February Running Summary

I decided, since I passed up the two half-marathon races I had long been dreaming of running in due to medical concerns and pressure from within my own family, to change the emphasis on my running to more of a routine nature. To this end, I set the (almost absurdly) easily attainable goal of running 100 miles per month. In February, I easily accomplished this, piling up 111.43 miles. I also ran on 25 out of this leap year February's 29 days. And the longest run? A paltry (for me) 9.33 miles...

Gainesville City Commission Election Results Typical

In the Gainesville at-large city commission election held yesterday, my concerns from yesterday's article were unnecessary. Although city commission races are technically non-partisan, the candidates are still usually either Republican or Democratic. Sometimes it's a little difficult to figure them out, but then again sometimes it isn't. The conservative Republican candidate, who deluged my mailbox with campaign ads and the city with campaign signs, nevertheless fell victim to the typical Gainesville formula in city-wide general elections: Democrats (liberal side) get 57-59 % while Republicans (conservative side) get 41-43 %. A couple of years ago, during the tea party craze, this formula was overturned when the Democrat/liberal squeaked out a very narrow victory over his teabagger opponent. In that campaign, the teabagger made a continual issue of his opponent's homosexuality, hoping (apparently successfully) to reap some "bigotry" votes for himself. But yesterday the pattern returned: the victor had about 56.5 % while the loser got 43.5 %.

Conservatives and Republicans do win sometimes in Gainesville. We once had a long-term sheriff who was a Republican (of course, he benefited from rural votes and outlying more conservative county communities). He seemed reasonable while at his sheriff's post, but when he won a state legislature seat he became an arch-conservative ideologue of the worst kind. So although I do like to have the conservative viewpoint heard in my local government, I am a bit reticent about supporting any candidate who appears to have ambitions for "higher" office, this recent commission race a case in point...

My Take on Today's City Commission Election

Today is Election Day in Gainesville, with an at-large city commission runoff being the only race. A politically moderate former commissioner is running against a conservative. The conservative has inundated the mail with his campaign ads, some of which put down the other (who has run a positive campaign himself). He is also very ambitious: in my opinion, he is using this local race as a stepping stone to higher political office. I’m not too happy with that, either.

In the last commission race, I voted for a conservative candidate because the seven-member commission had no conservatives at the time and I believed that legitimate interests in the community that were better served by conservatives were not being properly heard by my city government. Also, I wanted someone in there who could help persuade the others not to embark upon wasteful or foolish projects. But now that we have a conservative, I don’t want to keep adding to the total. I still want a moderate/liberal city commission.

So for the above reasons, I’m voting against that ambitious young conservative today more than I am voting for the other candidate. It will be interesting to see whether his bombardment of campaign ads will pay off for him. I hope it doesn’t.

Rainy Weather Lately

The weather here in north central Florida is worth noting: we're going on three straight days of very rainy weather. The cumulative rainfall is starting to saturate the ground to the point where it may not be advisable to park one's vehicle on the grass. Maybe some other spot, even the street, may be more advisable, at least until the waters abate.

As far as I am concerned, the rain is an obstacle to my running...at least outdoors running (I can always resort to the treadmill). Not that I mind being rained on that much: it's the wet road surface that I really want to avoid, especially those sections along the roadside where the water mixes with oil and grease from parked cars and aggravates the danger of slipping and falling. So even when it stops this constant raining early in the afternoon (although right now it seems as if that will never happen), I'll still be wary about running on the streets. But maybe after a while the rainwater will drain off the streets to the point where I'll feel safe enough running down them again.

Ultimately, though, it will help my running (and my breathing, too) if this much-needed rainfall soaks the ground enough to help forestall forest fires in the near future. So to that extent I welcome the nasty weather around me...

Limbaugh: Santorum vs Romney in '12, Hillary vs Obama in '08

I don't think that right-wing radio talk jock Rush Limbaugh has come out and endorsed any of the Republican candidates for president so far. But from what I can gather secondhand, being someone who is usually repelled when I directly listen to any of his shows, he doesn't make much sense to me. If he really does want for Barack Obama to be defeated in this year's election, that is.

Rick Santorum is reportedly sending out campaign ads featuring Limbaugh's image and citing his praise for Santorum and his conservative credentials. Meanwhile, Limbaugh has consistently been critical of Mitt Romney on his radio show. You might say that, since the radio dude is conservative, then he would naturally lean toward the more conservative candidate. But...

Four years ago, McCain had the Republican nomination sewn up early in the primary campaign season. But Democratic frontrunner Obama had to campaign for months against a very tenacious Hillary Clinton to amass enough votes to secure the nomination. During this time, Rush Limbaugh was strongly urging Republican voters in those states whose primaries allowed them to cross over and vote in the Democratic primaries to vote for Hillary. According to Limbaugh's thinking, this would tie up the Obama campaign (and funds) and could help split the Democrats during the general campaign.

Remembering how Limbaugh handled the 2008 campaign, I am a little taken aback at how he seems to be doing just the opposite with Romney, who is clearly the Republican candidate with the best chance of winning the general election. If I were in Limbaugh's shoes (and I'm very glad I'm not), I'd be like his political ally Ann Coulter and would promote Romney while detracting from the other candidates. Instead, he seems to be trying to drag out the GOP campaign, inviting the same discord that he encouraged among the Democrats four years ago.

Now this all has me intrigued: maybe I should tune in to Limbaugh's show and hear for myself how he goes about hemming and hawing over this issue...

After Work at Starbucks on Saturday Night

I managed to get off a couple of hours early from work tonight. I didn't want to go directly home, though, because I felt like going to one of my area Starbucks to study a while. I was considering three of them: Magnolia Park, Archer Road, and West Newberry Road near I-75. The first I dismissed because it closes at ten. The other two stay open until midnight. I often try out the Archer Road location because it is very close to my workplace. Tonight, though, the parking lot there was so crammed that I had trouble just getting through it and back out on the street. While passing by the Starbucks there, I did get a fleeting look inside: thoroughly packed to the hilt with humanity. So I traveled further down the road to the Newberry Road store. It was empty, except for the workers baristas. Later more customers came in, but this location must be the best-kept secret in Gainesville. No worry about me giving the secret away, though: hardly anyone reads this blog...

Which Past Presidential Election is the Best Model for 2012?

I suppose that, depending on which side of the political fence you're on (and that you actually have a clue regarding American presidential electoral history), this upcoming 2012 election will "fit" into a model represented by some past elections. For this article's sake, let's take the elections from 1968-2008: these are the ones I personally followed (since age 12).

To find a fitting model for 2012, we have to see, in previous elections, a sitting president looking to either be elected for the first time (Ford in 1976) or re-elected. In 1968, incumbent Lyndon Johnson had dropped out and his party's nominee Humphrey lost the election to Nixon. For this article's purposes, though, I will stick with an individual SITTING president running to stay in office. So the years 1968, 1988, 2000, and 2008 are out, still leaving quite a lot to examine.

In 1972, Richard Nixon was running for re-election while the opposition Democrats, instead of uniting around a more centrist candidate, chose George McGovern to run in the general election. The result was a near-record landslide for Nixon. In 2012, Democrats salivate while Republicans quake at the prospect of right-wing ideologue Rick Santorum securing the GOP nomination, portending a similar electoral outcome.

In 1976, appointed VP and eventual president Gerald Ford lost a very close election to smiling, ever-promising candidate Jimmy Carter. Carter tried to be all things to all people, while Ford carried the burden of his pardon to Nixon for any Watergate scandal crimes. The Republicans would like this to be a model for a November victory this year, but it can only be pulled off if more centrist candidate Mitt Romney can successfully pull away early from Santorum and start to court more centrist voters. Ford also had to suffer through a grueling party nomination campaign against Ronald Reagan, putting him at a disadvantage early in the general campaign. Obama is unopposed within his own party.

In 1980, it was Carter running for another term, this time against Ronald Reagan. And he probably would have stayed in office had the economy not tanked just before the election. This is another scenario that the Republicans would like to see, their claims to want the economy to improve notwithstanding. But like Ford in 1976 and again unlike Obama in 2012, the incumbent Carter had to endure a hard campaign within his own party, this time the opponent being Edward Kennedy.

In both Reagan and Bill Clinton's reelection campaigns in 1984 and 1996, respectively, the country was at peace, the economy was in very good shape, and the voters consequently endorsed the incumbent as representing the relatively successful status quo. Barack Obama and the Democrats see this as an ideal type of election, but in reality we are still at war and the economy isn't exactly booming, either. But to mitigate this, they will spin both situations as being on the rebound.

Another campaign that the Republicans derive some hope from is 1992 between incumbent George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and temperamental (thank God he wasn't elected) business tycoon Ross Perot. But the way I see it, this isn't a very good model for two reasons. One, Perot probably helped Clinton more than he did Bush by siphoning more votes from the latter. Two, the Republicans had been in power for 12 years and the country wanted a change. In 2012, the Democrats have only been in the White House going on 4 years.

And now we come to the final election left to consider, and which I consider to be the most likely scenario for this year: 2004. Incumbent Republican George W. Bush, strongly embraced by his own party and vilified by the opposition, won a squeaker election against bland Massachusetts politician John Kerry in a very dirty, vicious campaign. For this election, the country was asked to stay the course, although we were in the middle of a quagmire of a war and an escalating national debt. Sound familiar...especially that part about the bland Massachusetts politician? The essential difference in 2012, besides the parties being reversed in their power/opposition roles, is that the economy is more of a burden to Obama while the war was more of a burden to Bush. But we'll see what really happens...

Inspired Blog Topics Hard to Come By Lately

Lately it has been a little more difficult a task for me to sit down and write a blog article. I haven't been in a very philosophical state lately, and such thinking often leads me to an interesting (for me) topic to write about. My running, which is often the subject of articles, has become rather uneventful and routine. Musically, I listen pretty much to the same acts on my mp3 player (although there is a "new" group that I have begun to focus on; more about that in a later article). The news has been uncooperative as well, especially on the domestic political front, with Rick Santorum becoming the favorite of pious, self-righteous, and (I suspect) largely hypocritical right wing evangelical voters with his advocacy of government intrusion and judgement regarding individual citizens' sexual behavior and reproductive choices. And with sports, hockey is terminally boring, pro basketball angers me with its prima donna self-important superstars, and college basketball is mired in the yawn-inspiring regular season, still a few weeks away from the traditionally exciting March Madness of the NCAA Tournament. And I steer away from gossip and intensely personal topics. Leaving the weather to talk about, I suppose...

So maybe I'll focus on the unseasonably warm weather around here. But that can get to be a bore, too. Now please excuse me while I go get another cup of coffee to keep me awake through all this ennui...

Controlled Burn Brings Annoying Haze

I had already run about five and a half miles of my seven-mile run around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon and was greatly enjoying the moderate temperature (low sixties) and low humidity. The only drawback was a pretty strong wind coming out of the northeast. That drawback because more pronounced at the end of my run when smoky haze from a fire off somewhere in that direction began to descend around me. I finished my run without experiencing anything worse than that annoying, unpleasant smell. But when my daughter went out a few minutes later to play basketball and do her own workout, she had to cut it off short when the haze became too thick to withstand. I thought to myself, oh no, here come those wildfires again...

But as it turns out, the smoke came from a controlled burn in the National Guard's Camp Blanding, a few miles east of Starke and about 30 miles northeast of Gainesville. According to the Independent Florida Alligator article reporting this, these deliberate burns at Blanding are common but the wind usually sends the smoke elsewhere.

I suppose that I could get really ticked off about the haze messing things up outside. But if this eventually helps to prevent future uncontrolled wildfires in the areas, then maybe this is one of those unpleasant but necessary burdens to bear about living where I live. In any event, the haze has completely disappeared by this time the next morning...

Sun "Shines" With Five Points Coverage

My hometown newspaper Gainesville Sun, notorious for generally ignoring our own local area's running races over the years, finally saw the light and chose to give some decent, respectful coverage to a major, popular local sporting event: the annual LifeSouth Five Points Marathon/Half-Marathon race, held yesterday morning. Not only did they feature a Saturday article, but also one in the Sunday paper on race day. But the real test would be whether they actually reported on the results Monday: this they did with gusto. Not only was there a long article about BOTH the marathon and half-marathon, accompanied by a listing of the top 25 finishers in each event, but also there was a teaser photo of the race on the front page. Now if they can only stick with this pattern of race coverage! Kudos to them! Here's a link to the article.

Life Expectancy Figures Skewed by Infant Mortality

On CBS News Sunday Morning today (2/19) they were discussing a former president, William Henry Harrison. It was an interesting history lesson and the announcers seemed to have their facts right. Except for one thing. After mentioning that Harrison was sworn into office at the relatively advanced age of 68, one of the announcers marveled that the life expentancy then was only 39 years; back then it would have been like a 110-year old was becoming president. NO, NO, NO!

The main reason that life expectancy figures were so low back then (and now, in impoverished parts of the world) was because of the enormously high infant mortality rate, which drastically skewed the figures. Being a human being in the first couple of years of life was very, very dangerous, with fatal illnesses a commonplace, tragic feature. Once someone did make it out of early childhood, they stood a good chance of making it into old age eventually (unless they were sucked into a war not of their own making, that is). So being 68 was NOT some extraordinary feat of longevity, as the TV person implied...

Gainesville Five Points (Half-)Marathon Tomorrow

Since I'm not going to run in the Five Points Half-Marathon tomorrow after all, you might wonder why I still maintain an interest in it. Well, here are a couple of "points" about Five Points...

First, I haven't abandoned the idea of resuming running in 13.1-mile half-marathon races (or even the 26.2-mile marathon) at some time in the future after medical conditions have been reconciled. To immediately and deliberately ignore a local event that I had planned to be a part of sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me. I still hope this race is a resounding success tomorrow and for years to come, regardless of my participation level. Second, I sit around at home all the time watching sports like baseball, basketball, and football without any personal interest in engaging in these sports (especially baseball). Somehow, though, I've convinced myself that they are important. But look, I still run: today I ran 6 miles. So instead, I should be enthusiastic about the sport with which I have been personally involved. Now if my local newspaper The Gainesville Sun will only share my enthusiasm enough to cover this race in an adequate, professional manner...

In today's (Saturday) edition, there was a long article about tomorrow morning's marathon portion of the event with a map of the course. The half-marathon was virtually ignored, though. And forget about today's 5K race! Still, at least they give the overall event some coverage. Saturday.

I don't expect anything about Five Points in the Sunday paper, but on Monday they should publish the results of all three races (at least the top finishers) and feature an article describing how this important local sporting event went. Also, there is an interesting angle to the race concerning weather conditions. I remember how bitterly cold it was two years ago when I ran in it (28 degrees at the start). Tomorrow morning's local weather presents its own problems: the temperature at race's start will be 63 (not bad in itself: I ran a full marathon last year when it was 62) but with a high chance of rain and even possible thunderstorms. Uh-oh...

Brainstorm/Worksheet: a Daily Habit

I have a habit, usually while sitting in a Starbucks or someplace similar, of opening a notebook up to a blank sheet and just filling it up with various ideas that pop into my head. This brainstorming worksheet activity, in which I engage at the beginning of most days, usually evolves toward the end of the “session” into a systematic planning of what I intend to accomplish over the course of that day, along with a breakdown of my schedule and how I can achieve my different goals within the ever-too-present constraints of time limitations imposed on me from diverse sources.

After I finish brainstorming on my worksheet, usually written in a spiral notebook, I tear off the section that has my proposed “schedule” on it, fold it up, and stick it into my shirt pocket (I always wear shirts with pockets unless I’m running), to be consulted from time to time as the day unravels and I become more prone to lose sight of my goals. Hopefully, by the end of the day, I can review it with the satisfaction of having lived up to my self-imposed standards and having progressed, if only a little, in my personal endeavors.

Roku, Netfix Bring Mixed Review

I got Roku as a Christmas present last year. In case you didn't know, Roku is a device that brings streaming programming to your television set. But not ANY streaming programming that you can get on your computer: it has to be something on the Roku menu. And that's too bad: I can receive a lot of stuff on my computer that I can't get on Roku. Plus, a lot of their sites carry a monthly fee. Netflix is one; Hulu Plus is another.

I already have watched some of "plain, free" Hulu on my computer. They offer some episodes of some old TV series I like, such as Mary Tyler Moore. To get more, I would need to subscribe to Hulu Plus. Sadly, I can't get simple, plain Hulu on Roku: I have to either get Hulu Plus or Hulu Nothing. My Roku gives a free trial month of it, but right now I have enough on my hands just watching Netflix. Not that I don't have some serious beefs with it...

I decided to go ahead and get streaming Netflix on for a small monthly charge. They have every single Star Trek television episode ever made, and I have some serious catching up to do (especially with Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise). I also like MacGyver, and they also have every episode. But with other series, I was often disappointed when I found out that streaming Netflix didn't carry them. With movies, it is also a hit or miss proposition. Those old Clint Eastwood westerns are virtually absent (although not from "DVD" Netflix). When I first started watching on my Netflix account, all except the last three James Bond movies were available. Now, none are. Also, I could watch the old Sergio Leone classic A Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck You Sucker). But they withdrew that one, too. I called the Netflix representative about this and was told that they have to continually renegotiate licensing agreements in order to continue airing different shows. So although I'm disappointed that Netflix falls short of my expectations with their offerings, I still have an awful lot of good stuff to watch.

Personal Moratorium on Running Races

I have been doing a bit of serious soul-searching regarding my running and have made some decisions. For one, I am going to avoid long-distance races (actually, races of any distance) until certain medical issues are satisfactorily resolved (which, in a peculiar sort of way, may take quite a while, even years, if things go well for me). In the meantime, I'll save the steep race entry fees and just continue running for free around my neighborhood. I will run 5 miles on alternate days, with the other days running about 2 to 3 miles. I do have a mileage goal: break 100 miles per month. I ran about 106 miles in January. So far in February, I am projected to cover around 120.

Who knows how things will turn in the future with the races out there. For now, though, I am enacting a personal moratorium on them. I would like, though, in the near future, to list and review on this blog the various races I participated in since 2008.

I may consider changing my running courses around in the future to other locations around Gainesville and vicinity in order to make it more interesting. But I'll never be able to beat the convenience of just stepping out of my front door and getting my running done in my own home neighborhood, occasional stray yapping dogs notwithstanding...

On This Special Day

Each year this special day of February 14th comes around, meaning for most people St. Valentine's Day and a time for celebrating romantic relationships. That's true for me and my beautiful, wonderful wife Melissa as well... but we also have our own special reason for celebrating today. And this particular year...a third!

Happy Valentine's Day, Melissa...and Happy Everything Else as well!

Stray Dogs, Then and Now

I am not fond of running through my neighborhood on weekend afternoons. Besides the increased traffic there due to more people being off from home and/or school, there is also a problem with dog owners letting their often large and vicious sounding pets run loose in their unfenced front yards as they work on their cars, in their yards, or just in their open garages. A small number of these chase me down the street as I pass by (the dogs, that is). Almost always, when this happens, the owner catches on and frantically yells at the dog to stop. What morons. They obviously care little about their pets, and even less about any pedestrian who happens to walk by their house. After all, animals not used to being on the street are prone to getting run over!

Usually, though, and often to my amazement, many dogs are very well trained to stay within the confines of their "territory" in the front lawn, as ferociously and loudly they may bark at me. But that is still an unwarranted nuisance, in my opinion. And I know people who would be scared to death trying to walk past such a house.

I have a very intricate running course that winds up and down miles of residential roads and past a few hundred homes. In the past couple of years, I have encountered dogs running loose on just about every stretch of road at different times. Most of the time they growl and bark at me as they notice me, and a few run after me a bit. But the fact still remains that, in the entire time I have run what amounts to about two thousand miles through my neighborhood, complete with its sometimes straying canine residents, I have never been bitten. In fact, the last time I suffered a dog bite was in February 1973, when I was running with my high school track team in Davie, Florida.

Not having suffered a dog bite in 39 years is quite a contrast, though, to what happened earlier in my childhood. For I grew up in the 1960's, and society (at least where I lived) treated dogs very differently. Dogs ran loose around my neighborhood just as cats did (and still do). The kids all got used to the different dogs who hung around, some of whose homes were unknown. I can't begin to count the number of times I would see a stray dog and approach it to pet it (if it didn't approach me first). We had a dog ourselves at the time, but didn't let it run loose. But when we would take Michelle out for a walk, her presence would almost invariably attract a multitude of neighborhood dogs to keep her "company" (and she was spayed). We did know of certain "mean" dogs behind fences that we weren't supposed to get near, but the general feeling was that dogs liked us and we liked dogs. Very little fear. And still, during all of this in my childhood, I recall being bitten lots of times. But we never made a big deal about it. So when I got bitten that afternoon in February, I just continued running and then showered and went home. I told my mom about it, and to be safe, she drove me down to get a tetanus shot. The next day at school I was confounded by my track coach's angry consternation: how could I just leave like that after being bitten by a dog? It was only then that the very real danger of rabies was impressed upon me and how oh-so very dangerous stray dogs were...

This fear of stray dogs is probably much more warranted today than it was in my childhood, though. For back then, running around loose outside conditioned dogs to be more accepting of people in general. But in today's era of leash laws and rules against dogs running loose in public, those dogs that do occasionally "break out" are much more likely to see strangers as enemies to be feared and attacked. So I'm afraid I'm not likely to ever regain my relative openness to chumming up with stray dogs...

Is King's 11/22/63 Ending Given Too Early?

I have been reading Stephen King's latest novel release, titled 11/22/63. I have covered 80 pages and believe that, so far, it's King's best novel since his incredible Lisey's Story from 2006. However, I need to interject a concern. I hope I'm wrong.

It is no secret that 11/22/63 is about an individual in "our" time stumbling across a doorway into the past. He uses this time portal to set about preventing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the featured date. Fine, no problem from me with that, except that of course it's been done before in other stories (and about other assassinations). But King makes this version very different (so far) from those other stories with the manner in which this time passage takes place. Still no complaint from me. So what's my problem, anyway?

It might not be a problem, but rather a deliberate ploy by Stephen King, a kind of literary misdirection to lead the reader to erroneous assumptions about the plot flow that will later cause astonishment when they are exploded later in the story. However, I think nevertheless that, after reading only 80 pages of this 850-page novel, I believe I already know how it's going to end.

All I can say, without giving away too much of the story, is that it has to do with the ground rules for time travel between the past and present that King lays out. And that last rule, appearing close to page 80, screamed "preplanned ending" to me. But then again, Stephen King has maintained that, when he sets out to write a story, he himself usually doesn't know how it will end. He develops the characters, puts them in usually distressing circumstances, and then lets the story unravel to him, as if another party were telling it instead of his own imagination working overtime. I can't argue with his explanation for his writing technique: he is easily my favorite author. But with 11/22/63, did he stray from this and plan out the story's ending in advance?

Hopefully, I'll be reporting at some time in the near future that my concerns were groundless. We'll see...

Short Respite from Unwintery Winter

I'm looking at the television weather station and seeing the forecast overnights lows for the next two days. Saturday night/Sunday morning has it dipping to 27 degrees while the next day has it at 26. Finally, a little taste of winter. Day after day it has been pretty much the same here in northern Florida with the lows in the fifties and the highs in the mid-to-upper seventies (even cracking eighty on some days). If that were the pattern in summer, I would be delighted. But winter, it has been something of a grind to live through.

I am usually free of seasonal allergy attacks with the coldness clearing the air of pollen. Not in 2012, when often I go to my car early in the morning to see the windshield with a thin green film of the stuff. This is unheard of for this time of the year!

Still, the twenties is a little low for me. I would prefer "average" type lows for this time of the year: upper thirties to lower forties. And the highs can just stay in the sixties at least until March, as far as I'm concerned...

Romney's Double Game Against Santorum

It looks as if I was a little premature when I mentioned in an earlier article that Mitt "Not Newt" Romney had now changed over to Mitt "Not Obama" Romney. Not quite yet. He still has to go through the transitional state of being Mitt "Not Santorum" Romney, although you'll never hear him publicly acknowledge it.

With his victory in three state caucuses recently, social conservative GOP opponent Rick Santorum has now positioned himself as Romney's main challenger for the party nomination. While Romney continues to rail almost exclusively against President Obama in his campaign speeches, the people working in his heavily financed media attack campaign have now resorted to besmirching Santorum in TV ads. Not that they weren't picking on him earlier, but now that he is the main "enemy" with Gingrich's support fading, I expect more concentrated viciousness aimed at the former Pennsylvania senator.

I see in Mitt Romney the same two-faced approach to politics that George W. Bush practiced. In person, he is amiable and pretends to be bewildered as to why anyone would want to criticize such a nice guy as himself, who just wants to get along and help the country. But behind the scenes, he shells out the big bucks for his "dogs" to ruthlessly take out any perceived serious opposition.

I see it. Doesn't anyone else?

Major Powers Cop Out on Syria

I am looking at what is going on in Syria, with the government there treating its people so badly. And then I look at how supposedly responsible nations like Russian and China, who want to be seen as major players in running the world besides the United States, play the weak Neville Chamberlain role of appeaser with tyrant Assad as he commits mass murder against his own people. Not only won't they do anything positive in this ongoing tragedy, but with their vetoes of the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the Syrian dictator to step down they want to make it once again an issue as to whether the United States and NATO will intervene, this time on behalf of the beleaguered Syrian people.

Russian and China, of course, have their own ongoing problems with popular uprisings and protests. Vladimir Putin apparently sees himself as political heir to Stalin and wants to stay perpetually in power while squelching dissent. Meanwhile, China's ruling clique is very mindful (and fearful) of the mass pro-democracy movements spreading throughout the world.

Now it is once again a matter of whether or not the U.S. and/or Western Europe will help, just as it was in Bosnia and Kosovo in the nineties and in Libya last year. This is really getting to be tedious to witness...

Congrats to Trophy-Kissing Giants

A little belated congratulations are in order for the New York Giants, my favorites in this year's NFL playoffs, who beat the New England Patriots 21-17 in this year's Super Bowl. Although New York played well, I have to give a tip of my imaginary hat to the Patriot receivers (three of them) who dropped perfect Tom Brady passes late in the game to help stall crucial drives of theirs. Why couldn't they have done that in the two games New England played against the Miami Dolphins earlier this season, dang it...

I was a little taken aback at all of the kisses the victorious Giants players were planting on the Super Bowl trophy as they passed it around among themselves on the field following the game, just before handing it off to the game's MVP, star quarterback Eli Manning. Maybe I was imagining it, but Eli seemed just a little bit hesitant about handling the slobber-coated trophy (I would, too) before passing it on to higher-ups in the team organization.

Now if the pattern holds, the Giants will have a great regular season next year and then make an early exit in the playoffs, like Green Bay did this year after winning the Super Bowl following an unspectacular regular season in the previous year. As far as I am concerned, that's O.K.: you can't win 'em every year...

Now let's see how the Dolphins do with their new coach. And whether he can make a difference that leads them into the playoffs.

Eerie Visit to Jax Beach

I visited Jacksonville earlier today, and might I say it was a pretty dreary day at that (i.e. my kind of day). I guess you can infer that I decided to stop off at Jacksonville Beach from the above pictures I took. Often I plan to do this but usually end up just turning back around and going back home to Gainesville without taking a look at the ocean. But not today. I drove over to one of the many excellent (and free) public parking lots right next to the beach. It being early in the weekday afternoon, I wasn't surprised by the lot being nearly empty. There were a few cars scattered around, nonetheless. Looking at them, I noticed something peculiar: every one of the parked cars had a very elderly looking person sitting behind the wheel. Just sitting there, not making any move toward either getting out of the car or driving off. Well, I thought to myself, that's strange.

Having parked in the center of the lot, I got out and walked toward one corner where a narrow walkway to the actual sandy beach began. Facing the walkway was another parked car populated by...an old man. Next to it was a large circle of pigeons clustered together. They seemed completely oblivious to me as I approached them. Just as I got within about a couple of feet from them (with the intention of side-stepping the throng) they exploded into the air en masse around me, somehow avoiding colliding with me in the process. And then they flew off together. Strange.

I walked down the walkway to the beach. As I came out on the other side, I found myself suddenly surrounded, in very close quarters, by masses of sea gulls and pigeons flying all around me. Or to put it more accurately, hovering and collectively eyeballing me. Some of them were hovering so close to me, in fact, that I could have reached out and grabbed them had I wanted to. After several seconds of this, the swarm gradually settled and the birds landed on the sand and just stood there, aligned like magnets facing the north. I managed to get a few of these later shots on my cell phone camera.

I stood out there on the beach for a few minutes, enjoying the dreary ambiance while keeping a wary eye from time to time on my avian buddies. Then I walked back to the parking lot. There were a few more cars there by then and...yes, they all were occupied by elderly drivers who just sat there. I left, having my creepiness quota filled for the day...

Giants Moving from Left to Right

I missed the opening kickoff of this year's Super Bowl between New York and New England because I was at my nearby Publix buying some groceries. When I got back into my car, I flicked on the radio to hear what was going on. By that time, the Patriots had given up a safety early in the first quarter and, trailing 2-0, kicked the ball back to the Giants. New York lined up for their first play of the drive. And then the radio play-by-play announcer did something that has never failed to amuse me over the years: he said "Giants moving from left to right."

Well, from where the announcer was sitting, they may well have been moving from left to right. But according to anyone watching from the other side of the stadium, they were moving from right to left! As a matter of fact, before the "directions" were given, I had them moving the "opposite" way, too!

If further play-by-play of the game had included references to "left" or "right", I would have understood this to be a device to help explain what was happening on the field. But it is only said at the beginning of drives at the start of each quarter.

Are there people out there who can't properly picture in their own minds how a game is going without explicitly being provided with left-right directions? I think this must be the implication behind professional, trained broadcasters saying this so consistently. Apparently, there are listeners who are so imagination-challenged that they have to have their own "mental screens" filled in for them. I have also heard this "moving from left-to-right" (or the reverse) on basketball radio broadcasts...

My Parallel 15K Run

This morning the charity organization Climb for Cancer held their annual fundraising running race, consisting of simultaneous 5K, 10K, and 15K races. The location tends to change from year to year. Two years ago I ran in their 15K (9.3 miles) race held in the Haile Plantation subdivision in far southwest Gainesville. Today it was on the University of Florida campus. I considered entering it, but decided that the thirty bucks registration fee wasn't worth it. So instead of getting up early in the morning to run in it, I slept in a little and, later in the morning, simply stepped out of my front door and ran 9.33 miles without spending as much as a dime. My time was 1 hr 24 m 27 s, reflecting my usual pace of around nine minutes per mile.

I like this idea of running parallel to an event without actually participating directly in it. For one, it saves a lot of money. For another, I have much more control over events around me and am not involved with having to deal with the weather or adverse and extensive travel. Still, running in a real event is something to enjoy as well. I just don't see the point in going overboard with it...

Sports Void After Football

Now that the football season is finally about over with this Sunday's Super Bowl, I am left with a choice to make about which sports I should follow for the next few weeks. I have never been able to get into hockey, so that's out. Basketball is the major sport left between now and the start of major league baseball in April. But I have lost interest in the professional National Basketball Association due to the way that its players keep hopping from one team to another. It reminds me of that old Twilight Zone episode where a man keeps dreaming the same nightmare over and over again about being in prison on death row, with the only difference between successive dreams being that the characters in the story keep changing roles. For example, I used to follow the Utah Jazz because of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. Now Boozer is with Chicago and Williams plays for New Jersey. Or take Denver: two of the Nuggets' standout players are no longer there: Carmelo Anthony is with New York and Chauncey Billips is on the Celtics roster. Yet both Utah and Denver are doing well this year with other personnel. But why bother following them when, in all probability their current stars will just split and join up with other teams down the road the first chance they get. I know that turnover in professional sports, due to free agency and trading, is common. But in the NBA it is running rampant and, in my opinion, diminishes the character of the various teams. So maybe I'll just steer clear of the pro hoops this year...

However, NCAA college basketball promises a lot of excitement, and its season is in full gear right now with conference play. Later, in March, the championship tournament will commence, something that I have traditionally followed for years. Now in the colleges, there is also much turnover. But this is mostly predictable, with players on teams being followed as they progress through their college careers from freshman and sophomore to junior and finally senior. Sometimes, college players do transfer to other schools. But it is pretty uncommon. It is annoying to see players opt out early for the NBA and thus see their college careers cut short, although I sympathize with their legitimate desire to cash in on their talent. Still, I am not likely to see a basketball version of musical chairs in the college ranks like I do in the pros.

Yes, college basketball will have to tide me over until baseball...

Slogging Through Life Lately

Sometimes life can get to be a real slog, when just getting through the day intact without giving up while maintaining possession of one's mental and emotional faculties represents a triumph. As far as my family is concerned, each of us seems to be in this state to varying degrees, dealing with ongoing difficulties that are specific to each of our personal walks through life. One reason for this is that we tend not to be satisfied with the status quo and "take it easy". Instead, we immerse ourselves in various projects, often with no guarantee of success. And if that eventual success does come, it may be too far down the road to enjoy any immediate satisfaction or even encouragement. In the meantime, pressures and stress can cause anxiety and discouragement.

I have set out on this blog to shield the private, personal lives of my family, so I will just speak for myself. I feel great physically and could even run a marathon right now, but had decided that half-marathons were the way to go with my running. But because of a medically diagnosed congenital anomaly that is symptomless, I have been advised by my doctor to be more cautious with my running. But I know that running doesn't stress me. Still, I feel that others in my family get concerned when they see me go out on long runs. And I know there is opposition there to me running in races, especially a race on the order of a half-marathon. Still, I think that running one more before the marathon season closes in Florida won't hurt me, and I am considering doing this. Just an hour ago I ran seven miles around my neighborhood under very unseasonably warm and humid conditions. No problem.

I have various academic projects that I am engaged in and, in my own personal estimation, am making unsatisfactory progress with (according to my own standards). This are activities I undertake on my own, so self-motivation and discipline are essential to success. But these projects are at least under my personal control, with outside forces playing no major role in hindering my pursuit of them.

And then there is my work environment, existing under a cloud of uncertainty as to what the highest levels of management within my organization will do regarding the consolidation of processing plants and forced employee transfers to other work locations (in the case of Gainesville, either to Jacksonville or Tampa) during the next few months. And whether they will try to change the parameters about retirement eligibility and then force those employees thus deemed eligible into retirement.

Let's just say that, around me in my current life, exists a state of instability and uncertainty that runs contrary to what I want to experience from day to day. I want more control over my circumstances and don't like the feeling that whatever happens, in many different areas, seems like a roll of the dice...