My NFL Favorites in Each Division This 2015 Season

It's getting closer to the start of the National Football League regular season this year, with the opening game between Pittsburgh and New England on Thursday, September 10 less than two weeks away.  So, as I usually do this time of year, I'm going through each division and picking my favorite teams.  No, I'm not predicting which ones will win each division...I'm strictly going by personal preference.  And since I'm doing this blog basically as an ongoing writing exercise, I'll explain the reasons for my picks...

AMERICAN CONFERENCE

East Division: MIAMI DOLPHINS-The Dolphins have been my team of choice since 1968, their third season of existence in the then-American Football League and when I was eleven going on twelve.  I suffered through two sub-par, typical expansion team seasons...and then Don Shula came over from Baltimore to coach them.  They won two Super Bowls under his direction and appeared in five...but more incredibly, during Shula's 26-year tenure there, they had only two losing seasons.  His successor Jimmy Johnson enjoyed some moderate success in his four years there, but from 2004 through 2015 Miami has enjoyed only two winning seasons.  And their last playoff appearance was in 2008.  They've frustrated me to no end the last two years because in each one they were in an excellent position to make the playoffs...only to choke up instead.  Will they be any better this year?  Guess we'll find out before too long...

South Division: JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS-Until 1977, I lived in South Florida.  But ever since the Jacksonville franchise came into existence I've lived the closest to that city.  I've always rooted for them unless they were playing Miami...although in recent years their mediocrity has made it often an exercise in futility.  If they finish higher than last, I'll be surprised.

North Division: BALTIMORE RAVENS-I've always admired the swarming defense of the Ravens...it reminds me of that of the Dolphins during their "No-Name Defense" era of early '70s  Super Bowl glory and the "Killer B's" of the 1982 season when they made another Super Bowl appearance.  I also feel a bit of gratitude to Baltimore for having been so kind as lose to Miami late in the 2007 regular season, giving them their only win and keeping them from going 0-16.  The Ravens are by far my favorite in this division.

West Division: SAN DIEGO CHARGERS-I can't root for Denver after it abandoned Tim Tebow right after he got them into the playoffs in 2011 for the first time in years.  I've always despised Oakland and feel neutral about Kansas City.  But I like the Chargers for their quarterback Phil Rivers.  Unfortunately, the management of this franchise has been remiss about retaining the talent around him.  Still, I'm going to pull for them when they're not playing a Florida team or the New York Giants...and I believe they have a good shot at making the playoffs this year.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

East Division: NEW YORK GIANTS-When the Giants upset the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl capping the 2007 season...ruining the Dolphins' bitter divisional rivals' quest for a perfect record...I vowed to myself that I would begin to support them on a regular basis.  And, what do you know, they repeated the feat in 2011 against the same villains! Let's see, another four years have passed...do the Giants still have it in them? Probably not, but my gratitude hasn't diminished.  Besides, I admire their quarterback Eli Manning, and head coach Tom Coughlin has my respect going back to the Jaguars' old glory days when he led them into the playoffs soon after their inception into the league.

South Division: TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS-This is a team that should have done much better last year than 2-14...so I have high expectations for them this time around, especially after getting what could eventually be a Hall of Fame quarterback in Jameis Winston.  But high hopes abound easily before the first game is played.  They're going to have to figure out ways to keep their composure in close games in order to pull some victories "out of the hat".  Fortunately, Winston has plenty of experience in this area and seems to be a natural leader on the field.  The Bucs have the potential to be the turnaround team of the year.  Of course, I root for them primarily for one reason: they are a Florida team...and for the first 18 years I lived in Gainesville, the nearest one to me...

North Division: GREEN BAY PACKERS-I like the Packers not only for their outstanding quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but also for their tremendous fans.  I especially like the custom at Packer home games for Green Bay players, upon scoring touchdowns for their team, to go jumping into the stadium to be mass-hugged by their supporters.  It's nice to root for a team with a great shot at the championship, and the Pack fills the bill here.

West Division: SEATTLE SEAHAWKS-I followed Seattle from time to time as they were first getting used to their then-new head coach Pete Carroll.  I was impressed by Carroll's exuberance and positive attitude.  This guy has a lot of fun out there coaching his team, and his expressiveness is infectious.  So when they won their first Super Bowl a couple of years ago, I was already all aboard with the Seahawks.  They have, I believe, what it takes to make a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance...if Green Bay or Dallas don't prevent them.

As for the teams I oppose the most, let's just say that I dislike, in order of intensity: New England, Buffalo, New York Jets, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Denver, Oakland, Houston, and Dallas...

Just Finished Reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire

Foundation and Empire is the second book  in the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.  Originally a part of the Foundation "trilogy" back in the 1950s, Asimov wrote two more books in it during the 1980s and then added two prequels. After his death in 1992, three other sci-fi writers wrote authorized Foundation novels as well...bringing the total so far as I know it to be ten books. I happen to possess all of these books.  Unfortunately, they are buried in the  deep recesses of my garage, which I desperately need to declutter and organize.  But even if one reads all of the Foundation books, in order to understand the full context of Asimov's futuristic imaginary universe it is necessary to go through the four "Robot" (or "Spacer") novels as well as the three-part Empire series.  This begins to become apparent toward the end of the Foundation series...and although I haven't as yet read the two prequel Foundation novels, I understand that this is true for them as well...

As for Foundation and Empire,  there is little I can tell any prospective  reader without giving away the first book in the series, also titled Foundation.  In very general terms, I will say that this second book deals with the Foundation...and with the Empire...as if that wasn't obviously self-evident.  But for more than half of the book, another element enters the story...and it is this part I found to be the most compelling...especially its chief antagonist and the sly manner in which Asimov wrote him into the story.   As for the first part, I did pick up an important theme expressed within it that I myself have learned over the course of my lifetime:  if you are working for an organization, individual, or cause and are so committed and excellent with the results of your efforts that you begin to be recognized for that excellence, then your biggest opposition...as well as your eventual downfall...most likely will come from among those for whom you are so diligently striving as they will begin to perceive you as a threat to themselves.  Sounds cynical, but it has been borne out with my own experiences time and time again, sad to say...

My Running Detoured by Foot Pain

Although I would like to train up to be able to run in the upcoming half-marathon races (even possibly marathons) this fall, I have developed a nagging pain in my right foot that may just derail any substantial running for a while.  I am looking for ways to get around this problem, which involves pain that only occurs at impact, neither existing at rest nor with simple muscular exertion.  So right now I'm working at alternative forms of exercise, including getting my old dilapidated cheap-o bicycle out of the shed and riding it around the neighborhood.  I also have a portable stepper exercise contraption that I can use as a "no-impact" exercise...not to mention that I can do modified push-ups using it that serve as an alternative to abdominal crunch exercises.  And then there is also the elliptical cross-trainer machine at my local 24/7 gym.  In any event, I have to give my foot enough time to heal while avoiding aggravating whatever problem currently exists.  I haven't given up on my race plans...well, at least not in a general sense: the upcoming October events may not be feasible for me, but toward the end of the year I see no reason not to resume competition...which for me, isn't against any other runners, but rather to simply finish with reasonable times...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "P" and "Q" Mystery Novels

As I continue along with the so-called "Alphabet Mysteries" of writer Sue Grafton from "A" to "X" (her latest "letter"), I just finished reading a couple: "P" is for Peril and "Q" is for Quarry.  I was happy to discover that I hadn't read either before...sometimes I forget which books in the series I've already gone through...

In "P" is for Peril, protagonist private investigator Kinsey Millhone, a single mid-thirties California ex-cop, is hired to look into the disappearance of a woman's ex, a physician working at a senior care center.  There are all sorts of subplots involved, especially an ongoing Medicare fraud investigation at the center, the missing man's marital relationships, and his wayward daughter.  A second story in the book, intertwined with the main mystery, is Kinsey's new landlord for her office: a couple of brothers...and she has started to become romantic with the younger one.  But with them as well, a mysterious and sinister past is revealed.  Plenty of suspects to go around with this story.  I thought the ending was quite intriguing...

In "Q" is for Quarry, the panoply of suspicious characters continues as Kinsey is hired by an old police associate to team up with another ex-cop...this one retired...to investigate a cold (long unsolved) murder case: a 1969 "Jane Doe" killing involving a dumped unidentified young female corpse in a remote area.  Subplots in the story include the dire medical problems of Kinsey's police partners, as well as new information regarding her own clouded family past. At the conclusion of the book, it is revealed that author Sue Grafton had based her story on an actual cold case involving very similar circumstances...

Now I'm working on her next novel in the series, "R" is for Ricochet...

Light 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season Entering Most Intense Phase

The 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, which has been predicted to be very light with few named storms due to cooler Atlantic waters, has so far vindicated the prognosticators.  Until just recently, there have been only three named storms, none of which have made much of an impact although two struck the U.S. mainland.  This past week, Danny followed the common Africa-to-West-Indies trans-Atlantic path, strengthening to hurricane level. But then, as it approached the Leeward Islands, it weakened and was sheared into nothing more than a rainy low pressure area.  Following Danny westward across the Atlantic, close to its path, is Erika, a much larger storm in area.  Although Erika is only a minimal tropical storm at this writing with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, forecast models have it passing safely between two shear zones as it passes just north of the Leewards, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola and enters the warm waters of the Bahamas.  According to the current projected path, slow-moving Erika may be approaching the east coast of Florida as a minimal hurricane by this Sunday.  Still, right now there is a huge shear zone covering the eastern Gulf of Mexico and most of the Florida peninsula that, should it remain in place, would weaken Erika if the potential hurricane makes a Floridian landfall...

I'm not too concerned about Erika possibly hitting Gainesville in north-central Florida, especially as it looks right now as if it will only make it to weak hurricane status and then probably weaken again.  But the media will probably amplify the coverage, since the tropical storms this year have been too few and far between and Erika might be the first full-fledged Atlantic hurricane in 2015 to threaten the U.S. mainland (tropical storms Ana and Bill earlier hit the Carolinas and Texas, respectively)...

Stock Market's Ten-Minute Thousand-Point Plunge This Morning

Wall Street's Dow Jones Average shocked the news world this morning as it went into a ten-minute free fall, finally leveling at a thousand points lower and scaring the bejesus (or dickens...or choose your own epithet) out of everybody. This is after Friday's loss of 531 points and right on the heels of a massive selloff in the Chinese stock market.  The prices rose back up to around down a little more that 100 points...but over the course of the afternoon, the average has crept back downward...it's 350 points at this writing.  The White House laid much of the blame for this fall at the doors of Congress, which it claims is dragging its feet at passing important fiscal legislation.  But what seems to be powering it all to me is the bursting of China's financial bubble...and their government's reevaluation of their currency...

It is too early right now to see whether this drop in the stock market is only a temporary scare like those in 1987 and 2010...or the sign of a traumatic economic downturn, as in 2008.  But the market suddenly has MY attention...

Just Finished Reading John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

When I was in the ninth grade, my English teacher assigned John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl as a required reading.  I did not like it at all...and since then 44 years have passed until I picked up another work of his.  As it turns out, the book I finally did choose, the short 1937 novel Of Mice and Men, is another Steinbeck story that is now commonly assigned in high school.  After reading it, though, I can understand why perhaps my English teachers may have passed up on it: the language is pretty rough in places and there are some areas in it with sexual material...not necessarily something that they were ready to deal with in high school in the early 1970s...at least not as a required book...

Of Mice and Men is about two young men: the smart but uneducated George, short in stature, and his traveling and working companion, the mentally challenged near-giant Lennie.  Lennie has a fondness for petting little furry creatures like mice, but he cannot seem to handle any for any length of time without accidentally killing them with his strength, which he chronically underestimates.  Ultimately, he wants for George and him to buy a small plot of land of their own where they can live off of it and he would get to tend the rabbits.   The two are migrant farm/ranch workers on their way to a new job at a ranch in California.  Once there, they encounter problems with a bully who not only feels challenged by Lennie's size and demeanor, but also is extremely jealous about his own attractive newlywed wife, whom the men working there regard as a flirtatious "tart".  You might imagine some scenarios for trouble...and you'd be right...but since I'm not going to give away the story, you're going to have to find out what happens for yourself!

The thing that struck me the most about Of Mice and Men was how Steinbeck moved the story and revealed the personalities of the characters with extensive dialogue, keeping the narration and introspection to a minimum.  That was pretty impressive.  Another thing he did involved misdirection...leading the reader to anticipate a climactic conflict in one direction while ultimately leading into a different one...an outcome that, having finished the story and looking backward at it, seemed completely reasonable.  Steinbeck also examined racial prejudice and injustice, as well as how everyone needs to have something to believe in and dream for...and how a good, feasible dream can spread like wildfire through a dispirited group of people and revitalize them.  But perhaps most of all, he spotlighted the plight in his times of the mentally disabled and how they, especially the ones who were poor, were often misunderstood and treated unfairly.  I sometimes wonder to myself just how much better off they are today...and how much more we need to do...

Get a copy of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: it won't take you very long to read it and it will be worth your while.  And, besides, you won't have to impress some high school English teacher with a book report after you've finished...

Gainesville and Its Coffee Shops Swell Back Up With Students' Return

Well, this is the weekend that the population in Gainesville swells back up again with its transient University of Florida student population returning (as well as a few attending Santa Fe College).  It's time once again for me to reconfigure my routes through town, especially to and from work, that have me driving through pockets of heavy student presence.  Looks like I may be taking some detours east on Waldo and Williston Roads or west on I-75 to avoid not just the University of Florida traffic, but also that of the public schools, which are also beginning. Moreover, it will again be necessary for me to keep tabs on important events taking place on campus...not because I'm planning to attend them...but rather because I'm avoiding them and the traffic emanating therefrom.  And, of course, I might as well resign myself to the fact that, starting next week, I'm more likely than not to walk into any Starbucks and not find one empty seat left: that's too bad since going out and sitting somewhere in public tends to focus my thoughts and helps me with some of my personal academic goals...

Maybe it's finally time for me to just face reality and make the big break from Starbucks...and start going to McDonalds instead.  Since I only drink regular brewed coffee, anyway,  why not save some money and go somewhere that I know will provide not only free Internet access (actually, I rarely go online except at home or on my cellphone), but also plenty of empty seats to choose from while charging much less for their coffee?  McDonalds fulfills all of these criteria, and furthermore, it isn't generally considered "cool" enough by those hipster and yuppie types who like to camp out for hours in the more highbrow coffee shops, hopelessly clogging up all of the seating along with the myriad students who use them for study halls (nothing inherently wrong with studying there...I do the same). And since I'm a working-class kind of guy, why not hang out in a working-class place like a national fast food chain?  The only problem I have with McDonalds is that sometimes they act confused when I order coffee at any time other than during breakfast hours.  Still, more often than not I get my order right away and can go on to study, read, and write to my heart's content.  And what's more, McDonalds are just about everywhere...there's even one within easy walking distance of my workplace. Yes, I suppose it's just about time for a change in venue.  I just hope that McDonalds remains "uncool" in the minds of many, especially all those pesky students... 

Just Finished Reading Finders Keepers by Stephen King

Stephen King's latest novel Finders Keepers, which I just finished reading, is the middle book in his ongoing series that began with Mr. Mercedes.  In it, a celebrated writer by the name of John Rothstein (apparently a fictional amalgam of John Updike and Philip Roth) has gone into self-imposed isolation from the world for many years as he continues his writing...but without publishing any of his works.  This proves to be problematic as one of his most renown works, the "Runner" trilogy, and which features the young American anti-hero character of Jimmy Gold, seems to trail off in the final book with a marked sense of anti-climax...as if there were more to come in the series.  But if Rothstein had written any more books in the Runner series, he's not publishing.  Enter Morris Bellamy, a deeply disturbed man who has identified so closely with the Jimmy Gold character and is so disappointed at the ending of the third book that he feels compelled to find any new books for himself...eliciting an unwelcome encounter with Rothstein at his retreat.  I'll spare you the details except to say that the story does get around to connecting itself with the previous book, Mr. Mercedes...and that its unlikely trio of protagonists...Bill Hodges, Jerome Robinson, and Holly Gibney...once again team up to set things straight.  In the midst of their endeavors, King inserts some hints as to what direction the final book in this trilogy will take...

I enjoyed Finders Keepers and found it to be better than Mr. Mercedes...unusual for the second book in a trilogy.  But what I got the most out of it was the John Rothstein character...and the real-life writers of John Updike and Philip Roth.  So much that I'm now starting to read Exit Ghost, one of Roth's more recent books, and am working to get hold of the first book in Updike's celebrated Rabbit series.  Roth, by the way, is known probably the most for his stories Goodbye Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint...

So now I await Stephen King's final installment in this series.  In the process, he joins George R.R. Martin, Daniel Abraham and Brandon Sanderson in the "club" of authors whose ongoing series I've caught up with as I patiently anticipate what's up next...

Soccer: UEFA (European) Champions League Qualifying Playoffs Underway

International professional league soccer can be downright confusing at times.  At the same time that the various leagues are going on with their regular seasons, a parallel "league" is also taking place.  In Europe, the UEFA takes the 22 top finishers of the various European leagues from the previous season...and then adds 10 more teams to comprise the 32 that will begin group stage play in a few weeks.  Those 10 teams are now being determined through a series of playoff games.  Fox Sports and Spanish-speaking Galavision are showing several of them on their different channels.  On Galavision (Gainesville Cox Channel 89) I just saw the ending of one between Celtic (of Scotland) and Malmo (of Sweden) with the former prevailing.  Right now I'm viewing the second half between Valencia (of Spain) and Monaco on Fox Sports 1 (Channel 62)...Valencia currently leads 2-1...

Since I can't watch all the various European leagues in professional soccer, this Champions League gives me the opportunity to acquaint myself with teams that I normally would not be able to follow...especially those from Spain, France, and Italy.  Also, it's fun to see how well (or poorly) some of the English (Barclay's) Premier League teams fare against their European competition...

Just Finished Reading (Again) Isaac Asimov's Novel Foundation

Foundation, originally written in serial form in the 1940s and then revised and combined into a complete book in the 1950s, in turn is the first book in a series of science fiction novels (also named "Foundation") set more than ten thousand years into the future, when a galaxy-wide empire envisioned by author Isaac Asimov is going decadent and beginning to crumble.  On its capital planet of Trantor near the galaxy's center lives Hari Seldon, a "psychohistorian" by profession.  By using intricate mathematics and principles of psychology, sociology, and history, Seldon determines that the Empire will soon dissolve and a prolonged dark age, lasting many thousands of years, will pervade the galaxy.  But he has a plan to shorten that time span, and embarks on an elaborate scheme of projects and foreseen dilemmas (which he terms "Seldon Crises") to steer humanity back on a fast-track to reunite under a new (and hopefully improved) empire.  The story thus develops with Seldon explaining his ideas to mathematician-recruit Gaal Dornick as well as to his persecutors working for the Empire.  It then jumps ahead fifty years to another situation with other characters when a Seldon Crisis forces their hand and directs them onto a path toward Seldon's goals.  These leaps of time between stories, with subsequent new characters and an accompanying Seldon Crisis in each one, continues on throughout the book.  What happens in them I leave you, the reader, to discover for yourself...

I have read the opening novel Foundation a couple of times before, but I only read the core series of five novels in its entirety once.  It had a great ending, and I recently decided to go through it once more.  There are also a couple of prequel novels Asimov wrote for it, as well as three other "Foundation" books that others wrote after his death in 1992.  Maybe I'll get around to reading them, too, but for now I'm rereading the "five"...

Next in the series is Foundation and Empire...

Just Finished Reading A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

A Memory of Light, which was published in 2013, is the fourteenth and concluding book in Robert Jordan's fantasy series The Wheel of Time.  This last book, as well as the two preceding it, were written by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death...with careful attention given to the original author's vision and extensive notes.  In such a finale, I was naturally concerned at what was going to happen to all of the various characters introduced in the series...I instinctively knew that not all of them would survive.  Well, I found out...but don't worry...I'm not giving anything away.  And, of course, how the main struggle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One turned out is resolved as well...and in a curiously satisfactory way, too.  Yes, although plowing through these fourteen books amounted to a sometimes tedious, drawn-out project, I feel vindicated for my efforts by how it ended...

Now that I have finished reading the Wheel of Time series, I can go onto the Wiki website exclusively devoted to it.  A few months ago I had gone on it to collect a little background information about one of the characters and inadvertently read premature information about her demise.  Now, though, I'm done with the series and can go back to the Wheel of Time Wiki to fill in gaps in my memory of people, places, nations, and events...

If you're someone who likes reading involved, lengthy fantasy series with compelling characters (and the characters are what won me over), then by all means treat yourself to The Wheel of Time.  But it will take you a while to get through it, and there is an awful lot of information to absorb and try to keep up with.  Still, it easily beats just sitting for hours on-end channel-surfing the TV.  Engage your mind, I say...The Wheel of Time most definitely will accomplish that!

Theme Park Rides: My Personal Favorites

As I mentioned in yesterday's article about theme parks, I have my own personal list of favorite thrill rides, including a few on a more subdued level.  Some of them are roller coasters, some aren't, and some are water park rides.  I haven't exactly been a theme park junkie like some people who travel across the country and even abroad to visit and compare the various parks and rides.  My experience is confined to a few parks within driving range of Gainesville, Dolly Parton's Dollywood in eastern Tennessee, and that one roller coaster in Dania, near Fort Lauderdale. First, I'll rank the parks I've been to (including water parks):

1 Busch Gardens-Tampa
2 Universal Islands of Adventure-Orlando
3 Wild Adventures-Valdosta
4 Disney World Magic Kingdom-Orlando
5 Disney World Epcot Center-Orlando
6 Wild Waters-Silver Springs
7 Dollywood-Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
8 Cypress Gardens (now closed down)-Winter Haven, Florida
9 Universal Studios-Orlando
10 Disney MGM Studios-Orlando
11 Blizzard Beach (Disney World)-Orlando
                                                         
Actually, I've enjoyed all of the above theme parks and have my favorite rides in each of them.  Now, here are my eight all-time favorite rides I've been on:

1 POWER SURGE (Wild Adventures)
This ride superficially resembles a Ferris wheel, but the passengers, securely strapped and fastened in their seats, soon find themselves hurled up and spinning and toppling in different directions as the world around them becomes a chaotic blur.  This has to be one of the more terrifying rides to behold from the ground...it took me a while to muster up the courage to ride it.  And as no two rides are exactly alike, I've never gotten so accustomed to it that riding it hasn't disturbed me at least a little...perfect! Only one problem: since Wild Adventures switched its ownership, Power Surge was removed.  Sometimes it appears at county fairs...it was at the Alachua County Fair two years ago, but was out of service and unavailable.  I also rode it back in 2005 at Cypress Gardens, which has since closed down...

2-MONTU (Busch Gardens Tampa)
Montu is what I call the "Cadillac" of roller coasters, providing an extremely smooth, comfortable riding experience.  But like Power Surge, it can appear pretty imposing from the ground level.  Montu is a hanging steel coaster that undergoes several loops, which for me is a good thing.  When dealing with the "G's" that thrill rides place on passengers, inverting loops can alleviate the effects...I'm not supposed to ride anything that puts an overload of them on me. So Montu and Power Surge work quite well in that regard...

3-KUMBA (Busch Gardens Tampa)
Kumba is another looping steel coaster at Busch Gardens, this one where the passengers' feet are firmly resting on the floor within their compartments and not hanging out loosely.  To me, it has a great initial climb...and that dive soon after the apex is epic!  Visually, I prefer Kumba's lush green surroundings to Montu's sand...it is a bit more jolting, though.  Still, it has always been one of the two absolute requirements for me during a Busch Gardens visit....although I prefer Montu by far...

4-DUELING DRAGONS:FIRE (Islands of Adventure-Orlando)
Now known as Dragon Challenge and renamed for dragons appearing in the Harry Potter book The Goblet of Fire, Dueling Dragons features two separate coasters, Fire and Ice, dispatched simultaneously and often hurling themselves at each other like, well, dueling dragons! In one of these high-flying encounters, Fire would momentarily hover over Ice as the latter passed close underneath...giving a sensation of floating weightlessness that Ice didn't have.  I loved this coaster and always sought it out when visiting.  Unfortunately, it's buried at the back of the park and requires a trek to reach.

5-TORNADO (Wild Waters)
I'm not sure whether or not Wild Waters will remain in existence after its adjacent park of Silver Springs became a state park.  In any event, it has been several years since I've been there...it is the closest park to Gainesville that features "rides" and you can't beat the price.  My favorite water ride is here: the tubular Tornado, a ride that requires the participant to cross their hands over the chest and cross ankles...and remain lying still as they steeply slide down into the black tube's opening at the top.  The tube convolutes to where you're actually inverted at one point while blindly sliding within it before being twisted back around at the landing.  Wild Adventures has a similar ride at its own water park (or at least it did a few years ago).

6 AVIATOR (Wild Adventures)
I believe Aviator is still at Wild Adventures, and it is one of the first thrill rides I rode on to any extent. It is more of a panoramic-view ride, with passengers seated at spokes from the center and rising up high from the ground while rotating at a brisk speed in a counterclockwise direction.  I loved sitting high up there in the sky (hence the name "Aviator"), going around like that with such a view of everything beneath...I remarked that I could easily stay up there for hours with a good book in hand and a coffee, only coming back down for refills and bathroom breaks.  But alas, that's not how they run things in these theme parks!

7 SPACESHIP EARTH (Epcot Center)
I like a lot of things about Walt Disney World.  One thing that I DON'T like, though, is having to wait in endless lines to go on any of their rides...often even when I've made an advance "appointment" using their express system.  There is one important exception to this repeated frustration: Spaceship Earth, which is the "entrance" ride to Epcot Center, right underneath the giant golf ball.  You may be standing in a line at the start, but it is constantly loading with its conveyor belt system.  Soon enough, you're on a visual educational tour through the history of humanity's progress in the area of communications...and in the process you get to sit for several minutes in air-conditioned splendor (this can be important during the dog days of summer in central Florida). Spaceship Earth is not exactly a "thrill ride" per se, but it is one that anyone could ride...and as such everyone in your party can experience it and share their reactions...

8-THUNDERHEAD (Dollywood)
Thunderhead is the best wooden roller coaster I've ever been on.  No other has come as close to it for its smoothness...but I still have to place it on my list with an important caveat: I'll probably not ride it again due to the factor of the gravity pressure that rides of this genre inevitably place on the passenger, especially during the tight winding at the end.  But it was by far the best ride in the park (that Tennessee Tornado steel coaster was brutally harsh)...

Well, I think I'll just leave this list at "eight" and move on.  Truth be told, I don't feel any particular urge to go rushing out to any of these theme parks and relive my old experiences...my memory serves me pretty well. I also noticed that, with some of the more well-known rides, you can get on You-Tube and vicariously experience them through the cameras of other riders...                           

Theme Parks...and Me

A tragic event happened at the Cedar Point theme park near Sandusky, Ohio (on Lake Erie) yesterday: a man was struck and killed at the site of one of their roller coasters after his cellphone spilled out while riding it and he scaled a fence afterward and went into the underlying restricted area to find and retrieve it.   A lot of people lose stuff on theme park rides, usually coming out of their pockets.  I have always been careful when attending them to wear a fanny pack and stuff anything I didn't want to lose in it.  But going into an area where the coaster is going to be diving at high speed? Not very wise...

I used to be very averse to riding theme park rides of any kind...well, I WAS brave enough to ride Dumbo, It's a Small World, and If You Had Wings at Disney World back in 1973...and the Congo River Rapids at Busch Gardens in '86.  But I avoided the more serious ones until my own children were of age to ride them (which they boldly began to do)...and so I decided to "face the fear", as my son Will then liked to put it.  We started, in late 2002, going to Wild Adventures just southwest of Valdosta, Georgia, and in the next few years also visited Busch Gardens, Universal Studios of Orlando (both parks contained within), Walt Disney World (Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios, and Blizzard Beach...we never got around to Animal Kingdom), Dollywood (in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee), and Wild Waters (a water park feeding from Silver Springs).   Will, Rebecca, and I would go on the more challenging rides while Melissa would gamely ride on those a little more subdued (like Ant Farm at Wild Adventures, ET Adventure at Universal, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney).  I got over my fears of inversion, extreme heights, and sudden changes in gravity during this time...and built up a list of personal favorite rides (maybe I'll write about them in some future post).  When I went down to visit my father in Hollywood, I stopped on a couple of occasions in Dania and rode South Florida's then only roller coaster: the wooden Dania Beach Hurricane off Stirling Road next to I-95 (it's since been dismantled and moved to another part of the country).  From 2002 through 2006, my family together regularly attended theme parks and I went on most of the rides...some many times (e.g. I've ridden Busch Garden's Montu 26 times and Kumba 22).  But since that time, the kids have grown up and Melissa isn't really a "thrill rides" kind of person...understandable: before 2002 I was downright phobic about them.  So I haven't been to any theme parks in the past few years.  Still, Melissa and I could still go to places like Universal and Disney that have lots to offer visitors besides the rides...

There are also a couple of factors that have diminished the quality of our theme park experiences.  One is the travel to and from the park site, usually on the Interstate and for around two hours on the average in each direction.  That can get to be tedious whether you're a driver or a passenger.  The other is the problem these parks have with long lines for their rides.  For a two-to-three minute roller coaster experience, it simply is not worth the aggravation to have to wait upwards to an hour or more to have the opportunity.  Once we stayed at one of Universal Studio's hotels for our vacation (July 2003) and as a side benefit each of us received an express pass for the many rides.  Now THAT was great, almost running through the express lines and getting to ride our favorites many times!  But that experience was also a bit more expensive, too...

I'd like to attend some of the better theme parks again with a more balanced approach: don't just concentrate on the rides, but take in all of what they have to offer.  Still, there are some rides I'm sure I couldn't resist going on again...unless of course that entails having to wait 1-2 hours in line beforehand...

Perusing Past Election Result Maps on Wikipedia

This morning I've been using Wikipedia to go over presidential election results from the past 70+ years, concentrating on the nationwide maps showing the general election results, broken down by individual counties.  I was surprised that my current home county of Alachua, home to the University of Florida and a supposed "blue" Democratic area in northern Florida surrounded by a sea of "red" Republican counties, went for George (H.W.) Bush in 1988 over Michael Dukakis.  And in the extremely close election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, it was the Republican Nixon who won Alachua while surrounding counties went for JFK.  But then again, that 1960 election was the last one that consistently had the South pretty much run by very conservative Democrats (the "Boll Weevils").  For example, if you look at the map showing where the biggest support for Franklin Roosevelt was in his 1944 election against Thomas Dewey, it was in the southern states.  But in 1964, the South underwent a realignment that would only be interrupted when favorite son candidates Jimmy Carter (Georgia) and Bill Clinton (Arkansas) successfully ran for the high office.  Conservative wing Republican Barry Goldwater won the Deep South in '64 and, four years later, independent candidate George Wallace would split it with Nixon.  Nixon swept the area (and almost the rest of the country) from George McGovern in 1972, and the shift of conservative southern Democrats to the Republican Party had begun. Still, there are pockets of strong Democratic regions in states like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina in spite of their states' now consistently Republican orientation.  However, there are other states in the country whose shifts are a bit more puzzling...

Until the past few elections, for example, Kentucky was one of those states that could go either way.  The Democratic strong areas were always in its far western area near the Mississippi River and in its far eastern area near West Virginia.  Now those areas seem to have gone over to the Republicans.  Speaking of West Virginia, it used to be strongly Democratic...but has undergone a flip-flop of its own.  Another state that has drastically changed its political orientation is Oklahoma, which used to have a large Democratic base in its southeastern section but which now seems to be uniformly Republican...

Being someone who loves to pore over maps, I could spend hours upon hours looking at the ones Wikipedia provides.  I trust their data, although I know that there are areas that Wikipedia's articles might just be suspect for their objectivity.  But when it comes to data like this, they are a great source.  They're also useful for keeping up with sports standings, too!

The Books I'm Currently Reading

Right now I'm in the process of reading three different books...and each one is part of a series.  I'm about three fourths of the way through Stephen King's latest novel Finders Keepers, which is book #2 in his ongoing trilogy...Mr. Mercedes was the first one.  I'm liking the second book more, which introduces new characters and a new story while integrating them with the heroes of the previous book...and has hinted at what the third and final book may entail.  I'm also a little more than halfway past A Memory of Light, the final, fourteenth book in the Wheel of Time fantasy saga by Robert Jordan, with Brandon Sanderson writing out this volume (as well as the previous two) following the original author's untimely death (not that deaths are ever "timely" in nature).  Naturally, as you might expect at this stage of the game, the events are leading toward a crescendo with the forces of light and darkness facing off on many different fronts.  And the third book I'm reading is Isaac Asimov's Foundation, the first of seven books in his science fiction Foundation series.  He wrote the first three in the 1950s and then waited nearly thirty years before producing the last two...and then tacked on two prequel novels.  I've just begun my rereading of Foundation...

I also plan to read mystery writer Sue Grafton's "P" is for Peril after finishing A Memory of Light.  So I have plenty of reading to occupy myself with for a while...

Went to Retreat in Ocklawaha with Melissa This Weekend

This weekend I joined Melissa at a retreat held at a Lake Weir resort in Ocklawaha, Florida (a few miles southeast of Ocala) for some students and alumni of Asbury Theological Seminary, which she attends.  Melissa went down there Thursday, but as I couldn't get time off from work, I had to wait until Saturday morning to join her there.  The focus of the retreat was marriage and leadership, with different people making presentations on various topics.  The atmosphere was relaxed and informal with about 16 in attendance. They provided us with breakfast, lunch and dinner Saturday and breakfast on Sunday morning before the final presentation, which was how to foster creativity. I enjoyed the whole experience as well as the facilities, which provided (as you can see from the pictures) a grand view of the lake...which I had never visited before. Saturday evening I also enjoyed an after-dinner table discussion with some new friends when we discovered a mutual affinity for books...especially stuff in the science fiction/fantasy realm. Everyone was not only friendly but showed a warmth and acceptance that I had not experienced to such a degree with events of this type.  Melissa and I are both grateful for having been able to go there...  

Yesterday's Republican Presidential Debates on Fox News

Yesterday all seventeen major Republican candidates for president faced off in two debates.  The ten making the "cut" were onstage at 9 PM on Fox News, while the other seven held their pee wee debate earlier at 5.  The idea of having such debates this early in the campaign season makes little sense...until you realize what may be the main force driving it: big money campaign donors.  And why not, with no restrictions on political contributions anymore after the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Citizens United decision a few years ago, equated spending with protected "free speech".  If you happen to be a politically active tycoon, you are going to wait until the field of candidates gets whittled down to the point where the more viable candidates who represent your interests are left...no point in figuratively flushing your money down the proverbial toilet, after all...

This morning the folks on Fox News were all giddy about their debates, and discussed who did well and who didn't.  The consensus view seems to be that Marco Rubio came across better in the prime time debate while Carly Fiorina stood out in the other.  As for the others, somebody said that Jeb Bush seemed to struggle a bit with his answers while another regarded Rand Paul as looking too "sour".  As for me, I find this spectacle to be a bit on the hilarious side...both the debate and the analysis.  Not only is it way too early in the campaign to hold debates like this, but with our cyber-technology in 2015 anyone can get access to information about the candidates just by punching in a search on their computer or cellphone.  Not that they would, mind you...most folks are terribly apathetic about politics, even when we're talking about the presidential race.  After all, when 40% of registered voters sit out a tight presidential election, the idea of trying to lure their interest fifteen months before the next one with debates between seventeen contenders approaches the ludicrous...unless, as I already pointed out, you're someone looking for a promising candidate to fund with your fatcat money...

Tomorrow Marks 70th Anniversary of Atomic Bomb Drop Over Hiroshima

Tomorrow, August 6, 2015, will mark the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan by the United States in its quest to quickly end World War II and avoid its remaining stated option of invading the island nation.  Such an invasion would doubtless have cost many, many more lives....not just of Americans, but also of the Japanese, both soldiers and civilians...and would have completely devastated that country.  Three months earlier, the Allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Germany after its leader, Adolf Hitler, had committed suicide and the country was already invaded and militarily conquered.  In early August of 1945, neither condition was applicable to Japan...its military rulers not only were still firmly entrenched in power with the nation essentially intact (although badly scarred from Allied bombing), but it still occupied the bulk of populated China and Indo-China (including Vietnam) at that time.  The Japanese did not practice surrender, instead fighting to the death even when their situation was hopeless and choosing suicide over surrendering in battle after battle on the Pacific Islands over which they fought the Americans.  With this scenario facing the United States, its leaders opted for the nuclear strike in hopes of convincing the Japanese militarists that their chances for remaining in power were fruitless.  But even after seeing the horrible effects of the atomic bomb on one of their cities, they still refused.  Three days later, Nagasaki was hit by the second, and hopefully last ever, atomic bomb dropped on a populated area.  Finally, they surrendered almost unconditionally: their emperor, who reportedly had pushed for the surrender in the end to save his people, was allowed to remain as such, at least in a titular, ceremonial role...

The development of the atomic bomb in the United States during World War II came after Albert Einstein, a Jewish emigre from Hitler's Germany and his anti-semitic policies, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt warning him that the Germans had already split the atom and were very possibly engaged in an effort of their own to develop such a weapon from this process.  The irony is that it was Japan that ultimately was hit, not Germany.  Another twist in all this was the gross underestimation of the devastating effects that the radiation from the bomb had on the population surviving the initial impact, especially that from the fallout that descended from the skies for days after the explosion.  Even after all this, the American military, when they dropped a demonstration A-bomb on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific the following year, did not realize that the ships they had placed in proximity to the bomb would be hopelessly contaminated with radiation...the Naval authorities in charge of this explosion had wanted to put sailors back on them and guide them back into American ports to show that ships could withstand nuclear attacks. It was very sobering to see the level of contamination the bomb had produced.

In spite of all the rhetoric these days about how countries like Iran want to get the "bomb" in order to attack others...like Israel...it is obvious to me that self-defense from invasion is the primary goal.  Ukraine had the atomic bomb, left in their control when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991...but they voluntarily gave it up...and now, they've had to suffer an invasion indirectly instigated by their neighbor, Russia.  Name me one country that, after developing nuclear warfare technology, has been invaded by another.  You can't, I bet.  Now look at a place like Iran, which was brutally invaded in 1980 by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.  Then they watched as the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq in 1991 following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.  And then after 9/11, the invasion and long occupation on either side of Iran...Iraq on the west and Afghanistan on the east.  Speaking of the latter, of course the USSR was earlier engaged in a protracted, fruitless occupation and struggle in that country after invading it in 1980.  So if you're the Iranian leader and see all of this going on around you, wouldn't you, too, want to protect yourself and your people against invasion?  And that's the problem I see nowadays with nuclear proliferation.  We can rant and rave all we want about how evil the nuclear bomb is, but we are still creating conditions that motivate others to get it for themselves...

Just Finished Reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

The satirical novel Good Omens, a collaboration by Neil Gaiman (I recently read his novel Neverwhere) and Terry Pratchett, pokes some fun at the convoluted narrative some Christians like to spin (and, for a few, obsess) about the "Last Days".  This farcical adventure through the apocalypse turns down a different path than the standard tribulation horrors that feature the charismatic and evil Antichrist character.  Instead, the newborn son of Satan gets accidentally switched with another baby at an English hospital...and gets brought up instead in a normal, loving family environment in an English town with the name Adam Young (the boy, not the town).  Meanwhile, the supposed Antichrist, sent (in parody of the Omen movie series) to the American diplomat's household, gets the focus of the fanatical nanny sent to guide him, along with an eventual trip to the Plain of Megiddo in anticipation of the Great Battle. Sensing that something went awry with plans, demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale, mutual friends working on different sides who both have become unduly accustomed to their assignment on Earth among humans, set out to discover where the real Antichrist is and try to get rid of him before he wreaks havoc across the world...

There are several subplots and minor characters in Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (its long title).  For example, it is revealed that any audio cassette left for more than 48 hours in a car transforms itself into The Best of Queen...so there are plenty of references to their songs (some of which I really like).  There are the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse (the one representing War is a woman, hence the change), which has Pollution replacing Pestilence.  There is the legacy of Agnes Nutter, a 17th Century witch whose book of prophecies are always true to the last detail and whose descendant Anethema carries the last remaining copy.  And there is the Witchfinder Army, a group led by a hilarious, cantankerous old man named Sgt. Shadwell (my favorite character in the novel) and which includes a technologically inept young man named Newton Pulsifer...

Good Omens is loaded with funny little pieces scattered here and there...there is hardly a spot in it devoid of humor.  But if you have a religious orientation in the Judeo-Christian tradition, you may disagree with the theological assumptions expressed within it.  Just keep in mind that this story is not to be taken literally and analyzed for its flaws.  It is deliberately a farce, understand?  That being said, I can't imagine a similar satire being published about a certain other world religion, one in which some of its adherents go rioting and some on rampages of murderous violence whenever they judge its scripture or prophet to be "insulted"...

One word keeps getting a lot of attention in Good Omens: ineffability.  It is used by Aziraphale to explain away the often confusing decisions God makes...after all, the term refers to anything that is so grand and complex in scope that it is beyond understanding, not to mention the unpronounceable true name of The Lord.  It is the "ultimate" explanation for everything, I suppose...a real discussion-ender... 

Watched German and English Pro Soccer Matches This Afternoon

I just saw what might be called the first German professional soccer match of this season...or the final one of last season, depending on your point of view.  The Bundesliga and the other German leagues begin their regular season in a couple of weeks, and I'll be able to watch some of the matches on Fox Sports 1 (Channel 62 here in Gainesville on Cox Cable).  But on Sunday, they played what they called the "DFL Supercup" match pitting 2014-15 Bundesliga Champion Bayern Munich against the DFB-Pokal tournament winner for that year.  This time around, it was Bayern-Munich against Wolfsburg, and the latter won on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in regulation.  It gave me an opportunity to acquaint myself with German soccer as I plan to watch plenty of it in the months to come.  I haven't as yet picked out a favorite team...I'll just have to watch and see.  The broadcast I just watched was a replay of Sunday's match...

Right now, as I am getting myself ready to walk out the door and go to work, Fox Sports 1 is showing a replay of a preseason match between English Premier League rivals Chelsea and Arsenal, both based in London.  I'm rooting for Arsenal this season...they finished a distant third to Chelsea last year, but they had a very strong second half of the season.  Still, I consider Chelsea to be the clear favorite to win the title again...

Heavy Rainy Season Beginning to Annoy Me

Living as I have for decades here in Florida, I am accustomed to stretches of rainy weather. But this summer of 2015 seems to be one of the most extreme...and I not just being subjective about it.  My front and back lawns for weeks have been slushy and muddy...the ground is supersaturated with water. And for the past few days, a cyclone centered in the eastern Gulf of Mexico just off the coast has been stationary, churning band after band of rainy, stormy weather at us.  Don't get me wrong...I like a moderate amount of rainfall, especially as it helps to work against the possibility of forest fires that have afflicted the area during the last twenty years.  But this current pattern is interfering with my outdoor running plan as I want to train my distance up to a race-ready level.  And I don't want to get soaked every time I go out there, not to mention be subjected to the high humidity level associated with this weather. The irony of it all is that this is happening during a hurricane season that was forecast to be very light.  Yet that storm system out in the Gulf looks an awful lot like a tropical storm on radar to me!

Sooner or later this low pressure cyclone will move on...hopefully sooner than later.  You know, come to think about it, I just wrote a blog article a little more than a couple of weeks ago lamenting the horrible weather then!  So I'm not just now "beginning" to be annoyed at it after all, as one storm system just seems to give way to another...

My July 2015 Running Report

In July I ran a total of 316.7 miles, spreading this mileage out through several different shorter runs each day.  My longest single run was 6.2 miles.  And I ran on all but one of July's 31 days...

In August, I will try to maintain my overall mileage while attempting longer runs and making myself more accustomed to outdoor weather and terrain.  I'll be doing this using marathon guru Jeff Galloway's technique of running for set blocks of time, interspersed with short walking breaks.  For me, the "run 6 minutes, walk 1 minute" formula has worked best in the past and I plan to use it again to increase my distance on single runs.  The aim is to be ready should I decide to go ahead and participate in a long-distance race in October, either the Bay Marathon in Apalachicola or the Alachua Lake Half-Marathon just southeast of my hometown of Gainesville...

Just Finished Reading the Book Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is a psychologist who also has written several books, including a slew of mystery novels featuring Los Angeles-based psychologist Alex Delaware as he teams up with police detective Milo Sturgis. I finally just got around to reading one them, titled Mystery...reportedly the 26th in this series.  Who knows how many Kellerman has written by now or even plans to write.  I do know that his psychological approach doesn't exactly gel with me.  Here, let me lie back on my coach and explain how I feel about it, doc...

As for the actual narrative, story, and characters (all which involve the investigation of the shooting death of a mysterious beautiful woman...appropriately nicknamed "Mystery"...after a party held at the closing of a famous old L.A. hotel), Mystery ranks right up there with the best of the genre, although the ending reminded me of those Perry Mason courtroom dramas where the guilty party suddenly breaks down and profusely confesses to the crime just before the final commercial break.  On the other hand, as I unfortunately see it, there is a great amount of what I call psychological coddling in this novel as Delaware plies his trade by poking around into others' psyches and manipulating them by turning the psychologically effective catch phrases and pushing the right buttons to get  the responses he wants.  A master manipulator, indeed.  Plus, he is continually making a big deal about his profession's ethics and how he can't say this or help with that. I don't think I would get along well with this guy, and that can be a fatal judgment when talking about reading through a long series.  In contrast, I quite empathize with Sue Grafton's protagonist Kinsey Millhone in her alphabet mystery series.  And, to illustrate my point, I've gone through 15 books in it so far.  So I don't know how many more Alex Delaware mystery stories I'm going to read...I do have another that I picked up dirt cheap at that Friends of the Library book sale last April here in Gainesville, so I'll most likely give Kellerman another chance...

Fox Sports Channels to Show Bundesliga Soccer Starting Next Month

I was happy to hear just now that several Bundesliga games for the 2015-16 season will be shown on Fox Sports 1 (Gainesville's Cox Channel 62), beginning in mid-August.  The Bundesliga is Germany's premier professional soccer league, and it is right up there with Spain's La Liga and England's Barclay's Premier League in stature as one of the world's most competitive and talent-filled leagues.  If I carried on my cable TV Fox Sports 2 and/or a couple of Fox's other sports channels (which I don't), I'd be able to see more Bundesliga...but then again, I have other things to do besides sitting there watching soccer on TV for hours on end.  And besides, now I'll be able now to regularly follow soccer in four leagues: MLS (Major League Soccer), Mexico's Liga MX, Barclay's Premier League, and now, Bundesliga.

Other than the defending champions Bayern Munich, I'm not very familiar with the teams in the Bundesliga.  But that's about to dramatically change...

Looking at Upcoming Running Races

It's close to the end of July this year and I feel it's also time for me to consider what I am going to do about the upcoming long-distance running races: which ones I should enter and how I should go about training for them.  The most immediate race coming up in my general area is the Alachua Lake Half-Marathon, which is a run down the Hawthorne Trail just southeast of Gainesville, something I've done twice before in the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon.  This race will take place on Sunday, October 11.  Then there is the Bay Marathon/Half-Marathon in Apalachicola, which is on the Florida Gulf Coast in the panhandle.  I'd been looking at this one ever since 2010, but I never felt ready enough to participate in it.  It will be held this year on October 18...by that time I sincerely hope the weather here will have cooled down a bit.  I probably should make a decision soon about either this race or Alachua Lake (but not both) and whether I want to go for the marathon or half-marathon distance should I go for the Apalachicola one (which frankly sounds more interesting).  I need to recondition my body to running on asphalt again as well as under adverse weather conditions...I think my general endurance level is pretty good.  However, in spite of the mileage I've been accumulating, my weight could stand lowering by about 20 lbs...so wiser eating is a must if I don't want to be hauling extra luggage with me on every step.

Aside from the Alachua Lake and Apalachicola races, that Tom Walker Half-Marathon will be held on November 14.  And there are my two favorites to consider: the Ocala Marathon/Half-Marathon in January and Gainesville's Five Points Marathon/Half-Marathon in February.   Besides these there are various events planned for surrounding areas, most notably in Jacksonville and other cities on the north Florida Atlantic Coast...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "O" is for Outlaw

As I continue going in chronological order reading Sue Grafton's alphabet mystery series, I have just begun going through a string of books that I haven't read before.  "O" is for Outlaw, which is the first of these and which I just finished, is definitely a first-time read, and it delves not only into main protagonist (and first-person narrator) Kinsey Millhone's past and her first marriage, but also into our country's past with its military involvement in Vietnam.  Kinsey discovers relics from her school years as one of those storage locker profiteers calls her up and sells her a box containing them: apparently, her ex-hubby Mickey Macgruder, also an ex-cop, lost his storage space, along with the contents, due to lack of payment.  Knowing that it wasn't like him to default on his debts, she investigates and finds that he has just been shot near his apartment in Los Angeles (a few miles down the road from Kinsey's mythical hometown of Santa Teresa) and is now deep into a coma with little hope of recovery.  As she investigates his case, she draws first suspicion and then cooperation from a couple of LAPD detectives...and then gets drawn back into her brief bygone marriage to Mickey and the circumstances of their split.  It all revolves around the death back then of a Benny Quintero, a Vietnam veteran who was wounded at a major battle there in 1965.  Mickey is suspected of the murder although he never was charged...but he resigned from the police because of it and Kinsey suspected his guilt...leading to her leaving him then.  Now everything is up in the air as other characters and details from the past filter their way into the story.  Kinsey's goal is to exonerate her husband, who she now believes was innocent, and to discover who shot him and why...

Naturally, I'll leave what happens for you to find out.  I felt that this story was significant in that it touched more upon Kinsey's past life than the others.  And, of course, the Vietnam War angle was very interesting as well...

Some 1965-66 Nova Elementary School Memories, Part 6

Well, it's time once again for me to explore some of my memories of my fourth grade experiences at Nova Elementary School in Davie, Florida during 1965-66.  And it will also be my last entry in this series, which for many of you has to feel like an exercise in irrelevance.  Nevertheless, here I go again, this time discussing a few of the "social" trends taking place then within the student body.  Remember, we're talking about 9-10 year-olds...

--There seemed to be an ongoing competition among the boys as to who could play the drum beat to the song "Wipeout" with their hands on their desks the fastest.  It was a very common occurrence to be sitting in a classroom and hear some kid performing a session.  I even tried it myself with poor results...

--Also, mainly a "boy" activity, was the game of "Split", where the two opponents would face off standing close opposite each other on a grassy or dirt surface.  They would then take turns throwing a pencil into the ground on one side or the other.  If it stuck, the other player would have to move whatever foot the pencil fell closest to alongside the pencil and pick it up...and then take his turn throwing it.  Whoever was first to either make a throw that didn't stick or couldn't stretch enough to reach the other's throw lost the round.  This game was an obsession with many for a while that year...

--"Cat's Cradle" was an activity that both girls and boys seemed to enjoy.  There would be a pattern in a closed string that the players would take turns transferring, preserving it and then enhancing it.  I played it a little, too...a strange game...

--Among the girls, I saw many playing "Patty-Cake", a mutual hand-clapping activity that thoroughly intimidated me.  I never did see how they could remember how to synchronize their hands to meet each other for such long stretches of time...

--Among some of the boys developed an voluntary, informal "fight club" that reminded me a little of the same-titled movie (although without the blood).  I participated in it for a while, but due to my scrawniness then I had to bow out after a while for the sake of survival...

--That year, the Batman TV series would come on ABC Tuesdays and Thursdays ("same bat-time, same bat-channel").  Along with it came Batman comic books and trading cards.  I was heavily into both, and idolized Catwoman (played then by Julie Newmar of My Favorite Doll fame).  Often I'd go to school and hear the highlights of the previous evening's show...

--Toward the end of the school year, some of the boys discovered that by rubbing a smooth-edged coin like a nickel on their forearm for a minute or two, they would temporarily get a pleasant sensation before the pain kicked in.  Totally boneheaded.  One of the dumber of this group came into class one day with his arm bandaged and in a sling: he had bloodied it up and needed  to go to the nurse's station after using a dime instead!  Unbelievable...

--I don't rightly know why, but among some of us it was a status symbol to have possession of blocks of wax.  Maybe some of the kids ate it for all I know (most likely the ones rubbing coins on their arms).  The way to get some wax was to go to the Practical Arts Room down the hallway and ask Mr. Mielock for some wax.  Apparently, he would always hand some over to anyone who requested it, no questions asked.  I even went there and procured some myself, just to get into the experience...which ultimately made no sense whatsoever to me...

--I'm not much for the gossip of those times...let's see...Paige and Doug were an item, Hope hated the Beatles, Terry once made Mr. Johnston cry.  Sorry, that's the best I could do...

Well, I enjoyed going down memory lane and touching upon some of the things that stuck with me over the decades about the first year I spent in the Nova School system.  I wish I could remember other years as well as this one...

Pro Soccer: 2015-16 Mexican Liga MX Season Begins

The Apertura (first split-season) of Mexico's Premier League in professional soccer, also known as Liga MX, started the other day with Veracruz beating Guadalajara 2-0.  This evening, one of the Spanish-language TV stations will be showing the match between Cruz Azul, a team based in Mexico City, and Morelia, which is in danger of being relegated (demoted) to the next lower league if it doesn't dramatically change its recently losing ways.  I usually tend to root for Cruz Azul unless they happen to be playing my favorite team, the Tigres of UANL (based in Monterrey). And it should be interesting to see how much effort has been put into making Morelia's Monarcas more competitive...

Speaking of relegation, although Morelia was clearly the worst team in the league last year, the decision to relegate is placed on a cumulative three-year ratio of points earned per games played.  In soccer, a team gets three points for a win, one for a draw, and nothing for a loss.  In 2014-15, the Leones Negros ("Black Lions") of the Universidad de Guadalajara, just promoted after winning the lower league's (Ascenso) championship in 2013-14, were relegated back after losing a close season-ending struggle with Puebla to see which team would suffer this indignity.  The new team promoted up into Liga MX this year is Dorados de Sinaloa, which won the Ascenso championship playoff a few months ago...

Although I enjoy watching Mexican soccer, along with listening to the exuberant Spanish-speaking TV announcers, I don't like the Liga MX format of split-seasons with two champions per year (last year they were America, also based in Mexico City, and Santos Laguna).  And I really don't like their playoff system, which includes too many teams (eight) and punishes those who performed well in the regular season.  In my book, Tigres should have won the overall championship since they had the league's best record over the course of the year.  After all, regular season records are how they determine the champions in the English (Barclay's) Premier League and in other leagues across Europe...

Speaking of the English Premier League, they open their season the second week of August.  Now that's my favorite soccer to watch.  Hopefully, NBC Sports will continue to carry the games. Go Arsenal!   

Just Finished Reading Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The late Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time fantasy series is very long, fourteen volumes in total.  Jordan died after having written the first eleven books, and fantasy writer colleague Brandon Sanderson took up the project of completing the series with the final three books.  I just finished reading Towers of Midnight, which means that I now have only one more book to get through before I'm finally finished with this long, drawn-out saga.  The main characters of Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene, and Elayne, to name the most prominent, are all still in there fighting for their cause, "The Light", against the Dark Lord...and the Last Battle looms ahead.  Other than the prophecies that seem to paint a picture of peril, if not outright tragedy, for some of the protagonists, I'm keeping mum about what happened in Towers of Midnight...not wanting to give away the story to prospective readers (or to anyone currently involved in reading this series).

The author(s) of The Wheel of Time series had one advantage over another fantasy series author, George R.R. Martin of A Song of Ice and Fire renown.  His HBO series adaptation, Game of Thrones, has diverged from his books, which creates a bit of an issue in that he has still at least a couple more books of the series in the works.  Will Martin change the books to fit the TV series?  That would be lamentable if he did.  At the very least, I believe that his involvement in Game of Thrones on HBO has to be distracting him terribly from getting on with his writing of the next book, which I am impatient to get started reading.  At least Jordan and Sanderson (and their readers) never had to deal with that when composing The Wheel of Time...

Most Likable Candidate Most "Likely" Will Be Elected President

Lately on TV, public opinion polls have come out that should be disturbing to Hillary Clinton as she campaigns to be elected as the next U.S. president in 2016.  They tend to reveal that people in general don't find her to be very likable.  Now whether one candidate or another has a more genial or compelling personality has not influenced my own choice for president since I began voting in 1976, but the past several elections show a trend of the more likable candidates, regardless of party affiliation, winning the elections.  In the past two, Barack Obama has shown to be more likable than either John McCain or Mitt Romney.  George W. Bush's homespun, plain way of presenting himself was much more amenable to people than the stuffy Al Gore and John Kerry from 2000 and 2004, respectively.  Bill Clinton's outgoing and positive demeanor won over many people as he beat George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole in '92 and '96.  That same George H.W. Bush...of course, simply known in 1988 as George Bush...had a clear personality edge over the stiff Michael Dukakis in that year's contest.  Probably the most obvious example of all this is how Ronald Reagan charmed the nation in 1980 and 1984 while stomping over Jimmy Carter and  Walter Mondale.  And that same Jimmy Carter, who had transformed himself into a morose and preachy president by 1980, had won enough votes with his almost constant smile and encouraging words to squeak by Gerald Ford (also considered to be a "nice" guy) in 1976.  Now I realize that other people may disagree as to who was more or less likable in various of these elections...I'm just going on my own gut feelings about all this.  And I went against the "likability" trend when I went to the polls in 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2004...

There's obviously much more to the job of president than being able to win a popularity contest.  Unfortunately, the cynical side of me feels that it is exactly how millions of American voters make their decisions about this very crucial office...and they tend to be the ones that tilt the election to one candidate over the other...

Controversial Penalty Call in Mexico's Advance Through Gold Cup (Soccer) Tourney

The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup in soccer, which consists of the nations comprising the northern part of the Western Hemisphere, is now down to four teams.  Today the United States will play Jamaica and Mexico will play Panama.  The winners will face off in the final match.  I have been rooting for both the American and Mexican teams, but with the latter I have a little problem after seeing their last match in the quarterfinal round against Costa Rica...

I didn't see that Mexico-Costa Rica match, which was played last Saturday night, in its entirety.  As a matter of fact, I would have completely missed it had it not gone two overtimes.  Soccer matches traditionally last 90 minutes...plus "stoppage time" tacked on to the end based on accumulated game interruption time.  In elimination games (which this was), two overtime periods are allowed to see if either side can win it.  Then, after 120 minutes (plus that stoppage time) if the score is still tied there is a penalty kick shoot-out, the last resort to resolving these contests.  Well, when I discovered this match was going on, 110 minutes had elapsed and the score was still 0-0.  It looked more and more like Mexico and Costa Rica were headed for a penalty kick shoot-out.  The 120 minute mark passed, and 3 minutes of stoppage time was allotted.  After 122 minutes, just seconds before the end of the final overtime period, A Mexican player desperately kicked the ball high into the penalty zone of Costa Rica's.  Another Mexican player lunged at the ball to make a goal-scoring header, but he missed and fell to the ground.  A nearby Costa Rican defender was then called for a penalty foul when he clearly was shown in replays to not be responsible for it.  With seconds to go in this two-hour contest, Mexico then kicked in the penalty shot to win the game, 1-0.  Although I was rooting for Mexico, I was very disappointed in how it all ended...

Mexico's coach, Miguel Herrera, is a very colorful and fiery character who was very outspoken when his 2014 World Cup team was eliminated by the Netherlands in another very controversial penalty call...this one against his own team.  He claimed afterward that his opponent's players had taken several dives, faking fouls, and that the final call was clearly one such dive.  One problem with that, though, as I see it...I've watched Herrera's Mexican team over the course of several games and his players have been "diving" all over the field.  And that last penalty Saturday night looked a bit like a dive to me as well...

 All of that notwithstanding, I'll still be rooting for a USA-Mexico final match final...

Spent Past Weekend at Ormond Beach

This past weekend, Melissa and I went to the Atlantic coast to spend a couple of days at Ormond Beach, at a popular locally-owned hotel we'd gone to several times in the past three decades...there were a lot of old memories stored in that place.  We spent much of the time out at the pool and I read a lot and watched the beach, which was particularly crowded on this very hot and eventually very sunny weekend in July.  When we drove down there, the weather was very stormy.  It didn't let up until early evening, and on Sunday and Monday while we were there, the area was clear of storms...apparently resuming once we had left the area.  We ate dinner Saturday afternoon at the Charley Horse restaurant just down the road on A1A, but for the rest of the stay we ate food we bought at the nearby Publix or had carried with us.  Breakfast was provided "free" at the hotel (it never is really free), albeit a very modest one...nothing like the kind we were used to at the Hampton.  Still, we enjoyed our stay there.  Sunday evening, as we sat there by the pool looking eastward at the ocean, the area darkened due to the ban on beach lighting on account of the sea turtles.  The stars gradually began to appear in the sky, starting with the brighter ones like Vega, Altair, Deneb, and Arcturus.  Still, you had to know where to look to see them at this point in order to make them out of the dark blue background.  As the darkness of the night increased, more stars appeared, and I looked over my shoulder southward to see the constellation of Scorpius, with the planet Saturn positioned just to its west...

Over the last few days, I've been seeing all kinds of news stories on TV about shark attacks on bathers off the coast, as well as the stranding of one on a North Carolina beach.  At Ormond, we saw what we thought were shark fins many times breaking the water's surface, and they were often very close to the shore where there were people out in the water.  While walking along the beach, we also saw a multitude of small jellyfish lying in the sand.  I don't think I would have enjoyed going out in the water under these circumstances...

Just Finished Reading Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart

Ian Stewart is an English Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. In the last several years, he has written a number of books popularizing the study of mathematics...a subject I fear needs a heavy dose of popularizing.  The book of his that I just read, Letters to a Young Mathematician, gradually walks a hypothetical aspiring mathematician all the way from high school through college, graduate school, and then through the stages of her ensuing professional career in the field in the form of letters he imagines he would have written her. Along the way, he shows the importance of mathematics in our lives, how mathematicians think, how to learn mathematics, how proofs...the bedrock of mathematics...are very similar to stories in their structure, and some important career tips.  The book is short, only 203 pages, and I read it very quickly.  I left it feeling encouraged about mathematics, although I personally am not at all in the same position that the imaginary "Meg" or Ian Stewart are: their paths through this field were rather conventional, spanning the greater parts of their lives and going through the standard educational and career stages at certain chronological ages, whereas I am sitting here at age 58 looking at it from a slightly different perspective.  Still, I don't think it would hurt me to delve back into this field a little...I've just begun studying linear algebra and am practicing matrix operations.  They're actually quite fun, very much like Sudoku or Kakuro...only here I actually do need the "answer key" to tell if I got the right answer.  From time to time I'll report on the progress I've been making with my mathematical adventures...

Letters to a Young Mathematician is just one of a number of mentoring books out there which perform the twofold purpose of popularizing a particular field of endeavor for everyone to better understand while at the same time encouraging interested people among them to enter it...even if it is at a more modest level than that attained by the books' writers.  I can think of a couple more books like this: Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karanazes and On Writing by Stephen King.  As with mathematics, there are many people who would never take up running or writing because they fear they would look stupid to others...but with anything, you're going to stumble a bit in the beginning, so a little bit of humility is a needed ingredient in any such undertaking.  I happen to do all three to various degrees of success: running, writing, and once again after many years, mathematics.  I'll always find people around me better in them, but that's not the point: pursuing these fields is fulfilling in itself...

Heavy Rainfall of Late Where I Live

I suppose I should be grateful that we're getting plenty of rainfall...after all, the folks out in California are suffering through a painfully harsh drought.  And for a while this summer, it seemed, we had settled here in northern Florida into a pattern of sunny mornings and early afternoons, with late afternoon and evening thunderstorms and showers.  I liked that since the humidity would go down during the day just as the temperature climbed up into the 90s...and then it would all get cooler with the rain.  But now it seems that the humidity is staying high around the clock, and the storms are starting to hit us in the morning, too...

All of this rain is turning my lawn into a swamp, and the grass seems to be growing twice as fast as usual.  Our poor ten-year-old dog Freckles, who was already traumatized by the booming and crackling Fourth of July fireworks various neighbors of mine were setting off from several days before the holiday (and a few afterward),  now has to suffer through the often continual thunder bellowing around us.  As for me, I don't mind the thunder, but the humidity, along with the hopelessly wet surface conditions,  has made running outdoors unfeasible.  Also, no one I know, including myself, likes to get out on the road driving under these conditions...

New Horizons Space Probe Flies By Pluto

I have to admit to being taken a little off guard the other day when my son Will told me about the close-up pictures of Pluto that were being released and shown on television.  Had one of our scientific space exploration missions actually reached that remote spot?  Apparently, yes...

New Horizons is an American space probe, aimed at exploring Pluto, its moons, and the Kuiper Belt of which it is a part.  It was designed and constructed through a collaboration between Southwest Research Institute and the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University.  NASA managed the mission itself, which began with a January, 2006 launch, a mid-course fly-by with Jupiter, and...finally, this year, its arrival at Pluto just a couple of days ago.  The photo of Pluto pictured above is from July 14.  New Horizons made its closest approach to what I still tend to call our "ninth planet" (although officially it's been demoted to the status of "dwarf planet") yesterday, taking surprisingly detailed pictures of its surface...which indicates that Pluto is geologically active and possibly could have an interior of water.  You can get access to more New Horizons Pluto pictures through this link: NASA Pluto Mission Website.  The probe also took an incredible picture of Pluto's largest of its known five moons, named Charon, which you can also view on NASA's website...

The Kuiper Belt, which rings our Solar System beyond Neptune's orbit with myriad objects including comets and dwarf planets, may well contain life.  Pluto has turned out to be far from the dormant ball of ice it has been portrayed as over the years, although I've heard that, should it leave its orbit and head toward the sun, it would most likely form a tail like that of a comet.  I heard this watching Public Television's Nova program about the New Horizons Pluto mission, which was shown last night...

When I was a kid, my dad bought me a comic book that contained, along with other tidbits, the stories of the vision and construction of the Mount Palomar Observatory in Southern California and the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 (at Lowell Observatory in Arizona).  There was a lot of national pride because "we" discovered the ninth planet, although the subsequent discovery decades later of the Kuiper Belt, in which Pluto resides,  may prove to be much more significant...

The New Horizons probe will now continue beyond Pluto and further into the Kuiper Belt.  I'm not sure exactly how useful it will be beyond this point, but I wouldn't dare to underestimate the ingenuity and imagination of the scientists and engineers who have been behind this project...

Just Finished Reading Lyn Hamilton's The Celtic Riddle

Back in April, as reported on this blog, I went to the Alachua Friends of the Library book sale here in Gainesville.  They had a lot of used books selling for pennies on the dollar...one such book I bought was a paperback mystery novel by Lyn Hamilton titled The Celtic Riddle, for which I dished out 50 cents.  Hamilton, who sadly died of cancer in 2009, has authored an intriguing series of eleven "archaeological" mysteries, to which the book I purchased belongs.  Lara McClintoch, a Toronto-based antiques store owner, is the protagonist and tells the story in the first person.  Each book goes to a different location on the planet and examines its culture and relics in the context of a suspenseful mystery.  With The Celtic Riddle, the place of interest is Ireland.  Lara accompanies her friend Alex to the Dingle in far southwestern Ireland for the reading of a will following the death of a wealthy Irish businessmen...and discovers that aside from the assignment of that wealth to different family members, employees, and friends, there is a special hidden treasure that he has given clues to the divided family and others to find.  His intention was for everyone to get back to working together, but Lara finds that there is too much animosity and distrust between these often very disagreeable people.  And the fact that some of them are being murdered, one-by-one, doesn't exactly help with the trust issue...

As far as mysteries are concerned, I enjoyed The Celtic Riddle...although the villain committing the murders was someone I had come to suspect rather early in the story.  But I think my success in sleuthing this out was primarily due to the fact that I'm just getting good at figuring out mysteries...especially after reading so many Sue Grafton novels.  I also enjoyed Lara McClintoch's agreeable but realistic character...this is someone that I would enjoy following in subsequent books of the series.  There is only one issue I had with this story...

The clues to the treasure, based somehow on an old Irish poem, don't make any sense to me...although Lara doesn't seem to have any trouble "connecting the dots".  The initial clues point to further clues found across the country in buildings, boats, and monuments.  The treasure hunters never seem to have much trouble finding them, which I think would be much more difficult in real life.  But having said that, I did enjoy the old Irish legends that the author introduced into the story.  As to the implausibility of it being so easy to pick up the clues in the treasure hunt...well, that isn't the ultimate mystery of The Celtic Riddle, anyway...

I checked my public library system's catalog for books by Lyn Hamilton.  I was amazed to discover that they had no books of hers, yet were quite happy to rid themselves of this quality novel so cheaply at their book sale! I think I'll fill out a purchase suggestion to them for Hamilton's books...

Some 1965-66 Nova Elementary School Memories, Part 5

Yes, it's time again for another installment of my personal recollections of my fourth grade experiences at Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School, in Davie, Florida (near where the Miami Dolphins currently have their training camp) in the mid sixties.  Once again, I'll list them in no particular order of importance or chronology...

--For social studies, our "suite" of five classrooms that comprised fourth and fifth graders had areas that the students could elect to study according to their interests...Mrs. Hernandez had the Seminole Indians, Mrs. Jenkins had jobs, Mr. Drew had government, Mr. Johnston had climatology (social studies ???), and Miss Kidder...I can't for the life of me remember what her class was about.  By far the most popular of the groups was the Seminole Indians...I picked jobs under Jenkins, a decision I soon regretted.  In retrospect, government or weather would have been a better fit for me.  I spent most of my time with this class in Room 9 either daydreaming or intensely studying the large, detailed map of Broward County posted on the wall to the left of the blackboard...I got to know just about every community in the county and exactly where they were located...

--Later in the school year, I was in a class devoted to the study of the state of Florida, including its history and geography.  We were issued a textbook on the topic and told to work the questions at the end of each chapter in our notebooks...at our own pace on our own...Jenkins, who had a nasty, short temper, was again my so-called "teacher".  I took advantage of this class to often just get up, walk out, and wander around the school, with the great library they had being my favorite haunt...

--There was a series of interesting science movies out in schools, made by the Bell Telephone Company in the late 1950s as a Cold War response to the Soviet bloc's science achievements (like Sputnik), .  They were hosted by a genial, paternal bald man with glasses by the name of Dr. Frank Baxter.  The movies, which according to the available technology of the time, we watched using rolling film projectors (which often jammed up) and screens, ranged in subjects covering the weather (Unchained Goddess), the sun (Our Mr. Sun), astrophysics (The Strange Case of the Cosmic Ray), language (The Alphabet Conspiracy), genetics (The Thread of Life), the circulatory system (Hemo the Magnificent), the five senses (Gateways to the Mind), and time (About Time).  I loved them all, with the one about cosmic rays being my favorite (I still have a soft spot in my heart for mu and pi mesons). I watched every movie, some several times, over the course of my three years at Nova Elementary.  I enjoyed them so much, as a matter of fact, that I would sneak out of my class and hide in the back of another if I found out they were showing a Bell Science film.  In the fourth grade, I saw the films about the sun and the weather. A few years ago I was able to check out a couple of the Bell Science movies from my public library and watch them again.  Needless to say, they weren't exactly cutting-edge science anymore...

--Late during the school year, we read a book that had a chapter on secret codes.  Suddenly, there sprung up a war of espionage among groups of classmates (including myself) that involved us devising intricate codes and trying to crack those of the "enemy"...

--Also late in the school year, the faculty created a "table of honor" during lunchtime for the well-behaved model students.  Starting at one table, the "table of honor" gradually increased in number to where it comprised more than two-thirds of the cafeteria (or "multi-purpose room" as they called it).  I had been selected for it, but got kicked off one day when a teacher/monitor saw me clowning around at the table with a friend.  As I sat there shame-faced in the section that lacked honor, a whole group of my friends suddenly came over, also just unceremoniously evicted from their exalted table.  Apparently, good-natured, harmless fun is a dishonorable activity...

Well, I think I've filled up enough on this page about my 1965-66 Nova Elementary School memories.  More to come...