To Bracket or Not to Bracket

The 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has now been set up, with 68 teams making the "cut".  Warren Buffett has offered a billion dollars to anyone submitting a perfect "bracket" that gets all of the winners right.  I think $100,000 will go to the best 20 brackets (I suppose they have a strict protocol for figuring that out).  If you're someone who likes filling out brackets every year, this is your moment!  As for me, I would rather just sit back and enjoy the games...having followed the NCAA tourney off and on since 1970, I am keenly aware of the overwhelming preponderance of upsets and the unpredictability as to when they will happen.  And we are talking here about 67 games! No, instead I'm going to take each game as it comes, figure out beforehand which team I want to win, and cheer on.

And as far as the teams I will support are concerned, here they are, in the order that I like them:

1 Florida
2 North Carolina
3 Louisville
4 North Carolina State
5 Tennessee
6 Michigan State
7 Virginia
8 Providence

...and that's it.  The other sixty teams can do well as long as they don't mess with the above teams; I'll just have to take each game as it comes to determine which team I want to win.  If any two of the "eight" face off against each other, then I have my order of preference listed.  And no, I don't think NC State or Tennessee will probably go very far, but it would be cool if they did...

Just Finished Reading Terry Goodkind's The Pillars of Creation

I have just gotten through volume seven of Terry Goodkind's twelve-part fantasy series The Sword of Truth.  This book, titled The Pillars of Creation, represents a departure of sorts from the first six stories as it introduces a new character, a young woman named Jennsen, who dominates throughout as the chief protagonist.  Richard and Kahlan, the series' traditional protagonists, don't make their appearance until the very end of the book.  Still, the settings are the same as before, only this time the story flows through Jennsen's experiences as she tries to make sense of the war going on between the Imperial Order (the bad guys) and Richard Rahl's D'Haran Empire.  She undergoes great trauma as she witnesses the violent death of her mother at the hands of what looks to be D'Haran soldiers.  But she is rescued by a man named Sebastian...and he just so turns out to be the chief strategic officer for the Imperial Order.  As Jennsen grows closer to Sebastian, she is convinced that Richard Rahl (who is really the "good" guy) had her mother killed and is searching her out to kill her, too.  So Jennsen works hard and fearlessly to support the Imperial Order...and to personally kill Richard herself.  The underlying reason as to why she might be in danger from the Rahls has to do with a newly-introduced idea: offspring of Rahl emperors who do not possess magical abilities are both invulnerable to magical attacks and able to hear the words of the Keeper of the Underworld (like the Roman god Hades) in their minds.  In truth, though, Richard did not even know he had a sister, much less this trait of his non-magical siblings.  In a subplot to the story, Richard's (also unknown to him) non-magical half-brother Oba heeds the words of the Keeper in his head and progressively becomes more evil and sadistic.  At the end...well, I don't want to give it away, but just think: this twelve-part series still has five more books left in it, so how much is going to change?!  I will say this much, though: the "lessons" of The Pillars of Creation are completely in line with those of the previous books: (1) life is in the future while death is in the past, (2) we always have our own choices to make about our own lives and are responsible for those choices, and (3) reason reigns supreme as a force of good.  I can handle all of that...they seem like great ideas to me (although I think I'd like to modify (3) a bit to include "love").  I just wish that the author would be a little more subtle in conveying them...

At Starbucks on a Saturday Morning, Remembering

I am sitting right now inside my favorite Starbucks, at Magnolia Parke here off 39th Avenue in northern Gainesville on a Saturday morning, relishing my weekend off from work.  This particular Starbucks is apparently the favorite of many others, because ever since I came in today the place has been packed with customers.  Also, at least as far as the circles of people I know are concerned, when someone says "Let's meet at Starbucks", this is the Starbucks they are usually talking about (and Gainesville has many of them).  It has a bit of personal history for me: right after it first opened in 2000 I would come in regularly to study (and naturally drink coffee) as I finished up my history degree at the University of Florida (on a part-time student basis, something that I wonder if they'll still let you do).  They had as manager a guy named Marty, who "got it" when it came to making a business appealing to the public and making customers feel welcome and valued.  It was this same Marty who, just a few years later at a different Starbucks location on Newberry Road, suggested to a couple of joggers working at the nearby LifeSouth blood donor organization (which replaced Civitan here in Gainesville) that holding an annual marathon to publicize LifeSouth and its mission would be a good idea.  From that simple, casual conversation arose the annual Five Points of Life Marathon/Half-Marathon/5K event held in February (and in which I ran the half-marathon race in 2010 and 2014).  Later he was transferred to another Starbucks store on the other side of town...and then disappeared.  Nothing dire, I'm happy to say...just that he was no longer working for them, for whatever the reason(s).  I never did find out what happened to him.  Maybe he had badly screwed up or antagonized somebody above him in the company, maybe he went on to better things...or maybe both or neither of these happened.  But regardless of the reason for his leaving, I did consider him to be a good man who cared about his customers...and I wish him the best...

Gators Hoops Resemble Last Year's Louisville Team

I was just commenting to someone how this year's University of Florida men's basketball team reminds me of how Louisville played last year when they made their national championship run.  Well, after the Gators blew away Missouri in the second half of their opening game in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, an ESPN analyst came to the same conclusion.  With each team, it is seamless teamwork...almost as if there were some kind of psychic connection between the players...that impresses me.  Neither Florida now (nor Louisville then) has what you would call NBA-caliber stars in its starting lineup, but their respective coaches Billy Donovan and his mentor Rick Pitino have deeply instilled a spirit of unselfishness and tight discipline within their players.  And on both squads, there is a type of intense defense that closes down on opponents the closer they get to the basket...not to mention aggressive rebounding, stealing, and a quick transition offense.  I was very impressed by Florida's game today and see them doing well in the NCAA tournament. Their next SEC tourney game will be against the South Carolina-Tennessee winner, a game currently underway with the favored Vols leading so far 13-5...

Gainesville City Commission Election Results and Runoff

The Gainesville City Commission election that took place the day before yesterday elected two conservatives in the races pertaining to specific districts and put another into a close runoff for the city-wide at-large seat.  The voter turnout was low in the city overall, at about 15%, but in those districts whose seats were up for election it was up to around 40%.   Seeing how Gainesville as a whole tends to vote Democratic and liberal when the voter turnout is higher, as it is during elections properly held in November, I have drawn two conclusions from what has happened.  One is that the conservative minority in this town is much more passionate about expressing their political convictions than the voter at-large.  That's to their credit and makes me wonder a bit about those registered voters who only go to the polls when they are in the mood instead of regarding the vote as an important right, as well as a civic duty meriting priority in their lives.  So hats off to winners Todd Chase (whom I supported) in District 2 and Craig Carter in District 3.  They ran good, aggressive campaigns and were rewarded in the election.  My second conclusion from this voter turnout disparity between conservatives and liberals is that the high turnout in Districts 2 and 3 may not transfer in degree to the runoff election for the at-large seat in a few weeks.  Conservative Democrat Annie Orlando, who finished Tuesday's election in a near-tie with more liberal Democrat Helen Warren, benefited in that first voting from the more dedicated, higher-turnout conservative voters in those two district races.  I still expect her to benefit from a higher conservative turnout in the runoff election, but since those other two races have already been decided, I don't think it will be as high.  And that might be enough to hand Warren the election.  Should be interesting to see how this all turns out...

Just Finished Reading Veronica Roth's Allegiant

A couple of days ago I finished reading Veronica Roth's futuristic teen sci-fi Divergent trilogy, which culminated in the book Allegiant.  Once again, protagonist Beatrice "Tris" Prior is struggling to make some sense of her strange, violent world full of factional warfare and genetic manipulation.  There are people in control who, in our own time, could only being described as bigots with their eugenics philosophy that allows them to judge and subjugate others according to their genetic makeup.  Along with her boyfriend Tobias, also known as "Four", Tris encounters a threat to her formerly factionally-ordered world of Chicago and must, as she has repeatedly done in the past, draw upon her Dauntless faction's instinct for boldness as she plunges headfirst into the conflict. 

In the first two books Divergent and Insurgent, Roth presented the narrative in the first person as Tris was experiencing it, giving an easy look into her thoughts.  With Allegiant, though, she split the narrative between Tris and Tobias...this puzzled me to begin with.  But the logic of that sharing of the narrative was revealed later.  I was counting on certain things happening as the story resolved itself.  For example, the first part of Allegiant is relatively short on action and long on explaining, a problem I've also encountered with the final books in other series (Tad Williams' Otherland and Stieg Larsson's Millennium come to mind).  But the story picks up again...and the finale is very unexpected.  This bothered me a lot at first, but as I considered it, the author's ending for this trilogy was both bold and appropriate...I'm sure I'll remember this series longer than others because of it.

Today is March 12 and the movie Divergent is set for release on March 21.  Not that I'll go out to see it at that time: usually I wait for the fanfare to abate before I set out to see an interesting movie in a less crowded setting.  That setting might even eventually be my own living room if I just wait for the DVD to come out or watch it on pay-tv...

Major League Baseball Soon to Start 2014 Season

The Major League Baseball exhibition season is winding down, with the regular season set to begin early next month.  With it, I am setting out to determine which teams to root for and which to root against.  I have to admit to a biased personal interest in the East Divisions in both leagues.  In the National League, I traditionally support the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins, but I also am interested in how the Phillies, Mets, and Nationals are doing...and although I don't particularly like any of the latter, I also harbor no animosity toward them either.  The same applies to the American League, with me pulling for the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays...with a non-hostile interest in the Orioles, Red Sox, and Blue Jays.  I had been rooting against Boston in the past, but last year they won me over in the playoffs and I was glad to see them beat St. Louis in the World Series.  I'm not sure how this concentration of mine on the East came to dominate my baseball interest, but maybe it's similar to being interested more in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences in football and basketball.  There is a tendency for me to root for the other teams in these conferences even if my favorites aren't playing...even in championship tournaments and bowl games.  My only exception to this is my opposition to Alabama football winning anything...as long as Nick Saban is their coach.

So in baseball I've developed something on the order of an "eastern pride": I have my favorites in the eastern divisions but prefer any of their teams in games outside their divisions.  In pennant races as the season rolls along, there is a tendency to want my favorites' closest competitors in the standings to lose...but I'm changing.  If the Yanks and Orioles are battling it out near the end to see which team goes to the playoffs, and Baltimore plays a team like, for example, Cleveland,  I'm going for Baltimore anyway...even if an Oriole victory hurts New York's playoff prospects. 

I'd like to watch more baseball games this year, at least those involving teams in the East.  I want to get to know each team's lineup in greater detail so that I can enjoy the games more as well...

Missed First Episode of Tyson's Cosmos

I had just enjoyed a week off from work and was scheduled to come back in last night at eleven, but saw that the new edition of Cosmos, featuring astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, was scheduled to be on Fox at 9 PM.  Unfortunately, I felt that the need to rest before going off to work outweighed my enthusiasm for this show and I now hopefully await the opportunity to see a rerun of it sometime later this week.  I like science television series like Wormhole and The Universe...Cosmos definitely belongs squarely in this genre.

Tyson, like Britain's Brian Cox, is a talented scientist who has the relatively rare ability in his profession to popularize his often very obscure field and translate complex ideas into language that gives people a greater insight into how the universe works.  The problem is that, while many people enjoy speculating about the nature of the universe and our place within it while cheering on space programs designed to extend our presence and knowledge, relatively few consider it enough of a priority worthy of investing the money needed to fund such programs and missions.  On the politically conservative side, many see anything even partially government-sponsored as anathema to their "don't tread on me" ideology, while many liberals on the other end regularly roll out the argument that the money spent into space exploration could better be used to help the needy here on Earth (or for a different interest of theirs).  This still leaves a section of the population who want a stronger space program, but unfortunately they tend to be less politically active about pushing their agenda. And when push comes to shove, there always seems to be a better place to spend the money.

Cosmos was originally produced in the 1980's and featured the late Carl Sagan. That earlier edition was naturally a bit outdated in some areas, but in others, especially when referring to manned space travel, it seems sadly "advanced"...almost as if we've been doing little since to extend our frontiers...

Just Finished Reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The other day I finished reading Yann Martel's celebrated fictional novel Life of Pi.  Perhaps you've heard of it; if you have, then you also probably know of the famous protracted scene of the protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel (or more familiarly, "Pi") in a life-and-death standoff with a full-grown Bengal tiger on a lifeboat, crossing the Pacific together as castaways from a shipwreck.  So I don't think that's really giving away very much, although this dire circumstance does take up more than half of the book.  Life of Pi deals with more than this adventure as there is a plethora of topics discussed to great length on its pages.  The deeper message I got from Life of Pi was twofold: one, it is important to believe in something...and not sit on the fence in spiritual matters (even a confirmed atheist is better, according to Pi the storyteller, than a doubting, uncertain agnostic).  And two, every living thing has its important place in the world and has value.  Martel's intense probing of religion and biology (especially in the areas of zoology and ecology) was mesmerizing to me.  But he also went into great detail regarding the steps taken by Pi to survive on a lifeboat in the open seas for a very, very long stretch of time.  As well as delving into the psychology of animals.

Life of Pi was first released in 2001, and was made into an award-winning movie in 2012.  There are three different scenes from the book that I am very interested in seeing how the film version treated them.  One is how the zebra, hyena, orangutan, and tiger played out their tortured relationship and the second is the mysterious island...with the peculiar algae.  The third involves an alternative, "no animals" account of Pi's ordeal given near the end...and how the movie chooses to express this.  Yes, this is one book whose film adaptation I anxiously want to see.  But having just said that, I can't help but wonder how much of the philosophical, introspective nature of the book will be lost in a more action-oriented treatment on the big screen.  Anyway, I can always go back to the book should the movie be lacking in that regard.  Should be interesting to compare the two versions...

A Return Visit to the Santa Fe College Planetarium

It had been several months since I paid a visit to my local planetarium, located at Santa Fe (formerly "Community") College.  Last night I decided to go and hear what planetarium producer/director (and star of television's Star Hustler sky-gazing show) James Albury has to say about the spring sky.  With tracks from pieces by Isao Tomita, Vangelis, and other artists playing in the background, we were treated to a basic lesson in astronomy, covering  concepts like azimuth and altitude, the spring equinox, planetary motion (including retrograde motion), how one's latitude affects the portion of sky visible to them, and other interesting concepts.  I never tire of Albury going over the same basic material, for his style of speaking is warm and humorous.  Still, from time to time he would pause during his presentation to ask those in the audience still awake to clap...I'm not quite sure others were on the same plane as me. 

I timed my arrival at the planetarium so as not to be too early, and after being once again automatically given the unmerited senior discount at the entrance, one of the three sharply dressed assistants there informed me that I was the first one arriving for the show.  So for a few minutes I was the only one in the "big room", sitting back and enjoying the solitude, darkness, and ambient music.  When others came in eventually, they were always in groups...but with group outings to places like this, you know that some within those groups are coming along for the group's sake and not because they have any abiding interest in what's going on in the night sky.  But it was plain that, being there this time by myself, I was a "true believer"...and as it turns out, for nearly fifty years.

In April of 1964, my father took me aside one evening and showed me his very old Boy Scout handbook where it had maps of the night sky.  He explained that the stars were grouped into things called "constellations" that made it easier to identify them in the sky.  It was very much like the "connect-the-dot" puzzles I had grown up with.  We then went outside in the front yard to observe the night sky.  I don't exactly remember, but I think that Leo the lion was the first constellation I ever saw out there. After this initial experience, my interest in constellations and the night sky took off like a rocket...in the second grade I could reproduce the night sky on paper from memory for any season...

Mr. Albury's show about the springtime evening sky, to me, was a little off the mark as he tended to first heavily focus on traditionally winter constellations like Orion, Taurus, and Gemini while only briefly touching upon Leo and totally ignoring Virgo, the two of them dominating the spring evening sky (along with Bootes).  Then he jumped over to Hercules, which to me has always signified the month of July.  Oh well, at least he did dwell a bit on the asterism of the Big Dipper (within the constellation Ursa Major), which is at its highest in the north during the springtime evening.

If this show were taking place further south, like in Central America or the Caribbean, I would think that Crux, or the "Southern Cross", along with Alpha and Beta Centauri, would be objects of focus.  Of course, with the planetarium projector at his disposal, the director might have mentioned them anyway, in spite of our being too far north in latitude to observe them.

But there was a lot to cover in this show and it was only for a hour...so stuff had to be left out.  I still enjoyed it a lot and plan to return in a few weeks' time.  The planetarium has other shows on its schedule, such as a kid's matinee show about atoms and molecules, a show about eclipses, and two different musically driven graphic/optical presentations, one based on Led Zeppelin's greatest hits and the other on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album.  For me, I'm a little more on the "astronomy" side of the picture and may just stick with those types of programs... 

Dreary Skies, Too Much Rain Recently

I awoke this morning to another day of overcast skies...how many in a row has it been so far?  The forecasts have it finally clearing today, however.  At least now it is longer raining.  I can't recall anytime since I've been living here in Gainesville when the ground was so saturated with water.  I like for there to be some rain, but this season must be close to a record.  At my three-car house, we used to park a couple of vehicles side-by-side on the grassy lawn adjacent to the drive-way, but forget that now: it's two in the driveway and one on curbside.  No doubt were someone to attempt parking on the grass, the car would get hopelessly stuck.  Gainesville's streets and parking lots have a lot of standing water on them as well...and I'm noticing more fresh potholes appearing on some of our already neglected streets. 

Normally I like overcast skies, especially when I go out to run in my neighborhood.  But the slippery condition of the roads isn't something that I feel like contending with, especially while I am just recovering from a strained lower back.  I think I'll just stay indoors to do my running until things dry up a bit...

Gainesville City Commission Election on March 11

Early voting has already begun for this year's Gainesville City Commission races.  They total three in number: one at-large seat for which the entire city gets to vote and two by districts.  Mine is District Two, a seat currently held by conservative Republican Todd Chase.  Chase, by all accounts as far as I see it, seems to be doing a reasonably good job on the commission, so I'll probably vote for his reelection when I get myself to the polls on Election Day, which is March 11.  The at-large seat is open, however, since incumbent Thomas Hawkins has to vacate it due to term limits.  The two chief candidates, both Democrats, are Annie Orlando and Helen Warren.  Orlando seems more business-oriented while Warren is more into public service.  However, in spite of this and the fact that I want my city to be more pro-business, I think that Warren seems more reasonable when it comes to balancing environmental concerns with development.  I think the Sierra Club is probably a fine, worthy organization but I don't think that they should be dictating my city's growth policy...and their strong support of Orlando bothers me.  Both candidates seem to want to repair the streets, which to me is MY main issue...

So in the two races I'm going to vote on I will support a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat.   I want Gainesville to be pro-business and bullish on economic development while working hard to maintain its roads and develop a top-quality public transit system.  Naturally, I don't expect Chase and Warren to see eye-to-eye on everything, but I do hope that, should they win their respective elections, they would work together to make Gainesville a better city for its residents.  If you are someone registered to vote here in Gainesville, please look at where the candidates stand on the issues that matter most to you, make an educated choice...and VOTE!

Gator Basketball Raises Playing Level

I'm wondering a little this morning whether the University of Florida men's basketball team read my blog article a few days ago, in which I claimed that they, outstanding season so far notwithstanding, had fallen into the pattern of playing down to their opponent's level.  After all, they had bested a very good, NCAA tourney-bound Kentucky on the road in a close contest by playing strong defense, pulling away in the closing minutes.  Then they struggled unexpectedly in three consecutive games against inferior opponents, all contests up in the air until the very end.  But now they've gotten two more games behind them, and it looks as if the Gators have risen to my challenge, whether or not (probably not) they did read my article...A few days ago they blasted LSU 79-61 (it was actually 77-48 before the subs came in).  Then, last night they dominated South Carolina in the second half on the way to a 72-46 drubbing.  Now that's the kind of confidence-building play I wanted to see, and it couldn't come at a better time than the end of the regular season, just in time for the Southeastern Conference and NCAA tournaments.

Speaking of the SEC tournament, it is set up in a peculiar manner, with two "rounds" occurring before the quarterfinals...and it is this quarterfinal round in which Florida, naturally top-seeded, begins its tournament play as one of the surviving eight teams.  But I suppose this inequity of two extra games that the lowest seeded teams have to get through is the price they had to pay for floundering though the regular season.  And I understand that the number of SEC teams, fourteen, doesn't make it easy to set up an elimination tournament.  Sixteen teams would be ideal for the purpose (although I think we have too many schools in the SEC as it is), with everybody having to win four games to win the championship.  Still, no one team should have to play two more total tourney games than another...this would have easily been remedied if they had given the top two seeded schools the bye into the quarterfinals and had the other twelve matched off by their seeding in the first round...still getting the needed quarterfinal total to eight teams.  I suppose, though, that being a Florida fan it doesn't much matter since the Gators are going to be "off" for a while within the tournament until their game comes up...

But that tournament isn't the immediate concern for Florida: they have a chance to go undefeated, 18-0, in conference regular season play.  All they have to do now is win the finale, scheduled for this Saturday.  They'll be playing at home, but their opponent will be those pesky Kentucky Wildcats again.  Now that should be one good game...

Reading The Goldfinch and Life of Pi

I have this habit of usually being in the middle of reading more than one book at a time.  Right now, I am splitting my reading between the recent NY Times #1 fiction book The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  Melissa already read the latter and highly recommended it to me.  At this writing I have only read a few chapters in each book, but I am already immersed in the two authors' divergent worlds, each of them very interesting.  In The Goldfinch, I spend some time retracing my paths from my visit to Manhattan four years ago...especially the walk "through" Central Park down 79th Street and the subsequent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In Life of Pi, the author treats me to a "captivating" discussion about animals and what truly constitutes being wild as opposed to being in a zoo...as well as attempting an unorthodox blending of zoology with religion.  The geographical setting at the start of this novel is personally unfamiliar to me: the city of Pondicherry in southern India.  So far I've learned a few new things about history, zoology, comparative religion, and geography.  And I have a feeling that there's a lot more "education" to come.
 
I think I picked a couple of winners to read, and look forward to looking back on them after I'm finished...

News: Crimea, Weather, Oscars...with the Emphasis on Crimea

I've been sitting around the house most of today, with a recovering strained lower back, surfing around the TV.  Mostly I've been watching the news and sports channels.  The major news stories are Russia's ominously escalating occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, the severe winter storm (that The Weather Channel names "Titan") sweeping through the northeast, and who won the Oscars last night.  The first of these stories is currently in a state of flux and is due to dramatically change (probably for the worse) in the next 24 to 48 hours.  As is the weather, although being that I live in Florida the great Titan has no direct bearing on me.  And regarding the Academy Awards, I couldn't care less who won or lost.  I suppose I can get myself worked up into a panic over Ukraine and Russia, but I see that there are plenty of others out there who seem eminently more capable of panicking than me. 

So far the land that Russia is occupying is overwhelmingly populated by other Russians, and who seem very content with the presence of these soldiers.  As a matter of fact, Crimea has historically been a part of Russia proper until in the 1950's when the USSR's dictator Nikita Khrushchev reassigned the territory to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic...all in all a technically bureaucratic move since back then it was all the same country anyway.  The ethnic Ukrainians predominate in the north and west of Ukraine while ethnic Russians form the majority in the east and south (including Crimea), comprising a very large minority within the country as a whole.  It is the political divide between these two groups and their alignments that has caused so much electoral/political turmoil since the country became independent with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.  I'm sure that Russia's president (apparently now for life) Vladimir Putin would love to annex all of that eastern and southern Ukrainian territory with primarily Russian populations...and I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians living there supported him in this.  And this is where the big threat to this situation lies: how far does Putin plan to go with his idea of "protecting" native Russians in neighboring countries when they have a large minority status in them?  Ukraine isn't the only place like this, and Putin just got his rubber-stamp parliament to approve a measure authorizing the forced annexation of neighboring lands whenever it is deemed appropriate (by Russian authorities, of course) to protect the Russians living there.  Sounds ominously to me like Hitler and his claim on Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland in 1938...

Just Finished Reading Veronica Roth's Insurgent

Continuing along with Veronica Roth's popular Divergent trilogy, I just finished reading the second book, titled Insurgent.  Once again, sixteen year old Beatrice "Tris" Prior, judged "divergent" in her strange divided culture of five distinct personality types, is struggling to survive, protect her friends, and make some sense over the breakdown of her once well-ordered society.  It all takes place in what was formerly Chicago, but this once-great city in Roth's future vision has been greatly depopulated and mysteriously cut off from the rest of the world.  This scenario had me speculating on the ultimate truth of the situation here, and why this society had been divided into five clear-cut personality factions.  As it turned out, I was right to go down that path since this is where Insurgent leads, ending with a teaser about what's going on in the "outside" world.  I enjoyed reading Insurgent, although as is commonly the way it is with these trilogies, the innovation of the first book has dissipated and we already know that matters won't be completely resolved and explained until the third book.  But I'm already looking at this series as one big, connected book (similar to when I read Lord of the Rings, actually a trilogy in itself) so I'm just two thirds of the way through it.  The last third will be the book Allegiant, which I'll be starting on soon.

In an earlier article I alluded to the fact that the movie Divergent will be coming out in theaters on March 21.  Now I'm seeing it hyped like crazy on the covers of several entertainment magazines.  I'd like to watch the film version of Divergent, if only to see how they handle those cool daredevil stunts performed by those belonging to the "Dauntless" faction...

Relaxing At Daytona Beach this Weekend

Melissa and I are spending a couple of days here at Daytona Beach, at a hotel overlooking the ocean. Yesterday evening it was very windy and cool, and looking out from the balcony it looked to be high tide with the surging ocean leaving almost no beach.  Late this morning, though, the tide is lower and we now have a beach to look at (but the water is still full of white caps).  Not that I plan to go out into the ocean, understand...I am more into walks (and runs) up and down the beach.  And I will try a run or two here before we leave if my strained lower back feels better (it started hurting yesterday afternoon).  But the sky is beautiful and blue, temperatures are warming up to around 70 degrees, and we are enjoying our time here.  We're thinking about a late lunch/early dinner at the nearby Aunt Catfish restaurant, just on the other side of the Intracoastal...

Here are a couple of high and low tide pics along with another view, all from the seventh-story balcony of our hotel room...

 

 

My February 2014 Running Report

In February I kept up with my monthly total mileage goal of 100, amassing 103.05 miles.  I also managed to run on 27 of the 28 days, with the longest single run being a personal comeback triumph: the 13.1 miles of my first half-marathon race since last March, this one being the local Five Points of Life Half-Marathon on February 16.  My final time was way off at 2 hours 7 minutes (the previous three I finished in less than 2 hours), but the main goal of finishing one was a resounding success.  I also finished it strong, with some energy to spare.  Earlier, on February 1, I had reentered the racing "world" with a reasonable run in Gainesville's Education for Life 5K at Westside Park (and points east).

Last spring I suffered from plantar fasciitis in my right foot, which caused my running progress to suffer for a couple of months.  But I changed the type of shoes I wear, both for running and for general use, and instituted two routines of foot/leg stretching that dramatically eased the pain...which for quite a while has remained inconsequential.

I'm continuing with my running routine and goals.  Whether or not I run any more races anytime soon is up in the air and depends a lot on other circumstances in my life.  But I do know now that I can handle the half-marathon distance again...

Florida Men's Basketball Team Playing Down to Competition

The nationally top-ranked University of Florida men's basketball team is on a roll, having won twenty straight games with an unblemished record in the Southeastern Conference.  They are in the driver's seat for the upcoming NCAA championship tournament, for if they continue like this and garner a number one regional seeding, they should be good for at least a couple of games before they encounter substantial competition.  That having been said, the Gators have a problem with putting away opponents, be they weak or strong.  In the past three games, Florida played markedly weaker teams in Auburn, Mississippi, and Vanderbilt...but only managed to pull away from them in the closing seconds of their games, winning them by scores of 71-66, 75-71, and 57-54 respectively.  This seems to indicate that this Florida squad tends to play down to the level of their opposition...reminding me a little of how the NBA's two-year reigning champion Miami Heat have played during their own title runs.  I hope this analogy carries further, into the NCAA tournament and onward to championship glory.  On the other hand, I've followed this single elimination tournament since 1970 and have seen too many examples of prohibitively favored teams bowing out early to inferior opponents.  I think it's about time for this already successful Gator group to step it up one level higher...

Finished Reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy

I just finished the final book in the late Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, titled The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  Not as suspenseful or action-packed as the first two novels, this final one served the purpose, as many other series do as they approach their end, of tying up all the loose ends, explaining and resolving everything.  The focus is the character Lisbeth Salander, a distrusting but highly intelligent, computer hacking young woman who had been subjected to years of state-sponsored abuse and false accusations.  The redemptive message I got from this final installment in her saga was that there really were people who were on her side...finally, when she recognized this truth, her own personal healing process could take place.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest wasn't anywhere near as interesting as the other two stories in the Millennium trilogy (especially that fantastic first book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), but if you're one of those John Grisham legal novel junkies, you'll like reading through Salander's trial, and how her attorney nailed the opposition. 

I understand that all three books of Millennium were adapted to film in a Swedish production a few years ago, but currently the more famous film adaptation (starring James Bond's Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist) is only out so far for book #1.  Hopefully, they'll do the other two as well...

Eight Days a Week, the Beatles, and Me

A few days ago the media commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the momentous first visit of the Beatles to America, when they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.  They had already been recording for a year in England and had a backlog of material to release.  Normally, the record label that a musical act signs on with will stagger the release of past music so that they won't be competing with themselves, but with the Beatles different companies had rights to their earlier recorded music for release in the United States. So Decca and Veejay Records had their own Beatles singles that they released early in 1964 (such as Twist and Shout and Please Please Me), simultaneously with the main label of Capitol Records (which put out hit singles like I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You).  The result that spring was an astounding Fab Four dominance of the Billboard Top 100, with five different Beatles songs topping the list at one time...a feat never again matched.  Later on in the year, after the summer in which United Artists and Capitol competed over the release of overlapping material largely associated with their hit film A Hard Days Night, Capitol Records finally settled down into being the only label releasing their music (until 1968 when Apple Records was established, that is).  At that time, they released a big singles hit, titled Eight Days a Week.  I never did like that song, although I did enjoy the flip side I Don't Want to Spoil the Party.  For one, back then (approaching my eighth birthday) I thought the lyrics were silly, not recognizing the deliberate exaggeration about the week's span of days that Lennon/McCartney used to make their point.  Now, though, I have a different take on the song's lyrics...

I work the "graveyard" shift on my job, reporting in to work at 11 PM and getting off at 7:30 the next morning.  My days off are Saturday and Sunday.  When I do come home from work, I am usually too sleepy to be good for anything else, so I do my sleeping from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, after which I start my new day.  So today, for example, I woke up on Tuesday afternoon and will stay up (other than a little nap later on) until Wednesday morning.  So my day is in fact an overlap of Tuesday and Wednesday, making it more understandable as to why I so often get the days of the week mixed up.  In truth, I could give my own "personal" day my own "personal" name: combine Tuesday and Wednesday and I get "Tuwen"...which incidentally happens to be going on right now.  In this way, yesterday would have been "Montue" and tomorrow "Wenthur".  But once I awake on Friday afternoon and I find myself off for a couple of days, my sleeping pattern reverts back to sleeping late at night when I would be at work on other days.  Consequently, I still have Friday (albeit abbreviated), Saturday (in full), and Sunday (also shortened).  So although I'm not exactly living eight 24-hour periods each week, I am still essentially functioning on a schedule of  "Eight Days a Week":

1 Sunmon (Sunday + Monday)
2 Montue (Monday + Tuesday)
3 Tuwen (Tuesday + Wednesday)
4 Wenthur (Wednesday + Thursday)
5 Thurfri (Thursday + Friday)
6 Friday (remainder)
7 Saturday (all)
8 Sunday (daytime)

Naturally, if I were to use these mostly artificial designations around others, no one would know what I was talking about.  Which should help, I think, to explain the degree of temporal disconnect I have been experiencing since I changed over to this work shift nearly a year ago...

Finished Reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

I just finished another reading of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  This was the first book of the seven-part series that Lewis had published, but chronologically it is the second one...and chronological order is what I've been following in my reading.  Let's see...I think this was my third time around reading it, not to mention having seen the film adaptation twice.  I like this story, which is a clear allegorical presentation, in the form of the great lion Lord Aslan, of Christ's atoning substitutional sacrifice upon the cross ("deep magic from the dawn of time") and his subsequent resurrection ("deeper magic from the dawn of time").  It is clearly the most well-known and performed of the Narnia tales.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe picks up during wartime when siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are sent into the English countryside to stay at their elderly relative Diggory's large house.  Playing hide-and-seek, Lucy first stumbles upon a large wardrobe, into which she enters to hide...and discovers that beyond the hanging coats stand trees and a snow-bound, winter world.  It's Narnia again, only that the few decades on Earth since Diggory visited it represents a lapse of hundreds of years in Narnia's time.  The evil witch queen has overrun Narnia and has put it into a deep, permanent winter, and the creatures living there are fearful of her cruel and oppressive reign.  Edmund later follows Lucy into this land and, well, he has some pretty nasty attitude issues that lead to a great deal of trouble.  Aslan comes to the rescue, but even he is subject to laws by which he must abide.  And herein lies the Christian message of redemption through faith.

I think one of the coolest things about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was in the final chapter and in the manner that Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy manage to make their way back home...and how time factors into this!

UF Men's Hoops Number One

Congratulations are in order as the University of Florida men's basketball team extended its school-record winning streak yesterday to nineteen games with a close road victory over Mississippi yesterday, 75-71.  The Gators are now 25-2 overall with a perfect 14-0 Southeastern Conference record.  And since they have been ranked #2 nationally...and since #1 Syracuse has just lost two straight games, Florida stands to move up in the next poll to #1.  Head coach Billy Donovan keeps things in perspective, though, dismissing the importance of the rankings and stressing that the "whole is greater than the parts"...unselfish teamwork is what has gotten them this far.  Still, the "parts" are talented and productive: Scottie Wilbikin, Michael Frazier II, and Patric Young are leading the charge.  The Gators are strongest on defense, collapsing around their opponent and often making it nearly impossible to approach the basket, much less get off a decent shot.  Still, in recent games, they have displayed an Achilles' heel of sorts, allowing a lot of three-pointers against them that kept weaker opponents in close games.  They'll have to solve that one if they want to go all the way in the NCAA Tournament.  Offensively, Florida doesn't score that much, and stands to be in trouble as well should they fall far enough behind in championship-level games.  In spite of this, they remind me of the cohesiveness and spirit of those two UF national championship teams in the previous decade, and I'd put them up against any team in the country and give them a high probability of victory...

Identifying with Groups, Judging Those in Others

When I was in my very early years of elementary school, my teacher for whatever reasons of her own decided to play a little sociology game on us...although we were thoroughly clueless as to what was going on.  Her idea was to find out which state in the country we came from, from which she would assign the designation "Yankee" or "Rebel".  Having been born in Georgia, I discovered that I was a Rebel...and quickly became quite proud of that label...without having any idea as to what it meant other than that I was consequently against the Yankees (and better than them).  Those who were Yankees took their assigned name proudly as well, and we all went around for several minutes boasting how much better our side was than the "other" side.  This arbitrary assumption of labels and then assigning virtue or contempt to people by which labels they have assumed is a natural symptom of the human condition...but we like to pretend it isn't.  So in politics we attach ourselves to a particular party label and then make excuses for our side when they are in power while vilifying those in the opposing party in the most personal and hateful manner...just because they have a different perspective on things. Maybe the passion of adhering to a certain system of beliefs and principles figures into it to a degree, and I'm sure that people get very politically passionate when they perceive that a particular special interest of theirs may be at stake...but I'm inclined to believe it has more to do with the feeling of belonging to a designated group and automatically wanting to put down other differing groups...because they are the perceived enemy on the outside. 

It doesn't have to be politics, though...maybe someone looks a little different.  We blindly abide by the artificial categories of "race" to classify folks by looks and then get proud and defensive of whichever "race" we think we belong to.  Religion, economic status...whatever division we make, there will be an assigning of sweeping attributes that have little to do with the usually limited  parameters of the categories in question.  Just look at the last presidential election and how the two sides sized each other up: one side says the other are a bunch of moochers who want more "stuff" from the government, while the "flip" side regards the other as either being bigoted or greedy (or both).  And of course the leaders of each side get lambasted for all sorts of character defects by the other side, accusations that are more often than not gross exaggerations if not outright falsehoods.  Look at President Barack Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie right now.  Both are being accused of being dictators, which is hardly the truth, and the accusers are folks who identify with the opposing party. How convenient for them.

Whether we're talking about politics, racial-ethnic identification, gender, religious affiliation, level of wealth and/or education, age, or other categories, why can't we confine our judgments regarding people who seem to belong to different groupings to those aspects that actually pertain to the grouping and refrain from making sweeping condemnations against their character, intelligence, and motives?  Well, I sadly think I already know the answer: it is our innately human tribal, clannish nature along with a deplorable stubborn unwillingness to put ourselves in the other's shoes and try to see where they're coming from...

Enjoying KenKen Puzzles

I am a puzzle enthusiast.  Specifically, I like numerically-based logic puzzles like Sudoku, Kakuro, and Hidato.  The keys to solving them are that each puzzle has only one, unique solution and that the filling in of each box with the correct number derives from eliminating all other possibilities.  No guesswork is needed to solve them, just logical inference.  So I feel a little like a Sherlock Holmes sleuth when I successfully unravel a solution.  I suppose that of the three types of puzzles I have enjoyed, Kakuro, which resembles a crossword puzzle (only with numerals instead of letters) is the most interesting.  It is also known as "cross-sums".  My local newspaper has a weekly Kakuro puzzle (each Thursday) and daily Sudoku puzzles.  Also, my HP printer has an application that prints out a Hidato puzzle and three Sudokus daily.  I have also gone through some Hidato, Sudoku, and Kakuro books...with the latter two I've enjoyed the Puzzle Wright Press series of books based on martial arts levels (white, green, brown, and black belts).  Now I'm embarking on a different numerical logic puzzle, called KenKen.

According to the intro in White Belt KenKen, KenKen was invented ten years ago by a Japanese math teacher, Tetsuya Miyamoto.  Its grid is similar to that of Sudoku, only that with KenKen outlined areas within the puzzle are marked according to the sum, difference, quotient, or product contained within...while as with Sudoku each line and column contain a unique arrangement of numbers.  I started with the easy level (5X5 an 6X6 grids) and have progressed to the Brown Belt KenKen book, expanding to 8X8 and 9X9 grids.  Try it out for yourself if you like puzzles like Sudoku...

My Recovery from Half-Marathon Better Than Expected

After running for 13.1 miles in the Five Points of Life Half-Marathon here in Gainesville last Sunday, I was prepared to have a difficult recovery period.  After all, I hadn't even run five miles at a stretch in 2014, and hadn't run a half-marathon (or anything close to it) for nearly a year.  But I'm happy to report that I am doing very well and that the recovery period after my race was startlingly brief.  Monday I ran 1.1 miles...some say that runners should take a break after a long race, but I subscribe to the view (among many) of ultra-distance runner Dean Karnazes when he says that a short run the next day after a race is helpful in recovery.  It worked for me, because on Tuesday I ran 5.3 miles and yesterday, 4.2 miles.  The only problem I ever experienced was that one of my right toes ached a little.  Not bad...

Now that I'm back on track with half-marathon running, I'd like to lose some weight (about twenty pounds) by eating more soundly and considering trying one more race before the Florida spring and summer heat overtakes the area.  There is an upcoming event on an island off St. Petersburg that sounds intriguing...

Finished Veronica Roth's Divergent (Book One)

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have begun reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth.  It is apparently doing quite well with sales, as the final book came out last October and bookstores prominently feature the series as customers walk in their doors.  So from that alone I decided to read it...and discovered that it bears a degree of similarity with another series.

I read a description of Divergent that compared it to the popular Hunger Games.  Both are aimed at the teen/young adult market, both are presented in the first person by the teenage female protagonist, and both are deeply involved in the problem of survival within a very flawed, dystopian future society. But as I read through book #1, also titled Divergent, I noticed some similarity with a different series, also aimed at the same reading audience and presented in the first person by the teenage female protagonist: Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series.  I say this because in both Divergent and Twilight, what starts out as a very interesting and intriguing look at a different world and way of life transforms into a gushy adolescent romance tale.  But what should I have expected, anyway, considering that targeted readership?  The chief difference, though, between Divergent and Twilight, is that the former's Beatrice Prior maintains her integrity and sense of identity, unlike her vampire-smitten counterpart Bella Swan of the latter series.  Divergent, its percolating teenage angst notwithstanding, keeps the story interesting and suspenseful.  Beatrice, at the story's start, has to choose, upon turning sixteen, which of the society's five personality-based factions to join...after an aptitude test to steer her the "right" way is inconclusive and she is found to be "divergent".  Her selection entails a great deal of peril, but as the book draws to its end that danger changes in nature to involve the society as a whole, not just the faction.  It was all very interesting to me, and I am looking forward to seeing how well the next book, titled Insurgent, treats tough-as-nails Tris.

Oh by the way, I just discovered that the film version of Divergent is due for release on March 21...

Who are This Year's NBA MVPs?

One of the big topics circulating around these days on sports talk radio is the question of who is the most valuable player in the National Basketball Association.  The consensus opinion seems to be that the top two candidates for the honor, Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and Miami's Lebron James, are both running very close to each other while being far ahead of any other competition.  I happen to agree, since both Durant and James are complete, versatile players who can effectively play any position on the court.  Also, each has carried his team in several games this year when the #2 players (Russell Westbrook and Dywane Wade, respectively) were out with injuries...and both teams are leading their respective divisions with excellent win-loss records.  There is a good chance that they also will be the championship final teams...wouldn't that be something to behold??!! 

Beyond James and Durant, who would be good enough for third place in the MVP running?  Lately I've been hearing a lot about how the Los Angeles Clippers have been carried by Blake Griffin...who has especially shined while compensating for the absence of injured point guard Chris Paul.  As a matter of fact, perhaps the key factor for most valuable player consideration, besides playing for a winning team, is to have an important teammate out due to injury and to perform well in his absence.  It seems to detract from a player's consideration for the top honor to enjoy having a healthy team and to play unselfishly for it.  As for me, others can have the MVP award; just let my team win, superstar or no superstar...    

And speaking of "my" team, exactly which ones fit that category?  Well, I like Miami and Brooklyn in the East...and San Antonio, Houston, and the Los Angeles Clippers in the West.  Oklahoma City is very good with Durant and Company, I confess, but I still haven't yet gotten over them deserting Seattle in their move to the Sooner State a few years ago...

Reading Chronicles of Narnia Series Again

Every now and then I'll pick up a book or series I like and reread it.  Recently I've been delving back into the works of Isaac Asimov, and now I am once again entering the fantasy literature of C.S. Lewis with his Chronicles of Narnia series.  Divided into seven little books, it explores the world of Narnia as the Christ-like Aslan the Lion created it, and how four young English siblings travel back and forth there to help the good guys and fight the bad guys.  My reading has been complicated by the recently started full-tech film series, which has three of the stories out already and which essentially replaced my own mental images with cinematically spoon-fed ones.  Also, the procession of Narnia films conforms to the original order in which Lewis published the books, not the actual chronological order (which I use to go through the series).  So I started off with The Magician's Nephew, which was the next-to-last book published. It is the logical book to begin with, though, since it lays out the foundation for the creation of Narnia, the origin of the evil witch queen, the involvement of the character Diggory, and the creation of the Wardrobe, crucial elements in the following story (and first published) The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe. 

Diggory, Polly, Uncle Andrew, Strawberry the horse, the cabbie, the evil queen, the wood between the worlds, the yellow and green rings, the dying planet Charn, the bell and the hammer, the origins of the talking Narnian animals, the magical apple tree...these all figure greatly into this appropriately first tale.  But ultimately, by far the main character, as it is with all of the other Chronicles of Narnia stories, is Aslan, the image of God in this strange land.  The characters struggle and struggle for most of each tale...but in the end it is always Aslan on whom they need to depend to make things right.

So, I just read The Magician's Nephew and will soon go through The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe.  My favorite section in The Magician's Nephew? The concept of a "wood between the worlds", an area connecting different universe/worlds but not belonging to any of them, where pools indicate the entry points (and you'd better be careful which one you jump into)...

Just Finished Gainesville's Five Points of Life Half-Marathon

Nearly a year after my previous half-marathon, I just completed the Five Points of Life Half-Marathon here in Gainesville, running through the entire course and finishing with an official time of 2:07:36.8 (here is a link to the results).  While this was about 17 minutes slower than my last run in Tavares, Florida, I was pleasantly surprised at how fast I did run...considering that over the past eleven and a half months I hadn't run any distance remotely close to 13.1 miles.  One of the factors that helped me in this race was unanticipated.  As the crowd of runners assembled before the starting line waiting to begin the race, I noticed certain runners were holding poles with signs on them...signs showing finishing times, like 2:00 and 2:15.  Pacers.  Then it hit me: all I needed to do was to stay close to the 2:15 pacer for most of the race, and then toward the end run faster to the finish line if I felt up to it.  And that's exactly how it played out with me running a 2:15 pace until there were about 3.6 miles to go ...and then I tore off down the road. 

One idea that I cultivated which helped me to go ahead and enter this race was that I could stop along the way and walk some distances to help me cover the course.  It turned out, though, that I had plenty of energy to complete it running...and I finished strong.  The only difficulty I had was toward the end when my lower legs and feet were aching pretty badly.  And soon after the race I experienced some leg cramping, a common occurrence for me. 

The temperature at the start of the race was about 39 degrees and it was dry and clear.  It heated up to around 50 by the end, so the weather was very cooperative with us runners today.  Once again, when I looked around me I saw a lot of extremely healthy and very happy people who were totally digging this event.  The organizers did a great job, as well as the police who blocked off the roads and protected us from renegade vehicles.  I like this particular race because it runs though the heart of Gainesville and the University of Florida campus.  This year was different to me than the last time I ran this event in 2010 in that there were many more spectators and well-wishers lined up along the street this time to cheer us on. 

Now comes the post-race recovery period and the accompanying aches and pains...

Just Finished Reading The Girl Who Played with Fire

I have just finished reading The Girl Who Played with Fire, which is the second book of the late Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy.  As with the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we have the two main characters of Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and publisher of Millennium, a magazine devoted to exposing scandals for the most part, and Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacking social outcast with a photographic memory.  In the book I just finished, the focus of the story is squarely on Salander while the first book deals mainly with Blomkvist.  Both books expose the scary ease with which the State (at least in Sweden) can declare an individual incompetent and deprive them of their freedom, putting them often under the control of another party who may not have their best interests at heart. This is certainly the case with Salander, whose history of going through the Swedish mental health/social welfare system is described and explained.  Certain facts about her early life seem strangely connected to a double murder (of which she becomes the main suspect) of an investigative journalism team employed by Blomkvist to write a book about international sex trafficking, along with an expose of the same for Millennium magazine.  There is a mysterious individual named Zala who seems to be the key to everything...and this is borne out at the end of the book.  But The Girl Who Played with Fire has a rather strange "ending", even for a book within a series: the story is cut off and the book ended with too many unanswered questions hanging in the air...supposedly to be resolved in the third and final book.  That disappointed me, for I believe that although a series naturally contains a larger story that connects the individual stories, each book within that series should contain a complete story within it (I note that George R.R. Martin totally disregards this in his A Song of Ice and Fire series).  With this second book in Larsson's series, it felt as if the final couple of chapters were simply omitted, leaving me somewhat perplexed.  Will he pick up where he abruptly left off here, or will he pass forward in time to a "new" story in the final book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest?  I shall soon find out... 

Happy Birthday, Melissa

To my wonderful, beautiful wife Melissa, I wish you a very, very happy birthday AND St. Valentine's Day!

Diverging into Divergent Series

After finally getting through what George R.R. Martin has produced for us so far with his A Song of Ice and Fire series, I decided to begin a different series, albeit one that may be a bit lighter in nature.  So I picked Veronica Roth's very popular Divergent series to pursue.  Appropriately, the first book is also titled Divergent, and I've flown through the first few chapters already.  The targeted reading audience for Divergent is "young adult", a demographic category that I occasionally delude myself into believing that I belong to.

The setting in which Divergent takes place is off in the distant future in the heart of a decayed Chicago.  At some time in their distant past (and in our own more immediate future), an as-yet-unspecified apocalypse had occurred which sent civilization into basic survival mode.  A new societal structure was formed in which people were sorted into one of five life-long "factions" that conformed to their main personality types: Candor, for those seeking truth; Erudite, for those seeking knowledge; Dauntless, for those valuing courage; Abnegation, for those emphasizing selflessness; and Amity, for those emphasizing friendliness.  The protagonist is Beatrice Prior, who just turned sixteen and belongs to an Abnegation family.  But now she has to undergo a "test" to determine her real inclination before the upcoming Choosing Ceremony in which she chooses which faction she'll belong in for the remainder of her days. 

The writing in Divergent is smooth and interesting.  The factions remind me quite a lot of the four Hogwarts houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravensclaw, and Hufflepuff) in the Harry Potter series...it's easy to see that the author might possibly have derived from them when she conceived her own series.

The Divergent series is a trilogy, and the final volume was published last year...so unlike with Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire I won't have to wait very long for the next in the series.  The idea of dividing humanity according to personality types intrigues me, and I am looking forward to seeing how Veronica Roth handles it... 

Income Equality, Equality, and Equality of Opportunity

I am hearing recently a great deal of political discussion, especially from the political left and the Democrats, about something called "income inequality".  The term makes me wince, for unless those who want "income equality" are proposing to level everyone's income to the exact same level (probably a dream for some, I fear), a more accurate term for what they are trying to express would be "income disparity".   Most rational people, regardless of their political affiliation, recognize that it is important for our economy to encourage hard work and innovation in the workplace and marketplace...and to reward those successful in this with a larger income.  So being able to strive to make more money, and enjoying the benefits of that extra income, is a legitimate and crucial element in keeping a prosperous economy afloat and growing.  Also, just because someone earns more money than someone else doesn't mean that the "extra" money the other has just disappears...it circulates throughout the economy with spending and investment.  Even with worldwide investing, where money leaves the country, it eventually comes back along with foreign investments here.  So I am not particularly concerned with the idea of "income disparity" either.

As a matter of fact, let's bring the argument about "equality" to the floor and place it in its proper context.  What those who promote equality should be saying is that they support "equality of opportunity" and "equal rights".  But what one chooses to do with their opportunities and rights is up to them: this is where the important concept of the right to liberty comes in, as was so eloquently put by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The political discussion should be about equality of opportunity of everyone, which means that education should be given a high place in our list of priorities.  A wealthy family is in a better position to bestow opportunities to its offspring, while the poor is less able to accomplish this.  It is important to realize that the children, whether rich or poor or in-between, are not themselves responsible for where they stand in this regard.  Equality of opportunity means that anyone, regardless of their family's economic status, has access to resources that they can use to contribute to society according to their own abilities and hard work, and make a better life for themselves.  It is here that I believe that Democrats should be focusing their attention, not protesting against income and wealth disparity...

Facebook Reactivated, Link to This Blog

A few weeks ago I reactivated my long-dormant Facebook account and am now using it to post links to this blog.  Along the way I used my personal memory and "friends of friends" to build up a "friends" list of people who would have more access to my writing.  There are a couple of reasons I'm back on Facebook...

One is simply that the area of personal blogging simply isn't what it used to be a few years ago; instead the potential readers appear to have rushed en masse to Facebook to accomplish what they would have been doing on Google's Blogger, Wordpress, or other blogging sites.  And Facebook tends to be insular in nature, encouraging its users to circulate within its system without the need to get out on the Web at-large and surf around.  So for that reason I've connected Facebook to this blog, which in April will be seven years old with 2200+ articles. 

Another reason to resurrect my Facebook account is to give myself a little "push" into the discomfort zone and engage more with the people I know (or who know the people I know) and stay out of the "cave of reclusiveness" that I have had the tendency to revel in for much of my life.  That having been said, I am not by habit a blogger who uses very much in the way of graphics in my presentations.  But I see that photos, videos, "posters" with snappy lines, and the like tend to dominate the Facebook news feed.  This is good for those who are inclined to do this, and probably fits in better with the vision that the designers of this social network had for its use.  So far, I enjoy Facebook and hope that those of you with links to this blog enjoy reading it, regardless whether you agree or disagree with what I'm saying...

Just Finished Reading Martin's A Dance with Dragons

It took me a while, but I have finally caught up with renown fantasy author George R.R. Martin in his protracted series A Song of Ice and Fire, just having finished reading his fifth book A Dance with Dragons.  As with the previous four volumes, a lot of very serious stuff happens at the end...and people die.   But I've grown quite accustomed to that, and would have been surprised had some momentous events not happened.  The temptation here is for me to go into more detail and discuss how the various characters have progressed...however, I'm not going to be a party to spoiling the story for anyone. Martin supposedly has two more books to publish before the series closes out, although I can't imagine how he intends to bring all of the divergent plot lines and characters together at the end...who knows, maybe he'll just leave everything hanging.   He already had so many different things going on that he had to split concurrent events into two separate books, eventually coming back all together a little past the halfway point of Dance.  I wonder if this is going to be a "last man standing" kind of epic, with just surviving all of the ordeals being the ultimate measure of success for the characters.  No one is too much of a protagonist in the series to be safe, as I once again discovered with this latest book.

The next book in A Song of Ice and Fire is supposed to be released sometime in 2015.  In the meantime I will probably keep my memory of the characters, geography and events fresh by occasionally referring to a "Wiki" version of it, totally devoted to the enormous quantity of information that Martin has generated about this completely imaginary setting...

FivePoints Half-Marathon Approaching Fast

It is now less than a week before the FivePoints Half-Marathon here in Gainesville...and I'm unprepared, not having trained to that distance level in recent months.  That being said, I think I'll enter it anyway, walking part of the way if I have to.  I haven't run this distance since early March of last year...actually, I haven't even approached it since.  But I have been consistently running on a daily basis and feel that I could swing a run/walk combo for 13.1 miles.  Of course, I might just be able to run through the whole distance should I slow down my pace a bit...well, I'll just have to see how things develop on race day.

Since I resumed running in 2007 at age 50, I have run and completed a total of nine races of length 10K (6.2 miles) or longer.  One was a marathon and six were half-marathons.  That one marathon, the Ocala Marathon in 2011, convinced me that I was more suited for shorter races. As far as FivePoints is concerned, ever since that first FivePoints Half-Marathon in 2010 something has come up each year preventing me from running in it again.  This year it looks, at least right now, as if I'll get a shot at it...but as I said before, my main goal will be to just finish it!

Rain Bothersome, But Will Help Prevent Fires

Since 1998, I have entered the late wintertime with a certain amount of trepidation...in that year we in northern Florida had experienced a drought severe enough to spawn several devastating forest fires in early spring.  Almost all of Flagler county on the east coast between St. Augustine and Volusia County was affected, while huge sections of Volusia were in flames.  For a time, it looked as if a firestorm would sweep into Ormond Beach and burn down whole neighborhoods...but the heroic efforts of firefighters kept it at bay.  In Alachua County where I live, we had our own fires to worry about, the worst of them being on the outskirts of Waldo, about 15 miles northeast of us.  When the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, it wasn't bad.  But one night it shifted suddenly in our direction and it felt as if the fire were right upon us...with ashes falling from the sky.  The threat of immediate immolation may be scary, but ultimately the chief long-term danger I see in these fires is in their detrimental effect on people's breathing...especially for those already afflicted with respiratory disorders.

I can't pretend to be a prophet or even a competent weather/fire forecaster, but this year at least it looks as if we will be spared this fiery and smoky fate.  We have had so much rain in the last month that not only is it inconceivable that we'll have any of those fires later on, but also the ground in many places is turning into muddy mush.  Oh well, I'll accept the trade-off: I don't have to breathe any of it, at least...just avoid driving or stepping in it...

Just Finished Reading Goodkind's Faith of the Fallen

I have just reached the halfway point in Terry Goodkind's twelve-part Sword of Truth fantasy series, having just read book #6, titled Faith of the Fallen.  The regular protagonists Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd are still in there, struggling against their own nemesis, the Imperial Order.  But this book diverges from the previous five in that the author takes up much of the narrative arguing, through the characters, his ideas of libertarianism and his disapproval of government-sponsored programs and laws designed to aid the poor.  Under the Imperial Order, personal initiative and economic freedom are suppressed; those who work and produce are stigmatized and made to serve those unwilling to work.  I understood Goodkind's viewpoint on all this very early in the story without him needing to make it the overriding theme of the book.  Frankly, I dislike reading books where the author is obviously on a soapbox spouting his or her ideology...with those characters agreeing with his opinions uniformly displaying virtue and those on the "other side" being dishonest, lazy, and treacherous (and in Goodkind's writing, sadistic).  I rather like to believe that people of different philosophies and opinions should be respected and not have their characters impugned just because they are seen as being on the "other side".   Still, I managed to get through Faith of the Fallen and look forward to giving Terry Goodkind another chance with the next book in the series, the title of which I believe is The Pillars of Creation...

Sochi Olympics to Start Soon

I have a tendency to go channel surfing on my radio while driving.  One reason for this may be that I have a diversity of listening interests and like to see what's happening on different stations.  But sadly, the main reason I switch back and forth on the radio dial is that the programming is so poor nowadays on broadcast radio that I have to search around to find something worth listening to.  This morning I was toggling back and forth between two AM sports talk radio stations when I heard one of the hosts make a suggestion that I thought was worth adopting...although I can't for the life of me remember who made the suggestion or which station it was!  The idea was to balance out the Summer and Winter Olympics by moving to the latter indoor events currently belonging to the former.  So indoor (traditional) volleyball would then be in the Winter Olympics while beach volleyball would stay in the Summer.  Basketball, wrestling, gymnastics...even swimming and diving could move over as well. 

I think that a major problem with following the Winter Olympics right now is that it is very geographically skewed toward countries with snowy, northern climates, the Jamaican bobsledding team notwithstanding.  Moving sports to these games from the Summer might help stir up more worldwide interest with more countries participating.  On second thought, though, basketball might better be left in the Summer since most of the participating athletes (and coaches) have their own leagues to play in during the wintertime.  Still, many of the more minor indoor sports might fit better in the "other" Olympics we're about to experience...

The Sochi Winter Olympics officially begin tomorrow with the opening ceremonies, but some events have already begun today.  I will probably be watching a few of the sports, none of which I have ever even remotely engaged in myself, largely due to the fact that I have lived here in Florida since infancy.  Curiously, though, I have found myself entranced by the sport of curling, which is something like team shuffleboard on ice...with broomsticks.  I noticed that some of those sports talk jocks said they liked watching it, too...when they weren't bashing the shoddy provisions provided to the press corps at Sochi...

Looking at Today's NBA Standings

At about the 60% point in the regular season, it seems to me a good time to check out the National Basketball Association standings and see how things are going with various teams.  The first, glaring thing I see is the imbalance between the Eastern and Western conferences.  This is important since the eight teams with the best records in each conference will make the playoffs, an important mark of success for many franchises.  As per this morning's standings, the Western Conference Memphis Grizzlies currently stand on the outside of the playoff picture in ninth place in their conference with a 26-21 record.  But were they in the Eastern Conference, the Grizzlies would have the third best record; were they in that conference's Atlantic Division, they would actually be in first place!  Denver and Minnesota, both in the West, would also qualify for the playoffs if either of them were in the East. 

The expected leaders like Miami, Indiana, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Clippers are continuing to perform well, each of these leading their respective divisions.  Teams exceeding expectations are Toronto (which leads the Atlantic Division), Washington, Portland, and Phoenix.  Houston is doing better than last year, too, but that was to be expected after their acquisition of Dwight Howard following his one season with the Los Angeles Lakers.  Speaking of the Lakers, they are a major disappointment this season with their star guards Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash long out of action due to injuries (Nash is back now, though).  They are a dismal 16-32 so far.  Chicago is also having to go through another long stretch without their talented-but-brittle star Derrick Rose, out with injury once again.  But they at least are gamely fighting on and stand to make the playoffs.  Other disappointments are Brooklyn (albeit in a playoff spot right now), New York, Milwaukee, Denver, and Utah.  Teams currently with playoff positions in the standings that I haven't yet mentioned are Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, and Golden State.

A lot can happen over the course of the remaining 32 to 34 games.  Injured players can return and make an impact (although with the Lakers it will be too late) and players currently active can suffer injuries.  At this point I see conference finals between Miami and Indiana in the East and between San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West.  An Indiana/Oklahoma City final championship series seems the most probable, at least from where I'm standing.  And if that happens, I like Oklahoma City...

Worst Super Bowl?

I have read and heard people claim that the Super Bowl this past Sunday was one of the worst ever.  No doubt the main reason for this harsh judgment was the lopsided score, 43-8, by which Seattle drubbed Denver.  Other contributing factors may have been that the expected offensive fireworks of both Peyton Manning and Marshawn Lynch were pretty much squelched by stingy defenses, and Seattle's defense was especially tenacious as they put on an incredible clinic with their effective tackling.  Defensive struggles often make for perceived uninteresting games...although I personally don't see it that way.  Also, the folks who were pulling for Denver had to be crushed by the fact that, from the first play from scrimmage, their team acted as if they had forgotten how to handle a football. I'm sure many of these fans thought this was one of the worst Super Bowls ever.  I also think that viewers were spoiled by the exciting Super Bowl games that were played in the last few years...the last blowout had been after the 2002 season when Tampa Bay drubbed Oakland 48-21.  In fact, though, taken as a whole, many past Super Bowls have been typified by one team dominating the other...and fittingly enough, one of the teams "most dominated" has been the Denver Broncos.  As for my opinion on the subject, I liked to watch both the play on the field and the well-done halftime show featuring Bruno Mars (with a little help from the Red Hot Chili Peppers)... what I didn't care for about this year's Super Bowl was in another area...

The commercials during the Super Bowl, usually hyped for their imaginativeness and effect, were to me a pathetic, collective bunch of duds, some of which made no sense at all to me.  The car commercials in particular seemed to be especially weird and puzzling in a negative way, throwing in all sorts of extraneous nonsense...if you're trying to sell a car, then talk about the car! And the beer commercial where the "unsuspecting" dude ends up playing ping-pong with Arnold Schwarzenegger...you mean they actually PAID some advertising whiz who came up with that one?  Really?

Finished Reading Asimov's Pebble in the Sky

I just finished reading Pebble in the Sky, Isaac Asimov's final novel in his science fiction Empire trilogy.  The stories in this trilogy are connected with each other only in the context of the backdrop of Asimov's make-believe future of the growing galactic empire of Trantor.  The characters, stories, and locations are all completely different and are separated by vast spans of time, one book having no discernible bearing on any of the others.  Pebble in the Sky takes place on Earth, with a visiting archaeologist from the Sirius system and an accidental time traveler from "our" contemporary Earth's Chicago making up a pair of highly unlikely protagonists.  The Earth's population has dwindled to number in the millions and residual radiation from a devastating nuclear war in eons past (i.e. our time) has polluted the planet.  The other star systems in the galactic empire treat Earthlings as pariahs and they respond in kind with a surly, rebellious demeanor.  Throw in a scientist's discovery of a formula for intelligence enhancement, a society in which people are put to death at age 60,  and an insidious plot against the rest of the galaxy, and you pretty much have the basic ingredients of this story.  It was more enjoyable to read than the previous two Empire novels, but I felt that Asimov threw too many gimmicks into his tale. Still, it's always fun to read others' speculations about our future.

There, I've read Asimov's Empire series again.  Now to continue with his much better and more cohesive Foundation series...which consists of five basic books, two prequels, and at least three posthumous spinoffs written by other authors...       

Super Bowl This Evening

Well, later on today it will be decided: the National Football League Championship of the 2013 season.  I suppose that, after it's over, I can finally get along with regarding myself as being in 2014!  This edition of the Super Bowl, taking place in East Rutherford, New Jersey, pits the Seattle Seahawks of the NFC against the Denver Broncos of the AFC.  Both teams are what I would term "complete" teams with solid offenses and defenses...along with some star players.  We all know about the great Peyton Manning for Denver, with his spectacular record-breaking regular season.  His cast of receivers has also become well-known.  Seattle's biggest star is their running back Marshawn Lynch...and here is where we see the strategic scenario developing for the game.  Seattle relies on their running game for three purposes: open up the passing game for their able young quarterback Russell Wilson, keep the potent and explosive Denver offense off the field, and last but certainly not least, score a lot of points for themselves!  On the other "side" of these teams, the Bronco defense has had difficulties stopping their opponents at times, but Seattle's has been truly remarkable with the cohesive, unselfish manner in which they work together as a unit to crush drive after drive.  I attribute most of their success to their head coach Pete Carroll, who has made this group believe and rally around him.  Sure, we hear from time to time about their star cornerback Richard Sherman and his showboating remarks reminiscent  of pro wrestler rantings, but on the field he blends well with his teammates.  Still, Seattle will have their hands full with the Manning-directed offense, and will have trouble rushing the quarterback if they can't stop the Broncos' effective rushing attack headed by Knoshon Moreno.  Oh, I haven't mentioned Denver's coach John Fox, another outstanding leader.

I am picking Seattle to slip by Denver in a close game and, like many of the other predictions I have heard on radio and TV, I think it will be in the "twenties" for both sides: Seattle 27, Denver 23.  I'll also be rooting strongly for the Seahawks...

Education for Life 5K Race at Westside Park

Earlier this morning Rebecca and I ran a local 5K (3.1 miles) race here in Gainesville.  It was called the Education for Life 5K.  I believe this was its fourth running.  There must have been about 200 runners, and for a change most of them seemed to be in the younger age categories.  The course, which began and ended behind Westside Park on NW 31st Drive, also involved running along NW 8th Avenue, cutting through Loblolly Woods Park, and returning down hilly NW 16th Avenue (where Marty Liquori used to train).   The hilliness and slopes of the course weren't the only challenges: although the race-time temperature was a pleasant 60 degrees, the humidity was a bit overbearing, being over 90%.  I think that factor bothered me more than anything.  This was Rebecca's first 5K race and she did a great job, especially considering the terrain and humidity.  Way to go!  For my part, I finished it at 25:53...pretty much maintaining my usual pace.  While running with my daughter was fun, I was also gratified to finally have entered and finished a race after so many months of skipping other opportunities (some beyond my control, to be fair). 

I felt that the atmosphere at this event was very positive, and volunteers were spread along the course shouting encouragement and cheering us on.  There was even a pre-race group stretching/warm-up session. They also were good at providing refreshment after the race, and not only handed out awards to the age/gender category winners, but also randomly drew for some prizes from the at-large pool of runners.  I'd like to try this race out next year.  Here is the event's website. 

And here are some pictures I took...