Just Finished Reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I recently read the 1963 novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.  I knew going in that both the author and the main character Esther Greenwood, her early-1950s young college student interning at a New York fashion magazine, had serious issues with depression and attempted suicide...Plath would take her own life soon after the book's initial publication under a pseudonym.  So I wasn't exactly expecting a walk in the garden reading The Bell Jar, but I was still nonetheless enlightened as to how people think in this state of mind.  Esther provides the first person narrative as she goes into clinical, cynical detail describing and evaluating the people around her, including her mother, men, her employer, her best friends...and just about anyone else she runs across.  Coupled with Esther's ceaseless criticisms of others is her increasing compulsion to commit suicide as she mentally rehearses different opportunistic scenarios for the deed. This is a pretty harsh tale as you might imagine, and I couldn't help but make a comparison to the Holden Caulfield protagonist of J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, describing a similar social setting also set in the generally same time and place, only from a young man's equally cynical perspective...only Holden wasn't bent on ending it all.  I find in both characters' narration an extreme narcissism, as if everyone else was on trial for them to judge, and both were quick to condemn life in general.  I've been through adolescent depression...although untreated and never even remotely suicidal...and have experienced a similar rush to judgment about others and life.  I think these books expose a kind of thinking that plagues a lot of us, and that when we finally learn to allow ourselves the freedom to be our own individual selves and grant others their right not to be perfect, then some progress can be made for a happier existence.  I read The Bell Jar because it was one of the "great books" featured on a coffee mug I got a few months ago.  Compared to other books displayed on it, I have to admit to being a little disappointed...yet it does effectively get inside the mind of another in a way that few stories have been able to do.  Looking back on what I've written here, I don't want to sound harsh myself looking at Plath and her protagonist Esther...there's clearly a physical component to depression that some people are predisposed to, and which tends to cast great influence on their outlooks and consequential behavior...

Enjoyed Brief Daytona Beach Outing with Melissa

Yesterday Melissa and I paid an overnight visit to our favorite hotel in Daytona Beach, staying overnight and coming back to Gainesville this afternoon.  Although it was rather brief for both of us, we enjoyed being there...Melissa will be undergoing her first cycle of medical therapy later this week and it was good to be able to enjoy some good times at the beach.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't seem to want to cooperate with us as it was, even for this time of year, exceptionally muggy and uncomfortable as we sat on our high balcony looking out over the pool and beach.  No problem: we ratcheted up the room's air conditioner and kept the curtains open for our oceanfront view.  And now, onward to the week ahead... 

Ran the Hot, Muggy Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

We've been blessed here in Gainesville to have one of the many Parkruns to participate in...originating in England, they're in many countries and states now.  And they're free, volunteer-driven: you just sign up online and get a barcode to take with you and scan after the race (5K) so your time can be posted on their site.  This morning I went out to Depot Park a few blocks south of downtown where it's held and was taken aback at the big crowd there, as well as the heat (76 degrees) and humidity (98%) at the 7:30 race time: not the formula for a fast run.  So I planned to do a "continuity" run instead, pacing myself and avoid getting overcome by the conditions.  Instead, I did a brisk run around the park and had a pretty decent finishing time of 27:41...click HERE to view the posted results.  And now, on to the rest of the weekend! 

Quote of the Week...from Sijin BT

Responsibility without authority is slavery.                                       ---Sijin BT

I actually was musing on the above topic and came up with the same result, only with "servitude" replacing slavery.  The opposite is also revealing: authority without responsibility is tyranny...are you prepared to vote such a person into office this November?  But when I consider the first statement, I find that it is the worst element of manipulation for someone...regardless of whether I am at work, doing some volunteering, or in other situations...to assign me a task without allowing any flexibility in executing it while often insisting in exquisite detail all of the specific things they insist on.  When I encounter this kind of micromanagement attitude, I wonder why the other party doesn't do it instead...but of course, it's all about them having dominance and control, isn't it?  Sijin BT is an Indian business trainer, focusing on sports.  That's all I know about him, but he certainly got it right with the above quote...

First Named Atlantic Tropical Storm Hits Mexico, Affects Texas

Not that I was in any hurry for the first Atlantic tropical storm to be named this year, but I was a little surprised it took so long, considering how strong the meteorologists said the hurricane season would be in 2024 in the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.  A weak-but-broad tropical system was just named Alberto and entered Mexico earlier today, immediately weakening to a depression.  But its larger impact was with strong rain that flooded much of the coastline into Texas...The Weather Channel even sent out one of their own, Molly, to stand out there in the middle of it all.  Normally I don't refer to named Atlantic storms on this blog unless they're threatening us in northern Florida...maybe I'll be more attentive this year.  There is right now a disturbance off Florida's east coast called "Invest 92L" that is predicted to gradually strengthen and pass through north Florida tomorrow...I doubt that it will get strong enough to be the second named tropical storm, but you never know...

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 11

Here, finally, is the final installment of my reviews of science fiction stories from the year 1996, focusing on a nice, long novella, the kind of tale that anthology editor Gardner Dozois had no problem including in his series The Year's Best Science Fiction (this volume being Fourteenth Annual Collection) in spite of its length.  Dozois, sadly, passed away six years ago...he was also a science fiction writer.  But about that story...

THE ROBOT'S TWILIGHT COMPANION by Tony Daniel 

In the Pacific Northwest...more specifically the area in Washington state around Mount St. Helen...a geologist uses a robot/machine/digger to excavate the ground as he plies his academic field of exploration.  The geologist passes away in an accident, and the robot basically carries the narrative as it incorporates his memories and witnesses the passage of history in the area, including the rise of a violent cult/secessionist movement.  The geologist's children return to continue the work.  And there's something mysterious and apparently sentient at the bottom of the dig they're working on.  The author brought into this story a lot of stuff, and I liked the approach of seeing things from the robot's point of view.  But what impressed me the most was how he exposed what I often see in daily life: the often corrupt and malevolent nature of human organizations that preach how benevolent and necessary they are for the good of society and the world, and how they tend to demonize their opponents in the most vicious ways possible while tolerating no dissent from those within their own ranks.  Also, we see here from this 1996 story what I'm sadly beginning to see now in 2024: the social disintegration of America into sometimes-armed camps of people stuck on their ideologies, truth be damned, and hatred of one another: in our world it's called "doubling down"...

Well, that's it for 1996 in the world of short science fiction, although there's plenty more out there if you're interested in that particular year.  My next installment of this blog feature will jump ahead to the year 1997, continuing to use as a framework the Dozois anthology series...

Podcaster Suggests Some Solutions for Common Anxiety

A couple of days ago Rob Dial, on his Mindset Mentor personal development podcast, discussed a technique of dealing with common, run-of-the-mill anxiety sometimes experienced over the course of the day.  You know, the kind of blah-feeling you get, getting tense but without knowing why.  Dial suggests going through the acronym HALT to try to filter out what may be going on.  HALT stands for hungry, angry, lonely, and tired.  He suggests that the cause for feeling out of sorts may well be simply one of these four, and often it's just a matter of dealing with them and moving on. And I suppose he's right...up to a point.  If I find I haven't eaten for a while, then sure, maybe getting some food down could help.  On the other hand, folks can also find themselves in a constant state of stress-producing hunger just by constantly eating and keeping their insulin levels high. To "hunger" I might add "thirst", and for the kind of drink (like water) that hydrates. Likewise anger can be unquenchable as well...along with addressing one's own anger it might be a good idea to check up on one's own tendency to anger, and whether or not there's a bad habit here to deal with.  Regarding "lonely", for generally extroverted people I imagine that's true, but being introverted I find the opposite applies, that being around others too much can bring me some anxiety.  Finally, being tired can definitely weigh down on one's life, and getting enough quality sleep cannot be underestimated...as well as taking strategic rest breaks throughout the day if possible.  So yes, I like the HALT method of stopping to see if I am anxious because of the above reasons, but at the same time I think it all needs to be tailored to each individual...

Race Walking Rules Weird, Unenforceable

Although I think my progress in speed-walking...or power-walking as it is sometimes called...has been coming along nicely, I'm just a little bit skeptical and curious about actual competitive race-walking, the kind of sport you will be seeing at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.  The rules for that sport are little strange, if you ask me.  For one, although regular walking does not require the forward leg to be held straight with no knee bend all the way through ground contact, it's a rule for competitive race-walking and the judge will warn the entrant against it they detect a bent leg.  The other strange rule, which seems reasonable on the surface, is that one foot or the other always has to be visibly in contact with the ground.  Sure, dude, otherwise it's running, right? Yet that word "visibly" is a problem, for it is actually rarely enforced for most cases.  In fact, if you look at videos of walkers in a race, most of them are leaving the ground with both feet for short, visibly undetectable periods...in other words, they're running!  When I speed-walk, I'm both trying very hard to maintain continuous contact with the surface while not caring all that much about keeping my forward leg straight (which, to me is a stupid rule).  But that would get me disqualified in a race, go figure.  Oh well...

A Couple of Notes About Running

This weekend I didn't get around to my long distance run/walk around the neighborhood...let's just say that "life" got in the way as it has a tendency to do. Even though I tend to be a creature of routine, it seems that outside forces have an unseen intelligence behind them bent on destroying my equilibrium and sense of progress with various things.  That being as it is, I still managed this evening after sundown to run in my backyard, with the temperature at 80 and the humidity a muggy 77%, for four miles...all to a mix of Moody Blues song thanks to Amazon Music Unlimited.  This time I didn't do any speed walking, but noticed that my overall pace tonight wasn't any faster than when I walked part of the way...I think that is at least partially due to my need to greatly decelerate and accelerate as I run from fence to fence. ..

The other day I signed up as a member of US Road Running, a group that holds races in different city parks across the country.  For the last couple of years I've seen their races listed in Ocala and Ocklawaha and had considered trying one of them out.  In those two places the distances offered range from 5K up to half-marathon and they're offered each month.  Now they've come to Gainesville, with the races taking place at Westside (Albert Massey) Park and consisting of 1 mile, 5K, 10K and 15K events.  It's held entirely within the park on a trail with a lot of there-and-back, and loops.  I'm looking forward to seeing what these races, scheduled on Saturday mornings late each month starting in July, are like...

Not Too Keen on Retiree Reunions

The other day a colleague of mine informed me of a retiree reunion he attended at a local restaurant...it seems that upwards to forty former coworkers were there, and of the names he mentioned most of them I knew to varying degrees, many having been retired from my facility/organization for a number of years.  At first impulse I thought it might have been interesting to see them all and touch base on how they were doing, but then I thought that after those first few moments I'd most likely be itching to get out of there and on my way.  You see, even when I worked with these folks all those years back then...and I mean nothing derogatory or disrespectful about any of them...my inclination was to simply go to work, do my job, and then go home.  Now I wasn't some unfeeling, unthinking robot about my job, and I would practice learning, reading audiobooks and listening to music and talk shows while performing my assignments there...I still do all that when circumstances permit.  I got along with most of my fellow workers and, hopefully, they generally maintain positive thoughts about me as well.  But I am not into people per se, and being in crowds of them just won't do.  So when I eventually retiree, save the invitations: I'm not going, no matter how good the food is...

Quote of the Week...from Barack Obama

When times get tough, we don't give up.  We get up.                          ---Barack Obama

Barack Obama, our 44th president, also happens to be my all-time favorite since when I could actually vote for president, going back to 1976...I supported him in both 2008 and 2012.  Not that he didn't make his share of mistakes, nobody's perfect, and I didn't agree with all of his policies.  Yet he tried to be a leader on behalf of all Americans, and not just for those who supported him...you're entitled to your own opinions, though...believe whatever you want.  I also liked his generally reasonable and positive attitude toward things, and in this stormy time of a serious medical issue within my own immediate family, I am drawn to the above quote of his: that's right, Barack, you nailed it, old buddy...

Speed-Walked 5 Miles Through Neighborhood This Morning

For the third time in the past five Thursday mornings, I got up early and speed-walked 5 miles through my Gainesville, Florida Northwood Pines subdivision and the adjacent one, Northwood Oaks. It started out a little foggy, warm (74 degrees) and very muggy (99% humidity)...the sky stayed cloudy throughout my walk, in which I consciously exerted myself but probably could have pushed it a little more, in reflection.  The roads seemed emptier, with fewer vehicles then before although a few fellow walkers...and one intrepid runner...passed by me.  I completed the walk, which I began around 6:50, with a time of 1:08:18...putting it right there with my other two: at least I'm consistent if not improving.  Still, I don't feel the kind of intensity that running brings. Nevertheless, the continuity of getting myself out of bed and doing this is a victory, to be sure.  When walking, I try to mimic how I see race walkers move, vigorously moving my arms and trying to land my forward leg straight and bring it that way under me while attempting some forward hip rotation...I wonder whether the judges at those events would cite me for some walking rules infractions or just laugh at me. Walking very fast does look kind of ridiculous, and it's an exercise in humility for me to speed-walk in public, or even better in a race that features runners far ahead of me. My treadmill walking pace is far faster than my road walking...I'm currently working on a 10:31/mile pace at the gym. I walked today listening to a shuffle of songs by the British rock group Queen, thanks to Amazon Music...my favorites from them are Another One Bites the Dust, Bicycle Race, Killer Queen, Keep Yourself Alive and the wonderful collaboration with David Bowie, Under Pressure...

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 10

Here are my reactions to more of anthology editor Garner Dozois' picks from the year 1996 as they appeared in his The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection...

DR. TILMAN'S CONSULTANT: A SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE by Cherry Wilder

This is one of two stories (Foreign Devils the other) that fit within the genre of historical fiction, but while the one below goes into alternative outcomes, this one posits explanations for for actually happened in pre-World War I Austria and Russia as a Russian noble family visits a sanitarium in Austria on behalf of one of their own dwelling there.  It seems that someone has discovered a cure for the affliction commonly known as schizophrenia, but he is a mysterious presence within the sanitarium and the cure's secret may well vanish among the tumultuous events going down at that time in history.  I think the author captured the atmosphere of that era very well with this story...

SCHRÖDINGER'S DOG by Damien Broderick

The famous word picture supposition called "Schrödinger's Cat" by physicist Erwin Schrödinger to Albert Einstein in 1935 in a discussion on quantum mechanics suggested two alternate, simultaneous universes, one with a living cat and the other a dead one...separated by a random quantum event.  This is taken in this story to its gruesome conclusion at some time in the near future as scientists literally apply the same principle to terminally ill humans...

FOREIGN DEVILS by Walter Jon Williams

Anyone interested in Chinese history, especially that of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, will enjoy this take on the decline of the Chinese Empire as Western countries, with imperialist fervor, carve out for themselves economic favors and colonial enclaves.  But behind the power struggles at the Chinese royal court is arising a new form of Foreign Devil...I wonder what H.G. Wells would have thought of this bizarre application of his famed tale of extraterrestrial invasion...

IN THE MSOB by Stephen Baxter

At the risk of prematurely giving away this brief tale, the abbreviation MSOB stands for Manned Space Operations Center.  Doesn't ring a bell? Maybe that's part of the point of it all as a very old and frail man is verbally abused by his seniors home caretakers and discovers that...for a too brief moment...the outside world would like a word or two from him, and a possible photo opportunity.  Cynical as many SF stories are, this one squarely hits the target as it projects into the future the state of the manned space program...

Next week I will conclude my look at science fiction from 1996...

Just Finished Reading Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things is a self-help book by Adam Grant, published last year.  It's getting all kinds of rave reviews on the Internet, and I checked out an audio version from my library and just finished reading it.  I'm wondering whether I've reached my limit of what I can get from this genre of writing, not to mention feeling a little annoyed at Grant's frequent use of examples that conform to whatever narrative he's trying to convey.  Yes, don't be afraid to make mistakes...you can learn a lot more from them if you just accept that they're an integral part of education: I didn't need the Harlem high school chess team to point that out.  And yes, be persistent in pursuing your dreams: likewise, I didn't need the struggling major league knuckle-ball pitcher's saga to convince me of that.  Both of these ideas would have been better illustrated by more relevant examples, but Grant seems to think that winning the championship or being a publicly-recognized all-star is what it's all about.  For me, I have my own standards I want to attain and live up to...I'm really not all that concerned about what others think.  The author did bring up something interesting and innovative at the book's end, when he cited the use of "brainwriting" in place of brainstorming when working out problems in a team setting.  The latter tends to reward people who are the most verbally aggressive while discouraging others from speaking out from fear of reflection.  Instead, brainwriting involves the individuals anonymously writing out their own suggestions and then submitting them into the collective pool of ideas, through which the leaders sort and determine what might work and what probably won't.  But of course, Grant had to cite an example far from my (and probably your) personal experience: a disastrous mine collapse a few years ago in Chile, with the crisis centered around finding a way to rescue the 33 people trapped below the avalanche.  I think maybe I'll (at least for now) leave the self-help stuff to different posts I see on YouTube and instead focus my reading on fiction...

Ran at Night Outside Under Difficult Weather Conditions Yesterday

As I stated in yesterday's article, I have been tailoring my back yard to accommodate more running and walking training in the nighttime hours as the summertime and its hot and humid conditions here in northern Florida wear on.  I went out there right after sunset, with temperatures still in the 80s and humidity in the 60s and, using my ring-tally-counter, ran back and forth across the yard 150 laps to cover 5 miles, all while listening to an Amazon Music shuffle of songs by Led Zeppelin, one of my all-time favorite musical acts.  The nature of the setup requires me to greatly decelerate as I approach each fence, and the turf itself is uneven with sloping that I have to maneuver through, so my pace is by necessity much slower than it would be on a continuous paved and even pathway.  I finished last night's jaunt at 1:09:07, slow but I'm not concerned with the speed anyway, at least at this stage.  For the first 2.8 miles I mixed running with walking at a 4:1 ratio while for the final 2.2 miles I simply ran.  Although it was already nighttime and the brutal 100-degree late afternoon conditions had alleviated somewhat, my shirt and shorts were still completely drenched in perspiration at the end...yes, brutal is the fitting description of this summer so far, and it's technically not even summer yet!  I'm optimistic about using my back yard in the future as a way to run at night...

Adapting to Extreme Heat by Turning to Running at Night

This morning I brought my Honda Civic over to the auto maintenance shop to get routine work on it, including an oil change...the "percentage" on my dashboard reading had gotten pretty low.  When I came around to pick it up this afternoon, I got two "100" readings on my dashboard: one, the oil was restored to "100%"...I guess that's good, right?  But the other was the outside temperature reading: 100 degrees...ugh!  And that's what it's been today, excruciatingly hot here in Gainesville. At 7 PM it had only gone down to 95, and for someone like me who likes to go out this time of day to run and walk in the neighborhood for a reasonably long distance, that's just not going to work.  So I considered my resources and how I could adapt myself to the situation at hand.  About fourteen years ago I read a book by ultra-marathon runner Dean Karnazes titled Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner.  In this sports autobiography, he described how he would regularly run the streets of his home California town and the outlying roads deep into the nighttime hours to train for his ultra-long races.  I thought that was pretty cool, but considering how crazy/wacko some people can be with their paranoia and suspicion, the idea of me doing something like that just didn't seem very wise.  Fortunately, a few years ago we got a nice privacy fence put around our back yard, and with some solar powered lights at strategic spots it can be adequately lit up into the night to provide a venue for back-and-forth running and speed-walking.  Then I bought a simple digital tally counter I could wear as a ring while working out and realized that I had everything in place to do my own all-night running if I so desired.  Since it was so hot today and I have somewhere I need to be tomorrow morning, I decided to wait until the sun sets this evening and the temperature has abated and go into my backyard and see how much back-and-forth ground I can cover...I already have it all measured out and with each successive lap I just hit my tally counter.  I still like going around my neighborhood, but this can be a good makeshift substitute if it works out with the bathroom always nearby while I can still listen to my Amazon Music while running and walking...

Walked the Depot Parkrun 5K Here in Gainesville This Morning

When I awoke earlier today I could easily tell it was going to be a very warm, muggy morning, and the figures confirmed this.  Approaching 7:30, the starting time for Gainesville's weekly Depot Parkrun 5K...held at the park bearing that name a little bit south of downtown...the temperature was 75 with a 100% humidity: we're talking a pretty unpleasant 75-degrees dew point.  So I decided to speed-walk the event, and as it turned out, that was a good decision.  I covered the 3.1-mile, four-lap distance in 38:49, nine seconds better than my previous best 5K walk last month.  But unlike that race, this time I was drenched in sweat from the excess heat and humidity.  I deliberately pushed myself to try to walk with as much exertion as when I run, and to some extent I succeeded in this.  Still, going by my progress on the treadmill at my local gym, I should be walking faster 5Ks, at least dipping into the 37-minute finishing time area.  It seems no matter how fast I think I'm walking for what is generally considered to be a respectable distance, I still have essentially the same level of energy at the end as I do at the start.  So I guess I'm going to have to push myself a little harder next time.  But I 'm still happy with my time under these weather conditions.  Gainesville's Depot Parkrun is a part of a worldwide network, originating in England, of Parkruns scattered across hundreds of communities.  Parkruns are free and volunteer-run.  You sign up online and they give you a barcode to print out and bring with you to scan at the close of each race for your results to be posted on their website.  Speaking of that, click HERE to view today's results...

Quote of the Week...from Max Ehrmann

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.                                 ---Max Ehrmann

Max Ehrmann's prose poem Desiderata has always been a favorite of mine since I first heard it on the Les Crane singles hit played on the radio more than fifty years ago.  Ehrmann wrote it in 1927, and I've quote lines from it in past articles...including last Friday's.  As for the above excerpt, I have been reflecting on different types of positive, effective dialogue and have broken it all down to four: 

1: I speak about what I want to the other party.

2: The other party speaks about what they want to me.

3: They talk to me about what I want them to.

4: I talk to them about what they want me to.

Note that none of the above necessarily implies that the two of us in dialogue will agree on the content of what is said, but rather that it's the choice of subject matter...spoken with tact and discretion...that can, in my opinion, lead to successful dialogues.  Now the best of dialogues will combine all four elements, but I don't think that's always called for.  Yet over the course of a relationship all four elements need their proper expression and a sense of respectful balance...what do you think?

My 5 Mile Neighborhood Speed-Walk This Morning

This morning I set out on another five mile speed-walk through my north Gainesville subdivision and the adjacent one, the same course I did two weeks ago.  This time around I started earlier, with cooler temperature (average 73) and very high humidity (97%).  But with fast walking, as opposed to running...even slowly...the weather extremes don't seem to affect me that much, and it was perfectly fine this morning as I enjoyed deep shadows before the sun rose too high in the clear skies.  I started out at about 7:00 and finished with a time of 1:09:05...relatively little perspiration or energy loss from the workout.  My limitation with walking at a brisk (for me) pace isn't the distance or weather it seems, but rather my ability to attain a faster speed...even if only for a few seconds.  I used heavier shoes on these road outings, and on the treadmill at my gym attain a faster pace (now I'm working on 5.6 mph, or 10:42/mile).  I think if I can move more efficiently...like I see race walkers do...then I could become a pretty decent seniors athlete with walking.  Today's experience still was rewarding for getting up and getting out there, although I admit to being a bit annoyed at several different neighbors along my route, parked along the road in front of their homes, who would open their car or pickup truck doors wide into the street and then just walk off.  I wouldn't do that, if only for the sake of preserving my car door.  Oh well, listening for the duration of my walk to an Amazon Music shuffle of songs by the excellent Canadian alternative rock band Metric helped to alleviate my frustration...you know, they're a very energizing group to exercise to and Emily Haines is one of the greatest singers around...

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 9

Here's another installment of my reactions to sci-fi short stories appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, and featuring the editor's selections from 1996.  That year I'll always remember, with mixed feelings, about the Major League Baseball World Series pitting American League champ New York Yankees against the defending champion, "my" Atlanta Braves from the National League.  I wanted Atlanta to repeat in '96 but the Yanks were too tough, riding on their momentum, and overpowered the Braves.  I was, however, happy to see New York's manager Joe Torre, the Atlanta manager in the early 1980s, receive his due recognition...his team would win more titles in ensuing years.  But as I like to say, back to those stories... 

THE WIND OVER THE WORLD by Steven Utley

Leveritt, a geologist. prepping for her inaugural visit to the distant past...the Silurian Period, that is...has at her side a talkative man, Ed Morris, who says he's gone through the natural time Portal before and tries to assure her of the process' safety.  But when they make the jump through time, he never arrived, and the investigation is on about what happened to him.  As the story progressed it reminded me of that great old Twilight Zone episode where two astronaut buddies, just returned from a difficult mission, are out in a bar...and one suddenly vanishes...

CHANGES by William Barton

Hopping from one generation to another within a family, it starts in 1944 during World War II and ends sometime in our near future.  I'm only saying that the author, in 1996, perfectly captured the essence of what is going on right now with our social media, gaming, and virtual reality...I think he's right on target about where we're headed, sad to say.  Also, he predicted here that our space program would flounder with one setback after another...yes, indeed...

COUNTING CATS IN ZANZIBAR by Gene Wolfe

A widowed woman is traveling across the world from country to country in a struggle to evade her pursuers, yet is discovered on a ship in the Philippine Sulu Sea.  It's not a matter of crime or revenge, but rather a secret she holds that those after her, including the "man" on board who identifies her, covet.  This tale from 28 years ago puts the finger right on what many in our present 2024 world are concerned about: the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence, whether those so imbued are capable of true consciousness, and what their rise holds in store for humanity...

HOW WE GOT IN TOWN AND OUT AGAIN by Jonathan Lethem

Another prescient tale about an ongoing trend, projected into the future a few decades.  In an America...and, presumably as well, the rest of the world...is social decline amidst the explosive development of virtual reality. Two young people, Gloria and her friend (the narrator) Lewis go from town to town seeking enough food and money to get by.  They encounter a crew of "scapers" who, as traveling entertainers, go from one locale to another selling shows involving people undergoing extreme virtual reality experiences.  There's a lot of humor in this story, but it's sad as well to consider that, as a society, we seem to be heading down the same road...

Next week I continuing reviewing sci-fi stories from 1996...

Study Method Advocates Sometimes Discount Own Experiences

I find it disingenuous for somebody to get on a podcast or YouTube with listed accomplishments and talent skills in a specific area and then promote a regimen for you or me to also reach their level of attainment while discounting their early history of struggles that were instrumental to their breakthroughs.  Case in point: Steve Kaufmann, a polyglot who has reasonable proficiency in some twenty different languages, is someone I respect and who promotes the "comprehensible input" method of language learning.  Yet his linguistic career and narrative took off AFTER he joined his Canada's foreign service early in his adult years and took their intensive training courses in Mandarin Chinese.  I believe that Kaufmann's experiences back then taught him what to seek out during his subsequent language studies, while most of us don't possess that kind of background to know exactly what to prioritize as we follow his current system.  Still, I think his method is far and away superior to the "don't make mistakes if you want a good grade" nonsense I went through  during my high school and college years.  Still, even more pertinent to Kaufmann's experience is that learning the intricacies of Chinese writing with their thousands of different ideograph characters is a very, very steep mountain to climb unless you intentionally and intensively study them, and even then reading Chinese can be a bit of a slog...

My Sunrise 11.2 Mile Run/Walk

Seeing how the public schools in my county let out for the summer last Friday, I anticipated, with pleasure, a lack of kids and school buses on the streets early this morning as I decided to go then on my distance run/walk, alternating over my pre-planned neighborhood route between two minutes of moderate running and three of fast walking.  Conditions were better than my Memorial Day morning run a week ago.  For one, I started out early, just at sunrise.  And then the weather was more amenable, with a pretty steady average 70 degrees and 81% humidity throughout.  I felt kind of sore afterwards, but that was expected.  For this workout I listened to Amazon Music's shuffle of songs by Electric Light Orchestra, one of my favorite bands from the seventies and early eighties.  This week and the previous one have seen me in a support/care-giver role as Melissa has undergone surgery and is now, thankfully, recovering well...but gradually...from it.  Please keep your thoughts and prayers in mind for her as we pass through this medical/health storm...thankfully all of the post-op news so far is good...  

Coffee Mug Great Books List

A few weeks ago I got a special coffee mug at a local used bookstore.  It depicts several famous books, most of which I have already read...and reviewed on this blog.  There are a few that I've yet to read.  I thought it might be cool to list them all below in the order, from right to left, that they appear on my mug, then place a link on each title to my past blog article about it.  So, here goes...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger...read in 1972

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka...read only the short story Metamorphosis

Brave New World by Aldeus Huxley

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer...not yet

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath...currently reading

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett...not yet

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

On the Road Jack Kerouac

Ulysses by James Joyce

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Little Women by Louise May Alcott

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll...from childhood

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez...not yet

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Lord of the Flies by William Golding 

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

On this first day of June, it was unusually pleasant outside as I made my way to Gainesville's Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown, for yet another Saturday morning Depot Parkrun 5K.  At 7:30 race time, it was 68 degrees with only 73% humidity...not what I had expected.  In any event, I had decided to run this time around at a reasonably brisk pace without walking breaks.  To avoid getting boxed in by others, I got nearer the starting line at the beginning and it paid off.  I kept pretty much the same steady pace throughout the 5K's four laps around the park and finished at 27:23, my second fastest Parkrun finish (I've done 45 since January 2019) and only 13 seconds slower than my personal best there.  Parkruns, free of charge, are held in hundreds of locations worldwide...go to their website and sign up to participate, and you will receive a barcode you can copy and take with you for scanning.  Their system is simple although not foolproof, but I like how the results are usually posted online within a couple of hours of the race.  Press HERE to read today's results.  Depot Parkrun is organized and run strictly by volunteers, and they encourage everyone to pitch in to help in various capacities every few weeks...I'm probably going to do so again in the not-too-distant future.  Melissa couldn't walk this event today as she would have liked (and often does) because she had surgery this past Thursday: happily, it was successful and she is recovering well at home.

Regarding last month, May 2024, I kept up my running and walking.  Although other than regularly exercising my upper body by imitating swimming arm strokes, I haven't been in the pool for a while.  The workouts are divided between me running casually in my house, twice-a-week neighborhood run/walk outings, and occasional visits to my local gym where I more intensely run and walk their treadmill at my maximum personal speeds for brief periods.  Oh, and of course there is the weekly Depot Parkrun, in which I either run, speed-walk, or walk with Melissa.  I like the mix of it all and plan to continue this way into the summertime, during which I intend to increase my emphasis on speed-walking as the temperature outside climbs. Oh, and trying to get into the pool every now and then would be a good thing, too...