The Swing Voter Bloc: Fools

Please, somebody explain to me the American voter. In 2008, Barack Obama won the presidency with a majority of votes cast. He also won the state of Florida over his Republican opponent John McCain. Two years later, in statewide races for the U.S. Senate and Governor, teabagger Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott won their races, respectively, putting into office candidates with a diametrically opposite view of how to govern than Obama. Now just a few months after they took office, public opinion polls have Governor Scott with an approval rating under 30%. And he's only been doing what he said he was going to do when he was voted into office!

Now polls are showing President Obama ahead in Florida against the GOP, and incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson has a commanding lead for reelection next year. Huh? I thought the tea party reigned supreme here now!

What is wrong with voters? What I see here isn't a thought-out shift in political philosophy that is reflected in the polls. Instead, it looks as if we, as a collective body of voters, are suffering from mass attention deficit disorder and vote strictly on emotional impulse!

Sure, there are those who stick to their own political perspective and consistently vote in accordance with it. I'd like to believe that I am one of them. But a frighteningly large portion of the electorate seems, at least to me, to be a bunch of silly, easily manipulated fools. Sometimes they vote as I vote on election day and sometimes the other way. But they are still fools regardless. No wonder candidates are now advertised and sold nowadays like sports cars, beer, and laundry detergent!

St. Augustine Memorial Day Outing

Today I took my family for a Memorial Day outing in St. Augustine, which is about 75 miles east of Gainesville. We split the time up between the beach and the old city (St. Augustine, founded by Spain in the late 16th century, is the oldest city in the U.S. in continuous existence). For the beach part, we went to Anastasia State Park, one of the nicer parks I've been to. While in the pretty turbulent ocean, I practiced swimming, concentrating mainly on trying to improve my breaststroke form. This was interesting as the waves were pretty strong around me, quite a different experience from my local YMCA pool. It was a pretty good workout, though. But I think I prefer swimming pools to the ocean, at least when they are actually open and have available lanes.

The old city was the same as I have come to know it from several previous visits spanning the last 25 years. We browsed through different stores and had dinner at Meehan's Irish Pub and Restaurant, not to mention some coffee and chocolate from other stores. We didn't buy much merchandise, preferring instead to simply enjoy each other's company as we leisurely browsed around and took in the surroundings.

Our day together was full of laughs and good feelings, elevating my spirits and making me look forward to the busy week ahead of me.

Theme Park Weariness

From late 2002 through 2006 I was an avid thrill ride fan, enjoying theme parks like Busch Gardens, Universal Studios Orlando, Disney World, Wild Adventures, Cypress Gardens, and Dollywood. Before this time I had been afraid to ride any roller coaster, and any ride that flipped me over or dropped me quickly? Forget it! It took my two fearless children to shame me into gutting it out through some scary rides, and before I knew it I was hooked on them. But my children have since been growing up and now have other interests. The rides never did take hold with my wife, so it often seems that I am the only one left with a real desire to visit a theme park. And even with me, I am not 100% on board with it, either.

For one, just to get to one of the relatively close parks involves some tedious long-distance driving for 100-140 miles. That, simply put, is not a fun ride for me! Then, when I'm finally at the park, there is the chronic problem of having to wait in long lines just to enjoy a ride that often lasts only a couple of minutes. On top of that, it seems that usually several of the rides are in disrepair at any given time, and some of them are my favorites.

So when I read about some of the new rides coming out at places like Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Universal, I wonder to myself whether I really want to invest the time, effort, and expense to go try them out. Shoot, I haven't even tried out any of the rides at Sea World, but I don't see any visits there in the foreseeable future.

Years ago I saw a promotional show on TV about Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. They had a wonderful steel coaster called Alpengeist (similar to Tampa's Montu), and a man who liked this ride so much he had ridden it more than 500 times rode it again for the cameras. I bet that dude probably lived across the street from the park!

When I occasionally go to South Florida for family reasons, I check out a place in Dania called Boomer's, which is primarily a large arcade building with a whopping giant wooden roller coaster towering over it. I just drive over there during my visit, park my car for free, buy my coaster ride ticket, and walk right up and get on the coaster with nary a wait nor hassle.

Why can't other places be like that? They wear me down.

About My Chinese Study and Reading of Late

I am currently adding about 2,500 Chinese characters to my personal vocabulary, doing this in a painstakingly methodical fashion. Much of this involves looking up words in dictionaries and adding them to a "grand notebook" that I have constructed, holding new words learned along with where I encountered them. I am also inserting Japanese transliterations of the characters that they have incorporated into their language.

All of this takes a lot of time, but it is interesting that, when I have free time, I do a lot of writing that involves little actual thinking. And when I am involved in something else, I can mentally multi-task and practice my newly-acquired vocabulary from memory. Hopefully, this all will lead to me being able to more fully enjoy exposure to Chinese (and eventually Japanese) by being able, as I currently already am with Spanish, to pick out, either from reading or listening, the gist of what is being expressed in that language.

One result of this increased emphasis on foreign language study has been to reduce my time in reading fiction. Usually I am working on one or two books, but lately that has slowed down. Now, at certain times I still pick up a book, concentrating now on getting through Stephenie Meyer's interesting Twilight saga. Yes, this series is primarily targeted at teenage girls, but I enjoy it, too! I am currently beginning Eclipse, the third book. By the way, I have carefully avoided the movies made from this series, preferring instead to give my own imagination a workout, thank you.

Workout Room Supplants Swimming

As many articles that I have recently written about swimming, you might come away thinking that I am a hard-core fanatic about the subject. This is not so, though. What I have been trying to do is TURN myself into a fanatic, because I have reasoned it out and believe that swimming is a very healthful and potentially enjoyable form of physical activity that can endure with my passing into the "golden years" of life. But transforming that conclusion into reality is another matter...

This week I completely skipped out on swimming, substituting my YMCA pool sessions with intense workouts in their adjacent "wellness center". I found that doing weight training and using the elliptical cross-training machine gives me a better workout than swimming. There is no competition for access as I have to endure at the pool. It also doesn't matter what the weather is like outside: I am pretty much guaranteed a seventy-something degree environment that is nice and dry, without the need to spray on sunscreen. And like with running, after my indoor workout I am hot and sweaty but don't have the pool water to wash off of me. Also, I don't need to deal with that water seeping into my body through swallowing and sinuses.

Today I had a great time in the workout room. I looked out at the pool, where one of the local elementary schools had sent some of their students to play today. It was packed, and the swimming lanes were reduced for the occasion. But managing to get a lane wasn't enough: the swimmers had to endure large beach balls continually drifting over into their paths. I saw one swimmer doing several meters with a ball riding his back! I said to myself, "Isn't it nice to not be there right now!"

My main issue with swimming is access. The other problems are either resolvable or are things intrinsic to the activity that I have to adapt to. But I don't see that access issue improving in the near future and, besides, I have for now quite an acceptable alternate with the weights and elliptical trainer. Not that I've given up swimming, but something has to change to make it less of a hassle for me.

I Don't Get the Sport of Bicycling, I Guess

Many years ago, I was seated in the middle of one of those obnoxious small groups that tend to plague my existence on Earth. It was at someone's house and there were several married couples informally sitting around the living room "shooting the bull". One woman, her proud husband right beside her, beamed that she had purchased a bicycle and was going to ride it and enjoy it (my words), but her hubby, who was a mechanical engineer by trade, had pointed out to her that something called "gear ratios" or the like was a little off kilter with the bike. So she didn't ride it and, boy, wasn't she glad! I sat there dumbfounded: I don't think I ever spent more than $115 on a bicycle and I sure as all don't think that I ever gave a hoot about its mechanical details. I would get on a new bike, ride it around, and if it felt good, then it was a winner, pure and simple.

I have piled up many miles just riding my bicycle around town over the years, but I am not into the culture and expense of maintaining the activity to the level that others insist upon for themselves. For example, I am not going to shell out a couple of thousand dollars just for a bicycle. Nor will I wear that tight, stretchy bicycling clothing that may be good while on the bike but completely foolish looking once off. I also don't have the bicyclist posture of practically hanging over the handlebars, and I have the seat low enough that I don't have to dismount every time I stop. But I get around anyway.

I was watching the Tour of California bicycle race on the Versus Channel the other day. It was the first leg and was 76 miles in length, starting from the Lake Tahoe area and ending through the streets of Sacramento. With that much distance, you might think that at the end the pack would be spread out a bit. But you would be wrong.

At the end, ALL of the bicyclists were clumped together as in one mass. The finish was so close that everyone was given the same time. As I was watching the race, it looked to me like someone had cloned one bicyclist, along with the bicycle, everyone looking damned near identical with only their clothing and helmet colors to distinguish them.

I don't get this mass photo finish after 76 miles, I don't get the heavy expense, I don't get the conformity of appearance.

I don't get the sport of bicycling, I guess.

Heidi Revisited and Kinison

The other night I was at home watching game four of the NBA West Conference finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Mavs, which I wanted to win, were leading the series two games to one and were trying to win another one. But this game, held in Oklahoma City, was going the Thunder's way and it was getting late. OKC had extended their lead over Dallas to a whopping 15-point margin late in the fourth quarter, 99-84. I sadly switched channels over to the Sam Kinison tribute program on Epix I had been wanting to see. Oh well, I thought, the series is just tied 2-2 and Dallas will have other chances to win it.

Later that night I just happened to surf through the channels and happened upon the game's final score: Dallas 112, Oklahoma City 105! What happened?

Right after I switched channels, the Mavericks went on a furious 17-2 run to tie the game at the end of regulation and then overpower the Thunder in overtime. The sudden reversal in this game after I had left it reminded me of the "Heidi" football game in the late sixties between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders.

These two teams were, at the time, dominating the old American Football League. This game between them was therefore a featured contest shown nationwide on NBC. The only problem was that the network on Sunday evening had a prior commitment to air a children's show, a brand-new version of the Heidi story. So late in the fourth quarter of that game, with the Jets ahead 32-29 and seemingly in control of things, the network switched over to Heidi and left the country to wonder how the game ended. Well, right after the game's televised coverage ended, all hell broke out on the field and Oakland made a dramatic comeback, winning the game going away 43-32. There was so much anger expressed over NBC's curtailment of its coverage that, from then on, televised sports events as a rule are shown to their conclusion and later programming is broadcast on a delayed basis.

I wish I had hung around to see the Mavericks' dramatic turnaround, but oh well...

As for the Sam Kinison tribute, I have mixed feelings about the late comedian. There is no doubt that he had a very funny delivery and style. He was unashamedly brash and loud, with that trademark scream of his that would send his audience into an uncontrollable frenzy of laughter. But on many of his topics, which ranged from the homeless to gays to relationships with women, I found myself sinking into the feeling that this guy was just acting out the part of a stinking bully. That's too bad, because Kinison could have chosen any material he wanted for his content and been funny (he himself said that), but for some reason he decided to pick on elements of the population that needed support, not more hateful bashing. What a waste, not just for his death in 1992 due to the negligence of another driver, but also for the legacy of the idea that piling on certain demographic groups is fair game as long as you call it "comedy" (from which conservative talk radio seems to have capitalized heavily).

Still, now that I have witnessed Sam Kinison's act, from time to time I will notice people behaving illogically around me (or in the media) and I'll develop my own inner "kinisonian" monologue about them, ending in the obligatory (but usually silent) "scream".

I'm Still Waiting, GOP

I'm still waiting for someone on the Republican side of the political aisle who wants to be president to stand up for mainstream American values and set themselves apart from the right-wing ideology that has made this party currently unelectable in a national election. I suspect that Mitt Romney wants the mainstream voter to think that he stands for maintaining the country and tweaking things in moderate ways where they need to be tweaked, but he knows that he is stuck trying to get around the tea-nuts in his own party and the radio and TV blabberjocks in order to secure the nomination. As for me, as well as the American people in general, a competent leader who understands the diversity of interests and people in this great country and leads from both the brain and the heart, no matter which political party he or she belongs to, will be the preferred candidate for president in November 2012. Right now, in spite of what I perceive to be mistakes in his presidency (abandonment of the NASA moon project initiated by his predecessor, acceptance of a health insurance reform bill too accommodating to the private insurance industry, critical two-week delay in responding militarily to Gadhafi's ruthless attacks against his opposition in Libya, and the most recent attempt to capitalize on a success in that part of the world by trying to impose a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians), Barack Obama has established himself as a mainstream, centrist president who meets my criteria for that important office.

Even if the eventual GOP nominee turns out to be someone who would govern more from the political center than from the extremes, I still would need to scrutinize the candidate who got the VP/running mate nod, especially since that individual most likely would be more ideological in order to placate the teabrains.

Nasty Weather of Different Types

I woke up this morning to the news of the devastating tornado that swept through Joplin, Missouri and destroyed an estimated 2,000 buildings and at last count took 116 lives. The twister was estimated to be a mile wide with winds reaching 200 mph. It hit around 6 PM yesterday and was part of a massive storm system that passed through the Midwest.

Here in Florida we have a different problem: excruciatingly hot days (into the upper nineties) with little or no rain. And fires breaking out everywhere. The weather forecasters hold out some hope for a little rain later this week, but we are in serious trouble here. It is quite different from other places, with their flooding and tornadoes, though. But when I see the extreme weather that has been affecting the country, I wonder how severe the upcoming hurricane season will be this year.

On a personal note, I ran 7.18 miles this morning while the temperatures were relatively mild in the low eighties. And it was a fast 7.18 miles for me, although I'm not quite sure why. With the heat, it sure wasn't a pleasant run. Still, I am astounded when it's later in the afternoon, the temperature is approaching 100 degrees, and I see people outside jogging in it! Ouch!

Final Endeavor Launch and Flight

The other morning I happened to be sitting in the Magnolia Parke Starbucks, just before the Space Shuttle Endeavor was to be launched into space for its final mission. There is a multi-storied building across the street, and its stairwell is open to the outside with views of the south and east. In other words, a perfect platform from which to watch the launch. So that's what I did: I walked across the street, up the stairs, and voila, a couple of minutes after the scheduled launched I saw a sharp point of light followed by a long white trail, hugging the horizon in the southeast above the treetops and tapering almost horizontally (from my vantage point in Gainesville) in a northerly direction. Then it was gone.

Now it's out there in low Earth orbit, delivering and installing its important scientific cargo to study the universe and try to unlock some of the secrets about its composition, beginning, and future. Hopefully, with the reports of damaged tiles on the shuttle's outer casing, it will return safely again intact and with all aboard alive and well.

I am saddened by what seems to me the downsizing and outsourcing of our once highly respected, ambitious, and capable space program. But apparently this is reflective of what the American people want. They collectively have little interest in space exploration anymore. That wasn't the case when I was growing up in the 1960's, when at school they would have the the TV on all day to show how the Gemini and Apollo flights were progressing, complete with simulations, long drawn-out commentary, and Tang commercials...

...Hey, wait a minute, that WAS awfully boring, come to think of it. No wonder the American people lost interest!

Gainesville Starbucks Store to Close Sunday

Thursday's Independent Florida Alligator reported that the Starbucks on 3822 Newberry Road will be closing this Sunday, the 22nd. I was surprised to read this, considering that almost every time I go there, it seems overcrowded and noisy. Its location is perfect, next to several upscale eateries and a large cinema complex. True, the interior seating is a bit cramped, and I usually have to look for an outdoors seat when I go there. I haven't visited this Starbucks much in the last couple of years, but there was a time when I was a daily customer there.

As a matter of fact, many of my blog articles from 2007 and 2008 were written at this soon-to-be-defunct Starbucks, usually at one of the outside balcony tables. Sometimes I would first go to the Coldstone Creamery a couple of doors down and enjoy some cheesecake-flavored ice cream while reading whichever Stephen King novel I was working on. Ah...those were the good old days! But I've read all of King's novels, I have found better locations to do my writing, and that Starbucks just seems out of my way nowadays. Still, although the newspaper article hinted as a reason of the closure that Starbuck's relatively slow business, I was never there when it wasn't annoyingly packed.

I don't know who has been managing that Starbucks lately, but I liked the former manager Marty Bower, who incidentally was the one who suggested to a couple of LifeSouth employees who stopped by while jogging that a local marathon sponsored by LifeSouth would be a good idea. It's a shame that this part of our local history will end.

As for the employees at the 3822 store, they are being relocated at other Starbucks in town, similar to the way that the Postal Service handles its closures. And much unlike what happened to the employees at my local Hooters restaurant who showed up to work one day and found the doors locked, the business permanently closed, and themselves abruptedly without jobs, without any advance warning. Tacky...and very unrefined!

NBA Conference Final Series Going On

I have been enjoying the National Basketball Association playoffs lately, with two fantastic conference championship series going on. In the West, the Dallas Mavericks, led by an assortment of talent headed by Dirk Nowitzki and ageless Jason Kidd, are up against the Oklahoma Thunder and their scoring ace Kevin Durant. The East pits the preseason favorite Miami Heat with Lebron James and Dwyane (yes, that's how it's spelled) Wade against the Chicago Bulls and this year's league MVP Derrick Rose. I was only able the watch the first games in each series so far, due to my work schedule. But I'd like to see a few more, hopefully with a Chicago-Dallas NBA championship series the result.

The fact that I am rooting for the Bulls has been interesting, considering that I have in the past supported southern teams like Atlanta and Miami, both of which I have rooted against so far in their playoff series with Chicago this year. On the other hand, Chicago features as one of its starters former University of Florida standout Joakim Noah, who participated in the Gators' two national championship seasons a few years ago. Since Atlanta also has former Gator star Al Horford in its starting lineup, this can't be the only reason I supported the Bulls this year over the Hawks. I suppose that I wanted the stronger team to put up a better fight against the Heat, which I don't support because of its prima donna superstar Lebron James. I came to dislike James a few years ago when, after unexpectedly losing a playoff series to Orlando when with Cleveland, he refused to congratulate the winners and showed his lack of sportsmanship. He has also been very erratic regarding how hard he plays from game to game. I can't support a player like that. On the other hand, his Heat teammate Wade is a class act.

But we'll see who eventually wins. If Chicago and Dallas both make it to the finals, I don't know whom I'll support. If Miami makes it, I'll support the West winner, whoever that is.

And God Said, "Where Are You?"

I recently attended a sermon in a conservative Christian church. The topic was how it was important for a believer to confess all personal secrets to God in order for prayers to be effective. This all sounded like a typical session in this church, where a member apparently is expected to spend the rest of his or her life deep in emotional anguish over every little dinky-ass thing he or she has ever done, is doing, ever will do, or even consider ever doing, and whether, if there is the remotest possibility of any impropriety going on (Christian translation: sin), this shouldn't be confessed, not just in quiet prayer to God but also to each other. Ho-hum, so what's new, anyway...

Well, here's what's new. During the message, the preacher made a reference to the Genesis story of Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden. It seems that humanity's first couple had been naughty and eaten the forbidden fruit of knowledge. Now they were hiding from God because... well, they were naughty and knew they were naked, to boot. The Lord happened to be walking in the Garden and called out to Adam, "Where are you?"

It was then that the preacher did something I have heard preachers do often over the years: he made presumptions about God that were not mentioned in the text. He said that, of course, God knew all along exactly what Adam and Eve had done and where they were hiding. And then he used this personal revision of the actual text to illustrate his argument for confession (which I don't quite get since God had already told Adam that eating the forbidden fruit would bring on a death sentence, so why confess and die).

The original writer of that section of text in Genesis in which God said "Where are you?", as well as the compiler of those ancient textual fragments into a cohesive narrative later known as the Book of Genesis, did not reveal God's motives behind his statement. And the statement, literally read, is self-explanatory: God is asking someone where he is. The preacher/interpreter, though, in order to ease any sense of awkwardness in this passage, which implied that God really wasn't all-knowing after all, inserted the "divine omniscience" doctrine into his interpretation during the sermon. As he performed this oratory legerdemain from the podium, I looked around at the faithful, uncritical congregation and saw person after person nodding and smugly smirking. Yeah, God knew all along where Adam and Eve were... but that's not what the text says!

Why am I belaboring this point? Because just a few passages before this in the same book of Genesis, the Biblical creation narrative is laid out. Those Christians claiming that evolution is false and that the origins of everything are literally explained in the first few verses of Genesis include the same preacher who, when it was convenient to HIM, added his own special enhanced interpretation to a nearby passage.

Hmmmph!

Dearth of Public Interest in Swimming

The other day I was in my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, browsing through the magazine area. I tend to gravitate toward the athletic section, which contains magazines about all sorts of activities, chief among them running. I also see stuff about bicycling, skateboarding, golf, ...even surfing. But I NEVER see a magazine devoted to swimming. Which made me wonder...

When I attended physical education classes in junior and senior high school from 1968 through 1971, as a bloc my class always seemed overjoyed at the prospect of being able to swim in the school's pool while collectively groaning at the prospect of doing any kind of running. I myself didn't learn how to swim until the seventh grade, and afterward for the next couple of years my classmates would always leave me struggling far behind them when we swam laps (quite the opposite of my running experiences then). Although swimming in phys-ed usually began with a lap or two, the students were then allowed "free time" in the pool for most of the class session. I tended to practice my swimming, not enjoying it at all and feeling totally clumsy and stupid. Many, if not most of the other boys (maybe the girls did it differently in their classes) would play a game in which they would pair off in the pool with one riding the other's shoulders...and then try to topple each other in the water. To them, that was what made "swimming" fun, but I wanted no part of it then (and now, either). Oh, and there were also a few brave souls who were into diving. But even with pure swimming, minus the diving and horseplay, the consensus when I was this age was that it was cool and fun, the polar opposite of running.

Fast forward to now: running is an ardent passion for many while swimming is relatively rare among adults. I see magazine after magazine devoted to running; where are the swimming magazines? The only type of publication that at least indirectly addresses swimming is the triathlon magazine, and usually one has to search high and low in the pages to find articles in them relating to swimming, while the running and cycling sections predominate.

I find all of this very baffling. One would think, with the cardiovascular benefits that swimming brings without the shock to the body that running's pounding inflicts, that people would be flocking to pools in droves and insisting that more be built. There should be weekly public pool race events for different age groups to compete among themselves, just as there are all those public running events. But I search the Internet and find nothing of the sort. And here I am in hot, water-abundant, swim-friendly Florida!

And how often do you drive past hotels or homes with swimming pools that actually have people using them? With me, the answer is almost never. Some people seem to place great store in having their very own private swimming pools, but then don't use them, at least not for swimming.

I think one reason folks don't like to go swimming out in public is the modesty factor. Swimmers tend to be more exposed and a lot of people feel embarrassed about this and consequently avoid the activity. My own YMCA has a peculiar setup: their workout room directly faces the pool, with the treadmills, bicycle trainers, and elliptical machines all positioned to look out at the pool. From the vantage point of the pool, a swimmer looks up at the long glass window and sees rows of machines and their users facing them. Maybe that could be a little threatening for some who would otherwise like to occasionally go swimming in the pool. For me, I don't like this arrangement but I've overcome any modesty issues. I have even used this to my advantage by observing swimmers from the workout room and getting pointers about elements of form used in various swimming strokes.

If I am fortunate to live with my wits intact for a few more decades, I would also like to have a healthy, active body to experience this with. Swimming fits the bill (along with walking) as a suitable physical activity that is sustainable over the years. Running is fun for ME, but it isn't for everyone. Swimming should be promoted and more public-access pools built, with more reasonable swimming hours offered than what is currently available here in Gainesville.

A "Circular" Argument

I have never been much of a supporter of the concept of small group discussions, be it at school, church, work, or in any other context. The way I have experienced it, whoever is responsible for organizing the group almost always has an agenda in mind that those sitting around in the group are expected to further, with little room for critical deviation. I can understand the need to "brainstorm" from time to time and get some positive input from others. But I think there are better ways to do this then cooping people up together in a room and expecting them to play a particular role that may be completely out of character for them. And then there is the circular seating arrangement...

Sitting people around in a circle facing each other is one of the more annoying aspects of many small groups, in my opinion. It creates a totalitarian atmosphere in which no one has any privacy from the glares of the others. Each participant in the group is totally exposed, with simple facial expressions and body language affecting the discussion in subtle ways that don't really contribute to an effective resolution of the topic. I have come to the conclusion over years of sitting in circle after circle of small groups that the one(s) responsible for this type of seating arrangement are, deep down inside, manipulators and seekers of power. Now, whenever I find myself in such a setting I zone out on whatever is going on and simply enter another mental reality, one where I review lists of things I've learned or simply drift off in thought about other subjects. I refuse to get caught up in the psychology of small groups, period.

Maybe this is unreasonable of me, but that's the way I am. The way I see it, if anyone wants my opinion they know where to find me and are welcome to engage in a reasonable and respectful discussion as long as they are truly serious about the stated topic instead of playing games with controlling people.

I'm not necessarily against the idea of having informational meetings, which are very common in the workplace. Policies there can be efficiently communicated to the appropriate people without having to go through the tedious process of conferring with each one. Pertinent questions can be posed here, questions that can add to everyone's understanding. But those group meetings that involve people sitting around shooting the bull are pointless, in my opinion. What often happens is that people attending them tend to say things that they later regret having said. When I hear someone speaking in this way during a meeting, I inwardly cringe and curse those responsible for making me attend it.

Back to Hilly Trail on 10.5 Mile Run

Today the weather was cooler and dryer than usual, and I took advantage of it by running 10.5 miles, my longest since being sidelined from running due to a leg injury in January. My time reflected my usual pace: 1:40:59. The temperature went from 68 to 72 during my run while the humidity was pleasant as well, lowering from 57% to 41%.

Not only did I successfully accomplish this run, but I also ran down the (pictured) relatively hilly (for Florida) trail along NW 53rd Avenue for the first time since my injury. I had been concerned that the hills might aggravate my injury, but everything seems to be O.K. so far. I believe, though, that while running I am sensing potential problems in my right leg that may not exist, i.e. phantom sensations. I remember long ago in 1973, after I had suffered a hernia and had surgery to repair it, I also had this type of phantom sensation, concluding then that I had experienced another hernia. That fear turned out to be unfounded, and hopefully so will my current concerns. After all, it's now been more than 11 hours since my run and my leg feels fine.

The End of the World

I have picked up on the news story floating around that Family Radio, a splinter Christian group (well, they are actually ALL splinter groups from each other) is putting out notices that Jesus is coming back on May 21. And yes, that means the end of the world, at least as we know it. Giving me pause to try to come up with something sensible from this lunacy...

I have always wondered why so many are "enraptured" with the notion of the end of the world. Especially when each of us already has, built into our individual bodies through our biology and interaction with the environment, our own personal "end of the world". We all die, plain and simple. After that fact happens, the rest of the world HAS ended, as far as the one who dies is concerned.

Those who are so caught up with events around us that seem to them apocalyptic in nature tend to be believers, not only in an afterlife, but also that they are "taken care of" by their spiritual savior (in Christianity it's Jesus). So if anything they should be unconcerned about what's happening in the world instead of obsessing about it. The reason they're not is kind of like those "time is running out" ploys on QVC or Home Shopping Network: if you want that "eternal life" deal and haven't bought into it yet, you'd better hurry up, because Jesus is coming...this version of the narrative has it happening on May 21. So ultimately this prediction about Jesus coming soon is a device to recruit more believers to the faith. Before it's too late, you see. After all, I suppose that Family Radio must have concluded that some people don't see themselves as ever dying, at least not in the foreseeable future, so this "Jesus coming back on May 21" could be used as something to expedite their conversions...

Better Swimming Experience on Thursday

This past Thursday I had a better swimming experience than usual. First of all, I decided to swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of M-W-F, giving those days to my running and making weekends a kind of wild card in terms of exercising (or maybe resting from exercise). Then I got to the pool earlier in the morning, around 9:30. The water aerobics "bouncers" were all out in the shallow part doing their class session, but to my delight all of the 25-meter lanes were open. I took the one on the end and proceeded to swim 50 consecutive minutes for a total distance of 1,050 meters. I employed my strategy of alternating between freestyle and my modified backstroke, switching from one to the other halfway through each crossing. It worked perfectly, giving me a lot of confidence and making me feel on a par with the other lap-swimmers I've seen there. I did have a problem with the sun's glare while on my back. Later in the day I purchased some swimmer's goggles that should help with this on future swims.

Also, I developed what I think is a pretty cool way to keep track of the number of laps I'm swimming. I mentally run down the alphabet with each lap, starting with "A". While doing the "A" lap, I think of any words or names beginning with that letter and make any associations that come to mind. Next lap is "B", then "C", and so on. I got through "U", i.e. the 21st 50-meter lap. Not only does this method help me keep track of my ongoing lap total, but it also is fun, distracts me from the rigors of the exercise, and even gives me some insight about my mental state as I tire toward the end (my "S", "T", and "U" laps didn't evoke the same quality of associations as the earlier letters did). In the future, when I swim my 27th lap, I'll just reset the alphabet back to "A" and add 26 to the total.

My strategy in swimming is to continue with what I'm doing until I can swim 30 consecutive 50-meter laps, which at 1,500 meters I believe represents triathlon distance. Then I will gradually increase the freestyle portion of each crossing, always leaving a little room at the end for some backstroke swimming. And at some future date I'll insert some breaststroke into the routine.

Where is My Last Entry?

It's almost 1 PM and I have to go to work soon. Blogger went down for maintenance last night and finally just came back up. But they lost my last entry, ironically titled Crappy Products for Sale. Hopefully, it will be restored later today. Otherwise, my faith in Blogger as a reliable site will be seriously shaken.

I intend to hold up on any more postings on this blog until this matter is satisfactorily resolved.

********

Later... Well, they finally reposted my "crappy" article, so as far as I'm concerned, the blog is once again full speed ahead! But I'm still miffed...

Crappy Products for Sale

There are little things in the world that peeve me, things that shouldn't but do. Not because I need to toughen up and take things in stride better, but rather because those responsible for them should and could do better. For example:

--Whenever I buy a pack of those cheap Bic ball point pens, I am satisfied. I take any pen out of the pack, uncap it, and from the start the ink flows out of the pen onto the paper. But any other brand, including the vaunted PaperMate (which all of the stores around me stock up on instead of Bic) has lousy pens that won't produce ink. This is a simple quality-control situation that the company should have taken care of during production. It's not a matter of me preferring their product less than Bic: I simply can't use their product at all, period!

--The same goes for clear adhesive tape. Scotch is the only brand that "gets it". For every other brand I've tried, the tape won't tear off cleanly, stretching instead of breaking. Or, the tape will begin to tear in such a way that it becomes fragmented around the roll, thus making the entire roll completely useless.

--Or how about those spiral notebooks that have their pages perforated for "easy" removal? After writing several pages of material in one such notebook recently, I tried to remove them so that I could reorganize them in another notebook. But about halfway down the pages, the perforation briefly ended, causing the paper to tear. How frustrating, and ultimately unnecessary!

No, I don't get it. In each of the above examples, I am not talking about products that are cheaper because they have less frills than a more expensive variety. Instead, these products are manufactured to be crappy and then sold as something that does not live up to its purported function. And sometimes they aren't even the "bargain" brands! But just the same, just because a product may be relatively inexpensive, that shouldn't grant its producer the license to sell something that in very basic ways simply doesn't work.

No wonder that many folks are edgy about purchasing generic prescription medicine. And what about the privatization of our space program? Sure hope we don't end up with any off-brand rockets...

KA-BOOM!

The Pride of Humility: A Paradox?

There are many good lines in Max Ehrmann's poetic piece of counsel titled Desiderata, but a few really stand out to me as having significance for my life. One of these is If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. This speaks of the need to develop a sense of proper perspective and balance when engaging in personal endeavors that are open for public evaluation and comparison with others. It's true: usually I am pretty good at whatever I set my mind to do, but there are always going to be those who are better than me in whatever area I am working at.

I have discovered, while engaging in an activity like swimming or learning to speak a foreign language, that I often feel pretty incompetent and foolish. But I also recognize that only by refusing to feel intimidated by the fear of looking (or sounding) bad will I be able to stick with a project until I ultimate attain a satisfactory level of ability. I am learning, at this late age in my life, to punch through this often embarrassing period in learning new things by embracing the humility of spirit that it imposes on me. And then refusing to allow that humility to turn into humiliation, but instead cultivate a sense of pride that I have the guts to try new things regardless how poorly I may do them at first.

Humility is a virtue, and if you can practice it (without putting yourself down) then you should be proud! A sense of humor about one's own folly can contribute to humility and make it more enjoyable. When I am striving to learn to do something that others do better than me, I respect and accept with humility their superiority in that particular area and am proud that I want to improve myself, possibly to their level or even higher. But most likely there will still remain some with better abilities, and I'd like to be proud enough to say that this is O.K.!

Union Meeting Attendance Strategy Revisited

Back on 11/21/08 I wrote an article titled The "What If" Fallacy, examining the attendance strategy of my union local. To increase attendance, they have a drawing each meeting, the winner receiving a hefty sum of money. If the one whose name is drawn isn't present, they don't win anything and their name is shown at work on the union bulletin board (I suppose to publicly humiliate them). The amount to win in the attendance drawing is increased with each meeting if not claimed. Once someone succeeds in winning a drawing, the total offered in the next meeting reverts back to a nominal $50. To be eligible for the drawing, all one has to do is be a (local) union member. I examined the flaws in the argument for this attendance strategy in the previous article (hit the link to read it). Now I have some new information on the drawing that, in my opinion, makes it even more flawed.

Union officers and stewards are expected to attend these union meetings. Photos from my local's newsletter reflects this: the attendees are heavily weighted with officers and stewards (and they tend to be the ones winning the drawing), with a few (very few) rank and file members sprinkled in [correction: executive board officers don't take part in the drawing--thanks, Brian]. This is probably just as well, since there really isn't very much room at the meeting site to accommodate more than a handful of people anyway. But to spur greater attendance, anyone attending a meeting gets an extra entry in the drawing for each meeting they attend. So if I, say, attended 5 meetings, then I would have my name in the drawing "pot" on 6 pieces of paper, greatly increasing my odds of winning, a clear incentive to attend. On the other hand, if I attend the meetings and want to win the drawing, then the last thing I would want is for others to start attending since their names would also be multiplied in the pot, thereby reducing my own chances of winning. So what we end up with is a few people faithfully attending meetings while not exactly wholeheartedly encouraging others to join them. I don't think that's what the creators of this scheme had in mind...

Maybe I'm sounding a little cynical about all this. After all, shouldn't we just show our "union spirit" and attend meetings for their own sake? But it wasn't me who concocted and implemented this attendance drawing strategy. And I probably would never had commented on it were it not for the continuing deplorable practice of publicizing the drawings' "losers".

Swimming Pool Blues

Recently, I have become a bit bummed out about the swimming pools that are supposed to be available for me to use. One of these, Westside Pool, for which I as a Gainesville citizen share in its funding through my property taxes, waited until the very late date of May 6 to finally open to the public. Then it limited its hours to 3-7 PM weekdays and noon-5 on weekends. On top of that, I would have to pay $3.65 each time I used it. Not that I would, seeing that they apparently don't think that anyone but school children use the pool since they don't ever open unless school's out. Then there's my local YMCA's pool.

I pay out a reasonable sum of money monthly for membership in the YMCA. Having access to their pool is a big thing for me. But on Saturday and Sunday, they host a large scuba diving class, effectively clogging up two thirds of the pool. Aggravating the situation further, they reduce the available swimming lanes on these days from five to three. So it's often impossible to find a time there on the weekend when there is enough space in the pool for me to practice my swimming.

This morning I went to the pool around 11 AM, knowing that the water aerobics class, which also effectively monopolizes half the pool, had already ended. These days I often find the 25-meter swimming lanes full, and today was no exception. Still, I had most of the shallow part of the pool to myself and made good use of it, swimming for 43 consecutive minutes. Part of my swim involves a slow backstroke. I was performing this when I swam right into an old dude who was wading over into the shallow end from one of the lanes. Apparently, he felt that he was so important that he didn't feel the need to show basic courtesy and time himself to avoid me. A-a-a-g-h!

I remember experiencing frustration in the past about being able to find suitable places to run, finally deciding on my own home neighborhood streets as a stable, convenient, and consistently available setting. Perhaps I should follow this example and start showing up in my neighbors' swimming pools!

One unexplored option is the large number of natural springs in the Gainesville vicinity. I think I should start looking into this, keeping in mind of course the travel expenses involved as well as admission fees.

Getting my own swimming pool built is not an option for me due to the expense. I have seen ads on TV for something called an "endless pool", which is a small pool analogous to a treadmill that allows a swimmer to "swim in place" against a generated current. Unfortunately, this also seems awfully pricey. Also, the less expensive above-ground portable pools are not large enough to do me any good with my swimming.

So swimming is just going to have to be an activity that has its own limitations for me. But recognizing this doesn't reduce my frustration.

Bynum, Odom Goats, Kobe Shows Class in Loss

In the NBA West semifinals, the Dallas Mavericks completed their surprising four-game sweep of the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers with a resounding 122-86 win. Laker star Kobe Bryant was magnanimous in defeat, congratulating the winners and giving them full credit for playing so well against his Lakers. It's too bad that he has some teammates who are clueless when it comes to displaying good sportsmanship.

In the fourth quarter, when the game's outcome was no longer in question, Lakers Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum each committed egregious flagrant fouls within the span of a minute, causing both to be ejected. Bynum's was by far the worse as he elbowed a Maverick player sharply in the ribs as he was in mid-air driving to the basket. To make matters even worse, after the referee signalled his ejection, Bynum then took off his shirt in front of the Dallas crowd as he walked off the court.

I saw both flagrant fouls and thought that Odom's was forgivable, but not Bynum's. Kobe Bryant was clearly saddened and ashamed of his teammates' violent and immature behavior. The man does have class, I must say. But still, I will never again root for any team of which Andrew Bynum is a member, even if it's with Kobe Bryant.

New Late Hour Haunt

I don't know how long this has been going on, but I just found a Starbucks that stays open until midnight, not far from my workplace. Seeing how I usually get off from work at 11 PM, this may be the start of something big. You see, when it comes to studying or writing I hit a mental energy "zone of darkness" when I get home. It's been this way my whole life. If I had known as a kid how utterly opposite I am from this when out in a public place like a coffee shop, I might have been a little more rebellious and pressed my parents for some time "out" to do my homework. Still, that was then and now is when I have the opportunity to affect my life the way I want to.

So as long as this place will accommodate me by staying open late, I plan to do business with them. And I have a long, long list of projects that can occupy my time here (I'm at this Starbucks right now).

But more than just studying out late at night, this is a convenient location for me to relax and wind down from my often stressful job. Not that I'm complaining: my job is good for me in many ways. But it is also good to have a brief transitional time between work and home.

Ten Mile Uncomfortable Run

Yesterday, I ran 10 miles (time 1:35:24). The temperatures stayed in the 70's throughout and the humidity was low. Still, I felt uncomfortable during the run, sensing aches in my legs and imagining that my injury was about to return. But at the end, nothing of the kind happened. Still, today I felt out of sorts and skipped my planned swim. We'll see what the weekend brings. Maybe I just need to take a day or two off from my workouts.

Swimming Progresses to Continuous Level

Yesterday I swam constantly for about 27 minutes at my YMCA's pool. Before this I used to take short "breather" breaks between laps. I swam in the shallow section, doing freestyle in one direction and then immediately a modified backstroke in the other. I discovered that I could go on indefinitely like this, but decided to cut it off at 27 minutes because I instinctively wanted to increase my time in a more gradual manner. Next swim is tomorrow: today is a running day!

My previous conclusion about what curtails my swimming distance seems to be correct: breathing is the limiting factor. Once I get habituated to a good breathing pattern that keeps me from building up an oxygen debt, I should swim on the same endurance level as I run.

My swimming strategy is now laid out. I will alternate freestyle with backstroke at about every 12 meters or so. As my breathing during freestyle becomes more efficient, I will increase my distance in that stroke relative to the backstroke. And it matters not where I'm swimming, either: I just need to count my strokes to determine the appropriate "flipping" moment. So tomorrow I plan to take this continuous swimming strategy and apply it to the longer 25-meter lanes at the pool. And try to swim longer than yesterday.

Somewhere along the line I also intend to integrate breaststroke and, later, the butterfly into my routine. Seems now that I should just be able to practice breaststroke as short segments of my continuous workout.

Balanced Breathing in Swimming and Running

I was recently discussing with a friend my ongoing project of improving my breathing while swimming, to the point where I stop building up an oxygen debt and feel comfortable swimming for appreciably longer distances. She mentioned to me that she had previously had the same problem regarding running longer distances: she had to learn to achieve a balance with her breathing while running. I initially thought it unusual that someone might have trouble breathing while running. And then I took a walk down memory lane, back to my own childhood and my approach then to running.

When I was a kid, I ran at one speed: as fast as I could! There was no such thing as pacing myself. So when I ran, I ran all-out and soon would find myself gasping for air, having naturally incurred a great oxygen debt. It wasn't until I began to practice running longer distances in my mid-teens that I began to pace myself and establish a sort of peace between my running and my breathing. After this happened, I could run as long as I had the physical energy, barring any injury. I had figured out how to breathe while running so long ago (early 1970's) that I had at first missed the significance of my friend's remarks.

And this is the significance: even being a land creature with almost constant access to the open air, it took me several years to learn how to breathe in a sustaining way without building up oxygen debt. By contrast, I have been in water much, much less, having spent very little time or effort to balance out my "swimming" breathing. So I should feel encouraged with my progress so far, even though at times it seems like I'm just "treading water"!

Smoky Haze Looms

Being a runner, and one who doesn't confine this activity to an indoor treadmill, I have become a little concerned over the last couple of days about the explosion of brush fires, both in the Gainesville area and in northern Florida and southern Georgia in general. Not that I feel at all threatened by any fire: it is the smoky haze from them that ruins the air, making physical activity something that necessitates going indoors into air conditioning.

On my local TV news, it was reported that Gainesville and vicinity had experienced 30 such fires over the past week. Furthermore, with winds shifting to a northerly direction, those fires north of us are due to be sending their stinking haze in our direction. I experienced a few minutes of this yesterday morning, but the wind fortunately shifted again and it disappeared.

This morning I was apprehensive, wondering whether I would need to go to my YMCA and work out on the treadmill instead of my much-preferred road running through the neighborhood. But at about 10:45, I stepped outside and the air smelled clean. I ran my 7.18 mile course with ease, only limited by time restrictions. Let's see how it is on Thursday, when I'll be setting out on another run, possibly a long one (10 miles plus).

Tomorrow I have scheduled myself to swim, so I'm still going to be outside. Hopefully, my string of luck will continue and we'll avoid the haze in Gainesville. But more than anything, we need a lot of rain around here. That may sound incredible, considering the horrendous storms and flooding the southeastern U.S. has been experiencing lately.

Forget Unity from the Right Over Bin Laden

With the news about the killing of international mass-murderer Osama Bin Laden only hours old, I tuned in to my local extreme right-wing talk show radio station expecting to hear some short-term moments of national unity. You know, unity behind our president Barack Obama, who is strongly responsible for this outcome. It was the morning show with local Rush Limbaugh-wannabe Bob Rose. He was in the middle of taking calls. The first I heard was some dude angrily claiming that if it were Bush who had done this, then the "lefties" would be all over themselves criticizing him. "Rush" Rose said nothing for or against this comment. The next call-in was someone espousing the view that, a-ha, NOW he knows why Obama just went to the trouble to release his birth certificate. To which Rose should have replied, "WTF are you talking about, you irrational, crazy moron?" But he let that caller also go without any correction. These folks, after all, represent Rose's listening base of frightened, liberal-hating ideologues and he knows where his paycheck comes from. Finally, the esteemed local host took a minute away from the phones to make a statement to the effect that some of the previous callers should realize that this is a time of unity for the country as a whole and they don't need to be overcritical. Then he immediately pondered about GITMO, how information leading to the location of Bin Laden's hangout may have been obtained there from detainees, and oh by the way, didn't Obama and his liberal buddies want to close it down? All this almost in one breath.

So I see little hope for anything resembling the national unity expressed for President Bush immediately after the 9/11 attacks. Furthermore, I have a prediction: in the ensuing days, a conspiracy theory will develop, probably viewable on YouTube and passed around on "hate" radio and FoxHateNews: it was all faked, Obama knew he needed to "get" Bin Laden to be reelected and made a deal with him to "disappear" in exchange for his faked killing. After all, he had been living right there all along among the Pakistani military, our allies. And didn't they get rid of that body pretty conveniently fast? I further predict that at least one of the GOP presidential hopefuls will embrace this nutty fabrication and actually gain traction over it with the party's "base".

You should be able to see this coming: too many people utterly despise our president and will never credit him with doing anything good...

******

... I see tonight's Colbert Report ripped off my short-but-sweet article from yesterday. Now where's my lawyer....

After Ten Years...

Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead.

Finally.