Well, the day after tomorrow the long-awaited date is arriving: the opening day for the sale of Stephen King's novel Doctor Sleep. It's been long-awaited at least for me, to the same extent that I used to wait for those last few Harry Potter novels to come out. Of course, with them bookstores would hold store-wide celebrations as they would keep their doors open past midnight, when the new books would be permitted to be sold. I don't see any similar fanfare, though, with Doctor Sleep, which is a sequel to his The Shining, spaced apart by several decades. I saw King on C-Span once a couple of years ago when he went over some of his projects that would soon be published. Along with the upcoming release, he also then discussed his excellent 11/22/63 and a short Dark Tower novel titled The Wind Through the Keyhole. When he read a short passage from Doctor Sleep, I was instantly intrigued and sold on it (and just a little suspicious thereafter on the Interstate of some of the slower vehicles on the right). Unfortunately, the decision was made to release it last of all...but it may all be for the best in the end as the author had felt the need to revise some sections in it.
I have Doctor Sleep on hold/reserve at my county public library, but I'm far back on the waiting list at #47. It will take a while for the book to come my way, although I'm sure they ordered several copies of it. So I may just buy the book outright or maybe just stop in one of those bookstores and get a head start on my reading. I do have a little bit of curiosity as to whether any of them on Monday night will keep their doors open past midnight for the release...
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Body Needs to Adjust to Weather Changes
At some time every autumn, it seems, I step outside when it is the upper fifties for the first time of the season. I always seem to shudder at how extremely cold it feels and suddenly wish a return to the long, hot summer I just left. But soon thereafter, every time in fact, I acclimate myself to the seasonal cooling and find myself enjoying the more temperate climate. But first I have to pass through that initial boundary of "shock" at the long-missed cool temperatures. I feel something similar may have happened to me today, but in reverse.
From time to time during this extraordinary, brutally hot and humid summer, I have ventured out on short runs outside through my neighborhood. Often these runs would be limited to one or two laps around my block. Mostly, though, I confined my running to indoors with temperature controlled and in the 70's with low humidity. This morning I tried to see how long I could stand it outside under a slightly cooler-than-normal 81 degrees and moderate 66% humidity. I had hoped, as I wound my way up and down familiar streets on my long-established neighborhood running course, to run 7 miles or more. But I only managed to get to 4.83 miles and felt overheated and exhausted. Still, my recovery from the run seems to be going well. I'm inclined to think that my negative reaction to the run wasn't as much due to being out of shape, which I know I'm not, as it was against the abruptly unpleasant weather, as mild as it was in comparison to the summer's generally roasting heat.
I'm going to test this out in a couple of days and run once again for a substantial distance outside. Maybe my body, like it does when it finally acclimates itself to cooler conditions, will get used to the less pleasant warm temperatures. At least that's what I'm hoping. In any event, I think I'm going to skip that local half-marathon race next Saturday and wait for cooler weather.
From time to time during this extraordinary, brutally hot and humid summer, I have ventured out on short runs outside through my neighborhood. Often these runs would be limited to one or two laps around my block. Mostly, though, I confined my running to indoors with temperature controlled and in the 70's with low humidity. This morning I tried to see how long I could stand it outside under a slightly cooler-than-normal 81 degrees and moderate 66% humidity. I had hoped, as I wound my way up and down familiar streets on my long-established neighborhood running course, to run 7 miles or more. But I only managed to get to 4.83 miles and felt overheated and exhausted. Still, my recovery from the run seems to be going well. I'm inclined to think that my negative reaction to the run wasn't as much due to being out of shape, which I know I'm not, as it was against the abruptly unpleasant weather, as mild as it was in comparison to the summer's generally roasting heat.
I'm going to test this out in a couple of days and run once again for a substantial distance outside. Maybe my body, like it does when it finally acclimates itself to cooler conditions, will get used to the less pleasant warm temperatures. At least that's what I'm hoping. In any event, I think I'm going to skip that local half-marathon race next Saturday and wait for cooler weather.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Pathological Weather
In Florida we have two separated months in which the love bug population makes its appearance. The major month of this is May, while in September a smaller recurrence of them takes place. This bugs tend to swarm and mate over warm surfaces. Hence, they are more prevalent during these periods on open highways like the Interstate, where passing vehicles heat up the road and attract them in hordes. As a result there are a lot of very splattered windshields...which is also very annoying. But I'm not on the Interstate and this isn't May...it's September, the supposably "mild" time for them. Yet these pests are everywhere. I'm sitting here at my usual Starbucks in the Magnolia Parke shopping center and am looking out of the window at masses of these critters, who are making a spectacle of themselves that actually dwarfs May conditions at their worst!
I know what is the cause of this preponderance of love bugs: the extraordinarily hot and long summer we've been experiencing. There is no letup in the high temperatures, and although I had earlier expressed hope in a gradual cooling a few days ago, no such cooling is forecast for the next few days, at least.
In a way, I am glad for the overwhelming nuisance of these insects. For they reaffirm my disturbance at this year's weather: first, an almost nonexistent winter, then a very early, hot, and humid summer, and now a delay for more usual seasonal cooling. I don't think the meteorologists are fully on top of this phenomenon: they had predicted a very active hurricane season this year with many U.S. landfall threats. The opposite has happened, though. Another trend I've noticed is how the multiple-day temperature high forecasts are almost ways raised as the target day approaches. And many times I turn on the weather station and notice, for example, that the current temperature will be something like 92 degrees when the stated predicted high is, say, 87!
Oh by the way, I am DEFINITELY going to my air-conditioned gym to do my running today...
I know what is the cause of this preponderance of love bugs: the extraordinarily hot and long summer we've been experiencing. There is no letup in the high temperatures, and although I had earlier expressed hope in a gradual cooling a few days ago, no such cooling is forecast for the next few days, at least.
In a way, I am glad for the overwhelming nuisance of these insects. For they reaffirm my disturbance at this year's weather: first, an almost nonexistent winter, then a very early, hot, and humid summer, and now a delay for more usual seasonal cooling. I don't think the meteorologists are fully on top of this phenomenon: they had predicted a very active hurricane season this year with many U.S. landfall threats. The opposite has happened, though. Another trend I've noticed is how the multiple-day temperature high forecasts are almost ways raised as the target day approaches. And many times I turn on the weather station and notice, for example, that the current temperature will be something like 92 degrees when the stated predicted high is, say, 87!
Oh by the way, I am DEFINITELY going to my air-conditioned gym to do my running today...
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Martial Atmosphere Increasing and Ominous
Quiet often when I'm watching TV a public service announcement will broadcast about a cause called "Wounded Warrior Project". Its aim is compassionate and compelling, rallying support around the all-too-many veterans who have returned from combat duty physically and/or mentally traumatized from the experience. Both volunteers and financial donations are solicited in these ads: I think this is a good cause. Beyond this, though, is an ominous trend: the increasing martial mood in this nation.
People in uniform brandishing weapons are being increasing held up in our society as a superior class of citizen, to which all others are expected to at least perfunctorily show the signs of humble deference and appreciation. But although the duties of soldiers, police, and the like have their undeniable value, each of the individuals who engage in these occupations go into them fully aware of the dangers and consequences of their choices, in the case of the military there not having been forced conscription since 1973. After the Bush administration in 2003 launched an unprovoked invasion of Iraq, the push for exalting the military above anything else was pumped mercilessly through the press. It soon came to be that anyone who was against this horrible, unnecessary war wasn't properly "supporting the troops". In my view, it was the bungled continuing occupation of Iraq that the political leaders of the time (Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney) in Washington were mismanaging that was a betrayal of support for the troops. The soldiers followed their instructions professionally and bravely, for the most part, and deserve the compassion and support of the rest of society upon their return to civilian society. But that's just it: it is CIVILIAN society they are returning to, not a continuation of the military. I also don't understand why, after it had already been made patently clear that we were bogged down in a hopeless quagmire in Iraq, young men and women willingly signed up for military service, knowing perfectly well that they could be the next reported killed or injured in combat. Why should I necessarily defer to someone who made that kind of deliberate decision to seek out the danger?
In Gainesville, any time a police officer is killed on duty, the street where the death occurred is renamed after the fallen officer. This on the surface sounds like a nice gesture and shouldn't be a problem, except that, as I said before, it puts uniformed, armed individuals on a higher pedestal above others. Where I work, at a civilian organization, it has been a long-standing policy to give military veterans and even their spouses, regardless of whether there was any combat duty involved, substantial hiring advantages over non-veterans and their spouses. I was passed over for a year in my hiring process because of this, and I found myself, after scoring a perfect "100" on the pre-employment examination that was supposed to set the hiring list order, suddenly relegated behind several others who leapfrogged ahead of me because of military connections. I don't think a civil society that has constitutionally placed the military in a subservient role should be run like that. Yet in the midst of gridlock on Capital Hill, one kind of issue inevitably gets clear sailing: anything that gives preferential treatment to those in uniform.
We don't live in science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein's universe where the military and those who are members thereof are set apart to enjoy perks and rights that the rest don't. Or do we?
People in uniform brandishing weapons are being increasing held up in our society as a superior class of citizen, to which all others are expected to at least perfunctorily show the signs of humble deference and appreciation. But although the duties of soldiers, police, and the like have their undeniable value, each of the individuals who engage in these occupations go into them fully aware of the dangers and consequences of their choices, in the case of the military there not having been forced conscription since 1973. After the Bush administration in 2003 launched an unprovoked invasion of Iraq, the push for exalting the military above anything else was pumped mercilessly through the press. It soon came to be that anyone who was against this horrible, unnecessary war wasn't properly "supporting the troops". In my view, it was the bungled continuing occupation of Iraq that the political leaders of the time (Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney) in Washington were mismanaging that was a betrayal of support for the troops. The soldiers followed their instructions professionally and bravely, for the most part, and deserve the compassion and support of the rest of society upon their return to civilian society. But that's just it: it is CIVILIAN society they are returning to, not a continuation of the military. I also don't understand why, after it had already been made patently clear that we were bogged down in a hopeless quagmire in Iraq, young men and women willingly signed up for military service, knowing perfectly well that they could be the next reported killed or injured in combat. Why should I necessarily defer to someone who made that kind of deliberate decision to seek out the danger?
In Gainesville, any time a police officer is killed on duty, the street where the death occurred is renamed after the fallen officer. This on the surface sounds like a nice gesture and shouldn't be a problem, except that, as I said before, it puts uniformed, armed individuals on a higher pedestal above others. Where I work, at a civilian organization, it has been a long-standing policy to give military veterans and even their spouses, regardless of whether there was any combat duty involved, substantial hiring advantages over non-veterans and their spouses. I was passed over for a year in my hiring process because of this, and I found myself, after scoring a perfect "100" on the pre-employment examination that was supposed to set the hiring list order, suddenly relegated behind several others who leapfrogged ahead of me because of military connections. I don't think a civil society that has constitutionally placed the military in a subservient role should be run like that. Yet in the midst of gridlock on Capital Hill, one kind of issue inevitably gets clear sailing: anything that gives preferential treatment to those in uniform.
We don't live in science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein's universe where the military and those who are members thereof are set apart to enjoy perks and rights that the rest don't. Or do we?
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rush Hour Gym Running Overcrowded
The gym I go to is the biggest in Gainesville (well, the UF student recreation center might be bigger). It has at least two stories to it (maybe more) and is loaded with weight training equipment, weight machines, and cardio machines. There is an indoor pool and adequate locker rooms. There's even a cafe there in the lobby, although the prices to me seem a bit steep. Also, it has an indoor basketball court area and a large empty room for group workout activities. Outside, there is, on the northern end of the parking lot, an outdoor obstacle course training area. And there are lots of TVs downstairs, and upstairs as well...embedded within treadmills, at least. I know because I almost always use these second-floor treadmills when I go there. No weights, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, basketball, pool, obstacle course...just running on treadmills. And knowing that the place is available 24 hours per day is reassuring. Still, there are times when I really need to avoid the place. Like yesterday during late afternoon rush hour.
I have my own schedules and unfortunately often find myself out and about, driving through rush hour traffic. Yesterday was one such time and I went into my local gym to run on one of the 15-20 upstairs treadmills. No such luck befell me as I got up there and found them all taken. So I sighed to myself, walked downstairs, and tried out one of the ground floor treadmills. I don't like these machines as much as the ones upstairs: they seem clumsier and don't have the televisions on them that enable me to channel surf while running. Still, my main goal was running and I gamely plodded onward. But then the ground floor environment began to bother me. All of the sounds seemed amplified and it felt warmer there than on the second floor. I cranked out four miles, but felt as if I had run much further. I wonder what the matter is with that place! This afternoon I got to the gym earlier, around 3:30, and the upstairs treadmills were available (but not many). I got on one and easily ran five miles. Only time constraints in my schedule kept me from running further, and the run was smooth sailing with little discomfort.
It could be that I am becoming very finicky about my running conditions. I have less tolerance for outdoor weather and I don't like running inside either, if the conditions don't meet my preferences. Still, there's no need in punishing myself in 90-degree-plus weather or running in less comfortable conditions indoors...
I have my own schedules and unfortunately often find myself out and about, driving through rush hour traffic. Yesterday was one such time and I went into my local gym to run on one of the 15-20 upstairs treadmills. No such luck befell me as I got up there and found them all taken. So I sighed to myself, walked downstairs, and tried out one of the ground floor treadmills. I don't like these machines as much as the ones upstairs: they seem clumsier and don't have the televisions on them that enable me to channel surf while running. Still, my main goal was running and I gamely plodded onward. But then the ground floor environment began to bother me. All of the sounds seemed amplified and it felt warmer there than on the second floor. I cranked out four miles, but felt as if I had run much further. I wonder what the matter is with that place! This afternoon I got to the gym earlier, around 3:30, and the upstairs treadmills were available (but not many). I got on one and easily ran five miles. Only time constraints in my schedule kept me from running further, and the run was smooth sailing with little discomfort.
It could be that I am becoming very finicky about my running conditions. I have less tolerance for outdoor weather and I don't like running inside either, if the conditions don't meet my preferences. Still, there's no need in punishing myself in 90-degree-plus weather or running in less comfortable conditions indoors...
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
My Current Reading Focus
I am currently in the process of reading five books...and each is a part of a series. I am continuing George R.R. Martin's celebrated fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire as I am nearing the end of the second book, titled A Clash of Kings. I am also on the second book in Terry Goodkind's twelve-part series The Sword of Truth, having begun it a week ago. Its title is Stone of Tears. Also in the second book of a series, this one a bit shorter, I am delving into the "darker" side of the magical experience with Jonathan Stroud's The Golem's Eye in his Bartimaeus Trilogy. I am on the first of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy as well. Finally, I've picked up a book I had abandoned a couple of years ago and am once again tackling the Bourne series of Robert Ludlum, right now a little way into the first volume, The Bourne Identity. But with none of these series am I going to watch any derived movies or television series. After all, I want to develop my imagination, not have images spoon-fed to me. Besides, screen adaptations of novels have a tendency to deviate, sometimes very substantially, from the written word. If memory serves me correctly, the little snippets I saw of The Bourne Identity movie version with Matt Damon deviated substantially from what little I had read...
Each of the five series I'm reading presents a rather unattractive picture of humanity: a cutthroat and brutal society that exalts violence and aggressive behavior. That goes even for the alternative history in the children's series of Bartimaeus, with an elitist social class of magicians dominating civil society and oppressing the general population. Ludlum's protagonist Jason Bourne struggles in the unforgiving world of international espionage while Martin, Goodkind, and Sanderson rachet up the savagery with medieval fantasy societies bent on war and vendettas. All of this violence can get to be a bit numbing after a while, but at least with all five series the authors have developed some interesting, believable characters to follow. Also, there is more than action to these stories: some pretty intense philosophical themes are presented and woven around the characters. So I'm sticking with them all this time, all the way to the (possibly bitter) ends...
Each of the five series I'm reading presents a rather unattractive picture of humanity: a cutthroat and brutal society that exalts violence and aggressive behavior. That goes even for the alternative history in the children's series of Bartimaeus, with an elitist social class of magicians dominating civil society and oppressing the general population. Ludlum's protagonist Jason Bourne struggles in the unforgiving world of international espionage while Martin, Goodkind, and Sanderson rachet up the savagery with medieval fantasy societies bent on war and vendettas. All of this violence can get to be a bit numbing after a while, but at least with all five series the authors have developed some interesting, believable characters to follow. Also, there is more than action to these stories: some pretty intense philosophical themes are presented and woven around the characters. So I'm sticking with them all this time, all the way to the (possibly bitter) ends...
Monday, September 16, 2013
Miami Dolphins Make Me Proud
I find myself in the rare condition of being optimistic about the Miami Dolphins and their prospects this 2013 season. They have played only two games, to be sure...but their performance in both showed much improvement over the last few years. Their quarterback Ryan Tannehill has poise under pressure and delivers accurate strikes, often for long yardage. The offensive line seems to be protecting him pretty well so far, although their first opponents Cleveland and Indianapolis may not have the kind of defenses that would put it to a serious test yet. I am VERY impressed by the Dolphin defense as well, especially their secondary. They were able to contain the Colts' talented Andrew Luck in yesterday's 24-20 win enough to keep Miami in the game. Also, I happened to look at the stats sheet for this game and was stunned to discover that Miami wasn't penalized at all the entire game! This level of team discipline strongly reminds me of the great Don Shula era.
Just two games, I know, isn't enough to accurately predict how a team will end up at the end of the year. But 2-0 is better than 0-2, something that I had been having to endure too much lately with Miami in recent years. I don't know whether or not they'll end up making the playoffs, but I do know one thing: this team is fun to watch and follow! And isn't that what any fan of any team should feel entitled to?
Just two games, I know, isn't enough to accurately predict how a team will end up at the end of the year. But 2-0 is better than 0-2, something that I had been having to endure too much lately with Miami in recent years. I don't know whether or not they'll end up making the playoffs, but I do know one thing: this team is fun to watch and follow! And isn't that what any fan of any team should feel entitled to?
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Delayed Seasonal Cooling Hampers Outdoor Running
As the weather very, very slightly begins to moderate its extreme summer temperatures, I am stepping out more and running outside around my neighborhood. It is still very unpleasant in mid-afternoon: yesterday I put in three miles of outdoor running in 91 degrees of heat, although the humidity was relatively low at 46%. As the month progresses, I plan to add more mileage to these outdoor runs. But this naturally depends on the weather cooperating with me by seasonally cooling at least a little bit. I had been hoping to participate in a local half-marathon race on September 28, but with less than two weeks left before it takes place I don't see, barring an unexpected dramatic climate change around here, how I would be able to handle the conditions. We'll just have to wait and see. In any event, there is another half-marathon scheduled for Gainesville on November 16: if the weather hasn't cooled appreciably by then, well...perhaps it might be time to move to Alaska...
Saturday, September 14, 2013
About Putin's New York Times Editorial
At first, I did not read the September 11 editorial article that the New York Times printed that was written by Russian president Vladimir Putin, focusing on threatened U.S. military action against the Syrian regime. All I had been hearing, though, for the last few days, was how insulting he was to America and our president. This was chiefly coming from the torrent of conservatives who, in the midst of an international crisis, have found little better to do themselves than to concentrate on ripping apart Obama for his ongoing handling of the situation. Apparently, THAT'S not insulting to America and the President...but a foreign leader who obviously would have his own nation's interests to advance and would naturally entertain differing opinions IS. I had been intrigued by the level of animosity leveled at Putin, especially considering how his proposal to alleviate the clamor for an American military strike that involved Syria turning over all of its chemical weapons has been taken up by our side and is apparently headed for agreement and implementation. Shouldn't we instead thank the Russian president for his positive participation and see where peaceful diplomacy leads us before we blow everything up into smithereens, creating God knows what consequences down the road for us and the people we are proposing to help?
So I decided this morning to read Putin's op-ed piece and am left scratching my head as to why anyone would find it insulting or objectionable. His tone was conciliatory and respectful, not at all arrogant as he has been accused. His talking points were largely the same talking points, albeit more elegantly and cogently expressed, as those I have heard from both liberals and conservatives here in the United States who oppose American military intervention in Syria's civil war. He was upbeat about reaching a peaceful settlement while working with the United States and was complimentary to President Obama. The one passage at the end for which many in our own domestic media blasted Putin the most was his critical reference to the idea of American exceptionalism...a concept that ANYONE responsibly governing another country with its own legitimate policies to further would sanely take "exception" to. He wasn't framing his objection to this by in any way putting down the United States, its people or government, but rather was trying to encourage us to reach out and relate to other countries before heading out on military adventures (my words, not his).
This has been an object lesson to me about how I cannot allow others, through secondhand criticism, to form my own opinions about something that someone else said or wrote. This article by Putin had nothing of the supposedly inflammatory and demeaning rhetoric that had been attributed to him. The experience has had a different outcome to me, though: it causes me to now look upon those who had publicly and very negatively spun it out of control in the media and politics with a more skeptical sense of scrutiny...
So I decided this morning to read Putin's op-ed piece and am left scratching my head as to why anyone would find it insulting or objectionable. His tone was conciliatory and respectful, not at all arrogant as he has been accused. His talking points were largely the same talking points, albeit more elegantly and cogently expressed, as those I have heard from both liberals and conservatives here in the United States who oppose American military intervention in Syria's civil war. He was upbeat about reaching a peaceful settlement while working with the United States and was complimentary to President Obama. The one passage at the end for which many in our own domestic media blasted Putin the most was his critical reference to the idea of American exceptionalism...a concept that ANYONE responsibly governing another country with its own legitimate policies to further would sanely take "exception" to. He wasn't framing his objection to this by in any way putting down the United States, its people or government, but rather was trying to encourage us to reach out and relate to other countries before heading out on military adventures (my words, not his).
This has been an object lesson to me about how I cannot allow others, through secondhand criticism, to form my own opinions about something that someone else said or wrote. This article by Putin had nothing of the supposedly inflammatory and demeaning rhetoric that had been attributed to him. The experience has had a different outcome to me, though: it causes me to now look upon those who had publicly and very negatively spun it out of control in the media and politics with a more skeptical sense of scrutiny...
Friday, September 13, 2013
Tomorrow's Game Between Alabama and Texas A&M
Tomorrow afternoon we'll have the big early season game in college football between Alabama and Texas A&M. Although these two teams are both in the Southeastern Conference, of which Florida is also a member, this game's outcome doesn't affect the Gator's prospects for the conference title since neither is in their division. So on that score I'm neutral about who I would prefer to win this game. Each team, however, resonates negatively with me on account of a particular member on each side: Texas A&M's quarterback Johnny Manziel and Alabama's head coach Nick Saban. Were either team to be playing against a different one and not each other (except for SEC Eastern Division foes like Georgia or South Carolina), I would be vehemently rooting for their opponent with nearly the same fervor that I root for Florida when they play. That being what it is, when game time comes around this Saturday afternoon, I will be figuratively holding my nose and picking one side: and there's really only one side, as I see it...
Nick Saban, after leaving the NFL's Miami Dolphins in a wreck after he abandoned them in mid-contract for fame and fortune at Alabama, has had a very successful run at for the last few years, even winning three of the last four national championships. His Crimson Tide defeated Florida in the SEC championship game in 2009, while in 2011 his defense went after and INJURED then-starting quarterback John Brantley early in a regular season contest between the two. What they did to our quarterback reminded me of what happened in the national championship game for the 2009 season when they knocked Colt McCoy, their opponent's (Texas) quarterback, out of the game with an injury through an excessive hit. This seems to be Saban's strategy: if you think there's a chance you might not beat your opponent in a fair contest, then get dirty. So although I dislike the impetuous, arrogant quarterback for Texas A&M, for tomorrow at least I'll be pulling quite vociferously for "Johnny Football" and his Aggies. Besides, Florida is off this Saturday, so I can devote my full attention to this Western Division contest.
I wrote in an article last year that I had forgiven Saban for betraying the Dolphins when he left them like that at the end of the 2006 season. But feelings still sadly linger, and the man's ongoing gruff arrogance doesn't help things. I think he is suffering from a "God" complex and yes, regards himself as one of the truly "good people of the world" (see article a couple of days ago), a mega-legend in his own mind. A nice, humiliating loss tomorrow just might do him some good with his delusions. See, I'm really "pro-Saban" after all!
Nick Saban, after leaving the NFL's Miami Dolphins in a wreck after he abandoned them in mid-contract for fame and fortune at Alabama, has had a very successful run at for the last few years, even winning three of the last four national championships. His Crimson Tide defeated Florida in the SEC championship game in 2009, while in 2011 his defense went after and INJURED then-starting quarterback John Brantley early in a regular season contest between the two. What they did to our quarterback reminded me of what happened in the national championship game for the 2009 season when they knocked Colt McCoy, their opponent's (Texas) quarterback, out of the game with an injury through an excessive hit. This seems to be Saban's strategy: if you think there's a chance you might not beat your opponent in a fair contest, then get dirty. So although I dislike the impetuous, arrogant quarterback for Texas A&M, for tomorrow at least I'll be pulling quite vociferously for "Johnny Football" and his Aggies. Besides, Florida is off this Saturday, so I can devote my full attention to this Western Division contest.
I wrote in an article last year that I had forgiven Saban for betraying the Dolphins when he left them like that at the end of the 2006 season. But feelings still sadly linger, and the man's ongoing gruff arrogance doesn't help things. I think he is suffering from a "God" complex and yes, regards himself as one of the truly "good people of the world" (see article a couple of days ago), a mega-legend in his own mind. A nice, humiliating loss tomorrow just might do him some good with his delusions. See, I'm really "pro-Saban" after all!
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Jets-Pats Game Tonight
Tonight there's a NFL game pitting the New England Patriots against the New York Jets. These two teams, it is said, may be the most bitter rivals in football, at least on the professional level. They're the two teams in the AFC East that have had the most success in recent years (although the Patriots have come to dominate this division). The Jets-Pats feud is part of the New York-Boston collective sports rivalry that flows over into baseball, basketball, and hockey. The Jets successfully accused New England, back in 2007, of illegally videotaping opposing teams' signal calling to help themselves with play strategies: the Patriots reacted to this by indignantly going (almost) all the way to an undefeated season, ironically falling to another New York team, the Giants, in one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history (and one of my favorite Super Bowls). No there's no love lost between these two cities in the realm of sports. But there's more...
New England is a tightly controlled, disciplined organization that keeps to itself and makes a great emphasis on letting its performance on the field speak for itself. The New York Jets, on the other hand, starting with their head coach and filtering down through their player roster, are brash and outspoken, openly derisive of other teams and quick to criticize each other in the media. One of their assistant coaches even once stuck his leg out and tripped up a Miami player who was running down the sidelines in a game a few years ago. So these two franchises, apart from not liking each other, have two completely different ways of running things. Seems like the Patriots have the upper hand here, as they win...and win...and win.
But there is one factor that, in my mind at least, unites these two: they are divisional rivals of "my" team, the Miami Dolphins. I want BOTH to lose on any given game day, and it distresses me to know that, since they are playing each other, somebody's going to win. But at least, excepting a highly improbable tie score, that also means there's going to be a loser as well.
It bothered me last Sunday that the Jets were able to capitalize on Tampa Bay mistakes and upset the Buc 18-17...although in retrospect the outcome may not be remembered as an upset: I'm not too optimistic about Tampa Bay's prospects this year. New England edged out the other divisional rival, Buffalo, as well. But the main thing is that the Dolphins won their game. Ultimately, that's how it will play out for me this year: Miami has to keep winning...especially in those crucial head-to-head matchups against New England, New York, and Buffalo, each of whom the Dolphins play twice. Once that starts to happen consistently, maybe the Pats and Jets will loosen their death grip on each other and start to throw a little hate in Miami's direction...
New England is a tightly controlled, disciplined organization that keeps to itself and makes a great emphasis on letting its performance on the field speak for itself. The New York Jets, on the other hand, starting with their head coach and filtering down through their player roster, are brash and outspoken, openly derisive of other teams and quick to criticize each other in the media. One of their assistant coaches even once stuck his leg out and tripped up a Miami player who was running down the sidelines in a game a few years ago. So these two franchises, apart from not liking each other, have two completely different ways of running things. Seems like the Patriots have the upper hand here, as they win...and win...and win.
But there is one factor that, in my mind at least, unites these two: they are divisional rivals of "my" team, the Miami Dolphins. I want BOTH to lose on any given game day, and it distresses me to know that, since they are playing each other, somebody's going to win. But at least, excepting a highly improbable tie score, that also means there's going to be a loser as well.
It bothered me last Sunday that the Jets were able to capitalize on Tampa Bay mistakes and upset the Buc 18-17...although in retrospect the outcome may not be remembered as an upset: I'm not too optimistic about Tampa Bay's prospects this year. New England edged out the other divisional rival, Buffalo, as well. But the main thing is that the Dolphins won their game. Ultimately, that's how it will play out for me this year: Miami has to keep winning...especially in those crucial head-to-head matchups against New England, New York, and Buffalo, each of whom the Dolphins play twice. Once that starts to happen consistently, maybe the Pats and Jets will loosen their death grip on each other and start to throw a little hate in Miami's direction...
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
9/11 and the Good People of the World
I suppose a great percentage of the articles being put on the blogs, at least in this country, make some reference to the 9/11 attack in 2001. There many different angles to analyzing this tragedy. One is to examine how people can be so convinced of their own goodness and virtue that they can inflict untold suffering on others without any since of guilt or remorse for them. "The good people of the world", as I like to refer to them, are actually the most evil and dangerous because their own personal sense of self-righteous piety about themselves and the ideologies that prop them up rob them of the important virtues of self-examination and self-criticism. To these people, the words "compromise" and "tolerance" are profanities, because employing them just might give them a more compassionate and empathetic perspective on others over whom they are so desperate to feel superior.
When I see TV shows replaying the 9/11 events that focus on the terrorists, they are typified by a smug arrogance that they are the "good people"...and as such any other (inferior) people don't matter, even to the extent that their very lives don't matter. But the 9/11 terrorists are just one chilling example of "good people of the world" running rampant on everyone else. More on these "good people of the world" later...
When I see TV shows replaying the 9/11 events that focus on the terrorists, they are typified by a smug arrogance that they are the "good people"...and as such any other (inferior) people don't matter, even to the extent that their very lives don't matter. But the 9/11 terrorists are just one chilling example of "good people of the world" running rampant on everyone else. More on these "good people of the world" later...
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Where Are the Hurricanes?
We were supposed to have all of these tropical cyclones forming out in the open Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean this hurricane season of 2013. Instead, the opposite has happened: very few storms, and when they do form they are soon ripped apart by shearing winds in their paths. Not that I'm complaining, though: I was here in 2004 when Florida was blasted by four powerful hurricanes and affected by the weather in three of them...with the last coming too close to home.
It's kind of exciting when a hurricane is approaching and the so-called experts have its trajectory coming close to where you live. Not only does the whole surrounding social fabric change to become hurricane-oriented, but the immediate weather changes as well, with strange greenness in the air, unpredictably shifting strong winds, and horizontal freakish sporadic rain bursts. That's the interesting part.
The tedious part, though, is when the brunt of the storm passes over and causes often long-term power outages, local flooding, and downed trees. Not fun. When this happens, you go outside and there's a lot of debris lying around, businesses are often closed, and your freedom of movement is often restricted by the flooding and road closures. And then there's the prospect of having to deal with your own property damage. No, not fun.
So no, I'm not at all disappointed in this year's squelched hurricane season, for whatever the cause (although it bothers me that the meteorologists were so far off in their predictions). Sure, when I used to go to school as a kid, it would have been great to get some days off because of a hurricane. But from 1962 to 1974, I remember only a brief time in 1964 when classes were cancelled due to Hurricane Cleo (I lived then near Miami). I think that Betsy in 1965 happened in August just before the school year, and then year after year came without any hurricane striking (or even threatening to strike) south Florida. After '74, who cares, I had already finished high school...
Let's see now, it's almost mid-September and we're only to the "G" storm...and it's floundering around Bermuda. Ho-hum...
It's kind of exciting when a hurricane is approaching and the so-called experts have its trajectory coming close to where you live. Not only does the whole surrounding social fabric change to become hurricane-oriented, but the immediate weather changes as well, with strange greenness in the air, unpredictably shifting strong winds, and horizontal freakish sporadic rain bursts. That's the interesting part.
The tedious part, though, is when the brunt of the storm passes over and causes often long-term power outages, local flooding, and downed trees. Not fun. When this happens, you go outside and there's a lot of debris lying around, businesses are often closed, and your freedom of movement is often restricted by the flooding and road closures. And then there's the prospect of having to deal with your own property damage. No, not fun.
So no, I'm not at all disappointed in this year's squelched hurricane season, for whatever the cause (although it bothers me that the meteorologists were so far off in their predictions). Sure, when I used to go to school as a kid, it would have been great to get some days off because of a hurricane. But from 1962 to 1974, I remember only a brief time in 1964 when classes were cancelled due to Hurricane Cleo (I lived then near Miami). I think that Betsy in 1965 happened in August just before the school year, and then year after year came without any hurricane striking (or even threatening to strike) south Florida. After '74, who cares, I had already finished high school...
Let's see now, it's almost mid-September and we're only to the "G" storm...and it's floundering around Bermuda. Ho-hum...
Monday, September 9, 2013
Good Game, Bad Game
Looking back on what has transpired in football this past weekend, I'm generally pleased, the overwhelming reason being that the Miami Dolphins won their season opener over Cleveland. This was a team that Miami needed to defeat in their quest to make the playoffs for the first time since 2008. There will be plenty of more difficult opponents later, and I don't expect the Dolphins to handle all of them. So the strategy, as far as I am concerned, is to first do well inside their own division, garnering a 4-2 or 5-1 record there, and then beat the weaker teams elsewhere on the schedule. So far, so good...they're undefeated...watch out '72 Dolphins (at least until NEXT weekend)!!
On the down side, the University of Florida Gators, in spite of controlling the total offensive yardage, line of scrimmage, and game clock for their game down in Miami against the Hurricanes, still managed to turn the ball over in crucial "red zone" situations enough times to lose 21-16. The final score should have been Gators 37-14. I don't think there's anything that frustrates me more in a game than when my team consistently turns the ball over...except perhaps for supposedly skillful receivers who suddenly are incapable of catching a football when it is lobbed over in their direction. So Florida is 1-1...well, we all knew anyway that the "regular season" in a sense truly starts with their conference schedule. But Tennessee, their opening opponent in the Southeastern Conference in a couple of weeks, is probably just as good as Miami. Well, this comes, I suppose, with supporting a team: you're happy when they win and suffer when they lose. Still, should Florida figure out how not to turn the ball over willy-nilly, especially when they are about to score, they should do well in conference play...although at this stage of the year I can't imagine them ever winning the SEC championship, much less winning their division within it...
As for the rest of the football action, I only marginally care who wins or loses. No, I dislike AFC East rivals to the Dolphins and usually root against them...and yes, I usually root for the other Florida teams Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. And I still pull for the New York Giants consistently. In none of these areas was there cause for much elation, though, as the Jags, Bucs, and Giants all lost and the AFC East did pretty well, the only loser (Buffalo) losing out to divisional rival New England. But that's all right, as long as Miami does me well...
On the down side, the University of Florida Gators, in spite of controlling the total offensive yardage, line of scrimmage, and game clock for their game down in Miami against the Hurricanes, still managed to turn the ball over in crucial "red zone" situations enough times to lose 21-16. The final score should have been Gators 37-14. I don't think there's anything that frustrates me more in a game than when my team consistently turns the ball over...except perhaps for supposedly skillful receivers who suddenly are incapable of catching a football when it is lobbed over in their direction. So Florida is 1-1...well, we all knew anyway that the "regular season" in a sense truly starts with their conference schedule. But Tennessee, their opening opponent in the Southeastern Conference in a couple of weeks, is probably just as good as Miami. Well, this comes, I suppose, with supporting a team: you're happy when they win and suffer when they lose. Still, should Florida figure out how not to turn the ball over willy-nilly, especially when they are about to score, they should do well in conference play...although at this stage of the year I can't imagine them ever winning the SEC championship, much less winning their division within it...
As for the rest of the football action, I only marginally care who wins or loses. No, I dislike AFC East rivals to the Dolphins and usually root against them...and yes, I usually root for the other Florida teams Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. And I still pull for the New York Giants consistently. In none of these areas was there cause for much elation, though, as the Jags, Bucs, and Giants all lost and the AFC East did pretty well, the only loser (Buffalo) losing out to divisional rival New England. But that's all right, as long as Miami does me well...
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Follow-Up on Tebow Follow-Up
The other day I wrote how Tim Tebow needed to broaden his goals for the future regarding his participation in the National Football League as a player. The simple, if sad, fact is that teams across the league do not want to use him as a quarterback. Period. But he is a good runner. If you just take this year's preseason stats with the Patriots, he amassed 91 yards on 16 carries...that's not half bad: we're talking 5.7 yards/carry, and that's as a quarterback! I've long thought of Tebow as a good straight-ahead, bulldog sort of runner on the order of Larry Csonka, and this isn't some flight of imaginative speculation on my part. In college as a freshman, this was HIS ROLE as backup quarterback under coach Urban Meyer: come in on third or fourth downs with short yardage to go and pick up the first down, preferably by running. He was wildly successful at this and contributed greatly to Florida's national championship that year (in 2006). Then, the following year as starting quarterback he garnered the Heisman Trophy and I suppose that went to his head.
If I had dreamed from childhood of being a star actor in films, I would naturally also have dreamed of playing the lead roles in them. But as I grew up and MATURED, I could still dream of stardom but realize that the overwhelming drive was to act, to be actively employed in the industry I had become so enamored with in my younger years. Only a prima donna diva would say at the outset of their career that they would only work for anyone making a movie if they were given top billing from the getgo. Yet this is essentially what Tebow is saying, as reports arise that, after he was cut from New England, another team approached him interested more in his running talents. But he apparently declined them, still insisting on that "top billing".
This all gives me the impression that Tim Tebow doesn't really love football or want to make a positive contribution to a team, but rather is irrevocably smitten with the allure of personal stardom and media attention as the top dog quarterback...and nothing else will do. Good luck with THAT, Tim...I'm outta here!
If I had dreamed from childhood of being a star actor in films, I would naturally also have dreamed of playing the lead roles in them. But as I grew up and MATURED, I could still dream of stardom but realize that the overwhelming drive was to act, to be actively employed in the industry I had become so enamored with in my younger years. Only a prima donna diva would say at the outset of their career that they would only work for anyone making a movie if they were given top billing from the getgo. Yet this is essentially what Tebow is saying, as reports arise that, after he was cut from New England, another team approached him interested more in his running talents. But he apparently declined them, still insisting on that "top billing".
This all gives me the impression that Tim Tebow doesn't really love football or want to make a positive contribution to a team, but rather is irrevocably smitten with the allure of personal stardom and media attention as the top dog quarterback...and nothing else will do. Good luck with THAT, Tim...I'm outta here!
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Vicarious Planetary Thrill Rides in Planetarium
It's been years since I've ridden a roller coaster, or any other theme park ride for that matter. I miss those experiences, but not the lengthy travel times to and from the parks, not to mention the tedious, long lines for different rides once I manage to finally get inside a park. But earlier this afternoon, I managed to get back at least of little of those old thrills without the long travel, long lines...or even the expense. How? I paid a visit to my local Santa Fe College planetarium, where they were presenting a show titled SpacePark360: Geodesium Edition. It consisted of a set of nine imaginary thrill rides, one on each of the major planets (or one of their moons) starting with Mercury and going further out, with an extra one on "the way back" on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. Some of the rides were swinging rides, other were "twisters", and the best were roller coasters. Nine pretty cool rides set on exotic worlds. Most of the planets and moons depicted as sites for the rides were interesting, although Venus and Jupiter were mostly a bunch of clouds...while Earth's rocket launch pad setting, coupled with the limited ride, wasn't very impressive. But the scenes depicted for Mercury, Mars, Saturn (from Titan), Uranus (from its ring system), Neptune, (from Triton), and that finale on Io were vivid and memorable. James Albury was there at the planetarium again, narrating the show...and he took my money at the entrance as well, automatically giving me the "senior" discount. Oh well.
I suppose that this vicarious thrill ride experience is probably going to be the way to go for me in the foreseeable future. The roller coaster on Neptune's moon Triton was a hanging coaster very similar to Montu at Busch Gardens, which incidentally is my favorite roller coaster ride of all time (I've ridden it 26 times, I believe). The others were more like that same park's Kumba coaster, also an old favorite. I wasn't as happy with the non-coaster rides, although the opening one on Mercury reminded me of Pharaoh's Fury at Valdosta's Wild Adventures (I've ridden that one 27 times). At the close of the show, Mr. Albury hinted that the company that produced this show is soon coming out with a sequel: I can hardly wait!!!
I suppose that this vicarious thrill ride experience is probably going to be the way to go for me in the foreseeable future. The roller coaster on Neptune's moon Triton was a hanging coaster very similar to Montu at Busch Gardens, which incidentally is my favorite roller coaster ride of all time (I've ridden it 26 times, I believe). The others were more like that same park's Kumba coaster, also an old favorite. I wasn't as happy with the non-coaster rides, although the opening one on Mercury reminded me of Pharaoh's Fury at Valdosta's Wild Adventures (I've ridden that one 27 times). At the close of the show, Mr. Albury hinted that the company that produced this show is soon coming out with a sequel: I can hardly wait!!!
Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart
I'd like to take this opportunity to tell my beautiful wife Melissa how much I love and appreciate her, and that I wish her a wonderful 27-year anniversary. I love you!
Friday, September 6, 2013
Obama vs. Syria: Blocs in Congress
In President Obama's current campaign to get Congress to approve of his use of military force against the Syrian government on the pretext that they are engaged in chemical warfare, I discern various blocs within the Senate and House of Representatives that have their own peculiar motivations regarding how they would vote. Here's how I see it...
OBAMA & MILITARY ACTION: PRO
Democrats: (1) More conservative, pro-military Democrats who traditionally vote for these types of resolutions and have vested political interests in funding the military-industrial complex, either because their states and districts contain military bases or ports or various companies are there that do contract work for the military.
Democrats: (2) More liberal democrats who are siding with the president because, well, they're Democrats and Obama's a Democrat...were Romney in there as president saying the same thing this group would probably oppose him.
Republicans: (1) War hawks like Senators McCain and Graham, who never saw an opportunity for war they didn't want us to jump into, support Obama on this...while criticizing him for delaying action and limiting it...as well as those GOP members of Congress who, like the Democrats, have military bases/ports and/or contract companies in their states/districts.
Republicans: (2) Establishment leaders who are consistent in supporting the national defense establishment and the military.
OBAMA & MILITARY ACTION: CON
Democrats & Pro-Democrat Independents: Those who are traditionally skeptical about the value of military intervention and would oppose this proposed action regardless who was president.
Republicans: (1) Politicians who would support a Republican president like Bush but will flip-flop just because Obama's in there and they want to oppose him on EVERYTHING.
Republicans: (2) Chiefly within the tea party bloc, these only want military action if it specifically and narrowly is warranted for ONLY the national interests of the United States. This includes those with a libertarian philosophy like Senator Rand.
Republicans: (3) Establishment pro-war politicians who are afraid of tea party opposition in their own party's primary elections.
From Both Parties: (1) Those who think that there isn't enough clear information to warrant military intervention.
From Both Parties: (2) Those who think that we're supporting the wrong side and that the rebels are infiltrated with Al-Qaeda, our true enemy.
*****
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
OBAMA & MILITARY ACTION: PRO
Democrats: (1) More conservative, pro-military Democrats who traditionally vote for these types of resolutions and have vested political interests in funding the military-industrial complex, either because their states and districts contain military bases or ports or various companies are there that do contract work for the military.
Democrats: (2) More liberal democrats who are siding with the president because, well, they're Democrats and Obama's a Democrat...were Romney in there as president saying the same thing this group would probably oppose him.
Republicans: (1) War hawks like Senators McCain and Graham, who never saw an opportunity for war they didn't want us to jump into, support Obama on this...while criticizing him for delaying action and limiting it...as well as those GOP members of Congress who, like the Democrats, have military bases/ports and/or contract companies in their states/districts.
Republicans: (2) Establishment leaders who are consistent in supporting the national defense establishment and the military.
OBAMA & MILITARY ACTION: CON
Democrats & Pro-Democrat Independents: Those who are traditionally skeptical about the value of military intervention and would oppose this proposed action regardless who was president.
Republicans: (1) Politicians who would support a Republican president like Bush but will flip-flop just because Obama's in there and they want to oppose him on EVERYTHING.
Republicans: (2) Chiefly within the tea party bloc, these only want military action if it specifically and narrowly is warranted for ONLY the national interests of the United States. This includes those with a libertarian philosophy like Senator Rand.
Republicans: (3) Establishment pro-war politicians who are afraid of tea party opposition in their own party's primary elections.
From Both Parties: (1) Those who think that there isn't enough clear information to warrant military intervention.
From Both Parties: (2) Those who think that we're supporting the wrong side and that the rebels are infiltrated with Al-Qaeda, our true enemy.
*****
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Anger at Departed Football Coaches
In the football realm, sometimes fans can get more than a little hot under the collar when their team's head coach leaves them for "greener pastures", especially when the result seems to be the collapse of their own team. Yet the reality doesn't always conform to this formula. Nick Saban did ruin the Miami Dolphins following his two-year stint there after he insisted on and received essentially complete managerial control over the team's personnel and operations and then suddenly abandoned his commitment to them to accept wealth and fame at the University of Alabama. Dolphins fans, including me, felt betrayed and angry at him for his actions...although truth be told, I have greater axes to grind about injustices in my life than with this sort of vicarious grievance. On the other hand, Saban had angered LSU fans just a couple of years earlier when he left them to coach for the Dolphins. But there are a couple of important differences with LSU: he had brought them a national championship during his tenure there and he left the team essentially intact and strong...and they won two more championships under his successor Les Miles after he left. But now I hear that LSU fans are angry because he left Miami to work for their divisional rival Alabama. Well, Florida coach Steve Spurrier, who brought the school unprecedented gridiron success during his 12-year coaching era, has continued to enjoy enduring good feelings in the community not only after he left the Gators to try NFL coaching, but even after he got a job coaching OUR divisional rival South Carolina. That's all good and fine, but what I don't get is the animosity around Gainesville directed at former coach Urban Meyer.
All Urban Meyer did during his six-year run at UF was to win TWO national championships and give the school a very strong edge in recruitment nationwide over others. Toward the end of his time here, he had some undisclosed personal health issues that interfered with his final season. After leaving Florida, Meyer evidently was able enough to handle those personal issues and, after a brief time as a competent television sports analyst, was ready to take on the Ohio State head coaching position when it became available (because of scandal that sacked the previous coach). Last year was his first season and he was very successful, taking his team to a 12-0 record in the face of probation that eliminated them from national championship consideration or a bowl game appearance. I never heard anyone talk about how we're hoping that Urban does well in his new job and how we appreciate what he accomplished at Florida. But I'll go ahead and say it, anyway. I am glad that Urban Meyer is prospering in his new role at Ohio State. I wish him success there, but since his school has such a powderpuff schedule this year and they could be rivals in the BCS determination as to who gets to eventually play for the national championship, I'm rooting for his team to unexpectedly lose at least a couple of games for the sake of improving Florida's very real prospects this year. Nothing personal, Urban, but football is football: I'm rooting against Spurrier's team, too...
All Urban Meyer did during his six-year run at UF was to win TWO national championships and give the school a very strong edge in recruitment nationwide over others. Toward the end of his time here, he had some undisclosed personal health issues that interfered with his final season. After leaving Florida, Meyer evidently was able enough to handle those personal issues and, after a brief time as a competent television sports analyst, was ready to take on the Ohio State head coaching position when it became available (because of scandal that sacked the previous coach). Last year was his first season and he was very successful, taking his team to a 12-0 record in the face of probation that eliminated them from national championship consideration or a bowl game appearance. I never heard anyone talk about how we're hoping that Urban does well in his new job and how we appreciate what he accomplished at Florida. But I'll go ahead and say it, anyway. I am glad that Urban Meyer is prospering in his new role at Ohio State. I wish him success there, but since his school has such a powderpuff schedule this year and they could be rivals in the BCS determination as to who gets to eventually play for the national championship, I'm rooting for his team to unexpectedly lose at least a couple of games for the sake of improving Florida's very real prospects this year. Nothing personal, Urban, but football is football: I'm rooting against Spurrier's team, too...
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Broncos-Ravens Mark 2013 NFL Regular Season Debut
As I retreat from having to deal with the looming "limited" war with Syria and the strange, unsettling political alliances being forged between left and right to oppose (or support) it, I find myself this afternoon with an easy topic about which to write: tonight begins the regular season in the National Football League! We're getting a head start on the weekend action on Thursday, and with a great pairing: the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens against the Denver Broncos, a team and franchise that has rattled me a bit during the last couple of years.
Baltimore has lost several starters due to retirement, including their standout linebacker Ray Lewis. But they seem to be on the right track with their lineup, and it makes me wonder why other franchises flounder around for years, seeming to be in a perpetual rebuilding process from one disappointing season to the next (I'm thinking chiefly about the Miami Dolphins, but there are plenty of other examples). I tend to root for the Ravens, largely in gratitude for the fact that in 2007, when the lowly Dolphins were 0-14 with two weeks to go to a winless season, they had the presence of mind to play each other with Baltimore bowing in defeat...to my enduring gratitude. Of course, the same team was a major thorn in Miami's side the following year when they beat them twice, including Miami's improbable first and only playoff game that year. Still, I have a warm spot in my heart for Baltimore. I can't say the same about Denver...
Being a Gator fan in the 1990's when Peyton Manning was the quarterback for conference divisional rival Tennessee, I got sick of Manning getting all of the accolades in spite of the fact that he never could beat us. But he was good, real GOOD...and I might have gone over to his side had he not joined up with a team in the NFL that true Dolphins fans despise: the Colts. Still, he moved on to Denver, and as a Dolphin fan I have no trouble with that franchise. What I DO have a problem with is how they used Tim Tebow to reestablish a winning tradition during the 2011 season...and then unceremoniously dumped him immediately afterward in favor of King Peyton. Then they swaggered around acting like they might as well just cancel the 2012 season and crown themselves champion! What really happened was different, though: the Broncos under Manning were good enough to win their division again and make the playoffs (as Tebow did with them the previous season). But a funny thing happened on their way to Super Bowl glory: "my" Baltimore Ravens tripped them up!
I won't be able to watch much of tonight's game as I have to go to work...but I know who I'm supporting: Baltimore!
And sure...I'll tune in from time to time on the "other" channels to see how we're sinking into war once again as the war drums intensify like some impending Jumanji game...
Baltimore has lost several starters due to retirement, including their standout linebacker Ray Lewis. But they seem to be on the right track with their lineup, and it makes me wonder why other franchises flounder around for years, seeming to be in a perpetual rebuilding process from one disappointing season to the next (I'm thinking chiefly about the Miami Dolphins, but there are plenty of other examples). I tend to root for the Ravens, largely in gratitude for the fact that in 2007, when the lowly Dolphins were 0-14 with two weeks to go to a winless season, they had the presence of mind to play each other with Baltimore bowing in defeat...to my enduring gratitude. Of course, the same team was a major thorn in Miami's side the following year when they beat them twice, including Miami's improbable first and only playoff game that year. Still, I have a warm spot in my heart for Baltimore. I can't say the same about Denver...
Being a Gator fan in the 1990's when Peyton Manning was the quarterback for conference divisional rival Tennessee, I got sick of Manning getting all of the accolades in spite of the fact that he never could beat us. But he was good, real GOOD...and I might have gone over to his side had he not joined up with a team in the NFL that true Dolphins fans despise: the Colts. Still, he moved on to Denver, and as a Dolphin fan I have no trouble with that franchise. What I DO have a problem with is how they used Tim Tebow to reestablish a winning tradition during the 2011 season...and then unceremoniously dumped him immediately afterward in favor of King Peyton. Then they swaggered around acting like they might as well just cancel the 2012 season and crown themselves champion! What really happened was different, though: the Broncos under Manning were good enough to win their division again and make the playoffs (as Tebow did with them the previous season). But a funny thing happened on their way to Super Bowl glory: "my" Baltimore Ravens tripped them up!
I won't be able to watch much of tonight's game as I have to go to work...but I know who I'm supporting: Baltimore!
And sure...I'll tune in from time to time on the "other" channels to see how we're sinking into war once again as the war drums intensify like some impending Jumanji game...
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Obama Push for Syria Strike
The push to give President Obama the political backing he wants to attack Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons on its own people during its civil war is now going on full swing. I haven't been ignoring this important issue, but have been hesitant to write about it for a couple of reasons. One, I don't know all the facts; in a situation like this I'm left depending on the words of those in authority who have access to information, much of it classified, that I am not privy to. This is similar to the time leading up to George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq more than ten years ago, when as it turned out that the needed information was indeed there...it just wasn't true! Two, although arguments have been made that not striking Syria will discredit U.S. efforts to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapon capability and will embolden terrorists who would then see us as weak, I could counter-argue that by attacking Syria we would be strengthening terrorists within that country's borders who would then become our de facto allies (and later attack us). No, I don't see Syria as directly threatening us, and in this I am astonished (and more than a little disturbed) to find myself siding with far-right tea party politicians, the most notorious of them being Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. That in itself is enough to make me want to turn my head from this issue and think of something else (like football or the weather)...
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
College Football 2013 Season Begins
The first weekend in the college football season has passed, with the usual assortment of mainly lopsided matchups topped off with a few meaningful contests. And a couple of those games pitting major schools against small ones turned meaningful, too, when they resulted in upsets. Here's my take on the games that interested me.
Ohio State won their mismatch 40-20 while Oregon ran the score up on their itsy-bitsy opponent 66-3...so naturally the latter passed the former in the polls without either really being tested on a major level. The Florida Gators were a rare team in the Southeastern Conference in that they scheduled a relatively minor school, Toledo, for their opener. They prevailed yawningly (but soundly) 24-6. Because Florida's game plan doesn't exactly light up the stadium (or the TV) with passing fireworks, though, the poll voters tend to punish them. So despite their win, they dropped in the polls from #10 to #12, even staying behind divisional rival Georgia, a loser in an exciting season opener against Clemson. Alabama, although challenged for much of their game by Virginia Tech, ended it by pulling away and making the score look like a rout. Florida State, Miami, and Louisville all were impressive in their openers, while LSU won a high-scoring game against TCU.
People can go on all they want to about how great a quarterback that prima donna diva Johnny Manziel (of Texas A&M) is, but I can't see how he is better than ANY of the following: Clemson's Tajh Boyd, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater, or Florida State's freshman sensation Jameis Winston...all putting on impressive performances in their respective season openers. I can't see how any of these schools' fans would ever wish they had Johnny Headcase instead of the stars they are blessed with...
My Florida Gators will be playing down in south Florida against Miami next week. I expect them to grind out a win in that game as well, but I wouldn't expect them to be heavily featured on ESPN for spectacular highlights, though...
My favorite games to watch were the opener between North Dakota State and Kansas State and Georgia vs. Clemson. Kansas State found themselves upset as the Bison came from ten points behind in the second half and consumed most of the fourth quarter in a masterful drive that both put them finally ahead and gave the Wildcats little time to come back. As for Georgia-Clemson, I was intrigued by Clemson's home opening tradition of busing their team around the stadium to its entrance at the top of a hill...and then rushing en masse onto the field. The only problem with this traditional pregame ritual was that it was so hot and humid at that time that everyone, including the coaches, were sweating buckets before the game even began!
Ohio State won their mismatch 40-20 while Oregon ran the score up on their itsy-bitsy opponent 66-3...so naturally the latter passed the former in the polls without either really being tested on a major level. The Florida Gators were a rare team in the Southeastern Conference in that they scheduled a relatively minor school, Toledo, for their opener. They prevailed yawningly (but soundly) 24-6. Because Florida's game plan doesn't exactly light up the stadium (or the TV) with passing fireworks, though, the poll voters tend to punish them. So despite their win, they dropped in the polls from #10 to #12, even staying behind divisional rival Georgia, a loser in an exciting season opener against Clemson. Alabama, although challenged for much of their game by Virginia Tech, ended it by pulling away and making the score look like a rout. Florida State, Miami, and Louisville all were impressive in their openers, while LSU won a high-scoring game against TCU.
People can go on all they want to about how great a quarterback that prima donna diva Johnny Manziel (of Texas A&M) is, but I can't see how he is better than ANY of the following: Clemson's Tajh Boyd, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater, or Florida State's freshman sensation Jameis Winston...all putting on impressive performances in their respective season openers. I can't see how any of these schools' fans would ever wish they had Johnny Headcase instead of the stars they are blessed with...
My Florida Gators will be playing down in south Florida against Miami next week. I expect them to grind out a win in that game as well, but I wouldn't expect them to be heavily featured on ESPN for spectacular highlights, though...
My favorite games to watch were the opener between North Dakota State and Kansas State and Georgia vs. Clemson. Kansas State found themselves upset as the Bison came from ten points behind in the second half and consumed most of the fourth quarter in a masterful drive that both put them finally ahead and gave the Wildcats little time to come back. As for Georgia-Clemson, I was intrigued by Clemson's home opening tradition of busing their team around the stadium to its entrance at the top of a hill...and then rushing en masse onto the field. The only problem with this traditional pregame ritual was that it was so hot and humid at that time that everyone, including the coaches, were sweating buckets before the game even began!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Tebow Released, Needs Goal Adjustment
Tim Tebow, after the last exhibition game of the preseason, was released by the New England Patriots and can now be a free agent. He thanked that franchise for giving him an opportunity there and still claims to be relentless about becoming an NFL quarterback. I don't think Tebow is quite mentally in the place he needs to be in order to fulfill that stated lifelong dream to be an NFL quarterback. In the first place, the former Florida Gator Heisman Trophy winner has already BEEN an NFL quarterback, leading his team to the playoffs (and a playoff victory) back in 2011. It's like me saying that I want to be a marathon runner and, having successfully finished a marathon, feeling at least that bit of personal satisfaction at having accomplished this. Tim Tebow doesn't seem to look at it this way at all, though...and that is one of the problems I think that causes other teams in the league to want to avoid taking any chance in picking him up. As far as he is concerned, he has a one-track mind on the subject: become a regular starting quarterback for a team...and any deviation from that isn't acceptable AT ALL to him. Given his obvious glaring shortcomings at reading defenses and passing accurately, I would have thought this gifted athlete, who is much more than a competent rusher on offense, would be more realistic with his goals and broaden them to become a regular starting PLAYER in the NFL...or even a nonstarter who is frequently used. That would give other teams the flexibility that they would like to have to insert him into different offensive schemes and allow him to be the asset to them that he is quite capable of being. But maybe it's going to take Mr. Tebow hitting rock bottom as the prospects for NFL this season completely dry up before he swallows what is clearly an enormous pride about himself and adjusts his goals. He has certainly already had ample opportunity to improve upon his quarterbacking skills over the last three years and with expert instruction, but to little avail...
This may be an shining, if bitter, example of what Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan character repeatedly said in the movie Magnum Force: "A man's GOT to know his own limitations". We all have our own particular limitations, don't we, and we aren't suffering from a negative or defeatist self-image if we simply recognize them and work around them. Tim Tebow, as I have stated a few days ago, is an asset to the NFL. He has a great, clean image as a role model, he is a positive encourager for others, he generates interest and excitement for the game, he rises up to pressure in close games as a clutch performer, and he is one heck of a runner. If he were only to recognize where he IS good at and sell himself on that, I think he'd be doing a lot a better...
This may be an shining, if bitter, example of what Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan character repeatedly said in the movie Magnum Force: "A man's GOT to know his own limitations". We all have our own particular limitations, don't we, and we aren't suffering from a negative or defeatist self-image if we simply recognize them and work around them. Tim Tebow, as I have stated a few days ago, is an asset to the NFL. He has a great, clean image as a role model, he is a positive encourager for others, he generates interest and excitement for the game, he rises up to pressure in close games as a clutch performer, and he is one heck of a runner. If he were only to recognize where he IS good at and sell himself on that, I think he'd be doing a lot a better...
Follow-Up on Nova
The Delphinus nova discovered a few days ago has dwindled down in magnitude to the point where it can no longer be seen by the naked eye...at least by MY naked eye here within the city. On a number of nights when it was brighter I walked outside to view it, only to be confronted by a sky filled with clouds. Only one night was there a clear sky, but unfortunately I was then in too much of a hurry to get somewhere to stop and take an unhurried look. The nova never did get to be very bright against the backdrop of stars and at its brightest would have appeared as a faint connecting star between the already-faint tiny constellations of Sagitta and Delphinus. Still, I regret having missed out on seeing it. I suppose, if I want to, I can take out my binoculars in the next night or two and compare my observations of the section it's in with a detailed star map, but I'm not all that enthusiastic about finding a point that doesn't fit on a map and then automatically proclaiming it to be that nova...
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Slow Down, You Talk Too Fast
I'm sitting in this Starbucks, see, huddled off in a back corner, wondering whether I'm beginning to go senile at this relatively young age of (nearly) 57. It started on my drive down here when, literally out of the blue, it began to ran. Sure, there were some puffy clouds to be seen around, but nothing to indicate any impending precipitation. Still, it looked as if my original idea of sitting in the wide-open outdoors to drink my coffee and study (including writing this blog article) would be for naught. And the prospects for finding a seat ANYWHERE inside this Starbucks likewise dimmed with the freshly falling rain, as it is a popular hangout in this part of town and is usually filled to capacity on Sunday afternoons. I nevertheless pulled into the parking lot: who knows, I might find a spot anyway. And as I said, I did...in an obscure corner of the java joint.
So anyway, I'm sitting here, writing out some foreign language sentences for practice, which is something I do as a daily routine. The rest of the place is packed with customers, some of whom are studying by themselves (or pretending to do so) and some of whom are engaging in sociable conversations. As I sit here studying OTHER languages, an eerie feeling begins to creep up on me: everyone else around me is speaking English, but at the fast rate that they are speaking, their words are almost incomprehensible to me...almost as if they were speaking an exotic tongue.
I've long had a block when it came to picking up and understanding normal conversation when I hear it in other languages...even those languages that I have studied and can comprehend when it is spoken in a more formal setting on radio and TV news broadcasts. It's almost as if, regardless of whatever language they are speaking, the talkers are in a completely different gear of communication from anything else. And now, today, the same troubling feeling started coming to me as others were SPEAKING ENGLISH so fast in conversation that I could scarcely make out their words. Then a universal principle hit me...
It seems that in nervous social conversation, people regardless of their culture or language tend to talk at a breakneck pace, almost seemingly necessitating a psychic link among themselves from them to understand what each other are saying. The speed of speech can get very, very fast...to the point sometimes that a native language can sound foreign. That's a little scary for me...
Then again, there is possibly a more mundane, reasonable interpretation for all this. When people are conversing in person, a great portion of the communication that is going on between them is unspoken but rather revealed through facial expressions, gestures, and body language. As a matter of fact, I wonder sometimes if these aren't the main elements in the communication and not the actual words. In any event, when I'm sitting there with my back to others, I'm not picking up on these integral elements of the interactions between these people and, quite possibly, this may make their spoken language less clear as a result...
So anyway, I'm sitting here, writing out some foreign language sentences for practice, which is something I do as a daily routine. The rest of the place is packed with customers, some of whom are studying by themselves (or pretending to do so) and some of whom are engaging in sociable conversations. As I sit here studying OTHER languages, an eerie feeling begins to creep up on me: everyone else around me is speaking English, but at the fast rate that they are speaking, their words are almost incomprehensible to me...almost as if they were speaking an exotic tongue.
I've long had a block when it came to picking up and understanding normal conversation when I hear it in other languages...even those languages that I have studied and can comprehend when it is spoken in a more formal setting on radio and TV news broadcasts. It's almost as if, regardless of whatever language they are speaking, the talkers are in a completely different gear of communication from anything else. And now, today, the same troubling feeling started coming to me as others were SPEAKING ENGLISH so fast in conversation that I could scarcely make out their words. Then a universal principle hit me...
It seems that in nervous social conversation, people regardless of their culture or language tend to talk at a breakneck pace, almost seemingly necessitating a psychic link among themselves from them to understand what each other are saying. The speed of speech can get very, very fast...to the point sometimes that a native language can sound foreign. That's a little scary for me...
Then again, there is possibly a more mundane, reasonable interpretation for all this. When people are conversing in person, a great portion of the communication that is going on between them is unspoken but rather revealed through facial expressions, gestures, and body language. As a matter of fact, I wonder sometimes if these aren't the main elements in the communication and not the actual words. In any event, when I'm sitting there with my back to others, I'm not picking up on these integral elements of the interactions between these people and, quite possibly, this may make their spoken language less clear as a result...
Saturday, August 31, 2013
My August 2013 Running Report
In August I continued increasing my running mileage, amassing a total of 132.6 miles. The longest run was for 10 miles, and I ran on 30 out of the month's 31 days. Back in May I wouldn't have thought this possible, what with the plantar fasciitis in my right foot causing pain in the heel and arch. But I have been careful to wear snug-fitting shoes with thick soles, and have faithfully done daily stretching exercises to help alleviate the problem. The result has been that this condition no longer limits me with my running. Still, I am right now a bit overweight and as such am not running as well as I could were I to weigh, more optimally, about 15-20 pounds less.
I still intend to run a couple of half-marathon races here in Gainesville this fall, the first to take place on September 28. I deeply wish that the weather will have cooled down a bit by that time. This must be the most unpleasantly hot and humid summer I've experienced in recent memory...
I still intend to run a couple of half-marathon races here in Gainesville this fall, the first to take place on September 28. I deeply wish that the weather will have cooled down a bit by that time. This must be the most unpleasantly hot and humid summer I've experienced in recent memory...
Friday, August 30, 2013
Standing, Codependency, and Personal Responsibility
I've recently had two situations cropping up in the workplace (where I work is immaterial to this discussion) when questions of mandated overtime and off/day staffing came into play. In one instance, I (and others) were told to stay late a couple of hours overtime one morning...something that annoyed me when it happened but in the long run was beneficial due to the extra money coming in to me. A co-worker also having to put in the extra time decided that we should see a union steward the next day because a different crew on another shift was unjustly being deprived of the overtime that they had signed up for (unlike us). I ignored this proposal, because I didn't feel that I was the aggrieved party. Maybe I was a little annoyed at the overtime, but it's hard to feel the "victim" in a situation when people are essentially throwing money at me. No, the potentially aggrieved party were the other workers who had sought out the overtime and didn't get it. They were the ones with "standing" in this circumstance, not me. Simply informing them what happened was enough...they could then decide for themselves what, if anything, to do about it if they wished.
Similarly, the duty schedule for this weekend's Labor Day holiday was posted a few days ago. One co-worker was incorrectly scheduled in for two days while I got both of my desired days off. Once again, someone else had "standing" to address the problem with management, not me. She didn't, though, and I thus have a long weekend coming up.
In order to avoid codependent behavior, I have to take different situations concerning others and determine, if a possible injustice has occurred, how much it actually negatively affects me...or whether someone else adversely affected wants me to take responsibility to fixing "their" problem for them. A codependent personality will habitually take on the burden of fixing others' problems for them, instead of expecting them to speak for themselves, as they should...
Standing is an important legal concept in our system of justice. Appeals are often thrown out of court by judges because the party filing them doesn't have a direct relationship to the cases involved. Standing is established when a party to a case can demonstrate how it legitimately affects them. But standing is a more universal principle that ultimately demands that we individually demonstrate responsibility for handling our own affairs without passively always expecting others to take them up for us...
Similarly, the duty schedule for this weekend's Labor Day holiday was posted a few days ago. One co-worker was incorrectly scheduled in for two days while I got both of my desired days off. Once again, someone else had "standing" to address the problem with management, not me. She didn't, though, and I thus have a long weekend coming up.
In order to avoid codependent behavior, I have to take different situations concerning others and determine, if a possible injustice has occurred, how much it actually negatively affects me...or whether someone else adversely affected wants me to take responsibility to fixing "their" problem for them. A codependent personality will habitually take on the burden of fixing others' problems for them, instead of expecting them to speak for themselves, as they should...
Standing is an important legal concept in our system of justice. Appeals are often thrown out of court by judges because the party filing them doesn't have a direct relationship to the cases involved. Standing is established when a party to a case can demonstrate how it legitimately affects them. But standing is a more universal principle that ultimately demands that we individually demonstrate responsibility for handling our own affairs without passively always expecting others to take them up for us...
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tim Tebow an Asset to NFL Football
In spite of the fact that I am a long-time Gainesville resident and root for my University of Florida Gators team, I am not exactly what you might call a fan of Tim Tebow...at least not to the extent that many others are. Not that I have anything personally against the man, you see. As far as I can tell, there aren't enough people in professional football with the kind of character and positive attitude that he consistently displays, and often under very stressful circumstances. And I agree with the bigshot highly-played professional media sports analysts who point out his deficiencies in the quarterback position. Slowness in reading opposing defenses on the field and often wild inaccuracy in passing are probably Tebow's two main, glaring faults. I've heard some critics also say that his footing and arm motions aren't up to par with other quarterbacks in the National Football League. Maybe that's all true, but I do know one thing about him that others seem determined to overlook: Tim Tebow is a winner.
Football is a team sport and involves players combining their own particular skills in concert with each other to achieve victory. Tim Tebow is an exhorter and somehow gets his teammates on the field together playing with fervency and a belief that they will prevail. In 2011, the only year he was allowed to consistently start as quarterback, he led his Denver Broncos from their division's cellar to its championship...and then defeated defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs. Then a few weeks later he was summarily traded away to the Jets, who subsequently squandered their investment and then let him go. Now he's with New England and he may or may not make the final team roster at the end of the exhibition season. His passing statistics have never been good, but he is a clutch player who takes charge in close games and pulls out improbable win after win. He is more a throwback to the old days of football that allowed for more of a diversity in talents. I remember the 1969 Minnesota Vikings who had as quarterback an incredibly erratic passer in Joe Capp: all they did that year was go to the Super Bowl! But Tebow has an added threat to defenses that his critics sell him short on: he is a strong, punishing runner who reminds me of the Miami Dolphin great Larry Csonka.
I remember one game last year when Tebow, while playing for the Jets at home, was sent in for a play and burst through the opposing defense, gaining a swath of yardage and putting his team on the verge of a touchdown. Right after the play, he was on fire with enthusiasm, pumping up and exciting the entire stadium in the process. Then he was promptly removed to the sidelines, starting QB Mark Sanchez came back in, and the drive completely fizzled out...not to mention the enthusiasm of the stadium fans.
That's not how you handle an asset like Tim Tebow.
Football is a team sport and involves players combining their own particular skills in concert with each other to achieve victory. Tim Tebow is an exhorter and somehow gets his teammates on the field together playing with fervency and a belief that they will prevail. In 2011, the only year he was allowed to consistently start as quarterback, he led his Denver Broncos from their division's cellar to its championship...and then defeated defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs. Then a few weeks later he was summarily traded away to the Jets, who subsequently squandered their investment and then let him go. Now he's with New England and he may or may not make the final team roster at the end of the exhibition season. His passing statistics have never been good, but he is a clutch player who takes charge in close games and pulls out improbable win after win. He is more a throwback to the old days of football that allowed for more of a diversity in talents. I remember the 1969 Minnesota Vikings who had as quarterback an incredibly erratic passer in Joe Capp: all they did that year was go to the Super Bowl! But Tebow has an added threat to defenses that his critics sell him short on: he is a strong, punishing runner who reminds me of the Miami Dolphin great Larry Csonka.
I remember one game last year when Tebow, while playing for the Jets at home, was sent in for a play and burst through the opposing defense, gaining a swath of yardage and putting his team on the verge of a touchdown. Right after the play, he was on fire with enthusiasm, pumping up and exciting the entire stadium in the process. Then he was promptly removed to the sidelines, starting QB Mark Sanchez came back in, and the drive completely fizzled out...not to mention the enthusiasm of the stadium fans.
That's not how you handle an asset like Tim Tebow.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Not a "Rookie" Mistake
In the last exhibition game that they played, which was against the cross-town rival New York Giants, the New York Jets were still struggling with their quarterback lineup. Not exactly inspiring the greatest confidence in the world, their quarterback for the past few years, Mark Sanchez, had a good enough preseason for coach Rex Ryan to announce him as the starter for this upcoming regular season. Rookie Geno Smith, who many had touted as being the better quarterback, didn't do so well and was regulated to backup. Sanchez played the first part of the Giants game while Smith came in later for the second half. The Jets found themselves up 14-13 when they got the ball deep in their own territory, by their own goal line. Smith went back to pass and, scrambling in the backfield, inadvertently stepped out of the back of his own end zone, causing a safety and giving the Giants a 15-14 lead. Coach Ryan was evidently so miffed at this that he took Smith out of the game on the next series and put in his starter Sanchez...who subsequently suffered a shoulder injury in this essentially meaningless game. Ryan came under a lot of criticism for his decision to play Sanchez, but to me saying and doing boneheaded things is what this dude is all about. What bothered me about it all is what a (probably well-paid) football analyst on TV said about Geno Smith's safety: he called it a "rookie mistake".
I don't know how to play rugby, folks. I'm sure the rules are such that if I were out on the field during a game, I would be lost as to what I should be doing. But even with my profound ignorance about this sport, I already know, without having ever played it for even a minute, that I probably don't want to step out of bounds around my own goal while holding the ball. Geno Smith was the class of the high school football world as a quarterback, which enabled him to attend a major college like West Virginia, where he succeeded so well that he was drafted as a top prospect into the National Football League. After all these years of him practically living football, I think that he already knew that you don't step out of your own end zone holding the football! He just made a mistake...don't we all from time to time. But it had nothing to do with being a "rookie": they have end zones even in neighborhood sandlot games that little kids play!
It's true that as one progresses within a sport to a more advanced level, the tempo picks up and the strategies are more complicated, putting additional mental stress on the player. But when a player who happens to be a freshman in college or a first-year rookie in the pros makes an error, it is often a simple lapse of judgement or perception and has nothing to do with lack of experience. For announcers and analysts to throw out the "rookie/freshman mistake" line in these instances just makes me want to groan (and change the channel)...
I don't know how to play rugby, folks. I'm sure the rules are such that if I were out on the field during a game, I would be lost as to what I should be doing. But even with my profound ignorance about this sport, I already know, without having ever played it for even a minute, that I probably don't want to step out of bounds around my own goal while holding the ball. Geno Smith was the class of the high school football world as a quarterback, which enabled him to attend a major college like West Virginia, where he succeeded so well that he was drafted as a top prospect into the National Football League. After all these years of him practically living football, I think that he already knew that you don't step out of your own end zone holding the football! He just made a mistake...don't we all from time to time. But it had nothing to do with being a "rookie": they have end zones even in neighborhood sandlot games that little kids play!
It's true that as one progresses within a sport to a more advanced level, the tempo picks up and the strategies are more complicated, putting additional mental stress on the player. But when a player who happens to be a freshman in college or a first-year rookie in the pros makes an error, it is often a simple lapse of judgement or perception and has nothing to do with lack of experience. For announcers and analysts to throw out the "rookie/freshman mistake" line in these instances just makes me want to groan (and change the channel)...
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Return to Outdoor Writing
It's been a while since I sat down outside to do some blog writing. Either I write something on my laptop at home (at the dining room table) or I go inside a comfortable-but-noisy coffee shop. Back in 2007 when I began this blog, I would be in the habit of writing blog articles after stopping off at one of two local Starbucks on the way to my work shift, which then began at 3:30 PM. The typically hot weather wasn't so pleasant, but it seemed that my ability to drum up topics and expound upon them was enhanced more with outdoor writing.
Maybe, especially with my old home town of Gainesville once again packed with tens of thousands of college students, I'll just forgo the indoors and hang out outside, where more seating is usually (but not always) available. That certainly was the case for me today. Besides, we're now nearing the end of August and cooler times, hopefully, are just around the corner...
Maybe, especially with my old home town of Gainesville once again packed with tens of thousands of college students, I'll just forgo the indoors and hang out outside, where more seating is usually (but not always) available. That certainly was the case for me today. Besides, we're now nearing the end of August and cooler times, hopefully, are just around the corner...
Monday, August 26, 2013
Finally Finished Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Terry Goodkind's books dominate the shelves in the fantasy section of bookstores. His Sword of Truth series is his trademark achievement, spanning twelve (or more?) volumes, periodically putting him at the top of the bestseller list and no doubt making him a very rich man. Yet when I recently got on the Internet and checked out a list of the top 25 fantasy series (George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire at the top of it), Goodkind's presence was nowhere seen...not even among the supplementary "honorable mention" list. I myself had a bit of difficulty last year with the first book, Wizard's First Rule, getting through a few hundred pages (it is gigantic) and finally putting it down in frustration. Not only did I discover that I felt an irrational aversion to this fantasy world of magic and swords (and the accompanying gore and violence), but I also experienced the same feeling that I had when reading Christopher Paolini's Eragon series: both authors probed the thoughts and intentions of their characters far too much instead of letting each story's actions and dialogue reveal their personalities as the plot progressed. This, to me, took away some of the natural mystery and suspense that could have sustained me as a reader. However, with Goodkind at least (Paolini is FAR too ponderous), I decided to give him another chance. So I went back to Wizard's First Rule and read the whole damned thing from beginning to end. And a funny thing happened: I began to like it!
It isn't quite so clear at the beginning of Wizard's First Rule, but as I read through it, I came to feel that Terry Goodkind is doing more than just spinning a yarn set in an imaginary fantasy setting. He is also laying out a philosophy for living that involves people taking responsibility for themselves while redefining the notions of what truly constitutes compassion, and how important the method is to achieving one's means. These are significant, heady topics, and Goodkind delves into them...at least in the first book. I'm getting myself ready now for the second in the series, titled Stone of Tears... Oh by the way, I read up on Goodkind and he appears to be a follower of Ayn Rand's objectivism philosophy. How that point of view is reflected in his writings should prove interesting to discover as I read on.
As for the title Wizard's First Rule, what does it mean? Simply that, in the pantheon of rules that the wizards of Goodkind's imaginary realm have listed, there stands one principle high above the others: people are stupid and will believe whatever they WANT to believe, regardless of the facts! You know what, that sounds like MY first rule as well!
It isn't quite so clear at the beginning of Wizard's First Rule, but as I read through it, I came to feel that Terry Goodkind is doing more than just spinning a yarn set in an imaginary fantasy setting. He is also laying out a philosophy for living that involves people taking responsibility for themselves while redefining the notions of what truly constitutes compassion, and how important the method is to achieving one's means. These are significant, heady topics, and Goodkind delves into them...at least in the first book. I'm getting myself ready now for the second in the series, titled Stone of Tears... Oh by the way, I read up on Goodkind and he appears to be a follower of Ayn Rand's objectivism philosophy. How that point of view is reflected in his writings should prove interesting to discover as I read on.
As for the title Wizard's First Rule, what does it mean? Simply that, in the pantheon of rules that the wizards of Goodkind's imaginary realm have listed, there stands one principle high above the others: people are stupid and will believe whatever they WANT to believe, regardless of the facts! You know what, that sounds like MY first rule as well!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Visible Nova in Delphinus Detected
Late yesterday afternoon I attended my third planetarium show at the facility in Santa Fe College, here in Gainesville. Once again James Albury hosted the event, which featured a movie adapted for domed theaters about black holes...narrated by Lian Neeson. It was O.K., I suppose, although I've gotten more information and enlightenment on the subject from watching Science Channel shows like Wormhole. Still, I enjoyed the experience of going inside the planetarium, sitting down in a comfortable chair, and digging the surroundings. And at the conclusion of the program, Mr. Albury once again gave a synopsis of the night sky for this time of year...and with a special addition.
Our host announced that a few days ago, a nova explosion was detected in the constellation Delphinus, located a little northeast of Aquila. The star, which was originally "seen" at magnitude +17, much too dim for the naked eye, suddenly brightened to where it is, at last report, +4.9...not exactly bright against the background of stars but still visible to the naked eye and certainly detectable to one (like myself) who is very familiar with the normal star patterns of that region of the sky. Last night I went out to see it, but as luck would have it, the sky was overcast...as it currently is today so far. Later this evening I'll go check it out, if the clouds have cleared out...
Our host announced that a few days ago, a nova explosion was detected in the constellation Delphinus, located a little northeast of Aquila. The star, which was originally "seen" at magnitude +17, much too dim for the naked eye, suddenly brightened to where it is, at last report, +4.9...not exactly bright against the background of stars but still visible to the naked eye and certainly detectable to one (like myself) who is very familiar with the normal star patterns of that region of the sky. Last night I went out to see it, but as luck would have it, the sky was overcast...as it currently is today so far. Later this evening I'll go check it out, if the clouds have cleared out...
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Snowball Earth, Among Other Prehistoric Disasters
I've always been interested in the origins and development of the Earth, both in its geological context and in that of the evolution of life. I am also a subscriber to Netflix, at least the streaming Netflix which much too often comes up severely lacking with its offerings of movies and shows. This time around, though, I found on it a four-part television series titled Prehistoric Disasters that explored the Earth's distant past through four key disasters that struck it over the eons.
The four "disasters" were the formation of the Moon through the collision between early Earth and a minor planet, the 25-million year long lapse into a completely ice-packed "snowball" status covering the entire globe some 650 million years ago, the eruption of a supervolcano in what is now Siberia causing a chain of events leading to excessive global warming and mass extinctions 250 million years ago, and the hypothesized collision of an asteroid with Earth about 63 million years ago causing the end of the age of the dinosaurs. I was especially interested in that strange "snowball Earth"...
Earth throughout its span of existence has gone through an extensive cycle of ice ages, when ice glaciers would flow far south of the polar regions and into more normally temperate climate zones. But 650 million years ago the ice passed a threshold of latitude and went on to cover the planet with ice, and very thick ice at that (several hundred meters). The cause: depletion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to loss of this gas as it combined with solid material through excessive weathering from the then-single, huge continental mass lying on the equator and then settled on the sea bottom, far away from the atmosphere. The advance of the ice sped up the process of global cooling because the ice's reflectivity of sunlight was much higher than the liquid ocean's, sending the sun's heat back out into space instead of absorbing it into the Earth. Life at that time, for billions of years ongoing as a matter of fact, was composed of unicellular organisms, mainly bacteria. Nearly all of the species died out, leaving only those few that could adapt through evolution. After the ice cover eventually receded from the heat generated by massive volcanic eruptions 25 million years later, life began evolving rapidly into more complex forms...but only after the "snowball" period.
By all accounts, the "snowball" period in our planet's past was a singular, nonrepeating event. That bothers me a little and keeps me from completely accepting it, even though there seems to be empirical evidence that it occurred. I would have expected at least of handful of other "snowballs", too, in the records. But if it was truly the only time that Earth was completely encased in thick, thick ice...and for millions of years at that, then to me this has to be the most incredible period of its past.
The four "disasters" were the formation of the Moon through the collision between early Earth and a minor planet, the 25-million year long lapse into a completely ice-packed "snowball" status covering the entire globe some 650 million years ago, the eruption of a supervolcano in what is now Siberia causing a chain of events leading to excessive global warming and mass extinctions 250 million years ago, and the hypothesized collision of an asteroid with Earth about 63 million years ago causing the end of the age of the dinosaurs. I was especially interested in that strange "snowball Earth"...
Earth throughout its span of existence has gone through an extensive cycle of ice ages, when ice glaciers would flow far south of the polar regions and into more normally temperate climate zones. But 650 million years ago the ice passed a threshold of latitude and went on to cover the planet with ice, and very thick ice at that (several hundred meters). The cause: depletion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to loss of this gas as it combined with solid material through excessive weathering from the then-single, huge continental mass lying on the equator and then settled on the sea bottom, far away from the atmosphere. The advance of the ice sped up the process of global cooling because the ice's reflectivity of sunlight was much higher than the liquid ocean's, sending the sun's heat back out into space instead of absorbing it into the Earth. Life at that time, for billions of years ongoing as a matter of fact, was composed of unicellular organisms, mainly bacteria. Nearly all of the species died out, leaving only those few that could adapt through evolution. After the ice cover eventually receded from the heat generated by massive volcanic eruptions 25 million years later, life began evolving rapidly into more complex forms...but only after the "snowball" period.
By all accounts, the "snowball" period in our planet's past was a singular, nonrepeating event. That bothers me a little and keeps me from completely accepting it, even though there seems to be empirical evidence that it occurred. I would have expected at least of handful of other "snowballs", too, in the records. But if it was truly the only time that Earth was completely encased in thick, thick ice...and for millions of years at that, then to me this has to be the most incredible period of its past.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Three Old Miami Dolphins Shun President
This past Tuesday the President received the 1972 Miami Dolphins team at the White House East Room as they together celebrated forty years of being the only team to go completely undefeated in a National Football League season...throughout that year's regular season, divisional and conference playoffs, and culminating with a Super Bowl victory. Hall of Fame Dolphin greats Bob Griese, Larry Little, and Larry Csonka were among those there, as well as legendary coach Don Shula. The current Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross footed the bill to bring them to Washington, which I thought was a nice gesture on his part. But three of those '72 Dolphins players spurned the event because they said they were politically opposed to the sitting President. Jim Langer, Bob Kuechenberg, and Manny Fernandez not only didn't attend, but they had to throw in some political trash talk into something that was a nonpolitical visit to their elected Head of State. It could have been Republican President Romney instead of Democratic President Obama for all the difference it makes: in my opinion these three players, who obviously were under no compulsion from any one side to attend, are lacking in basic civics education and appreciation. We live in a representative democracy, and as such, will sometimes collectively elect people into leadership positions with whom we, as individuals, have political differences. Still, we should respect the PROCESS and the POSITION to honor the results of those elections and thereby respect whoever happens to be holding office at a particular time. I wonder, had Romney been in there and held this commemoration, whether some of the more liberal members of that '72 Dolphins team would have shunned him. There's no way of knowing for sure, but if that had happened it would have been just as wrong as what these three did. For the record, by the way, owner Ross happens to be a proud Republican who clearly gets it when it comes to truly appreciating what it means to live in a democratic republic...as well as being a class act. Too bad that some don't...
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Football Teams I'm Rooting For and Against
I can't tell you which teams will be the best in professional and college football this 2013 season, but I still have my own favorites...some of them will undoubtedly flop! I decided to pick at least one team from each NFL division and one from the major NCAA conferences to cheer for and boo against, and here they are:
NFL: AMERICAN CONFERENCE
EAST
Cheer: Miami Dolphins, of course
Boo: New England Patriots
SOUTH
Cheer: Jacksonville Jaguars
Boo: Houston Texans
NORTH
Cheer: Baltimore Ravens
Boo: Pittsburgh Steelers
WEST
Cheer: Kansas City Chiefs
Boo: Denver Broncos
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
EAST
Cheer: New York Giants
Boo: Dallas Cowboys
SOUTH
Cheer: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Boo: New Orleans Saints
NORTH
Cheer: Chicago Bears
Boo: Detroit Lions
WEST
Cheer: Seattle Seahawks
Boo: St. Louis Rams
NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL
SEC CONFERENCE
EAST
Cheer: Florida Gators
Boo: Georgia Bulldogs
WEST
Cheer: LSU Tigers
Boo: Alabama Crimson Tide
BIG TEN CONFERENCE
Cheer: Michigan State Spartans
Boo: Ohio State Buckeyes
BIG 12 CONFERENCE
Cheer: Kansas State Wildcats
Boo: Oklahoma Sooners
PAC 12 CONFERENCE
Cheer: Oregon Ducks
Boo: USC Condoms
Oh, and I need to mention independent Notre Dame, a team that I traditionally root against. I will be booing them again this year...
NFL: AMERICAN CONFERENCE
EAST
Cheer: Miami Dolphins, of course
Boo: New England Patriots
SOUTH
Cheer: Jacksonville Jaguars
Boo: Houston Texans
NORTH
Cheer: Baltimore Ravens
Boo: Pittsburgh Steelers
WEST
Cheer: Kansas City Chiefs
Boo: Denver Broncos
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
EAST
Cheer: New York Giants
Boo: Dallas Cowboys
SOUTH
Cheer: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Boo: New Orleans Saints
NORTH
Cheer: Chicago Bears
Boo: Detroit Lions
WEST
Cheer: Seattle Seahawks
Boo: St. Louis Rams
NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL
SEC CONFERENCE
EAST
Cheer: Florida Gators
Boo: Georgia Bulldogs
WEST
Cheer: LSU Tigers
Boo: Alabama Crimson Tide
BIG TEN CONFERENCE
Cheer: Michigan State Spartans
Boo: Ohio State Buckeyes
BIG 12 CONFERENCE
Cheer: Kansas State Wildcats
Boo: Oklahoma Sooners
PAC 12 CONFERENCE
Cheer: Oregon Ducks
Boo: USC Condoms
Oh, and I need to mention independent Notre Dame, a team that I traditionally root against. I will be booing them again this year...
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
TV Science Shows: More Math, Please
I appreciate much of the science programming I see on television when it is available. I especially like shows about cosmology, physics, and astronomy. Usually it is the Science Channel that provides this programming. Shows like Wormhole and Wonders of the Universe are great, and anything narrated by Morgan Freeman (admittedly NOT a scientist) or physicists Michio Kaku and Brian Cox are interesting to watch. I like the popularization of cutting edge scientific research, and wish there was more programming available like this. But although I enjoy the intriguing material that is presented, I feel that there is still a massive cognitive gulf between professional scientists and the lay observer. The chief cause of this gulf is the massive difference in mastery of the mathematics necessary to fully understand much of the theory and method.
Unfortunately, mathematics in itself isn't that glamorous. But if more complex and advanced mathematics are introduced and explained in combination with various discoveries and theories, I believe that many viewers, myself included, would be able to catch on and more fully appreciate not only the exciting scientific advances that are going on today, but also better grasp some of the limitations and disagreements that cause scientists within a particular field to go down divergent paths with their theories and speculation.
In no field is the need for a deeper understanding of underlying mathematics more felt than in physics, especially that which is concerned about the origin and nature of our universe. For one physicist to enumerate more than ten dimensions (string theory) while another reduces everything to just one dimension makes me scratch my head in frustration. I'd like a little more in-depth probing of their thought processes than just see them sitting around throwing out their ideas, which may or may not be sufficiently backed up by empirical research or mathematically reasoned theory...
Unfortunately, mathematics in itself isn't that glamorous. But if more complex and advanced mathematics are introduced and explained in combination with various discoveries and theories, I believe that many viewers, myself included, would be able to catch on and more fully appreciate not only the exciting scientific advances that are going on today, but also better grasp some of the limitations and disagreements that cause scientists within a particular field to go down divergent paths with their theories and speculation.
In no field is the need for a deeper understanding of underlying mathematics more felt than in physics, especially that which is concerned about the origin and nature of our universe. For one physicist to enumerate more than ten dimensions (string theory) while another reduces everything to just one dimension makes me scratch my head in frustration. I'd like a little more in-depth probing of their thought processes than just see them sitting around throwing out their ideas, which may or may not be sufficiently backed up by empirical research or mathematically reasoned theory...
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Upcoming Running Race Prospects for Me
I thought it might be a good idea for me to list the upcoming running races that I have an interest in entering. I'll stay away from most of them, I'm sure...not because I physically can't handle the race load, but rather because these events cost some money. A little spent here and there is reasonable, but there is something to be said against overdoing it, too. The locations are all Gainesville unless otherwise specified...
August 23 (Friday)...Fit2Run Cross Country Challenge (10K event) (off West Newberry Road)
September 28 (Saturday)...chORD Half-Marathon (on UF campus)
October 5 (Saturday)...Jacksonville Marine Corps Half-Marathon
October 20 (Sunday)...Running for the Bay Half-Marathon (in Apalachicola)
October 27 (Sunday)...Light House Loop Half-Marathon (in Port Orange)
November 9 (Saturday)...InnerAct Alliance Half-Marathon (in Lakeland)
November 16 (Saturday)...Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon (on Hawthorne Trail)
December 14 (Saturday)...Season of Hope 15K (on Hawthorne Trail)
December 29 (Sunday)...Jacksonville Bank Half-Marathon
2014: January 19 (Sunday)...Ocala Half-Marathon
February 16 (Sunday)...FivePoints Half-Marathon
I'm sure other races will sprout up from time to time, and Florida is full of half-marathons during the winter months. But at least through February next year, the preceding pool of races offer me the best choices. There are four half-marathons that I definitely want to run: chORD on September 28, Tom Walker Memorial on November 16, Ocala on January 19, and FivePoints on February 16. Also, it would be cool to fit in a race that involved a little travel. That Jacksonville race on December 29 may be a stretch, but I've never run there before...
August 23 (Friday)...Fit2Run Cross Country Challenge (10K event) (off West Newberry Road)
September 28 (Saturday)...chORD Half-Marathon (on UF campus)
October 5 (Saturday)...Jacksonville Marine Corps Half-Marathon
October 20 (Sunday)...Running for the Bay Half-Marathon (in Apalachicola)
October 27 (Sunday)...Light House Loop Half-Marathon (in Port Orange)
November 9 (Saturday)...InnerAct Alliance Half-Marathon (in Lakeland)
November 16 (Saturday)...Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon (on Hawthorne Trail)
December 14 (Saturday)...Season of Hope 15K (on Hawthorne Trail)
December 29 (Sunday)...Jacksonville Bank Half-Marathon
2014: January 19 (Sunday)...Ocala Half-Marathon
February 16 (Sunday)...FivePoints Half-Marathon
I'm sure other races will sprout up from time to time, and Florida is full of half-marathons during the winter months. But at least through February next year, the preceding pool of races offer me the best choices. There are four half-marathons that I definitely want to run: chORD on September 28, Tom Walker Memorial on November 16, Ocala on January 19, and FivePoints on February 16. Also, it would be cool to fit in a race that involved a little travel. That Jacksonville race on December 29 may be a stretch, but I've never run there before...
Monday, August 19, 2013
Good Ten-Mile Run Today
This afternoon I woke up (I work the graveyard shift) and felt a little out of sorts, but I resolved to go out anyway and try to run a bit. It being in the oppressively hot 90's outdoors, I decided to go down to my local gym and run the treadmill. First I was going to run 3-4 miles, but as I went along I kept going. And going. And going! After a while, I realized that this was going to be a very good, long run...so why not go for 10 miles? And that I did, at my usual pace and accomplishing it in 89 minutes 48 seconds. I feel great right now, a few hours after the run. And that includes my right foot, which had been giving me some problems going back to March.
Ten miles is the furthest I've run since the 13.1 I did in the Orange Blossom Half-Marathon in Tavares, Florida back in March. And unless I am actually running in an official half-marathon race, ten miles is my preset maximum for a run. So I feel I'm ready for next month's half-marathon at the University of Florida. I know this run I did today was a treadmill run and not a road run, but I am not going outside to do any long runs until the temperature comes down a bit...
Ten miles is the furthest I've run since the 13.1 I did in the Orange Blossom Half-Marathon in Tavares, Florida back in March. And unless I am actually running in an official half-marathon race, ten miles is my preset maximum for a run. So I feel I'm ready for next month's half-marathon at the University of Florida. I know this run I did today was a treadmill run and not a road run, but I am not going outside to do any long runs until the temperature comes down a bit...
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Paynes Prairie, South of Gainesville
When I first moved to Gainesville in 1977, and for years afterward, the grassland area south of town known as Paynes Prairie was always striking when I passed across it, either on US 441 or I-75. In this part of Florida trees dominate, but in Paynes Prairie they clear away and one can see far off into the distance. In this sense it reminds me of South Florida, where I grew up. About a century ago, it was the bottom of a shallow lake called Lake Alachua. But when there is a heavy rainfall season, it once again becomes essentially a very marshy lake. Alligators abound here, and there is a bison herd. There is a state park here, as well as a park for University of Florida staff, faculty, and students at adjacent Lake Wauberg.
The grasslands are probably still around, but probably somewhere off from the two aforementioned through-roads. From where we passed through, all I can see now are low-lying bushes...not as spectacular of a view as I was used to behold. There is a pier running east into the prairie off US 441 northbound side, close to the northern end, where visitors can walk safely "into" Paynes Prairie and stand at its end, which is an observation platform. I think this might be a good place to go star-gazing sometime.
Here are a couple of not-so-revealing shots of Paynes Prairie taken from I-75 while I was riding (not driving) on it the other day...
The grasslands are probably still around, but probably somewhere off from the two aforementioned through-roads. From where we passed through, all I can see now are low-lying bushes...not as spectacular of a view as I was used to behold. There is a pier running east into the prairie off US 441 northbound side, close to the northern end, where visitors can walk safely "into" Paynes Prairie and stand at its end, which is an observation platform. I think this might be a good place to go star-gazing sometime.
Here are a couple of not-so-revealing shots of Paynes Prairie taken from I-75 while I was riding (not driving) on it the other day...
Saturday, August 17, 2013
McDonald's Sign: Thirty Minute Sitting Limit
We were coming back yesterday to Gainesville from Lakeland when we pulled into a McDonald's off I-75 in Dade City. It was one of the friendliest McDonald's I've ever been to and the service was excellent. There was only one problem with the place as I saw it: there was a prominent sign there telling customers to limit their visits there to thirty minutes. Longer than that they considered as "loitering". I've seen this sort of sign at the McDonald's in Gainesville which is on US 441 a block from the University of Florida campus. What gives here? Isn't that sign something of an affront, essentially telling customers to pay up and then get lost?
My instincts tell me that, as long as you are continually getting up and buying stuff from time to time, these McDonald's managers wouldn't care if you stayed there the whole day. After all, they try to bring in longer-staying customers with their free Wi-Fi and the espresso coffee drinks they offer, obviously wanting to siphon off some of those free-spending Starbucks customers (who tend to stay glued to their seats for long stretches). The problem I see that probably prompted the signs is twofold: sometimes people will wander into an establishment like a McDonald's just for a place to sit...many of these may be homeless. That probably applies more to the Gainesville location than to the one in Dade City. Also, students tend to camp out with their laptops and books and monopolize seats for hours...and some of them have the nerve to not even buy anything! I often go out to places to study, and I usually take well over thirty minutes there. But if I'm done with what I had initially purchased and it looks as if I may need to stay there a little longer, I'll make a point of going back up to the counter and buying something else. That I thinks soothes the worries of anyone working there who thinks that I am trying to take advantage of their seating hospitality. After all, they're in it to make money and have a right to ensure good available seating for paying customers...
My instincts tell me that, as long as you are continually getting up and buying stuff from time to time, these McDonald's managers wouldn't care if you stayed there the whole day. After all, they try to bring in longer-staying customers with their free Wi-Fi and the espresso coffee drinks they offer, obviously wanting to siphon off some of those free-spending Starbucks customers (who tend to stay glued to their seats for long stretches). The problem I see that probably prompted the signs is twofold: sometimes people will wander into an establishment like a McDonald's just for a place to sit...many of these may be homeless. That probably applies more to the Gainesville location than to the one in Dade City. Also, students tend to camp out with their laptops and books and monopolize seats for hours...and some of them have the nerve to not even buy anything! I often go out to places to study, and I usually take well over thirty minutes there. But if I'm done with what I had initially purchased and it looks as if I may need to stay there a little longer, I'll make a point of going back up to the counter and buying something else. That I thinks soothes the worries of anyone working there who thinks that I am trying to take advantage of their seating hospitality. After all, they're in it to make money and have a right to ensure good available seating for paying customers...
Friday, August 16, 2013
They're He-e-re!
Earlier this afternoon I was riding south on Interstate 75, which skirts the western end of Gainesville. I got on it at Exit 390, which was the furthest north exit for my home town. I passed Exit 387, which connects with Newberry Road and the Oaks Mall areas. Then, less than three minutes later was Exit 384, which leads to Archer Road and the region of student apartments and condos. Its northbound exit was so backed up that there was stopped traffic going well into the interstate lane. It had begun: the annual return of University of Florida students by the thousands!
I'm sure this new collection of students will seem even younger than the previous ones (funny how that works). Most of them will be confined more or less to the University campus, their own apartments/dorms/condos, and the surrounding shopping areas. But when it comes to going to Starbucks again, I know I'll have an almost impossible task of finding indoor seating...because they'll be he-e-re, too!
I'm sure this new collection of students will seem even younger than the previous ones (funny how that works). Most of them will be confined more or less to the University campus, their own apartments/dorms/condos, and the surrounding shopping areas. But when it comes to going to Starbucks again, I know I'll have an almost impossible task of finding indoor seating...because they'll be he-e-re, too!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Egyptian Violence Dismaying
Like many other people, I am very dismayed at what is happening in Egypt, with the elected Muslim Brotherhood overthrown by the military and massive violence intensifying between protesters and the police/army, resulting in many deaths and injuries. Each side accuses the other of provoking the violence, and nobody is backing down. And with such a conflict, there are inevitably scapegoats that are wrongly blamed for the situation. Christian churches are being attacked and destroyed, and the old standbys of Israel and its American ally are once again also being used as scapegoats to foment agitation and hatred against us.
It's true that the Muslim Brotherhood was democratically elected, but I have a problem with newly elected parties and/or individuals in countries without democratic traditions immediately taking actions after taking office to enact laws restricting or even outlawing political opposition. It is a widespread problem. I remember Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe doing this as well as Russia's Vladimir Putin and Venezuela's late Hugo Chavez. Apparently the (former) president Mohamed Morsi was trying to consolidate his power this way as well, and it didn't sit well with the military.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not going away, and the government's actions against it may officially marginalize it and its members while making it more radical and violent. On the other hand, there is a sizable portion of Egypt's voting population that supported this organization in the last election, and whatever prompted them to give them their support needs to be taken into account by whatever party that holds the reins of political power...
It's true that the Muslim Brotherhood was democratically elected, but I have a problem with newly elected parties and/or individuals in countries without democratic traditions immediately taking actions after taking office to enact laws restricting or even outlawing political opposition. It is a widespread problem. I remember Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe doing this as well as Russia's Vladimir Putin and Venezuela's late Hugo Chavez. Apparently the (former) president Mohamed Morsi was trying to consolidate his power this way as well, and it didn't sit well with the military.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not going away, and the government's actions against it may officially marginalize it and its members while making it more radical and violent. On the other hand, there is a sizable portion of Egypt's voting population that supported this organization in the last election, and whatever prompted them to give them their support needs to be taken into account by whatever party that holds the reins of political power...
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Entering Local Population Congestation Zone
The summer still technically has more than a month to go, and certainly the oppressive heat and humidity that typifies it where I live is going to linger for a considerable time as well. But in one important sense, for me, summer in one of its more positive manifestations is about to crash down to a merciless, bitter end...starting around now and then dramatically spiking in effect next Wednesday. School is starting again.
No, I am not attending any school right now. And I'm not driving either of my children to school in the morning or picking them up in the afternoon. Those days are done, although who knows whether or not I'll someday decide to "go back" to enter a graduate level program. The main effect of school returning will be the overwhelming congestion on two fronts: the return of University of Florida students by the tens of thousands as well as the return of public school, with its rush hours and buses stopping everywhere in the middle of the road. Santa Fe College in the northwestern corner of town contributes a lot to the crowded streets as well.
With both UF and public schools, I particularly feel the congestion nowadays with my current work schedule as I leave my workplace at 7:30 AM and drive up a street, first passing through intense university student traffic in the southwestern part of town and then past schools and residential areas clogged up with buses and parents-with-kids (and slowdown school zones). So next Wednesday it will begin anew...
There is another aggravation associated with the resumption of school, and it involves mainly the returning University and Santa Fe College students. They tend to take all of the seats at the various Starbucks and other coffee houses in town, often camping out for hours there and sometimes not even buying anything. Of course, there is a place that these students tend to overlook: McDonald's, which always seems to have plenty of seating and provides good-tasting, less expensive coffee anyway. They also tend to steer clear of doughnut shops, which are more the habitats of gabby seniors. Looks like I might as well start with these places if I want some assurance of seating when I go out to study...
No, I am not attending any school right now. And I'm not driving either of my children to school in the morning or picking them up in the afternoon. Those days are done, although who knows whether or not I'll someday decide to "go back" to enter a graduate level program. The main effect of school returning will be the overwhelming congestion on two fronts: the return of University of Florida students by the tens of thousands as well as the return of public school, with its rush hours and buses stopping everywhere in the middle of the road. Santa Fe College in the northwestern corner of town contributes a lot to the crowded streets as well.
With both UF and public schools, I particularly feel the congestion nowadays with my current work schedule as I leave my workplace at 7:30 AM and drive up a street, first passing through intense university student traffic in the southwestern part of town and then past schools and residential areas clogged up with buses and parents-with-kids (and slowdown school zones). So next Wednesday it will begin anew...
There is another aggravation associated with the resumption of school, and it involves mainly the returning University and Santa Fe College students. They tend to take all of the seats at the various Starbucks and other coffee houses in town, often camping out for hours there and sometimes not even buying anything. Of course, there is a place that these students tend to overlook: McDonald's, which always seems to have plenty of seating and provides good-tasting, less expensive coffee anyway. They also tend to steer clear of doughnut shops, which are more the habitats of gabby seniors. Looks like I might as well start with these places if I want some assurance of seating when I go out to study...
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Convention Center Enormous, Want to Run in It
Monday, August 12, 2013
Summer Heat So Stifling, Alerts Issued
I just saw a weather alert for northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia, and I'm not surprised. It was to warn people of excessive heat. No kidding. I had just been to my local gym (Gainesville Health and Fitness Center) and run 6.2 miles on the treadmill without any problem in the air-conditioned environment there. But after the run, when I stepped out of the place to walk the few yards outside to my car, I thought this heat is almost unbearable, just being out in it for a couple of minutes. I managed to get the car slightly cooled down on the drive home, but once again, after I parked and got out to walk the few feet to my front door, the heat was hard to withstand. The temperatures are in the mid to upper 90's but the heat index has it around 104-105 degrees.
It has been a while since I have run any appreciable distance outside, on the road like I used to so much in the past. The night is awful, too. When I drove to work at a little past ten last night, the temperature was 82...and the humidity was stifling. When I went out of my workplace building on my lunch break at 5 AM, it felt like a blanket covering everything outside, the air felt so heavy. Yuck!
It has been a while since I have run any appreciable distance outside, on the road like I used to so much in the past. The night is awful, too. When I drove to work at a little past ten last night, the temperature was 82...and the humidity was stifling. When I went out of my workplace building on my lunch break at 5 AM, it felt like a blanket covering everything outside, the air felt so heavy. Yuck!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Planetarium and Perseids
Friday afternoon I woke up with a sense of purpose. This time around I wouldn't forget the weekly planetarium show that Santa Fe College put on Friday evenings. There were two shows, the first at 7 PM a look at the sky and interesting features and the second, at 9, more or less a light show done to the tune of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. I chose the former, going there again with Melissa. James Albury of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium was there again as well, presenting the show. He reiterated some things from our visit there three weeks ago and showed where the planets and moon would be seen for the next few days (Venus and Moon were close to each other in the early evening sky Friday tonight). Albury had also brought in for display a 75-pound meteorite, composed of iron and nickel...and very magnetic...and very dense and heavy. Melissa got a photo of it, as well as one of the facility's two projectors, this one the simpler non-digital model that Albury used for Friday's show. The digital projector, he told me after the show, had the ability to show the movements of stars against the sky's background over spans of hundreds and thousands of years. But for Friday we stuck with the analog one.
I'm going to try to make at least a monthly habit of dropping by the planetarium to see what's going on. This month, of course...and the reason for the meteorite...was August's Perseid meteor shower, which I was just outside observing (at 3 in the morning). The peak observing nights would have been tomorrow, but I'll be at work then. In any event, I stood out there in my freshly mowed back yard under ideal cloudless conditions eyeballing the constellation Perseus for a good twenty-to-twenty-five minutes. For my trouble I saw one clear meteor, a pretty bright and very brief streak of light left of Perseus in the vacant part of the sky between Perseus and Polaris known as the constellation Camelopardalis. That was at 3:18. Well, that's one more meteor than I believe I've ever seen with this, the supposedly biggest meteor shower of the year...
I'm going to try to make at least a monthly habit of dropping by the planetarium to see what's going on. This month, of course...and the reason for the meteorite...was August's Perseid meteor shower, which I was just outside observing (at 3 in the morning). The peak observing nights would have been tomorrow, but I'll be at work then. In any event, I stood out there in my freshly mowed back yard under ideal cloudless conditions eyeballing the constellation Perseus for a good twenty-to-twenty-five minutes. For my trouble I saw one clear meteor, a pretty bright and very brief streak of light left of Perseus in the vacant part of the sky between Perseus and Polaris known as the constellation Camelopardalis. That was at 3:18. Well, that's one more meteor than I believe I've ever seen with this, the supposedly biggest meteor shower of the year...
Saturday, August 10, 2013
More Running Mileage, But Avoid Summer Heat
Earlier today I woke up as usual in the afternoon and tried to figure out the best way to get my running in. The weather was very hot and not conducive to this kind of exertion, although in the past I wouldn't have had second thoughts about running in it, even for long distances. But now is now, and instead Inwent to my local gym to run in air conditioning. Later, though, I did mow my back yard in the 95-degree heat. It seems that my run didn't tire me out at all, but that lawn mowing exhausted me terribly.
In the last two days I have run 7.6 and 6.7 miles, quite an uptake in the mileage. The right foot doesn't seem to be causing me problems like it used to, but still I have to consider the rest of my body and how it responds to a higher, level of training. No sense in overdoing it...
In the last two days I have run 7.6 and 6.7 miles, quite an uptake in the mileage. The right foot doesn't seem to be causing me problems like it used to, but still I have to consider the rest of my body and how it responds to a higher, level of training. No sense in overdoing it...
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