Baseball's July 31 Trade Deadline Approaches

As someone who has taken more of an interest than I have in the past in Major League Baseball, especially regarding my favorite teams Tampa Bay and Miami, it is disturbing to arrive at this point a little more than two thirds through the regular season as the July 31 trading deadline approaches and many teams will dramatically alter their rosters, largely depending on where they are in the standings.  Those teams who feel that they are still in reasonable contention for the post-season this year will be looking to add some star talent to their lineups to bolster their prospects.  And exactly where do they expect to find that star talent? Nowhere other than from the teams that don't entertain much hope of reaching the post-season.  This brings it back to Tampa Bay and Miami.  Both teams are slightly under .500 and, while each is capable of reaching the playoffs, they are currently relatively low in the standings.  And if either loses a couple more games before the trading deadline, their management may decide to trade away players that I have come to follow and identify with the teams.  Tops among these stars is Tampa Bay's Cy Young Award-winning starting pitcher David Price.  But he isn't the only one who could go.  I don't think it is wise of franchises like the Rays and Marlins to invest so much time and energy publicizing their players to the fans just to deal them away with still around fifty games to go.  It conveys the impression that they have given up on their team for the season...so why shouldn't their fans as well??!!

My Take on Downed Malaysian Jet in Eastern Ukraine

The understatement of the year may be that there is a lot of bad feeling going around concerning the recently shot-down Malaysia Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, causing the deaths of nearly 300 passengers and crew, among them many Dutch.  I'm convinced that Russian separatist rebels, armed with anti-aircraft missiles from Putin's Russia, shot it down mistaking it for Ukrainian fighters that were actively engaging them in warfare.  It is a terrible tragedy, but in the context of war, it is also an accident.  Clearly no one was trying to shoot down a passenger jet.  The U.S. and most every other nation under wartime conditions have committed their own share of accidents with innocent deaths resulting from them.  The corridor of the flight, which apparently was heavily used (but no more, obviously), took it directly over the combat zone.  Many critics in the West are pointing an accusatory finger at President Putin for arming the rebels with missiles sophisticated enough to target and hit such high flying planes, and I think he is definitely operating in a warmongering, land-grabbing mode.  But I believe that you can't go about business like usual in your own little peaceful bubble and intrude into war zones without expecting some potentially catastrophic results to arise.  The main problem I'm having with Putin and the Russian rebels is the cover-up and denial they seem to be engaged in following the fact, which they should have admitted as an obvious mistake and assumed responsibility and apologized for while cooperating with the crash investigators and recovery team.

The Russians living in eastern Ukraine, before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 into its constituent republics, had always considered themselves as being part of Russia even though Krushchev in the 1950s had redrawn their area into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.  But back then it was all one big country, and they didn't have to submit as a minority within another country to that country's majority political direction.  The same goes for the Crimean region that Russia just annexed through force a few weeks ago.  Seeing for years within Ukraine that there was a deep division between the regions populated chiefly by ethnic Russians and the majority Ukrainian areas that caused serious crises in previous elections, the leaders in Ukraine should have been wise enough to allow referendums in the affected areas for the people to democratically determine their destiny, be it remaining with Ukraine, becoming independent, or rejoining Russia.  This way that Putin has of crisis-by-armed-crisis confrontational behavior destroys any trust or good will toward Russia that had been built up after the fall of the USSR and is only going to serve to militarize the rest of Europe in fear that he will seek further territorial gains elsewhere...

Blog Topics Need Widened Scope

Sometimes I reflect back on the kind of topics I choose to write about on this blog.  In the last few months, my articles have been rather narrow in scope.  They have chiefly been about books I've read, sports stories, my running progress (or lack thereof), the weather, and my very occasional visits to the beach.  There's nothing wrong with any of these subjects, but I used to write more about the news, politics, philosophy, and religion as well.  If you examine the archives here, especially the older articles, you'll find more about these.  Of course, with news, politics, philosophy, and religion, I'm also much more likely to ruffle a few feathers here and there among my readership...even when I express mainstream opinions, like I did when I happened to write a "religious" article lately on the "end times".  But you know, I'm not getting any younger and I have an increasingly stronger feeling as I age (I'll be 58 in October) that, looking back on my life from the end, my regrets will come more from missed opportunities than from acting when I should have restrained myself.  So I've decided to ratchet up my writing a notch or two and bring up topics that may or may not qualify as being controversial...as I used to.  After all, there's all kinds of stuff to look at: Russia/Ukraine/Putin, Israel/Gaza, the 2014 campaign season, discussion of Christian/Biblical topics, and various societal trends.  Oh, and I also used to publish lists of my favorites in music, literature, and TV.  Maybe I'll do a little more of that, too...

Just Finished Reading Robert Jordan's The Fires of Heaven

I recently finished reading the fifth book in Robert Jordan's fourteen-part The Wheel of Time series, this one titled The Fires of Heaven.  I have to admit that this series, of all of the fantasy series that I have read, is turning out to be my least favorite.  And it's the longest!  I have a number of objections, one of the biggest being its pretentious tone.  Another problem is that I am experiencing a great deal of difficulty in empathizing with the characters I'm supposed to be caring for.  They seem to spend the greater part of their time together arguing and insulting one another. One of the series subplots that I do like concerns the character Perrin and his developing romance with Faile.  So what did Jordan do with The Fires of Heaven but completely exclude them from the narrative, as if they never existed!  He'd better quickly pick up on their story in the next book if he expects me to continue on reading (if he were still alive, that is)...

But the main problem I have with Jordan's Wheel of Time series is the same one I have with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice.  There are too many characters, kingdoms, and subplots going on, with the confusion increasing with each successive book.  It is said that after the eleventh book, Jordan had intended to wrap up the series in the twelfth, but he died...leaving another fantasy writer, Brandon Sanderson, to finish it up.  But the story was apparently so convoluted that Sanderson needed to write three more books to bring it to a proper conclusion!  And here I am, a frustrated reader after only five books completed...

Pleasant Overnight Stay at Daytona Beach

I'm sitting here writing this early in the afternoon [published on this blog later in the day] at the Hampton Inn in Daytona Beach, looking out on the swimming pool area from the dining room.  Melissa and I came over here for an overnight stay, and it has been very pleasant.  This Hampton Inn is the newest one in town, located a little bit north of the boardwalk area.  We spent most of the time here lounging around the pool and the beach, naturally.  I managed a 1.6 mile run about three hours ago...it was pretty hot, but I was surprised by how well I felt running it. The weather has been cooperative for the most part, although yesterday evening it stormed a little.  We're going back to Gainesville a little later this afternoon...

Lebron James Owes Nothing to Cleveland Area

Four years ago, when superstar National Basketball Association forward Lebron James made his decision to leave his old Cleveland Cavaliers team to join the Miami Heat as a free agent, it seemed that many in the media accused him of deserting his home town and roots.  Now that he has made the decision to return to Cleveland, he is receiving positive press for returning to his "home", as if he were somehow personally responsible for staying there his whole life.  Yet I know of no other professional athlete in any sport who has had this sort of injunction placed on them.  Do top athletes like Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, the Manning brothers in football, or anyone else feel the slightest pang of guilt at choosing to play in a sports city far from their own upbringing?  What about foreign born athletes like the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka or basketball's Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker...are they being "disloyal" to their homelands by playing in the United States?  Isn't it truly preposterous, then, to confine this "rule" to one and only one individual, namely Lebron James?

When Lebron James played for Cleveland the first time around, I felt that, despite the great talent he brought to the court, he was socially immature and exhibited very poor sportsmanship at dealing with defeat...as exemplified by his behavior following playoff series defeats to the Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics.  However, after he  joined up with Miami I began to notice a more mature Lebron James who seemed to care about others and who displayed grace when things didn't always go his way.  Now he is returning to play for the Cavaliers and I wish him all the best there.  But I sincerely hope that Lebron isn't going back because he feels that he owes anything to them just for having grown up there...because he doesn't and never did!

Just Finished Reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire

Seeing that I am five books through a fourteen-part fantasy series by Robert Jordan and having already read through an eleven-volume fantasy series by Terry Goodkind, I thought it would be refreshing to embark on a series that was a tad shorter...say, a simple trilogy.  So I decided to read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, beginning with Mistborn: The Final Empire.  As it turned out, that original idea of a simple trilogy with this series was wrong: Mistborn is an ongoing project of Sanderson's, as he plans to make a "trilogy of trilogies" out of it, with nine total projected books.  He's working on the second trilogy, and I will probably eventually catch up to him as I did with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series...and then await the next installment.  But in the meantime, I just finished reading book number one.

Mistborn: The Final Empire takes place in that mythical Final Empire, whose capital city is Luthadel.  For centuries the people have been oppressed by a seemingly immortal tyrant, the Lord Ruler.  There must be a lot of volcanic activity in this world, for everywhere in the daytime ashes permeate the air.  In the night, though, strange mists come in to settle the ashes and blot out the sky.  The common people fear the mist...but not all.  Within this society are people, born of nobles (in support of the Lord Ruler), who possess special powers, called allomancy, which derive from the burning of certain metals they ingest and which have their own specific superhuman effects.  On the fringes of this nobility, which enjoys the Lord Ruler's support, are people descended from at least one noble but who are considered common and who also have the ability to practice allomancy.  Among these are the rebel leader Kelsier and a young teenage girl named Vin, whose special skill at burning all of the allomantic metals earns them the designation of "mistborn".  Along with other more specialized allomancers like Ham, Breeze, Spook, and Clubs, they plot how to overthrow the Lord Ruler and liberate their society.

Sanderson, in this book, succeeded in creating a fantasy world vividly different from those about which I have read before.  Also, the very nature of the Lord Ruler, including exactly how he had saved the world from the "Deepness" in the distant past and apparently continues to do so is a mystery that the book reveals at the beginning of each chapter in the form of old journal entries of his as he struggles with his burdensome role and newly-found powers. Much of that mystery continues to the end of this first book and beyond: I'm looking forward to seeing how Sanderson reveals what really happened long before and what dire threats this interesting fictional world now faces... 

Very Stormy and Humid Weather Lately

The weather for the past week here in north central Florida has been has a progression of severe storms, constant rain, and intermittent mugginess.  Both the rainfall and lightning strikes have been much stronger lately than I've seen in years...I wonder whether there isn't some defining general weather phenomenon causing this. I do remember that, at the start of the record-breaking 2005 hurricane season, we experienced a lot of wet tropical weather, but what we're experiencing now is much more electrical.  Also, it transcends the typical pattern we see during the summer, when the temperature and storm conditions usually intensify during the day into late afternoon outbursts after generally clear mornings.  But the storm threat is around the clock: the other morning lightning was crashing around me at 5:30 during my "lunch" break at my graveyard shift job.

Besides the possibly of electrocution if I step outside during one of these many lightning storms, the sheer amount of rainfall has so saturated the ground in my yard that parking a car on it, or even pushing a lawn mower over it, causes heavy gash tracks.  But even above and beyond the lightning and rain, I have come to detest the extreme humidity and its unpleasant effects.  The other afternoon I walked around my block with Melissa and it felt like a run.  I'm not exactly happy with arid conditions either, but this is ridiculous! But the frogs around where I live seem to love it, though, if their continual, deafening noise indicates happiness...  

My complaints, however, seem to pale in significance when I turn on the news and they show what's been been going on further north around Pennsylvania and neighboring states...

Well, today it looks like we got a break from the bad weather...I hope it's the beginning of a new pattern...

World Cup Yields Germany as 2014 Champion

After watching several games in this year's FIFA World Cup men's soccer championship series, I have come to a conclusion about what constitutes "boring" spectator sports.  Earlier I had placed soccer in this category, as it seemed that all the two teams ever did was just kick the ball back and forth...if a goal did occur, it seemed to come as a fluke, not part of a strategy or the result of any special skill.  But now that I have become more familiar with some of the subtleties of the sport as it is being played, I can see how, by noting how the players are aligned and spaced on the field, I can often guess how the next few seconds of play will progress.  Toward the end of the Cup play, it almost was frightening, as a matter of fact, when more than once it seemed as if I were viewing the situation through the players' eyes when they would push the ball down the field in much the same way that I had envisioned them doing.  No, instead of the play being happenstance and random, it is really rather complicated and something quite to behold when it is well executed. 

I had been rooting for Argentina with their "Pepsi/Gatorade" star Lionel Messi to win it all...and they came pretty close, finally bowing to Germany 1-0 in a game lasting 120 minutes.  Some of the TV announcers expressed concern that low-scoring games like this were boring to watch, but I felt that it was fascinating to watch how the defenses of both teams were so quick to adjust to a change in possession and get down the field to exactly the optimal location in order to defend their goal...and when to come up and challenge whoever had the ball at the time.

Now that the European professional leagues are getting set to open their regular seasons soon, I am looking forward to watching more of this sport on TV wherever and whenever I can find a match being shown.  Who knows, maybe I'll even find a favorite team to pull for...

Just Finished Reading Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes

I just finished reading Mr. Mercedes, which is Stephen King's most recent novel.  The story centers around the struggle between a psychopathic murderer who drove a stolen car into a line of people awaiting a job fair, killing eight, and the retired police detective bent on catching him. The killer, an expert at computer hacking, stalks the detective and tries to provoke him to suicide...but his actions only serve to motivate him.   

Unlike many of Stephen King's other works, Mr. Mercedes contains no elements of the paranormal.  It is instead a classic cat-and-mouse struggle between good and evil as represented by people living out their lives in the real world. I actually, however, prefer King's stories that delve into more speculative/alternative reality stories like It, Lisey's Story, Insomnia, and 12/22/63.  The characters in Mr. Mercedes seemed to me like recycled characters from some of King's earlier works: I felt that I already knew them, but that they were in different stories with different names.  No, I wasn't particularly impressed with this book. I instead would recommend other recent Stephen King books like Joyland and Doctor Sleep...  

FIFA World Cup Now Down to Four Teams

Today begins the semifinal round of the FIFA World Cup of men's soccer, with Brazil pitted against Germany.  Not only is Brazil's star player Neymar out with an injury, but another key player, team captain Thiago Silva, is suspended for this crucial game because he accumulated too many penalty cards in the previous game.  That rule, along with the asinine off-sides rule in soccer, in my opinion detracts from the sport: instead, they should institute something like in ice hockey, where they charge penalty minutes after which they let the guilty player return to the game.  Then, fans could look forward to seeing their hero come into the game at a certain point, adding to the dramatics.  I'm rooting for the Brazileiros...but the bigshots who get paid for pushing their opinions in the media seem to be lining up behind the Germans.  In the other semifinal contest, to be played tomorrow, "my" team Argentina will play against the Netherlands, led by their dive-happy jerk Arjen Robben.  There are teams in sports, like the current New York Yankees, that I root for because of one great player (in NY, it's Derek Jeter).  Then there are teams that I WILL OPPOSE just for one player that I despise... in Holland's case, it's that diver Robben, who robbed Mexico with his antics, faking fouls by diving with accompanying pained facial expressions.  For that alone I would have rooted against Amsterdam...but I also like Argentina and their brilliant offensive genius Lionel Messi.   So GO Argentina, my current favorite for the Cup...

Looking at Other Pro Soccer Leagues

I've been checking out the Internet a little to see how the American-based MLS professional soccer league stacks up against other professional leagues across the world.  I was surprised to find it up in the rankings...in 12th place on one site and even in 7th on another.  The top leagues are clearly Barclay's English Premier League, La Liga (in Spain), and the German Bundesliga.  Having experienced a string of exciting FIFA World Cup matches (most of which did NOT feature the U.S. team), I have joined a growing group of Americans more interested in watching soccer beyond the once-every-four-years scope of the World Cup.  I have seen Barclay's shown in the past on one of the sports networks, the MLS regular season is currently ongoing, and the Spanish-language Univision shows some other leagues at different times (usually on weekends).  I'd like to become more familiar with the various teams in the biggest leagues...as well as those in the MLS.  Just the other day, the MLS Houston and New York teams had a good, close game that went back and forth.  I'm looking forward to more...

It seems that the European pro soccer leagues run from around August to May.  Apparently, the Americans stage their play earlier in order to get a jump on the American football season, which still draws by far the greatest interest among U.S. sports fans...

Just Finished Reading Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I just finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, culminating with the final book, titled Mockingjay.  The society that heroine protagonist Katniss Everdeen struggles to come to grips with is set far off in the future and involves a centralized dictatorial government (set in a place known as The Capitol, located somewhere in the Rockies) that oppresses the surrounding districts that comprise North America.  A rebellion has formed, though, and its leaders have embraced and promoted Katniss as its public relations/media leader as she has gathered a large following from her former participation in the previous to-the-death Hunger Games...when she openly defied The Capitol and its brutal ruler President Snow.  The rebel movement's symbol is the mockingjay, a hybrid new species combining mockingbirds and a genetically engineered bird called a jabberjay.  Katniss has deep reservations, though, about the rebel movement and particularly its leader, President Coin.  As the story progresses and the rebels advance, it begins to look like the last line in The Who song Won't Get Fooled Again: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".  But does Katniss get fooled? Don't count on it...

Much of Mockingjay is about the relationships between Katniss and her friends, particularly in regard to her efforts to rescue and restore her old Hunger Games partner Peeta.  Although it is clear that Katniss is a victim of the system and circumstances, she has a tendency to wallow in self-recrimination, blaming herself for everything bad that happens around her.  But then again, I wonder how many combat veterans have had to deal with that issue, especially if they survived situations that caused loss of life among their buddies but spared them...

The best part of Mockingjay is one crucial insight and decision that Katniss makes toward the book's end...a decision that I thought was so cool that I had to reread it a few times!  I enjoyed this series more than most of what I have read lately.  I have yet to see any of the movies, but now that I've read it all it might be a good idea to get started...

FIFA World Cup Now Down to Eight Teams

The 2014 FIFA World Cup of men's soccer has now progressed to the quarterfinal stage, where only eight teams remain to contend for the title.  In spite of their goalkeeper's heroic play (Tim Howard, with an incredible 16 saves), the United States lost to Belgium 2-1 and are now out of the running.  The teams that remain, however, promise some exciting games to come...

The quarterfinals will run on Friday and Saturday, with the following matches slated:

Friday July 4
--France vs. Germany
--Brazil vs. Colombia

Saturday July 5
--Argentina vs. Belgium
--Netherlands vs. Costa Rica

As for me, now that the U.S. is no longer contending, I have my own favorites to follow: Colombia and Argentina.  We'll see how far they go...with their respective opponents Brazil and Belgium up next for them, it may not last the weekend!  I do have one prediction, even though I'm not a particularly astute soccer fan: the eventual 2014 champion will come from the Brazil/Colombia and Argentina/Belgium matches...

Finished Reading Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

I finally finished reading Christopher Paolini's four-part Inheritance series, which began with the famous book Eragon (made into a movie), progressed to Eldest and Brisingr, and concluded with Inheritance.  I would be less than honest were I to claim that it was my favorite fantasy series, but then again it wasn't the worst, either.  Paolini did take a lot of themes from other fantasy works, especially from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  This made me wonder to myself whether some of the ideas he introduced that seemed innovative on his part weren't actually taken from fantasy works that I hadn't yet read.  However, in spite of his obvious borrowing, Paolini was able to establish a legitimate fantasy world with its characters, history, and rules of magic.  He also emphasized the idealism that societies very different from each other and with a history of mutual conflict and prejudice could eventually be able to work out their differences and become allies...and eventually friends. 

Anyone who embarked on this series recognized that the main protagonist Eragon would eventually have a showdown against his antagonist, the evil King Galbatorix...and it naturally came toward the end of Inheritance.  Ultimately, it was wisdom, not brute strength, that would determine the outcome of that confrontation...something that I appreciated.  The climactic scene between Eragon and Galbatorix did not, however, take place at the very end of the book.  Instead, there was much material following it that sought to tie up all of the loose ends of the various characters' lives.  And yet Paolini slyly allowed some room for future spinoffs of this series...at least I think he did it intentionally....

My June 2014 Running Report

In June 2014 I managed to keep my running at a reasonable level despite some personal hardships.  I ran a total for the month of 100.6 miles, and my longest single run was for 5.4 miles.  I ran on 27 of the 30 days as well.   Most of my running was indoors, and I made extensive use of the treadmill.  The main thing to be said for my running in June was that I maintained my level of fitness and endurance without doing anything to appreciably elevate it.  But sometimes just keeping things the same is what is called for...

Writing Errors on This Blog

This blog has been around for a while...for more than seven years, as a matter of fact.  Every now and then, I go back into my archives and read what I had written in some bygone era.  Most of the time, though, when I read through back-articles, it is usually what I have recently written, in the past month or so.  But regardless of where (or more suitably, "when") I choose to read, I almost invariably run across little mistakes of spelling, punctuation, and grammar that make me shake my head.  How could I have let them slip by? After all, I reread each article usually at least a couple of times before I publish it...and again afterwards after I post its link on Facebook. I even take the pains to read it aloud to myself, for the mind often fills in or corrects errors...errors that are more readily noticed when heard but are often passed over in silence.  And yet, even with this precaution, I commit all sorts of mistakes with my writing. Some are intentional, like when I use the slang "gonna" instead of the more formal and proper "going to".  Also, I sometimes deliberately use sentence fragments, something that no doubt would earn me the ire of my past English teachers.  But in writing this blog, my intention is to convey a sense of the language as it is spoken and not to exasperate the reader with overly literary expressions and structures.    I suppose that one item, though, that I need some work on is my tendency to repeat the same word too often instead of using synonyms or alternative ways of expressing the same meaning.  This usually happens on the first draft of whatever I've been writing and gets cleared up, but sometimes I'll go back several days to a previously published article and grimace to myself how I not only would repeat individual words too much, but even whole phrases. Ouch!

Today's World Cup Matches Worth Watching

The so-called "knockout" round of the FIFA World Cup in men's soccer began today, and today's two matches lived up to their advance billing.  Both games pitted teams exclusively from South America: Brazil vs. Chile in the early game and Colombia vs. Uruguay in the latter.  I had gone to my local gym and was running on the treadmill, which conveniently has a television built into it.  So I watched a good portion of the early first half in the Brazil-Chile match, witnessing both goals that left the two teams tied one-to-one. I could tell by the way they were playing aggressively on offense (especially Brazil) that there would be a lot more goals scored in this match, but I had other things to do as I stepped off the treadmill, finished up in the gym, and then went grocery shopping.  As the afternoon wore on, I completely forgot about the World Cup.  Suddenly, though, it dawned on me that the first game should be over by then...so I checked it out on TV to see what the final score was.  To my amazement, it was still one-to-one...and this was after the thirty-minute overtime period following the ninety-minute regulation time!  It was my luck to witness the very beginning of the shootout that would ultimately determine the winner.  In such a shootout, which wasn't part of the previous group stage of the tournament since ties were allowed then, each team gets five shots on the opponent's goal (using a different player for each kick), with the ball placed just a few yards from the goal with only the goalie left to defend. As I watched it unfold, I could see that the whole process was more or less a guessing game on the part of the goalie to try to anticipate where the kicker would aim the shot...except for the couple of errant kicks that occurred. For the most part I didn't like this way of deciding such a hard-fought effort that emphasized teamwork to the extent that it did...although it WAS admittedly exciting.  Anyway, Brazil managed to prevail by one goal in the shootout when the final Chilean kicker hit the goalpost with his shot, which bounced narrowly away from the net and led to mass celebration among the Brazilians, on the field and off...  

The second game featured Colombia, led by young James Rodriguez, beating a Uruguay team that had lost its scoring leader Luis Suarez, who had been suspended for biting an Italian player in their previous game.  Still, Uruguay impressed me with their character as they came close to scoring several times in the closing minutes. Just as impressive was the Colombian goalie, who made several difficult saves...

I didn't just sit there all day today glued to the TV set watching soccer...I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it so much had I done so.  I just happened to be fortunate to have picked some of the most opportune moments in today's matches.  I wonder if my luck will hold up in tomorrow's games between the Netherlands and Mexico, and between Costa Rica and Greece.  I seem to have fallen into the pattern of rooting for teams from the Americas, so go Mexico and Costa Rica!

A couple more observations: in past World Cup tournaments, I had come to expect countries like Italy, England, and Spain to be powerful entrants challenging for the title.  Yet none of these made it past the group stage this time around! Startling.  Also, Colombia and the United States, two of the surprisingly successful teams so far, have coaches from Argentina and Germany, both strong soccer countries...

About to Start Reading Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes

When I found out a several weeks ago that Stephen King, currently my favorite author, was coming out with a new book, titled Mr. Mercedes, I went to my local public library's website and placed a hold on the book.  Even though the book hadn't yet been published, I still initially found myself far down on the waiting list.  Well, the book's been out for a few weeks and, apparently, my county library system had ordered several copies of it because I was notified yesterday that it was ready for me to check out.  Today I got it and plan to read a good portion during the weekend.

I read somewhere recently that Stephen King plans to make Mr. Mercedes the first book of a trilogy...I'm not so sure that I like that idea very much.  No offense to the "King" intended, but his track record in this area in somewhat inconsistent.  He stretched out the first four volumes of his seven-part Dark Tower series over more than twenty years...and then finished it by rushing through the last three in a two-year span!  And his collaboration with Peter Straub of the connected novels The Talisman and Dark House was even more unsettling: their publications were seventeen years apart!  But more than that, the ending to Dark House clearly sets the stage for a sequel, which thirteen years later I am still looking for and see no sign of. 

Yes, I'm a little bit dubious of Stephen King's track record with series...at least pertaining to the regularity of their publication through time... but I also understand that he was engaged in writing a lot of other high quality books in the interim periods.  It was a lot different for someone like J.K. Rowling, who was focused on writing the Harry Potter series to the general exclusion of other books...

U.S.A. Advances in World Cup by Goal Differential

I awoke late this afternoon (my sleeping hours conform to a late night work schedule) to discover that the two World Cup soccer games just held resulted in the United States squeaking through, on the basis of goal differential, to the next, so-called "knockout" round of the tournament.  The Americans, who lost a close 1-0 match with group winner Germany today, finished at 1-1-1, tied with Portugal, who narrowly edged last place Ghana 2-1.  But because Portugal had been routed by Germany 4-0 in their first World Cup game, they had been at a disadvantage to other teams with tiebreakers.  So Portugal sadly goes home, but the U.S. advances to play Belgium, the winner of their group.  I haven't seen Belgium play, but any group winner has to be pretty good...

The Germany-United States match was held in Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, which being closer to the Equator than, say Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paolo, does not enjoy the more temperate winter weather that the latter do in late June (we're talking the southern hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed).  Hot and muggy conditions...I hear the field was soggy...hampered the scoring.  This unpleasant environment may have aided the Americans by suppressing the scoring and keeping the Germans from piling it on as they had done with Portugal.  But I don't think a match has to be played near the Equator to cause this effect; I experienced much the same kind of stifling, humid weather yesterday afternoon when I went outside here in Gainesville to trim some bushes...

Tim Lincecum Pitches Another No-Hitter

I was in the process of e-mailing my home restoration contractor when, on my AOL site, they were reporting that San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum had gone seven innings against the San Diego Padres without yet giving up a hit.  So I quickly ended the necessary e-mailing and turned my TV on to the MLB channel, which naturally was focusing on the ongoing event at San Francisco's ball park.  Lincecum was the epitome of coolness, in spite of the overwhelming cheering and standing ovation of the home crowd, as he confidently mixed up his pitches against the hapless Padres batters in the eighth and ninth innings and quickly got out of the game, on only 113 pitches, with his second no-hitter in two years...both against San Diego.  He also shone at the bat, scoring two of San Francisco's four runs and getting a hit in the seventh inning.

Lincecum is both a two-time World Series champion (2010 and 2012) and a two-time Cy Young Award winner for best pitcher (2008 and 2009).  Now he can add "two-time no-hitter" to that impressive list of accomplishments.  He is one of those pitchers, though, that can go out the next time he's due to pitch and give up several runs. So you never quite know what you're gonna get when Tim is out there! But although I'm not exactly a Giants fan, Tim Lincecum is one of my favorite players to watch.  He sure came through today...

Just Finished Reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins, is fun to read.  Not only is it well written, but it is also relatively short!  Catching Fire, the second book in this dystopian futuristic young adult series, showcases protagonist Katniss Everdeen as she becomes a target for persecution by the malevolent Capitol cental government, headed by possibly the most evil antagonist I've ever read in President Snow.  You see, in the previous book she defied the Capitol and Snow by forcing them to allow not one, but two final surviving "victors" in the annual Hunger Games that are designed to intimidate the resentful, oppressed districts by forcing each of them to send two young people from each of them to fight each other to the death.  In Catching Fire, although Katniss is supposed to be enjoying the benefits associated with winning those "Games" the previous year, in fact President Snow has stepped up the persecution of its residents and is threatening her with retaliation for her actions in the Games.  And then Snow announces that the Hunger Games this year will feature entrants who were previous winners...throwing both Katniss and her partner/friend Peeta back into another version of the deadly games.  Only this time around, she notices that rebellions are beginning to take place in various districts against the Capitol.  Within the games themselves, she also discovers alliances that have been arranged behind her back with some of her opponents, leading her to an inner conflict between having to trust others and going it alone with Peeta. The Hunger Games go on in spite of all the rebellions on the outside, although the outcome is quite a surprise...as well as the book's ending, which naturally should lead directly into the final volume in the trilogy, titled Mockingjay.  I'm looking forward to getting hold of it and finding out what happens to Katniss and her friends and family...as well as the bad guys...

Iraq and the U.S., Leading to the Present

I don't think it would be much of an understatement to say that America is a war-weary country.  We have been actively involved in warfare abroad ever since the horrific 9/11 Muslim extremist terrorist attacks in 2001.  Our efforts have been concentrated in two countries: Afghanistan, whose then-Taliban-run government had given sanctuary to the Al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for planning the attacks...and Iraq, a country that, albeit run by a brutal anti-American dictator, had nothing to do with 9/11.  Most of our casualties in these conflicts, however, have arisen from Iraq...and not the invasion and initial takeover, per se, but rather the prolonged occupation and "nation-building" phase lasting several years.  In early 2003, as an ordinary citizen with neither access to classified information and analysis nor the authority to act on it, I was in a position where I felt the need to give my elected president the benefit of the doubt as he exercised his constitutional mandate as Commander-in-Chief to defend our country.  But once dictator Saddam Hussein was dislodged and no mass destruction weapons found, to stay there as long as we did...especially considering the fractured and mutually hostile ethnic and religious groups in Iraq...made very little sense to me.  As a soldier, it is very important to believe in the success of whatever mission they are given to perform. Unfortunately, due to no fault of their own, they were given a mission that involved creating a type of democratic civil society in a form which had never existed in that society and was alien to its people...something beyond their scope to handle.  Our troops were valiant and brave and deserve the highest of accolades (and post-combat support) for their service.  But our civilian leaders should be subject to criticism for having allowed this costly (both in terms of money and human lives) and ill-conceived occupation.

Now a Sunni extremist army has swept down from the northwest in Iraq and taken over much of the Sunni lands.  The Kurds and Shiites are mobilizing to defend their lands from invasion.  These groups seem to be thoroughly incapable of reconciliation with each other .  The only way they were able to get along before was under harsh authoritarian, dictatorial rule with a pervasive network of secret police and informants.  It looks to me as if these folks just need to split up and look after their own affairs...without imposing on each other under the guise of national politics.  I'd like to think that people with different ethnic backgrounds and religious customs can co-exist, but sadly there are some places on this planet where this simply isn't going to happen anytime soon. So, like Yugoslavia after dictator Tito died and that multiethnic and multireligious nation broke up into several smaller countries, Iraq may well be on a similar road...and if bloodshed can be minimized in the process, it may be the best solution for a very difficult situation...

Home Restoration Ongoing

This month we have been preoccupied with problems regarding our house.  The interior was flooded in some areas, which have to be restored.  The process is very time and attention-consuming, and the main work is yet to come.  We are using a contractor to do the work, which will take a few weeks to finish.  During this time we are making some improvements as well, especially in the area of space efficiency.  I'm not looking forward to the contractor performing the noisy work during the day when I have to get my sleep (I work a late night/early morning shift at my job), but after it's all over the house should be in a lot better shape...

Just Finished Reading Paolini's Brisingr

A few years ago, after putting down a book I was reading in frustration and walking away from it , I decided to give it another try...and just finished reading to completion Christopher Paolini's Brisingr, the third of four volumes in his Inheritance series.  This fantasy undertaking borrows greatly from established epics like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, but still manages to establish clearly definable characters, a workable fantasy world geography and history, and its own peculiar set of rules that govern the use of magic.  The hero, in this case a teenager named Eragon, is the typical fantasy-land reluctant savior figure: he just wants to live in peace, but circumstances and the enemy have set him up as the "one" on which rests the hopes of the rest of the world to live in freedom and justice.  I've read others who have criticized Paolini for sticking to this common formula in fantasy writing, but to me it's just standard fare, an accepted feature of the genre.  What does bother me with this Inheritance series of his is how it has become overbloated with excessive introspection and explanations among its characters to the detriment of the ongoing narrative.  This bogging down of the plot is why I abandoned Brisingr back then...but I came back to at least see the story through.  And now, there's only one more book left: Inheritance. 

The unusual name Brisingr, by the way, refers to a fire-starting magical utterance that Eragon learned from his mentor Brom in book # 1.  It gains a further usage in this book...toward its end.  Eragon is the last of the free dragon riders and has a close telepathic bond to his dragon Saphira.  Together they support a rebel group called the Varden, which is fighting to overthrow brutal King Galbatorix.  Eragon loves an elf woman named Arya who does not return his affections.  He also has a cousin named Roran, whose story stands as an interesting subplot.  Also, an enigmatic young man named Murtagh looks to be a "wild-card" character whose actions may ultimately determine the outcome of the struggle.  Is he on the enemy's side or is he with Eragon?  I'm sure the next book will tell all...I just wish it wouldn't beat around the bush in the process...

World Cup Getting More Interesting

A few days ago I remarked in an article that watching soccer on television wasn't very interesting.  But some of the recent games in the FIFA World Cup group stage have been exciting to behold.  That 2-1 American victory over Ghana on Monday was high drama, as well as the 0-0 defensive draw between Brazil and Mexico.  But I just finished watching what may have been the best match so far, as Uruguay scored a breakaway late goal to edge England 2-1.  Also interesting is that Luis Suarez, who scored both of Uruguay's goals,  has played on Liverpool in England's Barclay's Premier League.  Now it looks unlikely that England will advance and is destined, like Spain and Australia, to make an early exit from the World Cup. 

The United States will better learn whether or not it has a good chance to continue beyond the round-robin group stage when it plays Portugal this Sunday.  But although I naturally pull for the Americans, I am more interested in following the tournament and getting to know the sport better.  So even if the U.S. doesn't manage to advance, I'm still watching...

Sticking With Treadmill Running for Now

My running has remained indoors and probably will be for some time to come.  I have gotten myself into the routine of stopping by my local gym (Gainesville Health and Fitness) in the evening before going in to work my late night/early morning graveyard shift.  Perhaps the treadmill running isn't quite the same thing as pounding the pavement around my neighborhood, but at least for the time being, I have a couple of reasons of my own as to why sticking to the indoor treadmill is a better choice.  I am glad to have a place like this to go to, as it is usually open 24x7 (with some schedule adjustments for some major holidays), the treadmills are in great abundance with some available even during the busiest times, and unlike the previous gym I frequented, there is no time limit for use.  A bonus to this is that I can watch television while I run...usually a sporting event, like baseball, is on one of the channels.  Also, I have noticed that I generally tend to feel better reporting for work after a good treadmill run an hour or two beforehand...

Spurs Convincingly Beat Heat for NBA Title

The Miami Heat, in the just-finished National Basketball Association Championship Series against the San Antonio Spurs, were going for their third straight title and second straight series win against the Spurs.  But after the first two games, which the teams split and both of which were highly competitive, San Antonio shifted into a higher gear and routed Miami in the next three games, winning the series four games to one.  I was hoping that, in the last contest, the Heat would rise up to the occasion and would turn the series around.  It certainly started that way, with Miami, behind the efforts of their standout Lebron James, built up an impressive early 22-6 lead.  I watched that part of the game and then switched over to baseball on ESPN.  But at the bottom of the screen were game updates...which showed a strong Spurs comeback and, then, lead.  In the final three games, Miami seemed tired out by the speedy passing attack of San Antonio and too many times were just a step behind their opponents.  Dwyane Wade, one of Miami's "big three", seemed tired for much of the series.  Maybe he needs to examine where he's at after this season with his future.  I appreciate the three titles he helped bring to Miami, especially that exciting series in 2006 against Dallas in the pre-Lebron era.  There is a lot of speculation floating around as well as to whether James or Chris Bosh will remain on the team or try out their talents elsewhere.  But anyway I look at it, it's been a great run.  Speaking of great runs, the San Antonio Spurs have been incredible over the past several years, consistently winning at least 50 games every season and winning five titles.  Names like Duncan, Parker, and Ginobli now have a new addition: Kawhi Leonard, who sparked the Spurs series victory over the Heat...

Just Finished Reading Robert Jordan's The Shadow Rising

The other day I finally got around to completing my reading journey through Robert Jordan's long fantasy novel The Shadow Rising, which constitutes book four in his fourteen-volume The Wheel of Time series.  The Shadow Rising, as I had written a few days ago here, is a mix of interesting plot narrative and mired-down magical/historical/prophetic dogma, with different characters bringing out one emphasis over the other.  The main characters are divided into four different stories: the White Tower, where there is division about the Aes Sedai leadership (this is basically Min's story), the journey by Rand, Mat, Egwene, Moiraine, and company to the Aiel Wasteland to firmly establish Rand's status as the Dragon Reborn, the clandestine trip of Aes Sedai members Elayne and Nynaeve to a city where they suspect traitors within their sect to be active, and the attempt by Perrin and his love Faile to return to Perrin's original homeland of the Two Rivers to save the area from devastation by dark forces and a group calling itself Children of the Light.  For the most part, it was easy reading until I got to sections about Rand's adventures...I wonder how much more arcane information I'm going to be expected to ingest!  My favorite subplot was the one with Perrin and Faile, and how they relate to each other and eventually fall in love.

Originally pitting main hero Rand against main bad guy Ba'alzamon in the first couple of books, Jordan has introduced a layer of antagonists called the Forsaken, each of whom, although originally squarely on the Dark One's side, has his or her own individual agenda...and some even come to Rand's aid.  This naturally confuses the situation for Rand and his allies, for it's hard to discern where these people truly stand on things.  And it also, I'm beginning to suspect, conveniently enables Jordan to prolong his series by a few more books!

Not Quite Up to Speed Moving Around Facebook

Facebook is a very interesting application on my computer, without a doubt.  Different people have different uses for it, to be sure, but for most it is used as it was originally intended: a social network that allows friends from the present and past, as well as family, to keep in touch.  I haven't begun to explore all of the possible ways to use it, as others obviously have.  I know next to nothing about how others post videos or those "posters" with all the pithy sayings.  And all of the special little devices that Facebook provides its members to specialize in how they want to communicate...it's all beyond me.  Not that I won't eventually get around to knowing my way around Facebook, but for now I'm somewhat of a long-term novice.  And it doesn't get any better whenever I'm invited to play in one of the many games it features.

Maybe those games on Facebook are pretty fun to play, but I never got around to it.  The last time I tried to play one of them, which was yesterday, I must have pressed the wrong button and it went off my screen.  Oh well, better luck next time!  I'm curious, though...are these games of an interactive nature between the various participants or does each player just play independently and accumulate scores to later compare against other players?  I suppose that I can play one to find out, assuming I'm not so klutzy next time and wipe out the game again!

Right now, besides enjoying what others put out on Facebook, my main focus is to write daily blog articles and post links to them on Facebook.  You don't really need Facebook, though, to read it as it's published on Google's Blogger service.  But Facebook makes it much easier to access...

Soccer's World Cup Has Begun

The World Cup of soccer (for men), taking place every four years, started this past Thursday in Brazil, with matches in various stadiums across the country.  There are at this initial stage of the tournament 32 teams, distributed among eight four-team groups.  The United States made the field and shares a group with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana.  They will play their first game against Ghana on Monday.  Each team within the group will play the others, in round-robin fashion.  At the end of this, the top two in each group will advance in the Cup tournament to comprise the final 16.  Then, the winner of one group will be paired against the runner-up in another for the next round.  After that, the quarterfinals will narrow it down to four teams, the semi's down to two...and then the championship match will be held.

What I like about the World Cup's format...which distinguishes it, say, from our NCAA college basketball tournament, is that it doesn't have the "one-and-out" finality for teams suffering initial losses.  For example, the other day Spain suffered a very disappointing 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands.  But they're still in the running and can still advance if they play well in the remaining round-robin games.  I hear the U.S. is in a difficult group...but with this format they will at least get to play three games!

When I was a kid at school, we would have a time set aside each year in physical education class for playing soccer...although it was very loosely played.  It was my favorite sport in school, as I was pretty accurate with my kicking and could usually outrace the others to the goal.  I was a pretty decent goalie, too.  But then again, I never was involved in more organized soccer leagues that emphasized positions and enforced rules more strictly. 

As a spectator, though, I have to admit that I have trouble viewing soccer matches with anything resembling interest...and with more than a little confusion regarding some of the rules.  It looks to me as if the two teams just take turns kicking the ball back and forth down the field, with the very few goals that do occur looking almost accidental.  Of course, at the end of the day when they show the highlights of games, it looks like one endless stream of exciting goals, one after another...

About to Begin Reading Science Fiction Short Stories from 1961

I am about to start with another science fiction short story anthology, this one titled Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great SF Stories 23 (1961).  It is interesting that I drew this book at random out of my collection, for 1961 and the previous book's year, 1945, represent landmarks in recent history.  1961 was when President Eisenhower left office and John F. Kennedy began his term.  The very "hot" war, World War II, that was concluding in 1945 had transformed sixteen years later into an intense Cold War between the former allies, the US and USSR.  This competition extended into space, and the human presence out there began in 1961 with Alan B. Shepard and Yuri Gagarin from those respective countries.  President Kennedy then also proclaimed his famous goal of getting to the moon and back by the end of the decade.  It's too bad, but I can't see anything like this going on that could unite our country in these times.

With the different momentous news stories going on in 1961, it bears noting that I was thoroughly oblivious it all.  After all, I was only four years old when that year began...I didn't begin to become politically aware until JFK's assassination in November, 1963 (when I was at the ripe old age of seven).  At the start of 1961, my family (father, mother, my older sister Anita, and me) had just moved across the Dade/Broward county line from our former apartment in Opa-Locka (where my father worked as a letter carrier) to a modest little house in suburban West Hollywood, in a subdivision called Boulevard Heights.  Anita would attend Boulevard Heights Elementary School, which was only a couple of blocks from my house (both are still standing).  I had some friends around my block I would hang out with then, like Stevie and Jimmy and Danny (I was "Billy").  I didn't attend kindergarten and began the first grade in 1962, so in 1961 I stayed at home while Anita went to school.  I think during that time, if memory serves me correctly, my main fun activities were watching TV (especially game shows like Concentration), drawing on the walls with crayons, and leaving all of my toys lying around in disarray on the floor.  Good times, good times...

There are thirteen stories in The Great SF Stories 23 (1961); only one is written by an author from the 1945 edition: Isaac Asimov, who co-edited this series with Martin H. Greenberg.  However, I am familiar with some of the other authors, in particular Arthur C. Clarke of 2001: A Space Odyssey renown and Cordwainer Smith, who created what I regard as one of the most interesting and imaginative series of stories regarding future space exploration.  Also in the mix are familiar names like Poul Anderson, Anne McCaffrey, Frederick Pohl, and Cyril Kornbluth.  Kornbluth's, entry, a collaboration between him and Pohl, was published in 1961, three years after his death at the sadly young age of 35.  I have a collection of his short stories and may review it on this blog at a future date...

Baseball Bigger Than Rays Slump

This 2014 baseball season has reached the point when it is beginning to become a drag to follow my favorite team on its own radio or television network.  That team, the Tampa Bay Rays, is mired in a terrible slump and stands at 24-42 with the worst record in either league.  The main culprit in their slide has been a complete team collapse in hitting.  This is especially true when runners are in scoring position, with the Rays as a whole batting around .100 under those conditions during this time. This is essentially the same team that last year made a great late-season run to make the playoffs and then get to the American League Championship Series against eventual World Series winner Boston.  I commiserate with them about their troubles...but only up to a point.  In this game, you can't have winners without there being losers, and, well, it's well-nigh impossible to go on forever without having a dip every now and then.  I expect Tampa Bay to eventually get back on track, although probably the best they should be able to shoot for this season would be to get back to having a winning season...a formidable task at this point, to say the least.  But the main problem I have with their woes is the tendency of their play-by-play announcers and analysts to continually dwell on them instead of focusing on the game as it is being played.  I can handle the losses...what I don't want is this constant psychology of losing!

Lately I haven't had as much of an opportunity as earlier to just sit back and enjoy watching the games, half-inning by half-inning.  And that is more to how I like to approach baseball: up close, pitch-by-pitch.  It matters little whether it's a close game, a rout, the first inning, fifth, or in the twelfth, or whether the teams playing are winners or losers.  Sure, I recognize that those factors play a role in the strategy and "flavor" of the game as it is unwinding, but the main pleasure I get is observing the developing strategies employed by the pitching/fielding team and the batting team against each other within an inning as one tries to get the third out before the other can score...

Jordan's Wheel of Time Series Guilty of Information Overload

I am currently in the midst of a very long fantasy novel, which in itself is just one of fourteen novels in a series.  The author is Robert Jordan, the series is The Wheel of Time, and the novel is The Shadow Rising, the fourth installment.  Jordan has this tendency to inundate the reader with copious amounts of obscure and esoteric knowledge about his version of magic, prophecy, and fantasy world history.  It can get to be overwhelming at times, but I am learning to anticipate sections in the story that are most prone to this...and am relishing those other sections that just concentrate on the plot and character development. The main indicator to all of this is whichever character Jordan happens to be using at any given time to tell the story.  If it's Mat or Perrin, then I enjoy the narrative...mostly free from all the pretentious mumbo jumbo.  But if the characters are Rand (the Dragon Reborn) or any of the Aes Sedai women, then watch out...here comes a new flood of very crucial "facts".  I understand that, in all fantasy series, the author is committed to creating a separate, special world with its own history and dynamics...and there is a need to communicate its essence to the reader.  But dude, I'm drowning in this stuff!

It used to be that the character of Mat Cauthon irritated me to no end...that is, until I began to realize in the third book that the passages that featured him were relatively free of the cumbersome weight of new information.  Now, he is the character I like and identify with the most...while Rand, who is the series' chief protagonist, now seems distant and unapproachable.  The development of his character seems to come in leaps and bounds, often with little to explain his change.  I wonder, since this IS a very long series, with ten more books after this, whether the situation I've described with these characters will ever change and maybe, just maybe, Jordan will give us readers a break from the layer upon layer of background material...

Finally Finished Reading 1945 Science Fiction Anthology

It took a while, but I got around to finishing reading Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great SF Stories 7 (1945), an anthology of that year's best science fiction short stories, edited by Asimov  and Martin H. Greenberg.  The final two stories in it are De Profundis by Murray Leinster and Pi in the Sky by Frederic Brown.  These two writers had other entries in this book.  De Profundis presents the narrative from the point of view of a completely alien, waterbound life form that describes its encounter with humans.  Leinster did a masterful job of creating a sense of what intelligent life could be like elsewhere, and how that intelligence did not automatically mean that it would abide by the same moral codes that we have.  It packed a lot of message for such a short tale.  Pi in the Sky was more of a commentary on our capitalistic society with its heavy emphasis on advertising...put into a science fiction context.  For unfathomable reasons, the brightest stars in the night sky are suddenly drastically changing their positions...in apparent total disregard to the laws of physics and the barrier of the speed of light.  This story could not have been written nowadays in the science fiction genre, since authors now feel the need to convince and impress the reader with the scientific viability of their speculations.  Older writers like Frederic Brown and Ray Bradbury often produced science fiction without taking the "science" part of it into full account, not having been trained in the area like other writers.  But Pi in the Sky, like so many of Brown's other pieces, has one of those endings with a "kick" to it...and a message about how we look at things in "our" world.

Well, I suppose I can go back to my book chest and randomly draw out another year in science fiction to explore.  Wonder which one's gonna be next...

Yesterday's Disturbing Belmont Stakes

Yesterday, like so many others who were watching the Belmont Stakes on television, , I was rooting for California Chrome to pull out a victory and win the first Triple Crown in horse racing since 1978.  But alas, it was not to be, and Tonalist won a very close, exciting race.  California Chrome made a good run at it, but did not have the energy to overtake the leaders at the end and finished tied for fourth place.  I had watched the horses in the few minutes before the race and thought somehow that Tonalist needed watching...and that California Chrome was unusually relaxed, in contrast to its behavior before the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.  It was what happened immediately following the race, though, that bothered me...

First of all, I understand that the media was all focused on California Chrome since it was going for the big Triple Crown prize.  But once it had lost, the attention should have been directed at the actual winner, which was Tonalist.  Instead, the cameras almost completely ignored Tonalist, its jockey, trainer, owner...and went into a quick interview with the jockey for loser California Chrome.  They eventually interviewed Tonalist's jockey, who was very dignified and respectful.  Then they went over and interviewed California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn, who went on an angry rant, crying foul and accusing those who had entered horses just for the Belmont and not for the other two races as being cowardly.  Besides the very unsportsmanlike tone of his comments, I think that Coburn was a bit of a hypocrite, too.  His horse California Chrome had been running with the advantage of a special strip placed above his nose that helped with breathing.  The Kentucky Derby and Preakness had allowed it in their rules, but the Belmont would have prohibited it had it not changed its own rule on the subject just to placate the California Chrome people.  Yet Coburn, with this special favored treatment given him, chose to play the victim and self-righteous accuser...

Out of the eleven horses running in the Belmont, eight had run in neither the Kentucky Derby nor the Preakness.  So I suppose if Coburn had gotten what he wanted, it would have been a three-horse race!  But think about what he was proposing, which was that only horses that had run in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness could enter the Belmont: it would mean that the winner would only be facing horses it had already beaten...skewing the odds in its favor.

There is a big reason why winning the Triple Crown is a big deal.  It is because such an accomplishment is a rare event due to the difficulty involved.  Winning it means your three-year old thoroughbred is the de-facto world champion, beating all comers.  But were things rearranged to the way Coburn wanted it, we would end up with probably at least three to four Triple Crown winners a decade, making the feat virtually insignificant...

NBA Title Series: Lebron's Cramps Detract from Game One

I got to watch most of the first half of  Thursday's opening game in the NBA Championship Series between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.  For the most part, the game was very exciting and evenly played...until with a little more than four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, that is.  For then, Heat MVP Lebron James went down with severe leg cramps and had to sit out the remainder of the game.  San Antonio was able to capitalize on James being out and go on a late-game run, winning going away by 15 points.

I like both the Spurs and the Heat, and have some trouble deciding whom to pull for in this series.  But regardless, I want for the star players on both teams to be healthy and playing at their peak level.  Before last night's game, there was concern that Spurs guard Tony Parker, although set to play in it, was recovering from a sprained ankle.  But as it turned out, if he was feeling any pain from that injury during the game, he did a good job of hiding it.  That's not taking anything away from Lebron James, though.  Once you're down with that kind of leg cramp (which I'm personally familiar with), you are incapacitated, period.  James has shown this problem in the past, though, and some are expressing concerns that he hasn't been attentive enough to keeping his body hydrated.  The air-conditioning in the San Antonio arena went out during the game and temperatures soared, becoming a possible factor in his cramps. 

Hopefully, this will be the last time in this series that we see an important player on either team being sidelined like that.  To me, it detracted from the hard-fought and well-deserved victory that San Antonio achieved Thursday night, giving some Heat fans the opportunity to use their superstar's physical woes as an excuse for Miami's loss.  For even had James not suffered leg cramps, the Spurs were still surging at the end of that game.  I just want to see the best playing the best and then see what happens...

Just Finished Reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment

First of all, it's important to emphasize that the edition I read of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment was a translation into English, not the original Russian version.  So what came out sounding a lot like Charles Dickens may not have originally been written that way.  Dostoyevsky was a contemporary of Dickens and Crime and Punishment came out in 1866.  It portrays a Russian society (the setting here is Saint Petersburg, the capital then) stratified along lines of class and education.  There is a lot of talk going around about radically transforming society according to whatever ideology one holds to.  The protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, who sees himself as an intellectual, has come to the conclusion that, for the truly great, historically significant people like Napoleon, laws that bind others in society don't apply to them.  In a very faulty twist of logic, he then concludes that, in order to be truly great (like a Napoleon), he needs to prove to himself that he isn't subject to law, either.  So he decides to commit murder, using as his target a an elderly miserly woman pawnbroker with whom he has done business.  How this all comes off, and how well Raskolnikov is able to escape the consequences of his deeds, is something that I will leave for you discover for yourself, should you be interested in reading it.  There is more to this story, though, and the subplots, while all centering around Raskolnikov, also deal with his loyal friend Razumikhin, Raskolnikov's mother and sister (who is in a difficult wedding engagement situation), a married man who once tried to seduce Raskolnikov's sister while she was employed at his estate as a nanny, and the family of an alcoholic clerk with whom Raskolnikov once had a chance meeting in a bar.  Their lives all intertwine as the novel progresses, and each character seems to come out of their experiences with Raskolnikov as a changed person.

For himself, Raskolnikov is vain, arrogant, and impulsive...not the most likeable protagonist I've read. Still, just when he seems to be utterly despicable, he then commits truly sacrificial acts of kindness toward others.  I can see how an actor might relish the prospect of portraying him in a screen or stage adaptation.  As a matter of fact, there is so much dialogue here that it almost reads as a Shakespearean-type play...

My favorite character, though, in Crime and Punishment is the wily investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who reminds me a lot of the old TV sleuth Columbo in how he alternately disarms Raskolnikov with friendly exuberance and then subtly communicates something incriminating him...making Raskolnikov more and more nervous and uneasy. It makes me wonder whether the premise of that Columbo series wasn't at least partially based on this unforgettable character...

I suppose that, were I in a high school English class and asked to produce what I saw as a theme to Crime and Punishment, I just might salvage a "C" on my report by saying something like...the novel delves into the moral question of how important are the means taken in order to accomplish ultimately benevolent ends. Raskolnikov was definitely an "ends justify the means" kind of guy!  But then again, you never could know exactly what those English teachers wanted to hear from their students...

Heat vs. Spurs in NBA Final Series

Well, another entire year has come and gone, and here we are in the National Basketball Association final championship series, after all the analysis, speculation, and controversy...with the same two teams facing off.  And that's how it should be, with little to be surprised about.  These are the two best teams in the league right now. The Miami Heat are looking for their third straight championship while the San Antonio Spurs are looking for some "redemption" for their very close loss in the series to the Heat in 2013.  Leading up to this, I had been looking forward to the exciting matchups between Miami and Indiana, and between San Antonio and Oklahoma.  But unfortunately, with only a couple of exceptions, the games were rather lop-sided with one team dominating the other.  I would have preferred game after game coming down to the final minute or two.  I'm especially disappointed with the Thunder, who had a bit of difficulty on defense containing the Spurs. 

The first game between the Heat and Spurs will take place on Thursday at San Antonio.  I probably won't get to see much or any of it, and I have no idea who'll win the game or the series...

Still More Great Science Fiction Short Stories from 1945

As I approach the end of my reading of The Great SF Stories 7 (1945), here are three more stories, two of which I've already discussed written by the same authors.  Murray Leinster, who also wrote First Contact, has his second (of three) entries in this anthology with Into Thy Hands.  It, to me, is an unsatisfactory account of how a very religiously dogmatic fifteenth-century people handle the concept of advanced extraterrestrial life and its advanced technology.  Of course, as predictable as it could be, they are close minded and call everything the works of the devil!  Ho-hum, once I saw the pattern developing here the story became pointless...it was a chore to read it through...but I did.  The next story, Giant Killer by A. Bertram Chandler, is more of a novella than a short story and relates the violent struggle for power of a very brutal society of "people" living in a very enclosed environment and how their leader finally comes to terms with their ultimate enemies, the "giants", who live out in the great open area.  In the introductory comments, co-editor Martin H. Greenberg refers to Giant Killer as an example of a "closed universe" story.  Ultimately, that "universe" is revealed, as well as the true nature of the protagonists.  Thumbs up from me, although it is a little long (but from no fault of the author).  The final tale is by Henry Kuttner and is titled What You Need.  If you're a fan of the old Twilight Zone television series, this title may ring a bell: this is actually the story that episode is based on...although the characters and plot are a bit different.  The same theme is present in both versions, though: a strange man has the knack for looking into the future and determining different people's needs for upcoming situations.  What he gives (on Twilight Zone) or sells (this short story) is often puzzling, like an egg or a pair of shears.  By the way, elsewhere in this anthology is Kuttner's story Camouflage and his collaboration with his wife Catherine L. Moore titled The Piper's Son (written under the pseudonym Lewis Padgett).

I have just two more stories to go before I finish 1945 and start on another year of great science fiction short stories...

What Really Bugs Me About Major League Baseball

It's getting to be the time of the year when some Major League Baseball teams are feeling the pressure of having their seasons start to slip away from them.  The Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks must all feel as if their backs are up against the wall.  Anything less than a solid winning trend over the course of the next few weeks will probably seal the season for them, with little hope for subsequently making the playoffs. I didn't put the Houston Astros or Chicago Cubs on that list because they most likely weren't expecting to be in the running anyway, and the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox have already begun to dig themselves out of the bottom and back into the hunt.  And in the National League East, only five games separate all of the teams in that bunched-up division, so the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets don't need to panic yet. But I'm especially concerned about the Rays, who seem to be in an overall team slump, neither hitting, fielding, nor pitching well.  You can't explain it by saying that they had some injuries: EVERYBODY'S had injuries...but the winners are getting around them.  Still, the stress of the Rays and some other teams doesn't really detract from my enjoyment of the game...but I'll tell you what does...

I am sick and tired of these asinine petty little feuds going on between players and teams. Earlier, in a game between Tampa Bay and Boston, Rays shortstop Yunel Escobar stole third base late in a game that they were leading by five runs.  This instantly infuriated the Red Sox players, "unpleasantries" were loudly exchanged, and before you knew it, the benches were emptying out.  Then, during the yesterday's game as Escobar was completing an easy force-out on Boston reserve player Mike Carp at second base, Carp deliberately tried to slide in, off the base and at Escobar's legs, well after the play was over.  Escobar just leaped over this provocative maneuver and walked away as if nothing had happened.  Earlier in that same game, Rays pitcher David Price, very obviously in deliberate fashion, hit Boston slugger David Ortiz on the hip, most likely in retaliation for Ortiz having stood too long at the plate admiring his home run off Price in last years League Championship Series.  As a fan, I don't get either of the so-called offenses that had been "committed" by Escobar or Ortiz.  Having only a five-run lead, even going into the final inning, is no sure thing, and as a fan I expect the winning team-at-bat to do whatever it takes to add to that lead...and that means scrapping for every base they can get. I mean, why should anyone even remain in the ball park as a paying fan in the latter innings if the players are all just supposed to be sweet and cuddly with each other?  Now THAT'S offensive!  And regarding sluggers standing there for a moment at the plate admiring their home runs, what's wrong with that?  Ortiz wasn't rubbing it in on Price...he was putting on a show for the fans, which they love.  These players need to get off their collective high horse and begin to recognize that they are just coming off of their behavior looking like a bunch of touchy prima donna multimillionaire crybabies... 

My May 2014 Running Report

A month ago, I had, as a goal for May, for me to cover more miles per run.  Although I haven't gotten the distance to between 5 and 10 miles, as I want, I did make an improvement, with me running a couple of times for 4 miles and amassing more than 3 on several occasions.  I ran on every day in May and had a total running mileage for the month at 103.3 miles.

Lately, my running has been more of an exercise routine than before, when I was striving for new personal records and participating in various races.  But I'll accept that, for it's still doing me some good.  Before March 2013, when my work schedule changed, I used to run late in the morning when the humidity had finally dropped to an acceptable level but the temperature had yet to heat up too badly.  And on weekdays, my neighborhood had very little traffic to contend with at that time of the day, so it made running more pleasant as well.  Nowadays, though, after I wake up and am the most prepared to go running, it is mid-to-late afternoon.  There is a lot of traffic then and it is usually the hottest time of the day, not to mention more likely to be raining than before, when I would run in late morning. 

So for June, my running goals are to continue to exceed my monthly target of 100 total miles.  I'm not, however, going to pressure myself to run every day.  Instead, I want to have more of a pattern of alternating days in which I run longer distances with days in which I run little or not at all.  Should be interesting...

The Government Knows It All and Won't Tell Us...Sure

I was listening again on the radio to George Noory's Coast-to-Coast AM late, late night show...which probably isn't the healthiest thing in the world to do...when he had as his guest Linda Moulton Howe.  Howe is a regular on the program and presents herself as an investigative reporter about topics in line with the show's themes: the paranormal, UFO's, conspiracies, etc.  I'd characterize her approach as distinctively sensationalist and encourage anyone hearing her reports to take them with a grain of salt.  The other night she was going on strong with a report about a hybrid breeding program that supposedly had been going on for decades between the U.S. government and reptilian aliens from Zeta Reticuli (somewhere out there in the great beyond).  She interviewed a woman who claimed to see one of these human/alien hybrids, but apparently the government was covering up everything about the program because there was no record of the people she claimed to be involved in it.  I've heard this sort of dumping on the U.S. government on this show before, whether the discussion was about UFO/alien contact disclosure, chem-trails, remote viewing, assassination conspiracy theories, secret societies, reverse engineering, strange disappearances, or whatever the guest of the night happened to be pushing as a topic (often with a book that he or she was touting).  It seems to me that anyone can claim anything, no matter how ridiculous it is, insist that the government is involved in it, make up any details they want to, and then accuse the government of engaging in a cover-up when, surprise, there doesn't seem to be any record substantiating the claims or of the people supposedly involved.  What would folks like George Noory and many of his guests (but not all of them, thankfully) do without our good ol' federal government to scapegoat?  They'd maybe have to go into something more (shudder) honest ...

The truth, I'm sure, is that our government does keep secrets, some of which may be necessary for our national security and some of which are possibly just self-serving.  I don't have a problem with legitimate journalists going out to gather specific information on improper government cover-ups.  But what I often hear on Noory's show sounds like a lot of nonsense that is also self-serving for those who perpetuate it...

The End Times, As I See It

I usually don't listen very much to George Noory's late night radio show Coast-to-Coast AM, but last night he had as a guest someone who was discussing a broad range of topics, which included the "end times".  Although it wasn't his main point of the interview, he brought up the same point of view that I have long held...

Many people... too many, in my opinion... cling to the desperate hope that we in this present world of ours are in something they call the "end times" or "final days".  Usually, this involves a Christian eschatological perspective and the books of Revelation and Daniel figure heavily in their analysis of current events and trends that they interpret to be biblically relevant. Things are going to keep getting worse and worse...until Jesus comes back on Earth to set things right, overthrowing the bad guys and keeping his people with him for a glorious thousand-year reign...after which the Final Judgment will take place.  I would personally be more interested in all of this were I, like the elves in much of fantasy fiction, essentially immortal.  But I have my own individual "end times" and "final days".  Besides, doesn't being a saved Christian mean that Jesus has already become my savior and that the Holy Spirit dwells within?  Whether I die today, next year...or I live to be 120, my end times on Earth are quite probably independent of most of what goes on elsewhere.  Which may be the key to why at least some are so concerned about apocalyptic prophecy...

During our brief span of life here on Earth, we come to share our time with others and have family, friendships, and associations.  We're all contemporaries...but each of us entered life one-by-one (unless we're twins, triplets, etc.) and each of us will leave it the same way.  I believe that a lot of people are fearful of dying anyway, but the idea of dying while life continues as usual for the rest of the world is unbearable for them.  So it is a comfort to feel that when they go, so will pretty much the rest of the known universe.  That's why it is almost unheard of for people to discuss "end times" as being far off in the distant future, beyond their own individual life spans.  They are in essence projecting their impending personal "end times" to everything else...

I'm not saying don't read the Bible and try to understand and live out its meanings.  What I am saying is that I don't think that it is a productive exercise to obsess about world events and the return of Jesus...especially if you have already invited him into your life as your lord and savior.  If you are already there, you don't need to be elsewhere!

Gainesville Needs a Bus Route Spanning West 34th Street

Florida's State Route 121 is a pretty interesting stretch of road.  For one, its name transcends state lines: as you go north on it into Georgia, you find yourself driving down Georgia State Route 121.  Then, as you keep going on, across the Georgia/South Carolina state line, you're then on South Carolina State Route 121.  It finally ends just a few miles south of the North Carolina border, not far from Charlotte.  Usually, the numbers of state routes change from state to state, but SR 121 goes through three of them.  It also goes straight through my home town of Gainesville, Florida, with the more commonly used name of West 34th Street. 

I live just a couple of blocks from Northwest 34th Street, in far northern Gainesville.  My workplace is on the far southern fringe of Gainesville, but on the same street: Southwest 34th Street (SR 121).  This is a very important, heavily traveled road that connects the northern to the southern part of the city.  Yet in the 37 years I have lived here, my city bus service has deliberately avoided servicing a giant area surrounding the middle part of this crucial traffic artery.  Instead of there being a route that goes straight up and down West 34th Street, one has to plot a very circuitous route to get from the north to the south (or the reverse) on it.  For example, were I to take the city bus from near my home to where I work, both of which lie on the same street, I would end up taking an hour and a half to cover the 7.5 miles on the bus.  Simply driving my car, though, is about a 20-minute proposition.  Guess which choice I make?  Even when I ride my bicycle, it only takes about 40-45 minutes max, and I own a very cheap, ramshackle bicycle!  But wait...even if I ran down 34th Street to my destination, I'd still beat out the bus!

My city bus service goes out of its way to cater to the University of Florida student needs...I don't mind that because they pay for it up front with their fees.  But permanent Gainesville residents should have a say in the route and schedule creation process as well.  Were there a route that just ran up and down West 34th Street, I would make liberal use of it, to the point where I would definitely purchase a long-term pass.  With the current situation, nobody wins...

Just Finished Reading the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is the first novel in a trilogy with the same name.  It is in the science fiction/adventure/young adult genre of fiction and involves another of those strange, dystopian societies of the future which develops following a cataclysmic apocalypse.  North America is divided into twelve districts, tightly controlled and oppressed by the dominant center (around Denver) called The Capitol.  In the past, the districts had rebelled against their rule and, after having been conquered (and a thirteenth district completely obliterated), an annual punishment was set up to remind them of their subservient status.  Each year, each district is to supply, by the drawing of a teenage boy and a teenage girl as "tributes" to play against those selected from the other districts in a contest-to-the-death, called the "Hunger Games", in which the lone survivor brings material prosperity to their home district.  The story, written in the first person by protagonist Katniss Everdeen, describes how her little sister is selected and she volunteers to stand in for her as a contestant.  Katniss is in District 12, corresponding roughly to Appalachia, and in which the main economy is coal mining.  She is an expert hunter with the bow and arrow and is at home in the forest.  This will do well for her in the struggle to come. 

The Hunger Games are not just a matter of survival against others: the Capitol leaders have made this event into a highly political national media extravaganza, with the entrants treated like celebrities and coached into how to present themselves to the public...even in the middle of their desperate fight for survival.  There is obviously something highly allegorical about all of this...I don't think I'll have to wait too long before some of this sinks in for me.  I already have a couple of ideas: one concerns society's almost obscene fixation on reality television with its characters and their contrived personalities and relationships, and the other concerns the truly obscene specter of young people in economically depressed areas feeling compelled to enlist in the military and go off to war just to be able to make a living.

The characters in The Hunger Games are quite compelling and unforgettable.  I haven't seen the movie version yet and now look forward to seeing how it portrays them.  But regardless how it all turns out, I don't think I will be satisfied at the end of this trilogy if the Capitol and its despicable despots aren't completely and utterly wiped out...

Just Finished Rereading Christopher Paolini's Eldest

Still plugging away at Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle series of four fantasy novels, I just completed, for the second time, book #2, titled Eldest.  In it, young Eragon, along with his psychically-connected (to him) and talking dragon Saphira, go northward to live with the elves for a while and undergo training to improve their magical powers and develop a workable philosophy for dealing with both magic and war.  And it is war that he is facing, as his enemy Galbatorix is marching south to invade rebel-supporting Surda and crush the Varden rebel force there.  Meanwhile, Eragon's cousin Roran is trying to rescue the people of their hometown of Carvahall from the evil and (pretty scary) Ra'zac  by evacuating them and taking them to Surda on a boat.  Roran's trials are interesting; Eragon's training is boring.  But it all comes to a head at the climactic end of the story, which I have to admit pleasantly surprised me when I first read it years ago.  In Eldest, Paolini inserted a great theme: friends becoming enemies and enemies become friends. It set the stage for the next novel, titled Brisingr (named after a word of magic used in the series).  Brisingr was supposed to be the third novel in the originally-planned trilogy, but regrettably, Paolini decided he needed two books to express all he wanted for the series conclusion. I haven't yet read the last book, titled Inheritance, but Brisingr was so boring the first time around that I left it halfway through.  This time, though, I'm going to finish it!  But first, I'm taking a little detour by next reading the first book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, aptly titled The Hunger Games (I deliberately avoided the movie in order to read the book first)...

America Back on the Moon

Sometimes I think that people, when regarding other spherical celestial bodies like the moon or Mars, tend to impose their sense of scale based on what the Earth is like.  It's easy to do this, especially with the moon, as it truly looks from our vantage point like a worthy counterpart to our own planet, albeit a very dry and desolate counterpart.  The truth is, though, that it is much, much smaller than Earth...how much smaller, you ask?

If you were to impose a map of the continental United States on one showing the visible lunar surface, with the same scale of distance for each map, the U.S. would essentially cover most of it and would span the horizons from east to west!  Think of Miami being near one horizon and, traveling in a west-northwestward direction, Seattle would be clear on the opposite lunar horizon!  That, my friends, is pretty small...and once you realize this, then look out at the moon your next opportunity and you just might come to the same conclusion that I did.  Which is that our moon is a lot, lot closer to us than it seems!

By the way, regarding that superimposed map of the America on the moon, try this link to see
what I mean: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/moon-scaling

I'd like to believe that my article's title wasn't so misleading, that we were actually going back to the moon.  Frankly, I don't see why they couldn't just send a couple of modest missions up there each decade, just to remind the folks out there that we still have the capability to get there and back.  I would have preferred we did what our previous president, George W. Bush, had set into motion, which was to work to set up a permanent base there.  But our current president Barack Obama scrapped that plan almost immediately upon taking office...and we're now going nowhere in a hurry...

More on My Radio Listening Options

I was writing a few days ago about how one of my local radio stations around Gainesville, 100.5/WHHZ/"The Buzz", switched its musical programming format back to independent/alternative and away from the hard rock it had been exclusively playing for about six years.  Well, after listening to it for a while, I have to make a slight correction in my assessment...

It's true that WHHZ is playing more of what I would deem to be indie/alternative music, but they are also continuing with some of the harder stuff...of which, incidentally, I also approve!  Recently, I wrote an article praising the old Seattle grunge band Soundgarden, so knowing that this station will also play some of their material, along with other acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, and Linkin Park, adds to the appeal of its programming.  Of course, this tends to thin out the more indie type music that I'm likely to hear...so perhaps I should keep up with my Internet listening as well.  Also, the signal from WHHZ is relatively weak, and I can't pick it up on my MP3 player.  Instead, it is on my personal push-button radio station rotation when I'm driving. 

Speaking of my favorite stations while driving, what are they?

AM: 850 WRUF and 1230 WGGG (both sports)

FM: 100.5 WHHZ and 102.9 WOKV (both alternative rock)

Also on FM: 104.9 and 105.9 (oldies), 97.3 and AM-980 (conservative talk), 89.1 (public radio), and 90.5 (traditional Christian music).

Note that nowhere among my favorites are stations playing country and western, hip-hop/rap, electronic "party", or "top forty"  hit music.  Please also note that this is no accident, since I tend to steer clear of that stuff.   I also tend to shy away from contemporary Christian music in favor of hymns and older songs of faith, so I clearly prefer the 90.5 (BBN) station to the one on 91.7 (Joy-FM). There used to a station on AM-1390 that had liberal talk programming, but it seems to have left the air.  As did Alan Colmes and his evening show that used to be on AM-980. That's a shame: I like hearing different perspectives on the news and issues, not just one side slamming the other. In this area broadcast radio is abominably inferior to other types of media.

I don't listen all that much to the radio...except perhaps when I'm driving, so I really don't need too many good stations to listen to.  Well, let's be frank: I really don't need ANY of them...if they all went off the air tomorrow I don't see how my life would suffer at all!  After all, most of my favorite songs nowadays I have never heard played on the radio (and probably never will).  As a matter of fact, I can easily get all of just about anything I would want from radio off the Internet and television, and to a more satisfactory degree at that...