Friends of the Library Sale: My Visit

Today Melissa and I went to the semi-annual Alachua County Friends of the Library book sale. This is a major event in Gainesville, and it draws many people to a warehouse located just north of downtown, a warehouse loaded to the hilt with books of (almost) all types. There are also many used CDs, audio cassettes, vinyl records, DVDs, and VHS tapes. The sale began yesterday and will conclude on Wednesday. Melissa bought a few books and I bought a couple (an elementary school Chinese story reader (in Chinese) and a book explaining swimming techniques and strategies). Since more books are added to the shelves each day, it might behoove me to pay a return visit there Tuesday or Wednesday.

The crowds there didn't bother me at all, but then again I wasn't really passionately searching for specific titles. So if there was an area that was overcongested, I just went to the next that wasn't. Besides, looking for specific books can be a little nerve-wracking even without having to deal with others competing for browsing space: other than areas specified by genre, books are shelved in no particular order, so one must look at each book to cover an area. That's too much of a hassle for me.

As I walked through the warehouse, I wondered how many of the out-of-print books on sale there would ever make it to electronic media like Kindle or The Nook. And would the prices of these books be such that the same folks who visit this massive used book sale be willing to buy them?

Bonds Guilty Verdict Baffling

I'm reading Thursday's news report of the verdict in the Barry Bonds perjury trial: guilty on one count, mistrials in the other three. The conviction wasn't for any perjury charge, though: Bonds is supposedly guilty of "obstructing justice" because he digressed and appeared "evasive" in his statements to the grand jury probing allegations that Bonds had purposefully taken injections of steroids and human growth hormone to boost his baseball performance. Uh-h-h, say that again?!

Bonds appeared in person as a "witness" before the grand jury, which in fact was there for one primary reason: to determine whether charges should be leveled at various alleged participants in the baseball doping scandal, Bonds himself one of them. I personally don't dig the idea that grand juries or congressional committees can subpoena people whom they know all along are the actual suspects of their investigations and then give them the third degree on the stand, probing and probing until they can catch them in some sort of contradiction. Then, in this "gotcha" game of theirs, they forget the original "crime" and level perjury charges against the witness. Only with Bonds, he wasn't convicted of perjury: it was for supplying information about his childhood and his friendship with personal trainer Greg Anderson, who has been tainted in the investigation. This information apparently didn't contribute much to the jury's knowledge about the case, but does that really constitute "obstruction of justice"? After all, Bonds was there in person. Anyone could have pressed him as much as they would have liked about any matter that they though was pertinent. The idea of a grand jury being incapable of doing this because they are not versed in legal intricacies is invalid: they have the power to recommend prosecution!

If being evasive when asked a question is a crime, then let's just go ahead and arrest all of our elected officials for the same thing every time one of them dodges a difficult question that a reporter poses to them. Or take me: once in my tenth grade English class I wrote a short, rambling paper off the top of my head summarizing a book that I never read and knew very little about, receiving my school's equivalent of a "B" grade on this assignment. Talk about an evasive narrative! Time to haul out the handcuffs and slap 'em on me, coppers!

My Kick-Ass 7-Mile Injury Recovery Run

Today I was more encouraged than ever about my recovery from the running injury to my right leg that hit me three months ago. This time I ran 7.18 miles around my neighborhood, experiencing no pain in the previously injured area just below my right knee. Now I am beginning to return to my running "comfort zone", having workouts of distances substantial enough to have the positive effects on my mind and body that I enjoyed so much last year. Never mind that the temperatures during the run were warm (78-81 degrees) or that I was tired and sweaty afterwards: this was a great triumph for me!

The 7.18 mile distance is the longest I have run pain-free since January 15, when I ran 26.6 miles. My time on today's run was typical for me, reflecting my habitual running pace: 1:08:04.

My ultimate goals with running are twofold:

(1) Return to a regimen of runs 3-4 times per week, with the distances ranging from 7 to 14 miles per run.

(2) Participate in half-marathons (13.1 miles) from now on (or in shorter-distance events).

And of course, as mentioned before, I also want to make swimming co-equal with running as an athletic activity. But if you read yesterday's article, you can see that I still have a long way to go before this is achieved.

Swimming Compared to Running

Let me get this out first:

#1: I really, really, really want to become a good swimmer.
#2: I really, really, really want swimming to be an athletic activity of mine on an equal status as running.

and...

#3: I really, really, really am starting to see how this may not be at all feasible.

It all comes down to the sad fact that I am neither a dolphin nor a fish, so alas, I must create (or use some other party's creation of) an artificial environment in which I can temporarily depart from my naturally evolved tendencies as a land animal and "take the plunge'. If you're already lost, that just simply means that, to swim, I need first to find a pool to swim in!

Well, it just so happens that I already am a member in a pool-bearing YMCA, conveniently only a mile from my home. The only problem is that a lot of other folks like my YMCA's pool and want to use it, and not just for swimming laps. We have various swim teams, swimming classes, scuba diving classes, water aerobics, fitness groups, and of course, individual members in increasing numbers as the temperatures warm and the thought of a pool excursion becomes more and more attractive. And then there are the lap-swimmers, most of whom I am totally in awe regarding their ability to "do it", i.e. go back and forth across the 25-meter lanes without pausing, over and over again, no matter their age or apparent level of fitness. In spite of my near-adulation of these seasoned swimmers, they do represent a problem in that whenever I want to go swimming, I have to work around them.

Now let's look at running. Presuming that I am able to run, I can freaking run anywhere I want to, due to that now-fortunate fact that I am a land animal! And there is no premium on space with running: I can run even if there is a horde of runners going down the street! And there is no time limit either; I don't have to adjust my schedule to the select hours that the street is open, as is the case with the swimming pool.

I can run indoors at the YMCA on one of their treadmills, I can run down the streets of my neighborhood, I can run on a nearby track, I can run in my back yard, I can run through my house, ... hell, I can even just run in place! But if I want to swim, then I have to find somewhere to do that. And that ain't always so easy!

I have to hand it to my local YMCA: they have been good to swimmers, keeping their pool open throughout the winter as they have done. But they only have so much room in the pool, and there is already too much demand for access to it. I can only see this problem worsening as the season progresses through spring and into summer. There are other pools in Gainesville: one in the northeast section and the Westside Park pool, which for reasons only they know won't open this year until next month. So as it stands now, it is a hit-or-miss proposition whenever I prepare to go swimming as to whether I will actually have an available lane to swim in when I get there.

But not with running. I can just step outside my front door and go tearing down the road. It doesn't matter what else is going on: if it's storming outside I can go to that same YMCA and run on one of their many available treadmills...or as I said before I could even just run in place in my living room... while watching TV! Try swimming at home (without a swimming pool). Sorry, but the bathtub just doesn't cut it!

So availability really drastically separates swimming from running for me, even in a generally warm-weather state like Florida. There is also another difference between the two forms of physical activity...

When I have just finished a hot, sweaty, and tiring run, I feel like taking a shower, for sure. But just the same, the act of running makes me feel like I have somehow cleansed my body of toxins. But after a session in the pool swimming, I have the opposite feeling: I feel contaminated by the chlorine and god-knows-what-else was in the pool and--quick, get me into the shower and wash it all off!

My String of Painless Runs

During the past few days, I have run on four different occasions:

April 5: 3.3 miles in 31:31
April 7: 5.8 miles in 53:24
April 10: 4.81 miles in 45:34
April 12: 6.2 miles in 57:04

The times are reflective of my typical overall pace when I am going out on longer runs: a comfortable lope between nine and ten minutes per mile. I have been more careful in my recovery from the leg injury I sustained in January. I have been mostly using the treadmill, but Sunday's 4.81 mile run was on the road. I have noticed that the treadmill creates a lesser shock on the legs upon impact, although with recovery I intend to gradually wean myself from it.

But the main news to report is that, in none of my runs did I experience any pain or even discomfort in my right knee area where my IT band injury was focused. Hooray! But I will continue to be cautiously optimistic while mixing my workouts with other activities. Like swimming, for example.

I have been assiduous with swimming on my off-days from running, doing multiple laps, gaining endurance, and practicing my breathing. I have also developed my breaststroke, although I still have a long way to go with it before I am comfortable swimming breaststroke 25-meter laps. But it seems to be the least tiring of the strokes, so learning it should add to my enjoyment of swimming.

Sidewalks Not All They're Cracked Up to Be

I have a problem with sidewalks. They are supposed to be relatively safe paths for pedestrians to travel down, away from the dangers of street traffic. But the fact that most sidewalks are concrete, with cracks, makes them dangerous in themselves. Especially to those with various disabilities that limit their mobility. I'm thinking chiefly of the blind, near-blind, and elderly feeble. With the elderly a bad fall, because of their aged, brittle bones, can have a fatal cascading effect, and a bad fall can be as close as the next crack in a supposedly safe sidewalk. Cracks are put there to keep the expanding concrete intact, but what often happens is that shifts in the underlying ground will cause one segment of the sidewalk to lift slightly in relation to the next, causing a tripping hazard where the two segments meet. But one doesn't need to have a disability to be in danger: I have come close to some pretty awful falls myself while running on sidewalks.

And I don't know why concrete is used for sidewalks, anyway. Why not make all sidewalks from the same asphalt generally used for streets? That material, which incidentally is much softer of a surface to walk or run on than concrete, is not subject to the same cracking under pressure and thus doesn't require built-in cracks.

Last year (and into January this year), part of my long-distance training course involved running on sidewalks part of the way. I will not be doing this again, though. I must take care of my body and try to prevent injuries, especially to my feet, legs, and knees. It makes me wince to see others pounding down sidewalks while jogging, especially when I know that they have alternatives to this. I know at least that I won't be wincing at myself!

Are e-Readers for Me?

Today I walked into the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Jacksonville and tried out one of their demonstration models of The Nook electronic reader. I left more puzzled than ever as to why I would want to buy it.

For one, there are The Nook, Kindle, and iPad competing against each other in the e-reader market. What would happen if I were to invest in one of the readers that fizzled into extinction? Also, so what if I can download thousands of books onto my reader: for one, that means that I spent TENS of thousands of dollars on downloaded books and two, when am I going to find the time to read all of this stuff? Plus, I already have a FREE alternative to e-readers: the public library. I can look up a book online in the library's catalog and have it placed on hold at the branch library closest to me. When it's ready for pickup, I'll be notified. Then I can check it out for four weeks, with two renewals possible. And if they don't have the specific title I want? I can place a purchase suggestion, and they will in all probability buy it and have it ready for my checkout in the span of a few weeks.

There are other questions I have about e-readers, chief among them the portability of my purchases. I could see the feasibility of purchasing downloaded books if I were able to transfer them to newer e-readers or my home computer. What if I lose my e-reader or it becomes irreparably damaged? What happens to my purchased downloads on it and can they be replaced?

And what about the overwhelming amount of books that are out of print? E-readers are useless, unless of course those out-of-print books are eventually digitalized as well (this did happen with out-of-"print" musical records that became digitalized for computer and MP3 downloading).

I don't reject the idea of e-readers outright, but I am still a bit skeptical of their usefulness. For me right now, at least. Should my above-expressed concerns be addressed to my satisfaction in the future, though, I'm sure my opinion will change. But in the meantime, I am already swimming in abundant and quality reading material!

This Blog Now Four Years Old

Four years and one day ago, I began this blog. Now, some 1,300-plus articles later, it seems to be pretty much the same as how I began it: a hodgepodge of topics ranging from personal to philosophical to news and opinion to sports and entertainment. With a little weather thrown in on the side...

I don't know from day to day exactly what I will be writing about. Some days I either can't think of anything or I don't have the time, and that day lapses as a gap in the blog. But for the most part, I have tried successfully to publish something on a daily basis (even if it's silly).

I have no intention to end this blog anytime soon. In fact, I have some ideas up my sleeve to increase readership. But I will continue along the same format I have been using.

By the way, feel free to ready ANY of the many articles I have written since April 2007 and comment on any you'd like: I will read them all (and maybe comment on your comment). And there's no need to identify yourself either: just comment anonymously or leave a pseudonym instead of your actual name if you prefer.

The Federal Debt Impasse and Shutdown

I don't want a federal government shutdown, but I applaud the president for not (yet) caving in to Republican demands, which go far beyond simply exercising fiscal restraint. If practicing fiscal responsibility were the single overriding factor in the GOP's push in congress this year, then I would be inclined to be sympathetic and supportive of their efforts. But unfortunately, their actions betray their words. For one, they keep insisting on deepening the deficit much more by giving tax breaks to the rich. Their chief argument for this is that it will stimulate economic growth. The irony is that the very same people condemned the Democrats a couple of years ago for their economic stimulus plan because it would increase the deficit. For another, the Republicans are tacking on a social agenda that kowtows to their religious base and to right-wing media. So we have demands to end any federal funding relating to an organization promoting family planning (which includes possible abortion decisions, although federal funds are already prohibited by law from being applied specifically there) as well as calls to completely cut off public broadcasting. These demands do very little to bring down the deficit, but they serve to shore up the base in their party.

President Obama really has no choice but to stand firm. His party has already gone far enough to accommodate Republican deficit concerns by essentially agreeing to an earlier GOP proposal cutting $30 billion. But it seems that with each step the Democrats take to reach an agreement, the Republicans step back further and make more demands. I am convinced that the Republicans want this shutdown and believe that they can turn it to their political advantage. And who knows, with the way the American voters turned to wacko fringe right-wing elements in the 2010 election, they may be right. To steal a line from Michael Moore, "Dude, where's my country?"

President Obama is not an extreme left-wing president as his political opponents have alleged. If anything, he has shown himself to be a collaborator, always searching out coalitions and compromises. This is not necessarily a positive trait, though. The health care reform act, which received almost zero Republican support, nevertheless was watered down so much during its legislation through various amendments and compromises that it is now only a shadow of its original vision. That Obama allowed Libya's Gadhafi time to regroup while seeking an international consensus for military intervention has created a bloody stalemate there.

It's about time that our president draw a line and adhere to it. Now.

The So-Called "Bad" Game

I have heard a lot about how "bad" the recent NCAA men's basketball championship game was between Butler and Connecticut, held this past Monday evening. The main rationale for this complaint was that both teams, and especially Butler, missed a lot of shots throughout the game. Butler only made 12 of 64 field goal attempts, a new record percentage low for NCAA championship games. The analysts on CBS were beside themselves slamming both teams and the game as a whole. But I have a different interpretation.

Butler and Connecticut both made it to the final primarily by virtue of their tenacious defensive play. In an earlier tournament game, Florida's usually frenzied, high-octane offense was slowed down effectively by Butler, which won the game at the end when the Gators simply could not stop them from scoring on drive after drive after drive. That Connecticut was so effective in pressuring Butler to take bad shots is to their credit as a championship team and shouldn't detract from Butler. I have followed many Florida basketball games over the years, and the analysts always judged the opponent's field goal percentage in terms of Florida's defense. If the opponent had a low percentage, then the Gators were given credit for doing a good job defending them. That's the way I see Butler's poor shooting performance in Monday's game: Connecticut did a good job defending them, consequently winning 53-41.

I have seen times like during the NBA All-Star game when there has been little or no defensive pressure applied by either team to the other. There was a lot of scoring and some spectacular-looking drives to the basket as well as difficult-looking three-point shots, but it wasn't well-played basketball to me. The game between Butler and Connecticut was a good, hard fought out game that determined a true champion: the Connecticut Huskies!

My MP3 Playlist

As long as I am into making lists of songs, I might as well list the songs I listen regularly to on my "favorites" playlist on my MP3 player. On it are the usual suspects: Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, Nirvana, Metric, MGMT, Spoon, and a not-so-new act that I just recently discovered: DeVotchka. DeVotchka's current indie/alternative hit 100 Other Lovers is currently my favorite song of the year, along with Radiohead's These Are My Twisted Words. By the way, I just heard Radiohead's new album The King of Limbs. I like all of the songs, but I was mistaken in an earlier article I wrote, believing then that Twisted Words would be one of the tracks. It isn't, and Radiohead's new album only has eight songs. But I'll take it!

Here's my playlist, in the order that I hear the songs:

These Are My Twisted Words by Radiohead
Merchants of Soul by Spoon
Faust Arp by Radiohead
Morning Bell (Kid A version) by Radiohead
I Might Be Wrong by Radiohead
In Limbo by Radiohead
Go to Sleep by Radiohead
Sail to the Moon by Radiohead
Scentless Apprentice by Nirvana
Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens
Better by Regina Spektor
Reckoner by Radiohead
Morning Bell (Amnesiac version) by Radiohead
20 Years of Snow by Regina Spektor
Idioteque by Radiohead
Time to Pretend by MGMT
Man of a Thousand Faces by Regina Spektor
Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head by Sufjan Stevens
Us by Regina Spektor
Dumb by Nirvana
Calculation (Theme) by Metric
100 Other Lovers by DeVotchka

Why not try listening to some of these and tell me what you think!

List Madness: Beatles From Top to Bottom

This is my highly personal, very subjective list of studio-recorded Beatles songs (excluding the BBC recordings) from top favorite to least favorite. In compiling it, I combined some tracks together into single songs: from the album Sgt Pepper, I combined that title song's reprise with the final track A Day in the Life, the way radio used to play it. And from Abbey Road, I combined the individual components of the two outstanding medleys there into coherent pieces.

I was going to list each song's album, the way I had done earlier when I put out a similar list of Led Zeppelin songs. But until the Sgt. Pepper album came out, the U.K. and U.S. released different albums simultaneously, making the identification of each song's album a major headache. So I left the albums off this list. Sorry...

I think the Beatles are the greatest, and I like most of their material a lot. It isn't until I get around #170-180 on this list that I come across songs that begin to irritate me. So a song that seems buried on the list isn't necessarily one I don't value.

One more note: the least favorite song here is actually pretty good, musically. It's message, though, was so abhorrent that it sank straight to the bottom!

Well, here goes my list...

1 Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
2 For No One
3 Eleanor Rigby
4 Strawberry Fields Forever
5 Twist and Shout
6 Blackbird
7 Tomorrow Never Knows
8 Happy Just to Dance With You
9 Good Night
10 The Two of Us
11 Sgt. Pepper reprise/A Day in the Life
12 Across the Universe
13 Old Brown Shoe
14 Doctor Robert
15 Words of Love
16 PS I Love You
17 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
18 The Inner Light
19 Slow Down
20 Hello Goodbye
21 You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
22 And Your Bird Can Sing
23 All You Need Is Love
24 All Together Now
25 You Can't Do That
26 When I Get Home
27 She's a Woman
28 Michelle
29 Long Tall Sally
30 The Long and Winding Road
31 I'll Cry Instead
32 I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends
33 I Am the Walrus
34 I Saw Her Standing There
35 Get Back (singles version)
36 Every Little Thing
37 Martha My Dear
38 Another Girl
39 Things We Said Today
40 Ticket to Ride
41 Everbody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
42 We Can Work It Out
43 She's Leaving Home
44 I'm a Loser
45 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
46 Yesterday
47 Revolution 9
48 What You're Doing
49 The Night Before
50 Fixing a Hole
51 Revolution (singles version)
52 Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
53 It Won't Be Long
54 Norwegian Wood
55 Anna
56 Honey Pie
57 Back in the USSR
58 Hey Jude
59 I've Got a Feeling
60 Penny Lane
61 It's Getting Better
62 Here, There, and Everywhere
63 I'm Only Sleeping
64 Your Mother Should Know
65 Taxman
66 Money
67 Thank You Girl
68 And I Love Her
69 Love Me Do
70 Paperback Writer
71 I'll Be Back
72 I've Just Seen a Face
73 If I Needed Someone
74 Cry Baby Cry
75 Hold Me Tight
76 She Said She Said
77 In My Life
78 Sun King
79 Wait
80 I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
81 I'll Follow the Sun
82 Tell Me Why
83 Matchbox
84 You Never Give Me Your Money
85 Got to Get You Into My Life
86 Don't Bother Me
87 I Want to Tell You
88 For You Blue
90 Lady Madonna
91 I Call Your Name
92 I Will
93 Boys
94 Rock and Roll Music
95 Daytripper
96 Devil in Her Heart
97 Do You Want to Know a Secret
98 Glass Onion
99 Yes It Is
100 I'm Down
101 A Hard Day's Night
102 Anytime at All
103 You're Gonna Lose That Girl
104 Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand
105 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
106 Fool on the Hill
107 Sexy Sadie
108 Bad Boy
109 Drive My Car
110 I Want to Your Hand
111 Lovely Rita Meter Maid
112 Baby You're a Rich Man
113 Good Morning Good Morning
114 Savoy Truffle
115 Mother Nature's Son
116 Why Don't We Do It In the Road
117 Tell Me What You See
118 Because
119 I Need You
120 Think for Yourself
121 Baby's in Black
122 Can't Buy Me Love
123 The Rain
124 Girl
125 From Me to You
126 Sie Lieb Dich
127 Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite
128 I Want You (She's So Heavy)
129 You Really Got a Hold On Me
130 I'm Looking Through You
131 Mother Nature's Son
132 Helter Skelter
133 Love You To
134 Birthday
135 It's Only Love
136 Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
137 Happiness is a Warm Gun
138 Yer Blues
139 Good Day Sunshine
140 Help!
141 Not a Second Time
142 Revolution 1 (white album version)
143 You Won't See Me
144 Dear Prudence
145 Long, Long, Long
146 When I'm 64
147 I Should Have Known Better
148 I Feel Fine
149 All My Loving
150 There's a Place
151 Roll Over Beethoven
152 She Loves You
153 Rocky Raccoon
154 The Word
155 Within You Without You
156 Kansas City
157 Mr Moonlight
158 All I've Gotta Do
159 Dig It
160 Magical Mystery Tour
161 Please Please Me
162 Don't Pass Me By
163 Octopus's Garden
164 Misery
165 You Won't See Me
166 It's All Too Much
167 No Reply
168 Chains
169 I Wanna Be Your Man
170 Piggies
171 Honey Don't
172 I'm So Tired
173 Let It Be
174 If I Fell
175 One After 909
176 What Goes On
177 Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
178 Ask Me Why
179 Act Naturally
180 Oh! Darling
181 Yellow Submarine
182 You Like Me Too Much
183 Maxwell's Silver Hammer
184 A Taste of Honey
185 I Dig a Pony
186 I'll Get You
187 Till There Was You
188 Dizzy Miss Lizzy
189 Julia
190 Please Mr Postman
191 Something
192 Blue Jay Way
193 Eight Days a Week
194 Don't Let Me Down
195 Baby It's You
196 This Boy
197 Wild Honey Pie
198 Flying
199 I Me Mine
200 Hey Bulldog
201 Her Majesty
202 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
203 Come Together
204 Maggie Mae
205 You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)
206 Only a Northern Song
207 Free as a Bird
208 Real Love
209 Run For Your Life

Positive Negative Experience

Sometimes when I get up early in the day, I get a little tired in the afternoon. If I find myself in a stressful situation, that fatigue can contribute to anxiety and possible resulting bad decisions on my part. Case in point: today I got up a little after 6 AM. This afternoon, instead of taking a good, long nap I went shopping in a very congested part of town, in a very crowded store that wasn't being managed very well. Driving home I realized that I wasn't going to have the opportunity to rest anytime soon, so I reacted to the stress by going to the nearby Dunkin' Donuts and blowing some of my money on a coffee and a couple of doughnuts. Doughnuts are just about the last thing I need to be eating, for various reasons. But I happen to be one of those poor souls who tend to react to stress and fatigue by eating sweets, and here I was doing just that. I rationalized my action by taking stuff inside Dunkin' Donuts to study while I stuffed my face. But once inside, I had no peace: the entire miserable time was taken up with noisy workers, noisy customers, and noisy customers' even noisier screaming kids. A-A-A-G-H!!!

I ate my two doughnuts (which didn't taste all that good either) and left feeling angry. Now separated from that negative experience for a few hours, I have changed my interpretation of it all; I am glad that it went bad for me, since this will help me to change my bad habit of stressful eating. Also...

It also gave me something to write about on this blog today besides that evil, very disturbed individual and his supporting cast of nonentity sycophant idiots who knowingly caused the deaths of several people overseas with their book burning party...in my own home town. Way to go, A.H.'s!

Butler This Year's Butler

It seems that with every year in the NCAA men's basketball championship tournament, at least one low-seeded team from an obscure college goes far in it, even sometimes making the vaunted Final Four. Last year, Butler University (in Indiana) surprised everyone with the Bulldogs not only making it to the Final Four, but also getting to the national championship game against Duke and barely losing it to the heavy favorite. So the doubtless-overpaid sports television and radio pundits have been at it this year, wondering which underdog will go far in the tournament, and phrasing the question as "Who is this year's Butler?" Well, guess what? Butler is this year's Butler!

Once again lowly Butler University got it going at tourney time and is now on the cusp of a national championship, with only the Connecticut Huskies standing in their way. The canines play each other for the title on Monday evening.

I thought that Virginia Commonwealth, Butler's most recent opponent, had all of the markings of a great upstart, energetic team playing well beyond its record. But I was wrong, and the team that kept my Florida Gators from reaching the Final Four this year by beating them in overtime has endured.

Still, I haven't forgiven Butler for knocking out my Gators: I'm pulling for the hairy dogs at UConn!

The Press, Human Rights, and Military Intervention

Seeing that the issue of international human rights is so crucial to us as Americans to the point that we consider militarily intervening from time to time in other countries in order to prevent the most flagrant abuses, it would behoove us to examine the role that the press plays in targeting one nation for human rights abuse charges over another. For example, regarding the situation in western Africa's Ivory Coast, where a sitting president's refusal to relinquish power after losing an election has led to a very bloody civil war, the press coverage has been minimal, to say the least. And guess what? You don't hear our president weighing in on any possible intervention to save lives there. But Libya is another matter. The press has seized on the overall theme of recent Arab popular revolts in many countries and has made Libya's war-torn population a more compelling case for intervention. To me, intervention would have made sense had it been done in a more timely manner, before the dictatorship there had been given time to reestablish military dominance over the rebels. Now it seems that the so-called humanitarian intervention on the part of the U.S. and its NATO allies is only serving to create a stalemate. And stalemates can end up costing a lot more lives than would a quick ending to the war, regardless who wins.

The situation in Libya being what it may be now, the fact still remains that the world is full of places where human rights are grossly ignored, places that the press virtually ignores as well. So why did the U.S. get involved in Libya?

Well, for one, Libya is a major oil producer, with western European nations its chief customers. For another, the U.S. fleet is already in the Mediterranean, right off the Libyan shores. It is already in position to launch missiles and bomb strategic targets there. Neither of these conditions applies elsewhere, especially to Ivory Coast. Also, Libyan tyrant Colonel Gadhafi is a proven instigator of international terrorism, having caused the deaths of innocent Americans while maintaining a bellicose posture in the past toward other nations in the area, particularly Israel, Egypt, and Chad. The same cannot be said for Ivory Coast's intransigent president.

So is the press primarily responsible for making Libya a priority for intervention over other human rights crises, or are the self-interests of the neighboring nations, the United States, and the West in general the true determining factors? And if protecting human rights is being used as a cover for protecting or promoting national self-interests, isn't a free and independent press, with all of the ethics pertaining to the field of journalism, responsible for pointing this out consistently and vehemently?

The Beatles and Lists

Forthcoming on this blog is a list of just about all of the studio-recorded Beatles songs (excluding their BBC recordings), with them ranked from top to bottom according to MY tastes. I decided to do this after watching VH1's show of their own list of the 100 top musical acts of all-time. I confess that I only saw the final hour when they were going through the top ten. I could guess ahead that acts like Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and of course the Beatles would be revealed to be at the top. But I was astonished that, after Elvis was presented to be only at #7, Prince was ranked ahead of the King at #6. This artist, also known as The Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, is in my opinion one of the supremely overrated acts in the history of pop music (and that's saying a lot). And coming in ahead of Presley? Ouch!

So as VH1 approached #1, it occurred to me that this station might pull a fast one this time and dethrone the Fab Four in favor of the late Mister Moonwalk. When #2 was shown, I breathed a sigh of relief: Jackson was there, and the Beatles made it through another year of this highly subjective scrutiny. Then I thought why do I care what others think? And then the preposterous thought boomeranged back: maybe others care about what I think! Hence, the upcoming list of my favorite Beatle tunes.

I do think that it is interesting that the Beatles are supposedly the top act of all time, since I hardly ever hear any of their music played on my sorry radio anymore. But that's O.K. with me: I have just about everything of theirs on MP3 and can even play out all of their songs in my head, I know them so well.

Everyone who followed popular music during their childhood always carries the memories of those songs and artists as personal markers of the events in their lives which happened while growing up. For me, the Beatles played a major role in my childhood. Hearing various songs conjures up vivid memories of things going around me at various times during the 1960's. How about you? Whom, if anyone, did you listen to in your youth?

Personal Fitness Progress

After experiencing some warning feelings during a five-mile run on March 22, around my right knee where my IT band injury was concentrated , I decided to cool it with the running for a bit and space out runs a week apart instead of every other day. So this past Tuesday, exactly a week later, I ran 2.7 miles on the treadmill with nothing negative to report. I'll wait again until next Tuesday, when I'll either step up the distance on the treadmill or run a short distance on the street around my neighborhood.

Meanwhile, I have been trying my hand (or should I say "feet") with speed walking on the treadmill. Well, maybe at least it's "speed walking" for me: 4.0-4.6 mph pace for 1.5-2 miles. If I could keep a sustained speed of around 4.6-4.8 mph walking and then train for distance, I could actually participate in half-marathons (or even marathons) as a pure walker and finish the race before the time limit imposed by the organizers, usually three hours for the half-marathon and six for the marathon. I feel encouraged with my speed walking, although I have only been at it a relatively short time.

My swimming has progressed well, too. I am now comfortably swimming in the 25-meter lanes at my YMCA pool. I swim freestyle in one direction and on my back in a relaxed manner in the other. Yesterday I swam 16 laps this way and then went to the shallower main part of the pool to work on my breaststroke form, about which I still feel pretty awkward and self-conscious. But even there I think I improved.

Today I worked out at in the YMCA fitness center with their weights and elliptical trainer. By cross-training, I believe that this will strengthen my body as a whole and enable me to avoid injuries like that of my right iliotibial band that happened on January 15, when I ran 26.6 miles around far-northern Gainesville.

Watching Yanks Opener a New Tradition?

The year has almost come around full circle from when my family and I visited Manhattan, New York. We had arrived and checked in to our hotel, the Marriott Marquis at Times Square, early in the evening on April 6. Discussing where we would eat dinner, my daughter mentioned a restaurant named Junior's she had seen just across the street (45th Street) from our hotel. So we went in there and had our first NYC dining experience. They had TVs positioned in a few locations, and by chance we were seated with me facing one tuned to the New York Yankees baseball season opener on the road against the Boston Red Sox. The major league regular season, at least for the Yanks, started on April 6 last year. This year it starts tomorrow, March 31, and the pinstripers will be at home this time, playing an afternoon game against the Detroit Tigers.

I had such a pleasant time for most of my New York visit that I would like to mark the occasion by starting traditions associated with it. One tradition that I think would be cool would be to mark the baseball season's start by watching the Yankees' opening game. Living in Gainesville, though, this is problematic as New York isn't a home team with any guarantee that their opener will always be shown on ESPN. Also, I will be at work in ensuing years (but not tomorrow). So I'll have to work some bugs out of this baseball opener tradition, I suppose, for it to take hold. My wife Melissa suggested eating cheesecake while watching the game, further connecting the experience with Junior's where we gorged ourselves on this dessert several times throughout our stay there.

I wonder what other traditions I could get going as well that relate to last year's New York trip. Well, I thought that I had wrung out enough material about my visit for several blog articles last year, but it looks as if there may be more in store!

Gainesville Still Not Bicycle-Friendly

Except for a brief period in 1987, I have lived in Gainesville, Florida since 1977. For most of that time I extensively used bicycle travel either for basic transportation, exercise, or leisure. I have recently been increasing my bicycle riding, largely in part due to a leg injury that sidelined me from running for a while. If there's anyone in Gainesville familiar with the road conditions for bicyclists, then I'm that one. And I sadly have to say that, in spite of this town's boasting of being so bicycle-friendly, it has a long, long way to go before I can agree with that assertion.

It is true that Gainesville has its share of bike paths, but upon closer examination those paths tend to encourage north-south travel and are noticeably lacking in an east-west direction through the central portion of the city. The major east-west roads running through the city's center, i.e. University Avenue/Newberry Road, North 8th Avenue, North 16th Avenue, and North 23rd Avenue, are all deficient in bicycle paths. It is hazardous for bicyclists to employ these routes. Instead, one has to go north to 39th or 53rd Avenue or south to Archer or Williston Road to be able to travel down bicycle paths east-west. Lately there has been much discussion about proposals to make a bike path down NW 16th Avenue, but there is a significant level of opposition to any change.

Part of this opposition arises from the notion that spending public funds for bike paths is a waste of money since not that many people use bicycles as transportation. I find this argument circular: a lot of people don't use bicycles as transportation because there aren't the needed bike paths to make them feel safe! Another part of the opposition is more cultural: the country/rural "Deep South" culture is embedded in this area and tends to regard those choosing bicycle travel as being effete and highbrow. Then, there are also many thousands of university students from other parts of the state and country who are wed to their cars and have neither patience for bicyclists nor any desire to share the road with them. Finally, there is this strange, perverse notion that I have noticed among drivers that somehow being behind a wheel in a motorized vehicle makes their lives more legitimate than that of a bicyclist who is just as legally entitled to a place on the public street.

So I am still not at all satisfied with how far my Gainesville has gone to promote bicycle travel by creating strategically-located bicycle lanes. You don't have to put one down every road; just give bicyclists a way to design a course that allows them to reach their destinations without imperiling themselves at the hands of careless, selfish, and inattentive drivers!

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson Series

I just finished reading the five-volume series by Rick Riordan titled Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Intended for Harry Potter devotees who wanted something similar to read, it partially filled the bill for me. And to shift the metaphor a bit, I'm trying to be a "glass-half-full" person. So I generally endorse it. Although...

The Percy Jackson books do introduce the reader to an alternative world running simultaneously parallel to our ordinary reality, much like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter does. Except with Jackson, it's not the world of magic with wizards but rather Greek mythology with its gods and monsters that prevail. In both series, ordinary folks like you and me (Potter's "muggles" and Jackson's "mortals") are shielded from any direct awareness of this due to either magical spells, or in the case of Jackson, something called "the Mist". Although the presentation of Greek mythology as an alternative reality intrigued me, I felt that the way Riordan presented it was something of a ripoff from Rowling. But maybe that's the whole point: readers want to continue with Potter-like stories. While Rowling spent more effort developing her characters, Riordan's emphasis was plot, with a lot of heavy-going action. There were many violent battle scenes throughout the series, so many in fact that I became somewhat numbed to them. I think this ultimately hindered Riordan's attempts to build up suspense in his story.

The Percy Jackson books were all a lot shorter, too, with none exceeding 400 pages. To me that was a plus. There are some authors who pad their works with too much extraneous material when they should be leaving some things to the reader's imagination. I'm thinking of Eragon author Christopher Paolini as a major offender in this regard.

I felt that I was regressing a bit in my reading level while churning through Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Also, these series tend to grind on one with the mysteries and subplots that grow and continue from one volume to the next until, with the final book, a lot of the text becomes bogged down with reconciling and explaining them.

Still, as fun, escapist reading, I liked this series. For kids, it is also a good, subtle introduction to Greek mythology as well as United States geography. A great portion of The Last Olympian, the final volume in this series, takes place in Manhattan, which I visited last April. It was interesting how Riordan wove various locations there into the story. I understand that Rick Riordan is in the middle of writing and releasing volumes of the sequel to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. But at least for now, I think I'll just try something else, thank you. Still, Jackson is pleasant, light reading.

Life's a Bitch...Get Over It!

Once, many eons ago, I was sitting by myself in the Waffle House that once existed on South U.S. 441 in Gainesville late at night, doing something esoteric like deciphering a Vietnamese translation of Jack London's short stories or codifying physics formulae into matrices while eating one of their classic breakfasts with raisin toast and cheesy scrambled eggs. A party was seated in the booth in front of me, and everybody seemed to have something to say to each other about what was going on in their lives. All of it was negative, one complaining rant after another about their problems with people in their families, people at work, people, people, people. I could tell that the group as a whole seemed to be getting off on each other's woes, almost as if they were passing around a joint. But there was one middle-aged, haggard-looking woman there whose only contribution to the conversation was the periodic interjection, "Life's a bitch." It could well be that this woman was drunk (they all seemed to have been drinking) and she was trying to fit into the spirit of the proceedings without being able to come up with any beefs of her own. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to a different conclusion. Maybe she was trying to tell others, in her own limited way, that all of their travails were normal elements of a typical life and that, sure, problems make you feel bad, but EVERYBODY'S got problems. So stop whining like a bunch of crybabies. Yeah sure, life's a bitch... get over it and move on!

Then again, most likely she was just stone drunk!

The Long Walk: My Version

Early in his professional writing career, Stephen King wrote several stories under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Among these was an intriguing tale titled The Long Walk. In it, a future or alternative America staged a walking race like no other: the contestants had to walk at a pace of at least 4 mph or they would be eliminated. Literally eliminated, i.e. shot dead on the spot. The race was over when all contestants had been "eliminated" but one, leaving the winner (and only survivor). I'll leave it to you to read it for yourself if you want. King has written better stories, but it did leave an impression on me nevertheless regarding race walking and walking in general.

When Melissa and I walk around our block, we usually do so at a 3-3.2 mph pace. On the treadmill, I usually cool down from a run at 3.4 mph. But Stephen King's 4 mph is a pretty high level for me. And that got me to thinking...

While I am recovering from my leg injury and waiting to run again, why not just see how fast I can walk and for how long? And why not start with 4 mph as a minimum speed, conveniently using my YMCA's treadmill? Yes, I can still use the elliptical cross-trainer and the weights in my workout while enhancing it with a brisk walking session. I think I'll try this out tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I am also aware of how painfully funny race walkers look, with their exaggerated hip motions. This may be one big reason why more people pursue competitive running instead, in spite of the increased injury hazards associated with that activity. Also, I think it would be hard to police a public walking race as there would need to be race officials practically everywhere to scrutinize the contestants to insure that no one cheated by running here and there. But I'm not all that interested in competitive racing against others, anyway. Just knowing how I am doing with my speed and endurance is good enough for me. But I do like the idea of a public event dedicated to this activity in which, like with running, I could participate from time to time in a more social context.

A lot of the 5K public running races that are routinely offered combine the running with an invitation for walkers to participate as well. Usually though, this is just for the folks heavily into the charities that are running the events; these people tend to take their sweet time getting through the course and aren't all that interested in walking per se. I'd like a setting that attracted fitness walkers who wanted to test each other out in competition, but I don't see that anywhere. Not in Gainesville, at least. But that would be my idea of a fine "long walk".

Swimming Progress Encouraging

Yesterday at the YMCA pool, I finally made a strong effort to swim a few of the 25-meter lanes there. It was a timely decision as the rest of the pool was taken up by bouncers and scooby-doos (my terms for water aerobics exercisers and scuba-diving students, respectively). I hit upon an effective strategy to my lane swimming: I would swim freestyle in one direction and then paddle on my back in an improvised, easier-for-me backstroke in the other. Thus I was able to keep myself rested for more laps. I ended up swimming 12 laps in all, a personal record by far for lane swimming.

By doing lane swimming, I was also able to focus more on the one major impediment to my ability to swim longer distances nonstop: incorrect breathing form. But I checked out some tips on the Internet, especially swimming instructor Terry Laughlin's suggestions to help with breathing. And I intend to try them out the next time I go swimming.

I also think it's about time for me to get serious with learning the breaststroke and integrating it within my swimming practice sessions. I've seen other swimmers in the lanes who changed styles as they swam laps, and I have always wanted to be able to do that. Besides, the breaststroke looks like a simpler stroke than freestyle as far as breathing is concerned. I have seen swimmers doing the breaststroke with their heads always above the surface, but I want to follow McLaughlin's precepts and keep below surface for much of the stroke. Well, I should have plenty of time to practice, with the warm weather ahead of me here in Florida!

Running Recovery Hits Minor Snag

My running progress hit a bump in the road Tuesday when I set out to run around my neighborhood, with 6+ miles as my distance goal. This kept with my stated aim of gradually increasing my distance while taking notice of how my right leg felt around the knee (I am recovering from an IT band injury). On Saturday I had pulled off a similar 5-mile run without any pain or warning signs, so I was cautiously optimistic. Tuesday's run was unpleasant to begin with: it was warm and very, very humid. But I've run through those conditions without trouble before; the problem was that I begin to notice my right knee area between 4 and 5 miles. I walked much of the remaining distance, which I curtailed at 5.69 miles to prevent any aggravation to that area in my right leg.

So apparently I wasn't spacing my runs out enough over the week and will have to give myself some more time before I set out again. I think that when I resume running, I will stick to one run per week for a couple of months. Also, I'd like to confine my running to the treadmill since that seems to involve less shock to my knees.

This IT band problem has been really unsettling to me, but I have been able to partially compensate for my sidelining from running by doing other things. Like swimming, for example, which I will write about in tomorrow's post.

Learning New Chinese Characters

Lately I have been working to increase my knowledge of Chinese characters. While doing this I am also learning Japanese kanji, which are just Chinese characters adapted to the Japanese language.

Years ago, I once went through the extensive Defrancis Chinese textbook series published by Yale University Press. In doing so, I learned about 1,700 characters, which I memorized and still review on a weekly basis to this day. Later I picked up about 1,500 more new characters by reading various texts in Chinese, although these I have unfortunately allowed myself to forget for the large part over the years. Now I am adding them to the 1,700, along with Chinese characters used in Japanese kanji, for additional memorization.

My intent is to be able to fluently read Chinese (and eventually Japanese) without having to go through the arduous process of having to consult a character dictionary a couple of times or more for every sentence I stumble through. Even after increasing my vocabulary, I'll keep coming upon new unknown characters to look up. But at least that shouldn't distract too much from the flow of my reading.

My blog entries recently have been more sparse, largely due to the fact that I am spending much of the time I would have used to write my entries instead to study the additional Chinese/Japanese characters. But it sure is fun!

Libya No-Fly Zone Belatedly Established

Regarding the recent decision on the part of the United States government to seek UN and NATO cooperation to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya after two weeks of hemming and hawing around while dictator Gadhafi regained the edge in that country's civil war, I wonder whether the action now taken is too late. Anyone could see that there was a time when Gadhafi was on the verge of being driven out when he then began to use his nation's air force against his own people, employing a brutal sweeping bombing campaign against rebels with little or no regard for human life. And the U.S. under Obama just stood around with the president making tepid statements to the effect that Gadhafi was on the wrong side of history and needed to go. Now that the rebels have been driven back to a defensive stance and Gadhafi's loyalists have been allowed the time to entrench themselves, it looks as if we are now in for a totally avoidable and prolonged conflict destined to cost many more lives than if Obama had acted in a more timely fashion.

Now reports are coming out that it was Obama's Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who opposed military involvement in Libya and who initially prevailed over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who wanted a no-fly zone established and enforced from the beginning when it became apparent as to what Gadhafi's intentions were. Obama should have paid more attention to Clinton as she was in the White House throughout her husband's presidency when he had to confront similar crises in Rwanda and Bosnia (lives lost through inaction and delay) and Haiti and Kosovo (lives saved through quick action).

The Arab League has strongly endorsed the no-fly zone over Libya and welcomed the U.S. involvement, quite a departure from its reaction to the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld invasion of Iraq in 2003. And also unlike Iraq, there will be no American ground combat forces in Libya.

So I welcome the decision to set up a no-fly zone in Libya and give the rebels a fighting chance to survive. But the action may have come too late, a hesitation that I think is almost unforgivable.

Running and Swimming: Personal Journeys Continue

If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you know that I sustained an IT band injury to my right leg around my knee while completing my first-ever marathon run on January 15. And that I aggravated the injury by not recognizing it and instead running much more, even participating in the Ocala Marathon on January 23 (and completing it largely through walking). Also, you would know that I am in the process of reinventing myself as a swimmer, studying and trying to imitate swimming instructor Terry McLaughlin's Total Immersion method. So how am I doing in mid-March with my running and swimming?

I have been cautiously going out on short runs, being attentive to the first signs of pain in my right knee. This past week has been very encouraging: at the YMCA workout room on Tuesday, I was able to run 4 miles on the treadmill with no pain. Then, on Thursday I ran 3.54 miles on the road around my neighborhood. Again, no pain. So tomorrow, I plan to increase the distance a little while being cognizant of that area of interest just below my right knee. But so far I am very happy with my recovery!

As for swimming, I have to take my "progress" with a liberal dose of humor. I keep looking at other swimmers at my YMCA pool and shake my head: over and over again, sickly, overweight elderly people limp and struggle to get to their lane and...once they're in the pool, they swim lap after lap after lap, you get the picture. Meanwhile, I am still in the shallow part of the pool swimming fractions of their laps and struggling with my breathing. But I have no intentions of giving up or taking the easy way out by using buoyancy devices, snorkels, or flippers. After all, I am still giving myself a great workout each time I get in the pool, even if I look and feel clumsy and inadequate as a swimmer.

So there you are. My ideal scenario has me alternating my swimming and running days while developing similar endurance capabilities in each. I intend...no, I INSIST that this will work!

NCAA Hoops Tourney Really Starts Today

The NCAA basketball championship tournament, for all practical purposes, begins today with its traditional 64-team field. This year four teams were added and played against four others a couple of days ago, officially creating an initial 68-team field. Why they did that, I don't know. But now we're back to that mathematically comforting sixth power of two, eventually to whittle down with each round of play to the supreme "zeroth" power of two at the end of the final championship game.

The Florida Gators are seeded #2 in the Southeast Region. They play #15 University of California/Santa Barbara tonight in what for all practical purposes is a home game at Tampa. They should win tonight and also the following game. But upsets happen, and that is one of the appeals of this tournament: things don't always turn out the way the "experts" predicted.

Florida State, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina all made the tournament this year. I root for them as long as they're not playing Florida. However, I am a little puzzled by Tennessee's inclusion in the tournament as I don't think they are all that good this year. Now watch them do well!

Chandler Parsons, Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Alex Tyus, Vernon Macklin...the Gator starting five, they have a chance to go down in NCAA basketball history as another great championship lineup, next to the great teams of 2005-06 and 2006-07 featuring Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Joachim Noah, Lee Humphrey, and Taureen Green. Yes, they are good enough to win the whole tournament this year (although right now I think Kansas is the best team). Whether they will or not is another matter.

Governor Scott Nixes Strange High-Speed Rail Plan

Whenever my sister travels by car from her home near Dallas, Texas to my father's home near Miami, Florida, she spends a very long time within Florida. As a matter of fact, she thinks that most of this cross-country trip occurs within Florida's state boundaries! Which brings up an important point: Florida may not be the largest state, but for its size it has to be the most elongated state. This makes traveling from one end of the state to the other something of an ordeal. For those either living in south Florida or visiting it often, that highly-populated area can be seen as rather isolated from the rest of the state. For that reason, high-speed rail sounds like a reasonable way to connect that area to the rest of the state. And we just had a federally-funded plan for high-speed rail here in Florida. But...

The plan was for this to be America's first truly high-speed rail, destined for opening in 2015 and funded through federal stimulus money. But then teabagger Rick Scott came along and squeaked his way into the governor's seat in a very close election last November. And one of his first actions as governor was to reject federal funding for the project and scrap it outright. What a jerk, right? But...

The $2.6 billion-planned high-speed railway was to be built spanning two central Florida cities: Tampa and Orlando. Two cities that are only 84 miles apart! C'mon, I live in Gainesville and have no trouble driving the 100-plus miles to either city. And Miami, which is about 340 miles from my home? Well, south Florida hasn't had any political clout in Florida since Bob Graham left the Senate. Never mind that a Miami-Tampa or Miami-Orlando high-speed rail system would have closed the distance gap and been used much more heavily: it obviously would have entailed a greater financial investment, and we're supposed to do everything nowadays on a shoestring budget. So now we have nothing.

I have many problems with teabagger Scott being my governor, but the fact is that he is my governor. This is at least one decision he has made that I agree with, though. But his reasons may not have been my reasons. After all, I'm sure that he couldn't care less whether Miami ever got high-speed rail access to the rest of the state. For that matter, I'm not sure that he could care less if Miami just slid into the sea...

Voting Day in Gainesville

Today was election day in Gainesville for three city commission seats. I got to vote in two of them. When one considers how important these posts are by the fact that the commission decides how much they will tax the citizens and then how that revenue is distributed, it always amazes me how few people actually vote in these elections. That's sad because a low turnout often translates into a fringe candidate with extremist views and a zealous following being elected. Let's hope that doesn't happen today!

...Later that night....
No extremists won tonight, although the voting turnout was a disgrace at 14.9% of registered voters. One of my candidates (an incumbent) won without a runoff, and the other two races will be decided on April 12. I shudder to think what the turnout will be then!

My Local Starbucks Hangout

Here is a shot from the inside of the Starbucks I usually frequent the most, from my vantage point seated way, way, back at the end of a section. This store is very popular, and the people working here are pretty friendly (well, almost all of them are). They do seem to have a problem with their storage capacity because they tend to pile up a lot of boxed-up inventory around the customers' seating area, sometimes taking up a couple of tables. But I can live with that as long as I can find somewhere to sit. I've noticed that at the busiest time, on weekend mornings, I never have trouble finding a free table. But then again, most of the customers are doing take-out then, on their way to work or school. My most difficult time at this Starbucks is on Saturday afternoons, when as a general rule I can't find an empty place to sit. But I'm happy that they're doing so well, since this SHOULD mean that the mother company won't close them down as a corporate loss (as they did recently with some of their other stores).

I began coming here right after it opened in the summer of 2000. I don't think that there is any other single coffee establishment that I have patronized regularly for so long a time.

I have been to other non-Starbucks coffee shops across town over the years, but it has generally been Starbucks who seems to understand the importance of a smiling, friendly, and welcoming attitude on the part of its workers to the customer. Frankly, that should be a no-brainer, but it never fails to astonish me how poorly employees treat customers in the locally-owned mom-and-pop businesses I go to. So why go there? Screw them, just because they're local that doesn't mean that they are entitled to my money. When I experience coldness and frowning faces, I conclude that maybe they really don't think my money is important, anyway. So I'll just spend it instead where employees show some good-old fashioned professionalism. If the locals want to compete with this mega-corporation for my dollars, then they can grow some brains and learn to be friendly to me when I walk in the door to do business with them!

Obama Puzzling on Libya

I can't help but think that our president, whom I have supported in the past, is completely out of touch with the situation in Libya. Completely out of touch particularly regarding his appropriate role as leader of the United States, its role in the world, and how we should confront crises that involve mass slaughters still occurring in the 21st century. Does Obama really think that freezing Gadhafi's assets and imposing sanctions on Libya will make that tyrant decide to step down and hand over power to the opposition? Does he really think that trying to align U.S. policy toward Libya with what he terms "the international community" (whatever that's supposed to be) won't be interpreted by Gadhafi (and the rest of our adversaries worldwide, for that matter) as weak and faltering? Does he really think that by simply stating that Gadhafi should realize that he is "on the wrong side of history", then this brutal dictator will say, "Aw shucks, you got me, I quit"?

President Obama's press conference yesterday frightened me a little by his matter-of-fact, business-as-usual demeanor toward urgent matters like Libya's civil war. Libya is an important country whose citizens are rising up against a brutal, corrupt autocrat who has instigated terrorism against the U.S. and its allies while treating fellow Libyans as his own personal, private property to control and toy around with (and even kill) as he pleases. Why should America wait around for other countries, who most likely are taking their cue for action from Obama? If this isn't grounds for some kind of intervention, then what is? But instead, when we should have been hearing a strongly worded set of demands from the president to Gadhafi, all we get is an aloof, emotionally detached lecture. And the dictator continues to feel free to massacre his own people with impunity.

If Gadhafi prevails in this civil war with our president sitting on his hands, I predict that Obama will NOT be reelected. For this show of lack of will would start a chain of aggressive behavior on the part of other adversaries. Frankly, I am beginning to have second thoughts myself about Mr. Obama as my president. But I guess you probably already figured that out. Question is, which of the other turkeys now in the running would I vote for? Sigh...

Quake Makes Me Wake

I had a full day yesterday; normally I check out my kitchen and snack a bit after I get home from work, usually around 11:30 PM. But last night I skipped stuffing my mouth with food and promptly passed out moments after slipping into my recliner. About 1:30, my son, who is on spring break from college, came into the room and woke me up, telling me that there was a breaking news story that I might be interested in. I know that Will was, as he had just spent some time last summer traveling through Japan and is learning the Japanese language.

The massive, 8.9 level earthquake just off the east coast of northern Honshu island, occurring at around 1 AM EST, was devastating enough for those immediately affected. But although there sadly were casualties and much damage from this disaster, it would have been much worse had this nation not prepared for earthquake contingencies through strict building codes, civil engineering, and disaster preparation. Quite a contrast to countries like Haiti or Pakistan!

This is obviously going to be a headline-grabbing news story for some time to come, even after the last tsunami threat from this earthquake to Hawaii and the U.S. west coast has been long forgotten. It will be interesting to see how Japanese society works together to recover. Maybe some of those other countries should be taking notes (as well as the United States with its Katrina debacle)!

Charlie S's Personality

Extreme personality types like Charlie Sheen are almost like a drug in our society. The reason some people like to watch his rambling, manic, and almost incoherent interviews is that it gives them a sense of superiority and security to know that, at least, THEY'RE not that screwed up! Truth be told, though, I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that many of us identify with Mr. Sheen; but through our own life experiences and conditioning we have learned to control how we express ourselves, knowing that only trouble could result in our lives if we didn't.

Egomaniacs and paranoids go hand in hand and may even be seen as flip sides to the same personalities in one individual. The common thread is an almost solipsist mentality: that one, while not being the universe itself, is at least the obvious focus of everything. When an egomaniac or a paranoid walks into a room where others are present, both presume that they are the automatic focus of everyone's attention. With one, the personal reaction is positive; with the other, it is negative. With Charlie Sheen, he seems to simultaneously take on both roles. He speaks as if he already knows the thoughts of those talking with him before they say anything. And by the way, there's no point in moving the conversation toward asking how anyone else is doing: there's only one person who counts!

My life, from time to time, has been cursed with people who have decided, like Charlie Sheen, that their personal narratives and opinions are the only thing that matters. Consequently, the only sustainable (but unsuitable) way I can interact with them is by nodding in agreement and offering terse affirmative interjections. I say terse because with these types it is difficult for me to even get a coherent phrase into the conversation, much less a complete sentence. And if I should accidentally let it slip out that I actually DISAGREE with any element of their idiosyncratic worldview... no matter how respectfully I express that disagreement...then they see that as a personal insult to them!

I see some tendencies of this narcissistic personality type within myself, unfortunately. But having experienced unrestrained behavior of the sort from others with makeups similar to Sheen, I have learned how offensive and demeaning openly expressing it can be, so I consciously try to avoid it. Instead, I deliberately look for things in others' lives that I feel they are interested in themselves and about which I feel enough interest to use as conversational themes, with me trying to be a good listener. Too bad Charlie and his types in my life never seemed to learn that. It reminds me of a line in Max Ehrmann's Desiderata:

Avoid loud and aggressive persons: they are vexatious to the spirit.

My Promising Return to Running

Yesterday I went to my local YMCA workout room to lift weights, do crunches and exercise on the elliptical cross-trainer machine. I spent about 39 minutes on the cross-trainer and performed 13 sets on the various weight equipment. Then I decided to see what would happen on the treadmill.

I had last previously run last Wednesday, a 1.25 trot around the two blocks surrounding my house. No knee pain then. Yesterday I tried the treadmill, setting it at a 9:40/mile pace with no incline. After 2.5 miles I stopped, with NO pain. What great news! This was the longest I had run since the painful Ocala Marathon this past January 23, so the healing of my IT band seems to be working quite well so far.

I plan on another run a few days from now, probably on Friday or Saturday. Maybe I'll run around my neighborhood and see if I can't step up the distance to 3 miles.

Still, I don't see more marathon runs in my future. Also, I need some new running shoes. As I continue make my recovery from the IT band injury, I need to go down to Tioga (west of Gainesville) and check out the running supply store there. I understand they analyze your feet according to your foot placement and arching and have shoes that can help to curtail future injuries. We'll see...

NBA Comments

I cannot believe that those running the National Basketball Association's Utah Jazz have taken leave of their senses and traded their franchise player, star point guard Deron Williams away to the New Jersey Nets, especially when the team is desperately fighting for a final eighth place playoff spot in the Western Conference against several other teams. Williams was the one reason I ever rooted for Utah, so that franchise can kiss my allegiance goodbye. And perhaps that's just as well...any state where the majority population regards drinking coffee as sinful behavior, well...

Besides, I have traditionally been a Phoenix Suns fan, also because of their star point guard, in this case Steve Nash. Yes, Phoenix does lie in Arizona, another state with, in my opinion, serious attitude problems. So you can bet that if Nash, who has loudly expressed his vehement opposition to Arizona's recent reactionary anti-Latino politics, ever leaves that franchise it will also go the way of the Jazz into my "non-support" category. But for now, Nash is still there and, thanks to Utah's incredible throwaway of Williams, the Suns have climbed ahead of the Jazz in the standings to be only one spot away from a playoff position.

With Deron Williams now with the Nets, I am now a New Jersey fan. That's the way I generally am with basketball: I tend to follow players and THEN the teams they play for. That's why I won't root for the Miami Heat (with quitter Lebron James) but instead tend to support the Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs with their retinues of talented and gutsy team-oriented players.

More on Arab Unrest in Middle East

Massive anti-government protests in many Arab nations have either toppled regimes (Tunisia, Egypt), turned into a bloody civil war (Libya), are in progress with mass demonstrations (Bahrain, Yemen), or are being desperately forestalled by government through hasty reform measures (Saudi Arabia). In all countries, one common thread unites them: the political leadership has been closed off to the general population for decades, both in terms of them being able to pick their leaders and of those leaders having to be held accountable for their decisions. In the USA, popular sentiment is with the people although most of the challenged authorities have friendly relations with America. This country is also heavily dependent on foreign oil, supplies of which are being threatened in countries like Libya, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. However...

I have heard the argument promoted by advocates for off-shore drilling (either off Florida, Virginia, or California) and in northern Alaska that "home-grown" oil will make us independent of those other unstable and often unfriendly oil producing nations and keep the prices down. While it is true that with more domestically produced petroleum we would at least be better protected from a complete shutdown of our oil supply (an unlikely possibility considering the diversity of petroleum sources across the world), the actual price of oil would still be based on world market standards and would be reflective of the overall price worldwide. Better to keep pushing hard for alternatives to petroleum for meeting our energy demands.

In Libya, the most bloodied nation among these uprisings, the entrenched leadership there has resorted to terrorism and war to keep their hold on power. Gadhafi is one of those deplorable people on this planet who, seeing himself as a leader of people, in term regards those people as his property instead of regarding himself as their servant. Since he doesn't seem capable of understanding that "his" people despise him, it looks as if he will only be toppled through force of arms, sad to say, with many having to sacrifice themselves to achieve this.

Wildfires Proliferating in Florida

It looks as if we in Florida are in for a rather severe stretch for the next couple of months, with wildfires proliferating throughout the state. This year's rate is much higher than last year's, due largely to the scarcity of rain, low humidity, and high winds. A formula for disaster, as I recall, that led to the scary 1998 fire season with its firestorms and even a county-wide evacuation (Flagler). My home Alachua county has not been spared, with several fires flaring up over the past few days. Nothing has approached the city of Gainesville itself, though. Yet.

I don't consider my home neighborhood at much of a risk of being inundated by a fire, but the smoke-laden air from fires even more than a hundred miles away can be almost unbearable to breathe if the wind is blowing the wrong way. For me, that would screw up a lot of my outdoors fitness activities, effectively driving me indoors. For others, especially those with breathing infirmities, it could cause much more serious problems.

Let's hope we get some precipitation, humidity, and calmer winds. And also that some bonehead won't start an uncontrollable fire with careless and illegal burning!

Brats and Bouncers

Lately at my local YMCA swimming pool, as the temperatures have climbed, so has the pool population density. Good for the YMCA, bad for me...

I keep thinking back to that South Park episode that features spoiled brat Eric Cartman trying to avoid the throng of little kids while going to the public swimming pool. His gripe was that they tended to pee in the water; my gripe with them is that they just get in my way. So they really aren't any different from the elderly ladies who go there for water aerobics, an activity that basically involves bouncing up and down in the water (thus I call them "bouncers").

I am trying to build up my swimming endurance to the point where I can just use the 25-meter lanes and completely avoid the shallow section. I may not be quite ready for the lanes yet, but I might just have to go ahead and take the "plunge". For I have had it with the brats and the bouncers.

Sunday afternoon: little kids all over the place. For someone who just wants to swim in a straight line and come back in the shallow end, trying to avoid them can become an exercise in futility. Monday was a different story: I went to the pool at 11 AM on a school day, thinking that I would avoid any hassles with the kids being at school. Wrong. Renegade bouncers (without a structured water aerobics class) were spread out throughout the shallow part, taking up way too much of the pool. I managed to find one little section that I thought I could swim back and forth in, but these ladies seemed to take a perverse sort of pleasure in drifting directly into my path. Finally, after only 20 laps I gave up and left the pool.

Maybe all is for the better anyway, if I want to become an endurance swimmer. I know I can physically handle the longer laps; my hangup is more psychological and simply won't be overcome without pushing through and gaining positive-reinforcing experiences. So either tomorrow or Friday I'll start those longer laps, which run through the pool's deep section. Hey, they've always got a lifeguard, hopefully prepared to pull my drowning ass out of the water!

Early Spring and Allergies For Me

Yesterday the unusually early and warm spring here in northern Florida hit me with full force. The previous day I spent two hours outside cutting down overgrown branches from trees around my yard. That in itself wasn't very helpful to my pollen allergies. Then yesterday I went out on a bicycle ride around the far northern part of Gainesville. The wind was a brutal 25 mph coming out of the south and the temperatures were climbing into the eighties on this, the last day of February. I finished my quite unpleasant ride after 73 minutes, but I'm afraid the effects went on much longer. I had since been suffering from all of the symptoms of the allergies I have undergone in previous years, in particular the nasal congestion, sneezing, and very dry, red eyes.

I don't remember having severe allergies like this last year, but then again back then in mid-February we were still experiencing temperatures dipping down to freezing. I used to take Zyrtec to help with the symptoms, but that made me annoyingly drowsy and I switched to Claritin, a less effective remedy but one with which I can function more effectively. Hopefully, these allergies will lift soon and I can enjoy life a little more. But I don't plan to stop doing what I usually do in spite of them.

Great Florida Birding Trail...Trail?

This is a sign going west on NW 39th Avenue here in Gainesville. It appears to be pointing directly at the adjacent cemetery, but I think it was meant for NW 43rd Street, at the next traffic light. But if you think that the Great Florida Birding Trail runs along that street, then you are sadly mistaken. For the Great Florida Birding Trail, it turns out, is not really a trail at all. It mystically appears at various locations throughout the state wherever the state park service has concluded that birds hang out. The "trail" part is within park boundaries; to get there, forget hiking!

Here is the website for the Great Florida Birding Trail. For all practical purposes, it is just a repackaged presentation of Florida's state park system. And yes, I guess birds fit into it, sure. But it's not exactly as if the state of Florida issued a decree to birds to tell them to hang out there! Birds are wild creatures and live everywhere. I observe and hear several different species of wild birds whenever I walk around my block. I doubt that they are all that different from those I would encounter at Devil's Millhopper a couple of miles down the road (and the actual target for the above-pictured sign). Yeah, I bet the same sorts of birds even congregate at that cemetery!

Instead of burning up gasoline traveling to parks just to see birds, why not just look around you where you live and get to know the amazing diversity of wild avian life thriving there, smack dab in the midst of (God forbid) HUMANITY. On the other hand, these parks all have their own features that may draw visitors. But just to see birds on the Great Florida Birding "Trail"? Oh, please...

Curious About Kakuro

Kakuro has been my favorite puzzle for more than three years. Also known as "cross sums", it resembles more a crossword puzzle than its more popular cousin sudoku, only of course with numerals (a 1-9 range like sudoku) instead of letters filling in the boxes. But I find that kakuro exercises my logical faculties more than sudoku, and I have gotten quite good at it with my focus on the more difficult puzzles found in books like Mensa Kakuro, Black Belt Kakuro, and Kakuro Challenge.

Just three books with tough kakuro games. When I am in a large bookstore like Barnes and Nobles or the soon-to-be-defunct Borders, I see shelf after shelf of sudoku puzzles but only a handful of kakuro books. Why? Is there something wrong with kakuro that makes people want to avoid it? Or maybe there is only a relatively small, finite number of puzzles that can be constructed...

Ha, that last notion is ridiculous, so it must be that people either find kakuro to be too easy, too difficult, or just plain boring. Or maybe it's similar to indie/alternative music not being played on broadcast radio: the corporate-powers-that-be just don't see its potential popularity and simply won't promote it.

All I really know is that now I have exhausted all of the available books providing more advanced-level kakuro puzzles. Now I have to wait for each Thursday when my newspaper Gainesville Sun publishes their excellent, albeit small, kakuro puzzle. Not enough!

By the way, my blog spell-check recognizes "sudoku" as a word but not "kakuro". Corporate power Google. There you go.

Karno's Jr High Track Coach...and Life

In his book Ultramarathon Man, extreme endurance runner Dean "Karno" Karnazes gives a brief summary of his growing years, featuring some people who influenced him. Prominent among them was Karno's junior high track coach Jack McTavish, an ex-servicemen and a stickler for discipline and toughness. He had a philosophy about running races, no matter how long the distance. Start out running hard, and run hard throughout the race. Pacing is for chumps. And at the end of the race, if it doesn't hurt like hell, then you didn't try hard enough. Hmmm...

In the eighth grade, we had a brief (to me, much too brief) period in our physical education class when we ran around the track. I don't even think we would had have that opportunity had it not been for substitute teacher Coach Anderson, a running fanatic and general hard-ass on the order of McTavish. I remember Anderson giving us all a short inspirational lecture, accompanied by having us all do a 600 yard run around the track (that was then a long distance run to most of us). Being completely ignorant of the concept of pacing, I shot out at the start of the race and left everyone behind. Just like McTavish. Then I gutted it out throughout the run and won it. Painfully. Like McTavish. So that dude definitely had something going there with his philosophy on running.

But I think this goes much further in application than running. I have lately been getting myself up and active early each day and pushing myself until late at night, when I am completely exhausted. No, I am not in pain doing this, but in a sense it does hurt to stretch myself this way, deliberately placing myself out of my comfort zone.

I began pushing myself more after I had been sidelined from running due to a pulled tendon in my leg. When I went back to read passages from Ultramarathon Man, I saw broader life applications to Karno's way of thinking. And starting out strong and pushing myself hard throughout the day, no matter what I am involved in, is the main lesson I've picked up.

Blockbuster Close-Out Sale Brings Out Types

Yesterday, the two remaining Blockbuster movie/game rental stores in Gainesville began their week-long close-out sale before they close their doors for the last time. Movies were going pretty cheap, so I took my son over to the closest one, arriving about five minutes after the sale began. Already the parking lot was packed; inside it were wall-to-wall people scavenging for previously "rental" DVDs. I looked around in disbelief: customers were walking around carrying massive stacks of DVDs that they intended to buy. One woman had filled a baby stroller with hers! I wondered to myself where these people were going to find the time to watch all of the movies they were buying. And anyway, most of them are available on television if you just have the patience to wait until one of the many movie channels puts them on their lineups. I concluded that sales like this, such as the semiannual Friends of the Library used book sale, bring out the hoarders and scavengers in our community. And another less pleasant type as well.

As I drove down to the sale, I reached the last traffic light before the Blockbuster store. I pulled into the right turn lane. The light was red and I was second in a line of cars. The car in front was stopped, looking for an opening in the passing traffic to make a turn. Suddenly, the driver behind me began to sit on his horn to make the front car go. He had no view of the traffic himself, but was obviously in a big hurry and not concerned about complicating factors (such as simple reality). Finally, the lead car turned and I was in front, with the light still red (in Florida, you can turn right on red if it's clear unless otherwise specified). I decided that I had enough of this jerk and just sat there, though, and waited for the light to turn green for me. This totally infuriated the man-in-a-hurry and he blasted his horn nonstop. When I finally did turn, he quickly veered past me on my left, still sounding his horn at me. I drove on to Blockbuster.

I went around to the back of the store and parked. When we walked around the corner to the front of the store, we saw how crowded the parking lot was...and that honking dude's car was just pulling in! Evidently, he had wanted to get to Blockbuster when it opened and had been delayed, consequently subjecting anyone in his path to his wrath. So yes, there was a third type there at Blockbuster's: the irrationally panicky impatient.

I'm sorry to see the demise of video rental stores. I know that one can order movies now through the mail or directly from the Internet. Fine. But it takes away the enjoyment from simply browsing through the video store, allowing an interesting title here or there to capture one's attention and curiosity. Now that resource is disappearing. I'm afraid that bookstores are next: Borders is closing 200 stores, including the one in Gainesville, complete with its own clearance sale...

Hoarders, scavengers, and irrationally impatient: CONVERGE!

Everyone else: GET OUT OF THEIR WAY!

Does Democracy Motivate Arab Protesters?

When I hear about all of the anti-government demonstrations going on throughout Arabic-speaking autocracies in the Middle East, I cringe a little when I hear in the press that they are pro-democracy protests. I cringe even more when I witness a supposedly professionally ethical, objective journalist in the midst of one such crowd of demonstrators, encouraging and egging them on. After all, I'm looking at what's happening in my own country and...

Even with the civics curriculum supposedly having been taught to children during their school days (in whatever form or designation it was presented), there seems to be a growing tendency in America for the losing side in elections to (1) cry foul, the election was stolen (2000, 2004 Bush wins), (2) cry foul, the candidate was ineligible (2008 Obama and the "birthers"), (3) cry foul, the winning candidate duped the voters into voting for him or her and thus is somehow not to be truly respected as the winner, and/or (4) cry foul, the process itself has been tainted by special interests who control the political parties and media. So, without even a smidgen of an educational background that would teach people that in a democracy, losers need to respect the winners as their legitimately chosen leaders, how in the world can we expect those continually pouring out into the streets in places like Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, or Bahrain to be putting their lives on the line "for democracy"?

I think that the people in these lands have different reasons for rising up against their governments. Not having another rational means to address their many grievances is the obvious motivation, but just having crossed a threshold of momentum with the magnitude of the demonstrations has emboldened anyone with an axe to grind about anything to protest. And that includes the many in these lands who believe that the state has been too secular and not respectful of their religion. Many of these want a theocracy, not a democracy.

Those demonstrating also include, probably to a higher extent, those whose past, present, and foreseeable futures are mired in poverty as they see their corrupt leaders siphoning off their nations' wealth for their own personal gain. A socialist state may be more to their liking, whether or not democratic institutions accompany it.

Democracy is a fragile and sophisticated institution that requires a certain ability among the population to accept others with differing points of view. But from what I have witnessed so far, there is too much of a "We: Good Guys...Them: Bad Guys...Make Bad Guys Disappear" atmosphere among those pushing for change for any sustainable, workable democracy to gain traction in these countries. Yet. But I don't decry anyone for trying. Still, journalists and the media need to step back and consider the diversity of motives involved here in these protests.

Also, for a true democracy to work to any effective degree, there has to be a judicial system that is generally respected by the population and which is not thought of as being simply the tool of whomever happens to be in power. And the military has to have a strong sense of duty as an institution subordinate to the duly elected powers, not a power unto itself to determine policy (or even if elected civilian leaders stay or go). These countries have a long, long way to go, I'm afraid.

Of course I hope that I'm wrong about things and that all of these countries that are currently in turmoil can transform themselves into societies within which the government serves the people and allows itself to be regularly held accountable, through free elections (implying a concomitant free press) and an independent judiciary. But that seems to be asking for an awful lot, awfully soon.

Gainesville Marathon Passes By as I Pass It Up

Today was the day of the LifeSouth Five Points of Life marathon/half-marathon here in Gainesville. I completely skipped it although I had considered just showing up to observe. I did run around the neighborhood for two miles this morning, doing this for the first time in a week and a half. I wanted to see how much, if any, I had healed from my IT band injury (a tendon inflammation around my right knee) from back in mid-January. I started out well (as usual), but after about a mile and a half began to feel that slight ache under my knee that I knew would eventually intensify into major pain if I continued much longer. So running is on hold, at least for the foreseeable future. That's all right, though, because only my running seems to be hampered by my leg injury.

Instead of running, I have been stepping up my fitness efforts in diverse areas: swimming, cycling, cross-trainer, weight training, walking...and that good old standby: yard work, bound to be more in demand as the temperatures seasonally rise. I am especially heartened by my swimming progress as I am gradually building up an endurance mirroring my running endurance.

Eventually, I'd like to return to running without pushing too hard or too far. I've already accomplished my marathon. Any future running will be done within reasonable parameters that take into account that I am a mortal human being with body parts susceptible to injury. My ideal scenario will be to mix running, swimming, and cycling throughout the week. Hey, wait a minute, that's the triathlon!

Arcade Fire Nets Grammy for Album

Arcade Fire just won the Grammy for best album of the year, The Suburbs. Arcade Fire, by the way, is an indie/alternative rock band whose music NEVER gets air play over broadcast radio. Instead, when I turn on my radio I hear: ancient songs from decades gone by, insipid kiddy-oriented pop, hip-hop drivel (or as Bo Diddley once termed it, "rap crap"), or jingoistic country sludge. Reality check for broadcasters: if Arcade Fire is so good, then why aren't you playing their music?

I just employed words like crap, sludge, and drivel in the previous paragraph to refer to the kind of music that I get on my radio. We did use to have a classical music station, but apparently that was deemed as too highbrow by the dean of journalism at the University of Florida when he switched the program format of Gainesville's public radio station to all-talk. Not that I object to their talk/news programming: I just wonder why we can't have at least SOME programming that fulfills me musically?

Someday, probably in the not-so-distant future, I'll take you on a little tour along my radio band and critique the various stations I encounter. But it may not be a very pleasant article to read!

Arcade Fire is one of my favorite bands. I have all three of their studio albums so far: Funeral, Neon Bible, and The Suburbs. Everything they've done, like with Radiohead, is eminently listenable. My favorite tune of theirs so far is Neighborhood #2 (Laika) (there are four "neighborhood" songs), from Funeral. But take it from me, just pick anything of theirs at random and you're bound to be pleased!