Stray Dogs, Then and Now

I am not fond of running through my neighborhood on weekend afternoons. Besides the increased traffic there due to more people being off from home and/or school, there is also a problem with dog owners letting their often large and vicious sounding pets run loose in their unfenced front yards as they work on their cars, in their yards, or just in their open garages. A small number of these chase me down the street as I pass by (the dogs, that is). Almost always, when this happens, the owner catches on and frantically yells at the dog to stop. What morons. They obviously care little about their pets, and even less about any pedestrian who happens to walk by their house. After all, animals not used to being on the street are prone to getting run over!

Usually, though, and often to my amazement, many dogs are very well trained to stay within the confines of their "territory" in the front lawn, as ferociously and loudly they may bark at me. But that is still an unwarranted nuisance, in my opinion. And I know people who would be scared to death trying to walk past such a house.

I have a very intricate running course that winds up and down miles of residential roads and past a few hundred homes. In the past couple of years, I have encountered dogs running loose on just about every stretch of road at different times. Most of the time they growl and bark at me as they notice me, and a few run after me a bit. But the fact still remains that, in the entire time I have run what amounts to about two thousand miles through my neighborhood, complete with its sometimes straying canine residents, I have never been bitten. In fact, the last time I suffered a dog bite was in February 1973, when I was running with my high school track team in Davie, Florida.

Not having suffered a dog bite in 39 years is quite a contrast, though, to what happened earlier in my childhood. For I grew up in the 1960's, and society (at least where I lived) treated dogs very differently. Dogs ran loose around my neighborhood just as cats did (and still do). The kids all got used to the different dogs who hung around, some of whose homes were unknown. I can't begin to count the number of times I would see a stray dog and approach it to pet it (if it didn't approach me first). We had a dog ourselves at the time, but didn't let it run loose. But when we would take Michelle out for a walk, her presence would almost invariably attract a multitude of neighborhood dogs to keep her "company" (and she was spayed). We did know of certain "mean" dogs behind fences that we weren't supposed to get near, but the general feeling was that dogs liked us and we liked dogs. Very little fear. And still, during all of this in my childhood, I recall being bitten lots of times. But we never made a big deal about it. So when I got bitten that afternoon in February, I just continued running and then showered and went home. I told my mom about it, and to be safe, she drove me down to get a tetanus shot. The next day at school I was confounded by my track coach's angry consternation: how could I just leave like that after being bitten by a dog? It was only then that the very real danger of rabies was impressed upon me and how oh-so very dangerous stray dogs were...

This fear of stray dogs is probably much more warranted today than it was in my childhood, though. For back then, running around loose outside conditioned dogs to be more accepting of people in general. But in today's era of leash laws and rules against dogs running loose in public, those dogs that do occasionally "break out" are much more likely to see strangers as enemies to be feared and attacked. So I'm afraid I'm not likely to ever regain my relative openness to chumming up with stray dogs...

Is King's 11/22/63 Ending Given Too Early?

I have been reading Stephen King's latest novel release, titled 11/22/63. I have covered 80 pages and believe that, so far, it's King's best novel since his incredible Lisey's Story from 2006. However, I need to interject a concern. I hope I'm wrong.

It is no secret that 11/22/63 is about an individual in "our" time stumbling across a doorway into the past. He uses this time portal to set about preventing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the featured date. Fine, no problem from me with that, except that of course it's been done before in other stories (and about other assassinations). But King makes this version very different (so far) from those other stories with the manner in which this time passage takes place. Still no complaint from me. So what's my problem, anyway?

It might not be a problem, but rather a deliberate ploy by Stephen King, a kind of literary misdirection to lead the reader to erroneous assumptions about the plot flow that will later cause astonishment when they are exploded later in the story. However, I think nevertheless that, after reading only 80 pages of this 850-page novel, I believe I already know how it's going to end.

All I can say, without giving away too much of the story, is that it has to do with the ground rules for time travel between the past and present that King lays out. And that last rule, appearing close to page 80, screamed "preplanned ending" to me. But then again, Stephen King has maintained that, when he sets out to write a story, he himself usually doesn't know how it will end. He develops the characters, puts them in usually distressing circumstances, and then lets the story unravel to him, as if another party were telling it instead of his own imagination working overtime. I can't argue with his explanation for his writing technique: he is easily my favorite author. But with 11/22/63, did he stray from this and plan out the story's ending in advance?

Hopefully, I'll be reporting at some time in the near future that my concerns were groundless. We'll see...

Short Respite from Unwintery Winter

I'm looking at the television weather station and seeing the forecast overnights lows for the next two days. Saturday night/Sunday morning has it dipping to 27 degrees while the next day has it at 26. Finally, a little taste of winter. Day after day it has been pretty much the same here in northern Florida with the lows in the fifties and the highs in the mid-to-upper seventies (even cracking eighty on some days). If that were the pattern in summer, I would be delighted. But winter, it has been something of a grind to live through.

I am usually free of seasonal allergy attacks with the coldness clearing the air of pollen. Not in 2012, when often I go to my car early in the morning to see the windshield with a thin green film of the stuff. This is unheard of for this time of the year!

Still, the twenties is a little low for me. I would prefer "average" type lows for this time of the year: upper thirties to lower forties. And the highs can just stay in the sixties at least until March, as far as I'm concerned...

Romney's Double Game Against Santorum

It looks as if I was a little premature when I mentioned in an earlier article that Mitt "Not Newt" Romney had now changed over to Mitt "Not Obama" Romney. Not quite yet. He still has to go through the transitional state of being Mitt "Not Santorum" Romney, although you'll never hear him publicly acknowledge it.

With his victory in three state caucuses recently, social conservative GOP opponent Rick Santorum has now positioned himself as Romney's main challenger for the party nomination. While Romney continues to rail almost exclusively against President Obama in his campaign speeches, the people working in his heavily financed media attack campaign have now resorted to besmirching Santorum in TV ads. Not that they weren't picking on him earlier, but now that he is the main "enemy" with Gingrich's support fading, I expect more concentrated viciousness aimed at the former Pennsylvania senator.

I see in Mitt Romney the same two-faced approach to politics that George W. Bush practiced. In person, he is amiable and pretends to be bewildered as to why anyone would want to criticize such a nice guy as himself, who just wants to get along and help the country. But behind the scenes, he shells out the big bucks for his "dogs" to ruthlessly take out any perceived serious opposition.

I see it. Doesn't anyone else?

Major Powers Cop Out on Syria

I am looking at what is going on in Syria, with the government there treating its people so badly. And then I look at how supposedly responsible nations like Russian and China, who want to be seen as major players in running the world besides the United States, play the weak Neville Chamberlain role of appeaser with tyrant Assad as he commits mass murder against his own people. Not only won't they do anything positive in this ongoing tragedy, but with their vetoes of the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the Syrian dictator to step down they want to make it once again an issue as to whether the United States and NATO will intervene, this time on behalf of the beleaguered Syrian people.

Russian and China, of course, have their own ongoing problems with popular uprisings and protests. Vladimir Putin apparently sees himself as political heir to Stalin and wants to stay perpetually in power while squelching dissent. Meanwhile, China's ruling clique is very mindful (and fearful) of the mass pro-democracy movements spreading throughout the world.

Now it is once again a matter of whether or not the U.S. and/or Western Europe will help, just as it was in Bosnia and Kosovo in the nineties and in Libya last year. This is really getting to be tedious to witness...

Congrats to Trophy-Kissing Giants

A little belated congratulations are in order for the New York Giants, my favorites in this year's NFL playoffs, who beat the New England Patriots 21-17 in this year's Super Bowl. Although New York played well, I have to give a tip of my imaginary hat to the Patriot receivers (three of them) who dropped perfect Tom Brady passes late in the game to help stall crucial drives of theirs. Why couldn't they have done that in the two games New England played against the Miami Dolphins earlier this season, dang it...

I was a little taken aback at all of the kisses the victorious Giants players were planting on the Super Bowl trophy as they passed it around among themselves on the field following the game, just before handing it off to the game's MVP, star quarterback Eli Manning. Maybe I was imagining it, but Eli seemed just a little bit hesitant about handling the slobber-coated trophy (I would, too) before passing it on to higher-ups in the team organization.

Now if the pattern holds, the Giants will have a great regular season next year and then make an early exit in the playoffs, like Green Bay did this year after winning the Super Bowl following an unspectacular regular season in the previous year. As far as I am concerned, that's O.K.: you can't win 'em every year...

Now let's see how the Dolphins do with their new coach. And whether he can make a difference that leads them into the playoffs.

Eerie Visit to Jax Beach

I visited Jacksonville earlier today, and might I say it was a pretty dreary day at that (i.e. my kind of day). I guess you can infer that I decided to stop off at Jacksonville Beach from the above pictures I took. Often I plan to do this but usually end up just turning back around and going back home to Gainesville without taking a look at the ocean. But not today. I drove over to one of the many excellent (and free) public parking lots right next to the beach. It being early in the weekday afternoon, I wasn't surprised by the lot being nearly empty. There were a few cars scattered around, nonetheless. Looking at them, I noticed something peculiar: every one of the parked cars had a very elderly looking person sitting behind the wheel. Just sitting there, not making any move toward either getting out of the car or driving off. Well, I thought to myself, that's strange.

Having parked in the center of the lot, I got out and walked toward one corner where a narrow walkway to the actual sandy beach began. Facing the walkway was another parked car populated by...an old man. Next to it was a large circle of pigeons clustered together. They seemed completely oblivious to me as I approached them. Just as I got within about a couple of feet from them (with the intention of side-stepping the throng) they exploded into the air en masse around me, somehow avoiding colliding with me in the process. And then they flew off together. Strange.

I walked down the walkway to the beach. As I came out on the other side, I found myself suddenly surrounded, in very close quarters, by masses of sea gulls and pigeons flying all around me. Or to put it more accurately, hovering and collectively eyeballing me. Some of them were hovering so close to me, in fact, that I could have reached out and grabbed them had I wanted to. After several seconds of this, the swarm gradually settled and the birds landed on the sand and just stood there, aligned like magnets facing the north. I managed to get a few of these later shots on my cell phone camera.

I stood out there on the beach for a few minutes, enjoying the dreary ambiance while keeping a wary eye from time to time on my avian buddies. Then I walked back to the parking lot. There were a few more cars there by then and...yes, they all were occupied by elderly drivers who just sat there. I left, having my creepiness quota filled for the day...

Giants Moving from Left to Right

I missed the opening kickoff of this year's Super Bowl between New York and New England because I was at my nearby Publix buying some groceries. When I got back into my car, I flicked on the radio to hear what was going on. By that time, the Patriots had given up a safety early in the first quarter and, trailing 2-0, kicked the ball back to the Giants. New York lined up for their first play of the drive. And then the radio play-by-play announcer did something that has never failed to amuse me over the years: he said "Giants moving from left to right."

Well, from where the announcer was sitting, they may well have been moving from left to right. But according to anyone watching from the other side of the stadium, they were moving from right to left! As a matter of fact, before the "directions" were given, I had them moving the "opposite" way, too!

If further play-by-play of the game had included references to "left" or "right", I would have understood this to be a device to help explain what was happening on the field. But it is only said at the beginning of drives at the start of each quarter.

Are there people out there who can't properly picture in their own minds how a game is going without explicitly being provided with left-right directions? I think this must be the implication behind professional, trained broadcasters saying this so consistently. Apparently, there are listeners who are so imagination-challenged that they have to have their own "mental screens" filled in for them. I have also heard this "moving from left-to-right" (or the reverse) on basketball radio broadcasts...

My Parallel 15K Run

This morning the charity organization Climb for Cancer held their annual fundraising running race, consisting of simultaneous 5K, 10K, and 15K races. The location tends to change from year to year. Two years ago I ran in their 15K (9.3 miles) race held in the Haile Plantation subdivision in far southwest Gainesville. Today it was on the University of Florida campus. I considered entering it, but decided that the thirty bucks registration fee wasn't worth it. So instead of getting up early in the morning to run in it, I slept in a little and, later in the morning, simply stepped out of my front door and ran 9.33 miles without spending as much as a dime. My time was 1 hr 24 m 27 s, reflecting my usual pace of around nine minutes per mile.

I like this idea of running parallel to an event without actually participating directly in it. For one, it saves a lot of money. For another, I have much more control over events around me and am not involved with having to deal with the weather or adverse and extensive travel. Still, running in a real event is something to enjoy as well. I just don't see the point in going overboard with it...

Sports Void After Football

Now that the football season is finally about over with this Sunday's Super Bowl, I am left with a choice to make about which sports I should follow for the next few weeks. I have never been able to get into hockey, so that's out. Basketball is the major sport left between now and the start of major league baseball in April. But I have lost interest in the professional National Basketball Association due to the way that its players keep hopping from one team to another. It reminds me of that old Twilight Zone episode where a man keeps dreaming the same nightmare over and over again about being in prison on death row, with the only difference between successive dreams being that the characters in the story keep changing roles. For example, I used to follow the Utah Jazz because of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. Now Boozer is with Chicago and Williams plays for New Jersey. Or take Denver: two of the Nuggets' standout players are no longer there: Carmelo Anthony is with New York and Chauncey Billips is on the Celtics roster. Yet both Utah and Denver are doing well this year with other personnel. But why bother following them when, in all probability their current stars will just split and join up with other teams down the road the first chance they get. I know that turnover in professional sports, due to free agency and trading, is common. But in the NBA it is running rampant and, in my opinion, diminishes the character of the various teams. So maybe I'll just steer clear of the pro hoops this year...

However, NCAA college basketball promises a lot of excitement, and its season is in full gear right now with conference play. Later, in March, the championship tournament will commence, something that I have traditionally followed for years. Now in the colleges, there is also much turnover. But this is mostly predictable, with players on teams being followed as they progress through their college careers from freshman and sophomore to junior and finally senior. Sometimes, college players do transfer to other schools. But it is pretty uncommon. It is annoying to see players opt out early for the NBA and thus see their college careers cut short, although I sympathize with their legitimate desire to cash in on their talent. Still, I am not likely to see a basketball version of musical chairs in the college ranks like I do in the pros.

Yes, college basketball will have to tide me over until baseball...

Slogging Through Life Lately

Sometimes life can get to be a real slog, when just getting through the day intact without giving up while maintaining possession of one's mental and emotional faculties represents a triumph. As far as my family is concerned, each of us seems to be in this state to varying degrees, dealing with ongoing difficulties that are specific to each of our personal walks through life. One reason for this is that we tend not to be satisfied with the status quo and "take it easy". Instead, we immerse ourselves in various projects, often with no guarantee of success. And if that eventual success does come, it may be too far down the road to enjoy any immediate satisfaction or even encouragement. In the meantime, pressures and stress can cause anxiety and discouragement.

I have set out on this blog to shield the private, personal lives of my family, so I will just speak for myself. I feel great physically and could even run a marathon right now, but had decided that half-marathons were the way to go with my running. But because of a medically diagnosed congenital anomaly that is symptomless, I have been advised by my doctor to be more cautious with my running. But I know that running doesn't stress me. Still, I feel that others in my family get concerned when they see me go out on long runs. And I know there is opposition there to me running in races, especially a race on the order of a half-marathon. Still, I think that running one more before the marathon season closes in Florida won't hurt me, and I am considering doing this. Just an hour ago I ran seven miles around my neighborhood under very unseasonably warm and humid conditions. No problem.

I have various academic projects that I am engaged in and, in my own personal estimation, am making unsatisfactory progress with (according to my own standards). This are activities I undertake on my own, so self-motivation and discipline are essential to success. But these projects are at least under my personal control, with outside forces playing no major role in hindering my pursuit of them.

And then there is my work environment, existing under a cloud of uncertainty as to what the highest levels of management within my organization will do regarding the consolidation of processing plants and forced employee transfers to other work locations (in the case of Gainesville, either to Jacksonville or Tampa) during the next few months. And whether they will try to change the parameters about retirement eligibility and then force those employees thus deemed eligible into retirement.

Let's just say that, around me in my current life, exists a state of instability and uncertainty that runs contrary to what I want to experience from day to day. I want more control over my circumstances and don't like the feeling that whatever happens, in many different areas, seems like a roll of the dice...

Florida GOP Primary and Gainesville Commission Election

Today was the moved-up date for the Florida Republican Presidential Primary. Simultaneously, Gainesville held elections in two city commissioner races, open to both Republicans and non-Republicans to vote in. Since the GOP primary occurred on the same day, there was a higher percentage of Republican voters in this election, and consequently the possibility of conservatives being elected to the commission. This was not to be: a liberal won one race outright while a liberal and conservative will participate in a run-off election in a few weeks. Generally, unless there is some special issue involved, these types of at-large elections in Gainesville end with the liberal candidate winning with about 55-60 % of the vote. We'll see what happens.

Mitt "Not Obama" Romney, formerly Mitt "Not Newt" Romney, formerly Mitt "Not Herman Cain" Romney, formerly Mitt "Not Rick Perry" Romney, may have finally found a name that will "stick" after his lopsided victory in Florida today. But as Romney's overwhelmingly negative ads against Gingrich have affirmed, this man's identity and appeal to Republican voters seems to be that he isn't somebody else they dislike even more. The Republican establishment, however, seems to have come to the conclusion that Mitt Romney is a potential president that they can handle, much like the way George W. Bush was. God help us.

Super Bowl Approaching, Pro Bowl Happily Past

So once again we will see the New York Giants squaring off against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Four years after the last one, won by NY with a last minute touchdown pass, the teams have a lot of different players. However, their quarterbacks Eli Manning and Tom Brady, along with their head coaches Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick, are back.

As I earlier had written, of the twelve teams making this season's National Football League playoffs, the Giants were my favorite while the Patriots were my least favorite. So there's no wavering on my part as to which team I'll be pulling for: New York!

Actually, it's kind of sad about New England and me: the only reason I don't support them is that they are divisional rivals to my Miami Dolphins. Otherwise, I probably would have been "on their side" because of the smart and cohesive way this team has consistently played their games over the past eleven years.

The Super Bowl will be played next Sunday. Yesterday we were subjected to the all-star Pro Bowl, a complete joke to watch with its special rules designed to protect the players from injuries (e.g. no blitzing allowed). So the offensive players get to look like the heroes while the defensive players get to look like goats as the touchdowns accumulate, making this annual fiasco's final scores look more like basketball scores than football. If I were an NFL defensive player, I would take "offense" at this...

Tragic Accidents on I-75 in Fog, Fire, Darkness

There was a terrible highway disaster this morning a few miles south of Gainesville on I-75 as it crossed Paynes Prairie, a grassland area suffering a brush fire during a very foggy morning. Combined with the early morning darkness, driving visibility along this stretch was suddenly nonexistent, causing a series of collisions and explosions. At last report, there were ten fatalities from this calamity. Photos from later today revealed a nightmare scene full of burnt out fragments of vehicles, some piled on others. Here is the CNN story about it.

I first heard of this as I was taking my family to lunch at the Cracker Barrel off Archer Road. The Interstate overpass was clearly visible: nothing but a long stream of standstill traffic. I-75 was closed following the accidents and at this late time may still not be open. The very slow-moving vehicles we saw through the restaurant's dining room window facing the overpass were probably eventually forced off at the next and last exit before the closure.

To compound things, it was reported that this treacherous stretch of I-75 running through Paynes Prairie had been closed by the Florida Highway Patrol earlier in the night due to the very same problem of hindered visibility from the fire, fog, and night conditions. However, somebody with authority made an early morning decision to re-open the road. Soon thereafter the accidents occurred. I would not like to be in that person's shoes...

Offering Nonexistent Running Race Photos

During the longer, more expensive running races like marathons and half-marathons, the race organizers usually allow a professional photographer to take pictures of the entrants and later offer to sell whichever prints the runner may want to buy. While I am running in these events, I do see these people from time to time, apparently looking right at me with their impressive looking cameras and ostensibly photographing me in the act of running past them. Sometimes I am bunched in with other runners and my race-tag number may not be openly visible, but usually I am by myself. And my entrant number is also clearly visible. So tell me, then...

Why is it that always, in the inevitable e-mails I get from these "pros" hawking their racing photos of me, they just didn't happen to get any pictures of me? It happens race after race after race. Since 2008 I have run many races, many of them supplied with a photographer for hire. But NOT ONCE has ANY of them been able to come up with ONE SINGLE photograph that they could sell me!

It reached the point of absurdity a few days ago when I received an e-mail from the photographer of the recent Ocala Marathon/Half-Marathon telling me my pictures were ready and would I like to view them. One problem, though: I didn't even show up to run the race!

These photographers seriously need to get their act together, especially in this age of convenient digital photography. After all, I could bring my own digital camera (or even my cellphone) and just ask a spectator to please take my picture. Nevertheless, I have entertained the notion of actually buying one of these professional photos of me running. But it's hard to do that when nothing's offered...

The "Newt is Mean" Mantra

Being no fan of Newt Gingrich and having no desire to ever vote for him, I am nevertheless a little taken aback at how the media, on both the political left and right, has been recently coming down on him for being mean to opponent Mitt Romney. It seems that the much-more financially-powerful Romney campaign can barrage television with an endless string of ads disparaging Gingrich's past in a very distorted way. At the same time, whenever Gingrich puts out any ad criticizing Romney, a drove of media political pundits (or hacks, depending on your perspective) like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Chris Matthews (strange bedfellows, right?) rush to attack Newt. This double standard reminds me of the 1980 Carter-Reagan campaign in which Jimmy Carter couldn't bring up anything in a critical manner about "nice guy" Ronald Reagan without being accused of being mean.

Newt Gingrich, no doubt, has a very aggressive, abrasive nature to his speech. He panders to the audience in these debates by verbally dressing down the moderator every chance he gets. In this way, he reminds me, in a very negative way, of the arrogance of an earlier candidate, Herman Cain. But after seeing the monolithic bloc of Republicans in Congress hell-bent on stymieing ANYTHING the Obama administration is trying to do in the country's interests, I appreciate the independent thinking of Mr. Gingrich on various issues.

For one, Newt Gingrich is the only candidate I know who has a vision about America's future in space. He wants bases on the moon. Somehow, that makes him a target for ridicule, but isn't that more in line with our earlier goals (including the previous president George W. Bush)? I like the way Gingrich defends Israel. I like the way he has demonstrated interest in a more reasonable policy toward undocumented immigrants that includes a timetable for eventual amnesty. I like the way he understood the need for both political parties to come together on the issue of climate change. In other words, I appreciate that this candidate seems to have a sense of vision, something that Mr. Romney, with his ledger sheet mentality, is sorely lacking.

But Newt Gingrich nevertheless still stands for the very wealthy over the rest of us when it comes to taxation. He is bellicose when it comes to nations with which we have problems. He is unsympathetic to the plight of the poor. He supports the government legislating morality and intruding on the very personal, private sexual and reproductive matters of its citizens. He is gung-ho about selectively interpreting the Second Amendment on gun rights, like others on this issue ignoring the part about "a well-regulated militia".

I don't want to grow old poor, nor do I want my children and their descendants to have a bleak economic future. I don't want another Republican war, and sadly, I see a distinct possibility of this if either Gingrich or Romney are elected. And I don't want to live in a country where one version of religion has co-opted our government to the point where I have to abide by a new set of laws promoting one narrow interpretation of morality.

So nix to Newt, as far as I'm concerned. But that being said, he deserves more respect and even-handed treatment than he is currently enjoying...

Dude, Where's My Winter?

This morning at 7:30, as I sit here writing this, the temperature outside is 60, about 30 degrees warmer than what I would have expected this time of year. Today's high here in Gainesville, Florida is forecast to reach 83, a near-record and not representing anything like winter conditions. And with the exception of a couple of cold days earlier this month, this has been typical of this year's edition of winter.

I have mixed feelings about this. I really, really deeply dislike it when we get around freezing (and below). And I even have a tendency to complain in the morning when it's only down into the 40's. But as the day progresses, I usually become accustomed to the cold and switch from "dislike" to "dig". Forget this year, though, at least so far...

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain a lot and then gradually get cooler. Yeah, I'll believe it when I feel it!

Philbin New Dolphins Head Coach

Joseph "Joe" Philbin, who has been a very successful offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, has been hired as the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Since this is his first professional football head coaching job, who knows how he will do. But I see a lot of promise in this team and its current roster of players. I think the Dolphins are at a crucial turning point, much like they were when they finished 3-10-1 and in last place after the 1969 season. Then they hired Don Shula, made the playoffs the very next year at 10-4 and then went to the Super Bowl the following three years, winning two and enjoying the only perfect, undefeated season in NFL football in 1972. Not that they will do that well under Philbin: I just would like them to return to their old tradition of consistently enjoying winning seasons and occasional playoff appearances.

But just because Miami has a new head coach, that doesn't mean that he has control over which players the Dolphins draft or trade for. So he has to work with what he is dealt by others, although I certainly hope that this franchise's owner and general manager will take his expert opinions into account when they make these crucial decisions. And some of these decisions will come soon, with the looming April college draft and the prospect of possibly even getting the great Peyton Manning from the Colts...

A, B, C, and Facebook

There are three people, all of whom I personally know, who use Facebook (I have consistently tended to avoid it). To protect their identities, I will take a page out of the old sci-fi/spy TV series The Prisoner and simply refer to them as A, B, and C.

Each of A, B, and C has their own individual Facebook account. A is friends with B and B is friends with C, but A is not friends with C (I certainly wouldn't include C as a "friend" either, although we're on amiable terms). Still, the two know each other mainly from years gone by but are now primarily "connected" due to the fact that B is friends with both. A's social network wouldn't necessarily include B, but sometimes compromises have to be made and B became A's Facebook friend because they are bound together within the same family unit. Also, B's friends generally are not the kind of people that A would want as a Facebook friend...including C. Got all that?

The way Facebook is set up, unless a member takes draconian measures to greatly restrict others' access to their page, parties not considered to be their friends can nevertheless conveniently access their page due to a mutual third party friend, in this case B. This unfortunately allows for a bit of unwelcome snooping, which is probably an unspoken, secret source of appeal for a lot of Facebook users. The imperative "mind your own business" has very few adherents here in this neck of the "Webs".

The other day, A apparently wrote something on A's own Facebook page that C, viewing (or, to put it more accurately, snooping) via B, read and found to be offensive language. C then wrote on A's page a strongly worded, self-righteous rebuke for this. But A wasn't even remotely considering C to be a reader of that message, and C must have known that but decided to butt in anyway. And it's true that C could have accessed A on Facebook via their search engine, but the facts that A and B were family and B was C's friend probably emboldened C to make that post (and made it much more likely that C read A's page in the first place). Keeping up with me? Good, because then you can explain to me what I just said. So...

There are some clear conclusions to be drawn from this. One is that Facebook is a very flawed way to share one's thoughts with others, especially if those thoughts are of an emotional or intimate nature. For unless the user has put major restrictions on access, it must be assumed that, eventually, pretty much anybody will have access. So user beware!

Another pitfall is the use of the designation "friend" to describe someone allowed in another user's personal network. This puts pressure on the user to avoid hurting people's feelings and let them be "friends" when in truth such a title should be handed out with care and good judgement. Also, removing someone from a "friends" list is bound to ruffle some feelings as well, with the implication of personal rejection that it implies. Why not use something neutral, even maybe nonsensical, like "gizmo" or "node" instead of "friend"? After all, I'm not particularly interested in being anyone's "gizmo" to begin with, so ending that relationship wouldn't exactly send me into fits of despair...

Now with this blog of mine being nearly universally accessible on the Internet, you might wonder why I wouldn't want to just transfer it over to Facebook. And you know, I might just try that by deliberately offering links to articles certain to rankle the sensibilities, not necessarily of my small number of Facebook "friends", but rather of the uninvited closet Facebook voyeurs who would access me through others. As a matter of fact, having witnessed Newt Gingrich's feisty performance in that recent GOP debate in South Carolina, I have been inspired: after all, I can do better than some gingry anthropomorphized salamander, for crying out loud!

Wrapping all of this up (which is hard to do because I could keeping going on and on), Facebook itself has some pitfalls that can snare users who are not careful with what they put on it. The solution is two-fold: primarily, users need to grow up, grow some common sense, and start taking personal responsibility about how they express themselves. And Facebook either will change its structure or another competitor will eventually displace it as the primary Internet networking site. As it currently exists, I'm not all that keen on Facebook. But then again, I may have the opposite problem than does A: I haven't yet used it to express myself. Once I do, though, I expect a constant stream of rebukes, not just from C, but also from D, E, F, G, H, ...

Missed Ocala Half-Marathon But Still Running

Well, it was disappointing for this morning to go by without me down in Ocala running in their half-marathon race, for which I had already registered and paid the entry fee. Still, I'm doing all right, considering. Yesterday I drove down there anyway to pick up my racing packet, along with this year's Ocala Half-Marathon tee-shirt (which I plan to proudly wear during my future running, falsely giving the impression that I actually ran in it). Later today I went to run on my YMCA's treadmill, initially planning on around 4 miles but ending up running 9. I guess that's a consolation of sorts, and it was the longest run I have done since my January 1 DeLeon Springs Half-Marathon.

I don't plan to keep running this length, but rather keep the distance around 4 miles. I think that's a pretty reasonable balance, at least for the immediate future, between the various options that have been presented to me lately. Also, I may be resuming my swimming in the near future: that's almost a sure bet to cause the weather to turn cold in this very unseasonably warm winter!