Watching Some European Soccer Analysis on ESPN Yesterday

Yesterday I was watching a soccer show (analysis, not actual games) on ESPN.  The topic was the UEFA Champions League, where top European league teams cross their respective league boundaries and play each other, setting up intriguing speculation as to which leagues are the most competitive.  So far, teams like Bundesliga's Bayern Munich, (Barclay's) English Premier League's Chelsea, La Liga's Real Madrid and Barcelona, La Ligue's PSG (Paris-St.Germain), and other teams like Italy's Roma and Portugal's Porto are doing well (although Roma is in a very competitive group and struggling for advancement into the next "knockout" round).  Although I prefer to watch full games as they are being played, I did enjoy the highlights that this show presented...expecially the games between Manchester City and Bayern Munich, and between Barcelona and APOEL (of Cyprus).  The former, between two major league champions from last year, featured an upset comeback win for "City", while Barcelona, with its superstar lineup of Messi, Neymar, and Suarez, won easily (with Messi performing another hat trick while making it all look like a walk in the park).  It made me once again wish that I had regular access to the Bundesliga and La Liga games besides the MLS, Liga MX (Mexico), and English Premier League games that I do get.

Speaking of MLS and Liga MX, the two major soccer organizations for North America, they have features to their seasons that bother me: post-season playoffs.  It reminds me of the other sports over here like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, where teams can clearly demonstrate their superiority (or inferiority) in the long regular season over a span of many games and then essentially have to start all over in the league championship playoffs.  I like the fact that the winner of the regular season across the Atlantic in the Premier League or Bundesliga IS the league champion...as it should be...

Gators Left With Big Chance to Upset 'Noles

The University of Florida and Florida State University football games have had very different football seasons this year.  The Gators, having suffered through a miserable 4-8 season last year, were looking forward to a reasonably successful year this time around, even with many expecting them to win their SEC East Division.  Instead, they stumbled and fumbled around to the point where they are now left with a 6-4 mark and out of the running in their division, but already qualified for a minor post-season bowl game in late December or early January.  They have only one game left before then: next Saturday in Tallahassee against FSU. The Seminoles, on the other hand, are coming off a perfect, undefeated national championship season in 2013 and are still unbeaten so far this year.  They are thick in the running for the national championship playoffs, but because their strength of schedule in the Atlantic Coast Conference is relatively low, they probably need to win both of their next two games to stay in the hunt.  The first of these is the aforementioned matchup against Florida and the second is the ACC Championship game.  Florida has nothing to lose against FSU; even Will Muschamp, their head coach, is leaving after the game regardless of the outcome.  But Florida State has everything to lose in this game..and they already have come excruciatingly close to losing earlier games against Clemson, Louisville, and Miami. They are very clearly, despite having won all of their games so far in 2014, not anywhere near as impressive as last year's team.  Florida has what it takes to beat their cross-state rival, which may be looking ahead to their conference championship game the following week.  I give the Gators a good chance to pull out all the stops and pull off the upset...

Just Finished Reading Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land

The Magician's Land is the final book in Lev Grossman's Magicians series.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of this very irreverent and adult foray into the fantasy genre, I was eager enough to start into the final book as soon as I was aware of its publication (I don't keep up too well with when new books come out).  But first I felt the need to go back through the first two books to refresh my memory (I wonder how many other readers of series do this).  Now, I've finished The Magician's Land and have to admit to a sense of satisfaction about it all.  The only problem is, there is no way I can adequately describe the plot to the story in this book without not only giving it away, but also giving away what happened in the first book (The Magicians) and the second (The Magician King).  But I can still provide some general reactions I got from it...

The chief protagonist in the Magicians series is a young man named Quentin Coldwater.  Early in the first book, while thinking that he was going to a Manhattan-based interview for admission into an Ivy League college, Quentin suddenly finds himself whisked off to a mysterious campus in upstate New York, where he is tested for admission into Brakebills, an academy designed for training magicians.  And by magicians, I don't mean the showmen who ply their tricks before an audience, but rather people who possess magical abilities, like the wizards in the Harry Potter series.  For a while, it looked as if Grossman was going to provide a more adult counterpart of Rowling's Hogwarts Academy, but as the story progresses a different target of imitation is revealed: C.S. Lewis and his fantasy world of Narnia.  Only in Quentin's world, the stories he grew up loving were about an imaginary land called Fillory.  And now I'm at the point where I feel a little reticent about describing what happens next.  But you might well imagine that Quentin has his friends, enemies, mentors, love interests, and many, many mysteries to solve.  Through his losses, as well as his victories, he grows up and discovers himself and what's important in life (and what isn't).  So in an important respect, this series is about someone growing up from an immature adolescent mindset into a caring, mature adult.  Only with Quentin, what he does has an enormous impact on his friends, foes, and surroundings...after all, he turns out to be no mediocre magician.

I think you'd enjoy Lev Grossman's Magicians series if you liked reading through the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia series (and I mean READING, not just watching the movies)...in an important sense, these three series are not as much about the "magic" as much as they are about how people's characters, especially as they pertain to aspects of personality like jealousy, loyalty, regret, courage, sacrificial love, idealism, cynicism, timidity, and boldness, affect each other and the world...and how they can change within individuals over time, especially after they endure personal storms, some of them devastating in nature...

I will make one comment about the ending to The Magician's Land: I don't know whether Lev Grossman intended it to be this way, but it did bring a satisfying sense of closure to the series for me...although it did leave the door open wide enough to start a new one based on where things left off, should the author wish it.  After all, it wouldn't be the first time a writer came back to tack on additional books to an already-concluded series (Terry Goodkind and Brandon Sanderson are doing this as I write)...

College Football Full of Disappointments

Please forgive me for a little cynicism here...but college football, as in all other sports, produces an unpleasant side effect among its fans.  After all, since it's no fun watching a game without caring who wins, it stands to reason that people eventually start rooting for their favorite teams.  The biggest prize of all at the end of the season is the national championship, so disappointment #1 occurs usually very early on when one's team has already suffered a couple of losses and that lofty goal seems to have passed by.  For them, the next goal is for their team to win their conference's division...which they probably won't, resulting in  disappointment #2.  Then their hopes fall back on at least mustering up a non-losing record, which will give them a post-season bowl bid.  And then maybe they don't get that far, either: disappointment #3.  But for the teams that at least get a bowl bid, half of them will lose that game, ending their season on a disappointing (#4) note.  For the teams that are fortunate and skillful enough to win a conference division title, half of them will spend the off-season ruminating about losing the championship game (disappointment #5).  Then, for the fans of the conference champions, those who are excluded from the four-team national championship playoff will be disappointed (#6).  Of the four remaining teams, three will lose (#7,8, and 9) leaving only one team each year that the fans can fully celebrate without disappointment.  But no, although they may temporarily feel great, even these are now burdened with unrealistically high expectations for their team in the future...anything short of a national championship will now feel something like a failed season, a disappointment for years to come...

Just Finished Reading Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë wrote one famous book before her sad, premature death at age 30: it was the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, set in rural England in the late 18th century and the start of the 19th.  It is a curiously presented story, told in the first person by an outside character named Lockwood who happens to be residing for a short period on the estate that the story centers around.  However, most of the tale comes out, once again in the first person, as housekeeper Nelly Dean lays out the history of the families involved.  Lockwood, a new tenant on the property, is entranced by her story, as his first impression of his host, a Mister Heathcliff, is traumatic from his poor treatment after a visit to the latter's home on Wuthering Heights...being attacked by his dogs and treated disrespectfully, both by Heathcliff and his employees and relations.  Among these are Healthcliff's sullen daughter-in-law Cathy, an uncouth young man named Hareton Earnshaw, and a cranky old man named Joseph. Nelly herself works at the house Lockwood is staying at, but her personal history is all about Wuthering Heights, having grown up there with Heathcliff and his family...if you can honestly call it "his" family.  Oh, and there also seems to be a ghost lurking around the place named "Catherine"...and Heathcliff knows all about it after Lockwood loudly screams out in his sleep, thinking he dreamed about seeing her. Yes, there is a rather complicated background to the present circumstances...and why exactly is Heathcliff such a vindictive and viciously rude man?  Nelly lays it all out in her tale to Lockwood...

Wuthering Heights is a story about two neighboring families, the Earnshaws and Lintons.  They both have a sense of nobility about themselves, which contributes to the developing problem as the elder Earnshaw one day brings home from Liverpool a homeless "gypsy-like" little boy (Heathcliff) that he adopts as his own son and showers favoritism upon, to the disadvantage and envy of his biological son.  The resentment between the two boys grows into full-blown mutual hatred, and the two spend the remainder of their lives deliberately undermining the dreams and hopes of the other, purely out of spite.  Then Heathcliff has to deal with his affections for Catherine, his "sister", who has gone over to the Linton's and married into that family.  More resentment, hatred, jealousy, regret, revenge...a vicious cycle that consumes Heathcliff and condemns him to being seen as something of a monster to those around him ...and ultimately destroys him.

There's something rather easy about looking about how other people dwell upon the past in their lives in an unhealthy manner, but it's often hard to see the same thing in one's own life.  But this book definitely made me wonder if maybe I had better take a hard look at my own life and see if I might be holding on to some negative, harmful (to me) grudges...

B-r-r-r, Cold Nights Ahead in Northern Florida

Winter is descending on us early this year, with a severe cold front sweeping through yesterday, featuring a strong squall line putting everyone on alert at about 1:10 in the afternoon.  Since then, the forecast lows for the upcoming days and nights have gradually tilted toward colder conditions.  This morning it got down into the low 40's, which wasn't so bad...I wish that's as low as it would go, though.  Tonight here in Gainesville we're going to have a hard freeze, with a predicted low of 24-25 (for my millions of European readers, that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius).  Another hard freeze is due again the following night, and possibly the next as well.  All of this coldness will be dry, though, as it usually is this far south.

I like cold weather, but not past the freezing point.  I imagine that the folks living up north are due for their annual laugh at the expense of us southerners who complain about conditions that they would regard as mild, especially considering the complete absence of snow or ice here.  And a little further up north, where there is precipitation? No doubt, once again the news shows will soon be highlighting the numerous traffic accidents around Atlanta that take place this time of year when drivers unprepared for wet wintertime conditions encounter icy, frozen roads and begin to slip and slide...

Just Finished Reading Ray Bradbury's Farewell Summer

First of all, let me warn the reader that, although I usually try to leave the ending of books I read out of my reviews in order to avoid "giving it away", this time around I made an exception.  So if you haven't yet read Ray Bradbury's novel Farewell Summer and are thinking of doing so, you might want to put off reading this article until afterward...

Back when I was in high school, I read Ray Bradbury's short novel Dandelion Wine.  For some reason, the paperback book cover depicted it as some kind of scary science fiction/horror story.  Nothing could be further from the truth: it was a nostalgic journey by Bradbury back to his childhood days, about a boy like himself growing up in a small Illinois town back in the late 1920's.  To this day I regard it as one of my favorites.  Dandelion Wine was published in 1957, and a sequel, titled Farewell Summer, came out in 2006.  In it, the protagonist, Douglas Spaulding, has aged a few years and is now 14.  His younger brother, Tom, is 12.  The two, along with their buddies, are waging "war" against the old people, who they suspect of never having never been young and of conspiring against the children.  So, in this "war" of theirs, they do foolish things like steal the chess pieces which Douglas says the elderly are using to control them, as well as break the town clock in order to keep time from making them older.  The elderly folk in town are largely unaware of the kids' concerns...except for Quartermain, who thinks that Douglas murdered his elderly hypochondriac friend by shooting a cap gun at him (causing a heart attack) and was trying to kill him by running over him with his bicycle.  Quartermain, after open hostility and suspicion toward Douglas and his friends, eventually decides to try a different tactic and be nice to them.  As the book draws to an end, he realizes that, never having married or had children of his own, he has missed out and forgotten what it is like to be young like the boys.  Finally, in an enigmatic twist at the book's end, Bradbury implies that there is a mysterious "spirit" of sexuality that the outgoing generation transfers to the emerging one.  I found this part at the end to be somewhat weird...and ultimately hilarious.  I think a lot of that was in the wording Bradbury used.  Another, rather serious flaw I saw in the book was how he made children in the 12-14 age range think and speak more like 6-8 year olds...

If you have read Dandelion Wine, which to me is a complete story in itself, and think that you're going to get the same quality story in Farewell Summer, be forewarned: it isn't.  Instead, it is a more philosophical discussion on aging, generation gaps, and the passing on of the "torch of life", so to speak, from one generation to another.  Not a bad topic for discussion, but in my opinion Bradbury went about it in the most annoying way possible.  Then again, you may think differently if you read it...

Gators' "Swamp" a Nemesis for Home Team

It used to be that playing football games at the University of Florida's home Ben Hill Griffin stadium, nicknamed "The Swamp", was an almost insurmountable obstacle for the visiting team.  Now it seems that the home team is having issues with it.  In the Gators' last four games, one was on the road (Florida win, 34-10), one was at a neutral site (Florida win, 38-20), and two were at home (both Florida losses, 42-13 and today's overtime loss to South Carolina, 23-20).  And it's not a matter of opposing teams coming in here and playing over their heads: their play, if anything, has been unimpressive.  Instead, it's been Florida that has stumbled and faltered with turnovers, penalties, and disastrous lapses in special teams play.  To me, that's a sign of slipshod coaching...

I wrote a couple of days ago that Florida still had a shot at the SEC title...now they're left just trying to finish with a winning season and a bowl invitation.  To accomplish this, they only need to win over their second small-college "pushover" opponent, which is their next scheduled game.  But a couple of points here: (1) two years ago the Gators very nearly lost their late season "easy" game and last year they did lose it...and (2) the upcoming game next Saturday against Eastern Kentucky is being played in "The Swamp".  Maybe they can reschedule it to take place somewhere else...

Sleep, Saturday Starbucks, Running

Last night, after sleeping for much of the day after I finally arrived home around eight in the morning, following a full work week, I had planned to devote much of that evening to assorted projects...including some running.  Instead, I passed out and slept on into Saturday morning, having spent most of Friday after work in an unconscious state.  I have more than once heard it said that you can't make up for sleep deficits by sleeping for long stretches, but those who maintain that viewpoint obviously never met me.  I feel much, much better now and know that sometimes my body knows better and will wisely pull that "off" switch as soon as it realizes that I am safe and sound, off the road and in my home.

Now I'm enjoying my weekly late Saturday morning visit to my local Magnolia Parke Starbucks.  This is apparently the "happening" place in town, as the line of customers is going outside the shop, and every seat is taken up...except the shaded outdoor ones on this cold November morning.  It reminds me of our Midtown Manhattan visit back in '10 when everything was wall-to-wall people, with the only thing missing being the curb-to-curb yellow taxicabs (and, oh yeah, those monstrous skyscrapers blotting out the sky)...

As I had written on this blog a few days ago, I had been seriously considering entering the St. Augustine Half-Marathon, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning.  But there were factors that ultimately made me decide to delay my reentry into "half-marathoning": I would have had to get up around three in the morning and drive out there, run the race, stand around for an hour or two for the awards ceremony (if the posted results showed me eligible for one), and then drive back to Gainesville, all tired and sore.  Add to that the steep entry fees charged for these races ($85 if registered online or $100 on race day) and I decided that this would have to wait until another day.  Instead, yesterday, during my brief interlude of consciousness between long sleeps, I went out to my Lloyd Clarke Sports store on 13th Street (US 441) and signed up for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 10K (6.2 miles) Race that will be held here in town on the grounds of Tacachale, an institution for the developmentally disabled.  The price tag for entering? Just $25, and only $15 had I not wanted a tee-shirt.  Now, that's much, much better...

Recently Read Spencer Johnson's Book, Titled Who Moved My Cheese?

There's a little book out there, first published in 1998, that big corporations like Exxon, General Motors, Goodyear, Kodak, and the like are embracing and distributing among its employees to read: Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson. Johnson also co-wrote, along with Kenneth Blanchard, the famous book The One Minute Manager.  Although the inside jacket of the hardcover copy of Who Moved My Cheese? states the price at a hefty $19.95, the book itself is only 94 pages long...with large print.

Melissa had read it and liked the message, so one evening recently she handed her copy to me to see what I thought of it.  I put it to the side (immediately engrossed at the time with a Mexican soccer match on TV), thinking of coming back to it on some future date. But later on, around midnight, I reached over, picked it up, and breezed through it.  The message contained in it focuses on a childish, childlike story of two mice and two mice-sized people in a maze looking for cheese and how the attitudes of each one affect its chances of success as change comes along and challenges them each to adapt in order to keeping getting their cheese.  Each of the mice reacts instinctively when one (named Sniff) discovers the supply they had initially found by running through the maze to be dwindling (through consumption) and the other (Scurry) immediately sets back off in the maze to look for more.  The two people both linger about the old cheese as it gradually disappears and ponder what to do about it.  One is stubborn and opposed to change and stays put, refusing to go anywhere because this is his territory, by gosh, and it's his cheese that's he's entitled to...and more should be brought here for him.  The other person initially goes along with Hem's resistance to change, but eventually reasons out what the mice knew instinctively: more cheese probably isn't going to come soon, and survival dictates action in the form of following the mice down the maze in pursuit of more cheese.  As Haw, the wise human, leaves behind Hem, the stubborn one, in his stagnation, he discovers some wise principles during his quest...which the book presents every few pages (e.g. "If you do not move, you can become extinct", "Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.") Eventually, Haw finds a wealth of cheese (as do the mice) and returns to tell Hem about it...but his erstwhile companion still refuses to budge.

Who Moved My Cheese? is so beloved by big corporations for an obvious reasons: they want to institute a large paradigm shift in their work force away from tradition and community and toward the flexibility pertaining to future job assignments and locations that the company demands.  Of course, the work force can go one step further and say that, if a particular company they are working for is not giving them the treatment they had been enjoying (i.e. "the cheese is dwindling"), they can go look for better work ("get back in the maze").  Still, the lesson here is a bit unsettling: the times we live in, as Alvin Toffler expressed in his decades-old book Future Shock, are accelerating us into ever-increasing demands for change while depriving us of the security of a stable job and home community.

Another aspect I noticed in this book is that all four characters are in agreement about what they all want the most, which is "cheese".  I'm assuming from this is that "cheese" is simply a simplified allegory of the basics for survival, like food, shelter, clothing, and medical care.  The implication that we are all going to have to struggle and scurry around continually for the remainder of our pathetic little lives just to "survive", though, is not a message that I feel marks an enlightened, civilized society...but it is the essence instead of an unregulated, wild-west-type free market capitalism that rejects any notion of safety nets provided by society in the form of government programs.  No wonder the big corporations love this book.  That having been said, though, I have to look at things from my own perspective as an individual person, just as other readers need to do as well.  And the question is not necessarily how things should be, but rather how things really are (for better or for worse)...and from this realization, what's the best course of action for me to take...

Football: Florida Gators Still in SEC Title Hunt

I'd better get this written before Saturday, because on that day this article's message may be a moot point.  But the fact remains...at this late point in the season approaching mid-November...that the University of Florida football team, incredibly, is still in the running to win the prestigious Southeastern Conference championship, despite having three losses.  But their win over Georgia three weeks ago gives them the tiebreaker if the two end up with same conference win-loss records.  And in a three-way tie with the Bulldogs and Missouri, Florida would prevail as long as the Tigers lose their upcoming game at Tennessee...a distinct possibility.  So right now, in terms of conference records, Missouri is 4-1, Georgia is 5-2, and Florida is 4-3.  This Saturday, if higher-ranked Auburn wins against Georgia and Florida beats South Carolina, the two East Division contenders will finish their conference schedule with 5-3 records.  That would leave Missouri, who plays Texas A&M on the road Saturday, Tennessee in Knoxville the following week, and then closes at home against Arkansas.  They could well lose all three games, although as far as Florida's title hopes are concerned they need only lose to Tennessee and to either Texas A&M or Arkansas.

If all this happens...and it very well could...Florida would be going to Atlanta to play the West Division winner, which at this point looks like either Mississippi State or Alabama (the two play each other this Saturday).  Naturally, if the Gators went on to a big upset victory in this speculative title game, they still wouldn't be in contention for the national championship playoffs.  But for head coach Will Muschamp, just getting to the title game would be a great turnaround from the desperate position he was in just a few weeks ago after losing a close game to LSU and being humiliated by Missouri in Florida's homecoming game...

Just Finished Reading Brandon Sanderson's The Alloy of Law

I recently completed fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy...a series that I liked a lot and which ends as trilogies should end: "conclusively".  Yet, Sanderson has now seen fit to go back to this fantasy world of mist and allomancers (people with the inherited ability to burn metals that give them temporary superhuman powers).  Set a few centuries after the the original series, the world has changed.  It is now becoming more and more technologically advanced, and the original fantasy format is now changing to one more of a science fiction/alternate reality nature, with a remarkable similarity at times to Stephen King's celebrated Dark Tower series (especially regarding gunslinging and train riding).  As a matter of fact, the protagonists Wax (Waxillium Ladrian) and his sidekick Wayne are sharp-shooting lawmen in a wild west scenario.  The Alloy of Law centers on Wax's developing worldview as he comes to grip that Miles, one of his fellow lawmen, has turned outlaw and is leading a popular revolt.  However, there seems to be a mystery nobleman behind the scenes manipulating Miles.  Also thrown into the mix of the story are love interests for Wax: Lessie, Marasi, and Steris.  The story about Lessie really reminds me of  The Dark Tower...especially book number four.  As it turns out, not only is Wax an excellent shooter, but he, along with Wayne, Miles, and Marasi are all allomancers who possess special abilities to burn certain metals.  The story progresses to a showdown between Wax and Miles...guess who wins?  Hint: the next book is due out in a few months!

I have to admit that I didn't particularly enjoy The Alloy of Law as much as Sanderson's masterfully conceived and written first trilogy.  There is no special, new world here to discover...just variations of the old, which has evolved in accordance with the way that trilogy's final volume, The Hero of Ages, ended.  Still, this book was an interesting, fun story that often has more in common with the western genre of fiction than fantasy.  Well, western combined with sci fi, like, as I said before, The Dark Tower.  Or even The Wild, Wild, West...

Yes to Movie and TV Episode Reruns, No to Sports Reruns

I have a tendency to watch my favorite TV shows and movies over and over again, enough though I thoroughly know their outcomes and can often recite the dialogue word-for-word just before it is spoken.  But when it comes to watching sporting events, even those that feature my favorite teams or solo athletes, I dislike reruns and avoid them with a passion.  The only exception to this is if a rerun of a game is rebroadcast and I don't yet know the outcome.  Then it's like I'm watching it live.  Only one problem with that, though, and its a frustratingly recurring one...

I'll be on a channel showing such a rebroadcast, say, for example, of the English Premier League of soccer, with "my" team Arsenal playing in a game from the previous weekend that I haven't yet seen, and I'll sit down to watch it.  Everything will be fine for a few minutes, when suddenly the little scrolling "information" line at the bottom of the screen will start displaying final scores...and the final score of the game I've begun watching will prominently be shown!  I've seen this happen too many times and wonder why they don't just withhold the score of the one game they are showing...they can show still all the other final scores, for all the difference that makes.

Another gripe I have with sports reruns is that there is almost always enough going on that they don't have to keep showing the same game again.  I find this especially annoying when I'm on the Univision Deportes (Spanish language sports) channel and watch a live broadcast of one of Mexico's top-tier Liga MX soccer league games...say, pitting Pumas against Tigres.  I watch the game, enjoy it, and a few days later am ready to watch another soccer match on Univision Deportes...but find that they are showing a rerun of that same Pumas-Tigres contest.  Why not show a different game...it doesn't even have to be from Liga MX.  They could show a lower Mexican league game in that time slot...or even one from some other country's soccer league, for that matter.

It isn't just a "soccer" phenomenon, these sports reruns.  I regularly scan through the upcoming sports broadcasts on the many channels I get and often run across football, baseball, and basketball games that weren't just played recently, but rather months or even years earlier.  I don't get it with these reruns, but then again I imagine some people wouldn't get it about my own absorption with reruns of my favorite movie and TV episodes.  To each his own, I suppose...

Disparate Framing of Political Debate on Sensitive Issues

When I hear various political issues brought up in the media, the two main opposing sides of the debate will usually frame it in entirely different ways.  Often the two sides will engage in a verbal dance of sorts, with neither side coming to grips with what the other is actually saying.  One such recurring pattern to political debates is what I call the "rights vs. funding" argument.  Take an issue in which one side, usually on the political left (but not always), is pushing for what it perceives as a basic right to be promoted and recognized by society and law.  Without necessarily attacking the issue head-on, I often see the opponents of such efforts (usually on the political right) instead attacking the notion that, once a "right" has been established, then the party whose "right" needs to be respected has the "right" to expect others in society to subsidize their exercise of it...through government mandates and taxation.  This is especially true regarding anything that falls under the umbrella of "medical" or "health" care.  If you have a certain "right" that involves going to the doctor or pharmacy, then for some reason everyone in society is now obligated to collectively pay for your exercise of said "right", even if what you are doing is an elective choice and not medically necessary. From what I see, the main justification for the argument of government (and, ultimately, the taxpayer) stepping in to pay is that by not doing so, those in society who don't have enough money are in a disadvantageous position and that this makes things unfair...so we all have to pitch in.
   
So with issues like abortion or birth control, the left will argue about the right of people, especially women, to be able to freely make reproductive choices in their lives...which they say is none of the government's business, much less anyone else.  At the same time, the right will counter-argue that just because someone has a choice, that doesn't give them the right to make everyone else pay for it through the government.

Naturally, there are some very serious ethical, moral, and religious issues concerning abortion and birth control.  Those supporting choice and open access to birth control will argue that it is a matter of privacy and others should mind their own business while at the same time use the "inequality" issue to argue that the very same people who are supposed to mind their own business and respect their private choices have to fund those choices.  But the left will argue about restrictive laws and the closing of abortion clinics while the right will argue about making people pay through the government for what many of them see as the immoral behavior of others.

I see a similar pattern of argumentation when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.  Proponents of the more liberal reform measures will argue that this is both a human and civil rights issue, while the more conservative viewpoints stress that others (namely, those already legally here) should not have to pay for what was obviously an elective, willful choice of people to flout the law and cross the border illegally.  Here again is the disparate framing.

I think I'm going to keep a separate little journal along my side whenever I watch C-Span (showing US House of Representatives proceedings) or C-Span2 (showing the US Senate) during the next year.  It will be interesting to see the different angles of the debates going on regarding various issues that the two sides take...along with their justifying arguments...and see how many of them focus on "rights" vs "funding"...

ESPN Analysts Display Lack of Probability Knowledge

Yesterday, on ESPN's Sport Center, they were going on about how badly the Los Angeles Lakers are doing so far this year, going winless in their first five games.  One point they brought up was the upcoming schedule for them, with Kobe Bryant and company favored to lose each of their  next eight games.  There were actual percentage probabilities given for the Lakers to win each game, with the figures hovering around the 30th and 40th percentiles.  Then one of the announcers got to the point of all this, which is that they may well lose all eight games and start the season off at 0-13.  I beg to differ...

I didn't get all of the percentage predictions of each game (I wonder how they even arrived at them), but I think I'm being pretty conservative at saying they averaged about a 35% winning probability given for each game (it's probably higher).  That means that the losing probability for each game is .65: for the Lakers to lose all eight of their next games, you would need to take that probability to the eighth power:

(,65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)(.65)=.032 , or 3.2%

In other words, even though the Lakers may be heavy underdogs in each of the next eight games with only a 35% average chance of winning each one, the probability of them losing ALL eight games is only 3.2%!

This is a glaring example of how otherwise very intelligent and educated people can falter the minute they go any distance in interpreting statistical data or anything dealing with probability.  Will the Lakers actually lose their next eight games?  Maybe, but it's not very likely given the input data...

Just Finished Reading Joseph Heller's Catch-22

You know you've written something significant when a defining principle expressed within it becomes enshrined as an integral part of the culture.  That is what happened with Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22, which I understand was embraced by the anti-war counterculture movement of the late 1960s....not to mention becoming a standard high school/college English class reading assignment (groan) for millions.  The title words "Catch-22" refer to a situation in which, no matter what one does, the result will be unsatisfactory...and it is the process itself that always leads to the undesired ending.  It is a kind of "double-bind" that isn't necessarily personal in nature but often is embedded within official social institutions...like the Army of the author's World War II experiences.

During World War II, Heller served as a bomber pilot, based on a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy.  Likewise, his protagonist, John Yossarian, is such a pilot with many missions already under his belt.  He is ready to go home, being certain that if he keeps flying missions over the enemy then he will be shot down and killed.  And, for most of the Army pilots, he would already have had enough flights to qualify to go home.  But his own commander, Colonel Cathcart, is trying to become a general by "volunteering" his men to more and more flights, continually raising the flight limit.

Yossarian visits the base's physician and tells him that he (Yossarian) is insane and therefore to please confirm this fact so that he can be sent back home.  Dr. Daneeka responds by saying that, for anyone to be sent home, they must make the request for it...but the act of making such a request reveals that they are rational and not insane...and hence ineligible to be sent home.  Yossarian then points out to Dr. D one of his fellow pilots and asks him whether this individual is insane.  The good doctor responds by agreeing that he is crazy and eligible to go home...and he can request it.  But the moment he does so, then he is committing a rational act and therefore is sane and ineligible.  This is the book's main illustration of the principle of "Catch-22": an algorithm of interaction and logic that always leads to an unsatisfactory outcome, regardless what information is given initially.  Certainly I've seen this process repeated in many, many situations over the course of my life: it's not just an "Army" thing...

Catch-22 is loaded with these types of circular arguments among its many characters.  The ultimate effect is that everything is a farce, and it would be hilarious were it not for the fact that all were in the midst of a brutal war where people were being killed and injured.  This story ruthlessly satirizes the command structure of the military, but could be applied to just about any group in society that depends on a hierarchy of authorities.  It also exposes, with the character of mess hall officer Milo, who has become rich by developing an intricate trade system in the region (and even making enemy nations Germany and Italy "shareholders"), the two-faced nature of business...quite willing to work against the national interests if there is a profit to be made...and how they are continually given a "free pass" and not held accountable for their seemingly treasonous acts because they are engaged in the high and noble act of "free enterprise"...

I heartily recommend Catch-22 and, unlike an English teacher, won't be grading you on your reactions.  It isn't long at all, but it does contain very much concentrated, intense dialogue...intense in the sense that there is a lot of reasoning going on here...albeit often very faulty reasoning.  It is also very big on humor...my favorite character is the misunderstood Major Major Major Major (continually accused of looking too much like Henry Fonda), who pulls his own brand of  "Catch-22" on others by refusing to see anyone unless he is out...

Voted Today, We'll See How It All Turns Out

After getting off from work this morning at 7:30, I drove over to my local precinct and voted on this Election Day.  The voting room (unlike with recent low-turnout elections) had other voters besides myself, but there still weren't that many.  Maybe now, with the polls open until 7 PM, there are more people casting their ballots.  Anyway, I made my voting choices exactly the way I said I would a few days ago on this blog.  I'm sure that some of my candidates and issues will win and some will lose, but regardless how the results tally up, I feel satisfied that I performed my civic duty and participated in this representative democracy of ours.  After I got home, I was getting pretty sleepy, it being at the end of my "day" as it was, but I thought I might write a short blog article urging people to vote and post it on Facebook.  But when I got on Facebook, I could easily see that there were already several postings from others exhorting people to vote.  So I waited until now...but at this posting there's still time for you to vote if you're registered!

There is a lot of talk on TV about the close US Senate races (in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kansas, and Georgia) being decided today, and how the Republicans might well be on their way to the first Senate majority they have had in eight years.  It should be interesting watching the cable news channels tonight as the results start coming in.  Unfortunately, regardless whether the Democrats or Republicans end up controlling the Senate, we'll probably still be stuck with their old leaders: Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell both need to step down and allow more persuasive and less antagonistic leaders to step up.  But I seriously doubt that they will, seeing how much each one craves power...

Reviewing Lev Grossman's Magician Series Before Starting Third Book

Many of the different series of books that I have read over recent years were already completely written by the time I began with them, making the process of covering them all relatively quick, with little time between books for me to forget characters or various aspects of the story line...Stephen Kind's Dark Tower series is an example for me.  Then again, there are other series for which the author is still writing new books every few years or so...George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is a case in point.  For these series, I have experienced the need to review the previous books before I begin on the next, newly published installment.  This also applies to the new (and presumably final) book in Lev Grossman's Magician series, the third book of which , titled The Magician's Land, has just come out and which I just got from Amazon on my Kindle.

I have just finished rereading the first book, titled The Magicians, and will start on book #2, The Magician King, tonight.  This is a great fantasy series with characters of depth and refreshingly rooted in our "real" world instead of the typical make-believe continents with the obscure, hard-to-read maps and "epic", convoluted history.  Not that Grossman hasn't inserted his own imaginary land into the story in Fillory (which he clearly and deliberately has fashioned after C.S. Lewis' Narnia), but the characters are based in our own world and time frame.

I'm glad I'm going through this review of the first two books in the series. Had I not, I know I would have been missing out on many details that will probably be referred back to in the new book...

Looking Ahead at Upcoming Half-Marathon Races

I'm looking ahead at the half-marathon calendar before me, specifically for the races available for the next few months here in northern Florida.  I see a few ahead that I might be interested in entering:

November 16 (Sunday): St. Augustine Half-Marathon
November 30 (Sunday): Space Coast Half-Marathon...in Cocoa
December 20 (Saturday evening): Starlight Half-Marathon...in Palm Coast

...and on New Years Day 2015, the annual John Walker Memorial Half-Marathon will take place here in Gainesville, on the Hawthorne Trail.

I think I did something like this preview on my blog last year, too, but didn't feel I was in good enough shape to run in a half-marathon at the time.  Now I feel differently, but I still have this sense of inertia about stepping forward, registering, and then getting out there and running them.  But I do have a good feeling about the November 16 and January 1 races...I'd love to run through St. Augustine!

Next January and February will feature the Ocala and FivePoints (Gainesville) Half-Marathons, respectively.  I'd like to run in both of these races.  Should I finish the winter half-marathon season down here in Florida will four more races to my "collection", that would be, at least for me, quite a feat.  So let's see how I do in the next few weeks...

Can't Figure Out This Game Called Football

Being an avid Southeastern Conference fan in college football, I was amazed three weeks ago how severely Georgia manhandled divisional rival Missouri 34-0.  After all, the Bulldogs were operating without the services of their star runner Todd Gurley, who has been (and still is) under suspension for alleged violations of NCAA rules concerning autographs.  If anything, the game was considered to be an evenly matched tossup, but the Tigers instead were humiliated.  So Missouri's next opponent, the Florida Gators, must have been thinking that they weren't all that tough after all...besides, this was a homecoming game for Florida, in that difficult stadium for visitors known as "The Swamp".  Instead, Missouri proceeded in turn to thoroughly humiliate the Gators, 42-13...a 29-point margin.  Ouch.  But who was Florida's next opponent?  Oh-no, it's Georgia, the team that, by 34 points, beat the team that beat Florida by 29...that sounds like they're 63 points ahead of the Gators.  This was going to be a blowout, right?

Well, that game finished early this evening, and it wasn't Georgia prevailing by nine touchdowns.  Or even one.  The final score? Florida 38, Georgia 20.

Go figure, if you can...

My October 2014 Running Report

In October, 2014, I ran a total of 310 miles, the most I have ever accomplished in a month.  I did it not by amassing great, long single runs, but rather by running several times during the course of the day...with my longest single run for the entire month coming in at just 6.3 miles.  But my longest "calendar day" running mileage was 26.7 miles, done over the span of October 4.  I ran on every day of the month.

By running more often instead of going on very long runs, I am endeavoring to achieve a balance between training for longer distance races while taking care of my body to avoid injury.  So far it's working, although I have yet to run in a race since my Five Points of Life Half-Marathon back in February, here in Gainesville.  I had been considering the recently held half-marathon in Apalachicola, Florida, but because they insisted on race packet pickup the day before...no exceptions...I passed up on it.  I could have made the drive over to the race and back, but I wasn't going to stay overnight at a hotel there, just because of their asinine policy...which was probably designed to make entrants stay overnight at one of their hotels!  In November, I'll have several opportunities to run in different races and will try to get in at least a couple...

Just Finished Reading Daniel Abraham's The Dragon's Path

Daniel Abraham is a prolific author of science fiction and fantasy stories who often collaborates with others...and likes to use pseudonyms.  Although his ongoing fantasy series The Dagger and the Coin is a solo project published under his own name, Abraham has nonetheless  been receiving much encouragement with it from his friend, George R.R. Martin, of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) fame.  And as I have earlier written in another article, Abraham's series bears a remarkable resemblance to Martin's.  For one, the characters all have within their personalities...even those being presented as "heroic" protagonists...a rather objectionable brutality.  Also, there is a conflict going on in the central kingdom (with a weak king and serious questions about succession) between the protagonists, who want to suppress the common people and maintain strict authoritarian rule under the nobility, and the antagonists, who have allied themselves with the farmers and other commoners to push for more reforms.  So as a reader I feel that the author is persuading me to take the "good guy" Dawson's side and oppose "bad guy" Issandrian...but I prefer the latter.  Another "hero", Geder, is also extremely brutal and selfish...but he likes to read books, so I guess I'm supposed to like him, too!

In The Dragon's Path, the character Dawson reminds me of Martin's Ned Stark, Geder reminds me a bit of his Tyrion, and there is a subplot across the continent that features the characters Cithrin and Marcus.  Cithrin is like a cross between Martin's Daenerys and Arya, and Marcus resembles Jorah Mormont in that both men are feeling a growing love toward a young woman they are protecting who has a sense of destiny (with Marcus it's Cithrin and with Lord Mormont it's Daenerys).  There is also an extensive historical past with dragons ruling in both series, as well as an aggressive, strange religion that carries sinister foreboding as it spreads.  In a departure from Martin, though, Abraham's human population is divided into several extremely distinct "races", some with scales, some with heavy fur, some with tusks, etc,. and an ongoing mystery as to why it is so divided...

The series name The Dagger and the Coin refers to the great dynamic conquering forces in this fantasy world (and our own, for that matter): war and finance...and seems to be engaged in the question of which of the two truly reigns supreme.  In spite of the relative lack of innovation in The Dragon's Path, I like Daniel Abraham's writing and appreciate how he presents his characters, who already are memorable to me.  I want to know what happens next after this book, and the author has obliged with three more installments in the series, with more to come...

Early Outbreak Convinces Me to Get Flu Shot

Yesterday I decided I had put it off long enough already and got my annual flu shot.  I usually don't get it until a little later in the year, but this year so far quite a few people have already come down with the flu...and my doctor has already told me that, due to a continuing medical condition, I need to get a shot each year.  That's no guarantee that I won't come down with it, though: the last time I caught the flu, a little more than ten years ago, I had gotten a flu shot but to no avail.  Still, the game here is to increase my odds...which also includes being careful to wash my hands often, especially before eating...and otherwise keeping my hands from my face.

You can choose to get all worried and excited about the Ebola virus and the latest news scoops about it. But while that's going on, the flu is quietly spreading through the population, debilitating many and even killing a few in the process.  It is much more of an immediate health threat than Ebola...and it's also something you can take effective action to help prevent for yourself and loved ones...

Just Finished Reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

I've just finished reading Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, published in 1878 and considered in literary circles to be among the very best novels ever written.  Its setting is primarily in Russia of that time period, specifically in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the countryside around them.  The main characters are of the noble class, still separated to a great degree from the peasantry and working class and with their own society and customs.  Naturally, the chief protagonist is the title character, a young woman named Anna Karenina, who is suffering through a marriage to a man much older than her, and for whom she feels no love.  Onto the scene strides young Count Vronsky, a free spirit with the habit of seeing women as potential conquests, and the two fall head over heels in love with each other...of course, placing her in a precarious situation with her marital infidelity.  But instead of continuing their affair confidentially, Anna decides to openly reveal everything to Karenin, her husband...which turns out to be a critical mistake.  For, it seems, extramarital affairs are quite commonplace among the Russian nobility...but the participants follow certain rules of discretion that serve to protect themselves with their marriages and social standing.  Because of Anna's outspokenness, though, she instead suffers public disgrace from her affair.  Vronsky wants to marry her, and eventually she also desires a divorce from her husband with the same aim...but by that time Karenin has changed his mind about granting her one.  What happens next? I leave that to you, good reader, to discover for yourself...

Although Anna Karenina is the "official" main character in this story, I feel rather that a rural land-owning nobleman named Constantin Levin truly fits that role.  I also believe that the author spoke his own philosophical beliefs and questions through this character.  I had earlier written on this blog that I could find no character in Anna Karenina with whom I could empathize.  Well, I did come to appreciate Levin, a character strongly reminiscent in his awkwardness regarding Russian noble society to Pierre, Tolstoy's protagonist in his earlier work War and Peace. Levin has his own love interest in young Kitty, who happens to be Anna's brother's niece (ultimately, it seems, everyone in nobility is related). One of the more humorous parts of the novel is when Levin, invited to participate in the government's nobility-run legislative assembly, finds himself completely baffled by the political process, stumbling through different proceedings without knowing what he is doing.

In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy explores in depth the feelings of his characters and their inner motivations for what they say and do.  So this is a psychological novel of the first order.  But also covered is the Russian society contemporary to Tolstoy's writing...not only the inner social dynamics of the nobility, but also the sometimes changing, sometimes stagnant relationship between that nobility and the "lower" classes, complete with the misunderstandings and mistrust separating them.  And on still another, and very significant level, religion and God's role in people's lives are discussed through various characters...mainly from Levin himself at the story's end.

I don't know whether Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is the best novel ever written, but I did enjoy it and recommend it.  But as for my own preferences, I liked his War and Peace more...

The 2014 General Election As I See It

The 2014 general election is in full swing here in Alachua County, Florida, with early voting now available.  For me, I cast an early ballot in an election a few years ago but greatly prefer the election day ritual at my local precinct (which this year is on November 4).  Besides, it gives me a chance to check up on what's going on at my precinct site, which just so happens to be the community senior recreational center (which I'll be eligible to use in less than two years).  This year it's no high-glamour presidential election...just the governorship of Florida at stake, along with some state cabinet positions, a U.S. house race, a couple of county commission races, a county tax collector race, five district judge retention questions, three state constitutional amendments, an Alachua County referendum...and an Alachua County nonbinding straw ballot question.  For me, that's plenty to vote on, but I predict that less than half of the eligible voters will cast their ballots this election...while a portion of the non-voters will complain that the Republican Party is trying to suppress the vote with their reasonable (to me) demand for adequate identification at the polling place.

However, my political alignment tends to fall on the Democratic side, so if you are one of those politically hysterical types who automatically equate the Democratic Party with evil and tyranny, you're welcome to stop reading now...and placidly continue on with your own conception of reality.  But at this point I don't see any compelling reason to side with the Republicans in any of the races...especially in the contest for governor between incumbent Rick Scott and his immediate predecessor, Charlie Crist.  After mudslinging at Crist in ad after ad for being a corrupt and flip-flopping politician while blaming him for the international recession that happened after the banking crisis of late 2008, Scott then had the nerve to put on an ad implying that he was above such mudslinging and that only Crist was showing attack ads.  What hypocrisy.  But none of this is why I'm planning to vote for Crist...I just feel he is a decent man (albeit, granted, a somewhat slick politician) who accepts that he would be the governor of ALL the people in Florida, not just those with his own narrow ideological perspective (which I feel is the case with Scott).  That's not an endorsement from me, though, and others are encouraged to follow their own convictions (or hunches, if they aren't sure) about how they will vote.

In one of the county commission races, I was going to go for the Republican there, since on the surface he sounded as if he would make road repair a top priority.  But actually, John Martin would rather hold back on needed repairs because he opposes a proposed sales surtax specifically earmarked for those projects (also on the ballot) and instead insist on doing everything within the budget as it is.  While an admirable stand at first glance, it is an unrealistic one that is destined to further delay needed road work.

Regarding the state constitutional amendments...No.1 is for water and land conservation.  On the surface it seems like a good idea, and I'm going for it.  No.2 is to legalize medical marijuana use and production.  I think this amendment is rather phony in that those supporting it the most are viewing it as a transition to the general legalization of pot (a transitional path that Colorado followed).  And since I have my own suspicions about certain potential producers of the plant wanting to get an inside track on the industry when that general legalization does occur, I'm opposing this amendment on principle.  Amendment No.3 gives the governor power to appoint vacancies to the judiciary.  But unlike the advise and consent requirement for presidential appointments on the federal level of government, I see in this amendment no checks provided on whomever the governor may choose to appoint...so I'm voting "no" on this question, too.

As for the remaining two questions on the ballot, I'm going to "hold my nose" and vote for the proposed Alachua County surtax, because our roads are truly in a deplorable state here.  And the straw ballot question is just political posturing about whether one would support a U.S. Constitutional Amendment only recognizing individual human beings as "persons" and not group entities such as corporations or labor unions...and that spending money is not an expression of free speech protected under the First Amendment.  Implied in this argument is the notion that people are too stupid to filter through the myriad campaign ads that inundate them during the campaign season, many financed by corporate interests.  My answer is that if they are that stupid, then they deserve the stupid government they end up electing: let us carefully avoid restricting our own precious freedom of association and the expressions that arise from them...  

Need Close Games in This Year's World Series

Major League Baseball's World Series continues tonight with a change of location to San Francisco, with it knotted up 1-1 between the Giants and the Kansas City Royals. I wonder, though... if the games continue to develop like the first two...whether anyone outside the two metropolitan areas involved will be interested.  For 7-1 and 7-2 scores are not exactly the kinds of games that tend to rivet one's attention up to the very final out.  And here's the paradox: the various playoff series that have led to this 2014 edition of the World Series have pretty much been blowouts...if you just look at the tally of games won and lost.  But almost every game comprising those "blowouts" has been very close and decided by one or two runs, with many having to go into extra innings to decide.  So, say instead of the 7-1 and 7-2 scores for the first two World Series games we had 4-3 and 5-4 scores.  Even if the same team had won both games...even if that team had gone on to sweep the Series four games to none...it would have been much more entertaining viewing than what we've had so far.

I'm rooting for San Francisco in this Series, but it would disappoint me if they won the next three games with lopsided scores.  I like those tight, tense games that bring in all the teams' extras and relief pitchers into the equation and can dramatically turn on just one pitch.  Of course, if a team I care for more, like the Tampa Bay Rays or Miami Marlins, had been in it this year, I would have been very happy with them routing their opponent each and every game, damn the boredom...

Personal Running Records As I Age

When I resumed running in earnest in 2007 after a thirty-year layoff from the activity, I was fifty years old.  In the seven years between then and now there have been two opposing processes at work regarding "personal records", as they pertained to my best running times for particular distances.  Since my earlier running "records" back in the 1970s were mainly about shorter distances like the quarter mile, mile, and two-mile race, those personal marks still stand and haven't been approached in recent years.  But for the distances I have now embraced, such as 5K, 10K, 15K, half-marathon, and full marathon, I have been working on personal record times for them (especially for the longer distances).  And the first of the aforementioned processes, which is the positive effect of my training and increased fitness and endurance, has given me a good sense of progress with those records.  The main event I'm focused on now, which is the 13.1 mile half-marathon, has my personal record time at 1 hour, 50 minutes, 53 seconds...which I ran in early March, 2013 in a race in Tavares, Florida (a few miles north of Orlando) when I was 56.  Since then, due in large part to plantar fasciitis in my right foot (drastically alleviated through more adequate running shoes) and an adverse employment shift change that has upset my sleeping patterns, my general endurance and running fitness had a setback...but in recent months I have been making a comeback.  My endurance is increasing as well as my speed for the longer distances.  But it is now here, as I just turned 58 and am getting no younger, that the second process is starting to kick in: I am aging and, as this happens, new personal records will be harder and harder to come by until, finally...regardless how fit and trained I am for my age, my best times will be a thing of the past and they will gradually decline.  So while personal records are always a good thing to pursue, I need to be realistic and run for other reasons...

Racist Taunts Cause Soccer Stadium Ban in Moscow

Yesterday I was watching a UEFA Champions League soccer game between Manchester City (of England) and Russia's CSKA Moscow team, with it taking place at the latter's stadium.  The game was exciting, although disappointing (Manchester City, after building an early lead, slipped and ended up with a 2-2 draw).  However, the most remarkable thing I observed wasn't the game itself,  but the desolate, empty stadium surrounding it.  It seems that CSKA Moscow has been placed on a three-game stadium ban because of its fans' racist jeers against opposing teams' players.  And this isn't the only Russian soccer club with a problem in this area: two others have recently undergone censure for racist taunting by their fans at players whose great crime in life apparently is that they don't look like them.  I think this is sad...and a bit hypocritical,  For I remember growing up in the Cold War days when the Soviet Union, which was predominantly Russian, would endlessly propagandize against racism in America and how they, themselves, embraced  and welcomed different people from different races and cultures.  What a lot of bunk.  They're just like everyone else in the world...not better, not worse.  Racism is a problem that permeates all societies...and the ones that act as if they don't have a problem with it are probably the ones with the biggest problem...

Attended First University of Florida Football Game in 37 Years

Back in November, 1977, I was looking forward as an on-campus University of Florida student to a quiet Saturday roaming the campus and mulling over a few thoughts I had been considering.  But the day before this Saturday, which happened to feature the Gators football team homecoming game against Utah State, my mother phoned me telling me that the family of a relative she had known in childhood were inviting me to the game with them.  Not wanting to seem ungrateful (to her) or unsociable (to them), I accepted the offer and sat there suffering through what in retrospect was actually a pretty exciting game.  Florida, which had been heavily favored to run up the score over their opponent, had to come from behind in the second half to win a thrilling homecoming contest.  Those were the days...

As this year's UF homecoming game against the Missouri Tigers (a much more viable opponent) approached, Melissa told me that a friend of hers and her husband, who had tickets to a section of the stadium called Touchdown Terrace, weren't going and would we like to go in their place.  Sure, I said, and after decades I found myself back in the old football stadium...only now we were overlooking the northern end-zone...back in 1977, we'd be floating in air, with only the east and west sides existing back then.  We enjoyed the amenities, including a pleasant buffet dinner, and sat down to watch the game unfold.  I predicted it would be a close contest...was I ever wrong!

Missouri took the opening kickoff and ran it back for a touchdown, giving them a lead they would never relinquish 11 seconds into the game.  Then followed a succession of Florida errors...three interceptions, three fumbles lost, a punt returned by Missouri for a touchdown.  With 5 minutes to go just in the third quarter, the Tigers had built up an insurmountable 42-0 lead.  Florida was able to mount two concluding drives to bring the final score a little closer at 42-13.   It was a pretty humiliating defeat, yet on paper it looked as if (if you disregard the turnovers) Florida easily outplayed Missouri, doubling them up in total yardage and first downs, and with a greater time of possession, third down efficiency...and fewer penalties.

The problem with Florida's performance was that Muschamp attached too much loyalty to Jeff Driskel as the regular starting quarterback and, despite his obvious difficulties in passing accuracy and managing the offense, kept putting him back in there.  I remember a different Gator coach, Steve Spurrier, who was fortunate to have one year, in Terry Dean, the top-ranking passer in the Southeastern Conference.  But because Dean wasn't performing to Spurrier's high standards, he sacked him in mid-season in favor of Danny Wuerffel...who later went to on win the Heisman Trophy and lead his team to the 1996 national championship.  What a difference between Spurrier and the present coach!  After yet another dismal performance by Driskel, I even wonder whether Muschamp will STILL stick with him when they face Georgia in a couple of weeks. Florida's only two scores were both engineered with backup quarterback Treon Harris managing the offense, and he showed confidence and poise.  But regardless who was in there, it was plain to me that Florida's offensive line had a meltdown Saturday night, creating many quarterback sacks, fumbles, and "hurry-ups" (for both Driskel and Harris).  And, dang it, when one of Driskel's passes did hit its target, the receiver was as likely as not to let it slip right through his hands.  Another problem area with the Gators was their slipshod kick and punt return coverage.  But the defense had a pretty good day, considering everything else.  Maybe this game was Muschamp's swan song as head coach, maybe not...but I don't think very many people around here in Gainesville have much confidence in him any more...

In spite of what was happening on the field, though, Melissa and I enjoyed our experience at the stadium...although I wish I had brought a pair of earplugs to mitigate the extreme loudness of the place.  The band, cheerleaders, announcers... you name it, were all great, and they stuck in there with the same spirit even long after the game was a lost cause.  And the fans were pretty revved up as well, almost all standing up in the bleacher sections for almost the entire game and participating in the noisemaking and the "Gator chomp".  Yes, we had a great time.  Hope they resolve this coaching and quarterback mess somehow, but I'm not losing any sleep over it...

San Francisco Will Play Kansas City in 2014 World Series

The 2014 Major League Baseball World Series has been set, and the pairing is unexpected: Kansas City vs. San Francisco, both wild card teams.  However, this isn't the first such matchup: in 2002, Anaheim and San Francisco, both also wild card entries that year,  played their exciting seven-game World Series, with the Angels winning it.  But this year is the first that both wild card teams had to get by that tense (and silly) one-game playoff just to get to the regular divisional playoff series.  And that's quite a feat for even one team!

I have to admit to a little disappointment that Baltimore couldn't at least get a couple of wins in their 4-0 sweep by the Royals for the American League pennant, but am very happy with the National League outcome: I've come to enjoy following the Giants, and beating the pesky St. Louis Cardinals in the process (four games to one) for the pennant was just icing on the cake!  In spite of the lopsided series win-loss totals, though, the games themselves have each been close, exciting contests that have often gone to extra innings to decide.  These types of games really display the value of the team as a whole, with its substitutes and relief pitcher lineup playing significant roles in the late innings (as well as managerial decisions regarding them)...if they hadn't come through as they did for KC and SF, they wouldn't have gotten this far.

So now it's the World Series, and I have my clear favorite: San Francisco.  If the Royals want to win two or three games in the process, I won't begrudge them that concession, though. The first game is slated for this coming Tuesday evening, to be played in Kansas City...

Opposition Criticism of Presidents Following Pattern

It's become pretty apparent to me, for the past few decades with several U.S. presidents from both major political parties taking their turns living in the White House, that those in opposition, regardless whose party they identify themselves with, follow a similar pattern in expressing that opposition.  So the guy you didn't want got elected, did he? Well, for one, he stole the election because of whatever reason (Florida fiasco in 2000, voter "suppression" laws, the president-elect supposedly wasn't born in the U.S., voter fraud, dirty campaigning...you name it).  Also, he is incompetent and foolish/stupid, while at the same time is a devious, sinister mastermind of such villainy that he has become a dictator.  And this administration, which you didn't vote for, is setting all kinds of records for being the most corrupt in history!  Impeach, impeach, impeach!!! Oh, and whoever is in there, in spite of all the scapegoating on him for every single misfortune that arises anywhere during his term in office, is really only a powerless puppet being manipulated behind the scenes by a shadow power.  And the people who voted him into power are obviously stupid and foolish, allowing him and his party to get their votes by manipulating their emotions on hot-button issues (gay rights, flag-burning, wealth inequality, and so on).  They're only stupid and foolish, though, if they didn't vote for YOUR guy, who obviously has the best interests of everyone at heart...right?

Currently Reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Abraham's The Dragon's Path

I am currently in the process of reading two different books: Leo Tolstoy's late nineteenth century classic Anna Karenina and, much more recently written, Daniel Abraham's initial book in his ongoing fantasy Coin and Dagger series, titled The Dragon's Path.  I am a third of the way done with each book...both are very well written but I'm experiencing different reactions so far to each of them.  In Anna Karenina, I find myself in the unenviable position of being committed to reading a long novel that, at least for myself, contains no characters for whom I feel any sense of empathy.  They're all obnoxious, self-absorbed scoundrels, from what I've read so far! But I'm ready to give Tolstoy the benefit of the doubt and see what he has in store for the rest of the book.  Empathy is no problem at all, though, with Abraham's The Dragon's Path.  My problem here is that the author apparently has set out to recreate the dynamics of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, with the names and locales changed.  There's a Tyrion-like character in it, as well as one resembling Ned Stark...along with another reminding me of his daughter Arya.  And there's a counterpart here to the troublesome Lannister family as well.  But it's fun reading and I'm prepared to see how the author will make his series distinct in character from Martin's...

Soccer: League Teams Play Better Than National Teams

Every few weeks during the international soccer season, the various leagues which are scattered across the continents interrupt their schedules and the top players from each country regroup into their national teams to play in tournaments.  For me, I don't care too much for these "superteams": one, they inspire a spirit of often jingoistic nationalism among fans...two, there is more to a team than just throwing together some star players occasionally.  In soccer, as in other team sports, the players on a team need to get to know each other well, especially when it comes to passing the ball and positioning themselves in order to be in the optimal offensive and defensive locations, depending how the game is going at any particular moment.  For eleven players on the field to be able to work well like this together requires a great deal of practice and game experience, something that simply is unavailable to national teams.  Maybe the only exception to this is every four years during the World Cup, which takes place prior to most of the leagues' regular seasons (although not for the U.S.) and affords more of a continuity to better prepare the players on national teams to raise their level of play.  But to stage these national team tournaments in the middle of the league regular season?  I don't get it...

I was dismayed the other night while watching one of these games, this one pitting the United States against Ecuador.  I missed the early part, during which the U.S. managed to score a goal against their South American opponent. While watching their performance, which was sluggish and uncoordinated, I marveled how they could have managed even that one goal.  Anyway, Ecuador did come back late in the match to tie it 1-1.  But it was obvious on both sides, and especially for the U.S. team, that these players were not comfortable playing with each other...and why not?  Their strongest ties were with their league teams.  I personally doubt that the American national team would have a shot at beating ANY of the English Premier League teams...even those at the bottom of the standings like Burnley or Queens Park Rangers.  I even think they'd probably have their hands full against an MLS team in the United States like Seattle or D.C. United.  No, I don't care for these national teams...just give me league play or tournaments involving intact league teams...

Just Finished Reading Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I just finished reading science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  Its general theme is the struggle of the moon's inhabitants, in the year 2076, for independence against the Earth that has been exploiting them while imposing authoritarian rule.
Originally a penal colony for the Earth's convicts (reminiscent of Australia's original role in the British Empire), the moon's population by 2076 is overwhelmingly "free", i.e. non-criminals who are mainly the inmate/exiles' offspring and descendants.  Due to the high ratio of men to women here, women are not only highly exalted, but a new form of marriage, the "line" marriage, which is comprised of many husbands and wives in one compact, has taken hold.  The chief protagonist is Manuel "Mannie" O'Kelly, who occupies a special niche in that he apparently is the only one on Luna (which is the proper name for the moon) who can communicate with the supercomputer that controls the telecommunications and life-support systems for the inhabitants.  And he has developed a personal, conversational rapport with "Mike", its mutually agreed upon name.  Mannie is apathetic to the growing resistance movement against the Earth's rule over Luna, but the ensuing plot entangles him with rebel characters (the beautiful Wyoming ("Wyoh") and the anarchist Professor Bernardo).  Together, with Mike as the "commander", they form the initial and topmost cell of an intricate resistance network that is well-nigh impossible for the authorities to break through informants and arrests.  Does the revolt succeed? Well, let's just say that Heinlein has obviously invested a great amount of time and thought determining the factors involved in a successful overthrow, and Mannie's group applies them with zeal.  But the main strategic goal in garnering independence from Earth, which is not to conquer the occupying power but rather to convince it that the political and economic cost of maintaining control isn't worth the effort, has a direct application to what had been going on in 1966, when this novel was published: the U.S. effort to subdue the Communists in Vietnam...which was eventually abandoned because of popular opposition at home, not military defeat abroad.

I was impressed by the attention to detail that Heinlein gave to describing society on Luna, a world inhabited almost completely underground (making it more three-dimensional than on Earth) and which has a thriving, functional economy and system of justice and social mores parallel to, but distinct from, that recognized by the "official" Earth government stationed there.  This is one of those books whose significance has not faded with time...Heinlein's ideas matter today as much as then, even though we never did around to establishing ourselves on the moon. Our current president says we don't need to go back because we've "already been there".  Brilliant.

And on a more speculative note, I wonder how much influence, if any, Heinlein's talking, sentient supercomputer Mike had on Arthur C Clarke's computer Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which came out on the big screen the following year...

Football Suspensions, Due Process

This week in Southeastern Conference football has been marked by two suspensions of star players.  One is Florida's backup quarterback, freshman Treon Harris, who heroically brought his team back from behind in the second half against Tennessee and was possibly slated to take over the starting role.  The other is Georgia's phenomenally talented running back Todd Gurley, whose multitude of long runs had propelled himself into this year's Heisman Trophy discussion.  Harris' trouble came after a woman filed a sexual assault complaint against him, it allegedly happening the Sunday morning following the Tennessee game, and Gurley's after it was revealed that the NCAA was investigating him for violating their rules by selling his own autographs.  In both cases, their colleges immediately suspended him from football...Florida went a step further and banned Harris from campus and classes, only allowing him to take on-line courses.  Just a couple of days ago, though, the woman withdrew the complaint... although her lawyer stated that she might refile it on another day...and Harris was "cleared" of the accusation without ever having been officially charged for the alleged crime.  The University then fully reinstated him, although he will miss tonight's Gator game against LSU.  As for Gurley, he is not accused of anything yet, and what he is being investigated for is no crime but rather an infraction of a private organization's rules.  Yet he will suffer an indefinite suspension unless that investigation results in his exoneration.

Sexual assault is a very serious matter, as it should be...and it is also a very big "hot button" social issue, which is certain to inflame many people to anger and a spirit of vengeance when they hear of it.  But just being accused of something does not automatically imply guilt, and I had been under the impression that one of the factors making our society here in America more civilized is the concept of "due process", whereby one so accused is presumed innocent until an orderly and rational process of presenting evidence and witnesses, all subject to scrutiny and cross-examination, can determine guilt or innocence.  With the lack of convincing evidence or the withdrawal of the accusation, the accused should not have to suffer under a cloud of suspicion for the alleged crime and should be treated as an innocent person.  Popular opinion should play no role in his or her treatment.  But I believe the University of Florida, influenced by the public relations angle of the case, decided to presume guilt upon Harris with its knee-jerk suspension and ban.  As for Gurley, he is also being treated unfairly right now, regardless whether investigation ultimately bears out his guilt or not.  No, universities are not a part of the judicial system, and the concept of due process, as it has been strictly interpreted by the law, pertains to that judicial system, not independent organizations.  But due process IS now almost universally considered to be an essential element of fairness in our society and needs to be practiced wherever it can...

October Running Mileage Over 100 After Ten Days

My running mileage has spiked drastically over the past few days...in fact, in the first ten days of October, I've run 102 miles.  This may be the most I've ever run in a ten-day period, and that includes my marathon-training period of late 2010-early 2011.  But then I was going on very long, single runs while now, my runs are broken up throughout the day into smaller units.  I'm not sure, but I think this way it is not taking the same toll on my legs and feet as it did before.  Eventually, though, I do want to do some long runs as I'd like to get back into running half-marathon races.  But first things first: I'll see how well this new strategy works for me, at least during the next few days...

Just Finished Reading William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

Recently I read one of William Faulkner's novels, his fifth one, titled As I Lay Dying.  In it Faulkner relates the tale of a rural Mississippi family, the Bundrens, as they deal with the circumstances surrounding the mother, Addie, and her sickness and death...and her wish to be buried many miles away in a town called "Jefferson".  Her husband, Anse, goes along with that wish...but he has his own selfish agendas, one of which is to buy himself some "new teeth" for his rotted mouth, and the other...a shocker which is only revealed at the story's end.  In the process, while the entire family goes on the trek to carry Addie's corpse to the eventual burial site...slowly by a mule-drawn cart...he proceeds to bleed his own children of their own property, money, and health,  with little regard to their sufferings.    In this family are three grown sons (Cash, Darl, Jewel), a young son (Vardaman) and one daughter (teenager Dewey Dell). Each family member has their own story to tell, as well as some of the people surrounding them in the story.  And that's how Faulkner presents this tale...filtered through the perspectives of the various characters involved, without a unifying narrative.  Sometimes this makes the story a little difficult to follow, but eventually it all comes together.  By far the most interesting (and compelling) of these perspectives is that of Vardaman, who as a little boy sees everything going around him with open, innocent eyes and with often hilarious, often sad interpretations.  I found myself looking forward, as I made my way through As I Lay Dying, for the next "Vardaman" section...

As I Lay Dying was adapted to film in 2013 by James Franco, who not only directed it but starred as Darl Bundren.  As it was available on Netflix, I watched it after finishing the book.  Although Franco did a masterful job of adhering to the book's format, plot, and characterizations, those "Vardaman" sections that I had enjoyed so much had been significantly cut, sad to say.  Still, I heartily recommend the movie, as well as the book...although you must understand that this literary/cinematic experience may mess with your emotions a bit.  It did for me...

2014 Baseball Playoffs Reach League Championship Series Stage

Now that the divisional series have all finished in this 2014 Major League Baseball season playoffs, we are left with four surviving teams: Baltimore and Kansas City in the American League...and St. Louis and San Francisco in the National League.  The Royals and Giants, the wild-card one-game winners, have continued their momentum and knocked off teams originally thought to be favorites (Los Angeles Angels and Washington, respectively).  The Orioles and Cardinals (who are coming off impressive series wins against Detroit and the LA Dodgers) are both well-managed teams, both with a strong sense of unity and a strong bullpen...crucial in those later innings after the starting pitcher, no matter how strong he has pitched earlier, begins to tire and becomes vulnerable.  Just ask the Los Angeles Dodgers, whose star-studded lineup could not save them against the Cardinals when their starters (especially Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw) could not depend on relief pitching to help them out when they began to fade in the 6th and 7th innings.  Baltimore and St. Louis, on the other hand, are rock-strong with their relief pitching...and for this reason, I pick them to make it to the World Series.  However, my personal preference is to see Baltimore face off against San Francisco...with the Giants ultimately prevailing.

The League Championship Series begin Friday with Baltimore playing Kansas City while St. Louis plays San Francisco, beginning on Saturday.  I expect some exciting, well-played games in these upcoming series...

Upcoming Election Highlights Florida Governor Race

On Tuesday, November 4, the mid-term elections will be held.  Where I'm at, the elections run from the state-wide governor's race to the local county commission, with some local and state taxing and constitutional amendment questions as well.  It would be a good idea not to wait the day before voting to get as much information on the candidates and issues...that is, assuming you're going to make the effort to get out and vote on Election Day (or in the preceding days comprising the early voting period).

The main election for the state of Florida is for governor, with incumbent Republican Rick Scott facing off against his immediate predecessor, now-Democratic Charlie Crist (there's a strong Libertarian Party candidate as well).  The television ad campaign has been full of vile mudslinging and misrepresentation.  Regardless of which side you're supporting, I can't walk away from this campaign thinking that whoever gets elected will have serious image (and, ultimately, leadership) problems to contend with as sitting governor.  As for me, I can handle either's election, although I think Crist would make the better governor for the next four years as he doesn't subscribe to a narrow ideological viewpoint like Scott.  I also think that the accusation that Crist abandoned the Republican Party is absurd when the opposite is in fact the case.  As is the charge that he was responsible for the high unemployment rate during his earlier term in office...when in fact that was part of the nationwide severe recession that arose from the banking crisis that happened at the close of the George W. Bush presidency.  I also am critical of Scott for his unreasonable hostility toward President Obama...whether one likes it or not, in a democracy you campaign and vote for your side, but if the other wins then you respect the office they hold and deal with them in a respectful manner.  It doesn't mean you have to hug the guy (which is something that hounds Crist among his right-wing detractors), but you can at least treat him as if he weren't a usurping enemy of the people.  And the pro-Scott ads trashing Crist's past and present association with our current president?  They seem to have forgotten that Obama carried Florida in both 2008 and 2012...

English Soccer Regular Season Permeated with Tournaments

I had written before about how I was surprised that soccer in England isn't just about the various teams going through the regular season, but that the top teams are also involved in the European soccer championship series, the advancing rounds of which are interspersed between regular season league games.  As it turns out, I was only scratching the surface of the presence of soccer tournaments within the regular season.  For there are two other very prominent championship tournaments ongoing in English soccer, and they involve the English leagues themselves: the Football League Cup and the FA Cup.

In the Football League Cup, all 92 teams within the top-four tiers of English soccer (Premier League, Championship, League 1, and League 2) face off in a series of knockout rounds to produce a final champion.  Although the Premier League teams are obviously the heavy favorites here, there are many instances of a lower-tier club defeating a higher one.  In fact, tier-four Bradford City actually made it all the way to the championship game in 2013!  I thought it was cool that lower-level teams got to play against the "big guys"...that is, until I discovered the FA Cup...

In English soccer, there are many, many levels in the league structure.  In the top ten tiers, there are over 700 teams.  And in the FA Cup tournament every year, each and every one of them has a shot at winning it!  Yes, theoretically, a 10th-tier team could win the whole thing...but it's highly unlikely, as you might imagine.  Still, I'd like to keep up with the FA Cup, as well as the Football League Cup...not to mention that heretofore mentioned UEFA Champions League dealing with the overall European team championship...

Just Finished Reading Brandon Sanderson's The Hero of Ages

I just finished read the supposedly final book in fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, titled The Hero of Ages.  I say "supposedly" because Sanderson is producing two more trilogies from his "mistborn" theme.  I'll probably get around to reading them, which are works in progress (and projected works) on the author's part.  But for now, at least, I finished another fantasy series...and this one was a winner!

In The Hero of Ages, what had originally, in the first two books, been an uprising of the people, led by "allomantic" (employing ingested metals to attain superhuman abilities) heroes Kelsier and Vin, against the tyrannical Lord Ruler and later against competing lords and their armies, has ultimately come down to a struggle against two entities: Ruin, the force of destruction and decay, and the Presever, who protects human life and is responsible for the mists that permeate the night...and recently, the daytime.  Kelsier had sacrificed his own life for the cause at the end of book #1...or did he? For he seems to reappear in The Hero of Ages.  But is that really Kelsier? This is one of the mysteries that the final book sets out to solve, and there are others as well.  Among these are special, strange entities such as the Steel Inquisitors, the Koloss, and the Kandra.  Another mystery, resolved at the end, is the relationship between the three types of metal-induced supernatural abilities that certain individuals possess: allomancy, ferochemy, and hemalurgy...and how they relate to the conflicting agendas of Ruin and the Preserver, along with the curious presence of the falling ash and the mists.  Sounds a bit complicated, but Sanderson masterfully manages it all and presents it well.  I was very impressed by the ending of Hero of Ages, which brings closure to the trilogy while leaving a future that might be written about in another (and which apparently is).  Mistborn is, to me, definitely a "must-read" in the fantasy genre.  You won't be disappointed!

Today's Florida-Tennessee Game Seen as a Survival Contest By Many

Today's University of Florida football game is an early one, starting at noon in Knoxville against the University of Tennessee.  Both the Gators and Volunteers see this as a pivotal game in their seasons, as they both are proud schools with winning traditions but recent hard times.  This is more a survivor's game than anything, for the loser will most definitely become stamped within their own community as a failure...even if they go on to a winning season and bowl appearance.  Tennessee may be able to withstand a loss better than Florida: so far this year,the Gators actually have won the games they were expected to win and their one loss was to powerhouse Alabama on the road...but try telling that to some of their many unreasonable fans, who expect perfection from them week after week.  Well, that lot will probably never be satisfied with anything the Gators do. Even if they win today's game, they'll find something negative to focus on and crow about, probably culminating in yet another call to sack coach Will Muschamp and bench starting quarterback Jeff Driskel.  But I've seen this scenario play out every season since poor Ron Zook's first season in 2002 to succeed legend Steve Spurrier as head coach.

Maybe my attitude makes me not as much of a Florida fan as others see themselves, but I'm quite happy to have a moderately successful team that challenges for their divisional title...and makes it to their very competitive conference's title game every once and a while.  And in that regard, the Gators are square in the driver's seat. A loss to Tennessee, for me, would surely be a disappointment.  But as Billy Preston once expressed in his old 1973 summertime hit Will It Go Round in Circles, it's O.K. to "let the bad guy win every once in a while"...

Just Finished Reading Ken Follett's Code to Zero

I have just finished reading my first Ken Follett novel, this one titled Code to Zero.  The story, set in the year 1958 just as America is trying to enter the space race against the Soviet Union by launching its first rocket into space, begins in a familiar way (I think I've seen this scenario in old movies): a man wakes up one morning and discovers that he no longer remembers anything about himself and his job, family, or friends.  Also, there seem to be people watching and pursuing him...this can't be good!  Eventually, our hero, whose name is Charles "Luke" Lucas, discovers that he is a top scientist deeply involved in that impending rocket launch.  Apparently, he had discovered something serious about it and was on the way to Washington to talk about it with a friend in the CIA, Anthony Carroll, when his world went blank on him.  Now, as he tries to recover his own memory and orientation with the help of Billie Josephson, an old flame from his past who is an expert in memory, he discovers that people are out to kill him in order to prevent him from carrying something out that he has no idea of.  Sounds a bit to me like the old Gregory Peck movie thrillers Spellbound and Mirage!

Naturally, I won't give away the resolution to Code to Zero...but this novel does go into the Cold War tension and competition so preeminent in the 1950s between the USA and USSR.  It also examines the fledgling technology used in rocket science (some of the chapter-heading information Follett presents in this regard is a bit esoteric for me), as well as making the claim that our government, as Joseph McCarthy once claimed, was really, truly infested with pro-Soviet spies.  I enjoyed the mainly escapist ride through the book and felt that Follett accomplished his mission in writing it (at least what I think his mission probably was): tell a story in a suspenseful manner about an interesting topic while presenting compelling characters in a way that draws out the reader's empathy or ire.  Nothing fancy, but well written within its own limitations.  So with this book behind me, I'm prepared to seek out some more Follett material...

My September 2014 Running Report

In September, my running mileage rose dramatically, ending the month at 202.3 miles.  This amount was achieved by running multiple times per day.  And I ran on every day of the month.  The longest single run I did in September was 8 miles.  As I end this productive running month, though, my body overall feels a bit sore and I may decide to take a day or two off from running before resuming.  I had been considering entering the Jacksonville Marines Half-Marathon next Saturday, but had decided against it, mainly because it hasn't cooled down enough yet.  Maybe by the end of next month, conditions may become more conducive for me running a half-marathon race  (i.e., more autumn-like weather).  If so, there's one scheduled in Apalachicola on the 27th...