In December I continued with more extensive running, amassing a total for the month of 315 miles. My longest single run was the 13.1 miles I covered in the Starlight Half-Marathon in Palm Coast on the evening of December 20...half of it in total darkness (only aided by a flashlight). Unlike the previous two months, I tended to be consistent from day to day with my daily running mileage, so my one-day high mileage, spread out over several runs, was only 14.4 miles. I ran on every day of the month.
I feel that my endurance level has markedly improved over the past few months, and I had energy to spare at the end of the half-marathon race. That's good news, for next month will be the time for the Ocala Half-Marathon on the 25th. I'm not sure I'll be running in any other races in January, but I definitely want to return to the rolling hills south of Ocala's Paddock Mall for the third time in five years...
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Personal Top Ten Favorite Songs of 2014
Well, another year has gone by and it's time for me to review my favorite songs of 2014. Being an enthusiast for alternative rock music, it came as a very pleasant surprise a few months ago to discover that two local stations, Gainesville's WHHZ/100. 5 ("The Buzz") and Jacksonville's WXXJ/102.9 have changed their programming format to feature "my" kind of music. Since then I've been accumulating a few personal favorites that they play periodically. Most of these are current hits, but a few, like Florence + the Machine's Dog Days Are Over, have been around a few years. But you'll notice that this song is still on my list of favorites from 2014. Earlier this year I purchased Beck's latest CD Morning Phase and discovered a track, titled Blackbird Chain, which I regarded as my favorite song of 2014 for the first half of the year. But when those two radio stations kicked in, a flood of other songs joined it on the "list". Ultimately, it came down to five songs I liked the most...each of which has a distinctive sound, style and message from the others. After giving it all due consideration, though, I have to pick the Foo Fighters' new hit Something From Nothing as my "song of the year" for 2014. It reminds me a lot of the style of my favorite grunge band, Soundgarden, while at the same time gradually builds up in intensity and complexity much the same way that Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven did. But the other tunes on the list are great, too.
Here's my list of personal favorite songs of 2014, with the artist mentioned in brackets:
1 Something From Nothing..... [Foo Fighters]
2 Dog Days are Over..... [Florence + the Machine]
3 Take Me to Church...... [Hozier]
4 I Will Wait...... [Mumford and Sons]
5 Come With Me Now...... [The Kongos]
6 Dangerous..... [Big Data]
7 Train Wreck 1979...... [Death From Above 1979]
8 Come a Little Bit Closer..... [Cage the Elephant]
9 Blackbird Chain..... [Beck]
10 The Walker..... [Fitz and the Tantrums]
Here's my list of personal favorite songs of 2014, with the artist mentioned in brackets:
1 Something From Nothing..... [Foo Fighters]
2 Dog Days are Over..... [Florence + the Machine]
3 Take Me to Church...... [Hozier]
4 I Will Wait...... [Mumford and Sons]
5 Come With Me Now...... [The Kongos]
6 Dangerous..... [Big Data]
7 Train Wreck 1979...... [Death From Above 1979]
8 Come a Little Bit Closer..... [Cage the Elephant]
9 Blackbird Chain..... [Beck]
10 The Walker..... [Fitz and the Tantrums]
Monday, December 29, 2014
Narratives, Police, Michael Brown, Eric Garner
It's hard to contest the testimony of many African-American men who claim to be repeatedly profiled by the police because of the color of their skin...I tend to believe these accounts. The problem with proving this is that, in the justice system, things are done on a case-by-case basis and each specific case can be depicted by law enforcement in some way to exonerate officers even when they do profile blacks. Another contention is that police are more brutal and use more deadly force in their interactions with black suspects...once again when investigations follow the result is often a flood of mitigating evidence letting the officers off the hook (hence recent grand jury refusals to prosecute police). But the police are there to protect people and have to go into areas when called to respond to crimes and complaints. In such cases, the officer may be white and the suspect may be black,...that isn't profiling, the cop is just doing his or her job. In the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson this past August, that is what happened when a response to a call about a convenience store robbery and the suspect's subsequent stroll down the center of a street led to a police-suspect confrontation that culminated in the suspect being shot down dead. Many witnesses were there, and depending on which version you might choose to fit your own narrative about the police, Michael Brown was shot either while attacking or rushing the policeman or he had his hands up and was moving away when killed. I have a couple of questions, though, for those subscribing to the two diametrically-opposed narratives about this tragic incident...
For those, like Al Sharpton, who have made this crime-response case a matter of race and Michael Brown some kind of civil rights hero, quick to insert this case into their narrative that blacks can't get a fair shake in the justice system, I would like to ask why do this when the situation does not indicate profiling, but rather an officer doing his duty to protect the public from crime and criminals. As for those who seem to think that the police are grand, unimpeachable heroes themselves and subscribe to the narrative that they, like combat soldiers in occupied lands, are under continual attack and have to respond in self-defense, my response to this narrative is that yes, if the police see themselves like that, I can see how they would respond with larger than necessary force. But they are NOT soldiers in enemy land. This is America, and at last report, we're not a police state or occupied territory. I ask myself why is it so many times, with all of the arms training that the police are supposed to possess, that I keeping seeing reports of policemen gunning down suspects to death when they should have been perfectly capable of incapacitating them by shooting them in less vital areas? There is another case recently of a boy playing with a harmless cap gun shot to death like this...
Lending more credence to the profiling narrative is the case of Eric Garner, a black man who was approached by a group of police in Staten Island, New York while standing unarmed in front of a shop on the sidewalk. Accused of selling tax-free cigarettes, not exactly a felony, when he asked the police to leave him alone they jumped him, pulled him down to the ground by his neck and sat on his chest...he died soon thereafter of a heart attack. This case tends to support another negative narrative about the police, which is that they tend to be more confrontational and treat civilians with more brutality when in groups than when alone. That old video of the Rodney King beatings comes to mind. It seems that aggression begets more aggression.
We all have our own experiences dealing with the police. For the most part, they have done well by me, although I believe I was treated unfairly in a couple of cases...one a speed trap situation and the other a setup by several police to ensnare drivers who didn't subscribe to their strict (and to me, extreme) interpretation of a recently-enacted state law about moving over a lane to accommodate roadside emergency vehicles. But I realize, quite unlike a large segment of the population, that it pays to be polite and cooperative with them, even in situations where I feel persecuted. There seems, in my opinion, to be a serious gulf between civilians and police, both in how civilians expect the police to act toward them and in how the police expect civilians to act toward them. Both sides need a crash course in decorum, politeness, and restraint...on a mass scale.
I have seen few issues like this in which opinions are so polarized and impassioned. Not being black myself, I am not free to agree or disagree with the claim of police profiling from personal experience. But my personal concerns about the police are real, too. Although I do appreciate their valor and the important role they play in protecting us, especially from criminals, at the same time I tend to be very wary of them, even when I'm around them in Starbucks (where they gather for the free coffee) and I need to oh-so slowly reach down into my pocket for something like a pen or cellphone...
For those, like Al Sharpton, who have made this crime-response case a matter of race and Michael Brown some kind of civil rights hero, quick to insert this case into their narrative that blacks can't get a fair shake in the justice system, I would like to ask why do this when the situation does not indicate profiling, but rather an officer doing his duty to protect the public from crime and criminals. As for those who seem to think that the police are grand, unimpeachable heroes themselves and subscribe to the narrative that they, like combat soldiers in occupied lands, are under continual attack and have to respond in self-defense, my response to this narrative is that yes, if the police see themselves like that, I can see how they would respond with larger than necessary force. But they are NOT soldiers in enemy land. This is America, and at last report, we're not a police state or occupied territory. I ask myself why is it so many times, with all of the arms training that the police are supposed to possess, that I keeping seeing reports of policemen gunning down suspects to death when they should have been perfectly capable of incapacitating them by shooting them in less vital areas? There is another case recently of a boy playing with a harmless cap gun shot to death like this...
Lending more credence to the profiling narrative is the case of Eric Garner, a black man who was approached by a group of police in Staten Island, New York while standing unarmed in front of a shop on the sidewalk. Accused of selling tax-free cigarettes, not exactly a felony, when he asked the police to leave him alone they jumped him, pulled him down to the ground by his neck and sat on his chest...he died soon thereafter of a heart attack. This case tends to support another negative narrative about the police, which is that they tend to be more confrontational and treat civilians with more brutality when in groups than when alone. That old video of the Rodney King beatings comes to mind. It seems that aggression begets more aggression.
We all have our own experiences dealing with the police. For the most part, they have done well by me, although I believe I was treated unfairly in a couple of cases...one a speed trap situation and the other a setup by several police to ensnare drivers who didn't subscribe to their strict (and to me, extreme) interpretation of a recently-enacted state law about moving over a lane to accommodate roadside emergency vehicles. But I realize, quite unlike a large segment of the population, that it pays to be polite and cooperative with them, even in situations where I feel persecuted. There seems, in my opinion, to be a serious gulf between civilians and police, both in how civilians expect the police to act toward them and in how the police expect civilians to act toward them. Both sides need a crash course in decorum, politeness, and restraint...on a mass scale.
I have seen few issues like this in which opinions are so polarized and impassioned. Not being black myself, I am not free to agree or disagree with the claim of police profiling from personal experience. But my personal concerns about the police are real, too. Although I do appreciate their valor and the important role they play in protecting us, especially from criminals, at the same time I tend to be very wary of them, even when I'm around them in Starbucks (where they gather for the free coffee) and I need to oh-so slowly reach down into my pocket for something like a pen or cellphone...
Sunday, December 28, 2014
At Least the Ravens and Seahawks Made the NFL Playoffs This Year
After the failure of the teams I usually root for in the National Football League (Miami, New York Giants, Tampa Bay, and Jacksonville) to make the playoffs this year, I was left with Seattle and Baltimore to cheer on. Since the Seahawks had already made the playoffs and are playing for a good playoff position this weekend, this left the Ravens as the uncertain playoff possibility. They had to beat Cleveland today, which they finally managed to do, coming from behind to win 20-10. But the Ravens still depended on Kansas City beating San Diego, a game I watched this afternoon and which the Chiefs won 19-7. So Baltimore is in as a wild-card team and Seattle, depending on how they do in their final regular season game, can run the range from home field throughout the playoffs to a wild card team playing an extra game, with all of them on the road.
As for the pitiful Dolphins, I predicted they would blow one of their last two games and finish another non-winning season at 8-8. Sure enough, even playing at home against the cellar-dwelling Jets, Miami just couldn't hold on to a 24-14 lead and folded up (or choked, depending on what vocabulary you want to use), giving New York the last 23 points en route to a 37-24 drubbing. Makes it awfully hard to want to follow a team lacking spirit like this year after year...
As for the pitiful Dolphins, I predicted they would blow one of their last two games and finish another non-winning season at 8-8. Sure enough, even playing at home against the cellar-dwelling Jets, Miami just couldn't hold on to a 24-14 lead and folded up (or choked, depending on what vocabulary you want to use), giving New York the last 23 points en route to a 37-24 drubbing. Makes it awfully hard to want to follow a team lacking spirit like this year after year...
Saturday, December 27, 2014
The News and Subjective Narratives
I've been a little remiss on this blog lately when it comes to commenting on the ongoing news stories. Since I'm going to weigh in with my own opinion about each of them (but not today), most likely some of my readers will have a different point of view. Some of the differences will be due to either my own ignorance regarding the objective facts or to that of the reader, but I imagine that most of the disagreement in analysis will come down to the differences in subjective narratives between us. So what exactly is a subjective narrative, anyway?
Before I get into subjective narratives, let's look at some of the ongoing news stories before us;
The police killing unarmed black people in Ferguson, Missouri and New York...and then getting exonerated by grand juries.
Sony hacked ostensibly for the current comedy film The Interview, apparently because it offended the North Korean leader.
The Democratic-controlled US Senate releases revealing documents about "enhanced" interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists.
The now-discredited story about rape at a University of Virginia fraternity.
Another fallen celebrity, this time Bill Cosby, and public reaction.
In each of the above examples, it is possible to take the "facts" revealed by the news outlets and selectively insert them into one's own narratives about an "umbrella" principle.
I have my own opinions and "narratives" about the above topics, and plan to lay them out in future blog entries. The important thing to remember, though, is that as members of the public at-large, we are limited by the amount of accurate knowledge available to us concerning the above stories. Instead, it is a much easier burden on our thinking to latch on to a narrative that we hear on TV or radio, or from a friend, co-worker, or family member. As humans with a social nature built within us, it can be quite exhilarating to be united in a cause revolving around a narrative that tends to be passionate in its appeal and expression. Sometimes, such narratives are justified when the underlying pertinent facts eventually come out. But often, the opposite happens as well and there is something of a letdown, with many left with a "rush-to-judgment" feeling. I'm not a news junkie who is glued to news sources and opinion pages. Still, it's not difficult to come away with definite opinions about the stories before us. And maybe, just maybe, some of these opinions of mine won't square with your own narratives. A subjective narrative incorporates within it any "possible", even dubious, information that supports it while ignoring or dismissing any facts that would diminish or contradict it. Let's see how this works regarding the current news. Stay tuned...
Before I get into subjective narratives, let's look at some of the ongoing news stories before us;
The police killing unarmed black people in Ferguson, Missouri and New York...and then getting exonerated by grand juries.
Sony hacked ostensibly for the current comedy film The Interview, apparently because it offended the North Korean leader.
The Democratic-controlled US Senate releases revealing documents about "enhanced" interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists.
The now-discredited story about rape at a University of Virginia fraternity.
Another fallen celebrity, this time Bill Cosby, and public reaction.
In each of the above examples, it is possible to take the "facts" revealed by the news outlets and selectively insert them into one's own narratives about an "umbrella" principle.
I have my own opinions and "narratives" about the above topics, and plan to lay them out in future blog entries. The important thing to remember, though, is that as members of the public at-large, we are limited by the amount of accurate knowledge available to us concerning the above stories. Instead, it is a much easier burden on our thinking to latch on to a narrative that we hear on TV or radio, or from a friend, co-worker, or family member. As humans with a social nature built within us, it can be quite exhilarating to be united in a cause revolving around a narrative that tends to be passionate in its appeal and expression. Sometimes, such narratives are justified when the underlying pertinent facts eventually come out. But often, the opposite happens as well and there is something of a letdown, with many left with a "rush-to-judgment" feeling. I'm not a news junkie who is glued to news sources and opinion pages. Still, it's not difficult to come away with definite opinions about the stories before us. And maybe, just maybe, some of these opinions of mine won't square with your own narratives. A subjective narrative incorporates within it any "possible", even dubious, information that supports it while ignoring or dismissing any facts that would diminish or contradict it. Let's see how this works regarding the current news. Stay tuned...
Friday, December 26, 2014
Gainesville's Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon Proves Elusive
After my adventure in Palm Coast's Starlight Half-Marathon this past Saturday, I was looking forward to another edition of Gainesville's Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon, which had been scheduled (on the Florida Track Club website) for January 1, 2015. Usually this race had been held in November, and I ran it in 2010 and 2011. I liked the fact that in this race (and unlike much of the Starlight race) it would be in the daylight and I would be able to see where I'm going...and the paved Hawthorne Trail on which it is run stretches for miles in the woods southeast of Gainesville, far away from any traffic. Tonight I was planning to register for it online, but unfortunately this race was removed from the Florida Track Club calendar. I saw elsewhere that it had been scheduled for January 15, 2015 (as well as another site that had it scheduled for October 25, two months ago)...but when it came to discovering any solid information about the race, all I got was a brief mention in the FTC December newsletter exhorting us to look forward to this race "in the fall"...implying, it seems, that for this year we can just forget about it. That's sad...but I can still run on my own and train for the next half-marathon, which for me is the Ocala Half-Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, January 25...
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Christmas Greetings and Movies
Merry Christmas to everyone! Last night we sat, after returning home from the Christmas Eve service at our church, and watched one of Melissa's favorite Christmas movies, the funny and sweet Elf. As for my own favorite Christmas movie, it's The Polar Express and although there have been a few showings already on TV, I've only managed to get in a few glimpses so far this season. But they usually keep showing it from time to time in the days following Christmas, so I'm sure that I'll get to watch it again all the way through at some time. And of course, there is A Christmas Story, being shown repeatedly on two stations this year: TNT and TBS. As well as gazillions of other Christmas movies on many channels...
There are the movies about Christmas, and there are the movies that are released on Christmas, not necessarily with any other connection to the holiday season. This year I see two standouts: The Imitation Game and Unbroken. The Imitation Game concerns the breaking of the German Enigma code during World War II with the crucial help of mathematician AlanTuring, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Unbroken is a biographical account of American athlete and war hero Louis Zamperini, who after appearing in the Olympics endured brutal treatment as a prisoner of war under the Japanese following an ordeal of several weeks floating adrift in the Pacific after his plane was shot down, again during World War II. I'd like to see both of these, especially The Imitation Game...
There are the movies about Christmas, and there are the movies that are released on Christmas, not necessarily with any other connection to the holiday season. This year I see two standouts: The Imitation Game and Unbroken. The Imitation Game concerns the breaking of the German Enigma code during World War II with the crucial help of mathematician AlanTuring, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Unbroken is a biographical account of American athlete and war hero Louis Zamperini, who after appearing in the Olympics endured brutal treatment as a prisoner of war under the Japanese following an ordeal of several weeks floating adrift in the Pacific after his plane was shot down, again during World War II. I'd like to see both of these, especially The Imitation Game...
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Ran Palm Coast's Starlight Half-Marathon Yesterday
Yesterday (Saturday) Melissa and I traveled eastward a few miles to Palm Coast to participate in our respective races...I ran the half-marathon and she walked the 5K event. Anticipating a downtown setting with cheering onlookers, I was surprised by the race location, which was in an isolated area south of the main city by several miles. Other than a movie theater and an adjacent Christmas park display (much like the duck pond at Gainesville's NFR Hospital), there were just open fields and many walkways...not exactly civilization as I was expecting it. For the races, which were started five minutes apart, the website had originally stated that the half-marathon runners would go first, followed by the 5K five minutes later. But the event organizers abruptly reversed the order before the race, causing a lot of confusion among the runner/walkers, including Melissa and me. But the races got off all right in the end, and we were on our way...
The starting times were at 6 and 6:05 PM, and we were already cautioned to carry flashlights or headlights with us to light up the nighttime paths...which they warned had "spots" of darkness. That had to be the understatement of the century, for fully half of my half-marathon race was spent in pitch blackness on an isolated paved trail with only my flashlight providing any visual aid. On top of that, the humidity was awful (temperature was moderate in the 60's) with it starting to rain at various times in the race. My throat/esophagus had been irritating me of late, and unfortunately whenever I downed some water or Gatorade it would send me into fits of coughing...so I dispensed with any rehydration for most of the run. Also, at about the 4-mile mark I began to experience a light stomach ache...but fortunately, that let up after about a mile. Then, toward the end of my journey through darkness, around the 9-mile mark, the arch in my left foot began to ache...making me wonder whether I'd even be able to finish the race. However, after about a couple of miles of this, once I was back out "in the light" and could see where I was going, I was able to speed up and run like I was accustomed. This made the foot-ache completely disappear and I haven't felt any pain since. A little past the 12-mile mark, I had a big scare when I misjudged the distance between the curb I was running off of and the pavement, causing me to go several strides in a near-horizontal position while I desperately floundered with my arms to maintain my balance and avoid a bad fall. When I was finally able to straighten back up, I marveled at my own sense of balance through the ordeal and finished the race without further mishap.
My final time for the 13.1 mile run was 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 30 seconds. I finished 4th out of 8 in my age group (55-59). Melissa also completed her walk and made me proud! After it all, they provided some food and drink for all us participants. Overall, it was a good experience...but I still think the organizers misled us about how overwhelmingly dark conditions would be as well as the fact that the race was far, far away from the business area of Palm Coast (we were actually running through a swamp at one point). As for my own running, I was astonished with my time at the end, although I had finished several half-marathons in the past with better times. The reason I thought I had run slower than I did was that I had to be very careful with my footing for about half the race because of the darkness...I'm sure I would have broken 2 hours had I been able to better see where I was going...
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Just Finished Reading Shadowplay by Tad Williams
Continuing along with Tad Williams' four-part fantasy series Shadowmarch, I just finished reading book #2, titled Shadowplay. It continues the various narratives of its characters, focusing on twin teenage nobles Prince Barrick and Princess Briony as they struggle to survive and deal with their own personal trials. The background story, that of a war between the gods reminiscent of Greek or Hindu mythology with accompanying conflicts between various races of people in the world, is gradually revealed through cryptic chapter-heading "quotes" from old religious scriptures. With this Williams presents a two-fold mystery: one, what actually happens to the protagonists as the story unfolds, and, two, the ultimate explanation of all the weird manifestations plaguing the world and poor Barrick, who miserably suffers from terrible nightmares and seems to have had a mysterious quest implanted in his mind from the enemy Qar leader. The author also widely spreads out the narrative, and there are many story lines going on at the same time...a little hard to keep up with them all, sad to say.
Shadowplay, unlike a lot of other books within series, has no noticeable ending and as such is hard for me to regard as a separate entity. Instead, all of the various subplots just trail off, presumably to be resumed at the start of the third book. By contrast, take a series like Harry Potter that, while moving to an eventual resolution that happens at the end of book #7, still has distinct stories for each memorable book. Not with Shadowplay, though. I think this works against the reader being able to remember the story when they finally do get around to starting the next book in the series. Also, all of this arcane mythology from chapter to chapter doesn't help things, either. Still, since one of the saving graces of this series is that it comprises only four books, I've already reached the halfway point and expect the author to begin to work to tie everything back together in the last two volumes...he has quite a task ahead of him if he wishes to be successful!
Shadowplay, unlike a lot of other books within series, has no noticeable ending and as such is hard for me to regard as a separate entity. Instead, all of the various subplots just trail off, presumably to be resumed at the start of the third book. By contrast, take a series like Harry Potter that, while moving to an eventual resolution that happens at the end of book #7, still has distinct stories for each memorable book. Not with Shadowplay, though. I think this works against the reader being able to remember the story when they finally do get around to starting the next book in the series. Also, all of this arcane mythology from chapter to chapter doesn't help things, either. Still, since one of the saving graces of this series is that it comprises only four books, I've already reached the halfway point and expect the author to begin to work to tie everything back together in the last two volumes...he has quite a task ahead of him if he wishes to be successful!
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Signed Up to Run Saturday's Half-Marathon in Palm Coast
Well, I finally got around to registering for another half-marathon running race, this one for the Starlight Half-Marathon in Palm Coast, Florida (between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach). Both this race and the accompanying 5K walk/run, in which Melissa will be participating, are to take place at 6 in the evening. So it will all happen after sunset...but then again, I'm informed that Palm Coast will be very decorated for Christmas and that the course will be pretty interesting. Still, since it will be nighttime, we as entrants are each required to carry either a headlight or flashlight...no problem.
I feel very confident about finishing this upcoming race, which with Melissa along reminds me a bit of that cool Orange Blossom Classic dual race we did in Tavares back in March, 2013. Should be a great adventure...
I feel very confident about finishing this upcoming race, which with Melissa along reminds me a bit of that cool Orange Blossom Classic dual race we did in Tavares back in March, 2013. Should be a great adventure...
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Miami Dolphins Let Me Down Once Again With Year-End Choke
In the NFL, with today's 41-13 blowout loss to divisional rival New England, the Miami Dolphins, which I had been following and rooting for since 1968 (their third year in existence), have once again demonstrated that when the chips are down late in the season, they consistently opt for mediocrity. Two weeks ago they were in the driver's seat for a wild card slot in the playoffs, but let themselves get beaten badly by Baltimore at home. Now, with just two games left in the regular season, I'm seeing them again finishing at 8-8...certain that they'll blow at least one more game against their final two opponents Minnesota and the Jets. Late in the 2013 regular season, the Dolphins were also in a a very advantageous position for the playoffs at 8-6, with them only having to win one out of their last two games (against inferior teams) to make the playoffs. But they choked then, too, being beaten resoundingly in both games. These past two years were supposed to be the start of a new, winning era in Miami Dolphins football, with them breaking through and making the playoffs...even possibly challenging to go to the Super Bowl. Well, guess what? They're not going anywhere for a while. I probably should come to grips with the fact that this franchise simply does not have a winner's attitude and that I'm wasting my support for them...but most likely I'll foolishly go back to cheering them on next year in an unfounded hope for their improbable success.
Now that Miami is "out" for all practical purposes, I can go back to what I do around this time every year, which is look for other teams in the league to follow into the playoffs. Let's see, the other two Florida teams are awful and the New York Giants are having a miserable season. So of the teams who are in the playoff hunt right now, I'll probably stick with Seattle in the National Conference and pull for Baltimore in the American...
Friday, December 12, 2014
Fantasy Series I've Been Reading Over the Last Few Years
Here is a list of the fantasy series I've been reading over the past few years, with them ranked in order from my top favorite to least favorite. And...yes, although I'm in my fifties (late fifties now), I do occasionally like to pick up a "young adult" series and read it. Sometimes I find them better written and more profound than the more "mature" series. Following each title is the author [in brackets], followed by my reading progress with each series. Also, I deliberately left out The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins), Divergent (by Veronica Roth), and Otherland (by Tad Williams) because I felt that these very worthy series belonged better in the science fiction genre...
1 The Magicians [Lev Grossman] finished trilogy recently
2 The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings [J.R.R. Tolkien] finished both long ago
3 Harry Potter [J.K. Rowling] finished series long ago
4 Mistborn [Brandon Sanderson] 1 trilogy finished, 1 book finished in 2nd trilogy, awaiting next installment
5 His Dark Materials [Philip Pullman] finished trilogy
6 The Dark Tower [Stephen King] finished 7-part series long ago
7 The Chronicles of Narnia [C.S. Lewis] finished 7-part series long ago
8 A Song of Ice and Fire [George R.R. Martin] 5 books finished, awaiting next installment
9 The Dagger and the Coin [Daniel Abraham] 1 book finished, 3 more already published, ongoing series
10 Shadowmarch [Tad Williams] 1 book finished, 1 currently being read in 4-part series (tetralogy)
11 The Sword of Truth [Terry Goodkind] 11 books finished, 0 to go (but author has started new series with same characters)
12 Bartimaeus [Jonathan Stroud] finished trilogy, but now fourth book out
13 Twilight [Stephanie Meyer] finished 4-part series long ago
14 Percy Jackson and the Olympians [Rick Riordan] finished 5-part series long ago
15 Inheritance [Christopher Paolini] finished 4-part series
16 The Wheel of Time [Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson] 6 books finished, 8 to go
I've written reviews on this blog for the great majority of these series, which you're welcome to read. Just copy and paste the title of the series you're interested in to the search window present in the upper left corner on my blog page...
1 The Magicians [Lev Grossman] finished trilogy recently
2 The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings [J.R.R. Tolkien] finished both long ago
3 Harry Potter [J.K. Rowling] finished series long ago
4 Mistborn [Brandon Sanderson] 1 trilogy finished, 1 book finished in 2nd trilogy, awaiting next installment
5 His Dark Materials [Philip Pullman] finished trilogy
6 The Dark Tower [Stephen King] finished 7-part series long ago
7 The Chronicles of Narnia [C.S. Lewis] finished 7-part series long ago
8 A Song of Ice and Fire [George R.R. Martin] 5 books finished, awaiting next installment
9 The Dagger and the Coin [Daniel Abraham] 1 book finished, 3 more already published, ongoing series
10 Shadowmarch [Tad Williams] 1 book finished, 1 currently being read in 4-part series (tetralogy)
11 The Sword of Truth [Terry Goodkind] 11 books finished, 0 to go (but author has started new series with same characters)
12 Bartimaeus [Jonathan Stroud] finished trilogy, but now fourth book out
13 Twilight [Stephanie Meyer] finished 4-part series long ago
14 Percy Jackson and the Olympians [Rick Riordan] finished 5-part series long ago
15 Inheritance [Christopher Paolini] finished 4-part series
16 The Wheel of Time [Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson] 6 books finished, 8 to go
I've written reviews on this blog for the great majority of these series, which you're welcome to read. Just copy and paste the title of the series you're interested in to the search window present in the upper left corner on my blog page...
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Soccer: Mexican Finale Correction and the Offside Penalty
I'd like to make a correction to my posting this past Monday about the Mexican Liga MX soccer playoff finals for the Apertura split season. At the article's end, I had speculated that the Tigres of UANL could conceivably win the championship without a victory in a single game (they've advanced to the finals after four straight ties), but the format in the finals is different from the earlier rounds, something of which I was unaware. True, there are two games involved between the finalists América and Tigres (game #1 tonight and game #2 on Sunday), with the aggregate goal total for both determining the champion. But should a tie in total goals result at the end of regular play in the second game, there will be overtime and then a possible penalty kick shootout, much like it is in the knockout rounds of the World Cup. So Tigres will definitely have to win at least ONE game to become champion!
That's one rule I think I've got right, finally. Another one is the offside rule in soccer: many times I would see an attacking player close to the goal receive a pass from behind, apparently in an offside position, and go on to score a goal. Later I found out that it is that player's position at the moment when the pass is kicked, not when he (or she) receives it, that determines whether the attacker is offside or not. So the receiver of the pass in those instances that were actually legal were in the proper position as the pass was released to them...and then they ran ahead of the other defenders as they received it...
Now I'm trying to understand ice hockey's version of the offside penalty (as well as icing). I think I have it down to the requirement, when an attacker skates across the blue line with the puck into the opponent's defensive zone, that there can't be any teammates already there. Now that I intellectually know the rule, though, I'd like to see it applied in action...meaning I'll just have to sit down and try to follow a hockey game (good luck with that)...
By the way, you can see the Liga MX Aperatura season finals tonight and Sunday on TV by watching Univision Deportes (in Gainesville it's on Cox Cable Channel 410)...
That's one rule I think I've got right, finally. Another one is the offside rule in soccer: many times I would see an attacking player close to the goal receive a pass from behind, apparently in an offside position, and go on to score a goal. Later I found out that it is that player's position at the moment when the pass is kicked, not when he (or she) receives it, that determines whether the attacker is offside or not. So the receiver of the pass in those instances that were actually legal were in the proper position as the pass was released to them...and then they ran ahead of the other defenders as they received it...
Now I'm trying to understand ice hockey's version of the offside penalty (as well as icing). I think I have it down to the requirement, when an attacker skates across the blue line with the puck into the opponent's defensive zone, that there can't be any teammates already there. Now that I intellectually know the rule, though, I'd like to see it applied in action...meaning I'll just have to sit down and try to follow a hockey game (good luck with that)...
By the way, you can see the Liga MX Aperatura season finals tonight and Sunday on TV by watching Univision Deportes (in Gainesville it's on Cox Cable Channel 410)...
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Just Finished Reading JD Robb's Thankless in Death
Back in October a few weeks ago, my home county of Alachua, Florida held its twice-a-year Friends of the Library book sale here in Gainesville. Sometimes I go to this event and sometimes I don't. I went there this time around, looking for cheap paperback novels that weren't all tied into a series. Among the books, I discovered one by J.D. Robb titled Thankless in Death. Reading the cover, it didn't give a sign that this was part of a multi-volume series, so I paid the fifty cents and bought it. Later, though, when I opened it and began to read, I discovered that, although the story in itself didn't directly hinge on earlier ones, it was still part of a very long (more than forty books) string of books featuring the same lead characters...the "in Death" series. In this regard it reminded me of Sue Grafton's "A,B,C, etc. is For" series, where the protagonists stay the same from book to book but their lives and relationships develop.
With the "in Death" series of Robb, incidentally a pseudonym for Nora Roberts, the real author, the setting is a future (year 2060) New York City (Manhattan) and the main characters are police captain Eve Dallas, her immediate co-workers, and her husband Roarke, an Irish orphaned genius who became a super-wealthy builder in America. Being set in the future a few decades, the vocabulary of speech has changed a little and it sometimes took me a little bit of effort to figure what they were talking about. Also, there are innovations like servant robots (that can go out in town and buy stuff and bring it back) and a universal food/beverage device/system called "Autochef". But besides this, what this series is about, as exemplified by the novel I read, is a police detective working hard to catch really very nasty, bad people....and you can infer from the series title that it focuses on the crime of murder. Also, the employment climate of the future is one of great opportunity for women, for many of them figure heavily in the police force and story.
Thankless in Death is a crime novel in a series of crime novels...in retrospect it might have been better to start with the first book in order to better follow the character development from book to book. Then again, I can't see myself following this series through more than forty books. It's a pretty standard "catch the bad guy" detective story, once you factor out the futuristic gimmickry. Not that I particularly disliked it, mind you, but I was left feeling that there was little in what protagonist Eve Dallas did that distinguished her as a memorable character...and that's an important consideration for me as a potentially repeat reader...
With the "in Death" series of Robb, incidentally a pseudonym for Nora Roberts, the real author, the setting is a future (year 2060) New York City (Manhattan) and the main characters are police captain Eve Dallas, her immediate co-workers, and her husband Roarke, an Irish orphaned genius who became a super-wealthy builder in America. Being set in the future a few decades, the vocabulary of speech has changed a little and it sometimes took me a little bit of effort to figure what they were talking about. Also, there are innovations like servant robots (that can go out in town and buy stuff and bring it back) and a universal food/beverage device/system called "Autochef". But besides this, what this series is about, as exemplified by the novel I read, is a police detective working hard to catch really very nasty, bad people....and you can infer from the series title that it focuses on the crime of murder. Also, the employment climate of the future is one of great opportunity for women, for many of them figure heavily in the police force and story.
Thankless in Death is a crime novel in a series of crime novels...in retrospect it might have been better to start with the first book in order to better follow the character development from book to book. Then again, I can't see myself following this series through more than forty books. It's a pretty standard "catch the bad guy" detective story, once you factor out the futuristic gimmickry. Not that I particularly disliked it, mind you, but I was left feeling that there was little in what protagonist Eve Dallas did that distinguished her as a memorable character...and that's an important consideration for me as a potentially repeat reader...
Monday, December 8, 2014
Mexican Soccer: Tigres Advance in Playoffs Without Any Wins in Four Games
The premier Mexican professional soccer league, Liga MX, has finished the first half (the "Apertura") of its split 2014-15 regular season and the playoffs ("Liguilla") has already undergone two rounds with the initial eight teams whittled down to just two: América (based in Mexico City) and Tigres of UANL, one of the two Monterrey teams in the league. América, the top-seeded team from the regualar season, has advanced in the playoffs the traditional way, mainly by winning. This may sound like an obvious fact: how else would a team advance past its opponents? Fancy you should ask that, for the Tigres represent an interesting case.
The UANL Tigres were seeded at #2, just behind América...so for the first two rounds, they were seeded higher than each of their opponents, Pachuca and Toluca. This is crucial, because in the Liguilla, each round consists of two games between the same teams, with each game played at the other's stadium. Whoever wins the aggregate goal total for the two games advances, which is pretty self-evident. It gets a little strange, however, when the total is tied. The first "tiebreaker" in such a case gives the team that scored the most "away" goals the series. But if the total is still the same, then tiebreaker #2 kicks in: the higher-seeded team advances. In the first round, each game saw Pachuca and Tigres drawing at 1-1, so Tigres advanced solely on the basis of their higher seeding. In the next, semifinal round, Tigres played Toluca...and both games were scoreless. Once again, Tigres advanced just because they were seeded higher. And now, having played in these playoffs with ZERO victories to their credit so far in the first four games, Tigres has reached the finals! But now they'd better get serious and score some goals, for they'll probably have to win at least one game to beat higher-seeded América. Still, should both games end in draws and Tigres scores more "away" goals, they could conceivably win the Liguilla, and thus the Apertura championship, with not even one victory throughout the entire playoffs!
The UANL Tigres were seeded at #2, just behind América...so for the first two rounds, they were seeded higher than each of their opponents, Pachuca and Toluca. This is crucial, because in the Liguilla, each round consists of two games between the same teams, with each game played at the other's stadium. Whoever wins the aggregate goal total for the two games advances, which is pretty self-evident. It gets a little strange, however, when the total is tied. The first "tiebreaker" in such a case gives the team that scored the most "away" goals the series. But if the total is still the same, then tiebreaker #2 kicks in: the higher-seeded team advances. In the first round, each game saw Pachuca and Tigres drawing at 1-1, so Tigres advanced solely on the basis of their higher seeding. In the next, semifinal round, Tigres played Toluca...and both games were scoreless. Once again, Tigres advanced just because they were seeded higher. And now, having played in these playoffs with ZERO victories to their credit so far in the first four games, Tigres has reached the finals! But now they'd better get serious and score some goals, for they'll probably have to win at least one game to beat higher-seeded América. Still, should both games end in draws and Tigres scores more "away" goals, they could conceivably win the Liguilla, and thus the Apertura championship, with not even one victory throughout the entire playoffs!
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Football Playoff Committee Picks Best Four Teams, But Process Flawed
The college football playoff selection committee, composed of thirteen supposed "experts" in the sport, have made their decision on which teams are in...and which are out...for this year's inaugural major college football national championship playoffs. As it incredibly turns out, the four teams I thought merited inclusion got in...but the process leading to this outcome was dismaying. For one, I don't for the life of me understand why somebody with no football background like Condoleezza Rice was put on this committee other than that it was a cynical political choice. If they had wanted a woman to be on it, there are many, many women out there much more knowledgeable and qualified in the sport. That being what it was, though, I don't know how Ms. Rice voted; for all I know, she and I saw things eye-to-eye. But what really bothered me about this committee was the whimsical, lackadaisical way in which they would elevate and demote teams over the weeks leading up to this final selection...in particular regarding Florida State (FSU) and Texas Christian University (TCU). Even though FSU went the entire year undefeated and is the defending national champion, this committee, just the week before today's final vote, had lowered them to 4th in the rankings and placed TCU, which had already lost (to Baylor) this year, ahead of them. Then this past Saturday, the Seminoles squeaked by 37-35 in their conference championship game and the Horned Frogs (of TCU) clobbered their conference opponent Iowa State 55-3. In the meantime, Ohio State, which had been #5 the week before, demonstrated their worth to be in the playoffs by annihilating ranked Wisconsin 59-0 in their conference championship game...and with only their third-string quarterback, a truly impressive performance. So Texas Christian once again fell behind Florida State, and also Ohio State, leaving them out of the playoffs. But wait, Baylor jumped ahead of them, too! So as far as TCU is concerned, they're in one week at #3, win their scheduled conference regular season game in a big rout, and then find themselves knocked down to #6! Well, from my point of view, TCU never should have been ranked that high to begin with (and should have also always been behind Baylor, who had beaten them)...and letting them jump ahead of FSU was pure nonsense! I actually was beginning to wonder to myself whether this committee wasn't going to exclude the undefeated national champions from the playoffs as well. They may have come up with the correct final lineup, but the weekly committee-generated rankings leading up to this result have left me feeling very little confidence in the committee format. I was left with the impression, right or wrong, that the committee members were full of themselves and their "power". Instead, I would have preferred that college football had retained the previous BCS ranking system and simply extended it from two to four teams for the playoffs. Now we're going to have to wonder every year who's playing favorites or promoting special agendas...
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Just Finished Reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
If Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights shows the dark side of the lives of rural landed English families in the late 18th century, then Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice, which I just read, represents the light. Austen also injects a great deal of humor into this story, especially coming from its chief protagonist Elizabeth "Lizzy" Bennet. Lizzy is the second oldest of five sisters in a family having no male heirs...a problem in that the archaic laws of that time "entail" an estate in such a case to the ownership of a more distant male relative upon the father's death (the mother has no inheritance rights, apparently). Mrs. Bennet, the mother, is continually trying, with a marked lack of subtlety (to the constant consternation and embarrassment of Lizzy), to marry them off to suitably wealthy young men. However, one young man, Mr. Darcy, who is the friend of a Mr. Bingley (who likes the eldest sister Jane) quickly incurs the wrath of both Mrs. Bennet and Lizzy through his prideful, arrogant behavior before them. Because of this and other "information" about him that Lizzy picks up from others, she forms what turns out to be a prejudicial judgment against his character. The story, in general, concerns how the two...Darcy with his pride and Elizabeth with her prejudice (hence the novel's title), are able to eventually remove the obstructing filters from themselves and finally see each other for what they really are. Without trying to give away the ending, I suppose from this you might easily surmise the outcome. After all, I've already said that this is no "dark" story!
The developing relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy dominates Pride and Prejudice, but what happens with the rest of the sisters figures into the story as well. Still, it all comes back to the two main characters.
Having been made into movie and serial TV shows, I was tempted to first "watch" Pride and Prejudice before reading it. But now that I have read it, I'm looking forward to seeing how it is depicted on the screen. For one thing, I like to notice the discrepancies between book and film. For another, I like to see how much (or little) my imagination painted a picture of the settings and characters in my own mind just from reading the book. Still another thing I like to see is how the tone of the screen presentation resembles the book's...or is it vastly different...
The developing relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy dominates Pride and Prejudice, but what happens with the rest of the sisters figures into the story as well. Still, it all comes back to the two main characters.
Having been made into movie and serial TV shows, I was tempted to first "watch" Pride and Prejudice before reading it. But now that I have read it, I'm looking forward to seeing how it is depicted on the screen. For one thing, I like to notice the discrepancies between book and film. For another, I like to see how much (or little) my imagination painted a picture of the settings and characters in my own mind just from reading the book. Still another thing I like to see is how the tone of the screen presentation resembles the book's...or is it vastly different...
Gators' New Coach Jim McElwain Looks Like a Good Fit
It looks as if the University of Florida, through their athletic director Jeremy Foley, has made a good decision in the selection and hiring of their next head football coach: Jim McElwain. McElwain was offensive coordinator in Alabama under Nick Saban during their earlier two national championship seasons in 2009 and 2011 (including when he broke Tim Tebow's heart by beating the then-undefeated, #1 ranked Gators in 2009's SEC championship game). Having played in college himself as quarterback, he reminds me a little of a former UF coaching great: Steve Spurrier (although the latter achieved much more renown for his passing abilities). And McElwain, unlike his relatively unsuccessful predecessors Ron Zook and Will Muschamp...and like his resoundingly successful predecessors Spurrier and Urban Meyer, has amassed experience as the head coach of a college team, in his case at Colorado State. He also was very successful in his short tenure there, turning around a habitually losing team into a winner.
I've heard it said that with Zook and Muschamp, they were considered "players'" coaches who were beloved by the team. In fact, I believe at least a couple of the Florida underclassmen players under Muschamp have expressed their decision to leave the team were Muschamp fired...even before they knew of his replacement. As a fan, I would rather have the Gators with a coach who emphasizes discipline and holds accountable the kind of sloppy play, with the fumbles, missed blocks and tackles, dropped passes, and very untimely, foolish penalties that epitomized Florida during the Zook and Muschamp eras. I doubt that this school will have any trouble attracting top talent during the recruiting season, but they will need someone who is able and willing to mold them together into a winning unit. And McElwain, I believe, seems like a good fit...
I've heard it said that with Zook and Muschamp, they were considered "players'" coaches who were beloved by the team. In fact, I believe at least a couple of the Florida underclassmen players under Muschamp have expressed their decision to leave the team were Muschamp fired...even before they knew of his replacement. As a fan, I would rather have the Gators with a coach who emphasizes discipline and holds accountable the kind of sloppy play, with the fumbles, missed blocks and tackles, dropped passes, and very untimely, foolish penalties that epitomized Florida during the Zook and Muschamp eras. I doubt that this school will have any trouble attracting top talent during the recruiting season, but they will need someone who is able and willing to mold them together into a winning unit. And McElwain, I believe, seems like a good fit...
Friday, December 5, 2014
Good Eleven Mile Run Today
Today I had a solid run of eleven miles, which I ended at that distance not because I was too tired to go on, but rather because I had other things to do. Still, this represents my longest single run since my Orange Blossom Half-Marathon in Tavares back in March, 2013...just before plantar fasciitis in my right foot "kicked" in. Well, my feet now seem to be "hanging" in there O.K. so far, so I suppose I'll continue to press the mileage back up to a level that I feel reflects better on my identity as a runner.
In spite of my increasing mileage, I have not returned to my old pattern of running around designated courses on my neighborhood streets (and in nearby locations on longer runs). Instead, I have marked off a running path in my rather sizable backyard and spend my longer runs there. It's certainly not as interesting as road running, but at the same time I have quick access to the conveniences of home and can still listen to my MP3 player while running. If there's rain in the forecast or it's already begun to drizzle, I can still go running until the rainfall gets too strong...and then step back into the house. Also, in my backyard I feel much safer about running in the nighttime, something that I never felt at ease doing on the streets...for a couple of reasons: drivers tend not to see runners (or pedestrians in general, for that matter) and differences in the terrain may be harder to spot at night. Still, I think that it would be a good idea to go back out on my old neighborhood courses every now and then...in the daytime in good weather, of course...
In spite of my increasing mileage, I have not returned to my old pattern of running around designated courses on my neighborhood streets (and in nearby locations on longer runs). Instead, I have marked off a running path in my rather sizable backyard and spend my longer runs there. It's certainly not as interesting as road running, but at the same time I have quick access to the conveniences of home and can still listen to my MP3 player while running. If there's rain in the forecast or it's already begun to drizzle, I can still go running until the rainfall gets too strong...and then step back into the house. Also, in my backyard I feel much safer about running in the nighttime, something that I never felt at ease doing on the streets...for a couple of reasons: drivers tend not to see runners (or pedestrians in general, for that matter) and differences in the terrain may be harder to spot at night. Still, I think that it would be a good idea to go back out on my old neighborhood courses every now and then...in the daytime in good weather, of course...
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Just Finished Reading George Orwell's 1984
Nineteen Eighty-Four. which I just finished reading, was probably English writer George Orwell's most well-known novel, with many of its concepts and sayings in common use today ("Big brother is watching you", "Thought police", "War is peace", etc.). It was first published in 1948, just a couple of years before its author's death. Orwell was strongly aware of his era's rise of totalitarian governments and studied the tactics of political control used over the people in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. And much of the material in the book, about the future totalitarian society of the mega-nation Oceania, appears to come straight out of these regimes' policies...as expressed through the words and actions of the "Party" that dominate every aspect of life. But Nineteen Eighty-Four goes much further to display a society that has refined its totalitarianism to the point that even facial expressions are captured and analyzed through pervasive surveillance, even in people's homes. People who diverge from the Party line in any way are subject to arrest, disappearance, and then any vestige of them ever having existed erased from the records. And those who personally knew anyone so eliminated must also speak and act as well as if they had never existed, lest they themselves be subject to "discipline".
Nineteen Eighty-Four's protagonist is Winston Smith, a low-level Party functionary employed in the Ministry of Truth, which like many other departments performs work in direct contradiction to its title. His job is to take whatever the Party position currently is on any matter, be it war, economics...or the "disappeared", and revise all historical records and books to reflect that change...retroactively. So Oceania, which had recently been allied with mega-nation Eurasia, is suddenly at war against it and Winston has to work feverishly with his colleagues to revise all records to show that Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia. For to reveal any change in policy would mean that the Party was fallible, and that wouldn't do.
Nineteen Eighty-Four introduces several concepts pertaining to the Party's all-oppressive control of society, including Newspeak, doublethink, and thoughtcrime. The language is continually being revised in order to reduce the number of words needed for expression...along with any usage that could express criminalized concepts like "liberty", "equality", or "democracy". Winston's journey through this story is based on his doubts about the society he lives in and his desire to find others sharing his skepticism who are willing to oppose it. To this end he meets and forms a romantic relationship with a young woman named Julia and comes under the leadership of a higher Party member named O'Brien. It is the interplay between these three characters that drives the book's story to its rather sobering end...
There are many elements to Nineteen Eighty-Four that I could discuss: a couple of them, the rewriting of history to suit the Party's current position and the selective framing of narratives, accepting only the information that supports their policies and eliminating any that runs against them, demonstrate the Party line that truth is not objective, based on facts, but rather subjective, originating in the mind...and that the only valid truth is in the Party's mind. Today we don't live here in a totalitarian society, but it struck me as I was reading Nineteen Eighty-Four that in the past few decades, many people have freely come to embrace this subjective outlook on reality...especially when you see the different social, political and religious camps out there, each with their own "facts" and histories. Unlike with Nineteen Eighty-Four, you're free to join up with whichever group you choose, but once you're in you're expected to embrace their "reality"...
Nineteen Eighty-Four's protagonist is Winston Smith, a low-level Party functionary employed in the Ministry of Truth, which like many other departments performs work in direct contradiction to its title. His job is to take whatever the Party position currently is on any matter, be it war, economics...or the "disappeared", and revise all historical records and books to reflect that change...retroactively. So Oceania, which had recently been allied with mega-nation Eurasia, is suddenly at war against it and Winston has to work feverishly with his colleagues to revise all records to show that Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia. For to reveal any change in policy would mean that the Party was fallible, and that wouldn't do.
Nineteen Eighty-Four introduces several concepts pertaining to the Party's all-oppressive control of society, including Newspeak, doublethink, and thoughtcrime. The language is continually being revised in order to reduce the number of words needed for expression...along with any usage that could express criminalized concepts like "liberty", "equality", or "democracy". Winston's journey through this story is based on his doubts about the society he lives in and his desire to find others sharing his skepticism who are willing to oppose it. To this end he meets and forms a romantic relationship with a young woman named Julia and comes under the leadership of a higher Party member named O'Brien. It is the interplay between these three characters that drives the book's story to its rather sobering end...
There are many elements to Nineteen Eighty-Four that I could discuss: a couple of them, the rewriting of history to suit the Party's current position and the selective framing of narratives, accepting only the information that supports their policies and eliminating any that runs against them, demonstrate the Party line that truth is not objective, based on facts, but rather subjective, originating in the mind...and that the only valid truth is in the Party's mind. Today we don't live here in a totalitarian society, but it struck me as I was reading Nineteen Eighty-Four that in the past few decades, many people have freely come to embrace this subjective outlook on reality...especially when you see the different social, political and religious camps out there, each with their own "facts" and histories. Unlike with Nineteen Eighty-Four, you're free to join up with whichever group you choose, but once you're in you're expected to embrace their "reality"...
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Miami Dolphins Thick in Playoff Hunt
Well, there are only four games left in the National Football League sixteen-game regular season and, incredibly, the Miami Dolphins are thick in the playoff hunt with a 7-5 record. Were the season to end today, they would actually be in the playoffs, winning the tiebreakers with the several other 7-5 teams in the American Conference. This is a team that, if anything, should have a better record...with them losing three close games late in the fourth quarter this year against playoff-caliber teams (Green Bay, Detroit, and Denver). And they've already beaten New England in their first contest! However, the return match with the Patriots will be a road game. Still, there is a scenario here that, should New England lose this week's road game against the very capable San Diego Chargers and Miami win their final four games, the Dolphins would be AFC East Division champions, with even a shot at a first round bye in the playoffs. Well, I can dream, can't I?
Miami's remaining games are against Baltimore, New England, Minnesota, and New York (Jets). All are important, but this coming weekend's game against the Ravens is crucial, seeing that both teams have identical 7-5 records. Fortunately, the Dolphins will be playing them at home, where they will also be when they face the Vikings and Jets...
Miami's remaining games are against Baltimore, New England, Minnesota, and New York (Jets). All are important, but this coming weekend's game against the Ravens is crucial, seeing that both teams have identical 7-5 records. Fortunately, the Dolphins will be playing them at home, where they will also be when they face the Vikings and Jets...
Sunday, November 30, 2014
My November 2014 Running Report
November marked a continuation from October with my dramatic rise in running mileage. I amassed a total of 313 miles run, as I would often run several times over the course of a day. My longest single run of the month was 10.3 miles, on Saturday the 15th. This was also the date of my greatest ever total of miles run over the course of a single day: 31 miles. Also, I ran on every day of the month...although taking a break every now and then is probably advisable.
As for public running races, I skipped the St. Augustine Half-Marathon on the 16th I had been considering entering and instead ran the 10K Gainesville Turkey Trot race on Thanksgiving morning, the 27th. I finished 5th out of 13 in my age group with a time of 56:56, a slower time by more than three minutes than my effort in the same race a couple of years earlier but understandable due largely to the marshy and muddy grounds at the race site (there was very heavy rainfall the previous day).
Next month I wish to continue my running as I have done in November, and try out at least one half-marathon race. The most likely candidate for this is an early Saturday evening race being held in Palm Coast, Florida on the 20th...
As for public running races, I skipped the St. Augustine Half-Marathon on the 16th I had been considering entering and instead ran the 10K Gainesville Turkey Trot race on Thanksgiving morning, the 27th. I finished 5th out of 13 in my age group with a time of 56:56, a slower time by more than three minutes than my effort in the same race a couple of years earlier but understandable due largely to the marshy and muddy grounds at the race site (there was very heavy rainfall the previous day).
Next month I wish to continue my running as I have done in November, and try out at least one half-marathon race. The most likely candidate for this is an early Saturday evening race being held in Palm Coast, Florida on the 20th...
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Soccer: Mexico's Liga MX "Liguilla" Playoffs Underway
As I mentioned on this blog the other day, North American sports leagues seem to have this predilection for post-season playoffs to determine their champions, as opposed to other places which just let the regular season champions reign supreme. Mexican soccer is no exception, and even goes one step further...their premier league, Liga MX, divides the year up into two split seasons: the Apertura in the fall and the Clausura in winter/spring. The regular season for the Apertura is over...so here come the playoffs!
The eight highest finishing teams in the regular season standings (out of a total of 18 league teams) make the playoffs. Each round has the paired off teams playing each other twice (at each other's home field) with the one amassing the highest two-game cumulative goal total advancing to the next round. The quarterfinals began a couple of days ago, with their second games starting today. So far, the first four games have all been very close, with two decided by one goal and two ending up in draws. The big surprise so far has been with "superlider" regular season champion América losing 1-0 to its Mexico City cross-town rival UNAM "Pumas", seeded 8th. But with the concluding games of this round, it's all up in the air as to which teams will advance...the regular season champ is clearly still in the running. I've been following the talk on the Spanish-language television sports channel Univision Deportes and there's a lot of excitement in the air. América, as I said before, is playing Pumas. Also, it's Toluca vs. Chiapas "Jaguares", UANL "Tigres" vs. Pachuca, and Atlas vs. Monterrey. I'm rooting for Pachuca in the championship series, but fear that they won't get past Tigres in this weekend's game (they drew 1-1 in the first game)...my gut feeling also tells me that Tigres, based in Nuevo Leon, will eventually win the Apertura championship this year...
The eight highest finishing teams in the regular season standings (out of a total of 18 league teams) make the playoffs. Each round has the paired off teams playing each other twice (at each other's home field) with the one amassing the highest two-game cumulative goal total advancing to the next round. The quarterfinals began a couple of days ago, with their second games starting today. So far, the first four games have all been very close, with two decided by one goal and two ending up in draws. The big surprise so far has been with "superlider" regular season champion América losing 1-0 to its Mexico City cross-town rival UNAM "Pumas", seeded 8th. But with the concluding games of this round, it's all up in the air as to which teams will advance...the regular season champ is clearly still in the running. I've been following the talk on the Spanish-language television sports channel Univision Deportes and there's a lot of excitement in the air. América, as I said before, is playing Pumas. Also, it's Toluca vs. Chiapas "Jaguares", UANL "Tigres" vs. Pachuca, and Atlas vs. Monterrey. I'm rooting for Pachuca in the championship series, but fear that they won't get past Tigres in this weekend's game (they drew 1-1 in the first game)...my gut feeling also tells me that Tigres, based in Nuevo Leon, will eventually win the Apertura championship this year...
Just Finished Reading Tad Williams' Shadowmarch
I was already familiar with the writing of Tad Williams, as a few years ago I read his four-part science fiction series Otherland (here is a link to my 2007 review of Otherland). Having thoroughly enjoyed it, as I now consider it an important look into our our future, I decided to try out one of his fantasy series. As Shadowmarch, the first of the also four-part Shadowmarch series, was available, I dove into it. Not as fun to read as Otherland (I think this shows I'm more of a sci-fi enthusiast), it was nevertheless worth the effort as Williams is a master at character development, something on which I judge books heavily. He actually has several characters whose stories he is concurrently telling from their viewpoints (much like George R.R. Martin has been doing in his ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire series). The chief protagonists are offspring of abducted King Olin Eddon: teenage twins Princess Briony and Prince Barrick. Of the two, Briony is the focus of Williams' attention, which reminds me of how another fantasy writer, Brandon Sanderson, used another teenage girl, Vin, for his protagonist in the Mistborn series. There are typical fantasy genre elements in this series: a completely different world with its own continents and difficult-to-follow map, an aboriginal, mystical people (the Qar) who were overrun centuries before by humans but still present a challenge from the north, a strange emerging religion with evil connotations invading from the south, an established history with all sorts of arcane "facts" that I (as I usually do) have difficulty filtering out the relevant from the irrelevant, rival noble families competing for territory through marriage and war similar to Martin's Game of Thrones, and much revealed through usually very disturbing dreams. Oh, and there is the wise "wizard" type in the physician Chaven, the soldier/guard hero type Ferras Vansen (besotted with Briony), an innocent and brave commoner (the diminutive Chert), and what I call the "wild-card" character of the boy "Flint", whose ultimate effect on the story, be it positive or negative, is a mystery...
As saturated as I am with fantasy literature, I have to admit that Tad Williams' Shadowmarch series is a winner so far, and knowing that it won't drag on for 11 or 14 volumes as did Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, respectively, gives me added impetus to read on to the end...
As saturated as I am with fantasy literature, I have to admit that Tad Williams' Shadowmarch series is a winner so far, and knowing that it won't drag on for 11 or 14 volumes as did Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, respectively, gives me added impetus to read on to the end...
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Finished Running Gainesville's 10K Turkey Trot Race at Tacachale
This morning the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 10K (6.2 miles) running race was held here in Gainesville on the woody grounds of Tacachale, a residential institution for the developmentally disabled. Having just recently performed, without any extra exertion, a 10.3 mile training run, I felt that this would be a good "short-distance" race to prepare me for running in a public setting as I consider which half-marathons to enter in the near future. A very rainy, stormy cold front had just swept through northern Florida the day before and the grounds were saturated. Plus, the temperature overnight had plummeted down to around 40 as I left the house to drive the short distance to the race. Although I knew I would be uncomfortable in the few minutes standing outside before the beginning of the race, I decided to stick to my time-tested formula of wearing a short-sleeved tee-shirt with shorts...and a very old, expendable pair of running shoes. As I gathered with the many (it seemed like several hundred) other runners behind the starting line, I couldn't help chuckling to myself as I saw many wearing jackets and long pants: they'd be dying in those clothes before they got past the first mile! Anyway, by the race's start the temperature had climbed up into the upper forties...it would be in the mid-fifties by race's end. As for my shoes, I wisely foresaw the possibility of encountering some marshy areas on the race course, and sure enough, we were all warned about their existence before the race began. But even with that, I was unprepared for the poor footing and many, many areas of standing water that we would need to slosh through...or look for a detour around. This, I'm sure, ended up slowing down my final time, as well as the fact that I began the race toward the back of the pack and spent the first mile or two repeatedly being boxed in by slow runners and having to squeeze around them. That all having been said, I enjoyed the race...although I was disappointed at the finish line when there was no clock showing the time as the runners passed though it. Not having timed myself on my watch like I usually do, I'll just have to wait for the results to be posted online. When they ARE finally posted, I'll put a link to them here. There was an awards ceremony scheduled, but I decided to go on back home...from past experience and results, I don't think I had finished anywhere near the top three in my age group (55-59)...
Later...the final results have been posted. I finished 5th in my age group out of 13 runners with a time of 56:56. It was a bit slower than my 2012 Turkey Trot time of 53:18, but as I wrote earlier, I had expected it. Here is the link to the race results.
Later...the final results have been posted. I finished 5th in my age group out of 13 runners with a time of 56:56. It was a bit slower than my 2012 Turkey Trot time of 53:18, but as I wrote earlier, I had expected it. Here is the link to the race results.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Watching Some European Soccer Analysis on ESPN Yesterday
Yesterday I was watching a soccer show (analysis, not actual games) on ESPN. The topic was the UEFA Champions League, where top European league teams cross their respective league boundaries and play each other, setting up intriguing speculation as to which leagues are the most competitive. So far, teams like Bundesliga's Bayern Munich, (Barclay's) English Premier League's Chelsea, La Liga's Real Madrid and Barcelona, La Ligue's PSG (Paris-St.Germain), and other teams like Italy's Roma and Portugal's Porto are doing well (although Roma is in a very competitive group and struggling for advancement into the next "knockout" round). Although I prefer to watch full games as they are being played, I did enjoy the highlights that this show presented...expecially the games between Manchester City and Bayern Munich, and between Barcelona and APOEL (of Cyprus). The former, between two major league champions from last year, featured an upset comeback win for "City", while Barcelona, with its superstar lineup of Messi, Neymar, and Suarez, won easily (with Messi performing another hat trick while making it all look like a walk in the park). It made me once again wish that I had regular access to the Bundesliga and La Liga games besides the MLS, Liga MX (Mexico), and English Premier League games that I do get.
Speaking of MLS and Liga MX, the two major soccer organizations for North America, they have features to their seasons that bother me: post-season playoffs. It reminds me of the other sports over here like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, where teams can clearly demonstrate their superiority (or inferiority) in the long regular season over a span of many games and then essentially have to start all over in the league championship playoffs. I like the fact that the winner of the regular season across the Atlantic in the Premier League or Bundesliga IS the league champion...as it should be...
Speaking of MLS and Liga MX, the two major soccer organizations for North America, they have features to their seasons that bother me: post-season playoffs. It reminds me of the other sports over here like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, where teams can clearly demonstrate their superiority (or inferiority) in the long regular season over a span of many games and then essentially have to start all over in the league championship playoffs. I like the fact that the winner of the regular season across the Atlantic in the Premier League or Bundesliga IS the league champion...as it should be...
Monday, November 24, 2014
Gators Left With Big Chance to Upset 'Noles
The University of Florida and Florida State University football games have had very different football seasons this year. The Gators, having suffered through a miserable 4-8 season last year, were looking forward to a reasonably successful year this time around, even with many expecting them to win their SEC East Division. Instead, they stumbled and fumbled around to the point where they are now left with a 6-4 mark and out of the running in their division, but already qualified for a minor post-season bowl game in late December or early January. They have only one game left before then: next Saturday in Tallahassee against FSU. The Seminoles, on the other hand, are coming off a perfect, undefeated national championship season in 2013 and are still unbeaten so far this year. They are thick in the running for the national championship playoffs, but because their strength of schedule in the Atlantic Coast Conference is relatively low, they probably need to win both of their next two games to stay in the hunt. The first of these is the aforementioned matchup against Florida and the second is the ACC Championship game. Florida has nothing to lose against FSU; even Will Muschamp, their head coach, is leaving after the game regardless of the outcome. But Florida State has everything to lose in this game..and they already have come excruciatingly close to losing earlier games against Clemson, Louisville, and Miami. They are very clearly, despite having won all of their games so far in 2014, not anywhere near as impressive as last year's team. Florida has what it takes to beat their cross-state rival, which may be looking ahead to their conference championship game the following week. I give the Gators a good chance to pull out all the stops and pull off the upset...
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Just Finished Reading Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land
The Magician's Land is the final book in Lev Grossman's Magicians series. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of this very irreverent and adult foray into the fantasy genre, I was eager enough to start into the final book as soon as I was aware of its publication (I don't keep up too well with when new books come out). But first I felt the need to go back through the first two books to refresh my memory (I wonder how many other readers of series do this). Now, I've finished The Magician's Land and have to admit to a sense of satisfaction about it all. The only problem is, there is no way I can adequately describe the plot to the story in this book without not only giving it away, but also giving away what happened in the first book (The Magicians) and the second (The Magician King). But I can still provide some general reactions I got from it...
The chief protagonist in the Magicians series is a young man named Quentin Coldwater. Early in the first book, while thinking that he was going to a Manhattan-based interview for admission into an Ivy League college, Quentin suddenly finds himself whisked off to a mysterious campus in upstate New York, where he is tested for admission into Brakebills, an academy designed for training magicians. And by magicians, I don't mean the showmen who ply their tricks before an audience, but rather people who possess magical abilities, like the wizards in the Harry Potter series. For a while, it looked as if Grossman was going to provide a more adult counterpart of Rowling's Hogwarts Academy, but as the story progresses a different target of imitation is revealed: C.S. Lewis and his fantasy world of Narnia. Only in Quentin's world, the stories he grew up loving were about an imaginary land called Fillory. And now I'm at the point where I feel a little reticent about describing what happens next. But you might well imagine that Quentin has his friends, enemies, mentors, love interests, and many, many mysteries to solve. Through his losses, as well as his victories, he grows up and discovers himself and what's important in life (and what isn't). So in an important respect, this series is about someone growing up from an immature adolescent mindset into a caring, mature adult. Only with Quentin, what he does has an enormous impact on his friends, foes, and surroundings...after all, he turns out to be no mediocre magician.
I think you'd enjoy Lev Grossman's Magicians series if you liked reading through the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia series (and I mean READING, not just watching the movies)...in an important sense, these three series are not as much about the "magic" as much as they are about how people's characters, especially as they pertain to aspects of personality like jealousy, loyalty, regret, courage, sacrificial love, idealism, cynicism, timidity, and boldness, affect each other and the world...and how they can change within individuals over time, especially after they endure personal storms, some of them devastating in nature...
I will make one comment about the ending to The Magician's Land: I don't know whether Lev Grossman intended it to be this way, but it did bring a satisfying sense of closure to the series for me...although it did leave the door open wide enough to start a new one based on where things left off, should the author wish it. After all, it wouldn't be the first time a writer came back to tack on additional books to an already-concluded series (Terry Goodkind and Brandon Sanderson are doing this as I write)...
The chief protagonist in the Magicians series is a young man named Quentin Coldwater. Early in the first book, while thinking that he was going to a Manhattan-based interview for admission into an Ivy League college, Quentin suddenly finds himself whisked off to a mysterious campus in upstate New York, where he is tested for admission into Brakebills, an academy designed for training magicians. And by magicians, I don't mean the showmen who ply their tricks before an audience, but rather people who possess magical abilities, like the wizards in the Harry Potter series. For a while, it looked as if Grossman was going to provide a more adult counterpart of Rowling's Hogwarts Academy, but as the story progresses a different target of imitation is revealed: C.S. Lewis and his fantasy world of Narnia. Only in Quentin's world, the stories he grew up loving were about an imaginary land called Fillory. And now I'm at the point where I feel a little reticent about describing what happens next. But you might well imagine that Quentin has his friends, enemies, mentors, love interests, and many, many mysteries to solve. Through his losses, as well as his victories, he grows up and discovers himself and what's important in life (and what isn't). So in an important respect, this series is about someone growing up from an immature adolescent mindset into a caring, mature adult. Only with Quentin, what he does has an enormous impact on his friends, foes, and surroundings...after all, he turns out to be no mediocre magician.
I think you'd enjoy Lev Grossman's Magicians series if you liked reading through the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia series (and I mean READING, not just watching the movies)...in an important sense, these three series are not as much about the "magic" as much as they are about how people's characters, especially as they pertain to aspects of personality like jealousy, loyalty, regret, courage, sacrificial love, idealism, cynicism, timidity, and boldness, affect each other and the world...and how they can change within individuals over time, especially after they endure personal storms, some of them devastating in nature...
I will make one comment about the ending to The Magician's Land: I don't know whether Lev Grossman intended it to be this way, but it did bring a satisfying sense of closure to the series for me...although it did leave the door open wide enough to start a new one based on where things left off, should the author wish it. After all, it wouldn't be the first time a writer came back to tack on additional books to an already-concluded series (Terry Goodkind and Brandon Sanderson are doing this as I write)...
Saturday, November 22, 2014
College Football Full of Disappointments
Please forgive me for a little cynicism here...but college football, as in all other sports, produces an unpleasant side effect among its fans. After all, since it's no fun watching a game without caring who wins, it stands to reason that people eventually start rooting for their favorite teams. The biggest prize of all at the end of the season is the national championship, so disappointment #1 occurs usually very early on when one's team has already suffered a couple of losses and that lofty goal seems to have passed by. For them, the next goal is for their team to win their conference's division...which they probably won't, resulting in disappointment #2. Then their hopes fall back on at least mustering up a non-losing record, which will give them a post-season bowl bid. And then maybe they don't get that far, either: disappointment #3. But for the teams that at least get a bowl bid, half of them will lose that game, ending their season on a disappointing (#4) note. For the teams that are fortunate and skillful enough to win a conference division title, half of them will spend the off-season ruminating about losing the championship game (disappointment #5). Then, for the fans of the conference champions, those who are excluded from the four-team national championship playoff will be disappointed (#6). Of the four remaining teams, three will lose (#7,8, and 9) leaving only one team each year that the fans can fully celebrate without disappointment. But no, although they may temporarily feel great, even these are now burdened with unrealistically high expectations for their team in the future...anything short of a national championship will now feel something like a failed season, a disappointment for years to come...
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Just Finished Reading Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë wrote one famous book before her sad, premature death at age 30: it was the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, set in rural England in the late 18th century and the start of the 19th. It is a curiously presented story, told in the first person by an outside character named Lockwood who happens to be residing for a short period on the estate that the story centers around. However, most of the tale comes out, once again in the first person, as housekeeper Nelly Dean lays out the history of the families involved. Lockwood, a new tenant on the property, is entranced by her story, as his first impression of his host, a Mister Heathcliff, is traumatic from his poor treatment after a visit to the latter's home on Wuthering Heights...being attacked by his dogs and treated disrespectfully, both by Heathcliff and his employees and relations. Among these are Healthcliff's sullen daughter-in-law Cathy, an uncouth young man named Hareton Earnshaw, and a cranky old man named Joseph. Nelly herself works at the house Lockwood is staying at, but her personal history is all about Wuthering Heights, having grown up there with Heathcliff and his family...if you can honestly call it "his" family. Oh, and there also seems to be a ghost lurking around the place named "Catherine"...and Heathcliff knows all about it after Lockwood loudly screams out in his sleep, thinking he dreamed about seeing her. Yes, there is a rather complicated background to the present circumstances...and why exactly is Heathcliff such a vindictive and viciously rude man? Nelly lays it all out in her tale to Lockwood...
Wuthering Heights is a story about two neighboring families, the Earnshaws and Lintons. They both have a sense of nobility about themselves, which contributes to the developing problem as the elder Earnshaw one day brings home from Liverpool a homeless "gypsy-like" little boy (Heathcliff) that he adopts as his own son and showers favoritism upon, to the disadvantage and envy of his biological son. The resentment between the two boys grows into full-blown mutual hatred, and the two spend the remainder of their lives deliberately undermining the dreams and hopes of the other, purely out of spite. Then Heathcliff has to deal with his affections for Catherine, his "sister", who has gone over to the Linton's and married into that family. More resentment, hatred, jealousy, regret, revenge...a vicious cycle that consumes Heathcliff and condemns him to being seen as something of a monster to those around him ...and ultimately destroys him.
There's something rather easy about looking about how other people dwell upon the past in their lives in an unhealthy manner, but it's often hard to see the same thing in one's own life. But this book definitely made me wonder if maybe I had better take a hard look at my own life and see if I might be holding on to some negative, harmful (to me) grudges...
There's something rather easy about looking about how other people dwell upon the past in their lives in an unhealthy manner, but it's often hard to see the same thing in one's own life. But this book definitely made me wonder if maybe I had better take a hard look at my own life and see if I might be holding on to some negative, harmful (to me) grudges...
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
B-r-r-r, Cold Nights Ahead in Northern Florida
Winter is descending on us early this year, with a severe cold front sweeping through yesterday, featuring a strong squall line putting everyone on alert at about 1:10 in the afternoon. Since then, the forecast lows for the upcoming days and nights have gradually tilted toward colder conditions. This morning it got down into the low 40's, which wasn't so bad...I wish that's as low as it would go, though. Tonight here in Gainesville we're going to have a hard freeze, with a predicted low of 24-25 (for my millions of European readers, that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius). Another hard freeze is due again the following night, and possibly the next as well. All of this coldness will be dry, though, as it usually is this far south.
I like cold weather, but not past the freezing point. I imagine that the folks living up north are due for their annual laugh at the expense of us southerners who complain about conditions that they would regard as mild, especially considering the complete absence of snow or ice here. And a little further up north, where there is precipitation? No doubt, once again the news shows will soon be highlighting the numerous traffic accidents around Atlanta that take place this time of year when drivers unprepared for wet wintertime conditions encounter icy, frozen roads and begin to slip and slide...
I like cold weather, but not past the freezing point. I imagine that the folks living up north are due for their annual laugh at the expense of us southerners who complain about conditions that they would regard as mild, especially considering the complete absence of snow or ice here. And a little further up north, where there is precipitation? No doubt, once again the news shows will soon be highlighting the numerous traffic accidents around Atlanta that take place this time of year when drivers unprepared for wet wintertime conditions encounter icy, frozen roads and begin to slip and slide...
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Just Finished Reading Ray Bradbury's Farewell Summer
First of all, let me warn the reader that, although I usually try to leave the ending of books I read out of my reviews in order to avoid "giving it away", this time around I made an exception. So if you haven't yet read Ray Bradbury's novel Farewell Summer and are thinking of doing so, you might want to put off reading this article until afterward...
Back when I was in high school, I read Ray Bradbury's short novel Dandelion Wine. For some reason, the paperback book cover depicted it as some kind of scary science fiction/horror story. Nothing could be further from the truth: it was a nostalgic journey by Bradbury back to his childhood days, about a boy like himself growing up in a small Illinois town back in the late 1920's. To this day I regard it as one of my favorites. Dandelion Wine was published in 1957, and a sequel, titled Farewell Summer, came out in 2006. In it, the protagonist, Douglas Spaulding, has aged a few years and is now 14. His younger brother, Tom, is 12. The two, along with their buddies, are waging "war" against the old people, who they suspect of never having never been young and of conspiring against the children. So, in this "war" of theirs, they do foolish things like steal the chess pieces which Douglas says the elderly are using to control them, as well as break the town clock in order to keep time from making them older. The elderly folk in town are largely unaware of the kids' concerns...except for Quartermain, who thinks that Douglas murdered his elderly hypochondriac friend by shooting a cap gun at him (causing a heart attack) and was trying to kill him by running over him with his bicycle. Quartermain, after open hostility and suspicion toward Douglas and his friends, eventually decides to try a different tactic and be nice to them. As the book draws to an end, he realizes that, never having married or had children of his own, he has missed out and forgotten what it is like to be young like the boys. Finally, in an enigmatic twist at the book's end, Bradbury implies that there is a mysterious "spirit" of sexuality that the outgoing generation transfers to the emerging one. I found this part at the end to be somewhat weird...and ultimately hilarious. I think a lot of that was in the wording Bradbury used. Another, rather serious flaw I saw in the book was how he made children in the 12-14 age range think and speak more like 6-8 year olds...
If you have read Dandelion Wine, which to me is a complete story in itself, and think that you're going to get the same quality story in Farewell Summer, be forewarned: it isn't. Instead, it is a more philosophical discussion on aging, generation gaps, and the passing on of the "torch of life", so to speak, from one generation to another. Not a bad topic for discussion, but in my opinion Bradbury went about it in the most annoying way possible. Then again, you may think differently if you read it...
Back when I was in high school, I read Ray Bradbury's short novel Dandelion Wine. For some reason, the paperback book cover depicted it as some kind of scary science fiction/horror story. Nothing could be further from the truth: it was a nostalgic journey by Bradbury back to his childhood days, about a boy like himself growing up in a small Illinois town back in the late 1920's. To this day I regard it as one of my favorites. Dandelion Wine was published in 1957, and a sequel, titled Farewell Summer, came out in 2006. In it, the protagonist, Douglas Spaulding, has aged a few years and is now 14. His younger brother, Tom, is 12. The two, along with their buddies, are waging "war" against the old people, who they suspect of never having never been young and of conspiring against the children. So, in this "war" of theirs, they do foolish things like steal the chess pieces which Douglas says the elderly are using to control them, as well as break the town clock in order to keep time from making them older. The elderly folk in town are largely unaware of the kids' concerns...except for Quartermain, who thinks that Douglas murdered his elderly hypochondriac friend by shooting a cap gun at him (causing a heart attack) and was trying to kill him by running over him with his bicycle. Quartermain, after open hostility and suspicion toward Douglas and his friends, eventually decides to try a different tactic and be nice to them. As the book draws to an end, he realizes that, never having married or had children of his own, he has missed out and forgotten what it is like to be young like the boys. Finally, in an enigmatic twist at the book's end, Bradbury implies that there is a mysterious "spirit" of sexuality that the outgoing generation transfers to the emerging one. I found this part at the end to be somewhat weird...and ultimately hilarious. I think a lot of that was in the wording Bradbury used. Another, rather serious flaw I saw in the book was how he made children in the 12-14 age range think and speak more like 6-8 year olds...
If you have read Dandelion Wine, which to me is a complete story in itself, and think that you're going to get the same quality story in Farewell Summer, be forewarned: it isn't. Instead, it is a more philosophical discussion on aging, generation gaps, and the passing on of the "torch of life", so to speak, from one generation to another. Not a bad topic for discussion, but in my opinion Bradbury went about it in the most annoying way possible. Then again, you may think differently if you read it...
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Gators' "Swamp" a Nemesis for Home Team
It used to be that playing football games at the University of Florida's home Ben Hill Griffin stadium, nicknamed "The Swamp", was an almost insurmountable obstacle for the visiting team. Now it seems that the home team is having issues with it. In the Gators' last four games, one was on the road (Florida win, 34-10), one was at a neutral site (Florida win, 38-20), and two were at home (both Florida losses, 42-13 and today's overtime loss to South Carolina, 23-20). And it's not a matter of opposing teams coming in here and playing over their heads: their play, if anything, has been unimpressive. Instead, it's been Florida that has stumbled and faltered with turnovers, penalties, and disastrous lapses in special teams play. To me, that's a sign of slipshod coaching...
I wrote a couple of days ago that Florida still had a shot at the SEC title...now they're left just trying to finish with a winning season and a bowl invitation. To accomplish this, they only need to win over their second small-college "pushover" opponent, which is their next scheduled game. But a couple of points here: (1) two years ago the Gators very nearly lost their late season "easy" game and last year they did lose it...and (2) the upcoming game next Saturday against Eastern Kentucky is being played in "The Swamp". Maybe they can reschedule it to take place somewhere else...
I wrote a couple of days ago that Florida still had a shot at the SEC title...now they're left just trying to finish with a winning season and a bowl invitation. To accomplish this, they only need to win over their second small-college "pushover" opponent, which is their next scheduled game. But a couple of points here: (1) two years ago the Gators very nearly lost their late season "easy" game and last year they did lose it...and (2) the upcoming game next Saturday against Eastern Kentucky is being played in "The Swamp". Maybe they can reschedule it to take place somewhere else...
Sleep, Saturday Starbucks, Running
Last night, after sleeping for much of the day after I finally arrived home around eight in the morning, following a full work week, I had planned to devote much of that evening to assorted projects...including some running. Instead, I passed out and slept on into Saturday morning, having spent most of Friday after work in an unconscious state. I have more than once heard it said that you can't make up for sleep deficits by sleeping for long stretches, but those who maintain that viewpoint obviously never met me. I feel much, much better now and know that sometimes my body knows better and will wisely pull that "off" switch as soon as it realizes that I am safe and sound, off the road and in my home.
Now I'm enjoying my weekly late Saturday morning visit to my local Magnolia Parke Starbucks. This is apparently the "happening" place in town, as the line of customers is going outside the shop, and every seat is taken up...except the shaded outdoor ones on this cold November morning. It reminds me of our Midtown Manhattan visit back in '10 when everything was wall-to-wall people, with the only thing missing being the curb-to-curb yellow taxicabs (and, oh yeah, those monstrous skyscrapers blotting out the sky)...
As I had written on this blog a few days ago, I had been seriously considering entering the St. Augustine Half-Marathon, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning. But there were factors that ultimately made me decide to delay my reentry into "half-marathoning": I would have had to get up around three in the morning and drive out there, run the race, stand around for an hour or two for the awards ceremony (if the posted results showed me eligible for one), and then drive back to Gainesville, all tired and sore. Add to that the steep entry fees charged for these races ($85 if registered online or $100 on race day) and I decided that this would have to wait until another day. Instead, yesterday, during my brief interlude of consciousness between long sleeps, I went out to my Lloyd Clarke Sports store on 13th Street (US 441) and signed up for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 10K (6.2 miles) Race that will be held here in town on the grounds of Tacachale, an institution for the developmentally disabled. The price tag for entering? Just $25, and only $15 had I not wanted a tee-shirt. Now, that's much, much better...
Now I'm enjoying my weekly late Saturday morning visit to my local Magnolia Parke Starbucks. This is apparently the "happening" place in town, as the line of customers is going outside the shop, and every seat is taken up...except the shaded outdoor ones on this cold November morning. It reminds me of our Midtown Manhattan visit back in '10 when everything was wall-to-wall people, with the only thing missing being the curb-to-curb yellow taxicabs (and, oh yeah, those monstrous skyscrapers blotting out the sky)...
As I had written on this blog a few days ago, I had been seriously considering entering the St. Augustine Half-Marathon, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning. But there were factors that ultimately made me decide to delay my reentry into "half-marathoning": I would have had to get up around three in the morning and drive out there, run the race, stand around for an hour or two for the awards ceremony (if the posted results showed me eligible for one), and then drive back to Gainesville, all tired and sore. Add to that the steep entry fees charged for these races ($85 if registered online or $100 on race day) and I decided that this would have to wait until another day. Instead, yesterday, during my brief interlude of consciousness between long sleeps, I went out to my Lloyd Clarke Sports store on 13th Street (US 441) and signed up for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 10K (6.2 miles) Race that will be held here in town on the grounds of Tacachale, an institution for the developmentally disabled. The price tag for entering? Just $25, and only $15 had I not wanted a tee-shirt. Now, that's much, much better...
Friday, November 14, 2014
Recently Read Spencer Johnson's Book, Titled Who Moved My Cheese?
There's a little book out there, first published in 1998, that big corporations like Exxon, General Motors, Goodyear, Kodak, and the like are embracing and distributing among its employees to read: Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson. Johnson also co-wrote, along with Kenneth Blanchard, the famous book The One Minute Manager. Although the inside jacket of the hardcover copy of Who Moved My Cheese? states the price at a hefty $19.95, the book itself is only 94 pages long...with large print.
Melissa had read it and liked the message, so one evening recently she handed her copy to me to see what I thought of it. I put it to the side (immediately engrossed at the time with a Mexican soccer match on TV), thinking of coming back to it on some future date. But later on, around midnight, I reached over, picked it up, and breezed through it. The message contained in it focuses on a childish, childlike story of two mice and two mice-sized people in a maze looking for cheese and how the attitudes of each one affect its chances of success as change comes along and challenges them each to adapt in order to keeping getting their cheese. Each of the mice reacts instinctively when one (named Sniff) discovers the supply they had initially found by running through the maze to be dwindling (through consumption) and the other (Scurry) immediately sets back off in the maze to look for more. The two people both linger about the old cheese as it gradually disappears and ponder what to do about it. One is stubborn and opposed to change and stays put, refusing to go anywhere because this is his territory, by gosh, and it's his cheese that's he's entitled to...and more should be brought here for him. The other person initially goes along with Hem's resistance to change, but eventually reasons out what the mice knew instinctively: more cheese probably isn't going to come soon, and survival dictates action in the form of following the mice down the maze in pursuit of more cheese. As Haw, the wise human, leaves behind Hem, the stubborn one, in his stagnation, he discovers some wise principles during his quest...which the book presents every few pages (e.g. "If you do not move, you can become extinct", "Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.") Eventually, Haw finds a wealth of cheese (as do the mice) and returns to tell Hem about it...but his erstwhile companion still refuses to budge.
Who Moved My Cheese? is so beloved by big corporations for an obvious reasons: they want to institute a large paradigm shift in their work force away from tradition and community and toward the flexibility pertaining to future job assignments and locations that the company demands. Of course, the work force can go one step further and say that, if a particular company they are working for is not giving them the treatment they had been enjoying (i.e. "the cheese is dwindling"), they can go look for better work ("get back in the maze"). Still, the lesson here is a bit unsettling: the times we live in, as Alvin Toffler expressed in his decades-old book Future Shock, are accelerating us into ever-increasing demands for change while depriving us of the security of a stable job and home community.
Another aspect I noticed in this book is that all four characters are in agreement about what they all want the most, which is "cheese". I'm assuming from this is that "cheese" is simply a simplified allegory of the basics for survival, like food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. The implication that we are all going to have to struggle and scurry around continually for the remainder of our pathetic little lives just to "survive", though, is not a message that I feel marks an enlightened, civilized society...but it is the essence instead of an unregulated, wild-west-type free market capitalism that rejects any notion of safety nets provided by society in the form of government programs. No wonder the big corporations love this book. That having been said, though, I have to look at things from my own perspective as an individual person, just as other readers need to do as well. And the question is not necessarily how things should be, but rather how things really are (for better or for worse)...and from this realization, what's the best course of action for me to take...
Melissa had read it and liked the message, so one evening recently she handed her copy to me to see what I thought of it. I put it to the side (immediately engrossed at the time with a Mexican soccer match on TV), thinking of coming back to it on some future date. But later on, around midnight, I reached over, picked it up, and breezed through it. The message contained in it focuses on a childish, childlike story of two mice and two mice-sized people in a maze looking for cheese and how the attitudes of each one affect its chances of success as change comes along and challenges them each to adapt in order to keeping getting their cheese. Each of the mice reacts instinctively when one (named Sniff) discovers the supply they had initially found by running through the maze to be dwindling (through consumption) and the other (Scurry) immediately sets back off in the maze to look for more. The two people both linger about the old cheese as it gradually disappears and ponder what to do about it. One is stubborn and opposed to change and stays put, refusing to go anywhere because this is his territory, by gosh, and it's his cheese that's he's entitled to...and more should be brought here for him. The other person initially goes along with Hem's resistance to change, but eventually reasons out what the mice knew instinctively: more cheese probably isn't going to come soon, and survival dictates action in the form of following the mice down the maze in pursuit of more cheese. As Haw, the wise human, leaves behind Hem, the stubborn one, in his stagnation, he discovers some wise principles during his quest...which the book presents every few pages (e.g. "If you do not move, you can become extinct", "Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.") Eventually, Haw finds a wealth of cheese (as do the mice) and returns to tell Hem about it...but his erstwhile companion still refuses to budge.
Who Moved My Cheese? is so beloved by big corporations for an obvious reasons: they want to institute a large paradigm shift in their work force away from tradition and community and toward the flexibility pertaining to future job assignments and locations that the company demands. Of course, the work force can go one step further and say that, if a particular company they are working for is not giving them the treatment they had been enjoying (i.e. "the cheese is dwindling"), they can go look for better work ("get back in the maze"). Still, the lesson here is a bit unsettling: the times we live in, as Alvin Toffler expressed in his decades-old book Future Shock, are accelerating us into ever-increasing demands for change while depriving us of the security of a stable job and home community.
Another aspect I noticed in this book is that all four characters are in agreement about what they all want the most, which is "cheese". I'm assuming from this is that "cheese" is simply a simplified allegory of the basics for survival, like food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. The implication that we are all going to have to struggle and scurry around continually for the remainder of our pathetic little lives just to "survive", though, is not a message that I feel marks an enlightened, civilized society...but it is the essence instead of an unregulated, wild-west-type free market capitalism that rejects any notion of safety nets provided by society in the form of government programs. No wonder the big corporations love this book. That having been said, though, I have to look at things from my own perspective as an individual person, just as other readers need to do as well. And the question is not necessarily how things should be, but rather how things really are (for better or for worse)...and from this realization, what's the best course of action for me to take...
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Football: Florida Gators Still in SEC Title Hunt
I'd better get this written before Saturday, because on that day this article's message may be a moot point. But the fact remains...at this late point in the season approaching mid-November...that the University of Florida football team, incredibly, is still in the running to win the prestigious Southeastern Conference championship, despite having three losses. But their win over Georgia three weeks ago gives them the tiebreaker if the two end up with same conference win-loss records. And in a three-way tie with the Bulldogs and Missouri, Florida would prevail as long as the Tigers lose their upcoming game at Tennessee...a distinct possibility. So right now, in terms of conference records, Missouri is 4-1, Georgia is 5-2, and Florida is 4-3. This Saturday, if higher-ranked Auburn wins against Georgia and Florida beats South Carolina, the two East Division contenders will finish their conference schedule with 5-3 records. That would leave Missouri, who plays Texas A&M on the road Saturday, Tennessee in Knoxville the following week, and then closes at home against Arkansas. They could well lose all three games, although as far as Florida's title hopes are concerned they need only lose to Tennessee and to either Texas A&M or Arkansas.
If all this happens...and it very well could...Florida would be going to Atlanta to play the West Division winner, which at this point looks like either Mississippi State or Alabama (the two play each other this Saturday). Naturally, if the Gators went on to a big upset victory in this speculative title game, they still wouldn't be in contention for the national championship playoffs. But for head coach Will Muschamp, just getting to the title game would be a great turnaround from the desperate position he was in just a few weeks ago after losing a close game to LSU and being humiliated by Missouri in Florida's homecoming game...
If all this happens...and it very well could...Florida would be going to Atlanta to play the West Division winner, which at this point looks like either Mississippi State or Alabama (the two play each other this Saturday). Naturally, if the Gators went on to a big upset victory in this speculative title game, they still wouldn't be in contention for the national championship playoffs. But for head coach Will Muschamp, just getting to the title game would be a great turnaround from the desperate position he was in just a few weeks ago after losing a close game to LSU and being humiliated by Missouri in Florida's homecoming game...
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Just Finished Reading Brandon Sanderson's The Alloy of Law
I recently completed fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy...a series that I liked a lot and which ends as trilogies should end: "conclusively". Yet, Sanderson has now seen fit to go back to this fantasy world of mist and allomancers (people with the inherited ability to burn metals that give them temporary superhuman powers). Set a few centuries after the the original series, the world has changed. It is now becoming more and more technologically advanced, and the original fantasy format is now changing to one more of a science fiction/alternate reality nature, with a remarkable similarity at times to Stephen King's celebrated Dark Tower series (especially regarding gunslinging and train riding). As a matter of fact, the protagonists Wax (Waxillium Ladrian) and his sidekick Wayne are sharp-shooting lawmen in a wild west scenario. The Alloy of Law centers on Wax's developing worldview as he comes to grip that Miles, one of his fellow lawmen, has turned outlaw and is leading a popular revolt. However, there seems to be a mystery nobleman behind the scenes manipulating Miles. Also thrown into the mix of the story are love interests for Wax: Lessie, Marasi, and Steris. The story about Lessie really reminds me of The Dark Tower...especially book number four. As it turns out, not only is Wax an excellent shooter, but he, along with Wayne, Miles, and Marasi are all allomancers who possess special abilities to burn certain metals. The story progresses to a showdown between Wax and Miles...guess who wins? Hint: the next book is due out in a few months!
I have to admit that I didn't particularly enjoy The Alloy of Law as much as Sanderson's masterfully conceived and written first trilogy. There is no special, new world here to discover...just variations of the old, which has evolved in accordance with the way that trilogy's final volume, The Hero of Ages, ended. Still, this book was an interesting, fun story that often has more in common with the western genre of fiction than fantasy. Well, western combined with sci fi, like, as I said before, The Dark Tower. Or even The Wild, Wild, West...
I have to admit that I didn't particularly enjoy The Alloy of Law as much as Sanderson's masterfully conceived and written first trilogy. There is no special, new world here to discover...just variations of the old, which has evolved in accordance with the way that trilogy's final volume, The Hero of Ages, ended. Still, this book was an interesting, fun story that often has more in common with the western genre of fiction than fantasy. Well, western combined with sci fi, like, as I said before, The Dark Tower. Or even The Wild, Wild, West...
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Yes to Movie and TV Episode Reruns, No to Sports Reruns
I have a tendency to watch my favorite TV shows and movies over and over again, enough though I thoroughly know their outcomes and can often recite the dialogue word-for-word just before it is spoken. But when it comes to watching sporting events, even those that feature my favorite teams or solo athletes, I dislike reruns and avoid them with a passion. The only exception to this is if a rerun of a game is rebroadcast and I don't yet know the outcome. Then it's like I'm watching it live. Only one problem with that, though, and its a frustratingly recurring one...
I'll be on a channel showing such a rebroadcast, say, for example, of the English Premier League of soccer, with "my" team Arsenal playing in a game from the previous weekend that I haven't yet seen, and I'll sit down to watch it. Everything will be fine for a few minutes, when suddenly the little scrolling "information" line at the bottom of the screen will start displaying final scores...and the final score of the game I've begun watching will prominently be shown! I've seen this happen too many times and wonder why they don't just withhold the score of the one game they are showing...they can show still all the other final scores, for all the difference that makes.
Another gripe I have with sports reruns is that there is almost always enough going on that they don't have to keep showing the same game again. I find this especially annoying when I'm on the Univision Deportes (Spanish language sports) channel and watch a live broadcast of one of Mexico's top-tier Liga MX soccer league games...say, pitting Pumas against Tigres. I watch the game, enjoy it, and a few days later am ready to watch another soccer match on Univision Deportes...but find that they are showing a rerun of that same Pumas-Tigres contest. Why not show a different game...it doesn't even have to be from Liga MX. They could show a lower Mexican league game in that time slot...or even one from some other country's soccer league, for that matter.
It isn't just a "soccer" phenomenon, these sports reruns. I regularly scan through the upcoming sports broadcasts on the many channels I get and often run across football, baseball, and basketball games that weren't just played recently, but rather months or even years earlier. I don't get it with these reruns, but then again I imagine some people wouldn't get it about my own absorption with reruns of my favorite movie and TV episodes. To each his own, I suppose...
I'll be on a channel showing such a rebroadcast, say, for example, of the English Premier League of soccer, with "my" team Arsenal playing in a game from the previous weekend that I haven't yet seen, and I'll sit down to watch it. Everything will be fine for a few minutes, when suddenly the little scrolling "information" line at the bottom of the screen will start displaying final scores...and the final score of the game I've begun watching will prominently be shown! I've seen this happen too many times and wonder why they don't just withhold the score of the one game they are showing...they can show still all the other final scores, for all the difference that makes.
Another gripe I have with sports reruns is that there is almost always enough going on that they don't have to keep showing the same game again. I find this especially annoying when I'm on the Univision Deportes (Spanish language sports) channel and watch a live broadcast of one of Mexico's top-tier Liga MX soccer league games...say, pitting Pumas against Tigres. I watch the game, enjoy it, and a few days later am ready to watch another soccer match on Univision Deportes...but find that they are showing a rerun of that same Pumas-Tigres contest. Why not show a different game...it doesn't even have to be from Liga MX. They could show a lower Mexican league game in that time slot...or even one from some other country's soccer league, for that matter.
It isn't just a "soccer" phenomenon, these sports reruns. I regularly scan through the upcoming sports broadcasts on the many channels I get and often run across football, baseball, and basketball games that weren't just played recently, but rather months or even years earlier. I don't get it with these reruns, but then again I imagine some people wouldn't get it about my own absorption with reruns of my favorite movie and TV episodes. To each his own, I suppose...
Disparate Framing of Political Debate on Sensitive Issues
When I hear various political issues brought up in the media, the two main opposing sides of the debate will usually frame it in entirely different ways. Often the two sides will engage in a verbal dance of sorts, with neither side coming to grips with what the other is actually saying. One such recurring pattern to political debates is what I call the "rights vs. funding" argument. Take an issue in which one side, usually on the political left (but not always), is pushing for what it perceives as a basic right to be promoted and recognized by society and law. Without necessarily attacking the issue head-on, I often see the opponents of such efforts (usually on the political right) instead attacking the notion that, once a "right" has been established, then the party whose "right" needs to be respected has the "right" to expect others in society to subsidize their exercise of it...through government mandates and taxation. This is especially true regarding anything that falls under the umbrella of "medical" or "health" care. If you have a certain "right" that involves going to the doctor or pharmacy, then for some reason everyone in society is now obligated to collectively pay for your exercise of said "right", even if what you are doing is an elective choice and not medically necessary. From what I see, the main justification for the argument of government (and, ultimately, the taxpayer) stepping in to pay is that by not doing so, those in society who don't have enough money are in a disadvantageous position and that this makes things unfair...so we all have to pitch in.
So with issues like abortion or birth control, the left will argue about the right of people, especially women, to be able to freely make reproductive choices in their lives...which they say is none of the government's business, much less anyone else. At the same time, the right will counter-argue that just because someone has a choice, that doesn't give them the right to make everyone else pay for it through the government.
Naturally, there are some very serious ethical, moral, and religious issues concerning abortion and birth control. Those supporting choice and open access to birth control will argue that it is a matter of privacy and others should mind their own business while at the same time use the "inequality" issue to argue that the very same people who are supposed to mind their own business and respect their private choices have to fund those choices. But the left will argue about restrictive laws and the closing of abortion clinics while the right will argue about making people pay through the government for what many of them see as the immoral behavior of others.
I see a similar pattern of argumentation when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration. Proponents of the more liberal reform measures will argue that this is both a human and civil rights issue, while the more conservative viewpoints stress that others (namely, those already legally here) should not have to pay for what was obviously an elective, willful choice of people to flout the law and cross the border illegally. Here again is the disparate framing.
I think I'm going to keep a separate little journal along my side whenever I watch C-Span (showing US House of Representatives proceedings) or C-Span2 (showing the US Senate) during the next year. It will be interesting to see the different angles of the debates going on regarding various issues that the two sides take...along with their justifying arguments...and see how many of them focus on "rights" vs "funding"...
So with issues like abortion or birth control, the left will argue about the right of people, especially women, to be able to freely make reproductive choices in their lives...which they say is none of the government's business, much less anyone else. At the same time, the right will counter-argue that just because someone has a choice, that doesn't give them the right to make everyone else pay for it through the government.
Naturally, there are some very serious ethical, moral, and religious issues concerning abortion and birth control. Those supporting choice and open access to birth control will argue that it is a matter of privacy and others should mind their own business while at the same time use the "inequality" issue to argue that the very same people who are supposed to mind their own business and respect their private choices have to fund those choices. But the left will argue about restrictive laws and the closing of abortion clinics while the right will argue about making people pay through the government for what many of them see as the immoral behavior of others.
I see a similar pattern of argumentation when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration. Proponents of the more liberal reform measures will argue that this is both a human and civil rights issue, while the more conservative viewpoints stress that others (namely, those already legally here) should not have to pay for what was obviously an elective, willful choice of people to flout the law and cross the border illegally. Here again is the disparate framing.
I think I'm going to keep a separate little journal along my side whenever I watch C-Span (showing US House of Representatives proceedings) or C-Span2 (showing the US Senate) during the next year. It will be interesting to see the different angles of the debates going on regarding various issues that the two sides take...along with their justifying arguments...and see how many of them focus on "rights" vs "funding"...
Thursday, November 6, 2014
ESPN Analysts Display Lack of Probability Knowledge
Yesterday, on ESPN's Sport Center, they were going on about how badly the Los Angeles Lakers are doing so far this year, going winless in their first five games. One point they brought up was the upcoming schedule for them, with Kobe Bryant and company favored to lose each of their next eight games. There were actual percentage probabilities given for the Lakers to win each game, with the figures hovering around the 30th and 40th percentiles. Then one of the announcers got to the point of all this, which is that they may well lose all eight games and start the season off at 0-13. I beg to differ...
I didn't get all of the percentage predictions of each game (I wonder how they even arrived at them), but I think I'm being pretty conservative at saying they averaged about a 35% winning probability given for each game (it's probably higher). That means that the losing probability for each game is .65: for the Lakers to lose all eight of their next games, you would need to take that probability to the eighth power:
(,65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)=.032 , or 3.2%
In other words, even though the Lakers may be heavy underdogs in each of the next eight games with only a 35% average chance of winning each one, the probability of them losing ALL eight games is only 3.2%!
This is a glaring example of how otherwise very intelligent and educated people can falter the minute they go any distance in interpreting statistical data or anything dealing with probability. Will the Lakers actually lose their next eight games? Maybe, but it's not very likely given the input data...
I didn't get all of the percentage predictions of each game (I wonder how they even arrived at them), but I think I'm being pretty conservative at saying they averaged about a 35% winning probability given for each game (it's probably higher). That means that the losing probability for each game is .65: for the Lakers to lose all eight of their next games, you would need to take that probability to the eighth power:
(,65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)=.032 , or 3.2%
In other words, even though the Lakers may be heavy underdogs in each of the next eight games with only a 35% average chance of winning each one, the probability of them losing ALL eight games is only 3.2%!
This is a glaring example of how otherwise very intelligent and educated people can falter the minute they go any distance in interpreting statistical data or anything dealing with probability. Will the Lakers actually lose their next eight games? Maybe, but it's not very likely given the input data...
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Just Finished Reading Joseph Heller's Catch-22
You know you've written something significant when a defining principle expressed within it becomes enshrined as an integral part of the culture. That is what happened with Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22, which I understand was embraced by the anti-war counterculture movement of the late 1960s....not to mention becoming a standard high school/college English class reading assignment (groan) for millions. The title words "Catch-22" refer to a situation in which, no matter what one does, the result will be unsatisfactory...and it is the process itself that always leads to the undesired ending. It is a kind of "double-bind" that isn't necessarily personal in nature but often is embedded within official social institutions...like the Army of the author's World War II experiences.
During World War II, Heller served as a bomber pilot, based on a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. Likewise, his protagonist, John Yossarian, is such a pilot with many missions already under his belt. He is ready to go home, being certain that if he keeps flying missions over the enemy then he will be shot down and killed. And, for most of the Army pilots, he would already have had enough flights to qualify to go home. But his own commander, Colonel Cathcart, is trying to become a general by "volunteering" his men to more and more flights, continually raising the flight limit.
Yossarian visits the base's physician and tells him that he (Yossarian) is insane and therefore to please confirm this fact so that he can be sent back home. Dr. Daneeka responds by saying that, for anyone to be sent home, they must make the request for it...but the act of making such a request reveals that they are rational and not insane...and hence ineligible to be sent home. Yossarian then points out to Dr. D one of his fellow pilots and asks him whether this individual is insane. The good doctor responds by agreeing that he is crazy and eligible to go home...and he can request it. But the moment he does so, then he is committing a rational act and therefore is sane and ineligible. This is the book's main illustration of the principle of "Catch-22": an algorithm of interaction and logic that always leads to an unsatisfactory outcome, regardless what information is given initially. Certainly I've seen this process repeated in many, many situations over the course of my life: it's not just an "Army" thing...
Catch-22 is loaded with these types of circular arguments among its many characters. The ultimate effect is that everything is a farce, and it would be hilarious were it not for the fact that all were in the midst of a brutal war where people were being killed and injured. This story ruthlessly satirizes the command structure of the military, but could be applied to just about any group in society that depends on a hierarchy of authorities. It also exposes, with the character of mess hall officer Milo, who has become rich by developing an intricate trade system in the region (and even making enemy nations Germany and Italy "shareholders"), the two-faced nature of business...quite willing to work against the national interests if there is a profit to be made...and how they are continually given a "free pass" and not held accountable for their seemingly treasonous acts because they are engaged in the high and noble act of "free enterprise"...
I heartily recommend Catch-22 and, unlike an English teacher, won't be grading you on your reactions. It isn't long at all, but it does contain very much concentrated, intense dialogue...intense in the sense that there is a lot of reasoning going on here...albeit often very faulty reasoning. It is also very big on humor...my favorite character is the misunderstood Major Major Major Major (continually accused of looking too much like Henry Fonda), who pulls his own brand of "Catch-22" on others by refusing to see anyone unless he is out...
During World War II, Heller served as a bomber pilot, based on a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. Likewise, his protagonist, John Yossarian, is such a pilot with many missions already under his belt. He is ready to go home, being certain that if he keeps flying missions over the enemy then he will be shot down and killed. And, for most of the Army pilots, he would already have had enough flights to qualify to go home. But his own commander, Colonel Cathcart, is trying to become a general by "volunteering" his men to more and more flights, continually raising the flight limit.
Yossarian visits the base's physician and tells him that he (Yossarian) is insane and therefore to please confirm this fact so that he can be sent back home. Dr. Daneeka responds by saying that, for anyone to be sent home, they must make the request for it...but the act of making such a request reveals that they are rational and not insane...and hence ineligible to be sent home. Yossarian then points out to Dr. D one of his fellow pilots and asks him whether this individual is insane. The good doctor responds by agreeing that he is crazy and eligible to go home...and he can request it. But the moment he does so, then he is committing a rational act and therefore is sane and ineligible. This is the book's main illustration of the principle of "Catch-22": an algorithm of interaction and logic that always leads to an unsatisfactory outcome, regardless what information is given initially. Certainly I've seen this process repeated in many, many situations over the course of my life: it's not just an "Army" thing...
Catch-22 is loaded with these types of circular arguments among its many characters. The ultimate effect is that everything is a farce, and it would be hilarious were it not for the fact that all were in the midst of a brutal war where people were being killed and injured. This story ruthlessly satirizes the command structure of the military, but could be applied to just about any group in society that depends on a hierarchy of authorities. It also exposes, with the character of mess hall officer Milo, who has become rich by developing an intricate trade system in the region (and even making enemy nations Germany and Italy "shareholders"), the two-faced nature of business...quite willing to work against the national interests if there is a profit to be made...and how they are continually given a "free pass" and not held accountable for their seemingly treasonous acts because they are engaged in the high and noble act of "free enterprise"...
I heartily recommend Catch-22 and, unlike an English teacher, won't be grading you on your reactions. It isn't long at all, but it does contain very much concentrated, intense dialogue...intense in the sense that there is a lot of reasoning going on here...albeit often very faulty reasoning. It is also very big on humor...my favorite character is the misunderstood Major Major Major Major (continually accused of looking too much like Henry Fonda), who pulls his own brand of "Catch-22" on others by refusing to see anyone unless he is out...
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