw on YouTube requires a lot of volunteers standing at numerous strategic points to direct the runners and separate them from the rest of the poor perplexed souls who are just out there minding their own business...
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1991 Science Fiction, Part 1
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Enjoyed Our Brief Visit to Daytona Beach
Monday, May 8, 2023
Podcaster Repeats Theme of Manifestation
Sunday, May 7, 2023
'23 Kentucky Derby Exciting, Pre-Race TV Hype Not
Yesterday I watched on TV the Kentucky Derby horse race for three-year-old thoroughbreds, as usual picking my "favorites" from the list having the most interesting names. Also as usual, there were nearly twenty in the field...actually down in number due to some scratches, including early favorite Forte. The TV announcers went around and around doing pieces on the different horses, jockeys, owners and trainers involved...yawn. Finally, the race began and I was taken by how today's video technology has greatly enhanced the viewing of these events, clearly showing the field racing in the backstretch and turns as the jockeys maneuvered their horses around and through their competition. In the end it was a horse with middling odds, Mage, that edged out another non-favorite, Two Phil's. in what turned out to be a pretty exciting finish. I'm not sure, though, that I want to sit again through all that pre-race hype. And I'd be very surprised if this year's Derby winner will go on to win either of the other two races in the Triple Crown, assuming Mage will even be entered in them...
Saturday, May 6, 2023
Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning
Parkruns have sprung up all over the country, having originated I believe in England. Like their name implies, they occur in area parks...Gainesville has one that takes place at pretty Depot Park a few blocks south of downtown every Saturday morning at 7:30. You sign up in advance on their website and get barcodes that you can (like me) print out...some folks somehow get them put on their smartphones. Then at the end of each event the finishers get a token that gets scanned along with their barcodes, the results to be presented later in the day online. It's a pretty neat system and it's free...but since it is also totally supported by volunteers, volunteering is always in demand: won't be long, I think, before I throw my hat into that and see where it lands. This morning I got up and out there to run my unprecedented third straight Depot Parkrun. With the temperature at 67 degrees and humidity at 84%, I had originally planned on going at a much slower pace but discovered a hidden source of energy within me and picked it up with each lap (four of them equal 5K). My finishing time was 33:08...you can see the overall results by clicking HERE. Now the question is: will I go for a fourth straight Parkrun next Saturday? Guess I'll have to see how I feel then...
Friday, May 5, 2023
Quote of the Week...from Scut Farkus
Thursday, May 4, 2023
If I Were to Compile a Puzzle Magazine
If I were to publish one of those variety puzzle books you often see on supermarket magazine shelves, it would leave out much of the stuff already in them. Right off the top, I would eliminate word searches...too easy. And forget the "easy" to "medium level sudoku puzzles, and just about any kind of crosswords...except "codewords", which is kind of fun and which I would definitely include in my magazine. Although I'm horrible at word logic puzzles, I'm still optimistic enough that maybe if I get to be 100, good Lord willing, I'll finally have figured out how to solve them. Other logic puzzles based on numbers like kakuro (aka cross-sums), ken-ken and "hard" sudoku are among my favorites. And I would definitely load up my publication with cryptograms...just can't ever get enough of them. Oh, and I'd definitely have a few of the puzzles containing two pictures, with a specified number of differences I'm to discover...that's always fun! Mazes are also an entertaining carry-over from my younger years. Although smartphones seem to dominate people's entertainment these days when they can't get around to plopping down in front of a TV screen to zone out or play video games, I'm still of that old school with my torn-out sheets of paper stuffed into my shirt pocket, containing the above kinds of cool puzzles and instantly ready for me to work on at a convenient moment...
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Weekly Short Stories: 1990 Science Fiction, Part 7
Below are my final reviews from 1990 science fiction short stories and novellas appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eight Annual Collection. Can you guess which book I'm starting next week? How'd you know...The Year's Best Science Fiction, Ninth Annual Collection! But first I have to finish up with 1990...
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Podcaster Big on Stepping Out of the Box
Podcaster Rob Dial, on a recent episode, promoted the idea of continual learning in fields extraneous to one's business or expertise in order to pick up useful information and principles that can cross over with their applications. He cited examples of the person who transferred the then-innovation of banks offering drive-through options for their customers to the fast-food industry and the founder of Priceline, who observed that grocers would sell overripe bananas at a discount...so why not use this for unsold airline tickets as well? Dial calls all this "thinking outside the box", an already well-worn cliche, I admit. But he does have a good point: every field of endeavor and specialty contains within it elements that are transferrable to others. The podcast host suggested that we take an hour each weekday...or five a week...to learn something absolutely new about an area that we're unfamiliar with. I'm "kind of" on board with this, with two caveats. One, if you're rooted in your own specialty and only skimming the surface of the target subject matter just to pick up some ideas for your own use, then I'm afraid you're going to miss out on a lot of understanding pertinent to that area. And two, when starting to learn in a new field, the beginning is often deceptively easy, with the more profound lessons to be learned requiring more extensive study, an extra investment of time Dial perhaps wasn't considering: hopping around from one area to another is going to stymie many possible benefits. And the elite in any field will tell you that while they like to see that field popularized, sometimes those who are accomplishing this aren't exactly on the money with their presentation, leaving out important stuff. Still, I think...especially with Internet sites like search engines, Wikipedia and YouTube as good points of departure...that delving into unaccustomed areas can not only be lucrative, but also just plain fun...
Monday, May 1, 2023
Rural vs. City Long Distance Races
I was training in my living room, running to a YouTube complete video of the Mississauga Half-Marathon, from a runner's perspective. The individual involved also recorded the Toronto and Oakville half-marathons this way...Mississauga and Oakville are nearby communities to Toronto (in Ontario, Canada in case you didn't know). I was taken by the rural emphasis for the running courses in Oakville and Mississauga while Toronto had the runners go straight down the main drag into the city's urban center. I guess if you live around there, you appreciate the diversity of the courses...the scenery in the more rural half-marathons was pretty and interesting. But to me at least, running in the heart of a city is something that one doesn't experience every day, and I enjoyed looking at all the different kinds of businesses...especially restaurants and coffee places...that Toronto offers. Let me go one step further: if I were out of town, even far away, I would definitely pick Toronto's race over those of the other two sites to hop on a plane to fly to. Yet I'm guessing it probably costs more to run in it...and the organizers' expenses must be considerably higher. That's why I don't hold it against our local blood bank charity here in Gainesville, LifeSouth, for ending their 2006-22 run of holding such an event here in my hometown. Ten years ago, I could run their half-marathon, which went right through the heart of the city (and through the University of Florida, even its football stadium) and then opt for the more rural setting of the Ocala Half-Marathon, set along roads south of town where there are many horse farms. Now, though, there are neither any Ocala nor LifeSouth events (if you discount the latter's much toned-down 5K race) and if you want to run a marathon or half-marathon anymore around here, you have to go to the Hawthorne Trail, which I like but is far away from anything other than a lot of boring trees...that wouldn't do for a YouTube video, especially since the last half-marathon I ran there repeated the same pathway four times...with the marathon event demanding runners go down the same monotonous stretch back and forth eight times. C'mon, we can do better than that without necessarily having to pass by Tim Tebow's statue...