My Running Pace Increasingly Consistent

I have had some interesting experiences lately with my running and pacing.  A few days ago I ran my currently "regular" 3.34 mile course around my neighborhood at a good, steady pace and finished with a time of 29:05.  Then this past Monday I ran it again, with a time of... 29:05.  The next day I repeated the performance, down to the second.  On none of these days was I trying to make the finishing times the same.  The weather was different during each of them, not to mention how I was physically feeling.  It's just that I have apparently developed a very keen, consistent pacing instinct.  However...

Wednesday I ran it again, finishing off two seconds at 29:03.  And then yesterday I was even faster at 28:58.  So it's not always the same.  Today was different in that I ran a modified 3.83 mile course.

Consistency is more important of a factor in my running to me than fast times, so I take my training results as a very positive indicator of my progress.  I am at the halfway point of the month of June and am on pace to once again surpass the 100-mile mark, having amassed 54.55 miles so far, while running every day (my streak now stands at 46 straight days of running).  I have been able to keep my total mileage up mainly by running reasonable distances consistently, not by setting any personal distance records.  I think I'm on the right track with this strategy...

My Math Prowess Slipping

When I was younger (I am 55 now), I was considered to have a high aptitude in mathematics.  Apparently, although I underachieved in math classes throughout high school, my "prowess" in this area only increased, since the mathematics component of my SAT scores (I took the test twice in order to increase my verbal score) were 780 and a perfect 800.  And in college I went a pretty substantial way into a deeper level of mathematical instruction as well.  So imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when I got on the SAT math practice questions website and got stumped, question after question.  On the other hand, I was trying to answer them by working out the problems in my head!

Besides elementary-school-level arithmetic, the overwhelming majority of the population has very little use for even middle-school-level mathematics, much less the kind that prospective college students are grilled about on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.  Were I to take up mathematics as a self-improvement activity, I have no doubt that the people around me would be expecting me to go jumping off into a highly technical specialty field.

But although many, myself included, have allowed themselves to be intimidated in math classes and have developed failure complexes about this field, mathematics itself can be reframed as a fun, amusement activity akin to puzzle solving.

A few years ago I received as a gift a book of mathematical puzzles, one of those "calendar" books with a new problem to solve on each date of the year.  The mathematics was like the more difficult SAT questions or the kind I would encounter on my statewide (Florida) mathematics contest exam.  But there was no pressure.  Some answers I got right, some I missed.  But I learned something from all of them and left the experience with a more positive feeling about mathematics.

Unfortunately, most mathematics textbooks are written, it seems, to aid the instructor in judging the students instead of empowering those students with the material.  Sometimes the material looks more like a peer review journal than the guide to an area of math that it purports to be. Well, if I'm not taking any math classes, I can just ignore them, figuratively tossing them into the trash can the way that John Nash literally did in front of his class in the movie A Beautiful Mind.

I'll have to think about this math thing.  Should I try to get back into it, for fun's sake?  Maybe if I do, I should keep it a secret.  After all, people don't seem to mind if I just sit in front of the TV doing nothing, but if I take the initiative and do something new?  Oh, cause for concern, what's he up to...

Looking for New Blogs to Follow

It is getting more difficult, it seems, for me to find interesting blogs worth following.  I like the personal touch in a blog, without the pretentious overblown graphics and design.  And I don't care at all for photo album blogs.  I want writing that expresses the writer's opinions about various topics, along with an appropriate window into their lives.  In other words, I want to read blogs like mine!  Apparently, though, these blogs are too few and far between.  I think that potential writers of this genre have largely gone over to the Facebook monstrosity.  Facebook, in my opinion, homogenizes humanity, taking away people's individuality and putting their lives into a formula that must be adhered to in order to "fit".  Keep your Facebook, sheep!

Instead, I am going to seriously use a Blogger feature that I have been neglecting lately: the Reader.  I have only two blogs left that I follow on it, and one, well...I think the author may have decided to move on to other things in his life.  The other one is usually only updated on the average about once of month.  So I guess I had better set out to find some interesting, currently updated blogs that aren't trying to shock and awe me with their "perfection". Then I'll pick out the best of them and stick them on Reader.  But Facebook?  No way...

NHL Finals Over, NBA's Starting

Last night I did something I haven't done in a long, long time: I sat down and watched a National Hockey League game.  And why not? It was the most important game of the year: a finals matchup between the Los Angeles Kings and the New Jersey Devils, with the former ahead in the series 3-2 and with a chance to win the coveted Stanley Cup with a win at home.  I missed the first period, and when I tuned in during the second, it was already 4-0 Kings.  Then suddenly New Jersey scored and the announcers struggled as hard as possible to make it still look like a game whose outcome was in question.  But even I, with as little hockey experience as I have, could easily tell that the Los Angeles goalie, appropriately named Jonathan Quick, wasn't about to carelessly let any Devil shots get by him.  Time after time when a Devil would take a shot, he would almost casually reach up and grab the puck out of the air just as it appeared headed for a goal.  The Kings ended up winning and Quick was (also) appropriately named playoff MVP.

Tonight begins the opening game in the National Basketball Association final series between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the Thunder playing host.  I prefer the Heat, but in all honesty have to say that I greatly admire the great teamwork and selfless talent comprising Oklahoma City (the basketball team, not the city or state).  I see this series going six or seven games: both teams have an indomitable will and purpose to succeed.  Should be exciting to watch.  Unfortunately, I'll be at work tonight and will miss the opening game (which will be over by the time I post this article, which I am currently writing at 2 in the afternoon sitting outside a Dunkin Donuts near work).

They're Here...

Well, I suppose I knew it wouldn't last...Yesterday evening I sat out on my front porch to relax and enjoy the time of day.  I didn't mind the heat or even the humidity around me too much.  There was, however, a new feature to my experience, which was inevitable but sad: the mosquitoes have arrived.  Quickly noticing that I was being eaten alive, I made my way back indoors, sighing...

We probably won't be rid of the little buggers until cold descends on us sometime in fall (should it even happen by then).  That's one of the down sides to where I live: Gainesville lies just north of a vast wetlands basin called Paynes Prairie (perhaps you've heard of it: a terrible chain of accidents involving several vehicles occurred a few weeks ago out there on Interstate-75).  The Prairie, the area of which is large enough to swallow up Gainesville,  is a natural breeding ground for mosquitoes, and if the wind happens to be blowing our way, well, here comes trouble...

Still, I can enjoy the outdoors if I am just a little cautious.  I can use mosquito repellent, to be sure.  But I can also pick and choose when I am outdoors.  No, I won't let them drive me indoors!

An Unintended Lesson from Caillou

The other night I was watching the Sprout Channel, which is actually targeted at little children.  One of their staple late-night cartoons shows, Caillou, was on and I was too dang tired to change the channel (which is what I usually do when this show is on).  Caillou, by the way, is the name of the little bald-headed boy in the cartoon.  He lives in a nice suburban home with his nice suburban family of mother, father, little sister, and conveniently-appearing extended family and friends.  Caillou tends to be very enthusiastic about life and learning new things, and his attitude is infectious in a good way.  In other words, we're talking about the diametric opposite kind of role behavior than what you'd see on cynical, satirical South Park.  Let me give you an example from the episode I just saw...

It's early in the day and Caillou has just come back from the library where he checked out a book he wants to read.  The parents at home each tell him and his little sister that they are going to be too busy with other matters to attend to them, but they managed to conveniently coax dependable, useful ol' grandma over to the house to babysit them.  That suits upbeat Caillou just fine, who promptly announces to everyone that he is going to make a priority of reading his book.  Grandma can concentrate on playing with little sis while he reads. And thus the scene is set for this episode.

It becomes progressively clear over the course of the show that poor Caillou cannot find a quiet, undisturbed place in his house to read his book.  If he stays in his bedroom, the pet cat bothers him.  The playroom is a no-go as well, as his rambunctious, loud little sister is playing with grandma there.  What bothers me is when he goes into the living room and sits on the sofa to read.  His mother then walks right into the room and turns on the noisy vacuum cleaner, in essence asserting her presence and territorial authority over her young son.  Apparently, vacuuming the floor is part of her important "busy" work that is keeping her from spending time with her little children today, don't you see.  Caillou, unlike I'm sure any of the South Park boys (except possibly Butters), is O.K. with mom's brazen rudeness and happily looks elsewhere for quietness.  Finally, he discovers the only place where he can read in peace: his own bedroom closet.  He reads his book, about travel on the high seas, and imagines himself to be on a voyage of his own.  Then his family members, collectively looking for him after discovering that they are no longer able to ruin his reading experience, finally find him in his one successful place of literary refuge.  But it is too late: Caillou has finished the book!

Caillou is obviously, at least in this episode, a kid with no chips on his shoulders.  But I'd still keep an eye on him (were he actually a real person, that is): with the passage of years and hindsight, benign memories, especially those of interactions with close family members, can easily "go south" and be reinterpreted in a much more critical and even unforgiving light. Sure, the intended message is to demonstrate the "proper" way for children to present themselves in the face of adversity on the part of others. But an unintended lesson may also be that one can usually expect arbitrary, selfish and rude behavior on the part of those in authority...

List Madness: My Top 50 Beck Songs

For most of 2012 so far, I have been listening during my training runs on my MP3 player (in shuffle mode) to just one musical artist: Beck (aka Beck Hansen), an old favorite of mine.  Lately, I have been listening to more of his material and now regard him as my top favorite musical act.  This is in spite of the fact that he hasn't released any new albums in the last five years.  Still, I have heard about 130 tracks spanning fourteen years and nine albums.  The only album of his under general release that I haven't yet heard anything from is Stereopathetic Soulmanure, from 1993.

Beck, many songs of whom are typified by insanely-catchy strings of unrelated words in their lyrics, is most famous for his breakout single Loser, as well as the follow-up album Odelay, which spawned several hit singles.  But this was all in the mid-1990's.  Although his four album releases over the past decade (condensed into a busy five-year period from 2002 to 2007) haven't generated hits on broadcast radio, that is no indictment against Beck, in my opinion: radio nowadays ignores too many quality acts, instead playing a lot of, well, let's just call it the crap that it is!

As is my custom on this blog, here is my list of personal favorite Beck songs.  The album for each entry is indicated by the following abbreviations: One Foot in the Grave [OF], Mellow Gold [Mel], Odelay [O], Mutations [Mut], Midnite Vultures [MV], Sea Change [SC], Guero [G], The Information [I], and Modern Guilt [Mod].  Also listed are two singles and a beautiful cover Beck did of an old Korgis song.  Well, here goes...

1--Timebomb [single]
2--Novacane [O]
3--Lost Cause [SC]
4--Pay No Mind [Mel]
5--Deadweight [single]
6--Cellphone's Dead [I]
7--Earthquake Weather [G]
8--Jack-Ass [O]
9--Mixed Bizness [MV]
10--Beercan [Mel]
11--Think I'm in Love [I]
12--Youthless [Mod]
13--Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime [cover]
14--Rental Car [G]
15--Motorcade [I]
16--Loser [Mel]
17--Whiskey Can Can [OF]
18--Get Real Paid [MV]
19--Gamma Ray [Mod]
20--Blackhole [Mel]
21--Teenage Wastebasket [OF]
22--Dead Melodies [Mut]
23--Missing [G]
24--Sexx Laws [MV]
25--Broken Train [MV]
26--Devils Haircut [O]
27--Ramshackle [O]
28--It's All in Your Mind [SC]
29--Lazy Flies [Mut]
30--Minus [O]
31--Woe on Me [OF]
32--Pressure Zone [MV]
33--The New Pollution [O]
34--Sissyneck [O]
35--Hollow Log [OF]
36--Profanity Prayers [Mod]
37--Soldier Jane [I]
38--Scarecrow [G]
39--Girl [G]
40--Movie Theme [I]
41--Nitemare Hippy Girl [Mel]
42--E-Pro [G]
43--Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs [Mel]
44--Broken Drum [G]
45--Sunday Sun [SC]
46--Readymade [O]
47--F#%$ing With My Head [Mel]
48--Mattress [OF]
49--Nausea [I]
50--Where It's At [O]

Note: All of the above are songs that I like A LOT, even the old radio staple Where It's At at #50.  Actually, there are only a handful of Beck tunes that I truly dislike.  And just one that I abhor: Debra, from Midnite Vultures.

LeBron James Takes Over a Game

I think that Miami Heat star LeBron James has come a long way in the past few years.  I remember back while he was in Cleveland and trying to take that team to an NBA championship, unsuccessfully.  Sometimes it seemed that he would just give up during a game.  Then there was that time when Orlando beat Cleveland in a playoff series and James refused to congratulate the winners, instead storming off the court like a sulking baby.  Yes, he has come a long way since then.  And I have come to like him, both as a player and a person.

Miami signed LeBron James because they wanted a superstar franchise player who could take over a game and lead them to another league title.  James saw the talent there and left his old Cleveland team; bad for them but good for Miami.  Still, he would prefer to play team basketball, sharing the ball-handling and scoring with his teammates instead of dominating everything.  But the fans are clamoring for just the opposite: they want to see LeBron James take over games and decimate the opposition.  Well, yesterday against the Boston Celtics they got what they wanted as he strongly led the Heat to a seventh, deciding game with a 45-point performance.  But the naysayers, instead of praising him for this, instead spin everything negative by implying that he didn't trust his own teammates anymore and had to do everything by himself.

Damned if he passes off the ball and damned if he keeps it and scores... I guess some folks just get a kick out of damning LeBron James.

Ray Bradbury Passes On

Yesterday Ray Bradbury, one of my all-time favorite writers, died at age 91 after an undisclosed lengthy illness.  Not only did I read many of his hundreds of short stories (possessing three collection volumes), but also I enjoyed his novels such as Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Dandelion Wine.  The latter had a great influence on me and put a fitting perspective on childhood and the passage of time (and the passing of people).  There was the sad chapter on the passing of the protagonist's grandmother, a gentle spirit who had an uncanny, mystical ability to cook the most tasty, elaborate feasts without ever measuring anything out or referring to any recipe.  She would go entirely by her own instincts.  I feel that this was the very same way that Bradbury wrote, and it showed in his magical, beautiful prose.

There will never be another Ray Bradbury, although there are many who have been deeply influenced by him.  Among them is Stephen King, another favorite of mine, and who quickly commented following Bradbury's passing how important and influential he had been to him.  Now excuse me while I go excavate one of my Ray Bradbury short story collections...

Colds and Hand-Shaking

I have been pretty good for the past few years about avoiding catching colds.  Until recently, that is.  At the end of March, a cold-on-steroids invaded my body, giving me a lot of grief for a few days.  And now I have a more benign but still very annoying cold that someone transmitted to me a few days ago.

I am finding myself becoming more like the television character Monk, an obsessive-compulsive detective who tries as hard as possible to avoid shaking people's hands.  Personally, I find this cultural tradition to be loathsome and unsanitary.  At church, the congregation at the service's start are asked (I mean told) to stand up and greet each other, and then here come the dreaded, germ/disease-coated hands extended out to me.  I much prefer the Indian greeting of clasping one's hands together.  Sometimes, just to avoid a hand-shaking "incident", I'll just give out a perfunctory wave of my hand, accompanied by a winsome smile and soothing words of friendliness.  Before I see that dangblasted hand reaching out at me, in germ-attack mode!

I don't know for sure how I caught my current edition of the cold, but hand-shaking is my prime suspect.  And I wonder to myself whether the reason so many people show up late at church isn't because they, like me (and Monk) want to discretely avoid hand contact during that ritual...

Take a Break, Do Nothing

This evening after a pleasant dinner on my day off from work, I decided to simply go out and sit on the front porch for a while, just relaxing and being quiet.  No agenda, no goals.  It’s a pleasure in life that I have enjoyed since back in the mid 1960’s as a kid just sitting on the back porch.  Truth be told, though, I have gone through periods when I was so caught up in the routines of my life that I wouldn’t make time for this important non-activity.

Learn to be still…that’s an old Eagles song, didn’t Don Henley write it?  It seems to run counter to the narrative that dominates our culture, though.  We’re supposed to always be busy, aren’t we, justifying our existence by the important, “relevant” things we do?  But I like to take a page from the Hebrew Scriptures, from the book of Ecclesiastes: it is all a chasing after the wind…

I like breaks, and not just so that I can fill the acquired free time with purposeful activities.  There is something to be said for just quietly sitting there and emptying yourself of all your concerns, at least for a little while…

NBA Players Raging Crybabies with Foul Calls

I understand how fast-paced the action is in National Basketball Association games, so it is understandable that many of the fouls called in them are very close and often worthy of dispute.  Still, it gets pretty tedious watching one player after another vehemently shaking his head in denial after being called for a foul.  On some occasions, they go after the referee and whine like little babies.  On the other hand, I could change my own negative attitude concerning their behavior and actually make a game of my own from this epidemic of poor sportsmanship on the court.

If a player called for a foul just shakes his head in denial (or the head coach on his behalf), that's one dubious point he has just scored for his team (to be the worst sports).  The same goes for any contorted, pained facial expressions.  If he starts to run his mouth off about it, that's two.  And if his actions reap a technical foul, well...he has just scored a three-pointer in my contest to determine which team is composed of the worst crybabies masquerading as adult multimillionaire professional sportsmen...

Amusing NBA Playoff Prediction by Sports Radio Jock

I was listening to one of the sports talk radio stations the other day, and the announcer on duty was talking about the two NBA playoff series that had just begun.  At the time, Miami was leading Boston in their series 1-0 and San Antonio had a 2-0 advantage over Oklahoma City in theirs.  Each series will last until one team or another wins four games.  Yet this announcer, who apparently draws a paycheck for running his mouth at this cushy radio job, flat-out decided that both series are ALREADY OVER.  With home court advantage being important in basketball, it was to be expected that both Miami and San Antonio would win their home games.  Yet this dude gave the series to Miami after only one game being played at the time...

Tonight we have progressed a little further with each series.  And surprise, surprise, after each favorite winning their home contests, both of them lost on their opponents' court.  So Miami and San Antonio each have a 2-1 lead in their respective series, with San Antonio playing again at Oklahoma City tonight.  Don't be surprised if that series is knotted up at two wins apiece after that game is over.  But, no... it doesn't matter what happens: San Antonio and Miami have ALREADY won their series.  Sure thing, pal...                                     

Venus Scoots Across the Sun June 5

Next Tuesday, June 5, will be a special event for die-hard amateur (and probably professional) astronomers: the planet Venus will make what is going to be its last transit over the Sun this century.  What that translates into is that, with the proper (and expensive) telescope, filter, and assorted other equipment, one should be able to make out the small circle of Venus as it crosses directly between the Sun and Earth.

I picked up news about this upcoming event from an advertisement (for telescopes, surprise) by Meade Instruments on the back of an astronomy magazine (most likely Astronomy itself).  Now I suppose that, were I already a dyed-in-the-wool, no-holds-barred, and any-other-suitable-metaphor of an amateur astronomer instead of the rank, barely part-time naked-eye star-planet-moon-clouds-planes-birds gazer that I am, I might want to invest a little time and money in pursuing this event.  But that’s O.K., because…

I will simply wait until the Venus/Sun transit is over with and the best photos are released to the public.  And I don’t mind waiting a little for that, either.  After all, I already knew that our “sister” planet was making the transition from Evening Star to Morning Star, but I didn’t know about the transit (or how rare it was) until just a couple of days ago.  I wonder, though, what the professionals in the field may be thinking and whether they will be able to derive some new knowledge and understanding based on the transit event, which according to the Meade ad will last only about six hours.

My May 2012 Running

Here are the results from this past month of May, 2012 regarding my running:

Total Miles: 116.36
Longest Run: 6.3 Miles
Days Run: All 31 Days

So I easily surpassed my goal of 100 monthly miles, accomplishing it by running daily and usually in the range of 3-5 miles per run.  I either ran around my home neighborhood or on the treadmill at my nearby YMCA.  I am pretty satisfied with how I did:  I can't remember since I began running long distance when I ever ran on every single day in any given month. And that's going back all the way to 1972!

I plan to continue my running this way, not running extravagantly long distances but instead keeping it in a consistent range while trying to keep up a routine on a daily basis.  So far, so good: I can't argue against success!

Fan Clothing Uniformity in NBA Playoffs: Creepy

Bill Maher recently voiced his personal objections to the trend in public sports games, in this case the NBA playoffs, of the fans all wearing the same colors, presumably those of the home team.  So it was the other day in Miami (and tonight as well), with the stands full of Heat "white".  In Oklahoma City, their fans wear blue, which in the opening home playoff game against Dallas was too funny for me: the visiting Dallas players also wore blue, perfectly matching their opponent's fans, while the Oklahoma City players themselves wore white.  The screw-up appeared to be corrected for the next game, though, with the stands all white-garbed.

Yes, Bill Maher, this all creeps me out, too.  I can't help but recall those old Nazi propaganda movies with the rallies and everyone dressed exactly the same way.  I would feel a lot more comfortable with at least a little bit of nonconformity in the clothing department sprinkled throughout the stands.  Sure, fans will tend to wear their team's colors, but they are taking the loyalty/uniformity thing way too far. Now if someone were to pay MY admission price to the game, I might be willing to play along with the dress code as well.  But the fans are pretty much themselves shelling out the big bucks to attend these games and should have more self-respect than they are demonstrating by their sheep-like demeanor...

John F. Kennedy's Birthday Today

Today, our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, would be celebrating his 95th birthday were he still alive.  After all, he was born on May 29, 1917.  So what's wrong about what I just said?  I mean, JFK WOULD be turning 95 today, right?

If Kennedy were turning 95 today, then it would be his 96th birthday as his first birthday occurred on the day of his birth, when he was zero-years-old.  His second birthday would be when he turned one, and so on.  But nevertheless I hear this error regarding celebrities' birthdays all the time on TV, don't you?

John F. Kennedy was the first president I actually remember being president, although I was born during the Eisenhower administration.  His tragically-shortened tenure in the office was tumultuous, to say the least, with external Cold War tensions and internal Civil Rights conflicts testing his performance and judgement almost on a daily basis.  I thought he handled it all beyond what anyone could reasonably expect, and that he was a great president.  I don't know or pretend to know what would have happened in our history had he escaped his assassin's bullets on that sad day of November 22, 1963.  Would we have stayed out of Vietnam?  Would the Civil Rights movement have been slowed down?  We really don't know.  But I still think we would have been a stronger people and more cohesive as a nation had he survived...

I wrote this article to try to change the emphasis from JFK's 11/22/63 deathdate to his 5/29/17 birthdate.  It shouldn't be that hard for people to remember, as it is always very close to Memorial Day (which was yesterday).  Hey, I have an idea: while honoring our fallen soldiers, why not also pause a few moments and honor our fallen president, John F. Kennedy, on his birthday?

Race I Wasn't Going to Run Anyway Cancelled

Two of my previous articles were about (1) my decision to avoid a Memorial Day running race in Green Cove Springs (with a $40 entry fee) and (2) the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Beryl in my area.  Well, because of Beryl, that race was cancelled, and boy am I glad I didn't enter it: the fees were non-refundable.  But...

According to the event's website, those who had entered would be given a $10 discount for the 2013 race.  And not only would the racing packets, which included a 2012 technical running shirt, be given to all entrants in this year's race, but they would also be provided with finishing medals.  Finishing medals...for a race that never took place?

When I pay my entry fee for a race, I'm sure part of the money goes into the organizers' expense account for providing the medals given to those who finish the run.  But I still have to actually finish the doggone race to win one!  I mean, what sense would it make for me to have in my running "trophy case" a finishing medal for a race that never actually happened?! 

Memorial Day Salute and Disturbing Question

Today is Memorial Day and I salute those who gave their lives in service to this nation.  I'm sure our national leaders from both major political parties have been very busy today attending public events where they publicly echo my sentiment, albeit in I'm sure a much more verbose manner.  And that's got me to wondering...

We as a nation have just committed our fine young soldiers to two more years of being in Afghanistan, standing around being targets of a strong enemy force with some of them inevitably doomed to a tragic death, new additions to our already too-long list of those fallen in military action.  And for what?  After two years we leave and that country will in all probability either be once again overrun by the Taliban or the present regime will reach an accommodation with them that virtually guarantees them control over much of the country.  So why are these very politicians, especially (sad to say) my president Barack Obama, going to allow our young people to undergo this danger and tragedy?  How can one honor the dead when they won't honor the living? I just don't get it...

2012 NBA Conference Finals Begin Tonight

Today marks the opening game of the National Basketball Association’s third round in the 2012 playoffs, also known as the conference championship round.  In the East, Miami starts its series tomorrow evening against Boston, winner of an exciting seven-game series against upstart Philadelphia.  Tonight, my favorite in the playoffs, San Antonio, with its amazing point guard Tony Parker, will open at home against Oklahoma City.

 

I was pleasantly surprised in the second round: all four series went the way I wanted.  So here’s how I rank the survivors according to MY liking (not necessarily the favorites to win):

1--San Antonio Spurs 

2--Boston Celtics 

3--Miami Heat 

4--Oklahoma City Thunder

Hopefully, then, the NBA finals will pit San Antonio against Boston, if things go as I wish.  Should be interesting…