My September 2023 Running and Walking Report

This morning I took a break from actively participating in the weekly Depot Parkrun 5K held Saturdays here in Gainesville.  Instead, I volunteered there, standing at the table sorting out finishing tokens according to their barcode system for recording the times of the runners (or walkers).  It was interesting watching the race from the perspective of someone on the sidelines...I don't think I had done that since I was on my high school track team in 1973!  Next week I'm planning to be at the beach with Melissa and on October 14th I'm already signed up to run the Florida Track Club's 10K race to be held on the Hawthorne Trail, starting and ending at Boulware Springs Park in the southeastern corner of town.  As for this past month, I've been active and injury/illness-free: whoopee!  The temperatures have begun to turn cooler and the humidity drier after a bear of a sweltering, swampy summer here in northern Florida...it's about time! My ultimate goal for the fall and winter is to run a number of races at 10K (6.2) miles distance and higher, even considering a possible stab at the marathon event to be held next January in Hawthorne.  But first things first, and more than the races themselves, I value simply being able to run and walk daily.  As for that walking, my speed at which I've been working on, I'd like to mix it into my races more and more as the years go by...I'll be turning 67 this week... 

Quote of the Week...from Benjamin Franklin

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.        ...Benjamin Franklin

Of course, ol' Ben didn't live in today's bustling culture of digitalization, where technology that was supposed to liberate us is actually shackling us into more and more commitments to fit within a shrinking available time period.  Tack onto that the fact that, while in Franklin's time the concept of a "day" was closely tied into the cycles of the sun with the daytime's lightness and the nighttime's darkness, the day, at least in the cyberworld, is "on" for 24 hours, nonstop...including streaming entertainment and video games.  I wonder whether this is a contributing factor to the tendency for formerly late-night businesses operating in the real world to shut down much earlier...of course, Covid got the ball rolling in that direction with a subsequent shortage of available staffing that hasn't since completely abated.  It can be a struggle to try and keep one's calendar clear amid the many calls for commitment to different things, while at the same time that this digital bombardment is happening never before have people felt so disconnected, unrecognized and irrelevant.  Maybe you're an exception to this trend...good for you. But I don't see this going in a good direction as the concepts of "news" and "reality" have become so digitally twisted that our democracy and freedoms may be in dire peril during the next few years while autocratic demagogues run rampant and unchecked.  But back to Benjamin Franklin: it's coming down to having to be a bit of a jerk around others to assert myself and live my life in today's allotted span that I have set out for myself.  Otherwise, today will turn into tomorrow and then the next day and then the next week, month, year, decade...until I am no longer around to look back with regret on the wasted past... 

Constellation of the Month: Vulpecula (the Fox)

 

Last Friday's "quote" article on this blog featured one by philosopher Alan Watts, who claimed that we don't have a problem with how constellations are arranged...I had to object.  Above is a prime example of what I mean. Most of the 88 officially recognized constellations...star patterns representing different regions on the celestial map...are insignificant and faint, chiefly devised by two astronomers: Hevelius and Lacaille.  Hevelius is responsible for the above abomination, one barely-fourth magnitude star and a background of faint stars with one Messier deep-sky object, a planetary nebula called M27.  The other dots on the above map are just background stars too dim for the naked eye to make out. Alpha Vulpeculae, commonly known as Anser (goose in German), has an appropriate name: Hevelius dubbed it that to represent the goose that the fox allegedly was holding in its mouth...question is, where is the fox?  I have never discerned Vulpecula in the night sky...it is situated just south of prominent Cygnus in the Milky Way and just north of Delphinus and Sagitta.  The latter two are also a bit small in my opinion to be proper constellations...what they should have done was to combine Vulpecula, Sagitta, Delphinus, and nearby Equuleus to form a separate constellation, connect the dots and come up with something more recognizable.  But I'm left with what is already out there...Anser, by the way, is a red giant nearly 300 light years from us.  Next month I'll try to dig up a more significant constellation to discuss for October...

Weekly Short Stories: 1993 Science Fiction, Part 3

Here are some more reviews of 1993 short stories (with a novella thrown in) from Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eleventh Annual Collection.  That year I was working at the post office, keying and sorting mail on their flat-sorting machine during the graveyard shift, "Tour One" in their lingo.  Actually, I kept those working hours from 1987 to 1995, 1998-2003 and 2013-2016...don't know how I did it.  But enough about me, how about those stories...

FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE by Brian W. Aldiss

In a not-so-distant future, there is a criminal trade in people's memories, snatched from them surreptitiously under false premises.  An architectural history scholar believes a key element of his own was taken from him.  He is traveling to Turkmenistan to reclaim it from that nation's president.  The story's title refers to an abandoned bridge project meant to connect that country, recently liberated following the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991, to Iran.  I remember reading about the theme of snatched memories from an earlier story, but I can't remember which one: hmmm...

INTO THE MIRANDA RIFT by G. David Nordley

In this novella loaded with hard science details about physics, chemistry and biology in the setting of Miranda, one of Uranus' moons, a party of four is investigating the chasms under its surface.  They were caused by, first, the moon's destruction following a catastrophic collision millions of years earlier and then, the matter recoalescing, imperfectly, over a vast span of time afterward.  The four get trapped underground, and the race against time is on to get back to the surface.  In the process they discover each other and much about themselves.  The science part of the story was hard to muddle through, but it did fit the narrative well and made it more than just a flight of fantasy...

MWALIMU IN THE SQUARED CIRCLE by Mike Resnick

I remember back in 1978-79 how Tanzania's president Julius Nyerere had finally had enough of neighboring Uganda's bloodthirsty dictator Idi Amin and invaded, toppling him from power (with most of the world rejoicing). Apparently, at the time Amin had challenged Nyere to a winner-take-all boxing match to decide the war and was obviously refused, the massive tyrant's history of being a boxer contrasting sharply with Nyerere's diminutive, unathletic physique. This story pretends that Nyere accepted Amin's challenge.  The two are in the ring, with none other than Muhammad Ali as referee...

Next week: more SF from '93...

Season Changes, Still Could Use Some More Cooling

The season has officially changed from summer to fall, but not fast enough of me as the temperatures, while slightly better in the last few days, are still too hot.  And this hurricane season won't go away as there always seems to be something brewing either in the Gulf of Mexico/Western Caribbean, Atlantic, or both.  I'm looking forward to the time when, as the sun sets, I'll feel comfortable putting on a light sweater...looking forward to that first full cold front of the autumn season!  Until then, I'll be continuing my indulgence in (and appreciation for) air conditioning...

Just Finished Reading The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

I just finished reading the first of five books by Trenton Lee Stewart, series title The Mysterious Benedict Society...which is Book One's title as well. They started coming out in 2007, with the last volume in 2019. Disney put out a television series that I never watched...just like all the other streaming television series during the past several years that I never watched.  The premise of Stewart's series is familiar enough: outcast children have special skills that an eccentric old man has sought out for a special, dangerous project...but first they must past his test.  Since this book series, like Harry Potter, is primarily directed at children, a lot of the developments...including the "Test"...I could easily discern well in advance. Let me just say that I am sick and tired of bigshots who think they're experts on psychology and deliberately deceive job interviewees by inserting quirky, hidden character tests within the interview process.  An Apple CEO would go with the applicant to get some coffee and then judge their qualification for employment by what they did with the cup afterward...did they try to return or clean it, or did they just leave it on the desk?  In The Mysterious Benedict Society, old man Benedict treats the children similarly...groan. The danger that he has recruited the four child protagonists to combat is interesting enough...mind control though ultrasonic messages, although I think propagandists are, in our current "real" world, doing quite well just laying out all their crap directly out in the open on the Web and mass media for gullible suckers to gobble up.  I liked the kids' respective personalities and stories, enough to give the series a thumbs-up onward to the second book, after reading the first installment.  But I'm thinking of taking a little break before I do that...

Ran Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

I knew I'd run a faster 5K than lately when I woke up this morning and the temperature outside here in Gainesville was 64 with a pleasant 56% humidity.  And such was the case for an extraordinarily crowded Depot Parkrun, my 23rd in this particular event that has been going on Saturday mornings since late 2018...with a substantial break during the Covid-19 outbreak.  They will soon celebrate their 200th race in Gainesville...the Parkrun concept originated in England and has spread to several countries.  Although my fastest 5K time, predating my participation in this event beginning in 2019, was a little over 23 minutes back in 2010, as far as the Parkrun is concerned my "personal record" has been 30:00.  I thought there was a chance that I might beat that mark this morning, but I missed it, finishing on my watch at 30:23.  But when I clicked on the Parkrun's website to view the race results, they had put me at 30:50...a gross error...and given my actual time to the next higher up runner.  Maybe I'll contact them about it, maybe I won't.  Sometimes the volunteers working there are new and get things mixed up...that's what it seemed like today.  And there were many more participants then usual: it's the first time since I ran this event that I had to park in the overflow parking lot around the corner.  As for volunteering, I think it's getting about time for me to once again throw my hat into the ring...maybe I won't screw it up like I did the last time I volunteered here...

Later, I did contact them and they corrected the results..

Quote of the Week...from Alan Watts

Things are as they are.  Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.      ---Alan Watts

I've quoted twentieth century English philosopher Alan Watts a number of times on this blog...delving into his thoughts I could almost pick any one out at random to discuss.  This one brought out the common theme of people feeling the need to somehow place "good" or "bad" labels on the things (and people) they encounter in life. I think a lot of it has to do with insecurity and stems from childhood...there seemed to be a lot of this when I was a kid and conversations often got kind of brutal about branding people as good or bad...with much more insulting epithets applied to those in disfavor.  And when I hear grownups shooting off like that, I instantly think that they're being childish and should just cool it with their calumny.  But what grabbed my attention about this quote of Watts, who studied Eastern philosophy and liked to use Zen principles, is its ending, where he said we don't make comparisons between well and badly arranged constellations.  Speak for yourself, dude! One of my chief gripes as a confirmed stargazer from age seven is the often-crappy way that the stars are arranged in constellations...especially in the southern sky.  That's because originally there were much fewer constellations, the ancient, traditional ones based on myths, like Orion, Taurus, Gemini and Hercules for example.  These ones have distinct shapes to them when you connect the stars and can be easily picked out of the sky from the surrounding stars.  Unfortunately, too many of the 88 "official" constellations nowadays are patchwork creations of later astronomers, chiefly Hevelius and Lacaille in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively.  Their contributions tend to be much smaller and dimmer, concentrated on either the empty spaces between the more prominent older constellations or in the southern sky, especially that part too far south to be seen from Europe or the Middle East. I have a monthly feature of this blog called "Constellation of the Month"...I tell you the truth, I'm running out of interesting constellations to discuss and most likely will be picking a thoroughly obscure one to discuss for this month of September.  But then again, I always regarded this blog project of mine as primarily an exercise in disciplined writing...time to get the heavy discipline going...

Podcaster Talks about Personal Affirmations

Last Friday podcaster Rob Dial discussed on his show the subject of personal affirmations, an area that he admittedly has had his own doubts about in the past.  There are the people, mainly prominent in self-help and name-it-and-claim it faith-based circles, who think that fervently believing in something can somehow manifest it into reality.  You're welcome to believe that or not as pleases you, but I was relieved that Dial covered it in a different light.  He focused on how personally affirming a desired goal, even if yet unfulfilled, can rewire the brain on multiple levels in a way that facilitates its accomplished...sounds reasonable to me.  To this end, he simplified the process by suggesting we simply state to ourselves the goal, as specifically as possible, and phrase it as "I am ----ing ----" to place into our brains the notion that it is already successfully being implemented.  Okay, dude, so is that all?  Well, Dial refined his idea by adding, beyond the need to be specific, bringing in an emotional charge to heighten the perceived experience while both consistently repeating the affirmation and visualizing the fruits of the goal's fulfillment.  He suggested that the combination of all these elements within an affirmation can transform it to more resemble an incantation, something that can dramatically transform the mind in the desired direction.  Of course, the goal does need to be realistic as well. Also, having a time deadline in mind sounds advisable, giving the matter a stronger sense of priority.  I remember one night many years ago sitting in a local Waffle House when a group of slightly intoxicated customers came in, talkative and loud.  One woman in the party kept saying repeatedly "Life's a bitch, life's a bitch". I wonder how many of us unthinkingly repeat the negative stuff like that while ignoring the possibilities of talking to ourselves (and others) in a gentler and more encouraging manner.  Then again, like I wrote last Friday on this blog, life can indeed sometimes be a bitch...

Weekly Short Stories: 1993 Science Fiction, Part 2

Here again are some more reviews from editor (and science fiction writer in his own right) Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eleventh Annual Collection, covering the year 1993 in this genre.  Bill Clinton was starting his eventual two-term tenure as US Presidents. I supported him the previous November, in large part because his predecessor, George (Papa) Bush, vetoed the Family and Medical Leave Act, a cruel gesture that exemplified the often-contemptuous attitude of Republican elites against working Americans...Clinton promptly signed it into law.  But enough of politics, how about those stories...

A VISIT TO THE FARSIDE by Don Webb

A tale that curiously reminded me of a South Park episode about a whale, the Soviet Union has far surpassed the US in space and is a position to grant temporary asylum to Americans on the moon when their own base (on the far side) blows up. The author, I knew as I was reading, had to be perfectly aware that the USSR had broken up in 1991, so what gives here? Rest assured, all is explained at the end, with a little Romeo and Juliet thrown in for full measure in this loaded brief story...

ALIEN BOOTLEGGER by Rebecca Ore

Dozier tends to stick a lot of lengthy novellas in his anthologies...this one didn't work for me as I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It centered around a ruthless Virginia bootlegger/international investor who is fighting competition from, of all parties, a diplomatically protected insect-like alien setting up its own distilling in the area.  I don't think I've read a tale this long without bonding with at least one of the characters...the changing viewpoint of the narrative didn't help any...

DEATH ON THE NILE by Connie Willis

This story's title should be familiar: it's also that of Agatha Christie's famous murder mystery novel featuring Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.  Poirot is nowhere to be found here, but the venue is similar with three couples traveling together by plane to tour in Egypt.  Told by one of the women, they encounter sudden turbulence in the plane...and afterward everything seems a bit out of kilter.  Our narrator suspects something dire has happened while the others...including another woman trying to seduce her husband...don't seem aware of anything different.  Ever have the feeling that you're in a dream but it's supposedly real?  Yes, I think that's from The Matrix...this story kind of reminded me of that...

Next week I continue with my reactions to stories from this 1993 retrospective anthology...

Spreading Self Thin over Projects...and Enjoying It

I'm looking at probably too high a number of personal projects I'm currently engaged in, wondering whether I'm spreading myself too thinly.  The answer is likely "Yes", yet I have decided to do just that while enjoying the essence and variety of the different areas.  Several foreign languages, writing, reading, distance running/walking and mathematics in its various forms occupy much of my "free" time and attention, and to be sure progress in any one of them isn't steep, to say the least.  Yet that doesn't bother me.  I enjoy the process of gradually accumulating known vocabulary in various languages while picking out patterns and meanings in what I hear.  My blog writing, allowing for an occasional missing day, is a personal discipline I've been true to for years, and plan to continue it as long as I am able.  I read, primarily either science fiction short stories or books...primarily in audio format...I've checked out from the library.  I, in turn, write my reactions on this blog after reading them.  My running has never been fast enough to command anyone's attention, although as I age, I find myself more and more eligible for age category awards in races even when finishing far behind most of the young whippersnappers out there. And math, which I've always had a very high aptitude for, is a pure academic subject for which I see no personal practical value other than eventually teaching it either as a tutor or in a part-time classroom setting following my retirement. Add to all this a wonderful wife and family and more passive interests like stargazing and watching sports...and occasional travel adventures...and it all adds up to one word: fun. I've also noticed a correspondingly higher level of contentment, gratitude and optimism after I made the conscious personal decision to studiously avoid the news, in all its biased and sensationalist forms...

Some Sports (Especially College Football) Comments

Three different college football polls have come out following Saturday evening's University of Florida 29-16 victory over Tennessee in Gainesville.  The Volunteers were strongly favored to win, by something like a five-point margin, but the Gators proved the better team at least for this game.  Following Saturday's contests, ESPN, the Associated Press and the Coaches each came out with their new rankings and Florida actually made it to #25 for the first two pollsters.  Yet in all three Tennessee was ranked higher, at #23, #24 and #20 respectively.  This slighting in the polls of UF in favor of their conference divisional rival reminds me of the years during Steve Spurrier's reign as head coach when the Gators would handle the Vols in their early season contest, only to see UT with their easier late season schedule surge ahead of them in the final polls.  The only thing Florida can do now is play well...especially in their upcoming conference games, starting against Kentucky two weeks from now in Lexington following a home game next week against small college Charlotte.  I kind of liked watching college football this weekend, in particular the FSU-Boston College game and some of UF-Tennessee...yet I'm still not yet on board with NFL pro football.  But the season is young.  Yesterday, though, I had other stuff to do besides watching sports, although I did check out a golfing tournament taking place out in California that Saith Theegala, won, his first PGA victory...

Back to Depot Park for Their Weekly 5K Race

Today I returned to my Saturday morning haunt of Depot Park...just a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville...to run yet another of their free Parkrun 5K (3.1 miles) races.  I had considered spending some money and driving down to Ocala to participate at either a 10K or half-marathon held twice monthly at their Baseline Trailhead Park off SE 58th Avenue but decided to take the "easy" road at least this time around.  At race time the temperature was 73 with 97% humidity...yuck!  I wasn't sure whether I would run or walk this particular race, but at the last minute decided to run it. The start went slow since there were a lot of people there, including many from an African children's charity organization called Life Child. As the run progressed, each successive lap of the four-lap course went faster for me, and I finished with a lot of energy to spare at 32:17...you can view the race results by clicking HERE. Someday, probably next month, I'd like to try out one of those Ocala races.  If I choose the half-marathon, I'm planning to walk a good percentage of the distance.  And now, on to the rest of the weekend.  The lawn needs mowing and there's plenty of sports on the telly: full speed ahead!

Quote of the Week...from Goth Kid on South Park

Life is pain.  Life is only pain.  We're all taught to believe in happy fairy tale endings, but there is only blackness...dark, depressing loneliness that eats at your soul.

                                                            ---Goth Kid from South Park's Raisins Episode

I think that my favorite characters in the long-running satirical cartoon South Park series have to be the Goth Kids...although I wonder whether their depiction accurately reflects Goth culture on school campuses (and presumably beyond).  They're shown to be utterly cynical about life and society specifically...I can totally get that outlook at times.  They also repeatedly point out how nonconformist they are...but as the series' main character Stan quickly finds out on that episode, you have to wear the same clothes and listen to the same music if you want to join the "nonconformists". As for their ostentatious expression of style, to me it doesn't ring well with their philosophy. I think I would have made a great Goth kid in school because back then I embraced many of their attitudes, but had such a group existed in the 1970's, they would have no doubt rejected me just for my nonconformity.  Yet in spite of that apparent hypocrisy about them brought out on South Park, there are times in my life when their cynical, highly critical opinions on the world and humanity scream loudly with truth. The ultimate irony of this is that with Christianity, humanity is also essentially depicted as fallen, with only undeserved divine intervention providing rescue and solace. You'd think that there might be a kind of distant alliance between the Goths and Christians, but sadly my impression over the years is that too many of the latter are prisoners of their own self-imposed pride, materialism, selectively convenient legalism and idolatry worship of secular political figures while casting a critical eye at anyone different from themselves, the exact opposite of the noble creed to which they claim to adhere...   

News Outlets Manipulative, Revolting

When I start up my computer, I get this Microsoft news feed on my screen.  It is loaded with provocative article headings, designed to inflame the readers' passions and have them click on them.  The underlying article is almost always completely different in tone and message from its misleading title...unfortunately, it's not just on my computer screen where this happens.  Even on the evening news, the host will feed teasers about a really important news development that he or she will present later on in the show...the actual story is often usually as short as the teaser!  I am so bummed out on the news, not so much by what is happening, but rather how it all is presented, even on so-called unbiased programs and sites.  I truly pity people who actually rely on and believe these manipulators of information...even more so the ones who voluntarily impose upon themselves a bubble in which they seek out sources that reinforce their biased narratives and avoid all others.  I'm looking forward with some trepidation to the next national election, in which millions of information zombies may well elect the next president and Congress.  Maybe Musk is right: is it too late for me to sign up for Mars?

Weekly Short Stories: 1993 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I'm finally moving on to a new year, 1993, and a new book in the excellent anthology series edited by the late Gardner Dozois, this volume titled The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eleventh Annual Collection. For Gardner's series I have been purchasing each successive volume from Amazon for my Kindle account...I read everything straight off my phone. Back in 1993 computers were just beginning to take off with the Internet...we were still doing the floppy disk thing, saving stuff to them that we will never access again after they became obsolete...and what about all those old CD-ROMs? But for now, let's return to our vantage point in the present and check out the first stories in the book...

PAPA by Ian MacLeod

Told by an extremely old man in the not-so-distant future, this story paints the picture of a society where robots do all the menial things as well as provide medical care, and people's bodies increasingly transform into cyborgs with mechanical constructs replacing human tissue.  In spite of these pronounced differences, we see here some familiar family dynamics has "Papa" struggles to relate to his carefree and somewhat irresponsible two grown visiting grandchildren while his son always seems to be tucked away in his city office job, too busy to interact with him.  And then there is Papa's love, his wife Hannah who passed away some seventy years earlier.  A tender, bittersweet story tying the present to what might come...

SACRED COW by Bruce Sterling

Why are Indians (Hindis, Tamils, etc.) in this tale a world power and Britain and the U.S. fallen societies?  The answer is eventually provided in this brief tale of an Indian filmmaker who is making a series of cheap films in England for mass distribution.  It's a combination of the author capitalizing on an ongoing important news story at the time of writing with the reputation of India's huge movie industry, largely unrecognized by the rest of the world...

DANCING ON AIR by Nancy Kress

Never having taken an interest in ballet, either as a dancer (that would be a laugh) or a spectator, this novella, set like the previous two in the near future, exposes the extremely fragile nature of dancers' bodies as they attempt to test the limits of their possible movements onstage.  Genetic biological engineering has stepped in to enhance the dancers' bodies' abilities and help avoid injury, but no one knows the ramifications for their health later in life.  A genetically modified guard dog, able to speak his thoughts, has been assigned to a star ballerina and narrates part of the story while a reporter, whose daughter is struggling to join the New York City Ballet over her own objections, tells the other.  Quite an eye-opener about ballet, and also how people can become so obsessed in an area that they lose perspective...

Next week I continue reviewing 1993 sci-fi short stories from the Gardner Dozois anthology...

Learning Languages and Speaking Partners

There are some projects I'm currently on that, for the most part, involve me studying on my own.  The advent of the Internet, and especially the availability of YouTube and the enormous diversity of helpful material on it, has made studying these subjects so much easier.  Yet there are times when it is also helpful to be in association with others pursuing the same areas of interest.  Right now, I'm studying five different languages...some might advise me to study just one at a time, but that's just me...and a part of learning to speak them is, well, speaking them!  And not just to a wall, either, but with others who have a native fluency in them.  Steve Kaufmann, speaker of twenty languages and consequently an expert in the area of language learning, says that it can sometimes get a little tricky finding a speaking partner.  If they're learning English, the two of us can split time speaking to each other in our native tongues by mutual arrangement...he did this to learn Japanese many years ago. Kaufmann also pointed out that when I start speaking my target language to others, then I'm going to make many, many mistakes for a long time and that my listeners need to be understanding and patient, realizing that the overriding goal in any conversation is communication and not perfection.  Yet with that in mind, the temptation may often come during a difficult section in a talk when the native speaker may resort to English to clear up the confusion, unwittingly interfering with my progress. If I'm here in the United States learning Russian, Chinese, German, French and Spanish, then those native speakers I find may not be very willing to accommodate my interests when they most probably already are well versed in English.  And if I go on the Internet to seek language interest groups, then the various notions about language learning spread among their members are liable to interfere as well with my progress. As children learning a language there is much more freedom and forbearance with their stumbling efforts, but adults tend to be judged and corrected, often to the point of them becoming hesitant to make the necessary mistakes they need to become effective speakers in the new language. So, I'm looking for laid back speaking partners in those five languages while continuing to build up my passive listening and reading ability in them. This isn't exactly comfortable for me since by nature I tend to be introverted and reclusive...

Just Finished Reading American Idolatry by Andrew L. Whitehead

The full title of the book I just read, by Andrew L. Whitehead, is American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church.  It just came out this year and expressed some concerns about conservative evangelical Christianity in this country that I have been feeling for some time.  The author also went a little too far is pushing his conclusions, in my opinion.  Whitehead is a professing Christian from his youth, attending the very types of churches he discusses in this book.  The American flag is prominently displayed in their sanctuaries, and much is made of the United States always having been a Christian nation, established on Christian principles.  He disapproves of the flag being there and disagrees with America's Christian heritage.  In fact, he seems repelled by both the word "heritage" and its common companion "traditional", since they usually imply that the social values of the "good old days" were better and more noble than our society in the present time.  But slavery lasted until 1865 and then afterward legalized discrimination against the former enslaved blacks was practiced until the US Supreme Court struck it down just two years before I was born.  Still, the struggle has continued for African Americans to get a fair shake in our country.  As for Native Americans, the push for much of our history had been to eliminate either them or their culture, with a strong push toward Christianizing the population, especially children.  I'm totally in agreement with Whitehead's grim assessment of these facets of our history...they should be taught in all the schools without any attempt to cover anything up.  Where I do have a problem with his book is that he tends to repeatedly emphasize something that, while true up to a point, has some sinister connotations: the notion of privilege, which he applies to whites whether they subscribe to Christian nationalism or not.  Historically, different groups of people have been collectively scapegoated for society's problems by essentially being accused of being unfairly privileged: this has long been a recurring theme with anti-Semites when railing against Jewish people.  Careful: attacking or criticizing people for being born a certain way crosses an important line and can place you in the company of those who are prejudiced...well, by its very nature it is prejudice.  Also, I don't like whole groups of people lumped together and judged by a few in their midst who espouse objectionable views: I think I know of quite a few Christian nationalists in churches I've attended...and quite a few much more tolerant and open-minded folks...should I automatically judge Muslims because some among them have radical notions?  This book is nevertheless an appropriate response to the type of Christian nationalism pushed by, of all people, a thoroughly secular reprobate who once as President had federal troops tear-gas peaceful demonstrators so that he could walk from the White House to a church he never attended and...in front of it and numerous cameras...hold up a Bible he never read, much to the adoring approval of Christian nationalist Franklin Graham.  The sad thing about it all is that the very people who need to change their attitudes the most are thoroughly (and happily) brainwashed and will only double down on their convictions.  Still, I thought the book was a worthwhile effort despite some of my disagreements.  Whitehead made a very good point of contrasting Jesus' walk on Earth and his ministry and sayings with the political, bellicose attitudes of many today who liberally invoke his name while violating his principles.  There's a fork in the road for Christianity, for sure: which way will it go?

My Take on Sports This Weekend

This weekend in the sports world has been marked by football...the American brand, not soccer...and tennis.  The US Open tournament is concluding...yesterday Coco Gauff defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the Women's Singles championship while later this afternoon Novak Djokovic faces Daniil Medvedev in a rematch from the title match here two years ago that Medvedev convincingly won.  I'm looking forward to today's contest...and have to say that after watching college football yesterday and some early NFL games this afternoon, I may well have already had my fill of that sport for 2023.  I don't know...ever since former Florida Gators coach Dan Mullen claimed in 2021 that his team lost a close game at Texas A&M because they packed the stadium with fans in the middle of the Covid crisis and wouldn't it be great to "pack the Swamp" for UF's next home game, I've felt that people have lost their perspective on the importance of spectator sports.  Observing the often-tasteless outbreaks in the stands at the US Open tennis tourney in New York has only served to reinforce this feeling that sports have gotten out of hand.  Sure, I want my teams and players to win, but losing from time to time's okay, too.  But the frenzy surrounding football is way beyond the pale...even on the high school level it's all incredibly overrated.  I think in the future I'll just stick to watching golf...

Ran the "Is It Fall" Four-Mile Race at Squirrel Ridge Park Today

This morning I got up early and made my way across Gainesville, driving from my home in the city's far northern end to the far south at Squirrel Ridge Park, where the Florida Track Club was hosting a four-mile race.  Since all I've been doing since the half-marathon in January was running Depot Parkrun 5K's, this gave me a chance to change the scenery (and distance).  Starting at eight, the race began at this park, located on the south side of Williston Road near US441, in a grassy field and then going along Williston Road until we all hooked a left turn onto unpaved (and uneven) SW 17th Terrace, aka "Tobacco Road".  Then, after about a mile, we turned right unto SW 56th Avenue (also unpaved and uneven), going west until the turnaround after which we retraced our path back to the finish line.  The course was advertised as flat: maybe it was to some people's standards but there were some hills, nonetheless.  The temperature at race time was in the low seventies, not bad, but the humidity was oppressive at over 90%.  I ran the race establishing a comfortable-but-honest, steady pace.  Out of 100 finishers, I finished #78 (chip time of 41:59, you can view the race results by clicking HERE), but since I placed third in my gender/age group (M 61-70) I was given a prize coffee mug with the Florida Track Club logo on it...cool!  All in all, it was a good experience, there was a good, positive vibe among the participants and volunteers, and it was nice to see a familiar face or two among the runners while getting to talk a bit with another.  I'm looking forward to seeing what's up ahead on the local racing calendar...

Quote of the Week...from Rob Dial

The one thing I really want you to understand from this strategy or another strategy is I just want you to have SOME strategy to hitting your goals.   

     ---Rob Dial

Rob Dial is the host and creator of the Mindset Mentor podcast, available on YouTube and other sites and devoted to personal development.  The above quote is from this past Monday's program in which Dial presented an effective approach to tackling personal goals.  In this he employed the acronym SMART:

"S": be Specific, precise about how, why, what, etc. you are trying to accomplish. Keep getting clearer, ask yourself detailed questions about the goal in question.  And visualize the outcome in as much detail as possible, while writing it down.

"M": Measurable, quantifiable results that can track progress along the way, breaking big goals into smaller ones.

"A": Achievable...think big but also think reasonable. Some goals that may seem unachievable might be attainable by sacrificing another part of your life, such as money, time, and other activities.

"R": Relevant...does this goal align well with your life values and ambitions, and why is it significant? Such examining can lead to a prioritizing of goals.

"T": Time...set a time limit, or deadline, for the goal's fulfillment.  Doing so can help create a sense of urgency and keep it in the forefront of your mind.

I brought up this particular podcast not only because it was helpful (it was), but also because I wanted to point out that Rob Dial's program is loaded with all these kinds of shows listing...either with acronyms or not...steps and/or facets of doing well in some personal area of development.  I don't need all of them...just take a few here and there and flow with it.  Sometimes wisdom has at its core some simple principles, but "learning" it all can become cumbersome when probably the best thing is to distill the main points and apply them.  I think Rob Dial would agree with me on that point...

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart

Today I'm privileged to be able to shout out, "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SWEETHEART" to my dear, beautiful wife Melissa...we've been married 37 wonderful years today!  Baby, you're the greatest: what a joy it's been with you!  The adventure continues: now on to the next 37!  💕

Weekly Short Stories: 1992 Science Fiction, Part 7

Today I conclude my look at the year 1992 in science fiction as reflected by the short story and novella anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Tenth Annual Collection, edited by the late Gardner Dozois.  My encounter with Hurricane Idalia this past week reminded me of horrific Hurricane Andrew in August of '92, greatly intensifying as it bore down on the South Florida coastline right at my frightened parents' house in Hollywood before veering just before landfall as Category Five and devastating Homestead several miles south.  Yes, sometimes reality can be scarier than science fiction, speaking of which here are my reactions to the book's final four tales...

NAMING THE FLOWERS by Kate Wilhelm

This is a novella about a very special little girl, born into a very wealthy family and an infant survivor of a devastating plane crash that claimed her mother...but no one can find her.  A man recovering from a broken marriage is taking a short break from work when, in the vicinity of the wreck, he encounters a little girl who befriends him.  Later an FBI agent contacts him and connects her to the missing infant...but how can that be since she would have quickly aged? The story goes on from there, the man, agent and girl and examines the ethics of government involving itself in genetics...whether the subject for investigation wants it or not.  Reminded me of the Stephen King novel Firestarter...

SNODGRASS by Ian R. MacLeod

What if, just as the Beatles began recording in 1962, John Lennon got angry in the studio and just walked away?  An interesting "what if" story that poses the theory that certain things will come back around full circle...including unhinged fans.  I liked how the author captured Lennon's personality here, although I'm not so sure things would have turned out this way had he flown the coop that early...

BY THE MIRROR OF MY YOUTH by Kathe Koja

A woman married to a callous, selfish man is dying of an incurable brain disease and has made the sacrificial move of having herself cloned into a replacement wife just like herself.  As she approaches her end, her resentment at her replacement-turned-rival only builds until they confront one another...and realize that they have a common purpose.  The husband here is a thoroughly monumental jerk...

OUTNUMBERING THE DEAD by Frederick Pohl

It is hundreds of years into the future and humanity has figured the way to inject immortality into the genetic code, resulting in a massive population growth (to 10 trillion) and pressure to settle many other worlds.  One man's body does not take to the genetic treatment, though...he is 92 and sees only some 30 more years of life before death.  Very popular as a movie star, singer and dancer, he yet feels himself a terrible victim in juxtaposition to everyone else.  In today's world he would be regarded as blessed for his longevity, but humans being what they are, it's all about who's around you and where you stand in comparison.  This "short story" was in truth a pretty long novella to close out the 1992 anthology...

Next week I began review science fiction short stories from the year 1993...

A Little Bit Behind in My "Songs of the Year" List for 2023

Let's see...it's already the first week of September 2023 and I have yet to even begin to compile a list of my favorite songs of the year so far.  Well, it's been a while since I would draw upon what I heard off the radio...that medium I only use nowadays to occasionally listen to my local classical music station.  No, in recent years I listen to my favorite acts off YouTube, buying their CDs if they're especially good.  Up until this moment I would have to say that the track A Hairdryer...yes, that's the title...off The Smile's album A Light for Attracting Attention, is my "song of the year" so far.  Yet I just checked on the Web to see who's come (or coming) out with new albums this year, and there are a lot of good acts: Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Gorillaz, Philip Selway (from Radiohead), U2, Depeche Mode, The New Pornographers, Pet Shop Boys, Paul Simon, Yes, The Guess Who, Andrew Bird, The Hives, Sufjan Stevens and Cold War Kids stand out to me.  I'm especially interested in Sufjan's new album Javelin, scheduled for release October 6...I'm almost certain to order that one.  So yes, there are plenty of new tracks for me to immerse myself in.  I don't have to like everything on an album for it to contain some real gems...should be fun checking them out...

Enjoying Watching the US Open in Tennis

I've been watching the US Open tennis tournament this week.  Tonight, they're playing through the singles quarterfinals as some familiar faces are advancing while others have gone down to unexpected defeat.  I enjoy the familiar faces, some of whom have suffered banishment from Grand Slam events in recent times for their governments' belligerent actions and another...namely Novak Djokovic...blocked from the Australian and US Opens because of his refusal to take a Covid-19 vaccine.  Fortunately...at least as far as I am concerned...they're all back in action, providing some really good tennis.  ESPN2 has been showing the US Open, which takes place late summer each year in New York City.  My main objection to watching it isn't with any of the players, but rather with the often brash and unruly attendees in the stadiums.  The other night there was a near-stampede as Djokovic had reached his match point and a mass of spectators rushed downstairs to get a better look: insane!  Of late I've veered away from viewing team sports like football, baseball, soccer and basketball and now enjoy individual sports like golf and tennis.  Who do I think is going to win this year's US Open titles? Sabalenka on the women's side and either Medvedev or Djokovic on the men's...  

Just Finished Rereading City by Clifford Simak

City is a 1952 science fiction novel written by acclaimed writer Clifford Simak (1904-88), one of my favorites and someone whom I've read from back in my childhood.  I read City five years ago...click HERE to read my lengthier review on this blog from back then.  This novel is more or less a connected series of related short stories, two of which, Huddling Place and Desertion, I enjoyed and stand well as classics on their own: click on those titles to read further reviews from me.  The premise of City, while injecting a diversity of creative themes like intelligent and talking dogs, very sophisticated and feeling robots, the possibility transfer of identity between bodies, psychic mutant humans, other dimensions of reality, intelligent indigenous Martians and a spreading creed of nonviolence, is simple enough: much of it was written during World War II, with humanity presented as incurably violent and destructive, ultimately enemy to what is good in the universe.  The robot Jenkins, who served the Webster family for generations, is the unifying character in the novel, and who deliberates at crucial moments on the fate of just about all life on Earth...including man.  Simak wrote an epilogue to City in 1973 that has been included in later editions as a fitting conclusion to it all.  I loved the dialogue and personalities of this book's various characters, be they human, robot, animal or alien...I've always sensed an endearing tenderness in Simak's writing and an earnest attempt to empathize with the other guy's point of view: that's a virtue sadly lacking in today's "double-down" culture.  If you can pick up a copy of City, I recommend it.  If none are available, you can listen to the audiobook version on YouTube...

My July and August 2023 Running and Walking Report

For the previous two months of summer my overall amount of running and walking mileage took a nosedive, much of this due to (1) issues with lower back spasms and (2) becoming ill...I've happily recovered from both for weeks.  Still, I managed to generate more than 200 miles of running training mileage for each of July and August and managed to run two local Depot Parkrun 5K races on August 19th and 26th...they're free and held each Saturday morning at Gainesville's pretty Depot Park.  I have also been visiting my local gym after work to run and walk on the treadmill...I think that has helped a lot, too.  Unfortunately, the summer weather here has been the most stifling hot and humid season I can remember experiencing...and I grew up near Miami!  I am hoping against hope for conditions to greatly improve in September, but still plan to trudge ahead regardless.  Eventually I plan to run in some longer distance races starting in October...we'll see how I'm doing by that time.  This morning I skipped the Parkrun, correctly gauging that I needed the extra sleep.  I signed up to run a 4-mile race organized by the Florida Track Club, of which I'm a member, that starts and finishes at Squirrel Ridge Park off Williston Road near US441. Should be fun: it happens next Saturday...

Quote of the Week...from Niels Bohr

 An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. 

                                                                           ---Niels Bohr

Neils Bohr (1885-1962) was a Danish physicist, one of the most instrumental scientists in history who made crucial contributions toward the creation of the theory of quantum mechanics.  He was a great teacher and role model for his ethics and understanding in his chosen field.  He also apparently understood quite well about the nature of learning and how necessary action is, along with the required trait of not being afraid to made mistakes in the pursuit of higher academic attainment.  I loved the above quote when I found it, for I'm dealing with similar issues regarding my study of foreign languages...although I'm confident that a Nobel Prize of the sort that Bohr received isn't going to be in the works for me.  For the past few months I've been following polyglot Steve Kaufmann, subscribing to his excellent Internet foreign language study site called LingQ,  Kaufmann is an advocate of absorbing vast amounts of material in the target language through listening and reading while allowing the human brain to work its own magic as it is specifically designed to acquire language without the need to go through painstaking rules and memorization of the kind students over the ages have been subjected to (and still are).  But he also emphasizes that during the process many mistakes will be made...and that's all right, it's a part of the learning!  But people have been conditioned from both the pressures in school of being "correct" for good grades and possible public humiliation around others for goofing up when they try to express themselves.  I even once had a Russian professor at UF who told his class that they could say anything they wanted to him in Russian, only that they had better say it right: that shut everyone up in a hurry! When I worked more than forty years ago as a cook at a local Chinese restaurant, I noticed that of my Vietnamese coworkers who were trying to learn English, the ones who threw away their pride and jumped into speaking English, errors and all, quickly learned it while those afraid to sound silly took much, much longer.  Making mistakes is an important part of learning...schools should chiefly be concerned about keeping their students from blowing up the lab in the process instead of stifling their progress by creating artificial little phony pockets of perfection...