Walked Today's Gainesville Depot Parkrun 5K

It's been a while since I speed-walked the Depot Parkrun 5K here in Gainesville, although for nearly a year I had intended to do it on a monthly basis.  Instead, today was only my third go at it, with the previous effort happening last December.  That doesn't mean I haven't been working on my walking during this period, and I recently decided to try again to get in at least one speed-walk per month.  So this morning I intentionally walked the four-lap, 3.1 mile course to see how fast I could do it.  The temperature at 7:30, when the race began, was 64 with a 99% humidity and a lifting fog.  I chugged along and ended up shredding my previous walking finish with a time of 39:43.  I wasn't in the least bit tired or winded and hardly broke a sweat, yet I did sense a limit that my body has yet to surpass in my walking progress to achieve a higher speed on solid ground, instead of a treadmill.  I think that an investment in longer distance walking on neighborhood personally-designed courses is the prescription for me to take it to a substantially higher level.  Click HERE to see today's results...

Quote of the Week...from The Weather Company

 Most of the evidence is lined up to suggest a very active and very impactful hurricane season in 2024.      

                                                            ---The Weather Company

The Weather Company is the organization behind The Weather Channel, probably my favorite channel on television when it isn't running those annoying weekend series instead of giving me the current weather like it's supposed to.  Yesterday morning they mentioned that it was only 44 days until the Atlantic hurricane season begins in 2024, and the prediction is: 24 named tropical storms, 11 full-blown hurricanes, and 6 major hurricanes.  That's a very high set of figures, indeed, and will...if it happens...spill over into the second round of designated names (no more Alphas or Betas).  The given reason is twofold: the La Nina effect has returned with cool waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean...supposedly an indicator of a strong Atlantic storm season.  And the measured Atlantic waters this year have been much warmer than usual, creating a dangerous environment generally favorable for strong and multiple storm development.  None of this, naturally, is anything I want to be hearing.  We barely dodged a direct hit from Idalia last year, and I'm not looking forward to more of this trouble...

Making Wednesday a "Neighborhood Run" Day

Keeping in line with my desire to expand and structure my running and walking to encompass set courses around my neighborhood, independent of "official" races, I did a mid-week walk-run in my northern Gainesville home subdivision of Northwood Pines, along with the adjacent Northwood Oaks.  I've done this course, which amounts to a 3.3-mile loop, a number of times.  It's the closest thing in my mind to the old Davie, Florida 2.9-mile looped course that encompassed my old elementary school (Nova Blanche Forman), junior and senior high school (Nova) and junior college (Broward Community College).  My plan is to either run this course each Wednesday or speed-walk it, as I gradually increase the distance.  Since I work through the weekdays and report in during the early afternoon, my Wednesday outings are late in the morning.  Yesterday the average temperature during my run-walk was 75 degrees with a 65% humidity.  I split my run:walk ratio at 2:1 and finished with a time of 33:40. I also am thinking of going out, when circumstances allow, on Sunday afternoons for longer run/walks.  Should be interesting...

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 2

Now that I've gotten past the first...probably of several...full-blown novellas in Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, featuring his selections of others' works from 1996, I can review a few genuinely short stories.  To me 1996 was the year that we had a little baby, Rebecca, and our dear son Will, then 5-6 years old.  Now they are young adults and very precious to Melissa and me: we are very proud of them!  But enough of that mushy stuff about my family, back to those sci-fi tales, which tend to steer in the opposite direction, as the titles of all three would suggest...

THE DEAD by Michael Stanwick

This story is, I believe, a play on the notion that automation and machines are taking the livelihoods away from people and thus ruining their lives...those promoting their use instead point to greater work efficiency and the elimination of boring jobs.  Instead, here is a future when the dead themselves are resurrected as programmable zombies to perform menial functions.  On the other hand, I wonder, if they were human-appearing robots would they be any more acceptable?  A truly gross tale, both about the corpses everywhere and of corporate greed and intrigues...

THE FLOWERS OF AULIT PRISON by Nancy Kress

Our Earth's  medical science gets transplanted to a different world and abused to fit their own social power structures and culture, leading a young woman to think she isn't real because she killed her sister and must atone by going to prison to be an informer.  But did she really kill her sister? A complicated story that I still don't completely understand...

A DRY, QUIET WAR by Tony Daniel

A soldier returns after twenty years of fighting billions of years into the future at the end of the universe, only to find his own world...split among the beer brewers and liquor distillers...invaded by other soldiers coming from that same future.  A very creepy...and multidimensional and "multitemporal" tale, it reminded me a bit of that Douglas Adams restaurant at the end of the universe with its logic (or lack thereof),,,

Next week: more science fiction discussed from 1996...

From Own Experience, Work Settings Can Affect Social Attitudes

Over the course of my own work experience, I had been in different social situations, by that meaning that my assignments have been structured at times to where co-workers (and myself) work in regular, close proximity to one another to the point where regular conversation is not only available, but seems almost mandatory...if you don't want to appear antisocial to the others, that is.  In other scenarios, employees sometimes work side-by-side but mostly are on their own to perform their assignments, with space between them tending to be the rule rather than the exception.  It is this latter format that I have been enjoying for more than ten years at my workplace, and I have to say that it has been a blessing to me.  I also have noticed over the course of my now-37+ years working there that when people work "too" physically closely together for regular, long stretches that in those areas I pick up on a lot of negativity, dissension, gossiping and generally nasty attitudes coming from a lot of them.  There are some positions that, on the surface, may seem to be attractive were it not for this bunching together of workers, making for pressure to conform to others' negative and manipulative behavior patterns.  Better to be a freer spirit with one's own clear-cut objectives to get through the working day, that is, if you're able to choose that kind of assignment...

Podcaster Discusses Self-Disclpline

I've probably written here before about self-discipline and some steps that podcaster Rob Dial recommends to instill it.  His steps are pretty straightforward: one, finish what you started, not letting stuff linger afterwards to accumulate.  Two, plan ahead...making the actual execution of the task as easy and convenient as possible.  Three, design your environment...also making the required activity as effective, without obstacles and unnecessary distractions or interruptions, Four, focus on progress and not perfection...you're not trying to be the champ, but even a champion like Masters golf tournament winner Scottie Scheffler had his share of bogeys over the course of the 72 holes this past weekend.  And five, reward yourself for sticking with the program...taking strategic breaks is a positive step.  I've heard all this before but Dial reviewed it this morning and, at least for my own sake, thought it worthy of repeating.  With discipline, Rob Dial isn't talking for high achievers alone, but also for anyone who wants to raise the level of their living and invest in a better personal future...

Enjoyed Watching The Masters Tournament This Weekend

Congratulations to Scottie Scheffler for winning his second Masters golf title.  The course in Augusta, Georgia seems nearly impossible to fathom, but Scheffler somehow managed to secure a four-stroke victory over young Ludvig Åberg from Sweden with an eleven-under-par final score.  I had a great time watching Scheffler, Åberg, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and other challengers shuffle around in the standings...and around the often confounding course.  Although most of the contestants were in the mainstream PGA tour, there were some from the breakaway LIV tour as well...Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith doing the best among them.  I'd like to watch some LIV events in the future...possibly I'll get to see them on the CW channel.  In any event, I've come to enjoy watching golf on TV, although as I've stated before I never played the game beyond miniature golf and I don't think I'd ever want to count myself as one of the on-site spectators crowding around to catch some of the action... 

Ran Gainesville's Depot Park 5K This Morning

In Gainesville, Florida...as well as five other locations in Florida, every week we have a free 5K run/walk in which the finishers are timed with the results posted online.  Here it takes place in Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown, and is appropriately called the Depot Parkrun.  The Parkrun concept originated in England where it is much more strongly entrenched while it is growing in the USA.  Volunteer-run, participation is free: you sign up online and they give you a barcode that you print and take to the race with you for scanning.  This morning was my 38th finish since 2019 when I started doing Parkruns.  The weather was pleasant at around 52 degrees with a tolerable 70% humidity.  I had already decided to run the 5K (3.1 mile) course when weather conditions were hospitable and walk it more as temperatures and humidity climb along with the approach of late spring and summer.  So while Melissa accompanied me today, she walked the entire course while I ran it, taking customary brief walking breaks at two different stages in the race.  My finishing time was 28:47...not my fastest, but quite acceptable to me: click HERE to see the complete posted results.  I'd like to get a Parkrun speed-walk in this month, so maybe I'll see if I can't get back here next Saturday to do just that...

Quote of the Week...from Soren Kirkegaard

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.                               Soren Kirkegaard.

Soren Kirkegaard was a 19th century theologian and philosopher from Denmark.  Rob Dial, a personal development coach, used his above quote on a recent podcast while discussing the roles, both helpful and harmful, that anxiety plays in people's lives. According to Dial, it is our response to anxiety and the degree to which we make our own life choices, taking responsibility for them, that will eventually quiet our anxiety.  But I also just read the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown, which included being responsible for one's choices as a necessity for reducing our lives to the highest standards.  Both viewpoints involve stepping up to the plate and embracing choice and freedom instead of letting others choose for us and consequently run our lives instead of ourselves.  So while anxiety doesn't necessarily feel good, it also can be symptomatic of an effective and courageous life...just as long as it doesn't get out of control...  

Masters Golf Tournament Ongoing

I'm looking forward the next three days to watching the prestigious and over-hyped Masters golf tournament, taking place in Augusta, Georgia.  Thursday was opening day with action delayed a couple of hours due to bad weather (it afflicted us as well in Florida)...hopefully all will be straightened out tomorrow and we'll be able to tell who the real leaders are.  Not that I'm going to sit back in my living room and crash on golf, mind you, but it will be fun to keep up with my favorite players and see how they tackle the various challenging holes... 

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 1

This week I began another year of short science fiction as I move on to another book in the Gardner Dozois anthology series The Year's Best Science Fiction, this one titled Fourteenth Annual Collection and covering 1996.  His first selection for this volume, as is his apparent preference, is yet another long novella...

IMMERSION by Gregory Bensford

In the not-so-distant future, a scientist has published an academic paper putting him at odds with a European crime organization...he now seems to be a hit target of theirs.  Going with his girlfriend to Africa for relief and escape, they find themselves caught up in "immersion", in which their essences are temporarily installed in the bodies of certain selected and modified chimpanzees.  Enjoying the sometimes disturbing experiences, they repeat the immersions until one day they find themselves stuck in the chimps, unable to return.  This story may sound too familiar when considering the Matrix movie that came out only three years later.  But consciousness transfer to other places has long been a recurring feature in science fiction...it figured prominently in Clifford Simak's City novel nearly fifty years earlier.  This story by Bensford was written clearly and easy to follow, building up the kind of suspense that I expect from good sci-fi tales...

Next week I'll see if I can't come up with more, hopefully shorter, stories from 1996...

About Monday's Solar Eclipse

Yesterday a solar eclipse occurred, this time affecting a large section of the United States.  The path of the total eclipse was restricted to a curving belt going northeast from Texas, while here in northern Florida we were able to view a partial eclipse, all taking place in early-to-mid-afternoon. In Gainesville where it happened while I was at work, the skies were partially overcast, which didn't help.  A solar eclipse happens when the moon gets between the sun and Earth, covering up the former to the extent that blockage is more complete from our perspective.  So when you're observing a solar eclipse...hopefully through filter glasses or one of those pinhole box devices...you're not just seeing the sun, but also the "dark side" of the moon.  So is it a coincidence that Eclipse is the final track to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album?  I hardly think so.  Usually I'm the one going around talking up an eclipse to those around me, but this time I shrugged and said to myself (and others), I'll just wait for the pictures and look at them. Now I wonder what they're going to do with all those cheap filter paper-and-plastic glasses that piled up?  You know, all you people who think you want see another solar eclipse in your lifetime, it's probably a better idea to just read up on them and how folks through history reacted...usually pretty unfavorably! But if events like these spur some young people to take a more active interest in astronomy, then I'm all for it...

A Fork in the Road with my Running

I mentioned earlier on this blog that regardless of the outcome, yesterday's marathon in Hawthorne would be a fork in the road regarding my future running...and walking, for that matter.  After skipping it in the end for a number of reasons, severe insomnia being the chief one, it still holds true. Number one, I will not enter a future race that requires an extensive amount of preparation, including tapering my training for days beforehand and ingesting excessive carbs to build up glycogen stores.  I will avoid marathon races like Sunday's where organizers discourage walkers and place unreasonable caps on finishing times. This is because I've decided (after this fork in the road) that if I do any future marathons, walking will take up a substantial portion of my efforts.  Another outcome of this weekend is that I intend to be more selective about the races I sign up for and that I need to do more weekend outdoor training...equally mixed running and walking...in my surrounding neighborhoods, with a run/walk lasting possibly several hours.  The ratio of running to walking will depend in part on the weather conditions...I intend to be flexible in that regard. It's a shame that in north Central Florida, where we once had a tradition of two great marathon races...the Ocala Marathon and Gainesville's Five Points of Life Marathon...we're left with three races in Hawthorne, each covering the same remote trail eight times on a 3.27-mile-long there-and-back course with the organizers capping finishing times or discouraging walking...pathetic.  Well, I have my own priorities, and they exclude that sort of nonsense...  

Body Tells Me to Skip Today's Marathon Race

Today was going to be my return attempt at a marathon race, but during the last two days I suffered from a great amount of insomnia...and sleep deprivation is not an advisable preparation for running 26.2 miles.  So instead of arising at 5 this morning...with hardly any sleep...I decided to chill out and skip the event, precipitating a good, healthy night's sleep.  I'm disappointed that, although I seemed to be preparing for the race the way others advise, my own body ended up casting the crucial dissenting vote for participating in it.  I do like running, but at this stage in my life I think that half-marathons are probably going to be the maximum distance I'll be doing...

Volunteered at Gainesville's Depot Parkrun This Morning

Since I had already signed up to run another race tomorrow morning, I decided to forego my customary Saturday morning Depot Parkrun 5K and volunteer there, in the singular role of standing at the scanning table sorting the plastic little finishing tokens as they came in.  I've done it before and it doesn't require me downloading anything on my phone like some of the other roles do, so that's what I picked to do.  It all seemed to go well, but I did notice...in accordance with some of the ideas in Greg McKeown's book Essentialism that I just read...that there is a psychology, or perhaps better stated, an ideology here in the volunteer sector that places unreasonable demands on people who are already volunteering to keep saying "yes" to even more demands.  Something like this happened to me this morning, but I stood my ground and asserted my boundaries.  I don't think the attitudes of some of the people here necessarily stand out as bad, and I see this sort of thing in other areas in other groups: once you're pegged as a contributor, then instead of just saying thank you and being done with it they keep going on guilt-riding you into taking on and giving more and more...I was glad to get out of there when my "service" had ended.  Still, I get that fact that volunteers are who make events like the Parkrun possible and will most likely do more of this as the year goes on...

Quote of the Week...from Mark Twain

Golf is a good walk spoiled.                ---Mark Twain

I've quoted Mark Twain on this blog several times before...I don't think I've used the above one yet.  I have never played golf, not in the pure sense: I don't count miniature golf, which I think I'm reasonably good at (at least against others in my family). But I'd like to learn to play the big game...seems like it would be fun, as long as the players following me on the course have a lot of patience with me taking a lot of shots and time.  But I get what Twain wrote about golf...and walking, for that matter.  When I watch these major PGA golf tournaments on TV, most of the golfers seem way too intense and exhibit the utmost suffering when they miss a shot.  I'm getting to where I'm supporting the ones (like Scottie Scheffler) who just smile and shake their heads when their shots miss the hole or go flying into the water...it's just a game, dudes! As for walking, I can do that just fine...it's WHERE and WHEN I can go on a nice, long walk that I'm a little hung up on.  I still get a lot of cumulative steps in over the course of a day, but that's because my job and general lifestyle tend to be more active and ambulatory.  But just briskly walking somewhere...I'll never tire of that...

Looking Forward to Watching 2024 Paris Summer Olympics

Are you looking forward to watching the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics later this year? I am...because of COVID-19, the 2020 Tokyo games were delayed until July 2021, exactly the time I was in the hospital recovering from my open-heart surgery (aortic aneurysm repair and heart valve replacement).  I'm looking forward to seeing how NBC covers it all...they disappointed me, to put it most diplomatically, with the recent NFL playoffs when they put "my" Miami Dolphins game against Kansas City with their paid-subscriber channel Peacock.  I'm suspecting they will be up to the same high jinks, only on a much grander scale.  No problem, I'll watch the "free" stuff and leave Peacock to the suckers...hope it fails.  The Paris Olympics begin on July 26, when Melissa and I are finishing up our next cruise, and last until August 11. Should be fun to follow, Peacock notwithstanding...

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 10

Today I conclude this protracted look at sci-fi short stories from the year 1995 by looking at the final tale...it's a novella...in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection, containing his picks from that year.  As far as my own life is concerned, that year had its ups (my family, especially the birth of our wonderful daughter) and downs (some really screwed-up characters at work) while in all, I have to give it all a pretty high score.  But enough of '95, I'm ready to move on to the next year...first, though, that last story...

MORTIMER GRAY"S HISTORY OF DEATH by Brian Stableford

As previously mentioned, this is one of those long stories that Dozois seemed to have a special penchant for, but to his credit was one that I didn't think was overblown.  It's set around the year 3000 as "emortal" Mortimer Gray, like the rest of humanity by that time on an Earth steeped in its returning tumultuous ice age and reaching out and settling the cosmos, has been genetically modified to stop aging, rejuvenate and become immune to sickness.  Accidents, homicides and suicides still happen, though, and people are becoming more and more intrigued by death itself as their lives drag on from century to century...Gray is over 200 years old.  Being a historian, he sets out to write a history of death as it was regarded by humanity, eventually stretching out to ten volumes...with very mixed reviews from others.  The novella alternates between Gray's personal ongoing life and a third-person account of him and his progress with the book.  But it's the ending of this intriguing tale that made it all work, similar to a theme I've read from Isaac Asimov.  We may think we have it all figured out, smug in our scientific achievements within T'HIS galaxy.  But it's only one of billions and there's something else heading our way...

And, whew, finally I'll be starting my look at 1996's short science fiction next week...

Just Finished Reading Essentialism by Greg McKeown

The 2014 book Essentialism by Greg Mckeown, college business major and head of his own leadership development company, promised yet another angle in the collage of self-improvement works I've read of late.  In it, he emphasizes that life and time spent in it is too precious, as is the space we live in...to clutter both with unwelcome commitments and stuff, which diminish our enjoyment and fulfillment.  Instead, we should learn how to say "no" to others when they try to commit us to activities and roles which are not high priorities in our lives.  Likewise, items that we may like but don't hold in exceptionally high regard should be disposed of...McKeown suggests that we ask ourselves if the stored item in question is something that we would spend money today to obtain.  I think the author hit upon a sensitive point with me as I have both a lot of junk I need to get rid of...and saying no to others can be rankling and, as he stated, be partly based on a fear that it would damage the relationship if I refused the request: after all, that movie producer in The Godfather didn't come out too well from his refusal.  So the standards for keeping things as well as agreeing to future commitments need to be very high, with "no" being the default option...that's a hard pill to swallow. Yet in order to avoid future resentment and repercussions, it just might be a necessary one.  So in spite of Greg McKeown emphasizing the need for both play and adequate, high-quality sleep as very essential in our lives, I found his points on possessions and time commitments to be quite a challenge for me, meaning that this book is a "keeper" (actually, that means I'll just check it out from the library often)...

Muted TV Enhances Sports Experience

Since I haven't yet retired and have Saturdays and Sundays off, I've grown into the habit of watching armchair sports, enjoying golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, soccer...and even football from time to time.  Yesterday I got so frustrated watching a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals that I simply muted the sound: suddenly the game itself came more alive and interesting to me, and the lack of accompanying noise did nothing to detract from the suspenseful ending of an enjoyable, close game when Dodger third baseman Max Muncy slammed a two-run home in the bottom of the eighth to pull out an improbable come-from-behind win against the Redbirds.  Improbable, I'm sure: I suppose that due to the heavy emphasis on sports betting nowadays, just above the screen's score they had posted the current odds that one team or the other would win.  Just before Muncy's homer the Card's were favored with a 65% chance...immediately afterwards it drastically switched to Dodgers with 87%.  Let's face it: they're simply bombarding us with too much stuff on the screen...it's as if the powers-that-be in the network have concluded that we're all attention-deficit challenged...

My March 2024 Running, Walking and Swimming Report

In March I picked up my running mileage considerably, in spite of spending a week of it on a western Caribbean cruise with Melissa. As for speed walking and swimming, I didn't focus on them as much, though.  I ran two 5K races in the month, both at Gainesville's Depot Park on Saturday mornings and with good (for me) finishing times.  A couple of weeks ago I signed up to run a full marathon on April 7th...it will be my second attempt ever at that distance, the other race having taken place in Ocala in January, 2011.  This race, dubbed "Run Your Buns Off" and located in Hawthorne at the eastern end of the Hawthorne Trail, has the exact-same course as the Mary Andrews marathon which the Florida Track Club offered back in January.  I know I can cover this distance if I run a strategically-smart race, the weather is decent, and my health holds up.  After it's over, I plan to spend some time recovering and then embark on a spring-through-summer, more balanced regimen blending running, walking and swimming.  As for swimming, although I did get some practice during the cruise in their salt-water pool (much preferable to freshwater), I still need a lot of pool time to improve my form...that's going to be a major project.  As for actual races, after this upcoming marathon I don't have anything else planned for the next few months except for regular weekly forays to Deport Park, where I would like to mix up running the 3.1 mile course with some more stints at speed-walking...along with walks with Melissa and some volunteering.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get the best use from the local gym of which I'm a paying member...it always seems to be excessively crowded and uncomfortable, and there's no telling when I get there whether the pool for swimming laps has any open lanes.  Of course, that's not the only pool (or gym) in town, and maybe it's getting time for me to explore possibly better options...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun This Morning

Just at sunrise, when the weekly Gainesville Depot Parkrun began today's 5K (3.1 miles) event, it was 46 degrees with 97% humidity under clear skies.  I was there at Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown, but Melissa had to be at work.  My intent for this race was to just run/walk it as I have been doing for the last few months and see how I felt at the end.  And in the end I felt fine, finishing with another sub-30 minute time at 28:18...then I promptly drove back home.  As I was sitting there in my car before the run, looking at all the assembled humanity around the starting line, I thought that it would be much better for me were there a system where individual runners could go somewhere, run a specific distance, and be "officially" timed and recorded as having publicly accomplished it instead of having to go through all this mingling and crowding in a race setting. I must be out of my mind to actually be considering running in a future big-city distance event when this much more subdued one irritates me so, but there were a lot more people than usual out there this morning.  In any event, click HERE for today's results...

Quote of the Week...from Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) in The Godfather

He never asks a second favor when he's been refused the first, understood?   

                                                                   Tom Hagen (played by Robert Duvall) from The Godfather

Tom Hagen is the adopted son and attorney of Don Vito Corleone...aka the Godfather in the famed movie series.  After being sent out to Hollywood to secure a sensitive favor from a belligerent movie producer, Hagen finds himself a guest at the dinner table as "Mr. Woltz" refuses the Godfather's request while indicating that he'd be only too happy to comply with any others.  Both parties know that the requested favor is only a superficial nicety to cover up what is essentially an extortion demand...do this or else.  That Vito Corleone thrived in a criminal environment of circumventing the law never kept him from enunciating and practicing his own "principles"...the above "one-and-done" refused favor being one of these.  Crime, extortion, violence...not at all for me, thank you.  Yet I can see the Don's point of view from my own life experiences of dealing with obnoxious people whose paper authority in certain settings goes to their heads as they try to remind me of our relative positions on their cherished, pathetic pecking orders.  I will ask such an individual for something once and if they make a grand show of resistance to my proposal based on their "superior" status, then that's the absolutely final time they will ever hear from me about any request...and they'd just better forget about me ever covering for their eventual mistakes as well.  The Godfather...I'm speaking about the original movie...is a masterpiece of psychological and social relationships, exposing the corruption beneath practically...if not all...institutions (including business, law, government and religion).  Corruption, I might add, enforced by its own extra-legal system of justice devoid of due process.  We like to pretend we live in a free society, but I strongly disagree for the above reason...

About Our Recent Cruise

After writing recently about Melissa and me scheduling another cruise this year, it occurred to me that I hadn't much discussed the one we were just on. It was a March 2-8 Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruise, and our stops had us in Mexico (Costa Maya/Mahahual, Cozumel) and Honduras (Roatan). Our ship was called "Enchantment of the Seas"...it is reportedly an older model and smaller than the "Allure of the Seas" we took in February, 2020 on the eve of the COVID era. I wasn't thrilled about the foreign excursions we took this time, but I guess they do bear discussing in some future article. I liked more the time we spent on board the ship, with our outer balcony overlooking the water, as well as the food, pools, and generally relaxed ambiance. My favorite destination was the 9th Deck Solarium, restricted to adults...although truth be told I liked having the kids on board this cruise. Since the Royal Caribbean ships have similar structures, I'm interested in comparing the one were just on to our next one to Alaska...necessarily so since it will be moving through a much colder climate...

Weekly Short Stories: 1995 Science Fiction, Part 9

Here is my ninth week of slogging through the short stories and novellas appearing in Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirteenth Annual Collection, featuring his picks from other writers' works in that genre for the year 1995.  Below are my reactions to three of them...

THERE ARE NO DEAD by Terry Bisson

Dozois prefaced this story by stating it reminded him of the whimsical, nostalgic tone of many of Ray Bradbury's child-themed tales...I agree.  I kept waiting for the science fiction angle to it, though...until the ending, which made it seem more like a Twilight Zone episode.  Three boys grow up into adulthood and continue to hold reunions in which they revert to playing as if they were still little children, but life still catches up with them...or does it?

RECORDING ANGEL by Paul J. McAuley

On a societal-stagnated world in the far distant future, there are very tightly defined roles for everyone, including the protagonist, who is the official archivist.  A spaceship lands and a runaway woman escapes to show the seeds of discontent and rebellion wherever she goes.  This story tends to support the argument that only through violent revolution can society fundamentally change: I beg to disagree...

ELVIS BEARCLAW'S LUCK by William Sanders

In a future Earth where an infectious disease wipes out human life except the immune Native American Indians...a reversal of what happened to them with the smallpox catastrophe a few centuries ago...a celebratory fair of games is being planned and staged.  The story's title figure, Elvis Bearpaw, is looking to enhance his luck in them.  But in the end, was he lucky...or exactly the opposite? A funny but ultimately gruesome tale... 

One more week to go with this anthology, which ends with yet another novella...

Just Finished Reading The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

It was bad enough that I had confused Alfred Adler, the inspiration for this book on psychology The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, with American philosopher Mortimer Adler.  As I began reading it, I was peeved to see it written in the form of a manufactured dialectic debate between an elder Adlerian adherent and a disaffected young person.  The youth was angry at the world and himself, blaming his past for turning himself into a somewhat cynical adult.  The elder was content and patient, welcoming challenging arguments to his philosophy by "refuting" them with invalidating proclamations. I thought that was a bit phony, as was the imaginary setup between the two, culminating with the youth "coming around" to the other's arguments as the book conveniently reached its conclusion...reminded me of the pattern in the old Perry Mason murder mystery TV dramas when at with about five minutes to go the real murderer inexplicably breaks down on the witness stand and confesses to everything. Adler maintained that personal trauma of the kind his contemporary, Sigmund Freud, emphasized, wasn't real, that is, in the sense that the person who holds on to it has a reason that serves them somehow.  Also, it's important to take ownership of one's own tasks, setting up boundaries for them, and respecting the tasks others face without interference or or imposing one's own standards on them.  Adler/The Elder hold that all problems stem from personal relationships, yet true happiness arises only from one's feeling of contribution to the betterment of others...wrap your head around that one.  To the extent that this book, whose co-authors reportedly adhere to their own particular Japanese philosophy related to to Adler's, extol the virtues of people taking responsibility for their own lives while respecting the necessary boundaries of others and living in the present as opposed to past regrets or future worries, I couldn't agree more.  On the other hand, I am more than a little wary (and weary) of gurus handing out rules and principles to follow.  Read it and get back to me (if that's your "task", that is),,,

Stepping Back from Manipulative News

In case you might be wondering why on this blog I'm not deeply analyzing and reacting to all the different developing stories in this election season with the corruption charges, wars, terrorism and dictators, it's not because I'm covering up my eyes and ears to the media onslaught.  Rather I have come to a point in my life where I know that I have some degree of control over some things, beyond which I can do little about them.  It's 2024 and the press is a hotbed of manipulation, not just on FoxNews.  One of my Florida senators, Marco Rubio, whom I've never supported, was interviewed a few days ago on ABC's Good Morning America and got the hostile treatment when he simply expressed his own opinions on various topics, opinions several of which I might add I disagreed with.  But it's all in the presentation and how different "news" sources frame the real messages they are trying to get across to their audience.  I've associated in the past with people who are addicted to this kind of thing and have learned to reduce or even cut ties with them because of their obsessions...especially when they get outraged because I dared to express a thought they disagreed with.  To them I say, some are addicted to gambling, others to substances, still others to materialism, and so on: have fun letting yourselves be continually manipulated, in the end it's YOUR choice to play that game...

Alaskan Cruise Planned for July

Melissa and I have decided to have another go at a summer Alaskan cruise after last year's came to naught when both of us fell ill just before leaving.  The itinerary is similar, with Seattle, Washington figuring heavily into the travel as well as is stepping onto Canadian soil, in British Columbia.  It's the same line as our last two cruises, and we're looking forward to hashing out the final details of on-shore excursions and hotel reservations.  We really enjoyed our western Caribbean cruise at the start of this month...that ship was much smaller, though, and with half the passengers of the one we're taking in July.  Having never been to the American west coast, that should be an experience as well...and I've always wanted to visit Seattle...

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...