Some Observations

--I applaud President Obama for his willingness to communicate with other national leaders, especially of those countries with which the U.S. has strained relations. Like Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea. He also doesn't practice the ridiculous and pointless social shunning that his predecessor made a fool out of himself doing. I'm sitting here looking at a picture of President Obama shaking hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Sure, there have been some harsh words coming out of Chavez's mouth about the U.S. (and Obama), but these ARE the leaders of these two important nations and they should show the decorum and dignity that their offices demand of them.

--The Fox News Network is quickly becoming a parody of itself, sinking into a quicksand of conspiracy talk, a phony tax revolt, calls for a Christian theocracy, and personal attacks against anyone associated with Obama or the Democrats on a national level. Sean Hannity can hardly open his mouth without regurgitating something slimy about last year's worn-out primary campaign story about Obama's old pastor, Reverend Wright. I can understand why conservatives wouldn't want to watch MSNBC with their liberal slant, but they can always tune in to CNN if they want to maintain some contact with reality!

--Madonna is getting a lot of negative attention in the press lately for adopting (and lately trying to adopt) children in the extremely poor southern African nation of Malawi. Instead of worrying what Madonna's agenda is in all of this, the media should be focusing on the attention she is bringing on the abject poverty and disease pervading this area. The way I see it at least, what is really annoying the public is that the pop singer is making them think about this very-neglected part of the world, instead of virtually ignoring it.

Gators' Donovan Unresponsive to Criticism

The University of Florida men's basketball coach Billy Donovan is experiencing a drawn-out mutiny of sorts, with four of his assistant coaches leaving for other jobs over the past four years and three of his players for this past year expressing plans to turn pro or transfer. I can understand that, with the two national championships that the Gators won in 2006 and 2007, opportunities for advancement would naturally arise for assistant coaches. But earlier, freshman guard Allan Chaney expressed plans to transfer to another school because he wasn't being given enough playing time. Star guard and leading scorer Nick Calathes will most likely (try to) turn professional after only this his sophomore year. And now starting center and number two scorer Alex Tyus has said that he is leaving UF for another college because he feels that he is more a power forward than a center, which is the position that Donovan insists he play. Donovan's reaction to all this seems to be to blame everyone else but himself. His explanation for the players leaving the way they are is that, with such a turnover in assistant coaches, the recruiting had suffered and UF didn't get the players who were really hungry to win and play as a team. In other words, he is insulting his own players! When one player leaves, that's one thing. But when several leave, a picture begins to form around a coach who is so certain of his correctness in everything that he regards his own stubbornness as a virtue.

Pat Dooley, the sports editor of my local newspaper The Gainesville Sun, wrote a column essentially sucking up to Donovan and exonerating him of any responsibility in recent Gator defections and dissent. Why would Dooley take this road? Could it be that he realizes that Donovan will be the one left in town and that he wants to cultivate a friendly, sympathetic relationship with the Florida coach to make his own job easy? If so, it raises a question about how legitimate local sports journalism is and can be. Or is the term "sports journalism" in itself an oxymoron?

I understand that Billy Donovan played a big role in Florida playing an excessively soft out-of-conference schedule these past two seasons. And that factored heavily in Florida being passed over for the NCAA post-season tournament. But since the Florida coach seems incapable of assimilating criticism, I expect more of the same next year. With Billy Donovan learning nothing, accepting no criticism, blaming others, and receiving accolades from his newspaper buddy Pat Dooley.

I'm planning to continue rooting for Billy Donovan's Florida Gators, but I'm afraid that their future success ultimately depends on an unlikely major attitude adjustment on the part of their coach. But I also acknowledge that Donovan has his own "formula" for winning (and winning is the bottom line for his employment here) and he doesn't want to stray from it. Even if it alienates his own players.

Just recently Richard Pitino, a Louisville assistant coach under his father Rick Pitino, was hired to be Donovan's new assistant coach. Hopefully, this new addition will be more in line with the Florida coach's "formula" and add some stability to the program.

UNF Starbucks

Right next to the library on the University of North Florida campus in Jacksonville is the largest Starbucks I have ever seen (being the backwoods rube that I am). Tables and seats abound everywhere. And along the very long window, facing the campus walkway, is an "endless" table with stools and chairs for students to study at. I wish Gainesville had a place like this. Well, maybe it does, I don't know. I haven't been to the Reitz Student Union at the University of Florida lately, and they have renovated the place quite a bit recently. I probably wouldn't recognize it if I went there. Still, this UNF Starbucks beats everything! Of course, it is specifically designed for the UNF students and faculty to use, so there would be an added emphasis on seating. But the sometimes very long lines move very quickly, due to the organized and efficient procedure the employees use to process orders. The only complaint I might have is that they probably need to turn up the air conditioning a bit. And it's awfully noisy (but what do I expect, anyway?). I could always take my drink to a table outside if I wanted to, though....

....and now I'm sitting at an even better (though smaller) Starbucks, located within the huge Barnes and Nobles bookstore on Town Center Road, still here in Jacksonville. It's actually a few days after the first part of this article (I really don't spend my entire life sitting in coffee shops). This quieter Starbucks is a welcome break from the UNF Starbucks, and the demographics are comfortably spread out enough across the population spectrum (at 52, I tend to stand out in that college crowd).

Florida Water Wimps

It never fails to amaze me how people around me panic whenever a little rain is falling on them. Out go the umbrellas, even for a little drizzle. And if no umbrella is handy, watch out! People who never run are suddenly transformed into world-class sprinters, madly dashing through the rain. As if they were going to dissolve from the water.

When I'm trying to maneuver my car around a crowded parking lot while it's raining, I have to be especially careful. For pedestrians, or simply people going to their cars, will often forget the most fundamental safety measures in their haste to get out from it.

I have lived my entire life (discounting my early infancy) in Florida. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that rain, and getting wet from it, goes with the territory. It cracks me up to be walking out of a building while it is raining, even lightly, and see a crowd of people standing huddled under a shelter, waiting for the shower to abet. What are they, water wimps? My words of advice to them is that they're Floridians, so they're supposed to get drenched in downpours every now and then! When it rains, they need to be bold: just walk right out there in the middle of it and shout to the world, "I'm a Floridian! I'm all wet!... and I'm proud!"

Knowing (The Movie)

I recently saw the new Nicholas Cage film Knowing. I don't think I'm giving anything away that hasn't been shown in the previews by stating that Knowing is about a mysterious document full of numbers that, when decoded, reveals a series of disasters that happened (after that document was written). And some pretty serious predictions about the future. Cage plays a widowed astrophysicist (with one child, a boy) who comes across the numbers and stumbles upon their meaning.

Once Cage figures out the document's code, he begins to extrapolate events revealed on it that haven't yet happened. And it is here that I have a serious problem with the way previews are cut from movies. Having previously seen the movie's preview, I already knew that Cage would be standing outside on a miserable, rainy day and witness a horrible jet plane crach up close. Before I walked into the theatre, I knew this. So when that particular scene of the movie unfolded, I already knew what was coming. And so did just about anybody else who saw the preview. But the crash scene was obviously crafted with the intent of completely catching the viewer off guard. But I suppose the movie's promoters figured that their desire to attract more paying customers outweighed any desired to uphold the integrity of the viewing process. What a shame.

For special effects, mood, and acting, Knowing was quite good. I thought that the explanations of the mysteries brought out in the movie were, however, stale and stupid.

For the above reasons, I recommend Knowing, but with reservations. Nicholas Cage enchances the value of any movie that he's in, and he went far to save this one for me.

Conspiracy Drums Beating Again

Immediately after Bill Clinton became President in 1993, the extreme right wing militia movement, along with certain radio talk show hosts, stepped up what was already simmering as a paranoid conspiracy rant. The claim was that there were certain bad types in positions of authority (tending to be Democrats, of course) who were plotting for a one-world government that was anti-religious, totalitarian and even aiming to severely depopulate the planet. Concentration camps were supposedly being built in various locations, and the evil black helicopters were continually being sighted hovering around doing something insidiously evil (or threatening to). All of this craziness culminated in the tragic terror bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, exactly 14 years ago. The perpetrators of this foul act were militia sympathizers with the typical nutcase conspiracy beliefs. After that, the conspiracy mood dissipated somewhat but resurfaced after 9/11. But that time the Republicans were in the White House and the loony accusations generally came from the fringe left.

Now Democrat Barack Obama is in office and here we go again. New concentration camps are supposedly being built to hold future dissidents. Socialists are supposedly plotting to take over the country. Obama is supposedly going to turn U.S. national sovereignty over to international organizations. But the problem I have the most with this new wave of nonsense is that much of it seems to be coming from the mainstream in the Republican Party, not just fringe societal elements.

So let me get this straight: a solid majority of voters put the Democratic Party into power in 2006 and 2008, creating the scenario where they control the Presidency, Congress, and most state Governorships. All by the elective process. How is that a conspiracy? It seems to me that any conspiracy charges should be laid at the feet of those who would subvert the election results by contesting already-decided elections (like the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat won by Al Franken) and stonewalling legislation and presidential nominees through procedural tactics.

NBA Playoffs Approaching

We've once again arrived at that time of the year when the National Basketball Association determines its champion through the playoffs, comprising the top eight teams in each of the two conferences. My favorite team, the Phoenix Suns, narrowly missed the playoffs this year, although had they been in the Eastern Conference their regular season record would have been good enough for them to be seeded fifth out of eight teams.

So I'm left with picking out other teams to root for. In the East, I have four favorites: the Florida teams Orlando Magic and Miami Heat (their lousy "conceptual" nicknames notwithstanding), the Atlanta Hawks (with former UF Gator Al Horford), and the Chicago Bulls (with former UF Gator Joakim Noah). In the West, I like the Houston Rockets (with Yao Ming and Ron Artest) and the Utah Jazz. I think Jazz guard Deron Williams is one of the great clutch players in the game. If those two go down in the playoffs, I'll probably end up rooting for the aging San Antonio Spurs to try to get one more great playoff season in.

All of my playoff preferences notwithstanding, I expect the NBA final championship series to be between either the Boston Celtics or the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East and the Los Angeles Lakers in the West. With the incredibly talented Kobe Bryant leading his Lakers to the championship.

On a side note, although I'm not specifically rooting for either of them, I plan to watch a little of two teams in the playoffs: the Detroit Pistons and the Denver Nuggets. Why? Because they feature players who tend to whine and complain a lot at the officials (and draw technical fouls). Especially when they're losing. I get a perverse pleasure watching the clownish act these crybabies put on!

Skydiving Accident

I just read how a 59-year old Ohio skydiver was killed during a jump when his parachute wouldn't open (and the reserve chute was opened too close to impact to avert fatal injuries). Apparently, the diver spent too much time with the first chute before resorting to the backup. And this sort of incident is the one thing keeping me from "taking the plunge" myself.

But why should it? Fatalities from skydiving accidents always get played up heavily in the press, but I doubt that the hazards associated with this activity are really any worse than getting in one's car and driving a few blocks down the road to the grocery store. Or riding a bicycle around the block. Or running on a treadmill for a few minutes. Or simply getting up out of bed in the morning. Or staying in bed!

I feel sorry for the man who died in this skydiving tragedy, as well as for his family and friends. But these sorts of incidents need to be analyzed: did the accident occur because of some endemic reason, or was it avoidable? Like many things, people can cut their odds of calamity down drastically by stringently following safety procedures. I don't plan to give up the idea of getting involved with skydiving at some future date. You can't go about your daily life totally consumed about avoiding accidents. Even if you just stayed at home, something bad could happen. Case in point: the man who died when his home in Binghampton, New York was hit by a crashing plane.

River Flood Threat

If it isn't one thing, it's another. As I have discussed in earlier articles, northern central Florida has had a problem in recent years with very dry weather and resulting widespread forest fires. This year, it looked for a while as if this would happen again. And it still might, but right now we're experiencing a hazard on the opposite end: the Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers are rising to flood state, due to recent storms and torrential rains. And more rain is expected.

Although, from this I could conclude that our environment is "out of whack", it could simply be a case of what's really the norm for our area: alternating periods of flooding with dry spells and their concomitant fires. That this doesn't seamlessly fit in with the agendas of humans and human society doesn't necessarily mean that, environmentally speaking, this is such a bad thing. But it still is distressing.

I suppose that this sort of thing occurs just about any place that people set foot on and decide to stay a while. They may at first like the weather, but that's never the same. I remember the ending of Mosquito Coast (starring Harrison Ford and River Phoenix), when the fanatical father (played by Ford) decides that his family will live on an apparently idyllic-looking stretch of tropical beach. Only problem was that heavy storms, typical for that area, came in during the night and wiped out their new home, nearly wiping them out in the process.

I don't think there's any place on Earth immune from some sort of natural hazard or another. The temptation would be to assign a general cause for environmental disasters (air pollution, ozone layer depletion, acid rain, global warming). And sometimes this may be true. But sometimes "bad" things happen as a normality, not as an aberration.

Waldo and Lawtey: Speed Traps?

Recently, I've had the occasion to drive back and forth between Gainesville and Jacksonville a few times. On the way to Jacksonville, I hit US-301 in Waldo (a few miles northeast of Gainesville) and drive to I-10, which takes me into Jacksonville. Along US-301 there are two towns, Waldo and Lawtey, that have been designated as "speed traps" by the American Automobile Association. There are even billboards outside each city warning motorists that they are speed traps. But are they really?

Both Waldo and Lawtey are small, sleepy towns (especially Lawtey) that have that one major federal highway running through them. US-301 is a major road connecting Jacksonville with central Florida. Large semi-trucks continually thunder down it. It is normal for the speed limit in the countryside to be 65 mph. But within the city, it's necessary to bring it down (in Waldo to 35 mph and in Lawtey to 45 mph). Gainesville certainly does this with US-441, with a 30 mph speed limit in the University of Florida area. The only problem with Waldo and Lawtey is that drivers tend to ignore the reduced speed limit signs and speed through these towns, which are only trying to protect their own people.

Lawtey and Waldo have statistically handed out more tickets for their population than have surrounding communities. But a Waldo policeman, recently interviewed, stated that they don't pull drivers over unless they are driving more than 10 mph over the speed limit. And there are a series of signs on each side of both Lawtey and Waldo clearly warning of the coming reduced speed limit, as well as a clear statement: "speed limit strictly enforced".

Critics of these two towns argue that they are taking advantage of their strategic location along US-301 to nab passing motorists for the purpose of increasing their own revenue. And while the result make accomplish this aim, I believe that they are completely justified in enforcing their speed limit laws.

It is very frustrating to me, as a driver, to decelerate upon entering small towns along major highways while cars around me plow on through at the same speed, as if they were on the Interstate Highway System. It is even more than frustration when I witness drivers of large trucks doing this. If I were a citizen of Lawtey or Waldo, I would stand up in applause for their policies. Instead of them lightening up on their enforcement of speed laws within their boundaries, other cities in the area should emulate them and also strictly enforce speed limits. Not if someone is going just a little over the limit. But those cases when drivers hurtle through, not respecting the importance of slowing down through populated municipalities, should be enforced. Regardless of whatever the AAA says (or however many billboards opponents put up). Perhaps if this were the norm instead of the exception, we would see a reduction in traffic accidents and fatalities.

People these days are way too impatient in most everything they do. They are in a big, big, hurry to get from Point A to Point B. Not that they won't completely waste their time once they get to Point B! But God help anybody who slows them down one iota!

Presumption of Private Property

Since I like to run, I tend to look around my city and try to find feasible routes that I could train on. One very promising route takes me from straight from my house around a three mile loop and back. I wouldn't be running past house after house (which can be a liability over time, with ferocious dogs occasionally getting loose from their back yards), except for a small stretch of the run. No, most of the course has me running on sidewalks, asphalt or grass along main roads. But there is one small stretch of this route that involves me running behind two subdivisions and possibly crossing over into private property for about 100 yards. I've looked it over on GoogleEarth; there seems to be a pathway that I could run on, although there is also a clump of trees standing in my way as well. Should I just go ahead and see what happens if I run that stretch? I have never seen any "Private: No Trespassing" signs anywhere. Or is there automatically some kind of presumption of private property that I must make?

When I was a junior in high school, I was on the track team as a two-mile runner. Part of our practice involved long cross-country runs, some exceeding ten miles in length. We would run down all sorts of country dirt paths behind our school, which was (then) located in a rural area. Sometimes we would later be notified by our coach that certain areas were off-limits, since they were private property (with complaining occupants). But here too, there weren't any signs around to let us know this. My main concern back then (which is still a concern of mine nowadays) is that some of the folks whose land we were running through might have had some mean, biting dogs running around loose. And that wouldn't be a pleasant prospect at all.

So here I am, trying to decide whether or not to see if I can "complete my loop" by running this backstretch of possibly verboten land. Oh well, you only go around once in life, go for it!

The "Old Country"

I am currently sitting (at this writing) outside a new Dunkin' Donuts here in Gainesville near the intersection of Archer Road and SW 34 Street, a few minutes before I go in to work, about a mile down the road. Even on a relatively light traffic day as this, it is heavily congested in this part of town. The irony is that, back in 1980, I moved to this section of Gainesville because then it was so peaceful and quiet (and very close to my workplace)!

I still refer to this part of town as "The Old Country". I lived and worked here for six years and, if you include my present job, have worked here for eighteen more. I also met my wife here. The area began to drastically change in 1987, when a large field adjacent to my apartment became the site of a Wal-Mart/Lowes shopping center. Then restaurants were built lining up and down Archer Road. And finally, an expansive network of shopping centers were built further west, almost reaching Interstate-75. If I were to be transported in time from 1984 25 years into the future to 2009, I wouldn't recognize the place. But thanks to DD, it's a convenient, pleasant place to stop off at on the way to work!

Still, I prefer to hang out at the Magnolia Parke Starbucks on NW 39 Avenue, away from this incredible (for me) congestion. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I had to be in a big city like Chicago or New York for any substantial period of time.

Submission

In religious circles the concept of submission is often bandied about. One must submit to God, the church (or whatever the religious establishment is called), one's elders, one's spouse, the particular religion's scriptures, and so on. Sometimes people who have experienced this demand for submission within a religious body will rebel and abandon it, possibly even renouncing that religion (and any others) altogether. And I sympathize with these people, considering the enormous potential and temptation there is within religions for manipulation and abuse. But is submission in itself a dirty word?

Naturally, as social creatures, we all have to submit to laws and social norms in order to effectively function in our daily lives. That is a reasonable application of submission. But also, in order to accomplish anything worth accomplishing, we also must foster a habit of self-discipline. And that involves defining for ourselves our own standards, to which we then submit ourselves. This can be a most difficult form of submission, since there is ample opportunity for self-deception and backsliding without immediate social consequences. But I hold that it is ultimately the most important form of submission there is.

Some people interpret the concept of freedom as being freedom from submission. But in order to be a viable, responsible adult, one must have the self-discipline to submit him/herself to standards that ultimately enhance freedom by opening up opportunities and enabling positive social feedback from achievements. But one also needs to develop the wisdom to distinguish that from manipulation on the part of others who seem to have issues with control and power.

On Second Thought...

I had written up an article for yesterday on this blog and was about to publish it when I read it over one last time. And then concluded that I had written stuff that I didn't really believe. It concerned a distant memory, more than thirty years past, and the behavior of an individual within that memory. In my article, I had sugar-coated that behavior, which in reality had badly offended me. So I'm going to have to rewrite that article and probably use a different example to make my point. It's hard for me to forgive certain people in my past, especially since they themselves couldn't care less. They may also be in a position, like that particular individual, where they are unable to care less, due the fact that they are dead.

This tendency to distort one's memories of childhood is highlighted in the very disturbing hour-long Twilight Zone episode titled The Incredible World of Horace Ford. In it, a grown man has created an alternative memory of his own childhood that he eventually must come to grips with in order to survive in the present, real world. Being a kid isn't all fun and games. And some of the negative experiences can have a scarring effect throughout one's life. I think that, as an adult, it is important to be honest with myself about those experiences while recognizing that my reality is in the present, not my distant past.

The Useful Enemy

President Barack Obama had better be careful with his attempts to bring down Al-Qaeda, solve the Afghanistan War by engaging with the Taliban, improve relations with adversaries Iran, Cuba, and North Korea, and have more cooperative relationships with other nations. He may be left without a "useful enemy" against which he can rally his country around him. After all, that is what his predecessor, George W. Bush, was a master at. But, perhaps our new president has his own ideas about who (or what) our enemies should be.

I believe that Barack Obama is a true idealist (as opposed to W., a cynic) in that he sees the challenges ahead as not fighting enemies, but solving problems. He sees this country's abandonment of its manufacturing base, the diminishing and politicizing of our science, our overdependence on foreign sources of energy, the state of health care and its debilitating effect, both economically and psychologically, on the people, and the growing threats to our environment. And of course, terrorism. He believes that the U.S. should reach out and engage in cooperative efforts with other nations to tackle these challenges.

Still, President Obama may find that fighting concepts may not carry the same political clout as fighting tangible, named targets. I wonder whether, in a year or two, we'll have a new set of "enemies" to get all worked up over.

In this vein, I also wonder who in Obama's staff will emerge to shape and manipulate this concept of who and what our adversaries are. You can be assured of one thing: we will always have our enemies, if for no other reason than that our leaders need them for us to feel that we need our leaders to protect us from them.

2009 Major League Baseball Starts

The start to the 2009 Major League Baseball season began Sunday, with the Atlanta Braves defeating defending World Series champion Philadelphia 4-1. One game down, only 161 more to go! How can anyone get interested in individual games that mean so little? The only redeeming factor would be if the actual games were interesting to watch. But to me, baseball is so-o-o boring!

I should be tickled that my home state Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant last year. But I was only mildly happy about it. They're probably going to settle down this year to a respectable third-place finish in their division behind Boston and New York. I generally root for the Yankees anyway, so that doesn't bother me.

In the National League, it is time for the Florida Marlins to peak during their six-year cycle and win it all. They won the World Series in 1997 and 2003, and here we are in 2009. Ironically, even with two championships behind them, they've never won their own division! But it doesn't matter. Even if the Marlins have a lousy spring season, they'll surge in late summer and make the playoffs. Assuming they conform to the "pattern" (I hope). I guess by this you can conclude that I'm not exactly very scientific in my baseball analysis.

I've given up trying to pick the different divisional winners. One team can do really lousy one year and, with little change to their lineup, will burn up the league the next season. Or the reverse.

I suppose that, as in previous years, I will continue to make the Atlanta Braves my traditional team of choice to root for. But I don't even know most of their players, and I don't see myself setting aside time to watch their games. Oh well, it's spring. Maybe by July or August I'll see things differently.

Most Wanted?

I'm not sure whether to just laugh or to express my gratitude at the "apparently" diminishing rate of serious crime in my home county. For at the bottom of page ten in Monday's Independent Florida Alligator newspaper is a "Most Wanted" ad, showing a mug shot of a 32 year-old man. The horrible crimes for which he is wanted and the ad and his picture posted? "Resisting Officer Without Violence, False ID Given To Law Enforcement Officer and Driving While License Suspended 2nd Offense." A phone number is given at the bottom of the posting for any snitch inclined to turn the poor loser in.

Now I have a theory concerning the police and our society's level of criminal activity. I believe that, regardless of how "criminally" people are behaving, the police are going to get in their quota of citations and arrests. If the community were suddenly to stop all felonious crimes, and even desist from serious misdemeanors, the police would be handcuffing people and hauling them in for jaywalking or loitering. Wait, come to think of it, they may already be doing this for loitering. Night after night, on my way home from work, I see a number of police cars parked at one of my local public parks (which has no closing times). I wonder what would happen if, some night, I were just to pull in to the park, park my car, get out, and just go sit on a park bench to gather my thoughts. I wonder how long before they slapped the 'cuffs on me! Or if I escaped their grasp, would my picture grace the next day's paper? What's really sad is that, a few years ago, I would have regarded this as a paranoid rant if I heard it coming from someone else's mouth. Now I'm not so sure. I know in my heart that the police are protecting me from criminals who would do me harm. But I also feel that many of our police regard me (and others in general), not as a citizen under their charge to protect, but rather as a prospective arrest to be plucked "out of the crowd". This makes them seem more like predators than protectors. The fact that police testimony during trials is usually accepted without question by juries just increases my disquiet.

Me Studying Chinese

Having decided a little while ago to concentrate my foreign language study on learning Chinese, I have begun to set aside time in the day to accomplish this. I am in the process of writing out the characters I am learning that will make my total at about 3,500 (from 1,700). This should enable me to more effectively follow the text in Chinese newspapers and give me a more fighting chance at understanding spoken Chinese. I did have a bit of a setback on the Internet: I can't seem to get the VOA Mandarin Chinese webcasts, which I had been planning to download on to my MP3 to listen to at work . However, as I reported in yesterday's article, I did find some podcasts from the BBC and Australia in Chinese that I was able to download. Also, I have a Chinese reader that I study from time to time. But I find myself disappointed for not having spent enough time studying Chinese.

So, in summation my strategy with Chinese for now is to learn the new characters, find some way to download webcasts onto my MP3, listen for long stretches to those webcasts, read Chinese text off the Internet, and continue to study my graded Chinese readers. I don't have someone with whom I am have regular contact to practice speaking Chinese with. Should that change, I'll have another dimension added to my study.

Exploring and Downloading Podcasts

I've just discovered the enormous quantity and variety of podcasts available for free downloading. I am currently using the site Podcast Alley to find various types of podcasts which suit my interests. So far, I've downloaded Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (about history, of course), Dump Runners Club (a Colorado-based runner gives some pretty good running tips), and Chess is Cool with Chess Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk (ranked #5 worldwide for women). And I've only begun to explore what's out there. At first, I had wanted to get some political podcasts, but the ones I found, both pro-left and pro-right, were so crude and hate-filled that I decided to defer that for a while. But there are many other categories to explore. And I can listen for long stretches of time at work on my MP3 player. Much better than the radio!

I also discovered sites that enable free, legal downloads of music that (some) artists provide to promote themselves. The best one I've been using is BetterPropaganda. You're not going to get the Beatles or Rolling Stones, but some of the more obscure acts can be quite generous in providing some free samples of their works.

I've also discovered that certain radio stations, such as BBC and Radio Australia, have downloadable podcasts in Chinese, the language I am currently learning. So I can also listen to those podcasts at work, as well.

One "down" side to this is that, since I've been devoting so much time to listening to my MP3 player, I haven't been keeping up with the news as much. So a lot of what's going on has been passing me by. Maybe I should just set aside a certain time each day to just catch up with the news. But I can accomplish this by perusing my daily newspaper and click on a couple of news websites (like CNN.com). I don't need to keep up-to-date on what the professional spin-doctors are doing.

ID Check

One of the problems I've heard that our national intelligence services have in infiltrating terrorist cells is that they are usually very small and intimate, as well as cut off from each other. The members don't protect the security of the cells by wearing identification badges on their shirts; they simply recognize each other by sight and voice. But for domestic U.S. citizens, going about on their daily work business, we've gone "ID Crazy". Just take where I work.

I suppose that, if there were any place in which security measures are justified, then the U.S. Postal Service would be high on the list. It has suffered from highly-publicized attacks of violence in the past, as well as the anthrax terrorist attack in 2001 that killed some of its employees. So I'm all in favor of security. But the way they are trying to accomplish this leaves me a little confused. Take the identification check, for example.

On a regular basis, floor supervisors are required to walk around the workroom floor and check to make sure that all employees under their authority are sporting their own official (with picture) ID badge. The supervisors go around with a clipboard and check off names as they do this. This is supposed to be a security-enhancing procedure. But how? In doing this, the supervisor is only checking people that (s)he already recognizes as being legitimate employees, not suspicious outsiders. And the different floor supervisors and managers all have a pretty basic understanding about who is supposed to be there and who isn't. By recognition, not by badges. When a "stranger" (such as an outside auditor) does make an appearance on the workroom floor, heads turns everywhere, and a "buzz" goes around, through employees and their supervisors, regarding the "strange" presence. There is nothing official about this; rather, it is the same type of security sense that those subversive cells use to keep out intruders. It is much, much more sophisticated and difficult to crack than the crude official methods that management concocts.

Conversely, if a person who was unfamiliar to anyone did happen to show up wearing an "official" badge, this would in itself do little to alleviate concern about his/her presence there. That individual would stick out like a sore thumb!

There is also a segment to this argument regarding the actual security of entrances, and how restricted the access to the building's interior really is. But discretion tells me that perhaps this blog isn't a very appropriate forum in which to discuss it. That is regrettable, because actual entry to the facilities is much more important within the discussion of security than inane ID badge checks.

Sufjan Stevens

A few weeks ago, I was listening to AOL Radio, on their "Indie Rock" channel. I lucked out, getting a string of great songs (later on I found out that this wasn't the norm). In the middle of it was a song titled Chicago by someone called Sufjan Stevens. It was the best of the lot, and I investigated this artist on the Internet.

Sufjan Stevens is an independent/alternative popular musician who grew up in Michigan, lived in Chicago, and now resides in New York. He has made several albums since since his debut A Sun Came in 2001. Stevens put out an electronica album titled Enjoy Your Rabbit, based on each of the signs of the Chinese Zodiac (Year of the Monkey, Year of the Tiger, etc.). He has released five Christmas albums as well as an album of original Christian-themed folk songs (Seven Swans). But his best works, in my opinion, are his "fifty-state project" albums.

Around 2003, Sufjan Stevens released an album titled Michigan, which then examined various aspects and locales of that state. A couple of years later, he repeated the process with his Illinois (technically titled Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come On Feel the Illinoise). Illinois received much critical praise and several awards in 2005, but didn't break through to the general radio airwaves. It contains 15 full songs, each of which I regard as excellent. And the themes are, naturally, Illinois-based: cities like Chicago, Decatur, and Jacksonville; the holiday Casimir Pulaski Day; the Palisades; the Sear's Tower (transformed by Stevens into The Seer's Tower); the depraved serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr.; and the nineteenth century Black Hawk War, to name a few topics. By the way, if you count the or's, The Black Hawk War, a two-minute wordless-but-sung track, is the longest title that I have ever encountered: The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!' .

Stevens is an accomplished musician in several instruments and sings with a soft, soothing voice. But his lyrics are often very cutting, and his clear vocal delivery gives the listener little opportunity to miss anything he has to say. He also recorded his albums with multiple tracks. On Illinois, he separated the lengthy instrumental endings of some of its songs by calling them separate pieces. That gave two alternative endings for some of the songs.

Various rumors have floated around as to whether Sufjan Stevens will follow through on his expressed plan to record albums about all fifty states. He is a bit of a prankster, so who knows. But Illinois came out about four years ago, so he needs to "get cranking" if he wants to accomplish this before the "Star Trek Era" commences around 2060 (my way of saying "before hell freezes over")! I personally doubt that he will continue his "states" theme much longer, seeing that his first two, Michigan and Illinois, have strong autobiographical themes to them. I expect much of the same in any later works as well.

Here are my favorite Sufjan Stevens songs so far (with their albums in parentheses):

1: Casimir Pulaski Day (Illinois)
2: Jacksonville (Illinois)
3: Chicago (Illinois)
4: Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (Illinois)
5: Come On Feel the Illinoise (Illinois)
6: In the Devil's Territory (Seven Swans)
7: All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! (Michigan)
8: Decatur (Illinois)
9: The Henney Buggy Band (The Avalanche)
10: Jason (A Sun Came)

But We Need the Rain

North central Florida, today, tomorrow, and Friday. Flood watch until then. Take THAT, you pesky forest fires!

Contrived Editorial Letter Page

I've noticed, from time to time, that a newspaper's editorial page will pick up a letters-to-the-editor viewpoint about an issue that doesn't really merit discussion and bat it around for weeks at a time. I've experienced an example of this recently in my hometown "newspaper" The Gainesville Sun, whose editor seems determined to bring its standards down to the level of a high school newspaper. A few days ago, a letter was printed decrying the local PBS radio station, 89.1/WUFT. The writer complained about listening to slave-trading dead white men's music. And what was he referring to? Classical music!

The inflammatory (and asinine) tone of this letter revealed, by its printing, an ulterior motive by The Sun's editor: whip up a torrent of responding letters to artificially create an issue that heretofore didn't exist. And for several days thereafter, just I suspected, the newspaper printed letter after letter taking sides on whether or not WUFT should play classical music. The original letter complained that by playing classical music, WUFT wasn't being "diverse" enough, when the truth is that they have long stretches of programming where they play jazz and the blues. Not to mention the incredible variety of other music that they broadcast, along with informative news shows. And the editor knew this "no-brainer", of course.

I don't mind a real issue being discussed. But putting the local PBS station under scrutiny, especially when considering the relative homogeneity of commercial broadcasting across the radio dial, is ridiculous.

Let me give another example. From time to time, a motorist will write (and get printed) an editorial letter complaining about bicyclists who disobey traffic laws. Or a bicyclist will write complaining about motorists who don't respect their presence on the road. And this goes back and forth for a while.

Or how about the tried-and-true (and tired and old) argument about evolution vs. creationism? That's always good for a few days at a time on the editorial page. As if public opinion should decide what is "science" and what isn't, based on twitter-length editorial letters!

Sometimes I think that my local newspaper's editorial page isn't much better than those exploitative television talk show hosts like Maury Povich and Jerry Springer, who create a divisive topic in advance, invite people involved in that topic as guests on the show, and then "objectively" sit back and watch them heatedly argue with each other, with the "concerned" studio audience weighing in. All of which is phony and contrived! Can't we do better than that with our journalism?

Late Night Television

I usually get home from work at about 12:20 AM. Sometimes I turn on the television to see if there is anything worthwhile to watch. Unfortunately, the vast majority of channels are thoroughly worthless to me. But there are a few that suit my peculiar tastes.

On our digital TV service here in Gainesville, we can pick up the various Encore movie channels. Quite often, I'll find at least one movie on them that's good. On BBC-America, which recently had a marathon of James Bond movies, I can also watch episodes from the old, hilarious Monty Python's Flying Circus series. Bravo and AMC (American Movie Classics) are other good movie channels carrying some good films. And the Sci-Fi Channel and Spike occasionally show something interesting.

Besides movies, I like watching old series. Especially cartoon series. Niktoons currently shows old SpongeBob SquarePants episodes late at night. Also, I've grown somewhat attached to their cute My Life As a Teenage Robot series as well. But my current cartoon favorite is the side-splitting South Park, a series that I only discovered less than a year ago. My favorite episodes so far? Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes, obviously a satire on the negative reaction many have to Wal-Mart stores opening in their towns, and Manbearpig, which parodied Al Gore. My favorite South Park character? Who else but the villainous brat Eric Cartmen! I can pick up South Park on two different stations, as well as the Web.

Sometimes C-Span has an interesting replay of an interview or hearing (but usually not). Sometimes I can watch the end of a west-coast basketball game, or just a recap of the day's sports news. But sometimes the programming is pretty dried up for me. It is then that I flick over to MSNBC and watch the replays of their three "liberal" shows: Hardball (with Chris Matthews), Countdown (with Keith Olbermann), and Rachel Maddow. It's too bad that I can't receive this type of liberal commentary programming on my radio, which has been taken over by right-wing talk shows . And (like most other working human beings), I'm not allowed to watch TV on my job. However, I've recently discovered the many choices I have with downloadable podcasts, ranging the entire political spectrum, and to which I can listen almost anywhere on my MP3 player.

Finally, if the worst happens and all late-night programming stinks (or if I'm just in the mood), I turn my cable channels to the music stations they offer. My preferences? Alternative Rock, Soundscapes (new age music), Classical, and Retro Alternative.

Of course, the ultimate option in the absence of anything good on TV is to just turn it off and go on to bed!

But, wait! I've just discovered the ultimate soothing late-night channel: PBS's Sprout, which is aimed at pre-school audiences and is simple and sweet throughout its programming. It's obviously not very intellectually stimulating, but it has a very positive tone which is very relaxing to me.

NCCA Men's Basketball Down to Four Teams

Now we're down to the Final Four in the NCAA men's basketball tournament for 2009. North Carolina, one of my favorites, has done well to advance. They will play Villanova in the semifinals, while Connecticut will play Michigan State. I predict a North Carolina-Connecticut final. It's too bad that none of the teams from the Southeastern Conference advanced far into the tournament.

When all is said and done, the Southeastern Conference really didn't do all that well this year in men's college basketball. None of the three SEC teams in the NCAA tournament made the "Sweet Sixteen" and none of their four teams in the National Invitation Tournament (including two number one seeds, Florida being one of them) made the "Final Four". Pretty sorry year for the conference! Why was this?

I can only speak about the UF Gators when I say that this was a very young team, with only one starting senior (Walter Hodge) and no starting juniors. The acknowledged "star", if you can use that term with this team, is sophomore guard Nick Calathes. Other returning starters for next year are Dan Werner, Alex Tyus, and Chandler Parsons. Erving Walker also was a factor in what success the Florida had this year, and he will be returning as well. So the Gators promise to be much improved next year. But unlike the national championship squads of 2006 and 2007, they seem to get stressed out in close games and don't play together as a close-knit team whose members fully understand each other and their strengths and limitations (in my amateur opinion). They seemed to keep repeating the same mistakes during play without learning from them. Coach Billy Donovan has a lot of work ahead of him if he wants the 2010 edition of the University of Florida men's basketball team to get back to making the NCAA tournament instead of once again being relegated to the "runner up" NIT.

One final note: one of the factors that the NCAA tournament selection committee held against Florida (and some other SEC schools) was the extremely soft non-conference schedule they played, effectively padding their win-loss record to make them look better than they really were. The message is clear: UF and other schools need to schedule more competitive games in December if they want more serious consideration in March!

Economic Recovery Perception Danger

As we look for signs of recovery from our current recession, we may see different trends that may not correlate too well. This past week, the stock market has had a small-scale surge. Whether or not this continues remains to be seen, but I believe that eventually the market will recover and long-term investors (especially in those all-important retirement accounts) will recoup their losses. However, one important fact needs to be taken into consideration.

In a recovery following a recession, one of the last statistics to turn around is the unemployment rate. In fact, unemployment may continue to rise for a while at the same time that businesses are starting to show profitability again. While this tends to bother some people, the current situation dictates restraint on their part.

During this recession, our federal government, under both the previous and current administrations, has pumped more than a trillion dollars worth of economic stimulus and recovery money into the economy and stands to take much of the credit (and responsibility) for ending the recession. With this may come the temptation to criticize profitable businesses who had benefited from the various "stimuli" but haven't rehired their laid-off employees. And some may be continuing to down-size their payroll as they make their comeback. I know that this criticism is on the way, and government officials may be tempted to try to dictate, through hearings and legislation, that businesses take back workers. This would be a horrendous mistake, in my opinion. Some of those businesses needed to change their directions in order to remain viable. As they begin to grow, they will increase their staff to fit their needs. And the unemployment rate will naturally go down. As it has done in the previous five (my own count) post-World War II recessions. As Al Gore has stated (regarding a different topic), this is "an inconvenient truth".

Big Bro' Don't Know Drugs

I'm looking at a headline in today's Independent Florida Alligator newspaper: SMOKERS, BUSINESSES PREPARE FOR CIGARETTE TAX INCREASE. According to the writer Jacquelyne Smith, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau says the tax for small cigarettes will increase from 39 cents to $1.01 for each pack and from $3.90 to $10.07 for each carton. Although the increased tax is certain to cause a spike in prices, local business owners were reportedly unconcerned that cigarette sales would suffer in the long run. I say, of course, that's because cigarette smoking is an addiction! And I wonder about the wisdom of conveniently laying this "sin tax" on an officially-frowned upon commodity.

I've already revealed my opinion about smoking, never having lit up even once and having undergone death in my own family, caused by smoking. Smoking cigarettes is a nasty, dangerous thing to do. But nicotine is a very highly addictive drug and its regular users are addicts. And should be treated as such. If the price gets too high for them to get their cigarette "fix", then they will behave as addicts to illegal drugs behave: they will seek their drug through the black market.

And don't think that this isn't going on right now. When are politicians going to understand that you can't legislate people out of addictions, be it proscribing the responsible drugs or levying impossibly high taxes on them? All this does is create a criminally-based alternate economy that exploits and brutalizes its own consumers and diminishes our law-based civil society.

I've heard the argument that having a high tax on cigarettes will encourage users to finally "kick the habit". But as I have said, it isn't a habit; it's an addiction! Yes, people can overcome addictions, but this ain't gonna do the trick, bro'. Otherwise, why not legalize and heavily tax cocaine, heroin, and any other currently banned addictive drug?

I believe that our "War on Drugs" has been an unmitigated disaster. All it has accomplished is to empower criminal elements across the world, who in turn have empowered hostile governments and terrorist movements. Hillary Clinton was right to apologize to Mexico for U.S. complicity in their drug/crime problems. For our own laws and their enforcement have created the very market that these foreign-based cartels exist to satisfy. Legalization of these drugs, without "sin taxes" and with a concomitant stringent regulatory process overseeing their provision to users, would completely undercut those crime organizations and send THEM into a severe economic downturn! But I'm afraid that this will never happen, with all of the pious self-righteous moral goody-goodies running around reacting in a knee-jerk negative manner to any proposed reasonable reforms on this topic while demonizing anyone who would advocate such reforms.

Assorted Musings

--I've been recalcitrant with this blog, but I think things will most likely begin to kick back up again soon...

---Anyone around me (including myself) who has problems with respiratory allergies is suffering greatly, with all of the pollen currently floating around in the air...

---I recently tried something interesting: watching two movies at the same time. They were Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning Unforgiven and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. They were simultaneously on two different channels (Bravo and Encore Mystery) and I sat there, switching back and forth on my remote. I've done this before with movies that I've already seen, but I think this is the first time for two first-runs (for me). The result? I came out of it feeling as if I watched two movies in their entirety! And they were both quite good (and very different from each other)...

---The University of Florida women's basketball team bowed out of the NCAA championship tournament with an expected loss to #1 Connecticut. Meanwhile the men's team lost to Penn State in the NIT quarterfinals. Congratulations to both teams (although I'm sure they are pretty disappointed right now). Next year, the women's team will need to rebuild, but the men's should be much stronger, with almost everyone returning.

---The US Postal Service has been in the news lately, announcing plans to cut its workforce. My only comment is that they would be better served to invest a little in offering some tangible incentives for early retirement. I believe that many longtime employees are currently refraining from retiring due to uncertainty about the economy and the plunging value of their retirement accounts...

---Once I get over my present health issues mainly concerning allergies, I plan to resume my running. I'm already doing much more this year than I had since 1975. And back then, I lived in South Florida and encountered ZERO hills. Here in Gainesville, I have been running a course that involves running up and down several hills. And the surrounding trees should provide some much needed shade during the summer months. Much better training!

---Hopefully, we'll begin to get more rainfall, starting this week. If not, we're due for a disastrous fire season here in north central Florida...

Gainesville Coffee Shops Pros and Cons

At the beginning of Roger Moore's stint portraying James Bond, in the 1973 movie Live and Let Die, he invites his superior, M, into his flat to receive his new assignment. And then treats him to coffee, using his extremely (then) complicated looking espresso-making apparatus. M can only stand there, looking befuddled at the trouble that Bond is going through for a cup of coffee.

Nowadays, of course, this is all "old hat" with the various espresso coffee shops everywhere, especially those with the Starbucks trademark. I welcome the new culture of coffee drinking, especially that part of it that encourages customers to bring their laptops, books, and (with me) word processors to sit around for lengthy time periods without the fear of being run out of the shop for loitering. This lazier, informal environment is what I imagined (correctly or not) about street cafés in Europe. It represents for me a positive shift in the attitudes of (some) businesses in favor of customer service and away from the notion of seeing customers as a tool to extract money from, then sending them off (and away) on their merry way. So that trend I totally dig.

But there is, alas, a different trend I see, at least here in Gainesville. In large cities like New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, there may be a culture of around-the-clock places to drink coffee and study, but not here. But we used to have several places where I could go in at any time of the night, get a cup of coffee, and study or write. Now, I could still go to certain restaurants like Steak N' Shake, Waffle House, or Perkins late at night, but they all have the idea of getting their customers seated, getting them fed, getting them to pay, and then getting them out (and the sooner the better). We used to have doughnut shops that stayed open around the clock, but that number has dwindled down to one, Krispy Kreme on US 441 three block north of the University of Florida campus.

My work schedule is such that I don't feel the need to go out in the wee hours of the night/morning, but sometimes, around 11pm-1am, if I do happen to be out at that time, it would be nice to be able to stop off somewhere and sit for a few minutes and enjoy a decaf coffee. But the Starbucks shops around here close up by 10 pm. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Bad "Feel Good" Legislation

Back in 2005, the case of a brain-dead woman named Terri Schiavo dominated the news. Her husband, consistently supported by the courts (even by ardently conservative judges), wanted her to be allowed to die, while her parents (and the religious right with their political clout) fought to keep her body alive. The struggle continued to the U.S. Senate, where the Republicans, led by Majority Leader Bill Frist, pushed a special bill, called the Terri Schiavo Bill, specifically designed to determine the outcome of that one single case. Democrats roundly criticized it, claiming that this was poor, knee-jerk legislation. Now let's fast forward to the present.

After losing so much money and procuring so much bailout assistance from the federal government, AIG Corporation infuriated the president and congress by handing out lavish bonuses to its top executives. The only problem was that this was perfectly legal. So the Democrats in the House of Representatives, along with some Republicans, just passed a bill levying a 90% tax specifically on those AIG bonuses. AFTER it was learned that they were being given. Now it is the Republican Party leadership's turn to "stand on principle" and denounce this as knee-jerk legislation targeted at only one circumstance. And they are right; they're just hypocrites, that's all.

I deplore those bonuses as well. And I generally support what the Democrats are trying to do in government. But this time they missed the boat and committed the same after-the-fact faux pas that their political rivals committed four years earlier by enacting legislation retroactively affecting a single party. It may carry popular support and make people feel good, but it's bad legislation. Better to simply recognize the loophole that AIG exploited and fill it in any future bailouts in order to prevent this from happening again.

Crichton and Gore on Global Warming

Continuing with my discussion of Michael Crichton, I have to comment on his method of presenting his opposition to the theory of global warming in the novel State of Fear. Crichton uses a completely fictional story with completely fictional characters to refute this theory, referencing apparently real scientific and academic journal articles with extensive footnotes throughout the book (making this work of fiction appear like an academic article). And different characters, especially the mysterious Kenner, spout out detailed statistic after statistic from the tops of their heads demonstrating how global warming is a scare tactic designed to control people, put in place by the "PLM" (political-legal-media). [How do you like that nice touch of his, making all of this sound like the PLO?]

How does Crichton portray believers in global warming? They are either fanatical terrorists or are shallow, vain, hypocritical dupes who want to hold on to their creature comforts while depriving most of the world's population of the same. Sounds like a real rap from me against Crichton, doesn't it?

Well, not completely. For one, I don't want to disparage the recently deceased too much. For another, Michael Crichton brings up some good points (if you can stand his ranting through the mouths of his characters, that is). Assuming his revealed research isn't part of his fiction, temperatures in various places across the world haven't really been following any discernible pattern for the past 150 years. Crichton opines that much of the measured warming comes from urbanization and deforestation, not increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Plus, he shows that the amount of added carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is actually very minuscule. But the best argument I got is the chaos argument: you can't linearly change an element of a chaotic, untested system and then expect to get a predictable outcome from it. And our atmosphere, from our many frustrated years of trying to predict and control the weather, is the essence of a chaotic system. So Crichton's views, albeit expressed in a distasteful manner, did make an impact on me. And they reminded me of another voice on global warming: Al Gore.

Former Vice-President Al Gore, as most people know, is famous for his movie An Inconvenient Truth, which sounds the big alarm about global warming and advocates drastic changes in how we run our economies worldwide and use energy. One of Gore's biggest arguments is to make a direct correlation between increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increasing temperatures. And it's here that I simultaneously have a problem with Gore's approach and begin to scratch my head in confusion. For urbanization and deforestation, which skeptic Crichton acknowledges as warming factors, also correlate with increased carbon dioxide. So what caused the warming then? And what about those figures denoting increasing global temperatures, and how are they reconciled with Crichton's mixed figures? Just because two trends correlate, that doesn't automatically imply a cause and effect relationship between them.
Aside from this confusion, I was a bit taken aback by Gore's flagrant bouts of self-adulation in An Inconvenient Truth. Those rosy autobiographical parts detracted from his message by making Gore appear (to me) as being narcissistic and opportunistic. It's this aspect of Gore that the television series South Park seized upon in its merciless Manbearpig episode about him a few years ago.

So both Michael Crichton and Al Gore have presented their opposing opinions on the subject of global warming, each in their own personally obnoxious and irritating manner. What do I think on the subject? I'm not sure, but if Crichton and Gore can cash in on the subject while making complete nuisances out of themselves in the process, there has to be something in it for me! Let me put on my thinking cap and I'll get back to you on it......O.K., I'm back. I just figured out what I have to do: first, like Crichton and Gore, I have to become famous for entirely something else, and then I can present my alternative theory as an "expert" and reap in the rewards!

NIT and NCAA Tournaments

The last time I wrote about the Florida Gators men's basketball team, they had a chance to make the NCAA tournament, but only if they met certain conditions. It turns out they met NONE OF THEM and consequently didn't make the championship tournament. Instead they're back in the "runner-up" National Invitation Tournament this year. They started off well Wednesday night, winning their first game against Jacksonville 84-62. Tonight they play the University of Miami, a tough team from the very tough Atlantic Coast Conference. But the Gators will have the decided advantage of playing at home (and for the following game, should they win).

As for the main NCAA championship tournament, I'm still following it and rooting for various teams. I am unhappy at how unfairly UF's Southeastern Conference was treated, with only three teams selected for the tournament. So I'm rooting for those three teams to do well and prove the NCAA wrong (unfortunately, Mississippi State lost their first-round game last night, although LSU managed a win; Tennessee plays today). Also Florida State is having one of their best basketball seasons ever and stands to advance in the tournament. I traditionally root for North Carolina as well, and the Tarheels have a good shot at winning it all this year. Plus, I was impressed with Syracuse's tenacity in pulling out a recent six-overtime victory over impressive Connecticut a few days ago. So there's still plenty of interesting games for me to follow in the NCAA tournament even though the Gators aren't in it. Hopefully, they'll make it next year.

Writing Fiction From a Pedestal

I've recently been reading some of the late Michael Crichton's novels. Crichton, who rose to fame for his exciting science fiction novel The Andromeda Strain, wrote his stories with the idea of introducing the reader to specific trends in scientific and engineering research and then extrapolating those trends to usually calamitous results. Thus the fusing of computer technology with the human nervous system creates a homicidal monster, dinosaurs grown from DNA containing their genetic codes get loose and wreck havoc, nano-machines create their own swarms and plot to take over the world, and now, in State of Fear (the book I've just finished reading), the author reveals his skepticism about global warming. Crichton apparently believed that, regarding the environmental movement, the politics came first and the scientific research was then tailored to fit those political positions.

In the Michael Crichton novels that I've read so far (The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, Timeline, Congo, and Prey), the author did extensive research on the topics and then cluttered the stories with intimidating technical details, apparently with the aim of enforcing his authority on the subject in the reader's mind. I am not very enthusiastic about this tactic of writing (a reason I don't feel like reading Jack Clancy novels, either). I instead prefer a relatively minimalist approach that emphasizes characters and the story. Sure, it's necessary to lay out some technical details in a story in order to create in the reader's imagination the "new world" that the author is using as the story's setting. For example, in the Harry Potter series, author J.K. Rowling naturally did her own research on magic and mythology in order to create an alternative, exotic world. But she didn't drown the reader in details either. And that's what I appreciate in a writer.

In the realm of science fiction, during the middle of the twentieth century, there were three writers who were generally considered to be the top three science fiction writers around: Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov. All three of these (especially Asimov) wrote their fiction with the aim of staying true to the principles of science in their writing (and often painfully making a major point about this to the reader). And then there was Ray Bradbury, a contemporary of the "big three" who enjoyed a higher level of respect as a general writer and who sometimes wrote science fiction. But when I read Bradbury, I don't get the feeling that I am some lowly student in an undergraduate science class, being talked down to by some professor (as is often the case with Crichton/Heinlein/Clarke/Asimov).

When I read a story, I want to feel that the author and I are communicating on the same general level, and that I am not expected to just take in whatever slop (s)he decides to shovel in, just because it is dressed with extensive technical jargon. Reading for me is almost an act of conspiracy between two kindred souls. If one of those souls insists on standing up on a high pedestal, then I'm not going to read with the same enthusiasm that I would have if that same writer had just written like an ordinary person with no pretensions of grandeur. An author has to reveal enough knowledge of the subject to make the story believable, but there's no point in being a complete smartass about it!

Still Learning Piano

I am still practicing piano and taking weekly lessons. I am progressing with my playing skill, but I'm not satisfied at the rate of that progress. My goals are still pretty much the same: (1) to able to play melodies from memory as I have heard them and (2) seamlessly read and play music from the printed page. I think the main thing holding me back is that I don't put in enough time practicing, pure and simple. But I'm still plugging along, nevertheless.

One thing that I'm having a little fun with regarding music is the study of keys and chords. The chromatic scale consists of 12 notes, so a decimal system of modeling simply doesn't work. Neither does the traditional, convoluted "A through G" system of notation, with its flats and sharps. To me, it makes more sense to start with a "base 12" system and go from there. And that's not really such a difficult thing to do: we all are pretty comfortable with base 12, seeing that our clocks are based on it! As a matter of fact, to aid me in understand various chords, I am imagining them as combinations of numbers on a clock face, and then remember them by their shapes. Works for me, at least.

For the individual notes, I have assigned each a number:

0/12: C
1: C sharp/ D flat
2: D
3: D sharp/ E flat
4: E
5: F
6: F sharp/ G flat
7: G
8: G sharp/ A flat
9: A
10: A sharp/B flat
11: B

I realize that I still must deal with musical notation in the form that it is written, but it sometimes helps me to understand things better using this alternative system.

Veterans Memorial Flagpole

Here are some shots of the gigantic Veterans Memorial Flagpole, located at the south end of the Santa Fe College campus next to the track.

Ominous Fire Season Signs

At this writing, a fire is raging, uncontained, in the Ocala National Forest about forty miles southeast of Gainesville. There are other fires beginning to break out in various spots in north and central Florida, portending a crisis situation in this extremely dry time of the year. We've received very little rain over the past few weeks. And if we don't begin to get some on a regular basis and in large quantities, I'm afraid that we in Florida will suffer a similar fate to that which we underwent in the disastrous 1998 "fire season".

You don't have to be directly threatened by a wildfire in order to suffer its effects. A fire can be hundreds of miles away. But if the wind is blowing its smoke in your direction, your air will become full of it (and even ashes), making it more difficult to breathe (and impossible for some).
Maybe I'm being unduly pessimistic. But you know you're in a bad situation when it does rain and, while discussing the weather with others, someone almost always chimes in with "yes, but we need the rain"!

Sometimes, during these fires, the smoke gets so bad that I get the urge to go dump a ring into a volcano (with a hobbit carrying me there and an eagle flying me back). And then I would wake up breathing fresh air, with a kindly old wizard grinning at me. Yes, it can get that bad. Mordor in Florida!

Senator Byrd's Joke

I was watching the U.S. Senate on C-Span2 a few days ago. A vote was going on regarding an amendment submitted by Senator Wicker (R-Mississippi). It aimed to deny funding to any United Nations agency offering or promoting abortion services. Naturally, the pro-life senators supported the amendment while the pro-choice senators opposed it. There were, at my count, three "cross-over" votes from each party, canceling each other out and ensuring the amendment's defeat. But what I was most interested in was the voting process itself.

Apparently, senators can vote from their offices while the role call is going on for their vote. But afterwards, those yet to vote will go to the front desks in the Senate chamber and register their "ay" or "no" with one of the clerks there (who then will call out their names and how they voted).

As this vote was approaching its conclusion, I saw a woman pushing 91 year old Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) in a wheelchair up to the clerk's desk. Naturally, I expected Byrd to signal how he would vote to the clerk. But instead, the woman leaned over, said something to the clerk, and then proceeded to wheel the Senator away and off the screen, up the ramp to the area where the Senate body sat. I then forgot about this until about a minute later when the clerk called out "Senator Byrd", to which was heard a loud, thundering "NO-O-O-O!!!" coming from the rear of the chamber. Everyone stopped what they were doing for a second and then a few snickered. About another minute or two later, here comes Byrd back down in his wheelchair, grinning and once again closely passing by the clerk's desk (and then out of the chamber, presumably back to his office).

It will certainly be a sad day when Robert Byrd no longer graces the United Senate with his personality, rhetoric, and special sense of humor. But I thought the same of him eight years ago and here he still is, while many others have come and gone from this prestigious body.

Gator Hoops Tourney Prospects

The University of Florida men's basketball team is in danger of being shut out of the NCAA Championship tournament for the second year in a row after finishing their regular season at 22-9 and Southeastern Conference play at 9-7. Not bad on the surface, but their overall record was enhanced by scheduling smaller colleges that they were relatively assured of beating. And the SEC as a conference doesn't do much better in the national rankings. Only two teams, LSU and Tennessee, are reasonably assured of a spot in the NCAA tournament. A third team from the conference will probably also be added, but a fourth is highly questionable this year. And South Carolina is widely regarded as the "third" team, Florida "fourth", and Auburn "fifth". The UF Gators still have a chance to pass ahead of South Carolina, though, because the SEC tournament is beginning today. And depending on the outcome of that tournament, Florida may either find itself back in the NCAA tournament in which it won the national championship in 2006 and 2007 or it may be relegated to playing in the "second fiddle" National Invitation Tournament, in which it did well last year.

Here is how I see Florida possibly making it to the NCAA tournament this year, based on the outcome of the SEC tournament:

(A) If Florida wins the conference tournament outright, they automatically qualify for the NCAA. And they can potentially do this, if they play up to the level that they have demonstrated at different times during the season.

(B) If Florida doesn't win the SEC tournament then three things have to happen:

[1] Either Tennessee or LSU must win the SEC tournament, keeping another conference team from becoming the third team to go to the NCAA tourney.

[2] Florida needs to outlast South Carolina in the tournament, preferably beating them head on.

[3] Florida needs to avoid being outlasted by Auburn.

Even if the Florida Gators fulfill the conditions for (B), that still doesn't guarantee that they'd be selected. But I think that it would put them ahead of other conference teams competing for that important "third" selection.

Well, the fun starts today. Win or lose, I've enjoyed following the Gators this year. They'd have nothing to be ashamed of if they went back to the NIT this year again instead of the NCAA Championship tournament. But of course, I would be very disappointed if that happened, nevertheless.

Bulls and Cleods

Here's an idea for a fun, little no-expense, no-tech game that you can play with another, needing only paper and pen. It's a good game to play while stuck waiting in lines or in waiting rooms. When I learned it as a kid, it was called "bulls and cleods". [I'm not sure how to spell "cleods", having looked up the word in the dictionary and the Internet with no success.]

Each side in bulls and cleods imagines a four-digit string of non-repeating numbers (e.g. 2345, 6452). They then take turns submitting "guesses" to each other in order to finally determine the other's number. The first to do this wins the game.

The terms "bulls" and "cleods" come into play regarding the hints the "holder" of the number gives the "guesser" each time around. For example, suppose I have imagined the number "1234" and my worthy opponent guesses "2614". I see that "2614" contains three digits in my number of "1234". "4" is present in the exact correct position (a "bull") while "1" and "2" are also present, but in the wrong places ("cleods"). So my response to my opponent's guess of "2614" would be "one bull and two cleods". Using logical reasoning, eventually someone hits upon the exact number and wins.

This game can be played among most age groups. Naturally, little children may find it too challenging, but here it can be used as a teaching tool for logical reasoning.

Some News Observations: 3/09

--I keep hearing conservatives wailing about how President Obama is hurting business by having the government take over the economy, transforming the United States into a socialist country. But I ask, wasn't it the banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and manufacturing corporations who have been going to Washington seeking out scandalously high bailouts from the government? In order to be able to remain "in business"? Seems to me that the CONservatives have this one backwards: the federal government is SAVING business and capitalism, not supplanting them.

--So news has been released (or leaked) that President Obama is interested in seeking out some sort of contact and potential agreement with more moderate and reasonable elements of the Taliban. Well, it's about time! I have been saying that for months.

--Hopefully, Illinois Senator Roland Burris will be able to stay in office until January 2011, when the winner of the 2010 election for that seat will be sworn in. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley seems to be interested in it as are several others. To me, the 2010 election is where opponents of Burris need to focus their attention on. The ironic thing about it is that whoever wins in 2010 will probably be much more beholden to the special interests that helped finance his/her campaign than Burris ever would (I am presuming that Burris won't win next year).

--Why, oh why, won't the judges in Minnesota get around to deciding the lawsuit surrounding the bitterly contested Senate seat from Minnesota between Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic Al Franken and let that state get its constitutionally-mandated second senator? It is scandalous how long this has been dragged out. The winner should have been sworn in two months ago!

Down on Blog Right Now

I haven't been writing much in this blog lately. Part of the reason is that I have lost some interest. Part of the reason is that I wonder whether I am selecting my topics based on who I think is going to read it. And a huge part of the reason is that I am currently undergoing something in my life I call a "contraction" of sorts: a drawing in upon myself and reassessment of different things that I have been emphasising in my daily life.

Writing a blog is a good activity of self-expression and self-discipline. But there are other areas in my life that I feel, at least in this "season" of my life, a higher calling for me to concentrate on.

Running Longer Distances

When I was a little kid growing up in the sixties (strange how so many of my articles start this way), I was super-scrawny and super-fast. I could out-sprint anyone. It wasn’t until I got into my mid-teens that my running skill began to fall behind others. Sadly, this was the very time that I could have actually gotten something useful from it (like high school athletic recognition and respect). I went out for track in my junior year and decided then that I would concentrate my efforts on distance running. This emphasis continued past high school, with me training by running several miles at a stretch. I never did get to the point of being what most people would call an “athlete”, but I did get to be a pretty doggone good runner anyway. And I discovered that running long distances can do something positive for one’s spirit.

Ever go to the beach and begin to wade out into the ocean? Often, the water gets deeper and deeper until you’re almost certain that you’ll have to soon turn back or else get completely immersed. And then, as you continue to wade out toward the sea, the water level begins to drop and before you know it, you’re standing knee-deep in water. Looking back to the shore, the people standing there are so far away that they look like ants. Now apply this analogy to running.

When I begin a long run, the first couple of miles are usually a struggle, with my body trying to adjust itself to this shocking activity. This is like the initial wading out into the ocean. At a certain point, though, I reach a “groove” and rhythm to my running and it begins to smoothen out, much like that sandbar I reach so far from the shore. But then, I keep running and the analogy fails. For in the ocean, the water begins to deepen again beyond the sandbar. However, with running, something commonly referred to as “second wind” kicks in and puts my mind and body in a completely different state. After about five or six miles, instead of feeling that I’m about to drop from exhaustion, I get the light (albeit not dizzy) feeling that I am “soaring” and could continue running like this from miles on end. This sensation is also called “runner’s high” by some. And is a big reason why so many seem to be “addicted” to running long distance. But if you have never “waded” that far from shore to experience it yourself, you wouldn’t really know what I’m talking about.

In this seemingly paradoxical state of mental/physical relaxation and bliss after running so many miles, I have in the past felt detached from the world in the sense that I was more an observer than a participant. That physical life itself was something completely independent from who I essentially was. Sure, I was bound to my body in time and space, but whatever I really was transcended it and would endure beyond its eventual demise.

When in this state, I have been completely “tuned in” to what was going on around me. So if a car looked as if it were about to plow into me or a vicious looking dog made its presence known, I would be completely aware and ready to properly react, if need be. But at the same time, I would feel freely in control of my thoughts and completely liberated from the stresses and anxieties normally plaguing me during everyday living. Freeing my imagination in the process as well.

I have to admit that, during my latest foray into running that I’ve been doing for the last two years, I have rarely reached this desired second wind/runner’s high state. But that’s because I have usually been running for too short of a distance. I think that getting it going past six miles should do the trick, though. I think it’s just about time for a little more “running spirituality”. And I have devised my own personal "dream course" (with plenty of hills) to do my distance running on. Today I just finished running 4.15 miles on it. I plan to gradually increase my distance to about 7-8 miles at a time. Others can have their five-kilometer races. I’m taking the “long road”!

Ideological Drivel on the Senate Floor

I saw a Senate floor debate the other day concerning the Fairness Doctrine. No, it’s not being reinstated, nor is anyone pushing for its reinstatement. In fact, President Obama has repeatedly made the point that he is opposed to the Fairness Doctrine, which the assorted right wing radio talk show hosts keep insisting that he favors anyway, truth be damned.

The Senate exchange I witnessed was between extreme right wing conservative Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and liberal Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). DeMint, whose constituency is supposedly the state of South Carolina but which is in reality the one person of Rush Limbaugh, proposed an amendment (to another, completely unrelated bill) that prohibited the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this was a federal regulation, in effect from 1949 to 1987, that required licensed broadcasting stations (using public radio frequencies) to reasonably present diverse sides to discussions, a well-informed public and electorate being the aim. There were also regulations promoting news, weather, religious and children’s programming on stations. When the Fairness Doctrine was rescinded, these other rules remained in effect. But the language of DeMint’s amendment hinted that these rules would also go by the wayside. So Senator Durbin submitted an amendment to DeMint’s amendment (both amendments passed) restating what was already in the law books concerning these other rules so as to avoid any future misinterpretation of DeMint's amendment. And then DeMint spoke out a flood of ideological invective in opposition to Durbin’s amendment, calling it socialist, communist, and a “back door” attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

When I was a kid, I would often encounter communist ideological propaganda emanating from those totalitarian states behind the Iron Curtain or in the Far East. Those promulgating this stuff had their own specialized vocabulary as well as their own completely revised version of history that supported their propaganda. This was all coming from the left. On the right, there was also an ideology of racism in this country that decreed segregation and which accused those in favor of integration and civil rights of having loose morals and being pro-communist. Nowadays, I’m hearing ideological drivel as well, but it all seems to be coming from the right, and is found in talk shows hosted by the likes of Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. And some of our elected politicians (like Senator DeMint, but he’s not the only one) have decided to take this dead-end road and spout this garbage. Sad, so sad!

Stephen King’s Christine

I just finished reading Christine, an old Steven King novel about an old car, a teenager’s obsession with it, and the usual supernatural goings-on, set in western Pennsylvania in 1978-79. Since King usually chose Maine to place his stories in, I was struck by the fact that a later novel of his about an unusual “car” (From a Buick 8) that I had already read was set in the same general location. Apparently, there’s something in the author’s mind connecting old cars with western Pennsylvania!

I have to admit to some difficulty in the beginning with motivating myself to read through Christine. For one, I never was into the old fifties/sixties pop tunes about cars (I did think Jan and Dean’s 1964 Dead Man’s Curve was a classic), various lyrics of which open each chapter. And I never was into cars themselves, as a few of my classmates throughout my elementary and high school years were. But my overriding problem for most of the novel was my difficulty in identifying or sympathizing with any of its characters. Christine, written in the first person from the viewpoint of Dennis, a star high school jock, is about how his best friend, who happens to be the school “nerd” with a special proclivity to auto mechanics, comes across an old, beat-up Plymouth (named “Christine”), buys it, and becomes increasingly possessed by it. And then, as in other Stephen King works, very inexplicable and very, very bad things begin to happen. At this point, for me at least, the novel became more interesting and more disturbing. For I had finally come across a character that I could identify with. And it wasn’t a very compelling character, either. This forced me to examine my own attitudes and personality, not always a pleasant task.

So my interest in reading Christine began to increase until I flew through to the finish. And, in a peculiar (and equally disturbing) way, it had a happy ending. Of sorts. If you want to call its ending an ending. Anyway, whatever you might call it, I thought the ending was stupendous.

Christine is a novel whose attraction for the reader depends greatly on his/her interests and personality. It would be interesting to see which characters different readers identified with the most. And why. I wouldn’t rank Christine among Stephen King’s best novels, but it certainly wasn’t one of his worst, either.

I understand a movie was made about Christine. For the most part, though, I have been disappointed with film enactments of King’s works (The Shining being the worst), although there have been some notable exceptions (such as It and Stand By Me). So I suggest that you would probably be better off either checking out Christine from the library or purchasing a cheap used paperback copy instead of watching the movie.

Me and My Blog, Again

One thing that you may have noticed with this blog is that it isn’t a detailed information source. There are good reasons for this. When I initially write out an entry, I am usually away from home and my desktop computer there. I don’t personally own a laptop and don’t currently see the need for one (if I go back to college, I’m sure that will change). Instead, I write out my blog articles either with pen and scratch paper or (like I’m doing now) using my handy-dandy ultra cheap, AA-battery powered AlphaSmart word processor. So no Internet access while I’m writing the body of my work. Later, I often use the Net (usually starting with Google or Wikipedia) to clear up factual questions I have about specific items. But the orientation here is to present a (usually) reasoned and relatively informed OPINION about whatever the topic happens to be.

A couple of years ago, I wanted to research the advantages and disadvantages of exclusively using a treadmill for my running training, without ever actually going outside and running on a hard, stationary surface. I searched my topic on Google and came up with a variety of sources about the merits and drawbacks of treadmill running. And I discovered something curious: many of my sources, claiming to be informative in nature, were repeating the exact same article on treadmills, word for word, and taking complete credit for it without any acknowledgement of where their article came from! It reminded me of gossip circles (a form of social feedback loop) where a small group of people keep repeating and reinforcing the same (often completely false) “news” item until it is accepted as truth without question. So I am just a little bit skeptical about using search engines as a primary information source, although I still do searches all the time.

But in writing this blog, I have already made the assumption that my esteemed readers can use Google or Wikipedia anytime they want to get more detailed information. I suspect that, in regard to my writings about songs, TV shows, or movies, some readers may be looking for a link to access the material they may want to listen to or watch. But then again, why hit on my blog for this when Google or Wikipedia can give quicker and more detailed results and choices? No, the value that I am pushing on this blog is more akin to a newspaper column. Sometimes it’s like an editorial article, sometimes it would fit better in the sports or entertainment section. And sometimes it would belong in the same part of the paper that folks like Dave Barry reside in.

If my facts do ever seem out of line with your understanding of them, please feel free to correct me on them. I’m not too deep on presenting facts, but judging from my experience in listening to callers on radio and television talk show, I don’t think I’m being too prideful in stating that that my expressed opinions in different matters carry more weight and validity than most of what I hear out there. And the bulk of what I write (and what you read) is coming from me, personally, and not lifted from other sources.