I Don't Get Florida Voters

How could one of the most extreme right-wing politicians, ex-Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, become the prohibitive favorite to win this year's U.S. Senate race just two years after Barack Obama carried Florida and four years after Democratic senator Bill Nelson easily won reelection? And why is our legislature here so skewed toward right-wing Republicans? What happened to the era of Reuben Askew and Bob Graham, who both had very successful and popular tenures as two-term Democratic governors in the seventies and eighties? Perhaps the problem with this year's Senate race is that one of the candidates, current Governor Charlie Crist, became very unpopular with the wingnut teabagger faction of his party when he last year expressed a friendly attitude toward Obama and his economic stimulus plan. And perhaps the problem is that the Democrats seem to be solidifying their ranks behind south Floridian U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek. I like Meek and plan to vote for him this fall, but he does have a liberal reputation. And, oh, by the way, he's (throat-clearing sound) African-American. Which sadly probably figures into the fact that, whether the public opinion polls pit him against either Crist or Rubio, Meek is woefully behind and very unlikely to win. I understand why the Democrats would be reluctant to try to put forward a stronger candidate; it might make them appear to be implicitly racist. Unfortunately, that "racist" label may be more appropriately applied to many of Florida's voters, Obama's 2008 success in the state notwithstanding.

People in Florida tend to vote for image and personality over politics, anyway. Marco Rubio is a very handsome and charismatic young man, while Charlie Crist is (ugh) grey-haired (like me). And did I say that Kendrick Meek is black? Oh yes, I think I did. He's black. Oh well, better luck next time, Kendrick. At least I like you!

My Running Experience in NYC

When I arrived at my hotel in New York City (Manhattan, Theatre District) last Tuesday evening, I already knew that said hotel (the Marriott Marquis) had an excellent 24-hour workout room, complete with lots of treadmills and cross-trainers. I knew I would be able to keep up with my running, although treadmill running just isn't the same as running outdoors on the road or ground. But being who I am, I thought it would be fun to try out running on densely-traveled city streets anyway. So, the next morning I donned my running outfit, went down the elevator, and lighted out on the sidewalk amid the many pedestrians.

At first, I got a nice break as I hit a stretch of the sidewalk with just a few walkers. But that space soon evaporated as I was boxed in behind a crowd of pedestrians. And so developed a pattern for the next few minutes: walking among the crowd and then, seeing an opening, running a little. And then slowing to a walk. Naturally, I would often come up to street crossings. At first I waited to cross, but later decided that unless I could cross just then, I would just veer right and go down the perpendicular road. This led to the effect of my spontaneously-developing course looking something like a coil in a spring.

On top of everything else, I had inadvertently begun to run in the opposite direction from where I had originally intended. I was running down a street when I finally looked at the street sign. Avenue of the Americas?! Where the hell is that? Further turns revealed to me that I was southeast of my hotel, so I gradually navigated my way back. Crossing right at Times Square (although I didn't know it at the time).

After that episode, I confined my running to the excellent treadmills at the hotel. Besides, I got plenty of exercise over my stay by walking long distances and climbing stairs. I was heartened to see such an active, positive culture of fitness later at Central Park, with all of the runners, walkers, cyclists, skaters, and the like. Yes, if I lived in Manhattan (presuming I could afford it) I think I would emulate John and Yoko and live at a place like the Dakota, which is very conveniently located just across the street from this wonderful park.

After getting back home in Gainesville, I finally ran a respectable distance on the road, back in my home neighborhood as usual. But I would have loved to have tried out a good, long run through Central Park had time permitted. I also later discovered on the Internet that running is very popular in Manhattan, with running clubs regularly holding races in Central Park. There are also long stretches on both the eastern and western sides of the island that runners can train on with a minimum of interrupting traffic. Still, I'm glad I had that initial, albeit frustrating morning running experience in the vicinity of Times Square.

My Old Blog Template and the iPad

While awaiting the afternoon performance of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center in New York this past Wednesday, we came across an Apple products store nearby and entered to browse. They had several of their new iPads lined up on tables for potential customers, ready for demonstration. I tried out one of them and, naturally, accessed this blog. I discovered, to my horror, that I could barely read it, as the template I had picked out (black background, white text) did not show up well on the iPad screen. I then inferred that people with other small devices having access to my blog might have similar limitations with their displays. Not being one to prevent anyone from being able to read my blog, I quickly switched my template to a white background with black print. There, I hope that's better...

Have you tried out the iPad? I can see how some may like it, but for me I think that I would rather invest in an good Internet-accessing cellphone and a notebook with its connection ports than deal with the iPad slab. Anyway, as I have mentioned before, I am waiting for more of an "immersion" experience with computers, something like virtual reality. That really isn't that far off, either. Although it's still relatively expensive, there are glasses one can wear to view movies, covering the eyes well to prevent any outside distractions. Why not take this one step further and integrate the computer/Internet experience with actual glasses, embedding the screen within the glass? And controls could be on the side of the glasses, or even possibly based on head movements projected on a virtual screen. Or maybe they've already figured this out and are waiting to introduce more advanced products in progressive "stages". Who knows. I just know that, with the development of more portable and smaller web-accessible technology, those who design websites need to take care in ensuring that their sites are presented in a more clear and legible manner. Even if it means compromising a little with aesthetics and personal style preferences.

Visited NYC, Back Today

Today I just got back into Gainesville from a four-day visit to Manhattan with my family. We stayed at a hotel next to Times Square and partook of much of the standard tourist fare of the area. From time to time during the ensuing days I will be offering some reflections of my personal experiences there. It was a very interesting time, indeed!

Here are a few photos from our visit.

The Void: Everywhere and Nowhere

A terrible incident occurred in Gainesville a few weeks ago. A Ghanan doctoral student enrolled at the University of Florida, alone in his apartment, one evening began to create a great commotion, causing much anguished noise that concerned his neighbors. One of them called the University Police (the same department of Andrew Meyer “don’t Tase me bro” infamy), who then proceeded in careful, methodical fashion to break down his door, Taser him, attack him in stepped up fashion and finally, when the visibly very upset man wouldn’t lie down and say “uncle”, instead waving around a crude metal stick at them in self-defense, carefully aimed and shot him in the head. In his own apartment. A man hurting no one, but in great emotional distress. The brutes.

The student, it turns out, was panic-stricken over fears that his visa would not be renewed and he would soon be forced to leave the country. But to me, it mattered not what his reasons were for causing the disturbance; the police were completely unjustified in using deadly force on him. Which brings me to a feeling I sometimes get when out in the lonesome public environment too long: the Void.

The Void is an inner state of mind, one of alienation, hopelessness, and stress. It envelops me sometimes when I am out in public too long and I begin to feel that everyone around me regards me as a suspicious stranger. I tend to think that the police are all eyeballing me to see whether or not I fit their criteria for becoming a potential victim of theirs, i.e. a potential arrest. I don’t always feel this way, but when a wave of the Void sweeps over me, I imagine it is something like how the hideous dementor monsters in the Harry Potter series would make people feel if they really existed. The best remedy for this feeling, I have discovered, is simply to go home and revel in my seclusion and rightful, “safe” privacy.

But now apparently the cops can bust down anyone’s door and, if they employ the “correct” procedure, can bully, arrest, Taser, or even shoot a private resident just on the merits of that individual’s expressed response to their uninvited, unwelcome, and often quite frightening intrusion.

So now I wonder: is the Void everywhere? Can I really get away from it from sealing myself within my home, drawing the curtains, and locking the doors? And if I can never safely get away from it, perhaps I need to reconsider the legitimacy of my panic in public places.

Gainesville, as far as I know, has no curfew. I can walk or run down any publicly owned street I want anytime I want. And I owe nobody any explanation for my presence. As long as I am civil to others in public, they have no cause to act in any way against me. I am no longer a stranger; I belong here and anywhere I decide to go. Those who I earlier feared may have cast me in such a category have diminished themselves through their fears, if it turns out that they really regarded me this way. For the most part, though, I believe that most people around me actually regard me with the utmost indifference, completely immersed in their own vanity and personal narratives.

So if the Void is everywhere, then it is really nowhere, either. I belong here, and so do you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. By the way, the student in question survived the shooting, but his life hung in the balance for several days. And he is now being subject to criminal prosecution for his entire horrible ordeal!

This Blog Now Three Years Old

In a moment of supremely shameless self-indulgence, let me heartily congratulate myself on my third anniversary of this blog. I must confess to more than a little vanity after I went back into my archives and read some of my earlier material. Pretty good stuff, for the most part. Maybe some of my opinions ring true with readers and maybe some don’t. But recognize this: everything I have written here is heartfelt and true to what I believe. So at the very least, it provides the reader with a look into the mind and feelings of a fellow traveler through life. And that’s how I want you to see it as well.

By the way, you are welcome to examine all of my archived articles, going even all of the way back to the beginning April, 2007. And then make comments appropriate to any of the articles that interest you. I will read all comments and, if they actually pertain to what I wrote and are not spam or profanity-laced, then I will publish them and probably make my own comments in reply.

Facebook and Twitter still seem to be the rage for people to communicate and network on the Internet. I have accounts with both but rarely use them. I have found this blog to suffice for me to express whatever I want to express. I let people know about its existence, but it’s up to them to read it. There is one possible, crucial drawback to following this blog: it makes the possibly unreasonable requirement that the reader possess something resembling an attention span! But you’re not like them: you made it all the way to the end. Congratulations! You should pat yourself on the back for your outstanding attention-endurance! Now all you have left to do is drop a comment! C’mon, you know you want to!

Asking Pointed Questions to Strangers

Suppose I were to walk up to a stranger and begin to ask that person about their interests, skills, and personal history. In the first place they may feel put out by me imposing on THEIR time and space. Secondly, they may be suspicious because I am a stranger to them, one individual whose motives for approaching them is unclear. And if the person I approach in this manner happens to be a woman, she may then possibly jump straight to the conclusion that I am trying to pick her up!

Which takes me in two different directions: making friends and the U.S. Census. Starting with the latter, there seems to be confusion among some elements of the population about the propriety of the Census in the first place. As if it were some dastardly, sinister plot of the big, bad government designed to mark different people for later persecution. Actually, though, the Census is embedded within the U.S. Constitution and is necessary to determine how much representation different areas get in Congress, according to their populations. Those living in areas like arch-conservative Michelle Bachmann’s Minnesota district who heed her advice to shun the Census are only helping to disenfranchise their voice in Congress by doing this. But most folks have no qualms about answering the few, simple questions on the form and returning it, postage paid. After all, we’re pretty much already trained in the ritual of form-filling through applications and medical forms. Compared to them, the Census questions are hardly intrusive.

As to asking pointed, personal questions to strangers in order to see if some of them could be potential friends, I wonder if it wouldn’t be a fun experiment for me to try out. I would need to go to a public place that I usually don’t frequent, preferably in a different town if possible. And then begin conversations with people where I ask their names, what they do for a living, what their interests, are, their marital status, children, religion, politics, hobbies, and so on. Of course, I need to do this in a friendly manner while being prepared to diplomatically “retreat” from hostile people.

Why bring this up? Because people deliberately set out to present themselves in public settings, and then once they are there they erect all kinds of walls around themselves. How about “being” public while you’re “in” the public? Exactly what kind of privacy are people trying to protect anyway? I am not the State; I am an individual as they are. I can ask people anything I want, and they are free to either answer me or refuse. After all, how can people stop being strangers unless they get to know each other?

Coffee Shop Musings

I feel invigorated after I drop off my daughter at school on weekday mornings and then head out to the nearby Starbucks for my coffee (and some writing). That’s good, because I usually spend most of the time at home before my habitual daily sojourn struggling to wake up!

The Starbucks I go to tends to give me a positive feeling about people in general. The workers here are friendly, informal, and efficient at their jobs. The customers are all early-risers and well-dressed, usually heading out to their jobs or school. The overwhelming majority of them are in good spirits like me and see this “pit stop” to the coffee shop as a welcome, happy treat. However…

If I go across the street to Donut Connection, they have a completely different kind of clientele. The folks going there tend to be more blue collar or retired, and those regular sitting customers tend to have a decidedly more political and conservative streak to their conversation. In other words, that place tends to be a conservative social hangout, kind of like a bar without the booze.

And I like that setup. People there don’t feel quite as stuffy about their private space (well, some do). In Starbucks, on the other hand, every table is like a private little world for each set of customers. We chat amicably but tend to keep to ourselves, else we “offend” by crossing lines. This doesn’t always have to be this way (although I like my own space, too).

Back in 2000, when this Starbucks first opened, they had a manager who was charming, professional, and engaging. He got to know the regular customers by name as well as finding out a little about each one. And if he felt that you may have had to wait a little too long in line that day, he often simply gave you your drink without charging you. But sadly, this manager tends to be the exception to the rule of more detached managers who keep their distance from the customers. That first manager played a very important social role, what I would term as a “facilitator”: someone who creates a sense of community in a place by emphasizing each individual’s personal interests and then bringing them together through respectful, friendly conversation. This guy so impressed me that I try to model my own often misanthropic behavior after his example. It never fails: simple, engaging friendliness rocks!

Obama’s Presidency Centrist, Pragmatic

I have observed Barack Obama’s presidential tenure so far and can reach only one conclusion. While he may have been a more ideological politician while in the Illinois state legislature and the U.S. Senate, his experience as a chief executive has forced him to make difficult decisions, some of them drawing him more to the center of the political spectrum. And that’s my conclusion: all of the crowing and paranoia from the political right notwithstanding, Barack Obama has marked his presidency as one of centrist pragmatism.

He didn’t immediately withdraw from Iraq, but instead followed the previous administration in favor of a phased, gradual exit. He has increased our military involvement in Afghanistan, not something one might expect from one rooted in leftist ideology. He was quite flexible in the recently enacted health care reform bill, accepting the absence of a public option as well as other weakened parts of the bill (as well as an assurance to pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives that he would order the bill not to change the application of the earlier restrictive Hyde Amendment). He has also changed his stance about the treatment of detainees from our “war on terrorism” to be more closely aligned with how the Bush administration conducted the issue. He is very strongly in favor of enforceable sanctions against Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear bombs. He has strongly supported legislation that gives tax credits for small businesses. And although I personally disagree with him, he acted to drastically privatize our national space program. And his pick for the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by retiring Justice David Souter, Sonia Sotomayor, is a strong “law-and-order” judge.

So all of the ranting by the Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity wingnuts and the teabaggers aside, Barack Obama is turning out to be a president of all, with his motto apparently being “gather all of the facts and then make the best possible decision” from them. I can handle that, how about you?

Planets in Alignment

The planets were in perfect alignment tonight, creating the scenario for what I consider to be a personal milestone. In order for me to have known what to do, I needed to know exactly what positions two of those planets would be in. Once I knew, it was just a matter of having the opportunity to strike. Tonight, just after sunset, came that chance.

No, I am not talking about astrology, but astronomy. I had earlier consulted an astronomy website, not a horoscope, to find out that Venus would be high in the western sky just after sunset. And down a little, to its right in the sky would appear the elusive little planet of Mercury, shining with first magnitude brightness. I was walking to my car when I just happened to glance westward, seeing Venus. And then I remembered about Mercury. And saw it clearly as well. Then, as I was driving westward, the two were there, high in the sky (I was surprised a little about Mercury being that far up). So what, you might say.

I began star-gazing when I was seven, back in the spring of 1964. Yet I have never seen Mercury directly. Until now in 2010! And then it hit me: how many people can actually claim to have seen (and identified) Mercury in their lifetimes? Probably very few. So I wonder…

Have you ever seen AND identified the following by direct observation:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
The Milky Way
Betelgeuse
Sirius
Canopus
Rigel
Vega
Arcturus
Leo
Orion
Orion’s Belt
The Big Dipper (part of Ursa Major)
Scorpius
The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor)
Polaris (the North Star)
The Pleiades

I’ll bet, with the possible exceptions of Venus and the Big Dipper, the overwhelming majority of the population has identified NONE of the above through simple observation. Sure, people look up into the night sky and see bright stars, some of which to them may seem so bright that they know that they are (probably) planets. But which planets?

So although it has taken me 46 years to observe and identify Mercury, I think I’m still way ahead of the game in comparison to everyone else. But then again, general disinterest in astronomy is one of reasons why we are sadly earthbound in our space program, this after landing successfully on the moon on and safely returning on six different occasions four decades ago!

NCAA Basketball Final Four Play Tonight

Today the NCAA men's basketball tournament begins its final phase with the Final Four teams playing off to see who will meet Monday for the championship game. Pre-tournament favorites Kansas, Kentucky, and Syracuse have all been upset victims, with only Duke surviving as a regional #1 seed. The other teams are West Virginia, which will play Duke today, along with Butler and Michigan State, which are slated for the first game starting at about six tonight.

I traditionally use the following criteria in rooting for teams in the NCAA tournament:

1--University of Florida
2--Other Florida schools
3-University of North Carolina
4--Non-Florida Southeastern Conference schools
5--The rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference schools

UF and Florida State were eliminated in the first round, UNC (the defending champions) didn't even make the tournament this year, the other SEC teams (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt) have all been eliminated, leaving criterion #5 to draw upon: at least Duke made it, so I'm rooting for them.

And I don't care who wins beyond that. I will note, though, that these four teams seem to be very talented and evenly matched. So it should be entertaining to watch them play tonight. I suppose that in the non-Duke games, I will need to arbitrarily choose one team to pull for. But then again, maybe not. Sometimes it's just fun to sit back and soak in the game!

MLB Season Close At Hand

As the Major League Baseball exhibition season draws to an end and the the regular season is about to start, I find myself reevaluating which teams I will be following this year. Last year, I concentrated on the American League Central along with the Chicago Cubs and the two Florida teams. But it didn't work out: I rarely had the opportunity to watch AL Central teams play and consequently didn't get to know them very well (except perhaps for the Chicago White Sox). So this year I'm trying something different.

I will follow these teams this year:

Tampa Bay Rays
Florida Marlins
Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Cincinnati Reds (maybe)

Tampa Bay, Florida, and the two Chicago teams were all regularly featured on TV last year; getting to know them through their many televised games should be no problem. Atlanta has traditionally been the team I followed in years gone by, not to mention the fact that I can get them play-by-play on the local radio (WRUF-AM 850). As for the two New York teams, well, that's partially due to the fact that they are commonly shown on TV due to their huge markets and partially a matter for another blog article in the not-so-distant future. The possibility for me following Cincinnati depends on circumstances developing a certain way.

Not that I plan to spend every free waking moment of my life following baseball this spring and summer. I don't even picture myself planning to watch a particular game and sitting through it from beginning to end. Most likely, I will find an ongoing game while channel-surfing and enjoy it for a little while before "moving on". I think that's the best way to enjoy baseball, a sport that can become mind-numbing if left on too long.

I'm Out of Touch With Public Opinion

A recent public opinion poll showed the nation divided down the middle about President Obama's performance regarding the recently signed health care reform legislation and the economy. But the respondents overwhelmingly approved of the President's actions entrenching us more deeply in Afghanistan.

Although I am myself ambivalent about the health care reform bill, I see Obama's actions to stimulate the economy not only as necessary, but also as a logical continuation of the previous Republican president's emergency actions during the final months of his administration. But George W. Bush's party, now in the clear minority and out of the presidency, has gone so far in opposition to anything that Obama wants that they even opposed en masse a bill providing tax credits for small businesses. Wait, that's nothing new. The GOP is the party that claims to back small business while their actions really tend to tow the line of major corporate interests.

And Afghanistan? Why are we vastly increasing the number of soldiers we're sending there when the rationale for being there in the first place was to fight the Al-Qaeda terrorists who hatched and carried out the plot to attack America on 9/11? The recent case of the Nigerian who unsuccessfully tried to blow up a plane as it was about to land in Detroit illustrates the amorphous, mobile nature of Al-Qaeda: the plot originated in Yemen, a country friendly to the U.S. in which Al-Qaeda is clandestinely operating. Apparently, the terrorist thugs running Al-Qaeda came to the correct strategic conclusion that, since the U.S. will attack a country whose government is friendly to Al-Qaeda, their best chance for survival and growth is then to tuck themselves away in hard-to-get-to locations deeply within countries supporting America. This has already been borne out in Pakistan. So if Al-Qaeda has the capacity to base itself worldwide inside friendly countries who nevertheless may not be interested in U.S. troops fighting on their soil, why then are we throwing so much into fighting the indigenous political/military/religious movement known as the Taliban in Afghanistan? I think they already got the message several years ago: don't be friendly to Al-Qaeda! Perhaps Obama thinks that a surge reminiscent of the Iraq surge in the Sunni regions of 2007-08 will succeed on the same level. I think, though, that the situations on the ground are completely different. As an American, I wish success for Obama, but I fear that his emphasis on fighting in Afghanistan is misguided and I disapprove of his conduct of the war.

Also affirming the conclusion I reached that I am out of touch with American public opinion is the fact that the pollster didn't even think that Obama's recent decision to flat-out abandon our NASA efforts at returning to the moon and plan a Mars trip merited a poll question. I strongly disapprove of Obama's handling of this issue, but I don't think most Americans could care less about it one way or another. And that is very disappointing. Then again, people in this country seemed bored with the Apollo moon program as early as 1970, after only a couple of resoundingly successful landings. Sad.

Sports Standings, Real and Imaginary

Ever since the late 1960s, from about the time I was eleven, I have been fascinated by sports standings. I became pretty fanatical with them as a boy, as a matter of fact, poring over the newspaper sports section daily to see how the various teams in the different leagues were doing. And it mattered not whether the featured team or even the sport was one that I was following: I took it all in, be it ABA and NBA basketball, NHL hockey, NFL and AFL football, or AL, NL, and Florida League baseball. Eventually, my impatience with waiting daily to see how various standings changed led me to research the history of the various leagues and how their teams fished in seasons gone by. But even that wasn't enough, and I actually made up imaginary "leagues", the sports they represented being irrelevant, and went gradually through complete "fantasy" seasons, observing the standings as they developed. The teams I would designate by picking out various towns from maps. One league was comprised of twelve Florida cities; another by some obscure Texas towns. For one league, during a particular personally boring period during the summer of 1970, I set up an eight-team league based on cities distributed nationally, the final standings and general course of the "season" I still remember to this day, more so than many "real" seasons. How would I determine who won or lost a game? Simply by shuffling a deck of cards and dealing a pair at a time to determine winners and losers. Although my parents at the time thought that I was slipping too far into the world of the unreal while I did this, I was very much aware that this was pure entertainment for me, nothing more. And even today, I don't see it as that much removed from following the standings of "real" leagues. Besides, look at how seriously engaged people are nowadays with "official" fantasy sports, not to mention the video game craze that seems to dominate so much of their enthusiasts' free time.

So why should I care that the NBA New Jersey Nets team this year, which will probably avoid finishing with the league's all-time worst regular season record because of a late-season "surge", is real or just a figment of my imagination? Of course, I wouldn't be able to actually watch an imagined Nets team play a game, but I'm not talking about that per se. I'm talking about the feeling derived from observing different teams rise and decline over the course of a season, and how far apart they are from other in the standings at any particular time. I bet some people get off in the same way by looking at the stock prices from day to day (or even hour to hour)!

No, I don't make up "pretend" leagues any more; that was more an element of my distant past. But instead of wondering to myself about the propriety of having engaged in such fantasy, perhaps I should be asking myself how far removed from reality I am nowadays when I so closely and passionately follow "real" sports vicariously!

Wearing One's Disorder Like a Badge

A few weeks ago, I heard an NPR show in which an adult woman discussed her own, personal voyage through life. She discovered, in her adulthood, that she had always had Asperger's Syndrome, which is considered to be a relatively high-functioning affliction in the autism spectrum of disorders. This guest regarded her diagnosis, albeit while living as a well-functioning adult in society, as a kind of self-discovery and... I have to say, a source of pride at having this label to attach to herself.

From what I know of Asperger's Syndrome, those with it tend to find human companionship irrelevant at best and highly stressful at worst. They also tend to be overly sensitive to crowds and the kind of very noisy situations commonly arising from them. This I myself understand and identify with. I have long understood that I am afflicted with a hypersensitivity to the kind of audio input provided in large, noisy crowd settings. And I generally tend to keep to myself and avoid involvement with others. But I refuse to label myself with any diagnosis name, nor would I ever deliberately set out to obtain one. But the woman on the NPR program relished and even flaunted her "title".

Which brings me to the main point of that show: the psychiatric authorities responsible for naming disorders of this sort have decided to stop using "Asperger's Syndrome" as a diagnosis, instead choosing to integrate their view of those originally so diagnosed as being a part of the general autism spectrum. The woman with Aspergers was almost distraught at the prospect of losing her "badge". And badge is a good analogy, for it reminds me of the soldier in Stephen Crane's book Red Badge of Courage who found in having a visible wound a way for him to find his place within the often incomprehensible setting of the U.S. Civil War. For many, life itself is a kind of war, and they must grab hold of anything that can help them withstand its perceived perils. And psychiatric self-labeling is a device some apparently use to this end.

I was always under the impression that many mental disorders are latently present within us, subject to counterbalancing forces we have. How many students of an abnormal psychology course will go through their textbooks and see themselves in disorder after disorder? It is when our ability to function effectively decreases (especially when leading to social conflict), that it is necessary to seek a "diagnosis" and receive "treatment". To already be high-functioning, albeit with some uncomfortable leanings, and then seek an "official" diagnosis strikes me as being just a little bit beyond the pale. After all, as the Rush song Vital Signs goes, "Everybody gotta deviate from the norm."

West Florida Marathon Blues

Are marathons declining, or is there something specific to the area of (peninsular, not panhandle) western Florida that discourages them? The Sarasota Marathon was cancelled this year, with the race being changed to a purely half-marathon event. This year's Tampa Bay Gasparilla Festival Marathon just held its final run and will be no more. And the Florida Sheriff Youth's Ranch moved its annual marathon from the Sarasota vicinity to far-northern Florida this year, a few miles from Live Oak at that ranch's location.

I know that these marathon/half-marathon events tend to draw many more half-marathon participants than those running the marathon, so the event organizers can see that their funding comes primarily from the shorter race. And the longer marathon, if it doesn't simply involve repeating the half-marathon course or retracing back, will take up an additional 13.1 miles of public roads that require temporary lane closures and police supervision. So from a cost-effective analysis perspective, some may be seeing marathons as something of a waste, while half-marathons are growing in popularity. At least that seems to be how Sarasota acted. I do know that I would be awfully disappointed if I lived in that area.

In other places, though, marathons still seem to be thriving. Jacksonville, as a matter of fact, holds two each year. My home town of Gainesville seems pretty happy with its LifeSouth Five Points of Life marathon in February, so perhaps what has been transpiring around Tampa and Sarasota is an anomaly. If so, it would be nice if some other organizations would step up to the plate and engineer new races for this area, where distance running is obviously very popular.

I would hate to see, just I am beginning to come into my own as a marathon runner, for this genre of race to begin to decline. But then again, I may find that, once I have passed the personal milestone of actually covering the 26.2 miles of a marathon, I may prefer to concentrate on half-marathons instead. For now, though, it's marathon time for me.

Gainesville Repels Storms

Perhaps, if I were a superstitious person, I would regard myself as tempting fate by revealing what I am about to reveal. But I'm not, so let fate deal its cruel hand for the following words I'm about to lay down on this blog.

I have repeatedly noticed for what seems like years a curious pattern regarding the weather in Gainesville and weather forecasts. It seems that time after time the weather service will predict a big storm system to either come in from the Gulf of Mexico or sweep down from the Florida panhandle. Gainesville and its surroundings would be engulfed in heavy rain, wind, and thunderstorms. And each time, here would come that system toward our fair city. And then, all too often, just as the nasty, naughty clouds were about to hit us, they would part around the city and then concentrate their wrath on surrounding communities, most notably Ocala to the south and Lake City to the north.

Such was the case again today. All afternoon and evening, we were going to be socked with a lot of rain, wind and a big chance of heavy thunderstorms. I scoffed at the forecast and told my wife that Gainesville would be spared the worst. And sure enough, just as the massive storm system on the televised radar picture neared my home town, it seemed to veer slightly southward, hitting Ocala (once again). Amazingly, just as the worst of the storm was striking Ocala, the radar showed the cloud cover in Gainesville to be clearing from the opposite direction! Eventually, we did get some light rain, but that was it. No torrent, no lightning, little wind. Ho-hum, I could have told them.

So you see how a more superstitious soul might conclude that I am tempting fate a bit by pointing out Gainesville's recent apparent ability to repel storms. Perhaps this summer we'll be the bulls-eye for one of the worst hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland. But I'm not holding my breath, shaking in my boots, or acting out any other sorry cliches waiting for that to happen!

15 Kilometer Race

This morning I ran the 15 kilometer race in the Climb for Cancer Tri-Distance run held here in Gainesville. The course went around Haile Plantation, an upscale residential community southwest of the city and which featured its own little upscale shopping center, called Haile Village Center. It was here that the race began and ended. The weather for the race, which started at 8, was perfect: clear and very mild in the low fifties with a light breeze.

The registration went smoothly, and I received with it my complimentary Climb for Cancer Tri-Distance Run tee shirt, light tote bag, and race timing chip. There were stands around offering water, Gatorade, tangerines, apples, and bananas. Before the race began, I walked around the "village" but didn't see what I really wanted at the time, which was a coffee shop. Oh well. Maybe there was one there and I missed it (I usually don't run this early in the morning and I like my coffee).

My goal for this race was to improve on my pacing, keeping it around 9:00 per mile. I expected to still finish in the bottom half of the overall standings, but kept in mind that at 53 I was one of the older runners there and was definitely ready to cover this distance competitively.

When the race began, we were all bunched up together and had to work around each other before we could establish our own preferred individual paces. Once there was more room, though, I was able to hover around 9:00 for the duration of the race. There were times, though (other than the race's start) when my pace slowed too much for me. It always seemed to happen when I was grouped with other runners. For some reason, their pacing slowed me down.

The course itself was 5K long. 10K runners did two laps and 15K three. Near the end of the first lap, I found myself in an irritating situation by being close to some 5K runners, with me first passing them and then them passing me. And then them tiring and slowing down, boxing me in. Eventually though, their race ended and only we 10K and 15K runners were left. Then it became more fun.

Throughout the final lap, all I did was pass other runners and slightly speed up. At race's end, I felt as if I were almost sprinting. I finished the 15K run with a time of 1:23:55 at exactly a 9:00 pace, precisely the result I wanted! Here are the race results, furnished by altavistasports.com, which was the company that was in charge of timing the race.

Recovery after the race was easy and fast. The race organizers and volunteers presented awards and medals for top overall finishers and top age group finishers for men and women. I got a second-place medal for the "men's 50-54" group (there were only two in the category). I didn't really like having to hang around to receive an award; I liked it more in February's Five Points of Life half-marathon when they presented me (and all other finishers) a participation medal immediately after I crossed the finish line. But I guess some runners prefer the individual attention and recognition.

I have run in a race longer than 5K for each of the past two months. I wonder if I can keep this going for April. I'll have to check out what's going on in this region for the weeks to come.

Full Circle Stuff

The year has come around full circle and once again we are presented with a Saturday of "free beer" (only costing $30 up front) and a local church with an apparent continuing "mission from God" to offend.

Tomorrow afternoon I need to avoid the Magnolia Parke shopping center where I am now sitting sipping coffee as their ridiculous annual "free" beer-tasting festival will be held in the currently-empty field at which I am currently gazing. The parking lots around here will be packed and there will be a long line of people prepared to shell out dough to sample different types of beer. Whoopee. And I suppose we'll get another stupid article about it in my often worthless Gainesville Sun newspaper. Probably once again quoting some fool extolling the "free beer".

Down the road a ways and a couple of turns later, the Dove World Outreach Center has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy. Not only has it been running a for-profit furniture store on its property, but now it has posted on its property a sign stating "No Homo for Mayor", referring to the fact that candidate and current city commissioner Craig Lowe happens to be gay. Since our law makes tax-exemption for churches subject to them staying out of electoral politics, this is a blatant infringement that should cause them to have to pay their fair share for city services. It's not a First Amendment issue, either: as a private citizen I can speak my mind as well, and I have my share of taxes!

And also, once again the Climb-for-Cancer 5K, 10K, and 15K runs are to be held, taking place tomorrow morning. Last year I preregistered, paying in advance and even picking up my race packet complete with tee shirt, timing chip, and assorted coupons. And then skipped out on the actual race due to the facts that (1) I didn't feel good and (2) I had doubts about being able to cover the distance I had registered for (15K, about 9.3 miles). Covering that distance now is a "yawner" for me. This year, I didn't preregister, instead opting to appear at 7 AM tomorrow and signing up then. Climb-for-Cancer's registration website has a feature that I find objectionable. In order to sign up for the race, besides paying the up-front fee, one had to commit to a fundraising goal of at least $100 in order for the registration to go through. I had never seen this degree of arm-twisting with online registration, in spite of the fact that virtually all of the races I have participated in during the past two years were in essence fundraisers for charitable causes. So I'm wondering whether they will try something similar when I try to register in person. Not that raising $100 is inherently bad, you see. But I just dislike the manipulative nature of what they're doing. I even e-mailed their director and tactfully explained my objections without ever receiving any reply. Also not good. So I'm going into this race with low expectations from this organization. Still, if I can just run the race and get my finishing time, it should be a fun experience. I would have preferred to be heading to Knoxville to participate in their marathon on March 28, but I was neither physically prepared yet for a marathon nor logistically prepared with the travel and limited time.

GOP in 2010: 1994 or 1964?

There has been a great deal of comparison lately between the political situation nowadays in the first (and now second) year of a new Democratic administration, along with a Congress run by that party. Tough issues, most notably health care reform, are once again being addressed, and the Republican opposition, as before, has been fierce. In the 1994 congressional elections, the GOP, under the banner of representative Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" swept itself into the legislative majority of both houses. In this fall's elections, there are similar hopes (or fears, depending on which side you are on). But there is an added element to this year's election that may complicate the Republicans' aspirations this year.

The Tea Party movement, an extreme right-wing political movement based partially on corporate-fed right-wing talk radio and television, partially on sour grapes on the part of the losers of the 2008 election, and partially on the paranoid, racist, and anti-Semitic conspiracist/militia movement that has been festering in this country for the past couple of decades, threatens to knock off more moderate Republicans in their party's primary elections. Even John McCain may be defeated in his senatorial reelection bid, not by the Democrats but by his own party. Should teabaggers run directly against Democrats in the general election, the Dems should have the upper hand for most of the contests. This should help to offset other Democratic losses caused by their declining general popularity over the past year and a half.

We have already witnessed an event of this nature, when a New York congressional seat held by the Republicans for decades went Democratic because a teabagger independent candidate siphoned off votes from the official GOP candidate. If the Republicans become more hard-line right wing, the scenario may be more like that of 1964, when Barry Goldwater's conservative wing took over the party and drove the more moderate and liberal elements to the sidelines. And that year, the GOP suffered one of its worst electoral defeats ever.

In 1994, the Democrats were caught off guard by the Republican surge. I remember the astonishment as the election results poured in that year. This year, they have plenty of advance warning. Prepare yourself for a political media blitz (from both sides), the likes of which have never before been witnessed!