My May 2012 Running

Here are the results from this past month of May, 2012 regarding my running:

Total Miles: 116.36
Longest Run: 6.3 Miles
Days Run: All 31 Days

So I easily surpassed my goal of 100 monthly miles, accomplishing it by running daily and usually in the range of 3-5 miles per run.  I either ran around my home neighborhood or on the treadmill at my nearby YMCA.  I am pretty satisfied with how I did:  I can't remember since I began running long distance when I ever ran on every single day in any given month. And that's going back all the way to 1972!

I plan to continue my running this way, not running extravagantly long distances but instead keeping it in a consistent range while trying to keep up a routine on a daily basis.  So far, so good: I can't argue against success!

Fan Clothing Uniformity in NBA Playoffs: Creepy

Bill Maher recently voiced his personal objections to the trend in public sports games, in this case the NBA playoffs, of the fans all wearing the same colors, presumably those of the home team.  So it was the other day in Miami (and tonight as well), with the stands full of Heat "white".  In Oklahoma City, their fans wear blue, which in the opening home playoff game against Dallas was too funny for me: the visiting Dallas players also wore blue, perfectly matching their opponent's fans, while the Oklahoma City players themselves wore white.  The screw-up appeared to be corrected for the next game, though, with the stands all white-garbed.

Yes, Bill Maher, this all creeps me out, too.  I can't help but recall those old Nazi propaganda movies with the rallies and everyone dressed exactly the same way.  I would feel a lot more comfortable with at least a little bit of nonconformity in the clothing department sprinkled throughout the stands.  Sure, fans will tend to wear their team's colors, but they are taking the loyalty/uniformity thing way too far. Now if someone were to pay MY admission price to the game, I might be willing to play along with the dress code as well.  But the fans are pretty much themselves shelling out the big bucks to attend these games and should have more self-respect than they are demonstrating by their sheep-like demeanor...

John F. Kennedy's Birthday Today

Today, our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, would be celebrating his 95th birthday were he still alive.  After all, he was born on May 29, 1917.  So what's wrong about what I just said?  I mean, JFK WOULD be turning 95 today, right?

If Kennedy were turning 95 today, then it would be his 96th birthday as his first birthday occurred on the day of his birth, when he was zero-years-old.  His second birthday would be when he turned one, and so on.  But nevertheless I hear this error regarding celebrities' birthdays all the time on TV, don't you?

John F. Kennedy was the first president I actually remember being president, although I was born during the Eisenhower administration.  His tragically-shortened tenure in the office was tumultuous, to say the least, with external Cold War tensions and internal Civil Rights conflicts testing his performance and judgement almost on a daily basis.  I thought he handled it all beyond what anyone could reasonably expect, and that he was a great president.  I don't know or pretend to know what would have happened in our history had he escaped his assassin's bullets on that sad day of November 22, 1963.  Would we have stayed out of Vietnam?  Would the Civil Rights movement have been slowed down?  We really don't know.  But I still think we would have been a stronger people and more cohesive as a nation had he survived...

I wrote this article to try to change the emphasis from JFK's 11/22/63 deathdate to his 5/29/17 birthdate.  It shouldn't be that hard for people to remember, as it is always very close to Memorial Day (which was yesterday).  Hey, I have an idea: while honoring our fallen soldiers, why not also pause a few moments and honor our fallen president, John F. Kennedy, on his birthday?

Race I Wasn't Going to Run Anyway Cancelled

Two of my previous articles were about (1) my decision to avoid a Memorial Day running race in Green Cove Springs (with a $40 entry fee) and (2) the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Beryl in my area.  Well, because of Beryl, that race was cancelled, and boy am I glad I didn't enter it: the fees were non-refundable.  But...

According to the event's website, those who had entered would be given a $10 discount for the 2013 race.  And not only would the racing packets, which included a 2012 technical running shirt, be given to all entrants in this year's race, but they would also be provided with finishing medals.  Finishing medals...for a race that never took place?

When I pay my entry fee for a race, I'm sure part of the money goes into the organizers' expense account for providing the medals given to those who finish the run.  But I still have to actually finish the doggone race to win one!  I mean, what sense would it make for me to have in my running "trophy case" a finishing medal for a race that never actually happened?! 

Memorial Day Salute and Disturbing Question

Today is Memorial Day and I salute those who gave their lives in service to this nation.  I'm sure our national leaders from both major political parties have been very busy today attending public events where they publicly echo my sentiment, albeit in I'm sure a much more verbose manner.  And that's got me to wondering...

We as a nation have just committed our fine young soldiers to two more years of being in Afghanistan, standing around being targets of a strong enemy force with some of them inevitably doomed to a tragic death, new additions to our already too-long list of those fallen in military action.  And for what?  After two years we leave and that country will in all probability either be once again overrun by the Taliban or the present regime will reach an accommodation with them that virtually guarantees them control over much of the country.  So why are these very politicians, especially (sad to say) my president Barack Obama, going to allow our young people to undergo this danger and tragedy?  How can one honor the dead when they won't honor the living? I just don't get it...

2012 NBA Conference Finals Begin Tonight

Today marks the opening game of the National Basketball Association’s third round in the 2012 playoffs, also known as the conference championship round.  In the East, Miami starts its series tomorrow evening against Boston, winner of an exciting seven-game series against upstart Philadelphia.  Tonight, my favorite in the playoffs, San Antonio, with its amazing point guard Tony Parker, will open at home against Oklahoma City.

 

I was pleasantly surprised in the second round: all four series went the way I wanted.  So here’s how I rank the survivors according to MY liking (not necessarily the favorites to win):

1--San Antonio Spurs 

2--Boston Celtics 

3--Miami Heat 

4--Oklahoma City Thunder

Hopefully, then, the NBA finals will pit San Antonio against Boston, if things go as I wish.  Should be interesting…

Upcoming Hurricane Season Forecast Uncertain

In yesterday's paper, an Associated Press article appeared reporting on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's prediction about the upcoming hurricane season, "officially" starting on June 1.  According to NOAA, there will be nine to fifteen named tropical storms in the Atlantic area, with from four to eight reaching hurricane status.  The forecast is for an "average" season, based largely on a very uncertain prediction that the Pacific warming of waters known as El Niño, a known Atlantic storm inhibitor, will develop about two-three months from now.

Well, it's for certain that El Niño isn't there now: hurricane season hasn't even officially started and already in May we have two named tropical storms, quite a rarity.  But even if El Niño does come into play later, there is still the danger of a full-blown hurricane striking your area if you live anywhere near the coastline, from Nicaragua in the south all the way north into the Maritime Provinces of Canada.  Of course, the greatest concerns I have rest in Florida, which stands out on the map as a big target for these storms to hone in on.  But there's no point in worrying about it: if one comes my way, I'll deal with it then.  Maybe that sounds like a formula for disaster, but there's really not that much I would have to do to prepare for a coming storm anyway.

In the meantime, I am hoping that rain emanating from tropical storm Beryl will land on our area in the next couple of days and help to put out some fires in the Waldo area (about fifteen miles from me) that have sprung up lately and which are suspected of being the work of arsonist(s).

As R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe sang on the same-titled song on their Reveal album, "I'll take the rain." And I'll add to that, "and you can keep the wind!"

Upcoming Freedom Race Interesting But No-Go

I was looking at a website that showed upcoming running races in my general area.  One of them, the Freedom 8K Race (5 miles long), will take place on the morning of Monday, May 28 Memorial Day in Green Cove Springs (a few miles south of Jacksonville along the St. Johns River).  It would be a relatively easy drive to and back for me, and although I would have preferred a longer race, 8K is still better than 5K.  Only one problem, though: I am getting tired of the high entry fee.  This one, if I signed up now, would cost me $40.  Sure, proceeds are going to a good cause, don't they all?  For this particular event, the cause is to help wounded veterans (and their families), including those with post-traumatic stress disorder.  A worthy endeavor, if I may say so.  Still, I can think of a lot of other different uses for $40 and still be able to step out of my front door and run for 5 miles without paying a penny, something I have already done 8 times this month alone without even hardly breaking a sweat.

Well, I don't see myself running in this race.  I think that I have unconsciously decided that shelling out a tidy sum ($25 and over) to run in a race smaller than a half-marathon just won't work for me.  Maybe those 5K races might be better suited for me, as long as they stay within my "price range".  Still, even at a fee of $20, it seems like a personal waste of money..

An Election Year Suggestion from Me

Can I please make a suggestion regarding this year's election?  Don't wait until late October to decide who you are going to vote for: decide NOW.  You have all of the information you need regarding the candidates for office, at least on the presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial, and congressional levels.  Even in those races that haven't yet held primaries for their parties' candidates in the general election, you can decide on your favorites (and "contingency" favorites should your first choice lose in a primary).  Why do I make this suggestion?

Each time that something comes out in the media about any candidate, either positively or negatively, the contending parties will go to work fabricating spins that seek to either negate the negative news about their own candidate by showing the opponent in a similarly negative light, or if it is positive news about the opponent, to find a source, ANY source (credible or not), that would cast some doubt on the veracity of the positive news.  Frankly, I am weary of this manipulation, regardless of the source or target. And it's just going to get worse..

I am not telling you to vote for Obama, Romney, or another candidate: each of us has our own compelling and legitimate reasons to hold onto our own personal political views and express them on the ballot.  Just don't wait until you are completely inundated: the media "junk" which is already churning out and which will only intensify in the coming months won't help you anyway in making a rational decision.  You already have all of the information you need.  Go ahead now, research the various races that affect you where you happen to live, and write down your choices.  And then stick with them in November!

Identity and Its Projection Onto the Page

One of the most prolific writers ever, Isaac Asimov, claimed to have written more than 500 books.  Although I take some issue with that figure, as some of the books he claimed authorship for were merely collections for which he served as a contributing commentator or editor, there is no mistaking the fact that he had left plenty of material behind after he died in 1992.  For those who personally knew him, Isaac Asimov was much more than the paper trail he left behind.  But for the rest of us, reading his stories and essays is how we can get to know him, albeit admittedly in a rather imperfect, incomplete way.

That's a positive picture of the duality associated with people's tangible, physical, "real" existence and the projections of themselves that they leave in society's communications networks.  People can also leave negative information as well, such as police records, poor academic records, or adverse news stories.  Now we can add Facebook to that as well, with all sorts of horror stories abounding about how users posted embarrassing pictures that landed them in trouble with their employers or made comments on their page that continue to hound them. No, Facebook is not paper per se: it's worse, easy to virally transmit anywhere and almost instantaneously.

A few months ago, as a protest to impending legislation that seemed to threatened freedom of expression on the Internet, Wikipedia voluntarily shut itself down for 24 hours.  I seriously wonder how the Facebook addicts would react should that site cease its operations for any substantial span of time.  Would some of them, who tend to think of it as an extension of their own selves, undergo an identity crisis and freak out?  In some ways I envy the kids of today and the remarkable innovations in the area of digitization that have made communications so convenient for them.  But suppose I had no Facebook and was a teenager: would some others regard me as an outcast of sorts?  I think I already know the answer to that, and it's a shame.  Our identities are not what we project onto a page, but who we really are in person.  Let's not get the two confused, please...

Regina and Hot Summer Running in the City

There is something you might think curious about me, in relation to my running.  For some reason, I tend to thrive more in rather hot weather, as long as the humidity is low.  In fact, it is humidity that inhibits my ability to run long distances and recover from them.  But the summer heat, even into the mid-to-upper nineties, causes little in itself to stymie my efforts.  Take today, for example.

The temperature was 88 late in the afternoon, with the humidity at a pretty low 34%.  I embarked on my customary 3.25 mile neighborhood course, the running being a little rough at the beginning but "smoothing" out as it progressed.  I felt the heat, but it felt good to me.  As I continued my run, I felt stronger and unconsciously found myself speeding up.  By the end, it felt as if I were practically sprinting with much energy to spare.  So what gives?

I grew up in Hollywood, Florida, which is only about 15 miles from Miami. Not only were the summers very hot, but summer usually wrapped itself around about three quarters of the year down there in the semi-tropics.  And although the schools I attended had air conditioning, at my house we had none until 1976, just a year before I left home and moved here to Gainesville.  So I had, from almost infancy, been conditioned to live in what might be to others to be a very hot, even sweltering environment.  I suspect this conditioning never completely went away: for many years after moving to Gainesville I didn't run, but still rode a bicycle much of the time, and often under very stifling-hot conditions.  After taking up running in recent years, I pleasantly rediscovered my camel-like ability to endure the heat.  And that's a good thing, because here comes the summertime...

Back in 2010, I had my most prolific summer of running ever, amassing some pretty impressive figures over days when the temperature would regularly climb into the 90's.  During those runs, my MP3 player was always on a shuffled mix of Regina Spektor songs.  What a great voice and creative, talented musical artist.  One of her songs, Summer in the City, became required listening for me during each run: if I was approaching the end of a run and hadn't heard it on my shuffle mode, then I would just play it anyway.  It perfectly fit the setting I was in.

Regina Spektor is now coming out with a new studio album, titled What We Saw from the Cheap Seats.  I can't wait to check out what this favorite musician of mine has been up to lately.  As for me, I plan to keep on runnin'...

Media Sports Experts Look Foolish with NBA Analysis

I think it is hilarious (and a little sad) how the sports pundits (I am particularly thinking of ESPN) will take one National Basketball Association playoff game and make sweeping judgmental statements about a team or one or more of its players simply on the basis of their performance in that one game.  For example, in the Miami Heat-Indiana Pacers series currently under way, their Friday game showed the Heat with some very poor performances, especially that of one of their stars, Dwyane Wade.  All that it seems the sports geniuses could then talk about was how bad Miami had become, will they trade Wade, fire their coach, and so on.  So they played again today and Miami beat Indiana.  So what's that supposed to mean now? That Miami is suddenly "good" again and all is forgiven?!  Nobody really knows how this series will play out and who will advance to the next round.  Why can't anyone ever be truthful enough to admit that they simply don't know?

Face it, sports experts: everybody has a bad day every now and then.  Only with some of YOU, it's every now and always! I wonder what the point is of these people having their own shows, anyway.  If you aren't interested in the sport enough to know how to follow it, you probably aren't interested either in listening to others talking about it sitting around a table.  And if you ARE interested in the sport enough to be able to follow it, you also don't need these analysts: they are superfluous.  I'm not saying that straight sports news is unnecessary, just the people who sit around shooting the bull (and getting paid for it).
And they are doing just that: shooting bull...

Bright Springtime Night Sky

Tonight I got off from work a little early and, a little bit after arriving home, I let out my dog Freckles out  into the backyard, much to her delight (she is very nocturnal, loving the nighttime while very wary of the sunny day).  I walked out there myself and looked around, and then up at the sky.  It was quite amazingly clear and the stars shone very brightly for this time of the year.  My "favorite" constellation Corvus the Crow (or more appropriately, Corvus the Quadrilateral) was smack dab on the southern meridian.  North and to the east (left) a bit was the twin attraction of Virgo's first-magnitude star Spica and the planet Saturn.  I turned around and looked to the north: the Big Dipper asterism of the constellation Ursa Major was brighter than I had seen it in years, in its perfectly inverted position straight north of me.  To its east (right), Draco "snaked" around, with its head ending in close proximity (in a projected sort of way) to Lyra's "jewel", the beautiful star Vega.

I guess the moon is somewhere else in the sky, otherwise this rare spectacle wouldn't have happened.  And in spite of the dearth of rainfall in this drought zone, the air was full of the noisy sounds of frogs while the dreaded onslaught of mosquitoes has yet to appear.  Spring, wonderful spring...

I Live in Worst Part of Drought-Stricken Florida

I was checking out the news on the Web this morning. There was an interesting piece on one of the sites ranking the worst drought-stricken states in the country.  Texas was #1, followed by Florida. A map of Florida was shown and the areas most severely affected by drought were marked a deep red.  A narrow band of this color extended from the Jacksonville area westward across northern Florida, passing directly over (and encompassing all of) my home county of Alachua.  On the other hand, south Florida, which has undergone several severe storms in the past couple of weeks, stands as the only part of the state not classified as a drought zone.

I don't know how long this rainfall shortage will last.  Then again, I heard that there are parts of southern Georgia that haven't been rained on in over a year.  But although we're not receiving the precipitation we should be receiving in northern Florida, the air is usually saturated with moisture, quite unlike the climate in an arid desert state like Arizona...

Coarse, Crude, and Cruel

There are some days when it seems that the world just grates on me.  People around me seem coarse, crude, and, well, at times downright cruel.  I sit in a coffee shop and hear a couple of customers loudly insult another nearby customer who for all practical purposes (as far as I know) is a complete stranger to them.  For my part, someone with whom I have an acquaintance from many years ago walks in, notices that I am studying foreign languages, and in a heavy-handed tone, demands to know how I plan to apply it.  The idea that I would be justified in studying them because I enjoy it isn't enough, apparently, to this individual who I now realize feels justified somehow in judging me. 

People are entitled to their own opinions about things.  This even extends, in my own opinion, to entertaining prejudices about people and value assumptions regarding which priorities others should be exercising in their lives.  But to think something is one thing.  Sharply expressing in public one's judgmental views, on the other hand, comes under the category of coarse, crude, and even cruel behavior.  And, frankly, it's THESE people that I see as some of the biggest contributors to misery and suffering in the world.  You don't have to be a criminal or a dictator to contribute your own share to the world's troubles. Just a generally nasty, overbearing attitude can go a long way...

Is it just my imagination or is the tone in today's society becoming uglier, with insults, offenses, profiling, and bullying becoming more and more commonplace...and acceptable in social, public settings?  Maybe I'm just living within a bubble of this negativity and elsewhere people behave as if they honor and respect other's presence, opinions, and lifestyles, even if they privately disagree with them.  I sincerely hope that this is the case and things aren't worsening, as I sadly suspect the case to be...

Time to Add Some Variety to Running Surroundings

I recently received an e-mail promoting and upcoming running race: the 5K Gator Gauntlet Medieval Mud Run.  It will be as much an obstacle course as it will a running race, and mud is definitely on the menu!  Not exactly my cup of tea, though: I just want to run, much the same way that the late Freddie Mercury of Queen sang about just wanting to ride his bicycle.  But are there any simple running races anywhere in the near future around here?  Not that I can see, at least until the July 4th three-mile Melon Run.  And then, little or nothing for months following that.  Well, that's a bummer...

Seeing how my local community of greater Gainesville seems to be on the skids regarding public running races for the next few months, perhaps I should take matters into my own hands and do something to at least create some running variety for myself during the next few months.  I'm not talking about organizing any races, though.  No, I'll still be running solo, but in different places...

I have habitually either run in my own home neighborhood or on one of my local YMCA's treadmills.  But in reality, I could run just about anywhere I wanted.  So what if I run down a busy city street and have to stop from time to time at intersections?  Why not design different courses all of the Gainesville city map (and beyond)?  More to  come about this...

About to Watch Maltese Falcon, a Favorite

Today I went to my local public library branch, checked out a couple of books, and found a DVD of a great old classic movie: The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart.  It's been a while since I saw it, and it's one of my all-time favorites.  Let's see, I think after the Thunder/Lakers game I'll check it out...

NBA Playoffs Entering Second Round

The NBA playoffs finished their first round with the Los Angeles Clippers winning the final seventh game of their series with the Memphis Grizzlies to advance.  So the sixteen initial teams have now been reduced to eight.  The biggest surprise so far was the early exit of the Chicago Bulls, who suffered devastating injuries to their star players Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.  Other than that, though, things went pretty much as expected.  Of the teams I was rooting for, four advanced and four didn't.  The San Antonio Spurs, my personal favorite for this year's playoffs, advanced and will play against the Los Angeles Clippers.  On the other hand, my least favorite team, the Los Angeles Lakers with its retinue of prima donnas, advanced as well and will play against Oklahoma City, at least giving me the opportunity to root for the Thunder, my next-to-least favorite team in the playoffs.  I really do like the way the Thunder play as a team and the attitude of its players; I just wish the franchise had remained in Seattle instead of moving to a state deeply entrenched in reactionary politics.  Maybe in the future I'll be able to better dissociate the team from its location: it seems to have worked with San Antonio, after all.

Here's a list of the remaining teams in the order of my "liking":

1--San Antonio Spurs
2--Boston Celtics
3--Miami Heat
4--Los Angeles Clippers
5--Philadelphia 76ers
6--Indiana Pacers
7--Oklahoma City Thunder
8--Los Angeles Lakers

So by the above list, if all goes well, then in the next round San Antonio will beat the Clippers, Oklahoma City will beat the Lakers, Boston will beat Philadelphia, and Miami will beat Indiana.  Should be fun to follow. I hope that we don't see any more terrible injuries, regardless which team might be affected..

My Running Evolving into Consistent Routine

Today I ran 2 miles, extending my streak of running each day to twelve, starting with May 1st.  It was also the shortest distance I've run during this time, with the previous range being from 3.25 to 5 miles a day.  I believe that this is significant in that I am evolving with my running into a stable daily routine involving pretty much the same general distance.  In the past I had tended to try longer runs, interspersed with shorter ones or even days of no running.

This leveling out of my running distances may also be due to two other causes.  One, the year is progressing toward the hotter months of late spring and then summer.  There's no point in me trying to prove anything to myself by struggling through 7-10 mile runs in the 90-degree weather dominating my area (northern Florida) at this time.  But I can still rack up significant monthly mileage if I stick to a reasonable distance, done on a consistent daily basis.  Two, I am trying to manage my time more wisely. There are several other areas in my life that are time-consuming, and I don't want to spend too much of my so-called "free" time running, preparing for it, and recovering from it.  So the watchword for now is consistency, and that seems to be working just fine.

Will I ever go back to longer distances? Who knows, but my crystal ball doesn't go that far into the future.  Besides, what's the point in exerting too much time and effort thinking ahead that far when there is enough on my plate in the present and the immediate future...

Mitt, It's Bullying, Not Pranks

Lately, Mitt Romney has come under fire for his actions as a high school student when he, along with some classmates, would taunt and ridicule fellow students that looked or acted "different".  The implication that many have drawn from this is that the victims, one of whom Romney held down on the floor and sheared his hair off, were gay (or at least so suspected) and that this was a "hate" issue.  Although that probably figures into it to a degree, I beg to differ with the focus here.

According to Romney's recollection, he didn't know who was gay or not back then.  No, he was just having fun and playing pranks.  I say instead, with a memory of how some of my classmates were harassed back in high school, that he was engaged in bullying and that the core driving force in his behavior was not anything about his victims but rather something deeply wrong with his personality and character.  I remember the individuals who practiced bullying in high school: I wonder whether they, like Romney or FoxNews fixture Bill O'Reilly, an admitted high school bully, now whimsically look back on their behavior as just having a good time, being a "prankster".  Bullies-grown-up, let me enlighten you: playing pranks has its place, but only in the setting of being among friends.  Bullying happens when one goes outside their own circle and picks on another out of the general population.  And this is what Mitt Romney was fervently engaged in doing.  Using aggression, not fun, as the primary motivator.  And just like my old school "buddies", many of whom, like ol' Mitt (and "Billo"), most likely have revised their personal recollections to make themselves look like anything other than the contemptible vermin that they were (and possibly still are)...

Paul-is-Dead Movie

While searching my sadly inadequate streaming Netflix to try to find some interesting movies to watch, I came across one with an intriguing title: Paul McCartney is Really Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison. So I selected it to see what it was about.  This film presented itself as a documentary that purported to prove the conspiratorial urban legend that the Beatles great musician Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash on November 9, 1966.  According to this "theory", his death was covered up, with the collusion of the remaining three Beatles (as well as British intelligence), and a new "Paul" (nicknamed Faul for "fake" Paul) replaced him after extensive plastic surgery.  The movie covered this and made the standard claims, as well as a few that I find hilarious.

For example, hints about Paul's death were supposedly surreptitiously put by the surviving band members into the albums Rubber Soul, Yesterday and Today, and Revolver.  One problem with this, though: all three albums were released BEFORE Paul's alleged death!  You can look up the facts yourself; for me, it's a bit more personal as my parents, ardent Beatles fans during this period, quickly bought each album as it released.  I was there: the sequence of events didn't work with the narrative I was hearing from my TV.  So the movie's entire plausibility, predicated on a couple of audio tapes that the late Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison supposedly made in the hospital right after he was severely stabbed at his home in 1999, comes crashing down with this monumental boner.

As for conspiracy theories and urban legends, I am a sucker for them because they are fun to follow, like the idea that the Apollo moon landings were a hoax, JFK's assassination was a sinister conspiracy involving disparate elements, or ... Paul McCartney's covered-up death in 1966.  But although I tend to be squarely on the skeptical side of these notions, I still expect those presenting their arguments for them to at least make some attempt to be correct with basic circumstantial facts.  And the fact here is that the makers of Paul McCartney is Really Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison totally screwed up...

...unless, of course, this was DELIBERATE misinformation designed to discredit the "Paul-is-dead" believers.  And thus protecting the real "secret", which is that he really did die!  Oh, the fun I can have with this...

Adequate Rainfall Still Eludes Us

Well, today we were suppose to really get some serious rain, and that would be followed by a couple more days of good precipitation.  But only late at night did we finally see some rainfall around town and it wasn't very much.  This morning I tuned in to my local TV weather forecast and...

...and the forecast for today had mysteriously changed from one of rain to one of "sunny, with some clouds".  This isn't good.

Google Maps Street View Feature Intriguing

I was checking out the latest edition of Google Maps the other day and was pleasantly surprised at the enhanced quality of their "street view" feature.  It was a little disconcerting, however, to see how often different neighborhoods, mine included, were recorded on garbage pickup day, with the ugliness all out there by the street for everyone (in the world) to see.  As for me, I had a broken fan/stand jutting out of my garbage receptacle in plain view for everyone.  And man, my shrubbery was desperately in need of trimming. Thanks a lot, Google!

Still, it was fun to "travel" down various roads, especially ones that I had gone down in the "real" world.  For example, I explored the street view of Midtown Manhattan, first stopping by for a return visit to Junior's restaurant at Broadway and 45th Street, and then going down Broadway in the northerly direction toward Central Park.  Along the way, I noticed the eatery in which my wife, daughter, and myself ate breakfast the first morning of our visit there in April 2010: the EZ Deli.  And there were the stairs that we climbed to the second floor, where there was some seating available for us to eat our food after buying it in the rather cramped (but remarkable for its culinary diversity) ground floor store.

I wonder how extensive street views are for Google.  I'd like to check out some other countries for this feature, but realistically I don't see it happening anytime soon in most other places. But even if this is only a domestic feature of Google, I still see myself playing the role of armchair tourist as I visit places like Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Honolulu, and so on... 

Welcome Rain, Finally

Just when it looked as if northern Florida would finally follow the examples of other regions of the world at our latitude (like western Mexico and northern Africa) and transform itself into a barren desert, it finally rained a bit this afternoon and evening.  Whew, I was getting a little worried there.  Of course, that was only for a couple of hours...we'll need a lot more than that to get out of our drought.  And also, even deserts experience some precipitation every now and then.  I'd like to see a pattern to this rainfall before switching the focus of my "weather" writings to complaining about the excessive rain! Well, the forecasts for the next couple of days do include some rain...but how much?

Speaking of the rain, I was tickled again when I walked out of Publix this afternoon and discovered that it was raining (finally).  I wasn't amused at the rain, you see, but rather at the line of intimidated customers massed together under shelter, afraid to get a little wet walking the short distance to their vehicles in the parking lot.  For me, I (smilingly) stepped straight out into it, getting a little soaked but none the worse for wear...

NBA Injuries Mounting in Playoffs

I may just be noticing this because I am following the sport a little more closely than usual, but aren't there a lot more injuries taking place in NBA basketball in the last few days?  Chicago's star guard Derrick Rose is out with a season-ending injury, and he'll probably miss out on playing in the 2012 Olympics.  His teammate Joakim Noah suffered an ankle sprain, with his absence most likely a major contributing factor to his teams last two losses to Philadelphia in the playoffs.  With the New York Knicks, Imam Shumpert suffered  a knee injury and Amar'e Stoudemire just returned to action still tending to his own hand injury.  And Baron Davis was put on a stretcher with what at this writing looked like a horrendous knee injury during today's game.  Orlando's Dwight Howard was already out for the season due to his own injury...

It is beginning to look as if the winners in this year's playoffs will be the teams who survived injury the best, avoiding it completely being the preferred option.  Well, the Knicks were pretty much out of it anyway: even though they won their game with Miami today, they're still behind in the series 3-1.  But Chicago and Orlando are in serious trouble, each team unexpectedly on the verge of playoff elimination with their own 3-1 deficits.  It's sad about Rose's injury, but he seems to be one of those players prone to them, having now missed stretches of games this year due to four different injuries.

Afghanistan: Why Are We Still There?

The United States has now been militarily involved in Afghanistan for more than ten years.  The original purpose was to eliminate the Al-Qaeda presence there and to overthrow the ruling regime, peopled by the Taliban movement and a supplier of sanctuary to Al-Qaeda.  Well, the Taliban has been out of power for ten years and Al-Qaeda is most likely much more active in other countries like Yemen and Somalia.  Osama bin Laden was assassinated a year ago...not in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, where he was enjoying protected sanctuary by the military there.  You know, our "allies".  So why are we still hanging around there?

I believe that there is a school of thought within our defense and intelligence communities that sees occupation of foreign territories in itself as a positive benefit for our national interests.  This train of thought presumes that if we left Afghanistan, then a "vacuum of power" would open up and forces hostile to our interests would quickly replace us there, causing all sorts of problems.  On the other hand, what actually might happen is that the place would revert back to being essentially ignored in the international scheme of things.

The United States may withdraw most of its military presence from Afghanistan in the near future, but it has apparently learned from the past, when it neglected this country after aiding it in its fight against Soviet occupation in the 1980's.  That neglect may have contributed to the Taliban eventually winning control over the impoverished country a decade later.  But the Taliban, unlike Al-Qaeda, is a popular political movement in that part of the country, as well as having a strong ethnic connection with the Pashto people.  So trying to suppress it by force may have given the impression of ethnic favoritism, analogous to a degree with the struggle against Sunni insurgents in Iraq during our occupation there.

The United States and its allies will not destroy the Taliban in Afghanistan: it is too entrenched among the population there.  The best bet is to assure that no movement there is foolish enough to ever again harbor terrorists who attack the United States as they did on 9/11. Ultimately, this problem in Afghanistan will only be resolved through political agreements, not by warfare. So why are brave American soldiers still being exposed to injury and death there?

Annoying Experience at Starbucks on Archer Road

I just got off from work and am sitting in the Archer Road Starbucks, which claims to be always open until midnight.  But tonight, my experience there is a little less than desirable. For one, they have all of their stock in ugly stacks of boxes right in the middle of the store, spoiling the ambiance from the get-go when I walked into the joint.  Second, the only available seat puts me in a back corner.  Right across from me are two very, very loud Spanish-speaking men who apparently think that talking so loud that everyone in the room can hear them plainly is a sign of manhood.  Then there is the bathroom.  I started back there, but a female employee raced past me and went inside to clean it.  Everything here just seems a little out of sorts.  Annoying.  Irritating.

The University of Florida graduation ceremony is tomorrow for most of the colleges.  After that, the student population should thin out a bit.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I may find myself with better seating choices here than tonight.  Assuming, or course, that the worker who told me this Starbucks is ALWAYS open late was truthful. But even so, I may just need to carry some really heavy duty earplugs to muffle the unwelcome sound of these blabbermouths if they return and decide to bestow their decibels on everyone else...

The New Look Sprout Late Night

It's been a while since I checked in on my "last resort" channel on late night television: Sprout.  And it isn't because of the wonderful selection of programming available at that time to choose from, either.  Actually, TV pretty much sucks like crazy when I plop down in my living room recliner after a hard day of work, expecting SOMETHING interesting on the air.  Sometimes, as has been the case lately, there is interesting sports programming (like the current NBA playoffs).  A good movie may be showing as well.  I also like to watch South Park, although truth be told, I can get my fill of that series from my computer.  Other than that, though, late night television is a vast wasteland of mediocrity.  So why haven't I been turning to Sprout all this time?  Simply because I am usually so tired around midnight that I pass out unconscious in my chair. So back to Sprout...

Sprout, as I reported in this article a while back, is a cable channel put out by Public Broadcasting that is targeted at little children and features cartoons like Kipper (my favorite), Berenstain Bears, and Thomas the Tank Engine.  I had come to enjoy watching Nina (a young lady) and Star (a stuffed talking star puppet resembling a pillow) between the cartoons with their cute, sweet, and gentle banter.  The other night I tuned in to Sprout to see more of the same.  But wait, Star had changed his appearance.  And although Nina was the same, the way their segment was filmed was very different, and more to my liking.  So, no, I don't like the new Star, but I do like the overall new presentation.  And given the poor quality of television, it looks as if I'm going to be seeing more of Nina and Star...

Obama's Bin Laden Ads Appropriate

Recently the Obama reelection campaign has come under criticism for citing the President's successful effort to assassinate Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader who authorized the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, in recent ads.  I can understand why the Republicans would oppose this: it was a crowning achievement of his administration and demonstrated how, as commander-in-chief, he was performing his proper duty to protect the country from terrorism.  You can be sure that the GOP will paint Obama as being soft on national defense and terrorism, and I predict an avalanche of lies coming out in THEIR ads about him in the upcoming months.  So what's wrong with Obama bringing up the truth about something very pertinent to his performance as President? Already, the opposition is describing President Obama's role in the mission as being essentially passive, while in reality he was intricately involved in the planning and decision making. The mission itself was fraught with all sorts of potential traps and disasters, and its successful outcome was anything but "slam dunk". Ironically, Mitt Romney, who as with just about every other issue, has flip-flopped his position on the bin Laden raid (he used to be opposed to it, now is in favor), has contributed to the perception that the presidency is just a passive element in the undertakings of the military by flippantly stating that had the opportunity come up while he was President, he would have given it approval, too.  What, with a casual wave of the hand? Talk about passive disengagement from your job!

It is obviously the Republican Party's strategy to divide Barack Obama's decisions and record as President into two categories.  The controversial decisions are O.K. to bring up in campaign ads, but those actions on the part of the President that unified the nation are apparently verboten and almost sacrilegious, somehow.  Don't people like Arianna Huffington, who has criticized the Obama campaign recently for these ads, see that they are playing into the strategy of people who would be doing the very same thing were their "guy" sitting in the Oval Office?!

Hot Weather Rekindles My Swimming Enthusiasm

I'm sitting here watching my TV, looking at channel #106, which is my local weather station (not The Weather Channel, of dubious worth much of the time) and viewing my local forecast for the upcoming week, featuring temperatures surging into the 90's and no rain.  And that old yearning to go swimming has started to come back over me.

Last year I was working on improving my swimming form with the backstroke, crawl, and breaststroke.  I was especially motivated with the latter two. as I found that I had the unfortunate tendency to quickly build up an oxygen debt due in inefficient breathing techniques.  So, I have decided to concentrate on bettering my form with these strokes and not push the idea of accumulating laps, like I have done in the past.

I wonder what would be the best time to try to get out to my nearby YMCA pool...there's that annoying water aerobics class at 9 AM, and when the public schools let out in a few weeks I probably won't enjoy going out there in the late mornings.  Afternoon/early evening is out of the question, since I have a job to go to at that time.  I suppose I could go out there around 8-9 AM, but I like to use that time to study at one of my favorite local coffee hangouts.  H-m-m, only one solution I see to getting out to that pool...

I need to get out there when it opens around 6 AM.  I live close enough to the YMCA (one mile away) to quickly go there, practice swimming for about a half hour, and then return home in time to engage in my routine of early morning family interaction and transportation.  But getting up that early, well, that's going to be quite a challenge for me...