Just Finished Reading Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World

I have embarked on a new fantasy series at the same time that I am nearing the end of another (Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth) and am waiting for the next entry of a third (George R.R. Martin's ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire).  The new series I've started pursuing is the late Robert Jordan's 14 volumes of The Wheel of Time.  Sadly, the author died before he could finish this ambitious project and Brandon Sanderson filled in to write out the final three books.  From what I could gather, this series is highly regarded, so here I go. And I have just finished book #1, titled The Eye of the World.

With The Eye of the World, we once again find ourselves in a different world with a different map and history.  Magic runs rampant here and is connected to two opposing forces: one female and pure...and one male and tainted.  The premise as I see it is that the ultimate hero and the ultimate villain are locked in a continual struggle against each other for the control of the world, a struggle that transcends individual lives (as the "Wheel of Time" turns).  The same entities resurface through different people over the course of time and reengage with the conflict.  The last confrontation had been disastrous, with terrible destruction and loss of life brought down upon the world...apparently the fault of the "good guy".  But the main story in this book takes place much later and revolves around the lives and exploits of three young men named Rand, Mat, and Perin...along with three women Egwene, Nynaeve, and Moiraine.  Moiraine is a member of the Aes Sedai, a group of magically endowed people who are connected to the female force.  She has a protector with her, the Warder Lan.  Also with the group is a traveling entertainer, called a "gleeman", named Thom Merrilin. The story flows around the efforts of these to flee evil forces pursuing them, and how the past figures into the present regarding the true historical identities of Rand and his two friends.  The antagonists chasing them are composed of the murderous trollocs, who I suppose are Jordan's version of J.R.R. Tolkien's orcs (only more animal-like) and their leaders the Myrddraal, all who serve the evil lord Ba'alzamon. 

There are parallels between this book and the first book The Fellowship of the Ring in Tolkien's Lord of the Ring series: (1) the fleeing from evil pursuers dominating the narrative, (2) the obsession of Mat about an evil dagger reminiscent of the pull of the Ring on people, (3) a wizard-like protector of the group (Moiraine instead of Gandalf) (4) a brave and mysterious man, Lan, who bears a degree of similarity to ranger Aragorn in the Ring trilogy, and (5) the Shire-like unassuming home town of the heroes, the isolated Emond's Field.  But that having been said, Jordan's story is ultimately distinctively different and plays upon different themes...as well as giving the lord of evil a more active, interactive role in the story. He repeatedly has unpleasant conversations with Rand, Mat, and Perrin through their dreams, continually inviting them to either join him under his authority or be destroyed.  

Without giving away the ending to The Eye of the World, I will just say that it was satisfying in that a complete story was delivered here...while ensuring that future volumes will be needed to clear up mysteries and resolve the ultimate conflict.  Overall, I liked this first book in a long series although it got a little muddled with all of the inevitable new terminology, complicated historical background material, and new "rules of magic" that get put out with any new fantasy series... 

This Blog Now Seven Years Old

It is now exactly seven years to the day since I began this blog, and I have tried with mixed results to produce daily articles.  It is personally-themed, partially about stuff going on in my life and partially about my opinions on different topics I pick up on in the media.  But most of all, it represents a daily discipline of writing for me...along with the presentation of that writing for public inspection.  Hope you enjoy reading it!

As of today, my blog contains 2,262 articles.  You are welcome to go through the archives, which you can access in the upper left margin.  If there is a special topic, then by clicking on a label at the bottom of an entry (this entry naturally contains the labels ANNIVERSARY, BLOG), this will reveal the articles I've written that include the theme you're interested in.  Or, you might just want to pick out a block of time in the past and see what was going on then.

I try in this blog to be upbeat about my personal life, while steering clear of anything hinting of gossip.  Sometimes I do make some statements about society and people in general, and I will discuss public figures by name since, well, they are public.  If you discern where I'm at politically (and I don't hold back in this area), then in all probability it won't exactly be where you are politically...please keep in mind that I respect others who don't share my opinions on the issues and also to please don't take things personally: in the end I'm just one person among some seven billion!

During the past few weeks I have begun posting links to my blog on Facebook and Twitter.  I enjoy reading others' posts on these two remarkable social media sites, but my main purpose here is to make my writing more available for reading.  Maybe at some time in the future I'll be more interactive with Facebook, but for now this blog will just have to suffice...

Two Politically Incorrect Words

With all of the problems facing people nowadays, there are some who are obsessed with words that people use.  I don't mean the hateful epithets of the type that Norman Lear satirized coming out of the mouth of bigot Archie Bunker in that old groundbreaking series All in the Family.  No, I'm talking about words like "bossy" and "thug" that describe behaviors and are applicable across the board, regardless of race, sex, or religious beliefs.

There has been a strange movement afoot among some feminists to stigmatize the use of "bossy" because it supposedly is only aimed at women.  That's strange to me, because I have heard it used quite often to describe men's behavior as well.  "Bossy", as I have come to learn of its general usage definition, is used to describe the behavior of someone toward others that goes beyond the agreed-upon authority level that said person possesses in his or her relationships.  So perhaps a manager or supervisor in the workplace somewhere might tell a subordinate to get for him (or her) a cup of coffee or exert pressure to contribute to a personally favorite charity...or a kid in a school class small group may automatically assume the role of "leader" and assign tasks to members without any authorization from them.  Apparently, though, some women feel that "bossy" is just used at them and not at men.  To me this is a preposterous statement.  "Bossy" may not be the most diplomatic, love-inspiring thing to call someone, but it doesn't come under the heading of "hate speech" either. I've used it myself...and haven't slanted my use to make women seem more bossy than men.  To me, bossiness is something that people sometimes need calling out on...I have a right and, ultimately, a social responsibility, to assert myself against overly aggressive people who go beyond their established, specified authority over me. Maybe using the word "bossy" isn't the most diplomatic way to go about this, but it is an accurate description of the problem...

The term "thug" is another example of a term that one group...or at least one representative of that group, i.e. professional football's Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, deems inappropriate.  In his case, he thinks it is used in a racist sense against blacks...maybe he has a point here, though.  You see, I would myself employ the word "thug" to describe a bully...with weapons.  So the appellation as "thugs" of the groups of (white) armed pseudo-soldiers who occupied Crimea a few weeks ago seems fitting.  This obviously has nothing to do with race.  But I heard the word "thug" thrown around Sherman after his outspoken comments following last year's NFL championship  game...and it didn't make any sense to me either.  Sherman is brash, to be sure, but he is also a well-liked pillar of his community and is no "bully with weapons".   Maybe here we are seeing a special use of "thug" that stereotypes a certain type of cultural presentation within the African-American community that somehow tries to imply that it is inherently criminal.   

I would like everyone on Earth to get along and have sparkling personalities and never hurt one another or make mistakes.  But since none of this is true, then our language needs to have some words that serve a criticizing and corrective function to educate and guide those exceeding the norms of acceptable behavior.  And sometimes, although it may be hurtful, hearing someone call you "bossy" or that you are acting like a "thug" may be an important warning sign that there is a problem with your behavior that needs your attention. I understand the well-intentioned reasons behind those seeking to ban the use of these words, but the only thing that this will accomplish is to raise up substitute euphemistic language that conveys the same meanings. Anybody from any segment of society can be "bossy" or a "thug". If you eliminate these words, the problems won't go away...talking about them will just be made taboo...
   

Condolences, Congratulations in NCAA Men's Final Four Hoops

Condolences and congratulations are both in order after the Final Four games in the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament.  Condolences to Wisconsin and (especially) Florida after their respective losses to Kentucky and Connecticut, who in turn receive my congratulations.  The victors will face off on Monday to determine this year's national championship. 

It is ironic that Kentucky, a team that Florida beat three times this season, might well end up with the title...but the Gators don't have a say in that matter anymore since they were just decisively defeated by the Huskies.  Florida's shooting was atrocious in yesterday's game: usually when some players were cold, then someone else would step in and be able to make the crucial shots...not the case with this game.  They just didn't have anything going on the outside, and UConn defended very well in the paint. 

I'm not sure which team to root for in tomorrow evening's game.  Part of me wants the Southeastern Conference to do well nationally, but part of me recognizes the serious rivalry between Florida and Kentucky in basketball.  So I don't know...frankly, I'm not all that interested anymore in who wins.  Had Florida not advanced, I had been hoping that Louisville would have gotten to this final title game.  But Kentucky had already knocked them out earlier in the tourney.

Still, looking back on the season, it's been a great run for Florida.  They won 30 in a row, went 18-0 in the SEC regular season, and did make it to the Final Four...all fantastic accomplishments.  Yes, ultimately it's congratulations, not condolences, that are due to them for what they achieved...

Beck's New Album: Morning Phase

It has been about six years since alternative rock musician Beck Hansen, more popularly known as simply "Beck", has issued a new album.  Finally, he's got one out now, titled Morning Phase.  Being a big fan of his music, I promptly went out and bought it.  As with his previous works, this new album has its own special personality.

The songs on Morning Phase are much slower in tempo than the typical Beck album, hearkening back to his equally-slow Sea Change from 2002.  But that album was marked by the melancholy tone of its songs; Morning Phase is much more positive (and a little more mysterious).  Still, I found myself gravitating to the more fast-paced tracks (which would have been "slow" on almost all of his other albums).  With this in mind I found myself most drawn to tracks 3, 5, 9, and 11, titled Heart is a Drum, Blue Moon, Blackbird Chain, and Turn Away, respectively.  Of these my favorite is Blackbird Chain...so much my favorite that I now regard it as my personal "song of the year" so far for 2014.  But having stated my favorites from Morning Phase, I must emphasize that the entire album is very listenable...but you need to understand this along with the acceptance that this is a different kind of Beck album than the ones that produced past hits like Loser, Where It's At, or Think I'm in Love.  I'm sure that this talented artist will speed things up a bit on his next release...I'm just happy to see him out there with something new.  And it's good, maybe one of his best...

The Myth of Voter Suppression

It's been a recurring theme of the political left that the Republican Party, on a state-by-state level, has been actively and deliberately engaging in a campaign of voter suppression by either demanding photo identification from voters at the polls or purging lists of ineligible voters (such as those with felony records).  Opponents of the latter action point out that there is a higher prevalence of potentially Democratic voters among those purged voters and that the GOP is trying to rig the elections in their favor.  And I've heard the argument as well that asking for adequate ID at the voting precinct is tantamount to those earlier Jim Crow era literacy test demands that discouraged blacks from voting.  I'm a little at a loss here...are they saying that having a photo ID is a racial issue?  And if it is, then who exactly is responsible for that situation? 

As for the voter-roll-purging accusation against the Republicans, an equally charged argument can be made that Democratic administrations deliberately refused to purge those ineligible votes in order to tip the numbers in their favor.  And that the Republicans are just cleaning up someone else's mess.  Regardless how you look at it, if they are complying with the demands of the law, I don't see the problem...except that I think that if you're a free person, past felony conviction or not, you should get to vote.  But with that it's the law, not its enforcement, with which I take issue.

As for asking for a photo ID before voting, I can't recall a time in recent memory when the worker behind the table at the polling station didn't ask for mine anyway...new law or not.  To me this is just common sense and does not mean anything...except that the Republicans seem to be the only party interested in mandating it. However, according to critics, in close elections, the demand for a photo ID can suppress Democratic-leaning voters and give the Republicans narrow victories in close contests.  So this isn't fair, is it?

Well, regarding voter suppression, I have to just come right out and state for the record that it IS happening, and on a scale much larger than what may or may not be going on with voter ID laws or the purging of ineligible voters. And this suppression I guarantee does very often tip elections...and also contributes greatly to the problem of wealthy corporate fatcats "buying" elections with expensive media campaigns.  This voter suppression is nothing other then the self-suppression by the large majority of the registered voters who don't think it is worth their time and effort to just pull off the road into their local precinct for a few minutes on election day and cast their ballots.  Even in heated elections for president, upwards to 40% of the registered voters simply don't vote...and it has nothing to do with supposedly nefarious voter suppression laws. But then, what about non-presidential elections?

Nearly a month ago, we here in Gainesville had a local election for three city commission seats. This is our local government and affects everyone living here...how much taxes do we pay, how is that tax revenue spent, what are the priorities with various issues such as the roads, parks, police, business zoning, and so on.  I went late in the afternoon on election day to cast my ballot.  The senior recreation center, where my precinct is, happens to be located directly across the street from a Super Wal-Mart.  The rec center was full, as I walked through it, but not of voters...just elderly folks enjoying the facilities.  I walked into the voting center in a back room and discovered that I was the only voter there.  So lonely. When the worker opened up the voting register to the page where my name was, the ENTIRE PAGE was empty: I was the first one on it to vote...at about four in the afternoon!  And yes...crime of all crimes, they asked for my photo ID, so I forked out my drivers license.  And voted.  Meanwhile, across the street Wal-Mart was packed with customers. Going there and waiting in insanely long lines apparently wasn't too inconvenient for people...but then, I suppose we're talking about food and "stuff" here...not civic responsibility. Oh by the way, the official city-wide voter turnout for this election was 15%: 85% of the registered voting population FREELY CHOSE not to vote!  Now THAT is voter suppression...and it's the voters themselves doing it, not any evil political party with ulterior designs on power.  This lack of general voter interest and civic responsibility is what I believe is driving the skyrocketing corporate campaign spending.  The ads that are mailed out or shown on TV aren't necessarily aimed to change people's minds as much as they are to motivate their targeted voter group to get all emotional (usually in a negative sense involving outrage against the opposing candidate) and flock to the polls in droves.  This is why Barack Obama could win Florida in 2008 and 2012, but in 2010 Rick Scott, a far-right tea party candidate, could win the governor's race with a much lower overall voter turnout.  And why he also stands a good chance for reelection this year.  If the registered voters would just step up and perform their duty consistently in every election, the effect of specially motivated voting blocks would be minimized and we'd have a more consistent representation of the general population's preferences...

Just Finished Reading Prince Caspian (Again)

I never did see the film adaptation to C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia story Prince Caspian, but I have read the book three times.  I suppose that I might want to see if Netflix has it and see for myself how the movie stacks up against the book...and how much they changed it to make it look better on the screen.  Prince Caspian was originally the second book released in this series, although chronologically the events place it as the fourth book...and that's the order I'm using to reread this series.

It's been centuries since the legendary Narnian Golden Age of the Two Kings and Two Queens.  But Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy have only aged one year since their return to the planet Earth after their The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy adventures.  The four are about to board a train together when they are summoned back, out of thin air, to Narnia by Prince Caspian, who is fleeing for his life from his cruel, usurping uncle.  Caspian, you see, is the legitimate heir to the kingdom of Narnia...his supporters refer to him already as "King Caspian".  Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy find themselves suddenly back at the castle from which they reigned earlier...and it's in ruins now and is on an island, separated after so many years from the mainland and reputed to be a haunt for ghosts.  Then they rescue a dwarf from execution, after which he fills them in on Caspian's plight.  From this point the story forks into two narratives: Caspian's tale as told by the dwarf and the efforts of the Four to reach him and aid in fighting back. 

As in all of the Chronicles of Narnia stories, the great lion lord Aslan makes his indispensable appearance...first to ever-faithful Lucy and then to the other doubting three.  Aslan leads them all to victory over the oppressors, who as it turns out are not native to Narnia in the first place.  The peculiar life forms, such as talking animals and dancing trees, that had been driven into hiding by the usurper, are once again welcomed back into the kingdom as full citizens. But although Aslan expects the "good guys" to put in the effort and be willing to make the necessary sacrifices in this struggle, ultimately it is he who determines victory.  And as in The Horse and His Boy, at the end he delivers his own special brand of justice to the vanquished.

I felt that the story Prince Caspian was the weakest of all the Narnia tales as far as the plot was concerned.  Lewis seemed instead to be much more interested in describing the world of Narnia and its special creatures in great detail.  I'm not sure how this translates to film, but I'm looking forward to finding out.  Speaking of Narnian film adaptations, the book Voyage of the Dawn Treader has also been made into a movie.  And it also happens to be the next book in the series I'm going to read...

TV and Baseball's Diversity of Parks

I was watching the season opening game for the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox the other day on TV when I noticed a peculiar thing.  Looking out toward right field, just past the ball park and in surrounding Baltimore starkly looms a large beige building...with numerous windows facing the park.  It was as if whoever put it there was daring any slugger to break one of them with a tape measure home run.  Of course, perceived distances can sometimes be deceptive...especially on TV.  So I don't know exactly how far away from the park that building is.  But the view is impressive regardless. 

Each baseball park has its own "view" past the outfield...some are more enclosed and all you see is more seating.  Others, like Boston's Fenway Park with its Green Monster wall in left field, have peculiar features that clearly distinguish them from the other ball parks. And although the dimensions of the infield in baseball are strictly measured, the outfields are incredibly different in size from one park to the next. This diversity in baseball of its ball parks makes its presentation on TV markedly different from other sports like basketball, hockey, and football, although with the last the existence of domed stadiums in some cities precludes the sight of snow or rain in their games.  But visually, except for blimp shots from above, the games in these sports don't reveal their locations to the degree that they do in baseball: just follow a long fly ball into the outfield (or beyond) and you'll get a glimpse (sometimes) of the city beyond.  And since baseball parks tend to be more downtown oriented, the view can be pretty interesting: the open-ended outfield in Baltimore inspired some there to create a pretty shopping/dining area just outside...and it is showcased on TV with every home game. Now I want to go there...I just saw something similar with the Chicago White Sox ball park.  I wonder how it is in St. Petersburg, where the Rays play their home games...

Just Finished Reading Terry Goodkind's Naked Empire

As I continue along with my reading of fantasy writer Terry Goodkind's twelve-part series The Sword of Truth, I was gratified to discover that it only has eleven books (if you exclude an added prequel).  That doesn't necessarily mean that I dislike this series, but rather that perhaps the author will sooner get around to resolving matters instead of just inventing new lands and characters in order to further his philosophical beliefs.  There's nothing wrong with that, though: fiction can be a very effective way for someone to promote their own worldview, as long as they don't come out sounding as if they are lecturing the reader in the process.  Unfortunately, Goodkind has this flaw, and book #8, titled Naked Empire, has him continuing with his "teaching" without any attempt at subtlety.

In Naked Empire, protagonists Richard and Kahlan are still fighting the Imperial Order...which they've been doing since book #2, as a matter of (fictional) fact.  They discover a people called the Bandakar that had been isolated by magic from the rest of the world. Bandakar is composed of non-magical people who fancy themselves as being civilized (and therefore superior) and everyone else as barbarian (and inferior)...including Richard and Kahlan.  When the magical barrier comes down and the Imperial Order overruns them, one of Bandakar's former leaders enlists our heroes to help them defeat their conquerors by being the "barbarians" they refuse to be themselves.  In other words, get the uncivilized outsiders to kill off the enemy that they themselves are too "good" to stand up to. The philosophy of the Bandakar has them continually making excuses for the cruel, oppressive rule of the Imperial Order while refusing to lift a finger to resist them in any way...even chastising those of their own who act or even speak against their oppressors.  I can't help but think that this is a not-so-oblique analogy of Goodkind to the tendency that some in the West have had to go out of their way to apologize for and explain away the oppressive and militarily aggressive Soviet Union and its proxies...and, later, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda...while roundly criticizing any resistance to them from the U.S. and its allies (aka "blame America first"). I also believe that Goodkind is indirectly criticizing some of America's allies who benefit from their protection without making any appreciable sacrifices in terms of money and human lives...while many of their people condemn the actions of their protectors.  While I think that Goodkind has a good point to make here, I still think that in recent years we've been too eager to go off to war without first leveraging our military advantage to gain diplomatic solutions to conflicts (Iraq comes prominently to mind).  Also, turning our brave soldiers into "nation builders" under PROTRACTED OCCUPATIONS of hostile lands isn't protecting anyone...least of all our precious young men and women serving so selflessly.  Maybe Goodkind would agree with this last opinion of mine...especially when the leaders of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, whose very regimes have depended on our presence there, often speak out as if we were the enemy and our (and their) enemies were their friends. In this regard they sound a lot like Goodkind's Bandakars.

One thing that appeals to me in this Sword of Truth series, the soapbox philosophizing notwithstanding,  is the way I have come to know and like its main characters.  This skill at character development, as I see it, is Terry Goodkind's great strength and it keeps me reading on.  I have read that the concluding books 9, 10, and 11 represent a trilogy in themselves, which I find a bit perplexing...since each book in the series directly leads into the next anyway...    

My March 2014 Running Report

After my half-marathon race on 2/16, I had planned on stepping up my running to a level that would allow me to feel comfortable entering any half-marathon race, at any time of the year.  Unfortunately, at the very end of February I somehow managed to strain my lower back and had to curtail my running to a degree.  Still, I managed to cover 111 total miles and run on 28 of March's 31 days (although some runs were very short).  My longest single run was for 5.6 miles.  Good figures, but I had wanted all of them to be higher. 

I also had opportunities to run in races in March.  A couple I missed because of the back problem: the 10K in nearby Tioga on the 15th and a half-marathon near St. Petersburg on the 23rd.  This last Saturday, the 29th, we had two 5K races: I didn't choose either because I was tired and besides, it ended up raining the morning of the races.  But I don't feel bad about missing any of these events. 

I would like to run in something in April, and in each month thereafter...even if it is only a 5K race.  I think that running in at least one public race is something new that I would like to start including in my monthly running goals...

Clouds Parting for Gators in NCAA Tournament

In the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament this 2014 season, some teams have had pretty daunting matchups early on...I'm thinking of Wichita State having to face Kentucky in just their second game as a prime example.  But the South Region's #1 seed Florida has had a remarkable run with lower seeded opponents.  In their first game they couldn't have had it any better, facing 16th seed Albany.  In their second tourney game they got to play 9th seed Pittsburgh, which had easily handled 8th seed Colorado.  Then they played 4th seed UCLA, the only opponent that didn't upset a higher seed, to get into the Elite Eight.  Yesterday they got to play 11th seed Dayton, which had previously done Florida a double favor by beating both 6th seed Ohio State and 3rd seed Syracuse.  And what became of 2nd seed Kansas, which would have been a formidable opponent to the Gators?  They were handled by 10th seed Stanford, whom Dayton subsequently defeated.  But wait, it's not over...

In the semi-final game in the Final Four, Florida will face the East Region champion.  They will end up facing not top seed Virginia, not 2nd seed Villanova, not 3rd seed Iowa State, not 4th seed Michigan State, not 5th seed Cincinnati, or even 6th seed North Carolina.  No, the upcoming game for them will be against 7th seed Connecticut.  Unbelievable.

Yes, the clouds are truly parting for Florida in this tournament.  But the Gators made it to the Final Four and are in a good position because they were prepared to take advantage of their good fortune and took care of each opponent, closing out each game as it came...

Rainy Morning Rest Break

Last night Melissa brought to my attention a 5K race at UF that was to be held this morning.  I checked it out on the Internet and discovered that there was also one going on at Westside Baptist Church west of Gainesville.  I weighed the idea of getting up early the next morning and going out on one of them, but decided against it.  No, I felt I needed the sleep...and as it turned out, I ended up sleeping about eleven hours.  I missed a race opportunity, but that's O.K. since (1) I hadn't yet paid the entry fee (2) I needed the rest/sleep and now feel refreshed, and (maybe most of all) (3) it has been raining like crazy all morning long and the streets look like one giant network of slip 'n slides...

Instead I am once again sitting here on a Saturday at the Magnolia Parke Starbucks, this time in the early afternoon, looking outside at the dreary, wet parking lot. But the music's good, the coffee's even better, and I'm doing all right (getting good grades, the future's so bright I gotta wear shades)...

Just Finished Reading John Grisham's The Appeal

I'm not sure why I decided to venture into another legal novel, since I already have a strong enough aversion to jury duty and tend to have a probably irrational disdain for lawyers and our justice system in general.  But John Grisham, a renown writer in this genre of fiction and two of whose more famous works (The Pelican Brief and The Firm) I've already read and enjoyed, will paint a more rational, positive picture of attorneys, judges, and the legal process in general, won't he?  I mean, I'm sure there are unscrupulous people out there who think that justice is something that you can buy, as much a commodity as a car or loaf of bread, but the legal system will filter out these dregs of society, expose them for what they are, and protect the weak and victimized...right?.  Unfortunately, as Grisham's novel The Appeal lays out, these folks are not only out there: they are wealthy, powerful, and used to getting their way by using any means available.

In The Appeal, a wealthy Wall Street corporation is handed a surprisingly severe verdict of $41 million in damages after being judged by a Mississippi jury as being liable for causing numerous cancer deaths and injury from its excessive toxic waste dumping that seeps into a community's underground water supply.  As the book's title suggests, this company, under its amoral chief stockholder, decides to appeal the verdict to the Mississippi Supreme Court. This puts the already financially strained plaintiff lawyer team on the edge of bankruptcy as this powerful man embarks on a strategy to stack that Court in his favor by buying the appeal's expected deciding vote in the upcoming judicial election.  This results in a very seedy combination of business, political, and judicial manipulation and leaves me, the reader, wondering if our legal system isn't completely tainted with corruption.  That, I'm sure, would sit well with Grisham, who with this story has obviously set out to state his case against the politicized elections of judges in favor of them being appointed to their seats.  I think he has a good point, but has regrettably fallen into that trap I've seen other writers succumb to in which, depending on which side of the conflict you're on, the protagonists all have great personalities and high moral character and the antagonists are all a bunch of slimy, selfish, lying thugs with anger management issues.  And he painted the picture of an ignorant and irrational voting population that only votes on hot button emotional issues like gay rights and guns, making them easy targets for manipulation by anonymous heavily-financed special interests with hidden agendas. Well, maybe Grisham got that one right...

The Appeal, which due to its author's good reputation, initially carried its own "appeal" to me, quickly transformed into a "trial" that made me want to steer clear of courthouses and lawyers even more than I usually do.  This is one very dreary novel that has an interesting message but a very depressing narrative.  I think I'll be reading other genres of fiction, at least for the immediate future...

Florida's Next Hurdles in NCAA Tournament

Tonight in the NCAA Tournament the University of Florida men's basketball team will attempt to match their level of advancement for the past few years when they try to get back into the "Elite Eight".  Last year they performed well in the tournament until they got completely clobbered by Michigan as they tried to get into the Final Four.  This year, they will first have to get by UCLA tonight and then on Saturday beat the winner of the game between Stanford and Dayton, two low-seeded bracket-busting surprises.  The Gators were fortunate in that those two teams were able to upset more formidable opponents like Kansas, Syracuse, and Ohio State on the way to their showdown against each other tonight to determine "Cinderella 2014" (last year's big Cinderella team was Florida Gulf Coast...whom Florida finally knocked out of the tourney after falling behind early in their game).  Florida should win both games against UCLA (which begins late tonight at 9:45) and the Stanford-Dayton winner.  It will be the Final Four lineup that could present the Gators with some real problems...including a possible rematch with Michigan.  But the favorites to join UF in the Final Four are defending champion Louisville, ACC regular season and tournament champion Virginia, and Wisconsin...which beat Florida earlier in the season.  As a matter of fact, my own bracket is still in play, but only starting with that possible Final Four lineup. I had Florida then going on to beat Virginia, Louisville beating Wisconsin, and the Gators winning the championship game, 66-62.  But who knows what will really happen...

Besides the men's team, the University of Florida women's basketball team merits praise for getting into the NCAA championship tournament and winning their first game against Dayton with a spunky come-from-behind performance in spite of their low #11 seeding in their region.  Unfortunately, Penn State beat them handily in the next game.  Still, congratulations to head coach Amanda Butler and her team for making it this far...

Pollen Nation

For the past few weeks I have been increasingly aware of some people around me in public sniffling and sneezing.  They might have been suffering colds, but I know better: the Florida springtime allergy season has kicked in!  Pollen is lying around everywhere, but it has a special affinity for cars...and me.  I am one of those unfortunate people who are particularly prone to seasonal allergies, but for various reasons had managed to stay indoors recently much more than I am used to.  Then a couple of days ago I was outside for about a half-hour...I am now in full-blown allergy mode, seeking out those over-the-counter remedies that help to alleviate the symptoms without making me even more sleepy than I usually am...

In Florida we like our weather moderate...well, I'll just speak for my own preferences.  The only drawback, though, to this kind of pleasant weather is that pollen-bearing plants seem to share the same preference!  Part of the price tag that goes along with living in such a wonderful place as my state is the current yellow-green horror spreading around us like radioactive fallout from a nuclear event.  But for the time being, I'm not planning to retreat from it...no, better (for me, at least) to get outside more, allergies or not, and revel in our beautiful world...and life in general...

C.S. Lewis and Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

I just finished reading, for the third time (or is it the fourth), the short novel The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. It is one of the later published books in his Chronicles of Narnia series, although the chronology of Narnia has it placed right after book #2, which is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Well, actually, to be more accurate, The Horse and His Boy takes place chronologically within the last chapter of that book, while the series main characters Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy are sitting on Narnia's throne during its Golden Age.  This isn't the only thing that distinguishes this story among the seven Narnia tales: it is also the only one in which no one from the not-so-fantastic world of Earth travels to or from Narnia.  The reason for this is self-evident, as the protagonist here is a boy native to southerly lands within Narnia's world.

Shasta is presented as an orphaned boy who grows up under the near-slavery yoke of his "adopted" poor fisherman father in a country called Calormen.  Calormen resembles our world of the Middle East of the old caliphate days with its stark landscapes and glorious and ornate cities.  There is a religion there alien to Narnia and the god Tash is worshiped.  One day Shasta finds himself about to be sold into slavery by his "father" to a visiting Calormen official, but with the aid of that official's horse (a Narnian talking horse named "Bree"), he makes his escape from them.  Along the way as he makes his way northward toward Narnia he encounters another fleeing child, this one a girl named Aravis who is escaping an arranged marriage.  Then they enter Tashbaan, the capital city, where Shasta runs into Edmund and Susan, who were visiting and involved in their own problems with the Calormens.  In the end, the "good guys" are all fleeing (some by desert and some by sea), the Calormens are pursuing them, and eventually a great battle takes place across the desert in Archenland, a kingdom lying between Calormen and Narnia and which carries its own secrets... including a boy named Corin who is a dead ringer for Shasta.  Exactly how this battle takes place, why it happens in the first place, and who are involved in it are matters that I leave you, the future reader, to discover for yourself.

Oh, there's one element to The Horse and His Boy that I omitted, which is actually its most important element...not to mention that of the rest of the Narnia series as well.  And that is Aslan the Lion Lord, the embodiment of Christ the Son of God on Narnia.  Aslan's presence is subtle and mysterious...but ultimately he is the one on which everything hinges.  As with the other tales in this series, Aslan does not force his authority on people except in his merciful administration of justice. Although he is ultimately all-powerful and all-knowing, he allows all around him to make their own choices in life, according to their free will...including whether or not they freely choose to follow or reject him.  A crystal-clear analogy to Christianity...

I liked The Horse and His Boy, although as has been the case with other fantasy series I've read, including George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, that aforementioned Middle Eastern "Arabian Nights/Aladdin" type of society is predictably depicted as being brutal, oppressive, and corrupt.  Wait a minute, what am I saying...ALL of Martin's lands are brutal, oppressive, and corrupt! 

SEC Better Than ACC in NCAA Men's Tourney

The two major NCAA conferences affecting the southeastern section of the country are the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference.  In football, the SEC dominates the polls and is generally considered to be the superior conference (although the ACC's Florida State won the national championship less than three months ago) while in basketball the reverse is true.  This perceived ACC supremacy in basketball over the SEC is no less apparent than in the number of teams selected from each conference to be in this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament.  The Atlantic Coast Conference enjoyed six entries while the Southeastern Conference could only get three teams in (and there was a question as to whether even Tennessee would admitted to the bracket).  Six to three...that speaks it all, right? Wrong.

Less than a week ago the tournament was about to start, with 68 total teams in the running.  Now, after the first three rounds and 52 games in the books, the field has been reduced to 16.  And where do those two conferences I was talking about stand within this field?  Of the ACC's six teams that started out in the tournament, five have already been eliminated...leaving only one, the Virginia Cavaliers (and a #1 seed) left to carry on the ACC banner.  How did the "inferior" SEC do?  All three teams (Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee) have advanced, not a loss among them...and a cumulative tournament win-loss record so far of 7-0! 

I would like to see all three SEC teams make the Final Four, if only to send the message to those who make decisions in the NCAA as to which teams are allowed to play in the tournament  that the SEC should get more teams in it.  But unfortunately, Kentucky and Tennessee are in the same Midwest Region and, should they both get that far, would have to play each other in that region's final in order to see which of them would go to the Final Four.  But I'm still proud of how well my conference has performed so far!

Go Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky!

Books-a-Million Only Major Bookstore Left in Gainesville

As I write this, I am sitting here in one of Gainesville's two Books-a-Million bookstores, the one on NW 13th Street (US 441).  I don't come over here often anymore, although in the late 1990s and early 2000s I was almost a daily customer...chiefly for their flavored coffee.  Unfortunately, the bigshots running the stores decided that it wasn't cost-effective to brew flavored coffee.  But if I wanted just plain coffee I could have gone to McDonalds and spent a lot less.  Starbucks doesn't brew flavored coffee either (also they sell ground packs of it in grocery stores), but I prefer their dark roasted brand and have become a regular of theirs instead.  But neither Starbucks nor McDonalds have the loads of cool books to browse through that Books-a-Million has, and for this I still occasionally stop by.  Besides, I got a gift card for this place last Christmas!

I know that the big trend in the publishing industry nowadays is the eBook, such as Kindle or Nook (I own a Paperwhite Kindle).  But there is nothing like going along the shelves in a bookstore and browsing various books that meet my eye, surveying them and briefly reading sections to get a sense of what they are about.  It's easier for me to find what I might be interested in reading this way...if  go to a bookseller's website I'm only going to get a partial booklist at best for my search.  And I'm not always sure as to how I should exactly phrase my search anyway.  Many times in bookstores I have expanded my scope of interests just by going down aisles seeing what's out there. Plus, it's a sad fact that not all literature is available on Kindle.  Not just the out-of-print stuff, which is overwhelming in number, but much material currently in print is still off-limits for me to buy for my e-reader.  So it's frustrating for me to see other major booksellers in Gainesville, like Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, Borders, and Barnes & Noble completely shut down their stores here.  Other than a few local used book sellers and stores supplying the University of Florida's textbook needs, all that is left are the two Books-a-Millions.  I wonder how much longer they're going to last.

I like my Kindle, but I also buy hardcopy books as well, both new and used.  And I make liberal use of my county library system, using its online catalogue to place material on hold and then stopping by at my nearest branch library when I am notified of their availability.  Two things that I focus on when I go to a place like Books-a-Million are the magazines and puzzle books.  Magazines tend to have a greater pictorial/graphic quality to them on paper than on a Kindle screen (especially for a black & white screen like mine has).  And the puzzle books I am referring to, such as KenKen, Sudoku, Kakuro, etc., involve me writing on them...also something not recommended for a Kindle...

Putin Hypocritical About Exceptionalism

The rationale that Russian president-turned-de-facto-dictator Vladimir Putin has given for his forcible taking of Crimea is that he is there to protect Russians living there.  Then he got his parliament to pass a law authorizing him to invade any other country containing Russians as he sees fit...all under the excuse of "protecting Russians".  H-m-m, last year I was walking down Hollywood Beach in south Florida one evening and encountered no less than three Russians.  I wonder if they're safe...better let ol' Putie know...

In spite of my cynical view of Putin's even more cynical and aggressive policy toward his neighbors (he invaded and took over territory from Georgia in 2008), Russia's situation is rather unique.  I don't recall another situation in which a multi-national empire just spontaneously disintegrated into its constituent provinces (or in the Soviet Union's case, "republics")...leaving the dominating ethnic population group unexpectedly scattered throughout each new country.  But in truth, this is the situation we're looking at with Russia today.  The boundary between Ukraine and Russia wasn't always the same, either: Crimea had traditionally been a part of Russia proper until a different dictator, Nikita Khrushchev, in 1954 assigned it to Ukraine, which then was then just a cog within the Soviet system. This historically Russian identification also goes for that eastern and southern Ukrainian territory overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Russians.  But in other former republics of the U.S.S.R., such as Estonia, there is a sizable Russian minority that moved there back in the Soviet years, never imagining that they'd find themselves belonging to their adopted land as citizens of a nation apart from Russia.  

That having been said, this doesn't justify a hostile, military-backed attitude from Moscow toward these much smaller and weaker countries ringing Russia.  Just because Putin can dredge up "protecting Russians" as a reason for his aggression, in the end it is just an excuse...much in the same way that Hitler used the excuse of "protecting Germans" for his invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1938-39. I myself have no problem with an orderly, peaceful political process that culminates in Crimea seceding and then joining back up with Russia...or even those formerly Russian lands in southern and eastern Ukraine voting go back to Russian rule.  A few years ago, the nation of Czechoslovakia peacefully broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia when the latter clearly expressed its desire for independence.  Why can't this be the model for the former Soviet republics as they try to come to grips with the demographic fallout from the 1991 breakup?
 
From my perspective anyway, I would think that Putin should want sizable Russian minorities in neighboring countries in order to politically influence those respective governments into a more Russia-friendly orientation. By taking away from them those parts of their lands that have majority Russians living on them, Putin would essentially be turning the remainder of those countries into more solidly anti-Russian regimes, more likely to orient themselves toward the West not only economically, but also militarily.  Seeing it this way, Putin's recent actions seem foolhardy.

But it appears that Vladimir Putin has recognized the strong Russian nationalist fervor among segments of its population and is more focused now on solidifying his political hold on his own country than he is on getting along with the rest of the world...especially with his own neighbors. Maybe this will work for him: if it does, expect more of the same during the next few years.

A few months ago, President Obama considered using force in the crisis in Syria because the ruling regime there was accused of using chemical weapons against its own people.  Russia under Putin intervened diplomatically and helped to negotiate a Syrian surrender of its stockpile...and the use of American force didn't happen.  During this period, Putin wrote a New York Times letter to the editor decrying the concept of "American Exceptionalism".  Now he is employing his own "Russian Exceptionalism"...but this isn't his only hypocrisy.  He invaded neighboring Georgia in 2008 on the pretext of protecting minority nationalities (not Russian) within that sovereign nation, but has waged a brutal, savage war against nearby Chechnya in his own country, suppressing the ethnically-different population there that wanted to become independent.  In other words, Vladimir Putin is really good at reciting high and holy principles...but only as long as they expediently serve his own purposes...

Just Finished Reading The House of Thunder by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz is one of the most prolific novelists around. He began his career before fellow "K" writer (and bookshelf buddy) Stephen King and has consistently churned out his product to this day.  Earlier his career, Koontz wrote some of his books under pseudonyms, also like Mr. King (who occasionally wrote under the name Richard Bachmann)  Nowadays all of the pen names that Koontz used in his earlier books have been abandoned and his works are now uniformly published under his real name.  Leigh Nichols was one of the pseudonyms he used, and happens to be the name originally adorning his 1982 novel The House of Thunder.

The protagonist in The House of Thunder is a young woman, Sue Thorton, who finds herself incapacitated in an Oregonian small town hospital following a coma-inducing car accident.  She recovers most of her memory that she lost, including the fact that she is a physicist working at a California company.  Also remembered is that fact that thirteen years earlier when she was in college she witnessed the murder of her boyfriend by four members of the fraternity he was trying to join (and for which he was undergoing what he thought was traditional hazing).  The killing took place in a cavern known popularly as the "house of thunder".  Sue was also targeted for killing but escaped.  But now she keeps seeing the killers around the hospital thirteen years later, none of them appearing to have aged a day...although she remembers that at least two of them had already died years before.  She tries to convince nurses and doctors of her fears, but they refuse to believe her, attributing her concerns to lingering symptoms caused by the car accident.

This mystery of her old tormenters resurfacing like this (and renewing their pursuit of her) is the main driving force of The House of Thunder.  It is at this point that I withdraw from further commentary on the plot as I don't want to give away the ending.  But I will say this much (hopefully, it's not TOO much)...

The House of Thunder reminds me of sixties television series like Twilight Zone and The Prisoner, in which the protagonist is placed in a controlled environment and is deceived by others as to the nature of reality that he or she is experiencing.  In particular, I'm thinking about that one episode of The Prisoner, titled Living in Harmony, that has the kidnapped secret agent Number 6 (played by the late Patrick McGoohan) as a reluctant gunslinger in the old Wild West.  I don't know whether Koontz drew upon this when he envisioned his own story...or maybe he referenced his memory of the many Twilight Zone episodes that involve false realities (such as that classic episode Stopover in a Quiet Town in which a hung over couple wakes up in a strange abandoned town).  In spite of this old literary/television ploy, I still enjoyed the book's ending, in which Sue's perception of what is real get turned on its head...

The House of Thunder, like the typical Dean Koontz novel, isn't a very long read.  I think that's part of his appeal to his readers.  I for one find reading excessively long books...well, excessive.  Koontz has the ability to pack his story into a shorter space...good for him and good for me as well!

One final note: when Koontz had House of Thunder published in 1982, the United States and the Soviet Union had resumed their Cold War and it looked like peace was a remote prospect.  It is interesting for me to read this novel with this historical context in mind, and how Koontz was obviously playing up to the popular sentiment of that time...

Succumbed to Bracket Fever...But I Quickly Recovered

As I had written in last Monday's article, I wasn't very enthusiastic about jumping on board the "bracket express" regarding the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which has just begun.  Savvy businessman and generally very rich guy Warren Buffet offered a billion dollars to anyone who got all of their picks on their bracket correct, along with $100,000 to each of those with the twenty best brackets.  And I was going to forgo filling out a bracket in spite of this lucrative offer, which wouldn't have cost me anything other than a few minutes of my time.  But Facebook made it too easy yesterday...

I happened to be on Facebook when lo and behold, there was an advertisement for Buffet's bracket offer (sponsored by Quicken Loans).  All I had to do was click on the button they provided, open a Yahoo account, fill out the bracket, and submit it...all free of charge.   This bracket offer didn't include the first four games...just the field of 64, with today's games beginning the whittling down process.  And the whittling down of eligible "bracketeers" hit my own home early: when I awoke this afternoon, I had already discovered I was a billion bucks poorer when I found out that, against my predictions, Harvard had upset Cincinnati and Dayton had done likewise with Ohio State.  Still, it was fun while it lasted. Which turned out to be not very long at all.

I can still have some fun with my bracket by seeing how far the teams I picked to do well can get in the tournament.  In my Elite Eight version of the games, Florida defeats Syracuse, Virginia defeats North Carolina, Wisconsin defeats Arizona, and Louisville defeats Duke to give the Final Four field.  My championship game has Florida winning over Louisville 66-62.  So far, this is all possible, although my #1 seeded Gators seem to be experiencing a degree of difficulty putting away #16 seed Albany right now...

Rereading Karnazes, Looking Over My Own Running Goals

Once again I've picked up one of my favorite books and am now rereading it.  It's Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, by Dean Karnazes.  As you might easily have guessed, this is a book about long-distance running.  The author is a renown "ultra" runner, choosing distances far beyond the 26.2 mile marathon event. Once he even ran in a 199-mile relay event...only he ran ALL of the race's 36 legs by himself!  I have no plans to ever enter a race for more than 26.2 miles...and for the immediate future I'm just interesting in races between 5K (3.1 miles) and the half-marathon (13.1 miles).  But Karnazes, or "Karno" as he is affectionately called by friends, so effectively and enthusiastically crystallizes the importance of boldness, clarity, and determination for his running that his example is applicable not only for anyone attempting more modest distances in running, but also for people engaging in other sports...or other endeavors, for that matter.

It's important for people to recognize their own limitations, as Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan character would say in the movie Magnum Force.  But with this realism also must come a "can do" attitude that recognizes one's potential for growth and success...and be willing to undertake the hard work necessary to bring about significant positive change in the targeted area.  It is also important to be specific about one's goals: for Karno, it was about becoming trained for certain upcoming races and then successfully finishing them within his time goals. Lately that goal-oriented behavior for me has languished, to be replaced by routine-based behavior.  For the past three weeks I have been dealing with strained back issues, which made the question of me looking forward to any races in the immediate future a moot point.  Before that happened, my typical running pattern had been for most of the year a matter of me fitting in my "miles" without a discernible goal in the near future.  That doesn't mean that, during the course of a calendar year, interesting races didn't come up for me to participate in.  But I either hadn't been training up to them or had given such events a low priority, making it easy for me to pass them by.

This year I would like to step up my running to a level that gives me the confidence to enter and run well in any half-marathon race, at any time of the year.  That's where my routine comes in.  Now for those half-marathon races: I need to check my favorite half-marathon calendar website and begin planning for more distant races up north to run in during the hotter (and too hot for Florida) summer months.  And now this is where Ultramarathon Man can help me.  I first read this book a little more than four years ago, and it greatly helped to inspire me to train for my first ever half-marathon race.  Hopefully, reading it again will help me recover some of that earlier enthusiasm.  But also, I hope to gain some fresh insights from Karnazes' writing, as so often happens when I go back over material I've covered before...

Time for New AlphaSmart

I initially do most of my blog writing on my AlphaSmart portable word processor. Since I don't need an Internet connection to write, this nifty little machine works well for me.  It runs on three AA batteries and lasts for months before I have to change them out...and there is no need to ever plug it into the wall.  Anything I type on it is automatically saved into one of the eight files, each of which has a large capacity.  I don't need to go through the "saving" process: just turn off the AlphaSmart and whenever I decide to turn it back on, there is my last writing, right where I left off.  It also has a good spell check feature that is invaluable to me.  The keys and the keyboard are the same size as that on a regular laptop or desktop computer, so no special adjustment is needed here for typing. Of course, whenever I write something for my blog on it (such as this entry), I'll need a means of file transference, which is also provided through a connecting cord.  No special software is needed to sync the AlphaSmart with the computer.  On top of all this, AlphaSmarts are lightweight, small, and sturdy.  I usually just load mine into my backpack along with any books or notebooks I'm using.

This current AlphaSmart I am using I just bought used at a good price off Amazon ($44 including shipping).  It's the third one I've had (I got my first one in 2000).  I tend to use them a lot...you can see from the pictures of my "new" and "old" AlphaSmarts that I get my money's worth out of them.  The last one eventually lost several keys, but it was still functional until I began having difficulty turning it on.  So, it was time for a change and I switched to a better (albeit earlier) model that shows what I am writing much more clearly...

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...