Thoughts on Health, Paris, Football, Reading

As I sit here in my living room, enjoying the fragrance of one of the autumn-scented candles that Melissa picked up the other day at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, along with the open-windowed cool breeze finally blessing us on this mid-November Saturday afternoon, I realize that it's been a while since I wrote on my blog.  Ever since the 11th, I have been feeling out of sorts physically, as if some sort of general inflammation has been affecting my entire body, causing headaches, localized pains, and a feeling of "blah".  Whatever the cause, the problem seems to have packed up and left...possibly aided by my having slept a good deal last night...

The big news story is the ISIS terrorist attack on Paris, France yesterday.  After the coordinated attacks by at least eight thugs on civilian targets like a roadside cafe and a music concert, more than 120 people have been killed...and there is concern that more trouble may be upcoming.  I find this focus on France, and recently even Russia with that Egyptian airplane bombing, extremely ironic since it was these two countries back in early 2003 that were in the forefront of international opposition to the U.S. invading Sunni-governed Iraq...the sect of Islam that ISIS claims to follow.  But this terror organization appears to be ultimately founded on hate, evil, and bloodlust...they just clothe themselves with their outward signs of religion to disguise their base nature.  And despite yesterday's attack in France, their biggest victims by far have been peaceful members of the Muslim faith that they pretend to follow...

On a lighter note, today is college football Saturday and the Gators are right now playing South Carolina in Columbia.  Steve Spurrier's no longer their coach, having walked off the team in mid-season because they weren't having a good year...that just doesn't sound right to me.  If Florida wins today against the Gamecocks, they'll still be in the hunt for one of those four post-season national championship playoff spots...but their recently-sputtering offense had better pick up if they want to have any chance of reaching that level of football glory this 2015 season...

I did manage to finish reading a book recently: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, the final book in the His Dark Materials fantasy/science fiction trilogy.  I had read it before a few years ago and had then come to the conclusion that the author had left room for further spin-off novels from this series.  Having just reread it, I have to revise that opinion: Pullman sealed things up quite well with this final volume...