My December 2013 Running Report

This final month of 2013 saw me cutting back on my total mileage and missing some days in the middle due to what seems to have been a viral illness.  I ran a total of  80.2 miles in December, while I ran on 26 out of the 31 days.  My longest single run was for 5.5 miles.  I missed out on a 9K race in the middle of the month, but was already beginning to feel under the weather when I found out I would need to go in to work the morning of the race.

Since the end of September, there have been four local races ranging from 6K to half-marathon in length that I had intended to run in but for various reasons have skipped.  Still, next year there is the Ocala Half-Marathon in on January and, later in February, the FivePoints Half-Marathon here in Gainesville.  Let's see if I can't make it to at least one of these, even if I have to walk part of the race...

Read My First Louis L'Amour Novel Yesterday

In a temporary change of genre, I just read my first Louis L'Amour novel, a 1980 story titled Lonely on the Mountain.  L'Amour is a famous author primarily of westerns, but with a sprinkling of other types of fiction, which I was surprised to also include science fiction.  Upon further reading about him, I discovered that this author had written 100 novels and 250 short stories,  quite a feat of prolificacy.  The book I read was simply what I picked up off the library shelf and was one of those novels that continued to highlight a particular recurring set of characters...in this case the Sackett family.  In Lonely on the Mountain, the plot flows around the quest of the Sackett brothers (this is all taking place in the post-Civil War far west) to drive several hundred cattle hundreds of miles through all sorts of dangers in order to rescue a relative, who had made the request under duress.  I liked L'Amour's writing style, but I have to admit that while I was intrigued by how he depicted life in the wilds of the American frontier in the late nineteenth century, I didn't particularly care for the way that the characters fell squarely in either the "good guys" or "bad guys" columns: I like more complex personalities in my fiction.  But overall I had a pleasant go of it with this story and may find myself delving into some more of Louis L'Amour's works in the future (especially the science fiction)...

Many Playoff Spots in NFL to be Decided Today

Today the playoff lineups will be decided for the National Football League 2013 season.  I'm gratified to see that this year the Miami Dolphins are still in the running, favored to win their game against the New York Jets while at the same time needing either Baltimore to lose or San Diego to win.  But regardless how the other teams do, I'll be proud of the Dolphins if they can win their final regular season game and earn their first winning season since 2008.

Elsewhere, other teams are vying for playoff spots as well.  Dallas will play Philadelphia and Chicago will play Green Bay, with the winner of each game advancing into the playoffs.  Also, New Orleans and Arizona find themselves needing successful outcomes in games today in order to secure for themselves a playoff spot.  Other teams in both conferences are jostling around in the standings to see who wins their divisions, who will have first week byes, who gets home field advantage, and whether they will be division winners or simply wild card teams.  So a lot is at stake here, not just for the teams trying to make it to the playoffs. 

Although I'll be busy today doing other things, I'm looking forward to see how everything "plays" out, especially for Miami...

Holiday Visit to NFR's Duck Pond

Last night, Melissa and I paid a visit to Gainesville's North Florida Regional Medical Center...nothing serious, you understand.  No, we were on a sightseeing mission, to the facility's duck pond which rests on its east side by busy Newberry Road.  Every Christmas holiday season, they install many lights and decorations there, and residents flock to the site after sunset to view it all.  I've managed to live in Gainesville since 1977 and somehow miss this traditional hometown experience, but this year we got out to take a stroll around the grounds.  There were a lot of people there, mostly families composed of parents and small children.  It was a scene of low-tech extravagance that could have been produced seventy years ago, with pleasant seasonal music piped in on strategically located speakers.

The top picture is a panoramic shot of the duck pond and its surrounding lighting taken from the Newberry Road vantage point. The bottom shot is, well, you know...

Finsished Reading Baldacci's Divine Justice

Today I finished a quick read through David Baldacci's novel Divine Justice, which is the fourth installment in his Camel Club series.  I earlier read the first volume, also titled The Camel Club, several months ago but inadvertently skipped the next two books.  Actually, I picked Divine Justice because it happened to be what was on my library shelf when I stopped by the other day (usually I check out my items after placing holds on online catalogue searches).  As it turned out, with this series it is a good idea to read the books in order, as Divine Justice feeds heavily off the events of the immediately preceding book Stone Cold and often refers to events from second book The Collectors.  Still, in spite of feeling irritated at missing out on much of what underlies the developing story in Divine Justice, I was still able to follow it.  One reason is that Baldacci's heroic characters are very likable and are fun to follow, demonstrating humor and rapport with one another.  Not that what transpires in this novel has much to laugh and smile about: it's just refreshing, after plowing through the ponderous fantasy series of George R.R. Martin and Terry Goodkind with their ever-grim characters, to see a few with the ability to take things in stride every now and then.

The Camel Club series is about ex-CIA professional assassin "Oliver Stone" (his assumed name) and his collected assortment of loyal friends (hence the series title)...and how they struggle to get through their various crises.  I felt that the first book was better, while Divine Justice reminded me of television's David Bannister or MacGyver going to small towns and getting caught up in their dramas and scandals.  I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.  Still, the writing was easy to follow, the story flowed well, and the characters were compelling.  And the book wasn't too long, either! 

I suppose that now I'll go back to #2 and read The Collectors.  Excuse me while I go to my library's catalogue and place it on hold...

Seem to be Recovering from Sickness

It looks as if I might finally be coming out of the sickness that sidelined me from running for several days this month.  It has been difficult for me, as I have been suffering from general inflammation, allergy feelings, a sense of a sinus-type infection, and all sorts of mysterious aches and sore spots hitting different parts of my body.  It wasn't the flu, but there was probably some kind of viral component involved here.  But in the last two or three days, my energy level seems to be returning.  Yesterday I ran once around my block (.7 mile) and today I ran 2.1 miles.  Hopefully, this trend of recovery will continue for me: I first noticed that something was amiss nearly two weeks ago...

Finished Reading Koontz's By the Light of the Moon

I just finished reading Dean Koontz's 2002 novel By the Light of the Moon.  In a very speculative, nonscientific way, it explores how nanotechnology can be used and abused to affect the basic constitution and behavior of humans.  A man and his autistic brother are abducted by a mysterious elderly man who seems to be a scientist.  He gives them a shot of some mysterious substance and leaves them to try to escape their captivity on their own in time to avoid a deadly attack by another party.  They eventually link up on the road with a woman who has had the same traumatic experience.  The story develops with the three discovering how the injection has changed them and the nature of the injections, with involve nanotechnology...along with the role that the "mad scientist" who had kidnapped them had played earlier in their lives.

By the Light of the Moon strongly hints at a sequel with the way that the protagonists come out at the end of their ordeal, but none has ever been written as far as I know.  Also, a late-night radio talk show host was introduced into the story whom Koontz obviously patterned after long-time Coast-to-Coast AM host Art Bell.

By the Light of the Moon isn't very long and provides some good escapist reading even if it doesn't exactly convince me about nanotechnology...

Temperatures Today Much Cooler Than Forecast

In another one of those massive goof-ups, the weather forecast for today, as I heard it this morning on the radio while driving home from work at 7:30, had one more "hot" day in store for us here in northern Florida (Gainesville) with temperatures climbing into the low 80's before conditions started to cool tonight...eventually making way for a pleasantly cold Christmas morning.  But there's only one problem with that prediction: by the time I had walked out of my workplace, it had already chilled quite a bit.  Now, at ten in the morning, I'm sitting here with the temperature at 57 degrees...and there is at present a "new" predicted high for today at 66 (I doubt we'll even reach that).  So the forecast was way off because they didn't anticipate the cold front sweeping down that fast from the northwest.  Not that I'm complaining, you see...

I love cool days in the winter with cold nights that don't quite get down to freezing.  Plus, in Florida, when it gets that cold, conditions are usually very dry, as is the case for today and tomorrow.  And that's what is happening now, and at just the right time: Christmas Eve and Christmas! 

May all of you enjoy a merry, merry Christmas!!!

Dolphins Still in Playoff Hunt After Loss

The Miami Dolphins had control over their own destiny going into the final two weeks of the 2013 NFL regular season...and they couldn't handle it, failing in essence to show up at Buffalo's stadium yesterday afternoon and getting wiped out by the underdog Bills 19-0.  Amazingly, though, Miami still has a reasonable shot at getting the final wild card spot of the AFC in the playoffs if they win next week at home against the New York Jets, a team they already beat on the road this year, 23-3.  Along with a Dolphin victory, though, they need for either Baltimore to lose against Cincinnati or San Diego to win against Kansas City.   But I'm not going to get all wound up next Sunday worrying about them: I'll see where they stand when the regular season has ended and then appraise how they did this year.  Of course, I'm enthusiastic about Miami's prospects should they get into the playoffs as they have had a tendency this year to overachieve against favored opponents.  Unfortunately, they also have fallen flat against some teams they were supposed to beat...like Tampa Bay and twice against Buffalo.  Good thing they won't be playing any of them should they make the playoffs...just teams like Cincinnati or Indianapolis, division winners that the Dolphins have both beaten...

Simultaneous Universal Opposition

We in this America of ours today find ourselves in a particular situation, politically: all of us (the ones who actually care one way or another, that is) find ourselves simultaneously as being in the "opposition".  If we belong to a fringe party or belief system outside of the standard Republican/Democratic paradigm, then we're always in the opposition, regardless. But nowadays even the mainstream finds itself feeling left out of the process while the "other guys" are in there doing things that we just don't like.  For Republicans, they have had a Democratic liberal president in Barack Obama since 2009...not only has he passed a national health insurance law (although it was largely based on Mitt Romney's Republican plan in Massachusetts and took into account features of the Heritage Foundation's proposals of the early 1990's) and had the temerity to shake the hands of both Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro, but he hasn't even invaded another country yet (threatened attacks against Syria, the assassination of Bin Laden, and drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen probably wouldn't count).  Yes, to them that Democrat is "out of control".  Would be that we had a GOP president, they would probably be completely ignoring calls to balance the budget as they had the entire time that their "guy" Bush was in there running the country for the previous eight years while running up massive deficits.  The Democrats, for their part, see the tea party everywhere, controlling the House of Representatives and slowing the legislative process to a standstill and shutting down the government...and state governorships and legislatures are dominated in most states by the Republicans, who are basically passing laws against women's reproductive rights, restricting voter access to the polls, getting rid of government unions, and refusing to participate in Obamacare by not allowing Medicaid expansion....but generally faring quite well when it comes to balancing their budgets, encouraging business development, and keeping taxes low.

I recognize that there is good and bad on both sides, and I'd like for the good people who hold office to see this as well and work together to implement the good while rejecting the bad.  Instead, though, I see demonization and hyperbole as the sadly emerging norm when it comes to dealing with the opposing party...

Brittle Athletes of Today

Is it just my imagination or is today's big-time athlete more prone to injury?  Whether speaking of baseball, football, or basketball, it seems to me that what usually determines a particular team's success or failure for a season is whether they have somehow been able to avoid serious injury...or have succumbed to this ominously increasing trend.  I'm looking at the Los Angeles Lakers, which at the start of last year looked as if it just might coast to the championship with superstars Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and Dwight Howard. But injuries crippled this team throughout the season and both Nash and Bryant seem to be permanently out of play with a succession of tears, breaks, and nerve damage.  Derek Jeter, Derrick Rose, Michael Vick, Robert Griffin III, Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Rogers...the list goes on and on.  My Florida Gators football team lost most of its starting lineup with injuries, including the quarterback...and then the backup got injured!  Just look at any team and you'll see something where a star on it has been sidelined with injuries.  I know injuries have always played a role in sports, but I wonder if something about the way today's athletes are trained and play contribute to the problem.

It used to be that athletes were gifted with their builds that gave them an advantage in their sports and, sure, the bigger and faster ones tended to be more successful.  But now that the science of athletic performance has advanced as much as it has, athletes now are becoming stronger and faster...and the sports are placing greater and greater strains on their bodies as they try to keep up with each other as a natural part of competition. It seems, though, that with enhanced performance comes a corresponding increased brittleness, a higher susceptibility to injury...

Duckman's Anti-Gay Rant and Consequences

There is this reality show on Arts and Entertainment channel called Duck Dynasty that supposedly exalts the lifestyle and beliefs of a family living and working somewhere in rural Louisiana.  Looking like ZZ Top wannabes, the male members of the family all sport large beards, their trademark I guess.  Apparently, along the course of the show, a Christian worldview has been identified with them, prompting evangelical churches across the country to embrace this series as one of their own.  But now, one of those men, a dude named Phil Robertson, has touched off another of those "Chick-Fil-A" variety social media firestorms by making derogatory comments about gays.  Here we go again, with the calls from the "pro-duck" side to boycott A&E after they made the decision to suspend Robertson for a few months from the series.  I say to those who want to boycott this channel to please stop and reconsider...all it will accomplish in the end will be to give second thoughts to anyone in television thinking of starting any more series spotlighting a family practicing their religion...while reinforcing the oft-held belief to the world that Christians are narrow minded bigots, hampering those of the faith who are trying to spread the love of Jesus and his gospel message.  Besides, I've heard that the next season of Duck Dynasty has already been filmed, complete with Mr. Phil Robertson prominently featured in the episodes.  And the next taping comes later, after a few more months.  So how exactly did they propose to enforce that suspension, anyway?

I think a lot of Americans who tend to look down on homosexuality for whatever reasons of their own look at how the gay rights movement has succeeded here in the passing of anti-discrimination laws, benefits for same-sex partners, and the ushering in of same-sex marriage into our society...and see this as a threat of some kind.  But they fail to take into account that, for much of the rest of the world, in countries like Russia, Ethiopia, and Uganda, for example, the trend is in the direction of persecution of gays.  And some Islamic nations, whose legalism Christians often loudly point out against them,  are very legalistically opposed to gays, offering prison and even death as punishments for those convicted of the "crime" of having a different sexual orientation. 

To me, the very essence of being civilized as opposed to being barbarian is to have educated and incorporated within oneself the realization that the people in our society have a diversity of appearances, backgrounds, beliefs, and characteristics.  Everyone differs from each other in some way, usually many ways.  We can choose to either find common ground with them where we can or to emphasize the differences.  I'm sure Phil Robertson has some common ground with me and many aspects to his life and character to appreciate, but when he goes off on a rant against people he sees himself as being superior to, I don't exactly feel very magnanimous to respecting HIS point of view.  After all, isn't arrogant pride a sin in the eyes of the Lord, too?

This isn't at all about whether you or I approve of homosexuality or oppose it.  Rather it is about demonstrating a civil respect for others who are different from us and recognizing that there is more to a person than those aspects which displease us...

The Sunda of Indonesia

Many years ago, I used to check out one particular book from my local library that piqued my interest.  It was a compilation of small articles taken from various world languages, some of them with very exotic (and sometimes beautiful) scripts.  Some of these languages were in the highly populated island nation of Indonesian.  In particular, I remember two languages: Javanese and Sundanese.  Both of these languages are spoken on Indonesia's very densely populated island of Java, with the former comprising the predominant ethno-linguistic group there.  The Sunda people are concentrated on the western end of the island while there are Madurese on the far eastern side.  Today, however, in spite of the lovely traditional scripts, both Sundanese and Javanese are written using Romanized script: check out Wikipedia to see for yourself.  Sundanese strikes me at a glance to be similar to Indonesian, that country's official language.

The Sundanese are a primarily agricultural society that, like most of the rest of Indonesia, practices Islam with a strong traditional culture which predates that religion for millennia.  They have their own creation story and many orally-passed-on stories that speak of a culture that is ancient and profound.  I am interested in learning more about their culture as well as listening to some of their more traditional music. 

More to come... 

Feeling Under the Weather

For nearly the past week or so I have been feeling very crappy, under the weather. It isn't the flu, and I am functioning through it, albeit without enjoying it one bit.  One casualty in my daily routine, though, has been my running...which I may or may not pick back up after recovery.  The way I'm feeling right now, the prospect of getting out there accumulating miles doesn't exactly thrill me.

So far, I haven't missed work and hope that I won't.  I have sought medical help in all this and am working out some prescribed remedies.  Hopefully, they will work and I'll make a timely and full recovery.  But the overriding thing I want to do right now is sit/recline still and quiet, either watching TV or listening to pleasant music.  Sounds like a great blueprint for my future!

Doubly Frustrating Monday Night Football Game

Last night I was following a very frustrating Monday Night Football game between the Detroit Lions and the Baltimore Ravens...frustrating on a couple of counts.  You see, I was rooting for Detroit, I team that I don't like, to beat Baltimore, I team that I do like...all because I felt that "my" team, the Miami Dolphins, had to beat out the Ravens in the regular season in order to get the last available playoff spot for the post-season.  And it was also frustrating because the Lions kept turning the ball over and dropping pass after pass.  They still almost pulled it out, getting themselves a brief lead toward the end of the game.  But Baltimore squeaked out a win with an improbable 61-yard field goal in the closing seconds.  As a matter of fact, they managed to beat Detroit without a touchdown...scoring 18 points on six field goals.  I hope that's the last time I feel that I have to root for Detroit.  And it apparently turns out that it was unnecessary after all, because...

All Miami has to do is win its last two games and they are in the playoffs as a wild card team.  The reason is that Baltimore can now win their division outright with a final game victory over Cincinnati.  And if that happens, then Miami wins the wild card tiebreaker with the Bengals, whom they defeated in the regular season.  Should Cincinnati win that game, then Miami (with those two final wins) beats Baltimore out with a better regular season record.  So it's doubly frustrating in that I could have been ENJOYING the Ravens putting it to the Lions the way they did last night.  In any event, I feel free to cheer for Baltimore again, at least until they (hopefully) face Miami later in the playoffs...

Obama Shakes Castro's Hand...So What

Some of the more politically opportunistic opponents of Barack Obama have gone on the media warpath complaining about him shaking the hand of Cuban president Raul Castro at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela this past week.  Apparently, those folks are concerned about the human rights violations on that island nation which has brought so many refugees over to our primarily Floridian shores and come to constitute a potent conservative Republican voting bloc within that state.  I am not all that enthusiastic with the totalitarian/autocratic rule of the Castro brothers over the Cuban people either, but the fact remains that they are the internationally recognized leaders there and have to be dealt with as such...like it or not.  The whole idea of diplomacy is wrapped up in how to deal with other parties with which one has differences in order to gain the best outcome without resorting to war against them.  So it is always valuable for the leaders of all nations to know each other and to practice common courtesy.  President Obama shaking Castro's hand was nothing more than this, any more than it was when he was courteous to Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez a few years ago (for which he also received flack).  Some of us, myself included, look at the ridiculous attitude of snubbing Israel and its leaders on the part of some Arab nations (some of whom we entertain close relations with) and see that as being childish.  Well, we're doing the same if we can't at least show a little decorum and maturity in our own dealings...

Miami Wins Important Game Vs. New England

Well, maybe this is going to be the year that the Miami Dolphins make their return to football respectability, after all: they have just hung on to defeat the New England Patriots 24-20.  Now Miami stands at 8-6, guaranteed at least to not have a losing season.  And their last two regular season games are against divisional foes the Jets and the Bills, both behind the Dolphins in the standings.  They are both very beatable.  As far as the playoffs are concerned, Miami's biggest challenge is Baltimore, but the Ravens have a pretty challenging end-of-season schedule and might not be able to keep up.  Also, San Diego seems to be surging...but Miami beat them already and has the tiebreaker advantage should the two finish with identical win-loss records.  But Miami lost to Baltimore a few weeks ago, so they need to best them with their record. 

This team has been fun to follow this year, the bullying scandal notwithstanding.  Let's see how far they go...

New Strategy for Learning Chinese Characters

I have been studying how best to dramatically increase my learned Chinese character vocabulary and have come up with a plan that might just provide explosive growth.  The key is in breaking down a character into its component two parts: radical and phonetic.  The radical part of a character, besides placing it in its proper order in traditional Chinese dictionaries, also categorizes it according to its general meaning.  The phonetic part, on the other hand, only hints at the character's pronunciation. Take, for example, the chemical element for neon.  Neon, being a gas at room temperature, carries the radical 气 for that meaning (gas/vapor/air), while its pronunciation of nai (third tone) carries the phonetic 乃, which other characters of similar pronunciation but different meaning carry.  Together, they constitute the composite character 氖 for neon.  This is a character building principle that pervades Chinese.

My plan is to use an old Chinese-English dictionary that does a good job of breaking down each of the 5,000 characters it contains into radicals and phonetics.  Only instead of the systematically classified and numbered radicals that are usually ordered in dictionaries, I will categorize the characters according to their phonetics.  I believe this will make my memorization more enduring and will also aid me when I encounter an unfamiliar character in regular text.

Job Nixes Race Plans Again

Once again, my workplace has tripped me up just as I was going to enter a running race.  Before last Thanksgiving I was about to sign up for the 10K Turkey Trot here in Gainesville, but fortunately I hadn't paid anything yet before I discovered that they had me scheduled to work on my holiday, something that is not supposed to happen...especially in a place where seniority is supposed to count for something (I've been working there for more than 26 years).  But it was a trade-off of sorts, since I made some extra money for my extra work.  Besides, as I wrote in a previous article, I would have a December 15K race on the 14th that I could run in...and it would be on a Saturday, my day off and on which I don't believe I ever had to work since I switched to the graveyard shift in early March.  So last night I tried twice to register online for the event (for which I was also signing up my daughter, who was going to run their 5K race), but a glitch kept the registration from going through.  No problem, I'll just sign up and pay on the morning of the race, right? Then, while at work last night I was notified that I have to report in for Saturday morning...in direct conflict with the race.  So  the only two times that I have had to unexpectedly report for work in the past 9+ months have come when I was about to run a race. Once again, I suppose that there will be that trade-off of making some extra money for my trouble.  And I have to admit that it was quite fortunate that my online registration (and payment) was prevented in both instances, saving me a tidy sum of money in the process...

Consensus, Not Ideology, Drives Electorate

I have a problem with the way that our American system of political representation works.  A big problem.  I'll examine the recent presidential elections, but the problem permeates all the way down the line to the state and local levels.  It is about how candidates run in elections, why voters vote for (or against them), and then how the newly elected interpret the results.

You can go back for many, many elections and still come away with the same conclusion.  The winner of each presidential election has successfully presented himself as the more reasonable of the two main candidates and who is more dedicated to using common sense to govern and handle the nation's issues than is the opponent.  The appeal is clear: whether one is talking about ideologically "pure" conservatism or liberalism, the electorate as a whole will vote against the candidate who presents him/herself this way in favor of a candidate who, while probably ideologically bent on the "other side", seems to project an image of pragmatism and compromise.  Yet that very candidate, upon election, often abandons that cloak of consensus building and claims a "mandate" to ram the ideology of his or her party down the population's throat.  This happened after the 2004 reelection campaign of George W. Bush, who immediately following his razor-thin victory over languid, uninspiring John Kerry, proclaimed a "mandate" for himself and his party.

When it became clear that Barack Obama was going to win his reelection campaign against Mitt Romney on election night last year, many media talking head pundits expressed that this indicated that in his second term, Obama should claim this "mandate" and strenuously pursue more progressive policies.  But in truth, the election taught a different lesson, as far as I read it: the voters didn't trust Romney's catering to the right-wing ideological wing of his party, and his selection of Paul Ryan went a long way to confirm that fear in the eyes of many, who instead went over to Obama...the status quo president who seemed to have done a reasonable job so far.  Following the maxim of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" isn't exactly a mandate for an ideological assault.  By the way, President Obama, to his credit, has resisted people in the far left wing of his own party who want him to  aggressively push their agenda on the country.  It's a shame that the opposition party is completely clueless about this principle of governance and instead allows its own tea party/kool-aid wingnuts to dictate its own policies...

I have one word of beginner's advice to the extremists in either party who think they are as pure as the driven snow with their "principles": stop depicting the democratically elected representatives from the opposition party (and even the moderates from your own) as the "enemy"!

Finished Reading Koontz's Watchers

I just took a little break from my long journey through two different drawn-out fantasy series (Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth) and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire) and read one of Dean Koontz's novels.  I first came to know of the existence of Mr. Koontz gradually as I, while browsing through the Stephen King books in the fiction sections of various bookstores and libraries, would reach Koontz's books, signifying to me that I had gone too far on the shelf and needed to backtrack to King.  After a while, I decided to check out this prolific writer who seems destined to be compared, for better or for worse, to his more renown colleague by dint of alphabetic proximity.  At this writing I've only scratched the surface of his vast bibliography, having only read Shattered, Intensity, Midnight...and now Watchers.

In writing Watchers, Koontz sewed together three independent themes (eventually) into a cohesive story.  There was a man and woman coming together as a couple, each having to deal with broken pasts and heartache.  There was a top-secret government project with military applications involving the genetic manipulation of animals to raise their intelligence.  And then there was the good old typical psychopathic killer roaming around reaping mayhem everywhere he went. During the first part of the book, the man and woman were presented as separate plot lines, as was the killer.  It was interesting to surmise how the author would eventually bring them all together...but by Dean, he did!

Dean Koontz writes in clear, easy flowing language which  some may regard as shallow but which I appreciate and want to emulate as a writer.  There is such a thing as being too fancy...just get to the point of the story and make it vivid enough to me and allow my imagination to create the imagery.  Watchers accomplished this, and within the constraints of what I believe Koontz wanted to do with it, I think he was successful.  A "plus" was that the book was relatively short, a refreshing break from the fantasy sagas I'm reading... 

Last Weekend's Football Games

Looking back on this past weekend in college and pro football, I have a generally positive outlook on the future with the teams I want to succeed (and some of those I don't).  Ohio State lost their Big Ten championship game to Michigan State, so the winner of the SEC championship game, Auburn, has a clear shot at the national championship game against Florida State, who easily handled Duke in their ACC championship game.  I don't think I could have dreamed up a better title matchup...unless of course it had been Florida winning the Southeastern Conference instead of Auburn. But alas, the Gators had all sorts of issues with their team this year and suffered a miserable 4-8 record.  I am happiest of all, regarding the national championship picture, with the exclusion of Nick Saban's Alabama from being in it after their momentous final-play loss to Auburn a couple of weeks ago.  Although I am a Floridian by heart, I'm going to pull for Auburn against FSU simply out of gratitude for the Tigers beating the Saban Tide. 

In the NFL, Miami managed to play well enough in Pittsburgh to win 34-28, in a game marked by a desperate , multi-lateral final play by the Steelers that very nearly saw them scoring the winning touchdown. But but their runner had stepped out of bounds (just barely) and the Dolphins kept up with their wild-card race rival Baltimore at 7-6.  I don't know whether or not Miami will manage to make the playoffs this year, but from where I stand a winning 9-7 record would mark a successful season for them.  Tampa Bay and Jacksonville have also recently done well, each team now at 4-9 and in next-to-last place in their respective divisions after 0-8 starts.  I don't know exactly what this means for them...are they getting better or simply playing more loosely without concerns of "choking up" in important games (of which there are no more for them this year)?  I don't know, but it's still pleasing to see them playing stronger.

Pondering Whether to Follow NHL

I wonder what it would be like to attend a hockey game in person.  I'm not a northerner, having grown up in south Florida and currently living in north Florida for more than 36 years, so ice hockey is not a sport that I ever played or was ever played in any school I attended, including college.  We do have the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning NHL pro teams here in Florida, but I think maybe their main source of fan appeal is from transplants from the north. 

On channel 33 where I live, I can often watch NHL games and sometimes do, although I am not at all clear about the various rules in the sport.  In particular, I feel a bit clueless about what constitutes off-sides and icing penalties...and I'm not sure what the rules are restricting opposing team access to the goal area.  I think that perhaps I should pay a visit to YouTube to see if there isn't some kind of video illustrating these rules.

Earlier this spring I enjoyed watching the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and was excited at the play of "my" team, the Chicago Blackhawks.  However, if I ever do go to attend hockey games, I'm sure my allegiances will naturally shift to the most "local" team around, which is Tampa Bay...which I hear actually did win the league's Stanley Cup championship playoffs one year and in so doing traumatized everyone to the point that they cancelled the following year's season...

Actually, all kidding aside, it was a management's lockout against the players in a labor contract dispute that caused the season-long cancellation.  But the Lightning got a "two-for" out of it: they got to be defending champions for two straight years!

Finished Reading A Storm of Swords

I just finished reading George R.R. Martin's third volume in his ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, titled A Storm of Swords.  Fantasy fiction as a general rule tends to be violent, but Martin seems to delight in killing off one protagonist after another...and whoever is left standing is left BARELY standing, often maimed and hopelessly scarred, both physically and emotionally.  A Storm of Swords doesn't disappoint, if this is the kind of outcome the reader is expecting.  The world in which Martin works his literary magic is a cutthroat one, with medieval "honor" combining with the gore and horror of medieval warfare. There are no cell phones or Internet here to clear up false rumors circulating among the royalty, and those rumors can touch off wars that bring whole regions to ruin and famine with thousands brutally slaughtered in the process. 

I'd like to think that there are some characters in this series who are destined to endure to the end of the final volume (whenever that's going to be published at some indeterminate future date, if ever), but I'd be deceiving myself if I thought that the author thought that any character was indispensable as long as his or her demise could further the story.  So I've learned, as a reader, to emotionally distance myself from all of the characters here...and I don't think that's a very good thing for writers to instill in their faithful readers.  Still, I'm plodding on ahead, carnage notwithstanding, to the fourth book titled A Feast for Crows.  Since crows have often been described in this series as feeding on the dead, I entertain little hope for the survival of any of the rest of the sorry, hapless bunch...

Today's NCAA Football Conference Title Games

Today marks that time that all true college football fans look forward to each year, and some have more than a passing interest since one of their own teams is involved.  It is conference championship game Saturday!  Now that the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences have finally joined in with the playoff concept, almost all major conferences now have a championship game...and the results will determine the national championship game lineup as well as which team gets to play in which bowl game.  The conferences getting the most attention are the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, and Southeastern since the teams involved in those contests are the highest ranked and figure in the national championship game.  Top-ranked Florida State plays 20th-ranked Duke in the ACC, a game that hardly anyone (including me) thinks will go Duke's way. The Big Ten and SEC games should be close and exciting, though.  Ohio State, currently undefeated and ranked #2, faces off against Michigan State in the Big Ten.  Should Michigan State win this game, the Southeastern Conference title game between Auburn and Missouri should determine who faces Florida State in the national championship game. The only problem I see with all this is if Ohio State wins their contest, finishes undefeated, but still gets deprived of a national championship opportunity because of bias in favor of the SEC.  I hope that does not happen.

Other major conference matchups include Stanford vs. Arizona State in the Pacific-12 and the final week for the regular season in the Big-12 (they have forgone having conference championship games).  In the Big-12, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Baylor at present are still in the running for that conference's championship, depending on how their games go today.

As far as the games which are already lined up for today are concerned, I'm pulling for Florida State, Michigan State, Auburn, and Arizona State in their respective contests.  I guess that ultimately I'd like to see Auburn and FSU face off for the national championship: Florida State is a "home state" team and I am grateful for Auburn beating Nick Saban's team, whichever one he happened to be coaching (it happened to be Alabama this time).  But if Ohio State wins their game today, I want them included in the title game next month...

Nelson Mandela's Full Life Ends at 95

In 1984, from time to time MTV used to show a video of a group calling themselves "Special A.K.A.".  The song was Free Nelson Mandela and had a rich African musical flavor to it.  It was the first time I had heard of the imprisoned African National Congress leader, who would eventually emerge from his confinement into the presidency of the very country that had taken away his freedom for nearly three decades of his life.  His burning desire was to eliminate the Apartheid in South Africa and allow for all South Africans equal opportunity of expression, movement, and economic activity.  What many in the world celebrate him for nowadays, especially on this day of his death at age 95, is how he fervently worked to reconcile the whites and blacks in that great nation following the end of that horrendous system of racial segregation and oppression.  Moreover, Mandela, who could probably have retained the leadership of South Africa for life, served out his one elected term and then left office...a great sign of humility and respect on his part and a strong example for his successors to emulate.  I admire him for all of that, but I have to admit that I initially had misgivings about him during the mid-to-late 1980s, suspecting that perhaps he had plans to amass power and rule his country as a dictator like Fidel Castro in Cuba.  Instead, Nelson Mandela turned out more like George Washington in terms of his ability to unify his country and voluntarily step down from what must have been a very tempting amount of power.  God bless him!

Weather Forecast Suddenly, Drastically Changes

I was watching my local weather TV station yesterday evening when they displayed their day-to-day forecast for the upcoming week, stretching ahead to a five-day outlook.  The temperatures were projected to be higher than usual for this time of year, but on the fifth day they had a projected high of 67 degrees with a low of 46.  That would be more to my liking and gave me something to look forward to.  But a funny thing happened between last night and this morning: the forecast for that very day changed to a high of 82 and a low of 63, with no cooling in sight!

We're already experiencing near-record high temperatures for this time of year here in north central Florida...and evidently more is to come.  Ironically, it seems, though, that every time I tune in to a football game anywhere else in the country, the spectators are all bundled up in winter clothing.  Only down here things are continuing to operate in "warm" mode.

I'm also getting sick and tired of the talking anchor heads on my local TV news station WCJB/Channel 20.  They consistently brand anything in the weather that doesn't involve clear, hot skies all day long as "bad".  For me, I've had my share of clear, steaming hot days (and nights) much too much this year and would like a little respite from it.  Just give me a nice, cool overcast day, please...

Dolphins Still in Playoff Hunt

The Miami Dolphins, incredibly, after slumping following an auspicious 3-0 start and then sinking further into an embarrassing, headline-grabbing bullying scandal, find themselves on the cusp of a playoff spot at 6-6, with all four of their remaining regular season games having an important bearing on their prospects.  Three of Miami's last games are within their own division, meaning that if they win at least two of the three (I'm not so confident about their prospects with New England, even with a home game) they will ensure themselves of a strong second place finish in their division.  But that would only give them an 8-7 record: to give themselves a real shot at the playoffs, the Dolphins have to win the other game, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, to end up with their first winning record season record since 2008 and a decent chance at the playoffs.  But even if Miami wins all of their remaining games and goes 10-6 they still have to get by Baltimore, which already beat them this year and thus has the tiebreaker advantage if the two teams end up with identical win-loss records.  The Ravens, like Miami, currently have a 6-6 record.  But a Miami win over the Steelers, especially on the road, would do a lot toward changing their reputation as a third-rate NFL team.  Right now, I'll just settle for second-rate, thank you!

2013 New Favorite Songs Sparse for Me

It has been a while since I wrote about my favorite songs for this year.  In fact, as far as anything new is concerned, I don't have anything to report on.  All of the music I regular listen to is on a playlist on my MP3 player and has been around for a while.  I suppose that, were I to try to name a favorite song of the year, then Kasabian's Switchblade Smiles, from their earlier Veliceraptor! album, would be the one: I listened to it a lot early in 2013 an it circulates around on my playlist shuffle.  But as for any new material, whether that be due to recent releases or to me discovering earlier recordings, just hasn't filtered through to me this year as anything outstanding.  I suppose at year's end I'll try to come up with some of a year's "best", but I have a feeling that I will be hard-pressed to come up with ten songs that are "new" to me for 2013: most of them, I think, will probably be Kasabian tracks from earlier albums I discovered several months ago...

As for whatever they've been coming out with on radio lately, though, forget it! My MP3 playlist focuses on personal favorites from acts like Beck, Metric, Spoon, Linkin Park, Arcade Fire, Kasabian, Regina Spektor, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, Gorillaz...and some old gems from others sprinkled into the mix...

Comet ISON Destroyed by Sun

Comet ISON, which many in the astronomical community had predicted would light up the nighttime sky early in December after it had passed close to the sun in its very elongated orbit, appears not to have survived its solar rendezvous and is now more or less a cloud of debris, fading away from sight as it moves away from the sun.  That's disappointing as I had hoped to be able to observe it around this time.  But the comet's destruction was always one of the possible outcomes and the result doesn't exactly come as a surprise to me. 

Speaking in general of sky gazing, we are now entering the time of year when the skies are usually clear and, with the humidity around where I live being relatively low, the stars at night come out looking brighter.  Also, in the evening December and January sky we are treated to one of the brighter and more interesting regions in the sky, with remarkable constellations like Orion, Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, and Canis Major dominating.  Sirius (of Canis Major) is striking as the brightest star in the night sky while the second brightest, Canopus (of the constellation Carina) is visible just a few degrees above the southern horizon, almost due south from Canis Major and Orion.

All this has me thinking that it's been a while since I paid a visit to my local planetarium at Santa Fe College and see what shows pertaining to this season they have to offer there...

Will Ohio State Be Passed Over for 2013 Title Game?

Going into this past weekend's games, the major college football BCS ranking system, which ultimately decides who gets to play for the national championship with the top two ranked teams playing for the title, had the top five teams ranked as follows:

#1 Alabama
#2 Florida State
#3 Ohio State
#4 Auburn
#5 Missouri

Alabama, FSU, and Ohio State each was undefeated while Auburn and Missouri each had one loss on their records.  Alabama, Auburn, and Missouri are all members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which has produced the national champion in each of the past seven years.  So the SEC has a great deal of weight when it comes down to which teams are ranked the highest.  That's important to keep in mind when considering what just happened yesterday in college football.

Alabama lost a thrilling, tight game to Auburn...which now means that the SEC has no undefeated teams left.  Meanwhile, Florida State and Ohio State remained undefeated as they won their games (Ohio State's victory was a one-point squeaker).  Missouri also won their contest.  So now FSU and Ohio State are the remaining two major colleges that are undefeated...the common sense conclusion would be that these two will face off for the national championship.  But wait...

Alabama is now out of the picture for a national championship, but Auburn and Missouri will play each other next week for the Southeastern Conference championship.  Whoever wins this game will gain a great boost in their BCS status because of the strength of the opponent that they beat.  And I'm afraid that this, combined with the already slanted deference given to SEC teams in the rankings, may well result in the winner of that game vaulting ahead of Ohio State...even though Ohio State has yet to lose a game this year.

I'd hate to see a scenario where an undefeated team from a major conference like the Big Ten doesn't get to play for the national championship while another team who has a loss on their record from the SEC does, but it looks as if this may well happen.  The only way I see this not happening is if Ohio State loses to Michigan State in the Big Ten championship game next week, or in the extreme improbability that FSU would lose to Duke in their ACC championship game.

Urban Meyer took over coaching duties at Ohio State University last year and took them to an undefeated record.  But then they were under probation for rules violations under the previous coach and were ineligible for championships or bowl games.  And he has yet to lose this year, too!  Wouldn't it be something if Ohio State went undefeated again and were denied a shot at the championship...when they were one of the two undefeated teams left?  Incredibly, this travesty of the championship process looks to be a distinct possibility...