Mixed Feelings About a Recent Podcast Promoting Freedom

On a recent Mindset Mentor podcast of his, Rob Dial examined the notion of freedom and how his audience needs to exert more of it in their lives.  To the extent that each of us already has the freedom to make significant choices in our lives and only need to recognize it and begin to change our self-defeating habits that hold us back, I agree with his premise.  I especially related to his claim that surrounding people expect one to be the same from day to day and that sudden changes...even for the better...are often seen as threats to be put down. But before one goes off and starts behaving in ways detrimental to others, oneself, and his or her relationships, it's a good idea to sit down and understand that freedom only works within a framework of standards and laws.  Once when I was a kid in elementary school, a few of my classmates (and I) often chanted the mantra "It's a free country!" when objecting to our teachers' policies on matters we didn't agree with.  Fast forward to 2020 and across the country in the middle of a dangerous pandemic is an explosive growth of self-styled "libertarians" who think they're some kind of heroes by refusing to wear a protective mask around others while proclaiming the sovereignty of private property.  But I saw one of those self-proclaimed libertarians walk into a privately-owned grocery, with its own mask mandate, without a mask...and with a big grin plastered on his face: hypocrite, he expects everyone else to follow "his" rules in his own workplace!  I'm also a little hesitant about endorsing an attitude about freedom that focuses on present feelings and diminishes the significance of past commitments.  I remember a great old movie, You Can't Take It with You, in which an entire family "drops out" to pursue their own interests and skirt working for a living.  But their patriarch had already amassed a small fortune to support them, and they had no problem with having two paid housekeepers working at their home.  Which brings me to an important principle about freedom: is my attitude toward the subject such that if everyone else in the world adopted it, we'd be better off or worse?  A mature attitude that acknowledges personal responsibility and respects work...especially that of a menial nature...is, in my opinion, an indispensable prerequisite to asserting one's freedom.  How does that old beer commercial go? Yes...you only go around once in life: make your choices and feel free.  And if those choices are hurtful to others, I suppose you're also "free" to fabricate an ideology to buttress your behavior and make yourself feel "principled"...

Just Finished Reading Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng's first novel, and it won all kinds of acclaim after it came out in 2014.  I had already read her 2017 book Little Fires Everywhere...read my article about it by clicking HERE.  With this first effort of Ng's, the focus is on an American family living in the Midwest in 1977: the mother Marilyn, the father James, and their three children Nathan, Lydia and Hannah.  Ng clearly delineates the often diametrically opposed perspectives of each of these members, their love for one another and the inevitable conflicts, sometimes very intense.  And...I'm not giving away the story since it happens at the beginning...Lydia's drowning death in the nearby lake is the trigger setting off not only the story's subsequent events and how the surviving family members resolve their grief and conflicts, but also many interspersed flashbacks, including those from Lydia herself.  There is an ongoing mystery as well: how and why did she die, and what about the teenage rebel neighbor Jack, whom Nathan loathes and suspects of foul play regarding his sister?  Guess you'll have to read it to find out.  As for my own reactions, I will say that there is a lot of scrutiny about the marriage between white Marilyn and Chinese-descended James and the real (and imagined) hostility and prejudice that they and their children unfairly receive for this.  And Marilyn is loaded with resentment for how she had wanted to become a physician but was held back by resistance from her own family and society as a whole because she is a woman.  So, I get it, this story...compelling as it was...I believed still derived much of its critical success from appealing to victimized identity groups, not that I am diminishing the fact that discrimination and prejudice affect us.  What appealed most to me personally was how Ng reveals the often-wide chasm of communication differences between parents and their children, especially with regard to how mother and father often transfer their own past, frustrated dreams to their sons and daughters, expecting them to accomplish what they themselves could not.  That I also totally get, and the author nailed it perfectly.  Everything I Never Told You is very well written, but it's also pretty sad and might well cause anyone reading it to reflect on their own family histories and relationships...

My #9 All-Time Favorite Album: Snowflakes are Dancing by Isao Tomita

The great French classical composer Claude Debussy (1982-1918) wrote a number of tone poems and what he termed "symphonic sketches", much of his work based on the piano.  In 1974 ISAO TOMITA arranged some of Debussy's tone poems into an album compilation using the Moog synthesizer and other electronic sound equipment, titling it SNOWFLAKES ARE DANCING after the first track.  It's my #9 all-time favorite album, but from the end of 1974 and through the next year I was mesmerized by it.  My local South Florida album rock radio station, WSHE, played one of its pieces, Arabesque No. 1, repeatedly in its rotation and even one night played the album in its entirety.  By the way, Jack Horkheimer, the director of the Space Transit Planetarium in Miami, used Arabesque as the theme music for his long-running five-minute PBS star gazing show.  The songs on the album are all instrumental, naturally, but Tomita does generate imitations of human singing on some of them: Arabesque, Golliwog's Cakewalk, Passepied and The Engulfed Cathedral.  Some tracks send the listener down the proverbial musical rabbit hole with their dreamlike mysticism: Gardens in the Rain, Claire de Lune and The Engulfed Cathedral stand out.  In 1975 I bought this album and played it so much that I concluded it was exerting too much influence over me, so I took it and smashed it, that's how significant it was to me (later on I bought another copy).  The songs on Snowflakes are Dancing have an insidious way of getting under my skin, but I no longer let myself get carried away by them...that's good because I can hear it on YouTube whenever I like...

Here are the tracks on Snowflakes are Dancing in the order of my liking:

1 ARABESQUE NO. 1

2 GARDENS IN THE RAIN

3 CLAIR DE LUNE

4 REVERIE

5 THE ENGULFED CATHEDRAL

6 SNOWFLAKES ARE DANCING

7 THE GIRL WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR

8 PASSEPIED

9 FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW

10 GOLLIWOG'S CAKEWALK

Next week: Album #8...

Ran the Tom Walker Preview 10K This Morning

The Florida Track Club annually holds the Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon in November...this month they offered a "preview" shorter race, 5K or 10K as you wish, on the same course: the paved Hawthorne Trail.  The starting and ending point is the same: that part of the trail that cuts through the west end of Boulware Springs Park, on SE 15th Street in Gainesville.  After several months of skipping races, I decided to avail myself of this one since it was 10K (6.2 miles) in length.  I've also run on the Hawthorne Trail a number of times in the past...for some reason, though, I keep forgetting how sloped it is.  At this morning's race time, 8:00, the temperature was in the upper fifties and very pleasant.  Everyone running in the 5K and 10K races started at the same time...since I just wanted to establish a workable running pace, I deliberately kept to the back of the crowd.  As the race bore on, it quickly became obvious that many if not most of the entrants were engaged in something known as the Galloway Method, in which the runner runs for X number of minutes, followed by a walking break of Y minutes...and the cycle goes on and on.  I've even trained this way and it works.  But it's extremely annoying and even unsettling to be trying to determine my own pace while different people are speeding past me (especially when they are in groups), only to suddenly go into a walk...I even had to swerve to avoid one of them when he abruptly began to swing out his arms and run just as I was passing him.  Not only did I have to contend with the Galloway crowd, but bicyclists apparently decided that buzzing closely past the runners at high speeds was a peachy thing to do...between the two groups I somehow managed to focus enough on my own running to finish with, for my purposes, a reasonable time of 1:04:55.  I am a member of the Florida Track Club and as such didn't have to pay to run in this race.  Next month's Tom Walker Half Marathon will require an entry fee although as a member I'll be getting a discount.  I'm not exactly what you would call a social runner...no, let's just come out and admit I'm pretty damned antisocial...so participating in these events is quite a stretch for me, besides the very uncomfortable aspect of having to get up so early in the morning...and don't get me started about the parking.  Next week I'm considering running in a different 10K race, this one held in town behind North Florida Regional Medical Center.  I wonder if the Gallowayeans and cycle freaks will follow me there, sigh...

When the results are posted online, you can see them by clicking HERE...

Quote of the Week...from Judy Garland

 Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.             

                                                                               ---Judy Garland

Judy Garland, best known for her portrayal of Dorothy in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, was both an accomplished singer and actress, with a string of popular and critically acclaimed albums and movies before her tragic death in 1969 at age 47.  Instead of focusing on Judy's personal life, today I'd rather look at this quote of hers.  Nowadays there's a popular acronym, GOAT, which on the surface might imply something derogatory, but actually means "greatest of all time".  So endless sports discussions take place where fans argue about who is the GOAT in whatever sport they're discussing.  You can take it to any field: music, science, art, writing, presidents, whatever.  In each setting, though, the context is externally based.  As individuals our entire lives constitute the context, and none of us should feel obliged to try to box our efforts into one of the categories others have provided for us, nor should we necessarily compare ourselves to those who have achieved greatness in this area or that.  My life is a tapestry of my myriad experiences and relationships, truly something unique and precious.  I do want to better myself but taking on the persona of another to do it according to their standards or those of others will only make me a dissatisfied, cheap copy. There is something like eight billion people in the world today...seems like getting super good at being my individual self in the face of pressure for mass conformity is the way to go, just saying...    

Constellation of the Month: Cepheus (the King)

 

Cepheus, which crosses the meridian just above Polaris (the North Star) around 10 pm in October (Daylight Savings Time), is a prominent northern hemisphere constellation although it boasts of no prominent stars. Alderamin is its brightest, barely dimmer than 2nd magnitude.  Cepheus represents an ancient king, the husband of Queen Cassiopeia in the Perseus mythology.  In this region of the sky the Perseus myth is strongly represented by several constellations: the hero Perseus, the fair maiden Andromeda, the winged horse Pegasus, the sea monster Cetus...and Andromeda's parents Cepheus and Cassiopeia, side by side in the night sky.  I probably should have inverted the above depiction of Cepheus as that is its position when it is highest in the sky.  It possesses several deep-space objects although none are from the traditional Messier catalogue.  According to Wikipedia, the constellation contains a very powerful quasar powered by a supermassive black hole as well as a hypergiant star, Mu Cephei, whose surface would extend beyond Jupiter's orbit were it situated in our Sun's place...

If it's not cloudy, I think I'll go out tonight and check out Cepheus.  By the way, that bright "star" you see rising high in the southeast sky during the evening is really the planet Jupiter...

Next month: another constellation...

Weekly Short Stories: 1987 Science Fiction, Part 2

Today I continue looking at old science fiction short stories from the year 1987, as they appear in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1988 Annual World's Best SF, featuring the editor's picks from the preceding year.  In 1987 I was in my first year of marriage with Melissa and during the middle of the year we lived in Leesburg, Florida, where she had grown up and had family.  Then in September I began working at the Gainesville Post Office...in November we moved back to Gainesville.  I have fond memories of that time in Leesburg, and miss Melissa's mom and dad...they passed away in 2007 and 2009.  Sigh, well...back to the reviews...

ANGEL by Pat Cadigan

The editor suspects this story of being "cyberpunk" science fiction...having read that I went into it with a slight feeling of trepidation, not exactly enamored of that subgenre. The narrator is out on the city street where hustlers roam and rescues what appears to be a young man, abandoned and lost, giving him the name Angel.  Angel has some paranormal skills that come in handy, like going through walls and the like.  It all comes down to Angel's origins and identity...and that of the narrator as well, particularly regarding their sexuality. In 2022 I don't think this story would be as provocative as it might have been in '87...

FOREVER YOURS, ANNA by Kate Wilhelm

This is another of those annoying time-travel paradox stories that I had thought we were rid of by 1987...oh, well. Gordon, a renowned graphologist (handwriting expert), has a new client: an agency searching for special scientific research papers written by one of its recently deceased employees. They suspect his girlfriend of absconding with the research, and would Gordon please try to find clues of this woman's identity from the letters she wrote her lover?  A promising tale with a frustrating ending...

 

SECOND GOING by James Tiptree, Jr.

In an overcrowded Earth threatened by nuclear war and self-annihilation, the arrival of benevolent aliens with special knowledge of genetics promises to make everything better.  And they are so, so nice: wait, didn't I see a Twilight Zone episode that started this way?  Well, they turn out to be well-intentioned, but their remedy probably wasn't what the human race had in mind.  This tale discusses gods as real entities created by people (and aliens)...reminds me of a Neil Gaiman novel...

DINOSAURS by Walter Jon Williams

Many thousands of years into the future humanity has evolved to a much different state than it is now, with the body's functions externalized and highly specialized.  Unfortunately, traits like compassion and empathy have failed to keep pace with the changes as an enraged intelligent species finds their planets callously terraformed by the humans with billions of lives lost.  The Shars, more human than the humans have become, run into a communications wall trying to deal with the "evolved" emissary from Earth...

ALL FALL DOWN by Don Sakers

The tree-like Hlutr dwell in many star systems and communicate telepathically, yet humans tend to be unaware of their intelligence until a sweeping disease infects their numerous galactic settlements, wiping out every person wherever it reaches.  One man seeks the Hlutr's help, although assisting other species is something this life form tends to avoid...will they change their collective mind this time?

Next week I begin reviewing tales from the 1987 Gardner Dozois science fiction anthology...

Examining My Mail-In Ballot for General Election

The other day Melissa and I received our mail-in absentee ballots for the November general election.  There are the easily understandable partisan races, such as for US senator, US representative, governor, state cabinet seats, state representative, and Alachua County Commission.  Then comes a long list of judges that I'm somehow supposed to know whether to retain or kick their sorry superior asses out.  This is followed on the ballot by officially nonpartisan races for circuit judge, Gainesville mayor, city commission, and five "soil and water conservation" seats.  Seeing these makes me automatically wonder who the stealth Republican candidates are in our heavily Democratic city...I strongly suspect at least one of them took great pains to wipe their Facebook page clean of any past comments they might have made concerning COVID-19 policy or the 2020 Election.  On the ballot's flip side are three Florida State Constitution amendments, along with three more local referenda.  I haven't a clue what to do about the judges...seems like our judiciary has become extremely politicized and will only get worse as vacancies arise.  As for the "nonpartisan" races, I'm not voting on any of them until I can distinguish the candidates' party allegiances.  As for that flip side, I don't see the point in "changing" the Florida Constitution after a previously approved amendment to restore voting rights to felons who had completed their sentences was negated when the state legislature subsequently added the condition that they first pay an exorbitant penalty fee for their incarceration. As for my recommendations on this ballot, I have none...just my own opinions, for better or for worse.  You're entitled to your own as well...why not inform yourself and vote this time around?

Podcaster Advocates One Special Attitude Shift

On his Mindset Mentor podcast the other day, personal development coach Rob Dial hit upon a familiar topic of his: how we talk to ourselves.  Whereas in past shows he emphasized building oneself up instead of irrationally claiming to be inferior and failure-prone, this time he took a different tack, promoting the idea that folks can experience a much better existence if they would do apply just one principle to their daily lives.  Instead of approaching a task or obligation with the words "I have to do this", switch to an attitude of gratitude and say, "I get to do this", while considering the blessings of being in such a situation when so many in the world are deprived. "I have to go to work" becomes "I'm grateful that I have a good job that I get to go to".  "I have to drive someone somewhere" becomes "I'm grateful I get to own a good, dependable car that I get to drive around".  "I have to tell someone I love something unpleasant" becomes "I am grateful to have such a wonderful soul in my life with whom I get to share my trials". "I have to clean and declutter my home" becomes "I'm grateful to get to clean this home for the space, shelter and privacy it provides".  "I have to work out" becomes "I'm grateful I have a body that is healthy and mobile enough for me to get to exercise".  And on and on it goes.  It doesn't mean I have to be a Pollyanna and pretend problems don't exist, just to put it all in perspective and count my blessings.  Sounds reasonable to me...now it's time to sign off, since I have to get to take the dog outside...

My #10 All-Time Favorite Album: Kasabian by Kasabian

KASABIAN is an English alternative rock band, and their 2004 debut release, also titled KASABIAN, is my #10 all-time favorite album.  I first heard their first American hit single from it, Club Foot, while listening to my favorite radio station at the time, 100.5/WHHZ "The Buzz"...they were Gainesville's only alternative rock broadcasters.  Although I didn't care for that song as much, I began to notice this very creative and talented band when the next track L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever) begin to get airplay and I saw its video on YouTube.  Then came Reason is Treason, another song from the album: Kasabian was definitely a new favorite of mine.  They stay true to their rock n' roll roots with the guitar and drums strong on their songs, but they also are fearless with the keyboard and instrumental backgrounds.  For this first album the band consisted of songwriter Sergio Pizzorno, who also did backup vocals and guitar, and wrote all of the lyrics.  Chris Karloff, who would leave Kasabian during their recording of the next album, co-wrote some of the music and was also on guitar.  Chris Edwards was bassist and Ian Matthews drummer.  The group's front man was Tom Meighan, who would be asked to leave Kasabian in 2020 after he allegedly beat up his fiancée.  The two eventually married, but Kasabian goes on without him or his trademark voice.  But in 2004, Meighan's imprint was everywhere and although probably not the best singer in the world, like the Stones' Mick Jagger, you kind of liked it anyway somehow.  Here are my listings of the tracks from the album Kasabian, in the order of my preference...you can hear them on YouTube:

1 REASON IS TREASON

2 TEST TRANSMISSION

3 L.S.F. (LOST SOULS FOREVER)

4 PROCESSED BEATS

5 BUTCHER BLUES

6 RUNNING BATTLE

7 I.D.

8 CUT OFF

9 CLUB FOOT

10 OVARY STRIPE

11 U BOAT

There is an alternate Reason is Treason version on the U Boat track, about three minutes after that song ends.  Ovary Stripe is purely instrumental, as are the two brief tracks Orange and Pinch Roller.  At this writing Kasabian has come out with seven studio albums, each with at least one really good song, and Switchblade Smiles from their Velociraptor album is my #2 all-time favorite song.  But their debut work, in my opinion, is the best: great from start to finish.  Sergio Pizzorno has been the creative genius behind this band, operating...at least until Meighan's departure...in the background much like The Who's Pete Townshend.  Hopefully, Kasabian will be around a long time to come...but I'm content with what they've produced so far...

Next week: Album #9...

Baseball Playoffs Underway Amid Debate about Home Run King

"My" two Major League Baseball teams here in Florida, Tampa Bay and Miami, both in their own ways have figured into the playoffs, now underway with the second wildcard-round games scheduled today.  The American League Rays are in the playoffs as a wild card team, playing the Cleveland Guardians on the road in a best-of-three series having lost their first game yesterday, 2-1.  And although the Marlins did not make the National League playoffs (good pitching, lousy hitting), in their season-end series against Milwaukee, they went up there and handled the Brewers, spoiling their playoff hopes.  I'll be following the playoffs today, although I won't exactly be frozen in front of the TV set.  This year New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge set the American League single season home run record at 62...but Barry Bonds of the National League San Francisco Giants still holds the official Major League record at 73, from 2001 during the insane peak of the steroid era from 1998-2001 when Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa among them had home run seasons of 73, 70, 66, 65, 64 and 63.  Since the baseball authorities regard them all as official and haven't "asterisked" them, they are the records pure and simple.  We've had periods during the span of baseball "history" when the ball itself was "juiced up" to make the game livelier...in fact this alteration is what ushered in the Babe Ruth era of home runs in the 1920s.  And speaking of Ruth and that era, for each and every one of his career home runs, he accomplished it with blacks barred from competing against him, either as opposing pitchers or fellow sluggers...all because of the color of their skin: are Ruth's records really any more legitimate that that of Bonds?  I remember back in '98 when McGwire and Sosa were both on track to beat Roger Maris' 1961 benchmark of 61 home runs, and the baseball establishment was hyping it all up as much as they could to generate more interest in their sport, which had been in decline since the disastrous season-ending strike of 1994.  I'm not saying McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, and many other players of that era were right in ingesting performance-enhancing substances, but if you are going to compare their records with those from other times, then I think it's only fair that you also consider factors that favored those other players back then...

Quote of the Week...from Friedrich Nietzsche

 There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.                                                                        ---Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was a nineteenth century German philosopher...I could get into his thinking, but it was the above quote of his that I found especially pertinent to today's world, so I'll focus on that instead.  It all comes down to the narratives that people live by, and their intellectually dishonest way of only accepting information that upholds those narratives while either dismissing or ignoring anything that invalidates them, often demonizing the unfortunate bringer of the unwelcome information.  Mike Pence says Biden was the duly elected president in 2020...that contradicts the MAGA election deniers' narrative, even to the point that there were outcries to hang him as a traitor. And what about Dr. Fauci and others who properly informed the public about the dangers of the Covid-19 virus: that cramped a lot of selfish people's lifestyles...and since they didn't want to wear masks, they bought into anything that dispelled their effectiveness.  In today's Internet world where search engines are rigged to give users the results they want to see and social media like Facebook routinely puts "facts" on their newsfeeds meant to bolster the preconceived notions of their users, the type of people that Nietzsche referred to who "want to believe" seems to be growing in numbers while their power of influence in our society is consequently increasing, especially with regard to politics and elections.  Donald Trump once claimed that he could step out onto 5th Avenue in New York and shoot someone without losing his supporters...yet after that comment he was elected president with his fans wanting so badly to believe that he is a completely different person than he really is.  A large...and I fear growing...segment of our population believes what it wants to believe, and damn reality when it contradicts those beliefs...

Just Finished Reading Fairy Tale by Stephen King

When I heard Stephen King, my favorite author, was coming out with a new novel, I quickly put a hold on it at my public library...eventually they got around to me on the waiting list.  It's Fairy Tale, at least partially set in the present time on Earth in America...and the author does try to make this typically dark Stephen King book conform in a number of ways to the elements of fairy tales.  Charlie Reade is the protagonist, a 17-year-old whose father is a recovering alcoholic after the accidental death of Charlie's mother...all this comes out very early in the story, so I'm not giving anything away here.  But to go much further in describing the sequence of events and characters might be a little over the edge for prospective readers, and I hope that you're one of them.  I will say this much: I saw a parallel in this novel's structure and characters to his earlier book 11/22/63, especially with regard to how Fairy Tale's cantankerous, colorful Howard Bowditch is very similar to 11/22/63's Al Templeton, not only with regard to their respective personalities but also the very special roles they play in sending the protagonist down the proverbial rabbit role into adventure and peril.  Since I'm a big Al Templeton fan and 11/22/63, which I've read at least five times (I've lost count), is one of my all-time favorite novels, that resemblance worked for me. One other thing: this is a dog lover's book as well...and I'll just leave it at that.  For me, Stephen King is to fiction as Regina Spektor is to music...I can't wait to see what they have lined up next.  Don't wait for the TV or movie adaptation to Fairy Tale: just get the book even if you have to put it on hold at your public library...

Weekly Short Stories: 1987 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin reviewing science fiction short stories from the year 1987, as they appeared in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1988 Annual World's Best SF, featuring the editor's picks from the previous year.  Ever since my reviews of short science fiction in 1983...as I gradually go forward in time...I have been alternating between two different "year's best" science fiction anthology series: the other one has Gardner Dozois as its editor.  Between the two books coving 1987, there is an overlap of five stories...three of them (the first ones I've discussing below), appear in both. Now to the first five tales in Wollheim's anthology...

 

THE PARDONER'S TALE by Robert Silverberg

In a future where a small number of gigantic, very intelligent purple squid-like creatures called Entities have taken over the planet and rule over the human population, a man with a talent for hacking into their intricate computer system plies his trade of "pardoning" people who need certain records of themselves altering or destroyed.  John Doe, as he refers to himself, from time to time "stiffs" a customer by deliberately failing to alter their records, done in order to deflect suspicion from the Entities.  How the story plays out shows the author to have some good insight into computer hacking for someone writing this 35 years ago, and I liked the ending...

RACHEL IN LOVE by Pat Murphy

A primate researcher has discovered how to save the mental imprint of people...and monkeys.  Before his own daughter dies in an accident, he has saved hers and afterwards transfers it, along with her memories and self-awareness, to a young female chimpanzee, Rachel.  The author spins a credible tale as Rachel tries to reconcile her chimp identity with that of the little girl within her.  Very compelling...

AMERICA by Orson Scott Card

An alternative future is suggested in this story where Native Americans have taken back their lands and the white man is in retreat.  At the crossroads of this story is the relationship between a white Utah Mormon man and an Indian woman with the reputation of a witch, that is she practices natural healing for her people.  They meet in Brazil when he is just a boy...years later there is a reckoning as their child has become the leader of the Indian insurgence taking back the Americas. I get the author's Mormon background and his interest in Indians, but he never got down to the details about how the whites are overthrown...

CRYING IN THE RAIN by Tanith Lee

Stories about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust with radiation permeating just about everything and sickening the population are usually depressing...this one doesn't disappoint in that regard.  The poor folks on the outside of a protected fortress of a city have very low life expectancies, but those on the inside aren't much better.  A feisty survivor of a woman is dying nonetheless, but she schemes to protect the children in her family by trying to sell off her oldest daughter to a well-off man in that city. Well-written, it's still all very difficult to read through, which may have been the point in the first place...

THE SUN SPIDER by Lucuis Shepard

This is a tale about telepathy not only transcending space but also the division between different species, even sentient life forms with vastly different chemistry and physics.  A scientist, famed for his Solar Equations but regarded as something of a flake by others, goes with his wife to the solar space station to try to complete them...and confirm the existence of life within the sun that he has dreamed about.  Told from the viewpoints of himself and his wife, they encounter there the jealous hostility of a fellow scientist who mercilessly plots against his rival.  It was hard for me to follow the very mystical kind of interaction between that solar entity and humans...how can an author translate it into words?  Still, I could see this story as a big screen hit...

Next week I continue looking at science fiction short stories from 1987...

High-Level Sports Competition Breeds Fragile Athletes

The fragility of top athletes as they engage in their respective sports at the highest level has become a major issue, although it's always been present. I think there are two reasons for this: one, while it's possible to improve athletic performance by changing the human body through exercise, diet, medicine and supplements, we all still have very sensitive soft tissue that is prone to injury and inflammation.  During the last two weeks, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was taken off the field twice...it appears now that he suffered a brain concussion in the first game against Buffalo, but that it was misdiagnosed, and he was wrongly cleared for the next contest against Cincinnati.  Then the injury became obvious after a hard hit, and he is now out indefinitely.  Before all this, though, Tua was already known as being injury prone...he was plagued by knee, ankle and hip injuries while playing for Alabama in college.  But although football is clearly a hard contact sport, in others like tennis injuries have come to dominate the headlines, often dictating who the eventual tournament champions will be.  Federer, Nadal, Williams...to be the best can put a heavy strain on the body, and for these champions who want to stay in the picture as they age, the prospects of career-ending injuries are increasing.  As a fan of a number of different professional and college sports, I've grown to follow the games less for who's going to win or lose, and more for appreciating the competitive moments in each sport, regardless of who's playing or my own preferences.  But maybe that's how I should have been following sports all along...

Podcaster Discusses Negative Overthinking

Podcaster Rob Dial repeats himself a lot over the course of weeks... a recent show had him discussing how people tend to overthink.  Dial takes the position that you're always thinking...it's what your brain does and is designed to do.  It's the negative thoughts that he wants to curtail...and even with them he acknowledges that they grew out of a survival mechanism from the distant past when consequences for a careless action may well have led to death (the "walk out of the cave at the wrong time and get eaten by a leopard" scenario).  But in today's "civilized" social setting, allowing fear and doubt to dominate one's thoughts about their abilities and prospects can be a real impediment to growth and personal transformation.  He lists five areas to focus on: 

--Develop self-awareness...look at yourself as if you were someone else looking at you...put your thoughts down on paper.  

--Stop trying to be perfect...nobody is, it's an exercise in futility: nobody knows what they're doing, they're just trying to do their best.  

--Stop trying to control everything.  Learn to accept the unknown...this will give you the opportunity to learn new things.

--Put your life in perspective and realize it's not so terrible...look at all the poverty and suffering in the world and realize how amazing your life is.  Instead, search for things to be grateful for.

--Finally, come up with a plan to deal with overthinking whenever it happens. Hack a new way, self-program the brain to think differently whenever the negative cues arise.

Dial is a big advocate of working things out with pen and paper...and then burning it afterward if necessary.  I can dig most if not all of what he's saying here, except the part where "nobody knows what they're doing"...maybe that's so, but too many go around acting like they're on some high pedestal looking down on me, and presumably on others as well.  But that's probably just a defense mechanism of theirs, right? Let's see...I'm aware of myself, I know I'm sure as hell not perfect, I learned long ago the uselessness of trying to control everything, and that I have a lot to be grateful for in my life. I guess it's that last point, about having a plan to deal with negative cues in my life when they arise, that I could use some serious work on...

My #11 All-Time Favorite Album: Moving Pictures by Rush

The 1981 RUSH album MOVING PICTURES is my #11 all-time favorite album.  Although I had already heard and enjoyed the opening track Tom Sawyer and Limelight, I didn't know of the rest until one Saturday night/Sunday morning in the 1990s at the post office when I worked the graveyard shift and a local alternative rock station (on 97.7 then) had a show called "Saturday Night Sixpack", on which they would play six albums in their entirety.  Moving Pictures was featured one week, and after hearing it I quickly became a Rush fan.  After listening to pretty much this trio's entire catalogue of albums I concluded that this album was far and away their best, although I also recommend their Greatest Hits CD that features timeless hits spanning the decades.  Moving Pictures has only seven tracks...but what tracks they are!  As already mentioned, it opens with Tom Sawyer, proclaiming a new kind of warrior, who thinks independently outside the box and acts likewise.  For some unknown reason I automatically associate it with being outside the Reitz Student Union (on the west side) on the University of Florida campus...some songs have a strange way of bringing up seemingly random connections.  It's followed by Red Barchetta, with a sweet tale of the singer recalling his youth and the time he got to drive his uncle's antique racing car on the open road, and the impromptu race that followed...it features one of the seriously most unforgettable guitar riffs I've ever heard.  Then comes the "song" YYZ, an instrumental piece showcasing the extraordinary guitar talent of Alex Lifeson. Side One closes with Limelight, one of those many rock songs I've heard over the years mirroring a band's own experiences on tour.  The flip side opens with The Camera Eye, nearly 11 minutes long, largely instrumental but also sung with obscure lyrics that seem to compare Manhattan with London.  Then it's Witch Hunt...seems that much of the disfunction we see nowadays with mob/cult political extremist behavior on the part of ignorant, fearful rabble also existed back then in 1981...and probably always has and always will.  The song spells it out bluntly, putting me squarely in Rush's corner on this somber issue.  The album closes with Vital Signs, a personal favorite that extolls "deviation from the norm" as a sign of health, not something to be condemned and excised from society.  Moving Pictures has a recurring theme to it: informed, independent individualism with a personal conscience.  But if the lyrics were all it had, it still wouldn't be a favorite of mine.  The outstanding instrumentation and the virtuosity of Lifeson, Lee and Peart on their guitars, keyboards and drums make it a true masterpiece.  Alas, sadly Neil Peart passed on in 2020, and Rush is no more except in all their great past music, Moving Pictures being the best...

Next week I begin my "Top Ten" countdown of all-time favorite albums...

My September 2022 Running Report

In September I ran a total of 411 miles, with 20 miles being my longest single run...I also ran each day.  In spite of these numbers, I've actually been taking it relatively easy with my runs, usually spreading them out over the course of each day and going slow, slow, slow.  I do think I'm in good enough shape to engage in a few races over the next few months, as the longer distance events start to make their appearance during this progressively cooler time of the year in northern Florida.  As for my walking, it was the same as in August...I naturally have plenty of opportunities to walk a bit over the course of my job as well as the day in general, easily covering, I'm sure, 100 miles in September although I'm not measuring it.  Although Gainesville has a cool weekly, FREE race Saturday mornings at 7:30 (at Depot Park, just south of downtown), I just do not like getting up that early in the morning to go out there: no races for me this past month!  Besides, I'm partial to the longer events such as 10K (6.2 miles), 15K (9.3 miles), and half-marathon (13.1 miles).  In Gainesville there will be two 10K races in October and two half-marathons in November...still, I will need to get up early in the morning to run in any of them, dang it.  And should I run in one or more of them, I will be focusing on covering the distance...of course, if I feel like seeing how fast I can go, I will...

Quote of the Week...from Starbucks

It's a brew-tiful day to have Starbucks.                               ---Starbucks Corporation 

Yesterday was National Coffee Day...I suppose then that every other day is National Noncoffee Day.  So evidently all these java joints around the country were giving out free cups of coffee...as if most of us couldn't just brew our own pots for pennies on the dollar.  That's where I stand on the subject, anyway...if I'm just going for coffee as a drink, I brew a pot at home...I tend to prefer the flavored varieties, my favorite brands being New England and Eight O'Clock whenever they're on sale.  Melissa drinks only decaf...I get a pot set up the night before and it's ready to go early the next morning.  In the last couple of years, I've grown to really like iced coffee and have tended to spend a lot of unnecessary dough in drive-through lines, usually on the way to work.  Now I just take what's left over from a pot and chill it in the fridge for later use.  But this doesn't mean that I've foresworn going to coffee shops.  Since the 1970s I have enjoyed going there and studying, in the past sometimes for hours on end...I'm sure the owners/managers appreciated that! After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Starbucks and other places closed down their sitting areas. keeping their drive-throughs open.  Ever since, I've gone only sparingly to coffee shops to sit and study or write, my most popular destination recently being the Dunkin' Donuts just outside my neighborhood.  And, in my humble opinion, their iced coffee rules.  Speaking of drive-throughs, Starbucks corporate headquarters a few years ago must have realized that this way of selling their product was worth the expense and dislocation of engaging in the widespread closing of stores without that option and building brand new ones nearby with drive-through lanes.  In Gainesville this resulted in the closing of three really nice, convenient stores I used to frequent: the ones on SW Archer Road near 34th Street, at NW 13th Street and 16th Avenue, and Hunters Crossing (43rd Street and 53rd Avenue).  Their replacements are often backed up...sometimes even into the street...and more difficult to access, although I do admit that the "new" Hunters Crossing location does provide more seating.  In spite of all the changes to the Starbucks here in Gainesville, my favorite location, now going on 22 years, is still there: Magnolia Parke on NW 39th Avenue.  Still, I usually just run to Dunkin' if I want to sit somewhere.  By the way, I've been drinking coffee since I was two years old, growing up pouring boiling water into a cup containing a spoonful of (usually store brand) instant coffee with some added sugar and milk...

The Saga of Ian

The long saga of Ian, a very problematic tropical system that went on and on unnamed for days in the Caribbean before finally coalescing and strengthening, is finally ending...at least for the state of Florida.  But its aftermath with still be felt here for years from all of the damage it caused, mainly in the central and southern part of the state.  And it's not finished, either.  Once Ian goes into the Atlantic around Daytona Beach it will curve northward through the Atlantic before striking the Carolinas, wind speed drastically weakened from the 155 mph when it struck the Fort Myers/Punta Gorda vicinity but capable of dropping torrential rains.  While following the storm's development from early on, the Weather Channel, my chief source of information, kept presenting two drastically conflicting computer models about its trajectory, the U.S. and European.  The former had Ian go more or less northward in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, parallel to the Florida coast, before hitting the state's northern Big Bend area.  The latter, which Ida ended up following the most, had it approaching the same way but veering northeastward and striking where it eventually struck in the Naples-to-Tampa stretch of heavily populated real estate.  Neither model, though, predicted it would then cut across the state and exit into the Atlantic...that development has been providential for us here in Gainesville.  In both scenarios we were certain to be exposed to high winds and possibly heavy flooding.  As it is right now at 9:30 on Thursday the 29th, the winds are 25-30 mph with some occasional gusts, but the rain hasn't been too bad. But this very large tropical storm will continue to affect us throughout the day...still, it could have been much worse where I live.  We've also been blessed so far with keeping our power running. I'm a little consternated at my local government's disaster preparations...they knew about Ian for several days but waited until less than 48 hours before they opened sandbag stations, naturally causing everyone (but me) to rush them at the same time, at the last minute.  As it is turning out, they won't be needed...I improvised anyway, using garbage bags and items I scrounged up around the house as substitutes.  Last night at 10 I had the most pleasant drive home, the storm around me notwithstanding: hardly any traffic!  But I know the people will return, sigh, they always return...

Weekly Short Stories: 1986 Science Fiction, Part 8

Below are my final reviews of 1986 sci-fi short stories as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection.  In juxtaposing this series with that of Donald A. Wollheim, my general take is that Wollheim's picks are more readable and of higher quality. Had he not died in 1990 and kept on with his anthology series, I probably would have just focused on it alone. As it is, I'm planning to cover both series each year through 1989, then focus on Gardner's collections which continued afterwards for decades.  Now about those final stories for '86...

SALLIE C. by Neal Barrett, Jr.

A bizarre alternative history story set in the late nineteenth century in the American southwest, combining three different historical narratives and characters as they interrelate because of personal decisions that shifted the flow of history into a different direction.  The Wright Brothers, Billy the Kid and, of all people, Erwin Rommel of WWII infamy are seen in an entirely different light here.  What might have happened instead...

JEFF BECK by Lewis Shiner

This is a great little tale about someone who got their wish to go beyond playing air guitar to their rock hero and actually attain his talent and skill...yet Felix, Jeff Beck's ardent admirer, was missing one crucial element of his aspirations as he works through the unsought consequences of his fulfilled dream...

SURVIVING by Judith Moffett

A very deep, moving story of two women: a girl who survived her missionary parents' fatal African plane crash in the wilderness by being adopted for nine years by a group of wild chimpanzees before her "rescue" by humans and subsequent reeducation, and the scholar who studied her case and wrote a book about it.  Their tumultuous relationship forms the core of this narrative and brings up the question of what truly constitutes one's humanity.  A story that hangs around long after finishing it...

DOWN AND OUT IN THE YEAR 2000 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Set in Washington, D.C....more precisely, in the Mall and the city blocks north of it, the nation's capital has severely run down, most likely from recent civil unrest and neglect.  A former federal employee is now destitute, living on the pot he scrapes up to sell in order to support himself and his ailing woman.  His plight and those of many around him stand in sharp contrast not only to the protesters that still frequent the crumbling city center, but also the still-well-to-do upper class people who treat him with disdain.  Robinson's detail at describing city blocks by their actual streets made me wish I'd spent more time and attention there on my 2017 visit with Melissa, but you can only do so much when you travel...

SNAKE-EYES by Tom Maddox

A soldier, slated for combat duty in the ongoing war in Thailand, has been surgically, neurologically implanted with a computerized network that enhances his fighting abilities.  But the war has ended, and his services are rendered unnecessary...yet they cannot remove the "snake" within him that from time to time dictates his behavior in unwanted directions.  He avails himself of an opportunity to go to an orbiting corporate space station where an Artificial Intelligence seeks his company, and he is promised relief.  Complicated...

THE GATE OF GHOSTS by Karen Joy Fowler

A young girl has a secret place she visits from time to time...well, time actually stops while she is gone. Her mother is overprotective and fearful, not helped a bit by the grandmother on her father's side with her old Chinese superstitions about a dangerous type of child.  This tale is about childhood trauma and its causes, with some paranormal elements tossed in.  The ending, which on the surface seemed to be good, actually was chilling...

THE WINTER MARKET by William Gibson

A cyberpunk story, not exactly my favorite science fiction subgenre.  One main reason is that I personally am more slow-paced and routine-oriented...these characters are impulsive and all over the map with their behavior.  In the future, naturally, consumption of the "arts", combined with technological innovation, has degenerated to the point that movies and music have been supplanted by the recording and selling of people's direct thoughts and dreams.  One such artist is a terminally ill woman with an artificial "exoskeleton" holding her body together.  The narrator is her admirer and technician.  The question posed here: can human identity transfer to computer systems as the body dies, or is what we see there only a soulless imitation?  

Next week I return to the Wollheim sci-fi anthology series as I begin looking at short stories from 1987...

Podcaster Spells Out Some Steps for Success

On a recent Mindset Mentor podcast, personal development coach Rob Dial listed six keys to success.  There's definitely overlap here as I've heard all of them. Maybe this is a recycled message and possibly even an unwittingly recycled blog article.  But since it makes sense to me, I'm going to tackle it...here are his steps in a nutshell.  By the way, Dial strongly suggests taking a pen and paper as a worksheet for this...

1-Define what success in a particular area means to you personally. Since we're all different, then different things motivate us.  Dial says that he's had discussions with many people who express dissatisfaction that they aren't meeting their standards of success, but when pressed can't precisely express what they are.

2-Make a plan, as specifically as possible, to realistically meet those standards for success.  From my perspective, I tend to make plans in order to deal with problems that arise, but not so much as with fulfilling my own dreams or bettering myself.

3-Plan out your pitfalls.  What are the obstacles that tend to arise, both inner and external, standing in your way to interfere with your success in an area?  Again, Dial suggests pen and paper...and patience to figure them out.

4-Have accountability relationships.  Dial says these can come in many forms, but the main goal is to make the endeavor more of a commitment by sharing it and your progress (or lack thereof) with another.  If the area is sensitive, the accountability partner should be a trustworthy person.  Regardless, there should be someone to be answerable to, according to the podcaster.  I tend to flinch at this step...then again, I often make public statements on this blog about my own goals...although the reins of accountability here are admittedly very loose.

5 Take action, despite how you feel.  Feelings follow action, not the reverse as most people practice.  But I think we all know this deep down inside whenever we do perform an obligation like going to work (or jury duty, etc.) when we sure as hell don't want to.

6-Do a weekly review of your own progress toward success in your area(s).  Dial cited a famous hip-hop star's "stop-start-continue" method whereby you write down things you feel you should stop doing, those that you want to stop...and those that are "just right" and should continue.  

Of course, all these steps are easier said than done. That accountability Step #4 is my own sticking point...

Constellations of the Month: Sagitta (the Arrow) and Delphinus (the Dolphin)

Sagitta, which really does resemble an arrow, and Delphinus...which does not resemble a dolphin...are tiny constellations situated between the larger Cygnus and Aquila in the summertime evening sky.  Altair, in the neighboring constellation Aquila, is the southernmost of the prominent three first-magnitude stars commonly referred to as the "Summer Triangle"...I included it in the above illustration to show where these two pipsqueak constellations are located in the night sky.  Their stars are all dim, but they do form distinct patterns...you should be able to easily make them out in a setting without city light interference.  The Milky Way cuts through them, so this region of the sky is pretty as well.  As for deep space objects...besides the Milky Way galaxy background itself...there is within Sagitta M71, which is a globular star cluster.  Delphinus is also referred to as "Job's Coffin", but it doesn't resemble one any more than a dolphin.  Since this time of year around 10 pm these constellations in northern temperate latitudes pass nearly overhead, as long as it's not cloudy or you're not in the middle of a metropolis, then spotting them might stand as a reasonable test of your vision...

Next month, I'll pick another constellation to discuss...

My #12 All-Time Favorite Album: In Search of the Lost Chord by the Moody Blues

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD, from 1968, is the Moody Blues' follow-up to their highly acclaimed Days of Future Passed and is my #12 all-time favorite album.  Yet it wouldn't be until the 1990s when I finally got around to hearing it in its entirety, although I was vaguely familiar with two of its tracks, Ride My See-Saw and Legend of a Mind, from album rock radio in years gone by.  That first song I mentioned, coupled with the preceding track Departure, would become a common bumper music feature of the late Art Bell's wildly popular late-night paranormal talk radio show, but it stands well on its own.  In Search of the Lost Chord is very thematic, focused on Eastern philosophy and religion, particularly that of India. That's cool with me since I tend to be a sucker for mystical stuff...just lay off the dogmatism, please. And all five band members not only had strong creative roles in the different songs, but they also sang (or spoke) on them. Here are my takes on the tracks as they appear on the record...

DEPARTURE--drummer Graeme Edge composed several spoken pieces for the Moodies...this one muses on the possibility of transcending our usual senses to perceive reality on all its levels... 

RIDE MY SEE-SAW--John Lodge's song expanding on Edge's prose poem, very enthusiastic and a rocker as well...

DR. LIVINGSTONE, I PRESUME--Ray Thomas, my favorite from this group, sings about the idea that we're all searching for something...not just the famous discoverers from the past...

HOUSE OF FOUR DOORS--I interpret this four-part composition by Justin Haywood as doors leading to various stages of personal enlightenment...leading into one of the trippiest songs ever recorded...

LEGEND OF A MIND--you may know this one from its lyrics "Timothy Leary's dead" but Ray Thomas...this is his song...assures the listener the promoter of LSD was alive and well, at least back then.  A profound instrumental rabbit role experience in the song's middle with flute, guitar and mellotron is not to be missed.  I have mixed feelings about this masterpiece because of its pro-drugs stance...

VOICES IN THE SKY--a slow, sweet song by Justin Haywood...just the same, I'm not sure I want to hear "voices in the sky"...

THINKING IS THE BEST WAY TO TRAVEL--keyboardist Mike Pinder's song title sounds cool, but it also seems like he's promoting drugs as the way to go faster than light: not cool as far as I'm concerned...

VISIONS OF PARADISE--Lodge and Thomas collaborated on this somber piece with a lot of Eastern sounding instrumental background...

THE ACTOR--Haywood's best song on the album, in my opinion...he's introspective here about a lost relationship, very emotional and heartfelt...

THE WORD/OM--Edge wrote the spoken preamble The Word, Pinder provided the vocals both for it and his song Om, which is about the Hindu sacred word...a little too religiously dogmatic for my tastes, thank you...

Next week: my all-time #11 favorite album...

Ian Poses Threat to Florida as It Strengthens and Turns

After Tropical Storm/Hurricane Fiona flooded out much of southeastern Puerto Rico while the island suffered power loss after its center passed to the south, it struck the Dominican Republic straight on before passing through the Bahama and into the open Atlantic.  I get the fact that Puerto Rico is a part of the United States and definitely merits a lot of media coverage.  What I don't get is why I've heard virtually no information on how this storm affected the neighboring island of Hispaniola with its eastern nation directly struck.  Anyway, here in Florida we're now consumed with thinking about Ian, which for now is a weak tropical storm in the central Caribbean and heading west to pass south of Jamaica before turning more northward into western Cuba and, ultimately, the west coast of Florida.  In the process it's moving through very warm waters while the upper atmosphere is not expected to provide resistance to its strengthening.  So, Ian could very well become an extremely dangerous hurricane by the time it strikes the US mainland in Florida...the exact point of which they're uncertain.  But this morning...and it could change again...many of the computer projections have it passing very close if not over north central Florida where I live here in Gainesville.  So, I'm concerned about Ian, but not nearly as much as folks living on the west coast of Florida should be.  According to The Weather Channel's Greg Postel, the current "cone of uncertainty" for Ian over the state of Florida is very wide, meaning that meteorologists as yet do not know with a high degree of confidence exactly where it will make landfall.  They believe that it will make its impact here sometime next week around Wednesday and Thursday.  And almost as an afterthought, I heard one meteorologist mention that after passing through Florida, the storm may pose a direct threat to the Carolinas.  Guess I'll be toggling a bit between weather and sports on TV this weekend.  Time for The Weather Channel to send its reporters to the various Florida beaches, finally...

Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein

 Knowledge is realizing that the street is one way; wisdom is looking in both directions anyway.

                                                                               ---Albert Einstein

The great physicist from the twentieth century made a lot of pertinent quotes that I've discussed on this blog...you can take his above one in different "directions".  Allegorically, I think he's stressing the importance of thinking outside the box, beyond the standard constraints of established norms and rules.  Literally, though, I think his example comes up a little short.  So I'm driving along and come up on a one-way street...let's just say it's going right. If I'm going to turn onto it, I'm naturally not just going to look to my left to see if any vehicle is approaching.  Simple knowledge of traffic requires me to also look to the right to detect any possible pedestrians or bicyclists coming from that other direction.  I say this (and include this quote) because of the number of times I've been driving around town and observed how too many other drivers virtually ignore pedestrians and refuse to yield to them when they clearly have the right of way, especially at intersections.  And even if they don't, the law requires motorists to yield to them.  Having said that, let's get back to Einstein's probably figurative meaning.  An initial perusal of any situation or issue may reveal a general structure governing it that can lead one to make certain initial conclusions. But that perceived structure may be incomplete or even contrived to mislead...as so many political arguments are being presented during this election cycle.  Looking in both directions "anyway" means that, while I may be predisposed to accept a particular truth or opinion, I'm still instinctively going to make myself look at alternative and dissenting takes on the situation in question.  And if it involves a one-way street, I'm looking in the other direction as well before I take any action...

Daisy in the Frame

 

We've had our little mixed-breed puppy for a little more than four months now...Daisy was only two months old back in May when we adopted her at PetSmart off Archer Road through a pet adoption non-profit group.  Then she weighed just seven pounds...click HERE for an earlier article (and picture).  Now she's 29 pounds but still a little puppy...I took the top picture above a couple of days ago while holding her in my right arm.  Melissa came up with the name, which I quickly took to, but didn't recognize the significance in "Toon World" as Daisy is also the Bumsteads' pet dog in their comic strip Blondie.  One thing tying the two together is that both Daisy's make it a point to make sure they're "in the frame"...check out an old one featuring Dagwood shirking his chores.  I've been walking Daisy around the block each morning in order to train her to follow me and not her own agenda...mixed results so far.  She loves standing on her hind legs and looking out the front window, watching alertly from the left to the right (and back) and huffing and puffing and growling...and occasionally barking at passing cars, people, and of course dogs.  She's very much bonded to both of us but much more so with Melissa...when she leaves the room for just a little bit Daisy turns into a big crybaby.  For a few weeks recently we took her to "puppy kindergarten" where she met up with fellow pups and practiced training Melissa and me to be better humans.  Her growth seems to have slowed down a bit, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.  We love Daisy and wish her a happy, well-behaved life...

Weekly Short Stories: 1986 Science Fiction, Part 7

Here are my reactions to four more stories from the year 1986 as they appear in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection.  To be perfectly frank, this week's entries didn't exactly set my imagination afire, and the first and third seem to have been written apparently to confuse me as to what was really going on.  Sigh...sometimes as a reader you come across weeks like this...

CHANCE by Connie Willis

This is a circular tale about a woman's regrets about her decisions a couple of decades earlier, with the narrative switching without warning between her present, unsatisfactory existence and that past time when different choices...at least in her present mind...would have led to a happier existence.  I don't know whether the author was making this point, but I thought that since everyone screws up along the way, then the truly regretful decision is for someone to be overly regretful about their past decisions...I did say this story is circular, didn't I?  I'm not sure what was science fiction about this tale, but the worms crawling everywhere outside kind of creeped me out...

AND SO TO BED by Harry Turtledove

Turtledove, later widely known as an alternative history writer, wrote this early tale set in 1661, and which speculates what would happen had the European explorers encountered in the New World of the Americas not Native American Indians, but rather Neanderthals...which they term as "sims".  A famous London diarist...a real historical figure...writes "alternative" entries that describe his relationships with the two new sims he has purchased as servants.  And comes up with a controversial theory predating Darwin by nearly two centuries...

FAIR GAME by Howard Waldrop

A man, Ernst, who has built his long life on big-game hunting and adventure has been called in to a small Bavarian country village, where he is hired to hunt and kill the Wild Man who has been raiding them and killing animals and people.  A Wild Man is a novelty, only in this story: they are hairy, eight-plus feet tall, descendants from "ordinary" people.  Ernst is tired and old, and the village people get him a hunting partner: Mgoro, his old friend from many years back in Africa.  Not spelled out directly, the nature of this hunt becomes more apparent toward the end...but it's still what I would call a "murky" story...

VIDEO STAR by Walter Jon Williams

Violent youth gang warfare only heightens in a a technology and drug-rich future.  Set mainly in Arizona, Cadillac gang member Ric has high ambitions as he involves himself in associations and networks with people and organizations, none of which he can trust.  On one international drug smuggling transaction he carelessly lets himself get nearly fatally poisoned and spends months in recovery.  A bleak picture of a breakneck-paced future in which technology, violence and drugs rule the social reality...are we really going there (or are we there already)?

Next week I look at more stories from 1986...

Podcaster Discusses His Tips on Learning

On one of his recent Mindset Mentor podcasts, personal development coach Rob Dial lists and describes four tips to learning better.  He's covered this material before...I like the reinforcement of the message.  First of all, he suggests the use of the "Pomodoro" method of studying hard and focused for 25 minutes and then taking a (non-cellphone) break for 5...and then returning to the studying.  He says that studies have shown that this periodic short rest period gives the brain the time it needs to properly assimilate the material. Second, he urges the student to try teaching the material just learned to another person, and in the simplest language possible that can adequately convey it.  Third, he says that the inevitable difficult areas that present blocks in the road are important to learning and to stress overcoming them...duh!  Finally, Dial suggests that once finished with this process, go back and repeat it.  He bases his tips on what he has learned can increase neuroplasticity, which enables learning to take place.  For me, I remember learning back in the fourth grade the "SQ2R" method of tackling a book or lesson: first SURVEY the material to be covered, without undue attention to detail.  Then pause and reflect on it, asking yourself QUESTIONS that come up about it. Next, READ the material in depth and do the assigned problems.  Finally, go back and REVIEW what you've just covered in the session.  I suppose it's a good idea to practice both lists of learning ideas.  I think I already unconsciously do that Pomodoro technique anyway since I tend to start zoning out after about 20-25 minutes of intense studying...

Just Finished Reading The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy

Colin Meloy is the front man and chief songwriter for the Portland, Oregon based indie musical band The Decembrists...I remember hearing their songs played back around 2003-07 on my local alternative rock radio station WHHZ "The Buzz"/100.5.  That included The Engine Driver, which featured Colin's lyrics that he was a writer of fictions. I didn't take that literally, but he really is a fiction writer, having produced a children's series titled The Wildwood Chronicles.  He's just come out with a standalone children's novel, The Stars Did Wander Darkling, which I just finished reading. The title is a line from the Byron poem Darkness.  The setting is coastal Oregon in a small town with a dark history of the mass disappearance of its population a century earlier.  Thirteen-year-old Archie Coomes enjoys his life, including his close circle of friends with whom he goes camping, among other things.  His father heads a construction company excavating for a new hotel near the historic (but now rumored haunted) Langdon House but has stopped the project because the ground below is full of holes...like Swiss cheese...and presents a danger.  But not only is talk going on that they discovered something sinister down there, but people in town are beginning to change.  Archie suspects a conspiracy afoot, and soon finds himself on a dire race against time to discover the truth and fight off three sinister, strange men who seem to be involved.  For me, this novel was more appropriate for adult readers...in fact, its premise reminded me of the very dark Stephen King novel Desperation, as well as the equally dark movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I liked how Colin Meloy wrote it, making the language simple with short sentences...I bet Hemingway would have dug that.  He made the characters very life-like and compelling, although some of the mystery and resolution at the end seemed a bit cloudy to me.  I recommend it nonetheless and am considering reading Colin's earlier series.  But for now, I'm about to start reading Stephen King's latest novel, Fairy Tale...

My #13 All-Time Favorite Album: Close to the Edge by Yes

My #13 all-time favorite album, CLOSE TO THE EDGE, by the progressive rock band YES, took a long time to reach my full conscious attention.  I was fifteen in late 1971 when I heard my first Yes song on the radio: I've Seen All Good People.  At first, I thought the singer was a woman, but soon learned that it was Jon Anderson, who had a naturally high, feminine-sounding voice.  No matter, that song, a melodious first half and guitar-rocking on the back end, become for me my "song of the year".  In 1972, this progressive rock band, heavy on the keyboards, came out with the hit single Roundabout off their Fragile album.  Later that year they released their follow-up to Fragile, a critically acclaimed LP titled Close to the Edge.  It continues Anderson's singing and includes some wicked guitar and keyboard jams, along with a prolonged descent through what I've lovingly called the "rabbit hole" of musical and lyrical chaos.  Side One's opening track is the album's title: Close to the Edge...it turns out to be the only track, eighteen minutes in length. Opening with natural sounds including birds, it suddenly transforms into a wild, dissonant guitar jam before leading into Anderson's verses.  The song goes from one stage to another...a little past its midpoint begin my two favorite parts: the dreamy, slow "I Get Up I Get Down", followed by perhaps the jazziest, most versatile rock keyboard instrumental segment ever recorded, before the closing verses and final return to nature.  Whew, the amazing thing is that although my friend Barry from high school introduced it to me back in '73, I never got around to hearing the entire song until some twenty years later: Close to the Edge is my "song of the year" for 1993 and to this day ranks up there among my all-time favorite songs.  Side Two of the album contains just two tracks: And You and I and Siberian Khatru.  The former is a slow-moving, contemplative ballad about ten minutes in length while the latter is a faster-paced rocker.  The lyrics on this album, I believe, are deliberately vague in order to allow the listener to fashion his or her own interpretations, but Anderson said he was inspired for the song Close to the Edge by Hermann Hesse's book Siddartha.  Yes has had many member changes over the decades, but during those productive and inspired early 1970s, it was Anderson on lead vocals, Chris Squire on bass guitar, Steve Howe on guitar, Rick Wakeman on the keyboard and Bill Bruford on drums.  In their next two album releases the band would continue with ultra-long tracks...including Close to the Edge this would make six whopping album-side-length songs!  But trust me: Close to the Edge is the best one, and the two songs on the album's flip side...especially And You and I...are pretty doggone good as well.  Today Yes still exists, with Howe the only member on it from when they recorded Close to the Edge.  Anderson, Bruford and Wakeman are still around while Squire died seven years ago...

Next week: my #12 all-time favorite album...

Just Finished Rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a largely autobiographical philosophical novel written by Robert Pirsig, who passed away five years ago at age 88.  Originally published in 1974, the narrative covers a motorcycle journey taken by Pirsig and his son Chris, along with another couple on the early stages, through the northwestern US.  The author weaves together a diversity of topics: his own life history as a creative writing professor in Montana, debates about the legacy of ancient Greek philosophy, most notably that of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, two conflicting modern attitudes toward technology as epitomized by the schism in approaching motorcycle maintenance, and his rocky relationship with his son, complicated by the mental breakdown he had earlier suffered along with the consequential memory loss caused by now-discredited electroshock therapy.   Pirsig discusses what he sees as two conflicting worldviews people today (and in the past) maintain about how they approach life: the Classical, which involves seeing things for their components and underlying form (expressed commonly in science and technology) and the Romantic, which involves seeing things for their whole essence (the arts).  I first read this book back in the late summer of 1990 and tend to associate it with working at the old downtown Gainesville post office where I read most of it during my breaks...I recall the Gulf War was heating up at the same time.  At this second reading, I tried culling all of the sometimes-challenging detail into something I could remember better, coming away with two key words Pirsig talked about: quality and gumption.  According to him, quality, very difficult to describe in technical terms, somehow became separated from truth in ancient Greek philosophy and needs restoration.  And he discussed gumption as something akin to motivation and confidence, a trait necessary for an effective life as well as, of course, for properly maintaining a motorcycle.  It's a great book, although the "zen" in it seemed elusive for me.   I see a third reading somehow down the line...maybe I won't wait 32 years next time...

Quote of the Week...from M in the Movie Dr. No

Miss Moneypenny, forget the usual repartee.  007's in a hurry.                  ---M, Dr. No

For a long-standing movie series' first installment, the James Bond spy series got a lot of things right from the get-go with Dr. No, from 1962.  Then again, you can see some unworthy, dated stereotypes as well.  But I've always enjoyed the brief interplay from movie to movie between Bond and Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary in the supersecret British spy agency M16.  M, in the early movies played excellently by Bernard Lee, is Agent 007's immediate superior and has a very quick, acerbic wit...he's probably the only character in the series to which Bond displays a respectful subservience.  In an early scene from Dr. No, Bond, played here by Sean Connery, goes to M's office for his assignment and naturally encounters Moneypenny (played by Lois Maxwell), where they engage in their typical light, flirtatious banter.  Then Bond goes in to see his boss.  As he is leaving, M presses his speaker and delivers the above quote to Moneypenny...and 007 promptly leaves, giving her the empty box from his new gun.  I recognized the brilliance and humor of inserting this exchange in the movie, but I see a deeper significance.  I can't begin to count the times of annoyance when I would be watching the news on TV or listening to a radio talk show or podcast and the people on it would waste time just gibbering around with one another on no topic in particular.  This naturally doesn't occur when there's just one person present.  I'm guessing that part of this is to make the audience identify with them as regular folks, and part is to fill in some dead airtime between the actual features that they're really there for.  But sometimes they just go on and on as if they are in on some private joke apart from the audience and even snicker and giggle...that really sets me off: it's one of several reasons I refuse to watch the Greg Gutfeld show.  As for podcasting, I have written regularly about one series I enjoy listening to: Rob Dial's Mindset Mentor, in which he gives some ideas about living better in a conversational but disciplined manner.  I thought that since I like running, I might find a podcast that addresses that activity and found one featuring a couple who seem to feel that doing the old "Sonny and Cher" verge-of-argument routine is a great way to present a show.  After trying them out more than once, I came to the conclusion that although they did get around to eventually addressing the subject for which they had the podcast, it was too frustrating plowing through all that "repartee", as M termed it.  If I'm watching or listening to anything, I can tell you flat-out that this kind of prolonged banter is a big turnoff.  However, real life is different, and I think that light, inconsequential conversation is the stuff that greatly helps to hold us together in families, workplaces, stores, schools, and anywhere else people find themselves to keep from going to war with one another.  A little of that in movies, TV shows, radio, and podcasts...like Bond and Moneypenny in their flicks...adds some welcome flavor to the experience, but as with spices added to a recipe, too much can ruin everything...

Follow-Up about Rob Dial's Podcast on Hobbies

The other day I wrote about podcaster Rob Dial's tips about hobbies.  He suggested that we each have different types of them, one hobby that brings in money, one that enhances physical fitness, one that provides a creative outlet, one that improves memory and intelligence...and one that challenges the mindset.  The only of these that I had an issue with was the first one...and apparently, I'm not the only one.  Yet if I go to an art exhibit or craft show in town, inevitably I will see price tags next to the items on display.  Do I begrudge the creators of these objects their putting a price on their artistic expression, which by and large the greater part of them do as a hobby, a labor of love so to speak?   No, actually I think more of it as an expression of confidence and a statement of quality about their work.  I absolutely recognize the excellence of my favorite athletes, musicians and actors...yet I doubt that their acceptance of millions of dollars for their achievements has tainted their chosen field for them: they still love what they do.  But if I do charge money for some hobby I already love doing, doesn't that also imply that I am committed to the benefited party that my product meets a higher standard than if I were just dithering around?  It's this imposition on my sense of freedom as well as a possible sense of insecurity that I am not up to the task or am undeserving of what I might charge that, at least to me, presents the main challenges I have to this notion of Dial's.  Now one objection I heard about it was that if you're retired you don't feel the need to try to make more money...enough is enough: I totally get that viewpoint and think maybe charity or philanthropy might be viable alternatives.  But Dial, who is 35 with a work history in sales, wasn't just speaking to retirees.  Nor was he suggesting that people's lives are so pathetic that they need to wheedle others out of their cash in a petty manner.  As I said before, the emphasis is on quality and confidence, and receiving a little dough in some area...just one, not everything...can enhance life.  Plus, it's not a bad thing to feel a little challenged and confronted about something like this: it makes me work to examine my own life and that is a good thing...

Weekly Short Stories: 1986 Science Fiction, Part 6

I'm continuing to plod through the year 1986 in sci-fi short stories as I go through the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourth Annual Collection. As is the case with a number of Gardner's selections, not all the four stories I'm discussing today truly belong to the genre of science fiction, in my opinion.  Yet the middle two do fit quite well within the horror genre and are stories that Stephen King might be proud of.  Speaking of King, he has a new novel out now titled Fairy Tale...I'm getting ready to start reading it.  But for now, here are my reactions to those four stories from the anthology...

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE SUBLIME by Bruce Sterling

In a future society when machines have made everything pretty much automatic, the once lucrative fields of engineering and science have taken a back seat to the arts in economic power and social prestige. A well-to-do poet tries to win over the daughter of a technology firm magnate by sabotaging his rival's manually controlled flyer.  The impression I got from this story is that the author didn't think too highly of the arts and that society would become too soft if technology made everything too easy...

TATTOOS by Jack Dunn

A man with a heart condition, his wife and teenage son pay a visit in upstate New York to a country fair where he discovers an old friend who used to be a talented artist running the tattoo parlor.  But Nathan looks emaciated and has scars all over him.  His customers also seem to include, besides the regulars, people with special problems.  The idea of healing others' afflictions by taking them onto oneself isn't just an old Star Trek episode...it goes to the heart of the Christian gospel.  Yet Nathan is no Christ...

NIGHT MOVES by Tim Powers

Wow.  Being a night owl for much of my life and spending so much conscious time in those "graveyard" early, early morning hours, this story totally captures the essence of that time of day when most of us are in bed dreaming.  But what if those dreams...by means of a strange roaming essence...are transformed into reality and make their presence known on a city street?  Told from the viewpoint of a few different witnesses of such an occurrence around a city traffic circle, this story may cause the reader to reflect on who (or what) is really out there during those godforsaken wee hours...

THE PRISONER OF CHILLON by James Patrick Kelly

Part of this post-apocalyptic story is about history, part is about geography, and most of it concerns the struggle of a journalist to get her story out in one piece (both the story and herself) after covering a daring orbital theft of sensitive AI (artificial intelligence) data and following the surviving thief to the surface in Switzerland where they meet the man who is buying the info, living in the famous Chillon castle near Montreux.  I thought while reading it that many science fiction writers underestimated the progress that would be made in digital technology and AI in particular.  The story focuses on the characters of the thief, the journalist and the castle-dweller, who being almost completely physically incapacitated has surrounded himself with "smart" robots...

Next week: more about 1986 stories from the Gardner Dozois anthology... 

Thinking of 9/11/01

It's been a couple of days since September 11, now 21 years separated from the horrible events that transpired that morning in New York, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and those four doomed passenger jets.  I watched the History Channel Sunday night...they had a couple of good documentaries of ordinary citizens recording the events as they happened.  At the time I was working overtime on the flat sorting machine at the Gainesville post office and remember going on my final break where they had the TV on.  They were showing a gaping, smoking hole in one of the World Trade Center towers...this was a little before nine Eastern Time.  When I got back to the machine I told Timothy, my coworker, who rushed to the breakroom to see for himself. He returned with the news that the second tower had likewise been hit...we knew then that it was terrorism. Subsequent events that I would have assumed to be engrained in the American consciousness unfolded, among them the call to war.  Sometimes it's hard to calmly discuss options in the immediate aftermath of such a gut-wrenching disaster like this...I remember Washington senator Patty Murray being roundly attacked by the Republicans for daring to suggest that we seek to find out what actually motivated the terrorists. But it all gave certain elements of that party a justification to push their already-held agenda of invading Iraq, throwing out dictator Saddam Hussein and effecting "regime change" even though he was not involved in the plot.  I suppose that, depending on your political orientation and cherished narratives, our reactions to 9/11 were either well thought out, stumbling, or even devious...I'm guessing that elements of all three were involved.  As for now in 2022, I think we're in a "breather" period before more atrocities ensue, sad to say.  I wonder how we'll react to the next "9/11" if and when it occurs...