My November 2013 Running Report

In November I continued to keep up with my monthly running goals, surpassing 100 miles again with a total of 126.21 miles.  My longest run was for seven miles, and I ran on 29 out of the 30 days.  I passed on a couple of races in November I could have entered, but I have no regrets...I'll get back on the racing "circuit" when I know I'm ready.  The weather improved toward the end of November and consequently I began to run more outside instead of using the treadmill.  This trend should continue in December. 

Perhaps I'll run a race in December...I'm thinking right now of a 15K race (for 9.3 miles) that will take place in Gainesville on December 14.  Also, there's a half-marathon in Jacksonville a couple of weeks later.  I'll just have to assess how I feel when those opportunities approach...and whether I have any scheduling conflicts.

Pleasant Five Mile Run in Pleasant Weather

It was about 63 degrees outside, with the humidity hovering around 50%, when I did a twilight five-mile run around my neighborhood a little while ago.  The conditions were perfect for me, and my running responded in kind as I felt strong and energized throughout...I probably could have kept on but decided that it was getting a little too dark for me.  I wish all days were like this...at least it looks as if, for the foreseeable future, we'll be enjoying pretty much the same weather in Gainesville.  That's quite a departure from the previous few days, when we went through a rapid succession of warm mugginess, extreme storms, and then a frosty freeze before today's pleasantness...

Happy Thanksgiving, Keep Your Black Friday

I'd like to wish all of my faithful readers a happy Thanksgiving...and a sense of perspective about the consumer frenzy known as Black Friday.  Only it seems now that Black Friday has seeped deeply into Thursday and now thoroughly impinges on what once used to be a major holiday.  Amassing "stuff" isn't on my list of priorities in life, although I have certain things I want to buy as well (or receive as gifts).  I more highly value time, both in a relaxed setting with my family and in a more reclusive sense as I study and meditate.  Material possessions are O.K., but I already have enough of just about anything I need.  It looks as if most other people have enough, too, but they are restless to "upgrade" to the latest gizmos being churned out for consumption.  So this purchasing frenzy, as I see it, is not transformational in nature but rather marginal and compulsive.  There is too much effort being spent to gain too little of an improvement.  Also, I suspect that many people caught up in this shopping insanity are behaving like herd animals, just following whatever they perceive the others are doing in order to "fit in".  What a sad way to live a life...

Gamma Ray Burst Could Help Martin's Characters

I've just begun reading A Storm of Swords, the third volume of George R.R. Martin's projected (at present) seven-volume A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy saga.  It didn't take very long for me to quickly come to the conclusion that the overwhelming preponderance of characters in this series are so incredibly miserable in their despair that everyone's interests would probably be best served if a gamma ray burst from a nearby supernova explosion didn't just sweep over and instantly sterilize the entire blasted planet, which doesn't really exist anyway.  This feeling came to a head for me when I started reading a chapter in which Davos, a captain in one of the warring kingdoms' navies, finds himself shipwrecked and dying, imploring death to come and rescue him from his suffering. And then the damned fool goes and gets himself rescued...no doubt to despair and suffer even more down the line.

I get it: the author has to keep the story tight...no slackening...and accomplishes this by placing the various protagonists in a chronic state of peril and suffering.  But I have to admit that while I suppose this helps to sustain my interest in those characters, I'm starting to suffer from empathetic suffering pangs.

In the first book, A Games of Thrones, Martin smartly put the "bite" into everyone's peril by unceremoniously knocking off what was reasonably understood then to be his chief protagonist.  After this, it became clear that NOBODY was safe!  It reminds me of what Hitchcock did in the movie Psycho, when Janet Leigh's main protagonist character was murdered early in the story in the motel shower.  After that, the movie was almost unbearably frightening as I followed the remaining "survivors",  anticipating similar outcomes for them.

But I think there's something more to this dreariness that I detect in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.  I detest his fantasy world and its society...and the insensitivity and brutality of its people, especially those in positions of leadership.  I suppose that this is probably all allegorical, though, and I could apply some of the social models and problems that Martin reveals to our world today.  That doesn't make it any more pleasant to read, though...

Finished Reading Goodkind's Blood of the Fold

I have just completed reading Terry Goodkind's third novel in his twelve-part The Sword of Truth series, titled Blood of the Fold.  The title refers to an organization that parallels the Spanish Inquisitional movement in our own history, with a religiously fanatical leader going around with his army looking for heretics that he arbitrarily designates as working for the "Keeper" (analogous to Satan) while he continuously justifies his own cruel actions as being for the "Creator" (i.e. the Lord God).  It's obviously Goodkind's own statement against religious intolerance...the demonization of anything that is beyond the direct control of whoever is on a judgmental religious track in their lives.  But beyond that, Blood of the Fold is more or less a continuation of the author's fantasy world roller coaster ride of series protagonists Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd with a new cast of foes and all assortments of magical and prophetic quirks and gimmicks.  Now that I know how this series is going, along with the fact that there are nine more books to go, I feel that I can probably expect more of the same as I read on.  However, as tedious as this may seem, I do enjoy Goodkind's writing and his rather philosophical take on how people should live their lives and view things.  That doesn't mean that I necessarily agree with all that he promotes, but I know how to filter out the useful from the dross...

Oh, by the way, I was anticipating Terry Goodkind introducing a new "wizard's rule" as he did in each of the first two volumes.  I wasn't disappointed, as he revealed in his "Wizard's Third Rule":

Passion rules reason, for better or for worse.  

Next: Volume #4, Temple of the Winds...

Some Factors in Keith Richards' Success

As a continuation of my reaction to Keith Richards' autobiography Life, I'd like to examine some "success" traits of his.  From childhood and throughout his life, Richards was no doubt intent on pursuing his main interest and love, which was music.  He was determined and disciplined in his zeal to both perfect his guitar skills and create within the medium of music.  He also engaged with others and shared his learning on a professional level in a generous manner, inviting them to share with him what they had learned and incorporating much of their input into his own work.  Richards was a natural collaborator on projects...even this autobiography was a collaboration, and it worked out very well.  He kept his fanatical interest in music strong while concentrating his social relationships on being with others who shared his love for it.  At various points in his life story, he displayed a humility about his own abilities in music while openly acknowledging those he had encountered who excelled in the art.  Oh, one other thing...Keith Richards, in his early childhood, had adults present in his life who also loved music and introduced him to it with encouragement and an example of success that he could model himself on. Finally, Richards gave credit to those who had helped him at various stages of his life journey with a strong sense of gratitude.

Finished Reading Life by Keith Richards

I just finished reading the autobiography of Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter Keith Richards, a quite lengthy book with a short, simple title: Life.  It's not, though, as if Richards just decided to sit down one day and crank out his life's story: on the contrary the book is essentially written by "co-writer" and friend James Fox, who conducted a series of sometimes intensive interviews with Richards over a five-year period.  It reads very well, though, as if the lead Stones guitarist is recounting in the first person his own personal experiences and beliefs.  I liked the book a lot, but not necessarily because I liked Keith Richards.  On the contrary, I never did like him, even from early childhood in the 1960's, and found a lot of stuff in Life to dislike him even more.  What I did appreciate about this particular autobiography is that he didn't just set out to justify himself in it, but rather put both the good and bad out on display, including the "dirty linen" of his extensive drug use over the years.  As a matter of fact, he was so candid about how badly it had gotten out of control that he opened the book with an incident relating to a drug bust that happened while on tour in the U.S. in 1975...and only then launched into recounts of his childhood as traditional biographies do.

I think that this book is something worth examining in future articles, for there is a lot to cover here.  There is a way, an approach to encountering people and befriending them that appealed to me in Keith Richards.  On the other hand, without explicitly coming out and saying it, he seemed to display some of the classic behavioral patterns of a bully at times, sorry to say.  Well, I'll leave some of that for a future article and just say right now that I'd recommended Life for anyone who either knew and liked some of what the Rolling Stones did over their incredibly long run as a rock and roll band or is interested in what went on (and probably still goes on) behind the scenes with rock and roll acts going back to the sixties and seventies.  And in spite of Keith Richards' excesses and personality flaws, some of the personality factors that contributed to his material and artistic success are revealed in this book...as a matter of fact, they become so self-evident that they seem to scream at me! 

Pathetic Gators Lose to Small College 26-20

So my University of Florida football team has skidded so far down this year that they just lost to a minor team, Georgia Southern, 26-20.  This was the "extra" game on the schedule after the regular season limit was increased to twelve...designed for Florida to have a breather as they prepared for their annual rivalry contest against Florida State.  Instead, they have now lost six in a row and have a 4-7 record and a guaranteed losing season, making them bowl ineligible.  Why, though, anyone would care to see them in a bowl after this dismal season is beyond me.  But for some reason there is no blame coming to the coaching staff from Athletic Director Foley.  Back in 2004, Ron Zook was fired mid-season as head coach for a much better performance...but current coach Will Muschamp seems to have entranced the Florida A.D. somehow in spite of the mediocrity he is showcasing.  Sure, the Gators have had their share of injuries, but so have other teams...who somehow seem to have been able to fill in the gaps with players off their bench.  With Florida though, it's all about the injuries and not about the coaching philosophy, strategy, or decisions.  I see little hope for improvement next year under Muschamp, but sooner or later the clamor by the fans and alumni will be too loud for Mr. Foley to ignore...

JFK Assassination Fifty Years Ago Today

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of a horrendous national event: the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the middle of a publicly intense motorcade running through downtown Dallas, Texas.   Since then, all kinds of conspiracy theories have abounded concerning who shot Kennedy and why...enriching quite a few of their promoters in the process.  As for me, I'm inclined to believe that the official suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, acted alone without anyone pulling the strings behind the scenes.  As for you, believe whatever you want to believe...bet you can't prove it! 

I was in the second grade in Hollywood, Florida on that fateful afternoon, just following lunch, when a kid from the adjacent classroom rushed in to inform us that President Kennedy had been shot...either in the back or the eye, he wasn't sure.  From that moment on, everything changed as no one could talk or think about anything else.  When I got home, the television was on CBS/Channel 4/WTVJ, which was providing continuous coverage of the crisis.  Both of my parents were Kennedy supporters although neither voted in order to avoid jury duty (nowadays this is a moot point with having a driver's license being the prerequisite for summoning).  It was pretty heavy and somber as I remembered it.  And of course, by the time I had gotten home from school, word had gone out that Kennedy was dead. 

I was only seven when JFK was killed.  I didn't know anything about politics, although I remember being familiar with the name of Kennedy as the President when the news came down that sorry Friday afternoon in 1963.  I became aware very quickly who Lyndon Baines Johnson was as Kennedy's successor...and even more so the following year when he would preempt regular televised programming by sounding war alarms about Vietnam and how we needed to respond...a double tragedy.  Some speculate that John Kennedy would have kept us out of Vietnam...I tend to think that he would have kept a covert US presence there without going overboard with the troop commitment and subsequent mass carnage.  And since a great part of the tide of changing American history turned on that war, it's easy to see how this assassination was so pivotal...as Stephen King speculated so provocatively in his recent novel 11/22/63...

NCAA Football National Championship Preferences

It's now getting to the point in the college football season when the hopes and aspirations of the teams I'm rooting for give way to often dismal reality, and I begin to side with schools that I usually wouldn't pull for as a first choice.  Two cases in point are Auburn and South Carolina.  These are the two "runner-up" teams in each Southeastern Conference division, behind Alabama and Missouri respectively.  I like Auburn because I dislike Alabama's coach Nick Saban, while I like South Carolina (who could win the conference title but not the national championship) because I like their coach Steve Spurrier and resent newcomer Missouri being able to pick up a divisional title in only their second year in the league. Outside the SEC, I'm still pulling for Michigan State to beat Ohio State...but if Urban Meyer's Buckeyes prevail, I would root for them in a national championship game against Alabama.  I'd like most of all for Florida State to win the national championship, but there are two obstacles to this. One, they'll have to get by Florida at Gainesville in their final regular season contest and two, their star quarterback Jameis Winston is, I'm afraid, on the verge of having his college career (and perhaps ultimately his noncriminal status) ended with a sexual assault charge.  I'm still rooting for my Gators, who I think have a shot of winning, to get by the Seminoles...as for the sexual assault matter, I just want for truth and justice to prevail regarding the victim and whoever gets accused.

Here is my list of teams with national championship possibilities, according to my preferences:

1 Florida State
2 Auburn
3 Oregon
4 Michigan State
5 Ohio State
6 Baylor
7 Stanford
8 Missouri
9 Alabama

So far, Alabama and FSU are the consensus favorites for the national championship game, with Ohio State and Baylor waiting in the wings hoping that one or both of them lose in the waning regular season or in their conference title games.  Meanwhile, teams like Auburn and Oregon are hoping that Ohio State and Baylor lose one of their final games as well...which I believe is a distinct possibility.  If Ohio States wins out and still misses the title game, it will have been coach Meyer's third team in his career that has gone undefeated without getting a shot at the championship!

Schedule Conflict Nixes One Race, Another Available

Just when I was about to register and pay for this Thanksgiving morning's 10K Turkey Trot race here in Gainesville, I discovered that, for the first time in many years, I have been scheduled to work on Thanksgiving.  Since the race itself begins at 8:30 AM and I won't be getting off from work until 7:30 AM, this simply won't work out.  So I'm skipping this race as well and am glad that I didn't sign up too soon.   I checked my local Florida Track Club website race calendar and discovered there is an annual event called Season of Hope 15K that takes place on the Hawthorne Trail (the same location as the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon that I just passed over last weekend).  The 9.3 miles involved in a 15K race should be a great preparation for the ensuing Ocala and FivePoints half-marathons as the long-distance running season goes full throttle in the winter here in northern Florida...

Skipped Second Half-Marathon in Two-Months

For the second time in a two-month span, I have skipped a half-marathon running race that was held here in my home town of Gainesville.  I thought that I could have finished the last one, the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon held on Saturday morning, November 16, but the weather was unseasonably warm and extremely humid.  That morning, instead of running 13.1 miles, I stepped out of my front door and ran a short 2.33 mile course through my immediate neighborhood.  It was a very unpleasant run, affirming my decision to bypass this race.  I do believe that I have the endurance necessary to finish a half-marathon, although my final time probably won't be up there with my best.

I look ahead on the calendar and see, early in 2014, two half-marathons that I have run in before: Ocala in January and the FivePoints (Gainesville) in February.  Perhaps I'll just aim for these.  In the meantime, there is the 10K Turkey Trot run to be held in town on Thanksgiving morning the 28th.  This sounds like a good event to enter.

Should I feel more comfortable running in a half-marathon before next year, I might check out the area calendar for December.  For example, there is a half-marathon scheduled in Jacksonville at the end of that month...

Champagne Time for '72 Dolphins

Sometimes it happens sooner and sometimes it happens later, but sooner or later it happens.  Once again, the last undefeated team in the National Football League has lost their first game, this season after nine straight opening wins.  This year it was the Kansas City Chiefs who made the startling run, considering that last year they went 2-14.  But with a new coach and quarterback (albeit successful veterans from other teams) Andy Reid and Alex Smith, respectively, they have transformed themselves into a true contender.  Unfortunately for them, the Chiefs are situated in a division with the Denver Broncos, who may well be the best team in the league this year.  The two divisional rivals played last night on the road in Mile High Stadium and the Chiefs lost 27-17.  So no more undefeated teams remain, and that's party time to the 1972 Miami Dolphins players and staff.  Time to break out the champagne! 

Miami went 14-0 in the regular season in 1972 and won the Super Bowl.  No team has won it all since then, although there have been some close calls.  The most notable were the runs of the Chicago Bears in 1985 and of the New England Patriots in 2007.  The Bears would probably have pulled it off were they not upset by the Dolphins in the next-to-last game of the regular season, and the Patriots came 35 seconds from having a perfect season...that is, until the New York Giants scored and went ahead with that miniscule amount of time left in the fourth quarter of their Super Bowl.  This year, though, won't come close to those two and Miami's unrepeated legacy remains intact. So, as the tradition goes, the surviving members of that '72 Dolphins team either will meet or already have met to celebrate Kansas City's first loss of the season.  Frankly, I like the Chiefs and dislike the Broncos and was in an uncomfortable position last night rooting for Denver.  But now I can go back to pulling for KC (unless they play the Dolphins, of course)...

Just Finished Reading Grafton's M is for Malice

I like reading Sue Grafton's "alphabet mystery" series.  I think she's gotten all the way to "W" by now...but I can't remember exactly which "letters" I've read and which I haven't.  The first book I read of hers was L is for Lawless, and I remember A is for Alibi and G is for Gumshoe.  I've read more than that, too, but can't remember which ones.  So my last selection I made was of M is for Malice: that title just did not sound familiar at all!

As with all of these books, the main character is a woman named Kinsey Millhone, an ex-cop turned private detective, living in coastal California around some of the other "regulars" in the series.  She has ongoing issues with personal relationships (an orphan from childhood, alienated from her other relatives and twice-divorced, currently going in and out of voluntary celibacy).  Kinsey likes her three-mile daily runs on the beach, something about her that I can finally relate to (although I live far from the ocean).  She is also proud of her self-sufficiency, but inevitably finds herself having to depend on others around her for help (also like me).  I generally like Kinsey's personality, although as a private eye she can be a little tedious as she describes each new setting she finds herself in (the stories are told in the first person) with excruciatingly great detail.  When I get to one of these areas in the book, my mind often takes off and wanders around a bit until I can get back to the actual story!

In M is for Malice, Kinsey is hired by a distant relative to find an heir to a fortune, and this heir has been missing for decades.  The rest of the family regards him as the black sheep and judges his past severely.  Sometime as the story is unraveled a murder occurs...and I quickly sniffed out the correct perpetrator out of the assortment of suspects Grafton  had laid out!  I knew it had to be someone presented early in the story who wasn't an obvious suspect...voila, there was the answer!

I think it would be a good project for me to just read some basic descriptions of each of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries, for I'm sure I haven't read most of them and would like to know which ones.  And they are good, fun reading!

Comet ISON Becoming Visible to the Naked Eye

As Comet ISON, also known as C/2012 S1, nears the Sun, it is rapidly brightening, with some reporting that they can see it (under very dark conditions) with their naked eye.  The magnitude as of November 14 was recorded as +5.4, and should be soon visible to the general public observer by the time it reaches +4.  Of course, the comet's increasing proximity to the Sun over the next few days will interfere with its visibility and counteract, to a degree, its increase in magnitude.  It is to be seen just before sunrise in the constellation Virgo, very near its brightest star Spica (to its west until November 18-19...then to the east).  I'll have one opportunity to view it tomorrow morning, if I'm awake and the clouds aren't obscuring my view.  Then for the rest of the week, I'll be inside a building at the time at work. 

It's still unclear how bright Comet ISON will get after it rounds the sun...or even whether it will survive the close encounter.  So it might be a good idea to get in your observations before the comet gets too close to the heat...

Lately, On My Kindle

Being a Kindle owner for a little more than a month now, I haven't exactly been going all out to build up a collection of books on it.  I recently did check out, through my library, an e-reader version of Isaac Asimov's Foundation, the first novel in a series of his about the results of historical planning on a galactic scale.  But even though this book was relatively short, I had just a few days to read it before the expiration date passed and it disappeared from my Kindle.  I wonder why, if I check out a hard copy book from the library, I'm given four weeks to read it (with the option of twice renewing the loan) while I'm supposed to apparently just zip on through the material if I electronically check it out on an e-reader.  Also, why, after my online request was made for Foundation, did I have to wait a few days for it to become "available", when the whole process of transferring to a Kindle is virtually instantaneous?  Go figure...

These days I'm rereading another of my favorite authors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes stories are among my favorites.  I bought the complete Holmes works, plus some bonus stories, for 99 cents.  I just finished the initial Holmes story, titled A Study in Scarlet (with a not-so-complimentary view of Mormon history) and am now undertaking The Sign of Four, in which the good Doctor Watson falls in love with Mary Marston.  I love the idea of being able to carry these stories around with me and reading them so conveniently...

Gators, Dolphins Disappointing at 4-5

As it stands right now, the University of Florida Gators and the Miami Dolphins, the two football teams that I follow the most, are mired in 4-5 seasons after each team started out well.  Florida had built up a 4-1 mark before going into a tailspin while Miami won its first three games.  Both teams have been plagued by injuries, while the Dolphins lost two starters from its already inadequate offensive line due to the Incognito/ Martin bullying scandal.  Both teams have competent quarterbacks in Tyler Murphy and Ryan Tannehill, but the offensive line simply will not protect them.  This really makes little sense with Florida since their coach Will Muschamp has deliberately employed a ball-control strategy that presupposes a standout offensive line. 

Florida plays tomorrow at Steve Spurrier's South Carolina, while the Dolphins are at home against San Diego.  At this point, Florida is only playing for an opportunity for a bowl game, for which they need to upset the Gamecocks.  Unfortunately, Murphy is injured and the Gators will be starting third stringer (and inexperienced on the college level) Skyler Mornhinweg.  Good luck, Skyler!  Miami, on the other hand, incredibly is still thick in the running for a playoff spot and can greatly enhance their position in the standings by defeating the Chargers, also with a 4-5 record.  But if the Dolphins lose this crucial game, they might as well forget about the playoffs this year, as far as I'm concerned.

We'll see what the weekend brings...

About to Begin Book Three in Sword of Truth Series

I am continuing on my literary journey through the massive jungle of fantasy writer Terry Goodkind's twelve-volume Sword of Truth series, having just completed the second book Stone of Tears.  Once again, the main characters of Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd are struggling through a war-infested world full of magic, intrigue, and dire prophecies.  Knowing that I'm going to end up plowing through twelve books gives me a dual feeling: one, the main characters...at least Richard...will manage to survive their ordeals in each book (at least for a while in the series), and two, whatever victories that they achieve at the end of one book will quickly be transformed into potentially disastrous problems for the next.  That's fine with me, for the main appeal in this series is Goodkind's writing style and how he allows his characters to develop and learn from their situations.  Also, in each of the two previous books, Goodkind has revealed a "wizard's rule", the correct or wrongful application of which has a direct bearing on how the story culminates.  I wonder if he'll continue in the next book with a new rule.

I'm about to start on book #3, titled Blood of the Fold.

The Question Is Not X, But Y

When establishing one's priorities for action or analyzing something for its salient points, often the statement comes out that "It isn't a question of (the extraneous points), but rather (the salient point)".  Here's an example...

I'm taking a class at my local church.  It meets weekly, and each week a written assignment that involves answering questions about the previous week's lesson is due.  We're on Lesson 11 and the assignment is due tomorrow before class. Depending on how busy I am during the week, I'm either on pace with completing my assignment or behind.  This week I was behind, and had to invoke the "question is not" principle to getting the assignment completed and turned in: "The question is not how deep and significant my answers are for this assignment, but rather whether I can crank it out and turn it in on time."  Once asked, the answer to it is obvious and self-contained.  Just do the blasted assignment, turn it in, and move on to the next lesson!  So having established my priority, I did just that...and amazingly, while working in this mental framework I was able to come up with some pretty good answers, if I do say so.

I think that cranking out a product is the often the issue that needs to be addressed instead of insisting on perfection, for time is a factor in a lot of things that people often tend to ignore when appraising how best to approach them.  But also, once the question of what one's priority or focus should be has been ascertained, that question, within its new context, can shift as well.   As a matter of fact, sorting out priorities of emphasis is a crucial mental process that we need to be habitually adept at and consistently apply in a practical sense.

Finished Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms

I have a backlog of books that I have read and want to write about.  I might as well start off by discussing a "classic": Ernest Hemingway's World War I story A Farewell to Arms.  Before getting into the story, I have to admit to a little bibliophobia about authors like Hemingway, Pearl Buck, John Steinbeck and Joseph Conrad.  When I earlier read books they had written, it wasn't for my own pleasure and enlightenment, but rather to fulfill high school English class assignments.  And part of those assignments, without exception, involved afterwards picking apart the assigned novels according to the criteria that the inevitably boring (to me) and disinterested (in me) teachers presented to us.  So I came to regard these greats in literature as something of an enemy, and this feeling sadly lasted well past the time I left that prison known as high school.

I have since still avoided Buck, Steinbeck, and Conrad, but did manage to read Hemingway's Spanish Civil War novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.  This novel read like a movie, and the ending was something I never forgot.  So I set out recently to read his "breakthrough" novel A Farewell to Arms, which is about an American serving as a lieutenant in the Italian Army during World War I as they fought against Austria.  Part of the narrative is about his experiences in the ambulance corps there and part is about his romance with an English nurse.  The story in itself isn't really anything to get terribly excited about, but I was impressed with how the author developed the characters through extensive, intricate dialog.  Also, Hemingway's presentation always used simple, short sentences that, strung together, were very effective at describing not only the plot as it developed, but also the interesting setting in which it was placed.  The story and its underlying theme of victimization at the hands of the powers that be, presented in the first person by the protagonist, is about as gloomy and cynical is it comes, making me feel that this might be a good "Goth" novel for its bleakness and negativity.  Still, there was a kind of sweetness and friendly intimacy to how many of the characters related to each other that reminded me a little of Stephen King's Joyland, which I had just finished reading before picking up A Farewell to Arms.

When I was in high school, instead of being graded on a 0-4 scale, or even "F" to "A", we at my obnoxiously "special" school naturally had to do it differently, using a 0-9 scale instead...who knows why.  A "5" grade would correspond to "C-".  I say that because that's what I would expect my "wonderful" English teachers to give me for the above review...which incidentally is written in a manner to avoid giving the story away to potential readers...

Gator Football Woes Point to Coaching

I think it's a shame that the University of Florida football team has now lost four games in a row and is now only 4-5, likely to finish the season with a losing record and without a bowl appearance.  It's even more of a shame when you consider that in four out of those five losses, an excessive amount of very untimely Gator turnovers accounts for the loss margins.  That means that if they had just been able to hold onto the football, Florida right now could have been 8-1!  Combining their high turnover rate with chronically high amounts of penalty calls and quarterback sacks caused largely by poor pass protection from the offensive line and you just might come to the conclusion that there is something definitely wrong with how this team is coached...especially when you throw in the fact that every year, for the past several years, Florida has ranked at or near the tops in the nation in recruiting star high school players.  So they have the talent, supposedly, but when that talent hits the field after all of the weeks of practice and preparation they get outperformed game after game by the opposition?  That sounds like really lousy coaching to me.  The excuses have been made that the Gators have had injuries this year, including their original starting quarterback and first-string running back.  But other teams have had their own share of injuries as well...and besides, the backup players have stepped up to the plate (sorry about the mixed sports metaphor) and filled in admirably.  No, this is a flaw with the coaching.  Sorry, Will Muschamp...

Our 2013 Gator Gallop Run

Yesterday was the traditional two-mile Gator Gallop run, technically a race but in reality a mob surge (estimated 600 entrants) down University Avenue from the University of Florida track area to NW 6th Street, down that road and then back on SW 2nd Avenue almost back to UF.  Earlier in the week I had preregistered myself and my daughter and was surprised to find that there were no timing chips...and that the finishing times wouldn't be recorded.  So in the end this was just a privilege I was paying for to be part of a Gator Homecoming tradition...for this run immediately precedes the beginning of the Homecoming Parade each year. Okay, I thought, I can handle that...and then hang around after the run to watch the procession of floats, cars, trucks, marchers, and performers.

Melissa drove Rebecca and me down to UF and we found some parking close by for five bucks.  Then she left to find a good spot along the upcoming parade route and waited for father and daughter to run by during the Gallop.  Which we did, resulting in the picture of us below.

I found it was just as fun to sit around and get a feeling for the festive atmosphere, with entrants planning to either walk, run, skate, or skateboard.  There were plenty of dogs taking part in the event with their humans, as well as parents pushing their babies in strollers.  Also, there was an inordinate number of little children running in this two-mile adventure.  I told Rebecca I wasn't  trying to win anything in this race, but please don't let any of those pipsqueaks beat me!

Most of the race, especially the first two thirds, involved us simply trying to avoid slower participants and find pockets that we could fit in. It was nearly impossible to establish any reasonable pace, so I just "sat back" in a manner of speaking and took in the experience.  Rebecca, despite feeling some discomfort during the run in her left ankle, surprised me with a powerful sprint at the end. Just beyond the finish line (no times...we had to do that ourselves), there was water, fruit juice, and bananas.  The walk back to where Melissa awaited us was lengthy, but it was fun to me because I got to reflect on how much the campus had changed with its newer buildings and landscaping since I had been a student there.  Finally, we reached our roadside seat and enjoyed the parade, about which I wrote yesterday...along with the accompanying photos.

And here are a few pics of our Gator Gallop experience, along with a little campus stuff!

University of Florida Homecoming Parade 2013 Pictures

Here are some pictures I took at the University of Florida Homecoming Parade, which took place a little earlier this afternoon.  Before the parade, my daughter and I ran the two-mile Gator Gallop, about which I'll write tomorrow.  The street you're seeing is West University Avenue, and I'm sitting with my wife and daughter watching it from the UF(south) side near Fletcher Drive.

Finished Reading Stephen King's Joyland

I just finished reading Stephen King's recent novel Joyland, a book that received very little fanfare or promotion...especially in comparison with other works of his of late like Doctor Sleep, Under the Dome, and 11/22/63.  In spite of that, I found Joyland to be worth the read.  Its protagonist is a young man working during the summer between college terms at a theme park...hence the story's name.  There are various subplots that seem separate from each other, but which King weaves together at the end.  A young boy with a terminal illness, a murder mystery, the inside story of working at a theme park (with the associated lingo and characters), the heartbreak of a lost love...these all figure into the story.  The time setting resonated with me, for I was about the same age as the "hero" back in 1973-74.

Joyland isn't very long, especially in comparison with some of Stephen King's other works.  It has a sweetness to it that stuck with me after I finished it.  The characters, and their diverse personalities, are what makes this novel stand out more than anything.  But don't take my word for it...read it for yourself!

About Bullies, Part II

In Jean Shepherd's very popular and funny movie A Christmas Story, depicting an northern Indiana boy's school and holiday ups and down, there is a vicious character, a older boy named Scud Farkus who picks on all the other kids (including his toady sidekick).  In that story, the bully is a social outcast and the other children are more or less united in fearing and loathing him.  But that's a story...in real life bullies are encouraged and affirmed by the bulk of the people surrounding them, while the victims are often, if not usually, isolated and ostracized.  Bullies usually justify their aggression to others by claiming that the victim did or was something offensive and had to be taught a lesson.  This was certainly the case in my youth, as the most popular kids on campus were often the most hateful, mean bullies around.  And it wasn't just the kids who sucked up to them...teachers often bent over backwards to befriend them, too.

I bring all this up as a follow-up to yesterday's article about the Miami Dolphin player who bullied a teammate to the point where he left the team.  In reaction to the story, incredibly (or is it really) teammates and other players (like Mike Wallace and Rickie Williams) have publicly come out in support of the accused, trivializing the threatened violence and racism of his behavior while making it seem as if the victim brought it all on to himself  by his own attitude.  Even coaches and sports analysts are rushing up to side with the aggressor by claiming that he might have been put up to it by his coaches or that other teammates were to blame because they didn't stop him.  As if this individual wasn't responsible for his own behavior!

I don't know who is worse: the bully exhibiting the behavior or the people who affirm that behavior and seek to make him out as a victim while the true victim is painted as the bad guy...

Dolphins Racist Bully

I've been following the major sports story out there about how a Miami Dolphins offensive lineman was engaging in bullying over another player on the same team.  The excuse for this thuggish behavior was traditional hazing of rookies.  Only one problem, though: the victim was in his second year on the team, not a rookie!  Also, the perpetrator made a vicious racial slur against the other and even threatened to kill him.  The Dolphins have suspended and most likely will cut this degenerate.  But isn't a death threat a crime, with the racism adding the tone of hate?  So why isn't law enforcement investigating this jerk?

Regarding hazing of new members of a football team, the rationale is that somehow just being on whatever team is involved is an honor and rookies have to show their loyalty to this great tradition by submitting to indignities and humiliation.  But the Dolphins, while many years ago having been a quality, winning franchise, haven't done ANYTHING to merit such devotion in the past few years.  2009, 2010, 2011, an 2012 were all losing seasons.  How dare ANY player on the team during this time put on an air of superiority over ANYONE?

When someone else gets bullied, you and I are also the victims. I was the victim of bullying in childhood, and I never forgot anyone's name or face.  I doubt that I'm the only one like this, either. Fortunately, I have more important things to concern myself with than to dwell on the past, though. But I bet a lot of past bullying victims aren't like me and have made the choice to hold on to their grievances and injustices. I'd hate to have been a bully and then run into one of these... 

Must be interesting going through life as a bully, constantly having to look back over one's shoulders...

Belated Congratulations to Red Sox

I guess this may seem a little belated, but congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning their World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to two.  Although I had wanted other teams to have made it (like the Tampa Bay Rays and the Atlanta Braves), as it turned out the two teams that did get there put on a good, entertaining series.  Except for the first game, which was an 8-1 blowout in favor of the Red Sox, the games were close and exciting, mostly pitchers' duels with some batting heroics thrown in (I'm especially thinking about the phenomenal performance of David Ortiz).  No, during the regular season I rooted against both Boston and St. Louis.  But there's no point in following a World Series if you're against both teams, so I picked Boston...and won, in a manner of speaking...

Topped Eight Miles in Preparation for Half-Marathon

I was hoping for improved, cooler weather conditions that would facilitate outdoor road running instead of the indoor treadmill, which I had been basing much of my training on this summer and early fall.  Today, with a little less than two weeks to go before the half-marathon race I'm thinking of entering, the weather was great: late afternoon with a 69 degree temperature and 41% humidity.  I set out on my neighborhood course to see how far I could go.  As it turned out, after prodding myself to go a little bit further here and a little bit further there, I finally wound my way back into my driveway having covered 8.16 miles...well past the halfway mileage for my intended race.  The pace was a tad over nine minutes per mile: not very fast but still reasonable, especially considering that it has been a while since I covered that kind of distance doing road running.  I'm encouraged by this run and plan at least one more long run between now and race day...possibly getting to the ten-mile mark if conditions permit...

Quotes, Retz, Distrust, and Dupes

I have in my possession a book titled The Great Thoughts (compiled by George Seldes), which I picked up for $1 at a local (very) cut-rate used book store a few months ago.  I purchased it with the idea of hitting upon an intriguing quote here and there, and then writing an article about it.  Finally, after all this time, as with other areas of my often sluggish lifestyle, I've finally gotten around to writing about a quote contained within.  The individual making it was, as the book describes, a French prelate and statesman named Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz...or simply more commonly known as Retz.  He was an interesting character, a noble who was involved in the rebellion called the Fronde.  This Fronde occurred at the close of the Thirty Years War, in which France played a major role, which ended in 1648, and which resulted in bands of war-hardened soldiers and a royal treasury depleted of funds.  When taxes were imposed on the localities in order to build back up that treasury, open revolt resulted...for the next five years or so.  The young king Louis IV used its failure to consolidate his own power into an absolute monarchy.  Retz, for his part, was afterwards rehabilitated and bestowed the title of cardinal.  His memoirs, written from 1655-65, contribute four quotes in my little book.  It was the final one given that interested me for its prescient application to the times we now live in:

"The most distrusting persons are often the greatest dupes."

There's one dude I see on infomercials from time to time that crystallizes the application of this quote.  He sells his wares, which come in the form of books, CD sets, and even cruises, by claiming access to sources of health and wealth that "they" don't want us to know about.  And what does this huckster mean about "they"?  You know, those people behind the scenes, secretive and powerful, who are always trying to ruin things for the rest of us...although this individual seems to have trouble naming anyone specifically.  "They" won't tell us about miracle cures for all kinds of diseases.  "They" are interfering with this dude's attempts to tell us how to get "our" money back from the government.  But "we" won't let "them" get away with that, right? No, we'll buy whatever this person is selling because we distrust the "powers that be".  In the end, though, we're dupes.

The entire UFO conspiracy industry, as well as just about anyone else hawking attractive conspiracy theories for profit, fishes upon the same kind of distrusting population, rendering the ones who take the baits offered as dupes.  But one doesn't have to go off into the fringe of pseudo-science and conspiracy theory to see this "distrust/dupe" relationship...

In our political scene, actually on both sides of the political spectrum, we hear folks ranting and raving about the ulterior motives of the other side...and how the way to combat that is to support the "good guys" like themselves who are calling the "bad guys" out.  Therefore, I'm either supposed to support the Democrats because the Republicans have ulterior motives, or I'm supposed to support the Republicans because the Democrats have ulterior motives.  What makes people who think this way into dupes is that it frees those politicians and media ideologues who are instigating the sense of distrust from having to lead in a responsible and proactive way while at the same time avoiding the necessary compromises with their political opposition to advance reasonable and beneficial policies.  Instead, we're supposed to accept them because at least they're better than those "other guys"!

What a con!!!

Dolphins Still in Running After Win

Just when I was beginning to think that the Miami Dolphins, the National Football League franchise that I had been rooting for ever since I had just turned twelve in 1968, were going to have their third rebuilding collapse in seven years after all the preseason fanfare hinting that maybe, just maybe, this would be the year they turned the corner and returned to their predictable quality of the previous century...they surprised me last night by defeating a very good Cincinnati Bengals team in overtime 22-20.  It was a defensive play, the sack of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton in his own endzone for a safety, that sealed the win. Now, at the halfway point of the regular season that saw Miami on a roller coaster ride starting with three opening wins and then four straight losses before last night's victory, they are "even-Steven" at 4-4 and still in the hunt for a playoff spot...even the divisional title is still possible.  But they are going to need to do better against teams in their own division.  So far the Dolphins are 0-2 in divisional contests, including a 27-17 loss to 6-2 New England, a game that Miami had command of 17-3 and driving for a score that would have made it 24-3.  If they are going to do well in the second half of the season, they need to avoid those costly turnovers and sacks that plagued their offense, the culpability for which should be shared by quarterback Ryan Tannehill and the offensive linemen.  And the defense, which overall has played well so far, needs to maintain their high standard of play.  Regardless what ends up happening, though, I feel they are still in the running...which makes following them week to week much more fun!