Haven't Forgotten About Blog

Unfortunately, I have been a little remiss lately in the blog entry department. Hopefully, though, things will pick up again and I'll be showering the blogosphere with all sorts of articles, some of which may actually be interesting or pertinent. I suppose that everyone's life takes turns every now and then that temporarily lead them away from the things they enjoy doing. With me, writing is a fun activity that I'd like to do more than just putting out blog articles. Unfortunately, I haven't allowed myself to give it a higher priority in my daily walk through life. Maybe it's about time I did, though...

In any event, I haven't forgotten about this blog and still want to get back to daily entries. I just need to give the activity a time and place to accomplish this consistently.

'Bucks and 'Boks

A funny thing happened throughout my ten-day vacation. Although I had anticipated going to various Starbucks stores while traveling around the southeastern U.S., it turned out that I went to none of them, inadvertently avoiding this brand. Not that I avoided coffee: I probably drank as much of it as I usually do, but at hotels, restaurants, and relatives' homes instead. The Starbucks stores always seemed to either be in another part of town, an inconvenient location, or absent altogether. It wasn't until yesterday afternoon just before work, when I went to Gainesville's Oaks Mall to buy a new pair of Reebok running shoes, that I finally resumed the Starbucks habit.

Yes, it is a pleasant experience to sit down in a cool, air-conditioned Starbucks with its background music and customer chatter, alternately typing away on my keyboard and sipping a strong coffee of theirs. Yesterday doing this helped to put my mind back into "routine" mode, preparing me better for the week ahead. And although I think that it's probably healthy to take occasional vacations and break that routine, I tend to feel more comfortable and empowered when I have a more structured schedule. And familiar coffee shops to frequent!

Speaking of the running shoes, I purchased a pair that seems nearly identical to the ones that served me so well for more than a year. I'm looking forward to breaking them in, starting with just wearing them to work for a couple of weeks. I think I'll save my old pair of Reeboks for running in the rain or on the beach...

Hike to Natural Bridge, Kentucky

Last Monday I hiked up to the top of Natural Bridge, a large sandstone formation in eastern Kentucky on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. Accompanying me were my children Rebecca and Will. The hike was between 2-3 miles long, but was pretty steep climbing at times. But not, I understand, as steep as the original trail to the summit, which was only .75 miles long! There were other, longer trails crisscrossing the park; the map that the park provided of the different trails was unreadable, looking more like a little kid's scribbling than a usable trail map.

Along the climb we would stop every few minutes or so for rest and some water. It was hot, but we had helpful tree cover shading us from the sun. Upon reaching the top, though, we were exposed to the hot summer sun which beat down on us mercilessly as we stood there looking down from the Natural Bridge at the landscape below. Melissa, who had taken the sky lift ride up ahead of us (with some Kentucky relatives), rode back down on it again, this time with all of us together.

We were planning to go to the neighboring Red River Gorge and try out "zip-lining", but an approaching huge severe thunderstorm stretching all the way back to Lexington canceled that plan. Still, the Natural Bridge hike and sky lift ride back down were fun experiences.

I enjoy hiking like this and could have gone much further. But when you're with a group, you have to stick together and look out for anyone who may be reacting to the hike unfavorably. And sometimes that means that you have to curtail a hike or slow it down. But that's the way it should be...

Foolish Hollywood Run in Humidity

Yesterday I was down in Hollywood, Florida visiting my father. I decided to go on a run around my childhood neighborhood, something that I had never felt comfortable doing before. The running course was easy enough to devise: I planned it looking at my cellphone map of the area while at a turnpike rest stop on the way. Still, without using my MapMyRun application, I wouldn't know the exact distance I covered until I got back to Gainesville.

I made an enormous, stupid mistake by choosing the morning hours to do my run. The temperature ranged from 80 to 83 degrees, an acceptable range. But I allowed myself to run with the humidity an unbearable 82-85%. Very foolish. I finished my 4.14 mile run in 38:08, but my recovery was difficult. The humidity caused excessive sweating and cramping, and I couldn't hold down the G2 drink I had consumed during the run to rehydrate myself. Eventually I improved, but I was still more tired than usual throughout the day. I had better not try running under hot, excessively humid conditions anymore!

Still, having said that, I also am happy to report that I enjoyed the actual run through my old neighborhood...well, maybe not so happy: the humidity was starting to get to me badly there at the end. And although I have run much further recently in Gainesville, Sunday morning's run was the longest distance I had covered in south Florida since 1976. I think that my future trips to Hollywood will feature the same general running course, but under vastly different weather conditions. I doubt that I would have had any problem yesterday had I done what I do in Gainesville: wait for the humidity to inevitably drop over the course of the morning...

Japanese, Lexington, Television

One of the surprises I experienced while visiting Lexington, Kentucky last week was the presence there of a substantial Japanese minority. For whatever reason, perhaps a nearby Japanese auto plant...whatever...I saw (and heard) quite a few Japanese people around in public (and I have a degree of familiarity with the language). At my hotel, one channel was exclusively devoted to Japanese-language programming. A weekly Japanese-language business newspaper was available as well in the lobby. Strangely to me (from Florida), there was no attempt to cater to Spanish-speaking visitors as there were no Spanish TV channels or Spanish newspapers (at least in my hotel). This in spite of the fact that I heard Spanish spoken around me in public.

My son, who had visited Japan during the summer of 2010, kept the TV pretty much on that Japanese channel in the hotel. Mornings were devoted to children's programming, once again making it seem that all those little children on the shows were such geniuses to be able to speak such a difficult language as Japanese so effortlessly. Later in the morning, the programming shifted to a more adult focus: a panel discussion of people sitting around reading and analyzing haiku poetry! It remotely reminded me of the oft-interesting Book TV shows presented on C-Span during the weekend, but that is just about the only thing on my sorry television channel lineup that can claim to have literature-friendly content. Later in the day, the Japanese station presented cartoons, business discussion, news, and entertainment shows.

A few years ago there was a TV channel called "AZN" that presented shows in various East Asian languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese. I used to watch it a lot, especially the morning news shows in Chinese and Vietnamese. Alas, though, they went out of business, leaving me to have to resort to Univision to get some linguistic diversity out of my hometown television.

I wish that cable television companies would try to supply major population centers with at least one channel devoted to programming in each of the major world languages. Especially in places with large universities that enroll many international students. In Gainesville, we have very sizeable Chinese and Indian communities. Let's at least get Chinese and Hindi channels!

Travel, Constraints

I'm sitting here in a Forsyth, Georgia hotel on this Friday morning. My family and I are on our way back home from visiting relatives in Lexington, Kentucky. Yesterday was a pretty intensive driving day, and part of today will involve a considerable amount as well. But I don't mind the driving, and Melissa has shared the chores.

No, I have to admit it, I just don't care that much for travel. I know some are crazy about it, but I would much rather just stick to my daily routine. I think one major reason for my lack of enthusiasm for going places is that my travel itinerary almost always has a particular agenda, and the people I travel with have their own priorities for the trip that require a degree of negotiation in the limited time (and expense) available.

Take this Lexington trip, for example. I love Melissa's relatives there and enjoyed visiting them. But I also wanted to go see Frankfort, the state capital, just a few miles down the road. I wanted to walk around the University of Kentucky campus. There was a park down the road featuring a cave. These are just a few of the places I wanted to visit but couldn't due to the constraints that my family role imposed on me.

I did go visit the Natural Bridge east of Lexington and hiked the 2+ miles to the top with my "kids" Will and Rebecca, and that was a lot of fun. There was some shopping and eating out. We did manage to drive through downtown Lexington and past the nearby UK campus just before leaving. At the hotel, I did get some swimming and running in to keep my fitness "continuity" going. And yes, spending time in the company of others was pretty cool, too.

I'm looking forward to getting back home to Gainesville later today. Then tomorrow I plan to embark on a trip to Hollywood in south Florida to visit my father for a couple of days. Another trip with possibilities that won't be realized because of the constraints...

Entropy-Challenged Me

I admit it: I am an entropy-challenged person. Fighting increasing disorder and uncleanliness around my home seems to be an insurmountable task. My yard is a travesty of weeds, ants, molehills, and overgrown trees, vines, bushes, and grass. It seems that everywhere I look around me, something is in a state of disrepair. It is a struggle to keep the cars in good working order. Even my clothes not only seem to be becoming more and more tattered, but also from time to time some of them mysteriously disappear, I suspect into the midst of the disorder around me. Yes, losing things is another symptom of being entropy-challenged.

When I visit a friend's house, I usually get taken aback at the extraordinary level of cleanliness and tidiness of the place. I can't imagine the owners doing much of anything with their lives besides being in a constant state of cleaning and repairing. Yet I know that these people are also active in other areas of their lives. They are just more effective in fighting the entropy around them.

I suppose the most dangerous form of entropy is the breakdown of one's own body through disease. At my age (54), I need to at least put my efforts into caring for my health, be it through better eating, better hygiene, or seeking necessary medical procedures and regular examinations.

I think that, as long as I can keep my health going strong, I can put up with a "reasonable" level of disorder around me. But I'd like to get better at keeping things clean, in a state of good repair, and enjoy a relatively uncluttered home environment.

Easier "written" than done, though...

Super-Aging Presidents

I don't understand why anyone would want to be president of the United States. The act of serving seems to have an accelerating affect on the aging process. Sometimes with past presidents like Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, or George H.W. Bush, the effect wasn't as noticeable because they (fortunately for themselves) lost their re-election campaigns (or with Ford, his "first" election campaign). But for those (un)lucky dogs who, like Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, made it past one term, all appeared much older and more haggard after completing their tenures than at their start. And now we come to our current president Barack Obama.

I was recently looking at the CNN website, which featured Obama's changing, aging appearance after only two and a half years in office. He really does look as if the job is getting to him. That's sad, because I genuinely like the guy and believe that he is trying to the best of his ability to serve the American people responsibly. Instead of showing the respect that the president's office demands, though, his political opponents have resorted to personal vilification campaigns against him while holding the American people hostage to their narrow, extremist ideological agenda. It seems that no matter what our president does nowadays, somebody from one side or another (or as is usually the case, both) is severely critical of him.

I have my own criticisms of some of President Obama's decisions, which I have clearly expressed in earlier articles here. But as was the case with President Bush in his own time before him (and whom I came to politically oppose), I recognize the fact that at this time in history in the year 2011, Barack Obama is my president and I support my president's efforts on behalf of our country, regardless of which political philosophy he subscribes to. Now come election time, I'll naturally vote for the candidate whose views and plans appeal more to me. But I think one thing that wears on this president more than others is the fact that his opponents seem to personally loathe him, and that they have treated him as an enemy ever since he took the presidential oath. I find that to be distinctly unamerican and unpatriotic. Respect the office of president by showing respect to its current occupant; you can still vote him out in 2012 if you want! Frankly, that may just be the best thing for Mr. Obama that could happen (but not necessarily for the rest of the country)...

Unbearable Heat and Humidity

When I walked out of my workplace late last night (just a couple of hours ago) it felt as if I were on another planet, with the extreme heat and humidity present. The instant I stepped outside, my glasses fogged up. These conditions are worse than I usually find midday in the hot August summer. But then I remembered that the temperature approached 100 earlier today.

Others can worry about the economy; my concern is this killer mass heat wave affecting half the country. And no relief is in sight. In fact, meteorologists are now predicting even hotter conditions in the next few days as Tropical Storm Emily passes eastern Florida in the Atlantic and draws some of that overheated air in over us from the west.

I vividly remember (and actually own) that great old Twilight Zone episode titled Midnight Sun. In it, the Earth had altered its orbit to cause it to approach the Sun. Temperatures soared, and the global population tried to make it to the poles where conditions were still tolerable. Still, everyone knew that it was just a matter of time before the heat would overcome the entire planet. Incredibly, my wife Melissa, who has recently taken up knitting (and is quite good at it) has been making winter scarfs for everybody. Ha, as if it will ever get cold again!

I think that we seem to be in a social climate when it is somehow politically incorrect to attribute record hot conditions and extremely aberrant weather to global warming. But I'm going to say it anyway: it's global warming!

But this year's unpleasant summer is distinguishable from last year's also unpleasant summer in another respect. Yes, the temperatures are higher. But what is really getting to me is the excessively high humidity as well. If the temperature gets into the nineties, than the humidity needs to drop below fifty for conditions to be bearable. But it ain't happenin', folks...and the nighttime, with steambath conditions of 80-plus degrees and 80-plus percent humidity, is harder to withstand than the day!

I remember once watching an interview on C-Span featuring a scientist who denied global warming. He said that instead of trying to bring the (supposedly) rising temperatures under control through sound environmental policy, we should instead step up production of air conditioners and distribute them globally. And yes, he said this with a straight face. Well, dude, I'm placing my order now for a half-dozen!

Coming Vacation, Anticipated Blog Gaps

I'll be going on vacation soon, and for this blog that means a bit of uncertainty for the next couple of weeks. If I have access to a computer I may submit some short articles here and there, but for the most part I anticipate some gaps for a few days. I'm looking forward both to the vacation and resuming this blog afterward.

Debt Ceiling Raised; The Adapting Society

The national debt ceiling was raised yesterday, with the politicians now preparing themselves for more important things: namely, their own vacations! And I will be embarking in a few days on mine as well. But unlike many of my compatriots, I have not been spending the last few days agonizing over whether we will fall into economic calamity or how terrible the terms of any deal would be to appease the extremists in the Republican Party (who seem to think, apparently with some justification now, that they hold the reins of power in our country). Truth be told, we all have to deal with the parameters, boundaries, and rules of things as they exist in the present. Sometimes economic conditions are expansive and broadening in nature, and sometimes, like now (unless you are rich), they shrink and narrow. And as a species, you can't beat the ability of humans to adapt. Sometimes this is good during periods of adversity. Sometimes, though, with prosperity the reverse is true.

I have noticed, as our society has become so much more fast-paced with the Internet and cellphone technology and the accompanying social networking and texting, people have become less and less patient. They expect, it seems, instant gratification on just about every level. And with this impatience has come an incredible shortening of the average attention span. Along with, it seems, a loss of historical memory. Which maybe goes to explain why a state like Florida can vote for a liberal Democrat as president and two years later vote in extreme conservative teabaggers for senator and governor. Or how nobody seems to remember that it was a Democratic president who last (repeatedly) balanced the federal budget while his Republican successor, with the repeated blessings of the GOP in Congress, sent the deficit spiraling out of control.

So maybe as the government scales back on its programs and spending, there will be a lot of initial shock and pain. But as I said, people tend to adapt to whatever is out there, and this may be an instance of that. The downside is that when you are always adapting to new things going on around you, for better or for worse, that means that you are in a state of passive reaction instead of actively engaging in the process of creating better foundational conditions. But I think that those in the latter category are relatively few in number compared to our predominant "adapting society", with its concomitant lack of attention span and memory.

Cryptograms and Discouragement

From time to time, I like to engage in the game of solving cryptograms. In case you might not know what I'm talking about, a cryptogram is a puzzle usually containing a sentence or long phrase in which each alphabetical letter is arbitrarily replaced by another in a one-to-one, unique fashion. Hence "A" may be signified, for example, by "Q" in every word displayed (and by no other letter). Knowing how words tend to be structured with suffixes and conjugations, knowing the short words, knowing consonant clusters and vowel combinations, and using relative frequency of letters to your advantage are all paramount in being able to solve a particular puzzle. But even after considering everything, sometimes a little old-fashioned guesswork is needed as well.

In almost every cryptogram I've successfully completed, I have come to a point in the solution process when, although I know some of the letters, it looks as if there is no way that they could fit and form actual words. This is what I call "the crisis" and often immediately precedes a breakthrough that quickly develops and cascades to the final, solved message.

I think it works that way, too, with a lot of things, not just cryptograms. You work hard at something, maybe improving some. But your progress just isn't satisfactory and it looks as if you have reached a plateau beyond which the only apparent direction is either stagnation or decline. This is also a "crisis", which I call the "crisis of confidence". And sometimes it happens just before a major breakthrough, which is often triggered by something that at the time seems insignificant.

I guess what I'm trying to convey in all of this is that, if you're going to embark on an endeavor of any sort, try to enjoy the process itself and don't be discouraged by those inevitable times when all of your travail seems to be for nought. Victory may instead be just around the corner!

And here, for your amusement, discouragement, and eventual victory, is my own cryptogram...

R ZRPB VK AGOJA MCZPQJQCD GEECDCU J UJRAK ODKQLGNDJV RMPLCJU GE LBJL HGDRMN ZGDU PCJDB QTSSAC GE LBCRDP.

Third Reich Documentary on The History Channel

Yesterday afternoon, while unsuccessfully trying to digest my exercise in culinary overindulgence (heartburn after eating deep-fried food at a restaurant), I sat back in my comfy recliner and began to surf channels on my TV. Nothing, nothing, ... wait, what was that? Yes, unbelievably the History Channel was showing a program out of line with their usual line-up: an actual show about history. They were showing a four-hour-long video record of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, presented mainly in the form of home movies made chiefly by Germans living through the time. It wasn't directed at the political and military events, leaders, and decisions, but rather at how the people living through this strange and brutal period of history reacted and adapted to it. I had seen this presentation in fragments before on TV, but was mesmerized by how quickly people will change their sense of values, ideology and humanity based on fear of retribution, the desire to conform, and the feeling that prosperity is the great justifier of everything. And just how easy it is to quickly make a scapegoat out of a demographic group with all of the above factors in play...

Third Reich: the Rise and Third Reich: the Fall reminded me of the film adaptation of Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum, which depicted the same era (and the attitudes of ordinary people) through the eyes of a boy who reacted to the duplicity and phoniness of the adults around him by willing himself not to grow.

One thing about Third Reich: the Fall that WAS somewhat new to me was at the very end, when it was mentioned that millions of Germans died of starvation and disease AFTER the war had ended. I hadn't been aware of this and need to investigate this disturbing allegation further...

If you can hack your way through The History Channel's sordid schedule, past either non-historical or non-reality-based shows like Ancient Aliens, Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, and Swamp People, you might just luck out and come up with a gem like the important documentary Third Reich. Please watch it if you have the chance. It carries some somber lessons and warnings for today in America, I'm afraid. Especially how suddenly a society can transform itself from something benign to something very, very hideous...

Recent Running, Future Swimming, and Deep-Fried Onions

My plan to train daily by doing runs and elliptical cross-trainer workouts on alternate days has now reached the two-week mark without any signs that my body is suffering from overstrain. My knees seem fine (which was my main concern about overrunning). Yes, my muscles feel a little sore, but that's actually something I expected as a sign of working hard. My main problem continues to be the stifling heat and humidity here in northern Florida. The mornings are so humid that I have to wait until around noon to run, and by then the temperature has soared. Sometimes I have no other option than to go to the YMCA and run on their treadmill, which I did today in the middle of a welcome strong rainstorm.

Next week I plan to practice my swimming form while staying at a hotel in Lexington, Kentucky. The two targeted strokes are freestyle and breaststroke. I think I "jumped the gun" a little earlier this year by trying to do too much with relatively poor form, especially since I have a lot of work to do with my breathing. After all of the kiddies start back with their school classes in a couple of weeks, the YMCA pool should be more available for practice as well.

Right now, though, my main physical problem is this heartburn I've incurred eating batter-fried onions during my lunch earlier today at Chili's restaurant with Melissa and Will. There are some foods that I'm just going to have to completely stay away from, and deep-fried foods are at the top of the list. When am I ever going to learn: I already knew they were bad for me and I ate them anyway...

Unwinding After Work at Archer Road Starbucks

I am currently sitting in the Archer Road Starbucks near SW 34th Street in Gainesville, right after getting off a little early from work in the evening. Open until midnight seven days a week, it is a very noisy place right now, with many international students from the University of Florida hanging out here. The police will be by as well a little later. Not that there will be any anticipated trouble: they come for the free coffee Starbucks offers them. So there's quite a mix in this place, and I am probably the only one here with a full-time regular job outside law enforcement. Besides the Starbucks employees, that is. As for the noise, I can only say that I'm grateful for these earplugs I'm wearing!

Usually at this time of day I am not all that sharp with my thinking. When I do come here for some late-night coffee and study, I usually end up doing something rote and easy, like working on my Chinese character notebook. But I haven't written a blog article yet today, so...

It's interesting how much this area has changed over the years. The building that houses this Starbucks also has Moe's, Panera, and Coldstone Creamery. It was built on the site originally (at least when I first came here in 1977) occupied by a Sambo's restaurant, one of those great old 24-hour chains. We still have a couple of these relics in Perkins and the Clock Restaurant. IHOP used to be 24 hours but now their hours are unpredictable. Steak n' Shake has a couple of all-night establishments in town. And there's still Waffle House, although the one I used to frequent on SW 13th Street (US 441) has been shut down for years.

Behind Sambo's used to be a rather large strip mall with a Winn Dixie in its center. Now that's been completely torn down and replaced with a Kohl's department store. The large field across Archer Road from where I'm sitting and from where I once observed Halley's Comet through my binoculars in late 1985, has been completely filled in for decades, with Wal-Mart, Lowes, a larger movie theater, and many shops and restaurants. I suppose, though, that as long as I no longer live in this now-congested zone, that's O.K.: there are a lot of choices of places to go around here, especially if I'm hungry!

Well, I'm nearing the end of my drink and this article as well. Hopefully, I'll have something more substantial to offer tomorrow! Then again, maybe I won't. Time to go home anyhow...

Pigskin Pontifications

To show that I'm a good sport about pro football (and the sport in general) after the way that the public was manipulated up to the last minute in collective bargaining negotiations, here are some (sometimes) disconnected comments...

--In my old high school during the early 1970's, going out for the football team was almost regarded by a lot of the boys as a rite of passage into manhood. Now if you were a little kid, it was generally understood, though, if you didn't try out. But when one these small-framers went out for football conditioning in the 9th grade, he became an instant celebrity/hero for several weeks. Funny though, he kind of "faded" away from the sports scene quickly after that experience...

--In the 10th grade, my history teacher stunned our class when he went off on a long rant against football one day. He correctly noted the very high injury rate in the sport and how it isn't rare for some injuries to plague people for the remainder of their lives. And some injuries paralyze, even kill...

--Toward the end of my track team season in the 11th grade (early spring 1973), we were outside at our track doing our track "stuff". At the same time, the next year's varsity football team was undergoing conditioning training. The coach was a complete hard-ass (and a few other things that are unprintable) who insisted on very tough discipline and even tougher, aggressive, heavy-hitting workouts. I would be in the locker room after practice when some of these players would come in and be so worked up after conditioning that they would go around trying to pick fights with anyone they saw. Later that fall, this "tough" team went 0-9-1 with a large percentage of the starters out due to season-ending injuries. That genius coach didn't return the following year...

--I still have issues with Tim Tebow on the sideline at the end of Florida's SEC championship game against Alabama, crying his head off because they were losing (badly) to the eventual national champions for that season. To me this was and is poor sportsmanship. When you lose, you man up and congratulate the winner with your head held high...

--I was reading today's sports section in my local paper where an article rated and analyzed some of the college quarterbacks in the state of Florida this season. Among them was the University of Florida's John Brantley, who as the article pointed out, needed to stop locking his gaze on the receiver he planned to throw to. When a passer does this, he is telling the opposing defense whom to cover and also frees players covering other receivers to go after the quarterback. I see quarterbacks doing this in pro ball as well, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they never made the effort to overcome this glaring handicap in their game. Let's see if John has what it takes...

--The Miami Dolphins acquired running back Reggie Bush from New Orleans to try to revamp their hurting running game. Now they need to find a good quarterback to add to that mix, someone like Denver's Kyle Orton, for example...

--Speaking of Orton, he is currently being mentioned as a trading possibility. That the Broncos refer to him as the "incumbent starter" sounds like a very weak endorsement of his status. But he is a very smart passer and would be a tremendous asset to the Dolphins or any team he ends up with. I personally can't believe that Denver would trade him away when their backup quarterbacks Tim Tebow and Brady Quinn have yet to show their versatility in the position that the game demands over a season at this level of competition. Tebow does have that short-yardage running angle to his game, but his playing experience as a starter last year happened when the season was for all practical purposes over, with the Broncos deep in last place and the pressure off Tebow. When the pressure's on, what will happen? Pro football can be a pretty unforgiving business, and past successes are quickly forgotten. It's "what have you done lately", taken to extremes...

Future Manned Asteroid Mission Iffy

So the next major task for NASA in the development of manned space exploration is to successfully send astronauts to an asteroid (and, I presume, safely back to Earth). By 2025. By presidential order. Some like this idea in that it would be more of an intermediate step to a future longer trip to Mars and would give NASA, scientists, and engineers the opportunity to develop the kind of long-term life-sustaining technology for deep space travel. Detractors of the plan say that the low-gravity moon would have been a much better location to establish a base and an optimal platform to launch later deep space flights. That idea, generated by our previous president George W. Bush, was cancelled by our current president Barack Obama, who stated that we didn't need to go to the moon because we've "already been there". And hence HIS presidential order to go to an asteroid (pick an asteroid, any asteroid) by 2025.

But what makes Barack Obama so much higher, mightier, and more authoritative in his orders and decisions regarding space exploration than George W. Bush? And what's keeping his successor to the presidency, possibly Mitt Romney, from canceling HIS agenda and laying out a new one (or nothing at all)?

Obama erred badly, in my opinion, by scrapping Bush's plan to return to the moon. For one, it has created a completely avoidable brain drain of talented scientists and engineers who see our space priorities unsupported by the government. Why hang around if you're not wanted, and why embark on a long-term, intricate, and very demanding project when some politician down the line can just arbitrarily cancel it with some flippant language? I wouldn't blame anyone for not sticking around...

But supposing, against my suspicions, that Obama's successors stick with his space exploration agenda and actually support an asteroid mission to its completion, I'm all aboard with it. But the problem is, how will anyone know for sure that succeeding presidents WILL support the mission? After all, THIS president completely rejected the previous one's proposed mission! For some reason, Obama decided to maintain close continuity with Bush's war efforts but rip apart his predecessor's worthy goals for space exploration.

Like I said, I think Obama messed up on this one...

Orlando International Airport Visit

On a recent trip to Orlando International Airport, I found myself sitting, waiting in the food court area in the "unsecured" zone of the terminal. On "my" side was a McDonalds; I later found out that the preferred Burger King was the reward on the "other side" for those who had to submit to the indignity and hassle of security searches.

But still, I was looking forward, just before 7 AM, to getting one of my favorites: a McGriddle breakfast sandwich. And although the service left a lot to be desired, I was happy with the eventual result. My son, who accompanied me on the trip (with my wife and daughter, who were on the "Burger King" side), celebrated our breakfast with me by walking across the court and enjoying a couple of Krispy Kreme doughnuts as well. As we sat there facing a huge cylindrical fish tank in our comfortable chairs, I noticed someone apparently sleeping nearby. I told Will I was going to shut my own eyes for a few minutes, too. And then I thought that finally, here is a public place where they don't mind people just loitering around and even sleeping. Then reality hit me: I'm paying a buck every half hour for parking, up to a $17 maximum bill per day I'm here. So just sitting here I'm paying the airport for "loitering" and "sleeping". Heck, for that price they should give me a small room as well!

Will and I later walked around the shops surrounding the food court. Aside from the bookstores and newsstands (reading material always somehow seems more interesting in airports), we visited their Universal Studios and Disney stores. Apparently, they are there for folks who had just attended these parks and needed mementos before boarding their return flights home (there was a Sea World store as well). I felt pleasant vibes just walking around in them. Part of this was the merchandise, part was the professional, friendly employees working there. Universal's store was the more interesting of the two: half of it was completely devoted to Harry Potter merchandise, almost complete with even Tri-Wizard Cups and Monster Books. I say "almost complete" because I sadly saw no Sorting Hats. But then I thought, the airlines probably don't want anyone bringing onto a plane a hat that they can draw a sword from!

Eventually, my daughter left on her flight to her destination (where we plan to join her in a couple of weeks via the highway) and Melissa came back to our "Mac" side. And off we went, homeward bound.

Waking up at three in the morning to catch an early flight from an airport more than a hundred miles away completely threw off my sleep patterns and sense of time. Fortunately, I had the rest of the day off and slept until late in the afternoon. Let's see, I think I've gotten myself back in sync now. Well, kind of...

Impasse Resolved, Impasses Continued

So it looks as if we are actually going to have NFL football this year after all, with a new ten-year deal between the owners and players just having been sealed. Whoopee! Now those football gamblers can lose even more money while fantasy players and spectator sports addicts don't have to get a life, after all...for at least ten more years, that is. Well...at least for the fall and early winter, until they wake up and realize that they won't have any pro basketball. And once again, I get to squirm as my pathetic Miami Dolphins get their ever-suffering fans' hopes up about a playoff run and then fall flat on their faces...

The National Basketball Association may still cancel their upcoming season, anyway. The fact that many of their star players have already signed up with overseas teams in other leagues points to this possibility. Oh well...

It's hard to see the recently resolved impasse in the NFL without comparing it to the debt ceiling impasse in our federal government. The main difference between the two processes, as I see it, is that in football, both sides were eager for a resolution but serious about their own priorities being incorporated into the deal. With the debt ceiling, though, a huge swath of our Republican representatives DON'T WANT the debt ceiling raised and see ANY compromise deal that allows it as a betrayal. I can sit back and blame those politicians, I suppose. But, in the final analysis, it was the foolish American people who put them into office in the first place, either by swallowing the tea party bull in the last congressional election or by staying away from the polls when they could have voted for others with more reasonable agendas.

You WILL Do Business Downtown!

There is a controversy of sorts lately in Gainesville about the plan to eliminate all free public parking in the downtown area. The city government wants visitors to the area to shell out money to use the public parking garages specially built for them. This plan is in addition to decisions made in the past to limit road lanes of the main thoroughfares of University Avenue and Main Street to one going each way, in order to somehow make the area more attractive to potential paying customers of its businesses.

None of these decisions has any impact on what I do, as I have long forgone any hope of successfully going downtown to do business there. For one, there isn't any place I would want to go other than the library's main branch and a couple of coffee shops. And I can get whatever I want from that library by placing a hold online and having it delivered to my nearby, albeit smaller Millhopper branch. As for the coffee, well, one place (Maude's) is easy to get in and out of with a private parking lot, but their fare is overpriced and I resent the snooty unfriendliness I have repeatedly encountered behind the counter. The Starbucks across the street from it is O.K., I suppose, assuming I can find a parking spot (which I hardly ever can). But why bother anyway, with all of the Starbucks stores available elsewhere in town. The other businesses downtown tend to gravitate toward highbrow, expensive restaurants and night clubs, neither of which I care much about.

I, personally, am nobody special regarding my business preferences, which is actually the whole point: I think others are like me in that they see very little downtown that would draw them there to spend their money. In other words, regarding the local government's failed efforts to stimulate business by restricting access to traffic and parking: it's the businesses, stupid!

Of course, they could pass a law similar to the new national health care law: an individual mandate decreeing that anyone living in Gainesville spend X amount of dollars annually on its cruddy downtown businesses or face a fine! But, y'know, although I wrote the above suggestion tongue-in-cheek, I wonder whether some of my local politicos might not think it would actually be a good idea. Scary, but it would fit with the mindset behind the restricted traffic lanes and the elimination of free parking...