My running in April was curtailed at the end by something not directly related to it: chronic and often intense pain in my left arm. Earlier today I had to seek medical treatment, and more serious concerns about my heart were then eliminated. Still, my life for the next few days will be disrupted as I have to rest and recover while taking medication to keep the pain level in my arm bearable. Needless to say, I won't be running anytime soon...
As for my running stats for April, I ran a total of 97 miles, a 4.1 mile run being my longest single run...and I ran on 26 days, missing some at the end due to the aforementioned problem. Earlier in the month I had a chance to run a 10K race but have decided that running races early Saturday morning simply does not work when I am getting off from my often physically demanding job Friday at midnight, just a few hours earlier...future races will have to give me some more recuperation time from work than that. In any event, my arm is the pressing issue for me right now and running is far down the list of my priorities. I'll see where I stand on it in a few days...
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Watching Hockey and Soccer While Resting Aching Body
Today has been one of those days when I've felt achy, happy to be off from work and at home. In particular, my left arm has been hurting off and on the last few days...and especially today...as if someone had badly twisted it. So here I am writing this, sitting in my recliner in front of the TV in my living room. I just finished watching an exciting double-overtime National Hockey League playoff game between Ottawa and the New York Rangers...the Senators came from two goals down to win it 6-5. Right now I'm channel surfing, waiting for 8:00 when Mexican soccer comes on two different channels: Univision and Galavision...the latter will feature "my" UANL Tigres as they try to sneak into the playoffs, with first-place Tijuana their opponent tonight. In the meantime, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is on one channel, Matrix Revolutions is on another...and, depending on how much of a glutton for punishment you are, the "news" channels are showing either a Donald Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which the president is boycotting this year because he thinks he's being treated unfairly...poor guy. Like I said, I'm waiting for the Mexican soccer...
Also starting at 8 is another National Hockey League playoff match and this one may be between the league's top two teams: defending champion Pittsburgh and this year's league-leader in the regular season, Washington. I think I'm gonna be doing a lot of toggling back in forth between hockey and soccer tonight...
Also starting at 8 is another National Hockey League playoff match and this one may be between the league's top two teams: defending champion Pittsburgh and this year's league-leader in the regular season, Washington. I think I'm gonna be doing a lot of toggling back in forth between hockey and soccer tonight...
Friday, April 28, 2017
Quote of the Week...from Ronald Reagan
Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out. ---Ronald Reagan
The antithesis to this quote from one of the greatest presidents we've ever had at leading and positively influencing people would be the micromanager's creed: assume the people under you are stupid and incompetent, run around and interfere with their work continually, distract them by raising and emphasizing trivial issues, see the situation before you as static instead of dynamic...and then, when those over whom you are exercising authority consequently display little initiative or motivation, use that as an excuse to micromanage them further.
Regardless of the nature of the organization or one's leadership title, any position of leadership is one of entrusted stewardship. Leaders cannot allow themselves to fall to the tempting delusion that they ARE the position, and they need to demonstrate respect for those subordinated to them...just as they are entitled in turn to respect. Micromanagers are like an infection in the organization, continually behaving disrespectfully to those around them and, in turn, breeding further disrespect from others. A wise leader will be careful to notice when micromanagement is occurring and to quickly take steps to eliminate this danger to the vitality and mission of the organization...
Effective leaders, like Ronald Reagan, delegate authority and recognize the talents and intelligence of those working for them. This, not micromanagement, is the template for effective management...
The antithesis to this quote from one of the greatest presidents we've ever had at leading and positively influencing people would be the micromanager's creed: assume the people under you are stupid and incompetent, run around and interfere with their work continually, distract them by raising and emphasizing trivial issues, see the situation before you as static instead of dynamic...and then, when those over whom you are exercising authority consequently display little initiative or motivation, use that as an excuse to micromanage them further.
Regardless of the nature of the organization or one's leadership title, any position of leadership is one of entrusted stewardship. Leaders cannot allow themselves to fall to the tempting delusion that they ARE the position, and they need to demonstrate respect for those subordinated to them...just as they are entitled in turn to respect. Micromanagers are like an infection in the organization, continually behaving disrespectfully to those around them and, in turn, breeding further disrespect from others. A wise leader will be careful to notice when micromanagement is occurring and to quickly take steps to eliminate this danger to the vitality and mission of the organization...
Effective leaders, like Ronald Reagan, delegate authority and recognize the talents and intelligence of those working for them. This, not micromanagement, is the template for effective management...
Thursday, April 27, 2017
4/23 Sermon on 1 John, Part 2
This past Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his message series, titled Let There Be Light and based on the New Testament book on 1 John. Part 2, The Truth about Obedience, focused on Chapter 2, Verses 1-6...shown here in the New International Version thanks to Bible Gateway:
In his presentation, Pastor Philip laid out four aspects of obedience to God: the requirement: a surrender of the will, the motivation: a relationship with God, the reward: completion and confidence, and if we fall: Jesus is our advocate. Throughout the passage, the author of 1 John emphasized the unshakable connection between knowing God and obeying his commands...i.e. knowing God gives one the capacity and motivation to follow his commands, and following his commands reveals that one knows God. Because he was addressing his letter to fellow Christians, it is implicit here that John was indirectly rebuking some who were not following God's commands...and that this was truly a call for their repentance...available, as our pastor pointed out, through Jesus' advocacy on our behalf...
Verse 6, which insisted that we as believers walk as Jesus did, should direct us to his act of total obedience to his heavenly father when he allowed himself to be crucified, something that he strongly prayed that he would not have to do. But he submitted and was obedient. We may not have such a difficult road to walk in our lives, but the commands are still there as we have our sights set on knowing God...
You can watch this sermon and others via The Family Church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [link]. The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street and holds its services at 9:30 and 11. Besides the weekly message, the services have inspiring praise music and opportunities for prayer and joining discipleship groups....
2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
In his presentation, Pastor Philip laid out four aspects of obedience to God: the requirement: a surrender of the will, the motivation: a relationship with God, the reward: completion and confidence, and if we fall: Jesus is our advocate. Throughout the passage, the author of 1 John emphasized the unshakable connection between knowing God and obeying his commands...i.e. knowing God gives one the capacity and motivation to follow his commands, and following his commands reveals that one knows God. Because he was addressing his letter to fellow Christians, it is implicit here that John was indirectly rebuking some who were not following God's commands...and that this was truly a call for their repentance...available, as our pastor pointed out, through Jesus' advocacy on our behalf...
Verse 6, which insisted that we as believers walk as Jesus did, should direct us to his act of total obedience to his heavenly father when he allowed himself to be crucified, something that he strongly prayed that he would not have to do. But he submitted and was obedient. We may not have such a difficult road to walk in our lives, but the commands are still there as we have our sights set on knowing God...
You can watch this sermon and others via The Family Church's YouTube video website...just click on the following link: [link]. The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street and holds its services at 9:30 and 11. Besides the weekly message, the services have inspiring praise music and opportunities for prayer and joining discipleship groups....
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Weekly Short Story Review: Deep Breathing Exercises by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an author of many fictional novels and short stories, most known for his science fiction work...in particular, the very popular Ender's Game, which was recently adapted to the screen. I own a collection of his short fiction, titled Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (Orb Books, 1990). The book itself is 662 pages long, but the story I'm discussing today, Deep Breathing Exercises, takes up only 5. And it is one of the most intense short stories I've ever read...
Dale Yorgason is a young man living in Denver, Colorado with his wife and their two-year old son. By all accounts they have a bright future ahead of them...and then Dale begins to notice situations when people around him are breathing in unison...all inhaling and exhaling at the same time. This alone would be an incredible coincidence, but Dale also sees that these incidents portend something ominous...
In spite of the brevity of Deep Breathing Exercises, the events described in it are momentous. Yet Card was able to skillfully develop the protagonist's character and explore the philosophical basis for arguments about predestined fate...and whether a warning from the future is even logically possible. This story would be perfect for Twilight Zone and reminds me of Stephen King's best short fiction. A good read, albeit pretty disturbing...
Dale Yorgason is a young man living in Denver, Colorado with his wife and their two-year old son. By all accounts they have a bright future ahead of them...and then Dale begins to notice situations when people around him are breathing in unison...all inhaling and exhaling at the same time. This alone would be an incredible coincidence, but Dale also sees that these incidents portend something ominous...
In spite of the brevity of Deep Breathing Exercises, the events described in it are momentous. Yet Card was able to skillfully develop the protagonist's character and explore the philosophical basis for arguments about predestined fate...and whether a warning from the future is even logically possible. This story would be perfect for Twilight Zone and reminds me of Stephen King's best short fiction. A good read, albeit pretty disturbing...
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Public and Conversational Speaking
Do you think that you're a good speaker? And what exactly does being a "good speaker" entail, anyway? To me, this is an area that has been a major stumbling block in my life. I apparently have little problem communicating my thoughts through writing, but when it comes to expressing myself by talking, my mind freezes and I stumble around like a complete idiot...unless I can get what I want to say accomplished by a very quick one or two sentences. And then quickly retreat back into my personal world of self-imposed silence...
In the eleventh grade, back in the spring of 1973, I took speech class as a mandatory graduation requirement...something that I had been dreading for some time. There are some folks who are natural hams and can't wait to get up before an audience...I remember "show and tell" from early elementary school and how some kids would recount what happened with them the previous day from the time they woke up all the way to when they hit the pillow at night. But in speech class I discovered a problem besides my extreme shyness in front of a group: for communications to be effective, the message has to both be something that the speaker is interested in conveying and that the audience is interested in hearing. I felt back then...and even now to an extent...that there is often a great discrepancy between what I feel is relevant and interesting and what others are attracted to. With writing this blog, that doesn't matter since people can ignore it at their pleasure, stopping by from time to time to read about a topic I've written about that interests them. But with speaking, it can be difficult to keep an audience focused on my message. And it's not just me with that problem: good public speaking is a rare skill, greatly appreciated when experienced...
I feel the need right now to distinguish between public and conversational speaking. In the former, a boring or rambling speaker may quickly lose the interest and attention of his or her audience, but isn't likely to be interrupted. In conversation, though, it is often a verbal jungle out there with people interrupting and even simultaneously talking over each other. A good conversational speaker needs to be a good listener and be prepared to allow the other to do the lion's share of talking, if that is where the conversation naturally leads. And not to interrupt. I have great need of improvement both in conversing and speaking publicly...why not figure out a roadmap for getting better in both areas?
With conversational speaking, it is important to find out what interests the other person and engage them about it. Without interrupting!!! With public speaking, I've wrestled with my personal demons on this and think I have a solution: create my own spoken audio monologues on various topics of interest to me...i.e., the same way I tackle this blog...and put them out on the Internet. YouTube may be a viable way to do this...I wouldn't necessarily need to video-record my monologues and I could post links to them that others could access. Of course, this would be pretty uncomfortable for someone as habitually reclusive as myself, but sometimes you have to step out a bit in order to grow...
In the eleventh grade, back in the spring of 1973, I took speech class as a mandatory graduation requirement...something that I had been dreading for some time. There are some folks who are natural hams and can't wait to get up before an audience...I remember "show and tell" from early elementary school and how some kids would recount what happened with them the previous day from the time they woke up all the way to when they hit the pillow at night. But in speech class I discovered a problem besides my extreme shyness in front of a group: for communications to be effective, the message has to both be something that the speaker is interested in conveying and that the audience is interested in hearing. I felt back then...and even now to an extent...that there is often a great discrepancy between what I feel is relevant and interesting and what others are attracted to. With writing this blog, that doesn't matter since people can ignore it at their pleasure, stopping by from time to time to read about a topic I've written about that interests them. But with speaking, it can be difficult to keep an audience focused on my message. And it's not just me with that problem: good public speaking is a rare skill, greatly appreciated when experienced...
I feel the need right now to distinguish between public and conversational speaking. In the former, a boring or rambling speaker may quickly lose the interest and attention of his or her audience, but isn't likely to be interrupted. In conversation, though, it is often a verbal jungle out there with people interrupting and even simultaneously talking over each other. A good conversational speaker needs to be a good listener and be prepared to allow the other to do the lion's share of talking, if that is where the conversation naturally leads. And not to interrupt. I have great need of improvement both in conversing and speaking publicly...why not figure out a roadmap for getting better in both areas?
With conversational speaking, it is important to find out what interests the other person and engage them about it. Without interrupting!!! With public speaking, I've wrestled with my personal demons on this and think I have a solution: create my own spoken audio monologues on various topics of interest to me...i.e., the same way I tackle this blog...and put them out on the Internet. YouTube may be a viable way to do this...I wouldn't necessarily need to video-record my monologues and I could post links to them that others could access. Of course, this would be pretty uncomfortable for someone as habitually reclusive as myself, but sometimes you have to step out a bit in order to grow...
Monday, April 24, 2017
2017 NHL Playoffs Enter Second Round
I was thinking about writing an article today about hierarchical social structures and how some put in positions of authority over others confuse their own personal self-images with the posts they have been given temporary stewardship over, resulting in arrogance, micromanagement and disrespect toward those in subordinate positions...but seeing how I'm pressed for time right now, I think I'll defer what will probably be a lengthy essay to another day and instead briefly comment on the National Hockey League playoff picture, now that the first round is over...
I have loosely followed the NHL off and on since the early 1970s without really knowing the rules of the game...I'm a product of South Florida, never having touched a hockey stick, much less ice-skate (or roller-skate, for that matter). I'm sure that if I had, then I would better appreciate how the players are forced to move on the rink and thus would be more aware of the subtleties of this game. But I can still be a spectator, and now I think I've got the rules down...so bring on the hockey! I haven't been able to follow very many games in this year's Stanley Cup championship playoffs as I work during weekday evenings and can only see the tail end of the late, western games after I get home past midnight. Still, this past weekend and the one before, I was able to watch quite a bit...as a matter of fact, I saw at least a little action in each and every one of the eight first-round series...
Defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh, as expected, handled Columbus and Anaheim, likewise heavily favored, took care of Calgary in short order. Underdog Nashville, on the other hand, stunned Chicago in a four-game sweep and St. Louis surprised disappointing Minnesota in their series. That's four series that were relatively short and lopsided. The other four series all went 4-2 and were usually competitive and exciting...this 2017 first round set an NHL record for most overtime matches in a single round. Although one of their two losses to defending Stanley Cup finalist San Jose was a 7-0 drubbing, Edmonton, in the playoffs for the first time in many years, won the close contests and beat the Sharks. The New York Rangers, my remaining favorite now that the Blackhawks have been eliminated, slipped by Montreal. Ottawa won a thrilling overtime game over Boston to advance, while Washington, sporting the best regular season record in the league, ousted upstart Toronto with its overachieving rookie lineup, again in overtime, to get to the next round...
And now here we are in round two with eight teams. Two of the upcoming series, Pittsburgh vs. Washington and Anaheim vs. Edmonton, are between teams that had especially strong regular seasons and were regarded as favorites. The other two, St. Louis vs. Nashville and Ottawa vs. the New York Rangers (especially the former), pit teams that some folks didn't think would have advanced this far. Although I'm supporting the Rangers, I just enjoying watching any of the matches as they are played at this high level of skill and continue to learn more about the different strategies employed by the players to gain an upper hand over the opposing side...
I have loosely followed the NHL off and on since the early 1970s without really knowing the rules of the game...I'm a product of South Florida, never having touched a hockey stick, much less ice-skate (or roller-skate, for that matter). I'm sure that if I had, then I would better appreciate how the players are forced to move on the rink and thus would be more aware of the subtleties of this game. But I can still be a spectator, and now I think I've got the rules down...so bring on the hockey! I haven't been able to follow very many games in this year's Stanley Cup championship playoffs as I work during weekday evenings and can only see the tail end of the late, western games after I get home past midnight. Still, this past weekend and the one before, I was able to watch quite a bit...as a matter of fact, I saw at least a little action in each and every one of the eight first-round series...
Defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh, as expected, handled Columbus and Anaheim, likewise heavily favored, took care of Calgary in short order. Underdog Nashville, on the other hand, stunned Chicago in a four-game sweep and St. Louis surprised disappointing Minnesota in their series. That's four series that were relatively short and lopsided. The other four series all went 4-2 and were usually competitive and exciting...this 2017 first round set an NHL record for most overtime matches in a single round. Although one of their two losses to defending Stanley Cup finalist San Jose was a 7-0 drubbing, Edmonton, in the playoffs for the first time in many years, won the close contests and beat the Sharks. The New York Rangers, my remaining favorite now that the Blackhawks have been eliminated, slipped by Montreal. Ottawa won a thrilling overtime game over Boston to advance, while Washington, sporting the best regular season record in the league, ousted upstart Toronto with its overachieving rookie lineup, again in overtime, to get to the next round...
And now here we are in round two with eight teams. Two of the upcoming series, Pittsburgh vs. Washington and Anaheim vs. Edmonton, are between teams that had especially strong regular seasons and were regarded as favorites. The other two, St. Louis vs. Nashville and Ottawa vs. the New York Rangers (especially the former), pit teams that some folks didn't think would have advanced this far. Although I'm supporting the Rangers, I just enjoying watching any of the matches as they are played at this high level of skill and continue to learn more about the different strategies employed by the players to gain an upper hand over the opposing side...
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Friends of the Library Book Sale Nets Some Interesting Finds
Yesterday was the first day of the semiannual Friends of the Library used book sale, always held at the same building on the 400 block of North Main Street here in Gainesville. I made it down there early in the afternoon and browsed around...but not too much. I picked up a book for Melissa, found a couple of interesting jigsaw puzzles, and hung around the foreign language section...totally ignoring the vast amount of fiction for sale. I bought a compact Chinese-English dual-translation Bible with the text of both languages presented in simplified vocabulary...I have high hopes for it in my future studies. I found a very old Hindi primer that I plan to use to practice writing out sentences and get myself used to thinking within the flow of that beautiful language. And I made one more interesting find: a Turkish-English dual language reader, composed of several short stories...like the Bible, written in simple language...simple enough for me to pick out the Turkish words' meanings as well as the intricate grammatical constructions in that agglutinative language. All of the books I bought were dirt-cheap, from 50 cents to a dollar each, and were small and thus very portable. As for books of fiction...
I have been making extensive use of my local public library for reading fiction, generally eschewing purchasing books. I also have a very extensive collection at home of short stories that I really should be reading more of...that's why I've started "Short Story Wednesday" on this blog when I review and discuss the more interesting examples of this important and underappreciated type of literature. But I've gotten myself into the habit of going downtown to this book bazaar every six months and doubtless will be paying another visit in October. Besides books and puzzles they sell used magazines, vinyl phonograph records, CDs, cassettes, VHS, and DVDs. The sale will last through Wednesday, so there's plenty of time left for you to join in on the browsing...
I have been making extensive use of my local public library for reading fiction, generally eschewing purchasing books. I also have a very extensive collection at home of short stories that I really should be reading more of...that's why I've started "Short Story Wednesday" on this blog when I review and discuss the more interesting examples of this important and underappreciated type of literature. But I've gotten myself into the habit of going downtown to this book bazaar every six months and doubtless will be paying another visit in October. Besides books and puzzles they sell used magazines, vinyl phonograph records, CDs, cassettes, VHS, and DVDs. The sale will last through Wednesday, so there's plenty of time left for you to join in on the browsing...
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Just Finished Reading Gone Again by James Grippando
James Grippando is a novelist who, like John Grisham, specializes in the legal fiction genre. His Jack Swyteck series is about a defense attorney residing in South Florida, where I grew up. So when I selected book #12 in the series, titled Gone Again, I was looking forward to some familiar hometown landmarks. Although these turned out to be few and far between, I was intrigued by the story...skipping to the twelfth volume in the series was no problem as the main story was self-contained within the book, a story about a man on death row who Jack increasingly believes is innocent of his first-degree murder conviction of a teen-age girl. Sashi was adopted from Russia (before Putin banned American adoptions of Russians) along with her younger brother into an American family...she had some serious psychological and behavioral issues, and the idea of sending her "back" to Russia had floated around between the adoptive parents. Although her body was never found following her disappearance one day, she was assumed murdered through circumstantial evidence by the aforementioned convict, a serious felon and all-around "bad guy" before this case ever came up. His execution is coming up soon, but now the adoptive mother has come out with her belief that he is innocent...on the basis that she is getting calls...with the caller always silent...from Sashi's cell phone number. As Jack takes on the case, he discovers that there is much more to Sashi's disappearance and that organized crime, particularly with regard to human trafficking, may play a big role before it's all over. But you'll have to read this book for yourself to see how it all plays out...
The last couple of times I visited Hollywood, where I grew up, Melissa and I would walk in the evening along the "Broadwalk" on Hollywood Beach, where there were eating places and live music performances. As we strolled along, I would pick up bits of conversations from the other visitors, eerily noting that an unusual percentage of them were going on in Russian, not English or Spanish as I would have expected in South Florida. I suspected that this area had become something of an ethnic enclave for Russians...Grippando confirmed this notion in Gone Again as he described the coastal area in northeastern Dade County...especially in Sunny Isles...north to Hallandale in southeastern Broward, just south of Hollywood Beach, as "Little Moscow". In this area reside many from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and other East European countries. It reminds me of the Indian "zone" south of Archer Road along SW 34th Street in my current hometown of Gainesville. I think it would be fun to see if there isn't a street down there that is full of Russian restaurants and shops and where Russian is the predominant language spoken...
I enjoyed this first James Grippando novel of mine and am receptive to reading more. But I'm unlikely to pick up another book of his anytime soon as I have several others to read first...
The last couple of times I visited Hollywood, where I grew up, Melissa and I would walk in the evening along the "Broadwalk" on Hollywood Beach, where there were eating places and live music performances. As we strolled along, I would pick up bits of conversations from the other visitors, eerily noting that an unusual percentage of them were going on in Russian, not English or Spanish as I would have expected in South Florida. I suspected that this area had become something of an ethnic enclave for Russians...Grippando confirmed this notion in Gone Again as he described the coastal area in northeastern Dade County...especially in Sunny Isles...north to Hallandale in southeastern Broward, just south of Hollywood Beach, as "Little Moscow". In this area reside many from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and other East European countries. It reminds me of the Indian "zone" south of Archer Road along SW 34th Street in my current hometown of Gainesville. I think it would be fun to see if there isn't a street down there that is full of Russian restaurants and shops and where Russian is the predominant language spoken...
I enjoyed this first James Grippando novel of mine and am receptive to reading more. But I'm unlikely to pick up another book of his anytime soon as I have several others to read first...
Friday, April 21, 2017
Quote of the Week...from Stephen Covey
Live out of your imagination, not your history. ---Stephen Covey.
You may be already know Stephen Covey from his blockbuster hit book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People a few years ago...he's written several spinoff books since then. So it's not surprising that he would have quite a few practical, uplifting quotes...I found the above one and would like to share what I think of it...
Each and every one of us has our own histories that are composed of the multitudes of experiences that have constructed our unique individual life tapestries...I cannot escape my own personal history as I go forward with my life. But I also have the ability to consciously employ my imagination and reasoning to take the present moment and behave in a different way from what my past might otherwise dictate to me...and by so doing, I am not only fulfilling the essence of Stephen Covey's exhortation, but also changing who I am by adding something new and positive to my own life's tapestry. For what I consciously do now will inevitably be part of my history, for better or for worse. Using my imagination and doing things that are out of my comfort zone serves to widen my choices in the future and allow me more freedom to make it more fulfilling. Also, by employing my imagination in deciding what to do in the present moment, I am digging more deeply into my own subconscious, where ironically some of my more pressing unmet needs from my past may be submerged...
There is one other thing I'd like to add to Covey's quote: it says to live out of your imagination...but I say that, being social creatures as we humans are, it's also all right to listen to the products of others' imaginings and, if discerned to be good ideas, to adopt them as your own and to live out of them as well...after all, isn't that what I'm doing with this quote?
You may be already know Stephen Covey from his blockbuster hit book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People a few years ago...he's written several spinoff books since then. So it's not surprising that he would have quite a few practical, uplifting quotes...I found the above one and would like to share what I think of it...
Each and every one of us has our own histories that are composed of the multitudes of experiences that have constructed our unique individual life tapestries...I cannot escape my own personal history as I go forward with my life. But I also have the ability to consciously employ my imagination and reasoning to take the present moment and behave in a different way from what my past might otherwise dictate to me...and by so doing, I am not only fulfilling the essence of Stephen Covey's exhortation, but also changing who I am by adding something new and positive to my own life's tapestry. For what I consciously do now will inevitably be part of my history, for better or for worse. Using my imagination and doing things that are out of my comfort zone serves to widen my choices in the future and allow me more freedom to make it more fulfilling. Also, by employing my imagination in deciding what to do in the present moment, I am digging more deeply into my own subconscious, where ironically some of my more pressing unmet needs from my past may be submerged...
There is one other thing I'd like to add to Covey's quote: it says to live out of your imagination...but I say that, being social creatures as we humans are, it's also all right to listen to the products of others' imaginings and, if discerned to be good ideas, to adopt them as your own and to live out of them as well...after all, isn't that what I'm doing with this quote?
Thursday, April 20, 2017
4/16 Sermon on 1 John, Part 1
On this past Easter Sunday at The Family Church, our senior pastor, Philip Griffin, departed from the standard program on this important day in the Christian calendar and began a new series instead of giving a specifically Easter-themed sermon. The Biblical text for this series is the New Testament book of 1 John, located near the back of the Bible. Sunday's message, titled Knowing Jesus, addressed Chapter 1...which you can read in the New International Version via Bible Gateway through the following link: [link]...
It's not altogether clear exactly who wrote 1 John, although the authorship is traditionally ascribed to the disciple John, who is also credited with writing the gospel book bearing his name. In any event, context is important when trying to understand what the author was trying to express...John seemed to be trying to mend the church as it was being torn apart by divergent doctrines about Jesus. As a result, the text in Chapter 1...and I'm assuming the rest of 1 John...contains some very important ideas that are worth looking at. And Pastor Philip did just that...
Pastor Philip broke his message down into four parts: to know Jesus means (1) understanding him, (2) having fellowship with him, (3) being transformed by him, and (4) facing our need for him. In understanding the nature of Jesus, John pointed to Jesus' eternal existence with the Father. As for fellowship, Philip pointed out that our that joy in this fellowship (Greek: koinónia) is tied to a deep abiding relationship with God, not with rules and rituals. Personal transformation occurs when we walk "in the light" (i.e. experience fellowship with God). After that transformation, the light lets us see life and the world for it truly is, giving us the means to see the futility of pride, greed, lust, anger, and the rest of what the world can oppress us with. Finally our pastor stressed, regarding our need for Jesus, that we recognize that sin is inherited, not learned...and that we all fall. Confession (Greek: homologeō "same word") is merely an acknowledgement of what God already knows...and he is quick to forgive us...
There is a lot of pretty deep stuff packed into this message...I could see a whole series of sermons from this first chapter alone! As for the "light" being good and "darkness" bad, I have a slightly different take on this: in the context of John's allegory of God's openness through his light which exposes the hidden, sin-filled darkness of one's walk apart from him, I totally understand and agree. But let's not assume that the concepts of light and darkness always respectively mean "good" and "bad" in every context...I'll see if I can't expound on this subject in some future blog article...
You can view this most recent message through the following link, which accesses The Family Church YouTube video site: [link]. The Family Church holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11 and is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street (Parker Road). I'm looking forward to future installments of Pastor Philip's series about 1 John...
It's not altogether clear exactly who wrote 1 John, although the authorship is traditionally ascribed to the disciple John, who is also credited with writing the gospel book bearing his name. In any event, context is important when trying to understand what the author was trying to express...John seemed to be trying to mend the church as it was being torn apart by divergent doctrines about Jesus. As a result, the text in Chapter 1...and I'm assuming the rest of 1 John...contains some very important ideas that are worth looking at. And Pastor Philip did just that...
Pastor Philip broke his message down into four parts: to know Jesus means (1) understanding him, (2) having fellowship with him, (3) being transformed by him, and (4) facing our need for him. In understanding the nature of Jesus, John pointed to Jesus' eternal existence with the Father. As for fellowship, Philip pointed out that our that joy in this fellowship (Greek: koinónia) is tied to a deep abiding relationship with God, not with rules and rituals. Personal transformation occurs when we walk "in the light" (i.e. experience fellowship with God). After that transformation, the light lets us see life and the world for it truly is, giving us the means to see the futility of pride, greed, lust, anger, and the rest of what the world can oppress us with. Finally our pastor stressed, regarding our need for Jesus, that we recognize that sin is inherited, not learned...and that we all fall. Confession (Greek: homologeō "same word") is merely an acknowledgement of what God already knows...and he is quick to forgive us...
There is a lot of pretty deep stuff packed into this message...I could see a whole series of sermons from this first chapter alone! As for the "light" being good and "darkness" bad, I have a slightly different take on this: in the context of John's allegory of God's openness through his light which exposes the hidden, sin-filled darkness of one's walk apart from him, I totally understand and agree. But let's not assume that the concepts of light and darkness always respectively mean "good" and "bad" in every context...I'll see if I can't expound on this subject in some future blog article...
You can view this most recent message through the following link, which accesses The Family Church YouTube video site: [link]. The Family Church holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11 and is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street (Parker Road). I'm looking forward to future installments of Pastor Philip's series about 1 John...
The Tricolor Good Neighbor Sign
The above photo is of a sign I've been seeing quite a lot of lately...one of tolerance, wouldn't you say? By the way, thanks to National Public Radio's website, here's the pertinent article: [link]. There's one of these signs...and I love the green/blue/orange color scheme...posted by a resident two houses down from me, and it seems there is a preponderance of them on the roadside in front of various churches in town...a church seems to be the origin of these signs (read NPR's article). But what are they trying to convey...and why?
The overt message is simple and positive: we're not prejudiced about where you're from...if you're our neighbor, then we accept and welcome you. Sounds good, to me...how about you? The problem I see is that by making the sign into Spanish, English, and Arabic translations, a not-so-subtle political dart is being thrown at the Trump administration...after all, does anyone honestly think that these signs would have come out had Hillary Clinton (whom I supported) been elected as president? Donald Trump had campaigned on protecting our borders from both illegal immigration from the predominantly Spanish-speaking south and from radical Islamists from predominantly Arabic-speaking countries...I think the measures he's taken so far as president are a little over the top but well-intentioned. After all, he is duty-bound to protect us and uphold the laws and I believe he's doing the best he can under the circumstances...I don't have a problem with our president on this particular issue other than the confrontational, stumblebum manner with which he has addressed it...
When President Obama gave his farewell speech just before leaving office, he repeated the oft-said "lesson" about how we are a nation of immigrants, after all. To whom I, as a Democrat who twice voted for him, respond that I'm all for liberal, legal immigration policies...but what about folks just flooding over the border or overstaying their visa provisions? I think that our immigration laws should be enforced...and if people think the laws are wrong, then they can change them through the democratic process! I don't need this condescending, politically correct preaching that typecasts people concerned about terrorism and illegal immigration as intolerant bigots. I'm glad of my neighbors, regardless of their origins...but they should follow the law in becoming my neighbors...
On the other hand, I love it whenever I have a "Rosetta Stone" experience and can see translations of three great languages like Spanish, English, and Arabic. This green, blue, and orange sign that is springing up in so many places has a good basic message which I accept...I just suspect some ulterior political motives behind it all...
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Weekly Short Story Review: The Mile-Long Spaceship by Kate Wilhelm
The Mile-Long Spaceship was Kate Wilhelm's first published story, and it made the list of the top science fiction short stories of 1957, according to Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. These two compiled and edited the successful Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great SF Stories, spanning the period of short fiction in this genre from 1939 through 1963. Kate Wilhelm's story was one of the first I read from this series...I now have all 25 volumes...
In The Mile-Long Spaceship...only about twelve pages long, the time is in the not-to-distant future and a young man is recovering from brain surgery caused by a near-fatal traffic accident. While recovering in the hospital, he has recurring dreams of outer space...and of visiting a huge spaceship. Its crew seems benign to him and he wonders what their mission is. As it turns out, they are not at all benign and the future of humanity may be at stake. And this story, as are many short stories, has a surprise ending that turns everything on its head...
Kate Wilhelm went on to become a successful science fiction and mystery writer, preferring the less-financially lucrative short stories and novellas to novels. She is still alive...around age 88 or 89...I wish her the best. The book that contains her story, now out of print, is Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great SF Stories #19 (1957). It contains several other noteworthy tales, some of which I may discuss in future articles...
In The Mile-Long Spaceship...only about twelve pages long, the time is in the not-to-distant future and a young man is recovering from brain surgery caused by a near-fatal traffic accident. While recovering in the hospital, he has recurring dreams of outer space...and of visiting a huge spaceship. Its crew seems benign to him and he wonders what their mission is. As it turns out, they are not at all benign and the future of humanity may be at stake. And this story, as are many short stories, has a surprise ending that turns everything on its head...
Kate Wilhelm went on to become a successful science fiction and mystery writer, preferring the less-financially lucrative short stories and novellas to novels. She is still alive...around age 88 or 89...I wish her the best. The book that contains her story, now out of print, is Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great SF Stories #19 (1957). It contains several other noteworthy tales, some of which I may discuss in future articles...
Monday, April 17, 2017
Reconsidering Twitter
The social media website known as Twitter has of late been closely identified with politics...particularly those of our current president as he has made much use of it during his campaign and even now. But unlike Facebook, which people in general use to see what's going on with each other, Twitter seems to have been relegated to "following" celebrities, news, and politics. I have my own Twitter account and never post on it...although a couple of years ago I tried linking my mostly daily blog articles on it. But since nobody's going to reach my blog that way unless they already "follow" me, Twitter just didn't seem like a viable way to publicize my blog. And I'm pretty dissatisfied with the "news feed" I'm getting on it right now. So I'm reconsidering how to use this free Internet communications site to my best advantage...both in expressing myself and receiving information on it from others. I may have to be a bit creative as I try to figure out ways to get around some of the obstacles I see from Twitter...
I heard a few weeks ago to my surprise that Twitter, unlike other social media companies, was losing money bigtime and faced bankruptcy. I'd hate to see that happen, but then again Twitter needs to make itself somehow easier and more attractive for people in general to use and network with each other...not just as a publicity tool for the rich and powerful...
I heard a few weeks ago to my surprise that Twitter, unlike other social media companies, was losing money bigtime and faced bankruptcy. I'd hate to see that happen, but then again Twitter needs to make itself somehow easier and more attractive for people in general to use and network with each other...not just as a publicity tool for the rich and powerful...
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Just Finished Reading The 12th of Never by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
There are two kinds of fiction book series: the ones in which just about everything at the start of a volume depends entirely on what happened at the end of the previous one...you absolutely have to begin at book #1 and proceed in numerical order. With the other type, though, each book is self-contained with its own complete story...and there are what I call "continuity" characters along with the guest characters. These relatively continuous characters within the series include the main protagonist, but also others whose lives and relationships develop from book to book. It is this aspect of picking up a book in a series like this "out of order" that can cause a little disorientation with the reader. The Women's Murder Club series, for most of its volumes a writing collaboration between James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, belongs to this second type of series. So there are two different threads of narrative happening here: the crime mysteries that San Francisco homicide investigator Lindsay Boxer solves with her cohorts and friends...and these characters' continually changing personal lives. As for the latter thread of their personal lives, I will make no comment here in my review out of respect for you, a potential reader of this series...just in case you might want to start reading it. But the mysteries are another matter...
In The 12th of Never, which I just finished reading, there are a number of mysteries. A middle-age professor goes to the police station with the claim that he is vividly dreaming of future murders...and they seem to be coming true! In another case, a sleazy lawyer is on trial for murdering his wife and their young daughter and seems well on the road to conviction...that is, until an extremely complicating factor gets thrown in at the very last minute. A star 49ers football player is under suspicion for killing the model he is engaged to marry, and then her body mysteriously disappears from the morgue. And a convicted serial killer from an earlier story comes out of his coma and claims to have changed, now wanting to reveal the identity and location of his numerous victims. Quite a lot of material, especially when you add all of the personal stuff that Lindsay and her "murder club" friends Claire, Yuki, and Cindy are going through in their respective personal and professional lives. Yet Patterson and Paetro did a masterful job of weaving it all together with this, in my not-so-humble opinion, their best book so far in this series. Good job, you two...
In The 12th of Never, which I just finished reading, there are a number of mysteries. A middle-age professor goes to the police station with the claim that he is vividly dreaming of future murders...and they seem to be coming true! In another case, a sleazy lawyer is on trial for murdering his wife and their young daughter and seems well on the road to conviction...that is, until an extremely complicating factor gets thrown in at the very last minute. A star 49ers football player is under suspicion for killing the model he is engaged to marry, and then her body mysteriously disappears from the morgue. And a convicted serial killer from an earlier story comes out of his coma and claims to have changed, now wanting to reveal the identity and location of his numerous victims. Quite a lot of material, especially when you add all of the personal stuff that Lindsay and her "murder club" friends Claire, Yuki, and Cindy are going through in their respective personal and professional lives. Yet Patterson and Paetro did a masterful job of weaving it all together with this, in my not-so-humble opinion, their best book so far in this series. Good job, you two...
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Enjoying NHL Playoffs and Mexican Soccer Right Now
This evening I have been enjoying the National Hockey League Stanley Cup playoffs as well as Mexican premier league pro soccer. Earlier Ottawa had won an exciting overtime game against Boston...now I'm going back and forth between Washington vs. Toronto (NBCSports Channel) and Nashville vs. Chicago (NBC). Later they'll be showing the Anaheim-Calgary game on NBCSports. And from time to time I check in on Univision to see how Mexican soccer's UANL Tigres are doing against the UNAM Pumas...looks like "my" Tigres are going to win this one. All of the hockey games have been close and exciting...well, maybe underdog Nashville is starting to pull away from the Blackhawks right now. I finally think I have a solid grasp on the rules concerning offside and icing...some of what I see on the rink now makes a lot more sense...
Later this evening Univision will be showing the soccer match between Club America and Queretaro. I'm sure I'll be switching back and forth between that one and the NHL game between the Mighty Ducks and Flames...
Notice that I've written nothing about Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association playoffs, which just started . Well, right now hockey and soccer just happen to be more interesting to me that those two sports...I'll get around to watching some of them, too...eventually...but not tonight!
Later this evening Univision will be showing the soccer match between Club America and Queretaro. I'm sure I'll be switching back and forth between that one and the NHL game between the Mighty Ducks and Flames...
Notice that I've written nothing about Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association playoffs, which just started . Well, right now hockey and soccer just happen to be more interesting to me that those two sports...I'll get around to watching some of them, too...eventually...but not tonight!
Friday, April 14, 2017
Quote of the Week...from Stephen Hawking
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. ---Stephen Hawking
If there were ever someone who might have felt justified at simply curling up onto himself and turning his back on the world around him, it just might be Stephen Hawking who, while an up-and-coming young physicist in 1963, was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease...a crippling affliction that is usually fatal within years. Hawking, though, has endured with it over the decades...although he must depend not only on others and technology for his mobility and life support, but even to able to speak his thoughts. Yet with all of this adversity he has only intensified his curiosity and wonder at the universe and our place within it. I definitely credit the loving devotion of others around him and our advances in digital and medical technology with Hawking's longevity...not to mention that his ALS was slower in its process, but I also think that by maintaining his attentions outward and deliberately nurturing his curiosity, he has become in some ways a stronger person than many of us who have been blessed with relatively good health. For myself, I have always had a natural curiosity at what is going on around me, and this has built up within me a reservoir of knowledge and understanding about many areas...although there are quite a few about which I'm admittedly ignorant. The downside to this catering to curiosity is that I haven't been able to put other things out of my mind in such a deliberate, concentrated, prolonged, and disciplined way as to achieve a deeply specialized skill in an area that would have been more socially prestigious and financially rewarding...but Stephen Hawking, with all of his physical problems, managed this feat as well while still maintaining his "look up". What an inspiration to all of us!
If there were ever someone who might have felt justified at simply curling up onto himself and turning his back on the world around him, it just might be Stephen Hawking who, while an up-and-coming young physicist in 1963, was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease...a crippling affliction that is usually fatal within years. Hawking, though, has endured with it over the decades...although he must depend not only on others and technology for his mobility and life support, but even to able to speak his thoughts. Yet with all of this adversity he has only intensified his curiosity and wonder at the universe and our place within it. I definitely credit the loving devotion of others around him and our advances in digital and medical technology with Hawking's longevity...not to mention that his ALS was slower in its process, but I also think that by maintaining his attentions outward and deliberately nurturing his curiosity, he has become in some ways a stronger person than many of us who have been blessed with relatively good health. For myself, I have always had a natural curiosity at what is going on around me, and this has built up within me a reservoir of knowledge and understanding about many areas...although there are quite a few about which I'm admittedly ignorant. The downside to this catering to curiosity is that I haven't been able to put other things out of my mind in such a deliberate, concentrated, prolonged, and disciplined way as to achieve a deeply specialized skill in an area that would have been more socially prestigious and financially rewarding...but Stephen Hawking, with all of his physical problems, managed this feat as well while still maintaining his "look up". What an inspiration to all of us!
Thursday, April 13, 2017
4/9 Palm Sunday Sermon
This past Sunday was Palm Sunday, marking the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The guest speaker, Kevin Sides, presented the message by referring to the pertinent passage from Mark 11:1-11, shown here in the New International Version courtesy of Bible Gateway:
11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
11 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Kevin placed great emphasis on the discrepancy between the people's expectations of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and those of Jesus himself: they expected an Earthly king to free them from the heavy Roman yoke on Judea, while Jesus was instead doing the work of his heavenly father, work that had much more far-reaching consequences. It is this contrast between what we sometimes expect from God and what Kevin terms his "perfect will" that can often get us into trouble, not only in how we interpret our experiences, but also in how we act upon them. On the other hand, as a Christian I do have expectations of God based on his love for me, and I believe that as long as I understand that although his ways and will are at times beyond my comprehension, he listens to me and wants my greater interests realized and protected. The conflict is when what I think are my greater interests diverge from God's perspective...
A couple of points I'd like to bring up regarding this message. First, on the surface it may seem like riding the colt of a donkey, instead of a more prestigious horse, might be a signal of humility on the part of Jesus...but this was done specifically to fulfill the prophecy of the messiah's coming laid out in the Old Testament book of Zechariah, which would have been widely known at that time among the Jewish population there. Second, there is no indication that the "crowd" was disillusioned with Jesus when, after seeing that it was already late at the temple, he left to be with his disciples...this seems to be reading something into the text that isn't there. Furthermore, there's no evidence from what I can see that the "crowd" that greeted Jesus on his triumphal entry was the same "crowd" that later angrily shouted "crucify him!". To take a more modern example, there were crowds at Trump campaign rallies and then, after he was elected, crowds protesting him...would anyone automatically argue that these "crowds" were composed of the same people? Nevertheless, I understand and appreciate this message, for it is crucial that we temper our expectations of God with the wisdom that he already knows what is best for us according to his perfect will...
You can watch this and other sermons on the Family Church YouTube video website, available through this link: [link]. The Family Church will be holding its Easter services this Sunday morning at 7 (outdoors sunrise service), 9:30, and 11. It is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street...
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
The Little Black Bag, a Short Story by Cyril Kornbluth
This blog already has the weekly feature of Friday's quote of the week. To this I am adding another, for Wednesdays: reviews of short stories that made an impact on me. For much of my life I was primarily a short story reader, generally eschewing the longer format of novels (and series of novels) until the last fifteen years or so. I built up a substantial collection of short stories, primarily in the science fiction genre, and still haven't read most of them. Well, it's time to "hit the books" and explore this treasure of good fiction! Today's story is from a popular (back then) mid-twentieth century science fiction writer named Cyril Kornbluth. Kornbluth sadly lived a short life, plagued and eventually ended at the age of 34 by a heart condition and his refusal to abide by prescribed treatments...he suffered his fatal heart attack on a winter morning in 1958 after rigorously shoveling snow from his walkway and then running fast to the railway station. He was a collaborator with other sci-fi writers on novels and wrote many short stories that were published in the pulp science fiction magazines of his day. In 1950 one such tale, The Little Black Bag, came out in Astounding magazine and would make it to that year's list of top short stories...
The Little Black Bag paints the picture of a future society in which humanity is blessed with great advances in technology and still keeps the structures of democracy and economic freedom. Sounds too good to be true, right? And of course the answer is a resounding YES! For the overwhelming majority of people in "this" distant future have regressed in their intellectual capacities and are unknowingly completely dependent on a very small subclass of people with advanced abilities who provide all the needed supertechnology, maintain the structure of society, monitor the mentally-challenged majority...and stay discretely hidden and disguised as menial workers. A "physician" in this world one day carelessly loses his "little black bag" in a time machine and it makes its way back to "our" time...and into the hands of a much smarter, but ruined and alcoholic doctor. When he begins to use the instruments contained within the bag on patients, he discovers that they work autonomously and to a precision that he could never possess...in other probably politically incorrect words, they are idiot-proof. I'll let you, the potential reader of this truly "short" story, read what happens for yourself. Instead I'd like to further examine its premise and what the author was trying to say about our present world...
I'm living in 2017 and I see it all around me, but for Cyril Kornbluth to notice and report in 1950 on the general decline in standards and levels of education and knowledge among the population as the seeming magic of technological development made communications, transportation, and "creature comforts" much more readily available demonstrated to me this author's ability to forecast the future...albeit in a pretty sarcastic fashion. The consumer would make use of all the new "stuff" coming out, "stuff" that a smaller group of other folks who had much more extensive and specialized training had developed. Nowadays what do most people know about how smartphones function other than the settings they can select on them? I look around me in public and almost always note a substantial portion of the people are dumbly staring at their little gadgets. I've even been watching sporting events where the camera pans the spectators after an exciting play...only to find many of them also preoccupied with their little miracles of technology instead of what just happened on the field or court. And what about social media and the Internet...are they making people smarter and more discerning...or the opposite? I imagine that if my pal Cyril were here today, he'd have a few choice comments to say about that. Have you ever watched Jesse Watters on Fox walk around out in public and randomly ask people very simple questions about history and general knowledge? The level of ignorance and apathy among the general population is incredible, regardless whether or not you happen to agree with Watters' conservative politics. But we also have a smaller number of very engaged, knowledgeable people in our present world who...surprise, surprise...seem to operate "behind the scenes". Which makes me wonder what our society is going to look like in about a hundred years...or even further down the line. Will it resemble Cyril Kornbluth's cynical prediction? I sure hope he's dead wrong (no pun intended)...
The Little Black Bag is just one story of many from the book His Share of Glory: the Complete Short Story Science Fiction of Cyril Kornbluth. The publishers are NESFA (New England Science Fiction Association) and it came out in 1997. I found that some of Kornbluth's stories in this book were "hits", but a few were "misses"...and with others, to this day, I still don't know what he was talking about...
The Little Black Bag paints the picture of a future society in which humanity is blessed with great advances in technology and still keeps the structures of democracy and economic freedom. Sounds too good to be true, right? And of course the answer is a resounding YES! For the overwhelming majority of people in "this" distant future have regressed in their intellectual capacities and are unknowingly completely dependent on a very small subclass of people with advanced abilities who provide all the needed supertechnology, maintain the structure of society, monitor the mentally-challenged majority...and stay discretely hidden and disguised as menial workers. A "physician" in this world one day carelessly loses his "little black bag" in a time machine and it makes its way back to "our" time...and into the hands of a much smarter, but ruined and alcoholic doctor. When he begins to use the instruments contained within the bag on patients, he discovers that they work autonomously and to a precision that he could never possess...in other probably politically incorrect words, they are idiot-proof. I'll let you, the potential reader of this truly "short" story, read what happens for yourself. Instead I'd like to further examine its premise and what the author was trying to say about our present world...
I'm living in 2017 and I see it all around me, but for Cyril Kornbluth to notice and report in 1950 on the general decline in standards and levels of education and knowledge among the population as the seeming magic of technological development made communications, transportation, and "creature comforts" much more readily available demonstrated to me this author's ability to forecast the future...albeit in a pretty sarcastic fashion. The consumer would make use of all the new "stuff" coming out, "stuff" that a smaller group of other folks who had much more extensive and specialized training had developed. Nowadays what do most people know about how smartphones function other than the settings they can select on them? I look around me in public and almost always note a substantial portion of the people are dumbly staring at their little gadgets. I've even been watching sporting events where the camera pans the spectators after an exciting play...only to find many of them also preoccupied with their little miracles of technology instead of what just happened on the field or court. And what about social media and the Internet...are they making people smarter and more discerning...or the opposite? I imagine that if my pal Cyril were here today, he'd have a few choice comments to say about that. Have you ever watched Jesse Watters on Fox walk around out in public and randomly ask people very simple questions about history and general knowledge? The level of ignorance and apathy among the general population is incredible, regardless whether or not you happen to agree with Watters' conservative politics. But we also have a smaller number of very engaged, knowledgeable people in our present world who...surprise, surprise...seem to operate "behind the scenes". Which makes me wonder what our society is going to look like in about a hundred years...or even further down the line. Will it resemble Cyril Kornbluth's cynical prediction? I sure hope he's dead wrong (no pun intended)...
The Little Black Bag is just one story of many from the book His Share of Glory: the Complete Short Story Science Fiction of Cyril Kornbluth. The publishers are NESFA (New England Science Fiction Association) and it came out in 1997. I found that some of Kornbluth's stories in this book were "hits", but a few were "misses"...and with others, to this day, I still don't know what he was talking about...
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Florida Governor Declares State Emergency with Wildfires
For the most part, I have been enjoying the relatively dry, warm spring we've had here in northern Florida...I qualify that remark because I've been suffering from seasonal respiratory allergies as well as a sensitive throat resulting from an earlier viral infection. But I'm taking on these issues aggressively and feel that recovery is on the advance. Although the weather is pleasant...especially with regard to the low humidity...there is a down-side to it all: increased probability of wildfires in this area...
Perhaps you've been watching the news lately and saw the pieces about forest fires in Seminole County, just north of Orlando. In truth there are more than 100 wildfires going on now in Florida, covering around 120,000 acres...prompting our governor, Rick Scott, to declare a state of emergency. From around Lake Okeechobee northward, the currents fires are spread throughout the state...there is one at Hidden Lake in my Alachua County now consuming about 140 acres and another in northeastern Marion County just to the south taking up 700 acres. The outlook right now for more fires seems ominous...especially seeing how our local 2017 rainfall level so far is about half that of the previous year. Conditions are dry, little rainfall is in sight, and we may be headed for some rough times ahead. So far it's enjoyable being outside, but should another fire break out in the vicinity...or even as far as a hundred miles away...and the wind happens to be blowing our way, then the air may turn into something noxious with the smoke and haze. I'm hoping that won't be the case this year, but we'd better start seeing some more precipitation if we're going to avoid that unpleasant scenario...
Perhaps you've been watching the news lately and saw the pieces about forest fires in Seminole County, just north of Orlando. In truth there are more than 100 wildfires going on now in Florida, covering around 120,000 acres...prompting our governor, Rick Scott, to declare a state of emergency. From around Lake Okeechobee northward, the currents fires are spread throughout the state...there is one at Hidden Lake in my Alachua County now consuming about 140 acres and another in northeastern Marion County just to the south taking up 700 acres. The outlook right now for more fires seems ominous...especially seeing how our local 2017 rainfall level so far is about half that of the previous year. Conditions are dry, little rainfall is in sight, and we may be headed for some rough times ahead. So far it's enjoyable being outside, but should another fire break out in the vicinity...or even as far as a hundred miles away...and the wind happens to be blowing our way, then the air may turn into something noxious with the smoke and haze. I'm hoping that won't be the case this year, but we'd better start seeing some more precipitation if we're going to avoid that unpleasant scenario...
Monday, April 10, 2017
Just Finished Reading Ally Condie's Atlantia
From time to time I like to read "young adult" fiction, although I believe that designation is a misnomer...it's more aimed at teen-agers than adults and used to be called "junior" fiction. I wonder if some twisted form of political correctness is at work here, with some folks apparently obsessed with the names things are called...even when the new form makes little sense. In any event...call it "junior" or "young adult" fiction as you like...I just finished reading one such book: Ally Condie's 2014 dystopian futurist novel Atlantia...
Atlantia is told in the first person by the protagonist, an orphaned teen-age girl named Rio, who lives with her twin sister Bay in the insulated, underwater city of Atlantia...in the distant future following a world-wide catastrophe (most likely nuclear). For many years humanity's hopes of survival depended on living deep under the sea, with people periodically sent to the surface in order to supply the needed food and materials to sustain it. Although going to the Above means sacrificing one's longevity due to the contaminated air, those who choose to do so are held in high regard by those below. Rio wants to leave Atlantia and live on the surface...and has told this to Bay, who strongly objects. The obvious reason is that the two would be permanently split apart, since the law dictates that, one, those who go above cannot return and, two, a family member has to be left behind in Atlantia...and Bay is the only one left. But does Rio's devoted sister have a secret reason for Rio not to leave Atlantia...and what happens when the opportunity comes again for people to choose life on the surface? Well, there's a lot to Atlantia, and I'd be cheating you out of a good story if I told you much more about what happens. I will say this much: there is a "wild-card" character in Atlantia: Rio's aunt Maire, whom she suspects of having killed her own mother, who was Atlantia's leader. But Maire has her own explosive secrets that threaten to tear the social fabric of Atlantia apart...and which increasingly center on Rio herself...
This was a very compelling story, and I loved the different characters. It may seem a little silly for someone like me at 60 to read this kind of literature, but I don't care...I like stuff of this level like Divergence, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, InnerWorld and Coraline (by Neil Gaiman), Time Quintet, Earthsea, and so on. There is something about this genre that appeals to me...I guess the inner child is always there with us throughout our lives...
Atlantia is told in the first person by the protagonist, an orphaned teen-age girl named Rio, who lives with her twin sister Bay in the insulated, underwater city of Atlantia...in the distant future following a world-wide catastrophe (most likely nuclear). For many years humanity's hopes of survival depended on living deep under the sea, with people periodically sent to the surface in order to supply the needed food and materials to sustain it. Although going to the Above means sacrificing one's longevity due to the contaminated air, those who choose to do so are held in high regard by those below. Rio wants to leave Atlantia and live on the surface...and has told this to Bay, who strongly objects. The obvious reason is that the two would be permanently split apart, since the law dictates that, one, those who go above cannot return and, two, a family member has to be left behind in Atlantia...and Bay is the only one left. But does Rio's devoted sister have a secret reason for Rio not to leave Atlantia...and what happens when the opportunity comes again for people to choose life on the surface? Well, there's a lot to Atlantia, and I'd be cheating you out of a good story if I told you much more about what happens. I will say this much: there is a "wild-card" character in Atlantia: Rio's aunt Maire, whom she suspects of having killed her own mother, who was Atlantia's leader. But Maire has her own explosive secrets that threaten to tear the social fabric of Atlantia apart...and which increasingly center on Rio herself...
This was a very compelling story, and I loved the different characters. It may seem a little silly for someone like me at 60 to read this kind of literature, but I don't care...I like stuff of this level like Divergence, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, InnerWorld and Coraline (by Neil Gaiman), Time Quintet, Earthsea, and so on. There is something about this genre that appeals to me...I guess the inner child is always there with us throughout our lives...
Sunday, April 9, 2017
NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs to Begin on Wednesday
The 2016-17 National Hockey League regular season ends tonight, but the lineup of the sixteen Stanley Cup championship playoff series teams has already been set. Once again, the Washington Capitals finished with the league's overall best record...will they once again choke in the playoffs? The Pittsburgh Penguins, last year's Stanley Cup winner, are back in the playoffs again as are the San Jose Sharks, the team that lost to Pitt in the finals. Sadly, neither the Tampa Bay Lightning nor the Miami-based Florida Panthers were good enough to make the playoffs this year...it's also unusual that the Detroit Red Wings and Los Angeles Kings missed them, too. Instead, we have five Canadian teams in this year's playoffs...last year there were none. But to be perfectly truthful about it all, I'm not all that interested in rooting for any particular team...other than perhaps the Chicago Blackhawks, that is...I just enjoy watching and trying to make sense out of this fast-paced, interesting, and often confusing sport...
Seeing how on weeknights I'm working during the time when the games are going on, I'm going to have to wait for the weekend to be able to see any...although I'm hoping that they'll be showing replays on one of the channels after midnight. I should get to watch several of the games...after all, these playoffs will go on into June...
Seeing how on weeknights I'm working during the time when the games are going on, I'm going to have to wait for the weekend to be able to see any...although I'm hoping that they'll be showing replays on one of the channels after midnight. I should get to watch several of the games...after all, these playoffs will go on into June...
Saturday, April 8, 2017
This Blog Ten Years Old Today
Today marks the tenth anniversary of this blog of mine, with the number of articles contained within it now totaling 3,161...all of them still accessible. It's been a long-term exercise for me with this writing discipline...not only to attempt (sometimes unsuccessfully) to get something out there on a daily basis, but also to maintain a sense of decorum and reasonableness with my writing while showing a personal side to it without my personality being the main topic. Naturally, I've written about subjects I've been interested in (like running, star-gazing, music, soccer, books I've read, etc.) while consistently ignoring those areas that I like to ignore (like gardening, reality television, and most arts and crafts). Some days I get a little philosophical and others a little political...but I try to keep interpersonal relationships out of the picture when I'm writing. And if I'm sitting down to write and can only draw a blank, there's always the weather to discuss!
Blogger (run by Google) is the site I've used for this blog of mine, and I laud them for their consistency and simplicity of use over the years. When I am looking at my blog on my laptop computer, Blogger has an option at the top of the page called "Next Blog" that I can click on and view a random blog from someone else. Usually the blog is relatively current, but sometimes they show one in which the last entry was years ago. Which leads me to wonder at the myriad of abandoned blogs...many from well over a decade ago...that are "floating" around in cyberspace, forgotten but still accessible if you happen to know their titles or URLs. Some of this detached material...not just old blogs but deserted websites in general...contains information that might be useful to someone, but how do you get to it? Sounds like a job for a new field: cyberarchaelogy, a term which I just coined, although I have to acknowledge that someone else may have already, coincidentally, beaten me to it...
In any event, I'm happy with this blog and plan to keep it going as long as I have the ability and resources to do so. And, I suppose, as long as Google doesn't ever change their policies that allow me easy use of Blogger without cost. Hope you enjoy reading it...
Blogger (run by Google) is the site I've used for this blog of mine, and I laud them for their consistency and simplicity of use over the years. When I am looking at my blog on my laptop computer, Blogger has an option at the top of the page called "Next Blog" that I can click on and view a random blog from someone else. Usually the blog is relatively current, but sometimes they show one in which the last entry was years ago. Which leads me to wonder at the myriad of abandoned blogs...many from well over a decade ago...that are "floating" around in cyberspace, forgotten but still accessible if you happen to know their titles or URLs. Some of this detached material...not just old blogs but deserted websites in general...contains information that might be useful to someone, but how do you get to it? Sounds like a job for a new field: cyberarchaelogy, a term which I just coined, although I have to acknowledge that someone else may have already, coincidentally, beaten me to it...
In any event, I'm happy with this blog and plan to keep it going as long as I have the ability and resources to do so. And, I suppose, as long as Google doesn't ever change their policies that allow me easy use of Blogger without cost. Hope you enjoy reading it...
Friday, April 7, 2017
Quote of the Week...from James R. Newman
The most painful thing about mathematics is how far away you are from being able to use it after you have learned it. James R. Newman
I found the above quote and decided to use it, although I hadn't heard of James R. Newman before. He was a mathematician as well as a popularizer of the field, writing a number of books. What attracted it to me was how strongly I have agreed with its message over the course of my lifetime...well, at least that lifetime after my mathematics education in school passed from arithmetic to geometry, algebra, theorems, and proofs. Seeing how my life veered in a direction from a career that directly used mathematics...careers like engineering, physics...and of course, teaching mathematics...I've found no occasion whatsoever to employ anything I've learned beyond simple arithmetic...not even basic algebra...and at college I've taken courses in calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and mathematical statistics. This has to be the one subject in school for which the grand majority of graduates will find little or no application in life...beyond that basic grammar school arithmetic competency. Yet I find the subject intriguing and from time to time delve into it...
In a way, mathematics is an area that anyone can do...even one untrained in it. If you're not trying to get something extraneous from it, such as a passing grade in school or math-related job, then you don't have to worry about impressing others or being as fast or accurate as them. Ultimately, removing the competition and time pressure angles from studying mathematics can make this field more attractive for life-long learning. Of course, it also helps to have a good amount of free time at your disposal! Still, YouTube is loaded with free math courses on just about any level, and the Internet provides many resources that in former eras would have been more difficult and expensive to amass...
I've decided to go "back in time" and approach mathematics as something to embrace instead of fearing...in the process hoping that I will better grasp some of the principles contained within it than when I was "under the gun" in school...
I found the above quote and decided to use it, although I hadn't heard of James R. Newman before. He was a mathematician as well as a popularizer of the field, writing a number of books. What attracted it to me was how strongly I have agreed with its message over the course of my lifetime...well, at least that lifetime after my mathematics education in school passed from arithmetic to geometry, algebra, theorems, and proofs. Seeing how my life veered in a direction from a career that directly used mathematics...careers like engineering, physics...and of course, teaching mathematics...I've found no occasion whatsoever to employ anything I've learned beyond simple arithmetic...not even basic algebra...and at college I've taken courses in calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and mathematical statistics. This has to be the one subject in school for which the grand majority of graduates will find little or no application in life...beyond that basic grammar school arithmetic competency. Yet I find the subject intriguing and from time to time delve into it...
In a way, mathematics is an area that anyone can do...even one untrained in it. If you're not trying to get something extraneous from it, such as a passing grade in school or math-related job, then you don't have to worry about impressing others or being as fast or accurate as them. Ultimately, removing the competition and time pressure angles from studying mathematics can make this field more attractive for life-long learning. Of course, it also helps to have a good amount of free time at your disposal! Still, YouTube is loaded with free math courses on just about any level, and the Internet provides many resources that in former eras would have been more difficult and expensive to amass...
I've decided to go "back in time" and approach mathematics as something to embrace instead of fearing...in the process hoping that I will better grasp some of the principles contained within it than when I was "under the gun" in school...
Thursday, April 6, 2017
4/2 Sermon on Prodigals, Part 3
Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, Pastor Philip Griffin finished his three-part series titled Prodigals, based on Jesus's story in Luke Chapter 15 of the prodigal son. But as Pastor Philip pointed out, there were two prodigal sons in this tale: the young brother rebelled and ultimately repented and was welcomed back into his father's family...but the older brother, full of his sense of righteousness and entitlement based on the work he had done while remaining behind, ultimately rejected his father and the grace shown to his returning brother. Pastor Philip listed four aspects of the older brother's attitude that characterized him as a prodigal of self-righteousness and pride: one, he felt that his father owed him for his work and obedience, characterizing his life as slavery. Two, not only did he insist on independence from his father, but he only wanted to be around people who were like himself. Three, he believed he was better than others, building his own list of rules through which he could judge them...while ignoring his own pridefulness. And four, the older brother and the younger brother both needed to repent, the younger from his wrongdoing, and the older from his self-righteousness...only one did, though...
There is a clear analogy between this story of the prodigal sons and our relationship to God. One cannot "earn" God's rewards through work and "slaving"...they come only as gifts from the heavenly father. The father in the story celebrated repentance over works, and that...as our pastor pointed out...should be our goal in the church. Also, I think folks in general like to focus on putting down certain sins they see in others for which they themselves are not guilty...while ignoring their own pride and self-righteousness...
You can watch Pastor Philip's message on The Family Church YouTube video website. The Family Church holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11. The Easter service the Sunday after next will also feature an early service at 7...
There is a clear analogy between this story of the prodigal sons and our relationship to God. One cannot "earn" God's rewards through work and "slaving"...they come only as gifts from the heavenly father. The father in the story celebrated repentance over works, and that...as our pastor pointed out...should be our goal in the church. Also, I think folks in general like to focus on putting down certain sins they see in others for which they themselves are not guilty...while ignoring their own pride and self-righteousness...
You can watch Pastor Philip's message on The Family Church YouTube video website. The Family Church holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11. The Easter service the Sunday after next will also feature an early service at 7...
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Just Finished Reading Janet Evanovich's One For the Money
Janet Evanovich is a mystery writer whose books I have been running across on library and bookstore shelves for many years but until just now never got around to reading any. She is best-known for her Stephanie Plum series, which numbers twenty-three books so far and, like James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series, contains each book's number in the series within its title. I decided to start with the first book and just finished reading One For the Money, originally published in 1994...
In One For the Money, Stephanie Plum is introduced as a young Trenton, New Jersey woman who finds herself unemployed and quickly running out of money...her car has just been repossessed. Her mother, whom she visits for meals from time to time, is hilarious as is Grandma Mazur...the dialogue is classic "Jersey thing". The name of Stephanie's slimy uncle Vinnie is brought up: he is a bail bondsman and apparently there is an office worker position open. Against her better instincts, Stephanie gives in to her mother's prodding and goes there, only to find the job already filled. But while there she discovers that she can make big money fast by bringing in bail dodgers...so with some slimy arm-twisting of her own, she convinces her skeptical uncle to let her try out some cases. As it turns out, the one case that she becomes obsessed with involves a former one-time lover of hers, Joe Morelli, a policeman who has jumped bail after being charged with the murder of an unarmed man. And here is where I leave off, just in case you're in the same boat as myself and feel like finally picking up a Janet Evanovich book and reading it...
Janet Evanovich adds an interesting twist to the mystery genre with Stephanie Plum's bounty hunter vocation...contrast this with the private detectives and homicide investigators in other series. And she starts out her new career in complete ignorance, having to learn the hard way: through her many and often comical mistakes. Fortunately there is Ranger, another bounty hunter working for Vinnie, who helps her out with various aspects...some of them legally suspect...of the trade. I liked One For the Money because the characters were realistic and sympathetic and...I have to admit I like this in a book...it was relatively short. But what I liked the most was when Stephanie would visit her parents and Grandma Mazur for dinner, and all that terrific Jersey conversation would ensue...
In One For the Money, Stephanie Plum is introduced as a young Trenton, New Jersey woman who finds herself unemployed and quickly running out of money...her car has just been repossessed. Her mother, whom she visits for meals from time to time, is hilarious as is Grandma Mazur...the dialogue is classic "Jersey thing". The name of Stephanie's slimy uncle Vinnie is brought up: he is a bail bondsman and apparently there is an office worker position open. Against her better instincts, Stephanie gives in to her mother's prodding and goes there, only to find the job already filled. But while there she discovers that she can make big money fast by bringing in bail dodgers...so with some slimy arm-twisting of her own, she convinces her skeptical uncle to let her try out some cases. As it turns out, the one case that she becomes obsessed with involves a former one-time lover of hers, Joe Morelli, a policeman who has jumped bail after being charged with the murder of an unarmed man. And here is where I leave off, just in case you're in the same boat as myself and feel like finally picking up a Janet Evanovich book and reading it...
Janet Evanovich adds an interesting twist to the mystery genre with Stephanie Plum's bounty hunter vocation...contrast this with the private detectives and homicide investigators in other series. And she starts out her new career in complete ignorance, having to learn the hard way: through her many and often comical mistakes. Fortunately there is Ranger, another bounty hunter working for Vinnie, who helps her out with various aspects...some of them legally suspect...of the trade. I liked One For the Money because the characters were realistic and sympathetic and...I have to admit I like this in a book...it was relatively short. But what I liked the most was when Stephanie would visit her parents and Grandma Mazur for dinner, and all that terrific Jersey conversation would ensue...
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Gorsuch Supreme Court Confirmation Enters Final Week
All day yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee held its final session for the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Each of the committee members gave their speeches pro or con about this nominee, set to replace the late Antonin Scalia as an associate justice. Afterwards, the full committee voted and sent his nomination to the Senate floor for debate and final vote. I watched much of the proceedings on C-Span2 and gained some insight into the various viewpoints on Gorsuch. For example, I heard a couple of Democratic senators criticize the federal judge for excessive writings of concurrent opinions in various cases, opinions that in their opinion expressed an ideological purpose in altering the law and its interpretation...Judge Gorsuch was even known on a number of occasions to write concurring opinions to the majority opinions that he himself wrote. One of these senators, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, contrasted this tendency of Gorsuch to try to broaden rulings to another federal appeals judge, Merrick Garland...nominated by President Obama in 2016 to fill the same seat for which Gorsuch is now being considered. Garland is a minimalist, in the tradition of former Supreme Court Justice Byron White (for whom Gorsuch clerked), in that he seeks the narrowest application of law to a judgment and is thereby much less likely to make a politically-charged, judicially activist ruling. But both Gorsuch and Garland are well-known on their courts as consensus builders with other judges...
I think it's a done deal, in spite of the Democrats staging a filibuster against Neil Gorsuch this week on the Senate floor, that this nominee will be confirmed by floor vote on Friday, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have the rules changed to be able to end debate and invoke cloture by a simple majority vote. I have my own concerns about Neil Gorsuch, especially how in some cases he has had a tendency to play around with the definitions of words in order to reach the conclusion he felt most comfortable with. But he has sat on some 2,700 cases on his 10th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006: 97% of the decisions there he voted unanimously with the other judges on that court and 99% of them he was on the majority side. And I don't necessarily believe that you can rate a judge by how many times he rules on the side of the "little guy" versus how often he supports big money and corporations...judges are supposed to apply the law accurately and sometimes the compelling argument weighs on the side of the latter. Although Neil Gorsuch is regarded as conservative and was nominated by a conservative Republican president, I think the real reason for the Democratic filibuster against him is the way Merrick Garland was summarily rejected out of hand last year by the Republican Senate leadership and not even accorded a hearing, much less a floor debate and vote. For the Republican senators to express outrage at the Democrats' filibuster attempt is about as hypocritical as it can get. Yet I don't favor a filibuster, either...getting a supermajority of votes (60) in order to close out debate and advance the Supreme Court confirmation process to a final floor vote has only become a significant factor in the process during the last few years...else why wouldn't the Democrats in 1991 have filibustered Clarence Thomas when he barely ended up confirmed by a vote of 52-48? No, Neil Gorsuch will be our next Supreme Court justice, for better or for worse. I'm a bit skeptical of him right now, but we'll just have to wait and see how well (or badly) he does...
I think it's a done deal, in spite of the Democrats staging a filibuster against Neil Gorsuch this week on the Senate floor, that this nominee will be confirmed by floor vote on Friday, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have the rules changed to be able to end debate and invoke cloture by a simple majority vote. I have my own concerns about Neil Gorsuch, especially how in some cases he has had a tendency to play around with the definitions of words in order to reach the conclusion he felt most comfortable with. But he has sat on some 2,700 cases on his 10th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2006: 97% of the decisions there he voted unanimously with the other judges on that court and 99% of them he was on the majority side. And I don't necessarily believe that you can rate a judge by how many times he rules on the side of the "little guy" versus how often he supports big money and corporations...judges are supposed to apply the law accurately and sometimes the compelling argument weighs on the side of the latter. Although Neil Gorsuch is regarded as conservative and was nominated by a conservative Republican president, I think the real reason for the Democratic filibuster against him is the way Merrick Garland was summarily rejected out of hand last year by the Republican Senate leadership and not even accorded a hearing, much less a floor debate and vote. For the Republican senators to express outrage at the Democrats' filibuster attempt is about as hypocritical as it can get. Yet I don't favor a filibuster, either...getting a supermajority of votes (60) in order to close out debate and advance the Supreme Court confirmation process to a final floor vote has only become a significant factor in the process during the last few years...else why wouldn't the Democrats in 1991 have filibustered Clarence Thomas when he barely ended up confirmed by a vote of 52-48? No, Neil Gorsuch will be our next Supreme Court justice, for better or for worse. I'm a bit skeptical of him right now, but we'll just have to wait and see how well (or badly) he does...
Monday, April 3, 2017
Some Sports Talk
I like to watch sports on TV, team sports that is...you can keep your golf, tennis, swimming, running, boxing, UFC, and so on. No, what I prefer as a spectator are sports like soccer, basketball, baseball, football...and lately, ice hockey. It just so happens that four of these have a lot going on right now. In women's college basketball, the Division I championship finale yesterday pitted two SEC schools: Mississippi State, which just came off a huge upset of Connecticut in the semifinals, and South Carolina. I think that the Bulldogs must have been spent after that win, because South Carolina built up an early lead and stopped Mississippi State from scoring beyond the three-point line...eventually winning the national championship going away. In the men's NCAA Division I championship game...to begin tonight a little past nine...my remaining favorite, North Carolina...with its incredible rebounding ability...will play Gonzaga, a team that has lost only once all year. But I'll be at work during this game, regrettably missing out on it...
The playoffs are set to begin in the National Hockey League soon, and I honestly don't have a favorite team right now. The other night I watched a game between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and, for the first time, felt that I understood the game and was able to follow it...wow, that makes a big difference! Not that I'm going to be a hockey fanatic any time soon, but from time to time during the Stanley Cup playoffs I'm certain to watch some televised games...
There is one sport I haven't mentioned because it has a combination team/individual duality to it: bicycle racing. This July the Tour de France will take place, and I have a tendency to stay glued to the television watching the excitement...as well as the beautiful, often breathtaking scenery as the competitors pedal their way through towns, the country, and steep mountain roads...
Major League Baseball began its 2017 regular season this past weekend...and I'm already bored. This despite one of "my" teams, Tampa Bay, taking it to the Yankees 7-3. I wrote earlier that I preferred to watch team sports, but maybe baseball...already very slow-moving without the even more complicating factor of instant replay review...may turn out to be a sport I tend to avoid. Then again, sometimes I enjoy sitting back and watching a game...especially when there isn't anything else on the boob tube...
In soccer, I'm following the English Premier League, Mexico's Liga MX, Germany's Bundesliga, and the North American top pro league, Major League Soccer. Of these four, I clearly prefer English league soccer...the combination of its high standard of play with league parity makes their matches a joy to watch. Contrast this with MLS, where the players seem to often have difficulty connecting on simple passes. Still, come summertime MLS will be the only league left in season...
The playoffs are set to begin in the National Hockey League soon, and I honestly don't have a favorite team right now. The other night I watched a game between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and, for the first time, felt that I understood the game and was able to follow it...wow, that makes a big difference! Not that I'm going to be a hockey fanatic any time soon, but from time to time during the Stanley Cup playoffs I'm certain to watch some televised games...
There is one sport I haven't mentioned because it has a combination team/individual duality to it: bicycle racing. This July the Tour de France will take place, and I have a tendency to stay glued to the television watching the excitement...as well as the beautiful, often breathtaking scenery as the competitors pedal their way through towns, the country, and steep mountain roads...
Major League Baseball began its 2017 regular season this past weekend...and I'm already bored. This despite one of "my" teams, Tampa Bay, taking it to the Yankees 7-3. I wrote earlier that I preferred to watch team sports, but maybe baseball...already very slow-moving without the even more complicating factor of instant replay review...may turn out to be a sport I tend to avoid. Then again, sometimes I enjoy sitting back and watching a game...especially when there isn't anything else on the boob tube...
In soccer, I'm following the English Premier League, Mexico's Liga MX, Germany's Bundesliga, and the North American top pro league, Major League Soccer. Of these four, I clearly prefer English league soccer...the combination of its high standard of play with league parity makes their matches a joy to watch. Contrast this with MLS, where the players seem to often have difficulty connecting on simple passes. Still, come summertime MLS will be the only league left in season...
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Just Finished Reading Endymion by Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons is beginning to become one of my favorite writers. I read his standalone novel Drood, which is a historical drama featuring Charles Dickens, and have now just finished the third book in his four-part science fiction Hyperion Cantos series, titled Endymion. This series was published back in the 1990s...it pains me a little to say "back in" to refer to that decade, which part of me still somehow sees as lying in the future (I was born in 1956). But I digress...
It wasn't always so, but in recent years if one wants to be seen as a serious, competent science fiction writer, he or she had better display a pretty serious competency in science and technology...and in detail. Alas, the days of Ray Bradbury and others successfully bluffing their way through stories pretending knowledge that they did not have are over, but at least with Dan Simmons, there is no cause for concern: this guy, if he is bluffing about his scientific prowess, then he sure as heck fooled me. As a matter of fact, there has been so much futuristic science and technology info injected into this series...especially the first two books...that at times I felt like screaming at the author "OK, you win...now can we please just go forward with the story?"...but then again, these are the times we live in: had Simmons done as I wished, the veteran sci-fi readers out there probably would have crucified him for it. In any case, book number three, titled Endymion, finally got down to a reasonable narrative with a stable cast of characters I could follow...I guess by that time Simmons felt he had already proven what a hotshot scientific dude he was...
As is the case with other series, Dan Simmons has created his own future universe with humanity branching off into two groups: the Ousters...the first wave to settle space and which adapted themselves to their new homes, and the Hegemonists...people who transplanted their own cultures to different worlds and terraformed them to their own tastes. These two groups were at war with one another, and the Hegemonists were heavily dependent on highly advanced artificial intelligence with its own consciousness...an idea later adopted in the Matrix movie series...which provided them with "farcasters": portals through which people could instantaneously travel from one world to another. The first two books dealt with the fate of the Hegemonists, the Technocore...as that artificial intelligence was collectively called...and those farcasters. Endymion begins nearly three hundred years after the end of the previous book...but once again we're back on the "outback" planet of Hyperion, featured in books one and two, but with a new force of humanity to reckon with: the Pax...
The problem with describing the setting and situation of the third book of a series that is cumulative in nature...i.e. everything depends directly on what happened in the preceding two volumes...is that just about any effort I make in that regard is bound to spoil the stories revealed in those early books...so I'll refrain from doing so. After all, I think this is a very good, modern science fiction series and would recommend anyone interested in this genre to invest some time reading it. I was especially gratified by the compelling, diverse, and memorable characters...from the pilgrims to Hyperion to the Hegemony CEO to the Keats cybrids to Endymion's Raul, Aenea, Bettik, and Father de Soya. Brilliant character development, but that's what I've grown to expect from great writers...as a matter of fact, it's not their expertise within whatever genre they are writing in but how they make the people in them seem real and invite an empathetic response from the reader that gives them that greatness. Besides the characters and the plot in Hyperion Cantos, there is also a good amount of deep philosophical discussion going on...as well as some pretty intense poetry! I guess by all this you can see that Dan Simmons has won me over...that's good, because he's written quite a few other books by now for me to read. But for the time being, I'm starting on the final book of this series, titled Rise of Endymion...
It wasn't always so, but in recent years if one wants to be seen as a serious, competent science fiction writer, he or she had better display a pretty serious competency in science and technology...and in detail. Alas, the days of Ray Bradbury and others successfully bluffing their way through stories pretending knowledge that they did not have are over, but at least with Dan Simmons, there is no cause for concern: this guy, if he is bluffing about his scientific prowess, then he sure as heck fooled me. As a matter of fact, there has been so much futuristic science and technology info injected into this series...especially the first two books...that at times I felt like screaming at the author "OK, you win...now can we please just go forward with the story?"...but then again, these are the times we live in: had Simmons done as I wished, the veteran sci-fi readers out there probably would have crucified him for it. In any case, book number three, titled Endymion, finally got down to a reasonable narrative with a stable cast of characters I could follow...I guess by that time Simmons felt he had already proven what a hotshot scientific dude he was...
As is the case with other series, Dan Simmons has created his own future universe with humanity branching off into two groups: the Ousters...the first wave to settle space and which adapted themselves to their new homes, and the Hegemonists...people who transplanted their own cultures to different worlds and terraformed them to their own tastes. These two groups were at war with one another, and the Hegemonists were heavily dependent on highly advanced artificial intelligence with its own consciousness...an idea later adopted in the Matrix movie series...which provided them with "farcasters": portals through which people could instantaneously travel from one world to another. The first two books dealt with the fate of the Hegemonists, the Technocore...as that artificial intelligence was collectively called...and those farcasters. Endymion begins nearly three hundred years after the end of the previous book...but once again we're back on the "outback" planet of Hyperion, featured in books one and two, but with a new force of humanity to reckon with: the Pax...
The problem with describing the setting and situation of the third book of a series that is cumulative in nature...i.e. everything depends directly on what happened in the preceding two volumes...is that just about any effort I make in that regard is bound to spoil the stories revealed in those early books...so I'll refrain from doing so. After all, I think this is a very good, modern science fiction series and would recommend anyone interested in this genre to invest some time reading it. I was especially gratified by the compelling, diverse, and memorable characters...from the pilgrims to Hyperion to the Hegemony CEO to the Keats cybrids to Endymion's Raul, Aenea, Bettik, and Father de Soya. Brilliant character development, but that's what I've grown to expect from great writers...as a matter of fact, it's not their expertise within whatever genre they are writing in but how they make the people in them seem real and invite an empathetic response from the reader that gives them that greatness. Besides the characters and the plot in Hyperion Cantos, there is also a good amount of deep philosophical discussion going on...as well as some pretty intense poetry! I guess by all this you can see that Dan Simmons has won me over...that's good, because he's written quite a few other books by now for me to read. But for the time being, I'm starting on the final book of this series, titled Rise of Endymion...
Saturday, April 1, 2017
My March 2017 Running Report
In March I went through different stages with my running. At the beginning I was recovering from the eventful Five Points of Life half-marathon I ran on February 26; feeling some aching in my left knee, I lightened up and took a couple of days off from the activity. Then I ran the 10K (6.2 miles) Run for Haven race on Saturday afternoon, March 11, in (and west of ) the town of Tioga...I pushed myself to maintain a good pace with that run and was satisfied with the result. Then, as March wound down I considered running a 10K trail race in Paynes Prairie but decided to bow out due to upper respiratory seasonal allergy issues...I'm now aggressively working to alleviate those symptoms. Then, a few days ago that knee ache began ever-so-slightly...but not wanting to take any chances, I rested from running a couple more days...
For the month, I ran a total of 98 miles, that 6.2 Run for Haven distance being my longest single run. I ran on 27 of March's 31 days, filling in the rest days with some bicycling. I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm wearing the right type of running shoes and that perhaps a lighter pair might be more suitable. In April, the main race I see ahead of me is the Run the Good Race 10K/5K run/walk here in Gainesville, proceeds from which are to benefit Iraqi and Syrian refugees through World Help. A good cause to support...and the only 10K event in April, at least in my home county of Alachua. There are plenty of 5K races available this month as well, but after that 10K I plan to enter, I may just wait until May for the next one and instead focus on training smartly...
For the month, I ran a total of 98 miles, that 6.2 Run for Haven distance being my longest single run. I ran on 27 of March's 31 days, filling in the rest days with some bicycling. I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm wearing the right type of running shoes and that perhaps a lighter pair might be more suitable. In April, the main race I see ahead of me is the Run the Good Race 10K/5K run/walk here in Gainesville, proceeds from which are to benefit Iraqi and Syrian refugees through World Help. A good cause to support...and the only 10K event in April, at least in my home county of Alachua. There are plenty of 5K races available this month as well, but after that 10K I plan to enter, I may just wait until May for the next one and instead focus on training smartly...
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