Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 4

Today I continue my look at short sci-fi from the year 1995 as it appeared in Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection.  In my not-so-pleasant memories, 1995...at least the first half...I was stuck at my job with some toxic, manipulative and (I believe) emotionally disturbed coworkers who rendered the most extreme reality TV shows tame by comparison with their dramatics and false narratives: it was a relief to change shifts to a more peaceful and professional work environment later in the year. But enough about me and my world, how about those stories...

FOR WHITE HILL by Joe Haldeman

This has to be one of the most somber, bleak science fiction stories I've ever read...and that's saying something since there are quite a few of them out there. The narrator, an artist in the distant future, relates his experiences with another artist, a woman named White Hill, on a war-destroyed Earth.  Humanity has settled nearby star systems but tragically also acquired a lethal enemy who has engaged against them in a centuries-long war of survival, with Earth being one of the casualties.  It's a beautifully written tale of what was, what is, and at the end, what seems unavoidably destined to be: a classic...

SOME LIKE IT COLD by John Kessel

Take the premise of the 2009 resurrected Star Trek movie starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk where an embittered Romulan takes his ship back in time to retroactively change history and you have what's going on here with time travel.  Except that it's the greedy entertainment industry, not vengeful Romulans, here digging into the past, extracting notable people from it and spotlighting them for mass profit in their ongoing shows. The author demonstrates that sometimes what at first seems altruistic is merely a cynical exercise in self-enrichment...

Next week: More from 1995...

Another Turn Toward Southern Stars in March

Melissa and I have planned a western Caribbean cruise for the beginning of March, in a few weeks.  Since we are going to be going back to more southern latitudes, I thought it might be a good idea to study my star maps and reacquaint myself with the constellations that I normally wouldn't be able to view at my 30 degree north latitude.  You might have noticed that I had dropped my "constellation of the month" feature on this blog...most of the rest of them appear in the southern sky, out of my range.  This might be an opportunity for me to, at least temporarily, revive that feature.  I think the southern constellations I'm most looking forward to seeing revolve around the super-constellation Argo, now officially broken up into Vela, Puppis, and Carina...along with ancillary smaller constellations in and around them...looking forward to seeing what I can see...

Skipping Running Races I've Signed Up For

Last Saturday morning's Newnan's Lake 15K, which I skipped after signing up for it, hasn't been the only running race I've passed by.  As a matter of fact, within the past year it's the third such time.  Back in February 2023 I skipped the Florida Track Club's Micanopy Ten-Miler that I had run the previous year.  And then in April I skipped the Run Your Buns Off (yes, that's its name) half-marathon.  All three times I had different reasons for not running them and it's always a possibility.  Yet although I'm disappointed I didn't run these races...and a few others including the 2012 Ocala Half-Marathon...there's always something on the horizon to look forward to and there are more important things in life than running races.  I can say the same thing about reading books...I wonder how many books I've checked out from the library or even bought that I never read.  The latest one I checked out, Dutch novelist/poet/journalist Cees Nooteboom's 553 Days, is in fact destined to be one of them...

Chiefs and 49ers Shine in NFL Conference Playoffs

I watched most of the NFL conference championship playoffs today, the winners going on to the Super Bowl, to be played on Sunday February 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The first game was the American Conference championship game between defending Super Bowl champs Kansas City Chiefs and the favored home team Baltimore Ravens, while the nightcap was the San Francisco 49ers hosting the upstart Detroit Lions for the National Conference title.  Kansas City and San Fran prevailed 17-10 and 34-31, respectively...I felt the losers played strong but made too many mistakes.  In particular, that Detroit coach has a problem with settling for field goals on stalled drives.  So the Super Bowl is set and I'm pulling for KC with its State Farm Insurance and Head & Shoulders Shampoo connections.  I will say one more thing: I'm sick and tired of watching the reactions of Taylor Swift, girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and who attends his games.  I actually tried to like her music and never could see what the big deal was...she seems more of a professional celebrity than a true artist, basking in idol worship from her adoring fans.  And that Detroit coach...whew, I don't think I could root for this hyper-aggressive dude even if I lived in Motown...

Skipped 15K Race This Morning

This Saturday morning I woke up feeling a little under the weather, but I had already signed up to run a 15K race east of town.  On top of this it was forecast to be unseasonably hot and humid...and it was!  I decided to give my poor old body a break and skip the race...at 9:45 when I would have been in its closing stages, I checked the temperature and humidity: 72 degrees, 81%...ugh.  I plan to run some throughout the year and the summer months here in northern Florida can be much, much worse than this morning was, but for today at least I'm passing on the long-distance running races.  I still plan to run some today, but at a more relaxed level and in the more amenable environment of my home. Turn on the YouTube, I'll be virtually running to the NYC Marathon again.....

Quote of the Week...from Charles Herman

So what's your story? You the poor kid who never got to go to Exeter or Andover?     ---Charles Herman from the movie A Beautiful Mind

Maybe when you saw who said today's quote, you scratched your head...maybe not, if you saw the movie A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe as troubled mathematical genius John Nash and featuring Paul Bettany portraying his college roommate Charles Herman.  His above quote happens after their initial meeting, in which Nash rudely dismisses Herman for interfering with his studies.  Charles, in response, suggests that the two go "break the ice" with his flask of liquor.  So, on the rooftop, the conversation begins with the invitation for Nash to tell his own story...which warms him up considerably to his new (and rare) friend.  Never mind who Charles Herman really turns out to be, just consider two points in this brief sequence.  People tend to get dismissive of others who they think are crossing the line into their own territory or are unduly intruding or distracting them.  Conversely, those so dismissed often take offense as they feel themselves disrespected...I've been on both sides of this.  Yet Charles takes the high road and gives his roommate what he wanted all along: a chance to tell his own story to someone interested in hearing it...the diametric opposite of being dismissive.  I wonder how many enduring friendships have begun with that open invitation to tell one's story, and how many grudges and resentments have festered with memories of how someone was basically told to get lost?  Food for thought... 

Just Finished Reading Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia

I recently read Dr. Peter Attia's book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, in which the Canadian physician presents a comprehensive vision of the priorities people should take with their old age in mind, and at a much earlier age that many others in his profession feel.  In that sense, I think that this book was primarily aimed at young-to-middle-aged adults rather than a budding 67-year-old senior citizen as myself. For example, Attia is a strong advocate that younger adults lift heavy weights in order to build the bone density necessary in later years to enable them to withstand falls that, for too many, carry with them devastating results for both future quality of life and lifespan. He is very adamant that, with the natural loss of muscle mass through aging, people work hard to maintain that muscle mass through conscious resistance training as well as ensuring a daily intake of protein levels that are a bit beyond the generally recommended amounts.  He has views, expressed in different chapters of the book, about a wide range of health topics.  I was very impressed by his medical expertise and understanding of how the body works through different stages of life, although for some very good reasons I won't be taking him up on his advice about lifting heavy weights as an exercise regimen.  I plan to devote some time discussing Dr. Attia's ideas on this blog...this is only the first article in that regard.  Sometimes I check out a book from my library and am so impressed with it that I go out and buy it...Outlive is one of them...

Weekly Short Story: 1995 Science Fiction Short Stories, Part 3

Today I look at yet another "long" short story, a novella-length tale that editor Gardner Dozois seemed to love including in his anthologies, this volume covering 1995: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection.  1995 was special to me in the world of passive spectator sports.  The Florida Gators football team went undefeated in the regular season and won yet again the Southeastern Conference championship...only to get thoroughly crushed by Nebraska in the national championship game.  And the Atlanta Braves, which I had been following since 1979, finally pulled off a World Series title, this one against the Cleveland Indians.  But back to that story...

DEATH IN THE PROMISED LAND by Pat Cadigan

Virtual gaming, something that seems to be finally catching on, is taken to its logical extreme as a detective investigates the murder of a young man whose throat was physically...and virtually...slashed while playing an extremely popular and violent game.  To solve the puzzle, she enters the game itself under his identity...and the fall down the rabbit hole begins.  This story came out a year before Tad Williams' brilliant four-volume series Otherland began about the same subject.  In both scenarios, players become addicted to the virtual environment, essentially abandoning the real world and placing their hopes and dreams on virtual success and adventure.  In this sense it isn't that much different from what happens to humanity in the late Clifford Simak's wonderful novel City, written way back in the mid-twentieth century...

Next week, I'll see if I can't review more than one story...a little cooperation, please, Gardner!

Recent Inclination for Reading Nonfiction

If you've been reading this blog lately, you might have noticed that, while I'm still doing my weekly science fiction short story reviews, just about all of the rest of my reading has been non-fiction, specifically oriented toward self-improvement, fitness and health.  Although I'm not yet prepared to deliver a more detailed review of the book I've just finished reading, Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia, it, along with much of the material I've recently consumed, has made a deep impression on how I view fitness and health...especially at my age of 67.  Much of what I read only affirmed a lot of what I had already been doing, which on the physical level was self-empowering instead of self-enfeebling following a medical diagnosis I had lived with after late 2011, culminating in corrective open-heart surgery in 2021.  The famous Christmas Story movie line "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" comes to mind as I resisted the impulse to take it easy and not take any chances exerting myself...yet my own thoracic surgeon assented to my choice to stay active (within certain limits), which I did for more than a decade before undergoing the procedure. Yes, I feel vindicated through my recent readings, but also challenged as there are other measures I could have been taking but haven't.  A lot of this will come out in my review article on Attia's book: I should write it in the next week or so...

Checking Out Some More Recent Music Albums

Last November, seeing that I hadn't paid very much attention to the ongoing music scene in 2023, I decided to check out some of that year's album releases, focusing on artists I already liked.  The best albums, far and away, were Cracker Island by Gorillaz and Memento Mori by Depeche Mode.  Well, it's January of 2024 and I'm looking for some new material to listen to.  To that effect, I've dug back a bit into the previous year and am checking out some new albums as well.  In the next few days I'll be listening (on YouTube) to: I/O by Peter Gabriel, Danse Macabre by Duran Duran, Hackney Diamonds by the Rolling Stones, Rewind Forward by Ringo Starr, and...to be released on 1/26...Wall of Eyes by the Smile.  Should be yet another fun listening adventure...

Enjoyed the Weekend

It's been an enjoyable weekend for me and my family.  Melissa and I enjoyed a weekly 5K walk on frigid cold Saturday morning and enjoyed church on frigid cold Sunday morning.  Another factor contributing to that enjoyment is the fact that while I thought it was fun to follow the ongoing National Football League playoffs, I didn't just sit there through whole games, instead catching bits and pieces of the four contests while doing other things as well.  As for the teams that advanced, two games (Baltimore over Houston and Kansas City over Buffalo) went my way and two (San Francisco over Green Bay and Detroit over Tampa Bay) didn't.  The main highlight was the Chiefs' close victory over the Bills.  Now among the final four teams left to play in the conference championships, I'll pull for KC and Detroit...but if the other guys win, that's okay, too.  When family members ask me each year what I want for Christmas, I always make sure to include jigsaw puzzles in my responses.  I've enjoyed finishing one thousand-piece puzzle this weekend and starting another one right afterwards.  And we got ourselves a walking treadmill for our home use...works great so far, but you do have to be careful to stay focused and not slip up and get thrown off!  Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed deliberately avoiding the political BS going on this election year...I pity those addicted to politically biased cable channels and talk shows that drive their ratings and profits by ratcheting up fear, anger and hate among their audience.  And I intend to stay the course and pay attention to only stuff and people that merit my attention: screw the rest...

Walked the Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning with Melissa

This cold Saturday morning, with temperatures approaching freezing at sunrise, Melissa and I again drove down to Gainesville's Depot Park to walk the 5K (3.1 miles) distance at the weekly Depot Parkrun.  It felt a lot colder to me than the half-marathon I ran in Hawthorne the previous Sunday, but Melissa seemed to handle it a lot better.  She set the pace for the four laps, showing a lot of energy and progress with her walking.  And she made her goal of breaking one hour, finishing with me at 57:26.  Unfortunately, since Parkruns don't use chip timing and instead depend on the timekeeping volunteer syncing with the token-dispensing volunteer to time the finishers, this time around they were off by a couple of runners and as a result posted our times as being a lot faster.  Maybe they'll remedy the mistake, maybe not...but in any event we shredded last week's time. Click HERE to view the posted results.  It was so cold that I kept my hands in my jacket pockets the entire walk, and when Melissa took off her sweater about halfway through, I wrapped it around me over my jacket and two shirts, still shivering underneath the layers.  Next week I'm signed up to run in the Newnan's Lake 15K race, which I've done three times in the past.  Melissa and I signed up as volunteers for the February 3rd Parkrun.  Hopefully in the next two weeks the weather will cooperate, but then again that's part of the random element that makes it all more interesting, sometimes chillingly so...

Quote of the Week...from Cees Nooteboom

Life is a never-ending cross reference.                    ---Cees Nooteboom

Cees Nooteboom is a famous Dutch novelist, essayist, travel book writer and journalist, born in 1933.  I was searching online for quotes about cross referencing and, lo and behold, this dude's name came up...I had never heard of him before.  He writes in his native Dutch and has put out a lot of material.  Unfortunately, I found nothing available of his...in any language...on Libby, the online library resource app.  And my local Alachua County Library only had his 2022 essay book 533 Days, which I checked out (fortunately translated into English).  He achieved renown in Europe but it never did seem to translate into popularity in the U.S., but I liked this and other quotes.  He's also written stuff like "I am a hindrance to the world, and the world is a hindrance to me", "I find it unbearable to need a body in order to exist", and the topper, "I have never cared much for people.  Most of them are cowards, conformists, muddleheads, moneygrubbers, and they infect each other".  As for my selected quote, I have been considering going back in my blog articles and doing something similar to Wikipedia, the ultimate Internet site for cross-referencing.  It's just that I have subject matters, like running, reading, constellations, music, etc., that contain interrelated articles spread over years and with my blog going back to 2007 it can be more convenient and interesting to "connect the dots", so to speak.  On my cumulative running race list that I revised on December 10, 2023 I cross-referenced past articles about each race experience, and I continue to update that article even with races after that date.  I found myself wanting to do the same with the books I read...I think that's probably going to be my next cross-referencing project on this blog...I already have the basic reading list from February 22, 2021 and I just need to add the later books and the cross-referencing links.  As for Cees Nooteboom, I haven't yet read much of his one book to grace my library's shelves, but he does seem to have a pretty sharp sense of humor and insight...

Just Finished Reading Master the Marathon by Ali Nolan

Ali Nolan is a runner and writer who provides a woman’s perspective and advice about running, especially for distances like marathons.  She is who I would regard as an elite runner, having qualified without difficulty for the Boston Marathon, something that has never been in my grasp at my more intermediate level.  I just finished reading her 2021 book Master the Marathon (subtitled The Ultimate Training Guide for Women) in which she makes it plain from the start that she has targeted this book specifically for women.  I, naturally, decided to read it anyway and concluded that while some minuscule sections may have specifically addressed special biologically-based issues not pertinent to me as a man, the book as a whole was very instructive and applicable to anyone regardless of gender, age, or running ability who wants to get themselves in proper physical and mental shape to conquer the grueling 26.2 distance that constitutes a marathon running event.  Nolan reminded us that prior to 1966 women were banned from running marathon races, ostensibly for their own good because the prevailing idea in the male-dominated sports establishment was that women’s bodies were too fragile to handle the stress of such a distance…what nonsense in hindsight!  She made quite a few constructive points in the book to help runners in their preparation for marathons, the most significant one for me being that it’s necessary to taper down the training in the couple of weeks prior to the race.  Also, there is a tendency for runners, just before a big race, to experience phantom pains, especially in the legs. Having read it just a couple of days before I was to run in a local half-marathon race, I didn’t have that much time to taper myself, but I did relent on my training intensity and I think it paid off with my performance and recovery…and, yes, I got phantom pain as well.  She also related that once she wanted to take it easy during a marathon, walking much of it and planning to go over six hours with it.  She expressed gratitude, for that event capped the race at six and a half hours…I wonder what she would have thought about the marathon distance race at my recent event: just FIVE hours capped!  Master the Marathon isn’t long and is a good read…I heartily recommend it, whoever you happen to be…

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 2

Today I continue examining 1995 short stories from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that I like to run long distances...but for much of my adult life I instead enjoyed riding the bicycle, including to and from my workplace that is nearly eight miles from my home.  1995 was the last year I did this regularly, and for a little more than a decade afterwards I pretty much avoided aerobic physical activity (except for a brief three month stretch in early 1998) until I resumed my interest in running in 2007.  But enough about me, here are my reactions to three more stories in the Dozois anthology...

A PLACE WITH SHADE by Robert Reed

It is millennia into the future and humanity has settled the near cosmos, for a few light-years at least.  Old-timer SF writers Isaac Asimov and Clifford Simak might have liked this story, for the settlers...and designers...of other worlds liberally use advanced robots to perform the needed labor.  One isolated elderly owner of an ice world hires a terraforming artist from the outside to train his daughter in the art.  Only the young woman has her own ideas about what a world should look like, quite different from the benevolent, peaceful landscapes that are the norm in this field...

LUMINOUS by Greg Egan

Mathematics is often described as a nerdy field, the purest form of which has little application in the "real" world.  But what if simply mentally processing the axioms through one's nervous systems actualizes it and implants it all into physical reality...and what if the mathematics so implanted is contradictory to our own, setting up regions in the universe where mathematical principles are realized completely differently?  This is a tale of international, ruthless industrial espionage as two "nerdy" math geniuses access a Chinese supercomputer composed entirely of light in order to test their hypotheses about this all...

THE PROMISE OF GOD by Michael F. Flynn

As much a fantasy tale as science fiction, set in the Germanic rural woods, a boy realizes he has the "Power" to instantly alter reality...including transforming and killing people and animals.  His father, upon discovering this, notifies his local priest who pairs the lad up with a girl trained to handle such cases, which are apparently (and unfortunately) relatively common in this fantasy setting.  Her role is to alternately discipline and reward him in order to suppress his desires to act out his terrible power.,,they eventually marry.  If only Billy Mumy's character in that scary Twilight Zone episode It's a Good Life had someone similar to protect him from himself...and others from him...

Next week I continue looking at short science fiction from 1995...

Just Finished Reading The Cancer Code by Dr. Jason Fung

I recently discussed the book Life in the Fasting Lane, with Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist (kidney specialist), as a co-author.  I just finished reading another book, a 2020 solo work of his, titled The Cancer Code. It explains the dynamic processes involved in this devastating and complex disease as well as the history of how medical science and physicians have evolved its definition and treatment.  Dr. Fung elucidates three major stages of how cancer has been viewed: first, it was seen as an uncontrollable growth and reproduction of the body’s cells in a particular place.  Second, it was seen as mutations on the gene that made cells cancerous.  And now, the growing consensus is that, while the first two views are correct, they are relatively limited in usefulness, and that cancer is an atavism, that is, reversion to the cell’s more primitive unicellular organism form through a shedding of the genetic material within it that hitherto put it in cooperative relationships with other body cells, making it a competitor cell instead of a cooperative cell. One of the factors leading to this transformation is a chronic period of stress on the affected cell, not killing it but rather forcing it into fending for itself. Also, the author discusses different types of cancers and the process involved in metastasis, which is the spread of the cancer cells to other parts of the body. Fung stresses that cancerous cells mutate much more readily than normal cells, and that there is a strong statistical correlation between diabetes, obesity, and some cancers…the hormone insulin seems to be a strong contributing factor as the sugar it causes to be released in the body serves as fuel for the cancer cells and their reproduction.  I don’t want to make it sound as if Dr. Jason Fung is making simplistic points…he goes into a lot more detail about this scourge than I’ve been able to stumble through with this review.  I recommend this book…you’re bound to come out of it more enlightened about cancer, its nature, causes and possible ways to combat it…

On This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

On this national American holiday commemorating the birthday of our great civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....this year it actually does fall on his birthday, I pause to reflect on the progress of the struggle he inspired to fight bigotry and promote creative altruism and diversity in our society.  There's certainly a very long way to go in this regard and yes, there's been progress as well.  King emphasized the need for love and non-violence as people stand up not only for themselves but for others as well who they see persecuted for the color of their skin.  Forgiveness and reconciliation are the ways to progress here, and folks just need to stop getting defensive and fearful whenever something triggers those primitive responses in them.  Dr. King was also a vehement proponent of peace, asserting that war only breeds more wars.  Unfortunately, scapegoating those "other people" and rationalizing one's own country's aggressive military adventures have continued to be traits common to huge sections of the human population across the globe, not just in the nations we ostracize and/or sanction for being "naughty" or "evil".  A good look in the mirror might do some wonders here, but folks...other than rare jewels like Martin Luther King, Jr....just see what they want to see...

Ran the Mary Andrews Half Marathon in Hawthorne This Morning

I don't think I've ever gone into a running race with as negative an attitude toward it as this one, the Florida Track Club's Mary Andrews Half Marathon...the junior component of the event's main attraction, the "full" length marathon race named in honor of a local distance runner who tragically succumbed to cancer at the age of 44.  Aside from feeling phantom pains in my left leg before the race, I was still miffed that the FTC had placed an elitist five hour cap on timing finishing marathon runners...no way was I going to shell out the entry fee and come away from it with no time! So I signed up for the half-marathon, my second in a row at this particular event, held on the Hawthorne Trail in Hawthorne (a few miles southeast of Gainesville).  The temperature at the 8 AM race time was 43 with a 75% humidity: to my friends up north this may have seemed like perfect weather but to me, a die-hard Floridian, it was torture...at least during the few minutes before the race.  The course was simple: two out-and-backs on the Hawthorne Trail going west from the starting line...for the marathon it was four: not exactly the most inspired course design, but very little worry about traffic management during the race.  I employed the Jeff Galloway system of running with brief walking breaks: for this race...at least for the first three quarters...I would run nine minutes and then speed-walk a minute, and then repeat.  I had the advantage of a 2:10 (hours & minutes) pacer in front of me the first half of the race...then I passed him and didn't look back.  Other than my phone running out of power on me, I experienced very little trouble during the race, and the onlookers, few as they were, were very vocal and encouraging...as were many of the other runners and, of course, the volunteers.  My final finishing chip time for this half-marathon was 2:07:40...click HERE to view the results.  This was a little more than ten minutes faster than my Tom Walker Half-Marathon performance this past November.  Had I attempted a 26.2 mile marathon instead (assuming they hadn't capped it like they did, that is), I would have run a considerably slower pace and taken more frequent walking breaks.  But maybe I'll see an opportunity elsewhere in the not-too-distant future to do just that.  I like this eastern end of the Hawthorne Trail, but it does take a lot of driving to get to. There's another running event here taking place in April, and it also includes a marathon.  H-m-m.  As for my pre-race negativity, the results would indicate that this is a good strategy for my peculiar personality...bah humbug!

Walked the Depot Parkrun 5K with Melissa This Morning

This cold and blustery morning saw Melissa and me get up early and out to our favorite Gainesville park, Depot Park, for their free Saturday morning Parkrun 5K.  We had hoped that by race time the winds might have subsided, but no, they were in full force throughout our four-lap walk along the sloping and winding trail with pretty, natural surroundings and many different kinds of chirping birds.  This was Melissa's second Parkrun 5K and I was surprised at how well she handled the course, distance and weather conditions, setting and keeping up a good pace throughout.  This time around I walked the course with her, anticipating a half-marathon race I'm signed up for tomorrow morning in Hawthorne.  Afterwards we enjoyed some bagels and coffee at a local bagel diner, bought some groceries and are now hunkering down at home with our sweet dog Daisy.  If you want to see how folks finished on today's Depot Parkrun, click HERE...

Quote of the Week...from Groucho Marx

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.  If you can fake that, you've got it made.   ---Groucho Marx

The funniest, in my opinion, of the Marx Brothers comedy team, Groucho's string of one-liners rarely ceases to make me smile, if not break into uncontrolled laughter...the movie Duck Soup was his crowning achievement.  The above quote, although still funny, leads to a more serious point.  Humanity is by its very nature corrupt, and especially when people try to present an image of benevolence and virtue.  Non-profit organizations, religious institutions, labor unions...have I offended anybody yet...to me they are infected with people faking their good intentions.  To that, I have a complaint about a local running club, which has the gall to post its mission statement as "Our mission is to build the local running community and act as a network that supports runners of all ages and abilities" while at the same time placing an incredibly restrictive time limit on this Sunday's marathon event of theirs at five hours, excluding the very people they claim to support.  Any runner finishing as much as a minute beyond that will not be timed...but the good, benevolent folks behind the event will be happy to keep their entry money anyway.  But I'm misanthropically honest enough (and I'm not faking it) to realize that after putting together just about any group of people with a banner, cause and hierarchy of leadership, you're going to come out of it with lies and phony statements of purpose and beliefs.  Sounds kind of humorless, but no, it took someone like Groucho to make this point while making us laugh.  Okay, it's obvious that I have a beef about this race, but I did register for the half-marathon and will run it Sunday morning.  I'm still interested in a future attempt at covering a full marathon some time in the near future...the last (and only official) time was thirteen years ago.  I might just wait for an opportune weekend morning and run the exact same course while timing myself, just to see if I can do it within a reasonable time frame. As for that club, hey, they're all human and so am I, with all our respective faults. I'll just leave it at that...

Just Finished Reading Life in the Fasting Lane by Dr. Jason Fung, Eva Mayer and Megan Ramos

Having just read the book Life in the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle...and Reap the Benefits of Weight Loss and Better Health...whew, let's shorten the title a bit...I'm a little hesitant about writing and putting out this review.  The reason is that I've discovered over the years that, while it's often inadvisable to bring up sensitive topics like religion, politics and money, diet is something I suspect a lot of folks take special offense at if the message differs from their deeply entrenched beliefs or challenges their choices about eating...or not eating.  And it's exactly that, eating or not eating, that is what this collaborative effort is about, authored in alternating sections by nephrologist Dr. Jason Fung, lay person Eva Mayer and medical researcher Megan Ramos.  Their operational definition of fasting is simple: it's the time you're not eating.  The premise of fasting is that the body is either storing energy or burning it.  Energy is produced for the body when eating...after a certain period of not eating, the body switches from energy storage (into fat) to energy burning (from fat). Although the authors say that intermittent fasting, which can be done in short stretches of a few hours at a time...wrapping such a span around one's sleeping time is a common method...is easy and simple and it doesn't make one constantly hungry as continuous snacking does.  I say keep the rules to a minimum, but as is usually the case with these kinds of programs, they also start laying down different stipulations...sigh.  I've known for years that, at least for me, creating longer time intervals between eating (while forgoing snacking)...the essence it turns out of intermittent fasting...has helped with my level of energy and trimmed excess weight.  This book is good at getting people, especially those with obesity issues, motivated and started.  Unfortunately, for someone like myself who has reached where they want to be, they don't have a lot to offer in the way of maintenance strategies.  Throughout my life as long as I can remember, I have loved eating, and recently have enjoyed many a robust meal and dessert as I lost weight through spacing out my meals and thoroughly enjoying their wide, tasty varieties (and generous portions) when it was time to chow down.  Dr. Fang claims that the calories-in/calories-out approach to dieting misses the crucial fact that it is hormones...most specifically insulin...that decide whether the body will use or store its fat.  And a major factor in insulin production (or not) is whether you're eating or not eating. Okay, I've laid it all out...believe whatever you want to believe. I didn't approach reading Life in the Fasting Lane as a prescriptive guide to fasting/eating.  I already had my own experiences and wanted to see how they related to others'.  Although I thought the authors were sometimes a bit nit-picky about their rules, which they like to terms as "hacks", I was in general agreement, although I never have experienced the obesity issues that beset Ms. Mayer...

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I start my look at 1995 in short science fiction, "short" meaning not full-blown novel length as some of the entries from my selected anthology, Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection, are novellas, which to me are "almost-novels".  The very first tale in the book was such a novella and challenged my attention-deficit tendencies.  As for '95, the most prominent event in my own "nonfictional" live was the birth of our dear Rebecca, a great joy and source of pride for me.  But back to those stories...

A WOMAN"S LIBERATION by Ursula K. le Guin

Set on a socially regressive planet in le Guin's Hainish fictional universe that provides the setting for so many of her stories, a slave girl learns to please her sexually abusive masters and, upon her gradual liberation from forced servitude, must learn how to live and relate to others over and over again as her circumstances change.  This is clearly an allegory to slavery and the civil rights and feminist movements in our own country's reality during its history...and present day.  It's a brutal story that kind of reminded me of the movie The Color Purple...

STARSHIP DAY by Ian R. MacLeod

This story's a puzzle, reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone TV series.  People live on a planet that is just like Earth and they live their lives exactly as if it's Earth.  Yet they are eagerly awaiting a message, sent across the cosmos, from an Earthship that is looking for a new suitable planet to settle.  When the puzzle is solved at the end after the message is received, I thought "Wow, this is what science fiction should look like"...

Next week: more 1995 stories discussed...maybe I'll get a respite from those novellas (and maybe not)...

Very Windy, Stormy Weather Coming Our Way in Northern Florida This Afternoon

When I got home from work and the gym late yesterday evening, Melissa told me that there was a monster storm system heading our way, to strike today in the afternoon.  High winds, much lightning, tornado possibilities, rain...and especially those high winds...are going to sweep across northern Florida.  It's a confluence of a cold front from the northwest combining with Gulf of Mexico moisture...sounds kind of like another Storm of the Century (March 1993): hope it's nothing like that!  Since professional meteorologists are good with probabilities and not so good with extreme anomalies in the weather, I guess we're just going to have to ride this one out and see what happens, hopefully for the better.  I should be at work the whole time...for those of you outside or on the road, take extra care...

Just Finished Reading A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson has written a number of books...A Walk in the Woods, from 1998 and describing his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail...is my first of his but most probably not my last.  His humorous style, mixed in with a copious presentation of facts about this great American walkway that stretches all the way from northern Georgia through Maine, is something I'd like to see more of in my books.  After beginning reading...my wonderful sister had given it to me as a present...it soon occurred to me that in some ways it resembled a 2015 movie I had recently seen starring Robert Redford.  Sure enough, it was the cinematic adaptation of this very book, with the same title...apparently Redford had read it and was determined to make a movie based on it.  I didn't care too much for the movie, which to me leaned to the maudlin side of things a bit too much, but the book was sharp and funny.  Bryson wants to walk the Appalachian Trail but is concerned that maybe having a partner on the trek would make it safer and more endurable, so he recruits his friend "Stephen Katz" (a pseudonym for the book) to accompany him.  He probably should have picked somebody a little more prepared than Katz, although their stumbling adventures, interactions and conversations would fill many of the book's pages.  Long story short, the two don't even come close to covering the whole trail, although after a break Bryson returns to hike sections and Katz even rejoins him at the end.  If you want to read a humorous account of hiking while learning some real facts about the Appalachian Trail and this part of America, this is a good starting point...

NFL 2023 Regular Season Closing Out...in Early '24

The 2023 National Football League regular season is almost over, with the playoffs to begin next week.  All fourteen teams in the expanded format have been set, with only the relative seeding of the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills yet to be determined...they are playing each other as I write this, with Miami currently leading 14-7 at halftime.  Although ultimately I care little about who wins or loses, I do experience some enjoyment watching the games.  Let's see...here are my preferences for the playoff teams, without regard to how good I think they are or how far I see them advancing:

1 MIAMI 

2 TAMPA BAY

3 KANSAS CITY

4 GREEN BAY

5 LOS ANGELES RAMS

6 BALTIMORE

7 DETROIT

8 PHILADELPHIA

9 SAN FRANCISCO

10 CLEVELAND

11 HOUSTON

12 PITTSBURGH

13 DALLAS

14 BUFFALO

As I wrote before, if the Super Bowl ends up between Dallas and Buffalo, I'll probably boycott it...

My Swimming & Running: Yesterday, Today and Next Weekend

Just when I was starting to be convinced that the New Year's "resolutionists", as I dub them, had begun to retreat back into their normal state of unmotivated mediocrity, I was dismayed yesterday to get to my gym, Gainesville Health and Fitness, a little past nine in the evening to discover that members had taken up all the swimming lanes in their generous indoor pool.  Since I had picked Friday as my "swim day" of the week, I might have to change it to another day, say Monday, since folks often stay up later when they're leaning into the weekend.  As it was, I went over to use one of their elliptical cross-trainer machines and then fiddled around with light weight settings on their overhead press and chest press weight machines...I've been advised in the past couple of years by two different physical therapists to work out some with light weights.  After I did that I peeked back at the pool and it seemed there were some available lanes, so I went back and did six laps, no doubt looking completely awkward and uncoordinated as I struggled with the freestyle crawl, backstroke and breaststroke to cover the distance.  All in all it was a positive gym experience, but I was frustrated at the overcrowded pool that late in the evening.  Hopefully either some of its users can demotivate themselves a bit or Monday might be more amenable to my own schedule.  As for this morning, I'm usually out at Depot Park running its free 5K Parkrun, but it was raining at the time pretty strongly.  They still held the event as they didn't get any lightning, but for me I was fine letting it ride until next week.  Speaking of next week, on Sunday the 14th the Florida Track Club will be holding its Mary Andrews Marathon/Half-Marathon race at Hawthorne.  I signed up for the half-marathon.  Although I was interested in the marathon and thought I could cover it, the race organizers placed what I think was an unreasonably strict cap of 5 hours for the event, beyond which they would refuse to time finishers...how tacky and elitist!  I'm reconsidering my membership to the Florida Track Club as I get completely different...and much more negative...vibes from their people than from those in charge of the Parkruns.  Doesn't mean I won't run in the FTC races from time to time, though.  Yet their attitude makes me wonder: after all, their posted mission statement is (italics mine) "Our mission is to build the local running community and act as a network that supports runners of all ages and abilities"...

Quote of the Week...from Bilbo Baggins

 I don't know half of you as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

    --- Bilbo Baggins

This isn't the first time I've quoted J.R.R. Tolkien's likable fantasy fiction character Bilbo Baggins, the prominent protagonist in the novel The Hobbit and more peripheral in the later Lord of the Rings trilogy. On March 27, 2020 I used a quote of his from The Hobbit about people who think they know more about my best interests than I do...click HERE to read it.  Today's Bilbo quote comes from the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first Rings installment.  He is in the Shire, homeland of the diminutive hobbit folk, giving a speech during his birthday celebration.  Bilbo, like me about people in general, has mixed feelings about his fellow hobbits, and decided to play a little joke on them (actually he plays a bigger one a few seconds later) by manipulating words to sound critical when, for all practical purposes, they are nearly meaningless.  And I'm referring to the second part of the above quote.  The cheering crowd, feeling happy and complimented from the quote's first part, suddenly becomes mute and confused from the second. It sounds unduly negative, doesn't it?  I bring it up not only because it's a kind of linguistic riddle to unwind, but because it shows that how one expresses a thought is just as important as its meaning, and that how it is received is an integral part of the act of communication.  Somebody once said, "The meaning of a communication is the response you get"...it couldn't be more true here.  Just remember, when all the encoded sub-messages come out from different candidates in the upcoming '24 elections, that from their perspective it isn't the content of their own speeches, including that content's level of veracity, that counts for them, but rather the impact their expressed words have on the target groups they are trying engender the desired emotions among (like fear and anger) to get them running to the polls on their behalf.  And if you're thinking I'm referring to one just side of the political spectrum, you're sadly mistaken...

About New Year's Resolutions

Since it is the beginning of the new year, I think it's appropriate to discuss the notion of New Year's resolutions.  This is indeed a cultural phenomenon, when folks feel they can push the reset button in specific areas of their lives and "get away with it".  I say that because too many people are challenged by others when they change their habits, even for the better.  Saying that you're following a New Year's resolution you made to justify your decision to change something in your life kind of gets you off the hook socially, and others are less likely to irrationally feel threatened. But if you stick with it and persevere, then you're liable to be called out for being fanatical, extreme, or even suffering from a disorder.  So when I drove up to my local Gainesville Health and Fitness gym complex a little past nine in the evening on January 2nd, I should have known the parking lot would be crammed...I had to backtrack and park further away: no problem, extra steps for me!  But then after dressing out I walked upstairs to the row of treadmills I like to use and found that almost all of them were taken: that simply does not happen!  H-m-m, evidently there were a lot of the "resolved" that night. Funny thing, though: yesterday and today, during the same time, the number of gym-goers plummeted...no problem finding my favorite treadmill available for action!  I don't know how tenaciously people will hold to their resolutions, but I am confident that, human nature being as base as it often is, the people in their lives will, by and large, be relieved to see them settle back into their respective familiar ruts...

Weekly Short Stories: 1994 Science Fiction, Part 8

Today's my final review article for the short stories and novellas appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twelfth Annual Collection.  There are just two left, but that last one is yet another novella...Dozois had a penchant for them.  So, without further ado, let's delve into them...

SPLIT LIGHT by Lisa Goldstein

This is a special little tale that lays out the life's journey of a special figure in history: the Jewish leader Shabbetai Zevi (1626-76), who proclaimed himself as the messianic fulfillment of scriptural prophecy before suddenly converting...under compulsion of the Ottoman Empire's Sultan imprisoning him...to Islam. The author proposes an alternative theory to the notion that Zevi was a fraudulent pretender: was he really the Messiah after all?

LES FLEURS DU MAL by Brian Stableford

A few centuries into our future, humans (with the means) can have their own bodies rejuvenated, drastically extending their life spans. One such individual, who calls himself Oscar Wilde, teams up with a police sleuth whose style befits that of the old Sherlock Holmes character...in fact, her last name is the same. This to me was an entertaining novella, partly because of the witty dialogue between Wilde and Holmes, and partly because the explanation of the murder mystery they are investigating has pretty deep philosophical and ethical implications, even for our own time...

Next week I'll start looking at sci-fi stories from 1995 as I continue with the Gardner Dozois anthology series...

My Reactions to Yesterday's College Football Playoff Semifinals

Yesterday I watched parts of the college football playoff semifinal games on TV...for some reason they decided to broadcast it on several different channels.  The first contest was the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, pitting #1 seed Michigan against #4 Alabama, each led by established and successful prima donna coaches.  Before the game I thought 'Bama was the better team, but the Wolverines, especially their incredible, intelligent and aggressive defense, impressed me.  Unfortunately for them, they kept turning the ball over and thus had to come from behind to win an overtime game they should have prevailed in by at least a couple of touchdowns  In the nightcap action, it was Washington vs. Texas in New Orlean's Sugar Bowl...once again one team, namely the Huskies with their high-flying passing offense, should have won going away, but poor time management and questionable offensive calls during the closing minutes of the contest kept the struggling Longhorns in at until the very final play.  So it's Washington against Michigan, at Houston in the championship game.  I'm planning on watching at least some of it, but I don't really have a clear preference.  Sometimes when you watch highly competitive sports like this, it appears that neither side wants to win, what with all their mistakes.  Yet I think that's primarily a symptom of the intensity and skill of the opponents involved, with each side trying their hardest to force errors on the other.  I never bet on sports and always ultimately regard it as a form of entertainment, refusing...unlike in my younger years...to take any of it too seriously.  Still, I'm curious who will win the title, the game to air on Monday evening, January 8th...I plan to be at work, though...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This New Year's Morning

This morning Melissa and I got up early on New Year's Day 2024 and drove down to Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville, to participate in the specially scheduled Parkrun for this holiday. It was my 31st Parkrun and Melissa's first, as she walked the 3.1 mile distance with the race-time (7:30) temperature at 35 degrees and 99% humidity.  I ran the whole distance this time without walking breaks since the weather was so conducive to speed.  We both did well...I'm very proud of Melissa and she did better than she had originally thought.  I set a new personal best for the Parkrun at 27:38...you can view the results by clicking HERE. That time may well stand for a while as my personal best as, in future runs, I plan to return to the Galloway run/walk method...the only exceptions will be if it's another cold morning or I do a speed-walk for the race.  In any event, it was fun and we enjoyed a very good breakfast afterwards at Afternoon, a local diner with very good food and service.  Now on to the rest of 2024...

Happy New Year Everybody

I wish you all a most happy New Year in 2024, may your lives be blessed and full of good memories to come!