Last Twenty Minutes Of Twister

Back in 1996, the movie Twister was the talk of the town, for a few weeks. It was the movie you couldn’t afford to miss going to see. Only thing was, I was already quite used to missing the “indispensable” movies. When I finally did get around to renting it from a video store a couple of years later, I was generally disappointed.

Twister stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton portray an estranged couple whose passion for chasing down super-tornadoes for scientific study reunites them for a last-ditch effort to collect important data, in competition with another research team (with very slippery ethics). The movie, although showing some interesting special effects to be sure, mostly gets mired down in the subplots of the relationship between Hunt & Paxton and the trials and tribulations of their research team. I had pretty much pegged this film as a loser as I struggled to endure watching it. That is, until the very end, when all hell broke lose.

The other night, I was watching television on one of the Encore channels, and lo and behold, there was Twister. The tail end of Twister. The last twenty minutes. And it was this closing segment that not only made Twister worth watching, but it may very well be the greatest twenty minutes in action/adventure movies to date. It starts off with a “Eureka!” moment within the research team when Hunt gets an inspiration for how to collect data within a tornado. And while she and her team are chasing down a massive twister while quickly putting together the new experiment, the competing team is already ahead of them, and…. No, I am not going to give away the ending. All I will say is that it has the be one of the most concentrated and passionate twenty minutes of any movie I have ever seen. It brings to mind a much greater overall movie from 1957 titled The Bridge on the River Kwai. Unlike Twister, that film was terrific throughout. But its ending was so incredible that the rest of the movie has become a little hazy in my memory. Well, that’s the way it was with Twister. Only most of this movie was easily forgettable in the first place (in my humble opinion)!

My suggestion is, instead of watching Twister from beginning to end, instead just loop through the movie’s final twenty minutes five or six times straight!

Monday Newsbreak: 10/20

--I couldn’t write this feature without mentioning the presidential campaign, which still seems to be solidly tilting in favor of Barack Obama. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed him, which may be a problem for John McCain, since the Republicans are trying to make Obama seem to be a dangerous pick because of his relative inexperience in foreign policy (which McCain claims as one of his own strong points). I’ve always felt that it was Powell who was chiefly responsible for keeping the U.S. from getting stuck in Iraq back in 1991, when he counseled then-President George H.W. Bush against launching an all-out invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The current President Bush appointed Powell to his cabinet post and then ignored him, putting him in the position of having to express support for policies (especially the invasion of Iraq in 2003) that he personally had misgivings about. If this endorsement wins votes for Obama, then great! But since Colin Powell is only human, I wouldn’t be surprised if his support of the Democratic nominee is a form of payback for the offenses he may have suffered serving in a Republican administration that only seemed to be interested in using him as a public relations device.

--The financial crisis, according to the talking heads on television, appears to be stabilizing, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Is this the kind of “stabilizing” that a critical patient demonstrates in the intensive care unit? If so, we’ve got a long, long way to go before our economy gets “wheeled out” to the “general floor”, much less “discharged” from the hospital.

--This week is Homecoming Week in Gainesville for the University of Florida. Friday and Saturday will carry the main events. The parade, “Gator Gallop” (a running race down University Avenue), and Gator Growl (a huge pep rally/show with fireworks) happen on Friday, while the Homecoming football game against Kentucky is scheduled for Saturday. Although I am a long-time resident of Gainesville as well as being a University of Florida alumnus, I tend to avoid UF’s campus and its activities. I know that it’s going to be a monumental pain getting home from work Friday night due to the even-more-monumental traffic jam caused by festivities. In the slightly altered words of Charlie Daniels:

“I think I'm gonna reroute my trip
I wonder if anybody'd think I'd flipped
If I went [home] via Omaha”

--The Tampa Bay Rays gave a great demonstration to the New York Yankees of how NOT to choke during a playoff series to the Boston Red Sox by winning their close seventh game 3-1 to take the series 4-3. In the fifth game, the Rays had a 7-0 lead over Boston after six innings, with only nine outs left to win their series four games to one. Instead, the Red Sox came back and won the game 8-7. But, unlike the Yankees of 2004 (which was the only team ever in baseball to blow a 3-0 series game lead and lose), Tampa Bay showed its gutsiness and played with determination and poise. So now the World Series is set: Tampa Bay Rays vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. It probably won’t get very high television ratings, but so what!

--In the “Its Only a Game” department, I heard a sports talk radio host bemoaning the fact that Barack Obama bought some television prime time space, pushing the beginning of one of the upcoming World Series games back a little in the evening. To this announcer, you would have thought that sports is supreme and that anything else is of secondary importance at best. And yes, there is this phenomenon of making popular sports into a kind of “bubble” that people can get inside and insulate themselves from all of the stresses and anxiety caused by both the news going on in the outside world as well as from personal problems. This insulation from reality gets really weird when you include Fantasy Football, whose participants carry out their own imaginary leagues and games!

Running Race Number Seven

Yesterday morning, I ran my seventh publicly held race (and the second since 1976). It was the Hope Heels 5K run, which benefited the Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research and the Preston A. Wells, Jr., Center for Brain Tumor Therapy at the University of Florida. The course for this run, which was very hilly (for Gainesville), started and finished at Westside Park. I cut off more than a minute from my previous run, finishing at 24:07. But what surprised me was that I finished second in my age group (50 and over), winning a medal award. This is the first tangible recognition of my running ability in my entire life! So I’m naturally quite proud of it.

In spite of my happy finish, I was disappointed to be boxed in at the race’s start. For the first half-mile or so, I was stuck, surrounded by slower runners. This prevented me from establishing the earlier fast pace that I had wanted to run. So, like the last run, after the first half-mile or so, no one passed me while I passed several throughout the race.

My next race will either be the Dog Days 5K on November 1 or the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon on November 8. Both races are put on by the Florida Track Club, and will doubtless have a higher level of running competition. I’m looking forward to competing (in one of them)!

Personal Drift and Direction

As I go through my daily life, I find that I tend into slip into periods of drift, when I just fall into patterns of activity that don’t serve my own interests. Call it inertia or laziness, this drift keeps me from engaging in more purposeful, directed activities. So, instead of reading, practicing piano, writing fiction, or studying foreign languages, I’ll channel-surf my television, browse the Web, or do sudoku, kakuro, or hidato puzzles. Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with any of these things. Both television and the Internet are great sources or information and entertainment. And doing puzzles (especially the logic types) are wonderful mental exercises.

But television, the Internet, and puzzles need to be placed in their proper contexts, with limits imposed and adhered to. It’s all right to watch TV, but I’d be better off setting a time limit and just “cutting it off” when I’ve watched enough. The same holds for web surfing and puzzles.

One problem with drifting is the rationalizing I do that (1) I need this for “rest” and (2) this is constructive activity. But other than actual sleep, rest should really be a short break in my purposeful endeavors, not an endeavor in itself. Sure, I know that we all need some time for undirected recreation, but I don’t think that I’ll ever have a problem with allowing myself too little of it. As for the “constructive activity” argument, I can fully engage in those activities and reap their benefits without dwelling on them for too long.

The idea is to always see the bigger picture of what I am trying to do, without slipping into compulsive behavior that, on the surface, looks substantial but isn’t. Look, if I’m tired, then I need to take a little nap. Not turn into a TV/Web/puzzle zombie!

At least I have one thing to be thankful for: I’m not into video games, something that I’ve seen others become totally addicted to. On the other hand, I’ve been known to do those generic solitaire and minesweeper puzzles on the computer repeatedly when I was actually “beyond tired” and just needed a break from consciousness!

Religious & Political Bias In Popular History & Archaeology

The academic fields of archaeology and history have become tainted with religious and political ideologies. I see indications of this quite often on the History Channel, where programs often air that are based on places and events of the Bible. Topics such as Noah’s flood, the parting of the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the apocalyptic books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation have all been topics from the Bible treated as if they had some real-world meaning instead of being religious-based stories. Where is the independent academic research that refuses to make assumptions? Even the idea that one would choose a Biblical topic for research is, to me, an act of academic bias. For example, why do people seem to assume that all of the nationalities residing in what is present day Israel/Palestine were secondary to the Israelite/Jewish nations that were central to the Biblical narrative?

I’m not trying to pick on Judeo-Christianity. The same could be said for parts of the world where other religions sprang from. By focusing on these faiths and the concentration of people and events centered around just them, not only are questionable assertions within the religions being accepted without scrutiny; everything that was contemporary to those religions’ “histories” but outside of their direct influence gets essentially trivialized at best and either ignored or even unduly criticized at worst.

I have long held the view, right or wrong, that humanity has traditionally structured its societies in small villages, around extended families/clans. Even when there has been a kingdom or empire supposedly running things from afar, the real predominant human condition has usually been (until the recent technological revolution) people living in small communities in extended family units, working together to try to survive (see the movie Apocalypto). Those at least popularizing history seem to fall into the trap that small communities of the past were only legitimate subjects of study insofar as how they reflected the presence of the macro-governing structure (such as empire, kingdom, republic, theocracy). What I maintain is that communities, when confronted with a change in the outer political/religious structure, will tend to simply convert their expressed allegiances to the new imposed authority structure without substantially changing the way things run within the community. So a sixteenth-century European community that was Catholic suddenly comes under the rule of a prince who decides that he is a Lutheran. In that situation, such a community would often switch over in a wholesale manner to Protestantism (and back to Catholicism if a ruler loyal to Rome came into power). While going about their business pretty much the same as before.

It is easier (and lazier) for a scholar to take religious scriptures and old historic documents and create a history of an area from those without regard to what was really going on beneath the surface veneer of “official history” within the much more complicated, diverse, and spread-out societies underlying it. But people in general want things simplified, and objective academic investigation usually goes in the opposite direction. So instead of getting a picture about how things really were in the past, we’ll probably continue to get storybook narratives based on political ideologies and religious doctrines.

There's Got To Be A Morning After

It being Thursday, I calculate that it’s now only 20 days until the day we’ve been waiting for with hope---yes, the day AFTER the presidential election!

One sign that I am getting older is that when I look ahead to special dates marking holidays, events, or deadlines, I am looking forward more and more to the day AFTER that special date as a time when I can finally relax from the tumult and stress that the buildup to it has caused. Being a postal worker, this is especially true with the whole December Christmas/Hanukkah season, marked by a flood of parcels to be processed at work. The great goal then is to make it to December 26 in one piece! New Year’s Day on January 1 is a major milestone on the calendar, but the routines associated with truly serious New Year’s resolutions don’t get started (at least for me) until the 2nd (yes, I’m one of those New Year’s resolution people).

I have mixed feelings about holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. With birthdays and anniversaries, the stress caused by preparing for them is more than offset by the positive feelings of love and appreciation for the people and relationships being honored. Holidays, on the other hand, can be pretty tedious to deal with. And for those three-day weekend holidays officially observed on Mondays (like the recently-observed Columbus Day), it’s not the day after (Tuesday) that I look forward to: that’s when the piled-up mail (from non-delivery and pickup on Monday) can make for a pretty overwhelming work day (which just happened a couple of days ago). No, in those instances, I look forward to the day after the day after!

But, bringing it back to the special event of the 2008 presidential election, my relief at it finally being over is, of course, predicated on the condition that, on Wednesday, November 5, it really will be over and we won’t have a repeat of the disastrous 2000 election debacle.

And I do appreciate Maureen McGovern’s contribution to this article (through its title). Her 1973 hit song for the summer blockbuster disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure is one of the best “get-through-the-ordeal” anthems ever produced.

Low-Power Radio in Gainesville

Gainesville, Florida has a low-power FM radio station on 94.7. Different organizations use this frequency at different times. Sometimes I hear evangelistic Christian programming on it. Other times, I hear symphonic music. Still other times, I hear “alternative” political radio programming put on by Gainesville’s left-and-green-leaning Civic Media Center. I’m never quite sure what I’ll get when I tune in, and that doesn’t make much sense to me. I’ve heard different call letters used for this station, depending on whose programming is running. I am particular to the Civic Media Center’s “WGOT” programming which, besides the political and left-social talk shows broadcasts alternative music programs as well.

Earlier, I wrote an article about HD radio, which also promises to diversify the radio bands. One of the problems expressed with HD radio is that the signals involved in this new technology would crowd out weaker signals from other stations on nearby frequencies. And I can see how this could possibly conflict with low power radio signals.

I wonder whether either HD radio or low power radio has much of a future, as far as radio is concerned. Rather I tend to be of the opinion that, in the future, radios will be based not on atmospheric broadcasting, but rather on the Internet in some form.

I even saw once, while surfing around, that I could set up my own personal radio station on the Net. Of course, if I played music I liked on it, I would have to make sure that music copyright laws were respected. And deal with the cost of broadcasting streaming audio. But I can see this type of undertaking as a form of “stepping out”, even if I just record some monologues à la Jean Shepherd, (take your pick) Keith Olbermann, or Glenn Beck. Or a perverse mixture of the styles of these three.

Meanwhile, I do like having access to a station like WGOT on 94.7. Their music and talk programming is a refreshing departure from the generally homogenized and boring choices I usually get on the broadcast bands. And I like their orchestral music when I’m driving home from work late at night (the local classical music station plays jazz at that time).

I don’t see the point, though, in shelling out a monthly fee to a Web-based company to broadcast a streaming signal, especially when only a tiny number of listeners could access it at any given time. Better to create my own audio file that a visitor to my site can just click on. Now if I had planned to play copyrighted music, I would have needed to go with a streaming signal since the laws in place would steer me in that direction. But MY radio would (or will) be about me trying to convey a coherent message a sustained period of time (a few minutes). Listeners beware!

Cats and Dogs

As I run down the residential streets in my neighborhood, I notice the outdoor pets, which naturally are divided between cats and dogs. The dogs, which are (hopefully) safely behind restraining fences, take a keen interest in my passing. They ferociously bark and snarl at me. Some jump at the fences that they are behind in a gesture meant to convince me that they would otherwise come after me and tear me from limb to limb. Even the dinky little pseudo-dogs with their high-pitched “yips” are “brave” in this way. Cats, on the other hand, see me running by with a completely different attitude. Their sense of territory is reserved just for other cats. I have never experienced a cat viciously meowing at me as I passed or chasing me down the street. Cats are cool that way: they have a clear idea of what it means to mind your own business!

As a young child, my family had cats for pets. Ever since I was about nine, though, all of my pets have been dogs. Cats and dogs, as individuals, have their own distinctive personalities, and most are pretty interactive with their owners. But dogs, with their emotional bonding, can sometimes take things to extremes. With a dog, I sometimes feel that I am with someone whose entire sense of happiness is based on my second-to-second interaction with them. There is this continual eye contact thing going on between dogs and their owners. Cats do that, too. But nowhere near to the degree that dogs cling to people.

Cats and dogs, to me, seem like human children in different stages of development. Dogs are like toddlers who have a deep emotional dependency on their parents. Cats, on the other hand, are like teenagers who, although still with that emotional connection (albeit in reduced intensity), are relatively assertive with their sense of autonomy.

I like both cats and dogs. Dogs, due to their territorial nature and their propensity to chase and bite people (and run away from home), need to be confined and looked after more than their feline counterparts. But on the positive side, I usually get a strong feeling of mutual empathy with a dog, even if it’s a dog that I’ve just happened to come across for the first time. Back on the negative side, though, I do appreciate an animal that knows when it needs to just shut up and mind its own business (like when I’m out running)! As a matter of fact, once when I was recently running past the assorted cats and dogs in my neighborhood, I suddenly had a strong urge to shout out a line I heard in an great old Walt Disney movie titled Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (featuring two talking dogs and a chatty cat): “Cats rule and dogs drool!” Guess which character said that!

Monday Newsbreak: 10/13

--The two big ongoing news stories, of course, are the impending presidential election and the financial crisis. I’ve pretty much stated my viewpoints in both areas in earlier articles. In a nutshell, I feel that the politics of desperation are tainting any reasonable discussion of the issues as we approach election day. It doesn’t matter to me whom you vote for in the presidential race: reasonable arguments can be made for either Obama or McCain. I’ll fill in the bubble next to Obama’s name, but whoever ends up being elected will be MY president regardless of whether I voted for him or not. As for the financial crisis, at the present moment I’m down to just crossing my fingers and hoping for an upturn. But I very skeptical of our government’s casual attitude about incurring debt into the trillions of dollars.

--After his conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping, former NFL star O.J. Simpson stands to be sentenced for a very long time in prison, possibly for life. My take is that, regardless of whether you think he had actually murdered his ex-wife Nicole and her friend that night in 1994, the fact remains that he was acquitted of those charges in the ensuing criminal trial. I have enough of a problem with Simpson, after this acquittal, being subjected to a civil suit in which a civil jury held him responsible for the same deaths that he was earlier acquitted of causing. And now there is spoken evidence that many, if not most of the jurors who convicted Simpson in this recent trial felt that he WAS the murderer and that their decision would help tilt justice back in what they perceive to be a better direction. O.K., Simpson may be guilty of the recent charges leveled at him, but I thought that there was such a thing as double jeopardy that prohibited people from repeatedly being tried for the same crime, once acquitted. Like him or not, I feel that Simpson’s case is an example of lynch mob justice done in a tidy, “civilized” manner. His lawyers are correct in challenging his convictions, in my opinion.

--The United States finally dropped North Korea from its “enemies” list of nations accused of sponsoring terrorism. As if nations in general didn’t have intelligence agencies and “black-ops” sections that went to other countries to carry out underhanded provocations for their own governments’ benefit. When a country’s secret shenanigans are working against our own country’s interests, then it’s called “promoting terrorism”. I don’t like what North Korea has been doing over the years with its funneling of arms to different hot spots across the world. But it by no means is the only country to do this. C’mon, let’s take a good, hard look at ourselves and what we’re doing in this area before coming down on others!

--Football season, both on the college and professional level, is rising to a fever pitch. The Florida Gators routed LSU 51-21 at home. I thought that some of the LSU players looked very foolish as they continued to yell out taunts to Florida players (especially to quarterback Tim Tebow), even though Florida was thoroughly clobbering them on the field.

Words Of Love

Aside from being a terrific 1964 Beatles song (featuring George Harrison) and an “O.K.” Mamas and Papas song, this article’s title concerns a sermon topic I heard today.

In Christianity, one of the most discussed passages in the New Testament lies in James Chapter 3. In this exhortational passage, the reader is encouraged to be careful about how he or she speaks, for “the tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Well, I tend to agree with that, although I must add that, in order for the “evil” tongue to be able to perform its nefarious deeds, there must also be “evil” ears willing to act as accomplices in crime.

One thing that really stood out in this sermon was when the pastor (Max Wilkins of Gainesville’s Family Church) exposed how people will often try to disguise their gossip and backbiting by framing it with the idea that they are expressing their (loving) concern about the “target” and even may be asking for prayer for him (or her). The pastor gave a few suggestions on how a listener confronted with this drivel (my words) could turn the tables on the gossiper and discourage this sort of thing in the future. One was to ask the gossiper how the “target” reacted when they discussed the subject matter with him (or her) face-to-face. Since this discussion most probably never happened, this sort of response puts the gossiper directly on the defensive. Another tactic is to ask the gossiper for the “target’s” phone number in order for the listener to directly discuss the matter with him (or her), of course giving “credit” to the gossiper for having brought the matter to attention.

I have found, in the midst of a political campaign where candidates who most vociferously promote their Christianity also seem to be the ones who are the most vociferously engaging in personal verbal attacks on their opponents, that this lesson of discretion and love regarding the spoken word is lost in the media onslaught. Fortunately, my pastor, to his great credit, has vehemently kept politics out of his message (and out of the church as much as one person could possibly do) and instead is trying to help the congregation to improve their lives by following wise and virtuous principles. He closed the sermon by challenging each person to choose, from a list he provided, one area regarding verbal expression that they can seriously work on improving in during the upcoming week. Here are the choices:

1) Kind Words: Transform worry to joy.
2) Gentle Words: Break through anger.
3) Pleasant Words: Encourage learning.
4) Honest Words: Make us feel loved (different from flattery).
5) Wise Words: Heal broken hearts.

Max Wilkens is a wise pastor who has gone a long way toward restoring my appreciation for those in his calling. Some of his sermons I agree with more than others. This one strikes a special chord with me. Thinking about the consequences of what you say, before you say it, is something that is sorely needed throughout humanity. Maybe, within the Christian community, success in this area may spread from the “grass roots” level within the lay congregations all the way to the national leaders. The national leaders certainly don’t seem to “get it” yet (my opinion, not necessarily the pastor’s). Then again, maybe their Bibles are missing James Chapter 3 (along with the Book of Proverbs).

Running Races in Gainesville

Here in Gainesville, it looks like the running road-race season is kicking in with full force. This coming Saturday features two competing 5K races in town, while the University of Florida will hold their annual Gator Gallop run on Homecoming Week Friday on October 24. The Florida Track Club will be holding two events in early November: a 5K run on November 1 and a half-marathon on November 8.

I had a lot of fun running the Red Cross 5K race on October 4 (which was the first race I ran since 1976). I think I will run in one of those two 5K races next Saturday. But I’m starting to wonder whether I don’t want to begin running longer distances (at a slower pace, of course). And that would mean me going for longer races such as 10K runs, half-marathons, and ultimately marathons. Just how soon do I want to start with these longer races?

In the next few days, I plan to try running longer distances in my training, without any regard to my speed. Just to see how far I can go.

There is a pet peeve of mine regarding these popular running races. The reporting of results in my hometown newspaper The Gainesville Sun is almost nonexistent. Just how much newspaper space would it take to list simply list the race results without comment? At least I can get the results from those holding the races.

I'm looking forward to participating in more races in the near future. The idea of longer runs does seem to be more appealing, though. And one of my "life goals" has been to successfully complete a marathon. Well, we'll see what happens!

My Favorite Songs of the Year (1964-2008)

Please keep two things in mind as you read down this list and click on the articles I’ve written for this blog about my favorite songs for any particular year. One, all of this represents my favorite songs for each year as I lived through them. Over time, as with most everyone else, my musical tastes have changed and I have favorites nowadays that I didn’t regard too highly when they first came out. Two, this is a very personal, subjective list that is bound to leave out some of your favorites. How about leaving some feedback as to what songs you liked in years gone by? And in case you’re wondering why this list starts in 1964, that’s because this was the year that I began to earnestly follow popular music (at the age of seven).

1964 Twist and Shout…..The Beatles
1965 I Can’t Explain…..The Who
1966 Time Won’t Let me…..The Outsiders
1967 All You Need Is Love…..The Beatles
1968 America…..Keith Emerson & The Nice
1969 Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In…..The Fifth Dimension
1970 Little Green Bag…..George Baker Selection
1971 I’ve Seen All Good People…..Yes
1972 Layla…..Derek and the Dominoes
1973 Hummingbird…..Seals and Crofts
1974 Number Nine Dream…..John Lennon
1975 Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding…..Elton John
1976 Livin’ Thing…..Electric Light Orchestra
1977 Song for America…..Kansas
1978 Love is Like Oxygen…..The Sweet
1979 What a Fool Believes…..The Doobie Brothers
1980 Another One Bites the Dust…..Queen
1981 Bette Davis Eyes…..Kim Carnes
1982 Abacab….Genesis
1983 In a Big Country…..Big Country
1984 Leave It…..Yes
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World…..Tears For Fears
1986 Live to Tell…..Madonna
1987 Luka…..Suzanne Vega
1988 What Have I Done to Deserve This…..Pet Shop Boys/Dusty Springfield
1989 Handle With Care…..Traveling Wilburys
1990 Blue Sky Mine…..Midnight Oil
1991 When the Levee Breaks (from 1971).….Led Zeppelin
1992 Dazed and Confused (from 1968).….Led Zeppelin
1993 Close to the Edge (from 1973).….Yes
1994 Let Me In…..REM
1995 My Wave…..Soundgarden
1996 Again…..Alice In Chains
1997 Naked Eye…..Luscious Jackson
1998 Fly Away…..Lenny Kravitz
1999 Scar Tissue…..Red Hot Chili Peppers
2000 Lord of the Boards…..Guano Apes
2001 Only Time…..Enya
2002 Here to Stay…..Korn
2003 There There…..Radiohead
2004 Look What You’ve Done…..Jet
2005 Soul Meets Body…..Death Cab For Cutie
2006 Vicarious…..Tool
2007 Starlight…..Muse
2008 (so far) Time to Pretend…..MGMT

Beavis, Butt-Head, Bailout

Confession time: I am a fan of the nineties cartoon series Beavis and Butt-Head, which spotlights the attitudes and antics of two thoroughly clueless young adolescent boys living in suburban America. Not only is it a hilarious parody of society and its taboos: it also reminds me of some kids I went to school with (one kid actually sounded and even looked like Butt-Head). My only objection to this great series was that MTV, which was the channel that originally aired it, targeted it at minors. And Beavis and Butt-Head is definitely an “adult” series!

Recent events in the news have brought to my mind one of Beavis and Butt-Head’s funniest episodes: Candy Sale. In it, our two “heroes” unwittingly find themselves dragged into participating in one of those obnoxious school sales drives; in this case, it’s selling candy bars at two dollars apiece. So Beavis and Butt-Head go around the neighborhood unsuccessfully trying to sell people candy bars. Finally, tired and hungry, Butt-Head asks Beavis for one of his candy bars. “No way”, replies Beavis. But Butt-Head forks out two dollars, and Beavis gives him a candy bar. Then, a little later, Beavis buys a candy bar from Butt-Head, handing him back the two dollars that Butt-Head had originally given him. They then go back and forth with these two dollars until they’ve eaten all of the candy bars that they were going to sell. I’ll leave the ending of this hilarious episode a mystery for you to find out on your own.

And now we come to the financial market crisis. Financial lending companies are going under and credit is too tight for them to lend money out to the debt-greedy public. In other words, they’re strapped for money. Let’s call this party “Beavis”. Now take our federal government, which is trillions of dollars in debt with no end in sight. In other words, broke. We can call them “Butt-Head”. And now, the $700 billion bailout: that’s the “dollar” that gets passed around to stimulate credit ("consume candy bars").

Or look at it this way: Americans, strapped for money because their financial institutions won’t lend it to them, get their government (implicitly through their elected representatives) to guarantee money (that they don’t have) for those institutions to give them the money that they don’t have, either. So that they can chomp on their “candy bars” (pursue their 21st century materialistic lifestyle without having to make hard choices).

Beavis, Butt-Head, Bailout.

I Will Possess Your Heart

This is one of my current favorite songs by a very good alternative/independent band, Death Cab For Cutie. [This is their officially-sanctioned video that they put out on YouTube]

Making Quantum Jumps With Endeavors

I remember the scene in Star Wars where Luke Skywalker, in training to become a Jedi, learns to “go with the force” while blindfolded and just acting according to his instincts. Yes, this is science fiction and fantasy, but there is also an element of applicable truth in it as well. For to get really good at anything, there often arises the need to just “take off” and leap into unfamiliar and possibly dangerous territory (although this rarely necessitates closing one’s eyes).

For example, I once, several decades ago, got hired as a prep cook at a small restaurant. The owner told me that I would have to be very quick with a knife to keep my job. So I tried to do just that. And I gradually made progress, but not enough to be considered proficient. Then, one day, out of the blue, I was working at my station and suddenly felt that it was time to “let it fly”. I began cutting food “as if” I were already an expert in it, and at a frightening speed. And it worked! In the span of just five or ten minutes, I made a quantum jump in my precision and speed at preparing food with a knife. And quickly word spread that I was a pretty doggone good prep cook! What did I do to achieve this? First, I laid the groundwork by assiduously practicing my “craft”. I learned all of the ins and outs of how to handle a knife and how to make the right cuts in my various tasks. And then I made the jump. In a sense, I withdrew my “brain” and let my fingers do the cutting. It was almost as if I were a passive observer of the proceedings. With something like a knife, this is really an act of personal courage, believe me! But it worked.

This sort of thing, I believe, is necessary in just about any endeavor that involves building up and demonstrating skill. You study and practice, study and practice. But then, you have to “leave the nest” and fly! And when you do, you need the confidence of a veteran in that endeavor. Easier said than done. Especially when making that “quantum leap” involves a risk that demands some courage. Which is probably why so many people are “beginners” in different areas and not “experts”!

Etiquette of Card and Board Games

Have you ever been in a card or board game where one or more of your opponents is playing with what seems to you like severe intensity? And maybe you feel like suggesting to them that it’s just a game, and why don’t they just go and “get a life”? Or maybe you’re the one playing hard and see others just dilly-dallying around, playing as if they don’t care whether they win or not. And you may regard those players as being rather patronizing to you and may wonder why they’re bothering to play in the first place!

I’ve been on both sides of this rift that commonly occurs in card and board games, be they gin rummy, scrabble, monopoly, or something more “serious” like bridge or chess. I think it’s important that, before starting these games, the players get a feel for everyone else’s level of seriousness so as not to hurt feelings. I wonder how many friendships have been damaged by misunderstandings between players.

When I am playing at a game, if I am “good” at that game and am playing one-on-one against a beginner (especially a child), I will hold back and leave some openings for my opponent to take advantage of. Otherwise, I go all-out to win, without getting carried away with the feeling that I HAVE TO win. It really irritates me to be up against someone who won’t get into the game seriously.

Playing cards or board games can provide a safe setting for folks to sit around and converse about different topics while playing. I like that social function. But attention still should be paid to actually playing the game as well. Five minutes after it’s over, I couldn’t care less who won or loss (and I never bet on games). But, as far as I’m concerned, if you’re not going to play to win, you’re not just missing the point of playing the game: you’re also committing a social offense against your opponent. And for the overcompetitive, they also need to know the difference between playing aggressively and speaking aggressively, if THEY don’t want to offend their opponent. After all, the ultimate goals are to have a good time and enjoy the company of others, aren't they? I say play to win and be gracious about both winning and losing. That shouldn’t be so hard to do!

Monday Newsbreak: 10/06

--Just a small note about the presidential campaign: the mudslinging final stretch is now underway! View media coverage at your own risk. You’ve been warned!

--The Minnesota senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, Democrat Al Franken, and Independent Dean Barkley demonstrates the futility of depending on public opinion polls to ascertain who’s winning. At the same time, two different polls came out. One showed Coleman opening up a ten-percent lead over Franken, while the other showed Franken turning the tables on Coleman while opening up a nine-percent lead! Are we dealing with parallel states of Minnesota, existing in alternate dimensions? Quick, somebody call Art Bell!

--My home state of Florida is pulling the utterly cynical act of having a vote on the ballot that would add prohibition of gay marriage to the state’s constitution. According to Florida state law, gay marriage is already illegal. Although the proponents of this amendment say they want it because of what they call “activist” judges overturning state laws in other states. I think this “every-four-years” fomenting of homophobic passions is deliberately designed as a ploy to draw folks to the polls to “save marriage” and--oh by the way--vote for whomever the Republican candidate for president is.

--So congress approved the $700 billion financial bailout and Presidential Bush quickly signed it into law. What are they going to do now if the banks and the financial markets continue to tank?

--The National Football League Miami Dolphins just won their second straight game of the year over one of last year’s playoff teams, this time 17-10 over San Diego. I watched part of the game and was very impressed with the play of both the Dolphins’ offense and defense. This is a team that I can follow without (unlike last year) wincing every few minutes. And they’re having fun out there!

--Unlike the Dolphins, who seem to enjoy playing football, my hometown Florida Gators seem to be drenched in misery, even after convincingly beating Arkansas on the road 38-7. Two Gator running backs ran for more than 100 yards in the game. Having a diversified running game is something they had been hoping for this season, and new stars are rising on the team to fill this void from last season. It was gratifying to see freshmen Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey do so well. It bodes well for the team’s prospects for the rest of the year, although it must be admitted that Arkansas hasn’t had a very good run defense this year. Still, if Florida can win the time-of-possession contest next week against the LSU Tigers and consistently have good, long, time-consuming scoring drives during the game, that would go a long way toward keeping their defense fresh and the dangerous LSU offense off the field. In the recent past, Florida has lost three close games to the Tigers, largely due to their defense tiring from being out on the field way too long. UF did well against Arkansas, although if you saw or heard coach Urban Meyer or quarterback Tim Tebow after the game, you might have come away with the conclusion that they had lost.

Red Cross 5-K Run in Gainesville

Yesterday, I ran a local road race held to raise money for the North Central Florida Chapter of the American Red Cross here in Gainesville. Originally scheduled for August 23 but postponed until October 4 due to Tropical Storm Fay passing (directly) over us, the run went off without a hitch. The start and finish took place in the parking lot of the University of Florida Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, which lies on the south side of Hull Road near SW 34th Street. The running course was a loop which ran by places such as Lake Alice, the southwest-area UF dormitories, and the agricultural college research buildings. It was a very familiar area to me from years gone by, and running through it was almost like getting to see an old friend again!

This was my sixth race that I have ever run in (besides school physical education classes). Race #5 occurred in the summer of 1976 in Hollywood, Florida, so you can see there’s been a slight gap here (32 years). In each of the first five races, something went wrong for me. In race #1, a two-miler around the track, I peaked way too soon and finished dead last at 11:56. In race #2, another two-miler, I ran a much better race, but the people at the finish line never got around to getting my final time, which really ticked me off (I estimated it at 11:35). In race #3, Broward Community College held a pre-Thanksgiving 2.5 mile run called the Turkey Trot (they gave away frozen turkeys to the top finishers, whoopee). I was going to be one of those top finishers, but accidentally ran off the course near the end and finished out of the running for a prize. The next race occurred at the next year’s Turkey Trot. By that time I was out of training and the turkeys mostly went to the college wrestling team, which ran so much in practice that they were probably better runners than wrestlers! Finally, race #5 occurred as a Hollywood running club event. It was about five or six miles long, the weather was hot and humid, and I was terribly out of shape. I still finished the race, but for all my troubles and expense the "turkeys" in charge of that race didn’t even give me my final time and placing. That sour experience swore me off organized running until yesterday.

What a contrast! It looks as if those organizing these events really have everything together nowadays. Even though this particular race was the first annual Red Cross event for Gainesville, those in charge of it thought of everything. I got my tee-shirt (which I am now wearing at this writing) up front before the race. There were almost 200 runners. The course was clearly explained and was simple. Along the route, policemen made sure that we were protected from any stray vehicles that may have come our way. At the one and two-mile marks, they had water stations for the runners to rehydrate, if they wished. At the finish line, there was a big sign showing the race time ticking off. People with clipboards were carefully writing down each finisher’s time as (s)he crossed the line. Runners had access to water, Gatorade, and fruit after the race. There was an awards ceremony for the winners. And during the race, as we approached the finish, some of the earlier, faster finishers came out along the course, congratulating and encouraging us. I had seen nothing like that kind of sportsmanship in any of my other races!

As for my actual run, my main goals were just to participate, finish, and get my final time and tee-shirt. Mission accomplished! I ran the five-kilometer course in 25:10, a slower time than I had expected. I noticed that, after the first half-mile or so, only one runner passed me (and I later passed him toward the end). And I passed many, seeming to become relatively stronger as the race bore on. So I think that I was a little too cautious with my speed early on and would have had a much better finishing time had I pushed myself harder from the beginning. But all in all, this was by far my most fulfilling public running experience. Unfortunately, the finishers were only divided by sex and not by age. I know that in races run by the Florida Track Club, I will be competing against others in my own age group (fifty-somethings). There is one of these races coming up on November 1 (on an even more familiar course for me). Guess who plans to be there!

Interstate-75 Entrance Ramp Gripe

At Exit 390 of Interstate-75 (at NW 39th Avenue in Gainesville, Florida), the southbound entrance ramp lies alongside the southbound exit ramp. There is a big sign saying “WRONG WAY” for the benefit of anyone accidentally trying to enter I-75 South using the exit ramp. Only one problem: the warning sign is clearly visible to everyone correctly using the entrance ramp as well, creating the false impression that they are going the wrong way! You would think that they could have either placed this sign in a place that was hard to see from the entrance ramp or placed a flap on the side of the sign that would have blocked it from view (of correctly-entering drivers). I’ve seen this sort of thing in other places as well. I am used to this entrance, but other drivers aren’t. It can make for a very confusing situation for some. I for one would not relish the thought of being about to enter a freeway with traffic barreling down it at 70+ miles per hour, head-on in the wrong direction. But that’s the message this foolish sign placement conveys! I would have thought that simple common sense would have dictated that you don’t put a “wrong way” sign in a place where people going the “right way” can see it!

Ripping Books (Literally)

I think that, of all the media we have available to us these days, books enjoy a strange, exalted, and rigid place in most of our minds. After all, I can be watching TV, flip channels, and start watching a show, even a movie, halfway through (or even just at the end). The entire Internet, with its search engines and feeds, is designed for users to almost surgically extract the pieces of information they want out of longer works. When listening to music, it is no big deal to catch the ending of a song or piece and then come back and hear the rest of it some other time. But with books, especially with fiction, there is an idea that one must always start at the beginning and read in the prescribed page order to the end. Any other way would be “cheating”.

Also, books enjoy an almost idol-like reverence in that many are averse to doing anything to a book that would “deface” it. In fact, if the front cover is ripped off a paperback, whoever comes across it is often warned within the book itself that it has been stolen! Now how would the book know that?

Why bring this up?. Because, with the millions and millions of books being published each year, this kind of book-reverence makes no sense. Sure, I think it’s pointless to skip around in a novel. But regarding the physical intactness of a book, I’ve found that it’s sometimes better to rip off manageable sections of a novel, staple together the pages, and stuff them in my pocket to be read at my own convenience, without lugging around an entire volume. I wouldn’t do this with some old, out-of print books I have. But I commonly pick up used paperback novels around town at 25-50 cents a copy. And when I’m done with a book, it often looks as if I ate it, not read it! Now I know this biblio-mutilation might horrify some, but I would have to ask, “Why?” In our distant past, books were primarily used as religious texts, and before printing existed and later, before books were mass-produced, a book was a relatively dear and rare object. But not today.

I feel that by “book-ripping”, I am able to read much more as I go through my daily walk through life than if I just kept intact books, often in places where I didn’t have access to them.

People traditionally have a hang-up with the written word, anyway. To say about an idea that “it is written” is somehow supposed to make it more true than if “it isn’t written”. And if what “is written” is part of a very old text, well …. end of discussion, it’s gospel truth! Speaking of that, I do read the Bible from time to time and have no shortage of inexpensive Bibles in my possession. So I rip pages from time to time from a Bible to read as well. I wonder what some folks would think about that. Ironically, by actually esteeming the content of the writing by reading it, I am respecting the writer's intent more than if I were just to leave the book lying somewhere, in good shape but essentially unread.

Also, there may be an cultural aversion to destroying a book, based on both the Nazi book-burnings of the 1930s and Ray Bradbury’s futuristic science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. But as I said before, I only do this with books that I procured cheaply and which I can easily access (through bookstores, libraries, and the Internet) should I want to read them again.

I read my last Stephen King novel The Long Walk this way and am now working on his Roadwork likewise. It works! Of course, everyone has their own reading strategies. Always being able to carry some reading material with me in an unobtrusive way trumps any concern I may have about damaging books. Besides, like anything else, books can get to be quite a clutter in themselves. How about disposing of them in an environmentally-friendly manner (after ripping and reading them)!

About UF's Loss to Mississippi

The Florida Gators lost unexpectedly to the Mississippi Rebels 31-30 last Saturday in college football. Immediately after the defeat, quarterback Tim Tebow, who actually played quite well in the game for Florida, tried to take the blame for the loss and then promised Gator fans that things would be much different with the team in future games. Huh?

Tim Tebow is not the whole team. He is an extraordinary athlete whose performance has meant the difference between victory and defeat in many games, even during the National Championship season when he was only the second-string quarterback. And, yes--as quarterback, he is the leader of Florida’s offense. But he is not the other players’ coach, nor is he their mommy or daddy. And he is definitely not responsible for the performance of the defense or special teams. Most of the UF players, although technically amateurs, are in essence adult professionals due to their athletic scholarships, which translate indirectly into huge money awards. Each of them is just as responsible as Tebow for playing at their best level on game day. Tebow is already doing what he can to lead the offense and inspire his teammates. Let them pull their own weight!

Three other observations about the Mississippi loss. One, Urban Meyer tried to pin the loss on bad officiating, claiming that Mississippi players were illegally hurdling across the line of scrimmage to block kicks (???). To me, that kind of talk is indicative of a poor loser and a bad sport. Two, I’ve been listening a bit to the local sports talk radio shows, and it’s gratifying to hear some fans finally feeling free to express some constructive criticism about the team and its coaches. So in that respect, this defeat did help a little. Three, why not have Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer, the rest of the UF players, and their many fans stand up for just a moment and applaud the extraordinary performance of their worthy opponent, the University of Mississippi Rebels? Now that would be true sportsmanship at its finest!

New Blog Title

Well, I see that you managed to find your way back over to my blog. I just got tired of the old name and decided to make a switch. And why not to something simple and easy to remember? So there you have it!

Short Stories I've Recently Read

Are You Too Late or Was I Too Early--by John Collier
This story is difficult to figure out. Told in the first person by its protagonist, it is a sort of riddle about the actual nature of the protagonist himself. A kind of puzzle is this tale.

Entire and Perfect Chrysolite--by R.A. Lafferty
Remember those old, ancient maps of the “known” world and how totally inaccurate they were? This story runs on the assumption that one of these maps, showing the world as being Europe, Asia, and North Africa surrounded by a vast Ocean, is literally true and goes from there. A very intriguing tale. And quite funny to boot.

Jenny with Wings--by Kate Wilhelm
This story has a “surprise” ending that is clumsily telegraphed early in the story. But still, it’s a pleasant read.

The Outsider--by H.P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft is a master at creating the alternate world of shadowy and secret, feared places that only those with “special” inclinations inhabit. The Outsider is all about this hidden, scary world.

The Picture in the House--by H.P. Lovecraft
This story dwells on a commonly told theme in horror tales: the idea that people who chose to live in rural isolation have dark, dirty secrets and are scary and dangerous. Enough said?

The Obvious Factor--by Isaac Asimov
The Pointing Finger--by Isaac Asimov
At some point in his illustrious writing career, Asimov decided to delve a little into mysteries and conjured up something called the Black Widowers Club, whose members would meet regularly and try to figure out different mysteries. The problems would often appear unsolvable or point to the supernatural, but the solutions would usually be painfully mundane. Both of the above are Black Widower stories which fit this description. It’s good fun, and the way the characters interact with each other is a big part of it. Get hold of one of Asimov’s Black Widower books, sit back, and enjoy!

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The above reviewed stories can be found in a number of collections. Use the Locus Index to find books containing the story you‘re interested in. Also, DealOz provides a search to find inexpensive copies of old books that you can order through the Internet.

October Demands Patience

I’ve laid off a bit during the last few days about commenting on the news in general. One reason for this is that I really don’t understand some of it. In particular, the (at this writing) 700 billion dollar taxpayer-funded bailout planned for the cascading failures on Wall Street. It seems that everyone is in agreement as to who’s to blame in this crisis: the other guy. And in this intense stage of a presidential campaign, I doubt that I am going to get an even-handed explanation from anyone, either.

That brings me to the other reason for being reticent about news commentary. It seems that EVERYTHING that is happening has a special political spin attached to it, depending on which side one wants to win in November. And for better or for worse, the rest of the world seems to understand this to some extent as well. Well, at least I hope they do. After all, the two candidates and their running mates both seem to be engaged in a game of one-upmanship as to how much they can vilify different important countries such as Russia and Iran. The idea of proposing that we engage in constructive, peaceful dialogues with our adversaries (real or imagined) apparently would be an act of political suicide. Can you believe what EITHER of them are saying at this late stage? I can’t. Why should anyone else? I suppose we'll all just have to wait for this period of national insanity to pass in about five weeks. This coming month of October is going to be a test, not only of my patience with this broken (to me) electoral process, but also of the entire world’s patience as well. Maybe I’ll just stick to local, sports, and weather commentary for a month!

I know I had mentioned in an earlier article that I was stepping down from campaign commentary until after the election. But there is one observation I feel compelled to make at this time: John McCain doesn’t look or sound very well. He has been on the campaign circuit since 2007 and must be physically spent. He is in his seventies, which by itself doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But it looks to me as if he has overextended himself badly. I hope I’m wrong, for his sake if he loses, and for the country’s sake as well if he wins. For I won’t be surprised if, not too long after the election, we don’t get a news flash about him being admitted to a hospital somewhere. What kind of system is this that you have to practically kill yourself to get elected?

Solar Walk

A few days ago, my local newspaper, The Gainesville Sun, featured a short article about Solar Walk, which is a series of sculptures lining the south side of NW 8th Avenue, going eastward from NW 34th Street and ending at NW 23rd Street. These sculptures comprise a scaled-down outdoors Solar System planetarium starting with the Sun and then progressively arriving at each planet until, approaching NW 23nd Street, the last planet Pluto stands (I still call it a planet). Now Elizabeth Indianos, the artist responsible for this intriguing Gainesville landmark, has added two comets to the sculptures. The one closer to the Sun features a streaming gas tail, while the more remote one doesn’t.

I went out on NW 8th Avenue to get a closer look and some photos. In the process I ran from the Sun all the way past Pluto (about 0.9 mile). Since the objects are scaled according to their orbits' relative distances from each other, it gave me a strong impression of how vast the distances are between the outer planets.

Here are some shots of Solar Walk:

Superimposing One Place On Another

Please humor me for a little while as I go off in a small flight of fancy. I was sitting out in my back yard the other day and wondering whether or not I could fit a theme park ride in it. Not a roller coaster: they take up way too much space. No, I was thinking more along the lines of something like Zamperla Corporation’s spectacular Power Surge, which is my hands-down favorite of all the theme park rides (including roller coasters).

Power Surge, when going full tilt, resembles something like a demented, fast moving Ferris wheel that has come unglued from reality. Riders are hurled in just about every direction conceivable while traveling around the “wheel”. From the ground, this ride looks terrifying. And from the air, a rapid succession of random images of ground, air, buildings, and other passengers at various angles (including complete inversion) can likewise impart a sense of peril and intense disturbance. It is one ride that I have never quite gotten used to. And that’s why I like it so.

I wonder whether I could fit Power Surge in my back yard. Not that I could afford it or would get the city’s permission for it. But I can still imagine what the view would be as the ride begins and progresses, with it all happening over my home and neighborhood instead of the theme park.

This sort of musing can be taken a step further. Wherever I am, I can “pretend” to be in a roller coaster seat and then imagine where the ride would take me if it were superimposed on where I was. If seated within a building, I could “see” the tracks rising until they passed through the ceiling and out in the open air above the building. And then curl back and dip back into the building’s interior, crossing through rooms and walls at various stages in the ride.

Maybe all of this is a sign of boredom. But I think it’s a little more than that. When I am in different places doing different things, I impose different standards of distance about my environment. Sometimes I would like to reconcile them all into a consistent, coherent sense of distance and space. So I take places like my home, neighborhood, grocer, workplace, or shopping mall. And then (mentally) impose other places (like theme parks, the beach, or anywhere else I’ve been) on them to get a feel for the distances involved. It’s a good mental exercise that can enhance my abilities to visualize and remember. As well as being a mildly fun diversion. I wonder if this was the sort of thing John Lennon did when he was “just sitting here doing time”, “watching the wheels”!

Lisey's Story

I just finished reading Stephen King’s novel Lisey’s Story, and I think I can say with authority (I’ve read about 90 % of his stuff) that this is his greatest work. By far. If you have never read any of King’s writings, this is the one you can’t do without.

Stephen King is often categorized as a “horror fiction” writer. And certainly, many of his novels and short stories fit that label well. But what exactly is “horror fiction” anyway? Isn’t it the vicarious experience of life and death as we fear it to be like but can’t bring ourselves to admit it? We’re all alive and fear death and suffering. But they are nonetheless inevitable facts of our lives.

Lisey’s Story definitely has “horror” elements to it, but it is much more than that. It is a story of a woman’s grief and love for her deceased husband. And how the worlds that we all create with our imaginations can sometimes overflow from ourselves and enter the real lives of others.

I have done a lot of reading over the past few years, and much of what I have read has been forgettable. I mean IMMEDIATELY forgettable, from the moment I finally put the book down after reading the last word on the last page. Lisey’s Story is a “keeper“, a complex story that will stay with you and challenge you on many levels: what is love, what is truly real, and .....why does Stephen King always seem to end up in western Maine?!!

Baseball Playoffs

It looks like sweet revenge for former New York Yankees skipper Joe Torre. Torre’s old team missed the playoffs this year for the first time in more than ten years, also marking the first season he hasn’t managed them in the same span. Meanwhile, Joe’s current club, the Los Angeles Dodgers, won their division and are flying into the playoffs. Guess who I’ll be rooting for in the National League?!

Since my New York Yankees weren’t good enough this season for the playoffs, I’ll have to go with the home-state boys, the Tampa Bay Rays. If one or both of these teams (Rays or Dodgers) fail to get past their first round, I’ll have to pick another team (or teams) to pull for. One team, though, I will absolutely NOT root for no matter what: the Boston Red Sox (that would be a betrayal of my support for the Yankees). Nothing personal, Stephen King (die-hard Sox fan)!

At this stage, I see the teams still in the playoff hunt and imagine some interesting potential World Series matchups (at this posting, the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Mets are in very close races to try to make the playoffs):

--"All-L.A.": Anaheim Angels vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

--"Windy City": Chicago White Sox vs. Chicago Cubs

--"Super Bowl City Rematch": Boston Red Sox vs. New York Mets

--"Cubs try to get past another Florida team": Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago Cubs (in 2003, an interfering fan cost the Cubs their playoff series against the Florida Marlins)

--"Settle Old Scores": Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (in a different uniform, LA manager Joe Torre goes up again against former AL East rival Boston, while former Red Sox star-turned-enemy Manny Ramirez is starring for the Dodgers).

--"1986 Series Rematch": Boston Red Sox vs. New York Mets

--"1959 Series Rematch" (for the old folks): Chicago White Sox vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

--"One Franchise Represents Both Leagues": Milwaukee Brewers vs. anyone (the Brewers represented the American League in the 1982 World Series and are now in the National League).

--"My Best Scenario": Tampa Bay Rays vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (with the Dodgers winning)

--"My Worst Scenario": Boston Red Sox vs. Chicago Cubs (couldn’t both teams somehow be made to lose?)

In the “great disappointments” department, I have to ask myself what happened to the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, and of course, the New York Yankees. The Braves, long known for their superb pitching, badly need rebuilding in that area. The failures of the other three teams, in particular last year’s National League pennant winner Colorado, are perplexing to me. Other than the fact that there is a fine line between success and failure in this very competitive sport. Who knows, maybe they’ll be back next year and this year’s successes will flop!

One other thing: Other teams are in the playoff picture as well. In the American League, the Minnesota Twins are battling the White Sox for their division title, while in the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies won the East for the second straight year. These two teams may end up being my fall-back choices should the Rays and/or Dodgers screw up (of course, Minnesota would first need to make the playoffs).

Morning At Starbucks on US 441 & 16th

I’m sitting in a different Starbucks than I usually go to. First, when I pulled into the parking lot, I thought swell, not many cars, it’s not too busy here. But when I walked inside, there was a long line. And then, looking around, it quickly dawned on me: this is the Starbucks that’s just a couple of blocks from Gainesville High School. And judging by the shrill, loud voices around here, they do a lot of business with the teen student crowd. Hey, if I were in their shoes (and had the money at that age to burn), I’d rather hang out here before school than at my dreary old high school, too. Only I think I’d just bring a book to quietly sit with and read. Wait--I think all that noise just walked out with a couple of very loud teens. Yep, there they go on their way to school. Suddenly I can hear myself think again!

I’ve been trying to spend a little quality time lately studying and writing instead of going back to sleep after taking my daughter to school in the morning. Then, upon getting back home a little later on, I can still nap for an hour or two. And when I finally do get up for good, I feel that I’ve already accomplished something in the day. So far so good, although I’ll have to admit that I am mentally just not quite as sharp as I usually am in mid-afternoon.

I’m not looking forward to mowing my lawn, which I’ve let grow too much lately. The problem is that my old lawn mower recently has not been starting up too well. Hopefully, though, I’ll be able to keep it running long enough to make a “dent” in the sea of grass. And then, I’ll be counting on the weather to change enough to slow down the growth. But then again, I may just wait for this weekend to try to get that task done. [This entry was written last week. I just switched to an older mower I had and breezed through the yard!]

One thing that I can do by not immediately going back to bed in the morning (I report to my job at 3:30 PM) is plan out what I am going to do with my day. This helps to focus on simple things when I do finally get up from my later “nap” and gives me a sense of continuity for the day as well. So that’s what I’m going to do now!

Final Campaign Statement

I’ve thought for some time now that there is no reason why anyone, even if they were relatively apathetic about politics, would still be undecided about who they wanted to be the next U.S. president. I cannot fathom the shifts in the polls during the last few weeks, first abruptly to McCain and then gradually back to Obama. Who ARE these people who seem to drift with the wind and keep changing their minds?

I believe that the last few weeks of this campaign will be directed at precisely these clueless voters, who will more likely than not make their final decisions on impulse and whimsy rather than on who they think will do a better job of running the country for the upcoming four years. And as a result, we are in for a torrent of pointless, stupid posturing, baseless accusations, and last-minute dirt-dog-mean personal slander. Since I have already made up my mind for whom I will vote, I see no point in subjecting myself to this counterproductive media onslaught. And I certainly don’t feel inclined to react to any of it in this blog. But, if watching and listening to foolishness on an unprecedented, mass scale is your cup of tea, then you’re welcome to it. I’ll just say the following about where I’m going.

I believe that Barack Obama will make a good president and I will vote for him in November. I’m sure that he will make some decisions that I disagree with, just as I am sure that if John McCain is elected, he will do some things that I support. In spite of all the nonsense I’ve heard during the past few weeks, I believe that McCain is a good man who will do his best to act in the country’s interests if elected. And so will Obama. I’m a bit more skeptical of McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, for I see her as much more ideologically-driven. But hopefully, this is more or less political posturing on her part. She does seem to have a pragmatic side to her (very short) record as Alaska’s governor. I’m equally concerned, but in a different way, about Obama’s running mate Joseph Biden. Biden strikes me as a bit too eager to beat the war drums when addressing foreign policy issues. What was it Teddy Roosevelt said? “Speak softly, and carry a big stick”, I believe it was. Of course, Palin has also spoken very provocatively regarding foreign policy as well.

Reacting in a knee-jerk manner to every news story is not what I want from my leaders, but that is what this campaign has been reduced to. So, although I still will keep in touch with things in general, I am now off the track with regard to the details of “who said what” and “who said what about what who said”. So, may the best candidate win. Hopefully, this time around the system won’t break down and the country as a whole can finally accept the outcome of a presidential election as legitimate, regardless who wins.

Figuring Things Out On My Own

I am not a mathematician. I’ve taken upper division level math courses in college, but that’s where it ends. I’m even less qualified in the area of computer software technology. But I am a human being with a brain that seems to be functioning enough to get myself through each day as it comes. And that means I can delve into areas that I know for a fact others probably would think of as “easy” or “trivial”. Logic puzzle games such as sudoku, kakuro, and hidato are examples, as are the more traditional word-based logic problems. But there are other games as well.

Each time my family and I go to a Cracker Barrel restaurant, we find at our table a peg game. The block consists of an equilateral triangle of peg holes, five on each side, fifteen holes in all. There are fourteen pegs in holes, leaving an empty hole (which at the start can be anywhere on the board the player wishes). The game begins this way. The object of the game is to have only one peg left on the board when all possible moves have ended. A move consists only of a peg jumping directly over another into an empty hole. The peg jumped over is then removed. So, ideally, a (winning) game will take thirteen moves. Usually though, it’s much shorter than that, with three or four pegs still there when the moves are exhausted.

I wondered if I could develop a procedure that would guide my moves toward victory in this peg game. Naturally, my thoughts veered to the Internet, and I wondered whether or not someone else had figured this out. I did a search and came up with a site in which someone who had written a program of all possible moves had come up with all of the possible winning games. After seeing this, I decided to go no further with the Web and instead decided to tackle this on my own. After all, where’s the fun of doing a puzzle if someone else is giving you the answer? On the other hand, sometimes when I am trying to figure things out (like this peg game), I feel like the anthropoid ape in the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey who is sitting around a pile of bones and figuring out how to use them as tools. Maybe I should be playing Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra while performing this task!

Forty Days of Purpose

The church my family and I attend is starting something called “Forty Days of Purpose”, based on Rick Warren’s famous bestselling book The Purpose-Driven Life. You may already know that, or that Warren is the pastor at Colorado’s “non-denominational” Saddleback Church who hosted and moderated the nationally-televised forum with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

This six-week “course” involves the participants meeting weekly at different homes around town, reading the chapters, answering questions, and having discussions on the material. And of course, with this comes the opportunity for a little friendly socializing.

As you may or may not know from reading this blog, I have a few issues with the doctrines that strict fundamentalist, evangelistic Christianity puts out. And Warren tends to endorse these doctrines. I have no intention of “rocking the boat” by making a nuisance of myself with others about these differences, but I won’t just sit around and parrot things that don’t compute for me either. So, the way I see it, this will be a chance for me to just be myself and see if the people around me are willing to accept me for who I am.

I’ve noticed before that, if they don’t get carried away with specific religious or political doctrines, people everywhere are remarkable similar in the way they see life. If you go into areas that people have common ground with other in, then it may be possible to establish a bond of at least good will between them, and possibly even some good friendships can develop. Of course, within a religious grouping such as the one my wife and I will be in, the pressure and challenge will be to hold true to my beliefs without offending others.

I have seen discipleship courses like this one being promoted in various churches before. One of the threads common to them is the teaching that the “disciples” should strengthen their ties to the church being attended, in terms of giving both their money and their free time and labor. I have a feeling that, without this inserted into the courses, churches wouldn’t be so keen on promoting and sponsoring them. After all, there is such a thing as the bottom line, isn’t there?

Touchy Tim & the Gators

The University of Florida Gators are traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee to play their rivals the University of Tennessee Volunteers in football this Saturday. Last year, some folks in Knoxville (and elsewhere) accused Florida coach Urban Meyer of needlessly running up the score late in the game. Earlier on, it had been a tight game with Florida leading 28-20. But then, in the fourth quarter, the Gators kept pushing Tennessee with their starters, throwing long passes and padding up the score until it was a 59-20 blowout (on paper). The Saturday before last, Miami Hurricanes coach Randy Shannon accused Meyer of padding the score with a last-minute field goal (and beating the point spread in the process). Upon hearing of the criticism, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow who, in the eyes of many here in Gainesville and beyond, can do no wrong, criticized the Miami coach for criticizing Meyer. Which reinforces the point I made back on September 8: you can’t criticize Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, or the Gators in general around this town anymore. There’s no more of the light give-and-take banter we used to traditionally enjoy throwing around. Even during the incredible run of several Southeastern Conference championships and one National Championship under Steve Spurrier, it was commonplace and acceptable to toss around criticism, directed both at Spurrier and star Gator players. Now you’re either totally with the Gator “icons” or you’re the enemy. And I don’t think that’s a very sportsmanlike attitude to project.

The last time I sensed this type of an insulated, over-protective environment with UF football was in the early 1980s under the late coach Charlie Pell. And his win-at-any-cost philosophy eventually resulted in a major scandal in the Gators football program and them being place on probation, as well as having their 1984 SEC Championship stripped away. I doubt that the current edition of Florida football will come down to that, but it does detract greatly from the fun of following college football in this town when so many regard it as a kind of war instead of an interesting diversion. Sure, you want to display your loyalty to whichever team you want to follow. But those on the Florida team, be they players or coaches, deliberately chose to be in the public eye in this very competitive sport. As such, they are bound to submit to criticism, agree or disagree with it. And the whiny, touchy reaction to criticism of Urban Meyer that Tim Tebow displayed is in itself worthy of criticism (and ridicule), as far as I’m concerned.

HD Radio

The other day at work, one of my colleagues asked me if I had ever heard of high-definition radio. And I had a prepared response: I had already investigated the subject and discovered that the “HD” in HD radio apparently didn’t stand for for high definition, or for that matter, anything else. “HD’ is part of the brand name chosen by the company that our government rewarded the exclusive contract to for developing and implementing this technology.

In HD radio, an equipped station can broadcast more than one signal at a time. An HD-equipped radio can then separate these signals into different stations. So you can see the great possibilities in this. In Gainesville, not a very big radio market, we have only two stations already broadcasting in HD so far. 89.1-WUFT, the Public Radio station here, has three “channels” on its HD signal: music, news/talk, and “other”, including old-time radio shows. The other station, 97.3-WSKY “The Sky”, broadcasts its HD on two channels. The first is its original right-wing talk show format. The second, which intrigues me, has an album rock format reminiscent of the old 103.5 WSHE and 94.9 Zeta-4 stations I used to listen to in south Florida.

There are more stations than this in Gainesville, though. I am waiting until more get into the HD picture and I have more programming choices. I’d also like to see at least one of these stations put out a channel that features independent/alternative music of the type that 100.5-WHHZ used to play until this year. That type of channel would fit like a glove in this big college town.

Broadcast radio needs to do something radical to give listeners more choices. The current situation does not serve the public’s interests. There are many genres of popular music, and we have the technology to provide them for people to enjoy. And with “opinion” radio, I’m all for conservatives having their voices heard. But more liberal viewpoints are difficult to find on the radio. Hopefully, HD radio will provide an outlet for this expression as well. Well, we’ll see how it all turns out. I’m optimistic but cautious.

Inner Sanctum

I can’t speak for anyone else when writing this particular article, for when it all comes down to it, I have to pass through my own life from the subjective viewpoint of an individual. One of the ideas that I believe in is that, arguments about the ultimate nature of free will aside, I control my mind. Which may sound a little circular if you were to start out with the assumption that it is my mind that is doing the controlling!

But it’s true that I believe this, as silly as this may or may not seem. Furthermore, there is something on the order of a “virtual” place within my mind where I dwell and work on “redesigning” my thoughts and goals. I call this my “inner sanctum”, for obvious reasons.

It’s important to have some kind of battle plan when starting out on my day. Otherwise, I would be bouncing around from one externally-imposed obligation to another, sliding into lethargy and complete self-indulgence between “duty moments”. No, I must design my patterns of thinking and resultant behavior according to a paradigm that includes devotion to responsibilities (with boundaries) but which transcends those obligations, being directed to my own personal aims. With me freely posing difficult questions to myself and mulling over them, testing, and refining my answers according to my developing web of experiences. And to help accomplish this, I stole a page from Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

One of Covey’s habits is “Begin with the end in mind”. The way I interpret this is that I should imagine myself being very old, possibly in my nineties and looking back on how I spent my life for the past forty years. From this day (in September 2008) onward, not going back to my earlier life. And evaluating how wisely I spent my time. To accomplish this, I need to ascertain which values I hold the most strongly and base my imagined “backward” reflections on these values as a yardstick for judgment. And I’m not sure that some of these values would be of the sort that a beauty contest finalist would use to answer the final “big question”!

Do you have a blackboard to write your thoughts on and then erase when they don’t “fit together” right? I do, but it’s back hidden in my garage somewhere. But it seems like it might be a useful tool for my values clarification and goal-definitions. It reminds me of one episode in The Prisoner television series titled Free For All, where the Prisoner is shown by his captor a hidden laboratory that a fellow prisoner, a scientist, is allowed to freely continue his scientific research in without interference. There was a big blackboard in the lab that the scientist would fill with his thoughts and observations. The “authorities” would simply photograph it from time to time to gain the information they wanted. With me, it’s something like that, except that it is I who am holding my own thoughts captive. Maybe I’ll just take digital photos of my own blackboard from time to time!