NBA Conference Final

We have finally reached the stage in the National Basketball Association playoffs where there are only four teams left, with the conference championships to be determined next. And all teams are established winners, sharing among them many NBA titles. In the East, Boston and its recently-acquired (this season) superstar Kevin Garnett, having some difficulty during the playoffs despite its league-topping regular season record, is pitted against the gritty Detroit Pistons, who are highlighted by the entertaining and volatile Rasheed Wallace and the quick and steady Richard Hamilton. In the West, perennial playoff standout San Antonio, with its many stars (notably Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili), are set to face this year's MVP, Kobe Bryant, and his Los Angeles Lakers, in what is sure to be an epic and highly entertaining and unforgettable series.

Although Detroit is the only team of the four I've been rooting for (I even supported them in the recent series against the "local" Orlando Magic), I will have to decide on either San Antonio or Los Angeles to pull for in that series. And I have a feeling that it's going to be the Spurs! Watching how they stuck with a remarkable New Orleans team in their last series and ultimately pulled it out in the end has made me admire them greatly and has put the memory of last year's controversial series victory against my Phoenix Suns into the distant background. I like scrappy, gutsy teams like the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs!

Unfortunately, my work schedule is such that the games will be decided while I'm at work (except on weekends), so I'll miss out on most of them. But that's life, and watching basketball is just a pleasant diversion, of course.

A Father's Pride

I am very proud of my son, Will, for graduating from high school this past week. He was a diligent, responsible student and graduated summa cum laude (GPA 4.00) in his class. He was also honored by being selected to deliver an excellent, thought-provoking speech he wrote at the graduation ceremony. Will excelled in debate, drama (he wrote parts into a play his school performed), music (he played piano accompaniment for another school production with professionalism), writing, biology, and mathematics. When challenges and opportunities arose in school, instead of shying away from them, Will rose to meet them head-on. As a result, my son has transformed into a remarkable young man with diverse talents, as well as possessing a spirit of grace, generosity, and perseverance. It was obvious to me that Will was well-liked by his classmates and respected by his teachers. Although people usually ask how much influence a father has had on his son, I would have to remark on how much influence my son has had on me! In particular, one little statement that he would say: "Face the fear!"

Will also won an academic scholarship to the college he will be attending this fall and is still undecided as to what he will major in. But I'm sure that whatever he puts his mind and heart into will be a resounding success! The picture above shows Will flanked by his beaming father and mother.

Monday Newsbreak: 5/19

--So far, it has been estimated that more than 30,000 people have died in the China earthquakes that chiefly affected heavily-populated central China's Sichuan province. The country has begun an official three-day period of national mourning. My condolences go out to all affected by this terrible tragedy. Unlike the case with Burma after its cyclone calamity, China has welcomed international relief, to its credit.

--As I went through yesterday's Gainesville Sun, I was struck by the absence of articles about the presidential campaign. All that I saw was a piece about how women looked to the future in presidential politics and another article about the use of gas tax relief as a campaign gimmick. Which I think is kind of funny, given that we have almost come to the threshold where Barack Obama secures the nomination. Maybe the Sun recognized what is about to happen and is planning to drown us in political news next week (especially after tomorrow's Kentucky and Oregon primaries)!

--When President Bush, while speaking in Israel last week, made critical comparisons between appeasers of Hitler and those who would "negotiate with terrorists", all of the media seemed to immediately jump to the conclusion that Bush was referring to Barack Obama. But, to me, it seemed pretty obvious that the President, with whom I have had serious differences about his foreign policy, was alluding to former President Jimmy Carter's recent meeting with officials of Hamas, an organization commonly depicted as "terrorist" and today's most direct threat to Israel. Still, I think that Bush should have saved his criticism for when he was back in the United States. I agree with MSNBC's Chris Matthews for his assertion that using diplomacy with your opponents is not appeasement: you need to talk with your enemies in order to be able to lay the law down on them clearly!

--About one third of American corn is now being grown not for food, but rather for ethanol production. What happened to the United States as the world's "breadbasket"? I really don't think this diversion from food production to ethanol is a very good idea! In our gluttony for energy resources, we seem to have taken for granted that our collective food supply is secure when, in reality, it is in a very fragile state.

--In watching the NBA playoffs, I am continually amazed how differently teams play at home than when they are the visitors. Why should the game's location be any kind of factor at this level of play? And yet, regardless of who's playing, the home team seems to play like world champions! How can one team (the Atlanta Hawks) beat another (the Boston Celtics) by three points at home and then lose the next game by 34 in Boston?!!

Mathematics as a Diversion

In the old Sherlock Holmes movie Terror By Night, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Holmes and Watson are deep in the midst of solving a mystery aboard a train. Searching compartments for suspicious characters, the two run across a rather stuffy, rude, middle-aged traveler who they discover is engaged in the totally-fun hobby of mathematics! That scene always struck me, because the way math was taught when I went to school made learning it nothing less than traumatic (in spite of the fact that I had exceptional SAT math scores of 780 and 800 in high school). I've written earlier, in the deep recesses of this blog, about the horrible way that I believe math is taught in schools (almost as a test of the student's character). Instead of encouraging high anxiety among math students, teachers of this very interesting field could very easily transform the learning experience into one of fun entertainment, because just about anything concerning mathematics can be converted into a game! I discovered, for example, that during classes like calculus and differential equations, it became quite fun to solve integrals and "diffy q's". As a matter of fact, there is a good series of "math puzzle" books, the authors of which would probably by horrified by hearing anyone referring to their works as such: the Schaums series. Schaums books cover an enormous range of highly technical topics while being structured in a very student-friendly manner. Anyone wanting to immerse themselves in an area of math may be pleasantly surprised at the way each chapter presents new concepts, has problems fully worked out, and contains a whole slew of supplementary problems to boot. It's just a slight mental adjustment for one to look at each of these "problems" as a game to play!

Can you guess where I'm going with this? Yes, I'm adding another "eights" to my self-improvement series (where I update my personal progress in an area every eight weeks on this blog): Schaums Math on the Eights. I'm sure that there are many other very fine publications that teach math well, but for my purposes, I want to have some fun in the process! I also have another motive for doing this: my daughter is going to be entering secondary school and I want to be fully equipped to help her master the new concepts she will be facing with as little trauma as possible. Since I already possess several Schaums math books, I can start up right off the bat!

Kakuro and Sudoku

Over the past few months, I have always made a point of carrying around in my pocket some sheets containing sudoku and/or kakuro puzzles. With both puzzle types, I have now reached something of a relatively advanced level, with me now doing sudoku and kakuro puzzles from the "Black Belt" editions of the Martial Arts Suduko and Kakuro series of books by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York. No need to carry with me any solutions: if I "screw up" with a puzzle, a condradiction will inevitably crop up. Nowadays, the one overwhelming factor that will keep me from successfully completing a puzzle is simple carelessness.

I find that I prefer kakuro over sudoku, simply because it requires quick arithmetic and is also a more challenging logic puzzle than sudoku. In both puzzles, a row or column may contain non-repeating combinations of the numbers 1 through 9. With sudoku, each row and column contains all nine numbers, while kakuro rows and columns have variable lengths, with the sum of its numbers indicated next to them. So, for example, a three-space row with the sum "24" indicated will invariably contain the numbers 7, 8, and 9 in some combination. The key to solving the more complicated kakuro puzzles is to eliminate possible numbers for each square by cross-referencing the row and column that the square is a part of. It can be quite exacting and tedious at times, but it is also pretty rewarding to get all the way through a large, difficult puzzle.

I simply buy inexpensive sudoku and kakuro books, rip out a few pages at a time, stuff them in my pocket, and then work on them at my leisure or during times of interruption or waiting. It's a good way to take the edge off situations where I would be tempted to become impatient. I recommend this sort of diversion to others as well. Even if you don't care to do sudoku or kakuro, there are other types of puzzles, such as Jumble, crossword puzzles, word-find, or cryptograms. The idea is to find something that suits you and can challenge you as well.

Thresholds and Margins

As I go through life, I find that the concepts of thresholds and margins are crucial to my effectiveness. What do I mean by this?

Take school, for example. Let's say there are three students: X, Y, and Z, all of equal intelligence and ability. X gets slightly ahead in class and is already a couple lessons ahead for each exam. Y keeps even with class, while Z is about a week behind. When each assignment or exam comes due, X does the best, Y average, and Z fails. At the end of the course, all three may have learned the same amount of material. But staying ahead of the thresholds by giving oneself a time-margin made the difference between success and failure.

The same holds for financial management. Some households seems able to pay all of their bills on time while others struggle to find creative ways of juggling their expenses around. And both may have the same income. The successful household has built up a margin of safety with its finances that enables it to be in the black even at those times that expenses are the greatest. The idea is to first build up a financial margin, or buffer.

In sports, thresholds and margins figure heavily. In baseball, for example, one team can outplay the other, but in order to win, they have to pass a specific threshold (home plate) more than the other. In football, a team can be slow with their offense, but still manage to march downfield for a score as long as they can continually pass the threshold of ten-yard net gains per four downs. Golf, instead of being one extremely long course, is divided into eighteen holes, each one a threshold to cross. In all of these scenarios, thresholds tend to serve as an equalizing force between two unequal sides. I remember the 1960 World Series between the heavily favored New York Yankees and the upstart Pittsburgh Pirates. In one game, the Yankees would blow out the Pirates 16-3 and the next they'd lose a very close one. The final game was won by Pittsburgh 10-9. They won despite being a weaker team (NY outscored Pittsburgh by a two-to-one ratio in the series) because they were able to win the threshold battle. So how does this apply to me?

If I look upon my life as a sort of continual game, I'll find that each year, month, week, day, and even hour can serve as a type of threshold standard that I can use to determine success or failure. The idea is to get SOMETHING accomplished in a goal-area during each predetermined time period. So I should set aside a few minutes for piano, a set time for running, another period for foreign language study, and so on. By doing this, I can eke out productivity from small bits of available time over the course of a day. And the cumulative effect of this over time can be staggering!

Yes, I find that it's often the marginal, "extra" little things here and there that can ultimately make the big difference between success and failure in endeavors. Have I done this well in my own life? Not anywhere as much as I would have liked. But as the saying goes, each day is a new beginning. And it starts with doing things marginally better!

Favorite Songs of 1974

The year 1974 had so many great songs that I am going to have to resort to simply listing some of them. But I'll write a little about the top ones of this special year. Cat Stevens still had his musical and lyrical magic together with his Oh Very Young. Maria Muldaur's sultry Midnight at the Oasis made we wish for more hits from her. The Spanish group Mocedades had one of my all-time favorite Spanish-language hits with the beautiful Eres Tu. Jim Stafford came out with two memorable songs: the thought-provoking My Girl Bill and the thoroughly hilarious Wildwood Weed. Elton John's The Bitch is Back celebrated survival and revival. Billy Joel's sparkling career took off nationwide with his Piano Man and its fast-paced follow-up Travelin' Prayer. Seals and Crofts had We May Never Pass This Way Again (picked by many high schools as their theme song for 1974) and the introspective King of Nothing. I heard my first Electric Light Orchestra song in '74: Can't Get It Out of My Head. Although it was originally a hit in 1973, Marvin Gaye's slow masterpiece Let's Get It On grew on me the next year. John Denver's Back Home Again was a pleasant, cozy-sounding tune, but his Sunshine On My Shoulders was impressive enough back then for me to make it my #5 favorite song of 1974. The late Jim Croce had a posthumous hit with his sweet love song Time in a Bottle, #4 for me that year. The Japanese electronic musician Isao Tomita produced an album interpreting several of the French composer Claude Debussy's pieces, including my #3 favorite 1974 piece, Arabesque #1. If you've ever watched PBS's star-gazing show, Star Hustler (with Jack Horkhimer), you would recognize Arabesque as its theme music. My #2 song was by the dynamic new group Bachman-Turner Overdrive: their stuttering success You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet. And #1? None other than the great, late John Lennon's infectious, mysterious Number Nine Dream. And now, here are some other great tunes from 1974:

Ruby Red Dress (Helen Reddy)
Taxi (Harry Chapin)
The Way We Were (Barbara Streisand)
Until You Come Back to Me (Aretha Franklin)
Star (Stealer's Wheel)
Mockingbird (Carly Simon & James Taylor)
Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield)
Rock Your Baby (George McCrae)
You and Me Against the World (Helen Reddy)
Nothing From Nothing (Billy Preston)
Beach Baby (First Class)
Do It 'Til You're Satisfied (B.T. Express)
I Can Help (Billy Swan)
Life Is a Rock (Reunion)
When Will I See You Again (The Three Degrees)
Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sedaka)
The Air That I Breathe (Hollies)
The Show Must Go On (Three Dog Night)
Band on the Run (Paul McCartney & Wings)
Taking Care of Business (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
I'll Have to Say I Love You In a Song (Jim Croce)
I've Been Searching For So Long (Chicago)
Longfellow Serenade (Neil Diamond)
Ride 'Em Cowboy (Paul Davis)
Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder)
Don't You Worry About a Thing (Stevie Wonder)
I Love (Tom T. Hall)
Jazzman (Carole King)

Yes, 1974 was a very exceptional year musically!

Freckles, Cuddles, and Taffy

Two summers ago, we adopted Freckles (above), a mixed-breed puppy, for my daughter as a advance-birthday present that year. Gainesville has a non-profit organization called Puppy Hill Farms that takes in abandoned animals, cares for them, and puts them up for adoption. Freckles was already spayed when we got her from them. We weren't too sure how big she would grow, but she finally slowed her growth down to where she is about 55 pounds. Freckles is a very high-spirited, lively dog who loves to play with tennis balls or sticks, as well as having her belly rubbed. At the beginning, we took her to obedience classes, where she learned a few commands. Freckles apparently had some traumas before Puppy Hills Farms took her in, because she becomes petrified at the sight of any truck or the sound of any running machinery. Freckles has an older "sister" in Cuddles, another mixed-breed dog that we've had since 1997 (as my son's dog). While Freckles seems to have some greyhound and Aussie shepherd in her, Cuddles is more like a dachshund/basset hound combo and is stocky and close to the ground (but very fast when she wants to be). We adore our dogs. A year ago, Taffy, our miniature poodle, passed on after nineteen happy years with us. I love dogs, and I am not particular about breeds, either. If you live in a place that allows pets, I recommend adopting a mixed breed dog from one of the adoption agencies. Our lives have been enormously enriched by ours! Last month, our veterinarian picked Freckles as the pet of the month (entitling her to a free bath and nail-clipping)! Here are pictures of Cuddles (left) and a very young Taffy (with me, right):

Foreign Languages on the Eights: 5/13

For the past eight weeks, studying foreign languages has taken a back seat to other things in my life. But I still had plenty of opportunities to take a few minutes aside daily to study some. Oh well, that's the past and it's behind me: the question is what am I going to do now. As I mentioned a while back on this blog, I decided to narrow my concentrated study of foreign languages to those that I had the best chance of approaching effective mastery of: Spanish, German, Russian, French, and Chinese. It is very easy nowadays, by means of the Internet, to both read material in each of these languages as well as hear daily webcasts in them. I also have study material at home to study with. So I just have to lay a little time aside, as well as set up a study plan. The main push should be for me to rapidly build up my passive (reading and listening) vocabulary in each of these languages to the point where I can follow the gist of anything I read or hear in them. But that aside, I also need to practice being in "the flow" of each tongue as well. So in the next few days I will work out more details. And hopefully, this time around I'll actually begin to accomplish something more substantial in this area of self-improvement!

Monday Newsbreak: 5/12

--In the aftermath of the tragic cyclone hitting southern Burma, it does sadly seem that this country's military government is only interested in holding on to power and cares very little for the welfare of its people. Its intransigence in allowing relief aid to enter the country, along with widespread accusations that it refused to give preventative warnings to the people about the cyclone's impending strike, says all that I need to know about the moral bankruptcy of this regime.

--After last Tuesday's North Carolina and Indiana primaries in which Barack Obama convincingly defeated Hillary Clinton in the former and essentially broke even with her in the latter, the momentum has sharply shifted over to Obama. The tide of superdelegate support is overwhelmingly going in the direction of the charismatic young Illinois senator. I agree with the pundits I've read who state that Hillary's behavior over the next few weeks will determine her political future within the Democratic Party on a national level. A lot more tact and a lot less sideswiping would appear to be the right course of action for the New York senator.

--The local news is full of the woes of the University of Florida as it tries to figure out a way to implement a $47 million budget cut. Not only will faculty and staff be severely cut, but degree programs will also be affected with some eliminated, leaving some students stranded in the middle of targeted programs. I agree with one of the letters to the Gainesville Sun's editor, which raised the question: since the UF administrators knew for a while about the impending cuts, why didn't they take earlier actions to both warn people as well as to look for alternative private sources of funding?! UF President Bernie Machen, with his multimillion dollar salary, comes out of this appearing totally incompetent and insensitive.

--The first Walmart Supercenter in Gainesville opened this week, so naturally it looked as if this store was the "place to be" this weekend. I went there and liked how the grocery store looked. However, judging by the chronically sloppy appearance of the other Walmarts in town, I think I'll wait a while after the initial hoopla has settled before rendering any kind of judgement about the new store. Only that, with the deliberate placement of the store in sparsely populated eastern Gainesville far away from everything, coupled with the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, I don't see myself making the crosstown trip very often to save money on merchandise.

Paying For Public Legitimacy

I'm curious about whether I'm the only one in the world who notices this, so I'll just put it out here on my blog. But over the years, I've come to an unsettling conclusion. If I am out in public, and not actually travelling about, then I need to be somewhere in the act of spending money (or at least presenting the appearance of intending to spend money)! Now if I am at home, then that's all right. But other than being at a public library, I feel that the idea has been hammered into me that I am something less than human if I am not paying for the "privilege" of making myself visible in the public. Does that sound a bit farfetched to you? One of the things that police look for on their patrols are people who don't seem to be doing anything in particular (translate: either not spending money or not moving). This is commonly known as "loitering", and the "offenders" are often referred to as vagrants and either told to move on or are thrown in jail (remember Sylvester Stallone's Rambo character in that small Oregon town in his First Blood movie?). If I am sitting in a Starbucks as a paying customer, then that's supposedly legitimate. But just sitting out somewhere doing the same thing, but not shelling out money, is liable to get some bad reactions from people. Now it's possible to spend a good deal of time in public without handing over money to others. But it has to be done furtively, with masked intentions. So I could window-shop, or browse around stores without ever making purchases. Or sit in a parking lot in my car without getting out. But even with these scenarios, I could come under scrutiny and suspicion for illegitimate behavior.

Just what is it that I'm asking, anyway? Only that I can truly feel like a free human being to the point that my presence anywhere (in public) is legitimate and doesn't depend on what others choose to discern about my intentions or whether I have "bought" a legitimate spot out in public.

Many years ago, the late great science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote a famous short story titled Pedestrian, where he took my premise to its logical extreme and depicted a future society where just going out to take a walk is viewed as aberrant behavior worthy of incarceration. So I'm not the only one who's discerned this developing social phenomenon. And by all accounts, it's gotten progressively worse over the past few years! What I fear is that we are, like sheep, allowing ourselves to submissively be herded into a police state.

Well, I for one don't want to live in such a society, so I'm going to do something about it. Each week, I am going to make a major effort to spend time out in public, not spending money or doing something like jogging or dog-walking. No, I'll just go to a park and do my studying there with some fresh-brewed coffee from home! At least doing this should help to dispel a little of the creeping paranoia that I'm beginning to feel about this society becoming more oppressive. But even here, I'm still paying up (through my taxes, supporting the city park)!

Piano on the Eights: 5/10

For the past eight (plus) weeks, my piano practices have been progressing a bit more sluggishly than I would have liked. And one of the problems that I see is that I haven't defined my short-term and long-term goals well enough regarding what I want to accomplish with piano. Ultimately, I want to be able to play any music that I have a memory of, and that comprises thousands of songs. Also, I would like to be able to play music readily and accurately from sheet music, though not necessarily the extremely demanding pieces. In conjunction with these two goals, I would like to deepen my training in music theory, understanding better how chords are constructed as well as why music is sometimes written the way it is. In the short-term, I need to more assiduously practice my lesson pieces while going ahead on my own learning to play in other keys. And I need also to begin practicing plunking out tunes from memory as well. Also, if I am going to ever be able to play competently, then I need to be better with my timing and rhythm.

Maps

I have always felt a deep affinity for maps of all kinds. World atlases, road atlases, fold-up maps, fantasy-book (like Tolkien's Middle Earth) maps, and star maps all hold great interest for me. When I was around four or five years old, my sister and I used to play a game in our yard we called "Mapland", in which we would imagine different sections of the yard to be exciting, exotic lands, full of adventure, of course. I remember playing a lot of "imagination" games like this as a child, and I wonder whether today's children aren't being deprived of an important growth experience with their video games that provide ready-made images and narratives for them. Once, also when I was a kid, I began to etch, for no particular reason at all, some lined grooves on the seat of an old wooden chair of ours. Soon the idea took hold that I was drawing a map of sorts, and I began to imagine a city corresponding to the roads I was etching. There were schools, stores, the library, my "home", and friends' homes on this street or that. Soon I had covered the entire seat of this chair with a strange, web-like etching. I think it's still there at my old home. I don't think anyone in my family ever knew what that was all about. No one ever asked me and I never told them!

Also, around that time, I caught "collector's fever" and began to collect all sorts of different things. Naturally, road maps became one of my collector's items. On Saturdays, I would leave my house and make the rounds, walking to different gas stations (some pretty far away for a little kid to walk to) and asking the attendants whether they had some road maps (all of which were free then). So I soon amassed a pretty sizable collection of fold-up road maps, although they were mostly either of Miami, Florida, or the Southeastern US. For some reason, even though Broward County (lying directly north of Miami's Dade County) had a very large population, I never could get road maps of Hollywood or Fort Lauderdale back then. It was as if only Miami counted for anything in South Florida!

Nowadays, sometimes I have fun playing around with GoogleEarth on my computer. It really is quite an amazing feature, and seems to be continually undergoing updates and improvements. I remember reading somewhere that foreign governments, such as the Soviet Union, once would deliberately insert errors into their own maps, in hopes of making military conquest by others more difficult. Well, nowadays you can just forget that! What I would like to see in the future with GoogleEarth is a regularly-refreshed view of the Earth, or at least have them update their pictures more often.

Favorite Songs of 1975

1975, a year full of great songs, began for me with a flashback from the past. For some reason, local Miami radio began playing David Bowie's old hit Changes regularly at the beginning of the year. As a result, I'll always associate that great tune with 1975. Donny and Marie Osmond had one of their rare songs I liked with a collaboration, Morning Side of the Mountain. One of the Doobie Brothers' best-ever, Black Water, also came out at 75's start, as did Linda Ronstadt's forceful, angry You're No Good and Minnie Ripperton's sweet, intimate Loving You. As the year went on, other songs came to the fore. Michael Murphey's painful story of a girl and her horse, Wildfire, received a lot of radio play. War became more mainstream with two big single hits: Low Rider and Why Can't We Be Friends. C.W. McCall had a big country/CB radio/trucker hit with his hilarious Convoy. Alice Cooper had a rare subdued, emotional piece in Only Women. The group America's inspiring Lonely People was my all-time favorite of theirs. The Hustle, by Van McCoy, was the best disco song of the year as well as a regular fixture on CBS NFL Football that fall. K.C. and the Sunshine Band had another good dance tune with their Get Down Tonight. John Denver sang the pretty, romantic Fly Away as a duet with Olivia Newton-John. Olivia earlier in the year had a very pleasant singles hit with Have You Never Been Mellow. Love Rollercoaster, by the Ohio Players, was one of my favorite "soul" songs of '75. The German group Silver Convention had another good disco song: the very repetitive Fly Robin Fly. The Scottish group Pilot sounded an awful lot like the Beatles with their Magic. Bob Dylan raged against social injustice in his classic Hurricane, a song about a boxer whom he felt had wrongly been convicted of murder (and who was ultimately exonerated). My #3 song of 1975 was by the Spinners: their philosophical They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play). The British group Queen had their first stateside hit (and my #2 song of the year) with their wild Killer Queen. And Elton John continued his march to greater and greater superstardom. His Philadelphia Freedom, a tribute to his friend Billie Jean King and her tennis team, was a pleasant, upbeat tune. But my top favorite song of 1975 was Elton's exciting two-part epic Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, still my all-time favorite piece of his.

Weight Loss and Maintenance on the Eights: 5/7

I have been keeping my weight pretty much at the same level (low to mid-160s) for the past eight weeks. Unfortunately, I've been slipping a bit into binge eating from time to time, although at the same time I've picked up my exercising intensity (mostly by running). I would like to get my weight down to around to 145-150 lbs, which I believe is the optimum level for me to be effective with my running. And then stay there, not dipping below 140. But I'm going to have to watch my caloric intake to accomplish this. One thing that has helped me is that I have begun to drink more water, which helps to take the edge off my "compulsion" to raid the icebox! Also, I need to resume regular weighings, but in general, my weight has stabilized between 163-165 lbs.

Reverend Wright Revisited

If you've been reading this blog, you may have come across a rather rosy piece a few days ago generally praising Reverend Jeremiah Wright (within limits). Well, I wrote that piece just after his interview with Bill Moyers and before his speeches to the NAACP and the National Press Club. In those speeches, Wright tended to revert back to the old aggressive "preaching" style that had brought on so much criticism. The result was that Barack Obama finally had to publicly disassociate himself from his former pastor.

I have to admit that I do not appreciate the way that Wright ridicules other people to make a point. To me, this sort of rhetoric reminds me more of characters like Archie Bunker and George Jefferson. Maybe Wright is still rooted in the 70s and believes that this sort of talk is still generally acceptable. Well, it isn't! I believe that someone can make a point, even one very critical of others, and still be dignified and respectful about it. Adding a tinge of ridicule and cruelty only serves to make the target of criticism seem to be an unfair victim of the speaker's vitriol. In the Moyer interview, Wright restrained himself and, as a result, was much more compelling. But he now seems bent on making as much noise as possible and attracting as much media attention as possible to himself. But why should that necessarily have anything to do with Barack Obama?

Sure, Obama named his book The Audacity of Hope as a sort of tribute to his former pastor, and cited Wright as an inspiration and a source of counsel. But Obama is Obama and Wright is Wright. Neither speaks for the other. How would you like it if some friend of yours made a public spectacle of him/herself and everyone automatically put you down as a result, just because of your past association with that person?

But I recognize the politics of this situation as well. For the sake of argument, let me generalize a little. If all the McCain and Clinton supporters want Obama's campaign to fail, then at this time about three fourths of the people out there are currently "against" the Democratic front-runner. And so the "buzz" is going to be heavily weighted in trying to magnify anything that could remotely be used against him. I expect the situation to change after the Democratic Convention, but I'm sure we'll still have to endure television ads linking Obama and Wright during the general campaign.

Finally, my problems with Jeremiah Wright's beliefs and speaking style notwithstanding, I also believe that he has every right in the world to respond to the severe public attacks and insults aimed at him during the past few weeks. Of course, he's totally wrong in saying that it had nothing to do with Barack Obama, when Obama's success is the only reason anyone bothered to dig up Wright's old sermons in the first place.

Monday Newsbreak: 5/5

--A terrible cyclone swept into Burma causing deaths in the hundreds and possibly the thousands. Quickly, reports came out of the public's dissatisfaction with the military government's slow response to the disaster. Which makes me wonder how much of this sort of thing is real news and how much is contrived to serve an end (in this case, the end of Burma's military dictatorship and return to democracy).

--Tomorrow, for the Democrats, here we go again: another "crucial" primary that's supposed to have a critical effect on who gets the nomination. This time it's North Carolina and Indiana. There has been a problem dogging the Democrats, which is that since the Republicans already have decided on their nominee, many Republican voters are crossing over to vote (usually for Clinton) in the Democratic primaries. Hopefully, this won't happen next election season if party rules are made stricter, to eliminate this cynical manipulation (supported by Rush Limbaugh) of the nominating process.

--Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton have supported a summertime lifting of the 18-cent/gallon federal gas excise tax as an election-year ploy to attract more voter support. Barack Obama, to his credit, doesn't support this tactic. Instead of encouraging consumption, we should be investing in alternative, clean, and renewable sources of energy. Otherwise, we're going to be talking more than five dollars per gallon! All that temporarily lifting the gas tax will do is increase demand, which will in turn increase the price of gas right back up!

--I am enjoying the National Basketball Association playoffs, but I have to admit to quite a bit of disappointment at seeing my Phoenix Suns bowing out so early, losing to San Antonio four games to one. Now I'm on to other teams, and I am very impressed with the New Orleans Hornets this year. And in the East, although I live relatively close to Orlando, I can't help rooting for the scrappy, feisty Detroit Pistons!

Observers of People

About fifteen to sixteen years ago, I attended, at a different church, a Sunday school class run by a middle-aged couple there. This couple was keen on helping younger couples get through the first years of marriage by giving advice and using Biblical precepts. I liked both of them and appreciate their efforts to help others. The woman (to whom I will give the fictional name Doris) one day described herself as an “observer of people”, and explained this through the use of an example. It seems one day that she was eating out in a restaurant somewhere and a pretty young woman happened to walk by. Doris, being the observer of people that she was, set about noticing the reactions of the males around her. And lo and behold, just about all of them looked up at the pretty woman as she passed them. Doris was trying to make the point that men tend to be visually oriented regarding women. But wasn’t she also playing around with her eyes, too? And she had nothing to say about what the women around her were looking at, either.

Many years ago, I was watching one of those ten o’clock prime time TV network newsmagazine shows such as 20/20 or the like. Featured was a segment about an angry woman who videotaped men sitting out in public, obviously on their lunch breaks from work, looking at a pretty woman as she walked by. She would then confront any “offenders” she “caught” on tape and then proceed to yell at them, making a public nuisance as well as a fool out of herself in the process. And the woman passerby? A setup, sent by the embittered, disturbed woman herself to provoke the desired looks from the targeted men. So who stepped over the line here with their eyes?

When I go into a place like a coffee shop, diner, library, etc., invariably I will cast my own eyes around at the people there. It’s not a male thing or a female thing. It’s a normal, human thing. And just as often as not, I’ll notice women sitting around looking at me and others. Sure, men probably tend to rely on visual stimulation regarding the opposite sex more than the reverse. But looking at people doesn’t have to mean anything. Now just staring someone down, that’s an entirely different matter! But neither was happening with the men observed by “Doris” or the video crusader!

Discussing a Religion With Its Believers

I will come right out and admit that, with most of the world's religions, I don't know very much. I know a little about Islam and Judaism. Christianity is the religion that I have the best grasp of, in terms of its doctrine, scriptures, and history. But there is something that I find rather interesting about religions which may be applicable to all of them.

Adherents of a particular religion often point out that if an unbeliever reads their scriptures, then they are likely to get a completely different meaning from them than if they were "in the faith". In other words, the act of reading itself is different between believers and unbelievers. The unbeliever will tend to read a scripture analytically, first trying to understand the passages and then attempting to reconcile the message with his/her own knowledge of how things really are. On the other hand, the believer will uncritically and reverently read the same scriptures, using analysis not to ascertain the truth value of the scripture, but rather for its application to interpreting the real world in the context of the expressed doctrine.

I remember two different items regarding Islam. I remember reading, around the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis, something to the effect that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini once exhorted Muslims, that if they ever saw an unbeliever reading the Holy Qu'ran, then they were to rip the book out of his hands! But then, after 9/11, I also heard that the North Carolina state university system, for a brief period, required its incoming students to read the Qu'ran (apparently to understand Islam better in order to mitigate anti-Muslim paranoia). But if the message rings differently, depending on whether one reads from within or without the faith, I don't see how that would have done much good.

When a believer and an unbeliever of a particular religion sit together to discuss the content and meaning of its scriptures, it needs to be understood and respected by each side that the other side is looking at things from a vastly different perspective. The believer, focusing on the faith's doctrines, has already crossed over from questioning the scripture's truth, while the unbeliever will often dwell on his/her doubts regarding its validity. This can make for a situation where two people are basically sitting together talking past each other. Which doesn't really accomplish a whole lot, does it?

Favorite Steel Roller Coasters

What is my favorite steel roller coaster ride? Busch Garden Tampa’s bottomless roller coaster Montu. I call it the “Cadillac” of roller coasters because of its incredible smoothness. I’ve experienced some really jerky rides on other steel coasters elsewhere, most notably with Dollywood’s Tennessee Tornado and Wild Adventure’s Hangman, Boomerang, and Swamp Thing. Cypress Gardens has the best, in my opinion, “kiddie’s” steel coaster with their Okeechobee Rampage. Disney World’s MGM Studios has a pleasant coaster in Rock N’ Roll with Aerosmith, but my problem with that one is that it is enclosed, with my view very limited. And seeing how high up in the sky I am is one of the fun parts of riding a coaster (as well as seeing the world turn upside-down during loops)! Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain is also indoors, and is too jerky as well. Universal’s Islands of Adventures contains two good coasters: The Incredible Hulk and Dueling Dragons Fire (or Ice). The Hulk shoots the passengers out like a rocket at its start, while I prefer a slow gradual rise. And with Dueling Dragons, another bottomless coaster, there is a slow initial rise before the dramatics. But then, that ride is a bit too short for me. Shortness is also a problem with Busch Garden’s much-hyped Sheikra. Their Python coaster is too rough and extremely short. I do like Busch’s Scorpion, though, which though short is very well-designed. I guess my second-favorite steel coaster ride would be Busch Garden’s Kumba. I think that I could spend all day at that park just alternating between Kumba and Montu (with occasional forays over to their great double wooden roller coaster Gwazi). Oh, by the way, another thing making my roller coaster experiences at Busch Garden more enjoyable is that I usually don’t have to wait very long in line to ride them!

Favorite Songs of 1976

During 1976, I grew to enjoy German pioneer techno-rock band Kraftwerk's Autobahn and Radioaktivität, which had come out previously. The same can be said for Elton John's hit Someone Saved My Life Tonight, a long, slow, emotion-laden piece. Al Stewart hit the big time with the release of his Year of the Cat album, which contained several good tracks, notably Lord Grenville, On the Border, Broadway Hotel, and One Stage Before. But earlier in the year, his historical epic Roads to Moscow introduced me to this talented, creative musician with frequent album-rock station airplay. Michael Murphey's Carolina in the Pines was, to me, a better song than his previous release Wildfire. The Canadian band Heart had my favorite of theirs with Crazy on You. The Dutch band George Baker Selection had a pleasant, upbeat summer hit with their Paloma Blanca. The Steve Miller Band went "far out" in terms of imagery and consciousness-raising with their Fly Like an Eagle. Andrea True Connection's More More More was my favorite disco song of the year. Right behind on the dance music scene was Vicky Sue Robinson's boisterous Turn the Beat Around. Judy Collin's Send in the Clowns, another slow, emotional piece, has continued to grow on me through the years. Even more so has George Harrison's sweet, compelling You, becoming one of my all-time top favorite songs now. Emerging superstar Billy Joel, with his Turnstiles album, had two very good songs in 1976: Summer Highland Falls and my #3 favorite song of the year (as I lived through it), his refreshing and exciting piano show-off piece Angry Young Man. John Miles, who briefly had some small fame on the album rock stations, had his best song (and my #2 favorite of the year) with Music, a long "epic", orchestrated piece that more than anything simply expresses the artist's love for his craft. Electric Light Orchestra's Strange Magic was a pleasant diversion early in the year, but they made a big impact on me later on with the release of their New World Record album, and from it, the beautiful single Livin' Thing (my top favorite song of 1976).

Backroads Between Davie and Hollywood

When I attended Broward Community College (in Davie, Florida) during the mid-1970s, I would often commute between home and classes (about five miles apart) by riding my bicycle through backroads. In spite of it being South Florida (a pretty urban community), the route I took definitely had a country feel to it, especially the further north (into Davie) I got. Between Griffin and Stirling Road, there are a series of parallel roads connecting the two. I always avoided the busiest, Davie Road, and usually went down the second road to the east. Making this trip did a lot to instill a peace of mind within me, both before and after school. It was also good physical exercise, although at this time I was also running quite a bit (between three and six miles per day). The land was so flat that I used a simple one-speed bicycle with coaster brakes, something that I quickly changed upon moving to Gainesville (with its hills and slopes) a few years later! I had begun this “tradition” of eschewing motor transportation during my senior year of high school, when one morning I just got up and decided to walk the five miles to school (which was next to Broward Community College). Now looking back, I wish I had begun my bike-to-school habit back in high school!

One late afternoon in 1974, while bicycling homeward out in the semi-country between Griffin and Stirling Roads, I came across a tiny baby bird sitting by itself in the middle of the then-deserted road. I got off my bicycle and looked around for traffic and the bird’s mother. Seeing nothing, I carefully picked up the pitiful little creature, which seemed unhurt except for the fact that it was unable to fly (or walk, for that matter). I walked over a few yards off the side of the road and carefully placed it in the shadows of a tree. I realized then that the little wild bird probably wouldn’t survive its plight, but I didn’t think there was much I could have done. And I went on my way.

In like manner, sometimes I feel that we here in America feel toward others as if we have to “fix” everything in the world, and if we don’t, then we’re somehow being negligent. But there is a limit to how much we can help, and sometimes what we do with good intentions can backfire and actually be counterproductive. Sometimes, with some places, its better to just leave and let things be. To admit that there are some areas that we as a nation are necessarily limited in implies neither weakness, moral deficiency, nor lack of patriotism (are you reading this, President Bush?).

My pleasant habit of bicycling back and forth to school continued into the mid-nineties, when I would often bicycle back and forth to work (nine miles from home, with several hills). I’d like to get back into bicycling, albeit not on the same scale as before. I want to buy one of those mileage devices you can attach to the bike that lets you measure off distances. I'd like to develop my own off-the-road running courses, and using my bicycle to measure how long a course is seems to be a pretty good idea.

Running on the Eights: 4/29

Actually, this is more like "running on the tens", because I inadvertently slipped up and let ten weeks go by instead of the planned eight before writing another installment about my running activities. My running has picked up quite a bit, although I am still concentrating my running on the treadmill. Anyway, here is my running record. It all took place on the treadmill unless indicated otherwise.

DATE...MILES..TIME
2-17...... 0.75......5:27
2-22...... 1.75....14:04
2-23...... 1.00..... 7:18
2-25 ......2.25....16:59
2-27.......1.50....10:57
2-28.......0.50.....3:28
2-29.......1.75....12:34
3-1.........0.50......3:25
3-3.........1.75.....12:32
3-4.........0.75.......5:12
3-5.........2.50.....18:17
3-6.........0.75.......5:29
3-7.........1.00.......7:09
3-8.........1.75......12:53
3-9.........1.00.......6:52
3-12.......2.00.....14:13
3-13.......2.00.....13:55
3-14.......2.75......19:06
3-16.......1.50.....10:22
3-17.......1.00.......7:28
3-18.......1.50.....10:22
3-19.......2.00.....13:36
3-21.......2.00.....13:28
3-23.......1.00.......7:35 (asphalt track)
3-24.......2.00.....13:39
3-26.......2.00.....13:58
3-27.......1.00.......6:48
3-28.......2.00.....13:35
3-30.......3.50.....25.40
4-01.......1.50.....10:27
4-02.......2.00.....13:40
4-03.......2.00.....14:19
4-04.......1.00.......6:47
4-05.......1.00.......6:41
4-07.......3.00.....20:54
4-09.......1.50........9:55
4-11........2.50.....17:55
4-13........1.50.....10:05
4-14........1.00.......6:52
4-15........1.50.....10:05
4-17........2.50.....17:39
4-18........1.00.......6:54
4-21........3.50.....25:37
4-22........1.50.....10:09
4-23........4.00.....32:37
4-24........1.50........9:52
4-25........2.00.....14:18
4-26........1.00.......6:54
4-28........0.50.......3:43

Monday Newsbreak: 4/28

--The report is out that our Florida state government is having to make major cutbacks in its budget that will cause reduction in some services, layoffs of some employees, and increases in fees (like college tuition). Unlike our federal government, Florida must balance its budget each year and doesn't have the luxury of incurring a debt, so its representatives have a more sobering (and realistic) task to perform than our sometimes "head-in-the-clouds" national leaders in Washington.

--Reverend Jeremiah Wright is now making speeches and delivering sermons at other churches. This is noteworthy news, but it certainly doesn't merit the excessive, continuing headline coverage that the cable networks are giving it. There's no doubt to me that Reverend Wright is this election year's version of the 2004 "Swiftboat" movement contrived to defame John Kerry enough to prevent his election.

--In the NBA playoffs, the Denver Nuggets are looking like the most entertaining team to me. Not that they're doing well: they're probably going to be swept by the vastly improved Los Angeles Lakers. No, I just like to watch the show that a couple of their prima donna stars put on late in the game by arguing with the referees and incurring technical fouls. It's kind of like watching John McEnroe's antics in the good old days of tennis. Good circus!

--It looks as if Robert Mugabe is finally going to be out of power in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, which he ruled since 1981. I believe that, for many years, Mugabe got a "free ticket" from international criticism because he had originally been the first democratically elected leader there upon the relinquishing of power by the (very) minority whites, who had controlled the country (then called Rhodesia) since 1965. I think some were afraid of criticizing him for fear of sounding as if they were racist in some way. This in spite of the fact that many who had allied themselves with Mugabe to bring down white-ruled Rhodesia were in bitter opposition to his regime, often from exile.

Jeremiah Wright's Interview

Last week, I saw Bill Moyer’s interview of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor at Trinity United Church in Chicago. The interview did much to reverse Wright’s image as an anti-American firebrand. One of the things I noticed was that, in normal conversation, he is very soft-spoken and nuanced in his choice of words. And the short clips of him ranting from the podium like a madman? I’ve seen this style of sermonizing before (John Hagee is one its biggest practitioners). Wright’s “fury” isn’t present through his whole sermon: it only comes out at the culmination of a long chain of building arguments. Only at the end does he add the “flavor” of emotion and rage. This style never has sat well with me, and judging by the nationwide negative reaction to him, it doesn’t come across very well with people in general.

One theme that Wright stressed in his interview was the notion that oppressed peoples would necessarily read the Bible through a more similar perspective to its writers, the Jews (they themselves having been repeatedly persecuted), than those in society who have had it easier in life. Wright believes that it's not enough to just dwell upon the spiritual and heaven: God is very concerned with social justice, as His Word reveals (according to the Reverend).

Reverend Wright explained his critical comments about America by pointing out that the great Old Testament prophets, such as Jeremiah, also had very critical things to say to and about their homeland. The words spoken then were a rebuke and a warning, not condemnation. And Wright believes that at least those governing the U.S. employ a double standard when it comes to valuing human life and dignity, depending on whether the concerned humans reside within our borders or on another nation’s territory.

Wright is also a strong believer in the ongoing narrative of class oppression. He sees himself as someone who understands all of the terrible oppression that blacks and other groups have to endure. The only problem I see with this is that, although I’m sure that there is still racism and discrimination going on around us, most of the problems people experience in their day-to-day living are rooted in their own bad habits and attitudes. And one of these self-defeating attitudes is to carry around within oneself a narrative that everything bad that happens to them is because they belong to an oppressed group. Wright shouldn’t play up to that mindset as he has. To his credit, however, his church has been very active in its community helping the needy and ministering to those in prison.

I appreciate Bill Moyers for having given Reverend Jeremiah Wright the opportunity to react to the publicity he’s received for the past few weeks and to explain his philosophy. I believe that those short clippings of his were taken out of context by Barack Obama’s political opponents in order to defame Obama by association. And Wright is a thoughtful, caring man whom I would feel honored to have as a friend. But having said that, I still believe, as I have written in an earlier blog entry, that the Reverend has allowed himself to be part of a feedback loop that accepts affirming information and rejects contradictory information. The result is, in my opinion, a rather skewed and overcritical perspective on the United States, its history, and its role in the world. But then again, it’s perfectly human to seek out and value more those agreeing with one’s idiosyncratic views and conversely, to block out and reject dissenting opinions. After all, it’s conservatives who to tend to tune in to Rush Limbaugh and liberals who tend to tune in to Keith Olbermann.

Drinking Water

What is the most important food to consume? Some may say carbohydrates; other protein. It’s true that we all need a certain proportion of carbohydrates, protein, and fat in our diets, but there is one item that, although not generally regarded as food, is actually more crucial than the more commonly-mentioned food types: water. Both in the immediate now and over long periods of time, consuming enough water is necessary for life itself, not just for optimum health. The question is how much of it we need to drink over the course of a day.

Although I’ve heard anything from four to eight full glasses of water as a good daily intake, I don’t necessarily see that this is so. What’s the scientific backing for those exhortations, after all? When I’ve stepped up my water intake in the past, it just seems that I spend more time having to run to the bathroom. Although I do believe that we need to drink more water, I have a simpler remedy.

Whenever I feel tired or hungry, I should first ask myself whether I am also thirsty. And then drink a glass of water. Not tea or cola or fruit juice or coffee or milk. Just plain water. From the tap. Nothing fancy, no counting daily glasses. I just respond to what my body tells me and no more.

I also believe that some of the overeating that has been going on is due to people not drinking enough water. One of the things that tells us whether we are hungry is how full our stomachs are. If we drink water at the first feelings of hunger, I believe that the compulsion to raid the fridge for junk food can be forestalled. And then a more healthful meal can then be prepared.

There’s such a thing as drinking too much water, so I don’t want to get rigid about pouring a high number of glasses down my throat. But the main problem is that people don’t drink enough, not the reverse. But water is so readily available and is free if you don’t have some kind of hang-up about drinking it from a tap or fountain.

Rationales for Evil Behavior

In the move The Godfather (Parts One and Two), both Vito Corleone and his son Michael explicitly and repeatedly laid out the rationale for their criminal behavior: anything goes, as long as it is for the sake of their family. And yet, despite this, they only succeeded in destroying their family! In Cuba, the rationale for the Communist revolution there has always been to protect their people from economic exploitation from capitalists. And yet, until just recently, Cubans were prohibited by law from even buying and selling simple appliances!

In most instances of people openly doing bad things to others, the perpetrators rationalize their actions by either portraying themselves as victims (entitled to redress) or protectors of some other supposedly victimized party. Look at the actions of Al-Qaeda under Bin-Laden over the past few years as they “protect” Muslims from Western nations and culture. And who have been their chief victims? Muslims!

Speaking of current events, our current President has kept our country mired in a prohibitively expensive conflict in Iraq for the past five years, with no end in sight. Done ostensibly to protect us within the context of the “War on Terror”, the Iraq War, besides causing more than 4000 American deaths and many more injuries, has caused our government to borrow money at interest from other nations (some who do not have our interests in their hearts) to fund itself and the war. And it distracted us from going after the root cause of 9/11: Al-Qaeda under Bin-Laden. Was President Bush evil when he launched the war in 2003? No, but his overeagerness for the war back then, along with his stubborn refusal to ever admit to a mistake, has put us in this sorry state of affairs today.

In the previous examples (fictional or real), those responsible for rationalizing their aggressive behavior toward others had a great deal of support by many at the beginning. But over time, people gradually came to see each of them for what they were: cynical exploiters who cared little, if at all, for those on whose behalf they were pretending to act. As a matter of fact, in each of these examples, the “leaders” without exception regarded themselves as being in a socially-superior class, far above those whom they purported to serve.

Favorite Songs of 1977

Of all the years that I have reviewed or will review, 1977 has the sad distinction of being the worst one for me musically! There were only two really super-good songs from this year and one of them actually came out earlier! But I’ll still mention a few of the ones that I “moderately” liked. Billy Joel came out with his The Stranger album and with it, two good singles: Movin’ Out and Just the Way You Are. Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop was a positive song that had nothing to do yet with Bill Clinton. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta teamed up to perform the catchy You’re the One That I Want from Grease. Rose Royce had a good hit with Car Wash, the theme song for the same-titled movie. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band completely transformed a Bruce Springsteen song, Blinded By the Light, with a little help from Chopsticks. K.C. and the Sunshine Band continued their disco stardom in ‘77 when they produce something I actually liked: I’m Your Boogie Man. Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke, his tribute to the jazz great Duke Ellington, was one of his best ever. Boz Scaggs also peaked with Lido Shuffle. One of my favorite Eagles songs, the melancholy New Kid in Town, came out in 1977. How Deep Is Your Love by the Bee Gees, despite being severely overplayed, still was a pleasant enough tune to sit through. As was Debbie Boone’s blockbuster hit You Light Up My Life. If I were to give a #3 favorite song of 1977 award out, it would probably go to Rita Coolidge for We’re All Alone. Dave Mason sang his heart out with his beautiful We Just Disagree, my #2 favorite song from that song-forsaken year. The best song (to me)? On my local album-rock station, one song from earlier that received a lot of air play in '77 was Song for America by Kansas. It was an epic sort of track that had a very strong classical flavor to it. And it impressed me enough to make it my favorite song from 1977.

Boston Marathon

I was able to watch some of this year's Boston Marathon on the Versus Channel on TV. On the men's side, Kenyan Robert Cherulyot won handily, while Dire Tune of Ethiopia won an extremely close race against Russia's Alevtina Biktimirova. All during the race, I kept hearing the announcers referring to the different cash prizes given to the participants who won, placed, or even set a Boston Marathon time record. So this race obviously had absolutely nothing to do with amateur athletics. And perhaps that's just as well, since the winners came from very poor backgrounds in very poor third world nations. The lofty Western notions of amateurism may seen pretty hollow for people in their situations. But these winners will no doubt compete this year as "amateurs" in the Summer Olympics, and that is where I have a bit of a problem with all this. After all, these professionals have a clear advantage over true amateurs, who have to support themselves and their families with their jobs and don't have the time and financial resources to devote to their sport as the pros do. But when the Olympics come, suddenly the pros aren't pros: they're amateurs for a couple of weeks!

During the race, I felt that motorcyclists and motorists often crowded out the runners themselves. It looked to me as if Biktimirova actually had to shift over once to get out of the way of a straying motorcyclist! Look, it's hard enough to run and finish a marathon, much less do it at a breakneck speed in frantic competition with others. They don't need fools crowding in on them, interfering with their sport! At the end of the race, on both the men and women's sides, I saw officials angrily yelling at friends who were congratulating the winners to get out of the way as well as manhandling the athletes themselves, grabbing and pushing them around to be in the "right" positions for post-race photographs and publicity events. I don't think that I would have been willing to put up with any of these self-important "suits" touching me, much less roughhandling me as they did the runners.

The race itself was an impressive demonstration of the capacity of people to excel under enormous stress. These are superb athletes. But I would not want to compete as an amateur against them in any race in which they would receive money just to compete in it (not that I would be remotely capable of keeping up them). But that is sadly the way things are in competitive running nowadays.

Several Gainesville-area runners competed in this year's Boston Marathon. Here are their finishing times, courtesy of the Gainesville Sun. Seeing how many finished in the 10,000th places and beyond, I wonder how many minutes transpired after the race started before these runners were even able to reach the starting line. And even afterwards, how long would it have taken before they were able to freely establish their own running paces? And yet, how many of them will probably cling to their final "times" as legitimate results? Seeing this, I think that it would be a great experience to run the Boston Marathon. But beyond actually finishing the race, I don't think I would get too hung up over my time.

Starbucks, Beer, and Lines

Well, it seems as if I have gotten something of a handle on my pollen allergies, for I am once again sitting outside of the Magnolia Parke Starbucks on a warm, clear, breezy afternoon. Starbucks has come out with a new brand of coffee they call “Pike Place”, but I can’t for the life of me distinguish it from any of the other regular drip coffees I get from them. I sometimes wonder why so many people go to Starbucks for coffee when they could just brew some at home, and then I answer myself: I DO brew coffee at home, too. But I just like a change of scenery, and to get myself out in public in a setting that is positive. And, by and large, the Starbucks Coffee Company does make having the customer feel well-served and comfortable a high priority. So I’m not really just buying coffee when I come here; I’m also buying the service, the pleasant environment, and a place to sit and write or read. But still, the money spent here can add up over time, even though I usually buy the drip coffee and avoid the espresso-machine drinks.

About four weeks ago, I came out here to this little shopping center to buy a coffee before work, just as I am doing at this writing. But the parking lot was packed, and there were people walking all about. Finally, I came upon a small field adjacent to the parking lot. And on it was a very, very long line of people waiting for something. At its head were some stands and tents. Well, I gave up on trying to find a parking spot, and I went on my way. It wasn’t until later that I found out that they were holding a beer-tasting “clinic” for the public that day! Which made me wonder why so many people will stand for long periods of time in extremely long lines for such a small payoff. These folks could just as easily gone to a store and chosen from a wide variety of beers, to drink at their own convenience. But then again, why do people camp out overnight on Thanksgiving, just to be the first ones to rush into the stores the next morning? Weird!

Monday Newsbreak: 4/21

--Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met this past Friday with exiled leaders of Hamas in Syria. Hamas, which was democratically elected into power in Palestine, now controls and governs the densely populated Gaza Strip, which is separated from the Palestine-Authority-controlled West Bank by Israeli territory. I’ve heard and read a lot of criticism against Carter for talking with Hamas, which is widely called a terrorist organization. But it makes no sense for President Bush to pretend that he is seeking a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Palestinians while refusing to acknowledge the presence and importance of Hamas in the region. I’m really getting tired of this asinine notion that we can get our adversaries to buckle under and give up by shunning them! Carter is helping us, not hurting us.

--CNN commentator Jack Cafferty is undergoing a lot of criticism from some folks who identify themselves with the Chinese-American community because he called China’s leaders “goons and thugs” and its exports to us “junk”. Those calling for Cafferty’s firing claim that his speech was racist against the Chinese. But although I think Cafferty’s comments were crass and undiplomatic, they were aimed at that country’s political leaders. And his “junk” comment was based on recent scandals about lead in toys and poison in pet foods that were imported from China. What, I ask, does “race” or being a Chinese-American have to do with that? But Cafferty is just one of a increasingly long list of untalented shock-announcers who spew out insults instead of framing and analyzing issues and problems in a constructive and inclusive manner. Aren’t you getting tired of this trend in broadcasting as well as knee-jerk unfounded accusations of racism?

--Pope Benedict XVI continued his successful visit to America, being well-received everywhere he has traveled. May his days be plenty and successful!

--A ridiculous (to me) development project in the heart of an already-overcrowded section of Gainesville has been stalled for more than a year due to a court battle over whether the developers can actually receive certain tax breaks offered by the city to encourage development. Instead of several small businesses that were serving to the surrounding university community, we have, after all the buildings were torn down, a vast fenced-in area of nothingness! But I guess that’s better than what will be when they put up eight-story condominiums after the legal disputes end.

--After the “successful” surge against insurgents in Iraq, the abject failure of the Iraqi government to follow through with reconciliation of that country’s opposing factions is now leading to the inevitable disastrous situation that is now starting to unfold between Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the government over al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. And in the north of Iraq, there are signs of Sunni insurgents regrouping as well. So there goes our window of opportunity!

--Tomorrow’s Pennsylvania Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could help to encourage superdelegates to make their choices public, especially if Obama wins or even just finishes close to Clinton. I may be wrong about this (but I strongly doubt it), but even if Hillary Clinton wins Pennsylvania convincingly, she still wouldn’t have the numbers to wrest the nomination from Obama. So the big question is, after Pennsylvania is over, how is she going to conduct her campaign (if she continues it, as she probably will)? By attacking Obama with increasing desperation and viciousness, or by shifting the targets of her criticism to the November opponents, the Republicans under their soon-to-be nominee John McCain?

Friends of the Library Book Sale

Yesterday resumed a semi-annual tradition in Gainesville: the Alachua County Friends of the Library book sale, held in April and October. Although I haven’t been able to make it out there yet, I have plenty of time, since the sale goes on through this Wednesday. It’s quite a fun event to go to, even though the crowds of shoppers and browsers there can be a bit overwhelming at times. But you can often find a lot of books that you never thought that you would be able to get a hold of for such cheap prices as 25 cents to a dollar each. Of course, with the Internet used-book companies out there, I could find and get through the mail just about any title I wanted, but I’d also have to pay a heftier price for it as well. Since I already possess an imposing amount of used books, I’m going to have to be careful this time around to select just those books that really “grab” me. Like some Stephen King books of his that I’m missing or one of those antique Power Boys books that I used to read as a kid. I want to make sure that I have plenty of time to go browsing, since the books there, although separated by genre, are often shelved without regard to alphabetical order. And with the droves of people there, it’s sometimes a task to just browse through one section while trying to crane around folks who seem planted in one spot. They also sell old phonograph records, as well as VHS videos and DVDs. Over the years, I’ve come away from these sales with some pretty good books, so we’ll see what happens this time around!

NBA West Logjam

For the past three seasons, I have been a fan of NBA basketball. Specifically, the NBA Western Conference. Even more specifically, the Phoenix Suns. Why the West? It’s probably because of the fact that I get off from work at midnight, come home, flick on the boob tube, and can usually find very little of value to watch. But, wait, what’s that? Yes! It’s a basketball game, usually between two NBA Western Conference teams, and it’s also in the more interesting second half! And this repeating scenario is how I let myself get sucked in to following the NBA. Why Phoenix? Although Shawn Marion has left the team, the Suns are an exciting, fast paced team lead by multiple-MVP Steve Nash and the astounding Amare Stoudemaire. And now the legendary Shaquille O’Neal is with them as well! Unfortunately, Phoenix’s first-round opponent is the defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs, who knocked the Suns out of the playoffs last year.

This has to be quite a strange year in the NBA West, for all eight teams making the playoffs have won at least 50 games! And Los Angeles with the best record at 57-25, is only seven games better than the “eighth” team Denver, which sports a record of 50-32. Now that’s a unique level of parity among some very excellent teams! I can’t wait for the playoffs this year!

The Eastern Conference is quite a bit more spread out than the West, with Boston, Detroit, and Orlando dominating. Atlanta, with a losing season, nonetheless managed to slip into the playoffs for the first time in many years. But they’re going to have to go up against the Celtics, who are the big favorites to win it all this year. I’ll be surprised if Boston doesn’t make it to the league championship series, but they just may not be up to the task against the Western winner!

Pope Benedict XVI

On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI made his arrival in the United States for his first visit since becoming the Roman Catholic Pontiff in 2006. Seeing how idolized the previous Pope (John Paul II) had become, the new Pope clearly had an unenviable task in following in his predecessor’s footsteps. When first entering the media spotlight at his ascension, he was portrayed as more of an ideologue, wanting to reverse recent reforms made in the Church. He also suffered some criticism within the Islamic community for some comments he had made about some of that religion’s history (although he was actually quoting someone from the fourteenth century). What’s my impression of him?

First of all, let me say out front that I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church. So I am not “in” on all of the various issues that Catholics may be concerned about. And I’m sure that, with many of these issues, many Catholics feel strongly either in agreement or disagreement with the current Pope’s stances. But that aside, just going on how I directly see and hear him on TV, all I can say is that I like this man. He strikes me as being a humble, compassionate, sweet human being who strongly believes in using his current position to spread goodness and love around the world. He also seems to be candid about discussing his Church's various problems. Hopefully, he'll be able to restore some of the Catholic Church's lost trust due to the recent priest/child sex scandal here in America. Sure, Pope Benedict seems a bit more introverted than Pope John Paul II, but I can identify with that as well!

I wish the “new” Pope the best during his visit to the United States and that the great Church of which he is its “earthly” head will be able to solve its problems and to continue its missions and ministries with success.

Favorite Songs of 1978

Quite frankly, the years from 1976 through 1979 were not very kind to me musically. One of the main reasons for this may have been the preponderance of disco music on the airwaves. I like some dance music, to be sure, but they went way overboard with this fad! Still, each year I did manage to filter out a few very good songs. In 1978, though, there just wasn’t very much to report. Boney M.’s Rivers of Babylon was a song that I chiefly heard on my short-wave radio. It’s an example of a tune that could have become a much greater hit in America had disco not so dominated the music industry here then. Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London and Jimmy Buffet’s Cheeseburger in Paradise were very funny (with a very dark twist for Zevon’s song). Pablo Cruz’s Find Your Place in the Sun was an upbeat, encouraging song that helped me get through this personally difficult year. At this time, I rode my bicycle everywhere. So naturally, Queen’s defiant Bicycle Race became a sort of anthem for me. Al Stewart continued making quality music with his very thoughtful Time Passages. Electric Light Orchestra released their greatest album ever, Out of the Blue, in 1978. It kicked off with Turn to Stone, a fast, sad, trademark old-style ELO song: non-disco with plenty of harmony and strings. My #3 song from 1978 was Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street. Rafferty, who was nominated for a Grammy that year, inexplicably couldn’t follow up on his great success in the following years. Whenever I hear that song, I think of Baker Street in my old hometown of Hollywood, Florida (there it’s a minor residential road I’d pass by on my way to school). Billy Joel came out in ‘78 with a couple of good songs: the “independent” My Life and my #2 favorite song of the year, his epic Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. But my top favorite song of that musically-depleted (for me) year was a very quirky, brooding and beautiful record by The Sweet: Love is Like Oxygen (full-length version).

The Random Character

There is a special phenomenon in some movies that fascinates me: the random character. So you say, what’s that? A random character is one who plays a special role in the story precisely because of the unpredictable nature or his/her personality and behavior. Let’s look at some examples.

One of the greatest war movies ever made, The Bridge on the River Kwai, boasted an incredible cast, featuring Alec Guiness and William Holden. Holden’s character was that of an American soldier whose main mission in the war (World War II) was to survive it. His creed was to take no chances and volunteer for nothing. And yet, as the movie wore on, his actions betrayed that belief system. He found himself compelled to aid the British in their quest to blow up the main bridge leading to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in occupied Burma. Holden’s character was the random element in how the movie ended: would he stay true to his professed beliefs in a moment of crisis or would he behave in a radically different manner? This movie’s conclusion is definitely one of the top three of all time (to me), partially because of this random element of Holden’s character and its crucial role.

The Andromeda Strain, by Micheal Crichton, also introduced a character who had been picked to solve a biological crisis because of his unpredictability, or random nature. And as it turned out, it was this character, Dr. Mark Hall, the one of the bunch who had the least amount of training for the task, who solved the puzzle and saved the day!

Finally, the ultimate random character has to be that of Keanu Reeves’s Neo in the Matrix series. His character’s entire essence was based on the notion that the Matrix would have a built-in but unavoidable imperfection that was embedded within him. As with Bridge on the River Kwai and Andromeda Strain, it was this unpredictability that led this character to also solve the dilemma of the Matrix in his own peculiar way.

In each of the aforementioned examples, the character was selected for his role by others without that character’s enthusiasm. And each character felt unworthy and incompetent about his role to perform. But in each case, when time had run out and it was time to decide and act, they all, true to their natures, performed the crucial deeds.

To Mars Or Not?

I remember once going to the University of Florida microfilm collection and surveying newspaper articles from back in the Nixon era. If you’ll remember, it was Richard Nixon’s arch-political rival John F. Kennedy who, as President laid out the challenge for this nation to put a man on the moon and safely return before the 1960s ended. Nixon himself wasn’t interested in JFK’s dream, and our Apollo moon missions were actually cut short before their scheduled completions. However, at the same time, Vice-President Spiro Agnew was calling on the U.S. to land a man on Mars (and safely return) by 1989! Apparently, Agnew and Nixon weren’t exactly on the same page with our space program. Instead of making Mars plans, we decided instead to spend decades circling the Earth in various spacecrafts. The enthusiasm for space exploration during the 70’s was so politically weak that when the design of the Space Shuttle was to be decided, a cheap, inferior tile-protected shuttle was selected over a more expensive, but much safer and more durable casing. We have that to thank for the Columbia disaster! Anyway, in 1990, a year after we would have safely returned from Mars (according to Agnew’s “challenge”), then-President George H.W. Bush publicly challenged the country to land on and safely return people from Mars by 2020! And nothing that I know of was done then, unless you consider the paltry space station efforts with the Russians over the past few years to be of some value. Then, a few years ago, our current President George W. Bush decided that the space program should also have a safe Mars landing and return as a major driving goal. So, what I am missing here? Is anyone actually listening to these people? Is anything actually being done? I think that it would be a great project to go to Mars and back, but it would be greater to do it as part of an international effort that involved Europe, Russia, Japan, and China as well. I think we should get over our nationalist urges for glory on alien globes and do this one for humanity, period. I remember a few years ago how ridiculous it was when the ice cleared over the North Pole and the Russians proudly planted a Russian flag at the bottom of the sea there!

Monday Newsbreak: 4/14

--One of the front page headlines in yesterday's Gainesville Sun was "Obama's 'bitter' voter comment may revive Clinton's chances". Oh, com'n, people! Barack Obama is an articulate gentleman who thinks on his feet and can speak his mind without prepared statements that have been designed to achieve the desired "buzz" effect among the audiences. So, from time to time, something will come out and it will be mercilessly distorted by Obama's opponents. In my opinion, though, it's a little late in the game for Hillary Clinton to be going at it this hard against the probable Democratic nominee. Who knows, maybe she's thinking that McCain might want her as HIS running mate---NOT! I don't see what's wrong with any of Obama's statements. Especially in comparison with those of his two current rivals.

--It's mid-April and temperatures are dipping at night into the thirties. Here in Florida! I welcome the unusually chilly winter and spring we've been enjoying, but I also feel a little concerned that many will choose to see this very short-term phenomenon as a repudiation of global warming as a real ongoing threat.

--As the Olympic Torch goes from one major world city to the next, it is followed by human rights protesters who are determined to spotlight the deplorable state of human rights in the People's Republic of China, which is hosting this years Summer Olympics. And those protesting are fully within their rights to do so, as long as they don't actually interfere with the Olympic ceremonies. The problem I have with all this is that China's human rights shortcomings have been common knowledge for years, and comparatively very little has been done to protest them. And now, when this great nation is hosting the Olympics, the Olympics themselves are being ostracized as some kind of collaboration with oppression. Politician and celebrities are under great pressure in the media to boycott the opening ceremony events. And there has also been a push to simply boycott participation in the Games themselves. But I remember President Jimmy Carter's decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980. I felt back then that it was a bad decision and I still feel so. I believe that one of the best ways to liberalize and reform an oppressive society is to engage with it culturally and economically, not by ostracizing it. And it was exactly this sort of engagement that helped to bring down the Iron Curtain in East Europe in 1989 (remember West Germany's policy of Ostpolitik?).

--The annual University of Florida Orange and Blue football game was held here in Gainesville this past Saturday. So what? The football team was split into two squads who played each other. One side won, the other lost. Who cares? And yet this event was considered to be so important that ESPN actually hyped it on the air and actually presented play-by-play coverage. And what about all the other college teams? Why do the Gators merit this mania? I see this as a disturbing trend about UF football, where excessive hype, fan hysteria, and hero worship (of athletes and coach) have distorted the image of my hometown team into something that is, frankly, ugly to me.

--I am sad to report that the cable TV channel AZN, devoted to programming for Asian-Americans (and me as well) has left the air due to financial problems. I enjoyed their morning news broadcasts, especially the one in Chinese.