My Melon Run Experience

Yesterday I ran in the three-mile Melon Run, sponsored by the Florida Track Club and held here in Gainesville in the Westside Park vicinity. I enjoyed some of the run, but much of it was an exercise in futility.

Like every other race I have participated in, I was crowded out by aggressive, usually slower runners in the crowded pack at the race's start (even though I had lined up ahead of them). This cost me precious time as I tried to find openings around these runners, whose pushiness this way makes no sense to me. Most of us have a general sense of how fast we are going to run. The slower runners should understand that they are only creating traffic logjams by pushing to the front at the beginning (much like a slow driver insisting on occupying the left "fast" lane on the Interstate).

I spent the rest of the race catching up with and passing other runners, most of whom I should have been ahead of in the first place. At the very end, some hotshot popular elder runner, whose name bystanders were cheering (while ignoring me) pushed past me to the finish. Other than him, it was a typical pattern of me falling hopelessly behind pushy, slow runners at the race's start and then playing catchup and passing others the rest of the way. I finished with a time of 23:04. I probably would have had a 22:30 time or better had I been allowed to run without interference.

Also, unfortunately, the officially posted times were off, since the Florida Track Club uses an antiquated system that matches times with racing finish order. If there is any glitch along the line, than each runner is given the time of the runner ahead or behind him (or her). I was given the erroneous time of 23:15. They should institute the use of computer-chip timing and ditch the present flawed system.

For this race at least, I decided to wait for the awards ceremony. Bad decision. I had to wait an hour and a half, just standing around with the other runners. I tried to make conversation with some, but for the most part they were tightly corralled into their own private circles of family and friends. I felt almost like an unwelcome stranger, here in my home town of 33 years!

The race's organizers, the Florida Track Club, had an irritating manner of being very warm and encouraging to their select group of "buddies" while displaying a rather strict formality to "outsiders" (like 33-year resident "me"). Equally irritating was during the awards ceremony when the presenter would take great pains to recognize UF professors by calling them "doctor" so-and-so. For crying out loud, we only ran a fun race. Am I expected to kiss up to these people all of the time?

You might think that I am down on the Florida Track Club and Gainesville races. But I just sent the FTC my membership application and one year's dues. Maybe by becoming a part of the picture, I can exert a positive influence on running here in Gainesville, especially towards the aim of eliminating the kind of cliquish behavior I perceive going on. We'll see. In any event, I ran my July public race. I can't wait to resume running in longer events. Events timed by computer chips!

Oh by the way, this time I did carry my little digital camera with me for the race. Not much to show, but hey, it was my first venture into "running tourism"! The blurry picture was due to me trying to photograph while running, not a good idea.

Obama Deserves Respect as Country's President

It has disturbed me seeing how many currently in opposition to President Obama have spewed what is essentially a message of hatred toward this gentle, public-minded man who has consistently conducted himself with a degree of grace and dignity that is truly remarkable. The critics who bother me the most are those who claim that Obama's election was illegitimate, that he either was born outside of the U.S. or that something in the process itself unfairly manipulated people into voting for him.

I had heard the same sort of stuff about George W. Bush, with the notion that he had been able to unfairly manipulate the process to claim two close election victories in 2000 and 2004. And that those who voted for his reelection in 2004 were somehow flimflammed into doing so.

What nonsense. In both 2000 and 2004, both Republicans and Democrats did whatever they could to influence the election outcome, including the intense no-holds-barred legal struggles in Florida following the 2000 election. I remember listening to Air America in 2006, hearing program hosts regularly claiming that Bush stole both the 2000 and 2004 elections.

I always recognized the election results of 2000, 2004, and 2008. When Bush was president, he was MY president as well as president of those who voted for him. And while he pursued a political agenda that I often disagreed with (often very strongly), I felt then and feel now that he understood that he, too, was everyone's president, not just his supporters'. In the same vein I feel that Barack Obama, while pursuing his particular political agenda, also sees himself as the entire country's president.

If only his opponents would just respect him for that and that he is our legitimately elected president, I would be much more willing to listen to their ideas. Hearing some of the anti-Bush venom being pushed back in the Air America days did nothing to predispose me toward their opinions, instead only discrediting them.

Drinking Coffee, Running, and Parking in Davie

While down in Broward County last week, I drove over to the "block" comprising the Nova public schools and Broward {Community} College to do my 2.87 mile run (actually, I had planned to double it this time to 5.74). Pulling into the B{C}C parking lot, once again almost empty, I encountered this time a sign warning me that I needed a decal to park in one of their many neglected spaces. Off in the distance I saw a huge parking garage (it was the building under construction last year when I visited). So now that they have so much more room for parking than they know what to do with, they're going to start clamping down!

No problem, I just drove northward to Nova Drive, where I pulled into a Publix parking lot. After all, even in Gainesville with its insane, nitpicking enforcement of parking, nobody there gets uptight about anyone using Publix parking lots. But no, I looked and there was a sign saying "roam towing" for those who parked there but didn't immediately jump out and patronize the stores. I drove past row after row of empty parking spaces to the far corner of the lot, where I quickly got out and crossed the street to begin my run. Knowing that I might not have a car there when I returned.

So I decided on that first lap that it would be my only lap. The temperature was hot as usual at 90 degrees, but it didn't bother me. Upon returning to the Publix area, I saw a young man walking around the lot with a red shirt on, looking a lot as if he were the one responsible for determining "towable" cars. I slipped into my car and drove off, wondering what had happened to the formerly liberal parking attitude that had made Davie an attractive place to visit as recently as last year.

Oh, did I mention that Nova High School was completely fenced and locked off, included its publicly funded track? No, I didn't.

I won't be returning there to run. But...

West of all this, on Nova Drive near University Drive, is a great place to drink coffee and study: the Havana Coffee Company. I visited there twice, purchasing each time one of their Café Cubano Doble's. Excellent, although I think the next time I go there I will get something a little larger.

Trivia Not Trivial, To Me

Around work, sometimes we get caught up with asking each other trivia questions, just to help pass the time of day. Usually, I'm pretty quick with trivia, seeing how I have had this propensity to pick up "useless" knowledge over the years with unconscious ease. But I have to admit that these trivia games have begun to wear on me.

The reason I remember so much trivia is that it all takes place within context. Musically, I can almost visualize the times and places when and where I heard various songs. Furthermore, I make this connection even when I am just playing them in my head. Songs like Paul Simon's Loves Me Like a Rock, the Beatles' Don't Pass Me By, Harry Chapin's W-O-L-D, Chicago's I've Been Searching For So Long, and Bette Midler's Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy were all tunes going on in my mind while running in my late teens around the Nova/BCC complex in Davie, Florida. Isao Tomita's remarkable 1974 album Snowflakes Are Dancing places me at a place I worked in Miami Shores during the same period. Country and western songs tend to draw me back to my first year at the post office, when the only headset radio I had, a real "cheapie", could only pick up the powerful GC-101 country and western station. Every time I see the stylized "D" on official Detroit Tigers items, it takes me back to a baseball card I had that displayed it when I was about six. And me standing in front of my house on the north side looking at it. Young Frankenstein I first viewed on the Reitz Union lawn at the University of Florida. Find Your Place in the Sun, a 1977 hit by Pablo Cruz, was played before a movie showing in that Reitz Union's theater. I know the video games I have played over the years by when and where I played them (and with whom). And so on. If someone asks me a trivia question touching upon any of these items or a myriad of others, a chain of associations and memories ensues. And that's what I dig the most about trivia, not just getting the answers right.

I tend to cluster my memories together into settings. When I am prompted by one item, the others fall into place as well. So someone at work asking me a trivia question is begging to be bored by my very long, drawn-out response as I explore the significance that the supposedly insignificant trivia carries to me. But I am tired of simply barking out the answers to show what a smartass I am. There is more to it than that for me.

What makes trivia enjoyable to me are those associations and dug-up memories that create a picture of my own personal past. I like to listen to others relate in a personal way like this, but apparently I tend to do it much more intensely than others.

The Independent Huddling Elderly

Clifford Simak, one of my all-time favorite science fiction writers, once wrote a short story titled The Huddling Place. It examined the negative consequences for someone who was able to fashion his own private environment to the point that the outside world was so effectively filtered that it was essentially shut out. It has one of those profound endings that keep creeping into my thoughts from time to time, reminding me of other things going on in my life.

I admit to having been a habitual "huddler": one who can't wait for the moment in the day when privacy rules and others are barred from entry into my life. This has usually occurred at the end of my workday and I am finally home, late at night. The others in my family have all usually gone off to bed by then, and I pretty much have the run of the living room/kitchen all to myself. But then again, the hour or two I enjoy snacking and "surfing" my TV are no longer typical for how I now spend my free time. For late at night after work, I am often mentally fatigued and just need some "alone" time to relax and lighten up. Yet at other times I go out into the world and mix with it with no problem and to my enjoyment.

But I do know some people who, like the main character in Simak's The Huddling Place, at some point in their lives decided to create their own little "private: no trespassing" cocoon of privacy. All outsiders, almost always strangers, become potential intruders to them. Unfortunately, with elderly people possessing this bent who live independently, this can also mean cutting off one's connections with people whom they find themselves needing at times to depend on for their needs.

It's a fact of life: as we age, our physical abilities diminish, often to the point where we can't function without outside help. We can't see or hear as well as before, we can't walk like we did when younger, and our injuries are both more severe and serious, as well as slower to heal. Our ability to react is also slowed, making driving that more difficult, if not impossible. Yes, the expression "independent elderly" could be termed an oxymoron since it is the sad, though unvarnished truth that aging goes hand in hand with increasingly greater dependence on others.

Instead what happens is that some elderly cut themselves so completely off from their neighbors that, when they finally become so desperate in their needs, they become prey to con artists and even violent crime.

Let's face it, we all like our privacy, even the more gregarious of us. But we also need to take care to make some effort to connect with others around us. In a city environment, having someone on our block or in our apartment complex who occasionally checks in on us to see how we're doing is "priceless", as that old worn-out commercial puts it. Beyond that, there are social and religious organizations that are eager to invite the elderly into its halls and help them with transportation or other relevant matters (belief in their creed is usually not required). Of course, nearby family can make a huge difference. And even those relatives living at a distance can help profoundly. But the base of social connections has to be local, and to accomplish this one's "huddling place" needs to have "occasional", not "permanent" status.

What's Most Important?

--Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee begins with Senator Sessions (R, Alabama) using his opening statement to threaten a Republican filibuster.

--Tropical Storm Alex, a very early start to the Atlantic hurricane season, is hitting land as a Category One hurricane, just south of the U.S./Mexico border.

--Oil continues to gush out of the breach at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, more oil is washing ashore wrecking the environment, and accusing fingers are flying everywhere.

--The war in Afghanistan drags on with a new commanding American general--actually a familiar face, General Petraeus--replacing deposed loose cannon General McChrystal. Depending on whom you're listening to, we're either beating the Taliban or they're taking over, with much of the government clandestinely supporting them. Sounds too much like Vietnam to me.

--The World Cup in soccer is in the quarterfinals stage; how is "your" country doing?

For most of the world's population that pays any attention to news, there is only one news story that counts: the World Cup! The planet could be on the brink of being hit by a large asteroid and Univision would still be interviewing crowds of maniacal soccer fans wearing their country's colors and waving their national flags, jumping up and down and screaming.

Blackberry, Road Travel

I got a Blackberry the other day. It is fun to be able to have access to the Internet wherever I go. I'm thinking of trying out a little experiment with it over the next few days: submit all of my blog articles through Blackberry instead of my home computer. The reason is simple: I will be doing some road travelling into the middle of next week, so my daily "homebody" routine will be temporarily interrupted. Should be a little tedious typing on the little Blackberry keyboard, but otherwise this should be an interesting experience.

Infomercial Nation

Some nights I fall asleep with the television on. Often the channel that is on when I drift off into slumber ends its regular programming and instead broadcasts a series of half-hour-long infomercials. The topics are very wide-ranging, but they all have one thing in common: you can get an edge over everyone else if you buy their product, and at such a steal of a price!

The amazing thing is that these commercial "programs" are often more entertaining than the regular programming. Let's just say that the producers of these spots really know how to get my attention! And that can be rough on me, considering that I usually would be better off sleeping at four in the morning (after all, isn't that why I switched my working hours from the graveyard shift seven years ago?).

Even though many of these infomercials just keep repeating the same tape throughout the presentation, they are often the more interesting. Here are a few of the infomercials that have piqued my interest for various reasons:

Free Money: just go to a website, type in your name, and the government probably will be sending you a check, possibly for thousands of dollars. Perennial infomercial fixture Kevin Trudeau has written a book to this effect and is interviewed by two very attractive, very busty women for the duration of the show (with plenty of camera shots at them). Trudeau's message, regardless whichever of his books he is pitching, is almost always with the accompanied theme that THEY don't want you to know this privileged information he is sharing with you. What a nice guy, to stand up against THEM for you and me (and make a little dough on the side)!

Size Matters...to 88% of women (and the other 12% are lying). So says Dr. Victoria Zdrok, also very attractive and busty, with what sounds like a Russian accent, to the accompaniment of "real opinions" emphatically delivered by various incredibly shallow and self-centered young women affirming this notion. The solution is to buy their product, which will "extend" the happiness of its users.

I've seen infomercial after infomercial extolling the virtues of hard, sweaty exercise workouts, sometimes with DVDs being sold, sometimes with quirky (and sometimes dangerous) looking exercise equipment, and sometimes with both. And then there's the commercial that just says to put on their tight, squeezing, elastic suit around your body (under your clothes, of course) and you'll LOOK as if you've been working out without having to actually do anything. Yeah!

Finally, at least for the scope of this article, there is Brainetics, a program designed by math whiz Michael Byster that contains instruction on math and memory shortcuts. Brainetics, as the infomercial clearly reveals, is marketed to parents of little children with the not-so-subtle implication that (1) it will increase their intelligence and give them the needed competitive academic edge over other children and (2) the current, conventional system of education is hopeless without the aid of a system like Brainetics. The whole infomercial has Byster in front of groups of beaming, enthusiastic little children who instantly shout out the answers to what seem like the most complicated of arithmetic problems. More on Brainetics in a later article.

I haven't begun to touch upon the many other types of infomercials out there; frankly, some of them (like the ones dealing with household cleaning) don't exactly capture my attention. But they all seem to have a common theme. The product being sold is inexpensive, necessary, timely, and not available anywhere else. And if you don't buy their product, you are doomed to failure and unhappiness. Or mediocrity at best.

The Amazing Shrinking Bicycle Path

US 441 is a very important road that effectively divides Gainesville between east and west (although it is, within Gainesville's street grid, West 13th Street). The University of Florida lies on this road, as does Gainesville High School. I live within a mile of it on the north side of town (I always seem to find myself living near 441). And, for the most part, this street is bicycle friendly.

And bicycle friendly it should be, since my local government has invested a lot of money in creating bicycle lanes all across town. US 441 is no exception. As you can see in the top picture, taken on the north side of town near the former site of Dub's (where Tom Petty, former Gainesville High School geek, used to perform in the early 70's with his fledgling rock band). Very wide and accommodating for bicycles, wouldn't you say? This nice pathway continues southbound, all the way to Northwest 23rd Avenue. Then it disappears (unless you have a very, very thin bicycle). The bottom picture, taken by Gainesville High (where Tom Petty attended---hey wait a minute, get out of my blog, Petty), shows this. So just when someone would actually need a bicycle lane to get down on a busy street (and by the high school the sidewalk is often crowded with pedestrians), there is none. Maybe they felt that they couldn't fit one in, with the overall road space possibly too thin there. But there IS a good bike path going northbound along the same stretch. They could at least have fudged just a little and provided SOME space for southbound bicyclists.

You may wonder what the big deal is, anyway, seeing that there is a good concrete sidewalk running along the street in both pictures. But recently a law has been passed here mandating bicyclists to use the designated bike lanes instead of the sidewalks, unless of course there isn't a bike lane. Now I ask, is that a bike lane in front of Gainesville High? Maybe it is, to a cop... who knows. Not that I see the police dishing out tickets wholesale to "violators". But it does give them another pretext to profile, stop, and harass citizens that they might regard as "undesirables".

I don't suppose that very many people are bothered by the amazing shrinking bicycle path. After all, my local rag The Gainesville Sun hasn't printed any protesting editorial letters to this effect. Still, dudes, what would Tom say if he saw this? (Hey Petty, I told you to scram... stop jamming me!)

General McChrystal Has to Go

I don't like seeing anyone losing their job, but General Stanley McChrystal, who has been commanding the American war effort in Afghanistan, needs to go after publicly criticizing his commander-in-chief, President Obama, in a Rolling Stone interview. It is not the duty of a military officer to determine our country's foreign policy. If it ever comes to that, we are all in deep, deep trouble. Presidents Truman and Carter understood this when they sacked MacArthur and Singlaub for their insubordination. And in both cases, the deposed officers were lauded in the press while the presidents were criticized.

Seeing this, and seeing how the Fox News Channel tends to pick up anyone famous who is opposed to Obama, I have two predictions: (1) Within the year after his "retirement", General McChrystal will be hired by Fox as a political or military analyst while constantly being referred to as "General" to give his opinions undisputed credence, and (2) further off in the future, he will run for a statewide senatorial or gubernatorial office as a Republican. There is also an obvious third prediction that is so self-evident that I didn't include it as an "official" prediction: McChrystal will get rich from the upcoming book he will write and from the speaking tours he will be embarking on in the not-so-distant future. The good General who stood up to Obama.

That's the way they do it nowadays.

Typical Summer Weather Pattern

Today I don't have much to say, so I'll resort to an old stand-me-by: the weather. For the past few weeks, we in north central Florida have been experiencing typical summer weather. Lows are in the seventies, highs in the vicinity of 90 (with a few spikes in the mid-90s). It's usually pretty clear in the morning, with those puffy cumulus clouds beginning to proliferate around noon (see picture). Afternoons and evenings are full of "interesting" weather, with the prospect of violent thunderstorms and near-torrential rains always present. The other day in Jacksonville, my family and I went to the Cheesecake Factory restaurant just before noon, with clear skies all around. By the time we walked out, the skies were overcast. And as we left Jaguartown a couple of hours later, severe thunderstorms descending on the area. Passing through Middleburg on the way back was like driving through a lake. Fortunately, we had taken the van instead of the little Pontiac.

The same outlook holds for today as well. So the wise get outdoors in the morning and do what they need to do then. But then again, I noticed that several of my fellow "Gainesvillians" have decided, by jogging and walking in the rain, that it's better to get thoroughly soaked in cooler weather (as much as 25 degrees cooler) than burn up in the dry heat! Maybe they're the wise ones and the rest of us are the fools!

A New Celtics Fan in the World

Now that the NBA playoffs are over and the Los Angeles Lakers have beaten the Boston Celtics four games to three to win their second straight championship, I have a revelation of sorts: for the first time in more than forty years of following the National Basketball Association, I rooted for the Boston Celtics. And I came away from the experience as a confirmed fan of theirs, hoping for them to retain the core of their team next year, along with their very talented, wise coach Doc Rivers.

Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Ray Allen are the Celtic "standouts", but their talent runs deeply into the bench. And it seems that, no matter who is out there, these players know teamwork more than anything else. What a joy to watch!

No, they didn't win the title this year, but the current Boston Celtics exhibit the essence of what team play is all about. They certainly do have their share of stars, but these guys aren't prima donnas like Cleveland's LeBron James. Even Rasheed Wallace, formerly at times a prima donna when playing for Detroit, has become an integral, unselfish team player. If Rasheed or anyone else is having a poor shooting night, he will set up those players who are hot that night. The result has been different Celtics stepping up in game after game with stellar performances. Even substitute Glen "Big Baby" Davis came through this way and helped give Boston a crucial victory to keep them in the series.

Boston is in a different division from Orlando and Chicago, which are the only other teams in the Eastern Conference that I root for (the West is an entirely different matter, with me pulling for Phoenix, Utah, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Denver). Is this the beginning of a new trend of me pulling for Boston, with the Red Sox and Patriots to follow? I don't think I'll ever root for the Pats because they are divisional arch-rivals of my Miami Dolphins. As for the Sox, I don't know; maybe I need to visit NYC's northeastern "bracket" city to form a little bonding with Beantown.

Skateboard Shop to Offer Skate-Through Drinks

In a short article appearing in Thursday's Independent Florida Alligator, writer Tara Wind reports that a skate shop has opened next to the new skateboarding facility at Possum Creek Park. This store is located at the site of a former drive-through coffee shop in the back of a convenience store/gas station.

The owners obviously want to capitalize on the new skateboarding park and are, in my opinion, pretty savvy entrepreneurs. They reportedly plan to convert the original drive-through section into a "skate-through" area where skaters will be given free drinks. Hmmm...

Not being a skateboarder myself, my daughter still has a skateboard in the garage. Maybe, from time to time, I could "borrow" it and stash it in my car trunk. Then I'd drive up to the skate shop, park just around the corner from it (out of sight), take out the skateboard, limp along on it through the "free drinks" window, then disappear around the corner. Where I'd stash the skateboard back into the trunk and drive off, thinking all the time how clever I was.

With my free drink sitting on top of the car.

Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan: Here We Go Again

The political scapegoating of an entire demographic group with genocidal violence directed against it seems to be as old as history. Since the nineteenth century, the world, supposedly more enlightened and civilized, has seen this troubling phenomenon only intensify in brutality and scope. The pogroms directed against the Jewish population of Russia under the Czars, the Holocaust directed against them by the Nazis during World War II, the atrocities committed against the Ottoman Empire's Armenian population in 1894 and 1915, the ethnic cleansing of "savage" Native American nationality after nationality by the "civilized" Americans throughout the nineteenth century, the atrocities in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda during the 1990's, East Timor, ...I could go on and on, and someone out there would still have their own example to add to the list (while possibly expressing a sense of personal offense because I left their example off my own list). And now, sadly, in a small Central Asian country in which Russia and the U.S. both have military bases, it's happening again.

In Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic strategically situated on Afghanistan's northern border and next to China, a recent coup d'etat has resulted in an ongoing civil conflict between the former and present leaders and their supporters. And once again, a national minority, this time the Uzbeks, have been made into a scapegoat by one of the factions.

According the Associated Press, as many as 400,000 Uzbeks are fleeing angry mobs of native Kyrgyz as they try to escape across the border to Uzbekistan from this country gone mad with hate. The Uzbeks reportedly have generally supported the new interim regime, while the violence against them is thought to be stirred up by supporters of the former government. But why are the people following the instigators into a path of violent mob behavior?

Russia and the U.S. are trying as hard as they can to set up humanitarian aid for the beleaguered Uzkek refugees. But neither can apparently step in to stop the violence, even with all of the overt military and more subtle economic and diplomatic power at their disposal.

From what I know, the Uzbek and Kyrgyz languages, Turkic in origin, are very similar and mutually intelligible, for all practical purposes. For an outsider, it makes no sense that one group would make such a big deal distinguishing itself in this manner from the other.

Irrational, bigoted hatred is indeed a most powerful force. Here we go again.

Obnoxious and Endless [fill-in-the-blank]

The very afternoon, yesterday, that I wrote and published an article titled "Obnoxious and Endless Road Work", criticizing the intrusive and drawn out road work going on in my subdivision (and especially right in front of my house), the "crew" went right to it, finally paving the street on my block. Whoopee!

Now I don't want to flatly claim that it was my article that spurred them to action, but facts are facts. I published it and just a few hours later, I got some redress. So naturally, now that I know I have "The Power", why not try it out on some other areas and see what happens? Like...

Obnoxious and Endless Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Obnoxious and Endless Unwelcome Appearances of Sarah Palin on My TV
Obnoxious and Endless Days When No One Gives Me A Million Dollars
Obnoxious and Endless Lousy Songs on Broadcast Radio
Obnoxious and Endless Supply of Politicians Pretending to be Angry in Order in Gain Public Favor Obnoxious and Endless Line of Pathetic "Reality" Shows on TV

Well, let's cut it off there, for now. Let's see...maybe just putting the above on my blog will solve all of those problems.

Can't I at least hope?

Obnoxious and Endless Road Work

The road work in front of my house is driving me crazy. They have had signs out for the past two weeks (after they tore off all of the pavement) prohibiting residents from parking along what is left of the road in front of their homes. This week, the large, loud construction vehicles have come around and started their "work" in the morning while closing sections of the road I need access to in order to get to and from my house. Day after day, I hear and see workers and vehicles loudly going back and forth down my street, as if they are actually DOING something. But then, when they leave for the day, I go out and survey their progress. And the street is still as bad as ever, weeks after this all began!

I decided that I would just get up early in the morning and drive my car around the block to a "no road work" zone and park it, just in the event that my street was being paved over and closed to traffic when I had to leave for work or another reason. Today I did that, later walked over to my car and drove off, only to encounter other road work going on in my new alternate route, with the road broken up even more than on my home street. There's no way to avoid it, apparently.

I wonder if the street in front of my house will ever be repaved.

Go Listen to Regina Spektor

It has only been about three months since I have even heard of Regina Spektor. Born in the Soviet Union in 1980 and immigrating with her parents to the U.S. (and locating in New York City) in 1988, she is quite an extraordinary musical talent, an accomplished pianist and vocalist. Her albums, totaling five so far, are all of her own compositions. Her style is usually a fusion of disparate forms, including jazz, rock, hip-hop, adult alternative, rock, folk, and something that I can only term as "quirky". But more than anything, Regina Spektor has captured my listening imagination, even more so than did Sufjan Stevens a year ago. She is my #1 top favorite musical act right now, so it was interesting to find out that she recently performed solo for President Obama, Vice-President Biden, and their families at the White House. It's nice to know that the folks up there nowadays have some musical taste.

As I usually do in this sort of article, I am listing my favorite Regina Spektor songs, along with the albums they are from in brackets. I have all of her works and am eagerly waiting for more. I noticed that, after her first two albums, which were exclusively of her voice and piano, the last three (which I like more) contained many songs with a wide variety of instrumental accompaniment. But all five albums are quite good. Anyway, here are my favorites:

#1 Us [Soviet Kitsch (2004)]
#2 Man of a Thousand Faces [Far (2009)]
#3 20 Years of Snow [Begin to Hope (2006)]
-------------------
#4 The Calculation [F]
#5 Folding Chair [F]
#6 Better [BtH]
#7 Human of the Year [F]
#8 Pavlov's Daughter [11:11 (2001)]
#9 Hotel Song [BtH]
#10 That Time [BtH]
#11 The Flowers [SK]
#12 Samson [Songs (2002), BtH]
#13 Genius Next Door [F]
#14 Edit [BtH]
#15 Dance Anthem of the 80's [F]
#16 Laughing With [F]
#17 Wallet [F]
#18 Après Moi [BtH]
#19 Lady [BtH]
#20 Reading Time with Pickle [S]

By the way, I must remark that, although I like just about everything that Regina Spektor has done, the top three songs Us, Man of a Thousand Faces, and 20 Years of Snow, are much greater than the rest, in my estimation. So if you are "pressed for time", try to see if you can't at least hear those three.

I like Regina Spektor's music so much that I have all of her songs on my MP3 and currently listen only to her songs and to none of the many other quality artists whose songs I have on my player. That should say something about how good she is. And once again I am confounded by how broadcast radio has virtually ignored her, just as with Sufjan Stevens. The genre that she seems to have been placed in is either "indie" or "adult alternative". At least her songs are played on cable radio and the Internet.

Race Organizers Need to Post Results

I have participated, starting with February's half-marathon here in Gainesville, in one running race per month. This year marks my greatest participation in races ever and I'm having a fun time doing it. So far, I've run:

February: LifeSouth Five Points Half-Marathon
March: Climb for Cancer 15K
April: Run Amuck With the Duck 5K
May: Somer's Summer Run 5K (in Orange Park)
June: Chad Reed Memorial 5K (in Cross City)

Each of the above supported a worthwhile charity. The organizers were sincere in trying to raise money and awareness for their particular causes while at the same time putting on a good event for the runners (and sometimes walkers) to enjoy. I recognize that nobody's perfect and that I could find faults with each of the races I was a part of. But I do have more of a beef with the last race (in Cross City).

For the LifeSouth, Climb for Cancer, and Somer's races, my time was recorded and the race results were posted on the Internet. The "Duck Run" (for lung cancer research) was conducted differently: BEFORE the race (that's important), runners were told that only the top three finishers would be timed and their results recorded. Knowing that, I set my own watch and timed myself. No problem. And now we come to the Chad Reed Memorial 5K.

Wonderful cause, which that run was for, no doubt. I hope that the well is dug soon and benefits the people that Captain Reed had wanted to help. That having been said, I feel let down by the way that those running this event seem to have "packed up and gone home" afterwards. No results have been posted, to my knowledge. If they have, no one has bothered to notify me (although at the pre-race registration time I filled out a form that gave information to them that would have enabled them to do so). Fortunately, I timed myself on my watch and know my final time. But I don't know how I did among others in my age group, which is my primary competitive interest. The website RaceSmith has a spot for this race's results should they ever post them, but so far it is blank, ten days after the event. I also noticed on their site, though, that other races seem to take place each week in which the organizers don't bother to post results, either.

I don't intend to demean the important causes underlying many of these races, but there are some basic expectations that runners have when they shell out the registration fee to enter them. Here are two: (1) they want to be timed and (2) they want the race results posted publicly, with the Internet the most convenient medium for this. That shouldn't so burdensome for someone to do, but it seems that with many of these races, times and results are never made public.

Still, it is my participation in the race that rules over everything else. I won't make too much of a deal about various shortcomings I've experienced in them other than to write about the most glaring and then "letting it go". Failing to publicly post race results IS a glaring shortcoming. So now I've written about it and am "letting it go".

Quality, Utility, and Expense

I recently came across a bicycling magazine that seems to be devoted to competitive racing. On the back cover is an ad promoting an apparently very good bicycle, specially designed and built to give its owner the best possible performance in a race. To my untrained eye, it looked just like an ordinary bicycle. But its price, $3300, was anything but ordinary.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my local Wal-Mart and happened upon the bicycle section. There was a mountain bike for sale, at $75. I bought it and rode it around the neighborhood. Perfect, for my purposes.

Just do the arithmetic: for the price of that one racing bicycle, I could have bought 440 of the Wal-Mart bikes! But I am not a racer; I bicycle for the exercise and fun, more than anything else. I am not into the marginalism involved in trying squeeze out a competitive edge in order to beat out my opponents. So I can go cheap in this area.

But suppose it is a different area in my life where a margin or edge does matter. Perhaps I am a stickler for gourmet cooking; then I might dole out quite a sum on high dining. When someone else might be satisfied with simpler and less expensive food. Or I may feel the need to wear only clothing that has been specially tailored to perfectly fit me, and anything else simply will not do. In these cases, as with the bicycle, it is the “margin” of quality that drives up their costs much more than then the basic utility of the good.

The question I have to ask myself is what areas should I personally take a stand in and insist on the “highest quality”, even when this entails paying much more for it than I would for the “basic package”. And having been rooted in simple utilitarian living, this is not something easy for me to answer.

I tend to search out the cheapest ways to attain the best variety of goods and experiences for myself and my family. There are no areas in my life that I can firmly state I am committed to spend whatever it takes to attain an elite level of quality. Maybe this is good, maybe not. Or am I selling myself short?

Right now, I am interested in running. I would like to invest some money in traveling to various places that hold races. Not only would I expand my running experiences, but it would be a lot of fun sightseeing as well. Or perhaps it is in the area of learning foreign languages where I have been selling myself short. After all, the best way to learn a foreign language is to live for a while among its speakers. This requires money and time, something I have heretofore been unwilling to commit.

Well, I’m not getting any younger, so I had better decide which if any areas in which I really want to take the plunge and invest that substantially higher level of money and time necessary to have optimal outcomes. I don’t want my old age to be a time of regret for opportunities passed by. But I do know one thing right now: no way am I going to blow $3300 on a bicycle!

The Downtown Pedestrian Experience

While Melissa and I recently stayed in St. Augustine, we had the occasion to go to the city’s historic district (we’ve been there many times before). This is a concentrated zone of shops, restaurants, and museums in the heart of town. The roads are narrow and the buildings close together. And pedestrians rule there, actually controlling the “main” road, St. George’s Street.

We pulled into the excellent parking garage on Cordova Street (parking around there wasn’t always so simple) and, after we left it, joined the throng of walkers. And suddenly I was transported back in time to a similar type of experience in Manhattan, New York.

I think most cities deeply want to have a section of their downtown where people can just walk around freely down the sidewalks and visit the various little businesses, as was the case in Manhattan and St. Augustine. My old childhood hometown of Hollywood, Florida was eventually successful (long after I had moved away) at transforming a section of the area around Hollywood Boulevard just west of Young Circle into such a zone. And they always had their very popular Broadwalk along Hollywood Beach. My current hometown of Gainesville has, however, struggled unsuccessfully to create a similar effect in their downtown area. I think I know why, too: not enough is there to attract visitors.

In order to attract people for a “night out” on the town, there has to be a sense that visitors can walk around to many places and browse shops or step into restaurants as they find them on their walks. Also, there needs to be a sense that the cars on the streets are subservient to the presence of the pedestrians. Neither of these is present in downtown Gainesville. You’re still dodging traffic while desperately looking around for SOMEPLACE interesting to go to. I also think that the Gainesville police, for all of the good work that they do protecting us, tend to overdo it with their overt presence downtown. So Gainesville still has a lot of work to do to build up its downtown area.

But St. Augustine was entirely different. The effect of being around the crowds mulling about did remind me a lot of New York. We just stepped off the sidewalk into a popular local restaurant (Scarlett O’Hara’s), instantly plopped down into a booth and were promptly waited on. It reminded me of our Junior’s experience on 45th Street near Times Square. Melissa and I even later went to a dessert shop and enjoyed some Italian ice cream (gelato) as we had done in Little Italy almost two months earlier. And yes, there were plenty of little stores selling tee shirts, caps, trinkets, books, and other items just as there were along Broadway in Midtown Manhattan.

We’re thinking about spending a little time in downtown Atlanta in a couple of months, and I can assure you that we will be looking for that “downtown pedestrian experience” again.

World Cup (yawn) Commences Today

Today the World Cup in international soccer opens in South Africa with the host nation playing Mexico. Tomorrow the United States plays England. So what.

Like many of "my fellow Americans" (with a nod to LBJ), I really couldn't care less what goes on in the World Cup. Neither do I care whether the U.S. does well or not. I don't even like watching soccer, which has to rate as among the most boring sports ever to be broadcast on television. And I can see this particular blog article going nowhere in a big hurry!

Let's see, there are 32 teams right now at the opening, divided into eight groups, each naturally comprised of four teams. In the opening round, the groups are engaged in round-robin play among themselves, ending after three games. The two teams with the best W-L-T records in each group advance to the quarterfinals (the World Cup version of the "sweet sixteen") while the remainder get a "sayonara baby" and pack up.

The U.S., whom I supposedly should be following, will play (favored) England along with Slovenia and Algeria. Mexico, which is getting a disgustingly high degree of biased adulation on my U.S.-based Spanish-language cable TV channel Univision, is in an "easier" group competing against a weaker France (they made the final game four years ago in the last World Cup), a possible dark horse in Uruguay, and a very weak South Africa (who are in this 32-team field only by dint of being the host country).

And then there are the usual favorites as in every World Cup: Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy (the 2006 winner), Portugal, England (of course), ... the Netherlands are supposed to be real good; I'll take the opinion of the experts about them at face value. The absolutely worst team, perhaps besides South Africa, might be North Korea. I'd like to see a game between them and South Korea, who also made the World Cup field. But since they're in different groups, this is very unlikely to happen.

World Golf Village and Golfing

A couple of weekends ago, I spent some time with Melissa at the World Golf Village on the outskirts of St. Augustine, Florida. It was as part of a marriage retreat, and we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel there. It was also as if I had entered a foreign country with a fanatical following of the great sport of golf.

Oh, by the way, I have never golfed before. Unless you count my experience playing miniature golf (and I’m pretty damned good at it, thank you) or my childhood adventures with croquet, swinging a stick at a ball lying on the ground to make it go to a specific place has never taken off in my imagination. But I think I might get good at it were I to practice; I just don’t know. Anyway, I felt completely out of place at the World Golf Village, which naturally has a humongous course, practice holes, a golf hall of fame, and a couple of golf-themed restaurants. The stones comprising the floor of the nearly half-mile circle around which our hotel, the hall of fame, two restaurants (one of which has all of their many TVs tuned exclusively to a golfing channel), other golf-related businesses, and an IMAX theater were situated feature the names and signatures of famous golfing hall-of-famers from around the world. It made me wonder what I have been missing out on all these years, having basically ignored what appears to be such a significant and magnificent sport with all of its important heroes (most of whom I had never heard of).

I do know that golfing has quite its share of fanatics. Golfers I know tend to get pretty worked up talking about their recent outings, although they tend to only discuss their golfing with other golfers. Meanwhile, I can only eavesdrop and naturally have nothing substantial on my own to contribute to their weighty conversations other than something like, “Hey, I’ve beaten my family at miniature golf three straight times”. And I’m not dumb enough to do that, so I usually just keep my mouth shut.

So I don’t know about golf. I would like to engage in it with Melissa as a fun outdoors activity that the two of us could share into our retirement, but I don’t see myself spending an exorbitant amount of money on it or becoming a raving fanatical lunatic about it. And that World Golf Village was nothing if not fanatical.

Right now, my #1 golf experience was the vicarious pleasure I derived at watching James Bond have a “little fun” with Mr. Goldfinger by switching golf balls on him during a match. It would probably behoove me to delve a little deeper into the sport than that! But when?

The Running Tourist Denied

Earlier this year, while investigating the blogs of others who had run marathons in Florida, I came across the blog of a woman who had run in January’s Disney World Marathon. Her article was very interesting in that she carried a camera with her to photograph her ongoing experience while running it. It was as if she were just continuing her vacation at Disney World as a tourist, only while running in an athletic event.

That idea has simmered within me to the point where I have seriously considering doing the same with my runs. In both May’s Orange Park 5K race and June’s Cross City race, I felt like carrying my digital camera around with me during the runs but put it away at the last minute both times. Why the inner resistance?

When I am not in the “running” state of mind (and it is a special state of mind for me) I see things a little differently. And that includes the idea of taking pictures while running. But when the immediacy of a race is directly in front of me, I tend to want to shed myself of anything that I think is superfluous. Just think of that scene at the beginning of Platoon when experienced combat veteran William Dafoe examines new arrival Charlie Sheen’s pack and keeps throwing out stuff, repeatedly saying “You don’t need this”. That’s kind of like how I feel when about to race. So not only do I put back my camera, but I also take off my cap and glasses (including sunglasses). But I think I’m missing out on something by not photographing my experience.

Take Orange Park: much of the race was along the pretty St. John’s River just south of Jacksonville. And Cross City: they have their magnificent Greenway that I, living here in Gainesville, am so envious of. Plus, there are all of those great “people” and “running” shots that shouldn’t be so hard to set up during a race.

So it’s all set in my mind: I will take pictures during my next race, whenever and wherever that may be. Because that lady running the Walt Disney Marathon had the right idea! I AM a tourist of sorts when I run races, especially out-of-town races. I drove the distance, paid my fee, and will hereby gawk at the sights and photograph them like any tourist worth his mettle (whatever that means) walking down Broadway in Manhattan!

Cross City’s Greenway

Last Saturday’s Chad Reed Memorial 5K race in Cross City gave me the opportunity to travel to a place where I hadn’t been before. In some ways, Cross City is pretty much like any rural little northern Florida town. But one thing stood out like a sore thumb: the Greenway.

The Cross City Greenway is actually a small section of the Nature Coast State Trail, part of a program designed to convert old railroad tracks into usable trails, and I experienced it firsthand: most of the race took place on it! As the trail's website indicates, the trail starts (or ends, depending on which direction you're going) in the cities of Cross City, Trenton, and Chiefland, with a "central" hub in Fanning Springs. I experienced it as a long stretch of relatively wide (one traffic lane in breadth) asphalt pathway generally running parallel (with some notable deviations) to US 19. I noticed it long before I entered Cross City proper. This is a remarkable asset for such a relatively small community as Cross City, or this entire very rural part of northern Florida, for that matter. Gainesville has a minor "rails-to-trails" version of a greenway, but it doesn't really go anywhere useful. I recall seeing a similar pathway (from the rooftop of my tour bus)…in extremely densely populated Manhattan, running along the East River and wonder whether that might also have been a converted railroad track. I hear that Knoxville, Tennessee, has something similar. As most likely do several of the bigger cities. But Cross City? CROSS CITY??!!

Unfortunately, I don’t think Cross City makes a lot of use out of its greenway. Except for the Chad Reed Memorial Run, I didn’t notice anyone using it anywhere. Man, could I use something like that here in Gainesville! You can bicycle, walk, run, dog-walk, skateboard, pogo-stick, you name it. In Cross City, it’s readily accessible from just about any point in town. If I could place such a greenway in Gainesville, I would have it run along West 34th Street from the northern tip of town to the southern borders. That way I could either run or ride my bicycle to and from work with a minimum degree of exposure to the loony tune drivers who plague this town! Of course, there would still be that touchy matter of crossing busy streets…

Cross City’s Insane Street Grid

I tried Google Map to find out where Dixie County High School, the starting point for Saturday’s 5K race, was in relation to Cross City. Google had it spotted far east of the main town on US 19. But in truth, I had to drive through most of Cross City before I reached it. At least Google had the part about it being on US 19 correct. But maybe Google isn’t completely to blame; Cross City’s street plan is kind of weird, to put it mildly without using profanity.

Before my visit, I already found out that Cross City’s street plan was bizarre. The roads north of US 19 have a completely different numbering system than those lying to the south. And the numbers tend to be very high. As a matter of fact, while on US 19 approaching the area, in the middle of the boondocks, I saw a sign advertising “592nd Street”!


View Larger Map

As you can see on the pictured Google Map (press the "+" square in the map's upper left corner a couple of times to zoom in better), I could go south on NE 147th Street, cross US 19, and then suddenly be on SE 304th Street. And note that SE 22nd Avenue, on one side of US 19, is slightly north of NE 190th Avenue on the other. Quite disorienting. But that’s not all.

The day before the race, I looked at a fold-out city map of Cross City available at my Publix grocery store to see if they had Dixie High School on it. Which they didn’t. But I noticed something else: none of the roads were numbered as they were on Google; instead they had proper names! When I visited the area in person, though, the numbered signs were there.

It’s almost as if Cross City is at once a site of two alternative realities connected by a wormhole (US 19) and a third alternative reality (named, not numbered streets) somehow in play. I don’t get it, but the folks living there probably don’t think anything of it, I bet. Seems a little spooky to me, though. I wonder if there isn’t a black hole in the center of town causing all of this.

Captain Chad Allen Reed Memorial 5K Run in Cross City

A long blog article title this is, but necessary. Yesterday morning I chose to get in my June public running race (there aren’t very many available to choose from) by going west about fifty miles to the interesting little town of Cross City, Florida. More about what makes it interesting in upcoming articles. But back to the race and its reason for being…

On January 14 of this year, police captain Chad Allen Reed was gunned down and killed by a suspected murderer while on duty. He left his wife and young children behind, as well as a bereaved community comprising two counties: Dixie, where he worked, and Taylor, where he grew up. Reed had a heart for the poor, as he had been working on a project to dig a well that would provide fresh water to some poverty-stricken residents. His death interrupted his efforts only temporarily: this race’s main goal was to raise the money to make Reed’s Samaritan dream a reality. At the opening ceremony before the race, wreaths were symbolically laid for Reed and three other recently-fallen police officers. Reed’s children were accorded the honor of symbolically starting the race.

The heat was stifling on race morning, with temperatures rising from 76 at sunrise to nearly 90 by 11 am. The humidity was horrific as well. I was surprised to see that the race planners had scheduled the race to start at 10, which would guarantee pretty hot, sticky conditions for the runners. But since I have been training for weeks under these conditions, I personally had no issues with that decision.

When the race started (just outside Dixie County High School), I was running well, at a good pace. Or that’s what I thought at first, until a flood of other runners practically sprinted past me as if this were more like a single lap around the high school track. But I kept to my pace, while accepting the first water bottle offered to me and making regular short pauses to swig some along the way. After the initial stretch of the run, I began to pass one tired and overheated runner after another. It got to be pretty funny, as I was getting stronger the more grueling the race became for others. I finally finished it at 23:23, which was my second highest time for a five kilometer run. I was very satisfied with the outcome, although it was a little disconcerting to discover that the race’s finish line was in a different location from the start, about a half-mile away from my car at the school. A police volunteer offered me a ride back, but I said “What the heck” and walked/ran back.

I had to go to work back in Gainesville early that afternoon, so I couldn’t hang around for the usually delayed and drawn-out awards process. Maybe I would have won something, maybe not. But I enjoyed the racing experience, which was the whole point of going there in the first place.

I had first thought, upon discovering that Cross City of all places was hosting a race, how cool! But the reason for it, of course, was this tragic loss of a policeman’s life; I would have preferred instead to never have gone to Cross City and have Chad Reed still around to brighten up his community and family. So sad.

Abby Panders to Ghost Beliefs

In today’s Dear Abby newspaper advice column, Topic Numero Uno was a woman’s fear that ghosts of her deceased loved ones were lurking around her and watching her doing things like going to the bathroom and making love with her husband. She wanted to know whether she was crazy about her lack of privacy due to said ghosts.

Jeanne Phillips (“Abby”) could have just gone straight to the point, agreeably replied “Yes, you’re crazy”, and moved on to the next letter. But no, she instead decided to do something that I term “pandering to another’s narrative” in order to offer some emotional comfort. Phillips flat-out stated as fact that “the departed sometimes ‘visit’ those with whom their souls were intertwined, but usually it’s to offer strength, solace and reassurance during difficult times.” How could she know that? No, all Phillips did was to size up the frightened woman’s belief system, which she realized wasn’t going to change by just saying that ghosts weren’t real. Instead, she made up her own narrative, which naturally affirmed the existence of ghosts, to soften that writer’s fears of privacy invasion. Is this ethical?

I have done this in the past as well, although not with ghosts. I would be with someone whose beliefs were difficult for me to digest, but who still seemed so entrenched in them that the only way I would be able to effectively communicate with them would be to temporarily presume the truth of their underlying narrative, “for the sake of argument”. I would always afterward find this type of experience to be distasteful and that I had somehow debased myself in the process.

More and more, I have become more resistant to what “Abby” did: playing along with another’s absurd notions in order to reason with or comfort them. After all, I don’t notice others bending over backward to accommodate MY beliefs!

Then again, maybe Jeanne Phillips truly does believe in ghosts and how they supposedly “behave” according to some kind of ethical code. Ouch! Say you’re more savvy, Abby!

What the Fungus!

The other day I noticed on the front cover of "advice" publication Bottom Line: Personal a small article about an airborne fungus hitting the Pacific northwest, ranging from northern California to Washington. It has been causing respiratory problems, mainly in middle-age to elderly men (according to the Bottom Line: Personal article). And a few deaths have occurred as well. I checked this out on the Internet today and came across several articles on the subject, including this from myfoxny.com. Dr. Joseph Heitman of Duke University has been publicizing this new public health hazard and is the chief researcher. According to the Fox article, symptoms include "severe cough, shortness of breath, chest pain and severe fatigue." And possibly death, I might add.

The fungus problem is not just in the northwest, though. It has been identified in New York City as well, with a 20% fatality rate at this point there (10 out of 50 reported).

I don't know if this fungus will (or already has) spread to Florida. I do know that this pops the fantasy bubble I have been living in of seeing the northwest Pacific area as a kind of paradise with its year-round temperate climate, so conducive to outdoor activity (especially long-distance running). After all, this is "Karno country" (Karno is ultramarathon runner Dean Karnazes, who lives in San Francisco). I suppose, though, that every area carries its own drawbacks. Although I don't exactly see developing pneumonia-like symptoms from breathing in fungus in the great outdoors as your typical regional "drawback".

I would hate to see this fungus spread further. Since it had only been discovered in 2005, though, little is still known about it, its growth pattern, and range. This could be an escalating national health concern. I think from time to time I may just type in "fungus heitman" on my Google to see the latest developments on this ominous ongoing news story.

Free Tanning: Oh Yeah?

On the way to work, I regularly pass a large complex of townhouse apartments geared primarily for University of Florida students. On the roadside as I pass, I see a small sign that says "$799/Month"; this obviously refers to the rental rate. A few feet past that sign is another: "Free Tanning". Hmmm...

Unless someone just decided to donate their tanning services out of the goodness of their heart, I don't think that the advertised "free tanning" is all that free. Most likely, the "services" are included in the $799/month rent that EVERYONE has to pay, whether they want the tanning or not. So instead of there being "free tanning", instead there is "not-free non-tanning" at these apartments for the majority of (level-headed) residents who choose to forgo this unnecessary and potentially dangerous abuse of their skin. To be sure, those who do use the tanning facilities there will enjoy the effect of reduced rates as the costs are spread over everyone, users and non-users alike. But that still isn't "free tanning".

Speaking of tanning, I cannot fathom why deliberately exposing oneself to harmful ultraviolet radiation is still considered to be a healthful activity in some quarters. I think people should instead enjoy being whatever shade of brown they already are (and we are all, except for albinos, various shades of brown) and get on with more substantial aspects of self-presentation (e.g. personal hygiene, smiling more, speaking positively). While preserving their skin (and life) in the process. Besides, haven't these "tanners" ever heard of cosmetics, which can change skin tone without the harmful and often permanent side effects of tanning? Oh well, to each his own, I suppose.

Jeff Galloway's Walk-Run Method

As most of you probably have surmised, temperatures in north central Florida have begun to skyrocket as the spring progresses toward summer. This is not a good thing for people like me who like to run long distances and would like to run a marathon at some time this year (the earlier the better). The prevailing pattern is for lows around 70 and highs around 90, with the temperatures destined to rise even further. Quite different from a few months ago, when I could run as long as I wanted in temperatures of 40-60 degrees. So a change in my training strategy was needed, a change that I believe I found a few weeks ago while browsing in the running section of Jacksonville's large Barnes and Nobles store in Town Center.

The book was Marathon: You Can Do It! by longtime star marathon runner and running instructor Jeff Galloway. As I thumbed through it at the bookstore, I quickly discovered the book's overriding theme: intersperse short walking breaks within your long runs and you will drastically improve your ability to cover longer distances (like marathons) and withstand adverse weather conditions (like the heat and humidity). I began trying this on May 14 and have continued to this day. And it works, enabling me to run in conditions that would have been impossible before.

For me, I run the first seven minutes and then, after that, walk a minute and run six minutes. And then repeat the walk-run cycle for as long as I run on that day. This way, I just look at my watch and slow to a one-minute walk each time it hits a multiple of seven (like 21, 28, 35 minutes, etc). Walking for brief stretches like this replenishes my energy and helps me recover from the heat (I also now carry a bottle of Powerade Zero with me on the runs for rehydration). Yesterday I ran 8.14 miles this way while temperatures climbed to 90. It works!

Now some regard accomplishing a marathon as meaning "running 26.2 miles without stopping". In fact, an acquaintance of mine, when discussing his feat of running his first half-marathon a couple of months ago, told me that his main goal was to run it "non-stop", meaning "always running". But according to Galloway, studies have shown that those who use his walk-run method, or some variation of it, tend to finish longer races (like marathons) with faster times than those who run throughout them. Frankly, the prospect of me being able to run a respectable marathon (and training for it in the summer) strongly appeals to me!

Galloway also points out that taking walking breaks within a long run relieves the stress on legs and feet that, over time, could cause injury. And it's true: since I have been following his example, I have experienced very little pain in my feet or legs. Something for all of you runners (or aspiring runners) to consider!

The Manhattan Experience: Streets vs. Buildings

There is no doubt that there is an awful lot to discover and experience on the streets of Manhattan. My three-and-a-fraction days there didn’t even begin to scratch the surface. I know that I could stay there an entire year and still never have a day go by when I ran out of new sights to see. Museums, shows, restaurants, tours of some of the most famous buildings, parks, different methods of transportation, and more…

However, even if I were to exhaust all of the possibilities at street level (and including those “open” buildings like the GE Building and the Empire State Building), I STILL would only be scratching the surface of Manhattan. To understand exactly what I’m talking about, all one has to do is just stand on a Manhattan street and look up and around. At the endless ranges of skyscrapers and tall buildings. Most of which are off-limits to ordinary run-of-the-mill tourists like me. Yet this is where the overwhelming volume of the city works and lives. A very, very, private, restricted, and vast place.

How does one pick a building out at random and then go about touring it by oneself? Or is that possible without the probable locked doors, alarms, and most likely security personnel blocking my advance? And why should I even think I have a right to go inside any of these buildings anyway?

I don’t know, except I remember one particular scene in the old (1967-68) The Prisoner series starring Patrick McGoohan. The episode is The Dance of the Dead and Number Six, the prisoner played by McGoohan, is in a building fleeing for his life from an angry mob. He stops in his tracks and tries a door. It opens and he slips into a room, encountering his nemesis, Number Two. Number Two assures him that the mob won’t follow because, she says, “They lack your initiative.” Are we all so cowed that we are afraid to step up to an unmarked door somewhere and try the knob to see what’s inside? What has happened to our sense of initiative?

Speaking of that, what would happen if I just walked down a busy Manhattan street and tried one door after another, skipping stores and restaurants? Would a tee-shirt vendor or a policeman sense something suspicious and create a general alarm about my activities? What would anyone be able to say, though? Has simple curiosity become a crime in this age of privacy? And what exactly is privacy, anyway?

I live in a subdivision, in a house that is situated on a public street. People don’t have to go through shells of security to reach my residence; I’m just there, pure and simple. And my workplace is similar: just pull into the parking lot and go inside. But Manhattan? How many hoops must one jump and barriers pass before they can visit a friend at home or work?

Finally, I know quite well how intensively patrolled the streets are by the police, not to mention the extensive camera surveillance everywhere. This was borne out by the recent near-tragedy at Times Square and that failed attack. But what about that vast area within all of the buildings? Seems like it would be a completely different type of world up there to me, with its own vision of the law and how people can treat each other. Or am I just speculating too much?

On This Memorial Day

Earlier this month, a young Gainesville man, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Philip Paul Clark, who graduated two years ago from my daughter's high school, was killed in Afghanistan while serving our country there. It was very sad news, which hit our community hard. Last Friday, the funeral motorcade went through Gainesville, where he was finally laid to rest. I never knew this soldier, but I do appreciate his service and ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.

Memorial Day, which is today, often touches people in a personal way when one of the fallen is a loved one. But this holiday has a more collective and historical meaning as well, giving recognition and honor to all of our past slain servicemen and servicewomen during all of the armed conflicts of our nation's past. These brave people did not decide on the policies that led them to go off to war, but simply did their duty as they were trained to do.

Heroes.

The Joy of Posing With Dead Animals

I had it all written out: a stinging denunciation of hunting and hunters, complete with my usual jabs at Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin for their hunting follies. But thankfully, my blog instincts directed me to delay publishing my passionate and acerbic article and reflect on it a bit.

And I'm glad I did. Hunting is largely a cultural phenomenon, with its followers often rooted in it due to their family's participation as well as their local community's attitude toward it. So hurling insults at hunters isn't really something I want to do. Besides, I wonder which culturally rooted activities I am currently involved with will be frowned upon (or even condemned) by a future, more "enlightened" society.

Still, that being said, I always find it more than a little disconcerting whenever I run across one of those hunting magazines and find a hunter proudly posing on the cover with an animal he (or she) just killed (usually a deer). The animal is made to look alive, with its eyes open and its expression often a smile. As if to commemorate its first (and last) meeting with its biggest and bestest new buddy (who just ended its one chance at life)!

So that preceding little tidbit will have to be the only sarcasm left from the scrapped article to hurl at hunters. I just wish they would be careful out there with their weapons, especially considering that there are others who are not hunters and would like to go hiking through the wilderness without enduring the hazard of being shot by accident.

Opinions on Plugging Oil Leak

I obviously don't know what I'm talking about, so you might just consider passing this entry in my blog and wait for a more informed opinion at a future date. But with this catastrophic continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico going on for more than five weeks and with no end in sight, I have a suggestion to end it.

A few days ago I was chatting with a buddy at work when the topic came up and I said, "Why not just nuke it?" That would surely seal the breach and end the leak. And if the possibility of radiation from a nuclear explosion bothers some people, then why why detonate the most powerful conventional bombs (of the order of those dropped in late 2001 while fighting Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan)? I think the results would be the same.

Anyway, my pal thought I had a good idea, although I felt a little bit like Archie Bunker spouting off about something I knew little about. Then, just a couple of days later on one of my rare viewings of Fox News Channel, somebody who claimed to have credentials in the area posed the same solution, claiming that the Soviet Union had bombed their own undersea oil lines several times in the past to seal them. But this "expert" stated that he doubted BP would ever consider this a viable possibility, for doing so would destroy their investment and end their chances of making money from the drill as it is. How cynical! But maybe true...

Anyway, suppose that whatever high-tech, intricate solution that BP tries to stop the leak fails and the government has to resort to a bombing of the ocean floor. And further suppose that this is successful in stopping the spill. Can you imagine the political repercussions coming from this? After all, that would mean that this unprecedented environmental disaster could have been prevented at the start from assertive, bold government intervention and that the current leadership let us down and maybe will let us down in the future. A gnawing, unpleasant feeling I have...

VW's Vile Ad Campaign

In a VW television commercial, two adult men are sitting in a parking garage, observing and noting the cars passing through. One, a burly, stocky man, is twice the size of his companion. He mentions something about a car and then viciously slugs the smaller man very hard in his shoulder. The victim winces, then acts as if he deserved to be hit. A few seconds later, it happens again. And then again, the aggressor never being held accountable for his actions. In fact, as far as Volkswagen is concerned, he is Mr. Right, the role model whom they want the viewer to emulate (Mr. Right is hip to their great product line, you see).

This isn't the only ad they put out with this theme. With the opening music of the old Andy Griffith show in the background, various people in a town go around slugging others in the shoulder when they see VWs drive past them. It's all good, mainstream, hometown, apple pie, acceptable All-American fun. At least that's how Volkswagen wants you to see it.

No, slugging a fellow human being hard in the shoulder is NOT acceptable. In childhood, this is called "bullying" and "child abuse". In adulthood, this is called "physical assault" and is a criminal act, subject to prosecution. But let me say that if someone tried to slug me like in their vile commercials, the justice process would begin immediately, back in the face of the aggressor!

I thought those old V8 vegetable juice commercials were over the top with the way people in public were being popped in the forehead for having missed out on opportunities to consume their product. But this goes way beyond V8's misguided gimmick. This legitimatizes bullying, and at a time of bullying-related suicides and efforts on the parts of schools to highlight and fight the problem. Boycott Volkswagen for this outrageous pro-violence campaign!

The Last Wednesday in May

I don't know about you, but I am a little out of sync with holidays as they stand. I get the significance of all of them, to be sure, but they don't affect me in a very personal sense (except, of course, annual markers like my birthday, wedding anniversary, loved ones' birthdays, and so on). So the idea occurred to me of developing my own personal "holidays", days marking significant events or changes in my own life. And today, the last Wednesday in May, is one such day.

It is a little touchy to reveal much about what this day means, for it involves other people with their own rights to privacy. The first "Last Wednesday in May" happened on May 27, 1970 during my increasingly failing struggle to put a dignified ending to my eighth grade in school (How much should I say?). Let's just say that I was a very vulnerable young teenage boy who also, at the time, had the physique of a concentration camp survivor due to my "off-the-charts" high metabolism and the face of a composite of about five acne commercial "befores". Not to mention extreme shyness and trouble putting words together into coherent spoken sentences. But I was still a benign, kindly character who generally thought well of others and who wanted to develop friendships. On this day, though, I realized that I was more or less on my own and that society was set up to hinder me, not help me.

Unfortunately, this day resonates with me to this day because my changed world view from back then in May of 1970 is still largely the same. It's too bad that I couldn't go into more detail, except to say that this is the way it generally is with writing on this blog: my life is like an iceberg, with the above-ground 10% expressible and the bulk of it submerged and hidden. Maybe I'll expound on the significance on the Last Wednesday in May in future articles while being careful not to reveal the wrong kind of stuff. Now that should intrigue you enough to stay tuned!

Medved's Odd Criticism

In a recent column appearing on AOL News, movie critic and social conservative Michael Medved expressed his criticism of those in the national news networks for possibly waiting until Kentucky Senate contender Rand Paul had won his Republican primary before asking him questions that led to some offbeat, controversial, and potentially damaging statements. Statements such as his reservations with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his strong opinion that President Obama was treating BP, the company responsible for the ongoing catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (and soon the U.S. east coast) too harshly with his "boots" on them. That Rand, like his quirky father and perennial presidential candidate Texas Representative Ron Paul, entertained some unconventional views based on his libertarian and conspiracist background was already commonly known around the media and political scene. Medved thinks, though, that certain folks may have waited until the GOP was committed to him before "exposing" him nationally and garnering for him some understandably negative attention.

What nonsense! The Republicans in Kentucky and nationwide could easily have brought out Rand Paul's various troubling opinions had they not been sucking up to the tea party movement, taking special care not to offend any of them. They believed then that the important thing was to get voters riled up against the Democrats and they would all then dutifully line up behind them in November like ducks in a pond and vote the Grand Old Party back into power. And the teabaggers were seen as a way to whip up the anger, even though it was often a very irrational, even paranoid anger. For Michael Medved to accuse those in the media, who understandably gave Paul the timely attention and interviews immediately following his remarkable and newsworthy primary victory, of bias in this regard is just a little bit ingenuous.

Besides, Paul's comment taking the side of British Petroleum and his strong denouncing of our president for being too tough on them (which is diametrically the opposite of the prevailing national mood) was made and based on the present situation, not that of the primary period. And it is not exactly as if he is being forced into interviews, either. Paul wants to push his ideology into the mainstream and is using his Senate candidacy as a means to do that. Surely the geniuses in the Republican Party hierarchy could have seen that!

So maybe after all of Rand Paul's different viewpoints are finally out in the open for everyone to see and weigh in on, the voters of Kentucky will still vote the guy into office. However, his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway, already firmly established and known as the state's attorney general, is politically much more in line with the traditional conservatism that prevails in the Bluegrass State. Whoever wins the general election between Paul and Conway is very likely to become a big thorn in the side of his own party during his tenure in the Senate. It should be interesting to see how this campaign develops.

Going Back to Short Stories

Having just plodded through two interminably long and incredibly ponderous books (Stephen King's Under the Dome and Christopher Paolini's Brisingr), I think I'll take some time off from novels and return to my old favorite: the short story. I possess a paperback collection of two different "year's best" series of science fiction short stories that ranges from 1939 through 1989. Also, I have many other collections and anthologies to draw upon, including collected works of Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Cyril Kornbluth, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, William Tenn, Harlan Ellison, and Sherry Jackson, among many others.

There is no reason for me to get stuck in a "bad" novel, but I do so anyway. I wonder whether anyone else has suffered, as I have, through the experience of subjugating themselves to a bad story with lousy characters that are almost impossible to sympathize with, accompanied by massive overanalysis of every dinky event and thought, just because they feel somehow obligated to follow through their mistake in picking out said novel, all the way to its miserable end.

I obviously like Stephen King and I feel Paolini has a lot of talent, but I wonder whether both couldn't do with a little more honest criticism of their writing from trusted sources before they are published. I especially feel this about Paolini, who evaded the usual struggle of an aspiring writer to be published through the good fortune of growing up within a publishing family. Maybe, though, his writing ultimately suffered as he tends to overdwell on everything until I, the reader, am about ready to toss the book out of the window in frustration.

Short stories are different. You can't mess around with short fiction; space is at premium in this form, which has been perfected through thousands of stories appearing over the past decades in various popular magazines and pulp publications. You have to really be sharp to be good at writing short stories, and they often stick with me for a much longer time after I have read them. I also tend to reread my favorite short stories, something I very rarely do with novels.

Where to start? I may just close my eyes and pick a book at random off the shelf: I know I can't go wrong with whatever I pick!

Scents and the City

Late at night, while I am lying at home in bed, I can often hear very distant sounds that normally would be hidden during the daytime. The reason for this is something called “background noise”. You can’t really grab hold of background noise, but it is definitely there, and in much greater volume during the day. Background noise is a composite of millions of sounds going on in the environment that have mixed together to such a degree that it is homogeneous to the human ear, with individual components indiscernible. It is most noticed by its absence (or least its diminished volume) during the wee, dark hours of late night/early morning.

I have discovered that there is another oft unnoticed assault on our senses besides background noise: background smell. For anyone who has ever paid a visit to the more rural, agricultural areas, this often translates into the perception that one has been plunged into a deep pit of manure. But looking around, there is often no indication of the sort. It permeates the olfactory nerves, although with time spent there this background smell will fade to the point of not being noticed. And now we come to my brief half-week experience in New York City, more specifically Manhattan.

I didn’t notice it the first day I was there (we only arrived in the evening anyway), but by early afternoon the next day, it was unmistakable: there was a peculiar smell to everything in Manhattan. It wasn’t as if any place or object smelled more strongly of this odor, which I haven’t smelled elsewhere; the smell was everywhere, indoors or outdoors. It had an organic quality to it, of something sweet and at the same time in decay. And as my stay lengthened to two, then three days, it was unmistakably omnipresent and unshakable. But time we got out of there and back in Newark, New Jersey, that odor dissipated and I haven’t smelled it since. What was it?

I can only report my experience, which was starkly real to me. What caused the odor in Manhattan is a matter of speculation. But I consider the nature of Manhattan, with its massively dense population, along with the general exclusion of flora, the sense of closed-in air due to the nature of high-rise buildings, and the heavy concentration of said buildings, streets, and the materials that compose them, and I conclude that, like with sound, the smell was a homogeneous combination of humanity, its wastes, and the materials composing the buildings and roads WITHOUT the cleansing presence of the plant life that is usually preponderant elsewhere (Central Park and the other parks notwithstanding). If you’ve ever been there, have you experienced this odor in NYC, and if so what do you think is responsible? I wonder whether other really big cities exhibit the same type of phenomenon. My nearby Jacksonville, which sadly thinks of itself as a big city, can make no claim to any peculiar “background smell” as far as I can detect.

I hesitated to write about this for a while because, for some reason, we humans have collectively decided that discussing odors carries with it some kind of taboo value. Stating that a whole city “smells” can easily be read as an insult to that community. However I mean nothing of the kind by this observation. On the other hand, since I already criticized NYC to some degree for its almost compulsive willingness to beseech money from me, I’ve probably already offended them once anyway, so why not again? Who knows, maybe lifelong New Yorkers who finally venture beyond their city limits think everything on the outside has a peculiar smell!

Somer's Sunshine Run in Orange Park

Today I decided to travel down the road to Orange Park (lying next to the St. John's River, just southwest of Jacksonville) and run their Somer's Sunshine Run 5K race. It was a very hot and humid Saturday morning at eight, when the race began. Most of the race was along the St. John's River, which appeared very calm. The course was pleasant and off the main road in an older, upscale neighborhood with the police keeping traffic off the roadway for the runners. On our left, as we started northward, were the houses facing the river. On the right, a series of piers jutting out into St. John's with an occasional boat tied up. At the halfway point, the runners simply turned around and went back along the same road.

The race itself was well-attended. As usual, I was bunched up with slower runners at the beginning and ran catch-up the rest of the way. My final time was about 25:00 (I'll check the website later and get the official time). It was slower than last month's Duck Run, but then again I was able to avoid the slow crowd at the beginning of that race. Also, I'm not 100% sure that the folks planning that event, although well-intentioned, accurately measured out the course.

I made a quick recovery following the race and left the place without waiting around for the tedious awards ceremony and celebration. Besides, I have to go to work early this afternoon back in Gainesville. But first, I stopped off at a Starbucks on Blanding Boulevard in Orange Park near I-295, where I am now writing this article.

Oh, by the way, this race benefits relatives of missing children as their personal lives are often in complete turmoil as they frantically devote themselves to recovering their lost ones. A good cause that I was proud to run for!

And I did manage to get in a May race, putting the pressure on me to do something in June. This was my first out-of-town run, and it went off without a hitch. More short running trips to come, I'm sure.

Fine Conservative Principles

Although this blog may seem to betray a liberal slant on my part, I actually consider it to be more or less centrist in its political perspective. Just for the record, here are some conservative principles that I subscribe to:

--Government should pay for itself. If the elected officials legislate into law a particular program, it should be financed without adding to the national debt. One of the essential ways to do this is to raise taxes to bring in the necessary revenue. Today's "conservatives", however, have completely abandoned this common-sense fiscally sound approach to governing. Instead, they propose to diminish, and in some areas, dismantle government itself (an anarchist, not conservative idea).

--It is the responsibility of the federal government to protect this country's borders and citizens from outside threats. I have no qualms with enforcing immigration laws by heavily patrolling the national borders and keeping drug traffickers and their violent society from crossing. But I don't think it is the role of the police to profile people on the streets to decide whether or not to demand proof of their legal status here.

--Also regarding national security, it is the duty of our government to root out enemy threats to us abroad and fight them if necessary. So acted President George W. Bush after 9/11 when he sent U.S. forces to Afghanistan to crush Al-Qaeda and knock their sponsor, the Taliban, out of power there. However, recognizing the value of our soldiers' lives requires being careful about recklessly entering into a prolonged conflict, especially when the country being fought is not a direct threat to America. But the same President Bush violated this wise conservative principle by unilaterally invading Iraq in 2003, and we are still there with way too much sacrificed in terms of casualties and a skyrocketing, unpaid debt of war costs (incurred by a "conservative" administration without even the hint of a tea party revolt in protest).

--Judges should interpret the law, not make it. That refrain, a pretty reasonable one to me, is still being bandied about by conservative politicians who oppose liberal judges for what they say is their judicial activism. But the current Supreme Court has four staunch judicial activists on the political right (Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito) who have already clearly demonstrated their intention of drastically revising U.S. constitutional interpretations by not only rejecting long-standing precedent in the recent corporate campaign financing case, but also deliberately expanding the scope of that case, originally limited in its application, to make a landmark ruling in collaboration with perennially teetertottering justice Anthony Kennedy. In doing so, they supplanted the legislative process (a.k.a. "legislating from the bench"). Not a very conservative philosophy, I think.

--Conservatives tend to oppose the State legislating morality over the population and instead support personal freedoms, opposing attempts to tell people what foods to eat and further opposing anything remotely resembling gun control. But this should be a general principle and not be only applicable to selected "pet" freedoms that suit the so-called conservative's particular belief system.

So there are a few items that I believe a true conservative would have a different take on than the manufactured, manipulated conservatism that media hacks like Hannity and Limbaugh have pulled over so many people's eyes.

I am trying to be more attentive to conservative viewpoints expressed in the media, although radio shows like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage tend to go way beyond the pale in their nastiness toward any dissenters. Certain shows on Fox News show some promise, although their so-called "fair and balanced" news presentation irritates me to no end. At least when Beck, O'Reilly, or Hannity are on, they are transparent about their right-wing slant. It's those little smirks and digs against anyone left of far right during the news that I could do without on Fox. However, I resent the crusading tone to Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, which implies that the political left is the enemy and we must mobilize to fight it (or, as Beck puts it, "Get out the lifeboats"). At least O'Reilly, overbearing bully that he is, tries to inject a degree of levelheadedness and humor to his bias. Maybe I'll just focus on "Bill-O" with Fox until I can train myself to stomach some of the others.