Just Finished Reading Something Borrowed, Someone Dead by M.C. Beaton

On our cruise earlier this month, on the ship's sixth deck, near their Starbucks store, was an informal "library" area where passengers could donate books they'd already read and select another from the shelf.  I found there a 2013 detective novel by the late Scottish writer Marion Chesney, probably better known under her pseudonym M.C. Beaton, titled Something Borrowed, Someone Dead.  It's one of more than thirty novels she wrote in her Agatha Raisin detective series, and was a fun departure from my recent slew of non-fiction books.  The English sleuth Agatha Raisin, with her collection of supportive characters, delves into a mysterious poisoning of an obnoxious recently-moved-in woman who has alienated pretty much her entire little town with her flirting with married man there and her tendency to either borrow others' property without returning it or simply stealing it outright...pretty soon practically no one wants to associate with her.  Her last mistake is to steal a bottle of wine from a neighbor's cellar...she is found dead, poisoned.  Who did it? Plenty of suspects, but Agatha soon finds that everyone in the town wants to squash her investigation and cover up the dastardly deed.  There are plenty of ongoing subplots with the series' regular characters, and I can see how readers could be drawn to Beaton's witty writing.  As a matter of fact, I might just read the whole series...but let's see if I can't read them in chronological order: the one I just read was #24...

Quote of the Week...from Pablo Picasso

Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.            Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, of course, was the great twentieth century artist probably best known for his development of the cubist genre.  While he didn't exactly eschew publicity during his long life, his above quote struck me for its wisdom...I'm only 67 but know from personal experience that Picasso is right on target here.  The problem is that seeking solitude seems to count in our relationship-obsessed culture for a kind of mental disorder that needs to be nipped for the sake of "community"...a buzz word that, for me at least, seems to signal that whoever uses it is about to manipulate me.  I'm not against relationships per se, it's just that the only meaningful, constructive and loving ones are concentrated and deliberately few in number.  But even with these, it is no insult to any of them that I often want to be by myself, think, and work things out.  I don't, however, feel that solitude in itself has to take place physically isolated...I'm writing this at a table in my nearby Starbucks, with many customers and workers all around me.  But I am not engaging with them, nor they with me: there is no interruption of my thoughts and efforts here. On the other hand, at my job there are times when I need to focus on my core assignment, which demands that I meticulously concentrate my attention on important, pertinent matters without distraction. Unfortunately, though, my seriousness to my work in this regard I'm afraid is sometimes framed as antisocial...nothing could be further from the truth. I've also noticed that many of those who act as if they want to socialize along with their work are continuously "forgetting" things they need to do, things that interfere with the ability of others (and sometimes myself) to effectively perform their jobs.  Nothing wrong with having a chat from time to time, but please don't screw me over in the process...

Signed Up to Run Marathon Race Next Month

I recently signed up to run the 26.2-mile marathon in an upcoming race, held in Hawthorne...or, more precisely, the outskirts thereof...a few miles southeast of Gainesville.  With the theme of cinnamon buns in mind (to be provided on race day by Panera Bread), it's called "Run Your Buns Off" and offers 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon choices...all to take place on the exact stretch of the woodsy-but-paved  Hawthorne Trail on which I ran the Florida Track Club's Mary Andrews half-marathon back in January.  If you read my article from back then, you'd note that I was originally going to sign up for their marathon instead, but they were stuck on capping finishing times for it at five hours...very elitist of them in my view.  So I'm going nearly three months later for essentially the same thing, although I'm not too enthusiastic as to the probably warmer and possibly wetter weather conditions come April 7th, when the race is scheduled to happen.  The course is about as basic as you could make it...unless you do what ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes once did in his youth and run a marathon by going 105 laps around his high school track.  It's a four-cycle out and back, taking place on the same 3.27 mile stretch of trail...yawn.  Yet I do have an imagination, and my idea is to take whatever stage of the race I'm in and pretend that it's that same place in the New York City Marathon, which I've watched (and trained) to on YouTube many times to the point that I think I know the layout of some streets better than a lot of the natives there.  In any event, I see this race for me as an experiment as well as a fork in the road about what direction I will subsequently go with my running, as well as walking.  Should things work out as foreseen, this would be my second official marathon run, the other occurring back in 2011 and "highlighted" by me having to slowly walk its final seven miles while suffering from a very painful leg strain... 

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 8

Actually, the title of today's article is misleading, since what I'm discussing today isn't a short story but rather a novel, and it was published in 2000...let me explain. Poul Anderson, one of the great science fiction writers of the late twentieth century, sadly passed away in 2001.  The year before, though, he expanded his 1995 novella Genesis into a full-length book.  Genesis first appeared in that '95 novella form in Gardener Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection.  Discovering that it was later turned into a novel and that it was available for checkout from my Libby app, I did just that and read it.  I was intrigued by the story's premise, in which the development of artificial intelligence has culminated in the entire human race uploading itself into AI, which reminded me in a different vein of what happened to everyone in Clifford Simak's earlier, wonderful novel City (read it to find out).  Anyway, the way Anderson implies, our identities become immortal...in  a sense...and space travel and exploration and "settlement" of the cosmos becomes very feasible, especially since lifespans and time itself cease to be a limiting factor.  So it shouldn't surprise readers that "man" is still around hundreds of millions of years in the future, in the virtual forms of former-real humans who have been sent by the major AIs to try to circumvent the sun from destroying the Earth...its resident AI, called Gaia, is inexplicably resisting their efforts.  I'd like to say I came away from the reading with great praise, but I found it extremely difficult to follow as the author would hop from one plot sequence to another without explanation.  And the "humans" were also hard to empathize with, seeing that in essence they were only constructions of a greater intelligence and not real flesh and blood.  Genesis was picked, as I said, for the Dozois anthology,  It probably would have been best had Poul Anderson just left it back there as a novella and not tried to make it something bigger.  I'll see if I can't come up with a few more hopefully-shorter stories to review from the Dozois book next week...

Voted in Florida Primary, Among Few Others

This morning around eleven I went down the Senior Recreation Center near my home...not to recreate seniors, mind you, but to vote in the 2024 Florida Primary: it's my precinct's polling site. Well, if you read my article from a few days ago, you'd know by now that I'm a registered Republican, since the only measure on the ballot was the party presidential primary and Biden's running opposed in the Democratic Party, at least in Florida. Melissa went with me and we went through the empty polling area...other than the workers...and bubbled out and inserted our ballots into the machine.  It registered that we were the 23rd and 24th voters in the four hours since the polls opened that morning here...no surprise since the "election" was essentially meaningless with the party's cult idol already assured of nomination without any remaining organized opposition.  Still, the names of some former candidates who dropped out of the race were still on the ballot, and I cast my vote as I had indicated before.  After voting, we went on to the more practical part of the visit, which was to check out the Senior Recreation center.  I could see that many elderly would derive a lot of benefit from it, with the game rooms, exercise classes, limited workout room (monitored by a registered physical therapist), pickle ball courts, and a weekly schedule of programs and activities.  Yet I didn't see anything there that called out to me...yet.  As for the vote, it was obviously just symbolic for me, but it was nice to get out there and vote in person after the COVID pandemic and subsequent mail-in voting...    

The Players Championship Golf Tournament Was a Classic This Year

The Players Championship golf tournament, played in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (just south of Jacksonville is one of those PGA events that attract attention beyond the sport's regular adherents.  This past weekend we saw Scotty Scheffler, perhaps the greatest golfer of this current era, struggling to defend from behind his previous year's title in the event.  Starting the final round yesterday, Scheffler was tied for sixth place, five strokes behind leader Xander Schauffele.  It seemed that only an incredible final round, combined with more restrained performances by Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Brian Harmon, the last two only one and two strokes behind, respectively, would enable Scheffler to repeat as champ.  But events unraveled exactly as Scotty would have preferred and he won dramatically by a single stroke at the end as opponent after opponent missed their achingly close birdie attempts on the 18th hole...it was a classic to be remembered.  I've never played "regular" golf before, only mini-golf, but I've enjoyed following the professional golf tournaments in recent years.  Before yesterday's action, I tuned in to the Golf Channel to hear their commentary and was dismayed to discover that they only seemed interested in setting up betting odds on the probable winners.  The only time I ever bet on spectator sports was in high school when I went in on an NFL pool for one weekend.  I came close to winning it with my predictions but, fortunately, narrowly lost to another kid...who ended up having to hassle many of the others in the pool to pay up.  I say fortunately because it helped to further steer me from gambling money, something I was already on guard against because my father, although a responsible provider who saved money and kept us all financially floating, had a weakness for betting the dogs at many of South Florida's tracks and seemed often preoccupied on a mind-numbing level with his various betting systems which he often changed around.  So no, whatever vices I have, gambling away money isn't one of them.  On our recent cruise there was a casino and Melissa and I passed through it on the way to somewhere else...the folks there were so intensely involved with their little machines and games that it frankly kind of freaked me out.  A couple of days later we were seated for breakfast at a table where the other two couples couldn't stop talking about their casino adventures and systems.  Well, I suppose if you're helping to financially prop up the cruise industry with your gambling so that I have better options with it, then go for it!  Besides, the more in the casino, the fewer clogging up the pool and deck...

Congrats and Condolences for UF Men's Basketball Team

In a bittersweet roller-coaster day for the Florida Gators men's basketball team, they culminated their long run in the Southeastern Conference postseason tournament with the championship game against heavily-favored Auburn.  Already pretty much guaranteed a spot in the NCAA championship "March Madness" tournament, they still had the Tigers as an immediate hurdle.  Bowing to Auburn 86-67, the Gators' greatest disappointment by far, though, was the loss of their starting center, Micah Handlogten, to a broken leg as he was coming down for a rebound only two minutes into the game.  We all wish him a full and speedy recovery, and as he was a sophomore, a good return for next year.  Florida was awarded in the South Region as the 7th seed...they are scheduled to begin their tournament action next Friday in Indianapolis against the winner of the Boise State/Colorado contest on Wednesday, currently sporting a 24-11 overall W/L record. Todd Golden, the Gator coach, seems like a fine young man who just might be the next Billy Donovan that fans have been looking for.  I wish him, the Florida team...and, of course, Micah, the best in the next few days and weeks.  Should they advance past Friday, they will play the winner of Marquette/Western Kentucky game on Sunday in their question to make the "Sweet Sixteen" of remaining teams...click HERE to see the interactive tournament bracket...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

When I got up this morning at 6 it was still dark, due to the "jump ahead" to Daylight Savings Time last weekend.  It was also cloudy, unseasonably warm (69 degrees, still in winter) and a stifling 92% humidity.  I decided right then that I was going to today's Depot Parkrun 5K, held weekly at that park just south of downtown Gainesville, not to set any records but rather to see how I could do under these conditions.  I continued to use Jeff Galloway's run/walk method, my strategy this time to alternate 5 minute running with 40-45 seconds of fast walking throughout the race.  The fact that it was "earlier" at the 7:30 start meant that the sun was lower in the sky...and it being cloudy, I never had to directly contend with the glare.  I started the run feeling energized and ended it that way, not a personal best for this, my 36th Depot Parkrun, but still a pretty good time at 28:19...click HERE to view today's results.  For next week I had been considering a muddy 10K trail race in Paynes Prairie that I had been avoiding for years...probably will continue that streak in '24.  After all, there's the Depot Parkrun 5K, a free, volunteer-driven weekly run on Saturday mornings (I've volunteered 4 times, probably need to up it a bit).  Melissa had to be at work this morning and couldn't make it out there...we'll just take things a week at a time and see what opportunities lie for us...

Quote of the Week...from Will Self

Always carry a notebook.  And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.              ---Will Self

Will Self is an English journalist and writer...no, I've yet to read any of his output (other than the above quote).  I already follow his advice to carry a notebook...well, in my case a memo pad as well as a slew of folded-up pieces of paper that tend to get misplaced.  I think I have a reasonably good memory, but it frustrates me when I am searching my recent past for details of experiences or thoughts that seem to have slipped away from me...can I ever retrieve them?  For example, the cruise that Melissa and I went on earlier this month started in the early afternoon of the 2nd, on Saturday, and ended a week later in the morning on the 9th.  Let's see...today's the 15th so my experiences should still be fresh in my memory.  But, of course, some memories tend to quickly fade while some others tend to undergo some distortion.  Today I'd like to see how much I can remember about what I ate during this Royal Caribbean cruise from Tampa to the western Caribbean and back.  Turns out there was a lot to remember...

Bagel/Cream Cheese

2 Glazed Donuts

2 Chocolate Frosted Donuts

3 Bananas

Orange

Pancakes

French Toast

Scrambled Eggs

Grits

Several Pepperoni Pizza Slices

Several Caesar Salads

Greek Salad

2 Baked Onion Soups

Several Ice Cream Cones

Several Chocolate Bar Cake Slices

Tiramisu

Several Beef Tacos

Nacho Cheese Platter

Lots of Bacon

Lots of Breakfast Sausage

Several Rolls with Butter

Crab Cakes

Seafood Bakes

Minestrone Soup

Lasagna

Lemon-Baked Cod

Cheesecake

Vegan Tofu Cheesecake

Apple Crumble Dessert

Braised Lamb Rogan Josh

Mutton Entreé

Enchilada

Macaroni and Cheese

Spaghetti Bolognese

Sounds like a lot, but I know there's a lot more food that I stuffed into my mouth during this outing but simply cannot remember.  But I wonder if, had I not stopped at this juncture today to recall as much as I could, would most of these memories also have slipped by the wayside.  I don't know if I'd like Will Self's writing...maybe I'll venture to find out before long.  But since I wrote about him on this blog it is tantamount to using a notebook, isn't it, and that makes the reference to him much less likely to be forgotten.  On the other hand, I can't just go around constantly writing down everything I experience, either. By the way, my favorite dinner on the cruise was on "Italian Night", when they served minestrone soup for the appetizer, lasagna as the main entreé, and tiramisu for dessert.  Nothing I hadn't had before, but the ship's kitchen produced the very best of each of these I had ever eaten...

Just Finished Reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The Art of Racing in the Rain is a 2008 book written by Garth Stein, adapted eleven years later to film with what I've read were mixed reviews.  The premise of the story, narrated by a dog, is his affection and bonding to his owner Denny, a budding race car driver whose in-laws connive to legally extract custody of his young daughter following his wife Eve's death due to a brain tumor.  It's very sentimental and cute, and Enzo, named after a famous race driver Denny admired, knows everything, including all about auto racing. But being a dog, he is unable to express himself.  After reading the book through, am I motivated to go see the movie? No chance of that, but I always respect an author like Stein who skillfully and coherently put together this story. Would I recommend it to you?  Well, the only reason I read it in the first place was because it was one of the "Playaway" MP3-based audio books available at the time at my local public library, it caught my eye, and I checked it out.  I wasn't all that interested, frankly, in the domestic goings-on between a dog, his master and the master's family...no matter how compelling Enzo made it all seem.  Maybe it will work for you...I've read much worse, and this book wasn't bad...

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 7

Today I continue my look at 1995 short sci-fi tales as they appeared in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection and edited by the late Gardner Dozois, himself a recognized writer within the genre.  In doing this I'm temporarily skipping by a full-blown Poul Anderson novella featured in the book...I plan to review it next week.  So here goes...

COMING OF AGE IN KARHIDE by Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin was one of those writers who has, like Isaac Asimov or Stephen King, created their own fictional universe from which to derive creative inspiration and a ready-made setting for stories...hers is the Hainish universe of settled worlds scattered across the galaxy eons into the future and which provide a laboratory of observation as to how human societies can all be the same on some levels...and very different on others.  In this story people on one world, normally sexually neuter and inactive and being essentially hermaphrodites (possessing both male and female sexual organs), go periodically through a sexually-intense state called "kemmer". Here a young person goes through it, and the accompanying fears, for her/his very first time.  Le Guin was a bold groundbreaker in the examination of sexuality using the genre of science fiction...

FEIGENBAUM NUMBER by Nancy Kress

A mathematician is plagued by a special problem, which he thinks is unique to him: everyone he encounters presents two images of themselves, their real selves and, behind them, who they could have been ideally.  He believes that it all somehow comes down to a special number (hence the story's title) and how it relates to cause, effect, and chaos, as he joins his colleague in developing a special equation that he hopes will solve this enigma that is oppressing his life.  And then, what do you know, he finds another sharing his gift/curse. I have to admit to having some difficulty understanding the mathematics of this story, but then again maybe the author was winging it, too...

HOME by Geoff Ryman

In a dystopian future where just going out one's own door (and even staying at home, for that matter) can bring physical violence from the hands of roving young criminals running rampant, an elderly man has a view of "Home" that might eerily remind some of what is evolving in our society these days with the advancement of video games and virtual reality...if plugging into the real world is unbearable, then why not one more suitable, humane, meaningful and safer?  The shortest story of the three today, it is also the most chilling for its immediate relevance to what is developing around us...

Next week: my reaction to that '95 Poul Anderson novella...

Discrepancies Between Workout Settings

I've been writing on this blog off and on about my struggles with developing efficient swimming form and endurance...it's going unevenly, to say the least.  My main stroke is the freestyle American crawl, while I'm working on the fundamentals both of it and the breaststroke.  The pool at my local gym, Gainesville Health and Fitness, can seem daunting at 75 feet of length as well.  On our recent cruise we had access to a smaller pool that had an unexpectedly positive feature: salt water, which provided much more buoyancy and aided with my brief swimming practice there.  That would have been a good pool to be able to swim 75 feet in! In one setting I feel like Mark Spitz while, in the other, just little old me thrashing around awkwardly.  It's not only swimming in which the setting can make a difference.  Naturally, treadmills tend to give the user better mileage and speed scores than if they were running on the ground or road, and they tend to be gentler on the legs and feet.  But there are differences between them as well. At GHF I can get to a sustained walking pace (no inclination) on their treadmills at 5.0 mph, but the treadmill at home we recently purchased can go up to 5.4 and it seems easier than the slower gym treadmill pace.  I've come to believe that whether I'm swimming, walking or running, it's a good idea to vary the setting a bit while not getting hung up on how fast or far I'm able to go...consistency is the watchword here.  Of course, with swimming my variables are pool availability, pool size and water salinity, factors I have much less control over now that I'm off the cruise ship.  Melissa suggested that maybe it's time to get a pool in our backyard, one that is conducive to swimming laps.  Interesting, but I'm also thinking of that salt water: maybe the beach is a good idea, too...or another cruise...

Dutch is My Improbable Third Language, In a Manner of Speaking

As we were finishing our cruise from last week, Melissa and I explored other cruise destinations available from our line, Royal Caribbean.  One course takes the ship to the southern Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela with visits to the "ABC" islands, formerly colonies of the Netherlands: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.  Together with Sint Maarten and two other islands in the eastern Caribbean, they comprise the Netherlands Antilles, which was dissolved in 2010.  Now in 2024, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are autonomous territories of the Netherlands, Bonaire is under that country's direct administration...and Aruba is an independent nation...correct me if I got that wrong. Anyway, back in 1967 when I was eleven and listening to the radio at night, I picked up on AM-800 kHz the powerful station PJB2, which broadcast out of Bonaire with 500,000 watts, a staggering amount of power (U.S. clear channel AM stations are limited to only 50,000 watts).  About mid-evening the station, which called itself Trans World Radio, featured English-language evangelistic Christian programming, Back to the Bible, Unshackled and the TWR-produced Music and You being the shows I regularly listened to. Earlier in the evening the station served as a relay for Radio Nederland's evening programming from Hilversum, Holland, which included the English-language Happy Station Program as well as news in Dutch.  With English being my first language and Spanish lessons starting in my fourth grade (1965), in retrospect it was this funny-sounding national language of the Netherlands that was my third language, although I didn't understand any of it and hardly ever studied it in the ensuing decades of my life.  Yet Dutch is supposedly the closest distinct language to English if you discount the Frisian tongue that very few speak.  I wonder how many in the former Netherlands Antilles speak it...the prominent language spoken on the ABC islands is Papiamento, a creole based on Portuguese. I'd like to visit Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire...most probably on a cruise...

Meaningless Florida Primary Ongoing with Early Voting

This has to be by far the deadest presidential primary season I've ever experienced since following them in 1968...both major political parties have pretty much folded up and closed shop with their anointed candidates, fascist Donald Trump as the clear consensus choice for Republicans and incumbent Joe "Not Trump" Biden for the Democrats.  And now early voting is underway in the Florida Primary...at least on the Republican side as Biden has no listed opposition.  But all of the major GOP candidates running against Trump have ended their campaigns without ever gaining any traction among the adoring masses enthralled with their orange personality cult idol.  I am currently a registered Republican and still plan to vote in the primary on "election day" March 19, for what it's worth.  Since former New Jersey governor Chris Christie spoke out the most vehemently against Trump during his brief campaign, I'm planning to vote for him...holding my breath in the process, not exactly being a Christie fan either.  And then it'll be on to the conventions where the parties will crown their dubious choices, with anti-vaccine conspiracy nut Robert F. "Neither-Trump-Nor-Biden" Kennedy, Jr. waiting in the wings as an independent option for voters looking for an even worse candidate.  So this is liberty and democracy...are you telling me that these three are the best my country could come up with?  Biden's my reluctant choice in November, but I won't waste my writing time trying to convince anyone to go out there and join me, much less dissuade those inclined to push one of the other major candidates into office.  Be my guest and do as you will, for all I care... 

Back in Gainesville from Cruise

For the past week, Melissa and I have been on an ocean cruise on our vacation break.  We took the Royal Caribbean ship Enchantment of the Seas out of the Port of Tampa on a Gulf of Mexico/Western Caribbean cruise with stops in Mexico and Honduras before coming back.  It was the first time in my life that I actually set foot on land outside the United States, although the two excursions in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the island of Roatan in Honduras were largely under "cruise control"...still, they count and I'm now up to three countries...whoopee!  I took a break from a lot of things during this outing, including this blog and my cell phone...and especially social media.  I'm guessing that from time to time in the days to come, I'll be discussing some of my reactions to this thing or that from the cruise.  By and large, I have a positive take from it and some pretty interesting memories.  But for the time being, I'll just let it go at that...good to be back!

Super-Constellation of the Month: the Good Ship Argo

 

I'm planning on viewing the ancient Greek super-constellation Argo on my cruise trip down to the western Caribbean, at a latitude where hopefully I can capture the full scope of these interesting star patterns of which I knew from childhood but never had the opportunity to just go out and observe.  Because Argo was so big, it was later divided into the "official", smaller constellations of Puppis (the Deck), Carina (the Keel) and Vela (the Sails). My only real connection with Argo has been with Canopus, my favorite star of the night sky and the second brightest after Sirius.  There are also four stars on the above map, two in Vela and two in Carina, that if you looked at them a certain way you could make out a cross...it's the "False Cross" that for centuries has fooled observers looking for the Southern Cross, which is far east of Argo and constitutes the constellation Crux.  My success in observing Argo will depend, of course, on the cooperation of the weather: fog and overcast skies, or annoying shipboard lights for that matter, could present issues...but I'm remaining optimistic...

Rereading James Clear's Book Atomic Habits

I have been listening to James Clear's book Atomic Habits while driving...I checked out the CD-set from my local public library although we own the book.  I've read it before...click HERE for my earlier review.  He has a lot of information to share, and it can be a bit daunting to ingest.  The main point I've taken from it is that habits are best tackled first in a modest way, making them small enough to handle within a short span of time.  Good habits should be made attractive and immediately rewarding in some way, which sometimes requires creativity since by-and-large they involve delayed gratification.  As for things that give an immediate pleasurable feeling, the author warns that they can lead to bad habits...oh, swell, just what I wanted to hear!  So far the one big thing I've taken from this rereading is his idea of starting on a new habit by making it ridiculously small...he uses the "two-minute rule"...and then gradually increasing the time and/or intensity. I do some variations of this already, whereby I'll just set aside a small block of time, say 15 to 30 minutes, and see how much I can get done with a specific task.  Sometimes my daily schedule carves out a time niche with borders, within which I'll devote myself to a worthwhile activity I want to make into a constructive habit.  I think that keeping up with the mundane things in my life on a habitual level is probably the most immediate desire I have with regard to replacing bad habits with good ones.  As with many things in life, transforming it all into a kind of fun game works for me...

Quote of the Week...from Kelly Clarkson

The thing I love most about going on vacation is that I get to leave behind any kind of schedule. My entire life is scheduled from morning to night, and when I'm on vacation, there is no schedule.

                          Kelly Clarkson

Musical artist Kelly Clarkson has it right about what she loves about going on vacation...at least for herself, that is. Melissa and I are embarking on our own starting tomorrow and, since we're traveling, there are destinations to tour and, frankly, it's necessary to follow a time schedule at least some of the time.  Meals are offered on our boat at different times of the day, and even from day to day the theme changes for the passengers...I'm not too keen on that aspect (I'm sure Kelly would agree).  Fortunately, we should also have plenty of unstructured time to ourselves and I am definitely looking forward to that.  As for this blog and new articles during our trip, I'll just have to play it out, in an unscheduled sort of way, naturally...

My February 2024 Running, Walking and Swimming Report

In February I continued running daily, and worked to create a viable running and walking course in my backyard…I’m getting tired of all the humanity and hassle at my local gym. I also ran two races, the Florida Track Club’s Micanopy Ten-Miler on the 10th and the Depot Parkrun 5K on the 24th.  I feel right now that I am in a sort of running groove that has generated faster times in whatever distance I’m running in than in several years.  The fact that the weather is turning warmer now may mitigate against that trend, not to mention that available races of the long distance variety in our area tend to quickly diminish as the springtime and more heat enters the picture.  Yet in late March my Alachua County features the Trail of Payne 10K, an annual trail run set in Paynes Prairie between Gainesville and Micanopy I’ve somehow managed to avoid all these years…maybe I’ll try it this time around.  And on April 7th there is a race with the dubious name Run Your Buns Off, covering the same course in Hawthorne I ran back in January for the Mary Andrews half marathon.  I’m considering that one but haven’t decided whether to repeat my half marathon efforts or go all out for the 26.2 mile marathon they’re offering…stay tuned!  Sadly, though, the following week’s 5K/10K race titled Run the Good Race, which I had twice run in years past, is canceled due to its organizers having decided to direct their charitable efforts elsewhere…that’s a shame.  Well, all that’s about running, but I’m still planning on working with my walking and swimming as well. I'd like to try speed-walking the next Depot Parkrun 5K I enter...I really dig walking fast and see it as something that I'd like to carry into my advanced years should I be fortunate enough to have that opportunity. The same is true for swimming, although I have a ways to go to improve my form in the different strokes and don't like what my local gym offers me...I may be searching elsewhere for a viable pool...

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 6

Once again it's time for me to post my reaction to short stories I've recently read. I'm currently going through the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, featuring his picks from 1995. If I ever write a tell-all personal memoir, this particular year would stand out as one of the times that formulated my rather cynical opinion of people in general and the phoniness of the term "community" whenever I hear it bandied about as something that I should seek with others...but a tell-all personal memoir isn't what I'm about, which is most probably the best for all (including myself)...

CASTING AT PEGASUS by Mary Rosenblum

In a future of decline and decay, an abandoned airport is the site of a young woman's attempt at her art, which is luminous kite-flying: her project is to frame the constellation Pegasus in the night sky.  She has to avoid the night watchman and others...a subplot is her falling out with her roommate, another is her new friendship with a homeless young outcast who is looking for the aliens to swoop down and take them away to a better life.  A lot to cover in a short tale, one full of whimsy and unfulfilled dreams...

LOOKING FOR KELLY DAHL by Dan Simmons

A man, dismissed from his middle school teaching largely because of drinking following his son's death and his wife's leaving, finds himself a few years later confronted in a life and death struggle for survival against a woman who at age eleven was a former student of his. Complicating matters is that their Colorado landscape and surroundings keep changing drastically, from one eon to another.  This tale reminded me of the 1959 William Tenn story The Malted Milk Monster (click the title to read my review), but the association doesn't appear until near its ending, although the story by Simmons seemed deeper...

THINK LIKE A DINOSAUR by James Patrick Kelly

It turns out dinosaurs did not die out some 65 million years ago after all.  No, they have advanced space ships and have traveled the cosmos through their instantaneous transport system, which resembles the "beaming" in Star Trek. I've always held that just making an exact copy of someone in another location doesn't mean that person's self and identity was transferred...this story sides with that take and then extends it to its logical (and horrifying) conclusion...

Next week I'll be out of town, but should resume this weekly Wednesday feature after I get  back...

Septuagenarian Marathoner Gives Me Pause About My Own Plans

Back around 2010 I became a big fan of ultra-marathon runner Dean Karnazes, whose book Ultramarathon Man greatly inspired me to have a serious go at long distance running and accompanying races.  Just the other day while on YouTube I came across the name of Gene Dykes, about 73 now, who has defied all the traditional wisdom about how old age makes people more feeble and less athletic. After astonishing the running world with a marathon under three hours as a 70-year-old, he has, like Karnazes, gone on to tackle ultra-long runs, one of them a 250-mile event!  To these two I say bravo, but as far as I personally am concerned, were I to follow (more slowly, I'm sure) in their footsteps, my life experience of sometimes getting carried away with my success in an area would wear thin with me.  There are lots of cool areas in life to focus on, not just running: just looking at athletics, I see a more viable future for myself in swimming and, especially, speed-walking. But still, beyond sports, there are many things I'm interested in and I'd rather be immersed in them on a mediocre level than just continue going on to extremes in one tried-and-tested activity...but that's just me.  Still, there are a few remaining goals in running I'd like to get past first, and if possible, I'd like to continue the sport as long as possible as the years advance...

Podcaster Discusses ADHD

On today's Mindset Mentor podcast, personal development coach Rob Dial discusses ADHD, or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.  His position is that it isn't necessarily a disorder, but rather a different way some people's minds are constructed, more appropriately and neutrally referred to as a trait instead of a disorder  He says that it is typified by three characteristics: inattention, distractibility, and hyperactivity.  For each, Dial suggests a positive side.  With inattention, typified by drifting away from what isn't interesting, there is often hyperfocus on what does attract interest. And with this arises an enhanced ability to creatively solve problems.  With distractibility, Dial replaces the negative connotation with the more positive presence of higher curiosity, once again contributing to problem solving with a greater propensity to think outside the box.  And finally, with regard to hyperactivity, our host refers to it as an ample supply of energy, perhaps directed in a way that others might not like.  In concluding, Rob Dial urges people either diagnosed with ADHD, or who strongly feel this within themselves, to be more physically active, take on new challenges, and embrace and accept the ADHD.  I was interested in this episode because a few years ago I took an online test to see if I had ADHD...if you scored 15 or higher out of a possible 20 you were advised to "run to a doctor"...I scored 17, and it explained much of what I have experienced throughout both my childhood and adult life, especially concerning how I handled school.  I for one do not feel that kids so diagnosed (or adults for that matter) should be drugged to alleviate the so-called "symptoms" of this so-called "disorder"...

Good Day Off for Me and Family

Today has been a day of relaxation, exercise, companionship with Melissa and our dog Daisy, and personal musings.  At the day's start I realized that the TV was on the news and there was a lot of anger...seething anger...going out from people outraged at this thing or that.  While information is a good thing in principle, how it's transmitted and how I receive it have become crucial elements of my own life in these divisive times we're living in.  I choose the path I want to go down...if others want to be slaves of media manipulation then I guess that is ultimately their own choice as well.  I find that while it's important to live each day fully mindful of the present and my surroundings, I also know that it's to my advantage to plan out at least a tentative structure for the future days, weeks and months ahead...and that's been at the roots of those musings I was referring to.  All in all, a good day, and I hope yours has gone well, too...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

This Saturday morning, Melissa and I got up at the unholy hour of six to prepare for the Depot Parkrun, a four-lap, through-the-park run/walk event held just a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville that is always a little different from week to week.  For her it was her 4th time out there...she's a walker and has been making great "strides" in it lately.  For me, I decided to run the 3.1 mile course, taking a couple of brief, brisk walking breaks at the ten and twenty minute marks.  It was a cool 50 degrees at race time, with around an 80% humidity...pretty good conditions, except for no cloud cover when the sun rose.  I ran the race with a lot of energy and finished with a personal best for my 35th Parkrun since 2019, with a time of 27:36: click HERE to see the posted results.  Afterwards I joined up with Melissa to finish her walk...she's doing great!  So, this was our last Depot Parkrun for a while...for the next couple of weeks we will be out of town on vacation, so March 16th would be the earliest for us to possibly get down there again.  The Depot Parkrun is free and volunteer-run...you register online and they explain how the timing system works with the bar code they provide you...

Quote of the Week...from Carl Jung

The shoe that fits one person pinches another.  There is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

                               ---Carl Jung

Lately I've been exploring various podcasts and YouTube channels that feature individuals expressing their personal and/or professional viewpoints about various topics, in particular on fitness, running, personal development, language learning and aging.  Several of the sites have as hosts medical doctors or PhDs, yet often their advice runs contradictory to one another.  With me that's okay, because I believe I can filter out a lot of what's going on with them...and often they're speaking to different audience groups.  As for me, I am no physician and have no doctorate, yet if you've read a number of my five thousand-plus articles over the past nearly sixteen years, you just might conclude that there are things I approve of and others upon which I vehemently frown.  But the carry-home point you should get is that they are all my own subjective viewpoints.  A lot of what I say and do may or may not be constructive or even appropriate for you or others.  The above quote by the famed Swiss psychiatrist/psychologist Carl Jung crystallizes this perfectly: we tend to wear different types and sizes of shoes...ultimately it's the individual who has to draw the line and determine what works for them.  Sadly it's been my experience that some folks have such a low opinion of their capacity to do this that they spend their existence flitting from one fad, belief system or cult idol to another, ingesting everything without discernment or questioning...and even becoming indignant at anyone who isn't even directly criticizing their adopted beliefs but who is just living their own life by their own individual standards...

 

Training Strategies at Home

After suffering through much of the early part of February with rainy weather here in northern Florida, it looks like we've entered a stretch of pleasantly dry, cool conditions.  That's good for me and my back yard, one end of which tends to get a bit marshy when it has been raining for a few days.  I'd like to transform it into an outdoor exercise gym, and have the widest part between fences measured so that I can do walking and running laps.  With walking, my timed speeds on this linear there-and-back cyclic course line up well with what I've been able to accomplish on my gym's treadmill.  One reason for this is that when I reach a fence on my walk to turn back in the other direction, I have little need to decelerate, and thus tend to better maintain my pace.  But with running this is different: if I don't drastically slow myself down then I'm going to crash into the fence.  So I'm thus working on measuring out a more perimeter-based running course with smooth corners that will permit me maximum speed without having to slow down too much.  I like the grass surface over asphalt with running since it jars the body less...save the hard impacts for races! My main issue is that, with the limited space it's hard for me to hit a challenging short pace. Also, I'm thinking of getting one of those overhead exercise bars that I can do dead hangs and chin-ups on. As for my gym, I can still go there for speed workouts on the treadmill and, of course, swimming.  As well as possible resistance weight training...

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 5

Here are my reactions to more tales from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection. I think I'll just dive right on in...

WE WERE OUT OF OUR MINDS WITH JOY by David Marusek

Wow. Normally I groan with frustration when I encounter one of the many drawn-out novellas that the editor is so fond of, but this one not only stuck with me, but was chilling as well.  I could see this kind of simultaneous utopia/dystopia forming in our own reality as information technology merges with advances in the biological sciences to produce a different kind of Brave New World.  It's a crazy variant on the whirlwind romance narrative, with Sam and Eleanor, rejuvenation making them virtually immortal, deciding to "have" a child.  How that happens in a population-hypersensitive future society is scary enough, but then there are those slugs crawling freely around everywhere and drawing blood from the passively acquiescing people.  This one's a classic...

RADIO WAVES by Michael Swanwick

This singular story probes into the notion that being dead does not mean one has departed from the real physical world, nor that there aren't extreme dangers in the post-life "life"...along with vicious predators.  A newly deceased man rides the wires and haunts old buildings, avoiding the soul-consuming Crunchgrinder lurking to ambush him.  He meets up with another recently died, a woman called the Widow, and discovers a great deal about himself, what kind of person he was, and the secret about his afterlife friend.  Personal discovery and liberation after death: for a brief tale this one packs a lot of punch...

WANG'S CARPETS by Greg Egan

I admit to having some difficulty getting into this story, since its setting has humans "evolved" to the point where they have shed their fleshly bodies and become essentially sophisticated software...yet they clone themselves: and thus spread different personal versions across the cosmos: it's just hard for me to picture all this.  The story's focus is on a habitable world orbiting the star Vega, where some flat, stretched out organic substance floating in the vast ocean (hence the title) gets analysed for whether it's alive and, if so, what kind of life.  The answer is mind-blowing and makes my earlier difficulties with the scenario worthwhile...

Next week: more SF from '95...

Podcaster Discusses How to Quell Anxiety

It's been a while since I wrote about one of Rob Dial's Mindset Mentor podcasts. It isn't because I stopped listening to them or had lost interest, but rather that he wisely repeats his core beliefs on personal development...and I've already covered the gist of them.  One topic that came up yesterday that I've discussed before is anxiety and how to best deal with it.  Dial presents a number of strategies for countering the awful feeling of being stressed out and beside oneself with worry...together they pose a powerful arsenal against this sometimes destructive element in people's lives.  At the start, he emphasizes that stress in itself is a human survival mechanism designed to energize the body and focus the mind in times of danger.  The problem is that, in our modern "civilized" daily walk, the body interprets as mortal danger mere pressures that get improperly filtered through the mind and emotions.  As he says, anxiety is a natural response to PERCEIVED threats to security.  So, absent of a real threat, how does one alleviate anxiety?  Some ideas from our podcaster:

 

--Deep diaphragmatic breathing, through the nose, exhale twice as long through the mouth, repeat a few times.

--"Cognitive restructuring": identify the negative thoughts fueling the anxiety and challenge those thoughts...are they rational?

--Exposure therapy: gradually introduce oneself to what is inducing anxiety.  Say, you have a speech upcoming: then in an "off" time go that place and rehearse your speech there.

--Lower caffeine, sugar and alcohol while getting plenty of sleep.

Another point Rod Dial has made a number of times on his show is that 85% of what folks worry about never comes to pass, and of the remaining 15%, about 80% of that isn't as bad as feared.  I'd like to add that pausing to intentionally feel hope and gratitude in the midst of the inner turmoil has usually done wonders for myself...positive self-talk is very important, especially during these times...

On This Presidents' Day

On this Presidents' Day, which seems to have been de-emphasized as a national holiday, I'd like to make the point that while people can and should discern the best candidates during election years while holding the ongoing president accountable while their tenure is going on, they should respect the office even if the current occupant doesn't meet up to their standards of what a president should be or what policies he or she should support or oppose.  When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I recognized the results promptly and wished him success as president although I didn't vote for him.  But in 2020 this same individual, having lost that election, refused to recognize the result, filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging it, and even called one state's election official to ask him to manufacture more than 11 thousand nonexistent votes to give him that state...and it's out there on audio for anyone to hear.  Yet instead of being in prison for this attempted fraud, he is leading in the polls over his incumbent rival.  Can you imagine the haughty outrage from Trump's supporters had President Obama or losing candidate Hillary Clinton behaved likewise in 2016?  Yet both of them graciously accepted the election results then and Obama expedited a smooth transition period between administrations, something Trump spitefully held up with incoming president Biden. So while I want to honor all of our presidents, past and present, please forgive me when I can see what is going on right now in my country, which seems to be on a path to end its treasured tradition of free and fair elections to determine its political leaders...

Updated Personal Song of the Year List, 1964 to Now

As part of my cross-reference project on this blog, I have below listed my favorite songs of the year from 1964, when I was seven turning eight, up to last year's selection.  For the most part...until 2008...I could just turn on my radio during the year in question and hear my favorites.  After that, I tended to be disillusioned with the supposed talent being pushed on the airwaves and began to use the Internet much more to find "my" music.  So artists like Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, Kasabian, Kerani and Gorillaz, rarely if ever played in our traditional broadcast radio medium, rose in my estimation to premier acts while I basically ignored the "big names" being thrown at me: frankly, I think their music kind of sucks...sorry, Adele, Taylor Swift, Usher, Post Malone, Bruno Mars, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, etcetera, etcetera.  Doesn't mean you can't like them...to each their own, I say, and my dislike of their music doesn't mean I don't appreciate them as stage performers, which I do.  In any event, I'm using this date on my blog as another cross-reference anchor, on which in future times...starting in December of this year) I'll be extending the list. With this one...in the spirit of cross-referencing...if you click on the year at the start of each row, that will take you to my earlier blog article highlighting it, revealing more songs I liked. Anyway, here goes, here are my favorite songs as I lived through each year...

1964 Twist and Shout…..The Beatles

1965 I Can’t Explain…..The Who
1966 Time Won’t Let  Me…..The Outsiders
1967 All You Need Is Love…..The Beatles
1968 America…..Keith Emerson & The Nice
1969 Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In…..The Fifth Dimension
1970 Little Green Bag…..George Baker Selection
1971 I’ve Seen All Good People…..Yes
1972 Layla…..Derek and the Dominoes
1973 Hummingbird…..Seals and Crofts
1974 Number Nine Dream…..John Lennon
1975 Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding…..Elton John
1976 Livin’ Thing…..Electric Light Orchestra
1977 Song for America…..Kansas
1978 Love is Like Oxygen…..The Sweet
1979 What a Fool Believes…..The Doobie Brothers
1980 Another One Bites the Dust…..Queen
1981 Bette Davis Eyes…..Kim Carnes
1982 Abacab….Genesis
1983 In a Big Country…..Big Country
1984 Leave It…..Yes
1985 Everybody Wants to Rule the World…..Tears For Fears
1986 Live to Tell…..Madonna
1987 Luka…..Suzanne Vega
1988 What Have I Done to Deserve This…..Pet Shop Boys/Dusty Springfield
1989 Handle With Care…..Traveling Wilburys
1990 Blue Sky Mine…..Midnight Oil
1991 When the Levee Breaks (from 1971).….Led Zeppelin
1992 Dazed and Confused (from 1968).….Led Zeppelin
1993 Close to the Edge (from 1973).….Yes
1994 Let Me In…..REM
1995 My Wave…..Soundgarden
1996 Again…..Alice In Chains
1997 Naked Eye…..Luscious Jackson
1998 Fly Away…..Lenny Kravitz
1999 Scar Tissue…..Red Hot Chili Peppers
2000 Lord of the Boards…..Guano Apes
2001 Only Time…..Enya
2002 Here to Stay…..Korn
2003 There There…..Radiohead
2004 Look What You’ve Done…..Jet
2005 Soul Meets Body…..Death Cab For Cutie
2006 Vicarious…..Tool
2007 Starlight…..Muse
2008 Time to Pretend…..MGMT
2009 Casimir Pulaski Day.....Sufjan Stevens
2010 Us....Regina Spektor
2011 To Binge.....Gorillaz
2012 Firewood.....Regina Spektor
2013 Switchblade Smiles.....Kasabian
2014 Something From Nothing.....Foo Fighters
2015 Treat.....Kasabian
2016 Blackstar.....David Bowie

2017 Drive...Twenty One Pilots

2018 Lazy Eye...Silversun Pickups

2019 Saw Lightning...Beck

2020 The Ascension...Sufjan Stevens

2021 Lady's Grace...Kerani

2022 Spacetime Fairytale...Regina Spektor

2023 Oil...Gorillaz

My Phone App's Muffed Weather Forecast for This Morning...So What's New?

I have this local weather phone app that is notorious for giving out faulty forecasts, even for the near future.  For example, yesterday I kept trying to ascertain whether it would be raining this morning for my planned 7:30 Depot Parkrun 5K race here in Gainesville.  The hour-by-hour prediction from the app kept reading 0% of precipitation until 9:00, when it rose to 45% for light rain...to subsequently increase for the remainder of the day and into Sunday.  So I wake up around 6 this morning and, naturally, it's raining and the soaked ground in the back yard says that it has for quite a while...no run today since I'm not so keen on slipping, sliding and falling on slippery surfaces: I had my fill of that hazard last week in Micanopy.  No problem, I can exercise from home and am currently getting ready to do so with the TV showing the PGA Genesis Invitational golf tournament, held in who-knows-where.  But I think there's a pretty high probability...nearing 100%... that once I get into my workout I'll probably be surfing around the channels, and I don't need any useless app to tell me that...

Quote of the Week...from Eckhart Tolle

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment. You create a good future by creating a good present.                                  ---Eckhart Tolle

Two years ago I wrote an article (click HERE) about the book The Power of Now by philosopher Eckhart Tolle.  Today is his birthday, so I thought it would be appropriate to feature one of his quotes. I was attracted to Tolle's beliefs because I...independently...had come to believe that the essence of subjective reality is embedded in the here and now: basically it's the definition of what "I" am. Furthermore, nothing can be accomplished unless it is actualized in the present moment.  Yet so many of us, myself included at times, live in past regret or future worry.  Neither of these are fruitful, although if approached as learning or motivational tools, examination of one's past and future can lead to better insights as to how best tackle what is really going on...in the now.  Sometimes the hallmark of a great thinker is their ability to distill into lucid language truths that, upon revelation, seem self-evident...Eckhart Tolle is one of these sages...

Affiliated With the Non-Profit FTC, Not the Commercial Version

After finishing the Micanopy ten mile race organized by the Florida Track Club, I was chatting with a congenial middle-aged runner, who's in the 50-59 age group and finished a short time after me.  He's a member of a parallel organization to the Florida Track Club, called Team Florida Track Club, and which aims to go deeper into training for runners who consider themselves more serious in the sport...like elites, for example.  They are a commercial organization (.com) and  charge $25 per month for just the most basic membership and steadily go up from there for each added perk.  I, on the other hand, am a member of the original, non-profit FTC (a .org group) and, with my seniors discount, shell out 25 bucks for the entire year.  The two groups together schedule and attend the same events throughout the calendar year and conduct them likewise.  I have no intention of ever joining up with "Team Rocket", as I call the dot-com group, referring to the splashy group of Pokemon antagonists from the TV cartoon series, and I frankly don't dig their "leader" talking down to the rest of us, telling us to push it even with the walk to the starting line before the race.  Having said that, it's refreshing to know that many runners and walkers like me don't take this sport so damned seriously.  I am competitive as well, and I admit to enjoying passing others on the course, especially toward the end. Yet my priorities are (1) finishing the race while avoiding injury, (2) capturing the experience in my memory, and (3) seeing if I can finish with the best time possible for myself at this stage in my life...and that's all I need.  And if possible, having a pleasant conversation or two with someone like my new friend...who seems to have a refreshingly mature perspective to it all... is definitely an added bonus: I don't need any big-shot self-appointed coach-type yelling and talking down to me like he's some kind of old-school high school phys-ed teacher trying to pass himself off as a drill instructor.. 

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

On this St. Valentine's Day, what do you know but it's also the birthday of my dear, sweet and beautiful wife Melissa!  Happy Birthday, Sweetheart...may the coming year be the best one yet!

Contemplating Weekend Travel Adventures

I'm still contemplating some weekend adventures this year, where Melissa and I take off by jet to some distant location and come back in time for work on Monday.  Most likely such a scenario would involve visiting a city instead of going out in the countryside, something that would necessarily involve more time.  My first idea was to find a distance race being held at a specific city on a Sunday morning and then we'd spend Saturday traveling, getting settled and visiting...and after the race make a point of visiting some areas we'd like before heading back. Then again, there doesn't have to be a running race involved, either.  In any event, it's always fun to check out the possibilities...I'm also keen on visiting Canada sometime this year...

Just Finished Reading The Longevity Diet by Dr. Valter Longo

I just finished reading yet another book on longevity...I think I've finally had my fill of them after this one.  It's aptly titled The Longevity Diet and written by Dr. Valter Longo who claims his own credentials of authority in medicine and human biology...as well as making a big deal about wanting to be a rock star for some reason.  For someone who actually lives in the real world under ever-changing circumstances, I found Longo's diet plan, which consists of something he invented called the "fast-masking-diet", to be overly detailed and legalistic to the point where I doubt I could follow it for long before veering off the track.  Sigh, to his credit he does encourage exercise, although with that he's overly cautious, in my opinion.  I checked out the book using my public library's Libby online system, choosing the audio version. I tend to get a little skeptical...maybe it's irrational...when someone like Dr. Longo promotes a brand new system and then sells a special product that perfectly fits his program's stringent parameters.  There is such a cacophony of disparate voices on the subject of longevity that at some point I have to just cut off all the chatter and live my life the way I see fit...and here I go.  Maybe Valter Longo or Peter Attia or Thomas Fung or a myriad of others would have serious objections, but it's my life and not theirs.  Yet many of them have worthwhile points to consider: time to use some discernment and common sense with this matter...

Chiefs Prevail in Super Bowl over San Fran, I Guess I'm Happy About It

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs for managing to pull out yet another Super Bowl victory, tonight over the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas in a mistake-riddled game.  It was an entertaining contest that went into overtime...still, I found myself drifting away from the game and going to other channels from time to time.  I should have enjoyed it more...or should I really? I wasn't so cool on the halftime entertainment, either...I think Usher is talented but his preferences in music stray greatly from mine: he performs well on stage, though, I have to admit.  In case you forget it in future years looking back, this was the 2023 NFL season we're talking about although this championship game didn't happen until midway through February, 2024. So, way to go, Chiefs, now you're stuck having to defend your title again...

Ran the Florida Track Club's Micanopy Ten-Miler This Morning

Back in 2022 I ran the Florida Track Club's annual Micanopy ten-mile race...at the same time they offered a five-mile race option as well.  Then it was unseasonably warm and muggy...it was slightly cooler this time around as I pulled into a parking spot there with the temperature at 54 degrees and the humidity around 90%...light clouds with no rain chance.  Over the course of the 8:00 AM race, which consisted of a short stretch through "residential" Micanopy combined with a long loop of a hilly, rocky and slippery dirt path south of town, the heat rose along with the sun and made the run a bit arduous for me.  Still, I felt in shape for it and although my left leg along the calf ached some toward the end, I never lost any energy, practically sprinting to the finish line at a time of 1 hour, 39 minutes, 18 seconds (9:55/mile pace). It was 9 minutes faster than my 2022 time, and since I had wanted to beat 1:40, I thought it was a very successful outcome for me.  There was a moment toward the end when a ferocious looking, growling German Shepherd dog broke out and harassed me and two other runners...I just sweet-talked it and it left me alone.  I continued my Galloway Method strategy of alternating running for 9 minutes with speed-walking 1 minute, that is until toward the end when I just walked up the hills. Second Wind Timing posts the race results...click HERE to view them.  Other than the Depot Parkrun 5K events I often do, I'm not sure when I'm going to next run a relatively long distance race like this one.  There's something going on in April in Hawthorne and in Ocala they regularly hold half-marathons, but I'll just have to wait and see...sometimes life gets in the way when I plan too far ahead...

Quote of the Week...from Opie's Brother

 But first, the tranya!                         Balok in Star Trek's The Corbomite Maneuver episode

Clint Howard is Ron Howard's lesser-known brother, who has played bit parts on television and in movies for decades.  My two favorite roles of his happened in the sixties.  On The Andy Griffith Show, he played Leon, a little boy who was always going around holding up his half-eaten peanut butter sandwich to share with others. And on the Star Trek original series, in one of its very first episodes, he played the mysterious reclusive childlike alien Balok, who in the Corbomite Maneuver classic episode, puts the USS Enterprise and its crew through a grueling test to ascertain their intentions.  After he decides to accept them, Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Dave Bailey stoop down low to transport into the low alien ship's quarters.  Balok, with his adult voice dubbed in, treats the guests to a special drink of his, tranya, and then sits back in frustration when they distrustfully hesitate.  So, "Opie's brother" takes the first step and drinks his fill and the others follow suit...it's delicious!  I first saw this wonderful episode only at its tail end since we had only one TV set in the house and my parents, ardent Bewitched! fans, insisted on watching that half hour comedy series on Thursday evenings on ABC when it ran opposite Star Trek on NBC...I learned the endings of a few of those first-year Star Trek episodes long before I saw their beginnings.  Were I in Kirk's position, having gone through such a perilous ordeal with my ship nearly torn apart just for a "test", I don't think I would have displayed the amount of grace and good will that he was able to muster up.  But he reminded his colleagues of their mission to encounter new life out there in space and they were able to progress.  I recently had the experience of reading a local nonprofit's mission statement and mused how they, without even the danger of a Balok threatening their existence, have strayed from it.  Sometimes I think a little adverse pressure can bring people back to their stated priorities...

Hey, Where's the 2024 Presidential Campaign (and Do I Care?)

With the two major political parties virtually already nominating their candidates for president, this 2024 presidential campaign has been on the back burner in the news...thankfully, although to be perfectly truthful (as former House Speaker Tip O'Neill used to say) I haven't exactly been paying much attention anyway.  This 2024 election between an authoritarian fascist and a seriously declining incumbent should be a big, big deal to me, and I plan to march drive right out there to my precinct first Tuesday in November and vote.  To further complicate matters, a vaccine conspiracy theorist with an impressive political name has thrown his hat into the ring by declaring his independent candidacy...doesn't change anything with me, though.  I will vote for the doddering decent dude over the fascist and the nutcase, and then let the chips fall where they will as I already recognize that I am on a runaway train and the easily manipulated American public is at the controls...democracy in action!  So the Florida primary is next month...I think I'll vote in it anyway despite the preordained outcome...my polling place is the nearby Senior Recreation Center and I'd like to see what they've done there in the years since I've been there last.  So yes, I'm cynical about politics, but to quote former president Barack Obama, "And may God bless the United States of America"...  

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 5

Below are my reactions to two more 1995 stories as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection.  In 1995 my musical interests...all of it rock...was divided between exploring old classic albums for hidden treasures in their deep tracks and listening to rock radio.  With the latter my focus was on grunge, specifically the group Soundgarden and their 1994 album Superunknown.  I came to be interested in it because an obscure Gainesville radio station on 1390 kHz was playing all six Doors studio albums from beginning to end, and I was happily listening to all of it.  But suddenly they began to play the Soundgarden album...I was miffed but then realized that this was pretty cool, too.  I liked all the tracks on it, a rarity for me, and my "song of the year" for '95 was track #2, My Wave, still a personal favorite.  But back to those stories...

THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN FUTURE by Allen Steele

The embracing of one's childhood fictional idol is taken to extreme here with the recounting of the narrator, a space worker trying to get to a better world, as he experiences his frustrations dealing with an incompetent spaceship captain obsessed with the hero figure Captain Future, to the point where he insists on being addressed as such by everyone.  A life-and-death crisis threatens the ship, and how does "Captain Future" (and the narrator) handle it?  A funny...and ultimately sad...tale...

THE LINCOLN TRAIN by Maureen F. McHugh

In this alternative history story, what if, instead of President Abraham Lincoln being assassinated at the close of the American Civil War in April 1865, he had only been seriously wounded to the point that, while alive, he was virtually a vegetable, unable to carry out his presidential duties?  Lincoln wanted reconciliation toward the defeated South, and his vice-president Andrew Johnson, a compromise Democrat on the 1964 election ticket who in our reality would succeed Lincoln upon his death, constitutionally (at the time) had no legal claim to the presidency (since in this universe Lincoln still lived).  Instead, Secretary of State William Seward, a staunch Radical Republican, takes the reins of power and former slave-owners are brutally herded off onto trains, uprooted from their homes and sent off to Oklahoma to starve.  A young woman from a slave-holding family is caught up in it all and receives coldness and ostracism from all, even those trying to help her survive her ordeal...

Next week: more from 1995...

A Good Foreign Language Resource on YouTube

I don't discuss it very much on this blog, but I am a student of languages, having begun over a span of decades to study many different ones...only to usually get discouraged and lay aside my progress to do something else.  But I've come to appreciate the joy in the passive aspects of languages, that is listening and reading, and don't burden myself too much with the idea of speaking or writing in them.  This meshes well with the treasure of resources available on the Internet, and in particular, YouTube.  There is a series of channels on it, Easy Languages, and you can select from many languages to find the "Easy" channel you're interested in.  On it, you see several short programs that consist of native speakers in their own countries, often interviewed on the street...it's a lot of fun and as they speak you see the transcription at the bottom along with the ongoing translation.  I enjoy the different topics and it's quite apparent that folks really are quite similar all over the world as they go about their lives.  My languages of focus at the moment are Spanish and Russian, and their channels are excellent.  Try them yourself...click on Easy Spanish or Easy Russian to see and hear for yourself...

Adopting One of Frank Poole's Exercising Strategies

Dr. Frank Poole isn't an authority on health or exercise...actually, the dude doesn't even exist!  Yet many of us know of him through the Stanley Kubrick/Arthur C. Clarke classic 1968 science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Shown about halfway through the story, his mission...along with that of co-astronaut David Bowman, several others in suspended animation, and a wayward computer named HAL...is to travel to Jupiter on the spaceship Discovery One to solve a deep mystery found on the Moon and seek out alien contact.  Its design mimics gravity through centripetal force, and Poole is introduced jogging on its circular inner perimeter while shadow boxing.  Well, I'm not planning to go out in space anytime soon, but I do a bit of running.  What I'm adding to my exercise routine in emulation of Dr. Poole is working out my upper body by mimicking various weight lifting routines and swimming strokes in the air. No extra weights are involved here...and I think the good doctor wouldn't mind if I avoided his boxing moves, for which I have no training.  I think more people would probably do this as well if their routines took place in the privacy of their own homes...it might look a little weird in public moving your arms around all willy-nilly while running!  Working out my upper body and limbs is something I need to add to my running and walking...although to be perfectly honest I already do plenty of rigorous lifting and carrying at my current job.  Still, this new addition to my workout seems to be helping...

Back to Doing Jigsaw Puzzles

 

I've been working on a couple of jigsaw puzzles I received as Christmas gifts from my family, having just completed them.  They're quite different, one being a trio of cute kittens looking outward from a basket of knitting and yarn, the other being a library of popular VHS and DVD movies from the recent span of decades.  The strategy for putting them together was also quite different...that's one thing I like about doing these puzzles: each one requires a different approach.  Now I guess it's time to get out another one...I think I have one left over from a few months ago that I never got around to starting...

Volunteered at Gainesville's Depot Parkrun This Morning

This morning I volunteered at my local Depot Parkrun, held each Saturday morning at Gainesville's Depot Park, just south of downtown.  My role was to be the Tail Walker, which is the person who follows everyone else in the race/run/walk and makes sure that all have either finished or dropped out.  It was a pleasant 3.1 miles...four laps around the park...with temperatures in the low-to-mid forties and many birds, chiefly red-winged blackbirds, grackles and mourning doves, contributing their songs. When you're a Tail Walker you still get credit for a race...so tally up my 34th Parkrun for myself: click HERE for today's results.  It's also my 4th volunteer gig...Melissa was signed up and wanted to go but was recovering from a bad cold.  With the good folks running the show, I...may I be a little blunt...got mixed signals.  On the surface, they seemed so altruistic and goody-goody for leading at this event, but anytime I wanted to reach out and engage one of them in conversation, or, more to the point, ask a pertinent question, they were pretty damned dismissive.  For an introvert with misanthropic leanings, I find it more than a little disconcerting to be confronted with "good" people who see me as little more than a distraction or annoyance to be flicked away.  In any event, I'm really not offended but rather just file it all away with my other experiences.  As the recent Depeche Mode song People Are Good goes...

Keep reminding myself

That people are good

And when they do bad things 

They're just hurting inside

Keep fooling myself

That everyone cares

And they're all full of love

It's just their patience gets tried

Heaven help me, heaven help me

Heaven help us, heaven help us

Quote of the Week...from the Movie Groundhog Day

Phil Connors: What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?

Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

This to me was the funniest line from a very funny movie, 1993's Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a vain Pittsburgh TV weatherman on an unpleasant assignment to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  Only things suddenly get much worse when he wakes up the morning after February 2nd...and discovers to his horror that it's Groundhog Day all over again, with the same people saying and doing the same things and himself exactly the same as if he had never already lived through the day...the same, that is, except for his complete memory of what is happening to him.  After a few experiences of repeatedly waking up to the same day, he goes out drinking with some local blue-collar dudes, the above-mentioned Ralph being one, and poses the quoted question.  Of course, Phil means something quite literal as he asks about what if nothing you did mattered...and promptly comes up with the answer: no consequences...leading to another hilarious scene.  As Phil's affliction keeps going on from same day to same day, the movie does change in tone to that of desperation and ultimately acceptance and a deeper appreciation of life and what should be one's priorities in it.  But Ralph's answer so poignantly expresses so many people's viewpoints without needing to undergo any supernatural time-bending experience. Time does tend to march on from day to day in a cyclic, repetitive pattern.  Part of this is how we're constructed as biological beings tied in to the solar cycle, part is society's way to organize itself to prevent chaos, establish some order and effectively function...and part is each individual's aggregation of habits...some of them more recently acquired and others lifelong...that resist spontaneity and change.  There's not so much to be done with the first two reasons, but that last one is within each person's power to control and steer into a more interesting and meaningful direction... 

My January 2024 Running and Walking Report

My running and walking went well for January...Melissa's walking did as well.  I ran my fastest 5K (27:38) in several years on New Years Day and two weeks later, on the 14th, ran my fastest half-marathon (2:07:40)...likewise in quite a while.  I was going to run a local 15K race on the 27th, but had come down with a bad cold...not Covid, fortunately...and spent the rest of the month recovering and exercising lightly.  My stable treadmill walking pace (zero inclination) is now maxed at 5.0 (mph) while on the running side it is 7.0...these are the settings I use at the gym...any future intensification will involve raising the inclination instead of the speed.  For the month total, I ran every day and amassed around 270 miles of running.  I also walked with Melissa on the Depot Parkrun and plan to do this in the future, from time to time, interspersed with regular runs, speed walks and volunteering.  In February there's a 10-mile race on the 10th in Micanopy organized by the Florida Track Club...if life cooperates, I plan to run in it. And LifeSouth is continuing their annual Five Points of Life running event on the 24th, albeit only a 5K race...I think it would be cool to first run the Depot Parkrun 5K earlier that morning and then walk a few blocks north and tackle the LifeSouth event! Other than that, I see this new month as an opportunity for me to continue regularly practicing my running and walking, while also working on my swimming technique and incorporating upper body resistance training...