Back in 1972-75 I considered myself a runner and made a decision to focus on running long-distance. Compared to others, I wasn't as fast and quickly made peace with myself about that reality. Instead, I took the sport on its own terms and made it personal, with me training to tackle the distances required with the perseverance and effort to reach them. I was in my late teens at the time...by the time I had turned 20 I had lost interest in running. Other than running up the nine flights of stairs to my dorm room at the University of Florida in 1977-78 and a three-month attempt at running in early 1998, I had essentially abandoned it for a span of more than 30 years...until I resumed it in 2007 after I had turned 50. By the fall of 2008 I had rebuilt my endurance to the point where I felt I could run in a local 5K race. Since that first event, all the way to my last a few days ago, I have treated the races I've run, 29 in all, mainly as training runs...albeit in a public, social context. As for my running as a whole, it has always been primarily a solitary activity...and I plan to keep it that way. Anyway, as much for my own purposes as for you, the reader, I decided to go back and list these 29 races, in chronological order. For each race I ran, I have listed the date, distance, finishing time, event name, and location (site is listed if held in Gainesville). I have included the abbreviations HM for half-marathon, M for marathon, and m for miles...and of course K stands for kilometers...
Well, here goes...
10-04-08 5K 25:10 Red Cross 5K University of Florida
10-18-08 5K 24:07 Hope Heels 5K Westside Park
11-01-08 5K 24:28 Dog Days 5K Westside Park
2-14-10 HM 2:17:10 Five Points of Life Gainesville
3-27-10 15K 1:23:55 Climb for Cancer Haile Plantation
4-24-10 5K 23:05 Run Amuck NFR Office Park
5-22-10 5K 25:00 Somer's Sunshine Run Orange Park
6-05-10 5K 23:23 Cpt. Chad Reed Mem. Cross City
7-04-10 3m 23:04 Melon Run Westside Park
11-16-10 HM 2:01:41 Tom Walker Memorial Hawthorne Trail
1-23-11 M 6:04:35 Ocala Marathon South of Paddock Mall
11-12-11 HM 1:59:38 Tom Walker Memorial Hawthorne Trail
1-01-12 HM 1:56:07 De Leon Springs HM De Leon Springs
7-04-12 3m 25:45 Melon Run Westside Park
11-22-12 10K 53:10 Turkey Trot Tacachale
1-20-13 HM 1:55:20 Ocala Half-Marathon South of Paddock Mall
3-03-13 HM 1:50:53 Orange Blossom Tavares
11-09-13 2m untimed Gator Gallop University Ave, SW 2nd Ave
2-01-14 5K 25:53 Education for Life Westside Park
2-16-14 HM 2:07:36 Five Points of Life Gainesville
11-27-14 10K 56:56 Turkey Trot Tacachale
12-12-14 HM 2:03:30 Starlight Half-Marathon Palm Coast
1-31-15 15K 1:18:21 Newnan's Lake 15K West of Newnan's Lake
2-15-15 HM 1:58:48 Five Points of Life Gainesville
3-14-15 10K 56:24 Run for Haven Tioga
12-05-15 6.5m 1:03:52 Lumber Around the Levee Micanopy
1-30-16 15K 1:31:20 Newnan's Lake 15K West of Newnan's Lake
3-12-16 10K 59:00 Run for Haven 10K Tioga
5-14-16 5K 28:36 May Day Glow Run Tioga
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
Just Finished Reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods
The novel American Gods, as Neil Gaiman puts it, was inspired by this British writer's trips to the United States and his attempts to understand its culture...especially that which differed from his homeland. He decided to tell a story in which two often opposite viewpoints of religion and gods are combined. Those who worship deities tend to believe that their gods exist in the real world and are independent of their believers...albeit usually jealous of other deities. Skeptics, on the other hand, claim that gods are a creation of the believers: their existence only extends to their followers' worship, in their own minds. But suppose that both views were true to an extent...suppose that gods truly existed in the real world but were there only because people had created them and then followed and worshiped them. And that, like other entities, they can weaken and die, too. Only with them, their decline owes itself to progressively fewer and fewer people following them as they are replaced by new, modern idols...
In American Gods the country, the population of which now largely "worships" the new gods of media, hedonism, computer technology, etc. to the detriment of the traditional gods brought over from the Old World by their immigrant ancestors, finds itself the site of a cosmic struggle...and ultimately a war...between the old and new deities, with them appearing as people living among the human population. In the middle of it all is the main protagonist, a young man named Shadow who, after serving a short prison term, finds his wife has died in a car crash along with his would-be employer...and he finds himself completely disconnected from his expected future. Enter an enigmatic man named "Wednesday" who hires him on, and the gods start piling into the story...
While reading American Gods, I found myself going down two different mental trails. One was trying to keep up with all of the gods and religious traditions Gaiman introduced to the story, spanning thousands of years and crossing over all kinds of cultures like native American, African, Norse, Irish...and especially Russian. I could see quite plainly that the author put a lot of research into this book, and if you're someone who might be interested in exploring various cultures and their old religions and myths, American Gods would be a good read if only for that purpose. However, my other mental "trail" made it a much more compelling story: that concerned was what was going to happen to Shadow...and who exactly was this man, with his resigned gloominess combined with a natural compassion for others. At times I felt that Shadow is a role model for dealing with adversity and conflict (which he is continually experiencing)...and at others, he just seems far too apathetic about the bizarre events transpiring around him. A most peculiar and compelling character, he is...
American Gods is one of those stories, once you realize what the author is trying to do, that expects you to temporarily put your own views about religion on hold while reading it. That doesn't mean you've forsaken your own beliefs in that area...it just means that you're entertaining someone else's ideas for a little while. Besides, Neil Gaiman himself didn't believe in the fantastic figures he inserted into this novel: he was simply doing his best to explain his own take on America, from the viewpoint of someone having grown up across the ocean. I recommend American Gods, but I feel that some folks may have some difficulty with the religious themes...
In American Gods the country, the population of which now largely "worships" the new gods of media, hedonism, computer technology, etc. to the detriment of the traditional gods brought over from the Old World by their immigrant ancestors, finds itself the site of a cosmic struggle...and ultimately a war...between the old and new deities, with them appearing as people living among the human population. In the middle of it all is the main protagonist, a young man named Shadow who, after serving a short prison term, finds his wife has died in a car crash along with his would-be employer...and he finds himself completely disconnected from his expected future. Enter an enigmatic man named "Wednesday" who hires him on, and the gods start piling into the story...
While reading American Gods, I found myself going down two different mental trails. One was trying to keep up with all of the gods and religious traditions Gaiman introduced to the story, spanning thousands of years and crossing over all kinds of cultures like native American, African, Norse, Irish...and especially Russian. I could see quite plainly that the author put a lot of research into this book, and if you're someone who might be interested in exploring various cultures and their old religions and myths, American Gods would be a good read if only for that purpose. However, my other mental "trail" made it a much more compelling story: that concerned was what was going to happen to Shadow...and who exactly was this man, with his resigned gloominess combined with a natural compassion for others. At times I felt that Shadow is a role model for dealing with adversity and conflict (which he is continually experiencing)...and at others, he just seems far too apathetic about the bizarre events transpiring around him. A most peculiar and compelling character, he is...
American Gods is one of those stories, once you realize what the author is trying to do, that expects you to temporarily put your own views about religion on hold while reading it. That doesn't mean you've forsaken your own beliefs in that area...it just means that you're entertaining someone else's ideas for a little while. Besides, Neil Gaiman himself didn't believe in the fantastic figures he inserted into this novel: he was simply doing his best to explain his own take on America, from the viewpoint of someone having grown up across the ocean. I recommend American Gods, but I feel that some folks may have some difficulty with the religious themes...
Sunday, June 5, 2016
New Emerging Tropical Storm to Threaten Nature Coast
I was driving down the road just a few minutes ago, listening to my local public radio station here in Gainesville, when they broke into the regular programming to give news of a new tropical depression, currently centered just north of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Maximum sustained winds are at 35 mph...at 39, which is expected to happen in the next few hours, it will become Colin, the third named tropical storm of this 2016 Atlantic hurricane system. According to the Weather Channel just now, Colin is expected to continue strengthening in the Gulf while its trajectory takes it first to the north and then to the northeast. Landfall, at least as they see it now, should be sometime Monday along what is commonly called Florida's "Nature Coast", which is the stretch of Gulf coastline stretching eastward from the Apalachicola peninsula in the state's panhandle and then southward along the peninsula to just north of Tarpon Springs. Colin is not forecast to reach hurricane status before landfall...so far they're predicting sustained winds of only around 50 mph when that occurs. But we in Gainesville may well get some strong rain and storms within the next day or two...and Cedar Key could be dramatically impacted should Colin hit it directly. Right now the meteorologists are relatively unsure about its precise future course. That having been said, if you live in Gainesville, its vicinity...or especially points west (like Gilchrist, Levy, or Dixie County)...it would probably be a good idea to keep tuned to weather updates while making yourself prepared for heavy rain and wind in the near future...
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Muhammad Ali Passes Away
Muhammad Ali has finally passed away, a shell of his former self, at age 74. All over the television channel spectrum I'm seeing tributes highlighting his boxing career, focusing on his pivotal fights. Yet it was those fights of his...61 in all...that ultimately severely damaged his brain and reduced him to the deteriorating state that he had suffered for more than the last thirty years. "Pugilistic brain damage", I believe, is the term given to describe what happens to a boxer's brain when tears and the resulting scar tissue build up over the course of countless blows to the head...and the resulting cutting off of blood circulation in different areas. The symptoms are Parkinson's-like and progressive...but Ali's was caused by his sport, unlike the Parkinson's disease afflicting people like Michael J. Fox and Janet Reno. I read in an Associate Press article printed in the Los Angeles Times in 1987 that there is a fifty percent chance of brain damage occurring to boxers with twenty or more bouts...and Ali had three times that total. Yet in boxing matches, referees in the ring make what should be medical decisions, based on observing the fighters, as to whether or not they have suffered concussions during the match. The entire premise of boxing, after all, is to batter the other guy's head and knock him out before he (or, sadly nowadays, she) can do the same to you. Nevertheless, this barbaric sport is strongly rooted in tradition and is unlikely to be banned. The variant known as UFC is better, but only because it incorporates wrestling into the competition...which slightly reduces the role of the head blows. But all of these kinds of "blood" sports serve a lucrative market: bloodthirsty vicarious spectators...
Muhammad Ali would probably never have been famous in his younger years had he not excelled in boxing to such an extent. Had he not been a boxer, his personality, wit and always interesting opinions might never have been known or heard by much of the world...the temptation here is to claim that he never would have suffered a debilitating brain disease and would still be among us, in full command of his thinking and body. But I don't think you can treat "time" like that: cutting out one aspect of a person's life in hindsight and thinking that all else would have been the same just doesn't work. Muhammad Ali was a boxer, and that was an essential part of his life's tapestry, for better or for worse. May this great man finally rest in peace...
Muhammad Ali would probably never have been famous in his younger years had he not excelled in boxing to such an extent. Had he not been a boxer, his personality, wit and always interesting opinions might never have been known or heard by much of the world...the temptation here is to claim that he never would have suffered a debilitating brain disease and would still be among us, in full command of his thinking and body. But I don't think you can treat "time" like that: cutting out one aspect of a person's life in hindsight and thinking that all else would have been the same just doesn't work. Muhammad Ali was a boxer, and that was an essential part of his life's tapestry, for better or for worse. May this great man finally rest in peace...
Friday, June 3, 2016
Nationalism in Sports Leaves Me Cold
Who can forget the unprecedented seven-year run a few years ago of Lance Armstrong as he led his American team by winning those Tour de France bicycle races? I knew that the folks broadcasting the event on TV thought it was great, since they focused their attention on him and his team, largely to the exclusion of the many talented participants from other nations. And when he went down in disgrace due to PED abuse, our country suddenly lost interest in the Tour de France. After all, our national "label" was no longer in play...
Except for summer-centered Major League Soccer here in North America, the professional soccer leagues have ended their 2015-16 seasons and are in a lull until it all starts up again in August. In the meantime, the national team soccer season has gone into full swing, with tournaments and "Friendly" (exhibition match) competitions involving various national teams. As for soccer per se, I'm a little divided how I feel about all this, since there is very little popular support here in the United States for the women's professional soccer league and their only chance at sports "glory" is in the form of the American team. Also, I did become interested in the sport back in 2014 during the men's World Cup while watching various national teams play each other. But I also know that it can get very, very ugly with fans and players when rival national teams are on the same field: in 1969 El Salvador and Honduras even went to war because of a soccer match gone awry. The fact that one can watch soccer without this spectacle of nationalism by instead following their favorite leagues works for most of the year. The irony of it all right now for soccer fans is that, to avoid watching national teams play, the only league remaining is our own national league, Major League Soccer....the teams of which all are very international in composition...
Nationalism is the most prominent in the Olympics, where the host nation usually goes overboard, often at the expense of its own people's welfare, at trying to present a favorable impression on the world...and that often includes forcefully removing the "undesirables" (such as the homeless and very poor) who live in the area. Just knowing what the local population has had to go through makes me want to boycott watching the Games. Still, I have to admit that the Olympics do give athletes in not-so popular sports the opportunity to be in the public spotlight and interest...if only temporarily and against the backdrop of nationalist banner waving and anthem playing...
Do I tend to root for the Americans in international sports competitions? Mostly, yes...but I'm no longer so emotionally tied to the U.S. winning as are many of my compatriots. That's because I remember the past, watching the Olympics, beginning in 1972. Back then as in years before and years to come, the Games were marked by ultra-nationalism and countries with their own ideologies and histories struggling for bragging rights. If East Germany won a lot of medals, then of course that was supposed to be a symbol of what a better country they were, right? Never mind that their athletes were all professional full-timers while ours back then had to strictly abide by the rules of amateurism. Of course, nowadays those rules about amateurism have all flown out the window...
I much more strongly prefer the league format in sports. Take the premier leagues in the major sports...the U.S. has four of them: American football's National Football League, baseball's American and National Leagues, basketball's National Basketball Association, and ice hockey's National Hockey League. In soccer the top pro leagues are spread out in five countries: England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France. Except for American football, which is almost exclusively played in the U.S., these leagues are distinguished by their mixture of top players from the entire world. Take any team in these leagues (again, with the exception of the NFL) and you will see players getting along and working together, crossing national frontiers and cultural and linguistic divisions for the sake of their teams. That makes me feel good, and is the diametric opposite of the feeling I get when watching national teams square off against each other...
Except for summer-centered Major League Soccer here in North America, the professional soccer leagues have ended their 2015-16 seasons and are in a lull until it all starts up again in August. In the meantime, the national team soccer season has gone into full swing, with tournaments and "Friendly" (exhibition match) competitions involving various national teams. As for soccer per se, I'm a little divided how I feel about all this, since there is very little popular support here in the United States for the women's professional soccer league and their only chance at sports "glory" is in the form of the American team. Also, I did become interested in the sport back in 2014 during the men's World Cup while watching various national teams play each other. But I also know that it can get very, very ugly with fans and players when rival national teams are on the same field: in 1969 El Salvador and Honduras even went to war because of a soccer match gone awry. The fact that one can watch soccer without this spectacle of nationalism by instead following their favorite leagues works for most of the year. The irony of it all right now for soccer fans is that, to avoid watching national teams play, the only league remaining is our own national league, Major League Soccer....the teams of which all are very international in composition...
Nationalism is the most prominent in the Olympics, where the host nation usually goes overboard, often at the expense of its own people's welfare, at trying to present a favorable impression on the world...and that often includes forcefully removing the "undesirables" (such as the homeless and very poor) who live in the area. Just knowing what the local population has had to go through makes me want to boycott watching the Games. Still, I have to admit that the Olympics do give athletes in not-so popular sports the opportunity to be in the public spotlight and interest...if only temporarily and against the backdrop of nationalist banner waving and anthem playing...
Do I tend to root for the Americans in international sports competitions? Mostly, yes...but I'm no longer so emotionally tied to the U.S. winning as are many of my compatriots. That's because I remember the past, watching the Olympics, beginning in 1972. Back then as in years before and years to come, the Games were marked by ultra-nationalism and countries with their own ideologies and histories struggling for bragging rights. If East Germany won a lot of medals, then of course that was supposed to be a symbol of what a better country they were, right? Never mind that their athletes were all professional full-timers while ours back then had to strictly abide by the rules of amateurism. Of course, nowadays those rules about amateurism have all flown out the window...
I much more strongly prefer the league format in sports. Take the premier leagues in the major sports...the U.S. has four of them: American football's National Football League, baseball's American and National Leagues, basketball's National Basketball Association, and ice hockey's National Hockey League. In soccer the top pro leagues are spread out in five countries: England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France. Except for American football, which is almost exclusively played in the U.S., these leagues are distinguished by their mixture of top players from the entire world. Take any team in these leagues (again, with the exception of the NFL) and you will see players getting along and working together, crossing national frontiers and cultural and linguistic divisions for the sake of their teams. That makes me feel good, and is the diametric opposite of the feeling I get when watching national teams square off against each other...
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Who Gets My Support for President in 2020
Why not bring up the 2020 election campaign now? After all, you and I both know it's going to begin in only five months...the day after the results come in from the 2016 general election. For nearly a year now, I have known which candidate I would vote for president and which candidates give me some severe reservations. My opinions have not changed at all since then...and I don't think they will until I cast my ballot on Election Day. So discussing the candidates in the 2016 election seems pointless to me...do you think I'm going to change your mind about who to vote for? After all, if we're responsible voters, we tend to evaluate the candidates and the parties they belong to by two criteria: how good (or bad) they will be for the country as a whole and how good (or bad) they will be for one's own personal life and family. It was long clear to me that one of the candidates this time around favorably fulfilled both conditions...but other voters have their own lives and perspectives to filter everything through. Who am I to say that I am right and you are wrong if you support someone else? Besides, twice in the past I voted for candidates who won that first term, but then voted against them for reelection...so I'm willing to change my mind about people...
And that brings me to 2020. In all likelihood, leading up to that presidential election we're going to have as the incumbent either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump...and I can clearly see either one running for reelection. Regardless who I voted for in 2016, if the president in 2020 meets my criteria for being good for the country as well as standing up for my own personal interests, they will get my support in that election...regardless of the political party. I'm making my decision in 2016 as to who will most likely fit that condition for my support...hopefully "she" will do a good job. But if "he" wins and surprises me with a good performance in his first term as president then he'll get my vote in '20...in spite of the many problems I currently have about him...
And that brings me to 2020. In all likelihood, leading up to that presidential election we're going to have as the incumbent either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump...and I can clearly see either one running for reelection. Regardless who I voted for in 2016, if the president in 2020 meets my criteria for being good for the country as well as standing up for my own personal interests, they will get my support in that election...regardless of the political party. I'm making my decision in 2016 as to who will most likely fit that condition for my support...hopefully "she" will do a good job. But if "he" wins and surprises me with a good performance in his first term as president then he'll get my vote in '20...in spite of the many problems I currently have about him...
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
My May 2016 Running Report
For May 2016 I ran a total of 106 miles, more than I had expected when I had inauspiciously begun the month recovering from a nagging upper respiratory viral infection that had me going through sporadic coughing fits for days on end. But, although I missed out on running at the beginning of May, I did end up running on 26 of the days. My longest single run was still relatively short, at 4.2 miles...but I did manage to participate in a public running race, albeit a short 5K event. That happened on Saturday evening, the 14th, in Tioga: the May Day Glow Run, which I promptly wrote about after running it. Here's my link to that article...
Although I'd eventually like to step up my distance per run, the hot summer weather here in north Florida is working against that goal. Sure, six years ago I defied common sense and ran long distances in the heat of the day, more than once running past the ten-mile mark when the temperature was in the nineties. I don't think I want to do that anymore, though...
If I can continue consistently running for about three to five miles per day for the next few months without incurring any injuries, that may just be about the best I can reasonably do. I could also enter some more 5K races whenever they come up in the Gainesville area. Maybe this fall I'll be able to resume running half-marathons, my preferred racing distance (13.1 miles). This past season I was only able to run a couple of 10Ks and one 15K (9.3 miles) event (besides that 5K race I mentioned). We'll see...
Although I'd eventually like to step up my distance per run, the hot summer weather here in north Florida is working against that goal. Sure, six years ago I defied common sense and ran long distances in the heat of the day, more than once running past the ten-mile mark when the temperature was in the nineties. I don't think I want to do that anymore, though...
If I can continue consistently running for about three to five miles per day for the next few months without incurring any injuries, that may just be about the best I can reasonably do. I could also enter some more 5K races whenever they come up in the Gainesville area. Maybe this fall I'll be able to resume running half-marathons, my preferred racing distance (13.1 miles). This past season I was only able to run a couple of 10Ks and one 15K (9.3 miles) event (besides that 5K race I mentioned). We'll see...
Monday, May 30, 2016
On This Memorial Day
On this Memorial Day of 2016, I remember and honor the fallen soldiers in our nation's wars, past and present. I am one of those folks who respect their sacrifice for the sake of the mission and their fellow combatants...whether or not I personally think that the military action in itself was called for. After all, it is the democratically-elected, civilian President who serves as Commander-in-Chief...and who is ultimately responsible for whatever combat results from his orders. The soldiers are highly trained to actively support the mission to the best of their abilities, and to be willing to lay their lives down for it and for the safety of their fellow soldiers. Sometimes I feel that this important distinction has been muddled in the past...the Vietnam War and the Iraq invasion and occupation come to mind. Some of the mostly well-intentioned people who slapped "Support Our Troops" decals on their vehicles a few years ago may not have been doing so with the sole intent of honoring our brave men and women in the line of duty. I think, sadly so, that this motto had an additional meaning for them: whatever the President decides (at least one with their political outlook) has to be supported because the troops who carry out those policies are in the line of fire. The problem with this is when a president...such as Democrat Lyndon Johnson with Vietnam or Republican George W. Bush with Iraq...sends his forces into an untenable situation abroad and exposes them to death and injury without a viable strategy for ultimate victory and eventual withdrawal. It, in my opinion, is an act of support for those troops sent into harm's way for Americans to openly express opposition to decisions that put them there without the "end-game" having been properly thought out. Instead, I respect a president who is careful about committing our precious and courageous young men and women to dangerous situations to the point where he or she works ceaselessly to achieve positive results without having to do so...
Let's honor those brave American heroes who died for our country...and work to keep that list from growing needlessly...
Let's honor those brave American heroes who died for our country...and work to keep that list from growing needlessly...
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Soccer: Mexico's Liga MX Championship Finale Tonight
I've been following Mexico's premier professional soccer league, commonly known as Liga MX, for two years now. That means four actual "seasons", for each year is divided into two parts: fall's Apertura mini-season and winter/spring's Clausura...each one has its own league championship series. Out of Liga MX's 18 teams, 8 make the championship tournament, known as "Liguilla". The paired-up teams play each round with two matches, one at home and one on their opponent's field, with the team accumulating the most aggregate two-game goals advancing (there is a tie-breaker system, too). Tonight the 2016 Clausura season will come to an end with the closing game of the championship round between the Liguilla's two surviving teams: Pachuca and Monterrey...
In last week's first game between the two, Pachuca won at home 1-0 against Monterrey. Tonight the Rayados, who had the best league record during the regular season, will be the hosts. I watched the Apertura finale back in December between UNAM Pumas and UANL Tigres...it was a heart-stopping match! I can't wait to see what happens tonight. Regardless who wins, it will mark the fourth different team to win the title in each of the seasons from the last couple of years (I've previously witnessed Club America, Santos Laguno, and Tigres walk away with the Liguilla championship). In other words, I've never seen a league in any sport that is so distinguished by the parity between the teams that comprise it as Liga MX. The game starts around 9:30 pm Eastern Time and is being shown on the Univision and UnivisionDeportes channels in Spanish. Unilike the previous finale, which had me pulling for Tigres, I'm not taking sides this time around...I just want to enjoy the high caliber of play. I hope it's a close match!
In last week's first game between the two, Pachuca won at home 1-0 against Monterrey. Tonight the Rayados, who had the best league record during the regular season, will be the hosts. I watched the Apertura finale back in December between UNAM Pumas and UANL Tigres...it was a heart-stopping match! I can't wait to see what happens tonight. Regardless who wins, it will mark the fourth different team to win the title in each of the seasons from the last couple of years (I've previously witnessed Club America, Santos Laguno, and Tigres walk away with the Liguilla championship). In other words, I've never seen a league in any sport that is so distinguished by the parity between the teams that comprise it as Liga MX. The game starts around 9:30 pm Eastern Time and is being shown on the Univision and UnivisionDeportes channels in Spanish. Unilike the previous finale, which had me pulling for Tigres, I'm not taking sides this time around...I just want to enjoy the high caliber of play. I hope it's a close match!
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Just Finished Reading Five More Kuttner and Moore Short Stories
Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore were a husband and wife writing team who specialized in science fiction, occasionally dabbling in fantasy or horror. Sometimes they wrote solo, but many of their works were collaborations using pseudonyms, the best known of which was Lewis Padgett. Their mainstay was the short story, with which over the course of the mid-twentieth century they were very successful at selling to science fiction magazines. The book Two-Handed Engine, named after one of the stories contained within, is a collection of their best short literature. I have been reading it off and on for the past few months...more "off" than "on", I'm sad to say...but I've just finished reading five more of its stories...bringing the total read so far to thirteen. Their titles are: The World is Mine, When the Bough Breaks, The Cure, The Code, and Line to Tomorrow. Although distinctly different tales, all five are distinguished by the subject of time travel and an examination into the nature of personal identity and consciousness...
The World is Mine, the most humorous of the lot, plays around with time travel's paradoxes and how people (and some rabbit-like Martians) get carried away with coveting power over others. In When the Bough Breaks, a superman/mutant sends agents back in time to his infancy in order to better train him for his future of destiny...probably not the best of ideas. The Cure involves a businessman who experiences moments when he feels he is in another place and time...and maybe is even a different person. The Code has two scientists experimenting with a rejuvenation drug on one of their fathers...the results bring on a comparison to the legend of Faust and Mephistopheles...meaning that if you're not already acquainted with that tale, then this story is probably going to be lost on you! The last of the bunch is Line to Tomorrow, where someone keeps getting a misdirected phone call...from the distant future...
I'm just guessing here, but it seems that stories about time travel and personal identity must have been very popular back in the 1940s, when these stories were first published. And if you were a writer back then, pounding away at the typewriter and struggling to come out with material that would sell...and provide you a reasonable living in the process...then you would most likely pay attention to magazine editors and publishers when they told you what worked (and what didn't). And the result, at least with Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, was a steady stream of popular short stories with some very similar themes...
The World is Mine, the most humorous of the lot, plays around with time travel's paradoxes and how people (and some rabbit-like Martians) get carried away with coveting power over others. In When the Bough Breaks, a superman/mutant sends agents back in time to his infancy in order to better train him for his future of destiny...probably not the best of ideas. The Cure involves a businessman who experiences moments when he feels he is in another place and time...and maybe is even a different person. The Code has two scientists experimenting with a rejuvenation drug on one of their fathers...the results bring on a comparison to the legend of Faust and Mephistopheles...meaning that if you're not already acquainted with that tale, then this story is probably going to be lost on you! The last of the bunch is Line to Tomorrow, where someone keeps getting a misdirected phone call...from the distant future...
I'm just guessing here, but it seems that stories about time travel and personal identity must have been very popular back in the 1940s, when these stories were first published. And if you were a writer back then, pounding away at the typewriter and struggling to come out with material that would sell...and provide you a reasonable living in the process...then you would most likely pay attention to magazine editors and publishers when they told you what worked (and what didn't). And the result, at least with Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, was a steady stream of popular short stories with some very similar themes...
Friday, May 27, 2016
NASA, Its Missions, and the Candidates
Having discovered that neither Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, nor Bernie Sanders seem to care at all about our space program, I am wondering whether or not the eventual winner of this November's presidential election will continue our current president's vision for its future...especially with regard to manned space travel to Mars. After all, not long after he himself took office, Barack Obama went back on his campaign promise to Floridians that he would continue his predecessor's ambitious program to establish a moon base. It seems that NASA is a political football, kicked around from one administration to the next with each president either ignoring it or drastically changing its goals. That is because NASA is a federal agency under the direct authority of the president. Congress only has the power to fund or defund it and cannot directly set its agenda...
Maybe one of these candidates will surprise us and show some proactive interest in our space program...although Sanders seems downright hostile to space exploration. Regardless, I plan to research NASA's website and watch the NASA channel on TV in order to keep up with its ongoing missions and future plans. With this in mind, I also plan to write about these missions. One of the more immediate with be the Juno probe to Jupiter, while should arrive at that planet in July. More on Juno in an upcoming article. I will also be looking the history of our space program as well as what is going on with those in Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. Should be enlightening...
Maybe one of these candidates will surprise us and show some proactive interest in our space program...although Sanders seems downright hostile to space exploration. Regardless, I plan to research NASA's website and watch the NASA channel on TV in order to keep up with its ongoing missions and future plans. With this in mind, I also plan to write about these missions. One of the more immediate with be the Juno probe to Jupiter, while should arrive at that planet in July. More on Juno in an upcoming article. I will also be looking the history of our space program as well as what is going on with those in Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. Should be enlightening...
Thursday, May 26, 2016
The Major League Baseball Regular Season So Far
The Major League Baseball regular season has played enough games, around the mid-forties in number, for me to look at the standings and notice trends. The division leaders right now, listed in order from the American League East-Central-West to the corresponding National League divisions, are the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, and San Francisco Giants. The cellar-dwellers, in the same order, are the Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, and San Diego Padres. Minnesota, Atlanta, and Cincinnati are having truly horrendous seasons while the Cubs and Giants have put distance between themselves and their divisional challengers. All of the other divisions are close, with Baltimore, Cleveland, defending World Series champion Kansas City, Texas, defending NL champs New York Mets, Philadelphia, and Miami having winning, competitive seasons. The Marlins at this writing are 24-21, a marked turnaround so far from their dismal 72-90 season last year...they're in fourth place right now, but only 3.5 games from the lead. The Rays, "my" other Florida team, are struggling at 21-23, just percentage points in last place but still solidly in the running...
It's hard to predict how things will wind up this year. An injury to a key player can devastate a team, and sometimes a team will go into prolonged hitting or pitching slumps...or the opposite can occur and one or more of them can suddenly surge in the standings. I can't see a lot to interest me in baseball right now...maybe it's because I've seen in recent years my favorite teams cave in and go into those aforementioned slumps. Will that happen again, or will either Miami or Tampa Bay (or both) break the pattern and finish as winners?
It's hard to predict how things will wind up this year. An injury to a key player can devastate a team, and sometimes a team will go into prolonged hitting or pitching slumps...or the opposite can occur and one or more of them can suddenly surge in the standings. I can't see a lot to interest me in baseball right now...maybe it's because I've seen in recent years my favorite teams cave in and go into those aforementioned slumps. Will that happen again, or will either Miami or Tampa Bay (or both) break the pattern and finish as winners?
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Sanders, Clinton, and Superdelegates
Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders has his own talking points that he brings up during his campaign rallies. Being a socialist and a staunch believer in state control over the economy, he has continually criticized Clinton's ties with Wall Street...as if business and banking were the enemies of our country. Well, if you're of his political persuasion, then good luck with the standard of living you are enjoying (and probably refusing to acknowledge) in this early twenty-first century...a historically high standard of living that owes itself, in great part, to business and banking...Sanders' enemies. But that's not what I want to focus on here...rather it is another of Bernie's favorite talking points: the superdelegates...
Bernie Sanders constantly brings up the superdelegates, who were not selected during the primary season. They are composed instead, at least in part, of the Democrats already elected in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and as state governors...a total of 261 out of 715 superdelegates. In other words, these are Democrats who have been successful at winning general elections against Republicans. Along with these popularly elected delegates are allotted 20 who were past presidents, v.p.'s and honored party figures from the past. That leaves 434 superdelegates who owe their selection to having been elected by the Democratic National Committee. Now I am all for the Democrats in the electorate being able to choose their nominee through primary elections. And the historical trend has been more voter inclusion in the process, not less. Not only is the number of superdelegates relatively small against the backdrop of total of 4,132 delegates, but as I have already stated, 261 of them were also elected by the people...albeit indirectly to their political offices. The problem I have with the superdelegates as they pertain to the 2016 campaign is of a different nature...
Senator Sanders is right when he complains of nearly all of the superdelegates, supposedly "unpledged", nevertheless committing themselves to supporting Hillary Clinton even before the campaign season ever began. This put Sanders in a virtually insurmountable position long before there was ever a primary or caucus...and feeds into the narrative that the process is rigged in advance against him and for Clinton. Sanders has gone on a campaign to try to convince superdelegates from states he won to switch their allegiance to him. He also claims that Clinton benefited throughout the primaries by receiving votes from people perceiving her as the "inevitable" nominee. That may be true in some cases, but I believe that, by NOT being widely perceived as the eventual nominee, Sanders has been spared a great deal of the scrutiny and criticism (and attacks from Republicans) that have been focused on Clinton...ultimately detracting from her popularity. I remember this phenomenon happening in 2008, when Obama, the frontrunner, was getting the lion's share of criticism and even Rush Limbaugh was urging people to vote instead for Hillary. That's just the way the process works: the leader is the main target...
Historically, state primary elections were not the dominant element in determining party nominees for president. After all, in 1968 Hubert Humphrey,the eventual nominee, didn't campaign in a single primary...there were precious few back then anyway...it was the states' "insider" party apparatus that selected delegates. During that campaign season they weren't yet called "superdelegates"...but that's what the overwhelming majority of delegates were, as we interpret the term. But now we're in 2016 and not 1968, and the expectations are that the nominee should be the one who won the most popular votes. And, regardless what kind of spin Bernie Sanders wants to place on it, that candidate is Hillary Clinton, not him...
Bernie Sanders constantly brings up the superdelegates, who were not selected during the primary season. They are composed instead, at least in part, of the Democrats already elected in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and as state governors...a total of 261 out of 715 superdelegates. In other words, these are Democrats who have been successful at winning general elections against Republicans. Along with these popularly elected delegates are allotted 20 who were past presidents, v.p.'s and honored party figures from the past. That leaves 434 superdelegates who owe their selection to having been elected by the Democratic National Committee. Now I am all for the Democrats in the electorate being able to choose their nominee through primary elections. And the historical trend has been more voter inclusion in the process, not less. Not only is the number of superdelegates relatively small against the backdrop of total of 4,132 delegates, but as I have already stated, 261 of them were also elected by the people...albeit indirectly to their political offices. The problem I have with the superdelegates as they pertain to the 2016 campaign is of a different nature...
Senator Sanders is right when he complains of nearly all of the superdelegates, supposedly "unpledged", nevertheless committing themselves to supporting Hillary Clinton even before the campaign season ever began. This put Sanders in a virtually insurmountable position long before there was ever a primary or caucus...and feeds into the narrative that the process is rigged in advance against him and for Clinton. Sanders has gone on a campaign to try to convince superdelegates from states he won to switch their allegiance to him. He also claims that Clinton benefited throughout the primaries by receiving votes from people perceiving her as the "inevitable" nominee. That may be true in some cases, but I believe that, by NOT being widely perceived as the eventual nominee, Sanders has been spared a great deal of the scrutiny and criticism (and attacks from Republicans) that have been focused on Clinton...ultimately detracting from her popularity. I remember this phenomenon happening in 2008, when Obama, the frontrunner, was getting the lion's share of criticism and even Rush Limbaugh was urging people to vote instead for Hillary. That's just the way the process works: the leader is the main target...
Historically, state primary elections were not the dominant element in determining party nominees for president. After all, in 1968 Hubert Humphrey,the eventual nominee, didn't campaign in a single primary...there were precious few back then anyway...it was the states' "insider" party apparatus that selected delegates. During that campaign season they weren't yet called "superdelegates"...but that's what the overwhelming majority of delegates were, as we interpret the term. But now we're in 2016 and not 1968, and the expectations are that the nominee should be the one who won the most popular votes. And, regardless what kind of spin Bernie Sanders wants to place on it, that candidate is Hillary Clinton, not him...
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Just Finished Reading the InterWorld Trilogy by Gaiman and Reaves
In other recent blog articles here, I alluded to the fact that I was in the process of reading Neil Gaiman's teen-level fantasy trilogy titled InterWorld. That wasn't entirely accurate: Gaiman tops the writing credits, but this series was really a collaboration, first between him and Michael Reaves, and later with the addition of Michael's daughter Mallory Reaves when his worsening Parkinson's Disease made typing unfeasible. In truth, as far as I know it, Gaiman himself had little to do with InterWorld other than meeting with the Reaves and making creative suggestions to them. But, you know, if you have an established brand backing your product...and Neil Gaiman is definitely established and highly respected...you can't go wrong...
The story with this trilogy involves a teenage boy named Joey Harker who one day, during a high school social studies class field assignment, finds that he can "walk" into other dimensions where there are Earths different from his own. And on many of these Earths, the composite total of which comprises the "Altiverse", there are other "Joeys", albeit with different names and biological forms. The common trait that they all share is their unique (at least for each one's home world) ability to walk from one Earth to another. Now, the Altiverse is shaped like an arc, and on each end is an enemy empire fighting against the "good guys". One regime, the Binary, is computer-based and relies on science while the other, called HEX, is oriented to magic. They are both mortal enemies of the "Joeys" because they use the essences of walkers, after their bodies are killed off, to power their respective ships and machines. "Our" Joey discovers his peril right away as he is detected by both sides and pursued. He is rescued by another manifestation of himself from a different Earth and is eventually brought to InterWorld, the home base of all the walkers. The three books involve themselves with InterWorld's campaign of resistance against the Binary and HEX, while later on in the series inter-dimensional travel is complicated by the insertion of time-travel (and time agents) into the story line...
InterWorld is written for young readers, and it has a lot of action sequences in it. I felt that the speculative ideas about interdimensional and time travel were interesting, but nevertheless eventually felt overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all. But since this series is a combination science fiction/fantasy tale, what should I have been expecting, anyway? All in all, though, I enjoyed reading it and liked Joey and his fellow walkers from all the different Earths. The three volumes are titled InterWorld, The Silver Dream, and Eternity's Wheel...
My next Neil Gaiman book: American Gods...
The story with this trilogy involves a teenage boy named Joey Harker who one day, during a high school social studies class field assignment, finds that he can "walk" into other dimensions where there are Earths different from his own. And on many of these Earths, the composite total of which comprises the "Altiverse", there are other "Joeys", albeit with different names and biological forms. The common trait that they all share is their unique (at least for each one's home world) ability to walk from one Earth to another. Now, the Altiverse is shaped like an arc, and on each end is an enemy empire fighting against the "good guys". One regime, the Binary, is computer-based and relies on science while the other, called HEX, is oriented to magic. They are both mortal enemies of the "Joeys" because they use the essences of walkers, after their bodies are killed off, to power their respective ships and machines. "Our" Joey discovers his peril right away as he is detected by both sides and pursued. He is rescued by another manifestation of himself from a different Earth and is eventually brought to InterWorld, the home base of all the walkers. The three books involve themselves with InterWorld's campaign of resistance against the Binary and HEX, while later on in the series inter-dimensional travel is complicated by the insertion of time-travel (and time agents) into the story line...
InterWorld is written for young readers, and it has a lot of action sequences in it. I felt that the speculative ideas about interdimensional and time travel were interesting, but nevertheless eventually felt overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all. But since this series is a combination science fiction/fantasy tale, what should I have been expecting, anyway? All in all, though, I enjoyed reading it and liked Joey and his fellow walkers from all the different Earths. The three volumes are titled InterWorld, The Silver Dream, and Eternity's Wheel...
My next Neil Gaiman book: American Gods...
Saturday, May 21, 2016
What Kind of Hurricane Season Will We Have in 2016?
The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season will officially begin on June 1, although there has already been a full-blown hurricane: Alex, which haunted the northern Atlantic Ocean way back in January. Meteorologists with an inside track on the data and their interpretation seem to be of the opinion that, due to their prediction of the El Niño effect giving way this summer and fall to La Niña, the number of named tropical storms as well as hurricanes will increase from last year's total. That's not to say we'll have anything like 2005, when terrible storms like Katrina, Rita, and Wilma struck the American mainland...but tropical storm activity should pick up in the area. Since 2005, not a single hurricane struck the state of Florida, while a few hit elsewhere: in Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina...and the northeastern coastal states. I don't see this period of good luck for us Floridians continuing much longer, but if it's in the cards for us to be spared such an traumatic experience for yet another year...then deal me in!
The first names for tropical storms/hurricanes in the Atlantic for 2016 are: Alex (already used), Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, and Fiona. Even if the number of storms is high, we need to keep in mind that most of them just run through their existence completely at sea, hundreds of miles from the mainland, posing threats only to islands (like Bermuda or the Azores), shipping...and careless east coast beach-goers and boating enthusiasts who ignore warnings about strong storm-generated waves and rip current...
I think we'll have a better grasp of what kind of season 2016 will be once the storms coming off the western African coast cross the Atlantic and approach the West Indies. In years conducive to hurricane development, they continue more or less to strengthen until they hit the mainland or pass over mountainous terrain in some islands like Hispaniola or Cuba. On the other hand, these storms have recently had a tendency to run into strong weather systems that shear the storms and diminish them into relatively harmless low pressure zones. I'm hoping that the latter scenario prevails this time around...
It will also be interesting to see where the predominant source of hurricane development occurs. I've already mentioned the eastern Atlantic, but also some of the worst storms in our recent memory (like Camille in 1969 and Wilma in 2005) developed in the warm waters of the western Caribbean and then moved northward. I'm keeping my eye on both regions...
The first names for tropical storms/hurricanes in the Atlantic for 2016 are: Alex (already used), Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, and Fiona. Even if the number of storms is high, we need to keep in mind that most of them just run through their existence completely at sea, hundreds of miles from the mainland, posing threats only to islands (like Bermuda or the Azores), shipping...and careless east coast beach-goers and boating enthusiasts who ignore warnings about strong storm-generated waves and rip current...
I think we'll have a better grasp of what kind of season 2016 will be once the storms coming off the western African coast cross the Atlantic and approach the West Indies. In years conducive to hurricane development, they continue more or less to strengthen until they hit the mainland or pass over mountainous terrain in some islands like Hispaniola or Cuba. On the other hand, these storms have recently had a tendency to run into strong weather systems that shear the storms and diminish them into relatively harmless low pressure zones. I'm hoping that the latter scenario prevails this time around...
It will also be interesting to see where the predominant source of hurricane development occurs. I've already mentioned the eastern Atlantic, but also some of the worst storms in our recent memory (like Camille in 1969 and Wilma in 2005) developed in the warm waters of the western Caribbean and then moved northward. I'm keeping my eye on both regions...
Friday, May 20, 2016
The Wild Card Zone in Major League Baseball Games
Many years ago, a Major League Baseball team would feel pretty confident if it had a good starting pitching rotation and a consistently effective closing relief pitcher. And having one or two really dependable middle-relief pitchers would just be icing on the cake. But nowadays, with the pressure to limit the number of pitches that starters can throw in a game...even to the point where a manager will sometimes pull a starter who is pitching a no-hitter (it happened with the Marlins earlier this season)...there has arisen a substantial portion of the game when the "big-money" starting pitchers have been yanked and that lineup of middle-relief pitchers comes into play...and this happens in the vast majority of games. These pitchers usually don't exactly have the best records at keeping batters from reaching base...which is why they're middle relief, after all! Yet they collectively play a crucial role in determining the outcome of games. A starter is usually approaching the magic number of 100 pitches, unless of course he's having a career game, by around the sixth or seventh inning. And even if the pitch count is lower, the manager is very sensitive to observe any signs of fatigue, reflected in pitch speed and accuracy...and of course whether or not the bases are being kept empty. I've seen many games in which the starter was doing well and then ran into a little trouble in the 5th, 6th, or 7th innings and the manager, rather than see if he could get himself out of the inning, instead called upon a middle-relief pitcher with less of a reputation for effectiveness. And too many times in these situations, the reliever would give up runs, with them often charged to the starter. I've been suffering in recent seasons with my Florida teams Tampa Bay and Miami as I've seen leads disappear and losses ensue on a number of occasions when effective starters are replaced with less-capable relievers...
I've recently heard that pitchers throw warm-up pitches before each inning (up to 8 are allowed per inning)...and if there is any kind of delay, they're allowed more. I wonder, though, how necessary these practice throws are and if they don't contribute to the starter's fatigue in later innings. I heard the same viewpoint expressed by someone recently on a sports talk radio station, and then read an article echoing his viewpoint online...I wonder if it was the same person. After all, the later you can keep your best pitchers in the game, while keeping the number of innings with middle-relievers to a minimum, your chances of winning should be greatly enhanced. But I don't foresee any drastic changes concerning warm-up pitches anytime soon. Instead, those middle-to-late innings will continue to be the "wild card zone" in games, when just about anything might happen...
I've recently heard that pitchers throw warm-up pitches before each inning (up to 8 are allowed per inning)...and if there is any kind of delay, they're allowed more. I wonder, though, how necessary these practice throws are and if they don't contribute to the starter's fatigue in later innings. I heard the same viewpoint expressed by someone recently on a sports talk radio station, and then read an article echoing his viewpoint online...I wonder if it was the same person. After all, the later you can keep your best pitchers in the game, while keeping the number of innings with middle-relievers to a minimum, your chances of winning should be greatly enhanced. But I don't foresee any drastic changes concerning warm-up pitches anytime soon. Instead, those middle-to-late innings will continue to be the "wild card zone" in games, when just about anything might happen...
Just Finished Reading Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane
British fantasy/science fiction writer Neil Gaiman is rapidly
becoming one of my favorite authors. Currently I'm reading through one
of his "juniors" series titled InterWorld...maybe that one is a tad too juvenile...but I just finished reading a more adult novel: his 2013 The Ocean at the End of the Lane...
In The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a man in his late forties returns to where he lived as a seven-year-old boy forty year earlier, in a rural Sussex area (in England, of course). While walking down the lane connecting his former home (now long demolished) and its end, where the Hempstocks lived, he begins to gradually remember his past. Finally, looking out on the Hempstock's pond, he recalls that little Lettie Hempstock, a girl four years his senior, referred to the pond as an "ocean"...and the past memories flood in, launching this tale of childhood adventures, fears, and regrets...
It's always a bit difficult to know how much to tell in a book review and how much to leave out. Maybe it's just better to give some general impressions of mine and leave the story's outcome to you, the prospective reader. One sense I got from reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane is that it initially feels as if it belongs in the "young adult" genre of fiction...like Divergent, Twilight, or Hunger Games...but the themes embedded within are much more adult in nature, once you get past all of the magic, fantasy, and adventure. I also picked up that Gaiman was writing about the helpless feeling that children often get when they have to interact with grown-ups, who often wield so much power over them and insist on always being "right". Whoa...that one struck a strong chord with me as I recall, over the course of my own childhood, how much I deeply distrusted...and even feared...adults. There is a sinister housekeeper reminiscent of the wicked nanny who takes over the household in the movie The Omen, and later in the story appear monstrous flying entities who "clean things up" and are remarkably similar to those in Stephen King's The Langoliers...
The Ocean at the End of the Lane was published in 2013 and won numerous awards for Neil Gaiman. It is a disturbing novel in that, while it seems like a child's fantasy tale on the surface, there is some pretty deep stuff underlying it all. Why not try it out and see for yourself?
In The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a man in his late forties returns to where he lived as a seven-year-old boy forty year earlier, in a rural Sussex area (in England, of course). While walking down the lane connecting his former home (now long demolished) and its end, where the Hempstocks lived, he begins to gradually remember his past. Finally, looking out on the Hempstock's pond, he recalls that little Lettie Hempstock, a girl four years his senior, referred to the pond as an "ocean"...and the past memories flood in, launching this tale of childhood adventures, fears, and regrets...
It's always a bit difficult to know how much to tell in a book review and how much to leave out. Maybe it's just better to give some general impressions of mine and leave the story's outcome to you, the prospective reader. One sense I got from reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane is that it initially feels as if it belongs in the "young adult" genre of fiction...like Divergent, Twilight, or Hunger Games...but the themes embedded within are much more adult in nature, once you get past all of the magic, fantasy, and adventure. I also picked up that Gaiman was writing about the helpless feeling that children often get when they have to interact with grown-ups, who often wield so much power over them and insist on always being "right". Whoa...that one struck a strong chord with me as I recall, over the course of my own childhood, how much I deeply distrusted...and even feared...adults. There is a sinister housekeeper reminiscent of the wicked nanny who takes over the household in the movie The Omen, and later in the story appear monstrous flying entities who "clean things up" and are remarkably similar to those in Stephen King's The Langoliers...
The Ocean at the End of the Lane was published in 2013 and won numerous awards for Neil Gaiman. It is a disturbing novel in that, while it seems like a child's fantasy tale on the surface, there is some pretty deep stuff underlying it all. Why not try it out and see for yourself?
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
NBA Playoffs Down to "Final Four"
Although I'm disappointed that "my" San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat didn't quite make it to their respective conference finals, I still enjoy watching the National Basketball Association playoffs...but I'm glad I was at work last night and didn't witness the horrendous 31-point blowout that Cleveland put over Toronto in their opening round game for the Eastern Conference championship. Still, it's "best of seven" and I recall, just recently, when San Antonio did something similar to Oklahoma City in their first game...only to see the Thunder win the next four out of five and the series. Still, I have trouble comparing the Raptors, an admittedly talented team, with Oklahoma City and its superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook along with the crucial supporting cast of players Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, and Enes Kanter. The latter two shut down the Spurs offense in the "paint" during the previous series and have to be given a great amount of credit for the team's playoff surge so far. Also, I'm starting to hear kudos deservedly being given to Thunder first-year head coach Billy Donovan. And if upsetting favored San Antonio wasn't enough, Oklahoma City then shocked everyone by coming from behind in the second half to beat the heavily favored Golden State Warriors in the first game of the Western Conference finals, 108-102...
I don't think that a team like Golden State, headlined by its two-time MVP guard Stephen Curry, will buckle under to the Thunder. Still, by beating them on their home court, Oklahoma City has definitely earned their attention and respect. Who knows what will happen in the next game, which will begin tonight at nine (on TNT). As it stands now, my favorite team of the remaining four is Oklahoma City, followed in order of preference by Golden State and Toronto, the latter of which I'm afraid is a lost cause against the mighty Lebron James-led Cavaliers. I happen to like Lebron and the way he unselfishly works with his teammates. What I don't like about Cleveland is the way that this city acts as if it has some kind of proprietary claim on him, just because he grew up in the area and played for the Cavaliers during his early NBA years. I don't see people in other American cities acting this way toward NBA players from their area who are on teams in other towns. If the Cavaliers were playing in a different city, I'd probably be rooting for them instead of against them...
I don't think that a team like Golden State, headlined by its two-time MVP guard Stephen Curry, will buckle under to the Thunder. Still, by beating them on their home court, Oklahoma City has definitely earned their attention and respect. Who knows what will happen in the next game, which will begin tonight at nine (on TNT). As it stands now, my favorite team of the remaining four is Oklahoma City, followed in order of preference by Golden State and Toronto, the latter of which I'm afraid is a lost cause against the mighty Lebron James-led Cavaliers. I happen to like Lebron and the way he unselfishly works with his teammates. What I don't like about Cleveland is the way that this city acts as if it has some kind of proprietary claim on him, just because he grew up in the area and played for the Cavaliers during his early NBA years. I don't see people in other American cities acting this way toward NBA players from their area who are on teams in other towns. If the Cavaliers were playing in a different city, I'd probably be rooting for them instead of against them...
Monday, May 16, 2016
Currently Reading Some of Neil Gaiman's Works
Neil Gaiman is a contemporary English writer, very popular for his graphic novels, comics, and fantasy/science fiction books. His output has been prolific, to say the least...I'm just getting started with his works, although I'm not interested in the graphic novels and comic books. I've previously read Neverwhere, as well as Gaiman's collaboration with Terry Pratchett titled Good Omens. And now I've just finished reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a 2013 fantasy novel. I'll probably write about it in a couple of days or so...
I have just begun reading Gaiman's three-part fantasy series InterWorld, targeted at the young adult reading audience...a group to which I occasionally pretend to belong. And further along, I plan to read his novels American Gods and Stardust. He is an excellent writer who can spin a yarn as well as anyone and who knows how to present realistic and sympathetic characters. I'm probably going to end up reading just about all of his works... except for those graphic novels/comics, that is...
I have just begun reading Gaiman's three-part fantasy series InterWorld, targeted at the young adult reading audience...a group to which I occasionally pretend to belong. And further along, I plan to read his novels American Gods and Stardust. He is an excellent writer who can spin a yarn as well as anyone and who knows how to present realistic and sympathetic characters. I'm probably going to end up reading just about all of his works... except for those graphic novels/comics, that is...
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Ran Yesterday's 5K May Day Glow Run in Tioga
Two months ago, on a Saturday afternoon, I ran the 10K Run for Haven race held annually in Tioga, a few miles west of Gainesville off Newberry Road. Yesterday, a different race took place at the same location: the May Day Glow Run 5K, organized by Newberry Christian Community School. It is called "Glow Run" because it starts in the evening at 8:30, and the participants are offered plastic sticks containing luminescent coloring that they can twist into necklaces and bracelets for themselves while running. The course is identical to the 5K version of the Run for Haven course, which includes the portion of their 10K run that is residential and excludes the 10K's three-mile diversion through the woods...that's good since there's no way any of us could have seen anything out there, "glowsticks" or not...
For the most part, I was impressed with the way this race was organized and presented. For example, they didn't fool around with the asinine meal/beer tickets that the Haven organizers offered...and which I didn't use because of the ridiculously long lines of people waiting to redeem them. Instead, it was a race, pure and simple...well, maybe not all that simple: at its start, they set off fireworks that were close to the near-stampeding runners and sounded like bombs going off: not one of their better ideas! And it was a near-stampede at the beginning, as is just about any 5K event with a lot of runners. So, as usual, I found myself slowing down just to avoid running into others...or trying to get out of others' ways. Also, although we were running down residential streets with streetlights, they still seemed too dark...and the occasional slow-bumps in the road were hard to make out, with the sudden changes in slope being rather disconcerting. Still, I was happy to not have to contend with a glaring sun and the heat of the afternoon: just a short time earlier it was in the upper eighties...by race time it had gone down ten degrees while the humidity was still low and pleasant...
I ran the race as a training run, sticking to a comfortable pace much slower than what I would have run had I been competing to beat others. I finished the 3.1 mile distance at 28:51...that is a 9:21/mile pace, about the level I now prefer during my training runs. The folks at the finish line were very positive, encouraging, and complimentary...I appreciate little gestures of kindness like that. Upon finishing, there were liberal quantities of cold water and bananas available...nothing extravagant, but then again sometimes I think they go a little overboard with the amenities for these races. I was also impressed by the portable restrooms provided: lit up, flushable, and with a sink and hand soap. Now that I did not expect...
Here are the race results, posted on the Internet. Turns out they gave me a better finishing time, at 28:36...apparently, it took me 15 seconds to reach the starting line in this mass of around 700 entrants. I finished 112th overall, and 8th in my gender/age group (out of 18). All things considered, I enjoyed the May Day Glow Run and would like to try it out again next year...
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Just Finished Reading 2nd Chance by James Patterson
During the past few months I've begun to explore the fiction of popular American writer James Patterson. So far, I've read his first-ever two novels as well as the first books in his Alex Cross and Maximum Ride series. I also recently read 1st to Die, the first volume in his ongoing Women's Murder Club mystery series with increasing numbers with each successive title...I believe he's gotten to book #15 by now. And the other day I just finished reading 2nd Chance...
So far, it's no contest: the Women's Murder Club series is Patterson's most compelling fiction, and 2nd Chance only bolstered my opinion in that regard. The stories are based in San Francisco and feature homicide investigator Lindsay Boxer as the main protagonist. She has three close women friends: an investigative report (Cindy), a medical examiner (Claire), and an assistant district attorney (Jill). The four meet often and discuss their personal problems and relationships...and more importantly...the developing mystery in the ongoing story. In this book, someone is apparently committing hate crimes by selecting African-American targets for their serial murders. Lindsay, thanks in large part to her friends in the "club", discovers a connection between the victims and the police...leading her to investigate who might have a grievance from the past with San Francisco law enforcement. She also keeps seeing a strange recurring image, while investigating the crimes, of a two-headed beast with a snake's tale: a "chimera". What does the chimera have to do with hate groups and the murders? Guess you'll have to read 2nd Chance to find out!
In 1st to Die, Lindsay has her own personal crisis, a rare blood disease, to deal with. In 2nd Chance, another personal issue comes to the forefront when her father, a former SF cop who abandoned her and her now long-diseased mother twenty years earlier, resurfaces and tries to mend their relationship. Patterson skillfully managed to weave this subplot into the story's main theme of the murder mystery...
I heartily recommend 2nd Chance and plan to read this series through to the end, just as I have been doing with Sue Grafton's "alphabet mystery" series featuring California private eye Kinsey Millhone. Both series have very sympathetic protagonists...and you're never quite sure the mystery is completely solved until the very end, when most likely a surprise finish awaits you...
There was a brief television series titled Women's Murder Club, comprising only 13 episodes and featuring the same characters as the books. It aired from the fall of 2007 to the spring of 2008. I'll not be making any attempt to watch it, as I am already greatly disappointed in other recent books-to-TV adaptations, most notably The Magicians and Game of Thrones...
So far, it's no contest: the Women's Murder Club series is Patterson's most compelling fiction, and 2nd Chance only bolstered my opinion in that regard. The stories are based in San Francisco and feature homicide investigator Lindsay Boxer as the main protagonist. She has three close women friends: an investigative report (Cindy), a medical examiner (Claire), and an assistant district attorney (Jill). The four meet often and discuss their personal problems and relationships...and more importantly...the developing mystery in the ongoing story. In this book, someone is apparently committing hate crimes by selecting African-American targets for their serial murders. Lindsay, thanks in large part to her friends in the "club", discovers a connection between the victims and the police...leading her to investigate who might have a grievance from the past with San Francisco law enforcement. She also keeps seeing a strange recurring image, while investigating the crimes, of a two-headed beast with a snake's tale: a "chimera". What does the chimera have to do with hate groups and the murders? Guess you'll have to read 2nd Chance to find out!
In 1st to Die, Lindsay has her own personal crisis, a rare blood disease, to deal with. In 2nd Chance, another personal issue comes to the forefront when her father, a former SF cop who abandoned her and her now long-diseased mother twenty years earlier, resurfaces and tries to mend their relationship. Patterson skillfully managed to weave this subplot into the story's main theme of the murder mystery...
I heartily recommend 2nd Chance and plan to read this series through to the end, just as I have been doing with Sue Grafton's "alphabet mystery" series featuring California private eye Kinsey Millhone. Both series have very sympathetic protagonists...and you're never quite sure the mystery is completely solved until the very end, when most likely a surprise finish awaits you...
There was a brief television series titled Women's Murder Club, comprising only 13 episodes and featuring the same characters as the books. It aired from the fall of 2007 to the spring of 2008. I'll not be making any attempt to watch it, as I am already greatly disappointed in other recent books-to-TV adaptations, most notably The Magicians and Game of Thrones...
Friday, May 13, 2016
My Favorites Having Trouble Advancing in NBA Playoffs
A few days ago, when I previewed this year's National Basketball Association championship playoffs, I acknowledged that Cleveland and Golden State were the most likely teams to face off (again), as conference champions, in the league title series. But I also held out hope that my favorites in each conference, namely Miami in the East and San Antonio in the West, could at least give the Cavaliers and Warriors a run for their money, if not actually upset them. Sadly, the Spurs couldn't even get to the conference championship round to play Golden State: Oklahoma City blew past them in six games. The consolation here is that Thunder head coach Billy Donovan, still very popular here in Gainesville for bringing two NCAA championships to the University of Florida, is going to rise in esteem as an NBA coach...although I have yet to hear anyone on the sports talk shows give him any credit for his team's phenomenal playoff success so far. In the East, the Heat are behind Toronto three games to two and face elimination if they can't pull off a home victory in tonight's game (8:00 on ESPN). Even if Miami does win this one, they'll still have to go back to Canada to play the seventh game on the road. At this point I'm not holding out much hope, but the Heat, with Dwyane Wade and supporting cast, do have the playoff experience, over the course of many years, to come back and win this series. But then again, I could have said the same about San Antonio...
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Just Finished Reading Lev Grossman's Magicians Trilogy (for 3rd Time)
I remember, a few years ago while browsing in my Gainesville Borders bookstore (which has sadly gone out of business) and looking for an interesting book to buy, coming across a display of The Magicians, a fantasy novel by fiction critic Lev Grossman...to be the first in a series. It turned out to be a great book, a fantasy story that managed to span both an imaginary world and our own "real" world while paying tribute to great authors of the genre...most notably C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling. Each time a new book came out...it eventually broke that Grossman would be producing a trilogy...I eagerly read it. And then a period of time passed, and I reread the series. What prompted me to just recently pick it up a third time and read it was the Syfy Channel's adaptation of The Magicians to a TV series. When I saw how much it was diverging from the author's original story, I gave up watching it...and instead began reading the books a third time...
When it comes to the genre of fantasy literature, the norm seems to be for the author to expand the story line into a series of books. Sometimes the effort results in a compact, limited series with a small number of main characters and the subplots kept to a disciplined minimum. I prefer these series and their authors, the most notable being the aforementioned Magicians by Lev Grossman, The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham, and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Unfortunately, some other fantasy writers, upon seeing the "cash cow" inherent in prolonging their series, went down a different path and dramatically expanded the scope of their stories while introducing many new characters and subplots...making keeping up with the increasingly complex and confusing story more and more difficult. The classic example has been Robert Jordan with his Wheel of Time series...he was so bogged down with trying to finish this eventual 14-volume saga that he died while writing the final book, which had ballooned to 2000 pages. Brandon Sanderson then stepped in and, while incorporating Jordan's ideas for the ending, smartly wrote the last volumes and presented a complete work that managed to tie up many loose threads and produce a satisfactory conclusion. In our time, we have another fantasy writer with pretty much the same problem that Jordan had: George R.R. Martin with his A Song of Fire and Ice series...more commonly known by its first book, A Game of Thrones. Martin has already taken many years to produce his first five volumes, but in recent times has been further distracted by the HBO TV adaptation and has continually been delaying the publication of the sixth book. Instead, the TV show (which incidentally also greatly diverges from the written story) has actually surpassed the book series' timeline and has introduced plot changes that would have been revealed in the sixth book...had Martin ever gotten around to writing it. In this series, as was the case with Robert Jordan's, there are way too many new characters continually being added along with new sub-stories. I have just about given up on George R.R. Martin: he can take his oh-so important series and stuff it...
When it comes to the genre of fantasy literature, the norm seems to be for the author to expand the story line into a series of books. Sometimes the effort results in a compact, limited series with a small number of main characters and the subplots kept to a disciplined minimum. I prefer these series and their authors, the most notable being the aforementioned Magicians by Lev Grossman, The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham, and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Unfortunately, some other fantasy writers, upon seeing the "cash cow" inherent in prolonging their series, went down a different path and dramatically expanded the scope of their stories while introducing many new characters and subplots...making keeping up with the increasingly complex and confusing story more and more difficult. The classic example has been Robert Jordan with his Wheel of Time series...he was so bogged down with trying to finish this eventual 14-volume saga that he died while writing the final book, which had ballooned to 2000 pages. Brandon Sanderson then stepped in and, while incorporating Jordan's ideas for the ending, smartly wrote the last volumes and presented a complete work that managed to tie up many loose threads and produce a satisfactory conclusion. In our time, we have another fantasy writer with pretty much the same problem that Jordan had: George R.R. Martin with his A Song of Fire and Ice series...more commonly known by its first book, A Game of Thrones. Martin has already taken many years to produce his first five volumes, but in recent times has been further distracted by the HBO TV adaptation and has continually been delaying the publication of the sixth book. Instead, the TV show (which incidentally also greatly diverges from the written story) has actually surpassed the book series' timeline and has introduced plot changes that would have been revealed in the sixth book...had Martin ever gotten around to writing it. In this series, as was the case with Robert Jordan's, there are way too many new characters continually being added along with new sub-stories. I have just about given up on George R.R. Martin: he can take his oh-so important series and stuff it...
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Obama May Campaign for Successor on Unprecedented Scale
In the upcoming campaign for president in the general election for 2016 President Obama has promised to be fully engaged in the discussions. To openly participate in the campaign for one's successor, which one might expect to be the norm for an incumbent president planning to leave office, is actually...at least in recent years...a relatively rare phenomenon. Of course, this scenario doesn't exist in every presidential year: in my lifetime (I was born in 1956) it has only happened in 1960, 1968, 1988, 2000, 2008...and this year. In 1960, incumbent President Eisenhower was reportedly kept from campaigning for Richard Nixon through the intervention of his wife Mamie, who was concerned about her husband's wealth...he did, though, step out at the end to speak on behalf of Nixon. In 1968, Lyndon Johnson was very unpopular nationally and as such was considered a liability by Hubert Humphrey. In 1988, Ronald Reagan broke the pattern by campaigning for George ("the first") Bush, but again in 2000, Al Gore rejected the offered help of incumbent President Clinton...a decision that many felt cost him this extremely close election. In 2008, George W. Bush was very unpopular and was also considered a liability by his nominated successor, this time Senator John McCain. But Barack Obama, while currently only at about 50/50 in the national popularity polls, still is seen as a powerful voice to mobilize his party. During the coming months leading to the election, we may well see the sitting president intervening in the campaign on a scale unprecedented in modern memory...
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
My Running Starting to Pick Back Up Again
After a relentless upper respiratory illness forced me into a period of inactivity, I have recently begun to run again, picking up the distance from day to day. My goal is to daily run a 3.3-mile loop through my neighborhood and the adjacent subdivision. Also, should the opportunities arise over the next few months, I may participate in a local 5K race. It just so happens that there is one coming up this Saturday, an evening race in back of the Tioga Town Center off Newberry Road, just a few miles west of Gainesville. Whether or not I run it depends largely on the level of progress I feel I've attained by then. Oh, and if the weather is bad Saturday, they can just forget about me being there...
Race or no race, I plan to focus on my daily running routine and maintain a good level of fitness. Watching what I eat would also go a long way to that end...
Race or no race, I plan to focus on my daily running routine and maintain a good level of fitness. Watching what I eat would also go a long way to that end...
Monday, May 9, 2016
Mexico's Liga MX Soccer Playoffs Set to Begin
Mexico's premier professional soccer league, commonly known as Liga MX, is set to begin its Liguilla championship playoff series for this Clausura split-season in the 2015-16 year. In last fall's Apertura split-season, the UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León) Tigres, based in suburban Monterrey, won the Liguilla, although they were only the fifth-seed out of the eight top-finishing teams. This season, Tigres, which also is my favorite team in the league, barely qualified for the Liguilla as an eighth-seed after winning its final regular season contest. No problem: a year ago in the Clausura playoffs, it was eighth-seed Santos Laguna that caught fire and stormed through to that championship. UANL's opening-round match will be against Monterrey, winner of the Clausura regular season and the top-seeded team in the Liguilla. Also, had the Liga MX run things as they do in Europe in the English Premier League, Spain's La Liga, or Germany's Bundesliga...none of these leagues have a post-season championship playoff system nor do they break up the year into two split-seasons...Monterrey would have won the 2015-16 title as the team with the league's best cumulative regular season record...
This will mark the fourth Liguilla series I've been following as my second year of interest in Mexican soccer comes to an end. I've noticed that the level of play in Liga MX, while not of the caliber of the English Premier League or Bundesliga, does seem a bit better than our North American MLS. The Monterrey-Tigres round in this Liguilla should be a classic: not only is it a "derby" (a match between two same-city clubs), but the winner could well go on to win the title: it pits the regular season champs against the defending playoff champs. The Liguilla, composed of four rounds with two matches per round (team with highest two-match score advances), will begin on May 11, with the final championship match to take place on the 30th...
This will mark the fourth Liguilla series I've been following as my second year of interest in Mexican soccer comes to an end. I've noticed that the level of play in Liga MX, while not of the caliber of the English Premier League or Bundesliga, does seem a bit better than our North American MLS. The Monterrey-Tigres round in this Liguilla should be a classic: not only is it a "derby" (a match between two same-city clubs), but the winner could well go on to win the title: it pits the regular season champs against the defending playoff champs. The Liguilla, composed of four rounds with two matches per round (team with highest two-match score advances), will begin on May 11, with the final championship match to take place on the 30th...
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Look In SE Sky Around Midnight to See Mars, Saturn, Scorpius
When I pull up in front of my house after my work shift, it's usually around 12:15 am. Sometimes I'll look out of my car window at the sky...at least when it's clear...and see what the star patterns are. Lately, I've been noticing, looking at that time just above the southeastern horizon, the Zodiac constellation Scorpius rising up into the sky. It is marked by the three-star "claw" on its western end, with the first-magnitude red giant star Antares further down the line in the constellation. Antares is so big, by the way, that if it were centered where our Sun is, then our Earth would be inside it! I remember, back in the late spring of 1964, right after I had learned from my father about the constellations and their brightest stars, of waiting late into the night to see Scorpius rising. And I'm experiencing it again 52 years later, but with a couple of notable exceptions: the presence of the planets Mars and Saturn...
Saturn, situated a little to the left of Antares as you're looking at it in the sky, is its usual brightness, which is nowhere as bright as Venus or Jupiter (the latter is also visible at night, situated in the constellation Leo), but still a standout in the night sky. Mars, on the other hand, is now much, much brighter than it usually is: in astronomical terms, this is attributed to it currently being in "opposition". Anyway, when I first saw it a few days ago in Scorpius, I was taken aback: the Red Planet clearly dominates this section of the sky...
If the sky is clear later tonight, why not step outside and look to the southeast? I drew a map of the small section I'm writing about: you can see, on the right, Scorpius,with the prominent stars connected by broken lines to show the constellation's pattern. The three stars of the "claws" are at the top as it rises, and Antares is below, closer to the horizon. You'll also notice that Mars, Saturn, and Antares form the vertices of a right triangle: looks like one of those 3x4x5 triangles from my old junior high math days...
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Melissa and I Enjoyed Our Brief Beach Trip
For the last couple of days, Melissa and I stayed at Ormond Beach, in a modest hotel we have been going to off and on for decades. It was a good trip, although one might have thought that we wouldn't need to be wearing winter clothing during an early evening beach stroll! But on Friday afternoon, the wind suddenly shifted direction and became a lot stronger and colder...not exactly what you would expect in early May...
Well, we're back in Gainesville again...just in time for the weekend!
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Stage Now Set for Clinton vs. Trump General Election
Now that Senator Ted Cruz has dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination following his big loss yesterday in the Indiana Primary, Donald Trump has little opposition left on his way to a delegate majority at the Cleveland convention this summer. As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton looks to achieve a majority of delegates in a few weeks...this despite Bernie Sanders claiming there will be a contested convention. I don't blame him...I believe that the Vermont Senator, who still works in his Senate office under no party affiliation while at the same time running for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, can't really at this late point be harboring delusions that he can mount a miraculous comeback at the end of the primary season. Instead, I think, as do many others, that Sanders wants as many delegates as he can get into the Democratic Convention in order to influence the party's platform. But he has to stay in the race with claims of possible victory in order to win some of the final state primaries. Sounds good to me, although at some point Sanders will need to work to bring the party together. A Clinton/Sanders ticket makes sense to me...
As far as Donald Trump is concerned, I believe he would be a disaster as president...especially regarding his foreign policy stances (let Russia run rampant in Syria...be neutral between Israel and Palestine...let countries like South Korea and Japan develop their own nuclear weapons...threaten to leave NATO...never give assurance that the U.S. would refrain from dropping a nuclear bomb, etc.). I despise his entire approach to the campaign, which is basically standing behind a podium with a microphone and cameras and then making a chain of off-the-cuff remarks full of vague promises and nasty personal insults when he isn't tweeting tasteless comments against his opponents. But I don't despise Trump himself: he is simply doing what the polls and primary results say works for him. Instead, I cringe at the masses of American voters who have taken to his message and methodology...and wonder (and fear) whether there will be enough of them in November to actually reward this person for his campaign shenanigans by electing him to the highest office in the land for the next four years. I've stated before that I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton (I would have preferred ol' Joe Biden), but in this election she's the only rational choice...
As far as Donald Trump is concerned, I believe he would be a disaster as president...especially regarding his foreign policy stances (let Russia run rampant in Syria...be neutral between Israel and Palestine...let countries like South Korea and Japan develop their own nuclear weapons...threaten to leave NATO...never give assurance that the U.S. would refrain from dropping a nuclear bomb, etc.). I despise his entire approach to the campaign, which is basically standing behind a podium with a microphone and cameras and then making a chain of off-the-cuff remarks full of vague promises and nasty personal insults when he isn't tweeting tasteless comments against his opponents. But I don't despise Trump himself: he is simply doing what the polls and primary results say works for him. Instead, I cringe at the masses of American voters who have taken to his message and methodology...and wonder (and fear) whether there will be enough of them in November to actually reward this person for his campaign shenanigans by electing him to the highest office in the land for the next four years. I've stated before that I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton (I would have preferred ol' Joe Biden), but in this election she's the only rational choice...
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Leicester City Beats 5000-1 Odds, Wins England's Premier League Title
Last night, when Chelsea, the defending English Premier League (in soccer) champion...disappointed at their status in the middle of the standings this year...nevertheless got to play the spoiler and fought to a 2-2 draw with second-place Tottenham, the result mathematically assured first-place Leicester City of the league's championship. In England, as in most of the countries in Europe, there are no playoffs after the regular season: the top finisher IS the champion...
In 2013-14, Leicester City, nicknamed the "Foxes", weren't even in the Premier League: they then played in the second-level Football League Championship. They won that league's title that year and were promoted into the Premier League the following season. But as late as April, 2015, Leicester was mired deep in 20th and last place in the standings, almost certainly guaranteeing that they would be relegated back to the lower league the following year. Instead, they suddenly got hot and won seven of their last nine games, moving considerably higher in the standings and able to remain in the top league. For this 2015-16 season, an established coach was hired, Italian Claudio Ranieri, and he further enhanced the team's culture of winning. From the start, the Foxes shot straight up to the top of the standings, spurred on largely with the goal-scoring performance of striker Jamie Vardy. Eventually, the high-powered offense cooled off and it looked in mid-season as if Arsenal, a London team, would catch up and pass them. But then Arsenal went into a small slump and Leicester City transformed itself into a strong defensive team, winning several low-scoring matches. By season's end, it was only Tottenham, another London team, with a chance to catch them. And yesterday's draw with Chelsea...a third London team (actually, there are currently five London teams in the Premier League)...handed the title to the Foxes...
Outside the United States, the Leicester City championship is a major, major news story. Inside our borders, it's still a big sports story...at least to anyone with an interest in soccer. To be deeply in last place just the year before, make an unexpected season-end turnaround, and then win it all the next year is incredible! Congratulations, Leicester City!
In 2013-14, Leicester City, nicknamed the "Foxes", weren't even in the Premier League: they then played in the second-level Football League Championship. They won that league's title that year and were promoted into the Premier League the following season. But as late as April, 2015, Leicester was mired deep in 20th and last place in the standings, almost certainly guaranteeing that they would be relegated back to the lower league the following year. Instead, they suddenly got hot and won seven of their last nine games, moving considerably higher in the standings and able to remain in the top league. For this 2015-16 season, an established coach was hired, Italian Claudio Ranieri, and he further enhanced the team's culture of winning. From the start, the Foxes shot straight up to the top of the standings, spurred on largely with the goal-scoring performance of striker Jamie Vardy. Eventually, the high-powered offense cooled off and it looked in mid-season as if Arsenal, a London team, would catch up and pass them. But then Arsenal went into a small slump and Leicester City transformed itself into a strong defensive team, winning several low-scoring matches. By season's end, it was only Tottenham, another London team, with a chance to catch them. And yesterday's draw with Chelsea...a third London team (actually, there are currently five London teams in the Premier League)...handed the title to the Foxes...
Outside the United States, the Leicester City championship is a major, major news story. Inside our borders, it's still a big sports story...at least to anyone with an interest in soccer. To be deeply in last place just the year before, make an unexpected season-end turnaround, and then win it all the next year is incredible! Congratulations, Leicester City!
Monday, May 2, 2016
Some Thoughts About the Presidential Campaign Season So Far
It looks to me as if the presidential campaign season is reaching a resolution, at least as far as the two major parties' nominees are concerned. Although he likes to cite raw numbers for total primary votes and number of states he has won, Democratic contender Bernie Sanders is still behind Hillary Clinton in both of these categories...as well as in the number of pledged delegates. The system of proportional assignment of delegates in primaries, according to current Democratic Party rules, will make it well-nigh impossible for Sanders to surpass Clinton in pledged delegates: this was the one scenario by which the Vermont senator could appeal to those super-delegates supporting Clinton to switch their allegiance to him. Hillary is also making statements to the effect that Sanders should drop out of the race, but she has to be careful in order to avoid the "hypocrisy" accusation: in 2008 she fought Barack Obama from behind to the bitter end, even trying to gain an unfair advantage over the eventual nominee and president by trying to get extra delegates from the Florida primary, which Obama and John Edwards had avoided after the Party ruled that Florida had illegally scheduled its vote too early...
As for the Republicans, Donald Trump is clearly on the path to a majority of delegates and the nomination. Ted Cruz, who has made Indiana a crucial battleground state for himself, has recently displayed desperation, both in his meaningless "deal" with rival candidate John Kasich for each to focus on states they're stronger in, and in his selection of Carly Fiorina as his vice-presidential running mate...bringing back to mind Ronald Reagan's desperate ploy of picking a liberal GOP congressman as his running mate in 1976 to "balance" the ticket and gain an advantage over eventual nominee, President Gerald Ford. Cruz is still talking as if he will win Indiana, although the latest poll has Trump expanding his lead over Cruz in that state to 15 percentage points. Fiorina, predictably, reacted to that news by trashing the poll and the pollsters: even more desperation...
There are two notions coming out in this presidential race that I would like to puncture. One is that candidates like Sanders and Cruz, who claim more ideological purity than their opponents, are because of that rigidity somehow more noble than the others. I couldn't disagree more. It's easy for these two to sit in the U.S. Senate and make a lot of fine-sounding speeches enunciating their respective doctrines...it's entirely another matter to work with people who have a different outlook on things in order to achieve results that work in the real world. The other fallacious notion I see in the campaign this year (and have in past elections) is that many people at-large seem to think that the president is like a king (or queen) and as such, can simply decree their agenda into law...I think many people who voted for Obama the first time back in 2008 were disappointed in him because of this mistaken idea. The truth is that, regardless who gets elected this year, it's going to take a lot of work and compromise to get anything done...nobody gets to wave a magic wand and automatically put all of their policies into effect...
As for the Republicans, Donald Trump is clearly on the path to a majority of delegates and the nomination. Ted Cruz, who has made Indiana a crucial battleground state for himself, has recently displayed desperation, both in his meaningless "deal" with rival candidate John Kasich for each to focus on states they're stronger in, and in his selection of Carly Fiorina as his vice-presidential running mate...bringing back to mind Ronald Reagan's desperate ploy of picking a liberal GOP congressman as his running mate in 1976 to "balance" the ticket and gain an advantage over eventual nominee, President Gerald Ford. Cruz is still talking as if he will win Indiana, although the latest poll has Trump expanding his lead over Cruz in that state to 15 percentage points. Fiorina, predictably, reacted to that news by trashing the poll and the pollsters: even more desperation...
There are two notions coming out in this presidential race that I would like to puncture. One is that candidates like Sanders and Cruz, who claim more ideological purity than their opponents, are because of that rigidity somehow more noble than the others. I couldn't disagree more. It's easy for these two to sit in the U.S. Senate and make a lot of fine-sounding speeches enunciating their respective doctrines...it's entirely another matter to work with people who have a different outlook on things in order to achieve results that work in the real world. The other fallacious notion I see in the campaign this year (and have in past elections) is that many people at-large seem to think that the president is like a king (or queen) and as such, can simply decree their agenda into law...I think many people who voted for Obama the first time back in 2008 were disappointed in him because of this mistaken idea. The truth is that, regardless who gets elected this year, it's going to take a lot of work and compromise to get anything done...nobody gets to wave a magic wand and automatically put all of their policies into effect...
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Just Finished Reading Garth Risk Hallberg's City on Fire
I admit to never having heard of the writer Garth Risk Hallberg until I read a tweet of Stephen King a few weeks ago extolling his latest novel City on Fire, which King himself had just finished reading. So, on his recommendation, I found myself a copy and have been struggling through this very lengthy and overly serious novel...which also happens to be Hallberg's very first...
When I say that City on Fire is overly serious, I mean by that that the author takes himself and his writing too seriously. Also, the subject matter, which is how various New York City residents, divided or connected by class, family, race, sexual orientation, nationality, and culture, interact with each other amid the context of the 1976-77 Bicentenial/Blackout time, with the focus on that infamous blackout in July of '77 that was marked by such rioting and burning, leaves precious little room for any kind of levity...
Hallberg introduces in his ambitious work many "main" characters, and I often had trouble sorting through their relative significance in his story as it progressed. I suppose the top protagonist, all things considered, is a disillusioned young artist named William Hamilton-Sweeney. Much is made of his break with his wealthy family and their business empire, as well as his homosexuality and problematic heroin use. And speaking of drugs, just about everyone in this book partakes of them liberally in one form or another: the implicit message here is that "normal" people snort cocaine, smoke pot, or shoot up heroin...a notion with which I completely disagree...
Aside from introducing a plethora of characters with whom I had difficulty relating, the author likes to jump around in time a lot, too: it might be in the early 2000's, or is it 1976 or 1961 or 1981 or 1977? Each character seems to be in a perpetual state of brooding and self-examination, stuck in their pasts with all of their own personal traumas, grievances, and regrets: a strategically-placed joke every now and then would have done wonders for this gloomy story...
Having unloaded my criticisms on this novel, however, I would like to compliment Hallberg on creating a sense as to what Manhattan was like back in the mid-to-late 1970s...an era very different from when I finally got around to visiting it in 2010, long after mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg cleaned it up. But in 1977 there was more an atmosphere of violence, anarchy, and underground counterculture steeped in illicit drug use...especially in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side. I have a feeling that City on Fire would carry a much deeper meaning for readers who had lived there back in that time...
When I say that City on Fire is overly serious, I mean by that that the author takes himself and his writing too seriously. Also, the subject matter, which is how various New York City residents, divided or connected by class, family, race, sexual orientation, nationality, and culture, interact with each other amid the context of the 1976-77 Bicentenial/Blackout time, with the focus on that infamous blackout in July of '77 that was marked by such rioting and burning, leaves precious little room for any kind of levity...
Hallberg introduces in his ambitious work many "main" characters, and I often had trouble sorting through their relative significance in his story as it progressed. I suppose the top protagonist, all things considered, is a disillusioned young artist named William Hamilton-Sweeney. Much is made of his break with his wealthy family and their business empire, as well as his homosexuality and problematic heroin use. And speaking of drugs, just about everyone in this book partakes of them liberally in one form or another: the implicit message here is that "normal" people snort cocaine, smoke pot, or shoot up heroin...a notion with which I completely disagree...
Aside from introducing a plethora of characters with whom I had difficulty relating, the author likes to jump around in time a lot, too: it might be in the early 2000's, or is it 1976 or 1961 or 1981 or 1977? Each character seems to be in a perpetual state of brooding and self-examination, stuck in their pasts with all of their own personal traumas, grievances, and regrets: a strategically-placed joke every now and then would have done wonders for this gloomy story...
Having unloaded my criticisms on this novel, however, I would like to compliment Hallberg on creating a sense as to what Manhattan was like back in the mid-to-late 1970s...an era very different from when I finally got around to visiting it in 2010, long after mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg cleaned it up. But in 1977 there was more an atmosphere of violence, anarchy, and underground counterculture steeped in illicit drug use...especially in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side. I have a feeling that City on Fire would carry a much deeper meaning for readers who had lived there back in that time...
Saturday, April 30, 2016
A Good Website for Following Political Campaign Season
Over the years, I have come to appreciate the website RealClearPolitics as I tend to follow several races for higher office...not just for president, but also for senator, representative, and governor. This website is very consistent and faithful in publishing public opinion polls for the various races as they are issued. This year, I am not only interested in the presidential race, poll results for which are commonly available on the televised cable news channels, but also in various state contests. In Florida, we have an open senate seat being vacated by Marco Rubio: how's that race going? In other states like Ohio, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Wisconsin, there are important senate races as well. You can go to RealClearPolitics and bypass the presidential polls to see the latest polls in these smaller races, as well as seeing what's going on in the gubernatorial campaigns taking place this year. This site also features a balanced assortment of articles analyzing the current election season...
As the election season ramps up in intensity and the primary contests for each party reveal the final candidates for these various offices, you may want to occasionally partake of this website to see how things are going in the races you care about...
As the election season ramps up in intensity and the primary contests for each party reveal the final candidates for these various offices, you may want to occasionally partake of this website to see how things are going in the races you care about...
My April 2016 Running Report
April saw me with some health issues, especially toward the close of the month. I missed running on the final eight days while trying to recover from a nasty, nagging upper-respiratory illness, while during the remainder of the days I was babying my right foot, which had been causing sporadic pain. Not exactly my optimum running month! I had numerous racing opportunities, but passed on all of them. For the entire month, I ran a total of 109 miles...
Above everything, I want to get my health back in order. I did pass my annual cardiovascular medical tests this past Wednesday, so in that regard I have a green light to proceed with my running. But I do want to change the setting and emphasis of my running to pleasant outdoor jogging over interesting courses instead of feeling that I have to crank out impressive numbers or participate in public races in order to justify myself. So maybe I won't be running for very long distances in the near future as I make this change...
Above everything, I want to get my health back in order. I did pass my annual cardiovascular medical tests this past Wednesday, so in that regard I have a green light to proceed with my running. But I do want to change the setting and emphasis of my running to pleasant outdoor jogging over interesting courses instead of feeling that I have to crank out impressive numbers or participate in public races in order to justify myself. So maybe I won't be running for very long distances in the near future as I make this change...
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Four Types of Listeners
Seeing how I've lived as long as I have already and therefore feel somewhat confident that I can makes some comments about human nature, I've come up, from my own personal experiences with talking to others, with four different types of listeners. Now, people can be any combination of these, and can also change from one type to another...but generally speaking, they usually display one of these types as their own particular personal way of listening...at least when it concerns listening to me. The four types are, as I have coined them: sympathetic listeners, critical listeners, attention-deficit listeners, and narcissistic listeners. Let's explore these, one-by-one...
The type of listener most valued by yours truly...as well as being the rarest of the four, is the sympathetic listener. They will hear me out and try to discover and understand the full scope of what I am trying to impart to them...and then make a point of even remembering it! This does not necessarily mean that they are emotionally attached to me or even like me...I see examples of sympathetic listeners on TV and radio...Larry King on his CNN interview show was of this type (at least with his guests...not the callers), as well as is late-night radio's George Noory. If you want to people to open up to you, then you need to let them say what they want to say...and that involves giving them some time to express their thoughts while putting your judgments on at least temporary hold. As I said, this is rare...
The critical listener is another type, one that I sadly run into far too often. They will let me speak...at least that much is true...but then they act as if their greatest mission in life is to find holes in my rhetoric that they can expose, or that they are doing me a great favor by jumping in to offer counterarguments or worst-case scenarios. Also, critical listeners may want to me to talk about topics other than the one I chose to discuss, and they have no problem interrupting me in mid-sentence to change the subject to the one they want to dissect. There are too many of these types of TV and radio: three of the worst are MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Chris Wallace...
In spite of the fact that critical listeners annoy me to no end, at least I know they're paying attention to me...and as such I feel that, on at least some level they respect me as a fellow human being. Besides, like it or not, it can be helpful for someone be pick apart your thoughts every now and then. But regarding the attention-deficit listener, trying to communicate a connected thought with them that lasts more than a couple of sentences can be an exercise in futility. And being the rather touchy, sensitive individual I have been for most of my life, I can recall many times when I renounced to myself friendship to others who had suddenly cut me off or just turned away while I was in the middle of trying to say something to them. This type, as rude as they are, is oblivious to the disrespect they send out. The idea with them seems to be that I am only being heard for their entertainment, and if what I'm saying doesn't immediately excite their attention, then it's time for them to immediately direct their thoughts elsewhere. There is some similarity here with critical listeners, but whereas the former has a tendency to interrupt my train of thought, this attention-deficit type is the master of zoning out, and I have absolutely no use for them in my life. They do worse then interrupt: they turn away...
The final type of listener is the narcissistic listener, and they are only slightly better the attention-deficit type. Have you ever begun relating something about your own life to someone...or perhaps it was just an opinion you might have held about something, and the person you were talking to breaks in to relate how something similar to your topic tied into their personal life...and then took over the talking to make it all about themselves? If you haven't had this experience, you are blessed, my friend...but sadly I cannot the same about myself. I have known someone, no longer with us, with whom I spent much, much time in "conversation" over the years but realized that he never really valued anything I had to say about my own life, feelings, and thoughts...but rather that the world revolved around himself: his own vast life, with his own opinions and experiences automatically supplanting mine whenever I managed to bring up a subject on my own. I realized after a while that my role was not to speak independently, but rather to just sit there and give the appropriate affirmation-sounds (like "uh-huh", "yes", and "you're right"). Over the span of decades, in countless conversations, I could not bring up any kind of subject without being interrupted and the talk shifting back his own monumentally important life and thoughts....implicitly relegating me to insignificance. Sad. By the way, if you are looking for this type of listener in the media, just tune in on the radio to Michael Savage and see how often he interrupts a caller to go off on a tangent about his personal life and opinions...
If you know me, then you also know that I don't talk very much...I have let myself be wounded too many times by critical, attention-deficit, and narcissistic listeners. Notice also that by writing my thoughts out and posting them, I can bypass these types...while anyone interested in actually knowing what I have to say can read them: ahh...finally, some communication!
The type of listener most valued by yours truly...as well as being the rarest of the four, is the sympathetic listener. They will hear me out and try to discover and understand the full scope of what I am trying to impart to them...and then make a point of even remembering it! This does not necessarily mean that they are emotionally attached to me or even like me...I see examples of sympathetic listeners on TV and radio...Larry King on his CNN interview show was of this type (at least with his guests...not the callers), as well as is late-night radio's George Noory. If you want to people to open up to you, then you need to let them say what they want to say...and that involves giving them some time to express their thoughts while putting your judgments on at least temporary hold. As I said, this is rare...
The critical listener is another type, one that I sadly run into far too often. They will let me speak...at least that much is true...but then they act as if their greatest mission in life is to find holes in my rhetoric that they can expose, or that they are doing me a great favor by jumping in to offer counterarguments or worst-case scenarios. Also, critical listeners may want to me to talk about topics other than the one I chose to discuss, and they have no problem interrupting me in mid-sentence to change the subject to the one they want to dissect. There are too many of these types of TV and radio: three of the worst are MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Chris Wallace...
In spite of the fact that critical listeners annoy me to no end, at least I know they're paying attention to me...and as such I feel that, on at least some level they respect me as a fellow human being. Besides, like it or not, it can be helpful for someone be pick apart your thoughts every now and then. But regarding the attention-deficit listener, trying to communicate a connected thought with them that lasts more than a couple of sentences can be an exercise in futility. And being the rather touchy, sensitive individual I have been for most of my life, I can recall many times when I renounced to myself friendship to others who had suddenly cut me off or just turned away while I was in the middle of trying to say something to them. This type, as rude as they are, is oblivious to the disrespect they send out. The idea with them seems to be that I am only being heard for their entertainment, and if what I'm saying doesn't immediately excite their attention, then it's time for them to immediately direct their thoughts elsewhere. There is some similarity here with critical listeners, but whereas the former has a tendency to interrupt my train of thought, this attention-deficit type is the master of zoning out, and I have absolutely no use for them in my life. They do worse then interrupt: they turn away...
The final type of listener is the narcissistic listener, and they are only slightly better the attention-deficit type. Have you ever begun relating something about your own life to someone...or perhaps it was just an opinion you might have held about something, and the person you were talking to breaks in to relate how something similar to your topic tied into their personal life...and then took over the talking to make it all about themselves? If you haven't had this experience, you are blessed, my friend...but sadly I cannot the same about myself. I have known someone, no longer with us, with whom I spent much, much time in "conversation" over the years but realized that he never really valued anything I had to say about my own life, feelings, and thoughts...but rather that the world revolved around himself: his own vast life, with his own opinions and experiences automatically supplanting mine whenever I managed to bring up a subject on my own. I realized after a while that my role was not to speak independently, but rather to just sit there and give the appropriate affirmation-sounds (like "uh-huh", "yes", and "you're right"). Over the span of decades, in countless conversations, I could not bring up any kind of subject without being interrupted and the talk shifting back his own monumentally important life and thoughts....implicitly relegating me to insignificance. Sad. By the way, if you are looking for this type of listener in the media, just tune in on the radio to Michael Savage and see how often he interrupts a caller to go off on a tangent about his personal life and opinions...
If you know me, then you also know that I don't talk very much...I have let myself be wounded too many times by critical, attention-deficit, and narcissistic listeners. Notice also that by writing my thoughts out and posting them, I can bypass these types...while anyone interested in actually knowing what I have to say can read them: ahh...finally, some communication!
Monday, April 25, 2016
One More Chance for a Race in April
As far as my running in races in April is concerned, it's been a complete washout so far, with me missing a 5K, 10K, and two half-marathons. Not that I would have run in all of them, but I thought I would probably at least get around to one or another. The three main reasons I missed them are my occasional right foot pain, stormy weather at racetime, and...this past weekend...me getting sick. Well, before I completely write off this month, I checked out whether there were any Gainesville-area races coming up this Saturday, the 30th. I was pleased to discover a 5K race being held at Boulware Springs Park in southeast Gainesville, most likely utilizing the Hawthorne Trail as a race course. It is called the EHS STAR Autism Research 5K...the title's acronym is "Eastside High School Students Together for Autism Research". I'm still recuperating from this viral attack, but should be sufficiently recovered and "back on track" by then to run in it. Which I'm inclined to do, as long as I pass my annual medical tests this coming Wednesday, that is...
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Thoughts About Prince After His Passing
I had just written and posted last Thursday morning a second blog article about David Bowie, who had passed away back in January, when the TV cable news channel I was tuned in to broke in to announce the passing of American pop/rock legend Prince. It's still unclear what caused his death...the autopsy has already been performed but toxicology results may be much slower in coming. Regardless, it is a tragedy that he died...and (at least for me) at such a young age: 57. Over his career, Prince produced an phenomenal number of studio albums...39...but like many other artists he is best known for his earlier works: with him it was in the 1980s...
As was the case with Bowie after his death, I find myself relatively ignorant of Prince's music other than the singles he released that became such big hits. I generally liked his songs, Raspberry Beret being my favorite of his with Let's Go Crazy and Kiss close behind. Prince was a product of the newly burgeoning music video industry in the early eighties...I first saw his videos (Little Red Corvette and 1999) on the Turner Broadcasting System music video show that, in mid-1983, would go on for hours on the weekend. So it's not surprising that this showy performer would make a semi-autobiographical film...Purple Rain...in 1984. I've tried watching it lately and I'm sorry to say that it's just a little too difficult to digest. But, hey, I'm happy for him for being so successful with it back then...
I'm hearing all of these accolades for Prince with people commonly referring to him as a musical genius. It makes me want to do what I'm currently doing with Bowie's discography: investigating this artist's body of work over his career. But 39 albums? Whew, that'll be some task if I decide to do it...
At one point in his career, Prince had a conflict with his recording label and changed his name to a symbol...the designation he would allow himself to be referred to was "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". When he decided to go back to "Prince", I would jokingly call him "The Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince". Maybe that sounds disrespectful of him considering his passing, but it did strike me that he had a tremendous sense of humor and would have understood...
Maybe I'm just getting old and all of these "elders" in pop, rock, and country are just finally succumbing to the same afflictions when they age as the population at large, but it still feels as if there are way too many people dying recently. What do you think?
As was the case with Bowie after his death, I find myself relatively ignorant of Prince's music other than the singles he released that became such big hits. I generally liked his songs, Raspberry Beret being my favorite of his with Let's Go Crazy and Kiss close behind. Prince was a product of the newly burgeoning music video industry in the early eighties...I first saw his videos (Little Red Corvette and 1999) on the Turner Broadcasting System music video show that, in mid-1983, would go on for hours on the weekend. So it's not surprising that this showy performer would make a semi-autobiographical film...Purple Rain...in 1984. I've tried watching it lately and I'm sorry to say that it's just a little too difficult to digest. But, hey, I'm happy for him for being so successful with it back then...
I'm hearing all of these accolades for Prince with people commonly referring to him as a musical genius. It makes me want to do what I'm currently doing with Bowie's discography: investigating this artist's body of work over his career. But 39 albums? Whew, that'll be some task if I decide to do it...
At one point in his career, Prince had a conflict with his recording label and changed his name to a symbol...the designation he would allow himself to be referred to was "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". When he decided to go back to "Prince", I would jokingly call him "The Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince". Maybe that sounds disrespectful of him considering his passing, but it did strike me that he had a tremendous sense of humor and would have understood...
Maybe I'm just getting old and all of these "elders" in pop, rock, and country are just finally succumbing to the same afflictions when they age as the population at large, but it still feels as if there are way too many people dying recently. What do you think?
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Just Finished Reading The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham
I have been reading Daniel Abraham's fantasy series titled The Dagger and the Coin during the previous few months, but had managed to catch up with the author's progress in writing this quality work and had to wait a while until he released the fifth and final volume, titled The Spider's War...
In the fantasy world setting of The Dagger and the Coin, humanity owes its existence and its several vastly different forms to ancient, highly intelligent dragons, who ruled this world and regarded humans as their slaves. After a war that all but destroyed these dragons, humanity was left to its own devices and, for thousands of years, formed nations, royalty and class distinctions, engaged in wars...you know, much like our own "real" world. The series concerns itself in a sly manner about the question of which is ultimately more powerful: brute force (the "dagger") or the system of finance (the "coin"). Two of the main protagonists are a young woman named Cithrin, brought up in the world of banking, and her friend and partner Marcus, who only knew war and fighting as a means to victory and survival. Together, along with other characters such as Clara, a widowed noblewoman and Kit, an apostate priest of a sinister order bent on dominating the world, the "heroes" struggle to regain the world from a perpetual war fomented by that order, which uses an unstable character named Geder as their political puppet...
As does Daniel Abraham's friend and colleague George R.R. Martin (who has lavished heavy praise on this series) in his "Game of Thrones" The Song of Ice and Fire series, each chapter in the books presents a part of the developing story from the viewpoint of various characters...I find this to be a very effective way of writing fiction. As is the case with almost any fiction I read, I tend to judge works based on how deeply and compelling (and believable) the characters are. And the author has done a masterful job here...
I liked how Daniel Abraham concluded The Spider's War, and consequently, the Dagger and the Coin series. Also, he seems to have left an opening at the end that just might indicate that he is thinking about a follow-up series. There are no television or movie adaptations that I know of in the works for The Dagger and the Coin...but after seeing how they are mangling Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy on the Sy Fy Channel, I'm not sure I'd want to see this series portrayed on the screen...
In the fantasy world setting of The Dagger and the Coin, humanity owes its existence and its several vastly different forms to ancient, highly intelligent dragons, who ruled this world and regarded humans as their slaves. After a war that all but destroyed these dragons, humanity was left to its own devices and, for thousands of years, formed nations, royalty and class distinctions, engaged in wars...you know, much like our own "real" world. The series concerns itself in a sly manner about the question of which is ultimately more powerful: brute force (the "dagger") or the system of finance (the "coin"). Two of the main protagonists are a young woman named Cithrin, brought up in the world of banking, and her friend and partner Marcus, who only knew war and fighting as a means to victory and survival. Together, along with other characters such as Clara, a widowed noblewoman and Kit, an apostate priest of a sinister order bent on dominating the world, the "heroes" struggle to regain the world from a perpetual war fomented by that order, which uses an unstable character named Geder as their political puppet...
As does Daniel Abraham's friend and colleague George R.R. Martin (who has lavished heavy praise on this series) in his "Game of Thrones" The Song of Ice and Fire series, each chapter in the books presents a part of the developing story from the viewpoint of various characters...I find this to be a very effective way of writing fiction. As is the case with almost any fiction I read, I tend to judge works based on how deeply and compelling (and believable) the characters are. And the author has done a masterful job here...
I liked how Daniel Abraham concluded The Spider's War, and consequently, the Dagger and the Coin series. Also, he seems to have left an opening at the end that just might indicate that he is thinking about a follow-up series. There are no television or movie adaptations that I know of in the works for The Dagger and the Coin...but after seeing how they are mangling Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy on the Sy Fy Channel, I'm not sure I'd want to see this series portrayed on the screen...
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